Hillary’s speech last night blew me away. I am sure I could not have written it, but if I had been asked to, I couldn’t have done a better job. At the beginning of this race, I said I would happily campaign for either of them as hard as possible (my goal in the beginning was to elect ANY Democrat – even one with 2 heads if need be!).
But, if you read this blog, you know she subsequently made me very angry as she refused to accept her loss when it was clearly inevitable. I worried that her continued running would divide the party. Now we have PUMAs (party Unity My ass) — the 35 and up white women who had vowed to vote for her in the (now-not-happening) roll call.
All that said, toward the end of her speech last night, I was crying. All of the feelings of empathy for someone who worked so hard and missed it by a hair overwhelmed my angry feelings toward her. (Yes, I worry about the 4th place person in every Olympics match I watch too). I guess it makes me a bad person because it took her doing what i wanted (trying to unite the party) before I felt much empathy for her. As she swallowed her bitter pill with good cheer, I wished we had seen that Hillary on the campaign trail! That was a hell of a speech. She looked great, she gave a great speech, and she did all she could to repair the damage.
If you believed in Hillary and are now willing to vote to continue this war, for this crappy economy, for dependence on foreign oil because you are so mad that she was not the nominee then you need to have your head examined. I think they are Republicans faking it to make a story. I have no evidence of this and am half kidding, but not totally.
So Hillary – I hope you become a Supreme Court Justice or a cabinet official and maybe run again. Everyone was worried about the Hillary lovers — Could she convince them to go for Obama? But there was another job — Could she convince those who were really pissed at her that she is really one of us? The answer is yes for me. Yay Hil!
Finally! The first vote I ever cast for President was for Jessie Jackson in the 1988 Democratic primary. Now, TWO DECADES LATER an African-American man is OUR nominee for President. I am speechless.
A student of mine (I am not sure if he will use his real name so I won’t blow his cover) just emailed me from Denver about the convention and I was like, “DUDE! Please blog!!” So hopefully he will — a tantilizing tidbit — his first post is about bird porn.
Second, I saw Koolaid yesterday — he has been in training and isolated from computers but will be blogging once he gets to Afghanistan. Stories of training were very interesting. Also, sometime I will post about how people gravitate toward someone in uniform (he has no other clothes and so we were in the Nev and he was in his uniform — cammo style and its weird how people respond.)
Third, i am going to blog about Hilary’s speech. Short version — I had a major breakthrough in feeling empathy for her. Yes I am still mad at her and if the PUMAs cost us the election I will return to my previously embittered state, but last night I just felt proud of her and lots of empathy for someone who was so close to a life dream and not able to pull it off.
OK so what do we think about going negative? Interesting OP-Ed here and a great article on alternet here entitled, “What’s so heroic about being shot down while bombing innocent civilians?”
Obama certainly can’t go THAT negative, but what do we think? How far can/should he go? This “Mccain doesn’t know how many houses he has” is mildly negative. It is not a horrible lie (like the Swift Boat ads) — it is ribbing him about something he ACTUALLY said and something he ACTUALLY owns (multiple houses). But it is not a positive message about what Obama will do, so I call this mildly negative. This is fine with me, but where is the line? I think it may come before the Michael Moore question. At the same time, as the Op-Ed says, I don’t want my guy to bring a knife to a gun battle. Hate the violence metaphor, but you get the idea. Lives are at stake in the US and around the world. The world itself is at stake. We gotta fight hard. How hard? Discuss.
OK smart people. I’m feeling a bit worried about Obama’s chances to win the election, and I’m wondering whom you think he should choose as his running mate and why. I need cheering up. LB’s family left today, so I have more time to imagine McCain in the White House, and that’s just bad.
Loyal readers may remember our posts and comments about the Supreme Court’s Ledbetter decision, and the unsuccessful attempt, blocked by Senate Republicans, to reverse it though legislation. This was an outrage (an outrage, I say!), and the Dems shouldn’t let it die. And it looks like they won’t — Lilly Ledbetter will be speaking at the Democratic National Convention. As Ruth Marcus writes:
Obama was an original co-sponsor of the legislation to reverse the result in Ledbetter’s case; McCain opposes the bill because, he said in April, it “opens us up to lawsuits for all kinds of problems.” Well, yes, that would be the point of a law prohibiting pay discrimination.
EDIT: Here’s a video of Obama discussing the Ledbetter case, and other pay equity issues, at a “roundtable” (whatever that is) in Albuquerque on August 18. Pretty good. But get to the end — when he says that it would “make his blood boil” if his daughters don’t have the same opportunities as boys, he doesn’t sound like his blood is boiling. This is the “too cool” critique, I suppose.
Today I will take my kids and my rocking WORLD CHAMPION nephew to UC Santa Cruz where I was a legal studies (and sociology) undergraduate major. Yay! Go banana slugs!! It is a great major and much of the NU program is built on the UCSC model.
Back on July 28, I posted a link to a story about a cop in Winnfield, Louisiana, Scott Nugent, who killed Baron Pikes by Tasering him nine times while he was handcuffed — the last two times while he was unconscious. Guess what? The cop was indicted yesterday for manslaughter and official malfeasance. Here’s some local color for those too busy to click the link:
The Pikes’ [sic --note inappropriate apostrophe] case, first recounted in the Tribune in July, aroused fears of a cover-up among family members and civil rights groups because Winnfield, the birthplace of Louisiana Govs. Huey and Earl Long, has a long history of political corruption.
[D.A.] Nevils’ predecessor as district attorney committed suicide amid allegations that he had skimmed $200,000 from his office accounts and demanded payoffs from criminal suspects. The former police chief, who was [officer] Nugent’s father, also killed himself, after losing a close election campaign marred by fraud allegations. The current police chief was convicted of drug possession as a young man and was pardoned by former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards, who is now serving a federal prison sentence for corruption while in office.
Sing along with the Chevy ad, everyone — “This is our country!” And so no one thinks I’m picking on the South, let’s hear it for our very own Alderman Troutman! Completely corrupt, and her “reputed boyfriend” is a high-ranking drug-dealing gang member! She’s pleading guilty, but proudly not cooperating with the feds! Sweet home, Chicago!
OK people . . I am on vacation in Santa Cruz where I went to college. Today I wore my Obama t-shirt while walking around my old college town where there were 2 options: liberal and radical.
TWICE I was the target of street speech about my shirt. Exchange #1 went like this (the guy seemed mentally ill so I stopped myself from answering)
Guy: I don’t like your shirt — Don’t you know Obama sounds like Osama?!?!?!?!
Other interaction involved a car with 4 18 – 20 year old men and women yelling, “Fuck Obama” at me. Clearly not mentally ill. Just stupid. So what’s up? I get 60 year old business people who favor McCain but 20 year old kids? Wow. I am scared.
Posted by laurabethnielsen 
Posted by laurabethnielsen 
Posted by laurabethnielsen 
