headliner February 11, 2008

As if yesterday wasn’t enough, this photo is on the front page of the Washington Post! (Thanks, Cathie, for the heads up!!)

“The challenge now is to practice politics as the art of making what appears to be impossible, possible.” February 10, 2008

What did you do today? Did you shake anybody’s hand? I did:

OMFG, I know.

On Friday morning, Train called me at work to say that one of his co-worker’s husbands, who sometimes works for the Secret Service, might be able to get me into a Hillary Clinton “event” on Sunday, but that was all the details he had. Was I interested?

OMFG, yes.

His co-worker called Saturday to tell us the site had been checked out and she would be at a local middle school. We (another co-worker of Train’s and I) should arrive no later than 11:30, and her husband could get us in the press entrance.

This morning, she called back to say we could probably get better seats if we were there by 11. We arrived at the school and there was a huge line outside. It’s not that I hadn’t expected that, but I hadn’t really thought about it. We found out later the line had started at 8am. We were really proud that people in our area were attending.

We went around to a side entrance and met our friend’s husband. We went through security and he brought us to the front of a small crowd of press waiting to get in. After just a few minutes of waiting, he led us into the gym where we could have our pick of seats because we were the first ones in. He had told us that if Hillary was going to do the “rope line” to shake hands after her speech, she would begin on her right, and so we needed to head to the left of the gym to be in a good spot.

We found two seats along the front row immediately to Hillary’s right (many of the seats were marked Reserved). There we sat and waited for the many people to go through security and come into the gym.

Finally around 12:40, we noticed that her water had been poured. There seemed to be a commotion off to our left, so we were turned that way, but she came in the other door:

Y’all, I BARELY had my camera zoomed in on these pictures, she was so close.

She spoke to the people seated in the chairs behind her “stage”:

and then came around and shook our hands and said thank you! OMG, I was like “thank YOU!”

She was introduced and then began her speech.

She took questions from the audience which mostly covered what she had already spoken about. There were no questions about immigration, which surprised me because it is a big issue in this area.

Then it was time to go,

and then she was shaking hands and taking photos, and she started near us but went in the opposite direction so we didn’t hang around.

She talked about the war in Iraq, education, student loans, No Child Left Behind, the mortgage crisis, the economy, global warming, energy independence, veterans benefits, strengthening the middle class, and of course, health care. It was so nice to hear a woman speaking about how she could take America in the right direction and return it to its proper place in the world. None of this self-defeating language or “I think” or “maybes”. WHEN I AM YOUR PRESIDENT, I WILL FIX THIS MESS. Damn straight.

sigh. January 31, 2008

Thanks everyone for emailing about John Edwards’ drop from the presidential election. Unfortunately the first person to notify me was my Republican friend at work who gets Fox News updates by email. Fox News. The injustice.

I’m disgusted that now he’s being praised for raising the issue of poverty in America, elevating the discussion during the primary process, being the “grown up” candidate. Now. Now when he’s not in the running. Not when it actually counted, when he couldn’t even get a mention because it was a “two-way race” for the Democratic nomination, because the powers that be were threatened by his “populist” message.

I think what bothers me the most is that he said he was “in it until the Convention”. Now, I am realistic, and I knew that if things didn’t start to improve on the primary front, staying in the race until August would be a foolish move and a massive waste of money. But to drop out even before Super Tuesday…it just doesn’t seem right. It feels like there is another piece of the puzzle. Maybe, maybe not, we’ll probably never know. The obvious question is if Elizabeth’s health had taken a turn for the worse, and when faced with that, pursuing the nomination seemed futile. I think we all hope that that is not the case and that Elizabeth is doing well.

A thought of consolation is that he might be, once again, the nominee’s running mate. I guess I always thought “been there, done that” and it didn’t turn out well so I didn’t think Edwards would do something like that. But maybe he will, and maybe that is the reason for the early out. He is, after all, still very young. And Janet comforted me with the thought of John Edwards, Attorney General.

But it is still in protest that I’m removing the John Edwards 2008 badge from my site. I feel like I’ve been abandoned because I haven’t had to make the choice between Clinton and Obama (and technically, I don’t have to make it because I’ve already voted for Edwards via absentee ballot) because my candidate was obviously the better choice. (CityMama says it much better than I do.)

John McCain is not the devil incarnate as some potential Republican nominees are, and again I hope I don’t regret saying it, but if he happens to win the election it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. Edwards’ campaign warned over and over that he was the only Democratic candidate who could beat McCain, according to the polls.

However, for the sake of my own relevance, I will definitely be supporting Hillary, not only because she is a woman (and we all know that women can do anything better than men) but because I respect her and her experience and her toughness and no, Bill Clinton back in the White House wouldn’t be the worst thing ever either. I saw Obama speak last February at the DNC Winter Meeting and he did not inspire me. I continue to find him flat and aloof, but if he were to be nominated I would vote for him.

