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January 30, 2008Post FL: The Nation Needs a Time-Out - UPDATEDWhat is it about Florida? Every time the people in Florida vote, the whole nation seems to lose its mind. Hillary’s largely illusory Florida victory has Chris Matthews near tears, probably because he fears grovelling to President Hillary (who will make him pay for his past heresy) so that’s a little understandable, but there is a lot of hot-headed angst going on out there. My email is full of fulminating folks on the right who are either furious about McCain or disgusted with Rush or the Romney crew. Or they’re mad at Giuliani (hint - he’s out of the race, dudes, lay it down) for his ill-advised strategy. Some folks are still crying about Fred Thompson and there is huffing and puffing about “the split of the GOP.” Ya’ll need to calm down. Stop huffing because the “split” is exactly what many of you want, deep down, and you know it. It is what Rush Limbaugh seems to have been pursuing for some months, now, even before the veep-scheming FDT dropped out of the race. This is all just starting to get interesting, so save yer breath for yer porridge and think about a few things: ***McCain is older and he has some health concerns. He is a true war-hero, and I do think he can pick up Independent voters, but he is - within his own party - already facing the sort of venom from the right that it took Dubya several years to cultivate and achieve. I doubt that will go away soon, or easily. ***Romney excites “the base,” (which is remarkable for his flip-flopping) but only because there is currently no one else. His support is a mile wide and an inch thick and his blandness (I find him bland, anyway, and so does Roger L. Simon) doesn’t inspire. Should a magically pristine “true” conservative (perhaps from the private sector or the military) suddenly appear from on high (or from behind Kingmaker Rush) and begin to woo the right and right-leaning moderates, they will desert Romney in an instant. I will be VERY surprised if either of these two men - McCain or Romney - is at the top of the ticket when you go to vote in November. :::CLARIFICATION::: Or maybe what I more properly mean to say is that they may or may not top the ticket, but there may be a third party candidate. Bottom line: I’m saying everything is still fluid.:::END Rush Limbaugh is a very smart fellow and Oraculations linked to him having a clever bit of fun today. Rush is maneuvering, just like everyone else who is deeply involved in this process. A game is afoot - and masters are playing it. Right now everything bears watching; observation, not hyperventilation. Don’t let yourself get sucked into a news cycle and a strategy; you’ll be worn out by summer. Contrary to most, I’m not believing that anything is settled, or even means much, just now.
Half of what you are seeing is illusory. The other half is in flux and will not matter tomorrow, and illusions are bi-partisan. Do not be enthralled by the zeitgeist, by the raging spirit of this age - one of manufactured discord, real hate, mistrust, anger, labeling and endless “isms” - because it is meant to keep us distractedly paddling the surfaces, chasing our egos and our echos. It is all meant to keep us from pondering the depths.
It is easy to go with the flow - even a dead thing, or a dead movement, can do that - much more difficult to stand against a current and look about. If you’re riding the slipstream, consider side-stepping it for a little while, and see what it does to your perspective. Pull back from the noise. Particularly in times of excessive noise and chatter and emotionalism and manipulation, like now. Turn off the radios; unplug the television. Click off the computer screen (yes, me too!) and spend some time being quiet, removing yourself from the reach of the illusionists (who are legion) and affixing yourself to what is real and true and NOW in your own life, and then spend some time in prayer - not the “O Lord destroy him; he maketh a blight” sort of prayer, but the generous one that first says “thank you” and then asks for guidance and wisdom, and then simply falls silent and listens.
This ride is only beginning. Pace yourself. Clear your eyes and your mind and just watch. Detach from the tumult of it all, strap in and prepare for a hell of a ride. Pay no attention to the men and women behind the curtains. Save today’s headlines in your hard-drive and look at them again in November. You’ll see. Clarification: By “Time Out” I mean “a breather,” not a punishment. Related: McCain vs Limbaugh WELCOME: Instapundit readers. While you’re here, please take a look around. I am asking everyone to answer this question in 100 words or less: What’s Wrong With the World?. We’re also looking back a bit and remembering U2’s stunning halftime show after 9/11) and the time Bush rescued his own Secret Service agent. http://theanchoressonline.com/2008/01/30/post-florida-sidestep-the-slipstream-and-take-a-break/trackback/ 35 Responses to “Post FL: The Nation Needs a Time-Out - UPDATED” |
January 30th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
Too late - I’m already worn out. This all started much too early, and can’t end soon enough for me. Do you think that’s what they intended all along? To wear us out until we didn’t care anymore???
