esrosedotblog

AND ANOTHER THING

While I am weighing in on the campaign that the Demos ran, I suppose that I should also cop to a few other unstated (to date) reactions. I do not know how important either of these was to the final vote, but I bet that, at the margin, they might have been deal breakers for a lot of people who were balanced in the middle. And even if not, it still bothers me.

I think that there is no doubt that dark dick cheney held the base for his team. His monotonous sonority predicting gloom and doom were the Dems elected almost scared me. He is, indeed, a dark eminence. The scowl, the wording, the cadence. He could hire out for voice over. And, like it or not, he has gravitas, experience. He could easily step into the job. Fuck, a lot of people think he has been doing it all along anyway. A mere step to the left. Oops. Right.

On the other hand, Edwards was and is a lightweight with, as far as I can tell, no political future whatsoever. He is the only candidate, in the primary, that I did not take seriously. He has no story. I would cringe when I considered his prospects as President in case the awful happened and he had to step in. Many have. And not all were very well prepared, and indeed, lightweights. Consider Gerald Ford.

One of the worst moments in the debates, for me, was when that awful Gwen Iffel asked him to talk without mentioning Kerry's name. It was a stupid question, yet revealing. He could not do it! Bad.

OK. Now on more dangerous ground. I am going to piss a lot of people off on this one. I think that Teresa Heinz Kerry was an awful liability in the campaign.

WAIT! Don't run off! You are right. She is a new woman. She is great. She is one of the best successful-woman examples that I know of. She has a great story. I admire her spirit and no-nonsense put it out on the table and to hell with it if they can't handle it approach.

But, it is lousy politics and even worse diplomatically (a big part of the job). Like it or not, the whole presidential thing is political and diplomatic. Period.

It is self indulgent to act otherwise. Entitlement is not very far away from the independence. People do not like it. Me either. I liked her very much and I did not much like her behavior some of the time. I did not believe, for a minute, that the slam on laura for not working was accidental.

I do not think that it is a good thing to wander off message. Her man did it often enough to drive us nuts. She has no self discipline about her public personna. She is like an Italian starlet who gets things just a bit off alignment; an earth mother. A rich one; but an earth mother nonetheless.

And then there is the money. I know I know. But, it is not really hers. She gets the negative without the positive. And she would not step aside from the Trusts and Foundations if she was first lady. I do not think that she should. On the other hand, it is not the traditional approach and, while not mentioned much, I think it became the elephant under the carpet.

This is the same thing as Ms. Dean not being a first lady and staying with her medical practice. Admirable. Great. Twenty-first Century behavior. A role model. But not a first lady qualification.

These women would be over achievers in the job. Shit, they could probably handle the job better than the husband. Now. I am not talking about having to be a Laura Bush, all big eyed and dewy and obviously a bit moist over her husbands manliness and all.

This is right out of central casting but Nancy originated the part. Hell, Jackie did it. Big adoring eyes and a heart of steel. It has been done.

The ones who did not play this role out ended up morose alkies or a little crazy; Mamie, Betty, Pat. All Repubs incidentally. It is no-win. And Teresa is all-win and would not put up with it and we would have had four years of distractions in the press.

There is a middle ground of course. Rosalynne Carter found it. So did Lady Bird Johnson. And then, there is Hillary Clinton. But, Hill is political. She was a little too much but in the right direction. So much so that she may get to be the President and Bill will be the first............what? First Gentleman. Now that is something I would like to see.