Tracking Conservatives Who Support Obama (Or at Least Think Palin Has Got to Go)

Much has been made of the whispers in conservative circles regarding McCain's candidacy. Much of the invective is directed at Sarah Palin and I somehow fear she will be blamed for the fall of the Republicans from power as surely as Eve was blamed for Adam's fall from grace. Personally I can't stand the woman's politics, but she has only performed as she was directed to by her patron, John McCain. Still, most of the conservatives who are now displeased with the prospect of losing the White House (odd that winning 7 of the last 10 contests leads the Repubs to such a sense of entitlement) usually get around to citing the Palin pick as woefully lacking given our times and smacks right in the face of John McCain's judgment and the notion of "country first." I love how Laura Ingraham and others dismiss these intellectual conservatives as not representing the "real" America, whatever the hell that means! But just for the fun of it, here are some of my favorites. Almost all praise Obama, but I have to admit I take special pleasure in posting the ones that bash McCain-Palin:

10/31/08
On thedailybeast.com, Jeffrey Harte, a former speechwriter to Reagan and Nixon who also worked at the National Review for four decades, is also endorsing Obama as a repudiation of the Bush years and the defiling of true conservatism: "Republican President George W. Bush has not been a conservative at all, either in domestic policy or in foreign policy. He invaded Iraq on the basis of abstract theory, the very thing Burke warned against. Bush aimed to turn Iraq into a democracy, "a beacon of liberty in the Middle East," as he explained in a radio address in April 2006.

I do not recall any "conservative" publication mentioning those now memorable words "Sunni," "Shia," or "Kurds." Burke would have been appalled at the blindness to history and to social facts that characterized the writing of those so-called conservatives.

Obama did understand. In his now famous 2002 speech, while he was still a state senator in Illinois, he said: 'I know that a successful war against Iraq will require a US occupation of undetermined length, of undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences. I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without international support will fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than the best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of al Qaeda. I'm not opposed to all wars. I'm opposed to dumb wars.' "

From CNN: "Former Reagan chief of staff Ken Duberstein told CNN's Fareed Zakaria this week he intends to vote for Democrat Barack Obama on Tuesday.

Duberstein said he was influenced by another prominent Reagan official - Colin Powell - in his decision.

"Well let's put it this way - I think Colin Powell's decision is in fact the good housekeeping seal of approval on Barack Obama."

Powell served as national security advisor to Reagan during Duberstein's tenure as chief of staff.

Duberstein spoke with Zakaria about his final days in the Reagan White House. The Reagan official, along with Clinton Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Carter National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, also discussed the transition process to a new administration."

10/30/08
Lawrence Eagleburger was the secretary of state for George H.W. Bush, the undersecretary of state for political affairs for Ronald Reagan, and a U.S. ambassador to Yugoslavia. On NPR's Talk of the Nation Eagleburger said of Governor Palin: "I don't think at the moment she is prepared to take over the reins of the presidency," he says. "I can name for you any number of other vice presidents who were not particularly up to it either. So, the question, I think, is — can she learn and would she be tough enough under the circumstances if she were asked to become president?"

"Give her some time in the office and I think the answer would be — she will be adequate. I can't say that she would be a genius in the job," he adds.

10/20/08
Ken Adelman, a conservative Republican who "campaigned for Goldwater, was hired by Rumsfeld at the Office of Economic Opportunity under Nixon, was assistant to Defense Secretary Rumsfeld under Ford, served as Reagan’s director of arms control, and joined the Defense Policy Board for Rumsfeld’s second go-round at the Pentagon, in 2001" was interviewed via e-mail in The New Yorker:

"Why so, since my views align a lot more with McCain’s than with Obama’s? And since I truly dread the notion of a Democratic president, Democratic House, and hugely Democratic Senate?

Primarily for two reasons, those of temperament and of judgment.

