Three weeks to go until the Big Day, less than 24 hours until the final presidential debate of this election cycle, and roughly about an hour before I finish writing this Blue Musings post. I'm not sure what that has to do with the election, I just like sentences that have three parts like that.
Obama has extended his lead nationally over the last few weeks, including a new poll out tonight from CBS and the NY Times show a whopping 14-point lead for the Democrat.
Obama has put away McCain targets in Pennsylvania and Michigan. He's opened up modest leads in Colorado, Ohio, Florida, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and our beloved New Hampshire. Things remain very close in Virginia, Missouri, and Nevada, but the flood of Obama support has put Indiana, West Virginia, and North Carolina in play. (Pollster even has North Dakota in the tossup category, but there hasn't been much polling there and I think McCain can rest easy). I'm sure Republicans never thought they'd have to worry about those latter states breaking for Obama this late in the going.
So why has this happened? Why does it appear if the election were held today Obama could potentially take the electoral college by 150 votes? There's several factors to consider.
I remember just a month ago the undecidedes were still making up 10-15% in national polling. Well, it's safe to say a HUGE number of those undecided voters a month ago have broken for Obama, and given the current political climate, it will be extremely difficult for John McCain to lure them away. The aforementioned poll has Obama winning independent voters by 18 points, a truly staggering figure.
While Sarah Palin roused the Republican base, she's done nothing to attract middle-of-the-road voters. I think her interviews and non-performance in the debate have totally disgusted most of the sensible people in the United States. No one, even the most ardent conservatives, can successfully argue that she is qualified to be in a position to be president. Check out the legendary David S. Broder's most recent "Man on the Street" interview column, where he heads to a typically-swing Philly suburb to canvass the masses. Let's just say most of the people he talked to don't really like Palin.
McCain hasn't actually lost the election yet, but Palin is such a bust one has to wonder if the gamble to put her on the ticket may go down as the worst in political history. I never thought I'd see the day when a campaign was dumb enough do put someone on the ticket that would actually lose the election for the party.
However, the biggest reason why Obama is poised to win in three weeks is this: John McCain has overseen the most erratic, schizophrenic, purposeless presidential campaign over the last month that anyone (so it seems) can remember.
It all began with the campaign suspension over the economic crisis (just a week after McCain claimed the "fundamentals of the economy are strong"). McCain went to Washington, didn't help anything get done, and when the dust settled, everyone and their brother blamed the financial chaos on deregulation-loving Republicans in Congress.
McCain has attempted to shift the focus from the issues to Obama's tangential relationship with Bill Ayers, a 1960s-era radical that exactly zero people in Youngstown, Scranton or Albuquerque give a flying fuck about. Voters in both the Broder column and the Times article about today's poll reflect that exact feeling during this time of unrest both at home and abroad. Obama is speaking more about them and McCain is, well, who the hell knows what he's talking about anymore.
Earlier this week McCain seemed to be ready to play nice, saying he'd give up the negative attacks and run a respectful campaign. Today, the campaign released a memo attacking Obama on Ayers. Nothing these guys do make any sense, it seems.
I feel people have watched these unpredictable, erratic happenings from the McCain campaign and have seen a glimpse of a potential McCain presidency. Obama criticized McCain's temperament in his DNC speech, and we all see why now. If McCain were to act in this manner as president, we'd all be screwed. Not that we aren't already.
Obama has represented that steady hand, that calm demeanor needed to do well in a crisis. McCain's been like that, only the exact opposite. With an astronomical 89 percent of Americans believing our country is on the wrong track, people want someone with a different approach and a different attitudes towards finding solutions. That bodes well for Obama.
Americans have turned off the BS factor of the Republican spin machine, and they are ready for change. With three weeks left, I'm ready for history.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Five Weeks Left
It's so hard to believe that this, the longest presidential campaign in history, is nearing an end. In five weeks Americans will head to their polling places and decide on local, state, and national races. Despite my original intention to head home for Election Day, I will instead be voting absentee. I don't believe NH absentee ballots will be available until next week, but if you are a college student registered to vote in the Granite State but won't be able to make home November 4, the absentee process is really, really simple.
First, print off and fill out this form. Then, find out where to mail the form by looking at this list of NH town clerks. Next, dole out the 42 cents for a stamp and put the form in the mail. Your town clerk will mail you a ballot. What's cool about voting absentee is that you can take your time before sending it back to your town of residence. Of course, make sure the ballot you send back is postmarked by November 4. Otherwise, you're ballot won't count and you'll have done all that for nothing.
OK, now that my absentee voting tutorial is out of the way I can get back into the current issues of the day. I don't want to sound overly optimistic, but I don't see much of a way that Barack Obama and Joe Biden lose this election after the events of these past few weeks. John McCain, with his schizophrenic and irresponsible attitude towards the financial crisis (i.e., saying the "fundamentals of our economy are strong" and then "suspending" his campaign and describing recent events as a financial Pearl Harbor within about a week), his inability to control surrogates like Carly Fiorina and Douglas Holtz-Eakin (who unbelievably said McCain was partially responsible the creation of the BlackBerry, a device McCain would have no idea how to operate), his lackluster debate performance, and the absolute joke his VP choice has turned into (more on that later).
