OS watched what he could stand of the proceedings yesterday...what was not boring seemed lame, and he couldn't bring himself to make Mrs. OS endure a moment of it. We had a lovely dinner at a quiet Japanese restaurant that opened up two years ago and has managed to hang on in a deeply redneck county.
He does regret not hearing the speech given by Artur Davis, the 2008 Obama campaign co-chair.
So, in case anyone else missed it, here it is.
He had carefully washed all the anger out of his text, while leaving the sense of loss and disillusionment well in place.
Maybe we should have known that night in Denver that things that begin
with plywood Greek columns and artificial smoke typically don't end
well.
Maybe the Hollywood stars and the glamour blinded us a little: you thought it was the glare, some of us thought it was a halo.
But in all seriousness, do you know why so many of us believed? We led
with our hearts and our dreams that we could be more inclusive than
America had ever been, and no candidate had ever spoken so beautifully.
But dreams meet daybreak: the jobless know what I mean, so do the
families who wonder how this Administration could wreck a recovery for
three years and counting.
No doubt there is a lot of fur flying around his life now. A lot of friendships lost, bitter words launched in his direction. A great deal of questioning of his basic sense of ethics. And he's got to wonder how many of those people in that room really would invite him to dinner, make him that good job offer, or introduce him to their daughters. How many will be his friends this time next year?
So, this took some courage.
And, as viciously as his old colleagues rail at him, they can't erase the historical fact of his crucial role in the 2008 Obama victory. His presence and words last night are a true repudiation of the entire Obama mystique. He knows where the bodies are buried, and they must worry a bit about how much of what he learned over the years has been disclosed.
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