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If you're one of the 46,000 who wanted to see the debate this Thursday, but not among the 100 who got tickets, here's another entertaining way to spend Thursday night. I'll be backing up songwriter extraordinaire Dave Hooper at Artz Rib House on South Lamar. Think Johnny Cash singing Gordon Lightfoot, and you have an idea of Dave, who lends his deep voice to simple but tuneful melodies. Several are songs I've written with Dave over the years. It will be a treat to back them up with lead guitar and mandolin. And if anyone's gonna tape the debate, please let me know...
THURSDAY, FEB. 21, 7:30 to 9:30 p.m.
DAVE HOOPER
w STEVE BROOKS, guitar and mandolin
ARTZ RIB HOUSE
2330 S. Lamar @ Bluebonnet Lane, 442-8283
Speaking of the debate, I'm feeling a patriotic obligation to do something I've never done before to my email list. I've ripped apart a few politicians, but I don't think I've ever endorsed one. This extraordinary year, I'm going to show my primary colors. Caution: Political content ahead.
It starts with the war. Barack Obama looked at the facts and spoke out against the invasion of Iraq, when it not politically safe to do so. Hillary Clinton looked at the polls and voted to give Dubya a blank check. These days, Clinton is promising to bring our boys and girls home, but she's a little late. If she's nominated, John McCain will paint her as a flip-flopper, as the reincarnation of John Kerry. And he'll be right.
I'm not going to get deep into Hillary-bashing. I have sympathy for the slings and arrows she's endured from good ol' boys who tore her down to get at her husband. I'm way past ready for a woman in the White House. But I don't think she's that woman. I don't think her "experience" is much more than an advertising slogan. In 15 years of public service, I search her record in vain for a single major bill or policy accomplishment. The "experience" she touts seems to be in running for office, not in doing constructive things once she got there. I ask myself: If she cosied up to the war, what other misguided lessons has she learned from her experience?
At first glance, Obama's mantra of "change" sounds as empty as Clinton's "experience." The difference is that when I look at Obama, I actually see him making change happen. I see majorities of white folks in southern states voting for a black candidate. I see kids getting excited about politics. I see him reaching outside the Democratic base and bringing in independent voters. And I see him raising most of his cash in tens and twenties instead of $2,000 donations from fat cats. When I first heard Obama last year, at Auditorium Shores in the rain, I found him a wooden speaker. No more. When I watch his recent speeches I get goosebumps. At last, it feels great to be an American again. I leave you with two quotes from the fateful fall of 2002:
"If left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will continue to increase his capacity to wage biological and chemical warfare, and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons...I will take the President at his word that he will try hard to pass a UN resolution and will seek to avoid war, if at all possible."
- Hillary Clinton, Oct. 10, 2002
"I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of Al Qaeda. I am not opposed to all wars. I'm opposed to dumb wars."
- Barack Obama, Oct. 2, 2002
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