McCain's completely botched political stunt last week, which included his petty attempt to postpone Friday's debate, may have provided all of us with a look into how a McCain presidency might look. Senator McCain suspended his campaign last Wednesday, even though his ads continued to run throughout the country, his surrogates made every attempt to portray Obama as an America-hating liberal tree-hugging dope fiend, and had enough time to do an interview with Katie Couric before heading back to Washington to New York. Oh, and in case you hadn't heard, that last bit pissed off a certain late night TV host.
So he went to Washington, sat a huge table in the White House where he apparently said nothing, and went back to Capitol Hill to try and save the day. Well, no deal was struck before Friday afternoon, he "un-suspended" his campaign, whimpered to the debate, looked really old, and then headed back to Washington. McCain spent all day Saturday on the phone with people directly involved in the process. Then, on the campaign trail Monday morning, he accused Obama (who has looked every bit the part of presidential throughout this crisis) of "phoning it in" in terms of trying to get the bailout legislation ready for a vote. Umm, yeah. I suppose we should now start being concerned about McCain's short-term memory.
The rest, as they say, is history. The House voted down the bailout plan by a 228-205 vote, leaving everyone scrambling for a new answer. McCain's campaign then had the gall to blame Obama for failure of the bailout plan, even though ANYONE paying attention to this process knows the deal failed because of the intransigence of House Republicans more concerned about losing their own jobs than figuring out a way to stop a 2nd Great Depression. The three-headed monster of House Republican jackasses of Blunt, Boehner and Cantor, for their part, blamed the failure of the bill on a partisan (yet entirely factual) speech given by Speaker Pelosi before the final vote.
(Quick aside: Are you fucking kidding me? The most important economic legislation since the New Deal was voted down because of a SPEECH BY THE HOUSE SPEAKER??!?!?!? That's beyond reprehensible. And these assholes wonder why voters have flocked away from their party in recent years.)
Anyway, I believe we've seen John McCain's true colors throughout this excursion. The old man just doesn't have the faculties, temperment and judgement to be president at this critical point in history. He decided to stop everything in his campaign so he could come back to Washington and deal with this economic issue (which, as I understand, is the first economic issue McCain has attempted to take a lead on during his entire time in Congress), and he couldn't even stick to his word. His campaign was immediately prepared to blame Obama for the failure of the bill, even though Obama's had literally nothing to do with process thus far (at the insistence of those in his party) and it's not entirely clear if either McCain or Obama would have supported the bill had it passed the House. When McCain's campaign issued their proclamation of blame on Obama, I knew for sure what I'd suspected for a long time:
The McCain campaign is so desperate right now that they will literally say ANYTHING, true or false, to disparage Obama.
I know that's not rocket science, but it should tell you something about McCain. The King of Straight Talk has turned into the King of Bullshit. As Ohio, Viriginia, New Hampshire, Florida, and Missouri slip away, McCain will continue to get even more desperate. I'm almost afraid to see where this will take us over the next five weeks.
Speaking of afraid, I present to you, in her unfettered glory, Mrs. Sarah Palin. I need no words to explain this except to say that former McCain adviser Mike Murphy, former Bush speechwriter David Frum, and conservative columnists Kathleen Parker, George Will and David S. Brooks have all called, in some fashion, for Palin to be removed from the ticket. Unbelievable.
I know I said I didn't want to sound too optimistic, especially in these dark times, but can you blame me?
First, print off and fill out this form. Then, find out where to mail the form by looking at this list of NH town clerks. Next, dole out the 42 cents for a stamp and put the form in the mail. Your town clerk will mail you a ballot. What's cool about voting absentee is that you can take your time before sending it back to your town of residence. Of course, make sure the ballot you send back is postmarked by November 4. Otherwise, you're ballot won't count and you'll have done all that for nothing.
OK, now that my absentee voting tutorial is out of the way I can get back into the current issues of the day. I don't want to sound overly optimistic, but I don't see much of a way that Barack Obama and Joe Biden lose this election after the events of these past few weeks. John McCain, with his schizophrenic and irresponsible attitude towards the financial crisis (i.e., saying the "fundamentals of our economy are strong" and then "suspending" his campaign and describing recent events as a financial Pearl Harbor within about a week), his inability to control surrogates like Carly Fiorina and Douglas Holtz-Eakin (who unbelievably said McCain was partially responsible the creation of the BlackBerry, a device McCain would have no idea how to operate), his lackluster debate performance, and the absolute joke his VP choice has turned into (more on that later).
McCain's completely botched political stunt last week, which included his petty attempt to postpone Friday's debate, may have provided all of us with a look into how a McCain presidency might look. Senator McCain suspended his campaign last Wednesday, even though his ads continued to run throughout the country, his surrogates made every attempt to portray Obama as an America-hating liberal tree-hugging dope fiend, and had enough time to do an interview with Katie Couric before heading back to Washington to New York. Oh, and in case you hadn't heard, that last bit pissed off a certain late night TV host.
So he went to Washington, sat a huge table in the White House where he apparently said nothing, and went back to Capitol Hill to try and save the day. Well, no deal was struck before Friday afternoon, he "un-suspended" his campaign, whimpered to the debate, looked really old, and then headed back to Washington. McCain spent all day Saturday on the phone with people directly involved in the process. Then, on the campaign trail Monday morning, he accused Obama (who has looked every bit the part of presidential throughout this crisis) of "phoning it in" in terms of trying to get the bailout legislation ready for a vote. Umm, yeah. I suppose we should now start being concerned about McCain's short-term memory.
