I cried during the memorial for Ted Kennedy

Edward Kennedy via last.fm

Yes I remember vividly the weekend of Nov 22, 1963 beginning around 1 PM on Nov 22, a Friday. I was living in Ste. Foy QC then and working for IBM Canada Ltd. But I didn’t think that much about the death of Ted Kennedy. Until I heard that CNN was televising the complete memorial event without commercial interruptions. Yes, I had a few drinks while sitting and viewing the event. But it didn’t take long before my eyes filled with tears as my mind was sucked in to all those events around the Kennedys.

Most of what was said during the memorial were recollections of a very vivid character who left deep impressions of friendship with so many people, on the political left and the right. The depth of his relations with his second wife, Vickie, surprised and touched me a lot. John McCain showed how ungraceful a character he really is, while Orrin Hatch couldn’t have been more endearing. I was moved by almost every eulogizer, even with Joe Biden‘s contribution.

There were many references to Kennedy’s passion about Health Care Reform in the US. Yes the event had a strong pro-reform coloration.

However, I feel the cold light of a new day and feel that I must copy in words that set a quite different tone about some of Kennedy’s political discourse in the past:

It is nice and good that Kennedy was able to restore a sense of decorum and gentlemanly behavior when it came to a whole host of other legislative battles, but when it came to the Bork nomination, his sense of propriety, decorum, and fair play were sorely lacking. Those who wonder how American political debate became so coarse, so unrefined, and so demagogic, ought to look at Kennedy’s speech on Bork as a catalyst for the national descent into a prolonged political shouting match.

Click on this link to read the Opinionater in the NY Times about this very negative part of Kennedy’s political record.

But the whole picture of Ted Kennedy is completed by this story and final opinion from David Frum, a fair minded right wing pundit:

Then came 9/11. Among the murdered was the brave and brilliant Barbara Olson. Ted asked some friends to help with the deluge of messages of condolence, and my wife Danielle volunteered for the job. Among the letters: a lengthy handwritten note by the senator so elegant and decent, so eloquent and (fascinatingly) written in so beautiful a hand as to revolutionize one’s opinion of the man who wrote it. It did not dishonor by ignoring or denying the political differences between the two families. It fully acknowledged them – and through them expressed a deeper human awareness of shared mortality, pain, and grief. Not all chapters of his life revealed it equally, but the senator was a big soul, and in his last years, he lived his bigness fully … Rest in peace, leader of the liberals.

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Even if very US, I like this from Daily Kos

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by Bill in Portland Maine

Wed Nov 26, 2008 at 06:00:21 AM PST

From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…

Things for Which I am Thankful: 2008

Barack Obama will be our 44th president. John McCain will not.
Joe Biden will be our next vice president. Sarah Palin will not.
This will be George W. Bush’s last Thanksgiving as president
Dick Cheney will leave Washington 100% disgraced
–
Howard Dean’s vision
Those Democrats in Congress who fight for us
Purple states
Michelle Obama’s class
Olbermann, Maddow, Stewart, Colbert
That my spellchecker this year recognized “Maddow” and didn’t try replacing it with “mad cow” or “mildew.”
–

And there’s more at!

Trashing Gov. Palin after GOP defeat

Image by Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com via Flickr

In my mind the most striking phrase being bandied about in reference to Palin’s VP candidacy is ‘WASILLA HILLBILLIES LOOTING NEIMAN MARCUS’.

The sense of this, especially HILLBILLIES LOOTING rings true for me. Every time I saw her on TV she seemed dumb and dumbfounded and then unblinkly strident uttering a string of inanities about all subjects. I sensed it obvious that she knew little about the world outside of Alaska and was amazingly incurious about it all.

There is little doubt in my mind that she is unblinkingly ambitious with vague designs on the highest office in the US.

I think that if the right wingnutery within the GOP have their way and put her forward as a “legitimate” candidate for 2012 that they will doom the GOP to deep doodoo! I hope that they are successful in this attempt.

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Now it’s the right wing press who’s quibbling about Gov. Palin’s role in this campaign

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The byline says “If she is so awful, why did McCain pick her?” Politico’s Roger Simon goes on this way!

John McCain’s campaign is looking for a scapegoat. It is looking for someone to blame if McCain loses on Tuesday.

And it has decided on Sarah Palin.

In recent days, a McCain “adviser” told Dana Bash of CNN: “She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone.”

Imagine not taking advice from the geniuses at the McCain campaign. What could Palin be thinking?

