pauraque_bk: (west wing)
pauraque_bk ([personal profile] pauraque_bk) wrote2004-03-29 11:05 am

West Wing rec :: RL politics :: icon drabble meme

"All I Want" by [livejournal.com profile] keladryb (G, gen). A short piece about CJ belonging and not belonging at the table. I love Keladry's sense of the rhythm and insistent pulse of WW, the hairsplitting semantics, ambition and ethics climbing all over each other in a desperate need to be heard. If you like the show, you'll like this ficlet.

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Yesterday, C-SPAN aired the entirety of an episode of the Dick Cavett Show from June 1971, in which a young John Kerry, representing Vietnam Veterans Against The War, debated an even younger representative of Vietnam Veterans For A Just Peace.

I watched all of it, and it was fascinating on several different levels. For one thing, this show was taped a decade before I was born, and it was extremely illuminating to hear the issues of the day discussed with the fervor of immediacy. I knew what vietnamization was before today (though I had to dig it up out of high school memories), but now I doubt I'll ever forget it.

I can't say I followed everything that was discussed, since there was so much background information I'm not familiar with, but I can say that I was impressed with young!Kerry as a debator. He made his points clearly, stuck to the issues, and kept his head when the other guy went ad hominem. That's something I respect, especially in a young person discussing a situation of tremendous political and personal importance.

I'm not as happy as I could be about having Kerry as "our" nominee (I'm not a Democrat, but I don't support Bush), but this is what I do like about him: When he talks, I know he knows what he's saying. Some politicians appear incapable of speaking extemporaneously on important issues -- without prepared statements, they're at sea. Bush, I'm afraid, strikes me as one of these.

Bill Clinton is an impressive extemporaneous speaker. So, for that matter, is Dick Cheney -- I remember when I first saw him during one of the first VP debates in 2000, coming away with a strong sense that though I disagreed with him on many things, he deeply understood the issues at hand. If I were to sit down to lunch with him and ask him to tell me about the political situation in Iraq, he could do it immediately and cogently, and answer all my follow-up questions. (I'm saying he *could*, not that he would.)

Of course that's not the *only* quality I ask for in someone I'm going to support, but it is a deal-breaker.

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In other news, [livejournal.com profile] double_helix wrote me an icon-drabble! Little Red Riding Hood ficlet, oh my: "Innocent" (PG). I love it to pieces.

For those who don't know, this is a meme where people request a drabble based on one of your icons. I don't know that my icons are terribly inspirational, but if anyone feels moved to make such a request, go for it.

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