The next american president
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Believe it or not, a Republican could win again TheStar.com - USElection - Believe it or not, a Republican could win again
February 06, 2008
Thomas Walkom
Lost in the excitement over the race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama is a possibility that once seemed remote but that now does not. In the end, regardless of the hype surrounding their rivalry, neither might win the U.S. presidency. In the end, another Republican – probably John McCain – may well end up replacing George W. Bush.
At one level, this should be obvious. The U.S. primaries, including last night's Super Tuesday extravaganza, are designed to pick Republican and Democratic presidential nominees. The full-bore race for America's top job won't take off until late summer.
However, the sheer drama of the Clinton-Obama contest makes many of us forget that fact. Behind the fascination with the details of last night's primaries – such as how California's 370 Democratic delegates will eventually be apportioned – lies the assumption that one of these two will become president and thereby put paid to the disastrous Bush presidency.
Outsiders look at America and ask how voters could make any other reasonable choice. They see Republican Bush as having presided over a botched war and a stumbling economy. Many (including many Canadians) say America is now the gravest threat to world peace. What sane person could wish for more of that? And for a while it did seem that the Republicans had little hope in 2008. They were repudiated in the mid-term congressional elections. Their presidential contenders, or at least those considered likely to win nomination in a party still dominated by the religious right, seemed fatally flawed.
Conservatism itself seemed in retreat as the ideological factions within the Republican party began sniping at one another.
But then three things happened. First, Bush's so-called troop surge in Iraq has worked, if not permanently, at least enough to remove the war from the front burner of domestic politics.
Second, Republican voters in the early primary contests delivered a rebuke to the purists of their own party by voting in significant numbers for the candidate best positioned to attract Democrats and independents – McCain. He is not yet a shoo-in. But he continued to slowly and steadily amass delegates last night with wins from New York to Oklahoma. (Democrats are beginning, belatedly, to realize that McCain will be the one to beat. Hence the recent spate of blogging attacks on him for his temper, his policy flip-flops and the fact that his grandfather took part in America's late-19th century subjugation of the Philippines.)
Third, the sheer amount of attention paid to Clinton and Obama, as well as their sniping at one another, has reminded Americans why so many mistrust the Democrats. Clinton, in spite of years of edge softening, still comes across as the great schemer. As for Obama, there is a children's crusade element to his campaign that is reminiscent less of John Kennedy than of George McGovern, the Democratic senator who lost to Richard Nixon in 1972.
And finally there are the questions most are too polite to ask. When it comes to race, sex and religion, Americans are a remarkably conservative people. In Canada, Roman Catholics have routinely served as prime ministers since the 19th century. But Americans did not elect their first Roman Catholic president until 1960.
Come November, will U.S. voters be willing to elect either a woman or a black man? The Republican party, by bringing to the fore a candidate that can be presented as reasonable, is giving them an excuse to do neither.
http://www.thestar.com/comment/columnists/article/300934
February 06, 2008
Thomas Walkom
Lost in the excitement over the race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama is a possibility that once seemed remote but that now does not. In the end, regardless of the hype surrounding their rivalry, neither might win the U.S. presidency. In the end, another Republican – probably John McCain – may well end up replacing George W. Bush.
At one level, this should be obvious. The U.S. primaries, including last night's Super Tuesday extravaganza, are designed to pick Republican and Democratic presidential nominees. The full-bore race for America's top job won't take off until late summer.
However, the sheer drama of the Clinton-Obama contest makes many of us forget that fact. Behind the fascination with the details of last night's primaries – such as how California's 370 Democratic delegates will eventually be apportioned – lies the assumption that one of these two will become president and thereby put paid to the disastrous Bush presidency.
Outsiders look at America and ask how voters could make any other reasonable choice. They see Republican Bush as having presided over a botched war and a stumbling economy. Many (including many Canadians) say America is now the gravest threat to world peace. What sane person could wish for more of that? And for a while it did seem that the Republicans had little hope in 2008. They were repudiated in the mid-term congressional elections. Their presidential contenders, or at least those considered likely to win nomination in a party still dominated by the religious right, seemed fatally flawed.
