No "God" Please

Michele Bachmann is proud of her beliefs in a Christian God, as opposed to a Muslim, a Buddhist, or a atheist. As an Evangelical Christian, she takes every opportunity to remind people that God exists and that God intervenes in our affairs on a frequent basis. Her recent comment, however, that God moved hurricane Irene to the East Coast to send us a message and rein in our spending was not well received by most Americans. She says it was a joke; but the underlying essence of that comment is frightening, as frightening as George Bush telling us that God had told him to invade Iraq. When politicians start implying that they have a direct link to the Almighty, I start having serious doubts about the future of this country.



It wasn't the first time Mrs. Bachmann mentioned God in a political context; she insisted that God had "told" her to run for the 6th Congressional district and even went fasting for 3 days to "confirm" it.
She won with 50% of the votes thanks to heavy financial support from an evangelical organization run by a Mr. Dobson. Talk about the separation of Church and State, a concept evolved from the
First Amendment of our constitution which prohibits laws that may favor a specific official religion.

Granted, most Americans are Christians who believe in Jesus Christ and the Holy Trinity. But as a country that respects the right not to believe at all in some supernatural being, and the right to follow any other sect or set of beliefs, no matter how outlandish they may be, we must observe with concern the emergence of politicians who act more as preachers than laymen or laywomen.

What makes America great is precisely its marvelous constitution written by learned and enlightened men (no women alas) who clearly wanted to avoid any of the religious and political pitfalls of European nations. Religions in general are the direct causal factor of millions of victims and hundreds of wars. One can argue that gods do not start conflicts, men do. Indeed, but tell that to Osama (his ghost anyway) or to the mullahs in Iran who ask their faithful brethren to kill the unbelievers.

We must be very careful not to elect candidates who wrap themselves in religious exhortations and who pretend to have a direct communication with the Creator. We lost thousands of soldiers in Iraq and billions of dollars which disappeared in the maws of corruption, thanks to Bush's secret ties with his maker.

We could have done so much if these huge sums of money had been invested in jobs, education, and infrastructure here, in the U.S.

How many teachers could we pay with one budget day spent on Iraq and Afghanistan?

No, Mrs. Bachmann, I doubt very much that you will succeed in your quest for the White House. American citizens tend the shy away from extremists, whether from the right or the left.

NEWT GINGRICH

Newton Leroy Gingrich is a fascinating character. He is currently a candidate for the Presidency, even though he knows quite well that his chances of success equal those of the Cubs going to the World Series. Extremely intelligent, a college professor and historian, the former Speaker of the House (why do journalists keep addressing him as Mr. Speaker?), entered the fray for two reasons: First, he knows that this is his last chance at his age; he just turned 68 on June 17th. Whatever the odds, he feels that the slimmest possibility of success still gives him a sense of entitlement. In his mind, his political experience gives him the right to become President and go away in a blaze of glory like Reagan. But the real reason, in my learned opinion, is his secret hope that he will be chosen as Vice-President and then, who knows, anything can happen.




He has written more than 17 non-fiction books since 1982, most of them covering politics and U.S. History. Gingrich without a doubt dominates all the other candidates in intelligence and political experience. His main problem however is that he has become famous for his gaffes when speaking publicly; he is also known for his interest in other women even while married. Given the present forgiving mood of most of the electorate nowadays,  the former Speaker believes that his peccadilloes will not affect his chances of becoming Vice-President or, at the very least, of occupying a large role in the new Cabinet of 2013. Assuming of course that Obama is defeated, which is by no means certain.



Mr. Gingrich possesses the usual disdain for those who do not share his brilliant intellect; he of course tries to hide that feeling in public, although, as stated above, he sometimes lets his tongue get the better of him. When his staff resigned en masse on June 9, 2011, he vowed to continue the campaign: “I am committed to running the substantive, solutions-oriented campaign I set out to run earlier this spring,” he wrote a few days later. It appears that again his intellectual prowess convinced him that he knew better than anybody else how to run his candidacy. Again, there is little doubt that the fireworks inside Gingrich's team must have spooked his helpers to the point of convincing them that Newt would never listen to reason.

Again, the ex-Speaker understands all that and probably regrets that his impetuous character has left him to fight the campaign alone or with whomever is willing to put up with him. Why does he continue? Because he is a superb debater and because his real goal is not to win the Republican primaries. He believes that by the end of the process, his name and face will be so well-known that the victor (Mr. Romney?) will have no choice but to select him as his running mate.