Centrist Pundits

Well, the media is all abuzz about Sarah Palin’s book.

I haven’t read it yet, so I’ll reserve judgement on it. But with all due respect to our friends over at Palintology, I think that she’s got a really big job ahead of her in terms of political rehabilitation.

Certainly her resignation as governor is the biggest thing for her to get around. I mean, I understand why she did; having to deal with one bogus ethics complaint after another week after week after week would make me want to quit too.

But it’ll take a lot more than a book to reverse her political fortunes. Yes, she’s the darling of the far right, and she can have a very lucrative career as a public speaker and fundraiser if that’s what she wants. But if she wants to be elected to national office, she’s going to have to appeal beyond that base — and that means to us, the centrists.

I remember watching her debate coverage when she ran for governor of Alaska and being impressed — and being shocked when she ran for Vice President and appeared to have lost at least 40 IQ points. That observation alone makes me tend to believe that at least some of what she says about being mishandled by McCain’s staff is true. But she’s gotta convince us that she’s more than a caricature, and she’ll do that by speaking things other than right-wing catchphrases.

It’ll take some time, and I don’t think it’ll happen in time for 2012. It took about 20 years for Joe Biden’s national political repuation to get repaired. Maybe it won’t take so long for Palin, but if she wants to get elected to something, she needs to have a realistic timeframe. The problem is that the GOP might actually nominate her in 2012, when she won’t be winnable. That’s a serious mistake on their part.

During the campaign, though, the time I was the most impressed with her was towards the end, when she says she stopped listening to the advisors (at a point where it was very clear that they couldn’t win anyway) and she gave a series of speeches on energy policy. It’s an area she knows, it’s an area she’s comfortable talking about and she makes a hell of a lot of sense. If she’s really lucky, she’ll get taken on as Energy Secretary in the next Republican administration.

Greg 2012 Election, Media, National Politics, Personalities Palin

One of the great things about politics is that people tend to draw whatever conclusions they want to draw out of any poltical contest. I remember a Democrat in November of 1994 telling me that the election wasn’t anti-Democrat, it was anti-incumbent. I found that hard to swallow, since all of the incumbents who lost that day were Democrats. But it does remind me that it can be dangerous to find what you’re looking for in the tea leaves.

But, no matter, because now I am doing the same!

I think that the victory of Democrat Bill Owens in the special election for the NY23 congressional seat should indicate something very important to the major parties: shut out the moderates at your own peril.

Dierdre Scozzafava is a moderate Republican. She represents the future of the GOP — if, indeed, it has one. And the national party’s insistence on dragging the party to the right of what the locals knew would work lost them the seat. They might not have liked a moderate Republican, but they’d sure like her better than a Democrat.

Fact is, moderates and independents don’t like crap like this, and they’ve shown that it won’t be tolerated. Well, in upstate New York, at least.

Greg National Politics, Political Parties

If there’s anything that unites centrists, it’s the feeling that the two major political parties fall short of enchanting us to the degree that we want to give them all our support. After all, terms like “centrist” and “moderate” are considered by partisans to be invectives.

I’ve looked at other parties before; most are to the left of the Democrats or to the right of the GOP. There are some that appeal to a few moderates; I looked at the Libertarians, but they’re a little too liberal on the social scale for my tastes.

One party with promise seems to be the Modern Whigs. They claim to inherit the rich history of the 19th Century Whigs, which gave us four presidents, and was also the original party of Abraham Lincoln. From a purely marketing perspective, I think that’s genius — because the Party of Lincoln hasn’t really been acting like it for a long time.

Right now, the Whigs seem to not be fully defined. They do have some basic tenets listed on their website, including a fiscally conservative policy that is state-driven, emphasis on scientific research and development, and a recognition that the economic and national security future of this country depend on energy independence. Also, there is a tenet about veterans affairs that seems to be common sense, but has a prominent placement that’s likely due to the fact that the party was re-established by veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan.

As for other issues, they do go into some… well, detail isn’t the right word. They touch on some of them, and I think this is an area that the Whigs need to work on. Many issues are kicked to states rights. And that’s fine, but when they do that for Gay Rights, there’s nothing on the party’s view on federal issues, such as federal recognition of same-sex marriages for social security retirement benefits and for joint tax returns, or about federal laws like DOMA.

I am not sure if that reflects a lack of resources to get that information on the website, or if it’s simply because the Whigs haven’t fully defined themselves on some issues. If it’s the former, they really need to get some proper position papers out there on some key issues. Not every issue under the sun, but some areas to fully explain what it means to be a Whig. If it’s the latter, then they need to figure out what they’re about.

