New Haven Independent

I’ve contemplated camping out in front of Mike Bloomberg’s house in New York City. Or maybe I should go down to John Edwards’ house and offer to pay for his haircuts for a year if he would agree to get back into the race.

Let’s look at the candidates starting with Barack Obama. Here is a fella with an above average intelligence who after 20 years only now has concluded that his pastor is just a little nutty. The weak excuse that he “didn’t know” might have cut it for a few years, but not 20. He knew exactly who Pastor Wright was and stayed because it was politically expedient. If I believe his assertion that he did not know, then there is a gentleman running for president who is so completely oblivious to all that goes on around him that we shouldn’t let him out alone.

Then there is his experience in elected office, which on a good day is minimal. A few uninspiring years as a state senator in Illinois, ditto as the state’s junior senator. OkK, he gives a really good speech, but that isn’t why I elect a president. We did that already when we elected Ronald Reagan. That didn’t work out well either.

And if the junior senator from Illinois thinks the campaign has been nasty so far just wait ‘til the general if he is the nominee. There will not be a day when we will not see ads with Reverend Wright saying “God Damn America.”

Mr. and Mrs. Obama need to learn that in national politics candidates “play” with real ammo. Neither of them are used to that. Obama won the senate primary in Illinois after one of the leading candidates imploded in a mess of divorce papers strategically leaked by his ex-wife. Obama then faced Jack Ryan, a good looking wealthy Republican whose party deserted him after it was revealed that Ryan had a penchant for attending shady bars in Paris where live sex acts were part of the thrill. It also didn’t help when it was revealed Ryan wanted his wife to join in.

The Illinois Republican Party finally found an replacement candidate in Alan Keyes… who they had to import from Maryland. No one knew who Keyes was in Illinois and no one cared. Keyes didn’t just lose. He got buried.

Then there’s Hillary Clinton, who will say anything, do anything and proffer anything for a vote. She brings a new meaning to “pandering” and I suspect would throw just about anyone under the bus if it would get her a delegate.

Like Obama she is incredibly intelligent but suffers from a selective and sometimes “expansive” memory of events. Like Obama she has little to no real experience, other than to be able to say she was married to the former president. Her claim is that being married to Bill somehow counts as experience. I’ve been a passenger on a lot of planes. I don’t think that qualifies me to fly one.

And Hillary claims she is more “electable” than Obama and I have no idea how she can say that. Her “negatives” (people who think of her as Satan) are about the same as the number of people who voted for Bill in 1992. Her run against McCain would bring campaigns to a new low. Just take a look at her primary campaign.

And John McCain? He’s the most experienced but anyone who even suggests we will be fighting in Iraq and the Mideast for the next 100 years automatically loses my vote. That says nothing about his total inability to understand government, taxes, economics and just about anything else. He is great on the environment but is as loose as a three- dollar shoe on everything else.

So since they don’t allow us to vote for “none of the above” or “try again,” at the very least I think Democrats should draft someone who could actually run a campaign and maybe even win. Bloomberg or Edwards come to mind although my absolute favorite is Bloomberg. Both are smart, thoughtful and intelligent. They say if you can run New York for a week you can run the world in your sleep. Bloomberg has taken NY (the city that Rudy wrecked) and transformed it into the place everyone wants to go.

And his running mate? I’d pick none other than the best Congressman in the U.S. The fella who will forget more than Obama, Clinton and McCain collectively will ever know and on top of everything else has incredible street sense — none other than Charlie Rangel who currently chairs the House Appropriations Committee and who is now serving his 19th term in Congress. That is experience. Skip the Obama Chronicles and pick up Rangel’s “And I Haven’t Had A Bad Day Since.” You’ll be mesmerized.

So if you happen to be in New York and see some guy camping out in front of a very expensive apartment with a doorman it might be me. We need to elect an adult with brains. In Yiddish a “mensch,” a “real human being.”

Draft Bloomberg and Rangel.

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