SARAH PALIN BROUGHT ME BACK TO LIFE

That's right, folks. I was dead. I had stumbled, squeaked, started up, quit, started again, then...pfffffttt...nothing. But, I'm back. At least for now.

I'm back because I'm upset. Senator McCain's choice for his running mate is not first a political issue for me, it angers me as an American. Let's break it down, shall we?

Sarah Palin will enter the race with a high school basketball championship, a victory in the Wasilla, Alaska Beauty Contest, a University of Idaho journalism degree, a one-year-old passport, two terms as the mayor of a village, and 20 months on the job as the governor of the fourth smallest and arguably least typical state in the country. I know what you just did. I did it too. You just thought, "I could have done that." Okay, maybe most of us couldn't have, but it's not a huge leap. Yeah, yeah, the beauty contest thing would be an absolute impossibility for some of us.

What's the big deal? Don't we want someone in the White House that's a lot like us? No! Not me. I want someone very, very different from me! Someone much better than me should occupy the most important chair in the world. Palin is probably a pretty impressive person, but she doesn't get in the same arena with the people running for this office. Dan Quayle was an impressive nominee next to this.

So why am I mad? Because John McCain gave such little thought to the well-being of his country when he made this decision. A colleague who may prefer to remain anonymous gave me a boost on this analysis. Currently, there is about a 50/50 chance that 72-year-old McCain will be elected the oldest president in our history at the beginning of his term. I'm no medical doctor, but add his multiple bouts with cancer into the mix and he couldn't have more than a 50 percent chance of surviving his first administration. Charlie Black, one of McCain's top advisers, said that "most doctors think that he will be around at least that long." Most? There are some doctors who think otherwise? Perhaps we should get a second opinion. Let me finish crunching the numbers. This means that there is a 25-30 percent chance Sarah Palin will be President of the United States. Soon. Black goes on to say Palin is "going to learn national security at the foot of the master for the next four years." So, she's going to be taking the train home to Wilmington, Delaware to Joe Biden's house each night? No, seriously. Seriously? What if she doesn't have four years to study? They don't have a GED for president, do they?

Are you kidding me? This is scary. We could have a president in a matter of months who has no demonstrable knowledge of world affairs, no national security experience whatsoever, no experience with broad domestic policies or economic issues, but who has shot a moose.

Let's ignore for the moment that Palin is a strident culture warrior on life issues, a supporter of mandated creationism in public schools, and does not believe human activity is the cause for global warming, this is just a terrible management decision. One that was so bad, everyone (Republicans included) was in stunned silence at first. Of course the GOP has fallen in line, what else are they going to do?

Is John McCain's judgment that bad, or does he just have no regard for us (his country) at all?

Pundits say that at the very least it nullifies the experience argument, since Obama is inexperienced too. Again, are you kidding me? Pay attention to this one, because this is the analysis you'll only get here.

Even if you believe that Senator Obama's Ivy League degrees, Harvard Law Review, years as a community organizer, multiple terms as an Illinois state senator from Chicago, and four years as a U.S. Senator still leave his resume thin, consider that he has served for nearly two years as the CEO of the largest and arguably most disciplined and successful grassroots campaign in our history winning support of tens of millions of voters along the way. He went on to pass the experience test when world leader after world leader parroted his ideas, and nearly a quarter of a million people came out to hear him speak in Germany. He passed the experience test when dozens of decorated generals publicly endorsed him and supported his views on national security, and when economic experts across the country in academia and political administrations certified his economic plans as sound. He passed all those tests, then in his first real presidential decision he selected a running mate whose experience far surpasses John McCain's.

Sarah Palin does not meet the experience test and she was not vetted by election, she was appointed. I'm sure she is a great person. People testify to her plain-spokenness and her maverick style. She's a member of the NRA for gosh sakes. I'm sure she's a hoot. A spitfire. A veritable ring-tailed tooter. She's a pistol, for sure. Unfortunately, we're not auditioning for Annie Get Your Gun. This is the real deal. And it's important, damn it.

Someone may be tempted to make gender bias my issue. Sorry. I have two beautiful daughters, and I desperately hope for a woman president. No sexism here, latent or otherwise.

This is about judgment. John McCain has failed this test so miserably, he deserves disqualification on this ground alone.

I guess there is one positive thing to come from the Palin selection. Once again, in this country, we can believe that anyone can be president. And I mean, anyone.

GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK

So, I think I'm done.

It's been an interesting ride. I have found this blog to be a cathartic outlet at times, a surrogate community at others. But lately, it has been little more than a drive-by shooting.

Maybe the blogosphere hasn't changed and I have. Maybe if I posted frequently and engaged the process responsibly we could recreate a meaningful community. Maybe I'll bring it back at some point. But for now I'm done. Blogging seems to do little more than bring out the worst people and the worst side of good people. It wears on my soul.

I have trimmed my reading of online exchanges of all kind these days, because it seems that little goes on there beyond narcissistic yawping. Who cares about anything or anyone anymore? We just want to BE HEARD. As a meaningful alternative to journalism I think blogging has mostly failed.

I will leave this up for a while, but I am disabling comments. After a time I will set this blog to be accessible only to invited readers, and I will not be inviting anyone. I may bring it back some day, so I don't want to delete it altogether. Those of you that know me can email me.

To those of you who pushed and have been pushed in our dialogue, I wish you well. To those of you who get your rocks off dumping on people, then running away into anonymous safety...I don't really have anything to say to you.

Except...goodnight, and good luck.

