I'd like to think the McCain campaign of lies and distractions is in freefall, and that Steve Schmidt and Rick Davis will buried under such a load of crap by the time they are done with this sorry affair they will never show their ugly mugs in public again.
But we know that's not how these things work.
In fact, they'll probably collect their millions, win or lose, and pat themselves on the back for all the times they RULED the news cycle and for how pathetic they made that Colored Boy look every time they pulled another rude or ridiculous stunt.
It's gonna be a gott-dambed miracle if Obama wins the election in November. What with spending the summer alienating constitutency after constituency (just a sampling: due to the FISA fuck over, the Gen. Clark fuck over, the NAFTA fuck over, the Biden choice fuck over, etc, etc) and McCain campaign's Complete Chaos Strategery, sometime just finding Obama in the malestrom has been a trial. In the meantime, lots of really frustrated people became entranced with all the shapes and the colors and the bright shiny objects thrown out by the McCain/Palin operatives, and Obama's polls sagged substantially.
People want him to do well. Hell, I want him to do well. But when you're up against master bullshitters....
A hurricane -- called Ike -- is ravaging the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana, putting the lives of hundreds of thousands of people who did not evacuate in jeopardy, destroying or damaging billions of dollars worth of property, disrupting supplies of gasoline and oil, and otherwise causing chaos for millions of Americans.
In some ways, the Hurricane is emblematic of Chaos primeval. Shakespeare used the metaphor extensively in his late period play "The Tempest." In many respects the metaphor was intended to illuminate political considerations of his time, politics becoming more and more chaotic, eventually leading to the collapse of the British monarchy and civil war.
And we see Chaos as the guiding active principle of the McCain campaign for the Presidency. More and more the Old Man was becoming less and less stable as his campaign stumbled and faltered, kind of like the Old Man's mind, through numerous rough patches. Steve Schmidt and Rick Davis were put in charge of reversing the trends -- which showed decisive defeat looming -- and they commenced their Herculean task by offering a blizzard of lies and character assassination of the Opponent, Barack Obama, a blizzard which has only intensified as the campaign wears on. The selection of Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska to be McCain's running "soulmate" as the campaign gears up for its climax caused untold uproar throughout the political firmament, uproar that hasn't ceased for a moment since the selection.
The Chaos that is the McCain campaign has almost totally eclipsed the Calm that is the Obama campaign.
And yet, once the Chaos of the storm passes, the Calm will remain. Peace will be restored. "We are such stuff as dreams are made of."
As the Chaos of the McCain campaign has intensified, the Obama campaign has come under increasing criticism from inside the Democratic firmament for its inability or unwillingness to "fight back." Obama has seen his poll numbers suffer substantially during the onslaught of Hurricane McCain, and Democrats are fearful that he is throwing away the election by not responding at all or not responding forcefully enough to the insults and lies thrown at him daily and almost hourly by the other side.
Given recent election history, it's a rational fear. Democrats have not responded sufficiently or appropriately to Republican smears, and they have lost the White House again and again in part because of it.
To see Obama now being as laid back and calm as he is while the damage is done almost unopposed by his campaign is terrifying to Democrats. We've seen this play before. And Democrats always lose.
Finally hearing the plaints of the masses, Obama promised yesterday to metaphorically release the hounds on the out of control and chaotic McCain campaign, to become "tougher" in the face of the onslaught. But whatever he did, he did not recapture the media attention. There was, after all, a Category 2 Hurricane to cover on the Gulf Coast, and did you know that gasoline prices may top $5.00 a gallon before the full extent of the storm's damage is understood?
Somehow this is good for McCain and his "soulmate," Herself of the Melting North.
And yet the Calm is what remains after the Storm has passed.
Those who complain about Obama's seemingly excessive lassitude in the face of Hurricane McCain have a point. Yet it's always seemed to me that he's approaching his quest for the White House -- if indeed he actually wants to be president -- with an almost Zen-like calm. He seems almost entirely unflappable. Often, it seems to me he doesn't really want to be president, that he has let loose of all "desire" for the office he ostensibly seeks. He simply allows himself to become the president if it should happen.
