Throw-away candidates

Salvaged from the "save as draft" file from a week ago. Note to self: publish it when you write it, tomorrow is too late.....

"We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men." -- George Orwell. Considering Orwell died in 1950, what would he have to say about the depths to which we have sunk today?

I had a bit of an epiphany this evening as I went about my chores. The phrase / concept "Throw away candidate" kept surfacing in my train of thought. Throw away candidate. Single use, disposable, expendable.

It's starting to look like john kerry fits that description. His campaign is showing signs of unravelling, desparately grasping at (forged) straws and the usual support network is failing him. Both ABC and NBC where hammering the "Forgerygate" issue today. After roughly five weeks of not directly speaking to the media, he's finally given an interview to Time. Probably too little, too late; although it will be interesting to see what 30 year old flashbacks he dredges up to amuse us. It's like Scott Ott is the media consultant for the kerry campaign; each revalation / position is more laughable than the previous.

Throw away candidate.

But there have been others, on both sides of the fence, with varied results. McGovern was trotted out in 1972 to be slaughtered by the (then) Nixon juggernaut. 1976 was a wash; Ford had no chance regardless of who was running against him because of Watergate. In 1984, Mondale won the "Who Gets To Lose to Reagan" sweepstakes, and got swept by almost 20 points. Dukakis in 1988 was disposable, offerred up because "you gotta run somebody". Bob Dole in 1996 was a fine example of a "throw away candidate": put forth as a tribute to his many years as a GOP loyalist. So much a throw away that I voted for Harry Browne (and haven't the Libertarians gone off the fookin' deep end since then?), because as right wing as I may be (I'm so far Right that I scare most Republicans), there wasn't anyone who was going to beat billyjeff clinton in 1996.

Which brings us to the ultimate throw away candidate: William Jefferson Blythe Clinton. The best of the whole genre. Wasn't expected to win. Sent out as a "place holder". Clinton's undeniable charm, coupled with Bush 41's implosion on the tax issue and his failure to conclude the Gulf War properly (think about it, another 96 hours of the Gulf War and Saddam would have been done in 1991, not left to linger about for well over a decade unchecked), led clinton to a victory so large (370 Electorial votes to 168 for GHW Bush) that the democrats could declare a "mandate from the people". Thus started the darkest days of our Nation's political history.

But I digress. The point being that john kerry is the throw away candidate; the democrats' choice because they know they have an uphill battle against GWB with little or no chance of winning.

Resumed roughly a week later.....rough notes in a somewhat random form

I failed to mention Perot in 1992. Certainly a factor in the election of our 42nd President.

I think one must always be suspicious of an opposition candidate running against a sitting President. On both sides. Usually, the opposition runs someone so radically different from the sitting administration as to contrast the party's apporach to the issues

Resumed yet again.....

The "uphill battle" that kerry and the democrats face was evidenced again today. This evening I read that kerry's campaign is cancelling their ad campaign in four or five states that were previously considered "battleground" states. Conceding defeat early on is hardly a strategy for a team that thinks they want to win. Stephen Green (of "VodkaPundit" fame) had an article over at TechCentralStation last month about the War on Terror; one of the themes was that you had to fight even where your chances of success are slim. Not that I ever want to give "aid and comfort" to the democrats, but you can easily see the parallels between the WoT and the Presidential election campaigns, if you read Mr.Green's excellent work and then think about it.

Since we're talking about Stephen Green, he has a good piece on Iran and our lack of a plan of action. Sigh. His "Late Night Rambles" are ridiculously coherent; maybe I should switch to drinking martinis just to see how much more better I could blog. I don't think tequila, cheap beer, or cheaper wine go into martinis, so I may have to go to al-Mohammad's Mosque of Discount Liquors and Cell Phone Dealership manana to stock up on the martini requisites.

I fear I've wandered away from my original concept, so I shall publish and be done with it. An acquaintance (who is an actual author who has written books and had them published) once told me that ".....you just have to write, then write and write, then write some more....." to develop your writing. As any blog by a non-professional writer is a work in progress at best, I'll chalk this one up to experience and call it a night.