Hello Chuck,
That Panamanian Airlines flight sounds like a nightmare! Truly terrifying.
The worst thing that ever happened to me on an airline was a 13-hour flight between Los Angeles and New York. We were set to land at JFK when we were sent back to Cincinnati! (I guess we had a lot of fuel and they needed to get as many planes as possible out of the area.) The plane was too big to taxi to the terminal. After refueling far out on the runway in the snow (one man was so furious he insisted on deplaning right there, forget luggage), we then took off, only to circle Pittsburgh, Albany, and Jamestown for hours. Not fun. But not near-death. I can’t imagine what that must be like.
But back to politics, which I’m always delighted to talk about. Even though McCain’s campaign manager, Davis, said money doesn’t buy votes, it can really shift the landscape. You mention Michael Huffington, who is regularly cited as an example that money doesn’t matter. But there you had a guy with virtually no record, who avoided any contact with the press and even much personal contact with voters. He ran a media buy, pure and simple, with tough ads blanketing everything. And he almost won. On the basis of nothing. The tide finally turned when it came out that, though he was bashing immigrants, he had an illegal immigrant as a nanny for his children. But Dianne Feinstein had the fight of her life against a candidate who was a prototype for virtual.
Rich people may not win–look at Steve Forbes, whose family is finally beginning to ask if this is the best use of the family fortune–but they distort the system. And it’s not just the campaigns. To build up a war chest, as so many elected officials say, they spend so much time courting donors and massaging givers that they necessarily devote less time to their day jobs. Something is definitely screwy.
And though Davis may have misspoken, many McCain voters on Tuesday said it was the man’s personal story, more than his talk of campaign-finance reform, that really appealed to them. McCain thus has other cards to play besides campaign-finance reform, which he must do if he is going to morph into the GOP’s nominee.
Davis might also have been trying to suggest that all Bush has is money–nothing else. And here they might be mistaken. The Bush campaign is full of tough guys who can muster a take-no-prisoners approach. (I know, not the best choice of words when McCain is involved.) They understand the PR value of not locking McCain out of New York, but they also understand that, as Mr. Dooley said, “politics ain’t beanbag.” It’s an old line but its still true. So why not do everything they can to keep him out and just get rid of him?
This is shaping into a swell campaign on both sides–nasty all around. Those gloves are coming off! And that will keep it interesting, certainly until March 7, if not not beyond.
It’s been fun chatting with you this week. But I’m glad it’s ending now. That way, there will be eons of time between our stint and anything we discussed. (Campaign years are akin to counting in dog years, time is measured differently. A day can be a lifetime, even several lifetimes, for some races.) So our errant predictions will have faded into the mists of time.
All the best,
Allison
