Profiles In Bandwagon Jumping

Colin Powell’s endorsement of Barak Obama for president has been described alternatively as the final nail in the coffin of McCain’s campaign or a knife in McCain’s back. Either way, it only highlights Colin Powell’s dishonesty.

Colin Powell had his chance to rebuke dishonest political tactics and decline to join George W. Bush’s cabinet in 2000, when he congratulated George W. Bush for his non-existent “victory” in the presidential race and again in 2003 when he shilled shamelessly for the Bush administration’s case against Iraq. Each time he chose to align himself with George W. Bush, no matter what the facts. He could have refused to go along with their electoral and martial frauds. He could have kept his credibility and publicly opposed the Bush administration before it was cool, maybe even become a transformational figure.

He had no compunction working for an administration that came into being by suppressing the black vote in Florida. But suddenly John McCain’s divisive campaign tactics bother him, and he’s making the brave choice of endorsing the leading candidate two weeks before the election. Who does he think he’s kidding?

At its best, Powell’s endorsement is cynical political opportunism, at its worst, it is dishonest racial chauvinism. Either way, why should anyone who participated in the Bush administration’s promotion of the invasion of Iraq be trusted at all?

No way would I vote for McCain, but I can’t figure out why so many are lining up to drink the Obama Kool Aid.

Notes From A Polite New Yorker Lives

My column, Notes From A Polite New Yorker, is now back online at Kotori Magazine. It sits proudly as one of several columns. Kotori has taken over GetUnderground.com, where my column had been since 2001.

GetUnderground was hacked and if you had Googled it, its listing informed you that visiting the site may harm your computer. That’s quite unfortunate, since many of my columns were archived there. I hope to post the archive at Kotori, or somehow otherwise provide my faithful readers access to it. You can still read some of my old columns at Knot Magazine’s Web site.

But it is a new day, and my column continues and has new life. Rejoice and go visit Kotori.

Darius McCollum For Mayor

Of all the career criminals that are routinely arrested by the police in New York City, Darius McCollum is the one who elicits the greatest amount of sympathy on the part of New Yorkers. He is not a murderer, thief or graffiti artist, but is obsessed with New York’s trains.

His crimes all revolve around New York’s subways and commuter trains. He was arrested for the 26^th time yesterday at Penn Station by the MTA Police for impersonating a federal agent and boarding a train. He became famous (or infamous) at the age of 15 when he impersonated a motorman and drove the E train for six stops.

Whenever McCollum is arrested, New Yorkers remark that they wish the MTA would hire him. Here is a man who loves the New York City subways and wants more than anything and is so determined to do a good job for our commuters the he risks almost certain arrest and imprisonment every time he boards a train. McCollum has been diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, which is a form of autism. He will likely end up in prison again.

He is the exact opposite of what most New Yorkers experience when they take the subways or commuter rail every day. Our trains do not run on time, and those that run them are often overpaid, rude layabouts who have a callous disregard for those dependent on their vigilance. MTA executives have received secret bonuses while claiming the MTA was pleading poverty and demanding fare increases.

While we certainly need to have our trains operated by trained professionals, it is a sad state of affairs when the hardest working person in mass transit is a mentally unbalanced trespasser. His criminal record may keep Darius McCollum from fulfilling his dream of driving a train, but he’s my favorite MTA worker, even if he’ll never be an employee.

Repeat After Her...

Tonight’s Vice Presidential debate between Sen. Joe Biden and Gov. Sarah Palin was the most eagerly anticipated Vice Presidential debate in my memory. The anticipation centered on speculation over the performance of Gov. Palin.

Leading up to the debate, there seemed to be an effort to raise the bar in terms of the debate for Palin. After her disastrous interviews with Katie Couric on CBS and Charlie Gibson on ABC, this was portrayed as a make or break moment. In these interviews, she was woefully unprepared and looked foolish. As long as she didn’t wet herself or run away, her debate performance could be spun as a success.

The easy analysis would be to say that McCain thought he had a Republican Hillary Clinton and wound up with a female Dan Quayle. But there was no great “gotcha” moment (if I can borrow a misused phrase from the McCain campaign) that Biden scored against Palin the way that Lloyd Bentsen did against Quayle in 1988.

Palin seemed stuck on the same phrases and would veer off topic in order to return to some of the same points. Within the first few minutes, Gov. Palin provided all the catch phrases one would need to create your own Sarah Palin drinking game. If you took a sip of alcohol every time she uttered the phrase, “The Maverick John McCain,” or “Wall Street greed and corruption,” you would have been wasted before the forth question.

Biden definitely did a better job. While actual facts and figures may not impress the voters, they should. Biden knew more about the issues and did a better job presenting the case for the Obama-Biden ticket. Palin held her own on some points, but neither side likely won any converts.