The Pendragon's Hall

I have refrained from talking about the Super Bowl because it was hard to pick a winner, either for the sake of prediction or for the sake of both my undying loyalty to the National Football Conference and my growing loyalty to the Manning family. The Indianapolis Colts have a high-powered offense and decent defense but their offense has struggled off late, given that its success is entirely dependent on Peyton Manning and he is only one man. The Bears offense is mediocre at best, but they make up for it with a stunning defense and very talented special teams. This matchup increasingly reminds me of the Tampa Bay/Oakland matchup of four years ago which pitted the top defense against the top offense and the former team won crushingly, 48-21. Look for more of the same here. I pick Chicago over Indianapolis 34-17. Go, Bears!

Now that the wicked witch of the West is officially in the running, the Pendragon is ready to formally announce my position on next year's presidential contest. Until now, there has been no one worth supporting on either side of the fence. While Hillary has the miraculous quality of making any opponent an instant success, there are others who would fare better. The entire Senate seems to be running for President, which means they'll all be out campaigning next year so hopefully something will actually get done in Washington. But it is not a Senator that I have in mind. I have joined former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney's campaign. Governor Romney is a staunch conservative, both fiscally and socially. He believes strongly in winning the war on terror, protecting unborn life, defending traditional marriage between a man and a woman, keeping taxes low and cutting back on unnecessary federal spending. He has long experience in the fiscal world as a businessman and he fought the Massachusetts courts for shoving gay marriage down the throats of Americans everywhere. He apparently is currently the frontrunner in the Republican race, except perhaps for RINO John McCain, being ahead of both former Speaker of the House New Gingrich, the obnoxious one, and Rudy Giuliani, who really has nothing to offer that Hillary can't provide, except for having an R after his name. I believe in this man, and I urge all my American readers to join his campaign today. We can't have another Clinton in the White House, even one that's female or black. Mitt Romney for President.

Well, Democrats should like that State of the Union Address. Flat as a bottle of Coke left out all afternoon. They've beaten him. He cringes when he asks for something, and toes the line of American solidarity all evening. Well, he gave it a shot. Nancy Pelosi at least had the decency to attempt to keep her features in order while he was talking unlike Teddy Kennedy who was apparently recovering from a hangover. The illegitimate Senator from Virginia has called for an end to military solutions and new diplomacy. They'll get their way, they always do. We're tired, tired of constantly having to fight. At least Bush gave us six solid years before he caved and we all failed him. I can only hope and pray that the War on Terror will continue no matter what person next occupies the White House.

On a lighter note, I heard the Rochester radio station do a contest earlier that ran something like this: Experts say if Hillary Clinton wins the Democratic presidential nomination, she will become: (a) the first female president, (b) the most powerful woman in the free world, or (c) the only woman in the White House not sleeping with Bill Clinton. The answer they were looking for? (c).

The Pendragon recently stumbled across a song that is beginning to make all the sense in the world to me, in light of the looming presidential elections in 2008. It's by a group known as the Royal Guardsmen and was written during the 1968 presidential elections so this will mark its fortieth anniversary. In a day and age when performing clowns are all either party can muster, it is rather nice to think about a possible alternative to get through to the head honchos to shape up. Without further ado:

The Pendragon recently finished the massive Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era by James McPherson. The intriguing thing is to note the similarities between the Civil War and the War on Terror: disagreement over what kind of a war it was and how to treat prisoners; media's negative influence; the rebels doing their best to use the media to discourage the northern war effort and defeat Lincoln's re-election. And many of Lincoln's speeches sound remarkably like Bush. In fact, there is no Chief Executive in history of whom Bush reminds me more than Lincoln. And if today's media whines about losing three thousand troops in a three-and-a-half year war, I can only imagine the horror they would have felt in losing tens of thousands in a matter of minutes as at Fredericksburg, Gettysburg and the Wilderness. Yet somehow today the Civil War is seen as inherently just and Lincoln one of our greatest presidents. The Pendragon concurs in this judgment, but I am a little more consistent than the ones who pick and choose which just wars are just enough to merit sacrifice.

Yesterday, in a Washington's National Cathedral, Americans bid farewell to Gerald Ford, 38th President of the United States. While Republicans generally do a good job of keeping funeral services squarely on the virtues of the deceased without seeking to make cheap political points, the Pendragon sometimes wishes they would take a page from the Democrats' leaflet. The closest we got yesterday was President Bush praising Ford's "ethically right" decision to pardon Richard Nixon, and noting that it may have cost him the election. I don't know if Carter got that jab exactly, not being the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree, so let me explain it to him: You didn't beat Ford; his choice to pardon Nixon, while undeniably right, did. Most people have known that for years, but Democrats have a way of fooling themselves into thinking they have something great to offer the world.

The Pendragon is not of the Ford "moderate" camp but I do honor the man. Let's face it: the legacy of the 60s and 70s was a disgraced, discouraged people and if Ford did not accomplish much in office other than to restore a modicum of dignity to the presidency, maybe in the late 70s that was all we needed. Eisenhower did the same in the 1950s and Grant in the 1860s and 70s. Like Ford, they are largely unappreciated but we should not discount the good effect of simply having a man of the times in office. While the presidency would suffer nearly irreversible damage under Carter and Clinton (who cried conveniently when the cameras hit them as usual), Ford gave a breath of fresh air being a middle ground between secretive, scandal-ridden Nixon and grossly incompetent Carter. He was a good man, and he deserves a better memory than what he is traditionally given. And so, in honor of President Ford's memory: