Redeem Team
Bill Clinton and company had something to prove.
A week ago, it didn't take much imagination to see the Democratic National Convention going wrong. Very wrong. We're talking bitter splits along race and gender lines. We're talking hotheaded spouses and knotty family ties, with people feeling disrespected, a raucous crowd to dump fuel on the flame, and TV cameras to capture it all. We're talking "The Jerry Springer Show," with the fate of the country in the balance.
If any chairs were to get metaphorically thrown in Denver, Wednesday would have been a good night for it. During the early part of the program, the focus shifted to delegates trooping to microphones on the floor, their impulses in tow. So rich were the possibilities for mayhem, even Wolf Blitzer piped down. Yet even as some states let the proceedings drag—I'm looking at you, Montana—the roll call turned out to be very nearly harmonious: our democracy in messily gorgeous action. By the end of the program, the Democrats had left Springerland emphatically behind. We've seen this before, haven't we? A group of outsize talents with the egos to match, who may not like each other but seem intent on finding a way to support each other—not least because, individually and collectively, they have some serious redeeming to do. This may not get Barack Obama elected in November, but it made for an arresting, pivotal night.
Consider Bill Clinton. In fact, consider Bill Clinton from Bill Clinton's point of view. One day, you're the first black president; the next, you're a racist. One day you're a political genius and everybody reveres you; the next, you're getting blamed for spoiling your wife's campaign, and, by the by, a brilliant upstart is too busy beating you at your own game to bother kissing the ring. So when you step onstage in Denver, you may find yourself lacking a certain esprit de corps where said upstart is concerned.
But you are still Bill Clinton. Which means that, for a bundle of reasons indecipherable to the rest of us—high-minded, self-serving, some in between—you're going to gaze out upon the 20,000 people shouting their heads off, you're going to take a deep breath, and you're going to do everything in your considerable power to remind them who the Big Dog is.
It turns out Clinton's instinct was right on one count: foreign-policy night wasn't a good time to use him. But he found time to bring the speech around to domestic affairs, and to do That Thing He Does. As he ticked off policy issue after policy issue, the Republicans seemed newly perfidious, the need to vote them out of office freshly urgent: he contrasted the rise in worker productivity under Bush with the fraying health and security of the middle class, asking, "Are these the family values the Republicans are so proud of?" He also nailed down all the particulars for why Hillary voters should support Obama, something she hadn't done the night before. Also, he may have said a word or two about his presidency.
When John Kerry took the stage after Clinton, long, long experience suggested that he was going to slip into the gray line of senators—Reid, Reed, Rockefeller, Bayh—who had been trying that evening, generally unsuccessfully, to establish Obama's foreign-policy bona fides. But as I peeked out at Kerry from between my fingers, something unexpected happened. He began to give a speech so good it was astounding—so good it was absurd.
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Member Comments
Posted By: cani77 @ 10/02/2008 11:21:05 PM
Comment: n a few weeks we will make a choice that will decide our future.
I follow an economist named Bob Proctor. He has called the top and bottom of every market crash since the 70s correctly.
Also, he perfectly predicted the current real estate market meltdown and the picture he paints about what will happen in the next couple years
is terrifying.He thinks it will be worse then the great depression.
The banks in the U.S. are going under one after the other. Countrywide the largest morgage bank in the world,Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch which are 3 out of the top 5 wall street firms. Also, Fanny and Freddy Mae which hold 50 percent of the home loans in the United States.
The government took them over because they are essentially bankrupt.If they didn't the entire financially system would virtually shut down, the stock market would crash and we would suffer beyond what any of us have seen before.
McCain just like Bush " doesn't understand the economy".
That not just my opinion its his own words. Not only does he not understand how to fix it but he does not understand exactly what is broken.
It is no surprise that he doesn't. The people that make up these securities use complex mathematical models very few people understand.
Bush and McCain both can take the credit for this mess since they helped deregulate the laws that were protecting us.
Bush's economic advisor Phil Graham wrote the deregulation bill that allowed banks to take huge risks with all of our future.
Now, Phil Graham is the head of McCain's economic policy.He is also McCain's choice for the next secretary of the treasury.
No one in this country can afford for that to happen. The last time Bush met with his economic advisors was in March. He either didn't care or didn't realize that anything was wrong. Phil Graham had the guts to say that we are in a mental recession after he helped create the worst economy meltdown in our lifetime.
It will take the best and brightest minds in the world to get us out of this nightmare. As bad as Bush has done, McCain would be
even more destructive because things are in much worse shape. The next president will not inherit a surplus like Bush did but a tanking economy and a 11,600,000,000,000 (trillion) dollars deficit. Most of it Bush created and it will take decades to pay it back.
If you do what you have always done then you will get what you have always got.
When it comes to policy Bush and McCain are the same 90 percent of the time.
So why are the polls even close then ?
The chairman of McCains campaign recently said that people don't vote on issues they vote on a personality composite. Which means he is trying to sell you personality instead of results.
He believes people will vote against their own interests.
Let's teach him we are smarter than that .
Elect Obama Biden 2008
Check out this video of sarah palins interview it will blow you away
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r36
Posted By: Nins @ 10/02/2008 12:58:16 AM
Comment:
Sarah Palin is a fraud. She was pregnant before she got married, has had an affair with one of her husband's friends, her 19 year old son is rumored to have serious drug problems, her 17 year old unwed daughter is pregnant, and she has used her political power to get even with people who disagree with her, yet all she talks about is being a "good Christian" and doing God's will. As a Christian she is a hypocrite who can not walk her talk, and as a politician she is completely unqualified to be Vice President. Her interview with Katie Couric showed her to be a woman with a disorganzied mind, a woman who is in over her head, utterly unprepared for the twist her fate has taken.
Even committed Republicans who support McCain have to ask themselves if they really would take the risk of putting our country into Palin's hands. Sure, being VP doesn't necessarily take a lot of skills, but being President requires great intelligence and a clear-eyed world view, one untainted by religious fanaticism. Look at the mess we got with the under-qualified Dubya, and even he seems smarter and less fanatical than Palin. McCain is 72 years old, with high cholesterol and high blood pressure; his father and grandfather each died of heart attacks at age 72. McCain's Vice President HAS to be ready to lead. And by lead, I am not referring to a full speed charge into Armageddon.
For those of you who don't know, Palin belongs to a fundamentalist church that believes the end of the world is near: that war, financial distress and famine will kill off the sinful non-believers, and that when this holocaust occurs all good Christians will be taking refuge in Alaska. Furthermore, her church conducts witch hunts -- they actually use prayer to locate "witches" in their community, then publicly brand them as witches, and hold them responsible for everything that goes wrong in town. (Honestly, I think the long winters must be getting to their minds.) You can go on YouTube and watch videos of Palin participating during sermons like this. She stands on the altar facing the members. The congregation stands with outstretched hands, trancelike, speaking in tounges while the priest prays to "keep Sarah safe from all forms of witchcraft."
Could you REALLY feel comfortable knowing that a woman who holds these beliefs would have the power to declare war and deploy nuclear missiles?
Posted By: Krohn @ 10/01/2008 9:35:32 PM
Comment: Obama's dirtiest, darkest secret!:
http://larrysinclair.org/