Open Auditions

 

The more deeply they bow and scrape, the more prone they seem to be to treachery. Like NASA, which flayed itself for its systematic management failures that led to the Columbia disaster, but neglected to name the people responsible, and even promoted one of them to a new and important position. Or how ‘bout the self-flagellation by our military over a "secret" report that skewers them for staging the IraqAttaq when they didn’t have the vaguest idea what to do once they "won."

My journalist pal Bob was wondering if the military scandal would damage Bush and Rumsfeld. We both scratch our heads over the president being able to maintain his standing in the polls, even as it has sunk to pre-Nine-Eleven levels. I suggest that there are about 15 points of support for the man simply because there is no clear alternative in the public eye.

Dean is atop the polls, but ya gotta know that he’s gonna peak early. He made his flash in the pan; using the Internet to raise the money, he spent a bunch of it on television ads 16 months before the election. That’s supposed to be leadership? Once the de facto leader, John Forbes Kerry has blown his chance like a toothless whore. After campaigning for eight months, he announced that he was running for president. He strutted before an aircraft carrier in South Carolina, promoting himself as a war hero. Um, John, we really need a peace hero instead.

How about Wesley Clark? He’s the Rhodes Scholar who general’d our forces in Kosovo in 1999. Last week he said he’d heard rumors that the White House had called up CNN and asked them not to use him as a commentator on their war. Why are we not surprised, but still, does a presidential candidate palaver about rumors of a conspiracy against him? Clark refuses to declare his intentions about running for the White House, but last week he finally officially announced that he’s probably a Democrat. More headlines, but no news.

Eventually a decent candidate will have to surface from among the pack, or not; the donkeys will roll over for a dark horse, perhaps. Somehow, the Bush Administration will be history a year from January 21^st, and though they can do a lot of damage in the interim, there are perhaps enough concerned citizens on Capitol Hill to keep them somewhat in check and preserve the nation in a state that the next administration will have a mandate to repair.

And that’s SetonnoteS...I’m Tony Seton.

 

Home

©2003 SetonnoteS

.