Giant Steps

Spending on the Homeland...

2009-02-03T23:16:00.003-05:00

Have you ever asked yourself this question, "How can we always manage to come up with money to wage war, but can never find money to educate children, or provide health care?" I know I've asked this question quite a few times over the course of my life, and having never received an answer, I can only presume it is because war is always eminently important and the other things are not. The thing is though, we don't/didn't really have the money for war, but we thought it was important enough that if we had to borrow it, so be it. It occurred to me today that amongst all the Republican and Media grandstanding surrounding the stimulus bill, we're finally elevating some of the "others" to a level of importance that they haven't been at for years. Infrastructure, police, firefighters, health care, education, these things are all needed, and right now they are all REALLY needed. I don't know if this package is the answer to our nation's economic crisis, but if we are "wasting" money, at least it's on the homeland this time.

Altruism v. Philanthropy

2009-02-01T14:36:00.003-05:00

In my research I come across the words altruism and philanthropy quite a bit. Until recently I hadn't given much thought to these words, assuming they were essentially perfect substitutes. Not that this post is particularly eye-opening or profound, but upon looking the terms up it becomes pretty apparent that altruism, or altruistic behavior is a stronger proposition than philanthropic behavior.

altruism - unselfish regard for or devotion to the welfare of others.

philanthropy - goodwill to fellowmen ; especially : active effort to promote human welfare.

In other words, while both are concerned with welfare, one can act in a philanthropic manner as motivated through selfishness, whereas altruism inherently precludes such behavior. Just something to think about the next time you hear someone being lauded as a philanthropist. Money is good, but motives are important...

Morning "No"

2008-10-21T14:25:00.005-04:00

I've been watching Morning Joe on MSNBC for a while now. Joe Scarborough, in general, is a pretty smart guy, but he continues, for whatever reason to let his partisanship get in the way of facts and logic. Over the past few weeks he has been a fan of the following line (I don't have the exact quote, but it goes something like this): "Barack Obama has the thinnest resume of anyone ever running for U.S. president. Why is his experience as a community organizer, state senator, and U.S. senator for two years anymore relevant than a mayor and a governor?" He usually says this in a condescending way, in which he tries to make the argument that sarah palin. (yes, the period is there on purpose) and Barack Obama have the same experience, so how could you favor one over the other? Leaving aside his butchering of Obama's resume (he leaves out the fact that he was editor of the Harvard Law Review, a civil rights lawyer, and a constitutional law professor at one of the most prestigious law schools in the country), the case for Obama was never about experience, it's always been about good judgment, temperament, and intellect. Of the aforementioned sarah palin his demonstrated none, and John McCain has only demonstrated the latter to varying degrees. If it were only about experience, and it is valuable to a certain extent, Obama would never have been the Democratic nominee. Of course, this argument would be too easy to make, and so no one on the show has ever put that rebuttal to Joe. Mika has tried, but she always does it in such a way that makes her look as though she's not sure of it. Just once, I would like Mika to ask, "Joe, name for me one foreign policy view that sarah palin has expressed other than, 'I love Israel'."

On another note, I'm glad Lawrence O'Donnell is there to keep things somewhat sane. A great exchange occurred this morning in which he absolutely decimated former Secretary of State Eagleburger. He allows the secretary to rant and rave about how important experience is in foriegn policy, and that we can't trust Barack the novice, and then Lawerence poses the following, pretty simple, question to him:

"Secretary, it goes without argument that a U.S. Senator has more foreign policy experience than any U.S. governor, by virtue of their jobs. If that is the case, why did you feel it was ok to support the candidacies of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush?"

Of course the secretary had no response for this that didn't require him to completely get rid of the experience argument he had just spent 8 minutes making a case for. Very well played.

UPDATE: Video from the exchange, here.

The Mailbag

2008-10-01T14:09:00.001-04:00

I stumbled across this today (3rd question at the bottom). After a classic Michigan comeback, I'm looking forward to a great month of football this October.

