Toasting 23 (Years) and 33 (Variations)

 

 

I’m so glad my partner and I flew up from Atlanta to see Jane Fonda in performance this past Saturday night. Before the show, at Serafina, next to the Eugene O’Neill Theater, we toasted 23 (years) and 33 (Variations).

It was truly a special occasion — getting to see one of our favorite actresses on a Broadway stage. Thanks, Jane, for making our anniversary extra special with such a moving performance!

We’re keeping our fingers crossed that Jane Fonda wins the Tony for her spellbinding performance. Naturally,  I’m a lifelong Fonda fan since my halcyon days growing up in Southern California and, as a fellow Atlanta, I’m rooting for her!  (more later…)

Santa Monica’s No-Exercise Zone: Get Off My Traffic Island!

OK, folks, it’s high time for what we call a “brite” in the news business: That’s the fluffy, light-hearted story that either makes you chuckle, smile or shed a little, sentimental tear.  It’s the perky counterweight to the typical murder-and-mayem and doom-and-gloom stories that dominate our news. 

So to brighten our dreary days, here comes a  New York Times story (”Santa Monica Journal: Where the Traffic Median is a No-Pilates Zone“) straight from the People’s Republic of Santa Monica, California. It’s just the kind of entertaining story that puts everything in perspective: On the East Coast,  we’re wringing our hands over the gloomy economic news (and the years of deregulation that have helped get us into this mess). And, meanwhile, some of our sun-drenched sisters and brothers on the West Coast are actually getting all worked up over working out. Now that’s something I can get behind!  

So what’s the fuss all about?
It seems Santa Monica is now strictly enforcing a regulation against exercising in traffic medians. Yes, traffic medians. Reportedly, hordes of littering, loud and sweaty boot camps of exercisers are intent on building up their already buff bodies in the grassy traffic medians of this coastal community. And this does not sit well at all with the slumbering neighbors who have to look out their windows and hear all these toned bodies tromping past their multimillion-dollar homes at all hours of the day and night.

Arrested for doing sit-ups? Only in California…
So the police have cracked down on these obsessively fit lawbreakers by slapping them with a $158 fine. One man was even “arrested” after he refused to cease-and-desist doing his sit-ups in the grassy traffic median.  It just goes to show you the lengths that Santa Monicans will go to keep fit, stand up to City Hall — and make a name for themselves on TV and YouTube.

Years ago when I was living in Southern California, I heard someone call this costal paradise the People’s Republic of Santa Monica. My first reaction: This slam came from a right-wing inlander who just didn’t appreciate the charm of this left-of-center, bohemian beach community. But now I see that Santa Monica came by its nickname honestly. Anyhow, this story sure gave me a good laugh at a time when there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot to laugh about. Thank you, New York Times (and thank you, Santa Monica for being your goofy self)!

Another Day, Another Bailout

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Each day seems to bring fresh evidence that our economy is facing the equivalent of a “Code Red” emergency, and each news cycle seems to deliver a new round of scary comparisons to the Great Depression. 

On Sunday, we opened our newspapers to discover the government was stepping in to back-stop yet another tottering bank –this time Citigroup. On the horizon: a likely bailout for the big three American automakers (Chrysler, GM, Ford).

Today, President-elect Barack Obama held a press conference to roll out his all-star economic team and announce plans for a “Main Street” bailout to jump-start the economy and reassure the markets. This, Obama said, is an “economic crisis of historic proportions. If we do not act swiftly and boldly, most experts now believe that we could lose millions of jobs next year.” 

Fortunately, the markets responded positively to Obama’s press conference today, as he stepped in to fill the Washington leadership vacuum and to send a powerful signal that help is on the way.  But we cannot breathe a sigh of relief just yet. No matter how considerable Obama’s political skills may be — nor how great the economic genius may be of Timothy F. Geithner (Obama’s nominee to be Treasury secretary) and Lawrence H. Summers (Obama’s appointment to head the White House Economic Council) — let’s face the hard facts: None of these men (or any of the other accomplished men and women on Obama’s economic team) can wave a magic wand and heal our sick economy overnight.

