August 30, 2008
Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was indeed impressive during her coming-out party yesterday, with her pleasant and slightly chirpy voice suggesting hints of middle America, a background further solidified by her now-famous record of PTA involvement, being a hockey mom, having a propensity for mooseburgers, and fighting for reform. As has been widely observed, John McCain's selection of Palin also helps to reaffirm his image as a maverick who has a few surprises up his sleeve.
And sure, Palin will appeal to some working class independents and others who might otherwise lean Democratic in November.
But all this talk about her supposedly taking a chunk of Clinton supporters with her seems wildly exagerrated, mostly because of Palin's profile as a pro-lifer who believes in creationism, is a skeptic on global warming, and who differs with McCain on the soundness of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (she's for it.)
Palin is a Republican with a capital R -- to the delight of conservatives. Yet although the GOP will push hard to narrow the gender gap, there remains a world of difference between the policy prescriptions favored by McCain's running mate and the woman who was almost the Democratic nominee.
August 27, 2008
He might be here in Rhode Island, not Denver, but Scott MacKay comes up with a good yarn, offering another reminder of why he and his mental treasure trove of poltical nuggets will be missed when he leaves the ProJo next month:
Joe Biden's speech at the Democratic National Convention tonight will undoubtedly show his passionate side; vice-presidential candidates traditionally are a presidential ticket's designated attack dogs.
Rhode Islanders of a certain age will remember another time that Biden spoke from his heart -- at the September 2000 funeral of the legendary Rhode Island U.S. senator and governor, John O. Pastore. After a masterful eulogy from Sen. Edward Kennedy, Biden told of Pastore's counsel in 1972, when he was first elected to the Senate from Delaware.
Between Biden's November election and January swearing-in as a senator, his first wife and daughter died in an auto accident on their way to pick up a Christmas tree. Biden was so distraught that he wanted to leave politics without even being sworn in.
Pastore went to see Biden, who then was only 30 years old. A blunt Pastore told Biuden his life story, as a poor son of Italian immigrants who was raised in a cold-water flat on Federal Hill, which early in the 20th Century was a neighborhood of squalor and poverty.
A blunt Pastore told Biden that he was "an Irish Catholic kid from nothing'' who made it to the Senate and must take his seat. Biden took his advice and tonight he becomes his party's vice-presidential candidate.
Pastore died at age 93 in 2000. He rose from his poor beginnings on Federal Hill to become the first Rhode Island governor of Italian heritage and the first Italian-American elected to the U.S. Senate.
First elected to the General Assembly in 1934, Pastore built a political career that spanned four decades as he climbed the ladder from state representative to assistant attorney general, lieutenant governor and governor. In 1950 he was elected to the Senate and served until he retired in 1976. Republican John H. Chafee won election to succeed Pastore in 1976 and kept the seat until his death in 1999.
August 27, 2008
[N4N will be away from the blog for a few days]
Unlike his Republican opponent, Barack Obama faces very high expectations for his much-anticipated DNC address tomorrow night. The stakes are high, as it will help to set the tone for the rest of his campaign -- and perhaps more.
Tomorrow night, there will be a DNC Nominating Party at Local 121 in Providence. A "Yes We Can" viewing party is also planned in Barrington.
Here's some of what Steven Stark has to say about Obama's DNC address:
All good candidates look to the past for ideas on how to put together memorable rhetoric. When JFK called his program “the New Frontier,” it was a terrific way of connecting his ideas with traditional Americana. Obama, however, doesn’t need a slogan; he needs a story. The recommendation here is that he study the speech that — believe it or not — George H. W. Bush gave when accepting the GOP nomination in 1988.
Bush faced a problem analogous to Obama’s. As he went to the convention, many voters perceived him as nothing more than a removed, upper-class patrician who had been handed everything important in life without having to work for it. Who could relate to that?
