I can’t believe that there is an actual possibility of having a President John McCain. I don’t think Hillary Clinton can beat him, and I’m not sure about Barack Obama.
The mainstream media, which influences most voters’ opinions on such matters, wants to get down on their knees and collectively suckle at the teat of McCain’s Straight Talk persona. No WAY that Candidate McCain gets any bad media coverage unless he flips out on camera somewhere and starts singing “Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran” again (although lots of nonthinking Americans who think its cool to bomb third world countries would like that), or rips the hearts out of living babies on live TV. I’d much rather see Mitt Romney as the GOP nominee in November because he seems like the ultimate empty suit to me, has done nothing BUT change his positions on virtually every issue, and could easily be defeated. Most people cannot see through McCain’s general insanity.
Hillary on the other hand automatically invites bad press coverage, the same kind of negative media saturation we experienced back in the heady days of Monica Lewinsky and Paula Jones. Does anyone really believe that we will NOT hear those reruns again, ad nauseum? And do we really want another traitorous Democrat in the White House? I say traitorous because Bill Clinton, while he was a successful Democrat and did preside over eight years of peace and prosperity (no small thing, true), also dragged the Democratic party to the right politically so as to co-opt enough of the conservative-leaning voters to win elections. They are very good at that sort of thing, but that sort of thing just gives conservative policies more credence. I think that has been bad for progressive and liberal policies.
So that sort of leaves Barack Obama by default, I suppose. But I’m not sold on the guy, nor am I sold on the idea that disgruntled independent voters all across the country will let themselves vote for a black man for president. I don’t know, maybe they will. There’s no way of knowing. I saw the O-man in person back in the fall at a campaign rally in Manhattan. He is an impressive speaker, and he seems to have the potential to be a transformational figure. But I don’t feel particularly moved by his vague message of change; I wish he’d talk about the details.
The upshot of all this is that the Democrats still have the edge in the election, and at the very least, they are usually quite competent at running the government. I’ve had enough of Republicans looting the treasury for their rich corporate elite friends and themselves.