A few lunchtime political observations on the Democratic Convention:
- Railfans may have a supportive voice in Joe Biden. The Washington Post reports on how ol’ Joe is regular on the 7:35am Acela train between Wilmington DE and Washington DC. You see, unlike some other politicians who we won’t name, Joe only has one house — in Wilmington — and commuted daily to DC on the Amtrak. He even dropped in at Washington’s Union Station to say goodbye to the regulars. This also gave him contact with the regular folk — for every day he would talk to the other riders and commuters. I would think it would also give him sensitivity to those who commute: he had a 75m train trip each way.
- Hillary’s speech — which was quite good — may still not have satisfied some of her followers. According to the Washington Post, her delegates remain divided, and some just won’t vote or still plan to vote for McCain. I think this shows a shifting of attitude of the electorate since at least the 1992 election. There was a time, kids, when an election was an honest fight. Someone one, someone lost, and the loser understood they did their best, and moved on. But now the “we was robbed” attitude has crept in. It started when the Republicans never let go of the Clinton win (to this day it annoys many). It continued with Shrub, and the folks that never let go of the way he beat the Democratic opponents. Hillary’s followers are doing the same thing. You don’t see the supporters for other losing contenders becoming as vocal. Have we lost our ability to vote for a representative of positions, and not the person… and to be gracious when we lose an honest fight?* Is this where our ad hominem attacks have led us?
[* I know some think Shrub’s election wasn’t an honest fight. How about “lawful”, as in accordance with the law?] - And speaking of attacks, the LA Times is reporting that they are Biden’s job. Obama must stay above the attack frey, for he has framed himself as a post-partisan candidate, and partisan attacking just won’t do. Besides, as the LA Times quotes Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr: “He cannot hit back. He has to keep smiling. No one wants an angry African American man in the White House.” And so Joe, who hopefully won’t be too Humphrey-esque in length, gets to frame the attack on the McCain-TBA team. Actually, if you read the link on Humphrey, there are some interesting parallels as Humphrey was Johnson’s best attack dog against Barry Goldwater in the 1964 election, which Johnson won by a landslide. Goldwater, of course, was the Republican sitting senator from Arizona. Humphrey was also a former presidential candidate, having run against Kennedy in the 1960 primaries.
