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oiranI missed Barak Obama's speech the first time around, so I listened this morning. I would encourage anyone, of any party or politics, to listen to the guy. You can listen to the speeches on MSNBC.com. Which, no surprise, makes you use I.E. to view them. I knew there was a reason I left it installed...
I had never heard of Mr. Obama until yesterday afternoon, when I happened to flip through the copy of US News that comes to me by virtue of my being a salon.com subscriber (along with a half-dozen or so other magazines…really, you should subscribe to salon for the magazines alone). Good-looking wiry black guy glad-handing Middle Americans. Huh. Read the article. Fell half in a very agape kind of love. Was confused by political enthusiasm and put down magazine, shaking head as if to ward off flies.
Everyone who was interested either watched the convention speeches last night or has watched them today on MSNBC.com (you can go back and listen to the earlier speeches, too). Seeing some reaction on my flist to Mr. Obama's speech, I turned on the TV in time to catch Teresa Heinz-Kerry's speech and the commentator response.
This was my first exposure to Mrs. Kerry, actually. Or any of them. I have been off the news since the debacle that was the last presidential election. I cannot listen to the voice of GW Bush without a visceral rage. I'm sure he's an okay guy in RL, but his complete lack of concern or thought behind what he's saying/what's been written for him to say absolutely maddens me.
I like Mrs. Kerry. I like that she still loves her dead husband. I like that she's obviously a completely separate being from her current husband. I get the impression that she could (were it not for her non-U.S.-born status) just as easily and likely be running for this office instead. I also get the impression that she has better things to do ;) She seems to expect people to be intelligent, which is something I've always appreciated in political speech - it's respectful of an audience to assume that they are not retarded, don't you think?
What surprised me in the wake of her speech was the immediate dissection of her supposed non-supportive unwifeliness. That NYT reporter, David someone with the phony, constant smile, insisting that she had failed entirely because she didn't tell anecdotes about her husband, was so insulting that I walked away from the TV with a snarl. See, I really have no tolerance for having my intelligence insulted.
So, this morning, I, too, fell in love with Barak Obama courtesy of MSNBC. Youth, diversity, hope, mutual responsibilities, inclusiveness, expansiveness of spirit and behavior - all things I've missed in politics. A very effective speaker, intimate and natural. Like everyone else, I'll be watching him and hoping he lives up to this promise. If he does, I'll follow him around like a voting dog.
Watched the Clinton (Bill) speech, too. Personally, I've always liked Bill Clinton. Why? He's very, very smart. He's idealistic. He's a narcissist and egomaniac which makes him shrewd and diplomatic. He can't keep it in his pants, but I don't think that actually matters for the job we had hired him to do. Marital fidelity can't be used as a critical issue for job performance or some huge proportion of the citizens of the world are unsuitable for any work that impacts other lives. However, unlike what seems to be the vast majority of Clinton's fans, I don't think he's a particularly interesting or compelling speaker. I've liked him for his ideas, not his presentation of them. On the other hand, I like to listen to Al Gore, so maybe I'm just weird.
And just out of curiosity, does anyone know what happened to all the PS7 brush sites? There are some wonderful new ones--![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lil_lj's ex-posed, for example--but the couple dozen I had bookmarked previously are all gone.
I haven't said anything (SV) fannish in a long time, so: Clark & Lex are totally doing it. Or maybe it's just were totally doing it. But I still love them both.
I had never heard of Mr. Obama until yesterday afternoon, when I happened to flip through the copy of US News that comes to me by virtue of my being a salon.com subscriber (along with a half-dozen or so other magazines…really, you should subscribe to salon for the magazines alone). Good-looking wiry black guy glad-handing Middle Americans. Huh. Read the article. Fell half in a very agape kind of love. Was confused by political enthusiasm and put down magazine, shaking head as if to ward off flies.
Everyone who was interested either watched the convention speeches last night or has watched them today on MSNBC.com (you can go back and listen to the earlier speeches, too). Seeing some reaction on my flist to Mr. Obama's speech, I turned on the TV in time to catch Teresa Heinz-Kerry's speech and the commentator response.
This was my first exposure to Mrs. Kerry, actually. Or any of them. I have been off the news since the debacle that was the last presidential election. I cannot listen to the voice of GW Bush without a visceral rage. I'm sure he's an okay guy in RL, but his complete lack of concern or thought behind what he's saying/what's been written for him to say absolutely maddens me.
I like Mrs. Kerry. I like that she still loves her dead husband. I like that she's obviously a completely separate being from her current husband. I get the impression that she could (were it not for her non-U.S.-born status) just as easily and likely be running for this office instead. I also get the impression that she has better things to do ;) She seems to expect people to be intelligent, which is something I've always appreciated in political speech - it's respectful of an audience to assume that they are not retarded, don't you think?
What surprised me in the wake of her speech was the immediate dissection of her supposed non-supportive unwifeliness. That NYT reporter, David someone with the phony, constant smile, insisting that she had failed entirely because she didn't tell anecdotes about her husband, was so insulting that I walked away from the TV with a snarl. See, I really have no tolerance for having my intelligence insulted.
So, this morning, I, too, fell in love with Barak Obama courtesy of MSNBC. Youth, diversity, hope, mutual responsibilities, inclusiveness, expansiveness of spirit and behavior - all things I've missed in politics. A very effective speaker, intimate and natural. Like everyone else, I'll be watching him and hoping he lives up to this promise. If he does, I'll follow him around like a voting dog.
Watched the Clinton (Bill) speech, too. Personally, I've always liked Bill Clinton. Why? He's very, very smart. He's idealistic. He's a narcissist and egomaniac which makes him shrewd and diplomatic. He can't keep it in his pants, but I don't think that actually matters for the job we had hired him to do. Marital fidelity can't be used as a critical issue for job performance or some huge proportion of the citizens of the world are unsuitable for any work that impacts other lives. However, unlike what seems to be the vast majority of Clinton's fans, I don't think he's a particularly interesting or compelling speaker. I've liked him for his ideas, not his presentation of them. On the other hand, I like to listen to Al Gore, so maybe I'm just weird.
And just out of curiosity, does anyone know what happened to all the PS7 brush sites? There are some wonderful new ones--
lil_lj's ex-posed, for example--but the couple dozen I had bookmarked previously are all gone. I haven't said anything (SV) fannish in a long time, so: Clark & Lex are totally doing it. Or maybe it's just were totally doing it. But I still love them both.
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no subject
Date: 2004-07-28 02:14 pm (UTC)Brooks seems pretty dislikeable to me too, even knowing his work better -- he's a hack pop-sociologist, the kind of guy who makes the sort of wild generalizations about "red states" and "blue states" that Obama so beautifully refuted last night.