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Sunday, October 5. 2008
Seven Out!
The world is beginning to realize Senator John McCain is campaigning a losing cause. He’s 72, long past his political prime; well past his “Maverick” credentials and will most likely be known in history, not as “the Maverick,” but the man on the other ticket when the first African-American was elected president of the United States.There are now 28 days until the November 4 elections and Senator Barack Obama is looking more and more like the person who will win that contest. It will take a monumental crisis to change the direction the polls are heading, or maybe a shocking revelation about Illinois’s junior senator, but from all indications, Barack Obama will be the 44th president of the United States.
McCain rolled the dice by kicking aside his “maverick” credentials when he flip-flopped on many of his views to win the Republican nomination, even kissing up to the “Agents of Intolerance” last year in an effort to win their support and that of their flocks, the Religious Right. McCain even turned on his own immigration bill when the Republican base overwhelmingly called it another amnesty plan.He rolled the dice again when he picked an untested, inexperienced running mate without the usual vetting process, only to find that while Governor Sarah Palin did energize his party’s base, at least for a month or so, she became the impetus for the rest of the country to turn their eyes back towards Senator Obama.
He rolled the dice by declaring his campaign was suspended during the financial crisis, all the while campaigning during that short suspension. He went to Washington, accused Senator Obama of “phoning it in,” even though he never attended any committee meetings and only “phoned in” his two cents worth.
McCain rolled the dice big time when he declared, just moments before the House of Representatives voted on the bailout bill, that it would pass, the crisis would be averted and it was by his strong leadership — with no help from his Democratic rival — that the economy of the United States would once again be on strong footing, proving that the fundamentals of the economy were strong and that Republicans were truly the party of change and the true stewards of our collective welfare.And then the House Republicans — McCain’s own party — rejected the plan McCain so vigorously supported. Ever been in Vegas, felt you were on a roll at the craps table and put all your money on the “hardways” … only to have the shooter roll seven out? Ouch!
For the record, I didn’t put all my money on the hardways … but boxcars pays 30-1! How can you pass up those odds!
“Hardways” are four, six, eight and ten with each dice rolling with equal values. As in two “fives” making a “hardway 10.”
Whenever my brother Carl and I went to Nevada he would recoil in horror as I lobbed $5 chips on the hardways. I’ll have to admit, his alarm and shock were not unfounded as most often those $5 chips found their way back to the boxman’s bank.For voters, it’s becoming clear that McCain’s only ambition is to be president, without any clear indication of why, except to satisfy an over-amped ego. I know over-amped egos, I have one myself. Can’t you tell?
The “values” that made John McCain so appealing to voters just a few years ago, Democrats and Independents as well as some Republicans, vanished in this, his latest — and his last — bid to be president of the United States.
Twelve years ago Senator Bob Dole of Kansas tried, unsuccessfully, to achieve this goal without any clear message of what he could do to make the nation a better place. The electorate resoundingly ignored the tried and true Republican mantra of “lower taxes” and “less government” as it became apparent to everyone that the government needed to levy taxes to pay for the services we all expect from government.Not to mention, the economy was booming with President Clinton at the helm so why change horses in the middle of the race? Technically — realistically — jockeys can’t change horses mid race nor can you place a bet after post time, but as long as I’m using the gambling metaphors, what the hell.
It became apparent that when the G.O.P. said “less government,” what they really meant was less government in the area of business and commerce and more government intrusion and regulation in our private lives; that “less government” meant they would stay out of the lives of the people who agreed with them, but for the citizens who don’t conform to their view of who is an American or lived by their standard of decency, as dictated by the Religious Right, they would shove government prosecutors into their bedrooms, into their businesses and down their throats, so the electorate rejected the nice old gentleman from Kansas.
