I like the current trend in this year's primaries. The Republicans were afflicted with a field of candidates which were more like a collection of the willing rather than of the qualified. When you look over the lot of them, Tancredo, Thompson, Romney, Hucklebee, Giuliani, etc., you have to agree there wasn't much to pick from. A bucket full of annoying and cacophonous defectives. None of them amounted to a sword with a cutting edge. In fact, they all resembled dysfunctional bayonets.
All blades and no handles, each one of them was a greater threat to undercutting one of the three legs of the traditional conservative tripod than knee-capping the Democrats. And now they have settled on the John McCain option. I am surprised and delighted.As some one who has pushed for the impeachment of Bush and Cheney, and the immediate renunciation and annulment of the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq, this is a consolation prize. At this point in time, the best I could hope for is a Democratic-Republican match-up which promised to produce one of the greatest landslide defeats of an incumbent party in American history.
That is what this Democratic primary is about for me. Of course I want to pick the progressive candidate who can best lead our nation as we try to re-start the 21st century in the wake of the most ruinous eight years in our history. That means change: creative governance, prudent security and more peace and tranquility. But that's only half of it.
The other half of it is administering the greatest possible, tsunami-sized rebuke to the Republican party for their complicity in enabling Bush's outlaw cabal as it squandered our resources, undermined our Constitution, destroyed our international reputation, and diverted our foreign policy into assuming the role of this century's greatest international aggressor.
The selection of the Democratic candidate who can best serve in both of these capacities of tranquility and tsunami has not yet been resolved. But it excites me to see that the erstwhile Republicans are settling on/for McCain.
At the end of the day, the Republicans have had to resort to running on George Bush's coat tails! I remember back in the doldrums of 2005 or so, when people were lamenting the fact that Bush would leave office, un-impeached, uncensored, and undefeated. There was even talk of amending the Constitution to enable a third term, so that the country would have one more whack at Busheney, electorally.Now look at what has happened! McCain has thoroughly married into Bush's
And what does he offer the American people? More of the same:
Doublespeak
More Lies!
More Torture!
More Wars!
Fewer Jobs!
More Lies!
More Torture!
More Wars!
Fewer Jobs!
McCain was against tax cuts before he was for them; against torture before he was in favor of it; against repatriation of the undocumented before he was for it. He's willing to spend 100 years in Iraq, if that's what his notion of victory requires. No health care reform, if that's what his victory requires.McCain has bartered away all of his principles as a maverick, non-movement conservative. In the interest of getting the keys to the White House, he has become what George Bush has always been: a willing conduit and tool of the Neocons. Republicans want to settle for him, because they realize they have no other destination in reach. There may be no light in sight at the end of the Iraqi tunnel. But there's no other option for the GOP than to plunge ahead into the darkness. The American people will not follow.
Yes, it is truly a pleasure to see the Republicans in a quandary of mutually exclusive candidates this time around. Let's make the most of it!
ReplyDeleteYes, I think this is the end of the war mongering, Republican, right-wing, bankrupting monsters. I do not yet understand why the Neocons have made it this far. I see a landslide coming and it's very exciting!!! I really hope we are entering a world of peace next year. What will the cable networks do?
ReplyDeleteYes, it's both the war and the economy.
ReplyDeleteAs of today, we've spent over $495 billion in Iraq. With the economy in the tank, think about what that money could do here at home: Cover millions of kids who don't have insurance, or help folks who're losing their jobs and homes.
Instead, it's supporting a failed occupation in Iraq.
More and more Americans are making the connection between the billions we've spent over there and the crumbling economy here at home. In fact, a new AP poll shows that most Americans think ending the war is the best way to help the economy. But pundits still talk about the war and the economy as two unrelated things.
Politicians and pundits need to understand what voters already know: As long as we keep pouring that money down the drain in Iraq, we won't have the money we need to solve our economic woes.
The issue of the war has become the new political litmus test in the Republican party. How did the issue of staying in Iraq become so important to Republicans that it trumps every other domestic consideration? I think most Republicans have become so entrenched in their position on the war that they blindly continue to follow that philosophy without reevaluating. Additionally, many fall victim to the fallacy of sunk costs, and any poker player can tell you that’s a sure way to lose more money, and in this case—more lives.
ReplyDeleteHey, Obamaphiliacs, get a load of this. Gives you an idea of what's coming down the pike, once you deep-6 Hillary.
ReplyDeleteYD, that may have been the case, but Hillary's greatest accomplishments seem to be marrying an adultererous politician and supporting the War in Iraq.
ReplyDeleteVig, glad to see you back in good health!
Big Ed Schultz just said that McCain is a golden turkey that has been dropped on the Dem's Thanksgiving dinner table, and that Hillary should stand aside so Barack can carve.
ReplyDelete(Or, words to that effect.)
I watched the MSNBC clip provided by Yellow Dog and was not surprised in the least by the senator's inability to list Obama's accomplishments while in the senate. I doubt that most people would be able to list a senator's accomplishments, including Hillary's, without doing some research. Obama for president!!
ReplyDeleteP.S. I agree with, and love, Vigil's characterization if less than fond appellation of McCain....McBush 2008. I am stealing it....
ReplyDeleteI see a landslide coming as well as long as the Democrats don't snatch defeat from the jaws of victory with a pouting Hillary throwing the convention into chaos because she lost the nomination. I don't know but I have a feeling that Hillary is not a good loser.
ReplyDeleteTorture is HUGE among conservative Republicans. Waterboarding is to conservatives what redistributive economic policies is to liberals. That’s why McCain had to flip flop and vote to allow the CIA to waterboarding.
ReplyDeleteIn so doing, it’s appropriate to ask if he hasn’t swift-boated his own legend as a Vietnam veteran? Is he not surrendering up his own torture as valid treatment by his capture? Is he not saying the C.I.A. can get something useful out of torturing their captives, just as the North Vietnamese thought they were? Has not McCain given up his first principle for the Republican base?
A humorous take on this:
ReplyDeletehttp://MoreOfTheSameMcCain.com
Maybe this is a year where smears will backfire. The
ReplyDeleteLatest GOP political dirty trick apparently has backfired.
McCain is more of the same. Here is a scandal 'you can believe in': Rick Renzi also is a co-chairman of Republican presidential candidate John McCain's Arizona leadership team. And the Arizona Senator aided Renzi's re-election bid. The problem is, is that he's just another GOP Congressman indicted for extortion, money laundering
ReplyDelete