Texas Blue Mailbag: Week of 10/14/2007

Deep, insightful analysis on Colbert's candidacy, right here in the TB Mailbag — like there was any doubt.

Lo says:

What are the latest developments on Republicans trying to change the electoral college rules in California?

Josh says:
You're referring to this. What I'm hearing is that it has fallen apart financially, but this kind of thing makes me nervous. Sure, everyone that was involved in the leadership role bailed out in the last few weeks, but seriously, when you have ever known Republicans to back off an idea completely when they've put any sort of money into it.

So, as for what's going on right now: not much. But it probably isn't dead.

Alabama Charlie asks:

Will Stephen Colbert become our next president?!??? And if so, who will run the Colbert report?

George says:

Colbert will come close. But it's still Ditka by 3.

But if he does win, the Colbert Report will be his Fireside Chat.

MmM asks:

So is this all over? Is is going to be Hillary and Giuliani?

Josh replies:

The winner of the Democratic Primary will be the American people. The Republican field is still way too open to figure out who it would be right now. It looks like it will be Giuliani, but Huckabee's a sleeper. You shoudln't count out Mitt. Again, at one point in 2004 Gephardt and Lieberman were all on top of the polls and looking like sure bets. So who knows? I think there's still some fireworks left. Also, AL GORE IS NOT RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT SO STOP TALKING ABOUT IT.

Mike and Joe asks:

Can you give us the rundown on what it looks like the campaigns will decide are "pertinent issues" this election? What are we going to be told to care about this time around? And do you think any action will be taken on these issues, unlike, say, the Social Security situation we heard so much about in 1999?

George answers:

Well, of course, the Iraq war and terrorism are what you're going to be hearing the most of, but there's been a big resurgence of domestic welfare issues that haven't been talked about much in the past 8 years: universal health care is the biggie, but also covered are the environment and consumer issues like predatory lending and the housing crisis. Immigration is another one that's being pushed hard, particularly from the right. And you'll probably see the minimum wage increase come up as an issue later in the game, to counter the inevitable Republican claim that the Democratic congress hasn't gotten anything done.

As far as whether anything will be done on those issues, that's an interesting question. And perhaps a question I shouldn't be answering, because honestly, I'm not sure I ever expect action to be taken on the issues people talk about during election season. Now, hear me out on this, because that's not solely cynicism: I simply think that once having won an office, you inevitably (and necessarily) become beholden to "the tyranny of Now." Pressing issues will come up that absolutely have to be dealt with, no matter what you were elected to run on in the first place. The 9/11 attacks are an obvious (and probably the biggest) example of that. The biggest issues of an election cycle will usually get addressed, but many others will fall by the wayside, not because of some malicious intent of legislators, but because things come up and situations change over a four-year span.

So I guess what I'm saying is, you're probably right, action will be taken on very few of these issues. Expect something done about Iraq, and expect health care to make a big tizzy. But other than that, we have to acknowledge that we don't know what we're going to be facing tomorrow, let alone a year from now, and that has to be taken into account.