by James M. Wall In his New York Times magazine profile of Barack Obama, political writer Matt Bai explains the Obama “50-state” campaign strategy. It was a highly succesful strategy that led the candidate to spend “considerable time and money in more culturally conservative parts of the country where Democrats rarely, if ever, venture, from Elko [Nevada} and […]

By James M. Wall     I found this picture on Mudflats, an Anchorage, Alaska web site. It was taken during a Barack Obama rally in Anchorage. This handsome dog bears a striking resemblance to Darby, who was, until her recent passing,  a much beloved member of my extended family in Alaska, It was Mudflats, which […]

by James M. Wall Maybe you have to be a Boomer to really appreciate this clip.  But anyone is welcome to watch. Ron Howard started as a kid fishing with the sheriff.  Now he is a famous movie director.  The other day he took time off to make a short movie.  Listen for the theme […]

                   Obama with his grandparents after his 1979 high school graduation  by James M. Wall Barack Obama’s maternal grandparents,  Stanley Armour Dunham and Madelyn Dunham, celebrated with Obama (photo above) when he graduated from high school in Hawaii.  Obama often speaks of his Kansas background. He traces those family […]

(Updated Sunday, October 19) by James M. Wall This weekend will be remembered as the time when Sarah Palin and Colin Powell gave the nation a final televised chance to choose between the past and the future. In separate appearances on the NBC television network this weekend, Palin and Powell squared off in what may […]

                           by James M. Wall John McCain came into the third debate with a determination and a faulty use of language, both slang and formal.  He proclaimed that he would “whip Obama’s ‘you-know-what’ in the debate.” That school yard talk set the tone […]