A Decade As One

Forgive me if I indulge a bit of my sappy side.

It was 10 years ago today that I said “I do,” and it was the best thing I have ever said.

Felisa and I have now been together a decade, and that time has gone by quicker than a zephyr on a hot August night. When you’re together in that inseparable bond, you want to conquer everything together from the top of Everest to the depths of the ocean. Many of the things we talked of “we’re going to do this” 10 years ago is still on the “to do” list today. Yet, at the same time, we have seemingly lived a lifetime together.

It still seems like yesterday that I got down on one knee at Snow White’s Grotto at Disneyland and proposed to Felisa, cursing Cinderella beforehand about not getting out of the way for my preplanned proposal. Has it really been that long?

I’m a lucky guy for so many reasons. Among them that when Felisa says she’s ok with plans and ceremony being “simple,” she really means it and isn’t still expecting a pot of diamonds behind my back. It has actually been a struggle for me, as I would love to give her the world. But she is simply content with Chris, Felisa, Dylan and Danny. She really is.

When I look into Felisa’s eyes, I see my other half. I see completion. She knows my soul, and I know hers. I love her warmth where she makes you certain that the person she is talking to is the most important person on Earth. I love that she is always ready to give out a helping hand, yet so protective of those she cares about. I love that she is a true friend who would stay steadfast at your side and even if either of us was lost, return to your side. I love her incredible intelligence with a mind that can soak information better than a library. I love her beauty that has changed little in our 10 years together despite the gray hairs growing on my temples. And I so love that smile of hers and a laugh that denotes an almost mischievous happiness.

Like any marriage, we have had our ups, and yes, our downs. But I wouldn’t change anything in our growth process that has brought us to where we are right now.

It is hard to imagine anything but Chris and Felisa, as well as their partners in crime Dylan and Danny.

I love you Felisa…. From this moment, on.

(Relive our wedding proposal at http://web.archive.org/web/20001006205958/www.chrisandfelisa.com/Proposal.htm)

This is What an Earthquake Is

The first thing I remember was the force. The same force you feel when you're zooming down the incline of a roller coaster.

It was 16 years ago this morning that a 6.4 earthquake hit the San Fernando Valley on a previously unknown fault. We all went from being Valley Boys and Valley Girls to being earthquake survivors.

It was around 4:30 in the morning and with the world shaking around me, that force was so great that I couldn't get out of bed.

All my life as a So Cal kid, I was trained to find a table and get under it. But I couldn't even get out of bed as the G-force produced by the quake kept me in bed. The most I could do was put the pillow over my head and wait for it to end.

When it was over, I remember the darkness. No power on a new moon twilight.

I immediately reached for the door to my bedroom, and it wouldn't open. With it completely dark and no idea what your surroundings looked like, I wondered... was I trapped? Had everything collapsed around me? Was the world still there?

Then I realized..... My bed was blocking the door.

Then I realized, I shouldn't be able to reach for the door from my bed. It had been on the other side of the room. The bed, with me in it, had traveled from one side of the room to the other, and it wasn't on wheels.

That is what an Earthquake is.

For perspective, the quake in Haiti was about six times more powerful with infrastructure dozens of times less strong.

There are still lives to be saved in Haiti. Text "Haiti" to 90999 and contribute $10 to relief efforts.

This is Our Greatness

Like a prideful lion atop the highest point of the prairie, we as Americans always like to boast how great we are.

And we have plenty of reason to, though many have misplaced where that greatness truly lies.

Anyone who doubts America’s greatness had less reason to after the actions of a majority of its people and government this week. In the face of unfathomable disaster by their neighbor Haiti, Americans have answered the cries for aid quicker than the needle moved on the seismograph during the 7.0 earthquake.

In just two days, the American Red Cross has raised more than $7 million off nothing more than folks sending a single text pledge of $10 each. Planes filled with aid have overloaded the Port-au-Prince airport, and the capital city’s port would have been the same if not for it being destroyed in the quake. Save for a few nuts and their dittoheads, seemingly every American – from the Kindergartner holding a lemonade sale to office workers pooling donations – has wanted to help the people of Haiti.

This is our greatness.

There are some who will tell you that our greatness comes from our might. From bombs and guns, and from forceful words and actions.

That is not the reason the world looks up to America. Our greatness comes from our generosity. From giving aid and a helping hand. From answering a call for help and acting as the shining beacon that leads the world to a better place.