Also, a “top McCain adviser” told Mike Allen of Politico that Palin is “a whack job.”

Maybe she is. But who chose to put this “whack job” on the ticket? Wasn’t it John McCain? And wasn’t it his first presidential-level decision?

And if you are a 72-year-old presidential candidate, wouldn’t you expect that your running mate’s fitness for high office would come under a little extra scrutiny? And, therefore, wouldn’t you make your selection with care? (To say nothing about caring about the future of the nation?)

Can somebody explain for me why there is such a disconnect

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between polls in this final week of the campaign for the US presidency.

First of all there is Reuters/Zogby:

By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democrat Barack Obama has a 4-point national lead over Republican John McCain as they head into the final week of the presidential campaign, according to a Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll released on Tuesday.

Obama leads McCain by 49 percent to 45 percent among likely voters in the three-day national tracking poll, a slight dip from his 5-point advantage on Monday. The telephone poll has a margin of error of 2.9 percentage points.

Then there is Pew Research:

Barack Obama leads John McCain by a 52% to 36% margin in Pew’s latest nationwide survey of 1,325 registered voters. This is the fourth consecutive survey that has found support for the Republican candidate edging down. In contrast, since early October weekly Pew surveys have shown about the same number of respondents saying they back Obama. When the sample is narrowed to those most likely to vote, Obama leads by 53% to 38%.

Then there is Nate Silver

Are they talking about the same political race?

So many things seem out of synch in this last week of the campaign! A bit like this interaction with Fox News yesterday.

Yes I want an Obama/Biden victory, but what will happen if he doesn’t win and falls short during this last week?

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“Let Sarah be Sarah” and let the chips fall where they may!

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After reading a Robert Draper blog post it seems amazing to me that there are still commentators out there who wonder why McCain campaign operatives are still struggling to “manage” la Palin. Why was it considered necessary to do that in the first, and second, place?

McCain, whose body language and facial reactions don’t hide very many of his own doubtful internal reactions to what she says and how she says it on many videos, repeats his mantra that she is great and her record complements his so well. Who is he kidding?

Christopher Hitchens says it so well when he describes her as a ” proud boastful ignoramus”! I would add “singlemindedly ambitious” and unblinking in her readiness to take advantage of all opportunities thrust on her.

For his part I believe McCain is willing to do and say anything to win this election, his last hurrah! But I feel pity for him, especially when I see how physically awkward he is on stage with his own wife. Because of this obvious situation it is sad and ironic that her personal fortune has been the most constant support in his political quest and he can’t even show natural affection for her.

Is this a case of his blind ambition leading him from an awkward connection with his wife to just another one with his VP running mate?

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What if ???

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Political talking points for and against in US presidential campaign leave lots of confusion about who each candidate is, really. So when I read this “what if” exercise I felt clearer about each candidate.

The following was put together by a Marine officer from Tennessee, who is a Christian:

What if John McCain were a former president of the Harvard Law Review?
What if Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating class?

What if McCain were still married to the first woman he said ‘I do’ to?
What if Obama were the candidate who left his first wife after she no longer measured up to his standards?

What if Michelle Obama were a wife who not only became addicted to pain killers, but acquired them illegally through her charitable organization?
What if Cindy McCain graduated from Harvard?

What if Obama were a member of the Keating-5?(123,000 seniors and others were swindled out of their life savings)
What if McCain were a charismatic, eloquent speaker?

What if Barack Obama had an unwed, pregnant teenage daughter?

If these questions reflected reality, do you really believe the election numbers would be as close as they are?

This is what Racism does. It covers up, rationalizes and minimizes positive qualities in one candidate and emphasizes negative qualities in another, when there is a color difference.  In 2008 some people cannot vote for a man simply because he is black.

Blind Morality lets us “Christian People” turn a blind eye to the morality, or lack there of – of a confirmed hot-head, adulturer, erratic lier, distorter of the truth and a thief.  John McCain suffered greatly as a POW and characterizes himself as a hero.  After 24 years in the Marine Corps I know for a fact that “real hero’s” don’t toot their own horn.  Why is he hated by just about everyone who is involved in the POW/MIA organization?  Its  a surreal comedy that ”good Christian” Americans are voting for John McCain and touting him as their “moral choice” for the leadership of the free world.

