host

Tully, the whole thing is surreal, and it has looked that way to me since I watched Nixon board AF-1, babbling about his mother....on his way out of Washington, for that last time....then unelected Jerry Ford is suddenly president....followed by Carter's triumphant quest for the presidency, quickly turning to a decline that emboldened Teddy Kennedy to challenge him in '80, followed by the ridiculousness and incomprehensiveness of "Bedtime for Bonzo" star turned president Reagan, quickly shot, then recovered, then babbling about "Star Wars", followed by Fawn Hall's emergence as an Iran Conra hearings witness, followed by Dan Quayle, a heartbeat away from the presidency, followed by Clinton, by Monica, by impeachment, by Gore withdrawing his concession to Bush on the day after the 2000 election, followed by the Supremes giving Bush the presidency, followed by 9/11, and then by "Shock and Awe", in Iraq, then Abu Ghraib, the idea of 12 hours long lines at the polls in Ohio, voters wating in the rain, we were told, who were voting in a plurality for....Bush? Followed by a candidate with the middle name "Hussein", a last name so similar to "Osama", overtaking Hillary, even as two of his three "spiritual advisors" made him look like a man who was a poor judge....of spiritual advisors...... All of it nuts.....disconnected, implausible, all of my adult life.

McCain seems bonkers, as do all of the republicans.....ever since they saw nothing wrong with Reagan, or the Quayle pick by Bush, heavily behind as he was in the polls, and overtaking Dukakis, in spite of it.

Consider Nixon's 1972 near sweep, against George McGovern, after so much protest against Nixon, his war, and the draft, during the most liberal period in American society, before or since.

I don't understand it, but I suspect it comes about because most voters are uninformed, driven by fear, prejudices, greed, or by attraction to perceived charismatic candidates.