But thanks for trying again, John…

overheard in my office January 22, 2008

I was trying to ignore it, but then I read this post (shared by Lizzy) (thank you Google Reader) and I want to beat my head against the wall.

Him: “Did you see Clinton and Obama going at it?” (I’m assuming he’s talking about Bill)
Her: “No, I heard something but I didn’t really see it.”
Him: “They are really going after each other. And you know the Mormon one?”
Her: “Edwards? Or Huckabee?”
Him: “No, the Republican.”
Her: “Oh, well…Obama’s my man!”

There are just…so many things wrong with this conversation. Really and truly, it makes me want to cry. I know I’m “into” politics, but if you ever even look at CNN.com or have the evening news on during dinner, YOU SHOULD KNOW BY NOW THAT MITT ROMNEY IS THE ONLY MORMON RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT. For God’s sake, Mike Huckabee is a Baptist minister!! As if that is not distinct enough!

More than anything, it shows that no matter what efforts the candidates use to introduce themselves and share their beliefs and policy plans, the majority of voters are going to vote on name recognition (I’m not just talking about Obama, either). It’s one thing to do that on a county sherriff’s ballot…quite another to do it at the end of the longest presidential campaign in history. It is extraordinarily frustrating.

Updated: HA! I was quite obviously watching Deep Impact last night instead of the SC debates, so my co-worker must have been talking about Hillary and Obama. Thanks, Carrie!

“Bad politicians are sent to Washington by good people who don’t vote.” January 9, 2008

quote by William E. Simon 

Well, I am beyond thrilled for Hillary Clinton and John McCain. You know how I feel about Hillary. I was pleasantly surprised before bed last night (which was…yes…around 8:30pm) to see that she had an early lead. I’m glad she was able to win and it wasn’t a total runaway for Obama like it seemed to be early in the day. Otherwise I was afraid he would steamroll through the rest of the primaries. Now it is still an even keel, hopefully. I really think John Edwards has a shot in the upcoming contests and I am interested to see how he does against Obama in South Carolina. Edwards is from the South (specifically, he was born in South Carolina) and he has a lot of union support, which to me is more of a northern thing.

Newsweek had a few potential explanations for her “turnaround win” - the most interesting to me (because it seemed to correlate to a lot of your responses to my post yesterday) is the “Reese Witherspoon effect“:

Once Obama won Iowa, he was the certified cool and enormously popular kid in school. But as in any high-school election, the studious girls who show up to vote might harbor a few resentments about the boys. It’s like the movie “Election,” where Reese Witherspoon’s character, Tracy Flick, is an ambitious and too-perfect high school senior who has the election stolen from her after she was expected to win against a cool if inexperienced jock. By the end of the movie, she ends up on top.

You can’t underestimate female indignation. I think a lot of us were outraged that she was made to look like a fool, and at Obama’s (justified) glee over his win. Another Newsweek theory is that after all of the downplaying of Clinton’s role as First Lady, a lot of working (inside- and outside-of-the-home) women related to their own contributions to their family being “under-appreciated”.

In a workplace context, Obama may have reminded women of under-qualified hotshots who come along and get the big job with less experience because they’re cooler and have more rapport with the boss and are, after all, men. They rallied to one of their own, just as the Clinton campaign hoped all along.

Anyway, her win makes me proud to be a woman today, and I can see that excitement spreading as she gets closer to the White House (and assuming a woman’s rightful place in it!).

As for John McCain, and I hope I don’t regret saying this, but he’s the one Republican candidate that won’t send me screaming to Canada. I am a little disappointed in some of his flip-flopping and pandering in the past year as he got ready for the primaries, and extremely disillusioned in his continued support for the war (which is a major reason he is doing well now, because the troop surge is “working”). I would prefer the “maverick” of the 2000 elections. But overall, I think that he will do what is right, even if it is unpopular. It’s hard to believe he’s 71. 70 must be the new 50. I hope so, anyway, my dad’s only a few years younger than McCain.

A lot of you said that you don’t really follow politics other than what you read here. I find that hard to believe - since it’s all you read about or see on the news (is that just because I’m in Washington?) - but I see what you mean. That’s fine with me as long as you vote how I tell you to. I won’t pretend to be like my friend Princess, who - while a die-hard Republican and Fox News Channel fan - watches a variety of news channels like CNN and MSNBC, so that she can be “fair and balanced“. But voting is a right for all of us as citizens, and if you’re going to vote, I do think you should be informed, even if at the very least you vote for John Edwards because I like him, and you like me.

