A hundred and fifty years ago candidates stayed home. Today the voters do and who can blame them. The debates in
2007 confirm that the run for President is nothing more than running a gauntlet of special interest groups of which
television stations and their commentators, while parading their neutrality, are simply another one. Their angle is
ratings, the better to sell Viagra, Cheetos and Coors while trashing to oblivion both the next President and the
nineteen bridesmaids.
Republican candidates must appeal to Evangelicals, tax cutters, fence builders, fence sitters, cold and hot
warriors. In the process, these candidates become a made-up thing -- a web of promises that cage these lions even
before they get to the zoo.
The Democrats have it no easier. If the Republicans' boundries are chiseled in granite the Democratics' confusion of
promises seethes like spaghetti coming to boil. Both parties fail miserably to deliver on the promise of a better
America because their commitments are to constituencies that support them, not the country they will serve. This is
a system undermined by special interests to ensure their continuing prosperity, not yours.
Over the next few months many of you will have an opportunity to vote in a caucus or primary. Exercise this
right. There is hope while there is involvement.
To familiarize yourself with the names of those who entered at least some of the primaries I include a crossword
puzzle to test yourself. Some have already come and gone but two will dominate and one will win in the year ahead.
If you clicked on the picture - the answer is Wendell Willkie. The year? 1940.
Sotheby's Fine Books, Manuscripts & More Available for Immediate Purchase
Sotheby’s: William Shakespeare. The Poems and Sonnets of William Shakespeare, 1960. 7,210 USD
Sotheby’s: Charles Dickens. A Christmas Carol, First Edition, 1843. 17,500 USD
Sotheby’s: William Golding. Lord of the Flies, First Edition, 1954. 5,400 USD
Sotheby's Fine Books, Manuscripts & More Available for Immediate Purchase
Sotheby’s: Lewis Carroll. Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There, Inscribed First Edition, 1872. 25,000 USD
Sotheby’s: J.R.R. Tolkien. The Hobbit, First Edition, 1937. 12,000 USD
Sotheby’s: John Milton. Paradise Lost, 1759. 5,400 USD
Bonhams, Dec. 18: A Very Fine Composite Atlas Magnificently Illuminated and Heightened with Gold in a Fine Contemporary Hand Throughout. $300,000 - $500,000
Bonhams, Dec. 18: Saint-Exupéry's Revised Ending for Wind, Sand and Stars. $40,000 - $60,000
Bonhams, Dec. 18: Edith Wharton's Gold Medal from the National Institute of Arts and Letters, 1924. $20,000 - $30,000
Bonhams, Dec. 18: Salinger on the Glass Family and on Detachment. $10,000 - $15,000
Bonhams, Dec. 18: Fanny Burney's Groundbreaking First Novel. Evelina, Or a Young Lady's Entrance into the World. $10,000 - $15,000
Bonhams, Dec. 18: Kafka's Earliest Extant Piece of Writing. Autograph Note Signed ("Franz Kafka"). $10,000 - $15,000
Bonhams, Dec. 18: Wagner Signed "Ride of the Valkries." $6,000 - $9,000
Bonhams, Dec. 18: Dickens on the Death of Little Nell. $5,000 - $8,000
Bonhams, Dec. 18: Sylvia Plath's Copy of Joy of Cooking. $4,000 - $6,000
Bonhams, Dec. 18: Walt Whitman and Friends: Whitman to James Russell Lowell. $8,000 - $12,000
Bonhams, Dec. 18: Walt Whitman and Friends: The Genesis of his Lincoln Lectures. $6,000 - $9,000