This may not seem like the best time to give ourselves a pat on the back. Just a few hundred miles to the south, there are still people buried under crumble concrete hoping for some ray of sunshine to lead them back to life.

But pointing out our greatness is needed when there are still those among us who don’t realize what makes America great.

There are those who say we are better as a nation to simply ignore the cries of Haiti. That we’ve already sent enough of our money down there. That we should just worry about ourselves. For that reason, it’s important to cry out that it is not American or patriotic to be selfish.

There is a minority that would rather spend billions to blow up Iraq than spend millions to save Haiti. But the world doesn’t admire America for Hiroshima or its nuclear arsenal. It admires us for the Marshall Plan and the Berlin Air Lift.

When America seemed to forget that for much of the last decade, the world’s view of America declined. Each piece of candy passed from one of our brave soldiers to a child in Baghdad did more to rebuild the country than the bombing of a Baghdad building.

There are also those who use religion to claim the Haitians had it coming. But the greatness of the world’s religions comes not from them being perverted to justify hatred and evil. It is from the teachings of Jesus, Moses, Mohammed, Buddha, Hinduism - and seemingly all religions - that say the same thing: Good will to all men, and love thy neighbor.

This is our greatness.

Let our beacon of hope continue to shine. Text “Haiti” to 90999 to donate $10 to Red Cross relief efforts.

Bra Beating a Message

It took a while for a lot of us to catch on to what the whole one-color thing was on Twitter and Facebook. Especially for us macho males.

Were people giving alternate colors for “Avatar” aliens? Were they describing their favorite Power Ranger?

In the end, the colors were far more important trivial. They were part of a homegrown, out-of-nowhere viral campaign to draw awareness to researching and preventing the scourge of breast cancer. And it was simply by announcing what color bra you were wearing.

Whether it was from the mind of one or from a collective mind, it was brilliant.

There has been some criticism of the campaign - from claims it puts ambiguity on a serious issue, to not leading the reader to action.

Perhaps the most concerning criticisms have come from breast cancer victims themselves, including an excellent piece from survivor Susan Niebur, who say the bra meme has done nothing more than dredge up the nightmare they experienced for the amusement of others.

I have all the sympathy in the world for Niebur and anyone who has gone through this ticking time-bomb. And she is correct that this one-word-color campaign may be a stark reminder for those who have had to suffer with it. But this campaign was targeted for those who don't know Susan's story. Those who think it can't be me or can't be someone they love.

As someone who's been a part of several viral marketing campaigns in the past, this was one of the most effective I've seen... And it went to a good cause instead of getting people to eat a burger, invest in a company or go to a resort.

Do you think we would have been talking about breast cancer today without it? Did you know Susan Niebur’s story until today?

I live every day with the fact my wife is in a demographic that has a high chance of getting breast cancer. Having seen others I've liked and loved go down with forms of cancer, I dread this possibility and hope she never has to suffer through it. That may end up being niece, but I do know she, and others, can prevent it.

If just one person sends a buck to the American Cancer Society, joins one of the many breast cancer walks around the nation or gets a mammogram that finds a tumor early after catching on to what those colors, then this is one virus worth spreading.

Happy Halloween!

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Twitter for Members Only

Twitter is the cyber equivalent of the Members Only jacket.

You remember the Members Only jacket, don’t you? In the 1980s, you either wore one or you were more of a recluse than Ducky from “Pretty in Pink.”

You joined in the crowd and got one, only to discover it didn’t really keep you warm, stained and tore easily, and by the end of the decade was heading to Goodwill. You wondered what the big deal was.

This morning’s knockout of Twitter like a Mike Tyson punch may be that Members Only jacket moment where we wonder, what is the big deal?

In the past year or so, it has become as vogue for businesses and media sources to tout they have a Twitter page as it once was to say they had a fax number, an E-mail address or a Web page.

But the problem for Twitter that those other means of communication don’t have is you’re relying on one floor of people on 539 Bryant Street in San Francisco to keep it running.

It would take a disaster of planet-wide proportions to knock out all phones, or all E-mails or the entire internet. To stop Twitter, a squirrel can electrocute itself on a power pole of Bryant Street and there’s a service interruption.

Not very reliable.

We certainly saw the good that Twitter could do as a form of communication with the continuing drive for freedom in Iran, but that doesn’t mean it is a decent replacement for the E-mail or text marriage … any more than the carrier pigeon was a great form for mass communication despite its success in saving lives in World War I.

