The State of our Nation

07/26/2007

Paul Munnis


We all know that with the Primaries coming on fast the candidate field has to be narrowed. That’s what this next quarter of campaigning will be about as we march towards Super Tuesday.

So it comes as no surprise that the candidates are now taking each other on in a more frontal manner. Last week was “beat up on Edwards week,” this week Clinton and Obama are whacking one another over foreign policy. In the meantime Richardson is trying to slip into third place by ousting Edwards.

Edwards is proving robust in the Iowa polls and his hard work in that state is paying dividends.

Obama is showing his inexperience in foreign affairs, an area that many voters feel is an important area for the next U.S. President to have mastered.

Questions of Obama being too black and Clinton not feminine enough are almost laughable.

Most Democrats know that even if Obama is lowered a notch he still has a brilliant future ahead in government and that Democrats will groom him for an upstream win. He will get the experience he needs to govern well.

And so it goes as they try to differentiate themselves -- one from the other.

In the meantime Romney is polling well in Iowa. Giuliani is slipping and McCain is nearly eliminated on the GOP side. Fred Thompson keeps positioning himself to enter the ring but never quite makes a commitment to jump in.

Senator Christopher Dodd has unveiled his health plan and it seems that nobody is watching.

The GOP is backing away from a YouTube type of debate as too risky.

Meanwhile events in Iraq as they unfold are showing that Joe Biden was correct on most of his foreign policy predictions and pragmatic calls.

In Congress the GOP is showing they are caught in a cross-fire between supporting legislation that is needed and wanted at home and having to support Mr. Bush who threatens to veto it. We speak of a Farm Bill here that is badly needed across the nation. So far any legislation that Congress seems willing to pass Mr. Bush says he will veto. We have 42 blockages of needed legislation at this point. The GOP is now typed as obstructionist.

In the Pentagon tensions seem high as the pressures of war, policy, and planning all add up to put pressure on staff and brass. Mr. Gates seems hard-put to keep a lid on things as change-over, retirements, and staff reassignments all take place or are about to do so soon.

A battle between the Congress and its prerogatives versus Mr. Bush and Executive Privilege is shaping up and will likely end up in federal court with rapid escalation to the Supreme Court. It is sparked over subpoenas issued in the Gonzales matter to White House aides who Mr. Bush says do not have to appear in front of Congress because they are covered under Executive Privilege.

In the meantime the Iraqi War continues and Americans continue to be killed. The Iraqi government is now on the verge of collapse, while withdrawal is proving problematic as we are faced with having to assume responsibility for governing Iraq once again.

Diplomacy in the mid-east seems failed and little to no progress appears on the horizon.

While all eyes are on Washington the Stock market is having a melt-down over housing issues and it is lowering stock values as a result.

All told this was a bad week in Washington as Democrats continue to try to find a way to get out of Iraq, position for the Defense Appropriate Bill upcoming in September, and deal with the threat to their power posed by Bush. For GOP incumbents it was a week to cringe.

The week isn’t quite over as yet but Congress will rush home for weekend duties in their Districts leaving the spin masters to clean up the field.