NAILED IT

At a political convention many, many years ago I clearly remember Walter Cronkite, arguably the most gifted television anchor in history, telling the audience at home to listen to the next speaker, Senate leader Everett Dirksen, because we would see probably the greatest orator of the century.  Later some would challenge Mr. Cronkite and say they preferred the style of John F. Kennedy.  Either way both speakers were gifted beyond the horizon of normalcy.

At Mile High Stadium in Denver Colorado in front of 84,000 people and before millions watching on TV in every corner of the United States and all around the world, Senator Barack Obama equaled those two great orators and gave what has surely been, not only the finest speech of this new century but the finest speech in the last 48 years – maybe longer.

I say that — not as an Obama supporter but as a retired broadcaster and a podium speaker in my own right — qualified to assess the prowess or the inabilities of others who address the public.

Senator Obama did what he had to do and more.  He made his case for the future while thoroughly refuting the words, the platform, and the history of his opposition candidate’s Party and literally thrashed Republican Senator John McCain.

In parlance that’s being tossed around a lot these days, he ‘hit the ball out of the park’ – scored a home run.   He will have won over many who would have supported Hillary Clinton by voting for McCain or staying home on November 4^th.

I find it impossible not to echo what I know, and have already heard others saying.  Obama nailed it. 

–

When a jetliner begins its take-off along the runway it starts slowly and within several hundred meters has reached enough speed to become airborne.   I think that epitomized the Democratic National Convention. 

Day one was something of a disappointment with the exception of a short dialogue by Senator Ted Kennedy and a pleasant, personal address from Michelle Obama.  Aside from the total of 20 minutes those two shared, the DNC got off to a very slow start.

The tempo picked up on day two with a well received homily praising Obama by the assumed First Lady of American politics, Hillary Clinton — but not until after Virginia’s former Governor and candidate for a Federal Senate seat, Mark Warner, gave a worthless drone which passed as a Keynote address — no echo of the same address given four years ago by Senator Obama for John Kerry.

Up until this point the Democrats had, for all intents and purposes, refrained from hammering the GOP, one of the central ‘musts’ of any major political forum: attacking the opposition.

They had showed no real fire.  Hillary Clinton tends to speak as if she were a saxophone player who only knows one note — loud or soft — but just that same middle C; by definition, lacking in drama.  But she praised Obama admirably and that followed the theme so far. 

Day three began with the roll call vote and injected the first real dramatics of the convention, which came none too soon because by this time that jetliner is over half way down the runway.   Hillary Clinton on this occasion scored a real coup – she released her delegates which was a huge boost for the Senator from Illinois.

Day three also featured her husband Bill and what can one say about Bill Clinton?  Although his presidency will forever be marred by a seamy scandal, he is the epitome of that over-used word: charismatic.  He spent his short time in the spotlight by praising the candidate just as his wife had done the night before.   In other words, he cemented the roll of the Clintons as supporters, not detractors.  Not this year, anyway.

Finally came the major speaker of the day, the Vice presidential candidate, Delaware Senator Joe Biden.  And Biden did blast McCain and the Republicans.  He chastised the current administration making special mention of the assistant “villain” Dick Cheney.  Biden’s speech was not oratory but it was effective.  He began by recalling his former family’s sad history which had the supposedly rock solid Michelle Obama in tears. 

When Senator Biden got around to it, he spoke with sincerity when pouring admonition on the Bush administration and its failures.  And although he sometimes spoke barely above a whisper at other times his words were laced with force.

He gave me the impression he would make an excellent ambassador/debater when it came to achieving success while arguing his two main fields of expertise: Foreign Relations and Justice.  Maybe he didn’t wow the crowd — he did, however make the case for himself as a worthy Vice-President.

The most unfortunate gaff of the day came when the spotlight shone on John Kerry who took the podium sandwiched between Bill Clinton and Joe Biden.  It was like baking a layer cake with sprigs of holly between the layers … a run-of-the-mill address by the 2004 Democratic candidate, who in an earlier piece I characterized as loser to the worst president in American history.  A case of bad timing, Nancy.

–

Day four featured Stevie Wonder as well as a speech by Al Gore. ?  Maybe he was featured because he once smelled the presidency and has since won a few undeserved awards for his campaign on Global Warning. Undeserved? I and many others think he is just plain wrong.  Gore, the man most hurt by Bush/43 in 2000 raced through his address like a pebble rolling down a steep hill and was every bit as impressive.

