Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category

‘Get My Vote’ Website Launches

Wednesday, March 12th, 2008

The NPR Digital Media team just went Beta with a new social media site to give individual voters a chance to share their personal views on how a candidate can get their vote.  The site is live here: npr.org/getmyvote.  The site is open and anyone can join and upload their point of view as audio, video, or text. 

The site is the brainchild of Andy Carvin, one of my NPR coworkers and a well-known evangelist of social media. NPR’s election unit will be covering personal commentaries uploaded onto Get My Vote throughout the rest of our election coverage. Andy gives many more details about the site, its origins, and plans for NPR and PBS member stations on his latest blog post.

Posted in Election '08, Leadership, Politics, Public Radio, Social Media, Tolerance | No Comments »

Calling the November tickets: McCainabee vs. Clobama/Obinton

Wednesday, February 6th, 2008

With Super Tuesday behind us, it’s time to put some calls on paper.

After McCain’s victory in South Carolina, I’d made the seemingly improbable call of a McCain/Huckabee ticket. That’s starting to look more and more realistic.

By the numbers, it’s a great call. A centrist, maverick Republican with a history of bipartisan cooperation to tackle tough administrative issues; a southern Evangelical populist who can energize the religious right and blue-collar value voters. McCain and Huckabee differ on the issues and have little overlap in their constituencies, but most importantly, they have the exact same moxie. Their energies play very well off each other and would be the most formidable challenge to the Democratic ticket.

“Hillary Clinton is a great conductor (critics say a lightening rod) but she has a lot of trouble generating electricity. Obama, on the other hand, is the political equivalent of a green power plant.”

Huckabee is still relatively unknown on the national scene and can be whoever McCain needs him to be. Up until now, Huckabee has shown great promise as a chameleon. In national debates, he brands himself as a grassroots, traditional values populist seeking a fair deal for the working class and government accountability. In the South, he’s the pro-life, anti-gay marriage proselytizer who can shore up the very conservative vote. Huckabee’s challenge will to keep up this split personality and avoid the national limelight when preaching to the Evangelical base. Moderate voters may be turned off by Huckabee as he creeps into the limelight, but Liberal Republicans and conservative Democrats might just tolerate a Huckabee because they know as VP he’ll largely be a figure head preaching on the world’s biggest soap box. (Of course, as VP to an aging McCain, he’s only a step away from the top job.)

(more…)

Posted in Election '08, Politics | No Comments »

9/11 Commission Chairs Accuse CIA of Obstruction

Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008

Thomas Kean, a Republican, and Lee Hamilton, a Democrat, have published an op-ed in today’s New York Times suggesting that the CIA willfully withheld the existence of interrogation videotapes from the bi-partisan committee. The two chairs of the 9/11 committee had repeatedly asked the administration and the CIA for access to documents and interrogation information pertaining to high-value detainees.

This follows on the heels of Judge Henry Kennedy’s inquiry into the destruction of tapes which followed his explicit orders to preserve all documentation of interrogations at Guantanamo Bay (at that time, it was not publicly known that the U.S. was conducting interrogations in secret prisons.)

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Posted in Bad Politics, Politics | No Comments »

Karl Rove’s Advice to Barack Obama

Monday, December 3rd, 2007

Memo to Obama: Win Iowa or Lose the Race.

Here’s how.

Posted in Bad Politics, Election '08, Politics | No Comments »

America’s Division: Boomer Baggage or Misunderstood Realities of Globalization

Monday, December 3rd, 2007

Is Obama the antidote to decades of partisan acrimony? Conservative columnist Andrew Sullivan seems to think so in his latest Atlantic Monthly piece. Beyond a Liberal vs. Conservative or Democrat vs. Republican schism, Sullivan sees the partisanship of recent decades as the baggage of the Baby Boomers’ unresolved conflict over the handling of Vietnam. Obama, he argues, can transcend this ancient bickering. Simply having Obama as the face of the U.S., he further surmises, will also completely alter the perception of the U.S. in the muslim world, whose angered young populations have known Bush as the only leader of the America.

Sullivan from an accompanying web-only interview:

Part of the context of this piece is really as follows: if you believe the world’s okay, then the case for Obama is actually rather weak. Why would we listen to this rather young, untested figure? Let’s go to security mom, Hillary, or big daddy Rudy. If you believe, as I do, that the world seems to be hurtling toward something quite catastrophic, then the requirement of the United States to actually evolve itself to resist that trend—as opposed to accelerating it—is quite high. And Obama in fact puts the brake on what I think is our accelerating path towards global warfare and possible constitutional crisis.

