Thought for Today

"Nowhere at present is there such a measureless loathing of their country by educated people as in America."

~~~~~ Eric Hoffer

Hat tip: Thomas Sowell

VDH on the Campaign

Victor Davis Hanson, one of the wisest men of our generation, is always worth reading. This time, though, he has outdone himself. In his latest essay for Pajamas Media, The Campaign Takes a Very Strange Turn, he begins by posing four "why?" questions:

Why didn’t Colin Powell and Co. jump ship in, say, June or July, and endorse Obama after many months of campaigning when his positions were already well known? That is, why wait until late October when, after the financial meltdown, Obama surged in the polls? Had Powell come out even in the first week of September, he could have demonstrated that although Obama was down by three points, he was willing to stick his neck out with a principled endorsement that may well have made him persona non grata in a McCain-administration Washington.

Why didn’t the media or McCain just ask Obama a few of the following questions: Why did you keep emailing and phoning Bill Ayers for three years after 9/11, when the country was gripped by fear of terror, and Ayers, like bin Laden, said that he had not done enough bombing, and had no regrets about the terrorism he had committed?

Why did Obama say in 2004 to the Chicago Sun-Times that he went to Trinity Church every Sunday at 11AM, and then later claim he had not been there that regularly once Rev. Wright’s venom was disseminated to the general public? Is Obama for, or not for, a simple yes or no, missile defense, nuclear power, off-shore drilling, and coal-powered electrical generation? There might be legitimate answers, but surely the public could profit by them, rather than worry over the Palin pregnancies, wardrobe, or Tasergate.

Why did the greatest furor against Palin originate with women, both liberals like a Gail Collins, Maureen Dowd, or Sally Quinn, or conservatives such as a Peggy Noonan or Kathleen Parker?

He then proceeds to answer them, and quite a few more, in his usual quiet, understated, eloquent style. Go see what he has to say.

Putting Powell in Perspective

Bret Stephens, the Wall Street Journal's ace foreign affairs columnist, has written a most perceptive piece, Powell Catches the Beltway Breeze, putting Colin Powell, his post-military career, and his opportunistic endorsement of Obama into perspective. Here's a snippet:

To what extent is Mr. Powell's endorsement of Mr. Obama a case of sour grapes?

That's one of the questions Tom Brokaw might have usefully asked Mr. Powell, rather than simply hand him a soapbox. Here's another: If America's reputation needs fixing, what part does the former secretary think he played in its malfunction?

By all means, read the whole thing.

If not for Presidents Reagan, Bush I, and Bush II, Powell would have been just one more retired general. Reagan promoted him to 2-star, then 3-star, rank and nominated him for his 4th star, Bush père moved him up to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Bush fils selected him as his first Secretary of State. As he readily admits, he and fellow Vietnam War veteran John McCain have been good friends for decades. Yet, listening to his lame and hollow excuses for deserting his friends in favor of a naïve, inexperienced candidate with whom he has nothing in common but the attribute of skin pigmentation, I really wonder about this man's seemingly limitless capacity for self-deception and rationalization.

There was a time when I hoped that the day would come when I'd have the chance to vote for Colin Powell for president. However, I'm now very grateful that he made the decision not to try for the office, for he would have been a major disappointment. In fact, by his disloyal, ungrateful, and self-serving behavior, Gen. Powell has so diminished himself in my eyes that I'll forevermore think of him as Semi-Colin.


Hat tip: Townhall.com