In the meantime

Tim Russert, 1950 - 2008

Last Father's Day, my family gave me a copy of Tim Russert's book "Wisdom of our Fathers."  The book, a sequel to his 2001 bestseller "Big Russ and Me," is an incredibly touching book, and it has a great story behind it.  Russert's first book told about growing up in South Buffalo under the guiding hand of his father.  One reviewer wrote, "Most adult men have a difficult time embracing their fathers.  Russert spends 22 chapters hugging his in this book."

Almost as soon as "Big Russ and Me" hit the shelves, Russert began getting wonderful letters from people about the relationship they had with their fathers.  Some were funny, some were heartbreaking.  Some told of wonderfully close relationships, others told of waiting too late to make things right, and having to live with the regrets for the rest of their lives. Russert read them all, and realized this was a story that needed to be told.  Out of those letters came "Wisdom of Our Fathers."

Tim Russert passed away suddenly yesterday while recording voice-overs for tomorrow's edition of Meet the Press, the iconic Sunday news show that he hosted for 17 years, longer than any other host in the history of the program.  It is ironic, in an incredibly sad way that Tim Russert died two days before Father's Day, since he is known by millions for writing two bestselling books celebrating fathers and fatherhood.

Fatherhood wasn't something Russert wrote about in the abstract.  He was a dedicated son to Big Russ who now survives him, but he was also a doting father to his son Luke, Tim and Maureen's only child.  They say that off camera he was constantly talking about his family.  Tim, Maureen and Luke just took a trip to Italy to celebrate Luke's graduation from Boston College.  Maureen and Luke were still there when the news came that Tim had died.

On Meet the Press recently, Terry McAuliff - Hillary Clinton's resident lunatic - made a moronic remark about how Big Russ must be smiling down from heaven.  Russert patiently informed McAuliff that Big Russ is still very much alive. Just last weekend, Russert was back in Buffalo to move big Russ into a home.

I had a chance to meet Russert once in the late 1980s, not long after he became NBC's Washington Bureau Chief.  He and ABC's Jeff Greenfield were on a panel discussion.  Both of them seemed to be regular guys who didn't take themselves too seriously, and they certainly weren't prima donnas like many in the news business were.

Tim Russert was, by all accounts, one of the genuinely good guys.  He was secure in his own skin and comfortable with his abilities, so he was never threatened by someone else's advancement in the news business.  His closest friends were his competitors, so when he passed yesterday, there were people on every network - cable and broadcast - who were choking back tears as they reported the news of Russert's passing. The list of people who got their start or their first job in broadcast journalism from Russert reads like a who's who of today's news reporters.  As host of Meet the Press, he reached out beyond the circle of Beltway elites to bring in talented journalists to the weekly panel. 

In a move that must have made blue bloods at the Washington Post gag, Russert added David Brody, senior correspondent for CBN news to the panel.  Brody handled himself well and proved Russert's instincts right yet again.  It's hard to imagine who will succeed Russert in the host's chair for Meet the Press.

Tim Russert was a giant in the field of broadcast journalism, yet he never allowed his success or his love of politics and the news business to overshadow his family or his faith.  He never forgot who he was and where he came from.  He was and always would be was the kid from South Buffalo, a diehard Bills fan, Maureen's devoted husband and Luke's doting dad.  And Big Russ' loving and appreciative son.

Never Forget

As I write these words on this Memorial Day, I am watching live coverage from Arlington National Cemetery of the wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknowns.

The Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Washington, D.C. It is located near the center of the cemetery and it contains the remains of unknown American soldiers from World Wars I and II, and the Korean Conflict. The inscription on the massive marble tomb says, "Here Rests In Honored Glory An American Soldier Known But To God."

