February 15, 2008
A Few Thoughts
I will admit to a certain amount of disappointment at the path the bulk of Republicans have chosen to take on the road to November, 2008. McCain.
Worse, he will be facing either Hillary Clinton or Hussein Obama, and it looks increasingly likely that the latter will triumph in that particular contest.
Gee, what great and diverse options we will have at the polls some 8 1/2 months from now!
“We’ll give youse a choice: Ya wanna coupla’ broken legs, or ya wanna coupla’ broken arms?”
On the right side of the political equation, we had some good candidates, but have tossed them in the dumpster in favor of arguably the worst of the lot (I exclude Ron Paul from this category, but then, I exclude Ron Paul from anything outside the realm of cartoons).
On the left side, they didn’t have any serious candidates to begin with, at least not for the leadership of this country, but have progressed from there to one who is both a career criminal and an unabashed socialist versus a… well, I think Wesley Pruden’s got a firm handle on it.
Barack Obama’s great gift is to persuade his audiences to fill in the spaces in his speeches he leaves deliberately blank. This particularly infuriates Hillary and her followers, stuck with a record consisting of the specifics of dozens of policies, proposals and promises, while Barack Obama offers a blank slate to anyone who inquires about specifics. He speaks in parables flavored with nuance and evasion. His rhetoric, sometimes brushing eloquence, dazzles the young and innocent, particularly those who have never sat in the pews of black churches to fall under the spell of powerful preaching of the Gospel.
The senator’s boast of his early opposition to the war in Iraq and his implied indifference to the demands of the larger war against terror further infuriate those who regard radicals in the Islamic world as real, the hour as late.
Obama’s found that he can take advantage of the more gullible, naive and downright stupid among us by promising them the moon while promising them nothing.
“Don’t ask me to explain, just trust me.”
What a gig! Any more openings?
“The great weapon the [Islamic radicals] have is persistence and patience,” Michael Chertoff, the director of homeland security, warned only yesterday, “and the one weakness that we have is the tendency to lose patience and become complacent. It strikes me as hard to accept that anybody would believe the threat is over. There is nothing these terrorists are doing or saying that could lead a reasonable person to believe that they have somehow lost interest. Our biggest challenge is making sure we do not drop our guard because time passes.”
Nobody listening to the man from Illinois wants to hear real-world stuff like this, not when you can groove to the mellow rhythms of the mesmerizing song of a messiah. Barack Obama is regarded even by his critics as sui generis, truly one of a kind, but his followers are like those of Chauncey Gardiner, the Peter Sellers character in the movie “Being There,” who is mistaken by the gullible masses for a wise man, whose casual remarks (”… first we plant the seed, then the sun and rains come, and the plant matures …”) are taken as political science for the ages. You can’t blame Barack Obama for seizing whatever is offered by glassy-eyed seekers of a bargain-basement nirvana…
Anybody remember The Who’s Rock opera Tommy?
Thankfully, the very last line of both that paragraph and the article is, based upon previous American experience, an accurate one:
We can be grateful that the magic of America is its ability to ride out storms.
I wouldn’t be at all amazed to see video of Obama performing, as a political speech, the track from Tommy titled Sensation.
Now, my own thoughts on the election: It’s a long way off, and in truth there’s not much to be said — the two finalists will be spending that time competing for the most powerful political office on earth, and they will say whatever it takes, shape and reshape their images and recreate themselves according to the strategic needs of a given moment, verbally degrade the opinions, policies, records, charactar and asset value (to our country) of one another. Politicians, the media and thousands of bloggers will both register opinions and report on the positives and proclivities of both nominees. Mud will be slung.
To me, it’s going to be little more than a dreary 8 1/2 months of people brawling over which of two undesireables is more desirable than the other, and in the end, as I wrote in an earlier post, we’ll be well qualified to decide whether we’d prefer the measles over the mumps.
That said, I see no point in blogging ala the merits of McCain over those of Obama or vice versa, so I’ll be posting little in the way of campaign related articles over the next several months (I said “little”, not “none”). Much hay will be made in picayune “he said, (she, or) he said” areas, pundits analyzing the most trivial uttered words, attitudes or postures during photo ops to emphasize some point or other that really won’t matter come November — we’ll get the fid no matter which of the two wins.
