John McCain, if he's the answer, then the question must be ridiculous

By Pistol Tanker Palin

Tomorrow I make my reservation for the all-night party being held by Democrats Abroad at Cinéaqua at the Trocadéro in Paris. My husband might be in attendence, as well, to celebrate the end of a long, long election season, and the recovery of his wife.

He has been warned that he is mistaken. There is legislation to accomplish before we rest.

One thing he has noticed, however, is that I have been noticeably nicer since Obama won the primary.

So, let's take a walk back down Memory Lane with Keith Olbermann to revisit some of the unforgettable moments of an historic, entertaining and exhausting (check out Hillary's black circles by February!) election season.

"An unprecedented election season"




"For the GOP, securing a nominee happened faster"




"The road to the running mate"

Oh, here's where it really starts to get good.




Some highlights

"The work begins anew, the hope rises again, and the dream lives on."
-- Senator Edward M. Kennedy, endorsing Senator Barack Obama, Los Angeles, California.


"We commited ourselves to building the world as it should be. So tonight, in honor of my father's memory, and my daughters' future, out of gratitude for those whose triumphs we mark this week, and those whose everyday sacrifices have brought us to this moment, let us devote ourselves to finishing their work, let us work together to fulfill their hopes, and let's stand together to elect Barack Obama president of the United States of America."
-- Michelle Obama, the Democratic National Convention, Denver Colorado, August 2008

"Case, I think, closed."
-- Keith Olbermann, covering the Michelle Obama speech

And Hillary, wow. She still gives me the shivers. She was simply awesome and powerful.

"On the path to freedom, Harriet Tubman had one piece of advice, 'If you hear the dogs, keep going. If you see the torches in the woods, keep going. If they are shouting after you, keep going. Don't ever stop, keep going. If you want a taste of freedom, keep going. And even in the darkest moments, that is what Americans have done, we have found the faith to keep going."
-- Hillary Clinton, Democratic National Convention, Denver, Colorado, August 2008

Here is the whole speech, in case that made you feel like listening to her again, from begining to end.


The roll call

Keith Olbermann: California should be interesting.

California: California passes.

Olbermann: And the great state of confusion, casts 60 votes for-- what is goin' on with the roll call?

New Mexico: We yield to the Land of Lincoln.

Illinois: We yield to the great state of New York.

Olbermann: Well, here we go.

Hillary Clinton: I move that Senator Barack Obama of Illinois be selected by this convention by acclamation as the nominee of the Democratic Party for the President of the Unites States.

Nancy Pelosi: Is there a second?

The delegates: Resouding cheers.

The Democratic party and its supporters: Tears, of joy and relief.


Bill Clinton

"President Bill Clinton is always fascinating to watch."

"Put him on TV for 60 minutes just reacting, and people would watch."

"Just watch his face."

"Last night, Hillary told us in no uncertain terms that she is going to do everything she can to elect Barack Obama. That makes two of us. Actually, that makes 18 million of us."
-- President Bill Clinton, Democratic National Convention, Denver, Colorado, August 2008

And, signed, sealed, delivered, he is soon to be our president elect.

Olbermann: Vote for [Barack Obama] or do not, but take pride that this nation can produce men and speakers such as that.


"A surprise Republican VP pick"

BOO!

Did I scare you? Oh, sorry, then you might not have the stomach for this.

Oh, here we go... do we have to?

You betcha'!
wink

"The Sarah Palin."
-- Keith Olbermann

"executive experience"
"executive experience"
"more executive experience'"
"experience leadership"

"Sen. MCain has a record as a maverick"
"he's a maverick reformer"
"he is the maverick"
"the maverick McCain"
"Senator McCain's maverick style"

Oh, and don't forget the very first and original Joe, Joe Lieberman,

"What is a democrat like me doing at a republican convention like this?"

Damn good question, Joe. What the hell are you doing there?

The answer, Joe, is all in the democrat that you are not.

And then, she spoke, and we got our first taste of that inimitable pitbull style. Draw them in with that "Gee, golly gee whillickers, I just just don't know" sweetness, add a comma, make a little fist, squint your eyes, then train them into the camera and then bite their heads clean off. Reapply lipstick and -- you got it! -- wink!

