48 Hours in America
Monitoring an election is a tiring job, but its little compared to running a nation with an opposition Congress
A night indeed to be recalled.
There were two battles I was focusing on that night. One was between Democrats and Republicans, a clash of titanic proportions in the most powerful country on earth, deciding the future of President Bush's term, and subsequently of a major section of world affairs. Its location streched over several time zones, from ocean to ocean, in polling booths from Atlanta to Seattle, Honolulu to Jamestown. The other battle took place on this side of the Atlantic, in a small kitchen/lounge area in an untold city, within which were two laptops and a TV changing between News24 and Sky. It was between your coffee-drinking blogger, and the need to sleep.
I stayed alert until around 4:30am (longer than my associate Dr. Picaros), when I admitted defeat in my ongoing battle against tiredness when I heard George Allen not conceding. Even the most ardent followers of politics find it difficult not to lie down eventually.
AP is calling Virginia for the Democrats- I'm glad we won't have to wait until the 27th to actually start the recount. It seems unlikely, but not impossible, that Allen will demand a recount. Looks like even the right can be sensible on occasion.
I can't imagine what Bush is going to do now. No doubt 'bipartisanism' will be the buzz word for a while longer (though you wonder what other choice they have). If the Democrats had managed this in 2004, think of the damage which could have been done to the President's agenda. Two Supreme Court justices, some limited privatisation of social security and various trade agreements may well have been off the cards, not to mention various investigations.
Now personally, I am pleased about the results. Initially. Then of course (as previously mentioned), I realise that the Democrats may well do some things which I feel are unwise. 'A new course in Iraq' is an admirable and effect mantra, but I doubt very much they have any idea what they plan to do. Withdrawal is a betrayal and staying will probably be electoral suicide in two years.
I'm a little tired of all this international stuff. I may well turn my attention to domestic policy for a bit.
A night indeed to be recalled.
There were two battles I was focusing on that night. One was between Democrats and Republicans, a clash of titanic proportions in the most powerful country on earth, deciding the future of President Bush's term, and subsequently of a major section of world affairs. Its location streched over several time zones, from ocean to ocean, in polling booths from Atlanta to Seattle, Honolulu to Jamestown. The other battle took place on this side of the Atlantic, in a small kitchen/lounge area in an untold city, within which were two laptops and a TV changing between News24 and Sky. It was between your coffee-drinking blogger, and the need to sleep.
I stayed alert until around 4:30am (longer than my associate Dr. Picaros), when I admitted defeat in my ongoing battle against tiredness when I heard George Allen not conceding. Even the most ardent followers of politics find it difficult not to lie down eventually.
AP is calling Virginia for the Democrats- I'm glad we won't have to wait until the 27th to actually start the recount. It seems unlikely, but not impossible, that Allen will demand a recount. Looks like even the right can be sensible on occasion.
I can't imagine what Bush is going to do now. No doubt 'bipartisanism' will be the buzz word for a while longer (though you wonder what other choice they have). If the Democrats had managed this in 2004, think of the damage which could have been done to the President's agenda. Two Supreme Court justices, some limited privatisation of social security and various trade agreements may well have been off the cards, not to mention various investigations.
Now personally, I am pleased about the results. Initially. Then of course (as previously mentioned), I realise that the Democrats may well do some things which I feel are unwise. 'A new course in Iraq' is an admirable and effect mantra, but I doubt very much they have any idea what they plan to do. Withdrawal is a betrayal and staying will probably be electoral suicide in two years.
I'm a little tired of all this international stuff. I may well turn my attention to domestic policy for a bit.
posted by Metatron at 3:50 PM
1 Comments:
I think one of the problems is maybe not that the Democrats have no idea what to do in Iraq - it is more that they have too many ideas; more than one, anyway. They seem pretty split (from what I have seen) between immediate withdrawal (luckily only a minority support this, as it would undoubtedly lead to even greater instability than is already manifest in Iraq), phased withdrawal (what I support - get out as soon as possible, bearing in mind the necessity for some sort of stability in the country) and staying until the final shot is fired (which I don't think is realistic - Iraq will not be stable in the next five, maybe even ten or twenty years, and the presence of coalition forces will do nothing in the long run to enforce this).
I will admit that I don't have the solution to the problem of Iraq - I am not an expert on Middle Eastern politics. Obviously, the best answer is never to have gone in there in the first place, but neither Blair, nor Bush, nor the author of this blog will admit this - however, given that we are there now, and that the country is in a terrible mess, it is our duty to do something to ensure that civil war does not continue. This will mean the loss of lives of more of our servicemen (and women...servicepeople?), many of whom do not, and did not, support the invasion in the first place, but sadly this is a consequence of what happens when a subservient and inept leader feels the need to follow his warmongering friend from across the Atlantic into battle.
Anyway, enough on the war. Hopefully, now that commonsense (it exists - trust me...) is prevalent in both houses of the US, the foreign and domestic policy of that country will take a turn for the better. As to what Bush will do, only time will tell, but now that the Democrats can effectively set the agenda, I expect that the Republicans will be forced to adopt a slightly less disgusting method of government. I can only hope that the Democrats use the power they now have wisely, thus making more likely the already probable (in my view) victory of a Democratic (and democratic...!?!?) party in 2008.
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