A few warm up interludes; Michael MacDonald’s memorable singing of America, The Beautiful and a surprise, and very brief appearance by Joe Biden which gave me the impression that someone said: “Oh well, he’s here, let him on stage for a couple of minutes”.  A quick Obama endorsement by Susan Eisenhower which would have made her grandfather cringe, I’m sure, and a poignant, well presented video of the candidate at the end of which Barack Obama walked on stage.

The jet was airborne and picking up speed.  The wheels came up as he said he accepted the nomination and then he was off and flying.  He pulverized John McCain, literally turned him into sand. But he did it with facts his countrymen could easily understand and accept.   

He touched on Abortion, Gun Control, Gays, Education and Health Care.  He detailed his course for the future and how he would pay for it by depriving tax breaks to lobbyists and businesses that closed shop in the US and farmed out the labor to offshore interests. He said science, not drilling for oil, would bring America a secure future in energy thereby bashing McCain’s offshore drilling plans.

He promised to cut taxes to the poor and indicated the middle class would not be hit with tax increases – strong words for a Democrat.  He addressed all these issues and eloquently stripped the Bush bunch — including McCain — of dignity; alluded to Martin Luther King on the former activist’s 45th anniversary of the Washington gala and ended by saying the election wasn’t about him it was about you, the American people, an obvious crowd pleaser.

David Gergen, a respected advisor to several presidents summed Obama’s speech up in a sentence that for me, told it all: “It was less of a speech than a symphony”.

Obama delivered a masterpiece which John McCain will never be able to top in form.  However it remains to be seen how the GOP will rebut a convention that started so slowly but flew into an historic end –reminiscent of the Beijing Olympics with its fireworks — and preceded by a riveting oratory.

Not only will the RNC have to be a better show next week, it will have to watch how its party’s standard bearer can overcome Barak Obama in the upcoming debates.  Lay your bets.

 

THE BEST IS YET TO COME ??

I have divided the following piece in two  — the first an observance; the second speculative.

Day one of the Democratic National Convention at the Pepsi Center in Denver Colorado was by many standards a rather dull affair however it was saved by two people, one an Icon and one a Spouse who dragged it out of the mundane and gave viewers a touch of nostalgia and a forceful message of understanding.

There has been considerable criticism by the nation’s punditry over the fact that no mention was made of the man who led the country for the past eight years … a period which many people around the world and in America itself felt were nothing short of devastating.  There was no mention of the GOP candidate, John McCain who has been downright grisly in his attacks on Barack Obama.

We heard little mention from the podium of the issues; on how the Democrats are prepared to face Americans with the ways and means to fix the economy, try to settle the troubling areas in the world in which they are either directly or indirectly involved.  Nor did they put forth any solid guidelines about what to do about their big issue: health care.

Beginning with a well presented though mostly empty speech by Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. to the foolishness of following Ted Kennedy with a Republican speaker, the convention got off to what could have been a very bad start.  The fact that it did not reach red alert is because of the two people I referred to above: Ted Kennedy and Michelle Obama.

Following a low key introduction from Caroline Kennedy and a predictable video presentation, Senator Edward Kennedy gave an inspiring, short sting in which he pointedly defined the things that the rest of the speakers, what we heard from them, ignored.  I say defined … he wouldn’t be expected to offer solutions. It was a firm dose, despite his recent illness, of that which has fueled the Kennedy Tradition since 1960.

If this man looked like he had just undergone brain surgery – or sounded like it — every politician should pay a visit to their doctor.  In short, Kennedy gave the convention and its millions of viewers exactly what would be expected — an example of the reason why he is such a powerhouse in the United States Senate.

A completely different tone was presented by Michelle Obama of course.  She stood at the podium and talked as if she were telling her own children who she was, where and from whom she had come, what she had done with her life and why she married their father. 

She was efficient, she spoke as clearly as a ringing bell and she got her points across which included rebutting her oft-maligned remark “for the first time I am proud of my country”. And she made a pointed and emphatically favorable reference to Hillary Clinton.  She really did make every word count.

Whoever decided to make her the first major speaker on opening night made a wise decision.  I could not help but think: here is the second woman I have seen who just may, one day in the future, if her husband succeeds in his mission, consider running as a presidential candidate in her own right.

–

I’ll wait until the rest of the Dems get their ball rolling to comment on the remainder of the convention but I would like to share some observations and concerns, the first of which is; when Obama finishes his acceptance speech Thursday night — how are they going to drop balloons from a stadium with no roof? 

