Frank Luntz, Republican pollster and consultant, unequivocally announced today that the next President of the United States will be Hillary Rodham Clinton.
A panelist at a conference today in New York, "There You Go Again: Orwell Comes to America,"
which was devoted to discussions of propaganda and the effect language itself has on our political debate, it was clear that Luntz does not support her. Equally clear was his conclusion that issues of competence, intelligence, and wisdom will be paramount in 2008 - and that she will win. He found her message, and her ability to deliver it, unsurmountable.
I missed the Luntz story. I consider Larry Sabato at UVA to be the foremost political prognosticator of this era. He is frighteningly accurate. I know you dislike Rove, but he says Clinton is fatally flawed and his political instincts are uncanny. He is at least as good as Carville. H. Clinton comfortably won in 2000 and 2006, but in each case garnered a smaller percentage of the vote than the Democratic candidate at the top of the ticket. That is a telling personal statistic.
Your instincts about the costs of training Seals versus pilots is correct. Seal training, although lengthy, is extraordinarily Spartan in nature. Pilots, and particularly Naval Flight Officers, training runs into the millions. It is really a staggering number.
I watched Waxman's hearings and Prince talked about one particular employee who was terminated for being drunk on duty, but I heard no statistic of any kind, much less 10%. Prince was asked a lot of questions to which he answered that Blackwater was a private company and just wasn't about to say anything he was not legally bound to say. All companies in the security business are quite secretive.
I don't know what percentage of Blackwater in Iraq is made up of Seals. When I said Seals and Army SF and Rangers I was simply trying to illustrate a demography. Marines in their 20s is not the Blackwater demographic, although I cannot speak specifically about that particular firefight.
Posted by: rick | November 07, 2007 at 08:27 PM
i really hope Luntz is right about Hillary. I find it difficult to believe that middle America will vote for a woman or a black candidate. Although I've also heard that the front runner for the Republicans, Guiliani, is not liked by the Christian Right and that they might split off and get their own canidate. It is going to be a really tough one to predict next year.
i also don't envy the next person in that position. With everything as screwed as it is right now and with Iran in the mix, things are only going to get worse before this president leaves.
Posted by: Foster Cronin | November 09, 2007 at 12:42 PM
Great Point Mr Foster, whoever moves next into the White House is going to have a Hell of a job.
Thanks for the Comment.
Posted by: bbbustard | November 11, 2007 at 10:40 AM