No! I'm No President, Nor Was Meant To Be!

O, that this too too "solid" economy would melt
Slow into recession because of the Dow!
Or that the Federal Reserve had not fix'd
Their hopes 'gainst bad mortgages! O Bush! W!
How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable,
Seem to me all the credit of this world!
Fix it! Ah fix! 'Tis an unregulated market
That's to blame for this: the rank and file in Wall Street
Possess bad debts. That it should come to this!
But two banks dead: nay, not so much, not two:
So excellent a bailout that was given
Freddie and Fannie; yet so unkind to Merrill Lynch
That it almost faced bankruptcy without Bank of America
buying its stocks too cheaply. Savings and Loan!
Must I remember? Why, that's what's happening,
Because inflationary spending has grown
By rates the Feds cut. And yet, within a month --
Let me not think on't -- McCain, thy name is woman! --
A little month, and the election will be held
And you want to postpone the debate with Obama?
Like Bush, all talk: -- Why even speak? --
O, Bush! A lame duck, that lacks discourse or reason,
You should have acted sooner—no rescue by Uncle Sam
For Lehman Brothers and no clue about
The cost to Taxpayers. Within the week:
Before any meaningful debate takes hold
And before anyone can eye and flesh out the bill
You want it passed. O, most wicked speed, to discuss
With both candidates the balance sheets!
It is not nor it cannot come to good:
But break my bank; for you must raise my taxes.

Selling the Past as Part of the Future

Obama says that this election is about "the past versus the future". The Clinton campaign should take him on, and remind people of the past: a time of economic prosperity, a time of fiscal responsibility, a time when people felt great about this nation, a time when the world looked up to America.

Frankly, I'd like to restore the past, and only when we restore the past can we build a better future. Solve the problems of today by rectifying all the mistakes of the Bush Abomination. Obama cannot build his vision of the future without going back to President Clinton's sound foundations. What Bush did these past seven years is destroy the foundations of America. We need a president who can go back and make the necessary repairs first. You can't put a roof on a house and pretend that you're going to have shelter from the storm when there's no floor to even stand on.

Let's go back to the past, a time when civil liberties were protected. Let's go back to the past, a time when habeas corpus was law. Let's go back to the past, a time when all people were given due process. Let's go back to the past, a time of non-proliferation. Let's go back to the Geneva Conventions. Let's go back to the Kyoto Protocol. Let's go back to more funding for education. Let's go back to balanced budgets. Let's go back to accountable government. Let's go back to diplomacy. Let's go back to competent appointees. Let's go back to lower gas prices. Let's go back to allies. Let's go back to opening avenues of trade and opening borders. Let's go back to a time when we don't have color-coded fear. The 8 years of Clinton was a great America, and I'd go back to those days any day.

The Clintons have gotten blamed for partisanship and divisiveness, but what polarized this nation was Newt Gingrich's Congress. And the Clintons needed to play by their rules and beat them at their game. It was the Republicans who had this overweening lust for power, and because they finally had a taste of it when they won the majority in both Houses during Gingrich's Revolution, they stopped at nothing to destroy the Clintons. This culminated in the unfair, unwarranted and unconstitutional impeachment of President Clinton. And when we put things in perspective now, when we realize the hypocrisy of Gingrich and his fellow Republicans who each resigned for their own moral shortcomings; and when we put the only blight of Clinton's Presidency next to the failings and the illegal actions of the Bush Abomination, then we can see just how great we had it. We can see that the Clintons were good for America. We can see that the past is something we need to restore.

The Clintons should not be afraid to run on their respective records. The Clintons should use restoration as part of their strategy. Forget about talking about "change" and the "future". The past is a great future, and it's one that doesn't preclude progress. Restoring the past is the necessary antidote to Bush's mistakes and the right "change" for America.

Obama: Not a Fairy Tale, But a Myth

Barack Obama's bid for the presidency is built on the myth of his ethos, which the media perpetuates to a public that has become so starved for "change" as a result of the past seven years of the Bush Abomination.

Yes, Obama is a great rhetorician as we all saw in his South Carolina victory speech tonight. But his promises are the same old platitudes that is more typical of politicians than what Hillary Clinton offers to the table. She offers intelligent answers and practical solutions; he talks of "hope" and "sacrifices" and "the future".

I don't know about you, but I don't live in the abstract world--the stuff of fairy tales, myths, and legends. I live in a concrete world fraught with visceral pain and actual problems. It's not that I'm cynical, but when Obama says he didn't see a "black South Carolina" or a "white South Carolina", he just "saw South Carolina", then I question his vision and whether or not he's wearing rose-colored glasses. South Carolina like many other states and many neighborhoods across this nation are still divided racially. It's not the America most want to live in, and yet they do; and they ignore the obvious so that they can live in this myth. As a result the real problems in housing, education, and violence don't get fixed, because what these require are leaders who aren't deluded or in denial--leaders who can first see these problems and confront tackle them with persistence and pragmatism.

