Pacific Views

Better Wednesday Reads

Gene Lyons is a hell of a good reporter and during the Clinton Wars did a yeoman job of documenting and exposing how the radical right wing tried to impeach a legitimately elected President. As an Arkansas native, he gave us some real perspective on Clinton and I figured that with General Wesley Clark entering the fray (another Arkansas native), Lyons' view is one that I'll watch. So I found Buzzflash's interview with Lyons about General Clark very informative. Lyons believes that Clark has not just the substance to be a good president, but that he also can compete effectively on the style front against Bush.

Tristero has a very important piece up about the failure of intellect that allowed so many Washington pundits to be conned by the neocons. Tristero is concerned that we understand why this is NOW before we find ourselves even deeper into this quagmire of empire. As someone who also wonders why the hell this country's "leaders" didn't figure this out earlier, I too want this question answered.

One of Buzzflashes contributors wants to point out, "We told you so." He too asks what is it that prevents those that live inside the power bubble (DC, NYC, etc.) to be blind to what ordinary people can see. I join him in saying WE TOLD YOU SO.

When reflecting on why we are in the quandary we are in, it seems clear that many people had no idea about how radical this administration's policy would be. Bush has shown that his only interest is playing hardball and it is a very nasty form of hardball indeed. (Thought experiment: if Gore had realized how awful they would be and how much they would destroy in a few short years, would he have been so willing to hand over power without a bigger fight?) So one question is, how many Republicans recognize that this group that has acquired them (somewhat like a hostile takeover)? And how many would sign up for the current policies of the radicals if they had had been asked? Ernest Partridge, of the Online Gadfly asks his moderate Republican friends to reflect on this (via Smirking Chimp).

Posted by Mary at October 22, 2003 05:27 AM | TrackBack