Friday, January 4, 2008

And So It Begins

Iowa has spoken and the Presidential campaign now kicks into high gear. With the primaries so front loaded we may well be discussing the actual nominees and debating the general before Spring is sprung, and I find I am once again interested in writing about politics.

Those who've read my previous posts already know that I am at heart an Edwards man, though due to a peculiarity in the political process I am planning to take a Republican ballot in the primary and vote for Ron Paul, whom I don't actually support and would Never vote for in the general. (If this is confusing to you click here.) The media seem to be trying to spin Edwards' second place finish in Iowa as the death knell of his campaign (even though he placed ahead of the horrid Hillary whom they are not rushing to write off). But the fat lady isn't even warming up yet so clearly the media is per usual being premature in an attempt to sway the race to their corporate keepers' benefit and I continue to hold out hope of darkening an oval for John in November. But if Obama succeeds in using his bounce from Iowa to win again in New Hampshire, I may well jump right onto his bandwagon and begin flogging him like mad.

As for Huckabee, I will only say that I hope he continues to win and becomes the R's nominee since I am 101% certain that Americans are NOT under any circumstances whatsoever going to elect another Arkansas governor, let alone a frickin' Baptist preacher.

And all of this discussion of the early race quite fails to address what the real end game will be. Yesterday on Blog Catalog, for the first time in ages we had an interesting political thread when momoftwingirls posed the question "Do you think GWB will cancel the election and declare martial law?"

Few if any respondents considered this a likely scenario, but the question did lead us to consider the final outcome of the election. MadameX said that she had actually expected the 'cancel the election and declare martial law'-trick to be pulled last time and that she had not considered the possibility this time around as she is much less interested in the outcome of this one. I replied:

I did expect it in the last election and was not surprised that Ohio turned into another Florida instead. Who knows which state will be the surprise place it all turns out to hinge on but in my observation of the current ruling regime, they seem very much dedicated to the "stick to what worked before" school or totalitarian government. I personally will be shocked if we do Not have another outcome that boils down to The Supremes singing their classic hit "The Republicans Really Won Again" to the tune "Here He Comes Again" in the key of Rove.

And that's the real question, isn't it? Not 'whom will the voters select?' but rather 'how will the powers that be rig the outcome this time?' Since my political interest has been re-awakened I will probably be posting regularly about the horse race on this blog. But honestly, I will be shocked if the person actually selected by the majority of US voters takes the oath next January and moves to Pennsylvania Avenue. That hasn't actually happened in more than a decade.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think the Republicans will ensure a Democrat wins the election. This has gotten to be vaguely traditional at this point.

Reagan and Bush broke the banking system and the S&L failures created a huge problem they left for Clinton to clean up.

The same thing has happened again with the mortgage and credit card industries along with the war in Iraq. Once an elected Democrat has been in place and forced to deal with it, people will forget who created the problems and may elect a Republican again.

Libdrone said...

so you're saying you think the voters will decide this one rather than the machinations of the Rove wing of the R party and their favorite (damn wishing I new the 9 equivalent of sextet) singing group The Supremes?

Anonymous said...

Yes but I think we need to step back even farther so you can see how the choice is even framed. People make decisions on who to elect based on information they absorb. The control of information in the US is in held in just a few hands.

But the folks running the country since the end of World War II (that military-industrial complex that Eisenhower warned us about) take a longer view than I do. It will be much easier for them to elect a Republican government (executive and legislative branches)after people who are all riled up right now calm back down.

They have already loaded the judicial appointments with their hand picked folks so they are in a good position to sit back and let the Democrats deal with the fallout of the last 8 years. Its already happening in Congress. Look at the approval rates for the current Democratic controlled Congress all because they have not been able undo the damage that Delay and Company created.

If we could get some drugs into the water system that could extend people's attention span, we would be in much better shape.

Anonymous said...

The Democrats always have to go in and clean up the mess the Republicans make. I like Hillary. I think she can do the job.

Anok said...

Hey, nice blog. I like the content. I just wanted you to know I actually read your blog before doing the corny bloglogcatalog thingy.

As for the elections, I am hoping, hoping that Bush doesn't find a reason to pull a Musharraf. One national emergency folks, that is all it will take. Natural disaster, terrorist attack, Cheney's hang nail....

Other than that, I called this before the primaries were up and kicking, and I'll call it again, McCain is going to get the ticket. I know the Huck is cleaning house here and there, but McCain is the go-to guy with a sore jaw, and raw knees *ahem*.

My two cents...

Anonymous said...

No he want cancel the election he has all ready fixed it for his clone. That is what the DNC's pulling of degelates is all about.
SO
How about a Boycott!
Jan 30, 2008
All of the 48 states whom the DNC has not striped their delegates from should stop and think this could be us. All 48 states should then tell the DNC reinstate these two states delegates or face a nation wide boycott at the convention. Look, not everyone has heard Florida had a constitutional amendment that had to be voted on by the Jan. 29, 2008 so why have two elections. In addition, our House and Senate are majority Republican controlled. We Democrats could not have stopped our primary date change if we wanted to. At least that is what I have been told.
So let us see solidarity for a change on a nation wide scale. Contact you're State Democratic Party, force the issue and stand up for your fellow Democrats we are very powerful united. This is why Howard Dean has pulled our delegates, these two states would give Hillary the Nomination not his puppet.
Coy