When the economic crisis broke, I found John McCain bouncing all over the place. In those first few crisis days, he was impetuous, inconsistent, and imprudent; ending up just plain weird. Having worked with Ronald Reagan for seven years, and been with him in his critical three summits with Gorbachev, I’ve concluded that that’s no way a president can act under pressure.

Second is judgment. The most important decision John McCain made in his long campaign was deciding on a running mate.

That decision showed appalling lack of judgment. Not only is Sarah Palin not close to being acceptable in high office—I would not have hired her for even a mid-level post in the arms-control agency. But that selection contradicted McCain’s main two, and best two, themes for his campaign—Country First, and experience counts. Neither can he credibly claim, post-Palin pick.

I sure hope Obama is more open, centrist, sensible—dare I say, Clintonesque—than his liberal record indicates, than his cooperation with Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid portends. If not, I will be even more startled by my vote than I am now."

10/19/08
Michael Smerconish, The Philadelphia Inquirer: "John McCain is an honorable man who has served his country well. But he will not get my vote. For the first time since registering as a Republican 28 years ago, I'm voting for a Democrat for president. I may have been an appointee in the George H.W. Bush administration, and master of ceremonies for George W. Bush in 2004, but last Saturday I stood amid the crowd at an Obama event in North Philadelphia...Last Saturday at Progress Plaza, I heard Obama say: 'The American people aren't looking for somebody to divide this country; the American people are looking for someone to lead this country.'"

10/17/08
Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal: "Her supporters accuse her critics of snobbery: Maybe she's not a big "egghead" but she has brilliant instincts and inner toughness. But what instincts? "I'm Joe Six-Pack"? She does not speak seriously but attempts to excite sensation—"palling around with terrorists." If the Ayers case is a serious issue, treat it seriously. She is not as thoughtful or persuasive as Joe the Plumber, who in an extended cable interview Thursday made a better case for the Republican ticket than the Republican ticket has made. In the past two weeks she has spent her time throwing out tinny lines to crowds she doesn't, really, understand. This is not a leader, this is a follower, and she follows what she imagines is the base, which is in fact a vast and broken-hearted thing whose pain she cannot, actually, imagine. She could reinspire and reinspirit; she chooses merely to excite. She doesn't seem to understand the implications of her own thoughts."

10/13/08
Christopher Hitchens, slate.com: "The most insulting thing that a politician can do is to compel you to ask yourself: "What does he take me for?" Precisely this question is provoked by the selection of Gov. Sarah Palin. I wrote not long ago that it was not right to condescend to her just because of her provincial roots or her piety, let alone her slight flirtatiousness, but really her conduct since then has been a national disgrace. It turns out that none of her early claims to political courage was founded in fact, and it further turns out that some of the untested rumors about her—her vindictiveness in local quarrels, her bizarre religious and political affiliations—were very well-founded, indeed. Moreover, given the nasty and lowly task of stirring up the whack-job fringe of the party's right wing and of recycling patent falsehoods about Obama's position on Afghanistan, she has drawn upon the only talent that she apparently possesses."

10/10/08
Christopher Buckley, thedailybeast.com, and son of National Review founder William F. Buckley: "John McCain has changed. He said, famously, apropos the Republican debacle post-1994, “We came to Washington to change it, and Washington changed us.” This campaign has changed John McCain. It has made him inauthentic. A once-first class temperament has become irascible and snarly; his positions change, and lack coherence; he makes unrealistic promises, such as balancing the federal budget “by the end of my first term.” Who, really, believes that? Then there was the self-dramatizing and feckless suspension of his campaign over the financial crisis. His ninth-inning attack ads are mean-spirited and pointless. And finally, not to belabor it, there was the Palin nomination. What on earth can he have been thinking?"

10/9/08
David Brooks, The New York Times: "Palin is smart, politically skilled, courageous and likable. Her convention and debate performances were impressive. But no American politician plays the class-warfare card as constantly as Palin. Nobody so relentlessly divides the world between the “normal Joe Sixpack American” and the coastal elite.

