Giuliani out, John Edwards out.
Giuliani wasn’t ever going to get it — he’s not all that popular even here in New York. Despite Fox News’ hammering us day after day with the phrase “America’s Mayor,” he was never suited for the White House. He’ll become CEO of some corporation, and make more millions, and we’ll all be better off.
Still fighting on the GOP side: McCain, Huckabee, Romney and Ron Paul.
Still fighting on the Democrat side: Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
I wish the Ron Paul camp well. I will always believe that everybody has a right to equal access to the White House, and to equal publicity and consideration if they’re a serious candidate.
I will always disagree, for instance, with those people who say Ralph Nader shouldn’t have run, or that he “helped” George W. Bush get elected. The White House is not some prize that’s intended to go only to the mainstream candidates.
If the Dems had had the guts and the brains and the balls, they would have won the office on their own. I pointed out to some of the MoveOn crowd that they should have come down hard on Bush for his public fugues — those moments when he froze into immobility (on 9/11, in the debates, apparently even in Katrina. Who would want a leader who freezes up in times of crisis?) — but the suggestion fell on deaf ears. They were playing by some idiot rulebook I still don’t understand. Bush is a disaster, and he’s always been a disaster, and a lot of people knew he was a disaster from Day One, but the rules seemed to say “You can’t attack him because he’s stupid and weak.”
So to blame it on Nader, or Nader supporters, is just mean-spirited and misplaced.
Of course Nader couldn’t have won. But I supported his candidacy anyway, because there were things that needed to be said.
Ditto for Ron Paul. I’m glad he’s running. If his candidacy and the things he says and the supporters he gains can help move the twisted GOP back into some semblance of sanity, I’m behind that 100 percent.
For Democrats, either Huckabee or Romney would be easy serves. Those guys will go down hard. McCain might be harder, because of his military background, but … there’s something brittle about the man, and he spooks me. I think he’s a not-very-nice man posing as his opposite, and I feel amost certain he will slide right into the trench that George W. Bush has dug for America, and just keep on digging.
I can live with either Obama or Clinton, and I really hope whichever one gets the nomination will pick the other one to be the Veep. I’d like to see BOTH of them in the White House, and I’d like whichever one is the Vice President to continue to be active in the same way Cheney is active, only with good intentions instead of Cheney’s Darth Vader “shoot ’em in the face and make THEM apologize for getting in the way” schtick.
I know this is small of me, but I do have a question for the McCain camp: What the heck is up with those cheeks??
He looks like an old squirrel frantically gathering nuts for his last winter.