The presidential race has taken an exciting turn now. It all started this morning with Powell's endorsement.
It is officially all about race - no, not the race, but race, as in skin color.
The title of this post comes from the NY Times magazine today. I have not read the story - I am, after all, a tree hugger and not inclined to read many magazines or newspapers, except at my local library on occasion, or online versions.
Does Obama really have to close a deal with white guys or does he have to close a deal with all the remaining undecideds? He is moving ahead swiftly of McCain and there are still more voters' minds to sway.
At this late stage in the game, one has to ask - are people going to vote for McCain just because he shares their skin color? His economics plan has been reviewed, as has Obama's by an independent group - several, in fact - and Obama's has been deemed the most viable. McCain's ads become more desperately negative as the days inch closer to November 4th - we are now two weeks and two days away from the most important general election in many of our lifetimes.
I would like to think that we have progressed in America - that we do not see things in terms of color and race alone - that we judge people based on the content of their character, not the color of their skin - Colin Powell stated today that he hopes we have moved beyond the so-called Bradley factor, but I am not quite as optimistic.
Should I be?
Showing posts with label Senator John McCain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Senator John McCain. Show all posts
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Monday, September 22, 2008
A tale of two men
According to the Washington Post's Dan Blaze today, the following is a report of reactions by McCain and Obama during last week's financial debacle.
"McCain became the angry populist, railing against greed on Wall Street and calling for heads to roll in Washington -- or at least one head, that of SEC Chairman Chris Cox. McCain's critics pounced on him for rash behavior while supporters described him as strong and decisive.
Obama adopted a different approach. According to one of his economic advisers, Obama delayed issuing a rescue plan of his own at the request of Paulson. He held a highly visible meeting with a battery of economic advisers, but over the weekend he was restrained in either fully endorsing or criticizing what the administration was doing. His critics called him tentative, indecisive and political. His supporters said he showed calm and good judgment."
These are difficult times for the nation, and indeed the world. What the American people needs to be asking is who they trust to prevail in times of difficulty.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
First wife out of sight.....McCain's former wife breaks her silence
Friends,
Along with the dozens of emails showing up in my inbox these last few weeks, this one came two days ago. I post it here because it bears reading and thinking about. What sort of man would do this to a woman who has stood by him - whatever happened to "for better or for worse?" I heard Senator McCain once state that the biggest regret he has in life was that he did not try hard enough with his first marriage.
A must read!!!! First wife out of sight, how shallow can one man be? Carol McCain.
McCain likes to illustrate his moral fiber by referring to his five years as a prisoner-of-war in Vietnam. And to demonstrate his commitment to family values, the 71-year-old former US Navy pilot pays warm tribute to his beautiful blonde wife, Cindy, with whom he has four children. But there is another Mrs. McCain who casts a ghostly shadow over the Senator's presidential campaign. She is seldom seen and rarely written about, despite being mother to McCain's three eldest children.She was the woman McCain dreamed of during his long incarcera tion and tort ure in Vietnam's infamous 'Hanoi Hilton' prison and the woman who faithfully stayed at home looking after the children and waiting anxiously for news.
But when McCain returned to America in 1973 to a fanfare of publicity and a handshake from Richard Nixon, he discovered his wife had been disfigured in a terrible car crash three years earlier. Her car had skidded on icy roads into a telegraph pole on Chris tmas Eve, 1969.Her pelvis and one arm were shattered by the impact and she suffered massive internal injuries.When Carol was discharged from hospital after six months of lifesaving surgery, the prognosis was bleak. In order to save her legs, surgeons had been forced to cut away huge sections of shattered bone, taking with it her tall, willowy figure. She was confined to a wheelchair and was forced to use a catheter. Today, she stands at just 5' 4" in and still walks awkwardly, with a pronounced limp. Her body is held together by screws and metal plates and, at 70, her face is worn by wrinkles that speak of decades of silent suffering.
For nearly 30 years, Carol has maintained a dignified silence about the accident, McCain and their divorce. But last week at the bungalow where she now lives at Virginia Beach, a faded seaside resort 200 miles south of Washington, she told The Mail on Sunday how McCain divorced her in 1980 and married Cindy, 18 years his junior and the heir to an Arizona brewing fortune, just one month later.My marriage ended because John McCain didn't want to be 40, he wanted to be 25. You know that happens...it just does.'In 1979 - while still married to Carol - he met Cindy at a cocktail party in Hawaii. Over the next six months he pursued her, flying around the country to see her. Then he began to push to end his marriage. Some of McCain's acquaintances are less forgiving, however. They portray the politician as a self-centered womanizer who effectively abandoned his crippled wife to 'play the field'. They accuse him of finally settling on Cindy, a former rodeo beauty queen, for financial reasons.
Ted Sampley, who fought with US Special Forces20 in Vietnam and is now a leading campaigner for veterans' rights, said: 'I have been following John McCain's career for nearly 20 years. I know him personally. There is something wrong with this guy and let me tell you what it is-deceit.'When he came home and saw that Carol was not the beauty he left behind, he started running around on her almost right away. Everybody around him knew it. Eventually he met Cindy and she was young and beautiful and very wealthy. At that point McCain just dumped Carol for something he thought was better."McCain is the classic opportunist. He's always reaching for attention and glory,' he said. After he came home, Carol walked with a limp. So he threw her over for a poster girl with big money from Arizona . And the rest is history.'Ross Perot, a billionaire Texas businessman, and a former presidential candidate, who paid her medical bills all those years ago, now believes that both Carol McCain and the American people have been taken in by a man who is unusually slick and cruel - even by the standards of modern politics.
Along with the dozens of emails showing up in my inbox these last few weeks, this one came two days ago. I post it here because it bears reading and thinking about. What sort of man would do this to a woman who has stood by him - whatever happened to "for better or for worse?" I heard Senator McCain once state that the biggest regret he has in life was that he did not try hard enough with his first marriage.
A must read!!!! First wife out of sight, how shallow can one man be? Carol McCain.
McCain likes to illustrate his moral fiber by referring to his five years as a prisoner-of-war in Vietnam. And to demonstrate his commitment to family values, the 71-year-old former US Navy pilot pays warm tribute to his beautiful blonde wife, Cindy, with whom he has four children. But there is another Mrs. McCain who casts a ghostly shadow over the Senator's presidential campaign. She is seldom seen and rarely written about, despite being mother to McCain's three eldest children.She was the woman McCain dreamed of during his long incarcera tion and tort ure in Vietnam's infamous 'Hanoi Hilton' prison and the woman who faithfully stayed at home looking after the children and waiting anxiously for news.
But when McCain returned to America in 1973 to a fanfare of publicity and a handshake from Richard Nixon, he discovered his wife had been disfigured in a terrible car crash three years earlier. Her car had skidded on icy roads into a telegraph pole on Chris tmas Eve, 1969.Her pelvis and one arm were shattered by the impact and she suffered massive internal injuries.When Carol was discharged from hospital after six months of lifesaving surgery, the prognosis was bleak. In order to save her legs, surgeons had been forced to cut away huge sections of shattered bone, taking with it her tall, willowy figure. She was confined to a wheelchair and was forced to use a catheter. Today, she stands at just 5' 4" in and still walks awkwardly, with a pronounced limp. Her body is held together by screws and metal plates and, at 70, her face is worn by wrinkles that speak of decades of silent suffering.
For nearly 30 years, Carol has maintained a dignified silence about the accident, McCain and their divorce. But last week at the bungalow where she now lives at Virginia Beach, a faded seaside resort 200 miles south of Washington, she told The Mail on Sunday how McCain divorced her in 1980 and married Cindy, 18 years his junior and the heir to an Arizona brewing fortune, just one month later.My marriage ended because John McCain didn't want to be 40, he wanted to be 25. You know that happens...it just does.'In 1979 - while still married to Carol - he met Cindy at a cocktail party in Hawaii. Over the next six months he pursued her, flying around the country to see her. Then he began to push to end his marriage. Some of McCain's acquaintances are less forgiving, however. They portray the politician as a self-centered womanizer who effectively abandoned his crippled wife to 'play the field'. They accuse him of finally settling on Cindy, a former rodeo beauty queen, for financial reasons.