The Tomb of the Unknowns is somewhere every American needs to go at least once in their lives.  Being there, experiencing the ceremony and the symbolism of the place, and sensing the reverent, respectful aura will touch you deeply.  Reflecting on the three sets of remains buried there will remind you in powerful way that you have the freedoms that you have because men and women like these were willing to go, to serve, and to lay down their lives in defense of our nation and our way of life. The elaborate ceremony of the changing of the guard is awe-inspiring.

Until 1998, The Tomb of the Unknowns contained remains of an unknown soldier from the Vietnam War. That year, DNA testing proved that the remains buried in the Tomb were those of Air Force Lieutenant Michael Joseph Blassie. Blassie's remains were returned to his family and were buried in his hometown of St. Louis, Missouri.

With the advent of modern forensic identification techniques, there will likely never be another soldier interred in the Tomb.

The Tomb is guarded 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, rain or shine by specially trained members of the 3rd United States Infantry (The Old Guard).

These guys are no toy soldiers who are only there for looks.  Part of the responsibility of the Old Guard is the protection of federal property.  They are the guardians of our nation's capitol.  But they are best known for guarding the Tomb of the Unknowns. 

You and I could learn a lot from these remarkable men and women.  They are the best of the best because they push themselves to attain perfection in their duties, not for the praise of men, but out of respect for those whose memory they honor. The Old Guard's relentless pursuit of perfection in all that they do is their way of honoring those who gave their lives.  It is a part of their creed:

My dedication to this sacred duty is total and wholehearted.
In the responsibility bestowed on me never will I falter.
And with dignity and perseverance my standard will remain perfection.
Through the years of diligence and praise and the discomfort of the elements,
I will walk my tour in humble reverence to the best of my ability.
It is he who commands the respect I protect.
His bravery that made us so proud.
Surrounded by well meaning crowds by day alone in the thoughtful peace of night,
this soldier will in honored glory rest under my eternal vigilance.

If someone breaches the sanctity of the Tomb's perimeter, they will quickly discover The Old Guard is not just for show.  On a visit to The Tomb years ago, I witnessed a visitor - obviously with little of no regard for what that place stands for - step across the rope to get a better picture of the guard.  The second he stepped over the line, the guard stopped his routine. planted his feet, loudly brandished his weapon and said with a clear and commanding voice, "SIR, STEP BACK ACROSS THE LINE, PLEASE!"  It scared me, and I was ten feet behind the barrier.  I saw the blood drain from the face of the offender after he very, very quickly moved back to where he was supposed to be.

The reaction of the guard, the tone of his voice and the loud clack of his rifle clearly let you know that you didn't want to mess with this fellow.  I can't speak for the guy who stupidly stepped across the barrier - I suspect that he had to go change his clothes - but I left there realizing that the symbolism of this sacred place was taken very seriously by those charged with protecting it.

Why?  Why would we take so seriously the guarding of three unidentified bodies from wars fought long ago?  Because we are a forgetful people.  We so easily forget those who sacrificed so that we could be where we are today.  We so quickly delude ourselves into thinking that we got where we are because of our own efforts.  That is certainly partially true, but there is no one among us who does not owe a debt to the one million men and women who have given their lives defending our freedom over the last 232 years.

A quote from the Guard's website says, "Soldiers never die until they are forgotten; Tomb Guards never forget."

On this Memorial Day, we need to learn a lesson from the men and women of the 3rd United States Infantry, The Old Guard.  We need to pursue excellence in what we do in honor of those who gave their lives so that we could have these freedoms.  We need to "walk our tour in humble reverence to the best of our ability."

And we need to never, never forget.

Dr. Forrest Pollock Dies in Plane Crash

We learned early this morning that the plane carrying Dr. Forrest Pollock and his 13 year old son Preston did not arrive in Texas as planned last night.  The flight originated in Western North Carolina. Search teams detected an emergency beacon signal but initially did not think it was Dr. Pollock's plane because of the timing of when they took off (just after 4 am) and when the beacon was first detected.  Ground teams searched through the night and were joined at first light by numerous aerial assets.

