US Abuzz With Election Talk...Again

By: Rachel Marsden

NEW YORK -- Now that the U.S. midterm congressional elections are over, Americans have turned to a new topic: The next election.

Not that incoming House Speaker Nancy "President Pelosivic" Pelosi is waiting around for 2008. She's already interpreting the Democratic win as a mandate to take the country on a sharp left turn into the deep end. (I believe in driver education classes, this is called the "Ted Kennedy Chappaquiddick Manoeuvre.") As the NDP has taught us in Canada, even a loss is a reason to pretend that you've won. So a bare win is pretty much a landslide to a leftist.

While some folks may not have been thrilled with the pace of terrorist annihilation in Iraq, they likely didn't realize what they were really getting when they elected the Democrats. As of this week, Pelosi has given voters a pretty good indication, when she threw her support behind Rep. John Murtha for House Majority Leader. Despite having voted in favour of the war, Murtha is now leading the charge to bail out.

Pelosi is like the guy who relentlessly pesters you for a date, and then when you finally give in and agree to dinner, shoves his tongue down your throat within the first five minutes. While Americans may have been expecting a slow, gradual courtship, Pelosi has forced voters to deep-throat extreme left values.

Which brings me to another hot topic here in New York: The "other" Clinton. Outlining her post-election priorities, the early Democratic presidential frontrunner, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, said: "Health care is back. It may be a bad dream for some." It appears Hillary wants to take another stab at health care reform -- this time, as someone who was actually elected, not just married to a guy who was president, as was the case in 1993.

Democrats like Hillary argue that people in America can't get medical treatment.

My guess is there were more women on their knees in Bill Clinton's Oval Office than are currently begging for emergency medical help outside of American hospitals.

People without health insurance who need serious, emergency treatment are hardly turned away -- and private, pay-for-play health care nicely serves to discourage what we too often see in Canada -- people running to the hospital to get their kid's nose wiped.

Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani is also considering a 2008 presidential run. The best thing Giuliani -- a left-leaning Republican -- has going for him is his take on the terror war.

This, and the fact that he's like everyone's favourite uncle.

Last year, I asked him when he thought the war might end. He said it was more like the Cold War than either World War, and that when the terror attacks against westerners subsided, we'd know we were winning.

Arizona Sen. John McCain may also run for the Republican nomination in 2008.

As a former prisoner of war who was tortured in North Vietnam, he holds the ultimate moral authority trump card.

(Even being married to Bill Clinton or surviving cancer, like Giuliani, can't beat this one.) And at least McCain -- who is in favour of increasing troops in Iraq, rather than cutting and running -- passes the basic sanity test.

Depending on what kind of mess the Democrats make over the next two years, mere sanity may be enough to put any of the Republican contenders over the top.

PUBLISHED: TORONTO SUN (November 16/06)