More politics...

I must admit... I did not see Hillary pulling this one out. What an interesting race this is. John Edwards, who I think is a great candidate and well-liked across the country just doesn't have a chance next to the mega-candidacies of Clinton and Obama.

My Dad said earlier that this is the best presidential election since 1960. The Democratic primary race was between four extremely high profile politicians: Kennedy, LBJ, Hubert Humphrey, and Adlai Stephenson. The Republicans meahwhile, had Nixon, Goldwater and Nelson Rockefeller running. What a group! Three Presidents, and the rest all very well-known guys.

He thinks that this one may be even better. I think 1960 probably still wins unless Al Gore enters the race. The smattering of politicians isn't quite as impressive this time around, but Clinton and Obama are certainly unique. I mean, either of them would have just killed John Kerry four years ago. Edwards, who is much stronger now due to his 2004 notoriety, is still a 3rd wheel at best.

I do think that the ramifications of this election are much more important than in 1960. Civil Rights and the Cold War are certainly not issues to scoff at, but the county really is in a perilous situation now. Never before has America been so universally hated around the world. I don't care how powerful we are; we only make up 3% of the world's population. It is not good foreign policy to go around pissing 97% of the world off. Yet, though the arrogance and stupidity of the Bush/Cheney trainwreck, we have pulled that off. We have squandered the good will of the rest of the world that our predecessors had painstakingly built for the first 220 years of our existence. People around the world used to dream of coming to America for a new start on life. Now we have to wear sweat shirts with a prominent maple leaf sewn on the front when we travel abroad.

The Iraq war has done unmeasurable harm to our volunteer army. Never again will our government be able to look potential recruits in the eye and say "We will not take advantage of the sacrifice you made for your country." We have taken these people who have put their lives on the line for us and treated them like absolute crap. When they go off to war, we don't adequately arm them. When they come home, we don't adequately provide medical care, especially for post-traumatic stress syndrome. When we say their obligations are over, we renege and send them back to Iraq again and again. How are people so thoroughly brainwashed that they accuse people like me of not "supporting the troops."

But I digress. This election is important not only for the tactical moves the next President will make or the policies that he or she will enact. It is important for the future of our country that we regain the respect of the world. This country is doomed to failure if the world looks at America and sees an arrogant country, wantonly displaying its military strength expecting everyone else to cower in fear. And while John McCain or some of the other Republicans may very well make decent Presidents, we must show the world that we repudiate these disastrous past 8 years by *not* electing another Republican.

Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the President or any other public official save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country.
- Theodore Roosevelt