It's all politics

There are several political issues related to the current crop of presidential candidates that I wanted to get off my chest, so I figured I might as well combine them all into one post. So here is my Big Political Post O' Fun.

One of the headlines on the cover of the latest Rolling Stone is something like, "Guiliani: Worse Than Bush?". I haven't read the article, but I'm starting to think this might be true. Maybe it's just his public persona, but it kind of seems like Bush is more misguided than anything else, while Giuliani continues to strike me more and more as an openly mean and power-hungry Cheney type. Not to mention that he, like McCain and Romney, has recently changed his position on several hot-button issues. There's nothing wrong with changing your mind on an issue, but when several people change their positions on abortion and gay marriage at the same time as they announce their candidacy...well, they couldn't be any more transparent if they were made out of glass. Not that the Democrats are free from political opportunism and the desire for power, but at least they seem somewhat interested in helping people, while the Republican candidates seem to think nasty and hateful is the only way to go. And it's so crazy that, when Ron Paul suggested that the American foreign policy was responsible for the September 11 attacks, and the American government should investigate why the terrorists hate the United States, Giuliani actually criticized him for it. [1] When you have a foreign policy that amounts to "we're right, you're wrong, and we're never going to listen to you," doesn't that pretty much put you straight on the road to war just for the sake of war?

I do think it's kind of weird when the polls are all apparently saying that Americans want their country out of Iraq, yet all of the Repbulican candidates except Paul and about half of the Democrats seem to be in favor of staying there. I can see some of the arguments for not leaving immediately, but it makes me wonder if it's a case of the polls being inaccurate, or the politicians not really giving a crap what the voters think. I'm guessing it's probably a combination of both.

Recently, the Republican talking heads have been going on about John Edwards' $400 haircut. Yeah, I'm sure none of the other candidates have spent way too much money on attempts to improve their appearances. But I don't think it matters whether the criticism makes any sense, just that they keep saying it over and over again. Bill O'Reilly was also talking about how Edwards is telling poor people that the system is against them, even though he managed to get rich. I know it's a central idea to Republicanism that anyone can become rich and successful with a little hard work and good old-fashioned gumption, because goshdarnit, this is the land of opportunity! But it seems to me that the corollary is that, if someone is still poor, then it must be their own fault. Never mind that some people work really hard and have nothing to show for it, while others make a few good stock picks and end up rolling in the dough. Subscribers to the pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps concept don't want to acknowledge the major role that luck plays. While there have certainly been some success stories, I think the system really IS against poor people becoming rich. But then, O'Reilly is someone who always tries to paint himself as a rags-to-riches case, when a lot of critics contend that it was more of a case of Some Riches to A Lot More Riches.

O'Reilly was also discussing with Dennis Miller how Mitt Romney "looks presidential," while showing pictures of him where he looked like Frankenstein's monster. Too bad Boris Karloff is foreign and dead, or he'd be assured of Bill's vote. Anyway, these two guys were obsessed with Romney's looks, but bethje has told me that O'Reilly once said on his radio show that he's so straight that he doesn't think any men look more attractive than others. To Bill, apparently Brad Pitt and Carrot Top look exactly the same. I guess Romney must be the exception to the rule.

And leaving political mode for a moment, here's a survey that I got from obsessical:

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[1] I watched the actual clip here, and noticed that the audience actually applauds Giuliani for his assanine reply. Okay, it IS a Fox News audience, so I guess that's only to be expected. Also, Giuliani says, "As someone who lived through through the attack of September 11th." What, as opposed to all the five-year-olds running for President?