Lame Ducks Triumphant - NYTimes.com

Did Obama fake out the Republicans with the tax compromise and clear a path for the raging duck congress?

But let’s admit it. Nothing would have gotten done if Obama hadn’t swallowed that loathsome compromise on tax cuts for the wealthy.

If he’d taken the high road, Congress would be in a holiday war. The long-term unemployed would be staggering into the new year without benefits. The rest of the world would look upon the United States as a country so dysfunctional that it can’t even ratify a treaty to help keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists. The people who worked at ground zero would still be uncertain about their future, and our gay and lesbian soldiers would still be living in fear.

It’s depressing to think that there was no way to win that would not have involved giving away billions of dollars to people who don’t need it. But it’s kind of cheery to think we have a president who actually does know what he’s doing.

Meep meep, indeed.

The Vulture Transcript: Sci-Fi Author William Gibson on Why He Loves Twitter, Thinks Facebook Is ‘Like a Mall,’ and Much More -- Vulture

On the tea party:

Any thoughts on why the tea-party movement is so successful right now? Why is everyone so upset?
It helps to have a black guy in the White House. Any black guy. If you want to do an old, grumpy white folks party, get a black guy in the White House. You get your old grumpy white folks to turn out.

So has this been simmering and now’s the time for it to come out?
Basically. The Civil War was scarcely more than 150 years ago. It’s yesterday. Race in American hasn’t been sorted out. This used to be a country that was run exclusively by white guys in suits. It’s not going to be a country that’s run exclusively by white guys in suits, and that doesn’t have anything to do with politics, it’s just demographics. That makes some people very uncomfortable. The tea party is like the GOP’s Southern strategy coming back to exact the real cost of that strategy.

Obama in Wonderland - Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com

Glenn Greenwald is all upset about this New York Times article, but for some reason I'm unimpressed:

The Obama administration has taken the extraordinary step of authorizing the targeted killing of an American citizen, the radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who is believed to have shifted from encouraging attacks on the United States to directly participating in them, intelligence and counterterrorism officials said Tuesday. . . . It is extremely rare, if not unprecedented, for an American to be approved for targeted killing, officials said.

Everyone on the left is screaming about tyranny, but targeted killing is pretty much the only way to prosecute a war against an enemy with no army. And if you go to the other side then you're a traitor, and if the President as commander-in-chief wants to go after you, then that's why he's commander-in-chief. What Greenwald and co. are arguing for is passivity. They're arguing that the President has no right to be at war period. But that's a different argument, and one that if they made it, they could probably win. But instead, they're creating this strawm-man Obama who will selectively target his enemies like a story book wicked King. This line of thinking walks right up to the edge of truther-ism. The war isn't bad policy. It isn't bad foreign policy. It's a hoax, perpetrated by an evil cabal that seeks to take away your freeedom.

If it weren't for the tea party I'd be worried that I was becoming conservative, but yeesh, the anti-war left sounds more and more like Fox News all the time.

Maybe Haley Barbour Should Visit A Bookstore Sometime -The Washington Monthly

Haley Barbour thinks Obama is mysterious and scary:

He went on to say -- just as "an observation," of course -- that "there's not much known" about the president's youth. "We don't know any of the childhood things," Barbour argued.

I guess the follow-up for the governor question is, "Who counts as 'we'?"

I have a strong hunch that Haley Barbour doesn't spend a lot of time in bookstores, but there's an entire book about Obama's upbringing. Obama wrote it. It was a best-seller.

"We" arguably know more about this president than any in modern times -- his life has literally been an open-book that "we" can read.

The larger point remains the same, and it remains ugly. Far-right leaders, most notably those with problematic backgrounds on race, are obsessed with characterizing the president as some kind of foreign "other" to be mistrusted and seen as illegitimate. It's absurd and offensive, but it remains at the center of conservative thought.

Game On - The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan

This cannot be said often enough:

I can't for the life of me see how the Democrats retain the House under these economic conditions, but that cannot and does not mean that what Obama has done in his first year and a half is a failure. On the contrary. On almost all the substantive stuff, he has in my view done the right and responsible and sane thing within the almost impossible constraints he was presented with. And given the legacy he inherited, what he has done is simply not enough to perform an economic or political or cultural miracle. That's the brutal truth and we have to face it. And if Americans thought they were voting for a savior, rather than a pragmatic president, they were deluding themselves.

