4th June 2008

History being made, blah, blah, blah

Yeehaw.  We now have a black candidate for president, the first time in mainstream political party history.

No, really, I am pleased.  But I personally would have been pleased with Hillary, too, and she would have made history as well, being the first female candidate for president for a mainstream political party.

(We’ve had both in offshoot parties before.)

And now we have pissed off Dems saying they would rather vote for McCain than Barack Hussein Obama.

I’m left wondering why.

Why would someone who voted for Hillary Clinton prefer John McCain over Barack Obama?

There’s a bunch of folks who just plain dislike Obama, especially since he didn’t stop at the word "bitter", but went on.  As a result, people didn’t look at why he thought they were bitter–being ignored by politicians for three decades–they only got huffy about being seen as religious, gun-toting bubbas.  Which totally wasn’t the point, but, hey, they don’t like him now, consider him a condescending elitist, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it.

Of course, there’s the strategic reason:  McCain wins, gets stuck with the mess left behind by BushCo, ends up with a one-term lame-duck presidency, and Hillary Clinton sweeps in on her white horse to save the day.

Okay.  That’s a valid strategy.  But it ignores some serious things, in my point of view.

It ignores the Supreme Court, for one thing.  McCain, being Bush Light, may not pack as many strict conservative justices in as Bush Regular would…but they’ll still be leaning on the conservative side.

It ignores his stated intention to continue the war in Iraq.

It ignores McCain’s health insurance plan, which is to do to health insurance companies what was done to credit card companies and banks in the 80s and 90s…loosening regulations in order to encourage competition.  Hey!  Look what that’s gotten us now!  Usurious credit card rates, fifty kazillion people being offered credit who shouldn’t have been, a bubble in real estate prices as a result, and the ensuing crash.  Yeah, I’d really like to see that applied to health insurance…

It ignores the fact that McCain is anti-choice, whereas both Hillary and Barack have been unrelentingly pro-choice.

I have a personal beef against McCain, which is something that lost him my respect back a few campaigns ago…when the Bush campaigners did a whispering campaign against him that insinuated that his adopted daughter Bridget, from Bangladesh, was an illegitimate bastard black child.  What did McCain do?  He did nothing.  And after his campaign was over, what did he do?  He cozied up to the Bush regime.  Pah.  So much for Mr. Maverick.  I would have voted for him eight years ago…but there is no way I can do it now.

One of the most interesting things I have read in a long time was an interview where someone was asking Obama what his first acts would be in the White House.  Obama said he would collect all the Executive Orders signed by the Bush administration and review them for constitutionality.

Woot.  I say, woot!

In the end, though, I am not hopeful.  I think whoever wins this election is going to be a one-hit wonder.  Why?  Because whoever wins will be stuck fixing the mess that BushCo has left us.  A grinding economic mess.  A grinding military mess.  And no matter what actions are taken to fix those messes, people aren’t going to like them, one little bit, and when the next election rolls around, they’re going to toss whoever it is out on his ear.

In the meantime, and totally off-topic, but perhaps explaining my sour mood:  I hate mosquitoes with a fiery passion.  The problem is that they like me.  Nom nom nom, is what they say when they scent me and home in on my skin.  We have an industrial strength mosquito herd out by the area where The Grand Coop is being built.  I go out and help OmegaDad measure and cut and screw, and the mosquitoes are chowing down on me like I’m food from a fancy, expensive caterer being dished up for free.

We did not have mosquitoes in Small Mountain University Town.

posted in Alaska, News, Pop Culture | 4 Comments