Now that the Barack Obama has won the Presidency and there will be Democratic majorities on in both houses of congress, they have a lot of work to do. In part that work starts now. The first big job Barack Obama has is to pick a good cabinet. I feel that a good cabinet is what makes the government run. The political appointments are one of the main reasons that Bush was the president he was.
Once Barack Obama is sworn in to office, he will have a lot of power. With both houses of congress in the same party, it will be hard for the Republicans to stop anything. There is a lot to be done and a lot that can be done.
The challenge for the Democratic party will be to governor from the middle of the country and not from the middle of their party. This is always the challenge that of a party in so much control. Many Democrats will say "the Republican did not govern this way, why should we?" If you look at the way Republicans ran this country that should be reason enough.
The further to the left they govern the country the less time they will have in office. If the Democrats go all out and try to reform health care, this might be the only think that will get done. If they want to majorly change energy policy, they might need to do that in steps. All at once it might be too much for Americans to deal with.
I wish Barack Obama all the success in the world. I hope that he has a big enough mandate to make real change. I just am not going to hold my breath. I guess Obama and the Democrats will have to show me.
I read this entry by Alien Laine about how people are politically crazy in web comments. I read this did not question what he was talking about. This American Life did a show about having to turn the comments on their web page off because of the way people act. This is also something that comes up all the time when it comes to YouTube comments. I have seen lots of flame wars and people say outrageous things in comments.
I do not think this is new in American Culture. As bad as we think it is now, it has been bad in the past also. At the Dawn of the American republic Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton wrote outrageous things about each other in their news papers. Dirty is not new, it is just been refined.
I think that this kind of dialog goes up and down like a roller coaster. I think we are still going up hill. I think it is going to get worst before it gets better. I think the likes of Karl Rove makes this worse. His ability to make every bit of government a major part of politics and the idea of "Permanent Campaign mode" has change the dialog in America. It has made the roller coaster hill higher.
One of the problems is that hyperbole is the language of America. It has been that way at least since the start of the television age and maybe before that. The reason the Andy Warhol coined the term "Superstar" is because the term "Star" was not big enough anymore. Politics is no different. You cannot just say that George Bush is a bad president, you have to say George Bush is a war criminal. There is no room for subtlety or nuisance. Everything has to be loud and clear.
For a long time I have seen this as "Shout Down" politics. You have the right of freedom of speech, but I have the right to shout you down as you try to speak. I think this has the effects of giving a bigger voice to people on the extremes. It also moves people who might not be on the extremes toward them. If they only way they will be heard is to shout they will shout.
I think these things are bad for the Republic. I think that we need to think more about politics. We need to be more complex and not less complex. We need to be more careful and select politicians who will be more careful also. I just do not see this happening anytime soon.
I live in the bay area and I have a lot of friends who are democrats. I know a handful of republicans, but most of them know better than to speak up in political conversations. We all know it is not going to get us anywhere. I found the best way to go is ask democrats questions and make them explain the way they think.
I have been hearing them talk a lot about Sarah Palin. I find myself often explaining that the democratic party here in California is not the same as the democratic party in other states. I have to remind people that when I was in high school Pennsylvania elected a pro-life democratic governor in Robert Casey. Pennsylvania currently has a pro-life democratic senator in Bob Casey Jr.
In the last week I have heard and read a lot of those California Democrats react to Sarah Palin. When I hear the reaction there is an extra level furor and anger about Sarah Palin. After the convention speech, I feel that there was a much bigger reaction that their would have been if a man would have made this speech.
I think there is something going on here. I want to know what other people think. I want to know if there is more anger because she is a woman. A few people I have asked have admitted that they are angry about that. They feel both that there is a level of pandering on John McCain's part.
Will Democrats be upset if the Republicans beat them to the punch putting a woman in the White House or at least a heartbeat away from the White House?
It appears that Sarah Palin has energized both the Republicans and the Democrats. She has upped the fund raising of both parties. After the speech at the convention this race got more interesting.
Was I the only person who woke up this morning humming John Melloncamp's "Smalltown" after seeing Sarah Palin's speech last night. You might not agree with the content of the speech, but the speech did make it clear why John McCain picked her. After the speech picking Sarah Palin seems like a much smarter pick than it did a week ago
Sarah Palin did a lot to cash in on the idea of being from a small town. Her speech went a long way to say "I am more like you than I am like them." The them being the inside Washington types and the costal media. She went a far way to define who she is. She went very far to say that is who she is and who she will fight for. Many people I know who live in small towns feel very alienated from the major American cities. I can see Sarah Palin playing well in these small towns.
