"How do you solve a problem like Maria?
How do you catch a cloud and pin it down?
How do you find a word that means Maria?
A flibbertajibbit? A will of a wisp? A clown?
Many a thing you know you'd like tell her.
Many a thing she ought to understand.
But how do you make her stay?
And listen to all you say?
How do you keep a wave upon the sand?"
When I was a child, multiple-screen theaters were rare — if they existed at all.
My childhood memories are of the old-fashioned movie theaters one sees today mostly in old black-and-white movies or TV shows — one screen, big marquee out front with flashing lights promoting whatever film happened to be showing there, and usually there was a balcony (in my hometown, blacks were still herded into a designated section of the balcony, never permitted to sit anywhere else when I was a child — even if the rest of the theater was practically empty).
I say this because there was such a theater only a few blocks from my grandmother's house in Dallas. And, when I was a child, it seemed like "The Sound of Music" was showing at that theater for months, if not years.
Now, I know that time periods can become distorted in a child's mind.
But I'm fairly certain the movie was showing at that theater for quite awhile.
I say that because I grew up in a central Arkansas town that was about 330 miles from Dallas. My family tried to visit the grandparents about three or four times a year — typically at least once in the summer, again at Thanksgiving and again at Christmas — and I have clear memories of going to see "The Sound of Music" in Dallas more than once.
My grandmother was a big fan of that movie, and I remember her suggesting that we go to see it several times when we visited. Normally, our visits were for a week or less, and it would have been extremely unusual for us to go see the same movie twice in a week, even one my grandmother liked as much as "The Sound of Music."
But she would have suggested seeing it when we visited in the summer, and she would have suggested seeing it again when we visited at Thanksgiving or Christmas.
Anyway, I have memories of going to see the movie one time when I was wearing light, summer clothing and another time when I was wearing a heavy coat like the kind I always wore during the Christmas holidays.
And that indicates that we saw it during the summer and during the winter.
I'll admit, it's possible I've got these memories confused with something else. After all, I'm relying on memories from more than 40 years ago, when I was in elementary school.
But "The Sound of Music" was the highest-grossing film to that time. And, in the days before multi-screen theaters, it wasn't unusual for popular movies to have extended runs at some theaters.
Especially a movie that was shattering box office records across the nation.
Anyway, my memories of certain songs and characters in that film have led me to some observations about Sarah Palin.
There's a strange dichotomy surrounding her candidacy. It's a problem Barack Obama's campaign can't seem to resolve.
It's the question about Palin's experience.
Her political résumé is thin, as is Obama's.
She has executive experience, even if she's been a big fish in a little pond. Obama has none.
She had very limited legislative experience, as a member of her small hometown's city council. Obama has the edge in that category, having served in the Illinois legislature and, for the last three and a half years, in the U.S. Senate.
This, it seems to me, would be very important if Palin and Obama were seeking the same office. But they're not.
On the experience question, Obama and his opponent, John McCain, have the same amount of executive experience — none.
They both belong to the same legislative body — the U.S. Senate — and McCain has been there about five times as long as Obama.
Palin is the only major party nominee with executive experience. But, for someone whose state is so close to Russia and whose son is being dispatched to fight in Iraq, she has been portrayed as blissfully unaware of foreign policy issues and the executive's role in foreign relations.
That doesn't really seem fair to me. I watched Palin's interview with ABC's Charlie Gibson. In the much-discussed segment in which Gibson asked Palin if she agreed with the "Bush doctrine," I thought Palin's response ("In what respect, Charlie?") was reasonable, considering the fact that there are about six versions of this doctrine floating around. Even Bush himself doesn't seem to know which one is the most accurate.
Essentially, though, she was correct when she said the purpose of the doctrine was to "rid this world of Islamic extremism." Whether one agrees with Bush's doctrine or not, it's darn near impossible to argue that it hasn't focused on the extremists in the Muslim world.
Now, Palin's views wouldn't be a problem — unless McCain is elected president and then dies in office. The constitutional requirements of a vice president aren't demanding — but things can change without warning, as Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson discovered.
And, as a cancer survivor, McCain's longevity is not assured — even though his mother is still alive in her 90s, suggesting that the family genes favor long lives.
So the experience factor really only becomes relevant for Palin if she ascends to the presidency. And there's no way to know ahead of time if that's going to happen.
Of course, if it did happen, it wouldn't be a first for this country (except for the fact that Palin is a woman).
Back in 1920, the Republicans nominated the governor of Massachusetts, Calvin Coolidge, to be Warren Harding's running mate.
Like McCain, Harding was a senator who had never been a governor (although he ran for governor once and was defeated).
Like Palin, Coolidge had been governor for only a couple of years (although, far from having one of the smallest populations in the nation, Massachusetts had one of the largest).
And, like Palin, Coolidge had been a mayor before becoming governor.
Although Coolidge ascended to the presidency following Harding's fatal heart attack in 1923, the question of his experience never became an issue during the 1920 campaign.
(As a matter of fact, Coolidge wasn't even Harding's choice for running mate. Harding and the party bosses favored a senator from Wisconsin, but the delegates to the convention rebelled in favor of Coolidge, who was popular for his handling of the Boston police strike the year before.)
But the experience factor has been used by some as a wedge issue, an attempt to establish more distance between Palin and the disaffected supporters of Hillary Clinton (who has arguably been advocating everything Palin opposes since Palin was a child).
Democrats would like to turn GOP attempts to bridge that gap into a political "bridge to nowhere," but their efforts were dealt a setback this week when CNN reported that "Lynn Forester de Rothschild, a prominent Hillary Clinton supporter and member of the Democratic National Committee’s Platform Committee, will endorse John McCain for president" today.
It seems to me the Democrats' Palin problem can be explained in a couple of cultural references.
One is, of course, the dilemma over how to handle her, as described in the song lyrics from "Maria" in "The Sound of Music." Ideally, Palin's opponents would dismiss her without dissing her gender (thereby alienating women like Forester).
The other is an old Merrie Melodies wartime cartoon from the 1940s called "Swooner Crooner."
In the cartoon, Porky Pig is supervisor of an "eggcraft" factory in which dozens of hens are employed to lay eggs for the war effort.
The hens get distracted from their duties by a singing chicken who bears a striking resemblance to Frank Sinatra, then Porky recruits a new singing chicken (who bears a striking resemblance to Bing Crosby), and the hens become more productive than they've ever been.
That may help to explain the problem Democrats are having these days. Until McCain picked Palin as his running mate, Obama was the only candidate, as the major parties' first black nominee for president, who represented a real break with the past.
But Palin is the first woman nominated by the Republicans — and only the second woman to be nominated by a major party.
Right now, she's the hot thing. She's taken the spotlight from Obama.
That's what successful candidates do.
Obama and his people have to take the initiative and find a way to re-claim the spotlight.
When they did this against Hillary Clinton, in the days following Clinton's surprising victory in the New Hampshire primary, it was easy to narrow it down to racism vs. misogyny because both candidates shared the same political philosophy.
It's different in the general election. The only thing Palin has in common with Clinton is her gender — other than that, they seem to have completely different opinions on every major issue. Nevertheless, she seems to be gaining support among those Clinton supporters for whom gender was the most important issue in this campaign.
Obama and Biden can't win over most of those voters — nor should they try.
But the debates will give the Democrats the opportunity to re-capture the spotlight on the issues. With unemployment and gas prices going up and support for Iraq declining daily, that's a playing field that should be more favorable to them.
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