Only Losers Run for President
Dear Steve:
Of course you're right about the
cult-of-celebrity politics; it's just that I still don't understand how the two
current benefactors of the American obsession with that celebrity got where
they are. On the one hand, you have George Quincy Bush--and any romantic view
of his dad as a guy unjustly toppled by a womanizing schemer is historical
revisionism, pure and simple (remember the last recession? went on for perhaps
6 or 7 years? Bush Sr. acted like Hoover? didn't give a press conference for
months? couldn't put both nouns and verbs in the same sentence?). On the other
is Al Gore, notable for (as you put it about JFK Jr.) not living up to his Fair
Deal hero father's high standards of integrity and cojones . How can these two turkeys be our leading candidates for
the highest office in the land?
The answer, methinks, is that the presidency attracts
losers because it's not even in the top 500 highest offices of the land. The
top slots belong to CEOs, the guys (and gals who act like guys) who really run
America, whose lobbyists write the bills, whose contributions fuel the
campaigns of lackeys like Bill and Hill. What did America ever do to deserve
this, anyway?
By the way, there was a cool NPR spot on conspicuous
consumption this morning. (I was too sleepy to note the reporter's name.) As
she went on and on about $12,000 bottles of 1870 wine (actually, I'd kind of
like to try one) and a Park Avenue apartment building where the grungy units
start at $4 million (why anyone would want to live on a street where your
furniture shifts whenever the commuter trains rumble beneath is beyond me), she
cleverly pointed out the analogies with the '80s economic bubble and the
dot-com one ... the big difference now is that only seven people ever benefited
from the '80s boom. When this one heads south, it'll affect a lot more people
who think of themselves as middle-class.
Today's New York Times lead
may be the stupidest ever: "A PLAN IS IN WORKS TO PUT OFF A VOTE ON TEST BAN
PACT: Clinton Satisfies a Demand by Lott in Effort to Avert Showdown." Gotta
get the crank out of the water supply down on West 43rd Street; what the hell
is wrong with the headline writers? First of all, no one cares about the test
ban. Maybe they should, but they don't, and I don't blame them. We did the Cold
War, and it was fine then, but now is now and even though the Russians still
have zillions of nukes pointing at us and nothing has really changed, it's
sooooo over. More important, how about something sexier? Try: "NUKE VOTE NUKED:
Clinton Sucks Up to a Lott".
And they wonder why the average age of a newspaper
reader is deceased.
Best Regards,
Ted
