The High Road vs. The Low Road

Barack Obama was right to praise his campaign team last night. I'm not sure we will ever witness a presidential campaign run better than his. Obama continues to score high in many characteristics—his intelligence, his positions, his speechmaking, his composure—but at bottom it seems that it was his campaign—headed by David Plouffe and David Axelrod—that succeeded in framing and highlighting his "taking the high road" qualities while his opponents looked more and more like they were "taking the low road."

Obama benefited from what might best be described as the collapse of the Republican Party—at least for the time being. Along with a host of low points including 9/11, the invasion of Iraq, the poor response to Katrina, and the profound shaking up of the economy, the legacy of George Bush will now include the undermining of his own political party.

It wasn't as if people couldn't see this political turnaround coming. As with other debacles of the Bush presidency, there were the warning signs—most obviously in the preceding election results and the 2007-2008 popularity polls. Yet the Bush administration continued to pursue an agenda that seems to have been favorable chiefly not even to his party-at-large but to an increasingly small group of wealthy cronies.

Last night's election occasioned the historic ascent of Barack Obama as well as a historic rejection of Republican politicians, including a significant number in New York. I believe that Obama, with his team, has the abilities to take on the great challenges of this time and achieve the stature of an Abraham Lincoln or an FDR, but only time will tell if he will fulfill his potential. He can do it, but it will require sticking to the "high road" he has followed and persuading others to join him route despite the pressures from powerful "low road" influences.

Obama made history last night, but the real history is to be made in the times ahead. May his campaign continue for years to come.



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THE WAR IN IRAQ

People have been going through hell in Iraq for years, so I think it's fair to take a small fraction of that time to confront what's been going on there.

Reuters has put together a major retrospective that emphasizes journalistic views of the conflict.

And I've got some questions that you're welcome to answer: What are the "sides" in the conflict? What does each side want? Who represents each side? What are the routes for communication among the sides?

NO END IN SIGHT: END IN SIGHT

The Film Forum run of the Iraq war documentary No End in Sight ends Thursday, September 6, 2007.

The movie doesn't harp on the false pretexts for invading Iraq; instead, it covers the occupation, showing how the Bush administration's policies and appointments threw the country deeper and deeper into chaos. It's yet another strong documentary critiquing the Bush years during the Bush years.



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HOPE FOR DEMOCRACY? Progress was made yesterday in the long struggle to bring full democracy to the United States of America. Yes, the House of Representatives passed a bill giving one Congressional vote to Washington, DC, the nation's capital.

The bill, passed by a 241-177 vote, provides for one voting DC representative and another from Utah in the House.

"This legislation corrects a serious flaw in our democracy," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the Democrat from California. "We will not rest until full voting representation in the House is granted to the District of Columbia."

Many people were encouraged by the promise of a continued peaceful transition to democracy in a country that has already spent billions of dollars and mobilized its soldiers to bring democracy to other countries. In the case of Iraq, the effort involved the creation of a new Iraqi constitution.

Yet the White House has threatened to veto the legislation, claiming it is unconstitutional. Furthermore, the bill may also face opposition in the Senate, where Republican Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who supported the American invasion of Iraq, pledged to oppose the legislation on the grounds that it is unconstitutional.

Previous coverage here.

Photo: David Marc Fischer