Thursday, December 11, 2008
Quite a year for delusional governors. First there was Eliot Spitzer of New York & his addiction to high-priced whores. Then Sarah Palin of Alaska, who probably believed she had been divinely chosen to prevent Barack Hussein Obama from being elected president. Now there's Rod "expletive"Blagojevich of Illinois, the most delusional of the three. Spitzer stupidly used a credit card instead of paying cash. Palin would be unknown & merely peculiar if she hadn't run on a national ticket. But Blagojevich, fully aware he was under investigation by the Feds, & knowing why, kept on dreaming the grandest dreams of power & wealth. New Jersey had Gov. Jim McGreevey, whose personal political ambitions, by some accounts, included running for VP or becoming Secretary of something, until he was forced out of the closet in 2004. Jersey has also had its share of incredibly foul-mouthed politicians, one wonders how they're able to turn the language on & off.
Obama shows that a basically honest & nimble politician can build a career out of an urban base by using the local machine without becoming part of the machine. It isn't easy. It helped that he was an outsider. But Blagojevich married into the Chicago machine, which is why his wife figures so prominently in the insane phone conversations. She brought him her Chicago Alderman father's connections & her lifelong experience in that world. Like McGreevey, Blagojevich was probably doomed from the day he entered electoral politics, but for different reasons. McGreevey wanted to do good, self-enrichment wasn't high on his agenda, although he lacked a spirit of reform. Had he been more clear-headed, he wouldn't have remarried, & would've been elected governor with most Jerseyans thinking of him as an eligible divorcee or a very discreet man. Blagojevich also wasn't what he said he was.
"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
Obama shows that a basically honest & nimble politician can build a career out of an urban base by using the local machine without becoming part of the machine. It isn't easy. It helped that he was an outsider. But Blagojevich married into the Chicago machine, which is why his wife figures so prominently in the insane phone conversations. She brought him her Chicago Alderman father's connections & her lifelong experience in that world. Like McGreevey, Blagojevich was probably doomed from the day he entered electoral politics, but for different reasons. McGreevey wanted to do good, self-enrichment wasn't high on his agenda, although he lacked a spirit of reform. Had he been more clear-headed, he wouldn't have remarried, & would've been elected governor with most Jerseyans thinking of him as an eligible divorcee or a very discreet man. Blagojevich also wasn't what he said he was.
Labels: in the news, New Jersey politics