She is another step in the Republican change of personality. Once conservatives admired Churchill and Lincoln above all — men from wildly different backgrounds who prepared for leadership through constant reading, historical understanding and sophisticated thinking. Now those attributes bow down before the common touch."

9/28/08
Kathleen Parker, Washington Post: "Palin's recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League.

No one hates saying that more than I do. Like so many women, I've been pulling for Palin, wishing her the best, hoping she will perform brilliantly. I've also noticed that I watch her interviews with the held breath of an anxious parent, my finger poised over the mute button in case it gets too painful. Unfortunately, it often does. My cringe reflex is exhausted.

Palin filibusters. She repeats words, filling space with deadwood. Cut the verbiage, and there's not much content there."

9/5/08
Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post: "Obama was sagging because of missteps that reflected the fundamental weakness of his candidacy. Which suggested McCain's strategy: Make this a referendum on Obama, surely the least experienced, least qualified, least prepared presidential nominee in living memory.

Palin fatally undermines this entire line of attack. This is through no fault of her own. It is simply a function of her rookie status. The vice president's only constitutional duty of any significance is to become president at a moment's notice. Palin is not ready. Nor is Obama. But with Palin, the case against Obama evaporates. "

Endorsement Go-Round

Lately I've found myself in tears reading the newspapers (online that is). And the same thing happened yesterday during "Meet the Press." I was overcome with emotion so quickly that I didn't really know how to get control of what was happening within me. Upon reflection I guess I was just feeling in my gut the possibility (the reality?) that these United States might just elect a black man to become president! This is no small achievement for our nation and one that I frankly never thought I would see in my lifetime. But then here comes this Barack Obama seemingly out of nowhere, poised to get rid of the baby boomers and all of their existential angst, 60s idealism, and arguments over who lost the Vietnam War. This is truly a time of generational transformation in our country. It is only fitting that in this referendum on the issues facing our country, this election--like Clinton vs. Bush in 1992--is viewed as the older generation's priorities vs. against the younger generation's. Here, I will keep track of the endorsements thus far, with the most recent first.

11/3/08
How beautiful that Dick Cheney's hometown paper, the Casper Star-Tribune also endorsed Obama! "It would be easy for the Star-Tribune to simply agree with the majority of voters in this red state and endorse the Republican candidate for president.

But this isn't an ordinary election, and Sen. Barack Obama has the potential to be an extraordinary leader at a time we desperately need one. The next occupant of the White House will inherit a national economy that's collapsing and two wars our nation has been fighting for years, depleting valuable resources we need to fix a multitude of domestic problems. Far too many of our nation's citizens live paycheck to paycheck, worried about whether they'll have a job next week or if a medical crisis will bankrupt them.

What America needs most in these troubled times is a president who will move the country in a positive direction. The candidate who is most likely to chart a new course that will lead us to better days is Obama. Moreover, he is the best candidate for Wyoming."

10/30/08
The Economist: "Is Mr Obama any better? Most of the hoopla about him has been about what he is, rather than what he would do. His identity is not as irrelevant as it sounds. Merely by becoming president, he would dispel many of the myths built up about America: it would be far harder for the spreaders of hate in the Islamic world to denounce the Great Satan if it were led by a black man whose middle name is Hussein; and far harder for autocrats around the world to claim that American democracy is a sham. America’s allies would rally to him: the global electoral college on our website shows a landslide in his favour. At home he would salve, if not close, the ugly racial wound left by America’s history and lessen the tendency of American blacks to blame all their problems on racism."

10/26/08
Financial Times: "In responding to the economic emergency, Mr Obama has again impressed – not by advancing solutions of his own, but in displaying a calm and methodical disposition, and in seeking the best advice. Mr McCain’s hasty half-baked interventions were unnerving when they were not beside the point.

