Thanks to one of my Barkley colleagues, Reid Stella, for pointing me to this perfect summation of what Tim Russert meant to us. The piece is by Eugene Robinson of the Post. Here is the link.
It took 40 years. America has fought four wars, one of which is still raging. The world is a remarkably different place in June of 2008 versus June of 1968, but there is one very strong connection. Barack Obama is the true heir to the presidency that should have been.
As the famous line goes - "We have seen the enemy and it is us." We want to believe that we are paying attention to presidential candidates and their stands on issues so we can make informed and competent decisions in the voting booth. But we can't help ourselves. We get sucked into the "horse race." Who is ahead in the Zogby Poll today; the New York Times poll tomorrow; and, the Nickelodeon/ESPN/O Magazine Poll due out tomorrow.....
As Super Duper Tuesday approaches, the latest national polling shows Barack Obama surging and closing the gap on Hillary Clinton. It shows John McCain building a lead over Mitt Romney and it seems clear that Mike Huckabee is submarining Romney by splitting the "conservative" vote.
Polls are instructive. They do give us a sense of where things stand at that moment in time. But then we need a new poll right away to keep the buzz going....is Obama still surging? Is McCain really starting to pull away from Romney or will the next poll tell us something different.
And so it goes. The media serves as the drug dealer on the corner feeding the horse race frenzy. Read this piece by Jay Rosen over at Pressthink to go a little deeper on this subject. As you will see in Jay's piece, the media hasn't faired so well in their horse race predictions this year which has further contributed to this once or twice in a century electoral experience. Of course the media's lack of success has also caused us no shortage of roller coaster rides as they attempt to fix their errors. Jay points to one ray of sunshine in this exchange between Tom Brokaw and Chris Matthews on the night of the New Hampshire Primary:
"“BROKAW: You know what I think we’re going to have to do?
“MATTHEWS: Yes sir?
“BROKAW: Wait for the voters to make their judgment.
“MATTHEWS: Well what do we do then in the days before the ballot? We must stay home, I guess.”
Matthews was being the realist: Without who’s-going-to-win, “we” might as well stay home. Brokaw (now long retired as the face of the NBC brand) gave him an apt warning in response: “The people out there are going to begin to make judgments about us if we don’t begin to temper that temptation to constantly try to get ahead of what the voters are deciding.” But he was speaking as if the media had a mind and could shift course."
A novel concept indeed.....let the voters vote and then report on how they voted.
Today's New York Times had a special column on its Op-Ed page. Caroline Kennedy endorsed Barack Obama for President. Her piece speaks for itself.
"A President Like My Father
OVER the years, I’ve been deeply moved by the people who’ve told me they wished they could feel inspired and hopeful about America the way people did when my father was president. This sense is even more profound today. That is why I am supporting a presidential candidate in the Democratic primaries, Barack Obama.
My reasons are patriotic, political and personal, and the three are intertwined. All my life, people have told me that my father changed their lives, that they got involved in public service or politics because he asked them to. And the generation he inspired has passed that spirit on to its children. I meet young people who were born long after John F. Kennedy was president, yet who ask me how to live out his ideals.
Sometimes it takes a while to recognize that someone has a special ability to get us to believe in ourselves, to tie that belief to our highest ideals and imagine that together we can do great things. In those rare moments, when such a person comes along, we need to put aside our plans and reach for what we know is possible.
We have that kind of opportunity with Senator Obama. It isn’t that the other candidates are not experienced or knowledgeable. But this year, that may not be enough. We need a change in the leadership of this country — just as we did in 1960.
Most of us would prefer to base our voting decision on policy differences. However, the candidates’ goals are similar. They have all laid out detailed plans on everything from strengthening our middle class to investing in early childhood education. So qualities of leadership, character and judgment play a larger role than usual.
Senator Obama has demonstrated these qualities throughout his more than two decades of public service, not just in the United States Senate but in Illinois, where he helped turn around struggling communities, taught constitutional law and was an elected state official for eight years. And Senator Obama is showing the same qualities today. He has built a movement that is changing the face of politics in this country, and he has demonstrated a special gift for inspiring young people — known for a willingness to volunteer, but an aversion to politics — to become engaged in the political process.
