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Does America truly need Joe Biden as its president?
That is a surprise question to many of you who have given thought only to the top three front runners in each party, and to which of those three, you will give your vote……..
But assume instead that you start with the basics and think for a second about what this country needs for its president. Then from that criteria which you came with, you look to the candidates and see how they compare to your own assessment…..
Want to try it? ….Let’s begin ….What does America need?…..
For one America needs to move past politics-as-usual…Currently every time one party gives, the other one takes, causing a tug of war “across the aisle” that has disfranchised almost every American towards their own government.
For two, America need someone responsible to us, and not the corporate benefactors that finance the campaigns…….
For three, America needs someone with experience, who is not green and must “learn on the job.” Unfortunately the Republicans have left a huge mess that must be cleaned up before the next watch…..We need someone who already knows what needs to be done.
Fourth. Americans are in dire need of another FDR. Someone who talks like us, thinks like us, and comes from a background just like us…We do not need another aristocratic Washingtonian who thinks that if it’s not on the Mclaughlin Report, it really doesn’t matter.
Fifth. Americans need someone with stature to return respect back to our White House and our country. We are in need of a George Washington who can keep a tight ship, and groom this next generation of independent thinkers into effective leaders for years to come…….
We do not need to worry who has the best health care plan…That will get settled in Congress…Nor will we have to worry about who has the best economic plan. That too will get settled in Congress. What we do need to worry about, are the unseen events that will rise up and bite us in the future….What we do have to worry about is whether we have a balanced person is in charge of our country, and not another round of what we have today………And, of course, we do need to worry about how much we, as a nation, are living on borrowed money……
So against those criteria, how does each the candidate stand?
The first criteria was to put politics aside and begin to fix a broken America…..I do not see many people cooperating willingly with Hillary. Of course not much cooperation was given to Reagan during his first two years either, ….but those who hate her husband, still may not be willing to follow her bidding just because she says so……unless she wins by 80% of the vote. That magnitude of an event tends to change things. Nor can I see Capitol Hill giving much initial respect for Huckabee who has not served in Washington. Obama although “clean” on his Iraq vote, really hasn’t served long enough to give him clout among the “old school,” ie he has yet to be re-elected even to his own Senate seat……Giuliani will totally confuse the entire Congress with his multiple cell phone interruptions. Edwards with his haircut, will also inherit Obama’s problem of not serving long enough to understand exactly how to get things done…..But I can see Biden, working both sides of the aisle to get legislation passed quickly. And of all the candidates, he has both the experience and respect of knowing all the ins and outs of Capitol Hill….
Secondly, we will need someone loyal and responsible to us…who will say “screw you to the corporate sponsors”….Currently both Hillary and Obama owe their office to a whole slue of “someones” …. Their campaign money did not come from us, you and me……..Once in, they will have no choice but to fulfill the agenda of those who paved their way with green. That is exactly what happened in 2000. We would be fools to do it again….The way out, the way to change, is to vote for someone who is running on a shoe string…someone who reaches out for 5, 10, 20 dollars from average citizens. So of the candidates, which ones owe someone else big-time? Obama, Hillary, Edwards, Giuliani, McCain, Romney. And who of the candidates doesn’t? All the second tier candidates on both sides…..So in this category any front runner at this stage is bad, any one in back of the pack is better.
Thirdly. America needs an experienced hand on the wheel, as we bounce over the lack of a road in our near future…..Hillary has it. She has worked hard, and grudgingly even Republicans have called her the main work horse in the Senate. Biden too has legislated through the aftermath of the Vietnam years, the years of malaise, the bounce-back Reagan years, the collapse of the USSR years, the Saddam, Bin Laden, and now the Iran years….His foreign expertise is unparalleled. Whereas Hillary has had 6 full years of being in office, Biden has had thirty-four. The others: Dodd (32), McCain (24), Ron Paul (16), Edwards (6), Obama (3), , Guiliani (a mayor?) Romney (0), Huckabee (0) have far less….
Fourth: Americans need another FDR. Biden has lived in Delaware and commuted on the Federally financed Amtrak every day back and forth. He is not a millionaire. The other person running who’s not millionaires is Huckabee, We need someone who hears, and truly understands, how energy costs too much, how gasoline companies are gouging us, and how financially difficult it is to buy Chinese toys only to throw them away because they are contaminated. We need, at least during this election cycle, someone who is more comfortable in a fire hall than in an entrance hall of some mansion…..Others may complain about long-windedness in a politician. ButI like it.. At least with loquaciousness, we know where that person stands….unlike those who cryptically say they are for clean water, then raise the arsenic level as soon as they’re sworn into office….
Finally we need someone with stature to return respect back to our country and to the White House. Taints of scandal will always be associated with Hillary….Do we want the endless train of veiled accusations pumped out by right wingers with nothing else to do? Huckabee too has his skeletons …Guiliani …(well…he comes from New York)….Romney will never escape the flip flop stigma (after all… he comes from Massachusetts) Biden is not a new face…We have seen him every Sunday on the talk show circuits…..Any time there is foreign crisis, he is there, explaining it to America in real language we can understand.
So if one takes each of these 5 values as being what one wants their president to represent, they can then compare all the candidates to see how they rank when stacked in each of those 5 categories?
1) Respect from both sides of the aisle in Congress. Hillary, Biden, McCain, Paul, and Dodd.
2) Someone without a “corporate” sponsor. Biden, Kucinich, Dodd, Edwards, Huckabee, Paul.
3) Foreign Policy Experience: Biden, Dodd, Paul, Kucinich, Hillary, McCain
4) The Common Touch: Biden, Paul, Huckabee, McCain
5) Stature: Biden, Obama,
Results: Biden (5), Paul (4), McCain (3), Dodd (3), Hillary (2), Huckabee (2), Kucinich (2), Edwards (1), Obama (1). All other candidates ranked 0………
Based on what you have just said you want your president to be,… Biden leads the pack….
Of course that is not what you hear our news channel polls telling us? Not at all. They’re are telling you who Corporate America wants to win, which after suffering over the last seven years, I am afraid would continue to be bad for all of us….Obviously the media can attempt to misinform you, but they can’t change your vote…..Under the American Constitution, it is up to you to make the right choice. And as you have just found out, based on your own parameters, Joe Biden may just do the trick…….
If you haven’t already, he is worth a second look…….
One small thing that happened this past year but had great consequences over local politics, was the eradication of Hannity from WDEL and the instillation of 1) an additional hour of local issue talk radio under Fulcher, and 2) what may be called a radio news magazine, under the responsibility of Allen Loudell. I , for one, have changed my priorities during the afternoon commute. (It became official when I set all my car’s am settings to one station.) Instead of listening to new musicians trying to break out, I stay tuned to new information, trying to break in……
But what has most impressed me, is how much the political landscape has changed.
Talk radio used to be a cliche for right wing ranting. Today it is the bloggers right arm in holding our officials accountable. Biden, Carper, and Castle have all had to answer questions bounced back and forth between the blogs, on live air. Also there has been a steady blend of blogging and guest appearances between the two mediums. I have been lucky of late, to have caught interactions between officials, and fellow bloggers, while they are happening live on this radio station. Not only is it informative, but entertaining. (No wonder the right wing became addicted to it……).
Media is often criticized for being one way. The studio beams itself into our little world, and we never project back. It is exciting that the symbiosis that has taken place here in Delaware, gives citizens a way of pushing back. The evolution has been subtle, and only by the comparison between last year and this, can one appreciate just how much, removing Hannity from the “big station’ has changed the local mix.
Today there is much more accountability. Officials who often worked in a vacuum, whether in the capacity of serving the city, the county, or the state, now may have their actions illuminated, analyzed, and disparaged over the airwaves for all to hear. The combination of blogger sleuthing, and the ability of talk radio able to get guests to respond live to questions, has brought some degree of accountability to this states officials.
Both the News Journal and Comcast Newsmakers, seem to cater to the persons being interviewed. In those mediums, glossy and shallow answers are allowed. That is so not so with talk radio……
The change with Hannity was a small thing, but it seems to have made a big difference. Hat’s off to those individuals with backbone who were responsible for making that move……………………..
Sometimes a lightning bolt of a thought strikes from nowhere. When it does, you know you have found your answer.
There is a false quality many have mentioned about the front runners. Scripted to every detail, repetitive as a hammer, their responses seem nice, agreeable, and flat……
The problem with the political process, is that Americans are not involved. Each candidate is a carefully marketed bag of rice, and all the marketing is designed to say: “pick me.” In our busy lives, we are not only responsible for picking out the “rice”, but also the milk, the car, the cereal, the dessert treats, gasoline, etc. The election process boils down to just another product piped into my home by cable, mail, or obscene phone banks.
Normally these things happen to me in a church pew, but this time the answer I needed came from a surprising source.
In a recent comment, Tyler Nixon dished up the answer. As soon as I saw it, I realized that those of us who care about the future of Constitutional Government need to steer the campaign towards this direction. Speaking of Biden, Tyler says this.
Biden, for example, has emerged as not only a “gaffe machine” but a Teflon one! Why? Because he is forgiven these “sins” as coming from a genuine man revealing himself rather than a plasticine politician exposing himself.
Like the other candidates I mentioned Biden’s foibles make him “real”. One thing a professional politician can’t fabricate is a good foible. If you have none, you are not to be trusted in my view. Those who would present themselves as perfection have the most imperfections to hide – if not the worst ones….
In such a similar way Reagan endeared himself to millions of Democrats, thereby enabling the beginning of the Republican regime. One knows a long termer is wary of trips and hazards, and Biden is a long termer. Comparatively, the newness of some of our front runners, is not reassuring. No Senator since Kennedy has attained election as the most powerful person in the world. Perhaps that is why relations between Congress and Executive are at an all time low…..
