Well, fast forward a few months, and we find ourselves locked in a battle for the Democratic nomination. Hillary is trying to pull a rabbit out of a teaspoon, talking about the popular vote and seating the delegations from Florida and Michigan. This is of course a direct contradiction with her previous statement where she said, "Well, you know, It's clear, this election they're having is not going to count for anything," referring to the Michigan voting. Now, of course, she wants the votes to count. Clear self-serving hipocracy. Shameful and embarrasing for the party and herself.
My confidence in Obama is also quite thin. I just don't see him as a formidable candidate. The media love-fest we saw earlier this year is clearly over, and as coverage becomes more negative his fortunes seem to slip. Clinton continues to raise questions about him and his vague "change" message is getting tired. I would like to hear some specific policy statements from his podium rather than just more vague statements about moving forward in a new direction. WHAT new direction are you talking about, sir?
McCain continues to embarrass himself with gaffes over the troop levels in Iraq and continuing to mistake sunni and shiites for each other. This from the supposed experienced military guy. Either he is truly getting too old for the office or is just stupid. One wonders whether he may even be stupider than GW Bush. Bush's problem seems to be a generally poor relationship with the English language (nu-ku-lar, anyone?), rather than an actual lack of intelligence. McCain, on the other hand, with his continued factual gaffes and conflations, just seems out of it in general. On top of all of that, his ham-handed pandering to the right wing clearly shows this is not the McCain of 2000. The 2008 version is disappointingly predictable.
One last note about the new GI Bill currently in the Congress. McCain (and Bush) is ridiculously hypocritical on this one, and one wonders what the true motivation for opposing it is. He (and Bush) complain that it is too expensive, and will affect retention. This is tantamount to saying that our men and women who fought for us (ostensibly) in Iraq just don't deserve to be taken care of when they get back. Not only that, but we want to make the civilian world less attractive to them so they feel trapped in the military if they want to have secure futures. What a load of bull. Either you support our troops or you do not. It is so easy to SAY you support the troops, make speeches, wear lapel pins, etc. But when the rubber hits the road and it comes time to put your (our) money where your mouth is, it suddenly all goes out the window. The truth is, these young people deserve our support when they get back, whatever the cost is. This is just another cost of the war that we will have to bear, but in this case its also an investment in all our futures as the money invested in these veterans will surely stimulate the economy far more than issuing refund checks to the general populace. That I believe is a very stark difference between Democrats and Republicans. Democrats are willing to INVEST in our people and infrastructure whereas Republicans are not.
The opposition to the new GI Bill also ignore the obvious counter-point to the retention "issue", which is the boon it would be for recruitment!
Monday, June 2, 2008
Picking up after a long hiatus...
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Clinton Upset Stunner!
Clinton pulls out a surprise victory! I guess her passion finally showed, and the persistent message of experience and readiness finally had something to connect to the amorphous theme of "Change." I am thinking of the anger outburst at the NH debate where she insisted that change takes hard work and persistence. That and her 'emotional breakdown' yesterday might have sealed the deal.
I am glad that Obama is going to have to work for his victory, if it is coming now, and not just slide through unchallenged. I still dont want Hillary to win, as I still believe it is one of Karl Rove's wet dreams to get her as an opponent next fall.
I want Obama to sit down and have those marathon policy talks that Clinton was having, and talk about actual specifics instead of glowing but empty genereralities. It is also clear that the question oft asked in punditland of whether the Clintons want to be the ones to stop the possibility of the first 'real' black president, of being the team that stops that "dream" from being fulfilled, has been answered in the staunch affirmative.