On foreign policy, where the candidates have often conspired to exaggerate their differences, this contrast in temperaments seems crucial. For all his experience, Mr McCain has seemed too much guided by an instinct for peremptory action, an exaggerated sense of certainty, and a reluctance to see shades of grey.

He has offered risk-taking almost as his chief qualification, but gambles do not always pay off. His choice of Sarah Palin as running mate, widely acknowledged to have been a mistake, is an obtrusive case in point. Rashness is not a virtue in a president. The cautious and deliberate Mr Obama is altogether a less alarming prospect."

10/25/08
The editors of Anchorage Daily News endorsed Obama over the Republican ticket that includes Alaska's own governor, stating that electing her "would stretch the governor beyond her range," among other comments:

"Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee, brings far more promise to the office. In a time of grave economic crisis, he displays thoughtful analysis, enlists wise counsel and operates with a cool, steady hand. The same cannot be said of Sen. McCain.

Since his early acknowledgement that economic policy is not his strong suit, Sen. McCain has stumbled and fumbled badly in dealing with the accelerating crisis as it emerged. He declared that "the fundamentals of our economy are strong" at 9 a.m. one day and by 11 a.m. was describing an economy in crisis. He is both a longtime advocate of less market regulation and a supporter of the huge taxpayer-funded Wall Street bailout. His behavior in this crisis -- erratic is a kind description -- shows him to be ill-equipped to lead the essential effort of reining in a runaway financial system and setting an anxious nation on course to economic recovery."

10/23/08
The New York Times endorsed Obama (what a surprise) and criticized McCain, whom the paper endorsed in the Republican primary: "Mr. McCain, whom we chose as the best Republican nominee in the primaries, has spent the last coins of his reputation for principle and sound judgment to placate the limitless demands and narrow vision of the far-right wing. His righteous fury at being driven out of the 2000 primaries on a racist tide aimed at his adopted daughter has been replaced by a zealous embrace of those same win-at-all-costs tactics and tacticians.

He surrendered his standing as an independent thinker in his rush to embrace Mr. Bush’s misbegotten tax policies and to abandon his leadership position on climate change and immigration reform."

10/19/08
The most important was from Colin Powel who spoke without notes for about seven minutes. His endorsement is seen as slamming the door on the Republican party who used and abused him in the runup to the war and damaged Powell's reputation in the process. Personally I never understood why he went along when he seemed so unsure, but in the end he was a loyal soldier to his commander-in-chief.



The LA Times first skewered McCain: "Indeed, the presidential campaign has rendered McCain nearly unrecognizable. His selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate was, as a short-term political tactic, brilliant. It was also irresponsible, as Palin is the most unqualified vice presidential nominee of a major party in living memory. The decision calls into question just what kind of thinking -- if that's the appropriate word -- would drive the White House in a McCain presidency. Fortunately, the public has shown more discernment, and the early enthusiasm for Palin has given way to national ridicule of her candidacy and McCain's judgment."

...And then refuted the "elitism" label: "We may one day look back on this presidential campaign in wonder. We may marvel that Obama's critics called him an elitist, as if an Ivy League education were a source of embarrassment, and belittled his eloquence, as if a gift with words were suddenly a defect. In fact, Obama is educated and eloquent, sober and exciting, steady and mature. He represents the nation as it is, and as it aspires to be."

The endorsement of Obama by The Eagle of Bryan-College Station, Texas is notable because the paper has never endorsed a democrat for president in its 50 years as a publication, not even Texan native son Lyndon Johnson in 1964. The editors panned McCain's judgment in picking his running mate as well as his intractable stance on ending the war in Iraq. But this time here's the praise for Obama: "Every 20 or 30 years or so, a leader comes along who understands that change is necessary if the country is to survive and thrive. Teddy Roosevelt at the turn of the 20th century and his cousin Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan -- these leaders have inspired us to rise to our better nature, to reach out to be the country we can be and, more important, must be.

