Tag Archive for 'Obama'
I love this video. The celebrities aren’t taking a stance on any issue in particular. Instead, they press the importance of voting, period.
A bunch of celebrities are demanding that you don’t vote because voting is stupid. No one cares about education, health care, abortion, polar bears, the economy, etc.
But then celebrity after celebrity point out that what you care about might matter. From social security to Darfur to the AIDS crisis at home and abroad, the 2nd ammendment, war on drugs. “This is really only about your future.”
They remind you that you need to REGISTER to vote and insist they’ll wait for you to register before moving on.
It’s completely non-partisan, but it reminds people of the issues at stake (regardless of the position you take on those issues), the need to register (the deadline is October 4th in some states) and the necessity of voting.
And of course, they ask you to take the message viral and share it with 5 friends.
PS. Maybe it leans left. But much of Hollywood is pretty liberal. The point is non partisan — vote!
I’ve tried. Repeatedly. I even went out to dinner with a Republican to attempt to make sense of the conclusion so many McCain-Palin voters have reached — Sarah Palin is a great choice for VP.
I’ll be the first to say that I wish I had her schmoozing skills. Palin has a way of gift wrapping words that drives the Republican base wild. She’s that colleague at work that you love going for drinks with because she tells the funny stories and relates to everyone at the office. She’s the big sister you want to confide in. I could look past her political orientation and be frenemies with Sarah Palin. Yes, frenemies. Because I have no doubt she’d stab me in the back, and the front, if I stood in the way of an opportunity she wanted to pursue.
But being personable is not a qualification for being Vice-President; it’s a qualification for getting invited to a hot-ticket dinner party. And it’s incredibly short sighted of voters to want the “girl next door” to reside a seventy-two year-old’s heart beat away from the Presidency.
Sure. She’s just like you and me. A mid-September poll by the NYTimes and CBS found that “77% of Republicans said they had a favorable view of Palin.” The adjectives brought to mind by Palin:
But when asked what specifically they liked about her, their top five reasons were that she was honest, tough, caring, outspoken and fresh-faced. . . (By the way, her intelligence was in a three-way tie for eighth place, right behind “I just like her.”)
So you need to ask yourself, are YOU qualified to be Vice-President? Would you be comfortable being thrown on a national stage handling the Wall Street melt down with the leader of your political party? Or the next terrorist attack by foreigners (since we like to avoid labeling the home grown variety as such)? How would you make health care affordable for uninsured, high risk Americans?
If you possess or are working towards a degree in political science, economics, public diplomacy, international relations or history, you are over qualified and exempt from this line of questioning. You know way more than the average American about internal and external forces and policies that shape the current political and financial climate of America to answer.
I suspect most Americans would not want to shoulder the burden of a national economic crisis, let alone be determine the best course of action from the myriad he or she is offered. Surely, you don’t want the girl next door, who cruised through 5 schools in 6 years (more evidence of her short attenton span?) before graduating with a degree in journalism influencing those executive decisions. The clean up of 8 years of a Bush administration in charge is not the job of light weights or those who agreed with Bush 90% of the time
Jay of Ill Doctrine shares his take on what voter need to do in light of the current economic crisis sucking up Wall Street, with Main Street already stunted.
That feeling that you’re feeling right now, hoping and praying that you leaders are actually smarter than you. Please remember that feeling when you go in the voting booth. Because just this once, I think we really need to vote for the annoying smart guy.
I know how you feel. He’s always got this smug look on his face, and it brings up all our esteem issues from high school, but we need him right now. As soon as this crisis is over, we can give him a wedgie and lock him inside his locker. But this is his moment.
I know this is not an easy choice. But this moment in history is a time for courage. It is a time for change. It is time for a nerd we can believe in.
Out of all the people I know, I can think of one person, I’d trust to make hard decisions with global ripples. And he’s not the guy next door. He’s an arrogant know-it-all that has spent years reading up on economics and politics, both domestic and foreign. He makes me feel really dumb a lot, but I keep going back for more because he inspires me to be better. He’s a cut above the rest, and it’s that quality I want in the leadership that represents my country. It’s a quality that’s sorely missing from both halves of the Republican ticket.
