Moving On

"The country wants change. Here's how it happens. People talk it to death for decades and then somebody crosses the line and suddenly the line doesn't exist anymore. Men would not accept women in management and then, lo and behold — Women in Management! Accepted. (THUMP.) The country is not going to elect a black man president until one day it does and we all wake up the next morning and go to work and that's that." The Old Scout-In Defense Of Stepping Out Of Line by Garrison Keillor

“Senator McCain is 71 and most likely he will be the last Old Guy presidential candidate for all of you boomers. Goodbye, Great White Father in Washington. It happens as you age: Other people get younger. . . .It's a long throw from Mr. McCain's 71 to Senator Obama's 46 and that may be the big invisible issue in the fall: Do we feel better with Papa at the helm or the whiz kid brother? It's a visceral choice you make without thinking too hard about tax policy or judicial appointments. For people like me who think the war in Iraq is a horrible wrong turn, it's an easy choice, but the election won't be decided by people like me - it'll be decided by people who could go either way and who make up their minds at the last minute. . . .I do, however, believe in the big leap by which you skip a mess of complicated trouble and move on into the future. Johnson's Civil Rights Act, Nixon's trip to China, Gerald Ford's pardon of Nixon, the demolition of the Berlin Wall - great moments when we turned the clock forward.
That hope for the leap forward seems deeply felt this year. And that's why people are looking at the skinny guy. They don't want to be replaying old tapes next spring. They just can't bear the thought of going through the past seven years all over again.”
From The Old Scout-Why They Are Looking at the Skinny Guy by Garrison Keillor
I hope Garrison's right about people not wanting a replay. I certainly don't. I could listen to this one over and over though: