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honky cracker: Don't Read This, Read Tim
If I want to get a room full of people to hate me, I start talking Presidential politics.
I remember the year leading up to the 2004 elections, where seemingly everywhere I went – parties, out to a bar, Rotary Club auxiliary meetings – all anybody wanted to talk about was how awful George W Bush is and how we have to get rid of him, "I can't believe this" etc. etc. etc. And after a while, it became a rerun of a rerun. Yes, I hate him too. Yes, I would like him gone. What are we going to do about it? What can we do about it? Vote? Because I am spending time with you, it means that you live in either New York, Massachusetts, or New Jersey. Which means, no matter who you vote for, the Democrat is getting those electoral votes anyway. So why are we spending this time discussing something we cannot do anything about? I'm trying to have some fun here. If you want to do something, vote for Nader if only so a third party can get their 5% and give us more options in the future.
See. You hate me already.
When I was a Junior in high school, I took a very thorough, very rigorous Honors English course. Try as though most of us might, our extra-curricular activities took up a shitload of time, and most of us could not keep up with the readings. We eventually would, of course. But a lot of the time, when it was time for class discussion of whatever we were reading, most of us were behind. Mike Johnson, a beaut of a man, the utmost gentleman and one of the greatest guys you'll ever be around, kept up for us. Whenever it became someone else's turn to speak, that person would usually say "I agree with Mike". That became our mantra for whenever any of us found ourselves part of a discussion we either knew nothing about or cared to discuss.
I agree with Tim. Whoever gets the Republican nomination wins, hands down. Because, let's face it, the American public by and large is not going to vote for a woman or a black man. And I think it's foolhardy and arrogant of the Democratic party to think differently. There. I said it. Bring the hate. I wish things were different, but this is the case. I hope I am proven wrong, but this is the case. The Democrats are given a golden opportunity to pretty much take the election from a party whose sitting president has a 20-something % approval rating. They're going for a 2 pt conversion when kicking the extra-point is all they need to do to win. (Sports metaphor FTL!)
Hillary Clinton leads the Democratic polls by a substantial margin. Has there been a candidate as widely disliked as Hillary, for whatever reasons? How much Clinton hate is there in the Red States? Do you really think she's gonna turn the Red states Blue where Kerry and Gore could not?
And if Bloomberg runs – a big if, for sure – whose votes does he take? The Republicans are damn good at galvanizing their votes towards their candidate. The Democrats – whose party is still fractured and has been since 1996 – look more likely to vote elsewhere.
I say Giuliani ends up with the Republican nomination, if only because McCain's campaign is shot, Romney has the Mormon/Massachusetts Republican things working against him, and Fred Thompson doesn't really want to run. In 2009, Rudy Giuliani is America's Mayor, and America's President.