Barack Obama is such a leader. He doesn't have all the answers, to be sure, but at least he is asking the right questions. While we would like more specificity on his plans as president, we are confident that he can lead us ever forward, casting aside the doubts and fears of recent years.

10/17/08
The one that brought me to tears was the Chicago Tribune, which hasn't endorsed a democratic candidate in all of its 147 years as a publication and boldly compared Obama to Lincoln: "It may have seemed audacious for Obama to start his campaign in Springfield, invoking Lincoln. We think, given the opportunity to hold this nation's most powerful office, he will prove it wasn't so audacious after all. We are proud to add Barack Obama's name to Lincoln's in the list of people the Tribune has endorsed for president of the United States."

10/13/08
The New Yorker (notable for its many other reasons besides Sarah Palin to oppose McCain, but here's the pro-Obama part): "By contrast, Obama’s transformative message is accompanied by a sense of pragmatic calm. A tropism for unity is an essential part of his character and of his campaign. It is part of what allowed him to overcome a Democratic opponent who entered the race with tremendous advantages. It is what helped him forge a political career relying both on the liberals of Hyde Park and on the political regulars of downtown Chicago. His policy preferences are distinctly liberal, but he is determined to speak to a broad range of Americans who do not necessarily share his every value or opinion. For some who oppose him, his equanimity even under the ugliest attack seems like hauteur; for some who support him, his reluctance to counterattack in the same vein seems like self-defeating detachment. Yet it is Obama’s temperament—and not McCain’s—that seems appropriate for the office both men seek and for the volatile and dangerous era in which we live. Those who dismiss his centeredness as self-centeredness or his composure as indifference are as wrong as those who mistook Eisenhower’s stolidity for denseness or Lincoln’s humor for lack of seriousness."

Here is a selection of the rest of the field, which Obama is garnering at a 3 to 1 ratio, according to Editor & Publisher as of October 13.

Washington Post
Denver Post
Philadelphia Inquirer
Boston Globe
Cleveland Plain Dealer
Philadelphia Inquirer
San Francisco Chronicle
Sacramento Bee
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Detroit Free Press

Looting America!

I do believe that history is repeating itself because a wealthy few drive it to be so. I predict today that the stock market will crash and the American dream will sink into the mud that the money changers and the money masters have created.

Who are these people?

Lehman Bros.: (2007) $34.4 million
Merrill Lynch: (2007) $24.3 millionAIG:(2007) $14.3 million
Fannie Mae: (2007) $14.2 millionFreddie Mac: (2007)$18.3 million
Morgan Stanley: (2007) $41.8 millionGoldman Sachs: (2007) $70.3 million
Bank of America: (2007) $24.8 millionJP Morgan Chase and Co.: (2007) $27.8 million
Citigroup: (2007) $25.5 million

*All
figures are one year compensation for the CEO position only and do not
include the compensation for other top executives, traders, partners,
etc.*All
figures courtesy of Executive Paywatch and based on SEC filings

For the first time in my life, I'm really scared of what is REALLY going on in the high places of our government. Who is running the show? Questions are being raised because the everyday American is suffering. Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Beahr Sterns??? Never in my days did I think we could repeat the past. Something is at odds with what drives our countries economics. Who has benefitted the most from the existance and than failure of these banks? How did we become a debtor society in government and individual accounts? America is failing.

I recall hearing a story about Abraham Lincolns greenback money that was created to fund the civil war along with income taxes. I found this article: The History of the Greenback Dollar. I'm prone to be suspicious of how the world works, and this didn't help. Is it possible that there is some fraud that has been fed to Americans? Has war always been the great deception to control the flow of money to a select few? War scared us into agreeing to the un-agreeable? I just don't know the answers to this. Insecurity drives bad decision making. What is America about to face? What is the world on the cusp of? I want to believe the spirit of America is strong and vibrant and visionary and rich in perseverance. Let it be so, to overcome what ever faces us.

