With Hillary having announced, the questions are coming hard and fast. The most important one seems to be over how she will react on questions about Obama. The GOP attack dogs have been going after him for six years. Will she feel obligated to pick up on some of the Right rhetoric and feel obligated to go after his policies?
The answer is that she certainly should not, especially since there is so much material for her to praise. Regardless of the opinions of the Republican non-functionalities, Obama has been a hell of a president, a man who has solved many problems and who has dragged the wreck left behind by the Bush/Cheney team of buffoons to a place where it is almost working.
Yes, there is absolutely, a lot still to do and that work, should be Hillary’s platform. Obama may have made huge gains in the unemployed numbers but now, many of those who are gaining employment are doing so at pay rates that still leave them and their families in poverty.
If this country is ever to fulfill its dream, a man or woman working a forty-hour week must be able to support a family of four.
But we all know what Hillary’s path is clear; establish priorities and show how she, as opposed to the GOP candidates is qualified to accomplish them. Let’s look at the scramble among the GOP candidates and see what their invasion of New Hampshire looks like
Twenty-one GOP candidates have arrived in New Hampshire doubling the state’s population. The local citizens are all rolling out of bed, taking a shot of hair of the dog and wondering who all those strange people in lime green or pink pants are. They soon found out. The speeches were all attacking either Obama or Hillary, most as usual, meaningless and full of lies, distortions and factual inaccuracies, but what else is new?
Rand Paul took his shots, claiming it was Hillary’s fault that we took casualties in Libya, not understanding that the Secretary of State does not make troop assignments. This is understandable in that Rand is so anti-war, he thinks there is no reason that he should understand how war works. What he should understand is that anyone with his peaceful tendencies has no place being out in Vegas, kissing the ass of war-monger Sheldon Adelson for a few bucks.
Scott Walker was asked if he would attend a gay wedding. He gave the right answer for his base. He’s against gay weddings but for a friend or relative he’d make an exception. The GOP claims that they want nothing to do with this kind of social issue getting into the elections but the GOP has always run on nothing but social issues, mainly because they have no real agenda on the important government or financial issues.
Abortion, gay marriage, gun control, God in schools and in front of city hall, the war on drugs and protecting a border that is already overprotected are the issues of the right. They have no capacity to deal with the environment, infrastructure, education, wages, inequality or world events because all their policies are on the wrong side of those arguments.
Jeb Bush is way down in 4th place in the Republican presidential polling in New Hampshire. He has all the money, all the exposure, and he’s one of the few that isn’t a nut case. Why is he so low? Maybe it’s just a sign that some people do pay attention to political history. Jeb and Hillary are both carrying the load of having a family member as a former president but Jeb’s family, almost destroyed the country, while Bill Clinton left the country in great shape.
Maybe those who have never wanted to admit it will now take a clear look at the way the Bush’s treated their power while in the White House and shudder at the thought of letting another one loose with the country’s resources.
It is becoming more and more apparent that much like his brother, Jeb Bush doesn’t think fast or on his feet. He was asked yesterday if he agreed with the sentiment that it is time for a female president. He hemmed and hawed and never answered the question.
A guy who’s a candidate for president can’t flub easy questions like this. He should have snapped out that: Sure it’s time for a female president but the real question has to be not the president’s gender but who is the best person to be president and that’s what the elections are all about.
If Jeb can’t come up with a simple answer like that, to a simple question, then he just doesn’t belong in the White House.
Marco Rubio makes a big deal about the generational gap when referring to Hillary but we all know wink, wink, that right now he’s talking about Jeb Bush. I know it’s always a hip strategy to talk about the hot young thing, but maybe it’s not so great an idea when Rubio looks like the eagle scout and Bush like the scoutmaster. Young is always attractive but looking like a high school kid is just looking like a high school kid. I keep waiting for him to ask Jeb for the keys to the car. And the funny thing is that as young as he appears, his programs are all groaning with age.
The Republicans spent the last six years telling us about how Obama was under qualified because of his lack of experience and now they want us to believe that isn’t true about their minority candidate. Right!
Rubio talks a lot about being the child of immigrants and has built an image of his parents coming here as poor refugees and living the American dream. In fact not too many Batisteros came to this country poor. They were the ruling class in Cuba when Castro took over. The poor people stayed there and hoped for the best. It was the rich ones who jumped the waters between us and took over the running of Miami.
Although he doesn’t want to talk about it Rubio wants to be the next Obama but Obama was a guy who dragged himself up from nowhere to become the president. Rubio was at least middle class. He’s more Bush than Obama.
Mike Huckabee, another potential GOP runner, has come up with an announcement that on My 5th, he will have an announcement, regarding something that he will be doing in the future. Really? One more clown proving that he hasn’t got the ficus or the balls to decide what he wants to do and to go do it. Much as I despise Ted Cruz, he did have the moxie to make up his mind and to announce it like a man. Huckabee and Bush and the rest of these pussies that are running but aren’t running yet, should all be relegated to the trash pile.
The question of whether or not Hillary needs a serious challenger for the democratic nomination keeps coming back like last nights hot sausage. The answer is that she dos not and the reason for that answer is that she is obviously, far and away the candidate with the best qualifications. Why would anyone who can think logically, want to challenge her.
It’s the same reason why there are 21 challengers in the GOP camp. Obviously no single one has the kind of qualifications that make them stand out against the rest of the field. It reminds me of the old sports adage, if you have two quarterbacks you don’t have one good enough to be the starter.
There was also a depressing discussion about media and the election campaigns on UP this morning. What was depressing about it was that none of the panel members thought that there was anything wrong with coverage of what Hillary was having for lunch when there was serious shit going on, and all expected that kind of thing to continue for the next 19 months. No wonder the public is uninformed about what is really going on in the rest of the world. When the editors decide that there is nothing to cover but one unopposed candidate’s meal choices on one side and 21 almost candidate’s dumb statements on the other, the people get cheated by not being informed about what the hell is really going on in their world. Politics hasn’t changed in the last century but the media despite all the technological advances, has done nothing but decline.