Letters to the Editor
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No sale
Nothing doing. He's as manufactured and hollow as was Gary Hart.
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Who manufactured Obama?
IMO he's a self made man. "Authenticity" is highly overrated anyhow. Have we forgotten that 'authenticity' was supposed to be what the current president had over Al Gore?
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Why vote for Obama?
So is Mr. Keillor saying we should vote for Barack Obama because he has rhythm?
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Obama has found the center, all right
He's a second generation semi-Democratic triangulator with a pretty voice and elastic good looks. He's the living embodiment of the adage, "color is only skin deep." So, too, is everything else about him.
Great.
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lovely
As someone who voted for Obama in 04 and now has him as my senator, the pundits are very wrong in saying that his appeal will burn out. We are still in the midst of our love affair with him and it's been 2 years.
I so wish the msm would stop cheerleading for Hillary and spinning it so they can have her as our nominee. I don't like her and am very dubious of another Clinton term. Afterall, this ongoing Bush Clinton merry go round has got to stop.
We need to move away from the 90s most dysfunctional families and into a new century with new ideas to fix the mess of the dynasties.
I hope more and more people discover what you have.
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Here! Here!
Well said! How refreshing to read a view of Obama that doesn't drown him in excessively complicated, hyper-analytical, or ridiculously racial explanations of his person.
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Bad ideas
Together with his "It's a Christian nation. Get over it," this article pretty much reveals all you need to know about GK's unfortunate and rather pathetic psyche.
Desperate for the comfort of the herd and lacking any semblance of independent vision, he lives surrendered to the petty pleasures of parades and big drums thumping and tedious, soul anesthetizing delusions of some communal "getting with the program," that only the worn-out and hopeless could possibly find entrancing.
As far as paeans to rhythm, Lawrence Welk said it better and simpler . . . "A one, and a two . . ."
But Welk had no pretense as a political and philosophical adept. Mr. Keillor should abandon his own such pretenses and it might be better, if Obama should indeed turn out to be a man of substance, that Garrison refrain from offering such dubious endorsements of him.
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As one who appreciates place
"...an outsider who found the center."
Of all the places the first Black President of the Harvard Law Review could go to make his mark, isn't it tone perfect that he would choose Chicago. You can say a lot of things about my hometown, but you can't deny this: it knows what it is.
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Too soon
I just hope that Obama has not been forced into the center 4 years too early. I also hope that, somehow, a nation who saw fit to "ellect" Bush for 2 consequtive terms has woken up enough to not waste this man's tallent on attempting to clean up Bush's God forsaken mess. Why anyone would want to be president at this point is beyond me. I am a liberal but that beleive that fairness would mandate that the Republicans, who have led this nation down the path we are on, should be the ones to do the clean up and get us back on track. I would hate to waste Obama's potential.
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Bad news, Mr. Keillor
... But not about Obama.
It's just -- this:
Harvard's band has no rhythm. Zero.
It's just not their thing. Which is, for all the reasons you state, a shame -- as much now as it was in HDT's time.
All other points very well taken, as always.
Excelsior!
Jim vdH
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Dear Mr. bebop-o, sir or madam as the case may be:
I was going to tell you that the last batch of WEEDWEEDWEED or METHMETHMETH you got is BADBADBAD, bro', but then I got into your head/rhythm/message/all three and LOVEDLOVEDLOVED your comments! (For the first time, I might add.) You made me laugh today instead of cringe.
Keep it up, but strive for clarity. Some weeks you're the best thing on Salon.
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P.S.
...except for the parts that made me want to weep.
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Sorry, three's my limit...
A few random thoughts:
When all the world is advocating A, I usually consider the merits of B.
Before you jump on the train, you should find out where it's going.
After a hard day of BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM, a couple of boinks in the night can really relieve the stress.
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Dare to dare
Perhaps Thoreau missed out on the pleasure of being in tempo, but that pleasure would have been overwhelmed by his miasma of subjugation.
Kisses to all who dare to stray. The American denominator is staked out and defended by virgin intellects. It is swelling with the comatose who chose a slow annihilation rather than seek The Great Escape. Their one passion; to suck all others to their whirlpool.
The possibilities are free, yet a drone I be. What would one think, ‘twas I out of step with thee?
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Best Salon Article to Date
WOW
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Is that why?
"...the Iraq war his latest attempt to prove that he knows better than Father."
That's the best guess I've heard so far about why we're there.
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a different drummer
"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away".
Henry David Thoreau, as quoted in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations
My take on this quote (which does not include the word "dare") has always been more of a recognition of those in our society who don't fit "the mold". In Mr. Thoreau's day, the more common phrase was "the village idiot". I have raised a child who "marches to the music which (s)he hears", and to her, it is beautiful, though i sense she sometimes wishes she could hear the music of the masses.
I realize this has nothing to do with mr. obama. But i take umbrage with Mr. Keillor's use of the quotation.
nancy ayres
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No surprises, I guess.....
...in the negative commentary that Garrison's columns usually get. I suppose I should stop reading comments on his columns. Every week I click on the link and read what this generally liberal, reasonably humorous writer observes about life this week. Every week I read the column these days, though, with almost as much trepidation -- about the likely feedback -- as anticipation of the pleasure found in the reading.
This week, I clicked on the comments link thinking, "It'll be hard to diss this." And then, as usual, I'm brought down by comments that seem to me to miss the point.
To address only one aspect of this in the current feedback:
Do folks really think that Garrison rejects Thoreau's "different drummer" metaphor entirely? GK's radio show, including anti-Republican and anti-Bush humor on what's seen by many as an "old-fashioned" radio show, even back before the Current Occupant's current term, is NOT about keeping with the mainstream.
For further support for my claim, go read GK's incisive satire of small towns in "Lake Woebegon Days," or his strong comments about Republicans in "Homegrown Democrat."
Marching to a different drummer is valuable; in fact, it's essential that someone does it. The world would probably be a better place if more did it.
But there are times when it's a good thing to move to the rhythm of the main beat. That's what we do when we go to a ball game, or celebrate a retirement, or get married, or help someone build a house. Please don't try to tell me that all of those mainstreamed actions are inherently dark because they are done by many people.