Letters to the Editor
cabdriver
Published Letters: 594 Editor's Choice: 8
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The Dem Establishment
[Read the article: Obama's big fat Countrywide mess]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]At first glance one can understand why it might have looked like a safe choice: after all, Johnson was the guy who helped Kerry and Mondale pick their VPs.
This fiasco supports my personal intuition that Obama's lack of tenure in Congress (or elsewhere in the pantheon of the American national-level political establishment) is actually more a plus than a minus.
In perhaps as little time as one more term as Senator, Obama would be even more burdened with these shills, hustlers, and deal makers than he is already (which I understand to be an inevitable side effect of vying for the money and endorsements required to be a "serious contender" for the chosen presidential pick of one of the Big Two political party establishments)- and that much further down the road to being a compromised, terminal sellout.
(I could name names to provide examples of the phenomenon I'm referring to, but I'll forbear.)
As one of Obama's supporters, I'm chancing that his "inexperience" in that regard is an asset- that he hasn't had sufficient experience at having his idealism drained away and his integrity corroded.
Time will tell. In the meantime, mostly I worry about his personal safety.
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trivial semantic pursuits, cont'd.
[Read the article: He's a young black guy, and that's a problem for some folks]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]papagallo:
It's entirely possible to fall into the categories of "bi-racial" and "black", simultaneously.
It isn't logical, but there it is. If all this were logical, it wouldn't garner so much notice and confusion.
That ought to tell you something about the entire "ascribed identity" deal in the first place- I think it was Robert Anton Wilson who called it a "shotgun wedding of History and Imagination."
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@RC in Texas
[Read the article: Obama's best veep choice]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You are correct. Jim Webb is the best choice as Obama's VP. Beyond his pro-2nd Amendment views, with which I agree, Webb is a white southerner with military experience- combat experience in Vietnam, at that- and a former Secretary of the Navy. He's a popular Senator in a vital swing state, Virginia. Due to his previous cabinet experience, he's been around the Washington scene for some time, but he isn't up to his ears in Beltway politics.
Webb's presence on the ticket would be able to both appeal to the constituencies and electoral votes most in play in this election, and neutralize the worst Republican attacks. Everything in the way of experience and gravitas that the Republicans point to as an asset of McCain, Webb also possesses, as a Democrat. Except that Webb is younger, without McCain's personal or professional negative "baggage."
Moreover, I think Webb would be an excellent vice president- or president, for that matter. I don't trust someone who's more of a Washington insider in that position. Frankly, I think a VP like that could be hazardous to Senator Obama's health, however indirectly and unwittingly.
For me, the big question is whether he wants it. I can't imagine the Obama campaign not considering Webb the strongest running mate.
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Obama and Webb
[Read the article: Obama's best veep choice]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I also like the idea of two good writers as a presidential ticket. It's a nice note of authenticity, in a realm where most contemporary politician-"authors" have their books put together primarily by research assistants and ghostwriters.
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Obama/Webb
[Read the article: Coming to a Kabuki theater near you -- the search for a vice president]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Jim Webb is the best choice as Obama's VP. Beyond his pro-2nd Amendment views, with which I agree, Webb is a white southerner with military experience- combat experience in Vietnam, at that- and a former Secretary of the Navy. He's a popular Senator in a vital swing state, Virginia. Due to his previous cabinet experience, he's been around the Washington scene for some time, but he isn't up to his ears in Beltway politics.
Webb's presence on the ticket would be able to both appeal to the constituencies and electoral votes most in play in this election, and neutralize the worst Republican attacks. Everything in the way of experience and gravitas that the Republicans point to as an asset of McCain, Webb also possesses, as a Democrat. Except that Webb is younger, without McCain's personal or professional negative "baggage."
Moreover, I think Webb would be an excellent vice president- or president, for that matter. I don't trust someone who's more of a Washington insider in that position. Frankly, I think a VP like that could be hazardous to Senator Obama's health, however indirectly and unwittingly.
(As for the Obama campaign's canning Jim Johnson-- who, according to your article, "was fast becoming a Democratic Washington "wise man" on the model of Clark Clifford and Bob Strauss"- what heartening news. If Jim Johnson has anywhere near as much to answer for in terms of the dismally compromised condition of the Democratic Party as Beltway Establishment fixers like Clark Clifford and George Bush Sr.'s bosom buddy Bob Strauss, good riddance. )
For me, the big question is whether Webb wants it. I can't imagine the Obama campaign not considering Webb the strongest running mate.
The names of the duo fit neatly on a bumper-sticker, too.
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All forms of private consensual sexual conduct are now legal...
[Read the article: Kiss my ass]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]as per the ruling of the highest court in the land.
So what's the point of this discussion? For that matter, why was the article framed as if there was some resurgent wave to re-illegalize some private consensual sex acts?
Nostalgia?
One day the drug laws will be reformed. When that day comes, I would hope that the users of presently forbidden substances would forbear from demanding that everyone automatically approve of their personal practices, or from developing an obsession over how popular their conduct is with the wider public.