Taking a break

When I started this blog I said I would keep it going as an experiment until inauguration day.  So far I have found that I’ve really enjoyed the experience of blogging however it’s been a couple of weeks since I last posted to this blog and I’m realizing that I’m just not going to be able to focus on it enough for the immediate future to keep posting regularly.  I haven’t really posted much on the economy but I am having my own personal battle with this recession and that is not leaving much room to focus on much else like this blog.  I do want to keep it going but I think now is a time to be honest and declare that I am taking a break until I have the ability to focus on it again.  I am looking forward though to re-starting it.

Cojones

 

No, not Hillary’s, Obama’s:

Ken Silverstein lists five very good reasons for not appointing Hillary Secretary of State:

 

Hillary Clinton will have her own agenda (as will her husband). She’s not a team player and will bring in a crew of cronies whose chief aim will be to promote the boss, not the administration. Obama may wake up one day and discover that Hillary has decreed a new “Clinton Doctrine” of foreign policy.

It would be impossible, politically, to fire Hillary. No matter what she says or does, or how insubordinate, Obama will be stuck with her as long as she wants to stay.

Her husband is a walking conflict of interest. Bill helps a Canadian businessman land a uranium contract in Kazakhstan, and soon afterwards the businessman contributes to the Clinton Foundation. Bill’s personal and business dealings are embarrassing enough without Hillary heading the State Department.

The Clinton style of management–for example, pitting one faction of staff against another–would be a disaster at the State Department. Just look at how well it worked on the campaign trail.

And the strongest strike of all against Hillary as secretary of state… look at who endorses her.

 

The story has however been out there for over a week and has not been quashed by the transition team so I think it is safe to say that the story is real.  I’ve asked myself, given the risks, why would Obama want to expose himself this way.  The conventional wisdom is that he wants the strongest possible team and is therefore assembling a “team of rivals”.  It is true that from the convention through to the election that she was 100% on message in supporting Obama and did her best to get him elected.  How though can Obama be sure that once she has settled into Foggy Bottom she won’t go about recreating Hillaryland.  The answer must be that he is supremely self-confident in his management abilities and his ability to impose discipline on even the strongest of personalities.  This is afterall the man who ran the most disciplined campaign in history with no leaks, no drama and no stories of internal conflict.  He showed steel in the face of outrageous attacks from the GOP and maintained his composure throughout the campaign.  He must believe that his steel is even stronger than we have already seen.  I’m interested to see this work in practice.

Cory Booker

Following the election there is one African-American politician that everyone wants to see and interview but since he is heavily involved in the transition the media has had to look for substitutes. Newark mayor Cory Booker has begun to become ubiquitous in his numerous appearances and I have grown to enjoy his earnestness and believe that he has something unique and worth listening to on the subject of race. I also admire anyone who can stand up to Stephen Colbert and still get his message across.

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Commemorating history

It’s nice to see that the historic nature of the election result is being appropriately recognized and commemorated.

Blogging

Anyone who has started looking at this blog regularly will have noticed that I haven’t posted in over a week.  When I started this blog I said that I would post enough to make it worthwhile to check in a couple of times a week which is a target I’ve missed.  Since this is far from a full time occupation for me I’m definitely not going to guarantee to post daily.  My dry patch for the last week has however made me consider why I want to blog and what is the nature of blogging.  I first looked at it as a way of sparing my friends from receiving unsolicited political missives in their inboxes.  I also saw it as an outlet to relieve the urge to yell at the TV.  I will confess to have spent the last week with a relatively passive disposition and I have not felt any aggressive impulses toward my TV.  Although in the aftermath of the election one could argue that things are quiet and there is less to comment on things have however happened.  I find though that I have no definite views about the stories of the last week that have captured my attention.  I’m still mulling things over and wandering what do I think and don’t have definite conclusions.  I’m coming close to some so I expect to start posting again soon.  The thought does occur to me that maybe it’s OK not to have any definite conclusions.  After all I’m not a paid pundit; maybe it might actually be more valuable to post my thought process even though I don’t have any conclusions.  The ability to do that may be one of the unique features of the format of blogging and maybe by not doing so I’m missing an opportunity.  I’m giving this some thought and maybe I’ll change my style of blogging.  These are still early days for this blog and so I think I can experiment.  One way or the other I will definitely be posting again over the next few days.

Remembrance / Veterans Day

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Canadian soldier in Afghanistan marks Remembrance Day, the 90th anniversary of the end of World War I.

Obama, and the first Arab prime minister of Israel

Bradley Burston:

I have been trying in the last few days to make clear to Israelis the enormity of the meaning of the presidential election in the United States. 

Only one thing works. 

