So this is what it felt like

[IronWing]

when Bobby Kennedy defeated Richard Nixon in 1968.

 

[kage69]

Yep!

I woke up this morning to find the slimy politics and hollow substance of the repubs not work this time around. Awesome! It's better than coffee... Grats to Obama and Biden for running a great campaign, I hope now McCain will get some much deserved rest and maybe even reverse his post-2000 behavior.

 

[Craig234]

Originally posted by: ironwing
when Robert Kennedy defeated Richard Nixon in 1968.

Interesting comment, but I think Bobby Kennedy was a greater leader than what I've seen of Obama, and meant more to the country - not to take away anything from Obama.

Kennedy would have prevented tens of thousands of casualties in Vietnam, prevented the nation being torn apart in the Watergate scandal, advanced the causes of unity and racial equality and helping the poor, and helped heal the nation's loss of his brother. The liberal era would not only have continued since FDR, but gone much further. He could have been one of the greatest presidents in history.

Some quotes from RFK to recall his views:

First, one of my favorites, his insightful putting the gross national product in perspective:

"Too much and too long, we seem to have surrendered community excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our gross national product ... if we should judge America by that - counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for those who break them. It counts the destruction of our redwoods and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and the cost of a nuclear warhead, and armored cars for police who fight riots in our streets. It counts Whitman's rifle and Speck's knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children.

"Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages; the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage; neither our wisdom nor our learning; neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it tells us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans."

The problem of power is how to achieve its responsible use rather than its irresponsible and indulgent use ? of how to get men of power to live for the public rather than off the public.

At the heart of that Western freedom and democracy is the belief that the individual man, the child of God, is the touchstone of value, and all society, all groups, and states, exist for his benefit. Therefore the enlargement of liberty for individual human beings must be the supreme goal and the abiding practice of any Western society.
- Speech in Apartheid-ruled South Africa

Victims of the violence are black and white, rich and poor, young and old, famous and unknown. They are most important of all, human beings whom other human beings loved and needed. What has violence ever accomplished, what has it ever created? Violence breeds violence, retaliation breeds retaliation, and only a cleansing of our whole society can remove this sickness from our souls. For when you teach a man to hate and to fear his brother, when you teach that he is a lesser man because of his color, or his beliefs or the policies that he pursues, when you teach that those who are different from you threaten your freedom or your job or your home or your family, then you also learn to confront others not as fellow citizens, but as enemies. Our lives on this planet are too short, the work to be done is too great. But we can perhaps remember, that those who live with us are our brothers, that they share with us the same short moment of life that they seek as do we, nothing but the chance to live out their lives in purpose and in happiness, surely this bond of common fate, this bond of common roles can begin to teach us something, that we can begin to work a little harder, to become in our hearts brothers and countrymen once again.

I believe that, as long as there is plenty, poverty is evil.

 

[DarrelSPowers]

While I was making sweet love to my lady-friend last night, my roomate had CNN on really loud in the next room over, and I hear that obama wins and that MA decriminalizes weed.

I haven't had such a good night in a while.

 

[MrMajestyk]

Originally posted by: ironwing
when Bobby Kennedy defeated Richard Nixon in 1968.

I saw a documentary about RFK. After his assassination his body was transported by train back east.

Many thousands of mourners lined the RR track. Their faces were one of abject grief and despair.

Today, those that are still alive, may have something to look forward to.