A rchive Date
[ 23-05-2005 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ U.S ]
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[U.S. elections turning into a real snoozefest
By ERIC MARGOLIS
Contributing Foreign Editor
October 15, 2000
NEW YORK - The duel of Titans it was not. The Round II presidential debate between Al Gore and George W. Bush last Wednesday reminded me of two high school students who'd had a fight and were being forced to sit down and be nice to one another.
Bush held his own, managed to pronounce Yugoslavia, and didn't confuse Haitians with Tahitians. A clearly chastened Gore tried not to act like a smirking school bully, as he did during the first debate. The furniture polish makeup he wore in Round I was reduced by eight degrees of intensity, making him look somewhat human.
Both candidates managed to rise to vice-presidential level. Almost everyone who has watched the debates thinks Dick Cheney and Joe Lieberman should be running for president, with Bush and Gore as their veeps. There's a lot more resignation than enthusiasm about this dull, boring race.
Bush and Gore make me uncomfortable. Both are political test tube babies, bred and reared to dynastic politics. They are capable men, but sound, in this female-oriented election, as if they are running for the head of some local school board rather than leader of the world's most powerful nation.
The fate of the great republic, and of much of the world, seems to be in the hands of undecided voters, who happen to be mainly young, single females who watch Ally McBeal and Sex and the City. They are having mood swings back and forth between Bush and kissy Gore, producing confusing poll results in this neck-and-neck contest.
But as of now, Gore, with California and New York solidly in his camp, still holds a commanding lead in the electoral college vote that will decide the November election. To win, Bush must carry almost all the vital swing states: Michigan, Illinois, Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
In contrast to the ho-hum presidential election, the Senate race here in New York is highly entertaining. Democrats outnumber Republicans 2-1 in the state. Nevertheless, Hillary Clinton is tied with congressman Rick Lazio, a nice nobody from the Long Island burbs turned Republican white knight in the quest to save New York from the red witch of Washington.
Hillary is in trouble because of three factors.
KISS OF DEATH
First, the notorious Kiss of Death. New York is the world's largest Jewish city, and bedrock Democratic. This is no place for Republicans or Arabs. Jewish voters, who tend to judge many issues on how they affect Israel, remain enraged that Hillary kissed Suha, wife of Great Satan Yasser Arafat.
They also recall Hillary's endorsement of a Palestinian state - long before she ran for office in New York - though she has now changed her tune. Last week, she openly attacked her husband, the prez, for not vetoing a UN resolution condemning Israel for using excessive violence against Palestinian protesters. Lazio, who never kissed Mrs. Arafat, has been blasting Hillary for being soft on Arabs. Such is the lofty level of political debate among New York's liberal elite.
Second, many women are calling Hillary an "enabler," a psycho-babble epithet that means she encouraged her husband's extra-marital shenanigans. Even one of Hillary's campaign aides, an attractive lady, confessed to me she had been asked out by the president.
"She should have dumped the SOB," observed the aide, "but then again, if she had, where would she be today?"
Third, many New Yorkers see Hillary as a carpetbagger, which she certainly is. If Bush calls Greeks "Grecians," Hillary, I'm sure, doesn't have a clue what a bialy or vanilla egg cream is - two glorious staples of New York coffee shop fare. Upstaters see in Hillary everything they hate in pushy, left-leaning, big city women.
Back to the big race. I don't know what's wrong with Bush's campaign advisers. Why didn't he go after Gore on his biggest area of vulnerability - Russia?
Gore keeps boasting he ran relations with Russia in the Clinton White House. That's when the biggest theft in modern history occurred when some $150 billion poured into Boris Yeltsin's Russia by the U.S. and Europe was stolen by gangster-businessmen or corrupt officials, and stashed abroad. The vicious Russian mafia was allowed to move into the United States and open for business.
Russia was raped and pillaged, its people turned into beggars under the stewardship of Gore and Clinton. This column has reported for 10 years the looting of Russia and massive theft of U.S. aid. Why didn't the Clinton-Gore team take action by at least cutting off the flow of American cash to Russia's crooks? Why are they not being held accountable for a criminal scandal that makes Chinese bribery of the White House look trivial by comparison? Why has Gore not commented on recent reports from Moscow that President Vlad Putin stole last year's election through massive fraud?
Bush is too busy talking about high school test scores to hit the Democrats where they would really hurt. Gore is too busy preaching about mammograms to note he's been fleeced by Russki gangsters. Maybe they're both watching too much Oprah.
Eric can be reached by e-mail at margolis@foreigncorrespondent.com.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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