“Imagine,” I tell them, “that Israel elected an Arab prime minister.” 

. . .

So completely has Israel’s majority convinced itself that the Arab population is out of the running for the premiership – either because Israeli Jews see them as an embittered fifth column, or as a group battered into docility – that at this point, politically, they do not, they cannot, see Arabs at all. 

An anatomy of the rise of Palinism

What the rise of Sarah Palin and populism means for the conservative intellectual tradition.

. . .

“Writing recently in the New York Times, David Brooks noted correctly (if belatedly) that conservatives’ “disdain for liberal intellectuals” had slipped into “disdain for the educated class as a whole,” and worried that the Republican Party was alienating educated voters. I couldn’t care less about the future of the Republican Party, but I do care about the quality of political thinking and judgment in the country as a whole. There was a time when conservative intellectuals raised the level of American public debate and helped to keep it sober. Those days are gone. As for political judgment, the promotion of Sarah Palin as a possible world leader speaks for itself. The Republican Party and the political right will survive, but the conservative intellectual tradition is already dead. And all of us, even liberals like myself, are poorer for it.”

A New Deal for Climate Change

Al Gore argues in the NY Times that the challenge of saving the planet from global warming provides an opportunity to stimulate the economy back to health.  Gore proposes a five point plan.  I would agree: The challenge of preventing climate change and ending our dependence on foreign oil provides a challenge of the magnitude of the many infrastructure projects taken on during the New Deal.  Recent stimulus packages have taken the form of subsidies to consumers to spend our way back to economic health.  We seem to have forgotten that the depression was defeated by vast public works projects and ultimately the challenge of fighting World War II.  This may be one of those times when history has provided an opportunity again to achieve a great national goal while reviving the health of the economy at the same time.

In an earlier transformative era in American history, President John F. Kennedy challenged our nation to land a man on the moon within 10 years. Eight years and two months later, Neil Armstrong set foot on the lunar surface. The average age of the systems engineers cheering on Apollo 11 from the Houston control room that day was 26, which means that their average age when President Kennedy announced the challenge was 18.

This year similarly saw the rise of young Americans, whose enthusiasm electrified Barack Obama’s campaign. There is little doubt that this same group of energized youth will play an essential role in this project to secure our national future, once again turning seemingly impossible goals into inspiring success.

Liberal media bias

This does not worry me unduly.  The type of bias described by this piece pales into insignificance compared to the virulence of the right wing propaganda machines of “Fair and Balanced” Fox Noise, conservative talk radio, the Wall St Journal editorial page et al.

The Republicans: Into the Wilderness

The Economist considers the future for the GOP:

The Republicans—rather as the Conservative Party did in Britain after losing office in 1997—may have to dally with a radical figure, such as Mrs Palin, before returning to more moderate figures who could hold together the grand coalition again. If so that might involve a long period in the wilderness.

I tend to agree that the future of the GOP will be very similar to the course taken by the British Tory party.  Barack Obama is the most naturally gifted politician of his generation.  Combined with his personal iron self discipline and the same iron with which he has managed his campaign and coalition then there is a good chance that like New Labour he will be able to maintain extended high approval ratings across most of his (I believe probable) two terms.  The Tory party turned inward after its defeat and continued to damage itself over the self-inflicted wound of Europe.  The GOP is set to go through the same process in a self-inflicted internal culture war between the christianists and dixiecrats on one side and the remaining National Greatness republicans and pro-business lobby / libertarian wing on the other.  If they want to avoid an extended period in the wilderness they would do well to study the recent hsitory of the Tory party and understand the lessons it learned which have allowed its re-emergence as a credible political force under David Cameron.

The presidential campaign in a minute

Just in case your memory is beginning to fade . . . and here’s election night in a minute; well a bit more than a minute.  It’s at about the two minute mark that I start remembering my extended fit of screaming and yelling that has left me with a very hoarse and sore throat for a week.

The Cognitive Dissonance of the McCain Campaign

Noam Scheiber:

The McCainiacs thought they were doing the stand-up thing by ruling out certain below-the-belt accusations and insinuations. Of course, rejecting some ugly attacks in favor of others doesn’t exactly speak to your integrity. But you could see how it would make someone thinkthey were choosing the path of righteousness.

“Americans who were not moved by what happened the other night were in some way un-American.”