But when will the bailouts end and the economy turn around? Thomas L. Friedman offers no comfort in his Sunday column in The New York Times. “We found the W.M.D. [weapons of mass destruction]. They were buried in our own backyard – subprime mortgages and all the derivatives attached to them.” 

These days Tom Friedman’s economic panic is so strong that, when dining out, he has to stifle the impulse to go table to table and say:

“‘You don’t know me, but I have to tell you that you shouldn’t be here. You should be saving your money. You should be home eating tuna fish. This financial crisis is so far from over. We are just at the end of the beginning. Please, wrap up that steak in a doggy bag and go home.’” 

To make matters worse, the nightly news programs are chock-full of comparisons to the Great Depression. On one level, there’s no denying that we face strong economic headwinds. But I’m not sure such alarmist comparisons to the big “D” help anyone, surely not the economy. The consumer stays home, sits on his wallet, and the spiral gets worse. Sure, it’s prudent for everyone to pull back on expenses, to eat more tuna fish sandwiches at home these days. But does it really help anyone when we use the “D” word in every sentence? Unless to so frighten businesses and consumers that it brings much of the nation’s economic activity to a grinding halt.

Yet. the events are unfolding in such quick and stunning succession that it’s hard to grasp their meaning or put them into proper perspective. Is the economic panic fueling more panic? Or are we just waking up to the reality of the real WMD, as Friedman suggests?

This is a crucial time of judgment, Friedman stresses. Do we think this is just a nasty recession and a couple of bad quarters and couple of hundred billion more pumped into the economy will take care of the problem? Or –do we instead think that despite all the bailouts, the lowering of interest rates, the Fed’s action to shore up certain markets — the “bottom is nowhere in sight and we are staring at a deep hole that the entire world could fall into?”

If it’s the worse-case scenario — and each day of gloomy news seems to point unmistakably in that awful direction — then “we need a  huge catalyst of confidence and capital to turn this thing around,” Friedman writes.

It’s enough to make you wish that President Bush would just hand over the keys to Obama and his economic team right now.  But wishful thinking that is when there are too many regulations for the Bushies to undo, too many more pardons to prepare, and too many more political appointees to place into protected civil servant jobs where they can block the incoming Obama administration’s initiatives. 

In any case, let’s hope that Bush and Obama and their teams are working closely behind the scenes (as the New York Times is reporting tonight) to stave off disaster in the remaining 56 days of the Bush presidency.   Because Obama’s inauguration on January 20th can’t come fast enough.

Thumbs at Rest: Will Obama Give up the CrackBerry Habit?

 

 

 

 
(President-Elect) Obama at rest with BlackBerry (and Axelrod)

 

November 16, 2008

 

Dear Mr. President-Elect Obama:

 

Say it ain’t so! From one BlackBerry addict to another, I feel your pain (as another Democratic president used to say with faux emotion). There, on mobile.nytimes.com, I read the words on the tiny screen in the palm of my hand and almost dropped my precious BlackBerry on the floor: “Say Goodbye to BlackBerry? Yes He Can, Maybe.”  This, on page A1, of The New York Times.

 

Yes, it’s sad but true: Your #1 New Year’s Resolution is you will have to surrender your BlackBerry, sir. Apparently, after you take the oath of office in front of the U.S. Capitol on January 20, 2009, it will be way too risky for you to carry a BlackBerry and send text and email messages. Not because you have to worry about pick-pockets stealing the thing mind you: Unlike other Washingtonians who have to fear losing their wallet, purse or mobile device on the Capitol’s  streets, you’ll never to worry about that again because you’ll have Secret Service agents at your side every moment of every day for the rest of your natural life. 

 

The problem actually comes down to system security and presidential privacy: Hackers could hack into your email. Worse, every presidential email could be subject to public viewing and press snooping one day. We can’t have that now, can we?

 

Maybe this Presidential thing isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, after all. You’re facing two wars, the worst global economic meltdown since the Great Depression, rising unemployment, $700 billion in boondoggle government bailouts, the Detroit automakers and a long line of CEOs begging for bailouts for their own companies, the nation’s crumbling infrastructure, a ballooning federal deficit, and on and on the list goes. 

