Please End The Writer's Strike!

As a left coaster who does not subscribe to DISH I have to stay up until 11PM to watch the current day of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. I usually don't make it that late and am relegated to watching the 8PM next day rerun. When things are really intense in the world I stay up to get my reality fix.

These past ten weeks have been desperate times for us irreverent political junkies. The writer's strike have removed The Daily Show and The Colbert Report from the air. I have commented to a few friends that I have felt at sea and have lost my moorings. What do I do at 8PM? I can't watch O'Reilly ( Orly or Oily) while waiting for Keith Olbermann at 9PM. Now I read the morning paper, kick the cat, or watch some tatted up derelict in a prison lock-up show.

It was with great anticipation that I propped my eyes open last night until 11PM awaiting Stewart and Colbert. I was sorely disappointed. Jon Stewart was flat. He pandered to the writers with his union negotiator college professor guest. He was lame.

Colbert fared somewhat better. His "solidarity beard" was a good riff on Letterman and O'Brien. In fact, I decided not to shave this morning. I like this solidarity thing.

There is too much going on in the political arena for me to thoughtfully absorb without my shot of irreverent insight from Steward and Colbert. The writer's have to come back. Otherwise, I am left to parse through this political season using only my wits and common sense.

Bubba is Back!

The Clinton campaign is using former President Bill Clinton every possible moment.
He makes the case for his wife better than she does. That is a problem.

Yeah, his Presidency looks good in a rear view mirror. And, he has done an admirable job of becoming a global philanthropic force. But, at the end of the day, in this current race for the White House, we get to see glimpses of the reckless boy who earned the nickname, “Bubba.”

I don’t think we want Bubba back in the White House. I think he would be a disaster. You sense that he might break the china. And I mean not just the fine tableware.
His uncontainable personality knows no bounds. Are we to expect that Hilary, as President, can keep him in check?

Yes, he is the consummate policy wonk. But, with his voracious appetite, can he keep his hands out of the cookie jar. I don’t think so.

I for one, don’t want Bubba back. And, I don’t think it is possible to have the good without the bad. Unfortunately for Hilary, we have already been there once.

Hilary Doesn't Get It!

In just 24 hours the polls in New Hampshire have gone from 32 for Clinton and 28 for Obama to 39 for Obama and 29 for Clinton. It looks like a freight train.

Hilary continues to press on the experience issue. She has a tin ear. The voters don’t care about experience. Experience got us to where we are today, and it is not a pretty picture. The voters don’t want experience. They want real people who communicate with authenticity. They care less about the plan than they do about the candidate’s ability to genuinely express themselves.

Nobody has a great plan. We all just do the best we can. Everyday we work hard to make good decisions based upon the information and choices before us. As Robert Burns wrote, “The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men, gang aft agley.”

Hilary almost seems to rant. She has the experience. She has a plan. How dare we question her? How dare anyone run against her? It is her time. She gets to be the first woman President. She has earned it. She has put up with that narcissistic husband for all these years. Get out of my way she thinks. And, how can anyone doubt her. Her politics are so carefully calibrated they could be thread through the head of needle.

Some are saying that Hilary will focus on state primaries where only registered Democrats can vote. Hilary doesn’t poll well with independents. Duh! So the hope is she can win some Democratic primaries (with no distasteful cross over independents or Republicans) and gain momentum. Really! Isn’t that just proof that she is unelectable, if she can’t pull votes from independents and disaffected Republicans? Obama has soundly out polled Clinton with independents, so I guess she has no other choice.

Grant Wood in Iowa

Grant Wood painted that wonderful iconic painting of the stoic American farm couple. It is a fabulous piece. I thought of that the other night as the various Presidential candidates stood on the dais and worked to position the outcome most favorably. A part of that positioning possessed an element of Grant Wood.

