The Yankee-Cowboy War Updated

I previously wrote about the Yankee-Cowboy War, The Yankee-Cowboy War Looks to Continue.  As I mentioned, this concept is a useful paradigm for viewing the shifting American power base from the old-line Northeastern old money boys (Yankees) to the West and Southwest with its economic base in natural resources and technology. Before moving on to this post, I'd like to clarify two things:

(1) I was wrong in my original post about Hillary being the nominee for the Democrats. Barack Obama, a Chicago Yankee educated in Yankee bastions of Columbia and Harvard universities, became the nominee and President, defeating Cowboy military-trained and Annapolis educated John McCain. This represents the first Yankee victory over a Cowboy since Kennedy defeated Nixon in 1960. However, one could make the case that McCain's political sensibilities on issues like campaign finance and public health, though not on military matters,  actually made him closer to a Yankee than to a Cowboy.

(2) The 2012 political contest was between two Yankees - Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, who is a classic Yankee vs. Barack Obama. Again there seemed to be no significant difference of the Reagan-Carter example between the nominees. Interestingly however, various "invisible primary" frontrunners like Herman Cain, Rick Perry, and briefly Newt Gingrich in the actual primaries represented the Cowboy faction of the Republican party.

Uneven Steven's 2008 Political Wrap Up

Just to close some loose ends from the election:

Barack Hussein Obama proved that America truly is moving past its racist past, and Americans will get over his middle name, though pockets of racism still persist. He also achieved election by being as hopeful and direct as Reagan, and being FOR something as opposed to being against something.

Nancy Pelosi won the Battle of the Alpha Females by using her lieutenants to push Sen. Clinton out of the Presidential race and getting President Obama elected. Though given Hillary's predominance on Foreign Policy as Secretary of State now, I'd say Hillary ended up ok.

George W. Bush finished the dismantling of the Reagan Coalition which he started by imposing tariffs on foreign steel early in the decade and accelerated by using the federal government to intervene in the Terri Schiavo case in 2005. Of course firing Don Rumsfeld at two years too late and getting new management at DoD didn't help; neither did his failure to override the poor decisions of Louisiana Democratic Governor Kathleen Blanco.

John McCain was doomed by his "Mavricky" past (thank you Tina Fey) which had alienated most of the GOP's campaign foot soldiers; everything. He will now return to being a thorn in the side of conservatives of all stripes.

Sarah Palin became an instant Rock Star with her speech at the Republican National Committee. She then imploded in a manner which will haunt her future ambitions. This implosion was caused either because (a) she's an idiot; or (b) she listened too much to her McCain campaign handlers, depending on whom you believe. I opt for option (c): Steve Schmidt didn't give her enough notice she would be the VP nominee and she was unable to get up to speed on the issues she needed to.

A Woman WILL become president in the near future. Both major parties have now nominated women as Vice Presidential candidates, and Sen. Clinton ran an amazing campaign that could've been won with better strategy and if Mark Penn had actually understood the nominating process.

Republicans continued to lose Congressional seats, further retreating towards being a regional (Southern) party; this is not good for Republicans or the nation. Arguments over rebuilding the party essentially now pit social conservatives (whose positions have driven away the moderate middle) against libertarians and others whom the party has marginalized, and whom the social conservatives can't tolerate. IMHO leaving the social conservatives ascendant will doom the party for years to Minority status.

The Democrat Party became more ascendant by becoming a somewhat bigger tent (most of their gains in the last two cycles came from electing more conservative Dems in Congressional Districts that usually go Republican). However, these conservative Dems will be rolled repeatedly by Speaker Pelosi and her liberal California allies in their quest to rollback every conservative achievement from the Reagan-Gingrich era.

Ok, So Al Gore Didn't Announce (Yet)

Ok, so Gore didn't announce for President at the Oscars the way I predicted. Oh well, sometimes I'm wrong. However, he basically received a nomination speech from Leonardo DiCaprio.

Gore also is nominated for a Nobel Prize. Given the Nobel Committee's recent penchant for including political considerations in its awarding process, Gore likely will win. He also has accumulated enough money in the private sector to jump start a late campaign (similar to the Gingrich strategy).

I believe that Gore will announce for the Presidency shortly after winning the Nobel Peace Prize, and will be the nominee.