I cried on election night 2008, out of happiness and with a sense of the burdens this good man would now have to carry.
As exhilarating and intense as the campaign was, I like this year even better. I like knowing that President Obama is on the job day in and day out.
What he has achieved in less than a year in office fills me with amazement and gratitude.
One year ago today our country elected a good, brave and gifted man, Barack Obama, to take on the tremendous burdens of the Presidency. I think this is a good insight from Joseph Nye, Distinguished Service Professor at Harvard University:“Look what he inherited -- a global economic crisis, two difficult wars, erosion of the non-proliferation regime by North Korea and Iran, deterioration of the Middle East peace process, and the rising strength of China just for starters. Obama's dilemma was how to manage this sad inheritance while creating his own vision of how Americans should deal with the world.He did that with his theme of ‘a new era of engagement with the world.’ Through a series of symbolic gestures and speeches (Prague, Cairo, Accra, the United Nations and others), Obama worked wonders in restoring American soft or attractive power in his first year of office. As a recent Pew poll reported, ‘in many countries opinions of the United States are now as positive as they were at the beginning of the decade before George W. Bush took office.’
Skeptics regard soft power as over-rated, but it is a mistake to discount the role that transformative leaders can play in changing the context of difficult issues. Power involves setting agendas and creating others' preferences as well as pushing and shoving. Soft power alone rarely solves hard problems. That is why the administration speaks of "smart power" that successfully combines hard and soft power resources in different contexts. But soft power can create an enabling rather than a disabling environment for policy. Diplomats report that Obama's success in brokering agreements at NATO and G-20 summits was assisted by his popularity.
When Obama came into office, his economic advisers told him there was one chance in three that we were on the brink of another depression. We have successfully avoided that, and Obama was able to help organize a surprising degree of international cooperation on economic issues. Unlike FDR, who torpedoed an international economic conference in 1933, and failed to halt the spread of ‘beggar they neighbor’ policies that made the depression worse, Obama's soft power helped to promote international cooperation when it was vital. And there was a certain audacity of hope in that pursuit.”You can read the whole article at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joseph-nye/obamas-timidity-is-a-fore_b_344064.html
I prefer our President's "soft power" to the noise and destruction of the previous eight years.
Remembering the campaign makes me relive so many emotions:
Excitement – when he announced his candidacy. YES WE CAN!
Elation – when he was declared the nominee.
Looking online each day for campaign news, music, videos, art! A talent explosion!
Emails to editors and TV news – somebody has to read them!
Caucusing – scary, thrilling, overwhelming! What a turnout! Everyone cared so much!
Talking to complete strangers about then-Senator Obama.
Oh, and friends and family, too.
Bumps, lows, highs in the primary. Asking my Senators and Congressman to endorse.
Another donation request? We’ve still got some money; let’s just give a bit more.
Maybe he can really do it, maybe this country can move forward – YES WE DID!
And so 2008 was a very good year.
2012 will be another. So are the years in between. Our President is at work.
Dear Chairman Dean,
Senator Clinton has said John McCain is better qualified than a fellow Democrat to be Commander-in-Chief. She has undermined Iranian moderates and empowered extremism by talking about unilaterally intervening in a hypothetical Middle East conflict to "totally obliterate" Iran. She echoes Senator McCain at every turn, such as by calling Senator Obama an elitist. Now she's endorsed McCain's gas tax holiday, which would put many people out of work from their jobs rebuilding our highways and bridges.
So why on earth would I give money to someone who is just like John McCain?
As long as there is any chance that my contribution will benefit Senator Clinton, there is no chance I can donate to the DNC.
Thank you for reading this.
Sincerely,
Kathleen
I sent this on April 23, 2008, the day after the Pennsylvania primary.
I want to tell you how proud I am of Senator Obama. Not just because he reduced Senator Clinton's big double-digit lead to what the Pennsylvania Secretary of State's website still unofficially reports as under 10%.
Because of the way he did it.
He ran against two candidates (one Republican and one Democrat) and their allies and surrogates, including much of the media, who recklessly misled voters and attacked his character. Senator Obama remained steady. He never changed his personality. He never pandered. He never dumbed down his message. He greatly expanded not only his own support but our Party's registration and once again demonstrated the worth of the 50-state strategy and grassroots organizing. And, just as Bill Clinton used to do, he asked people to vote their hopes rather than their fears.I am proud to support Senator Obama, because he makes me proud to be a Democrat.
Thank you for reading this letter.
I agree with your statement that whether John McCain can stop the airing of a vicious anti-Obama ad in North Carolina by the GOP is a test of leadership for him.
But this is even more a test of leadership for Democrats.
John McCain has already condemned the ad, but he is being ignored by his own party. Hillary Clinton is silent on the matter, and her silence is being ignored by her own party.
Today in my blog I post a news release from the Governor followed by an article detailing one job-creating project:
From the Governor:
When I was elected, our highways were in a state of neglect. At the end of 2004, only 12 Nickel-package highway projects had been completed. But since 2005, I've been taking on the challenge of transportation and getting results. Today, we have 128 completed highway projects. You and I share the same priorities and goals for our highways: increase safety, reduce congestion and ensure maintenance I've signed several bills, some as recently as today, which will help us continue to get results to achieve these goals. Replacing SR-520 is a top priority, and this year we've made tough decisions and significant progress. We decided that state and federal resources will pay for about half of the replacement. Drivers who use the bridge will pay for the other half with tolls. I also requested several changes to the 520 replacement proposal that reduced the construction timeline by four years and saved between $500 and $700 million. Replacing our aging fleet of ferries is also a priority, and earlier this year I authorized three new car ferries to be built. The first of these ferries is scheduled to be delivered in 14 months. This ferry construction program is historic in our state. We are also getting results to ensure the safety of drivers on US 2 from Everett to Stevens Pass by partnering with local community groups, businesses and emergency service organizations. Highway construction projects to increase safety and reduce congestion will also be done to Seattle's Viaduct, I-82 in Yakima and Spokane's Riverside university district.
I'm going to need your help in 2008 to keep taking on these challenges and getting results. I hope I can count on you. Thanks,
Gov. Chris Gregoire
Copyright 2007, People for Chris Gregoire, Governor - D, P.O. Box 2771 Seattle WA 98111
This article in The Daily World (serving Grays Harbor and Pacific Counties on Washington’s coast) explains how one transportation project creates jobs and boosts local economies:
http://www.thedailyworld.com/articles/2008/03/04/local_news/01news.txt
Pontoon project approved
By Stephen Friederich, Daily World Writer
The long-anticipated, job-rich pontoon construction project is officially headed to Hoquiam.Gov. Chris Gregoire announced Monday that a facility “will be up and running by 2011” to build the large pontoons for Seattle’s Evergreen Floating Bridge that links Seattle with Bellevue and other suburbs to the east.To accelerate the process for the Highway 520 link that is so critical to the Seattle area in terms of traffic congestion and the economy, an existing Tacoma facility will start building smaller pontoons for the project by 2009.Construction on the Hoquiam facility on Port of Grays Harbor property near the mouth of the Hoquiam River should begin by April of 2010, the governor said.House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler of Hoquiam said she received a call from Gregoire telling her the good news. “I was, like, ‘Hallelujah!’ This is going to bring jobs and be a real shot in the arm for the county. I’m just ecstatic,” Kessler said.The graving dock could create as many as 250 construction jobs and 100 or so long-term jobs for the Evergreen Point project alone, but Kessler said the facility could be used for a couple decades as more floating bridges need to be replaced or upgraded.Hoquiam Mayor Jack Durney said he’s going to start shining his campaign button for Gregoire, who faces re-election this year.“Because of this, I think everybody on Grays Harbor ought to put a campaign sign in their yard for Gov. Gregoire,” Durney said. “It means employment. It means we’re going to help urban Seattle solve some of their traffic problems. It’s going to be a great thing for all of us.”
A letter to the DNC, sent 3/18/03
Dear Governor Dean,
The more I consider your email of March 17, asking for donations to "lay the groundwork for Hillary or Barack to inherit if they win," the stranger that request seems to me.
In the first place, they cannot win; this primary contest will have only one victor. The Democratic Party won't nominate them; there is no them. In the second place, why should I contribute to something for a candidate to passively inherit, when Barack Obama has already distinguished himself from Hillary Clinton by the large and effective infrastructure he has created throughout the country? She and her surrogates have repeatedly boasted that their strategy consists of narrowly targeting certain Democratic voters in traditionally blue states -- a short-term goal aimed at procuring the nomination, not at expanding the Party, not at winning the general election and certainly not at building anything that could be called a mandate to govern. And this "strategy" has left her with fewer states, fewer popular votes and fewer delegates than Senator Obama. If we were bankers, to whom would we prefer to lend money: an applicant who demonstrated an impressive work record and the ability to deliver on commitments, or one who shrugged off the need to plan and prepare and now faces the stark consequences of her neglect and demands special consideration?
Why should we reward a candidate who scoffs at the DNC’s 50-state strategy and punish a candidate who has labored mightily to build the Democratic Party in every state with new voters, including the young people, independents and Republicans without whom the traditional base alone cannot win a general election? Why would our Party want to nominate a candidate who had to have an infrastructure handed to her – one that she apparently believes she doesn’t even need?
In your email, you said, "They can't run against John McCain yet, but we can do it for them." The fact is that Senator Obama has been running against John McCain as well as against the Clintons for some time. There is no them unless the Democratic nominee turned out to be Senator Clinton, in which case her husband would be an inevitable accompaniment. That prospect does not lift the spirits.
I haven't forgotten that Bill Clinton never got 50% of the vote but managed a plurality only because the Republicans were split by Ross Perot; nor that we lost Congress in the first Clinton term, nor that when the Clintons finally left the White House, there were fewer Democrats in office all around the country than were there when they came in. I cannot ignore Senator Clinton's unjustifiable failure to read the NIE material that would have cautioned her against voting for the Iraq war, nor her nonsensical claim that she thought the "Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002" was a plan to send more inspectors. As a woman, I despise her unending cries of victimization even as she directs an angry, divisive and often deceitful campaign, unopposed by a largely compliant media and a Republican Party eager for her to be our nominee. As a white, I detest the Clintons' willingness to exploit racial and religious fears. I am frustrated by her constant evocation of the lost world of the 1990s, which she can no more magically resurrect than she can the 1890s. I don't accept her exaggerations of her role in her husband's government that amount to outright delusion. I see her give daily evidence that restoring the Clintons to the White House would bring back the chaos, secrecy and unsavory dealings that marred their time there and in which she played a major part. And I recently witnessed her on television stating that her priority as President would be "winning the war in Iraq and Afghanistan." Winning the war? In her freely-expressed admiration for John McCain, has she also signed on to his 100-year occupation? Are the Clintons and McCain the real them of this campaign?
For Democrats, there is no them; there is only a choice between very different candidates. Senator Clinton has openly derided the millions of Americans who support Senator Obama (voters she would need herself in the general election), using disrespectful religious imagery to suggest that we are intoxicated by celestial visions.
Senator Obama, on the other hand, paid this country a high compliment Tuesday morning. He spoke to us as adults. He dismissed the phantoms and distractions of mean, petty sensationalism. He was courageous enough to drag hard truths into the light of day. He denounced condemnations of our country; he also talked about the real anger and fear felt by people of every color whose ability to live decently has been threatened by powerful economic and social forces, whether that threat is relatively recent or has dragged on for crushing centuries. He talked about what we must do to work past our divisions. He called on us to feel the bonds of fellow-citizenship with anyone we regard as different. I think he was saying that when it comes to our countrymen, especially our country’s children, there is no them.
He began and ended his address with references to the Constitution that is our guide not to a perfect union but to one that can always be made more nearly perfect. His words give us insight into his character and wisdom. Barack Obama is the only candidate I trust -- not just to obey the Constitution but also to understand why it must be obeyed.
Thank you very much for reading this letter.
Thank you for your email of March 17 requesting a contribution to the Democratic Party in which you stated:
"We are the only organization that can look beyond the primaries and lay the groundwork for Hillary or Barack to inherit if they win. They can't run against John McCain yet, but we can do it for them. I need you to make a donation now so that we can continue our campaign against John McCain. Hillary or Barack will need the infrastructure in place as soon as they're nominated..."
Although your email was part of a mass mailing, I want to respond.
I strongly agree that we Democrats should be focused on defeating John McCain. However, Senator Clinton has been virtually campaigning FOR John McCain in an effort to harm a fellow Democrat, Senator Obama. She has apparently dedicated herself to trying to damage Senator Obama by any means she can think of -- even if it causes the Democrats to lose the White House for a third consecutive election, and regardless of the negative effect this could have on Congressional and state races.
The Philadelphia Inquirer sums up the Clinton focus on self over party:
"While Obama's goal is to expand the Democratic electorate in Pennsylvania, Clinton is hardly as focused on doing the same. The New York senator's campaign said it had no similar voter-registration drive because that is not central to its strategy; Clinton has done better in closed-primary states, so it is not a necessity for her to lure independents, Republicans or new voters."
In contrast to what has been humorously but truthfully called Clinton's "Insult 40 States Strategy", Senator Obama from the outset of his campaign has put a true 50-state strategy into action. He has built a vast ground organization, generating an excitement about the Democratic Party in places where that would have seemed impossible not so long ago. He runs a positive, fiscally responsible campaign based on practical, results-oriented policies for our economy, security and environment. He has drawn huge numbers of new voters and has inspired independents and Republicans to vote Democratic. He has said repeatedly that his goal is to create a governing coalition. It is Barack Obama who is building the infrastructure he will need in the general election. And it is Obama who for some time has been campaigning directly against John McCain, dealing with his attacks as well as those of both Clintons and their surrogates.
