Entries for April 2007

Tuesday was the Washington meeting of the National Jewish Democratic Council, and the Democratic presidential candidates were eager to line up to court votes and financial support. But the one candidate these folks haven't heard much from before was Barack Obama, and he came–after his campaign showed a short movie first on his candidacy. Once up on the stage, Obama was less a rock star than a rote candidate, delivering much of his stump speech to a crowd eager to listen.

The news itself was hard enough. Unbelievable, unexplainable, and even then, incomprehensible.

Enough already. I'm tired of hearing Imus apologizing. I don't want to hear the word closure one more time. I understand that hip-hop recording artists say bad things, too. Yes, the culture is too coarse. Sure, we've moved forward in many ways, but not enough. Yes to all of that.

To finally watch the women of the Rutgers basketball team today was to put a face on the controversy over Don Imus's despicable comments. They were as classy as Imus was trashy: willing to meet with him, expressing their feelings, allowing us to understand why they are such winners. As someone today said, "No one can make you feel inferior unless you allow that." And they are clearly not going to allow that.

It's startling, in a way, that a relatively unknown former governor of Massachusetts can raise $21 million in three months for a fledgling presidential campaign. Or that Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is very well known, can raise $26 million–and then transfer another $10 million from her Senate campaign bank account, for a grand total of $36 million to spend. Think of it this way: Clinton has already raised $5 million more than the amount raised by all Democrats put together at this time in 2004. Whew.