With the announcements of Cruz, Paul, Rubio and Hillary the 2016 Presidential Derby is off. It is hard to believe that we still have 20 months to go and that the media are going to do all they can to keep us in suspense over every yard of this race. It is exhausting to reflect what we are going to be put through, especially, bearing in mind what we have all been through just to arrive at the starting gate. So steel yourself for the cliff hanging journalism that is going to keep us transfixed to the box while flipping through our e mails, social media and the like, in case G-d forbid we should miss a minute of it or a detail. Every nuance will be visited and revisited, analyzed and reanalyzed, regurgitated and chewed upon till every last possible interpretation has been wrung out of it all, 24/7, on more and more channels. The media frenzy will make it nail biting and gripping even if the race is one long yawn. (Blog: “Hillary, the Media Run Presidential Horse Race and Her E Mails”.
SECOND VERSE SAME AS THE FIRST
The depressing part of it all is that there is no end to this ongoing saga as one four year POTUS election cycle is concertinaed into the next. The script never changes other than the details and of course the dramatis personae. After the next 20 months when the debates, the primaries and then, finally, the election is over, we are supposed to have a two year honeymoon period, where the President is the greatest thing since Abe Lincoln, (or maybe in this case Mary Lincoln), both in America and the world. Well its never two years because after a year there is the run up to the midterms. There the President’s agenda gets its first public test. Invariably he does not do too well and then he/she? goes into a defensive mode for the next two years as he/she? wants a second term to be able to fulfill his/her? agenda.
Thus there is another two year presidential campaign in the final 2 years of the first term. The President then wins a second term but the Congressional numbers decrease or do not recover enough from the first midterms so as to make life difficult. This time there is no official honeymoon. Then in the next midterm the President, who is now unrecognizable from the fresh optimistic young looking candidate of six years earlier, is so gray and tired that one cannot but help feeling sorry for him. The POTUS receives another electoral blow and is declared a “lame duck.” as the cycle and speculation for the next President begins. Who needs this vertiginous existence?
THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS
As Jay H. Ell mentioned the details change. The first time around Obama’s honeymoon lasted two days and the second time around he refuses to ride into the sunset like any respectable ‘lame duck”. But he broke the mould. One out of every five Americans still believe he wasn’t born in America and the same five believe Ted Cruz was, even though he really was born in Canada. The POTUSES all reside in the, now inappropriately named, White House and all their wives are elevated to the position of First Lady even though they never ran. Now the Founding Fathers, not Mothers you note, never envisioned that Hillary would be First Lady unelected as well as elected and that makes Bill unconstitutional as the first man to be an unelected First Man. If Hillary is elected there will be a lot of firsts just like there was when Jordan Spieth won the Masters. (One doesn’t realize what a sexist society we are in till one realizes it. Just in case you think that the Masters is called the Masters by chance it is not. Only because everyone created one big stink a few years ago did the Augusta Country Club change their constitution and invite a woman, (one only), to be a member of their august(a) Club which hosts the Masters, not the Misses, every year). The furore subsided as apparently one Miss, among all the Masters, was as good as a mile.
HILLARY IS THE MAN
Any rate where was Jay H. Ell, oh yes Hillary. Hillary is odds on favorite to win the Presidency just because it is finally a women’s turn. Presumably we will go back to white men after that - as Bill O’Reilly of Fox News said, “This used to be a white man’s country”. Now between you and Jay. H. Ell, this Clinton has more going for her than just being a woman, having been in politics for about fifty years, First Lady, (unelected), US Senate and Secretary of State, but it is the woman thing that she is pushing and that she is a daughter, wife, mother and grandmother - all womanly things. She also believes that it is time for a woman POTUS. To paraphrase what Churchill said, “Trust America to elect the right demographic after they have tried every other one”.
HILLARY STARTS NOT WITH A BANG BUT A WHIMPER
For everyone waiting for Hillary to announce her Presidency in front of the Benghazi Embassy in battle fatigues with sweat and blood dripping, while on cell phones to Putin and the POTUS and using her own server to e mail Bill that she was singlehandedly holding the Embassy, there was a big let down. After the sound and fury of Ted and Rand and then a dramatic Marc, it was all so everyday and ordinary, especially juxtaposed with the all high sounding odds the GOPers were shouting, including the wannabes like Jed and Scott Walker. All she did was in a two minute social media videotaped event was join in with ordinary people who just happened to represent every demographic in America. It was a populist message couched in the simplest terms focussing on the economy. She wanted people to get ahead in a society where the deck was stacked in favor of the other people, (the one percenters minus her). The people needed a champion and she wanted to be it. Foreign policy, her forte, Hillary was tossed off at the end with a commitment to keep the Homeland safe.
