Who ya gona call?
By Capt. Fogg
You can stay up all night wondering whether who would be doing the best job of answering the phone in a crisis if the crisis came at night, but coming to the conclusion that a Republican candidate with a history of corruption, bad temper and no particular knowledge of foreign affairs is the man to lead us is more a matter of what you want to believe for other reasons than of reasoned analysis. At 71 and in far less than excellent health, John McCain has nothing more than age and a bit of practice bombing third world nations into submission to indicate that his off-hours cognitive function would be better than anyone else's. Of course it's not intelligence or experience Americans are looking for anyway, but for someone they would like to see handling things dramatically on a TV series.
That charming little "three in the morning" trope is getting a lot of play, but the question of who would handle a dangerous international crisis; who would know what to do in case of a national disaster, an invasion, a calamity of any sort, won't be answered by the kind of vaudeville we're being presented with, nor are Americans really interested. What we're looking for is someone for the dramatic role who might sound most like John Wayne, snarling into the red phone in his pajamas: "head 'em off at the pass." We think the way TV has taught us to think - in images. What we think about is how Barry or Hillary would look in pajamas; who would look more confident and most of all, who would look "tough." That Reagan looked good on a horse had a lot to do with making his crackpot economics seem practical.
The real question of course, is which candidate will best be able to undo the policies of the current administration and be most willing to do it. That's a much harder question to answer, but the endorsement and support of McCain by the Commander Guy and his party isn't reassuring.
But while we go off on another fugue while we conjure up images to use in the puppet show of our prejudices, the Republican administration grinds on toward the conquest of America. They continue to make lists of who sends us mail and who we send mail to. They continue to arrest and detain small children and keep lists of millions of "terror" suspects with no connection beyond a similar name to an alias once used, to write laws from the oval office, to exempt themselves from the law and accountability.
What the current gangster in Chief has done to us in the last seven years has very little to do with late night telephone calls and while one wishes it had taken less time for Bush to respond to the information that the US was under attack, all the stupid, greedy, dishonest, demented and incompetent things he has done have nothing to do with such conjectural, tendentiously fabricated and irrelevant scenarios.
Many of our best presidents have been inexperienced. Sometimes it helped, sometimes it hurt, but George Bush and Richard Nixon had more government experience than Abe Lincoln or Dwight Eisenhower and Dan Quayle has had more than all three of the current contenders. It's all nonsense. Both Democratic candidates are smarter and better educated than McCain. One has had more inside information about executive matters, the other has an obvious ability to lead and inspire. Both have the ability to show the world we are not the bigoted backwoodsmen they think we are.
I have a hard time really being sure which would be a better president and indeed it may be impossible to know, but such silly games only increase the likelihood that the Values Vermin and Jingos will slither back into power while the Democrats have a pajama party with pillow fights.
You can stay up all night wondering whether who would be doing the best job of answering the phone in a crisis if the crisis came at night, but coming to the conclusion that a Republican candidate with a history of corruption, bad temper and no particular knowledge of foreign affairs is the man to lead us is more a matter of what you want to believe for other reasons than of reasoned analysis. At 71 and in far less than excellent health, John McCain has nothing more than age and a bit of practice bombing third world nations into submission to indicate that his off-hours cognitive function would be better than anyone else's. Of course it's not intelligence or experience Americans are looking for anyway, but for someone they would like to see handling things dramatically on a TV series.
That charming little "three in the morning" trope is getting a lot of play, but the question of who would handle a dangerous international crisis; who would know what to do in case of a national disaster, an invasion, a calamity of any sort, won't be answered by the kind of vaudeville we're being presented with, nor are Americans really interested. What we're looking for is someone for the dramatic role who might sound most like John Wayne, snarling into the red phone in his pajamas: "head 'em off at the pass." We think the way TV has taught us to think - in images. What we think about is how Barry or Hillary would look in pajamas; who would look more confident and most of all, who would look "tough." That Reagan looked good on a horse had a lot to do with making his crackpot economics seem practical.
The real question of course, is which candidate will best be able to undo the policies of the current administration and be most willing to do it. That's a much harder question to answer, but the endorsement and support of McCain by the Commander Guy and his party isn't reassuring.
But while we go off on another fugue while we conjure up images to use in the puppet show of our prejudices, the Republican administration grinds on toward the conquest of America. They continue to make lists of who sends us mail and who we send mail to. They continue to arrest and detain small children and keep lists of millions of "terror" suspects with no connection beyond a similar name to an alias once used, to write laws from the oval office, to exempt themselves from the law and accountability.
What the current gangster in Chief has done to us in the last seven years has very little to do with late night telephone calls and while one wishes it had taken less time for Bush to respond to the information that the US was under attack, all the stupid, greedy, dishonest, demented and incompetent things he has done have nothing to do with such conjectural, tendentiously fabricated and irrelevant scenarios.
Many of our best presidents have been inexperienced. Sometimes it helped, sometimes it hurt, but George Bush and Richard Nixon had more government experience than Abe Lincoln or Dwight Eisenhower and Dan Quayle has had more than all three of the current contenders. It's all nonsense. Both Democratic candidates are smarter and better educated than McCain. One has had more inside information about executive matters, the other has an obvious ability to lead and inspire. Both have the ability to show the world we are not the bigoted backwoodsmen they think we are.
I have a hard time really being sure which would be a better president and indeed it may be impossible to know, but such silly games only increase the likelihood that the Values Vermin and Jingos will slither back into power while the Democrats have a pajama party with pillow fights.
Labels: Election 08
posted by Libby Spencer at 4:15 PM
3 Comments:
The american sheep herd has already forgotten about the hundreds, if not thousands of crimes committed, constitutional amendments broken, and other corrupt acts of this Republican administration. Once it's off the front page its ancient history.
I have no doubt that they could eagerly elect a Bush clone like McCain and do so for the most ridiculous of reasons. Not that there is any good reason.
You are so right about experience. All Washington experience means is being entrenched in the system that rewards those who tow the corporate line, don't upset the lobbying apple cart, and keep the doors open for the war machine.
America is going to get exactly the president it deserves.
It seems like we usually do.
So corrupt, in fact, that my life is absolutely the same as it was on January 19, 2001. Except for the pedophile is no longer in the White House -- for the time being anyway.
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