Entertaining But Disheartening

I have not been blogging about the Presidential campaign. To some extent, personal considerations are to blame. But fundamentally, it's because the affair is so disheartening. The prospect of being governed by any of the major candidates is pretty dismal.

As a political junkie whose addiction started at age 8, I nevertheless find the campaign amusing, especially on the GOP side, where for the first time I can remember the free-for-all just won't end with the usual anointing of the winner.

Now the coiffed, well-spoken, and programmed Mitt Romney has risen from the dead and won a primary, and on to South Carolina (by way of Las Vegas), and the once inevitable Hillary has won a paper victory but with numbers among black voters that presage a train wreck for her in South Carolina. These results are interesting as far as the nuts and bolts of campaigning are concerned, but hardly promising for the Republic. Romney is to national leadership what Velveeta is to cheese.

Consider. The auto industry is in a shambles and once-prosperous Michigan has the highest unemployment rate in the nation. McCain told the truth--the jobs aren't coming back. This would be true even if the American automakers managed a design and engineering revolution. Romney, the "conservative," denies the obvious and promises corporate welfare to do the impossible--bring the jobs back--and wins.

Meanwhile, the Democrats are locked in a contentless identity campaign. Mindless feminists vote for the heiress-by-marriage, who is terminally dull and has no qualifications for the job except for having put up and covered for her husband's cocksmanship. On the other hand, Obama, the candidate of the Starbucks Dems, is finally managing to get the black vote on solely racial grounds. Neither has anything new to say, but God help us, one of them is likely to be our next President. At least Obama can deliver a speech.