Is the title for this post, because we thought it described two or three of the major themes from last night's Democratic Presidential Forum sponsored by the AFL-CIO. Our apologies in advance if any feel that this title is plagiarized.
We plugged into this event expecting to be bored to tears, eyes glazed, benumbed by political rhetoric and surrounded by substance over style. We were right on the last part. It was high political entertainment and grandstanding of the old time politics. We were reminded of Barry Goldwater, Hubert Horatio Humphrey and Mario Cuomo. It was almost a nostalgic time.
Instead, we got a fiery John Edwards (who almost told Keith to shut up a couple of times), a tempestuous Hilary Clinton and a conquering-heroic Dennis Kucinich. God, we loved Kucinich...he got cheers almost every time and he lit up the stage. Somewhat less incandescent (in order) were Edwards, Hilary and Barack. The others were hardly worth mentioning. Except for the even-handed Keith Olbermann (as moderator) who represented fairness and calmness above all without displaying hardly any sweat on his brow or his usual smarmy-good humor wit. It was bread and circuses, without the Romans (except for the almost victorious-like, caesaresque Kucinich).
Pathos, in the form of the AFL-CIO membership presenting their questions (keeping the truth in the forum part of the political debate) brought the audience to near-tears and near-bawling. Especially, the gentleman who had been disabled whilst working for LTV Steel, lost one-third of his pension after they went bankrupt, and choked up when he bewailed how he cannot afford health insurance for his wife of 36 years. We then witnessed him (from the back) using his two braces and false-limb legs to lower himself back to his seat. You could hear the collective heart of the crowd breaking in the background. In this respect, the AFL-CIO membership provided great political theater. And it was all real.
Here was the fury, the fury and passion one feels when faced with such overwhelming political and economic circumstances. Here was the fury, when one feels overly-betrayed by the corporations and business ethics and marketplace that has become/is the world.
John Edwards' passionate response to this poor gentleman's troubles gave us some inspiration and hope that most of these Democratic contenders were well-meaning, full of the fury and the passion, but short on the substance and philosophy. We felt this was mostly true of the other contenders. But passion and exuberance were not in short supply that last night.
When pushed almost into a corner by his fellows over his comments to consider invading the Afghanistan/Pakistan hinterlands,we were almost as shocked as Barack. We thought the hounds had been loosed on him and he had to do some baracking up. (See the Anti-Zen Dictionary for this entry). Indeed, Mr. Obama may indeed have picked just the right venue for the war on terror. It seems to us, where else could Osama and his henchmen be hiding? Yes, right there. Just a few border-hops away from Iraq (not to mention Iran).
It would be so ironic if a terrorist named Osama is eventually put out of business by a President named Obama. It seems to us almost fated. Even though he was roughly put into defensive mode by these men and women, he may have revealed himself as the true king-in-disguise amongst these kings-and-queens-in-disguise. By which we mean, any one of them (Dennis, John, Barack or - yes even Hilary) would be just as competent and effective a supreme leader.
Noteworthy was Hilary's persistent attacks-in-response to the Bush administration and the failure of the war-on-terror-strategy. She could have pushed this hot-button too many times - but nobody noticed that.
Lastly, a comment from Barack responding to the question about the almost half-a-billion dollars spent renovating Soldier Field. We think his response to this should have been how the money should have been spent on health and human services for some of the poverty-stricken environs near there. Don't think so? Then take the Number 28 bus from downtown Chicago to the south side and watch the neighborhoods change.
(P.S.: A clever little retort from Dennis on that one. That we, the nation, should buy the teams and make money from that! Talk about nationalization! We looked over our shoulders to see if Hugo Chavez was around).
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