I am at my wit’s end today after hearing the bullying from the Obama Campaign had lead to the resignation of Geraldine Ferraro as the Honorary Fundraising Chairman for Hillary Clinton’s Presidential Campaign. Actually, I have had it up to brim with the posturing, the snide com
ments, and the apparent dismantling going on in the Democratic Party. Finger pointing is going on, on both sides, but the comments are REALLY starting to get ridiculous, noxious, and honestly, damaging to the Democratic Party.
Have we forgotten that if John McCain is elected, we have a man who is willing to trade his principles for the sake of power? I mean McCain went from being a fierce independent, the man who co-authored the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform Bill and being such a progressive that John Kerry considered him as a running mate in 2004, to being a George W. Bush sycophant. John McCain is willing to trade the principles and “independence” he champions so he can win power. That would be a continuation of Karl Rove, Iraq, Rising Gas Prices, Falling Wages, the Protection of Law-Breaking Senators like Larry Craig & Dave Vitter, while the Destruction of the Basic Civil Liberties guaranteed to all American citizens.
We are at a crossroads and Obama’s campaign calls Hillary Clinton a monster and Geraldine Ferraro a rascist. It’s all become destructive and the worse thing we have seen since the Civil War. Obama supporters are uncomfortable around family and friends who are Clinton supporters. What has been considered a wealth of riches, in terms of having a choice between a qualified African-American and a qualified Female, for President, has turned into a nightmare.
The worst part is neither side is yielding way and really they should not. Each has a legitimate claim to keep running for President. But also the longer they run, the deeper the divide, and the greater chance McCain has of winning in the fall. So is the answer the Draft of someone else who can unify the party like Al Gore, Jr., Wesley K. Clark, maybe even say another woman candidate with an African-American running mate? Well thats pandering and the wrong approach.
What is the answer? Obama-Clinton or Clinton-Obama is not the answer unfortunately because it would never happen and never would work. You think the JFK-LBJ feud was bad, wait till Round Two which is even more bloody.
My prediction is whomever loses the convention nod will be like the Republicans in 1976, where Ford won the nomination and Reagan won the soul of the party and came back four years later to win the nomination and the White House for eight year.
Stay tuned….
Filed under: National Politics
Anyone who knows me knows that I am a purveyor and collector of political buttons. I always seem to make a little money on the side in designing campaign logos, so I like to look, and sometimes get ideas. Most of the time, each button, seems to tell a story or a tale. The last time I remember seeing campaign signs for a Presidential candidate with the name Jesse was watching Jesse Jackson speak at the 1988 Democratic National Convention. I was a young child and didn’t understand the immiediate significance of the event, that an African-American candidate, had obtained and come so close to taking the Presidential nomination. As my watching of Presidential politics followed, this was followed by the rise four years later, of a larger than life yet erratic Independent Presidential candidate named H. Ross Perot. Thus became my interest in third party candidacies.
So with 2008 looming with so many larger than life candidates for President could there be room for a third party candidate? For a third party to even make a blip they would need someone larger than life. I mean the Democrats have a former First Lady turned U.S. Senator as well as first woman seriously in line to be President battling with an African-American, a Nobel-Prize nominated Hispanic Governor, two distinguished U.S. Senators, a former U.S. Senator and one of the author of the Pentagon Papers, and then an also-ran one term U.S. Senator and Vice Presidential nominee and a peacenik U.S. Congressman. Thats just the Democrats. The Republicans have the Mayor of New York City during 9/11 battling with a U.S. Senator who was a Vietnam War P.O.W. battling a Mormon Republican former Governor of Massachusetts whose father also ran for President and was a Mormon Republican former Governor of Michigan battling a Watergate Counsel turned actor turned U.S. Senator turned actor turned Presidential candidate. You also have a U.S. Senator, a few Congressmen, and a former Republican Governor of Arkansas who has been before his states Ethics Commission almost two dozen times and whose only other discernible trait is that he lost a lot of weight and in true Republican style wrote a book to make money off of it.
Could Hollywood dream up a scenario?
So a third party candidate would have to be larger than life. Arnold Schwarznegger, a liberal Republican actor who married into the very Democratic Kennedy family and became Governor of California can’t run because he was born in Austria and is a naturalized citizen. Mike Bloomberg, who was initially headed to be elected Mayor of New York City on 9/11 can’t run because frankly he’s a billionaire and why would he run? Chuck Hagel, another P.O.W. turned politician, is a U.S. Senator happy playing Hamlet On The Prairie in Nebraska and just swore off politics like a drunk from a bottle. Other names bantied about are former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn of Georgia. But outside of those who observe politics like myself, who know Sam Nunn to be a genius and a true statesman, in Peoria he’s not as well known. If he were to run it would be easier through conventional means.