"I guess a small town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, [here we go!] except [here it is!] that you have actual [ah, she's gettin' you good here!] responsibilities [wow! She gotcha'. You betcha'!]."
-- Governor Sarah Palin, Repuiblican National Convention, St. Paul, Minnesota, September 2008

Ouf, as they say here. Pack that pistol back in the holster and take a bow, Annie Alaska.

Olbermann: She clearly gives a great speech. People who like this sort of thing will find this -- the sort of thing they like.

Well, Sarah Palin, you are not the one for whom American women have been waiting for 232 years.

And let me say, you are no Hillary Clinton.

Finally, there was John McCain,

"Stand up. Stand up. Stand up and, fight --"

Oh, never mind.

Here's Stand up! This is what Stand up! sounds like, and it takes courage.

EL-ECT O-BA-MA!

Or this, Wake up! Wake up, America!

That's what it sounds like. That's what I'm talkin' about. We don't need anyone who can't get any passion, anything goin'.
....

It's dark inside, and, no, I don't have a migraine

1:55 pm

It's Monday, September 1, and we know what that means: summer vacation is over and it's back to work, for non-Americans who are not celebrating Labor Day (have a nice picnic) and school (tomorrow. Shit.).

And they came back, right on time! Georges and José are here! They closed the shutters to keep chunks of falling plaster from hitting the window panes.

I really have to do my drawings. And get back to garden designs. And get off the political listservs, as riveting as they are right now, what with the Sarah Palin pick.

I hope he doesn't gamble at the races, or Cindy will have real reason to get upset, what with 100 million at stake.

On the other hand, there are just so many jewels out there, not the least the manifestation of God's will that, contrary to the fervent prayers of Reverend Wiley Drake that it rain on Obama in Denver, he prefer that it preempt the Republicans convention, most surely to their very great relief. It was going to bomb in the ratings, I heard, outside the evangelical right, anyway.

But, I hear that former DNC chairman Fowler had to apologize for his ironic comment. Thank you, Mr. Pink Eyes for steering me clear of the foul waters into which I myself nearly waded. But, of course he was wishing ill to those who would suffer the hurricane, and not laughing at the ludicrous fact that the Republicans are getting their own medicine.

Naturally.

Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert will have to do morning editions to get it all in.

Come to think of it, I do have a headache. Time to go make lunch.
....

Wake up, America! Wake up, America! All the president's [oil] men

I just have to put this one in. A friend on Environmentalists for Obama emailed me to say, "Favorite still the "crystal-meth driven smurf" they call (!) Dennis Kucinich. He is amazing." I had to go find it on YouTube, and I am so glad I did. Newspaper reporting just can't do justice to Dennis Kucinich!

Watch for yourselves, if you haven't yet...

Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio
DNC 2008, Denver, Colorado

Up with Kucinich!

I have got to do something besides obsess over this election and the convention. Help!
....

Within site of a mountaintop

Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. D-Ill.
DNC 2008, Denver, Colorado, August 27th

I'm sure that Dr. King is looking down on us here in Denver, noting that this is the first political convention in history to take place within sight of a mountain top.

On the day that President Johnson submitted the Voting Rights Act to congress, he said, "At times history and fate meet at a single place, at a single time to shape a turning point in man's unending search for freedom. So it was at Lexington and Concord. So it was [a century ago] at Appomattox, so it was [last week] in Selma, Alabama." Tonight I would add, and so it shall be in Devner, Colorado with the nomination to elect Barack Obama to be president of the United States of America. [Cheers and applause over his last words]

What a remarkable thing it is that a man who came to this convention four years ago as the keynote speaker is returning this year as our party's nominee. But for those of us who've known Barack over his decade in public office in Illinois, the yearning for change, the hunger for unity that he's tapped into across this country has a familiar ring.

I remember when Barack first decided to run for the United States senate. He had a remarkable career in the state senate, reaching across the aisle to put a tax cut into the pockets of working families, to expand health care for more children and parents, and to take on lobbyists who had so much influence in Springfield. But despite this record, most in Springfield didn't take his candidacy all that seriously.

The party establishment was skeptical of of this young leader from the south side. They didn't know what to make of a man like Barack, with a father from Kenya, a mother from Kansas, and a funny name. They didn't see how this former community organizer could possibly defeat candidates with more money, more name recognition, more backing from, quote, all the right people.

