Citizen Brand

A Modern U.S. President

Enjoy this spoof with President Obama being portrayed by actor Ronnie Butler, a great friend of my brother Scott. Share this with all your friends!

 

 

Filling the Republican vacuum

No one loves it more than him. The fact that Rush Limbaugh has become the center of all things Republican since Barack Obama moved into the White House makes him very happy. His ratings are probably strong which means he can charge his advertisers more for his daily dose of entertainment disguised as political discussion. His pronouncements that he hopes President Obama fails continue which begs the question, what is it you are for Rush? We always know what you are against.

What right thinking Republicans must be asking themselves now is how did we get here? The party of Lincoln, T. Roosevelt and Reagan is in search of their next leader. The Party apparatus elected an African American as Chairman, but no one seems to be showing him respect yet. They sent out poor Bobby Jindal to follow the President and he didn't fare so well. But who would with the tired and worn out format of the "opposition response" to the President. It's not a fair fight and should be scrapped in the future. Why not set a speech the next day for someone in front of a friendly crowd to lay out the loyal opposition's agenda.

Right now, Republicans are in search of their voice and in desperate need of focused leadership. Romney, Palin, Jindal, Gingrich and the GOP leaders in Congress are talking all at once. Which brings us back to the loudest voice the Republicans have right now - Rush Limbaugh. He has the biggest megaphone and any Republican who doesn't fall into line gets called out on the air and forced to apologize to the big guy if they dare criticize him.

The Obama White House is stoking the fire. From the Chief of Staff to the Press Secretary to the President himself, all have said over and over that it is obvious that Rush Limbaugh is the defacto leader of the Republican Party today. This political sideshow is interesting to watch. Who will be the Republican to step up and try to wrest the megaphone away from Limbaugh? Will the Democrats keep throwing logs on the fire to keep Rush the face and voice of the GOP? Will Limbaugh sacrifice the Party that has kept him in the lifestyle to which he has become accustomed in order to keep the spotlight on him?

Stay tuned. It can only get more interesting.

Countdown's Apology Hall of Fame

As a postscript to my last post, let's take a look at a few more famous apologies courtesy of MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann. It is bipartisan and very funny. Enjoy.

Odds and ends

A few things that caught my attention traveling around the 'net.

Our friends over at Audeamus discuss the three trends in social entrepreneurship we can expect to see this year.

Triple Pundit starts a three part series on the continuing evolution of cause marketing. Are we really beginning to make mainstream the needed move from transactional cause marketing to something much more sustainable and transparent. Great interview with Sarah Endline who started a company that is already there called sweetriot.

Meanwhile, Jennifer Rice over at Fruitful shows us some more evidence that we consumers really will pay more for ethically produced products.

As usual, Seth Godin has a bit of wisdom he calls "Solving a different problem."

And over at Adrants you will find an Australian PSA on child abuse that is so different, it cannot help but be controversial. If it gets people talking about the problem, a PSA is doing its job.

Style points

 

President Barack Obama campaigned on change as we all know. And while we have already seen some policy changes from the previous administration, there is also a noticeable difference in style and approach to governing from former President Bush. We will let the Associated Press take it from here.

This is really change

 

I have to give the Republican National Committee credit. An African-American is the new Chairman of the GOP. Michael Steele won it on the sixth ballot, but he won. There was apparently a bit of idiocy by one of his opponents that helped. But old habits die hard. Something about a CD with a song slamming President Obama in a not so nice way.

Enough of that. Focus on the positive here. Steele beat the incumbent chairman and three other challengers garnering 91 votes on the sixth ballot. 85 were needed to win the chairmanship. He is a former Maryland Lt. Governor and his election signals that at least part of the leadership of the GOP is paying attention to the 2008 election results.

All this in a week when radio personality Rush Limbaugh tried to assert himself as the GOP leader and House Republicans played politics with the American economy.  Perhaps Steele's ascendancy to the head of the RNC will provide Republicans who want progress, and want to work with Democrats to fix America, a place to go.

This is another good sign for our country.

The tipping point

Jack Cafferty of CNN called this one in September.

You can't make this stuff up

We will be talking about the 2008 presidential election for decades to come.  And it won't be because of voters in Chicago accused of voting more than once (Kennedy v. Nixon in 1960) or hanging chads and Supreme Court votes (Bush v. Gore in 2000).  No, this time we will be thinking back on an election that has had candidates that voters actually were supporting and issues that were actually being discussed.  And here it is the day after Super Duper Tsunami Tuesday and we still don't know exactly who will be on the ballot in November.  Isn't it great?

A Hollywood screenwriter looking for work right now instead of a picket line could not write some of the story lines that are unfolding right before our very eyes.  Rush Limbaugh, the conservatives' favorite comedic radio host is doing everything he can to submarine the apparent Republican front running John McCain.  Mike Huckabee, who has no money compared to everyone else, manages to win a few states on Tuesday catapulting himself into top challenger status in the GOP race.  Meanwhile, Mitt Romney would have to spend $1.33 billion dollars to win enough delegates to take the nomination away from either McCain or Huckabee.  That is based on what he has spent thus far to win the paltry number of delegates he has scraped off the floor since the snows of Iowa.

Then there is the Democratic race.  This time last year, Hillary Clinton was all but anointed as the nominee.  Turn the page to February, 2008 and she finds herself running neck and neck with Barack Obama.  The first legitimate chance for either a woman or an African-American to be elected President of the United States and they wake up each morning realizing they are battling each other for the right to live at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.  And today, she revealed she had to loan her own campaign $5 million to keep it going.  Obama is out-raising her in donations by a big margin.

And the talk is already beginning of a deadlocked convention and smoke filled back rooms deciding the Democratic nominee.  Wait a minute, there won't be any smoke filled rooms inside any building in Denver for the convention.  Those meetings will have to occur outside.

This is what I mean.  You cannot make this stuff up.  We are witness to a remarkable story in 2008.  Don't blink.  You might miss something.

The nerve of those voters

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.

What happened to Lincoln and FDR?

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"