TWO to ONE

Notes of Concern….

By Jack Blair

2 to 1

When we were kids growing up, we were taught there is a difference between a fight and a fair fight. Pretty simple stuff! Right on target!

As an adult, I have learned that there are lots of folks who didn’t learn that in childhood, folks who like to gang up in order to destroy or defeat. I also learned that in politics, and often in business, you do what you have to do to win.

As I am writing this column Senator Barack Obama is upset that he has to run for president against both Clintons. Senator Clinton is upset because she feels Obama distorts her record while the press makes no attempt to question him on his facts or the details of his own record.

It is important to understand that this isn’t a Madison Square Garden managed and executed pugilistic contest. This is a street fight! Two of the three people in this fight are experienced street fighters. The third person is an amateur.

I am creating a new axiom, call it the Blair Axiom: he who does not know how to fight in the street should stay in the house.

I find this fight interesting in that it appears, at the moment, that Senator Obama has been forcibly enrolled in the Clinton University of Political Operation. In this university you sit quietly in the lecture room and take notes. You do not challenge the professor. If you listen very carefully, and you study the history, you may one day be able to be a winner yourself, but only if Professor Clinton writes you a favorable reference.

On the other hand, if you ask a lot of questions, challenge the professor, or file charges against the teacher with the administration, you will not be long for university life.

I read in a newspaper the other day that poor old Senator Bob Dole could not believe what the Clinton machine had to say about him, how they distorted his positions, in his presidential race. Reportedly, after the election he had occasion to be with Bill Clinton and he asked him why he so misrepresented his (Dole’s) record. Clinton’s response was reported to be “You do what you gotta do”.

Senator Obama successfully challenged Senator Clinton’s expected easy ride to her party’s nomination by winning in Iowa and threatening to win in New Hampshire. From that moment on the long knives were drawn, plans were revised, and Senator Hillary brought out the “Big Gun”: Bill.

So now we have Bill campaigning every day in South Carolina while Hillary has left the state to focus on other states. Unfair advantage? Good strategy? Perhaps just an understanding of how street fighting works combined with the Clinton axiom: You do what you gotta do!

This will only become a fight Senator Obama might win if he skips the university course by testing out of the street fighting lessons and concentrates on the “You Do What You Gotta Do” graduate seminar.

I do think we are getting a sample of what it will be like to have Hillary Clinton as president. It is clear she and Bill are a team and they both want the power back. It is equally clear that Bill can be a back seat driver.

So it won’t become “2 to 1” but rather “2 for the price of 1” if she is elected.

Veterans

NOTES OF CONCERN….

Commentary by Jack Blair

“anciens combattants”

When I was a little boy, two of my uncles were veterans of World War I. They had been in the United States Cavalry. I loved to listen to their stories. They had left rural Pennsylvania to train in a strange land (to them): Texas.

I had another uncle who was a medic on the Normandy beaches. I didn’t learn much from him because he really never wanted to talk about his war experiences. When I was young, I found that strange. I also wondered why he kept that Purple Heart tucked away in the bedroom. It seemed to me there must be some great stories there. Not only did he not talk about his experience, but after returning from WWII he never again traveled out of the country. All he would say is that there is no better place than the good old USA!

When I was a teenager my cousin was drafted. My parents had a family party for him. Early in the evening I noticed that he, and the three uncles I mentioned, had gone upstairs to one of the bedrooms. I only learned later from my mother that our uncles had wanted to tell him things that evidently only soldiers could talk about.

As a man in my twenties we experienced the lottery system of the draft. Shortly thereafter our country went to an all volunteer army. So I never was admitted to the inner circle of soldiers in my family. As I grow older I am thankful that I have not had to experience what they experienced. I am also grateful that they made it possible for me to have and raise a family in a safe and peaceful land.

In the little town where I was raised, we made a big fuss about veterans. We had flags and bands and parades. I remember hearing many speeches and I recall how proud and often how sad people were on these celebratory occasions. Over time I learned about Gold Star mothers, about the telegrams, and about the unexpected visits of soldiers to the homes of their comrades who had fallen.

When I drive to Prince Edward Island where I spend time each summer, I travel over a highway that celebrates: anciens combattants. It reminds me of my uncles and also of so many from far away lands who joined together to give us the peace we enjoy.

Last week I met a young man from Australia who was visiting friends in Winchendon. We talked about his experiences in Iraq as he was recently stationed there. He had also served in Afghanistan. Here was this fine young man, from an ally of ours, telling me about his service, service designed to keep us free of dictators and terrorists. In his easy way, he talked of the dangers and of the excitement.

