Mike Huckabee strikes me as a well-intentioned nutbag. He seems to have a bit of a heart, though, which sounds as though it may be a deal-breaker in regard to his bid for President. It seems to pit Chuck Norris against the Club for Growth. When you weigh the financial resources and political savvy of the two opponents, I am afraid this is a battle that Chuck Norris is not going to win.
Giuliani is toast. This has been a good week. He probably would have had the White House guards dressed up as Mussolini's Palace Guards. Not a nice man. Even his kids can't stand him.
Romney is going on radio to television to explain that Mormon thing, you know, that God lives on another planet, that the Garden of Eden is in Missouri, that blacks used to have to go part way to heaven, turn white, then go on? Wonderful quirky stuff, but would you want your President to believe crap like that? And they poke fun at Dennis Kuchinich? Please.
McCain? I mean, if the other two fade, who is left? McCain's brother says that he thinks McCain is done because he dissed the Evangelical leaders in 2000, and they have very, very long memories. The fact that what he said was true is what really hurt, when he called them "agents of intolerance". That was as mean-spirited as calling an ugly woman ugly. It is just mean-spirited.
Thompson? Oh my. Fred seems... tired. So used to working with a script that all this ad-lib stuff is a bit fast-paced for him. But he just LOVES guns, and conservative positions, and his wife's alarming cleavage. So much so that his wife is said to be running his campaign, and not running it very well. But since Fred just loooves his wife he is gonna let her keep doing it, because secretly the guy has retired, has enough money, will always have work, and could give a shit. He could be dangerous, if nominated, because he is so good at reading lines. If the might of the GOP got behind him and kept him propped up before the cameras, well, something could happen. But, I don't think so.
Who else is there? I was struck, watching a recent GOP debate, that when they walked on to the stage almost all of them walked with some difficulty, limping, crab-walking, looking stiff and sore. They are already worn out, and they want to be President for four or eight years? Good luck. It looked like it would finish most of them off within a month. I think if elected most of them would collapse, Romney (who is fairly fit) would start having messianic visions, Huckabee would begin binge eating.
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Now that Clinton can't quite act Presidential (because when she acted that way everyone decided that it was smug and premature for her to do so) Edwards is taking many people's advice (including my own) to chill out a bit and give voters some impression of his humor and what it would be like to live with the guy on a day-to-day basis. Populist passion is fine, the principles behind it are valid, but voters also need to see a President who can be congenial and collegial, when things are going okay. Obama has done a quite decent job of that so far. Constant anger, even when there is a valid reason to feel anger, is not healthy. There is a stack of work to do, but the best spirit in which to attack an overwhelming task is in an upbeat mood, not an angry and resentful one. I think Edwards, if he wants to get elected, has to give us a sense of his version of "the vision thing". He has to demonstrate his ability to help us visualize a better future, a better world, not one that is inevitably doomed to slide into a sea of crap.
We may not be able to solve the world's problems; an exploding population, the risk of epidemics stemming from that massive population, widespread misery and poverty, the risk of nuclear or biological war, the risk of religious wars, the risk of global warming or the death of the oceans, a catastrophic asteroid strike, and who knows what else? Bad stuff could definitely happen. Just like all other points in history. But in the meantime, even if we are already doomed by events that cannot be prevented, the best way to live is to muddle on ahead, as best we can contrive to do so, and work to make it all come out okay, so we leave an intact and functioning world for our children to try to make sense of and something out of.
Bush never figured that out. He offered us a future in which we could dance on the corpses of our enemies. Eventually, but little more than that. Heck, he didn't much care. In his secret dark heart he may think that Jesus (who is a Texan) is gonna come and call his anointed up into the (Texas) sky and make it all swell. No need to bust a sweat cleaning up the room when everyone is about to check out of this hotel anyhow...
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I must admit, in a sick way I (heart) Huckabee. He weighed 5,000 pounds and then slimmed down (with the help of God no doubt) and now runs marathons and eats only green food. And he hangs out with Chuck Norris. And he can tell a joke. What he apparently can't do is tell the truth, or tell a rightwing mania from commonsense. And, by any measure it seems as if he is some sort of retro Clinton-hater. I feel that whole Clinton thing, that Bill, that Hillary, that vast rightwing conspiracy, is so yesterday. I think we need to elect a President who does not believe the End Times are a'comin', Glory, Glory!
Call me old-fashioned, I'd like a President who could look forward to see the consequences of our actions as they play out over the next centuries to come, rather than one who thinks we won't be here anyhow, so why bother to fix the plumbing?
Actually, I can't stand Huckabee. If you want to have some fun, take a look at Huckabee's wife. In a lot of the photos of Huck there is this absolutely rigid lady to his right, sort of blonde hair, who appears to be a hostage. What is she so afraid of? What other impossibly dumb thing has Huck done?
Arthur
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