Links through time and the net

I follow Howard Dean on twitter.  He is the medical doctor who was governor of Vermont in the early 2000s and who ran for president in 2004.  He is the man  who famously lost the Iowa caucus and made a hysterical speech acknowledging the loss.  The video clips that were universally shown destroyed his candidacy.  He later became chair of the national Democrats and is still in the public view a bit, twitter-wise at least.

I liked something he said today and I thought of telling him as I often think of telling him, that he gave the best political speech I every heard.  He did it in front of the fireplace in Mary Jane White’s house.  The house is fantastic – a Prairie mansion.  The fireplace opening is arched and there is no mantel.  The architect believed like Wright that mantels were dust and junk collectors.

Dean was late and when he hurried in with his entourage, he was nervous beginning his talk.  But a few sentences into it, he found himself and he was aware of where he was.  He could talk about dairy farmers and gay soldiers.  He brought good and right to us, at the same time knowing who we were.

Four years later I heard Hillary Clinton talk to a larger group at the college next door and she gave a great speech too.  She made me fall in love with her and her plans for her own and our future.  She was good but not as good as Howard Dean.

Earlier tonight I came here to search my early diary entries to see if I had written about Dean here.  A number of entries came up, but not the one I was looking for.  That was ok.  I found myself reading through a bunch of entries from the winter of 2005.  I tried hard back then.  I wrote about semi-serious stuff.  Oh and I had such great noters.

I am so grateful that my old stuff is still here.  I’ve used the ‘net as a mirror of then and now and I’ve never effectively saved anything.  I’ve counted on the kindness of strangers to save it for me.  I’ve had some pretty big disappointments doing that, but tonight I had good luck.

Thank you OD.   Wishes for a good year ahead for us all..