The End?
I will not say this is The End for cnbcsucks.wordpress.com. In the way that I named that page and its permalink, I left it open for future iterations of the Trish Regan Temple (like II, III, and IV). I left the CNBC Annoyance Poll and the CNBC Bra Size Poll open on the right sidebar. I might be compelled by rage to write a new post if I have the unfortunate accident of ever tuning in to CNBC again, but I doubt I would allow that and I think I will just avert my eyes and cover my ears if I run into CNBC somewhere. If I need business news, I would just go to Google News or the Bloomberg Web site instead of settling for the immediacy of turning on CNBC.
You never know when you will lose something, when you will never see someone or do something again. This is life. You must try your very best to create meaning out of the life you are given, but you must never expect any absolute coherence, sense, or logic from life itself. At any moment, I do not know if I will ever log in to or even see this blog again. Therefore, I have left a few more static pages for you (click, click, click and read and see each item as many times as possible, like a maniac), tried to tie up some loose ends (like The Hottest Flat-Chested Chicks of All Time and CNBC Date Cost Estimates), and generally just leave enough critical mass through November 4 in content and audience for this blog to do what I realized early on what it was meant to do: Fight fire with fire against Republican propaganda, McCain’s over-the-top nastiness toward Obama, and CNBC’s complicity – by intention or by incompetence – with both.
If I left any loose ends, like some content or new poll that I promised, get over it. If John McCain gets elected, you will have far grander problems than you could ever imagine. I will say that I am proud that the last Real-Time CNBC Babe Rankings you might ever see is based on competence rather than looks or superficial popularity. As with every damned triviality between the genders, I am sure some members of Feministing will object to my use of the word “our”, but I will write it nonetheless: Our women deserve our best.
I will not say any more nasty things about John McCain or ask you anymore to vote for Barack Obama, other than:
- This is the most important election in at least 28 years, perhaps 76 years, and maybe even 148 years. Americans have become so bad at math, so those years to which I refer would be 1980, 1932, and 1860.
- Since Americans are even worse at history, let me just give the highlights that the Presidents elected in those years were Ronald Reagan, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. In each instance, the United States was facing a crisis: the height of the Cold War and America’s crisis of confidence in 1980, the Great Depression in 1932, and the prospect of secession and the Civil War in 1860. In 2008, we face an energy crisis, an economic crisis, a crisis in the way we relate with the rest of the world.
- In each instance, the American people made the right choice, and changed the course of history. The right choice is not a question of the right political party, but the right man (or right woman, hopefully someday).
- The choice between Barack Obama and John McCain is crystal clear. Obama is by far the superior candidate, so thoughtful and so well spoken, and McCain is just plain dangerous to this country. You do not scrape the bottom of the barrel to find the leadership of a superpower. I could not feel any more strongly about how hopeful America’s prospects become under Obama, and how perilous the situation will become under McCain. With Obama, I see the reestablishment of America’s global leadership and prosperity; with McCain, I expect declining relevance to the rest of the world at best and oblivion at worst. I have still not met a single educated, informed, professionally employed peer who favors McCain, but it is clear that the forces of ignorance are on his side.
- I have done my best to warn you, to compel you to support Barack Obama, and I hope for the absolute best in November. But as I said, there is no absolute coherence, sense, or logic that can be expected from life, so the worst thing can always happen. America’s destiny is not guaranteed nor preordained, as many Americans would like to think.
In closing this page, but not necessarily ending this blog, I leave you with Ronald Reagan’s Farewell Address on January 11, 1989. It might seem odd to promote a Democratic Presidential candidate with a great Republican President, but Barack Obama has more in common with The Great Communicator than John McCain will ever have. Even though McCain fancies himself a “foot soldier in the Reagan Revolution”, believe none of it. Ronald Reagan would have switched back to the Democrats in disgust if he had been alive and conscious of McCain’s presumptive nomination as Republican candidate for President. In referring to “The New Patriotism” that is now embodied by McCain and the Republicans (beginning at 4:03 in the video below), President Reagan warned, “This national feeling is good, but it won’t count for much and it won’t last unless it’s grounded in thoughtfulness and knowledge. An informed patriotism is what we want.” I remember crying on that night nearly twenty years ago when Ronald Reagan said goodbye to his nation, and I cry now thinking Reagan’s worst fears for America could culminate in the victory of cynicism over thoughtfulness, of ignorance over knowledge, should McCain win in November. I have done my part. I now only hope and trust that the American people will leave this nation in Barack Obama’s good hands.
Mark E Hoffer said
Bud,
I’ve looked all over your site for a e|mail link, to no avail..
If you’d care to continue that convo from BR’s thread, feel free to send a ping..