Obama, Haunting Songs, and Conservate Hate

Workout notes I taught two yoga classes and then did an easy 3 mile walk afterward. It is time to rest and taper. The yoga classes: still a bit choppy; I need more practice.

Politics: Time and time again we hear how those mean old liberals are so hateful. Well, check out Ted Nugent’s hateful rants:

“Oh, but that’s ok?” Obama, a “piece of shit”? He has done far more with his life than this ignorant jerk ever will.

Hat tip to KingOneEye at the Daily Kos. I wonder if O’Reilly will have anything to say (in fairness, he did go after the Free Republic for some hateful posts and comments, which I am sure does not reflect all (or most) of Free Republic members.

Speaking of Obama: he has picked up a nice endorsement!

This is short and sweet…

Yes, Zbigniew Brzezinski, former National Security Advisor for Jimmy Carter is throwing his support behind Obama.

Primarily, due to Obama’s approach to foreign affairs and the “NEW” word of everything.

Zbigniew Brzezinski, one of the most influential foreign-policy experts in the Democratic Party, threw his support behind Barack Obama’s presidential candidacy, saying the Illinois senator has a better global grasp than his chief rival, Hillary Clinton.

And Obama has some cross over appeal; this guy can win!

Mike Scherer has a must-read piece up at Salon right now on the cross-over appeal of Barack Obama. As most of us know, Obama pulled off a shocking third place in a poll of Republican primary voters in Iowa, something that is never seen. Scherer looks into this phenomenon, and finds real potential for a landslide with Obama:

A recent poll by the Washington Post and ABC News revealed a third data point in Obama’s favor: When asked in July which Democratic candidate has the best chance to defeat a Republican in a general election, Republicans and independents were more likely than Democrats to pick Obama over Clinton. In fact, among Democrats, only 22 percent said Obama was the best general election candidate, while 54 percent flagged Clinton as the best in the general election

Now don’t get me wrong; I think that Hillary Clinton and John Edwards are fine candidates. But I am very happy with my first choice.

As to what I find wrong with Hillary Clinton, this post about sums up my concerns:

But Lordy, does our ostensible frontrunner — one Senator Hillary Clinton — make it hard to rally to her side. Today she handed the Republican party a nice little gift, and ceded the “terror” issue to them.

Way-smart whippersnapper Matt Yglesias of The Atlantic has the exact right take on it, below:

* chumley’s diary :: ::
*

This is, I think, a disaster:

“It’s a horrible prospect to ask yourself,

‘What if? What if?’ But if certain things happen between now and the election, particularly with respect to terrorism, that will automatically give the Republicans an advantage again, no matter how badly they have mishandled it, no matter how much more dangerous they have made the world,” Clinton told supporters in Concord.

“So I think I’m the best of the Democrats to deal with that,” she added.

Two points in response. The first is that I think the Democrat best positioned to deal with GOP political mobilization in a post-attack environment is going to be the one who isn’t reflexively inclined to see failed Republican policies resulting in the deaths of hundreds of Americans as a political advantage for the Republicans.

The other is that I think there’s a pretty clear sense in which the further one is from Bush’s Iraq policy, the easier it is politically to say that the failures of Bush’s national security policy should be blamed on Bush’s failed policies. Obama has a straight shot (“this is why we should have fought al-Qaeda like I said”) and Edwards (and Matt Yglesias) has a straightish one (“this is why we should have fought al-Qaeda like I think in retrospect”) whereas I’m not 100 percent sure what the Clinton message would be. Most of all, though, I think the politics of national security call for a strong, self-confident posture that genuinely believes liberal solutions are politically saleable and substantively workable, not the kind of worry-wort attitude that says we need to cower in fear every time Republicans say “terror.”

Young Mr. Y is spot-on here. The last sentence says it all.

One could have perhaps excused the moral cowardice of surrendering the whole “terror” issue to the GOP for a week or so after 9-11. The shock of that horrible day drove some to temporary insanity.

But real leaders need to shake off their fears and fight for what is true and right. The fact is that EVERY time a Democrat like Ms. Clinton waves the white flag on the terror issue — which means, of course, letting the GOP set the terms of that debate — it becomes harder for the next Democrat to go against that bondeheaded “conventional wisdom.”

I’m picking on Sen. Clinton, but this could apply to any number of Democrats, including every single one who gave us the pre-recess FISA surrender. (And sadly, that includes a Senator who I worked to get into office last year, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota.)

Quite aside from anything else, the logic is absurd: the Republicans propose, and Democrats like Clinton support, the following idea:

1. If there are no terrorist attacks in the United States before 2008, this is a big WIN for the Bush and the GOP. It shows that they know how to keep us safe.

AND…

2. If there is a devastating terrorist attack in the United States before 2008, this is also a big WIN for Bush and the GOP. It shows that we need them to keep us safe.

Beyond ridiculous, of course.

But instead of pointing out that shameless nonsense, too many Democrats sign on to it.

AMEN. But there is another point of view; a sort of “let’s get realistic about the voters we are pandering to” type of view. Read it here.

So, in a nutshell, this is why I both like Hillary Clinton (she seems to understand how “middle America” thinks), and dislike parts of her (where is that boldness that she showed when she tried to get us universal healthcare?). And this is why I think Obama is a better choice; he reads people as well as she does, but he is more willing to try the bold new approaches that I think that our country needs.

Haunting Songs
Another favorite of mine:

Rocket Man by Elton John (live version)

Recorded version.

Telephone Line (ELO); the editing isn’t the best but I just love this song!

Queen: Bohemian Rhapsody