I hope that the rest of the Democratic electorate won't jump on the bandwagon and be swept up by this wave of wishfulness, and that they instead vote on Super Tuesday with a firm grasp on reality. The Clintons can get things done; they have done so in the past, and they will continue to do so in the future. Bush's policies need to be changed--that's clear to us all. But let's not be under any illusions that the institutions and mechanisms in Washington are going to "change" just because Barack Obama gives stump speeches about it. We need someone in the White House who will be effective within the confines of these existing systems. Let's be real...and get real change!

Hell Hath No Fury Like Hillary Scorned

What many in the media have been calling "petty squabbling" or "divisiveness" or "dirty politics" between the Obama and Clinton campaigns (which fulminated in full view during the South Carolina debate), I view as not only necessary, but fundamentally helpful in this vetting process that is the primary season. Attacks, even if personal, are part of political campaigning. It's nothing new. And the way a candidate is able to respond and how that candidate responds to such attacks are helpful for voters to be able to decide whether or not he/she is strong enough to hold the most powerful position in the world.

Hillary has shown toughness, resilience, intelligence, vulnerability, wit, and astuteness during the most intense parts of the debates time and time again. And when attacked by Obama during the S.C. debate--which I think was a mistake on his part--Hillary unleashed her rhetorical and intellectual strength. She is not a pushover, and she is not going to hold back. She will be a strong commander-in-chief, one who will be respected/feared by even the most Machiavellian leaders around the world who are America's worst enemies.

The unfairly dubbed "Do-Nothing Congress" would listen to Hillary when she is president. She will be able to push her liberal agenda through because she can squash any opposition, which is why I believe that the Republicans/Conservatives want Obama to win the nomination. Hillary will be tough to beat and Hillary will win--and the prospect of another Clinton presidency is their worst nightmare, but it's America's only hope for economic prosperity, homeland security, and true progress.

I Want a Recount!

As for Time Magazine's choice of Vladimir Putin as Person of the Year: it's not only disappointing (because Gore deserves the honor), but it's really disturbing. Putin should not be honored for turning Russia back into a Soviet-style foil to European and Western democracy. Time Magazine credits Putin for "his extraordinary feat of leadership in taking a country that was in chaos and bringing it stability". But that "extraordinary feat" comes at equally extraordinary prices--ones that go against our democratic principles.

Granted, there have been other Persons of the Year who received the honor not for the positive influence they had over history, but for the profound negatives they wielded over the world: Hitler, Stalin, and the Ayatollah are three examples. But Putin is a diminutive blip compared to Hitler and Stalin's everlasting infamy. And the last thing Putin needs right now is a little encouragement from the West to continue what he's been doing.

In a year when Climate Change entered the universal consciousness, I think Time Magazine really got the Person of the Year wrong. Putin's effect is limited to a region that is already fraught with so much instability that his stabilizing efforts seem almost futile. Gore's effect this year has been much more significant: awakening all of us--from Hollywood to Bollywood--to the reality of a planet in peril. The awakening began with Gore's film, which proferred the explanations for global warming, and it culminated in Gore's winning of the Nobel Prize and the recent agreements on climate change in Indonesia.

I want a recount!

My Prediction: Al Gore as TIME Magazine's Person of the Year for 2007

In a year when so many politicians have been vying to become the next President of the United States, the man who should have been president in 2000 has emerged as our de facto leader seven years later. Al Gore commands more deference and affection than any other person in America today. He's always greeted with standing ovations--these long moments of applause fraught with hope with a tinge of regret: how America will change for the better as he makes us aware of what we need to do for the future; how America has changed for the worse as he reminds us that he could have been the president to lead us through 9/11.

TIME Magazine has a clear choice for Person of the Year: Al Gore. In 2007, Gore's film, An Inconvenient Truth, won the Academy Award. In 2007, Gore's innovative company, Current TV, won the Emmy Award for for Best Interactive Television Service. In 2007, Gore's book, The Assault on Reason, won the Quill Award for History/Current Events. And, of course, in 2007, Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize for his environmentalism.

There's no other person who has had more influence globally in 2007 than Al Gore.

How to Fix America's Education: Empower Teachers

The biggest challenge teachers face in the classroom is their own lack of power. Teachers have become powerless in the student-centered classroom--the paradigm of American education that has replaced "traditional" methods, which existed since the one-room schoolhouse to the 1970s. Student-centered learning has only fostered self-centeredness and certain false sense-of-entitlements in the students; it has not facilitated the learning process in the classroom. Student-centered learning is a "democratic" ideal that presumes every student can learn; it ignores the reality, however, that in a Darwinian world certain students will excel, but most are apt to be left behind.

By "empowering" students, the student-centered learning model has degraded the control and influence of the teacher. Students lack respect for the teacher; students question the teacher's authority; and students don't care to obey the teacher's rules. There are no real consequences in a student-centered learning environment, thus learning altogether has been abrogated.

What needs to be done to fix American education is to give the teacher control of his/her own classroom once again. Empower teachers and treat them as the professionals that they are. Trust in their instincts, abilities, and desire to teach. Let them evaluate students as they see fit. Let them teach without fear of rebuke from parents or administrators. Let them inspire students! If society valued teachers, students would actually respect them too. But because teachers aren't highly regarded, they've lost their influence over students.