Wartime Elections
"...It's one thing to criticize actual policy decisions -- that's legitimate, and it has happened in every war. No President should ever be above question..."
"... It's worth remembering that in 1864, there was a peace candidate named George McClellan. Once a popular general who even defeated Lee at Antietam, McClellan ran with the promise that he'd negotiate an end to the bloody Civil War and bring our soldiers home.
Of course, a negotiated settlement would perforce have left slavery intact in the South and left the Union broken into two countries. In other words, the only possible "negotiated settlement" was to give up on the only two issues that mattered in the war.
McClellan was defeated. But it was a close election.
There are a lot more parallels, actually, to that pivotal wartime election of 1864. Our President back then was a Republican who was vilified as a monster or baboon, as an idiot or bumpkin by his oh-so-sophisticated enemies. He was accused of bungling the war and he was mocked for his countrified speech and good-ol'-boy sense of humor.
But it's his face we see on our pennies and five-dollar bills. Because he fought that just war --the bloodiest in our history -- to the only conclusion that would have left us a chance to be a great nation. His opponent never would have.
I'm not saying W. is any Abraham Lincoln -- though he might yet turn out to be. But I definitely am saying that his opponent this year is a George B. McClellan, but with less charisma ..."
Read the rest here.
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