Late this morning, searchers located the wreckage of Dr. Pollock's plane in a mountainous area of Haywood County just outside Asheville.  Neither Forrest nor Preston survived the crash.

Dr. Pollock has been pastor of Tampa Bay's Bell Shoals Baptist Church since 2002.  He is survived by his wife Dawn and five other children.  At the 2006 SBC Annual Meeting in Greensboro, Dr. Pollock nominated Frank Page for SBC President.

Forrest Pollock was an excellent preacher, a great storyteller, an effective pastor and leader, and a devoted family man.  He will be greatly missed not only by his family, church family and friends, but by the SBC and the larger evangelical community.  His love for people built bridges with those that he disagreed with.  When Bell Shoals was picketed by protesters because of their stand on homosexuality, Pollock joined the protesters at their press conference and asked to speak to those who were picketing his church.  When he spoke to them, he expressed love and concern for them.

Dr. Pollock's weekly devotional videos, "An Encouraging Word" grew from just a couple hundred subscribers to thousands as people forwarded them to friends, who signed up to receive them and then in turn forwarded them to others.  He loved to use jokes as illustrations, sometimes the cornier, the better.

Funeral arrangements are pending as of this writing.  Please be in prayer for Dawn Pollock and her children Courtney, Brooke, Hope, Blake and Kirk, and for the Bell Shoals Baptist Church family.

Dottie Rambo, 1934 - 2008

Early this morning while traveling from Illinois to Texas, legendary gospel music singer and songwriter Dottie Rambo was killed when her tour bus encountered severe weather in Missouri.  The tour bus ran off the road near the town of Mt. Vernon and struck an embankment.  Rambo was pronounced dead at the scene.  Seven passengers on the bus were injured, several seriously.

Rambo was on her way to a Mother's Day concert at a church in North Richland Hills, Texas, following a Saturday night performance in Granite City,IL, just outside of St. Louis. 

Dottie Rambo is perhaps best known as a songwriter.  Among her more than 2,500 published songs were gospel classics such as "He Looked Beyond My Fault and Saw My Need," "Sheltered in the Arms of God," "Behold the Lamb," "Holy Spirit, Thou Art Welcome," and "We Shall Behold Him," the gospel music Song of the Year in 1982.  She was inducted to the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame in 2006 and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2007.

In the late 1970's, Dottie Rambo wrote my favorite children's musical of all time, "Down By the Creek Bank."  It is amazing how well those songs have held up over the years.  "Germs, My Invisible Dog" still makes me chuckle, and I am touched every time I hear the heartfelt words of "Is There Anything I Can Do For You?"

Dottie Rambo's songs were recorded over the years by such artists as Dolly Parton, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Hank Snow, Bill Monroe, Porter Wagoner, The Oak Ridge Boys, Barbara Mandrell, Allison Krauss, Vince Gill, The Imperials, Albertina Walker, CeCe Winans, Crystal Gayle, Sandi Patti, Bill and Gloria Gaither, The Gatlin Brothers, and many others.

Dottie Rambo was 74. 

Soon I shall hear the call from Heaven's portals,
Come home my child, it's the last mile you must trod;
I'll fall asleep and wake in God's new Heaven,
Sheltered safe within the arms of God.

So let the storms rage high, the dark clouds rise,
They won't worry me for I'm sheltered safe within the arms of God;
He walks with me and naught of Earth can harm me,
Sheltered safe within the arms of God.

Not The Only Thing

There was a time when the term sportsmanship meant something.  There was a time when winning wasn't everything.  There was a time when young men and women idolized spots heroes as much for who they were as they did for what they did on the field, the course or the gridiron.

Over time, the idea of sports building character took a huge backseat to the idea of winning at all costs.  Maybe it started when Vince Lombardi famously said that winning wasn't the most important thing... it was the only thing.  Or maybe the legendary coach was only verbalizing what was already the norm.  Regardless of when we started down that slippery slope, there is no doubt it has snowballed in the decades since Lombardi first uttered those words.  Maybe it's the money.  Or maybe it's just the culture of winning at all costs, but today's athletes tend to be willing to sacrifice anything - including their health and their bodies - just to win.

