TheNextReport

WE HAVE OVERCOME The tears in Jesse Jackson’s eyes said it all. Centuries of pain cleansed; damaged faith in humanity salvaged; a prophet’s dream redeemed. The election of Barack Obama as America’s first African American president has rained like a beneficent storm over a long parched waste land, offering relief to millions of people of color and others around the world who have believed in the value of racial equality and who yearn for human solidarity. Mr. Obama’s accomplishment is a testament to his grace and intelligence, to his unflappable demeanor and to his unparalleled oratorical gifts. He scaled a mountain burdened with history and human ignorance in a country that gave little indication it was truly ready for the change that he represented. Many thought that America wasn’t enlightened enough for a man of Obama’s caliber. I was one of them. There is something eminently biblical to Senator Obama’s victory. At the moment when the world’s economy has fallen apart, a new leade...

The Redistributor in Chief It is certainly an embarrassment. The ease with which John McCain and his team have elicited jeers from his supporters at the mention of “sharing the wealth” is an apt indicator of the brain damage sustained by a certain portion of the American populace over the years. With its roots in the Red Scare of the 1940s and 50s, the McCain campaign has pushed the buttons of the Cold War, tarring Barak Obama as a “socialist” for advocating what has been a part of the American landscape since 1903: the graduated income tax that places a larger tax burden on citizens with greater wealth. After enduring years of Bush administration policies that effectively transferred inordinate amounts of the nation’s wealth to those already wealthy, after witnessing the handover of $700 billion in a bailout of investment bankers and Wall Street manipulators, after seeing the loss of millions of jobs and the foreclosure of millions of homes, one would think that the great majorit...

Joe the Skinhead This is no Mr. Clean. Joe Wurzelbacher, the bald Ohio plumber who has turned into a mascot for the GOP, is as rabid a rightist as they come. Ever since his accidental ascent to the national stage, the plumber who is not a licensed plumber, has been inching his way forward as an official symbol of an ordinary Joe for a Republican Party that is desperately flailing away. Overnight, he has become another celebrity action figure in the McCain campaign, now appearing at McCain and Palin speeches enthralling crowds of supporters by his very presence. The Republican Party, along with the McCain campaign, appears to be going down the drain, so why not call in a plumber, or reasonable facsimile thereof? JTP is a manufactured common man, an appeal to the blind, nativist element of a party that has used the ignorance of ordinary, working class people to support the interests of its true constituency – the corporate aristocracy. At first refusing to endorse a candidate, the ...

Palin is Failin Maybe it was the SNL appearance that finally did in Sarah Palin. The VP nominee for the republican party finally appeared on the satire show next to the human caricature played by Tina Fey and was found wanting. Viewers quickly realized that Tina Fey was a better Sarah Palin than Sarah Palin. Time will tell, but it may be that the SNL appeance broke the spell that Caribou Barbie had on the nation. The truth is Sarah Palin was already sledding rapidly downhill. Polls have shown the Alaskan governor is at last clearly seen by voters as being far too inexperienced for the VP and is now among the most unpopular running mates in history. The brilliant creation of a conservative cupie doll for the GOP vice president has proven to be, like most of the McCain campaign, lacking in substance, superficial, nothing but window dressing. And speaking of window dressing: the revelation that republican National Comittee allocated $150,000 dollars to outfit Sarah Palin and her daug...

Sarah Fey I remember that when I first saw Sarah Palin I immediately thought of trying to reach Loren Michaels, the producer of Saturday Night Live, to urge him to contact Tina Fey about crafting an on-air skit featuring an impersonation of the Alaska governor. A few weeks later, the powers that be at NBC – or Tina herself – obviously had the same idea. When Ms. Fey’s impersonation became a hit, the nation’s rather unhealthy obsession with the moose hunting mama from the north country reached its zenith. Upon closer examination, the story of the former beauty queen turned vice-presidential candidate yields some amusing insights about the intersection of politics and pop culture in America. From Paris Hilton to Lindsay Lohan to Britney Spears our media-centric culture commonly manufactures celebrities by over-exposing their images in a manner that serves to reinforce their often banal personalities (which we somehow persistently find endearing). It is when a celebrity is deemed worthy o...

