Out of the Loop
Out of the Loop
Unfortunately I still do not have Internet or cable at my new apartment, so I'm a little out of the loop. My mom had to call me on Saturday to tell me Obama chose Joe Biden as his running mate. I'm not going to be able to watch the Democratic convention (I'm quite upset about that) either. Right now I need to devote my limited Internet time at school to preparing for class, so you'll have to wait a bit longer before you get some snazzy political analysis from me. In the mean time, look to your right for today's must-read.
washingtonpost.com - National News and Headlines
He glimpsed inside Vladimir Putin's soul and found something to his liking. He has also showed off his Texas ranch to Saudi King Abdullah, talked economics with Chinese President Hu Jintao and visited Graceland with then-Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
Michigan Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm announced yesterday that she will hold a hearing to decide whether Kwame M. Kilpatrick should be forced from office, denying the embattled Detroit mayor's appeal to have the hearing delayed or canceled.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Aug. 26 -- United Nations officials in Afghanistan said Tuesday that there was "convincing evidence" at least 90 civilians -- two-thirds of them children -- were killed in a U.S.-led airstrike last week that caused the Afghan government to call for a review of U.S. and NATO...
CRAWFORD, Tex. -- These days, even protesters rarely visit this tiny town made famous as President Bush's favorite vacation spot.
Arctic sea ice has shrunk to the second-lowest level since record-keeping began three decades ago, a group of international researchers determined yesterday, a revelation underscoring how rapidly climate change is transforming ecosystems in northern latitudes.
Bill Clinton let it be known beforehand that he wasn't happy making his speech on national security night -- preferring to talk about the economy and, hence, his legacy. You could tell. National security rated only passing mentions.
He spent the majority of his speech wheeling through the things he obviously feels more comfortable talking about. The economy. Social Security. Global warming. Africa. Eradicating malaria and HIV/AIDS. Hillary. Becoming a debtor nation. Affordable health care. The war on unions. Income disparity. Tax policy. Lost jobs. Crime rates. The American Dream. Hope.
All of them good things. But things that don't move the needle on what is perceived as John McCain's greatest strength: keeping us safe.
Indeed, when Clinton talked about the nation's safety, he was perfunctory -- general when specifics were called for, despite the fact that the Bush years have given us so many tragic specifics to remind the American people of.
He didn't even try to make the case about all the ways McCain would make us less safe -- giving him a virtual free pass on this vital question.
Yes, the former president forcefully made the point that the charge of youth and inexperience being leveled at Obama was the same charge leveled at him in 1992. But he never made the case why Obama would be better at keeping us safe, beyond saying he would try diplomacy first.
So while it was good to have Clinton unequivocally voice his support for Obama and lend his considerable authority to the case that Obama is ready to lead, his speech felt like a squandered opportunity. A squandered opportunity that reinforced the notion that Democrats either don't know how to talk about -- or don't have the stomach for talking about -- national security. It felt very pre-9/11.
The first half of Biden's speech -- which was passionate, emotional, and very effective -- was centered on the economic concerns of working class Americans. Even when he turned his attention to his attack on McCain ("That's not change; that's more of the same"), the first issues he went after him on were his support of oil companies and the 19 times he voted against raising the minimum wage. And the first things he praised Obama for were his tax policy, and his plans to transform the economy, make college more affordable, bring down health care costs, put more cops on the street, protect social security, and fight for equal pay for women.
Just when I started to wonder if he too hadn't gotten the memo that this was national security night at the DNC, Biden finally went after McCain on this crucial issue.
He deemed Bush's foreign policy record an "abysmal failure" and indicted McCain as "complicit" in it. Most important, he repeatedly, effectively, and with great detail made the case that on the key national security issues of our time - including Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, and Pakistan - "McCain was wrong and Obama was right."
It was a powerful indictment of McCain -- a heaping, close-to-9-minute serving of the red meat that has been sorely missing from the convention menu this week -- and effectively made the case that national security is actually John McCain's weakness.
That's a point Democrats need to relentlessly hammer home from now until Election Day. Even when it's not national security night.