In that single speech, Bush presented a different narrative of his life — with the help of Noonan, chief speechwriter for his ’88 campaign. It’s worth quoting at length. “Yes, my parents were prosperous; and their children sure were lucky,” Bush began. He went on:
But there were lessons we had to learn about life. John Kennedy discovered poverty when he campaigned in West Virginia; there were children who had no milk. And young Teddy Roosevelt met the new America when he roamed the immigrant streets of New York. And I learned a few things about life in a place called Texas . . . .
[W]e moved to west Texas 40 years ago, 40 years ago this year. And the War was over, and we wanted to get out and make it on our own. And those were exciting days. We lived in a little shotgun house, one room for the three of us. Worked in the oil business, then started my own.
In time we had six children. Moved from the shotgun, to a duplex apartment, to a house. And lived the dream — high-school football on Friday night, Little League, neighborhood barbecue.
People don’t see their experience as symbolic of an era — but of course we were. And so was everyone else who was taking a chance and pushing into unknown territory with kids and a dog and a car. But the big thing I learned is the satisfaction of creating jobs, which meant creating opportunity, which meant happy families, who in turn could do more to help others and enhance their own lives. I learned that the good done by a single good job can be felt in ways you can’t imagine.
It’s a passage full of everyday American touchstones. It soars because the ideas are presented concretely and cinematically, not abstractly. It focuses on the “we,” rather than the “I.”
Next week, when Obama delivers his speech on the 45th anniversary of the memorable “I Have a Dream” address, he may be tempted to present himself as a kind of heir to Martin Luther King. He shouldn’t. The times are different and, more important, Obama’s task is different. King could uplift and challenge a nation without worrying about how to get a majority to vote for him two months later.
Obama’s campaign may have trouble achieving lift-off without a compelling narrative. This is his greatest opportunity to present one.
August 27, 2008
I've heard Hillary Clinton speak in person three times, including during an appearance in Rhode Island earlier this year, and none of those occasions prepared me for the impassioned address she delivered last night at the DNC. Dan Kennedy sums it up well:
Well, that was quite a performance by Hillary Clinton, was it not? Unlike the Mark Warners of the world, she managed to talk about herself and use that in a compelling way to transfer her personal message to Barack Obama. Also, for the first time this week the Democrats were drinking the blood of their enemies. And loving it.
I never would have imagined when Clinton first ran for the Senate eight years ago that the stilted public speaker of that campaign could grow into the accomplished, and even moving, figure that she is today.
Not to get carried away. She was not this good while she was running for president. Not even close. Like Ted Kennedy and Al Gore, to name two other examples, defeat seems to have brought out the best in her.
August 26, 2008
It's going down Wednesday evening at the Wild Colonial. Come and admire the newest WC softball trophy, talk politics, have a tasty Dogfish Head on tap, or do all of the above.
From Chris:
DL Providence: Toasting DL at the DNC
Wednesday, August 27th 8-10pm
The Wild Colonial
250 South Water Street
Providence, RI
Hosts: Chris Blazejewski, Kim Ahern, Matt Jerzyk, Julian Dash, Ami Gada
August 26, 2008
RI's senior senator, who may or may not wind up in an Obama administration, is slated to get his DNC spotlight tomorrow night, shortly before 9 pm, talking up the theme of "securing America's future."
Meanwhile, a Washingtonian magazine profile (by the ProJo's John Mulligan) calls him a key to what the Democrats will do to end the war.
A self-deprecating son of blue-collar parents, Reed said that he was only “the concierge” on the tour of war zones that most observers say bolstered Obama’s foreign-policy and national-security credentials.
But insiders know that Reed, who had made 11 previous trips to Iraq, contributed not only to the hurried preparations for the trip but also to the long-term formulation of a Democratic policy suited to Obama’s argument that Afghanistan—not Iraq—should be the focus of US counterterrorism efforts.