I hear lots of people in the Bay Area use the term "fly over states" and that is exactly who she is trying to appeal to. She went as far as name checking the states that might be in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Minnesota. These are the places where she can make a difference. She is not meant to pick up New York or California Hillary Supporters. She is meant to pick up some of the places where Hillary did well and Obama did poorly. According to the CNN Electoral Map, these are places where
Why did John McCain pick her, because he has a gender gap problem. More women are democrats and John McCain is not going to win without closing that gap. He does not need to close the gap everywhere. The CNN political map points out some of the places Palin can make the difference.
Yes John McCain knew what he was doing when he picked Sarah Palin. I do not think she was his first pick. I do not think he thinks she is the best choose to be President if something happens to him. The VP is not about the best person to be president because they cannot be president if they cannot help win the election.
There is part of me that things that John McCain picking Sarah Palin is a comment about how the media covers the election. In the four days since she was selected I have hard the media say a lot of things about Sarah Palin. I have not heard anything about the job she is doing as governor. I have not heard what kind of bills she is signed into law. I have not heard and analysis about which campaign promises she kept. I have not heard anything about how the state agencies are running under her administration.
So far from the media I have got four stories over and over again, Her Bio, The scandal with the Public Safety Commissioner, her daughter is pregnant, and she lacks experence. The problem with the 24 hour media culture is that they end up covering less and not more. CNN only runs about 22 minutes worth of stories all day long. MSNBC does a little bit better with about 42 minutes of stories all day long. it is still not much.
Since Barack Obama picked Joe Biden I have not seen one story on the television news looking at his record in the Senate. I get high level overviews about who is his and what he stands for. For this reason alone I can see what McCain picked Sarah Palin. The media is not going to check what she really did as governor McCain gets to write that story. People can say she is inexperienced, but they do not have the job experence information to back it up. I think that the media is a big reason John McCain picked Sarah Palin.
I have been reading a lot about people hitting McCain for picking Sarah Palin because she is not qualified. I have seen lists of republicans more qualifed than Sarah Palin. When I read these lists again after they remove everyone over 60 off this list. When I saw her on the news her age stood out to me. I think age is playing a big part in this election.
This pick to me said something clear. John McCain is worried about having two white guys running against the Obama-Biden ticket. It would look bad for the idea that John McCain represents the status quo. I think McCain see that he will not win that way. I think that an old white woman might still give that feeling of the status quo.
I also want to see this list without centrist Republican candidates. If McCain picked Christie Todd Whitman he would get killed by the conservative wing of the party. That might be enough to get those voters to stay home.
I know that this leave Condoleezza Rice on the list. While I like Condoleezza Rice. She might be the Smartest person in the current White House. Nothing would say "Third Bush Term" more that Condoleezza Rice for Vice President. John McCain is More of the Same was a major part of the Democratic Primary. I think that message is currently making head way with the voters.
If you look at the Democratic Primary there was the message that experence is not important. People what change more than they want experence. If they do this might be the right pick.
To be honest, I am holding my opinion on Sarah Palin until the Convention and her speech. The left has really gone after her for this pick. I think there was no good pick for VP for McCain. Every door had a tiger behind it for him.
I really love this video. The Onion got this one right. I like the idea of every American is in their own demographic. It kills the idea of demographics.
I was thinking about John McCain picking Sarah Palin for his vice president. Everyone's first reaction is that he is just doing this to pick up some of the Hillary Clinton supporters. Her first speech even mention the 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling. The press has called this move everything from pandering to brilliant.
Many of the hard core Hillary supporters will not go for this. I do not expect them to. There are still a group of PUMA's out there that are not happy after the convention. Bill Clinton became president by appealing to Centrist democrats. It is those democrats that McCain is going after with Sarah Palin.
Yes, some former Hillary supporters who will go for this. The key is that not that many have to go for McCain for this to be effective. You just need to swing some in the battle ground states. This pick is not for the San Francisco-Feminist Hillary Supporters. This pick is for the Rural Ohio and PA democrats that are members of the NRA. I am surprised that more democrats do not realize this.
There is one thing I want to hear from Barack Obama's speech tonight. I want to hear that his administration will not treat the Constitution with the same disregard as the Bush administration. I want no warrant wire tapping, no spying on American citizens, and now water boarding. I want no black site prisons, no passing prisoners off to other countries to be tortured, and no holding people without charge. These are the real things that can be done to get America's standing back in the world.
If Barack Obama addresses these things in his speech he will go a long way toward winning my vote. If he does not I worry that the change and hope he is talking about is all a smoke screen.
I recorded the CNN coverage of the political convention. I will admit that I picked them because they are in HD. If MSNBC was also in HD on my cable service I might need to pick them.
In the first three hours that I watched, it was 80% about the Clinton and Obama struggle. Will the Clinton support vote for Obama? Did Obama do enough to reach out to Clinton and her supporter? Are Bill and Hillary to blame for being bad losers? The same questions over and over again to different people.