Aug. 27, 2008
The difference between being there, at the Democratic convention in Denver, with thousands of cheering, sign waving delegates, and watching the convention unfold on television, is of the mass surge of emotion which is overwhelming. There was no separation between what I felt, and what the crowd felt. The result was euphoria, which may or may not be realistic, but for the moment, I was swept away by speaker after speaker, cheering until I was hoarse.
Bill Clinton did what everyone hoped he would do, saying the words they had been waiting for:" Barack Obama is ready to lead this country," And the delegates gave him what he had been waiting for, their love and forgiveness for any transgressions he may have committed during this bitterly fought campaign. "I love you," he said, and they loved him. American flags waved wildly and the cheering continued, it seemed, forever. Tonight he finally came to terms with the reality of Barack Obama's triumph. Sixteen years ago, he reminisced, "They said I was too young and inexperienced to be commander-in-chief. Sound familiar?" The parallel was unmistakable.
"Barack Obama is on the right side of history," he acknowledged, without a hint of reluctance.
If unity is what the Democrats were looking for, they got it. The roll call vote was not expected to yield any surprises, and yet it did. The timing was exquisite. At just the right moment, New Mexico yielded its place in the alphabet to Barack's state of Illinois, which yielded its place to Hillary's state of New York. Senator Charles Schumer yielded his place to Hillary Clinton. It was she who clinched the nomination for Barack Obama by asking for a suspension of the rules to nominate her one time rival by acclimation. The crowd roared "Aye", when Speaker Nancy Pelosi went through the motions of asking for a vote, and suddenly, the most important task of the convention was accomplished. We had elected the nominee.
The second task was to nominate the candidate for vice president, a pro forma vote which served as an introduction to Senator Joe Biden who was introduced lovingly by his son, Attorney General Beau Biden. The exchange between father and son went beyond the normal political rhetoric. I felt I was listening in on a family conversation.
At the end of Biden's speech, children and grandchildren came out on the stage; Biden held his young grandson in his arms, the boy's small head resting on his grandfather's shoulder. That image was worth 1,000 words.
The "surprise" of the evening, was a real surprise--Barack Obama joined his new running mate on stage, an unprecedented appearance for the Presidential nominee who is traditionally hidden from view until the night of his acceptance speech. By this one dramatic script change, Obama underscored his desire to discard "old" politics.
Amongst the line-up of speakers, I noted the presence of a number of women in non-traditional roles. I sensed that Obama was targeting women voters by inviting women to the podium, including the first female three-star, retired female general.
When the lights were turned down low, a woman wearing a red suit, walking haltingly with a cane, worked her way to the podium. When the lights went up, they revealed that she was standing on legs made of steel, her prophesies. Her name was Tammy Duckworth, a 2006 candidate for Congress. She described herself as a "wounded warrior" and made a powerful plea for fair treatment of veterans who had "shed their blood" for us.
During most of the speeches, except for the major ones, the convention hall is a noisy and chaotic place. Delegates, reporters, and camera men and women wander up and down the aisles pushing anyone in their way aside. People keep on talking; it seems as if almost no one is paying attention.
The hall fell silent when a film honoring veterans of the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Korea and World War II appeared on the screen. It portrayed what the news has rarely shown, fear, violence, death, and the aftermath of grieving mothers and wives. I watched the middle aged Vermont delegate sitting in front of me being comforted by his young neighbor as he was wiping away his tears and she was gently rubbing his shoulder.
Cynics might say this convention evening was carefully staged to manipulate our emotions. Believers would say that this convention night tapped into our genuine emotions: the desire for peace, instead of war, the desire for unity, instead of division, and the desire to reconstruct the American Dream, instead of letting it letting it disolve.. I count myself among the believers.
An awful lot of childish behavior has been on parade on the campaign trail this year. Well, yeah, pretty much every campaign season we see that, but this year has seemed even more juvenile than usual. Are we getting beyond that, at long last? Did we just take a big step?
