Another debate, again, for the first time, for the last time

I watched the Democratic Candidates forum on PBS this evening and I have to say some things became clear. Bill Richardson's campaign staff must be a bunch of Republicans trying to screw him, because the man has good positions and a resume that puts them all to shame. Yet in these debates, and especially tonight, he looked lost and confused. Christopher Dodd continues to be brilliant at saying nothing at all. I've read this week that John Edwards is taking a turn that will take on right wing sources with direct attacks. This is unheard of in a party that is just discovering it has balls. The right wing media is aghast at this, because they grew up during the age of Bush. Dennis turned a question about education into an anti-Iraq speech, and Mike Gravel is still crazy. I will say Gravel does do this valuable thing, he constantly reminds the candidates and the crowd that they are not all blameless for all the insanity of the last six years. These things are really going to drive people to gouge their eyes out by November. The sad thing is I'll be watching.

The War Of The Roses version 2.0

I miss that cliche that was "2.0". I was scanning through the front page of Media Matters today and read a headline from commentator Larry Sabato that said, "That every President from 1989 to 2017 may be a Bush or a Clinton is a national disgrace." I didn't read the article but I will say he is exactly right. Our forefathers fought a war against the British so that they would not be ruled by a hereditary monarch, and we have happily re-instituted it ourselves smiling and willing. George H.W. Bush was a dedicated public servant, and Bill Clinton brought untold prosperity to the United States. After this we re-elected Dubya because we thought Kerry was creepy, and he's such a bad President that we as a nation are looking seriously at electing a former First Lady. The Sunshine Empire editorial board is certainly not going to walk down the road of investing the competency needed to be the leader of the free world in a person based solely in a person's last name. I am sure Senator Clinton would make an able leader, and I would certainly vigorously support her if she faces Rudolph Guliani in a general election, but it is still sad that it has come to this. The framers wanted the job to attract those like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, farmer politicians. People who felt the need to serve, then leave. Having a modern day War of the Roses across thirty years on the White House lawn is not what they intended.

Twilight Empire

Well, the Michael Bloomberg factor has been inserted into the 2008 race. I am extremely tired, but I can say my interest lies in who he draws votes away from. Will he draw from Hillary instead of Mitt, or McCain instead of Obama. The signals are mixed at this time. Initial polling seems to say Bloomberg turns more states blue than he does red in three way match-ups. Yet Republican pollsters seem to be rejoicing, convinced that this means a sure thing for the Party of Lincoln. For a quick aside though, why is the Republican party known as the Grand Old Party (GOP) despite the fact that the Democratic party is an older organization? But does Bloomberg want to be remembered at the Ross Perot, or the Ralph Nader of this election? Have I used the question mark much to often in this post? Yes.

On Law and Order, and Presidential Politics

Much has been made recently about the coming candidacy of former Tennessee Senator and Hollywood know-it-all Fred Thompson. He has announced that he will announce his intentions for the Presidency of The United States of America sometime after Independence Day. One of my favorite new features of this Presidential election is the need to have your official announcement of your candidacy 14 separate times. Thompson has the punditocracy absolutely aflutter, and he has stormed to double digit showings in most primary states having not spent a dime. The sheer skill and timing of his campaign reeks of the legendary figures of professional politics. When back rooms where still filled with smoke and intrigue and you could enter the race after the first primary had already been staged. But as much as I have tried to pillory the fraud that is Mitt, I have to say to look deeper is impossible because there is no substance to Senator Thompson.

To start, his positions are almost in lockstep with the inept and hated boy king in the White House. Let's accept Iraq as the 51st state and Scooter's lying to a grand jury shouldn't mean jail, it should mean a raise. He also has barely six years in any elective office, and he's a lawyer from Hollywood. I've read many blogs that have made the point of the rank hypocrisy from the right when it comes to Hollywood. They are rich, and spoiled, and should just keep their mouth shut. Yet if you put an R next to your name they'll actually put you in charge of actual shit. If Carl Weathers is a republican they'll jump at the chance to make him the third cast member of Predator to be a Governor. Maybe he can replace that whiny pussy Kansas Governor who complained about the disaster relief equipment being in Iraq. Tornadoes are avowed America haters.

The real reason for the rock star treatment of Thompson boils down to the awkward group that are declared for the nomination now. A cross-dressing gay-loving New York City Mayor? A Mormon Massachusetts Governor who tried to out liberal Ted Kennedy when he tried to unseat him? Or maybe the man against torture who still has the bruise from Dubya's cock slapping him in the face so many times? Seems strange that Thompson is the answer. I would have thought that the Republicans would have strayed from the "pretty name and face" candidate considering how it turned out the last time.

All this could be upset by the decision of Michael Bloomberg to change his affiliation to unaffiliated. If he's leaving the Republican party that he joined just to become Mayor, but did not return to the Democrats, that means he's toying with the third party run jive. That could cause the whole dynamic to turn, 15 months before we should be bothering with this.

