Hasty Ruminations

Well, people can make too much of experience…

UPDATE 8/30/08 4:00 pm EDT
My article below was published about 2 hours before the announcement yesterday, so I feel like I “scooped” McCain.

At first blush, I admire Sarah Palin’s accomplishments, her pro-life personal commitment, and her frontiers life. But her choice doesn’t reflect well on McCain’s judgment.

As they taught at the Naval Academy (and as he would have learned, had he worked at being a student there), there is a difference between tactics and strategy. Tactics are things one does to win today’s battle; strategy is what one does to win the war.

McCain nominated Palin as a tactical response to disaffected Hillary Democrats. Get their vote, no matter the cost. It seems to be a good tactic, by the interest it has generated.

But, the strategic need for a president-in-waiting has not been met. That’s a serious failure.

I just wish he had studied more.

[August 29th article follows:]
The rumor this morning is that McCain will announce his VP pick today or tomorrow, in Ohio.

There is a report that a private plane landed in Ohio from Anchorage, Alaska last night.

I think it carried either Vice President Dead-Eye Dick Cheney (on an Alaskan hunting trip for polar bears and baby seals), or Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin. Palin is two years into her term; about 44, mother of five, Republican whistle blower. She would definitely appeal to Karl Rove as a magnet for Clintonistas who hate Obama.



I wonder if they have thought this through. There’s one VP debate. Imagine young, vulnerable, elk-hunting, attractive Sarah against grizzly Joe Biden. She would make an innocuous remark about her admiration for Hillary, and Biden would morph into Lloyd Bentsen: “Governor, I serve in the Senate with Hillary Clinton. I know Hillary Clinton. Governor, you’re no Hillary Clinton.”

Then he could pull out some raw moose meat and eat it on the stage. Just for effect.

Better run that one by the old spin meter again, Karl.

Remember when Doc Emmet Brown and Marty McFly are discussing the future of 1985 in Brown’s house, in 1955? Brown asks Marty, “Well, future boy, who is president in 1985?”

So now, change the dates and pose the question again:

Dr. Emmet Brown: “So, future boy, who is president in 2009?”
Marty McFly: “President Barack Obama”
Dr. Emmett Brown: “And who’s the Secretary of Defense? Louis Farrakhan?!”


Oh.

Oh.

Ohmigosh!

We made it back from Fay. Heavy rain in Gainesville FL, but back in Tampa with no damage last Wednesday evening (last week).

Now, we have TWO headed our way:

Hurricane Gustav, headed west into the Gulf and targeting New Orleans three years after Katrina. Those folks are not ready for this, I’m afraid. If Gustav hangs a hard right, we will get 135 mph winds in Tampa, and I will leave.

Hurricane Hanna, starting up in the Atlantic. It may hit the east coast of Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas; or it may peter out and turn right early.

We are not unpacking from Fay, yet.

They tell us that the percentage of Americans without health insurance dropped last year for the first time since 2004. They offer many specious, invented reasons, probably to avoid panic.

The real reason?

You read it here first, folks:

People without health insurance are being turned away right and leftist at clinics, ER’s and morques. There are fewer of them because they are dying off like flies.

… for another McCain joke? Like the one he told about Chelsea when she was just 18.

The news is that ex-President Bill Clinton will not attend Obama’s nomination acceptance at the convention stadium on Thursday.

The rumor is that he wasn’t even invited.

I think that in his present mood, he won’t be missed, either.

Capoeira_Fighter


This could happen at the DNC tonight…

Watching McCain recently, the pundits have said that this campaign is Obama’s to lose.



I think he just did that.