The hope rises again … for the world as it should be

August 26th, 2008

Kennedy: “The Hope Rises Again And The Dream Will Live On”

Michelle: “An Obligation To Fight For The World As It Should Be”

Had to jump in and blow a bit of fog away — doing my part for the cause. If you are following the convention, and listening to the commentators you will lose your contact high … the spoilers are just that. TUNE THEM OUT!

John McCain is out of touch with America — and so are the pundits, talking heads and analyzers; they do to political events what the religious do to worship. They lose the moment to their busy little brains and personal bias’s and push opinion out on us like some sort of message from On High. I wish they’d JUST SHUT UP!

Case in point — last night CNN cut away from Nancy Pelosi’s speech, one that got right to the heart of John McCain’s lies and vulnerabilities, to talk vapidly about what might or might not occur later in the evening … and then at the end of the night, everybody pounced on how friendly and heart-warming the evening had been, with NO all-fired-critical McCain bash!

Crap! Are these people just in love with their own voices??? Pfffft!

If you watched, you cried when Teddy spoke — your heart warmed when Michelle told her story. Each of the smaller speakers gave us something to be pleased with. Each made you proud to be a progressive.

Then I watched the Pub’s take on it via the Larry King hour — a reflection that the Republicans viewed all of this with yawning boredom and cynicism, cold calculation and glaring soul-warts. I cranked up the computer this morning to read about how Karl Rove thinks Michelle didn’t show “enough love of country.” And while I don’t want to get into an us/them discussion — there are degree’s of difference … and the chasm is gaping wide.

What the evening gave me was a big old serving of WE ARE NOT THEM! And the many thousands of fresh, young voters are not them. The people of faith that no longer resonate to the war cries of the Christocrat message are not them. The middle-class white folks that looked at Michelle Obama as a peer and sister last night are not them. And the poor and disenfranchised, who probably didn’t watch, can feel it in the air, something coming … for them.

Tonight Ms. Clinton best nail the heart issues because some of her loyalists ARE them; they’ve taken their disappointment to a level of egoism that would tear hope apart to further their personal ends. No other conclusion can be drawn with people who would abandon their liberal principals for the on-going Republican vision. I want to be proud of Hillary again; this is her moment. I want her supporters to remember that we’re all in this together [... and I can't believe that a full quarter of them, wedded to women's issues, would support McCain's anti-abortion agenda.]

The other thing I sense from last evening is the ENORMOUS cost in energy and pain that comes from not allowing your heart to open to a message of compassion and altruism. To quote from Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah, “Argue for your limitations and they’re yours.” For the first time in quite a while, I actually feel sorry for the Pub’s … even my own set of family Pubs that bombard me with anti-Obama trash talk. How empty their hearts are, that they can’t be moved by what occurred last night.

I firmly believe Obama will take this election — but even if he doesn’t, WE’RE THE WINNERS. The times are changing — WE’RE CHANGING THEM — and we’ll just have to drag the small-hearted along with us, where we’re going.

Jude

PUMA: Party Unity, My America
Brent Budowsky, Smirking Chimp
August 26, 2008

As the lion in winter brings tears to the eyes and a convention to its feet as Ted Kennedy passes the torch to Barack Obama; as Michelle Obama brings light to the eyes of Democrats with an all-American story about the dreams that do come true, the battle in earnest has begun.

To those who say party unity my ass, I say, kiss mine. This is not about them, it is about America. The vanities and egotism and self-indulgence of some now yield to the war of the worlds that has begun in earnest. This is not about the Clintons. It is about the heart and soul and future of America.

Across this nation, as the lies and smears come forth from the forces of McCain, the heart and soul of America fights back from the good and decent people who say of Bush and Cheney and McCain and Rove: enough, no more, it ends here.

When John McCain lied about Barack Obama and said he would lose a war to win an election, the single mom and her teenage daughter fought back. Mom canceled Sunday dinner. Her daughter returned the CD. They gave another $20 to Obama. In their America, the big truth must defeat the big lie.

When McCain lied and said Obama would rather shoot hoops than visit wounded troops, the vets for Obama fought back. They gave a standing ovation to Obama’s work for wounded warriors at Walter Reed while McCain lets veterans down on vote after vote, year after year, again and again.

When Cindy McCain smeared Michelle Obama, saying she was always patriotic and implying that Michelle was not, the office assistant in Washington fought back. She is organizing a rally for Barack where those who don’t have much will give what they can, to change the course of history.

When McCain lied about Obama and said Obama wanted to send political reporters and television cameras to visit wounded troops in Germany, the war hero who should have been president fought back. John Kerry speaks with integrity and passion and honor that this time, the big truth will defeat the big lie.

When McCain smears Obama, proud of his ads with young blond women and talk of “the Messiah,” the Obama kids fought back. Throughout America they came with blue shirts and white pads, signing new volunteers and small donors who total more than 2 million patriots who believe that this time, in our America, the big truth must defeat the big lie.

The man who used to be John McCain in 2000 would be sickened by the McCain who campaigns today, and would stand against, not with, the heirs to those who fomented hate against Jefferson and Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and FDR, Jack, Bobby and Martin, who were all slandered by the haters of their times. As Barack is in ours.