There's one way in which we certainly should be trying to grow up as a nation: It's long past time for us to get over the racial issue. Do we really want our nation to cling so tightly to the bad old ways? Is it just that doggone critical to maintain the pout on our collective lips about a tarnished few still-cherished old grudges and grievances? Or do we really want to move forward? We come far enough by now - crossing over into a completely new millennium, numbering 350 million, venturing to the moon and back, presently on our way to Pluto, celebrating the first woman Speaker of the House, and honoring the first viable female candidacy for President. But can we push farther - can we go all the way - perhaps beyond the old boundaries of a societal solar system? Were we, are we, fully aware of the threshold leaped and the distance traveled on this third night of the Democratic National Convention?
There were two major events to distinguish the day, and the principals involved looked pretty darn grown-up. After a long and nauseating obsession on whether the Barack-versus-Hillary would slice the party like a sushi chef filets a fine fish, it seems a lot more cool to link arms with some strong leadership and kick our differences into the corner.
There didn't seem to be any traces remaining of a family squabble. Hillary Clinton was hardly half-hearted when she spoke for the New York delegation, shortstopping the delegate tallies to nominate Barack Obama by acclamation. It was a vigorous and enthusiastic follow-up to her rousing speech of the previous night. Then, the rabid speculation about "What Would Bill Do" was firmly ended.
No wavering from him after his lead-off sentence, once the screaming standing ovation died down. President Bill Clinton's second line was a straightforward declaration of support for Barack Obama, and then a pledge to work with Hillary and her "18 million" to help get him elected. He left no doubt about his resolve to join and work hard for the team. Throughout Clinton's speech and that of Joe Biden afterwards, there were more detailed remarks - statements and phrases that the rest of us in the trenches in the days ahead are going to need to maintain our resolve and answer some nasty email or uninformed claim borrowed from conservative hate radio. More of the red meat that many of us have been yearning to bite into was indeed served, and on a fairly large plate. If not quite beefy enough to come with candles, good crystal, and Grandma's sterling silver flatware, then at least it was presented on some nice place mats with clean stainless steel knives and forks.
I would have liked the knives on that table to have had somewhat sharper edges to them, however. Childish of me, maybe. It was elegant for Clinton and Biden both to praise John McCain's service. Not sure I could have been so kind. Clinton didn't dwell on his own glory days beyond a reminder of how many ways we were better off by the time his stewardship ended than we will be by the time George Bush gets through with us. But he did say those eight years of his convinced him that Obama is the man for the big job, and noted that people once said he also was too young and inexperienced to be Commander-in-Chief.
A really great part about the Third Night, in terms of making a public case for Obama's eligibility came in two words from Bill Clinton: "here's why." For the first time in prime time, from both Clinton and Biden, we heard specific reasons why - as Biden's litany put it - "Barack Obama is right and John McCain is wrong." That was a clear delineation that had not been firmly established this week. They both spelled out in some detail how the economic and foreign policy blunders of the Bush administration that have left our country in such woeful shape would carry over into a McCain reign. For the first time, at least among the principal figures, we actually heard references to an assault on science, torture, Hurricane Katrina, and cronyism. Even so, these constituted a mere handful on a list of thousands of unmentioned reckless political, moral, and legal benders from which we will have a monster of a national hangover, and which we soft-peddle, overlook, or forgive too easily - at our peril.
The only enlargement which might have covered any atrocities committed by Dick Cheney and friends, came from a Joe Biden joke to those who uphold the law and honor the Constitution - "no longer will you hear those eight most dreadful words in the English language - 'the vice president's office is on the phone.'" Biden did come up with another one, inadvertently - a Freudian slip about the America that George Bush has left us being the America that George - oops - that John McCain is going to give us. I guess the Twin City Twins really are awfully hard to tell apart.
The night of Clintons Behaving Graciously and Joe Biden fighting with finesse was unexpected. The first half of it was a most welcome change and a big step toward maturity. We've been repeatedly told by the media about the Great Democratic Divide - that in reality seems only a vague memory by now. Perhaps we really are growing up in that regard. I must admit I would have liked to see Biden thrash around in the playpen a little more. John McCain hasn't taken anywhere near the lumps from our side that his side will be shoveling at us with every bulldozer in Minneapolis (and some ceremoniously flown in from Iraq), and with an aim to bury us alive.
