Bad News For Joe

I cannot help but wonder how the human mind works.  The ballots have barely been counted and the sparring between the two parties continues at full speed.  The new term is still a couple  of months away and the mess of the one finishing up is getting worse by the minute.

David Petraeus has resigned because of an affair?  The Benghazi mess is still unexplained.  Iran is taking target practice at our drones and the President is getting ready to flit off to Myanmar while political bickering in the Northeast is preventing life from getting back to some semblance of normal.

Nothing unexpected.  I do wonder if anyone will have buyer's remorse before this term is over but knowing what I now know about the intellect of the American electorate, I doubt it.

Some things, however, pay no mind and merrily go on their way.  Pollsters. Public Policy Polling is already looking at 2016.  Please!  I had a look anyway and offer my thoughts.

Leading the pack are Hillary Clinton and Chris Christie.  Sorry Joe. You'll have to get rid of Hillary!

It's way too early in the game, but if the election were being held today, which the pundits love to say, this is how I see it.  Hillary is toast because of her involvement in the Benghazi affair.  One of her own was murdered and they have yet to get a story they can agree on as to how and why it happened. She took responsibility early on and now owns it.

Chris Christie is toast not only because of his weight being a potential health issue but because of his cozying up with Obama.  When he personally congratulates the President on the phone yet commiserates with his own candidate by e-mail one could question where his loyalty lies and his judgement.

Actually this is kind of fun because it doesn't mean a thing.  2016 is a long way off.  Some  who showed well in this poll are people who've made it clear they aren't interested.  There are some surprises too, heartening to me, of those who were deemed unfavorable.  On the Republican side Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum.  Those folks are all considered 'true' conservatives which means social issues are foremost on their agendas.

On the Democratic side several want-to-be's trailed Biden including Andrew Cuomo, Elizabeth Warren and Deval Patrick.

It leaves me wondering if we're doomed before we even get to the gate!  One is already headed to Iowa for a fund raiser - Marco Rubio.  He might think twice about jumping the gun though.  I can remember candidates who practically lived in Iowa and literally failed in the first round.  Chris Dodd comes to mind.  Rick Santorum is another. Jon Huntsman tried it in New Hampshire.

Oh well, while I'm wiling away the unpredictable I might as well invest in some wishful thinking.  A Republican Party that finds itself or a totally new party for the likes of me and some new names who have not yet been contaminated by the hand of political expediency. I can dream, can't I? 

Past, Present and Future

Well, I'm back from my travels, and yes, Tommy, we did 'get out of dodge' because we couldn't take election politics anymore.

But, as you said, it's over now and I am back with a few thoughts.  I had hoped Romney could pull it out but am not surprised he didn't. Consider his history in that department.  He couldn't wrest the nomination from McCain four years ago.  Had he learned from that he may have won, but as so many do, he surrounded himself with loyalists who did not serve him well.  I think his Mormonism was the least of his problems.  More that he never learned to connect with the people and didn't define himself before the opposition did. People had no idea what he was about until it was too late and even then for whatever reason he let opportunities to get the upper hand slip through his fingers.

As for we voters, we're certainly a mixed bag.  There are those of us who tried to look at the complete range of issues.  We are a definite minority.  Too many voted on single issues but we've become, in many ways, a single issue nation.  For some it's getting something free like a cell phone.  Others forgiveness of student loans.  Free birth control. Each special interest group was wooed with some specific. We are supposedly the land of the free but I don't think this is what the founding fathers had in mind.

In many ways I think the Republicans gave the election to Obama rather than Obama winning it. They had a weak field and weak candidates.  They are a party divided and I see no sign of that changing.  what was left of the Republican Party I once believed in and belonged to died with the Romney candidacy.  Moderates are no longer welcome. If the ultra conservative wing continues to insinuate themselves into how people conducttheir private lives they will alienate me even further - if that's possible.  At this point there is no party to which I can belong.