Palin's Struggles...

2008-09-25T00:50:00.003-04:00

What's become very apparent is that Palin is not ready for much of anything, let alone the Vice Presidency. Watching the Couric interview I almost feel bad for her, she's way out of her league. The more you watch, the more you realize that she's not even a good surrogate, let alone a good candidate.

The Maverick Counter

2008-09-24T15:58:00.003-04:00

John McCain's insecurity in dealing with the economy over the past two weeks has been apparent. Now, in a pretty savvy political move, he is attempting to neutralize this by calling for a suspension to his campaign, and a return to Washington to help put together a bailout plan. As transparent a gimmick as this is, I think it's a smart political move. Ezra Klein eviscerates this ploy, and rightfully so. Following up on his analysis, for better or worse the ball is now in Obama's court. My advice to the Obama campaign (as if they care), would be to reject the call for the debate cancellation, stressing the importance of a national dialogue on the economic issues, and offer to McCain that the debate be repositioned from one on foreign policy to one on the economy. This not only undercuts the McCain stunt, but allows Obama an opening to reposition the debate to a terrain that he is more comfortable on than McCain.

Fall

2008-09-23T11:40:00.003-04:00

I realize I'm a day late, but I just want to take a moment out to celebrate the arrival of unarguably the best season. Enjoy!

McCain's Temperament

2008-09-23T11:31:00.003-04:00

George Will offers up a must read today. It goes to the heart of my fear about a McCain presidency. His decision making is based on gut a feeling, with often little else to support it (e.g. Sarah Palin). More to the point, this is how he approaches pretty much EVERY decision, big or small. We've just had 8 years of this. Enough.

Palin and Debates

2008-09-22T12:12:00.001-04:00

This is absolutely ridiculous, and I think, sexist. Andrew agrees with the ridiculous assessment.

Obama, McCain, and Bush on the Bailout

2008-09-22T09:11:00.006-04:00

One of the central narratives of the general election campaign has been McCain's weakness on economic issues. In the wake of the banking crisis that came to a head last week, it's been interesting to watch the reactions of Obama, McCain, and Bush. Bush has been largely quiet on the issue, appearing for two minutes before the press to make a statement and took no questions. You would hope to hear a bit more from your nation's leader on this issue, but the silence is somewhat understandable, in the same way that Obama has largely resisted making specific declarative statements about what should and should not be done at this point. I expect him and Bush to refine their positions in the coming weeks, and I have no problem with that. This financial crisis is a huge mess, and there are alot of very smart people trying to figure out what should be done. As much as we would like to think that our presidents are economic wizards, they are not, which is why they surround themselves with people who are. However, what you do want from your president is someone who can digest the economic advice given to them. I suspect Bush and Obama are both trying to come up to speed on what is a very complex issue, by listening to their advisers and attempting to digest and synthesize what they're hearing. Some things are like that. Not everything can be, and should be, handled off the cuff.

McCain's response was the most interesting. His bluster on what should be done with the bailout, reinforced his insecurity on the economy. Knowing that this would be a big test for both him and Obama, McCain thought it was best to try to get out in front of the issue, which caused him to reverse himself several times within a 5 day period, recklessly call for the removal of the chairman of the SEC, and then propose a "commission" to find out what went wrong. This is not what a president does, as ABC's panel noted on This Week, but it is what John McCain does. For anyone who has been paying attention to his career this should not be a surprise. Much like president Bush in the past, McCain is attempting to mask his incompetency with his confidence. That's not the type of decision-making we need to handle the most pressing issues of the day.

McCain Gets Pressed on The View

2008-09-12T13:53:00.002-04:00

It's a shame that the toughest, and most straightforward interview that McCain has seen thus far has come from The View. The defense of his lies are weak, and I hope more news organizations will begin to honor the trust American citizens are forced to place in them, and start doing their job. There are serious issues not being discussed, not the least of which is a wholly unqualified Vice-Presidential nominee.

