Derby Hasn't Learned

John Derbyshire, of whom I am normally quite fond, offers some less than valuable commentary:

Whiners, yes. Losers, only in the sense that the term might be used on the streets. I've long ago ordained Hillary, but even if Obama eeks out the nomination--which will never happen--he could beat any of the Republican candidates, save for maybe Ron Paul. Losers they may be, the next President of the United States stood on that stage.

Speaking of which: Jonah—While we're all regretting our former support of GWB, let's recall a little context. In 2000, it was GWB vs. Al Gore. In 2004, it was GWB vs. John Kerry.

Gore? Kerry? Say what you like about George, either of those guys would have been 100 percent worse. Right? Right.

OK, gonna fall asleep now.

I'll chalk up Derby's drivel to too little sleep. I think I'd rather have had Al Gore in charge, looking back on things. I doubt we would have invaded Iraq, and maybe the Republicans would have stood up to The Patriot Act, or at least to its bastard son. We wouldn't have had the tax cuts, sure, but they haven't been complimented with cuts in spending, rather the reverse, which means my generation will have to make up for Bush's fiscal irresponsibility. There is more to being conservative than simply cutting taxes after all; it's not as if JFK was much of a right-winger.

The only point that would worry me about Gore is that we'd have had to suffer through endless propaganda about Global Warming. At least he wouldn't have had the time to make An Inconvenient Truth. And with any luck, the draconian laws which would have been enacted to save us from the warming would have slowed the economy to a crawl. Thus the Republicans could have, theoretically, nominated a reliable conservative to oust Gore in '04.

John Kerry is probably more evil than George W. Bush, simply because he is even less principled, but Al Gore strikes me as being a smidgen better. The letters next to the politicians names don't mean a thing, and as nefarious as another Clinton presidency will be, there isn't a single candidate being touted by the conservative media who is significantly better.

A lesser evil is still evil. This could be the slogan of the stay-the-heck-home-crowd in '08. Staving off evil one abstention at a time.