But while we agonize about whether to hit hard and keep hitting, or to try a more adult approach, we do have one thing that makes us all very grown-up indeed. Tactics and individual convention highlights aside, we all took one giant leap for American-kind on the Third Day. The smiles, the tears, the rapt expressions, the bliss - from faces of all skin tones throughout the arena - told the full story. Our country evolved tonight. We grew up a little more. We reached farther. We stood just a little taller and took a longer, deeper, more deliberate breath. We knocked 18 million cracks in one glass ceiling and utterly shattered another. We are not the same America now. We're a nation with an emotional, cultural, societal, and historical wound that we've nursed for centuries - and a whole lot of us just made it official - that we're getting over it and putting it behind us.
There is a person of color just one election away from possibly winning the biggest, most powerful, and most important job in this country. We should all stop a moment in the midst of this partisan madness and appreciate that. Hey, world - we're growing up. It's a huge first in American history that some Democratic party elders stated today that they thought they'd never live to see. Joe Biden put it nicely - "these are extraordinary times. I'm ready, Barack Obama's ready, this is his time, this is our time."
Maybe it finally is.
Sure, hindsight is 20-20. But after watching Hillary and Bill Clinton's speeches over the past two nights, you have to believe that their rousing endorsements of Barack Obama were inevitable. There was simply no way that the Clintons - perhaps the most strategic, committed Democrats in the country - were going to squander their prime time slots and invite permanent reputations as poor losers by offering lukewarm praise.
The Clintons were eloquent, gracious and glowing. They left no doubt that they will work hard to elect Obama. And that they hope and expect their supporters to do the same.
All of which raises a sneaking suspicion. Did Democrats allow word of the Clinton-Obama rift to spread before the convention, or perhaps even fan the flames, knowing full-well that the so-called "tensions" would be healed beautifully in a masterful display of unity and grace?
Maybe the rift was real. Maybe the stars happened to align in just the right way. Maybe the Democrats got lucky. Maybe the Clinton really were planning on delivering passive aggressive or nasty speeches.
Yet whether intentional or not, it now seems clear that pre-convention media obsession with the Clinton-Obama rift raised the stakes of the first several nights of the convention, created a sense of drama, boosted viewership, made the roll-call vote seem even more stupendous, and generated a round of highly-favorable post-speech media coverage about party unity.
And the icing on the cake, of course, is how ridiculous the McCain camp now looks for having rolled out a round of ads emphasizing Hillary Clinton's criticisms of Obama.
This does beg the question of whether the candidate who lacked the smarts to oppose the Iraq war, understand the importance of Afghanistan, keep the distinction between Sunni and Shi'a straight, etc., might have just fallen face-first into a tactical sucker punch.
Q. In your post, "Mind/Body/Spirit: The Meditation Connection"( http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kay-goldstein/mindbodyspirit-the-medita_b_109041.html ), you spoke about how meditation helps us integrate the various parts of ourselves and said, "What could be a better basis for physical and mental health?" Can you talk more about practices that enhance the healing process and lay the foundation for health?
A. The answer to this question could and has filled volumes of books and research articles. So I will provide a brief overview of the subject from the perspective of meditation as a vehicle for healing and then offer two guided meditations that readers might want to try.
First of all, as a stress reliever, meditation reduces cortisol levels responsible for the fight or flight response. That can enhance the functioning of our immune systems to combat disease. Think of the body as an energy system: the less fuel needed to keep our muscles tight and ready to run, the more that is available for other body functions -- such as the brain. Likewise a relaxed muscle and body are likely more tolerant of pain. Using the example of back spasms -- one that I have had personal experience with, we know that even a small injury or dislocation in the spine can trigger the muscles to go on alert to tighten and protect the spine. Sometimes, there is more pain and distress from the muscle reaction than from the original injury. The muscle pain itself can cause more tightening and a pain cycle is produced. A practice such as meditation, that interrupts that cycle, is helpful.