It is a war of the worlds. Little people with big hearts, patriots who would lift our democracy, the kids who will inherit the future, the believers in truth and honor in politics are fighting back every hour, every day, across America.

It is a war of the worlds about the content and character of the democracy of our country. It is a fight to the political death between the big truth and the big lie, between those who would lift our country up and those who would tear our country apart. The stakes are enormous. In the land of the free and the home of the brave, it is the truth that sets us free.

Now the convention has begun; the battle has been joined. One of the great men who ever served in the United States Senate has lifted his body and raised his voice, and by doing so, he lifts our hearts and raises our sights. One of the great American stories of our time, the hard-earned success of Michelle and Barack Obama, is living proof that as the great man said, the dream indeed will never die.

So to those who say party unity my ass, I say, kiss mine. The battle for the future of America has been joined. We will win it with you, or without you, and will not surrender the future to the lies and smears of our opponents or the vanities of those who pretend to be our friends. ++

The 21st-Century Man
DAVID BROOKS, NYT
August 25, 2008

DENVER - I flew into the airport here on Sunday and the pilot could barely land because of the fog of bad advice. Democrats are nervous because Barack Obama’s polling lead has evaporated. And when Democrats are nervous, all the Santa Monica Machiavellis emerge from their fund-raisers offering words of wisdom. And the subtext of the advice being offered this year is that Barack Obama should really be someone else.

Some sages are saying that Obama needs to get specific. He needs to lay out concrete plans and legislative agendas. Apparently, having nominated Obama, they really want a replay of the Dukakis campaign.

Others say he needs to describe his experience in government better, to make Americans comfortable with him as chief executive. Apparently, having nominated Obama, they want him to run as Chris Dodd.

Still others say he needs to be a scrappy class warrior defending the middle class against the depredations of the rich overlords with their multiple homes.

Apparently, for these people it wasn’t enough that they got to live through Al Gore’s “people versus the powerful” campaign just once. They want to relive the joy again and again.

And yet there are still others who say Obama needs to get bare-knuckled. He needs to hammer McCain above the belt and below. Apparently, these people have decided that having nominated Obama, the party needs to be led by Michael Moore.

The words fly, the quotes are given, campaign aides are pulled aside. It’s like a Greatest Misses compilation of every Democratic campaign idea ever conceived.

Obama is already an elusive Rorschach test candidate, and now he’s being pulled by his party in a thousand directions. The Democrats are in danger of doing to Obama what they did to their last two nominees: burying authentic individuals under a layer of prefab themes.

Obama’s chief problem in this campaign is that large numbers of voters still don’t know who he is. They are having trouble putting him into one of the categories they use to grasp those they have not met.

And now he has to define himself amid the phantasmagorical vapors of his own party: the ghosts of the Kerry campaign, the overshadowing magic of the Kennedys and the ego-opera that perpetually surrounds the Clintons.

Of course, the Obama campaign has been here before. Just about a year ago, Obama was stagnant in the polls. His supporters were nervous and full of advice. And in the crowning moment of his whole race, Obama shut them out. He turned his back on the universe of geniuses and stayed true to his core identity.

At the core, Obama’s best message has always been this: He is unconnected with the tired old fights that constrict our politics. He is in tune with a new era. He has very little experience but a lot of potential. He does not have big achievements, but he is authentically the sort of person who emerges in a multicultural, globalized age. He is therefore naturally in step with the problems that will confront us in the years to come.

So as I’m trying to measure the effectiveness of this convention, I’ll be jotting down a little minus mark every time I hear a theme that muddies that image. I’ll jot down a minus every time I hear the old class conflict, and the old culture war themes. I’ll jot down a minus when I see the old Bush obsession rearing its head, which is not part of his natural persona. I’ll write a demerit every time I hear the rich played off against the poor, undercutting Obama’s One America dream.

I’ll put a plus down every time a speaker says that McCain is a good man who happens to be out of step with the times. I’ll put a plus down every time a speaker says that a multipolar world demands a softer international touch. I’ll put a plus down when a speaker says the old free market policies worked fine in the 20th century, but no longer seem to be working today. These are arguments that reinforce Obama’s identity as a 21st-century man.

And I have to say, during the first night of the convention, the pluses far outweighed the minuses. In spirit, the night extended Obama’s 2004 convention speech. The overarching theme was intrinsic to the man, unity instead of division, something new instead of conflicts that are old. His sister hit this theme forcefully.

Jesse Jackson Jr. made the generational-change argument explicitly, paying tribute to the fights of the past while describing the more subtle challenges of the present. Michelle Obama was short on biographical details, but long on the idealism, which is at the heart of Obama’s appeal.

Obama may yet recover his core focus. Now he has to preserve it against his most terrifying foes: the “experts” in his own party. ++

The Worrywart Party
Eugene Robinson, WaPo
Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Campaign 2008: CNN’s New “Hillary Voter Defection Poll” Looks Like More Media Snake Oil
Bill Hare, Smirking Chimp
August 25, 2008

“So keep fightin’ for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don’t you forget to have fun doin’ it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin’ ass and celebratin’ the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was.”
~ Molly Ivins, 1944 - 2007

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

Entry Filed under: Political Waves