Amazingly, the Republican Party has returned to those old themes in hopes of the electorate responding as they once did when Ronald Reagan used them so effectively during his campaigns, even as President Reagan was raising taxes in and around his bid for re-election in 1984.The collective wisdom in 1994 as to why the Democrats lost control of Congress that year was based around one idea, that the Democratic ideals that had made them the populist party, in place since Franklin Roosevelt’s “New Deal,” had grown stale with the voters. Add a few timely scandals with some key leaders in the Democratic Party and the stage was set for a changing of the guard in the capital.
Newt Gingrich, the architect of that change, made all the right moves, said all the right words and created a “plan” that Americans could read about and more importantly in the growing age of truly mass communication, “see” whenever we turned on the television. Even then most Americans had trouble reciting what was in the “Contract With America” and 14 years later few of us — including me — can remember what those 10 promises were that lifted the Republicans to the top of the legislative ladder that year.
One of them was “term limits.” That one lost its appeal when the Republicans gained control. Being the one in charge feels good!
The fat man with the Oxycontin, Rush Limbaugh, even went to Washington to greet the freshman senators and representatives on their first days as the rulers of government. A radio commentator had become as influential as the men and women he promoted through his radio program.Newt Gingrich proved to be just as flawed, just as scandalous as any of the Democrats he helped unseat and within four years he too was gone from the corridors of power. He was replaced by Representative Tom Delay and just over two years ago, after his scandalous troubles, burdened with indictments, left him and his district vulnerable to a take over by the Democrats, Delay resigned his seat as the Representative for the 22nd District of Texas. His party still lost that seat in 2006.
After 12 years of rule by the Republicans, the pendulum swung left again in 2006, but only so far, leaving the seat of government in the throes of gridlock as the Republicans, buttressed by the fact that the Democrats’ majority in the Senate was so paper thin — only on paper actually — they could effectively block any real change the Democrats had in mind, like ending Bush’s war in Iraq.
Hurricane Katrina, in 2005, proved once and for all the incompetence of the Bush Administration, as if the mismanagement of Bush’s war of convenience wasn’t enough, as well as the administration’s petty yet disastrous policy of cronyism and punishment for those that opposed the Bush regime. It was no “mistake” that New Orleans, and Louisiana in general, suffered — and still suffers — like no other location hit by natural disasters. The Democrats controlled the state’s government and that was the nail in the coffin for The Big Easy.
Americans, for the most part, didn’t like that and it was a nail in the coffin for the Republican Party in Washington. Now, in 2008, Bush’s war continues to drag on and come December 31, unless an agreement is reached with the Maliki government of Iraq, Bush will be forced to withdraw all troops from Iraq immediately or face being labeled an occupation force, or worse yet: an imperialist.That little bit of news hasn’t even registered with the American voters yet. It’s barely getting any coverage, considering the melt down of the U.S. — and now the world — economy. We’ve paid a terrible price for having George W. Bush as president and it looks like we will be paying that bill for decades to come. And how will the Bush Administration, and the Republican Party, look if an agreement isn’t reached with the Iraqi government before the current joint security agreement expires at the end of the year?
What if an agreement isn’t met before the election and it becomes more of a fascination with the mainstream media? And, if as predicted, the Iraqi and U.S. government agree to a new plan the closely, if not completely, resembles the plan put forth by Barack Obama when the Illinois senator first threw his hat into the ring?
America is poised, once again, to reject the policies of the Grand Old Party. It isn’t on Governor Sarah Palin’s head, although she isn’t doing the ticket any favors anymore. Nope, this belongs to the party of less regulation and more intrusion, the party that brought us the Patriot Act, resumed torture of detainees and a national debt so massive, it makes Ronald Reagan’s debt seem … quaint.
Sarah Palin will catch the blame for the McCain ticket losing. Ever since the “Straight Talk Express” veered off in a drunken swerve, the Arizona senator has been picking up the mantle of politics as usual, meaning find a scapegoat to blame and hoist them up on a petard of his design. And that appears to be turning off the voters. Not even the usually reliable conservative columnists are behind McCain.John McCain was on a roll, he put all his chips on the boxcars and it looks like he’s rolling craps. Someone should have told him the house wins that bet 99% of the time.
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