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Moral courage makes for political courage (Molly Ivins, BILL MOYERS FOR PRESIDENT)
Kansas City Star ^ | Jul. 29, 2006 | MOLLY IVINS

Posted on 07/30/2006 12:05:29 PM PDT by neverdem

Dear desperate Democrats,

Here’s what we do. We run Bill Moyers for president.

I am serious as a stroke about this. It’s simple, cheap and effective, and it will move the entire spectrum of political discussion in this country.

Moyers is the only public figure who can take the entire discussion and shove it toward moral clarity just by being there.

The poor man who is currently our president has reached such a point of befuddlement that he thinks stem-cell research is the same as taking human lives, but that 40,000 dead Iraqi civilians are progress toward democracy.

Bill Moyers has been grappling with how to fit moral issues to political issues ever since he left Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and went to work for Lyndon Johnson in the teeth of the Vietnam War.

Moyers worked for years in television, seriously addressing the most difficult issues of our day. He has studied all different kinds of religions and different approaches to spirituality. He’s no Holy Joe, but he is a serious man.

He opens minds — he doesn’t scare people. He includes people in, not out. And he sees through the dark search for a temporary political advantage to the clear ground of the Founders.

He listens and he respects others.

Do I think Bill Moyers can win the presidency? No, that seems like a very long shot to me.

The nomination? No, that seems like a very long shot to me.

Then why run him? Think, imagine, if seven or eight other Democratic candidates, all beautifully coiffed and triangulated and carefully coached to say nothing that will offend anyone, stand on stage with Bill Moyers in front of cameras for a national debate … What would happen? Bill Moyers would win, would walk away with it, just because he doesn’t triangulate or calculate or trim or try to straddle the issues.

Bill Moyers doesn’t have to endorse a constitutional amendment against flag burning or whatever wedge issue du jour Republicans have come up with.

He is not afraid of being called “unpatriotic.” And besides, he is a wise and a kind man who knows how to talk on TV.

It won’t take much money — file for him in a couple of early primaries and just get him into the debates.

Think about the potential Democratic candidates. Every single one of them needs a spine, needs political courage. What Moyers can do is not only show them what it looks like and indeed what it is, but also how people respond to it. I’m damned if I want to go through another presidential primary with everyone trying to figure out who has the best chance to win instead of who’s right. I want to vote for somebody who’s good and brave and who should win.

One time in the Johnson years, LBJ called on Moyers to say the blessing at a dinner. “SPEAK UP, Bill,” Lyndon roared. “I can’t hear you.”

Moyers replied, “I wasn’t speaking to you, sir.”

That’s the point of a run by Moyers: He doesn’t change to whom he is speaking just because some president is yelling at him.

To let Moyers know what you think of this idea, write him at PO Box 309, Bernardsville, NJ, 07924.

© 2006 Creators Syndicate Inc.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: District of Columbia; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: billmoyers; demcow; lunaticparty; mollyivins; passthescotch; tresonmedia
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Bill Moyers, IIRC, gave us this or a similar image in the 1964 campaign for LBJ against Goldwater.

1 posted on 07/30/2006 12:05:31 PM PDT by neverdem
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To: neverdem

Moyers is an effete liberal snob. President? PTUI


2 posted on 07/30/2006 12:07:41 PM PDT by Fudd Fan (Help get Murtha out of Congress- donate at http://www.irey.com/)
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To: neverdem

Molly Ivins, unfortunately, appears to be relying more and more on a bottle of scotch for inspiration.


3 posted on 07/30/2006 12:08:42 PM PDT by mkmensinger
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To: Fudd Fan
This has been posted at least twice already.

Cheers,

knewshound

Latest Column  The Last Normal Day 22 Aug 2006

4 posted on 07/30/2006 12:09:17 PM PDT by knews_hound (Driving Liberals nuts since 1975 !)
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To: neverdem

Ivins and Moyer - Feel the Hate.


5 posted on 07/30/2006 12:11:29 PM PDT by KC_Conspirator
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To: mkmensinger

This broad is as whacko as the jerk she is supporting. If she was really serious she would have considered Pee Wee Herman before Moyer.


