Stream of Consciousness Post 4/29/14

Here's another one of these.  The first one went like gangbusters, but the last few have been getting boring, I guess.

What brought this latest one on is the thought that I'm getting old.  One of my older brothers says "what do you mean, 'getting old'--- you have arrived!"  Yep.  My eyes get tired a lot these days, so when I'm on this computer, I'll close them and sometimes fall asleep.  I did this last night and woke up in the middle of the night and started thinking, as I am inclined to do.  Thus, this post.

Recently, I was looking at this video of the movie The Graduate, where Mrs. Robinson seduces young Benjamin.  Another one of my older brothers invited me to go with him and his wife to see that movie when it came out.  Long time ago, late sixties.  I didn't go because I was having more fun in the swimming pool.  I loved that pool, I think it was my second home when I was a kid.  Anyway, the movie probably would have gone over my head.  It had an adult scene in it here:




Actually, I say "adult scene" in reference to that time.  That time (1967) was more civilized than today.  If you refer to an "adult scene" today, who the hell knows what you might get.

She is seducing him, but she is civilized about it.  Young Benjamin though, doesn't exactly know what to do about it.  She quite easily handles him and finally lures him upstairs where she appears nude in front of him and offers herself to him.  He is nervously talking about morality and such, but come on.  No young man would pass up that opportunity.  Get real.

I was thinking about that in reference to this scene.  When she asks "what do you think of me?"--- what could have been a civilized response that would have led to the same outcome?  Not that young Benjamin wasn't civilized, he just didn't know what to do.

You don't have to be a youngster to be at a loss for what to do in a certain situation.  That allows me to segue into another event that I've referred to in this blog.  I refer to it because I think it has a great deal of significance for understanding how we got to where we are today in this society of ours.  I'm referring to the Bentsen-Quayle debate, where Bentsen insults Quayle, and Quayle couldn't handle it.  I believe this set the stage for defeat 4 years later.

For the 4 years subsequent to this sad denouement, all the media could do was to refer to how dumb Quayle was.  For being "dumb", Quayle was a drag on the Bush presidency.  But that drag wasn't really Quayle's fault.  He a lot like young Benjamin here.  He was presented with a situation that he couldn't quite handle, but it was due to his youth and the relative age of his opponent--- who was much older.  Bentsen took advantage and took a cheap shot.

People thought Bentsen "won" that debate, but if it were a prize fight, he may well have been disqualified for hitting below the belt.

Since it wasn't a prize fight, it was up to Quayle to manage a better response, which he could not do.  I've wondered a lot since then what he could have said that would have improved upon the situation and would have kept it civilized--- just like young Benjamin above.   All Quayle could manage was "that was uncalled for Senator".  Yes, it was.  But, you needed to say more sir, and you failed.

We've been paying the price since.  It may be unfair to blame Quayle for all this, though.  After all, it was a cheap shot.  But you've got to be prepared for the cheap shot.  One of Quayle's selling points was that he was prepared for the Presidency.  Bentsen demonstrated that he was not prepared to deal with a cheap shot, so that undermined Quayle's arguments, and led to the undermining of Bush's presidency as well.  Yes, the consequences of that failure have been severe.  The failure led to Clinton, and Clinton has led to Obama.  Now, we are in a real mess with Russia.

Now, maybe you aren't satisfied with my analogy of the young Benjamin and Quayle.  Perhaps one reason is the reason given by the left wing, that somehow the 80's were a failure.  Not hardly.  Yet, the Democrats say it so often that they must believe it themselves.  Or allowed themselves to believe it.  Make no mistake about one fact--- if it were left to the Democrats, by the end of the 80's, the Soviet Union may have conquered the whole of Europe.  Reagan's great achievement was to roll that back and bring down the Berlin wall.  The Democrats could not and would not ever have done this.

Now what we are seeing is the results that prove that assertion.  After 13 out of the last 21 years under Democrat rule, the Russians are making a comeback.  There should be no doubt why this is happening.  At the end of the Bush presidency, missile defense was mature and ready to be deployed.  It would have been successful.  But since Clinton won, and was hostile to missile defense, it was canceled.  Now we are vulnerable to a missile attack when we should have been protected instead.  All of this thanks to the Democrats.  But, it may not have happened if it weren't for that debate failure.

The failures continue.  I looked at the Romney-Obama debate again recently.  Obama said a line about calling for the 80's foreign policy back again as if that foreign policy was a failure.  Romney for his part stood there like a dummy and didn't clobber him for saying that.  A golden opportunity was lost.

Now that Romney's statements about Russia have panned out, there is talk about him running again.  However, not so fast.  It could have and should have been pointed out by Romney that Russia really was a strategic foe and why it was so.  He should have pointed out why the 80's were not the failure that Obama was claiming, but rather a crowning achievement of the Reagan presidency.  The significant thing was that he didn't.  He is not the man to lead us to a better time in the way that Reagan did.  He clearly doesn't understand history and his party's role in it and the part of the opposition in it.   His debate performance was a tremendous failure on that score.

Quayle had an excuse, though.  Romney did not.  Romney was an older man and could have done better, but failed.  People should take note of that and not make the mistake of placing this man in nomination again.