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Some more thoughts on the Day. Obama lost his father as a young man; his mother a decade later as his political career started and then in a tragic irony, his grandmother that raised him the day only before his election.. and as you watched his speech, one couldn’t help being amazed by his macho strength, resolute chin, and fierce courage, and think that it was a movie… but if the movie was done right, grandmamabama would have lived another day to see Bear-ick (father’s pronunciation) reach the highest office on earth. That’s why he reached so high so fast – because he understood how tenuous life is and how little time there is to affect things. He has no real older family any more…. but now he has America.
Giant NEWSWEEK 7 part campaign odyssey story HOW HE DID IT
Tears streamed down millions of faces, but the one that was most bittersweet had to be Jesse Jackson, who paved the way with his 2 runs for President, took the jabs, ran the risks, and broke the barriers. He couldn’t win, but the point was to be in the game, and play in the majors. But he ran as a black man, said a friend derisively, but what else could he be – the Obama multiglot post racial genetic modification was still forming in Harvard’s yards. Jackson, in a couple debates where Dukakis and Bush just sniped stupidly, was the voice of reason and wisdom- the only man with a plan. I met him and took some exc. pics of him in Seatown during that race, where I managed a Dem caucus, and suggested in a Seattle Times column that he would make a great Sec State, “Imagine the entry he would have in the 2nd+3rd world: a mediator who can persuade the despots… by force of language, charm, and sincerity rather than by force of guns.” Course that would have required Dukaka to win! Ahead of the curve, as usual, like Jackson was.
JACKSON DESERVES A SEAT AT THE TABLE - Seattle Times- Jackson's energy, eloquence, careful reasoned arguments, + superb performance in 1988 debates has earned him a shot at Sec. State
http://hammernews.com/jackson2.gif
But his tears, like most peoples, were for himself, because with his profane slam of Obama at some rally, picked up by a microphone, his acknowledgements and imperial connections were vaporized. Many people’s joy and pain was partially that- agony at the lost dreams and opportunities they had, as this young cool confident man grasped the ultimate prize… and burden. So say a word of thanks to Jesse. And so much of it was tears of desperate exhaustion that the Bushies, hard right, and neocons will be driven from the temple, hopefully into the desert till the buzzards pick them clean.
OB historic win was most stunning in Indiana, a hard right kind of place of scrubbed families and serious hatred. South IN was the home of the KKK for decades, and the first time I just drove through there, the hackles went up on my neck- it was a place where different was destroyed. Indianapolis was Nixon's favorite place- the real America Palin postulates proudly. But now Real America also belongs to BO. North Carolina- a richly beautiful state, home of Jesse Helms, also finally tilted blue.
GORDON SMITH ® has conceded in Oregon, that’s 6 Senators and 57 dems, with Al Franken separated by only 230 votes and facing a s..l..o .w recount that doesn’t start till Nov 15 and won’t be finished till Dec. LOOKS GOOD, with 25K undervotes, mostly in Mpls area- can easily make that up. A bud went to school with Al in Edina and we had his phone number in NYC when we were trying to do Sat Night Live Update, but I wasn’t really a fan of his then. Later I produced and starred in a bang-up comedy/news ½ hr show, but too many years before the Daily Show became the hottest thing on TV. Only one more Dem Senator is 58, but with 2 independents (if Liebermann is still marginally on board), actually: 60!!
GA Sen. Saxby Chamblis ® of the Osama/Max Cleland slander ads is forced into a under 50% runoff, but at 3% down + the 3% Libertarians breaking for him, so there is little chance of this peach blueing. Felonious Sen. Ted Stevens is hanging by a thread, and we’d better hope Mark Begich wins (3300 deficit with 75,000 outstanding, maybe many us DA ex-pats), because otherwise this or the coming Senate will force Ted out, and the Gov of AK will appoint the new Senator…. Herself, and national audiences will have to suffer the linguistic lacerations of Sarah Palin for the next God know how long. (although Kos says its a special election- AK gov can't appoint). A hopeful Prez needs a lot of Northern Exposure. Her improvement from the disastrous TV interviews to the Biden debate was impressive- she is a dangerous radical politician (like GB2) and not to be underestimated. She wanted to speak at the McCain concession (never before done), but advisors Schmidt and Salter squelched her. The bitter battles between McCain and Palin people highlighted here- http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/06/us/politics/06mccain.html?hp
She bought much more than $150,000 of clothes (maybe $250K), charged all kinds of stuff after getting a budget of $25K (what do you expect from a “reformer” who takes a per-diem for living in her own house as Gov), and they say PNAC scumbag Scheunemann was fomenting revolt by leaking trash to NYT neocon William Krystal. Fox News? aired a savage piece claiming she didn’t know Africa was a continent or how many countries were in North America.
