The Assault, Pt. 1

There is something happening now in America that is a bit strange in my opinion. I’ve been thinking about it for months since before it didn’t start happening. In fact, I thought it should have started happening a month or two before it was supposed to happen. So today it crossed my mind for no particular reason and I started thinking of some possible reasons why not and what these things might mean in a more important sense.

I am speaking, of course about the 2012 run for the Presidency. I figured at the latest it would start seriously by the first week of January. January was when it started in 2007 (for 2008). I figured Sarah Palin would have started campaigning by now, but all I’ve noticed is Mitt Romney making a trip to Afghanistan and brief mention of the name Pawlenty. So what the hell is going on? Where are the Republicans? Forget repealing health care – get serious about removing the root cause of all the things they seem to think are problems.

Sarah Palin as a person can only be taken seriously when she is a presidential candidate. Her life began only two-and-a-half years ago as the vice-presidential pick. It’s a long way to the top if you wanna Rock’n’Roll and in Sarah’s case she was born pretty close to the top. The reality show has been done, she seems to feel she has something she should share with a nation of 330 million and apparently being Governor of Alaska is a waste of her time, so I’d consider anything less than the Presidency to be a failure. Like the Patriots. You aren’t a 14-2 team and probably the best team ever – even if you didn’t make it to the Superbowl – you are chumps, Belichick included. Thanks for nothing. You are lucky you aren’t the Red Sox.

I’m not saying Palin would be a tolerable President, I just think she might be what the citizens of this country need to finally realize what shitbags our leaders have been.

If you separate the image Obama projects and the popular image of George Bush’s presidency from what actually was accomplished by their respective White Houses and what actually happened during their time (so far, with Obama) in power, you will see that the two administrations are very similar. I think the major discernable difference being that George Bush never really promised anything, was blindsided by 9/11 and then (supposedly) manipulated the country into a War in Iraq – and Obama promised the moon, saw everything coming that he has had to deal with (with zero surprises), accomplished nothing he promised, accomplished a little that he didn’t promise (health care) and in that case really didn’t accomplish much and then lied very brazenly in front of cameras at the podium about everything he didn’t “change” to make it seem that he had accomplished something – and got away with it because of a fawning press and a Republican opposition that was glad.

Sarah Palin is just the overt disaster / train-wreck -waiting-to happen this country needs to wake us up. But, for some reason, I get the feeling that plans to announce a candidacy have been delayed by her inner circle. Events have conspired to put things on hold. At the same time, the rest of the potential Republican field is waiting for her cue. I’m not sure why. My guess is that they feel (even Romney) their announcements and campaigns won’t get the attention they deserve with the cloud of expectations about Palin hanging overhead. They would rather let her go first, draw the obvious fire, and then either fill the bloody gap left in her wake or use her as a target themselves.

Obama’s presidency is just run on talking and based on an image created from that talking. There is no real action or substance. The inaction is covered over by lies that tell you that what is actually observe is something entirely different and and more pledges to act on different issues and fabricated problems in the future. The whole week this nation spent on Tuscon was pointless. It was simply a delaying action waged by both parties to run the clock in the face of a lack of ideas. Shootings like this happen every six months or a year in the US. And they usually get this kind of attention.

There was little unique or informative about this one as opposed to nothing unique or informative, which is usually the case. You can survive a bullet to the brain. I knew that, now everyone does. This Loughner guy hit 19 and killed six in a wide open area in short time with a single handgun. And the army rejected him. I thought that was pretty cool. And, as Mark Ames points out, this shooting was a hybrid between an assassination and a rampage killing, which almost never happens… but whatever… I’ll only be happy when both the national and local news finally decides that daily 5-minute updates on Representative whatsername’s condition isn’t actually news and floods in Australia and dead birds in Arkansas are actually more important.

The Republicans were planning on repealing health care that week, but what were they going to do after that? They could wait a week. Obama definitely needed a time out. He killed enough time between the elections in November. Then there was a week of I don’t know what – but everybody was saying how much the lame-duck congress got accomplished, so it must be true (I challenge anybody to recall what exactly those things were). Then there was his vacation. He knew he had the Chinese thing coming up this week, so the Tuscon thing provided the perfect, seriously-looking “beer-summit” for an entire week. Hopefully the country will have forgotten about the Tea Party and Orange John “Crybaby” Boner by then. Jesus, this is going to be a boring year … unless something cool happens … like a war with North Korea, or the price of oil rising to $180.

Energy and oil. The focus just hasn’t been there. The multi-billion dollar rail project in California is never in the news and is facing major opposition anyway. The electric-car thing is nowhere. The $7500 tax-credit for buying a Volt or a Leaf is just a subsidy to the car corporations, as if the bailouts weren’t enough. But then I wouldn’t expect Obama to realize the importance of energy policy to the future of this country. He’s from Kenya, not Libya. I don’t care what the Governor of Hawaii says. Obama just spends three weeks a year there golfing. A Republican from Kenya. Who woulda thunk it? And the country is doing okay. Still better than the Chinese. How bad could a hockey-mom from Alaska screw things up?

* * * *

As soon as I finished this, I started to wonder if the 2008 campaign actually started in January 2006 or if my memory was playing tricks on me. Two seconds later I turned on ABC News to learn that The New Hampshire Republican committee held a straw poll today. I swear I didn’t plan this. Results:

35% Romney
11% Paul
8% Pawlenty
7% Palin
5% Bachmann
3% Huckabee
3% Gingrich
3% Christie
2% Giuliani

I like Chris Christie, but he has a stupid name and he’s too fat to be President.

On the plus side, ABC News tonight featured no international news and 4 minutes 30 seconds on Gabrielle Giffords. There was a revolution in Albania yesterday, but apparently the fact that it might snow again this week and 3 minutes on high-school football in Florida is more important.