Bye Bye Miss American Pie - It’s A New World Out There In Campaign 08
Can you believe it?
About three months ago, my local Republican hot tippers were tipping me off that Rudy was a cinch, a crafty, in-touch New Yorker who would make a daring dash to the Presidency. When I told me friends that John McCain would emerge and maybe get his nomination, they thought I was smoking that stuff that Bill Clinton didn’t inhale.
Then, the wise guys said Obama would fade quickly. But who would know that President Bill would overshadow his talented wife on the campaign trail, throwing a wrench into a campaign that was going pretty well.
Of course, three weeks ago, Huckabee was the flavor of the day. What happened? Could he still make it? Doubtful.
So what is going on? The people, long considered clueless by many of the intellectuals of the left and right, are teaching us a lesson. As Michael Nutter would say, New Day, New Way. In this case all the established “norms” have been thrown out with the waste water.
Here they are.
Hillary Clinton was inevitable. She may still get the nomination, but the general election could be a struggle, especially if Bill tags along. Just the appearance of an imaginary Hillary-Bill team in the White House could be devastating, unless Mitt Romney is the nominee. Then, its a landslide, for the Democrats.
Barack Obama wasn’t ready. Did some people miss that one! He’s even got the Kennedy’s on board. There is something about the guy that makes people feel good. He’s in it to stay.
John McCain is too old. Chuck Norris said that. Chuck Norris is too boring to be in movies. John McCain is the real thing, win or lose. Chuck Norris is just an action figure.
Rudy would run a 50-state campaign. Right now, he’s hoping for one.
Joe Biden would still be in the mix. I confess. I’m the one who said that. But don’t count him out for number two.
Dennis Kucinich would never drop out. Even lost visionaries get a taste of reality once in a while.
John Edwards. He’s finished. Not to fast everyone. He will continue to pile up delegates, and if things get really close, which I expect they will, his delegates could be the clincher.
This is such a wild year that the only certainty is uncertainty. You think the first three weeks have been sensational. Wait till we hit the end of March without a Democratic nominee.
The only primary in April is in Pennsylvania. It is the 22nd. Mark it down.
It used to be that there were some old saws about America that could be counted on. But this is the boomers America, and people younger than them and immigrants, legalones, from places that are not caught up with American history as seen by East Coast Intelligentsia or other clear headed observers of an America that has gone with the wind. No more commies to blame, no state sponsored racism just a lot of different minds from what we were used to trying to make sense out of 21st century America. It is a different world from the Sixties or even from 15 years ago. A lot of old obstacles have died off and new demands for a better America at home, as opposed to a stronger America every where in the world will change domestic politics as well as foreign affairs. It will be hard to predict with the internet news cycle creating the first quantum social events, high speed particles held together by weak forces and changed by the mere act of observation. We have moved beyond Newtonian mechanistic analysis and causality to a cybernetic body politic. As we think and describe it, it changes and waits for the feed back to observe and think again, before it morphs some more.
hello Larry,it’s hard to believe the dems can blow a sure thing but it just might happen.
yes i remember the wise guys on the hucklebee express and calling fred thompson the savior.
well if obama wins we will have a closet republican,,but he complains that the Clintons are too tough him,,but his head will spin when the rightwingers attack in the fall.
hopefully the democratic party will come back to reality before it is to late.
thanks larry,
larry,
does anyone know for certain why the press/media hates Hillary so much?
I have been a democratic for over 50 years,have watched I don’t know how many debates and have listened to the media all my life,but I don’t ever remember a candiate being attacked so badly as Hillary.It is disgusting,russert,matthews, the idiots on the fox network,they really should be ashamed of themselves.Now we have old man kennedy chimming in.He should retire with his booze bottle and give us a break.
He would be no where if it hadn’t been for JFK.Obama might not want his endorsement.
Returning from the store yesterday, I was flipping around the radio dial and landed on Big Talker 1210. The host was talking about Obama. The first caller said Sen. Obama was sworn in on a Koran.