The candidates had important figures in their campaigns standing close by, lending stoic weight to the Presidential aspirations of their favorite. Huck-a-Buck had Chuck Norris. My gawd what beautiful teeth. And both his hair and beard are colored. Norris is now everywhere! I saw him in the Honda commercial and selling some gym equipment in an informercial. I bet there are more sales to the Iowa area code than ever before. Those poor souls can’t make their truck payments and now they are buying home gym equipment. If Huck-a-Buck can lose 100 pounds and Chuck Norris likes him, dad gum, I better buy me one of them home gyms. And Norris’s wife. Made me think of a young Tammie Fay.

Then Hilary. Grant Wood in the extreme. Poor Bill. He stood at her left and looked like he had just eaten a lemon. On Hilary’s right was Madeleine Albright. She looked about 100 years old. A wider pan of the camera brought Wesley Clark into view. Wow. Lots of old people. They must have helped Hilary grab that majority of the over 65 vote.

Obama was able to handle the stage with only his wife and two children. No props. Just Obama. No Grant Wood moment with props staring stoically.

Ready on Day One; A Phony Issue

A number of my political cronies, during our discussions regarding the relative merits of our candidate preferences use the line, "Hilary will be prepared to be President on Day One!"
My view is, "So what?"

I believe that an Obama Presidency will be, on Day One, such a powerful public relations and marketing victory for the United States and all that it stands for that the preparation issue is nothing but a canard.

The list of past Presidents with modest experience is a long one. One friend said that these critical times require someone who understands, from Day One, the jurisdictional boundaries of the various government agencies. Poppycock! Anyone who buys into the fear based "critical times" argument should be lining up beyond Rudy "9/11 Tourettes" Giuliani.

An Obama Presidency sends a powerful message to the young, disenfranchised, addled young man in the mean streets of Cairo, Karachi, and Kuala Lumpur. His message of hope; of promise; of change and the opportunity to create a better world is much more powerful, and more likely to lead to a more peaceful realm than the ability, on Day One, to know which Assistant Secretary of which agency has the keys to the kingdom. That can wait for Day Two.

Huck-a-Buck Demographics

The white shoe Republican cognoscenti are going nuts over Huck-a-Buck. I don't think most of them even know anyone like him. Huck-a-Bucks don't belong to country clubs. They do belong to private clubs in small towns, but mostly the ones named after wild animals like moose and elk.

The core of Huck-a-Buck's support comes from evangelicals and those making less than $50,000 a year. I think that may be the same group. You can't be an evangelical unless you make less than $50,000 a year. Oh, and a high percentage have GEDs. No skull and bones here unless you go behind the barn and dig up that calf that died of scowers a couple of years ago.

Funny thing about that demographic. It used to vote Democratic. Then, with the Republican southern strategy they shifted parties and embraced Ronald Reagan. They never understood that they were voting against their self-interest. They still don't understand that.

It is the sons and daughters of Huck-a-Buck's demographic who are dying in Iraq and Afghanistan. No white shoe kids are dying for the neo-con support of Israel (the elephant in the Washington, DC living room), cheap oil, or the illusion of a democratic process in a tribal region.

Wow!

In the late Spring of 1968 I met Robert F. Kennedy in Cheyenne, Wyoming. He gave a rousing speech to a large group of people. Afterwards, there was a small gathering for about twenty people who were involved in the Kennedy political campaign. I was in that group and had the opportunity to meet Bobby Kennedy and shake his hand. We spoke for a few moments. It was just before the Nebraska primary. I will never forget the moment and the energy of that evening. He looked me straight in the eye and we connected for that moment.

Last night, I had Bobby Kennedy flashbacks as I listened to the Barack Obama speech after his Iowa primary victory. Obama was mesmerizing! He is the agent for change that this country needs. He is the face of the new generation. He represents every good thing that this country, at its democratic, egalitarian core stands for.

I hope and pray that we never again experience the horrible end of promise that befell this nation with the assassination of Bobby Kennedy. Let this promise live.