Sarah Haskins’s latest piece on marketing to women. Her focus: Sarah Palin and the 2008 election.
photo by brandejackson
From Obama’s volunteerism platform to California’s Governor creating a State Cabinet position dedicated to volunteerism, the notion of paying it forward seems to have reached critical mass in the United States.
With Obama including civil service requirements among his Presidential platforms, he shows young Americans how charity work could become an integral element in career preparation. In regards to melding education and service, Obama aims to:
- Require 100 Hours of Service in College: Obama will establish a new American Opportunity Tax Credit that is worth $4,000 a year in exchange for 100 hours of public service a year.
- Promote College Serve-Study: Obama will ensure that at least 25 percent of College Work-Study funds are used to support public service opportunities instead of jobs in dining halls and libraries.
This requirement of community work would be a win-win scenario. A public service requirement would allow undergrads to apply their classroom learning in real life settings, providing resume builders for college students. Sociology majors would not only learn about the socioeconomic disparities in urban areas, but could turn around and apply that understanding to work with an area non-profit seeking to help the impoverished or underserved. Marketing majors could help non-profits raise its public and digital profile, build membership, and raise funds.
Since non-profits rely on volunteers to keep the mission alive, these students would have real world, quantifiable experiences. Imagine helping raise $1 million to fight cancer or doubling membership numbers for an organization before the age of 21. Accordingly, it might give college graduates a chance to bypass the entry level grunt work that yields corporate churn and help allay Boomer concerns about inexperienced twenty somethings looking for a fast track to management.
The obvious benefit to non-profits would be the surge in human hours nationwide. Boutique and mainstream charities could expand their work given the increased availability of volunteers. Already, California is trying to tap into the service spirit of its state residents.
In February, Gov. Schwarzenegger added a Secretary of Service and Volunteering to his State Cabinet, a position meant to better coordinate volunteer efforts related to government initiatives. Given the financial impact of volunteerism, streamlining efficiency and maximizing the output of volunteers will be a boon to a state suffering from severe budgetary cuts.
In 2006, volunteers contributed approximately 858 million hours of service to the California economy—a value of more than $17.4 billion. A one percent increase in the number of Californians who volunteer would equal approximately 365,000 new volunteers contributing 48 million hours—equal to nearly $1 billion in service to the state.
Additionally, if undergraduates are more active in their college towns, these communities may see a decline in the brain drain that occurs when graduates leave the region and often the state. By becoming more invested in the outcomes, students might see their stay in a town or city as more than a passing experience. Pittsburg or Madison or Atlanta could become home, given the inevitable communities ties formed by regular interaction with residents and other volunteers.
Indeed, this increased focus on service brings the best possible outcomes to young adults and the organizations and communities they offer their skills sets to.
“And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” JFK, Inaugural Address, 1961
Despite generational differences in priorities, information sources, and modes of communication, a majority of Americans now say that a job in public service would be appealing. Yet, 60% of those under age thirty say they have never been asked to consider a job in government. However, if asked by their parents (33%) or the newly elected President in 2008 (29%), a significant share of Millennials say they would give such a request a great deal of consideration. In fact, the newly elected President in 2008 tops the list of motivators for those over thirty, with 30% saying they would give a great deal of consideration to this “ask.”
. . .
In addition, Millennials would also give a great deal of consideration to a job in government if asked by teachers or professors (27%) and other young people already working in government (22%).
The earliest Millenials are children of the 1980s, a decade of extreme excess and greed. After being brought up in a society that puts corporate profit ahead of a nation’s citizens, it’s no wonder Millennials respond well to being given permission to put fiscal profit on the back burner.
I bring up this study published last month because Sen. Obama filled in for Sen. Ted Kennedy at Wesleyan University’s commencement today. His speech focused on how graduates could serve their nation, and is worth a read in full. I’ve posted an abridged version below or you can watch the twenty minute video on YouTube.
. . . the history of this nation tells us . . . that we are a people whose destiny has never been written for us, but by us –
by generations of men and women, young and old, who have always believed that their story and the American story are not separate, but shared. And for more than two centuries, they have served this country in ways that have forever enriched both. . .
