We’re just saying that: Americans care about health care, education, jobs, and the cost of living. So we should talk about these things, not just taxes and national security. And when we talk about these things that people care about, we should offer conservative policies that are relevant and realistic. I would prefer a world in which a universal voucher system replaces public schools. That world will not come to pass in my lifetime, so let’s talk about the weighted student formula and Swedish-style charter laws, etc. Fortunately, core conservative policies — like free trade and free labor markets — help deliver a lower cost of living and value for money. Republicans have a weak brand at the moment, but reform conservatives are working with a solid intellectual foundation.
Month: November 2008
Ayers Talks
He speaks with David Remnick:
Ayers seemed curiously calm and cheerful about the way he had been made an issue in the campaign. He seemed unbothered to have been part of what he called “the Swiftboating” process of the 2008 campaign.
“It’s all guilt by association,” Ayers said. “They made me into a cartoon character—they threw me up onstage just to pummel me. I felt from the beginning that the Obama campaign had to run the Obama campaign and I have to run my life.” Ayers said that once his name became part of the campaign maelstrom he never had any contact with the Obama circle. “That’s not my world,” he said.
The Tiniest President
Obama Wins North Carolina?
It’s a real squeaker, but it looks like it.
Prop 8
It looks grim to me, but still extremely close with 10 percent of precincts yet to partially or fully report and a a 51.9 to 48.1 split in favor of stripping gay couples of the right to marry in California. I’ll write later when we get the final result. It’s too heart-breaking to write anything before we know for absolutely sure we have been defeated. And, as I tossed and turned tonight trying to sleep, after last night’s massive wave of relief, I felt sure that in the long arc of history, we shall prevail.
Election Reax
1. The modern conservative movement began with the crushing defeat of Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater in the 1964 presidential race. The modern conservative movement ends with the crushing defeat of Arizona Sen. John McCain — who took Goldwater’s Senate seat upon his retirement — in the 2008 presidential race.
2. Modern liberalism began its implosion with riots in Chicago’s Grant Park at the 1968 Democratic Convention. Tonight, modern liberalism is reborn at Chicago’s Grant Park, where a black Chicago Democrat will celebrate winning the presidency.
JPod:
It cannot be gainsaid; the enormity of this single cultural moment dwarfs almost any other in my lifetime. Its positive social impact is incalculable; it was only eight years ago that Al Gore traveled to Harlem to kiss Al Sharpton’s ring, which was only seven years after Sharpton had provoked a riot on 125th street that led to a fire that killed seven people. Sharpton was, at that point, by default the most important black politician in America. Obama’s ascension to the White House, if it does nothing else, may at last bring down the curtain on race hucksters like Sharpton, whose power has always been rooted in the political alienation of inner-city blacks.
There are about 1,460 days until the next Presidential election, and I assume that I will spend approximately the next 1,459 of them opposing Barack Obama. But I’m spending today proud abut what my country has overcome.
I like this picture of Sarah Palin voting. Heavy on the Caribou, light on the Barbie. She didn’t need to be dunked in RNC bling. And the more the campaign went on and the more she wiggled free of her minders, the better she sounded. If you’ve got organic style, you shouldn’t be shoehorned into generic campaign issue. If the night goes the way it seems to be heading, the differences between the Governor and the campaign will be one of the most interesting parts of the GOP post-mortem.
My take: in the end [Palin] helped prevent an utter blowout by energizing and turning out the base. In time she should pursue a national role she will have time to define her own appeal and demonstrate her newly improved proficiency on national issues. But the Republicans don’t have many “stars” let alone recongizable figures. They would do well to nurture and develop the most famous and beloved (at least by the base) one which they have.
As yet, I don’t feel a sense of history in the making – it’s been too long a day. It’s more a question of sheer relief that the dismal McCain team has finally been put out of its misery. No more wild smears or go-go boots, at least for a while.
It amazes me how commentators, especially conservative commentators, can argue that (a) Obama is a socialistic avatar and a radical redistributionist and yet (b) that his election doesn’t mean that the voters have been pulled to the left or bestowed a liberal mandate—that the U.S. is still (this week’s reigning buzzphrase) "a center-right country."
I suspect that the toughest thing to figure out about this election is simply the fact that, with the possible exception of single-payer healthcare, virtually every scare scenario you can generate about Obama (many with good reason) has already been put into place by the current GOP administration, typically with the enthusiastic aid of Republicans in Congress. Whether we’re talking about the Medicare prescription drug benefit or the war in the Iraq or the federalizing of education policy or the PATRIOT Act (which recycled Janet Reno’s law enforcement wish list) or trade sanctions or regulatory overload or the freaking bailout, the Bush admin has been there and done that.
