“I don’t wake up in the morning hating Kenneth Starr. I wake up in the morning feeling sorry for people who believe they are in possession of the whole truth… And I think you should, too,” President Bill Clinton told a large crowd tonight after the premiere of The Hunting of the President. “If you want to be forgiven, you have to extend forgiveness, even to people who aren’t smart enough to ask for it.”

“If you want to be forgiven, you have to extend forgiveness, even to people who aren’t smart enough to ask for it.” is another one for my quotes file. Damn that’s a great quote.

Read the rest of Jeff Jarvis’s post, summarizing last night’s event sponsored by The Week.

Instead of recieting the Pledge of Allegiance, why not move to reciting the Preamble to the Constitution?

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Read this analysis by Ernest Miller. It makes sense. And like Ernest Miller, I need to question the patriotism of anyone who would choose the Pledge over the Preamble. via Jeff Jarvis.

This Friday I predicted to my friends that the constant coverage would come to an end this Monday. It has big time (dude – you know who you are – you owe me $20).

Second, for some perspective on Reagan, read Garret Vreeland in this dangerousmeta post. He never posts anything this long, and it’s worth the time to read it.

I was just a kid during the Reagan years, and my own point of view has less to do with what actually happened and much more to do with what entertainment, art, and the media had to say about things.

Garret rightly centers on the centrists. The “Reagan Democrats”. The “Clinton Republicans”. And he warns to watch for them. Witness my previous Howard Stern post.

Ya see, Howard is a centrist. I’m sure that leaves a few of you closed minded folks scratching your heads.

Get this straight: centrist doesn’t mean boring. It doesn’t mean “middle of the road” either.

While almost all of us lean one way or another – we know it’s not about towing the “party line”. We won’t be straight jacketed that way. We don’t accept these simplistic labels so easily. We know it’s all about voting for the best person.

Period.

There are a hell of a lot more of us then you. We’re just too damn silent. And the polarized atmosphere pushes us away.

Read this terrific NYTimes piece. Maybe we’re not so divided after all. Maybe, just maybe, its our ideologues, leaders, and the various other marketers in this world, who in their quest to sell us something, push us farther to the extremes. Push us farther apart. Push us until we grow so cynical we don’t think our singular votes matter.

They do. And hopefully they will this election.

Make a contribution to the Kerry campaign and make sure you are registered to vote.

“I?m both pro-Kerry and anti-Bush. More anti-Bush. I encourage people on the air and personally [to vote for him]. Here?s the deal, dude. It turns out the show has a lot of influence among swing voters, voters who are not Republican or Democrat, but intelligent enough to vote for the good candidate.” Stern said he has never met Kerry but considers him a “good guy.?
Stern?s listeners support Kerry over President Bush by a 10-point margin, according to a poll released last week

Read the rest in The Hill.

“I am deeply convinced that President Bush’s political adversaries have no moral right to attack him over Iraq because they did exactly the same.

“It suffices to recall Yugoslavia. Now look at them. They don’t like what President Bush is doing in Iraq.”

That’s Russian President Vladimir Putin criticizing America’s democrats (Reuters) who are using their first amendment rights.

“At the very least, we have a right to know what he is saying to foreign leaders that makes them so supportive of his candidacy,” Vice President Dick Cheney said at a Republican fund-raiser in Arizona.

Yes we do Dick (CNN), yes we do.

“Read widely, read deeply, read tomes you wouldn?t necessarily pick up. It?s the only way to stay above the fray.”
Garret P. Vreeland 2004

The rest of them are here (need some editting I see).

Goodbye President Reagan, may your family have peace. Now it’s time for the nation to refocus on where it is at, instead of where it was.

Reagan dreamed of a nuclear weapons free world and actively pursued it. Bush does the opposite (NYTimes).

Clear Channel gets fined $1.75 million for Howard Stern. More from Jeff Javis.

The country is increasingly polarized. News is being sought after to reinforce existing views, not to widen them.

Remember 2000 in Florida? This time it looks to be worst.

Kevin Drum, at Washington Monthly, ruminates on the future direction of the Republican Party, by reposting some text from he Texas GOP’s website. It is no less then a return to the policies of the 1920s and earlier. Is this really the GOP or just the Texas GOP?

Especially with a report coming out blasting the CIA over Iraq (NYTimes). Prediction 1: Bush ratings climb. Prediction 2: The tell-all book that will get a week of press and get ignored afterwards (just like the rest saddly). Prediction 3: There will be no other resignations or firings. Rumsfeld and Ashcroft must go. There is only one way to do that however: Support John Kerry for President.

A time to pay respects and give thanks to all those who have sacrificed so much for the rest of us.