Surprise, surprise, what a pleasant surprise.
You would think there would have been tears of joy. But Hillary's eyes stayed dry and her voice didn't crack as she accepted an unexpected gift from New Hampshire. Victory! For a second and more surprising time NH has made a Clinton "the comeback kid."
Of course there weren't any tears from Obama. He seemed calm even though he smiled more weakly than we've seen in of late. When he arrived with his wife to the tune of "You are so Beautiful" to give his concession speech he tried to be brave and poised. But there was more than a little 'deer in the headlights' in his manner.
The speeches of both Clinton and Obama were rather funny if you listened for it. Both speeches seemed to have been quickly cobbled from the concession and victory speeches each candidate had expected to make.
The most interesting speech of the night was - no surprise - Ron Paul. No concession speech from him. He's taking his 8% showing and carrying the libertarian/olde Republican isolationist standard. No bleating and platitudes about change and complementing the American people. He spent 30 minutes giving facts and actual arguments. He's no Jefferson, but he's head and shoulders above the rest of the Republican candidates when it comes to challenging Americans intellectually. He's not entirely correct about the Nanny state and the purpose of the constitution. But he's definitely got his head in the game.
***
Odds and ends - Candidate songs:
Hillary - American Girl - Tom Petty
Richardson - Won't back down - Petty again
Edwards - The Rising - Springsteen
Obama - (sorry, insufficient cultural literacy on my part...)
McCain - Johnny B Good - not something by Johnny Cougar Mellencamp!
Nice lines:
Obama: New American Majority... Drug and insurance companies get a seat at the table, but don't get to buy all the chairs... Let Ingenuity save our planet from a point of no return... Lets finish the job against Al Queda but never use 9-11 to scare up votes.
All candidates in this race share these goals. (but he forgot the 'All Non-Republican candidates' modifier.)
McCain: Past the age when I can claim the noun 'kid', regardless of what adjective precedes it. But tonight we sure showed everyone what a comeback is. Mac is Back.
Ron Paul: Pick a spot, any spot. Anywhere within his 35 minutes speaking you could find sparkling argument. Agree with him or not, he at least had something to say. Paul Gems ...What's so radical about these ideas? I think the radicals are in charge and we need to remove them from Washington.
...the Dollar used to be 1/20th the value of an oz of gold. Now it's 1/900th the value of an oz of gold. The price of gold isn't going up. It's value remains constant. It's the value of the dollar that has fallen. ((Does this same hold true regarding the recent increases in the price of oil?))
...We don't have a right to somebody else's productivity. ((Isn't that Marx's point???)). We don't have a right to a house, our home and a job. We have a right to our life and liberty.
...We never have to sacrifice our liberty to be secure. The freer we are the more secure we will be.
...Old people declare wars and young people fight them.
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Bill Richardson, so normal, no quotes, not a rock star at all. But god bless him he's a nice guy.
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