Doping scandals have hit virtually every major sport.  The current holder of Babe Ruth and Henry Aaron's home run record reached that pinnacle through the blatant abuse of steroids and growth hormones, and then continued to lie about it, even in the face of eyewitness testimony. There is not a person on the planet who believes Barry Bond's denials.  To top it off, Bonds is, by all accounts a monumental jerk.

This "win at all costs" mentality has spread beyond sports into every area of our culture.  Corporate ethics have taken a back seat to the bottom line and spawned the Enron scandal, corporate raiders, and CEOs who decimate a company and then walk away with a $100 million golden parachute.  It has most certainly permeated our political process, bringing us candidates who will say or do anything to get elected (I will resist the impulse to name names, but she knows who she is).

Saddest of all, this overemphasis on the outcome has spoiled amateur athletics, down to the lowest level. Parents get into fistfights at their kid's Little League games, High school football players face relentless pressure to win, the concept of the student athlete is now a joke, and worst of all, this pressure to win at all costs results in dozens of deaths each year as young men and women take deadly drugs in a attempt to gain an edge over the competition.

Every now and then, a story comes along that restores your faith in humanity; a story that lets you know that the concept of sportsmanship, integrity and fair play have not vanished from our culture.  Such a story happened last week in Portland, Oregon.  The girls softball teams of Central Washington University and Western Oregon University were pitted against each other in the Great Northwest Conference playoffs.  With two on, Western Oregon's Sara Tucholsky unloaded on a pitch and did something she had never done in either high school or college - she belted it over the center field fence.

As Tucholsky rounded first base, she missed the bag.  As she reversed course to touch first, Tucholsky collapsed in a heap with a devastating knee injury.  She crawled back to first, but could not stand.  Officials told her that if her Western Oregon teammates assisted her, she would be called out. Her only option, according to the rules, was to call in a pinch runner and reduce her home run to a single.

Then something amazing happened.

Central Washington's Mallory Holtman walked over to the umpire and asked if there was anything in the rules that prevented the opposing team from assisting her.  The flabbergasted umpire told her there was no rule against it.  So Holtman, who is the Great Northwest Conference's all time home run leader, and Central Washington shortstop Liz Wallace gently helped Tucholsky to her feet and then picked her up and carried her around the bases.  They stopped at each base, setting her down gently to allow her to touch the base with her good leg.

The stunned crowd suddenly realized what was happening.  By the time they reached home plate, both teams were in tears.  Most everyone in the stands was, too.

Holtman and Wallace didn't know that Tucholsky was a senior. They didn't know that this was her first-ever home run.  They just knew that she hit the ball over the fence and earned the home run.  As they rounded the bases, through pain, laughter and tears, Tucholsky looked at Holtman and Wallace and said, "Thank you very much." 

Mallory said, "You deserve it, you hit it over the fence."

The irony is that Tucholsky's home run was the difference in the game.  Western Oregon won 4-2 and Central Washington was eliminated from the playoffs.  Doing the right thing contributed to their losing.

The losing coach, Central Washington's Gary Frederick, could not have been prouder of his team.  The 14-year coaching veteran called the act of sportsmanship he witnessed "unbelievable."

Mallory Holtman didn't see what she and Liz Wallace did as anything heroic. They felt that anyone faced with the same situation would have responded the same.  Would that it were so.

"In the end, it is not about winning and losing so much," Holtman said. "She hit it over the fence and was in pain, and she deserved a home run."

Tucholsky's knee injury ends her season and her college softball career.  She will graduate in a few weeks with a degree in business. But she will never forget the last play of her college career.  Neither will anyone else who was there. Of all the games those girls will ever play, they will remember this one.  The will remember how it felt to do the right thing. 

