Letters to the Editor
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@Anonymous Friday, July 20, 2007 10:02 PM
Yeah, but:
“And that's the president looking very much like a jet, you know, a high-flying jet star. A guy who is a jet pilot. Has been in the past when he was younger, obviously. What does that image mean to the American people, a guy who can actually get into a supersonic plane and actually fly in an unpressurized cabin like an actual jet pilot?
“Do you think this role, and I want to talk politically [...,} the president deserves everything he's doing tonight in terms of his leadership. He won the war. He was an effective commander. Everybody recognizes that, I believe, except a few critics. Do you think he is defining the office of the presidency, at least for this time, as basically that of commander in chief? That [...] if you're going to run against him, you'd better be ready to take [that] away from him.”
“Here's a president who's really nonverbal. He's like Eisenhower. He looks great in a military uniform. He looks great in that cowboy costume he wears when he goes West. I remember him standing at that fence with Colin Powell. Was [that] the best picture in the 2000 campaign?”
“The president there -- look at this guy! We're watching him. He looks like he flew the plane. He only flew it as a passenger, but he's flown -- He looks like a fighter pilot.”
“He looks for real. What is it about the commander in chief role, the hat that he does wear, that makes him -- I mean, he seems like -- he didn't fight in a war, but he looks like he does.”
“Look at this guy!”
“We're proud of our president. Americans love having a guy as president, a guy who has a little swagger, who's physical, who's not a complicated guy like Clinton or even like Dukakis or Mondale, all those guys, McGovern. They want a guy who's president. Women like a guy who's president. Check it out. The women like this war. I think we like having a hero as our president. It's simple. We're not like the Brits. We don't want an indoor prime minister type, or the Danes or the Dutch or the Italians, or a Putin. Can you imagine Putin getting elected here?”
“We want a guy as president.”
Chris (I wish I was Marion Morrison) Matthews- re Commander Codpiece’s “Mission Accomplished” performance
I didn’t make this up.
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Dodgers... Guatamala vs. France
Interesting article. It says that Giuliani and Romney were draft dodgers. The author seems to want to undermine not understand.
It seems to me that both Giuliani and Romney tried to maximize their opportunities in Law and Education respectively. Giuliani had a great opportunity come his way and insured he would be there for it. Romney did the same.
If one is concerned about their work ethics or abilities to act under pressure, I think both candidates have shown that they have what it takes. As far as war records/experience, they both lack. No formidable candidate, save McCain (and I don't think he is formidable right now) has war experience.
I've done missionary work similar to Romney's in South American slums and mainland Europe. I'll take the South American slums any day. Someone who thinks that France is easier does not understand the nature of the work. It's not easy anywhere.
They are both solid candidates with flaws and strengths. I don't think that avoiding Vietnam means they are misfit or incapable. They were moving forward in life rather than sitting around, playing video games and being lazy.
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Give credit
To C.Mosby:
You jerk. McGovern flew combat missions in WWII, and put his ass on the line more than George W. Custer ever dreamed. Or actually, he did dream it. McGovern contributed to accomplishing the greatest mission of the last century. Maybe you did not know that because George did not flaunt a banner in his campaign. Stephan Ambrose wrote about it in "The Wild Blue". Yeah, I'm from SD.
But you are right, Americans don't want reality, they want a "guy". Something about your whole idea reeks of perversity, as truthful as it is. Only in America.
highplainsjoker
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Character counts
C.Mosby:
I meant to say "loveable jerk" in my last post.
eccelias(sic) and Steve in Buffalo hit it right. I served with infantry divisions in my 21 years with the US Army, and the best leaders I had were mustangs who served as enlisted and then officers, rising to general officer is more than one case. I once served with a Colonel who was promoted into all nine enlisted ranks before becoming an officer. I never found one of these men who did not have a profound sincerity toward the ordinary soldier, and also a full understanding of international relations (most of these men I met while serving in Germany and VietNam, so experience contributed to this). I might add that we will soon have women with this experience.
We are not likely to have one of this type run for president any time soon, at least until some private serving in Iraq reaches the age of 45. We must take the candidates for the kind of person they are, and how they conduct themselves in the run-up to the election. We will not have a soldier running for president this time around. We must chose based on intelligence and character. Positions taken now mean little in 2009 and after. Whether the "guy" type will always win or not, we surely need to start sorting out the Guiliani's and Romney's who are bluster and "guys", and the poll watchers like Hillary. I can wait for another year before really forming an opinion, but I am still including Richardson, Obama, Ron Paul, and John Edwards in the shortlist of those who have not yet totally blown the character thing. Gotta leave, off to France for two weeks.....highplainsjoker
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Let the best side win
It does my heart good to read the things writers with views like mine express on these pages. For a while there I was beginning to doubt my own judgment, or sanity thereof.
But awareness and fancy elocution are only preliminary to the real need to grind out the nuts and bolts of an effective response and counter to the Republican "revolution" as Newt Gingrich and others since have called it. The greed and indifference to the country's public well being, the mean spirited and fascistic reliance on simple minded slogans and symbols foreshadowed and abetted the nation's disastrous intrusion into Iraq. Just as Bush's rallying 'round the flag and sly winks tell everyone it is the American way and OK to cheat and disregard other people in your own selfish interest. The attitude resounds around the country, is the motif and basis for the angry and bellicose turn of the television and entertainment media, the ascendancy of the low country music ormsculture, hot rod and NASCAR, violence and drunkenness (but not drugs - marijuana), the denial of and sneer at environmental imperatives, the morphing of sexuality and resurgent masculinity in the media into vulgar and violent forms of expression. We need generous helpings of that Democratic liberal mindedness, the refinement and expansion of of codified protections and civil peace.