Why Obama Won and a Few Reviews

A friend of mine's seven year old son appeared in a Barack Obama commercial that premiered on the giant teletron in Times Square. He is African American. On Wednesday, he arrived at school elated because he felt a part of Obama's resounding victory and a part of America's future. His ignorant white school teacher commented on the election. She attributed Obama's win to "luck."

It wasn't luck. There is no way to diminish the enormous victory of Tuesday, November 4th. And this young man, just seven years old, stood up to his teacher. "Obama won because of a lot of hard work."

At seven! He pushed back against her ignorance without flinching or hesitation.

Let's look at the hard work: There is a very interesting chart on fivethirtyeight.com that compares the direct contact between the Obama campaign and voters and that of the McCain camp. Unfortunately, not all exit polls asked voters whether they had direct contact with either or both campaigns. However, of the states reporting, McCain out contacted voters in only one state: Wyoming, the same state where Dick Cheney lives (hides) and where he endorsed McCain-Palin. In each of the battleground states, Obama outworked McCain--Nevada: 21%; Colorado 17%; Indiana 15%, and so forth. Of twelve battleground states, Obama outperformed McCain on voter contact in eleven of those states. Be sure to look through the chart.

Also according to fivethirtyeight.com, Obama outperformed Kerry from 2004 among urban white voters by 9 percentage points. That's how far Sarah Palin's city-bashing went! Obama outperformed Kerry in all demographic groups except for two: older voters--65 years of age and older, and among gay and lesbian voters. Obama's gains were especially higher among the very poor and the very rich, and among parents.

Then there is the issue of the young voter. Although young voters did not turn out in numbers that exceeded the record turnout in other age groups, their vote might have been the tipping point especially in battleground states. Eighteen to twenty-nine year olds voted for Obama 68% to McCain 30%. These figures say so much about America. It means that race might mean less to our children and grandchildren than it does for people generations past.

The New York Times has a very comprehensive chart of voting patterns by a variety of demographics--gender, age, religion, race, etc.

Did we mention the fundraising? Obama raised $650 million from 3 million contributors from both traditional sources--big donors and flashy parties, but more importantly, from small donors from the Net. The social networking aspect of the barackobama.com site was sensational. If you haven't, read Joshua Greene's "The Amazing Money Machine," in the June issue of Atlantic Monthly.

Let's also mention the discipine and dedication. A friend of mine worked in Virginia for a week canvassing. Her field office was run like a military headquarters by a nineteen year old on leave from an Ivy League college. Madeleine Albright, former Secretary of State, also canvassed sections of Virginia for Obama in the days preceding the election. Imagine opening the door and seeing her standing there! Another friend canvassed in rural Ohio. His office had workers in the field for twelve-thirteen hours a day, competing with each other over the number of voter contacts. Another friend who also worked in Ohio was told to delete his personal blog, because the Obama campaign spoke in a single voice. He did.

Another great story about the election. Eva, a wonderful women who was a teacher and guidance counselor in the New York and Florida schools, now in her 80s, was my father's partner for the last three years of his life. She lives in Delray Beach, Florida. She went to the polls to vote early with Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman! They came in a van to the clubhouse in her community and loaded up the residents to get to the early voting polls. However, the lines were horrendous. So, Eva drove herself to the polls on election day and went right in. No lines. She got to vote, along with 78% of the Jewish vote, for Barack Hussein Obama.

And now for something completely different. Yesterday it rained torrentially in New York City which means that the museums filled to the brim. We went to the Modern to see the Van Gogh exhibit. It's a small exhibit, just twenty or so paintings, but worth the visit, especially if you can avoid the crowds, which we didn't. If you don't live near New York, visit the website.

There were several paintings I had never seen. "Lane of Poplars at Sunset" (1884); "Toward Evening" (1885); and "Evening Landscape" (1885) are arranged across a single wall in the Early Landscape section of the exhibit. Each uses orange rather than his customary yellow to denote the fading light of day. These paintings drew me in with their beauty and simplicity. None of them has that frenetic feel of his more familiar paintings like "The Starry Night" (1889).

