Ye Elders of Israel, Come Join now with Reid

My wife, still a Republican, was questioned recently why she wasn't supporting Romney, "Don't you believe he's the fulfillment of the prophecy that the Elders of Israel will rise up to save the Constitution hanging by a thread?" My wife's response was, "Why couldn't it just as well be Senator Harry Reid or someone else?"

In spite of the generally ignored disavowal by the LDS Church of the White Horse Prophecy, it still hangs on through the tenacious threads of  folklore, and maybe for some, as justification for the candidacy of Mormon Mitt Romney.

But why not Harry Reid? I just read the most amazing thing how he helped set something in motion that I happen to believe is very important for the preservation of our constitutional system of government.

Forgetting that Borders had gone out of business, I ended up at the WalMart near the empty store in Carson City perusing the limited literary selections. Not yet able to stomach Sarah Palin's Going Rogue, even for only $4.97 in the bargain discount bin (maybe I'll buy it for a buck when it shows up at the dollar store) I coughed up an extra buck to buy Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime, by John Heileman and Mark Halperin (Harper Collins 2010).

I love these current-event histories written by journalists about election campaigns. I have quite a few of them in my library starting with old Theodore H. White on the elections of the 1960s and many more from others coming forward. As they are written in a contemporaneous, journalistic style, they have a rather short shelf-life. And maybe that's a reason why I have latched on to them as you easily find them in library discards or discount bins. But the main reason I find the history of presidential elections so fascinating is that the most momentous historical events sometimes turn on the smallest of choices or chance.

And here I am only 34 pages into it when I see that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called the young Senator Obama into his office in the summer of 2006:

"You're not going to go anyplace here," Reid declared soon after Obama took his seat. "I know that you don't like it, doing what you're doing."

In observing Obama for the past year and a half, Reid had sensed his frustration and impatience, had heard rumblings that Obama was already angling to head home and take a shot at the Illinois governorship. Reid had no idea if it was true, but he knew this much: Obama simply wasn't cut out to be a Senate lifer.

As Obama listened to the senior senator from Nevada, he wasn't sure where the old man was going. But then Reid's disquisition took an unexpected turn, surprising Obama in both its bluntness and adamancy.

Senator Obama returned to the office of his aide Robert Gibbs who had thought his boss was in trouble. The Senator told him:

"Harry wants me to run for president."

"That whole meeting was about you running for president?"

"Yeah," Obama said, then grinned. "He really wants me to run for president."

Thank you for that little piece of inspiration, Senator Reid. It seems a bit more valid to me than unofficial, mythical revelations.

And can anyone tell me why the WalMart in Carson City, the capital of Nevada, only sells California state flags? I was tempted, though - the big bear and everything.