6 posted on 07/30/2006 12:12:33 PM PDT by xxyyxx
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To: knews_hound

MY post has been posted twice already? REALLY?

Must be some mind-reading going on.


7 posted on 07/30/2006 12:13:13 PM PDT by Fudd Fan (Help get Murtha out of Congress- donate at http://www.irey.com/)
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To: neverdem
This is the best idea Molly will ever have. I fully endorse it.


Lessee, who would be the perfect counter candidate to Moyers, -- Gingrich?
8 posted on 07/30/2006 12:13:34 PM PDT by tpaine
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To: neverdem
Liberals must love self flagellation. I've been reading Molly since I was a kid, and in part my distaste for the left has its origins with her. She has a way of making the most ignorant arguments in the most annoying ways that one has to wonder who finds anything she says compelling. Yes by all means run Bill Moyers and the whole country will go red. The left can best bring the country together by losing with such flair that only the Kos kids will remain in their playpen sitting in their dirty diapers sucking their binkeys wondering why no one is responding to their perpetual temper tantrum they can political strategy.
9 posted on 07/30/2006 12:17:16 PM PDT by Ma3lst0rm (Truth is often too stiff a drink for those nursed on feelings.)
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To: neverdem

Every once in a while you look at a person and cannot tell if they support a political agenda because they are evil or stupid, essentially it is the longstanding problem between recognizing the difference between malice and incompetence.

In the case of Molly Ivins, you don't have that problem. Idiot through and through.


10 posted on 07/30/2006 12:18:28 PM PDT by MalikDelosReyes ("'Wise men' often wonder while strong men die.")
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To: KC_Conspirator

We couldn't get this lucky.


11 posted on 07/30/2006 12:18:36 PM PDT by Howlin (Pres.Bush ought to be ashamed of himself for allowing foreign countries right on our borders!!~~Zook)
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To: neverdem
Welcome to Mister Moyer's neighborhood.

White population: 6,840
Black population: 18

That's 0.26% black people in Moyer's "White Haven" enclave for those of you in Rio Linda.

12 posted on 07/30/2006 12:20:57 PM PDT by Doctor Raoul (New York Times? Get a rope!)
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To: neverdem

So Molly Ivens is backing a racist. Let it go Jake, it's Chinatown.


13 posted on 07/30/2006 12:22:15 PM PDT by Doctor Raoul (New York Times? Get a rope!)
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To: neverdem

And Garrison Keillor could be his running mate. Two weird, effeminate sobsisters out to Scold the World. Wins for me.


14 posted on 07/30/2006 12:22:39 PM PDT by Mamzelle
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To: All

Billy MOYERS would make the rats yearn for the moderation of Algore.

He's coo coo for cocoa puffs.


15 posted on 07/30/2006 12:23:04 PM PDT by Armedanddangerous (Master of Sinanju (emeritus))
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To: neverdem

molly maybe tied with helen thomas for the most hateful and ugly woman inside and out, in American ratjournalism, but I have to agree she has a point besides the one on her head.
A moyer ticket say with jesse jackass or john conyers or plastic face pelosi would be a great idea.


16 posted on 07/30/2006 12:23:15 PM PDT by jmaroneps37 (John Spencer: Fighting to save America from Hillary Clinton..)
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To: neverdem

"Moral courage makes for political courage (Molly Ivins, BILL MOYERS FOR PRESIDENT)"

Too bad Moyers has neither.


17 posted on 07/30/2006 12:28:01 PM PDT by EQAndyBuzz (Democrats - The reason we need term limits)
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To: tpaine
Lessee, who would be the perfect counter candidate to Moyers, -- Gingrich?

Run, Newt, Run! (he’s back, and he’s doing the kicking)

18 posted on 07/30/2006 12:34:48 PM PDT by neverdem (May you be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows that you're dead.)
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To: neverdem

Dumolbat promotes dingbat?


19 posted on 07/30/2006 12:38:06 PM PDT by litehaus
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To: neverdem

Moyers is one of the the most morally confused people I've seen.


20 posted on 07/30/2006 12:50:35 PM PDT by beethovenfan (If Islam is the solution, the "problem" must be freedom.)
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