Citizen Brand

Why Obama is President-elect

He had a single organizing thought - change.

He was disciplined in sticking to his message.

So was his staff.

He understood community organizing and applied it to the national level.

He gives a damn good speech.

He has a vision for the future and is able to make us all see it and feel it.

He energized a new generation of leaders for our future.

Obama understands America's place in the world and is ready to take us where we need to be.

He has already helped raise America's standing in the world by winning this election.

As proof of that, read this email from a good friend of mine in Ireland, Jim Walsh.

Congratulations on the ultimate example of democracy in action.

Whether Democrat or Republican the people of the United States of America
have shown the world how to behave when selecting a new leader.

The stunning acceptance speech from Barack Obama and the gracious acceptance
of defeat from John McCain has reverberated around the world.

Here in Ireland we quickly found a link with your president-elect. His
great, great, great, grandfather emigrated to the United States during the
Famine from a village called Moneygall in County Offaly. We look forward to
welcoming President Barack Obama to his ancestral home as we did John F.
Kennedy and Ronald Reagan.

Jim

Isn't it great how everyone in the world wants to lay claim to our incoming President.

Thanks Jim for giving us a great perspective on how the rest of the world is looking at the events of November 4.

A Journey to Remember

The excitement and anticipation and joy that envelopes this nation with the election of Barack Obama is nearly indescribable.  I won't try other than to say the following.

Change is more than a word. President-elect Obama will bring change. America will regain respect in the world which will do more for our own security than anything else. We will see equality return in our domestic policies. And a new generation of leadership will bring new thinking and new ideas to address the challenges and opportunities ahead.

This campaign has been a great and wonderful journey. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

Barack Obama for President

Saturday Night Live

Clearly, Saturday Night Live is the first winner of the 2008 elections. The show that won't and should not go away found its voice again this fall. There were so many great sketches, but this was one of my favorites. Enjoy.

The tipping point

Jack Cafferty of CNN called this one in September.

Colin Powell endorsing Obama?

From Howard Fineman  at Newsweek :

Will Powell Endorse Obama?

Is Gen. Colin Powell getting ready to endorse Sen. Barack Obama on "Meet the Press" this Sunday? Two sources close to Powell, speaking on the condition of anonymity, predict that he will. On the record, a third, Ken Duberstein, a Washington lobbyist and former White House chief of staff, didn't flatly deny it. "You can say what you want," he told me, "but I didn't tell you that and neither did Powell."

OK, true enough.

If Powell does endorse Obama, racial pride will have something to do with it, which is understandable. Powell has been a trailblazer himself, and he admires Obama's unflappability and skill in rising so quickly through the ranks of American politics.

While Powell is personally close to McCain, and has been for many years, he seems to have taken a special interest in making himself available, behind the scenes and from time to time, to discuss foreign policy and defense issues with the novice Illinois senator. I believe Powell feels a responsibility to help Obama out, almost as if a member of the family were taking on a tough new job.

However, if Powell does endorse, it will have less to do with American sociology than world affairs. Powell simply has no use anymore--if he ever had any--for the neo-con cowboys he thinks misled the country (and him) into a mistaken and costly war in Iraq.

Powell has been careful in public not to criticize his colleagues in the Bush administration nor bluntly call the war a mistake. He came close to saying that at the Aspen Institute's Ideas Conference last summer, but remained droll and elliptical.

An endorsement of Obama would be an indirect but powerful way of expressing his resentments and regrets: refusing to support a fellow Republican who has very Bush-like ideas about how to make America more secure in a world of terror.

"It's not so much about race as it is about foreign policy," a friend of Powell's told me. "He thinks Obama has a lot to learn, but that he has the capacity."

Show some Respect

We could all use a little more respect in the world today.  The economic crisis, a war that won't end and a presidential campaign that is growing bitter is wearing us all down.  We are scared, tired, worried and a tad mad right now.  We are a little more testy than usual and probably looking on at others who might not agree with our point of view as being out of touch if not down right dumb for not seeing things our way.

So we need to all dig down a little deeper and find it in our hearts, heads and souls to show the people around us a little respect.  Respect is the foundation for the campaign now underway from our client, the Family Violence Prevention Fund.  It's easy to get involved.  Go to GiveRespect.org and join others at a rally; text respect to others; donate at the site; or, go to Macy's, the campaign's lead corporate sponsor, and buy Respect bracelets for the people in your life that matter to you.

Let's hope our presidential candidates can show us some leadership in the Respect arena during the rest of their campaign.

To bailout or not to bailout

A quick post tonight.  As a lifelong communicator, I have a simple question to ask.  Was the "bailout bill" the best name to call this piece of legislation that failed to pass the House today?  I mean, seriously, how easy is it for anyone to vote for something called a "bailout bill?"

Congress proved all of its detractors right today.  That was the most mishandled, bungled strategy in the history of mishandled, bungled strategies.  And everyone is to blame.  Leaders on both sides failed to make sure they had the votes to secure passage of the poorly named legislation.  Or perhaps, neither side leveled with each other of what their true agendas were heading into the vote.

The need for change in Washington just solidified today.

It is time to get serious

The final act of the longest presidential campaign in the history of the United States has begun.

Our attention spans are being challenged.

Lipstick, hockey moms, pit bulls and pigs.  Is this really what we want to determine who our next President will be?

Are we left to listen to 30 second ads that go beyond distortion?

I celebrate my 53rd birthday on September 12.

All I want for my birthday is for my fellow Americans to wake up and tell the candidates, their confidantes, the pundits and the media to give us two months of serious discourse on what we need to do solve the real challenges we face.

It is time to get serious.