WOW - Du'ers and freeptards pour praise on Ann Richards

[The Straight Story]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1701116/posts

A true hallmark of a wonderful woman when the two most opposite ends of the magnetic political compass can both point to her as a good woman.

You will be missed Ma'am, by many.

[LeighAnn]

Noooo!

Please tell me I'm misunderstanding this...

[The Straight Story]

2. Sadly, you are not :( (nt)

[brook]

1. Damn!

I'm devastated. Loved that woman! That's a big deep hole left in this sorry world!

[niyad]

6. there's a hole in the world

EAGLES LYRICS

"Hole In The World"


There's a hole in the world tonight.
There's a Cloud of fear and sorrow.
There's a hole in the world tonight.
Don't let there be a hole in the world tomorrow.

They say that anger is just love disappointed.
They say that love is just a state of mind,
but all this fighting over who will be anointed.
Oh how can people be so blind


There's a hole in the world tonight.
There's a Cloud of fear and sorrow.
There's a hole in the world tonight.
Don't let there be a hole in the world tomorrow.

Oh they tell me there's a place over yonder,
cool water running through the burning sand,
until we we learn to love one
another we never reach the promise land.


There's a hole in the world tonight.
There's a Cloud of fear and sorrow.
There's a hole in the world tonight.
Don't let there be a hole in the world tomorrow.

[Neecy]

3. wow

I read through the FR thread, and I have to say I'm impressed with their response. There was only one outwardly cruel remark made and the guy who made it was immediately jumped on.

Nice to see some decency and humanity over there.

On edit: There's a very wonderful post over there by a guy who used to drive a limo in Dallas, and often had Ann as a passenger. Here's a short excerpt:

"I took her to a big Penney event just before the 2000 election and Vernon Jordan was in the car, He asked her if she had any advice for the Gore people on how to beat Bush, She said, " Vern, if I knew how to beat Bush I wouldn't be in this damn car with you now would I!'".

It's worth reading his whole post - it was terrific.

[benny05]

4. Ann Richards--"Woman's Place is in a Dome"

They appreciated a woman pol with guts.



Here is a passage from her legendary 1988 speech that has a rally cry for this year's elections:

They talked about war and Washington and what this country needed. They talked straight talk. And it came from people who were living their lives as best they could. And that's what we're gonna do tonight. We're gonna tell how the cow ate the cabbage.

I got a letter last week from a young mother in Lorena, Texas, and I wanna read part of it to you. She writes,

"Our worries go from pay day to pay day, just like millions of others. And we have two fairly decent incomes, but I worry how I'm going to pay the rising car insurance and food. I pray my kids don't have a growth spurt from August to December, so I don't have to buy new jeans. We buy clothes at the budget stores and we have them fray and fade and stretch in the first wash. We ponder and try to figure out how we're gonna pay for college and braces and tennis shoes. We don't take vacations and we don't go out to eat. Please don't think me ungrateful. We have jobs and a nice place to live, and we're healthy. We're the people you see every day in the grocery stores, and we obey the laws. We pay our taxes. We fly our flags on holidays and we plod along trying to make it better for ourselves and our children and our parents. We aren't vocal any more. I think maybe we're too tired. I believe that people like us are forgotten in America."

Well of course you believe you're forgotten, because you have been.

This Republican Administration treats us as if we were pieces of a puzzle that can't fit together. They've tried to put us into compartments and separate us from each other. Their political theory is "divide and conquer." They've suggested time and time again that what is of interest to one group of Americans is not of interest to any one else. We've been isolated. We've been lumped into that sad phraseology called "special interests." They've told farmers that they were selfish, that they would drive up food prices if they asked the government to intervene on behalf of the family farm, and we watched farms go on the auction block while we bought food from foreign countries. Well, that's wrong!

They told working mothers it's all their fault -- their families are falling apart because they had to go to work to keep their kids in jeans and tennis shoes and college. And they're wrong!! They told American labor they were trying to ruin free enterprise by asking for 60 days' notice of plant closings, and that's wrong. And they told the auto industry and the steel industry and the timber industry and the oil industry, companies being threatened by foreign products flooding this country, that you're "protectionist" if you think the government should enforce our trade laws. And that is wrong. When they belittle us for demanding clean air and clean water for trying to save the oceans and the ozone layer, that's wrong.

No wonder we feel isolated and confused. We want answers and their answer is that "something is wrong with you." Well nothing's wrong with you. Nothing's wrong with you that you can't fix in November!"

Style, grace, compassion, wit, transparency and brains.

This is for you, Ann!

[oasis]

5. Wow, the Freeps are showing much class. Kudos to them.

:thumbsup:

[vickitulsa]

7. I was living in Big D when Ann Richards was governor,

and like so many others I was stunned beyond belief at the "upset" election results when the Chimp took over her office.

I never hear anyone else talk about this, even here at DU, but to this day I believe that was the FIRST election STOLEN for Chimpy and handed to him by powerful, sneaky, rotten thieves. I believed this at the time ... it was just too outlandish to think he could have beaten that lady in a fair election. She was powerful in her own right for sure -- and as "connected" as one could be in the political realm. Too many folks of all political stripes liked and respected her. Right up until election day, everyone I knew was laughing their asses off at the idea that Dubya could ever defeat her.

Years later when the Supremes also handed a big election to him -- this time the biggest -- I just about lost hope for ever having fair and honest elections again in this country or getting the Republicans out of power.

I didn't agree with everything Ann Richards did, but I sure as hell liked her and loved the way she could put doofuses like the Bu$he$ in their place with just a few well-chosen words.

I'll miss her for sure. She was truly one of a kind!

[VelmaD]

11. Check this post out from Samantha

Ann knew she got jobbed in that election...and she told us what was coming in 2000.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2509615#2509716

[The Straight Story]

12. Thanks for that link

Sobering really, when we think of where we are vs where we could have been.

[vickitulsa]

22. I appreciate that link. Read the entire thread & posted.

And like Straight Story said in his reply to you, it's hard to take when we think of where we are now vs where we might have been if Ann had had the second term she no doubt earned with actual votes.

It reminds me of that old parable about "For want of a nail, the shoe was lost...." A classic situation where an event that might not seem at the time to be of worldwide significance turned out to be just that.

Without a governorship "leg" to stand on, Baby Bush would probably have remained where an overgrown spoiled-brat-baby ought to be and never instead ended up in a position to do so much harm in the U.S. and the world -- directly responsible for death and injury to many thousands of people and lasting damage and misery to (almost) everyone on the planet!

Not only was the Chimp's installation as governor of Texas his stepping stone to the White House, it was Rove's first big success. That meant he was to enjoy a long and nefarious career in smearing and lying about Dubya's opponents. Given free rein, Rove was allowed to infect our political scene with the nastiest of diseases.

I just have to keep hoping that it doesn't prove fatal to us all....

[bullwinkle428]

13. AP story had her approval rating at OVER 60% when she "LOST"

to Junior in that gubernatorial race. I'll bet every last $ to my name that there was all kinds of monkey business (no pun intended) going on...

[Hippo_Tron]

20. She lost in '94, the worst electoral year for Democrats in recent history

Ann and many other great Democrats got screwed because Newt Gingrich managed to unleash the wrath of angry white men on the Clinton administration and the Democratic party that year. Democrats did nothing to get their base to turnout and the end result was a disaster. '94 was the year that gave us Bill "videotape diagnosis" Frist, Rick "man on dog" Santorum, George "Macaca" Allen, and "President" Chimp.

[question everything]

8. And it really grates me to think that she lost to Bush..

This was the first indication that our country was heading into dangerous water.

[Rex]

9. Ann would have made the best POTUS since I dunno.

A true stateswomen among a sea of worthless politicians. One of a kind.

[Az_lefty]

10. Oh my God, I loved that lady...a real Texan

Rest in peace lovely lady
:cry:

[Straight Shooter]

14. Ladies and gentlemen, compare: Class versus ass.

The OP has furnished you the class.

I hereby offer, for your consideration, the ass:

[Kurovski]

15. Some genuine heart from FR.

Good news.

[Syrinx]

17. I don't know

A lot of those people seem to like her because she was from Texas instead of New Jersey. I don't grok freeper logic.

[Bluebear]

21. Some genuine class from FR, no doubt.....and then dig this one:

"How about crude Texas gal.

I have several female acquaintances in Texas and they are nothing like Richards...mnore like the first lady Laura..now that's a class act. A real Texas gal."

:eyes:

oh,well hehehe

[Syrinx]

16. this is a good one

To: mhking
One of the more interesting political personalities in modern times. As the governor of Texas in 1994 she had sky-high approval ratings in the weeks and days leading up to the election, had a sky-high approval rating on Election Day, and had sky-high approval ratings in the days and weeks after the election. Yet she lost to George W. Bush by a pretty wide margin despite outspending him on the campaign trail.

Go figure.
108 posted on 09/13/2006 8:06:10 PM PDT by Alberta's Child (Can money pay for all the days I lived awake but half asleep?)

[VolcanoJen]

18. Godspeed to Ann Richards

I was so sad to hear the news. :-(

[Hippo_Tron]

19. She will be missed by many

Ann proved that with the right combination of class, charisma, and charm, progressive minded people can win elections in the South.