Democratic Candidates Forum in Nevada

CSPAN has run the Democratic Candidate forum in Nevada several times now and I have caught most of it. I have found television news to be, on the whole, vacuous and uninformative CNN and MSNBC have proven to be about as informative as Fox. You can pretty much ignore their coverage and analysis of this event. They chose the most banal sound bites and entirely missed the drama of the event.

I suppose one reason I am so interested in American and British politics is not only because they are so terribly important, but because it is a great, vast story - far better than any fiction. So much promise and hope - such terrible failures. The forum was, in its way, quite riveting and I watched it several times. Note - my quotes are not exact - more like paraphrasing.

Unfortunately, Senator Obama was not there. I don't think that was a good choice on his part. The forum amounted to a series of job interviews with George Stephanopolus as the interviewer. Here are my impressions:

Senator Christopher Dodd of Connecticut: I met Chris Dodd in DC long ago - shook his hand and told him I was a fan of his work with the Family Leave Act. He's a short, stocky man with a brash voice that sounds like gravel and shockingly white hair. A strong grip. His presentation was genial and he touted his legislative work, but he didn't say anything that particularly inspired me. I think he's probably a great guy and I hope he remains in the Senate for a long time. We need him there.

Senator Hillary Clinton of New York: Clinton has real charisma and star power - especially for the first few seconds. Her mastery of the issues is nothing short of impressive and comprehensive and her commitment to universal health care is inspiring.

Unfortunately, Senator Clinton's tone is stentorian - she sounds like she's shouting when she has a perfectly good microphone on her lapel. For moments, when she was talking directly to Stephanopolus, who worked for her husband and is a family friend, you could see tremendous warmth and charm that is very reminiscent of her husband and I found myself wishing that charm could come forth when she was speaking to the crowd. If she can find that part of herself - speak to a crowd as if she were speaking to a friend - she would be simply unstoppable.

But I have two reservations about her. Philosophically, I am disinclined to see our Presidency become so openly dynastic. There are still some other Bushes hiding in the bushes and I don't want to see the presidency traded between two powerful families. More concretely, she is the only legislator running who voted for the war who has not recanted. I don't believe for a second that any of the Democrats who made that horrible mistake were truly boondoggled by Bush. They were steam rolled by a cult of personality at its unbelievable zenith - now discredited by its own stupid, evil incompetence.

Former Governor Tom Vilsak of Iowa: Boring and uninspiring. Vilsak wants to pull out of Iraq but doesn't offer any clue how to do so without leading to an even worse disaster. No foreign policy credentials. We've had way too much foreign policy incompetence - we must have someone who can handle this. Vilsak is going nowhere - hopefully. That's not to say I don't think he's a great guy - he probably is. I just don't want to see him become the nominee. I should add that Dodd also offered no clue about how to handle the chaos that will result from just pulling out of Baghdad - he just did so far more charismatically.

Former Senator John Edwards of South Carolina: What a charmer. Edwards is clearly dedicated to labor and is the labor candidate. He is a born organizer and a tremendously effective fund raiser. He is throwing cleverly disguised barbs at Clinton every time he apologizes - quite convincingly - for his vote for the Iraq war. He takes responsibility for the vote and does not try to justify it - it was a terrible mistake. That gives him a lot of moral authority. Not presidential material though. He would make a good VP candidate both because of his charm and because of his ability to raise money.

Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico: I have been impressed with Bill Richardson for a long time and I knew he would eventually run for president. He doesn't have a chance - but he would make a magnificent VP. His experience and credentials simply dwarf all the other Democratic and Republican candidates combined.

If any of the Democrats win, Richardson will either be at their side as VP or he will find a place very high up in the cabinet. He would make a hell of a Secretary of State. His ability to negotiate peaceful solutions to tense, violent situations is nothing short of stunning. President Clinton sent him all over the world as his primary troubleshooter. As a VP candidate, he could have tremendous impact in the West. He also had one of the best lines of the night (which, not surprisingly, none of the news channels picked up): "I have two minutes in my opening remarks to tell you how we can get out of Iraq, fix health care, address global warming, and resolve all these other problems we face. I can do that in four words. Elect a Democratic President!"

Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware: I have liked Biden for many years. He is a straight talker. His lack of artifice pretty much disqualifies him from the Presidency but it is so refreshing. I think Biden understands Iraq better than anyone else and has the best plan for getting us out while minimizing the mess we will leave in our wake. He would make a magnificent Secretary of State.

Biden had several good lines: "I don't think our soldiers should be in a city of 6 ½ million knocking on doors. I think the President should be on an airplane to every national capitol around the world building consensus for a loose federation such as the Iraqi constitution calls for. Iraq will never be peaceful until each of its populations have control over their own lives - their own police, their own laws, their own marriage institutions, with a central government that controls the borders, the army, the currency and assures oil revenues are equitably distributed but does little else." He also said: "President Bush will leave the next president with no margin for error. None. You need to look at all of us and decide, who has the character and the experience to take this challenge when the stakes are so high."

Representative Dennis Kucinich of Ohio: Kucinich looks like he just ate spinach. There is something terrifyingly infantile and self-destructive about this strange little man. I would hate to work for him. It just looks like he has inner demons gnawing at him - every expression, every move. That being said, I am really glad he is in this race. He won't win anything, he will remain a Representative for the rest of his days, but he gives all the Senatorial candidates the good thorough kicking they so richly deserve.

