Small History Lesson

The Great Plotnik is watching Obama right now getting ready to lose the election -- he has to stop talking like he is already George Washington and remember he's talking to feisty New Hampshire voters. Criminy, Barack, wake up.

Oooh, that's better. He's preaching. Plotnik loves it when the man preaches.

Tonight is the debate on both sides -- Republicans and Democrats debating each other for the first time with two leaders in place and fewer candidates on the stage. Hillary and Mitt Romney have been wounded -- now we get to see how they react when they're in trouble. That's useful info to have when you're choosing a president.

Plotnik guesses Hillary will be spitting fire and Romney will get so tangled up with self-righteous spittle that he dissolves like the Wicked Witch of the Northeast.

We also get to see how Obama and Two Buck Huck act as current leaders. That's useful info too.



The first important election in which Plotnik voted was the California Primary in 1968. He voted for Eugene McCarthy and against Bobby Kennedy. Everyone hated Bobby then, because he had come into the race late, after McCarthy had had the courage to take on President Lyndon Johnson, and promise to end the war. Sound familiar?

A few hours later, Bobby was dead and we all realized the McCarthy vote would count for nothing when the party pols gave the nomination to Hubert Humphrey. Which is exactly what happened. The result was Humphrey lost to Richard Nixon and we had five more years of war.

Is anyone reading this old enough to remember how many leaders that we loved in the '60s were murdered in cold blood? It's a lesson people The Great Plotnik's age can never forget, and a warning that runs hot in our blood, when we see this generation's would-be populist leaders shouting about what they will do when elected.

We also remember how good it felt to have someone to get excited about. Plotnik sat on the steps of Sproul Hall in 1968 and heard Martin Luther King finally declare himself to be against the war. It was a speech that still makes Plotnik sweat when he remembers it. Martin was a short man, but had a voice that could thunder as easily as whisper.

Hubert Humphrey was on campus the same day, in the Greek Theater. When Martin had finished speaking, everyone marched to the Greek to boo Humphrey. Lot of good it did.

Well, yes it did some good. It empowered us, made us feel hopeful. It helped us see we were not alone and that there were other alternatives to the way the world was turning at that moment. It would be so nice to feel that way again.