Here is how they are going to sell it. This Plan A Lite. This continuance of economic imperialism by other means.

Straight from the horse’s ass.

The New York Times. 2008 May Test Clinton’s Bond With McCain

WASHINGTON, July 28 — Two summers ago, on a Congressional trip to Estonia, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton astonished her traveling companions by suggesting that the group do what one does in the Baltics: hold a vodka-drinking contest.

Delighted, the leader of the delegation, Senator John McCain, quickly agreed. The after-dinner drinks went so well — memories are a bit hazy on who drank how much — that Mr. McCain, an Arizona Republican, later told people how unexpectedly engaging he found Mrs. Clinton to be. “One of the guys” was the way he described Mrs. Clinton, a New York Democrat, to some Republican colleagues.

This article goes on, and so shall I.

After the break.

“They are SO cute!!! These two. Why…either ONE would make a great president, Mabel!!!”

Win/win. Or…lose/lose, depending on where you live and how you see things.

The PermaGov has chosen. BOTH sides, as usual. And now it goes about the business of selling its choice to the American people.

This time, with so many senators thinking about running, the primaries and potentially the general election could find the candidates squaring off against colleagues who are operating in close proximity. Mr. Kerry served in Vietnam around the same time as Mr. McCain, who defended him against Republican attacks during the 2004 race. Senator Russell D. Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin, devised a landmark campaign-finance bill with Mr. McCain (and has since traveled with him and with Mrs. Clinton).

Mrs. Clinton and Mr. McCain, however, share not just a title, but also a general approach to politics. Both strive to be seen as willing to break with ideological orthodoxy from time to time and to work across the aisle. Both emerged from nasty political battles — Whitewater and her husband’s impeachment in her case, the 2000 Republican primaries in his — declaring their hatred of the “politics of personal destruction,” as former President Bill Clinton called it.

“They would run a completely different campaign than we’ve seen in recent memory,” said Marshall Wittman, a former aide to Mr. McCain who has worked with Mrs. Clinton.

“Both of them realize there is a desire in the country for a different politics of national unity that transcends the current polarization,” Mr. Wittman said.

And there you have it. The plot of THIS season’s new political situation comedy.

Will their pas de deaux end up in bed?

Or…are they sleeping together already? (Metaphorically speaking, of course. Right? Riiiiight.)

It was during their joint trip to Iraq in late February 2005 that Mr. McCain and Mrs. Clinton appeared via satellite on “Meet the Press,” an appearance that put their civility on display. When Mr. Russert asked Mr. McCain at the end of the interview whether he thought Mrs. Clinton would make a good president, Mrs. Clinton came to his rescue, saying: “Oh, we can’t hear you, Tim!”

“Yeah, you’re breaking up,” Mr. McCain added, laughing. But then he said: “I happen to be a Republican and would support, obviously, a Republican nominee, but I have no doubt that Senator Clinton would make a good president.”

Asked the same question about him, Mrs. Clinton replied without skipping a beat: “Absolutely.”

Gag me with a spoon.

SO cute!!!

Now I am not one to diss political theater, and I personally believe that Hillary Clinton is some sort of political genius. McCain’s no slouch, either. But in this case it is being used to foist the continuance of a GIGANTIC mistake upon this country.

We are outnumbered in the world and will soon be outgunned as well. We CANNOT continue to impose our economic will by ANY means on the rest of the world, and if we continue to try to do so…by trickery and deceit, by sheer economic force and/or by military might…we ARE going to get our asses kicked. Anything short of a total pullout from Iraq and extensive reparations coupled with a real drawback from our current meddlesome policies throughout the world will be taken by the less developed countries and people of the world as tantamount to simply a change in tactics rather than a true strategic shift, and there is no sign that either of these candidates either truly believe in those kinds of moves or, if they do, are not so indebted to PermaGov money and power brokers that they would have no chance whatsoever of successfully implementing them.

But the beat goes on.

Philippe Reines, a spokesman for Mrs. Clinton, said: “They are colleagues who have worked and traveled together on issues of interest to both, such as support for our military and global warming, and they agree to disagree on issues such as requiring greater scrutiny of foreign government ownership of our ports.”

But Mr. Reines said Mrs. Clinton’s advisers had not noticed any recent changes in her relationship with Mr. McCain, and he declined to elaborate on the rounds of vodka.

“What happens in Estonia stays in Estonia,” Mr. Reines said.

Gag me with a BIG spoon.

What happens in non-smoke filled rooms STAYS in non-smoke filled rooms.

I admire both of these candidates’ political abilities. They have real talent.

Talent with legs.

But their legs are taking us down the wrong road. At best, their policies will buy us more time.

At worst…and most likely, as far as I can see…some fool is still going to light a nuclear cap under Detroit or someplace, and the whole neighborhood is going to go up in flames. Only a TOTAL change of strategic policies and goals is going to convince the rest of the world that we have changed course, and even if THAT happened we would be doubted for years.

Feingold or bust.

I see no other choice.

Later…

AG