Bill Clinton Was Terrific Last Night!! And Biden Was Fabulous!

I hope this convention will be viewable from some URL for the rest of the campaign season. Does anyone know? If so, please let me know so I can publish the URL here. I hope C-SPAN has a place on-line where people can logon and watch the conventions, free of talking heads...

Carl Rylander from the UK seemed to think I was referring to Jon Stewart and other comics when I mentioned "talking heads." Nope. You can read my reply to him under an earlier blog titled, "Talking Heads Are a Scourge to the Democratic Process." Jon Stewart, David Letterman and others are entertainers; their horse in the race is to make us laugh. Sometimes we end up THINKING as well. Mark Twain was great at that, too. But they don't tell us what we "should" think. They just tickle our funny bones. That's THEIR job.

Even talking heads without a horse in the race are so busy analyzing all the ramifications of a statement or an event that they don't allow us time to process it on our own. This can leave us feeling out of control (which we aren't -- we control the destinies of our representatives and their policies in this land we love with our votes) and/or so confused that we decide to leave voting to other folks, who can wade through the morass and decide who should be our next President. The problem with that is, many of them are operating out of fear or misinformation (because of what the other party has said) and so they are not operating under full faith. These are the "lesser of two evils," "better the devil you know than the one you don't" voters.

There are no devils in this race. There are two Christian public servants who disagree profoundly on America's way forward.

There are no "lesser of two evils" this year. None of the candidates are evil. I believe, to the core of my being, that one candidate for President is misguided and happy to chart a course very similar to Bush's because of his lifelong privileged status (except for the five and a half years he spent as a POW in Vietnam) and his military background. He thinks he could "do" Iraq better than Bush has "done" Iraq, when what Iraq needs now is to get on its own two feet so we can focus on the battle we should have taken on following 9/11 -- Afghanistan and bin Laden. We've lost valuable allies because Bush decided to invade Iraq. We've utterly lost the trust of other nations. As a dangerous result, our butt is now hanging out in a way it never has before.

But John McCain is a good man. I don't think he's the fellow who should lead us beyond 2008, but he's a good man. He's just in bed with a lot of lobbyists and oil barons who do not resonate to the middle class and poor among us, all of whom are struggling in a way they haven't since FDR's time.

Obama is "inexperienced"? That's the only handle Republicans can legitimately put on him this election year. The others (our taxes will skyrocket, he's not a true American, he doesn't have enough foreign policy experience) are as phony as a three dollar bill. How come he has made so many great choices, then, domestically and abroad, to a point where what he proposed is actually now under consideration by the Bush administration? (Or is that simply a ploy by Bush to try to dissuade us from voting in our best interests? Sorry... I don't mean to be a talking head, here, but I don't trust Bush any farther than I could throw him. Not anymore. Haven't for years.)

Bill Clinton was called inexperienced when he was running for President and during his Presidency, America prospered and experienced great forward movement. And with the great team Obama will assemble, I have every confidence that he'll be viewed by history as one of America's greatest Presidents. If he doesn't live up to his promises (without very good explanation and a change in world circumstances), I'll be first in line to campaign against him. I haven't been made this hopeful for the first time in forty years to see "more of the same" from him!

Anyway, I'm enjoying the convention on C-Span. I'll enjoy next week's GOP convention, too. If they remain as above-board as the DEMS have during theirs, and stick to facts and promises, I'm sure I'll be as impressed by theirs. If not, well... you'll be hearing about it! But it is my hope-against-hope that I don't find too much to complain about, since I WON'T be listening to very many talking heads!

I urge you -- this election is as important as any other in your lifetime. Don't be a head-in-the-sand REP or DEM. Be a citizen and take your vote seriously. It will affect history.