Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Brief Political Aside

All the face of the world is changed . .

Some thoughts, in no particular order:

* How many times do you think the phrase "and let the chips fall where they may" was used on JournoList over the last 48 hours?

* The Olympics. The Copenhagen climate summit. Corzine. Deeds. Coakley. That President Obama is one heck of a persuader. A master politician, even! Good thing he keeps his enormous persuasive powers bottled up and doesn't toss them around willy-nilly.

* Martha Coakley must be thinking to herself, Two years ago Al Franken wins while running as a hot-headed, leftist jerk against a serious Republican incumbent in a battleground state and the White House says this is my fault? Hey, D-Axe, I got two words for you: Suck it.

* How long until we're confronted with the terrible racism of the American people again? I mean, it was nice that it went away for a little while, but clearly, it's back. (It's not just the Mass. voters' rejection of Obama's health care plan--look at poor Harold Ford.)

* Let Obama be Obama? There's nothing in the president's background to suggest that he's going to change course, politically. Like George W. Bush, he's one of those fellows who always seems to luck into success. Like Bush, someone was always standing nearby waiting to give Obama a gold star and pass him along up the ladder. And I suspect that, like Bush, he unshakeably believes that one way or another things will work out just fine for him, because they always have in the past.

And they just might. After all, they worked out fine for Bush. Sure, President Bush shipwrecked his party, but he didn't pay any personal consequences for his failures. Other people picked up that check. Obama might be able to pull off the same feat.

* If Republicans would like to deny him a second term, however, one piece of advice: Do not win Congress in November!

This shouldn't be hard. As bad as things are for the Donks, Republicans probably have too much ground to make up in either chamber. But you never know. If, in late October, it looks like they might take the House (or even the Senate), some candidate should fall on his sword and claim a crippling addiction to crush videos or something, leaving the GOP just shy of a majority.

Update: This talk about Scott Brown running for president is ridiculous. Sure, he's been a state senator and now he's a U.S. Senator, but what kind of resumé is that? He hasn't even written one autobiography!

Update II: Boy, that was fast.

3 comments:

jjv said...

This is an outrageous, Keith Olbermanesque statement regarding George W. Bush. Was 9/11 lucky? Did he create it as Obama created Obamacare? Was it lucky to run against a seasoned politician, Al Gore, in economic good times, on the grounds of the economy and education (Democratic strong suits?). Was it lucky to be the neverending target of the entire national media and hollywood? Was it lucky to drive the surge forward in the teeth of Democratic opposition and Republican fear? As far as performance in tough circumstances Obama isn't fit to carry GWB's jock strap. GWB could not talk and loved big government too much but to compare him to Obama is to compare a scarred work horse to a skittish show horse.

Anonymous said...

jjv:

Dubya was REALLY lucky, throughout his political career.
1- His brother BARELY loses FL Gubernatorial race in 1994. Jeb wins that race, and HE's the nominee in 2000.
2- W gets to run against an unpopular Ann Richards in TX in 1994, setting him up to be the 2000 nominee.
3- In 2000 MORE PEOPLE VOTED FOR GORE! How is it not lucky that he ends up winning FL by a few hundred votes, a state that is run by his little brother. I believe he won fair and square, but it was lucky, DAMN lucky. If FL was run by Dems in 2000, no chance Bush wins.
4- The Dems ignore almost a half-century of trends and nominate John Kerry, who then picks John Edwards as veep, who were both incompetent and not ready for prime time. I could have defeated Bush in 2004, anyone could have. The Dems nominated one of the few people who was guaranteed to lose to Bush.

So yeah, Bush was POLITICALLY very lucky. Jeb, on the other hand, has had no luck. Which is a shame, he's the Bush we deserved, W is the Bush we got.

Judith said...

I'll buy that W. is lucky, but I think he paid plenty, with the nonstop, venomous smearing and ridicule from the Left which was transmitted into the mainstream media - all of the Bushitlerchimp stuff. I assume W. has a thicker skin than I do, but still...it's got to be tough.

and, btw, as to luck - I think it was the U.S. that got lucky that W was in office on 9/11 & not Gore - and that's not to defend his entire record, by any means.