Compassionate Conservative = George W. Bush = John McCain = Maverick
Mitt Romney: "I'm the Candidate of Change"
John McCain: "I'm the Candidate of Change"
Craig: ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
The Republican side of the 2008 campaign is bizarre one night and boring the next.
I have a confession to make. While I want Barack Obama to win and hope very much he does since our country is in crisis and since wasting more time is something we cannot afford, a small part of me nevertheless wouldn't mind John McCain winning. Why? Because if the American people don't get that our nation is in trouble and that we need to get serious about changing course, then it might as well be McCain. George W. Bush has so damaged our country that we will be feeling the effects for some time to come. Even the current economic downturn may not bottom out until another two or three years down the road. If Americans this year are not ready to understand what deep shit we're in, they might as well elect McCain and see how bad it can get. Because McCain ain't got a clue.
I know it's an odd thing to say, but it's true. There's no point electing Barack Obama unless Americans understand the work that needs to be done. There's hope but only if we start looking at the world as it is and not as the Republican leadership imagines it to be.
John McCain: "I'm the Candidate of Change"
Craig: ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
The Republican side of the 2008 campaign is bizarre one night and boring the next.
I have a confession to make. While I want Barack Obama to win and hope very much he does since our country is in crisis and since wasting more time is something we cannot afford, a small part of me nevertheless wouldn't mind John McCain winning. Why? Because if the American people don't get that our nation is in trouble and that we need to get serious about changing course, then it might as well be McCain. George W. Bush has so damaged our country that we will be feeling the effects for some time to come. Even the current economic downturn may not bottom out until another two or three years down the road. If Americans this year are not ready to understand what deep shit we're in, they might as well elect McCain and see how bad it can get. Because McCain ain't got a clue.
I know it's an odd thing to say, but it's true. There's no point electing Barack Obama unless Americans understand the work that needs to be done. There's hope but only if we start looking at the world as it is and not as the Republican leadership imagines it to be.
Labels: 2008 election, Barack Obama, John McCain
posted by Craig at 8:53 PM
4 Comments:
Craig - SU-PERB! Compliments, a terse, to-the-point message. Thanks.
Bob T
Police Professionalism and the Twin Cities - GOP
I do find it remarkable how warm and clever the self-congratulary back-slapping is in Minnesota. All 'round, from Chief Harrington to the Strib. I thought, when I looked at the lede for this article I would read critical commentary about the illegal arrests of journalists and Amy Goodman, but I see that matter rendered as a near-trivial detail instead. And so on to Chief Harrington, Sheriff Fletcher and others, sternly repeating their mission statements and blathering on about how well their forces carried out their duties, all within the law, of course. And how they and the Ramsey County attorney so diligently labelled those they imprisoned. Always as 'malefactors' by whatever name: the criminal element, and so on. But of course. We need protection from criminals. Especially ahead of time, and above all the moment we perceive in our own minds the least 'reasonable cause' to 'suspect' the ulterior motives of others. Including I-Witness, the videographers whose crime was arriving to witness and film the public events; and the journalists, of course, and anyone with a camera plus eyes, brain, and memory, one assumes. The final night proved the case. The police deployed a trap and swept up anyone and everyone, having defined a priori the state of mind and motive of those citizens. But I'm sorry, this won't do. It is time for Minneapolis, St. Paul, Minnesota, and our nation to review and implement Magna Carta 2.0. And our own Constitution. The news reports are filled with eyewitness accounts of police going over the top: the troops - sorry - lines of officers - waiting outside the Target Center as Rage Against the Machine ended its concert, who taunted the exiting concert-goers with obscene gestures, epithets, and slappings of batons against palms and thighs. This is the 'friendly policeman' I was taught as a kid to honor and know I could ask for help when I needed it? Someone to trust implicitly? This is 'professionalism'? What happened to silent, watchful, measured police presence? So far as I know not one incident of direct, violent assault against police officers took place. Property vandalism (it is not quite proper to call this 'terrorism', I am very sorry to correct all and sundry who have so written in the media or among the military-police management ranks) is not violence. Police abusiveness, testosterone, and acting-out of repressed frustration is regrettable, and wrong, as are the crimes of wanton destruction of property. However neither can justify the Gestapo-Blackshirt-Military pre-emption of civil rights that we saw. In the larger picture all of this may be dismissed as petty turmoil unworthy of comment. Yes, the convention was successful, that I agree in spite of my own (full disclosure) firm opposition to the current GOP platform and candidates. (That the convention itself was, apart from the cheesecake energy of the VP introduction, dull as dishwater may or may not be more than just my opinion.) No, the actions of some in the streets were not supportable. And no, the police did not acquit themselves with honor. Yes, the journalists were doing their free-speech First Amendment duties when yes, they were manhandled and violenced, by the police. Who knows whether this will be a lasting memory, a permanent icon in our national, constitutional development, or a forgotten incident on the way to ever less empowering, liberating national policy and nefarious, hidden government agendas driven by extra-constitutional maneuvers by the likes of Bush, Cheney, Rove - and their political descendants. BT - Turin - Italy
STRANGE IS THE WORLD
Strange is the world in which we live,
As always throws a curve:
"Compassionate conservatives"
Have no compassion, don't conserve.
.
i.m.small, nice quatrain. And Haiku-like.
Thanks for comment.
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