Politics near and far

From the bbc, "Mugabe tells the west to go hang themselves a thousand times."

Again, I was in Zimbabwe a number (in the double digits now) of years ago. It's a horrible tragedy to see the country dissolve into rampant inflation, starvation, political uncertainty, and near civil war. Mugabe came to power after taking part in the successful ouster of the British colonialists in the early 80s. Unfortunately his strong military leadership did not translate into democratic rule. This brings me to the second point; this week Gen. Wes Clark made some asinine statement about McCain's being shot down not serving as an applicable preparation for the oval office.
While this is, for all intents and purposes, a true statement it is about as politically savvy as painting the Cuban flag on your forehead and saying Viva Fidel at a press availability. I wonder at the parallels between Mr. Maverick and Mr. Mugabe. Certainly they are few, but in past presidential races McCain's temper and inability to work with others has been his downfall. Does this inability to negotiate, or even compromise make him a bad candidate?

I hope so, because the countdown to the inevitable election-year meltdown of the democratic party has begun.