Late Monday political musings August 4
One of the many things that kills me about both the radical right and left is their inability to see the world as it truly is, which is a muddled shade of gray. The right’s blindness to reality is redundant to discuss at this point as they’ve spent the last 8 years demonstrating to the detriment of everyone else, in the nation and the world. But the left’s blindness to reality is also very real and potentially just as dangerous.
I find it curious, though, that outside of true conservative circles the delusional left seems rarely discussed. Maybe I just run in scenes that are too liberal (a definite possibility considering the amount of time I spend in DC and New York), but I think it’s worth noting.
I started thinking about this today after reading this editorial by Greg Anrig in today’s Washington Post. I agree with his central theme, which is that conservatives are facing bleak odds in the fall primarily because their policies (mostly) don’t work, and not just because of Bush’s mismanagement (though that certainly didn’t help).
However, he goes on to state that John McCain is running a “limping, message-free presidential campaign” as if this were a fact. This has been a common theme liberals have been pushing lately, though nothing could be farther from the truth. McCain’s campaign has a definite three-point message, and anyone who’s been paying attention has heard it clearly: 1). McCain’s the only one who can fix gas prices, 2). Obama is a defeatist who wants to lose the war, and 3). Obama is a scary outsider that you can’t trust. Moreover, IT’S WORKING. RealClearPolitics averages the results of all polls together; on June 24th, Obama had a 7.5 point lead over McCain. His current lead is 2.3 points. Does that look to you like McCain’s campaign is “limping”?
For all his faults, I would rather see Obama than McCain. I hope his advisors are more in touch with reality, because he could very, very easily lose this race. John Kerry was up big in summer polls in 2004, just as Dukakis was in the summer of 1988.
stiggywigget Aug 15
I’ll buy the idea that liberals and conservatives both operate with blinders on. But where’s the “radical left”? The remarkable thing is how effectively the conservative movement, which actually has a prominent radical element, has moved the center of American politics to somewhere around the 10 yard line. Eisenhower was a leftist and Richard Nixon had some strong socialist leanings in this new reality. That editorial is hardly representative of anything remotely “left” in the plain old reality that used to be.