TERRY MOSHER
Today seems like a good day to go back to the Boneyard and get rid of my excessive thoughts that swirl around in my head and cause headaches. My mind goes bonkers sometimes and gets overloaded and this is a good place to get rid of some of them.
My quick takes from the first Democratic debate that interestingly was held in Sin City (Las Vegas). I guess it doesn’t matter where the debates are held as long as they are televised and you don’t have to leave your couch.
It’s interesting to discover – if we hadn’t already discovered – that the field of five Democrats was pretty weak, if you average them out. I don’t know how Lincoln Chafee, Jim Webb, and to a lesser degree, Martin O’Malley, can muster enough of a fight to even come close to being elected as our next president.
So I’m not even going to talk about them. They are just nuisances that have to be tolerated, at least in the early going of this race. They will soon fade away and return to their respective couches to watch along with the rest of us when the race really heats up.
And if I had to guess, Joe Biden will stay on the couch. Biden is a pro’s pro when it comes to politics and I can’t believe he or his backers believe he can beat the obvious front-runner for the Democratic slot on the ballot – Hillary Clinton.
My take on Clinton’s debate was simple: She was poised and calm and obviously had done her homework. She did an excellent job of filibustering and redirecting questions and her four rivals on the stage were too nice to stop her from taking control of the debate.
When she had a question that could cause trouble she redirected her answer to attack the Republicans and she tried to draw out her answers to gobble up time and leave little for the rest of her rivals (poor Jim Webb, he couldn’t get much face time).
The Hillary Clinton we get to see in public is not the Hillary Clinton that those who have worked for her, or been around her for any amount of time. From what I read she has a ready temper, is rude and has an entitlement side to her that she hides well.
She also can be, from what I have read, a two-fisted drinker that can swear with the best of us.
I don’t know that all of that makes her bad, but it’s a reminder that what we often see from public figures is just that – a public face coated with Teflon that smiles back at us and says everything we want to hear.
On the other hand, I think what we see from Bernie Sanders is close to who Bernie Sanders is – a committed socialist who is angry that America is controlled by the billionaires and huge corporations that will do everything to protect their economic advantage over the majority of society.
His passion runs deep for the Everyman and at his core he is a nice man who is an outsider among the real politicians that talk out of both sides of their mouths and make sure their mouths are full even as others in the middle and poor classes that are not so fortunate to be watering at the public trough go hungry.
Sanders cries to those classes to rise up and be heard, to take back the America he sees as becoming an oligarchy (a few controlling the many). That is striking an early chord. It is resonating among many of us who see the same thing, but are too busy, too afraid to step forward and do anything about it.
Because the word socialist is a dirty word in America, even though we are partly socialist (Social Security, anybody), I don’t think Sanders is electable. He is spot on with his social arguments, but is dearly lacking in foreign policy, which if you look around the world today should be a big thing for anybody striving to the highest and most powerful office in the world.
I feel Sanders is right, but is the wrong man for the right time.
Besides, he really is a good man. And politics at its core is a dirty business. To reach for great heights you have to bend, if not break, your principles to advance up the political ladder, and I’m not sure Sanders has the inner madness to make that climb.
So even though Clinton is exactly what Sanders rails against, I’m afraid that Teflon coating she has liberally applied to herself will in the end make her the Democratic nominee.
And she will face not Donald Trump, who I believe one of CNN’s talking heads Tuesday referred to as a “Carnival Barker”, but in my opinion probably Marco Rubio or Jeb Bush.
If it’s going to be Clinton-Bush, we will have, in the words of the elder Bush, a been there, done that scenario.
I feel, and I fear, that our country is leaning conservative right, and because of that I believe the next president will either be Rubio or Jeb Bush. I’m pretty sure the Republicans have already assembled a fighting machine that will throw everything it has to defeat Clinton. And I think one way to do that is to tear away the Teflon and force Clinton to reveal her true self. If the Republicans can do that, the presidential race will be over.
One other thought that needs to go to the Boneyard. Bremerton assistant coach Joe Kennedy has said that he will pray at mid-field after Friday’s football game at Bremerton Memorial Stadium between Centralia and Bremerton in direct violation of the school district warning him not to do so or risk being fired.
Kennedy has enlisted the support of a law firm and is intent to test the legal water between church and state. I don’t see where there is anything wrong with Kennedy praying if he wants, as long as he does not in any way push players to join him. He is guaranteed the right of religious freedom and if he chooses to exercise that right I don’t think the school district has a right to stop him.
The question, I guess, is can the district legally fire him for disobeying an order?
We will see.
I think this is much to do about little. Football players all over the country from high school to professional kneel down after games and pray. The fine line that makes this different is that a coach is doing the praying and not an athlete.
So, again, we will see.
That’s enough for today. I’ve got to go figure out how to cut down some maple tree sprouts that if allowed to grow further will eventually obstruct our water view.
Be well pal.
Be careful out there.
Have a great day.
You are loved.