They will remember that at the end of the day, winning is not, in fact, the only thing.

The Wright stuff

It is very rare that I agonize over a post.  To be sure, I always try to be careful in what I write, especially when the subject matter is potentially divisive or controversial, but usually the words come easy.  I have started to write this piece on the situation with Rev. Jeremiah Wright four different times and have scrapped the first three efforts.

It has now been 48 days since the Jeremiah Wright story broke in the national media. While I knew Rev. Wright was a somewhat controversial figure, I also had heard good things about his church and his ministry. I don't agree with much of his theology, but I still respect what he has done at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. That said, I was appalled at what I heard in those first sound bytes.

In what can only be viewed as a sign of how bizarre this campaign has been, the issue of what the Pastor of Barack Obama's church said in sermons - in some cases over seven years ago - has been in the news pretty much for all of the last month and a half.  When I heard last week that Rev. Wright was going to respond over the weekend, I fully expected him to be restrained and to reflect the scholarly side of him that we have heard about. I did wonder why he was going on a four day media blitz, though.

The Moyers interview was OK, but nothing was settled there. Rev. Wright's message to the Detroit NAACP was exciting, funny, and showed his great intellect. There were a few moments that made me squirm, but there were also many moments where I appreciated his calls for reconciliation and his explanation of how our culture and upbringing make us different but not deficient.

Then came Monday's appearance at the National Press Club. I cannot presume to know what was in the man's heart, but what came across to me, and to all I have talked with - both Democrats and Republicans - was a man with a monumental ego. It has been said that an egotist is someone who will burn the house down to fry himself an egg. Rev. Wright did his best to burn down the house for his most famous church member Monday. With friends like this, who needs enemies?

Why did Jeremiah Wright do it? Was he in over his head? Did he misjudge the audience, thinking it was like his church, and not the hardened, cynical Washington press corps?  Was he intentionally torpedoing the Obama campaign - burning down the house, so to speak - because he felt they had dissed him and thrown him under the bus? Whatever caused the outburst one thing is certain: The argument that he was taken out of context in those now infamous video clips vanished as he clearly stated his convictions about all of those areas - that the US government came up with the AIDS virus to inflict it on minorities, that the US is a terrorist nation, that 911 was retribution for the US's actions abroad, and that the US marines are no different than the Roman centurians who put Christ to death. Knowing now that he really does believe those things, how could those clips have possibly been out of context?

Time will tell if Obama's words today can effectively stop the bleeding. It was obvious that he was genuinely hurt and angry by the position he found himself in. The pundits are split when judging Obama's actions since this story broke. Some are commending him for trying to salvage the situation and not wanting to dump his pastor the moment he became a political liability, and some are taking him to task for not totally disowning Wright 48 days ago.

If Rev. Wright had been her pastor, I have no doubt that Hillary would have dumped him in a nanosecond because her political ambitions take precedence over anything and everything. I tend to respect Sen. Obama for trying and hopig to bring Rev. Wright into the process, essentially building a bridge to a segment of the African American church.  And I might be wrong, but I think John McCain, given similar circumstances would have done something very similar to what Obama did. McCain learned the value of loyalty and integrity in the Navy. He has shown great respect for President Bush, a man that he has been at odds with for most of the last decade and who is, without a doubt something of a political albatross for the Republican candidate at this point. McCain has also shown class and integrity by not attempting to make political hay out of the Wright situation and being upset when others did on his behalf.

The question that keeps coming back to me is, why are we still talking about this? It is yet another example of how very strange this last year has been in politics. Who could have imagined that the news media would be captivated for 48 days by the words of a pastor of one of the candidates?

There is a lot about Senator Obama that America wants and needs to know about. But we won't learn any of it by taking about seven year old sermon clips from Rev. Wright's or playing the endless 'gotcha' game where the slightest gaffe or misstatement by one of the candidates immediately becomes the lead news for days if not weeks.