I’m trying hard to maintain my equilibrium - but it’s just not working.
first time commenter but have been surfing thru for a long time; don’t quite remember how I ever got here in the first place. I suspect it might have been thru Neptunus Lex, but memory fails me…
January 30th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
Welcome, Kris - and yes, I think part of the point was indeed to wear us out.
January 30th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
Anchoress:
I agree that people need to settle down. But I am not sure what makes you think these guys won’t be on the ticket. Illusory or not, Super Tuesday is coming and the time to enter and run is coming to an end.
January 30th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
And I think Rush is not as important as you think he is. If he was McCain would not have won Florida in the first place. Even if Rush himself entered the race he could not win. I doubt I would vote for him.
January 30th, 2008 at 5:37 pm
“A game is afoot - and masters are playing it.”
Are you suggesting that a deus ex machina is about to swoop in to save us?
Short of Ronald Reagan returned from the Great Beyond, I can’t think who that might be.
But it’s a comforting prospect.
January 30th, 2008 at 5:51 pm
Count me as another one who’s worn out. The TV is off, and so is the radio. I should go on the elliptical trainer soon and exercise while playing the iPod, thus abandoning the computer.
The Little Fig just gave me six steps - and back! - this afternoon! She stood up and walked towards me, and then stood up and walked away, towards a big pet pillow that we have on the floor. I’m so proud of her! She’s thirteen and a half months. I can’t believe she’s now a toddler!
January 30th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
Yes, but once votes are cast, they can not just be swept away.
Given the present state of mind in the public, I doubt if anyone would be good enough.
January 30th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
Hi all - not suggesting a deus ex machina or salvation. I’m suggesting that things will not look in November as they do today. I could be wrong, of course. But it’s just a feeling.
January 30th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
Who are these “masters” playing the game? Is there a reason you don’t name them?
January 30th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
This post is profound. Thanks for this post. I am glad I found your blog. It is simultaneously entertaining, inspiring and intelligent. I think the election cycle’s hype is a bit too contagious.
January 30th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
Ok, so it won’t be McCain or Romney?
If it won’t be McCain or Romney, Huckabee and Paul are worse. Or do you have a process that gives us a candidate who isn’t running?
It can’t be a “new” candidate at this date. Everyone said Thomson got in late, so there’s no chance of a “backup” candidate. And if you prefer Huckabee or Ron Paul to both McCain and Romney; then you’re in a distinct minority, one that won’t have much showing this Tuesday.
I can’t see what you seem to believe will occur. I will be watching, and if you’re correct I’ll praise your ability to foresee events beyond expectation.
But right now it looks like you’re wishing on fairies and moonbeams to combine their powers with the Illuminati to work a backroom deal while the hand of God (Deus ex machina) reworks the system giving us a preferable candidate.
Pardon me if that feels less than reassuring.
January 30th, 2008 at 7:07 pm
Oh I see. Ego tripping radio talk show host, miffed that ordinary people did not follow his instructions and vote as they were instructed to, abandons Republican party, launches third party and ensures a Democratic win in 08. He then has all sorts of things to bitch about for 8 long years while he makes lots of money off of said Democrat’s tenure in office. Just think of all the money the Clintons made for Rush. Sometimes I wonder where he would be without them.
If these people pull a Ross Perot they do not need to be lecturing other people on being RINOs.
January 30th, 2008 at 7:14 pm
McCain or Romeny. Uh, that is it. It is too late for anyone to jump in so lets imagine.
McCain drops dead after winning Super Tuesday. Then what?
Romeny, and if not Romeny, WHO?
That is who anybody, never mind a solid conservative.
BTW: Who are the masters playing the game with their feet or anything else?
Names please.
thank you.
January 30th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
I’ve always admitted to being undereducated and far from the smartest girl around, but you really don’t have to translate Deus ex machina for me!
My goodness - you people are going way beyond my meaning. I’m not talking about Illuminati or fairies, I’m not “naming names” because I have none, and I’m not especially trying to be mysterious. Read what I wrote: Rush is maneuvering, just like everyone else who is deeply involved in this process. Meaning that everyone who is anyone - and who enjoys a certain amount of prominence and power - is doing what they can to work for an outcome in their best interests. Some of them even sincerely care about the country!
That was a joke - lighten up!
