Pat, as a charter subscriber to The American Conservative, I used to have great respect for you and your work, and a particular respect for your independence. Throughout this election season, however, my respect has been rapidly diminishing, and you finally broke it last night with your unconscionable endorsement on Hardball of the politics of personal destruction.

In the midst of the greatest national crises since 1929, you think that the candidates should talk in slander and innuendo.

Nothing you say can be taken seriously anymore; you have ceased being an independent thinker and become a narrow partisan.

To JM:  read what Pat actually wrote:  “As McCain is an establishment man on illegal aliens, NAFTA and Wall Street bailouts, uneasy with social issues like affirmative action and abortion, he lacks the full panoply of weapons that successful Republicans like Nixon, Ronald Reagan and Bush II used to win two terms. He seems to confine himself to the limited arsenal Gerald Ford, Bush 1 and Bob Dole employed when they went down to defeat.”

This is not the prose of a “narrow partisan,” but a wise analyst who has seen many elections go by, and laments the decline of his once great party.  He also knows that politics is a tough game, it can’t be won by Marquis of Queensbury rules.

(And I’ve seen some of your blogs, sir, speaking of “politics of personal destruction.” Heal thyself.)

Let’s hope for the sake of this country and the world that McCain does not win.

It should be no surprise that Obama doesn’t seem to be able to seal the deal. He’s black, he’s a Democract and the Democratic party as an accolye of Republican crimes has become a joke. He has become McCainized to show he’s tough, too.

Obama is not the media darling he was before McCain appeared as the possible winner of the primaries. Before that, the media presented Obama as an A-list celebrity superstar that left hysteric crying girls everwhere he went. Once McCain was miraculously resurrected, the media slowly changed their allegiance to the neocon’s official candidate and now just speaks respectfully of Obama but without the wild enthusiasm.  McCain is also running on a far nastier campaign than Obama. Naturally, since other than the hero-by-capture myth, McCain’s got nothing going for him.

Obama went for a safe choice with Biden- McCain’s handlers for a wild card with Palin. Palin also has something that all the 3 other candidates lack and that is essential for winning in America: a certain likeable goofiness. Reagan, Clinton, the Bushes have it. They’re like pals you want to hang out with and have a beer, who don’t threaten to outsmart anyone.

Not to mention that Pat is relying on and loves polls. Polls are not trustworthy, they are manipulated and manipulative as last election season showed- where all the pundits and pollsters where “surprised” and basically were caught lying.

It is indeed astonishing, if the polls are right, that the Republicans are above 15% after having ruined everything they’ve touched. How anyone want put the fate of this country in their hands for another 4-8 years is astonishing.

Fortunately with the economy as it is and since it won’t improve in a couple of weeks, the Republicans as agents of corporations will get butchered in the elections- as well they should. Unless the neo-cons in the administration come up with one final trick: aome “terrorist” attack that gets people thinking about “safety” again.

Pat is just preparing for the election “results”. The voter rolls have been purged. The same crooked machines are in place. The same crooks are waiting to steal the election. Whipping up the lynch mob to remind the people that ignore the election until its two weeks out that a foreign born Islamic terrorist socialist Nig is the Democrat party candidate then claim the polls were wrong yet again is a policy that works. Loyal Republicans should begin attacking Obama offices and supporters soon if things remain on schedule.

Else, Cheney resigns. Bush appoints McCain the new VP. Bush resigns. Our new Panamanian President McCain declare a national crisis and refuses to accept the election results if they lose. That’s how the CIA based democracy we have been supporting all these decades works. Then the lovely Sarah Palin approves hunting liberals from helicopters.

I plan to spoil my ballot and write in “Ron Paul,” for prez and maybe “Paul Gottfried,” for VP on election day.

