Wednesday, September 29, 2004
There have been five elected Democratic presidents in my lifetime: Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Carter, Clinton. I'd like to add Gore, who was robbed; anyway he cancels out Kennedy's theft of an election from Nixon. Four of these five men were from the south or a border state. Thanks to Goldwater & George Wallace, the Republicans finally discovered the "southern strategy" for winning the White House. Jimmy Carter demonstrated how to partially neutralize it. If not for the Iranian hostages, Carter had an excellent chance of beating Reagan in 1980. Clinton won two elections on the Carter Plan. I believe Gore would've won Florida without recounts if he had sent Clinton down there in October 2000 instead of pretending he never knew the guy.
The point of this being that putting a northerner, much less a Senator from Massachusetts at the head of the ticket is betting on a long shot. JFK carried Texas. Kerry couldn't carry Texas with George W. Bush as his VP candidate. If Kerry had half the natural chutzpah of his mentor, Ted Kennedy, I don't think Bush would be ahead in the polls right now. But he always was thought of as an intelligent, long-faced wonk, a Bob Dole type who knew the game inside & out but couldn't coax his private personality on to his public mug in front of strangers. Remember the surprise we felt when a sardonically funny Dole showed up on Letterman after the '96 election, we were all wondering, "Where was this guy for the past year?"
Of those five Democratic presidents, only one, Johnson, was the clear choice of party insiders, & that's because he was already President & a shoo in. Truman was abandoned by both the Democratic socialist left & racist right wings - back in the days when both parties encompassed broader political spectrums. The party establishment's annointed choice, as we've learned in New Jersey from Torricelli & McGreevey, can be a very big mistake.
It is just awful to watch "moderate" Republicans like Tom Kean, Christie Whitman, Mike Bloomberg & George Pataki playing toadies to a president with whom they probably disagree privately on 90% of the important issues, starting with Iraq. Despite chairing the 9/11 commission, Kean keeps up this nonsense in his Star-Ledger teleconferences with old Brendan Byrne, who is clearly exasperated by it. Our toothless northeastern Republicans didn't even try to slow down Bush's quick post-election slide to the far right. Whitman disgraced herself in Washington; a fact of which she's apparently oblivious, judging by what comes out of her mouth every time she opens it. As for Pataki & Bloomberg (& Giulini, who strangely believes a pro gay rights New York Italian can lead a GOP national ticket), one only need point out to them that if the Twin Towers were indeed destroyed by minions of Sadaam Hussein, then Iraq is surely getting what it deserves. & thank fellow Republican George Bush for delivering the full amount of that promised twenty billion to NYC for purposes of security & economic rehabilitation. & thank heavens wealthy Muslim songwriter Cat Stevens isn't running loose in a luxury suite at the New York Grand Hyatt.
Kerry has one chance & probably only one to turn this election around on his own dime, tomorrow night in the "foreign policy" debate. We once thought this Vietnam vet's combat record immune from criticism, but his reputation has been so unfairly maligned, so routinely mocked by right wing radio & press commentators that legions of non-combatant American men who believe a nation's wars are tests of their own personal machismo have joined in the bullying chants. Isn't anyone hearing the CIA's assessments of Iraq? Or reading about Halliburton's combat zone war profiteering at the expense of our servicemen & women? No one wants to think about beheadings, or about one-thousand more American deaths, or about Saudi terrorists attacking us again, or that we have secured none of Iraq's major cities & all the lives lost at Fallujah have been vainly wasted in battles our armed forces were not allowed to fight through to success. Nobody want the bad news. But if you look closely at the truth, bad news is all there is.
Nobody wants to hear that we are fighting Islamic radicals, rather than "terrorists," because terrorism is only a tactic that is not even considered terrorism if it obtains the goal. Let's sing "John Brown's Body" while we mull that over. All of this our president dismisses with a few well-chosen phrases that are meaningless at best, & often outright lies. & he is believed, taken at his word by a nation that cannot even bring itself to compare his incompetence with his predecessor’s very real achievements; or his own father's ability to build a coalition, define & realize a strategy, & provide a legitimate rationale for not invading a nation.
