If I wasn’t who and what I am, I could be president
February 26th, 2009 at 08:58am Pat Cunningham
 It occurred to me this morning that if I wasn’t old and liberal, I might have a chance to become president of the United States.
 This strange thought came to me when I heard Pat Buchanan on MSNBC say something to the effect — I don’t have an exact quote — that now is the perfect time to be young, conservative and politically ambitious in America.
 Buchanan’s point was that the Republican Party finds itself tantalizingly bereft of leadership at this critical juncture in the nation’s history. For example, nobody in the GOP has anything remotely resembling front-runner status for the party’s presidential nomination of three years hence.
 Sarah Palin and Bobby Jindal seem to have flamed out already, having become punch lines to cruel jokes. Mitt Romney? Not likely. He was once too liberal, and he comes off as a slick phony.  Mike Huckabee? Even less likely. Too theocratic.
 So, who’s left? Joe the plumber? Come on, be serious.
 This vacuum of leadership in the GOP will be made manifest when the Conservative Political Action Conference convenes today in Washington. Oh, there’ll be lots of red-meat rhetoric from the Limbaughs, Coulters, et al, but there shan’t be much in the way of a conservative ephiphany, no emergence of any hero showing the way to a new brand of responsible governance.
 Ah, if only I were young, conservative and ambitious
 But don’t be fooled. My daydream, if transplanted to the mind of somebody who actually is young, requires recognition of the fact that America neither wants nor needs anything resembling the kind of conservatism that the Republican Party has been selling for the past generation. It’s that kind of stuff that has led the GOP to the political wilderness in which it now finds itself.
 No, the new Republican savior will have to come up with something bold and different, a unique hybrid of conservativism and liberalism that won’t be dismissed as squishy moderation. Maybe we could call it “pragmatism.”
 What a concept!
UPDATE: Speaking of Joe the Plumber, we have exciting news HERE.
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12 Comments Add your own
1. Orlando Clay | February 26th, 2009 at 9:48 am
Pat Cunningham wrote: “It’s that kind of stuff that has led the GOP to the political wilderness in which it now finds itself.”
Along those same lines, Pat, here’s an excerpt from a quite compelling interview with Bill Maher that appears in the latest pages of Rolling Stone:
“The election did not destroy the Republican base — it purified it. The sane people have all left…..Those people checked out, so all you have left now are the wing nuts. You have the Sean Hannitys and the Palins and the Bill Kristols — or, as I call them, “the Axis of Stupid.” The Republican base has been purified, the same way that crack can be purified out of cocaine. Or at least that’s how Amy Winehouse explained it to me.”
2. Mike Carroll | February 26th, 2009 at 10:02 am
Enjoy it while you can Orlando. As 1994 planted the seeds that became 2008 for Republicans, 2008 is planting the seeds for your team. Both sides overreach when they attain controlling power. Your side just acts more quickly and, I predict so that you can hold me to it, that the voting public will deal Democrats a defaet in 4 years or less.
3. Mike Carroll | February 26th, 2009 at 10:40 am
Mea culpa on the spelling error.
4. Pat Cunningham | February 26th, 2009 at 10:59 am
Sorry, Mike, but I only accept mea MAXIMA culpa. Which reminds me of my old joke: I don’t like Latin, per se.
5. Mike Carroll | February 26th, 2009 at 11:10 am
Re the joke-GROAN.
In case other posters don’t understand, these Latin exchanges that we sometimes engage in are rooted in our background as ex altar boys when the mass was said in Latin. It explains a lot about each of us but does not solve the mystery as to why one of us went so far off the middle of the fairway.
6. Pat Cunningham | February 26th, 2009 at 11:15 am
Mike: I found that the truth shall set you free.
7. echo4charlie | February 26th, 2009 at 12:29 pm
In this land, anyone can be President if they work hard enough to get there. Well, except Ralph Nader, anyway.
I was just thinking about this subject this morning when I saw a fun picture of a bearded and afro(ed) Bill Clinton, and his wife, Hillary, looking like one of the Ingalls daughters (from Little House on the Prarie).
Who would have ever bet, the day that photo was taken, that they would become President and First Lady?
http://weblogs.newsday.com/sports/watchdog/blog/bill-hillary-clinton.jpg
8. Orlando Clay | February 26th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
Mike Carroll wrote: “Your side just acts more quickly and, I predict so that you can hold me to it, that the voting public will deal Democrats a defeat in 4 years or less.”
Perhaps, Mike, but I seriously doubt it. In ‘94, you GOPers had a great trump card: Newt Gingrich. Even though I disagree with 95% of his politics, I have to admit that he is one clever cookie who almost single-handedly engineered the Great Republican Revolution of 1994. I just don’t see that in any of your party’s current leadership.
Of course, if President Obama does stumble badly, the door does indeed become wide open in 2010 for another Republican tidal wave.
I don’t know you personally, of course, but I think it’s pretty safe to assume that you are not a member of the Limbaugh/Hannity wing of your party, which hopes for a collapse of the economy over the next four years as a means to regain control of the White House and Congress.
9. Mike Carroll | February 26th, 2009 at 3:42 pm
Orlando-I seldom hear Limbaugh as, unlike our host Mr. Cunningham, I am still working. I do ,however , find him entertaining in a bomb throwing sort of way. I think Hannity is a weenie. There is another adjective that I could use but I think you get my point.
As I have said before, I hope Obama has a successful Presidency because that will be best for the country. Where we differ, obviously, is my belief that the liberal agenda which he is pursuing will not get us there.
10. echo4charlie | February 26th, 2009 at 4:20 pm
I don’t care for Hannity, either. He’s a bit of a bully, and doesn’t ever seem to conduct an interview. He just outshouts and cuts everyone off.
As for fun shoutouts:
O’Reilly vs. Franken:
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=o%27reilly+vs.+frankin&hl=en&emb=0&aq=f#q=al+franken+bill+o%27reilly&hl=en&emb=0
Even though I’m Republican, I love Al Franken’s humor. Not necessarily all of his politics, but his humor is great.
11. Orlando Clay | February 26th, 2009 at 5:43 pm
Mike Carroll wrote: “As I have said before, I hope Obama has a successful Presidency because that will be best for the country.”
I can’t possibly ask for anything more than that, Mike. I truly wish that the majority of your fellow conservatives felt the same way. Normally, I have a pretty thick skin, but it just angers me to no end when you have sore losers like Limbaugh and Hannity openly telling their flocks that they hope President Obama fails.
Even though I thoroughly despised Bush and his warped principles, I put all that aside when 9/11 happened and he asked all of us to unite as a nation. I complied until he and Cheney started to use the Constitution as toilet paper. Most of the folks on your side of the aisle decided not to “play nice” beginning the morning of November 5.
I may not agree with your politics, friend, but you have my respect. Have a good evening.
12. bannernews | February 26th, 2009 at 9:05 pm
OK OK boys that’s enough. There’s getting to be way too much “Man Hugging” going on here tonight.
Hopefully we can get back to the Applesauce tomorrow and start thrashing about a little bit on the pros and cons on what would appear to be a natonalized health care system.
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