I might try another crack at keeping this blog going. I have many good memories of the years past when I began writing in order to avoid writing things I was supposed to write.
It's a good season. Politics are going to be front and center for the next 8 months, and we have a ridiculous Republican field that will all but assure Barack Obama (or as their base likes to say, Barack Hussein Obama) remains President until 2016. What can we do to work on Obama so that the second term doesn't turn out like the first?
Don't get me wrong: Obama was a far better choice than McCain, and his administration has accomplished some good things, including the watered-down health care law. Only fools thought he was the Messiah (although that seems to be the dominant trope among disgruntled conservatives, who seem to think that everyone who voted for Obama did so because they thought he walked on water), and I for one take him to be pretty much what gets elected on the Democratic side these days: moderate corporate-friendly candidates. It's a sad state of affairs when Obama can be branded "anti-business" because he wants businesses to conduct affairs honestly and not sell products (financial or otherwise) to the public under false pretenses.
Guantanamo is still open. We still think propping up a corrupt puppet regime in Afghanistan is worthwhile (not an easy one there: we certainly don't need it to return to the failed state of twenty years ago or the Taliban nutcase state it was ten years ago). Obama, like Bush, seems to think that more surveillance, including Obama's authorization of drones in U.S. airspace, is the answer to some hideous question.
In other words, there's work to do.
Of the Republican hopefuls, Mitt Romney is the only one who isn't completely nuts. American Taliban Rick Santorum may play well in states that rank in the bottom for education, but most Americans aren't interested in ecclesiastic government. Newt Gingrich...well, what can you say about Newt that can't be summed up in the term "batshit crazy"? Speaking of which, Ron Paul, the man who nearly always comes in last but whose supporters think he's being ignored by the news media, is still out there, howling at the moon and spinning stories out of Hollywood conspiracy movies. Talk to Ron Paul supporters for a while and you will understand the psychology of both serial killers and despots. They are utterly convinced that they are correct about everything and the only reason more people (or "sheeple" as they like to say) don't know it is because of massive conspiracies by the government, the media, and establishment parties (and if you scratch hard enough...Jews).
Romney will eventually be the nominee, Obama will eventually be reelected, and what will actually matter the most is what happens in Congress.
Good luck.
