Open Road

Monday Apr 21st 2008

Clinton vs Obama – the latest TV debate

Open Road’s man in Pennsylvania reports on the television debate between Clinton and Obama prior to the Democratic primary there

One of the great contradictions – and tragedies – about public discourse in the United States these days is that there are many things that must never be said. Americans must always be hopeful, must always see opportunity, must always be patriotic. Frustration, anger, cynicism, and – as Senator Obama has learned the last week, bitterness, must never creep into the national soul or psyche. That is if you listen to the rhetoric of candidates on the campaign trail. Everyone is happy, hopeful and optimistic about the journey we are all on to that bright, shining city on a hill. I wonder if this is what the founders had in mind when they constructed the First Amendment.