Posted on 03/03/2008 6:55:31 AM PST by jdm
Howard Dean seems pretty proud of himself this weekend, having come up with the best quip he's had in ... well, ever. He says since the GOP nominee is an old white guy, that today's Republican Party "looks like the 1950s and talks like the 1850s.”
That's all well and good for Dr. Dean. But for those who actually care about history, you may recall that John McCain spent most of the 1950s at the Naval Academy, learning how to fight and if necessary die for his country. And as more than one friend pointed out to me this weekend, we all seem to recall that particularly in the 1850s, Democrats were in the wrong, and Republicans were actually kind of, you know, in the right. The most famous Democrat and most famous Republican of the time, of course, provide easy examples:
That is the real issue. That is the issue that will continue in this country when these poor tongues of Judge Douglas and myself shall be silent. It is the eternal struggle between these two principles - right and wrong - throughout the world. They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time; and will ever continue to struggle. The one is the common right of humanity and the other the divine right of kings. It is the same principle in whatever shape it develops itself. It is the same spirit that says, "You work and toil and earn bread, and I'll eat it."
I think in this case, the Republicans of the 1850s are fine by me. For his part, Dr. Dean and Stephen Douglas can have a nice sit down and talk about how wonderful it is to be a diminutive blowhard on the wrong side of history.
I doubt Howard Dean could decipher a time line with pictures...
“But for those who actually care about history, you may recall that John McCain spent most of the 1950s at the Naval Academy, learning how to fight and if necessary die for his country.”
Was he that bad as a student? Most midshipmen graduate in four years.
He’s been trained?
He did graduate sixth from the bottom in his class: 894th in a class of 899.
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