Lets drink to the uncounted heads

Lets think of the wavering millions

Who need leaders but get gamblers instead”

–Mick and Keith

Make all the pretty rules you want, keep the campaign as clean as you like. And as soon as the winner of that Polyanna fantasy enters the ring of real world politics, he (or she) will get clobbered. Because the leaders of other nations, CEOs, and every other power player out there doesn’t care about playing nice. They play to win. The only thing that keeps international (or even national) politics from getting too ugly is the fact that everybody has something to lose, and sometimes it comes down to a game of chicken. That’s why the best ( or at least, the most enduring) politicians tend to be the ones who surface from the toughest nomination fights, and the roughest election fights.

People may talk about how they want clean politics, but they always want a brawler in their corner.

I will quibble back and say Clinton’s 49.2% vs. 40.7% victory in 1996 was decisive enough that, if all 8.4% of Perot’s voters had gone Dole’s way, Clinton still would have won a plurality of the popular vote.

Please note that I am not saying that makes him a good president.

Thanks, –Brad

There is nothing new under the sun so the proverb goes. I am a strict Conservative vs. the secular progressive socialists and never the twain shall meet. Never. I find the campaigns of today quite mild in comparison to some I’ve studied in the past.

As Bubba — quoted in the WSJ’s “Obama’s Clinton Education” this morning — famously told Bob Dole, “You gotta do what you gotta do.”