Obama Losing Support From the Youth - The Daily Beast

I really don't understand stuff like this. What exactly were voters expecting? Obama was never in a position to grant wishes.

His job was to stop, slow down, or restrain the stupidity, adventurism, and wrong-headedness of the Bush/Cheney regime. Having held off one disaster after another, he deserves a little more credit. Yes, there are plenty of bad things going on in the world and in the economy. What is not apparent is how much worse those things would be if the right were in charge.

Do we really want to hand things back to those who want to bomb Iran and resume supply-side economics?

The Long Game And The Breitbart Implosion - The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan

Andrew Sullivan continues to keep the faith regarding President Obama:

He avoided a second Great Depression. The bank bailout, however noxious, worked. GM may soon be returning a profit to the government. Health insurance reform will stick and, with careful oversight, could begin to curtail runaway healthcare costs. Financial re-regulation just passed. Two new Supreme Court Justices are in place after failed attempts at culture war demagoguery. Crime - amazingly - has not jumped with the recession. America is no longer despised abroad the way it was; torture has been ended; relations with Russia have improved immensely; Iran's regime is more diplomatically and economically isolated than in its entire history; even the Greater Israel chorus has been challenged. Moreover, if the House goes Republican this fall, it renders a second Obama term as likely as Clinton's became (how many Independents would want to hand over the government to Palin and the current GOP in Congress?).

Is There Anything Obama Could Have Done To Remain Popular? | The New Republic

Obama is unpopular for doing his job. For sticking to his guns, for being patient, for getting things passed through congress.

The fact that world events haven't helped, that the party out of power doesn't like it, that old white people feel angry and marginalized is sort of beside the point.

If he gets stuff done, then the wrath of the ill-informed won't prove to be all that relevant.

Peace, Love and Misunderstanding

Giving the Nobel Peace Prize to President Obama is an act of audacious optimism on the part of the Nobel people. It is motivated by the kind of hope and faith in the future which we haven't seen since the president's inauguration. More importantly it seems to be Europe's way of endorsing and reiterating that aspirational spirit which allowed the U.S. to step away from 8 years of Bushism and Neoconservatism in favor of Obama's slightly improbable candidacy.

But the prize does not fit the country's current mood which is deeply cynical and increasingly despairing. Fear-mongering, bigoted, seduced by conspiracy thinking, the American imagination is currently held in the grip of the Reactionary Right who serve as our de facto filters and mediators. Stupidity is always a ratings winner, but it's important to remember that the conservatives have been on the wrong side of every issue pretty much since the nation's founding. In other words, they have nothing useful to say even if they're hathetically mesmerizing while they're saying it.

Rather than having the courage to celebrate this award, most Obama supporters just want to know what the pundits are saying and which right wing nut job's heads are exploding. There's a marked timidity and passivity in their our failure to stand up for the president. We have lost sight of how much has been achieved simply through ending the stupidity and short-sightedness of the Bush years (at long last, we're being greeted as liberators!).

There is still much Obama can and will do. And he'll make mistakes. But the Peace Prize is not a lifetime achievement award. It is inspirational, idealistic, and utopian; a leap of faith. It looks toward the future, and uses the present as a tool to heal the pains and conflicts of the past. It may not be a logical choice, but it certainly is an intuitive and creative attempt to build a better tomorrow.

Projection and the Shadow

Andrew Sullivan's blog had interesting things to say today about Jungian psychology and Obama-phobia. I'm not that big on Jung, but I do agree that the right-wing (whatever that means these days) seem to accuse Obama of doing the sorts of things they would like to have a strong leader on their side do for them. They accuse him of being a ruthless totalitarian dear-leader because that's their secret ideal.

Yes

President Obama:

We remain a young nation, but in the words of scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.

In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of shortcuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted — for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things — some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.

Ugh Politics

Or, The Audacity of Hope Please Try Harder.

As an Obama supporter, this is what I think I think:

• I'm opposed to Rick Warren having anything to do with the inauguration.
• I know these are union votes, but the Detroit auto industry has been dying for 30 years. Let it go.
• Caroline Kennedy is someone who inspires a lot of warm and nostalgic feelings for those old enough to remember her father, but she probably isn't qualified for the senate.
  

