I hope Monday's daily link, a provocative OpEd piece that ran Sunday in the New York Times is being passed around the country -- specially between those against the war and those for it. It should be required reading coming as it does from five veterans of the 82nd Airborne who can hardly be considered cut and runners. They have served a vital public role: of telling the truth when the truth is in such short supply. One wonders if they will pay a price for such treachery against the Bush gang.
Daily link: The Iraq War as they saw it
Meanwhile, back on the primary trail, here are a few voices I heard yesterday while covering the Barack Obama event in Portsmouth (and kudos to whomever decided to hold the rally at One Harbourplace. The sun, clouds, pleasant summer temps, and harbor combination was a delight. It was by far the best place I’ve been to yet on the trail for a campaign stop.)
Chris Culver, a veteran elementary school teacher who lives in Portsmouth, is an undecided Democrat who told me she will definitely not vote for one candidate: Hillary Clinton. “Too much special interest money,” Culver told me a week after Clinton publicly said that special interests represent real people (and hopefully, real interests) as well. Culver said that she would like to see a woman president but “it’s more important to have someone with integrity than one’s gender or race.”
On the other hand, though she was impressed with Obama (“he’s impressive, thoughtful”) she remains undecided and determined to find a candidate who can talk intelligently and broadly about education -- and how poverty is real issue driving educational issues. In particular, Culver said the fall out from the ongoing No Child Left Behind debacle has created a “huge chasm of distrust between the public and public schools.”
While Obama pleased a lot of “leaners” (as in undecided leaning folks), one told me sotte voce that Obama had failed badly to make “the sale” to him for reasons never quite clearly explained (something about energy and robotic gestures). Which raises a style question that the campaign fights daily: Obama can be an acquired taste. He rarely hits the high notes his audience (mostly angry, Bush-loathing Dems) would like nor does he pander with artificially constructed guaranteed applause line pauses. He does meander and explain and treats his audience with an assumption of intelligence and good will. He’s cool in a red-hot environment. The voters will determine whether this is a winning virtue or not.
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