RudyMcRomney

"RudyMcRomney" - just a perfect name for the republican candidates. Eventually, we are going to be watching the RudyMcRomney campaigning against the democratic candidate. As things look now, it’s going to be one of the most dismal circus seasons.

The democrats, having sourly disappointed many of their supporters so far, seem determined to go head-to-head with the RudyMc for best sound bite. What this country needs more than ever is a down and dirty debate, one on one, like we used to have in this country. Sometimes, they went on for hours. We think we keep electing the person with the best “hey, look at me, I feel your pain, I’ll protect you, and won’t raise your taxes” sound bite. Actually, all we’re really doing is just voting for the best sound bite.

Now, with more and more early primaries, we’re going to be watching that show for more than a damned year. Watching, because we really aren’t going to be doing anything about the situation.

People ask, “Don’t you support the troops?” I ask them what they’re doing to bring them home. I see pictures of coworkers’ children and grandchildren, and I ask them why they think those kids have any sort of a future. Yeah, I piss people off, but tough shit. I piss them off when they find one of my anti-war, anti-bush cards looking at them from the display of canned peas at the supermarket, or a bin of bolts at the hardware store, the gas pump, and anyplace else I’ve been. And I guess I piss off some people when I drive my truck here and there because of the decals, judging from some of the comments.

The bushcheney is going to push the occupation of Iraq onto the next president, who’s going to try to push it onto the next, etc. because they’re all so afraid that they’ll be accused of “losing the war”. The US will continue to kill Afghans in that failed occupation for the same reason. And the American people are afraid of a “horde of illegal aliens” invading their country. At least they aren’t invading “with their tanks, and their guns, and their bombs”. A pathetic picture of a country that bills itself as “the home of the brave”.

In January 2009, the bushcheney is going to ride off into the sunset to become folk heroes to the idiot right because, after all, they didn’t “lose Iraq”, and gave great tax cut. Just like their addle-brained actor turned hero president. Best role ronnie reagan ever played.


A 'Pathetic Assemblage'
The Republican Debate
By Georg Mascolo and Marc Pitzke
Translated By Armin Broeggelwirth
May 4, 2007
http://www.watchingamerica.com/derspiegel000008.shtml
Germany - Der Spiegel - Original Article (German)

Washington/New York: It was a pathetic assemblage: Ten old white men exhausting themselves with slogans and platitudes in the first televised Republican debate. Most importantly, frontrunners McCain, Giuliani and Romney all delivered a lousy picture. What triumphed was a spirit - the spirit of Ronald Reagan.

With a retired "Air Force One" in the auditorium suspended from the ceiling, the Ronald Reagan library houses millions of documents and gifts from the President's eight year presidency. For example, a Russian Cossack saddle that Mikhail Gorbachev gave to his friend Ronald Reagan.

Sometimes the choice of location is the message: It was no coincidence that the first televised debate of the Republican presidential candidates took place in the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, amid the gentle hills of southern Californian. After the torment of the Bush years, the search is on for a new Reagan.

But he is nowhere be found. The field of Republican candidates is pale one, when compared to the Democrats: No Hispanic (like New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson), no woman (Hillary Clinton) and no Black (like Barack Obama). Ten old white men all wearing black suits. Only their ties had color. Seven of the candidates wore red. One, the long shot, Sam Brownback, wore gold.

An icon with which the beleaguered President's party could pull itself up is missing from this sorry circle. Either the candidates are not conservative enough for the base or too far right or unknown to have a chance.

'I want to lead this nation'

"RudyMcRomney" reminds Republicans of the trouble with their three leading candidates. There's Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York who is now leading in the polls. But a true conservative cannot be a double-divorcee, and the media had begun to put the past of this "hero: of September 11 under a magnifying glass. This could prove embarrassing.

