Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Penultimate pre-election post

It's really coming to an end. One more blog post about this and that, then it's time for my final predictions. I've been writing about this election for three and a half years.

From my May 10, 2005 post on my old geocities blog:
The 2008 Presidential Race and the New York State of Mind
I'm looking to the vanishing point on the horizon. What's out there? I can just barely see it: the beginnings of the Presidential race of 2008. Do we have a chance? What's our best bet? Believe it or not, there is already some polling data available for the '08 race. LINK. And I find myself smiling a little. Why? Because it's possible that the Republicans will nominate a candidate so poor they can't possibly win. I give you the Republican front-runner for 2008: Rudy Giuliani. In the wake of 9/11, most people seem to have forgotten just who the Mayor of New York was: A bumbling, bizarre figure with approval ratings hovering around 40%.

Poor John McCain has been running for President for about 10 years. Next week the quest ends, unfulfilled. Early voting shows McCain losing by a landslide. The Republican Party has already moved on. Its web site has plenty of material attacking Obama and Biden, but the home page makes no reference to the McCain ticket when you bring it up.

John, why couldn't you go out with some dignity? When Walter Mondale knew he was going to get blown out of the water by Ronald Reagan in 1984, he stayed positive. He didn't go around screaming that Reagan was some kind of radical terrorist.

Speaking of a politician leaving the stage in with no respectability left to him, who are you, Senator Ted Stevens? Stevens was convicted this week of seven felony counts of failing to report gifts he received from an Alaskan oil pipeline company.

Why, Ted, why? If Alaska were a country, Stevens would be its George Washington. A great war hero who was already well-known when Alaska joined the Union, he's been its leading statesman for decades. Why did he insist on risking his career and reputation in this way? Why at the age of 84 is he unwilling to retire? Why did he make so many claims during his trial that he knew could be easily disproven by the prosecution?

I suppose that Ted Stevens, like Sinatra, must do it "his way." Anyway Ted, thanks for handing the Democratic Party your Senate seat next week and for trashing your party's already ruined reputation.

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