Yer Doin' a Heck of a Job, Paulie Last July, as Congress was about to vote on a request by the Bush Administration that would grant authority to shore up mortgage kingpins Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said in an interview on Meet the Press that it might take several months for the US economy to recover, but that the nation's banking system remained sound. That diagnosis, reminiscent of recent statements from John McCain and President Bush, was delivered two months ago. With the collapse yesterday of Washington Mutual, the largest bank failure in American history, Mr. Paulson's skills as a financial MD could certainly have been called into question. Yet, before last week, when the US Congress challenged a Bush plan to bailout the financial institutions that undergird the American economy, the administration was suggesting that the treasury boss be given almost sole control over a $700 billion I-V designed to keep the economy from completely ...

Fannie, Freddie and Daisy Mae It would be funny if it wasn’t so scary. George Bush is winding up his presidency by ushering in a financial crisis that not only threatens the security of the United States, but that of the entire world. In the midst of it all, the Republican Party continues to sing the praises of its choice for vice-president, an attractive, ditzy young woman who clearly hasn't got a clue and who could end up as the next occupant of the Oval Office. One would think that the American people would finally have gotten the message that putting poorly educated, greedy businessmen, -- aristocrats disguised as common folk -- in charge of the nation, would invariably result in disaster. After a long political campaign where voters heard numerous politicians and their surrogates describe the United States as “the greatest nation on the face of the earth,” Americans find they are losing their jobs to foreign labor, losing their homes to greedy speculators, losing their inves...

PT Barnum Rides Again or The Marketing of a Hockey Mom The absurd circus that Americans sometime refer to as their democracy is revealing itself in all its glory. Our electoral system - like so much of our society - is all about the marketing and branding of products. The selection of Alaskan governor Sarah Palin as candidate for vice president by the controllers of the GOP is a clear message to the electorate: we are going to market an attractive female politician to you, unlike anyone you have ever seen on the national political stage; someone with radical right-wing views; a petite woman with a cute macho swagger who is totally unqualified to be president of the United States! We will succeed in doing this because we are masters in creating brand loyalty and we have ultimate faith in the depth of your stupidity. The ascendancy of Sarah Palin reads a bit too much like a hymn to PT Barnum. After months of excoriating Barack Obama, accusing him of being a fast-talking, far-left celebr...

ACT OF GOD Odd, isn’t it? Last week, the reverend James Dobson, head of the ultra-conservative Christian group Focus on the Family, asked his parishioners to pray for rain on the evening that Barack Obama was to give his highly anticipated acceptance speech for the Democratic presidential nomination. Obama’s speech went off without a hitch and proved to be one of the most inspired pieces of oratory in the ‘08 campaign. Now it appears that God has had other plans for the Conservative flock. He has sent a hurricane to the Gulf Coast, which has caused the GOP to cancel its own convention on the eve of its opening. The switch comes just as Mr. Dobson expressed his renewed faith in the Republican ticket with the addition of the super right-wing Alaskan governor Sarah Palin to the McCain ticket. Will Dobson see this as a sign from heaven that God is on the side of the Democrats? Probably not. But the change in fortunes may yet prove to be a boon for the Republicans. Now instead of standing a...

Maverick Takes a Gamble In the television series “Maverick” James Garner played a classic American anti-hero – a cowboy who bucked the system to go his own way - a double dealer who in a high-stakes game gambled with a smile knowing he could out-fox his opponent. Americans have always been attracted to the scoff-law movie hero. From Bogart’s Rick in Casablanca to Eastwood’s Dirty Harry; from Tom Cruise in Top Gun to Harrison Ford in Star Wars, audiences have cheered for the renegade who achieves victory by breaking the rules that circumscribe us. At first glance, John McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate in the 08 presidential contest, would appear to be either a brilliant and bold strategic calculation or the most foolhardy political stunt in modern history. Yet, in truth it is more than either of these. In selecting a one-term Alaskan governor with no international experience, McCain is getting more than a die-hard conservative, more than a possible magnet for undec...

The Democrats Confection After several days of joyful noise and a handful of truly powerful speeches, the Democratic party convention in Denver is ready to elevate its chosen one - Barack Obama - to the presidency. The heavens of the Pepsi Center rang out last night as party leaders past and present testified to the unique abilities Mr. Obama has to bring together the many diverse stands of the American fabric, who by his very presence seemed to embody the reclamation of an America that has always existed in name only - a land of lofty ideals of freedom and righteousness dreamed by the nation's founders. Even the most hard-bitten and cynical pol had difficulty avoiding tears as the official roll-call was read in Denver, a slow and steady build-up to the proclamation of Senator Obama as the country's chief executive. It is ironic that the religious right - which has done much to force its narrow theological agenda on the country via the Republican Party - had the opportunity las...

When You're in a Hole What a waste. Next week as the Republicans take the stage and the curtain rises on the Greek Tragedy that they have created in America, one thing is certain: the tragedy will be portrayed as a triumph. Should one expect logic from a political party whose only reason for being is to perpetuate itself at the cost of those it is supposed to serve? It is indeed a sad reflection on the intelligence of the American public that after bringing the country so much ruin, the GOP could be in a dead heat for another turn at the White House. The Republican machine -- the political instrument of the oil industry in America -- continues to pump out distortions and false statements in describing two of the most important issues of the day: the war in Iraq, and energy security. The McCain campaign has, of late, anointed itself as the party of oil drilling, using the popularity of expanding offshore exploration to hammer Democrats who oppose such practices. Though most energy ...

Celebrity Cult Isn't it interesting that the GOP's favorite assault on the candidacy of Barack Obama is that he is inexperienced and is nothing but a celebrity? Perhaps they forgot about Ronald Reagan? Before being elevated to the role of God the Father in the Republican pantheon, Ronald Reagan had been a two term governor of California from 1966-1974. Prior to that, he was a celebrity. The Great Communicator began his career as a radio personality and an announcer for the Chicago Cubs baseball team. He signed his first movie contract with Warner Brothers in 1937, the first step in a career as a B movie actor that would span three decades. In addition to his heights as a thespian, the co-star of such memorable fare as Bedtime for Bonzo was best known as a celebrity spokesman for companies such as General Electric. Perhaps being a celebrity in politics is not so bad after all.

Here's what Barack Obama must do if he truly wants to win the election: 1. Convey more passion, even a sense of anger at the condition the Republican Party has left the country in. Model that outrage for the American people till they feel it in their bones. Mr. Obama, clearly one of our nation's most effective orators, must connect with people emotionally as well as intellectually. Use well-honed logical arguments, but demonstrate more clearly the urgency of ending Republican leadership by consistently using a more dramatic tone of voice. Explain what is at stake and why the country must not risk making the same mistake it did when it thought it was buying security by electing George Bush. Use power phrases such as: "How many banks must fail, how many of our homes must be foreclosed, how many jobs must be lost, how many people must go bankrupt trying to pay for health care, how many Americans must come home in body bags before we stand up as a nation and say enough!" ...

McCain Spears Obama In the classic 1939 film "The Wizard of OZ" Dorothy Gale goes on a journey in a magical land to find a wizard who will help her find her way back home. Arriving at the Emerald City, she and her fellow travelers are given an audience with the Wizard who puts on a fantastic light show, only to be revealed as a fraud - an ordinary song and dance man - when Dorothy's little dog Toto pulls back the curtain of the control room. For those watching the 2008 presidential campaign who had not yet been convinced that the Republican party lives in the Land of Oz, John McCain’s campaign released an attack ad that equates Barack Obama with Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. Ridiculous you say; harmless stupidity that no one will take seriously? In John McCain’s Land of Oz it's no surprise to discover that when we pull back the curtain, the wizard who is telling people what they should think is really a political functionary with a video budget - what is sometimes...

