A Curious look at a Curious Race

it should read…”And buy the candidate”

A Curious Look back at the Campaign. The Campaign as Entertainment.

The script reads like a Reality show. Get a bunch of people who all want the same job, make them fight like wolves for that job, and at several points kick some of them out, with the crowd watching making the choice. Think about it. The election process may well be the ultimate reality show. The prize? America’s future.

Many Contestants at the outset, some a bit quirky, some not. A few strong candidates from the beginning, a few outsiders who we all knew from the beginning had no chance. We rooted for them anyway. There were some surprises along the way and some nastiness as well.

We started out with some strong contenders who washed out early. Joe Biden. Chris Dodd. Rudy Giuliani. There was the early surprise victory of Barack Obama in Iowa and the surprise 2nd place finish of John Edwards, that shocked a lot of people. There was the weak start by Hillary Clinton in that same state. It made her Cry. Which in turn made people realize she wasn’t a robot. She won her next primary on those tears.

There were the outsiders, popular and strong, who got love from some segments of the population but no love from the networks. Think Ron Paul, Sam Brownback, Bill Richardson and Dennis Kucinich. There were outsiders who got no love at all, but were deserving of our respect. Think Duncan Hunter and Mike Gravel. Where is mike BTW? I know Rep. Duncan went back to the hill, But I think we need to put Mike on a milk carton. He seems to have disappeared.

There were the EXTREME outsiders. So outside that they decided to have their Own party! And they might not get much love from the voters, but they have a lot to say to America. What America has to say to them in return is something I cannot guess at. All you can say to them is good luck. If Mr. Barr, Mr. Nader, Mrs. McKinney and Mr. Baldwin want any real love for themselves and their parties in the future, they need to find a way to legislate themselves onto the main stage.

There were strong candidates who did well but in the end faltered and ended up far short of their goals. It Turned Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson into cheerleaders. Shake Yer Pom Pom’s Fellas!!!

There is the man who wishes he could be a cheerleader, but can’t do it. Controversy made that impossible. John Edwards should have known better than to do what he did, but some people just don’t know any better. Or think they are smarter than the rest and it makes them headstrong and stupid. Well, one is as good as the other come to think of it.

The final four had two people who no one thought could do it, and two people who were well liked from the beginning. OK there were five, but Ron Paul got no love and a lot of people really wrote the man off. This was supposed to be Hillary’s race but she was challenged by the unlikely candidate from Illinois. Senator Obama fought her hard and in the end won perhaps the hardest fought race in the history of the Democratic Party.

There’s 18,000,000 cracks in the ceiling, but the ceiling is still there. Another day. It will happen. The ceiling will fall away someday.

John McCain Maneuvered Mitt Romney out of the race after Super Tuesday, and that essentially gave him the race for his party’s nomination. It was him and Elmer Fudd err… Mike Huckabee. Huckabee ended up surprisingly strong and fought for far longer than anyone thought possible. It got him a TV Gig. I think he’s happy with that, as well he should be, even though he lost.

But the Maverick found a way, and he’s not backing down to anyone.

It’s been entertaining if nothing else. The ratings have been off the charts, and that’s the way they wanted it. If it was only about the needs of the people, there would not be the glitz, the drama, the plot twists that we’ve seen the last 20+ months. Tell me that when this all started you knew we would be here with the players who are here, and the circumstances we have. Tell me you knew John McCain would pick a bumpkin for his #2 spot. That Barack Obama would even be here. That Joe Biden would be invited back to play second fiddle. Tell me that so I can laugh in your face.

Do I wish this campaign were a bit less entertaining? Yes and no. Think about this. If you are watching you are learning. Learning about the candidates, about the process, and in the end about the way the people in this country think. It may not be what you wanted to learn but learn it you will. Think about this as well. You and I both are enamored with it all, if you weren’t you wouldn’t be reading this, now would you? And it’s not just the process but juicy stuff that goes on. You would have to be inhuman to not be somewhat interested in the personality battles and the tit for tat and the chaos. Drama sells, and there’s drama every day on the campaign trail.

I would like it to be more about issues and less about personalities. I would like it to be more about the ability to govern and less about the ability to play to the camera. I would like more viable political parties involved. America needs to make the two party system a multi-party system. The Green Party might have a great deal to say, The Natural Law Party might have a message America needs to hear, The Independents might be the best thing for America, but the way things are set up now, you’d never know it.

But in the end, we pick people who are most like us, and the system we have suits who we are. Whether that is in our best interests is another matter entirely. If you don’t like the way our electoral process looks, your problem isn’t with the system, it’s with the people who accept the system, and only change from within the system can change this from a reality show into a real race to show who the best person to lead is. If you want to change the system, change the people.

There have been quite a bit of twists along the road to today. The only question now is do we get a “Twist” ending? What do You think, America? Where do you think the script goes from here? And is it a script, or is it just who we are that drives things the way they’ve gone? Drop me a Line and let me Know!

Uncle Mikey

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Instead of giving my take here of all things green, at least up front, I think I will simply give them the floor, and let the green party speak for itself. Each quote will be directly from the Green party website, from it’s 2008 platform.

The Green Party of the United States supports divestment from and boycott of the State of Israel until such time as the full individual and collective rights of the Palestinian people are realized.

The Green’s call for :

Full withdrawal of US military forces, civilian military contractors, and corporate interests on the fastest possible timetable consistent with the safety of bringing home US troops from Iraq, Afghanistan, and the other states of the region.

Re-formulate all international trade relations and commerce as currently held by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), (Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB), and the nascent Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). The new formulation must be Fair Trade and the creation of a level playing field. It must protect labor, human rights, the environment and grow the local economy of receiver nations. Especially local agriculture and water supply must be protected from foreign corporate control and domination.

I have chosen to focus on foreign policy because my mind has been turned to it by the events in South Ossetia, and the Russian Invasion of the nation of Georgia. The economy is a regular focus of mine.

I believe in peace. I believe in doing our best for ourselves and the rest of the world. But I have to say that what I see, in the Non-violence espoused by the green party as a main part of the party platform, is unfortunately, not enough in this intensely war-like time. I think we do need to get out of Iraq ASAP, because the war is wrong on just about every level. I do think that we need to go after, hunt and kill Osama Bin Laden and Al-qaeda, and that we need some kind of force in the Area to assist in that hunt, which means, by necessity, a force In Afghanistan.

If, like Me, you simply read the 2008 platform of the party, you get the impression that they are, well, a bit more interested in what we do for the world, and much less what we do for ourselves. And while I am very happy to see their Anti-corporate stances, I do not entirely get their stance on universal basic Income, or the realistic-ness, for lack of a better term, of their Corporate control, and their Banking and Insurance reform seems just a little undo-able and frankly, with the shape of of the economy right now, a little dangerous to the long term economic strength of The United States. But that’s just me.

A video for you, of the Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney accepting the Nomination of the Green Party.

What do you think of the Green Party platform, and the Green party in general? Is their 2008 Platform viable, given the current economic and political circumstances this nation finds itself dealing with? Drop me a line and let me know!

Uncle Mikey