Fear and Loathing,Campaign 2004

[Forkboy]

Armageddon came early for George Bush this year, and he was not ready for it. His long-awaited showdowns with my man John Kerry turned into a series of horrible embarrassments that cracked his nerve and demoralized his closest campaign advisers. They knew he would never recover, no matter how many votes they could steal for him in Florida, where the presidential debates were closely watched and widely celebrated by millions of Kerry supporters who suddenly had reason to feel like winners.
Kerry came into October as a five-point underdog with almost no chance of winning three out of three rigged confrontations with a treacherous little freak like George Bush. But the debates are over now, and the victor was clearly John Kerry every time. He steamrollered Bush and left him for roadkill.

Did you see Bush on TV, trying to debate? Jesus, he talked like a donkey with no brains at all. The tide turned early, in Coral Gables, when Bush went belly up less than halfway through his first bout with Kerry, who hammered poor George into jelly. It was pitiful. . . . I almost felt sorry for him, until I heard someone call him "Mister President," and then I felt ashamed.

----

Richard Nixon looks like a flaming liberal today, compared to a golem like George Bush. Indeed. Where is Richard Nixon now that we finally need him?

If Nixon were running for president today, he would be seen as a "liberal" candidate, and he would probably win. He was a crook and a bungler, but what the hell? Nixon was a barrel of laughs compared to this gang of thugs from the Halliburton petroleum organization who are running the White House today -- and who will be running it this time next year, if we (the once-proud, once-loved and widely respected "American people") don't rise up like wounded warriors and whack those lying petroleum pimps out of the White House on November 2nd.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/_/id/6562575...

[indigobusiness]

1. 'bout time he broke out the heavy artillery...

I was beginning to wonder if they had him locked in a closet.

[LiberalAndProud]

2. Balm to my over-Rushed ears.

Every GOP administration since 1952 has let the Military-Industrial Complex loot the Treasury and plunge the nation into debt on the excuse of a wartime economic emergency. Richard Nixon comes quickly to mind, along with Ronald Reagan and his ridiculous "trickle-down" theory of U.S. economic policy. If the Rich get Richer, the theory goes, before long their pots will overflow and somehow "trickle down" to the poor, who would rather eat scraps off the Bush family plates than eat nothing at all. Republicans have never approved of democracy, and they never will. It goes back to preindustrial America, when only white male property owners could vote.

[No2W2004]

3. Thanks for posting

Back in June, when John Kerry was beginning to feel like a winner, I had a quick little rendezvous with him on a rain-soaked runway in Aspen, Colorado, where he was scheduled to meet with a harem of wealthy campaign contributors. As we rode to the event, I told him that Bush's vicious goons in the White House are perfectly capable of assassinating Nader and blaming it on him. His staff laughed, but the Secret Service men didn't. Kerry quickly suggested that I might make a good running mate, and we reminisced about trying to end the Vietnam War in 1972.

That was the year I first met him, at a riot on that elegant little street in front of the White House. He was yelling into a bullhorn and I was trying to throw a dead, bleeding rat over a black-spike fence and onto the president's lawn.

We were angry and righteous in those days, and there were millions of us. We kicked two chief executives out of the White House because they were stupid warmongers. We conquered Lyndon Johnson and we stomped on Richard Nixon -- which wise people said was impossible, but so what? It was fun. We were warriors then, and our tribe was strong like a river.

That river is still running. All we have to do is get out and vote, while it's still legal, and we will wash those crooked warmongers out of the White House.

[Forkboy]

9. You're welcome

It was just too good to let pass by without sharing.

[scarletwoman]

4. Wow! Hunter S. Thompson ROCKS!

Definitely a must-read! Thank you so much for posting it!

"our tribe was strong like a river" -- what a breathtaking, heartbreaking line. I remember those days well. Yes, that was how it was...

sw

[Forkboy]

6. You are most welcome

I was too young for those days,but that line you quoted reminded me of my fav quote of his that I keep saved;

"There was madness in any direction, at any hour. If not across the Bay, then up the Golden Gate or down 101 to Los Altos or La Honda... You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning....

And that, I think, was the handle --- that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn't need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting --- on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave..." --- HST '71

Like most HST fans I love the wacky stuff,but there are times when he writes with such a sparkling clarity that one can't help but be moved.

[scarletwoman]

10. I wouldn't call myself a fan, more of an appreciater...

My reading tastes back in the day ran more to Ram Dass, the Bhagavad Gita and the Tao Te Ching. Aside from participating in anti-Vietnam war marches, I was definitely NOT the political junkie I am today.

The quote you've posted is wonderful. I cannot begin to describe with any justice the optimism, joy, and sense of unstoppable power we felt in those days.

The light of those days has been obscured, but I do not believe that it has died altogether...

sw
:hippie:

[insidious]

5. The Syphillis President... so true!

Dr Thompson is a legend and my hero.

"Bush is a natural-born loser with a filthy-rich daddy who pimped his son out to rich oil-mongers. He hates music, football and sex, in no particular order, and he is no fun at all."

[Forkboy]

7. He's one of mine too

Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 solidified my position as a political jumkie :)

[cybildisobedience]

13. Hey, me too!

I used to love his reports from the campaign trail -- he would do things like talk to Gary Hart (then McGovern's campaign manager) when he was in the men's room, and then report the whole experience.

[librechik]

8. what an inspiring rant

The Dr. sure knows how to call a rat bastard a rat bastard.

[ixion]

11. Hunter's in fine form on this one

He's been one of my all time favorite authors for a couple decades now, and this is why.

Way to lay it all out, Mr. Thompson. :yourock:

[DinahMoeHum]

12. The "Gonzo Journalist" Strikes Again!!

Gotta love the part with Muhammad Ali:

(snip)
"...Immediately after the first debate ended I called Muhammad Ali at his home in Michigan, but whoever answered said the champ was laughing so hard that he couldn't come to the phone. "The debate really cracked him up," he chuckled. "The champ loves a good ass-whuppin'. He says Bush looked so scared to fight, he finally just quit and laid down."

Ali has seen that look before. Almost three months to the day after John Fitzgerald Kennedy was murdered in Dallas, the "Louisville Lip" -- then Cassius Clay -- made a permanent enemy of every "boxing expert" in the Western world by beating World Heavyweight Champion Sonny Liston so badly that he refused to come out of his corner for the seventh round.

This year's first presidential debate was such a disaster for George Bush that his handlers had to be crazy to let him get in the ring with John Kerry again. Yet Karl Rove let it happen, and we can only wonder why. But there is no doubt that the president has lost his nerve, and his career in the White House is finished. NO MAS..."
(snip)


:kick::kick::kick:

[bloom]

14. ....

"The question this year is not whether President Bush is acting more and more like the head of a fascist government but if the American people want it that way."