Post-Election Political Bullet Point Post
I have been meaning to talk more politics now that it is all over. I said from day one of this election that I was 50/50 on these two candidates. Despite their various smear campaigns, these two candidates were both capable and potentially great presidential material. I think they both had positives and negatives. In the end, it appears that timing and the GW Bush effect made it impossible for anyone to compete with a charismatic, competent candidate like Barack Obama. It was handed to him on a silver platter in some respects, but he made a lot of great decisions along the way too, including not letting Joe Biden get overexposed.
Anyway, I write in bullet points a lot lately over on the sports site, so I am going to stick to bullets here too. I am just not thinking effectively in organized narratives lately. Maybe I am just being lazy. Sue me. It is a blog, people.
First, I am going to wear my Republican hat…
- Now that it is over can we stop saying that John McCain would have been GW Bush’s 3rd term? McCain has never liked Bush. Bush caused McCain more political harm in the 2000 election than Barack Obama ever dreamed of leveling on him. McCain may have voted in favor of some of Bush’s budgets, but that certainly doesn’t mean he cosigned for the complete and utter lack of execution on Bush’s part. Barack Obama sold this talking point, but after a few drinks I am guessing he wouldn’t try and tell you it was any more true than people saying he is Muslim.
- The media coverage of Sarah Palin was overwhelmingly biased. Yes, she was a bad candidate. Yes she was far from prepared. Still, the way Gibson and Couric took those interviews and plastered Palin was heavy handed. The message was sent easily without the unnecessary amounts of piling on. Palin’s lack of experience should have been enough. The negativity further shows how our newspeople are trying to be SNL or John Stewart rather than Walter Cronkite.
- The campaign finance situation is officially out of control. This was highlighted by the infomercial that Obama bought from the networks. I know it was all paid for out of money he raised fairly, but an election shouldn’t be decided based on who can run more commercials because they have more money. Obama probably wins anyway, but the disparity in funds seems wrong to me. It is ironic that Obama, the equality candidate, would opt out of federal funds and get a free pass from the media. Are there any democrats out there who will admit this?
- Speaking of the infomercial, how is it that it is legal for a network, that has a news department, to take money from one candidate to program a half hour in primetime on their station? The stations are supposed to be trusted sources for news as a part of their function. To take money from one of the candidates for programming is really a conflict of interest.
Now for the Democratic hat…
- The best thing about Obama getting elected is increased investment in Stem Cell research. The real reason to invest in that is so it can be this era’s version of NASA. It has the potential to not only help people, but be this nation’s next economic boom. Advancement in medical technology means coming up with new products, processes, professions and industries. As a generation of would-be laborers continues to get lots and lots of college degrees and masters degrees, they are going to continue to need new industries to get jobs in as the old guard continues to die.
- Speaking of which, the other half of this investment in an industry to be named later is new energy. I am convinced that we haven’t seen the replacement to gasoline yet. I think electric cars that plug into the house won’t really solve energy problems. I think there are lots of problems with ethanol. Hybrid seems like a stop-gap technology. The only way to find it is to continue to research it and Obama appears to be more than willing to do that. It could be the key to saving the auto industry and it could be the key to saving the economy as a whole.
- I think Obama could face some harsh realities from time to time when it comes to foreign relations. I think it is his area of least experience. The good news is that all indications are that he will be able to learn, react on the fly and make quick, high percentage decisions. Obama seems to have the wisdom to be able to realize when he doesn’t know something. This is a stark contrast with the arrogance that we have been dealing with over the last eight years.
- Obama definitely has a cultural impact on this country, but I am already finding the stories to be trite, overly dramatic and over-told. I really do hope that Obama continues to have a positive cultural impact on the nation, but those feel-good stories should be separated from those dealing with Obama the politician if the media hopes to do their job reporting and occasionally critiquing the President. Let’s hope the lessons they learned from Bush’s first four years and 9/11 will be carried over to President Obama’s term. I know this makes me sound cold, but this moment of pride is now over and Obama needs to be judged on his accomplishments from now on, at least in the media.
- Another really positive thing to expect from Obama is his take on Network Neutrality.
Said Obama… “I am a strong supporter of net neutrality,” said Obama. “What you’ve been seeing is some lobbying that says [Internet providers] should be able to be gatekeepers and able to charge different rates to different websites…so you could get much better quality from the Fox News site and you’d be getting rotten service from the mom and pop sites. And that I think destroys one of the best things about the Internet — which is that there is this incredible equality there…as president I’m going to make sure that is the principle that my FCC commissioners are applying as we move forward.” This makes me very happy.
As I said before, I was going to be happy with either McCain or Obama. I don’t know that Obama is going to come up with the right plan for health care, education, or the budget. Nobody ever knows those answers for sure. That being said, I think McCain and Obama both had pretty good priorities. Hopefully Obama’s plan works. I do have concerns that Obama’s tax plans and health plans will negatively affect small businesses’ ability to be competitive and continue to employ as many people as possible, but those are clearly outweighed for me by the potential for Obama’s lofty goals if he hits them.
He has certainly raised the bar high and it will be interesting to see what he ends up succeeding on and which ideas end up eluding him. I don’t have that same sense of negativity that I had during the last election. And don’t think that I am saying that just because of George W. Bush. One lesson we learned during this election cycle is just how bad a campaign John Kerry ran. Let’s hope Obama’s effectiveness at campaigning translates better to success in the Oval Office than it did for GW Bush.
