Showing posts with label Presidential campaign. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Presidential campaign. Show all posts
Friday, March 23, 2007
    3614

    My take on the John Edwards' campaign

    People who have criticized John and Elizabeth Edwards for their decision to continue in pursuit of the White House are being pilloried in the media. Even the WSJ had nothing but brave, kind thoughts for the family.

    My take is this. Blunt and short. For God's sake, woman, you have stage IV cancer--spend the time left with your kids.

    In 1963 our oldest son died when he was a year and a half. I knew then that I'd lost the rest of his life. Then a miscarriage; then another boy who died at birth. But it wasn't until we were blessed with a second family in the late 60s and I was a stay-at-home mom (I had worked part days before and he died while I was at work), that I realized I'd lost the few months we did have him by the decisions I'd made about working and going to grad school. Even when we were together as a family, my head was somewhere else frantically trying to juggle a schedule of graduate classes, translating Russian medical newspapers at home, working at the office, and child care. No, this isn't guilt speaking, just experience. I did what I thought was right at the time. I was 23 and just wrong. I've forgiven myself for my warped view of time, but it doesn't change history.

    The Edwards have already experienced something that most parents never face. They have outlived one of their sons who died when a teen in an automobile accident. They will never face down that fear--at least I haven't--it colors every thing they do today and seems to have made them a stronger family unit. But their other children lost a brother (2 born after his death), and for the last 2.5 years have probably heard a lot of happy talk from their parents about mommy's illness and how they are winning the fight. Now it has metastasized to her bones. It's treatable, but not curable. Maybe she'll live five years; maybe five months.

    (See medical opinion here.)

    Source URL: https://maryelizabeth-winstead.blogspot.com/search/label/Presidential%20campaign
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Wednesday, March 14, 2007
    3582

    My letter to Rush

    Dear Rush,

    I listen to you most days, and take you along on my walks in the park enjoying the effects of global change. I'm right with you on how silly Al Gore has become, that the Republicans don't know how to defend themselves, that John McCain is a joke, and that the Democrats are the party of death and defeat in Iraq.

    However, today I had an epiphany. You don't understand women. At all. We don't think it is hilarious or insulting or witty to be called a woman! Nope. We actually like being women. So when you can think of no other way to ridicule Presidential candidate John Edwards than to call him a Breck "Girl" or to use the song "I am woman" to introduce him, or to call him a female candidate, that falls pretty flat for your female audience, even those of us who are conservatives.

    The nonsense today about the abortion e-card just caused me to change the channel. Neither pro-life (me) or pro-choice women (just about everyone I know) see anything funny about abortion. It has caused the deaths of about 35,000,000 babies in the USA and a lot of pain for women who thought or were misled at the time that they had no other option. Not funny, Rush. Nope. Not at all. You've really insulted your female audience this week, plus you gave that silly woman with the e-abortion card a promotion on your airtime she could never afford to buy.Source URL: https://maryelizabeth-winstead.blogspot.com/search/label/Presidential%20campaign
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Tuesday, March 13, 2007
    3576

    Advice for the 2008 presidential candidates

    While cleaning out some files, I found this one written for the 2004 campaign. No one listened to me then, so I'll give it another shout out. This is for the Democrats or Republicans or Libertarians.

    Jobs: Make Cleveland, Detroit, New York, etc. "union-free" areas--no unions in industry, in the schools, or any areas of government, or in non-government associations. Unions are strongest in cities with the most serious poverty problems. Time to run a test and see if there is a cause and effect relationship. Invite industry in. Let in some fresh air. If these cities can turn around in say, a decade, move the system to other cities.

    The War: Let the Iraqis have as much time to settle into independence and democracy as the United States did--about 15 years--1775-1789 (I said this in 2004--so knock four years off the remaining time). Remove US troops as quickly as possible without endangering the Iraqi people. Rid America of the "instant solution" mentality (this is now called Murthanizing).

    Energy: Allow drilling in Alaska as a trade off for more economizing and more fuel efficiency.

    Health care: Introduce more competition, not less. Move away from government interference and control as quickly as possible, so we don’t lose the best system in the world.

    Prescription drugs: Reduce the red tape and regulations for drug development to reduce the price of development.

    Transportation: Get our passenger rail system going again. Terminals in every major city. Environmentally, it makes a lot more sense and is probably cheaper than messing with forests and farm lands for biofuels and windmills.

    Nation building: Make English the official language of the US, but offer many more foreign language options, and make at least one a requirement for graduation from high school.

    Terrorism: Secure our borders, improve our airport, train and bus screening. Use profiling to find terrorists.

    And I ought to add something about global change.

    Require anyone spouting hot air to answer questions from the press and audience. That will cool things down in a hurry.Source URL: https://maryelizabeth-winstead.blogspot.com/search/label/Presidential%20campaign
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Sunday, February 11, 2007

    HR Clinton on the war

    While carrying dirty laundry downstairs, I heard HR Clinton promising she'd end the war in 2009 when she is president. While looking through my old blogs to add labels, I noticed this item below, and wondered since all these unsafe, crime ridden cities in the U.S.A. are Democratic strongholds, if she wouldn't practice here first by getting on the case of her colleagues.

    "New Orleans' violent death rate before Katrina was 53.1 per 100,000, and in Iraq it is 25.71. It is more dangerous to be a male between 18-24 in Detroit, Chicago or Baltimore just because of the effects of testosterone on stupid behavior, than it is to be a well-trained soldier with body armor in Iraq."

    Hill, it's just a thought.Source URL: https://maryelizabeth-winstead.blogspot.com/search/label/Presidential%20campaign
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