No one had anywhere near as powerful a presentation or anywhere near the moral clarity and purity of heart that Kucinich presented. No one gave better sound bites - all quite blithely ignored by the media: "It must be very difficult to offer yourself as a candidate to the American people and be forced to admit that you were misled - fooled - hoodwinked..... by George Bush" And the crowd went absolutely wild. Kucinich then said: "But this is serious. Look at the consequences of being misled by George Bush." and he discussed the Iraq debacle. From that moment on, he had the crowd spellbound. No one else had anywhere near that impact.

Kucinich organized 120 Democrats to vote against the war: "We need a President who makes the right decisions when they count. When lives are on the line. Not six years later." His plan to end the war is to end the occupation immediately and replace American troops with UN troops, clear the corporate hogs out of Iraq, and pay reparations for the more than 600,000 innocent Iraqis who have died as a result of the war. "We must stop trying to steal the oil that belongs to the people of Iraq. Why did we go into Iraq?" And the audience shouted: "Oil!!!"

Kucinich's vision for universal health care was bright and clear. "Single payer. No role for the private insurance industry. 31% of the cost of health care goes to service the insurance industry - stock benefits, administration, marketing, paperwork. With that, we could afford to insure everybody."

In 2004 I was very skeptical about Kucinich's trade policy ideas - but they sound awfully good now. "NAFTA, GATT and the WTO were developed for the benefit of the large corporations. There is not a word in any of them about labor conditions, slave labor, environmental protection." Kucinich wants to scrap them all and go back to bilateral trade agreements that hold each trading partner to the same standards we have for workplaces in America. I don't think the free-trade bell can be un-rung, but I do believe that all those agreements must be modified to carry language protecting labor organization, workplace safety, and environmental quality.

Former Senator Mike Gravel of Alaska: Gravel is not running for anything. He is out campaigning to bring an end to the Iraq war now. His vision for how to do it politically is very clear - the Democratic Congress should force a direct showdown with the President. "Everything they're doing - non-binding resolutions - even if they were binding they would be unconstitutional. Like it or not, the President is the Commander in Chief! But Congress has the authority to make war, and to end war. Let them vote to de-authorize the war and the congressional Republicans will wither on the vine. It will force a constitutional crisis that the American people will understand."

Gravel also brought out a suggestion to replace the income tax with a sales tax - which was interesting but will go nowhere and only served to dilute his main message: "Whether the American people elect a Democratic president will depend on how they see the Congress act with respect to Iraq over the next two years." Gravel is very old and very emotional - he teared up when he raged: "George Bush lied to us!! I told people - his lips are moving and he's lying to us!! Just like Lyndon Johnson lied to us thirty years ago!!!!"If you get a chance to see this forum, you should watch it. It was really quite moving. Especially the presentations by Biden, Kucinich, and Gravel.

rbs

Why am I Blogging?

Well, it turns out I seem to think I have a lot to say. Stuff I want to share with other people. And my folks told me I probably ought to.

Music - I have published my own music (for sale on cdbaby.com) and reviewed music I like. I will review some of that here.

Politics - I am very shy about discussing my political views at work because I work in State government. Even if my views fit the prevailing administration, I hope to continue working when another administration takes office. I don't plan to talk about my State government here - at least not specifics. But I have a lot of thoughts about national politics I want to share and gather people's opinions on. I'll post those here.

Family History - Family lore has it that my great-grandfather was killed by another Indian for stealing a horse. I don't know if it's true, but this is a great place to tell those stories that have been handed down. I will probably simply copy what my parents have written about their family histories. I will avoid talking about the living relatives here - or at least the more colorful stories about them from my youth. So stories like the peach surprise or the cat table talk will simply have to wait a half-dozen decades or so...

Literature - I published a book of short stories in 1998. I still have a few hundred copies laying around. I also published a book about my sword collection (long gone). I may tell some of those stories here.

Seminars - I've given quite a few. I might put some of the ideas I've developed here. I've been wanting to produce a seminar on the proper use of Power Point. Most Power Point presentations I have seen were abominable. People know how to use the software, but don't have a clue how to use the gray-ware in the heads of their victims - er - participants. Just don't get me started. Well... too late. I'll probably say something about it.

My First Wife - During the divorce, I promised myself I would never say anything bad about my first wife and if anyone else has anything bad to say about her, please don't say it here. She was part of my life for about 18 years, so I may mention her on occasion.

I'm sure there will be other topics, but these will do for now. The real reason I want to do this is politics. We stand on the precipice - when have we not? It's just that recent precipices have involved possible extinction of the species. Actually, our species will probably survive even the worst of global warming - it just won't be very pleasant. If we don't want to live in a dictatorship or a theocracy, how much less will we enjoy living under the draconian measures that would be required if we let global warming get out of hand?

Well, more like if we don't take rather draconian measures now to ameliorate the problem, twenty years from now someone's going to be giving us tickets for exceeding the per-person methane release allotment. "That's one fart over the limit... You know we have to limit emissions because of global warming... That will be $1,800.00. Didn't you read the pamphlet about not eating beans?"

Like I said earlier - it appears I have a lot to say. But I also want to read what other people have to say about what I have to say.

I've got some stuff stored in the computer. I'll start with those.

rbs