On Organizing...

2008-09-04T09:25:00.001-04:00

I've become quite disgusted at some of the cheering going on in the press this morning over the following line from Palin's speech: "I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a "community organizer," except that you have actual responsibilities." I take the mockery of community organizing as exhibiting a gross lack of knowledge on the historical roles that community organizing has played in our country, particularly in the Black community which was for so long shut out of the traditional political power structures in America. The list of prominent community organizers in American history is long to be sure, with Martin Luther King front in center in this tradition (not to mention Saul Alinsky, whom Hillary Clinton thought was important enough to make him the topic of her undergraduate thesis). The thing I find most striking about the mockery of community organizing is that while running as a "reformer" and "Washington outsider," she's mocking a profession which in a very real sense is in concert with those labels. While the republicans are slapping themselves on the back over a clever line, I sense and hope, that this can come back to bite them in a serious way. Just asking, but aren't labor unions, of which Palin's husband is "a proud member of…," born out of the tradition of community organizing?

Reaction to Palin's Speech

2008-09-04T02:08:00.003-04:00

Congrats! A potential vice president of the United States can read a teleprompter. There seemed to be a lot of enthusiasm surrounding this revelation after Palin’s speech. This was apparently all Sarah Palin needed to do to prove she was ready for the vice presidency. The hypocrisy of this moment, as a friend of mine pointed out on his blog, before the speech, was striking:

“A quick note on tonight’s Palin speech: beware of the hypocrisy of Republicans on this. They claim that Obama only gives a good speech, but you’ll hear them say that Palin has proven her substance after tonight’s speech. It'll be a good speech, but, again, we need more than that.”

Some have commented that this speech was on par with the Obama speech of 2004. I have to laugh at this, because for one the speech that Sarah Palin read was clearly written by someone for her, packed with about 30 minutes of lines pulled straight out of the McCain commercials we’ve seen for the past month. Obama’s speech was written by him, and then tweaked by others. Palin’s was a speech predicated on division, while Obama’s was a salvo for unity. For all the energy put into the conservative base by the Palin pick, I can only imagine that her speech tonight did the same for the liberal base.

The speech didn’t do anything for me. I had several issues with the actual substance, or lack thereof. I found the initial introduction of her family, and constant brandishing of a 4 month old baby with downs syndrome like a trophy a little hard to take after the outcries from the republicans over the past few days insisting that the media leave the family alone. Also, I found it a bit disconcerting that she was able to lie so well, about her record and Obama’s record, during her first appearance on the national stage.

The thing that irked me the most were the attacks on Obama, and community organizing. She ridiculed, and mocked Obama’s time spent as a community organizer by saying that being mayor was the same thing, accept she had actual responsibility. The funny thing about this is that she never actually outlined that responsibility. But, more to the point, mocking someone’s job is never a good thing. Community organizing in the sense that Obama did it is rather unique. However, on a broad scale, I’d venture to say there are a lot of moms and dads out there who have done some level of “organizing” in their own communities who might not take so kindly to having their service disparaged. Random question. Aren’t union leaders kind of like community organizers? Maybe I’m wrong about that. While the snarky line went over well in the hall, I see this as an opening for the Obama campaign to exploit in a good way. But for all the attacking of Obama, her inability to actually deal with her own substance was very telling.

This was the “prosperity” night of the convention. One would think we would have heard a bit more about her and John McCain’s economic roadmap for America, outside of “Drill baby, Drill!”

At the end of the night I’m still left with not really knowing anything of importance as it regards Sarah Palin’s views and experience on national security, the economy, health care, and a litany of other issues that the people she claims to be apart of worry about everyday. They wrote the speech, and she stepped up and delivered it. Good Job. We’ll see over the few remaining weeks before the election whether she can take it as good as she gave it on this night.

