The Final Truth about the 2016 Presidential Election

Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls, puh-leeeze welcome the 45th President of the United States -- you know him as a middling brand name product made from toxic materials, the Kmart of Billionaires, the golden-toned skeezy Gordon Gecko leftover, the C-list TV actor popular in Soviet bloc countries - one Donald Trump -  and here we go on a slippery and rapid descent into political madness.

There has been no mass repudiation of politics-as-usual despite claims to the contrary, since the vast majority of folks already in office were re-elected yesterday. 

Anger, seething for 8 years, directed at all those who dared support a non-white male president, has flowered with poison.

Yes, only the man who was born with solid-gold privileges can save Americans from solid-gold privileged men.

As the British have just done, Americans now seek to withdraw from the world with a snarl for everyone else.

On a personal note, there is not one person in office in the state or nation that I voted for. Whatever is about to happen, it will not be my fault. I'll just be over here complaining and saying I told you so. 

Birther Is Code For Racist

The sideshow carnival act of the Conservative Republican/Tea Party/Reality TV Star Candidates which have been clamoring for that non-white fellow in the White House to pony up proof he's American has been deeply disgusting and got served up a smackdown yesterday by President Obama. For some elected officials, of course, the issue is far from over, because it is not about law, it is about racism.

For Donald Trump and all the networks devoting time and newsprint devoted to this idiocy, they have been after ratings in one of the worst ways, by playing up racial fears.

Goldie Taylor at The Grio.com said it very well:

"When they tell you this isn't racial, don't believe them. This controversy was constructed solely as a way to de-legitimize the presidency of a black man. Those who question the location of Barack Obama's birth are the very same people who would pack up and move out of the neighborhood if someone like me moved in next door.

When they say they want to take their country back, they mean from us.

According to a recent Public Policy Polling survey, a stunning 51 percent of Republicans believe the president wasn't born in the United States. In Mississippi, nearly half of all Republicans believe interracial marriage should be illegal. If they had their way, not only would Obama not be president, he never would have been born.That's how far we have not come.

Some 112 years after my grandfather was snatched from a street corner in the central west end section of St. Louis, it seems we still need to prove our right to be here.

I thought we were better than this."

Debating Politics

I tuned in for the Republican debate last night and noted some curious things -

It's odd to me the most prominent thing in the Reagan Library is an airplane. I understand wanting to include the airplane, but maybe they should have called the facility the Reagan Memorial and Museum.

Though there were four candidates at the debate, the media only gave attention to two of them. Perhaps Ron Paul or Mike Huckabee should consider hiring Britney Spears or Paris Hilton to their campaign staff in order to get some media attention. (Maybe the TV news folk could gather all the celebrities for the candidates and we could have a Battle of the Stars team competition to determine who gets the nominations.)

I continue to hear and read a lot of complaints that GOP Senator John McCain is not a Republican. But Republican voters seem to think he's jes' fine. Does that mean the real complaint is that a majority of Republican voters aren't really Republicans?

For more debate thoughts, Volunteer Voters has a selection from Tennessee bloggers. And a fresh new GOP in Tennessee poll says McCain has the edge to win.

Also much unhappiness yesterday, via this collection at TennViews, that John Edwards dropped out of the presidential race. From what I've read, Edwards would have done quite well in Tennessee, though I doubt he could have done better than tie for second place.

I've been trying to get a handle on various issues which the candidates are stumping about as we get closer to the massive primaries next Tuesday and will be blogging often about it and sharing links with you.

The Super Tuesday effect is hitting the media as well, as the recent Pew study notes:

"The presidential campaign continued to dominate national news coverage last week, and the public remained highly engaged in the ongoing contest. Nearly 40% of the national newshole was devoted to the campaign, and 36% of the public listed the campaign as the single news story they were following more closely than any other.

Democratic frontrunners Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were the most prominent figures in the news last week. When asked to name the person they had heard the most about in the news lately, 24% of the public named Obama and 23% named Clinton. In a week when he proposed a major economic stimulus plan, just 5% of Americans named George Bush as the person they had heard the most about. About twice as many (11%) named Hollywood actor Heath Ledger, who died last week."

Colbert - The Presidential Campaign

A blast of Truthiness hit the mostly lackluster 2008 presidential race last night - Stephen Colbert is running for president. As a Republican. And a Democrat. In South Carolina. His announcement was made last night during his report on the '08 race:



In today's Washington Post, candidate Colbert said:

"It will be a success for me if at the Republican or Democratic convention, someone stands up and says, 'The great state of South Carolina, home of the finest peaches, home of the finest shrimp, casts one delegate for Stephen Colbert.' "