From a Romanian Newspaper
We rarely get a chance to see another country's editorial about the USA
Read this excerpt from a Romanian Newspaper. The article was written by Mr. Cornel Nistorescu and published under the title 'C'ntarea Americii, meaning 'Ode To America ') in the Romanian newspaper Evenimentulzilei 'The Daily Event' or 'News of the Day'.~An Ode to America ~ Why are Americans so united? They would not resemble one another even if you painted them all one color! They speak all the languages of the world and form an astonishing mixture of civilizations and religious beliefs.On 9/ll, the American tragedy turned three hundred million people into a hand put on the heart. Nobody rushed to accuse the White House, the Army, or the Secret Service that they are only a bunch of losers. Nobody rushed to empty their bank accounts.. Nobody rushed out onto the streets nearby to gape about. Instead the Americans volunteered to donate blood and to give a helping hand. After the first moments of panic, they raised their flag over the smoking ruins, putting on T-shirts, caps and ties in the colors of the national flag. They placed flags on buildings and cars as if in every place and on every car a government official or the president was passing. On every occasion, they started singing: 'God Bless America !' I watched the live broadcast and rerun after rerun for hours listening to the story of the guy who went down one hundred floors with a woman in a wheelchair without knowing who she was, or of the Californian hockey player, who gave his life fighting with the terrorists and prevented the plane from hitting a target that could have killed other hundreds or thousands of people. How on earth were they able to respond united as one human being? Imperceptibly, with every word and musical note, the memory of some turned into a modern myth of tragic heroes. And with every phone call, millions and millions of dollars were put into collection aimed at rewarding not a man or a family, but a spirit, which no money can buy. What on earth can unites the Americans in such way? Their land? Their history? Their economic Power? Money? I tried for hours to find an answer, humming songs and murmuring phrases with the risk of sounding commonplace, I thought things over, I reached but only one conclusion... Only freedom can work such miracles. Cornel Nistorescu (This deserves to be passed around the Internet forever.) It took a person on the outside - looking in - to see what we take for granted !
GOD BLESS AMERIC A !!!
Being a nurse for almost 45 years I am appalled at the state of Health Care.
I spend SO MUCH time on the telephone in a day at work attempting to "get permission" often DENIED for pts to be able to take the medication their doctor prescribes. It is A CRIME!
Plus ALL insurance companies have different rules. It DOES NOT matter what the pt needs--it is ALL ABOUT what their insurance will allow.
DON'T use the LIE and SCARE TACTICS about "government getting between pts and their doctors" as a way to prevent the Public Option.
NOW "giant insurance companies" are between pts and their doctors on EVERYTHING
President Obama is intelligent (we finally have a president who was at the top of the class) but also down to earth like "We The People". He will/has come up with a Blueprint America Needs NOW. It will be done systematically, thoughtfully and AFTER listening and HEARING EVERYONE on the subjects. Also he has the character and values of caring for ALL people that we need to get our nation back on the right track.
He strongly believes, as do I, that we will NOT Get Out of the "huge mess we are in" to become what we need to be unless we face head-on the issues of Health Care, Energy and Education Reforms AND DO IT NOW.
Oh Yes, I do hear the "chattering heads" of Congress, the media and all around us saying "WHY NOW? We have too many other problems. We need to focus on them first." I say that kind of talk is part of what got us into "this huge mess"--IGNORING--WAITING--AVOIDING "closing our eyes" so as to make the problems go away. SORRY that did not work for me even as a child AND it sure WILL NOT WORK now for our country.
We will not solve "the other problems" UNLESS and UNTIL we REFORM these 3 areas as President Obama plans to do. The money inefficiently spent on Health Care and Foreign Oil will get us into a deeper hole if it is not addressed NOW. The education of our children is what we must count on to survive and compete in a global economy. They are our nation's future. AND we must give them tools NOW for our country's sake and our world.
I am a psychiatric RN who is becoming more and more frustrated with the amount of time I spend on the telephone attempting to get medications approved for patients. This is a decision made by their insurance company EACH of which has totally different rules about which medications can and and cannot be paid for--not always taking into account what is best for the patient. Something must be done so that we ALL are able to receive the best medical care.
