Don't Get Too Excited

[poliphilo]

In order to have a run at the Presidency of the USA you'll have had to eat a lot of crow and tread on a lot of fingers. Obama, Clinton, Romney, McCain- these are not nice people. 

And all of them- long since- will have ceased to have much to do with people like us- that is to say people without power or the hunger for power. The people they mostly consort with are those they can do deals with, those who can give them money or deliver support.

That's the nature of politics.

Whoever gets in they'll be beholden to the same baronial powers, in hock to the same military-industrial complex. It'll be nice to have a change of face at the top- and if that face turns out to be black or female it'll be a cheering indication of how social attitudes are changing- but that's all it'll be.

Comments

[msjann65.livejournal.com]

Contrary to the propaganda put out by the Republican machine, the Reagan years were terrible - for the economy and for the little people. He came into office after touting Jimmy Carter's 65 billion dollar deficit and within six months had tripled it. Less than a year later, he increased the national debt to its first trillion, meanwhile, cutting taxes (for guess who?). The Clinton years were good ones for the little people. The economy picked up, everyone (it seems) was working, there were no fuel "shortages". The only thing that was "terrible" about the Clinton years was the Republicans' harassment of not only him, but also of Hillary. That's right, they started on her the day after his election and have not let up since. Bill Clinton left office with a big surplus rather than a deficit, and George the Second spent it on tax cuts and "rebates" to the poor people (I sent mine back with a note to "please apply to the national debt, as Mr. Clinton suggested". John Kerry is a good and honest man, also a neighbor of sorts here on the Hill -- I have known his work ever since the days of the Vietnam protests. Republican lies are what defeated him, but only by a narrow margin. Now after seven years of George Bush the Second we have another unwinnable war and the national debt is seven trillion and growing daily. No, I am not afraid of Hillary Clinton. She is tough enough to beat the Republicans at their "swift-boat" campaign tactics without resorting to the same. She has done a great job for seven years in the Senate. She stuck to a philandering husband even after the public humiliation of it all. She has the guts to stick it out, no matter what happens.
However, I pity the next president, whether it is a Democrat or a Republican. He or she will have such a terrible mess to deal with, and after the last seven years the people want fast action.

[solar-diablo.livejournal.com]

The one thing in this entire process that gives me some degree of hope is that it looks as though the Evangelical Right has lost a great deal of its political influence. It's still a player, to be sure (it's the only thing keeping Huckabee in the race), but even in the GOP you can see it no longer has the stranglehold on power it once did.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Obama attracts me because of his aura of youth and hope- but I think you're probably right- Clinton is battle-hardened and intelligent and probably the best bet.

I think the rest of the world will give whoever gets elected an easy ride (at least at first) on the simple strength of him or her not being Bush.