McCain, on the other hand, seems to be a furious -- yet mindless -- demand machine, swirling and twirling and making as much of a spectacle of himself as he possibly can. Surely his campaign will burn itself out before the election. Perhaps so. Perhaps not. Surely no one is fooled by his lies and charades. Perhaps so, perhaps not.
There are times I honestly think none of the candidates will ascend to the Throne, that in fact the election, if held at all, will simply be seen as a failed "exercise" and Darth Cheney will emerge from one of his spider holes or bunkers to announce that "Everything is under control, I am in charge of the Government, go on about your business, that is all."
Like Putin, he will continue to exercise his control of the Government whether as an "Interim" Leader, or a Force Behind the Throne, or something else, no matter what happens in November.
The basics are simple: Georgian troops and artillery attacked the South Ossetian capital, killing many and routing most of the civilian population. Russian troops responded, driving the Georgian forces back. The Georgian government in the person of its president, hollered to the heavens that Georgia was under attack. The United States government, and the Republican candidate for president of the United States, condemned Russia and urged a ceasefire and withdrawal. Eventually there was a ceasefire, but no withdrawal yet as Russian forces continue their occupation of key locations inside Georgia, and there is nothing the Georgians -- or the United States -- can do about it.
If anything, the United States has been humiliated by this little war, in a way that will have lasting repercussions.
Our Media has been incapable of reporting what is going on or the context of what is going on, because they are completely bound to a Narrative, a Narrative that appears to have been produced out of whole cloth in the right wing think tanks and was rolled out complete by all the Heritage Foundation talking heads sent out to do PR for Little Georgia.
Except this neo-con Narrative about Little Innocent Georgia being trounced by the Big Bad Bear Russia is viral and global. It is the Narrative of practically all "news" -- at least in English -- where ever it comes from.
Consequently, not only do Americans have little or no useful knowledge about what has been and is going on, world citizens have almost as little. Russia is the Bear, the resurgent Soviet Union, or the reanimated Russian Empire. Putin is the New Hitler. It is 1938 all over again. "Remember the Sudetenland!"
Well...
One might wonder why the constant neo-con focus on the New Hitler, 1938, Chamberlain, appeasement, and the Sudetenland. Why does this continue to move them so? It's got to the point where everything that happens is seen thought that prism, even though fewer and fewer alive today remember the events of 1938, and it was the conservatives of 1938 who were so anxious to "appease" Hitler. Some were actually in league with the Nazis. Conservatives.
Those who were most upset by this constant appeasement were the Communists. Ah. There we will find the neo-con motor. The neo-cons ARE the "subversives" we were warned about in the '50's.
Meanwhile, the Georgian Mistake, as it will come to be known, has destroyed Georgia as a functioning national independent entity, has enhanced the power of Russia, has put Putin into the first rank of international leaders, has humiliated George W. Bush and Condi Rice, has made mock of the very idea of borders, has helped revive imperial pretensions and Great Powers shenanigans -- quite apart from those of the United States -- and has pretty much check-mated any move in any direction the United States might choose to make, now or in the near future.
Cheney and his puppet are confined to quarters for the duration.
(Note: Tomorrow is my father's 107th birthday. And his father was born in 1869, and his father was born in 1833. Another generation back takes us to 1799, and the one before that takes us to the Revolution and what led up to it. I have ancestors who were more than a little involved in the doings of the day that led to the Revolution and who followed through to the establishment of the Constitutional republic we now find so nearly extinguished. I greet today's Independence Day with a heavy heart...)
Several things re: Obama and such
We're well into the full transition from Republic to Empire. The presidency has become a competitive monarchy (you could say "elective" but that would be something of a stretch, as elections really aren't what they appear to be) that the Bush crew has transformed into an autocracy. Neither of the major party candidates has any particular interest in changing those conditions. No, they would much rather use and expand those conditions to make further changes to consolidate the changes that have already been made.
There is no going back with either Barack or McCain; both see a future of Imperial Greatness. Going along with it is a fundamental of national political success. You cannot question it and become president. It's that simple.
