David Kuo: July 2007 Archives

This isn't really the day of anonymous friends saying things. With this one I am just helping someone save face.

I get an instant message, "a prayer request"

Next line: "trading deadline is today, you know the sox are close to getting jermaine dye
and, you know, pray for poor people and the sick, too"

Translation: the Red Sox are about to get a really great player but my friend - as a Sox fan - still lives in total fear that everything will go horribly wrong and somehow the Yankees will get everyone...at the same time... a not irrational fear.

My friend and I have long gone back and forth on prayer - is it right, for instance, to pray for parking. My friend says no - it is arrogant. I say yes - if God cares about sparrows he can care about parking... or the Red Sox. So I've said a quick prayer.

A follow-up from the friend who posted last week about Huckabee. He read the discussions here and elsewhere and wanted to respond. The second and third paragraphs are the most significant because my friend's attitudes are those of lots of lots of evangelical Christians even if they won't say so in public:

Yes, it's true that Mike Huckabee isn't (yet) a likely candidate to win the GOP nomination, let alone the general election. He hasn't shown the ability – or desire – to raise the kind of money needed to be a formidable candidate (and I do believe that fundraising is important because it shows the breadth and depth of a candidate's support).

And if Mitt Romney wasn't a too-slick-for-his-own-good, flip-flopper from Massachusetts (not to mention the Mormon factor); if Giuliani wasn't a New York liberal with more personal baggage than former President Clinton; and if John McCain wasn't…..well…..John McCain, then perhaps I'd be singing a different tune.

Sure, some think Fred Thompson is the savior for conservatives, but with a shaky lobbying past, his support for campaign finance reform, opposition to tort reform, and his campaign's chaotic early start – including a mass exodus of top staff and a recent New York Times story about his wife running his campaign – that label may be premature.

In 1994, Republicans convinced voters they believed in something and had a clear direction to move our nation forward and, in return, the American people gave them the Presidency and control of both the House and Senate. The 2006 elections showed us that once a party loses focus and abandons principle then voters will give another person – or party – control.

Hopefully, primary voters will get behind the candidate who is right on the issues, has the experience needed to lead the nation, and has the professionalism and eloquence to represent us to the world, relate to the American people, and work with the other side to get things accomplished in Washington.

Picking the "electable" candidate with the high name ID and ability to raise money is what brought us John Kerry, Al Gore, and Bob Dole. Maybe the GOP can learn a thing or two from the Democrats who back in the early '90's chose a little-known Governor from Hope Arkansas to be their nominee…..

Is there any wonder that Republicans are $100 million behind Democrats in fundraising thus far? The Democratic base is mobilized and excited. The Republican base - evangelicals - are demoralized and defeated.

Spiritually this is good - it is time for evangelicals to spend some quality time listening to God and what God would have them do with their political voice - politically this is devastating for Republicans. So much for that permanent Republican majority.

I'm not sure the last time Republicans were directing people to the NY Times op/ed page. But count today as one of those days. There is a remarkable piece by two formerly fierce critics of the Iraq War - Kenneth Pollack and Michael O'Hanlon.

Viewed from Iraq, where we just spent eight days meeting with American and Iraqi military and civilian personnel, the political debate in Washington is surreal. The Bush administration has over four years lost essentially all credibility. Yet now the administration’s critics, in part as a result, seem unaware of the significant changes taking place.

Here is the most important thing Americans need to understand: We are finally getting somewhere in Iraq, at least in military terms. As two analysts who have harshly criticized the Bush administration’s miserable handling of Iraq, we were surprised by the gains we saw and the potential to produce not necessarily “victory” but a sustainable stability that both we and the Iraqis could live with.

This may be the most jarring piece that I have read in a while if only because of how unexpected it is. Pollack and O'Hanlon really have been critics. They are very well respected. The NYT op/ed page conveys even more legitimacy. Some thoughts.

First, good. Great. We should all hope that this is true. It makes Gen. David Petraeus' upcoming report all the more important.

