by El Zorro Viejo (aka; Jim)

*sigh*

My endorsement of a Presidential candidate seems to be tantamount to the Kiss of Death. I think the last time my candidate actually was nominated was...damn!...never. Hmmmm....

I was barely into my high school career when Kennedy ran against Nixon. At that point in my life I had all the political savvy and, to be truthful, interest as that of a sea slug. Maybe less. My parents were Republicans and so were most of the people I knew. I didn't stay up to watch the returns. Four years later, I was a freshman in college when LBJ took on Goldwater. I was a little more politically aware and a lot more liberal in my politics. I did stay up for the election returns that night and I was pleased that the warmonger, Goldwater, was defeated. Four years after that, I was chearing when LBJ decided not to run for a second term. I was crushed when Bobby Kennedy was assassinated. I was outraged by the spectacle presented by the Democrat Party Convention. I was angered that Happy Hubie was nominated. And I pretty much sat that one out. I didn't want either of them in the White House. (As an aside, I would like to apologize to Mr. Humphrey for my being such an idiot. In retrospect, Hubert, the classical New Deal Democrat, would have been infinitely better than what we got--Tricky Dick Nixon.) I worked like a beaver four years later for George McGovern. He was not my first choice to run against Nixon...he was not my third choice, but I supported him with fervor.

The next election was between amiable (if a little clumsy) Jerry Ford and Jimmy Carter. Jimmy was not my man that year either. I must say that Carter has made an exemplary Former President and Elder Statesman. Which is good seeing as he made a somewhat less than effective President. And this brings us to the Reagan years. I was not a fan of Ronny Raygun. Nope, not a fan at all. So, of course, he beat Carter easily. Then came Fritz Mondale on his white charger, which was convenient since he could ride it into the sunset after Ronny handed him his lunch. Needless to say, Fritz was not my first choice to challenge Reagan. Now we are getting into elections that some of our younger readers might even remember. The '88 election pitted Reagan's VP, one George H. W. Bush against the Governor of Massachusetts, Michael Dukakis. How we came up with Dukakis as our party's nominee is something I will never quite understand. One would think that most people who go to political conventions have a modicum of political savvy and could tell that Dukakis had about the chance of the proverbial snowball in hell. He was not my choice, but I did work for him. We ended up with Bush, Sr. ...whoopie...And that gets us to pretty much current events.

Needless to say, I was not real thrilled to have Bill Clinton as my party's candidate in '92. It wasn't that I thought Clinton was a dirty old man; I just thought there were others more qualified to be President. But, then, nobody asked me. I really didn't want Gore to run, which, of course, made it inevitable that he would, did and then lost because I did (reluctantly) support him.

This brings us to the present. Kerry is not my first choice to run against GWB. DOH! My worry is that voters will see him as a Massachusetts liberal (with all the negative freight such an epithet carries). However, again, I was not consulted so it seems that he will carry the convention. He will probably arrive with more than enough votes to lock up the nomination on the first ballot. Which means the Democrat convention will have all the suspense and drama of garden tea party. Maybe I should throw my support to GWB now. Let's put this Kiss of Death to a real test...*grin*.

And that brings me to the real point of this post: Wesley Clark has called it a day and is retiring from the field. He's a good general and knows when to cut his losses. I still think he would have been the best man to send against the Republicans and that he would have made a good President. Oh well.....

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. ©El Zorro Viejo 2002-2005