Saturday, October 25, 2008

McCain: a random clarification

David Seaton's News Links
I am so eternally skeptical of Barack Obama's attainments and so insistent on the subject, that there are people that think I favor John McCain. This is not so.... I am just horrified by the choice. I really am. I felt and still feel that the only major American politician with the vision, bandwidth and experience necessary to bring the USA through the next eight years is and was that boring, old, Nobel Prize winner, Al Gore.

In short, I haven't got a dog in this fight.


As to McCain. I think John McCain is a very good senator and should stay in the senate... I'm not sure that Obama is that good a senator because he hasn't been there (or anywhere else) long enough to really tell, so I think he should stay there as well... at least long enough to find out.

And as someone who grew up in that state, I would have loved to have seen Barack Obama run for President after eight years as governor of Illinois. Lately most of the governors of Illinois go to jail... If Obama could have run a tight ship in Springfield without getting covered with dung, I would be sure that he could handle the viper's nest that is and always has been, the White House.

I do think it is unfair to say that McCain is Bush... I don't think anybody could equal Bush's insane and destructive incompetence. If Bush has become the measuring stick, probably Joe the plumber could do the job as well as anyone.

I remember once many years ago sitting on the terrace of a bar overlooking the rugged coast of Spain. I was nursing a drink and watching the tiny cars miles away as they zipped around the hairpin turns on the cliffhanging coastal highway... the others at the table were engrossed in conversation with their backs to the sea and I was the only one watching the distant road. My attention was drawn to a small Mini Cooper that was coming down the mountain way too fast... my friends were all looking in my direction and talking as the tiny car, miles away, crashed through a guard rail and hurtled some 500 feet into the Mediterranean... I was the only one who saw them die... all my friends suddenly were staring at me as I vomited all over the table.

I feel a bit like that now. DS

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes, the contenders are possibly not up to the challenge, but I doubt that at this point Al Gore is either, and if we can give him credit for something, he knew it 18 months ago.
As to your nausea: the car came around the corner in 2000 and went over the rail in 2001. It is a bit late now to register alarm.
The house of cards collapsed politically long ago, and with this week's Apologia by Al "Maestro" Greenspan, it can be confirmed that no analysts are left that doubt the money lacuna we are falling into. Long ago, perhaps in 1968, the emotional and spiritual vacuum of America the Beautiful set in, so, despite the professional thespianism of the Reagan Presentation, it really hasn't been Morning in America since perhaps 1963.
Now, I am not saying that there have not been similar periods of desperation and philosophical wandering before in the Great Republic {The Civil War and Reconstruction come to mind} and I am not saying that the US won't pull out of this mess one day, and possibly sooner, rather than later, but what I do want to emphasize is that this catastrophe is an event long in the making, foretold, and fatalistically accepted or blindly ignored, depending upon one's manner of facing the grotesque, and now that the discussions are over and the struggle for survival is commencing, let us not delude ourselves into thinking that help is on the way from any quarter.
We are all, worldwide, in a very bad way, and the US President, no matter who that person is, can't readily make the process of renaissance a simple one. I believe, based on history, there make be some Dark Ages ahead of us before any Enlightenment arrives.
Anyone out there that is expecting help from the governments and financial entities of the world, it is time now to examine that concept honestly. I would also suggest that it is time to behave as if one were expecting an invasion {no matter where you live in the world} and a natural disaster accompanied by the utility and service and supply breakdowns that these events typically occasion. Patiently, calmly and deliberately begin now to understand how you would act in such a situation in order to survive and begin right now to complete all of your preparations.
Where I live we are always prepared for hurricanes, and a great deal of the type of preparation I am speaking about is very similar. Recently I saw a headline that asked "Is It Time to Become a Survivalist?" Perhaps one should contemplate the obvious alternative.

David Seaton's Newslinks said...

RC,
I think we won't have to go out and buy an AK-47 and live off roots and berries. I imagine we are headed for either socialism or fascism, but big, big government whatever it is.

Anonymous said...

I'm not buying the AK or eating just roots and berries, but I would rather not have to get on the socialist or fascist bandwagon if I could avoid it. Having food growing contributes to that, and not really needing much from a government weakens any argument they might have to encourage mass psychology.

David Seaton's Newslinks said...

Terrifyingly, if you wish, we are completely social animals, totally interdependent... we can run, but we can't hide.