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So many factors figure into who wins or loses an election it’s impossible to pinpoint any one that brings victory or defeat. If it rains on election day, the turnout will be light, which may help one party or the other. If something more important than voting--a ball game or concert happens, for instance, people may miss casting a ballot. There are larger factors, not necessarily more
important, but ones which enter into an election. Al Gore didn’t even carry his home state in
his presidential bid. He
took it for granted. He had
an incompetent campaign staff. Hamilton
County has some pretty powerful Democrats.
No one even bothered to ask their help.
No one in the campaign hierarchy even asked for their vote. All local Democrats got was a form letter asking for a
donation. What a waste of
support. Candidates are particularly good at shooting
themselves in the foot. Dan
Quayle couldn’t spell potato when he ran for vice-president, but was
good for one term. George
Herbert Walker Bush might have gotten a second term if he had sneaked by
a supermarket to check the prices before admitting he didn’t know what
food cost. Bill Clinton was able to shoot himself in both
feet at the same time and heal immediately.
He was almost like the proverbial bad boy who could get himself
into trouble with one incident after another—and to smile and make a
joke. The public joined in
on it. The two-term limit
came in to be sure no popular candidate such as Franklin Delano
Roosevelt could be in office more than two terms.
Despite his character flaws, Clinton could likely have gotten a
third term except. In the 2000 campaign for presidency, Gore
muscled his way past Bill Bradley to be the Democratic standard bearer
despite claiming he invented the Internet and looking like a block of
wood on the platform. Dubya
Bush moved ahead of John McCain to pick up the GOP torch without knowing
his sixth grade world geography and being unable to finish a sentence
with a bunch of “ers” and “ahhs.” Money counted.
Bradley and McCain couldn’t match the pocketbooks. Gore got the majority of the votes regardless in
the general election. People
in Florida didn’t know what candidate they voted for.
With no clear winner, the Supreme Court decided a Republican
would do better than a Democrat. The
High Court elected Dubya. Give him credit.
Bush is a fast learner. He
took a page from Bill Clinton’s play book and polished it. Whenever ineffectual Democrats in Congress came up with an
idea, Bush was there ahead of them.
He learned to walk like John Wayne.
He learned to talk a president, forceful with one liner, clipped
statements and quotable quotes. Bush is going into the campaign for his second
term as presidency with a record breaking warchest, more than any
candidate ever had. He is also going into the campaign with as much
bad baggage as any candidate ever carried.
Presidents from Grant to Harding had disgraces and survived
public favor. Bush can
count during his first three years record unemployment, loss of jobs,
the largest federal deficit in history that staggers the imagination
and, the most important problem, putting America into a war with no end,
one that brings back memories of Vietnam. Bush has learned to smile at the podium and turn
everything into a one liner joke. No
one blames him for declaring the “war in Iraq is over” when brave
men and women had not yet begun to die.
Even his “bring ‘em on” to Iraq resistance has been
forgotten. He still ranks high in the polls in a dead heat. One Republican remarked that the team of Cheney,
Rice, Rumsfeld and Rove had pulled a good man down.
Dubya has survived that too, even able to duck responsibility for
attacking Iraq to blame it on his advisers. John Kerry comes into the South with Ted Kennedy
on his coattails. Deservedly
or not, Ted Kennedy is associated with the worst of the liberal
conceptions of the Democratic Party.
He plays well in Boston, but folks in Nashville listen to a
different tune. Even Kerry’s own church is playing into
opposition. American’s
don’t like a church dictating to the President.
The Roman Catholic Church is criticizing Kerry because of his pro
choice stand. Jack Kennedy
was a president who was Catholic, not a Catholic who was president.
There is a difference. Campaign mud thrown at Kerry even tries to smear
his war record. No one can
take away that he served and served honorably.
For his credit, Dubya did join the National Guard which could
have been called to active duty. He
could have volunteered as Kerry and Gore did.
He chose not. When Kerry came back after seeing the slaughter
in Vietnam, he opposed it. He’s
an American and the right to protest was his. Being the better candidate has nothing to do
with being elected. The
winner will be the one who spends the most money in the right places to
win. Some people say government should be run like a business. We could try that.
Dick Cheney is a smart business man.
We could put him in charge and let Halliburton manage the country
and get paid for rebuilding Iraq for a substantial profit.
The vice president gets richer every time the company makes a
dollar. Maybe Cheney would
make a good president. Come to think of it—some people already think
he is. But United States of
Halliburton doesn’t sound right.
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