I’ve had kidney stones a number of times in my life. It’s the only thing that comes close to the discomfort I experienced last night watching the two plus hours of the Democrat presidential debate. I watched it, so you wouldn’t have to.
It was painful. What a bunch of leftists! If I had a gun to my head, and had to vote for one of them or lose my life, the only one who made any sense on anything was former Senator Jim Webb of Virginia. He had been a Marine in Vietnam, and his son was a Marine who fought in Ramadi, Iraq. Unfortunately, President Obama by his disastrous decision to pull ALL U.S. troops from Iraq, squandered U.S. successes in Iraq, and Ramadi is now in the hands of ISIS.
But back to the debate. As a Republican, and a conservative, and as someone who loves this country, watching the debate made me fearful of what will happen to our country if one of the other four people is elected as our next president. These four are off-the-chart liberals, on every issue. The following are some of the more memorable things said during the debate.
Lincoln Chafee said several times that he had “high ethical standards” and that his proudest accomplishment was that he had never had a scandal during his 30 years as an elected official: as a mayor, a governor, and as a United States Senator. My guess is he was trying to draw a contrast with Hillary Clinton’s many lapses in ethics matters, without making a direct attack against her (in case he might one day want to have an appointment from a President Clinton as an ambassador or in her cabinet, or …) Chafee also bragged about his “courage” in voting against the so-called Bush tax cuts. If that’s courage, you can keep it.
Martin O’Malley was just plain annoying, in so many ways. He must have repeated ten times during the course of the debate that if he became President, America would have a “clean electric grid by 2050.” Right. And he repeated his embarrassing acknowledgement that “black lives matter”, and by implication, more than white lives do, and Bernie Sanders and Lincoln Chafee heartily agreed with this racist way of looking at things. Webb disagreed, saying all lives matter, and Hillary wasn’t asked the question.
Here are a few more observations. ISIS and radical Islamic fundamentalism aren’t even on the radar of these potential commanders-in-chief (with the possible exception of Jim Webb.) Global warming is their great fear. All the Democrats believe that the American economy is a disaster and unfair to the middle class, yet ignored the fact that Barack Obama has been President for the last seven years. Bernie Sanders believes that the United States should strive to be more like “Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.” Bernie Sanders was a conscientious objector during the Vietnam war era. The Democrat candidates hate the NRA and love gun control. Hillary Clinton thinks that “Dodd-Frank was a good start.” (It’s been a disaster for small businesses across America.) All the Democrat candidates support amnesty. Hillary and Bernie both believe that illegal immigrants should get a free taxpayer-funded college education in America (this should make a good GOP commercial in the general election.) Hillary Clinton’s greatest qualification for the presidency is that she would be the first woman president – she said it over and over. (I prefer Carley Fiorina.) Oh, and Hillary Clinton hates Republicans.
One thing that does concern me is that the Democratic candidates for president were far more courteous to each other than were their Republican counterparts. The Republican candidates have virtually ignored Ronald Reagan’s 11th Commandment about not speaking ill of their Republican rivals. I’m concerned our candidate may come out of the primary process wounded and bleeding into the general election.
And Bernie did Hillary a big favor by claiming that “the American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails.” (She thanked him profusely.) Well Democrats may not like hearing about them, but the rest of America believes that one’s honesty and trustworthiness are still important. And that she’s lacking in both.
I could go on, but that’s enough to give you the gist of the first Democratic presidential debate. Like I said, it was painful. I think I feel another kidney stone coming on.