election

Election 08: Sekou “tha Misfit” and Steve Connell on Obama

Tuesday, November 11th, 2008

On Election Night, I caught up with spoken word artists, Sekou Andrews (aka tha misfit) and Steve Connell, to get their poetic thoughts on the Obama’s win. Andrews and Connell were featured performers at Obama’s California Headquarters celebration. The two artists created a special poem called “Obama Takes America Back” about Obama’s historic win.

Andrews and Connell, both National Poetry Slam Champions, are no strangers to political activism and worked with the Norman Lear “Declare Yourself” campaign back in 2002. For the spoken word artists, the political is personal. The very definition of democracy, of being a Christian, of being an environmentalist is changing. The duo discuss George W. Bush’s role as a great motivator and how fear caused many Americans to become politically active. Check out the interview above and their performance below.

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Obama: Now He’s Really A Celebrity

Monday, November 10th, 2008
Michelle and Barack Obama out for dinner on Saturday night.

Michelle and Barack Obama out for dinner on Saturday night.

The McCain camp scored one of its few victories over the course of the campaign when it labeled Barack Obama a celebrity in advertising spots that ran in August. The criticism stuck because in many ways it was true: Obama was drawing thousands of adoring fans to every campaign rally he held.

But now that Obama is President-elect, Americans can obsess about their new, handsome Commander-in-Chief and his beautiful family without fear of being labeled star hounds. On Friday, the Obama camp posted election-night photos of the family waiting for Barack to be declared the winner on Flickr, and the page wouldn’t display for a while as visitors eager to see the new first family overloaded the site.

The Obamas are getting the real celebrity treatment: There are now grainy photographs chronicling their every move. The Huffington Post breathlessly declared Sunday, “Obamas Eat Out For First Time Since Win.”

Barack and Michelle Obama are meeting with George and Laura Bush Monday afternoon for their first official tour of the White House, and Washington insiders are predicting awkwardness as Obama meets with someone he has spent the last months criticizing on the campaign trail. But while Obama meets with the exiting president, continues to assemble his cabinet, and weighs what policy initiatives to take on first, us lowly citizens are tackling the real issue the first family needs to address, asking “what kind of dog should Malia and Sasha get?” [Ed note—presidential celebrities are just like you and me!]

Obama addressed this concern at his first press conference as president-elect on Friday.

With respect to the dog, this is a major issue. I think it’s generated more interest on our Web site than just about anything. We have—we have two criteria that have to be reconciled. One is that Malia is allergic, so it has to be hypo-allergenic. There are a number of breeds that are hypo-allergenic. On the other hand, our preference would be to get a shelter dog. But obviously, a lot of shelter dogs are mutts, like me. So the—so, whether we’re going to be able to balance those two things, I think, is a pressing issue on the Obama household.

Obama has been praised for running a brilliant campaign, but clearly he knows the real way to get into Americans’ hearts: talk about pets. Just Google “Obama family dog” and there will be thousands of stories and hundreds of breed suggestions for the Obamas to consider.

Even Bill Kristol is concerned a dog-friendly Obama will be an unbeatable president. Writing about Obama’s press conference, the conservative New York Times columnist said, “Here, in a few sentences, Obama did the following: He deepened his bond with every dog lover in America. He identified with every household that’s tried to figure out what kind of dog to get. He touched every parent with a kid allergic to pets. He showed compassion by preferring a dog from a shelter. And he demonstrated a dry and slightly politically incorrect wit by commenting that ‘a lot of shelter dogs are mutts like me.’”

A common refrain during the campaign from McCain and others was that Obama was an unknown. Now that he will be the next president, there is a demonstrated hunger from Americans to learn more about Obama and his family. What new styles will Michelle introduce? Where will the girls go to school? Will Barack follow through on his pledge to install a basketball court in the White House?

We’ll all be able to follow along as the Obamas make their new home in Washington. Some celebrities complain about the lack of privacy in their lives. But that doesn’t apply when it’s the president, right?