I object to people trying to link Obama to a “terrorist” such as Bill Ayers.  If he has links to Al Quada that is one thing but links to someone who has never killed or terrorized anyone and is now a college professor is kind of a stretch.  It also appears that the link is rather thin here as well.  Now on the other hand McCain has bedded down with the actual terrorists who helped to overthrow the Georgian government of Sheverdnazee, but then I believe so has Obama.

How so many supposedly intelligent people can waste so much effort concerning the fake contest between democrats and republicans is truly astonishing.

I know why Pat Buchanan does - he’s paid handsomely to deal his schtick on the the boob tube.

...but why do others? 

Sure at the grass roots level there is but...THERE IS NO SUBSTANTIAL DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICANS AT THE TOP.

This is why no third party challenge is allowed to gain any traction with the public.  Most people don’t even know they exist and the main stream media constantly drones on about the 2 horses in this supposed race.

What a crock!

McCain prides himself for ‘reaching across the aisle,’ not realizing that this ideological fuzziness puts him in a similar ideological category with Obama.  Both candidates try to outdo each other promising change. But without a clear political distinction between the liberal Democrat and the liberal Republican, McCain comes off sounding too much like another Obama, with the one difference that Obama seems raring to get us out of the Middle East, whereas McCain, never a student of economics, will totally bankrupt us by escalating the war toward some undefined ‘victory’. I think that’s what Pat meant by listing the Republican Presidents who’ve stuck to conservative core values and won, and won again.  But instead it has come down to this: we have two liberal candidates – one anti-war, the other a slightly befuddled servant of a belligerent foreign power.  Some choice!

I’ve been a Buchanan supporter and fan for a long time.  We all owe him a lot. His non-support of Ron Paul was puzzling, but his support for Popeye’s Pappy just because he happens to have an R after is name is agonizing.  I used to be all, like, “Go, Pat, Go!” but now I’m just “Go, Pat, please go.”

@Durant - “Nig”? Dude, you’re getting it all over yourself.  I can’t even figure out what you’re trying to say.

Governor William J. Le Petomane: [whistles] Have you gone berserk! Can’t you see that man is a ni…

Hedley Lamarr: Maybe I could turn this thing into my advantage… if I could find a sheriff who so offends the citizens of Rock Ridge that his very *appearance* would drive them out of town.

People are angry and they are jacking up the hate and putting the last 8 years where it belongs, the Democrats. Pelosi and her terrorist henchmen have had 8 years of destruction and evil to account for.

Newly “aware” Republicans are screaming against the socialists, ergo Democrats. They are screaming hatred against blacks and calling Obama a terrorist. The vitriol aimed at Clinton is mild compared to what they are screaming at McCain’s rallies. McCain’s handlers are trying to keep people with cameras away from people out in Ohio and Missouri.

Richard Spenser is looking favorably on this as a sign that McCain is going to be swept into office on a sea of righteous indignation cause by the Democrat control of power over the last 8 years. He is probably right but not without cheating so rallying the base provides cover.

We have a Zimbabwe economy and a Zimbabwean election and a Zimbabwean dollar. They will probably put Reagan’s picture on the $1000000 bill.

buchanan is and has been at the forefront of criticism of the neo cons, yet this blurry picture of obama as an elitist terrorist muslim that pat propagates is just more “cherry picking” a la scooter and co.  trying to connect obama to the weathermen bombings is like trying to connect saddam to 9/11.  being a liberal doesn’t make one a “socialist” and having a middle eastern name doesn’t make you a muslim.

“Palin appears ready to take the heat to make that case”

she’s ready to do whatever they tell her because she’s a whore, politically speaking.

The sane people here like Pat and Taki are backing McCain. Pat is just giving an honest analysis. we don’t need a cross between Hugo Chavez and Trotsky. Only a fool would turn the total government to people like Pelosi, Reid, Maxine Waters, Frank, Schumer, Franklin Raines, Jim Johnson, and the wallstreet Jews who made a lot of this crises. I don’t want to leave out the Bush Rockefeller Republicans either.

It is not surprising that Pat’s rhetoric has attracted the “Jewish Conspiracy” theorists, but I would remind Pat that “silence gives consent.” Will you disavow “original jack? Mr. oj, who are these “Wall Street Jews”?

Re your comment

“...Yet, can one imagine how the media would have reacted had they learned that a GOP presidential nominee was introduced to politics and worked in harness with a KKK bomber of black churches in the 1960s, who was quoted the morning of Oklahoma City as saying he wished he had planted more bombs?..

The media has singularly failed to report McCain’s connections to Iran Contra.

M. Nucci,

People can reasonably disagree about the extent and significance (or lack thereof) of Obama’s ties to Ayres.  But I don’t see how there can be any dispute that Ayres was an avowed terrorist (no quotation marks) bent on destroying his country’s government by any means, including murder.  Ayres was not a naive student activist who somehow got caught up with others who were involved in violence; he was front and center in planning Weather Underground’s violent actions, and if he never personally pulled a trigger or detonated a bomb, that doesn’t make him any less guilty in the eyes of the law or most people.  I think the most one can say for Obama is that he showed extremely poor judgment and naivete in having any involvement with Ayres.

I meant no antisemitism: Gold Sachs, AIG, and Lehman Brothers are old jewish houses. Robert Rubin, Barney Frank, Chuck Schumer, Alan Grennspan and Ben bernecke are Jews. I also named other nationalities.

Lester: how is the bailout you craved so badly working? I hope your saviour Obama will save your assets for you with his massive taxing and spending plans.

Is it just me, or do many self-defined “Buchananites” willfully ignorant of Buchanan’s history and positions? 

“Politics of personal destruction”:  Buchanan was one of Nixon’s “dirty tricks” men.  He *started* his career with the use of innuendo and rhetoric to castigate one’s opponents.  He loves it, and he engages in it, and every chance he has he recommends that conservatives do it.  That is his thing.  I don’t blame, I simply don’t understand how anyone can be shocked at Buchanan saying such things now.  It’s like Claude Rains’ character in “Casablanca” saying that he’s shocked to see gambling in a casino.

Then there are people who are confused about Buchanan’s failure to support Ron Paul.  *Cough.* Buchanan supports strong tariffs (he’s a self-professed Hamiltonian economic nationalist) and restrictions on immigration.  Paul is a libertarian in economics and doesn’t really give much of a hoot about immigration.  A Hamiltonian economic nationalist and a libertarian don’t have much in common.  The surprising thing is not so much that Buchana failed to support Paul as that he did not denounce him.

I apologize for the lack of editing in my preceding post.

Paul, Buchanan, and Palin are all populists and have fought the establishment. God bless them.

This Palin advocacy is distressing.  In times like these we need fiscal restraint and Palin doesn’t have a history of that - in fact the opposite is true.  More profligacy is not what we should be encouraging.  Whats more, I don’t know what her attitude towards the Constitution is, but it better damn well be better than McCain’s.

Whether McCain wins or Obama wins is almost moot.
They will inherit an empire that has been lost. Credibility has been lost, and the whole world is revaluing the $ standard and discovering that its no longer backed by industry or finance.
So I pray God gives us the wisdom to make the right choices and the courage to discard the ideologies that have brought us to this point.

All this blather about the doleful state of the economy and how it influences voters is nothing but a red herring.  We have a crooked economic system, anyway, in which both parties are responsible by caving into the bankers ever since the Civil War (War of Southern Independence).  The point on which McCain has a chance to win the votes of Americans is the issue of the sanctity of human life, especially, as it resides in the womb.  If McCain does not hammer the importance of this issue into the heads of self-indulgent, apathetic Americans, then the man who has no respect for life, Barack Obama, will win the election.  Without a respect and protection for the right to life, then all else is pure rhetoric and with an Obama victory we can continue to watch the continued disintegration of America, economically, politically, and socially.