This does not imply that someone who is sick has total control over the course of their illness. But it does invite us to make some active positive choices that encourage our own healing and enhance medical and other interventions. Faced with a broken leg, I would certainly not wait for my cells to figure out how they were going to fuse without having an expert place them in proximity to where they could do their natural work. Nor would I unilaterally avoid pain medication.
Secondly, we can in a meditative state activate the body's own natural resources for healing. We can do this through "passive" traditional sitting meditation which I talked about in the earlier article. Guided imagery or guided meditation is another direct way to do this. Hypnosis and self- hypnosis works in much the same way- setting the creative unconscious to work on our behalf. Both seem to operate using the process of resonance. Like a friend who walks in the room and "lights it up", we are sending our images and thoughts from our brains and hearts into our body in the hopes of lighting and balancing the places that are out of sync.
When we use our minds in this process, we are simply being open to the possibility of health-or health that is optimal in our particular circumstances. We identify ourselves with health. So often when we are not feeling well and are confronting a disease process, we identify ourselves as a victim or embodiment of that process. There is always some part of us that is whole and engaged in health. This is the part that we want to encourage and support.
Here is an exercise using imagery that I have found both delightful and surprisingly effective. It is adapted from one created by Laurel Wilkinson, a CranioSacral therapist, teacher and energy healer (www.thecounciloftrees.com).
First relax the body and take a few deep breaths, drawing in light and relaxation on each "in" breath and exhaling tension and discomfort on each "out" breath.
Then allow your attention to gently drift through the body until it finds a single cell that is operating in fully vibrant health. Even if you are suffering from illness or injury, there are likely to be millions of the 72 trillion cells in your body which know how to function at their best potential.
Attend to that cell, feeling how well it feels, noting what it looks like, its location. Then invite that wonderful cell to "teach" the other cells around it how to function in a healthy way. You are asking that cell to entrain the others, lighting and lending its energetic signature or frequency. Imagine then that from the root of that one healthy cell that well-being is "telegraphed' or spread throughout your body, each cell teaching and inviting its neighbor until your whole body or a much as is able, "comes online".
Enjoy the feelings of well-being in your body and express appreciation to that stalwart little cell. You can try this again as often as you like. Sometimes other cells will show up to be the "lead helper".
Watch for another exercise in Part Two.
Kay Goldstein, MA teaches meditation and writes poetry, fiction and articles addressing the challenges and joys of daily living and spiritual practice. www.kaygoldstein.com
The Never-Ending Rift
The Never-Ending Rift
Today's must-read comes from the Politico:
Tensions boil between Obama-Clinton camps
By John F. Harris & Mike Allen
DENVER — As Democrats arrived here Sunday for a convention intended to promote party unity, mistrust and resentments continued to boil among top associates of presumptive nominee Barack Obama and his defeated rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton.
One flashpoint is the assigned speech topic for former president Bill Clinton, who is scheduled to speak Wednesday night, when the convention theme is “Securing America’s Future.” The night’s speakers will argue that Obama would be a more effective commander in chief than his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.).
The former president is disappointed, associates said, because he is eager to speak about the economy and more broadly about Democratic ideas — emphasizing the contrast between the Bush years and his own record in the 1990s.
This is an especially sore point for Bill Clinton, people close to him say, because among many grievances he has about the campaign Obama waged against his wife is a belief that the candidate poor-mouthed the political and policy successes of his two terms.
Some senior Democrats close to Obama, meanwhile, made clear in not-for-attribution comments that they were equally irked at the Clinton operation. Nearly three months after Hillary Clinton conceded defeat in the nomination contest, these Obama partisans complained, her team continues to act like she and Bill Clinton hold leverage.
After a period earlier this month when the two sides were working collegially over strategy, scheduling, and other convention logistics, things turned scratchy again in recent days.
Some senior Obama supporters are irritated at how they perceive the Clintons fanned — or at a minimum failed to douse — stories that she was not even vetted as a possible vice presidential nominee. This is because she told Obama she preferred not to go through the rigorous process of document production unless she was really a serious contender, an Obama associate noted.
One senior Obama supporter said the Clinton associates negotiating on her behalf act like “Japanese soldiers in the South Pacific still fighting after the war is over.”
