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"America Dodged a Bullet"


Peggy Noonan is a columnist for The Wall Street Journal.  I admire her and her clarity of thought and her viewpoint in general.  On June 4, 2008, Ms. Noonan wrote an article for WSJ entitled Declarations, in which she shared her observations about the nomination of Barack Obama by the Democrat party.  Ms. Noonan also shared her thoughs of the defeat of Hillary Clinton for said nomination.  Read the article here.  I heartily endorse and agree with every fine word of the article, and one conclusion in particular.  Here’s why:

  1. Barack Obama’s Nomination Shows the Greatness of America.  Ms. Noonan shared her friend’s observations about Mr. Obama thanking the voters of Alabama for his primary win, when only a generation ago, Democrat governor George Wallace (himself an unsuccessful candidate for President and near-assasination-victim) ordered cops to turn firehoses on civil rights protestors.  America has made gigantic strides toward Martin Luther King’s dream.  Now does this mean that Mr. Obama should be elected President, with his extreme socialist leftism?  Never.  But it is a wonderful day when a major party nominates an African American to the presidency.
     
    I should also note that, in my opinion, had Condi Rice run for President, she would also have had been nominated, thus guaranteeing that an African American would be elected President of the United States.
     
  2. "America dodged a bullet."  You bet it did!  As Ms. Noonan wrote, "Mrs. Clinton would have been a disaster as president. Mr. Obama may prove a disaster, and John McCain may, but she would be. Mr. Obama may lie, and Mr. McCain may lie, but she would lie. And she would have brought the whole rattling caravan of Clintonism with her—the scandal-making that is compulsive, the drama that is unending, the sheer, daily madness that is her, and him."  I cannot restate Ms. Noonan’s theory more clearly than she did.  Moreover, calling the aforementioned statement a "theory" does it a disservice. 
     
    Ms. Noonan spoke wisdom.  Hillary Clinton as President would have been an unmitigated disaster that would pose an existential threat to the United States of America.  Mr. Obama’s reign, if he is elected, will be characterized with numerous Senate filibusters, as the GOP would try to put the breaks on his extremism (and yes, I still think that the filibuster should be abolished).  But, in the end, Mr. Obama seems to carry his extreme leftism with good faith, and would be far less likely to engage in typical Clintonian paranoia over criticism.  The "vast right-wing attack machine" was nothing more than conservatives highlighting the Clintons’ amoral carryings-on, the horrific stains of which still sully the office.  Mr. Obama is far more likely to clean up those stains than add to them, as is Mr. McCain, who is destined to be the candidate endorsed by Conservativity.

We dodged a bullet.  As Ms. Noonan noted, the plebiscite has rejected the fomenting notion of a dynastic presidency.  In a highly-unusual election year, where a senator, normally rarely a presidential victor, is ensured of victory, where an African man is certainly on one ticket and a minority or woman is virtually guaranteed to be on the other, where one party is thought to be rudderless and in need of a message when in reality it is both parties that are rudderless ships, the big bullet has been dodged.  Now, the size of the Hillary-bullet is so large, so gigantic, so debilitating, that the largeness of the Obama-bullet has not been considered yet.  That’s coming up.  And the Democrats, exhibiting their usual contempt for the Constitution unless it is being used to prop up their agitprop, will howl like ancient Roman Catamites in the Hadrian’s palace.  That bullet has yet to be examined for its lethality to America, but such an examination is on the way.