The "We" in "Team"

It’s that time of year, and the right year. We’re hearing a lot about teams. First, there was the Super Bowl. Later, it will be the Olympic team. The impeachment trial had prosecution and defense teams. Why can’t candidates for office do it?

Take the Democratic presidential candidates. As individuals, they are far from perfect. Warren and Sanders are too radical; Klobuchar is too forceful; Bloomberg and Steyer are too rich; Buttigieg is too…uh…white; Yang is too geeky; and Biden is too Joe.

I am oversimplifying for a little fun here, but each of these folks also has great qualities. Too bad we just can’t take a little DNA from all of them and create the perfect specimen. Somebody who thinks and speaks as clearly as Buttigieg, is as experienced as Biden; as committed to big ideas as Sanders, Warren, or Steyer; as forward-thinking as Yang, or who knows how to craft legislation as well as Klobuchar.

At some point, it will be clear who the Democratic presidential nominee will be. Thanks to Super Tuesday, it could be sooner rather than later. That individual will be selecting a running mate. Can he or she go beyond that and start lining up Cabinet prospects and going public on the shape of the potential new administration?

I thought there was a law against that. There isn’t, and there is so much talent in the Democratic field. Elizabeth Warren would make a perfect Secretary of the Treasury if she isn’t a presidential or vice-presidential candidate, assuming she would accept a Cabinet post. Andrew Yang could be Secretary of Commerce and Tom Steyer would be a natural at Energy. Joe Biden is a known quantity around the world and would be a great Secretary of State. Even those who have dropped out of the presidential race could be factors. Kamala Harris would be impressive as Attorney General. How about Bernie at HHS? Julian Castro has previous Cabinet experience. Every time I’ve seen Cory Booker, I think there has to be a role for him. All of these folks have, or did have, followings, and if the whole group ran as a kind of team, couldn’t this pull the party, and perhaps the electorate, together?

I am not really a sports fan, but have learned from watching football that while a great quarterback is the star, he needs receivers. Then there is the defense and the kicker.

For the Democrats to win the Presidential race this year, the keyword is  “overwhelming.” They need to massively get out the vote to overwhelm the limitations of the Electoral College and any artificial barriers to voting created at the state or local levels. If the current occupant of the White House is to be defeated, it will take a lot more than just that one person scoring points on an October debate stage to do it.

Pots and Kettles

I took some time to listen to the audio version of the whistleblower complaint about President Trump’s phone call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, which is currently fueling the rapidly advancing impeachment inquiry into the alleged pressuring of Zelensky for help to advance Mr. Trump’s re-election prospects.

The complaint is no crazy cry in the wilderness. It is a carefully structured presentation of the information gathered by this individual, who said that while he didn’t hear the phone call himself, the accounts given by those who did were consistent. There was particular concern over the use of a separate server designed for highly classified material in an apparent effort to hide what the President was doing, and that it has been used on similar occasions.

To me, it seems crystal clear that President Trump was seeking foreign dirt on the man he believes will be his Democratic opponent in the upcoming election, former Vice President Joe Biden. Biden’s son Hunter was named to the board of a gas company in Ukraine whose founder was said to be a less-than-savory oligarch. Joe Biden, meanwhile,  actively sought the removal of a controversial Ukranian prosecutor. Defenders of the Bidens say they did nothing illegal there, though one wonders how the younger Biden got his job with limited knowledge of either Ukraine or the local gas business. A recent piece in The Atlantic on all this reminds us that it’s not new, or against the law, for those with a famous last name or a high connection to trade on that relationship. But there may be something of an optics problem now for the Bidens here.

That said, Joe Biden is not yet a presidential nominee. Will the party choose someone else with less baggage, or did President Trump simply make Biden a victim?

As for impeachment, what’s going on reminds me of the old days, when I had a refrigerator that didn’t automatically defrost. I had to heat up a pot of boiling water and put it in the freezer to thaw out the ice. I kept opening the freeze door to see if it was working, but that only slowed things down, and it took a long time for progress to be visible. After the first crack appeared, though, the ice melted quickly.

Angry Democrats would do well to be patient, taking their cue from that careful and methodical whistleblower in crafting an effective impeachment case. They may only have one chance before the election to get it right.

It's Just Joe

This is my birth month, so the issue of how the aging are viewed hits much closer to home than it used to. Is ageism in the Presidential race a thing?

It has certainly focused attention on Joe Biden in particular, largely because of his occasional verbal stumbles and his seeming to be not quite fast enough on the draw when responding to challenges such as that presented by fellow candidate Kamala Harris in one of this summer’s debates. Some feel that these are signs that he’s a bit past it now.

Like anyone with a long track record in politics, Mr. Biden has his share of twists and turns in position to explain. If he now demonstrates a change of heart or mind, is it evolution or a flip-flop? We can only go back to that long track record for clues. As for the gaffes, they have been going on for a long time, perhaps well before anyone would link them to getting older.

