Month: January 2008

His time is now:

From a Clinton campaign email list:

The Iowa caucus  process  is a broken and flawed process. It was designed to allow for the active party Dems generally known to one another to assign delegates and was not designed to handle a flood of students and independents. It was a system designed to give more power to Dem party loyalists. In the tension over whether the candidates should be chosen by the party or by the general public, the Iowa caucus was designed to give the party the advantage. For this reason, the Iowa system failed on Thursday.

Translation: we couldn’t control it. So it sucks.

Jon Favreau (not the "Swingers" dude) heads the small team:

Favreau and Obama rapidly found a relatively direct way to work with one another. "What I do is to sit with him for half an hour," Favreau explains. "He talks and I type everything he says. I reshape it, I write. He writes, he reshapes it. That’s how we get a finished product."

A reader writes:

Your reader is really onto something. Obama, in embracing hope, has reinvigorated a sense of patriotism, or even nationalism, on the American left. Such sentiments have tended to be shunned these past few years, not because leftists aren’t patriotic or proud of their country, but because they — like you, I suspect — aren’t particularly proud of what their country represents at the moment.  But Obama invites us to believe in the possibility of transcending this moment, in a way that no other candidate really does.  I think all the candidates have their virtues: Edwards has real passion, and Clinton has a true dedication to her work and her beliefs.  But I don’t think any of the candidates have as deep a love of, or as fierce a belief in, America. And he alone makes the fresh renewal of that idea by a new generation seem possible, attainable. 

He makes the weight of the Bush years seem less heavy, and lets us see beyond what these depressing times make seem like the limits of our own potential. And as a lefty, I can tell you that that’s where the America we know — the America that inspires in us not just pride, but fierce patriotism — resides.

Undecided no more:

I’ll be on the first unscripted back-from-hiatus Colbert Report tonight.

"None of us would write a check to Osama bin Laden, slip it in a Hallmark card and send it off to him. But that’s what we’re doing every time we pull into a gas station," – Mike Huckabee. (Hat tip: Kerry Howley.)

A reader points out the following quote from Obama in October 2006:

Most of the time, it seems, that the president has maybe 10 percent of his agenda set by himself and 90 percent of it set by circumstances. So, you know, an Abraham Lincoln is defined by slavery and the war, FDR defined by the Depression and, and World War II. So I’m not sure that I can categorize what is, is — are those ingredients in each and every circumstance.

But I think, when I think about great presidents, I think about those who transform how we think about ourselves as a country in fundamental ways so that, that, at the end of their tenure, we have looked and said to ours — that’s who we are. And, and our, our — and for me at least, that means that we have a more expansive view of our democracy, that we’ve included more people into the bounty of this country. And, you know, there are circumstances in which, I would argue, Ronald Reagan was a very successful president, even though I did not agree with him on many issues, partly because at the end of his presidency, people, I think, said, "You know what? We can regain our greatness. Individual responsibility and personal responsibility are important." And they transformed the culture and not simply promoted one or two particular issues.

My thoughts on the Reagan parallel here.

The French newspaper echoes what can only be called euphoria from America’s allies and friends around the world at the prospect of an Obama presidency:

Obama should thank Bush in his prayers. Without him, America wouldn’t be seeking a uniter – or even a redeemer. A man capable of bringing together men and women (one third of women voted for him and not her), Blacks and Whites, Blue (Democrats) and Red (Republicans). A man who pardons the original sin of the slave and who holds up a mirror to America in which she is beautiful, multi-racial and pragmatic. A man who will heal the gaping wound of the Iraq War and restore America’s image in the world.

A little hyper-ventilating even for us Obamanians.

John Ellis reflects on the Romney candidacy – and what might have been.