The Brand New Respectful Presidential Campaign Thread

OK Lady, who the heck are you?? Where is my shokk!!!!... want my shokk...bring her back...shokk fans, revolt!!

Shokk,

Your sentences are much easier to read with all the .....'s.  They were really long with the proper structure.  It was very hard for me with my ADD to concentrate that long. 

Cheryl...40th.? No way, for some reason I thought you were in your thirties!

Paulette, you are my new best friend!! Yep, I'm really an old fart!! Shokk, I'm moving towards Hillarly. I was origionaly an Edwards supporter and had a near break down when he with drew. I find myself moving closer to Hillary, and as I said earlier on this thread, I felt that statement would engender a response from the originator of this thread.

Cherryl

Shirley,

I'm from Raeford, near Fayetteville and Fort Bragg. I have a couple of really good friends from college in Wilmington, and if I ever get there for a visit, I will give you a call!

Cherryl

Cherryl, that would be great!

I've been to Fayetteville often.  Several years ago I had to take my dad and brother to the VA there.  It's not that far.

Hope you have a great time at your reunion.

I was thinking about Anneshirley's 50th reunion.  It's funny how we picture people in our minds.  She seems to young, you don't "sound" like you've been out of high school for 40 years.  I've been out for 44 years.  Where's the time gone?

A very good friend of mine who has been divorced at least 20 years finally met the man of her dreams.  She graduated from high school the same year I did.  She was from New Jersey.  She used to be my neighbor.  Anyway, they went to his 50th high school reunion and family reunion in Indiana (I think).  They had a marvelous time.  They rented a house on the lake.  Had his grandchildren there, and, of course, other family members.  Everyone had left except immediate family.  He had been for a swim with his granddaughter.  He was tired and sat next to her.  They were talking and she turned around....he was "gone."  He died of a massive heart attack.  I sit here in tears.  My poor friend had to travel by air the next day all by herself.  Also, she was in the moving process and had to close on her house.  Her sweet daughter came down from Atlanta the day my friend flew in.  She arrived in time to pick her mom up from the airport.  Her son lived her and they and other friends helped her move.  My friend said she doesn't remember hardly anything in those two weeks.  This man loved her dearly and told her over and over all the time.  They had wonderful plans to travel together.  In fact, a couple of days before he passed away he asked her to marry him and she said yes.  And for her to agree was the biggest step in trust for her.  Why?  Because she had an a$$ for a husband and she wouldn't give up her alimony for just anyone. 

I don't know why I told that story.  The 50th anniversary made me think about her.  It hasn't been that long ago..less than a year.

Have a great nite.  I need to get myself to bed!

Shirley

Shokk--Welcome back to the real Shokk, running sentences and all. I tried writing your way just to see how easy or difficult it is, and couldn't do it.

Sorry about the sarcoidosis.  That's tough to put up with, particularly the steroids. My nephew has been on steroids for years (he's on borrowed kidney, from his wife no less) and he seems to be doing fine, other than some weight gain.  I hope you do as well.  It does seem unfair since you never smoked.  I was a four pack a person for many years and always worried about getting lung cancer--and rarely about getting breast cancer.  

Shirley--Your mini skirt comment brought back memories of me wearing a pair of hot pants to the very staid Wall Street law firm for which I worked back in my salad days.  I should have been fired but for some reason wasn't, perhaps because back then I was very tall, very thin, and had great legs--long, long gone.   

Kelly--so jump over the fence to Hillary.  It's very nice on this side of the fence. 

Elizabeth Edwards' Opinion piece in today's Times:

Bowling 1; Health Care 0 

FOR the last month, news media attention was focused on Pennsylvania and its Democratic primary. Given the gargantuan effort, what did we learn?

Well, the rancor of the campaign was covered. The amount of money spent was covered. But in Pennsylvania, as in the rest of the country this political season, the information about the candidates’ priorities, policies and principles — information that voters will need to choose the next president — too often did not make the cut. After having spent more than a year on the campaign trail with my husband, John Edwards, I’m not surprised.