McCain does not really care about the life issues b/c he is not a very moral man. Let’s face it, he abandoned his crippled wife and 3 children for a blond heiress half his age. He has called his wife the “c” word in public. The Republicans nominated a loser. Huckabee is at least a sincere Christian and pro-lifer. McCain has never even been baptized.

Palin is a fiscal conservative who has used her veto pen many times. Pat, Taki and I have lived through the LBJ era. He had huge majorities in congress. We have never gotten over them. This new Obama era with huge Democrat majorities will be a lot worse.

oj,

Don’t get me wrong.  The prospect of the neo-Marxist Obama camp is nothing but scary.  As things continue to come out about him, he seems more like a graft-mongering black-militant communist.  No one here wants another New Deal, creating another Great Depression in earnest.

But Palin does have some bad habits - like her State’s addiction to pork which she didn’t act to correct.  Or her connection with rabid evangelicalism, which begs the question where her loyalties will lie.  We should take all of these things into account before we get so gung ho about her.

Patrick,
You’re right about McCain and Obama.  But about the country being fine, that seems like a leap of faith to me.  Hopefully events will prove you right, but I’m not holding my breath.

When the astonishing news first came out that (speaking of polar) the completely shaved
polar bear secretary paulson wanted $700Billion for his cronies on Wall Street.  On account
of subprime mortgages securitized and hidden in various financial instruments had gone
toxic.  Since curiously buried like timebombs within financial institutions ‘round the world.’ First my jaw fell.  (But I did the math.)

Why $700Billion (why is that a magic number except certain culture/s usually those preponderate
on Wall Street, perceive 7 as a ‘lucky’ number?)

No, do the MATH I said to myself -

If there are as many as *7 Million such questionable subprime mortgages gone toxic you could infuse
$100,000 (one hundred thousand dollars) into *each and every one of them [7Million –times- 100Thousand = 700Billion]; and either pay them off for the lucky mortgage holder or come darn close, since these are lower end homes.  Plus there aren’t even close to 7 Million homes in the U.S. in foreclosure.  {I invite anyone reading this who knows the actual number to weigh-in and tell us their source.}

By using the *people’s money to pay off the poor *people’s mortgages in question (gosh what a thought, the people’s money utilized in behalf of the majority of the people-?-will such a tought today land me in jail?) But if this were done, the benefits would be AMAZING and instantaneous in solving not only the people’s but ALL of the financial institutions problems, who are holding this toxic paper.

The hidden paper in all of these financial institutions here domestically and ‘round the world’ would suddenly no longer be toxic but *golden.  (So why isn’t the simple and transparent SOLUTION being taken?)

And talk about stimulating the economy, and helping the poor not to become homeless, and liberating capital, but everyone on the planet could be SURE the bad American paper, the toxic paper issued by some horrible mistake in terms of not seeing what could happen, when these subprime mortgages were granted, would be not only solved. But EVERYONE Worldwide would KNOW it was solved. It’s finished. It’s completely *transparent.  PLUS the money the bailout is ALREADY legislation that’s passed.

*7 Million relatively poor folk would own their home outright and if they want now CAN borrow against it. 

Why wasn’t that done?

Since the bailout wall street has lost another $3 *Trillion of our money precisely BECAUSE that was not done (yet?)

So that is now precisely what McCain is calling for to be done with the questionable $700Billion in terms of who is actually going to get it.  While Alfred E. O’bama is calling that ‘erratic.’ Erratic? 

But THAT is the only thing to do with the $700 Billion that WILL solve the problem both of the slowdown and the credit problem of banks themselves suddenly no longer *trusting one another enough to loan to one another.

Obviously the stock market has lost another $3 Trillion since the passage of the $700 Billion Dollar Bailout because it seems apparent to banks, large and less large that there is going to be a poker game about who gets what part of the $700Billion. … Since apparently (you guessed it) it ain’t going to the people, and so therefore banks both domestically and worldwide can’t really be *sure the problem will be solved.  They *can’t help but to see the whole thing was just political, and a money/power grab… & meanwhile back at the ranch, there goes another $3 Trillion out of the stock market.

So, what’s really going on?????

If McCain can’t call Wall Street’s darling - O’bama out on that issue - for a walk down Main Street at High Noon .  Since it is O’bama who is supposed to be the ‘man of the people’, then McCain deserves to lose.

ALTHOUGH McCain is already saying we ought to just pay off the mortgages in question with the $700 Billion and solve the problem in this very fair way that will save us all. But the Maverick is not saying it LOUD enough and with enough conviction, and he is not calling O’bama out on it for a walk down Main Street at High Noon.  Has the Maverick lost his nerve? 

And by the way there aren’t even nearly $700Billion worth of mortgages in foreclosure in the entire nation subprime or otherwise, I’ve been told.  So obviously banks realize the $700Billion is a highly political quantity, to be used instead by some financial institutions, against others.  Instead of solving the financial problem by paying off all of the bad morgages in question, and starting fresh.

Maybe McCain is just paying lipservice to paying off the mortgages while at the same time not wanting to offend the big banks who want to get even bigger by grabbing the $700 Billion Dollar pot – maybe John is just (as usual) on the side of the BIGGEST ranchers.  Maybe that’s why he’s only a pile of chicken______.

OR he could strap on a pair which it’s difficult, right here at home, and not so difficult at all when merely touting the next foreign war. And instead John McCain could call out Alfred E. O’bama for the real walk down Main Street at High Noon!!!!!!!!!!!

Hang’em high! Or put’em up against the wall down on what once was Wall Street.

-High Plains Drifter

(P.S. Spaghetti Western backround music Up with a swell… Ding-ding-dah-daling-ding-ding-ding…dah-dah!!!Up-to-you-Up-to-me dooh-ding-ding…Update-Update… - Hang’em High!)

As to the notion that we have a stupid electorate who spend more time on American Idol.

I was at a work lunch and one woman was going on about how McCain was mean and Obama more “presidential” and asked me who I supported. I said nobody and suggested they vote 3rd party if they want change. She asked how can you find out what they stand for with the media we have. I responded, go to their web sites and spend 5 minutes, it is the election of the President.

Isn’t that worth 5 minutes? I guess not.

The truely astonishing thing is these are all educated and degreed people.

High plains - the issue is not really the mortages but all the bets that have been placed on top of them and other bonds in the form of derivatives.

The so call credit default swaps are liabilities in the tens of trillions of dollars. What is so crazy is that there seems to be many more times the protection than there is the underlying base asset.

The credit default swap is an unregulated insurance policy written by a third party for the buyer of a debt instrument in case the seller defaults. I saw that GM has 6 billion dollars of bonds outstanding but there is 55 billion dollars of credit default swaps written against it. If GM defaults on its bonds, somebody thinks they will be paid, even if they no longer hold GM bonds. Of course, the 55 billion will never be paid but the person who bought the insurance may have done something risky since he thought he was covered. This is a house of cards.

My guess is that this is what the 700 billion will cover, bad bets made by brokerage clients in the CDS market, but the puplic had to be sold another reason.

I have voted in every election since 1964, and I’ve never before voted for a Democrat. (Twice I voted for Pat B.)

And Obama is the affirmative action candidate, and I loath affirmative racism and affirmative race hatred.

However, Both McC and Pahlin have zero intellectual curiosity and are absolutely sure they already know everything abut everything.  McCain has extreme psychological problems, owing perhaps to his 5 years in a Vietnamese prison.  While Pahlin is aggressive,ignorant, aggressively ignorant, and a self-obsessed nut who belongs to a dangerous cult “church.”
Voting for Obama is a “no-brainer.” All one has to do to decide is to meditate upon either McC or Pahlin having atomic bombs to play with.

