Posted on 02/07/2008 6:07:59 AM PST by Kaslin
In this weird presidential campaign, almost everything has turned out opposite from what pollsters and pundits predicted. Even Super Tuesday proved not-so-super, and things are still not quite settled in either party race.
The election was supposed to be about a shaky Iraq. But after the successful surge and the recent economic downturn in the U.S., candidates now talk more about mortgages and illegal immigration than chaos in Baghdad.
John McCain was said to be finished by July. Then he was back again as a contender by January and is a supposed sure thing in February.
Barack Obama was at first just to be a runner-up; front-runner Hillary Clinton once worried more about the fall Republican nominee. Then, after the unexpected Obama victory in Iowa, his surging poll numbers assured us that Hillary was toast in New Hampshire. But she suddenly came back there, and also won in Michigan and Nevada — but that was all before Obama resurged in February.
Then there was the topsy-turvy history of Rudy Giuliani — a supposed insurmountable lead turned into an unexpected implosion. Not long ago Fred Thompson was also hyped — only to crash and burn. And who knows the status of Mike Huckabee?
Conservatives are irate at McCain — especially over his past stances on taxes and immigration and his sometime alliances with Democrats — and some promise to sit out the general election if he gets the Republican nomination.
Meanwhile, some Democrats repulsed by the Clintons promise to vote for McCain if Clinton gets her party's nomination. And a few angry voters of both parties claim that they like nice-guy Obama better than either of the other likely nominees.
What is causing these wild swings among jittery and fickle voters?
First, we are in the middle of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and are still fighting against radical Islamic terrorists on other fronts. Trillions in U.S. dollars are held abroad by rivals and belligerents. The economy is slowing. Energy prices are sky-high.
But for most, the medicine is as scary as the disease: Should we send more troops to finish the job overseas, or are there too many abroad already? Should we prime the economy to prevent recession? Or are stimulus plans unrealistic now that we are already running federal deficits and piling up debt?
Second, without a single administration incumbent in the running, both the Republican and Democratic races are especially volatile. In contrast, in every other presidential race after 1952, either an incumbent president or the sitting vice president has run in the fall election.
But now there is no status quo. Instead, a war has broken out within each party.
Bill Clinton is no longer a senior statesman, but has devolved into a rank partisan, more a liability than a help to his wife. President Bush hasn't endorsed any Republican. He has a low approval rating, and has had issues with both McCain and Mitt Romney.
The current leaders — John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama — are all U.S. senators — but we haven't had a sitting senator win the presidency in nearly a half-century, not since John Kennedy in 1960.
The Democratic nominee for the first time in election history will either be a woman or an African-American. Sons have followed their fathers to the presidency, but never a wife after her husband. Former presidents have ended up in Congress or the Supreme Court, but we've never contemplated one back as First Gentleman in the White House.
Clinton and Obama are not the only trailblazers. If McCain wins, he will be the oldest man to assume the presidency. Romney is the first Mormon presidential contender with a real chance at the nomination.
Now that Super Tuesday is over, here's what we are left with. A surviving Hillary Clinton can't muzzle Bill, whose name got her the lead and whose narcissism has nearly squandered it. No one can cite anything specific that the still-surging Obama has done or will do. And conservatives are supposed to forgive Romney for once taking some liberal stances to win in liberal Massachusetts, but to damn McCain for doing the same thing when he didn't have to in conservative Arizona.
In this crazy year, the election may finally come down to how many Democrats — scared that they don't know enough about Obama, or know too much about the Clintons — will vote for a veteran pro like McCain. Or, on the flip side, how many "true" conservatives will stay home in November to ensure a liberal wins the White House just to prove their purity.
Bill Clinton is no longer a senior statesman
I don't think Billy Jeff was ever a statesman
McCain needs to wake up and smell the "VILE"!!!
"Bipartisanship" Is A Dirty Word; and RUSH: "We want to defeat them"
“I don’t think Billy Jeff was ever a statesman”
He wasn’t, but, he was able to pretend to be when there was nothing on the line, and it served the Socialist/Democrats to let him. Now, the gloves are off, and Willy is reverting to form.
“how many “true” conservatives will stay home in November to ensure a liberal wins the White House just to prove their purity.”
There’s the real question. Personally, I’ve never been much for having to prove my purity, certainly not in politics! If it’s purity that some “true” conservatives are looking for, they should go to the confessional, not the voting booth.
The danger of conservatives staying home not only ensures of the libera's win to the White House, but it also ensures the liberal's win to the House and Senate for decades to come for which we will not be able to recover.
