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: Outside Counsel

By Bill Altreuter

What I like about the Biden pick is that it says that Obama isn't going to run away from being a liberal Democrat. Michael Moore is right-- if the Democrats are going to win they are going to have to do it as Democrats. There is no reason to vote for any Democrat if they can't understand that. Although I think Biden is kind of a dope, he's pretty dependably liberal, as these things go. And if he is dull, well, it is hard to feel bad about dull without feeling a little guilty. I don't want exciting, I want an administration that can govern capably. Biden got Iraq wrong, which is troubling in a foreign policy expert, but I wasn't expecting Obama to pick Lincoln Chaffee. Could he have done worse? I thought he was going to. Because he was still a freshman during my brief time on the Hill I think of Biden as younger than he really is-- in reality the guy has been around since the Nixon Administration, and that is troubling.

What has been gnawing at me the past couple of days is that for some reason the media has decided that this would be a cool time to revisit Chicago 1968. As it happens, I think the Siege of Chicago is interesting-- 1968 is when I became interested in politics, and Mailer's essay is still good reading-- so it is a subject that I usually enjoy reading, hearing and thinking about. Right now, though, is just not the time. What makes Obama interesting, I think, is that he does not seem to be interested in re-fighting the culture wars of the 60s. Baby Boomers my age were in 8th grade for Woodstock. The only Beatles album I owned in college was "Let It Be". Let McCain pretend that that stuff is important-- he seems eager enough to be an anachronism-- but the rest of the country ought to, you should excuse the expression, move on. We are seeing articles about the Chicago convention now because Boomers are narcissists. That's why old hippies say that they ended the Vietnam war, too. It is completely made up, but they can't help themselves. I suppose people are entitled to their generational myths, but I'm tired of those myths, and the arguments about them screwing up the way we live today. It's not about you any more, old hippies-- it never was. And you, Greatest Generation, who are you kidding? You guys were all drafted, so don't tell me that Tommy Dorsey is better than the Stones.

Full post as published by Outside Counsel on August 24, 2008 (boomark / email).