Palin and Patriotism

2008-09-02T13:13:00.001-04:00

It occurs to me that the selection of Palin not only undercuts the experience argument, but also the patriotism argument that the McCain campaign was trying to frame. For all the outrage on the Right over Obama's tenuous relationship with Bill Ayers, and innocuous statements by Michelle Obama, and Rev. Wright, it would seem to me that active membership in a secessionist party might send the these same parties into a similar sort of outrage. I think most would agree that the latter is quite a bit more serious.

On the Palin Pick...

2008-08-31T17:06:00.007-04:00

I’m going to try to limit myself to this one post on the Sarah Palin vice-presidential pick, because 1). This can’t be serious, and 2). I get disgusted at the mere thought of the pick and really can’t afford to let it occupy too much of my thought. It reeks of everything that is wrong with politics: hypocrisy, pandering, cultural warfare, and a lack of seriousness about real issues. With that said, I’ll take a minute to deal with some things that are noteworthy about this choice.

As a friend of mine recently noted, you hear very few people attempt to defend this pick on the basis of policy. This pick is only reasonable in any sense, if you look at it from a purely political stand point. While this is a political pick that helps McCain in a few ways it also undercuts him in several, I think, more damaging ways. As many people have noted, this pick by McCain is really only about Palin in the sense that she was the pick, but more to the point this pick tells us a lot of important things about John McCain.

Honesty and Integrity

While I don’t believe McCain has demonstrated much of this over the past two years the pick of Palin only goes to reinforce the point. McCain’s central argument against Obama has been that he lacks the experience and judgment to be commander and chief. McCain has repeatedly said that we cannot have someone with Obama’s foreign policy judgment and outlook in such a serious time. With the Palin pick McCain has almost completely undercut his central claim against an Obama presidency (My bet is that the McCain campaign realized that argument wasn’t going to win them the election, and they had to change the playing field fast). In this context the next point is especially important for the future of the Obama campaign.

By picking Palin, McCain has made himself out to be a hypocrite and liar. The immediate instinct is to react as Obama’s communication’s director did, and talk about how much Palin is unqualified, but that is not the winning attack line, and Democrats would be wise to stay away from this as much as possible. Based on Obama’s response to the Palin nomination on Friday, he gets it, which isn’t surprising at all. One thing we’ve come to find out about Obama is that he’s much more politically savvy than people tend to give him credit for being. By attacking on the front of Palin’s inexperience the Obama campaign opens themselves up to the response that she’s qualified as Obama (which is not true). The central line of attack must be that it was not Obama who thought he lacked experience, but McCain who thought Obama lacked experience. With this pick McCain has shown that either 1. He’s a liar and Obama does have the appropriate experience, or that 2. Palin is inexperienced too, and he just picked someone who is not the most qualified. However, he can’t have it both ways. If the Dems are smart they will hammer this disingenuousness home, and leave the vetting and bashing of Palin to the press (someone has to vet her, since McCain didn't think it was important).

If the campaign comes off as looking like they’re being too hard on Palin we end right back up where we were in the primary with identity politics rearing its ugly head again in the worst way, although this time it may be tempered by the issues (one hopes).

“Country First,” down the drain…

For all the talk of country first, this was clearly a pick designed for one thing only, to help John McCain get elected. Undoubtly Obama’s pick was made to help him get elected, but it is also clear to anyone with a functioning brain that Joe Biden is capable of stepping in the absence of a president Obama and running the country in at the very least, a somewhat respectable fashion. With this pick, John McCain has thrown his own criteria aside, that he will find the “MOST qualified person to be his vice-president.” Instead a 72 year old John McCain has made the most unserious of vice-presidential picks in a time that he claims to be the most serious in American history with respect to security threats abroad. Either McCain is a hypocrite or crazy. At this point in time, I’m not sure it isn’t a little bit of both.

Reckless Decision-Making

I find the fact that Palin was never fully vetted and that John McCain had met her ONCE prior to deciding to extend her the Vice Presidency candidacy VERY disturbing. Seriously? Think about that for a minute. I’ve had more extensive interviews for entry level jobs coming out of college. Makes you wonder how he would approach the appointment of other important cabinet positions.

