Yes We Can

I encourage you, no matter what you think of this election, to watch our next President's speech from when he lost the New Hampshire primary. I just watched it at my office at work and, after composing myself, came here to encourage anyone who reads this to do the same.

If you can't watch it, or if you'd just rather read it, the text is here. I want to highlight two specific things he said.

All of the candidates in this race share these goals. All have good ideas. And all are patriots who serve this country honorably.

But the reason our campaign has always been different is because it’s not just about what I will do as President, it’s also about what you, the people who love this country, can do to change it.

To those who cynically say that nothing will change, or who worry that we've made the wrong decision in all this, take comfort in the fact that it's up to you. The most significant promise this presidency has made is that you are in fact responsible for the change you want to see in this country.

At the campaign rally where I saw Obama speak, he said that his Presidency would fail if we didn't rise up and act. Anyone who worries about big government should understand this about our next President. The door is open for you to be the change that you want.

I know that many people would call me naïve for all this. I know there are cynics or realists who tell us that politics doesn't work this way, that it's not going to happen the way we think. That we've all been brainwashed and that nothing is ever going to be different. But I think they miss the point -- we've already begun to change. The results of November 4th, 2008, are just the wonderful, visible proof.

After all,

We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics who will only grow louder and more dissonant in the weeks to come. We’ve been asked to pause for a reality check. We’ve been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope.

But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope. For when we have faced down impossible odds; when we’ve been told that we’re not ready, or that we shouldn’t try, or that we can’t, generations of Americans have responded with a simple creed that sums up the spirit of a people.

Yes we can.

So to the person who wrote, "Nothing will change. Mark these words." I say to you -- I will mark them. I'll mark them in the same way we marked the words that said a black man couldn't possibly be elected President. And the words that said his lack of experience would ruin his campaign, that the timing wasn't right, that it couldn't be done.

By proving them wrong, Barack Obama sucked all of the sap, all of the naïveté out of those three words -- yes we can.

Why Obama, General Election Edition

A Baltimore Sun reporter caught me on the way out of the polling station today, and I was happy to answer a few questions. One of the first things she asked me was, "How long ago did you make your decision?" It was an easy answer for me, because today I voted for the candidate I supported from the very beginning of the Presidential primaries.

I explained why I favored Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton during that big primary race, and much of it applies to why I voted for him again today. But let me briefly explain why I voted for Senator Obama and not for Senator McCain (or anyone else, for that matter).

Why I Voted For Barack Obama GENERAL ELECTION EDITION
Or, Why I Didn't Vote For John McCain

First, the small reasons: McCain gets too angry too fast and has a history of flying off the handle. I want a President who stays composed. Experience as an argument in this race left the table the day Palin was asked to be VP on the McCain ticket.

More specifically,

• Taxes | We've all heard the numbers but for some reason people are still worried about having their wealth redistributed. Taxes are necessary, because the government is responsible for taking care of certain things. And the reality is that the richer you are, the more you can afford to help shoulder that load for your country.
  
  
• Healthcare | We're the last western country without nationalized healthcare. Our infant mortality rates are higher than most of the first world. Many of our systems are already nationalized. Other non-socialist countries are running successful nationalized healthcare programs. There's just no reason we can't find a way to provide free, good healthcare to every American.
  
  I heard Obama say, in a speech last week, "we don't need bigger or smaller government, we need better government." Why is that never an option in these discussions?
  

• Foreign Policy | It's not a bad thing that most of the world is hoping for Barack Obama to be elected President. It's not a bad thing that crowds of people come to see him wherever he goes in the world. Our image is damaged and could use a boost. We need a President who can inspire his own people while rebuilding relationships with the rest of the world, and I believe Obama can do that well.
  
  
• Vision and Inspriation are still underrated | Tucker Carlson said, "I don’t think Barack Obama approaches politics that way. It’s like look, there’s an answer, we’re all struggling to find it, I believe I know what it is, you believe you know what it is, let’s talk about it."
  
  I want a President who can get above the shit, listen to both sides, and make good decisions. I want someone who can act on what Robert Creamer said: "Leadership, more than anything else, is about mobilizing people into action. People take action when they feel empowered — when they are inspired."

I feel strongly about this, but I don't hate or disrespect anyone who voted for McCain. In the end, it's less about who we vote for and more about how we vote, and I hope I've voiced my opinion respectfully. But for those who share my hope for an Obama victory, I think Jeffrey Zeldman said it best in a short Twitter update.

