Saturday, May 10, 2008
The Republicans Join the Suicide Pact
I have written previously that the Democrats have taken an election that should have been theirs in a walk and managed to screw it up enough to make the contest competitive in the general election. Now, not to be outdone, the Republicans are attempting to destroy themselves, as well. The truth is that no staunch conservative had a chance to win the Presidency in the current political environment given the war, the current economy, the Republican incumbent retirements, and the fact that a two-term President is leaving office. John McCain came along at the only time he could have been nominated as a Republican in recent history. Although he will be painted as “George W. Bush II” by the Democrats, anyone familiar with politics knows better. That being said, some contemptuous conservatives would rather leave the country to ultra-liberals than have a candidate that is not the “perfect” conservative. When I hear people like Ms. Coulter openly rail against John McCain, I cannot help but think of the ages and health of Justices John Paul Stevens and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The conservatives whining about McCain cannot possibly be thinking if they do not consider twenty more years of judicial activism a problem. In the current climate, the Democrats will likely pick up seats in the Senate. Therefore, a Democratic President will be able to nominate and confirm any flaming liberal activist judge and the Republicans will just have to grin and bear it. If McCain is elected and nominates a conservative justice, the Democrats can not possibly stall a Supreme Court nomination for an entire four years, like they are doing to the Appeals Court justices now. The Democrats have been holding up hearings on judicial nominations “running out the clock” until the next election. The nomination of the next two or three Supreme Court justices and having hearings on the Appeals Court justices may be the single most important legacy of the next President. It is mind-boggling to think who Barack Obama might nominate, not only for the Supreme Court but also to the Appeals Court positions currently held in limbo. That alone has the potential to change the country more over the next two decades than any elected official. Republicans better wake up to reality before the entire country is San Francisco.
Recap of Recent Political Events
Where do we stand? Barack Obama does not have enough pledged delegates combined with super delegates to go over the top to the nomination. Hillary Clinton isn’t about to go away. John McCain is consolidating. It is quite a mess for the Democrats. Let’s look at some of the individual issues.
Florida and Michigan: First, let’s look at the electoral map. The way that the country is divided by historically Republican and Democrat states means that to win the Presidency, the candidates have to win two out of three of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida, assuming they win all the normal red and blue states. That the Democrats have managed to upset the people in Florida and Michigan is pretty poor strategy. John McCain, because of his record of support for Israel and other issues, will run strongly in Florida. The last thing the Democrats need to do is irritate the voters there. Florida has elected Republican governors and has a Republican Senator. Except for the famous “hanging chad” areas of West Palm Beach, Broward, and Dade Counties, the state is primarily conservative. The Democrats are trying to blame the Republicans for the dilemma but the original piece of legislation introduced to change the date of the primary was introduced by a Democrat. That makes the “Republicans are to blame” argument hard to sell. Michigan will likely go Democratic unless they feel disrespected by the national party. There are currently no plans by the Democrats to revote. Therefore, any seating at the convention will be a non-representative appeasement, thus telling the voters that we can vote in your stead. It is bad politics all around. Howard Dean is looking remarkably ineffective as Democratic Party leader.
Hillary Clinton: The Clintons (you have to bunch them together) never cease to amaze. One the one hand, you have to give them credit for relentlessness going back throughout their entire public life. On the other hand, organized crime is relentless. The Clintons have historically complained about the “politics of personal destruction” but it has paradoxically always been their favorite weapon against their opponents. In the last day, she has again begun to plant more racial wedges by stating to USA today that, to paraphrase “the white voters are moving away from Obama and that makes me the stronger general election candidate”. There is a theory by Dick Morris that she is weakening Obama so that she can run in 2012. It looks more like she is using the scorched Earth strategy and will never bow out. It does lend credence to Morris’ argument that if she does manage to wrest the nomination from Obama on some sort of technicality, she is likely to lose in November anyway because several traditional Democratic constituencies would never support her. Therefore, wresting it away doesn’t seem to make sense.
Barack Obama: He is in an interesting position. He claims to be the candidate that will “cross party lines and bring people together” although he has a record diametrically opposed to doing that. He is the single most liberal Senator in the Senate and routinely refuses to join bipartisan coalitions. He also wants to change “politics as usual” but has himself and his representatives constantly lying about McCain’s statement about the security force in Iraq despite knowing better. He is going to have a hard time running as a moderate when nothing in his record remotely suggests he would ever take a moderate position. Obama should get a bump in the polls after he clinches the nomination and after the Democratic convention. Obama always seems to poll higher than he actually does in the voting. It is an interesting phenomenon.
John McCain: McCain has always been an independent thinker. It some cases (Iraq, federal judges) he is very conservative. On others (immigration, environment), he is moderate. The conservatives are complaining that he is not going ultra-conservative to please “the base of the party”. To win the general election, that would be a huge mistake. Why anyone expects him to change from the last twenty-five years is silly. Additionally, we won the primaries running as himself. Why would he make a disingenuous change at this point after watching how “flip-flopping” hurt John Kerry, Mitt Romney, and Hillary Clinton?
Issues: The economy – Obama wants to raise the capital gains tax despite the fact that every time the capital gains tax has been lowered, government revenue increases because the economy expands. McCain wants to lower the tax to keep industry in the United States. Obama keeps speaking of how opportunity exists in the United States but if you do manage to get rich, the government will take your money away in taxes on the rich.
Health Care – Obama wants universal care through a government program which will raise taxes and will not affect prices. McCain wants to have individuals buy their own policies so there will be competition and prices will lower. Additionally, this allows portability of policies between jobs.