It has since come out that McCain wanted to throw the “long ball” and go with Lieberman as his choice. This choice, having been shot down by pretty much everyone in the party led to the choosing of Palin. Apparently McCain, being the gambler that he is, was still intent on throwing that pass, and decided on Palin based on what he HEARD from others. Even the most high up in the campaign have expressed surprise and concern with the Palin pick. Glad to know a potential future president thinks it’s fun to gamble with the future of our country. Harriet Miers anyone?

I’ll leave with this, for anyone who has ever played Madden, you consciously know there are points in the game that you make decisions that you would not make were you a real NFL coach. For instance, I’ve been known to go for it on 4^th in 8 on my own 25 yard line in 1^st quarter. While admittedly not sound decision making, it’s just a game, and at the end of the day it’s fun to take the gamble, and if it pays off it leaves your opponent deflated, but if not it’s just a game. As an NFL coach you would probably have a pink slip waiting for you at half time. I think you can see the point I’m making. With this pick McCain has demonstrated that he thinks this race is a game of Madden ’09, while Obama has consistently afforded it with the respect it deserves.

I think about the city I came from, Lathrup Village, MI. Two years ago Palin was essentially the mayor of this city. This could be the next Vice president of the United States of America.

This is a pick resting in large part on the assumption that Americans, on a national scale, don’t take policy and governance too seriously. As sad as it is nothing in the last 8 yeas has disproved this for me. Maybe for once we’ll learn from history.

Great Day!

2008-08-29T00:12:00.006-04:00

I woke up this morning smiling. 45 years to the day of Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech, Barack Obama accepted the nomination of a major US political party for President of the United States. I don't have much to say in response to the Senator's speech, except, Wow! The speech had everything: strength, humility, compassion, honor, understanding, and vision. If you really understand his policies (not the mis-representation of them), and still don't agree with him, fine. But, at this point, an argument that he lacks judgment or understanding of the complexity of the issues that this country faces going forward just doesn't hold water. He has consistently passed every test put before him, and then some. Outside of being a POW what has John McCain done to convince you that he can fully grapple with the issues that face this country? His website, until recently, did not have and education policy, and still does not have a foreign policy outline. On such a historic night, we, the American people, have been afforded a special opportunity. An opportunity to exercise accountability through democracy, an opportunity to reject the politics of personal destruction, and an opportunity to believe again. Don't waste it. This was truly a remarkable day. A reclamation of hope, and a belief that our best days are ahead of us. Let's get to work!

How to respond to, "Noun, Verb, and P.O.W."

2008-08-24T14:03:00.004-04:00

John McCain's insistence on countering any attack on his character or policies by citing his time spent as a P.O.W. has evolved into somewhat of a joke these days. McCain, who has said in the past that he prefers not to talk much about his P.O.W. experience in the public arena, has been rather quick to use it as his trump card these days. In fact it has become something of a political game to figure out how John McCain could best rebut an attack by evoking the P.O.W. card. For example:

Milk prices are too high

“This is a guy who didn’t have the luxury of milk for five and a half years -- in prison.”

We’re not doing enough to find alternative sources of energy

“This is a guy who lived in the dark for five and a half years -- in prison, with no light bulbs.”

While some in the media (Dowd) are beginning to call McCain on this, it does present a small problem for the Obama campaign, because they can't directly call McCain on this. However, I think Sullivan provides a hint as to how to respond to this tactic of McCain's. There has been some resentment from POWs who also served in Vietnam, of McCain, who they feel acts like he was the only one to experience any hardship during Vietnam. It would seem like the Obama campaign should capitalize on this by cutting an ad of down on their luck POWs with one or no home. Contrasting their situation with the celebrity of John McCain. This allows Obama to continue attacking McCain on his wealth and being "out of touch", while not undercutting his service and sacrifice for the country. Thoughts?