And speaking of location, the democrats have begun a new trend in moving the acceptance speech from a basketball court to a football stadium.  Pretty dramatic.  Maybe in the future we’ll see the speech give added impetus to its acceptance if they move it to … say, the top of Mount Everest.  The heck with the audience, TV will triple its viewership.  If the Olympic torch can get there, so can a presidential candidate.

I am sure the CNN viewers were pleased they were able to share the humor, good looks and constant interruptions of that worst of all television pundit/ anchors, Wolf Blitzer.  I think at one point he tried to make a joke. I forgot what it was although I remember it wasn’t very funny. 

There is a phenomenon that seems to be making itself a mini-contest all of its own: which candidate has the best looking wife?  We have three to choose from now — John McCain’s Veep’s wife will fill the one remaining spot and the Senator from Arizona had better make sure whoever she is doesn’t steal the spotlight from Cindy.   This is a welcome little side show for the males of America.  So far the wives have beaten their husbands hands down for the “put the camera on her” crowd.  (Did I hear you call me a chauvinist?)

I know it’s serious but I have to laugh at the frantic finagling reportedly going on behind the scenes to try and reach a “togetherness attitude” between the Obama and Clinton camps.  Meanwhile Hillary is allowing her name to stand for the nomination roll-call.  If she were really serious about 100 percent Obamarama why doesn’t she just drop out for the sake of unity?  Uh Uh.  That just ain’t Hillary – not yet anyway.

This marks the first major political convention in any country I’m sure, where a person was interviewed on camera featuring a toilet on their hat.

Why didn’t Jimmy Carter speak personally?  He is  a former president and did win the Nobel Peace Prize.  And why did CNN spend so much time interviewing John Kerry, who was beaten by the man many consider the worst president the USA has ever had?

In case you were wondering, the attractive woman who the camera’s kept flashing on screen during the lead up to the Kennedy speech was Maria Shriver, wife of California’s Republican Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger.  She’s a member of the Kennedy clan.

And finally – and by way of clarification – the kind words above for Senator Ted Kennedy and Michelle Obama are dead true at this moment in time.  But neither individual is without warts. There are literally hundreds of books about the foibles of the Senator from Massachusetts and Mrs. Obama has been characterized as being snappy, disagreeable and domineering when she takes a mind to. 

Not a great start but the Party promises a super finish and we’ve yet to hear from the Clintons.  Maybe the Democratic convention is like one of those baseball games where only a couple of runs are scored in the early innings of what turns out to be a real crowd pleaser. 

They have their work cut out for them because America’s curiosity in this election lies more with the donkey than with the elephant.

 

 

Where The Good Reside

I took my Computer into the Technician again yesterday.  A lot can go wrong with a computer in the Philippines because almost everything is pirated.  I am speaking of PC’s & Windows, not Macs, one of which will be my next computer as so ordered by an increasing number of my friends.

The reason so much goes wrong with the things here is that they come into the country naked.  All the programs are plunked into the rig according to which ones you want.  They are all pirated.  Windows and an essential anti-virus program to name just two, are illegal.  If one wants a key, indicating a paid-for copy, they must buy it.  Not many people do and it takes awhile to obtain because it is ordered from the US or Japan.

Of course there are several drawbacks using pirated “everything”, only one of which being that it’s illegal — so people scrabble around using pirated programs and aside from businesses, which use the real stuff, run into troubles.  I went legal after a couple of years of Windows warning me what a dimwitted fool I was for using pirated goods.  Actually the problem is endemic in South East Asia, not just the Philippines.

However this is not really about computers at all.  It’s about the difference between Filipino people and Filipino thugs. 

Thugs in the West often follow a pattern set down in Hollywood back in the 1930’s and brought to full bloom by the likes of Edward G Robinson and James Cagney.   Thugs in The Philippines tend to follow a different bent.  They are mostly politicians, and owners of companies both large and small.  Naturally we have the common criminal as well, but with the immensity of garbage wrought by the above mentioned, the Filipino bank robber, is little more than a poofter.

–

It took my tech about two hours to get things straight and while I waited I met a 19-year veteran of the Philippine military; a middle-aged woman who was preparing the way to meet her boyfriend in Scotland where he works; another ordinary citizen and his wife waiting for their rigs to be repaired plus a couple of the techs and a local housewife.

In other words, a fair cross-section of your average Filipino.  As it turned out we all began talking about a range of subjects and I was struck how friendly, polite and interested this group of people were and recalled that I had, on previous occasions met Filipinos who were equally as pleasant.  It would not be a stretch to say that Filipinos are among the friendliest group of people I have met and I have lived in several places on this globe.

