Palin

The stories are now beginning to come out. They are not good. They make Palin look like a total loser. But it is important to remember that the blame for being so close to becoming president of the United States is not Palin's fault. And the real problem is not by any means the amazing amount of money she spent on clothes - we need to forget that and focus on the important part.

To a substantial degree the fault is John McCain's. He screwed up. Bad. This means he was even LESS qualified to become president than even I thought he was. We can only infer from this that had he been elected, Palin would have been only one of many incompetents placed in positions of power to play games with, to irritate and try to outsmart each other. At least most of those others - cabinet members and department heads would have been subject to approval by congress.

That brings us to that problem referred to earlier: the REAL problem. And that is the constitution itself. It has never known how to handle the vice-president. The founding fathers awarded it to the person who came in second in the election. If that had endured, today Obama would be the president and McCain would be the vice-president. That would not work. Apparently George Washington - first president - and John Adams - first vice-president - did not get along much better than Obama and McCain would. That was taken care of by the 12th Amendment to the Constitution. But the result of it all now has become that the person chosen by his or her party to represent them as their choice for president can simply pluck out of the bucket anyone who strikes their fancy. Hence Palin who did not know the VP did not "run" the Senate, or that Africa was a continent, or . . . well, let's skip the rest!

So, what to do? Well, the whole process is badly screwed up. Neither the president or vice-president of the United States is required to pass any type of mental or physical examination. You can't drive a bus or fly an airplane or practice medicine or be in the military without passing a series of qualifying standardized examinations. So if you should fail any or ALL of those, you could still become president. There is not any kind of a review board who can examine the legal history of the individuals selected by their party to represent them for the most public of all positions.

There is more. A LOT more. But this is a blogpost not a completed paper. Yet it remains for a fact, that no military officer can have any kind of access to nuclear weapons without EXTENSIVE medical, mental, background checks, while the person who might tell them to "bomb, bomb, bomb" some country could just fly in off of a wall if he or she could temporarilly lie to or somehow fool enough people. Plain's problems only serve to shine a bright light on this problem.

The Republican Wasteland

The Republican Party is in shambles. It’s last president, George Bush was soundly repudiated. Now he’s going out with two wars raging and the economy in shambles. Guantanamo is still stinking, the specter of special renditions remains, and the nation is virtually an outcast among the international community. The cowboy rides away into the sunset. Alone.

Its last standard bearer, John McCain is clearly beyond the age limits to be considered again. His final tally in his only presidential campaign was less than half that of his opponent. His only lasting legacy to his party will be that he claimed to be a “maverick” and had “fought his party leaders”.

His vice-residential choice, Sarah Palin of Alaska, certainly does not have a strong base even in her own small and isolated state. Her only claim to Republican Party fame is that she appeals the the far right Christian extreme elements. She can’t name any magazines, remember the three countries in North America, or find Africa.

Rudy Giuliani is forever pinned to a 9-11 mentality, Mitt Romney cannot escape the Mormon Church label - probably worse for him because of the Republican Party being in bed with the extreme far right Christian base. They won’t do Morman.

Gingrich is considered to be a clown, even by republican standards, Tom Ridge is still stuck on Duct Tape, Tommy Thompson never got the joke. Mitch McConnel and Boehner are just plain mean. Stevens is gone whether he leaves or not.

So there are still possibilities like Crist or Jindal and others too. but there’s also the specter of Jeb! Bush to run sometime soon (it’s now his turn?). The republicans have lost a big opportunity by supporting Bush. If you thought New Orleans was ravaged, just look around - look all around. He has let the entire nation collapse just like its roads and bridges. Right now the Republicans biggest hope appears to be that the democrats will do the same thing they did.

But they have chased out the moderate and progressive members of their party and replaced them with the extreme Christian right, and those Christians are not really concerned with the traditional interests of the Republican Party. Like Palin, they have seen that God has partly opened a door for them and they are going to “punch through it!”, as she said in a recent interview.

© John Womack, 2008, All rights reserved

YES!

The Great Divide

Once again America stands at the Great Divide. A doorway or threshold of sorts which divides the future from the past.

We were here during the election of Gore vrs Bush. Then the future was not seen so clearly and the past was more comfortable than it seems today.

We came here again after 9-11. The door to the greatest opportunity the world had ever had for peace was flung wide open and the rest of the world beckoned to us to come in. The Bush Administration slammed the door in their faces and even threatened them if they would not turn back with us.

Now again today, election day, November 4, 2008, America goes back to that great doorway. The choice is more clear than it was with Gore or even after 9-11. McCain wants to “Fight! Fight! Fight!”, and Palin looks forward to the return of the days of the frontier. Biden, regardless of what one might think of him, is a negotiator, a reconciler, a communicator. Obama, as Powell described him, is clearly a transformational person.

To me the choice seems clear. A vote for McCain is to fly back into the flame. A vote for Obama is a passport to a new world.