But once again, I’ll recall that last line of the Wesley Pruden column: We can be grateful that the magic of America is its ability to ride out storms.
Storm January 2009 - January 2013 will require one whole hell of a lot of riding out, and with any luck America, despite the incumbent, unprecedentedly profound and hyper-emotional split between our two major domestic ideologies will rise to the task, as Americans, of reclaiming a grasp on reality and fixing what will certainly be broken in the course of that four year period.
Russia came under mounting international pressure to allow independent inspection of detention camps in Chechnya yesterday as reports of torture and rape of its civilians sparked a further exodus of refugees.
Escapees from a Russian “filtration camp” north of Grozny, the destroyed Chechen capital, painted a picture of horrific abuses by masked Russian prison guards. International aid organisations and human rights monitors, which have been largely denied access to Chechnya, raised the alarm.A Chechen man of 38 who spent weeks in the Chernokozovo camp north of Grozny before bribing his way out said women and men were being raped by masked Russians. The inmates, 16 to a cell, were beaten almost daily with iron bars, ordered to crawl before their Russian jailers, and forced to use their cramped cells as open toilets, he said.
…I’m kinda’ sorta’ wondering why champion of captured “freedom fighters” rights Dick Durbin isn’t right on top of this GITMOean outrage!
http://hardastarboard.mu.nu/wp-trackback.php?p=791
February 15th, 2008 at 8:25 am
I do understand your disgust with the current candidates (all of them) but it is what it is. It looks as if it will be McCain vs. Obama, but that’s sort of stating the obvious… sorry. Still, there are some that say it’s not over until it’s over and Hillary will pull this off. I don’t see how, but time will tell.
For awhile there Seth, I was of the opinion that Hillary would be easier to beat than Obama, but after listening to him I’m not so sure. As the pundits are saying: “He lacks specificity.” LOL! That’s an understatement! Once he goes head-to-head with even McCain, I doubt it will be hard to expose him for what he is. It’s going to be an entirely new ballgame when he’s not up there all alone playing the Pied Piper to the uninformed and gullible moonbats of this country.
February 15th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
We just went through 30 years of this crap, and are still digging our way out… once you slide in, it’s like Hamburger Hill getting out. I really am hoping and praying it’s not Osama Obama … that would be a total disaster. You really don’t need another Carter with all these radicals manning the battering ram at your door step.
February 16th, 2008 at 3:34 am
Gayle –
Well said!
A thought: the long distance from now until the general election will undoubtedly result in two profoundly ambitious politicians feeling somewhat beaten up.
AB –
The problem is that too many politicians and too many voters are utterly incapable of learning from the mistakes of their counterparts in other countries. In our case, socialism is gaining traction despite its repeated failure elsewhere, promoted deceptively by our portside Utopians as “freebies for all”.
Obama definitely fits the bill for the surprising number of witless Americans who would feel right at home in the Land of the Lotus Eaters.
February 16th, 2008 at 8:04 pm
Seth, ever stop to realize that “storm 2009 - 2013″ could actually be Storm 2009 - 2017 (if McCain wins)? We’ve got between for and eight years to come up with a real conservative leader - one that is not perceived as a fanatic, but is conservative to the core. Feel like running in 16?
February 17th, 2008 at 6:09 am
Old Soldier –
McCain is the only one of the candidates remaining in play whom I believe we could trust not to abandon Iraq, but beyond that, well… it’s like a strong pair of shoulders (Iraq) being supported by a withering body (most of McCain’s other positions and attitudes).
Our own electorate has put us in a “beggars can’t be choosers” situation which, truth to tell, still has me feeling sort of like you do aboard ship when a 5″ gun has just finished firing several times a scant few feet away.
However, as Gayle says, but it is what it is.
While I’m a serious fan of both Ann Coulter and Rush, there’s not even an iota of a chance in hell that I’d vote for Hillary for any reason, not even a politically strategic one…and Obama?
If anybody asked me whether or not I’d given any thought to voting for Hussein Obama, my reply would likely be, “Don’t be silly!”
I’m glad I have 3/4 of a year before it’s time to vote, I really am.
Feel like running in 16?
Your endorsement is humbling in an extreme, but…
I could envision myself now, as POTUS, with so many years (between now and then) of snuck-in leftist and general purpose dhimmi agendas on my plate, Israel a shambles thanks to the “peace” efforts of previous administrations and political correctness at its apogee.