Leon Wieseltier: That Night

There are moments when pure feeling is also intelligent feeling. When suddenly CNN revealed its wall-sized announcement of the outcome, I experienced a blissful and unembarrassed rush of racialism. Only a hologram of Frederick Douglass would have excited me more. In that instant, forgive me, all I cared to know about Barack Obama was his color. A man of mixed race–no, an African American–no, a black man–no, let us not forget the whole odious story, a Negro–was elected to the presidency of the United States. There could be no more definitive demonstration of the American system of possibility than this; none. The oldest and most plausible pessimism of all had been retired. I recognized that this was a triumph for all of us, but before it was a triumph for all of us it was a triumph for some of us, and I was happy for them, for my black brothers and sisters, before I was happy for me. They had borne so much and waited so long. On this night they had overcome. And so my happiness was quickly complicated by a solemn sensation of respect: what were the tears in my eyes compared to the tears in their eyes? According to Obama’s ideal of inclusiveness, they were the ones being included in my American narrative; but somehow I felt also like I was being included in their American narrative, and I was honored to have a place in it. Their elevation elevated me, too. Equality is universal, but the paths to equality are particular. As we glorified our similarities, I bowed my head before our differences, which are blessings when they are not curses.

. . .

The morning after the epiphany in America, I remarked a little sheepishly to a friend that from the way I had surrendered to my emotions, you would think that my own ancestors were slaves. And then I saw it: I had surrendered to my emotions because my own ancestors were slaves. How can a Jew, I mean a Jewish Jew, not rejoice at the election of Barack Obama? Not politically, where the road ahead may be rough; but historically, spiritually. We, too, remember the pharaohs; and we, too, choose never to hate the world; and we, too, have a hope of being saved by America.

The Preacher From Atlanta

The fact that candidate Obama was african-american was not a reason to vote for him.  In fact, the candidate made a point of positioning himself as a post-racial candidate.  The only time he referred to race on the campaign trail was in his deeply thoughtful speech in Philadelphia when he was forced to because of the antics of his then pastor.  The fact however that president-elect Obama is african-american is however cause for continuous celebration.  During his convention and election night acceptance speeches he referred obliquely to “a preacher from Atlanta”.  Now that the event has happened I don’t think we have to be oblique in our references anymore:

“Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty we are free at last”.

A Time for Peace

Lindsay Davis’s beautiful reaction to the Obama victory.

Voice, voice, voice. To speak truth to power. To question, ask, allow and challenge authority. We are led by our government and the people we elect to positions of power MUST uphold the values and ideals of our Founding Fathers AND Mothers. They must lead us through these challenging times and show us a way to walk a high road of decency and devotion to democracy.

We’ve all been through a lot together. The time to educate ourselves and each other is NOW. Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, credit default swaps, short selling, billion dollar bailout plans, No Child Left Behind, Medicare, Social Security — it was a great ad campaign back in the days of the Cosby Show on NBC, remember? THE MORE YOU KNOW. Let’s teach and learn together so we truly elevate ourselves to a nation of informed people with diverse opinions. 

Let it never be said by future generations that indifference, cynicism or selfishness made us fail to live up to the ideals of humanism which the Nobel Peace Prize encapsulates. Let the strivings of us all, prove Martin Luther King Jr. to have been correct, when he said that humanity can no longer be tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war. -Nelson Mandela

Proposition 8

I feel I should say something about the tragedy of Proposition 8 although I am at a loss for something original to add.  For comprehensive coverage and heartfelt reaction you should read Andrew Sullivan’s posts. I find it particularly heartbreaking that Proposition 8 passed because of the increased turnout of African-Americans, a community relatively unsympathetic to LGBT causes, that the act of the fulfillment of the dreams of one community with a history of oppression should result in the loss of an already existing civil right for another.

We Still Can!

A letter from a new citizen about his experience as a first time voter:

I feel that all the doors I knocked on in swing states, the calls I made to voters in swing states and the money I gave counted for more than voting is the solid blue state of New York.  This does however make me feel somehow left out that I wasn’t able to pull the lever myself.  I’ve been eligible for citizenship for several years already.  It’s something I will address before 2010.

44

I have honestly spent the last couple of days recovering and trying to collect my thoughts to describe my personal reaction.  By recovering, amongst other ways I mean physically: my throat is still hoarse from all the yelling and screaming I did on Tuesday night.  I actually spent most of the evening in a self protective cocoon of not allowing myself to believe and I only started to allow myself to start to believe when Ohio was called for Obama and then let myself overflow with emotion when the result was declared.

Do I think change has happened?  Obama is going to have a tough time pushing forward his own agenda given the state of the economy.  But much change has happened overnight.  Our long national nightmare of being governed by a GOP that comprised a coalition of Dixiecrats, religious fundamentalists, an administration that used fear to retain power and to divide the country down the middle pitting American against American through the propagation of culture war in order to energize its base is over.  The assault of Bush and Cheney on the constitution is over.  The Supreme Court is safe from the appointment of at least two other justices in the model of Alito and Roberts, picked because of their deference to executive power, a defence against the prosecution of the Cheneyites for war crimes.  Some change can happen immediately: Gitmo can be closed, torture and extraordinary rendition ended, habeus corpus restored together with the other parts of the constitution assaulted by Bush and Cheney.  We can feel safe that the constitution will be “preserved and protected” by a president who taught constitutional law for 10 years.