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Now What? The GOP Figures Out Its Next Move

Monday, November 10th, 2008
illustration Jack Davis for Time mag.

illustration Jack Davis for Time mag.

Last Wednesday, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, 47, a day after his party suffered its greatest consecutive Congressional defeats since Depression-era elections in 1930 and 1932, stated the obvious. “Nationally, the Republican Party is going to go through a Dr. Phil, self-analysis moment,” he told the AP.

But the Republican Party has been locked in a permanent Dr. Phil moment since the Iowa caucuses in January. The sniping between John McCain and Sarah Palin’s camp is just the latest (and maybe the greatest) showing of inner-party turmoil.

At a moment when changing demographics are favoring young and minority voters, the Republican brand is disintegrating—the once-solid coalition of fiscal conservatives, national security hawks, and social conservatives is unraveling. Young and minority voters may not have been the difference in 2008, but they were solidly behind the overwhelming Democratic turnout, and will be the dominant audience in foreseeable elections. But will they be receptive to whatever message the Republican power structure offers in the next four years?

The election of a 47-year-old half-black man who grew up outside the mainland U.S. might mark the end of the culture wars that has polarized every presidential election since the 60s. That was the GOP’s winning formula: separate the Democratic Party’s coastal elites from its working class base. Republicans employed wedge issues like abortion, affirmative action, and crime to split the Democratic Party in half and win. And it worked: Barack Obama is the first president to win 50 percent of the popular vote since Jimmy Carter’s 1976 post- Watergate victory.

There will be cries for the GOP to return to this divisive, but winning formula. But it didn’t work in 2008, and it wasn’t for lack of trying either.

The emerging Republican direction appears more conservative than pragmatic. The difference between compromise and obstruction will come down to how the House leadership shakes out—Minority leader John Boehner, 58, expects to win another term before inauguration day.

Republicans on the national level are still holding the bag for financial failure. The crisis exposed a rift among Republicans the likes of which we have not seen since the Gerald Ford-Ronald Regan contests in 1976. On the one side, the Young Turks like Rep. Eric Cantor, 45, who wish it was Reaganland all over again, are going to war against spending and taxes. On the other side, are the moderates, like Rep. Adam Putnam, 34, who favored the White House, Senate, and House-endorsed $750 billion rescue legislation.

The bailout legislation is like a scarlet letter for Republican representatives. Those who voted for it are resigning from leadership. Rep. Putnam resigned from the party’s No. 3 leadership position, but Rep. Cantor is likely to be promoted to the No. 2 spot despite engineering that legislation’s initial defeat. Rep. Roy Blunt, 58, formerly the No. 2, resigned Thursday saying—in so many words—that Republicans are losers.

Cantor, Blunt and Boehner have thrown down over leadership roles before, and we can expect a juicy power-grabbing sequel in the 111th Congress.

Across the Capitol, Senate Republicans are a lonely lot, losing six Senate seats, and maybe more in Georgia and Minnesota. And unlike their House counterparts, senators may be more willing to deal with Democrats. For former red state Republican senators like Maine’s Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe and Iowa’s Chuck Grassley, the new and bluer 2008 electoral map is a brave new world. Republican senators are unlikely to rally behind conservative initiatives rebuking President Obama’s policies, fearing that they will be out of touch with the folks back home.

The Republican Party will likely lurch further right before it comprises or disintegrates, with the House leading the way on the national level. The American Spectator endorsed the fiscal conservatives and defense hawk old guard. Blogger Michelle Malkin demanded Republicans obstruct Democrats no matter the cost. Lou Dobbs won’t shut up about immigration, and McCainiacs rallied against the news media. At the grassroots level things are even worse—activists are turning clocks back to (surprise!) 1980 and siding with Palin. But what about governors not named Sarah? Why isn’t anybody talking about them?

