Keith Olbermann interview with Barack Obama

As I watched Barack Obama's interview with MSNBC's Keith Olbermann tonight with friends I found myself screaming at the TV, "say it, damn it, say the word!  Say LIE!!"  I was so frustrated by the coolness, the apparent inability to express any righteous anger, the consistent "on message" answers.  So, thinking perhaps my friends and I are old, jaded and out of it, I called my son and asked him to watch the 10:00 PM re-run of the interview (he was at work during the original airing) and give us his opinion, thinking maybe I needed the 30ish response and that it would be different from my own.  Hah!! Not so!  Jonathan responded with nearly the exact reactions I had. 

I do think Obama needs to be careful so he doesn't come off as "an angry young black man" going after a old white man or worse, a white woman.  I think that Biden and both Clintons have to come out swinging so Obama can avoid any racial blow back.  But he's got to get past the "I'm too cool to get angry or show an emotional" reaction to the Republicans LIES.

Jonathan’s take on the interview:

It seemed to me that Olbermann was trying very hard to get Obama to show some grit. I appreciate trying to be dignified and not resort to mud slinging. But honestly! The Dems are all apparently being handled by people who caution them not to seem too liberal. He needs to embrace being a liberal, stop buying into the bullshit that liberal is a "bad word" so he can energize his base and show the undecideds that he's NOT a conservative or Republican. Obama's big message is "if you want the same thing we've had for the last 8 years vote McCain, if you want change vote me"??? I mean, that's great for those of us who are already fed up with Republicans but he has had our vote regardless. Reiterating "McCain voted w/ Bush 90% of the time" isn't enough. We/He needs to work on turning it around to demonize conservatism and make people embarassed to vote for Republicans. He absolutely needs to, if you'll forgive the unintentional racial reference, call a spade a spade. McCain and Palin are LYING!!! they're not "not telling the truth" or "misrepresenting facts" they are LYING!!! He has got to stop letting the conservatives choose the language of this election. 

I'm frustrated, and I think Olberman was frustrated, that Obama wouldn't answer a direct question. He kept repeating talking points. I know he's afraid of answering a question directly due to the media and the Republican spin machine, but the passive "wimp" was what Kerry was labeled as. Maybe we can print up t-shirts, WWBCD... What Would Bill Clinton Do... if I remember my history he was not afraid to respond to dirty Republican tactics. The truth is great but you have to get the truth out there when the bad guys are busy spreading lies.

I'm watching the Dems fuck up a wet dream (again) and it's getting on my nerves. I think Obama would make a good president, certainly better than McCain and I'm very pleased by the choice of Biden as a VP, but if they don't change the way this campaign is being run we're all going to be moving to foreign countries. Thankfully I'm brushing up my language skills.

VPs And Do We Care

I’ve been an ardent supporter of Barack Obama for years now. While early in the current campaign I felt it wasn’t the right time for an African American candidate at the top of the ticket for the White House and hoped Obama would be the Vice Presidential choice, he and his wife won me over quite easily with their optimism, inspiring rhetoric and savvy political strategy.

His message of change and the idea of passing leadership on to a new generation resonates with me. Because I am so committed to Obama I was not particularly concerned about who he picked as a running mate. I didn’t think much about the reported short list of three candidates one way or another. I wasn’t inspired by any of the three but didn’t think I cared one way or another.

So it was a great surprise to me to feel quite disappointed in the idea of an Obama/Biden ticket. I’ve been trying to figure out why. I’ve read about Joe Biden’s political history, his voting record and his personal history. There is nothing there to object to and a great deal to like. In addition, his foreign policy work is impressive and he brings a great deal of expertise to the ticket. Six terms as a Democratic Senator and very little to be critical of. Not a reason to be disappointed.

A friend pointed out that Biden had been extremely critical of Obama early in the race. The fact that Obama would chose as his running mate a man who has been a critic but who has lots of experience in an area of his own weakness says a lot about Obama and leads me to believe he must believe strongly that Biden is best for the job. A reason to feel good about his choice.

There is very little to indicate that the choice of a running mate has had much effect on past Presidential races. The last example of a race in which it was actually a factor is the Kennedy/Johnson race in 1960 when Johnson was able to deliver Texas and put Kennedy over the top. Forty-eight years later it would seem to be another reason not to care.

But I do care. A lot, apparently. Joseph Biden is a good choice on so many levels. He brings strengths that Obama needs, he is known for his impressive skills as an orator and will be a great “bad cop” as the campaign goes forward. So of course I’ll support the ticket, of course I’ll vote for Obama/Biden and be glad to be voting for them instead of simply against John McCain.

Still. I think that by choosing the “right” man to balance the ticket and to win the votes of the middle, the voters who are skeptical of his experience, Obama weakened his ability to claim that his administration will exemplify be a new kind of politics. And that is why his choice disappoints me. I wonder how all those excited young voters that Obama has won over will react to a 65 year old, six term Senator who is the definition of politics as usual. With the polls indicating the race is nearly a dead heat, perhaps a more exciting choice would have cost him the White House. Perhaps this it the best practical choice in the real world of politics. But I wanted a new day, a new way of looking at the world, a fresh generation of leadership. Perhaps insisting on that would mean a McCain White House. The horror of that should give us all pause.

So I support the new Obama/Biden ticket. But I think I’ll just keep my Obama 2008 bumper sticker and not bother replacing it with an Obama/Biden sticker. And after tonight I’ll put aside my frustration and stop whining. There is an election to win!!

Shut Up and Sing

I’ve long be a fan of the Dixie Chicks having all of their CDs plus a much loved DVD of their Top of the World concert. I wanted to see the documentary Shut Up and Sing but didn’t catch it when it was at the local art theater. Tonight I watched it and was terribly moved by seeing the whole story. I knew about most of it from news accounts and actually bought the Top of the Word DVD in support of them when the CD burnings started. But even so, I didn’t really understand just how amazing these women are.