I attended a meeting in MN where a group has been working on Health Care Reform for some time. They have researched different ways to find the most effective and efficient manner to have EVERYONE insured. I did not think I would agree that the form they advocated was the best. BUT after this informative session I was totally in agreement that the Single Payer System would be the best.
This is their web site. http://www.muhcc.org/home.html check it out. Rebecca
WASHINGTON (CNN) "It is an honor to be here: a place where Lincoln served, was inaugurated, and where the nation he saved bid him a last farewell," Obama said at the Capitol on Thursday.
"As we mark the bicentennial of our 16th president's birth, I cannot claim to know as much about his life and works as many who are also speaking today, but I can say that I feel a special gratitude to this singular figure who in so many ways made my own story possible -- and who in so many ways made America's story possible."
Thank you President Abraham Lincoln for helping to make President Obama's story possible.
Klein makes an interesting observation about what he sees as the "overreaction" to the state of Obama's presidency.
"Some form of stimulus will pass. If it doesn't revive the economy, then more stimulus will be passed. Obama's maintaining the proper balance of reaching out to Republicans, making some compromises, but staying firm on the need for a bill that includes public works as well as tax cuts. A Republican Senator, a vocal opponent of the bill, told me the other day: "The guy has really impressed us. We may not vote for the bill, and he may have to learn that you have to give us more than he wants to give us to make us happy, but he's made a really strong start that will work to his benefit down the road." ...But with Klein's observation in mind, Obama is going to get a stimulus package. It will come soon after he signed S-CHIP and the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law. And those laws come in the midst of key executive orders on national security, lobbying reform, and women's health here and around the world.
"Some form of stimulus will pass. If it doesn't revive the economy, then more stimulus will be passed. Obama's maintaining the proper balance of reaching out to Republicans, making some compromises, but staying firm on the need for a bill that includes public works as well as tax cuts. A Republican Senator, a vocal opponent of the bill, told me the other day: "The guy has really impressed us. We may not vote for the bill, and he may have to learn that you have to give us more than he wants to give us to make us happy, but he's made a really strong start that will work to his benefit down the road." ...
But with Klein's observation in mind, Obama is going to get a stimulus package. It will come soon after he signed S-CHIP and the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law. And those laws come in the midst of key executive orders on national security, lobbying reform, and women's health here and around the world.
Maya's Adventures!!
This is a quick update to let you all know: 1) I am loving life2) I am loving my job3) I am loving Tokyo4) I am loving my apartment5) I am loving Obama I've had several friends and family email me to be sure I vote. I just mailed it in. so if Obama doesn't win (oh my gosh, I think my heart just stopped at the thought) you all know it wasnt my fault! I'm not sure I should be publishing who I voted for on my blog but...well, this election is possibly the only election where I have no reserves whatsoever as to who to vote for. As in, no, I never thought Bush would be a good president, but was I completely certain about Kerry? I'm not sure. Now Obama? no doubts whatsoever. Part of it could be my Aunt who is over 60 and now insanely interested in and somewhat crazy about the election. (sorry AB for saying your age!) but as my mother said, it's admirous to be able to get so involved at (dare I say it) such an age. So, we have a future leader in America (finally). Lastly, as much as I have faith and hope in Obama as a leader, I fear for what will happen once he becomes president. The amount of hope and faith people have put in him is astounding. The expectations are incredible. Fact is, he's not going to be able to live up to all of these expectations. No human could live up to all of the expectations. So, what's going to happen when he disappoints the supporters?
by maya regina | 2008-10-08 12:53 | Comments(0)
http://www.mccainpedia.org/index.php/Count_the_Lies
a project of the Democratic Party ---PASS IT ON
The Election for President Is About Us
The polls are now calibrating the presidential election as a dead heat, or approaching that. The fallout on the eve of the conventions is predictable: The wingnuts are gloating, and Democrats are blaming each other.
