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So, Senator Edwards... we're all waiting to hear whether Richard Stengel was right or not. How long is it going to take you to make up your mind? That creaking sound you hear is your window of opportunity, slowly sliding shut. If you're going to endorse either candidate, you need to do so soon, before it slams shut entirely.
As Robert Anton Wilson pointed out (or William S. Burroughs, if you prefer), hexagram 23 of the I Ching is "breaking apart." Anyone who subscribes to his "23 enigma" theory will note that this is the twenty-third installment of this column. If you throw hexagram 23, the I Ching cautions: "the roof is shattered, the house collapses." I leave you, dear reader, to draw your own conclusions as to how this relates to Democratic politics for this particular week.
...The New York Times has a piece this week on exactly why letting the government powers that stretch the Fourth Amendment beyond recognition is always a bad idea -- because what is introduced as "emergency, extraordinary" powers always devolves in the blink of an eye into just a standard tool for law enforcement (to use for whatever reason they see fit). National Security Letters (or, in the original Louis XVI French, lettres de cachet) are an outright insult to the Constitution and should be stopped. I'm still waiting for a hard promise from either Senator Clinton or Senator Obama that this practice will end, on Day One. Or for that matter, a speech in the Senate right now from either of them. They're running to be leader of our country, so how about showing some leadership when it counts?
I (and many others like me) have become so addicted to watching primary returns come in that six weeks seems an eternity. Primaries, caucuses, even Texas two-step primacaucuses -- it was all good. But now, a stark seemingly-endless month-and-a-half before political addicts can get another "fix" of that sweet endorphin rush that comes from watching the numbers mount on election night? I don't think I can take it....
So maybe we can get beyond our Puritanical roots when it comes to sex scandals as well. Maybe the next time around, John McCain will be on the front page of the New York Times for a lobbyist scandal, without having to throw sex into it. Maybe we'll all realize that it is simply impossible to describe the relationship between Washington politicians, lobbyists, corporations, and campaign cash -- and still have it come out sounding somehow different than what a prostitute does for a living. Or somehow more moral.
Because once the ticket's formed, the presidential candidate is supposed to be uplifting, with soaring rhetoric designed to make everybody feel good about voting such an optimist into the Oval Office. The vice presidential candidate, on the other hand, is supposed to be the attack dog. All the negative, scathing comments directed at the other team are supposed to originate from the number two candidate on the ticket. This allows the leader of the ticket to distance himself from the political fracas a bit, but also keeps the pressure on the Republican candidate as much as possible. These are the traditional roles in any presidential campaign. Now, who does each of these roles actually sound like this year? If you were casting this for Broadway, whom would you pick for each role?
The first was the fact that (although few noticed it) she blew the opening line on her appearance on Saturday Night Live. For the almost the entire 82-year history of the show (ahem), the opener has been the very-easy-to-pronounce: "Live, from New York, it's Saturday Night!" Hillary went all Ivy League on us, changing it to "it is Saturday Night." Sheesh. Luckily for her, nobody in the media noticed the gaffe, and it went largely unremarked. But some things are sacred, which is why I feel duty-bound to point it out here.
They are called many things. Party leaders. Party elders. Senior statesmen. Bigwigs. Movers and shakers. But whatever you call them, the big voices of the Democratic Party have been remarkably silent when it comes to endorsing one candidate over the other for the party's nomination for president. I speak of such big cheeses as Al Gore, John Edwards, and Bill Richardson. It's time to lay your cards on the table, boys, and let us know which side you're on.
"As our delegate count has indicated, there are exactly 2,024 delegates who are supporting Barack Obama, and the exact same number supporting Hillary Clinton. You, sir, are the only superdelegate who has so far resisted all attempts to be swayed one way or the other. So, my question for you is: whom are you going to cast your vote for at the convention?"
POLLSTER: We take these polls to "take the pulse" of the people voting, so the news media can report on what the electorate is feeling. I know some of the answers are inadequate, but there are just so many opinions that the media can pay attention to in any one election.