I cannot say our nominating system has been successful when I see the two presidential front runners campaign nowadays. If the best we can do is John McCain and Barack Obama for this election cycle, we will just have to grin and bear it for the next four years of bad leadership.
Obama is the furthest left of any Democratic member of the Senate and John McCain has reached far enough across the aisle to be vetted as a Democratic VP Candidate. So, both candidates are so far from their base that many Democrats are considering McCain and our undereducated product of government schools believes Obama is the greatest thing since Meerkat Manor and will vote for him in droves.
McCain is still not convincing his base that he's the right one for President, and many disillusioned conservative voters will either hold their nose to vote for him (and have a stiff drink afterwards) or simply abstain from voting for president this year. (My dear husband, Mr. Radiant Times, who thinks McCain is Nixonian and may plunge us into more war than we can handle, is in this category.)
Their major difference is on the handling of the war in Iraq and the War on Terror. Obama does not have his act together on this one. His waverability of positions is painful and obvious enough that it provides McCain easy cannon fodder for attack ads. Obama makes his lack of historical knowledge clear in the many recorded gaffes in his speeches. It's to the point that people expect Obama to say something wrong and historically or geographically incorrect.
McCain says the right things, but has a history of doing that and then turning on his party. Some say he is treacherous, and still needs to win the trust of his base. He's lucky to to have the PUMA Democrats leaning toward him.
We still have no clear direction on VP candidates. The right candidate is VERY important for McCain, whose advanced age IS an issue. McCain will essentially be choosing the next president. Obama is still a young buck, so the VP role in his campaign is not as important.
Both bases are disenfranchise and we have the worst slate of candidates for president that I have seen in my lifetime. The latest JibJab flash video is painfully true. God have mercy on America!
Showing posts with label Nixon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nixon. Show all posts
Monday, July 21, 2008
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Shortsighted View of History
The Financial Times published an article today titled "History Leaves Bush and Blair Behind".
I don't know if it is because I'm not a 20 something gal, or what, but that title seems awfully shortsighted to me. I believe that ten years from now the worst thing we will have to say about Bush and Blair is that they did too little and too late.
The British would understand the "too little, too late" concept well. Neville Chamberlain did his best to make peace with Hitler and his radical Nazi regime. He even signed a treaty in good faith with Hitler that was supposed to keep Britain out of any conflict with Germany. Didn't do any good.
The Americans have also been bitten even though they tried to isolate themselves from conflict with the radical German Nazi regime. American merchant ships were continually attacked by German Sea Wolf raids, even though the merchant sailors were civillians and America was not at war with Germany. This happened in the 30s years before the official start of WWII. Economic sanctions against the Nazis were tried, but it only gave them more time to perfect their war machine.
Take note that Hitler's "Mein Kampf" is the highest selling book in Iran today under the title "My Jihad". They like it in Egypt, too.
More recently, look at the Vietnamization program under Lyndon Baines Johnson in the late 60s and early 70s during the Vietnam conflict (read "war"). The program was partially successful, but ironically a Republican candidate by the name of Richard Milhouse Nixon won the election in '72 by being the "anti-war" candidate. When Congress finally forced him to keep his campaign promises and pull the troops out of Vietnam, our enemies were immediately emboldened. And not just in Vietnam, either. They learned from us. They learned that if they could make the casualties high enough, and sustain the war long enough, that the Congress would wail like little children and clamor to bring the troops home in order to save their jobs. Sound Familiar?
History will show that there are always consequences for abandoning your allies in the middle of a conflict after you tell them stupid things like "we'll stay the course no matter what."
It is too early to decide that Bush and Blair are on the ash heap of history. The whining children we call our political leaders are reliving history.....again.
I don't know if it is because I'm not a 20 something gal, or what, but that title seems awfully shortsighted to me. I believe that ten years from now the worst thing we will have to say about Bush and Blair is that they did too little and too late.
The British would understand the "too little, too late" concept well. Neville Chamberlain did his best to make peace with Hitler and his radical Nazi regime. He even signed a treaty in good faith with Hitler that was supposed to keep Britain out of any conflict with Germany. Didn't do any good.
The Americans have also been bitten even though they tried to isolate themselves from conflict with the radical German Nazi regime. American merchant ships were continually attacked by German Sea Wolf raids, even though the merchant sailors were civillians and America was not at war with Germany. This happened in the 30s years before the official start of WWII. Economic sanctions against the Nazis were tried, but it only gave them more time to perfect their war machine.
Take note that Hitler's "Mein Kampf" is the highest selling book in Iran today under the title "My Jihad". They like it in Egypt, too.
More recently, look at the Vietnamization program under Lyndon Baines Johnson in the late 60s and early 70s during the Vietnam conflict (read "war"). The program was partially successful, but ironically a Republican candidate by the name of Richard Milhouse Nixon won the election in '72 by being the "anti-war" candidate. When Congress finally forced him to keep his campaign promises and pull the troops out of Vietnam, our enemies were immediately emboldened. And not just in Vietnam, either. They learned from us. They learned that if they could make the casualties high enough, and sustain the war long enough, that the Congress would wail like little children and clamor to bring the troops home in order to save their jobs. Sound Familiar?
History will show that there are always consequences for abandoning your allies in the middle of a conflict after you tell them stupid things like "we'll stay the course no matter what."
It is too early to decide that Bush and Blair are on the ash heap of history. The whining children we call our political leaders are reliving history.....again.
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