 

Mr. President-Elect: Between us, America and the entire world seem to be having a collective nervous breakdown — and you can’t even bum a damned cigarette. That’s because Michelle made you quit your three-Marlboro-a-day habit. Since then, we hear you’ve been chewing Nicorette gum to deal with the withdrawal symptoms. Poor thing. 

 

You truly have my full sympathies, Mr. President-Elect. You truly must be the most cool-headed man alive.  Just that short list from the even longer list of problems you will confront would be more than enough to send most mortals jumping off the nearest bridge. Lighting up for a sneaky smoke or two on the sly wouldn’t even begin to touch the anxiety level most of us mere mortals would have just thinking about being in your shoes. 

 

So now you have another addiction to kick, and addiction it is. According to a Rutgers University study, BlackBerry devices are so addictive that people may need to be weaned off them with addiction treatment similar to that given to drug users.

Now what are your poor thumbs going to do when their BlackBerry has been snatched away from them, Mr. President-elect?  Although, if the campaign is any indication, we think you’ll deal with the withdrawal better than most. McCain hurled every insult at you during the campaign, but you just smiled on that debate stage, looking cool and collected and way more presidential than your wizened opponent. Meanwhile, McCain had survived torture and years of imprisonment in Vietnam, but he couldn’t even contain his obvious rage at you for having the audacity to run against him and kick his butt in the process.  

 

Anyway, despite your campaign cool, we know it’s going to be even more stressful as president. So when the going gets a little tough, we came up with a few suggestions. Think of it as a little advice to guide you down that long, rocky road of CrackBerry recovery.

  

Idle thumbs are the devil’s workshop: You’d better replace your CrackBerry addiction with a new habit for your thumbs. You know, Bill Clinton played the sax well enough to appear on SNL. Yeah, right, he did a lot of things we’d rather not think about. But anyway, how about taking up an instrument, too?

 

 Since you don’t need to keep Condi Rice as your foreign policy tutor as W. did for eight long years of failure and more failure, you could instead appoint her to a new cabinet post — say, Special Assistant to the President for Music Education. I think she might do well as your presidential piano teacher.  

 

Just think: Condi could teach you to play “Hail to the Chief” to keep your spirits up and amuse yourself during those problem-laden late nights in the Oval Office. It’ll be fun  learning Condi’s play list, starting with Mozart Piano Concerto in D Minor. I hear “Rahmbo” Emanuel, your political fixer and chief of staff, was a killer ballet dancer back in the day at Sarah Lawrence College, so maybe he could dance around the room in his stocking feet, keeping time to the music as it swells to a full forte.

 

For those frustrating days when you can’t seem to get no R-E-S-P-E-C-T, you can pound away that Aretha Franklin standard. Then, working down Condi’s play list, there’s Kool and the Gang’s ‘Celebration’ when you and “Rahmbo” are finally able to push that first big bill through the Congress.

 

From looking at your FaceBook page, we know that your musical tastes run more toward Miles, Coltrane, Dylan, Wonder, the Fugees, but never mind: I’m sure Condi could somehow work some of those into your twice-weekly piano lessons.

 

No nail-biting allowed. Many times, people who try to give up one addiction (say, smoking) often end up turning to another (overeating) for comfort. It’s what people in the addiction recovery business call “addiction transfer.” To guard against this nasty withdrawal symptom from your BlackBerry-itis, we’ll have to bring in a couple of D.C.’s finest manicurists for what they call a “mani-pedi.” They’ll coat your fingernails in icky clear polish that will taste so bad that there’s no way you’re going to bite your nails and make sure your cuticles stay in tip-top shape for those camera close-ups.  Besides, you’ll get some TLC and relaxation for those tired hands and feet after a hard game of basketball on the White House indoor court.

 

If all else fails, try another addiction — Wii anyone? Video games are way more fun than thumbing away on a BlackBerry any day. Besides, it’s something you and ”Rahmbo” can do as you’re plotting your next big political maneuver  (your excitable new Chief of Staff definitely seems like a video game kind of guy). Besides, it’ll get your heart rate up a little, Mr. President-Elect: It does seem a little low from all that working out at the gym. 