This is no way to elect the leader of the free world.

Imagine This...

As most of you know, actor and personality Ben Stein made a documentary called "Expelled" that was released in theaters nationwide on April 18.  The premise of "Expelled" is that the academic and scientific communities actively engage in repression, intimidation and outright censorship of anyone who does not toe the Neo-Darwinist party line 110%. 

The reaction to the film thus far has, if not proved their point, at least added significant credence to it.  It reminds me of the incident a few months back where some in the Muslim community expressed their dissatisfaction with someone who said that Islam was a violent religion... by violent riots.  The academic and scientific communities have responded to Stein's charge that they deal heavy-handedly to any positive mention of an alternate theory about our origins by dealing heavy-handedly.

Documentary filmmaker Roger Moore - he of "Fahrenheit 911," "Sicko" and "Dude, Where's My Country?" fame - not only denounced Stein's new documentary, he confidently predicted that it would fail at the box office.  To say the least, he was wrong.  "Expelled" opened as the No. 10 film in the country, grossing 3.2 million dollars it's first weekend.  By comparison, Morgan ("Supersize Me") Spurlock's new documentary, "Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?" grossed a pathetic $143,299.

But there is one reaction to the film that is so hypocritical that it borders on hilarious. 

There is a short clip of John Lennon's iconic Utopian ballad, "Imagine" used in the film, accompanied by commentary about the song's "no religion" philosophy.  Now comes word that Yoko Ono and Lennon's sons Sean and Julian are suing the makers of "Expelled" and asking for injunctive relief - in other words, Yoko is basically asking the court to remove the film from theaters.

Get this picture:  Yoko Ono is suing the makers of a film over the use of a brief clip of a song that espouses world peace, the brotherhood of man, and - best of all - the idea of "imagine no possessions."  Implicit in the filing of the suit is a claim of ownership of the song and that their possession has been been in essence "stolen" from them... again, we're talking about a song that preaches the value of "sharing all the world."

Legally, Yoko doesn't have a leg to stand on.  The clip is clearly covered by the "fair use" doctrine, which allows the use of brief segments of copyrighted works for review or commentary purposes.  The makers of "Expelled" have already prevailed in another legal case where an animator was claiming they infringed upon his rights in the film.  The clip of "Imagine" in the film is less than 15 seconds long. 

Ben Stein weighed in on the issue by saying, "Maybe instead of wasting everyone's time trying to silence a documentary [Yoko Ono] should give the song to the world for free. After all, imagine all the people sharing all the world..."

Yoko's suit doesn't have a prayer (bad pun, unfortunately, intended).  I can't imagine (again, intended) what she hopes to accomplish by this suit.  It is certainly not helping to hasten the time when "the world will live as one."

But it does make you wonder what it is about "Expelled" that has everybody in such a tizzy?  When you boil it down, it's a documentary starring someone who became famous playing an unhip, boring teacher in Ferris Bueller's Day Off and has been showing us in the years since that he pretty much is that guy.  So it must the idea expressed by the film that has everyone so bothered that they feel they must oppose at all costs - including lawsuits, threats, intimidation, and ridicule.

Which is exactly the point the film makes.  Imagine that.

The Hand of Providence

Today at lunch my colleague and friend Drew Porterfield and I met Drew's brother Paul for lunch downtown at the CNN Center.  Paul is with the Greater Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, and their headquarters is between the CNN Center and Centennial Olympic Park, ground zero for the tornado that struck downtown two weeks ago tonight.

Walking through the areas devastated by the storm, one is struck with two thoughts:  First, two weeks on, the area still looks like a war zone.  A lot of progress has been made, to be sure, but it still takes your breath away to see the damage. Second, it is nothing short of a miracle that only one life was lost. Someone was obviously watching over the thousands of people in the area that night.

