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Ah, Thanksgiving dinner.
A time to travel in near-0% visibility rain and sleet for nine hours in some of the most boring terrain in the US (Illinois 39 to 55 to 270 to St. Louis) to somewhere I'd like to call Generica.
You know the place.
Once you drive through very crowded highways like it's a bumper cars amusement park ride in the hard rain with multiple traffic lanes painted on the road from numerous tries at highway construction, you make your final destination zone. It's a dizzying subset of cornily named de-cultured towns that have been rendered Walmarted flavorless places, stamped with restaurant chains, furniture chains, malls that mirror the other malls and absolutely no sidewalks except for some bus stops for the sub-paid workers that come from the dark, dismal downtown hoods.
Finally! You've made it through the labyrinth of roads that twist through the gutted former nature preserves now dotted with 7000 square foot McMansions with 4 SUV garages and perhaps a small tree or two.
It's Thanksgiving because all the mansions that the owners can barely afford are blinking with orange lights and plastic yard statues of turkeys or pilgrims or pumpkins. Some have jumped the gun and have already put up the Christmas lights to be ahead of the Jones family.
So, upon arriving for the pre-party to watch the Green Bay Packers on a 72 inch HD setup (Brett kicked ass), we're peeling potatos and making pies and stuffing and salad. The bird is in the oven eventually and the large Great Room slowly fills the Holiday spirit. We imbibe, we play Guitar Hero, we laugh and joke about the times.
Then the other guests finally arrive.
The host of the dinner is going out with a woman with several children. Their father had died of cancer a couple years ago and the host met her through match.com. He had just gotten over a nasty divorce and his children seemed to like her kids pretty well.
After dinner and now into the conversations about the usual subjects, we got into politics. The woman, Lucile, said she had heard about how I was doing "stuff for Obama" and wondered how that was going. Her daughter had asked for the book "The Audacity of Hope" for her birthday and she had obliged.
She then said she "was for Hillary for the most part". She asked why I didn't "like who everybody in the polls likes"... I asked her if she meant the recent polls in Iowa where Obama was now leading... she glared at me and said that can't be true.
I then went into what I call the D.R.A.G. principle regarding a Hillary nomination.
"D" stands for dynasties. I said I'm not for political dynasties and think America can do a lot better than have a couple families run our country like a banana republic.
"R" stands for Republicans. Do we want to have the Republicans have their best hope for empowering their base by having two Clintons to run against?
"A" stands for arrogance. When you hear people like Terry MacAulliffe, a pivotal part of her campaign, say that people who don't support her will feel the wrath of the DNC later, you have to wince at such an arrogant statement. He said "We're ahead, we're going to be the nominee - and we will remember who our friends are." The "Inevitable" schtick as well as the "It's Her Turn" antic from some in Hillaryland add to the arrogance mix.
"G" stands for grandstanding. Are we supposed to believe someone who was a cheerleading hawk and vociferous supporter of Bush's war in Iraq as someone who now has the validity to say that that very war she has never apologized for voting for is somehow to end on her watch? There are many other examples where grandstanding and transparently narcissistic political theater plays to "the center", particularly after saying branded and precisely screened twaddle massages the "base".
After my rant, the woman wasn't really aware that Hillary had voted for the war and told me that she had reservations about having Bill in the White House again. Her daughter chimed in that Obama was against the Iraq war from the beginning.
I just so happened to have a couple Obama speeches on my laptop and asked her if she wanted to see some of the speeches. We hooked the laptop up to a TV and watched most of the announcement speech last winter in Springfield, Illinois.
She was very moved by the video of Obama's speech before a very dedicated crowd and decided it was time to give Senator Obama a better look. Her daughter couldn't have been happier.
As the drive back was through the length of Illinois toward home, it was more fascinating to see those miles and miles of rural farmland and passing by quiet towns that Senator Obama had become familiar with.
The full moon illuminated the frozen snow-dusted fields with grace. The sky was saturated with stars.
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