Rick Horowitz

Obama at Last, Out from Under the Clintons

             Nomination?  Hell, it was an exorcism!

            There was a moment on Wednesday evening, just after Joe Biden had finished speaking, had finished explaining how -- at least as far as his good friend John McCain was concerned -- years of life don’t always equal strength of judgment.  Explaining how the younger man could have the greater wisdom.

            And now Biden was done, and the cheering was done, and Biden’s wife was onstage with him, saying something about a surprise guest, and suddenly there he was:  The nominee himself.  In the flesh.

            He was smiling -- why wouldn’t he be smiling?  But more than smiling:  Barack Obama looked as if he’d exhaled for the first time in weeks.

            This was -- finally -- his convention.  His room.  His crowd.  His time.

            Which is to say, there were -- finally -- no more Clintons.

Convention Mischief: The Republicans Go Fishing for Women

             Talk about heartwarming!

            Have you ever seen anything quite as touching, quite as considerate, as the McCain campaign’s sudden concern for the bruised feelings of certain Hillary Clinton supporters?

            First it’s a new TV ad reminding them that Barack Obama didn’t choose Hillary as his running mate even though she got millions of votes during the primaries.  Not just reminding them -- as if they needed reminding -- but suggesting that it was a decision made out of ego and spite, because she had told “the truth” about Obama and he didn’t like it.

            Then it’s Rudy Giuliani on the Sunday talk shows, saying that Clinton really should have been Obama’s running mate.  That she and Obama each got 50 percent of the Democratic vote, and that Obama had to go out of his way not to pick her.

            Then it’s another new TV ad featuring a former Clinton delegate from Wisconsin announcing that she’s throwing her support to John McCain, and assuring her hesitant sister Democrats all across the country that “It’s OK” to vote for a Republican this time.

            Like I said, it’s perfectly heartwarming.

            Especially since, if Hillary Clinton had been on the Democratic ticket, the Republicans would now be pounding her on the head with large appliances.

Deep Veep Heap Too Steep?

             Would it have been all that hard to put me on the short list?

            Don’t get me wrong -- I’m not bitter.  Not at all.  Bitter’s the last thing I am.  To be bitter, you have to be disappointed, and to be disappointed, you have to be expecting something.

            I wasn’t expecting anything.  Anything other than what I got, that is:

            Another election, another rejection.

            I’m just saying.

"Cone of Silence"? (John McCain and the Magic Words)

             So John McCain slipped the cone of silence -- no big surprise.  What I want to know is:  Whatever happened to the cylinder of civility?

            And for that matter, who brought the cube of contempt?

            Or am I just being finicky?

Olympic Lessons: He Watches, He Learns

             From this day forward, I stick my landings.

            There will be no big steps, or even small steps, on my landings.  And certainly no hops.  From now on, where I land is where I stand.

            I will never lose my grip.  Even if it means putting a pound of powder on my hands, and on everything I expect to touch, I will never lose my grip -- except when I have to demonstrate my release skills.  Then I will loosen my grip, but only temporarily, and it will be deliberate, and the judges will know the difference.

"Catharsis": Everybody's a Winner! (Well, Nearly Everybody.)

            ca-thar-sis  n. 1. the purging of the emotions or relieving of emotional tensions, esp. through certain kinds of art, as tragedy or music.  2. Med.  Purgation.  3. Psychiatry  a. psychotherapy that encourages or permits the discharge of pent-up, socially unacceptable affects.  b. discharge of pent-up emotions so as to result in the alleviation of symptoms or the permanent relief of the condition.  4.  Hillary’s latest gimmick.

 

            So tell me:  Is it condescending to women to suggest that it’s condescending to women to suggest that they need some kind of special treatment to deal with their disappointment in the political arena?

            But how else are you supposed to read the suggestion floated by the Clinton camp -- not just by the Clinton camp, but by Hillary Clinton herself -- that letting the convention spotlight linger uncommonly long and uncommonly bright on the party’s runner-up is the only way to finally bring her most ardent supporters to that special place -- emotionally speaking, psychologically speaking -- where they can actually support the party’s actual nominee?

            I’d expect some altitude sickness in Denver -- but the vapors?!

About Those Tires... (or "Caught in the Prop Wash")

             Maybe he gets to be president.  Maybe he doesn’t.

            But however it turns out this November, John McCain has already achieved something no one can ever take away from him.

            He’s definitely the Man of the Year for the American Tire Gauge Association.

All Brett Favre, All the Time

    Click.
    “ -- your place for news.  Another earthquake rattles walls -- and nerves -- in China.  Continued signs of weakness in the domestic housing market.  And the presidential candidates slug it out on energy policy.
    “All this just ahead.  But our lead story this hour:  Brett Favre has lunch.  We’ve got Jim standing by in Green Bay with more.”