With the country in the midst of a massive economic breakdown, high prices, millions of lost homes, schools impoverished, pensions facing liquidation, low-income taxpayers bailing out bankers and hotwired Wall Street speculators, with China flourishing on clouds of American debt and the Republican presidential candidate exploring the lively prospect of more wars, it is a fairly legitimate moment to ask:
What's happening?
Why is America considering putting the keys to power back into the pockets of the same criminal gang that has systemically raided the public treasury of trillions of dollars over the last eight years, exported millions of jobs, hidden corporate profits, brazenly enriched the rich, stomped on the working class, lawlessly thumbed its nose at the American Constitution and needlessly killed thousands of America servicemen and women in a bloated campaign for empire and legacy.
A reasonable response to that question is to return to the wisdom of Thomas Frank. Frank is the nimble grassroots philosopher whose "What's the Matter With Kansas?" just a few years ago gives us most of the answers. Whole packs of Americans had voted themselves into bankruptcy and voted their kids out of quality education and health care by endorsing the Bush presidency.
The Democrats should write a two-page synopsis of Frank's conclusions and substitute it for the party platform that nobody reads. It might explain why millions of Americans at this very moment are seriously planning to vote against what may be their one and last chance to work themselves out of the swamp they recklessly chose four and eight years ago.
EVERYBODY who feels pain or political anxiety in America today should read that synopsis. In fact, Frank provides one himself on the web:
"What explains the dysfunction at the dark heart of our politics?" he asked.
You can see some of the answers in the political ads of the season. The Republicans laughingly have transformed themselves, Frank tells us, "into a brawling, beer-drinking buddy of the working man…George W. Bush sticking up for the 'regular Americans,' or the army of pundits who have written so eloquently about the humble folk of "the red states."
You can produce your own tally sheet of the harvest of that self-destructive behavior at the polls of four and eight years ago, what Frank calls the sappy stuff coming out of the right wing foundries of the last 20 years:
"Privatization. Deregulation. Monopolies in every industry from banking to radio to meatpacking. The destruction of the welfare (safety nets). The beatdown of the labor movement. The transformation of the Midwest into the rust belt. And, shimmering in the heavens above all this, the rise of the new plutocracy, a class of overlords…"
That is basically where we are in America today. If the Democrats want a short form question to put to the voters for the next two months, it's here:
"Is this what you want?"
Many of the victims of that institutionalized greed and ruthlessness were those working and farm folk who said they'd be damned if they were going to vote for the Eastern elitists and tree huggers who, they are told incessantly by the talk shows' right wing mouthpieces, are the ones who run the Democratic Party.
That is not the answer they're likely to give when the pollsters ask them why they want to vote for John McCain. McCain, they say, is a patriot. The other guy isn't. The other guy is, well, not us. Not real American. So that's who and what the election, they say, is about.
That is the line. Most of the controlled electronic media has bought it into it. McCain is basically a human weather vane, blowing harmlessly in the breeze unless the talk gets to war, when he becomes Oliver North and Douglas MacArthur with a hand mike, ready to charge all available hills. Yesterday one of his flip answers seemed to put him on the side of renewing the military draft.
Nobody talks much about it. It's just McCain. But election is supposed to be all about Obama. How are the Democrats (and, incidentally, millions people who once represented the common sense wing of the Republican Party) going to steer the country off that crazy road that is seriously described by the Rovian manipulators as America's route to peace and prosperity.
The first way for Americans who really want to win this election for Barack Obama is to get over the myth that the election is about Barack Obama. That is exactly the campaign strategy being pursued by the people who want to beat him. So he's Obama the Untested. Obama the Unpatriot. Obama with relatives in Africa. Obama who sounds too smart to be president.
But in the real and larger canvas of the future of this now-disoriented country, the election is really not about Obama. It is first about (a) the country itself (b) the lives and futures of the people in it and (c) you.
This election is about taking the country out of the hands of the corporate and political manipulators who have made a caricature out of the American idea, who in their obsession with power have trampled the hopes and lives of millions of vulnerable people. These are people who have respected and revered a country for nurturing their dreams and has honored their faith and energy and commitment..
