Two for the road.
If my energy level in the morning matches my intentions the night before, I’m taking a weight-training class as you read this. On the table for discussion until I get back:
I saw a kid in my local Kroger yesterday wearing an Obama T-shirt. It looked like he’d had it for a while. Obama rally in Oregon draws 75,000. I lived through the Reagan revolution, but can’t recall anyone wearing RR T-shirts outside of a political convention. Cult of personality, thirst for change, or neither? Early warning that Obama will rock the house in November, or just a blue-America hiccup? Discuss.
And if you prefer the silly, here’s this: Princess Beatrice was attacked by the same milliner that brought down poor Sarah Jessica Parker last week. When will Scotland Yard get on the case? How long will these butterflies and their thirst for hair product be allowed to humiliate such lovely women? (And when someone wears a hat like this, what are you supposed to say? “Nice hat?”
Back in a bit.
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moe99 said on May 19th, 2008 at 3:15 am
Just sent you a note, Nancy. Guess where Was(Not Was) ended their tour this spring? That’s right, Seattle!!! And guess who only figured it out last night and drove like a banshee to Ballard to the Tractor Tavern to see them after book club? And in a wonderful bit of karma, the guy ahead of me in line had an extra ticket, so it was absolutely worth the price of admission, even though I only got the second set! They were fabulous! Thank you for turning me on to them. Haven’t danced that much in a couple of years. Next time, I’m bringing my posse.
Linda said on May 19th, 2008 at 7:55 am
Nancy, it’s not just Beatrice. It’s all the royal women. Remember that weird thing Camilla had on her head when she married Prince Charles?
And check out Autumn Kelly, the new wife of Peter Phillips, grandson of the king.
It’s like some mad gardener got ahold of them.
alex said on May 19th, 2008 at 8:19 am
Well, George McGovern was a blue America hiccup, although from what my parents tell me he didn’t have any cross-over appeal and the Dems were idiots to run him just like the Republicans were idiots to run Goldwater in 1964.
It’ll be interesting to see how the campaign plays out. One thing’s for sure. Obama’s setting a new precedent by taking money only from citizens for this campaign. If he wins, it may well become the standard by which all future presidential candidates are judged. He will have accomplished campaign finance reform without ever having to draft legislation.
Wouldn’t it be great to have debate analysts telling us whose answers are tainted by which lobbyists?
Emma said on May 19th, 2008 at 8:24 am
I like these hats. Are they absurd ….. or surd?
MichaelG said on May 19th, 2008 at 8:47 am
How do you say “Nice hat” when trying to stifle a guffaw?
Jolene said on May 19th, 2008 at 8:50 am
I actually kimd of like that hat too. I can’t quite imagine wearing such a thing, but the butterflies are great.
del said on May 19th, 2008 at 9:04 am
Love the hats. But they must be worn with attitude and confidence. Think proud peacock.
brian stouder said on May 19th, 2008 at 9:07 am
What Alex said.
If I was going to do a michaelj/caliban stream-of-conciousness style polemic, the starting point would be how great it was to actually see and interact with the Obama family, and waypoints would include how the rest of the crowd almost literally lit up in their presence, and how there is no shame in actually being excited by the prospects of a new administration with a different agenda, headed by a person no older than many of us, who therefore came of age in the same America as we did (even accounting for his unique perspective, as a mixed-race son of a world-travelling mom, who lands in Kansas, raised by Auntie Em – or grandma)….and ending with the declaration that – damn it anyway! – I will NOT feel guilty for enthusiastically supporting this candidate, nor should anyone else.
john c said on May 19th, 2008 at 10:31 am
My 9-year-old wears an Obama button on his back-pack. He hasn’t reported any issues. Grosse Pointe is generally Republican, though “The Park,” where I live, went for Kerry and Gore.
I was 10 in 1972 and my parents were huge McGovern fans. They had a big election night party and I remember feeling the excitement and then going to bed. I was SHOCKED when I woke up and they told me he had lost. How could he lose? Everyone we know voted for him?
