Super Tuesday part two and the importance of time

“Super Tuesday” part 2 and the importance of time

 

It looks like the Democratic primary may be decided on a Tuesday, just not “tsunami Tuesday.”  Tsk. Tsk. Tsk.  Conventional wisdom and most pundits got it wrong.  While there really is no surprise there, I think this year’s primary has put the last nail in the coffin of polls.  The only one that matters is the one taken election day.  And exit polling on that day cannot be trusted.  The winner cannot be known until every vote is actually counted.

 

Having said that – and I mean no disrespect to Vermont or Rhode Island but this race will come down to a few key states like Ohio. For all the whining people like me do about giving so much time and importance to places like Iowa (Could it look less like the US?  Yes, I get it that if the system was different no campaigns would care about it or the voters there but honestly, that would not break my heart.), Ohio is another game all together.  It is much more diverse state and deserves to play an important role in the process.  One other consequence of the prolongation of the primary campaign means hopefully will force states to rethink and retool the primary process. Having 22 states vote on the same day is just ridiculous.  The adage that “when everything is important, nothing is” applies here. There is no way for any campaigns to really focus on so many states, and they shouldn’t have to.  I have said this before but the idea of having regional primaries a month apart seems to make the most sense to me.  It would be good for the process and everyone involved.

 

As the day approaches, and caveat here is that I currently work on a campaign so this subject is near and dear to my heart, the fact that there are two things a campaign always needs more of are time and money.  People focus a lot on fundraising and money but you can – at least theoretically – raise more money.  The one thing you cannot get more of is time.  There are never enough hours in the day or days before the primary.  You would be surprised by how much people will put themselves through during a campaign cycle and as one of these crazy people, my hat is off to everyone – on all sides – who do it.  It’s a hard job and someone has to do it but it can be great to work for something and with other people and feel like you are a part of something bigger and more important than yourself.  It’s the main thing that keeps me coming back.

 

And while I am waxing nostalgic, at the office, we often talk about different times of fatigue but the original, like Law & Order, is the real one.  By that I mean the fatigue that accompanies long work hours, bad food and sleep deprivation.  As a college student I said, and am sure I took the phrase from someone but have forgotten where I got it, “Sleep is no substitution for coffee.”  Others say, “I’ll sleep when I’m dead.”  I now think that people who like to live that way should but they will reach death sooner and cannot wait for Tuesday to come and go so I can take a nap.

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Proof part one

So many lies, so little time.

 

The common view among many people is that all politicians lie.  Campaign promises are meaningless because ‘we all know politicians lie and will say anything to get elected.’  I do not believe either is true and think our entire system is based on listening to what candidates say and expecting them to follow through.  I understand that governing differs from campaigning and that once privy to inside information; the responsible thing to do may be revise one’s approach or position in response to the new information.  I believe our justice system works in a similar way, if new information becomes available after a trial, a person convicted of a crime can use that to get a new trial, for instance.

 

Having said that, it is very important to note when a politician changes their stance on an issue once they get into office and when they do not.  Governor George W. Bush ran a very good campaign in 2000 and was very clear about some of the things he would do once he got into office so I will start there.  Not with his lies but with things he said he would do.  Off the top of my head there are two areas where I disagree with him but appreciate his honesty:  drilling in the arctic and abortion.  He said we needed the oil and supported legislation to drill in , environmentalists were angry but he did say he supported the idea.  He has opposed abortion since day one.  Kudos for keeping your word.  Oh, in case anyone cares, I refer to GWB as Dubya because my personal favorite nickname (rat-f*&$er would probably not go over well).

 

But what else?  Now, the person who wanted proof did not specify if I could include other members of Dubya’s team so I will still with him.  During the 2000 campaign, the charter plan was named “Responsibility One,” because this administration was going to ‘restore honor to the White House.’  I don’t think it was needed but in that spirit, what has he done?  It is my opinion that he has done nothing to make the White House look more honest or be more honest.  Why do I think that?  Going chronologically would take me too long so I will just go topic by topic.  I won’t get to all of them but I will get to as many as I can.

 

CIA Leak:  This administration has been very strict when it comes to what information they disclose, the current scandal surrounding the eight US Attorneys proves that, so it seems ironic that one high ranking member of the W. team was found guilty of leaking the name of a covert CIA operative.  It should be clear that if the President himself leaked the name it would not be a crime because any sitting president can declassify anything they want.  In 2004 when asked if he would fire anyone involved in the leak, he said he would.  He didn’t.  (source: http://www.pbs.org/now/politics/cialeak.html) This may not seem like a big deal because Scooter Libby did resign but it is because when he leaked her name, and if you can prove to me there was any reason that wasn’t political to do so, please go for it, he exposed her and all her contacts.  There is a reason why is it a crime to do this.  You may wonder why Patrick Fitzgerald did not indict Libby for that; my understanding of that law is that it is very difficult to prove.  I don’t know many people who really believe Libby acted on his own rather he was told to do so by Vice President Cheney.  According to books listed later in this post, the VP was really angry about Joe Wilson and wanted to discredit him any way he could.

