Posted on 09/16/2004 10:38:28 AM PDT by qam1
Bill Clinton was a lucky dog.
In 1992, Clinton came to the Wisconsin Capitol on an October day so gorgeous that 30,000 people filled the south lawn. No one minded that he was very late and we had to hear from every local Democrat down to the secretary of the dog catchers union. (Now that we know Bill better, I wonder what he was up to while we waited.)
I flashed back to that day Wednesday because at the Clinton rally, I had a baby in a backpack. She was with me again Wednesday, a teenager all too happy to skip school to hear Sheryl Crow and, oh yeah, John Kerry.
Kerry just isn't lucky like Clinton. It rained on Kerry's rally, and it was moved from the Capitol to the sterile Alliant Center. But the Madison crowd was there, ready to feed off Kerry's energy the way they rocked to Clinton and Gore.
So how did the rallies, separated by a dozen years, compare?
What I remember from the Clinton rally is a buoyant sense of optimism. Finally someone from the baby boom generation was going to take over and put our ideas into practice. My memory has a soundtrack of Fleetwood Mac and golden leaves fluttering down as Bill and Al waded into the crowd for a handshaking orgy.
I didn't get the same buzz from the Kerry rally, but maybe it's because I've been disappointed before. (Go ahead and laugh. I actually thought that by the time my baby was a teenager, we would have a better health insurance system in this country.)
Kerry gets points for being prompt. He gave the crowd what it wanted, although he seemed to hold back when he could have taken his supporters over the top.
Or maybe I'm just getting old. After the Kerry rally, I chatted with three young moms who were doing a tag- team diaper change on the Alliant Center floor.
Sara Cutler, of Madison, mom of Jonah, 18 months, said Kerry spoke right to Generation X when he decried the huge deficit we're leaving to our children.
"I totally thought about our kids," she said. "My husband and I have huge student loans and credit card debt. Our whole generation lives under the cloud of debt and I know what it's like. To think we're doing this to our country totally frustrates me."
Cutler says she wants Jonah to go to a public school with fewer than 15 students per class, and she feels that with Kerry in the White House, federal money is more likely to go to education.
Her friend, Katie Gletty- Syoen, also from Madison and mom of Ella, 4 months, said she was touched by Kerry's talk about "the mom who had to keep saying 'no' to her kids" because she couldn't afford to give them what they wanted. Coming of age during the affluent '90s, then becoming parents during this decade, makes them relate to stories of having less than before.
Hana Beckel of Stevens Point, mom of Madilin, 10 months, said Kerry's talk about health insurance "hit home with me" because of problems she and her husband have had with their insurance.
Yeah, I thought, I'm a dozen years older, and I still worry about what my insurance will cost next year and whether it will cover my kids' health problems.
And then I went off to find my teenager, who was mad that I didn't get her backstage to meet Sheryl Crow.
That's when it hit me. John Kerry tours with a rock star; Bill Clinton was a rock star. But while he put on a great rally, Clinton didn't deliver what he promised my generation of moms. Maybe the next one will fare better.
Contact Susan Lampert Smith at ssmith@madison.com or 252-6121.
Ping list for the discussion of the politics and social aspects that directly effects Gen-Reagan/Generation-X (Those born from 1965-1981) including all the spending previous generations (i.e. The Baby Boomers) are doing that Gen-X and Y will end up paying for.
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Interesting word choice.
OK, and voting for someone who will raise your taxes is going to help how?
Stupid F'ing librals
Luckily...both of them (along with all the other hippy era, communist, anti-America politicians) will either take a dirt nap or be completely out of politics in the next 5-7 years. There is hope.
Man, I don't even know where to begin. "I can't have any restraint, but everyone else should!" No wonder it's called the "we" generation.
Cutler says she wants Jonah to go to a public school with fewer than 15 students per class, and she feels that with Kerry in the White House, federal money is more likely to go to education.
Her friend, Katie Gletty- Syoen, also from Madison and mom of Ella, 4 months, said she was touched by Kerry's talk about "the mom who had to keep saying 'no' to her kids" because she couldn't afford to give them what they wanted. Coming of age during the affluent '90s, then becoming parents during this decade, makes them relate to stories of having less than before.
So one "mom" is upset that her kid might have to (gasp) deal with less-than-one-on-one assistance from the teacher? Jeez, those poor kids in Japan and China sure have it hard, and they do so poorly academically too! And the second is worse! Worrying she can't give the kids "what they wanted". Wasn't there an article posted here recently about how children have become "wanting machines", driven by TV marketing, and actualized by parents buying them off because they can't (or won't) spend time with them instead. I'm on the fringes of GenX (1971), but if this is an even moderately pervasive attitude, I'm switching generations.
OK, and voting for someone who will raise your taxes is going to help how? Stupid F'ing librals
You read my mind! I, too, had a toddler in tow during the Clinton circus, and I, too, have a teenager today. Statement to my teenager last night when he asked basic differences between Democrat and Republican - first words out of my mouth were that Dems like raising taxes and Republicans like cutting them. Sounded like a no-brainer to him. LOL!
And who held a gun to your heads and forced you to run up credit card debt?
I'm going to file this one under 'stupid soccer moms' ;-)
Man, these pople are idiots. If that's what you want, take responsibility and get them to a private school or homeschool. Quit your whining, because public school ratios are NEVER going to approach 15 to 1.
She had 12 years to plan. Rather than be the productive ant, she decided to be the grasshopper in Aesop's tale. I wonder how much she spent on cable television, cellphones, and cigarettes over those 12 years.
Impose a lower ceiling on interest rates!!! Ban credit cards!!! Issue a proclamation of debt amnesty for all Americans making under 50K a year!!! I can't stop using exclamation points!!!
Move to a small town or take unpopular classes. An alternative is to excel and test into advance placement/college prep classes.
Kerry and the NEA won't ever see us with classes with a dozen students. Smaller classes means more teachers. More teachers means lower salaries for those who were already employed. There is only so much money, sure you get "more" but you still can only spend it on so many things.
One final point, STATES fund schools, not the federal government. Property taxes go to area schools. Here in Texas they tried to have a Marxist "Robin Hood" scheme where rich districts paid for poor districts. So much for moving to a more expensive neighborhood to get into a "better" school.
ha ha
What a bunch of morons, the way to get back on track is to GET TAXED LESS, SPEND LESS, and SAVE MORE!
Sheesh even I know that and I'm only 24. Once I pay my car off, I'll be debt free. Now mind you I didn't go to college yet, but I'm earning $$$ and doing the self-education thing.
But it seems that the people I know with huge credit card debt are pretty stupid about the spending/saving habits anyways.
I looked for the barf alert, good thing it had one!
Do these stupid moms understand that even without insurance they CANNOT be refused medical assistance and treatment?
John Kerry is no Ted Kennedy. Here is a video of Slam Dancing with Ted Kennedy and the Ramones:
http://www.dogeggs.com/pin.swf
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