When states behave badly

Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC this morning said the Democrats were in a quandry over ”how to resolve the mess . . . ” of the Florida and Michigan primaries.

What mess?

The DNC sets the party rules.  The candidates agreed to the rules.  Florida and Michigan knew the rules.  Florida and Michigan broke the rules.  There are consequenses.  Sorry, Charilie.

(That would be Charlie Crist, Republican guv of Florida who has been mentioned as a possible McCain VP pick.  When pressed in a CNN interview, he admitted that when he allowed the primaries to be scheduled early in spite of the parties’ rules he expected the parties to cave.  Still does.  What a stand-up kinda guy.  Yack.)

So where does that leave us?  The Michigan and Florida delegates will be floor credentialed without a vote in the first round (or two or three) of voting.  It’s a time-out for our misbehaving children.  Done.  No muss, no fuss.  No mess.

And no need for Clinton supporters to threaten the party establishment as the Daily KOS and others reported last week.  Puh-leez.  The media does just fine inventing drama for the Democrats—we’re the only game in town right now.  Let’s not help them along by acting like bullies.

Today’s media bash–this is too easy

Senator Obama gives a policy speech on economics.  The nitwits insightful commentators on MSNBC interrupt it in the middle to tell us what he is saying (!) then provide in-depth analysis along the lines of Obama’s-former-and-retired-pastor-said-some-controversial-things-about-Italians-and-Jews-too.

What?  Thomas Jefferson must be turning over in his grave, so to speak.

For a really funny-if-it-wasn’t-so-scary media meltdown, read this from the Daily Kos.

 Then think about this . . .

“Convinced that the people are the only safe depositories of their own liberty, and that they are not safe unless enlightened to a certain degree, I have looked on our present state of liberty as a short-lived possession unless the mass of the people could be informed to a certain degree.” –Thomas Jefferson to Littleton Waller Tazewell, 1805.

Oh?

Senator Clinton in a March 25 interview with a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review editorial board said . . .

“He [the Reverend Jeremiah Wright] would not have been my pastor,” Clinton said. “You don’t choose your family, but you choose what church you want to attend.”

So here’s what Senator Clinton’s pastor, the Reverend Dean J. Snyder, senior minister, Foundry United Methodist Church had to say . . .

“The Reverend Jeremiah Wright is an outstanding church leader whom I have heard speak a number of times.  He has served for decades as a profound voice for justice and inclusion in our society.  He has been a vocal critic of the racism, sexism and homophobia which still tarnish the American dream.  To evaluate his dynamic ministry on the basis of two or three sound bites does a grave injustice to Dr. Wright, the members of his congregation, and the African-American church which has been the spiritual refuge of a people that has suffered from discrimination, disadvantage, and violence.  Dr. Wright, a member of an integrated denomination, has been an agent of racial reconciliation while proclaiming perceptions and truths uncomfortable for some white people to hear.  Those of us who are white Americans would do well to listen carefully to Dr. Wright rather than to use a few of his quotes to polarize.  This is a critical time in America’s history as we seek to repent of our racism.  No matter which candidates prevail, let us use this time to listen again to one another and not to distort one another’s truth.”

Hmmm.  Maybe she missed church that day?

Ready for the holidays?

This item popped up in the bloglines feed this week . . .

Gardening Question of the Day for Monday, March 17, 2008

By The Old Farmer’s Almanac

Now that the holiday season is upon us, do you have any advice regarding the best way to prolong the life of a cut evergreen Christmas tree? Is there any special solution I should place in the tree stand?

Heh.  Next time you still have the tree up in late January, just claim that you’re planning to use it as your Easter tree.  Now I’ve got to get busy addressing Valentine’s.

My better angel

Tuesday I wrote a snarky piece about how easy it is to solve the current financial/economic crisis.  But I didn’t post it because before I clicked Publish, I was feeling very . . . not-snarky.  The surely soon-to-be-famous Cute Shoes Solution can wait until tomorrow.

What happened to my snarkiness? I heard a speech.

• Eloquent, articulate, delivered with quiet, calm, impassioned authority.  Presidential.  It was the speech of a leader.
• It was courageous, speaking honestly of tensions that are never mentioned on the political stage.  Only the most cynical would describe it as political, even in the midst of this political season.
• It was about love and loyalty.  It was about nuance, understanding the complexity of the very real and imperfect people we all are.

Senator Obama spoke to me as an intelligent, good-hearted adult.  He spoke to my better angel.

As my granddaddy would have put it, there really isn’t spits difference between the two remaining Democratic candidates this year with regard to policies, both foreign and domestic.  There’s very, very little difference in experience.  So is this primary season all about style rather than substance?  Yes and no.  Because this time the style is the substance.  It’s about a fundamental change in the process of our national dialogue and national business.

• It’s about a national conversation in which we listen to each other.
• It’s about forging consensus, not settling for compromise.  (And heaven help us, may we never again have a president that doesn’t understand the difference!)
• It’s about our individual responsibility to be informed and engaged, to be in the words of Thomas Jefferson an enlightened citizenry, ”indispensable to the proper functioning of a republic.”
• It’s about talking to our enemies, not only our friends.
• It’s about transparency in government—about a large, round table in a glass-walled room where every group has a seat at the table.
• It’s about elected representatives who accept the mantle of statesmanship, honesty, and civility.

Abraham Lincoln ended his first Inaugural Address, given just months before the first Civil War shots were fired . . .

I am loth to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.

In the end, the question isn’t whether Senator Obama can live up to my expectations.  The real question—the question that terrifies me—is can we live up to his?