Speaking of whom (he visited Georgia before invasion), the Nashi (Putin Youth thugs) surrounded the US Embassy in Moscow Nov 3 to protest supposed US encouragement of Georgia to attack S. Ossetia, which makes me feel more creepy, since I was maybe the only person to directly suggest that: http://hammernews.com/georgia.htm Kasperov posted my IHT article on Nashi (http://hammernews.com/putinschildren2.htm ) and I often criticized Vlad the Impaler, so someone there may have noticed. Now Medvedev is changing the term of office to 6 years, and speculation he will quit for Putin- exactly my forecast a year ago:
THE INFINITE PUTIN - Capital Times ORIGINAL Moscow: Putin is supposed to leave office in March, but that was impossible to believe. Appointing unknown crony Viktor Zubkov PM ends the doubt. Zubkov will be anointed President (+ win), Putin will become Prime Minister, and Zubkov will resign in 6-12 months to let Vladimir Vladimirovich return as Prez. http://hammernews.com/infintiteputin-captimes.htm
The crowd of hundreds that surrounded the White House must have rattled the Bushes, where they were singing: “Na, na, na, na. Hey, hey, hey. Goodbye.” This is an idea, surround the White House by thousand of protesters chanting OUT NOW, OUT NOW, and like Tiananmen or Nezhaleznisty, don’t go home for weeks. We couldn’t impeach him- didn’t have the numbers, but something should be done to convince this imposter disgrace of his proper place in history (the ad flyer in a book that you throw away).
And in another demonstration of my extraordinary reach, we did an invited NPR Talk of the World (Nation) Nov 6th on whether Obama can force a peace between the Palestinians + Israelis (minute 33) w Hanan Ashrawi (whom I met at Bruno) and Natan Sharansky.
PRESIDENT Obama’s first press conference had the head-snapped dislocation of new history (with this jarring Prez-Elect sign), with putsy Volcker messing up the shot, and so many things are going to be new and head-shaking. But I suspect we are going to find him boringly steady after a while. But calling himself a mutt was a huge mistake- that word will be repeated 1000 times by his enemies. Obama had obviously pre-chose the questions, calling on people without looking at them. Rahm Emmanuel is a great choice for COS, someone able to move legislation through a recalcitrant Congress, and a political warrior who maybe won’t chicken out on the prosecutions of the Repub criminals that have abused America and the Constitution. We shall see, but I'm sick with worry that BO will take this concilliation crap seriously- before that there must be justice.
Lastly, a US nat security writer mentions the unmentionable- an attempt on BO- and the atmosphere of hate and nutcake encouragement created by McCain/Palin’s demagogic smears. Socialist, pal around with terrorists, not one of us, Hussein, untrustworthy, alien- these words have dangerous power to unhinge the freaks and monsters among us, and should never have been ever used against the first real black candidate. There is a serious racist/neo-Nazi/Christian subclass in America, and they are dangerous (see The Order or CSA). McCain graced himself with Salter’s generous concession speech, but tone-deaf imbeciles started chanting USA, USA- what team did they think Obama played for? Hey, Sparky, the game’s over and you lost- head for the showers! http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0810/S00373.htm Obama a Target.
I always liked McCain until this election- his humor, his self-depreciating jokes, his straight-forward blame taking, even his psychotic explosions at colleagues- these pompous fatuous lawyers who check the wind before they comment on the weather, need to be slapped down periodically. His big mistake was taking Rove slug Steve Schmidt as a huge advisor, who brought the entire malignant standard Repub smear+slander crap into the campaign, including the vermin that called McCain's India adopter daughter a product of Vietnam prostitute in 2000 SC. They neutralized every strength JM had, and made him a cartoon of a cranky old man.
Our NH vote helped sway one of the 6-8 Senate swings to blue. Bo-ya
Lets bring on the Capital Police to drag Rove to testify in shackles.