People who have come to rely on Twitter for business had a rude awakening this morning, but it wasn’t like it was the first time Twitter has been down. People have come to get used to the Twitter’s fail whale screen like they used to the test screen if they stayed up too late past the Late Late Show.

At this moment, they may be thinking of sending Twitter to Goodwill, like that Members Only jacket.

The Dark Knight: A Brilliant Journey to Darkness

There are but few moments you have in your lifetime inside a movie theatre that stick with you forever.

No, I’m not talking about the time when you were 16 and reached for your date’s knee, only to dip your hand in their cola. I’m talking about when you saw that star destroyer zoom in the top of the screen for the first time, when the Terminator introduced you to morphing, when you had to be part of the Titanic phenomenon or seeing Middle Earth come to life for the first time. First moments with a movie that stick with you forever.

I had another such moment last night after taking in an advance IMAX screening of “The Dark Knight.”

Christopher Nolan’s second Batman film indeed lives up to the hype but not in the way you would have expected. You won’t be high-fiving each other upon leaving the theatre, just in quiet repose of what is a masterful, yet very brutal, work of art. Think of how you left “Platoon” and “No Country for Old Men,” not how you left “Spider-Man” and “Iron Man.”

With that most reviews I have seen are quick to try to compare “Knight” with other film of the comic book heroes genre as well as others. The best comparison is not to make one. “Dark Knight” fits into a genre all by itself. It doesn’t fit in with other hero movies. Comparing this to Iron Man is like trying to compare “The Princess Bride” with “Lord of the Rings.”

As a kid, I remember the abrupt jump those comic books I scrounged under the couch for coins made in the 1980s. They went from Superfriends dealing with tough dilemmas like how to keep kids from hitchhiking to the elaborate, true-to-life plotlines of the graphic novels. “Dark Knight” makes the same kind of jump from any previous film involving a caped crusader.

Gotham City is very real — even more so than the previous film “Batman Begins.” It might as well be called Chicago. It might as well be our Chicago.

It’s actually closer to something Scorsese, Coppola or Mann would make but doesn’t necessarily fit there either. It creates its own genre: the costumed crime thriller.

“Knight” has a lot of surprises, not the least of which is you’ll be surprised by your watch at the end … that you didn’t realize two hours and 30 minutes went by. Not to mention how much writer and director Nolan packs into that timeframe. Put it this way: Gotham City isn’t the only locale Batman flies over.

The worst thing about Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker is it’s going to be his last. His Joker had me looking at that American Film Institute list of best film villains in history, and he easily fit into the top spot above Anthony Hopkins’ Hannibal Lecter. In the same way Jack Nicholson made you forget about Cesar Romero, Ledger will make you forget about Jack.

The Joker isn’t about committing crime in comedic style or being motivated by insane greed. He’s just truly scary with death as the punch-line to his cruel joke. Each of his crimes involves a moralistic dilemma where there isn’t a good answer and there is almost always a loser.

It isn’t overstating to call Ledger brilliant, but lost in that may be how great the other performances in the film are, especially that of Aaron Eckhart as new District Attorney Harvey Dent. He is the beacon of light at the start of the movie but his journey to a different place proves to be the center of the film’s message of the balance between the side of us that shines, and the other side the sits in darkness. And that yin and yang doesn’t just exist between good and evil, but within the side of good itself.

But we can’t forget Bruce Wayne himself. Christian Bale captures what it’s like to set the train in a runaway motion without realizing what happens when the track runs out. He is the darkness of good to Dent’s shining beacon of hope, though it proves inevitable that the light will burn out. What stands out in Bale’s performance is his ability to present this divide without treading into moping, woe is me territory. You can see Wayne try to keep an even keel on the outside, while tearing apart within.

Gary Oldman bolsters his title as the best actor to never win an Oscar in his role as police lieutenant James Gordon. He is the only character in this play of masks without an ambiguity between his light and dark side and Oldman truly brings him to life.

Also in enjoyable returns are Michael Caine as Wayne’s father-figure Alfred and Morgan Freeman as Lucious Fox. I am truly enjoying Freeman and Bale’s moments together, with “try this gadget out” scenes that evoke the James Bond and Q motif.

I may have been one of the few who actually felt Katie Holmes’ work in the first movie wasn’t sub-par. But after getting past their lack of visual similarity, Maggie Gyllenhaal doesn’t skip a beat as she portrays Rachael Dawes dealing with her own internal division.