Ted Sampley, who fought with US Special Forces20 in Vietnam and is now a leading campaigner for veterans' rights, said: 'I have been following John McCain's career for nearly 20 years. I know him personally. There is something wrong with this guy and let me tell you what it is-deceit.'When he came home and saw that Carol was not the beauty he left behind, he started running around on her almost right away. Everybody around him knew it. Eventually he met Cindy and she was young and beautiful and very wealthy. At that point McCain just dumped Carol for something he thought was better."McCain is the classic opportunist. He's always reaching for attention and glory,' he said. After he came home, Carol walked with a limp. So he threw her over for a poster girl with big money from Arizona . And the rest is history.'Ross Perot, a billionaire Texas businessman, and a former presidential candidate, who paid her medical bills all those years ago, now believes that both Carol McCain and the American people have been taken in by a man who is unusually slick and cruel - even by the standards of modern politics.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Rice: Not enough blacks at State Department
I was saddened to see that headline this morning from a story at CNN last evening.
"I have lamented that I can go into a meeting at the Department of State -- and as a matter fact I can go into a whole day of meetings at the Department of State -- and actually rarely see somebody who looks like me. And that is just not acceptable," Rice said.
Dr. Condoleezza Rice is one of the most powerful women in the world. She is a credit to brilliant women everywhere, intelligent, educated, a classical pianist and, I suspect she sets the time for when she jogs with the President - not the other way around.
Dr. Rice is one of my most admired women and is in a group of the likes of Hillary Rodham Clinton, Jeanne Kirkpatrick, Margaret Thatcher, Madeleine Allbright, Angela Merkel, Golda Meir, Benazir Bhutto, Tina Turner, Oprah Winfrey and a few select others.
When I read that she encounters her own challenges being a sole woman of color in State Department meetings, I am reminded of the amazing Dr. Claudia Anyaso who works there. She is a former diplomat and I was priveleged to be in a meeting with her some years ago, during my tenure in the Salt Lake City mayor's office in Utah. The meeting was with black community leaders and the idea was for us to figure out how to become more cohesive.
I shall call Dr. Anyaso and take that long awaited trip to DC and have her show me around sometime.
During the time that Dr. Rice was in Utah along with Dr. Anyaso, I had requested to meet with her - her schedule, alas did not permit. She was, after all, traveling with the President.
One never knows if that opportunity will come my way again, but I will for sure be reading her book when she writes it.
Come to think of it - why on earth didn't John McCain think to pick her as a running mate?
"I have lamented that I can go into a meeting at the Department of State -- and as a matter fact I can go into a whole day of meetings at the Department of State -- and actually rarely see somebody who looks like me. And that is just not acceptable," Rice said.
Dr. Condoleezza Rice is one of the most powerful women in the world. She is a credit to brilliant women everywhere, intelligent, educated, a classical pianist and, I suspect she sets the time for when she jogs with the President - not the other way around.
Dr. Rice is one of my most admired women and is in a group of the likes of Hillary Rodham Clinton, Jeanne Kirkpatrick, Margaret Thatcher, Madeleine Allbright, Angela Merkel, Golda Meir, Benazir Bhutto, Tina Turner, Oprah Winfrey and a few select others.
When I read that she encounters her own challenges being a sole woman of color in State Department meetings, I am reminded of the amazing Dr. Claudia Anyaso who works there. She is a former diplomat and I was priveleged to be in a meeting with her some years ago, during my tenure in the Salt Lake City mayor's office in Utah. The meeting was with black community leaders and the idea was for us to figure out how to become more cohesive.
I shall call Dr. Anyaso and take that long awaited trip to DC and have her show me around sometime.
During the time that Dr. Rice was in Utah along with Dr. Anyaso, I had requested to meet with her - her schedule, alas did not permit. She was, after all, traveling with the President.
One never knows if that opportunity will come my way again, but I will for sure be reading her book when she writes it.
Come to think of it - why on earth didn't John McCain think to pick her as a running mate?
Monday, September 8, 2008
McCain's Convenient Untruth
That was the headline that greeted me this morning on my mobile phone from the Washington Post this morning. I could hardly believe my eyes. While I have had significant respect for Senator McCain's maverick ways and attempts to change the status quo in Washington, I distinctly recall that he would not make any negative attacks during this campaign. This past week was, unfortunately, replete with said attacks.
According to Sebastian Mallaby's Washington Post piece today, "Obama is not proposing to raise taxes for most Americans. To the contrary, he would triple the earned-income tax credit for low-wage earners, increasing work incentives at the bottom. He would cut taxes on people in the middle -- indeed, he would do so more aggressively than McCain would. It is only the wealthiest Americans who would face higher tax bills under Obama. According to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, Obama's plan would require the richest 1 percent of Americans to sacrifice a modest 1.5 percent of their after-tax income in 2012. By contrast, no-sacrifice McCain would award America's elite a 9.5 percent increase."
