Kelly in Kansas

Camille's latest contribution.

"Why did it take so long for Democrats to realize that this year's tea party and town hall uprisings were a genuine barometer of widespread public discontent and not simply a staged scenario by kooks and conspirators? First of all, too many political analysts still think that network and cable TV chat shows are the central forums of national debate. But the truly transformative political energy is coming from talk radio and the Web -- both of which Democrat-sponsored proposals have threatened to stifle, in defiance of freedom of speech guarantees in the Bill of Rights."

"It was on talk radio, which I have resumed monitoring around the clock because of the healthcare fiasco, that I heard the passionate voices of callers coming directly from the town hall meetings. Hence I was alerted to the depth and intensity of national sentiment long before others who were simply watching staged, manipulated TV shows."

"By a proportion of something like 10-to-1, negative articles by conservatives were vastly more detailed, specific and practical about the proposals than were supportive articles by Democrats, which often made gestures rather than arguments and brimmed with emotion and sneers."

"An example of the provincial amateurism of current White House operations was the way the president's innocuous back-to-school pep talk got sandbagged by imbecilic support materials soliciting students to write fantasy letters to "help" the president (a coercive directive quickly withdrawn under pressure). Even worse, the entire project was stupidly scheduled to conflict with the busy opening days of class this week, when harried teachers already have their hands full. Comically, some major school districts, including New York City, were not even open yet. And this is the gang who wants to revamp national healthcare?"

"If Obama fails to win reelection, let the blame be first laid at the door of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who at a pivotal point threw gasoline on the flames by comparing angry American citizens to Nazis."

Labels: critics, Democrats, former presidents, health care, Obama, opposition, Republicans, speech

The November 17, 2008 issue of Businessweek has a column by Jack and Suzy Welch listing three reasons Obama won. All three seem quite plausible and point to strengths on the Democratic side and weaknesses in the Republican column. The authors tie this back to three principles of business leadership:

1. A clear vision

2. Clean execution

3. Friends in high places

The third principle refers primarily to the media and most definitely the media was rooting for Obama. Some were even giddy talking about the victory and the multimedia presentations were a bit over the top although I did appreciate their celebratory nature in regard to the larger picture of democratic processes at work. And, history has been made with the nation's first African-American president.

I'm considering having students in my class tomorrow write a time capsule of how they will remember this event in later years.

I also don't remember seeing "The Office of the President-Elect" as an official office before but, given the challenges and complexity of presidential transitions, maybe the time has come. That's another strength of democracy -the ability to adapt to change.

Labels: 2008, Democrats, election, Obama, Republicans