As for the next four years I see little changing.  The Congressional Democrats are already swaggering and threatening and claiming a mandate.  I don't think so.  The election was too close for that to wash.  Everything is status quo which means a weaker and weaker economy, more people out of work and health care in chaos.

The lack of a foreign policy remains.  Our adversaries now know who will be at the helm  and that the military will be weakened by budget cuts.  Pair that with a President who sees things as he wants them to be rather than as they really are encourages those adversaries to do as they will. Our people overseas, both military and civilian, have good reason to wonder if our government has their back as well do our allies.  To ignor the implications of our foreign policy or lack thereof is done at peril.

To me there is much more to being a strong leader than having celebrity status, an adequet golf game and NBA stars to play hoops with.  It's more than bashing the opposition and pandering to special interests. It's more than photo ops with a Republican governor or seeming more like 'us'.  One should be expected to actually produce results.  It no longer matters what was 'inherited'. Under new ideas, Obama's, if they were working, things would not be barely holding steady or continuing to decline.

Whether or not I'll see things differently as Obama moves forward with his agenda depends on whether or not he and his people are willing to work with those who represent the other half of the nation - those who did not vote for him.  It would require a complete change of character for a man not known for being interested.

There Are No Super Heros, Only Flawed Mortals

This will be my last post until after the election.  My ballot has been cast and I'm headed out of the country.  I cannot leave without a few final thoughts.

If Mitt Romney should win, we really have no idea of what we'll be getting.  I am relatively sure he is for less government and regulation.  He does understand how America became great and how important the private sector, business, is to that end.  I believe he is a good man but I have no idea how strong he would be in the face of an uncooperative Congress.  Can he make good on what he's promised any more than Obama could?  It's hard to say since many of them were made for political expediency.  The same holds true for Obama.

If Obama should win I foresee a continuation of what we are currently facing.  A sluggish economy, a muddled foreign policy, bigger and bigger government and the diminished rights that come with it.  A debt that continues to grow though we're perilously close to our borrowing limit which will bring with it the slow and agonizing  process of shutting down.

I see Barack Obama as a caring husband and father.  I do not see him as a good President because of his unwillingness or inability to see beyond his own wants and beliefs, with which I mostly disagree. It has nothing to do with what he inherited.  In four years time there should be at least a modicum of progress.  Not the stalemate we have. But then I'm not really sure he wanted progress.  It curbs the need for massive government.

I voted for Obama four years ago.  I chose not to my homework but bought in to the hope and change mantra even when it was shown to be the antithesis of what I believed.  I believed he would be a better choice than McCain, Hillary or any of the others.  I wanted to believe in him and it was easy because he was an unknown.  I could create whatever I wanted and place it into that empty suit.

He has turned out not to be a super hero but merely a man.  He is flawed like all of us.  So is Mitt Romney, just a man. And flawed.

What their motivations for running happen to be is a good question.  What drives their teams to the lowest depths of deceit and decency is a good question.  If it isn't for the good of the country, is it merely for the power?  For their egos?  To complete their life's agenda? Whatever it is, I'm left feeling uncomfortable.  Because it seems more about them than us.

I wonder what manner of man allows such in their name because it does come down to the individual.  There was a time I thought America was better than this, but that was before I delved into the politics of politics.

I wonder how a country can be great when those elected come to office on promises they don't hold sacred nor, even if they did, have a reasonable chance of keeping.  I wonder how a country can be great when those elected are more interested in their own private agenda than ours.

I wonder how a country can be great when the world thinks less and less of it and its leaders won't acknowledge the truth of it and work to remedy it.

I wonder how a country can be great when its people and press turn a blind eye and deaf ear to it.

I'll be monitoring the results from afar,  reading the reactions of a foreign press.  It will be interesting to see if friends will be commiserating with us or congratulating us.  It's good, sometimes, to have a first hand look at how others perceive us.  What better time than next Wednesday?

Mitt, Why?

