Here is an oxymoron for you: MSM and objective political reporters. Has anyone reserved judgment on the significance of the 3rd qtr story until a side by side comparison can be conducted? For instance,what about the re-focus of the Hillraisers not on bundling money but bundling contributors so as to boost those numbers. And using that as a smoke screen, line up all the lobbyist/special interest on one side of the school multi-purpose room with their Hillraisers across the room with chilled champagne (imported, but of course) and truffles (the real stuff?); let the pairing off begin.

  Isn’t it amazing
The Obama Campaign & Movement 

I bounce back and forth, first thinking of myself as a world-weary seen it all before realist to an almost child like belief in truth, justice and freedom. I think it may well be a rare form of bi-polar syndrome. But, I don’t really mind because I secretly believe if I was one or the other, I’d get stuck on the world-weary fatalist end and what fun would that be.

My latest bounce back episode was triggered by the revelation that GQ magazine given the choice of good bottom line or defense of free speech chose one over the other. Your guess as to which they chose will tell you alot about  your placement along the world-weary to bliss line.

The story version I heard was that the Clinton’s did not like a story about to appear in GQ that to them was not a fair take on Hillary. GQ and Bill Clinton already had reached an agreement that would put Bill on the cover. Get ready miss bliss, here comes something that will really upset you.

It seems that having Bill on the cover of anything, will generate additional sales of whatever is so adorned. Well, some Clinton detaill was assembled and marched over to GQ. They made an offer that was hard to refuse. GQ could spike the unflattering portrait of Hillary and keep Bill on the cover or the reverse. To spoil the surprise, look for Bill to soon adorn the cover of GQ.

Lets move from this one case to the larger implications.

It is accepted orthodoxy that celebrity and notoriety sell. But now that power to sell is being used to determine what products will be sold. He/She who pay’s the piper, indeed will choose the tune.
 

  Isn’t it amazing
The Obama Campaign & Movement 

Fifty years ago today my universe was beginning to open at the speed of sound. I had survived the seldom easy transition from childhood to the first step on the stairs to adulthood. I had made it to the 8th grade. And I was virtually dizzy with the array of outward bound paths that had suddenly surrounded me. And everyone had a “yellow brick road” quality. Where would this one lead? What about this one; or this one? Who cared about that. The excitement was caused by the fact that they all pointed toward a way out.

Not that I had anything to run from…except for the ties that bind. Heck, even that lucky son-of-a-gun, Ricky Nelson was beginning to exhibit a wanderlous quality. And, he had it all. The looks, the girls, the big brother, two adoring (although admittedly over-bearing) parents. If Ricky could peek at the horizon, then, by golly, so could I.

I attended “neighborhood school”; I had always attended such schools as did all my friends. My friends were the entire student body. And, the best part, new freedoms were being granted like so much confetti at a new years eve celebration.

Not that there were no dark clouds on the horizon. Although our school was totally desegregated (roughly, 1/3rd white; 1/3 black and 1/3rd asian) it was simply a reflection of the affordability of the houses there. If you were a WW II veteran, and who wasn’t, you could and did buy your family a home of their own. A first for just about everyone.

Given this context for my take on the world, I was bewildered by what I saw on TV about what was going  on across the states in the south. Separate but equal was an oxymoron to my way of thinking. How could separate be equal. Why was one color poor and the other color less poor. (Truth be told, that all looked considerably poorer than anyone I knew.)

Then, 50 years ago today, the Little Rock travesty was recorded and shown to the Nation. Dogs, powerful waterhoses, a lynching mentality were used by one color against the other color. The horrors of the civil war were being re-enacted for each of us to see. I was shaken to my core and nauseated in my heart. Why, why, why? My yellow brick roads were much less appealing then.
 

  Isn’t it amazing
The Obama Campaign & Movement 

HRC is on the record on this one. No qualifiers or disclaimers. Pure and straigt forward. “I am in this race to win” she declared in her announcement of her candidacy. Given the licking of lips over in the grand old party, it is hard to imagine either the willingness or even feasibility that governing will be an option were she fulfill her committment to winning.

Obama comes at the question from the other perspective. If governing is not possible, what is the point of winning. That is why his campaign continues with the same message that it started with. It is time to turn the page; is it time to come together for the common good.

Which message do you think is reasonating outside the “beltway”? You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to know the answer. Do you?
 

  Isn’t it amazing
The Obama Campaign & Movement 

From the way she knows how to trim her sails, Ms. Bono must be a pretty decent sailor. Although busy planning her wedding, Bono senses, quite rightly, that change is in the air. The new winds are coming out of the left; where-as in the past it blew decidely from the right.

Now that her voting record is getting a lot more attention, she’s pulling a “Cher” on us. In Cher’s case it is the extreme make-over approach. Using her on the record voting and the well placed news conference, Bono would have us believe that she, Bono, is to the left of Hillary on domestic issues. While this may or may not have some validity, it is so recent a change as to raise eye-brows. According to Ms. Bono, healthy families is critically important. Hard to argue with that sentiment. Also, it is that kind oh hot air that is “critically important” in sailing as well.
 

  Isn’t it amazing
The Obama Campaign & Movement 

Posted 9/20/2007 5:25 PM
HRC is on the record on this one. No qualifiers or disclaimers. Pure and straigt forward. “I am in this race to win” she declared in her announcement of her candidacy. Given the licking of lips over in the grand old party, it is hard to imagine either the willingness or even feasibility that governing will be an option were she fulfill her committment to winning.

Obama comes at the question from the other perspective. If governing is not possible, what is the point of winning. That is why his campaign continues with the same message that it started with. It is time to turn the page; is it time to come together for the common good.

Which message do you think is reasonating outside the “beltway”? You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to know the answer. Do you?