With America facing historic debt, 2 wars, 4000+ dead, countless thousands with permanent physical and mental scars, stumbling health care, a weakened dollar, all-time high prison population, mortgage crises, bank foreclosures, the middle class in crisis, lets not even mention the poor, etc.  Just imagine, if the middle class can not afford gas and food; WHAT ABOUT THE POOR?

Consider…

Educational Background:
Obama:
Columbia University with a Specialization in
International Relations
Harvard – Magna Cum Laude – Juris Doctor (J.D.)
Biden:
B.A. in History and B.A. in Political Science.Syracuse University College of Law – Juris Doctor (J.D.)

vs.
McCain:
United States Naval Academy – Class rank: 894 of 899

Palin:
Hawaii Pacific University – 1 semester
North Idaho College – 2 semesters – general study
University of Idaho – 2 semesters – journalism
Matanuska-Susitna College – 1 semester
University of Idaho – 3 semesters – B.A. in Journalism

You are The Boss… Make a decision for America… Which team would you hire?
All of us fall short of grace.  None of us are perfect.  None of us are saying that we are going to be the steady hand on the tiller as we attempt to become the President of the United States of America.
Open your eyes…
Please Vote.  Peace.  God Bless You and our Troops.  Semper Fi.  – Larry
————————————–
The campaign is getting dirty, distasteful and desperate. I think I’ll be taking a break from blogging for a while. As Americans we deserve better than the irrelevant trash the Republicans are dishing out in their 100% negative campaign. It’s disgusting and we should ignore it. We aren’t stupid enough to buy the lies and fear this time.

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It’s a sad thing when political journalists make very personal comments about leading politicians

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John McCain used to be treated very favorably by most journalists. Some even said that they liked him as a person playing a highly visible political role. Oh, there were some naysayers as there always are.

But McCain’s recent behavior on the hustings, during the TV debate, during a TV Q&A with the DeMoines Register and now in the Senate Chamber has become perplexing. The words say it all “a small petty man”.

It is sad and revealing how McCain in this ultimate effort to win the big political prize, the Presidency, has slipped into grimness, strident advocacy for himself and his running mate, la Palin, and now some too visible pettiness. It showed up during the debates when he visibly avoided looking at and engaging his opponent in direct dialogue or even direct eye contact.

I will be 73 in a few days and I can relate to feeling less than pleased, some of the time, with what’s happening around me, especially at the bridge table. But how can so public a figure as John McCain behave publicly like a “small and petty man”?

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“The push to “otherize” Obama”

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That’s the heading of Nick Kristof‘s column in the NY Times this morning. Meanwhile Frank Rich writes about that special technique attributable to GWB and his dark political amenuensis, Karl Rove, TRUTHINESS. But invented by that renowned satirist of weird US political language, Steve Colbert.

Not truth, truthiness or the smallest whiff of truth possible.

A Wordle to McBush and truthiness

I have just read four columns in the NYT (Kristof, Rich, Dowd, and Friedman) that discuss the worst aspects of political discourse conducted by negative campaigning flacks posing as political advisers, who have either worked under Karl Rove or been paid lobbysts for questionable corporate or foreign interests. Whatta despicable scene.

I understand why Obama from time to time says “ENOUGH, it’s enough!”

I learned this morning that according to Pew 10%+ of the US population, who accept that weird creed of the “Rapture” apparently accept that Obama is the Anti-Christ that Revelation (the black part of the Bible) prophesizes must appear before God-Christ returns to take the priviledged “believers” into Heaven directly.

Sounds like the same kind of message that fanatic Islamists use to persuade suicide bombers and terrorists to do their revolting deeds against “innocent” co-religionists and the Satanic non-Muslims. Sounds and is weird!

It seems to me that it’s time to wake up to the perils of “otherizing” and “truthiness”. We need truth and discussion of the authentic instead of the imagined!

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There is no more telling thing about a man than the way he fights his last tough battle!

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His campaign is being run by disciples of Karl Rove whose noses seem even harder than Karl’s during the 2004 Presidential campaign. He stares his questioners down whenever they ask him if he really approves the negative messages. Given his past record of eventually confessing to doing wrong either in personal or politicall business, I wonder how he will handle the result of the current campaign, win or lose.

Clearly he has staked everything on winning and will say anything on his own or have it said by his campaign and closest advisers. He has said many times that he is a man of honor. How will he be able to say that once the vote is over? This is the part that great American tradition that I can only wonder about “Winner take all”. That’s what GW Bush did. Is that what John McCain is going to do.

Check out these links here, here and here and finally here.

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