A New Campaign Season

It seems like only two years ago we were in the midst of a vicious campaign for the Presidency, a campaign marked with the party not in control of the White House explaining how all the party in control had it all wrong. As we enter into the mid-term Congressional elections I think it a good opportunity to see how well it has gone since the Democrats have taken over.

About this time in 2008 President Bush and his team were advocating for a "surge" of forces in Iraq, the logic being to counter the growing terror movement and allow Iraqi's a chance to stabilize there civil control, establish a viable government, and mature the newly reestablished security forces. The Democrats universally opposed this move, and lobbied for immediate withdrawal, led by then Senator Obama who, I believe, called it a failed strategy. Now two years later we know in reflection the surge was a good strategy and seems to have accomplished much of what it was intended to. Although the President will take credit for this I would rank that Bush 1, Obama 0.

When the democrat's swept into dominating majorities in the House, the Senate and the Executive I hoped they would learn to govern, to find the middle ground, to build consensus and find the compromises they needed to achieve change. I think it is safe to say they did not. They spent the first two years blaming their failures on the previous administration, or the minority parties refusal to deal with them. I believe the name calling between the party leadership continued at about the same level as when GW was in the White House. The whole focus of the Democrats 1st year was implementing their version of socialized medicine. They did that at the cost of our national debt, and any programs which may have incentivize small business. Here we are after two years with the same high unemployment, increasing central government control, and no clear path to economic recovery. I would rank Democrats -1 and Republicans 0 for their complete lack of accomplishment.

Afghanistan and Pakistan: GW and the Republicans sacrificed any chance to get in and out of Afghanistan when they lost focus and invaded Iraq. Obama, in a salute to the previous administration, now advocates for a surge, and we are moving large numbers of troops into a region with no history of successful national government. The Republicans remain strangely quiet on this, obviously they have nothing better to offer. I suggest this is a 0-0 tie.

So where do we stand? The Republican's seem to be ahead, but not through any clear choices. Their complete lack of vision, and their inability to communicate a positive course of action has served only as a foil for the Democrat's, slowing down the socialization of America, but not stopping it.

I think the only option for the next election is to vote for anyone who is not currently in office and start all over. If we could get 435 brand new Congressmen and 33 brand new senators it would be interesting to see what change would be like. Who would be Speaker, or Minority leader, or Whip? 468 new congressman learning their jobs at the same time might mean most are out for the nation and not themselves.