When the astonishing news first came out that (speaking of polar) the completely shaved
polar bear secretary paulson wanted $700Billion for his cronies on Wall Street.  On account
of subprime mortgages securitized and hidden in various financial instruments had gone
toxic.  Since curiously buried like timebombs within financial institutions ‘round the world.’ First my jaw fell.  (But I did the math.)

Why $700Billion (why is that a magic number except certain culture/s usually those preponderate
on Wall Street, perceive 7 as a ‘lucky’ number?)

No, do the MATH I said to myself -

If there are as many as *7 Million such questionable subprime mortgages gone toxic you could infuse
$100,000 (one hundred thousand dollars) into *each and every one of them [7Million –times- 100Thousand = 700Billion]; and either pay them off for the lucky mortgage holder or come darn close, since these are lower end homes.  Plus there aren’t even close to 7 Million homes in the U.S. in foreclosure.  {I invite anyone reading this who knows the actual number to weigh-in and tell us their source.}

By using the *people’s money to pay off the poor *people’s mortgages in question (gosh what a thought, the people’s money utilized in behalf of the majority of the people-?-will such a tought today land me in jail?) But if this were done, the benefits would be AMAZING and instantaneous in solving not only the people’s but ALL of the financial institutions problems, who are holding this toxic paper.

The hidden paper in all of these financial institutions here domestically and ‘round the world’ would suddenly no longer be toxic but *golden.  (So why isn’t the simple and transparent SOLUTION being taken?)

And talk about stimulating the economy, and helping the poor not to become homeless, and liberating capital, but everyone on the planet could be SURE the bad American paper, the toxic paper issued by some horrible mistake in terms of not seeing what could happen, when these subprime mortgages were granted, would be not only solved. But EVERYONE Worldwide would KNOW it was solved. It’s finished. It’s completely *transparent.  PLUS the money the bailout is ALREADY legislation that’s passed.

*7 Million relatively poor folk would own their home outright and if they want now CAN borrow against it. 

Why wasn’t that done?

Since the bailout wall street has lost another $3 *Trillion of our money precisely BECAUSE that was not done (yet?)

So that is now precisely what McCain is calling for to be done with the questionable $700Billion in terms of who is actually going to get it.  While Alfred E. O’bama is calling that ‘erratic.’ Erratic? 

But THAT is the only thing to do with the $700 Billion that WILL solve the problem both of the slowdown and the credit problem of banks themselves suddenly no longer *trusting one another enough to loan to one another.

Obviously the stock market has lost another $3 Trillion since the passage of the $700 Billion Dollar Bailout because it seems apparent to banks, large and less large that there is going to be a poker game about who gets what part of the $700Billion. … Since apparently (you guessed it) it ain’t going to the people, and so therefore banks both domestically and worldwide can’t really be *sure the problem will be solved.  They *can’t help but to see the whole thing was just political, and a money/power grab… & meanwhile back at the ranch, there goes another $3 Trillion out of the stock market.

So, what’s really going on?????

If McCain can’t call Wall Street’s darling - O’bama out on that issue - for a walk down Main Street at High Noon .  Since it is O’bama who is supposed to be the ‘man of the people’, then McCain deserves to lose.

ALTHOUGH McCain is already saying we ought to just pay off the mortgages in question with the $700 Billion and solve the problem in this very fair way that will save us all. But the Maverick is not saying it LOUD enough and with enough conviction, and he is not calling O’bama out on it for a walk down Main Street at High Noon.  Has the Maverick lost his nerve? 

And by the way there aren’t even nearly $700Billion worth of mortgages in foreclosure in the entire nation subprime or otherwise, I’ve been told.  So obviously banks realize the $700Billion is a highly political quantity, to be used instead by some financial institutions, against others.  Instead of solving the financial problem by paying off all of the bad morgages in question, and starting fresh.

