October Surprise

Living La Vida Loca

As I was taking some notes in a meeting I looked down at my pen which is from the W.J. Clinton Presidential library, I started to think, where would President Hillary Clinton build her library? Certainly it would have more interesting stuff than the mechanical bull at the George W. Bush Presidential Magazine rack, but would it be in Illinois?, Arkansas? or her carpetbagger's destination of New York? Who knows. First of all, I don't think it's going to happen.

Here's the rub, I like Hillary. She's a great intellect, has been a great senator and actually tried to figure out health care. You put that early 90's health care bill in front of the US Chamber of Commerce and the automakers today and they'd be on it like me on a pork chop.

Yup, I'm the guy who still thinks it's going to be Edwards/McCain in the general election. Now I like my data, and all the polls shows Hillary beating any of the Republicans in the general election and some national polls have her up over 30 points over her closest challenger. It's just hard for me to imagine Hillary Clinton as President, first just the image of these two royal families controlling the Presidency for at least 24 years is just bizarre. It's not like this is like Lichtenstein or something, we're a country of over 300 million people with the best universities in the world, the largest number of Nobel laureates, and shall we not forget, Hollywood! You would think that some other cream would rise to the top that had not been a Clinton or Bush.

Oh yeah, and this is Hillary, "that woman" is probably the most divisive politician in recent American history. She's the ogre that the right uses to raise money now that Ted Kennedy has become more of an elder statesman in American politics. It's hard to make hay at the foot of a grandfather. She has been branded as a socialist, a communist, a feminist, an abortionist and is a leftist demon to the dittoheads.

I often will ask people why they hate Hillary so much, and often folks will mention the arrogance, like she is the sole owner of arrogance in politics. The other reason is that she is tied to the "corruption" both real and perceived of the first 8 years of a Clinton presidency. Those that see her with a smoking gun in the Vince Foster case or having half of Communist China spend the night in the Lincoln Bedroom. The "vast right wing conspiracy" has haunted Hillary from the beginning years of her husband's presidency, while she has huge leads in the democratic polls, she will unintentionally energize a Republican party reeling from war and scandal against the Democratic nominee in a way that Emily's List could not compete with. It makes the possibility of a more moderate Republican candidate to feast on the center enough to get towards the White House. OK, suffice to say all of the leading Republican candidates are more moderate than the current administration.

Oh yeah, and she's a Yankee's fan. And to make it even worse, a carpet bagging Yankee's fan.

The Queen of Yankee Nation

Gotta hand it to Rudy, the guy plays dressup more than any seven year old girl I've ever met. Rudy is the ultimate opportunist going for the ultimate political prize and the keys to the US treasury. The other day, my friend Bob accused me of "having a Giuliani blindspot". He's probably right, it's the same blindspot I have for my own mortality, the thing that keeps me struggling and striving and not living in a drunken stupor.

I think a Giuliani presidency is just a dangerous thought but frankly I think we have some of the same politics, the urban law and order issues may play well in urban areas if anyone in the Republican party ever owns up to the fact that there are American cities outside of Washington, DC, Davenport, Iowa or Manchester, NH. I think as a big city mayor he does understand the issues facing our cities, even if he was blessed with a Clinton presidency and huge Wall St. tax surpluses during his reign over NYC.

Rudy was a Democrat before he got better in the seventies, likely because that's what urban Catholics did, he seemed to be an early adopter of the Reagan Revolution and benefited his way into a fine job as a US attorney, getting himself and mafiosi in front of the television cameras, beginning his life long love affair with the media, culminating in 9/11 and his brief reign as America's Mayor and a shot of confidence in wary times that he is trying to ride all the way to Pennsylvania Avenue. This opportunism led to the birth of his lobbying firm Giuliani Partners which grew Rudy into a very wealthy man and grown an increasing web of potential ethical entanglements if he is elected President.

I find it hard to believe that he is the best that the Republicans have to offer, certainly there is a certain amount of fame involved and the non-cuckoo GOP'ers that is the more socially moderate but still law and order and fiscal conservatives have someone they can attach too as one of their own, rather than a candidate that is just trying to carry the religious right's water.

Despite that I think that Rudy, if President, well have scandals that make the Teapot Dome Scandal look like a penny flinch from a church collection plate, and what's worse, another Yankees fan.