I am a conservative and I voted for change. My new home, in this part of the United States has a long history and not all of it is perfect. Even today, I hear the words and emotions of 148 years ago. I do not believe and cannot be proud of what I hear but it is part of our nation’s heritage and the past cannot be changed. I stay positive that these sentiments will not pass on to another generation.

It is important to realize, while there will most assuredly be great challenges ahead; challenges from afar, challenges beyond manipulation and control, perhaps the greatest challenge and the greatest reward will be the establishment of a union of one people.

On election night, you chose Abraham Lincoln; I chose Thomas Jefferson. Our choices were separated by 80 years and yet many of the passages represent the same mind and the same vision.

While I could include the whole of President Jefferson’s inaugural speech, I only capture a small fragment here and hope you have or will find time for the entire piece.

… I ask so much confidence only as may give firmness and effect to the legal administration of your affairs. I shall often go wrong through defect of judgment. When right, I shall often be thought wrong by those whose positions will not command a view of the whole ground. I ask your indulgence for my own errors, which will never be intentional, and your support against the errors of others … – Thomas Jefferson

You have set the bar for all Americans. We are not a perfect people and it is my sincere hope that you will demonstrate great leadership and compassion. This is a nation of people who want better and are willing to step up and do better. Just as you acknowledged in your electoral acceptance, we will have false starts. I ask that you not despair and do not dismiss us. We look for leadership and not for pandering. We want, need, and deserve the truth. We are strong individuals and with an honest and companionate President, we will be a strong nation.

On this January day, I am once again excited. I feel the winds of change. As a nation, while the seas are rough and our ship is being tossed, we trust that the planks have been well secured, the sails are lashed, and if we do not panic, our captain will navigate us through the storm to once again relish at the dawn of a better day.

It is to be hoped that the normal balance of executive and legislative authority may be wholly adequate to meet the unprecedented task before us. But it may be that an unprecedented demand and need for undelayed action may call for temporary departure from that normal balance of public procedure.

I am prepared under my constitutional duty to recommend the measures that a stricken nation in the midst of a stricken world may require. These measures, or such other measures as the Congress may build out of its experience and wisdom, I shall seek, within my constitutional authority, to bring to speedy adoption.

But in the event that the Congress shall fail to take one of these two courses, and in the event that the national emergency is still critical, I shall not evade the clear course of duty that will then confront me. I shall ask the Congress for the one remaining instrument to meet the crisis—broad Executive power to wage a war against the emergency, as great as the power that would be given to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe.

This part of his address should not be taken lightly. The power FDR describes helped a paralyzed nation but it could just as quickly shackled it. We must watch carefully what takes place on Main Street, Wall Street, *and* Pennsylvania Avenue.

I was about to call it a night and a mash of things took place. I was brushing my teeth and thinking; “when he arrives, should I tell him that the evening news is downloaded and watched at 9:30pm, the living room lights go off at 9:45pm, video streaming and computers start to shut off at 10pm, the hallway lights comes at 9:55pm and off by 10:15pm and then things start up automatically again in the morning with the computers waking up at 6am, the lights in the bedroom by 6:20 and in the office at 6:45am so on”. Then there is the fact that the drafty old farmhouse thermostat is set at 62 because much more is like watching money fly out the windows.

In the midst of all of this, something else hit me, a Beatles tune. I couldn’t even figure out which one. So I scrolled through the few Beatles songs on the iPod …because it’s obviously after 10pm and the majority of computer systems have already shut down. I didn’t find the one that I was thinking of but I hit “Dear Prudence” followed by “Eleanor Rigby”, “I am the Walrus”, and so on. It was cool.

Are we getting old ?

My routine is more routine and yet I don’t really mind it. My taste in music may be all over the map and yet I have discovered that the music of the 60′s was actually pretty good and there are even a bunch of stuff from the 70′s to discover. (I am still sane enough to not talk about the 80′s). Freddy Mercury was talented. Early Stones had less wrinkles. Frank actually could sing before he got the aura of a high class mob king pin.

Houses were stamped from cookies cutters. Fences where white. and streets were safe for playing stick ball and riding bikes. The president got in trouble. NASA went up in flames. Peace was in jeopardy. Politics became a chess (or pawn) game. Gas prices went through the roof. The war was unpopular. Japanese cars were king. The divide grew between the haves and the have nots. New drugs were highly desirable and the makers were criminal. TV was flexing its control over the ever more malliable consumer. There was talk of [the] U2 . The power of equality was spoken of in small towns across America.