Looking at security camera footage of the event, you realize it was all over in about 30 seconds. But those were 30 violent and deadly seconds.  In half a minute, the roof of the Georgia Dome was damaged, all the windows in the crosswalk connecting the Omni Hotel to the CNN Center were blown out.  The CNN Center's facade and roughly half the windows facing Marietta Street took a direct hit.  All of the windows in the Chamber of Commerce's rotunda imploded, some panes being driven deep into the wood paneling inside the building.  Two of the huge Olympic torch monuments in Centennial Park were blown over.  The historic Baptist Tabernacle building, now a popular concert venue, sustained major damage.  A brick building next door to the Tabernacle was demolished.  As it left downtown, the tornado blew out hundreds of windows in the Georgia Pacific and Equitable buildings and the iconic Weston Peachtree Plaza hotel.  As a bizarre parting shot, a billboard across I-75 a half mile from the Weston was mangled like a toy erector set. The twister then roared through Atlanta's historic Cabbagetown section, uprooting old growth hardwoods which crushed several houses.  Again, there were only minor injuries.  That same Someone was watching over the folks in Cabbagetown, too.

There were around 80,000 people in the main downtown area that the tornado struck, more than half of those in the Georgia Dome for the SEC Basketball Tournament.  A clutch three-point shot threw the game in progress into overtime, keeping thousands safely inside the Dome when the storm hit.  There was virtually no warning, no time to prepare, yet the thousands in the Omni and Weston Hotels escaped for the most part unscathed.  When it was all over, only 30 people were injured, and none of those injuries were life-threatening.

The sole fatality of the Atlanta tornado sadly wasn't found for over a week, and wasn't identified until two days ago.  Gregory Lee, Sr. was a homeless man known the frequent the area.  He was killed when a brick wall collapsed on him as he sought shelter against the building.

They say there has never been a tornado to hit downtown Atlanta before March 14.  The timing for this one was bad - there was a huge crowd in the area at the time - but the Hand of Providence was on those in the area protecting them. There really is no other explanation for why there wasn't a catastrophic loss of life in downtown Atlanta two weeks ago.

I Was Wrong... Again

If I had a dollar for every time I have been dead wrong about matters political over the last year, I could buy a nice used car.  It happened again Sunday afternoon.  In the midst of a discussion about the recent unpleasantness among the two Democratic candidates, I made the statement that I was convinced the worst was over and that you would see the two camps starting to make nice.  I based this opinion on reports over the weekend that senior Clinton staffers had threatened to jump ship if her continued campaign was going to be focused on trashing Barack Obama.

Boy, was I wrong. Instead of turning down the heat, both campaigns ramped up the attacks on each other in what is starting to look like some sort of scorched earth strategy. 

In a blatant effort to change the subject from her "misstatement" (spelled "l-i-e") about dodging sniper fire in Bosnia, Clinton re-introduced the subject of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, a story which had begun to fade from the headlines.  The Obama team, for their part, seem to have decided they can and will play hardball with the best of them, and they proved it today by issuing a statement calling Clinton out on her Bosnia embellishment and jumping on the Rev. Wright bandwagon.

With a month to go before the Pennsylvania Primary and more than three months before the convention in Denver, one wonders if there will be anything left of the Democratic Party when it's all said and done. The traditional Democratic coalition is at least at this point lying in tatters.  Hillary's bringing up the Rev. Wright topic again today is bound to infuriate the African American community, a group that Bill and Hillary have already alienated by their behavior since the South Carolina primary.

Also today, Clinton surrogates continued to insist that the former first lady is sitting pretty and attacked the news media for - almost as one - saying her chances of being the nominee are now next to nothing.  Their claims ranged from the silly to the ridiculous.  In the silly category are the claims she is more electable or that Obama's lead is not legitimate because Florida and Michigan are not counting.  The ridiculous was today's assertion by a Clinton crony that she is really ahead because if you add up the Electoral College votes in the states that she won she has more than Obama.