I’m simply saying that anything can happen. McCain can get sick again, or simply decide he doesn’t have the stamina for the long haul. Bill Clinton might get sick and bring enormous “sympathy” to Hillary. Look back three months: John McCain looked dead in the water; Giuliani looked unbeatable. Hillary looked inevitable. All of that is different now. I’m simply trying to remind everyone - badly, I suppose - that anything can happen (and I have a feeling something might) and so it’s a good idea to sit back and take a breather and let things play out. That’s all.
January 30th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
I am sorry, But I don’t see McCain getting sick. In fact he looks pretty healthy to me. And I don’t think he came this far to decide he lacks stamina because Rush is pitching a tantrum, either.
Things have changed a lot in the last three months, but the time for big changes is coming to an end. Sooner or later this election will happen whether Rush likes it or not. The big baby.
January 30th, 2008 at 8:17 pm
Thank you for a small bit of sanity. The Republic will survive, it may not be pleasant, but we will survive.
January 30th, 2008 at 8:47 pm
I too continue to tell people I don’t believe the next POTUS is yet “in the running.” Of course, everyone thinks I’m nuts, but I’ve had that feeling since the whole road show started way too long ago. I even predicted a while back then that everyone would be so burned out half way through it that the great strategy would be to “come in at the end.” Who that may be, I have no idea, but a Bobby Jindal type is what I’m thinking. Hey, image that, a Catholic Indian against a staunch pro choice Barak! Too bad Jindal doesn’t have one term of governor under his belt, but then, he’s not much less experienced than Barak. Speaking of Barak, I had this horrific thought today—Oprah as the VP! Yikes! Please God nooooooo
January 30th, 2008 at 10:45 pm
I saw the headline and I think the nation needs a time-out both ways. I certainly think a good number of my fellow conservatives need a bit of face-to-face time with Jo Frost.
“You’re being very, very naughty!”
January 30th, 2008 at 11:28 pm
Convention rules have always required that delegates vote on the first ballot for the person to whom they were elected, unless released by that candidate (as in the case of dropping out). With candidates dropping out right and left before 90 percent of the country has had a chance to vote, the likelihood of delegates being spread so thin so as to deny someone a majority on the first ballot (create a brokered convention) is plummeting. So even if everyone in the world agrees that nominating that person would be a disaster, the rules would nevertheless require it if she/he had a majority on the first ballot (as happened in the 1980 Democratic Convention, when even most of the Carter delegates had changed their minds and preferred Kennedy).
So, unless the majority-delegate candidate were to drop out (perhaps for health reasons), I think that we are stuck with what we got, as nauseating as that may be. And who knows, even if McCain does not get the Republican nomination, perhaps he’ll run as a “national unity” candidate for Vice President with Hillary, just like he had considered doing with John Kerry. After all, McCain has said that he is sure that Hillary would be a good president.
Yep, the seclusion of the old cloister is starting to look really attractive.
Also — some folks here really need to stop cutting and pasting the talking points off of the Media Matters and MoveOn-dot-org websites. It is really tiresome to hear the same old complaints that have been made for the last 16 years.
January 30th, 2008 at 11:40 pm
Yawn. Nothing to see here. Move along.
January 31st, 2008 at 7:11 am
Anchoress, thank you for this post - I’ve spent a lot of time on other blogs and the noise and acrimony is extremely tiring.
I’m a FredHead and will vote Fred on Feb. 5th. Under no circumstances will hubby and I vote for the semi-senile, decrepit crank McCain who threw conservatives under the bus over and over since long before 2000. I hear most vets apparently support him, but my husband is a Vietnam vet and will never vote for McCain. Arnold just endorced McCain. Yet another reason NOT to vote for him.
As for Rush, those dissing him look silly. Rush will be around long after the loons and cranks have moved on (or passed away, which in some cases may come sooner rather than later). The conservative movement is not dead, and one good thing McCain is doing is clarifying all that.
January 31st, 2008 at 7:27 am
Bender:
I hear so many lies about McCAin it is just amazing. He never said he would run with Kerry. The Kerry campaign tried to say he did for Kerry’s sake, but the very day that silliness started he made it plain he would do no such thing. And he did not do any such thing. But in spite of that the story just keeps being told very much like Bush and the TANG business.
The idea now is that since he did not smack Hillary upside the head with a baseball bat he will leave the Republican party and join a campaign with her on another ticket. The fact that there is no evidence whatsoever that either one of them is even remotely interested in something like that does not keep the McCain bashers from going on about it.
The truth is I am beginning to the think the problem is not with the pols, it is with the right itself. These people just have to complain, all the time, about everything and everyone. It never stops, they are never satisfied.
January 31st, 2008 at 8:55 am
[...] suddenly after the Florida Primary, are people losing their minds? One state, no matter how shiny, does not a nomination make. What is NEXT Tuesday; chopped liver? [...]
January 31st, 2008 at 10:44 am
What’s all the fuss? I will cast my vote of Feb 5th, Then vote Republican in November. It’s quite simple.
January 31st, 2008 at 10:56 am
[...] Post FL: The Nation Needs a Time-Out | The Anchoress Ya’ll need to calm down. [...]
January 31st, 2008 at 11:35 am
Web Reconnaissance for 02/01/2008…
A short recon of whats out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day…so check back often….
January 31st, 2008 at 12:01 pm
[...] speaking of which, here’s more unctuous Chicken-Little smarm from you know who. Bill’s got my answer to that mindless crapola all cooked up and ready for [...]
January 31st, 2008 at 2:54 pm
I don’t like McCain. I don’t like Romney either. And still, I will vote for whichever one is the nominee of my party - first because it is my responsibility as a citizen to vote and second because however appalling I think the Republican choices might be, the Democratic nominee is certain now to be much more offensive to me.
I think McCain is too old and if ever there was a man who is “Democrat Lite” that would be McCain. Still, he IS stalwart on the GWOT - which no Democrat would or could be. I find McCain/Feingold to be an all out assault on my constitutional free speech rights. I find the amnesty inclinations and lack of respect for our border’s enforcement to be troubling at best and terrifying at worst.
Romney is, above all, bland. That being said, I don’t trust him on the GWOT but we can always hope he would rise to the occasion. Would we have predicted before 9/11 that in George W. Bush we had one of our great presidents? I doubt it. He’s a competent manager and is possessed of a spine, which is something I like. But like McCain, his positions are all over the place. However, while John McCain denies that his course corrections ever even happened, at least Mitt is man enough to admit his changes of belief and apologize for any confusion.
To those conservatives who think they will “teach the party a lesson” - you tried that in 2006. How did that work out for you? Aside from saddling us with the appallingly left-wing Nancy Pelosi and making Harry Reid a living proof of the “Peter Principle” in action (Someone promoted to their level of incompetence!) - what pray tell did sitting on your hands accomplish? Aside from your failure to exercise your responsibilities as a citizen (which should have suspended your rights to whine, bitch or complain - but didn’t), what exactly has been the outcome? Nothing good, that’s for sure.
The bottom line is, as my late father used to say, the men who are best suited to solve our country’s problems are way too smart to get into politics!
The buzz out there is that disaffected Dems are going to finally “drop the dime” on the Clintons lawlessness in a big way - primarily to deny her the nomination. Since blue is an appalling color on me, I won’t hold my breath!
God bless America - because certainly her citizens are doing a poor job of preserving, protecting and defending her.
January 31st, 2008 at 8:43 pm
The State of the Conservative Union: Not Good…
I know the fireworks are just starting in the Dem debate, but something far more pressing is occuring and that is the disarray of the Republican party. I wanted to repost something I just posted over at Hot Air - it’s part of what I’v…
February 1st, 2008 at 12:23 am
[...] Post FL: The Nation Needs a Time-Out - UPDATED [...]
February 1st, 2008 at 2:01 pm
“To those conservatives who think they will “teach the party a lesson” - you tried that in 2006. How did that work out for you? Aside from saddling us with the appallingly left-wing Nancy Pelosi and making Harry Reid a living proof of the “Peter Principle” in action (Someone promoted to their level of incompetence!)”
Which is exactly the point. McCain for Prez == straight Democrat vote from me. Give the “American” people all the Socialism they are asking for….. and no RINO cover. Works for me.
And Lincoln’s recipe for “saving the country” was a civil war against plantation slavemasters. Substitute collective for plantation, and his prescription is exactly what’s needed.
Bring. It. On.
February 1st, 2008 at 9:29 pm
[...] Post FL: The Nation Needs a Time-Out - UPDATED [...]
February 5th, 2008 at 11:16 pm
[...] Post FL: The Nation Needs a Time-Out - UPDATED [...]
February 7th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
[...] game is afoot. I’ve been telling you for a while, now, to stop engaging in emotionalism, to sit back and just watch. I’ve been telling you that everything is in flux, and constantly changing, [...]
February 14th, 2008 at 9:26 am
[...] having another “clever bit of fun” with us, but maybe the Anchoress called it right in this post: Rush Limbaugh is a very smart fellow and Oraculations linked to him having a clever bit of fun [...]