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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (July 17, 2015)
OPINION 4A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JULY 17, 2015 Bitterness abounds in the race ahead W orking for a political campaign is good preparation for covering politics as a journalist. When I worked in the 1970 Tom Walsh for Portland City Council campaign, I canvassed North Portland homes. It was an education in many things. Most of all, I realized the broad mass of Portlanders were unaware there was an election coming until about two weeks out. As election day ap- proached, you could see the growing curios- ity. Sixteen months prior to the 2016 pres- idential election, there is more buzz than I remember last time around — about who’s running and what’s at stake. While my wife and I were in Washington, D.C., recently we had dinner with two old friends, George and Julie. I knew these two from when I covered WKH RI¿FH RI &RQJUHVV- man Norm Dicks of Steve Tacoma, Wash. Politics Forrester and real estate are the two staples of dinner conversation in Wash- ington. While we out here might view the presidential primaries from a distance, Wash- ington’s political class speaks of it in propri- etary terms. The following night — over dinner at my cousin’s home — we had the presidential election discussion again. And two nights lat- Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks at a campaign event in New York Monday. er in Annapolis it came up during a reunion with six old friends. When Seattle friends stayed with us during the Astoria Music Festival, the Republican ¿HOGRIFDQGLGDWHVDQG+LOODU\&OLQWRQFDPH up. And last Saturday, when we visited some other Seattle friends, it came up. My wife’s listening leads her to believe there is enthusiasm among women about having a woman president, but there is a lack RI HQWKXVLDVP DPRQJ KHU IULHQGV IRU +LOODU\ Clinton. One very connected woman (who has two photos of herself with Barack Obama) VD\V VKH LV QRW KHOSLQJ +LOODU\ XQOHVV VKH LV nominated. Seth Wenig/AP I f you read the commentary surrounding the race thus far — and I confess to reading a fair bit of it — you know the themes. There is WKH*23&ORZQ&DUWKDWPDNHV+LOODU\ORRN good. There is the Donald Trump theme — that he is the nightmare Republicans asked for. There is the Royal Families theme — that the election will come down to a dynasty (the Bushes) versus a would-be dynasty (the Clin- P. Kevin Morley/Richmond Times-Dispatch/AP tons). And there are smaller themes that might Donald Trump answers questions in Al- be called phenomena: Carly Fiorina, Bernie bemarle House, a property of his outside Sanders. And always there is the theme of Big of Charlottesville, Va., Tuesday. Money that fuels the anti-Clinton pack. F ocusing on candidates some- times misses a much larger story. )RULQVWDQFHWKHÀLSVLGHRI'RQDOG7UXPS¶V berating Mexicans is the sudden recogni- WLRQ WKDW WKH +LVSDQLF FRPPXQLW\ KDV HQRU- mous economic and political clout. Simi- ODUO\ WKH ÀLS VLGH RI *23 YRWHU UHVWULFWLRQV in 2012 was a black electorate that struck back by enduring an interminable wait to vote. The insightful Gerald Seib of The Wall Street Journal wrote this week that the appar- ent choice is “optimism vs. anger.” On the op- timistic side is Jeb Bush. On the anger side are Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. My Washington friend George sent me a story from The Week proclaiming that the pres- idential race is all about the Supreme Court. Nati Harnik/AP Republican presidential candidate former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush speaks during a meet and greet event in Council Bluffs, Iowa, Tuesday. Optimism versus anger is how Gerald Seib describes the choice that’s coming I n calamitous moments, visiting the past provides calming perspective. In Salem following the sudden departure of Gov. John Kitzhaber, I ruminated on the comforting sta- ELOLW\RIWKH0DUN+DW¿HOGHUD While in Washington, my wife and I visited the National Portrait Gallery. Its centerpiece is the presidential gallery, where reside the Gilbert Stuart portrait of Washington, the Matthew Brady photo- graph of Lincoln taken weeks prior to his assassination, a striking Norman Rock- ZHOO RI 1L[RQ WKH 3HWHU +XUG SRUWUDLW RI Lyndon Johnson (“the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen,” said LBJ) and several stud- ies and portraits of Franklin Roosevelt. There seem to be more portraiture — on canvas and in sculpture — of Andrew Jack- VRQWKDQRIDQ\RWKHUSUHVLGHQW2OG+LFNR- ry captured the popular imagination. I n 2012, I was impressed with how personal the