Well, I’ll admit that I wanted Hurricane Katrina to hit New Orleans. Then, when the disaster struck, I realized there was something wrong with me.

I often entertain “this will show them” doom and gloom, but, unfortunately, people don’t “realize” things because of reality. Delusion is a lot tougher than that. I thought that the Bush presidency would make people realize the error of neo-con empowerment, but it didn’t. The believers just disavowed Bush and put their energy behind the next guy. Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity are never going to change their schtick.

Before he died, Robert McNamara admitted that the Vietnam war was a mistake. I figure that’s about the greatest political satisfaction I’m ever going to get. I try to overlook the fact that he did it to sell a book.

A Trump win would be an unmitigated disaster.

Last night, Obama planted a claim to the moderate middle ground of American politics. He has created a racially diverse party of people who are OK with American military power, corporations, and capitalism. I have to admit. I ate that shit up.

The PBS cameras kept skipping to reaction shots of former New York mayor David Dinkins. I couldn’t figure it out. Was he just in the right spot? Why David Dinkins? I can’t find a picture of him. He was wearing a really nice yellow striped (seersucker?) jacket and his trademark bow tie. You know, at the Republican National Convention there were lots of people wearing seersucker.

It occurred to me that they were just panning the New York delegation… which is emblematic of the current Democratic party and to whom Clinton has deep ties, but they weren’t showing the delegation. They were focusing on Dinkins.

I don’t know why they were, but I started to think it was appropriate. Dinkins was the proto-Obama. Lots of people like to call him the “worst mayor in New York’s history” but that thinking is ripe for revision. The racist police force that you would like to sweep away was built by Dinkins. He also built housing. He struggled to keep a city functioning in a recession not of his making. Instead of support and common ground from what should have been his coalition, he found himself the target of that same unhinged political hatred that now focuses on Obama.

I really like David Dinkins on a cultural level. He likes tennis. I like tennis. He is a gentleman. I am not nearly as well mannered as he is.

When Obama said:

Instead, they valued traits like honesty and hard work. Kindness and courtesy. Humility; responsibility; helping each other out.

It seemed to me that the elderly Dinkins sitting in that audience of delegates has been vindicated in some way. He is right there as an elder statesman in a party that places him in the mainstream.

I understand that’s not your party, but I want to ride this train for at least four more years. I don’t want it derailed. Not at all.