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Some Wisdom From Charles Schultz
An important artifact from the estate of Peanuts’ creator, Charles Schultz. You can pass it on to others or not. No good luck; no bad joo-joo. Just an important reminder about the importance of remembering who is important.
A while back now we went out on a limb to predict that Al Gore would through his hat over the wall and run for the presidency. And while we are still hopeful for that possibility, it appears less and less likely. He seems to be truly enjoying his position sitting on the lip of the cauldron we call our political system, and commenting both on just how hot it is in there, and how overcooked the whole system seems to be.
Yet watching him in conversation with Charlie Rose at New York's 92nd Street Y, leads us to be even more hopeful that some time this fall - when it is late enough in the campaign for him to come in without getting to deeply enmeshed in the orgy of overstatement and succumbing to the pressure to be positioned.
A while back now we went out on a limb (here and again here) to predict that Al Gore would throw his hat over the wall and run for the presidency. And while we are still hopeful for that possibility, it appears less and less likely. He seems to be truly enjoying his position sitting on the lip of the cauldron we call our political system, and commenting both on just how hot it is in there, and how overcooked the whole system seems to be.
Here's hoping... and here is a link to the conversation.
While we are still hoping against hope that Al Gore comes to his senses (or loses them) and runs for office, this new Richardson ad is still fabulous. It is concise, full of useful information about his fitness to lead, and very funny.
Check it out here.
Last night, during a live radio interview on The Bernie Ward Program in San Francisco, Pete McCloskey, former moderate Republican representative from Northern California, said he had officially severed his ties to the party by registering as a Democrat for the first time in his adult life. McCloskey joined Congress in 1967 along with Bush I and a few other Republican moderates. He was an important voice of moderation in the party until he left office in 1982.
In a wide-ranging interview McCloskey spoke of the similarities that led to our involvement in both the Vietnam War and the War in Iraq – the lies and general lack of congressional oversight to name just two. And just like Vietnam he called the Iraqi occupation “impossible”, and that the current occupation, “…creates more terrorists than we kill.” He added that the Bush II administration’s foreign policy, “has been a disaster.”
McCloskey then spoke about his early years as a Republican. He joined the party at age 21 in 1948. He said. “ We were the party of the environment, the party of civil rights, the party of a woman’s right of choice… We believed in small government and a balanced budget. And not one of those things is the tenet of the current Republican Party. The party that came in with Newt Gingrich in 1994 completely changed the principles that were followed from Dwight Eisenhower to Gerald Ford and to Ronald Reagan.”
He then when on to present a laundry list of policy changes from government intrusion into private lives of women, to renunciation of international treaties that “are repugnant to this administration, and have “hamstrung the concept of international cooperation… all these things caused me to cross the line", he remarked.
When the Republican Party starts losing life-long moderates like McCloskey, they also have lost their identity as a party that can represent significant parts of the population. Regardless of the name, it is now the Conservative Party. And its future is in peril.
The question now is: How will the Democratic Party act over the next few years, if and when it becomes the only domestic superpower on the nation’s political landscape?
Anyway, for now welcome to the party, Pete.