Anything New in Politics?

I'm back from a long hiatus, and though I left in the middle of what was to be a 10 part series, I think I'm going to put it on hold. I've actually written most of the 10 parts, and may in the future continue to put them up here, they sadly don't seem relevant at the moment.

Alberto Gonzalez recently quit as the Attorney General of the US. Big deal. President Bush as you can imagine came out to call his treatment totally unfair, even though Gonzalez constantly was unable to answer questions before Congressional hearings. The man was either a liar or incompetent to an unbelievable degree, which I find wholly plausible.

Karl Rove is on the way out too, as if that makes a difference. He'll still consult from afar, and in the mean time he'll join the campaign of a GOP candidate in order to sink his tendrils into fresh meat.

Giuliani and Romney seem to be battling it out for who will win the GOP nomination, and somehow Giuliani seems to be in the lead. I wouldn't have believed it six months ago, and I still can't now. How can this guy be the GOP nominee? I think even I could crush him next fall. He has more negative baggage than any of the candidates in the field, and Democrats are going to have a field day with that.

On the Democratic side, it looks like Hillary is going to coast to victory with Obama hot on her heels. That man is really a force to be reckoned with. Many are saying he's a lock for the VP spot, hell, even Castro is saying that, of all people. He can command a crowd, and command a dollar, if his fund raising skills are any measure of his ability to part people with their money. The two of them would blow any of the GOP candidates out of the water in fundraising, but Hillary will be asking herself if a Democratic ticket, or if any ticket can win with a woman and a black guy running. It's going to scare away a lot of conservative voters, but then with Giuliani on the GOP side, I think a lot of them will just stay home anyway. I personally would rather have Obama on the front side of the ticket, but she's up by 20 points, so I don't see it happening.

It'd be great for Democratic politics to have him be the VP. He'd be a lock for the nomination in 8 years. He'd have the experience he needs combined with the power of incumbency, a magnetic personality and powerful oratory style. I think him stumping for Hillary is going to flood a lot of votes in as well. Between him and Bill Clinton, they'll have the best chance in years of winning, even with Hillary's own negative baggage, she has a great senatorial record she can boast about, and was strong enough on the military for Republicans to not be able to attack her. Meanwhile Giuliani has really no background in national or even state politics. All he has is his legacy as the Mayor of New York, and other than one day of great PR, it wasn't a sterling record. A lot of people now are starting to question even his leadership on that day.

I think Clinton/Obama is a great ticket, and I could vote for it finally not feeling like I was just hoping for everything to work out. I also think that Democrats will pick up more senate and house seats to, though probably still not enough to break a fillibuster. They'd have to get another eight or nine senate seats to do that, which I don't think is achievable at the moment. But Republicans can't stonewall on everything.

We'll find out who the runners will be in January, but Hillary is almost a lock, and only Romney has a real chance of catchng Giuliani after McCain's implosion and only Huckabee nipping at Romney's heels.