Obama for President

It's election day and it feels like Christmas. I could not be more excited, and frankly I am rooting for a landslide. I'm hoping that by the time I get home tonight and the first polls close, this thing will already be over. Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Florida are the states to watch. McCain needs to run the table to win, so one blue square and he's done. I have my doubts about Ohio, but I'm from there and I know how stupid those people can be. On the other hand, I can't remember ever seeing so many Democratic signs in the upper middle class suburbs even in 1992. Meanwhile, when the returns start coming in the from the west, from Colorado, New Mexico, Oregon, and California, it will just be affirmation and reaffirmation.

This election means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. It's about Bush, and his awful administration. It's about the war in Iraq. It's about Katrina. It's about torture. It's about the culture wars. It's about the Religious Right. It's about anti-intellectualism. It's about faux-Patriotism. It's about every appeal to divisiveness, malice, and pitting the elect us against the preterite them. The possibility of an Obama presidency is a turning away from all these things, a rejection of the resentments and hatreds of the past, the dead-ender's philosophies, and the hope and promise of a better tomorrow. More importantly it restores the notion that America always exists in the future tense. It is not a place or a people, but an idea that we all aspire to. Wherever you came from, whatever your ancestry, your religion, in America, you are a citizen first and foremost.

As a Gen-xer I was raised on the diversity and optimism of Sesame Street and the original Star Trek. There was a spirit of community and opportunity in those shows and in our childhoods that only soured under Reagan and the rise of the Conservative movement. Every utopia became a dystopia. Idealism gave way to cynicism and disenchantment. Under Clinton, we had a brief respite, but in Obama we have the chance to truly turn from fear and again embrace those ideals of community and our shared interconnectedness. Our greatest hopes may yet be possible, in this most improbable of presidents.

Best of luck today to Barack Obama.

Obama is to Awesome as Palin is to ?

Just so it doesn't get lost in the noise of this week's creepfest, let me be the last to point out how great Obama was last week. The speech in Denver really killed, and I've been seeing the enthusiasm gap both in Colorado and on my Labor day visit to my home state of Ohio grow substantially. Democrats love Barack. Republicans grudgingly endorse McCain.

I don't have anything to add to the great Palin debate except that she's every Republican man's ideal third wife and that's going to win her almost all of her support. Hillary voters, not so much. My only complaint about her is that she supports a lot of godawful Alaskan final frontier nonsense, including wolf hunting by air which serves no purpose and is sort of morally reprehensible in ways that should only remind us of Dick Cheney. So there's that.

For information about wolves, check out the Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Center, an organization that's even supported by my Republican neighbors.

Ignore The Pundits

I didn't get to see much of the convention last night, but from the clips I was very impressed with both Clinton and Kerry. Biden seemed to ramble a bit and lose traction a couple of times, but everything he said was dead on. Also, his mom was pretty cool.

Overall, I think the convention has been huge for party unity and rallying the troops. It's also done a lot to position Barack as both "one of us" and someone who can lead the party forward. He's not a radical or an elitist. He's not an idol or a celebutard. He's not coming down from his ivory tower to look down on the hoi polloi. He's a product of the American dream, someone who pulled himself up by his bootstraps and made something of himself. And, he's someone we should be proud to have as our future president. Tonight's his night, and I expect that he will deliver.

For those in the press looking for red meat, I think that's coming. Obama hasn't been following the political script, so much as writing a novel. This week was designed to establish his credentials. When he takes on the Republicans and their media trolls, he won't be out there on his own, he'll have back-up. He won't be speaking fancifully like some ill-informed celebrity, he'll come with the collective wisdom of his party and its supporters. And when he does attack, he'll be voicing our anger and our disappointment at the last 8 years of Cheney, Bush and McCain and not because it's politically expedient. And when they come to tear him down, again and again, with their meaningless slurs, and hateful fabrications, it will be up to those of us in the party not to falter, not to fear, but rest transparently in our faith in better worlds. As the wise man says:

The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who in the name of charity and goodwill shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee.

