Political tidbits

Saturday, June 09, 2007 by Dave Winer.

Governor Schwarzenegger can't run for President, but what's stopping a Presidential candidate from assuming the epiphany he had when he realized he could succeed as a politician with a very simple formula. Listen to the people, figure out what they want, and then do it. It's taken him from dismal to resounding support in the electorate, and the confidence that only comes with understanding your job, and how your success will be measured. 

Which leads me to the "war" in Iraq. The problem is that we bought into the positioning of it as a war. It isn't a war, it's a mess, a debacle, a catastrophe. A war is something where there are two sides, and one wins and the other loses. That's why the President's story about losing or winning is so frustrating. If he wants to play that game, we should pin him down and get him to explain what winning looks like. I know, Iraq becomes an ally in the war on terror, there's the war word again. Of course that isn't a war either. 

And where are the Democrats? It seems they could learn from Governor Schwarzenegger, and just do what the electorate wants. If they won't we need to get rid of them too. Imho, we don't use impeachment enough in this country. Ultimately it may be the only way we get the attention of our elected representatives. As strong as our system is, we have a weakness, the mechanisms for recall aren't often used. We must get over that. We should start considering impeachment the day a president takes office until they start taking us seriously. Maybe in 20 or 30 years we can relax. But we've let this go too far. The Democrats see the Constitution as an issue of election cycles. It is so much bigger than that. I don't care which party wins the White House when our basic freedoms are in such peril. Impeach Bush and Cheney now and let's get on with it. Let's send a message to the 20 or so Presidential hopefuls that they should pay close attention to what happened and continues to happen in California. If we don't like what you're doing we're not going to wait until your term is up to get you out of the way. Ultimately, you serve at our pleasure Mr or Ms President, and don't you forget it.  

Finally, I think the country may be ready for Al Gore and vice versa. I don't see an announced candidate for either party that will get my vote. They're all deeply in bed with the war industry and/or the media industry. Gore is independently wealthy, and while he's maintained his personal relationships in Washington, it seems he's burned his bridges with the industries that quietly pull the strings of politicians in Washington. We just need a little more evidence of his independence before he gets the endorsement of Scripting News.