Maybe McCain is just paying lipservice to paying off the mortgages while at the same time not wanting to offend the big banks who want to get even bigger by grabbing the $700 Billion Dollar pot – maybe John is just (as usual) on the side of the BIGGEST ranchers.  Maybe that’s why he’s only a pile of chicken______.

OR he could strap on a pair which it’s difficult, right here at home, and not so difficult at all when merely touting the next foreign war. And instead John McCain could call out Alfred E. O’bama for the real walk down Main Street at High Noon!!!!!!!!!!!

Hang’em high! Or put’em up against the wall down on what once was Wall Street.

-High Plains Drifter

(P.S. Spaghetti Western backround music Up with a swell… Ding-ding-dah-daling-ding-ding-ding…dah-dah!!!Up-to-you-Up-to-me dooh-ding-ding…Update-Update… - Hang’em High!)

P.S.S. - And Hang Paid posters High who try to distract others by posting crap. You filthy swine!

Lets add to Sara Palin’s list of evil habits that she is an unrepentant hypocrite. After
being the object of a forced marriage herself (note how the MSM has kept this quiet) the
cycle starts all over again with her daughter. And then she has an accidental baby at 45. A trifecta.
Sorry folks, accidents happen (actually they are caused they dont just happen) but
three times? I’m not a prude but Palin evangelistic arrogance on top of her hypocrocy is
just too much. Oh I forgot, she’s against birth control. When she’s president maybe she
can get Jimmy Swaggart as vice president.

The best thing that could happen from the point of view of “the remnant” (as in Albert J. Nock’s usage) would be for the GOP to tank in November.  That would prepare the way for a new ideological allignment, possibly including Clinton “Mensheviks” crossing over the asile to the right from the Obama “Bolsheviks.” Ron Paul has said that a vote for any minor party, even a lefist one, is preferable to McCain or Obama.  But it seems that Mr. Buchanan has too many attachments of a sentimental or personal nature to the Republican Party.  What happened to ideology?  What happened to “paleoconservatism”?

For paleos there are only two moral options: giving up on this election or going all out in support of Chuck Baldwin.  And for libertarians there is always Mr. Barr...although I’m not sure that could be described as a “moral” option.

“Obama still has not closed the sale. He has overtaken McCain not because of any brilliant campaign he has conducted but because of the dreadful news pouring out of Wall Street. McCain and Palin are being dragged down by Dow Jones, not Barack Obama.”

Must have been just a coincidence that this horrible chain of events happened at the time Obama needed it most, eh?

Could Taki please moderate the comments and impose some kind of post length Limit?

We need fewer verbose cranks and more on-topic comments.

Looks like you americans are entirely screwed. Neither candidate differ from the other in any significant fashion.

Now you may claim skincolor is significant, but it really isnt. There has been plenty of blacks in positions of great power.. how did they do? Generally speaking by being insignificant pea-brains, given much media coverage and positive spin, but not one showed any independence or original thought. Even whatever tasks handed by the white massas they usually failed at.

Allthewhile mccain is about as repulsive as a man can get, starting with amnesty and getting worse from there.

But lets say a miracle happens and the population loses faith in both gop and dems, then what? The alternatives, greens, constitution etc just dont have the manpower to run things in the current spoil system. Not one of those can present even the meager ability paraded by the current idiots in power.

Let alone managing the massive tasks of dismantling the federal reserve and setting up a new monetary system with checks and balances.
Or dismantling the media empires that keeps the status quo. There used to be regulation to prevent the current situation.. but guess they managed to bribe that away.
And then there is the mammoth task of a failing infrastructure, the fact that politicans believed everything to be complete 50 years ago and thus no progress has been done… getting over that hurdle requires quick thinking, dedicated intellectuals, brilliant engineering and atleast two decades.... and a economy to enable building projects.
Or perhaps its a return of those workcamps of the previous depression. Pay at $4/hr+food & lodging.. i bet that will sound real attrtactive soon.