President?
Herewith some thoughts on the race for the presidency, 2008 edition, coming soon to a voting booth near you.
I’m a political junkie. The first election I can recall was when I was 5 in 1956. By 1958 I was waking up the morning after election day and asking Dad who had won the election for Governor. “Brown!” he spat out bitterly, which I though odd at the time since the race was between Nelson Rockefeller and Averill Harriman. (I was many years a grownup before I realized he had been commenting on the California race, where his hero Bill Knowland had gone down).
By 1960, all of nine, I was having my picture taken with Vice President Nixon at the Schenectady Airport. In 1964 I participated in Goldwater Victory Parades, made phone calls, and handed out copies of None Dare Call It Treason in front of Johnson-Humphrey-Kennedy headquarters on East Main Street.
I worked on the Buckley for Senate campaigns (met him and most of his siblings, even took his wife to lunch). In 1976 I followed Reagan around New Hampshire for a couple of days, and by 1980 got myself elected in a contested race as a delegate to the Republican National Convention, where I met all kinds of famous people. Al D’Amato even hung with us.
And now here we are again with the voting about to start and I have to confess that this political junkie has not watched a single debate. Oh, I’ve followed them well enough. I read the reports and analyses. I know what the candidates have been saying and not saying. I just haven’t felt the slightest urge to actually WATCH them do it. Not once.
And so I had to go to Google Images tonight for this:
Yeah.
This guy has snuck into the top tier of Republican candidates for president and I didn’t have the slightest idea what he looks like. That’s Mike Huckabee from Hope, Arkansas, they say. He used to be Governor. Or he is Governor. I don’t even know.
So here’s my theory: If Mr Judge Political Junkie has no idea what Mike Huckabee looks like, how deep can his support really be? My guess is that he is where he is because of who he is not, not because of who he is or particularly what he says.
I’m told he’s witty and relaxed in the debates. Good. I like that. I’m told he’s pretty good on life issues and that’s a big plus. But his tax record ain’t so hot, his trade policy might be deemed demagogic, or the polite word, “Populist”. Running a corner drug store doesn’t prepare you to be CEO of WalMart as H. Ross Perot once said of another Arkansas Governor.
Doesn’t excite me.
Even now that I know what he looks like.
My prognostiscope says: Can’t Happen.
