07-30-2021, 09:49 AM
I got to meet Senator Levin. There's a story behind it. My local county Democratic Party was looking for a name for its fund-raising dinner. Most of the prominent names of Democrats were taken, but his was available. I suggested his name.
He came to pay us a visit, which is amazing in view of the smallness of our county. He seemed to be a very likable person and not particularly self-centered (narcissism is common among politicians above a certain level -- probably becoming very common among small-town city councilmen). He was quite ebullient.
I have suggested that had Al Gore tapped him for Vice-President, we might have had President Gore instead of the mediocrity (or worse) George W. Bush. In a super-close election any edge can make a difference. Carl Levin, who like Joe Lieberman is Jewish, might have been more effective in consolidating the Jewish vote in such states as Florida and New Hampshire, making a difference by swinging one or the other... and the election. My impression of Joe Lieberman was of a funeral director.
I think of how different the world would be. There would have been no 9/11 and likely no wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. (OK, Satan Hussein was likely to do something stupid because evil people do that sort of thing when they think that they can get away with it). I'm guessing that any indication that the hijackers would have been detected and caught, and we would have prevented 9/11 and given fair warning to all on how to prevent such an attack. There would have been an international crackdown on al-Qaeda, and the best safety measure against hijacking a jetliner (denying access to the cabin) would have been enough to prevent jetliners from being transformed into weapons of mass destruction. Flights would have been diverted to places such as Rochester and Pittsburgh, with the US Armed Forces or state troopers waiting should anyone have tried something stupid.
He came to pay us a visit, which is amazing in view of the smallness of our county. He seemed to be a very likable person and not particularly self-centered (narcissism is common among politicians above a certain level -- probably becoming very common among small-town city councilmen). He was quite ebullient.
I have suggested that had Al Gore tapped him for Vice-President, we might have had President Gore instead of the mediocrity (or worse) George W. Bush. In a super-close election any edge can make a difference. Carl Levin, who like Joe Lieberman is Jewish, might have been more effective in consolidating the Jewish vote in such states as Florida and New Hampshire, making a difference by swinging one or the other... and the election. My impression of Joe Lieberman was of a funeral director.
I think of how different the world would be. There would have been no 9/11 and likely no wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. (OK, Satan Hussein was likely to do something stupid because evil people do that sort of thing when they think that they can get away with it). I'm guessing that any indication that the hijackers would have been detected and caught, and we would have prevented 9/11 and given fair warning to all on how to prevent such an attack. There would have been an international crackdown on al-Qaeda, and the best safety measure against hijacking a jetliner (denying access to the cabin) would have been enough to prevent jetliners from being transformed into weapons of mass destruction. Flights would have been diverted to places such as Rochester and Pittsburgh, with the US Armed Forces or state troopers waiting should anyone have tried something stupid.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.