More great press!

I can hardly believe Peggy Noonan wrote this. I'm a sucker for blatant heart
string pulling. I love it. I'm misty.
---------------------- Forwarded by Steven J Kean/HOU/EES on 08/08/2000 12:39
PM ---------------------------

"Painter, Sally"
<SPainter@fontheiminternational.com<@fontheiminternational.com< on 08/08/2000
10:45:04 AM
Sent by: "Russell, Rhonda" <RRussell@fontheiminternational.com<
To: "'Adhoc Advisors'" <Rhonda_Roo_00@yahoo.com<
cc:
Subject: More great press!

< Great Press on Lieberman. See below.
<
<
< http://opinionjournal.com/columnists/pnoonan/
< A 1960 Moment
< Al Gore's selection of Joe Lieberman gives Democrats--and everyone
< else--something to cheer about.
< BY PEGGY NOONAN
< Monday August 7, 2000 4:26 p.m. EDT
< The choice of Joe Lieberman of Connecticut as Al Gore's running mate is so
< smart, so clever, so good, so satisfying, so striking that it just may
< turn
< this election a bit on its head for a while. Certainly its most immediate
< effect is going to be a successful Democratic convention next week in Los
< Angeles, because now the Democrats, badly hit by their own form of Clinton
< fatigue and acutely aware of the particular charmlessness of their
< presidential candidate, have something to cheer about. They respect Joe
< Lieberman. They think he has a center, a moral and ethical view of the
< world. He is experienced and articulate. He is decent and intelligent. He
< is
< independent. The media love him. He is a regular co-star on Imus, and all
< of
< the columnists and reporters for the elite newspapers, and all of the
< electronic pundits and anchors, know him and admire him.
< But that is not what is most wonderful. What is most wonderful is that he
< is
< an Orthodox Jew. What does this mean? It means a lot of people who love
< America more than they love parties or politics are happy that a big and
< great breakthrough has occurred. A friend, a journalist who is politically
< conservative and Jewish, e-mailed me to tell me he had been weeping all
< morning, that he'd cried when he heard the news. Another friend, a
< producer at a TV news show, called and told me she woke her father in
< California to give him the news and they both got choked up. "This is like
< 1960," she said, and I said I know, and I got choked up. It is wonderful
< when America is at her most American, and breaks down another barrier and
< says "What's in your heart is most important."
< If Joe Lieberman had been Joe Lee, and an Episcopalian, Al Gore would have
< been smart to pick him. He would have been an obvious choice. The only
< reason he would have hesitated over Mr. Lieberman is that he's Jewish. Mr.
< Gore decided that was just fine. I think that I have never seen Al Gore do
< such an elegant, intelligent and original thing. Well done, Mr. Gore.
< I have to tell you, this really does feel like a 1960 moment to me. I was
< a
< little girl when a Catholic got chosen to run for president, and I had
< gathered from the conversation of grownups that You Don't Elect Catholics
< to the Presidency. When it happened, it's hard to describe how exciting
< and
< moving and idealism-inspiring it was. It gave a lot of people a lot of
< joy.
< It opened things up more. That was a good thing. So is this.
< And because this is such a good thing, I hope everyone of whatever
< politics
< or persuasion sits back for a few days and feels good about it. Everyone
< should be nice and not do any political bashing until . . . Friday.
< However, I think it's okay and maybe even helpful to note the following.
< Network producers are going to decide, in their bright and touchingly
< uninformed minds, that the big opponents of the Lieberman choice will be
< Christian conservatives. That's where they'll go for the negative sound
< bites. But Christian conservatives love Joe Lieberman. They've been arm in
< arm with him in the great cultural battles of the past decade. He was just
< about the only Democrat who'd give them the time of day. He was on their
< side.
< The last time I saw Mr. Lieberman was last spring, in New York, at a
< symposium on Hollywood and the culture. I moderated and introduced our
< guests--Joe Lieberman and Bill Bennett, who are close friends and
< co-warriors in the values battle. Lieberman and Bennett very frankly
< talked
< to the audience of producers and writers and network people and movie
< stars about how to make television and film and music more decent, more
< helpful.
< This is how people on the right think of and have experienced Mr.
< Lieberman--as a good guy with his head screwed on right.
< Many conservative Christians--I think most conservative Christians--see
< all
< of those who love God as part of the same "cultural minority."
< Conservative
< Christians don't feel they have much in common, in terms of their
< political
< desires, with atheists and agnostics and leftist Episcopalian bishops and
< such. But they think they have a great deal in common with Orthodox Jews.
< They crowd around Rabbi Daniel Lapin when he speaks at a conservative
< gathering; they crowd around Dennis Prager, Michael Medved, David Horowitz
< and scores of others. One of the biggest heroes of conservative Christians
< is an Orthodox Jew called Dr. Laura; the last time I saw her she was
< wowing them at a born-again Christian assembly at the National Prayer
< Breakfast last February.
< A powerful and respected political officeholder told me Monday that
< there's
< "no upside" to the Lieberman choice. I told him there's no downside. He
< was surprised and said, "He can't even campaign on Saturdays!" I said so
< what, America would love to see a politician who actually put God first
< one day a week.
< I wish I'd added this: Remember Sandy Koufax? Joe Lieberman not
< campaigning on Saturday is Sandy Koufax not pitching on Yom Kippur. There
< were a lot of great sports moments in the 1950s and 1960s, but none
< greater than the day in 1965 when Mr. Koufax put God before the World
< Series. What a great guy, what a lesson for a generation of Christian and
< Jewish kids. And Muslims and everyone else too.
< Yes, it's good news for Hillary. It's great news for Hillary. It enlivens
< part of her New York base, it says to New York Jews that the Democrats are
< the party that did this great thing, it excites people--and may help them
< forget, or at least not remember so vividly, that the Democratic
< senatorial
< candidate has, shall we say, a not fully satisfying relationship with New
< York's Jews. A historic choice like the Mr. Lieberman can overwhelm a lot
< of
< previous bad static.
< But let's not care about that for now. The headline is not "Is It Good for
< Hillary?" The headline is: "It Is Good for America." It is a wonderful
< country that does something like this, that takes a good man who is a
< member of a small ethnic/religious minority to be one of its two major
< vice
< presidential candidates, and that greets that choice with resounding
< hurrahs.
< This is really a great day. We should all be happy. We really are a
< maturing
< democracy.