Ba(ra)ck in the Game

nobody@vox.com(reagan) — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 13:11:22 -0800

Yikes.

I have been out of the political blog-writing habit for almost a year now.

Long-winded explanations, as we all know, are often long, whiney excuses in disguise, so I won't attempt to rationalize away what has essentially been

a) a wee lapse of willpower, combined with
b) a few maladjusted priorities, which were kept in check by
c) one much-longer-than-usual bout of workaholism

the latter really being the manifestation of my own private collection of insecurities and hang-ups too numerous (and, ultimately, uninteresting) to dredge up in this forum.

Sigh...

Yeah. Whatever. So that's probably enough of a mea culpa.

The important thing to acknowledge is this: I know a whole lot of people who are frustrated to the point of paralysis right now. It's just so emotionally draining to to follow the news as closely as you have to nowadays to discern the truth of what's going on in this country -- and after that to actually continue caring. And then lately, to helplessly watch this presidential race unfold in the same candor™-deficient, excessively-postured, relentlessly-focus-grouped manner we've all come to loathe -- and expect ...

... and things often look so bleak that sometimes we just decline to engage.

Fortunately, we can decide to get over it. My ray-of-sunshine moment arrived today in the form of a rousing, barn-burner speech I'd like to share: I was partaking of my morning infusion of political comedy medicine in the form of the always charming, always-irreverent Stephanie Miller Show, and they played a bit of Barack Obama speaking at the Jefferson-Jackson dinner in Iowa. I googled to find the whole thing, and - hallelujah! - the seemingly impenetrable cloud of gloom lifted --- if only for a brief ten minutes' time. It was enough respite from the disillusionment that I was able to decide, for myself at least, that things can and do change for the better.

If you want to hear it yourself, it's broken up into three videos on YouTube:

Part 1 >> Part 2 >> Part 3

You may want to skip past the first few minutes of part 1, as it takes a while for him to get on stage.

Ah! Thank you Barack. Yours may be the long-shot chances, but I'm rootin' for ya'.

...and John Edwards.

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Ba(ra)ck in the Game