Among those qualities we appreciate in a President are authenticity and the ability to absorb new information, especially from experts focused on a particular knowledge base. But we also appreciate a President who chooses words carefully, mindful of the enormous impact they have on the country’s mood and that of the rest of the world. I am not endorsing Joe Biden nor discouraging support for him here,  I’m just saying that occasional gaffes are his thing.

The media are merciless. Remember when President Ford, at a considerably younger age, said in a debate that there was no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe? He was also famous for a physical stumble. George W. Bush was infamous for  “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job!” after Hurricane Katrina, and the "Mission Accomplished" banner on the ship after the invasion of Iraq. When it comes to unfortunate utterances or phrases associated with Presidents, this list is longer than we like to think. The point is, it’s not about aging. It’s about being human, and sometimes, being just plain wrong.

At my age, I have some issues. I repeat stories I have told before. I try to tell them to new people or audiences, but am not always successful. People I have known for a while have blanket permission to cut me off if they’ve heard something already, and they do.

I’ll leave you with this little story. Some years ago, my wife and I were out to dinner at a Chinese restaurant with a colleague of mine, who is white like me, but his wife is Asian. The restaurant brought us many dishes, and she graciously served us from them. She served me first, which was a surprise. “You are the wisest,” she explained, which I wanted to take as a compliment, but that’s not quite it. In her native country, the custom is that the oldest one at the table is served first. By the way, I apologize to those of you who have heard this one before. I’ll shut up now.

A Nice Problem

Some years ago, an event coordinator I knew was surprised when the number of those planning to attend her function increased dramatically as the date approached, forcing her to scramble at the last minute to accommodate them. “A nice problem to have,” she said, a little breathlessly.

So it is with the two dozen Democratic candidates for President. Why do so many want to run? First, of course, there is the desire to keep the current occupant from serving another four years. But what might some other motives be? Personal publicity? Partly, but I think there’s more to it. I’m sure at least some of these folks realize full well that the sun will rise in the west before they actually win the nomination. But if nothing else, candidacy is a chance to ensure that their key issues become part of the agenda.


Democratic voters do have a nice problem. The problem part is that the choice is not an easy one; they will have to sit through many more town halls and debates before next year’s primaries, when they make that choice. The nice part, though, is that every one of these candidates seems qualified to serve as President, at least so far.


The second dose of nice is that whoever wins the nomination will have some great options, not only for a running mate, but for potential Cabinet members in the event of a November 2020 victory. I ask you to let me do some “what iffing” here. To start with, if she doesn’t win the nomination or get chosen for No. 2, who would make a better attorney general than Kamala Harris? Or Elizabeth Warren for Secretary of the Treasury? Beto O’Rourke could do a nice job at Homeland Security or Health and Human Services. Pete Buttigieg could do well at Commerce or Veterans Affairs. Jay Insley, outspoken on climate change, could be perfect for the Department of Energy. And Joe Biden would make a fine Secretary of State, not only because of his foreign policy experience, but because those in other countries don’t share the American penchant for dismissing older people. Whether any of these individuals would accept Cabinet positions if offered is another question. But none would be bent on destroying or minimizing the department he or she is heading.


I have left some important names out here, of course, and likely you will be doing some what-iffing of your own. But continuing with the niceties of this” problem,”  there are no losers among that crowded field. And it could all be a win-win for the country, too.

Space Invaders

I really didn’t want to write about this topic AGAIN, but here we go. Now it’s former vice president Joe Biden accused of inappropriately touching females. In this case, most seem to feel there was no sexual intent, but at least one complained that her “personal space” was violated.

I know what that means, and I’m not dismissing it. But there’s still something wrong with this picture, and it’s not my own gender defensiveness. Under modern standards, as I have said before, I couldn’t be elected dogcatcher. But don’t worry. “Ah shall not seek, and ah will not accept...”


We’ve heard a lot about courageous women coming forward through #metoo over the past couple of years to report sexual abuse by men. But it’s unfortunate that shame has been weaponized. We certainly need to discuss appropriate behavior and what the new standard should be. But the first behavior that needs adoption is that men and women must learn to have this discussion between each other, preferably  at the time of the offense, instead of turning it into a Twitter bomb later. Men have to stop this behavior, and if they don’t, women need to look them in the eye and say, “Please don’t do that,” or find another way to communicate it directly, whether it’s to a date, a celebrity, a superior, a clergyman, or even a family member. That requires even more courage than taking it to the media.


As for Mr. Biden, I don’t think it’s this behavior that is disqualifying. He would certainly make a good President. That said, I do think the combination of his gender, age, and even race may be. Democrats seem to be looking for younger candidates who appear to better reflect them and who have a good working knowledge of the new challenges of the future. It’s not about space invasion.


In the meantime, maybe there’s a tech solution to this. Give us a phone app that creates a force field around us, that we could set at will. The field could be as little as a few inches or up to a few feet, or we could turn it off entirely for cocktail parties. But when it’s on, anyone who enters our personal space would get a mild shock or hear a buzzer. Now THERE's a billion-dollar idea.


I don’t know whether it’s related, but I heard a statistic the other day to the effect that young people in the US are having 23 percent less sex these days. But hey, that’s great news for the environment, no? Fewer little carbon footprints to worry about. Why isn’t THAT in the Green New Deal?

