Monday, July 28, 2008

On Politics

Yes to Gates; no to Jeb!

On Monday, June 30, MSNBC reported that Bill Gates might be a possible Veep choice for John McCain. The response I heard in the next several days was over the Moon. Six reasons to pick Gates:

He’s been vetted more thoroughly than any other Veep choice.
It’s an election about the economy. Gates was pretty successful in his last job.
He puts the West Coast into play, something no other Veep would do.
He can write a large campaign check!
It’s an outside-the-box choice that bolsters McCain’s image as a maverick.
Obama’s no longer the smartest person in the race

Plus Gates might be able to help in the upper Great Lakes region, a typical Democrat stronghold which is currently being hit hard by the economic downturn.

Now, as of today, in the Veepstakes, MSNBC touts reports that Barack Obama is considering Warren Buffett, and that John McCain is possibly considering Michael Bloomberg. The press will go wild; I can see it now, the Battle of the Billionaires….

Oh, and what works for Bill Gates works mostly for the other Billionaires, with a few exceptions (whereas Gates does well in the West, Buffett may play better in the Middle of the country, and Bloomberg better in the Northeast).

With 100 days to go Obama has a nearly ten point lead in the polls, but because of the Tom Bradley effect (wherein pollsters are lied to by voters regarding whether they’ll vote for an American of African descent) we will never really know how this election is going until the real ballots begin to be counted (and no chads, please).

The funny thing is Obama had a great week because of his overseas trip, and I doubt he would have made the trip without McCain goading him into going. Talk about a talking point backfiring.

I suspect Rachel Maddow, MSNBC analyst, talk show host on Air America, takes great pleasure in twitting Republicans by mentioning Jeb Bush as potential Veep material. “No,” in the words of Dana Carvey’s impression of Jeb’s dad: “No. Wouldn’t be prudent at this juncture.” It’s been thirty-two years since we’ve had a General Election without a Bush or a Clinton running on the ticket. Enough already. We need a rest. We’re not a Monarchy. If Obama picks Hillary, or McCain picks Jeb they’ll hurt their chances in November. This country wants a fresh start.

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