Second, maybe it isn't a big deal. Glenn Greenwald at Salon writes a pretty convincing piece about the oped that says it is far less than it is cracked up to be and that the authors are not the war critics they paint themselves as being.

What is the most vivid and compelling evidence of how broken our political system is? It is that the exact same people who urged us into the war in Iraq, were wrong in everything they said, and issued one false assurance after the next as the war failed, continue to be the same people held up as our Serious Iraq Experts. The exact "experts" to whom we listened in 2002 and 2003 are the same exact establishment "experts" now....

The Op-Ed is an exercise in rank deceit from the start. To lavish themselves with credibility -- as though they are war skeptics whom you can trust -- they identify themselves at the beginning "as two analysts who have harshly criticized the Bush administration's miserable handling of Iraq." In reality, they were not only among the biggest cheerleaders for the war, but repeatedly praised the Pentagon's strategy in Iraq and continuously assured Americans things were going well. They are among the primary authors and principal deceivers responsible for this disaster.

In our current political climate I am not sure what would cause one side to trust the other. There is so little trust, so much acrimony, so little faith in anyone that I am not sure how this situation can be resolved.

The most important prayer here is that a sense of trust might be built so real conversations might be had. I know the political situation in Iraq is horrid but ours isn't screamingly healthy.

I woke up with this in my head... I love this song.

On a mostly unrelated note - Apple used it in a promotional video...

I went to church yesterday even though I haven't ever been on a Saturday before.

It was a short service - 20 minutes or so.

There was no singing and no sermon.

And the service was held at noon outside a Baskin Robbins ice cream shop.

I took Livvy there, sweaty clothes, curly hair, red cheeks and all. We'd been at a park. Lunch was due at home. It was to be a good lunch too - brown rice, wild salmon, strawberries, broccoli. But we needed ice cream.

I asked her what kind she wanted and she said, "red" and then, "no, no, no, white." I told her I was getting a milkshake. She said, "No, no, no. Daddy get ice cream!!" (There are "nos" a plenty these days - though they tend to be happy nos.) I started explaining that a milkshake was ice cream but gave up. "Yes, Daddy is getting ice cream."

And so we arrived. She got a tiny vanilla cone. I got some berry smoothie thing that sounded marginally healthy and really good.

Then church began.

We took our seats in the shade on the sidewalk, backs against an adjacent storefront.

I started sipping on my smoothie - "Milkshake" for Livvy's purposes.

She started licking her cone. First lick she got some on her chin. A perfect ice cream face with only one lick.

She sized up my milkshake and I asked her if she wanted a sip. She took a small one. It hadn't made it to her tummy before she was back for more. And then more. And more. She offered me some licks of my ice cream cone. As I licked she went for the straw.

Then she stopped.

She stood up.

Tiny ice cream cone in her right hand, ice cream on her chin, berry smoothie everywhere else, she swallowed and said, "I LOVE milkshakes!!!"

I laughed with pure joy - perfect joy, holy joy. I laughed in a way that made God smile. I praised Him more with laughter than I could have with song - notwithstanding the fact I can't sing.

Livvy smiled too. Then she looked at her ice cream cone and took a lick. And then she gave it to me for a lick. And back and forth it went. One lick for her and one for me. It was so pure. It was so innocent. I wanted to cry. Oh what a church service it was - one of the best ever.

Then she took a bite of the ice cream cone. "Oh! Livvy LOVES ice cream cones!"

She loved it so much she gave it me. And as I took a bite she took my milkshake. "Daddy eat Livvy's ice cream. Livvy drink Daddy's milkshake."

And that is how the service wound down...with a two-year-old holding my smoothie like a priest holds the communion chalice; with my holding her ice cream cone with the reverence of the communion bread; with people around us stopping and watching and smiling and saying, "You know, I was watching you two and I decided I was going to treat myself to some ice cream."

I wonder if they knew they were really watching God smile on two of his kids during church.

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