Iraq – Obama wants to remove troops from Iraq regardless of the conditions there; McCain wants to continue the fight until we win.
Judges – Obama conforms to the Democratic position that since they cannot get the liberal agenda through elected legislatures, they will appoint activist judges who will create law through judicial fiat. McCain want to appoint judges who will interpret law rather than create it. Of course, that is what the United States Constitution says should happen.
One of the Democratic “strategists” Robert Zimmerman stated on CNN last night that the race would be between a “conservative Republican” and a “main-stream Democrat”. There is a load of manure if you ever heard it. McCain is a well-known moderate whom the conservatives are complaining about and Obama is the single most liberal Senator in the United States Congress. It is disgusting to hear both the right wing and left wing commentators spit out their vitriol. I almost e-mailed Bill O’Reilly about that. He calls his show the “no spin zone” but after every interview, he always has two “strategists” from either side who come on the show to do nothing other than “spin” the interview answers shamelessly.
Florida and Michigan: First, let’s look at the electoral map. The way that the country is divided by historically Republican and Democrat states means that to win the Presidency, the candidates have to win two out of three of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida, assuming they win all the normal red and blue states. That the Democrats have managed to upset the people in Florida and Michigan is pretty poor strategy. John McCain, because of his record of support for Israel and other issues, will run strongly in Florida. The last thing the Democrats need to do is irritate the voters there. Florida has elected Republican governors and has a Republican Senator. Except for the famous “hanging chad” areas of West Palm Beach, Broward, and Dade Counties, the state is primarily conservative. The Democrats are trying to blame the Republicans for the dilemma but the original piece of legislation introduced to change the date of the primary was introduced by a Democrat. That makes the “Republicans are to blame” argument hard to sell. Michigan will likely go Democratic unless they feel disrespected by the national party. There are currently no plans by the Democrats to revote. Therefore, any seating at the convention will be a non-representative appeasement, thus telling the voters that we can vote in your stead. It is bad politics all around. Howard Dean is looking remarkably ineffective as Democratic Party leader.
Hillary Clinton: The Clintons (you have to bunch them together) never cease to amaze. One the one hand, you have to give them credit for relentlessness going back throughout their entire public life. On the other hand, organized crime is relentless. The Clintons have historically complained about the “politics of personal destruction” but it has paradoxically always been their favorite weapon against their opponents. In the last day, she has again begun to plant more racial wedges by stating to USA today that, to paraphrase “the white voters are moving away from Obama and that makes me the stronger general election candidate”. There is a theory by Dick Morris that she is weakening Obama so that she can run in 2012. It looks more like she is using the scorched Earth strategy and will never bow out. It does lend credence to Morris’ argument that if she does manage to wrest the nomination from Obama on some sort of technicality, she is likely to lose in November anyway because several traditional Democratic constituencies would never support her. Therefore, wresting it away doesn’t seem to make sense.
Barack Obama: He is in an interesting position. He claims to be the candidate that will “cross party lines and bring people together” although he has a record diametrically opposed to doing that. He is the single most liberal Senator in the Senate and routinely refuses to join bipartisan coalitions. He also wants to change “politics as usual” but has himself and his representatives constantly lying about McCain’s statement about the security force in Iraq despite knowing better. He is going to have a hard time running as a moderate when nothing in his record remotely suggests he would ever take a moderate position. Obama should get a bump in the polls after he clinches the nomination and after the Democratic convention. Obama always seems to poll higher than he actually does in the voting. It is an interesting phenomenon.
John McCain: McCain has always been an independent thinker. It some cases (Iraq, federal judges) he is very conservative. On others (immigration, environment), he is moderate. The conservatives are complaining that he is not going ultra-conservative to please “the base of the party”. To win the general election, that would be a huge mistake. Why anyone expects him to change from the last twenty-five years is silly. Additionally, we won the primaries running as himself. Why would he make a disingenuous change at this point after watching how “flip-flopping” hurt John Kerry, Mitt Romney, and Hillary Clinton?
Issues: The economy – Obama wants to raise the capital gains tax despite the fact that every time the capital gains tax has been lowered, government revenue increases because the economy expands. McCain wants to lower the tax to keep industry in the United States. Obama keeps speaking of how opportunity exists in the United States but if you do manage to get rich, the government will take your money away in taxes on the rich.
Health Care – Obama wants universal care through a government program which will raise taxes and will not affect prices. McCain wants to have individuals buy their own policies so there will be competition and prices will lower. Additionally, this allows portability of policies between jobs.
Iraq – Obama wants to remove troops from Iraq regardless of the conditions there; McCain wants to continue the fight until we win.
Judges – Obama conforms to the Democratic position that since they cannot get the liberal agenda through elected legislatures, they will appoint activist judges who will create law through judicial fiat. McCain want to appoint judges who will interpret law rather than create it. Of course, that is what the United States Constitution says should happen.
One of the Democratic “strategists” Robert Zimmerman stated on CNN last night that the race would be between a “conservative Republican” and a “main-stream Democrat”. There is a load of manure if you ever heard it. McCain is a well-known moderate whom the conservatives are complaining about and Obama is the single most liberal Senator in the United States Congress. It is disgusting to hear both the right wing and left wing commentators spit out their vitriol. I almost e-mailed Bill O’Reilly about that. He calls his show the “no spin zone” but after every interview, he always has two “strategists” from either side who come on the show to do nothing other than “spin” the interview answers shamelessly.
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