So who could run? Preferably someone elected as an Independent before.
Enter Jesse Ventura from stage right, no pun intended, or maybe I do philosophically speaking. Ventura is a popular former wrestler who in 1998 shocked the nation to the core by taking the now defunct Reform Party nomination and winning a stunning victory as Governor of Minnesota over the son of a former U.S. Vice President and a popular Mayor who is now a U.S. Senator.
Jesse Ventura is anything other than simple. As Governor his administration was anything other than insignificant. His political appeal is definitely NRA membership holding, WWF-watching, beer drinking, shopping at the local Save-A-Lot populace. When he ran in 1998 he turned out voters who traditionally do not vote with an inconventional campaign that included campaign commercials with are you ready for this…..plastic action figures. He also had signs with neon green and neon orange and black writing. Trust me when I say neon is not a typical color for campaign logos on major statewide campaigns.
Jesse Ventura was born James George Janos. “Don’t vote for politics as usual.” was his slogan. After his election, bumper stickers and T-shirts bearing the slogan “My Governor can beat up your Governor!” appeared in Minnesota and became ubiquitous virtually overnight. He spent considerably less than his opponents (about $600,000), and is widely regarded as one of the first candidates to effectively use the internet, before Howard Dean tried it, as a medium of reaching out to voters in a political campaign. Ventura went on to gain the highest approval rating of any governor in Minnesota history, with some polls ranking his public approval as high as 73 percent in 1999, despite controversial public comments.
He’s also a Vietnam Veteran and get this a United States Navy Seal.
So where is he philosophically and politically. As the late actress Lucille Ball would say, “WELL????????”
As Governor, Ventura publicly supported a unicameral (one-house) legislature, light-rail public transport, property tax reform, gay rights, and is strongly pro-choice. While funding public school education generously, he opposed teachers unions, and did not have a high regard for the public funding of higher-education institutions. In November 2004, an advertisement began airing in California featuring Ventura. In it, Ventura voices his opposition to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s policies regarding Native American casinos. Additionally, Ventura supported the use of medicinal marijuana, advocated a higher role for third parties in national politics, and favored the concept of instant runoff voting. In one of his books, he mentions a visit to a prostitute in Reno, Nevada and he admitted to visiting brothels in the Philippines while serving in the military. Ventura has publicly stated that prostitution should be legal, since it will exist in any case, and legal controls protecting the health of clients are needed. He was even quoted as saying “I voted in hopes to make prostitution legal once, and I’d do it again in a second.” He admitted to trading a belt made of gun cartridge casings in exchange for 10 dollars plus the services of a prostitute in Nevada during his younger days.
One issue of the day that Ventura is strong against is the War in Iraq. Ventura is serving as an advisory board member for a new group called Operation Truth, a nonprofit organization set up “to give voice to troops who served in Iraq.”
As a veteran, Ventura has what we call street cred. to say “The current use of the National Guard is wrong….These are men who did not sign up to go occupy foreign nations.”
Hillary Clinton’s worst nightmare might not be Republican, it might be Jesse Ventura as the Green Party or another Third Party candidate, and then we could be stuck with four to eight more years of God Forbid, ANOTHER REPUBLICAN ADMINISTRATION.
We’ll see…..stay tuned, same station, same bat channel!
Do you remember when the Iraqi War began. Those who tried to convince us that this war was for defending freedom, bringing democracy to Iraq, continuing the War on Terror & Al-Queda, but it wasn’t about oil. In fact here are some examples by the Republican conservatives who tried to convince us :
http://www.inthenationalinterest.com/Articles/Vol2Issue9/vol2issue9kohlhaas.html (Richard M. Nixon Center)
http://home.uchicago.edu/~gbecker/Businessweek/BW/2003/03_17_2003.pdf (Business Week)
This mantra was continued by Australia Prime Minister, John Howard (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19609710/) although President George W. Bush would reverse course and say thats why we should be in Iraq (http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/08/31/bush_gives_new_reason_for_iraq_war/) to the Boston Herald of all newspapers. While I am not always the first one beating the war drums, I do have to ask, why are we ignoring Burma. Bush condeming Burma’s ruling Junta is like wagging your finger at a petulant child and saying, “Naughty, naughty!”
Yesterday, the Junta (who have renamed Burma – Myanmar) turned its forces loose on a crowd demonstrating. In the process, the troops shot an innocent Japanese newsman. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/player/nol/newsid_7010000/newsid_7018000?redirect=7018029.stm&news=1&bbram=1&bbwm=1&nbram=1&nbwm=1&asb=1) and they have cut the internet to the nation when their atrocities were getting out to the world (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7011884.stm)
So when will we the Western World and the International Community step in and say ENOUGH?