The rest, as they say, is history. The House voted down the bailout plan by a 228-205 vote, leaving everyone scrambling for a new answer. McCain's campaign then had the gall to blame Obama for failure of the bailout plan, even though ANYONE paying attention to this process knows the deal failed because of the intransigence of House Republicans more concerned about losing their own jobs than figuring out a way to stop a 2nd Great Depression. The three-headed monster of House Republican jackasses of Blunt, Boehner and Cantor, for their part, blamed the failure of the bill on a partisan (yet entirely factual) speech given by Speaker Pelosi before the final vote.
(Quick aside: Are you fucking kidding me? The most important economic legislation since the New Deal was voted down because of a SPEECH BY THE HOUSE SPEAKER??!?!?!? That's beyond reprehensible. And these assholes wonder why voters have flocked away from their party in recent years.)
Anyway, I believe we've seen John McCain's true colors throughout this excursion. The old man just doesn't have the faculties, temperment and judgement to be president at this critical point in history. He decided to stop everything in his campaign so he could come back to Washington and deal with this economic issue (which, as I understand, is the first economic issue McCain has attempted to take a lead on during his entire time in Congress), and he couldn't even stick to his word. His campaign was immediately prepared to blame Obama for the failure of the bill, even though Obama's had literally nothing to do with process thus far (at the insistence of those in his party) and it's not entirely clear if either McCain or Obama would have supported the bill had it passed the House. When McCain's campaign issued their proclamation of blame on Obama, I knew for sure what I'd suspected for a long time:
The McCain campaign is so desperate right now that they will literally say ANYTHING, true or false, to disparage Obama.
I know that's not rocket science, but it should tell you something about McCain. The King of Straight Talk has turned into the King of Bullshit. As Ohio, Viriginia, New Hampshire, Florida, and Missouri slip away, McCain will continue to get even more desperate. I'm almost afraid to see where this will take us over the next five weeks.
Speaking of afraid, I present to you, in her unfettered glory, Mrs. Sarah Palin. I need no words to explain this except to say that former McCain adviser Mike Murphy, former Bush speechwriter David Frum, and conservative columnists Kathleen Parker, George Will and David S. Brooks have all called, in some fashion, for Palin to be removed from the ticket. Unbelievable.
I know I said I didn't want to sound too optimistic, especially in these dark times, but can you blame me?
Monday, September 22, 2008
My Electoral Map
Sorry for the infrequent posts, but between four classes and trying to run the sports section of a college newspaper I haven't had much time to indulge in writing about politics. There have been so many things in recent weeks that I wish I had the opportunity to write about, including the incredible Palin bounce, the financial meltdown, and the resurgence of the Obama campaign last week amongst a cavalcade of McCain blunders. I promise more from here until the election, but posts will likely be abbreviated. I will definitely have something this weekend following Friday night's first presidential debate.
Check out my map here. Later.
Friday, September 5, 2008
The Stretch Run
The conventions are over. The debates are right around the corner. And that magical day, November 4, the day that our nation will be forever changed, is in sight.
The stretch run of the 2008 presidential campaign is here.
Thursday night John McCain capped a listless GOP Convention with a similarly listless speech and catapulted us into this next, final phase of the election cycle. This came one day after Sarah Palin delivered one of the nastiest, meanest, most divisive political speeches in modern history. I was shocked by the positive public and media reaction to such a horrible speech. Maybe the media was trying to make up for several days of swarming, shark-like coverage of Palin and her family (I'll get to more of this in a bit), but a good speech was not what I saw on Wednesday night.
What I saw was a commitment to the politics that Barack Obama and Joe Biden have essentially sworn off; a politics of personal attacks that accomplish nothing in the long run. Palin's jab that being a mayor is kind of like being a community organizer except that you have "actual responsibilities" was one of the lowest blows of the entire campaign. The junkyard-dog mentality of the McCain campaign is now seemingly centered around the things Palin will say, and it's obvious she'll say anything to make people believe Obama is Satan incarnate.
It's nice to see the Republican Party that we all know and love come through at this convention.
The Republicans, per Mark Halperin, are going to try and paint Obama as an extreme liberal and somehow use his experience as a community organizer to belittle his overall credentials. Somehow I don't see this working. But it was during these two months that Republicans in 1988 turned Michael Dukakis into an aloof elitiest and in 2004 turned John Kerry into a windsurfing, French-looking weakling, while the Democrats made Bush 41 into an out-of-touch old fart in 1992 themselves. Considering the momentum Obama has shown throughout this election season, and his strong swing state numbers (check out Pollster and click on any state to see the most recent polling information), this may be much harder to do this time. Obama has shown extreme willingness to stand up in the face of these attacks, and that certainly separates him from the losers that have come before.
We can look forward to the debates, the warring surrogates, and the kissing of babies in Ohio, Colorado and New Hampshire. We can look forward to the candidates braving the cold in Michigan and avoiding the sun in New Mexico. We can look forward to outrageous political ads and how state and local races might affect the national election. We can look forward to two intense months of campaigning where every word spoken and every move made by John Sidney McCain III and Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. will have an eye towards the magic number (270) and the magic dates (the November 4 election, and the January 20 inauguration).
