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Politics, the economy, John McCain, Barack Obama, Stephane Dion, Stephen Harper

2008:  The Year of the Bizarre



Some years are more memorable than others. For example, the year 1969 is often referred to as “The Year of the Impossible”. On January 20th of that year Richard M. Nixon, who famously told the press that they wouldn’t have Nixon to kick around anymore after losing the California gubernatorial race two years after losing the presidency to John F. Kennedy (aka Caroline’s dad), was sworn in as the 37th president of the United States. In July 1969, the world watched while a couple of guys took and walk on the moon and if that wasn’t enough, in October the then-hapless New York Mets won the World Series.

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If 1969 was the Year of the Impossible, 2008 has to be the Year of the Bizarre. The year began normally enough. The United States still believed in capitalism and the markets were chugging, if not running, along. Hillary Clinton was set to demolish other Democratic rivals and clinch her party’s nomination by Super Tuesday on February 5th. She was then going to go on and beat either Mitt Romney or Rudy Giuliani in November to become the first woman president of the United States. In Canada, Stephen Harper was leading a minority government; the type we have seen since 2004 and with no hope in sight that Canada would ever see a majority government. If anything exciting or important happened at the beginning of the year in boring Canadian politics it can probably be found by doing a Google search. By the time the summer ended, everything has turned upside down. The markets crashed in mid September and the United States, once known as the land of the free became the land of the freebee as a panicked George W. Bush began throwing billions of taxpayer dollars at banks, other financial institutions and finally the big three auto makers. Unfortunately this began a trend that is likely to extend throughout 2009. Meanwhile Barack Obama, who most people outside of his immediate family had never heard of five years ago, beat not only Hillary but the entire Clinton machine to win the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination by essentially saying nothing but using the word “change” in every other sentence. And while Republican candidates battled it out in the caucuses and primaries in Iowa and New Hampshire, Rudy, a true New Yorker, did what many others in his state do and retired to Florida. Mitt never really caught on and the Republican nominee became John McCain, the first choice of the New York Times, moderates and everyone else except the base of the Republican Party. Obama easily won the presidency and began to put his “change” into practice by filling his administration and his cabinet with retreaded Clintonites. This was also the year the mainstream media died as they went from having a liberal bias to becoming cheerleaders for Barack Obama. In Canada Prime Minister Stephen Harper, often referred to by the opposition parties as a George Bush clone, angered these same parties when he didn’t follow Bush’s lead and throw money at the auto companies fast enough. The opposition then decided to join forces and bring down the Conservative government. The Liberals and the NDP formed a coalition with the support of the separatist sovereigntist separatist Bloc Quebecois and planned a non confidence vote. Stéphane Dion, who had already been found not fit to lead the Liberal Party, was suddenly the only man who could lead the country through these tough economic times. The Libs didn’t seem to mind that Dion had led the party to its worst election defeat since Confederation; Dion was suddenly their boy. Harper outsmarted the coalition by convincing the governor general to prorogue Parliament, avoiding an opportunity to defeat the Conservative government in the House. Then some Liberals, who made the argument that Harper’s government was somehow illegitimate because more Canadians voted against them than voted for them, didn’t seem to mind choosing a new leader in a process that denied the vote to the party faithful. Suddenly, Canadian politics was boring no more. Much like 1969, 2008 is likely to be remembered for years to come. It really was the Year of the Bizarre.


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Arthur Weinreb -- Bio and Archives

Arthur Weinreb is an author, columnist and Associate Editor of Canada Free Press. Arthur’s latest book, Ford Nation: Why hundreds of thousands of Torontonians supported their conservative crack-smoking mayor is available at Amazon. Racism and the Death of Trayvon Martin is also available at Smashwords. His work has appeared on Newsmax.com,  Drudge Report, Foxnews.com.

Older articles (2007) by Arthur Weinreb


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