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Election 2008 Obama Politics

When Obama wins…

A list of the things that will change when Obama wins…

When Obama wins…

  • People will have more picnics in the park.
  • No one will block the subway doors or stand on the left side of the escalator ever again.
  • Skynet will be destroyed at last.


And more!

I think many of the cynics and the older people who criticize Obama’s supporters for thinking he will “change!” everything don’t understand the irony and pragmatism that is inherent in Obama’s support.

We all know he’s not perfect.  We know there are many things he won’t and can’t change.  We know he is a politician.  We may put more hope in him than is appropriate, but it is balanced by our inherent cynicism and ironicism.

We don’t believe that “war is over” or might soon be – but we need the Iraq war to be over.  We know that idealism has led to many evils and even more disastrous mistakes.  We can see how the naive belief in some charismatic leader can – and has – led nations into stagnation and much worse. But we also can see that the tawdry politics of the past decades has distracted people from the more serious issues we face; we have felt disengaged from power; we have watched as politicians threw pander after pander at us, and used their words as weapons to position themselves and to bludgeon one another rather than as tools to educate.

We know that we’re not perfect – but to impute some naive idealism to us is to misunderstand where we are coming from – and probably, to see within us, a reflection of the mistakes that the sixties generation made.

We know that when Obama wins we will not all have bicycles; but we also know that his victory is an essential first step to allow us to engage with power – an engagement that has seemed less and less possible over the past few decades, but that Obama somehow, in some way, has made possible again.
Obama’s victory is not enough.  He will not usher in a new Camelot.  But it is the essential first step to improving our nation, to engaging with power, to beginning to tackle the longer-term problems we face as a nation. 

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Life

A great idea for a house

In Antwerp.  Only 8 feet wide.  Yet elegant.

Make sure to check out the tub.

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Election 2008 Obama Politics

Did John Edwards Slip and Reveal Who He Is Going to…

Endorse?

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Election 2008 Obama Politics The Clintons

Some quick things…

Via reddit, I just read this story.

Sometimes, it’s really amazing how the world works…

***

George Will on Obama’s candidacy today:

McCain’s problem might turn out to be the fact that Obama is the Democrats’ Reagan. Obama’s rhetorical cotton candy lacks Reagan’s ideological nourishment, but he is Reaganesque in two important senses: People like listening to him, and his manner lulls his adversaries into underestimating his sheer toughness – the tempered steel beneath the sleek suits.

I think Will misses the way Obama is re-shaping the political conversation with his inspirational and often-times vague sounding pronouncements.  (Would Will call the Gettysburg Address “rhetorical cotton candy”?)  But he senses Obama’s toughness in a way that others – for example, Maureen Dowd – does not.

***

And Ms. Clinton has apparently launched her strategy for the coming weeks – claiming Obama can’t win.  So far today, her campaign has said:

Coming up next (or again):

  • Can’t win without old people.
  • Obama is a girlie man.

If Mr. Koch was speaking out of turn – as opposed to as part of her plan – than it could be plausibly said that she is still trying to get the Vice Presidential slot.

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Election 2008 Obama Politics The Clintons

We Now Know Who the Nominee Will Be

[digg-reddit-me]

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Election 2008 Obama Politics The Clintons

Back…

After a long weekend of not feeling well and spotty internet service, as Indiana and North Carolina vote in the latest episode of this never-ending primary…

Here’s some quick highlights:

In his spare time in between campaigning, Mr. Obama is trying to broker a peace deal in the Niger Delta:

Rebels who have stepped up attacks on Nigeria’s oil industry in the last month said on Sunday they were considering a ceasefire appeal by U.S. presidential hopeful Barack Obama.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has launched five attacks on oil facilities in the Niger Delta since it resumed a campaign of violence in April, forcing Royal Dutch Shell to shut more than 164,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd).

“The MEND command is seriously considering a temporary ceasefire appeal by Senator Barack Obama. Obama is someone we respect and hold in high esteem,” the militant group said in an e-mailed statement.

Andrew Sullivan has come around to the idea of an Obama-Clinton ticket:

The old political adage that you should keep your friends close but your enemies closer therefore seems appropriate. Clinton will not be running for president in 2012 if she is vice-president in 2009. The same could not be said if she were consigned back to the Senate to lick her wounds and plot her future…

There’s also a way for Obama to explain this choice in a way that does not violate — and in fact strengthens — his core message. His model in this should be Abraham Lincoln. What Lincoln did, as Doris Kearns Goodwin explained in her brilliant book, “Team Of Rivals,” was to bring his most bitter opponents into his cabinet in order to maintain national and party unity at a time of crisis. Obama — who is a green legislator from Illinois, just as Lincoln was — could signal to his own supporters in picking Clinton that he isn’t capitulating to old politics, he is demonstrating his capacity to reach out and engage and co-opt his rivals and opponents. Done deftly, picking Clinton could even resonate with Obama’s supporters as a statesmanlike gesture, a sign of the kind of reconciliation he wants to achieve at home and abroad and energize his own party for the fall. It is consonant with his core message: that he can unify the country in a way few other politicians can. It would even help heal the gulf that has opened up between the Clintons and black voters in this campaign. It’s win-win all round.