Can Kerry "defeat" George Bush in a debate in which the American public (You'll never go broke underestimating them, boasted P.T. Barnum), not a team of impartial judges, decide who is the winner? The most ignorant drunk always "wins" a bar room argument because the smart people pay up & leave before it ends in a brawl or a puddle of puke.
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"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
The point of this being that putting a northerner, much less a Senator from Massachusetts at the head of the ticket is betting on a long shot. JFK carried Texas. Kerry couldn't carry Texas with George W. Bush as his VP candidate. If Kerry had half the natural chutzpah of his mentor, Ted Kennedy, I don't think Bush would be ahead in the polls right now. But he always was thought of as an intelligent, long-faced wonk, a Bob Dole type who knew the game inside & out but couldn't coax his private personality on to his public mug in front of strangers. Remember the surprise we felt when a sardonically funny Dole showed up on Letterman after the '96 election, we were all wondering, "Where was this guy for the past year?"
Of those five Democratic presidents, only one, Johnson, was the clear choice of party insiders, & that's because he was already President & a shoo in. Truman was abandoned by both the Democratic socialist left & racist right wings - back in the days when both parties encompassed broader political spectrums. The party establishment's annointed choice, as we've learned in New Jersey from Torricelli & McGreevey, can be a very big mistake.
It is just awful to watch "moderate" Republicans like Tom Kean, Christie Whitman, Mike Bloomberg & George Pataki playing toadies to a president with whom they probably disagree privately on 90% of the important issues, starting with Iraq. Despite chairing the 9/11 commission, Kean keeps up this nonsense in his Star-Ledger teleconferences with old Brendan Byrne, who is clearly exasperated by it. Our toothless northeastern Republicans didn't even try to slow down Bush's quick post-election slide to the far right. Whitman disgraced herself in Washington; a fact of which she's apparently oblivious, judging by what comes out of her mouth every time she opens it. As for Pataki & Bloomberg (& Giulini, who strangely believes a pro gay rights New York Italian can lead a GOP national ticket), one only need point out to them that if the Twin Towers were indeed destroyed by minions of Sadaam Hussein, then Iraq is surely getting what it deserves. & thank fellow Republican George Bush for delivering the full amount of that promised twenty billion to NYC for purposes of security & economic rehabilitation. & thank heavens wealthy Muslim songwriter Cat Stevens isn't running loose in a luxury suite at the New York Grand Hyatt.
Kerry has one chance & probably only one to turn this election around on his own dime, tomorrow night in the "foreign policy" debate. We once thought this Vietnam vet's combat record immune from criticism, but his reputation has been so unfairly maligned, so routinely mocked by right wing radio & press commentators that legions of non-combatant American men who believe a nation's wars are tests of their own personal machismo have joined in the bullying chants. Isn't anyone hearing the CIA's assessments of Iraq? Or reading about Halliburton's combat zone war profiteering at the expense of our servicemen & women? No one wants to think about beheadings, or about one-thousand more American deaths, or about Saudi terrorists attacking us again, or that we have secured none of Iraq's major cities & all the lives lost at Fallujah have been vainly wasted in battles our armed forces were not allowed to fight through to success. Nobody want the bad news. But if you look closely at the truth, bad news is all there is.
Nobody wants to hear that we are fighting Islamic radicals, rather than "terrorists," because terrorism is only a tactic that is not even considered terrorism if it obtains the goal. Let's sing "John Brown's Body" while we mull that over. All of this our president dismisses with a few well-chosen phrases that are meaningless at best, & often outright lies. & he is believed, taken at his word by a nation that cannot even bring itself to compare his incompetence with his predecessor’s very real achievements; or his own father's ability to build a coalition, define & realize a strategy, & provide a legitimate rationale for not invading a nation.
Can Kerry "defeat" George Bush in a debate in which the American public (You'll never go broke underestimating them, boasted P.T. Barnum), not a team of impartial judges, decide who is the winner? The most ignorant drunk always "wins" a bar room argument because the smart people pay up & leave before it ends in a brawl or a puddle of puke.
Add YOUR comments here
