WriteAway

I’m sick of this campaign! I still believe that there might be something else important going on in the world.

John McCain is the presumptive Republican nominee, possibly because he’s the only one with the tenacity to hang on. Like Hill-Billary, he’s determined to fight to the death or for the next 100 years, whichever comes first. He supports the war and will keep it going until the U.S. “wins” the religious/tribal war between the Sunnis and Shiites.

We can’t just pull out, since we started it with our preemptive strike, invasion, and occupation of Iraq. We need to mop up and make sure that the country we devastated is returned to its condition before the U.S. invaded and occupied their sovereign nation. The Iraqi people deserve a few luxuries too: water, food, heat, shelter… My mother taught me to always clean up after myself when I made a mess.

One thing that upset me today is the Florida-Michigan debate. It’s my understanding that the candidates all agreed that if any state violated the DNC’s rules (not suggestions) for the primaries and held them early, their votes would not be counted and their delegates would not be seated at the Democrat’s convention. Hill-Billary agreed to that when, before the first primary, she was already being fitted for her Presidential Crown and practicing sitting down gracefully on the Presidential Throne. But that spoiler Obama got in the way of Hill-Billary getting 100% of the vote in 100% of the states and suddenly, she wants to break the rules and allow the Florida and Michigan delegates to be seated and the citizen’s primary votes to count.

If the tables were turned and Obama had suffered the same fate (his name had been the only one on the ballot and he had received 100% of the vote), it would give Hillary a rare opportunity to rant about how a rule is a rule and, while some rules may be made to be broken, when your own party lays down rules for a presidential primary, it would be the most blatant kind of cheating to attempt to ignore or overturn them in your own interest.

It seems to be a stupid rule, although I haven’t the foggiest notion of why it’s so important to dictate when a state is allowed to hold primaries. It could be politics or it could be a well-choreographed theatrical production. I’ll look it up. Correct me if I’m wrong, but this election cycle is the longest and most expensive certainly in my long lifetime and, I believe, in U.S. history And despite all the excitement and controversy, it’s almost too boring to care about any more.

Something that troubles me even more is that a few million people with the given right to participate in what we call democracy have been completely disenfranchised because their state’s party leaders decided to break the rules and leave the voters to pay the price. Freedom to break rules in politics is the only unbreakable rule these days. Our current ruler has been breaking rules with impunity, as have too many of our senators, representatives, judges and—it seems—most politicians. We won’t even talk the PACs, lobbyists, financial institutions, energy companies, etc. who excel in this area.

They lie to us, they lie to their fellow representatives of “the people.” Far too often, they appear to have no spines, no morals, and no ethics. We need to edit the Declaration of Independence to read “Government of the politicians, by the politicians, and for the politicians.” ‘The people’ seem to no longer matter at all, an observation the guy with the gun… uh, Vice President Cheney made abundantly clear recently when his response to a question about public opinion was “So?”

We’re all pretty much disenfranchised, whether or not we get to vote. The super delegates will decide the Democratic nominee, and there are no rules about sticking to the results of the primaries or the popular vote. They can throw their votes whichever way they choose.

Back to Hill-Billary. I hope you’ve noticed how hard she is willing to fight to have the party’s rules overturned? How much damage she’s willing to do to her campaign just to win? The pure, blatant hunger for power is showing itself more and more. I first noticed it when the Clintons turned over the Presidential Crown to Dubya. The Bill half of Billary, at least, hated leaving, according to news snippets at the time. They helped themselves to souvenirs to remind them of the glory days. Bill admitted that he’d miss his airplane, his home for eight years, and all the accoutrements of power, not to mention the power itself.

The Hill component immediately changed her residence and became a tried and true New Yorker and New York senator, a not very transparent attempt to put herself into position for a run for the presidency. Her insistence on continuing to fight her own national party only confirms for me that, since Bill was not able to seek a third term, she has to be the one to carry on what they’d evidently like to make a family tradition.

