No Permanent Majorities In America
Cartoony Politics in Canada
Being President 101
Failure To Blow Election Stuns Democratic Party Faithful Mourn End To Losing Tradition
Hope Is On The Way
The Future Is Upon Us
Illinois Outdoes Itself
Environmentalists Disregard Public Safety
There's Something About Harry
The White Collar Lament
What Good Can Come Of This?
Dummies
If The Shoe Fits Hurl It
Obama The Magic Negro-Gate
How Can Obama Fix So Much That Went Wrong?
Happy New Year ...
Out With The Old
Remember The Empty Chairs At Holiday Tables
Who Are The Real Nazis?
The Gaza Rules
Harper's Weekly
The Mortgage Thieves Return
Bullet Points For Assessing The Bush Years
Bye-Bye 2008: Things I Want To Forget
The Fierce Urgency Of Now
How Many Government Workers Does It Take To Change A Light Bulb?
The Perils And Joys Of Self-Esteem
The Future Of Civilization
'Hunk' Obama Can Help Nation Fight Obesity Epidemic
Moral Clarity In Gaza
Obama's Tax Cuts Leave Logic Behind
Talking About Sex-Ed That Works
The Time Is Now
Et Al Ad Nauseam: 2008 And All That
The Generational Theft Act Of 2009
Pay Rod Gives Democrats Fits With Senate Choice
'Tis The Season To Be Jolly. Or At least Try
Hey, Caroline -- You'Re Not Entitled
Hamas Rockets Blew Away Gaza Opportunity
Season's Readings
Old Acquaintances
A Social Trauma For Obama: Youth Crime
Sensitivity And 'Gran Torino'
A Question For My Friend Alan Dershowitz
The Unsung Hero Of Obama'S Victory
Red Ink Did Me Good
Barack in Limbo
A Hard Year Ahead
Ask Not For Plum Political Appointments
Eric Holder And All Political Prisoners
Mideast Overshadows Obama's Prospects
Enough About My Hair Already
Year-End Odds And Ends
Curing The New Year's Eve Hangover
The Gamble in Gaza -- Interview With Aaron David Miller
Cal Thomas-Bonus
A Respite From Reality
One Nation, One People-God Bless Us Everyone
Dr. Leavitt's Scary Diagnosis
Teaching Economics
Richardson's Exit And The Vetting Process



Hope And Vision
Robert Koehler 11/13/2008
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I hope it's time, if nothing else, to retire cynical bumper stickers, such as: If elections could change anything, they'd be illegal.

The air remains thick with a sense of history and change, if not mandate. People are still buying last Wednesday's newspaper, as though to prolong a moment that has already passed. But we know the significance of this election is still to come, right? We know that the forces of business as usual are closing ranks around the rock-star president-elect, and that the young idealist from Illinois we voted for could turn into a purely pragmatic centrist in the Clinton mold, right? The Democrats, after all, have a long history of ignoring their base.

Can we prevent this from happening? Yes, we can!

"The festive scenes of liberation that Dick Cheney had once imagined for Iraq were finally taking place -- in cities all over America," Frank Rich wrote in the New York Times shortly after the election. This is the energy, released after eight years of agonizing simmer and disbelief, that swept Barack Obama into office, and it must not be allowed to dissipate. We have our country back -- now we have to hold onto it.

If this energy is to manifest
itself in thousands of informed, passionate citizens groups across the country, linked to one another and to the Obama administration, supporting and challenging the new president and countering the Washington political and media establishment, it will need more than vague campaign rhetoric and promises of change; and also more, I believe, than merely an agenda: a list of to-do items, necessary as they are, to undo the damage wrought by the W, the Wrecking-Ball President.

What we need is a vision: the articulation of an overarching goal that, while breath-taking and fraught with difficulty to achieve, is grounded in common sense and the politics of the possible, and immediately manifests itself by mobilizing thousands if not millions of people in bringing it into being.

That said, I don't wish to minimize the agenda items that are proliferating in the wake of Obama's victory. The ACLU, for instance, has put forth a transition plan titled: "Ask President-elect Obama to restore the America we believe in." On day one, it calls on the new president to stop torture, close Guantanamo, restore the rule of law for detainees and end the practice of extraordinary rendition.

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Franklin Delano Obama
By John Darkow - Columbia Daily Tribune, Missouri * Posted 11/12/2008 12:00:00 AM
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Franklin Delano Obama
© Copyright 2008  John Darkow - All Rights Reserved.
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