The 2008 Race on the web

More from Jon

Sunshine Empire Post debate coverage: Who can be nominated President of 9/11

I did not get to watch too much of the Republican debate tonight on CNN due to work, but I have seem a smattering at this point and want to cover some points. John McCain seemed to perform well. Mitt Romney took his positions of the evening. Yet his positions are like shooting stars, blink and they're gone. Rudolph Guliani almost got struck by lighting, and Tom Tancredo actually seemed to talk about what a bad President Bush had been. Bush will be only the fourth man to serve two full terms since the passing of the 23rd Amendment, and he's not Jesus like Reagan was at this point. Some don't care for him more than Judas really. The one moment that does have me calcifying in my Democratic roots after watching it, was the group all coming to the defense of poor old Lew Libby. When, the man most wing nuts view as the greatest threat to democracy on the planet, Bill Clinton lied to a grand jury we were told the republic would fall if this transgression went un-punished. Yet when a man with an elephant on his lapel lies to a grand jury about a matter of some importance above a private sexual encounter, the right treats him as if he is Jesus in the hands of the Pharisees. They all tonight spoke of an over ambitious prosecutor only out to score political points. I closed my eyes, and I could here the same script verbatim that the left was using in 1998. They all talk of the harm this will do to his family. I'm more concerned about the damage to political discourse in this country and the Federal laws that he broke. It's always a witch hunt when you're the one in the pointy black hat.

Overall the evening only proves the same thing that the Democratic shin-dig was on Sunday. Mitt, John, Rudy and Fred the inexperienced hot flavor of the week actor Thompson will be the four to beat and the rest will just wither and die as they see the money dry up.

In the UFC Octogon, to decide the Presidency

I listen to a great deal of Howard Stern and Bubba The Love Sponge while driving during the day, and they constantly talk about UFC, Ultimate Fighting Championship. Now very quietly to the average sports fan this has crept up to a status almost on par with boxing in terms of money made. I know very little about what it looks like, and that Joe Rogan is the announcer for the broadcasts. But I thought that if we are going to stretch out our Presidential electoral cycle out two years, then the people who want to perpetrate that on the American people should be forced to physically fight for it in the Octagon.

You would have to seed the contestants at first, so you would see first round laughers Obama vs. Dennis and Clinton fighting the old Mike Gravel. I imagine Clinton dressed like Chun Li from Street Fighter. In the other bracket you would have a huge match-up between Rudy and Fred. That's got to be more dangerous than dog grooming day at the Vick household. Sam Brownback would still be eaten alive by McCain even though he's 97. The brackets would inevitably come down to a Fred Thompson vs. Barak Obama match-up for the ages. The winner will be revealed in the upcoming Spiderman 4: Shiny shit, just buy the ticket asshole. That should hit theaters in September of '08, then we can all text our votes and watch American Idol all day, or watch the neighbor kick the shit out of his lawnmower.

The Sunshine Empire Post Debate Coverage

I did not plan to, but I ended up watching quite a bit of the Democratic Presidential debate. I will start by saying I think it is absolutely absurd that in June of 2007 that this race is actively on. That being said I had some observations from the group. Senator Obama seemed to slightly improve his standing in my eyes. I think he is a great candidate but I am wary of his rock star status and want to see deeper. Joe Biden is a smart guy, but he seemed to be laying on a little to much righteous indignation. I was just really struck by the fact that Chris Dodd said absolutely nothing. He talked with the best of him but he really just said what comedians say when they are mocking a politician saying nothing. The exception being he was saying it for real. Hillary Clinton looked perfectly competent to fill the Oval Office if needed, but she's certainly not my choice. Bill Richardson is the most qualified to hold the job of all of them, but he is nowhere near the polished type needed to win the White House. This is all a charade in a sense. Voters will probably still end up nominating Guliani and Clinton. No doubt then we will be treated to campaign hijinks of the sort when the two briefly ran against each other in the 2000 New York Senate race. Guliani declared his candidacy in Arkansas to mock Hillary's claim to be a New Yorker. He did this despite the fact Hillary was not born in Arkansas, but in Chicago.

But hands down Wolf Blitzer is a horrible debate moderator. CNN began the debate in the traditional podium row format. Yet for some reason, for the questions from the audience segment, CNN took a break to change the set to resemble something like an airport smoking lounge. They put Mike Gravel and Dennis the Menace on the far edges like they had TB. By and large though, Clinton, Obama, and Edwards simply solidified their current status at the top. Richardson did not hurt himself, and Dodd might as well have been in Florida watching the debate with me. I will try my best to watch the Republican debate on Tuesday. My question to you, how many times do you think the term "9/11" will be used. Maybe I can find a jar of jelly beans as a prize for whoever wins.

