Bush Nostalgia

The towers of commerce are crumbling. What better way to celebrate the farcical notion that any of us are capable of learning much from history than the sight of so many voters drooling at the bounty they believe is about to pour forth from an empty cup?

An eternity ago American voters, bored of Clinton constructed good times, sniffed at Al Gore and decided (kind of) for the much more exciting and affable political operator from Texas. Unable to enter any decent grad school on merit, the Connecticut Senator's grandson slithered past the proletariat to snake his place at Harvard Business School, where he might have learned something had he a mind.

Dubya mastered, however, the skill of cracking wise; and often made himself the butt of his own jokes right up until he winked his way into the White House. Then all hell broke loose.

Eight years later with record deficits looming and the world financial system on the brink of collapse, American voters look to let yet another glib prevaricator unable to win an honest place at an Ivy League graduate school without the help of the well-connected sail straight past GO into the Oval Office.

Average Americans and the naive are appalled. Others take cold comfort from the thimble of continuity. Our big-screen careen towards the precipice is scored, at least, with familiar platitudes all designed to lull the dull-witted and sedate the anxious.

What fresh hell beckons on the cresting wave of credit collapse? We can only guess.

By the time the final bill is tallied George Bush probably isn't going to look like such a rotten president after all.

Yes, it could be that bad.

Dems Sharpen Knives for Obama

Sarah Palin makes bacon from Barack Obama and his phony message of change. Jim Pinkerton claims conservative feminism is sweeping the land. Elitism pours forth from the Obama campaign and from his water carriers in the press. The Weekly Standard has the details.

What are Dems going to do with Barack Obama? Clarence Page claims Obama needs a game-changer, and help from the Clintons, btw, right frigging now. At the NYT, Tommy Friedman argues that Republicans are actually trying to make America stupider, Bob Herbert warns dimwittedness may prevail, and Maureen Dowd sneers that Governor Palin is an idiot.

As fascinating as the current panic is, the fight I'm really looking forward will come after the election, when Dem dreams collapse into dust and the media dogs turn circle for full-throated attack on Obama.

Will P. Diddy be wearing his 'Obama or Die' designer shirt? Which media lizards will we find slithering around the candidate and his wife? How long before the serpents sink their fangs? What will analysts be saying about the folks who shoved the most formidable politician in the Democratic Party to the back of the bus; and then lost?

Anyone think the simmering rage over the sexism of the Democratic primary has disappeared? Figure those accused of racism have forgotten? Think Hillary voters and all the Dems who even now face a resurgent Republican party rejuvenated by McCain-Palin at the top of the ticket are going to extend a hand of good-will to the supporters of the candidate whose feckless posturing, faux temple, excellent European vacation, dumb 'presidential' seal, and political meanderings allowed a moribund Republican party to rise from the dead?

Blame it on Hillary? When hasn't blaming a Clinton sounded like a plan? Course, losing the election to a geriatric war-hero and his bubble-gum chewing side-kick will make it a lot harder to blame Hillary for a race she didn't run. Plenty of Dems are sure to try, especially if the alternative is admitting you and your candidate fucked-up a gimme. 18 million Dems warned all along that Obama might not be able to close the deal. Proven right, Hillary supporters are likely to reject any responsibility for the Chosen One's defeat.

A year ago I shared space with a young Democratic activist. I was impressed by his ethics, his intelligence and his energy. Even when we'd disagree on detail or policy, the one point upon which we could both agree was that there was next to no chance whatsoever that a Republican would follow George Bush into the White House.

Sixty days before the election it appears that maverick Republican John McCain and a one-term Republican governor named Sarah Palin will be sworn in as President and Vice-President of the United States.

When President John McCain and Vice-President Sarah Palin take office Democrats will look at each other in disbelief for about sixty seconds: then tear each other to shreds. It'll be hard not to laugh, given all the hoopla Dems have served up about a 'different kind of politics'. The screams and howls will make the primary battles seem like a summer picnic.

I'll bring popcorn.