There’s also a possibility that they’re shying away from some controversial issues to keep from alienating potential supporters. In fact, their statement on abortion appears to be just that. Not that I blame them for wanting to stay away from it — it’s an issue that sucks time, energy and money away from critical issues like health care, national defense, the economy, and education. But you can’t look like you’re dancing around the issue if you want to be taken seriously.

The Whigs have ballot access in Florida, and have three candidates for Congress next year. I listened into a web conference they had with the candidates, and by far, the most appealing was Paul McKain. He seems like the real deal, and if I lived in his district, I think I’d be voting for him.

I’ll be paying attention to the Whigs. I’d have gone to a meeting to find out more, but they don’t seem to have any state organization here, nor can I find anyone else why has heard of them. Maybe that will change… I’ll see!

Greg Congress, National Politics, Political Parties whigs

Sometimes, what the parties send out that might look like a desire to know where their supporters stand is actually a push-poll designed to raise revenue. Here’s a recent example from the GOP:

Republican Census Document

Greg 2012 Election, National Politics, Political Parties gop

Can we take back the Nobel Prize and exchange it for the Olympics? I mean, there’s actually been work done towards the Olympics…

Greg Foreign Relations, National Politics, Personalities

I like to think I am a fairly bright guy, and I can usually see both sides of an issue. But there’s something I can’t quite understand.

Yesterday, someone was arrested overseas for a 32-year old outstanding warrant after he’d confessed and plead guilty to raping a thirteen year old girl.

However, there are many people who think he shouldn’t have to serve time for his crime — maybe because he’s a celebrity. Can someone explain it to me?

Greg Crime and Punishment, Foreign Relations crime, diplomacy, Media

I’ll admit it, I like the idea of travelling by train. I love the thought of seeing the countryside roll by, for the chance to read a book or nap or whatever as I travel to my destination.

Of course, it’s just a thought, because for me, like most Americans, train travel is neither cost-effective or time-efficient.

I did take a train trip once. I was about ten years old, and we lived in North Carolina, and I took a train to see my grandparents in Mississippi. It was the only time in my life that there was a train going between where I was and where I wanted to go.

In my own state, we’ve only had Amtrak service for about ten years. I’ve been tempted to take the train to Fort Worth (because that’s as far as it goes), but then I stop and think… why do I want to go there?

A policy analysis from the Cato Institute lays out how badly a public policy investment that Amtrak is. It costs Amtrak 30 cents per person per mile to operate. And the passengers pay for less than half of that — 13.7 cents per mile. Who pays for the rest? The American taxpayer — including the ones who will never board an Amtrak train in their lives.

And for some, it’s not a matter of choice or preference. Several major cities, such as Phoenix, Las Vegas, Columbus and Nashville , have no Amtrak rail service at all. These cities do have what Amtrak calls “Thruway” service, but that’s just a fancy name for a bus.

Speaking of buses, they manage to move people for 11.6 cents per passenger mile, of which their passengers pay… 11.6 cents. That’s even better than the airlines, who move us around at just 13 cents a mile.

I still like the idea of rail travel, and there may be routes, particularly in the northeast, where it may be profitable. Just don’t ask for the rest of us to pay for their train tickets, please.

Greg Economy, National Politics

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is announcing that she’s not going to run for re-election.

I am not the only one to think that she pretty much just announced her candidacy for President in 2012. She’s got a lot of political rehabilitation to do, but I think it would not be wise to underestimate her.

Greg 2012 Election, National Politics

There are people who have been wanting South Carolina governor Mark Sanford to run for President in 2012. However, many people told him that he needed more experience in foreign affairs.

I am afraid he completely misunderstood what we meant.

Greg Media, National Politics, Political Parties

The good people over at The Moderate Voice have posted about an article in the Christian Science Monitor that quotes a researcher from the University of Hawaii who has data from previous elections that shows that these election results was almost certainly fraudulent.

In the article, Farideh Farhi states that she is “convinced that they just pulled it out of their hats.” She goes on to speculate that the miscalculation this time was how severe the protests would be. Her thinking was that there was an expectation of some street protests after the election was stolen, but that it would die down quickly.

This would seem to jive with what we’ve seen. The religious authority must feel that they’re on the verge of losing their country, because, otherwise, they’d just stand by the results. I think there is a real fear that this could be 1979 all over again — only they would be on the receiving end of the wrath this time.

Let’s hope so.

Greg Foreign Relations diplomacy, iran