Conservatism itself seemed in retreat as the ideological factions within the Republican party began sniping at one another.
But then three things happened. First, Bush's so-called troop surge in Iraq has worked, if not permanently, at least enough to remove the war from the front burner of domestic politics.
Second, Republican voters in the early primary contests delivered a rebuke to the purists of their own party by voting in significant numbers for the candidate best positioned to attract Democrats and independents – McCain. He is not yet a shoo-in. But he continued to slowly and steadily amass delegates last night with wins from New York to Oklahoma. (Democrats are beginning, belatedly, to realize that McCain will be the one to beat. Hence the recent spate of blogging attacks on him for his temper, his policy flip-flops and the fact that his grandfather took part in America's late-19th century subjugation of the Philippines.)
Third, the sheer amount of attention paid to Clinton and Obama, as well as their sniping at one another, has reminded Americans why so many mistrust the Democrats. Clinton, in spite of years of edge softening, still comes across as the great schemer. As for Obama, there is a children's crusade element to his campaign that is reminiscent less of John Kennedy than of George McGovern, the Democratic senator who lost to Richard Nixon in 1972.
And finally there are the questions most are too polite to ask. When it comes to race, sex and religion, Americans are a remarkably conservative people. In Canada, Roman Catholics have routinely served as prime ministers since the 19th century. But Americans did not elect their first Roman Catholic president until 1960.
Come November, will U.S. voters be willing to elect either a woman or a black man? The Republican party, by bringing to the fore a candidate that can be presented as reasonable, is giving them an excuse to do neither.
http://www.thestar.com/comment/columnists/article/300934
Indeed it is entirely conceivable that McCain will be the next figurehead in American politics. It is informative that in Romney's speech outlining his reasons for withdrawing from the delegate race that he quoted Shimon Peres....
That the McCain government will continue to pursue the "Crusade" that George Bush initiated. As rationale for withdrawing from the race, Romney cited trade agreements as eroding the manufacturing power of the American machine. This decision to enact "trade agreements" was undertaken by Reagan under a conservative mandate.... Romney also claims that Democrats are looking toward "surrender" through their policy ideas regarding the war in Iraq.
America finds itself at "war" because a conservative government lied to the people of America. Americans are listening to the re-hashed rhetoric of a president who broke American law to secure missiles through business with Iran. That Romney has parted with his previous speech regarding the health of the American economy as the issue of this current spasm of "democratic" exercise demonstrates that once again, the profits of the war-machine crowd and those looting the American treasury in the name of lies and misdirection will continue to find support. It's too bad that so many Americans can't live with the knowledge that their government lied them into Viet Nam...lied them into Iraq and lied them into a fiscal position that is the burden American children will carry far into the future.
More of the same from the United States of "Anything in the name of greed"....
Situation normal.
That the McCain government will continue to pursue the "Crusade" that George Bush initiated. As rationale for withdrawing from the race, Romney cited trade agreements as eroding the manufacturing power of the American machine. This decision to enact "trade agreements" was undertaken by Reagan under a conservative mandate.... Romney also claims that Democrats are looking toward "surrender" through their policy ideas regarding the war in Iraq.
America finds itself at "war" because a conservative government lied to the people of America. Americans are listening to the re-hashed rhetoric of a president who broke American law to secure missiles through business with Iran. That Romney has parted with his previous speech regarding the health of the American economy as the issue of this current spasm of "democratic" exercise demonstrates that once again, the profits of the war-machine crowd and those looting the American treasury in the name of lies and misdirection will continue to find support. It's too bad that so many Americans can't live with the knowledge that their government lied them into Viet Nam...lied them into Iraq and lied them into a fiscal position that is the burden American children will carry far into the future.
More of the same from the United States of "Anything in the name of greed"....