With the election nearly upon us, I'm astounded by the continuing evidence of bad judgement.  I surmise it's the single most reason the polls show it to be nearly even.  It shouldn't be.  Well, that's not true.  Both parties have morphed into something beyond recognition from what they were not so many years past. When it was about country, not individual.  Both parties have stretched truth to the breaking point.  The last thing anyone needs is a flash point.

So what happens?  A flash point.  This time from the Romney camp and his ad about Jeeps and China.  Technically the ad does not lie.  Fiat did buy Chrysler including the Jeep division.  And yes, they are going to put a Jeep production line into China.  That is a far cry from moving Jeep to China costing American jobs.  Unless you expect Fiat, an Italian company, to build Jeeps for the Chinese market in the U.S.  From a business perspective, it makes no sense.  Manufacturing costs here are higher, thank the unions.  Plus the cost of shipping the Jeeps overseas. Plus it's not even an American company, per se, any more!

It's like me and my KIA.  It's a Korean automobile but it's made in the States for our market and employs untold numbers of Americans.  Cost effective?  Well, we could afford one.

Is the misleading ad working for Romney?  Who knows, but was it necessary to mislead?  Who knows.  You could say fair is fair considering all the trash put out by both campaigns but at this point I think the voters are numb to it.  At least I am.

I'd like to think in these last few days the closing arguments would be about whose vision of    how the country should be managed would be of utmost importance, but no.  It seems we'll go down to the wire seeing who is the most effective manipulator of facts. With four days left, will the Democrats have one last flash point to offer up?  With Biden it's possible.  Will the Republicans?  I wouldn't be at all surprised.  No one seems to know when to hold 'em or fold  'em.

I expect a post election mess with voting irregularities already in evidence.  It may well be Thanksgiving before we know who won.

At least we'll then have something to be thankful for.  It will finally be over.  Until the next time.

I Am So Ashamed Of My Generation!

It's one thing when a political ad utilizes a group of children singing about the America we can expect if Mitt Romney wins.  The lyrics are vile and the parents who allowed their children to be used in this manner need some serious scrutiny.

It's another thing when a hot young comic likens voting for the first time to having sex the first time.  The President is supposedly "cool" and this ad was targeted at the young hoping to perpetuate the myth.  It wasn't very Presidential but "Presidential" behavior has gone by the way side long ago.

The one that really irritates me is Michael Moore's latest for the Move On organization.  A Message from the Greatest Generation.  That would be me and mine.  Filmed in a nursing home, it shows reason why many of we elderly will fight, literally to the death, to stay out of one.  It is wrought with vulgarity aimed at the Republicans in general and Mitt Romney in particular.

Now I understand not agreeing with either.  But to stoop to this to deliver a message?  They obviously think they are being clever and cute.  I thing they are being rude and vulgar and I'm embarrassed for them, myself and the generation they claim to represent.

They don't represent me.  Unlike the kids, they knew exactly what they were doing. The question is why?  What did Michael Moore promise them?  Was there anything more than the chance to be on television?  Is that in of itself a good enough reason?

As I age I find myself fighting patronization.  It happens more and more the more my appearance belies my age.  But I don't have to like it and I don't have to invite it.  Do we no longer expect to be respected by those younger than ourselves?  Or our peers for that matter?

That Michael Moore has no respect for you is also obvious.  He who supposedly stands for the little guy yet hasn't the discipline to push away from the table which he must sit at quite a bit is making a mockery of you.  And with you all the rest of us.

It's the time of year the news is filled with scams being perpetuated on seniors.  Are we as a generation no longer able to recognize them?  Or are we just greedy.  The chance for something easy.  Money.  Fifteen minutes of fame in a television commercial which will have run it's course by next Tuesday.  No wonder we're patronized so often.

You should be ashamed. You make us look like doddering old fools.  But maybe this is how you've always been.  Mean spirited and foul mouthed.  When it's bemoaned so many seniors have no visitors once in a home, it isn't hard to see why.  Often it's said they're mean and no one wants to spend time with them.  It's said if they are a mean old person they were probably a mean young person.  Amen to that but it's still inexcusable.