Politics bears a great resemblance to show business, with serious policy ignored in favor of catc... Notorious names engulf gov

Politics bears a great resemblance to show business, with serious policy ignored in favor of catchy one-liners, charming personalities, celebrities and most importantly, obscene amounts of money. Parties, by their very nature, seek to put up someone who can win rather than someone able to provide effective government. One especially bad effect of this is political dynasties. The children of major politicos enjoy instant name recognition among the electorate and have contacts with power players in their locality, state or even nation to help them mount a bid for office.

Later, President Benjamin Harrison (served 1889-1893) was the grandson of President William Henry Harrison, who was elected in 1840 and died 30 days into his term.

The founding fathers certainly strove to ensure that their faction would hold sway and their campaigns could be even more foul and shallow than modern elections, but there seemed to be more concern with good policy back then. However, modern dynasties, like modern politics, have grown increasingly about showmanship and consolidating power over even basic competence.

Republican Governor Bob Taft of Ohio has one of the most impressive pedigrees in the country, counting President William Howard Taft and Senator Robert Taft, the conservative luminary of the 1940s and 1950s, among his family tree. He also has one of the least impressive records in government in the country.

His “administration” has seen a plethora of scandals, the most infamous of which involved a Republican fundraiser named Tom Noe stealing millions of dollars from the rare-coin fund he managed for the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation, which helps injured workers.

The bureau has also lost hundreds of millions of dollars in bad investments. Noe is also charged with illegally funneling $45,000 to President Bush’s 2004 campaign. Four of the governor’s aides have faced charges because of their relationships with Noe and Taft himself pleaded no contest to breaking ethics laws.

California’s Democratic governor Pat Brown boasted an impressive record as governor during the 1960s, building California’s infrastructure and turning California from a one-party Republican state into a two-party state. His son, Jerry Brown, was elected in 1974, which was unfortunate.

Democrat Ted Kennedy has retained a seat in the United States Senate since 1966, in large part thanks to the fact that his older brother, John, was the 35th president of the United States. This is in spite of failing to inform authorities that his car had fallen into the ChappaquiddickRiver, thus taking the life of Mary Jo Kopechne while he swam to shore. He has also been a heavy drinker for years.

And, of course, there is the most famous dynasty of all. George H.W. Bush was an admirable president, who successfully persuaded a reluctant world to drive Saddam Hussein from Kuwait. His actions stopped Saddam’s flagrant aggression and prevented him from further extending his empire. His son, President George W. Bush, on the other hand, invaded Iraq itself based upon faulty intelligence and now America has become bogged down in a bloody quagmire in one of the most dangerous and explosive regions in the world.

American policy in Iraq has become caught between a bloody, Sunni-led insurgency that has ravaged the nation and the rise of a government dominated by Shiite clerics and armed groups in the nation often taking violent revenge on one another, a situation that looks increasingly like civil war. However, Bush the Younger still has over two years before he leaves office, and it remains to be seen if we can yet emerge from this mess with some sort of victory, though it will almost certainly not be the one the president described going into the war.

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