A Way Out for the Dems

So Hillary Clinton figures to pick up Indiana on Tuesday, but what about North Carolina? Once regarded as a sure win for Barack Obama, it is now a toss-up. If the bright young senator from Illinois loses that one, we will hear no more calls for Hillary to quit the race, and the super delegates will be super nervous since Obama’s electability in the Fall will be in serious doubt. Also, however, those folk will be presented with a slick way to solve their party’s dilemma:

While the leaders dare not deny Obama the nomination in view of all the delegates he won in the early primaries and caucuses, they may be able to persuade him to withdraw in favor of Hillary. Hear me out – it’s a win-win for all concerned. Obama could have a clear shot at the Illinois governorship next time around and full support for a White House run in 2012 or 2016 when he will still be relatively young, much more experienced, and free of the distractions of Jeremiah Wright and William Ayers which, by then, will be faded memories.

What say you, Barack? But more to the point right now…what say you, voters of Indiana and North Carolina?

See John Smile

The Democrats are in a pickle. It now appears that neither of their presidential candidates can gain enough delegates in the remaining primaries to claim the nomination, so the so-called super delegates will have a big say-so in picking the winner this year.

The ordinary concern of these party leaders would be to choose the person who has the better chance of beating the Republicans in the Fall. Early on, it seemed Barack Obama was that candidate, but it is now clear that much of the bloom has gone from his candidacy. Fairly or not, serious questions have been raised about him and the direction in which he wants to take the country, and it appears that he is being marginalized as the candidate of blacks and the young. Limited in that way, he cannot win.

But no Democrat candidate can win WITHOUT the black vote, and there is reason to believe African-Americans may boycott the November election if their man is denied the nomination after doing so well in the early going. Or they could rip the party asunder at its August convention, reminiscent of 1968 when there was blood in the streets of Chicago and virtual blood on the convention floor.

Hillary Clinton steadfastly refuses to withdraw, and why should she? Lately she has been winning and has captured all but one of the big swing states. Meanwhile the contested votes of Florida and Michigan dangle just out of her reach. If she could somehow claim them, the game would probably be over. She would win…but what would happen to the party?

See John smile.

Lucky John

My wife observed the other day that John McCain may be the luckiest politician in the world, and I agree. Last summer he was out of cash and forced to lay off staffers, he seemed to have no prospects, and all that was left was a formal announcement that he was quitting the presidential race. But plucky John hung on, still thinking he had a shot at beating the GOP glamor boys, Rudy and Romney, and winning the nomination.

Then look what happened: Rudy’s bad judgment in passing up the early primaries did him in, and all of Romney’s cash couldn’t convince Republican conservatives that he was one of them. The stars dropped out of sight and who was left? Ageless John McCain, plugging along and winning the primnaries that really mattered, finally swatting his last rival, Huckabee, aside as if he were just a bothersome gnat.

Perhaps you can credit grit and experience, rather than luck, for John’s winning of the Republican race. But wait. How do you account for the fact that presumptive Democrat nominee Hillary Clinton is now locked in a desperate struggle with virtual unknown Barack Obama, both of whom are flubbing like mad to the benefit of McCain in a year when it seemed clear that the Republicans were destined to lose. The early polls had so indicated, but now look at them: McCain is running neck-and-neck with each Demo candidate, and if they continue to make donkeys out of themselves old John will doubtless take the lead.

So luck it is. There’s just no other way to explain it. Plucky John is now Lucky John and may become our next president. The question is, will the people of the USA be lucky to have him in the oval office or is all this some kind of mischievous prank that Fate is playing upon us.

Stay tuned…

Batter Up!

Well, the baseball season is underway, and it looks to me as if the Texas Rangers might finally be the team to beat in the American League West. They are way overdue for a big year and, judging by the way they just played “my” LA Angels, this could be it. The Rangers not only have their usual batting power, but their pitching seems especially strong, as well. In fact, the team shows excellent balance on offense and defense. So what do I have to say about all that? Go Angels!

Help!

Gasoline and diesel prices have escalated to a point where they are seriously impacting the general economy. Combined with the collapse of the real estate and mortgage loan markets, they have put us on a path to recession. What can or should the government do to protect the public?

The answer seems to be very little with respect to real estate. It must find its own level. But gas prices are something else. The fact that the big oil companies are making record profits while the public is straining to pay record prices at the gas pump shows that something is out of kilter. Market conditions are not controlling prices, speculators are, and common sense tells me that the big oil companies have a heavy hand in that.

Why do we allow rampant speculation in this segment of the energy market anyway? Why should gasoline be treated differently from natural gas? Both are essential commodities. Gasoline should be regulated like other public utilities.

