Palin's Roll Of The Dice

Is it just me or is Sarah Palin's shtick getting old?  If it's just me so be it.

I don't care that her tour bus bears the American flag.  I don't think looking into the constitutionality of it, as one MSNBC reporter seems to be doing, is worth the effort. It seems to me to be an exercise in ho hum.  Another monumental ego needing attention.

Palin is a tease.  Is she or isn't she going to run? Maybe, as has been suggested, this is her version of a campaign.  Getting down and dirty with real people like the bikers ride into D.C.  "Coincidentally" arriving in New Hampshire the same day Mitt Romney announces his presidential bid and immediately attacking him over Massachusetts care.

As cheerleader-in-chief of all things anti-Obama  and anti-conservatism she has no peer.  As a serious presidential pretender?  Well, I'm still waiting for substance and candor.  Her new found wealth has allowed her to hire better speech writers.  She hits all the right buttons, but why won't she defend what she says in question and answer sessions?  Or is there really no there there?

I just wish she would make her intentions clear.  If she's just going to cheer lead, fine.  Go ahead.  If she's going to run, then get with the program.  I'm getting really tired of her.  Her voice is beginning to grate on my nerves.  Her mannerisms and sound bites are predictable and becoming irritating with their continuing vagueness and sameness.

I don't see her making any headway with the independents who aren't into her family values bit.  She can't win without a good portion of them.  As a flamboyant personality/celebrity has she reached her peak?  She has with me.

As serious Presidential material she isn't even on the chart.  Showmanship doesn't equate substance, intellect or ability.  Maybe the announced candidates aren't the most flashy of groups but most of them have something to offer.

Somehow blaming all our ills on those who don't agree with all the Conservatives are demanding and the "lame stream" media isn't a foundation for being able to govern.  And that is the thrust.  What I want to know is what she'd do in the middle east and other trouble spots.  China.  North Korea.  Has anyone heard one single word on any of it?

It's time.  Time to say something.  Or nothing.

The Joy Of Gardening And Other Generational Differences

I finally got around to reading an article Hub had printed out for me awhile ago.  It has the foreboding title of Standard and Poor's Downgrade and the Death of American Exceptionalism.

The contents reminded me of just what we've been doing for the last several days that has kept me away from the computer.  Working.  Hard.  For the pure pleasure of enjoying the end result.

Every spring we have a ritual.  We buy a myriad of bare root trees to plant on our acreage.  Our effort to reforest this dismal prairie.  We're tree people and shouldn't be here, but we are.  So we dig the holes, buy the trees, plant them and nurture them like children until they set down their roots.  It's exhausting, especially for folks our age with our variety of aches and pains.  Yet it's a good tired, one from a job well done and the pride that comes from watching our efforts flourish.

It ties in directly to the point of the article.  The generational difference between those of my own who grew up being taught to work for what we want, to earn it and then to enjoy the fruit of our efforts.  That work ethic let to American exceptionalism.

Now we are leaning to an entitlement mentality.  We want the government to do more and more for us.  Obviously the case with the resistance to change in medicare and social security.  Education.  With it comes the end of individualism, innovation and yes, our exceptionalism.  President Obama has made it clear time and again this is his vision for our country. But what happens when the money runs out? Our money. That's how it's paid for.  Our taxes and an ever increasing debt ceiling until no one will lend to us because the dollar no longer has any value.   Nor will the country.

We could have hired a landscaping firm come in and plant our trees.  They would even choose them I'm sure.  They'd be just as pleasing to the eye or would they?  We'd have a sense of detachment because it wasn't our effort, no matter how pleasing they may appear.  Yes, the landscapers would do their job and move on.  To get them back if a tree got sick would be nearly impossible.  We'd either have to educate ourselves on the care and maintenance or lose it.  After all, weren't we entitled to a job properly done even though we had no input as to how that should be?  No idea that recourse would be time consuming, probably less than satisfactory ~ and expensive?

It seems to be little different than giving up our individuality and independence to the government.  Like airline security where we allow ourselves to he herded like sheep and manhandled beyond all decency in the name of safety.  Like health care where decisions will be broad based  without considering individual needs.

Maybe we should all plant trees and gardens and learn all over again what exceptionalism feels like.  That puff of satisfaction that comes from a drooping plant that resuscitates. By our own skill, caring and possibly innovation.

My hands are dirty even though washed a thousand times.  It will take days to get all the dirt out from under my nails.  My back has felt better for sure.  But we got it done.  With a lot of laughter and good humor even as shovels  hit rock sending reverberations running through our spines.

I feel good.  I feel proud that we old folks still have it in us.  We'll have left our mark on our little bit of the prairie.  Our mark.  Not someone or something elses.  That's the only entitlement I want.  As a reward for our own exceptionalism.








  

Is Obama's Race Really To Blame?

Is racism going to rule the next presidential election?  I wonder, when House Assistant Democratic Leader, James Clyburn, who is black, still claims most of Obama's problems are because he' black.

I'm willing to accept that Mr. Clyburn is 70 years old and racism is part of his mind set.  What he grew up with.  What he's had to contend with.  But I dare say it is not the cause of Obama's problems.