While the divisions are evident within the characters in the film, the transition between scenes filmed in the IMAX format and those not was absolutely seamless. You don’t notice the switch other than noticing the top of the eight-story screen darkening out at certain points.

This is the first mainstream movie being shown in IMAX theatres that truly belongs there. The already incredible action sequences take on an epic quality where you feel like you’re zooming through traffic right along with the Dark Knight.

I had but one disappointment and it was with the score. The work by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard for the first film was one of my favorite soundtracks of the last few years. While you expected and wanted to hear a lot of those themes again, I didn’t expect as much straight, lazy rehashing of previous themes and little new material.

But that may be reaching too far for a flaw in a film without many. That said, I could see some tastes not finding the Dark Knight to their liking. It lives up to the “dark” of the film’s title and is far from the feel-good movie of the summer. Those for whom the Adam West Batman is still the best might feel disappointed. And the film reaches as far to the edge of PG-13 as a film can and I wouldn’t recommend this film for younger kids.

If you’re willing to experience a film that transcends genres and is truly a masterful work, you’ll leave with that movie-going experience that will stay with you for good.

Coffee Crisis!

We had a coffee crisis here at the office today that once again made me thankful I’m not a coffee drinker.

Found out today that the Starbucks near the office will be one of the ones closing which, which coupled with the closing of a “Java Express” drive-thru coffee place a month ago, has caused panic inside our offices.

The nearest drive-thru coffee is now the famous Las Vegas Sexxpresso (www.sexxyespresso.com) where all the baristas wear bikinis or lingerie.

Maybe I should try this coffee thing after all.

What Are Gas Prices Again?

General theme of Bush's "makes us all feel better about the economy" news conference: It's all the Democrats and Congress' fault (that firm hold they've had on the executive branch for eight years); don't worry, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be just fine; there's no short-term fix except for offshore oil drilling; and how much are gas prices now?


Didn't think Bush's approval ratings could go any lower but he's proving me wrong. He's like Josh Hamilton in the home run derby: Already has the record and keeps knocking our more disapproval home runs anyway.

And did you notice how the stock market dropped during the conference. It was like all the Mortimer and Dukes were yelling out, "sell! sell!" all at once. I would too after watching that travesty.

Betancourt Rescue: Something Fishy?

I truly hate going into conspiracy theory territory.

Trying to find the aliens at Area 51 is fruitless when all they were doing was testing the stealth fighter. Trying to find the other shooter in the JFK assassination negates the tragedy of that day. Saying 9-11 was a controlled demolition spits on the graves of every single person who died on that day.

But I can’t help but think that there’s something fishy about an unusual visit by John McCain coinciding with the rescue of 15 hostages from the Colombian FARC rebels.

I don’t mean to downplay the truly joyous moment of seeing Ingrid Betancourt, three American prisoners and 11 other held for nearly six years enjoy their new freedom. But watching official government news agency (for now) Fox News and other right-wing media proclaim McCain as having something to do with the rescue got the wheels turning.

Then came word that the White House knew in advance about the plan to go after the hostages (http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hX5TF0FO-soIVFBJfsd6YRHIFHhg), possibly as early as President Bush’s own trip to Colombia in March. And we now know that McCain made the visit at the urging for both the executive branch’s state department and one his top fund-raisers: Chiquita CEO Carl H. Lindner Jr., who is so happens got in trouble recently for giving more than $1 million to another Colombia terrorist group, the AUC.

Following along? Well, just ask this: Why in the midst of the competitive 2008 presidential race was McCain making a side trip to Colombia? Not exactly a hotbed for electoral votes.

McCain claims it was under the guise of a trip to promote free trade with Colombia … and if there’s one issue that’s on the front-burner of American voters minds right now, it’s not the economy, Iraq or health care, it’s free trade with Colombia.

Might just be too much of a conspiracy theory, but when you run a secretive and manipulative administration like the one currently in power – with its secret courts, Constitutional violations and wars under false pretenses – you have to give it at least a thought.

Psychic Friends

Being the PR guy for a firm that builds space modules, you figure I get my share of crazy calls sometime. But this one toped them all.

It was a person claiming to be a psychic from Australia who wanted to warn us that aliens were coming and planning to drop pedophiles on the Beijing Olympics. She wondered if there’s anything we can do to stop it, and I assured her we’ll do the best we can.

