Election 2008: The Plot Thins

And then there were four...

I suppose it was inevitable that Rudy Giuliani would bail out. This guy’s got more baggage than Paris Hilton on safari. For the Republicans to consider taking him seriously would be to throw all of their own Lewinsky-era morality into serious doubt. Simply put, you cannot be the party that supposedly champions “Family Values” and nominate a guy who’s on his third marriage. Incidentally, we may want to keep this logic Tupperware-fresh, just in case Newt Gingrich ever decides to count on our collective amnesia and make a run for the White House.

The one I’m sorry to see go is Edwards. Call me naïve, but I was really buying into his man-of-the-people pitch. It didn't hurt that there were no small reminders of JFK there, what with the youthful enthusiasm and all. I suppose his surrender marks the official end of hope that we can usurp the Status Quo, even if we manage to elect a woman or a black man to the Presidency. I think that Edwards would still do well to serve, perhaps as Attorney General? I can just see Big Oil and Big Insurance reaching for their collective antacids at the mere thought.

Which leaves Clinton, Obama, Romney, and McCain. The four horsemen (gender notwithstanding) of the Electoral Apocalypse are upon us, ladies and gentlemen, and until we have certainty which two of the four will go head-to-head, it behooves us to examine the merits of each choice.

Let’s start with the Republicans.

McCain is fun, if for no other reason than because he pisses off the neoconservatives as badly as he does. To see Ann Coulter threaten to vote for Hillary before she’d vote for McCain was just plain surreal. He is portrayed as weak on immigration, which as far as I can tell translates into the notion that he doesn’t hate Mexicans enough. And this comes as no surprise: the man is a Senator from a state that borders Mexico (and New Mexico, for that matter). More than any representative from a non-border state, he has a much more intimate knowledge of the impact of Mexican immigrants. His state, comparatively speaking, is riddled with Mexicans, both here legally and otherwise. And he understands what he needs to understand about Mexicans: that they are not a threat. Too many of the right wing voices would have us thinking that we are at war with Mexico, and they are sending in troops disguised as day laborers to subvert white culture and force our children to speak Spanish. McCain, to his credit, doesn’t fall for the xenophobia these people try to instill. He does believe that our immigration laws need to be enforced, and more importantly that the laws need to be re-examined and amended to work in a 21st Century America. For that, he is charged with being weak on immigration, a charge which sounds suspiciously like a McCarthy-era “communist sympathizer” ploy. On the war issue, we have here a candidate who actually served in the military, even being captured and kept as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. This gives him a unique perspective among most Republicans when it comes to the questions of Guantanamo Bay and the general use of torture in our so-called War on Terror. Again, he is portrayed as soft on the issue, not towing the party line, which seems to be “kill ‘em all, let God sort ‘em out.” Of the two Republican candidates, he is the one I would be less likely to move to Canada over.

Romney: I must confess, he is the candidate I know the least about. He’s been governor of Massachusetts, a state which led the way on the gay marriage issue. How this didn’t sink his campaign from the get-go, I’ll never know. The mere fact that he is from New England, which is notoriously blue, casts serious aspersions on his prospects to get the nomination. To compensate for this, he comes out as being tough on terrorists, strong on family, friendly to big business, and anti-abortion. True, he is a Mormon, and while this chafes the collective ass of the Christian Conservative movement on the right wing, he is at least some kind of religious. And although it’s not the WASP version, the Bible thumpers will eventually settle with him, as any port in a storm will do. Then there are his looks: he is a good looking guy, but in a slick politician way. Something about him reminds me of every villain from every Steven Seagal movie ever made. The whole thing makes me a bit uneasy.

Which brings us to the Democrats.

I’ll start with Hillary. Part of me is afraid NOT to vote for her, as I’ll no doubt be accused of sexism. For the record, I would love to see a woman in the White House. Those who think a woman can’t be in charge of a country. I have two words for you: Margaret Thatcher. Or we could always reference Irish President Mary McAleese, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Golda Meir, Indira Gandhi, Eva Peron, and so on. Also she is a Clinton, which for me is both a reason to vote for her, and a reason to not vote for her. First, let me say that I was a huge fan of Bill Clinton. While I can’t give my blessing to everything he did, I believe he did more good for this country than any president in the last fifty years. He fixed the huge deficit run up by Reagan and Bush the Father, he brought welfare levels down to their lowest levels in over thirty years, he managed to keep us safe, except for that little scrape in 1993 where some nut blew up a van underneath the World Trade Center. (And on that topic, let’s just say that the people responsible for that attack are currently in jail, having been tried and convicted. I’ll bet Bush the Son wishes he could say the same about the people who attacked the World Trade Center on his watch. But I digress.) When Clinton left office we weren’t at war and we had a budget surplus. If Hillary gets elected, I can take comfort in the fact that Bill Clinton, while not President, will have the opportunity to advise the President in ways no one else will. If there was anyone I could choose to hold sway over the President, it would be someone who knows how to do the job right. But if she is elected, that will mean we will have dedicated twenty years of our nations leadership to two families, the Bushes and the Clintons. The thought that comes to mind is “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. My wish is that whoever is in charge is not drunk with power, but the truth is that kind of legacy is almost too much power to give such a small group of people. There’s also the fact that Hillary voted in favor of the war and the Patriot Act. This does not bode well for her.

And finally we come to Barack Obama. If elected he will be the black man (half black, whatever) to be President. As a white guy, I don’t feel the least bit threatened by this. The fact that his middle name is Hussein is a thorn in the side of neocons everywhere. It’s as if they believe that upon taking the oath of office, he’ll immediately wrap himself in a turban and declare himself the Twelfth Imam. Fantasies aside, it cannot help but improve our ability as a nation to reach out the Islamic nations of the world by having a man in charge that actually spent time as a boy in a Muslim schools. Even if the man were a die-hard Muslim, I still feel it would only help us in international relations. The truth is, most Islamic nations feel estranged from the United States. They feel that America just doesn’t get it, and they’ve got a point. We swagger around on the world stage in our best John Wayne mode, declaring ourselves the New Sheriff in Town and insisting that white Christian Capitalism is the manifest destiny of the planet, and labeling those who disagree as trouble. American tourists are not welcome in much of the world, and it’s no wonder. Personally, I would love to visit places in the Muslim world, but as an American I know what I would represent to the locals. Having a man in charge who would make ending the war in Iraq a top priority is exactly the kind of leadership we need to re-establish our reputation.

I believe that in making a choice in this election, we must first establish what our priorities are. What is important to us, nationally and internationally? Which problems need fixing, and who is the best qualified to fix them? What would we like to see different? For me, the top concern is the war; end it already. On that alone, I will be giving my support to Obama. I believe he is the most committed to resolving the war quickly, and since Hillary voted for the war in the first place, I question her dedication to that goal. Add your comment: who would you vote for, and why?