She followed this up by scooting of into a van called Scoobie, to cross half of America to talk to these selfsame people that featured in her Presidential announcement especially the selfsame people in Iowa. She in turn was followed by half of America’s media people half of whom thought her entrance was masterful and the other half who maintained it was banal. They were all screaming out for detailed policy statements so that half of them could crucify her and the other half could praise her. So let it be with Hillary. There is little doubt that in her simple announcement she connected with every demographic and let it be known that she was in it for them. She was not going to a coronation she was going connecting.
THE GOP SECOND STRING
Only the GOP second string is in the race as yet and their focus was on grandiosity. They all screamed that Hillary should be more specific, but she can and they can’t. Her base is not worried about gay rights, amnesty for immigrants, minimum wage, taxing the rich…. Hillary obviously will leave wiggle room for her big financial backers but at least she is in sync with her electorate.
The forty three year old Rubio made his declaration in front of Miami’s Freedom Tower, the Cuban refugees’ Staten Island. America needed new ideas and he was the new kid on the block to deliver. He attacked Obama’s Israeli policy and humped it onto Hillary which is the theme of all the Republican runners. Rubio no doubt has a future and he is not going away. He carries far more gravitas than the other two and has to be a pain in the neck to his mentor Jed. Jed championed him and now when he needs him to deliver the Hispanic vote his protege wants it for himself. Is nothing sacred?
Libertarian Rand Paul also wanted to get rid of Washington and chuck out the IRS and is making an attempt to connect with minorities. He is certainly different but every time he takes his Libertarian views to their natural conclusion he gets into trouble. “He is unafraid to challenge the status quo”. Another bright young guy who is a prisoner of his own philosophy and into the bargain has managed to antagonize the Tea Party, which is in fact the GOP.
Ted Cruz is the purest of the pure Tea Partiers although he will have plenty of competition. Like the others he is for the constitution, for family, (traditional of course),stripping Washington of power, a hawkish foreign policy and like all the others against Hillary.
All three as everyone else on the other side wants to lump Hillary with Obama. They all want to run against Obama. Heavens knows why as they loose every time but it is the only policy they all agree on.Then they are all for Israel and to sanction Iran, improving the economy but to a lesser or greater extent they are stuck with the Party’s antiquated social agenda and stymied by their own financial philosophy that can only make matters better for the one percenters.
WHAT’S NEXT?
So we are waiting for the GOP heavy hitters, Jeb from Florida and Scott from Wisconsin. It is going to be a long hot summer times two as these five and the Republican third string, also yet to join, duke it out. Its hard to see any winner emerge that can beat Hillary. Jeb’s tactic is to win by as little as possible so that he doesn’t find himself into a Romney like position. GOP Chairman Reince Priebus’s nightmare scenario is back again as the GOP candidates eat each other up and chew through wads of money,
Hillary is going to make this election about the economy, the rights of all groups, and inequity in pay. The GOP believes their best chance is to make it about Foreign Affairs which ironically is Hillary’s strong suit. It is unlikely that Hillary will bite. Obama is doing her front running on equal pay and the like and ignoring the tough decisions on foreign policy that she can fudge later as the electorate are not too interested.
Everyone now needs real money to contest. Gone are the days that fifty million dollars looked respectable. That is now needed for openers. Of the candidates officially running only Cruz is likely to have that parameter as a stumbling block. If Hillary is not contested then she will have all of a billion plus and by some estimates two billion. If she is contested it will be by a no hoper whom she would not be diverting too much cash on and just getting her nationwide infrastructure in place. (Please Joe Biden spare us. Has the guy got no insight? It’s very worrying that he is a heart beat from the Presidency).
So just state with all the gravitas in the world that you have learned from Clinton insiders that Hillary is a cross dresser. Then show a picture from her waist down wearing slacks and photoshop a fly onto her slacks and wallah you will have her and the whole Democratic Party denying it and you would give the media another crises to discuss with all the usual suspects on the all the usual panels on all the usual channels weighing in. Most important the same folks who would still believe that she murdered Vince Forster, (even though Kenneth Starr after months of dirt digging said she didn’t), will believe this.
While there is a long long way to go Jay H. Ell cannot see Hillary losing unless she falls of her horse. In the meanwhile America will remain in permanent status electionious and all the intravenous ativan in the world will not stop the jerking.
For whatever unconscious reasons Jay H. Ell bucked his cynicism and sat down to blog this all. Maybe he is addicted and if he doesn’t comment he will suffer from withdrawal symptoms.
Watch this space for Jeb and Scott the real contenders.
It really is Hillarious.
No comments:
Post a Comment