He also expressed concern over what the recent upset election in his country might mean to the conduct of the war. This caused me to think how we build young men and women up to fight a noble cause and then, almost as thoroughly, we might change direction through our votes. It is not so much the change of direction that is of concern, but rather the unpredictability of what we expect our not so “ancient” combatants to accept when they place their lives at risk for the rest of us.

So I keep buying poppies, visiting cemeteries, and pondering all these young lives that we put at risk. But I also remember that everything we have we owe to the folks who made this same sacrifice of years and endangered their futures, so that we could enjoy the blessings of freedom and have a future to which to look forward.

Don’t ever see a current or former serviceman without thanking him for his service.

It is a small thing to do, an inadequate thanks if you will, for the dedication that was given and the risk that was taken.

And when the band strikes up that beautiful national anthem of ours, don’t concentrate on the punks who won’t sing and who are so disrespectful. While they might want your attention, there is another group who has earned your undivided attention.

The punks are free to act that way because so many others were willing to face death so that they could be free to express their opinions.

If you are a veteran and you are reading my thoughts today: THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE.

AUDITING RACISM

Notes of Concern….

Jack Blair

AUDITING RACISM

Barack Obama is a black man. We have never had a serious candidate for the presidency who was black. This is new ground for America. Among the many reasons this presidential election might be interesting, this is a major one.

This election provides America with a chance to get a read on just how racist the people in America might still be. After years of progress in seeking the equality of the races in our country, countless bills guaranteeing equal treatment and opportunity, numerous trials in local and federal courts, a number of Supreme Court rulings, there will be a clue about our real progress when we go to the election booth next November.

There will be people who will vote for Barack Obama because he seems to them to be the best equipped to handle the presidency. They will have no concern about his race.

There will be people who will vote for Barack Obama because he is the Democrat candidate and they like the Democrat platform.

There will be people who will vote for Barack Obama because they do not have confidence in John McCain.

There will be people who will vote for Barack Obama because he is black.

Then there is the other side of the coin.

There will be people who will vote against Barack Obama because they do not believe him qualified to be the next president.

There will be people who will vote against Barack Obama because he is a Democrat and they don’t like what Democrats favor.

There will be people who will vote against Barack Obama because they have more confidence in John McCain.

There will be people who will vote against Barack Obama because he is black.

It is not acceptable that a man should be judged on the color of his skin. That said, there are people in America who will cast their votes precisely because of the color of Senator Obama’s skin. I expect the pollsters and the analysis experts will find some way to quantify this phenomenon. At some point, someone will tell us how many among us are playing a race card, either for or against a candidate. Whatever that number, it will be larger than most of us can bear.

Bob Herbet (a fine columnist who is African American) writing in The New York Times on August 26, 2008, said he had a rule of thumb for looking at the pre-election polls. He needed the rule because he believed many people would say they would not consider race, but would; say they would judge only competence, but wouldn’t; or say they were undecided, rather than admit they had already firmly made up their minds. His rule of thumb was essentially to take 2-3 points off Obama poll numbers and assume a substantial edge for McCain in the breakdown of undecideds.

If we believe columnist Herbert, then the race is much closer than published polls would suggest. If we do not believe Herbert, we need a naïveté check.

NELSON MANDELA

Notes of Concern….

A column by Jack Blair

NO BLACK PRESIDENTS INVITED

Jack Blair

No, this isn’t about our presidential election or the campaign of Senator Barack Obama. If that is what you are looking for, stop reading now!

This column is about former President Nelson Mandela of The Republic of South Africa.

On July 1, 2008, President Bush removed the name of Nelson Mandela from our nation’s Watch List. Being on the Watch List means you cannot visit The United States without special permission from The Secretary of State. In other words, if you want to travel anywhere in our country, from another country, you must go through formal channels, requesting permission, and waiting for a response.

Supposedly, persons on the Watch List are dangerous, or have dangerous associates who might ask them to do terrible things while they are in our country. We consider the ruling party in The Republic of South Africa, the ANC (African National Congress) to be a threat to us. As evidence of how threatening they are, we have sent billions of dollars in aid to help them run their new nation but we won’t let their former leader into our country without roadblocks to his travel!

Nelson Mandela was championed by huge numbers in this country when he was spending roughly 28 years on Robben Island in a very small jail cell on trumped up charges made by the white ruling government of South Africa. People all over the world sought his release. Major corporations in this country stopped doing business in South Africa to protest his treatment. Many of our allies abroad participated in efforts to get Mandela released from prison.

