Rolodexes

People in politics have them. It’s how you find things out. And what an elected official can do is often driven by how good their rolodex is. A great president, faced with a regional crisis in eastern Europe, might have the background knowledge to understand who is fighting, and even how to communicate with them. Our current president, not so much.

A poor president is going to call Blackwater, or CACI, and ask them what to do. And as the saying goes, if the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. Not bad if you’re a roofer, but not so great if you’re a neurosurgeon.

This country needs a leader who knows how the machinery of government works, and can work inside those areas (you know, the ones that say “no user-serviceable parts inside”) without losing a finger or starting a nuclear holocaust.

We often get warned that this is “pre 9-11 thinking”. My response is, that if we had a qualified president in the White House, 9-11 could have been just another day in the autumn, and we’d have a trillion dollars less of debt.

edit: Apparently, she does have some contacts. Not known if a decent chinese take-out place is among them.

John McCain: Hero

I figured it out today. McCain deserves our respect and admiration. After figuring out that his party was well and truly in the Vitter, and seeing that his opponent – Barack Obama – is an honorable and qualified man – he knew he could either run the campaign to it’s conclusion, and possibly even win it. Doing so would leave the United States in a more tenuous position even than the one it is in today.

Or, he could commit political suicide.

In an act of courage and sacrifice, he chose to do the latter. He abandoned his VP selection process – which included several formidable names – and did the political equivalent of leading a charge with an unloaded weapon, to allow another soldier time to reach a critical target. He picked the loudest, most distracting candidate, leaving the real weapons for his brothers-in-arms.

Sarah Palin is exactly what the GOP delegates wanted:

• A dedicated gunnie absolutist.
• A big-church christian with a dim view of all things scientific.
• An unambiguous denier of global warming – living in the actic circle.
• An advocate of banning non-christian reading.
• A textbook consumer of “earmarks gone wild”.
• A political hack with a talent for sweetheart deals.
• A low-aimer, quick to use political power for even small personal gain.
• A take-no-prisoners anti-abortion absolutist.
• A strong advocate for religious, specifically white anglo saxon protestant control in government.
• A strong advocate of religion-based sex education. (and a glaring example of what’s wrong with that education.)
• A publicly dedicated parent. And proof that even dedicated parents need help.

In short, Sarah Palin is The Perfect Republican, and the logical conclusion of the Reagan legacy and the neoconservative movement. She is the embodiment of Tom DeLay, George W. Bush, Ted Haggard, and Newt Gingrich, Larry Craig, Mark Foley, Ted Stevens David Vitter, and so many others. She stands in the shadow of Abraham Lincoln an empty suit and an empty soul, proudly proclaiming her ignorance to the raucous approval of her admirers.

It must have pained John McCain greatly to know what he was doing. I imagine a lot of people will be furious with him, but he has done both the GOP and America a great service. This country needs two political parties to keep each other honest. When one of those parties has fallen into the depths of corruption and hypocrisy present in the GOP, it must be reformed, and it will rarely do so without a solid kick in the teeth.

Had he chosen any other candidate, it is very likely that Obama would be defeated purely on the reluctance of America to accept that, yes, a guy with dark skin can do the job better than they could. He likely still has the option of throwing her under the bus if that should happen in favor of someone capable of the office, but I don’t see that in his expression when he speaks. He is a soldier who has an unpleasant duty, and he is going to do it.

In the meantime, we may well be on the verge of a huge cultural change in the country. With the election of a black president, a man who eight years ago couldn’t rent a can or get into a convention, no black man will ever be able to look in the mirror and say “no, I can’t.” If there is a heaven, Martin Luther King must be proud as hell of what his country has done in 45 years. I know I am, and I admire and respect a great public servant in John McCain, who will likely not get much of the credit that he deserves.

McAbramoff?

You’d kind of think McCain would know better than to let his name appear within 10 feet of Jack Abramoff, but, you’d be wrong. Hell, there’s so many links between John McCain and Jack Abramoff that I could cause a dire html shortage at wordpress just trying to keep up with all of them.

McCain accused Obama of being “filled with ambition to be president“. Is McCain simply too disgusted with himself, and has decided to just “throw in the towel”, by making it this easy? C’mon, John. You can do better than this.