Hail to the Chief!
(UPDATE and Correction: Ann Althouse is a law prof at Univ of Wisconsin at Madison, not Michigan at Ann Arbor. Told you I was discombobulated!)
Well, my guy and gal didn’t win last night.
John McCain is a hero, and I adore Sarah Palin (you can take the girl-me-out of the Red State, but you can’t take the Red State out of the girl!), about whom I am in total agreement with another of my personal heroines, Camille Paglia: in Palin, we may one day be looking at the first woman president.
Or the second, after Hillary :p (who, by the way, along with her PUMA supporters, has gained my everlasting respect and affection).
But despite all disappointments, those of us whose religion is not politics quickly pick up and move on, with a few concerns maybe, but nevertheless with faith in greater powers at work in the universe than those of this world.
Last night and this morning, my favorite libertarian and right-centrist bloggers had so much to say that captured what I am feeling.
First, the awesomely wonderful Ann Althouse (althouse.blogspot.com). An Obama supporter, she is a law professor at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (world-famous as the almas mater of our very own angevin2 and golden_berry):
10:58: Obama walks out on the stage in Chicago. He looks happy. It makes me feel happy enough to laugh out loud. Michelle is wearing a very strange dress, black with glowing redness spreading upward and downward from a black X across the midriff. The little girls look elegant, as if they'd grown much older since we saw them this morning. He compliments McCain. He tells his girls they're getting a puppy. He gives us all credit for his victory. We understand "the enormity of the task that lies ahead." ...He's going to listen to us, but he wants us to help him "rebuild this nation." "Let us summon a new spirit of patriotism, of responsibility." Let's not be partisan and petty. Let's remember Abraham Lincoln. He was a Republican. He faced a nation more divided than it is now. But he reached out to them. And we share a destiny with everyone in the world. "Democracy, opportunity, and unyielding hope." "America can change. Our union can be perfected." Now, he's in a sing-song poetic part of the speech, with the refrain "Yes we can." The crowd catches on and shouts the refrain. "Thank you. God bless you. And God bless the United States of America."
Heh. Althouse’s regular commenters provide some of the most contentious, hilarious, obscene discussions I’ve ever read. I couldn’t load the comments page this morning, but here she quotes one exchange:
9:27: In the comments, Doyle asks, "You guys having fun?" Which provokes Palladian: "No, I wouldn't be having fun no matter who won this miserable election. But are you going to be having fun? It's not enough to sit around and bitch, you sour little [*bleep*]. You're in charge now! In charge of all of us! In charge of our future! You're not going to get to protect and govern only those that agree with you. You're going to have to protect and govern all of us, just like George Bush did with your sorry asses these last 8 years. We're ready for the brilliance, for the leadership, for the change and hope and all that. Time to deliver! Bring it on!"
Another of my favorites is The Anchoress. She is, I believe, a Long Island housewife and free-lance writer who blogs from a Roman Catholic perspective at theanchoressonline.com. A former Democrat, she is invariably fair and loving to everyone, or at least tries her best to be:
Good Luck, President-Elect Obama. You’ll be in charge of our Armed Forces -- Commander-in-Chief to 2,200,000 brave men and women who serve and are willing to die for their country.
You’ll understand when I say I hope you’re up to the task (your resume is pretty thin) and that you’ll think about what is best for those troops and the honorable victory they are achieving in Iraq, before you embark on the creation of your domestic army. To start, maybe, as president, you could do something to make it easier for them to get their votes counted?
Our President at this moment is still George W. Bush, and he deserves a good deal more respect than he’s been given. When you’re sworn in, you’ll have my respect, too. It won’t be uncritical - not that you’ll care what this little blogger thinks, for as long as bloggers continue to run free - but I will manage to be respectful and fair, which is more than most lefty bloggers managed for President Bush, so you’re already ahead of the game.