Why? Here’s my guess: The vigorous press that was deemed an essential part of democracy at our country’s inception is now consigned to smaller venues, to the Internet and, in the mainstream media, to occasional articles. I am not suggesting that every journalist for a mainstream media outlet is neglecting his or her duties to the public. And I know that serious newspapers and magazines run analytical articles, and public television broadcasts longer, more probing segments.

But I am saying that every analysis that is shortened, every corner that is cut, moves us further away from the truth until what is left is the Cliffs Notes of the news, or what I call strobe-light journalism, in which the outlines are accurate enough but we cannot really see the whole picture.

It is not a new phenomenon. In 1954, the Army-McCarthy hearings — an important if painful part of our history — were televised, but by only one network, ABC. NBC and CBS covered a few minutes, snippets on the evening news, but continued to broadcast soap operas in order, I suspect, not to invite complaints from those whose days centered on the drama of “The Guiding Light.”

The problem today unfortunately is that voters who take their responsibility to be informed seriously enough to search out information about the candidates are finding it harder and harder to do so, particularly if they do not have access to the Internet.

Did you, for example, ever know a single fact about Joe Biden’s health care plan? Anything at all? But let me guess, you know Barack Obama’s bowling score. We are choosing a president, the next leader of the free world. We are not buying soap, and we are not choosing a court clerk with primarily administrative duties.

What’s more, the news media cut candidates like Joe Biden out of the process even before they got started. Just to be clear: I’m not talking about my husband. I’m referring to other worthy Democratic contenders. Few people even had the chance to find out about Joe Biden’s health care plan before he was literally forced from the race by the news blackout that depressed his poll numbers, which in turn depressed his fund-raising.

And it’s not as if people didn’t want this information. In focus groups that I attended or followed after debates, Joe Biden would regularly be the object of praise and interest: “I want to know more about Senator Biden,” participants would say.

But it was not to be. Indeed, the Biden campaign was covered more for its missteps than anything else. Chris Dodd, also a serious candidate with a distinguished record, received much the same treatment. I suspect that there was more coverage of the burglary at his campaign office in Hartford than of any other single event during his run other than his entering and leaving the campaign.

Who is responsible for the veil of silence over Senator Biden? Or Senator Dodd? Or Gov. Tom Vilsack? Or Senator Sam Brownback on the Republican side?

The decision was probably made by the same people who decided that Fred Thompson was a serious candidate. Articles purporting to be news spent thousands upon thousands of words contemplating whether he would enter the race, to the point that before he even entered, he was running second in the national polls for the Republican nomination. Second place! And he had not done or said anything that would allow anyone to conclude he was a serious candidate. A major weekly news magazine put Mr. Thompson on its cover, asking — honestly! — whether the absence of a serious campaign and commitment to raising money or getting his policies out was itself a strategy.

I’m not the only one who noticed this shallow news coverage. A report by the Project for Excellence in Journalism and the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy found that during the early months of the 2008 presidential campaign, 63 percent of the campaign stories focused on political strategy while only 15 percent discussed the candidates’ ideas and proposals.

Watching the campaign unfold, I saw how the press gravitated toward a narrative template for the campaign, searching out characters as if for a novel: on one side, a self-described 9/11 hero with a colorful personal life, a former senator who had played a president in the movies, a genuine war hero with a stunning wife and an intriguing temperament, and a handsome governor with a beautiful family and a high school sweetheart as his bride. And on the other side, a senator who had been first lady, a young African-American senator with an Ivy League diploma, a Hispanic governor with a self-deprecating sense of humor and even a former senator from the South standing loyally beside his ill wife. Issues that could make a difference in the lives of Americans didn’t fit into the narrative template and, therefore, took a back seat to these superficialities.

News is different from other programming on television or other content in print. It is essential to an informed electorate. And an informed electorate is essential to freedom itself. But as long as corporations to which news gathering is not the primary source of income or expertise get to decide what information about the candidates “sells,” we are not functioning as well as we could if we had the engaged, skeptical press we deserve.

