Barat, We Hardly Knew Ye
By Robert A. Hahn Posted in 2008 — Comments (17) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Since I live in Washington DC, I'm frequently out of the loop when it comes to popular culture. Take this fellow "Barat." This guy is a big star. Or at least, he was. As usual, I'd never heard of him.
I always seem to arrive late to these things. About the time I find out one of these Hollywood phenoms exists, he disappears.
Apparently this one was running for president. He was even the front-runner. The newspapers were hailing him as the Great Black Hope. And then... poof. All of a sudden Barat is yesterday's news. Day before yesterday, in fact.
I guess this is just the way it is in Hollywood... one day you're a big star and the next day you're parking cars. Perhaps it was audacious of Barat to hope. Perhaps the guy from Hope thought Barat was in the way. Whatever it was, the media seems to have dropped Barat like a hot rock.
That's too bad.
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Barat, We Hardly Knew Ye 17 Comments (0 topical, 17 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
...at the car wash, yeah!
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/6304843232/ref=imdbap_i_8/104-7269746-3...
I will be very surprised if he is not, somewhere, on the Democratic 2008 ticket. Yeah, probably not president...
But the Vice-President nominee?
He will give a Bentsenesque lift to the Democratic ticket. If the Democrats learned anything, anything at all, from 2004 then they won't put another John Kerry at the top of the ticket. If they've learned anything, anything at all, they'll put someone that swing voters won't automatically be inclined to vote against (I'm thinking Hillary).
Now, of course, the Republicans will have to nominate someone that won't get the same response (remember when people were talking about Jeb Bush running someday?) and I am not entirely sure that they will. McCain strikes me as another Bob Dole (campaignwise, I mean, I don't mean as a guy). Giuliani strikes me as the only Republican candidate who is likely to get more of the swing voters than Generic Democrat/Barack Obama in 2008.
Now, of course, if the Democrats put Hillary up there, it probably doesn't matter who the Republicans put up there. Half of the country will vote against the one party and the other half will vote against the other.
But Obama on the bottom half of a Democratic nomination ticket will get a good chunk of people out there to actually vote for the Democratic party and not merely voting against the Republicans.
I wouldn't dismiss him just yet.
Man is free at the moment he wishes to be. --Voltaire
A lifelong Dem who worked in the Texas House for many years is convinced that Hilary at the top of the ticket will mean the death of the Democratic party east of the Mississippi River. His favorite (Dem) candidate was/is Bill Richardson, and I have to agree. A Southwestern governor with an anglo name but of mixed descent who speaks Spanish? Sounds like just the ticket for Dems.
agree with your old boss.
I haven't seen such an uncharismatic, generic wannabe executive actually gather this much media attention in a long time.
Personally, I think the only reason she's gotten this far is because of her reputed skill at back-room, cloak-and-dagger-esque politicking. Lots of Republican leaders have actually said publicly that she's a "very good woman to work with." She must have some private, fantastic social skill. Of course, that's not very useful as a Presidential candidate; you can't project that kind of charisma into the camera.
"Art is the lie that reveals the truth." -Picasso
"The Republic does not bring to light the best possible regime but rather the nature of political things- the nature of the city." -Cicero
If either Hillary or Obama is nominated...well the country just simply deserves what they get! Is the world coming to an earlier end than anticipated?
Picasso knows best...
A Southwestern governor with an anglo name but of mixed descent who speaks Spanish? Sounds like just the ticket for Dems.
Now if can only have a sex change and become gay, he can achieve ALL the important qualifications necessary to win the Democrat nomination.
"Art is the lie that reveals the truth." -Picasso
"The Republic does not bring to light the best possible regime but rather the nature of political things- the nature of the city." -Cicero
Thats what the primary process is all about right? Trying to appeal to the broadest possible swath of your base?
but it has little to do with the reality. I suspect any of the regular posters here could easily name half a dozen candidates in either party who would make better candidates than any who have run in the past four elections. Sometimes I think, I'd sort of like to see a third party candidate who managed to win enough electoral votes so the electoral college actually had to perform its real duty instead of being a ceremonial vote. Then I remember not to wish for certain things because I just might get them.
>>Sometimes I think, I'd sort of like to see a third party candidate who managed to win enough electoral votes so the electoral college actually had to perform its real duty instead of being a ceremonial vote.
I suspect that if John McCain loses the GOP primaries (and I am sure that he will) he will give serious consideration to an independent run. I think this becomes a probablity if either (or both) of major parties selects a candidate with serious electoral baggage or who can credibly be painted as extreme. Lieberman might well be his running mate.
Of course, this may do nothing more than deadlock the College - especially as some states bind their delegates - which would throw the elections to Congress.
Quentin Langley
Editor of http://www.quentinlangley.net
International Editor of
Did anyone doubt that Hillary would throw her girdle into the ring, the heavy duty one that landed with a thud.
It's a liberals dream, two mouthy, phoney, and evasive pols running for the golden ring. Let the dust settle from Hillary's announcement, probably taped before she was sworn into the Senate, and we'll have a better picture of which gangster gets the nod from the media.
"a man's admiration for absolute government is proportinate to the contempt he feels for those around him". Tocqueville
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