By Count Friedrich von Olsen
When I was a child, Christmas, or the Christmas Season, did not begin until December. My impression looking back on it is that the season began in earnest sometime in the second week of the month, near or around December 12 or thereabouts, when people began to look ahead and do their holiday shopping. Gradually, over the years, it seems, the Christmas Season, or the preparation for it, has come earlier and earlier, so that now there is something like a hundred days of Christmas. At some point December First became the starting point for the Christmas rush. Then the day after Thanksgiving. In time, November 1 was the jumping off date. Then the middle of October. In this day and age, stores begin previewing Christmas in September…
This phenomenon, it seems, has carried over into the political world. When I was a young man, well  actually, when I was a middle-aged man, the presidential campaigns seemed to start in the month before the first primary election in New Hampshire or the caucus in Iowa. Many of those presidential election years, the frontrunners changed over the course of the primaries, with one or another of the most visible or obvious contenders besting one of the others in one primary and losing in another, with the leadership in the race swinging between contenders, sometimes dramatically. A few times, a dark horse emerged seemingly out of nowhere to capture the popular political imagination and maybe even the presidency. Usually, by either big party convention it was pretty obvious who the nominee was going to be, but my point is that previously the election wasn’t an issue of overriding concern until the year of the election. Nowadays, there are still Washington, D.C. municipal workers sweeping up confetti from the inaugural day parade and campaign workers are already hustling potential donors for campaign finance money for the election that is to ensue in three years and nine months…
This week Hilary Clinton, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Lincoln Chafee all made declarations of their presidential candidacies. Before I go any further, I am compelled to digress and tell my readers that Lincoln Chafee, despite his name, is not a Republican, but rather a Republican-turned Independent-now turned Democrat. I think I need say no more on that score…
As I survey the political landscape, I am not terribly thrilled with the offerings. Some are better than others, but I hold the view that somewhere in the corporate world or in the realm of science or medicine is harbored a leader superior to any of our current batch of elected officials. I’ll give half of one of  General George Patton’s quotes here: “Politicians are the lowest form of human life.” I believe America is a wonderful place, but its political leadership leaves much to be desired…
Having said that, I am encouraged in one respect, namely that Cruz and Rubio have surfaced as potential standard bearers for the GOP,  which is, as many of you know, my party by choice. I have no particular objection to either of them, and they may well be of the highest order in the lowest form of life. I could see myself potentially voting for either of them…
We Republicans are in ascendancy nationally, having taken control of the House and the Senate. But we remain sadly out of power in the Golden State. This is largely due to the loyalty Latinos have demonstrated to the Democratic Party. My hope is that Mr. Rubio or Mr. Cruz will demonstrate that the Republican Party is the true party of opportunity and prompt California’s Hispanic voters to reevaluate their party affiliation and philosophical orientation. In my view, the Democratic hold on Sacramento has not been a good thing. When I contemplate it too conspicuously, I can even fall into despair. I am reminded of what another U.S. general, Curtis LeMay used to say: “The only thing you can do sometimes is trust in God and vote Republican…