I just watched the whole 30 minute interview of Vladimir Putin done by CNN. I think the version we got was edited down to six minutes of sound bites (of course it was–the average American’s attention span is about two minutes), but the whole thing was on Russian television, and put up in three parts on YouTube with English subtitles. First, I am struck (as I am always) by seeing someone in power who is obviously intelligent and articulate. Yes, Obama gives a helluva speech and certainly appears to be intelligent, but he’s only the Democratic nominee; the idiot we have now says “nukular” like a fourth-grader and can’t go anywhere or even open his mouth without embarrassing us. The Republican nominee is no better, and potentially a whole lot more dangerous. Don’t get me started on militantly pro-life (not even in the case of rape), abstinence-only, Creationist, book-banning, earmarking hockey mom. Anyway, aside from the fact that Putin is intelligent and articulate, if even half of what he says is true, he’s not the monster he’s made out to be, and either way, the interview was very interesting. Why can’t we have someone who can do an interview like this? Why do we have foam-finger waving dumbasses who get all worked up over flag pins and fake columns and how to field-dress a moose? Who gives a shit about any of that stuff? We need someone who can get the country off the dangerous, destructive and erosive track it’s on now and has been on for years. We are the last remaining super-power, and we do have the world’s most powerful military, but right at this moment, it’s being stretched pretty thin, and potential new recruits aren’t exactly knocking down the doors. Mind-boggling deficit aside, we can afford to be everyone’s big brother (note: not Big Brother), but we cannot be the schoolyard bully. There are about 300 million of us, but that’s 300 million of 6.5 billion. Every country must serve its own interests, and rogues must be restrained, but we all have to share the same world. If we are represented by people better than bullies, just maybe, we can do it. Christ…this probably doesn’t even make any sense; I get so goddamned frustrated when I even think about it because it is simply beyond my comprehension that so many people don’t seem to understand this. Elite? Hell, yes! When it comes to representing the American people, and representing the country on the world stage, you’re goddamned right I want elite. I want the smartest, most articulate, most diplomatic person we have to put up there. Good looks aren’t critical, but would be a bonus (Anders Fogh Rasmussen, anyone?) I don’t care if it’s a man or a woman, I don’t care about the race, I don’t care about the political affiliation; I just care that it’s our best. I don’t want a president I can have a beer with, I want a president of whom I can be proud when I hear him or her speak, and one whose decisions I believe are the ones that best serve not only our domestic interests, but our international interests. The US is a big country, but it’s not the only country in the world, and there are concerns to be considered outside our borders. No, I don’t mean property in South America.
When I can’t find it in my shit-ton of favourites:
P.S. Is it wrong to think Putin is sort of hot in an expressionless, former KGB kinda way? 😆
