Anatomy of a Collapse

Two reasons for the Fall:

I.   Fundamental Unseriousness

     "The man who would be the oldest to embark on a

      first presidential term has chosen as his possible

      successor a person of negligible experience.  Any

      cook can run the state, said Lenin, who was wrong

      about that, too.

      America's gentle populists and other sentimental

      egalitarians postulate that wisdom is easily acquired

      and hence broadly diffused; therefore anyone with

      a good heart can deliver good government, which is

      whatever the public desires...

      John McCain's opponent is by far the least experi-

      enced person to receive a presidential nomination

      in the 75 years since the federal government became

      a comprehensively intrusive regulatory state and

      modern weaponry annihilated the protection the

      nation derived from time and distance.

      Which is why McCain's case for his candidacy

      could, until last Friday, be distilled into two words:

      Experience Matters."

       - George F. Will

         conservative author & baseball fan

         Sept 3rd, 2008

II.  Sept 23rd - 29th

      Sept 23rd:  Calls for immediate bailout plan to be

                       passed.  Emphasizes that it must be a 

                       "clean" bill, free of pork and add-ons.

                       Draft is 3 pages long.

                       Never considers whether any form of a

                       market-based solution, in whole or in

                       part, is viable.

      Sept 24th:  Suspends campaign and proposes the 

                       postponement of 1st presidential debate

                       in transparent attempt to cast Obama as

                       more interested in politics than allaying

                       public economic anxiety.

      Sept 26th:  Participates in debate even though a

                       bailout plan had collapsed in Congress,

                       undermining the entire reason he had

                       suspended his campaign.

      Sept 29th:  Votes for a 450+ page Senate Resolution

                       jam-packed with pork and add-ons.  Now

                       very associated with its creation in the

                       public's eye.

                          

                       Doubles down on mistakes by repeating

                       a bungled message from the previous

                       week:  "fundamentals of the US economy

                       are strong."

Let me get this straight.  We've had to endure 3 freaking years of this Presidential Election only to have it decided in 3 weeks?  Life in the crucible I guess.

No matter how you look at it, this cycle is a conservative's* nightmare: from the candidates to the wisdom of the crowd.  When given the choice, the nation will always take the young, paper tiger over the old, lunatic tiger.

So please stop with the ROBO-calls, both of you.  I've already made my choice of state:  Inebriation.

* Buckley, not Kristol