I fear for Obama if he does become President that we will be looking for more from him than he ever imagined. I fear that the bleakness of our future is unavoidable and he will be blamed and the rich and well-connected will continue to become richer and more well-connected while our every day needs ignorantly feed their pockets.

Radical change is needed.

PS. If anyone knows what this means please tell me: Money in Circulation

A Letter to America

After a day of watching and reading about the state of this political debate, I am thoroughly sick and tired of the crap! Lipstick, pigs, bull dogs, book burners, troopergate, celebrities, pregnant teens, sex-ed, mooseburgers and tons of other irrelevant and meaningless debate has high jacked all the inspiration right out of me. I forgot why I hated politics until I saw why the Republicans win.

The Republican Party that I respected as worthy opponents because of their toughness has undoubtedly shown their greatest weakness. They are liars! They remake the truth into anything that makes them look like they love the everyday people, just to win elections and preserve power and dollars. Why can’t we Democrats call this unethical party out!

They claim to be a safe haven for Christian family values, yet they lie on the stump and always judge the intellectually accomplished. They claim to be pro-life, but quickly shoot down healthcare, even for Veterans. They claim to love our country, but don’t let our greatest assets, our values, be a beacon to the world. Instead they embrace torture and talk down to foreigners. I love what my country represents and for the first time in my adult life I question what many of my fellow country men think she represents. America is a beautiful land full of beautiful people. What are we really thinking about this election cycle?

When I look at the Statue of Liberty standing alone in that harbor I see an America proudly saying bring all to my shores. When I see the golden gate bridge I see a country that believes that all men and women are created equal. When I see New Orleans, I feel pride in the rich cultures we have so openly embraced. When I see the golden prairies of the heartland I feel the sentiment of all the farmers’ rewards of hard work. The Big Apple, Chitown, the Alamo, Florida Sunshine, Malibu Beach, lil ole Waverly, Virginia, Route 66 and millions and millions of other rich pockets of success and struggle that made America.

Today I lived a life like an alien in my own home. What happened to you America? Where have you gone? Is it only the landscape that can be a source of pride? Do I really know the personality of the people where I come from? Have I been falling for the okie-doke? What is this place of such conflict and pain, gotchas and put downs. Am I the only one paying attention that can understand why Michelle Obama thinks our country is mean? Or am I the only one that can see why Cindy McCain doesn’t get what she means? What is going on here?

Since when is privilege more important than perseverance? I feel like I’ve stepped into the twilight zone. Lies have been debunked, untruths uncovered. What kind of values are on display when some one lies to win the White House where we want no lies?

This day confirms a simple idea for me. Change is hard, change is painful, change can seem impossible. Republicans will hold on to what has always worked in the past. Exploit the swing voters attention span, insult the Left, put up smoke screens and mirrors because “we don’t care about those not like me.” That is the republican message, they start the culture wars and ask us to be ignorant of it all, I believe not even knowing what damage is being done to us watching the spectacle. Is this really the image they want to have? Compassionless, ideologues cynical on every issue? FEAR is the leader of the ego. FEAR is the angry message to ratchet up anger. When you peel away the skin of what is happening, I smell nothing but FEAR. FEAR creates liars from descent people.

America, are you willing to possibly be lead into another war of lies? I declare a war on lies since everything else can be warred against. SOOOO sick of the bs.

I want a President that is willing to call out the game. I want a President that will practically choose a direction that is for the good of the country whether it is left right or middle. I believe that my America is still here, I just can’t here her because the noise of ambition is killing her voice. Today I was reminded so firmly of why I am a Democrat. A LIBERAL PROGRESSIVE Democrat! I’m so proud to be a Democrat that believes our best days are to come because finally we will shut the fear mongerers the hell up! Truth is a value that should not be sacrificed to win.

Please, please, please, America, stand up with me and reject this crazy campaigning and the media’s addictive perpetuation! It is our right to know what these people stand for! Any more of what we’ve been through is very insane. Enough of the lies!!! America deserves better.

