Bonfire of the Vanities

American woman, said get away
American woman, listen what I say
I don’t need your war machines
I don’t need your ghetto scenes
--American Woman, The Guess Who

Sometimes I think its a sin
When I feel like
I'm winnin' when I'm losin' again
--Sundown, Gordon Lightfoot

Un-slumping yourself is not easily done
--Oh! The Places You'll Go, Dr. Seuss

____________

Ranger Observation of the Day:
Indicator that the U.S. has not won the wars--
There is no George W. Bush Avenue
anywhere in Iraq or Afghanistan

___________

Sarah Palin, despite being a singularly unriveting woman, continues to rivet the nation. Since John McCain was a life-long military officer, her selection makes sense, militarily-speaking. In any unit, in any situation, one of the following two power dynamics apply:

• Strong commander + a weak executive officer
• Vice versa

There is never strong-strong or weak-weak. This is necessitated by the need for one commander and one voice within an organization. This applies in the political arena, as well.

For example, in 1944 the U.S. had a strong Franklin Delano Roosevelt teamed with a weak Harry Truman. Probably no Vice President could have been stronger than FDR. The same dynamic applied to Clinton-Gore.

The Kennedy-Johnson pairing showed a President weaker than the VP, with Johnson being the political heavyweight of that equation. The same power reversal is true of the current Bush-Cheney dynamic.

On the other hand, Eisenhower had a weaker VP in Richard Nixon, as did Johnson in Hubert Humphrey, Nixon in Spiro Agnew, Ronald Reagan in George H.W. Bush, and H.W. Bush in Danforth Quayle.

Nixon became strong when he adopted law-and-order as an election issue. Humphrey failed to gain the presidency against him, as he did not successfully transition into a figure of power, as had Nixon. In addition, he was another example of a weak-weak pairing in his choice of running mate --Edmund Muskie. H.W. Bush won against another weak-weak combo -- Michael Dukakis and Geraldine Ferraro, but he failed to gain re-election because he did not grasp that it was the economy, stupid.

The same is true of Reagan and Bush. Bush 43 lists Reagan as his ideological father vs. his own biological father. Even he recognized the power disparity. Listing Reagan as his ideological father is a stretch, however, as it is doubtful that Bush has the ability to be inspired by anything other than sports figures and analogies.

Imagine the consequences had either Quayle or Agnew ascended to the presidency. The country can ill-afford such mediocrity.

The Obama-Biden ticket seems an attempt to infuse adult wisdom to the untried upstart, much as Cheney ostensibly did for Bush. However, age and years in does not equate with strength. While Biden may be the experiential heavyweight, the Obama-Biden ticket still fails the strength-weak test. Much as with the Bush-Cheney ticket, neither candidates brings a preponderance of strength. Both are weak-weak pairs. Bluster and bravado does not substitute for strength.

The weak Bush-Cheney pairing won due to the Rove machine which shut down the weak opposition of Kerry-Lieberman. BushCheney won its second term on fear and war alone.

For better or worse, McCain is temperamentally unable to accept a running mate that would outshine him in any area other than conservative/Christian brilliance. Like LBJ, Palin balances the ticket, proving an unrepentant champion of everything far-right. She is the antidote to any questions of McCain's maverick leaping the fence

If McCain is to be castrated, it must be by the lovely Sarah, who will keep him in the fundamentalist pasture. The apparatchiks must be assured of no more of his youthful flirtations with liberal ideology. She imparts a virility, with a femininity more robust than his masculinity.
Palin has become the dominant member of the McCain-Palin ticket, despite lacking all depth.

She seems the stronger member, yet she is weakness personified. Per our paradigm, this weak-weak matchup would seem to be a losing hand. if this ticket flies, this would be the first case in American politics of pigs having wings.

In their rush to mediocrity, the republicans are exploiting and contending for the heart of a degraded nation. They fail to address the real issues which will dog this nation for generations to come, causing a reification of what it means to live a "good life."

Palin may have knocked Obama off the front page, but she is a disaster waiting to happen.