February 15 2007

A Billion Dollar Presidency
By Jack D. McNamara

The famous American political “observers” are predicting that the 2008 Presidential election will expend $1 billion. Dollars that is. This fearless prediction is made in recognition of the fact that the New Hampshire primary election is 11 months away and we already have a dozen candidates.

Major efforts will be required to even keep track of the 2008 campaign. We humbly record therefore our favorite campaign factoids from what appears to be the first week of the 2008 political year.

U.S. Senator Barack Obama, an Illinois Democrat and former law professor whose father is a Kenyan and whose mother is a Kansan declared himself a candidate and proposed that American troops be withdrawn by March 31, 2008.

On the other side of the globe this set off Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who blustered that the terrorists of Al Qaeda would be delighted by such a deadline. Therefore the terrorists must be delighted with both Senator Obama and the other American Democrats.

Within a day (given that Australia is on the other side of the globe and their day is our night) Senator Obama was confronted in Iowa with the Australian’s comment.

The presidential candidate said that Australia only had 1,400 troops in Iraq now and “if he’s ginned up to fight the good fight in Iraq I would suggest that he call up another 20,000 Australians …”

Good good good. The week’s winner in the Put Up or Shut Up on Short Notice category, made all the odder by a foreign official commenting on a U.S. election and odder still that El Primo Howard defends the Bush Administration. The magic of 24-hour news provides us this delight.

The second factoid of the week comes from the Grammy Awards on Sunday. The Dixie Chicks, Texans through and through, won three awards, “sweet vindication” in the opinion of the New York Times, for their song “Not Ready to Make Nice.”

The Chicks have been ostracized from several country music venues since early 2003 when their singer Natalie Maines told a London audience, “Just so you know, we’re ashamed the President of the U.S. is from Texas.” The comment drew roars of outrage from the testosterone-crazed shouters on the Right.

At any other time in the Nimby News’ 20-year history it would be rather odd to find us commenting about the Grammies. But the factoid illustrates the dilemma of the Bush Administration. They have very few defenders remaining and their prospects are poor. If President Bush has lost the loyalty of Bubba and country music fans, well …

During the past week, for example, the U.S. Congress held more than 50 hearings into the misfeasance and malfeasance of the Administration and the Iraq War. This week will likely culminate on Friday with a House of Representatives resolution condemning the recent Bush decision to send 20,000 more troops into Iraq. We will watch it all on C-Span. The most persistent and literate of President Bush’s critics, LtGen William Odom, USA (ret) wrote at length in the Sunday Washington Post online, “Victory is Not An Option; The Mission Can’t Be Accomplished — It’s Time for a New Strategy.”

The puckish comments of the pretty ladies of the Dixie Chicks and the oddball contribution of Down Under a half world away demonstrate the zaniness of our national politics. This sort of thing is always with us. The pols themselves contribute to the fun by constantly striving to find a new angle, a new photo op to draw attention to themselves and their causes. The most famous perhaps is the photo of President Calvin Coolidge in an Indian war bonnet. A close competitor is President Gerald Ford taking pratfalls on “Saturday Night Live.”

When the underlying facts are bad, however, the gimmicks don’t work. The war in Iraq is bad – bad now and bad in the future — so there is nothing funny there. Our famous “observers” are noticing that President Bush’s principal political advisor and spinmeister, Karl Rove, is rarely seen these days. That is because Rove is unlikely to associate himself too closely with a lost cause.

We may be wrong. But we believe the thunderous silence from the neoconservative authors of the Iraq disaster is similarly explained. There are a half dozen Republican candidates out there. Which one promotes the Rove-Bush legacy? The best defenders of that legacy are U.S. Senator John McCain of Arizona and a Democrat, Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut.

A billion dollars will be spent. We will see most of it. Federal disclosure improves steadily, if imperfectly. When congressional politicians speak seriously about controlling the lunches bought by lobbyists you know there is a surge of reform underway — in federal elections, that is. Reporting of political money in Texas is a joke.

So does this mean we will be apologizing for being Texans for the next 22 months? Our state’s leading pols are in retreat or disgrace. Governor Rick Perry got less than 40% of the vote and he is unlikely to leave us for the vice president’s slot on the Republican ticket. Our short-time former Texan, Vice President Dick Cheney, has announced he will not be a 2008 candidate. Our former U.S. Representative Henry Bonilla had a one-day rumor as a possible ambassador to somewhere … Paraguay maybe? The previous majority leader of the Republican House of Representatives, Dick Armey, is hitting the talk shows to criticize Republican fiscal policy. And whatever happened to Tom DeLay?

Have no fear. Texas will rise again. Sit back and watch how $1 billion is spent on political prattle. As Gene Hendryx used to say, “We might learn something.” •

(Also published by the Big Bend Sentinel of Marfa, Texas February 15, 2007.)