Unfortunately, many possess the “sin” of ignorance.  This is not entirely their fault.  If they do not own a computer – and many people don’t – they remain unaware of much that goes on in the world.  South Ossetia, the troubles in the Middle East and the Olympics are a long way away and information on these subjects and hundreds of others, escape them.  One reason is due to the local media.

Tagalog (the Philippine language) newspapers from Manila are full of trash.  Beauty contests; what the president is doing (?) and the latest drivel from various government agencies plus an enormous lump of advertising for drugstore beauty aids and patented health medicine, booze and cigarettes.  The English language newspapers are a tad better.

Television News Channels — there is only really one in Manila — is a litany of trash.  Beauty contests, Game shows and the latest drivel from the various government institutes plus lumps of advertising which can run up to seven minutes of solid commercials.  I’ve clocked ‘em.

Both Tagalog newspapers and TV news is obviously censored.  The government tends to overlook the English language newspapers and their rabid op-ed writers who can get away with kicking sand in the face of Congress.  After all, how many average Filipinos read English or would watch CNN or BBC? 

Out of close to 100 million people — only a small number who have access to television or a computer — few are interested in foreign fare or can pay the bucks to get a package featuring CNN & BBC.  Communication here is overwhelmingly by text-message on cheap cell-phones practiced by teenagers.  That’s natural – modern young people have always relied on toys, especially since the dawn of the electronic age.

–

When I left the computer store I was impressed by what pleasant people Filipinos can be and how polite and disarming they are and it struck me: for that reason the corporate thugs and politicians can get away with pushing them around to the extent they do.  Pride in their country does not top the list of Filipino exigencies no matter how flagrantly the government flaunts itself.

Rarely does one see a Philippine flag flying.  They love their heroes, their great boxer Manny Pacquiau, their martyred patriot Jose Rizal, but most of them are fully aware that thuggery runs the government from the top down.  And trust in large corporations is minimal.  No-one, a president, a politician, a manager who sets company policy and insists his employees follow his directives are really taken seriously.

Abraham Lincoln’s famous phrase about fooling the people was never more sorely put to the test than in the Philippines.  So while one can admire the common citizen on a one-on-one basis, the fact that these people are being taken advantage of by a lesser class of individual is always at the back of a person’s mind.

–

This country was ruled for centuries by the Spanish, mostly the Spanish Roman Catholic clerics, who treated Filipinos as dogs.  Then by an uncaring United States who were interested only in having a military presence in this part of the world, and finally by a group of men and women, Filipinos — essentially beginning with that master-thug, Ferdinand Marcos and with the exception of  Fidel Ramos who was crippled essentially by a crooked Congress — a series of weak or corrupt leaders ever since. 

All this has combined to leave the average man or woman — the farmer, the clerk, the laborer– with a loss of the need to care.  The phrase is “what can we do?”  The answer is “nothing”.  Power is in the hands of those who, one way or another accumulate it, and then use it to their own advantage with no thought given for the people and their needs.

And yet generally the Filipinos choose to remain friendly and pleasant.  It has to do with the inherent decency of a people refusing to become despondent in the face of adversity, Thugism, the result of which has characterized their downfall from what was once a rich nation following WW2, to the devastated economy of today.  Put more succinctly those in power employ the Third Deadly Sin: Greed.

Fright, apathy and the basic need to provide as best they can for their families has modeled this society into one which understands that the best way to live is to keep quiet while being fed drivel instead of reality; taken advantage of instead of served. 

However occasionally a president gets too blatant with his avarice and a great gathering force joins together on the streets of Manila and with military backing boots his greedy ass out of office … forces him to take refuge elsewhere.: the USA in the case of Marcos, into jail in the case of Joseph Estrada. 

It has been more than 100 years since Jose Rizal emerged as the country’s greatest philosopher and paid for it with his life; put to death by a Spanish firing squad for writing two novels which, although fiction were essentially fictionalized truth. They are the Iliad and the Odyssey of late 19^th Century Philippines and I can’t help wonder how much longer it will be until a second Rizal emerges and leads this beautiful place into the respected community of nations.

What I have said regarding authority is indeed cheerless commentary on any country, and The Philippines is, sadly, only one of several, where true, honest supremacy is cerebral and resides only at the bottom level of a society which is forced to exist under the leadership of ruthless landlords.