MOVE OF BISHOP: REPUBLICANS START AND… LOSE AS OF YET

“Pre-election America 2012”

Several weeks ago Pentagon has discovered to its utter surprise that even the state-of-the-art American weapons contain “made-in-China”, i.e. apparently counterfeit, computing components. The hype is easy to understand even without going deep into technical specs of modern arms production, let alone the potential fighting capacity of an army, armed with the remarkable weapons like that.

While pre-election battles take place at Republican field, the incumbent President may sleep the sleep of just, amused by the Elephants trampling each other into mud and cutting all the more wounds of GOP would-be-occupants of the Oval Office open.

A TV-show named “Republican debates 2012” seems to be endless. Almost every week Republican contenders fight life and death battles for the delight of common Americans. A ding-dong battle it is, yet the only true winner of this television jousting arena is the one, who doesn’t take part in the melee at all — Barack Obama. Republican candidates fervently expose the blind spots of their rivals, while Obama’s staff must be doing rubrics in the records of possible competitors. For instance, prior to becoming a politician, whom even the most popular of satirical TV-shows don’t mock anymore, Rick Perry was considered a conservative superman, who will literally sweep Mitt Romney of the way with his achievements at the post of Texas governor (he created half of all U.S. jobs during the last two years) and pose a considerable threat to Barack Obama.

Yet, his political illiteracy and permanent blunders have actually stripped him off chances to run on behalf of the Republican Party. The last straw that broke the back of the conservative camel was his public speech, where he announced that the moment he becomes President of the United States, he will eliminate three departments at once: Department of Trade, Department of Education (!) and... lapsed into deep thoughts over the nature of the third to-be-eliminated department, which he had forgotten. After a pause, which lasted for more than a minute, Texas governor forced a single “Whoops!” and fell silent.

The more political debates take place, the more blunders we observe. Mind that evading public debates is, putting it mildly, insecure for politician’s career. Even a well-forgotten Newt Gingrich, abandoned even by the closest adherents of his, has suddenly got back into saddle thanks to his eloquence. Newscasters estimate his chances in the fight against Romney as “increasing”. His issue, though, is being too well remembered as the former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, a lobbyist and a divorced spouse. His candidacy is considered chanceless for the general elections.

Yet, all this “savory” in-house details about Republicans willing to challenge Obama — including the stunning exposures of Herman Cain’s “sexual deeds” (we’ve already lost count of women, accusing him of either rape, sexual harassment or even a 18-year-long liaison) — are merely “cheesecake stories” for American voters. We’re actually interested in a different sort of things — what befalls to Russo-American relations, once the White House is occupied by a Republican President.

To tell the truth, the chance of this is not that big, yet there are no hundred-per-cent-sure forecasts in politics. Russian international experts tend to believe that Russia has always tracked better with Republicans. Now it would do us well comparing the trustworthiness of this standpoint against the foreign-policy statements of Republican candidates and the deterioration of Russo-American relationship in regard of NMD system and START.

Last week Republican debates on international matters gave us a quick peek of how Elephants’ (as American conservatives style themselves) foreign policy might look like. There surely was a single truly cheerful man among TV-viewers. It is an old acquaintance of ours — Dick Cheney, former Vice President of the United States. Three years ago, leaving the White House outbuilding, he could boast of merely 13% of American sympathies. Now, though, his backup group has increased by at least a number of all Republican candidates. All of them have pledged their commitment to the “values”, which are near American Tartuffe’s heart.

“If I become a President, we’ll keep water-boarding terrorism suspects. It is an efficient way of getting information for our country. Barack Obama’s CIA is directed by human rights advocates instead” — charming Michelle Bachman chirped during the television debates, giving sweet toothy smiles to the cameras. Black-skinned womanizer-businessman Herman Cain shares this “civil position”. Texas simpleton Rick Perry supported his counterparts with his inherent grace: “This interrogation technique (!) gives us information that saves lives of young Americans, which is why I’m going to support it until the bitter end”.

George Bush’s fellow countryman failed to specify whose bitter end he was referring to — his own or the one of the torture victims. Mitt Romney, favorite of Republican primaries, has diplomatically evaded the issue. Only two of debates’ participants, former U.S. Ambassador to China John Huntsman, and Libertarian Ron Paul, have flatly condemned the use of tortures. That might be the exact reason why they are considered underdogs with almost no chances to win and why the GOP-raff, present in studio, has hissed them off. The stand of these, way too “democratic”, contenders on the issues of withdrawing American troops from Iraq and Afghanistan has produced similar reaction. At the same time, public opinion polls indicate that 77 % of Americans support Obama’s take on this tender matter.

We have to mention that in spite of day-to-day realities and opinions of Europe and Russia, Americans highly appreciate foreign-policy achievements of current administration, albeit American voters are mostly interested in economic crisis and high unemployment rate and that’s the field, where Obama has little to boast of. It seems the reason why 60 % of Americans believe Obama to lose the elections. The only country that interests Americans apart from their own one is China. The reason for that is plain and simple — American media are full of bogeyman stories about Chinese, stealing American technologies and manufacturing cheap imitations of American goods, thus, robbing common Americans of their jobs.

Several weeks ago Pentagon has discovered to its utter surprise that even the state-of-the-art American weapons contain “made-in-China”, i.e. apparently counterfeit, computing components. The hype is easy to understand even without going deep into technical specs of modern arms production, let alone the potential fighting capacity of an army, armed with the remarkable weapons like that.

Once omnipresent China managed to sell Americans counterfeit missile systems, the rest is a piece of cake for it. That’s why Republican candidates promise to show China its place. Romney, known for being a successful businessman and manager, proposes declaring a trade war on China, teaching them fair competition rules and forcing to increase the intentionally underestimated yuan rate. Besides, he offers to give China a good dressing-down in the WTO. Once again, moderate Huntsman carefully mentions that it is mostly American entrepreneurs, who are to suffer, and once again he’s catcalled.

Romney also calls to bomb Iran in case if economic sanctions fail. Newt Gingrich is going to deal shortly with unruly Iranians either. According to him, it only takes to “assassinate all Iranian nuclear scientists secretly, so one would lay the blame on America”.

 In order to bring their remarkable foreign-policy agenda to life it only takes defeating Obama at the home front. Republicans struck the dear brainchild of the incumbent President — his healthcare reform. Few days ago the U.S. Supreme Court admitted 26 suits against this reform from the states, ruled by Republican governors. This August Atlanta Court of Appeal acknowledged that the reform contradicts the U.S. Constitution, as long as it stipulates tax increase for Americans without insurance since 2014.

Final decision will be made next summer, i.e. at the climax of presidential race. The reform will allow 30 million Americans to purchase medical insurance policy (out of 45 million Americans, who don’t have them as of today). It will also reduce its cost, which annually increases by 10 %. Besides, the reform covers more groups of population, whom the state refunds the medical insurance costs. Right-wingers, who traditionally champion large businesses, naturally dislike these typically left, social-democratic measures of social protection. Long story short, at the battlefield of healthcare reform Republican elephants are fervently threatening to trample the humble Democratic donkey into the mud of lawsuits. 

However, while Republicans hunt witches within their own ranks, trying to scare the living Jesus out of Democrats, President Obama can take his time and prepare counter pleas against his future rival, carefully listening (through the ears of his staff) to the debates of Elephants. As of now, he has a certain tactical advantage, but it’s still too early to make forecasts. Only time will show, whether Obama manages to keep it and turn into his triumph.