After all, the most saddest sign is how they have slaughtered innocent Bhuddist monks and nuns, who while non-violently protesting were still unarmed. We laud Mahatma Ghandi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Nelson Mandela for non-violent protesting but we say nothing when holy men and holy women are dragged off, beaten, and killed!
It is time for us to act and say enough is enough.
When did we ever see 100,000+ Iraqis boldly marching in the streets of their capital, like the Burmese have done, demanding freedom? When did we last ever see people after the crackdowns began come back out in numbers of up to 50,000+ and continue to shout for freedom?
In 1990, a vast majority of the people voted and said they wanted Aung Saan Sui Kyi to be their leader. This military junta jailed her for over 11 yrs. Aung Saan Sui Kyi, daughter of the founder of the modern day nation of Burma, who is a Nobel Peace Prize winner (1991) has said it is up to those of us who have freedom to use it for those who cannot use theirs. More about Aung Saan Sui Kyi is at : http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7016360.stm
I end by reminding you of a quote from Nazi Germany by Martin Niemoller, an anti-Nazi German theologian and Lutheran minister who penned these immortal words.
“First they came for the Communists but I was not a Communist so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists but I was not one of them, so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Jews but I was not Jewish so I did not speak out. And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me.”
Isn’t it time we acted?
Contact the United Nations at : inquiries@un.org
Contact the U.S. Senate at : 1.202.225.3121 and ask to speak to your U.S. Senator, any U.S. Senator, and ask when we will act.
Write on blogs, letters to the editor, and everywhere. Lets speak out for those who cannot speak for themselves right now!
Filed under: National Politics
Controversial former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney “is increasingly interested in being the Green Party Presidential nominee” in 2008, according to the Ballot Access News newsletter. (more…)
Filed under: National Politics
Senate Republicans are witnessing the departure of three pillars of their numbers. One is a true Virginia gentleman (John Warner) of the old school who came to the Senate in 1978 with a nomination obtained after the winner of his primary died in a plane crash. He was married to a famous starlet at the moment and entered the Senate after serving as one of the last noted Secretary of Navy in the Presidential cabinet. The second is an activist and decorated war hero (Chuck Hagel) who defeated a popular incumbet Governor for an open Senate seat. He had the courage to buck his party and to speak out against the War in Iraq when it wasn’t popular. The third, well, he was a hard shell conservative religious right demagogue who got caught trying to pick up some bathroom trade in a busy Airport stall (Larry Craig). As if that was not trifiling enough, he has an extremely anti-gay voting record, and had the audacity after announcing his resignation to send up a trial balloon to rescind that earlier statement. It was as expected an unsuccessful venture.
Short of major upsets, the three will be replaced by at times carbon copies of themselves. One takes Virginia’s interests seriously and like his predecessor is another true Virginia gentleman who shares the same last name. (Mark Warner) The second like Hagel is a decorated war hero and in irony of all ironies, preceded Hagel in that Senate seat after succeeding a popular Senator who died in that office. He like Hagel also is outspoken on the war and survived Vietnam. (Bob Kerrey) The final is bombastic and a demagogue and one who will match Craig vitrol for vitrol, demagoguery for demagoguery, and will stand forth as all that is wrong with conservatism. (Jim Risch)
Filed under: National Politics
What a night to enter the GOP Presidential Race. Like General Clark in 2004, Fred Thompson’s campaign began as a Draft, but thats where the comparison ends. Thompson and his team goofed when they decided to announce on the same night his Republican opponents for President were debating in New Hampshire. In that debate, Senator John McCain of Arizona who is on his death knell rallied and literally mopped the floor with his fellow combatants, delivering a stunning roundhouse punch to Rudy Guiliani and Mitt Romney while Mike Huckabee & Ron Paul squabbled like two kids in a crowded restaurant. What was the news afterwards?
Not Fred Thompson. I mean Thompson is a two term U.S. Senator, former White House Counsel, Watergate Investigative Counsel against the Nixon White House, and a movie star as well as recently one of the main cast members of LAW & ORDER. He’s a southerner announcing for President with so many Reaganesque qualities.
Yet the next day, the news was about McCain’s stunning performance, the squabble between Huckabee and Paul, and then with a yawn, Oh yeah Fred Thompson announced for President on Jay Leno.
A recent South Carolina poll also shows Thompson is off to a weak start.
Republicans
Fred Thompson – 19%
Rudy Giuliani – 18%
John McCain – 15%
Mitt Romney – 11%
Newt Gingrich – 9%
Mike Huckabee – 6%
Interesting stuff people.
