McCain closes the gap

In a recent poll, John McCain has closed the 10-point gap between himself and Barack Obama. Now, if he can only close the gap with himself.

Off the trail and into the danger zone

This was where I thought John McCain might just win this election. As General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker came before the US Senate, I thought John is going to look good. Very good. After all, he has just spent the last week on the campaign trail reminding Americans that a precipitous drawn-down of troops would be foolhardy. And now we have Dave Petraeus in those hallowed halls recommending a 45-day halt to the modest drawn-down that the Administration had promised us. McCain was golden. And he certainly looked the part: calm, even-tempered, but tough––a warrior. That was, until he tried to get the General and the Ambassador to talk about the imminent threat of al-Qaeda. Well, a threat, sure. But not the biggest bogeyman in the region. But they are a threat? Sure. Sorta… They were really trying to give McCain the answer he wanted. He was “Mr. Surge,” after all. But McCain would not let go. He keeped on blabbing about al-Qaeda, like it was the key to this war. The word that strikes terror in the heart of John Q. Public. And then, he did it. He called them Shi’a again. Doooh! Solider Johnny fumbles the globe, once more. Not good. Then Senator Clinton steps to the plate. She is cool, articulate and forceful. This is when I start thinking: This may not be where McCain shines, this may be the forum where the junior senator from Illinois is going to look very…um…junior, I think is the word. I bite my lip hard. My palms begin to sweat. Finally, it’s Obama’s turn. No speechifying is going to save the boy tonight. This is where we see if he is truly a match for these two seasoned Senators. And this is where we got to see Obama at his best. No flowery prose. No retrofitting stump speech bullet points. Instead, a respectful, but tenacious, line of questioning concerning the metrics of success. The question that no one has answered for the past five years. A question that few have even asked. And a question that betrayed something I had yet to notice. Obama has actually thought this thing through. He actually appears to have a plan. A messy one, no doubt. But a plan, nonetheless. And it was pretty clear that this big-eared rookie had just won the day.

“My bad”

She just keeps doing it. Confusing speech facts with real facts. Once again, Senator Clinton’s fond recollections of her “experience” were contradicted by the reality of that “experience.” No sniper fire this time, at least. While campaigning in Oregon, the senator from New York invited the crowd to check the record. If they do so, they were confidently assured, they would see that her opposition to the Iraq war actually predates Barack Obama’s opposition. Of course, it doesn’t. You may recall she voted to authorize this war. So to make the fact check work in her favor, she added a very curious parameter. If you check the record since January 2005. Why January 2005? That’s when the junior senator from Illinois actually came to the Senate. The junior senator who warned that invading Iraq would be a giant mistake back when Senator Clinton was actually voting to authorize the President’s grand adventure––that junior senator. You see, if you do that, Hillary said, she actually was against the war first. The only problem is even when you do the math her way…Obama still comes out ahead. Oops. At least, she can say that she is currently against the war she was formerly for: you may remember how well that line of argument worked for Mr. Kerry, (AKA: The Flip-flopper).

GOP terror tactics

Peggy Noonan had it right. John McCain could actually be a quite formidable candidate if he would simply think before he speaks. The latest example of his propensity to just blurt things out was this Friday, when he told the crowd of supporters that he was afraid that al-Qaeda may be planning new attacks to sway this election. This would be classic GOP fear-mongering except that he was implying two very curious thoughts. The first is that the terrorists are pulling for the Democrats. This is very curious, given the main reason we haven’t had a terrorist attack on US soil since 9-11, is that the current President has made killing Americans infinitely easier. He has put them within spitting distance. Thank you, Mr. Bush. You’ve saved al-Qaeda the trip. He has also helped increased recruitment for the terrorist cause by putting boots on the ground on sacred Islamic soil. Which, for those who actually have been paying attention, is the real reason that Osama bin Laden hates the US. We keep desecrating their land with our military bases. So, in fact, the military policies of the Republicans have proven a boon to terrorism. So I don’t see Osama pulling for the Democrats. Not by any stretch of the imagination. The second implication in Senator McCain’s remarks is that a terrorist attack on America would somehow hurt his bid for Commander-In-Chief. This is almost laughable. Such a tragedy would play right into his hawkish strengths! It would be exactly the thing that would make American’s pull the McCain lever. So, on second thought, maybe this isn’t an example of McCain shooting from the lip. Maybe this guy is a Rovian genius! Maybe Peggy has pegged the old boy all wrong.

The Armageddon Express

San Antonio televangelist John Hagee has declared that John McCain is God’s man. You see Hagee, who can’t wait until we go to war with Iran and get this Armageddon thing cranked up in earnest, feels McCain has the right family values. Blowing things up and what not. Of course, Johnny Mac was happy to get the endorsement. Maybe he’ll make Hagee Secretary of Defense. One potential problem: Apparently, in Hagee’s eschatology this nasty Tribulation business will all be over in just 7 years. Which is a far cry shorter than the one-hundred years John McCain has been promising. Lord, I love the GOP! Praise God and pass the nuclear weapons.