My unoriginal take on McGovern is that he was a good man, but the party lurched so far to the left after ’68 that they alienated most of their foot soldiers. Old man Daley may have been a prickly sort. But when it came to elections, he knew how to – what’s the word I’m looking for here? – win.
Most of the people Obama alienates wouldn’t vote for him anyway. I’m nervous, but hopeful.
Dorothy said on May 19th, 2008 at 10:36 am
I’m sorry but I’m just not seeing the butterfly hat as neato. It looks like poor Bea is being attacked by rabid butterflies high on crack. Why in heaven’s name isn’t her head listing towards that side?!
Camilla’s chapeaux looks like her blow dryer went wonky and ruined her hairdo. I’m ever so glad I wasn’t born royal!
LAMary said on May 19th, 2008 at 10:52 am
Autumn Kelly looks like she needs to wash her hair.
Is it Philip Treacy who’s designing these hats? He’s done some really crazy ones of ships and things I think.
LAMary said on May 19th, 2008 at 10:55 am
Ah! I was able to do an end run around my employer’s cyber barriers to your links and it is Philip Treacy. Really, find some photoes of his big hats. They may SJP’s look tame.
LAMary said on May 19th, 2008 at 10:55 am
LAMary says:
May 19th, 2008 at 10:55 am Edit this comment (30 minutes left)
Ah! I was able to do an end run around my employer’s cyber barriers to your links and it is Philip Treacy. Really, find some photos of his big hats. They may SJP’s look tame.
Sue said on May 19th, 2008 at 10:56 am
The butterfly hat looks photoshopped, doesn’t it? Anyway, it appears that the Royals haven’t learned anything from Great-Great-Grandmamma Queen Victoria’s day – she used to pile on the rings to hide her ugly hands and instead called more attention to them. Yes I’m being catty but geez. Talk about upstaging the bride.
Brian, I want to be enthusiastic about Obama, and even about Hilary, but I’m honestly scared for both of them. It is the real “thing that no one will talk about”. The positive intensity of emotion you feel is equaled and exceeded on the negative side. I assume and hope it is being covered carefully by the Secret Service.
Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on May 19th, 2008 at 11:04 am
I was raised and am still living in the broad sash across the Kleagle’s hooded robes of the 1920′s era Klan (read — Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia).
What you hear is “ah jes’ cain’t vote for the colored fellow, but he seems like a nice guy, just don’t want him the boss of me. Bill’s wife’s alright, ah guess, but . . .”
The rabid haters? There just aren’t as many of them as there were thirty years ago. I’m not saying we don’t have a long way to go, but you have to roll up with a CNN camera to get the Fred Phelps and David Duke contingent to froth much. And the kind of people who’d have had a kind word for those two a decade or more back, they are dismissive and uninterested in that kind of stuff.
I’m not saying Obama’s security detail can take the week off, just that where i would have expected to hear angry mutterings i’m seeing general shrugs, and maybe a “waaal, ah’m not votin’ fer him, but he might not be so bad after all. Guessin’ we’ll see soon enough.”
brian stouder said on May 19th, 2008 at 11:08 am
Sue – definitely agree about the “thing that no one will talk about”.
In casual conversations this pops up every so often (as a ‘Joke”, don’t you know) – and my approach is to take it seriously and say – “always bet on the good guys” (meaning those Ben Affleck-looking, swivel-headed security guys)…and at least once the answer back I got was that “the good guys” might pose the threat!
More generally, death is always in the wings (it provides the urgency in the “fierce urgency of now”), no less so for McCain – even if the assumption (in his case) is that his clock will simply run out.
I say – win or lose – we cannot succumb to the murmers and whispers; and, always bet on the good guys
Sue said on May 19th, 2008 at 11:17 am
Thank you Brian; I think I will take your last sentence to heart.
