The Watcher’s Council

Every week on Monday morning, the Council and our invited guests weigh in at the Watcher’s Forum with short takes on a major issue of the day. This week’s question: If you could be anyone else living or dead, whom would you be?

GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD: Anydobby ever? Too many to list tho here are the top two.

K – Queen Victoria for one – she was a formidable lady and led during Britain’s great age of industrial expansion, economic progress and, especially, empire. At her death, Britain had a worldwide empire on which the sun never set.

Paris Hilton – with that kinda cash and the right education – she could have made a real difference for her nation and the world by jumping into policy and politics. Anything from Sec of State to Lady Pres would have been possible for her if she chose wisely and played her formidable deck of cards correctly.

Rhymes With Right: Now this is heck of a question for you, don’t you think.

Anyone? Jesus Christ! (Or maybe not, given the implicit blasphemy of wishing oneself to be the Son of God.)

A Greek philosopher — Aristotle, perhaps, given his association with both Plato and Alexander the Great? Perhaps a Roman emperor or Egyptian pharaoh. Nah — to high fallutin’ and besides — no indoor plumbing, running water or modern medical care. That rules out other folks I greatly admire — Queen Elizabeth I, Shakespeare, the Founding Fathers, or Robert E. Lee (though that would be a great one — taking Lincoln up on the offer of command of the Union Army would be a phenomenal counter-factual scenario I’d like to live out).

Which leads me to four of my biggest heroes, men and women of the modern world.

Prime Minister Golda Meir.

Pope John Paul II.

Baroness Margaret Thatcher.

And the one I would most likely pick — President Ronald Wilson Reagan.

To grow up poor and humble, and to become a great man. To be an entertainer who took those skills and put them to greater service to mankind. To directly or indirectly bring about the liberation of hundreds of millions — and to bring about the revival (sadly all too temporary, as the Obama years have shown us) of the nation that I love. And to be love and be loved by a woman who was undeniably a soulmate.

One could do worse.

JoshuaPundit: While there are a number of historical/slash cultural figures I’d enjoy being, I’m going to take one for the team.

I’d want to be Barack Hussein Obama for about 6 months to a year or so. My mind and soul in his body.

First of all, I’d demand the resignation of all cabinet members. New appointees would be Allen West as SecDef. Andrew McCarthy as AG, Sarah Palin or Harold Vinegar as Sec of Energy, John Bolton as either Sec of State or NSA, Mitt Romney as either Sec of Treasury or Commerce. Mark Steyn would be Press Secretary if he’d take the pay cut. General Mattis would be head of the JCS. I’ve got an even more interesting list if any of the above couldn’t be confirmed.

ObamaCare would be repealed by EO, with an address on national TV to the extent that I was so sorry it was such a screw up.

Ditto with the EPA regs, the START Treaty, and most of the president’s political agenda. I’d announce full investigations and independent prosecutors of Fast and Furious, Benghazi, IRS-Gate, etc, unseal all records, order all federal personnel to cooperate and testify and testify myself under oath on these items and a number of other little matters I’ve chronicled since 2009. I’d also announce that I would veto any legislation calling for amnesty for illegal aliens and instead begin an immediate program to control our borders and enforce current immigration laws based on a points system.

I’d slash taxes, spending and federal regs (leaning towards a flat tax with mods) to encourage investment and growth by the private sector as well as allowing drilling in ANWR and the Gulf, fracking and solar where practical and the gasification of coal to make synthetic fuel.

Iran’s nuclear program would be a thing of the past, as would our involvement in Afghanistan and US aid to Hamas and the Palestinian Authority.

And that’s just for starters.

At the end of my time as Barack Obama, the investigations would have progressed substantially, the nation’s economy would be well on the way to being massively improved, certain national figures would be under indictment, Harry Reid would be an Oxycontin addict, Rachel Maddow would have left MSNBC to become a nun and President Obama would return to his body and look something like this:

I did whut??????????????? I said whut under oath??????????

And me? I’d be back in my own body… laughing my behind off.