Hillary's Speech

I thought Hillary's speech last night was a real home run. The way that she was able to endorse Obama without looking defeated, and the way she was able to stand up for her core principles and align them with Obama's and with the party's was pretty stunning. She used the opportunity to rally the troops, speak wisely and from the heart, and show some leadership in ways that I had not seen before.

Was she touchy-feely about Obama? No, nor did she need to be. It would have seemed creepy if she had. If the election, as she noted, is about real issues, real problems, and real Democratic values then it has to be bigger than any one individual. It's not about the candidates, it's about the people. So why should she turn around and say that she is a sudden Obama-phile? The election is not about one cult of personality versus another. It's about moving forward and overcoming the last 8 years. That's what she said, and that's all she need to say.

I will be interested to see if this opens the door for a genuine endorsement from President Clinton, as well as more Bush/McCain bashing from Biden.

The Dems in Denver

I didn't not get to see Ted Kennedy last night, but I loved, loved, loved Michelle Obama's speech. I thought her message was positive, hopeful, patriotic, and forward looking. What more could you ask for? Even Biden seemed to be caught up in the moment, as if it is still only dawning on him what he's attached himself to.

Senator Obama's big screen appearance was funny -- it's like he's Dick Van Dyke to Michelle's Mary Tyler Moore. He messed up which city he was in and his littlest daughter called him on it which was, let's face it, pretty darn cute.

The TV pundits want the convention to be nastier, but I like the fact that the Democrats are standing by their message. I like the idea that they don't need Bush, McCain, or the Republicans to justify their existence. They don't need the war, or the economy, or high gas prices to justify their policies. They're better than that. They're ready to lead now. And everyone's welcome.

On a different note, and after looking forward to MSNBC's coverage all summer long, it's been pretty lousy so far. No one can hear each other. Communications keep dropping out. Chris Matthews looks washed out. Keith Olbermann looks more bloated than usual. Morning Joe is acting like he's on meth all the time. Clearly they are not dealing well with the altitude and the mountain time zone.

Nevertheless, it's fun to see shots of Denver on TV. Particularly since their outside desk at Union Station is near where I caught the Boulder Express for awhile.

So far, I would say that everything is boding well for Thursday night at Invesco.

The Polls

All of the political pundits want to know why the polls are so close. Every day they check the numbers and then speculate (wildly) about what it must mean. How is it that Obama isn't ahead by more? Why is the race so tight? Will Obama stumble? What about the disaffected Hillary voters? Blah, blah, and blah.

MSNBC seems to think that there's secret racism in the polling and that it's actually closer than it looks. This could be true, though I'm trying to pretend that race won't enter into it.

But my guess is that we're in a lull. The primary lasted too long, everyone's in summer mode, and no one's really committed to the election coverage yet.

I say, wait and see. Wait for the Olympics. Wait for the debates. Wait for the conventions. Wait for the 75,000 in Mile High stadium. Wait until the country has a chance to see these two guys standing next to each other, and then check the polls. The more charming candidate always wins. If Barack doesn't have a double-digit lead after all of that, then we'll know for certain that the Bradley effect is in play.

Obama's Speech

As I mentioned earlier, all arguments eventually devolve to emotional pleas that exploit our fears. But, if you make a purely emotional plea that tries to tap into peoples hopes, as Obama did yesterday, you get dinged for being too vague.

Obama's speech was an attempt to motivate (manipulation, psychology) to pursue a larger purpose (situation, universe). The politicos take this as an opportunity to argue about Obama's methods (mind, fixed attitude), or lack thereof (since it was not, in fact a policy speech).

His optimism isn't realistic, they say. He didn't say how he'll achieve all of these things. It's all empty rhetoric ¹.

Which pretty much misses while disappearing up their own asses political echo chambers.


¹. Rhetoric being the language of poetry and non-rational persuasion, as opposed to the cool² prosaic³ language of logic.

². Cool in its original meaning of detachment as opposed to it's current usage as a post-Boomer catchall for "nifty," as in "keep cool, but care" from Pynchon's V.

³. And here I mean prosaic as in, well I'm not sure, but just sort of banal and boiler-platish. The distinction between poetry and prose is kind of stupid anyway, since some of the best prose is rhetorically¹ beautiful.