The greatest election of our lifetimes is headed to the stretch run. Don't blink until Election Day, you might miss something important.
The stretch run of the 2008 presidential campaign is here.
Thursday night John McCain capped a listless GOP Convention with a similarly listless speech and catapulted us into this next, final phase of the election cycle. This came one day after Sarah Palin delivered one of the nastiest, meanest, most divisive political speeches in modern history. I was shocked by the positive public and media reaction to such a horrible speech. Maybe the media was trying to make up for several days of swarming, shark-like coverage of Palin and her family (I'll get to more of this in a bit), but a good speech was not what I saw on Wednesday night.
What I saw was a commitment to the politics that Barack Obama and Joe Biden have essentially sworn off; a politics of personal attacks that accomplish nothing in the long run. Palin's jab that being a mayor is kind of like being a community organizer except that you have "actual responsibilities" was one of the lowest blows of the entire campaign. The junkyard-dog mentality of the McCain campaign is now seemingly centered around the things Palin will say, and it's obvious she'll say anything to make people believe Obama is Satan incarnate.
It's nice to see the Republican Party that we all know and love come through at this convention.
The Republicans, per Mark Halperin, are going to try and paint Obama as an extreme liberal and somehow use his experience as a community organizer to belittle his overall credentials. Somehow I don't see this working. But it was during these two months that Republicans in 1988 turned Michael Dukakis into an aloof elitiest and in 2004 turned John Kerry into a windsurfing, French-looking weakling, while the Democrats made Bush 41 into an out-of-touch old fart in 1992 themselves. Considering the momentum Obama has shown throughout this election season, and his strong swing state numbers (check out Pollster and click on any state to see the most recent polling information), this may be much harder to do this time. Obama has shown extreme willingness to stand up in the face of these attacks, and that certainly separates him from the losers that have come before.
We can look forward to the debates, the warring surrogates, and the kissing of babies in Ohio, Colorado and New Hampshire. We can look forward to the candidates braving the cold in Michigan and avoiding the sun in New Mexico. We can look forward to outrageous political ads and how state and local races might affect the national election. We can look forward to two intense months of campaigning where every word spoken and every move made by John Sidney McCain III and Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. will have an eye towards the magic number (270) and the magic dates (the November 4 election, and the January 20 inauguration).
The greatest election of our lifetimes is headed to the stretch run. Don't blink until Election Day, you might miss something important.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Barack's Speech and the Palin Shocker
Within the course of just about 15 hours, two incredible events occurred proving the possibilities of the American experience. Last night, a black man accepted the nomination of a major political party and delivered an address with words that will live much longer than any of us. Today, a woman was named the vice presidential choice of the other major political party for the first time in its long history.
As you might imagine, I have strongly different feelings about the particulars of both events. But as someone who loves this country deeply, I can't help but feel privileged to be cognizant of the happenings of the 2008 United States presidential election. This has been the most spellbinding, compelling, and important election season of my lifetime, and these seminal events have set up a 67-day run to November 4 none of us will ever forget.
First, Barack's speech. 38 million Americans saw the greatest moment of Obama's campaign, and one of the greatest moments in American history by extension. While I didn't get a chance to watch and hear the entire thing (the speech was on in the Pub last night but Brotherhood of Groove was far too loud and far too awesome to be drowned out by even Obama), I caught the last 10 minutes or so and then watched highlights of most of the important parts. Obama was poised, composed, clear, concise, and unabashedly tough in the biggest moment of his life. It's almost like we can't expect anything less from Obama when he steps to the microphone. Some have tried to knock Obama for being a great speaker. However, Obama's ability to continually rise to the occasion on the national stage proves the backbone and mettle possessed inside this man's heart.
Obama called on Americans to take responsibility for improving their own welfare in many aspects, a Kennedy-esque message that Democrats seem to have forgotten in recent years. He was very tough on John McCain, essentially calling him "W: Part II," claiming that he "doesn't get" regular Americans and their concerns, and in his most personal attack yet on McCain, called into question his temperament to be Commander in Chief.
As the Obama camp tried to convey in the build-up to this speech in front of almost 85,000 at Mile High, it wasn't a rhetorically beautiful speech meant to reinforce all the things Obama has already stated. This was a new direction for the Illinois Senator, one meant to go right after McCain on his own turf, and call his vast Democratic support base to arms in the battle of change against the status quo. It makes me wonder if spending time with Joe Biden has awakened this bulldog mentality in Obama. If that's the case, and the Democrats are finally ready to grow a pair and show that Republicans are the exact opposite of what America needs to go forward, I feel like my party will be tough to beat nationwide.
The Democratic Convention in Denver was a smashing success overall. I had tears in my eyes Wednesday, following the official vote by acclimation of Barack Obama to be Democratic nominee, when John Lewis told David Gregory that all his 1960s civil rights work had finally paid off. Later, Bill Clinton soothed the party and the nation by saying that his own experience as president proved to him that Obama is ready for the job. And Joe Biden capped the night wonderfully with his typical tough, humorous self and the surprise appearance by Obama brought the house down. After being somewhat underwhelmed by the first two days of the convention, I finished watching the coverage Wednesday night and felt like both my party and I were ready to go and ready to win.
