Welcome to Charlotte
September 3, 2012 - by
This blog also posted on The Charlotte Observer’s DNC blog site.
One hundred and eighty years ago, back in 1832, the first Democratic Convention was an enclave of white men – today the Democratic Convention is an enlightened convocation with a Women’s Caucus, a Black Caucus, a Hispanic Caucus, an Ethnic Caucus, a Native American Caucus, a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Caucus, an Asian and Pacific Islander Caucus and a European and Mediterranean Caucus.
Whether that’s a sign the Democrats are leading us upward to cultural “liberation” or proof they’ve succumbed to democracy’s incorrigible tendency to divide itself into interest groups (each with a legislative agenda to get its hands on other people’s money) time will tell.
But, right now, there’s a harder question President Obama has to answer over the next three days – Clint Eastwood put it this way, saying, “When somebody doesn’t do the job, you gotta let ‘em go.”
Almost everything that’s been said so far in the Presidential Election’s been political hyperbole and window-dressing – but Eastwood landed on a hard fact: After four years, Barack Obama’s Presidency is a failure.
Since spring, the President has been wrestling with that fact by giving us one reason to reelect him: No matter how hard the last four years have been, he says, the next four years will be worse if Mitt Romney’s elected. Give Obama credit, he’s got plenty of fight in him. But he’s got a hard sell on his hands. He’s arguing his opinion to voters while they’re staring his failure in the face – it’s like saying, What are you going to believe? What I tell you – or your own eyes?
Welcome to Charlotte
September 3, 2012/
This blog also posted on The Charlotte Observer’s DNC blog site.
One hundred and eighty years ago, back in 1832, the first Democratic Convention was an enclave of white men – today the Democratic Convention is an enlightened convocation with a Women’s Caucus, a Black Caucus, a Hispanic Caucus, an Ethnic Caucus, a Native American Caucus, a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Caucus, an Asian and Pacific Islander Caucus and a European and Mediterranean Caucus.
Whether that’s a sign the Democrats are leading us upward to cultural “liberation” or proof they’ve succumbed to democracy’s incorrigible tendency to divide itself into interest groups (each with a legislative agenda to get its hands on other people’s money) time will tell.
But, right now, there’s a harder question President Obama has to answer over the next three days – Clint Eastwood put it this way, saying, “When somebody doesn’t do the job, you gotta let ‘em go.”
Almost everything that’s been said so far in the Presidential Election’s been political hyperbole and window-dressing – but Eastwood landed on a hard fact: After four years, Barack Obama’s Presidency is a failure.
Since spring, the President has been wrestling with that fact by giving us one reason to reelect him: No matter how hard the last four years have been, he says, the next four years will be worse if Mitt Romney’s elected. Give Obama credit, he’s got plenty of fight in him. But he’s got a hard sell on his hands. He’s arguing his opinion to voters while they’re staring his failure in the face – it’s like saying, What are you going to believe? What I tell you – or your own eyes?