I have spent the past five years working in the New York City public schools and have three teenage children of my own. There is a generation coming of age that is hopeful, hard-working, innovative and imaginative. But too many of them are also hopeless, defeated and disengaged. As parents, we have a responsibility to help our children to believe in themselves and in their power to shape their future. Senator Obama is inspiring my children, my parents’ grandchildren, with that sense of possibility.
Senator Obama is running a dignified and honest campaign. He has spoken eloquently about the role of faith in his life, and opened a window into his character in two compelling books. And when it comes to judgment, Barack Obama made the right call on the most important issue of our time by opposing the war in Iraq from the beginning.
I want a president who understands that his responsibility is to articulate a vision and encourage others to achieve it; who holds himself, and those around him, to the highest ethical standards; who appeals to the hopes of those who still believe in the American Dream, and those around the world who still believe in the American ideal; and who can lift our spirits, and make us believe again that our country needs every one of us to get involved.
I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them. But for the first time, I believe I have found the man who could be that president — not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans."
Caroline Kennedy is the author of “A Patriot’s Handbook: Songs, Poems, Stories and Speeches Celebrating the Land We Love.”
All of us here at Citizen Brand - that would be me I guess - have to be willing to admit when we may have gotten ahead of ourselves. But wait, I don't think we did. Barack Obama still looks like the real thing from this vantage point. So what exactly happened in New Hampshire the other night?
What happened was nothing more than what had been predicted to happen for a few weeks - Hillary Clinton would win New Hampshire and so likely would John McCain. And that is exactly what happened when the voters spoke. It is what happened between Iowa and New Hampshire among the media; the pollsters; the pundits; and the consultants that needs to be questioned.
Think about it. Two of the least ethnically diverse and not exactly wildly liberal states in the nation have said an African American or a woman should be President of the United States. Forget the horse race the media foists on us every four years and focus on what has happened in the first two official contests of the 2008 Presidential election. On the other side of the aisle, Republican voters have given the nod to a true evangelical and the straight talking, shoot from the hip, Vietnam POW. Obama, Clinton, Huckabee and McCain are not the kind of candidates we are used to seeing in the race for the White House.
Lost in the shuffle right now are the two guys who we have been conditioned to seeing in the race - John Edwards and Mitt Romney. Two white guys with good hair and good talking points. Either one of these guys might make a good president. But after seven years of the gang that can't shoot straight with us, the USA is ready for a big change. And the differences on display for us with the Obama, Clinton, Huckabee and McCain variety hour have a little something for everyone.
Thus we have seen a different winner in every contest thus far. (Wyoming GOP went for Romney by the way.) Which brings us back to those pesky voters. In 2008, I believe the more the media and the pollsters try to tell us what they think is going to happen, the less likely it is to happen. If New Hampshire taught us anything, it may have taught us to wait for the votes to be counted and then see who the winners will be.
Voters are on to the exit pollsters. After waiting 45 minutes to cast a secret ballot, the last thing any right thinking person should do is tell a complete stranger how they voted and why. Let 2008 be the death of the exit polls. Good riddance.
On to Nevada, South Carolina and 20 or so other states by February 5. This is fun. And it is important.
Since we have already had most of this year to vet the candidates running to become the next President of the United States, maybe we should just go ahead and have the election now and be done with it. Of course, that would require us to actually be ready to put one of the vast herd of senators, governors, former governors, former mayors and at least one actor and a former first lady into the White House. And that is not something we seem ready to do yet. Good thing we have another year. I'm sure another year of canned sound bites and made for TV debates will clear everything up.
Think I'm sounding a bit cynical? Guess I have to plead a little guilty. But I wonder if we are all going to experience presidential election burnout because we do have almost a full year left before we cast votes. Makes me wonder how far off base the story in Thursday's The Onion might be.......
"Americans Announce They're Dropping Out of the Presidential Race"
Today is election day across America. It isn't a big election day in most places but there are a few governors being elected and a slew of local issues being decided. In some states, some people have already voted since early voting is becoming more in vogue these days. Some states are also becoming more lenient in allowing voters to register right up until election day. But most still close down registration a few weeks before.