You laugh now, but will you be laughing when Costas comes on Aug. 8 and says. “Before we go to the opening ceremony, some breaking news. Apparently, spaceships have appeared over Beijing and they’re dropping pedophiles.”

Winning the Crazy Cat Lady Vote

As Hillary Clinton announces she is finally stepping off the stage, I was wondering how the Hillaryis44.com crowd might take it. Would they follow their leader and aid the push to make Barack Obama our 44th president?

Well, certainly this post today on the site shows that these supporters, many of whom supported Clinton simply because she was a woman, want to support the candidate who will make sure to end women’s right to choose:

I can only hope John McCain can beat him. I think McCain is going to need our help.

-- Hillaryis44.org poster

It gets worse. I was part of a group that helped discuss and formulate the Nevada Democratic party platform for the recent state convention, and our discussions have actually continued since the last gavel sounded.

Today, I got this disturbing E-mail from a person in the group:

I for one am not happy with the way the men in this party have treated a woman who has worked tirelessly in public service all her life and stood by a cheating husband regardless what people thought.

The media lost Hillary this election. Obama was on a honeymoon just wait. As for me if he does not pick her as his VP I may not vote at all this time I am so disgusted with the way this party is treating Hillary.

I am not working for Obama without Hillary on the ticket.

I just had to reply:

Simply ask yourself this.... Is it worth risking having McCain go into the Oval Office and ensure that the Supreme Court will not only take away women's right to choose, but have a majority to sustain that for a generation?

Is it worth going against everything that your candidate stood for over the past few months?

In the coming days, Clinton will endorse Barack Obama. Will you heed the call?

Guess I wasn’t convincing enough. Her reply:

My heart has been torn apart by all of this and I am tired of settling. Why are women always asked to wait you will get your turn. In my eyes this is the same thing that happened to women when they stood with the black men asking for the right to vote. Then what happened black men got the right to vote and said later for you women left us behind took us another 20 years to have the right to be able to vote. We still dont earn as much money as the men.

Why do we still have to fight this RIGHT TO CHOOSE issue over and over again. This is again an issue of a Womans Right and MEN have the audacity to use that as a wedge whenever they want women to give in to their side.

You guys need to make it understood that it is HILLARY or NO ONE ELSE for VP or women like me will not fall in line like dutiful women. NOT HAPPENING.

Now I sat near that same lady at the convention and even looked just like the crazy cat lady from “The Simpsons.” At one point, she was practically ready to attack two of my Vegas-to-Reno van mates who were doing nothing more than sitting still. They also happened to be black, which doesn’t surprise me about the racial tone her comments took.

The question becomes this: How do we convince crazy cat lady to understand the stakes of this election mean more than the cult of one personality?

Questions like this are why Obama supporters shouldn’t feel this is a foregone deal and a landslide in November awaits. The thought of an easy coronation to the White House is what did Clinton in, and we can’t fall under the same spell.

There is a lot of work ahead.

Who has Momentum in the General Election?

One only needs to contrast between these two pictures:

Barack Obama's big kick off to the general election June 3.


John McCain's "big" kickoff to the general election on June 3.

Seeya in November.

Lost Season Finale - My Thoughts

Having watched “Lost” from the beginning like the good Dharma-orientation film-watching person I am, I felt very satisfied with last night’s finale. If anything, there wasn’t that cheated feeling of leaving too much hanging … but there was still a lot to chew on.

My random thoughts. Obviously, don’t read ahead if you haven’t seen the finale yet…

- While three years have passed for the Oceanic Six, have three years passed on the island? If so, things might be a LOT different with those left behind. Keep in mind that the four seasons we’ve watched were just a span of months in island time. We’re talking THREE YEARS. That could mean Kate gets back to Sawyer, only to see he’s been married to Juliet for a couple of years. Just no babies, unless Juliet figured that out. Too bad… there’s a part of me that actually wanted to see Jack and Juliet more than Jack and Kate. They could also easily go the Narnia route and have a LOT of time passing on the island, where the Oceanic Six will arrive to find the grown grandchildren of Sawyer, Juliet, etc.

- Let’s keep in mind that whether three years have passed on the island or not, to them Jack, Sayid, Hurley, Kate, etc. are dead. They watched that ship go kabloey. And knowing what apparitions Jacob/Christian Shepherd served up for them in that time, they may not only have a shock when the Oceanic Six return, but may not believe they’re real.

- Heck, three years is such a long amount of time that it’s reasonable to think that the left-behind Losties at this point are rag-wearing mad members of the Richard Alpert Others, with possibly Sawyer as leader in Locke’s absence.

