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physicscitizen

Listed below are comments made by physicscitizen between Thursday, 5th June 2008 and Monday, 3rd November 2008.

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The Cleansing 4:21pm on 03 Nov 2008 I find the comments of Schwerpunkt interesting among the class of conservatives that actually think about politics in a semi-serious manner and then throw out the evidence of the last 8 years and vote McCain anyway.

Basically Schwerpunkt believes the perfect is the enemy of the good.

Obama isn't even my perfect candidate.

But the obvious general trend of conservatism for 30 years has never been denied by McCain with any substance. And that general trend is obviously very bad. Wars of preemption (they weren't even required), corporate collusion and corruption with politics, socialism for the top 5% of earners but brutal, Darwinian capitalism for the rest of us...

Yet because Obama is not the perfect solution to reverse that trend you vote against him? You vote against the good because he is not perfect, yet support that which evidence has repeatedly shown is very bad for the USA.
It's the Bill, stupid 08:51am on 05 Jun 2008 He might consider it. But if he's got an iota of intelligence he won't consider it seriously. The problem is not him being too competitive nor is it that she does not have lots of support and political capital to offer. It is that he has nothing sufficient to offer her that can possibly outweigh the loss to her of the presidency and the influence of being the notable Senator from New York.

As vice president Hillary would have no real power in the legislature, and little to no power in the executive. (Note: I don't expect a split Senate again in the near future.) Why would she give up the opportunity at a power comparable to Ted Kennedy's? At 61 today she could easily have two decades representing New York in the Senate, with all the attendant influence that position has. She's already better known and more important than Chuck Schumer, and more influential and (infinitely more) intelligent than Al D'Amato was.

We'll have to assume a two term presidency, so the "on the job training" effect would mean she couldn't run until 2016, which would put her in her late sixties. While she would be eminently capable, it is unclear that she would be seen as electable at that age by the voters. Before you mention it: McCain is running because every other republican candidate imploded under the massive pressure of ego or insanity. His age has come up, and he had to release his medical records early to snuff that issue before it became enough of a rumor to gain brain-share in the electorate. Even so, there is a certain amount of mumbling among the masses that he is too old to be entrusted with the office.

So she gets to cool her heels for the better part of a decade to try again later?

In purely practical terms from the democratic party's point of view: Obama and Edwards as Pres and Veep, with Hillary in the Senate and Bill more or less free to roam. Edwards could be a very effective moral voice holding court from the Eisenhower Executive Office Building (or from Number One Observatory Circle depending on his temperament) while Hillary could become a supremely influential Senator. And this leaves Bill free to be the consummate good will ambassador to the world, a role we now desperately need filled with a first rate candidate.

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