Some thoughts on wading through the morass that is the presidential campaign
by Wagenvoord
Link to ArticleI don’t look for perfection in politicians. Call me a cynic, if you will, but if I can achieve eighty percent on the compatibility scale, I’m happy. Nor do I put that much store in the issues, unless it’s a fringe issue like McCain’s hundred-year occupation of Iraq. I fully understand that what a politician says to get elected and what a politician does once in office is not always one in the same.Every society must function with the albatross of special interests around its neck. Politics is a constant tug-of-war between these interests and the public will. In a healthy society, a tenuous equilibrium is maintained between the two. However, when one achieves power at the expense of the other, you either have the Bush administration or a lynch mob. No politician can afford to ignore either, though some might say Bush has defied this rule. It is true that an elected leader can achieve dictatorial power. However, it is only a matter of time before a dormant public wakes up and hangs the bastard from the nearest lamppost. What I look for in a politician is a nebulous quality that is hard to discern. The separation between right and wrong is not a thin line; it is a thick, deep fog bank into which we all wander from time to time. Politicians, by the very nature of their trade, must spend a lot of time in that fog bank. What I look for is a functioning moral gyroscope that keeps pulling them back towards the light. At one time, McCain had a working gyroscope. Unfortunately, his quest for power and electability corroded it. Bush the Second is one of those mutants born without one.Hillary might have been born with this gyroscope, but she seems to have misplaced it. Her close association with her husband’s administration knocks about forty points off her compatibility scale. She and her husband screwed America when they did an end-run around Congress to put NAFTA in place. They also did considerable damage to our social safety net by gutting welfare. Where Regan and Bush the First only talked about dismantling the New Deal, Hill and Bill broke out the jackhammers and crowbars. Obama appears to have a moral gyroscope that is still functioning, though there is no telling how well it will work once he is in power. Remember, all Lord Acton said was that, “Power tends to corrupt… .” The fact remains that Obama started his career on Chicago’s south side, while Hillary started hers with Wal-Mart. Both talk the talk, but when it comes to walking the walk, we know Hillary will head for the nearest board room. We still don’t know, for sure, which way Obama will go. One final point: When it comes to the presidency, experience doesn’t mean a damn thing. For that matter, we might well ask what experience has done for us recently. Given the way it’s dumped on America, we are ready for some creative inexperience. Besides, there is nothing out there that prepares an individual for the pressures of the presidency. FDR was clueless when elected in the throes of the Great Depression, but he put together a damn good brain trust and the rest is history. I had the pleasure of hearing Obama speak at the Daily Kos convention in Chicago last summer. At one point, Obama said, “People wonder if I’m tough enough for the presidency.” (Long , pregnant pause) “Welcome to Chicago!” Like I said, eighty percent works for me. Peace. These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. If you have accounts on these bookmarking sites, you can post this story to share it with others.
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