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Barack Obama’s election is a milestone in more than his pigmentation. The second most remarkable thing about his election is that American voters have just picked a president who is an open, out-of-the-closet, practicing intellectual.
Maybe, just maybe, the result will be a step away from the anti-intellectualism that has long been a strain in American life. Smart and educated leadership is no panacea, but we’ve seen recently that the converse — a White House that scorns expertise and shrugs at nuance — doesn’t get very far either.
We can’t solve our educational challenges when, according to polls, Americans are approximately as likely to believe in flying saucers as in evolution, and when one-fifth of Americans believe that the sun orbits the Earth.
Almost half of young Americans said in a 2006 poll that it was not necessary to know the locations of countries where important news was made. That must be a relief to Sarah Palin, who, according to Fox News, didn’t realize that Africa was a continent rather than a country.
Perhaps John Kennedy was the last president who was unapologetic about his intellect and about luring the best minds to his cabinet. More recently, we’ve had some smart and well-educated presidents who scrambled to hide it. Richard Nixon was a self-loathing intellectual, and Bill Clinton camouflaged a fulgent brain behind folksy Arkansas aphorisms about hogs.
As for President Bush, he adopted anti-intellectualism as administration policy, repeatedly rejecting expertise (from Middle East experts, climate scientists and reproductive health specialists). Mr. Bush is smart in the sense of remembering facts and faces, yet I can’t think of anybody I’ve ever interviewed who appeared so uninterested in ideas. Keep Reading Here:
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Looking back on a surreal campaign season
By BILL AYERS
Whew! What was all that mess? I’m still in a daze, sorting it all out, decompressing.
Pass the Vitamin C.
For the past few years, I have gone about my business, hanging out with my kids and, now, my grandchildren, taking care of our elders (they moved in as the kids moved out), going to work, teaching and writing. And every day, I participate in the never-ending effort to build a powerful and irresistible movement for peace and social justice.
In years past, I would now and then—often unpredictably—appear in the newspapers or on TV, sometimes with a reference to Fugitive Days, my 2001 memoir of the exhilarating and difficult years of resistance against the American war in Vietnam. It was a time when the world was in flames, revolution was in the air, and the serial assassinations of black leaders disrupted our utopian dreams.
These media episodes of fleeting notoriety always led to some extravagant and fantastic assertions about what I did, what I might have said and what I probably believe now.
It was always a bit surreal. Then came this political season. Keep Reading Here
WASHINGTON (AP) - Election watchers won't have to wait for polls to close in the West to know how things are going. The first clues will come early, when voting ends in Georgia, Indiana and Virginia. If Democrat Barack Obama wins any of the three, he could be on his way to a big victory, maybe even a landslide.
If Republican John McCain sweeps them, he could be headed for a comeback. And if any of these three are too close to call quickly, that could indicate a long night ahead - and, perhaps, a squeaker of a result.
President Bush comfortably won the trio four years ago. But Obama has used his financial muscle and his draw as the youthful first black Democratic nominee to put them, and other historically reliable Republican states, into play.
Thus, the Democrat has several routes he can take to reach the 270 Electoral College votes needed for victory. McCain's strategy has no room for error; he must win nearly all the states that went to Bush in 2004, and possibly even one or two that voted for Democrat John Kerry that year.
Here's a timetable for armchair election watchers, all given in Eastern Standard Time: READ HERE:
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CNN) — Former Reagan chief of staff Ken Duberstein told CNN's Fareed Zakaria this week he intends to vote for Democrat Barack Obama on Tuesday.
Duberstein said he was influenced by another prominent Reagan official - Colin Powell - in his decision.
"Well let's put it this way - I think Colin Powell's decision is in fact the good housekeeping seal of approval on Barack Obama."
Powell served as national security advisor to Reagan during Duberstein's tenure as chief of staff.
Duberstein spoke with Zakaria about his final days in the Reagan White House. The Reagan official, along with Clinton Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Carter National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, also discussed the transition process to a new administration.