 

Here, from Amazon.com, are a few other video games worth the sore thumbs you’ll be sure to get:
 

• Call of Duty: World at War: When things aren’t going well with your troop-drawdown plans for Iraq or the Taliban are heating up things over in Afghanistan, you can always de-stress by waxing nostalgic about a  simpler time, during World War II,  when we knew who the enemy was and where to fight them — and they weren’t hiding out in some underground cave in Pakistan.
• Star Wars: The Force Unleashed: Cool relations with Congress? Unleash your frustrations by playing this Star Wars video game. What’s really cool about this one is the decisions you make along the way determine the path of the story — kind of like real life, Mr. President-Elect. That’ll help keep you a little humble underneath that oh-so-confident exterior and help keep you laser-focused on a key fact of presidential life: What you do impacts hundreds of millions of Americans and billions and billions of people on the planet. Your predecessor really didn’t seem to really get that – or not until it was way too late. Since you’re so tech-savvy, I’ll put it to you this way: there’s no “undo” key in the Oval Office, sir.
• Hanna Montana: Music Jam: Since your daughters’ favorite TV show is “Hannah Montana,” how about squeezing in a little quality time with Malia and Sasha between briefings every now and then?  It’ll bring an instant smile to your face as you watch 7-year-old Sasha (a budding singer and dancer) and 10-year-old Malia (who wants to be an actress when she grows up)  “live out their dreams of being a pop star in this exciting musical adventure,” as the description reads.

The New Game in Town:  Come to think of it, I wish the Nintendo or Microsoft people would come up with a video game version of this past election and the presidency to come. Let’s see, the first edition of this video game series could be called “Obama: The Great Unending Campaign” or maybe “Obama’s Excellent Adventure I.”  I’m sure together we could come up with a great name for the video game. You’re great at slogans: that change thing really worked.

 

Through many ups and downs, thrills and breathtaking fear-mongering, villains and villainesses, it’s been a helluva two-year election ride, hasn’t it, sir? I think this once-in-a-lifetime election would make an amazing video game: The first African-American to run a serious presidential campaign beats off multiple challengers in the primary season and dukes it out for months with Queen Hillary, the establishment candidate, before seizing the Democratic mantle. Then he must overcome a pair of villains, let’s call them McCain and Palin-the-Unable, to finally take the presidential seal. Just think of the future storylines once you actually take office.

 

Anyway, back to reality and your addiction, sir.  The really good thing is, after a few minutes of playing video games on your Wii, you won’t even miss your CrackBerry. Now that’s full recovery for you.

  

Join in the discussion.

Click on leave a comment just below the headline for this post, and add your clever, funny and somewhat practical suggestions to help the President-elect kick his CrackBerry habit and deal with his withdrawal symptoms.  Do you have ideas for what to call our fantasy Obama video game? Please join in the fun. 

Crazy Like a Fox?

Confirmation came today that Senator  Hillary Rodham Clinton and President-Elect Barack Obama did indeed meet last night in Chicago to discuss the serious possibility of HRC serving in the top post at State.  Today, pundits on the cable and network news programs are obsessing over the pros and cons of this possible appointment both for Clinton and for the country. 

As a former strong HRC primary supporter both in vote and checkbook, I strongly favor her appointment. It would wipe away the last vestiges of bitterness and disappointment from the primary season.  Besides, HRC, more than any other, campaigned tirelessly for Obama, making 60 campaign stops for him during  the general election. For me and other HRC backers, denying her this appointment now after publicly floating it would undoubtedly open old wounds from the tough primary election fight.

By the same token, I think it’s an extremely savvy and exciting choice — pulling in his former rival into an Administration where she would by nature of the position be totally loyal without possibility of being publicly at odds with its policies. It might also rein in Bill…at least a little, forcing him to be a little more disciplined and careful in his remarks. Well, maybe…

Frankly, it would also place HRC into the top foreign policy role, perhaps wisely keeping her from playing a front-and-center leadership role on health-care reform, her pet project, where she brings keen knowledge but tons of baggage from her failed 1993 bid at bringing universal health-care coverage to all Americans in her husband’s administration.  This would  free up Obama to pursue the more incremental health-care coverage solutions that he seems to favor — without risking Clinton’s intramural infighting for the universal coverage that is near and dear to her heart.

