MucheDumbre

Watching Hillary Clinton bring an end to the roll call vote during the Democratic convention had several thoughts go through my mind.  First off, it looked like the Obama team wanted to make sure Hillary knew she was beaten by rubbing her nose in it.  Bad doggie!  I also thought of an executioner who tells the condemned, “Yeah, go ahead and you put the noose around your neck.”   Amusing?  Sure.  A little sad?  Yeah, that too.  When she stopped the roll call vote, Hillary probably knew she was well and truly fucked, but I didn’t get how fucked until today.

I was taking a shower after working out and was thinking about Hillary (believe me, this had to have been the first time I thought of her while I was naked) when it suddenly struck me like a bolt of lightning, “I’m out of conditioner!”  But after that, another thought occurred to me, Hillary lost her one good shot at being President.  That is something that she was no doubt aware of as she called off the roll call vote. 

Consider:  If Obama/Biden wins in November, and has a fairly successful Presidency, he’s in for 8 years, and Hillary doesn’t get a shot until 2016.  However, she is going to have competition: Joe Biden.  Biden is a man who has lusted for the Presidency for decades, and has made no bones about his ambition.  Biden is 65 now, and will be 73 in 2016.  Age is not quite the issue it used to be.  McCain is 72 today and still in the running.  Biden has a 90 year old mother, so maybe long lived genes run in his family.

So in 2016, Biden will have been the long serving Vice President, the establishment, standard bearer for his party. That would be an uphill battle for Hillary.  So barring some crazy political upheaval, Hillary’s only chance of being President is if Obama loses in November so she can hit it in 2012 with a big fat I told you so.  I suppose she could be content with being a New York Senator and fighting the good fight from the senate, but I’ve always thought the senate was a stepping stone, not a destination for her.  As a PUMA representative said on O’Reilly tonight (and I’m paraphrasing here), if Hillary had the top spot and Obama had the number two spot, that would guarantee 16 years of Democratic control of the Presidency.  Now it’s guaranteeing 16 more years of Republican control of the Presidency.

Well, at least there is a bright side.

I think Obama’s chances for winning the top spot are a bit better than the downcast PUMA rep gives him credit for.  But for some of these women, they have no one to vote for in November.

This brings me to the workout that led to the shower that led to the Hillary epiphany.  Yes, I’m telling the story in reverse order.  Pretend it’s that too clever by half Seinfeld episode when the gang went to India. Or if you want to get pseudo highbrow, pretend its Slaughterhouse-Five.

I was at the gym on the treadmill when McCain introduced Gov. Palin at Dayton.  At our gym we have a bank of TV’s across the wall for all of the treadmill and elliptical machine users to stare mindlessly at, just as if we were all at home on the couch.  Normally, I’m listening to my podcasts on my mp3 player, but watching the action on some of the TV’s I decided to unplug from that and plug into the jack on my treadmill to get the audio from one of the TV’s carrying the Palin speech..

I’m almost ashamed to admit it, but the first thing I thought of was, “Damn, she’s hot.” Not something I ever thought I would say about a potential VP choice, particularly after 7 plus years of Cheney.  I had never heard of Palin until today, but I had to say, she gave a good speech.  That’s important.  In politics it doesn’t matter how bright, knowledgeable or witty you are if you can’t communicate it. 

It became clear, at least to me, that McCain was seriously going after the Hillary supporters.  Particularly with this line from Palin’s speech:

I think as well today of two other women who came before me in national elections. I can’t begin this great effort without honoring the achievements of Geraldine Ferraro in 1984, and, of course, Sen. Hillary Clinton, who showed such determination and grace in her presidential campaign.

It was rightly noted in Denver this week that Hillary left 18 million cracks in the highest, hardest glass ceiling in America. But it turns out the women of America aren’t finished yet, and we can shatter that glass ceiling once and for all.

 So thanks, Hillary, for ramming your head again and again into that glass ceiling.  It should be loose enough now for Sarah Palin to push through.  But that’s always the way isn’t it?  Moses didn’t cross the river Jordan, and Jesse Jackson, who has been the go to guy for every racial grievance for the past few decades, is never going to be President.  Other’s get the rewards for sacrifices that the pioneers make.  I guess that’s why it’s called sacrifice.

Hillary supporters are not monolithic.  Most of them, after the bruising primary battle, dusted them selves off and like good soldiers supported their party’s nominee.  Some, like the downcast PUMA rep on FOX tonight, couldn’t.  Others will grudgingly vote for their party in November, and some won’t be able to bring themselves to.  And some, for the first time in their lives, are finding their party’s candidate so unacceptable they are thinking of voting Republican.

Crazy election times we are living in.

Earlier this morning…

I was at home at work when I heard on the radio that Palin was McCains VP pick.   Sarah who?   I clicked on the TV and channel surfed the news channels to try to get some info on her.  I didn’t really know what to think.  I knew that for Republicans, who McCain selected for VP was important, and if it wasn’t the right type of person, it was a deal breaker.  McCain was on iffy terms with many of his party as it was.  Trail balloons of him selecting Lieberman or Tom Ridge had enraged the Limbaugh’s and Hannity’s of the Republican pocket universe.  McCain had a multitude of bad choices and only a very few good choices.  I myself thought he would go with Romney, a man he personally despised but who might settle down the right wing of the party (paradoxically, since Romney as Governor had been more liberal that any other Republican running, but that’s another story).

What I quickly gathered about her: governor, mayor, NRA member, hunter, blunt, son in the Army, all made me think it was a good pick.  Not one I saw coming, but clearly one to shake things up.

Of course she could turn out to be friends with a terrorist, or have some sort of crazy preacher, and that could sour the deal.  But at first blush, she looks like a good VP pick, and one I wouldn’t mind seeing in Maxim.

So now the two tickets are, in a weird way, balanced.  They are both “historic” in the sense that no matter who wins, it’s going to be the first something.  And you have inexperience but great ability straddled with experience, just flipped on each of the tickets.  Biden, as the adult, is sitting in the backseat and letting the kid drive, and wizened McCain is driving Miss Sarah in his model T. 

Just a thought, but I think I might plan to take the day after election day off so I can sit up all night, eat my finely buttered popcorn, drink my beer, and blog away as the returns come in. 

This is going to be the best election ever!