when i was in NH in december 2007, the base of support for barack was dean 04 people -
in columbus ohio, a big barack volunteer and i wistfully talked about how we were dean people and i told him that i still had a dean 08 bumper sticker somewhere...he's who i wanted for president until the end of november/december 2007...
HE seeded the "You Have The Power" -
we owe HIM for his 50-state strategy and for his statesmanship and tireless service to America...
i expected that one of the first appointments announced would be Howard Dean... and maybe i've missed it but i haven't seen anything...
the obama organization does almost everything right - they amaze us mostly...
so why aren't we paying homage to a true American hero who has changed this country for the better... Howard Dean??
poll cited by bill schneider on cnn -
61% - more than people who say they are voting for him...
barack has their Vote of Confidence... well-deserved...
the poll was 50%, neck and neck, prior to this economic mess -
we're winning this thing, guys... this is increasingly clear -
and we could jump the gun and start acting like gracious winners...
sarah palin is no threat to us or what we hope to do for America -
and to waste these FABULOUS 4 weeks in any negativity - when we can be connecting with our fellow americans who ARE aligned with us or who want to believe but are having trouble making the leap...
if it were the last day of your life, would you spend/waste even a nanosecond of that 24 hours even thinking of sarah palin? nada... if it isn't worthy of our last hours, it isn't worthy of any of our hours that always COULD BE our last...
better to focus on what we CAN do - new innovative, ingenious ways to bring our country back from the brink...
forging bonds with each other in a Kinder Gentler country...
i am sickened by what i've seen of both mccain and palin but i prefer to spend my time reaching out to my fellow americans and trying to think of What We Can Do, what we can reasonably do...
and i must say that watching her little girl piper licking her hand to smooth down the hair of her baby brother as palin was delivering her convention speech... and then last friday seeing that little girl carrying that baby off the stage -
i can't hate or mistreat the woman who gave birth to these children...even if/when she is hateful and mistreating to us...
i read afterward that 90% of down syndrome babies are aborted after the amniocentesis test... i don't know if i could have or would have done what i think is The Right Thing and "gone through with it", having a choice Not To... but i admire her for it and was touched beyond words by the sweetness between her 2 youngest children...
forgive them because they know not how awful what they are doing is -
and, please, let's not waste a minute of this great 4 weeks - a time that, at 56, i canNOT believe i have lived to see - the amazing grace of the obamas and the powerful experience of community they have jumpstarted for us -
let's LOVE this next wonderful month...
and brace ourselves for the blowback/payback on november 5th - because a LOT of repubs aregoing to be riproaring mad and burned up... we are gonna pay for the win -
but til then? it's all good -
fired UP!
if we could start planting some yard signs -
"FRIENDS DON'T LET FRIENDS VOTE REPUBLICANS"
in the yards already sporting obama signs on busy, heavily trafficked streets...
i've been talking to americans on the ground in NH and SC and NC and VA and OH -
and i see a crying need for us to reach out to a lot of our fellow americans, esp the salvageable repubs...
if we can demonstrate a warm affection, a sense of humor... that'd go a long way to defusing the eruption and blowback/payback i see coming on november 5th... and that i have experienced a little with my obama bumperstickers and buttons...
google Friends Don't Let Friends Vote Republican" - there's a yard sign for $20, bumperstickers...
i joke with repubs that we're gonna have to tie them up to a chair on election day and let the air out of their tires -we gotta do what we gotta do - and it'll be fine, they'll see... it usually brings a sweet smile [NEVER A VOTE!] and that's a start...
if we could be gracious winners... and start the hard work of truth and reconciliation now...
barack and michelle have done their part - they coulda torn their opponents and critics a new asshole 1000 times and instead they have kept their peace...
we need to try hard to bring our repub americans around... we want to be inclusive and part of the One Nation under God that barack has called us to?
