Wednesday, June 04, 2008

The Happiest Man in America ... by Alan Caruba

The Happiest Man in America
By Alan Caruba
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Guess who’s the happiest man in America today? No, it isn’t Barack Hussein Obama. It’s John McCain.

While it is unquestionably historic and even redeeming that a major political party would be poised to nominate a black man as their candidate for President, that does not change the dynamics or demographics of the voters who will go to the polls in November.

Obama may be all about “change”, but when the voters discover the specifics of change he has in mind, they are going to fall out of love with him. This is why Hillary is being heavily recruited to fill in the gaps among Hispanics and blue collar voters by accepting the vice president slot.

There is no question that the America of my youth, the America of separate water fountains, segregated schools, the back-of-the-bus America, is over. There are laws guaranteeing equal rights and even some laws that offered special status if you were the member of a minority.

It took a hundred years from the end of the Civil War in 1865 before America put its house in order, eliminating the Jim Crow laws and other abuses. We have all seen a lot of change, but it need be said that a lot has not changed for blacks in America. Large numbers remain in poverty. Large numbers fill the jails. Large numbers drop out of school.

Progress tends to be made in baby steps.

One baby step is named Barack Hussein Obama. His nomination is going to make a lot of liberal Democrats feel very good about themselves, but the liberal lens through which they view the nation and the world is the same one that previously nominated George McGovern and Michael Dukakis. It is the same one that selected Al Gore and John Kerry. Whether they lost by large or small margins, the fact remains that they lost.

That is why John McCain, the presumptive Republican candidate for president, is very happy today. He knows what anyone paying any attention whatever to voting patterns will tell you. The voters have tilted to the right since the days of the Reagan Democrats in the 1980s. Not a lot, but just enough to get the likes of George W. Bush elected, not once, but twice.

The voters, some of them Democrats, remember that the Clinton years were not all the rosy scenario the party would have them recall. There were suicides and scandals. There were wholesale pardons and the attempted theft of White House furniture.

Change sounds good when a nation is experiencing economic troubles and it sounds good against the background of an unpopular war, but the real question in the minds of voters will be change to what?

Do voters want change that involves insane proposals like the “Climate Security Act” being debated in the Senate, a piece of legislation that will destroy what’s left of our battered economy? Change that will end the tax cuts? Change that will grasp defeat from the jaws of victory in Iraq?

There is something symbolic in the announcement by the worst President in the modern era, Jimmy Carter, that he is endorsing Barack Obama. There is something predictive in it, too.


Alan Caruba writes a weekly column posted on the Internet site of The National Anxiety Center, www.anxietycenter.com. He blogs at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com.

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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

There is something symbolic in the announcement by the worst President in the modern era, Jimmy Carter, that he is endorsing Barack Obama. There is something predictive in it, too.
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Actually worst president would be a toss up between Regan Mr. 5 tax increases on the middle class or George W., too stupid to even speak correctly, if McCain wins America looses again!

Anonymous said...

Funny thing all this stuff you do to tow the party line on your blog ole friend... Did you guys forget that John McCain was seriously considered for V.P. candidate under Kerry? Also the same sleaze balls who attacked (and lied about) McCain's military record for George Bush in 2000, then attacked and lied about Kerry's service in '04 are now in McCain's staff.... Can you say "flip flop". Someone who was against torture before he was for it.... Someone who opposed tax cuts for the wealthiest adn thought we should give tax cuts to the middle class, now does a 180 on that opinion. Supported Amnesty before he was against it, which McCain are we going to get in '08, the one I as a Liber could almost tolerate, or the one as a conservative you could almost tolerate?? Just curious because even though you say you won't vote for McCain, you don't do much to enlighten the fools who will....

Anonymous said...

Funny thing all this stuff you do to tow the party line on your blog ole friend... Did you guys forget that John McCain was seriously considered for V.P. candidate under Kerry? Also the same sleaze balls who attacked (and lied about) McCain's military record for George Bush in 2000, then attacked and lied about Kerry's service in '04 are now in McCain's staff.... Can you say "flip flop". Someone who was against torture before he was for it.... Someone who opposed tax cuts for the wealthiest adn thought we should give tax cuts to the middle class, now does a 180 on that opinion. Supported Amnesty before he was against it, which McCain are we going to get in '08, the one I as a Liber could almost tolerate, or the one as a conservative you could almost tolerate?? Just curious because even though you say you won't vote for McCain, you don't do much to enlighten the fools who will....

Longstreet said...

Frank, I have forgotten none of the reasons I will not vote for McCain. Chief among them was the insult to me, my state, my heritage, and my family. I stand by my vow not to vote for him. On the other hand, I will do nothing that will aid Obama win the Presidency, either.

Many of my fellow conservatives are going to hold their noses and vote for McCain. I understand that, and I respect their decision to do that. With me, however, it's personal.

Many NC democrats are sworn to vote for McCain. As of last night, if media reports can be believed, a high percentage of democrat women, nationwide, are vowing to vote for McCain.

Those of us who have watched, and participated in, 6 or 7 decades of elections in the US have been convinced, all along, that Obama will lose... and lose big time.

The MsM has set the Democrats up again. They have led you all to believe you have a lock on the Presidential election. It is just the opposite. You DO have a lock on the Congress. That we know. But, unless something unforeseen, and devestating, happens... McCain will be the next President of the US.

My problem,is... I don't want McCain nor Obama as my President!

To put it bluntly, my friend, you and I, both, are screwed!

Best regards!

Longstreet

Anonymous said...

McCain will be the next President of the US.
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I am hoping that if you are right and Dems. regain control of the house and the senate the speaker has McCain and the Vice Pres eliminated and then once sworn in pardons all those involved, but I have yet to see a Liberal with that kind of backbone to put the country back on the right path no matter what the voting morons do. When the American elcectoratre becomes that stupid they should be taken out of the equation.