Politically Shrinking (and I don't mean egos)

This blogsite's title ominously threatens to discuss politics, and I prefer not to make empty threats, so let me just say that Presidential Politics in the USA just plain sucks. The parties have devolved to the degree that the campaign is like two kids in a substitute teacher's class having a spitball fight, while trying between shots to pretend that they are doing no such thing. When liitle Johnny misses his shot, wiseguy Jimmy yells out that Johnny hit him with a spitball. Hopefully Americans, who consider themselves smarter than the average substitute teacher, can see through this flimsy pretense that both parties are juvenile and venial and could not insult our intelligence more if they tried.

But unfortunately, the outward signs that the politico's consultants swear by seem to show that it works, and denial works just as well. So the strategy is to claim you are running a clean campaign, smear at every opportunity, and cry foul every time your opponent waves vaguely in your direction.

The radio pundits call us a nation of whiners, and there certainly is some truth to that, though much much less than they imply. Most Americans, I believe, wince when they hear about the political thin-skins who attempt to make every political statement into a racist or sexist issue. Most Americans are sick of this but with both parties doing it and blaming the other, most Americans have no real outlet to express their disgust.

What is not clear yet is whether that strategy really works. For example, was the Swift boat stuff a deciding issue in the Kerry vs Bush race, or was Kerry's personality, or Edward's for that matter, versus plain old George, the leader who brought us back from 9/11, and declared Mission Accomplished in Iraq, better enough?

This political season, will the attempts to 'elitize' Obama, combined with just plain folks hockey mom Sarah, be enough to give John McCain, who does not look quite as old as the Mummy, a ticket to the White House, despite blunder after blunder by the incumbent party?

Economically, today we have seen a 300 point drop in the Dow Jones (leveling back to 180), and deep losses globally over the latest financial crisis at Lehman Brothers and Merril Lynch, plus AIG on the ropes. Will the GOP spinners be able to say that all was fine until Pelosi and company took away Congress? Will the Obama campaign be able to make their "more of the same" slogan stick to McCain/Palin?

All of which has nothing to do with fixing the economy. Sixteen years ago, Bill Clinton hit the boom/bust cycle just right with "It's the economy, Stupid!" Bill got lucky because the cycle was heading up anyway. This election season, it does not look like the cycle is heading upward. But the neglect of the current administration needs to be a big issue on the table, given that they have watered down the economy with the spending in Iraq. Can anyone ward off a crash? In my opinion, only by cutting off the Iraq funds, stop printing extra money, and moving a fraction of that spending into the domestic economy to alternative energy and border management. Right now, I would rather have the Marines stationed on the Texas/Arizone/New Mexico border than in the Middle East.

The other worrisome story is the border tensions with Pakistan over Al Qaida. Rather than getting the dander up in an unsettled Muslim country that has nuclear weapons over some irregular stragglers taking potshots at our forces, why not set up a tripwire type of exclusion zone, and let everyone know that anything that crosses it is liable to be blown to bits? But it seems that we are so determined to prove our toughness that we will do any stupid thing that some neocon in Washington thinks of. That strategy did not work in Southeast Asia in the 70's, and it is unlikely to work in Southwest Asia now. It is just crazy to contemplate drawing in Pakistan or saber rattling against Iran when we are in dire straits economically.