(A particularly pathetic, and funny, evocation of the P.O.W. defense, here.)

The Power of Repetition

2008-08-08T13:19:00.004-04:00

This post by Ezra Klein hits on something that really bothered me during the primary season, and eventually caused me to stop watching political news shows momentarily. A good surrogate would not be doing his or her job if they didn't stick to the campaign line and repeatedly push their version of the facts. It's what they do. They are there to create the narrative most favorable to them. However, it seems to me that the job of a journalist/reporter is to challenge their assertions when not rooted in fact, and not to simply provide an outlet for the spin of the campaigns. This frustrated me to no end throughout the primaries, as Chris Matthews was the only one I saw who would repeatedly push the surrogates on their talking points, but even he relented after a point. Klein has it right, repetition is key. It doesn't mean anything if in the first minute of the interview Matthews tells you your full of it, but acquiesces thereafter to the lies. Once it stops getting questioned, it starts to become fact, no matter how untrue it is.

McCain's Age

2008-08-07T14:39:00.001-04:00

This seems like a fair issue to raise to me. But of course, if Obama or one of his surrogates were to raise the issue Republicans would cry foul, Obama’s new politics takes a hit, and John McCain would become a sympathetic figure in some respects. So, why not take a page out of the McCain playbook? Obama’s pre-emptive statements (and rather tame ones at that) on character and Race smears that have come, and will continue to come, from the GOP were turned against him by the McCain campaign, allowing them to dominate the media cycle for several days on the topic of Race. John McCain has made many similar statements with regard to his age in attempts to try to temper some of the attacks he was bound to face on this issue. However, as much as McCain’s age is a legitimate issue, and concern, it has really yet to dominate any 24-hour cycle, post-primary season. The next time McCain attempts to deflect the age issue through humor, why not take him to task in the same way? A little feigned indignation never hurt anyone, right? “I’m disgusted by Sen. McCain accusing us of playing the Age Card! It has no place in our politics!”

Tire Gauge Idiocy

2008-08-05T21:59:00.000-04:00

A few days ago Sen. Obama made a rather innocuous statement, when he suggested that if Americans maintained proper air pressure in their tires along with regular tune-ups then this would provide better gas mileage, effectively reducing personal demand by a few percentage points. I say the statement was innocuous because this was not a new discovery, but just the restatement of a simple fact that most of us are told when we get our first car. Per this Time article today, it seems as though if everyone were to do this we could decrease demand for gas per day, by more than we could increase the supply through off shore drilling. The catch is, one can be done immediately, and the other would take at minimum of 10 years to come online. So, given the current state of the economy, no one should be opposed to this, right? Well, apparently, Limbaugh, Hannity, McCain, and his campaign think the notion of immediate relief, unless it’s in the form of a “gas-tax holiday,” is funny. Over the past two days they’ve railed against this statement by Obama as foolish in an effort to make voters believe that this is his solution to out national energy crisis. They apparently believe it’s a winning tactic. Obama has been slow to respond to this charge until today, at a townhall, where he stated ‘"They're lying about what my energy plan is," he says. And "they're making fun of a step that every expert says would reduce our oil consumption by 3 to 4 percent. It's like these guys take pride in being ignorant."’

The McCain campaign apparently believes that in some way Obama was left vulnerable by this statement, and are intent on trying to do some damage. I disagree. The facts are entirely on Sen. Obama’s side on this one, and I think it would behoove him to make it known, and repeatedly. By making fun of the tire gauge recommendation the McCain campaign has created a new line of attack that Sen. Obama and his campaign would be wise to hit very hard on. By exploiting this misstep the Obama campaign can advance two lines of attack on McCain, 1. He’s the one who is really out of touch, and 2. He’s not very smart. A few well crafted ads with the text of Republican Governors Schwarzenegger and Crist advocating for this simple tire gauge solution would go a long way. Sen. Obama must make this taunting look as foolish as he made the “gas tax holiday” during the North Carolina Primary.