Practicalmadness

In a Chicago Tribune interview last week, Ralph Nader -- yeah, him again -- is quoted saying...well, you read it:Q. Would you have made an effective wartime president?
A. This war would never have happened had I been president, because for 30 years we have had an aviation safety group, and we have been urging the airlines to toughen cockpit doors and improve the strength of the locks, and they have been resisting for 30 years.Just like I was saying back during the 2000 campaigns, Nader really has no idea what he's talking about. The particular events of September 11 may have been prevented by better airline security, true, but that is such a short-sighted way to look at it. If we hadn't been hit by terrorists using airliners as missiles, it's not like the terrorists would have had to go home to Osama and say, "well, gee, boss -- we can't take these four-inch box cutters onto the plane. I guess we can't destroy America after all."Oh, and let's not forget, Ralphie -- you would have been in office only eight months, working within a system that has survived on inertia and graft since before you were born. Could you have so totally overhauled airline security in just eight months that the 9/11 attacks would have been impossible? Probably not. If they had occurred anyway, despite your brilliant planning and noble intent, would you have been as prepared to go after the perpetrators as Bush, or even Gore?Sigh. Arrogance is always easier five months after the fact.While typing up this latest anti-Nader screed, I happened to look back over my work from the fall of 2000, when Practical covered the presidential election in its usual half-assed manner. There's some funny stuff that is currently not linked to from any page on the site, so if you'd care to take a look, click here.