While the national Party is figuring out what do to, governors are quietly experimenting with new Republican mantras. Largely independent from the national head-scratching, governors understand representative government boils down to delivering goods and services.

“‘The other side is worse’ is not a very inspiring bumper sticker,“ said Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, 37. “We’ve got…to apply our principles to the issues that affect people’s lives.” Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush—a moderate (yes, really)—says the 2010 elections will provide a debut for a “conservative agenda [that] can be shown at the state level regarding education, health care and environmental policy.

“We can’t be anti-Hispanic, anti-young person, anti-many things and be surprised when we don’t win elections,” Gov. Bush, 55, said.

But Gov. Bush and Gov. Jindal’s messages are in stark contrast to the House and the grassroots movements’ direction.

Both Govs. Bush and Jindal are in the one region where Republican enthusiasm was high. Turnout was strongest in a crescent that swept from Louisiana to South Carolina. If Republicans are going to get any new ideas, they should start looking, like they have since Barry Goldwater, in the South.

“The South is beginning to look less like the firm foundation of a national Party than the embattled redoubt of a regional one,” middle-America soothsayer George Will wrote.

When the next Congress convenes, 43% percent of the likely 44 Republican senators will be from the South (including Oklahoma and Kentucky).

Essentially the party of Lincoln is over. The party of Nixon’s culture wars will only succeed if the Obama administration fails, and the party of Reagan adheres to its ultra conservative roots despite its 30-year dominance in government.

Yes, even a few days after D-Day there is movement for 2010 and beyond. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, 61, has re-activated his PAC, there are more Sarah Palin secrets coming down the pike, and Gov. Jindal is the keynote speaker at a major league conservative Christian fundraising ordeal on Nov. 22 in Iowa. Gotta love caucuses.

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A Father’s Letter To His Future Child About Barack Obama

Monday, November 10th, 2008


To my unborn child:

As you read this, the story of President Barack Obama is indelibly inked into the nation’s biography. The audacity of Obama is as much a part of the American story as the honesty of Lincoln, the courage of Washington, the vision of FDR. The phrase “Yes We Can” is as ingrained in our lore as “four score and seven years ago” or “we have nothing to fear but fear itself.”

Three words. So simple you may miss their importance. But at the time he first spoke them, they were nothing short of revolutionary.

When President Obama was still a new face and an “exotic” candidate, he was beaten pretty badly in a primary Presidential race by a powerful opponent. Some people were shocked. Some said it proved the doubters right. Many predicted he would never recover. But he was undaunted. And on a frozen New Hampshire night, he looked into the eyes of America and said “Yes We Can.”

And with those three words, this man we barely knew, with a name we couldn’t pronounce, who looked different from what we’d come to expect touched the very core of what it means to be American. America responded because those three words are in our DNA, and watching this man speak, we had no doubt that it was true: Yes We Can.

President Obama was born at a time when many African Americans were still unable to vote. He was raised without his father, and at times there wasn’t enough money for food. Many mornings, when he lived overseas, he had to wake up at 4:30 in the morning to study, just to keep up with American children his age.

He succeeded by being fearless and focused, graceful and true to himself. As a community organizer, Harvard lawyer, Constitutional scholar and state and federal senator, Barack Obama followed his heart. He worked for others. His vocation always followed his passion.

When he ran for president, Barack Obama was advised to wait. It was not his turn. He was inexperienced. Then, when he became successful, he was attacked from every angle-some said he was “too black.” Others said he was “too white”- some feared he was too conciliatory to those who disagreed with him; others accused him of being too partisan. Finally, people resorted to spreading lies and calling him every name in the book. But Barack Obama was calm, confident, and clear about his purpose.
Like President Obama, you too may be judged unfairly in this life. You will be embraced by some and rejected by others based on the color of your skin, the way you speak, or the clothes you wear. You may be labeled too young, too old, too short or tall or simply misguided. Some people may even try to dictate how you worship or whom you love. You will lose before you win.