The trip clarified Reed’s status as a leading Democrat who can speak to both sides of this country’s deepest political division since the Vietnam War. He has one foot in the camp that voted against the use of force in Iraq and criticizes the Bush administration’s conduct of the war. But he also has a foot in the camp that thinks a decent ending might yet be salvaged, especially in the wake of the Bush-Petraeus surge and signs of increased military and political skill on the part of the al-Maliki–led government.
“We are in it,” Reed said of the Iraq war this past spring. “We have to maximize our ability to come away with some kind of acceptable outcome.”
The Iraq-Afghanistan trip further fueled talk of Reed as a possible ticketmate or Cabinet pick for Obama—speculation that the Rhode Islander dismisses. Reed likely would be an influential Senate voice in an Obama administration, and he would get a respectful hearing from a President John McCain, too. The Republican senator from Arizona, a conspicuous advocate of the surge in Iraq, said of his longtime colleague on the Senate Armed Services Committee in 2005: “Jack travels to Iraq, he has friends in Iraq, and because of his many connections, Jack sees things in Iraq that a lot of us don’t get to see.”
August 26, 2008
Speaking of the blogosphere and the MSM . . .
I don't bear any animus against ProJo op-ed writer Froma Harrop, although I do agree with those who say that it would have made a hell of a lot more sense for the ProJo to send any number of people (paticularly the soon-to-be departing Scott MacKay, Charlie Bakst, Mark Arsenault, or even a young go-getter like Dan Barbarisi) to Denver instead of her.
Maybe she's got some great stuff in the works, but here's Froma's sole DNC output thus far today:
Denver's 16th Street Mall, a lively pedestrian thoroughfare filled with shops and eateries, is normally a festive place. This week, almost all the celebrants have been Democrats, in town for their national convention.
But not all. A number of McCain supporters showed up to taunt (?) Democrats with signs reading "McCain" and "Drill Now." But everyone seem good-natured on this warm August afternoon and the ice-cream vendors were delighted. Still, riot police were on hand, just in case.
August 26, 2008
The crumbling ad base for journalism is a big concern among reporters and press advocates alike.
Previously, we'd heard about how ProPublica offers one different model for funding investigative reporting.
My friend Matt is kicking the butt of the local MSM in covering the DNC, so that's another way to go. Maybe he should reconsider selling RI's Future, eh?
And via the Sunday NYT, we learn of Spot Us, yet another approach to funding investigative projects:
The idea, which they are calling “community-funded journalism,” is now being tested in the San Francisco Bay area, where a new nonprofit, Spot Us, is using its Web site, spot.us, to solicit ideas for investigative articles and the money to pay for the reporting. But the experiment has also raised concerns of journalism being bought by the highest bidder.
The idea is that anyone can propose a story, though the editors at Spot Us ultimately choose which stories to pursue. Then the burden is put on the citizenry, which is asked to contribute money to pay upfront all of the estimated reporting costs. If the money doesn’t materialize, the idea goes unreported.
“Spot Us would give a new sense of editorial power to the public,” said David Cohn, a 26-year-old Web journalist who received a $340,000, two-year grant from the Knight Foundation to test his idea. “I’m not Bill and Melinda Gates, but I can give $10. This is the Obama model. This is the Howard Dean model.”
Those campaigns revolutionized politics by using the power of the Web to raise small sums from vast numbers of people, making average citizens feel a part of the process in a way they had not felt before. In the same way, Spot Us hopes to empower citizens to be part of a newsgathering enterprise that, polls show, many mistrust and regard as both biased and elitist.
Selling the start-up of stories isn't without its own problems, but as Jay Rosen says:
“The business model is broken,” he said. “We’re at a point now where nobody actually knows where the money is going to come from for editorial goods in the future. My own feeling is that we need to try lots of things. Most of them won’t work. You’ll have a lot of failure. But we need to launch a lot of boats."