The Flap Over the Cover The flap over the The New Yorker Magazine cartoon cover that depicted Barak Obama in Islamic garb and his wife Michelle packing an Ouzi was a revelation for those who monitor the sometimes silly state of American political discourse. The outrage expressed by Obama supporters and opinion makers on the left was enough to make even the most cynical observer scratch his head in disbelief. Otherwise intelligent and widely respected commentators in the progressive media were quick to condemn the magazine for publishing a cartoon that, on its surface, seemed to give credence to the most damning false characterizations used by ultra-conservatives to attack the Obama campaign. These commentators apparently feared that, in addition to insulting the Obamas, the cartoon could sway opinions of those trying to make up their minds about the presumptive Democratic nominee. They dutifully attacked the New Yorker for not providing “context” to the image; some even demanded an apo...

A Sour Grape Couldn't be More Sweet With the primary season over and the political conventions on the way, talk of selection of presidential running mates again is filling the airwaves. The situation encourages more speculation of the sort that the media thrives on and points up once again how our political system is really an exercise in crass commerce. Now, as both Senator Obama and Senator McCain review their short lists and again weigh the value of choosing their most ardent primary opponents among those who could be possible running mates, American voters will be reminded how easy it is for us to disbelieve what our leaders say. We shall be reminded that, when it comes to winning, it is okay, even expected, that those running for political office are hypocrites. It would seem unlikely that after the grueling primary campaigns Barack Obama would choose Hilary Clinton or John McCain would choose Mitt Romney to be second in command. Yet, cable news pundits and other political c...

We Want Obama – for the Supreme Court Anything is better than this. After living through the continuing agony of the Democratic primary race, I have come to the conclusion that we may have been better off utilizing the old boss system to select candidates. The return of Tammany Hall to Democratic politics wouldn’t be such a bad idea. Those were the good old days – days of smoke-filled rooms and back room deals; days of patronage and the engineering of elections. Barack Obama’s once too cozy relationship with corrupt real estate mover and political operative Tony Rezko, and Hillary Clinton’s questionable ties to Asian and Saudi financial interests demonstrate that the ethics of boss Tweed are still alive in one form or another anyway. Why not make it official? The Democratic Party simply needs to come up with an alternative to Obama and Clinton whose well-managed hit-man campaigns have unfortunately turned them both into clowns. The fact that a majority of the country will not be able ...

Of Risks and Consequences Perhaps somebody read my last blog. When I called for party elders to put a stop to the carnage occurring in the Democratic primaries by appealing to Al Gore to consider having his name placed on the ballot, it was because the “should have been president of the United States” seemed to represent the most logical resolution to the jeopardy posed by the Democratic bloodletting. Yet, how realistic is it to appeal to rational thought in an unusual election governed by the raw emotions of race and gender? The mindless egotism of identity politics is reflected in the reports that 28-30% of Obama and Clinton supporters say that they would vote for John McCain if their preferred candidate was not chosen. In the current climate, rational thought has clearly taken a sabbatical. Even if a small percentage of those who backed the primary loser decide to stay home on election day out of spite, the result could tip the scales in McCain’s favor if the race is close. The med...

Gore Once More Remember back in 2006 when speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi proclaimed that impeachment of George Bush was "off the table?” She indicated that the Democratic Party would make better use of its time enacting its legislative agenda, insisting that redress for what many had perceived as the president’s egregious violations of his office would assuredly come with the election of a Democratic president in 2008. Now, as the Democrats dismember themselves in a scorched earth primary season, the prospects for Pelosi’s vision of justice becoming reality are rapidly slipping away. With the election of John McCain as president, Messirs Bush and Cheney will not only be absolved of their misdeeds, their legacy will be enshrined for years to come in an interminable military engagement in the Middle East and in a right-wing Supreme Court that will likely change America until well into the foreseeable future. This doesn't have to happen. It is becoming clear with each passing ...

Iraq Plus Five - Ho Hum Five years after the US invaded Iraq, the war grinds on, unsupported by the majority of the American people or the Iraqi populace. The conflict in Iraq has now lasted longer than World War II and will end up costing many times more. If one is to believe the statements of the Bush administration and president George Bush’s presumptive Republican successor John McCain, the war is going just fine. The same arrogance and disdain for the intelligence of the American people that allowed this disaster to happen was manifested again in statements by President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and John McCain yesterday. In his message to the country, the president again outlined the now famous narrative that if we don’t win in Iraq, al-Qaida will establish a stronghold from which it will be able to attack the United States. Never mind that we have all but ignored going after al-Qaida in Pakistan where, according to most observers, including our own government, Osama bin ...