The 2nd caller heard Obama was friends with Louis Farrakhan. the 3rd caller while not endorsing anyone said Obama was too green to be Prez. The host herself said Obama’s brain trust was Pro Palestine and questioned his association with these type of people. Luckily I arrived home before the next caller came on.
In this “Information Age” why are people so ill informed? Do we hear only what we want to hear or do we pay such scant attention that we only hear half the truth? My theory is that most of America hasn’t even started to think about the next president. They are too busy trying to make ends meet.
Billary is the new candidate. Former President Clinton looks like he is running for a third term and even the Dems are shaking in their boots on that one. Billary is the new candidate and HRC looks out of it having to rely on her hubby. Maybe Chelsey will be the VP candidate on her ticket so we can ponder 16 more years of Clinton’s.
McCain is our next President. Bank on it.
Ed, 1210 feeds the frenzy. Talk radio is generally not the center of the “information age”. And these are the people who GET THROUGH the call screeners. It’s an entertainmnet center.
Ed,
Jim is right that talk radio is really entertainment radio. Having said that, about two months ago my old boss who was a CEO of a multi-billion dollar corporation told my Wife and I at a party that Obama is a Muslim. I corrected him on the spot and even his wife jumped in to tell him he was wrong.
So if a person that is normally very smart can believe that claptrap then kitty bar the door for people that are lower on the IQ scale.
Larry - Agree with most of your comments above. I think John Edwards will be a power broker at the Dems convention. I think any of the Dem. candidates would make a good President and only John McCain fits that bill on the Republican side, although he scares me with his Iraq position regarding his long term presence stance. He also needs to become more savvy on the Economic front, reading off a list of names that most of the American public doesn’t know doesn’t give him street cred from an economic perspective. Whether you like Hillary/Obama or not, they hope can speak well and with knowledge on economic matters.
Hey guys, entertainment is one thing (I do watch Jon Stewart once in a while)but
as one previous blogger noted “don’t underestimate the stupidity of the American people”(it was something like that). Look at it this way. Only half the voting population votes. Included in the other half that votes, probably 40% vote Democratic all the time and 40% vote Republican all the time. That leaves 20% unattached. (I’m just guessing but it might be close). The winning candidate needs only 11% of those undecided voters to win. So bottom line, out of a country with over 200 million potential voters the candidates are only trying to secure maybe 10 million votes in order to win. This number could even be smaller based on our electoral system. Don’t ask me why I brought this up.
What really looks silly are the states that pushed their primaries earlier, like Michigan and Florda.
Sure, sometimes the nomination is wrapped up early and sometimes not.
One thing I think this race is showing is that a “national primary” is a terrible idea. I think it’s incredibly important to have the campaigns move from state to state and focus on small areas of the country. I think “Super Tuesday” involves too many states.
The spreading out of the primaries allows people to get to know the candidates, even in states where there is not a primary.
It only takes one look at Kucinich’s wife to know that, no matter what, he has come out on top.
All I can say is I’m sitting here watching with glee as the Two top Dems go after each other and pretty much fracture the party, much in the same way as the Montgomery County Commissioners have. I guess Edwards is now waiting in the wings waiting for the two of them to cancerl each other out.
Not sure if I’d want a Ted Kennedy endorsement though, that man should be branded a National Disgrace/Embarassment. But I would have to admit was a major slap in the face of HillBillary and 3$Bill.
I think that Hillary gets a lot of criticism because it is deserved. Does anyone believe those New Hampshire tears were real?
People are tired of fake politicians and would rather take a chance on someone with slightly less experience who is genuine.
Hillary claims to have all this experience but the truth is the only thing she did from 92-00 was a failure. Just being in the White House does not give you Presidential experience. Clearly she didn’t even know what was going on in the Oval Office.
Former Virginia Governor Warner would have made a real strong candidate.
Edwards is warmed over leftovers - the Addalai Stevenson of our generation (good statesman, poor candidate).