anger over Barack Obama became here in Astoria. I was visited prior to the election by an angry friend whom I had not seen in months, if not years. My wife learned of an old Astoria friendship that was unilaterally severed because of Obama’s election. I have no doubt that what’s coming will be acrimonious. Since the odds-on Democratic FDQGLGDWHZLOOEHWKH¿UVWZRPDQQRPLQDWHG by a major party for president, that will be as ELJDQLJQLWLRQSRLQWDVWKH¿UVWEODFNFDQGL- date for president. — S.A.F. The Dalai Lama gets mischievous By NICHOLAS KRISTOF New York Times News Service T he Dalai Lama, who may be the only octogenarian spiri- tual leader with a profoundly mis- chievous streak, has a suggestion for China’s Communist leaders: Take up reincarnation. I’m interviewing him in his hotel room in New York, at the end of an overseas tour marking his 80th birth- day, and we’re talking about what happens after he dies. +H LV WKH WK 'DODL /DPD HDFK considered a reincarnation of the previ- ous one, and usually after one has died a search is undertaken for an infant to become the next. But he has said that he may be the last of the line, or that the next Dalai Lama might emerge outside Tibet — or might even be a girl. This talk infuriates Beijing, which is determined to choose the next Dalai Lama (to use as a tool to control Tibet). So, startlingly, the atheists in the Chi- nese Communist Party have been in- sisting that Buddhist reincarnation must continue. ly, and in 2007 he bravely used my col- umn to send an important olive branch to Beijing — only to be criticized by fellow Tibetans as too conciliatory, and rejected as insincere by China. But I told him that I also thought there were times when he had been too cautious and had missed opportunities for rap- prochement with Beijing. My exam- ples: In the 1980s, when the leaders +X<DREDQJDQG=KDR=L\DQJVRXJKW compromise on Tibet; after the 10th One reason to end the line, he sug- Panchen Lama died; and in the run-up gested, is that a future Dalai Lama to the Beijing Olympics. might be “naughty” and diminish the The Dalai Lama was having none of SRVLWLRQ+LVELJJHVWFRQFHUQVHHPVWR that — he doesn’t think he missed op- be that after he dies, China will select portunities. But he acknowledged that a new pet Dalai Lama who may act as Zhao had been sympathetic and added a quisling to help the Chinese control WKDWLI=KDRDQG+XKDGQRWEHHQRXVW- Tibet and to give legitimacy to their ed, “the Tibetan issue would already be policies there. solved, no question.” “Sadly, the precedent has been set,” To my surprise, the Dalai Lama was he said, referring to the Panchen Lama, also enthusiastic about Xi Jinping, the the second most important reincarnated FXUUHQW &KLQHVH OHDGHU +H VSRNH DG- lama in Tibetan Buddhism. After the miringly of Xi’s anti-corruption cam- 10th Panchen Lama died in 1989, Chi- paign, said Xi’s mother was “very re- na kidnapped the baby chosen by Tibet- ligious, a very devout Buddhist,” and ans as his successor and helped anoint noted Xi himself had spoken positively a different child as the 11th Panchen of Buddhism. Lama. Nobody knows what happened So, President Xi, if you’re reading to the real Panchen Lama. this, the Dalai Lama would like to visit I admire the Dalai Lama enormous- &KLQD+RZDERXWDQLQYLWDWLRQ" The next Dalai Lama might emerge outside Tibet — or might even be a girl. Francine Orr /Los Angeles Times/AP The Dalai Lama, left, with Tibetan monk Sherab Chophel, right, the art- ist who created the mandala, view the mandala together during a private event July 7 at the Banning House at the University of California, in Irvine. The sand mandala was created in honor of the Dalai Lama’s 80th birthday. “The Chinese Communist Party is pretending that they know more about the reincarnation system than the Dalai Lama,” said the Dalai Lama, laughing. “The Chinese Com- munists should accept the concept of rebirth. Then they should recognize the reincarnation of Chairman Mao Zedong, then Deng Xiaoping. Then they have the right to involve them- selves in the Dalai Lama’s reincar- nation.” The Dalai Lama hinted that he would hold some kind of referendum among Tibetan exiles, and consulta- tions among Tibetans within China, about whether a new Dalai Lama should succeed him. The issue will be formally resolved around his 90th birth- day, he said. STEPHEN A. FORRESTER, Editor & Publisher • LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager • CARL EARL, Systems Manager JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager • DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager HEATHER RAMSDELL, Circulation Manager Founded in 1873