K-Lo:
What freaks me out about this election is how oblivious to facts people have been. Everything about Obama’s judgment and radicalism — whether Sean Hannity or Stanley Kurtz or Andy McCarthy etc. is telling you about it — was essentially deemed irrelevant (including largely by the McCain campaign, save for Palin eventually talking about Ayers). Abortion? Near no one outside a handful of conservatives were talking about his record on infanticide — beyond abortion.
I expect to be one of the most severe critics of the Obama administration and the Democrats generally in the years ahead (though I sincerely hope I won’t find that necessary). But Obama ran a brilliant race and he should be congratulated for it. Moreover, during the debate over the financial crisis, Obama said that a president should be able to do more than one thing at a time. Well, I think we members of the loyal opposition should be able to make distinctions simultaneously. It is a wonderful thing to have the first African-American president. It is a wonderful thing that in a country where feelings are so intense that power can be transferred so peacefully. Let us hope that the Obama his most dedicated — and most sensible! — fans see turns out to be the real Obama.
There’s no need to start pointing fingers within the party. This election was on style, not substance. No faction’s to blame, and no policy is at fault. We know this because Obama won. He ran on no ideas at all.
Ackerman asks, "Remember in 2003 and 2004, when there was all this talk about how the Democrats were in danger of no longer being a national party?" I do remember that. I also remember how Democrats had to get religion if they ever wanted to be competitive again. I also remember how they had to appeal to the white heartland by nominating candidates more culturally recognizable to rural voters. Instead, they went in the opposite direction, running a candidate who was recognizable to the majority coalition Democrats hoped to have in 10 years. It seems to have worked out pretty well. It’s almost as if pundits don’t really know what they’re talking about.
John McCain, personally, is responsible for the single worst Republican general election presidential campaign sinc 1964. Worse than the fair-to-middling Dole effort, and even worse than the execrable Bush 1992 campaign. I could, and probably will, write far more in coming days to flesh this out. I started writing this as a column two days ago, before the results were in, but various reasons precluded me from getting the column done in advance, for tomorrow, which would have been the only fair way to write it without being unduly affected by the results themselves. I do note, however, that I have written before that this was the worst campaign I have seen on the GOP side, so this isn’t just 20-20 hindsight. I will go farther: I think McCain acted dishonorably for the entire past year, in case after case.
The Onion Calls It
An instant classic:
Carrying a majority of the popular vote, Obama did especially well among women and young voters, who polls showed were particularly sensitive to the current climate of everything being fucked. Another factor contributing to Obama’s victory, political experts said, may have been the growing number of Americans who, faced with the complete collapse of their country, were at last able to abandon their preconceptions and cast their vote for a progressive African-American.
Citizens with eyes, ears, and the ability to wake up and realize what truly matters in the end are also believed to have played a crucial role in Tuesday’s election.
The Obama Rally?
I think it’s possible that an Obama election could have a longer-term impact in boosting global markets’ confidence in the U.S., even if it’s also possible that American investors would be happier with McCain. So it’ll be worth paying attention to what Asia and Europe do tonight once we have a clear sense of the winner will be.
Prop 8 Results
Here’s the page for results. Only 24 percent now reporting. So hang in. I can’t get it to load right now. But I’ll keep trying. I sure haven’t lost hope on this. But I will say this, whatever happens. We will win this in the end. We must never let popular votes affect our own internal sense of our worth, our equality, our dignity as human beings. Our marriages are real; all that is at issue is whether a majority will recognize them in law. The next generation already does. We shall overcome. Do not be discouraged. But we may still win.
Goodbye To All That
A reader writes:
Nothing in my life has actually changed in the 30 minutes since it was announced Obama will be our next president. I have the same bills, the same amount of money in the bank, my dishwasher is still broken, and my 5 month old beagle won’t stop peeing on my carpet. Everything in my life is exactly the same as it was 30 minutes ago; and yet I feel as though everything is different.
I feel so much hope. I feel so much pride. I feel like my one vote was a single drop of water in a great Tsunami of change. I feel like I was one of a million voices screaming in the night, " I love my country and I’m taking it back!" I’m so proud of the country that I love and have so much hope in my heart that we can together heal the wounds that have been such a source of pain and anger to us all.
I know Obama isn’t going to fix the economy overnight, I know he won’t be able to provide healthcare to all Americans by February ’09. I know Obama isn’t a Messiah who four years from now will have turned this country into a fabled utopia. But I also know Obama will make moral decisions. I know Obama will try to unite where others try to divide. I know Obama will help to make America the beacon of hope it once was to others. I know that at 27 years of age, I witnessed one of the most important and hopefully glorious chapters in American history.
I know hope.
Me too.
(Photo: Michal Czerwonka/Getty.)
The Dish 