Politics: April 2008 Archives

What to make of the Pennsylvannia Democratic primary, eh? Let's see, Hillary was the projected winner by CNN with less than double-digit numbers over our own Barack Obama. Does The Hound see a brokered convention in Denver come August?

You betchum, Red Ryder!

Which would be the best thing to happen to the body politic and the Democratic Party. Caucuses, committee meetings, floor fights over Michigan and Florida delegates. It might make for the most interesting Dem convention since Chicago in '68 --- sans the riots.

And, it would be great TV --- not that "American Idol", "Dancing with the Stars" and "Axmen" --- aren't worthy of watching. A Democratic convention fight might actually ignite the electorate to pay attention to the future of the republic.

So, for all you Democratic leaders sputtering about "End the drama, vote Obama" --- let the cards fall where they may. Onward to Indiana and North Carolina and, to paraphrase the cry at the Battle of Mobile: Damn the superdelegates, full speed ahead!

Once upon a time, a Democrat presidential candidate squared off against a military hero put up by the Republican Party. The Democrat was from Illinois. There was a war going on.

By the time of the November election, the Republican won --- against all odds. That was because Adlai Stevenson was dubbed an "egghead" --- the 1952 equivalent of being "elitist". Or at least that's what The Hound has been told.

Which is what Illinois Sen. Barack Obama is being labeled by both his Democratic rival, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, and Republican standard bearer, Arizona Sen. John McCain, a Navy pilot and Vietnam War POW.

What touched off this latest name calling, was Obama's pronouncement in San Francisco, of all places for a son of the Illinois prairie to fess up his liberal elitism, that small-town America was "bitter" because of the economy and what we can expect in 2009, once President Bush leaves office.

The freshman Illinois senator noted that because of what's happening with the economy --- is it really the economy, stupid? --- small-town Americans shrink back into an isolationist shell and rally around their religion, guns and xenophobia.

Talk like that won't get one re-elected to the Senate in some parts of Illinois, let alone the rest of the nation.

Which is what happened to Stevenson --- the man from Libertyville, as some dubbed him. Or at least that's what The Hound was told by somebody who knows a lot about stuff like this. The Stevenson mansion, which the County of Lake owns, is just south of Route 60 in Mettawa and Vernon Township --- not even Libertyville Township.

In the end, Stevenson was dubbed an egghead, because he complained his message couldn't get across to American voters. Political advertising in TV spots just didn't fit his message. He tried again four years later, with the same result.

The lesson here? Once an egghead, always an egghead.