Saying What You Mean

I think we should cut Joe Biden a little slack – his superiors certainly haven’t. Asked on the Today Show whether he’d advise family members to avoid air travel to Mexico because of the swine flu, the Vice President said he’d advise them, and Americans in general, to avoid unnecessary air travel, or travel in “confined spaces” like subways, altogether. The White House, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and even Biden’s staff spent the rest of the day making woefully inadequate explanations of what he “really meant to say.” It was perfectly clear to me.

This is not a new concept. I know people who travel frequently on business, and they maintain that they catch more colds during the winter months due to their time in airplanes. It’s not just one person coughing on a plane, but usually multiple people if there’s a full flight, and you’re dealing with recirculated air. This wouldn’t keep me from flying, but I can understand my friends’ concerns, and Biden’s. I don’t think it was “fear-mongering.” He was asked for his advice – he didn’t issue an executive order. And let’s face it, the explanations of what he “meant to say” just dug the Administration into a much deeper hole than he did.

Then there’s Carrie Prejean, Miss California. During the Miss USA pageant, this young lady was asked a question about same-sex marriage, and said she believes marriage should be between a man and a woman. She deserves – and received from some quarters -- praise for saying what she believes. But last night on Fox News, when Greta van Susteren asked her a few follow-ups, like how she felt about civil unions, she said those involved should have “some rights,” and when van Susteren asked if that included adoption, Prejean said she didn’t want to get into politics.

OK -- I have defended beauty pageants, making the point that many pageant contestants are not the airheads they’re often taken for. In the case of Ms. Prejean, however, while she’s to be commended for telling us her true feelings, she clearly hasn’t thought about this whole issue very deeply, and she’d better start doing so if she’s going to be a national spokeswoman for heterosexual marriage (or at least learn some lines). I’m not going to call her an airhead. But after last night’s performance, it’s safe to say that she isn’t exactly a Rhodes Scholar, either.

There, now I've said it.

Great Expectations

There was no knockout, so as announcer Michael Buffer says,  after 12 rounds, we go to the scorecards.

Sarah Palin did a lot better than expected, though I thought all along she would do well. It’s about what she did well at. 

She looked right into the camera; she spoke plainly and with energy, and she connected with her audience.

But she didn’t answer some of the questions – at one point, even downright refusing to do so. She relied a lot on sloganeering and talking about the subjects she was comfortable with – energy and corruption on Wall Street. But could we follow her arguments? I felt kind of like a hunter trying to chase a fox down a  long, twisty path. I never knew where the path led, but it didn’t matter because I knew I would never catch the fox. 

As for Joe Biden, he, too, did better than expected, with a clear command of the issues and his arguments. But I thought he spent too much time looking backward, as Gov. Palin said, and while his energy level wasn’t bad, it didn’t come up to hers. He won most of the arguments, but not necessarily the points.

I think it’s safe to say that if John McCain is elected President, Sarah Palin will be the reason.

Only, please, God, don’t let anything happen to him.

There now I’ve said it.

Don't Take the Points

If you're counting on Joe Biden to put away Sarah Palin in the vice-presidential debate -- well, don't.

We've heard a lot about the bar being lowered so far that Palin only has to avoid stumbling to "win" the debate. But "winning" and "losing" are words that make almost as much sense in this context as they do in t he Iraq war.

First of all, Sarah Palin is not stupid,  and I have no doubt that she's a quick study. She's been going to debate camp. It's too bad the GOP couldn't have let her cut her teeth on some more interviews, so she'd be more comfortable. But she's going to do just fine in this debate situation.

So what does a debate actually tell you? It's a great measure of debating skills, and some are just plain better at that than others. Palin may actually out-debate Joe Biden.

But what it all comes down to is this: Would you rather have a quick study who does a credible job after two weeks of debate camp, or someone with 30 years of experience dealing with foreign policy issues and with a solid knowledge of how government works as your next vice-president?

It all comes down to that.

There, now I've said it.

Biden-Palin: Pay-Per-View

You want to take a whack at the $700 billion? Make Biden-Palin a pay-per-view!

I’m only about halfway joking here. If you’ve read my previous posts, you know how this is going to be scored – like a boxing match.  Jabs thrown,  power punches connected,  knockout blow. Maybe they’ll even have those little colored bars at the bottom of the screen.

Let’s say you charged about $50 for each TV connection,  with five people watching at each one, the total audience being 40 million. I’m not very good at math, but is that about $400 million? How about if you made it available worldwide? And do the same thing with the presidential debates while yhou're at it. Maybe you could even sell series tickets.

Well, OK, it wouldn’t raise all that much, but wouldn’t it be a start? Aren’t we in a crisis?

We’re already getting the Thursday party organized at my house – we have to find out where that Palin wine from Chile is sold. Somebody will have to bring the chips and dip.

Hey, don’t accuse me of trivializing this process! There are a lot of people who have beaten me to the punch in that department, as long as we're on the boxing theme.

There, now I’ve said it.