IN THE BEGINNING WAS HOPE, AND IT WAS GOOD

John B. Judis writes one of the best articles I've seen on American politics and the Obama candidacy.

Among other things, he says,

"The American instinct to continuously remake ourselves in the image of Adam--to achieve a decisive and final break with history--has periodically proven seductive to voters. And, sometimes, this instinct can produce important, transformative results. Yet the past--in the form of race or war or deeply held partisan animosities--has a way of lingering around. At the very least, it rarely recedes without a bitter fight. None of which is to say that Barack Obama will fail. He has already defied the expectations of wizened political journalists like me who believed he had no chance to win the nomination. If he becomes president, he will have a chance to prove me wrong again: to show that the party of youth and hope and change can govern effectively. No one will be more delighted than I will if he succeeds."

OH, YEAH

WAIT FOR IT

I'm saying this here and now. Expect another decisive Obama victory tomorrow. THEN...just wait for the bomb to drop. I don't know what it will be, but just wait for it. Somewhere between tomorrow and March 4th, the Clinton Machine will pull the pin on whatever WMD they've been working on. It will be brutal and potentially devastating...for all of us. These people know how to win elections. They don't know when to quit or how to win without significant collateral damage, but do not underestimate them. They refuse to lose. It might not be one blow, it might be a series of dirty tricks, intimidations, or full on attacks, but it will come. Just. Wait. For. It.

And we will all be the worse for it.

I hope to God I'm wrong this time.

WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING

Primary and caucus wins in Washington, Nebraska, Louisiana, the Virgin Islands, and Maine.

And now, a GRAMMY!

Not a bad weekend, that.

What's next, a Nobel? Loaves and fishes?

THE REAL PROBLEM WITH AMERICAN POLITICS

I was following the returns of the Maine caucuses. It was terribly hard to find a source that was even tracking the results. It was as if the Maine contest had no meaning. (Yes, it could be that it only had meaning to the weirdly obsessed political freaks like myself, but...)

So, I finally locate an official recording of the numbers. Obama is significantly ahead early on, yet I still see no one talking about it on any news sites. This is important. The number of delegates makes it all but meaningless to the overall count, but the cumulative effect of five in a row (WA, NE, LA, Virgin Islands, ME) for Obama in two days builds some momentum and growing feel of grass roots consensus.

After 70% of the precincts have reported and Obama leads 58% to Hillary's 41%, I go to www.cnn.com, expecting it to be their headline. No. Wrong.

The BREAKING NEWS banner: "CELEBRRITIES ARRIVE FOR THE 50TH ANNUAL GRAMMY AWARDS."

There you have it. "Who are you wearing?" has replaced "Who are we electing?"

Does anyone know who won the last American Gladiator? Pass the pork rinds. Belch.

READY TO GO

Then there's this one.

Obama definitely wins the cool musician contest.

SI SE PUEDE

This video directed by Jesse Dylan, Bob's son.



The first president I voted for was Reagan in 1984. By the end of that decade and into the next, I became disillusioned with the militant triumphalism that marginalized the weak for the sake of the powerful. I went from skeptic to supporter during the Clinton years, but I couldn't shake my concerns about dishonesty and the politics of division. The last seven years of malice, incompetence and Rove-ian tactics have driven me to despair. I have voted against Bush, but never really felt like I had something to vote for. Until now.

I am drawn to Barack Obama's words of hope and what author Toni Morrison calls his "searing vision." Some say we need more than words. Of course we do, but words matter. When words draw millions of people of every background together in a common belief, they matter. When words highlight "us" and "we" rather than "I" and "me," they matter. Obama's words move us beyond a candidacy and into a movement.

The cynics who prey on our fears ask us to dance with the devils we know. They tell us we can't change things through faith and hope. Our answer: "Yes we can."

DO SOMETHING TO HELP.

VOTE.

WORD

As a teacher and scholar of rhetoric and the use of public words, I am loving the way the Democratic primary distinctions are revealing themselves. It appears that it is becoming a choice between words and action. Of course, it's not really that simple, those with nice words also have deeds, and those with records of accomplishment also are fine crafters of language. But, this exchange in last night's debate was telling.

Hillary:

So you know, words are not actions.

And as beautifully presented and passionately felt as they are, they are not action. You know, what we've got to do is translate talk into action and feeling into reality. I have a long record of doing that....

Obama:

[T]he truth is actually words do inspire. Words do help people get involved. Words do help members of Congress get into power so that they can be part of a coalition to deliver health care reform, to deliver a bold energy policy. Don't discount that power, because when the American people are determined that something is going to happen, then it happens. And if they are disaffected and cynical and fearful and told that it can't be done, then it doesn't. I'm running for president because I want to tell them, yes, we can. And that's why I think they're responding in such large numbers.

Now, for the record, I am no fan of bluster or sophistry absent substance and follow-through. However, Obama's speech is much more than that. Who accused of FDR ("We have nothing to fear..."), JFK ("Ask not..."), or MLK ("Ihave been to the mountaintop.") of empty speech, simply because they sounded good and galvanized a society around a shared vision of hope and nobility? What's so wrong with a leader rising up who can use the power of speech to make us all believe we can do better and become better? Sure, if there was incompetence or other suggestion of an inability to back it up, it would be nonsense; but there is no evidence of a weak mind or soft resolve in this case.

Ultimately, it's about cynicism. The jaded among us scoff and sneer at the pollyanna notions of transcendence and imagination, opting for the verifiable pragmatism of the known quantity. It is a fair and reasonable reaction. But, if we hope to leap ahead, rather than crawl, we have to believe.

I'm ready. Word.