Dr. J.'s Short Takes: Barr, Paul, "Elitist," Welch, Giuliani, Bush, Clinton

Ohmygosh. Bob Barr has announced his candidacy for the Libertarian Party's nomination for President. Where does that leave Ralph Nader as a spoiler for the Democrats? If Barr gets the nomination, they will just cancel each other out. Go Bob!

Ron Paul has announced that he is "going to take it all the way to the (Republican) Convention." Wonder what he has up his sleeve. He has taken the "Songbird John" statements from various co-Vietnam POWs of McCain's down from his Web site. Huckabee has taken down such statements too. (They both had them up in February.) Maybe he and Hillary will join as a third-party ticket, you know, both of them "reaching across the aisle." Boy, the aisle could get pretty crowded out there.

I guess "elitist" is no longer defined by income and wealth. Here, from the Institute for Public Accuracy, are the 2006 net worth of the three current major candidates:

John McCain: $27,817,187 to $45,045,011

Hillary Clinton: $10,360,009 to $51,021,998

Barack Obama: $456,012 to $1,142,000

There is no recession, there will be no recession, and it's all the fault of the media. So Jack Welch tells us. Remember him? He's the retired President of GE, responsible for much of GE's export of capital that has made its overseas holdings so profitable while its U.S. holdings aren't. It's also the parent company of the CNBC financial network, on which he appears regularly to deliver the above message. Yes, the media just spend all of their time getting people into a bad mood about the economy. You know, "prosperity is just around the corner." People as old as I am and students of American history will know that that was Pres. Herbert Hoover's mantra from 1929 until he left office involuntarily in 1933. Some observers, even some appearing on CNBC, think that Jack is about as accurate as ol' Herb was, but hey, he is Jack Welch and CNBC just has to have him on regularly.

Giuliani and Clinton: the Politics of Fear. What was it that happened to Giuliani? What is his first name, again? The Politics of Fear seems to have worked about as well for her as it worked for him. I never liked Giuliani, from the time he ran his first racist campaign against David Dinkins in New York City in 1989. Ooops! Running a racist campaign hasn't worked very well for her either. But you do have to say one thing for Giuliani: At least he knew when it was time to quit.

Speaking of Clinton quitting, some observers have been calling on her to do so because the longer she lingers in the race, the more Republican she seems to be becoming. At least she appears to be so on the tactical side, her messages tinged with seeming racism, the reliance on fear, a mentality about her real chances of getting the nomination that have much in common with Bush's mantra: "the Surge is working." Numerous observers have stated that when he says the latter, Bush is being delusional, that he doesn't really know what is going on in Iraq. My claim for quite some time is that Bush is not being delusional at all about Iraq, that he knows precisely what is going on, and what is going on is the achievement of his primary objective: the creation of Permanent War. (I was pleased to see Keith Olbermann take the same position one night last week.)

In common with Bush seeming to be delusional about Iraq, with every passing day, Hillary Clinton seems to be becoming more delusional about her chances of getting the Democratic Party nomination. However, I don't think that Clinton is any more delusional than Bush. She is achieving something. I have speculated on just what that is. I don't think that it is about the 2012 Democratic nomination (although I did hear one commentator report that in 2004, he had heard from the Kerry campaign that they thought the Clintons were working behind-the-scenes against them, already looking forward to 2008).

It may be what I have previously speculated: trying to save the Democratic Leadership Council. But in the race for the nomination, she is really hanging on by a thread now, especially on the money side, as she falls behind even in announced superdelegate votes. Maybe she's got "something on Obama" that she is saving for the last possible moment, for maximum (so she would think) impact. Just like Ron Paul may "have something" on McCain. Now wouldn't that make for a fun Presidential election year? But she's got some reason for staying in it this long, and being delusional about getting the nomination ain't it.

Technorati Tags: Steven Jonas Bob Barr Rudy Giuliani Barack Obama Hillary Clinton DLC president