And the Empire Strikes Barack:

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Election 2008 Obama Politics The Clintons

A “Granita Pact”

I don’t think this is the answer, but Daniel Altman over at the Huffington Post suggests a “Granita Pact” between Clinton and Obama.  Interesting – but it would make little sense for either of them.

Why would Ms. Clinton agree to serve for only one term?  Her rationale for staying in the race according to John F. Harris and Jim VanderHei of the Politico is that Obama cannot win and would destroy the Democratic Party.  Others talk about the insatiable Clinton lust for power.   Regardless, without a policy rationale to keep her in the race, it’s hard to see Ms. Clinton encouraging an Obama run ever.  The only reasons for her to stay in the race even now are based on either her judgment that Obama cannot win, that he would make a bad president, or that she is determined to gain power no matter what it takes.  Otherwise, she would have gotten out of the way.

Mr. Obama, on the other hand, keeps talking about the “fierce urgency of now”.  His campaign is based on the premise that now is the moment when America needs a change, a new face, a fresh start, a different kind of politics.  In other words, America needs a break from the Clintons and Bushes.  For him to agree to another Clinton term when he was winning the race would brand him a typical politician.

Interesting idea.  But I don’t see either candidate accepting it.  It makes more sense for the Democratic Party than it does for either Clinton or Obama.

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Election 2008 Obama Politics Videos

What Obama is doing on May 30th

#5 on the List is for you Jenn Chan.

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Politics Scandal-mongering

‘DC Madam’ Dead in ‘Suicide’

[digg-reddit-me]The “DC Madam”, Deborah Jeane Palfrey, was found dead this morning by Florida police near her mother’s home. According to the police, she committed suicide. She was found guilty of money laundering and racketeering just over two weeks ago.

Just a tad bit suspicious.

The Dallas Morning News asks:

As surely as this is a tragic outcome, there are some sighs of relief inside the Beltway this afternoon. Can the conspiracy theories be far behind?

The Associated Press has expended it’s initial bulletin to include these relevant details:

[Her] trial concluded without revealing many new details about the service or its clients…

Palfrey faced a maximum of 55 years in prison and was free pending her sentencing July 24.

I give reddit about 30 minutes – at most – until “Dick Cheney killed the DC Madam” headlines appear…

Update: Almost there…

Suicide…. Riiiiiiight.

I’m sure there are no very powerful people who are signing in relief right now.

And the awe-inspiring follow-up:

very powerful people… signing in relief

Funnily enough – exactly how she used to make her money

Update II: Really close:

Cheney was CEO of Halliburton during the time of his liaisons with the DC Madam escort firm.

Update III: So freaking close:

Gee, couldn’t see that one coming a mile away… Mess with neocons, commit “suicide”, surprise, surprise.

And Florida’s likely the best place for such a “suicide”, what with the stellar reputation of its police apparatus.

Hopefully she’s got it set up so someone will publish the list to the web upon event of her death.

Update IV: And there it is:

Dick Cheney killed the DC Madam

Snaxion is the winner of the “Dick Cheney killed the DC Madam” contest.


Congratulations snaxion!
You win…nothing. Sorry.

Update V: Drudge is now linking to the AP’s new snippet of information:

One of the escort service employees was former University of Maryland, Baltimore County, professor Brandy Britton, who was arrested on prostitution charges in 2006. She committed suicide in January before she was scheduled to go to trial.

Last year, Palfrey said she, too, was humiliated by her prostitution charges, but said: “I guess I’m made of something that Brandy Britton wasn’t made of.”

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Domestic issues Election 2008 Obama Political Philosophy Politics The Clintons

A difference in philosophy: Obama v. Clinton on gays

Andrew Sullivan on the difference between Obama’s and Clinton’s philosophy:

Clinton believes government can save people and she, as the benign representative of government, can bestow equality on minorities. You just have to vote for Democrats, give money to the Democratic party interest groups (like the Human Rights Campaign) and your equality will come eventually (but always later than they say). I prefer an approach that tells gay people that they need to get off their asses, talk to straight people, build their relationships, support their community, empower themselves and win the argument for inclusion and integration. No politician can do that for us. And Obama is one of the few politicians who is honest enough to say so.

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