- Why is Locke not on the island? My theory, going back to a lot happens in three years, is for some reason the island had to be moved again. This time, it was Locke who had to make the sacrifice to leave the island.

- Probably the biggest hanging question from the episode I hope gets answered but may not be: What happened to physicist Daniel and his raft of unnamed Losties? I thought they did too much development of Daniel and his knowledge of the island’s properties to just discard him like that. Maybe he was close enough to the island to be swept up in that vortex and go along with it? And in a case of probably wishful thinking, maybe he happened to pick up a former Korean mob henchman who jumped off an exploding freighter? Michael’s a goner for sure, however, as the island let “him go.”

- Loved the effect of the island disappearing, complete with the ocean filling up the empty space the island left like an empty tub. Though my theory is not so much that the island moved somewhere else, but moved a couple of minutes ahead in time and is ALWAYS there, just not in the present. Think of missing a train that left the station a few minutes ago and is out of sight. Even if you run as fast as the train along the tracks, you won’t catch it and you won’t see it, but it's there. The challenge for the Oceanic 6 will be to figure out how to catch that train.

- The Ms. Wildmore boat moment wasn’t quite as tear-jerking as the Desmond Christmas message moment, but it was still sweet.

- Sun blames Jack for Jin’s death and has now taken her dad’s role as the callous leader of a corporation – and talking alliance with Wildmore no less. Why do I see her as Ramses to Jack’s Moses? Though the twist here is Jack will need to convince her to come back to the promised land as well.

- Octagon Global Recruiting obviously reflect a viral marketing event surrounding the San Diego Comic Con. Sound similar to what the “Dark Knight” folks did last con to get folks looking around Old San Diego for the Joker.

- In case you’re wondering about the two “alternative endings,” they simply show - I stick with my theory that Claire actually died in the explosion of that house in Dharmaville and she’s as much an apparition right now as daddy Shepherd.

- I’m surprised not many have brought up that the island itself may be the fabled lost city of Atlantis…

Hillary's Appalachia Adventure

A few quick thoughts on the West Virginia post-mortem…

I’m trying desperately not to adopt the Hillary Clinton philosophy that when you don’t win a state, that state becomes illegitimate. That, said, I’m having a hard time taking the West Virginia electorate seriously when, according to exit polls, three out of every 10 people won’t vote for Barack Obama because he’s black and one out of every two people thing Obama and Jeremiah Wright share the same views. Read a book. It’s called “Audacity of Hope.” Sorry, it doesn’t have pictures.

With all the talk of Saturday Night Live’s connection to this campaign, last night could have easily been an Appalachian Emergency Room skit.

On top of that, the general media is taking the Clinton win on a higher scale of “this could mean trouble for Obama” that I would have expected. It was especially off to see pundits talking this morning about the West Virginia results being indicative of where the country is going in the general election, as if this nation’s population as a whole is anything like Appalachia. That’s as bad as assuming the nation’s high school kids want to listen to Perry Como because folks in an elderly-care home do.

But saying Clinton is back in the race at this point is akin to going into a morgue, seeing a finger move in rigor mortis and yell out, “I saw a finger move! They’re going to recover and beat this!”

What Clinton Did Right

Excellent articles like Time’s recent piece on what Hillary Clinton did wrong are why there is still a place for in-depth news magazines like Time, but let me take a sec in the postpartum to actually praise Clinton for something she did right.

Namely, her 180-degree turn towards the outreaching of rural voters that probably kept her in the race, or at least gave her the appearance of doing so to the general public.

All you have to do is look at the difference between the January caucus here in my home state of Nevada versus the recent primaries in Indiana and Pennsylvania.

If you look at one of the John King-style maps from the Jan. 19 Nevada caucus, you’ll see that it was Obama who was winning the rural, low-population counties in this purple state that’s blue at the bottom and bloody red at the top. It was Obama who was getting the blue-collar endorsements and support.

Meanwhile, Clinton took the big population centers, including my hometown of Las Vegas, on the way to winning a slight majority of the state’s delegates overall.

What followed was the moment when Clinton who abandoned her pervious strategy of “vote for me because I’m me” into “vote for me because I’m you.” While many of us didn’t see through her $100 million account and lobbyist donations, it was still a very effective strategy -- even though it was reminiscent of a GOP campaign where they say they want to give you help, but then pick your pocket when your back is turned.

