my 26 best friends

Barack in my living room

Anyone who has settled on a candidate of his or her choice this early in the campaign doesn't deserve to vote.  It's too early.  You haven't heard any of them speak more than 30 seconds on a TV spot, or maybe two minutes answering a question like "how would you solve our healthcare problems?"; or "when is war a good idea?"

We have lots of winnowing to do.  Happily, I can eliminate a whole bloc of Presidential hopefuls.  All those fellows from the right.  I am partial to Newt Gingrich.  He is as smart and articulate and as seamless an orator as Bill Clinton is.  But he ended his last speech at the Washington Press Club saying we have to keep "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance our kids are forced to say every day in school.  And he said you can't be an American citizen if you can't speak English.  He's still playing up to our Christian Jiiaad.

But we have some very strong candidates on the Democratic side.  I like Joe Biden.  I think his partition idea is brilliant.  I like the little guy from Ohio; I'm terrible with names.  He doesn't play it safe.  He says we need socialized medicine like Canada or England and the hell with you if you don't like it.  Rudy Guilliani turned me off today when he said we need a health care system based on the marketplace - not universal care like they "have in Cuba."  That is sneaky, sly, dishonest.  They have it in England and many European countries.  Why can't these guys be straight with us?

What I want is what I had ten years ago in the living room of my friend Bill in Pasadena, California.  Sitting in that living room were me, Bill and Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota.  Bill had worked for the campaign that made Wellstone a Senator - against all the odds, against much more financial resources. 

The three of us sat around a coffee table and talked about a lot of things: education, immigration, corporate power, money in politics, the environment, all kinds of things.  Senator Wellstone was a true liberal, as Bill and I are.  There was little disagreement between us.  I suggested at one point we might change the American flag we have now (which was a near copy of the flag of the country we fought to gain our independence.)  But Senator Wellstone said he would never vote to change the flag as long as his father was alive.  He father loved the flag. 

Senator Wellstone was not only a great Senator.  He was also a very kind, loving and caring human being.

I will never forget that afternoon.  It was stimulating, fun, and a real learning experience.  I would love to sit down like that with Joe Biden, Barack Obama, John Edwards and Hillary Clinton. Just talk.  But mostly listen.  It'll never happen.  And until we can figure out a better way to meet and listen to our candidates, the two minute monologues are the best we've got. 

Since the 2008 Election will be the most important election of this entire century -- the election that could decide whether the United States will continue to lose the trust of all other nations of the world or recover from the Bush failure and disgrace that is America today.

|  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this

• #2 Comment from bgilmore725 
  8/13/07 11:39 PM | Permalink

  I agree, it's too early in the campaign to choose our candidate. During the YouTube debates, they mostly sounded alike... there weren't many significant differences in their stances.   bea
  
  http://journals.aol.com/bgilmore725/Wanderer/
• #1 Comment from mariealicejoan 
  8/13/07 12:31 PM | Permalink

  :-)  just grinning coz you are back and in fighting form!
  Marie
  =^..^=
  
  http://journals.aol.co.uk/mariealicejoan/MariesMuses/