You've got to watch these videos. Now. HERE
Senior Republicans believe that John McCain is doomed to a landslide defeat which will hand Barack Obama more political power than any president in a generation.
By Tim Shipman in Durango, Colorado
Last Updated: 12:37AM BST 26 Oct 2008
Aides to George W.Bush, former Reagan White House staff and friends of John McCain have all told The Sunday Telegraph that they not only expect to lose on November 4, but also believe that Mr Obama is poised to win a crushing mandate.
They believe he will be powerful enough to remake the American political landscape with even more ease than Ronald Reagan did in 1980.
The prospect of an electoral rout has unleashed a bitter bout of recriminations both within the McCain campaign and the wider conservative movement, over who is to blame and what should be done to salvage the party's future. Keep Reading Here:
by CC Goldwater, granddaughter
Being Barry Goldwater's granddaughter and living in Arizona, one would assume that I would be voting for our state's senator, John McCain. I am still struck by certain 'dyed in the wool' Republicans who are on the fence this election, as it seems like a no-brainer to me.
Myself, along with my siblings and a few cousins, will not be supporting the Republican presidential candidates this year. We believe strongly in what our grandfather stood for: honesty, integrity, and personal freedom, free from political maneuvering and fear tactics. I learned a lot about my grandfather while producing the documentary, Mr. Conservative Goldwater on Goldwater. Our generation of Goldwaters expects government to provide for constitutional protections. We reject the constant intrusion into our personal lives, along with other crucial policy issues of the McCain/Palin ticket.
My grandfather (Paka) would never suggest denying a woman's right to choose. My grandmother co-founded Planned Parenthood in Arizona in the 1930's, a cause my grandfather supported. I'm not sure about how he would feel about marriage rights based on same-sex orientation. I think he would feel that love and respect for ones privacy is what matters most and not the intolerance and poor judgment displayed by McCain over the years. Paka respected our civil liberties and passed on the message that that we should conduct our lives standing up for the basic freedoms we hold so dear.
For a while, there were several candidates who aligned themselves with the Goldwater version of Conservative thought. My grandfather had undying respect for the U.S. Constitution, and an understanding of its true meanings.
There always have been a glimmer of hope that someday, someone would "race through the gate" full steam in Goldwater style. Unfortunately, this hasn't happened, and the Republican brand has been tarnished in a shameless effort to gain votes and appeal to the lowest emotion, fear. Nothing about McCain, except for maybe a uniform, compares to the same ideology of what Goldwater stood for as a politician. The McCain/Palin plan is to appear diverse and inclusive, using women and minorities to push an agenda that makes us all financially vulnerable, fearful, and less safe.
When you see the candidate's in political ads, you can't help but be reminded of the 1964 presidential campaign of Johnson/Goldwater, the 'origin of spin', that twists the truth and obscures what really matters. Nothing about the Republican ticket offers the hope America needs to regain it's standing in the world, that's why we're going to support Barack Obama. I think that Obama has shown his ability and integrity.
After the last eight years, there's a lot of clean up do. Roll up your sleeves, Senators Obama and Biden, and we Goldwaters will roll ours up with you. Link
from the PEW RESEARCH CENTER (Pew Web Site)
Barack Obama’s lead over John McCain has steadily increased since mid-September, when the race was essentially even. Shortly after the first presidential debate on Sept. 26, Obama moved to a 49% to 42% lead; that margin inched up to 50% to 40% in a poll taken just after the second debate. Currently, Obama enjoys his widest margin yet over McCain among registered voters, at 52% to 38%. When the sample of voters is narrowed to those most likely to vote, Obama leads by 53% to 39%. Keep Reading Here:
By Greg Mitchell and Dexter Hill
Published: October 21, 2008 11:50 AM ET updated Tuesday
NEW YORK (Updated Tuesday The Obama-Biden ticket maintains its strong lead in the race for daily newspaper endorsements, by 121 to 42, an almost 3-1 margin and an even wider spread in the circulation of those papers (see full tally below).
Obama's lopsided margin, including most of the major papers that have decided so far, is in stark contrast to John Kerry barely edging George W. Bush in endorsements in 2004 by 213 to 205.
