Tuesday, November 11, 2008

The Emnanuel Bros

The part that stood out: Ezekiel Emanuel spoke of how, in their family, 'failure was not permanent'. They were allowed to fail. They knew the family would be there for them if they did. In a NYT article from June 97 he says ''One thing that I think is very important is the fact that we've all failed.''

Monday, November 10, 2008

It's the apathy that angers us.

There is a lot of people out there who don't seem to get why people are so mad about Sarah Palin. Why we are still mad even after our guy won?

Sarah Palin's lack of knowledge is frustrating not because it shows a lack of intelligence. Becoming a Governer definitely must have taken a certain degree of smarts.

The reason it's freaking us out is because it shows a lack of empathy. She simply doesn't care enough. She doesn't care enough about the country and she doesn't care enough about the people. At least she she doesn't care enough to spend even a minimal amount of time and effort into understanding basic civics. She doesn't care enough to know about the most pressing problems that we face, let alone have an inkling about the proposed solutions that are out there.

This is especcially agregious considering the core message of her presence on the ticket. That she is the average hockey mum who can empathise with our problems.

We are still angry because we cannot believe that someone so transparently apathetic managed to get so close to holding office in an institution that means so much to us democracy advocates around the world.

Saturday, November 08, 2008

Change.gov

That's a little bit on the ostentatious side

For all his strengths, Obama has a Chicago cockiness that annoys and amuses me as the same time. This is the latest in a series of such displays including the seal, the fireworks, the Parthenon and the Mile High Stadium. The speech in Berlin also was cast as presumptuous.

Luckily he's also self aware. At the Al Smith dinner he provides this insight: "If I had to name my greatest strength, I guess it would be my humility. Greatest weakness, it's possible that I'm a little too awesome." Watch the whole thing.

Thursday, November 06, 2008

What a speech.

Obama had to hold back on the rhetoric over the last few months of the campaign. This is a return to true form. President-elect Barack Obama:


Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Challenges ahead.

Ignatius in Post reminds us of JFK's first year in the Presidency. Obama needs to learn and learn fast. Campaigning well does not mean governing well. Carter and Bush are prime examples of this fact.

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Prediction

346 electoral votes..via projection from Nate Silver's www.fivethirtyeight.com. I'm gonna go with that for now.

Poll Tax

She's been a bit of a hit and miss but this is definitely a point worth making: