Obama in Fargo

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Senator Barack Obama spoke to a group of veterans, military and their families, and the general public in a town hall event in Fargo today. You can view the speech and the Q&A session here. He talked with reporters, too.

Earlier I noted that Conventional Wisdom in the Village shouldn't assume North Dakota is a lock to continue as a red state. Clearly, Obama has found a warm reception in the state both times he's visited, today and back in April for the Dem state convention in Grand Forks, when he spoke to a crowd of 18,000 and nearly that number were turned away.

If I were the McCain campaign, I wouldn't be posturing for joint town hall appearances either...Obama does just as well in the give & take of small groups of a thousand as he does speaking to dome-sized crowds.

UPDATE: Nor should they underestimate the rapid-response of the Obama team, demonstrated by Obama's comments live on CNN even as I update, on the issue of Iraq. Obama reiterating: we must be as careful getting out as we were careless getting in.

UPDATE II: Josh promising video over at Talking Points Memo--we post this link because you know how the BBQ media loves to slice'n'dice video to suit their own narratives.
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Thank you, Hillary

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You go along cruisin' life's highway, in your prime, headed toward great expectations, when Wham-O! Life slams a giant timbered gate shut in your path and sends you careening off in a totally different direction.

What seems the worst day of your life ends up opening the door to possibilities far beyond what you might have imagined.

Today, thank you Hillary Clinton, for the toughest speech you've ever had to give. And arguably, the best.

Today, you stand with Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Eleanor Roosevelt, a woman, a pioneer, a leader, a role model...a daughter, a wife, a mom. You transcend titles and labels and stand shoulder to shoulder with the icons of American history and the advancement of women.

You did good today, Hillary.

Remembering RFK

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This morning, in a compelling conversation on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Pete Hamill noted that Bobby Kennedy had a compassion for ordinary Democrats and a keen sense of the urgency of now [my paraphrase] that has been lost for all these years. He further noted the Kennedys are a rich family with a passion for public service when they could have been living well in the south of France.

This morning, Bill Eppridge—author of The Time It Was, Bobby Kennedy and the ’60s―described the moments when he captured history. His was the iconic photograph of the busboy at Kennedy’s side, on the floor, moments after Kennedy’s victory speech that long ago night in Los Angeles.

It is tough to talk of that night.

Whether or not you are old enough to remember firsthand those times, I recommend this book to you, sight unseen. Because I intend to read it, myself. I think, after this long arduous primary campaign―which has renewed so many memories to me of that time, that night, MLK, Chicago―it is a book that will help those of us who must be part of a unified Democratic Party going forward from this week to heal.

I was a green kid who suspended her sophomore college year to work for Gene McCarthy, and when Bobby Kennedy joined the campaign, a late-comer in our eyes, a snatcher of the groundwork that McCarthy had done, there were resentments.

In Los Angeles that night we were at a different campaign’s election night event, then left and walked in the quiet darkness with co-workers through the long blocks to the McCarthy headquarters in Westwood, talking resolve and determination, coming to the red flashes of police car lights and the news.

Were there not that tragedy 40 years ago last night, lingering into the next day, those resentments would have been healed, the disparate party groups would have been reunited, and ….

Oh, but there was that tragedy.

And as much as it was the loss of one inspiring leader, it was also the breakdown of the best of what the Democratic Party can be, as Hamill noted. A breach that allowed "other priorities" to seize control, to take away that focus on the common good that serves ordinary Americans, and cede instead to the will of the fatcat global corporations and lobbyists. That is long past needing restoration.

That signal year began a long, slow slide into what we see now…Iraq and the grievous wounds that lies have brought us to, the corruption of the bedrock principles of justice of our government, the laid-off workers, foreclosures, Katrina, recession, hunger and homelessness … the list is long … you know it.

Right now, in this need-of-healing-and-unity time, we have another leader who has shown time and again his ability to inspire and lead and take charge to bring us together for a common, noble purpose.

It’s tempting to find metaphor in the Biblical journey of Moses…we have been wandering in our own wilderness these last 40 years.

For now, let’s reflect on what we lost, but only in the context of what we have yet to achieve, now, this fierce urgency of now. Let us pick up the threads of purpose that have lain in discord and distraction too long and set about rebuilding the best of what this nation can be. All of us united.

Still They Gather

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We are watching penguins this morning. Black and white noisy penguins. On the Planet Earth channel on HDTV.

They're gathering at sunrise, contemplating the pounding surf off the barren point a world away at Punta Tombo, Argentina.

The rhythmic sound of the surf is backdrop to the squawks and bawling as guanacos drift in as well.

Occasionally the penguins engage in little bill wars, even drawing blood. Here and there, feathers litter the ground. But still they gather, in larger and larger numbers, preparing to face the dangers of the sea together.

Yep, there's a metaphor in that.