The Icepick Cometh

Perhaps it was a speech that was more policy-oriented and political than broad and overtly hopeful, but Mrs. Icepick said that's what she wanted to hear, so who am I to argue?

Let there be no doubt: This was a passionate address, and there were touches of inspiration in between the specifics and firey rhetoric that put to rest questions of whether Obama can go on the offensive when needed — a Jedi-like approach of using force when diplomacy and reason have failed.

In many ways, it was a cumulation and conclusion to the major speeches we've heard this week — Hillary's inspiration, Bill's reminder of our own potential, Kerry's preemptive attacks, and Biden's foreign policy focus.

There was the forward-looking call to serve the next generation and the Kennedy-like call to service, something I particularly liked:

And we will keep our promise to every young American - if you commit to serving your community or your country, we will make sure you can afford a college education.

But in between the policy talk, and right before invoking the legendary speech delivered 45 years earlier, Obama did not forget to focus on the theme that brought him so far: Hope.

Instead, it is that American spirit — that American promise — that pushes us forward even when the path is uncertain; that binds us together in spite of our differences; that makes us fix our eye not on what is seen, but what is unseen, that better place around the bend.

That promise is our greatest inheritance.

He distanced himself from the old (and inaccurate) criticism of liberalism of the ’70s — that government owes you something, but you owe nothing. Instead, Obama focused on the hard work we all must do and offered a call for personal responsibility.

Yet, in many ways, in many of the approaches he offered, there was a welcome return to the progressive themes that he seemed to abandon since the end of the primary season. While acknowledging the country's differences on Choice, guns and same-sex marriage, he sounded very much like a progressive in calling for an ambitious end to our dependence on foreign oil within 10 years — though 2018 sounds like a long time away, it's not. He also endorsed progressive ideas like eliminating tax breaks to corporations that don't need them and ending crippling capital gains taxes for small businesses, ensuring a "world-class" education to every child, fulfilling the promise of affordable health care, and, especially as the father of two young daughters, addressing major concerns of Hillary's supporters, most notably equal pay for all women.

Far be it from this cynic to agree with a sentiment like "We are a better country than this," but let's see where we can take this.

Change happens because the American people demand it - because they rise up and insist on new ideas and new leadership, a new politics for a new time.

Strong and forceful, specific yet still broad, practical yet still full of Hope.
 

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Less than 24 hours after Hillary's memorable speech, her husband got into the act, as Bill Clinton followed up on Hillary's pledges to unequivocally support Barack Obama, while also going on the offensive against McCain. One of his memorable lines: "People the world over have always been more impressed by the power of our example than by the example of our power."

Later, in response to the crowd's chants of "Yes he can," Clinton, ever alert and able to pivot, picked it up and said: "Yes he can; but we have to elect him, first," deftly showing in one on-his-feet sentence his support for Obama and his acknowledgment of the hard work ahead for the assembled Democrats, work that he sounded prepared to continue himself.

Like Hillary on Tuesday night, the former President sounded ready to lead the Clintons' supporters by the power of his example in supporting Obama.

As an aside, a figure frequently flashed on the CNN crawl noted that there have been 12 previous presidential candidates younger than the now 47-year-old Obama, including the 45-year-old Bill Clinton. In his speech, President Clinton noted that he, too, was targeted as being too inexperienced in 1992, something we was able to deflect and overcome.

And all that said, John Kerry gave a pretty good follow-up — they called it a very un-Kerry-like speech immediately afterward on PBS. Kerry completely went on the offensive about the differences between "Candidate McCain vs. Senator McCain" and was more firey than I remember him as a candidate four years ago. Like Bill Clinton, Kerry noted McCain's status as a Great American, and even as a fine Senator, but not as a good candidate for President: "Are you kidding me folks? Talk about being for it before you're against it. Before he ever debates Barack Obama John McCain should finish the debate with himself."

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Interesting piece by former Carter speechwriter James Fallows in The Atlantic reviewing the debates from the primaries, with a good analysis of the candidates' speaking and debating styles, which the author notes are not the same thing (prepared speaking vs. debating, that is). It is interesting to note the look into Obama's rhetorical skills in light of some of the more recent presidents. To wit:

Based on his rhetoric, Barack Obama would arrive not because of support for his list of programs, although he has offered them, but because of support for his cast of mind. His speeches and debate answers show us how he thinks, much more than they reveal exactly the policies he would advance for, say, improving the economy, dealing with the Chinese (where his proposals have often seemed surprisingly crude and ill-informed), or coping with crime or climate change. Every administration turns on the president’s cast of mind: Bill Clinton’s startling gifts of intelligence and even more startling lack of self-discipline; George W. Bush’s toxic combination of decisiveness and lack of curiosity; Ronald Reagan’s sunniness and lack of interest in detail. But for some presidents, cast of mind is a central feature — the person, much more than the plan, represents the promise of the presidency. Obama is one of these.

I'm not sure his China platform is as ill-informed as Fallows claims, but otherwise, Fallows seems right on the money.

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This is the Hillary that we once knew — a dynamic speaker, a leader, and ultimately, finally, a uniter: "Were you in this campaign for me, or were you in it for that young Marine and others like him, that young mom with cancer, that young boy and his mom surviving on minimum wage? Were you in it for all those people who feel invisible?"

Talking Points Memo called Hillary's Tuesday night keynote speech "powerful" — and how can you argue that?

