Confession is good for the soul

It’s hard for me to be hopeful. I am Winnie the Pooh’s friend Eeyore the donkey I wish I were more upbeat, but I just have so much cynicism, that I can’t overcome my skeptical, critical, bitter, melancholy nature. This drove my wife crazy at Disneyland.

I tell you this because I want to join the hope band wagon, I really do, but I have to tell you, I’ve had this tremendous fear that the forces of nature have a way of squelching hope, no matter how audacious.

That was yesterday, but today, hope springs eternal. Like a daffodil breaking through the snow, I was given a glimpse of a glimmer of that light of liberty on that torch that John Kennedy once spoke of as being passed between generations.

I received a confession from a repentant sinner that hinted that our once glorious democracy could find redemption. I received an email.

It was an email from a young Iowan living in Washington D.C.

“Can I just say that I am so disgusted with this race and so ready for it to be over?” My friend began, then the confession came, “I have gone from admiring Clinton for being such a strong, independent, and smart woman, to wishing that she would just admit defeat and give the Democratic Party time to heal before the general election.”

I hear ya, I hear ya. The now infamous "is Obama a Muslim" libelous viral email? According to the Huffington Post it was sent out, not by some right wing nut case racist, but by an Iowa county chair volunteering for the Clinton campaign.

“From what I understand from all the analysis being done and articles being written,” my friend continued, “the only way she can win is to be cunning and manipulative wooing superdelegates to her side and reinstating the Michigan and Florida delegates.”

That’s what they say. The “Delegate Math” just doesn’t add up for Hillary. She’d have to win all of the remaining primaries and caucuses by wide margins to win without Michigan, Florida or superdelegates.

I’ve tried to compare superdelegates to the Senate and legitimately elected delegates are the House of Representatives, but that may be too generous. Basically back in the 70s when the caucuses and primaries became more important to electing a party representative, the party power players in the smoke-filled rooms wanted to hold on to some vestige of power, thus 20% of the party convention delegates are uncommitted, VIPs like Senators and Governors.
Oh, don’t get too sanctimonious about it Republicans, you have them too. You just don’t call them “superdelegates.” You have 463 unpledged delegated who play the same role as the superdelegates. They are there to ensure that a tie, or at least post-third round voting, doesn’t make the party look like a joke. Of course, it’s back-firing. Superdelegates seem to be making a joke out of the Democrats and the convention is months away.

“At this point, it seems that she is out to win this for herself with no regard for what is best for the party and for the country,” my friend complained. “It's a bit disgusting.”

One conspiracy theory suggest that she wants McCain to win, do poorly for four years, so that she can run again in 2012, whereas if she concedes to Barack, it may be eight years before she can run again.

“I wish that I had supported Obama,” my friend shared with me, “and hope that I get the chance to vote for him in November, It's hard to spit those words out, but it's good for me to be reconciled with this error and the guilt I feel.”

That’s the difference between us “bleeding hearts” and people with no conscience. Do you think that the 8-10% of Hillary's voters in Texas who were just following Rush Limbaugh’s orders feel guilty? Do you think they have regrets?

The very fact that my friend, and I do consider all Hillary supporters friends, repentant or not, the fact that this friend can see the error of their ways gives me hope.

God knows if Hillary actually manages to purloin the Democratic nomination it will either turn another generation off to politics or spawn an angry change movement. How sad that the Clintons, who got started in politics to oppose the politics of usual of the Johnson/Nixon era have become what they once held in such contempt.

Worst people in the world!!!

Hillary's inner Flick

I saw this on Slate and thought it was a kill! Do you ever feel like you're Matthew Broderick? You used to be the cool suave, Ferris Bueller, but now you're just another boring, middle aged teacher type? I do.

Get ready, Momma’s comin’

Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper - Schleswig Leader, Thursday, August 9, 2007 - Page 3

I know, I know, the election is still 16 months away, caucuses still five months away so maybe it’s too early for this, but I think it may not be too soon to face the inevitable. Uncle Sam may soon become Aunt Samantha.

Mind you, I’m no Hillary supporter. If Iowa moved up the caucus I’d probably support New Mexico Governor Richardson if I were serious or former Alaska Congressman Gravel if I really felt like annoying people.