$20... if you go up to the door of anyone who has planted a yardsign - and ask them if they'd be willing to add this,another one... if they can spot the $20 cost or not...
like johnny appleseed - planting a warm communalism???
online, you can get yardsigns and bumperstickers and buttons -
our repub fellow Americans, some of them, are SPITTING MAD...
if we could reach out to them, keeping our peace, showing a warm sense of humor...
so if you can buy a yardsign or a few for $20 online... and drive around to wherever you see an OBAMA 08 yard sign up and go up to the door and ask that person if he/she/they'd be willing to add this sign too - as a community outreach ----
ESP on busy streets that get a lot of traffic ---
if, like johnny appleseed, these could start popping up between now and nov 4 -
it'd show we have a sense of humor and we want the divisions to END after a legit win on november 4...
let's be gracious winners? starting now?
i tell salvageable repubs [and even die hards] that we're gonna tie our repub friends to a chair on election day and let the air out of their tires... cuz we gotta do what we gotta do...
it almost always brings a smile - and relieves SOME of the tension - the repubs are increasingly mad and it's not just their team losing - it's having to face how wrong they've been, how they were duped and sold a bill of goods... pretty hard stuff, esp for the older ones...
let's TRY to be what their nice speeches promised:
a kinder gentler nation
a shining city on the hill...
??
for Roman Catholics and evangelicals and everyone who is dealing with fellow members of our churches who are trying to overlay belief and personal principles onto a secular government...
how about if we had bumperstickers made
CATHOLICS for OBAMA and for
the separation of church and state
or next to a CATHOLICS FOR OBAMA 08 bumpersticker,
put one CATHOLICS for the separation of church and state -
this can be done - google custom bumperstickers... there are a few companies - they have templates and ship right away, even just 1 or a small quantity... the quality is excellent - you can have car magnets made too if you don't want to paste something on your car...
i think we want to ask our fellow citizens to think! not to assume we are as reflexive as they are...even Jesus didn't try to legislate sex lives... and how WOULD abortion laws be enforced... are we going to add a whole 'nother layer of law enforcement - do females have to report a pregnancy within X days like registering for the draft? are we going to make people PROVE their miscarriages Were REALLY miscarriages? dear God - what are people thinking...
and what WOULD Jesus do? what He did... He persuaded and he showed love and he tried to illuminate... NOT legislate, not arrest, not cast out of a secular society...
barack winning is only the beginning of a LOT OF outreach we need to do to our fellow citizens who are racist or intolerant or selfish or bullying or whatever we see... we need to do what we can...
this thing is won - but there is a lot to do to fulfill the promise of all of us increasingly coming together as Americans... all of us, Americans...
david brooks nailed it that she has the same "brashness and excessive decisiveness" -
but i have bristled at how The Left went after her as not being a feminist - she is exactly what the woman's movement wanted - a woman who has fulfilled herself in a marriage and family and career and community according to HER dreams for herSELF... conservative Jewish and Catholic women, women who stay-at-home OR forego marriage and family... these are all the right choices for individual women - and it has nothing to do with ideology...
it was awful to see Obama people going after her like Rush or Hannity go after our prominent people... i hope that stops...and we let palin be palin
it HAS to be richardson - governor kaine in VA is great but doesn't have the foreign policy experience -
AND hillary went to NM but i didn't see that she is going to VA...
nader said barack would pick hillary as JFK had to ask LBJ - canNOT imagine that -
he mentioned sam nunn, too
2 day [fact-finding, on the ground?] trip?
that DOES suggest it's biden for VP - for the foreign policy angle [even though richardson is as good and as well qualified on that] -
gotta be richardson or biden...
after i saw that hillary clinton was in NM on sunday and barack doing a town hall in NM on monday, i thought Of Course... she is there to heal the whatever rift [or pretend to, more precisely] -
mark warner is the keynote and that is such a sure and necessary win for the senate seat in VA -
patti solis doyle appointed as the chief of staff for a VP when there wasn't one yet -
it all added up - which is very barack. nothing is a great surprise - they're playing chess while most of the rest of us are playing checkers - and they're mostly WAY ahead of us As We Want A President To Be...
but also they are reliable and even predictable... steady. Nothing will seem a surprise or so unexpected, etc... not from an obama administration that Includes The People and proceeds forth doing what is right for the people by a value-laden decisionmaking process with certain predictable elements to it -
a good ticket, i think -
howard dean looked positively euphoric on saturday - he's worked so hard, so much of this is possible because of him - we owe him immeasurably and it was so sweet to see him enjoying himself after putting in a killer 3+ years laying the groundwork for this -
A Great American, howard dean -
barack is holding a town hall meeting in New Mexico tomorrow; hillary is there today -
mark warner is giving the keynote address and also is 40 points ahead of the repub in his senate race in virginia...