These people have been systematically exploited and deceived. Their trust and genuine devotion to the country have been perverted by their deceivers. How? We return to Thomas Frank. "On closer inspection the country we have inhabited for the last three decades seems more like a panorama of madness and delusion…of sturdy patriots reciting the Pledge while they resolutely strangle their own life chances; of small farmers proudly voting themselves off the land; of devoted family men carefully seeing to it that their children will never be able to afford college or proper health care; of hardened blue-collar workers in Midwestern burgs cheering as they deliver up a landslide for a candidate whose policies will end their way of life."
This could happen again in November. But there's an antidote derived from one of the oldest mantras in politics. In a close race the folks who work hardest, run the phone banks 24-7 and show up massively on Tuesday usually win.
Stand on the sidelines and wring your hands, you lose.
By Jim Klobuchar (Jim Klobuchar was a columnist for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune for many, many years when we were younger. Everyone in Minnesota knows who he is . . .)
PLEASE PLEASE--THINK THINK THINK and THINK SOME MORE-----OUR LIVES AND OUR COUNTRY ARE AT THE BIGGEST CROSSROAD IN MY LIFETIME
"Stand on the sidelines and wring your hands, you lose."
AND WHAT YOU LOSE YOU MAY NEVER EVER BE ABLE TO GET BACK---I am not working as hard as I am because it is fun. I am not working at the State Fair registering voters, signing up supporters, CALLING endlessly to my district CD2 (Eagan, Apple Valley, Inver Grove Heights, Lakeville, Rosemount, Burnsville) and across the country to Ohio etc. FOR fun or glory. I would love to be out in the Minnesota summer and relax, read, play. I AM WORKING FOR THOSE I LOVE IN THE GENERATIONS TO COME WHO WILL EITHER HAVE OR NOT HAVE AN AMERICA LEFT--LIKE THE AMERICA I ONCE KNEW!!!
Great Find: I came across this web site that clears up misconceptions about Obama's stand on issues like abortion, gay marriage etc. http://www.matthew25.org/paf/index.htm. Many people of Christian and other faiths have strong feelings about these issues which influence their vote.
UNTRUE things have been circulating about his beliefs in these areas. AND to win this election he DOES NEED some of the "evangelicals" or whatever other names they go by. Bush won largely because he got their votes---saying he was such a devote Christian.
This site also clears up the misconception about taxes "that ALL democrats increase taxes" and lists his tax plan .
Please share this site as well as the www.fightthesmears.com and www.truthfightsback.com sites with people who have concerns or have heard things that are not true.
I know there are many who feel politics and religion should not mix BUT those that feel that religious beliefs show the character, ethics and values of a candidate---NEED this information b/4 they will consider voting for someone.
That's a big reason the attacks are out there including the lying "Obama Nation" book. The other side knows that lies and smears DO WORK. SO WE NEED to stop them and bring the truth.
On: “Finding His Faith” and another Interview By Lisa Miller and Richard Wolffe
This article describes in part Barack Obama’s spiritual quest. I find it so amazing that he is a Christian since both of his parents and stepfather were not. He did not have the Christian upbringing many of us had that gives us a base that we can build on as we get older. He had to search for it.
Some excerpts that I found fascinating:Obama’s organizing days helped clarify his sense of faith and social action as intertwined.” It’s hard for me to imagine being true to my faith—and not thinking beyond myself and not thinking about what’s good for other people and not acting in a moral and ethical way,” he says. When these ideas merged with his more emotional search for belonging, he was able to arrive at the foot of the cross. He “felt God’s spirit beckoning me” he writes in Audacity. “I submitted myself to His will and dedicated myself to discovering His truth.” At the point of his decision to accept Christ, Obama says, “what was intellectual and what was emotional joined and the belief in the redemptive power of Jesus Christ, that he died for our sins, that through him we could achieve eternal life—but also that, through good works we could find order and meaning here on earth and transcend our limits and our flaws and our foibles—I found that powerful.”
