The Nuclear Blink

There is a reason that no nuclear bombs have been launched since the first ones were dropped at the end of WWII.

Nobody really wants to find out how nuclear war will go.

And so it was in the Senate this week.  The Senate worked.  We still have a government that can find the middle ground.

Jarvis and Watson have good posts on this subject.

Jarvis calls for a "moderate revolution".

And Watson claims that First has lost and McCain is now the presumptive Republican nominee in 2008.

I am all for that.

If McCain had beat Bush in 2000, he'd have gotten my vote against Gore.

I'd love to see McCain in the White House.

He'd take the country back to a place it needs to go.

Comments

[gotham gal]

I am going to "take a pass" on John McCain. The way he handled himself during the past Bush/Kerry campaign was so incredibly political that you wonder what he truly stands for. I was a fan of McCain's in the past but now I can't look at him without thinking about his conduct during the campaign. Tsk Tsk on John McCain. He should have taken the high road during the Bush road show instead of hugging and kissing George Bush when I find it hard to believe he believes in his policies.

[gotham gal]

I am going to "take a pass" on John McCain. The way he handled himself during the past Bush/Kerry campaign was so incredibly political that you wonder what he truly stands for. I was a fan of McCain's in the past but now I can't look at him without thinking about his conduct during the campaign. Tsk Tsk on John McCain. He should have taken the high road during the Bush road show instead of hugging and kissing George Bush when I find it hard to believe he believes in his policies.

[jackson]

I forgive John his sucking up, it was a means to an end, and it looks like it might end well....

[Tom Watson]

I think I'm with Joanne on McCain these days - all those hugs with W - yuck! But he did show cajones in grabbing control of the Senate this week....

[CL]

McCain will never win the Republican nomination. He is generally loathed among the Republican rank and file.

"He should have taken the high road during the Bush road show instead of hugging and kissing George Bush"

He did take the high road. News flash - McCain is (at least nominally) a Republican.

[BlogDog]

There really should be a third MAJOR party. The right has become WAY to right and the left has really become too left. I really believe that there is a HUGE vacuum in the middle that needs to be filled. Both fringes really talk a lot, but there are not the numbers on either side of the fringe that the fringe thinks there is. I think that some CENTERISTS should jump into this vacuum and I believe that you would see quite a few follow. The problem is, the CENTERISTS have got to find that rallying point that right has seemed to have camped themselves on. There are a lot of these points out there and a lot that the MAJORITY of MODERATE Americans believe in. This past election was just a prime example of two very bad candidates in which to choose from, no moderation to be found. Right now is a GREAT time for someone to step up to the plate on this ... how far down would Frist's right wing collective pants be caught if a CENTERISTS movement started today?

[bruce b.]

A blithe statement, Fred. Can I ask you WHY you liked McCain more than Gore in 2000, and WHY you are so interested in seeing McCain in the White House?

Do you like McCain's position on the war in Iraq (supported throughout)? Or abortion (right to life)? Or Social Security (open to privatized accounts)?

Do you think McCain is addressing the health care crisis? How would he solve the problem of lack of health insurance for 40 million plus Americans? Or the robbing of hundreds of thousands of working people of their pensions (see United Airlines)?

How would McCain address the growing class differences in this country?

Would McCain roll back the appalling Bush tax cuts, which have bankrupted the treasury while millionaires walked off with hundreds of thousands of dollars?

What about the trade deficit? rebuilding our manufacturing base? Supporting higher education? Rebuilding our innovation economy?

What, indeed, would John McCain do for the long suffering working people in the United States?

I'm all for McCain's brokered compromise (which would have MEANT NOTHING if the hard-core base of the Democratic party had not hung tough). But that is a long way from blithely calling for yet another 8 years of Republican policies that favor the ultra-wealthy at the expense of the poor and middle classes.

[CL]

Bruce, it's called socialism - it's been tried.

[paul]

McCain for Prez? He'd be 72 when running...if he won and ran again, he'd be 76 running for a second term and if he wins, 80 when completing the Presidency.

Too old i'd reckon.

[bruce b.]

CL says:

<< Bruce, it's called socialism - it's been tried.>>

rolling back the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy is "socialism"? or caring about the increasing class polarization is "socialism"?

then there are tens of millions of socialists in the US! how do you account for the mass popularity of this "socialism"?

[hey]

burce: there's always a decent sized group of people who will support robbing someone else to give them free money. and if you want to be taken seriously, i wouldn't talk about "rebuilding our manufacturing base". That's almost as bad as arguing for a return to agrarianism. Of course there have been more than a few on the left that have argued that. It didn't end well.

Back on topic, John McCain can't get through the primary. Not even close. His base is not in the party, it's in the media and in DLC ish democrats (by which I mean people like Fred, whether or not he's really a DLC guy, which I don't think he or gotham gal are).

[bruce b.]

<< there's always a decent sized group of people who will support robbing someone else to give them free money.>>

where is the "robbing" and "free money" that you talk of in my post? national health insurance is "robbery" and "free money"? or Social Security?

if that is what you are referring to, then you, sir, are an ass.

<< and if you want to be taken seriously, i wouldn't talk about "rebuilding our manufacturing base". That's almost as bad as arguing for a return to agrarianism. >>

this is the saddest thing about the "new economy" folks. They don't realize that America has to be COMPETITIVE in the world. How in the heck we can do that without MAKING anything, I have yet to find out.

it is just incredible that this is what we have come to. it is mass economic delusion, just as the 1990s internet bubble was mass delusion. and as much as anything, the extent to which this delusion prospers is the extent to which the US will decline.