The result was what we saw in the last three months of the primary campaign where the primary cities were colored by Hillary, with small, but well-populated, specks of Barack.

For the general election, Obama needs to adopt a similar strategy of reaching out to the rural voter that would pay even bigger dividends in a general election. And perhaps, in her first moment of humility in this entire campaign, Clinton may even help.

Obama will be in no danger of losing his big city vote against McCain. One can argue that the cities have been hurt the most by the last seven years. People in big cities are paying more for gas, dealing with homeland security snafus, watching their infrastructure crumble and watching their stock portfolios dwindle. They’re not going to be as willing to keep the White House Republican for another four years.

It’s the rural voter that Obama will need to win over, and he can take a lesson from the thing that Clinton did right.

And as we mark the end of the primary campaign, we might as well give Clinton credit for something. Because for a lot of people in the Democratic Party, it may take some marriage counseling before they’re willing to get back in a relationship with the Clintons again.

Who Wants to Be a Vice President?

When I married my wife, it seemed just minutes after we said “I do” before people were already asking us, “So when are you having a baby?” In the same sense, it doesn't take long after a candidate wraps up a nomination for the presidential ticket that they’re immediately asked,” Who’s going to be your vice president."

With the media and public now seemingly on board with the fact Barack Obama is the Democratic candidate for president, speculation begins on who the senator will pick as his running mate.

Such a question used to be dismissed with the flick of the words, “All the vice president does is attend funerals.” Say that now after the last two men who have held the office. In divergent ways, Al Gore and Dick Cheney greatly changed the influence a vice president has on governing, and the first-in-line to the presidency can’t be taken lightly anymore.

The recipe for an ideal VP choice for Obama is a candidate who can make up for his deficiencies in experience, while helping draw people from the right of the political center and build on his strengthening Southern base. It also helps to get a running mate who attracts voters who may have supported Clinton in the primaries or have yearnings to vote for McCain.

Being as that Obama’s name was, until recent history, generally unknown to the general public, it will also be important to have a running mate with instant name recognition. A sign of a bad choice by Obama will be if the first thing out of people’s mouths is “Who?”

Doing a little brainstorming of my own, I arrived at my personal list of choices to be vice president under Obama. Take it with a grain of salt no different than if I gave you a list of my picks for the upcoming NFL season or my choice for “American Idol.” But like those contests of sport and gaining Simon Cowell’s approval, it’s certainly a lot of fun to play the VP game.

1. Chuck Hagel – How’s this for deflating any potential GOP campaign in the coming months: Have a Republican on the ticket. But beyond the politics of such a move, it will also play up what many see as appealing about Obama in his promise to bring true bipartisanship to Washington. In Hagel, you get a running mate who has appeal on both sides for standing on his principles, whether they are his stance against the Iraq war or his work in the Reagan administration. He’s also a purple-heart-wearing veteran of the Vietnam war. For those who believe the Obama ticket is about bringing the country together, there isn’t any better pick than Hagel.

2. Wesley Clark – In a time on worldwide instability – much of it was brought about by our current executive branch – and the threat of Osama bin Laden still looming, it may be key to have a running mate who stands as a pillar of not just America’s strength, but also America’s wisdom. At this point, Wesley Clark would rightfully raise his hand. For a potential commander-in-chief without military experience, Clark brings a smorgasbord of distinguished military service, including leading the military forces of a coalition of nations in a successful campaign to free Bosnia. He’s also had the wisdom to make the right call from the get go when it comes to our carrots and sticks abroad, supporting the move into Afghanistan, while denouncing the Iraq push from the get-go. At the same time, he also really seems to get it when it comes to domestic policy. As a Clinton supporter, he stands to bring some her supporters along and also has a Tony Bennett-like appeal to the youth vote. Only drawbacks would be he doesn’t bring any geographical gain to the ticked, being a Chicago native.

3. John Edwards – If it wasn’t for Obama capturing the nation’s imagination, Edwards would have been the de facto candidate of change and a return to the America as a beacon of hope to the world, rather than as an invading wall of ugliness. And with recent electoral history demonstrating that you need some Southern component on your campaign to win, Edwards brings that. Drawbacks are the right’s aversion to trial lawyers of any kind and the dreaded hair jokes the GOP will be ready to pounce upon.