Last night proved that great things can still happen in America. Today, we saw the ascension of another unlikely person to a presidential ticket. At 10:45 this morning I turned on my TV expecting to learn that Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, or Joe Lieberman had become the vice-presidential nominee for John McCain. Instead, by jaw hit the floor to learn that 44-year-old Sarah Palin, just one and one half years into her first term as Alaska's governor, would become the most improbable VP pick in decades.
I have to hand it to McCain and the Republicans. Had the pick been one of the three men I mentioned above, I can't help but feel the media would have talked about it for a few minutes, covered the introduction speech today in Dayton, and then gotten back to covering Obama's speech. However, the Palin stunner has really wiped Obama's speech off the coverage and is stoking people's interest heading into the Republican Convention in St. Paul next week.
I'd heard Palin's name mentioned really only in passing when it came to the Veepstakes. Her youth, inexperience, low national profile and the recent birth of her fifth child seemed to take her out of the running. But McCain saw an opportunity to rock the political world with an out-of-the-box choice, and Palin provided that without shaking most of his policy points.
Palin, who only two years ago was the mayor of a town roughly the size of Wolfeboro, NH, is suddenly thrust on the national stage with not very much time to go before the actual election. She is both fiscally and socially conservative, which satisfies the base of the party and certainly makes many Bush Republicans happy. Her brief time as Alaska's governor gives her the most executive experience of anyone on either major party ticket. She appears, from the brief things I've seen of her, that she has a terrific, vivacious personality that should engage all of us. Plus, even though she's pumped out five kids, she's still kinda hot. Take a look at the Fix and tell me she doesn't look EXACTLY like Tina Fey in her picture there.
But don't get me wrong, this pick for McCain qualifies as a stretch in just about every other area. She has ZERO foreign policy and national security credentials when those seem to be the only issues the Republicans can claim to have any sort of even equal footing with Democrats. When she gets in the debate with Joe Biden, it will border on comical when they have to discuss these issues.
I think a big part of McCain making this decision was to obviously try and scoop up disaffected Hillary Clinton supporters. Well, I can't help but feel that is somewhat of a pipe dream given the wide disparity between the ultra-conservative Palin and Clinton. In Hillary's Tuesday speech, she openly asked her supporters if "they were in it just for me?" She then went on to explain that the best chance those supporters had to realize their dreams was to vote for Barack Obama, because John McCain would not be able to deliver in the same way. While some may be attracted first to this idea of a woman on the ticket, once those former Clinton supporters look into Palin's record they will almost certainly dislike what they see. Politico's Ben Smith just reported on MSNBC that Palin does not support abortion rights for rape victims, which puts her far, far to the right of even John McCain. In the end, I don't see the attempt to attract these women just because there's a woman on the ticket working.
Regardless, having Palin on the ticket was a bold, inspiring move for a party that really needed a shot of life. Obama's speech last night riled up his base and I can't wait to see where he and Biden take their campaign next.
As Tim Russert would say, what a country.
As you might imagine, I have strongly different feelings about the particulars of both events. But as someone who loves this country deeply, I can't help but feel privileged to be cognizant of the happenings of the 2008 United States presidential election. This has been the most spellbinding, compelling, and important election season of my lifetime, and these seminal events have set up a 67-day run to November 4 none of us will ever forget.
First, Barack's speech. 38 million Americans saw the greatest moment of Obama's campaign, and one of the greatest moments in American history by extension. While I didn't get a chance to watch and hear the entire thing (the speech was on in the Pub last night but Brotherhood of Groove was far too loud and far too awesome to be drowned out by even Obama), I caught the last 10 minutes or so and then watched highlights of most of the important parts. Obama was poised, composed, clear, concise, and unabashedly tough in the biggest moment of his life. It's almost like we can't expect anything less from Obama when he steps to the microphone. Some have tried to knock Obama for being a great speaker. However, Obama's ability to continually rise to the occasion on the national stage proves the backbone and mettle possessed inside this man's heart.
Obama called on Americans to take responsibility for improving their own welfare in many aspects, a Kennedy-esque message that Democrats seem to have forgotten in recent years. He was very tough on John McCain, essentially calling him "W: Part II," claiming that he "doesn't get" regular Americans and their concerns, and in his most personal attack yet on McCain, called into question his temperament to be Commander in Chief.
As the Obama camp tried to convey in the build-up to this speech in front of almost 85,000 at Mile High, it wasn't a rhetorically beautiful speech meant to reinforce all the things Obama has already stated. This was a new direction for the Illinois Senator, one meant to go right after McCain on his own turf, and call his vast Democratic support base to arms in the battle of change against the status quo. It makes me wonder if spending time with Joe Biden has awakened this bulldog mentality in Obama. If that's the case, and the Democrats are finally ready to grow a pair and show that Republicans are the exact opposite of what America needs to go forward, I feel like my party will be tough to beat nationwide.
The Democratic Convention in Denver was a smashing success overall. I had tears in my eyes Wednesday, following the official vote by acclimation of Barack Obama to be Democratic nominee, when John Lewis told David Gregory that all his 1960s civil rights work had finally paid off. Later, Bill Clinton soothed the party and the nation by saying that his own experience as president proved to him that Obama is ready for the job. And Joe Biden capped the night wonderfully with his typical tough, humorous self and the surprise appearance by Obama brought the house down. After being somewhat underwhelmed by the first two days of the convention, I finished watching the coverage Wednesday night and felt like both my party and I were ready to go and ready to win.
