January 6, 2008, Times They're A Changin'
First, check out this week's AmStreet entry, "Never the Crime, Always the Cover-Up" in which I give a hearty welcome to the Street's newest co-blogger (and TTD's newest commenter!), BossKitty.
The point there is that, as with the case of Abu Ghraib, and even Plamegate, it's not the people actually responsible (i.e., Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Gonzales, et al.) who pay the price for official misdeeds, but people down the line... usually way down the line. It is my hypothesis that the American people at least as expressed by their 1/100 scale model in Iowa, are sick and tired of it. Hence, they rejected the spouse of Bill "all my friends are celebrities, millionaires or both" Clinton on the Democratic side in favor of the Black Constitutional law professor. Hence, even the Republicans rejected Hedge Fund Mitt (whose sons are "helping America" by not volunteering to serve in Iraq or Afghanistan, but by aiding his candidacy), and Hollywood Fred Thompson, and Deal-with-the-Devil John McCain, and Rudy "Influence Peddler to the Stars" Giuliani and the other "above-the-law" Republicans, in favor of the sincere socially conservative but economically liberal Mike Huckabee.
Huh? You got it: the Black man Obama, and the not-all-that-affluent White man Huckabee, are gentlemen who have at least thus far had to live in the same world as the rest of us, rather than in the rarefied world of privilege that has one set of laws for themselves (i.e. none) and another for the rest of us. (Sorry Hillary, but Hyde Park is closer to the world the rest of us live in than Chappaqua and Georgetown are.) Hence, the corporatist super-elite can merrily favor candidates who will criminalize abortion, knowing that their own family members will always be able to obtain grey-market or even overseas abortion should it become necessary. Or espouse the view that sacrifice in a time of supposed national emergency shall be borne solely by military members and their families, while America's most affluent will not only not send their own children to fight, but won't even pay more in taxes!
And here we are. While I have little doubt that the super-smart and super-charismatic Barack would ultimately prevail in a general against the insular Arkansas governor, it is conceivable that if these two gentlemen emerge as their party's candidates we might have a genuine campaign based on actual visions for the future of this country based on the lives of, oh, over 99% of the people living in it, rather than of those of the super-elite (who have been more than well-served in the era of Bush-Clinton-Bush).
A dog can dream. This has been... Times They're A Changin'.
Comments
Well it just seems to me that alot of Obamas friends are also millionaires and hollywood types.... and dare I mention that the civil rights attorney voted for the Detainee treatment act in Dec. 05- taking away the writ of habeas corpus for the guantanamo prisoners... Not to mention voting in a certain supreme court justice that wants to take away any gains made in the last 50 years...
they all have their faults and their promise but lets not hold obama up to be what he isnt... he isn't independent and he will vote in whatever way is convenient for him at the time...
If we start with that premise maybe we can give a more accurate picture as to who it is we want to lead us...
of course when push comes to shove (or is it bush comes to shove...) most any democrat will do the trick..
Posted by Candace at January 6, 2008 6:18 PM
Well it just seems to me that alot of Obamas friends are also millionaires and hollywood types.... and dare I mention that the civil rights attorney voted for the Detainee treatment act in Dec. 05- taking away the writ of habeas corpus for the guantanamo prisoners... Not to mention voting in a certain supreme court justice that wants to take away any gains made in the last 50 years...
they all have their faults and their promise but lets not hold obama up to be what he isnt... he isn't independent and he will vote in whatever way is convenient for him at the time...
If we start with that premise maybe we can give a more accurate picture as to who it is we want to lead us...
of course when push comes to shove (or is it bush comes to shove...) most any democrat will do the trick..
Posted by Candace at January 6, 2008 6:19 PM
The perfect is certainly the enemy of the good. And Obama sure as bleep isn't perfect. At issue, however, is whether, given the very imperfect choices we face, Obama is the best of the lot. The voters of NH will tell us their view on Tuesday.
With Constitution State Dodd safely dropping out, my own choices among Dems have come down (like that of every other progressive) to Edwards and Obama. Fortuitously for him or not, Obama did not vote to authorize the Iraq war, whereas Hillary and Edwards (who sat on the Intelligence Committee no less!) did.
I agree-- there are problems with Obama. But on net, right now, that's as good as we're going to get.
Posted by the talking dog at January 6, 2008 7:10 PM
OTOH given that Mike "180 as necessary" Huckabee, who previously questioned the USA's conduct in the war on terrorTM has now asserted that conditions at Guantanamo "are too good" (joining Mitt Romney in suggesting it "should be doubled") I stand corrected: any Democrat will indeed do the trick... just fine. Apparently, "national greatness conservative" means that its Empire or nothing.
I liked the Republic better.
Posted by the talking dog at January 6, 2008 10:31 PM