Did anyone else see Maya Angelou on CNN reciting a poem called, "We Rise"?  Here is a link: http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2008/11/08/angelou.poem.lkl.cnn

It made me hope that President-Elect Obama (I could type that a hundred times, it looks so nice!) will invite her to present a poem at the Inauguration.  Angelou has such a way of making simple words say something powerful that she would be a perfect addition to what will already be a remarkable event.

I know that Robert Frost participated in the Kennedy Inaugural (though I seem to remember that his prepared poem blew away or something and he recited something from memory?) but I don't recall if that is normal procedure at an Inauguration.  Anyone else remember?

This is a big relief for those of us who live in this district.  The incumbent, Wayne Gilchrest, is a moderate Republican and decent guy who was defeated in the primary by a conservative hack supported by the Club for Growth.  Gilchrest ended up endorsing Kratovil, the Democrat, in the general. 

When they finished the count on Election Night, Kratovil was up by 915 votes.  After the counting of absentee ballots he has more than doubled his lead to 2,003.  There are still 4,800 provisional ballots to count, but the trends were sufficient for AP and CNN to declare Kratovil the winner.

'nough said.

My brother just sent me a link to a great election video by Ron Howard.

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/cc65ed650d

The final line is, "Register and vote with you heart, mind, courage and vision."

Enjoy!

I think that there was a subliminal message for many people in last night's debate.  The people I am thinking of are the ones who are currently dealing with aging parents who are no longer quite at the top of their game and tend to say and do things which make their kids groan, "Oh, Dad!  You KNOW that isn't right!"  When I looked at Barak Obama reacting to John McCain, that often seemed to be the way he felt, "The old geezer's losing it."  I think there are a lot of people who will sub-consciously relate their own experiences with their parents to what they were seeing in the debate and come to the conclusion that you can still like and respect John McCain, but for heaven's sake don't let him get a-hold of the car keys!  Not to mention the codes for the warheads.

I was thinking today about how I would like for Gwen Iffel to approach the questioning of Sarah Palin and I think I've come up with a good plan.  Instead of asking questions which can be answered with a campaign talking point ("What is your position on taxation?") she should state the position and then ask why Gov. Palin supports it ("The McCain/Palin campaign believes that the Bush tax cuts should be extended.  Why do you think this is a good idea?)  The best Palin could do with this is just repeat the campaign's position which would sound evasive and not overly smart.  If she really tries to answer...we get Sarah speaking in tongues again.

Make her speak for herself, not just spout sound bites!

The Republican Convention is scheduled to start on Monday.  You know, the Republicans who couldn't be bothered to take care of New Orleans before, during or after Hurricane Katrina.  Well, Mother Nature is planning a little reminder of that fact: the current projected track of Tropical Storm Gustav (which is expected to be Hurricane Gustav by Monday) http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at2+shtml/143014.shtml?5day#contents is pointed right at New Orleans. 

Talk about ironic.

I just read a simultaneously rambling and pithy editorial by Garrison Keillor (only Keilllor can really pull that off) that I thought others might enjoy:  http://www.salon.com/opinion/keillor/2008/08/06/mccain/ 

It does a great job of skewering McCain for his attempts to portray Obama as "arrogant."

I thought I was being paranoid, but my husband has noticed this, too: in the last couple of weeks we have been seeing an increase in the number of "Report Suspicious Activity" signs here in Maryland.  Being close to DC, this might just be a local phenomenon, so I was wondering what people are seeing in other parts of the country.

I am really tired of the "Be afraid" version of politics the Republicans have been shoving down our throuts for the last 8 years.  My one hope is that it won't work this time and they will have to come up with a new game plan.  Probably won't be any better, but at least there'd be some variety.