It’s hard to make broader predictions, but I will make one prediction for our 44th president.  Despite the Democrats sizable majorities in the House and the Senate, I do not believe that he will govern as a Liberal president.  I don’t think entirely that he will govern entirely as a Democratic president.  I am prepared to take him at his word that he will govern fundamentally as an American president.  After the national nightmare of the last 7 years that is enough change.  I have always said that the great strength of the United States is that no matter how badly it may go off the rails that it always has the ability to self-correct itself.  That the constitution is strong enough to re-assert itself.  That 221 years of un-broken constitutional republican government has shown that the dream of the founders always has the ability to redeem itself.  I will confess that as I heard Obama’s acceptance speech some tears came to my eyes as I realised that it is really true that yes we can. 

I hang a framed print of one of Jasper John’s paintings of the flag in my home.  I took a good look at Old Glory yesterday.  It looked different.  I feel very good about the country that I chose to make my home.

A Change is Gonna Come

A friend forwarded this link on.

Condi on Obama

Check out the size of her smile:

So much for the idea of live blogging election night

I’m at the largest Democratic bash in NYC and by large I mean huge and loud . . . which is fine because CNN is being projected onto all the walls with closed captions. The music gets turned down every time there’s a projection for Obama so that the crowd can tell their lungs out. I didn’t anticipate that the club would be underground so I don’t have iPhone reception. Still Ohio looks like it’s in the bag so I’m beginning to allow myself to believe . . . I’m going off now to enjoy the party.

PA for Obama

MSNBC just called Pennsylvania for Obama.  I’ve spent the bulk of the last four days calling voters in PA.  I have no idea whether I influenced a single voter to vote that would not otherwise have voted but right now I feel really good about myself.

Life Imitates “The West Wing”

I always thought it was uncanny how closely the actual 2008 Obama vs McCain race paralleled the fictional Santos vs Vinnick campaign portrayed in the 2006 final season of The West Wing. Slate V explains that this was no accident:

Palin To Black Person: Todd & I Live With Racial Discrimination, Too!

Seriously!

A view from Israel

Ha’aretz:

Change needed in the U.S.

The two presidential candidates, Democratic Senator Barack Obama of Illinois and Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona, have made a point of demonstrating their commitment to Israel’s security. Neither, it may be believed, would deviate from the brave alliance between the two countries. However, after eight years of a conservative Republican president, the question arises: Has the time come for a new American policy in the region? A policy that will afford diplomacy a major role, that will back serious negotiations with Iran, that will assist the negotiations between Israel and Syria and will extend practical support to the Arab initiative and to ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?

Ha’aretz: An Obama win does not represent a risk to Israel

Amos Harel’s analysis can be found here.  Yossi Sarid argues in the same paper that McCain would be as bad for Israel as Bush was:

Bush has forgotten us and the Palestinians. He refused to advance the talks with Syria and ignored – like us – the pan-Arab peace initiative lying on the table since 2002. McCain will be another such friend, whose friendship ensures calamity. Nobody can say what kind of president Obama will be, but at least he has the benefit of the doubt. McCain, on the other hand, does not bring new hope. Not even dubious hope. 

Mental Health Break: Stephen Colbert Endorses Obama

I’m still on catch-up but let’s face it, this endorsement is huge and can’t be ignored.

Call!

my.barackobama.com/calls

The Trial

I’m ashamed to say that I have reached my current stage in life without ever reading Franz Kafka’s most famous work.  Like many people I have evoked it on numerous occasions to describe actions of officialdom that as a result of the influence of the work we describe as Kafkaesque.  I recently tried to read it.  I stopped very early.  Unlike many people who have read the book years ago I was not able to read it with the comfort that it could not happen here, that this was a description of the oppression of the regimes that we can be proud of our role in bringing to an end.  But The Trial is not set in a totalitarian regime:

“Who could these men be?  What were they talking about?  What authority could they represent?  K. lived in a country with a legal constitution, there was universal peace, all the laws were in force; who dared seize him in his own dwelling?”

In the America created by Bush and Cheney, where the constitution has been repeatedly assaulted with the connivance and support of the mass of the GOP, this has happened here, many times (see Andrew Sullivan’s essay in the previous post).

I want to read this book with the comfort of knowing that this could not happen.  I want to read it with the certainty that the constitution protects us from this.  Tomorrow our seven year national nightmare must end.