[Bill,
July 5, 2009]
What needs to be repeated
You don't know what you don't know. Me, too. For example, if we get a lot of our information from the press, you still haven't met the person. You can tell a lot by public actions and private associations, but you still don't really know someone.
For example, my sense is that George W. Bush was a caring, but flawed, individual, and not the crypto-fascist would-be tyrant he was painted out to be. Palin seemed like a decent person, too.
Same goes for people on the other side. There are ways to guess, but you never know what skeletons people have in the closet, and you also never know what lies beyond the caricature. People are complicated.
Ted Kennedy, for example, has repugnant politics to me. He's done an enormous amount of damage to this country. Yet, by all reports, he is an extremely thoughtful person who never forgets to send a thank-you card or offer a word of condolence, and takes the time to remember important details about people's lives.
Anyway, my point is you never really know ...
For example, my sense is that George W. Bush was a caring, but flawed, individual, and not the crypto-fascist would-be tyrant he was painted out to be. Palin seemed like a decent person, too.
Same goes for people on the other side. There are ways to guess, but you never know what skeletons people have in the closet, and you also never know what lies beyond the caricature. People are complicated.
Ted Kennedy, for example, has repugnant politics to me. He's done an enormous amount of damage to this country. Yet, by all reports, he is an extremely thoughtful person who never forgets to send a thank-you card or offer a word of condolence, and takes the time to remember important details about people's lives.
Anyway, my point is you never really know ...