The Wright Move

Obama has now officially distanced himself from his former pastor and probably former friend, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. He did it with a degree of emotion, humility, disappointment, and resolve to place a solid wall between himself and Wright. I thought that he did a good job. I thought that he took too way to long to do it but he finally got pushed over the edge by the ego-maniac, racist Wright.

Obama has lost ground in the national polls but honestly the national polls are completely meaningless at this moment. All that matters now are Indiana, North Carolina and the super-delegates. Only by losing both states can he lose the super-delegates. Losing the super-delegates is the only way for him to lose the nomination.

Disappointment

I am so disappointed that the Reverend Jeremiah Wright will not deliver a sermon or press conference or convention address every day between now and November 5.

For bringing clarity to Obama's convictions, the Reverend has no peer.

Bill Clinton

This morning I heard Bill Clinton speak at Carmel High School. After an insider tip, I made my way over to the otherwise outstanding institution. Here's how I observed it. The juniors and seniors sat in the bleachers of the gym. The speaker's platform was set up at one baseline. A blue temporary curtain hung behind the platform and a huge American flag was draped on it behind the rostrum. On the basketball floor, the press camera stand and sound engineer was set up at just beyond half court. So, chairs for people from the Carmel community were set up on the floor, between the half court line and the platform on the baseline. That's all. They were not filled and the event organizers had to bring down selected students to fill in the seats. I was seated four rows back. Unlike another man in the crowd, I did not bring my Ron Paul bumper sticker to wave. Jet-lag probably.

Slick spoke for quite a while. I didn't time it but it was probably 45 minutes. Much longer than a typical stump speech. A secret service man looked at his watch. The crowd, mainly of teens obviously, initially sat in nearly total silence as the speech began. They got a little restless near the end but generally were very well behaved and attentive, as one would expect from a Carmel High crowd. I was interested in the places where students gave applause. It was generally a pretty 'dead' crowd because (a) it's expressiveness-challenged midwest and (b) the students probably didn't get the nuances of many of the political issues in the speech and (c) Willie didn't deliver a rousing speech. Still, it was interesting that the students applauded every time a 'solution' was suggested for 'global warming.' It was the main issue on which they seemed to have a spontaneous response.

Anyway, as it turned out, Bill endorsed Hillary.

After the speech, Bill worked the rope line - like the one when he hugged Monica. He didn't hug anyone. The students rushed the line and seemed to relish the idea of shaking his hand and especially of getting an up close cell phone photo of or with him. I'm not sure that the secret service guys were quite ready for the energy and squirmy flexibility of a high school students. Bill seemed to enjoy himself - even left and came back for more.

An elderly lady asked me if I was a Hillary supporter or 'just here to see a former President.' I told her the later. She was disappointed.

I thought, but how exciting it is that Bill is the former President.