TheNextReport

Gore Once More Remember back in 2006 when speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi proclaimed that impeachment of George Bush was "off the table?” She indicated that the Democratic Party would make better use of its time enacting its legislative agenda, insisting that redress for what many had perceived as the president’s egregious violations of his office would assuredly come with the election of a Democratic president in 2008. Now, as the Democrats dismember themselves in a scorched earth primary season, the prospects for Pelosi’s vision of justice becoming reality are rapidly slipping away. With the election of John McCain as president, Messirs Bush and Cheney will not only be absolved of their misdeeds, their legacy will be enshrined for years to come in an interminable military engagement in the Middle East and in a right-wing Supreme Court that will likely change America until well into the foreseeable future. This doesn't have to happen. It is becoming clear with each passing ...

Iraq Plus Five - Ho Hum Five years after the US invaded Iraq, the war grinds on, unsupported by the majority of the American people or the Iraqi populace. The conflict in Iraq has now lasted longer than World War II and will end up costing many times more. If one is to believe the statements of the Bush administration and president George Bush’s presumptive Republican successor John McCain, the war is going just fine. The same arrogance and disdain for the intelligence of the American people that allowed this disaster to happen was manifested again in statements by President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and John McCain yesterday. In his message to the country, the president again outlined the now famous narrative that if we don’t win in Iraq, al-Qaida will establish a stronghold from which it will be able to attack the United States. Never mind that we have all but ignored going after al-Qaida in Pakistan where, according to most observers, including our own government, Osama bin ...

The Dream Team is a Nightmare You have to wonder when the Democrats will wake up. After Hillary Clinton’s primary wins in Texas and Ohio brought her and Barack Obama into a near tie in pledged delegates, the media pundits, party apparatchiks and the ever-blissful Democratic primary voters began to opine that the party would have no choice but to unite by supporting a Clinton/Obama (or Obama/Clinton) ticket. This idiotic idea has now been publicly endorsed by none other than former president Bill Clinton who termed the union of his wife and Barack Obama as being a potentially “unstoppable force.” Perhaps I am missing something, but this hare-brained scheme seems to suggest that a Democratic ticket without a running mate who possess strong enough national security credentials to match those of John McCain’s would somehow still spell success for the party in the general election. Over the course of many months and during numerous debates, both Clinton and Obama have taken pains to unders...

Count Your Change Now that the race for president is over and the Democrats have lost the White House yet again, it may be instructive to reflect on how it happened and perhaps finally consider that it is time to change the system. Declaring that the 2008 campaign is finished may be a bit premature you say? Hardly. While it’s true that the cable news channels will continue to churn out their form of information to make a horse race seem inevitable, the eventual result couldn’t be clearer. These last few days have seen the departure of John Edwards and Rudi Giuliani from the race, the endorsement of Barack Obama by the Kennedys and the near coronation of John McCain after his victory in Florida. These events remind us of two important, sobering facts: the first is that idealism – the pursuit of noble principles and moral purposes – is intrinsic to American political discourse; the second is that bottom-line concerns over national security will trump idealism almost every time. Along wit...

The First Laddie Former president Bill Clinton is a man possessed. He is, once again, explaining for public consumption the intimate details of a love affair – this time, with his wife. Now roundly criticized by power brokers in his own party for being impolitic with his remarks chastising the Obama campaign, the former president has clearly become his wife's most ardent champion. Bill Clinton's entry into Hillary Clinton's campaign was a strategy born from a widespread belief in the enduring political skills and the popularity of the 42nd president. His spousal advocacy displays an ardor, however, that would appear to go beyond mere support of Hillary's quest for office. In Bill Clinton's mind, the election of the first woman president may in fact be the last act of a grand political passion play featuring the First Man: the resurrection of the impeached. Granted an unprecedented second opportunity to enact a policy agenda that was derailed by his fall from grace,...

The Dems Open a Vein With so much at stake for the future of the nation and the world, one would think that the Democratic Party and its supporters would have acted with a bit more deliberation before blithely tossing away the presidential election. With George Bush and the party he represents held in such apparent low esteem by the nation, one has to wonder how the Democrats can possibly snatch defeat from the jaws of victory; yet, if last week is any indication, that is exactly what they have been aiming to do. That Hillary Clinton would decide that the best way to win the South Carolina primary and its majority African-American voters would be to attack Martin Luther King on his birthday is about as believable as the contention that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction in 2002. Yet, driven by an incessant media hype, the perception that Clinton was denigrating Dr. King by pointing out Lyndon Johnson's key role in shepherding civil rights legislation through Congress became viabl...

We Like Mike? One can never fail to be amused or mystified by the American political process. The race for the presidency among the Republican candidates helps one to remember that media-driven politics in the U.S. – especially of the presidential variety – is very similar to another American phenomenon: the carnival sideshow. There a snake oil salesman – the slippery carnival barker – stands in front of the crowd promising thrills and chills, a peek perhaps at a bearded lady, a strongman or a Siamese twin, or two. Eager for entertainment, the public slaps down its greenbacks to enter the tent and see for themselves what they may otherwise find difficult to believe, oblivious of the fact that they are being had. Witness the ascendancy of Mike Huckabee who won the Iowa caucus. The prevailing punditry would have us believe that Mr, Huckabee, a former minister, swept to victory in Iowa because he most clearly embodied the conservative Christian values characteristic of the majority of rur...