Note: We are updating this story and list often so return for additions.
At least 26 papers have now switched to Obama from Bush in 2004, with just four flipping to McCain (see separate story on this site). The latest making the move to Obama: Inland Valley Daily Bulletin of Ontario, Calif. It joins such larger papers as the Denver Post, Chicago Tribune and New York's Daily News.
Please send any endorsements you see or make (that are not listed below) to: gmitchell@editorandpublisher.com.
Continue Reading Here:
Not much to say lately as the work we've been doing for the past 2 years appears to be close to bearing fruit. I've already voted absentee. Not long ago we had the only Obama sign on our front lawn in the entire town. Now everyday more signs pop up. Today it seemed as if every house in town had and Obama/Biden sign on the front lawn. Some folks even had home-made signs lining mailboxes and windows. Nearly every car has an Obama bumper sticker.
On the national level major newspapers are endorsing Obama by a wide majority, including some papers that have never endorsed and many Repbulican leaning papers that have never endorsed a Democrat. Of course the big news today was Colin Powell. A beautiful speech on Meet the Press. Watch it if you haven't already. The 150 million dollars we all donated for September will clearly help in the mad-dash ad wars over the next two weeks, too.
Speaking of the next 2 weeks - never underestimate the slimy tactics of the Republicans. It is clear they cannot win on charisma or policy or trust. They cannot win on reliability (Sarah Palin?). So they will continue to throw much more than the kitchen sink. What can we do? Phone bank. Talk to those who you feel may still be unsure of voting for a black man named Obama. Send more money. VOTE.
Here's a new ad: Obama on TV in Michigan
by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
In 2004, America's malleable mainstream media allowed itself to be manipulated by artful Republican operatives into devoting weeks of broadcast attention and drums of ink to unfairly desecrating John Kerry's genuine Vietnam heroics while obligingly muzzling serious discussion of George W. Bush's shameful wartime record of evasion and cowardice.
Last week found the American media once again boarding Republican swift boats against this season's Democratic candidate armed with unfair and hypocritical attacks artfully designed by GOP strategists to distract attention from the cataclysmic outcomes of Republican governance. Vice Presidential hopeful Sarah Palin has taken to faulting Senator Barack Obama for his casual acquaintance with a respected Illinois educator Bill Ayers, who forty years ago was a member of the Weathermen, a movement active when Obama was eight and which he has denounced as "detestable." Palin argues that the relationship proves that Obama sees "America as being so imperfect that he is palling around with terrorists who would target their own country."
The Times dedicated a page one article to Obama's relations with Ayers and CNN's Anderson Cooper obliged Palin by rewarding her reckless accusations about Obama's patriotism with a major investigative report. Fox, meanwhile, is still riveting its audience with wall to wall coverage of this pressing irrelevancy.
But if McCarthy-era guilt-by-association is once again a valid political consideration, Palin, it would seem, has more to lose than Obama. Keep Reading Here
David Brooks spoke frankly about the presidential and vice presidential candidates Monday afternoon, calling Sarah Palin a "fatal cancer to the Republican party" but describing John McCain and Barack Obama as "the two best candidates we've had in a long time."
In an interview with The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg at New York's Le Cirque restaurant to unveil that magazine's redesign, Brooks decried Palin's anti-intellectualism and compared her to President Bush in that regard:
[Sarah Palin] represents a fatal cancer to the Republican party. When I first started in journalism, I worked at the National Review for Bill Buckley. And Buckley famously said he'd rather be ruled by the first 2,000 names in the Boston phone book than by the Harvard faculty. But he didn't think those were the only two options. He thought it was important to have people on the conservative side who celebrated ideas, who celebrated learning....Keep reading this excellent article here:
For 90 minutes I listened to Sarah Palin insult America. She avoided answering the gracious questions that Gwen Ifill chose. She was patronizing, evasive, scripted, nervous and cheap with a series of rambling run-on sentences that showed a complete lack of intelligence or grasp of serious issues. An insult.
