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With
remote in hand
by JUDY HODGSON
My name is Judy and I'm an addict.
But only every four years during
the national political conventions. That's when my husband knows
that we will eat dinner in front of the tube every night and
I won't take phone calls, either. It will all be over Thursday
and then we can move back to the dining table -- that is, until
the Republicans meet in New York.
When did I become such a junkie?
Probably during the Nixon-Kennedy debates in 1960. They were
so tantalizing, the nervous sideways glances at each other, Nixon's
5 o'clock shadow. Then there were the Goldwater-Johnson conventions
four years later, and by 1968 I was a goner. I stayed up all
night with the Democrats in Chicago, long after the re-runs of
the police bashing demonstrators and dragging them off to jail.
I watched until the TV senselessly played "Happy Days are
Here Again" while rolling the final credits.
Monday night I had my finger
on the remote for a while to see how the networks (and their
incestuous sister stations) were covering the convention. Who
decides when they let the camera hang on a certain speaker and
when they retreat to the talking heads in the booths? (Is MSNBC
trying to outfox Fox, or is it me?)
I can't recall which station
I was on (possibly CNN) when they cut away from the Rev. David
Alston, the Baptist minister who served on the swift boat with
John Kerry in Vietnam. I grabbed the remote and quickly found
PBS (thank you, KEET-TV) to hear the rest of Alston's riveting
speech. Was he a polished, gifted orator? Actually, no. He didn't
even know when to pause and let a little applause sweep over
the house. But that was his charm.
Alston was about the 10th speaker
of the session. By that time most of the stations' talking heads
were reporting how "tightly controlled" the convention
was by Kerry people. "No Bush bashing allowed!" "He
desparately needs to reach out to the undecided, not anger them."
Over and over viewers were told, "You can bet all these
speeches were thoroughly vetted by Kerry operatives!"
Then came Jimmy Carter with
words refreshingly honest, heartfelt, truthful -- and certainly
unvetted.
"After 9/11 America stood
proud -- wounded, but determined and united. A cowardly attack
on innocent civilians brought us an unprecedented level of cooperation
and understanding around the world. But in just 34 months, we
have watched with deep concern as all this good will has been
squandered by a virtually unbroken series of mistakes and miscalculations."
"... recent policies have
cost our nation its reputation as the world's most admired champion
of freedom and justice. What a difference these few months of
extremism have made."
After his speech, in a PBS interview,
he was even blunter, if that were possible. He said in his travels
around the world he has learned that instead of this nation being
held in high regard as a champion of peace and human rights,
the United States is now "scorned and ridiculed." One
reporter asked him if he really meant to call Iraq a "war
of choice." "Yes," he said. "This administration
came into office with an uncontrollable urge to go to war with
Iraq."
I know, I know. President Carter
wasn't a very effective president in many ways and probably didn't
deserve a second term. But he still is my personal favorite ex-president.
After all, how many ex-presidents have won a Nobel Peace Prize?
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