Bill's Notes

Harry's written a beautiful story over at his blog. Check it out.

I've never seen a ghost, and never want to. But I've had visions.

Obama apparently couldn't remember the month or the location of his last campaign stop.

Reminds me of 1996, when Bob Dole mixed up San Francisco and San Diego and the song Stay, where Jackson Browne doesn't remember if the next stop is Chicago or Detroit.

Anyway, the funny thing about the 96 Dole was he was hammered for calling the Dodgers "Brooklyn." My old man still calls the Dodgers "Brooklyn" on occasion.

And I often still mistakenly refer to the Colts as "Baltimore."

Time and travel get to all of us.

As Montgomery Burns once said [paraphrasing from memory], "Young man! I need to send this missive to the Prussian consulate in Siam - post haste! Am I too late for the afternoon auto-gyro?"

I may not have mentioned it here, but an ex-girlfriend of mine heads up a major national television news network in a certain third-world country. Anyway, I've found out that her network just started partnering with Al Jazeerah to carry their English-language broadcasts. Just lovely.

WTF, over?

I've been working and socializing lately and I didn't realize quite what Rush Limbaugh has been up to.

Um, manipulating the Democratic Primaries?

Yes, it's of course all within the rules.

But you know, just because something's allowed doesn't mean you should do it. Especially Republicans!

Bottom line: This is wrong, and I denounce it in the highest possible terms. This is not the Rush I knew 20 years ago.

Here's an article that questions whether college is worth it.

RTWT, as they say.

I've written about this before. I was extremely lucky when I went to college. Seton Hall was very catholic in this sense -- it was willing to teach you as much or as little as you wanted to know. You could skate by, or you could dig deep and really learn. The class sizes were small. The professors were usually pretty good and available. The price wasn't that high.

Granted, the facilities were terrible and ancient, and in an attempt to change that, SHU conducted an ambitious building project that meant my final three years on campus involved walking around various construction sites. (This was on a tiny campus to begin with.)

Was it worth it? In my case and in the case of most the people I knew, yes. Is it true anymore? Don't know. Haven't had a resume cross my desk from ole alma mater -- well, ever. And I've been hiring people for eight of the past 10 years.

Obviously, I support McCain. But shit ... who wants to win this time around? It will require real leadership. Hopefully, McCain can provide it.

BTW, those who complain about our final three candidates ought to consider the repercussions of the viciousness of our presidential politics, and especially the campaigns. Do you think many qualified leaders haven't considered the presidency and then thought -- who needs that shit?

Besides, we had many qualified folks on the Republican side, in particular. McCain won.

Unfortunately, we Republicans are a little late to the dance on this one. We should've picked McCain in 2000. That was his time. Instead, we put forth a not-ready-for-prime-time candidate who best quality was name recognition.

And we forgot what that name stood for. George Bush the Elder's presidency had high oil prices, a severe recession (worse than the one we had now), higher taxes, increased spending, and a wasted Supreme Court appointment (Souter). But at least Bush the Elder knew foreign policy and did a great job with it. So Dubya was about name recognition, but we forgot the problems of Bush I, hoping the son was more conservative. Plus, the Republicans were elected to keep down spending and finish the Reagan Revolution, and instead restarted the Nixon presidency. (Nixon greatly expanded government, and his economics were dismal.)

BTW, while I did support Bush after the primaries (supported McCain before the nomination), I had deep, deep misgivings about him at the time. In fact, when he was elected, I thought, "My God, what have we done?"

So now we're in the shit. A candidate like Obama, who we should easily beat -- we're probably gonna lose to him.

And then, as Republicans, we've got two choices:

1. He'll suck as president. So things will get worse, which none of us want.

2. He won't suck as president. He'll straighten things out on the economic side. Then, well, things will get better, and that will be great, economically. But we as Republicans will be out of power for a very very long time after that. Now who cares if the GOP loses if things are better? Well, during that time, virtually the entire left-wing social agenda will be codified in law. We won't reverse abortion. Identity politics will become extremely problematic. Does anyone want to live in a country run with the speech-codes of the Brown University English Department?

So at this point, I give up on who I want to win. Let things unfold as they may. I'll still support McCain, because I want our guy to win and to have the chance to unscrew the pooch. But I have to admit that the current situation is a real muddle to me -- not so much in terms of what needs to be done, or should be done. What's muddled is what I think is politically possible right now -- and I think the current political possibilities leave us, as they did in the 70s until Reagan came along, falling short of what we need to do.