Love,
A Sick Patriot

The New York Post Got it Right?

Not that I'm as rabid as Keith Olbermann when it comes to Rupert Murdoch, but I just don't usually turn to Murdoch's media outlets for political news or opinion unless I want to learn how the other side is thinking. However, I've started checking the RealClearPolitics.com homepage every day for the poll numbers since being shown this website by a friend of couple of weeks ago (I apologize for being so far behind everyone else!) and came across a really good piece by the very liberal Kirsten Powers (she often subs for Colmes on Hannity and Colmes) from this morning' NY Post. She lays into both Obama and the national press corps for blowing their response to the Palin nomination with the most cogent analysis thus far. I've a feeling that as a woman, the ostensible dismissal out of hand of this "unknown" governor and the comparisons to Dan Quayle quite incensed liberal women like Powers, who are tired of women being underestimated by the establishment:

"Lured by the McCain camp, Obama supporters engaged in an argument about who had more overall experience - the top of the Democratic ticket or the bottom of the GOP ticket. This diminished Obama.

"Meanwhile, the media lit up in all their cultural-elite splendor.

"Alaska? they sneered. It has the population of Las Vegas! Funny how the coastal elite only sneers at red states with small populations. Howard Dean hailed from a blue state with almost the same population as Alaska and was a national phenomenon and front-runner for the presidency. Joe Biden's Delaware has a similarly small population - but no mocking was forthcoming there."

The week of the Democratic convention, Maureen Dowd and Eugene Robinson described the Democratic zeitgeist during that week. Taking different routes, both concluded that many of the Democrats had a foreboding feeling that something was bound to go wrong for the Democrats. Even in this Democratic year with an unpopular president, an economy on the skids, and wars without end in two distant lands, the Dems just could not allow themselves to feel hopeful or positive that this is their year. The columns perfectly described my own dread that something was bound to go wrong. Friday of that week, following Obama's knockout convention speech, the McCain campaign announced that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin would be McCain's vice presidential choice, and the hand wringing began in earnest!

It's as though my worst fears were realized. See I told you so! The Dems just can't win at presidential politics! And now that I'm of a mind to criticize the Obama campaign and the Dems in general for being caught flat footed regarding the Palin nomination, I was pleased to read Kirsten Powers' piece linked to on the RCP homepage today. I'm reminded that I felt this way during the primaries and my man still came through ultimately, but in watching this campaign rev up, anyonoe can see that the Dems don't play hardball like Republicans do. Republicans care about winning and Democrats care about playing by the rules. Remember that that is how Obama won the nomination, not by dispatching his opponent but by playing a slightly better game and appealing to the judges.

Imagine if Obama loses the "I told you so's" about not picking HRC as his running mate! Even Gloria Steinem might have to retract her statement that "women are never frontrunners." But I doubt she would since she's determined that Sarah Palin is the wrong kind of woman. What arrogance! Palin (I know she's not at the top of the ticket but I've fallen into the conceit that this race is between Palin and Obama, the other two old white men notwithstanding) might just deserve to win because she's shown she's willing to fight for it, unlike our languid candidate. Ironic that Palin's ascent absolutely defies Steinem's setup argument in her NY Times piece, but that's because Steinem ignores the fact that politics is about taking advantage of opportunities, not just being right.

Well, I'm Back from Summer Holiday! Let the Mud Fly until Election Day!

I haven't read any of my usual pundits in months and not even this morning, but Mrs. Obama knocked it out of the park last night, now didn't she? I hope that there were people watching who hadn't yet been "introduced" to the candidate and his family because how could they not have been moved by first her mother narrating the film, then her brother's introduction, and finally their adorable daughters bantering with their father? One would have to have a heart of stone! She spoke so eloquently and so comfortably in such a heartfelt manner that all of the hateful smears just seem utterly ridiculous. Hers is an American success story as moving as his. These are people who have worked hard for everything they have. And what they have done with the opportunities and gifts they've been afforded! Even if Obama does not become president, he is the first presidential candidate of the 21st century. Elections for decades to come will look at the 2008 election as the first of a new kind.