I can say this with some basis because I am white and I voted for him.  I thought he was young and bright and like so many of us, failed to realize that he had too little experience in the world of politics.  His beliefs, which he kept pretty well under wraps, have been too liberal for my of our taste.


No, Mr. Clyburn.  Even with the birthers who for some reason desperately want to prove he was born in Kenya, are more concerned he's a closet Muslim than the fact he's half black.  It's not race.

As for the birth certificate issue?   McCain was asked to prove he was born in American territory and it was concluded that he was.

The chosen example of his face imposed on a chimpanzees body?  Actually, they did the same thing to Bush.

No, his problems are of his own making.  His dreadful lack of knowledge of protocol with foreign dignitaries and his apparent refusal to learn is the least of them. His past associations.  His missteps in foreign policy.  His "I won" attitude.  His unwillingness to work with the Republicans to force his own vision.

Yes, he won.  But he wasn't elected to change the country into his vision of it,  but  to better the peoples vision.

None has to do with racism.  I can only hope the advisers to the President in his upcoming campaign, don't think they can use race as their trump card.  It will set back all the progress, as imperfect as it may be, we've made, for generations.  A setback we as a country can ill afford and can so easily avoid by looking at the truth of the matter.  It is the man, his manner, his policies, or lack of them, that drive his poll numbers.  Not his race.

Rudy ~ Viable Or Past His Prime?

I was surprised to see Rudy Giuliani's name crop up as a potential presidential candidate when I was researching  a recent post.  But then I figured, why not?  It seems all sorts of have beens and never going to be's are emerging from the depths of obscurity.

Is he viable?  Last time around he was so sure of his chances that he barely entered the fray until the Florida primary,  finished third and was finished before he ever got started.

Now I read, in U.S. News and World Report , that he's plotting how to "knock off" Romney in the New Hampshire primary.  I wonder if he really has a chance.  Not to knock off Romney, but to gain any sort of traction.  His time of being the best mayor in American is long past and in many instances his poor choices in his personal life over shadow his questionable skill as a politician.

He strikes me as a man who doesn't like to lose.  That is certainly a common trait among politicians, but it isn't reason enough to run, whats more be elected.

He has apparently polled third in a poll run by Suffolk University.  I have to wonder if it is name recognition, fond memories of an image ten years old or desperation for a candidate by those polled.

He would not be on my list to be considered.  Since being in office, his shortcomings, once overlooked, have come to light.  There is again, his personal baggage. Baggage seems to be the norm rather than the exception any more, but never-the-less, it does matter to many.  Look at Newt.  Other than being too cute by half,  it's his personal life that is dogging him.

I also wonder how a potential candidate can poll well when nothing is known about his thoughts on today's issues.  I've not seen nor heard a thing.  He certainly won't appeal to the far right with his past stands on abortion and gay marriage though he would resonate with moderates.  Do those stands remain?  Who knows?

It's an interesting exercise at this point.  I see no loss in those who have chosen not to run and I see little to excite me in those who have.  The puzzlement is who else is out there?  I have thoughts on a few names being bandied about but I'll reserve comment until they make up their minds.  Even at that, the field is weak.  Though I'll admit John McCain did better in 2008 than I anticipated and he came from a weak field.  It certainly goes to show a lot of folks disagreed with my thoughts about him as well as my thoughts about Obama!

For the time being I'll stew over the state of the Republican party, worry about another four years under the current administration and wonder why a third party representing moderates doesn't seem to be able to take hold without a fringe group kidnapping them.

Ah, politics.  It is the bane of my existence!  If only I could come to grips with it I'd stop blogging!

We March To A Different Drummer

Whenever I get mad at the President for trying to mediocreize the country I'm encouraged when I see signs he's failing.

Take the instance of Dominique Strass-Kahn, the randy former head of the  International Monetary Fund. He was well known as a womanizer in France and was always given a pass, no doubt with a snicker hidden behind a hand.

When it comes to such behavior in this country by people of note the criticism is fast and furious even if prurient in nature.  Some men have been able to bluff it out, others are forced to resign.  In all cases that come to mind, the wife is the victim.  The other woman is not and we wonder what in the world the men were thinking.

Not so in France and other parts of Europe it would seem.  While we are aghast by DSK pursuing  a young maid in all his alleged splendid nakedness, the French are shouting set up!  I have to ask at this point, what in the world are the French thinking!

Realistically, I know.  Small matters like fidelity and common decency don't seem to matter, especially if the person is rich and powerful.  Think of how many men in this country might still be in positions of power without a smattering of disgrace for the way they've conducted their very public private lives if we thought like the French!

It seems to me if we can't understand the way the French think in a matter like DSK and a poor maid, how can we possibly understand the thinking militant terrorists who get satisfaction from stoning women to death and decapitating enemies?

I don't think we can.  That's why I think the TSA is on the wrong track.  We just don't have that mind set!  That's why I don't think the President can succeed in neutralizing this country as a leader.  We do have a high moral standard.  And we do actually exercise it.

It should be a point of pride for the country.  Morality does count.  No apologies necessary.  If you don't get it, well, in our eyes it's your loss, not ours.