(NOT earn salvation through “good works—but rather do things because it gives our lives meaning and is what we know Christ wants us to do as Christians)
His spiritual life on the campaign trail survives. He says he prays every day, “typically for forgiveness for my sins and flaws, which are many, the protection of my family, and that I’m carrying out God’s will, not in a grandiose way, but simply that there is an alignment between my actions and what he would want. And then I find myself sometimes praying for people who need a lift, need a hand." He sometimes reads his Bible in the evenings, a ritual that “takes me out of the immediacy of my day and gives me a point of reflection.”
When the Rev Kirbyjon Caldwell, who is among those on Obama’s prayer team, talks about Obama he can barely keep the emotion out of his voice. The thing that impresses him most, he says, is that when he asks Obama ”what can I pray for?” Obama always says “Michelle and the girls”. He never says ‘Pray for me, pray for my campaign, pray that folks will quit bashing me.’ He always says “Pray for Michelle and my girls”.
He tells Newsweek “it is a precept of my Christian faith that my redemption comes through Christ, but I am also a big believer in the Golden Rule, which I think is an essential pillar not only of my faith but of my values and my ideals and my experience here on earth.
After the videos of Rev Wright circulated he wrote a speech on race. But it was, to some, also a speech about faith. That speech says Paul Elie “is steeped in Christianity…” Did Obama see the race speech as a religion speech? Last week he said, aboard the campaign plane, “Race is a central test of our belief that we’re our brother’s keeper, our sister’s keeper…There’s a sense that if we are to get beyond our racial divides, that it should be neat and pretty, whereas part of my argument was that it’s going to be hard and messy—and that’s where faith comes in.”
In a separate Interview was asked: Is there a time you have had to make a decision that was important and you called on God?
"Well, that's pretty personal...I prayed on marrying Michelle because that's a pretty big decision getting married."
"I prayed on running for president. That's a big decision that had an immediate impact on my family--and that I knew, win or lose, would have an impact on the country. Had I run a miserable race, that would have had an impact on the country. Should I win, that carries with it enormous responsibilities. I've spent a lot of time in prayer on that."
These remarks are yet another example that TOTALLY validates my belief that this is a rare, unique and genuine person.
Elaine, an e-mail pal of my brother’s remarked."I have watched politics for years, and I have never come across one like Barack Obama." That is exactly how I feel too.
I truly believe that Barack Obama is a Christian in every sense of the word. He may not fit into every Christian's "tight box"--but Christ does not expect us to follow a lot of RULES. He accepts us as we are in our faith journey.
Our current president got elected partly because many believed "He is a Christian you know" as he went around wearing Christianity "like a flag pin" and telling everyone he was Christian. I know it is not my place to judge---but I can't help but feel that our country was badly misled.
Now we have another chance---maybe our last and best chance to turn things around for the betterment of our country AND to make things right with the rest of the world that has lost respect for our America.
I DO feel God leading me to do all I can to get this man--who cares about others deeply AND acts accordingly, has a God given intelligence and practical down to earth judgement, concern for our country, the world, and ALL people--to be elected President.
Obama: The University of Chicago Democrat
The following is a revised, updated, and edited version of a piece originally published in The Independent of London a few months ago. In view of recent events, and continuing debates, I post a revised version here. I should add, by way of disclaimer, that I have been an occasional, informal adviser to Senator Obama.
Not so long ago, the phone rang in my office. It was Barack Obama. For more than a decade, Obama was my colleague at the University of Chicago Law School.
He is also a friend. But since his election to the Senate, he does not exactly call every day. On this occasion, he had an important topic to discuss: the controversy over President George W. Bush's warrantless surveillance of international telephone calls between Americans and suspected terrorists. I had written a short essay suggesting that the surveillance might be lawful. Before taking a public position, Obama wanted to talk the problem through. In the space of about 20 minutes, he and I investigated the legal details. He asked me to explore all sorts of issues: the President's power as commander-in-chief, the Constitution's protection against unreasonable searches and seizures, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the Authorization for Use of Military Force and more.