And why do we still have this patchwork quilt of voting laws in 2007? We know why. Because it has taken decades and decades of blood, sweat and tears to even get to the point today where we have made it possible for everyone over the age of 18 to have the right to vote, much less a uniform approach to how we actually vote in the individual 50 states.
That should be next on our voting rights agenda. We need uniform laws across the nation that says we can register to vote year around, including on election day itself; that allows for us to vote early starting four weeks before election day; and that says everyone in a voting line at the time of polls closing in any state of the union will be given the right to cast their vote. Should we consider allowing people to vote from home on the Internet? It should be studied, but call me old fashioned because it seems to me we should have enough desire to participate in the electoral process that we can get out of our house or place of business to go join our fellow citizens and vote in our polling place.
One other issue that should be considered is the day we choose to vote. Federal law in 1845 mandated elections on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. Tuesday was generally considered the best day of the week for a country that was then dominated by agriculture. Obviously, things have changed a bit. So, lets move elections to Saturday. Some states do that now. It might be worth a try to reflect where our country is today.
Regardless, we should all vote whenever we have the opportunity.
I have been a lifelong Democrat. My family, dating back to my grandfather, Ross Swenson, have always been Democrats. I am also a fourth generation Kansan. Kansas is considered a Republican state, but has had a unique history of electing Democrats as Governor, to Congress and a few other statewide offices. So the election of 2006 is very interesting to me right now as the Democratic Party seems to have found its voice again. We shall see.
Regardless of how you tend to vote, if you are a political junkie as I am, you will likely view the release of the movie, Bobby, as something to anticipate. It is the story of a night when you can truly say history was changed.
It was June 4, 1968 and Robert F. Kennedy had just won the California presidential primary giving him the momentum he needed to capture the Democratic nomination for President and a date in November against the Republican nominee, Richard Nixon. RFK's was a candidacy of destiny. He was in part fulfilling the unfinished Presidency of his brother John. But he had his own agenda and his own voice that was finally being heard. And as he spoke from the podium of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles that late spring evening, his voice was sure and his destiny seemed certain.
But it was 1968. We were just weeks removed from the assassination of Martin Luther King. It was Bobby Kennedy's voice that terrible night that tried to calm the nation. We were a nation in turmoil. We were in a war that had lasted too long. We had internal strife over that war in Vietnam. We had internal strife over racial issues that had been going on since the Civil War more than a hundred years before. It was a time we needed a voice of reason and calm to help guide us through the confusion.
I was 12 years old the night Bobby Kennedy was killed in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. I went to sleep that night after hearing part of his victory speech claiming the California primary. I awoke the next morning to the news that he had been shot and was near death.
Just two months before that, Bobby Kennedy shook my hand. In 1968, at the age of 12, when an iconic figure such as Robert F. Kennedy shakes your hand, you do not ever forget it. I remember that moment right now as if it were yesterday.
I wonder how a 12 year old thinks about our political leaders in 2006. I fear that they don't have the same feelings that I had for Bobby Kennedy in 1968. He was my first, and still, greatest political hero. I believe to this day that our country and our world would have been different had he been elected President in 1968.
I will watch the movie Bobby when it comes out with a mixture of sadness and wonder. It's a movie about the night RFK was killed which is sad. But it will allow me the time to think about what might have been. And it will reinforce to me how important it is for all of us to stay involved in our electoral process and vote for the people we think can make a difference.
Bobby Kennedy was shot on June 4, 1968 and history was forever altered. But it also forever made me politically active. For that, I have him to thank.
We have taken a lot of heat here in Kansas because of six people who have controlled the State Board of Education the past few years. Their actions have included removing the teaching of evolution in the schools and the teaching of abstinence as the sole method of sex education.
Kansas voters took care of this problem yesterday. Read more in the Lawrence Journal World and the Kansas City Star.
Kansas has always been such a progressive state in so many ways and yet our reputation in the past few years has been denigrated because of a handful of individuals. This is one of those moments that restores your faith in our electoral process.
He vetoed the stem cell bill.
The House of Representatives passed it 238-194.
The Senate passed it 63-37.
Bush vetoed it 1-0.
72 percent of Americans supported this bill that would save lives and improve the overall health of future generations.
This is one of the most absurd and tragic political events I have seen. That includes Watergate.
Call or email your members of Congress and tell them to send him the same bill again.
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