It’s actually quite simple, in my mind, to determine who to vote for. Everyone has a few end-of-the-road, non-negotiable issues which she feels are the most important for the direction of our country. It could be education, the environment, the war in Iraq, reproductive rights and sex education, capital punishment, dependence on foreign oil, equal rights, immigration, foreign policy, poverty. You simply need to decide which issues are most important to you (because, let’s face it, they are all important) and find out which candidates share your views. From there you just need to figure out which one gives you the warm fuzzies as far as sticking to his or her promises and tactics once they are elected.

Lately a lot of you have humored me, via Gmail chat, to take the quiz at glassbooth (which I heard about from Julia) to see which candidate most mirrors your values. It’s interesting that a lot of you came up with your number one candidate as Dennis Kucinich. Unfortunately, I don’t think he has a chance in hell of getting nominated, so you may want to start looking at your second and third choices, you crazy wacked out liberals. (FYI, he also won the Democracy For America pulse poll in November, so you’re certainly not alone!) 

If you take the quiz, I’d love to hear your results, either in the comments or via email.

One thing that has helped me to form my venomous completely fact-based righteous opinions views on the non-Edwards candidates has been the profiles done by Newsweek on each of their personal and political histories. Of course, Newsweek is the political gospel and could never be guilty of mistakes or bias (har har har). So for what it’s worth, if you’re interested in some quick background info on the mystery candidate of your choice, I have compiled them for you. I’d be interested to hear if you learn anything that surprises you.

John Edwards - The Road Warrior (December 24, 2007)
Mike Huckabee - A Pastor’s True Calling (December 17, 2007)
Rudy Giuliani - Growing Up Giuliani (December 3, 2007)
Mitt Romney - Mitt’s Mission (October 8, 2007)
Hillary Clinton - How She Would Govern (September 17, 2007)
Fred Thompson - Grin and Bear It (September 10, 2007)
Barack Obama - Across the Divide (July 16, 2007)

and just for fun…Michael Bloomberg - The Revolutionary (November 12, 2007)

I expect next week to be John McCain’s turn.

will we ever be ready?? January 8, 2008

Hillary Clinton is obviously not my first choice for President. She is my second choice. Last night the top story on the news was how she “had an emotional moment” speaking to female undecided voters in New Hampshire. The last question was something like, “As a woman, I know how hard it is to get out of the house put together/looking nice. How do you do it??” She answered by saying that she was in the campaign because she cared about the country, that there were so many opportunities and she just didn’t want to see the country slip backwards. She kind of got choked up…she wasn’t bawling, or unable to speak, it was just one of those times when you are speaking about something that you feel strongly about, and the moment kind of overtakes you. I honestly have no doubt that it was a calculated display to try to win back some female voters. It seemed genuine, but aren’t we all a bit cynical anyway?

So this morning, our local ABC News-affiliated radio station reported that Hillary had gotten choked up “when responding to a question about how she stays strong in the face of falling poll numbers.” IT INFURIATED ME. That’s not what she was asked! I saw the video, LAST NIGHT, on the ABC national news! It completely changes the whole situation. She wasn’t crying because she was losing! It makes me so angry how, once again, documented words and actions can be manipulated and confused and no one questions it.

never say never January 4, 2008

When I was pregnant with Sherman, who was born in April, I made a lot of hard-and-fast proclamations about pregnancy. I wouldn’t tolerate being pregnant more than a week past my due date. I could never breastfeed, or use cloth diapers. I did not want Train anywhere below my belly button during labor. I refused to give birth on April Fools Day. I would under no circumstances use a bedpan in the hospital. I would wear a fake wedding ring if my fingers got too swollen to wear mine.

Some of these I followed (breastfeeding, cloth diapers, fake rings). Some of them, by pure luck, I was able to follow (bedpan, avoiding April Fools Day). A few of them got thrown in my face with a vengence (Sherman was 9 days late, and Train had to hold a leg while I pushed).

But my number one rule was that I could never be pregnant in the summer. I was so hot during the third trimester (January/February/March) that I couldn’t imagine being in a sweltering Washington summer. I was born in June and I remembered my mom’s horror stories and how the only saving grace was that I was born at the beginning of the summer. When I attended Seagrass Girl’s bridal shower in March, one of the other bridesmaids hugged me and then said, “WOW you are warm! I can feel the heat coming off of you!” I was constantly sweaty.

So it goes without saying that our next baby is due August 1, 2008, right?

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And speaking of babies (as in, “I’d like to have his“), yay for John Edwards for coming in second in Iowa. On to New Hampshire!

it’s that time again! November 28, 2007

Last week I was updating my About Me page, trying to distill my John Edwards love into easy-to-understand snippets, when I came across the story (which I included on the page) of attending the Winter DNC Meeting here in D.C. in February. Monday night John called to invite me to the Fall Meeting, which is being held in Northern Virginia on Friday. Unfortunately, I can’t attend, but I know those of you who are near a television will be watching on C-SPAN.