Hissy fit conservatives sitting home means my paycheck will get smaller, the Clinton healthcare program will grow and never get reversed as we all know turning back entitlement programs once started never happens, activist judges will sit on courts far past the time I would have to live with McCain in office, Congress and the Senate would have their 2/3rd majority and just about everything I stand for will get p*ssed on...... so sit home people, do you dare?
You bet!
The most horrific part, though is that if the Dems manage to pull the trifecta, they also get smooth sailing for judicial and SCOTUS nominees who will ensure that all of their Socialist programs will pass muster with the new and improved “living breathing document” called the Constitution of the United Stated that once limited the size and scope of the federal government.
Indeed they will and this will be the fault of those who are planing to sit out the election. I do hope they will come to their senses
Let me know if you want in or out.
Links: FR Index of his articles: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=victordavishanson
His website: http://victorhanson.com/
NRO archive: http://www.nationalreview.com/hanson/hanson-archive.asp
Pajamasmedia: http://victordavishanson.pajamasmedia.com/
They won’t. Just look at every thread that is somehow negative to McCain and the comments on it and I can see a repeat of ‘06 in the making. It seems that we are more concerned with our own purity than we are with advancing our ideas. Ah well, how much more can they really take away? ( Shiver )
Who is the greater fool? The fool, or the fool who follows him?
Who is the greater fool? The fool, or the fool who follows him?
.......................................................
The Ant and the Grasshopper
TRADITIONAL VERSION:
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.
Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.
The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.
MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself!
MODERN UPDATED VERSION:
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.
Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.
CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. Americais stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?
Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper, and everybody cries when they sing, “It’s Not Easy Being Green.”
Jesse Jackson stages a demonstration in front of the ant’s house where the news stations film the group singing, “We shall overcome.” Jesse then has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper’s sake.
Nancy Peloski, John Kerry & Harry Reid exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.
Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity and Anti-Grasshopper Act, retroactive to the beginning of the summer! The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government.
Hillary gets her old law firm to represent the grasshopper in a
defamation suit against the ant, and the case is tried before a panel of federal judges that Bill Clinton appointed from a list of single-parent welfare recipients.
The ant loses the case.
The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ant’s food while the government house he is in, which just happens to be the ant’s old house, crumbles around him because he doesn’t maintain it.
The ant has disappeared in the snow.
The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the once peaceful neighborhood.
MORAL OF THE STORY:
Be careful how you vote in 2008.
I can understand if they don’t want to vote for McCain in November, should he be the nominee. I really will have to hold my nose to vote for him, but they should not sit the election out, because so much is at stake
One of the constant themes in Hanson’s writing about the Iraq is that there were no good choices back then, only bad and worse. McCain is a bad choice with Obama and Clinton being worse.
I cringe that I might have to vote for him in November, but the alternative is worse. There is no doubt that the Republican party is in crisis, and there is no doubt that conservative movement is in search of trusted leadership, and is in a conflict with the GOP establishment, and is deeply dissatisfied. One thing should not be forgotten in our anguish: the politics is all about power. If you let somebody else take power, you lose. It is preferable to perfectly cynically choose bad over worse AND continue to build your own case for better until you have enough to seize the power by yourself. You want GOP to be more conservative - elect more conservative people everywhere, and continue pressure that we have seen a few times over the last years (Meyers, Dubai, immigration bill). It does work. Lets not choose the way of libertarian party’s irrelevance.
Amen. Great story.
McCain can kiss my azs, and the above statement is 100% false.
I am not voting McCain because he is nothing at all that I will ever vote for, no matter what party, and all of you others need to remember that this is a Conservative forum, not GOP dot com
If McCain is the nominee, I am definitely voting for him. In 8 years, B.J. Clinton weakened our military, gave us "don't ask/don't tell", refused an offer of Bin Ladin's head on a platter, and gave us the Gorelick "wall". These things collectively led to 9-11. We cannot trust the Clintons/Obama with 4 years, let alone 8.
And I'm not buying the idea that "a dem win will galvanize republicans in 2012". If Hillary and a former muslim named Obama cannot galvanize the republicans NOW, nothing will. And it won't make a difference how galvanized we are if we are dead.
Very well said.
Last week I was depressed about it all and thought I might sit home. Now I’m not much less depressed, but I think it makes sense to vote McCain over the dem.
Thank you!
I think the pressure that built up in the conservative cooker should be better used constructively, in building up a strong conservative faction of the Republican party, instead of just blowing steam verbally and sitting on our hands.
It does have a sort of "ring" to it.
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