Bottom line, I don't think Obama or Edwards could take McCain, and I
think Hillary can. Almost anyone could beat Romney or Guliani, but
they won't be the candidate. But I think you're right that if it's
Hillary versus McCain the kleenex people will make a mint.
One thing I think we can count on--the GOP won't allow a significant
drawdown of troops in Iraq, with attendant chaos, until the day after
the election--they need to keep the war off the frontpages as much as possible.
And as with all US political campaigns we can expect our gag reflexes
to be working overtime.
Mark
At 11:35 AM 1/9/2008, you wrote:
>To be fair, Hilary - on the day before the NH primary with her
>election fate looking more than a bit horrific - did take off what
>most often seems a steel shield against feelings to reveal what I
>thought was her authentic motivations and feelings under the
>repetitious 'robtony' of stating her "policy" positions on one issue
>or another. I saw the TV passage -as no doubt some of us here -
>where she literally broke up about wanting a government that would
>not leave anyone behind. She sounded to me, actually, like a 20 year
>old telling her parents why she wanted to get into the hell fires of
>politics in the first place.
> I know it is easy to be cynical and think that her campaign
> managers had spent the night 'rolphing' her and playing Cry A
> Little Tenderness and slicing hot onions under her eyes. But I
> think it was that moment of springing 'the heartfelt response' on
> TV that got her the surprising comeback response from the voters in
> the Granite State.
> Who knows, maybe the critique that she has been running 'middle of
> the road' was a premature rehearsal for the Presidential election
> - when they think she will have to do so - is what has set her
> way back in the polls.
> (Many of my friends here in California feel most secure with John
> Edwads - not Obama or Hilary).
>
> If it comes down to McCain's heart versus Hilary's, Oh do get
> ready for the McCain ad that will have him crying while he recounts
> his years of imprisonment in Vietnam. To be followed - so as not to
> be left out of history as war criminals - we will have George W and
> D Cheney crying their hearts out in front of the wounded in Walter
> Reed Hospital and before the troops in Iraq and the coffins coming
> down out of the cargo planes arriving back in America. As all we
> Americans should - with the exception that George W and Dick
> Cheney and their war planning colleages will be in handcuffs.
>
> Stephen V
>
>
>
>
>Joseph Duemer <[log in to unmask]> wrote: Heart / belly is of course
>important. Same thing? Let's remember that GWB
>famously governs from his "gut." So I'm a little distrustful of these
>appeals to emotion. So much of the electorate is butt-ignorant on the
>issues, though, that I guess liberals have to consider themselves lucky this
>time around that there is a politics of the heart being played out among the
>major candidates. The right, too, has a heart candidate: the fundamentalist
>preacher Mike Huckabee.
>
>jd
>
>
>
>On Jan 9, 2008 9:36 AM, Frederick Pollack wrote:
>
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Mark Weiss"
> > To:
>
> > Sent: Wednesday, January 09, 2008 9:24 AM
> > Subject: Re: "Poetry" versus "Prose" in New Hampshire
> >
> >
> > > Gore's 2000 image was invented by relentless Republican repetition.
> > > Likewise Clinton's ice maiden aura. In each case a countervailing
> > > image--Bush the reformed reprobate good old boy, Obama the prophet,
> > > flatter national fictions .Obama, at any rate, is probably benign (it's
> > > his competence that's in question), but the heart is a questionable
> > guide.
> > > Think of Bush looking into Putin's heart. As one of the columnists
> > > recently noted, Putin was a KGB agent, he had no heart. And in choosing
> > > leaders I prefer the head. The heart gave the world Reagan and lots
> > > worse--Napoleon, Hitler, Mussolini. Best to use one's head to cut
> > through
> > > the pretty stories we're all prone to and the machinations of the
> > > propaganda machines that feed them.
> > >
> > > I realize that I speak as the veteran of several marriages. One tries to
> > > learn.
> > >
> > > Mark
> > >
> >
> >
> > Mark, your last few e-mails have made excellent points. My only cavil is
> > Napoleon. A substantial intellect. Fine mathematician. Remember the
> > scientists he took on the Egyptian campaign. Thought strategically on the
> > largest scale (and made the largest errors). "Head" vs. "heart" is a
> > crude
> > distinction, but N's besetting vices were intellectual: opportunism ("I
> > saw
> > the crown of France in the gutter and I picked it up") and contempt.
> >
>
>
>
>--
>Joseph Duemer
>Professor of Humanities
>Clarkson University
>[sharpsand.net]
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