Looking at the circus sideshow that has become the presidential race I am constantly amused by the irony, the canards, the misinformation, the double-speak, the mixed messages and the lies by those involved in this enterprise.
I think back in history and see giants: Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Lincoln, Truman, Reagan and even Jackson. I think of the various obstacles each faced and how they addressed them. They dealt with divorcing us from England, creating a workable and equitable government and the administration of the same. One faced a civil war pitting brother against brother and the attendant social issues of the day. Another opened Pandora’s Box loosing the greatest weapon of mass destruction ever unleashed in order to save exponentially more lives. One stared down our Cold War adversary and, while at times bombastic, almost single-handedly brought down not just the Berlin Wall but also the once-great Soviet Union. And, I just kinda like Jackson.
These men, in particular our Founding Fathers, while not perfect, had the courage of their convictions. They had high standards, would not back down and saw their public service as a duty and not an entitlement. Sure, we have had a few boneheads in the 43 men who have held the presidency and I am sure that we will have more. But if you were to have a sine-wave curve and plot the efficacy, integrity and honesty of the presidents (and many of the pretenders to the same office in the past generation) you would see a far greater concentration of those coming up short to be our contemporaries.
Ford was no prize, let’s face it. Carter, possibly the worst president ever, is still mucking up things for the non-Muslim world. Bush the Elder was no bargain. Had Hillary not been holding them hostage, should her husband had been able to use his set, he could have mitigated much of the worlds ills by doing the right thing. But, nooooo, he was too busy.
Perot, Anderson, al Gore, John F’n Kerry, Silky Pony John Edwards, $harpton, Nader and a laundry list of other would-be’s and also-ran’s can be plotted on this curve as well.
All in all, ‘its a sad state of affairs when people like these deem themselves as presidential and worse when they are elected.
But, let’s face it, the Presidency is not what is used to be. Again, many of the previous residents of the White House were scoundrels, charlatans, adulterers and more. The decline of the quality of man in that exalted position is not a new thing.
What also is not new is the fact that there was an “honor among thieves” kind of mentality in the past with respect to the press. Sure there were issues and scandals and the like but the minor stuff was kept pretty much sub Rosa. Even FDR’s infirmity was kept under the QT for as long as it could be hidden until his condition deteriorated to the point that it could not longer be hidden.
Even JFK’s now legendary life of excess and abuses is getting fuller scrutiny but back then, ssshhhhhhh, don’t tell a soul!!!!! His saving grace is that LBJ was at least as big of a lothario as was JFK, but without the drug use.
First television, then cable and VCRs then mobile phones, the internet, camera phones and the Good Lord knows what else is out there to get us news as it is happening. No, like a lot of other timesaving devices and all the creature comforts that we have now that our parents and their parents did not have, these things have caused us to be spoiled brats, we want our instant gratification.
Now, to the untrained eye, this might sound like a good thing. We now get news from all corners of the world in a constantly streaming line of data, unfiltered, from the scene of the crime right to our, TV, radio, computer, phone, iPod, cheese-grater perched on our heads or however we receive our information.
But this is sorta kinda like giving a 15 year old the keys to the family truckster and telling him to leave the bottle of Jim Beam under the seat alone. Or, like a liberal majority on the SCOTUS. Nothing good can come out of this.
The problem is two-fold.
Number one, despite how biased and slanted the MSM is or appears to be, at least in almost all the outlets (with the possible exceptions of the NEW YORK TIMES, MS/NBC and CNN), the news is vetted for accuracy double sourced. (Unlike the previous cited trio. When you make up your own news, these actions are unnecessary and impossible.)
The news can be presented in any way the outlet wants. For instance a bus with 50 people returning from the Democrat Convention is involved in a crash and two people are killed. One paper might say “2 People Perish in Horrific Bus Wreck”, another might say “48 Delegates Re-Count Their Lucky Stars to Survive Bus Roll Over” and another might say “2 Obama Supporters Killed in Freak Bus Wreck, Was Cheney Driving?” No matter how you slice, dice and julienne it, 2 people are dead and everything is Cheney’s fault.
(No, really, the news IS written or delivered like that. But more on that in a second.)
The second is that when you deliver the news, either as a bona fide correspondent of some kind, a free-lancer or just a lucky stiff who had his camera out as the policeman caught the baby falling out of a building, you can control the actual Intel.
You can show the dead Taliban freedom fighter with the turban on both parts of his head and an evil American soldier standing over his corpse (if you read NEWSWEEK you are familiar with this kind of story.) Or you can show the bad guy who kept his date with Allah with the American Hero who booked the date standing over him, the now useless remote IED detonator and a hundred kids playing in the school ground that was moments away from being a crater. (I guess the NEWSWEEK photographers camera could not zoom out or something.)
The competition between the real media and the ad hoc and self-appointed media escalates. And, like with Gresham’s Law of Currency, poorly reported news will drive accurate news out of circulation.
With the least common denominator becoming less and less and ever more so common, the bar has been lowered right on to the floor. With the content being moot, the delivery and spin take center stage.
“It is said that success has a thousand fathers but failure is an orphan.”
(This is the part where I get to the point.)
Well, take a look around, in particular towards our good friend Barry Hussein Obama.
Barry said that he would take public funds for his campaign. But when he had just too freaking much money he, well, had to use the money his private backers offered! Well the outcry from the media was just like.nothing, the sound of crickets chirping.
But, were it to be the other way, my gosh, McCain would have been pilloried and demands made for him to step down!
Change.
The ever-popular 2nd Amendment (well, it is in my house), which for some odd reason seemed out of date to the Constitutional Scholar from Illinois, had a renaissance with him with the narrow “victory” upholding one of our most sacred and core values. Anti-gun then, now pro-gun. (I guess there are enough of us walking around with our “Message to Obama, we will keep on clinging to our guns, religion and while we are at it, the Constitution” T-shirts on to have made an impact.)
Change.
Nuclear energy is not so good, said the Arab-American junior senator said. (Look it up. He is 6% African)
Change.
Can’t drill for oil anywhere. Not good, takes too long. Yet, had we drilled for oil 10 years ago instead of the philanderer-in-chief vetoing drilling (avoiding the cheap jab at him for now), we would be enjoying lower prices now because that oil would have been in our pipeline for years now. And, it does NOT take 10 years from exploration to gas pump.
Change.
The issue is that as success has a thousand fathers, Obama has 10,000 press secretaries.
Each and everyone swooning over the messiah of America. Each one giving him a pass over his gaffes. Each one ignoring his flips, flop and flubs. Each one considering him- or herself the luckiest person in the world to be in his presence. Each one selling their soul to the detriment of the Commonweal.
You are witnessing a canard of everestal proportions and it is not just the typical liberal self-loathing.
Obama claims that he needed to take private donations to off-set the possibility of the fact that there might be a situation that maybe the nasty Republicans might raise some money and try that swift-boat thing on poor old Barry.
Meanwhile, his campaign has hundreds of millions, MoveOn is threatening to raise millions more, Soros opened his check book. Reminds me of “don’t throw me in the briar patch.” Don’t make me take private funds! Don’t do it!”
Change.
Yes, I am officially fed up with the lies and the lying media who lionize this guy. He is a lightweight of the lightest of weights. Again, no one has told me anything that he has done. He gets away with everything and no one calls him on it. His wife goes on the view and with all the sincerity of a Clinton, and she is a hit.
Meanwhile Cindy McCain is on the cover of NEWSWEEK and it is a hit piece. If Michelle Obama did 1/10th of what Cindy McCain did, the libs would have carved her face on Mt. Rushmore. McCain learned how to walk again after a stroke and the article makes it sound like the stroke was her own dang fault. Meanwhile Michelle wears a dress and she is just so cool.
Stop it.
Change.
You want change, vote for Obama. You will get change.
If you think Congress is out of control now, if you think that the courts are redefining stare deices now, if you think the Constitution is in jeopardy now, vote for the Marxist from the land of Lincoln.
You want change? You ain’t seen nuttin’ yet!
God Bless and God Speed