posted by Justin Oldham
It's a shame that the people who win public office aren't the real powers-that-be. It's too bad they can't be their own men and women. The truth is that today's elected officials are, for the most part, middlemen in a process that has become corrupt. [Edited by Don W]
Exactly. But when did it go awry? Teddy Roosevelt was his own man and made the back-room boys mad. TR picked Taft, but was dissatisfied with his performance. That clash gave the US Wilson. Wilson was an unlikely candidate. Beholden the Wm J Bryan, he made him Sec of State until he quit. We’ve heard of Col. House and Mrs. Wilson, but recent historians argue Wilson was aware of what was happening in his behalf, contributing if not orchestrating. Harding was hand picked. Maybe they thought the Cox - FDR ticket would win? Was Harding a throw-away? Coolidge of course was VP who ascended on Harding’s death. Completely unexcepted. Like Gerald Ford. Herbert Hoover was a popular politico from War 1 days of feeding the hungry Belgians. His later engineers in work in the Soviet Union was sharply downplayed. Which brings us to FDR. The guys who had put forth Al Smith in ‘28 would have been discredited. But still, NY seems to have ruled the roost in Dem politics, both Smith and FDR being recent governors. Hey, it’s the Empire State. I have always called NYC the capital of the world. Beijing would fit in the Bronx. Tokyo has been the only threat to that title, but when the real estate bubble burst, Tokyo was out and remains out. HST was hand picked, maybe not by FDR but by anti-socialists - all of FDR’s cabinet but Wallace - to be a reliable successor to FDR who everyone says knew would not finish out his term. HST while his own man, I believe, was also a Democratic Party team player. It was 1952 when the GOP with Eisenhower began the “vote the man” mantra. Before that it was “party loyalty.” Adlai Stevenson, the first presidential candidate I voted for (1956), was hand picked by HST. Although JFK was “vetted” in WVa and elsewhere for his religion, he was also a choice of the behind-the-scenes types who felt “safe” with him, the 2nd son of Old Joe. Who got called home from the Court of St. James at the private request of the Brits for his pro fascist leanings kept none to secret. LBJ got where he got on his own. If there was any behind the scenes operative in his tenure, he was the man! I cannot imagine LBJ taking orders from anyone. Nixon was just as canny as LBJ. He likewise held political power in a tight hand. He did not have to consult outside himself for advice how to deal with any problems. Well, maybe he yielded to Henry Kissinger on foreign affairs. I have a feeling Henry the K was more a boot licker than a policy innovator. I heard Henry admit once that he and Nixon had no “plan” to end and extricate the US out of Vietnam in 1968, that it was a pure political ploy to get elected. But I don’t blame Nixon for doing that. The Dems had no plan either, and it was the Dems who had escalated the War several orders of magnitude past Eisenhower’s minimal involvement. Dems like to point to Ike as the first one to tippy-toe into Vietnam, but it was the Dems who put 550,000 troops there. I do criticize Nixon for delaying our exit, as the voters had put him in office thinking he had promised to end the war quickly, little did they know it would go on 6 more years and 22,000 additional KIA. For that I eternally fault Nixon. Not Watergate. I accept Nixon was correct when he lamely excused himself saying others had done as bad. But they had not been caught red-handed. Gerald Ford was chosen because, after Spiro Agnew and knowing the troubles Nixon was facing, the only “safe” choice was Ford, made by others, unnamed, but I heard Nixon wanted John Connolly. That was like choosing between light and dark. We the people won that one! But look how close we came to losing. Ugh. Jimmy Carter was the first president to win through the newly democratized primary process. The back room boys still are not in total control of the process, but I feel they have learned that in the end, its money that counts. And controls. If we could identify the top 100 or 200 contributors, then you’d have the movers and shakers of either party. You’d be surprised how many times the same name would show up on both sides of the aisle. Hey, if you are a billionaire, you don’t give a dam about health care unless you own Humana. Or globalization. You’re already deep into that. Money-wise. You already got the best tax deal on earth, 5% income tax rate on money earned outside the US. Sheee-it. Or a flat tax if you stay home, 15% on dividends. That’s why the flat tax movement has died. They already have it. Reagan was a total opportunist with no shame. I cite the welfare Cadillac story that made him governor then after ruining the UC system, the finest public university system the world, he became president with the inestimable help of Ayatollah Kohmeni. Bush41 barely escaped facing the bar of justice, lest he pardon Weinberger and his 6 compatriots who had no doubt told GHW Bush, we’re not taking this rap for you, alluding to the Iran-Contra shenanigans. To which B41 said, “It’s in the mail.” Bill Clinton did not have the big money boys on-board at first, and whether he ever did is irrelevant because Bill realized he could not be a second FDR but could be another smiling Jimmy Carter with chutzpah. With finesse and a stomach of steel - and 2,920 days of endless GOP harassment and phoney investigations which ought to entitle him to at least the Silver Star. Bush43 we know is America’s first designated president. The Supreme Court elected him, 5 to 4. The lesson I hope every politico has learned form this man is not to lie to the public. That is B43's big problem now. No matter what he says, he has lied too many times, no one can believe or trust him now. If he had any character - liars usually do not - he would resign. Bush43 did the worst of all possible lies - he lied gratuitously. That’s a lie when one is not needed. 3,030 KIA and counting. His father has tried to extricate him from Iraq but I’m satisfied B43 is the primo Neo Con and has no intention of leaving Iraq. That is the only explanation unless you subscribe to him being mad after ordering 154 executions. A record.
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[edit on 1/22/2007 by donwhite]
I don't think he has a prayer.