Watching Michele Obama's moment play out, it was rather emotional for me on at least three levels: First, I kept thinking about my own father, who like Michele Obama's father was the spiritual leader of my family. Her acknowledgment of how her father's values and consistency shaped her thinking and her commitments reminded me of my own relationship with my father. My dad set the bar high for me, but I always knew his love for his family was the deepest love that could ever be felt even when we didn't do as well as he knew we could. I am so comforted by that fact that even though I miss him terribly I know that he instilled in me an abiding sense of what's important and I'm OK with what life may throw my way. I know who I am thanks to my father's love and his strong belief in the loving bonds of family. I tip my hat to her for being able to speak from the heart without her voice even cracking because I know that I could not have done so having lost my father just two years ago this week.

Second, having attended a family gathering of my own African-American family this past weekend, I have the highest regard for Michele's parents. Though they themselves did not have college educations, they did nothing but instill in their children the importance of education and hard work. A man with multiple sclerosis and a job at the city water plant raised two children who went on to graduate from Princeton University. Would that my own extended family had known how to teach that to their children. Looking around at my cousins, aunts, uncles, and the next generation I couldn't help but wonder why folks had missed out on what to many is so obvious and necessary. It's been no secret for decades that education is an opportunity to achieve more. Why had my extended family missed out on this reality? Seeing people with so much potential working so hard to get by and seeking answers from the Kuran that are within themselves made me wonder, why do some folks get it and others don't?

And finally, what ugliness and ignorance is going to be traded in the coming months to try and tear Barack Obama down? Both camps have pledged to campaign on the issues, but both know that negative campaigning works and that smearing, I mean "defining" one's opponent before segments of the electorate get to make up their own minds is the surest path to victory. I idenify with this man so much that I often take attacks on him in some personal way. I so badly want him to win and succeed as president that I would almost rather tune out than watch him suffer the slings and arrows. However, it's so disheartening to consider what's coming that I am finally moved to act! I have to DO something to help this man get elected so that if he doesn't succeed I'll know that at least I did everything possible in my own power to influence the outcome my way. I can accept that people may not want Obama because he's wrong on their issues but if people make choices out of ignorance or unfounded innuendo, then I weep for the nation. Once again we'll get the president we deserve if we vote for the wrong reasons, such as fear.

I'm Taking a Summer Holiday

I generally find the political coverage so trivial and mean-spirited these days that I'm taking the summer off from watching and reading about the presidential campaign. I might even cancel my daily text alert from Chuck Todd! I'll start watching again in earnest during the conventions most likely, but I've returned to watching the local news and the Today Show instead of Morning Joe. Race for the White House, Hardball, and Countdown can all take hiatuses as far as I'm concerned as well. I'm sure their ratings will all show a considerable dip. And maybe MSNBC's current crop of hosts just may go the way of Ashleigh Banfield! >:-)

It's ironic that the long-drawn out Democratic primary caused such a spike in viewership, readership, and overall political interest even though so much of the commentary centered on how the primary was too long and would be detrimental to the Dems. Really everyone was a winner, except Hillary Clinton because she lost, and John McCain because no one paid him any attention. Personally I ate it up. Not having Tim Russert to put it all into context might also explain my current disinterest in part.

Now watching the pundit class trying to make political hay out of every gotcha moment is just disturbing because it shows how demeaning the political process is for both the candidates and the electorate. We really do get the politics we deserve, and since I feel that I deserve better, I'm perfectly happy to tune out until the fall. It's the current undecided voters who determine the winner in most elections, and I'm sure they're going to the beach, spending time with friends and family and just generally enjoying their summers. Why shouldn't I do the same? That's what summer is for! There's plenty of time to stress about the Iraq War, the economy, and flag lapel pins!