From his little jail cell, this man fueled a revolution that was applauded around the world and which, eventually, led to his release and subsequently to his election as the first black president of The Republic of South Africa.

This man is a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

The world hailed his achievements. Nelson Mandela was celebrated in capitals all over the world, including our own. I attended a White House Conference on South Africa at which Vice President Al Gore announced billions of dollars in U.S. Aid for the new nation of South Africa. Think how many years ago that event occurred and it will provide perspective on the importance, or foolishness, of the July 1 date when he was permitted unfettered access to our country.

Just the other day I watched as Mandela’s 90^th birthday was celebrated, in London I believe, with government officials, politicians, actors, and common people swelling the crowd. He is very feeble now and had to be helped to the microphone by his wife and some of his aids. Although visibly weak, his voice is still strong and his remarks were, as usual, inspiring.

It took us until July 1, 2008 to remove this Nobel Prize Winning citizen of the world from the indignity of having to ask a succession of State Department bureaucrats if he could come to visit us.

No wonder much of the world think we have “lost it”.

LIBERAL

Notes of Concern….

Jack Blair

LIBERAL

No matter how you spin it, the next President of The United States is either going to be the most liberal Democrat to hold the office since Franklin Roosevelt or the most liberal Republican to hold the office ever!

By most standards, Barach Obama has the most liberal voting record in The United States Senate and he has only been there a few years. Let us keep in mind that this is true even when comparing him with our own state Senators, Kennedy and Kerry, and neither of them ever come up short on liberal voting record measurements.

John McCain is sometimes called a rebel. He has been one for decades longer than Obama has been in the Senate. He is mostly called that by other Republicans. It is because he doesn’t agree with them on a number of issues and he isn’t very good at holding the party line.

There it is. That will be the choice.

There are angry Democrats who feel Hillary Clinton was robbed of her chance to become the first woman president of our country. They say they will get even by voting for McCain. Fat chance!

There are angry conservative Republicans who say they simply cannot fathom a vote for McCain who, by their standards, is a liberal Democrat in disguise as a Republican. They will show him just how mad they are at his occasional lapses in his voting records by voting for the most liberal Democrat in the U.S. Senate. Fat chance.

Remember you heard it here.

The ladies of the Democratic Party will hold their noses and vote for the Democratic candidate.

The conservative Republicans will hold their noses and vote for the clearly more conservative candidate, Senator McCain.

This November, the unaligned, undecided, and unaffiliated will select the President of The United States.

CARTER Again!

Notes of Concern…..

Jack Blair

JIMMY CARTER, AGAIN!

I recently wrote a column published in this paper that took former President Jimmy Carter to task for meddling in international affairs. Two friends questioned me on this judgment about Carter. Each of them believed that Carter had redeemed himself after the conclusion of his presidency. Their questions led me to further research

The nice thing about writing a column of opinion is that it anticipates that there will be readers who share the opinion and those who do not. It is not an attempt at reporting, it is an attempt at highlighting a particular viewpoint.

The Murray-Blessing study is widely recognized as “state of the art” in the presidential ratings game. I spoke this week with Dr. Blessing.

As a matter of reference, the Blessing survey rated Carter in 1982 as 25^th out of 39 presidents in performance. Another survey that year placed Carter at 26^th. Yet a third survey placed him at 33 out of 39 (Sienna survey).

For those for whom the years have dimmed the memory, let me compare the current popularity of President George W. Bush with the numbers earned by President Jimmy Carter. Both men, according to Newsweek magazine, polled at 28% favorability at the end of their terms in office. The only president to poll lower (at 22%) was Harry S. Truman in early 1952 at the time of the Korean War (according to George Gallup).

Some might point out that these surveys were early after the Carter presidency, at a time when he was not particularly popular in America. So let me refer to the Wall Street Journal survey done in 2000 which placed him at 25^th. Five years later, in 2005, the same survey dropped him to 34^th.

In my personal opinion, President Carter deserved the place he was awarded by a combined Wall Street Journal and Federalist Society poll in 2000. They found Jimmy Carter to be our 10^th worst president. Even his supporters typically do not argue in favor of his presidency but tend to admire work he did after his presidency concluded.

After leaving the presidency, Carter experienced a bit of a revival as he worked with Habitat for Humanity and took an interest in the plight of the poor and downtrodden. I had occasion to meet him in Atlanta during that period in his life. I took him a gift of one of his favorite foods from the Dillard House in the mountains of north Georgia. He is a pleasant and gregarious man.