But here's the thing, that race wasn't going to be decided in the halls of power in Springfield, or [i]n the lake front high rises, it was not going to be decided by the the power brokers, or the opinion shapers, it was going to be decided by the people of Illinois. Illinois is America. America, we need you to be with Barack Obama. [applause and cheers]

It's great cities and small towns, it's old factories and new industries, it's timeless Midwestern values of faith, of family and hard work. And, its black and white, Latino and Asian all living together as one Illinois family, as one America. And, the people of Illinois were hungry for change. From the old factory towns of our industrial north to the farms of our agrarian south, families had been struggling to make ends meet in this global economy, and more often than not, they'd been harmed rather than helped by economic policies that failed to help them get ahead and reach their dreams.

But what they heard from Barack, as he traveled across the state, was a message of hope, whether he was upstate or downstate, whether he was talking with folks who'd been laid off and seen their jobs shipped overseas, or families struggling [my correction of "struggling families'] to keep up with rising costs, whether he was talking with recent immigrants who wanted to know that America had a place for them, too, whether he was talking to African-Americans who were falling further and further behind, Barack spoke of a powerful idea, the idea that's at the heart of who Barack is, the idea that the heart of who we are as Americans, and the idea that's at the heart of this campaign, that we all have a stake in each other, that the well-being of the "we" depends upon the well-being of the "he" and the "she", and that in this country we rise and fall together as one people, as one nation. [Applause and cheers over last words]

And what I saw in this campaign is what I'm seeing today, ordinary men and women of all races, all religions, all walks of life coming together to demand a government in Washington that is as honest and decent and responsible as the American people. [Cheers]

Fellow Democrats, this is a historic moment. I know. I grew up with the lessons of another generation, the Selma generation, my father's generation. I know his stories of struggle and sacrifice, of fear and division. I know America is still a place where dreams are too often deferred and opportunities too often denied, but here's what I also know.

I know that while America may not be perfect, our union can always be perfected.

I know what we can achieve when good people with strong convictions come together around a common purpose.

And, I know what a great leader can do to help us build common ground. America we need such a leader, a leader who can heal the wounds of the last eight years, a leader who knows that what unites us is greater than what divides us. America, we need Barack Obama in the White House.

....

So, and with that, another great voice has written in the pages of our history. We're making some these days.

As I was playing the speech bit by bit, again and again, transcribing it here, Sam walked through the living room from the petit salon to get a snack, and asked, "Who's that?"

"Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. He's a congressman from Illinois to the US congress."

"Wasn't his father a baseball player?" he asked.

"No, you're thinking of --"

"Oh, right, that's Reggie Jackson," he interrupted me, putting Nutella on something.

"Right. His father is the Reverend Jesse L. Jackson, who was part of the Civil Rights movement, who ran for president in 1988, and who supported Hillary Clinton in the primary."

President Johnson also said in his speech to the full congress for the Voting Rights Act:

There is no Negro problem. There is no Southern problem. There is no Northern problem. There is only an American problem.

And we are met here tonight as Americans--not as Democrats or Republicans; we're met here as Americans to solve that problem. This was the first nation in the history of the world to be founded with a purpose.

LBJ was a part of the great story of American struggles with itself in the 1960's that has brought us another son of that generation, Barack Obama, like Jesse Jackson, Jr., to carry on the work of our nation, begun by their fathers, with their sisters. That's my generation.

....

Guess what? I think I'm heading into Paris to spend the night in a bar (yeah, I know, I do it all the time, -- ha! Not.) with a bunch of other elated Democrats to watch the convention and Barack make his acceptance speech from Invesco Field.

Hey, here's your invitation to tonight's gathering (party):

Young Democrats Abroad France
invites you to come out and watch
Senator Obama's acceptance speech

Hideout
32, rue Dauphine
75006 Paris
(metro: Saint-Sulpice -line 4-)

Convention begins at 1h00
(Young Dems will begin arriving around midnight!)
....

A little -- something to say!

This is one moment in history that I don't want to sleep through, or spend alone.

Keep hope alive.
....

When you hear the dogs barking

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton
Democratic National Convention 2008, Tuesday, August 26th

Part 1 of 3

Part 2 of 3

Part 3 of 3

And here, in the last third of her address, Hillary is at the top of her formidable talent -- she was brilliant.

If Bill Clinton ever fell out of love with his wife and hadn't fallen back into it with her again before last evening, he sure looks as though he did then. He'd have made a wonderful First Gentleman, after all, I think.

Anyone read MoDo today?

