Abba Eban, universally respected Israeli statesman and its first UN Ambassador, said about the Palestinian’s that given options they will always make the wrong choice. An example: when they took possession of the Gaza strip they were left a thriving greenhouse and hydroponic vegetable and fruit industry. It could have been greatly expanded. It could have employed people, fed people, and trained people. They destroyed it. This is not about the Palestinians. It is about the Democrat Party.
It was a mere two years some odd years ago a guy walked down an opulent staircase and announced he was running for president. In short, order there were 14 more people doing their own version of “I’m running.” The debates, the primaries they were brutal skirmishes sometimes near blood baths. Politicians dropped like characters in Greek myological war stories clutching the verbal spears that had pierced their chests or holding a head bashed in and senseless as political blood poured from it. It was a stellar lesson in what a party should not allow to happen in the run-up to an election. In fact, the RNC made a very pointed announcement last week indicating that no one should challenge President Trump and if they did likely they’d get squashed. In the process, the RNC make it clear it would not be there to support them.
That announcement may or may not have its intended effect. A strong candidate who has a strong local or regional base and doesn’t need outside money to get going might surface (Gov. Kasich?). Someone might run as what is called a “favorite son” candidate. That’s a person who is very popular in his/her own state, knows he/she initially hasn’t a chance in hell outside of that state but runs to stick a thumb in the President’s eye and in so doing, if he/she wins, shows Trump to be beatable. (Jeff Flake?).
“Is this any way to run an airline” used to be a popular advertising expression. If it is retooled, “Is this any way to run an election?” the answer is no. Yet we have the Democrats like lemmings headed for the political cliffs. A whole gaggle of senators, male/female/black/white is running. Just announced is a former Governor, John Hickenlooper from Colorado. Then there’s the almost announced Rep. Eric Sewall. Sorry but I also don’t think Rep. Eric Sewall has a 21st-century electable name. But we can’t forget Barak Hussein Obama. Nor can we forget what an electric speaker he is. Mr. Sewall is not. Going back to Colorado, I apologize but I don’t think signs shouting, “Hickenlooper for President” are going to do it either.
Another NW governor is teasing us with an announcement, Jay Inslee of Washington state. Then there is the group with its own name, “The Three B’s.” They are not insects, they are Beto O’Rouke, Joe Biden, and former NYC mayor, current billionaire, former Republican Michael Bloomberg. Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio is seemingly another sure-fire announcer to come. This is nuts and a prescription for disaster, like destroying the greenhouses in Gaza.
Why? It takes a lot of money to support a lot of candidates. A lot of candidates distract the voters’ ability to focus on a few candidates. Is this one’s policy on widgets really different from that one’s? Do we need widgets at all? It’s worse than when you had to put a tennis ball on your car antennae to find it in a parking lot because so many cars looked alike. Try as they might to be civil those who begin to trail will get nastier and more pointed in their attacks on the others. This does a lot of the other team’s oppo research for them and for free. And like the animal on the plains that has managed to fight off the wolves, the winning candidate stands torn, tattered, and tired only to have to begin the run for President.
It’s too late to do anything about the train of candidates. However, some of the stronger ones could make serious promises to others making it worth dropping out. Someone like Joe Biden could early on try to convince another strong candidate to be is vice presidential running mate offering something like this to say, Kamala Harris, “Look. You’re young. I’m not. My goal is to kick this guy out of office. I’m going to be a one-term president. After all, I’ll be 82 beginning a second term. I will create a vice presidential portfolio that will be important and keep you in the headlines like President Obama did for me. You’ll have a clear path for becoming the first female African American president. So let’s do this together.”
Some say a pairing of two candidates that could take two desperately needed states from Trump might have party appeal. Two rust belt candidates: Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania. There are one or two others and other political combinations. Right now, all we can say is, “We’ll see.”
What I see is shards of glass, dead plants, and irreparable damage. Someone needs to either take charge or find a way to charge ahead very early in the game or America will be listening to 10,000 more lies in the next four years and experience precious little actually being accomplished.
We will however all become experts from a four-year course on civil and criminal law–at least from my perspective.
This is BIll Gralnick weekly howl into the skies. If you like the sound, check his website for others at http://www.atleastfrommyperspective.net
Keep an eye out for the announcement of the publishing of his third book, a half-life memoir of his coming of age years in Brooklyn, NY.
And as he always says, “Read! It’s good for both of us.
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