January 31, 2008

• LBJ, JFK, HRC, & BHO

  A week from yesterday will be Super Duper Tuesday in the U.S. and voters in California and 21 other states will go to the polls to choose who will be the likely candidates for arguably the most important election of our time.  Whether you believe that cliche or not, this is certainly an crucial battle.  George W. Bush has decimated the economy, and few realize how much worse the subprime crisis is going to impact the global economy.  My quandary, as of today is who to vote for now?

  

  I was prepared to vote for John Edwards next Tuesday, knowing full well that he was not going to be the nominee.  As long as he was still in the race though, I was going to support him.  Now that he’s withdrawn, I have to choose between Obama (BHO) or Hillary (HRC), neither of whom I’m prepared (yet) to support.  I just bought Obama’s book “Dream From My Father – A Story of Race and Inheritance” to learn more about the man and his past, but have only gotten through 3 chapters, and doubt I’ll have time to finish before Tuesday.

  Now, just today we’re learning more about Monday’s announcement by Ted Kennedy to support Obama.  More important even than that I thought, was Caroline Kennedy’s endorsement of Barack.  I did think it odd a few weeks ago when Hillary was praising Lyndon Johnson for his Civil Rights triumphs.  “Wasn’t it John F. Kennedy who shepherded the Civil Rights Act of 1964 before his assassination?”, I thought to myself.  Yes, it was, but it was LBJ’s “experience in parliamentary politics and the bully pulpit he wielded as president in support of the bill”, that got it passed so quickly.  JFK’s civil rights record turns out to be a little fuzzier than I had originally thought.  That said however, I can see how Teddy Kennedy might be pissed off at Hillary for distorting his brother’s perceived legacy.

  
  
  

  Reading Caroline Kennedy’s op-ed piece in the New York Times, seriously made me take a closer look at Obama though.  It also made me curious about civil rights and how LBJ & JFK really felt.  Because of this, I started researching Lyndon Johnson’s presidency and found these fascinating FREE audio clips on iTunes (only available to iTunes users in the US I fear) that illustrate what a truly different time that was.  It the following clip, President Johnson calls the widow Jackie Kennedy on December 2, 1963, a couple of weeks after her husband was assassinated and she was still living in the White House.  Take a listen:

  Isn’t that crazy?  I don’t know how to feel about it.  Jackie is so submissive, and LBJ is so creepy, yet I suspect it was fairly altruistic.  If you ever want a sense of what life was like back then, you need only watch Mad Men on AMC.  It’s my new favorite show. 

  Anyway, I digress.  So, what to do?  I have a lot of reading to do between now and Tuesday when I step into the voter’s booth.  I encourage you all to do the same (unless you’re Republicans….j/k) 

  
  You may recognize today’s song of the day from the new MacBook Air commercials.

  • 2:32 am
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