I did. Twice. I am getting ready to read it a third time. I guess it's good journalism because no one really gets off free, except Michelle and the kids. By the way, her dress wasn't green. It was (well, appeared to be) turquoise, exactly the same color as the DNC graphic behind her and on the placard on the podium, and while we're at it, orange is the *complementary color of blue.
* "Complementary colors are useful when you want to make something stand out." http://colortheory.liquisoft.com/

Yes, Hillary stands out. Intensity. She has it.

Focus. She never loses it.

Determination. She's defined by it.

Intelligence. It's hers in spades and to spare.

Watching her and listening to her, I would have voted for her without a regret, and with pride, had she won the primary, and were she to have been the nominee. I even felt some that I will not be able to.

MoDo, I think felt it, too, as much as she was never for Hillary Clinton. She also never came out in direct support of Barack Obama, like some of her colleagues who also earn their living typing columns of opinion editorial for the New York Times.

The PUMA's. Go look them up. Néo-cons (I can't take credit for this beautiful alignment in French and English, someone I admire came up with it) in Hillary-supporter clothing, able to convince some among her own that they really are some of hers, and not the reprehensible agents of the right wingnut agenda.

Worst of all, those among her most recalcitrant supporters who have been tricked -- and if I am wrong about this, it would be one of my greatest disappointments -- do her and the Democratic Party, -- which, if you want to place it at the top of one column and the Republican Party at the top of another, while coming perilously close to looking nearly as ridiculous on occasion, has at least the merit of actually trying to work for the people of the Unites States of America, and not thoroughly manipulating them into believing that serving the interests of corporate America, and its representatives in the legislative and executive, is somehow working for their best interests -- , the disservice of perpetuating ugliness in American politics.

I know that Hillary Clinton's supporters are not characterized by this extreme, and that they far outnumber it. I also know, as Patrick Healy writes in his article in today's New York Times, that it is Hillary herself who holds more sway with them than Barack Obama, that it is she who can bring the Obama/Biden ticket their votes, not Barack Obama himself. I also believe that most of her supporters, as angry and as disappointed as they have the right to feel, are above all committed to the causes and the values of the Democratic Party, and could not bear to see what 4 more years of Republican control of the White House, as that party stands, would do to Americans and our country. Her, their and our best chance will be with all of us shouldering together to do the nation's business as we believe it should be done, and according to the will of the majority of the people.

The PUMA's are an indication of the measure of the desperation among the neo-con leadership of today's Republican party, and the presence of Republicans in the listservs of the Barack Obama campaign, who say they are there because they "feel that the Republican Party National Leadership has betrayed Republican principles and have gone so dirty" acts as its yardstick. These Republican Obama supporters say that "most Republicans don't agree with [the Republican Party national leadership], even if a lot of Republicans who don't agree with them vote Republican out of habit and fear".

Fear of what, we ask. "Fear of change," comes the reply from Republican Obama supporter Chuck Lasker. "Change," he writes, "as in change from voting Republican," and continues:

"In general, Republicans will choose the devil we know versus the devil we don't know. That's why Republicans keep electing older candidates. Change like new social programs that cost too much and create more dependent citizens. Change like letting our moral base slide (something Republican candidates are good at making it sound like Democrats want). Change to something unknown. Honestly, Republicans have been so programmed to see the Democratic Party as evil, the party of free-spending, homosexual, free-sex, drug using socialists having abortions every week and cursing God while burning the flag, that it's hard to break past that. In a Republican view, voting for Obama is a massive risk that he will be just like all the other Democrats of the past.

As a Republican for Obama, I even feel strange when I go to the Obama campaign headquarters here in Indiana and see all the Democratic Party stuff, when someone in the office talks about "turning Indiana blue," when I see Ted Kennedy speak for my candidate, when I start liking Hillary Clinton (somewhat), etc. etc. It's like leaving a cult after 27 years - very hard to do.

I know that I'm on a path that will lead to my being either an Independent, or even a Democrat, eventually, like Susan Eisenhower just did, but it takes time!!!"

Chuck contributes to The Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chuck-lasker) and participates in several mybarackobama.com listservs.

Fear makes the manipulation easier. Change begins in individuals who can't afford any more to fear -- we're past that, way past it -- and, those individuals coalesce together to make a movement for change. In this case, a change for progress, social, economic, diplomatic and legislative progress. It takes a critical mass to effect change outside of the individual, and that critical mass in a two-party society can only -- and Barack Obama knows this -- be reached by joining enough of the two camps, with their previously opposing views, to overcome the extreme elements who would prevent that.

