Presidential candidate or biological hazard?

Has anyone read the San Francisco Chronicle’s endorsement of Obama? It is a seriously weird endorsement. These people aren’t supporting a candidate. They are carrying a torch. They are infatuated. And we all know what happens with infatuations.

But this paragraph has to be the strangest one I’ve seen as far as endorsements go:

He radiated the sense of possibility that has attracted the votes of independents and tapped into the idealism of young people during this campaign. He exuded the aura of a 46-year-old leader who could once again persuade the best and the brightest to forestall or pause their grand professional goals to serve in his administration.

Radiation and exudation? Maybe it’s just the geek in me but that just reached out and oozed on me.  Oh, he “flourishes” too, sort of like a yeast infection. Here, let me give it a try.  How about, “He’s a veritable aerosol of Hope!” “Spreading Change is his most notable ability” “He transmits a certain optimism” “He is the carrier of our voice!”

I don’t know whether I should vote for him on Tuesday or make an appointment to get tested. The Chronicle is swapping spit with Obama big time. It’s going to take Hillary’s healthcare plan to treat everyone.

Jeez, guys, get a room.

The Cocktail Hour

Hi and welcome to the Cocktail Hour, that time of the day when we raise our glasses, instead of our voices, to one another. I am your hostess, Goldberry.

The big showdown happens next week. It’s a little scary. I’m afraid to watch. But if we all hold hands, I’m sure we’ll cross this street in one piece.

To the left of the door is Rico, our bartender with flair! Stop and say hello. Tonight’s featured drink is a *California Dream* . Tequila, yummmm… But you can order anything you like, we’re accomodating.

Tonight’s entertainment is Stan Getz. His compilation of cool jazz mixed with bop and swing, West Coast Jazz, can be found on iTunes or amazon. Here’s Stan Getz and John Coltrane, Oscar Peterson together covering the East Coast with Hackensack (NJ!) Rifftide:

Be careful not to flip your trigger. Those words can’t hold their liquor. Feel free to check your trigger words with Florence, our lovely check room attendant.

The waiters will be circulating soon with some empanadas, marcona almonds and mini-quesadillas with a selection of salsas.

Please drink responsibly and tip your wait staff generously.

GO GIANTS!!!

Cogitations

This stuff blew into my head today:

• Paul Krugman’s column praises Edwards as a man of ideas. He’s absolutely right. Edwards stuck to core Democratic principles even while he delivered some angry populist speeches. But Krugman also continues his skepticism regarding Obama. I think he’s getting at something that goes deeper than policy. Obama is reaching out to libertarians, moderate Republicans and Independents in a year when he really doesn’t have to.  Most voters are fed up with Movement Conservatism and know when they’ve been had.  Plus, the media isn’t going to care how much bridge building he did during primary season. He’s going to get flayed anyway. RonK wrote a great post on Obama’s political philosophy yesterday with The Audiology of Hope: Dogwistling Economics. The change that Americans are so eager to embrace is away from free market/personal responibility/punitive harshness and towards strong social safety net/shared risk/optimism. It’s the policies that can deliver that change, not the other way around. Hillary has them; Obama don’t.
• I’m still taking suggestions for a new name. I like The Confluence because it suggests flowing together, meeting at a common point, convergence. It is exactly the opposite of Republicanism and Movement Conservatism, which focussed on individualism and division and everyone for himself. And when people are divided, they are weak, which is just the way the rulers like it. With Confluence, you get contributions to the whole and we go forward together strengthened. “There is power in a union.” But I’m open to more ideas. Eventually, I’ll make it permanent and spring for the domain name.
• Speaking of bridges and confluence, take my advice, Democratic nominee. There is no better place to kick off the fall campaign than Pittsburgh. It is rich with Democratic symbolism. There is the flowing together of the two rivers to make the Ohio, the many bridges joining diverse neighborhoods, it is still paved with the Belgian brick laid during the Depression by FDR’s WPA and it is evolving from an industrial union town to a high tech hub. What better place to kick off the general than at The Point with the 150 ft fountain at your back, looking forward and bringing everyone together behind you?
  Think about it.