March 18: Obama Gets It

*Obama Did What He Needed To


Here's a link to Sen. Barack Obama's speech yesterday in Philadelphia:


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/video/2008/03/18/VI2008031801626.html?sid=ST2008031801183


He gets it.


He had been trying to put the struggles of the civil rights movement in the past and be the post-movement candidate, but finally came to the realization that it's impossible. For many of the generations before him and his contemporaries, the struggle still goes on. The struggle also goes on for many to move beyond viewing the world through the parameters of their own races or religions. (Obama alluded to this in an interview with ABC yesterday, in which he mentioned the very different reactions among blacks and whites to the verdict in the O.J. Simpson trial in 1995.)


Reality caught up with Obama, and he addressed it. He said that people decide now where to go from here; the way things work, he will have to keep addressing it.


*More About Sexism and the Election


Another article about the issues of sexism and racism in the election:


http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2008/03/19/politics/horserace/entry3949356.shtml

*More About Florida and the Election

In two words, the view of Florida Democrats if the party doesn't count their primary votes: President McCain.


http://www.reuters.com/article/vcCandidateFeed1/idUSN1824538520080318


I have five more words to add: Former DNC Chairman Howard Dean. He will surely lose his job after this debacle - maybe even if a Democrat wins the White House in November.

Will the lessons from this be so pronounced that future Democratic leaders will never make this mistake again? One can only hope.




*You Go, Governor's Girls


A column about the "long-suffering" politician's wife:


http://www.kansascity.com/276/story/534934.html


My day will be made when one of them decides, in full view of the cameras, to walk out on hubby and tell him to go to....well, you know.

This isn't just about politics. This is about women in general having self-respect - and respect for their children, because it's not respecting the children if they're kept in a marriage in which Mom and Dad don't respect each other.




*Curley: Let the Sunshine In


Here's an article about what the head of the Associated Press had to say about open government:


http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Sunshine-Week-Curley.html


And let us say: Amen.





*Pick Up a Paper, Don Fehr


Sniffle, sniffle....No one wants Barry Bonds:


http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/sports/20080319/c8nlnotes19.art.htm


Uh, does Players' Union head Don Fehr read a newspaper? Does he not know Bonds is under federal indictment for lying and is a likely steroid cheat? Is it possible that teams don't offer Bonds a contract because - GULP - they don't want that poison?