Situation normal.
The problem as I see it is that too much weight is being given to abstract names derived from French parliamentary seating arrangements. Republicans (at least the political elite) are anything but conservative. There is a lot to be said for real conservatism but when lunatics blur the intended meaning of that stance with their own agenda and rhetoric a country is sure to go off coarse. This is a common occurrence in a failed state. Like when Hitler called himself a socialist (communists called him a neo-socialist which is very similar to a neo-liberal) or Stalin a communist. Sometimes the labels just don't fit and the public would be better served to find new ways of describing the platform. The chaos is increased by the media, who instead of clearing up the definitions, play up to them. By the FOX news and CNN definitions Republicans are conservatives but by the real definition they are anything but. That being said though, who in reality has the time to sort all this anarchy out? Between jobs, children, commutes and the other daily grinds the general public really only has time to know something is wrong.
I sure hope so.
Although I could live with Barrack Obama.
The thought of Bill Clinton once again in the White House is just to awful to comtemplate..........
holy fu\-cking ****
McCain and Huckabee running that country? Sweet jeebus people, get a clue. Read a friggin book. Yah, I know, you get your info from Fox News. See previous statement.
I got my 20 acres. Don't come crying to me.
Rant off.
McCain and Huckabee running that country? Sweet jeebus people, get a clue. Read a friggin book. Yah, I know, you get your info from Fox News. See previous statement.
I got my 20 acres. Don't come crying to me.
Rant off.
McCain is a psycopathic liar who was never tortured. He will make no difference to direction or policy, none of them would, the system will remain intact and the asset extraction will proceed unempeaded untill chaos is the order of the day. Mr Potatoe Head could be president, Barbie Doll coild be president, one of my old sneakers could be president, the system is immune to personality.
Now then, DB, can you back up your claims about McCain? I doubt it, which would leave absolutely no doubt who the "psychopathic liar" is.......check out your mirror.
That's odd, I could have sworn 18 months ago the fringe left was screaming Bush was going to change the Constitution to remain President indefinately. I'm sure I read that somewhere.
Top Cop Says McCain Was Never TorturedFormer Vietnam vet with top secret clearance - Republican frontrunner is "a lying skunk" Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Thursday, February 7th, 2008
digg_title = 'Top Cop Says McCain Was Never Tortured'; digg_bodytext = 'A former Vietnam veteran with top secret clearance says he has personally spoken to numerous POW's who dispute John McCains claim that he refused to provide information after he was captured and tortured in Hanoi, saying that in fact McCains code-name was "Songbird" because of his willingness to tell all to avoid torture.';
A former Vietnam veteran with top secret clearance says he has personally spoken to numerous POW's who dispute John McCain's claim that he refused to provide information after he was captured and tortured in Hanoi, saying that in fact McCain's code-name was "Songbird" because of his willingness to tell all to avoid torture.Jack McLamb served nine years in secret operations in Cambodia and other nations before going on to become one of the most highly decorated police officer's in Phoenix history, winning police officer of the year twice before taking a role as a hostage negotiator for the FBI.
"I know a lot of Vietnam veterans and a few POW's and all the POW's that I've talked to over the years say that John McCain is a lying skunk," McLamb told the Alex Jones Show.
(Article continues below)
What's odd is it dosen't matter who wins the country looses. And capitalism is sucking the big one in any case so lets just enjoy the vision of bankers all over America leaping from skyscrapers sticking thier heads in micro-waves or one of a hundred other methods of capitalist disposal available to rid the world of scumsucking denizons of cesspools. It's going to be a beautiful year except for the carnage but at the end of it socialism will save us all.:lol:
Interesting, I admit........
Now, let's see if any of these "former POWs" come forward..........hearsay is interesting, but that is all it is.....gossip.
I'm sure that, if there is anything to this, the Democrats will soon be digging up these guys.....if you don't see it on the front page in the next 4 or 5 months....it is a figment of the imagination of Mr. McLamb........
