Saturday, January 20, 2007

no more kings; the queen is dead.

So let's have no more of them, shall we?

By now you've likely read or heard that Senator Hillary Clinton has formally announced her run for the presidency in 2008, and likely either heard or read the prevalent story line that's already been established: Hillary v. Illinois' junior senator Barack Obama, which will get the most play in the media until one of them drops out or is beaten come primary season.

Very few articles written by the major newspapers or pieces done on the major networks mention a key fact: if Senator Clinton happens to enter the Oval Office in 2009 as the 44th President, it would ensure a minimum of 24 years and a maximum of 28 with the head of state of the American government coming from one of two political families.

Much as our political system contains plutocratic, oligarchic, and aristocratic tendencies, I'm pretty sure the candidate pool is, can be, and ought to be a bit deeper than that. Hillary's Kerryism on the Iraq war, moralistic scolding on irrelevancies like video games, and the motivating factor of her run to the rabid right would have turned me off anyway, but give us someone relatively new, please.

3 comments:

One More Dying Quail said...

STN, that's an interesting point. Thanks for drawing attenting to it.

I have no idea who I'll vote for in next year's election, but unlike year's past, I think it will be interesting to learn more about some of the candidates. With Bush and Kerry, we knew more or less what we were getting (the lesser of two evils). The way the 2008 race is shaping up, we could actually have the chance to elect someone more dynamic, less stale, less politicky.

Here's hopin', right?

One More Dying Quail said...

Attenting? What the hell does that mean?

Attention probably makes more sense. Sorry about that.

Signal to Noise said...

I gotta say I hate that "lesser of two evils" stuff. Maybe it applied with Kerry and Bush, but every time I read it, I remember the kind of talk from 2000 (the first election I could vote in) that everyone thought it wouldn't make a difference if Gore or Bush were elected, and that made my bullshit radar ping repeatedly. Then again, I'm a rabid lefty who was raised by an angry black woman (my mother still can't look at Bush without breaking into a stream of Tourette's style obscenities) and a very cynical Jew. My thinking is usually "what a mediocre Democratic candidate, but what an evil bastard the GOP picked." I was in the Dean camp from the get-go last time around.

2008 will be interesting because there will be too many names trying to grab the brass ring on both sides, and probably run away from Bush's record, especially on Iraq. If it is Hillary vs. any of the GOP, I'll be leaving my presidential box blank. It'll be more fun to watch the GOP candidates try to play to the religious right, because not one of the three leading candidates (McCain, Giuliani, and Romney) have any cred at all with the fundies.