Highlight of Summer Vacation – Haircuts

Its been a month now..sad to say in two weeks I will be returning to Buenos Aires with two of the kids that want to go back and start school with their friends. Funny, that is not one of my childhood memories, wanting to cut vacation short and go back to school.Its been great. We have had a lot of guests, great weather and the kids are happy here. I have been doing a lot of cooking for the family. Kids suck to cook for. All my kids eat, but they eat entirely different things. So I am basically a short order cook. Its not very fun or satisfying being a short order cook. However, I do like cooking for grownups. They tend to be less picky, have better table manners and are always gracious with the chef..with kids I am a cook and with the adults I am a chef.

Words of Wisdom

This was my first Presidential ticket. Actually it was probably McGovern/Shriver by the time I volunteered for the first of my many losing presidential campaigns. I can remember helping my sister Patty “canvas” the neighborhood. That had nothing to do with emails or telephones, it was walking around, knocking on doors and handing out flyers and answering any question the voter might have about George McGovern’s policy positions. Well, I wasn’t answering the questions, I was only ten years old. I do remember eating peanut butter/chocolate balls at an elderly woman’s house. After spending 20 minutes at her house being fed and shown photographs of grandchildren, she tells us that she will not be voting for McGovern, but for Richard Nixon who “will keep the communists out of America” and that “that Tricia Nixon is sure a pretty girl”. It was a lesson learned, not to judge people by their political sensibilities, those were good peanut butter/chocolate balls.

George McGovern wrote in the Washington Post today that impeaching Bush was imperative, he’s worse than Nixon.

My Man has Momentum

Perhaps I should stop using this high school-like photo of Obama. It reminds me of this guy I went to school with, Terry Thomas. No, not the poor man’s David Niven but a nice kid that was my lab partner through most of 10th grade Biology. I kind of remember doing most of the work. He was very charming. He went on to a successful academic career at Cornell, why he cheated off me is a mystery.

After returning from 36 hours floating and camping on the Alumine River I was greeted by the happy news that Obama had won the Iowa Caucuses. I know that its Iowa with only 57 delegates, but it is the first contest and momentum and perceived sentiment is everything in this very long campaign season. The victory is important for the Obama campaign. He now goes to New Hampshire, which is more representative of the democratic demographic that will be electing the president, with the energy and momentum to get the voters that are young and those that don’t always show up on election day. His message of hope is working. People want solid policy thinking but they want something else after the last 8 very dark years. They want to believe in a fundamental change in our politics and government, and its not cynical. I know how he makes me feel and that is hopeful.

Read this speech he gave before the Caucuses and this postmortem by John Dickerson. Their words can articulate the beginning of this movement better than mine.