4. Loretta Sanchez – My pick for best VP candidate no one is mentioning. I’m not a stereotypical demographics person, but Sanchez would be a great choice for those seeing Obama as needing to get back Clinton’s female and Latino vote. Beyond that, Sanchez shares a couple of traits with Obama, including standing against corruption and politics as usual (which got her kicked out of the Congressional Latino Caucus when she wouldn’t support a Joe Baca handout) and being against the Iraq war from the beginning. She’s also demonstrated an ability to defeat a top GOP candidate in Robert Dorman – in Orange County no less. Her fiscal conservatism makes her likable by conservatives. My only reason for not making her my top pick would be the higher profile for Hagel, Clark and Edwards.

5. Al Gore – After we left the theatres or turned off the DVD after watching “An Inconvenient Truth” two years ago, we yearned for Al Gore to announce he was running for president. It didn’t happen, any we’ve moved on. That said, there’s noting in the Constitution about having more than two terms as vice president and if Obama was already a candidate that had a cult following, you might as well break out the Kool-Aid if Gore joined the ticket. Of course, there are also those on the far right who pander against Gore because they live in a fantasy where there isn’t global warming and the universe is just 5,000 years old. But as Bush’s time passes, so will theirs. There also may be the sense among the public that Gore’s time as a politician has passed no matter how much they respect him. I’m starting to believe Gore when he says his cause to end global warming is better served being Joe Q. Public, rather than the Honorable Al Gore.

6. Max Cleland – We call your war hero with ours. Hard not to like Cleland, who would appeal to both the veterans and the seniors, and it would certainly be poetic justice for the person Karl Rove unjustly put down to end up in the White House.

7. Joe Biden – Was my third choice behind Obama and Edwards and I have a great respect for him as a politician and a mind, though I’m not sure he would bring that many extra votes to the ticket.

8. Barbara Boxer – I’m a big Barbara Boxer fan going back to when I met her when she was first running for U.S. Senate. No question she is as strong a legislator as they come, and can certainly be the alternative not-Clinton woman for the ticket for those that care about gender. Her big drawback is the GOP love to vilify strong female candidates from the Bay Area that may make her more polarizing than Obama needs.

9. Anthony Zinni – An alternative to Clark if he doesn’t take the job. Problem lies in that most of the general public has no idea who Zinni is. But the decorated general was one of the first during the Bush administration to be blacklisted for not following the program and marching off to Iraq. Military and foreign policy credentials are there, though we don't know yet if he can be the wunderkind on domestic policy like Clark has been.

10. Caroline Kennedy -- Makes the comparison to JFK even more apparent, but while she has a great deal of respect from the public for her charitable work and other philanthropy activity, her political resume is as blank as a sheet listing President Bush’s pullout strategy from Iraq. She would serve Obama better as an apolitical endorser than being on the ticket.

11. Oprah Winfrey – Don’t laugh…. One of the reasons Oprah has earned billions is people really, really like her and Winfrey’s by far the person most recognizable to the public on this list. Problem lies in her never having served any kind of public position and if you think lack of experience becomes a talking point against Obama, watch out. Obama/Oprah is a great fantasy and not entirely out of the realm of possibility, but this is reality folks. That said, I think I’d like it even if the political pundits sour on it and what was Schwarzenegger’s experience before he became the governator?

12. Christopher Dodd – Like Biden, doesn’t add any more electability.

13. Ted Kennedy – Also makes the comparison to JFK while also eliminating experience as a worry, but he’s as polarizing as Clinton to the right who just might see him as the anti-Cheney (is that such a bad thing?). That said, there’s no disputing his experience and if people get past the Sean Hannity rhetoric and the fat jokes, they may just see a candidate they can admire.

99999999999999. Hillary Clinton – On one end, you can just about applaud Clinton for the tough campaign she ran against Obama as toughening him up for the general campaign. The Wright/Ayers controversies and any of the flag lapel questions will have run their course before the GOP even has a chance to swift boat him. At the same time, while you respect your opponent for making you a better player, you don’t get in bed with them. Clinton shouldn’t be rewarded for nearly tearing the Democrats apart.

Wishful Thinking. Yes, Arnold Schwarzenegger crossed my mind, especially with his wife’s vocal support for Obama and is vast appeal with both sides of the aisle, but the Constitution implicitly states that a person ineligible to be president can be vice president (which is why Bill couldn’t have been a running mate for Hillary).

That said, no reason Schwarzenegger couldn’t be in his cabinet … or at least allow Obama to join with him for his inevitable cameo in the new “Terminator” film.