_______________
surely, tom ridge is mccain's smartest choice - that's the bumper sticker of 2008 - President Ridge [or Romney]???
given that john mccain has outlived his dad and grandfather by 10 and 20 years - and had more stress and a life-threatening bout with malignant melanoma -
just the facts -
and nice platitudes...
Morning In America [myth while the reality was that the country and its companies and communities were Carved Up and jobs shipped overseas and the rich got richer and there was NO trickle down in the voodoo economics that started the Era of Greed Run Amok]
Shining City on The Hill
Kinder, Gentler Nation [still waiting - that was promised by George HW Bush mouthing peggy noonan's words in august 1988, fully 20 years ago when we couldn't imagine how greedy and selfish we were YET to become in america]
1000 points of light - ditto
_____________
last night, john mccain saying we are a beacon of light - maybe for an admiral's son, the son of an heiress, the husband of an heiress ---
but not for the Americans i talk to - the obama supporters are trying to do what they can - others are scared to death or too much in need in a land of PLENTY...
it is the REPUBLICANS who do the Nice Speeches and no action -
john mccain said last night that he wants to inspire a generation to join the Peace Corps, the initiative of a Democratic President Kennedy
or Americorps... which the Clintons promoted and supported heavily 15 years ago ---
SO... which party is known for the Nice Speeches? and which is known for memorable oratory then
i have been to NH, SC, NC, Northern VA and now OH...talked to hundreds of people in parking lots and grocery stores...everywhere -
and i have seen that smears are irrelevant. truly.
the people who need to think badly of michelle - are just deflecting politically incorrect not wanting to vote for barack [for a VARIETY of excuse/reasons] -
muslim, pledge of allegiance [it wasn't that - it was the star spangled banner], elitist --- it's all excuses tacked on to someone Who Wasn't Going To Vote For Barack anyway.
honestly... you can show someone ABSOLUTELY how false something is, they move to a different baseless complaint -
and so i realize that all our talk about hope and change to believe in and believing in our ability to make change --- we gotta Walk The Walk on this one --- and as i have struggled with my own moments of fear or clenching or anger at What The Other Side Is Putting Out -
i realize i gotta believe. i gotta believe in other americans. i gotta believe in whatever has brought all of us here and is gonna take us OUT [which is God to many people but not many others] -
i gotta believe in The Good - the triumph of good because evil is always repulsive once it is clear that is what it is - we all shrink back from The Bad...
i am going to always try to recallibrate back to faith and hope and believing - even with the negativity...
i am going to honor those who gave so much 40-50 years ago in the struggle for civil rights - to manage the negativity that is far less dangerous or threatening as we get the negativity of anti-obama citizens who are enraged because they know The Gig Is Up...We Won't Be Fooled Again...
i am going to remember to keep the faith, keep hope alive, believe in my fellow americans as i believe in my own efforts...
i am NOT going to give into fear... i am not going to worry - i am going to be happy in the community of now, the wonder of this time and that i have lived to see it and have been free to be part of it -
bumpersticker seen in walmart parking lot in columbus OHIO, available on www.northernsun.com
not inflammatory, just wry...
he brings it on home so many times -
and we all need to give OUR all too -
the vietnam sad thing about how "All Gave Some, Some Gave ALL" -
we need to be doing our citizenship, civic part -
esp with school starting, if you can give some money to the best teachers at the local schools to make sure that all kids have a cool outfit or cool school supplies or sneakers or WhatEVER this season - in the name and cause of Americans and obama supporters coming together to make america everything we all can be and should be and were meant to be -
they look childish whiners - they coulda won if the edwards extramarital affair had come out in iowa or NH, if michigan and florida yada...
NO - 1/2 the country hates the clintons and Loves To Hate them... you cannot bring a country together with leaders who are so flawed and can't run a decent and civil campaign -
NO ONE wants a leader whose call is That It's Time For A Woman - it is never the time for A woman or A black or A anything - not in big jobs that matter - it has to be the best human for the job - and hillary had a resume and a LOT of pork for NY state - but notsomuch else - and she had shameless moments that the dems should not have stood for from january 7 -
and she's helping her supporters nurse their feelings of oppression, etc - at a time when EVERYone is oppressed by the terrible last 8 years - not women first or even most - EVERYone is suffering - the poor the very most, the sick and disabled... a lot of women are doing very well and have done well with affirmative action etc since 1972 - it is NOT a woman thing - it's a poor thing...
i hope the DNC and obama campaigns tell the clintons to shape up or be scaled back to almost no role at the convention -
no one likes a junior high queen wannabe...no one likes someone who can't Get Over It. the country was not screaming for hillary - it wasn't going to happen...and she couldn't have gotten anything done with 1/2 the country hating her and following bill clinton everywhere -
we didn't need clinton drama anymore - we have plenty else to deal with -
i'm sorry - i've just finished 2 mccain books - the timberg book and mark salter's ghostwriting - and i think mccain has been mostly for his own ambition since running for congress and winning -
the commerce committee, his own fundraising [maybe he can claim not asking for pork barrel projects in arizona BUT HE SURE HAS RAISED A TON OF MONEY IN EVERY ELECTION - and are we to believe those people want NOTHING in exchange for their financial support???]
mccain can't even run his own GOP and didn't stop the NC GOP bad ad that a raleigh NC tv station refused to run...
and he can't even lead his own supporters and staff to knock it off on the bs tearing down of barack obama who attracts MILLIONS of people...a multiple of the numbers interested in seeing him...
even his own mom said the repubs would have to hold their noses to vote for him - and several repubs i've talked to are NOT into voting for him -
the straight talk and maverick is ALL talk - and i say this as someone who gave him money in early 2000 to beat back bush-rove...and rooted for him being a good candidate - then he caved in and stumped for bush in 2000 - when he could have put country FIRST instead of party and his own ambitions for now...
i'm sorry - i don't see it. it's mccain first ALL THE WAY - and his time was 2000 - it's way past - and reagan has shown us that maybe 70-76 is TOO OLD...reagan claimed not to know about iran contra - can't have a president who doesn't know these thins are going on right under his nose...
we must support barack and michelle with our energy and resouces and ask EveryOne else we talk to to do the same -
ideally, 10% of our net money and 4 hours weekly or 16 monthly...
it can't be about him... and if we are doing more to start CHANGE NOW then the mccain yada about how barack has nice words will ring stupid because obviously there are millions of DEEDS to back barack up...
we gotta back him up... we gotta do it NOW and from now on...
that is what we do to win this election - and to win something that matters and starts a new start....
dick morris... who i have found to be ALWAYS RIGHT....
increasingly in the past 2 weeks, absolutely positively in the last week, i have seen more and more how people are truly scared of this economy, they're pulling in to take care of themselves -
and while this is so understandable and a natural instinct, i am SURE that this is when we must stay as generous as we can be with our time and our money and our resources...
when i asked people in the charleston area in the spring if they could give something to helping north charleston high school, people who TRULY were strapped or had little couldn't give cash - but when i would ask Do You Have AnyThing at home - a present you didn't like, something you bought and never wore, dishes, books, cds, an old tv, whatever extra... IN PERFECT CONDITION, first class all the way only - that you could donate... people brightened and said YEAH!!!
even if people just did that - all of us. Women have TONS of clothes, most unworn or barely worn... jewelry we never wore, bags that are in amost-new condition or could be cleaned up to be -
if we could ALL do what we can... donate items to a nearby poor school or high school for the principal and counselors and teachers to put in sortof a rewards store for kids to be able to choose something - kids who are good kids or who are trying or who do community service or who have brought up their grades or who just need a little SomeThing extra miraculously ---
i am CONVINCED this is what we need to do most for barack and michelle - we have to BE THE CITIZENS WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR.... we must step it up -
just when we are feeling we need all we have for ourselves... it isn't true, it's never true...
we must dare to stretch ourselves to hope a Little More - not for our own safety and security but for a safer and more secure country and world to END THIS FOREVER what we put ourselves through in ou overstriving for too much comfort for ourselves...
and we must start NOW -
even just $1 a month or an hour a week...but let us begin NOW... because august IS the month t to take barack down - mccain will flub and flounder by mid-end september - there is SO MUCH he can't say or won't say and he's playing only to win that he's going to be a confused mess in another 6 weeks or so, in the wake of a slumbering desperate convention that is lackluster at best and will be a ratings disaster unless people are watching it to be a kind of political Gong Show...
let's start now?