Connie said on May 19th, 2008 at 11:18 am
Plenty of rabid haters here in Elkhart. We even had a cross burning on the lawn of an interracial a couple of weeks ago. The discussion forums on the Truth web site (our local newspaper for what it’s worth), http://etruth.com, are filled with horrible racism aimed both at African-Americans and Hispanics, who, according to the posters, are all illegals.
Beryl Ament said on May 19th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
I’m so glad those butterflies hatched. They were still in their cocoon at Christmas (photo 5).
Catherine said on May 19th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
I adore Sarah Ferguson and her daughters… but did Bea think to ask anyone else, “What are you wearing to the wedding?” She really sticks out in the group pix, not in a good way. As Miley Cyrus will testify, it can suck to do your growing up in the spotlight.
Catherine said on May 19th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Slowly, sadly and stubbornly I’m realizing that Hillary probably isn’t going to make it. In any other year, I’d be on that Obama bandwagon — His campaign really does seem to represent a fresh, more sincere, honest and hopeful alternative to the traditional spin-centered campaign. My concern is what happens if/when the pedestal he’s on is rocked or toppled by scandal. It’s a really long way to fall. As Jeff said, though, I’m trying to dig down deep in my dream duffle (dude).
del said on May 19th, 2008 at 6:58 pm
I’m with JohnC about Obama — nervous but hopeful.
Terry WAlter said on May 20th, 2008 at 6:02 am
I’m nervous but hopeful about Obama;nervous that he’ll win. To believe that a product of the Cook county political machine is a paragon of virtue is truly a gargantuan leap of faith. He’s just a used car salesman in a different suit. Isn’t that his buddy they are now trying to decide whether or not to hang? And the utter arrogance to call McCain naive on foreign policy. McCain spent years in the Hanoi Hilton and decades in the Senate. He was a near lone voice in the wilderness calling for the troop surge,which by any objective standards has tilted the battle back in our favor. Obama-up until a couple of years ago, foreign policy to him meant outside Cook county.
Here’s a couple of nuggets for you mo’ better government types. The recently retired,Ivy league educated mayor of Ft. Wayne Graham Richard, awarded a 3 year $285,000 contract to his “High Performance Government Corp.” a nonprofit government efficiency group he helped create just months before he left office. This contract,just coincidentally I’m sure, was just under the $100,000 per year that would require council approval. The first payment came just before the end of 2007 (and his term), for which NO services were performed. Now THAT’S efficiency.
And in Nancys’ beloved Ohio, remember the Big Tobacco settlement money that was extorted years ago? $270 million.
It was supposed to go toward educating people to not smoke. Well, let’em hack themselves to death. The state legislature has better things to do with $230 million of it. They’ll spend it however they damn well please.
So while you are all loading up your rock sacks, remember the words of the immortal Jack Webb; just the facts,ma’am.
brian stouder said on May 20th, 2008 at 8:29 am
the words of the immortal Jack Webb; just the facts,ma’am
Well, we’ll skip the protracted back-and-forth, and answer just this one nonfact -
He [McCain] was a near lone voice in the wilderness calling for the troop surge,which by any objective standards has tilted the battle back in our favor.
Other than, say, General Eric Shinseki, who said as much BEFORE the war? (a real career-ender THAT was, with the all-knowing former baseball team owner GW Bush! Hell, a used car salesman [as you say Obama is] at least has to make good decisions every day, unlike the socialized elite ranks of MLB ownership!)
Or John Kerry, who ran on the premise (amongst others) that Bush didn’t have enough troops in Iraq, in 2004?
Terry WAlter said on May 20th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
I would agree that the conduct of the war was poorly handled between the toppling and the surge, thus the need for the surge. There were even complaints during the invasion that they were shorthanded. I (guessing) suspect that Rumsfeld was a major player in this, part of the corporate lean & mean mentality. It sounds great, if you aren’t the one baking in the heat,without sleep, dodging bullets. This shows the weakness of the businessman as great government savior (see also Mitch Daniels). Wish there were more good answers out there. I just see Obama as old liberalism/socialism;which I know is popular with many on here, dressed in a new suit.