First of all, I do agree on margin with Sullivan and I’m excited about Obama’s candidacy. I do believe we are hurtling towards catastrophe. While there is merit to this boomers vs. post-boomer argument, the divide also reflects growing uncertainty of America’s role in a nuanced, global world. On the foreign policy front, the shadow of Vietnam haunts Iraq, but so does an enormous fear of America’s diminishing capability to project hard military power without International or host nation support. We are proving even worse at military soft-power such as nation building, whose primary apparati were dismantled before we invaded Iraq. America has also seen a diminished ability to wield economic power against countries with large oil reserves. Similarly, nations with coveted resources like Venezuela, Iran, and Russia have taken brazen (often self-defeating) actions to cut off energy exports or bully trade partners. China’s huge demand for petroleum has stymied harder stances against Iran or the Sudan, whose Darfur and southern regions are rich with oil. On the home front, misunderstanding in globalized commerce manifests in backlashes against immigrants. For all of the oil industry’s sins, it is supply/demand increasing prices at the pump, not people in the Exxon boardroom.

Above all, I don’t want to give any of these academic points too much credence. The bottom line is that the world has become much, much more complex, yet the average voter’s understanding of the issues is increasingly dismal. (more…)

Posted in Globalization, Leadership, Politics, Tolerance, World Affairs | No Comments »

Stowaway on the the Obama for America Campaign

Sunday, April 15th, 2007

As a native Chicagoan and a fan of the man, I was delighted when Barack Obama declared his intent to run for president. I’d actually emailed his campaign and offered to assist in any way I could. To my surprise, I got an email last week asking if I’d be available to help his media team shoot video at the Atlanta rally. Of course!!!!

Jen (my wife) has been working in D.C. and was coming into town, and she was also excited to help out. We signed her up as a photographer. Likewise, we enlisted the help of my talented friend and pro-photographer, Andrew Kornylak.

Jen and Andrew worked the crowd to get the sort of grassroots photo journalism shots of people that most main stream photographers overlook. My task was to interview the crowd and document the qualities they expect in the next president of the United States.

One big perk we received were the press-passes that gave us access to the entire venue. Most of us stayed right in front of the stage, until the police evicted us. No matter, it was exhilarating while it lasted.

Jen and Andrew got some great shots. One of Jen’s was actually chosen for the homepage on BarackObama.com!

Barack Obama Atlanta Rally
(photo by Jennifer Wills)

Photo by Andrew Kornylak
(Photo by Andrew Kornylak)

Photo by Jennifer Wills
(photo by Jennifer Wills)

Barack Obama takes the stage
(Photo by Jennifer Wills)

The Senator was stirring, inspiring, humorous at times, and always engaging. I really appreciated not only his vision, but his frankness. He’s ready, willing, and able to lead. Above all, he may not have all the answers (does anyone?); his commitment isn’t to posturing, but rather to doing what is right — no matter the difficulty. Justice in all things.

I must have interviewed at least 50 people at the rally. There really was a diverse group from all backgrounds and walks of life. I talked to business people, grandparents, students, teachers, public servants, you name it. One gentleman in the front row hadn’t voted Democrat in 32 years but was ready for change. I spoke with a marine veteran, concerned about his friends in Iraq. I spoke with a mother who told me her gray hair was a result of worrying about her son in Iraq. I spoke with recent immigrants and families who showed me their daughters and said “this is the future.” Several people compared the Senator to JFK. A few more compared him to FDR. Barack was charming as always. He started off telling a few personal anecdotes and how when he thought about declaring his intent to first run for office (State Senator in IL), he did what most first timers do and he consulted two higher powers: he prayed to God, and he spoke with his wife. Barack spoke a lot about change over the course of history and how the American people needed to take their gov’t back. I won’t give away too many spoilers, you need to see the footage.

I should mention that quite a few people in the crowd likened him to JFK. Some had no idea what he stood for, but had a gut feeling he was different. Many talked about his commitment to the long-term vs. the here and now.

What’s really been missing from politics is leadership; the two are definitely not the same. A good leader gives leadership to the masses and also receives it from them. I saw a lot of that yesterday, the idea that our leaders guide and inspire us, but also respond to our needs and our desires. We lead them from the ground up and tell them what is important to us. The good leaders take these movements and drive them. The term “grassroots” is typically a perjorative, when really all successful movements are grassroots. Unless you live in a fascist country, most national policy originates as a citizens’ movement before being co-opted by a national party.

I digress. I was refreshed today. It’s still too early in the primaries to know how things will play out. Obama is still refining his stump speech, and all the candidates know it’s a long road ahead. Certainly, Atlanta is a city sympathetic to him. He may have taken some liberties and used this rally as an experiment here to see how some of his positions would play out in the tougher and bigger markets.

Check the www.BarackObama.com blog and TV postings to see updated video. Here’s an amateur cam of the event, I’m sure more is on the way.

Posted in Election '08, Policy, Politics | No Comments »