Until recently, I thought Obama was doing what he thought he had to do to win the throne. Now I'm not so sure. His endless tacking to the right is not advisable -- and certainly not necessary -- if he truly wants to win in November. He's been moving closer and closer to McCain's positions, almost as if he is trying to take over those positions, and run as the Republican candidate. To say this is dissonant is to be charitable.
No, this is something else again. In the primaries, he ran to the right of Clinton on a number of issues, and he barely won enough delegates (pledged and super) to secure the nomination. Now he's moving way to the right, into nearly Republican territory, and he's apparently quite consciously and deliberately alienating the base that got him to where he is today. He apparently believes he does not need the support of his activist base any more.
And maybe he doesn't -- if he doesn't intend to win.
And that's what I have a deep suspicion is going on: he doesn't intend to win. Perhaps he never did, or perhaps something "changed" when he secured enough delegates to get the nomination. But his actions and behavior since then have been distinctly peculiar and widely and rightly (in my view) questioned and sometimes condemned. The spin and the excuses coming out of the Obama camp have been largely transparent.
We've all known candidates who stayed true to their principles in hard-fought campaigns and lost, or as the case may be, won. They made clear what they stood for and what they intended to do once they were in office. If they lost, they lost well; if they won, they did -- insofar as they could -- what they said they would. Candidates like this are found in all parties, and while we may not agree with them in every case, they tend to get our respect, for they at least are honest, even if they may be wrong. It is simply not true that all politicians are craven deceivers.
Well. We've got a situation with Obama where he seemed to somewhat less craven and deceptive that Clinton, and he certainly spoke in soaring and heartfelt terms about hope and possibility. He was able to put together one of the most successful internet and ground campaigns in the history of Democratic politics, and he demonstrated that the Clinton "machine" was getting creaky and running out of gas.
And now we see a candidate who has all but turned his back on the very elements that got him the presumptive nomination. Quite a transformation.
And now we see, too, the glimmerings of a movement to take the nomination from him for his acts of betrayal. Surely he understands it could happen. The nomination is not decided until the convention. Is it what he wants to happen? Some of his actions really make me wonder.
More than anything, though, it should be obvious by now that whoever sits on the Throne intends to rule, not simply reign, and the quaint notions of a self governing constitutional republic set forth by the Founders are out of step with contemporary reality.
We're not at the edge of a cliff; we went over it a long time ago, and we are nearly at the bottom, almost completely reverted to pre-Revolutionary notions of governance by fiat and decree, with periodic "advice" from representatives of the People, advice to be followed or ignored as the spirit moves the King.
Hillary! sort of takes Indiana, Barack North Carolina and the brickbats continue to be thrown and the psy-ops continue.
Of course most of the pressure is on Hillary!, as it has been since January, to get out and go away. This has been a primary tactic of Obamaniacs from very early in the campaign, demanding that she quit the race, insisting that Obama Is The Nominee, that she cannot win, and essentially ordering her to leave. Be gone. Am-scray.
It's relentless psy-ops, a one-note refrain played over and over and over again, without let up, only briefly paused when the Wright Thing took over the media narrative.
Obama Is The Nominee.
Hillary Cannot Win.
Hillary must concede.
Now!
For its part, the Hillary campaign has acted oblivious, confused, and/or "arrogant" in the face of this relentless drumbeat. Their only push-back has been to soldier on and fumble many opportunities to "pip-squeek-i-fy" their opponent. This endless fumbling has led to a trajectory of decline, such that, barring miracles, Hillary! is burnt toast.
And yet she soldiers on.
But I wonder.
When Obama gets his nomination, will the same psy-ops be used against Princess McCain?
Or will the crotchety old geezer turn the tables and succeed in putting the young upstart in his "place?"
I know a lot of folks are disbelieving the polls showing McCain even with or ahead of either Hillary or Obama, but I'll take a step over the edge and suggest that if anything, they understate McCain's election standing right now. If the election were held today, I suspect he would win handily, though for the sake of the children, let alone humanity in general, he absolutely should not.
