Tête-à-Tête-Tête

Mike Huckabee is hoping (too obvious) looking for an opportunity to be the next “Man from Hope”. It’s not looking too bad for him now, and I find that unfortunate. The first problem is that I predicted (completely pulled from my hindquarters) that Romney would win the nomination. And, by the way, I’ll stick by that prediction. I still don’t know enough to prognosticate, but having the benefit of a few months of developments and some polls, I still think he has the best shot at it. The second problem is that I believe, strongly, that Mike Huckabee has the best chance in the general, against the Democrat. So, his surge has me a bit worried.

We’ll be hearing a lot about “hope” this campaign season. GWB is even getting into the act with his 1-800-995-HOPE act. Ha ha.

But Barack Obama called dibs on the word first with his book title, “The Audacity of Hope”, which is already being vamped upon in every imaginable way… from “the Naivite of Hope”, to the “Audacity of False Hope” to “the Audacity of Hype”…

Let me just say this… as much as I fear Huckabee, who reminds me a lot, personality wise, of the first “Man from Hope”, I would love to see the presidential debates should “Audacity” meet “Man From”. I couldn’t dream of two more likeable and eloquent opponents.

Furthermore, I’ll add that I’ve decided finally that Obama is my candidate. That’s not to say I am in love with him. The episode with Donnie McClurkin certainly cooled whatever Obama fever I may have originally had. He hasn’t done a lot recently to show leadership and wisdom. In fact, I like Chris Dodd better - I just don’t harbor any hope illusions that he can break into the pack. Weirdly, it is Dodd who has shown leadership in the Senate during this campaign - not the frontrunners. But Hillary Clinton has actively worked to alienate me and much of the Democratic base, burnishing her neo-con credentials at the expense of reasonable policy. A friend (hi Jadarm!) suggested to me that she has to appear aggressive to avoid appearing weak. I suppose there is some truth to that - a fair number of Americans confuse aggressiveness with strength. But this is a primary election, damn it, and I’ll still take reasonable policy over chest-beating until I have to choose between two chest-beaters.

John Edwards - and here is where I’ll lose many of the “netroots” if they happen upon this blog - has some great policy ideals, but I can’t trust him with power because he seems to me to be completely lacking in wisdom. What “wisdom” is, and why I feel he lacks it, are subjects for another day. The best I can do to explain that in this post is that he gives every appearance of being an idealistic follower rather than a realistic leader. To me. Put more bluntly - I see him as the Democrats’ George W. Bush - the guy who lets ideology (progressive in this case, rather than regressive) supercede rationality. He might reform some of our current problems, but I think he would do for liberalism in the long run what GWB has done for conservatism - make it unpalatable.

So, my hopes feelings of comfort and optimism lie with Obama. I just hope wish that, should he be the nominee, he takes the right stands in the right way to win the general election, and that he then governs well. To get about as mushy as I can get about the guy… it will be an honor to one day say that I voted for the first African American President of the United States.