Each of you will have the chance to make your own discovery in the years to come. And I say “chance” because you won’t have to take it. There’s no community service requirement in the real world; no one forcing you to care. You can take your diploma, walk off this stage, and chase only after the big house and the nice suits and all the other things that our money culture says you should by. You can choose to narrow your concerns and live your life in a way that tries to keep your story separate from America’s.
But I hope you don’t. Not because you have an obligation to those who are less fortunate, though you do have that obligation. Not because you have a debt to all those who helped you get here, though you do have that debt.
It’s because you have an obligation to yourself. Because our individual salvation depends on collective salvation. Because thinking only about yourself, fulfilling your immediate wants and needs, betrays a poverty of ambition. Because it’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential and discover the role you’ll play in writing the next great chapter in America’s story. . .
At a time of war, we need you to work for peace. At a time of inequality, we need you to work for opportunity. At a time of so much cynicism and so much doubt, we need you to make us believe again. . .
And so, should you take the path of service, should you choose to take up one of these causes as your own, know that you’
ll experience frustrations and failures. Even your successes will be marked by imperfections and unintended consequences. I guarantee you, there will certainly be times when friends or family urge you to pursue more sensible endeavors with more tangible rewards. And there will be times when you are tempted to take their advice.
But I hope you’ll remember, during those times of doubt and frustration, that there is nothing naïve about your impulse to change this world. Because all it takes is one act of service – one blow against injustice –to send forth that tiny ripple of hope that Robert Kennedy spoke of.
You know, Ted Kennedy often tells a story about the fifth anniversary celebration of the Peace Corps. He was there, and he asked one of the young Americans why he had chosen to volunteer. And the man replied, “Because it was the first time someone asked me to do something for my country.”
I don’t know how many of you have been asked that question, but after today, you have no excuses.
Sometimes all you have to do is ask. North Carolina Governor Easley learned that lesson last fall when he asked state residents to cut back on water consumption because of severe drought conditions. While the path of least resistance is often taken, some haven’t considered that the outcomes of the harder path might contribute to a greater good, that can’t be measured at the outset, as well as start a ripple that becomes a tidal wave of change.
MoveOn Leadership has been tracking interest in a number of candidates since the beginning of the year, in an effort to determine which candidate the organization will publicly endorse. Members are not making it easy for the staffers, based on the graph that MoveOn sent to its supporters today.
I find it interesting that Edwards has been regarded pretty consistently most of the year, whereas Obama took a dip in October that he’s not yet recovered from. Does anyone know what happened in early October that could have affected his support so strongly? What spiked Clinton in her campaign at the same time?
Much of my social circle is swept up in Obama-fever. After reading his latest stump speech in Iowa, I want to get caught up too.
At this defining moment, we cannot wait any longer for universal health care. We cannot wait to fix our schools. We cannot wait for good jobs, and living wages, and pensions we can count on. We cannot wait to halt global warming, and we cannot wait to end this war in Iraq. . .
However, Obama also comments on lobbyists — pervasive and ever present in political settings, driving for legislation to benefit their corporate fatcat clients to the detriment of the American people.
They said we couldn’t compete without taking money from Washington lobbyists. But you proved them wrong when we raised more small donations from more Americans than any other campaign in history.
Is it enough to not accept money from lobbyists when several work for Obama’s campaign? Even having resigned from the lobbying firms they work for, are these workers really focused on the best for the American people or the best for the former, and likely future, clients?
The Hill put together a list of former lobbyists that are currently on the campaign trail with all of the major candidates. For someone campaigning as if he’s going to take lobbyists out of the equation, Obama has quite a few on his own payroll. (Huffington Post blogger Christine Escobar covers the industry expertise of a number of the lobbyists out on the campaign trail over at Alternet.) While Edwards has publicly noted his intent to ban lobbyists from the White House if elected, Obama has yet to pledge the same. Could lies by omission might be an acceptable part of his leadership and campaign tactics?
I want to believe in a candidate that pledges to break all the rules and redefine the political landscape, but only if I can truly believe that candidate will govern transparently.
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