Who among them shall lead?

2006.05.05 — Government | Politics | by Dudgeon Schist

There's a reason Hillary Clinton is currently considered the front runner for the Democratic party. And that reason is that the Democrats are a mess. Democrats have demonstrated no ability to clearly communicate what their core positions are, and why they are good for America and the world. They are almost completely unable to differentiate themselves from Republicans (a task made more difficult because they aren't really all that different in the first place). They have few likable faces in the front row. (Christ, does Nancy Pelosi eat babies in her basement at night?)

Worst of all they have no balls. We are living in an era that combines the worst of the Nixonian and McCarthyist eras. We are being governed by an administration that has quite literally seized the power to break some of the most fundamental laws of our land--and indeed have essentially rejected the rule of law itself through their actions, yet only one Democratic senator (plus Al Gore) will decry these things as being flagrantly un-American: Russ Feingold.

First, let me address the also-rans. Or, in the case of Gore, the not-run.

Al Gore

There's a lot of chatter about Al Gore running, especially since his fiery speech denouncing Bush's handling of the war. Why would Gore run? He'd be a fool to do so. He has a good life now. He's a smart guy, but I don't think his problem of being unelectable will change.

John Edwards

I see Edwards on TV from time to time. He looks presidential to me, not vice presidential. One thing he's really got going for him is that, unlike most of the senators and congressmen who might run, he's spent his time since the last election actually doing something.

Some feel he has that used-car-salesman, Bill-Clinton-lite vibe, and that's hard to shake. This is unfortunate. A priori, he doesn't really exhibit that vibe; he just happens to be well-spoken and happens to have been a successful attorney. It's too bad that we've reached a point when the appearance of stupidity, lifelong failure, and wretched language skills are actually regarded as a virtue in the public arena.

Joe Biden

Another guy who might run is Biden. He was talking about it in an interview I saw a few months ago. He could capture the "wise old whatever" spot for Democrats that McCain is occupying for the GOP.

Richardson v. Romney

Bill Richardson's sort of interesting, and at least seems like a quality individual, though I don't agree with some of his stuff. A more interesting gubernatorial candidate (Republican, as it happens) is Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. He gets high marks from almost everyone for being a guy who can get things done. He's a Republican governor in Massachusetts who actually got a healthcare bill passed there. Maybe his name is really Gandalf.

He's less extreme than neo-cons, but he doesn't alienate the GOP base. That's not exactly a good thing in my opinion, but it might allow him to get through primaries.

Feingold v. McCain

I'd like to see Feingold run. If he could turn it into a race about integrity, he'd slaughter everyone. BB Rodriguez has said:

Despite his integrity, Russ Feingold doesn't have a reputation for integrity with most people. He's not the one on Russert every freaking week speaking truth about power; McCain is.

That's unfortunate, but only partly true. I think most people who know anything about him know that he's demonstrated more integrity than most congressmen in his time in Congress. I think common perception of his integrity would increase as his record came to light during an election cycle.

McCain is thought of a man of integrity. This is The Great McCain Illusion. Look at his record.
You're talking about someone who goes along with his party, regardless of how much he says he disagrees with their policies, versus someone who does what he thinks is right in spite of his party. It's not even close. KO, 3rd round.

McCain v. McCain

Democratic attack ads have a wealth of photo ops to slap up on our TV screens where McCain is professing support for a man who may soon be widely regarded as our nation's worst President ever (certainly in the top five, anyway), or standing next to him while he makes some other colossal mistake. How is he going to distance himself from this man that he's supported consistently throughout his terms?

I'm not saying this makes McCain unelectable or un-nominatable. Only that he definitely cannot go toe-to-toe with Feingold on integrity. I mean, come on. The man was a POW. He was tortured. Torture and Gitmo have to be big issues for him personally, if not the biggest. Torture is abominable, primitive and certainly un-American. The suspension of habeas corpus and due process is tyrannical.

Yet the President and his administration have defended their policies on all of these. McCain has politely disagreed, but continued to support the President. What the fuck? I would think that is something like someone having anal sex with my mother against her will right in front of me, going on the TV news claiming that rape is actually OK in certain circumstances and me, while feeling mild disagreement with that position, still generally standing up for the man in public. Can you imagine doing that? I can't. But McCain does it every day. To me, that's not exactly being true to oneself.

I don't think it's really even that hard to impugn McCain. It only seems that way relative to everyone else in his party, which is being slowly exposed as being pretty dern rotten. It's only because both houses of Congress are Republican-controlled that Bush's administration is not vying for the title of most corrupt administration ever with Reagan's and Harding's; same goes for the whole right side of Congress, with the Abramoff business and all.

Russ Feingold: voice in the wilderness

There was a story not long after Feingold introduced his resolution to censure the President when reporters were asking prominent Democratic senators exiting the chamber how they felt about the resolution, and they were literally hiding behind one another to avoid having to comment—physically hiding. The ones who did find the fortitude to comment gave the most lame, mealy-mouthed answers of all time. It's almost as if Democrats are intentionally fulfilling the impotent, Keystone Kop stereotypes that Republicans paint of them.

Amongst the lemmings and cowards of the Democratic party, yeah, Hillary Clinton doesn't look that bad—but remember: She was one of the ones hiding.

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