December 31, 2007, Perspectives
And so we come to the end of 2007, where, the party of primogeniture has trotted out its cast of affluent White males, and the other party's field is led by the potential first female President and potential first President of color.
For 2007, here at the talking dog, we have watched our regular blog traffic decimated by various factors, but, whether anyone reads them or not, the interviews have kept coming-- and if you count 'em up on the side-bar, you'll see that we're up to 50. Three dozen of those are directly in the "war on terror detention policy" area. Well, the year 2007 has brought us the GTMO census down to under 300 detainees, another Supreme Court case pending after argument, a new pro-torture attorney general, and the confirmation of the existence, and then of the destruction of, video-tapes of said torture. Let's just say that the Bill of Rights, and much of the rest of our Constitution, seems on less firm footing than at one time (say, 8 or more years ago), and with the Roberts Court in place... well, fasten your seatbelts (but don't talk about it, at least on the phone or the internet.)
And so, as the last 14 hours or so of 2007 here in Eastern Standard Time is upon us, we'll take this opportunity to give you this Bloomberg News Service report of Barack Obama as a 1st through 4th grader, where he was a "natural leader" (always running up to be head of the line) and "a tattle-tale" (accusing other kids of cheating in his not quite fluent Indonesian). From my perspective, I find this quite fascinating, one that the candidate's attendance in grammar school in Indonesia (NOT A MADRASSA, BTW, but either Catholic school or public school) garners interest, and further, that young Barry Obama even made an impression. Because some years later, when Barry attended college in Morningside Heights for two years and studied in the same international politics concentration as I did, he made the opposite of an impression. I didn't even know he was there; no one I know knew him. He didn't run for student office, didn't seem to participate in campus life, and quite frankly, barely registered (other than with the registrar). All an interesting change... in perspective. As I think about it, I find it comforting, actually, that unlike St. Hillary, the late teenage/early 20's Barry Obama wasn't clearly running for President of the United States, as we can assume so many others have been from a very early age.
But why this bizarrest of smears against a leading candidate just three days before the Iowa caucuses... that Obama was a tattle-tale at seven years old? One might begin to think that Mayor Mike Bloomberg, still the principal owner of his eponymous media empire, might be, you know, considering a run for President himself... or something.
Who knows why these things happen? This has been "Perspectives." Happy New Year, everybody.
Comments
happy new year from ours to yours.
Posted by julia at January 1, 2008 1:36 AM