They say everything that is old is new again. Are we getting old ? You tell me. I’m having a senior moment and don’t really care.

During the contest of opinion through which we have passed the animation of discussions and of exertions has sometimes worn an aspect which might impose on strangers unused to think freely and to speak and to write what they think; but this being now decided by the voice of the nation, announced according to the rules of the Constitution , all will, of course, arrange themselves under the will of the law, and unite in common efforts for the common good. All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression. Let us, then, fellow-citizens, unite with one heart and one mind. Let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty and even life itself are but dreary things.

It is important to realize, while there will most assuredly be great challenges ahead; challenges from afar, challenges beyond manipulation and control, perhaps the greatest challenge and the greatest reward will be the establishment of a union of one people.

A rising nation, spread over a wide and fruitful land, traversing all the seas with the rich productions of their industry, engaged in commerce with nations who feel power and forget right, advancing rapidly to destinies beyond the reach of mortal eye — when I contemplate these transcendent objects, and see the honor, the happiness, and the hopes of this beloved country committed to the issue and the auspices of this day, I shrink from the contemplation, and humble myself before the magnitude of the undertaking.

 …

Let us, then, with courage and confidence pursue our own Federal and Republican principles, our attachment to union and representative government. Kindly separated by nature and a wide ocean from the exterminating havoc of one quarter of the globe; too high-minded to endure the degradations of the others; possessing a chosen country, with room enough for our descendants to the thousandth and thousandth generation; entertaining a due sense of our equal right to the use of our own faculties, to the acquisitions of our own industry, to honor and confidence from our fellow-citizens, resulting not from birth, but from our actions and their sense of them; enlightened by a benign religion, professed, indeed, and practiced in various forms, yet all of them inculcating honesty, truth, temperance, gratitude, and the love of man;

Lest we forget …

… a wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities.

Still, Jefferson understood his role. He was the president elected by the people. He was not more. At so, to our next president, or more to the point, to the nation we must remember; The president is a person. Not more. And people are not perfect. Not one of us.

I repair, then, fellow-citizens, to the post you have assigned me. With experience enough in subordinate offices to have seen the difficulties of this the greatest of all, I have learnt to expect that it will rarely fall to the lot of imperfect man to retire from this station with the reputation and the favor which bring him into it. Without pretensions to that high confidence you reposed in our first and greatest revolutionary character, whose preeminent services had entitled him to the first place in his country’s love and destined for him the fairest page in the volume of faithful history, I ask so much confidence only as may give firmness and effect to the legal administration of your affairs. I shall often go wrong through defect of judgment. When right, I shall often be thought wrong by those whose positions will not command a view of the whole ground. I ask your indulgence for my own errors, which will never be intentional, and your support against the errors of others, who may condemn what they would not if seen in all its parts.

“I served 40 years in government and I’m not looking forward to a position or an assignment. Of course, I have always said if a president asks you to do something, you have to consider it.” – Colin L. Powell

Then …

“If asked if he wants to be Prime Minister, the generally acceptable answer for a politician is that while he does not seek the office, he has pledged himself to the service of his country, and that should his colleagues persuade him that that is the best way he can serve, he might reluctantly have to accept the responsibility, whatever his personal wishes might be.” – Sir Humphrey Appleby (character from Yes Minister TV series)

Couric: “Are you disappointed with the tone of the campaign? The ‘lipstick on the pig’ stuff, and some of the ads – you guys haven’t been completely guilt-free making fun of John McCain’s inability to use a computer.”

Biden: “I thought that was terrible by the way”

Couric: “Why did you do it then?”

Biden: “I didn’t know we did it and if I had anything to do with it, we would have never done it. And I don’t think Barack, you know. I just think that was …”

Couric: “Did Obama approve that ad?”

Biden: “The answer is I don’t think there was anything intentional about that. They were trying to make another point. That’s very different than deliberately taking a vote [quote] Barack Obama had to teach children about how to deal with child-predators and saying he was teaching them sex education in kindergarten. Very different in degree.”

Update: Late Monday, Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton released the following statement

Biden: “I was asked about an ad I’d never seen, reacting merely to press reports. As I said right then, I knew there was nothing intentionally personal in the criticism of Senator McCain’s views which look backwards not forwards and are out of touch with the new economic challenges we face today. Having now reviewed the ad, it is even more clear to me that given the disgraceful tenor of Senator McCain’s ads and their persistent falsehoods, his campaign is in no position to criticize, especially when they continue to distort Barack’s votes on an issue as personal as keeping kids safe from sexual predators.”