 

Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda & Saddam Hussein:  In December 2001, Dubya had a press conference where he was asked about bin Laden, whether he was a threat and what actions the was going to take to get him.  The response was that he did not know where bin Laden was but that he would be found and ‘brought to justice.’ http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/12/20011228-1.html). I don’t need to prove we never caught bin Laden but later Dubya changed his tune and remarked, “I do not know where he is, he is not important and is not our priority” (sorry I no longer have a link for that, I did have a White House link but that has been removed).  In his defense, some of his original statements were, “Bring it on” and that bin Laden “is wanted ‘dead or alive.”  He later recanted, saying his tough talk may have sent the wrong message and made matters worse for our military around the world.

 

A more important lie was that there was a link between the terrorist group and Saddam Hussein.  He said this, “Evidence from intelligence sources, secret communications, and statements by people now in custody reveal that Saddam Hussein aids and protects terrorists, including members of al Qaeda” during his State of the Union (SOTU) Address in January 2003 (http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/01/20030128-19.html).  He repeated it the next day in , “He is a danger not only to countries in the region, but as I explained last night, because of al Qaeda connections” (http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/01/20030129-2.html).  This Bush Administration repeated there was a connection often.  VP Cheney said it a number of times on different TV shows, such as Meet the Press.  I do not have poll numbers on this but anecdotally, I would guess that most Americans thought there was a connection between 9/11 and Saddam Hussein.  No proof of that has ever been found.  Moreover, Osama bin Laden hated Hussein because of the secular nature of his government.  Hussein was a bad man for sure but women had more rights under his government than they do in other countries in the area – including our ally, .  Much of what I am saying here has also been published in different books, including but not limited to: Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War  , by Michael Isikoff (Author), David Corn (Author) – http://www.amazon.com/Hubris-Inside-Story-Scandal-Selling/dp/030734682X/ref=sr_1_1/002-8156637-3173631?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1176320685&sr=8-1; State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III by Bob Woodward (Author) – http://www.amazon.com/State-Denial-Bush-War-Part/dp/0743272234/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-8156637-3173631?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1176321051&sr=1-1

 

The war, before and during with a pit stop at after in between:   It is really hard to know where to start with this.  Paul O’Neill, this administration’s first Treasury Secretary  appeared on 60 Minutes, “From the very beginning, there was a conviction, that Saddam Hussein was a bad person and that he needed to go,” says O’Neill, who adds that going after Saddam was topic "A" 10 days after the inauguration – eight months before Sept. 11.” (http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article5510.htm).  This is important because, if true, colors everything they said about .   I have no idea why getting rid of Hussein was so important to Dubya, some people think if he wasn’t so focused on Iraq that 9/11 could have been prevented but I am not one of them, but I also don’t think the government planned it so if anyone reads this and feels the need to send me links to sites with video or other ‘proof’ that the WTC were blown up by US, the UN is about to take over the US with black helicopters or any other conspiracies – please don’t).  http://www.thenation.com/doc/20040329/scheer

 

Pre-war intelligence, sketchy at best.   According to the books above, Dubya began planning the war years before he got permission from Congress to do it.   At the SOTU mentioned above, Dubya said, “The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from .”  Former Ambassador Joe Wilson was sent there to investigate the claim and found no evidence to support it.   They admitted this was false and George Tenet, CIA Director quit over it.  How do I know he was lying – look at the above books.  They assert that the White House was almost desperate to find evidence against Hussein.  No one in the intelligence community believed this and some asked the White House to remove this sentence from the speech but Dubya himself put it back in.   Oh, and as for the claim that had ‘weapons of mass destruction’, none have been found and the evidence they ever existed is sketchy at BEST.  PS.  Your military was decimated by a global super-power but you have really dangerous weapons, do you use them when the same super-power attacks or do you let them come in and kill you?  I am no military expert but I would use them if I had them. http://www.thenation.com/doc/20040329/scheer

 

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!! In May 2003, Dubya flew onto an aircraft carrier and announced that the war was over and did it in front of a huge banner that read “Mission Accomplished.” http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/10/28/mission.accomplished/

Among other things I have done, Presidential advance is one of them and I do not need a link or anything else to know the White House was full of crap when they said they were not responsible.  Advance people plan every aspect of events like that and no backdrop goes without approval from the White House.  An event like that would have had the top people working on it.  Not only did they lie about the banner, the banner itself was a lie.  Since we are still there, clearly the mission has NOT been accomplished.

 

To be continued…

 

 

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