What the Pundits Are Saying About the Presidential Primary and the Race
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Senator John McCain
Everybody wonders why the New York Times suddenly decided to break a "story" on John McCain it had been sitting on for months.
I have a theory, along with every other political observer in the country. But this one hasn't gotten much play so far.
When Mr. McCain attacked Barack Obama for involvement with lobbyists, the powers that be at the Times were outraged at the hypocrisy and pulled the plug on the story.
It didn't work, because the indomitable Mr. McCain now has taken the lead in nationwide polls head-to-head against Mr. Obama.
The weak sexual innuendos were just part of the vicious game of "gotcha" that politics in America has become.
We all should long for the good old days when reporters and broadcasters had a little more restraint.
Washington insiders say privately that McCain has a whole cemetery full of skeletons in his closet, not the least of which is close ties to lobbyists. Expect those stories to continue coming out as the heat rises in the Presidential campaign kitchen.
Michelle Obama's blunder in saying it was the first time she was really proud of her country was only topped by Bill O'Reilly's sick, twisted comment about lynching.
Amazingly, Bill-O has not taken much heat for the inflammatory reaction to what was undoubtedly an innocent comment by the inexperienced hopeful First Lady. A much milder statement got Don Imus fired.
The dangerous thing about comments like those made by O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, and their ilk is that there are plenty of real kooks out there who don't need much prodding to go over the edge. The last thing we need is a incident that would set the world afire, if you know what I mean.
So, you get the picture. Remaining in the Presidential race we have a 71-year-old war hero who has a great military resume but a spotty political one, a wise-cracking Arky preacher who has the greatest panache since Will Rogers, a former First Lady whose husband my be her greatest liability even though he is a former President of the United States, and a junior senator from Illinois who is unproven but is sensational at raising the hopes of a people that have been bamboozled into giving away the republic to the rest of the world for the last few decades.
Yow! Yikes! What a time to be alive in America! Let's hope our nerves can survive this coming Armageddon of political eruptions. And that whoever emerges from this cauldron can do something for us rather than just making their friends rich and ticking off the rest of the world.
There will be more, lots more, of volatile political rhetoric to come. And race will no doubt be injected again and again; it's the American way.
The muddying of the picture gets worse with Ralph Nader declaring another hopeless candidacy. I have theories about that, too. He needs the money. He wants to sell books. He's an egomaniac. Take your pick.
Actually, I would rather see Ron Paul in a third party candidacy than to even think what Mr. Nader can add. At least Rep. Paul has ideas we should be considering even though he is given short shrift by the political power players.
Here's a sample of commentary from around the nation in the greatest game show in the world, American politics:
LAWRENCE KUDLOW: "The market has officially pulled the plug on Hillary, terminating her campaign. What's left for her now is to muster some grace, humility and character, and begin the process of pulling out. To do otherwise will destroy the Democratic Party, and what's left of the Clintons' badly tarred and tattered reputation."
FRANK RICH: Senator Clinton then compounded that 2002 misjudgment (voting for the Iraq invasion) by pursuing a 2008 campaign strategy that uncannily mimicked the disastrous Bush Iraq war plan. After promising a cakewalk to the nomination -- "It will be me," Mrs. Clinton told Katie Couric in November -- she was routed by an insurgency.
GEORGE F. WILL: McCain needs someone who will help him win and be a plausible president during the next four years. He has been in Washington more years than Clinton and Barack Obama combined, and today, as usual, but even more so, Washington is considered iniquitous, partly because McCain, our national scold, incessantly tells the country that its capital is awash in "corruption."
MAUREEN DOWD: The Clinton camp has spent days trying to undermine Obama's chief asset, the elegant language that has sparked a generational boom. "We're seeing a pattern here," Hillary enforcer Howard Wolfson said, in a conference call with reporters Tuesday. Yeah, we are. She's losing, and looking for anything to bruise Obama.
RICHARD REEVES: Choosing a president is the great, most important, most dangerous responsibility in the world. It's a gamble on character, not so much the character of a candidate but the character of the American people. In her struggle to stay in this year's Democratic race by stopping Obama in Texas and Ohio, Clinton is right about one big thing: No one knows enough about the man to know if he will be a good president, much less a great one. Obama does not know himself. Nor does Clinton know about herself. The job is sui generis. The presidency is not about qualifications or experience; it is about judgment. Beyond being wise and lucky in making appointments, much of any presidency is essentially reactive. The job is dealing with crises unpredictable and unanticipated: attacks, strikes, bombings, market crashes, revolutions, plagues of nature. The best a voter can hope for is a man or woman who can find the right words to explain such things and persuade us all to follow the dictates of our better angels.
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