Mitt Romney is a Mormon, which is difficult to finesse with the Christian base. And for McCain, who has been eying the presidency for a long while and should have his turn under the rules of the Party - things look dark: His support for the Iraq War has cost him support. Besides, he'll be 72 when he assumes office, which is the life expectancy for males in America.

McCain was also the one who had the most to lose yesterday, and he delivered a poor performance. Stubborn and biting was the impression left. Staring into the camera with his fist clenched, McCain pointed threateningly at the camera, repeatedly misspeaking and banging the edge of the lectern. He looked like an animatronic figure in Disneyland, being operated by an invisible hand. "I'm not the youngest, but I'm the best prepared," he swore, which is his campaign slogan.

Where was the charismatic "straight talker?" McCain tried to articulate an indefinitude of slogans, and misspoke again and again. He weaseled around the Iraq War; "the war has been terribly mismanaged." He wants to follow Osama bin Laden, "to the gates of hell." He swore to voters, "I want to lead this nation."

Stuttering through the affair

Giuliani didn't fare particularly well, either. His attempt to exhume Reagan for his own purposes was embarrassing, particularly since the elderly Nancy Reagan sat in the first row. His repetitive (and incorrect) remembrance, that he alone had liberated New York from criminality was annoying. His beating around the bush over abortion (I hate abortion, the ex-pro-choicer reiterated twice) was all too transparent. And his 911-hero-certificate (in the face of terror, I will never retreat), OK good, what else do you have?

Romney stood out like a sore thumb with his horrible tan and shellac-like hair spray. A perfect anchorman with a tone of voice and words that went down like honey - and which a moment later one could not remember. "Of course we get Osama bin Laden" he bragged. "He will die!," and then the obligatory "I love America … American is the greatest nation in the world!"

In any case, a debate it was not. It was more like a series of hectic questioning by three moderators, with only rudimentary interaction between the candidates. The format (30 and 60 second answers) produced empty sound-bites of slogans and platitudes. All of which clarified again that TV debates are relics of old, when presidential elections were still epic dramas and the camera gave the citizenry a feeling of participation. Today candidacies are born (and buried) on YouTubes and "Peep Shows (Vanity Fair) of our online world. Nevertheless, it was full-scale war on the stage. If you didn't watch closely, one couldn't tell who was speaking. Besides the top-three, Senator Brownback, ex-governors Jim Gilmore, Mike Huckabee and Tommy Thompson, and Congressmen Duncan Hunter, Ron Paul and Tom Tancredo, all performed acts of mental gymnastics. The latter, Tancredo, stuttered and misstepped throughout the affair, illustrating the expression, "not ready for primetime."

An hour passes before bush is praised

The evening was jammed with the favorite themes of Republicans: the death tax, stem cells, taxes, the nation's budget. (Romney: "I can't wait to get my hands on the budget in Washington") The subject of most interest, however, was only fleetingly addressed at the beginning: Iraq. There was nothing new added. Brownback said he knew that the war could be won, "if only we stand by our values." Ron Paul, in the role of court jester, demanded a foreign policy of "non-intervention," as that is the most "conservative, Republican and pro-American." Almost an hour passed until one of the candidates had something nice to say about President George W. Bush. McCain praised Bush for his efforts to reform an immigration law, and that only after being asked.

Certainly, the evening had some amusing moments. Only two candidates would change the Constitution so that immigrants like California Governor Arnold Schwarenegger (seated next to Nancy Reagan) could become President. Huckabee courageously admitted the existence of global warming. Tancredo promise "no human cloning" in the fight against the scarcity of organs. Romney tormented himself by discussing "faith" without mentioning his own. Thompson reminded everyone twice that he had vetoed "1900 things." And Paul - who wants to abolish the income tax completely, uttered sentences like, "I have made many critical, life-saving decisions, but at the moment I can't remember any."

At the end of the night, many in the audience might have had the same felling. After 90 minutes, only one thing stood out as firmly as Romney's hair: Ronald Reagan won't be getting any competition.