Obama was on Letterman last night. He was charming. He was funny. He was likeable. He was geniune. He was earnest. He was smart.
BUT
I started to wonder. How would Dennis Kucinich have handled Letterman’s question about what could have been done differently on 9/11 and how to avoid an attack today?
Before you get your fingers poised to type – let me say, I KNOW, I KNOW, I KNOW he has to be political on TV and he’ll get accused of this, that and the other. I KNOW, this is the problem with the Democrats, trying to act diplomatic, fair and set an example in a world where everyone else is cheating and winning.
This is my blog. This is my fantasy.
Now.
In this world where people fall in love with Republicans because they tell it like it is (they are lying, but people think they are hearing “straight talk”.) What if Obama did real straight talk?
I’m picturing this.
Instead of saying Giuliani did a good job, he could have said the truth. Giuliani was walking the streets because he had no office – because he put the terrorism response center in the trade towers. That’s like me keeping an emergency condom, in my fallopian tubes. TOO LATE.
Richard Clark, the terrorism expert who had decades of expertise under Reagan, Bush I and Clinton and who was already working on Bin Laden, was FIRED. He was FIRED immediately upon Bush’s entrance to the White House – for reasons of ego.
Bush ignored his daily briefings that said “Bin Laden Determined To Strike Within U.S.”
Giuliani was not well liked by the police and the firemen, they have come out and admitted it.
Now, I lived in NYC on 9/11 and I didn’t know WHAT THE FUCK to think. And I fell for it. Giuliani is my daddY! He’s telling me how to feel and what to do everyday because I’m so damn traumatized! But then I started to unthaw and listened to people and realized that although he did conduct himself with great sorrow and attended those funerals, every single freaking one of them, he was not well liked. I had not been paying attention.
I know a lot of you, who didn’t live in DC or NYC on that day, might be terrified. Some of you have even asked me how scared I was on that day, since I’m such a known neurotic.
I was not scared at all. Because in the face of real danger, I believe you see the face of God. That city was beautiful that day and not just the weather. Any person who was not physically injured rose to the occassion and there was no time for neurosis. And my feelings on life and death were so fucking crystal clear, my understanding that I have NO regrets and no true sorrow was staring me in the face. It was about other people, not me.
I have a problem with people from other states, voting for people who will “Keep them safe” when I lived it, in the unsafe city, under the president whose neglicence let this happen. Ironic that most people in NYC realize this and people who are more in need of a daddy figure to have a beer and shoot a gun with in faraway states, are so adamant about who keeps us safe and how pissed they are about 9/11. I FUCKING LOVE THIS COUNTRY and that’s why I dissent. My forefathers gave me that right. I have no party identity. I have a strong identity. I go to therapy so I can honestly look at myself. You think I really give a shit about Democrat or Republican? No. But today I do, because the Republican party has been corrupted by corporations, Karl Rove and neo-con-ism.
Anyway, Obama could have told David Letterman, as Kucinich would have, that Bin Laden’s demands and one reason behind 9/11 was that he wanted us out of Sauda Arabia. He wanted us to close the Sultan Air Base. Guess what? WE DID! Did you know that? We met his demands, after 9/11. We flew his family out of the United States in the middle of the night.
So, although Obama is right, yes, we should have stayed in Afghanistan and caught Bin Bin, it’s not that simplistic. And I just wish he could have explained it better. He could have mentioned Blackwater and how he won’t have a private army that makes 100K a year and doesn’t have to follow the Geneva convention methods of war….
Where was NORAD on that day?
SOMETHING!
How about, “I would not continue reading My Pet Goat to a classroom of children.”
Did you further know, that when Bush was reading My Pet Goat (after the second plane hit)- he says he didn’t want to stop because he didn’t want to scare the kids. He couldn’t say, “Excuse me kids, the President has to pee pee. Or the President has some important callst to take! Santa is on the line!” Instead, he did not speak to the country right away and he later took a school photo with the kids, where he openly spoke about the terrorist attack in front of them. So much for not scaring them.
But instead, Obama was charming, and didn’t want to Monday morning quarterback. But no one is asking him to say, how would you react to 9/11? Let’s bash Republicans. No. It was, tell us, how you will keep us safe because it seems so more intricate than quoting WANTED signs from the Old West.
I just think Kucinich would have been firing off facts and swinging his arms and jumping in his chair like the little Liberal Leprachaun he is. And that’s why he’s not popular. Because he makes just as much sense as Obama but he has more balls. He’s briliant. He’s such a straight talk express. And if the country, or at least the Democratic base heard him, they would cheer. He could tell them where to find the facts if anyone doubted. It might be challenging but I’d rather fight the right with FACTS and BOLDNESS than CHARM and trying to be nice. Just as Kerry and Gore how that worked for them!
I feel terribly for this girl. She doesn’t want a baby. She wants a safe and legal termination during her first week of pregnancy. Now, she’s five months in and because her mom is “pro-life” (what a nasty word, as if pro choice means anti-life) now little Palin has no life.
