Romney Lowers The Discourse

Mitt Romney has some good ideas, but hasn’t contributed all that much to this vitally important election campaign.
Reading the writing on the wall, Romney has now surrendered to his low poll numbers and poor showing on Super Tuesday. Trying to portray his decision as principled instead of pragmatic Romney this morning dropped a rhetorical bomb.
"Now if I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention," he said, "I want you to know, I have given this a lot of thought. I would forestall the launch of a national campaign. And frankly I would be making it easier for Senator Clinton or Obama to win. Frankly in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign be a part of aiding a surrender to terror."
As if he could really have raised enough money to limp through the rest of the primaries without depleting his own fortune.
But the “surrender to terror” crack is a low blow. As much as I opposed the war, I too believe that pulling the troops out of Iraq on a preset timetable, oblivious to the ramifications, would be a disaster, and that is my main problem with Barack Obama (see post below, “Obama’s Mistake.”)
I pray that if Obama is elected he will see things differently and realize that leaving with no infrastructure to maintain order or a mechanism for continued influence there will ensure that Iraq remains the most unstable place on earth and ultimately harm the region and our security interests, if not our actual security. Odds are he won’t, because he has already indebted himself so deeply to the antiwar movement.
Still, Romney’s use of the term “surrender to terror” in this context raises questions of courage and patriotism, and is beneath someone who aspires, or aspired to be our leader.
I don’t believe that Obama or Hillary Clinton won’t stand up to terrorists when necessary. They simply believe, as do a majority of Americans, that Iraq is a sidestep from the war on terror that has harmed our ability to quickly deploy troops if needed, and that it has increased rather than reduced the number of terrorists we have to fight. It has also empowered more dangerous states like Iran.
In a very short time the intramurals will be over and our attention will shift to the national, one-on-one campaign. John McCain, as the now-presumptive GOP nominee, can make an excellent case for himself based on his substantial foreign policy experience and his long history of service to America. Let’s hope he sticks to the successful playbook that propelled him this far and lets the demagoguery exit with Mitt Romney.

The Return Of Ally McBeal

Last night's premiere of "Eli Stone" on ABC introduced America to a principled thirtysomething lawyer filled with contemporary angst taking on some of the thorniest legal cases in the nation while plagued by hallucinations.
Sound familiar?
As David Spade might say, I think I liked this show better the first time, when it was called "Ally McBeal."
Ally meet Eli, Eli meet Ally. I doubt the similar sounding names are a coincidence.
"McBeal" was a runaway hit of the mid-90s, and featured Calista Flockhart as the angst-ridden lawyer who would occasionally find dancing babies, unicorns or the ghost of her dead ex-boyfriend in her office between rounds in court. Produced by legal aficianado David E. Kelley, who also created of "The Practice," "Picket Fences" and
"Boston Legal," the show routinely had Ally and her quirky law partners arguing in Boston court room cases that would ordinarily end up on the Supreme Court docket because of their complexity and controversy, and of course wrapping them up neatly in about an hour.
Instead of the angst of a single woman, Eli Stone is grappling with a committed man's drive for purpose. Adding to the urgency is his diagnosis with a brain aneurysm that could go at any time. That gives the writers a chance to explore themes of religion, spirituality and how, as brilliantly rendered in the first episode featuring cameo guest star George Michael, the 80s Wham frontman, "You gotta have faith."
"Stone" co-creator Greg Berlanti acknowledged the Ally connection in an interview with USAToday.
"I don't think you can do a law show with humor now without it being a descendant" of Ally, says Berlanti.
Outside of "Lost," which is in a category of its own and is the lead-in for "Eli Stone," it's hard to come up with anything original on network TV these days. But "Stone" is worth watching for the solid performance of Johnny Lee Miller, a fresh face on TV, and some decent writing.
And, of course, you never know who may pop up in the next hallucination. Boy George, maybe?