John Or Hillary ~ Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda

So Hillary Clinton is the most popular national figure in America.  I've even heard there has been a movement for her to challenge Obama in a primary.  She could, you know.  And probably win because all her fans would come out in force.  But I doubt she will unless things get far worse than they already are.  She's too good a soldier.

Hindsight being 20/20, I do believe either she or McCain would have been the better President.  Both look at the country more like most of us.  They'd be trying to strengthen it from the damage done before rather than trying to change it to match an ideology of mediocrity.

Neither would have even thought about leading from behind.  Actually I think McCain could have beaten Obama had it not been for Sarah Palin.  She was a great good ole gal cheerleader, but her obvious lack of knowledge on all things global scared most of us to death.  It still does.

But Hillary.  I know how much I ranted that being the wife of a President doesn't necessarily qualify her to step into his shoes.  Back to hindsight, having had Bill's back for so many years through so many experiences certainly  educated her as to how the game should be played successfully.

The biggest complaint I remember hearing was having another 'two fer' and Bill in the White House as, to borrow from Palin, 'first dude.' It probably wouldn't have been all that bad. Just as she had been his advisor all those years, he'd then have been hers.  He probably
is though we don't hear about it.

She doesn't have his charisma or charm. The 'aw shucks' persona to which we seem to be so drawn.  It wouldn't work for a woman anyway.  Consider Palin. It's fine, again, for a cheerleader, but not a woman dealing in what is mostly a man's world.

Yep.  Hillary can hold her own with world leaders.  Obama isn't doing so well.  She has across the board appeal if somewhat strident.  That could be perceived as strength in a woman.  She'd bow to no one.

She's still a Democrat and I certainly am not enamoured with their policies these days.  Yet I'd guess her emphasis would have been elsewhere, she'd have addressed the economy and the jobs problem long before now and perhaps best of all Nancy Pelosi would not have run roughshod over her.

Ahhh, hindsight.  McCain is alive and well and little different than he was before he ran.  My worries about his age and health seem to have been misplaced.  Considering Palin would probably not have had the role as she would have wanted it to be, McCain would have approached matters far differently and he could have vetoed anything the Democratic congress tried to force feed us.

But what's past is past.  What's current is current.  Why is it I feel like I'm in the middle of a pool of quick sand?

Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Obama

I've concluded I need to pay a lot of attention to temperment while studying the candidates.  I'm wondering how many don't have the temperment to be President.

Mr. Obama seems more and more to be just such.  He morphs into different personalities.  Joe Cool to Mr. Hyde with a few others inbetween!  Will the real Obama please stand up?

It's hard to find anything amusing with the country in it's current state and getting worse, but I do get a kick out of Obama and his jobs bill.  All of a sudden we're in a crisis and this bill has to be passed as is!  The bridges are going to collapse.  The sky is falling.

Where the heck has he been for the past three years?  Two of which he had  both the House and the Senate.  He might have noticed we were in crisis mode had he stuck around the White House and communicated with Congress rather than running the longest re-election campaign in recent history!

After three years I don't think he yet understands what the President is supposed to do.  Lead.

Now all of sudden he wants everything his way.  A lot of the mess we're facing wouldn't be so bad had he been paying attention and willing to do the very thing he's accusing Republicans of refusing to do.  Negotiate and compromise.

Yes, we do need to take action to get people back to work.  It isn't going to happen over night, unfortunately. But bullying and threatening Congress isn't exactly the way I'd go about getting their co-operation.  He did the same thing with Obamacare.  It seems to be his manner. His way or no way.  He doesn't realize he "won" because of Bush fatigue. That is not a mandate for his policies.  Leading and dictating are not synonymous!  That's what I mean about temperment. I just don't think he gets it.

Consider how long he's been complaining about how he inherited everything from Bush.  Well, maybe some of it.  I won't argue that, but where has he been since?  Letting business continue as usual.

Let's face it, his bill isn't going to get passed without scrutiny and changes.  Congress is going to be Congress and do things the way they always do - contentiously and slow. The television debates are giving us nothing about the Republicans that indicates they have a handle on solutions.  They are, however, doing a great job of making themselves look unworthy and incapable of the job. The Tea Party and the right wing conservatives aren't helping matters any with their demands.

My crystal ball says the future isn't looking good.  Perhaps the cool spell that's coming will also cool my frustration with our leadership. Or it may just chill me to the bone.

Forty Two Years And Counting...

We had our first child, you see.  Never mind that it was a Saint Bernard puppy.  We did what was expected of us.  We got married.   September 12, 1969.

Now, forty two years, four Saint Bernards, two mutts and untold numbers of fish later, we are still chugging along.  The years have been good to us, really.  We both are in good health if you discount the aches and pains that come with five acres and seventy some years!

