The Pendragon's Hall

The Pendragon notes that in a recent poll on the 2008 presidential election, the three top names were Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, and Barack Obama. Leaving aside the fact I don't like either man--they are all infinitely preferable to Hillary. The fear that has motivated the rightwing crowd since 2000 that Hillary would sweep to power in 2008 with nobody able to stand aganst her is, again, overrated. She is not even the most popular Democrat. Republicans have to play smart, but the doom-and-gloom crowd can stop their chant. The Wicked Witch of the West has a long road to the Wizard's seat.

And the chicken race continues. Fox News announced today that former House Speaker, and blowhard, Newt Gingrich will seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2008. What a line of winners both parties are assembling: with Gray Locks, Ambulance Chasers and the Wicked Witch of the West lining up for the Democrats, we have our own set of undesirables lining up for the Republican nod--what with Pataki, McCain and now Gingrich joining the fray. 2008 could well be the first presidential election since at least 1996 where both parties lose no matter who is in office. Gingrich of course as always is shaping his presidential bid as an outsider. "The others are running for president; I'm running to change the country." Sadly, however, Gingrich could not even manage to change the country as Speaker of the House and de facto leader of Congressional Republicans, other than to simply block Clinton's legislation, and then even allowed himself to get outmaneuvered so that the Republicans in Congress were blamed for the gridlock. Not exactly quick on the uptake and being President is much more "by the seat of your pants" than being a Congressional leader. I won't be putting up his signs anytime soon.

And the chicken race continues. Fox News announced today that former House Speaker, and blowhard, Newt Gingrich will seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2008. What a line of winners both parties are assembling: with Gray Locks, Ambulance Chasers and the Wicked Witch of the West lining up for the Democrats, we have our own set of undesirables lining up for the Republican nod--what with Pataki, McCain and now Gingrich joining the fray. 2008 could well be the first presidential election since at least 1996 where both parties lose no matter who is in office. Gingrich of course as always is shaping his presidential bid as an outsider. "The others are running for president; I'm running to change the country." Sadly, however, Gingrich could not even manage to change the country as Speaker of the House and de facto leader of Congressional Republicans, other than to simply block Clinton's legislation, and then even allowed himself to get outmaneuvered so that the Republicans in Congress were blamed for the gridlock. Not exactly quick on the uptake and being President is much more "by the seat of your pants" than being a Congressional leader. I won't be putting up his signs anytime soon.

And the chicken race continues. Fox News announced today that former House Speaker, and blowhard, Newt Gingrich will seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2008. What a line of winners both parties are assembling: with Gray Locks, Ambulance Chasers and the Wicked Witch of the West lining up for the Democrats, we have our own set of undesirables lining up for the Republican nod--what with Pataki, McCain and now Gingrich joining the fray. 2008 could well be the first presidential election since at least 1996 where both parties lose no matter who is in office. Gingrich of course as always is shaping his presidential bid as an outsider. "The others are running for president; I'm running to change the country." Sadly, however, Gingrich could not even manage to change the country as Speaker of the House and de facto leader of Congressional Republicans, other than to simply block Clinton's legislation, and then even allowed himself to get outmaneuvered so that the Republicans in Congress were blamed for the gridlock. Not exactly quick on the uptake and being President is much more "by the seat of your pants" than being a Congressional leader. I won't be putting up his signs anytime soon.

Fox News announced today that former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani is making his first steps towards a bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008. Giuliani joins Senator McCain, Senator Frist, Governor Romney of Massachussetts, Governor Huckabee of Arkansas and Governor Pataki of New York. It's like a meeting of the Mickey Mouse club. Huckabee's name rules him out, plus we've had experience with presidents from Arkansas before. John McCain should be elected president of the retirement home before he runs a country. Governor Pataki did not care enough about his party to help them out this year; he was out furthering his own ambitions instead. And Giuliani--well in a Hillary-Rudy contest, morals could be used either way. The Pendragon, while admitting he will be driven by the opposition to vote Republican no matter what, holds out hope that Governor Romney will get the nod: he's conservative enough to unite the base and keep most, if not all, southern states in the coalition--yet he's popular enough in "blue states" to perhaps take a few of them out of the Democrats column, or at least force them to waste precious resources campaigning to ensure they stay blue. With a conservative, southern Republican on the ticket as a vice-presidential candidate, he could be a formidable force nationally. Plus, a governor has some experience (lacking in a senator) of a presidential-type job. Romney for President in 2008!

The recent election certainly quashed several presidential ambitions, especially George Allen of Virginia. In a state that proved highly receptive to a marriage amendment, passing it with percentages in the mid 50s, he could not garner enough votes to defend his Senate seat. This just shows how Republicans and Democrats alike have to appeal to morality in order to win an election in this country. The Democrats who defeated incumbent Republicans had to be moderate or conservative Democrats. Nothing has changed. America is still basically a values-oriented, conservative nation, but the Republican Party did not tie their candidates to this enough. A lesson for 2008.

