Musing on the presidential race.

I’m pretty happy right now.

I just finished watching Joe Biden’s speech and Biden pretty much hit all his marks. I was happy when I heard the news that Obama had picked Biden as his running mate because I thought it was a good choice and offset a lot of what people perceive as his weaknesses.

Even as I watched Biden’s speech though, I have been somewhat alarmed of late.

As I have said many times in the past, I’m registered Republican but, I fervently believe it is not a smart thing to vote strictly along party lines as opposed to the merits of individuals running for office. I’m proud of the fact I never cast a vote for Georgie Jr. As a Republican, I have been sorely disappointed by the decisions and actions his administration has taken over the last 8 years.

Mind you, I don’t lay the blame for September 11th squarely at the feet of GW as a lot of his detractors do. Nor do I find it entirely unreasonable we went into Iraq to correct an earlier foreign policy gaffe. I’m not happy with the way the war has been executed but it is disingenuous to state Saddam wasn’t a bit of a worry. Contrary to what people would have you think, we had been f*#*ing around in Iraq for the last decade so, actually changing the situation instead of merely lobbing bombs into the country was a decidedly better policy. I don’t think masking it behind the threat of Al Queda was a smart thing either; lying to the American people is never a good idea.

The thing that has truly bothered me about Georgie is the wild spending. The spending so totally out of control and which has left this nation ill-equipped to deal with the realities facing us as we move forward into a new century.

I’ve been having discussions with a variety of people over the last few weeks because the topic of the election comes up. People are talking about it. It’s something that’s important to us as Americans.

A couple of things have bothered me though.

First off, if the Democrats do in fact lose the election in November, they really have no else but themselves to blame.

Why?

Well, there are a couple of reasons but first and foremost, no one can really admit to being happy with the actions and policies of the current administration. This goes for Democrats and Republicans alike. I haven’t heard too many people say good things about the two terms of GW. There was a time when people justified the invasion of Iraq by stating we would enjoy lower gas prices but people are so sore now it’s hard to sit down and they can see the failure in that logic.

Second, there’s that HRC factor.

It seems the Clintons really have never come out (although I will admit the last few days have done something to dispel a bit of that feeling) and put their full and unconditional support behind Barack Obama. If I was a Democrat I would be somewhat pissed.

I was listening to WNYC last week and I have to admit to being amazed, listening to HRC supporters call in to discuss whether or not they are willing to vote for Barack Obama. One guy actually said he would stay home because he felt that Obama was too far to the left (he was talking about Obama’s senate voting record). This although both he and HRC have remarkably similar positions.

Part of that is the strategy (for HRC’s camp) has to be if Obama does in fact lose, it positions Hillary to make a go for it in 2012. It gives her four years of running around crowing about the fact had she been on the ticket, the Dems would have won. Although people talk about the amount of votes she got in popular vote, they fail to recognize the votes she got were entirely from Democrats and not Republicans or Independents. Presupposing an HRC sure win as a fact is a pretty big stretch.

I’m not surprised; I don’t have a love of the Clintons and have always found their level of self-interest somewhat distasteful, in stark contrast to the image they present to the American public. A good Dem would have bitten the bullet and thrown support behind the party’s front-runner at some point but, weakening Obama within his own party could easily be part of a longer-term strategy.

I was talking to someone the other day about this. On the one hand, if McCain does win, at the age of 71 I can’t see him being more than a one-term president. If I’m right about my own speculation, he’ll pick Mitt Romney as his running mate positioning Romney to go for the top job in 2012.

If McCain does win and is effective over the course of the next four years, the problem is it will mean Romney as sitting VP will have a strong argument for ‘staying the course.’

Other things have been alarming as well...

So, what’s the excuse?

Are we really a nation of bigots?

I’m hearing a lot of things from people. Things that are surprising, unsettling, ugly.

I mean, I’m surprised too at the excuses people are coming up with not to vote for Obama. I’m not talking about hard-core Republicans who seem to have an animus for anything the Democrats do. No, I’m talking about those Democrats who are either using HRC not being on the ticket or reaching for any of a myriad of other flimsy excuses as a way to justify crossing party lines.

This runs the gamut from, ‘He doesn’t have experience,’ something which is laughable because unless you are electing someone for a second term, they never have experience to well... I’m trying to think of delicate ways to put it. Fear?

I don’t know. It’s just disappointing to me.

The funny thing is, I really buy into that whole America thing. The whole patriotic spiel we put out there even though we have a capitalistic society that is in the habit of reaming a large segment of our population. There is something very appealing to me that the stranglehold WASPs have held on the highest office in the land might in fact signal that real change is happening in our society.

Someone said to me today that part of the Obama ticket was about bringing about Socialism in this country and my response was, ‘what’s wrong with that?’

Pure capitalism as we have it means there are winners and losers. The problem I have with that is there are some things that are part of the human condition which don’t discriminate on the basis of income. Disease is one of them. It is well past time we had some form of reform in this country in terms of medical care, insurance and the costs associated with having a healthy populace.

We all benefit from having a healthier population. If some germ festers because we force people to live in squalor, well... germs are funny they don’t look at your gross annual income and skip over you because you’re making six figures.

That’s f*$#ed up.

You know, I really expected better of us. I really did.

Maybe I’m being a little naïve but strangely enough I buy into the premise and tenets that this nation was built around.

Over the last few weeks though, I’ve been more than a little surprised. Surprised by the depths to which racism still has a hold on some people. Yes, skin color really is that important. That’s f*$%ed up man! I mean, really!

I’m proud of the fact Barack Obama is able to run for president and I hope he wins because I think it will say volumes about our country, all of it good. It will break the stranglehold WASPs have held on the highest office in the land and hopefully will signal significant change going forward into the new century. I like it that someone around my age will be running the country and not just that but also that it will be someone who actually graduated from a good school and wasn’t admitted because he was a legacy.

In the end, the great thing about it is if he doesn’t do a good job we can always vote in someone else in four years. I was mad when people sent me gloom and doom emails when Junior was reelected about our country not surviving a second term because I thought it was an overreaction. If Barack Obama wins, it won’t be the end of the world maybe; it will mean a new beginning.