I was impressed with his friendliness and his lack of formality. I was quick to compliment him on his activities and began to believe his post presidential contributions would greatly exceed his actions as president. Some even called him “our best ex-president”. Until recently, I had no argument with this assessment.

Unfortunately, as he has aged, he has become controversial again. The roundly denounced inaccuracies in his last book brought about significant resignations of quality people previously associated with the Carter Center. These were reported in all the major newspapers.

The thrust of my article was to question the wisdom of his meddling in the international relations of The United States of America, at a time of great international crisis for our country and our allies, and in direct defiance of the requests of our government. His trip was unwise, and had the potential to cause deterioration in the regular back channel talks that always occur between governments. It was also completely outside the bounds of historic and proper behavior for former presidents.

Since that column was printed it has become clear that his efforts irritated the government of Israel, the Secretary of State of the United States, and a great many citizens. And he produced absolutely no discernible positive results with his visit.

On this trip there was a nice picture of President and Mrs. Carter laying a wreath at the tomb of Yassir Arafat. For those of you who are historians, you know that Arafat was a terrorist with the blood of hundreds on his hands. The picture, in this case, was indeed worth “1000 words”. Most of the words that come to my mind could not be printed in a family newspaper!

With the world involved in a time of terrorism, we cannot afford to have former presidents, with no portfolio, negotiating with rogue states.

Watch the next Blessing poll of presidential rankings. It will be out this year.

BIG BROWN

Notes of Concern…

Jack Blair

BIG BROWN

Been to the track lately?

If you have you know there is no such thing as a SURE BET!

In the run-up to the Belmont Stakes, the last leg of the three legged stool called The Triple Crown, very few folks were putting money down on the horses scheduled to run the race.

Big Brown, the winner of The Kentucky Derby and The Preakness, was simply, obviously, clearly, and indisputably going to win. He wasn’t just going to win; it would be a real rout.

If you check the newspapers, the columnists, the track sheets, or even your local bookie, you will find that everyone thought this was a done deal! The only other horse that seems to have had a chance to come in second, by many lengths behind Big Brown of course, dropped out on the day before the race. That clinched the deal!

If you were watching television prior to the beginning of the race, you might not know anyone else was running. They talked to the owner, the trainer, even the lovely lady who exercised the big fellow.

There was even a special segment on how happy a little boy would be when Big Brown won because he was there to see the event, in which his father (the jockey) was a major player. Since the lad was losing his eyesight, this was going to be one thing he would see and remember forever.

I noticed the BIG BROWN logo on the back of the jockey’s shirt, on his arm, and on the seat of his pants. Then I started noticing they had slapped that BIG BROWN company logo on anything that wasn’t standing still. Contemplating the millions of advertising dollars that had been spent on BIG BROWN the horse by BIG BROWN the mail delivery guys, I realized even they had decided this was a win-win proposition.

And then BIG BROWN lost. He not only lost, he came in LAST.

The winner was the long shot horse, paying something like 38 to 1 !

You could hear the doors of the executive suite at Big Brown headquarters slamming shut within minutes of the end of the race and you could only imagine which brilliant ad exec would have to fall on his sword for this major embarrassment.

When your kids are studying marketing in college, you will be able to tell them about BIG BROWN. I expect it will be in their text books, right after the chapter on the Edsel.

Getting ready for winter

It is the first day of September and it is beautiful in Massachusetts. The sun is out and the day is comfortable in the high 70s. One of the things I like to accomplish at this time of year is to make a large batch of chili and to ladle it into small containers to freeze for use throughout the winter.

When I started this practice I made quite a mess of the kitchen. A number of years ago I decided to do it all outside. So the slicing and dicing of tomatoes, onions and peppers, the opening of cans of tomato and beef and chicken, etc., all occurs on the patio. The sauces simmer on the grill and the meats cook on a cast iron skillet on the grill.

The dogs watch me with anticipation, always waiting for something to drop to the ground. It has become a custom, a habit, and something to which I look forward. It also marks the beginning of the work year and the opening of school.

When the snow flies and the fire blazes in the fireplace, and I am sitting there eating a bowl of the chili I prepared on September 1st, I will be glad that I continued the tradition.

I cannot help but think of the squirrels, gathering and storing their nuts for the coming winter. It is time to put out all my bird feeders so I can enjoy watching them feast during the lean months. It is uplifting to see a blue bird or a cardinal getting sustenance from my bird feeders while the snow flies.

The seasons bring wonderful changes into our lives. I am ever so grateful to live somewhere that the four distinct seasons can be enjoyed.

Summer is over. Fall has arrived. Winter will soon be upon us.