I may have to use this transitional time, though, to burn off a
I know you’ll understand that, President-Elect Obama, because you’re going to be the President of the United States - part of a very exclusive group, whose members should share some sympathies for each other. And I know you won’t mind my noticing those double-standards because you know that the President cannot be too touchy; the President must have a sense of humor about himself, and a generosity of spirit, and a respect for free speech among the citizenry. Correct?
Yes, I knew you would have a sense of humor and generosity, and that you would respect free speech.
And with that in mind, if you would please put gas in my car and pay my mortgage for me, I’m sure we can be great friends! :D
I’m so damn glad this election is over! Two years was too freaking long.
little of my anger at the press, and to give a little tweak at the glaring double-standards I see in their treatment of you, compared to their treatment of Bush.
Yes, like The Anchoress, my biggest concern is the integrity of the press.
I will say though that what distresses me most about Obama’s win is what it has taught the press: that they can walk anyone they want through a primary and election, spinning, framing and marketing like wizards, burying anything they want buried, and completely controlling the narrative and the dialog. Having spent all of their credibility on Obama, they will now have to validate their choice, which means they’ll continue in unquestioning support, championing, rather than questioning, his leadership. Sadly, questioning policy and leadership is the most valuable thing they do. They’ll have forfeited the idea of "comforting the afflicted while afflicting the comfortable," because they’ll be wholly invested in advocacy. THAT is the worst thing that happened, in this election - the loss of our open and free press.
Of course, I myself (Chica, the Child Wonder ;)) had noticed something stinky about the press by the time I was about 11 years old. The sneering, the condescension. I remember asking my dad, "Why do they say these things?"
He answered, "Honey, most of them have never been west of New Jersey or east of Las Vegas."
But according to our betters at Time Magazine, et al., it was people like us Kansans who were the provincial hicks. But I think their dislike for us goes deeper than projection and ignorance.
Slavery was once a highly profitable racket, and not just for southern landowners but for northern industrialists whose hands appeared to be clean. Us busybody Kansans, judgmental and oh-so-religious, because we truly believed that all human beings are made in God’s image, were the thorn in the paw of the slavery lion. We harbored and sheltered escaped slaves and transported them, via the underground railroad, to freedom in the northern states. And though our country lagged years behind the British in doing so, in time we put an end to slavery on this side of the pond.
I’ll leave for another day the discussion of why and how the truth about the good hearts of the people of the Midwest, and about the Party of Lincoln, have been twisted and corrupted into the hatred and contempt that so many in the Blue States feel for us today. Alas, despite all human achievements and endeavors, Melkor will have his way.
What really matters to me is that the work of my ancestors, abolitionists all, has culminated in this day.
Via The Anchoress, here’s William Gerson in the WaPo (very nice of her-and me-to quote an organ of the Dinosaur Media, don’t you think? ;) But I agree with every word):
I come to this moment of national decision with deep concerns about the next president. His victory is likely to unleash an ideological and vengeful Democratic Congress. In the testing of a long campaign, Barack Obama has seemed thoughtful but sometimes hesitant and unsure of his bearings. He promises outreach and healing but holds to a liberalism that sees no need for innovation. And as the result of a financial panic that unfairly undermined all Republicans, Obama has stumbled into the most dangerous kind of victory. A mandate for change but not for ideas. A mandate without clear meaning....
This presidency in particular should be a source of pride even for those who do not share its priorities. An African American will take the oath of office blocks from where slaves were once housed in pens and sold for profit. He will sleep in a house built in part by slave labor, near the room where Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation with firm hand. He will host dinners where Teddy Roosevelt in 1901 entertained the first African American to be a formal dinner guest in the White House; command a military that was not officially integrated until 1948. Every event, every act, will complete a cycle of history. It will be the most dramatic possible demonstration that the promise of America - so long deferred - is not a lie.
I suspect I will have many substantive criticisms of the new administration, beginning soon enough. Today I have only one message for Barack Obama, who will be our president, my president: Hail to the chief.
