Changing Horses in Mid-Stream
The old proverb about not changing horses in the middle of the stream is being used by some as an argument to keep Bush. Such proverbs are about as simplistic as Bush himself. The fact is, if you have a horse that is stubborn with a mind of its own and has gone off in the wrong direction, endangering the rider and cargo, and acting oblivious to the other horses in the stream, it is better to switch to a nearby horse that is more dependable and responsive, has a clearer sense of where the other side of the stream is and is mindful of what the other horses are up to.
A more helpful approach is the concept of the previous investment trap. We all have made the mistake of keeping some foolish and totally useless item we bought a while back, because getting rid of it seems like admitting that our investment in buying the item was a mistake. But keeping it will not change reality - it is foolish and useless and it was a mistake to have bought it. And keeping it just perpetuates the mistake - every time we see the item we feel bad about it and about ourselves for being mistaken. Better to get rid of the item and replace it with a sensible and useful one. Then, not only will the new item be of inherent value, but it will also make us feel better about ourselves.
America, it is time to clean house.
A more helpful approach is the concept of the previous investment trap. We all have made the mistake of keeping some foolish and totally useless item we bought a while back, because getting rid of it seems like admitting that our investment in buying the item was a mistake. But keeping it will not change reality - it is foolish and useless and it was a mistake to have bought it. And keeping it just perpetuates the mistake - every time we see the item we feel bad about it and about ourselves for being mistaken. Better to get rid of the item and replace it with a sensible and useful one. Then, not only will the new item be of inherent value, but it will also make us feel better about ourselves.
America, it is time to clean house.
posted by Tom Blake | 9:05 AM
2 Comments:
I think a lot of people would like to clean house but are unsettled by the Democrats ill considered choice of Kerry as the man to take on what should have been a sitting duck. Only people from Seattle or Massachussetts can really like the guy. Because I'm both, I like the guy. But after living in Phoenix for almost thirty years, I can easily see how far out of step with the rest of the country Kerry and his ardent supporters are. Hardly anyone expected him to be a good campaigner, and he has pretty much fulfilled those expectations. He has done better at the finish, but with two days left I'm afraid it is too little, too late. The problem is that many, if not most, of those voting for him are really anti-Bush voters. If the Democrats had chosen someone more people could identify with, the anti-Bush voters could have pushed the candidate into a landslide.
Kerry got 49% and I suppose if he had projected one other postive aspect, he might have been able to pull over just enough more voters to win. But that presumes that added postive aspect would not have also caused the same number or more of those otherwise voting for him to change their mind.
I do not believe there was any other candidate who could have done as well as Kerry. While each may have had some appeal in which Kerry may have been deficient,they each lacked more of the appeals that Kerry had. Kerry was the most electable, which is why I and a majority of Democrats supported him at the caucuses. In the primaries, the majority of the voters also chose him.
Kerry was not the problem. The Democratic voting coalition was just outnumbered by the voting coalition the Republicans amassed and no available Democrat could have changed that.
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