Bush Derangement Syndrome would look like the common cold, LOL! My face would constitute the bull’s eye on every liberal dart board in the country, I’d be nicknamed “The man of a million Fatwas“, the MSM would give me dishonorable mention on every headsheet and everyone from the teachers’ unions to Dykes On Bikes would frame me in the image of the Antichrist (or at least the secular, liberal version thereof).
My political undoing, I suspect, would originate from my agenda of forcing our political body and pressing hard on SCOTUS to remain within the boundaries of Constitutional law when voting on bills or rendering decisions, respectively.
The Constitution, which has already been degraded beyond belief over the last couple of decades, will be a mere by-word by 2016.
I don’t think I could handle the disgust I’d feel re politics by then.
February 17th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
I have that movie on DVD and the music is good, but the story makes very little sense. Which makes it a perfect fit for campaign 08.
February 17th, 2008 at 10:14 pm
Shoprat –
The music was pretty good, and the story was pure surreal fantasy, and would make a great fit for the campaign season.
Our Presidential candidates will certainly provide lots of fun entertainment for the rest of the world.
February 17th, 2008 at 10:32 pm
I’m with u my friend………but we mustnt lose hope I am told…I have NO faith
in any of the candidates..I wish Geert was running in the USA!
February 18th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
Angel –
The way things are looking now, our country’s best hope over the next four years, eight & a half months is a Republican gain in congressional numbers, the more the merrier. The damage that we can accrue via a simultaneous Democrat Presidency and congressional majority or a McCain Presidency with a Democrat majority on the Hill would be both profound and long term.
Hopefully, we’ll elect a real conservative to the White House in 2012, after we’ve experienced the preceeding administration.
I wish Geert was running in the USA! LOL! I could live with that.
February 18th, 2008 at 3:34 pm
“Feel like running in 16?
Your endorsement is humbling in an extreme, but…”
Need a superdelegate from the Bitterroots?
February 19th, 2008 at 2:05 am
BB –
Wouldn’t that entail becoming a Trapper Peak Republican, thereby being able to claim the everything high ground?
February 19th, 2008 at 9:49 am
The Trapper Peak folk are rigidly traditional..it would have to be an endorsement by the BullMoose Party..:)
February 19th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
BB –
I’ve heard that the Bull Moose Party are patriotic enough that they open their every conference by singing The National Antler.
February 21st, 2008 at 9:46 pm
The present political scenario has me absolutetly disgusted!
I’m not looking forward to the next several months.
February 21st, 2008 at 11:54 pm
Seth,
I must disagree with your first statement, our canidates left US, we didnt choose them this time!
I wanted Fred, look where that got me, he left me, then Mitt Romney left me, I think all we are left with is McCain.
We didnt choose him, he sorta, kinda, chose us!
What else can we do?
To me, it’s going to be little more than a dreary 8 1/2 months of people brawling over which of two undesireables is more desirable than the other, and in the end, as I wrote in an earlier post, we’ll be well qualified to decide whether we’d prefer the measles over the mumps.
LMAO!
I dont know about everyone else but I’ll be damned if my son has to answer to President Obama!!
February 22nd, 2008 at 6:19 pm
AOW –
Here’s something else to ponder about our possible next President:
http://jewishworldreview.com/jeff/jacoby021808.php3
Marie –
The reason I lay blame on voters rather than the candidates who dropped out is that the candidates dropped out because two of them simply weren’t getting traction among the electorate — to remain in the race would have been a waste of contributors’ money and little else, and a third, Romney, saw the writing on the wall re McCain.
If Republican voters really wanted anything resembling a Reagan conservative Presidency, Tancredo, Thompson and Romney would all have fared better than they did and either Fred or Mitt would have been beating the tar out of McCain. Instead, they wanted a RINO, and got what they wished for.
Being party loyalists, as misguided as that seems to be in the present circumstances, those who dropped out were doing so because they figured that that way more monetary support would be focused on the forerunner’s campaign than on their own losing ones, and assist in beating the Democratic nominee.
So I can fault not the candidates who dropped out, but the voters who failed to support them.
I dont know about everyone else but I’ll be damned if my son has to answer to President Obama!!
I profoundly hope that this does not turn out to be the case!