Chris Cillizza in  The Fix blog on www.washingtonpost.com asks the compelling question of the hour: “HRC for Secretary of State: Crazy or Crazy Like a Fox?”

Here, briefly, are the pro and con arguments, according to  Cillizza: 

PROS

* Gravitas: Is there any question that she could hold her own in delicate negotiations with our international friends or foes? Putting her out as the administration’s top diplomat would likely be received, nationally and internationally, as a solid choice.

* Two for the Price of One?: The Clintons are — and always have been — a package deal and, if Hillary Clinton becomes Secretary of State, this phenomenon could work to Obama’s advantage. Former President Bill Clinton has spent much of his time since leaving office focused on international issues and is clearly a serious player on the world stage.

* The Olive Branch: Obama, at heart, is a pragmatist, and knows that it does him much more good to have Hillary and Bill Clinton on board rather than free-lancing. Making Clinton the Secretary of State would ensure buy-in from the former first couple.

CONS

* A Third Clinton Term?:  Naming Clinton to such a high-profile post would be taken by some as a rejection of the “new politics” Obama pledged during the campaign.

* A Free Lancer: While the chances of Clinton free-lancing are far less if she is a member of the Obama cabinet, there is absolutely no way of ensuring that her own views on matters of foreign policy would be subsumed in favor of those of the administration.

What do you think about Clinton as Obama’s Secretary of State? Are you in the pro camp or the con camp, or somewhere in between? Here’s your chance to weigh in. Looking forward to the discussion in the comment section.

Madam Secretary? Hillary at State?

Will she be offered Secretary of State? Will she take it? 

Tonight comes the news from NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell on the First Read blog and on MSNBC that Hillary Clinton is “under consideration” to be secretary of state, according to two Obama advisers. This from the virtually leak-proof Obama transition team.

We also learn that Clinton is on a plane to Chicago, but an adviser says it’s for personal business.  What an uncanny coincidence? Not! 

Of course, MSNBC’s rabid Clinton haters Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow and Chris Matthews are suggesting that this is a “surprising” choice given the toughness of the primary campaign between Clinton-Obama with those 3 a.m. ads she ran,  the rumored Bill Clinton conflicts of interest and Bill’s bad behavior in S.C.  Nonsense.

Clinton is obviously the best choice. And it’s a path that makes sense for her now that Senate seniority rules block her from taking the leadership role she wants on universal healthcare reform.

At State, she has the chance to help make history. With two wars, the genocide of Darfur, a thousand other global crises just crying out for leadership, and our nation’s reputation in tatters, who else to reinvigorate and restore our place in the world? Not all to take away from Obama, who will be a transforming and powerful influence on foreign affairs. Who else but Clinton can help help pave the way for diplomatic progress. She can play tough “bad cop” to Obama’s “good cop.” Say what you might about Clinton, but she is tough and she gets the job done. On the debate stage, she towered above all her Democratic opponents.

Do you have the same confidence in the other candidates for the job? I don’t. Let’s look at the contenders. Chris Matthews tonight talked up Kerry (what a bore and an obvious quid pro quo for Kerry giving Obama the opportunity to keynote the 2004 Democratic convention). Also, under consideration: Tom Daschle (yawn) and Bill Richardson (are you kidding me?). I thought the New Mexico governor was going to be my Democratic primary candidate, but ultimately he underwhelmed me. 

The Obama transition team cannot float this appointment and not offer Secretary of State to  Clinton now.   It would be an insult to pass over HRC again — bringing back lingering bad feelings from the primary. But then maybe, she didn’t want VP — she wanted State instead and cut the deal when they met in Senator Feinstein’s town home in Washington?

In my view, HRC would be an outstanding Secretary of State.  Madeline Albright was a brilliant Secretary of State. Albright’s successor, Condoleezza Rice has been stained by so many foreign policy blunders, Iraq among them. Clinton is one of the most brilliant Americans of our time. There is so much work to be done to repair our standing and reputation in the world and Clinton has the intelligence, discipline and determination to do a great job at State. What a glittering Team of Rivals to have Clinton join the Obama cabinet as Secretary of State! What a fascinating historic parallel to President Lincoln who appointed William Seward, the establishment candidate who had been expected to win the Republican nomination, as Secretary of State after defeating him in the election. The two met in Chicago and Seward accepted and went on to become one of the Lincoln’s strongest allies..