I am woman

One Democratic candidate has insisted this presidential campaign is not about race or gender. The other has insisted that it very much is. And her palpable insinuation is, “Girls, you know what you must do.” The results have been pretty predictable. The candidate who reaches across the racial chasm, across the gender gap and across party and regional lines is starting to see that he can attract voters of all races, all genders, all ages and all stripes. Today in Virginia exit polling, he’s even shown that he can reach that most narrow-minded and stubborn of niches: the left wing female baby boomer. The group who have fought their whole life for equal opportunity, equal pay and a sort of equal consequences for reproductive activities. The group who came into this political cycle believing that the 2008 election was about crashing through the glass ceiling and putting someone with ovaries in the Oval Office. But then something happened. These feminist stalwarts––these pioneers of female liberation–– got over the initial euphoria, the momentary giddiness, of knowing they had a bona fide, qualified, sure-thing candidate and looked at a bigger world torn apart by sectarian hatred and a country torn apart by partisan bickering. They looked at how a planet where every group thinks only in terms of their own race, their own clan, their own class and their own creed ultimately implodes upon itself. And maybe they recognized that it is that sort of thinking that is root of the problem. And certainly not the solution. And perhaps, they looked at the last seven years of a narrow-minded administration and realized that this is not the time for more narrow thinking and mindless, lockstep solidarity. It is time that all good women do what all good women have always done best: Set aside their personal agenda and effect the greater good.

John McCain or John Rambo?

After 7 years of a mangled foreign policy that plays like a bad Michael Bay movie––an action-packed extravaganza full of mustachioed villains, exploding Humvees and Clint Eastwood catch phrases: “Wanted dead or alive;” “Bring it on;” “Mission accomplished”––it is little wonder that the emerging GOP front runner is a decorated Vietnam war hero. Or that his wartime heroics consisted chiefly of doing hard time in a Viet Cong POW camp. He’s also a bit of a hot head. Which you’ve gotta love. Our very own Rambo. Maybe that’s why Senator McCain is Sylvester Stallone’s pick for Commander-in-chief. Maybe, that’s why TV action hero Chuck Norris is Huckabee’s Hollywood sidekick. Or why, actor Fred Thompson treated his run for the oval office like it was just another casting call. Look tough. Talk tough. Be tough. Cue the explosives. Bring up the music. Fade to black.

Dreamers vs. Doers

Staying on message is important in politics. And Senator Hillary Clinton is doing her darnedest. But gaffes happen. Like saying that Dr. King was a good little orator, but it took a Lyndon Johnson to give the Civil Rights Movement its traction. Yeah, not exactly the way you want to head into South Carolina. But despite how she mangled that moment––and mangle it she did–– her message is clear: Obama is a lovely symbol; Obama is an inspiring little speech maker. But the Presidency requires an entirely different skill set. Obama is a dreamer. Clinton is a doer. While Obama was off making prescient speeches against the war, she was in the Senate voting on important legislation. Like, you know, authorizing that…um…war. Which is how drawing this contrast always has a way of backfiring. (You know, like saying anything that diminishes a martyred MLK.) It always brings it back to what the doer has done. And in this case, the doer helped to do the invasion of Iraq. The thing that said doer keeps laying at the feet of this Republican President. Which inadvertently, seems to make the said dreamer a bit of a prophet. Which is a whole ‘nother kind of gaffe. For it seems to me, it leaves her audience with the absolute wrong message: Which do you want, electorate? A dreamer of big dreams or a doer who is asking for a do-over?

The Zeitgeist Conspiracy

Zeitgeist the Movie–– coming to a computer near you. It’s a 2-hour YouTube extravaganza all about how 9/11 is a shadowy government conspiracy. And how Christianity is nothing more than a rehashing of Egyptian astrology. And how Jesus is simply a retread of the Sun god Horus. The net-net of “movie” is that the Man (be he the Roman Emperor Constantine, the Illuminati, or the Federal Reserve) is ingeniously conspiring to keep us down. Among his methods are myth-based religions, human suffering and a group of clever Masons. When does Lara Croft come in and save the world? But I digress. Which is why I love the Internet. The crazies get equal time. I can blog that Muhammad was really a sock puppet and upload a video warning that implanted microchips are the apocalyptic mark of the Beast. And the crazies beget more crazies. And those crazies get followers. And those followers beget more fear and suspicion. Why, it almost sounds like a …what’s the word?…Conspiracy. Freaky!

Another Reagan

Fred Thompson’s campaign was going great guns. A true conservative. Ronald Reagan’s heir apparent. The genuine article. Then something happened. He showed up. Suddenly, that Law & Order bull dog tenacity morphed into a hangdog look that hasn’t done much on the campaign trail but lazily sniff the path those early-bird candidates had already trod. Now we learn that Thompson doesn’t care much for politics and isn’t all that interested in running for President. Which explains a lot: A lackluster campaign and a debating style that is reminiscent of the high school jock who squirms behind the speech class lectern longing for the next football practice. Of course, a cavalier manner is to be admired; and Ronald Reagan famously napped his way through eight years of peace, middle-class prosperity and the demise of the Soviet Union. The big difference is when Reagan campaigned he was electric. He oozed charm and an aw-shucks cowboy toughness that promised morning again in America. Thompson, by contrast, was more inspiring as a undeclared concept than he is as a candidate. But the truth is we could all use another Reagan. A guy with a political winsomeness. A guy who could pull a divided, humpty-dumpty country back together again. And Thompson clearly ain’t that guy. In fact, I am afraid that the vast group of GOP contenders (with the exception of maverick Ron Paul) only promise “more of the same.” The same war on terror. The same supply-side tax cuts. The same “benevolent bully” foreign policy. So if you are ready for a new morning in America, a fresh start and leadership that is simultaneously tough-minded and uplifting––Reaganesque, if you will––I see only one candidate with those kind of credentials and that level of charisma. His name is Obama. And this kid, unlike Senator Thompson, has wanted to be President since kindergarten. Oh well, who said the next Reagan had to be a Republican?