I was a big McCain fan in 2000 - back when he ran on principle. Now after W beat him down he has become more of a politician and less ideal leader. Maybe the old McCain will come back if elected.
As it stands now, Obama is the clear choice.
hello Larry, it’s amazing obama wins one small state primary and the readers are ready to pick out curtains for the whitehouse.
well i know he gives good speeches,but he talks a lot and says very little,to the Hillary haters don’t be to fast to count her out,because you will hear about in the next weeks.
now john mccain is past his prime and will keep us in iraq for a ‘100 years’.
thanks larry
Jack…what’s up with your relationship with 3$Bill and Hillary?
1. Do they owe you money?
2. Are you married to a Clinto relative?
3. Are you beholden to the Clintons in some other way?
4. Do you just love ‘em?
I know you are a jack russel…does that mean you are like a ‘lap dog” for the Clintons?
Hey, JacK, welcome to a New Day and a New Way, that means Change” in any language…c’mon board doggie…the Clintons are going to go down in flames soon once the story about how they had Sandy Berger steal and destroy secret documents from the National Archives is made public, soon. Just what was in those documents that the Clintons would send in a lap dog to destroy? Gives new meaning to the excuse “the dog ate my homework” or should it be “my dog ate the secret documents!”?
no Joe,i am just loyal to the Clintons and i think Hillary is the better candidate,and $BILL was a great prez and loyalty is what i am all about.
**i enjoy reading your posting they are mostly fair and not nasty and not personnel attacks, like some of these jackasses you know who i mean who make personnel attacks at Hill&Bill.i can be an ‘attack dog’ if have to but that’s not my nature.
“attack dog” you are not…”defender of the faith”, you are.
So do you think when the truth about the Clintons sending in Sandy Berger to destroy offical secret government documents is made public, that will be considered “hating” the Clintons?
no joe,you are making a statement about dirty politics,just like the libby saga,you are not making personal attacks like some of the jackasses.
and what do you think of the snub by obama towards Hillary last night at the bush speech,do you see it,it was really rude by obama,not very sportsmenlike and i am staying on the Clinton express to the bitter end,because i think she is the best candidate. and joe do you think they will talk about the snub by obama? tomorrow,it was on abc news frame by frame-i would like to here your take on it tomorrow if larry brings it up.i think it is a big deal he could have been a gentlemen and treated her like a woman.
“Snub” versus a “felony”?
Have you no shame?
Treated her like a woman? Hey, doggie, tell that to the Arabs when she has to wear a burka when she goes to Iran.
So, it’s most important to you to haver a “woman” in th White House, rather than a healer…someone who has the bailuty to get us all on the same page?
i thought libby was a felony,Hillary will have those oil countries treat her with respect i know that,just like obama should have done on the night of the sleech (slurred speech),i want someone who is going to run the country and know all aspects of it, thats Hillary,not a talking head that talks alot and says nothing thats obama,is that what you want?
oh-oh…the National Archives have just released 12,000 hours of documents for 3$Bill to review before such documents are releasable under the FOI…keep in mind those dcuments will be short the ones that Sandy Berger stole (down his pants!) and destroyed so we will never know what Bill and Hill wanted so desparateley to hide that they they sent their loyal servant Sandy Burglar to the NA to do his dirty deed!
BTW, you may remember John Kerry swears up and down that he released ALL his documents based on a signed SF-180…what he won’t tell us is that, the US Navy, just like the National Archives, under the authority of the Privacy Act of 1974, first sends ALL documents to the party involved, that party then picks and chooses which documents are releasable and what ever is left is never again seen nor heard because the Gov’t is obligated under the PA of 1974 not to even acknowledge the existence of the unreleasable documents, so, in effect, they no longer exist! And ya woulda thunk Kerry would have told Bill & Hill not to worry as they still had one more shot at keeping documents from the public purview before sending in their lap dog to eat the secret documents!