Love fest BOSTON--After last night's levitational address by Barack Obama, John Edwards' performance tonight seemed merely able. That said, Edwards' "able" is better than what most politicians deliver in the guise of their strongest speeches. The most effective part of his speech was when he had us conjuring the image of a loney wife, scraping together the money to support her family while her husband, in the National Guard, serves in Iraq. Edwards seemed to go out of his way to cast most of his imaginary Americans as women; it's nice to see he's paying attention to demographics. The "hope is on the way" line was a fun bit of political jabbing, co-opting Cheney's 2000 line, "help is on the way." It's an insider punch; it's doubtful that viewers at home have much memory of Cheney's speech at the last Republican National Convention. The Edwards family is certainly impressive: A handsome wife, fellow attorney Elizabeth, w...
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One more thing about Dukakis & Kerry BOSTON--Speaking of lessons from '88, I hope the Kerry campaign remembers not how great Dukakis did in the polls after the convention, but how absolutely wonderful he looked in the final days of the campaign, when he started rolling up his shirtsleeves and really mixing with people--unfortunately, after all was lost. He looked so good, in fact, that even as every poll spelled doom for the Democrats, I was half believing that another feat of metaphysics from Miracle Mike would make itself apparent.
src='http://photos1.blogger.com/img/188/1361/640/Dukakis.7.28.jpg'> Mike & Kitty at Friends of Dukakis gathering. photo © 2004 Adele M. Stan Snoopy-in-a-Tank on the Big, Blue Teletubbie BOSTON--So I’m walking by this Greek restaurant near the dock where the water taxi dumps you off, and I hear, amplified, a familiar voice, but one I can’t immediately place. Then it all comes into focus. “I’m happy to see that the Democrats have learned some lessons from 1988,” he says. It’s a good voice, with a bit of a sardonic edge, and that swell Massachusetts accent. “I know you’ve all seen that boy-in-the-bubble picture ,” he goes on, referring to Kerry’s fabulous photo flub. Why, it’s former Massachusetts Governor Mike Dukakis, whose failed presidential bid in 1988 is often summed up visually in a goofy-looking picture of him sitting in a tank wearing a too-big helmet with built-in-ear muffs. Given the candidate’s small build and not-so-small nose, the effect was said to resemble...
White, black or whatever??
A reader e-mails:
Obama was amazing. It's interesting that he's seen by all as a black man who has a shot at being the first black pres., but his mother was white and his father black. Why is he not a white man? or ??? Anyway, he's the most refreshing person I've heard in years.
I have my own thoughts on the question the writer asks (legacy of racial categories from the old days; America's unspoken obsession with skin color), but would rather hear from you, dear reader. E-mail me , and I'll post your comments.
A good night BOSTON--There’s no getting around the fact that last night was a very good one for the Dems at their convention. With Howard Dean and Barack Obama, they got a good tap into the mojo. Dean delivers The reception that Dean continues to get from Democrats calls a question: why was this guy deemed “not electable”? I saw the same thing happen at the aforementioned fundraising dinner in Washington--on a night that was to be Kerry’s, the very mention of Dean’s name from the main stage evoked a prolonged ovation. (At that event, Dean was relegated to the small stage from the side of the room, speaking during the cocktail hour with the other also-rans.) Conventional wisdom conspires to tell us that a firebrand is a danger in an election year where the future of the nation is at stake. I say that a tepid candidate is every bit as much of a danger. Obama lives up to hype And it was quite a lot of hype to live up to. The youngster from Illinois--and the Land of Lincoln's next new ...