a warning from the past

It was a glittering time. They literally swept into office, ready, moving , generating their style, their confidence. … It was an extraordinary confluence of time and men, and many people in the know quoted Lyndon Johnson’s reactionto them at the first Cabinet meeting. he, the outsider, like us, looked at them with a certain awe, which was no wonder, since they had forgotten to invite him to the meeting.

… They were all so glamorous and bright that it was hard to tell who was the most brilliant…

What was not so widely quoted in Washington (which was a shame because it was a far more prophetic comment) was the reaction of Lyndon’s great friend Sam Rayburn to Johnson’s enthusiasm about the new men.

Stunned by their glamour and intellect, he had rushed back to tell Rayburn, his great and crafty mentor, about them, about how brilliant each was, that fellow Bundy from Harvard, Rusk from Rockefeller, McNamara from Ford. On he went, naming them all. “Well, Lyndon, you may be right ant thye may be every bit as intelligent as you say,” said Rayburn, “but I’d feel a whole lot better about them if just one of them had run for sheriff once.

From The Best and the Brightest, chapter 4, by David Halberstam (1969)

what "bipartisan" means

I'm still trying to figure out what bipartisanship means, because the way it's been framed by the administration and the press is that it means the party in the minority should suck it up and go along with the president and the party in the majority.

The Beachwood Reporter is a must read for me, each day ... I'm guessing Steve Rhodes and I would disagree about a lot over the past eight years, but I think he's spot-on correct about Obama, the press and why we might have made as bad a decision last November as we did in 2000 and 2004. And I say that admitting that I voted for Bush twice, and that it was a mistake (at least the first time).

Maybe in a political sense Obama can't afford "the usual political games." But in a financial sense, we're the ones who can't afford it. We're not just getting the money; we're the ones who are spending it.

This "porkulus" bill will have the same consequences for the United States that the Iraq war has ... and I'm frightened for my country as I type this, as there's no real way to stop it from happening.

barn panorama

barn panorama, originally uploaded by pr9000.

I'd love it if the trees in and around my home in Franklin, Tennessee, would just hurry up and change colors already. Cripes, my old home in Minneapolis is expecting snow this weekend! You'd think we could at least have some color in the trees by the end of October, right?

Don't take me too seriously, though I am a bit perplexed by the everything's-still-green state of nature down in Middle Tennessee. Not that I'm complaining -- as I said above, it is supposed to snow in Minnesota in the next few days, whereas I had the top down on the convertible just yesterday afternoon in downtown Franklin. So I'm not carping. I'm just saying that some browns and oranges would be appreciated.

Click the image above to see a panorama I took of a gorgeous old barn directly behind our subdivision. I'm sure it will be torn down eventually, to make way for more houses or parks or sidewalks ... but for now, I'm going to enjoy it. I wish I could enjoy it with more color in the foliage.

***

So I'm trying to decide if I want to write up my one-time-only post on this election. I'm listening to former Minnesota governor (and maybe former Republican?) Arne Carlson explain his decision to endorse Obama over McCain. He says that the moronic comments by Rep. Michelle Bachmann drove him over the edge and made up his mind that Obama was the man for the job.

That's fine. I can understand that. Bachmann is an embarrassment, and unfortunately her comments reflect something in the Republican Party that's run unchecked for decades now: that somehow Democrats are un-American because they don't subscribe to Republican ideas on defense, the economy -- you name it. This idea is not only ridiculous; it's dangerous. Dangerous because it's just not true, and because it's an incredibly anti-intellectual argument. It says that disagreement is not healthy, but downright treasonous.

Sometime in the past 25 years, we've replaced "my country, right or wrong" with "my party, right or wrong," and the damage that has done to our country is just starting to be felt. I fear we have more down the road.

Democrats are just as pro-American as Republicans. But not as much as Libertarians, though. :)

***

Having said all that ... much of the anger that comes from Republican quarters isn't being channeled in the proper direction. It's an anger I share, and I know many, many people who share my point of view.

In a nutshell: the "mainstream media" outlets that have defined political coverage, and thus swayed political outcomes, are irredeemably, irrevocably biased in favor or the Democratic party.

The anger I have comes from knowing that, for all intents and purposes, the media has been in the tank for Obama since the primaries started. It's not even been hidden well in a few major outlets -- namely, MSNBC and the New York Times. I have no time or patience for MSNBC, but the Times hurts my feelings by insulting my intellect. I can't read the paper anymore. I can't buy it at the newsstand, and I can't pay for a subscription at home. It's just fundamentally dishonest in its coverage.

Examples? A front page story on the possibility that maybe McCain had an affair ... compared to its total avoidance of a real-life case of adultery -- with a child born out of wedlock, no less, from former Democratic candidate John Edwards. And that's the most egregious. There are a ton of other examples, the most recent of which made me laugh ... somehow, Sarah Palin's wardrobe deserves front page play, but news about the ACORN scandal didn't quite make it that far in the A section. Hmmm.

An honest press would be holding Obama to the same standards of investigation and analysis that it held Palin, or "Joe the Plumber" ... it disappoints me greatly that the press is doing such a disservice to the electorate, and that people still fall for it. If he is "The One" then dammit tell me more about him besides how awesome he is, how he inspires heretofore unknown homosexual desires (Chris Matthews only), how he'll feed the nation with a few loaves of bread and some fish.

***

As for what I think ...

I just can't get past the fact that Barack Hussein Obama is not as qualified to be president of the United States as John Hussein McCain. He's been a Senator for all of four years, was part of the Daley Machine in Chicago before that, and ... well, that's about it. He was a "community organizer," which does not quite lead me to believe he's qualified to sit in the White House. Oh, he was the editor of the Harvard Law Review too. So we know the Attorney General's briefs will be well reasoned, which I guess is nice.

He might be a "a second-class intellect but a first-class temperament," as Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes surmised FDR after their first meeting. I hope to God that he is, because it looks like he's going to win the election. As a registered Republican, I'm not afraid to say that he'll be my president after he wins. Doesn't mean I'll punch the ballot (or press the touchscreen or fill in the oval) for him, though. But it won't worry me if most of my fellow Americans do.

Later: the class warfare boomerang, and the coming deluge of "1-20-2017" bumper stickers