So, as praiseworthy as they may have been (as I wrote in my previous post), Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have pulled their radio ads accusing one of being a Reagan fan and the other as excessively ambitious. The press is calling it a "truce" with one campaign saying the radio ads were only ever going to run for one day anyway (which if true, means this was a staged stunt for the media! Shocking!!).
If I may speculate about the back rooms where I have often toiled, in this case I suspect both Obama and Clinton looked at their polls and heard the voice of America sighing. Will this kinder, gentler spirit last? Not for long, I think. As I heard Paul Begala say on the radio yesterday, (actually I saw him say it, we were at the same radio row at the Families USA conference--did you hear me on Air America?) the only reason Barack and Hillary are going after each other on personality issues is they differ so little on policy. It will remain important to show contrasts between the candidates, as it always is. Which brings me back to partisanship...
And now for something completely different:
Check out my friend Harley Spiller NPR Storycorps piece about his extraordinary collections, including one of Chinese menus that got him in the Guinness book of records. And then go to my links on the right and visit Inspector Collector.
"I don't really care about the stuff. That's the bottom line. I don't care about my menus. If they were to disappear tomorrow, I'd still know everything I know about them, and that's what matters."
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