Too Much Perspective

One of my favorite lines from one of my favorite movies, This is Spinal Tap, goes something like this: “That’s a little too much perspective.”

My respect for journalists has elevated dramatically this week, and exponentially this evening.

I knew people who died in 9/11 and in Iraq. This evening’s presentation has pushed me to a place where I cannot process all that is being said. I am filled with such grief and conflict. It is as if every emotion I have had related to 9/11 and all that has transpired since then has been pushed back at me all at once. It was hard enough to process all of these things individually (and clearly I never finished), but to have it all resurrected simultaneously has made me intellectually and emotionally shut down.

I need to sign off for the day, and interact with all of this as a human being, and not as a pseudo-journalist.

Thank God for journalists and others who can help all of us sort out what all of this means for us as individuals and for us as a country.

Until tomorrow.

Shalom.

The Love Train

Wow.

It is Hillary who moves the nomination of Barack Obama.

The song “Love Train” fills the hall.

I got my roll call.  

Obama got his nomination.

What does it all mean?

Wow.

I need to have a think and then listen to Bill and Joe tonight.

Wow.

Where is Seth Meyers?  I need some more of his medicine.  

 

And So It Begins (Pt. 1)

Well the Presidential nominating speeches have begun. I’ve got my popcorn.

The big question I have is whether the Convention will let the votes be counted, or whether they will go to a voice vote that will end up being transformed into a unanimous vote?

For me the story line of this entire convention will be written in the next moments.

Tune in.

Laughter and Democracy

Well, I haven’t stumbled upon any ideas of note today, but I had an absolutely terrific gluten-free lunch at Coors Field courtesy of Senator Christopher Dodd of Connecticut. One of the other guests, Seth Meyers of Saturday Night Live, graced us with a stand-up routine that was simply priceless.

I laughed until tears ran down my cheeks. As I walked out of Coors Field, I realized my soul was lighter. It was the first time all week I had laughed.

I needed that. So does democracy.

A New Search

Having come up short in my search for ideas yesterday. I’m going on a different search today. I’m going to search for food.

First stop, a luncheon reception sponsored by Senator Christopher Dodd.

If I run into any ideas I’ll let you know.

McCain Has a Prayer

My email box this morning has communicated to me that there has been a disturbance in the force. My praise of Hillary’s speech melted more than a few circuits and preconceptions around the world.

What will melt more circuits is that on another level the speech was even more profound than I had time and energy to share last night. Uncovering its depth will help me explain the challenge facing Biden tonight, Obama tomorrow, and the party coming out of Denver.

On its face it was the definitive endorsement speech of Obama. She said all the right things in all the right ways. As she was giving it I was brought back to the best moments of women’s gymnastics at the Olympics. She nailed every line the way every gold medal Olympic gymnast nailed their landing. She was completely and totally at the top of her game, it was a gold medal performance.

Yet politically it was brilliantly shrewd. She didn’t do the one thing the Obama campaign desperately wanted her to do. Concede and call off the floor vote tonight. The Obama camp desperately wants to get a unanimous vote today so as to give the impression that the party is coming out of Denver united. The fact that it won’t be united is not the point. The purpose of this convention (and I expect next week’s as well) is to sell a candidate and a message.

One aspect of the brilliance of the speech was that she did everything she needed to do for Obama, but not the one thing Obama wanted her to do.

Another aspect of the speech’s political genius is that she set her agenda for the party. It was not, “Change we Can Believe In.” It was Hillary’s agenda for the party. If you read her speech you will see that in the middle she explained for several minutes precisely what HER campaign was about and then she said it is for these reasons that she supports Barack Obama. If Michelle Obama defined her husband as an American on Monday, Hillary Clinton defined the mission of the Democratic Party last night. In essence she said, “I support Obama because he will do what I set out to do.”

Insofar as one aspect of excellence in Politics is shrewdness, last night was a perfect 10 in that category as well. That is why I walked out of the Pepsi Center feeling as if I had seen a master performance, because I have not witness anything in this campaign so politically shrewd and brilliant.

And this brings us to McCain’s prayer and the challenge facing Biden, Obama, and the party.

If last night had been Hillary’s acceptance of the Vice-Presidential nomination, I believe it would have ensured Obama’s election.

But it wasn’t. When the good feelings of the speech wear off and when people enter the Pepsi Center tonight, it is Joe Biden who will give his acceptance speech, following Bill Clinton who I expect to be equally shrewd.

Unless Biden elevates his game to a whole new level, those who are watching tonight will come away with a sense of what they could have had in Hillary.

Then Obama has to deliver on Thursday night.   In my judgment the campaign has unwisely set him up to disappoint. Instead of doing the acceptance in the “humble” confines of the Pepsi Center as Presidential nominees do, they are using a 75,000 seat football stadium that has a special stage constructed which is over the top in terms of visual image and elevates him above the people to which he is speaking. Moreover, he is doing it on the Anniversary of “MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech.  He is going to have pull off the speech of his life without creating the impression that he is being inaugurated or that he is a political messiah. The Obama campaign has put him in the dangerous position of overreach on Thursday night. That is unnecessary.

Then, when the campaign leaves Denver Friday, Bill and Hillary will be in the background. It will be Obama and Biden front and center.

I’m not saying Obama and Biden can’t win in November, I am saying that Obama has charted a course that will require the American people decide they prefer him to John McCain. It will be largely one on one, and if McCain chooses a female VP of excellence, the spectre of not choosing Hillary will haunt Obama all the more.

I’m not saying I’d want the Clinton’s living in my house, but they would have brought Obama to the White House.

Now he’s going to have win the keys, in essence, by himself. Which will be a much more difficult task.

John McCain has a prayer and everyone out here knows it.

If last night’s speech was the Vice-Presidential acceptance speech there would have been a disturbance in the Republican force unlike we have seen since 1992.

« Previous Page — Next Page »