I’m hoping that tomorrow we’ll be seeing Clinton and Obama side by side at a podium in Chicago. With Clinton headed to Chicago and the buzz around Clinton as a possible choice, what other explanation is there?

High Hopes Dashed?

Barely eight days after my hopes were raised by Obama’s election,  here comes an article in my in-box that would be enough to send me scrambling to  the liquor cabinet for a stiff drink– were I so inclined. Can’t we all just enjoy what we accomplished last week for a little while longer before we plunge back into the depths of national despair? Couldn’t I float along posting a few more  like “A New Sense of Place” and “The Obama Era“?  Apparently not.

“Forget Red vs. Blue — It’s the Educated vs. People Easily Fooled by Propaganda” writes Chris Hodges, the Pulitzer-winning author of Collateral Damage: America’s War Against Iraqi Civilians.

(This compelling, if depressing, treatise, appeared on Alternet – the same website on which a blaring banner ad informs you that even  baby shampoo contains carcinogens — courtesy the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics.  There’s no hope left alive in the universe if even innocent babes are being poisoned.)

Anyway, I digress. The premise of this article is we live in two Americas: One that reads and understands complexity — and, the other who, well, live in a non-reality-based world where they can be easily manipulated into believing just about anything the government or corporate-industrial-complex tells them:

•  Saddam Hussein was behind the attacks on 9/11/01 and had to be taken out
•  Iraq had weapons of mass destruction
• It’s OK for America  to torture would-be terrorists and imprison them without trial for years
• The unfounded but persistent Internet rumors that circulated during the 2008 presidential campaign, alleging that Obama was/is a secret Muslim.  

Hodges writes:

This divide, more than race, class or gender, more than rural or urban, believer or nonbeliever, red state or blue state, has split the country into radically distinct, unbridgeable and antagonistic entities.

According to Hodges,  many untold millions of American adults  cannot read or read at fourth-grade level, or who never read a book even though they can read.. These semi-literate or illiterate folk rarely vote, or when they do, without the ability to make rational decisions, let alone protect themselves against predatory lending and credit card scams. 

True, the dumb and dumber exist and have always existed in this world. No news there.  This article would have seemed entirely fitting had  McCain-Palin somehow managed to pull off a victory  with their jingoistic  “paling around with terrorist” refrain and other outright lies. In that case, Hodges’ treatise would have been perfect angry, dejected, despairing tonic for another stolen election by the forces of the “idiocracy” as Bill Maher calls it.

But didn’t Nov. 4 teach us that intellect can sometimes triumph over stupidity — and change win over more-of-the-same-failed-policies and politics of division – especially when the country looks to be falling off an economic cliff?

Not so fast, Hodges says.

Political leaders in our post-literate society no longer need to be competent, sincere or honest. They only need to appear to have these qualities. Most of all they need a story, a narrative…The consistency and emotional appeal of the story are paramount.

I’ll admit that Barack Obama was not my initial candidate in the Democratic  primaries: His bid for the presidency based on what appeared to be a somewhat thin resume and so few years in public life seemed arrogant and presumptuous, and, at times, it offended me: “likable enough,” he told Clinton she was.   

True, Obama largely ran on a larger-than-life story in the primaries. But when Obama emerged the Democratic nominee and then McCain picked Palin, I quickly withdrew any remaining resistance to Obama’s candidacy and my initial sore-loser promises to sit out the general election. McCain’s pick of Palin was such a transparently cynical move: a reach for  Hillary votes like mine, that instead deeply offended and insulted me. Especially when Palin — with her far more paper-thin resume and infinitely  thinner policy knowledge base or even basic awareness of the  world beyond arctic Wasilla –totally and utterly paled beside Hillary, my head-of-the-class hero, “ready-to-be-commander-in-chief- on- day-one.”  (Can we please retire that phrase from the political lexicon of miserably failed campaign slogans?)  And why, after the election,  are we still talking about this foolish woman droning on about absolute nonsense anyway? Palin 2012 — hogwash!