There was an undertone of disdain for education, knowledge, experience and gravitas. Her approach is to chuckle and wink-wink her way onto the political scene. Clearly it is an approach that has worked to her advantage politically. This "folksy - I'm as dumb as you are" method disarmed formidable opponents in Alaska and propelled her into a position of power. But just because you win does not mean you are the more qualified person. Think George Bush. Or look at Palin's actual record in Alaska.
The format of the debate was so quick paced that it fed into Palin's nervous energy and caused everyone, including Biden and the viewers to talk, think and absorb at a frenetic speed. The advantage here goes to Palin because the less thoughtful among us came away thinking she was actually saying something. But she wasn't.
It is probably not worth reading the debate transcript. Let me recap. Biden spoke thoughtfully, forcefully, calmly and answered the questions. He spoke of his strengths and weaknesses. He appeared like a seasoned legislature - someone you would expect to be on that stage. This is a debate for the Vice President of the United States. Palin was inarticulate, "cute" and "folksy". Great skills for Mayor of a town of 5000 people, city council or the PTA. Not the Presidency.
EDITORIAL IN THE OCTOBER 13th ISSUE OF THE NEW YORKER
from "the editors":
Never in living memory has an election been more critical than the one fast approaching—that’s the quadrennial cliché, as expected as the balloons and the bombast. And yet when has it ever felt so urgently true? When have so many Americans had so clear a sense that a Presidency has—at the levels of competence, vision, and integrity—undermined the country and its ideals?
The incumbent Administration has distinguished itself for the ages. The Presidency of George W. Bush is the worst since Reconstruction, so there is no mystery about why the Republican Party—which has held dominion over the executive branch of the federal government for the past eight years and the legislative branch for most of that time—has little desire to defend its record, domestic or foreign. The only speaker at the Convention in St. Paul who uttered more than a sentence or two in support of the President was his wife, Laura. Meanwhile, the nominee, John McCain, played the part of a vaudeville illusionist, asking to be regarded as an apostle of change after years of embracing the essentials of the Bush agenda with ever-increasing ardor. KEEP READING HERE
New ABC News/Washington Post national poll conducted after the debate (Sept 27-29) shows that John McCain has picked up 5 points on Barack Obama during the last week, moving from a nine-point deficit to trailing by four:
Obama 50 (-2 vs. last poll Sept 19-22)
McCain 46 (+3)
Obama leads by 4.8% in the RCP National Average.
According to the poll, McCain has regained the lead among key swing groups: Independents favor McCain by 3 (48-45), white women by 11 (54-43), and white Catholics by one (47-46). McCain is still holding on to 20% of Democrats who voted for Hillary Clinton in the primaries, while 70% are supporting Obama.
Could someone please explain some of these numbers to me? What's with White Women? And what's with those 20% of "Clinton" supporters who support McCain? Really? So they were supporting Clinton because she is a woman, not because of Democratic Policies or Position statements? Voting record? Ideology? And because she lost they're going with the old white guy whose views are COMPLETELY DIFFERENT FROM CLINTON? Who, someone please inform me, are these people?
Somaili pirates who stunned the world by seizing a Ukrainian ship in the Gulf of Aden announced today that they would take a brief hiatus from terrorizing the high seas out of respect for the Jewish holidays.
"To all of our Jewish friends, we say a hearty Shana Tova," said pirate spokesman Sugule, moments before the pirates hoisted a Star of David flag over the captured ship.
Sugule took pains to indicate that while the pirates were taking a Rosh Hashanah break from their usual plundering and pillaging schedule, they were doing so only out of respect for Jewish pirates and not because they are Jewish themselves.
"None of us Somali pirates are Jewish," he said. "Except for Abe in accounting, who's half."
In a related story, former president Bill Clinton, who had earlier said he would not campaign for Barack Obama until after the Jewish high holidays, announced today that he would extend his hiatus until Purim, which falls on March 10, 2009.
Responding to Mr. Clinton's decision to remain on the sidelines until four months after the election, Sen. Obama issued the following terse statement: "Oy." LINK- ANDY BOROWITZ