The Dream Team is a Nightmare You have to wonder when the Democrats will wake up. After Hillary Clinton’s primary wins in Texas and Ohio brought her and Barack Obama into a near tie in pledged delegates, the media pundits, party apparatchiks and the ever-blissful Democratic primary voters began to opine that the party would have no choice but to unite by supporting a Clinton/Obama (or Obama/Clinton) ticket. This idiotic idea has now been publicly endorsed by none other than former president Bill Clinton who termed the union of his wife and Barack Obama as being a potentially “unstoppable force.” Perhaps I am missing something, but this hare-brained scheme seems to suggest that a Democratic ticket without a running mate who possess strong enough national security credentials to match those of John McCain’s would somehow still spell success for the party in the general election. Over the course of many months and during numerous debates, both Clinton and Obama have taken pains to unders...

Count Your Change Now that the race for president is over and the Democrats have lost the White House yet again, it may be instructive to reflect on how it happened and perhaps finally consider that it is time to change the system. Declaring that the 2008 campaign is finished may be a bit premature you say? Hardly. While it’s true that the cable news channels will continue to churn out their form of information to make a horse race seem inevitable, the eventual result couldn’t be clearer. These last few days have seen the departure of John Edwards and Rudi Giuliani from the race, the endorsement of Barack Obama by the Kennedys and the near coronation of John McCain after his victory in Florida. These events remind us of two important, sobering facts: the first is that idealism – the pursuit of noble principles and moral purposes – is intrinsic to American political discourse; the second is that bottom-line concerns over national security will trump idealism almost every time. Along wit...

The First Laddie Former president Bill Clinton is a man possessed. He is, once again, explaining for public consumption the intimate details of a love affair – this time, with his wife. Now roundly criticized by power brokers in his own party for being impolitic with his remarks chastising the Obama campaign, the former president has clearly become his wife's most ardent champion. Bill Clinton's entry into Hillary Clinton's campaign was a strategy born from a widespread belief in the enduring political skills and the popularity of the 42nd president. His spousal advocacy displays an ardor, however, that would appear to go beyond mere support of Hillary's quest for office. In Bill Clinton's mind, the election of the first woman president may in fact be the last act of a grand political passion play featuring the First Man: the resurrection of the impeached. Granted an unprecedented second opportunity to enact a policy agenda that was derailed by his fall from grace,...

The Dems Open a Vein With so much at stake for the future of the nation and the world, one would think that the Democratic Party and its supporters would have acted with a bit more deliberation before blithely tossing away the presidential election. With George Bush and the party he represents held in such apparent low esteem by the nation, one has to wonder how the Democrats can possibly snatch defeat from the jaws of victory; yet, if last week is any indication, that is exactly what they have been aiming to do. That Hillary Clinton would decide that the best way to win the South Carolina primary and its majority African-American voters would be to attack Martin Luther King on his birthday is about as believable as the contention that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction in 2002. Yet, driven by an incessant media hype, the perception that Clinton was denigrating Dr. King by pointing out Lyndon Johnson's key role in shepherding civil rights legislation through Congress became viabl...

We Like Mike? One can never fail to be amused or mystified by the American political process. The race for the presidency among the Republican candidates helps one to remember that media-driven politics in the U.S. – especially of the presidential variety – is very similar to another American phenomenon: the carnival sideshow. There a snake oil salesman – the slippery carnival barker – stands in front of the crowd promising thrills and chills, a peek perhaps at a bearded lady, a strongman or a Siamese twin, or two. Eager for entertainment, the public slaps down its greenbacks to enter the tent and see for themselves what they may otherwise find difficult to believe, oblivious of the fact that they are being had. Witness the ascendancy of Mike Huckabee who won the Iowa caucus. The prevailing punditry would have us believe that Mr, Huckabee, a former minister, swept to victory in Iowa because he most clearly embodied the conservative Christian values characteristic of the majority of rur...