And if things keep going the way they are going, he's going to win in November, too.
One of the reasons that he is doing as well as he is, despite his numerous handicaps, is the media love affair with their Warrior Princess. And I use that term advisedly. He is as fragile as a glass figurine, as haughty as a débutante, he is explosive if he isn't loved up all the time, and he is as exotic as a hot house flower in his constant "maverickism."
The media treats him as the Incumbent Princess, no less, one who is merely standing for "election" out of some silly sense of public duty, but who already holds the title. Neither Hillary nor Obama can compete on the Princess's territory. Sorry.
Another reason that McCain's pathway to the Palace seems to be getting smoother rather than rougher is that little matter of Leadership.
Now, of course McCain was a naval officer, a pilot (don't get me started) and his father and grandfather were admirals, so a certain, how shall we say, official "bearing" comes naturally to him. (Though if you saw him on The View coyly seated in the middle of those shrieking harpies, and imagined him in a Scarlett O'Hara gown saying "Oh, fiddle-dee-dee!" you'd have a somewhat different idea of his "bearing." But I digress.)
As an officer it is natural for him to take the lead in any number of endeavors, which he has done, and at least in some cases has done so admirably. In the Senate he is well-known and highly regarded for his leadership role. He has brought together coalitions, got them to sign on to measures and processes they might not have if he didn't ask them, he's gotten reforms passed, he's been all over the place, generally leading some faction or other or pressing some idea of what is "best."
He's had this reputation for years and years. People know him, and know him well, as a Leader. Whether his reputation is as deserved as he might like to think is for another discussion. We are talking about perception here.
Neither Barack nor Hillary can match his leadership in the Senate or anywhere else. Both have the potential to be leaders, perhaps outstanding leaders, but so far, neither has demonstrated it in the Senate where they have a platform, and where they could -- if they wanted to -- take a leadership role. Yes, it is actually possible for a Senator who is not in the Leadership to assume a leadership role on issues they believe in. McCain has done it many times. Barack and Hillary haven't.
That was part of John Kerry's problem with the voters. He'd been in the Senate forever, but what had he done? What issues had he led on? What programs, what legislation, what reforms had he set in motion and shepherded through the process of enactment?
Uhhh...
And McCain is perhaps the only Republican candidate who can be guaranteed to peel off a significant number of Democrats in the general election -- at least as things stand now. He's got a whole deck of cards to appeal to disaffected Democrats.
And the way the two Democratic candidates have been playing the primaries, essentially doing their best to alienate the other's constituents and partisans, driving them out of the electorate altogether or over to McCain, is breathtaking in its epic failure mode. This can't be happening. But it is.
Eek.
So. McCain starts off with a remarkable set of advantages, which the Democrats in their eagerness to demonize the other and the other's supporters merely reinforce.
And because McCain has been recognized by the public as a leader in the Senate for years, his "suitability" for the Presidency is already secure in most people's minds. They don't even question it, the way they might with regard to Obama or Clinton.
But Bob Dole had all those advantages, too. And he never made it to the White House, so there is hope yet.
I just wish the two Democratic candidates were better leaders on the issues, or had led at all, in the Senate.
Obama took Vermont. At least there's that. That's 12 In A Row! And Hillary takes the Big States. Well, most of them. And the delagate hunt continues.
Those who are pushing the notion that one or the other of them should drop out or declare Victory are missing the point. Both of them are remarkably to the right of any form of Liberalism or Progressivism I'm aware of. Neither is likely to significantly change Bushevik policies, though either of them would mitigate some of the worst Bushevik abuses. Neither would restore the Constitution. The idea of doing so at this point is radically laughable and Left WingNutty. It's just not going to happen.
So I'm not really into either Hillary or Obama. I will grant that they represent an improvement over the Busheviks, but apart from that, I don't see much to recommend either one.
And I see nothing at all to recommend that crazy old coot, McCain.
A lot of Americans are looking at the choice before them and saying "Enh."
Got other things to do. If this is The Most Important Election In History, why do we have such.... mediocre choices?
