I have a room in my house I call my “studio” and it has a large, south-facing window I open when the weather’s nice and let Sinatra come in and out. This is where I’ve lately been blogging, writing, painting, smoking and just about everything else.
On this fine afternoon, Sinatra, as cats will sometimes do, brought in a “trophy” — a small brown bird, a fledgling, unless I miss my guess. Like all cat owners, I was appalled while knowing it’s what cats do. Birds, in case you didn’t know, are not clean creatures (a fact that seems a little counterintuitive to me) and, with thoughts of Avian Flu I went to get a glove to pick up the carcass.
The bird fluttered; it had only been stunned.
I quickly put it outside the window.
Sinatra is now yeowling all through the house looking for his “kill”.
I’m blogging in my newly christened “cat-bird” seat where Sinatra thought he’d granted me his greatest gift.
I’m not the only one in a catbird seat today. It’s Obama’s news cycle today to be sure.
Foremost, I suppose, is the Meet The Press endorsement of Obama by former Sec. of State Collin Powell. This was a big “get” for the Obama campaign and one of the last out there for the election. I have been disappointed (the mildest word I could use) in Gen. Powell since his performance in the U.N. Security Council presenting President Bush’s case for war against Iraq. Even though he’d been a key figure in the Bush administration, I’d kept my respect for the former chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff up to that moment. Then, I lost a great deal of respect. However, in the endorsement, which I suppose matters to a lot of people more than it does to me, Powell set out a rationale that I think is difficult to rebut for any person still undecided: McCain is dangerous and has lost his way, he’s erratic and now he’s fighting dirty in a shameful way, his pick of Gov. Palin was irresponsible; meanwhile, Sen. Obama is steady, ready and is a “transformational” leader. The blogs are already awash with right wingnut comments about the racial identity of Powell and Obama being the “real” reason. Ugh.
Next, a matter that I think has somewhat more longterm consequence and that is Obama’s fundraising number for September: $150 million! It’s almost inconceivable. 631,000 new donors with the average donation under $100. For the campaign (not just September), the average donor gave $86. McCain says this kind of fundraising will lead to corruption. WTF? Obama’s outspending McCain 3 to 1 nationwide and 4-1 in the “battleground” states.
McCain, meanwhile, has gone “underground” in the “battlegrounds” with so-called robo-calls, automated taped messages delivered by telephone. The McCain calls focus on William Ayers, in the main. On the stump, McCain says Obama’s tax plans are “socialist”. Too bad the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 or he’d be calling Obama a “commie”. In 2000, McCain decried such tactics when used by the Bush campaign against him, but McCain’s hired the whole Bush crew for his campaign and is even using the same robo-call company that slimed him 8 years ago. Republican U.S. Senator Susan Collins of Maine has publicly implored McCain to stop this tactic. I don’t know this John McCain. I thought of him as an honorable and independent voice, a man of integrity and good sense. This stuff wouldn’t have surprised me coming from Mitt Romney or especially Rudy Guiliani, but it’s so disappointing coming from John McCain. I guess it works, though, since the polls are showing McCain has reduced Obama’s national polling lead from double digits to about 5-6 points.
It’s hardly received much notice, but yesterday there was a very different kind of campaigning from Sen. Obama: the Democrat went from a rally of 100,000 people in St. Louis to a rally of 75,000 people in Kansas City, Mo. This is an unimaginable amount of people to turn out to see a political figure give a speech. It’s more than the 80,000 that filled Invesco field in Denver to hear his convention acceptance speech. It’s more people than fill OU’s stadium to see a home football game.
(OU beat Kansas in a record breaking performance yesterday, btw, and OSU remains unbeaten through the first 7 games for the first time since 1945; Texas protected its No. 1 ranking by destroying Missouri. Go Big XII!)
Speaking of the lamentable Gov. Palin, she appeared on Saturday Night Live last night and I thought she did a good job. I liked her more personally if not politically after watching how she handled herself, especially during the opening skit. I had a little bit of a problem seeing her react to the “rap” performance of Amy Poehler in the news segment — I’m a little skeptical that Gov. Palin listens to rap and does the “raise the roof” hand motions. After all, how many urban blacks live in Alaska?
Speaking of Republican women, did any of you catch Minnesota congresswoman Michelle Bachman on Chris Matthews’ show? She claimed there needed to be a journalistic investigation into her fellow members of Congress who are “anti-American”, while declining to name names other than the U.S. Senator from Illinois.
When you go from that to Gov. Palin talking about only wanting to visit parts of the United States that are “pro-America”, you have to wonder. I can only guess that what I took as a snark, that reality has a liberal bias, is actually a statement of fact.
That reminds me of an anecdote that’s making the blog rounds. Obama canvasser in southeast Ohio reports going to a door and being received by a woman who she asks voting preference. Woman at the door says she’ll have to ask her husband, who replies loudly from the television room: “We’re voting for the n***er”. “We’re voting for the n***er,” the woman brightly tells the canvasser. Only in America. Only 16 more days of this, Thank God.
The cat’s back inside with the bird, gotta go.
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