We've still enough pride to struggle with our weight.  Our hair is thinner and lacking for color. We have our own teeth and can hear just fine.  We've finally matured enough to know what's important and to not apologize for our opinions whether or not people agree with us.  We still pursue life with zest. We still dine at the table every night, fashionably late if going out and dress for the occasion when few others do.  It's a standard of living, you see.

I could not have asked more from a husband than I've received.  One's confidence in the goodness of a person, the generosity, giving and caring becomes pretty easy after forty two years.

It's not that there weren't rough times.  Oh yes.  We are both terribly strong willed individuals and we've had some dandy battles of those wills.  But somewhere deep within we knew when to call a truce and actually listen to each other and talk things through.  That too comes easily after forty two years.

I have been married to this man longer than I had been alive when we first married.  That idea still astounds me.  Sometimes couples grow apart after years of marriage.  We've grown closer.  We share so many interests we've entwined our lives around one another.  It's comfortable.  It's predictable.  It's marriage.   Forty two years of it, and counting...

A Timely Anniversary

I've always thought the simplicity of the twin beacons, shooting heavenward with a burst of light at the top, reflected from the clouds, shouting to the world "We will always be here and we shall persevere!" would be the most fitting memorial to what America had been prior to 9/11/2001.

It also , to me, represents those who were lost and the untimely journey they were forced to take - heavenward.

I listen to all the remembrances of that day.  I have my own, though hardly dramatic.  I am reminded of the heroics preformed, of which the NYFD as a group and Todd Beamer as an individual have become the iconic symbols.  As the years have passed I also add our men and women in uniform, making a trilogy.  The sacrifices they have made after the fact are still being made to this day.

But whatever happened to America?  Remember how the country pulled together?  Congress, as one, singing 'God Bless America' on the steps of the Capitol?

There was a bit of governmental arrogance that allowed 9/11 to happen.  Those owners of private flight schools who tried to report questionable students who were ignored.  Security agencies who wouldn't share information and sources.  Then all of a sudden it all came together.

Then, as time passed, the objective of justice became muddied.  We expanded our horizons beyond 9/11 and created a monster that still has us in it's clutches. Add to that totally unrelated circumstances, we've become a nation divided on just about everything.  Just look at  Congress and the administration.  They're going at one another like banshees. It's time for it to stop.

So why is this anniversary so timely?  Because it is as vivid a reminder as we can get as to just what and who Americans are.  Those fireman would still have rushed into the inferno whether or not they had been members of a union.  Those young men and women offered themselves up for combat because they believed in our country and what we're supposed to represent.

Todd Beamer and those who were with him represent the selflessness of Americans as a whole.  I see it on a daily basis in our community.  Simple things in comparison, perhaps.  Like the community coming forward to buy a new bike for a youngster who had his stolen the very day he bought it.  Small.  Yes.  But selfless.  That's who the true people American people are.

On this anniversary of 9/11 perhaps it's time for the government to be more reflective of the people it represents rather than the other way around.  Look at those beacons.  Shining brightly for the world to see.  We rose from the rubble.  We're here.  We shall persevere.  Don't ever, ever doubt it.

Watching A Presidency Crumble

I had hoped for more from the President last evening.  I think most Americans did.  He succeeded in the one thing at which he excels. The ability to scold and veil threats.

Also to leave out substance.  It doesn't take a student of politics to know that short term fixes are not the way to generate confidence.  It leaves nothing more than the uncertainty employers and lenders already have, not to mention the rest of us in dire straits.   There was no talk of eliminating crippling regulations or making changes in the taxing structure permanent, or at least long term.

An admonishment of the union thugs in Washington state cutting brake lines and ruining cargo would have been nice.  An admonishment of Jimmy Hoffa's rhetoric toward the Tea Party would have been nice too.  But no.  He just pointed his finger at Congress.  True, they are culpable, both parties, yet he refused to acknowledge his lack of leadership as part of the problem.

One thing I have to give him and his like minded cohorts credit for, if credit is the word.  They truly think their way is the right way.  Why else would they cling to an ideology that has been proven, time after time after time, not to work?

If the Republicans get their act together and actually nominate someone who can beat Mr. Obama, I will in a very sincere way, be sad.  I believed Obama to be one of the best and the brightest of his generation regardless of race.  I didn't ask enough questions nor probe more deeply.  It was a disservice to him.  We voters elevated him, in our dreams, above his level of competence.  We've gotten in return a portrait of bull headedness and naievity that has had no equal in Presidential politics in recent times.

What's even more sad is that the Republicans seem to have taken little from the lesson in front of us.  The right wing ideologues are holding the party hostage to a one sided dialog with no wiggle room.

Someone needs to break free, someone who we can have faith in because they have an actual record, someone who will tell it like it is and let the consequences fall where they may.

Actually there are those trying to do so.  The media is paying them little if any mind.  Why are we allowing them to dictate the terms?  They too are holding us hostage to their ideology.

If it works we'll be seen as a nation of sheep without a shepard.  Talk about the fleecing of America!