Obama wanted to consider the best possible defense of what Bush had done. To every argument I made, he listened carefully and offered a specific counter-argument. After the issue had been exhausted, Obama said that he thought the program was illegal, but now had a better understanding of both sides. He thanked me for my time.
This was a pretty amazing conversation, not only because of Obama's mastery of the legal details, but also because many prominent Democratic leaders had already blasted the Bush initiative as blatantly illegal. He did not want to take a public position until he had listened to, and explored, what might be said on the other side. This is the Barack Obama I have known for nearly 15 years--a careful and even-handed analyst of law and policy, unusually attentive to multiple points of view. The University of Chicago Law School is by far the most conservative of the great American law schools. It helped to provide the academic foundations for many positions of the Reagan administration. But at the University of Chicago, Obama is liked and admired by Republicans and Democrats alike. Some of the local Reagan enthusiasts are Obama supporters. Why? It doesn't hurt that he's a great guy, with a personal touch and a lot of warmth. It certainly helps that he is exceptionally able. But niceness and ability are only a small part of the story. Obama also has a genuinely independent mind, he's a terrific listener and he goes wherever reason takes him.
Many people are emphasizing that Obama is a terrific speaker; they are wondering whether he has substance as well. But those of us who have long known Obama are impressed and not a little amazed by his rhetorical skills. Who could have expected that our colleague, a teacher of law, is also able to inspire large crowds?
The Obama we know is no rhetorician; he shines not because he can move people, but because of his problem-solving abilities, his creativity, his lack of partisanship, and his attention to detail.
In recent months, his speaking talents, and the cult-like atmosphere that occasionally surrounds him, have led people to ask about the substance behind the plea for "change" - whether the soaring phrases might disguise a kind of emptiness and vagueness. But nothing could be further from the truth. He is most comfortable in the domain of policy and detail.
I do not deny that skeptics are raising legitimate questions. After all, Obama has served in the Senate for a short period (less than four years) and he has little managerial experience. Is he really equipped to lead the most powerful nation in the world?
Obama speaks of "change," but it is reasonable to ask: Will he be able to produce large-scale changes in a short time? An independent issue is that all the enthusiasm might serve to insulate him from criticisms and challenges on the part of his own advisers--and, in view of his relative youth, criticisms and challenges are exactly what he requires.
Fortunately, the candidate's campaign proposals offer strong and encouraging clues about how he would govern; what makes them distinctive is that they borrow sensible ideas from all sides. Some people are describing Obama as a conventional liberal, or as "the most liberal person in the Congress," but these descriptions are preposterous. Obama is a pragmatist, first and foremost, and he defies the standard political categories. In this sense, he is not only focused on details but is also a uniter, both by inclination and on principle.
He is strongly committed to helping the disadvantaged, but his University of Chicago background shows. He appreciates the virtues and power of free markets. In some of his most important disagreements with Senator Clinton, he suggested caution about mandates and bans, and stressed the value of freedom of choice.
Transparency and accountability matter greatly to him; they are a defining feature of his proposals. With respect to the mortgage crisis, credit cards, and the broader debate over credit markets, Obama rejects heavy-handed regulation and insists above all on disclosure, so that consumers will know exactly what they are getting.
Expect transparency to be a central theme in any Obama administration, as a check on government and the private sector alike. It is highly revealing that Obama worked with Republican Tom Coburn to produce legislation creating a publicly searchable database of all federal spending.
Obama's healthcare plan places a premium on cutting costs and on making care affordable, without requiring adults to purchase health insurance. (He would require mandatory coverage only for children.) Republican legislators are unlikely to support a mandatory approach, and his plan can be understood, in part, as a recognition of political realities.
But it is also a reflection of his keen interest in allowing people to choose as they see fit. He seeks universal coverage not through unenforceable mandates but through giving people good options.
It should not be surprising that in terms of helping low-income workers, Obama has long been enthusiastic about the Earned Income Tax Credit--an approach, pioneered by Republicans, that supplements wages but does not threaten to throw people out of work. In the environmental domain, Obama is a strong supporter of incentive-based programs, not of command-and-control. Here too, he draws on ideas that have been pressed most prominently by Republicans (and he gives them credit for their initiative in this domain).
