The great paradox

"Forty-eight per cent of Americans did not feel the hand of history on their shoulders on Tuesday, in spite of everything." Martin Kettle - Guardian

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The great paradox surrounding Barack Obama's victory is that it would have been impossible without George W. Bush. Probably no other president in US history has been as "transformational" as Bush has.

The question that hangs over us now is whether Bush himself is the agent of this ghastly transformation, or merely history's delivery boy who has only handed over the package and stands after we have signed for it and have taken delivery... hoping for a tip.

I would lean toward a synthesis: if the chickens were straggling home to roost, Bush gave the hitchhiking chickens a lift in his SUV.

Most of us who have been little boys at one time or another remember that it is much easier to take apart a toy than to reassemble it without any pieces left over. That is now the task of the Democrats.

Right now we are enjoying the after glow, but from here on out I'm afraid it's all going to be "quod omne animal post coitum est triste". DS

Howard Dean: just our luck

"It is possible to be tough without filling Walter Reed with 12,000 wounded kids and then not taking care of them." Howard Dean

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I often have nice things to say about Al Gore... I confess to a weakness for Dennis Kucinich... But I am crazy about Howard Dean.

He is really the guy the right wingers fear. How can one tell? Fascists, and the American ultra-right and neocons aren't "conservatives" or anything like that, (if you take Robert Taft or Herbert Hoover as a conservative model), they are fascists... And as Sinclair Lewis predicted they come "wrapped in the flag and bearing the cross"... When fascists are frightened of anything they ridicule it cruelly, brutally, bullying... not humorously... bestially. Howard Dean is given that treatment, but Dean not only can take it, he can dish it out.... But as the quote above shows, his is the cruelty of truth. He is as tough as a boot and as game as a Jack Russell terrier. Just what is needed at the moment most needed. Maybe America's luck hasn't run out after all.

He has all the right enemies, even in his own party. Dean is working to make the Democratic party a true expression of its voter's values and not just a way of harnessing their votes in order to carry out the agenda of the big check writers. Howard Dean is one of the greatest democratic (with a small "d" or a capital "D") assets in American politics. DS

The New Dean Political Plan - The Politico
Abstract: When I asked him if Republicans would always be seen as tougher than Democrats when it came to national defense, he said: "It is possible to be tough without filling Walter Reed with 12,000 wounded kids and then not taking care of them." Dean went on: "Now that we have a real problem with Iran, there's not much we can do about it because of the president's incredible foolishness in running our armed forces through the gauntlet in Iraq, which wasn't necessary." He also said that having "the moral high ground" is part of defending the country. "A strong national defense depends on having well-trained troops and good weapons systems, but it also depends on having the moral high ground, and this president has given up the moral high ground around the world, and that's a disaster for the country's defense," Dean said. On the pending battle between the two parties on immigration reform, Dean said: "I think the Republicans have decided they don't want to do anything about immigration because they are scared. The best kind of immigration reform is a much better working relationship with Mexico. We will never solve immigration problems in this country without improving the Mexican economy dramatically." Dean is very concerned about world affairs and believes that after the November election in 2008, the president-elect should take a month off and travel the world to bolster America's image. "During the Cold War, we certainly had people who didn't like us, but they respected us," Dean said. "Now, unfortunately, they don't like us and they don't respect us. And that needs to be fixed. And I consider one of my informal jobs to help fix it with like-minded world leaders so we do have some relationships." Dean also said that the Bush administration's failure to cope with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina was a turning point for the country. "It destroyed George Bush's presidency," Dean said. "Permanently. The one thing that Americans and everybody else in the world have always believed, whether you like America or not, whether you like the government or not, is that the most organized, best managers in the world are the Americans. And if anything really, really awful happens, send in the Americans. And we all saw on television around the whole world, that this just wasn't true of this president and this government. It was just ludicrous. It's still ludicrous to this day." In his famous speech to the winter meeting of the Democratic National Committee in 2003, Dean, then a presidential candidate, upbraided the party for too much timidity and too much coziness with Republicans. "That's why Democrats didn't win for a long time," Dean said Tuesday. "Harry Truman said if you run a Republican against a Democrat who behaves like a Republican, the real Republican wins every time."(...) I asked Dean if he agreed with some in his party who say that things look so good for the Democrats in 2008, they virtually can't lose. "That is what I call magical thinking, and Democrats have been very guilty of it for a long time," Dean said. "I don't admire much about Republicans, but one thing I do admire is that they don't engage in magical thinking." Dean said that the Democratic Party is busy raising money and organizing in every state and that "we have a turnout operation that we think is better than the Republicans' now." "But winning is going to be hard work," Dean said. "This race is going to be won in 2007, not 2008. It is all going to be about how well you prepare." READ IT ALL

Al Gore: "We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; And we have done those things which we ought not to have done."

"There is a wild card. On Feb. 25, America will watch the Academy Awards, where the Oscar for best documentary will likely go to "An Inconvenient Truth." If Al Gore wins the Oscar, addresses the nation for two minutes on global warming and the war, then appears on Oprah, Leno, Letterman, Stewart and Colbert, a subsequent declaration of candidacy would put him in the top tier. " Pat Buchanan

David Seaton's News Links
The news about candidates now is mostly about how much money they are raising and how eager they are find correct positions and how much they want the job. It all has the flavor of a reality show, a talent contest, or something with Donald Trump; a slight flavor of Paris Hilton or "Little Miss Sunshine". This does not fit the political mood of the times. This is a very grave and deadly moment, colored by cynicism and war crimes, of doubt, failure and defeat... of betrayal of trust. Of regret.

One of America's biggest regrets must be that George W. Bush stole the 2000 election from Al Gore. If Gore had been sworn in instead of Bush, we know now that we wouldn't have invaded Iraq. Hillary, like Gore's running mate, Joe Lieberman, was all for the invasion of Iraq and would probably support military action against Iran. As for Barack Obama, he was an Illinois state senator at the time... he says he was against the war, but did he inhale?

Having something you want with all your heart, which you have won fairly, literally stolen from you is about as bitter an experience as any man or woman can face in life. I'll freely admit that I never really had any clear impression of Al Gore at all until I observed how he carried himself in "defeat". Gore's reaction showed no bitterness, anger or pettiness. America, with its horror of losing, has not learned what a wise and demanding master the pain of defeat is. Spaniards, who have long experience of both triumph and defeat, say that the bravery of a man is like the taste of a melon, until they are cut open, you don't know what is inside. So now we know two important things for sure about Al Gore: he wouldn't have started the war and that he has a strong heart. Do we really know much of anything of comparable value about any other candidate for the Democratic nomination?

In global warming Gore has found an issue of universal concern and has carved himself a universally recognized position as an authority on it. He did this quietly, patiently and methodically. Even if adopting global warming were only a strategy to recreate his political career, it is such a long headed strategy and so subtly executed that it would prove a capacity of analysis, judgment, self control and execution that have long been (longer than six years) missing from the White House. One thing for sure, Al Gore shouldn't have to beg for the presidency. We cannot turn back the clock or undo the harm undone, but there can be second acts in American life. DS