Today there is no balance in our federal judiciary. Republicans only seem to decry “activist judges” when judges rule against them. As with Bush v Gore and the slurry of cases found for the party’s clients . . . no problem.
And this brings me to Senator McCain and the scenario that might well place him in the Oval Office.
Do I suppose that Senator McCain might otherwise be an acceptable president, handling international matters as effectively as anyone else? Yes I do. Nonetheless, it’s the domestic issues, the ones that go to our guts every day, and concerns over his court nominees that cause me, and should all Americans, considerable alarm.
Suppose that New York City’s Mayor Bloomberg enters the race as a 3d party candidate. Study after study after study has estimated that any such entry by Bloomberg into the race would take votes from both major party candidates, but that his place on the ballot would draw sufficiently more from the Democratic Party candidate than it would from the GOP. In our winner-take-all Electoral College system, just enough siphoned votes from the Democratic candidate would be just enough electoral votes to land a Republican in the White House; a Republican who eschews every form of spending for social programs and who is pledged to nominate “conservative” judges to the national judiciary.
It hasn’t happened yet: the entry of Bloomberg into the chase. But if he does, it will be time to talk with your friends and associates and relatives who find New York’s mayor enticing. Talk to them about what a vote for the fellow would likely prove. Not only can one waste his or her vote by voting for a third-party candidate, one might find he or she has secured consequences that were not the least sought. We’re not making statements here. We’re deciding whether we want another four or five years like the last seven.
— Ed Tubbs
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