I can’t say as I follow his train of thought. Perhaps it derailed in the yard before leaving the station. It proves that coherent thoughts must be in short supply.

To his credit, on at least one ocassion, Biden made his point with a “coherent thought” …

Williams: Senator Biden, words have, in the past, gotten you in trouble, words that were borrowed and words that some found hateful.An editorial in the Los Angeles Times said, “In addition to his uncontrolled verbosity, Biden is a gaff machine.”Can you reassure voters in this country that you would have the discipline you would need on the world stage, Senator?

Biden: Yes.

(Laughter)

Williams: Thank you, Senator Biden.

Couric: And when it comes to establishing your worldview, I was curious, what newspapers and magazines did you regularly read before you were tapped for this to stay informed and to understand the world?

Palin: I’ve read most of them, again with a great appreciation for the press, for the media.

Couric: What, specifically?

Palin: Um, all of them, any of them that have been in front of me all these years.

Couric: Can you name a few?

Palin: I have a vast variety of sources where we get our news, too. Alaska isn’t a foreign country, where it’s kind of suggested, “Wow, how could you keep in touch with what the rest of Washington, D.C., may be thinking when you live up there in Alaska?” Believe me, Alaska is like a microcosm of America.

If I were asked what news papers I read, I would have no trouble explaining I read very few papers in paper form. I read posts from the BBC, NYT, CNN, MSNBC, and others as well as blogs and links to on-line content such as CNET, AP, etc. Is that overly difficult ?

Another exchange took place around “the morning after pill”. I don’t wish to stir up a debate about pro-life and pro-choice, but someone missed an important bit of timing – which I will get to shortly. First, here is the exchange …

Couric: Some people have credited the morning-after pill for decreasing the number of abortions. How do you feel about the morning-after pill?

Palin: Well, I am all for contraception. And I am all for preventative measures that are legal and save, and should be taken, but Katie, again, I am one to believe that life starts at the moment of conception. And I would like to see …

Couric: And so you don’t believe in the morning-after pill?

Palin: … I would like to see fewer and fewer abortions in this world. And again, I haven’t spoken with anyone who disagrees with my position on that.

Couric: I’m sorry, I just want to ask you again. Do you not support or do you condone or condemn the morning-after pill.

Palin: Personally, and this isn’t McCain-Palin policy …

Couric: No, that’s OK, I’m just asking you.

Palin: But personally, I would not choose to participate in that kind of contraception.

So, a strait forward question took multiple attempts to get a less than strait forward answer. Now, to that bit about “timing”. It may be inconsequential to most (unless it directly effect you) but “conception” does not start at orgasm and the natural introduction of the male sperm into the female. There is some debate as to how long it takes for fertilization and it could be as short as a few hours and as long as a couple of days. It is not, however, instantaneous so by definition, there is a window of time for the morning after pill which does not contradict the statement; “life starts at conception”.

You can read the rest of the transcript, just don’t expect too many strait answers. Of, if I were to channel ambiguity of the likes in the interview, here is what might happen …

Journalist: I want to be sure you have a chance to answer my question directly – do you agree with congress’s actions ?

Polititian: You want a strait answer ? Well, I do not judge people as strait or I mean I know a homosexual and I don’t think of them as “not strait” and they are just people I have met so they are no less important. I answer as my own person and with my running mate. Congress is a collection of many different people all who represent America and they are many different people and some are homosexual and I do not think that is important for what we are talking about now. So, yes, I agree with my running mate and the change he is trying to accomplish. He is not one of them, congress, he is here to change the established partisan ways. He has the experience to accomplish change.

See? Clear as mud. Any can answer a question like a politician. Go ahead, try it for your self.

My first reaction was that this was an interesting and potentially positive use of technology to reach a group of overwhelmingly non-technological people. I got over my positive vibe pretty quickly.

Congresswoman Drake is a Republican. Technically, so am I. Unfortunately, Drake is a “politician” more than other label she may want or receive. After 15 minutes of residents asking questions and Drake having very polished but useless responses, I was left with a Hollywood line …

“I was so busy keeping my job I forgot to do my job.”

- Michael Douglas as President Andrew Shepard, The American President.