And the future of news is not bright. Indeed, we’ve heard that CBS may cut its news division, and media consolidation is leading to one-size-fits-all journalism. The state of political campaigning is no better: without a press to push them, candidates whose proposals are not workable avoid the tough questions. All of this leaves voters uncertain about what approach makes the most sense for them. Worse still, it gives us permission to ignore issues and concentrate on things that don’t matter. (Look, the press doesn’t even think there is a difference!)

I was lucky enough for a time to have a front-row seat in this campaign — to see all this, to get my information firsthand. But most Americans are not so lucky. As we move the contest to my home state, North Carolina, I want my neighbors to know as much as they possibly can about what these men and this woman would do as president.

If voters want a vibrant, vigorous press, apparently we will have to demand it. Not by screaming out our windows as in the movie “Network” but by talking calmly, repeatedly, constantly in the ears of those in whom we have entrusted this enormous responsibility. Do your job, so we can — as voters — do ours.

If ya couldn't tell from my only other post on this thread, I'm voting for Hillary - even if I have to write her in! My mother (who USED to be a die hard Republican before she smartened up!) will do the same. If I can figure out a way to post a pic of me wearing my t-shirt that reads "Hillary for President 2008" I will.

Jaybird,

I can't remember where I saw it, but there was a bumper sticker suggestion:

 Monical Lewinsky's Ex-Boyfriend's Wife for President

I want one.

Cherryl

Great articles Anneshirley! Rosemary--interesting comments by Dean. I also believe the superdelegates will vote for whomever they believe is most electable. I have a strong feeling it will be Hillary as the Democrat nominee. And I'm good with that. I want to see a Democrat in office, and one who can beat the pants off McCain.

I missed the Obama interview. Was rather busy with this birthday party for dgd. She partied as heartily as a one year old can!! About 4 pm, she conked out in the portacrib. Got a great pic of her on her back sleeping with her mouth open. Didn't even get to open her presents!! My dd said next year she will have just a small family birthday party for her--as she's sure my granddaughter won't even remember this huge event. Seemed like we were decorating for hours!

And the cake turned out fantastic if I do say so myself. We put these peep type zoo animals on it and it was covered with flaked coconut. She put her hands into the frosting and squeezed, then licked her fingers and got it all over her face. Hardly messed it up though--she loved the coconut and picked off one piece at a time. She was a riot to watch! Was glad she liked the cake as I had to make a sugar syrup to add to the egg whites for the frosting. Took forever but it was nice because it set in the frig and was easy to transport.

Today I'm exhausted. I woke up at 7 am this morning to the sound of a loud horn (like on a dump truck) and first thought it was awfully loud to be coming from the highway (a two-lane curvy road through the mountains), and suddenly realized that the driver wanted me to move my car. Why? Because for the next 3 days they will be paving our road--first time in almost 75 years. It's private, and the homeowners maintain it. We did great for 18 years, but it's now time to bite the bullet and make it look good as well as improve our resale value of our homes!! Yikes. Wasn't expecting this to happen so soon. Had to throw on my Pj bottoms and run out the door in fuzzy slippers to move my car. I must have looked like an idiot but the contractor didn't seem to notice.

Anyway, glad the party is over and I can get back to my "retired" life. My calendar is busier than when I was working full time. How does that happen?

 Thought you'd like a little break from the politics. 

Thanks Susie. I'll be sure to catch up on the latest politico.......

HAHA, Susie, for the Christ Matthews interview.  Obama can be pretty funny.

Grace, so glad you survived your gd's party.  I would have yelled at the honking truck to move the car himself.  Well, perhaps not.  He may have run over it!

Did anyone watch the Washington Correspondent's dinner?  Prez Bush made a cute little joke.  He said something about being tired.  Then said the red phone rang at 3 AM.  It was the damn wedding planner!  LOL  You know one of his daughters' is getting married.