Citizen Brand

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.

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."

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.