All of this made Obama look downright experienced, polished and highlighted his intellect and policy wonkishnes. Then, too, as the months wore on, McCain looked like a man who was losing it: One day his temper, the next day,  his mind: “Fellow prisoners” he addressed the crowd one day late in the campaign. And the Palin pick made McCain look like a desperate, strangely out-of-his-depth,  in-over-his-head, shoot-from-hip, gambling man that he is.

Yes, Obama ran on broad, lofty themes in the primaries. For those who have become cynical with age, these did not resonate so well. But in the general election, he smartly layered on the policy contrasts and proved a more measured, deliberate, steady leader.  Yes, he largely played defense in the general, looking more like someone trying not to make a mistake and screw up his glide path to the presidency.  But yet, something about him reassured the country, while McCain, the supposed battle-tested warrior, looked oddly undone and lost.

But Hodges is not so convinced:

As we descend into a devastating economic crisis, one that Barack Obama cannot halt, there will be tens of millions of Americans who will be ruthlessly thrust aside. As their houses are foreclosed, as their jobs are lost, as they are forced to declare bankruptcy and watch their communities collapse, they will retreat even further into irrational fantasy. They will be led toward glittering and self-destructive illusions by our modern Pied Pipers — our corporate advertisers, our charlatan preachers, our television news celebrities, our self-help gurus, our entertainment industry and our political demagogues — who will offer increasingly absurd forms of escapism.

…Obama used hundreds of millions of dollars in campaign funds to appeal to and manipulate this illiteracy and irrationalism to his advantage, but these forces will prove to be his deadly nemesis once they collide with the awful reality that awaits us.

Boy am I cheered up! Besides, haven’t millions of people already lost millions of jobs and homes? Aren’t we well on our way to that “awful reality.”

I am enough of a realist to acknowledge some awful truths in what Hodges writes. Certainly, there is a hard, very cold and ugly  truth in the fact that both the Democratic and Republican parties are basically in the pockets of big business to one degree or another  – Obama’s urging of a bailout for Detroit being the most recent example of the Tweedledee-and-Tweedledum of American politics.

Despite all this, I will not be let down so quickly as Hodges would have us. 

After eight thoroughly miserable years of the Bush-Cheney oligarchy, I will not let my high hopes for Obama fade so completely as Hodges has, if he ever had a shred of hope at all.  Yes, the ash-heap condition that Bush-Cheney’s Imperial Presidency has left this country is certainly cause for deep despair. But this country was not built on despair and it will not be rebuilt on despair.. Time and time again, Americans have triumphed and overcome massive obstacles because at our core, we are an optimistic people.

And please God, there is cause for at least a modicum of optimism here. Not only is Obama’s election a triumph of superior intellect and reason over ignorance and manipulation, but it is also a victory for racial equality over racism. It is cause for celebration.

After President Obama takes the oath on  January 20 and the inaugural parade and pageantry are relegated to history, there will be plenty of time for the morning-after hangover on January 21. Then, perhaps, the full weight of what our country faces will set in and we Americans will truly understand the cold reality: the mess we’re in may take years, perhaps decades to clean up.  Then, we can let ourselves take full measure of our predicament and the challenge of our lifetime. Until then, I’m going to enjoy this moment. I don’t know what the future will bring and, in the meantime, I am going to hang on to my hopes for a better tomorrow for our country, at least for a little while longer.

A New Sense of Place

 

 Here we are, just a few days  “on the other side” of this terrible and shameful period in American history. With Barack Obama’s election,  it feels like we have a chance for a new beginning in this country. We may face economic woes and setbacks. But this crisis  offers the opportunity to heal our nation’s soul and forge a new, better  understanding of what we want our country to be and what our place should be in the world. Perhaps we can recapture America’s  optimistic, can-do, won’t-give-up spirit. Perhaps we can renew our faith in our country and heal our nation’s wounded soul. So we can be as proud to be Americans  as we once were.

More than anything, I hope we can enter a new place in the soul and psyche of America.  Each place — whether Los Angeles where I grew up or Atlanta where I now live — carries within it a unique sense of place — embedded in the landscape, the people and the psyche of the community.

