Posted on 09/04/2008 6:39:52 AM PDT by Tolik
The 2008 presidential campaign is supposed to be a referendum on “change” — who brings it and who doesn’t.
Real change, however, hasn’t yet proven to mean new politics.
The “hope and change” Barack Obama sounds like a traditional Northern liberal who always wants to raise taxes on the upper classes and businesses, expand government services, and provide more state assistance to the middle class and poor.
“Maverick” John McCain talks like a conventional Western or Southern conservative in favor of spending cuts, across-the-board lower taxes, and smaller government.
This year the media seem to think change means race and sex — whether Barack Obama’s background of mixed racial ancestry or the gender of Democratic primary candidate Hillary Clinton and Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin.
It’s certainly true that either the next president or next vice president will not be a white male. But does that mean de facto that the country will be run any differently?
There is, however, one area where we might have seen real change. The Democrats could have not nominated another lawyer. This may partly explain why former military officer John McCain and working-mom Sarah Palin are polling near even with Obama and his running mate, Joe Biden, in a year that otherwise favors the Democrats.
A snowmobiling, fishing, and hunting mom of five who was trained as a journalist seems like a breath of fresh air — and accentuates the nontraditional background of former naval officer John McCain. If the Republicans win, it may well be because — like George Bush and Dick Cheney, or Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush — they weren’t members of the legal culture.
(Excerpt) Read more at article.nationalreview.com ...
Victor Davis Hanson Ping !
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/
YES!!!! it’s our only hope.
Thanks for the ping.
Don't Tread on Me! [Victor Davis Hanson]
Palin Bites Back...
Tonight I flipped to CNN and was struck by the talking heads flipping out about the Giuliani/Palin mocking of community organizers—as if the Obama team's dismissals of "small-town" mayors was fair play. The MSM networks are going ballistic at her speech and apparently never imagined that anyone would dare bite back—and also at them, the 'elite media' of the press, no less!
Compared to what Kerry et al. said about McCain, Palin was no tougher on the other side, so it is odd to hear CNN female pundits suddenly shocked, shocked that a "woman" would dare attack a man like that, and that it may "not play" outside the hall. Like it or now we are back in a cultural and populist war, brought on by a week of liberal character assassination.
The Left made a terrible mistake in the manner they have smeared Palin, and now they seem appalled at the red-state authentic populist backlash which is a different sort than studied Bidenism, where one recalls a distant childhood, not the recent past, or the living present, to prove they are one with the people.
So things heat up and are getting ugly as they always seem to do by September in an election year. Today it was no accident in the wake of the attacks on Palin that suddenly Obama comes out with pro-abortion ads attacking the pro-life position of McCain. The timing is a sort of subtext about the current and recent Palin jr. and sr. pregnancies: apparently Team Obama want the viewer to see a pregnant teen-ager and a Down syndrome child and ponder something like: "under John McCain abortion in these cases would have been impossible."
Lawyers love to reinterpret the written word. That doesn’t make them the greatest guardians of the constitution. Kinda like the fox guarding the henhouse.
Biden looked very old and tired this morning on TV. I wonder how well he slept last night?
Pass a Constitutional Amendment that would effectively ban practicing attorneys from seeking elected Federal office for a period of 12 years. Currently serving attorneys would be permitted to complete their terms, and the individual states would be encouraged (but not required) to pass similar legislation.
His rhetoric is catching up with him.
Maybe he didn’t... maybe he was envisioning himself in a TV debate with Gov. Palin.... sniker...sniker
If you want change in Washington D.C.
I mean you really want change.
Do you vote for the Fighter Pilot and the mother of 5?
Or do you vote for the two Lawyers?
That was my thought. I still want to know who said “no way” to Obama for the VP slot.
Yup my father argued for just such a Constitutional Amendment for years. Trouble is, it can’t pass without having a Constitutional Convention and state ratifying conventions because all the legislatures are controlled by lawyers.
Of course Dick the Butcher in Henry VI, Part 2 had another solution.
I second that proposal.
Ouch!
By and large lawyers have become anarchists with a law degree. They are very selfish in that they could give a crap about America if it gets in the way of making a buck or go on a liberal crusade on environment or anti-smoking or defending illegal immigrants or Guantanamo scum
Plumbers and pizza makers are more honest and honorable ....Patriotic too
So many senators and representatives in state legislatures are lawyers. This is where the mischief starts
**** Above is a true generalization
But in this interesting piece, Hanson first states,
In fact, every Democratic presidential nominee for president and vice president in the last seven elections — except Gore, who dropped out of law school to run for Congress — has been a lawyer.
He then goes on to state,
In the past, law school has not necessarily been considered ideal presidential training. Harry Truman was audacious perhaps because he had tried and failed as a haberdasher. Dwight Eisenhower learned about leadership from his years as a general. George H. W. Bush was a businessman and Ronald Reagan an actor. Even unpopular presidents like Jimmy Carter (farmer) and George W. Bush (businessman) brought different perspectives to the job.
I can't find anything about Jimmah being a lawyer. Either he was, or he wasn't. Which is it?
If we're going to espouse this line of thinking, we have to be accurate. After all, we're right-wingers!
Otherwise, I loved it!
CA....
No we need to nominate only CONSERVATIVES who are lawyers.
Look at how palin is driving feminists insane. NOWgang and Feminist Majority are CRAZY.
Remember how Alito, Roberts, and Thomas were run through the crucible because of conservaitive views?
More conservatives will drive the Trial Lawyer and ABA (remember they have no regulatory power) just crazy. If they happen to be lawyers fine as long as they are conservative.
Carter was a nuclear engineer PhD.
which explains why he personally took charge of the tennis court schedules.
(for those in rio linda: carter was and is an idiot)
actually in the old days of the American Revolution the lawyer generally had three books, a Bible, a statute book, and a dictionary.
lawyers were not the ambulance chasers untile the 1900’s
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