Amen. And glory, glory hallelujah! His Truth is marching on.
Well, my guy and gal didn’t win last night.
John McCain is a hero, and I adore Sarah Palin (you can take the girl-me-out of the Red State, but you can’t take the Red State out of the girl!), about whom I am in total agreement with another of my personal heroines, Camille Paglia: in Palin, we may one day be looking at the first woman president.
Or the second, after Hillary :p (who, by the way, along with her PUMA supporters, has gained my everlasting respect and affection).
But despite all disappointments, those of us whose religion is not politics quickly pick up and move on, with a few concerns maybe, but nevertheless with faith in greater powers at work in the universe than those of this world.
Last night and this morning, my favorite libertarian and right-centrist bloggers had so much to say that captured what I am feeling.
First, the awesomely wonderful Ann Althouse (althouse.blogspot.com). An Obama supporter, she is a law professor at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (world-famous as the almas mater of our very own angevin2 and golden_berry):
10:58: Obama walks out on the stage in Chicago. He looks happy. It makes me feel happy enough to laugh out loud. Michelle is wearing a very strange dress, black with glowing redness spreading upward and downward from a black X across the midriff. The little girls look elegant, as if they'd grown much older since we saw them this morning. He compliments McCain. He tells his girls they're getting a puppy. He gives us all credit for his victory. We understand "the enormity of the task that lies ahead." ...He's going to listen to us, but he wants us to help him "rebuild this nation." "Let us summon a new spirit of patriotism, of responsibility." Let's not be partisan and petty. Let's remember Abraham Lincoln. He was a Republican. He faced a nation more divided than it is now. But he reached out to them. And we share a destiny with everyone in the world. "Democracy, opportunity, and unyielding hope." "America can change. Our union can be perfected." Now, he's in a sing-song poetic part of the speech, with the refrain "Yes we can." The crowd catches on and shouts the refrain. "Thank you. God bless you. And God bless the United States of America."
Heh. Althouse’s regular commenters provide some of the most contentious, hilarious, obscene discussions I’ve ever read. I couldn’t load the comments page this morning, but here she quotes one exchange:
9:27: In the comments, Doyle asks, "You guys having fun?" Which provokes Palladian: "No, I wouldn't be having fun no matter who won this miserable election. But are you going to be having fun? It's not enough to sit around and bitch, you sour little [*bleep*]. You're in charge now! In charge of all of us! In charge of our future! You're not going to get to protect and govern only those that agree with you. You're going to have to protect and govern all of us, just like George Bush did with your sorry asses these last 8 years. We're ready for the brilliance, for the leadership, for the change and hope and all that. Time to deliver! Bring it on!"
Another of my favorites is The Anchoress. She is, I believe, a Long Island housewife and free-lance writer who blogs from a Roman Catholic perspective at theanchoressonline.com. A former Democrat, she is invariably fair and loving to everyone, or at least tries her best to be:
Good Luck, President-Elect Obama. You’ll be in charge of our Armed Forces -- Commander-in-Chief to 2,200,000 brave men and women who serve and are willing to die for their country.
You’ll understand when I say I hope you’re up to the task (your resume is pretty thin) and that you’ll think about what is best for those troops and the honorable victory they are achieving in Iraq, before you embark on the creation of your domestic army. To start, maybe, as president, you could do something to make it easier for them to get their votes counted?
Our President at this moment is still George W. Bush, and he deserves a good deal more respect than he’s been given. When you’re sworn in, you’ll have my respect, too. It won’t be uncritical - not that you’ll care what this little blogger thinks, for as long as bloggers continue to run free - but I will manage to be respectful and fair, which is more than most lefty bloggers managed for President Bush, so you’re already ahead of the game.
