David Brooks, Barack Obama and the Democratic Party

Based on NY Times columnist David Brooks' track record, and a recent follow up post by Peter Loffredo (http://www.fullpermissionliving.blogspot.com/ ) at Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn (http://www.onlytheblogknowsbrooklyn.typepad.com/ I can only wonder -- what is Brooks' true agenda ? Pro-Obama or anti-Democratic Party ? He lauds OB's "self-knowledge" and "the scattered facts of [OB's] childhood" now, but when the election comes around, Brooks no doubt can be counted on to use all of those same "scattered facts" he has gained through Obama's self-knowledge/revelation against OB's candidacy. Remember, outside of certain elite, educated areas, the gamesmanship of politics in a hyper-media environment will not necessarily reward those revelations, especially as things are lining up (religiously speaking) among GOP candidates.

I agree that it would be nothing short of a miracle to have a passionate, inner-directed President who understands himself, with resonances of Dr Martin Luther King,Jr and Abraham Lincoln, but as we learned in 2000 and 2004, the GOP must still be expected to play hardball. Much of the voting public nationally is unfortunately not attuned to "self-awareness"..

I don't pretend to have answers either but I do believe that the primary job of the selected Democratic candidate, whoever it is, must be to speak loudly and clearly to those political issues that will curb the corporate and anti-democratic excesses of the past 8 years and focus less on the politics of personality which can only serve to detract from that message....

If the Democracts can't get it together this time, it will not bode well for America's soul or its future...

"Christmas Time in Bensonhurst"

Somethings are just wrong. The "N" word, when used by anyone, but especially by non-African Americans. An Italian-American politician calling a Jewish-American politician a "shmuck". Or, for that matter, when any non-Italian-American speaks in a broken English, Italian immigrant or Bensonhurst Goombah accent for satirical purpose. Somehow, only insult-satire-parody-sarcasm within ethnic groups is really acceptable and avoids bodily injury. There are other angles of course, that are more acceptable, such as when John Tuturro described working with Spike Lee on Do The Right Thing, and providing a litany of insulting Italian-American euphemisms for African -Americans that apparently Spike and company had never heard before but when told in the right context by Tuturro, had filmmakers rolling in the aisles and made it into the film. That is just an example that when it is done right, in the proper context, it can be very funny. So in keeping with the holiday buildup, Sal "the Stockbroker" Governale, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sal_the_Stockbroker , part of King of All Media Howard Stern's stable, presents a Christmas in Bensonhurst. Enjoy (but only, if, like me, you are 100% Italian-American on both sides for three generations or more). The rest of you, look away.

CHRISTMAS IN BENSONHURST: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCNR4UtrQzc