Letters to the Editor
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WILD HORSE DARK CARD
This is probably heresy to most Salon readers, but my choice would be Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska. Yeah yeah yeah, Republican, conservative, blah blah blah. But Hagel is a decorated Vietnam War vet who was against the Iraq blunder from the beginning. His work with Ted Kennedy on immigration proves his ability to reach across the blue/red divide, exactly like Obama says he wants to. He's plain-spoken, articulate and truthful, just like John McCain used to be.
"To question your government is not unpatriotic — to not question your government is unpatriotic."
--Sen. Chuck Hagel
"National security is more important than the Republican Party or the Democratic Party. And to use it to try and get someone elected will ultimately end up in defeat and disaster for that political party."
--Sen. Chuck Hagel
". . .the most dangerous foreign policy blunder in this country since Vietnam, if it's carried out."
--Sen, Chuck Hagel, on The Surge
"I have to say this is one of the most arrogant, incompetent administrations I've ever seen or ever read about."
--Sen. Chuck Hagel, on the Bush administration
"A ping pong game with American lives"
--Sen. Chuck Hagel on Bush foreign policy
"I would consider a serious offer in any administration if it comes from a serious president who wants to do something to make our world better and our country stronger."
--Sen. Chuck Hagel
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SOME OF THESE QUESTIONS
WERE STUPID. WHERE DOES THE PERSON PART HIS HAIR???DUH!!!!! OTHERS WERE VALID....
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VEEP
Either Webb or Clark - and I supported Clark's presidential run until he dropped out. As VP Clark brings to the table someone who has been to war and will work to avoid going again. As a retired general, Clark has the ear of the military and can help rebuild and retool America's military for the future of warfare. His stand at the airport in Bosnia proves he can hold his fire and still achieve good results. I like Webb for Sec of Defense -- after Rumsfeldt I'd like to see someone with a heart in that position and he ALSO has the ear of the military. Webb is what we need in a civilian who has served in the military that will keep the promises America made to its veterans.
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Here is a my list, and some reasons
John Edwards would be at the top of my list. Hillary is a consideration but only if they can be sure she will cooperate and give her full support and not be working for her election in 2012. The Clintons did nothing for Al Gore.
Sen. Jim Webb is high on my list, he has great potential and is not afraid of George W. and the rest of the Bush family and their related Rethugs. He has both direct combat experience, Naval Academy creds, was Sec. of the Navy, has a son in Iraq and because he is married to a Vietnamese woman and thus would seem to have some understanding and compassion for other people/races. He will have to withstand being swift boated for his military service. To me he would be as good as John Edwards for veep, or the new prez, if a Dem, could make him SecNav once again. In any case he must be in the line-up for the future by putting his name and face frequently in front of the American people, something the Clintons did not do for Gore. Being an Independant voter I am not one of those people who think the political party is more important than America but the Rethugs have taken that idea to an extreme, the far right extreme.
Gen. Wesley Clark would be a good one, but he, like all the other Catholics (my religion) must be carefully evaluated for his/ their ability to stand up to the Pope when he threatens them, and he will, for sure. Thats why Edwards is such a good choice he is not a Catholic , he is a very sane Methodist. The Methodists decided last Fall that Jesus' admonition to NOT merge Church and State ("render unto Caesar...) and that very same admonition in our Constitution is quite valid. May God bless the Methodists, say I. And the Jewish-Americans and the African-Americans for not falling into the Bush/Cheney/Reagan Repub mentality that the Rethug party comes first, profits come second, radical activist extremist religion is third and America is a far distant fourth, fifth or sixth/last and least important part of the equation.
McCaskill, Napolitano, Schweitzer, Sebelius and Strickland are other good choices because they have proven their ability to work with and handle and defeat Republicans in Republican states. They to must be groomed, made ready, and put before the American people for the future. If not, America is in for a future of fascist religious (neocons and theocons) wars of imperialism and colonialism and nation building. The right wingers and their religions are all about death for profits and for religious ideology.
As far as Colin Powell is concerned, NEVER, he already sold America out (his wife was quite prescient and warned him of exactly what did happen and he ignored her) once so NEVER again shoulds he have another chance to do more of the same. He has shown his stripes (Republican Party man first and America a far distant second, Reagans philosophy) and his son Michael Powell is exactly the same as he. Michael, as chairman of the FCC, was a major force in in warping the MSM into a Repub Nazi propagand machine. That is far to many Powells who are quite willing to do Rethug damage to America. These people, the Powells and all Repubs are and must be regarded as sharks and predators first and foremost.
The only Repubs I would give some amount of consideration to are Chuck Hagel who finally seemed to 'see the light' and his Repub party for what they truly are. Also some of the Repub attorneys who stood up to Gonzalez and committed to doing the right thing, the ethical thing rather than the Republican political thing, and lost their jobs for their convictions. When the law, the rule of law, is subverted for extreme political religious motives (Scalia et.al.) than that is the time to strip these kinds of people of their power as they are totally lacking in American values and only driven by Repub party values.