But, this is the time.

Make no mistake that the single greatest contribution to the Obama campaign beyond his ideas and his ability to given them voice (enough on his limpidity, Mo, puh-lease) was the forum his campaign gave people who support him to come together, to exchange and argue and insult one another, and, finally let the strongest voices -- like Chuck's, among others -- tell us what is happening inside our own ranks, and let civility in political discourse demand its due because Republican, or Democrat, or Independent, sophisticated human life-forms possessing normal to above normal intelligence understand that our government has insulted it, the situation for our country is critical, and that we can't survive 4 years more years of under-preparedness and greed in and cynical abuse of our citizens, our soldiers and our institutions and our Constitution by the White House.

“Whether you voted for me, or voted for Barack, the time is now to unite as a single party with a single purpose,” Mrs. Clinton said, beaming as the convention hall burst into applause. “And you haven’t worked so hard over the last 18 months, or endured the last eight years, to suffer through more failed leadership.”
-- "Clinton Delivers Emphatic Plea for Unity", by Patrick Healy, August 27 New York Times.

No way, no how, no McCain.

Let's hope this signals a change of colors among the Republican leadership who still care about the fundamentals of their party the way the Democrats have not failed to continue to defend and to promote their own so that people who differ in opinion respectfully can find an opposition of integrity, with a willingness to work together with respect.

....

On that note, I'm taking my sorry behind out for a run. I saw those pictures my loving brother posted of me. I also remember the ones of me from nearly three years ago that spurred my last call to action. Sigh. If I don't ever actually look better -- which, by the way, Hillary Clinton is -- at least I feel better.

PS: Snooker's back!
....

It's time now to make Ted Kennedy's decades-old declaration reality in America

My universal health care hero,

Yes we can, and, finally, yes we will!

Senator Kennedy's remarks to the Democratic National Convention, Denver, Colorado, Monday, August 25, 2008:

Thank you. Thank you, Caroline

My fellow Dems, my fellow Americans, it is so wonderful to be here [laughter], and nothing, nothing is going to keep me away from this special gathering tonight

I have come here tonight to stand here with you to change America to restore its future, to rise to its best ideals, and to elect Barack Obama the next president of the united States.

As I look ahead, I am strengthened by family and friendship. So many of you have been with me in the happiest days, and the hardest days. Together we have known success and seen setbacks, victory and defeat, but we have never lost our belief that we are all called to a better country, and a newer world, and I pledge to you -- I pledge to you that I will be there next January on the floor of the United States Senate for me to give a great -- [final word drowned out by applause and cheering, chanting "Teddy, Teddy", laughter].

For me, this is a season of hope. New hope for a justice and fair prosperity for the many, and not just for the few. New hope -- and this is the cause of my life -- new hope that we will break the old gridlock and guaranty that every American -- north - south, east - west, young- old -- will have decent quality health care as a fundamental right and not a privilege. We can meet these challenges with Barack Obama. Yes we can, and, finally, yes we will! [Cheers, applause]

Barack Obama will close the book of the old politics of race, and gender, and group against group, and straight against gay. And Barack Obama will be a commander in chief who understands that young Americans in uniform must never be committed to a mistake but always to a commitment worthy of their bravery. [Cheers, whistles, applause]

We are told that Barack Obama believes too much in an America of high principle and bold endeavor, but when John Kennedy thought of going to the moon, he didn't say, 'It's too far to get there, we shouldn't even try.' Our people answered his call and rose to the challenge and today an American flag still marks the surface of the moon. [Cheers, applause] Yes, we are all Americans, this is what we do, we reach the moon, we scale the heights. I know it, I've seen it, I have lived it, and we can do it again.

There is a new wave of change all around us, and if we set our compass through we will reach our destination. Not merely victory for our party, but renewal for our nation, and this November, the torch will be passed again to a new generation of Americans. So, with Barack Obama, and for you, and for me, our country will be committed to his cause. The work begins anew, the hope rises again, and the dream lives on. [Cheers, applause]

You are still the one, Teddy, and I hope it won't take another 3 decades of repeating this refrain, this promise, this commitment for it to become a reality:

That every American -- north - south, east - west, young- old -- will have decent quality health care as a fundamental right, and not as a privilege.



....