We also saw a revival of "Speed-the-Plow," the David Mamet play at the Ethel Barrymore Theater. It stars Elizabeth Moss from Mad Men, Jeremy Piven from Entourage, and Raul Esparza from Pushing Daisies. The audience was much younger than most, and they loved the play. Using celebrity actors to attract younger audiences to live theater is an effective and important tactic. However, for me, only Raul Esparza, the least known of the actors, performed to exceptional standards. The play is about Hollywood, and since 1988 when it first premiered, we have had shows like Entourage which are far more stinging in its revelations. Jeremy Piven was constrained in his approach because of his over-the-top portrayal of Ari Gold on Entourage (based on Ari Emanuel, the brother of Obama chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel). However, for younger folks who aren't accustomed to live theater, it's an accessible and fun way to introduce yourself to the glories of theater.

In the evening, we saw "A Body of Water," by Lee Blessing at the Primary Stages, 59 East 59th Street. The play explores the role of memory in a range of human characteristics: personality, love, relationships, self confidence, decision-making, family. The play features Christine Lahti and Michael Cristofer. I found it annoying, repetitive, and whiny. Although the physical theater is wonderful: intimate and no bad seats.

Yes, Yes We Can

I spent thirteen hours working as a poll watcher in a community that was once one of the only integrated middle class suburbs of Long Island. Uniondale is a post World War II suburb that was home to many unionized workers from the Grumman Company, which used to make airplanes and other military accessories. The community became more and more African American as Grumman became smaller and smaller.

Uniondale is a community of homeowning African Americans, families, and multiple generations. Uniondale is also a community of new immigrants, many new citizens who came into vote cloaked in memories of their countries of origin. I couldn't imagine a better place to be than Uniondale yesterday.

Throughout the day men and women, often with their children, came into the gym to cast their votes. For many, it was a first vote cast. The number of first time voters was extraordinary. I knew because it was my job to help as many people as possible cast their votes on the machines, the old-style mechanical lever machines, rather than on provisional, affidavit ballots. We kept those to a minimum, because what was most important to me was to make sure that every vote counted. There were lines at times, there was a broken machine, there were problems with the registration lists, but throughout the day, as people lined up at my table with their stories, I was filled with hope and determination. I never felt tired. I only felt invigorated. We had no contact with the outside world except for the snippets that people brought to us: the turnout was extraordinary, the turnout was beyond imagination.

Men and women hobbled in on canes and with walkers. Men and women walked so agonizingly slowly, with dignity and pain written across their faces, because of illness and injury. Men and women brought herds of children into the voting booth with them, so that their children would know what it felt like to vote for someone who looked like them.

A ninety year old white woman with a deep Southern accent walked over to me. "The worst spanking I ever got as a child was after I called a Black woman a lady," she said with tears in her eyes, still wincing from the indignity. "Today I voted for Barack Obama."

We have so much work to do. Let the hope, love, trust, eagerness, determination that I felt last night stay with us through this transition. Now the hard work begins. Now the hardest work begins, because the Bush administration has left a mess in its wake.

As I drove from the polling place last night at about ten, driving to celebrate with friends, to be in a community of people to listen to Obama make that first speech as president elect, I was speaking with my friend Wini. That's when I began to cry. I realized that I who often ignores the power that being a lawyer provides me, had helped so many people all through the day for one reason: I did know the law, I was carrying a notebook full of statutory language. The men and women who worked at the Uniondale High School polling place with me trusted me to solve some of the problems that they couldn't. Make the phone calls. Negotiate solutions. Urge the person to get the court order, not to give up.

Today the work begins. As strange as it felt last night, as I listened to his speech, I believed that Obama was elected into a different America.

Thirty Minutes of Obama Just Six Days Until the Election

Some pundits are claiming that Obama has purchased this time because he has too much money. Ron Popeil, the king of the “infomercial” thinks that Obama will be able to keep our attention for thirty minutes. As the McCain campaign spews out venom of the most horrendous kind—dvds that try to brand Obama as all hype, a socialist, a danger.

Obama has avoided the negative, focusing on issues not on attacking character.

Now he begins: Our problems are long-lasting, not just the result of the last eight years. What is real and lasting change? What will Obama do to restore the long term health of our economy?