What I’m looking for in a candidate is someone I can trust. I don’t expect perfection, not in this day and age, but I am looking for an old warrior. Someone who has seen up close both the good and the bad of human nature, and will do everything to promote the good, and anything to stop the bad.
Democrat or Republican does not matter. Fixing America, does.
I’ll trust an imperfect friend before I’ll trust a salesman who attempts to sell me on his candidate’s perfection.
“Troops out now”. We hear it all the time. It is the opposite of “Stay the course.” But how many troops are going to leave? How many troops are going to stay? Those answers from the candidates, may surprise you.
Two candidates have forthrightly said, we need to pull all troops out now…….Both of those candidates, Kucinich and Richardson make up less than a combined 2% of all poll numbers. The big movers and shakers, Hillary, Obama, and Edwards have much different messages.
When we hear “withdrawal of American troops from Iraq” we think of all our troops coming home to parades and flags. However what is really being said, is these major candidates support the withdrawal of “combat troops” or “combat brigades.” These effective fighting forces, at the most, make up only 45% of all troops in Iraq. The rest, who are unmentioned, one can assume are to remain there for a long time, especially now that we have a new embassy and need to maintain our new military bases.
Why? Because any serious contender for President cannot publicly be for the chaotic fall of any country in the Middle East……..in other words….the loss of oil….
So the Democratic front-runners must promise voters that they will end the war — with not too many ideologically laden ifs, ands, or buts — while they assure the foreign-policy establishment that they will never abandon the drive for hegemony in the Middle East (or anywhere else). In other words, the candidates have to be able to talk out of both sides of their mouths at the same time. Ira Chernus: The Democrats’ Iraqi Dilemma: Questions Unasked, Answers Never Volunteered
“It is time to begin ending this war…. Start bringing home America’s troops…. within 90 days ” says Hillary Clinton. Excuse me but did anyone hear the word “all”? It seems to have been casually omitted. Previously she said this: “We have remaining vital national security interests in Iraq…. What we can do is to almost take a line sort of north of, between Baghdad and Kirkuk, and basically put our troops into that region” One reporter admits that Clinton expects U.S. troops to be in Iraq when she ends her second term in 2017. She wants 80,000 more troops with an emphasis on special forces.
Obama is not pulling all the troops out either…..To control everything and everyone, he wants “the strongest, best-equipped military in the world.… A 21st century military to stay on the offense.” That, he says, will take at least 92,000 more soldiers and Marines. Like Hillary, Barack would remove all “combat brigades” from Iraq, but keep U.S. troops there “for a more extended period of time” — even “redeploy additional troops to Northern Iraq” — to support the Kurds, train Iraqi forces, fight al Qaeda, “reassure allies in the Gulf,” “send a clear message to hostile countries like Iran and Syria,” and “prevent chaos in the wider region.” “Most importantly, some of these troops could be redeployed to Afghanistan…. to stop Afghanistan from backsliding toward instability.”
Obama plans to use redeployment as a carrot. The redeployment could be temporarily suspended if the parties in Iraq reach an effective political arrangement that stabilizes the situation and they offer us a clear and compelling rationale for maintaining certain troop levels.
Edwards goes further than either Obama or Clinton in spelling out that we “will also need some presence in Baghdad, inside the Green Zone, to protect the American Embassy and other personnel”. Edwards continues: : “I would put stabilization first.” “Stabilization” is yet another establishment code word for insuring U.S. control, as Edwards certainly knows. His ultimate aim, he says, is to ensure that the U.S. will “lead and shape the world.”
The top Democrats agree that we must leave significant numbers of U.S. troops in Iraq. This is remarkably similar to the Republican position. However,…..both sides politely seem to dismiss any mention of the number of Iraqis and/or servicemen killed during our lengthy stay………..
Well, perhaps it’s time Americans started asking such questions. A lost war should be the occasion for a great public debate on the policies and the geopolitical assumptions that led to the war
Tomsdispatch.com puts the challenge before us in clear terms. “Bush, Cheney, and their supporters say the most important message is a reassuring one: “When the U.S. starts a fight, it stays in until it wins. You can count on us.” For key Democrats, including congressional leaders and major candidates for the imperial Presidency, the primary message is a warning: “U.S. support for friendly governments and factions is not an open-ended blank check. If you are not producing, we’ll find someone else who can.”
This is a debate about tactics; not about goals. Among the American people a greater debate is raging. At stake is whether America should be allowed to create a war to further certain interests of its own economy? Or………… should America agree to play by the same rules it insists that all other’s abide by: thou shalt not invade another country for resources. At first glance it appears that in their courtship with the powerful elite for those delicious campaign dollars, the leading Democrats have placed their foot in the very same traps that snapped shut upon the feet of the Republicans.
It is time that all Americans look hard at this duplicity.
Perhaps in such a reflective light, many of the minor candidates, such as Biden, do appear to have the better shine after all…………..
kavips 