A while back I made a couple of predictions about the political race for President, both Democratic and Republican. While I was wrong ( and for those of you who know me you know that is hard for me to say!!), about the overall leaders at this point , I have been dismayed to see that on the larger more broad issues I haven't been that far off target.
I call this the "Best of the Bad Choices" year in American political (theatre) history. There is a couple of things that really bother me about what is going on though.
I must be old and stupid, because I just think that most of this stuff is disrespectful of American voters, is disingenuous to say the same old thing is defined as change and is ignorant to say no experience is better than experience. Past performance dictates future results, and running America is not the same as selling a novel through Oprah's book club.
Republicans:
The Republican candidate John McCain, can't even get the support of his own party. It almost seems as if their strategy isn't to win the presidency, but to be able to stand on the sidelines later and declare "I told you so", when the next President makes a mistake or says something they don't like. During the primaries, Republicans did not support anyone who was running in any strength of numbers to pick a front runner that they all could live with and now , as McCain leads the polls, they are all taking turns beating the crap out of McCain. Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck are having a good old time telling everybody who will listen that he is a Democrat. The strange part is the Republicans would not even admit they would "eventually" support McCain until some Democratic newspaper published a story about him they didn't like. I don't get this at all.Nobody could establish themselves as a leader until McCain, and because the leaders don't like the guy they are going to shoot themselves in the foot and lose this race because they are what ? Pissed of that Mitt Romney couldn't win? It seems to me this kind of strategy is at best self defeating and could be compared to the kid who picks his ball up and goes home because his team isn't winning. Even James Carville says he doesn't understand this philosophy and motivation of the republicans.They spent the entire primary season fighting amongst them selves and forgot there were Democrats running too? No wonder the average American thinks that Republicans are out of touch with them and don't have the American public in mind. Where is Newt Gingrich in all of this?, (besides trying hard to not get splattered with all the mud that's being slung?) Makes no sense. It almost seems as if they are throwing this race on purpose, but I can't understand why.
The Bandwagon is getting full:
In the last 3 weeks everybody and their brother has started to jump on the "Sen. Barack Obama" is the front runner , and the "Sen. Barack Obama" has the best chance of beating McCain bandwagon. Virtually every pundit, virtually all the media and almost every politician has come out and said that he has the momentum needed in order to win and that he has Fresh ideas and etc and etc. Blah, Blah, Blah. It's not that I don't like the guy. I listen to him talk and listen to him debate and have heard about 20 or so of his speeches and I am puzzled by one thing? When is he going to say something specific? So far, all I have heard is platitudes, promises, innuendo and tag lines. "Yes we can" has been real prevalent. I have heard the word change so many times in his speeches I now wonder if he knows what it means. He has spent virtually no time telling anyone what he is going to actually do. He is promising to do a lot, I just wonder if he forgot that in order for a President to do "anything" , he has to have the support of Congress? By effectively isolating the Republicans with all the negative rhetoric, he is almost guaranteed to hit a big stone wall if and when he gets elected. Even if the republicans get squashed in the House and the Senate and they win the Presidency, they still won't have big enough majorities in both house to override filibusters, or to make the republicans pass their agendas. The other thing is I am wondering is what in the heck does everyone see in this guy? He is a lightweight in virtually every category. He has accomplished virtually nothing except to co-sponsor legislation (which politically is about the same as writing a book or movie review) , he has no major initiatives , has spent as much time with lobbyists as anyone else, has participated in the earmark program as heavily as anyone else, and is running the same style of campaign as every other politician. What actually is he proposing to do and what is he actually going to change? So far everything he has done to this point is the same thing that everyone else is doing and has done in the past. He is running the same campaign that every other politician is. I think actions speak louder than words and so far, I ain't seen a thing that makes me think he even knows what to do on day one, let alone day one hundred. Are we all so enamored with the idea of actually electing a viable Black male candidate that we are willing to vote for someone with no experience, no credentials and nothing going for him except he is tall, good looking and gives a helluva good speech ? The democratic convention is going to be a good old fashioned fistfight. They are going to have to hand out Valium at the front door. If that's all it takes there are hundreds of actors that could do the job. Hell, James Earl Jones could do the job by this criteria and he sounds a lot better.
The dream ticket ain't gonna happen:
The will be no Obama-Clinton ticket. There will be no Clinton-Obama ticket. John Edwards will play no part. Bill Clinton will play no part. Mitt Romney , Fred Thompson, and even Joe Biden will play no part. No major known politician will accept the VP job from any of the major candidates. All of the egos involved are so big not one of them will think the VP job is important enough to be considered. Whomever the VP candidates are will be somebody you have never heard of or will be some minor player from somewhere you would never expect. This is not Camelot, it is Spamalot and the actors are not funny.
Mike Huck-a-Who?
Why is this guy still in the race? It may be the money you can charge for a speech, when you are a presidential candidate, and not just a former governor from Arkansas.
and Hillary what's her name......
Face it Hillary lovers. She has lost it. The fact is that for some reason I don't know the actual answer to, Hillary is a real polarizing candidate. You either love her or hate her. I think maybe it has something to do with her tough as nails exterior, but I don't totally understand that because we adored that in Margaret Thatcher, the former Prime minister from England. It could be because she stood by Bill when he was having quickies with any female who would let him, but we bought Tammy Wynette's song in the millions ("Stand by Your man") . Maybe it is because she let the dogs loose in letting Bill Clinton do the talking for her on the campaign trail, I don't know.
Mr. Obama, Mr. Obama, Mr. Obama.......
Fact is though because Mr. Obama has done such a good job of saying virtually nothing he has left Hillary in the unenviable position of defending her own position on everything while he dances through the smoke. The problem with this strategy is two fold. One, it may help you to win the Democratic nomination, but it still doesn't answer any fundamental questions about what he intends to do about anything, only tells us what he has to say (in broad terms only, with no specifics, thereby leaving himself wide open to whatever anyone wants to make of it) and letting the Republicans see every weakness. And two, it prepares him for nothing in terms of how hard he is going to be hit when the Republicans and their established war machines get up and running once he is declared the Democratic nominee. Ladies and gents, you ain't seen nothing yet. Wait until the Republicans can let loose on him in full force. They are going to foaming at the mouth by the time November gets here.
Thankx- bigmike
posted from "The Rant from bigmike" at
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