What is our resolve to change this country? Rebecca, a mother, with an awful lot of children, lives in a Missouri suburb. Her husband is in need of an operation, but he can’t do it now, because the disability won’t be enough for the family to live on. She labels snacks so that her kids don’t eat too much. They are obsessed with making ends meet. There was a time when she didn’t have to worry about this stuff.

An economy that honors the dignity of work—when was the last time we heard work described that way?

Rescue plan for the middle class: cut taxes, business tax credit for hiring, eliminate tax breaks for sending jobs abroad, low cost loans for small businesses. This will grow the economy, right now, to restore fairness.

Workers earn their pensions. Americans don’t expect government to solve all of their problems, they want to retire with some dignity.

Common sense Midwestern sensibility, that’s what Obama brings to problem solving.

The retired couple in Ohio, who have lived in their home for ten years, work they did themselves. They have grown children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. Their medical bills have been rising—twelve medications per day for her. She doesn’t have medical insurance after he retired. To meet payments, they have taken equity out of their house. He now has to go back to work to meet their financial challenges. He is 72 years old and still working, because her hands are so gnarled from arthritis. This is heartbreaking. We all know too many people who haven't been able to retire because they can't afford to rest.

We have to do something about health care and jobs. First, let’s start with energy independence. Invest in alternative fuels and energy efficiency. Help auto companies retool and to help make these new cars affordable. Tap natural gas, clean coal, but call on everyone to conserve energy.

Spending cuts for government, too, not just for individuals.

We must change our policies in Iraq. We are spending more in Iraq now than we did in the beginning of the war. We need to invest this money in America, not in Iraq. Most innovation comes from small business. Exxon and Mobile doesn’t need government help. Small business does.

Juliana Sanchez is a widow. She has devoted her life to her kids. They live in New Mexico. She works at a school for at risk kids. Juliana has a second job, caring for a special needs child. She takes teacher training classes, and is raising her own children. “I feel like I can’t breathe even though I have to breathe.”

No education policy can replace an involved parent.

Obama was shaped more by his father’s absence than by his presence.

Obama sees education as a moral obligation. So do I.

We can create schools that work. Rigorous school reform can make schools work again. Scholarships to college can be geared to public service.

Health care, lower costs through technology. His mother died quickly from cancer. It was heartbreaking to go on that lonely path of illness and death. It taught me to seize the moment.

I want to do something about it. Which reminds me of my friend Vanessa’s sermon “someone oughta.” We oughta, with Obama as our leader.

Quality of Obama that is different: clear leader, immediate impact, changed the rules, works across party lines.

Third generation Ford employee: manufacturing jobs bought the American dream. Mark and Melinda, with cut hours, are now struggling to make ends meet. Their fathers got full retirement. Melinda was laid off. How will they survive?

We have to defend liberty. I will rebuild our military, renew direct diplomacy, refocus fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban. These are sons and husbands who are fighting, we can’t forget that. How he thinks about war and peace: approaches these rationally.

We all have stories about coming from another country, working in a coal mine, in a factory: someday my child or grandchild will have a home.

Will Obama be able to heal this country? There are unusual good sides of this man that we need in this country now.

I will always tell you what I think and where we stand. I will listen to you when we disagree. I will ask you to be involved in your own democracy again.

Live from Florida: in six days, we can choose an economy that grows, we can choose to invest in health care and education for our kids, hope over fear, unity over division, change over status quo. One nation, one people. That’s what’s at stake.

In this last week, knock on some doors for me, make some calls for me, stand by my side. We will win this election and together we will change this country and we will change the world.

On the Tenth Anniversary of Google--I Hope We Aren't Getting Stupid

Google started in 1998, and ten years later, we have grown mighty accustomed to getting what we believe are the facts now. This impetuous need to know instantaneously might be making us stupid. That's what Nicholas Carr suggested in his July-August 2008 Atlantic Monthly article "Is Google Making Us Stupid?"

When was the last time you got through a 600 page book?

Our attention span, our impatience, our faulty memories are all perhaps the result of this ubiquitous search engine. Google is now a verb, you know.

When Al Franken was still doing radio on Air America, he had a quiz. I think the question was: who was the first president to throw a starting baseball at a game where the Senators won?

