Day: February 4, 2006

John Edwards: Americans Need Hope and Inspiration

Trish

Say what you will, but I think John Edwards has it right.

America needs leaders who understand that the country needs to be inspired again, former Sen. John Edwards said Friday.

Edwards gets that Americans like you and me are…better than snarky rich idiots who act like assholes because they know deep down inside no amount of money or external success makes up for the fact they are small, nasty people

Edwards said that after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, Americans reached out to volunteer and take families into their homes.

“It says something about the heart and character of our country,” said Edwards, a Democrat. “What we need is we need leaders who tap into that.”

Ain’t it the truth? Full disclosure: I voted for Edwards in the Florida primary in 2004, even though the press and my party had already given the state to Kerry. I see something in him that I saw in Carter and in Clinton, and it’s not just the Southern thing, although “not for nothin’,” as we say down here.

Edwards now heads the Center for Poverty, Work and Opportunity at the University of North Carolina law school and has previously said he has not decided whether he will run for president in 2008…

“The people I’ve met, they violate every stereotype that exists about people who are struggling,” Edwards said.

He said the great moral issue in the country today is that 37 million people live in poverty.

“They have never had a champion,” Edwards said. “They can’t even imagine someone actually being willing to speak up for them.”

Contrast Edwards’ remarks with those of former First Lady Barbara Bush, who in the wake of the most devastating natural disaster of our times looked on her idea of the bright side for the evacuees:

And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them. They are faring far better than before Katrina.

Edwards gets that Americans like you and me are better than that, better than snarky rich idiots who act like assholes because they know deep down inside no amount of money or external success makes up for the fact they are small, nasty people.

During his travels, Edwards said he has learned that there is a hunger in the United States for something big and important that people can be involved in and inspired by…

“We need hope,” Edwards said. “We need the belief inside us that we are good, strong, honorable people and we can do great things together.”

Somebody say “Amen!”

Wrong Again, O’Reilly — ‘Brokeback’ Plays ‘Well, and Widely’ in Montana

Jon Ponder

“They’re not going to go see the gay cowboys in Montana. I’m sorry. They’re not going to do it.”

— Bill O’Reilly, Dec. 20, 2005

Au contraire, Monsieur Loofah: “Brokeback Mountain” is doing a brisk business in Montana, according to columnist Joe Nickell in the Helena Independent Record:

O’Reilly believes that Joe Sixpack’s heterosexuality — like his own — is so tenuous and fragile that it might be destroyed by exposure to guy on guy action — even the 30 seconds of it in “Brokeback Mountain.”

Here in Missoula, the film has been a smash hit since it opened at the 1,100-seat Wilma Theatre on Jan. 6. “It’s been super every night since we started showing it,” said Bill Emerson, who manages the 85-year-old theater.

Data collected by Focus Features, which produced the film, show that “Brokeback” grossed more than $33,000 at the Wilma during its first four weekends alone.

And…

“Brokeback” isn’t just doing well in this, traditionally the most liberal part of the state… It was the No. 1 draw during opening weekends in Helena and Whitefish…

And guess where the film enjoyed its best opening weekend in Montana? Hint: It wasn’t liberal Missoula.

Try Billings.

In its opening three-day weekend, “Brokeback Mountain” grossed … 15 percent better than the film did during its opening weekend at the Wilma…

So…

“O’Reilly apparently forgot that stereotypes and off-the-cuff prognostications, no matter how confidently voiced, have an uncanny way of falling apart under the cold light of reality.”

Last month, O’Reilly also admitted to Matt Lauer that he was scared to see the film, which has been nominated for eight Academy Awards:

“I’m afraid of cowboys. I’m from Long Island. I’m afraid of all cowboys. And gay cowboys? I mean, I don’t — I don’t get the whole shepherd-cowboy-pup tent connection. I’m not getting all of that stuff.”

Sadly, O’Reilly probably really believes that he understands the psyche of the average guy “out there” in the Red states, and that like him, Joe Sixpack’s heterosexuality is so tenuous and fragile that it might be destroyed by exposure to guy on guy action — even the 30 seconds of it in “Brokeback Mountain.”

That is scary. In my 50 years I’ve seen hundreds of hours of guy-on-gal tussling in Hollywood movies and it hasn’t moved me even a quarter notch off my perfect Kinsey 6.

The point is, O’Reilly’s “man of the people” persona is a hollow shell. He is as pampered and pompadoured as any TV star — and just as clueless about the real world in his first-class bubble as the average Republican senator or presidential advisor.