Bring It On!

Will A Real Leader Emerge In 2008?

February 20th, 2007 | by steve |

I have been thinking about this over and over, and as I sit in my hotel room looking up at Caesar’s Palace, up $300… with my iPod blaring some old school Bad Religion on my headphones… listening to Graffin’s lyrics… about hopeless Unitarian Atheist triumph…

Last Choruses from “I Want To Conquer the World” from No Control:

And I want to conquer the world
Give all the idiots a brand new religion
Put an end to poverty, uncleanliness and toil
Promote equality in all of my decisions

I want to conquer the world
Expose the culprits and feed them to the children
Do away with air pollution and then all save the whales
We’ll have peace on Earth and global communion

Anyhow… in 2008, we got quite an election season and if you sit back and take a non-partisan approach to the whole thing, a lot of the candidates have a lot of challenges to overcome to be a leader. Why I may not know much about politics, it’s character and charm, and perhaps the whole entire history of what is really going on, I think I can still shed a valid opinion on the whole matter.

So what if Hillary becomes President? Taking the non-partisan approach, a few things pop into mind: She’s a woman and she is Bill’s wife (allegedly). These two things do not help her. One, a lot of men are not ready for a woman President. Especially considering the enemies we have in the Middle East. But sadly, because she is a woman, men are pigs and they hate the lady. The other thing she’ll have a problem with is Bill’s philandering with women. Her credibility as a married woman will be in jeopardy because of him, no matter how good of a job he did as President. (Yes, I say he did a good job and I am a Republican) But if she overcomes the woman thing and the Bill thing… is she truly a leader? Someone that transcends all?

Then on the other side, there is Mitt Romney. A great governor and popular leader in a purely Democratic state like Massachusetts. I think emerging as the Republican candidate for President from an east coast state like Mass. definitely would be a good thing. However, there is the Mormon thing. This will go against the grain of quite a lot of Catholic and Protestant folks across the nation that typically vote Republican. It’s all do to prejudice really. He will be seen like a non-believer of a pagan like religion to the moral right. This sad really because the Mormons come out and support Republicanism better and in bigger percentages than other religions. Mitt will have to overcome the same-sex marriage thing in Massachusetts that occurred on his watch as governor. This will be key sore to pick at. Some Americans may be naive to what Mormonism. He did save the 2002 Olympics which really is a huge thing and something he’ll sell all the way. I think if he emerges as victor, America will get a different kind of Republican President.

Then there is Barak Obama. This one is simpler for a non-partisan, arm chair observer. He has three strikes that unfortunately have problems with the bigoted side of America: He’s black, he’s got a foreign sounding name, and he could be a Muslim. My take really though, is this guy is smart. If he is really really smart, he’ll overcome all of these things and emerge the front runner. If I had to choose a Democrat, I might just choose him. Gonna look for his book and keep an open mind.

But my main man in the hunt is Guiliani. Though he hasn’t officially announced, he flat out said it on KFBK in Sacramento last week during the morning drive. The problems with this guy lie in a few things. One, is he really a Republican with his pro-choice stance. Will this stance trade a few Republican votes for a few middle of the road Democrats. Second, what has he really done politically? He was mayor of New York City. Granted this is the largest city on the US. He appeared to show leadership skills during and after 9/11. But, he is just a lawyer who was once a mayor. Did he really clean up Time Square or was he the benefactor of the declining crime right that the book Freakonomics pointed out? Lastly, he divorced his wife with a press conference. That was pretty harsh and good make his apparent genuine kindness a hoax to some women. However, of these four individuals, I give him the best chance. He just looks accessible, period. It’s what people saw in Bill Clinton and perhaps in Bush II.

The rest? Edwards is blowing it with an ultra left stance while living the lap of luxury. McCain is too old and too shifty. Who has really heard of Biden outside the Democratic Party. The rest of the field doesn’t even draw a name that I could remember without looking up.

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