Presidential Posturing, Teething Baby
So, BFD woke us up at 5:30 in the a.m. today for reasons unknown. His usual waking time is around 7:00 a.m. give or take thirty minutes on either side. And he's usually a pleasant little guy about it as well. Not today. Infant rage hath a new vehicle in our child. It was something to behold. If there was any doubt he was teething, let it be cast aside presently.
We've had a good run so far with sleep and all that. We know we're lucky and still are, all things considered. He sleeps minimum of ten hours straight a night and often twelve, which is more than most. Minor bumps in the road that, albeit unusual and jarring, the shock system that is the horseless carriage of our parenthood can surely handle, and happily.
So, whilst holding the screaming BFD, rocking him and trying to figure out what the hell was going on and how to lull the infant back to sleep, my mind wandered. No, not to my delicious tempurpedic pillow, not to the pillow-top queen sized bed that still held warmth and my beloved wife on a chilly winter's morning. No. Of all things, Donna Brazile. I can't explain it. It just enhanced the mildly aggravating nature of my morning.
A few weeks back when the news of An Inconvenient Truth being nominated for the Academy award for best documentary came out, I read some article on Yahoo news via one of the news wire services about it. It seemed relatively benign until about half way down the column. The journalist branched out to incorporate the speculation about Al Gore's '08 aspirations. This I did not find unusual. I chalked it up to the author trying to fill the column. Then there was a quote from Donna Brazile, Gore's former campaign manager.
She stated that if Mr. Gore won the Academy Award for best documentary, there was a very high likelihood that he would throw his hat into the ring for the '08 presidential race. The profile would be to high not to. Something like that.
It colored me a bit perplexed. Ergo I write to you now in the wee small hours of this day in February.
Why would Donna Brazile do this? My memories of this woman are vague. I know she was Gore's campaign manager during the 2000 election, but I am not sure which one. I know he replaced someone during his run. Methinks given that she was quoted for this article, she was the one he finished with. Anyhow, it doesn't matter relative to my musing.
Saying something like this has one of three likely subtexts. First, she is serving as the covert instrument of her once and possibly future boss. He asked her to say something to this effect to see how it would float in the polls. Second, it was a self serving comment made to make it known to the powers that be that Ms. Brazil is still in the game. Self promotion is, without a doubt, an integral part of the national politics world. Histrionics are probably more common than most might suspect.
Lastly, least likely but hopefully the real reason would be that Brazil made the statement as an almost off-handed, hopeful bout of verbal diarrhea. There are those who still feel the sting of the debacle that was the 2000 election. There are surely people out there that are of the firm opinion that Gore should (read "actually is") be President and were he that, we would not be in the extremely sad state of affairs that we find ourselves in. So, perhaps it was a Freudian slip. Hopefully perhaps.
Needless to say, it has been a bur in my mental saddle for all this time for reasons I cannot glean. My mind just happened to wander to it while my infant son was screaming in my arms in the wee small hours of the morning. It doesn't really matter. However, if I had to place a bet, I would have to put my money on Brazilean histrionics.
UPDATE: Oddly, Wikipedia has the quote. How about that?
"Wait till Oscar night, I tell people: 'I'm dating. I haven't fallen in love yet.' On Oscar night, if Al Gore has slimmed down 25 or 30 pounds, Lord knows." 1/31/07
We've had a good run so far with sleep and all that. We know we're lucky and still are, all things considered. He sleeps minimum of ten hours straight a night and often twelve, which is more than most. Minor bumps in the road that, albeit unusual and jarring, the shock system that is the horseless carriage of our parenthood can surely handle, and happily.
So, whilst holding the screaming BFD, rocking him and trying to figure out what the hell was going on and how to lull the infant back to sleep, my mind wandered. No, not to my delicious tempurpedic pillow, not to the pillow-top queen sized bed that still held warmth and my beloved wife on a chilly winter's morning. No. Of all things, Donna Brazile. I can't explain it. It just enhanced the mildly aggravating nature of my morning.
A few weeks back when the news of An Inconvenient Truth being nominated for the Academy award for best documentary came out, I read some article on Yahoo news via one of the news wire services about it. It seemed relatively benign until about half way down the column. The journalist branched out to incorporate the speculation about Al Gore's '08 aspirations. This I did not find unusual. I chalked it up to the author trying to fill the column. Then there was a quote from Donna Brazile, Gore's former campaign manager.
She stated that if Mr. Gore won the Academy Award for best documentary, there was a very high likelihood that he would throw his hat into the ring for the '08 presidential race. The profile would be to high not to. Something like that.
It colored me a bit perplexed. Ergo I write to you now in the wee small hours of this day in February.
Why would Donna Brazile do this? My memories of this woman are vague. I know she was Gore's campaign manager during the 2000 election, but I am not sure which one. I know he replaced someone during his run. Methinks given that she was quoted for this article, she was the one he finished with. Anyhow, it doesn't matter relative to my musing.
Saying something like this has one of three likely subtexts. First, she is serving as the covert instrument of her once and possibly future boss. He asked her to say something to this effect to see how it would float in the polls. Second, it was a self serving comment made to make it known to the powers that be that Ms. Brazil is still in the game. Self promotion is, without a doubt, an integral part of the national politics world. Histrionics are probably more common than most might suspect.
Lastly, least likely but hopefully the real reason would be that Brazil made the statement as an almost off-handed, hopeful bout of verbal diarrhea. There are those who still feel the sting of the debacle that was the 2000 election. There are surely people out there that are of the firm opinion that Gore should (read "actually is") be President and were he that, we would not be in the extremely sad state of affairs that we find ourselves in. So, perhaps it was a Freudian slip. Hopefully perhaps.
Needless to say, it has been a bur in my mental saddle for all this time for reasons I cannot glean. My mind just happened to wander to it while my infant son was screaming in my arms in the wee small hours of the morning. It doesn't really matter. However, if I had to place a bet, I would have to put my money on Brazilean histrionics.
UPDATE: Oddly, Wikipedia has the quote. How about that?
"Wait till Oscar night, I tell people: 'I'm dating. I haven't fallen in love yet.' On Oscar night, if Al Gore has slimmed down 25 or 30 pounds, Lord knows." 1/31/07
Labels: 2000 Election, Academy Awards, Al Gore, BFD, Donna Brazile, Histrionics, Teething
posted by Bourgeois Deviant at
6:33 AM
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