For me, my faith in Hillary has been restored, if not my faith in some of her supporters or her choice in friends from earlier this year (the execrable trio of Mark Penn, Harold Ickes and Howard Wolfson, and the incompetent Terry McAuliffe).

This is a person who has long had to make the best of situations that may not be the best for her personally, but may be the best for others, for the party, for the country — a classic Spock-like case of the needs of the many outweighing the needs of the few (or the one). That's a hero.

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With apologies to Defiantly Dutch, who would assuredly disagree (thanks for the plug, Double D), what the hell is wrong with Connecticut these days? Earlier this summer you had some overly aggressive moneyed homeowners in Greenwich trying to shut down Wiffle ball-playing teens and kick them back into the Great Indoors where they apparently belong.

Now we've got a youth baseball league in New Haven booting a 9-year-old pitcher and probably his entire team because he's too good a hurler.

After reading about these back-to-back fiascoes, I have to ask, why doesn't Massachusetts annex the Northwest Corner and add it to the Berkshires and let tiny Rhode Island have everything else from this crazy state? (In a battle of disgraced politicians, I'll take Providence's Buddy Cianci over former Connecticut Gov. Rowland.)

Let's see, here are some things that Connecticut cursed us with: the Hartford Whalers, Joe Lieberman, Carl Pavano, Benedict Arnold, and the movie Mystic Pizza.

Good things to come out of the Nutmeg State? (nicknamed after something you put in your apple cider, I might add.) You have Katharine Hepburn, no arguing that. I'm OK with Meg Ryan, too. Wiffle Ball itself was alleged to have been invented in Fairfield. And then, … um, the Danbury Mall was pretty cool for a week in, like, 1987 (it once was the site of an even cooler fairgrounds). That's about it.

And, no, I didn't forget the worst offender in Connecticut's lineage — no, not the various other corrupt elected officials from the self-named Constitution State. It's that all-consuming monolithic sports Galactus in Bristol.

I love this quote from the AP story on the 9-year-old pitcher:

League officials say they first told Vidro that the boy could not pitch after a game on Aug. 13. Jericho played second base the next game on Aug. 16. But when he took the mound Wednesday, the other team walked off and a forfeit was called.

League officials say Jericho's mother became irate, threatening them and vowing to get the league shut down.

"I have never seen behavior of a parent like the behavior Jericho's mother exhibited Wednesday night," Noble said.

Um, you think she was irate? Hey, I can't stand most kid-sports parents — even if they're not the infamous hockey dad, I think most parents should be banned from watching their kids play as soon as they start doing more than cheer their daughters and sons and begin commenting, criticizing and, hell, even speaking anything other than "Yay." But if I was this mom and they kicked my kid out because he threw too fast, yeah, I'd go apeshit too. Not hitting-people-apeshit — you can't condone that. But there would be some raised voices, yes.

More coverage.

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Sorry I haven't linked to my man Mark Kriegel as often as I should — I am still having trouble forgiving him for going Hollywood and moving to sunny L.A., to say nothing of his current employer — but he has hit it right on the head with this column, which my Father the Would-Be Sportswriter shared with me.

Kriegel argues that New York has truly become home of the Hedge Fund Class, and its sports teams are reflecting that reality. Forget Gawker's Creative Underclass — they (we) are just the rabble mob muttering underneath this pile of money. Yes, the money has arguably brought a cleaner, safer city, but at the cost of keeping it, and by extension most of the desirable places in the state and the country, nearly unaffordable to the middle class, to say nothing of anyone trying to support a family at a lower rate than that.

It's a weird twist on Benjamin Franklin's famous quote on liberty and safety — the money has brought both (or as much as attainable in these dark days), but at a cost that none but the wealthy can afford.

At least the Yankees are not laying off workers part-time, at least as far as we know. Then again, who knows what Hank Steinbrenner has up his sleeves for the average front-office worker?

Hey, we reached 102! (as in, this is the 102nd published post and you actually read this far).

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Hate to get all radical (if not rad) on you, but I heard this story on NPR about jailed Vietnamese journalists on the drive home, and despite my near overwhelming disappointment and rage at newspapers these days, this story out of Vietnam underscores the importance of press freedom in this world of ours, no matter if the product if on the Internet or (gasp!) in printed form. I hope those pushing for the larger global economy keep these basic freedoms and all human rights into consideration when considering trading with these countries.

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Cameo spoiler alert follows…

It features Tommy "Tiny" Lister (a.k.a. Zeus) in a small but significant role — not much more than a cameo, really. It really is no spoiler (beyond the fact, that, yes, the former pro wrestler who played Deebo is in the greatest Batman film of all time) to reveal that he does not once utter "my bike" to Bruce Wayne.

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I haven't forgotten you, loyal readers (all 2 of you). We've just been on vacation a little bit.

Watching Old-Timer's Day with My Father the would-be Sportswriter, and thinking of Thurman Munson, who died on this day 29 years ago, while trying to educate the Baby in the lore of baseball (and bunny cars).

A few days ago, the Yankees traded for Detroit's Ivan Rodriguez, and I thought the same thing this blogger did at Bronx Banter: what would Munson have thought about the Yankees acquiring a catcher with the nickname of "Pudge," the same as his hated Red Sox rival Carlton Fisk?

Anyway, more blog posts in the future, after vacation. Enjoy the summer.

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