Comments on: In Texas, an Ivins-fulfilling prophecy

By: invadesoda

invadesoda — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 16:51:45 +0000

AustinRoth, her voice was 'nails on a chalkboard' too. I was never too impressed with her.

By: AustinRoth

AustinRoth — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 13:09:29 +0000

I hated her 'nails on a chalkboard' writing, and maybe agreed with 5 or 6 columns over the years.

However, as with Shaun here, poking with sticks at columnists you disagree with is a long-time American tradition, and while i can't stand most of eithers content, I give them their just dues as very talented columnists.

That said, Molly did have a way of seeing through BS. She also had a VERY low tolerance for style over substance or cult of personalities.

That said, I am not so sure she would have been as big a Obama supporter as some of you think. There is a good chance her BS meter may have gone off in his presence.

IMHO

By: JSpencer

JSpencer — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 04:37:57 +0000

I was a huge fan of Molly's and dearly wish she was here for this election. Nobody could cut through the BS the way she could. I don't buy for a second the suggestion she would be “sitting this one out” either. She was too passionate about American democracy to not be in the thick of it. I think she would have liked Obama too, but one thing is certain, she would have savored the coming Bush eviction.

By: vwcat

vwcat — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 02:44:01 +0000

Macan, I bet you are not from Illinois. Thought so. If you were you would know the rules of present votes here.
Present is used for tactical or strategic reasons or for an unrecorded no vote because of a technical reason in the bill.
Maybe if you would bother finding out about things before posting you would not look so silly.

As for Molly,
I loved her. She was one of my favorites and have wondered the past few weeks what she would think about this election.
I read that column about not voting for Hillary and amen'd every part of it as I would never vote for her either. She is the furtherest thing from progressive and will lie to a person's face and never blink.
Thank goodness my senator is teaching her something about the expiration date on the old politics of the 90s and how passe it is.

By: DLS

DLS — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 21:13:43 +0000

Wasn't Obama on the side of the powerful air traffic controllers' union? That might have made Ivins proud.

http://obama.senate.gov/news/060127-faa_and_con...

By: Macan

Macan — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 20:40:01 +0000

Then Molly Ivins wrote: “If no one in conventional-wisdom politics has the courage to speak up and say what needs to be said, then you go out and find some obscure junior senator from Minnesota with the guts to do it.”

"Guts"? Hmmm....

From the arch-Republican McCain loving New York Times: "In 1999, Barack Obama was faced with a difficult vote in the Ilinois legislature — to support a bill that would let some juveniles be tried as adults, a position that risked drawing fire from African-Americans, or to oppose it, possibly undermining his image as a tough-on-crime moderate.
In the end, Mr. Obama chose neither to vote for nor against the bil. He voted “present,” effectively sidestepping the issue, an option he invoked nearly 130 times as a state senator."
“If you are worried about your next election, the present vote gives you political cover,” said Kent D. Redfield, a professor of political studies at the University of Illinois at Springfield. “This is an option that does not exist in every state and reflects Illinois political culture.”

Given Obama's profile in political courage... one suspects Molly Ivin's ghost is sitting this one out...just looking forward to "Shrub" being uprooted from Pennsylvania Ave. in '09.

By: PaulSilver

PaulSilver — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 20:38:07 +0000

I agree that Molly would have been excited about Obama for his relatively lesser hypocrisy and political bullshit. I also suspect that she would have been delighted by the political enthusiasm of the public and hopeful for a progressive resurgence in Texas and the Country.