THE ONGOING BOREDOM

The following is the 2007 winning entry from an annual contest at Texas A&M University calling for the most appropriate definition of a contemporary term. "Political Correctness"-- "Political Correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical, liberal minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.” Sounds like a description of the unfolding totally boring 2008 presidential race. How do you pick it up by the clean end? On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton has fizzled. Barack Obama is soaring. But both Clinton and Obama are ideological leftist liberals, and either would implement the same failed liberal-left policies that have ruined the country since Lyndon Baines Johnson. Ronald Reagan tried to turn things around but the people around him weren't up to it. Today, it’s a media circus over the first possible black presidential nominee, an attractive and articulate young black U.S. senator with practically no track record, versus a former first lady of the United States for eight years before moving to New York who used the Clinton political machine to capture her Senate seat and doing the same again in her quest for the presidency. A young black senator calling for change versus an older woman senator pushing the liberal-left status quo. On the Democratic side, it looks like young, black and fresh is ascendant and voters don’t want the Clintons back in the White House for another four or eight years. Thanks be to God on that. On the Republican side, media moguls are pushing Arizona Senator John McCain after former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani and Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney dropped out of the race. Hold on. It ain’t over yet. Former Arkansas governor Michael Huckabee is the favorite of most conservatives in the Republican party. There are many reasons. McCain has partnered with Democratic Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts on many issues –- national health care legislation, more federal government spending, opposing President George W. Bush’s tax cuts and immigration control proposals. McCain also is famous for his explosive bad temper and mistreatment of employees, not something voters like as they view the big cast of presidential contenders and the appointments a president would make. Arizona’s former Republican governor Jane Hull even went door-to-door to campaign against McCain in his last re-election campaign because of McCain’s bad temper and liberal stands on government spending and tax issues. Michael Huckabee, on the other hand, a former governor of Arkansas with years of hands-on government leadership experience that McCain lacks, is very civil, well-tempered, articulate, circumspect, and conservative. Huckabee is a true gentleman, has great savoir faire, and expresses an impressive Churchillian vision on both domestic and global issues. So the race is on. My guess right now is that it will end up being Obama versus Huckabee. The vice presidential picks by both Democratic and Republican presidential candidates will be highly important in the national campaign and the outcome of the general election. The vice president runs the U.S. Senate and controls appropriations to all federal departments and agencies. Closely watch that space. My guess is an Obama-Clinton or Obama-Richardson ticket on the Democratic side and a McCain-Huckabee or Huckabee-someone else on the Republican side. My own favorite Republican ticket is Huckabee for president and General Jerry Curry for vice president. Curry is African American and Cherokee Indian and Irish and would be a great counter to Obama and whatever vice presidential running mate he chooses on the Democratic side. The vice presidential choices on both sides, I believe, will make the difference in this election.