Murky Waters and Conventional Wisdom
May 15th, 2006Al Gore is the man who could defeat Hillary in the Democratic Party, says Susan Estrich, and I most certainly agree. I don’t buy the rest of her article, however — that Al Gore is the personification of the mythical “Angry Loser Democrat” and would be destined to lose — because it’s both a bit of conventional wisdom and it’s wrong. It’s like the conventional wisdom saying that Eugene McCarthy couldn’t beat Lyndon Johnson, Harry Truman wouldn’t beat Thomas Dewey and John Kerry would be the one candidate to rule them all. There’s no fate worse than to be made to watch the talking heads turn themselves blue with the “accepted opinions” of the day before they twist themselves into pretzels the next trying to explain why the American public defied them.
The waters are always murky whenever political prognistications are expounded, but the fact is that Al Gore is a real candidate, and he’s probably the strongest in the Democratic Party. That’s something that Hillary Clinton will have to deal with for the rest of her run, and something that I’ll be happy to tell anyone anywhere at any time, murky waters be damned!
Speaking of “Murky,” that’s what I call German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and now we transition to Iran. Merkel, most Democrats and Republicans like Chuck Hagel, are urging for America to directly engage Iran but the President won’t budge. Whether it’s because he doesn’t have the capacity to write a return letter to the Islamic Republic or because he’s got a better idea is up in the air, and requires more thought…..
…..Upon further consideration, it isn’t up in the air at all. Bush’s better idea is anything but, as his plan of action is to let Europe deal with this issue. Who says he isn’t a multilateralist at heart? And who says he isn’t a bad leader?
Richard Posner is stepping into murky waters with his latest column wherein he states that the United States should have a Domestic CIA. This is nonsense, of course, because the CIA’s job is to pursue foreign intelligence regarding nations or foreigners that would do us harm. There is no need for a domestic spy agency unless your goal is to create a police state. There simply aren’t enough enemies of America within our borders to warrant it, and the erosion of Democracy would be noticable, to say the least.
To close, I’d like to link to this piece which beats the snot out of the conventional wisdom regarding John McCain as a principled, strong leader. He isn’t in the least, and he’s a nut living in the arid zone of Barry Goldwater’s Arizona.