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September 03, 2008
Prediction Time and other completely random stuff...
I predict John McCain will come out Thursday night and, no, not tell people he prefers the pecker over the cooter (if that's what you thought when you read the words "come out," I apologize); I think he will come out and tell the American public that he will only serve one term if elected.
A president is incredibly powerful - obviously - but so are the members of his cabinet. Why don't candidates announce who would serve in their cabinets if they get elected? I would like to know who Obama and McCain would name as Attorney General and Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense, etc. I feel like we're being asked to choose between living in two furnished houses, only we never get to see the actual furnishings until after we've made a decision about which house we want. The house is the most important thing, but if these guys are going to appoint bozos to run the government (see, e.g. past chatter about John Edwards being the Attorney General), it would be nice to know this before voting day.
Why do airlines allow people who have worse diction than Mush-Mouth to make the announcements in the terminal. I'm pretty sure the guy running my particular gate just told us our flight is getting ready to board, but he also might have told us that he's going to take a dump in his coworker's mouth and would like us to stand by for more information.
Wolf Blitzer says "stand by" a lot. I'm really surprised he's made it in television.
Remember the pre-TSA airport security days? You had people who literally had just arrived from Ethiopia, Somalia, etc. running the security checkpoints. Even before 9/11, who the hell thought that was a good idea?
Comments
I'll be shocked if McCain gives a one term pledge. Presidential candidates are ego-driven by definition, and no ego would allow that to happen. And then there's the point that a "reform-minded candidate" could ever accomplish much reform in 4 years. Would be a smart pledge, but picking Palin is as close as we can come to proving clouded judgement.
But I wholeheartedly agree that it would be nice to know who would fill out key positions. Would it matter, though, since it's well proven that VPs don't make a difference on the ticket (much less, presumably, AGs, SoS, et al).
Posted by: (m) at September 3, 2008 06:00 PM
I'm pretty sure I've said this before, but Wolf Blitzer makes me want to claw my eardrums out of my head. And yet I continue to watch CNN when I have my choice of other network political coverage because, well, I'm a masochist.
Posted by: Harmless Error at September 3, 2008 08:25 PM
The Volokh Conspiracy had a piece on this in July, speculating that if a candidate trails right before the election he might be able to produce a bump in his ratings by announcing cabinet members: http://volokh.com/posts/1215632730.shtml
My thought is that it can only produce trouble. Candidates have a tough enough time defending their every other move -- their VP choice, for example. Announcing cabinet members would only lead to mud slinging and attacks on the qualifications of people farther down the line, and for little benefit. Do you really care who the HUD secretary is? Who is it now, for that matter? Or the Secretary of Commerce? Does anyone even know what those people do? I can't envision any scenario in which I'm so on the fence that a candidate's announcement that he would appoint Joe Schmo to be Secretary of Veterans Affairs -- or even Secretary of State -- would push me over the edge.
Posted by: Jeff at September 3, 2008 09:28 PM
I'm currently at home waiting with bated breath for Ms. Palin's long-awaited speech!
Posted by: teahouseblossom at September 3, 2008 09:35 PM
(m), Predictions are no fun unless you take some risks! I'm hoping the old man will take a risk and go with the one-term pledge! He can always change his mind. :)
Harmless, I recall your disdain for the Wolf.
Jeff, Excellent points. I only care about Defense, State, Treasury, and Attorney General. I don't know why we even have the other cabinet positions. ;-) And obviously it's not in the candidates' best interests most of the time, but I bet McCain could appeal to moderates/liberals if he said he would hope to have Lieberman be his Secretary of State and Bloomberg be his Treasury Secretary and Cheney be his Secretary of Defense. Okay, so maybe the last one wouldn't help.
Teahouse, I was in the air, so I missed it, but I just told Tivo to record CNN for the next five hours, so hopefully I'll be able to see it tomorrow or catch up over the weekend.
Posted by: Fool at September 4, 2008 12:37 AM
Feeling a wee bit grumpy today? ;-)
Posted by: LisaBinDaCity at September 4, 2008 10:47 AM
Who names their child "Wolf"????
Posted by: Wiseazzz at September 4, 2008 02:19 PM
Hey, where is the "Sarah Palin needs to explain her affair before it gets embarrasing" post? The Enquirer is running stories... ;-)
Posted by: over_educated at September 5, 2008 02:18 PM