I was so pleased when they released Taking the Long Way and could hardly believe that they had managed to write an entire CD of their own songs based on their life experiences and that it was actually better than their previous wonderful work on Top of the World.

If you haven’t seen the documentary I highly recommend it. You don’t have to be a fan of the Chicks to appreciate their story and their bravery. Let’s hope they continue to speak out against senseless violence while writing and performing their very relevant brand of music that is now far out of the country music box in which they were trapped earlier in their careers.

Note: I was not able to rent this documentary at my local Blockbuster but was able to check it out at my library. If you are like me you will probably want to buy a copy after you see it. Or you can watch if for free on the web at http://freedocumentaries.org/film.php?id=163 Enjoy!

Politics, it's not pretty

A friend emailed me a column and asked for my thoughts. You can read the article by following the link. My take on the column follows:

Would You Like Change With That? - Doug Henwood

http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Obama.html

To say I was not impressed with this piece would be a bit of an understatement. I will say up front that I support Obama in the Democratic primary so you can take my opinion with a gain of salt if you like. And I will admit that I think the very title of the column, Would You Like Change With That? An Analysis of Obamamania, did little to contribute to any expectation of a balanced piece. If you support Obama you are indulging in some kind of mania? I don’t think so!

Henwood’s first charge is that Obama is inspiring. So at least we can agree on one point. He then goes on to the oft repeated claim that Obama’s inspirational rhetoric are empty promises and basically meaningless. He looks to Obama’s voting record to try and demonstrate this. But anyone who has been paying the least attention to this race knows that the differences between Clinton and Obama on issues of policy are minuet.

Clinton and Obama both have voting records and it is hard to find all that much difference based on how they voted on various issues. And most people who actually look at a candidates voting record should understand that any given vote may or may not reflect the candidates support or opposition to the issue supposedly being voted on. Without knowing what amendments were added to bill, whose support would be lost on a bigger issue and myriad other things that make up the bigger political picture a vote on a single issue is easy to misrepresent.

So the only way to judge a candidate is by their overall voting record and policy positions, not by any one vote. Based on their overall records I could and will happily vote for either Clinton or Obama, whoever wins the primary.

What Henwood seems to miss is that I will be voting in the Kentucky primary for Obama precisely because he takes nearly the same positions as Clinton on issues important to me but that he also has the added ability to inspire me and so many others. Inspiration may be the deciding factor in this election and its importance, in my opinion, is tremendous. Remember George the Senior deriding, “that inspiration thing?”

This single item that I find most disturbing in this column is having a middle 50s white man suggesting that somehow Obama’s racial politics are suspect. Hey, Henwood, you are of the wrong generation and are the wrong color for this, it’s obviously way over your head!

As a 57 year old gay white man, I can demonstrate even if I am not able to articulate it terribly well. I live in a society where homophobia is pervasive and have endured hetrosexism since I was old enough to understand that I was “different.” While intellectually I know progress has been made over the last 40 years, homophobia still exists everywhere. From my perspective it still feels like it did in the 60s when I was a teenager.

My son, born of an early marriage before I came out, is 30 years old and is also gay. The world he lives in and his perception of it is totally different than mine. He expects that he will be able to marry some day, he expects to be accepted at work and in the community, he expects that he will be treated fairly even in a world he knows is homophobic. His is the new generation we can look to with hope and pride precisely because they understand that we are changing, even if too slowly, as a people and a nation.

We need Obama to inspire a new generation of voters. We need Obama to provide a younger generation’s perspective on our world and how its leaders should approach issues that my generation has failed to overcome.

What we don’t need are people on the left like Henwood attacking our greatest hope.

Spring

Spring has officially arrived and for once, the first two days of spring were beautiful! Sunny and warm following deep snow and days of heavy, constant rain. Lots of flooding and high water with total ground saturation, any more rain in the next few days will simply run off so hopefully the flood waters will have a chance to subside before more rain.

Spring in Kentucky can be so beautiful, I hope the weather cooperates and we don’t have any hard freezes that might destroy the pear, dogwood and magnolia blossoms. Crocuses are blooming and buds are forming on the daffodils. It will be so good to open the windows! And the Derby is only weeks away.

Ignorance, Hypocrisy and Politicians

You know people, even elected politicians, say these things. You know there is a great deal of ignorance about the subject. You know that many people who call themselves Christian have no understanding and little interest in living by Christ’s teachings. Never the less, actually hearing it shocks and hurts you. Knowing it and hearing it said in a public meeting just aren’t the same. Listen to what Oklahoma Representative Sally Kern has to say.

http://www.hrcactioncenter.org/campaign/ok_rep_sally_kern_cen/iwe55g84p7bewkjj

Surviving the Blizzard

Lots of snow this weekend but much more panic! All day Friday and all day Saturday the news was the winter storm. It moved up the Ohio River valley and dropped 10 ½” of snow on Northern Kentucky, mostly late Friday night on through the morning on Saturday. By late Saturday afternoon it had moved through and news moved to the digging out. Friday night all three local network TV stations dropped their scheduled prime time programs to broadcast local weather for an hour before their regular 11:00 PM newscast. The local newspaper had a link on their website so you could tell them “how the snow affected you.”

Good grief! It’s early March and we had snow. That’s news?! I must admit it was quite a contrast to last weekend when I was able to go hiking in the woods but I can’t help but wonder what people in Minnesota or New England think when we go into instant panic mode because a snow storm is moving through.

Today is white, sunny and beautiful. And it looks like the snow will melt quickly with warmer weather in the next few days reaching the mid 50s by Wednesday.

And soon, spring!