Random Thoughts, Notes, & Incidents

It's official: America can do better. Not only that, but Help is on the way. Last night John Kerry gave his acceptance speech and did his best not to look like Al Gore. We were pleased with the results of the big show, and hope he's able to keep it up for the next three months plus.

The next major test will be the head-to-head debates. There's no question that Kerry can come across as smarter than Bush; the problem is can he do that without appearing pompous?

The charming part of W is actually quite similar to the charming part of Tubby Clinton. They each come across as favorite uncle - you may not always agree with them, you may often be embarrassed by them, but they're your kin just the same. Bottom line: W's a dolt, but if you can get past the evil aspect of it, it might be fun to go down to Crawford for a bar-b-que and have a few beers with the prez.

Kerry, however, comes across as a professor. A favorite professor, mind you, but still, not quite family. You might have felt honored to have a beer with your favorite professor a few times back in college, but you then had to follow that up with a few more beers with your real peers.

So, Kerry's challenge, as I see it, is to continue to take the high road, not shy away from being the smarter of the two major candidates, but dig a little bit deeper and expose the part of his personality that we want to invite over on Sunday afternoon to watch the football game. The pompous professor has to give way just a little bit to Uncle John.

(One note back to where I posted that I've spent 40% of W's term without regular, full-time employment: My brother's comment was, "That's almost as much time as W's spent on vacation.")