Very moving. Thank you for sharing this. My folks are in their 90's and I have had similar thoughts. You expressed it beautifully.

Posted at June 3, 2008 7:06 AM in response to For the First Time In My Adult Life...

"Her determination to carry the nomination process through to its real conclusion has perhaps earned her a grudging respect from those who would never support her." [From the endorsement]

If anyone who fits this category is in the room, would you please stand up?

Posted at May 30, 2008 9:57 AM in response to Hillary Gets Endorsement Of Newspaper Editorial Board That Heard R.F.K. Assassination Remarks

Well, I think whether one considers this a "broken promise" or a welcome change of heart is subjective, based on whether one does or doesn't want Obama to be president. If I'd told my kids we would never be able to afford to go to Disneyworld and then some time later, I announced that we'd be able to go after all, I doubt that they would have accused me of "breaking a promise."

Posted at May 25, 2008 7:43 PM in response to Quick - What do Ron Paul, Joe Biden and Barack Obama all have in common?

Whether it was intentional or not, the good news for Hillary is that if she shoots herself in the foot one more time, she may not have any foot left to stick in her mouth.

Sorry, just last night I entered my "what I like about Hillary" comment on a unity thread here -- and then this comes out -- I'm fighting off a wave of bad feeling right now.

Posted at May 23, 2008 6:46 PM in response to Hillary Invokes RFK Assassination While Describing Why She's Staying In Race

Alex, you nailed it -

Posted at May 23, 2008 6:37 PM in response to Hillary Invokes RFK Assassination While Describing Why She's Staying In Race

I think often a person's best and worst qualities are the same -- we just judge the quality differently based on context. E.g. Hillary's tenacity has bugged me in the context of this nomination process. But when I think of her tenacity in the context of her motherhood, I envision that she would not just lie down in the railroad tracks to save Chelsea, she would STAND in the tracks and stop the train by sheer force of will. And I care more about how someone treats their family than how they perform their job, so this is a deep compliment.

I've been bummed by the negativity on recent threads here, so I was really glad to read this one -- and I hope we do more of them. But ultimately, even if we can't all come to like and admire the "other" candidate, we can still choose to be respectful and move on -- Like parents who divorce are advised to do for the sake of the children. And in terms of the general election, our children's welfare IS at stake; their health care, their education, their world long after I kick this mortal coil. I see that as our challenge: to let the past go and focus on winning the general election. I'm really being a mom, aren't I? (A 13-year-divorced mom!)

Posted at May 23, 2008 5:06 AM in response to What I like about the other candidate.

I mean the British version of The Office!

Posted at May 13, 2008 1:23 AM in response to Weirdest, worst, and best moments from the primary campaign

Best: Winning Iowa (my home state) was very, very cool, but it was the speech the night of NH results that really made me see this guy's grit, style, and ability to lead when the chips were down. I'd read from someone who knew him personally that he's at his best when challenged and that's what I saw that night; it set a new "metric" for me on how to assess the candidates going forward. How do they handle the hard stuff? By that metric, I think he's won hands down.

Worst, Best and Weirdest all in one: Wright. I still feel terribly sad that this issue arose, that he ultimately had to denounce and reject his former pastor's comments, that there was no good path out of it.

Wright was the Weirdest as well: I'm still trying to get my head around the idea that Catholics like Hannity and O'Reilly bashed him for not leaving the congregation - given the history of the Catholic church, of which they and I are members, and the fact that many of us have stuck it out with that institution despite some very horrific behaviors of church leaders.

But Wright was also a Best for generating the groundbreaking Speech. And for a number of SDs saying his handling of this crisis is what finally made their decision in his favor.

This Best, Worst, Weirdest question reminds me of closing lines from the last episode of the British office -- poorly paraphrased it was: "Life is hills and valleys and you never know until you're done which one you were at." We should ask ourselves the Best, Worst and Weirdest question again a year or two from now.

Posted at May 13, 2008 1:21 AM in response to Weirdest, worst, and best moments from the primary campaign

Gov. Sebilius or Gov. Napolitano - either would fill the "female on the ticket" role in lieu of HRC, appealing to that demographic (I say this as a 58-year-old white female myself), both have executive experience that HRC doesn't bring to the ticket, and neither brings the baggage of what one blogger here called the "craven" HRC campaign. Sebilius has been out campaigning for him a fair amount; I haven't seen much coverage of Napolitano doing so but I could have just missed it.

Posted at May 7, 2008 1:45 AM in response to A Sincere Questioning of the Possibility of Clinton as VP

I really liked your post! This is why I don't watch TV on primary/caucus days. It was so much more pleasant to read your dead-on synopsis of the drill!

Posted at May 6, 2008 10:31 PM in response to Brace Yourselves and Don't Believe the Hype: You Know the Drill