As the only Republican not on suicide watch today, the Pendragon offers my own take on yesterday's elections. I am disappointed obviously, but not particularly surprised. The blame is not on President Bush or on the media or on the gullible American public--the blame lies with the hierarchy of the Republican Party. Here in New York, John Fase and John Spencer faced incredibly steep uphill battles against well-known, decently well-liked, opponents with deep pockets and they faced it without any help from the state Republican Party, let alone the RNC. The Republicans did not run this election like they wanted to win, and so, naturally they lost. Yet there is a silver lining here if you choose to see it: in the Senate race, Hillary won handily, right? Wrong! She garnered 67% of the vote, which is impressive if you're running against an equal opponent. But Spencer, the lone voice for sanity in the Senate, managed to walk away with 31% of the vote despite spending only $6 million compared to Hillary's $30. And this in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans 2 to 1! Hillary cannot be too happy about this--she is far from invulnerable if only the Republican leadership in the next two years choose to see it. The Pendragon does not hold out much hope that they will, but it's nice to think about. A further silver lining is that the Republicans tend to fare better as an opposition party anyway: they never really acted like a majority--now, perhaps, they can get back to what they do best: standing athwart history, yelling, "Stop!" And it won't be long, of course, before corruption is exposed in leading Democrats and the Republicans will regain the moral high ground. In the meantime, the best that can be hoped for is that President Bush will not back down, and that the new Democratic majority will be made up of people like Senator Liebermann, who put country ahead of partisan politics. There is some good reason to hope for this. Despite being as dismayed as anybody over the defeat of Rick Santorum in Pennsylvania, the Pendragon notes that the new Democratic senator, Bob Casey Jr, is the son of a former governor of the commonwealth who was banned from speaking on Clinton's behalf because of a hawkish foreign policy stance and the fact that he was pro-life. If his son follows his footsteps, at least we can hope that the Democrats will act in the best interest of the country ahead of their own personal self-interest. I'm not holding my breath, but sometimes human nature has a way of surprising us.

I have an idea...if the Democrats win control of one or both Houses of Congress, why don't Republicans start a group saying the election was obviously rigged and there were glitches in the voting machines that rejected Republican ballots but not Democratic ballots. Sound far out? The Democrats have been doing that every election since 1994.

Ah, Election Day. The Pendragon loves to vote (early and often, as they say) and what continues to pique my interest is that names of the new political parties. Over in CT, Joe Liebermann has his own party: Connecticut for Liebermann. Apparently "Independent" isn't a valid term anymore. I hope someday it drops out of use completely and Independent voters are forced to come up with their own party name: New York's Party of Disillusioned Ex-Liberals Who Want to Vote Conservative but Can't. In my home country today several candidates for governor sported party names like "The Rent is Too High" party (almost voted for them out of sympathy with their name). I remember a few years ago when I was a resident of Tioga County seeing a state assembly candidate running for "Tioga's Future" party. As a lifelong conservative Republican, the Pendragon generally votes party lines, even when he knows it is a losing cause--such as Mayor Hopeless running for Senate against Hillary, or the bright, capable John Faso left high and dry by his own party. I hope my vote comes as a consolation. This race has certainly convinced me that I could never conscionably support George Pataki's bid for the presidency in 2008, unless he was the alternative to Hillary. I must, however, confess that being taken with Andrew Cuomo's rebuke to the DNC on their opposition to Bush's war on terror, I voted for him to be attorney general over the Republican candidate who is in trouble with the law. Forgive me, Ronald Reagan. The Pendragon calls on all Americans, Democrat or Republican, to express their opinion tonight. The government in Washington needs to know you're out there. For my part, I expect very little to change no matter which party wins at the end of the day. I do not expect a clear majority to emerge for either side and what I really expect is gridlock. Not that that's a bad thing--if we can't get good laws passed, I suppose at least we won't get bad ones passed either.

The Pendragon recently engaged in a bit of a discussion with fellow graduate students on the expansion of the suffrage in America. As usual, people were bemoaning the fact that only about 30% of voting-age Americans will actually vote in a midterm election. They compared this to the Jacksonian era where, supposedly, 90% of the voting population voted. This led the Pendragon to wonder if expanding the suffrage may actually have lowered the amount of participation. It seems counterintuitive but I raised the possibility and to my surprise my professor, a liberal luminary in his own right, agreed. He said that since women have gotten the vote and joined the workforce, fewer people actually vote, because the women, who were actually the backbone of political society in Jackson's time despite lacking suffrage, now are consumed with the day-to-day problem of earning a living. In the old days, women formed the issues that were decided in elections and then men went out and voted in them. Nowadays, special interest groups frame the issues and nobody votes. If this is a bad thing, maybe restricting the suffrage would be a good idea.

The Pendragon obviously does not think so. But it is intriguing that participation goes down the more people are allowed to participate. Prove them wrong this midterm Election Day; go vote!