Hillary's Panoramic Picture Needs A Zoom Lens

I must admit.

I was a little afraid for poor Hillary because she messed up and engineered the best group of political speeches we've ever seen as an affirmation to her credibility and an introduction to her as the official nominee of the Democrat party.

The Reverend Dr. William Barber II turned a more mundane list of final night speakers into a night of speaking just as strong as any of the other nights. But that is only because Hillary did the damn thing too.

I could have chosen much more dignified words to meet the gravitas of the moment and the person who owned it, but it was beyond presidential.  It was real talk like we've never quite seen from Hillary or any presidential candidate.

It had so much detailed specificity that the most common republican critique after the speech was not to the detail and planning, but to the fact that she didn't precede it all by saying "I'm going to ask congress for these things", realizing that the only encumbrance to her thorough dissertation would be those do-nothings.

Donald Trump, conversely, not only insures you that he- and only he- can do the things that he promises, he does so with as little detail as he can get away with.  Thus far, that is quite a bit.

On stage last night, Hillary followed up a man that started out his spiritual lambasting of conservatives- of which all of us who are Christian naturally find allegiance to- with a not so veiled refrain that went as follows.

"I am so concerned about those who say so much about what God says so little, while saying so little about what God says so much"

If the point wasn't quite made clear enough, Dr. Barber later added

"When religion is used to camouflage meanness, we know we have a heart problem in America"   

Modern Conservatives Make Us All Miss George W. Bush

       "Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice?.......well you ain't gonna get to do that again"

       Back when he was our president we made it tough on him.  Not so tough that he couldn't get re-elected, but tough.  George W. Bush moved from being president Bush in to dub-ya, the much maligned leader of the free world with a tendency to speak with a less than stellar grasp of the English language.  Some of the verbal gaffs that he spewed make Sarah Palin appear scholarly.

     By the time we saw his presidency come to an end, we were weary of a couple of wars that we could no longer justify and staring face to face with the next great depression.  The first black president might have won the election anyway, but it was not a hard sell at the time to try something different.

      Bush committed himself to ending Apartheid.  His dedication in the nation of Africa sparked one of the cable news shows to bring up the Jay Leno show clips of George W. Bush dancing in Africa and it prompted me to reflect on how comfortable he was in his own skin.  If he ran into a curtain trying to exit a room after a press conference he would flash that sheepish, boyish grin that made you join him in laughter.  He was a serious man, that never took himself too seriously

      He got us into a war that we all wanted as the anger from 9-11 boiled into a fever for retribution.  We needed a place to spill our anger and 'W' understood that.  He shared the same sentiment.  With all that we complain about from presidents when they are in office (especially as they reach the end of terms) it is a lot easier to see the truth in hindsight.

      The truth about George W. Bush is that he loves America....deeply.  He was party driven, but not blinded by party.  If he became the disgraced face of the Republican party than his opponents owe him and all of America an apology for the new faces who've surfaced in his absence.

       I would take another George Bush over Ted Cruz any day of the week. We miss ya president dub-ya.