I may have to use this transitional time, though, to burn off a
I know you’ll understand that, President-Elect Obama, because you’re going to be the President of the United States - part of a very exclusive group, whose members should share some sympathies for each other. And I know you won’t mind my noticing those double-standards because you know that the President cannot be too touchy; the President must have a sense of humor about himself, and a generosity of spirit, and a respect for free speech among the citizenry. Correct?
Yes, I knew you would have a sense of humor and generosity, and that you would respect free speech.
And with that in mind, if you would please put gas in my car and pay my mortgage for me, I’m sure we can be great friends! :D
I’m so damn glad this election is over! Two years was too freaking long.
little of my anger at the press, and to give a little tweak at the glaring double-standards I see in their treatment of you, compared to their treatment of Bush.
Yes, like The Anchoress, my biggest concern is the integrity of the press.
I will say though that what distresses me most about Obama’s win is what it has taught the press: that they can walk anyone they want through a primary and election, spinning, framing and marketing like wizards, burying anything they want buried, and completely controlling the narrative and the dialog. Having spent all of their credibility on Obama, they will now have to validate their choice, which means they’ll continue in unquestioning support, championing, rather than questioning, his leadership. Sadly, questioning policy and leadership is the most valuable thing they do. They’ll have forfeited the idea of "comforting the afflicted while afflicting the comfortable," because they’ll be wholly invested in advocacy. THAT is the worst thing that happened, in this election - the loss of our open and free press.
Of course, I myself (Chica, the Child Wonder ;)) had noticed something stinky about the press by the time I was about 11 years old. The sneering, the condescension. I remember asking my dad, "Why do they say these things?"
He answered, "Honey, most of them have never been west of New Jersey or east of Las Vegas."
But according to our betters at Time Magazine, et al., it was people like us Kansans who were the provincial hicks. But I think their dislike for us goes deeper than projection and ignorance.
Slavery was once a highly profitable racket, and not just for southern landowners but for northern industrialists whose hands appeared to be clean. Us busybody Kansans, judgmental and oh-so-religious, because we truly believed that all human beings are made in God’s image, were the thorn in the paw of the slavery lion. We harbored and sheltered escaped slaves and transported them, via the underground railroad, to freedom in the northern states. And though our country lagged years behind the British in doing so, in time we put an end to slavery on this side of the pond.
I’ll leave for another day the discussion of why and how the truth about the good hearts of the people of the Midwest, and about the Party of Lincoln, have been twisted and corrupted into the hatred and contempt that so many in the Blue States feel for us today. Alas, despite all human achievements and endeavors, Melkor will have his way.
What really matters to me is that the work of my ancestors, abolitionists all, has culminated in this day.
Via The Anchoress, here’s William Gerson in the WaPo (very nice of her-and me-to quote an organ of the Dinosaur Media, don’t you think? ;) But I agree with every word):
I come to this moment of national decision with deep concerns about the next president. His victory is likely to unleash an ideological and vengeful Democratic Congress. In the testing of a long campaign, Barack Obama has seemed thoughtful but sometimes hesitant and unsure of his bearings. He promises outreach and healing but holds to a liberalism that sees no need for innovation. And as the result of a financial panic that unfairly undermined all Republicans, Obama has stumbled into the most dangerous kind of victory. A mandate for change but not for ideas. A mandate without clear meaning....
This presidency in particular should be a source of pride even for those who do not share its priorities. An African American will take the oath of office blocks from where slaves were once housed in pens and sold for profit. He will sleep in a house built in part by slave labor, near the room where Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation with firm hand. He will host dinners where Teddy Roosevelt in 1901 entertained the first African American to be a formal dinner guest in the White House; command a military that was not officially integrated until 1948. Every event, every act, will complete a cycle of history. It will be the most dramatic possible demonstration that the promise of America - so long deferred - is not a lie.
I suspect I will have many substantive criticisms of the new administration, beginning soon enough. Today I have only one message for Barack Obama, who will be our president, my president: Hail to the chief.
Amen. And glory, glory hallelujah! His Truth is marching on.