Month: August 2008

Christianists have succeeded in getting an initiative on the Massachusetts ballot this fall, reinstating the 1913 law, inspired by fears of miscegenation, that bars out of staters getting married in the Commonwealth, if their own state doesn’t recognize such marriages. Meanwhile, Christianists in Arkansas have put an initiative on the ballot, preventing children from being adopted or placed in foster homes by gay couples.

[Correction: They have merely been given legal permission (which is actually a formality) to gather signatures for a possible 2010 ballot measure. Apologies.]

Two-tour Green Beret Ted Sampley of the 2004 “Swift Boat Veterans for Truth” is now targeting the Republican nominee with the group “Vietnam Veterans Against John McCain.”  For some reason, Fox News is less eager to have him on the air than they were four years ago.

I’m afraid Jon Chait is on the mark. And I wouldn’t want to vote for me for president either. I know my weaknesses. McCain should get a blog.

A reader writes:

I agree with you that Michelle Obama’s speech was brilliant, but for most of it I was just thinking "pretty good", as much of it felt like things I’d heard before.

For me, the crucial moment when it went from good to great was when she told the story of her husband driving her and their infant daughter home from the hospital, creeping along at ten miles an hour, watching them in the back seat, the weight of the world on his shoulders.   As a father myself, I remember doing exactly the same thing, and I know exactly what he was feeling at that moment — it’s one of the most intense experiences of a father’s life.

I don’t know what effect it will have compared to the big narratives, the policy questions, the partisan bickering, and the war room spin machines, but I do feel confident of this: with those few words, Michelle Obama brought back memories that reduced more than a few fathers to tears, and made all but the most stonehearted partisans realize that in some ways that really matter, Barack Obama is no different than they are.

One photograph from Rachel Papo’s photo series on female Israeli soldiers. From her statement:

At an age when social, sexual, and educational explorations are at their highest point, the life of an eighteen-year-old Israeli girl is interrupted. She is plucked from her home surroundings and placed in a rigorous institution where her individuality is temporarily forced aside in the name of nationalism. During the next two years, immersed in a regimented and masculine environment, she will be transformed from a girl to a woman, within the framework of an army that is engaged in daily war and conflict.

More images here.

Weigel grudgingly writes his obligatory Clinton dead-ender post:

How does the Obama campaign dig out of this? Gee, I don’t know. Everything else about the convention is so dull, and Clinton allies are so eager to throw daggers at Obama (anonymously, of course), that I expect it to stay the buzz of the convention until Wednesday night, at least. The reporter-to-protester ratio at a planned rally of "hundreds" of Hillary dead-enders is going to be huge. Yes, they’re a fraction of the number that will be cheering Ron Paul in Minneapolis, but no one knows who they’re voting for. The Clinton dead-enders are clearly gettable for McCain: Their gripe is not about ideology, but emotional pique.

This is worth reading. It’s the Benediction on the first night of the DNC Convention. If you’re interested in what evangelical liberalism sounds like, not a bad place to start:

"Father God, This week, as the world looks on, help the leaders in this room create a civil dialogue about our future. We need you, God, as individuals and also as a nation. We need you to protect us from our enemies, but also from ourselves, because we are easily tempted toward apathy.

Give us a passion to advance opportunities for the least of these, for widows and orphans, for single moms and children whose fathers have left.

Give us the eyes to see them, and the ears to hear them, and hands willing to serve them.

Help us serve people, not just causes. And stand up to specific injustices rather than vague notions.

Give those in this room who have power, along with those who will meet next week, the courage to work together to finally provide health care to those who don’t have any, and a living wage so families can thrive rather than struggle.

Hep us figure out how to pay teachers what they deserve and give children an equal opportunity to get a college education.

Help us figure out the balance between economic opportunity and corporate gluttony.

We have tried to solve these problems ourselves but they are still there. We need your help.

Father, will you restore our moral standing in the world.

A lot of people don’t like us but that’s because they don’t know the heart of the average American.

Will you give us favor and forgiveness, along with our allies around the world.

Help us be an example of humility and strength once again.

Lastly, father, unify us.

Even in our diversity help us see how much we have in common.

And unify us not just in our ideas and in our sentiments—but in our actions, as we look around and figure out something we can do to help create an America even greater than the one we have come to cherish.

God we know that you are good.

Thank you for blessing us in so many ways as Americans.

I make these requests in the name of your son, Jesus, who gave his own life against the forces of injustice.

Let Him be our example.

Amen."

Schwenkler adds his own poem to the mix: Meditations At The Corner.

A reader echoes my thoughts:

I have to say while watching Rep. Leach’s speech my first thought was "why didn’t they pick someone with more charisma and, to be honest, an easier voice to listen to".  What a silly choice right?  How are we going to win Republican votes if this is the best GOP spokesman we can find.  Well here is the answer. 

What type of Republican is going to be interested in Obama and, much more importantly, is watching the convention.  The answer is that the Republican vote that Obama can chip away at during the convention is the intellectual one. 

Clearly he is making a play at the evangelical vote, he will also win some middle class GOP votes if he proves he is stronger on the economy.  But a Republican who is watching one of the lesser watched speeches at the Democratic convention is one that will only vote for Obama based on strong substance and argumentation and Leach provided exactly that.

Does his voice remind me a little of Kermit the Frog?  Yes.  But, did he make very strong points?  Absolutely.  Between Barack, Hillary, Michelle, and Joe (Biden… are we on a first name basis yet?) this convention will not lack charisma.  Leach brought something else, substance for the well read, politically savvy Republican who chose to watch a relatively unimportant part of the Democratic convention. Politics is about knowing your target and, in my opinion, the Obama campaign hit a bullseye with this pick.