The choice, as I see it, is crystal clear.
I fear that donating directly to the Democratic Party at this time risks contributing to the destructive efforts of a candidate who, I believe, has no hope of winning the general election and whose record (or as much of it as she cannot hide), actions and policies have persuaded me that she ought not to win. For the sake of our country and our Party, I prefer to donate to Senator Obama's campaign.
Thank you very much for your attention.
I am writing to express my deep admiration and respect for Senator Obama.His swift, eloquent and forceful written response to the Jeremiah Wright issue; his courage in promptly appearing on MSNBC, CNN and even the hostile environs of FOX, and now his excellent video in which he denounces Rev. Wright's incendiary statements and convincingly reaffirms his own strong principles of patriotism and faith, all demonstrate the power of his mind, character and demeanor under pressure.
Surely this incident must cause Senator Obama personal pain; as he explains, Rev. Wright was the minister who counseled him spiritually, officiated at his marriage to Michelle and baptized their daughters. Yet he has the integrity and fortitude to both condemn the statements in question and remind us that this retired pastor is of another, older generation and sometimes speaks from the suffering and anger of that generation as well as from the profound hope that made that suffering bearable. With extraordinary wisdom, Senator Obama suggests that we treat this as an opportunity to learn -- to face bravely the divisions and suspicions that still plague our great country. We are advancing because so many people of all ethnicities and faiths are standing up, rejecting hatred as a way of life, conquering their fear and making the future happen.
"Guilt by association" cannot be allowed a foothold in our public or private discourse, or every single one of us will be condemned. Think of all our past and present associates, employers, relatives, friends -- the web of close and casual connections each of us has is endless. By what mad logic would it be claimed that they necessarily speak for us, that we share all their values and beliefs? And if the new rule is that congregations should stampede if they've ever heard foolish words from the pulpit, every house of worship in the country will stand empty and echoing.
Barack Obama is demonstrating, today and every day, the courage, character and judgment I want in my President.
Another DNC email in my inbox -- this time from Tom McMahon, urging all Democrats to unite in order to defeat John McCain. Here's what I sent back to him:
Dear Mr. McMahon,
Thank you for your email of March 5 concerning George W. Bush's endorsement of John McCain, which states "We need your help Kathleen. While Sen. Clinton and Sen. Obama continue their campaign, we have to be focused on John McCain. We can't afford to let him get ahead."
Although your email was part of a mass mailing, I want to respond. I strongly agree that we Democrats should be focused on defeating John McCain. However, Senator Clinton seems to be focused on praising John McCain, virtually endorsing him and darn near campaigning for him, all in an effort to harm a fellow Democrat, Senator Obama -- even if it means that the Democrats will lose the White House for a third consecutive election.
Thank you for your attention.
I support Senator Barack Obama for President of the United States.
He has earned my confidence with the choices he’s made in his personal and professional lives; with his intellect; his honesty; his steady personality and supportive family life; his substantive experience as a community organizer, civil rights attorney, professor of Constitutional law, state legislator and Senator.
Barack Obama’s upbringing was not privileged. He has worked closely with people from all walks of life. He understands the struggles of ordinary living. He doesn’t demonize people just because they disagree with him; he has always reached across the aisle to work for practical, rather than ideological solutions.
Senator Obama’s campaign is about us rather than about him. He doesn’t tell us to be afraid; he calls on us to find our courage, to wake up the optimism that has always let our country achieve what seemed impossible. “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for,” he said on the night of Super Tuesday. “We are the change that we seek.”
Barack Obama offers us a chance to choose the future over the past.
The Feb. 9 caucus gave Barack Obama 67.51% of the vote!
My county's precincts were divided into different locations to handle the crowds -- a good thing, because turnout was huge and leaned even more pro-Obama than the state average!
Washington voters must remember that ONLY the Feb. 9 caucuses pick delegates. The primary on Feb. 19 is just a straw poll and decides nothing. (By all means vote for Barack Obama in the primary, but it is ESSENTIAL TO CAUCUS to give him delegates!)
The caucus locator on this website can't find my caucus site, even though I can find it easily using these other resources:
1. WA Dem. Party caucus locations website: www.wa-democrats.org/caucusfinder
2. phone: (206) 583-4345
3. email: grassroots@wa-democrats.org
4. You can also call your local newspaper or check its website.
Hooray for our great Governor Chris Gregoire! Her endorsement of Barack Obama is just the latest example of her courage and independence. We know Barack attracts good people to his side! the world.