I am a capitalist, but unfettered capitalism is not always in the public interest. A hundred years ago President Teddy Roosevelt stepped in to protect the public from the robber barons. We need a president like TR today!

Need a Nanny?

Clearly Hillary Clinton believes in a nanny state with herself as Nanny-in-Chief. If that is what we need, vote for Hillary; otherwise look elsewhere. I am looking…

A Family Gathering

On a personal note, the family all (or as many as possible) got together at the beautiful home of my son and daughter-in-law to celebrate Easter and have a delicious dinner. It was wonderful except that it left Grandpa (aka Hewho) with the feeling that he may have made a fool of himself by sounding off too stridently about politics, world affairs, and whatever else happened to occupy his 80-year-old brain after two glasses of Scotch and more attention from his beloved family than he deserved. But everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, and there was a great sense of warmth about it all for which Hewho is very grateful. Holidays are wonderful, and the older I get the more keenly I realize that FAMILY is more important than anything. Thank you, everyone!

A Simple Question

Would anyone have favored the invasion of Iraq in 2003 if we had known we would be bogged down there five years later, having paid what we have paid in blood and treasure, with the situation as uncertain as it is and future prospects so dim? The question answers itself, I believe, and points to the direction we should now take.

Senator Obama’s Preacher

Senator Barack Obama is running for president; Pastor Jeremiah Wright is not. The latter’s outrageous statements in his sermons defaming the United States are in no way the responsibility of Obama even though he was a member of Wright’s church and may have heard or been aware of what the pastor was saying. The senator is being criticized for not resigning from the church when he first heard or learned of those statements. Much is made of that. Too much, I believe. Compared in importance to all the other matters that bear on a candidate’s competence, this one ranks low on the list.

The Senator has made it clear that he does not share his pastor’s anti-American views, and has fervently expressed his own love for this country. We have no reason to doubt him on either point. His refusal to denounce Wright as a person is understandable and even laudatory, given their closeness over the years. In this world, we all do and sometimes must associate with persons who hold and express views which differ strongly from our own. When that person is someone we love or revere for their good qualities, and I am sure that the Reverend Wright has those, we don’t just throw them under the bus when the relationship becomes inconvenient.

Let’s get on with the campaign and consider those things that really matter like each candidate’s beliefs, background, and program for America.

Our Choice in Iraq

We Americans hear lots of talk about “winning the war” in Iraq and even more about “ending the war”, as if those were our choices. The fact is that we won the war soon after we invaded, when Saddam Hussein’s government collapsed and organized opposition ceased. However, because of the Bush Administration’s failure to plan adequately for the pacification and unification of the country, and the failure to utilize sufficient force to accomplish that objective, we have found ourselves in a deadly and costly morass for nearly five years, longer than it took to defeat and pacify both Germany and Japan in World War II.

So what do we do now? Let’s not talk about “winning” because we have no clearly defined foe in Iraq at this time, and without a clear-cut foe we cannot define a victory. We can kill those who threaten us and the new Iraqi regime, and we can put the ones we don’t kill on the run, but we can’t ever wipe them out because more are being born and converted all the time and they have safe haven in countries like Iran, Syria and Pakistan where we cannot get at them without initiating new wars that we clearly do not have the will to fight, nor should we.

We are in a mess. Sure, things have been better lately because of the surge and some hard-nosed planning, but we cannot maintain the current level of activity much longer because our military is stretched almost to the breaking point. So we are going to have to gradually bring a significant number of our troops home regardless of who wins the election in November. As we do that, we can expect more trouble-makers to move into Iraq from neighboring countries and more insurgents within the country to pick up their guns and start building their bombs once more.

President Bush’s dream was the creation of an Arab democracy in the midst of the authoritarian Middle East which would serve as a model for other Arab peoples and influence them to turn away from religious fundamentalism toward a freer way of life more like ours so they would not feel threatened by us or threaten us in return. I too liked the dream. Trouble was, it now appears to have been JUST a dream with practically no chance of becoming reality. Our leaders failed to give sufficient weight to the fact that we are dealing with a different culture in the Muslim world and a totally different way of looking at life.

So back to the question of what to do now: Should we stay in Iraq for an unlimited length of time, as Republican candidate for president John McCain reportedly has advocated, pursuing what now appears to be a very faint prospect of making the “impossible” dream come true, or should we take satisfaction in the fact that we eliminated an evil dictator who was threatening us and might very well have attacked us if we had not struck him down? We can also take satisfaction in bringing a chance of freedom to a people who had long been beneath the tyrant’s heel and recognize that it is now up to them to make of it what they will. We can then withdraw as expeditiously as possible, which is what both Democrat candidates say they want to do.

Our answer to that is but one, albeit a very important one, of the considerations which will go into deciding which party to vote for in November.