Obama's plan is very similar to the highly respected plan of former President Bill Clinton that provided tax breaks for poorer people - jobs were created, there was a significant budget surplus that has dwindled to nothing, indeed, we are facing historically large deficits at the federal level, even as the Bush administration takes over the receivership of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.
John McCain would give more tax breaks to the wealthiest individuals in the country - those who already pay proportionately less taxes than working class Americans because of their deductions with second homes, boats and other such items.
And so it goes.....
According to Sebastian Mallaby's Washington Post piece today, "Obama is not proposing to raise taxes for most Americans. To the contrary, he would triple the earned-income tax credit for low-wage earners, increasing work incentives at the bottom. He would cut taxes on people in the middle -- indeed, he would do so more aggressively than McCain would. It is only the wealthiest Americans who would face higher tax bills under Obama. According to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, Obama's plan would require the richest 1 percent of Americans to sacrifice a modest 1.5 percent of their after-tax income in 2012. By contrast, no-sacrifice McCain would award America's elite a 9.5 percent increase."
Obama's plan is very similar to the highly respected plan of former President Bill Clinton that provided tax breaks for poorer people - jobs were created, there was a significant budget surplus that has dwindled to nothing, indeed, we are facing historically large deficits at the federal level, even as the Bush administration takes over the receivership of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.
John McCain would give more tax breaks to the wealthiest individuals in the country - those who already pay proportionately less taxes than working class Americans because of their deductions with second homes, boats and other such items.
And so it goes.....
Agents of change - Senator Obama or Senator McCain - one is, methinks, misleading the American people
I tried to be objective about the Republican convention, given its incredibly negative tone. I must admit that it was refreshing to see a woman taking center stage for such an unlikely event. Sarah Palin is certainly making history in many ways.
What I did not care for was Senator John McCains arrogance about being an agent of change - was he an agent of change at one point? Absolutely - a maverick even - indeed. And now, he is beholden to lobbyists and other special interest groups and is a bona fide Washington insider. The money from big spenders is falling into his campaign troughs in buckets.
While he claims to be an insider Senator McCain, he has voted with the current administration some 90% of the time - that is a pretty big risk for the American people to take that he will maybe vote appropriately 10% of the time in his new administration. Indeed, in a recent headline in the Economist, the cover shows Senator McCain and essentially asks what happened to the McCain we all knew.
At one time, he all but villified right wing Christian conservatives, and yet he picks an extreme right wing Christian conservative, who opposes abortion under any terms (Senator McCain defers to a woman's right to choose in certain instances, such as incest and rape, etc.), who is a lifelong member of the NRA (what - do they hand those things out with birth certificates in Alaska hospitals?) and tried to fire the town librarian for refusing to destroy or remove questionable material from the shelves. Ms. Palin did not count on the town rallying around the librarian en masse. Would that her brother in law, the fired Public Safety Commissioner had had the same support.
Which of these men is the real agent of change? Today's Gallup poll indicates that McCain received a "bounce" from the convention and now leads Obama by some 3 percentage points. The American people are listening, but are they paying attention?
What I did not care for was Senator John McCains arrogance about being an agent of change - was he an agent of change at one point? Absolutely - a maverick even - indeed. And now, he is beholden to lobbyists and other special interest groups and is a bona fide Washington insider. The money from big spenders is falling into his campaign troughs in buckets.
While he claims to be an insider Senator McCain, he has voted with the current administration some 90% of the time - that is a pretty big risk for the American people to take that he will maybe vote appropriately 10% of the time in his new administration. Indeed, in a recent headline in the Economist, the cover shows Senator McCain and essentially asks what happened to the McCain we all knew.
At one time, he all but villified right wing Christian conservatives, and yet he picks an extreme right wing Christian conservative, who opposes abortion under any terms (Senator McCain defers to a woman's right to choose in certain instances, such as incest and rape, etc.), who is a lifelong member of the NRA (what - do they hand those things out with birth certificates in Alaska hospitals?) and tried to fire the town librarian for refusing to destroy or remove questionable material from the shelves. Ms. Palin did not count on the town rallying around the librarian en masse. Would that her brother in law, the fired Public Safety Commissioner had had the same support.
Which of these men is the real agent of change? Today's Gallup poll indicates that McCain received a "bounce" from the convention and now leads Obama by some 3 percentage points. The American people are listening, but are they paying attention?
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