The next 20% were about the horse race between Obama and McCain. What Obama needs to do to win. How he needs Clinton Supporters to win. How McCain is trying to drive a wedge.
They used up a lot of time without making mention of the platform at all. They did all this without even covering what Obama wants to do as president. I think this is one of the big problems with American political news. They cover the race far better than they cover the polices and platforms. In the end the electorate is much worse off for it. No surprise that Americans vote for the candidate who they want to share a beer with and not whose policies are better.
PS. CNN, stop having Wolff Blitzer say "The Best Team in Politics." It is cheap and cheezy.
I have been looking at My Yard Our Message. There is part of me that likes the idea of this. I like the idea of people shaking up how these signs. Most people are not expecting something other than signs for politicians.
The problem with these sings are that they boil things down to bumper sticker politics. Politics should take more thought that a few words. I think that people too often think about politics in small ways and that causes problems.
The ones I like the most are the ones about people getting out and voting. I think that politics work better when more people get out and vote.
I woke up this morning to find out that Fidel Castro has resigned as President of Cuba. I know this really should not surprise anyone. He has been sick for a while. He was never the same since he gave control over to his brother.
This is a moment in time. One of the last big players from the cold war still around. If feels like he is going out with a whimper and not a bang. I guess I expected the world to end before Castro would retire.
On the radio today I heard people talk about the race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for the race for the Democratic Presidential Nomination. The conversation was about race and the Presidency. One of the people on the radio said that Just because Bill Clinton has Credibility with African Americans that does not automatically transfer to Hillary Clinton. They went on to talk about Tony Morrison calling Bill Clinton our first black President.
I have heard this before. I cannot really tell you off the top of my head what Bill Clinton did for African Americans. I cannot think of one policy choice he made or big effort out of the White House that was Pro African American. When I try to look for it I find stories like this one. If you know any policy or law making that would answer my question, please let me know. I am wondering if I am missing something.
I know that DeWayne Wickham is saying in the story above. I think that a president should be judged on one thing, how he runs the country. How you feel about them is not important.
I have been thinking about Keith Ellison's campaign for the U.S. Congress. If he wins he would be the first Muslim to win a seat in Congress. He is running in Minnesota as a Democrat. Minnesota has a long history of being progressive. I was looking at where he stands on issues. He is both pro-choice and pro gay rights.
Look, you know, as a Muslim, you're getting visits from law enforcement officials, and you haven't done anything. You've heard about relatives being stopped in the airport. You feel vulnerable at this time. Do you want to be the one to say who should not have rights, if you understand what I mean?
This is a clear pluralist, sepration of church and state message. I wonder how most Muslims feel about these stances. From the little I know about Islam it does not look favorable at homosexuality or abortion. I wonder if this will keep Muslims from voting for him.
For the most part Muslims have a choice of a political party that shares it's social values, but has objectionable civil rights and foreign policy or a political party that has liberal social policy, but has a chance to improve civil rights and foreign policy.
I wonder how individual Muslim Americans make these political choices.
On the news I saw a story about the National Review writing the list of the 50 best consertative rock songs. I read the list and I am not sure what they were going for. Some songs should be on this list like Taxman and Sweet Home Alabama. I am just not too sure about Sympathy for the Devil or Gloria. I think they are reaching some of the time.
Lets look at a song like I Fought The Law. The average conservative I know is pretty much the law and order time. They are not fighting the law most of the time.
The list is pretty cute, but I think there are better songs that could have made it. Then again I am long looking toward rock stars for the most balanced political thought.
"Aided by changes that took effect in 2002 making it easier to vote by mail in California, the ranks of absentee voters have more than doubled in the past 16 years, from 18 percent in the 1990 general election to nearly 40 percent in last year's special election."
I wonder if the voting booth will be a thing of the past someday.
I am sick of all the attack ads in the Democratic gubernatorial primary. I am sick of all the mud that is being slung back and forth. I wish someone else would swoop in and call these two for all their bull. I know it is not going to happy. I just wish that going negative did not work so well.
I just laughed when I read this this story about lawn signs in the mayor's race.
MercuryNews.com | 06/01/2006 | Lawns become battleground: "To a surprising extent, too, a sign in a yard doesn't necessarily mean that the homeowner is voting for that candidate. One Naglee Terrace resident ordered up a Mulcahy sign for her yard simply because she felt surrounded by her neighbors' dueling Pandoris and Chavezes.
``I'm not voting for him. I just wanted another'' sign, said the woman, who declined to give her name or preferred candidate. And just recently, she moved her pale blue-and-green Mulcahy closer to the street after realizing neighbors couldn't see it by her porch. ``I'm surprised they haven't stolen it yet,'' she said.
When I was growing up in the suburbs of Philadelphia a lawn Sign meant you were involved. People with lawn signs were either volunteers for the party or had a personal relationship with the candidate.
