Politics

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We have a Ticket

The wait is finally over and Joe Biden is the man.  While I’m disappointed that the pick wasn’t either Bill Richardson or my old friend, Tim Kaine, I understand exactly why Obama picked Biden.  Yesterday all the buzz both at the office and socializing after was about the pick.  I said that I was sure that it was going to be Biden.  I thought Evan Bayh was too conservative and Tim Kaine too inexperienced and that Hillary had too much baggage.  Too bad I didn’t place any bets. 

Watching the Springfield rally today, I realized Biden could play the role that Obama can’t play and still appear “Presidential”.  Biden can go on the attack and link McCain to W and and the wrong direction of the country.  I’m not sure any of the other potentials could do this with the same experience base, the same familiarity with McCain. I think he shores up the Democratic base but I’m still not sure that he can bring along white voters who can’t bring themselves to vote for a black man. 

I know there are a lot of questions about whether Biden can “stay on message” with his history of rambling and putting his foot in his mouth.  I heard one comment (sorry can’t remember who but it on one thousand panelists on MSMBC – maybe John Harwood) that remarks like the Biden’s about not being able to go into a convenience store without hearing an Indian accent might solicit a nod of agreement among those who don’t worry about being politically correct, that they might look at it as just a statement of fact.

But in my neighborhood things are hopping.  I was doing voter registration at the local supermarket this morning.  We were careful to remain neutral, but folks registering and people just passing by expressed many times that they had registered or were registering because of the importance of the election.  We even recruited one of the store workers to help up round up the unregistered.  He said that everyone had to vote because this was a “very important election”.  Lots of people said that they were for Obama and were taking registration cards home to friends and family.  We even had one fellow changing his address because is had been a Biden supporter during the primary and now wanted to be sure he could vote for him.

I think with Barak Obama, the inspirational leader, and Joe Biden, the experienced plain talker, we may have a winning team.

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Future First Ladies

Regardless of what the McCain camp thinks, they are getting favored treatment.  Imagine if Michelle Obama had lied about her siblings.  Imagine the uproar.  Now look at the NPR story about Cindy McCain:  http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93708729

Cindy evidently has half siblings she has never mentioned and, along with her father, has decided to pretend do not exist.  She can say all she wants that she isn’t a “into” politics and that she is not running for office.  Both probably true statements.  But Mrs. Mcain, your husband is running which means that if he gets elected, you will have no choice but to live under a microscope.

 I’m waiting for the media other than public radio to pick up on this.  Thank you, Kathleen Portalski for stepping forward.  And thank you NPR for running the story.

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Clinton, Obama and Race

I’ve been reading this morning about Mark Penn.  Colbert I. King has an excellent column in today’s Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/15/AR2008081502825.html?hpid=opinionsbox1  King dissects the Penn memo on using race and points out that the content could be a conversation between Klan members.

 I started out as a Bill Richardson supporter, but because I’m a political junkie was following all the campaigns.  The more I read about the staff supporting Hillary Clinton, the more I understand how poorly she was served and why she lost.  I have no idea how people like Penn were hired for her campaign, but I suspect they were FOB (Friends of Bill).  The nomination was hers to win and, with the help of her “advisors” hers to lose.  I would have loved to see a woman run for the nomination, but never supported Hillary.  I’m now beginning to understand why I felt uneasy about her. I understand that part of politics in winning, but the idea that someone on her campaign actually thought about using race against Obama makes me feel slightly ill. 

And now the Republicans are making fun of Obama’s vacation and his having been raised in Hawaii as being somehow unAmerican.  Haven’t they noticed that Hawaii is a state?

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Catching Up

So, I changed the title of the blog to FortLeft – Bob is FortRight so mine probably reflects my political views more than his which mostly reflects that he thinks he is right 99% of the time.

The Red Sox are hanging in for the wild card and we still have no VP announcement.  Hillary Clinton’s name will be placed in nomination after which she will urge her delegates to move to Obama.  Will this be another embarrassing moment for the Democratic Party?

I got a poll call the other night about local races.  Do I think Deval Patrick is going a good job? Yes.  Am I going to vote for Dianne Wilkerson? Yes.  Will I change my mind? No.  I know that Dianne has had problems with finances, both campaign and personal. But she is so good on the issues.  A leader in the fight to legalize gay marriage and then to repeal the 1913 law I wrote about in an earlier entry.  A big supporter 10 years ago when we were establishing the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women – and I could go on. And she is still interested in very local ideas.  It will be an interesting discussion at the Ward 11 Democratic Committee endorsement meeting.  Sonja Chang Diaz is a would be member of the committee and I don’t know what the protocol is, but I need to find out.  It would be extremely extremely awkward if she is in the room.

Things are finally picking up here in the Obama world.  There is an organizing meeting for Roxbury next week which I will be attending.  We need to coordinate Ward 11 activities – we will be supporting him as the nominee – and the campaign’s activities.  Should be interesting.

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Marriage in Massachusetts

I was married in Virginia in 1994, but when we first met in 1965 it is likely that it would have been illegal for us to marry there as it was pre-Loving vs. Virginia.  That case was the vehicle for the Supreme Court to say in 1967 that bans on interracial marriage are unconstitutional.    While ours is an Asian – Caucasian marriage and not a Black-White one, things were definitely different in 1965 and it took a long time to change.  But they did change and now Virginia can elect a Senator who is part of an interracial marriage.  There are even Republicans like Clarence Thomas who engage is what used to called miscegenation.

So what does this have to do with marriage in Massachusetts you might ask?  Massachusetts has just repealed a 1913 law passed in support of the the bans on interracial marriage.  The repeal came because supporters of gay marriage (like me) wanted to allow couples from other states to marry.  I think that the repeal of the 1913 law will be like the Loving decision, opening the door to change in other states.  The homophobes can dis Massachusetts and California all they want, but the tide is changing.