A day or two after Obama won the Presidency my good friend, the astute political observer, Jerry Gold, said that it would be the Democrats who would be the biggest obstacle for Obama and his agenda.  And here we are, entering the third month of Obama’s Presidency and Jerry is proven right.  Senator Evan Bayh, who didn’t run for President and in fact sat on the sidelines, and Senator Kent Conrad from North Dakota, who endorsed Obama early on, and the rest of the “suddenly I can speak after 8 years” contrarian Democrats are standing up and attempting to block the progress that Obama was elected to pursue.  I knew the Republicans would not support Obama but I never dreamed they would state publically that they want him to fail.  But hey, they were bound and gagged for 8 years while Bush was in power, I guess they need to exercise their vocal cords.  But the contrarian Democrats, now they are a different story and a sorry lot.  They limped along during the Bush years, heads hung down, the “hangdog look” my grandmother used to say.  I thought the Dems had vanished from the earth while Bush was in office.  But no.  Oh, no.  One of their own was elected in a landslide and now they’re up in arms against him, acting as if they are all the President and suddenly the deficit is all the rage and they just can’t stop insinuating how misguided their President is.   

Here’s my question:  Do the blue dog hangdog Democrats want Obama to fail, too?  And if so, why?  And if not, what are they doing?  I’m open to suggestions. 

You would be 100 today.  I can’t believe you’ve been dead for 20 years.  I miss you.  I’m writing about you in my new book, I want to keep our bond alive…  We did our best with the father and son thing, don’t you think?

It seems I’m getting back to what matters to me.  I don’t give a shit about the doom-and-gloomers.  I’m a late bloomer.  Yes, had I followed my dancing career with an acting career, something to keep the applause coming, I might have turned out differently.  But I’m a quiet person, as difficult as that is to grasp.  It is asking a lot to expect my friends and family to believe I’ve changed, that I’m not the same person I was.  Who among us is?  I’ve never had any trouble with anyone who changes, expands, reinvents.  I encourage it.  I’ve gotten the feeling, at pinpoints in my life, that certain people want to bottle me, like a bloody Merlot, recline me in the cellar, head down, and bring me out when they need to pop a cork…

Cork me/take the time to spin me under your nose/I have a new scent/Taste me/I am an artist living in the late 00s/trying to make my way/Oh.

Why is it expedient/to tighten the reins on transformation/What grape is expedient/a foolish grape I say/Do not hold back/a new grape grows each day on the vines/the last laugh is yours/is mine.