Even though I’m not happy about the constant barrage of election year politics in a non-election year, I decided to listen on satellite radio to the most recent Republican debate among the eight officially declared Republicans who aspire to the presidency.
I kept waiting for a defining moment, when one of them would set himself apart from the others and prove to me that he was more presidential, more principled, yet more pragmatic, and more wise than his colleagues. For me, that moment never came. Yes, Ron Paul is different, but whether we should be in Iraq or not, he clearly does not grasp the significance of the growth of Islam in the world, and he certainly has no idea what to do about it, except the idea of retreat, surrender and capitulation to their every demand. If I want to do that, I can vote for Hillary. I don’t need Ron Paul. On second thought, I still wouldn’t vote for Hillary, but the point remains that I don’t need Ron Paul if I want to vote for isolationism.
By the way, I would love to be an isolationist. It’s much closer to my heart than America as world policeman. But isolationism can only be practiced if we are willing and able to produce everything we need to consume and if other people are willing to leave us alone if we leave them alone. Neither of those things are true in our case.
We are producing less and less of everything. We have allowed ourselves to become a consumer nation, and above all else, we depend on foreign oil. Our failure to provide for ourselves is shameful, but we are where we are, and it can’t be changed overnight.
Secondly, Ron Paul’s belief that the Islamic world will leave us alone if we leave it alone is demonstrably false. The French aren’t doing anything to the Islamic world, except trying to hide from it, yet the French police are afraid to go into Moslem enclaves in Paris. How about Thailand? Thailand has no military presence anywhere, but they have a thriving Moslem insurrection.
What struck me most about the debate, though, was two words which were never used at any time. The first unused word was “Bush”. John McCain mentioned the president in passing by acknowledging that he and the president worked together on the failed immigration bill, which many Americans, including me, were opposed to. Other than that one reference, there was no mention of the current two-term Republican president, which is really astonishing in a debate of Republican candidates. I guarantee that next year’s Democratic nominee will not run primarily against the Republican nominee, but he or she will instead run against the record of this administration. While Democrats run against this administration, Republicans will apparently be running away from it, unwilling to speak about its successes or its failures. It would make much more sense, in my opinion, for the president to get both applause and criticism from the current Republican candidates. But complete silence says a great deal, and one thing it says is that none of these Republicans should expect to be in the White House on January 20, 2009.
The other word which was neither uttered nor asked about is even more significant. That word is “China”. I predict that soon after next summer’s Olympics, perhaps at the very beginning of the next administration, there will be a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, and it is likely to be a very bloody invasion. What is our next president going to do about it? Nothing, and they all know it, and the Chinese know it.
Even the press can’t ignore the daily recalls of toys, food and every other unsafe thing which is coming to us from China, some of which is the product of the slave labor of children. Last night there was silence about our trade deficit with the Chinese, how many American dollars they hold as the result of our deficit spending, and how they are beginning to dump those dollars in an apparent effort to undermine our currency.
There was complete silence last night about Chinese espionage, most recently including hacking into Pentagon computers, as well as computers in the U.K. and Germany. We Americans are not even wondering out loud what Chinese motives are, and we ought to be wondering a great deal about it, because the Chinese are being very aggressive on a number of fronts.
In fairness, Duncan Hunter has spoken about our problems with China, but there has been a deafening silence from the rest of the Republican field, and there was complete silence from everyone last night. Unfortunately, I’m left with the impression that none of these people are ready for the presidency. Furthermore, whether the next president is a Republican or a Democrat, it seems to me that their chances of making the world a less dangerous place for Americans are slim and none, and that’s not good.
By the way, none of these candidates mentioned Russia either, nor did they seem concerned about the expansion of NATO to Russia’s doorstep, which I believe is a mistake which continues to be passed down from the Clinton administration.
Isn’t it also odd that none of these candidates talk about crime, except for Rudy Giuliani, who tells us he solved the crime problem in New York by himself, apparently with no help from the police or anyone else? Giuliani keeps telling us he’s a great leader, but great leaders have followers, and Rudy has never once given credit to a follower for anything, as far as I know. Here’s a hint for America’s mayor. If you want to become the president, try congratulating someone besides yourself just once.
Of course, I can’t fault people for not answering questions they weren’t asked. So part of what I’m saying is that the debate questions need to be a great deal better. Perhaps one or more of these men have the potential to be good presidents, if they were elected. But the fundamental problem with the American presidency is that there is no appropriate training for it. It’s a job men either grow into or fail at. Being a senator, a congressman, a governor, a former first lady, a former mayor or a millionaire lawyer and claiming it has prepared one for the presidency is roughly analogous to me claiming that I am prepared to manage a chain of Italian restaurants because I have eaten spaghetti once or twice. Even the vice presidency isn’t good training for the oval office. A former vice president led us into Vietnam, and another led us into the Watergate scandal. The presidency is so unique that it has become a crap shoot for both the voters and the candidates.
