By now you’ve probably heard that our ex-mayor Rudy Giuliani, who was recently anointed, amid much controversy, by the waka waka waka editorial board as our favorite, has dropped out of the presidential race.
It was an awfully steep decline; he was the front-runner just weeks ago, it seems. I think he played a risky game by letting the others build up such a head of stream in the early states, although he did campaign rather vigorously in New Hampshire, and still took a drubbing there. Admittedly he’s an strange fellow, and not without his character flaws; he is also more liberal on many social issues than your typical Republican. Anyway, whatever went wrong, he’s out.
So we move on. I certainly hope now that McCain gets the Republican nod, and Obama wins among the Democrats. Assuming that even the Republican Party has more sense, and more care for our nation’s image, than to nominate that absurd, Bible-beating bumpkin Mike Huckabee, then the worst of all the likely scenarios would be Mitt Romney against Hillary “Found My Voice” Clinton (whom Bill Vallicella aptly referred to as “the Platonic Form of naked political ambition”). I didn’t think pulling the lever could ever get any harder than it was last time around, when the choice was between the barely literate George Bush and the sanctimonious, thatch-crowned Ent John Kerry, but Romney versus the Clintons come November would be right up there.
McCain and Obama, on the other hand, would actually present the adults with some refreshingly plausible options. We’ll just have to see.
5 Comments
We seem to have strikingly similar views on the candidates. Rudy was my choice, and now that he’s out I would also like to see McCain/Obama. And my worst nightmare would be a Romney/Billary result. I’ve thought long and hard about what I would do if that happened, and my feeling right now is that I might have to abstain from voting. I’m just hoping it doesn’t come to that.
I wonder how much of this similarity is due to the fact that I also hail from New York (albeit upstate, not the city).
You gents have to explain to me how it is that your fellow New Yorkers allowed a carpetbagger like Hillary into your midst. I’m not even thinking about the whole liberal/conservative issue. I’m wondering how self-respecting New York voters — especially those in NYC — could have permitted a creature steeped in Arkansan culture to invade that blessed plot and become their senator.
(To be clear, I’m aware Hillary’s not originally from Arkansas, but she did spend a goodly chunk of her life there. As Skippy says on his blog, she’s from twenty different cities. It’s a bit like tracking down the origins of the Joker. Sure, they say she’s from Illinois; they say she was dumped in a vat of chemicals that tugged her face into its current rictus, but…)
Kevin
All I can say is that I have watched aghast for seventeen years now as the Clintons have woven their spell; living here in New York it is just astonishing to see all the otherwise intelligent people who are in their thrall. Just the other day I was riding home on the subway with a thoughtful and intelligent musician I know; the subject turned to morality (it was around the time I wrote that most recent Pinker post, and it was on my mind), and my friend began to talk about how there are some people who just seem to have a higher calling, an innate moral gift — like “prophets”, he said — and then he went on to name Gandhi, Jesus, and Bill Clinton. I was startled and horrified; it was like Invasion of the Body Snatchers, or something.
I just don’t get it; the only explanation I can think of is that they must have invented some sort of ray that lets them take over people’s minds. It’s enough to make me put on a tinfoil hat.
Anyway, when that grasping little carpetbagger Hillary ran for the Senate here (with her god-damn Yankees cap) you can bet I didn’t vote for her.
I most certainly did not vote for Mrs. Clinton either. No one in my family voted for Mrs. Clinton. I prayed to God that he would spare us the horror of that charlatan in the Senate, supposedly representing New York. Apparently God was playing golf that day.
I don’t like to throw around the word “hate,” so I won’t. But I will say that I dislike few politicians as much as I dislike that demon-spawn witch of a woman. It’s actually irrational how much I dislike her.
Oh, as for how she got elected? I can only fall back on one of the basic laws of politics: most people are stupid.