While he was waiting for someone to call in, Al mused something like this: There used to be a time when there was a very small group of guys who had that information in their heads and showed off their treasures of trivia in verbal sparing matches. Now everyone just Googles.

Watching Sarah Palin last night, I wondered if America was going to buy the marketing of a telegenic fundamentalist Christian woman without any experience as a competent vice president because she can deliver a speech written by a group of talented comedy writers.

I'm not quite sure how she can claim the McCain-Palin team is going to go to Washington to save us from what the other Republicans, including McCain, have done in the last eight years. But she did, and among the cheers and bravado, aided by the pundit commentary last night and today, since Sarah Palin can deliver a speech with humor and good timing, suddenly McCain has a shot at the White House.

Palin charges that Obama is an elitist while Cindy McCain applauds wearing $300,000 worth of clothing and jewelry?

But maybe America has gone stupid. We do get our news from a comedian. Jon Stewart is the fourth most popular "news anchor" in America although Jon Stewart insists he is merely a comedian (watch the riveting interview with Bill Moyers on Bill Moyers Journal. )

We elected George Bush once because people figured they would prefer to have a beer with him than with Al Gore even though Bush had quit drinking. And we elected Bush again despite his administration's tragic failures because he made John Kerry, his opponent, appear effete and cowardly, although Kerry had a distinguished war record and Bush had avoided Viet Nam by pretending to be a jet fighter pilot in the Texas Air National Guard. How did that happen?

It can happen again because we have grown impatient with complexity, with nuance, with the process of how things need to evolve. Sometimes even understanding the problem takes years to uncover. What appears to be cause and effect might just be happenstance. We often miscalculate and create unintended consequences. We can't Google an answer to the difficult issues facing this country: health insurance, poverty, unequal access to public education, a criminal justice system that fosters despair and recidivism, a global economy, energy needs that are redistributing power to people we don't really understand or trust, tribalism, water, the climate, and the very future of our planet. How will we get along as more people compete for dwindling resources?

Just beneath the facade of sarcasm and contempt that Sarah Palin exhibited last night is a deeply rooted authoritarianism that pervades the Republican Party of this century. And a fierceness that is somewhat like the passion of a jihadist: I suspect that Sarah Palin believes, as George Bush does, that she has been chosen by God, by her God.

Now how are we going to wake up, use our cognitive brains again, and stop wanting easy solutions so much that we vote into power people who don't believe in us, but who believe in their own anointment.

Why I am voting for Barack Obama

I am a middle aged woman with a career in law, a mother, and a wife. I am voting for Barack Obama for President.

Here’s why: We need a president who understands the boundaries of the US Constitution and respects the Rule of Law. Obama taught Constitutional Law at one of the most prestigious law schools in the country, University of Chicago, and has already shown the courage needed to stand by the Rule of Law, even in times of uncertainty. Steadfast belief in the Constitution is essential to democracy. According to Jane Mayer, in her book The Dark Side, immediately after September 11, 2001, the current administration improvised policies that ignored the restraints of the Constitution and international treaties. Decision making was concentrated into the hands of a few—Vice President Dick Cheney, his counsel David Addington, Donald Rumsfeld, Jay Bybee, and John Yoo--marginalizing those career professionals within the Departments of State, Defense, and Justice who questioned the legitimacy of their decisions and decision making processes.

We need a president who can restore our faith in the competency of government. Obama has surrounded himself with the best and the brightest of three generations of advisors. We need to rebuild our federal government so that it serves the interests of the people who work hard and pay their taxes. Cronyism and profiteering have marked this administration, whether it’s in New Orleans or Baghdad. Bush’s appointments have been ideological rather than based on knowledge and skill. Too many people have gotten rich off no-bid contracts; there has been no accountability, only scandal and profits for a few.

We need a president guided by a strong moral compass who can reclaim America's place as a beacon of opportunity and fairness. I can only hope that once in office he has the strength to maintain integrity; no one knows for sure what impact such power might have on any individual. To maintain a democracy here we need an engaged and informed electorate. Obama has inspired a new generation of young people to see themselves as part of the American community. We cannot win the hearts and minds of disillusioned men and women who have no hope, without living by example, making the United States once again the nation where people live "with liberty and justice for all."