Joe's Scratchpad

Great Story

Herbert Carter and Mildred Hemmons had no time for dating in the early months of 1942.

He was training to become a member of the Tuskegee Airmen, the nation’s first military program for African-American pilots.

She was the bold, daring woman who caught his eye. At 18, she’d become the first black woman in Alabama to earn a pilot’s license. She had hopes of becoming a military pilot, too…

http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/22/us/tuskegee-airmen-first-couple/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

Obama Looks Better After Each GOP Debate

President Obama has been taking a real beating in the GOP’s presidential debates. And when you hear the enthusiastic reaction of the debate audiences to calls to make ‘Obama a one-term president,’ you understandably get concerned that it reflects a broader sentiment among voters nationwide. But as I watch these debates I see the GOP hopefuls struggling so hard to get to the right of each other that they are distancing themselves from the political center where most voters reside.

It has gotten so bad – especially with the racially-tinged attacks now being mounted by Newt – that it is likely that the eventual GOP nominee may be too far to the right to appeal to many voters who might otherwise be eager to dump Obama. In this sense, the more viscious the attacks on Obama, and the more the GOP hopefuls pander to its extreme right fringe, the better Obama’s chances for reelection. 

Think about it. In every debate the GOP candidates have managed to alienate sizeable chunks of the American electorate. I’m talking about immigrants (especially Hispanics), gays and the folks who love them, Muslim-Americans, folks on food stamps, labor union families (including teachers, firefighters, cops and civil servants), people who treasure the environment and believe global warming is a threat, people who like Social Security just the way it is, folks who value the 2nd amendment and also want sensible gun controls, people who believe that the Obamas represent ‘family values’ better than the Gingrichs, and on and on. 

By themselves these little slices of the electorate may not amount to much. But with the demonization of these otherwise disparate groups at each debate the GOP is actually forcing them together in a critical mass that could prove the GOP’s undoing come November. In this regard, there was an article in December’s Rolling Stone magazine that should be must reading for anybody concerned about Obama’s reelection chances. It is linked below, and I suggest you read the whole thing. But here’s a clip that sums up pretty much what I’ve been saying here:

 ”Those people in the Republican primary have got to lay off,” the televangelist Pat Robertson warned recently. “They’re forcing their leaders, the front-runners, into positions that will mean they lose the general election.” Robertson knows fringe politics: In 1988, he ran for president on a platform that included abolishing the Department of Education and adopting a constitutional amendment to prohibit deficit spending… “You’ll appeal to the narrow base, and they’ll applaud the daylights out of what you’re saying,” Robertson cautioned. “And then you hit the general election and they say, ‘No way!’ They’ve got to stop this!”

The Captain of The Costa Concordia Now Heads That Cruise Line’s PR Campaign

“Carnival offers survivors of doomed cruise Costa Concordia 30% off future cruise”

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/carnival-offers-survivors-doomed-cruise-costa-concordia-30-future-cruise-outraged-passengers-prepare-lawsuit-article-1.1010066#ixzz1kIiY3tQb