Archive for the ‘Democrats’ Category
Towards an Edwardsian theory of change
Apparently, Clinton and Obama are "sparring" over Clinton's comments that Lyndon B. Johnson produced "change" by passing the Civil Rights Acts of 1964. According to Clinton, this "began to realize" Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "dream." According to Obama, "some folks" feel that this diminishes the efforts of MLK, Jr.; Obama, though, swears that he isn't (necessarily) part of these "some folks."
Edwards is piggybacking on The Legits' scuffle and, of course, is on Obama's side, saying,
“I must say I was troubled recently to see a suggestion that real change that came not through the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King but through a Washington politician. I fundamentally disagree with that,” Mr. Edwards said before more than 200 people at a predominantly black Baptist church in Sumter, S.C."
Given Edwards' stated interest in producing real change, can anyone explain to me why he is not campaigning for admission into a theological seminary and is campaigning to become, again, a Washington politician? I am fundamentally baffled about this.
Hillary Clinton: The Demon Senator of New York
Or she’s human. Or something like that.
As I’ve already written, I intend to vote for Senator Obama in tomorrow’s primary. Still, I’m concerned with the collective response to Hillary and her campaign. Apparently, the woman isn’t likable – &, get this, has to prove she’s capable of imitating humans by tearing up and parroting the other candidates’ rhetoric about politics being personal.
Today, a neighbor told me jokes about Hillary Clinton. They involved body parts, Monica Lewinsky, and cigars. Even a show as renegade as South Park does nothing more with Hillary than joke about her vagina. (South Park did more or less the same with Oprah. Brilliant, eh?)
Even Edwards and Obama, those damn radicals, play with the innuendos and attitudes about clothes and about likability.
Change, change, change, right?
(We are a goofy people.)
PS: I remember a bumper sticker that one of my high school coaches had. It went something like, “Impeach the President and her husband too.” Given that sentiment and given the joke today about Lewinsky, it seems that that scandal benefited the President Clinton in one way – by endearing him to those of us who really believed that a woman like Hillary was no woman (&, it follows, no wife) at all. With Lewinsky, President Clinton righted the gender wrongs of his White House family.
Media coverage of Seacoast events.
Some highlights from media coverage of the events that I’ve attended.
(1) Of President Bill Clinton’s visit to the University of New Hampshire, The NY Times’ writes
Former President Bill Clinton has been drawing sleepy and sometimes smallish crowds at big venues in the state that revived his presidential campaign in 1992. He entered to polite applause and rows of empty seats at the University of New Hampshire on Friday. Several people filed out midspeech, and the room was largely quiet as he spoke, with few interruptions for laughter or applause. He talked about his administration, his foundation work and some about his wife.
“Hillary’s got good plans,” Mr. Clinton kept saying as he worked through a hoarse-voiced litany of why his wife, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, is a “world-class change agent.” He urged his audience to “caucus” on Tuesday for Mrs. Clinton, before correcting himself (“vote”). He took questions, quickly worked a rope line and left.
Those of us who attended Clinton’s talk did note the meager line, as well as the empty seats. But I don’t think sleepiness and politeness adequately account for the passivity of the audience. No doubt, we were polite, but the opening ovation seemed sincere enough to me. Moreover, unlike at Senator Obama’s rally in Exeter, there was no aspiration on behalf of the campaigners to generate (nauseating) “pep”; at least one Obama volunteer attempted to get us to participate in The Wave while we waited for the Senator. Egh. I think, too, that Clinton’s talk was sufficiently cerebral – more detailed and less bombastic than Edwards’ or Obama’s – and, I hope, what looked to the reporter like passivity might have been careful listening.
Barack Obama in Exeter, NH
My First New Hampshire Primary
I registered to vote in 1999 in New York state as a Republican. Turns out, affiliating myself with the Republican Party was a grand mistake, not because of what that party was about to unleash on us, but because I did not, not in 1999, and do not reside anywhere in the vicinity of the political right. I registered as a Republican (sigh…) because my twelfth grade, Government teacher told my class that there was no Democratic Primary in New York State.
Perhaps I misheard my teacher, perhaps he misspoke, or perhaps, as one of my high school friends contends, he manipulated me for the sake of the G.O.P.; there is, in fact, a Democratic Primary in New York. Not that my mis-registration really mattered; I made no effort to vote in the 2000 or 2004 primaries and voted in those year’s presidential elections, both times for a losing candidate, through absentee ballot.
Soon after registering to vote in New York in 1999, I moved to Massachusetts for college. I didn’t know it then, but I’d spend most of the next eight years in the Bay State, long enough to convince myself I’ve earned the right to root for the Celtics, Sox, and Patriots, even against any NY’ers complaints. But it wasn’t until the 2006 mid-term election that I registered to vote in MA, this time as a Democrat. That decision came only after hearing that a very weak Republican gubernatorial candidate was running a very, very nasty advertisement against a very impressive Democratic candidate. The Democrat, Deval Patrick, won “in a romp,” though my vote wasn’t enough to earn Boston undergrads the mid-term election consolation prize to end all consolation prizes … booze in grocery stores. (Big liquor-stores helped defeat “Question 1.”)