I know that a lot of things can happen in 16 months, including John Edwards winning Iowa. I know a lot of readers around here aren’t prepared to contemplate any Democrat as our next President. But maybe it will be easier to for us all to get used to the idea of a “Commanderess-in-Chief” if we start on it now so we have a almost year and a half for it to sink in.

I know it’s especially hard for my Republican friends, but come on- will most Republicans really get excited about most of the Republican candidates?

Giuliani has had how many divorces? Pro-Choice? New York City Firefighters oppose him because these heroes of 9/11 say he’s screwed them over?

Fred “Hollywood” Thompson and his half-his-age arm candy wife only raised half as much money as he hoped to in the first month of his non campaign.

John “Anger Management” McCain has pretty much lost his entire campaign staff.

And then there’s Mitt “First Mormon” Romney. Mormonism, that’s the one with all the polygamy and the secret underwear, right? But he’s from Massachusetts and used to flip on gay civil unions and abortion, but now he flops instead of flipping.

As much as some right-wingers loved to cultivate a visceral hatred for her husband Bill, Clinton is probably the most conservative of all the Democratic presidential candidates. The Clintons are charter members of the Democratic Leadership Council, the group that wanted to bring their party closer to the moderate center or even a little to the right in order to remain viable during the Reagan era. Like the GOP, the DLC is sympathetic to corporate interests and the interests of the wealthy.

FYI; Ken Starr’s law firm has contributed more to Hillary’s campaign than to the top four Republican campaigns combined.

So not only will she be good for hate-marketeers like Limbaugh, O’Rielly and Savage, she might also be good for business. What helps me tolerate the DLC more than the GOP is that they believe in fiscal restraint and responsibility. They don’t believe in huge deficits, operating off-the-books and raiding the Social Security Trust Fund, or in handing massive tax cuts to the wealthiest 2% and oil companies. Just “major” tax “incentives,” not massive tax cuts.
So, we’ve got almost a year and a half to get used to the Washington Post’s fashion reporter getting excited about whether or not the CSPAN camera caught a glimpse of Senator Clinton’s cleavage during a speech about college funding.

Remember the 60’s when people opposed women’s rights because they were afraid that it would lead to unisex bathrooms because civil rights had eliminated racially segregated bathrooms?

Remember the 70’s when comedians could joke about not wanting a woman president because she might drop the bomb if she got PMS?

Remember the 80’s when people started talking half-serious about a woman president because Geraldine Ferraro was the Democratic candidate for Vice President?

Remember the 90’s when women were becoming successful in business but they had to be tougher than men to do it, so we couldn’t imagine a “Fatal Attraction” kind of woman as President?

Well, you might want to get ready for all our old chauvinistic attitudes to become memories.

Why she's not viable

Hate to say it, but this is her biggest problem and why so many Dems are more interested in Obama and Richardson, and Edwards, and Fienstein, etc. etc.

The irony is that she is probably the most conservative of any Democrat in the running. She and former President Bill are charter members of the "Blue Dogs," the Democratic Leadership Council, a group of major middle-of the road moderates who are pro-business and all about fiscal responsibility, balanced budgets, reduced deficits, etc. Everything that the Republican party USED to be about. But because there was an element with such vicious and viceral hatred for her and her husband, she has been demonized as some sort of dangerous liberal-extremist icon.

So, ironically, she's divicive even though she and Bill have always practiced bi-particanship. She is imensely compitent and qualified, but she's exactly who the Republicans want because they know thay can beat her because they've already successfully defined her in the public's preceptions.

Plus, I don't know that we want to be volleying between family dynasties anyway. It makes us look like a cheap bannaba-republic. Nixon used to be paranoid about the Kennedys and successfully destroyed Teddy's presidential aspirations. Remeber, that's where Woodward & Bernstien started their investigation- when someone tipped them off that former CIA agent E. Howard Hunt, working in Nixon's Special Council (Chuck Colson's) office was investigating Kennedy... but I digress

The race is on

In case you didn’t know it, the 2008 Presidential race is already underway. I know, I know, it’s as bad as the stores and Christmastime. I think I saw Wal-Mart employees stocking the shelves with Halloween costumes the Monday after Easter.

In the interest of civic participation, this feature would like to present you with a number of potential candidates for your consideration- since most of them will begin visiting Iowa this summer, if they haven’t been here already.

Since they’re the current party in power, lets start with the Republicans.

The front-runner for the GOP nomination seems to be a woman named Dr. Condeleza Rice. She’s a PhD doctor, not a medical doctor. You’d think that would be a plus, but she doesn’t really seem to have a brain of her own. Her ideas, thoughts, policies, plans etc. are pretty much those of her bosses, Dick, Rummy, and the one known only as “W.”

Right-wingers will try to sell her as the historic, because she’d be both the first woman and the first Black president. But let’s face it, voting for the current Secretary of State would pretty much be voting to continue the Bush administration. With the numbers, the war, the personnel changes, all the retired generals criticisms and the price of gas- this may not be our best bet.

Next there’s Senate Majority Dr. Bill Frist. He’s a medical doctor, not a PhD and he tried to prove it when he diagnosed the late Terri Schiavo as not being in a persistent vegetative state and having plenty of brain activity by watching a few minutes of news clip video of her. Hmmm... the autopsy showed that she had very little brain left let alone brain activity.

If you believe in religious freedom, you may also not be comfortable with the fact that he participated in the whole “Justice Sunday” thing where he and televangelists railed on independent judges who refuse to set up a fundamentalist theocracy.

There’s also Newt Gingrich, the former House Speaker who spearheaded the Republicans’ “Contract on America” back in the 1990’s. He pretty much invented “Talking-point memos” and gave Rush Limbaugh office space in the Capital building. Scary, isn’t it time for the pendulum to swing a little more toward the center?

Now I always used to love Senator John McCain. He’s from my home state of Arizona, he’s a Vietnam Vet, he used to be his own man, a straight shooter who’d break party ranks when it was the right thing to do. Best of all he wanted a balanced budget and to clean up campaign finance.

But alas, he has started to kiss up to the fundamentalist like “guy-smiley” Jerry Fawell and Pat Robertson. How “base” can you get?

My favorite Republican has to be Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel. He’s still a deficit hawk who believes in fiscal responsibility and he’s been very skeptical of the Bush administration’s mishandling of Iraq. Unlike McCain, he seems to still be willing to stand up for what’s right, even if it means standing alone.

Now, in the interest of equal time, let’s turn to the left.

The biggest name among Democrats is still New York Senator and former First Lady Hillary Clinton. Okay, is she capable? Probably. Is she electable? possibly. But there are plenty of problems.

First of all, merely by being who she is, she’s divisive. There’s nothing she does or believes- all Democrats considered, she’s pretty moderate, but people vehemently hate her. Even more viscerally than her husband, and even though he was a liar and a philanderer, he was still a Rhode’s Scholar brainiac student of the law and economics.

I for one think the best way of keeping America sharply divided, keeping the wing-nuts on the extreme right angry and active, and guaranteeing that either Jeb or Prescott Bush will run for President would be to elect Hillary.

Who else is there? Well, there’s Virginia Governor Mark Warner. Centrists and even Republicans may like him. He believes in fiscal responsibility and deficit reduction. Even if it does mean, yes, rolling back the massive Bush tax cuts that benefited the richest 2% of Americans. He’s very articulate, clear, and smart. And yes, he’s a Southerner.

Hmmm. Moderate/Conservative Democrat from the South. He may have appeal.

Don’t forget Former Vice President Al Gore and former Vice Presidential Candidate North Carolina Senator John Edwards. Handsome Southern gentlemen both, but these two are probably more aggressively progressive and have lots of creative ideas for things like health care, education, and tax reform.

Bringing up the rear; New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, former Clinton Secretary of Energy. Hmmm, what was that about working toward not being dependent on foreign oil that President Bush mentioned in his State of the Union Address?

Oh yeah, did I mention that he’d be the first Hispanic President?

Finally may I introduce Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold. He co-sponsored the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (“McCain-Feingold Bill”). He is a recipient of the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award. He actually voted against the Iraq War Resolution and yet voted in favor of funding to support our troops.