August 26, 2008
Michelle Obama, IMHO, seemed a tad edgy at the outset of her address, but she rallied and brought it home, coming across as quite likeable. And it was hard not to be impressed by the force of will propelling Ted Kennedy. The media commentary on both speech appears generally positive.
Meanwhile, a Quinnipiac poll (h/t Halperin) shows that voters in the battleground states of Florida, Pennsylvania, and Ohio want to elect a Democrat, but that the leader of the race varies among those states.
Florida: McCain 47, Obama 43
Read more on what Florida voters think here.
Ohio: Obama 44, McCain 43
Read more on what Ohio voters think here.
Pennsylvania: Obama 49, McCain 42
Read more on what Pennsylvania voters think here.
Conducted Aug. 17-24; Margins of error: 2.8 to 3 points
So this thing basically remains up for grabs.
August 25, 2008
Paraphrase: "This is the first time at a Democratic Convention that Dan Yorke got a better seat than I did."
So commented Bill Lynch, chairman of the Rhode Island Democratic Party, referring to Yorke's place among the media on the convention floor, compared with the nosebleed seats for the state's Democratic delegation.
August 25, 2008
State Senator Juan Pichardo, who faces a Democratic primary challenge from Maryelyn Alba-Acevedo, has received an endorsement from US Senator Jack Reed.
Providence, RI: U.S. Sen. Jack Reed formally endorsed state Sen. Juan Pichardo (D-2) today citing a distinguished record of public service and community activism. A champion of working families on such issues as healthcare, predatory lending practices and public education, Sen. Pichardo is seeking his fourth term representing Providence’s second senatorial district.
“Sen. Pichardo is a true leader for the citizens of Providence,” Sen. Reed said. “He possesses the vision and dedication to address the important issues of our day; social and economic development, predatory lending practices and affordable, accessible health care. Senator Pichardo is a leader in the community, helping to educate youth on the benefits of higher education and displaying a remarkable commitment to service through time spent in the Air National Guard. I proudly endorse Senator Pichardo and believe he is the candidate best suited to address your concerns in the Rhode Island Senate.”
Sen. Reed, who sits on the Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, also applauded Sen. Pichardo’s 20 years of military service. Senator Pichardo holds a distinguished record of service in the Air National Guard, which includes awards for longevity of service and achievement.
“I am honored to receive the endorsement of a man who has provided great service to our state and our nation. Senator Reed has been at the forefront, confronting difficult issues in a meaningful way and I have a great respect for his work and accomplishments,” Sen. Pichardo said. “I hope to continue my work in the state Senate addressing issues of concern to working families and I appreciate his support.”
This session, Sen. Pichardo championed several bills to ensure the economic well-being of his constituents in these challenging times. He sponsored and passed legislation developing a five-year plan to make the state’s health care delivery systems more accountable and efficient. In 2006, he authored and passed the Rhode Island Home Loan Act to protect Rhode Island homeowners from costly penalties and fees and as chair of the Commission to Study Predatory Mortgage Lending Practices, he is one of the state’s most outspoken supporters of families wrapped into the foreclosure crisis.
August 25, 2008
Maybe this is why Sheldon Whitehouse told me last Thursday that he didn't yet know how he was going to cast his superdelegate vote (h/t Halperin):
GettyAP: The two are hammering out a plan to give Clinton some votes in the roll call, but to cut it off after a few states– possibly with New York.
The vote would then end with a unanimous consent for Obama.
Clinton will tell delegates she is voting for Obama– but she is not recommending to others how to vote.
“It would have been the same way if I had won and Barack was here supporting the unity of the party.”
August 25, 2008
"Jed Lowrie could be today's hero," yours truly said to Mrs. N4N, seconds before the rookie infielder hit what proved to be the game-winner in yesterday's 6-5 Sox victory.