Last night proved that great things can still happen in America. Today, we saw the ascension of another unlikely person to a presidential ticket. At 10:45 this morning I turned on my TV expecting to learn that Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, or Joe Lieberman had become the vice-presidential nominee for John McCain. Instead, by jaw hit the floor to learn that 44-year-old Sarah Palin, just one and one half years into her first term as Alaska's governor, would become the most improbable VP pick in decades.
I have to hand it to McCain and the Republicans. Had the pick been one of the three men I mentioned above, I can't help but feel the media would have talked about it for a few minutes, covered the introduction speech today in Dayton, and then gotten back to covering Obama's speech. However, the Palin stunner has really wiped Obama's speech off the coverage and is stoking people's interest heading into the Republican Convention in St. Paul next week.
I'd heard Palin's name mentioned really only in passing when it came to the Veepstakes. Her youth, inexperience, low national profile and the recent birth of her fifth child seemed to take her out of the running. But McCain saw an opportunity to rock the political world with an out-of-the-box choice, and Palin provided that without shaking most of his policy points.
Palin, who only two years ago was the mayor of a town roughly the size of Wolfeboro, NH, is suddenly thrust on the national stage with not very much time to go before the actual election. She is both fiscally and socially conservative, which satisfies the base of the party and certainly makes many Bush Republicans happy. Her brief time as Alaska's governor gives her the most executive experience of anyone on either major party ticket. She appears, from the brief things I've seen of her, that she has a terrific, vivacious personality that should engage all of us. Plus, even though she's pumped out five kids, she's still kinda hot. Take a look at the Fix and tell me she doesn't look EXACTLY like Tina Fey in her picture there.
But don't get me wrong, this pick for McCain qualifies as a stretch in just about every other area. She has ZERO foreign policy and national security credentials when those seem to be the only issues the Republicans can claim to have any sort of even equal footing with Democrats. When she gets in the debate with Joe Biden, it will border on comical when they have to discuss these issues.
I think a big part of McCain making this decision was to obviously try and scoop up disaffected Hillary Clinton supporters. Well, I can't help but feel that is somewhat of a pipe dream given the wide disparity between the ultra-conservative Palin and Clinton. In Hillary's Tuesday speech, she openly asked her supporters if "they were in it just for me?" She then went on to explain that the best chance those supporters had to realize their dreams was to vote for Barack Obama, because John McCain would not be able to deliver in the same way. While some may be attracted first to this idea of a woman on the ticket, once those former Clinton supporters look into Palin's record they will almost certainly dislike what they see. Politico's Ben Smith just reported on MSNBC that Palin does not support abortion rights for rape victims, which puts her far, far to the right of even John McCain. In the end, I don't see the attempt to attract these women just because there's a woman on the ticket working.
Regardless, having Palin on the ticket was a bold, inspiring move for a party that really needed a shot of life. Obama's speech last night riled up his base and I can't wait to see where he and Biden take their campaign next.
As Tim Russert would say, what a country.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Biden, The DNC and more
I'm sure many of you were wondering where I was when Barack Obama texted and e-mailed the world that he'd selected Delaware Senator Joe Biden to be his running mate. Well, I was in New Jersey for a long weekend of baseball and music. It's now Tuesday so I doubt you need me to really break the Biden news to you. I actually had it on good information that Biden was going to be the pick roughly 24 hours before the announcement was made. I have sources, but like any good journalist, I won't disclose them.
A few weeks back I extolled the virtues of Evan Bayh as Obama's veep choice. A few things happened between then and the weeklong vacation in Hawaii where Obama apparently made up his mind on picking Biden. First off, the conflict between Russia and Georgia made it apparent Obama needed someone with real foreign policy chops to make the American public confident in the Democratic ticket's ability to deal with such issues. There's no better foreign policy voice in the Democratic Party than Biden. Second, there were some rumblings in the press about Bayh's wife having ties to the boards of several large corporations at a time in which large corporations aren't exactly popular. Finally, and maybe most importantly, John McCain has closed a significant gap in national polling based on junkyard dog-style campaigning against Obama. In choosing Biden, Obama decided he needed to fight fire with fire and someone as even-keel as Bayh just wouldn't work.
So the pick is Biden, and he wasted no time on Saturday at his joint appearance with Obama, immediately bashing McCain as offering a third Bush term. This is what I like about Biden, and what I've always liked about him as long as I've been following politics. He's one of the few people in the Democratic Party that could be put in this position and show just as much balls on the Senate floor as he will on the campaign trail. Biden is impassioned about Democratic politics, about his beloved home state of Delaware, about serving and protecting the United States, and his incredible resume speaks volumes about his ability to bring about the change Obama desperately wants. I do feel in many ways the Biden pick is something of a lifetime achievement award for a man who has worked so tirelessly for so many years.
I can't wait for the VP debate on October 2, especially since Biden will almost certainly eviscerate either the bumbling Mitt Romney or the unknown Tim Pawlenty.