I won't bother to comment on the idiocy of that logic since there's no guarantee that the winner of the primary will go on to win that state in the general election.  But does it strike anyone else as supremely ironic that Democrats took such issue with the Electoral College process in the razor-close 2000 and 2004 elections and now when she needs a straw to grasp and it can be twisted to make her appear to be on top, Sen. Clinton has no problem embracing that same Electoral College?

Then again, it is no more outlandish or disingenuous than Sen. Clinton's sudden concern that the poor voters of Florida and Michigan not be disenfranchised.  She was not concerned with their plight months earlier - before she needed those votes - when she and all of the other candidates agreed that neither state would count.

Contrary to my prediction on Sunday, it appears it's going to continue to get get nastier and sink lower out there.

Barack Obama on Race

On Tuesday, Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama took a significant political risk in making a major speech on the subject of race. The speech was given in response to the controversy over incendiary comments made by Sen. Obama's former pastor of twenty years, Dr. Jeremiah Wright from Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ. Clips of Rev. Wright's sermons have been played endlessly over the last week.  While at least one of the clips was badly taken out of context - Rev. Wright was quoting someone else, not speaking for himself - his words are deeply offensive to most Americans, and apparently to Sen. Obama as well.

Obama chose - against the advice of his advisers, apparently - to make the speech on the issue of race an attempt to turn the controversy into an invitation to the nation to engage in a frank conversation about race relations. Obviously there were political realities in play in the process, but all but the most cynical agree that the Illinois Senator feels strongly about the issue on a personal level.

By all accounts, the speech was well written and masterfully delivered. Now, for the past 48 hours, news programs have dissected the speech and they have continued to play the sound bytes of Rev. Wright over and over again. The race genie is out of the bottle and it is getting pretty silly, even by American political campaign standards.  Just today, Sen. Obama, speaking off the cuff to a Philadelphia radio host, used the phrase "typical white person." Within hours, Talk Radio and the blogosphere blew a collective gasket.  Lost in the din was the fact that Sen. Obama was talking about his own grandmother when he used the phrase, and he was actually trying to validate the fear that some whites feel around black people.  He was trying to say that good, decent people of both races hold racial stereotypes.

It is a shame that Sen. Obama's speech could not have been given in a different setting and under different circumstances.  It was a ground-breaking, maybe even historic speech, but it is being buried under all of the yelling and screaming.

First of all, it was refreshing to have a politician talk to us like adults; He seemed to be talking to us, not at us.  Second, it was his own words.  There were no speech writers involved.  Obama is said to have been up till 2:00 am Tuesday morning writing the speech.  Third and by far the most important, Obama acknowledged the proverbial thousand-pound gorilla in the room: racial stereotypes and prejudices exist among otherwise good, decent people of all races.

Again, setting aside the fact that Sen. Obama is a candidate for President, he is uniquely qualified to give the speech he gave. His father was black and from Kenya, his mother was white. He was raised in a single-parent home by his mother with lots of help from his grandparents.  He has had to live in two worlds.  He has personal insight into both of those worlds.  When he spoke of black anger, he has seen it firsthand.  When he spoke of white resentment, he has seen that firsthand also, in the life of his grandmother.

At one point in the speech, Sen. Obama said we faced a choice: We could continue to wallow in our prejudices separately, or we can come together and talk about it; we could continue to play the clips of Rev. Wright over and over, or we can acknowledge our anger and resentment and start the process of repairing the breech.

Sadly, if the past 48 hours are any indication, we have chosen to wallow and play the clips.  And nit pick.

On another note, Sen. John McCain showed again today that he is a class act and an honorable man.  He fired a staff member today who was passing on a link to a YouTube video that linked Sen. Obama and Jeremiah Wright to Malcom X and the Black Panthers.  This is the second time McCain has publicly taken action to correct a supporter or staffer who was playing dirty.

One wonders if Sen. McCain can maintain this high standard if he ends up facing Sen. Clinton in the General Election.