Dem. Lincoln Chafee launches presidential campaign: Let's boldly 'embrace internationalism' by going metric

When your party is trying desperately to scramble away from legacy comparisons between its current unpopular President and Jimmy Carter, there's only one thing to do. A presidential candidate needs to go big, and go "bold." What he or she may not want to do is launch their campaign with an homage to one of the Carter era's most infamous flops.

We speak, of course, of the metric system. Also, we speak of Democrat Presidential candidate Lincoln Chafee, who launched his bid for the White House yesterday. His plan? Sell America on "bold" new ideas that will bring us in line with the rest of the world. A big part of that, apparently, is the totally fresh idea of metric conversion. Here's the stirring oratory. It's only 54 seconds long, but you're still forgiven if you fall asleep in the middle of all the "excitement." (video below) Sure, you can hear the assembled reporters chuckling but, as CNN reports; there aren't many ideas that are more "bold" than this one.

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Lincoln Chafee launched his Democratic presidential bid Wednesday on a platform of what he called "bold" ideas, but few are as bold as his proposal to switch to the metric system. It's part of, as he told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on "The Situation Room" in his first interview since announcing his bid, his emphasis on "becoming internationalist as a country." "This is just one piece, as I said, of becoming internationalist as a country and getting away from that unilateralist approach, that muscular approach to the world, that I don't think is working in our best interests," he said.

Even if Chafee is right about this (and there's a pretty good case to be made that he is) there's nothing fresh or bold about it. He's basically just launched a campaign by announcing that he's another Democrat throwback. So let's see... The Democrats' current line-up boasts a chronically corrupt former Secretary of State with no achievements, an elderly socialist coot, a guy who thinks Carter-era metric conversion is a game changer, and the former mayor of a riot and murder ridden urban dystopia. On behalf of conservatives everywhere, allow me to thank them for this field.