BTW, interesting you would quote a "Vietnam veteran with top secret clearance"....my guess would have been that you would not have believed a US intelligence agent if he told you the sky was blue, and water is wet..........
Kreskin
I don't know that it makes all that much difference..? How long has it taken for the people of Canada to hear about never ming acknowledge that our RCMP and CSIS were complicit in screwing up the investigation into Air India? How long has it taken for Americans to recognize and acknowledge that their government lied to them and sunk the billions upon billions of dollars it has in an invaision predicated on lies? Like Afghanistan, or the sub-prime mortgage collapse, or Enron or Brian Mulroney/Shreiber etc. etc. a machine put into gear and allowed to run un-supervised and un-monitored will wreck great havoc on any social system long before the crucial elements and people are identified. Seldom in our form of "democracy" is there any real return to the citizens of millions or billions stolen from national treasuries to fight phoney wars, millions stolen by "big-business"...pensions and savings looted by these scoundrels....by police and "intelligence agencies" failing to do their jobs, hiding their misdeeds and lawlessness etc. etc....
Whomever inherits the Offal Office has limited choices in "changing" anything...with all due respect to Mr. Obama's chants and slogans.... Certainly Bilary Clinton if anything isn't the person about to bring "change" to her perceptions and attitudes gleaned at the tables of lies and corruption she's sat at with her philandering husband... says something about the woman's judgment as well as Slick Willy I'm afraid....
No, there won't be much change regardless of who's the "winner".... Business as usual and the gap between the wealthy and the poor will widen, foreign affiars and policies will be dictated by Jerusalem and our friend Walter will be made Secretary of the Environment so long as he continues to champion the mythos of global warming...:
Everything will stay exactly the way it is....declining and decaying as needed to maintain the imbalance that permits corruption to make fiscal icons out of hooligans and liars.
I don't know that it makes all that much difference..? How long has it taken for the people of Canada to hear about never ming acknowledge that our RCMP and CSIS were complicit in screwing up the investigation into Air India? How long has it taken for Americans to recognize and acknowledge that their government lied to them and sunk the billions upon billions of dollars it has in an invaision predicated on lies? Like Afghanistan, or the sub-prime mortgage collapse, or Enron or Brian Mulroney/Shreiber etc. etc. a machine put into gear and allowed to run un-supervised and un-monitored will wreck great havoc on any social system long before the crucial elements and people are identified. Seldom in our form of "democracy" is there any real return to the citizens of millions or billions stolen from national treasuries to fight phoney wars, millions stolen by "big-business"...pensions and savings looted by these scoundrels....by police and "intelligence agencies" failing to do their jobs, hiding their misdeeds and lawlessness etc. etc....
Whomever inherits the Offal Office has limited choices in "changing" anything...with all due respect to Mr. Obama's chants and slogans.... Certainly Bilary Clinton if anything isn't the person about to bring "change" to her perceptions and attitudes gleaned at the tables of lies and corruption she's sat at with her philandering husband... says something about the woman's judgment as well as Slick Willy I'm afraid....
No, there won't be much change regardless of who's the "winner".... Business as usual and the gap between the wealthy and the poor will widen, foreign affiars and policies will be dictated by Jerusalem and our friend Walter will be made Secretary of the Environment so long as he continues to champion the mythos of global warming...:
Everything will stay exactly the way it is....declining and decaying as needed to maintain the imbalance that permits corruption to make fiscal icons out of hooligans and liars.
So, how will socialism really work, as, who will be the ones to screw us, will the old hippies from the 60''s come out of the bushes and run the government, and send flowers to everyone, while they hoard all of our money!!!
Give me some idea of how we will be saved.
Struggle right till the end then ITN it'll make it all the sweeter for socialists like me,we look forward to the specticle of capitalists eating each other and thier niegbours dogs. Then youall can have your AM REV II, the blue against the red ,can't wait, hope it's carried on the telly. :lol: