Mourning For John Edwards

The epic fall from grace that John Edwards has incurred has gotten worse. Only Lucifer has fallen further and faster or so it seems. The former Senator from North Carolina and almost Vice President of the United States (only a few thousand stolen votes in Ohio made the difference) is no longer a player in national politics. Edwards could not even get elected dog catcher running against a convicted child molester truth be told. Words like narcissist,” “craven,” “heartless,” and “egotistical” are attached to the mention of his name.Iam quite sure that people like Taylor Marsh have even more pungent and unprintable opinions of the man that they offer in private.

Ms. Marsh reflections on the man are particularly germane because of the two hats she brings to the evaluation. Not only is she a jaundiced and sharp observer of the political landscape but she also a self-taught expert in relationships. With ten years of real world interviews with real world people Ms. Marsh has a better handle on the real life vagaries of relationship dynamics than many people sporting fancy degrees and writing in professional journals. Thus when she paints John Edwards as an epic heal you can trust the description.

Still Edwards is not the first testosterone poisoned individual to skate on very thin ice. Many men in and out of government have let their baser passions and their lizard brain fog the more noble aspects of their personality. We can gape at the shear self-destructive, "what the hell was he thinking about?", aspect of their behavior but we can not deny that this is a story that has been repeated many times. JFK was much more reckless with his dalliances and in the White House at that. JFK was fortunate that he operated in a much more male-centric world. No president today could get away with the multiple affairs JFK had in office (and with a mob mall at that.)

Still Edwards should have known the type of fishbowl he was swimming in. Our celebrity driven culture now makes infidelity next to impossible for the glitterati to hide. Celebrity magazines and tabloid newspapers are constantly on the prowl for the smallest piece of gossip or the barest of hints of impropriety. John Edwards was a flat out fool thinking that the National Enquirer would not eventually get the goods on him. He only had to look at the recent history of Bill Clinton’s dalliance with Ms Lewinski to understand how the tabloid and Corporate Media now operate.

We still must separate John Edwards the egomaniacal, narcissistic, shallow man from the personality he projected, no matter how false, on the campaign trail. Edwards was the most progressive of the candidates running. He consistently pushed both Clinton and Obama on important issues. Edwards was first out of the gate on health care, on social justice, on the need to control corporate greed. His theme of One America was a much needed bit of truth telling to the rest of the nation. Only Edwards was willing to continuously mention the bitter truth about the other America. By opening his campaign in New Orleans Edwards attempted to be the candidate of forgotten America. Only Edwards seemed willing to talk about the losers in our capitalist system. Only he seemed concerned about the plight of the poor.

It is only now that the economy has cratered and many Americans are fearful that they may join the growing ranks of the dispossessed that Edwards political message seems prescient. Unfortunately the message has gotten confused with the messenger. Edwards’ betrayal of his marriage while hurtful to Elizabeth pales next to the betrayal of the populist message he represented. There is no progressive counter weight to Terrible Tim Geithner; there is no strong counter-weight against the Chicago School mafia running the economic show at the White House. Because there is no political heavy-weight to run opposition against Wall Street Obama appears to be conceding to every wish and desire of the incompetent greed-heads that tanked our economy. It appears that there will be a massive transfer of wealth from those who can’t afford it, the tax payers, to those who do not deserve it, the Wall Street bankers. There is no one out there who can call halt to the reverse Robin Hood policy that Obama has rubber stamped.

There were only two politicians who could have at least served as a speed bump to this run away vehicle. One was Elliot Spitzer, the bet noir of Wall Street. The other was John Edwards. It is interesting that both men have fallen due to their sexual peccadilloes. With either of these men being a strong and viable candidate for future office the Obama bailout program may have taken a much different form. With Edwards lurking on his left, Obama would have to at least offered his former opponent an olive branch appointment in his administration. A strong anti-corporatist voice, a credible populist alternative candidate in 2012 would have forced Obama to at least be conciliatory to his left flank. Right now he gives only the slightest of nods to his main progressive critic Paul Krugman.

More often than not Obama is more than willing to slight Krugman’s opinions. Krugman can be safely ignored because his just an op-ed writer in the New York Times. If Krugman’s critique were coming from a viable populist politician, a politician with Edwards’ former credibility, Obama would not be so quick to dismiss the criticism out of hand. Edwards political fall and self-emollition leaves a gaping hole in the populist progressive movement. With Obama’s natural proclivity to compromise, there is no strong voice to move the reforms that will actually help blue collar America. Hillary Clinton, once the blue collar mama and champion of “hard working” Americans has been co-opted by the President by her selection as SoS. She is doing stellar work as America’s face to the world but she now must keep quite about any disagreements she may have about Obama’s economic proposals.

Thus it is not John Edwards per se that is missed but the voice that he took up in his attempt to win the highest office in the land. Perhaps that voice was a complete fraud. Perhaps it was just another of John Edwards serial seductions. Edwards have provided more than enough data to prove the cynical supposition that he is nothing more than a dissembling, slick, amoral charmer who was (and is) only driven by an oversized ego. He has shown himself to be absolutely untrustworthy, a greasy, ambulance chasing shyster of a man who only has a passing relationship with the truth. That he would betray his wife in the way and at the time that he did makes him a particularly odious person, a snake in the grass, pond scum.

There is a small silver lining in the story of John Edwards and it is this: never underestimate the ability of a slick and legally trained conman to fool you. Edwards fooled many people from political professionals to ordinary voters. Many people other than his wife failed to get the measure of the man. He was able to con even his wife into believing that his ego-driven pursuit of the presidency actually served some higher purpose. Not only was Elizabeth betrayed but so too were millions of Americans who deeply believed in his populist message, in the idea of One America, of a more perfect union. We wonder how to work ourselves out of the crater his fall created. We wonder how we can overcome the setback to populist progressivism that Edwards caused. We worry about the well earned cynicism the next left/liberal golden boy (or girl) may engender. Edwards’ collapse only accelerates our willingness to ignore the needs and desires of the working class. It provides yet another excuse to disregard the lower classes. It leaves the less fortunate even less engaged in the political process. It only accelerates the trend in the USA toward plutocracy and oligarchy. It is a tragedy that the man that Edwards portrayed in his campaign had no relation to the real man. We need that man who talked about One America more now than ever. We needed a prince, we got a horny toad.

What A Difference a Pandemic Makes

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius was sworn in as U.S. health secretary on Tuesday in an Oval Office ceremony attended by President Barack Obama just hours after the Senate confirmed her nomination.

"We wanted to swear her in right away because we've got a significant public health challenge that requires her immediate attention, and that is the H1N1 flu outbreak," Obama told reporters.

"I'm thrilled that we have Secretary Sebelius taking the reins. She's going to be immediately briefed on the issues that we're working on right now," he said after the ceremony, which was conducted by the executive clerk of the White House with the president holding the Bible on which she took the oath.

After the swearing-in, Sebelius immediately went into a briefing on the flu situation with Obama's Homeland Security adviser John Brennan, White House spokesman Reid Cherlin said.

The Senate confirmed Sebelius as health secretary in a 65-31 vote earlier in the day, filling a crucial spot in Obama's cabinet amid growing fears of a possible swine flu pandemic.

The Senate brushed back Republican opposition to her nomination because of her support for abortion rights. Sebelius was tapped by Obama to lead his push to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system.

But she takes office as U.S. health officials rush to prepare for a possible widespread outbreak of a new strain of flu that has killed scores of people in Mexico and sickened at least 64 in the United States.

The confirmation of Sebelius allows Obama to fill the last open seat in his cabinet. Democrats said the swine flu outbreak made it all the more important to end the delay in filling that pivotal position.

Snip

Please note that this Swine Flu is similar to the 1918 flu pandemic that killed millions world wide. As Rachel Maddow pointed out on 27 April 2009, the stimulus bill had funding for flu prevention and preperation that was cut by Senators Collins and Snow. It was supposidly an example of pork spending that Democrat Charles Schumer was proud to cut. One wonders if the good Senators will be a proud of cutting the funding if this flu turns out to be a killer like the 1918 bug. Let's hope this swine flu turns out to be a dud like the one that threatened the world during Gerald Ford's Administration

Specter Defects

Republican senator switches party

US Republican Senator Arlen Specter is to switch sides and become a Democrat.
The move would give the Democrats 59 votes in the US Senate, just one short of the 60 needed to overturn Republican attempts to block legislation.
The Democrats are expected to pick up their 60th vote when the result of the still-disputed Minnesota Senate race is decided by the courts.
Mr Specter, a moderate, said that since he joined the Republicans in 1980 the party had "moved far to the right".
"I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans," he said in a statement announcing the switch.

'Thrilled'

He added: "My change in party affiliation does not mean that I will be a party-line voter any more for the Democrats that I have been for the Republicans."
President Barack Obama, a Democrat, is reported to have called Mr Specter after he was informed of the switch to tell him that he was "thrilled" to have him in his party.
Richard Lister, BBC News, Washington This is a big prize for President Obama on the eve of his 100th day in office.
There is an element of political survival in Senator Specter's decision. He acknowledged that he could not win re-election in Pennsylvania as a Republican.

Nevertheless, President Obama has given him his full support, and told him in a phone call the Democrats were delighted to have him. The Republican leadership has condemned Senator Specter's decision and vowed to defeat him when he stands for re-election.
Mr Specter, 79, had held secret talks with Mr Obama, along with other senior Democrats including Vice-President Joe Biden, ahead of his decision to leave the Republican Party, according to officials.
The BBC's Richard Lister in Washington says the news has sent shockwaves through Capitol Hill, where the president's power has been blunted by the votes of Senate Republicans.
The move should make it easier for Mr Obama to pursue his ambitious agenda, our correspondent adds.
Mr Specter was facing a tough challenge from conservative Pat Toomey in a primary election to decide who would run as the Republican candidate for Mr Specter's Pennsylvania Senate seat in 2010.
Polls suggested that Mr Specter's decision to vote for the president's economic stimulus package earlier this year had been unpopular with Republican activists in the state.
"I saw the stimulus as necessary to lessen the risk of a far more serious recession than we are now experiencing," Mr Specter said.
Since then, he added, "it has become clear to me that the stimulus vote caused a schism which makes our differences irreconcilable".
“ If Arlen Specter could have won as a Republican he would have stayed a Republican ”
Justin Webb
Mr Specter may have to fight off a primary challenge from a Democrat if he wants to be the party's Senate candidate in 2010, although he will have the support of senior party officials.
If he does win the Democratic nomination, he is likely to face off against Mr Toomey for the seat.
Including Mr Specter, there will now be 57 Democrats in the Senate. Two independents also vote with the party.
The result of the 2008 Minnesota Senate race is still being fought over in the courts.
State officials and a judge's panel have both awarded victory to Democrat Al Franken, but Republican Norm Coleman has appealed against the decisions to the state's Supreme Court.
A final verdict from the court is due in June.

snip
Eric Kleefeld,
Story from BBC NEWS:

© BBC MMIX

Comment:

The slow death of the Republican Party outside of its base in Dixie continues apace. Rockefeller Republicans have become DLC "Corporate friendly" Democrats. Nelson Rockefeller is dead but his political movement lives on represented by Cousin Jay, a Democrat.

Nothing speaks to this more forcefully than in Nelson's old stomping ground, the Northeast. At one time "Country Club" Republicans dominated the landscape. These were people of a specific political and economic class. It was a very WASPy, blueblood grouping with somewhat progressive leanings. These people followed a personal kind of Conservatism. It was a more honest and consistent type of Conservatism than what Regan offered. These Republicans were deeply invested in the status quo. They were not interested in revolution of any kind. They were open to reason and incremental change but not to radical shifts.

These blue bloods where the leadership of the Republican Party from the collapse of Herbert Hoover to the rise of Barry Goldwater. They were the survivors of the Tsunami that was FDR's New Deal. Eisenhower was the ne plus ultra of the Eastern Establishment.. Eisenhower entire eight year run can be seen as an ultimately vain attempt to preserve the New Deal as found. Ultimately the pressures of rapid economic growth, demographic shift, the Civil Rights movement and social/artistic change overwhelmed Ike. The need to get the country moving again after the stasis of Ike lead to election of JFK and uprising of the 1960's.

Slowly but surely Dixie Democrats shifted to the Elephant Party. The way was opened with the Goldwater insurgency. Goldwater's anti-government message, specifically his anti-Federal Government message resonated in Dixie. Republican operatives saw a way to peel off blue-collar Democrats with various and sundry dog-whistles about social issues.

From Nixon forward the Republican Party slowly took over and took on the values of Dixie. Regan did Nixon one better by appealing to the south's special flavor of religiosity.. As the Religious Right became the hardcore grassroots of the Republican Party, the old guard got pushed out by more radical types.

During the ascendancy of the Regan revolution this was no big deal. The steady push away from classical conservatism to reaction and revolution was actually lauded. It only got worse with the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The “victory” over “godless communism” lead to a toxic triumphalism that still poisons the political conversation today. The toxin has infused itself and concentrated itself especially into Republican Party. As this particular toxin is a neurotoxin the organ most affected is the brain. A dangerous rigidity of thought has affected the Republican Party. It is seen in the free market absolutism of the Parties economic proposals. It is seen in the Elephants insistence on further tax cuts and further deregulation. It is seen in the continued cultural regressivism of the party; in its opposition to abortion and gay marriage. It is seen in its almost gleeful defense of authoritarian ideas and methods. The support of torture and the shredding of civil rights are all of a piece. They are symptoms of the authoritarian will to power that afflicts the Republican Party. It is seen in the party’s self-destructive absorption in immigrant bashing. It is seen in the party’s clinging to discredited Neo-Con notions of empire.

In almost every instance it is that insistence on rigidity, on adhering to the myth of Regan and his principled stand on smaller government, less taxes, deregulation, culture of life and most importantly “freedom” that is slowly killing the Republicans. It is the base’s insistence on purity that is relegating the party to irrelevance. The base clings to the myth of Regan because it can not deal with the reality of George W. Bush. It was Bush Jr. that stayed faithful to the ideology of cutting taxes. It was Bush Jr. refused to negotiate with North Korea, with Saddam Hussein, with Iran. It was Bush Jr. It was Bush Jr. that followed NeoCon triumphalism to its illogical conclusion in Iraq. It was Bush Jr. who pushed abstinence only, who placed two anti-Roe appointees on the Supreme Court, who got DOMA passed and yet was still unable to stop the acceptance of Gay Marriage. It was Bush Jr. that oversaw the weakest expansion in U.S. history and the epic flail / epic fail of the sub-prime bubble. The base can still not accept that Bush Jr. was their man, that his catastrophic administration was their albatross.

Like many Republican moderates elsewhere, Spector finally decided that he would take the highway when the base stated “our way or the highway” He is no fool he has the same data as Nate Silver does showing the steady rise of Democratic registrants in the Keystone State. But mostly he probably tired of having to deal with the willfully ignorant troglodytes that now run the party of Lincoln. He must look at Sara Palin and say “if that is the future of the party, I want nothing to do with it.” He is painfully aware that if a “moderate” wants any influence at all they are going to have to pitch in with the Donkeys because the Elephants are no longer interested in anything other than Reganite purity of essence. Spector took a long look at where the Republican Party was headed and decided he wanted no part of a political reenactment of the Bataan Death March.

Why AIG (and Wall Street) has not yet been taken to the woodshed.

President Obama got his dander up the other day and spoke out about AIG handing out multi-million dollar bonuses on the tax-payer dime. As political theater is was marginally satisfying but like Chinese food one found oneself oddly hungry for more a short while later. From a policy prospective the verbal talking down was literally the least the president could do. As other Wall Street kleptomaniacs were not browbeaten into surrendering their ill gotten gains it is unlikely the President can embarrassing the AIG miscreants into doing the right thing either.

It would be hard to find a group more poorly socialized than upper echelons of Wall Street. It seems that the major requirements for reaching the pinnacle of high finance are megalomania, an overblown sense of entitlement, destructive greed, and a borderline sociopathic personality. One definitely can not have the smallest iota of shame. Thus it is odd that Obama thinks that naming and shaming corporate titans will have any effect. The corporate Big-Whigs of Wall Street seem to be not only devoid of any shame but also seem to lack the understanding of why they should at least pretend they have a moral compass.

So why is Obama not picking up a bigger switch? The answer seems to be he can not yet do what really needs to be done—Nationalize the failing financial institutions. The very word nationalization is a third rail in our political and policy discussions. The only lonely voices discussing this belong to the left blogosphere and its ancillary members on cable and in the New York Times. A recent poll showed that a large majority of Americans still oppose nationalization. Oddly enough they do support a temporary take over by the government and subsequent re-privatization. It seems the very word “nationalization” has become a bugaboo. Why is this?

It is because the right-wing noise machine has done an excellent job of demonizing anything that remotely resembles “Socialism” or even Liberalism. The very word “Socialist” and its derivative “Socialism” has become pejorative. Never mind most people using the word would not know a socialist if Karl Marks walked up to them and punched them in the gut. It is a scare tactic, a way to intimidate the ill-informed.

The ground work for this tactic was laid down all the way back in the 2008 election. As a tactic it worked well enough as a dog-whistle for the Republican faithful. The Palinite section of the Republican Party just ate this stuff up. Even today the Obama bashers still claim that the President is a Manchurian candidate, a secret 60’s type radical schooled in the Saul Alinsky tradition. Obama, so the story goes, is wedded to the Black Nationalist / Radical leftist ideology of his mentors Bill Ayres and Jeremiah Wright. He is determined to destroy the nation by imposing his Communist-Socialist-Black Nationalist-Islamic-Anti-American-and-Anti-Capitalist ideas. Nice work if you can get it.

Such tin-foil-hat ruminations would in more normal times be studiously ignored or laughed at by rational people. Unfortunately we do not live in normal times. We live in time when a former drug addict and side-show freak personality has become the intellectual center of a major U.S. political party. The Republicans are taking their marching orders from a man whose entire shtick is tossing about verbal fire bombs and then pouring gasoline on the resulting conflagrations. While it may be great radio it is a crappy way to discuss public policy. Strip away the very thin mask of “entertainment” that Rush provides and there is a poisonous meme that Obama is a traitor to the nation. That and a very large portion of rank racism lay behind the charge that Obama is a “socialist.”

This is the political landscape Obama must operate in. The opposition party is running a campaign of scorched earth. They proudly broadcast that they hope the president fails. They will use any tactic and any type of brick-bat to impede his progress. The party of Lincoln has become the party of no. They may not be clinging to their guns and their religion but they are definitely clinging to free-market absolutism and their anti-tax nostrums. Even after the collapse of the economic Reganism, even after the Laffer curve has been debunked multiple times, even after deregulation has manifestly been proven to be a disaster, Republicans still want to cut taxes and shrink the government. Their “big” idea for stimulating the economy—cut capital gains taxes to 5%. Our economy is in the tank because Wall Street took reckless bets on what turned out to be Ponzi schemes and the Republicans want to solve this by paying the investor class to be even more reckless with its financial dealings. Thanks to the cloture rule in the Senate Obama has no choice but to listen to this as if were a serious policy proposal.

It is precisely because Obama must drag the Republicans around like a lead weight that he is so reticent in doing what clearly needs to be done. He will be forced to prolong our economic agony via the Kabuki Theater that is “stress testing” the banks. Our banking system has melted down into a small puddle of goo and sooner we own up to that salient fact the better off we will be.

Unfortunately the term “we” does not include the Republicans. Republicans owning up to the economic mess means that they must butcher their sacred cow of free market absolutism. They would be forced to admit that the market is not the solution for all ills and government does have a roll in smoothing out the rough edges of capitalism. That is an anathema to the Republican Party and its true-believer Conservative base.

Republicans are not exactly hiding this fact. Mitch McConnell was quite direct in his pronouncements. He is still a believer in the old-time Religion of small government Conservatism. His party is tactically holding out for 2010 and a mythical Gingrich-type counter revolution where their ideas are swept back into power. They are banking on the failure of Obama’s policy because of ideological considerations. They prefer that “liberal” Keynesian notions fail because they want their notions to be the only option out there. They are bound and determined to follow in the steps of Herbert Hoover’s policies and prove that old Herbert was really right and the New Deal was evil. To do this they are more than willing to use scare tactics and demagoguery.

Thus Obama is forced to go sideways until the level of pain raises to a level where the Beltway crowd screams uncle and concede to nationalization. The political elites and the pundits are still lost in the land of Regan. The consensus of the chattering classes in beltway elite is the Obama needs to be cautious lest his free-spending ways lead to disaster. Washington still has not got the memo from the 2006 and 2008 elections—we are done with Reganism, we are done with the notion that “Government is the Problem”, we are done with kowtowing to free market uber alles notions, and we are done listening to the “experts” that drove our economy off a cliff.

The corporate media definitely has not gotten or ignored the memo. They still pander to the same right-wing chatter put out by Rush, Hannity, Drudge, Fox News and the AEI. They still labor under the misconception that people like David Brooks and others are somehow “moderate” because they occupy a political space slightly to the left of Attila the Hun. For the Corporate media it is still 1980 and Morning in America with Ronald Regan. For the Corporate Media “moderate” still really means a Pragmatic Reganite. It is the Corporate Media that is dumbly parroting the "socialist" meme put out by the usual suspects. The Corporate Media, so frightened by being labeled “left” or liberal, still promotes far-right talking points in a pointless attempt to appear “balanced.” Not once has any major media outlet taken the time to actually explain what socialism is and contrast it with Obama’s program. The Corporate Media is wedded to a bogus notion of “two sides of the story.” Because of this Obama must fight off spurious charges of being a wild-eyed radical bent on turning the U.S. into Communist gulag state. A fact-based, reality reporting media would expose the red herring of “socialism” for the drivel it is. A reality-based fourth estate would not force Obama to continue to prove his obvious Capitalist bone fides. A fourth estate that was truly doing its job would point out that only one party, the Democrats, is trying to come up with sound policy solutions to the economic situation we find ourselves in while the other party, the Republicans, are sucking their thumbs and blowing bubbles in the bathtub. Until the fourth estate holds the Republicans (and the so called “moderate Democrats” that enable them) feet to the fire for their obstructionist ways we will continue to be inflicted with the bad behavior of their Wall Street benefactors.

We're in the money!

Final Official Obama Fundraising Number -- a Record-Setting $745 Million

December 04, 2008 9:15 PM

From October 16 until November 24 (the Federal Election Commission filing period) the Obama campaign reports raising $104,124,845 from 1,124,238 contributors, in an FEC reported filed this evening.

That means President-elect Obama campaign raised roughly $745 million for his 2008 presidential campaign.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., raised roughly $320 million, including the $84 million from entering into the public financing system.

This does NOT include money from the DNC and RNC. When those numbers are taken into account, we expect the Democrats to have raised closer to one billion dollars, compared to roughly $630 million for the Republicans.

Which means the President-elect had, roughly, a $400 million advantage.

ABC News' Tahman Bradley points out that Mr. Obama's total exceeds that of all 2004 candidates combined. They raised $673 million.

Snip

In this election Democrats finnally overcame the Republican advantage in money raising. How much of this was because of the "Netroots" and how much was because people contributed to see the backside of the Bush Administration is still a question.

The Lady in the Pant-Suite Gets a Shot. Pt 2

Hillary Rodham Clinton is now the officially the nominee for Secretary of State. It took quite a bit of what the Brits call jiggery-pokery on all sides of the equation. There are reports that Ms Clinton parlayed a Obama request for help at State to an announcement of her nomination to State, not exactly what Obama had in mind. There was perhaps some push-back by the Obama team on the Big Dogs extra-curricular activities. Bill was basically required to place his manhood in a blind trust by the Obama transition team. Still, it all worked out in the end and we now have a beautiful photo op. with a smiling Hillary and a beaming Barack. All the cutlery has been safely locked away in a vault at an undisclosed location; both Hillary and Barack can pat each other on the back without worrying about stilettos being delivered into the ribcage.

With Biden and Hillary on his team plus the further coloring in National Security team Obama is to borrow a phrase ready from day one. Hillary does present instant gravitas that must be recognized by friend and foe alike. Our allies are heartened whilst the mullahs in Iran are most likely not getting a restful nights sleep. Deep in his cave Osama is ordering up several donkey-loads of Ambien.

The only flies in this particular ointment are one, the nomination process and two, the current administration. Right now the only active Hillary haters are trolling around at Daily Kos but the right-wing noise machine and parts of the MSM still are lurking in a deep sulk. Will Chris Matthews be able to contain himself? What about the vast right-wing conspiracy that helped initiate the impeachment of Bill Clinton? Some jackass will bring up Vince Foster and Whitewater and the Blue Dress one more time; old obsessions never die they just get more ingrained.

The Obama team has done its best to keep the Clinton Haters at bay. Bill Clinton has had his plumage several trimmed back. Obama has ensured that Big Bill does not so much as pass gas without White House approval. In exchange Hillary gets access to Barack and gets a guarantee that she will not become Obama's Colin Powell. She will have a real role to play at State. As Obama will be heavily engaged in rescuing the economy and other domestic chores expect Hillary to take the foreign policy ball and run with it. Obama will set the tone and the general outlines, Hillary will provide the nuts and bolts.

The real question with Hillary remains, is she what she claims to be? One of the reasons she barely lost her primary run was her inability to make the hard decisions. She let her campaign team drift and squabble. Her run lacked discipline. There was no message control, the campaign leaked like sieve. In the bright lights of State Hillary can not afford to go off track or off message. She has a huge bureaucracy to control or have have spin out of control. State is several sizes larger than her presidential campaign , she has to establish control early and often. She can not allow the indiscipline of her campaign to infect her role at State. Did Hillary finally learn the real lesson of Mark Penn, that of cutting off your losses early? Hillary never really did deal with Penn in the ruthless way that was required. She let personal loyalty overrule practical considerations. Her Achilles heal was just the opposite of what was advertised. Neither of the Clintons were as ruthless as advertised. A colder more calculating person would have shot Penn out of a Canon right after Hillary's near death experience in New Hampshire.

Did Clinton learn to modulate her sense of loyalty? Can she make the hard choices at the right time? She can stick to her guns in certain instances-- it was incredibly difficult for her to acknowledge that her run for the president was lost. She played her run to last possible second and perhaps beyond. Can she show the same fortitude when an old loyalist needs to be cut loose? Has she learned the hard calculus of when to cut her losses? At State she is going to make some very hard calls. She can not equivocate and she can not let old loyalties interfere. Obama has already put a marker out for her; Bill Clinton has got to be controlled. As loyal as she is to her husband, she has to understand there is a greater loyalty to the president and the Nation. She really does have to control her first instinct which is to protect her husband.

Hillary has a very full plate in front of her. As noted earlier she and Obama have to wait some fifty odd days for the Present administration to get the hell out of Dodge. There is still a chance that the Dark Lord of the Sith ,Dick Cheney, might still managed to further screw up the foreign policy of the United States. Dead eye Dick might still be beavering away at the levers of powers to affect policy decisions. Fortunately for the republic the main leaver Cheney is yanking on seems to be out of service. George W. Bush has gone into a sort of Catatonia of late; unable to motivate himself to do anything other than turkey pardoning. It is still a sad day for our Nation that we have to rely on the "pragmatism" of Condoleezza Rice to keep us out of catastrophe. We won't be truly safe or at least less endangered until we have team Obama in full control.

There is an old Chinese proverb "be careful what you wish for, you might just get it." Hillary wanted State. Her protest to the contrary were so much eye-wash. Her role at State will either make or break her. She will either soar like an eagle or crash and burn in spectacular fashion. There really is no middle ground for either of the Clintons you get either diamonds or rust from them. "Average" or "mediocre" is just not in the Clinton vocabulary. She has the stage; she has if not her hearts desire a close approximation of that desire. She has always wanted to make her mark; her ambition is both obvious and justified. Few politicians of either gender has brought as much talent, intelligence,passion, and desire to the political scene. Other than the man who narrowly defeated her; there is no politician who has Hillary's skill set. As a pure political animal she is sue generis . At State these qualities will come in handy. The only real question is the Administrative skill set. Ready from day one? Let's hope so. If she is not it will become quickly and painfully obvious. There is no do-over for this role, no super-delegates to plead her case to. She is operating without a net. She stands or fails on her own merits. While there is no way to actually know her mind about this or any situation one suspects that she is happy to accpet the challenge. May she excell at the position and do herself and her nation proud.

McCain At DOD?

McCain in the DOD slot ultimately does not make sense. McCain is still fighting the Vietnam War and does not have the mental tools to do what is needed. Strategy requires the U.S. to roll out of Iraq as quickly and cleanly as possible. McCain is too wedded to the idea of "Victory." He can not give a definition of the term or a coherent policy to reach his stated goal. His was a W like intention to stay the course in Iraq, that is to never ever leave. McCain never quite understood that occupying Iraq was not the same thing as staying Japan after WW II. He was also far too wedded to using war as a first option and not the last. While this may be an acceptable position for a SecDef, it does not dovetail well with Obama's more nuance position on National Security.

McCain at DOD is a recipe for disaster for the Senator from Arizona. His explosive personality and bellicosity would practically ensure him leaving within 24 months. He would be constantly trying to outshine his grandfather and father in the role. He would constantly overreach. His belief that he is the only honorable man in the room would quickly alienate his colleges and the administration. McCain would self-destruct as SecDef. Neither the nation nor BHO wants to watch that particular drama. If BHO wants him out of the way he can appoint him to the magistrate at Pago-Pago or some such. There are plenty of rest homes in the government for McCain to quietly fade away in.

Where McCain helps is in cutting out the Military deadwood. McCain may be handed the baton on that front. There are numerous DOD procurement programs that need to be terminated. There are weapons systems that are white elephants on steroids. One ship-building program is on average 91 months behind on delivery. McCain provides Obama cover for cutting the DOD down to size. McCain as a special czar for cutting waste, fraud, and abuse makes sense. If someone like McCain comes out and says " The Osprey program is dead, we are moving to something that works and cost less" the Marine Corps will most likely have to snap to attention and kill the program. Ditto for the other non-functioning bloat in the DOD budget.

McCain has shown much enthusiasm and some success in trimming away military pork. He also has a perch in the Senate to accomplish this mission. With McCain supporting defense cuts Republicans will have a much tougher time claiming that Obama is just a typical weak on security Democrat.

Of course Republicans will hate him even more for that. McCain though would be more than happy with that situation. For the last eight years he has had to kow-tow to parts of the right wing. McCain no longer needs the Bushies. He is, after eight long years, his own man. McCain is once again liberated; just like he was over thirty years ago when he left Vietnam.

Maverick McCain 3.0 is now in beta; look for full release sometime after January 20,2009. Look for MM 3.0 to do some major shredding of the Republican caucus; which is why BHO will let him stay in the Senate. McCain in an Obama administration is no real benefit; BHO already has a highly regarded Republican at DOD. McCain tear-assing around the Republican Caucus; that is a thing of beauty to a BHO administration. BHO gets to glide over the bruised, battered and broken bodies of the Elephants and does not even have to lift a finger. McCain is already primed and ready to go all BHO has to do is give McCain the coordinates.

McCain's Republican opponents will be in quite a pickle; after building him up as an All American hero and defender of God, Guts and Guns they can't turn around and call him a pinko. Well they can try but it will make them look shabby and ridiculous. Even if they return to mumbling about how his POW experience may have unglued him ( yes it was done before and by Republicans) that will still call into question why they let McCain be their standard bearer.

Look for McCain to get the DOD procurement brief from BHO. McCain gets to have major input into BHO's policy in this regard and BHO gets cover fire from McCain when he brings the recommendations to the fore. Look for lots of pressers that features a happy Obama and a happy McCain reaching across the aisle whilst Republican (and some Democratic) Senators in the shot smile but secretly seethe. Look for the nation to come out the big winner as pointless and wasteful defense department procurement programs finally get axed.

A Quiet Hero - Madelyn Dunham

On Colin Powell and The Endorsement

On Sunday Colin Powell finally stopped being coy and came out for Barack Obama. The reaction was predictable. The right wing pundit class went apoplexic. There was an eruption of bile that was both ferocious and awe inspiring. In other places the response was a far different. The T.V. pundit class could scarcely stop oohing and ahing. It is time for a little perspective on Powell.

Colin Powell came out of the Bush Administration profoundly soiled. It was all about his performance at the U.N. as the face of the U.S. case against Iraq. That was essentially the last act of the prostitution of Colin Powell.

Before that final act Colin Powell was a well established figure. He was America’s hero. His life story was a confirmation of how the “system” works. Colin Powell played racial politics in a pitch perfect way. He was hard working, wicked smart, affable and a team player. In Shelby Steele’s archetype he was a bargainer. He was the type of black who let whites feel good about themselves. A go along to get along type and a consummate political animal he rose to the very top of the military hierarchy.

When Powell departed the military and joined the political fray both parties were hoping that he would join their team. Powell joined the Republicans. The G.O.P. was ecstatic. Powell was their “Big Tent” philosophy made flesh. Truth be told Powell was a good fit for the Republican Party of Bush Sr. He was personally conservative; all those years in the military had reinforced his button-down personality. His politics were also very conservative in a very literal way; he opposed any great changes in policy and preferred to tinker around the edges of the status quo. His famous “Powell Doctrine” of military involvement was a very restrained and very conservative document. Strict adherence to the Powell Doctrine by the U.S. would result in very few military incursions. Powell’s doctrine eschewed foreign policy adventurism. His crowning moment was the 1st Gulf War. That war was quick limited and in the short run successful.

Powell’s classic conservatism, one that he shared with G.W. Bush and the Eastern Establishment Republicans, is wrongly labeled “moderate” these days. This is many because movement conservatism, what was once more properly labeled reactionary conservatism has taken over the Republican Party. That movement’s guiding light was Ronald Regan but its ultimate enactors were George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. Bush / Cheney came into power via a troika of Republican power bases. First was the Religious Right. The Second was the Free Market absolutists. Last and not least were the NeoCons. While Bush was the figurehead, it was Cheney that was the driving force of the Administration. Cheney knew exactly where he wanted the Administration to go and pushed relentlessly to get his notions enacted.

Very early on Powell got sidelined and outplayed by Cheney. Even before 9/11 Powell’s State Department was forced to go in directions that it did not want to go. Case in point; the abrogation of the ABM treaty. The Bushite wrecking of this treaty for the Strategic Defense Initiative had to upset Powell. First Powell had to know that the “Star Wars” missile defense system was not worth scraping the treaty over. Second Powell understood how scrapping the ABM treaty irritated the Russians no end. Finally Powell probably objected philosophically with the change due to its radical nature. But Powell was outplayed by Cheney and Condoleezza Rice and overruled by Bush. A smarter or prouder man would have left right there and then. Powell stayed on.

But it is after 9/11 that Powell really sold his soul. The major cash-out happened in the C.I.A torture discussions. For whatever reasons, Powell stayed all-in with the administration and participated not only in the decisions to torture but participated in the discussions of how to torture. Forget Powell resigning in protest over the decision to invade Iraq, Powell should have walked out the door as soon as Bush, Rumsfeld and Cheney started talking about a policy of extraordinary rendition and enhanced interrogation. Powell knew that was kidnapping and torture. He also knew that it was a violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the Geneva Accords, two hundred years of U.S. military tradition, and common decency. As a military man he knew that torture put our service members at grave risk and provided useless intelligence. But he defaulted to the very method that had catapulted him to such a prominence in the first place- go along to get along.

From there it was easy for Bush et al to convince Powell to deliver the Administrations “case” against Saddam to the U.N. Despite the protestations of his batsman Col Wilkerson, Powell did not really have a problem with presenting the distortions of Bush Administration to the wider world. It was not the lies that bothered Powell; it was the fact that the lies were so transparent. Powell was upset that his dance of the seven veils was turning out to be the dance of the small, moth-eaten handkerchief.

Powell knew that the intelligence he was given by Cheney and others was bad. He had plenty of experience with both good and bad intelligence products during his military career. Powell did not fact check the intelligence with his own State Department resources because he knew good and well that the “intelligence” he was reading would not survive the scrutiny. He dragged Tenant to the U.N. not only for world opinion but also to cover his number when the case for invasion inevitably came crashing down.

It is said that what was once tragedy repeats as farce. In any other nation Powell’s endorsement of Barack Obama might play out as farce. In the U.S.A. it does not. In this nation there is no accountability for past malfeasance. It is argued that Powell’s support of Obama might be an act of penance for his U.N. speech. If it is, it is a rather small act of contrition for Powell’s participation in the Bush Administration. The torture policy Powell signed off on abused hundreds of innocents and accidentally killed more than a few. The war that he helped sell has killed hundreds of thousands of individuals and ruined our nation’s reputation for generations at least. For such sins in years past men were forced into exile or to become mendicant monks. Powell shows no signs of taking on orders or retreating to a solitary island.

If there is one silver lining in Powell’s appearance at Meet The Press it is his commentary after the endorsement. His unambiguous support of the right of conscience, that Muslims have every right to participate in the nations affairs was a shining moment. It still speaks volumes about the state of affairs that no Republican other than Powell was willing to state the obvious; that Muslims have fought and died for this country and that a Muslim boy or Muslim girl has every right to dream of and perhaps become the President of this Nation. In his comments both during and after his MTP appearance on this subject Powell showed a small flash of the man who the USA once admired. Unfortunately that man made a major error in backing both the candidacy of and Administration of George W. Bush

Hillary Made Obama a Better Candidate

By LANNY J. DAVIS

The anti-Hillary Clinton pundits were sounding the theme a few months ago that by staying in the presidential race through June 3, the former first lady was a divisive force that would irreparably harm Barack Obama's chances of capturing the White House.

But now Mrs. Clinton's decision to stay in the race until the last primary has been vindicated. Mr. Obama is a stronger candidate today thanks to Mrs. Clinton's pursuit of the Democratic nomination. And, far from being polarizing, she has helped bring the party together more than at any time in recent memory.

We know this from Mr. Obama himself. Because she didn't quit until after the primaries were over, his grassroots organization grew stronger across the nation, his fundraising network became more extensive, and his TV and radio advertising from the late fall of 2007 to June 2008 increased favorable recognition of him in many states. These things made him a stronger general election candidate.

We also know that Mr. Obama became a better candidate over time as he was tested, and retested, in the key head-to-head debates with Mrs. Clinton. These debates made him more prepared and effective when he squared off against Sen. John McCain than he otherwise would have been.

There are two other claims anti-Hillary pundits repeated about the damage Mrs. Clinton was supposedly doing to the party that have now been repudiated. The first is that she hurt Mr. Obama by attacking him for being inexperienced, and for his connections to Rev. Jeremiah Wright and William Ayers. Not only have these criticisms been proven false, but the opposite turns out to be the case.

More At The Wall Street Journal

Missouri Shows McCain the Door.

Results of SurveyUSA Election Poll #14579

In Missouri, John McCain's Lead Among White Voters Has Evaporated: In an election for President of the United States in battleground Missouri today, 10/13/08, three weeks until votes are counted, Democrat Barack Obama has momentum and a meaningful advantage in SurveyUSA's latest tracking poll, conducted for KMOX radio in St Louis and KCTV-TV in Kansas City. The contest in Missouri has swung 10-points to Obama since SurveyUSA's last track point, 3 weeks ago. Then, McCain led by 2. Today, Obama leads, 51% to 43%. Among white voters, McCain had led by 11. Today, tied. There is movement among men, where McCain had led, now trails; among women, where McCain had been tied, now trails; among higher-income voters, where McCain had led, now trails; and among Independents, where McCain had led, now trails. In greater St. Louis, Obama had led by 5, now by 22. In greater Kansas City, Obama had led by 16, now by 31. George W. Bush carried Missouri by 7 points in 2004, and by 3.5 points in 2000. The state has 11 electoral votes, which are critical to any Republican who seeks the White House.

Snip

A few short months ago Taylor Marsh, a blogger that knows a few things about politics in the "Show Me State," declared Obama all but dead in the state of her birth. Today it is advantage Obama. Back then it was all Reverend Wright all the time. Today it's the economy stupid. Lunch Bucket Democrats are coming back to the the fold. McCain Loosing his lead in the white vote in this border state is huge news. If Obama captures Missouri in November it may become a rout at least in the electoral college. Obama set out to redraw the electoral map, coloring Missouri blue would be quite a feat.

"The Name Game" Outstanding!

N.Q. Gets It Wrong Again.

Soldier's mother 'ecstatic' about Obama's bracelet

By DINESH RAMDE – 1 hour ago

MILWAUKEE (AP) — The mother of a Wisconsin soldier who died in Iraq says she was "ecstatic" when Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama mentioned during Friday's debate the bracelet she gave him in honor of her son.

Tracy Jopek of Merrill told The Associated Press on Sunday she was honored that Obama remembered Sgt. Ryan David Jopek, who was killed in 2006 by a roadside bomb.

Jopek criticized Internet reports suggesting Obama, D-Ill., exploited her son for political purposes.

"I don't understand how people can take that and turn it into some garbage on the Internet," she said.

Jopek acknowledged e-mailing the Obama campaign in February asking that the presidential candidate not mention her son in speeches or debates. But she said Obama's mention on Friday was appropriate because he was responding after Sen. John McCain, the Republican nominee, said a soldier's mother gave him a bracelet.

"I've got a bracelet, too, from Sergeant — from the mother of Sergeant Ryan David Jopek, given to me in Green Bay," Obama said during the debate. "She asked me, 'Can you please make sure another mother is not going through what I'm going through?' No U.S. soldier ever dies in vain because they're carrying out the missions of their commander in chief. And we honor all the service that they've provided."

Jopek says Obama's comment rightfully suggested there's more than one viewpoint on the war.

She wouldn't directly say whether she wanted Obama to refrain from mentioning the bracelet again, but said she hopes the issue will just go away.

"I think these bracelets should be looked upon as an honor that both candidates wear them to respect the troops," Jopek said. "My request to both of them is that they honor the troops by lifting the conversation to the issues, and that they continue to live up to the standards our military deserves."

Snip

Looks like leisure suit Larry will have to find some other lie to peddle. Obama as Crypto-Muslim anyone?

McCain Breaks His Word.

Republican John Sidney McCain III decided he would take a little breather in the campaign to be President of the United States of America. He “suspended” his campaign to rush back to Washington because of the Wall Street liquidity crisis. Actually rushed is the wrong word, ambled with purpose is perhaps a better description. He canceled his appearance with David Letterman but did get in some face time both with Katie Couric and with the Big Dog himself. Only after his grip and grin at the Clinton Global Initiative will Republican John McCain bother to show up in D.C. to save the nation from immanent economic disaster. Once engaged in this Herculean task he will of course not be able to participate in something as common or political as a Debate with Barack Obama. No if this business is not done by this Friday the 26^th of September, he will camp out on the very steps of Congress until the deed is done.

How convenient, Republican John McCain will put country first by putting the voters last. Even more convenient he may push the first debate until the second of October, shoving the Palin-Biden debate off until later, if at all. Such gallantry by Republican John McCain, ladies first- right under the wheels of the bus. Taylor Marsh has already gone into John McCain’s sexism in choosing Sara Palin as his spokes-model so let us look at this from a different perspective, that of keeping one’s word.

Republican John McCain is a product of the military. He followed in the footsteps of a great family tradition of Naval Service. He went to Annapolis and was drilled with those core values of the Naval Academy. One of the most important values was Honor. There is a code of Honor that is instilled in the cadets from day one. Part of that code is that your word is your bond. It is part and parcel of the warrior code and is critical to unit cohesion. Following through on your verbal and written commitments is paramount for any military officer. In the clubish confines of the Naval Officer ranks it is absolutely critical. Break your word as an Annapolis graduate and you're toast; you will be lucky to command a tugboat.

Keeping the faith, “country first” is the main theme of the McCain Republican Campaign. They have pushed McCain’s POW history to no end. Every time Republican John McCain gets in a bit of bother his four year stint in the “Hanoi Hilton” is waved about like a bloody shirt. It got absurd when Obama’s light prodding of McCain’s internet illiteracy caused the right-wing noise machine to claim that McCain’s inability to e-mail was caused by the torture meted out by his North Vietnamese captors. Republican McCain’s shameless exploitation of his POW history is just one example of his wrapping himself up in the warrior mythos.

Is that mythos real? At one point it may have been. Naval Aviator McCain did do his utmost to hold up the code of honor. Through no fault of his own he was eventually broken by his captors. In his only executive role he did a standout job getting a under performing training squadron up to outstanding readiness. He overcame his injuries to fly planes again, an amazing act of shear will power. Naval Aviator McCain was an exemplar; but that man is at least 26 years gone.

The current version of McCain began at least in Congress. This version of McCain, the political operative, is who he is now. And this version of McCain, the Republican Senator from Arizona is trying to skip out of a contract. Modern Presidential debates are a contract. They are the exact opposite of a Judy Garland and Andy Rooney film, neither side says to the other “let’s put on a show!” Every detail is worked out prior to the presentation: the format, the location, the host, the size and placement of the lecterns, no detail is too small, too trivial to ignore. These negotiations take time and a raft of aides. The best analog would be negotiating a treaty with a foreign power. When the deal is sealed, it is locked in. In the first debate alone some three million dollars will be spent by the host to put it on. In a snap decision Republican John McCain flaked out on that agreement.

The excuse for this abandonment is thinner than Mary-Kate Olsen. The debate will be held on a Friday at 9:00pm EST. Congress will not be in session at that time. Even if it is it can adjourn for a short period of time so the candidates can debate. Both candidates have jets; they can easily fly out of D.C., debate, and then fly back in for the vote. The markets will understand, the voters will understand. There is Saturday and Sunday to continue the debate, and as this could easily be a trillion dollar hit on the taxpayers there all the more reason for careful deliberation. As Republican John McCain does not sit on any of the relevant Senate committees one wonders why his presence is so urgently needed in Washington. It becomes even more suspect when the man meanders back to his critical perch in the Senate.

Republican John McCain gave his word on a very critical meeting, the debates. He gave his word that he would be at specific place at a specific time. In the Navy he would be missing ships movement. His failure to appear at the appointed place and time in the Navy would have caused serious repercussions’. His lame excuse for not fulfilling his written obligations would not have been greeted with any sympathy. In the Navy when you are assigned to be at a certain place by a certain time you snap to it. This is not the behavior of a man of honor. This is the action of a man who can not keep his word, the very opposite of what is expected of an Officer and a Gentleman.

The question then becomes “Can we trust Republican John McCain?” His actions do not speak well for him, he breaks or attempts to break a solemn commitment with his Democratic opponent to debate him, he protest the urgency of the situation while acting in a manner that appears to be absolutely slothful, then he proposes the “postponement” of yet another debate (the V.P. debate) in a way that make one suspect a cancelation, then the man has the gall to ask for a couple of “Town hall meetings” that his opponent has said no to time and time again. Will Republican John McCain keep his word? Or will some other suspicious “emergency” cause him to dishonor his commitment to debate his opponent? In the Military one always finds a way to honor your commitments not weasel out of them. Somewhere along the line McCain has forgotten that.

McCain's Integrity

By Andrew Sullivan

For me, this surreal moment - like the entire surrealism of the past ten days - is not really about Sarah Palin or Barack Obama or pigs or fish or lipstick. It's about John McCain. The one thing I always thought I knew about him is that he is a decent and honest person. When he knows, as every sane person must, that Obama did not in any conceivable sense mean that Sarah Palin is a pig, what did he do? Did he come out and say so and end this charade? Or did he acquiesce in and thereby enable the mindless Rovianism that is now the core feature of his campaign?

So far, he has let us all down. My guess is he will continue to do so. And that decision, for my part, ends whatever respect I once had for him. On core moral issues, where this man knew what the right thing was, and had to pick between good and evil, he chose evil. When he knew that George W. Bush's war in Iraq was a fiasco and catastrophe, and before Donald Rumsfeld quit, McCain endorsed George W. Bush against his fellow Vietnam vet, John Kerry in 2004. By that decision, McCain lost any credibility that he can ever put country first. He put party first and his own career first ahead of what he knew was best for the country.

And when the Senate and House voted overwhelmingly to condemn and end the torture regime of Bush and Cheney in 2006, McCain again had a clear choice between good and evil, and chose evil.

He capitulated and enshrined torture as the policy of the United States, by allowing the CIA to use techniques as bad as and worse than the torture inflicted on him in Vietnam. He gave the war criminals in the White House retroactive immunity against the prosecution they so richly deserve. The enormity of this moral betrayal, this betrayal of his country's honor, has yet to sink in. But for my part, it now makes much more sense. He is not the man I thought he was.

And when he had the chance to engage in a real and substantive debate against the most talented politician of the next generation in a fall campaign where vital issues are at stake, what did McCain do? He began his general campaign with a series of grotesque, trivial and absurd MTV-style attacks on Obama's virtues and implied disgusting things about his opponent's patriotism.

And then, because he could see he was going to lose, ten days ago, he threw caution to the wind and with no vetting whatsoever, picked a woman who, by her decision to endure her own eight-month pregnancy of a Down Syndrome child in public, that he was going to reignite the culture war as a last stand against Obama. That's all that is happening right now: a massive bump in the enthusiasm of the Christianist base. This is pure Rove.

Yes, McCain made a decision that revealed many appalling things about him. In the end, his final concern is not national security. No one who cares about national security would pick as vice-president someone who knows nothing about it as his replacement. No one who cares about this country's safety would gamble the security of the world on a total unknown because she polled well with the Christianist base. No person who truly believed that the surge was integral to this country's national security would pick as his veep candidate a woman who, so far as we can tell anything, opposed it at the time.

McCain has demonstrated in the last two months that he does not have the character to be president of the United States. And that is why it is more important than ever to ensure that Barack Obama is the next president. The alternative is now unthinkable. And McCain - no one else - has proved it.

7 Years After 9/11, What Awaits in Pakistan?

BY TAYLOR MARSH

President George W. Bush has failed this country miserably in the most important job of a president. Securing the safety of the American people. What awaits us over one future sunrise is frightening.

Seven years after the September 11 attacks, the US government gets mediocre grades for work to prevent a future attack involving weapons of mass destruction (WMD), a bipartisan panel said Tuesday. In a report card to be formally issued on Wednesday, the Partnership for a Secure America (PSA) said the government had failed to do its utmost to curb such a threat on its soil and check the spread of WMD overseas....

Bush hasn’t a clue, but he’s worried enough to have shifted his policy dramatically. Once Musharraf’s demise was certain, panic set in. According to the New York Times, raids into Pakistan:

President Bush secretly approved orders in July that for the first time allow American Special Operations forces to carry out ground assaults inside Pakistan without the prior approval of the Pakistani government, according to senior American officials. The classified orders signal a watershed for the Bush administration after nearly seven years of trying to work with Pakistan to combat the Taliban and Al Qaeda, and after months of high-level stalemate about how to challenge the militants-?? increasingly secure base in Pakistan-??s tribal areas.

What was it Obama said? Oh, right: "If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won’t act, we will."

Feeling any safer yet? McCain’s Iraq centric obsession won’t get that job done.

Enough Is Enough

Will the Real Bill Clinton Please Shut Up?

If anyone really wants to know why Hillary was not considered for the V.P. slot the latest eruption from Mount Bill Clinton is exhibit ZZZ. We are well past exhibit A or B and just about to ad yet another letter to the log. Will some one please duct tape this man’s mouth before he sticks his foot in it again?

We are well past being a petulant looser and now deep in the territory of self-destructive narcissism. His latest not-so-subtitle blast at Barack Obama provided yet more unwanted drama at the convention. Flash back to his tepid support previously given and there is a pattern.

Bill Clinton is way past licking his own wounds here, he has moved on to the political equivalent of gnawing off his own leg. It is quite the spectacle and must feature prominently in the wet-dreams of the Traditional media. Nothing better to sell those corn flakes then a prominent man making a base fool of himself is there? Unfortunately he is also dragging his wife down with him. Hillary has got to snap Bill out of this petulant sulk. It is now her political career on the line. If she can not control her own husband how can she be trusted to control anything else?

The Obama team has been generous to the point of night sweats to team Clinton. All their generosity has not flipped Bill over to their cause. Hillary got her roll call, she got her speech, she even got Michigan and Florida fully seated. Bill got his speech and on his favorite topic: himself. He now gets to talk about how wonderful his presidency was; he gets to talk up his economic achievements. Truth be told it is a good story; but it is still all about Bill and his bottomless need for confirmation. The end game of Bill’s “last run” is getting needlessly fraught with drama. One wonders if Bill wrapped too much of his own ego into Hillary’s campaign. One wonders if Bill was only really campaigning for himself; for his own agenda and needs.