On Democrat Recalcitrance and the third way

In the fall of 2006 we followed the rise of the new Democrats and the fall of the Republican "revolution" after years of constant rule. The Republicans that had come to Washington with pitchforks and wild eyes looking to bring order to the corrupt chaos, had themselves become a fat class of corrupt lobbyist sycophants. The Democrats used the imprisonment of Randell Cunningham and the resignation of Bob Ney to paint the Republicans as rotten to the core with corruption. They proposed a series of changes that would clean up the Congress and make lawmaking a transparent process. Yet we still do not have a lobbying reform bill and, according to The Guardian Unlimited Online, Democrats seem to be dragging their feet on cleaning up the brothel the inherited. I was told that because of my personal leanings, I would have a hard time criticizing Democrats the way I was vicious with the corrupt Republicans of the 109th Congress. But this much is clear, if the Democrats blow the save on this one the risk unleashing a third front in American politics. There are some public figures that are all toying with this, and they could make a potent force if they joined together. A mix of Chuck Hagel, Michael Bloomburg, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Joe Lieberman, and Harold Ford Jr. All are able to speak to the American People, and are not really welcome in their respective parties. In Israel Ariel Sharon was able to do it with Kadima when Likud and Labour would not keep repeating the same mistakes over and over. It could be headed by Hagel, or even a governor like Charlie Crist of Florida. This combined with the fact that those identifying themselves as Independent is higher than in any other time. All somebody has to do is just go and take these voters. They are not in love with the Democrats and the Republicans have shown what a fucking bang-up job they are capable of. They are there, and if the Democrats do not take this corruption issue seriously they will just put another brink in the damn wall.

More on the field

I sat down this evening with the express intent on discussing the weaknesses of the Democratic field for President. I had focused two posts on candidates for the Republican nomination, so I decided to write something that was a drawback to Senator Christopher Dodd of Connecticut. I could not find anything bad about him politically, but to be honest I could not find anything. The Wikipedia entry read like the menu of a family style restaurant. He's Joe Lieberman as a Catholic, with exception being Dodd does not prostrate in utter fealty to whatever the Bush Administration approves of. His father Thomas Dodd was one of the lead prosecutors at the Nurenburg trials after World War II. He was Chairman of the Democratic National Committee when the Republicans took over in 1994. But that's about it. He's just been a chair filler for most years since he came to the Senate in 1981. Now he aims to be the President. One thing that could make him a dark horse is the fact that he's bland, and that he seems to be able to raise lots of money. He's not polling with Clinton and Obama, but as long as he has the money he could be waiting once we're sick of them. He's not a bad guy Dodd, but I want something more than Blandy McVanilla of Plainsville.

TSE 2008 Candidate Series

The editorial board of The Sunshine Empire does not have a position on abortion, but it is a polarizing issue in today's American. The Republican party and it's candidates have almost always been against abortion in any way. Again we would like to point out a candidate for the Republican nomination who seems to have a sized himself up for a pair of John Kerry sized flip-flops. Mitt Romney is a political shape-shifter that can take on any position at any time. He's almost insidious enough to be a villain of The Tick. Here, 1994 Mitt Romney will contradict 2007 Mitt Romney. Enjoy.

Not a one world governent? Gasp!

"Our alliances should be understood as a means to expand our influence, not as a constraint on our power. The expansion of democracy and freedom in the world should be a shared interest and value with all nations."

Chuck Hagel

Chuck Talks To George on The Constitution.

Random 2008 Rant

There are so many choices out there for 2008's election, and I can't really get excited about any of them. On the one hand I think Hillary Clinton could be a capable administrator, and if she emulates her husband's administration I could be moderately happy. Yet my bones tell me that as bad as the right was during Bubba's administration, it would be exponentially worse during hers. I think Barack Obama is nothing better that George Bush was in 1999. A fresh perspective and change with a hot name. But honestly there's no experience there. A comedian once said the absurd thing about our system is a guy usually gets good in his second term, because we always want the outsider. Then it takes four years to know what the hell you are doing. Sadly that did not work with the current occupant of the Oval Office. If only he'd go ahead and get a blow job in that office so we could impeach him. Behind those two you have Edwards. If you believe the right Edwards actually gave his wife cancer so that he could use her as a campaign prop. She's a good trooper in going along with it and all. Honestly though I will admit this, nobody's talking about Hillary right now. On the other side you have John McCain. If it were seven years ago and he were not almost 900 and did not keep his morals and principles in the backyard shed next to his Y2K rations, I might be for him. His man challenge is a thrice married (once to a cousin) Gay friendly, anti-handgun, pro abortion on demand New Yorker named Guliani. Oh, and he's a Republican that's the funny part. Republican party members that answer telephone pols because they are shut ins needs to stop. The other is the former Governor of Massachusetts who's Mormon. You would be excused in thinking that the candidates on the Republican side are the Republican side at all. The only person that really intrigues me is Mike Huckabee. I've seen him talk and I think I could like him. Chuck Hagel is the man, but he's not in the race yet. I don't think I'm going to be thrilled with my choice no matter who it is.

TSE Candidate Focus

With the coming Presidential election in 2008 here in the United States we will be talking about different candidates and their positions. In the 2004 campaign between Mr. Bush and Mr. Kerry, great fun was had on the Republican side with calling Mr. Kerry a "flip-flopper." As if to say that if you had changed your position on any matter that you lacked the conviction to hold the highest office in the land. With that in mind we present the next video. The Sunshine Empire editorial board has no public position on the matter of abortion, and this video should not be taken as such. This is merely to point out conflicting political positions of candidates regardless of party. The former Mayor of Newark New Jersey suburb New York has taken a decidedly conservative position politically since he assumed the wretched mantle of "front-runner."