It\’s really interesting….

Will energy independence be the It Issue for the Dems? Well, Mark Warner banged that drum pretty loudly, but I’m not sure it helped him much. And I remember Lincoln Chafee mentioning it in remarks that underscored many differences with the Bush administration.

This may be Issue #1, but I think the GOP could snatch the ball away. Nobody owns it yet. None other than Newt Gingrich writes, in a piece that came out on the AEI website a few days ago,

“The United States must develop a strategic energy policy which is explicitly aimed at making the Persian Gulf and the dictatorships less wealthy and less important. On September 11, 2001, oil was $23 a barrel. On August 16, 2006, oil was $77 a barrel. Every additional dollar a barrel is worth $930 million a year to Iran and $861 million a year to Venezuela. No wonder Ahmadinejad and Chavez sound so confident. Think of the windfall money they can spend. The confidence of the oil producers is reflected in OPEC’s decision to start their meeting on September 11. Think of the symbolism of the people we have enriched who are also the funders of terrorism deciding to meet on the anniversary of the day when people they funded attacked New York and Washington. We must have a strategy of moving beyond petroleum to a much more diverse and independent system of energy. This requires a strategy fully as intense and funded as a military campaign, and it is an integral part of defeating the forces of Islamic fascism and terror.”

Energy independence might be a shibboleth in the making. The GOP might build a platform based on the status quo: that they are more trusted by the voters on national security issues, so until we can transition to a less-dependent energy posture, America needs leadership with no qualms about going out into the world and roughing people up to keep the oil flowing. (Not that this is working out that way, exactly, but it’s primarily a matter of engineering perceptions that way.)

I think better energy INTER-dependence makes more sense. Feedstock crops for biofuels are more efficiently and cheaply grown toward the tropics. Wouldn’t you feel more comfortable if we were more dependent on unambiguously democratic Brazil than on a Venezuela that can wobble from coup to plutocracy to demogoguery? But that position might be a killer on the left and the right. To the left, it makes you a rain-forest raper. To the right, you’re up against agribiz and the rural vote, and their cherished agricultural-import trade barriers.

At least the Dems have mostly shut up about alMart. And in the nick of time, too. Chinese Walmart employees have just pulled off something labor organizers in the U.S. haven’t: a recognized union. How embarrassing! The Dem’s War on Walmart was misframed anyway: it was being pushed on the basis of a living wage and decent benefits for the *middle class*. Perhaps in China, Walmart workers have no problem being lumped in with the proletariat, as long as they aren’t lumped in with the roving, desperate lumpenproletariat. After all, you can’t declare class warfare without recognizing classes, can you?

I have watched many videos of presidential campaign appearances, to get a sense of what the road ahead might be like, and particularly for clues as to what sorts of humiliating public encounters I would have to endure. I was forced to the unhappy conclusion that this grueling gauntlet would require that I spend far too much time with my family.

I think that’s a reason for bowing out early that any red-blooded American should be able sympathize with. I feel secure in the knowledge that your prayers will be with me from now on. Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.

P.S. Also, whatever you do, don’t vote for Biden in the primaries.

http://tinyurl.com/yae8fg

Uhhh…like Bye, Bye…

I forgot Wesley Clark in the list, and the maybe of Tom Vilsack.

How would a Bayh/Biden ticket sound?

It is probably correct to say that Evan Bayh inherits the neoliberal sash. And it is also probably true that in a race with Hillary RC running up the middle that this means little. What I, a Hoosier native who left just as Evan was being groomed to run for Secretary of State (by political allies of ours, primarily), am not sure about is whether Evan is a lightweight or something more.

His mother Marvella was brilliant and erratic . His dad Birch was not the deepest root in the forest. but exuded country charm, and together they were certified left- liberals who knew how to win back in Indiana. I’m not sure where Evan got his conservatism except to say that maybe if Birch had come of age in the early 90s instead of the early 60s his politics might have been more conservative as well.

The landscape is beginning to look like Hillary RC. John Edwards, John Kerry, maybe Russ Feingold, maybe Al Gore, maybe Barack Obama, maybe Evan Bayh, maybe Joe Biden (just kidding, I hope)…am I missing someone? In all, this is probably a stronger group than the Dems have been able to put together since Mondale/Hart and others in 84. Let’s assume that is not a harbinger of an 84-like result.

Do you think Warner will now reconsider?

What was, prey tell, enough to carry a Bush across said line? Stormtroopers at the recount stations, or Sandra Day O’ Connor?