And when you encounter those doubts, setbacks, even ridicule, you will understand the power of those three words.

Yes We Can means you will never be denied opportunity. Nothing will be out of reach. Yes We Can means you are not alone in your journey. If you listen to others, you will achieve more together than separately. Yes We Can means audacity and ingenuity beat inertia and trepidation every time.

Yes We Can prompted your great grandparents to risk everything and come to this country, weather the Great Depression, and prosper when the odds were against them. Yes We Can enabled both your grandfathers to face down death in a foreign war even as many in their homeland had disowned them. They never accepted failure as an option, they never stopped loving their country, and they never stopped believing in those three words. Yes We Can belongs to you because you’ve inherited it from all who came before you. You are the soldier, the businessman, the farmer, the teacher, the explorer. You are an American.

Americans dream big, follow-through, solve problems, and never quit. Americans are not always right, but they are resilient. Americans have a plurality of beliefs, but we hold these three words in common: Yes We Can.

As of this writing, your mother and I haven’t met you yet—we haven’t seen the color of your eyes or smelled your baby skin or heard your laugh-but we know you. And we know that every question has just one answer: Yes We Can.

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Fightin’ Words: The Local GOP Reacts to a Democrat Sweep

Monday, November 10th, 2008

Republicans come into the new year down, but not out.

Stoic Republicans huddled together at the Hyatt-Regency in Irvine on election night, rallying themselves for at least two years “in the wilderness” of American politics.

Scott Baugh, Chairman of the Republican Party of Orange County, told the crowd, “When Barack Obama and the Democrats are right, we will support them, but when Barack Obama and the Democrats are not right, we will offer a positive alternative that stands up for families and taxpayers.”

Baugh closed by saying, “To all the Democrats who won, including Barack Obama, we say lease, don’t buy, because in two years the Republican party will be back.”

The overwhelming Republican defeat on Tuesday (losing six Senate seats, 17 House seats, and the presidency) didn’t come as a surprise to attendees of the ironically-named “Victory 08 Election Night Party.” “I came here to commiserate with my friends,” one attendee said.

Yet, despite the changing national winds, Orange County, “The Most Republican County in America,” managed to  re-elect Congressman Dana Rohrabacher on Tuesday, against a challenger Baugh called “a liberal, Democrat, communist, not-nice lady.”

Vitriol against the now-dominant Democrats was surpassed only by anger at Republican leadership of the past few years.

Rohrabacher, who supported Mitt Romney in the primaries, railed against the “elistist” policies of George Bush, Karl Rove, and John McCain. “This administration, and McCain, did not represent the heart and soul of the Republican party,” he said.

He called party leadership “half-hearted,” and criticized McCain for not taking on illegal immigration in this election cycle. “Do not despair,” he told his constituents, “tonight’s rout was not a rejection of fundamental Republican principles or values. It was a rejection of our Republican leadership.”

He accused the Republicans of “paying lipservice to fundamental values and fundamental issues,” including illegal immigration, which he has been a vocal critic of throughout his career, and also the “one-way free trade policy” with China. “If we are on the side of the American people, why are we ignoring one of the most important issues to the well-being of our fellow citizens?” He asked.

The Republican throw-down was peppered with encouragement to the crowd that the times are a-changin’, and the future of the party is the future of the country. “We have to talk about what we’re going to do to save America,” Rohrabacher insisted.

Master of Ceremonies Scott BaughScott Baugh of the Cali GOP

“If we don’t face reality, we are going to see, not only our party not go anywhere, but our country and our fellow countrymen suffer greatly,” he said. In response to a  question about the statement, he specified that “the very far-left policies of Obama are going to cause great problems for our country, and his national security policies will put us in jeopardy.”

Then again, he also said that it was a mistake to nominate George W. Bush “the first time.”

Rohrabacher’s message to the party was hopeful. He ended his speech by saying, “We are the heart and soul of the Republican party… and we are going to save America from the road they have put us on.”

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