Alright, so the glorious week known as the Democratic National Convention began last night. I was still in transit from NJ when much of the action was going on, but I got a chance to see replays of the two big moments of the night. First, Ted Kennedy gave an inspiring, rousing address to the convention that defied his harrowing condition. Then, Michelle Obama assuaged any fears about her readiness to be First Lady by giving a beautiful speech about the difficulties of growing up in Chicago and becoming successful through hard work and determination. I came away from the speech so excited about the possibility of watching her be First Lady for four years. She may be the first First Lady of my lifetime that I've actually liked.
Tonight Mark Warner will deliver the Keynote Address and then Hillary Clinton will again try to unite the party by headlining the night. I am very anxious to see what she says.
That's all for now. I will be returning to school on Sunday so there will definitely be more frequent posts here going forward.
A few weeks back I extolled the virtues of Evan Bayh as Obama's veep choice. A few things happened between then and the weeklong vacation in Hawaii where Obama apparently made up his mind on picking Biden. First off, the conflict between Russia and Georgia made it apparent Obama needed someone with real foreign policy chops to make the American public confident in the Democratic ticket's ability to deal with such issues. There's no better foreign policy voice in the Democratic Party than Biden. Second, there were some rumblings in the press about Bayh's wife having ties to the boards of several large corporations at a time in which large corporations aren't exactly popular. Finally, and maybe most importantly, John McCain has closed a significant gap in national polling based on junkyard dog-style campaigning against Obama. In choosing Biden, Obama decided he needed to fight fire with fire and someone as even-keel as Bayh just wouldn't work.
So the pick is Biden, and he wasted no time on Saturday at his joint appearance with Obama, immediately bashing McCain as offering a third Bush term. This is what I like about Biden, and what I've always liked about him as long as I've been following politics. He's one of the few people in the Democratic Party that could be put in this position and show just as much balls on the Senate floor as he will on the campaign trail. Biden is impassioned about Democratic politics, about his beloved home state of Delaware, about serving and protecting the United States, and his incredible resume speaks volumes about his ability to bring about the change Obama desperately wants. I do feel in many ways the Biden pick is something of a lifetime achievement award for a man who has worked so tirelessly for so many years.
I can't wait for the VP debate on October 2, especially since Biden will almost certainly eviscerate either the bumbling Mitt Romney or the unknown Tim Pawlenty.
Alright, so the glorious week known as the Democratic National Convention began last night. I was still in transit from NJ when much of the action was going on, but I got a chance to see replays of the two big moments of the night. First, Ted Kennedy gave an inspiring, rousing address to the convention that defied his harrowing condition. Then, Michelle Obama assuaged any fears about her readiness to be First Lady by giving a beautiful speech about the difficulties of growing up in Chicago and becoming successful through hard work and determination. I came away from the speech so excited about the possibility of watching her be First Lady for four years. She may be the first First Lady of my lifetime that I've actually liked.
Tonight Mark Warner will deliver the Keynote Address and then Hillary Clinton will again try to unite the party by headlining the night. I am very anxious to see what she says.
That's all for now. I will be returning to school on Sunday so there will definitely be more frequent posts here going forward.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Veepstakes Fever
I'll skip apologizing for not updating this pretty much at all this summer and get right to the point. By the end of this week, both Barack Obama and John McCain could officially announce their choices to be #2 on their respective tickets. With neither candidate willing to take attention away from the Olympics (which start August 8), the time appears to be now for them to make their choices known. Speculation is running rampant right now all over the Beltway and the Blogosphere about who they might be.
A front page story ran in today's Washington Post about the narrowing shortlist for Obama. The article seemed to whittle the list down to four serious contenders: Indiana Senator Evan Bayh, Delaware Senator Joe Biden, Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, and Virginia Governor Tim Kaine. The latter appears to be the front-runner according to sources close to the vetting committee headed by Eric Holder. Some long shots include former Georgia Senator Sam Nunn, current senators Hillary Clinton, Chris Dodd, Jack Reed, and Republican Chuck Hagel.
This isn't really news if you've been following the Veepstakes like I have. The top four have been mentioned consistently as possibilities ever since Obama secured the nomination last month. And those four occupied the first, second, third and fifth spots on Chris Cillizza's most recent Friday Veepstakes Line (with Reed coming in fourth). What seems to be the most important piece of news is that Kaine is in "serious talks" to become the vice presidential choice of the Democratic Party. For his part, Kaine earlier today denied being seriously involved in the veep process.
For the last few weeks, I have been of the strong belief the perfect veep choice for Obama would be Bayh, the centrist Democrat from a really important battleground state. Unlike all the others being considered for the #2 slot, Bayh not only has a decade of Senate experience but spent eight years prior to that as Indiana's governor. He doesn't rock the boat, he doesn't say stupid things, and he's just boring enough to not cost Obama anything in November.
Bayh was a longtime Clinton supporter during primaries (and some comments he made during that time could come back to haunt both Bayh and Obama if he's the choice) but this pick could be seen as an attempt to bridge the gap between the two wings of the party. His appeal will play well in his native Midwest, the all-important battleground which could swing the election.
From an aesthetic level, Bayh is 52 but looks much younger, and Cillizza and others have mentioned a striking similarity between a potential Obama-Bayh ticket to the youthful 1992 Democratic combo of Bill Clinton and Al Gore.
There are some drawbacks, including Bayh's very vanilla public persona, his lack of a major track record as leading on any issues in the Senate, or how the pick could alienate the more liberal wing of the party. However, I personally feel Bayh is the right choice for Obama if he wants to win in November and take the country in the right direction once he is elected.