Let’s see: by the time Billary leaves office after eight years and we elect another member of the Bush dynasty for eight years, Chelsea should be old enough to run for president. With two such powerful ex-presidents teaching her all the dirty tricks, I predict she’ll be a sure-fire winner in 2024!

Billary has been secretive and has withheld information throughout the campaign. She had to be pressured/shamed into releasing her tax information. She had to be pressured again into releasing her personal papers and when she finally did, I understand large portions had been hidden with a black marker. There were so many really ugly rumors circulating during the Clinton presidency. If they have nothing to hide, why are they working hard at hiding so much?

Remember how thrilled we all were with Bill and Hillary during the last year or so of his presidency? No? Maybe I’m the only one. Have you noticed how the Clinton camp, including the ex and possibly future glorious co-leader, have “let slip” racial slurs? How about Hillary having misspoken about being under sniper fire when she landed in Bosnia?

I can tell you with absolute certainty that I would not forget the circumstances if I was met by sniper fire when I disembarked from an aircraft. She makes bad decisions then refuses to admit she was wrong. She appears to be almost as secretive as our current ruler, and has stated that she would use some of Dubya’s new rules for the President if it seems appropriate to do so. There is a 100% chance that Hill-Billary, the dynamic dual-presidency co-candidates will not get my vote in November.

McCain has also “misspoken” on more than one occasion. He disturbs me on a number of issues such as keeping the war going until we win a glorious and honorable victory in the Iraq tribal wars; his attitude about not helping the bad, bad homeowners who made irresponsible decisions about home buying while they were still gainfully employed members of the vanishing middle class, and who caused the financial crises we’re facing.

I just hope that he picks a young, healthy, and not too ultra-conservative running mate. We’ve seen how much the job has aged recent presidents. If McCain is elected, he’ll have many stress-inducing decisions to make: which country should we invade and occupy next; how to punish Americans who made stupid decisions to purchase homes, then dropped out and sank into the rapidly increasing lower class, welfare-collecting almost majority; how to convince the anti-immigration fanatics to adopt a more humane outlook toward workers we absolutely need, etc. If he is elected, I’d put the odds of his survival for 8 years in the White House at about 50/50, tops, making his choice for VP critically important. Ninety-nine percent chance that he won’t get my vote in November.

Obama? How do any of us know whether or not he (or either of the others, for that matter) would be a good president? How do we really know whether he’s also lying through his teeth? If he is, he’s smart enough to have covered his behind better than either of the others. We simply can’t know in advance. But I’ll give him this: he has managed to keep his cool under stress. He is eloquent, thoughtful, appealing, and very intelligent. It may be a temporary condition, since he hasn’t yet been absolutely corrupted by absolute power.

He’s gotten his licks in, but without stamping his foot and fighting to break the rules (it’s not a misogynistic remark; men do it too). Every day that passes makes me more certain that I’d vote for him. And every day’s news makes me more certain that if my choice is between Clinton and McCain, I probably won’t bother to vote at all. There isn’t much difference between them, or between them and Bush, and neither offers much hope of positive change in the future. Just more of the same old, same old.

A note to Hillary: every day that you maintain your current attitude, fight to break rules you agreed to, and say stupid things like you’d use the current president’s non-constitutional “expanded” powers, the more of us over-50 females will run screaming. The last thing this country needs now is another “above the law” ruler. Bush stole the election in 2000 and has never recovered from that travesty. Do you really want to follow in his footsteps?

Today’s Photo
After a light overnight snowfall, the morning sun was shining brightly and had melted almost all the snow when I went out to get the mail. Trip to mailbox aborted. I forgot about the mail and ran back inside for the camera. The only snow remaining was that in the shadow of the fence railing. The photo has been enhanced in Photoshop. Prints, as with all my photos, are available. Please contact me if you’re interested.
Sunny

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