Bill’s ugly side really came out in the post South Carolina debacle. The stinging rejection he received from the African-American community sent him in an emotional tail-spin that was unnerving to watch. He careened and careered around the political stage crashing into all manner of malapropisms. He literally got sent down to minor leagues of the campaign circuit. A former president was doing appearances that would normally be relegated to his daughter or even a third tier functionary. Even in these little cul-de-sacs of American politics he managed to get in trouble. He was wildly off message in an unflattering self-pitying way. Bill Clinton did not just burn bridges to core constituencies, he napalmed them.

In the end, Bill was no longer an asset for his wife; he was just one more albatross hung around her neck. As Hillary already had a stunning collection of the sea bird draped around her, this was not a good thing. There was Mark Penn, there was Patti Solis-Doyle, there was her February crash-and-burn in the caucuses, and there was her empty war chest. She ran, she worked the line, she spoke herself horse; she staid viable long after lesser politicians would have hooked off the political stage. One thing for sure; Hillary can accessorize with the best of them. It takes real talent to look good with a necklace of dingy, dirty, squawking sea-birds draped around the neck of your pantsuits. It takes even more talent when one of those nasty birds is your own husband.

It is a good thing that Barack Obama is such an even-tempered man. A lesser politician would have yanked Bill’s speech or at least slapped him down. A lesser man would have politically back-slapped Bill Clinton into next month for his comments. There was no excuse for the former president’s behavior. Bill Clinton, of all people, knows what he is supposed to do. He knows the drill, he is supposed to get happily behind Barack Obama and join the mirthful Corus. This display of pique does Barack no good, it does Hillary no good, it does the party no good, and in the end it does him no good. Once upon a time there was a masterful politician that re-invented himself from the ashes of defeat. He raised Phoenix like from the political fever swamps of Arkansas and beat a scion of Republican privilege. He not only survived but flourished in Republican dominated Washington D.C. He beat the system and even bested a tawdry sex scandal. That political professional is long gone. He has been replaced by a bitter, self-pitying jackass who needs a time-out.

HRC on Party Unity

Fat Man's Anniversary

Sixty-three years ago the city of Nagasaki, Japan entered the atomic age. 39,000 of Nagasaki’s citizens died in the Atomic bombing of that city. A few days earlier 66,000 citizens of Hiroshima were also killed by a nuclear device. The whimsical names of those two devices, “Fat Man” and “Little Boy,” hid a monstrous truth: atomic scientist had weaponized the power of nuclear fission.

Ever since that day we have had to come to grips with some very grim realities. We had developed a way to literally vaporize our own species. Major cities could be flattened in the blink of an eye. Earlier in 1945 the city of Tokyo was laid waste by firebombing. With nuclear devices one plane could accomplish the job a squadron of bombers had done only a few months before. The American mania for efficiency had taken a very dark turn.

As in Tokyo, most of the victims died from burns.The lucky few were instantly vaporized. Most though died slow horrific deaths from 2^nd and 3^rd degree burns either directly from the bomb itself or from the numerous fires it started. In Nagasaki 95% of the deaths were caused by burns. Instead of focusing on how prosaic most of the deaths were we focus instead on the fatalities caused effects of radioactive fall-out. Even in Hiroshima the causes of death were what one would expect from a more “ordinary” bomb 60% of fatalities were caused by burns and 30% of fatalities were caused by falling debris.

Another factor that added to the carnage was the destruction of emergency services. General infrastructure also was decimated. Many died because the doctors and nurses who could have treated them perished in the initial blast. Hospitals, Fire stations and other public service facilities were either flattened by the blast or burned down to the ground in the ensuing fires. Transportation services were taken out of action reducing travel to walking. There was no way to transport the injured to treatment, next to no place to take the injured to in the first place and very few people who could treat the injured in the few facilities that remained.

We tend to forget what a nasty business the bombing of a civilian population is. We have watched too many Hollywood movies and been shown far too many sanitized DoD press releases and come to believe in the oxymoron of a “surgical strike.” Bombings always cause “collateral damage.” That means people get maimed and killed, people who had the bad luck to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Nagasaki stands out in relief because it makes this point so painfully clear. The city of Nagasaki had only limited value as a military target. It was chosen mostly because it was an excellent way to show off the USA’s newest military hardware. It was chosen because Tokyo was already a smoldering wreck from earlier conventional bombing. The bombing was psychological warfare write large.

To this day there is scholarly debate on whether the atomic bombing actually did shorten the war. Conventional wisdom holds that Japan did surrender because of the nuclear attacks. Even then, it was a very near thing; elements of the Japanese military tried to foment a putsch and prevent the Emperor from making his surrender announcement. Many historians hold that it was the Soviet invasion of Manchuria that pushed the Japanese over the threshold. With the 20/20 vision that history provides, it can be argued that the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was unnecessary. It can be argued that atomic weapons should never have been used. What can not be argued is that nuclear devices were used. What can not be argued are the results of that use.

Today the USA alone has tens of thousands of devices much more powerful than Little Boy and Fat Man. In today’s arsenal those historical weapons would barely qualify for tactical use. Strategic nuclear weapons these days are much bigger in terms of explosive power (yield) and accuracy. Today the USA is no longer the sole owner of the technology either. The Russians, the Chinese, the French, the British, the Indians, the Pakistanis, and the North Koreans all have nuclear weapons. The Israelis are a little bit more demure about their ownership; they claim that they won’t “introduce” nukes to the area. Still this dodge fools absolutely no one. It especially does not calm the nerves of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

In the food fight that had been the 2008 election no candidate has said much about these weapons. Hillary Clinton did have an idea to extend our nuclear umbrella to the Saudis which was interesting. At least she was trying to come up some kind of solution to a huge elephant in the room. The message got muddied by both her comments about Iran and her refusal to even acknowledge the facts on the ground- those 150 odd devices stamped “made in Israel.” Exactly what was accomplished by her threatening the Iranians over an effort they were no longer engaged in? Not that Barack Obama covered himself in glory over this item either. He seemed to be in competition with Hillary on who could pander to the Likudnicks better. Of course when it comes to Neo-Con viciousness against Iran no one can out testosterone John Sidney McCain III. Neither Hillary nor Barack was willing to put a military policy to Beach Boys music.

What is really unfortunate is that one of Obama’s strengths is his stand on Nuclear proliferation. Unlike George W. and his heir apparent McNasty he understands the threat of loose nukes. Instead of abrogating the non-proliferation treaty he would strengthen it. He would also stop the Republican’s Strangelove-like obsession toward even more types of nuclear weapons. Bush and Darth Cheney on the other hand ended the ABM treaty, tried to cut funding for securing loose nukes, botched the Clinton deal on North Korea which lead that country’s mischief, have funded the development of new “bunker buster” munitions and other tactical nuclear devices and done major damage to international institutions like the IAEA.

Not since Nikita Kruschev has a world leader been so careless and provocative with nuclear weapons. There is a reason Russian leader Vladimir Putin wants a repeat of the Cuban missile crisis. George W is putting a huge forward deployed ABM site right in his back yard. Shades of the old ICBMs stationed in Turkey. W’s excuse is that we need those missiles station there in case a “rouge nation” decides to attack Europe with nuclear weapons. Of course no Russian leader worth the name would believe such nonsense even after snorting up his nose whatever W is using these days. W’s defensive shield looks suspiciously like an offensive 1^st strike weapon to the old KGB hand. Truthfully can one blame Putin? With W’s history, especially with Bush’s misadventure in Iraq, Putin has every right to default to paranoia.

The real question is why is not the American public as paranoid as Putin? On this day especially we should be alive to the consequence of nuclear weapons. We need to pull this subject out in to the light of reason. We need to talk seriously about it. We owe that much to those 105,000 people who died in Japan sixty-three years ago.