Charles Dickens, of all people, gives us an indication of just how low the financial reputation of this country was in the post-Jackson era. In A Christmas Carol, published in 1843, Dickens wrote about Ebenezer Scrooge waking up after his encounter with the Ghost of Christmas Past and being relieved to find that the world had not ended. Thus, Scrooge realized, a note that was payable to him in three days was not as worthless as “a mere United States’ security.”
Ouch, indeed.
America’s economic high-amplitude boom-and-bust cycle in the 19th century was not without its advantages, however. As booms gathered force, British capital would pour into the country to help build canals, railroads, and factories. After the inevitable crash (we had crashes in 1819, 1837, 1857, 1873, and 1893), the British owners of the by then much-depreciated stock and bonds would throw them on the American market to get whatever they could for them. Thus the United States ended up not only with the railroads and canals — but ownership of them as well.
John McCain should win minimally by six percentage points on Election Day. Barack “Barry” Obama should get a solid forty percent of the total vote—just like Barry Goldwater and George McGovern. He simply will not get the support of the middle of the road voters. Are there any pictures of McCain holding up a convenience store or mugging a nun? If not, he should to have little to worry about.
“Barry” Obama took advantage of white guilt. These folks go out of their way to prove, “I’m not a racist.”
Heck, even I make the extra effort to vote for Republican minority candidates—when everything else is equal. It is only February 20th. Very soon more Americans are going to take a second look at Senator Obama. They will not like what they see.
Since the last Presidential election, we have experienced a few more years of American public and private school education dominated at all levels by the Left. Sooner or later, if present trends continue, the voting public’s ability to think critically will decay to the point that Obama or someone like him will be elected.
The problem for McCain is going to be if Democrats come out to vote en masse like they are now. In that case, there is nothing that he can do about it. It doesn’t matter what people think about partial birth abortion or gun rights: People like Obama and are enthusiastic to go and vote for him. In that sense, McCain has some serious problems.
“People like Obama and are enthusiastic to go and vote for him.”
It is the middle of the road voter who makes the difference in a national election. The Obama Kool-Aid drinkers will be enough to get them to vote on Election Day. There are a lot more of them—than the crazies voting for the Illinois U.S. senator.
“Are there any pictures of McCain holding up a convenience store or mugging a nun? ”
I doubt it, but there are other question ….or shall we say issues for McCain.
For example, how McCain left the wife, who waited for him when he was a POW and became a cripple, to run off with a “hot” rich blond whose money he uses to finance his political campaign.
How McCain’s nickname was “Ace” in Naval Aviation before he was shot down. This was because he crashed four or five Navy plane on his own. The idea is that McCain wasn’t washed out only because he was the son of a powerful admiral.
There is more, much more but these are rumors for the presnet. Whetyher they develpe into something more or not, be assured that the liberal media will give each and every one of them their day in the sun.
McCain by 6% over B. Hussein Obama is a pipe dream — unless there is a major terrorist attack.
I fear that Bob Miller may be right, David; perhaps not this time but in elections that follow. Unless some additional momentous event occurs that wakes all Americans up, the leftward drift of Americans may be too hard to stop. Facts clearly don’t matter; good speechifying and vague promises of giving people hope, when made by a person of color, seem to enthrall Democrats. The audacity of my hope, against reason of how people are reacting to this children’s crusade, is that the spell is broken sooner rather than later and that centrists and any Republican hale enough to get to a voting booth in November show up and do their duty.
The longer-term project of reverting Americans back to their senses and taking on the world as it is is not the stuff of campaigns, as a rule, but we may have a rare teaching moment this cycle: McCain can, and should, argue that there are things worth fighting for other than SCHIP; that the world is a dangerous place and failing to understand your enemies is a bad thing that cannot be countered by calls for ‘hope’ and ‘change.’ In fact, he can get a lot of unhappy conservatives on board by making the age-old conservative case for realistically assessing our problems and crafting practical solutions undergirded by good old-fashioned principles of right and wrong, good vs. evil, liberty vs. the nanny state, etc.
McCain is right to talk about his long experience vs. the neophyte’s total inexperience; I would like to see him go further in this vein: while McCain was leading in the Senate and consulted by presidents on any number of foreign policy crises, Obama was making big money as a lawyer or reforming ethics laws in the Illinois legislature. But he will do himself even more good, with the people he so needs to turn out and vote, by framing the national conversation in a way that he can play up his worldview and values vs. Obama’s.
“Facts clearly don’t matter”
Facts do matter to the middle of the road voter. Also, never forget that often the “real” campaign doesn’t start until after Labor Day. Things are indeed very bad in the United States. Anti-intellectualism and an overall contempt for rational thinking is widespread. Nonetheless, there are just enough halfway sensible people to make a difference.
“For example, how McCain left the wife, who waited for him when he was a POW and became a cripple, to run off with a “hot” rich blond whose money he uses to finance his political campaign.”
I would still rather be John McCain. Americans voted for Bill clinton, didn’t they? We have a habit of shrugging our shoulders when it comes to the sins of politicians. But we get very upset with those advocating Kool-Aid drinking!
I realize some conservatives won’t like this, but McCain will get a lot out of comparing his unquestionable “bipartisan” credentials with Obama’s party-line liberalism–at least by one measure Obama was the senator least likely to depart from his party’s position. When McCain starts calling Obama the “most partisan” senator and pointing out specific bipartisan efforts which Obama did not join, I think it will have an impact and undercut Obama’s “post-partisan” nonsense.
“There is more, much more but these are rumors for the presnet.”
If the election turns into a mud-slinging contest, there’s a lot of ammunition on the other side. Around the time that John McCain, after returning from his stint as a POW, was returning to flight status after intensive physical therapy, Barack Obama was, by his own admission, consuming hard drugs and forming his view of the world under the tutelage of a Communist Party organizer Frank Marshall Davis. (And you thought the Cold War was over? Apparently not.) This isn’t an isolated moment in Obama’s career of “passing” as a mainstream liberal – there’s an embarrassment of riches available for anyone on the right who decides that the election should be decided on personal and political destruction.
BO and his campaign won’t “go there,” and not just because it would be a complete contradiction of everything his campaign supposedly stands for. McCain won’t need to, as there’s plenty of material within the conventional political realm that identifies Obama for what he is.
David: I hope you’re right and that facts will matter to independent voters, but so far it seems that far too many indies are hopping on the Obama bandwagon. The real campaign traditionally begins after Labor Day, but this time around, if the nominees are clear in March, then the real campaign will start early, and now is the time to go after the indies and make sure the base votes.