It’s increasingly Iraq, stupid!

LOS ANGELES – There’s no running away from politics for this momentary refugee from the political pyrotechnics of a bruising and still to be counted presidential contest back home. It is heating up here too for the November elections. As it was back home, voters here are complaining over the seeming lack of real choices. They are not happy about George Bush but are wondering if John Kerry is it. You can see it in the poll numbers that even as Bush is going down, Kerry isn’t going up as dramatically.

The latest Gallup poll shows that 51 percent of Americans disapprove the way President Bush is doing his job and 58 percent disapprove of how Bush is handling the war effort. Increasingly more Americans are getting negative about the war. The same Gallup poll showed 54 percent say Iraq is not worth the cost, a doubling since March 2003 when only 29 percent said that.

The Americans seem to be conflicted by the whole Iraq thing. They do have a tendency to rally around the flag in times of conflict and emergency. This makes them reluctant to oppose the President out of fear that it might weaken the President and affect his ability to lead the nation’s war effort. They do not want to do anything that could affect the morale of the troops abroad or put their security at risk.

This is why even the presumed Democratic nominee, John Kerry finds it necessary to tiptoe on the Iraq issue a lot more than he probably would want to. Kerry is finding it difficult to criticize the Bush handling of the war effort without looking unpatriotic. This results in a somewhat waffling image that the Bush campaign has gleefully pointed out in television attack ads against Kerry.

Gas Pains

Moving in fast in recent days as another hot issue is rising gasoline prices. California is particularly hard hit with record high prices at the pump being recorded almost daily. Last Sunday, a television news crew camped out at a service station in San Diego selling gasoline at almost $3 a gallon (or about 75 cents a liter or P42 a liter at P56-$1). Most stations between Los Angeles and San Diego sell at about $2.20 to $2.50 a gallon.

Economists say if the upward trend continues, it could cause a dent in the recovering economy. With the summer travel season upon them, rising gasoline prices understandably assumes importance as a political issue, sparking a political blame game. Sen. Kerry was quick to take advantage, saying it shows that President Bush has been an abject failure in protecting the consumers. "While gas prices skyrocketed and consumers get pounded, oil companies are having record profits."

Other Democrats are now asking the Bush administration to start releasing stockpiled oil from the strategic reserve, a proposal the Energy Secretary has rightly rejected. Foreigners, notably Europeans, get the feeling that Americans are just acting like spoiled brats on this issue. Gasoline prices in Europe are in the level of $5 a gallon for quite a long time now.

But then again, politicians can’t resist a good issue when such an issue lands on their lap. So the brouhaha over gasoline prices these days is not expected to result in productive policy changes that would address wasteful consumption habits and the diminished interest in renewable energy resources.

The way I see it, the real issue for the American presidential election is simply, Iraq. And I don’t mean just the matter of how badly they are getting it from Iraqi guerillas. Iraq and how they handle it, permeates the very fabric of American lives and they just don’t see it. The job of the Democrats, if they want to win back the White House, is to focus on Iraq and explain its ramifications in terms ordinary Americans can understand.

Most basic is the matter of the impact of Iraq on the fiscal deficit problem. Iraq promises to drain more from the American Treasury than the Bush Administration would dare admit. This means the Americans will increasingly have to depend on borrowing from the rest of the world to finance the gap between the reduced taxes advocated by President Bush and the increased military expenditure in Iraq. The impact would be felt by the American pocketbook, somehow, someday soon.

Clark

With Iraq assuming center stage, it is important for the Democrats to select a running mate for Kerry who can be credible on this issue, someone with more credentials on national security than Vice President Dick Chaney. The name that comes to mind is retired General Wesley Clark.

Even if he lost the primary fight to John Kerry, Clark has proven himself to be one of the Democrats’ most acute analysts and effective messengers on national security. In fact, Clark will strengthen the ticket by contributing an expertise that complements Kerry. It will be recalled that his speeches on Iraq last year called for broadening international participation in the occupation and warned against dismantling the entire Iraqi army. In hindsight, he did sound prophetic... just the man who can help lead America out of the war.

Given that the Bush campaign team has already started to question Kerry’s Vietnam war record, there is tremendous potential value of a running mate who once wore four stars on his shoulders and a Silver Star on his chest. Only Clark, among the other potential running mates, could say as he once did in responding to recent Republican attacks on Kerry’s activities in and after Vietnam that: "Those who didn’t serve, or didn’t show up for service," he wrote, "should have the decency to respect those who did ... "

At a time when America is concerned about how to fix the long term situation in Iraq, it would be useful to have someone with Clark’s experience. And inasmuch as the election also threatens to revolve more around guns than butter, Clark may pack more firepower than any of the other names on Kerry’s list of running mates, including the supposed frontrunner, Sen. John Edwards. It helps too that Clark is from the South, a good balance to a Liberal New Englander like Kerry.

The first thing that must happen however, is for the Democrats to realize it is Iraq. Everything else revolves around Iraq and they need Clark to beat Bush and Cheney in November. Voters who want an alternative approach to Iraq but are unsure about Kerry can be reassured by Clark. I am not sure the Democrats realize their situation at all, judging from what I read in the local papers and see on television. You almost want to scream, it is Iraq, you stupid Democrats!

Employment Test

Now, here’s something from Dr. Ernie E.

"Now this is the verbal part of your employment test," said the interviewer. "Can you tell me what gross aggrandized annuity means?"

"Certainly," replied the applicant. "It means I don’t get the job."

(Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected])