All That Noise

With all the hoopla going on right now, I hear a lot of discussion of the relative merits of Obama and McCain.

Which one do I want to win? This hits my ears like dialogue from the Philip K. Dick novel The Man in the High Castle. That novel takes place in an alternate history where Hitler won World War II and has died in office. America is divided spoils, the east of the Rockies it's a Reich colony; West of it, Japan is in charge.

And people have these discussions about who the next Reichschancellor will be. The discuss the merits and lack of merit between Goebbels and Göring. It never seems to occur to the characters in the novel that both are evil men, wouldn't even be in serious contention if they weren't.

So when Hillary says we can't take 'four more years of the last eight years,' I agree. But she's forgetting that the eight years prior to that were also shameful. But Clinton proved that if a President doesn't resign, he cannot be forced from office no matter what. By standing his ground when he was caught perjuring himself on video tape and not getting tossed out of office, he enabled the abuses of subsequent administrations. Bush's bald-faced lying about why we invaded Iraq, illegal wire-tapping, violation of the Geneva Conventions at Gitmo are the Clinton legacy: nobody even bothers trying to impeach because it's obvious W. wouldn't go quietly.

McCain, it's pretty clear, is promising four more years of the last eight. He's clearly out of touch with anyone who's done an honest day's work, something he hasn't done that I can tell since he got out of the Army. Being a war hero only goes so far: if you're a Legion bar fly thirty years later, still talking about 'Nam but not doing anything productive, you're a bum. McCain substitutes a will to power for the alcoholism, making him less pathetic and infinitely more dangerous.

Obama? For a start, try to picture a decent human being coming out of Chicago politics a winner. There's a better chance that John Junior Gotti is actually innocent than that Barack Obama is. All those funds he's raised? He didn't get that money not promising powerful people things they should be denied. And he believes in government, despite all the evidence that any time the government attempts to 'help' people, the people are in for it. Look at 'liberated' Iraq if you want to know what kind of savior Uncle Sam is. Look at New Orleans three years ago (and since) to see what happens when you trust the federal government to protect life and property.

For the record, I think it's a forgone conclusion that Obama is the next President. I don't think he did himself any favors by picking Biden: if Biden was such a draw for the ticket, how come he's never been a serious contender on his countless Presidential bids? Still, Obama will clinch it on the coat-tails of W.'s failures. I don't see how it's possible for McCain to distance himself sufficiently from Bush at this point, he's done.

I think McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin, might almost be a decent human being (she hasn't been in government that long, and relatively small-time government at that). But decent people don't do well in Presidential politics. Maybe McCain was trying to one-up Obama on inexplicable VP picks.

So who am I voting for? Barr/Root, of course. I know their chances of winning are up there with flying pigs but at least they haven't made a thousand Faustian bargains just making it through primary season.

And for you Dems who are dismissing McCain's pick of a chick because you did it 24 years ago, I got you trumped. My party put a woman on the ticket in 1972, the first time there was a Libertarian ticket.