The Daily Background

The following is a scrapped intro to my next Truthout article.

A remarkably diverse field of 8 Republicans are trying to defy history by becoming the next Commander-in-Chief.

Perhaps “diverse” is not quite the correct word to use. At a time when the group of Democrats seeking their party’s nomination are unquestionably the most diverse in history, it’s understandable that some might shy away from calling their Republican counterparts a “diverse” bunch. It’s true, each of the Republican candidates is a white male, and each of them is worth millions of dollars.

Almost all of the candidates vying for the GOP nomination will be eligible for Social Security benefits if they don’t find themselves in the White House come 2009. One candidate is already old enough to qualify for Medicare. (Senator McCain’s campaign did not reply to my request for comment on this.)

“Diverse” or not, they are a fascinating assortment. Conservative leaders think the leading conservative candidates are too liberal. And the ultra-conservative fringe candidates are barely managing to arouse even ultra-fringe conservative support. It’s fair to say that this isn’t going to be your typical Republican primary season.

Yeah, the only good part was the one-liner about McCain’s campaign not wanting to talk about his age (seriously, I still haven’t heard back from them).

Filed under: Presidential election, Z-TDB Blog