A prominent Obama backer said some of Clinton’s lieutentants negotiating with the Obama team are “bitter enders” who presume that, rather than the Clintons reconciling themselves to Obama’s victory, it is up to Obama to accommodate them.
In fact, some senior veterans of Clinton’s presidential campaign do believe this.
“He has not fully reconciled,” said one political operative close to the Clintons, “and he has not demonstrated that he accepts the Clintons and the Clinton wing of the party.”
While the Clintons have a relatively easy job in Denver — to deliver gracious speeches and accept what are likely to be loud cheers from their supporters — it is “Obama who has the heavy lifting” this week, this aide said.
This is because large numbers of Clinton backers — 30 percent in a recent ABC/Washington Post poll — are still not backing Obama over McCain.
The peevishness on both sides and the volume of behind-the-scenes catcalls are noteworthy because both the Clinton and Obama teams had resolved in pre-convention talks that it was overwhelmingly in the interests of both sides to get along.
Both Obama and Clinton associates have said for weeks that one of the challenges of Denver would be to control the news media narrative, in a city full of reporters and political sources, at an emotional moment for both the Obama and Clinton teams.
Several hours after this story was first published, Obama strategist David Axelrod and Clinton senior adviser Maggie Williams, issued a joint statement. It did not address the reportedly bruised feelings over Bill Clinton's speaking assignment, but said:
"We understand that some in the news media are more interested in reporting the rumor of controversy than the fact of unity. The fact is that our teams are working closely to ensure a successful convention and will continue to do so. Senator and President Clinton fully support the Obama/Biden ticket and look forward to addressing the convention and the nation on the urgency of victory this Fall. Anyone saying anything else doesn't know what they're talking about. Period."
While Bill Clinton remains angry about how he and his wife were treated by both Obama backers and the news media — and he is particularly resentful at what he sees as unfair allegations that he tried to exploit racial divisions for political advantage — he has made the decision that he will put forward a positive face for Obama’s benefit at Denver.
It is harder to do that when the topic is foreign policy and national security, which lends itself to restrained, rather than boisterous, partisan rhetoric.
“That puts him in a terrible bind, because you can’t give a ringing endorsement when you’re talking about foreign policy,” a longtime Clinton adviser said. “Obviously, the hard thing to talk about with Obama is commander in chief, of all his many talents.
“You don’t rah-rah about commander in chief. You rah-rah about hope and change and a new party and all that. So no matter what he does, somebody will find fault with it.”
Hillary Clinton, who associates said seems more at peace with the results of the nomination battle than her husband, is treating her speech preparation as an all-hands-on-deck exercise, bringing back longtime aides who worked with her during the White House years and in her Senate office.
Jim Kennedy, a veteran Clinton press hand and now an executive at Sony studios, was recalled to work on a speech draft, as was former White House speechwriter Lissa Muscatine, according to Clinton associates.
Many of Hillary Clinton’s negotiations with the Obama team, aides said, have been led by former White House lawyer Cheryl Mills — a fiercely loyal associate of the Clintons who is known for her relentless and sometimes combative advocacy on their behalf.
Another longtime associate, former White House chief of staff John Podesta, said he has little doubt that Hillary Clinton will easily meet her political challenge in Denver. He predicted that her supporters will “blow the roof” off the convention center with cheers for her, and that she will in turn make a rousing appeal for Obama.
Podesta, the founder of the liberal Center for American Progress think tank, said Bill Clinton’s challenge is harder. “I think he’s got a high bar because he needs to show enthusiasm, and the press will be looking for any stray remark as a sign that he doesn’t fully support” the Obama campaign, Podesta said, adding, “It’s a bar he’ll get over.”
Matt McKenna, a spokesman for Bill Clinton, said his boss "looks forward to making the case that Barack Obama is the best candidate to restore America's standing in the world."
Paul Begala, a former operative who has spoken to both Clintons in recent weeks, agreed. He said the former president, whatever mixed feelings remain from the primaries, will work to elect Obama because, “It’s killing him to watch what has happened over the past eight years. It’s been torture to watch the slow unraveling of so much of what his administration achieved.”
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