Recently, I talked about how Pat Buchanan really, really has outlived whatever usefulness he might have ever had. Well, I seem to have struck on a theme, because in the past week, two other political figures have come up in the news who also are well past their “best if sold by” date.
First up, someone at The Daily Beast must have found the stash of the good drugs, because they seem to think that, should the Massachusetts legislature once again rewrite the law to benefit Democrats and screw Republicans and let the governor once again have the power to fill United States Senate vacancies, the ideal replacement for Ted Kennedy would be Michael Dukakis.
Yeah, I forgot he was still alive, too. Although to be fair, the classic question “how can you tell?” seems to apply.
Dukakis. Somehow, the author wants to tie that possibility in to Congressman Joe Wilson’s outburst at Obama’s address to Congress. Well, if you’re concerned about people having too much passion in Congress, sending the legendarily bloodless Dukakis makes a certain amount of sense.
And then, Jimmy Carter (remember him? I wish I didn’t) chose to chime in on current politics by saying that most of the criticism of President Obama is racist in origin. This was unwelcome news to the Obama administration, which was hoarding that particular race card for a really important time, so they quickly distanced himself from Carter’s frothings.
Poor, poor Jimmy. Even John McCain says he was one of the worst presidents of the 20th century, and getting McCain to say something bad about a Democrat is a truly Herculean task.
But Carter’s outburst should come as no surprise. He laid now for about a decade after getting tossed out on his ass in 1980, but he’s been a pain in the ass for every president since Clinton. Somehow he has convinced himself that “beating Gerald Ford two years after Watergate” granted him some sort of lifetime license of moral superiority and relevance.
Carter, Dukakis, Buchanan… it’s certainly clear that there is a downside in the progress in medical technology and the extending of the useful human lifespan.
