The inevitable Hillary will lead to President Rand Paul.

[JDPriestly]

286. My first memory of a Democratic Convention was 1952 --I was nine.

At that time, it was broadcast on the radio. The convention was more dramatic then. Unbelievable that a convention heard on the radio could be more dramatic than the televised performances we see today. That year Adlai Stevenson won the Democratic nomination and Eisenhower the Republican one.

I also remember the Kennedy convention. There was, back then, a certain suspense.

If it's just a Hillary takeover, it will be boring and as you say, the personality rather than the issues and values will dominate the news. We need to think more about what we want our president to represent. It isn't always a matter of what the president can achieve in office. In fact, a president with the exception of someone like Johnson who knows how to push buttons and pull the strings of members of Congress, is mostly a symbol, an image that stands for a certain set of values. Obama has done a good job of projecting values on a lot of issues but failed on others. And on a few issues, I strongly disagree with what are apparently, Obama's views.

But one thing about Obama, his very presence, and not just his race, speaks of maturity, of calm, of intelligence, of self-control, of good judgment. His personality is well suited for the presidency but for the fact that he is too reticent to speak out strongly in favor of ordinary people. I don't know why that is, but it would be good if he took stronger, more emotional stances on certain issues, especially on justice issues -- like Michael Brown. He would be criticized severely, but he would gain respect -- and in my opinion, as a white liberal, especially from white conservatives. They would growl and criticize, but respect him more if he showed more outrage at the social and economic injustice in our country. That's my opinion.

I think that African-Americans misunderstand just how much white people are willing to change and respond to their expression, their calm but firm expression of their anger at the injustice in our system. But I am getting way off topic. (The ability to just digress as my mind flows is one of the great things about posting on the internet. Theoretically, people don't know who I am so what difference does it make. They can just stop reading if they don't like what I am saying.)

Thanks for your post. I agree.