McCain's short list appears to be down to three serious contenders: former Massachusetts Governor and current Fascist Mitt Romney, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, and former Ohio Congressman Rob Portman. If you have no idea who Rob Portman is, check out Cillizza's breakdown of the case for Portman in today's Fix. To sum it up briefly, Portman is a real party insider and someone those inside the Beltway view as a tremendous rising political star in Washington. On the negative side, I'm sure everyone reading this probably had to click on that link because no one knows who he is and he's best described as a Bushite, which I doubt McCain really wants on his ticket.
So it's between Romney and Pawlenty. If it's between those two, I don't see how he doesn't pick Pawlenty. He's young (47), the governor of a battleground state, has a progressive track record of sound economic change in his home state. After their bitter primary battle, it seems so shocking to me that Romney is being considered. I mean, it seemed like in those debates McCain was just about ready to beat him senseless every time Mitt opened his mouth. So while I think McCain should pick Pawlenty, I'm beginning to think McCain will actually pick Romney solely based on his perceived economic prowess. Of course, we all know Romney's pitfalls, in particular that he's a total phony and a bumbling moron in the public sphere.
If McCain picks Romney, Obama might as well start preparing his inauguration speech now. Evangelicals and moderate Republicans could abandon the GOP by either voting for Obama or staying home on Election Day. And it would feed into the perception that McCain is only going to be in it for one term given Romney's clear ambition to be president as soon as 2012. So as you can see, I'm really hoping McCain picks Romney.
So those are my feelings for the time being. I'll be sure to check back in after the picks are officially announced, whether that's sooner or later.
A front page story ran in today's Washington Post about the narrowing shortlist for Obama. The article seemed to whittle the list down to four serious contenders: Indiana Senator Evan Bayh, Delaware Senator Joe Biden, Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, and Virginia Governor Tim Kaine. The latter appears to be the front-runner according to sources close to the vetting committee headed by Eric Holder. Some long shots include former Georgia Senator Sam Nunn, current senators Hillary Clinton, Chris Dodd, Jack Reed, and Republican Chuck Hagel.
This isn't really news if you've been following the Veepstakes like I have. The top four have been mentioned consistently as possibilities ever since Obama secured the nomination last month. And those four occupied the first, second, third and fifth spots on Chris Cillizza's most recent Friday Veepstakes Line (with Reed coming in fourth). What seems to be the most important piece of news is that Kaine is in "serious talks" to become the vice presidential choice of the Democratic Party. For his part, Kaine earlier today denied being seriously involved in the veep process.
For the last few weeks, I have been of the strong belief the perfect veep choice for Obama would be Bayh, the centrist Democrat from a really important battleground state. Unlike all the others being considered for the #2 slot, Bayh not only has a decade of Senate experience but spent eight years prior to that as Indiana's governor. He doesn't rock the boat, he doesn't say stupid things, and he's just boring enough to not cost Obama anything in November.
Bayh was a longtime Clinton supporter during primaries (and some comments he made during that time could come back to haunt both Bayh and Obama if he's the choice) but this pick could be seen as an attempt to bridge the gap between the two wings of the party. His appeal will play well in his native Midwest, the all-important battleground which could swing the election.
From an aesthetic level, Bayh is 52 but looks much younger, and Cillizza and others have mentioned a striking similarity between a potential Obama-Bayh ticket to the youthful 1992 Democratic combo of Bill Clinton and Al Gore.
There are some drawbacks, including Bayh's very vanilla public persona, his lack of a major track record as leading on any issues in the Senate, or how the pick could alienate the more liberal wing of the party. However, I personally feel Bayh is the right choice for Obama if he wants to win in November and take the country in the right direction once he is elected.
McCain's short list appears to be down to three serious contenders: former Massachusetts Governor and current Fascist Mitt Romney, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, and former Ohio Congressman Rob Portman. If you have no idea who Rob Portman is, check out Cillizza's breakdown of the case for Portman in today's Fix. To sum it up briefly, Portman is a real party insider and someone those inside the Beltway view as a tremendous rising political star in Washington. On the negative side, I'm sure everyone reading this probably had to click on that link because no one knows who he is and he's best described as a Bushite, which I doubt McCain really wants on his ticket.
So it's between Romney and Pawlenty. If it's between those two, I don't see how he doesn't pick Pawlenty. He's young (47), the governor of a battleground state, has a progressive track record of sound economic change in his home state. After their bitter primary battle, it seems so shocking to me that Romney is being considered. I mean, it seemed like in those debates McCain was just about ready to beat him senseless every time Mitt opened his mouth. So while I think McCain should pick Pawlenty, I'm beginning to think McCain will actually pick Romney solely based on his perceived economic prowess. Of course, we all know Romney's pitfalls, in particular that he's a total phony and a bumbling moron in the public sphere.
If McCain picks Romney, Obama might as well start preparing his inauguration speech now. Evangelicals and moderate Republicans could abandon the GOP by either voting for Obama or staying home on Election Day. And it would feed into the perception that McCain is only going to be in it for one term given Romney's clear ambition to be president as soon as 2012. So as you can see, I'm really hoping McCain picks Romney.
So those are my feelings for the time being. I'll be sure to check back in after the picks are officially announced, whether that's sooner or later.
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