For America, these last eight years have been a hard, bitter, cynical place — damaging to our physical environment, to our people, to our pride in our country.  So now I hope we have a chance to regain a positive sense of place in this country once again. We can move beyond our cynical view of the world to a more realistic, yet hopeful perspective.  We will be proud of the energy, competence, intellect and rhetorical genius of our new president-elect  – instead of  cringing every time we see George W. Bush, our incompetent, incurious and careless 43rd president president, embarrassing the country with his mangled syntax and propensity to screw up everything he touches.

More than anything, I hope to be returned to the country I once knew or thought I knew. In these last eight years, I have come to feel almost like a stranger in my own country — barely recognizing a country that could wage preemptive war, torture human beings, imprison people indefinitely without trial for years without conscience, and allow unchecked greed to bring our financial system and our country to its knees.

It is strangely ironic that probably the worst president in our nation’s 232 year history helped pave the way for this new beginning, with our first African-American president and a clean electoral sweep.  Americans had to find their country mired in two wars, on the brink of complete financial collapse, and failing in every sphere and in every conceivable way — before it finally woke up. One term of Bush II apparently wasn’t enough for other Americans.

In renewing America’s promise and intrinsic ideals,  I hope we can recapture that  ”we’re all in it together” spirit. Out with divided us-versus-them America, in with inclusive America. Out with  the “Greed is Good” and in with community volunteerism. We have this opportunity to call forth our better angels as Obama has said, echoing  Lincoln. At this crossroads, we need to reach back across time, across the generations, to rediscover the core ideals of America.  

For me, personally, this hopeful  moment calls forth a memory and a place rooted in my past:: I am standing once more on Laguna Beach’s Diver Cove (pictured above),  where I spent many childhood summer days body surfing and sunbathing.  I am standing at the edge of a continent, but the Pacific stretches out before me, a blue ocean of future possibility and inviting  waves to ride. 

And in the background, in my mind, I hear  a Woody Guthrie song playing — a song you you hardly ever hear  anymore: “This land is your land, this land is my land / From California, to the New York Island / From the redwood forest, to the gulf stream waters /This land was made for you and me.”

This land is our land — once again.

The Obama Era

Today, November, 5, 2008, on the streets of downtown Atlanta, Georgia  – the cradle of the civil rights movement –  I sensed a feeling of stunned triumph. I glimpsed several African Americans walking proudly and  clutching copies of the day’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Historic Win” read the banner headline in 52 point type.  People lined up in front of the AJC building to buy multiple copies of the paper.

Mark this day in your journals, blogs and scrapbooks, Nov. 5, 2008, as the dawning of a new day in American history.  Whatever your party, whatever way you voted, it is truly a proud day in American history. We watch collectively as a new era unfolds before us — expectant, hopeful, anxious.  Change has truly come to America — not just the breaking of this racial glass ceiling, but also the opening of a more hopeful era in which we have the possibility of reclaiming our government “by and for the people,” not  just for the corporations and the monied class.  I hope this blog, in its small way,  will serve as a witness to history as it unfolds in this new American era of Obama — not just the political life of our land but also the cultural and social fabric of the country.

To paraphrase  Gloria Steinem speaking on Oprah’s post-election special: Today is a day when Steinem and all of those of us who grew up in the crucible of the women’s and civil rights movements can believe again — believe in our country again, believe in a more  hopeful future, when America can once again be that shining city on the hill, that beacon of hope,  by once again taking up the mantle of moral leadership in the world and uniting the country  in common purpose at a time of war and economic crisis.

I cannot say it better than Anna Quindlen did in her Nov. 5, 2008 column in Newsweek. In  ”Living History: What Obama Means to the Nation, she begins, “Occasionally America turns out to be every bit as good as its hype. It’s thrilling to be around to witness one of those moments.”

Quindlen continues: “I suspect that, like many others, I wept for myself, too, because I felt I was part of a country that was living its principles. Despite all our prejudices, seen and hidden, millions of citizens managed, in the words of Dr. King, to judge Barack Obama by the content of his character and not the color of his skin. There were many reasons to elect him president, but this was one collateral gift: to be able to watch America look an old evil in the eye and to say, no more. We must be better than that. We can be better than that. We are better than that.”

Let us hope.