I'm going to label this post as a continuation of a theme that I find remarkably important, one that was stirred up quite a bit by last night's farcical debate on ABC. If you watched it, I'm sorry, because I caused my roommate to sit through it with me, and neither one of us enjoyed it one bit. Come to learn today apparently 9 out of 10 questions were written by Sean Hannity who was hidden beneath the moderator desk operating an Avenue Q-style puppet of George Stephanoplis. For more developed coverage of this mockery of what a debate is supposed to be about, visit Daily Kos or any other progressive blog. Take your pick!
Still, I was struck this morning by one piece of the picture, and that is an analysis of the Jeremiah Wright portion of the evening. A few weeks back I posted a quote I found on Andrew Sullivan's blog where Hillary Clinton's pastor lauded Pastor Wright as an important figure whose good works are done a disservice by sound bite politics. Today, Daily Kos highlights the military service that Obama mentioned last night in the debate. You can read their whole post here, but I was struck by the following:
"Who loves America? Jeremiah Wright loved it enough that while Dick Cheney was getting his string of five deferments, Wright voluntarily gave up his student deferment, left college and joined the United States Marine Corps. Wright was valedictorian of his class in Corpsman School. When asked about the sacrifices he'd made, Wright said he was inspired by the words of John Kennedy that he should 'ask what he could do for his country.' "
I hope that before this whole election season is over we see more people stand up and speak out for the sad smear that is being made of someone who seems like a pretty remarkable leader in his community.
4 comments:
I didn't see the debate, but heard that it was awful. Questions like: "does so-and-so love America as much as you?" This has no place is a serious political debate and ABC should be ashamed of itself. I haven't seen a debate this bad since the Republicans went on CNN and found themselves confronting questions that seemed written by Clinton supporters. If networks are incapable of holding real debates, then, well, they shouldn't. We could just have them on NPR!
I am not saying that questions about Wright aren't legit. They are. But there is a difference between asking a tough question and trying to score points.
I am so tired of the Hillary-Obama stuff. She needs to hit the road so I don't have to suffer through any more embarrassing, depressing debates. It's getting juvenile and ugly, and I blame her. (Actually I didn't watch the debate, so that comment might be off topic, but I stand behind my comments.)
Thanks for the quote from Kos. Unfortunately, common sense like that seems to have no place in politics.
Love the new blog look!
I too did not see the debate but have read extensive quotes from it. If I had enough time to write an inaugural post, I'd link to the open letter (http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/attytood/An_open_letter_to_Charlie_Gibson_and_George_Stephanopoulos.html) by Will Bunch, a blogger who I <3 as much for his writing as for the picture of him with a mug at the top of his column which for some reason makes me giggle quite frequently. I loved what he wrote about the debate and what he continues to write at Attytood.
And what I forgot to mention above (the planned on-topic part of my comment) was that I heard Daniel Schorr's commentary a couple of mornings ago when I was in the kitchen and desperately wanted to instantaneously make everybody listen to it -to say "see SEE????" I'll never get over comparisons like the one of Jeremiah Wright vs. Dick Cheney et al.
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