In response to my crowing about my stunningly accurate prophecy, she said, "You said, 'could be' "
Whatev. It happens only now and then, but my Sox ESP gets very dialed in at times. Last year, I had a premonition that I'd catch a foul ball at a Fenway game the next day, and it was only my brief inattention that kept a carom shot off a first-base side advertisement from landing in my paw. Similarly, I knew I'd be there when David Ortiz tied the team single-season HR mark, and the ball fell just about 20 feet short of my grasp in the CF bleachers.
So now what? It's important that the team got contributions from so many people yesterday, particularly Coco, whose hitting hasn't exactly inspired confidence this year. They hold their destiny in their hands.
August 25, 2008
Kerouac fans will remember that Denver, the site of the Democratic National Convention, played a significant role in On the Road, in part as the home of Dean Moriarty.
Yesterday, Michael Powell had a tasty essay in the Times' Week in Review, musing on the American Wanderer and what role this will play in the November election.
There is to Mr. Obama’s story a Steinbeck quality, like so many migratory American tales: the mother who flickers in and out; the absent and iconic father; the grandfather, raised in the roughneck Kansas oil town of El Dorado, who moves the family restlessly, ceaselessly westward.
The American DNA encodes wanderlust ambition, and a romance clings to Mr. Obama’s story. The roamer who would make himself and his land anew is a familiar archetype.
And yet to describe such a man as rootless, as some people do, can stir up more questions, and an ambivalence reflected in the answers. What is rootlessness anyway? The word connotes something both celebrated and feared. Early on in Mr. Obama’s time in Chicago, the Democratic machine types would ask of this preternaturally calm young pol: Who sent him?
Powell recounts a conflict -- how a historian in 1893 argued that relentless drifting fueled American vitality, and yet how "always newcomers rubbed against the settled -- cattlemen battled farmers, one immigrant wave greeted the next with suspicion."
Not coincidentally, an ad placed in the A section of yesteday's Times by "America's Leadership Team for Long Range Population-Immigration-Resource Planning" -- a group that includes the Federation for American Immigration Reform -- uses an image of high gas prices to ask, "If foreign oil has us over a barrel now, what happens when our population increases by another 100 million?"
Back to Powell. He recounts how uprootedness is linked in the American identity with self-reinvention.
So how does this play in the historic election of 2008, when Obama's race and "other" quality operate both as obvious and subtle factors?
Mr. Obama offers a duality in this [tension between putting down roots and questing]. He might be seen as chasing after roots. As a young man, he sought out precinct captains and ministers and tenants, and convinced the suspicious locals to teach him the ways of Chicago. He is married and never divorced, two children, a resident of the Midwestern city for two decades.
“Obama is the least mobile candidate in the race,” says Alan Wolfe, a professor at Boston College. “He’s almost single-minded about that.”
Drawing on arguably the greatest work of American literature, Powell ultimately posits that whether Obama or McCain win the election, the next president will be a contemporary Ishmael.
August 25, 2008
Speaking of Carcieri, our governor has been an energetic supporter of what proponents call medical malpractice reform. Yet those who believe the medical system is plagued by unwarranted lawsuits might want to watch a segment aired last night on 60 Minutes, featuring actor Dennis Quaid.
Chances are you probably know someone who has died, or nearly died, because of medical mistakes in a hospital. It's much more common than most people realize, and if it can happen to the children of movie star, at one of the finest hospitals in the country, it can happen to anyone.
Dennis Quaid has starred in more than 50 films, but nothing prepared him for the drama and the near tragedy that unfolded last November at Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles, when his infant twins were given massive overdoses of a blood thinner that nearly killed them.
When 60 Minutes first broadcast this story in the spring, Quaid and his wife, Kimberly, had kept most of their thoughts and many of the details private. They decided then to talk about what happened, what caused it, and what needs to be done to keep it from happening to somebody else.
"It was the scariest, most frightening day that I think either of us have ever been through, to come face to face with your little kids who - so young in that kinda situation," Quaid tells correspondent Steve Kroft.
Quaid has since established a foundation in an effort to reduce the frequency of medical errors.