But Obama is no a compromiser; he does not try to steer between the poles (or the polls). "Triangulation" has no appeal for him. Both internationally and domestically, he is willing to think big and to be bold. As everyone knows, he publicly opposed the war in Iraq at a time when opposition was exceedingly unpopular. (In his speech opposing the war, by the way, he went out of his way to emphasize, before a largely pacifist audience, that he does not oppose all wars: "After September 11th, after witnessing the carnage and destruction, the dust and the tears, I supported this Administration's pledge to hunt down and root out those who would slaughter innocents in the name of intolerance, and I would willingly take up arms myself to prevent such a tragedy from happening again.")
As everyone also knows, Obama favors high-level meetings with some of the world's worst dictators. He would rethink the embargo against Cuba.
He proposes a $150 billion research budget for climate change. He wants to hold an unprecedented national auction for the right to emit greenhouse gases. (This is an idea, by the way, that has large support among economists and that can be traced to an essay by Ronald Coase on communications policy.) He has offered an ambitious plan for promoting technological innovation, calling for a national broadband policy, embracing network neutrality, and proposing a reform of the patent system.
His campaign has spoken of moving toward "iPod Government"--an effort to rethink public services and national regulations in ways that will make things far simpler and more user-friendly. These are points about policies and substance. As president, Obama would set a new tone in US politics. He refuses to demonize his political opponents; deep in his heart, I believe, he doesn't even think of them as opponents. It would not be surprising to find Republicans and independents prominent in his administration. Obama wants to know what ideas are likely to work, not whether a Democrat or a Republican is responsible for them. Recall the most memorable passage from his keynote address at the 2004 Democratic Convention: "We coach Little League [baseball] in the blue [Democratic-voting] states, and, yes, we've got some gay friends in the red states. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq, and there are patriots who supported the war in Iraq."
In his book The Audacity of Hope, he asks for a politics that accepts "the possibility that the other side might sometimes have a point." Remarking that ordinary Americans "don't always understand the arguments between right and left, conservative and liberal," Obama wants politicians "to catch up with them,"
After he received an email from a pro-life doctor, Obama recalls how he softened his website's harsh rhetoric on abortion, writing: "[T]hat night, before I went to bed, I said a prayer of my own--that I might extend the same presumption of good faith to others that the doctor had extended to me."
In short, Obama's own approach is insistently charitable. He assumes decency and good faith on the part of those who disagree with him. And he wants to hear what they have to say. Both in substance and in tone, Obama questions the conventional political distinctions between "the left" and "the right" He has attracted significant support from Republicans and independents, and it is largely for this reason.
From knowing Obama for many years, I have no doubts about his ability to lead. He knows a great deal, and he is a quick learner. Even better, he knows what he does not know, and there is no question that he would assemble an accomplished, experienced team of advisers. His brilliant administration of his own campaign provides helpful evidence here.
But there may be some fragility to the public fervor that has occasionally envelops him. Crowds and cults can be fickle, and if some of his decisions disappoint, or turn out badly, his support will diminish. Some people think it might even collapse.
My own concern involves the importance of internal debate. The greatest American presidents (above all Lincoln and Roosevelt) benefited from robust dialogue and from advisers who avoided saying, "how wonderful you are," and were willing to say: "Mr President, your thinking about this is all wrong." Because Obama himself is exceptionally able, and because so many people are treating him as a near-messiah, his advisers might be too deferential, too unwilling to question. There is a real risk here. But I believe that his humility, and his intense desire to seek out dissenting views, will prove crucial safeguards.
In the 2000 campaign, Bush proclaimed himself a "uniter, not a divider," only to turn out to be the most divisive President in memory. Because of his own certainty, and his lack of curiosity about what others might think, Bush polarized the nation. Many of his most ambitious plans went nowhere as a result.
As president, Barack Obama would be a genuine uniter, drawing ideas from multiple points of view. If he proves able to achieve great things, it will be above all for that reason.
--Cass R. Sunstein