All our hopes now rest with two young Hobbits.

Vote Obama

Today could be a very historic day. He won't be perfect, but he's exactly what America needs, and I'll be hoping with every cell that he's voted in by a sizeable margin. Go vote right now.

Bumper Sticker: DEREGULATION IS NUANCED

Phil Gramm did two things in 1999 that seem particularly relevant now.

1) He introduced and strongly supported the Gramm-Leach-Blily Act.

This act repealed part of the Glass-Steagal Act and officially allowed commercial and investment banks to consolidate for the first time since the New Deal.

Robert Kuttner wrote an article almost exactly a year ago explaining the effect that deregulation had on our current economic crises. Here's a snip:

quote:

---

The Glass-Steagall wall was devised to prevent a repeat of the 1920s' scams, in which banks made speculative investments, turned the debts into securities, and sold them off to unsuspecting investors with the blessing of the bank. With Glass-Steagall, commercial banks were tightly supervised and given access to federal deposit insurance, to keep savings secure and prevent runs on banks. Investment banks, meanwhile, were not government-guaranteed and were free to do more speculative transactions for consenting adult customers. But Roosevelt's newly created SEC subjected securities markets to much tighter structures against self-dealing and insider conflicts of interest.

---

2) As chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, he helped to usher in the wave of subprime mortgage lending.

In this article from the NY Times back in 1999,

quote:

---

In July [of 1999], the Department of Housing and Urban Development proposed that by the year 2001, 50 percent of Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's portfolio be made up of loans to low and moderate-income borrowers. Last year, 44 percent of the loans Fannie Mae purchased were from these groups.

---

The other relevant fact about Phil Gramm: until very recently, he was John McCain’s presidential campaign co-chair [source] and his most senior economic adviser [source], and continues to be an unofficial adviser on economic and financial matters [source].

Obama campaign: could you please make and run this ad immediately?

Obama Strategists Are Smart

Whether you like him or not, this email I received from Obama's campaign is genius. These are the kinds of things that have made him so competitive so far.

From: Steve Hildebrand
To: Jason Rhodes
Date: Sat, May 31, 2008 at 10:19 AM
Subject: "Democrats Win Landslide Victory"?


Jason --

You'll like this.

This morning someone forwarded me an email sent by the arm of the Republican Party that raises money for their Senate candidates.

The subject of the message was "Democrats Win Landslide Victory," and the writer, Republican former Senator Bill Frist, admits: "I have a real fear of waking up to this headline after the elections this fall."

He goes on to explain fears among Washington power brokers about Barack Obama's grassroots support and voter registration efforts.

He's right to be worried -- we're bringing new people into the process, and Obama supporters are organizing in communities across the country like never before.

But it can't happen without your support. Frist was raising money ahead of tonight's financial reporting deadline -- the same deadline we face.

This is the last opportunity to have your donation counted for May, and the last chance to have a meaningful impact on the final three primary contests.

Make your donation of $25 count right now:

https://donate.barackobama.com/maydeadline

Here's a little bit more from Frist's email:

From: Senator Bill Frist, M.D.
Date: Thu, May 29, 2008 at 3:59 PM
Subject: "Democrats Win Landslide Victory"

Dear Republican Supporter,

I have a real fear of waking up to this headline after the elections this fall. [...]

In key states, news accounts indicate Democrats are outpacing Republicans registering voters. We also know Barack Obama's campaign is utilizing the Internet to raise record amounts of money to support his campaign and Democrats nationally ... all in the hope that new voters and record resources will produce a Democrat landslide victory this fall.

There's so much at risk, and conservatives I talk with from all across the country are feeling the rumblings of "what could be." [...]

[...] I ask for your immediate help in supporting Republican candidates running for U.S. Senate by making a contribution of $10, $25, $50 or even $100 to the NRSC. [...]

What's amazing about this message referencing Barack Obama is that it's not from the McCain campaign. It's not even about the presidential race.

It's about the forces of the status quo, who don't want to change the way Washington works, worried about the prospect of ordinary people taking their rightful place in a political process that is too often dominated by lobbyists and special interests.

They've seen the writing on the wall, and they know that when Barack is the nominee, we're going to continue building a movement for change to elect Barack Obama and bring about change from the bottom up at every level of office.

There are only a few hours left before tonight's reporting deadline, so please give whatever you can now:

https://donate.barackobama.com/maydeadline

Thank you,

Steve

Steve Hildebrand
Deputy Campaign Manager
Obama for America