From some of the accounts of his military career, he was a chronic fuck-up, crashed three planes and was only redeemed by his P.O.W. story. And he has a famous temper. By contrast Obama is thought to have a first rate temperament and intellect. But non-the-less Obama is serenely sailing the country into the jaws of economic destruction, a course which may well yet result in the loss of even the semblance of popular democracy, and he either doesn't get it or doesn't care. What a choice!

But from the point of view of the rest of the world, Obama does look like a much better choice.  To me it turned out to be a choice of disasters. One was more obvious the other more insidious.

As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

The guy has become erratic - or maybe he always was.

The same was said of Reagan, and with good reason--specifically his "Evil Empire" rhetoric. I was genuinely concerned that Ronnie would "go nuclear" if elected in 1980. Instead, he terrified the neo-cons when he and Gorby met in Iceland and Ronnie seemed prepared to abolish almost all nuclear weapons.

Perhaps I suffer from "annihilation fatigue". But I do wish we could find a way to tamp down the popular appetite in all countries for simplistic lunatics eager to sacrifice all of the higher values of such civilization as we have managed to create and preserve as sops to short term political expediency.

As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."