October 2008 Archives

Philadelphia has waited 28 years and 46 hours for this moment when Brad Lidge struck out Cliff Floyd to win the 2008 World Series.  One of the most memorable moments of my childhood was watching the 1980 Phillies win the World Series. 

Although I have not followed the Phillies religiously since then, once a Phillies fan, always a Phillies fan.  Watching this team, this year, I was brought back to my younger days, when the whole world seemed to hang on a single out.  I had a sense of that feeling again tonight, and the joy that comes with the last out.

Congratulations to the 2008 Philadelphia Phillies and to all my fellow Phillies fans.

This has been a perfect sports weekend from my perspective.  Over the last 36 hours, we have seen the Phillies win not one, but two World Series games, the Eagles beat the Falcons and, of course, the Penn State Football Nittany Lions beat Ohio State at the Horseshoe in Columbus.

Over the last few days I have received four phone calls from the McCain campaign and one mailer from the Republican national committee.  Of the four phone calls, two have been robo calls, one was a person and the other was a person inviting us to the Palin event at Penn State a week prior to the election.

To read the rest of this post, visit the Vote'08 Blog on WPSU.org.

While many of us have found it difficult to forgive Colin Powell for the decisive role he played in lending credibility to the lies that led us into Iraq, his endorsement of Obama today on Meet the Press goes a long way toward winning him some degree of redemption.  The passion with which he spoke in particular about the "really right answer" to the question of Obama's being a Muslim earned him my admiration.

Last night's presidential debate was, on the whole, quite substantive, offering the public a good sense of the fundamental differences between McCain and Obama on issues ranging from health care to foreign policy.  However, the single most poignant moment from my perspective was when McCain disdainfully referred to Obama as "that one," pointing his index finger across his chest toward Obama, but never looking directly at him.

The comment and the gesture captured the deep level of contempt McCain has for Obama. It seemed to express something  bitter and angry at the core of McCain's character. As my mother suggested at the time, the phrase "that one" trades on an undercurrent of racism associated with references to "those people."

Although much more distasteful, I wonder if this gesture will have the same effect on McCain's ultimate quest for the White House that  George H.W. Bush's impatient glance at his watch during the 1992 debate had on his quest for a second term.

This is also posted on the WPSU.org Vote2008 blog available here.

The girls and I went out canvassing for Obama again on Saturday and I learned something: the front porch is where the world can be changed.

OK, that sounds perhaps a bit grandiose, but I think it is something both Socrates and Jesus knew well: that the conversations we have with each individual we encounter changes everything.

Yesterday, Chloe, Hannah and I visited 29 houses in the Greentrees neighborhood of State College.  We talked to people at 18 of them. Some people were already planning to vote for Obama, a few had decided in favor of McCain. Many, though, were undecided and open to hearing why I was out on a cloudy and cool Saturday afternoon with my daughters knocking on doors for Obama.

I think we changed a few minds, moving undecided voters toward supporting Obama. I am not sure how much my arguments about Obama's economic plan or his health care initiatives had an impact. I had the sense that it was less what I said than it was that I was there on their front porch with my girls talking to them about issues that matter to us all. My hope is that these short conversations, these brief connections, will stay with people and move them to vote in November.

Of course, our adventures on Saturday were not all so wonderful. Toward the end of our route, about two and a half hours into it, with my two little political activists beginning to tire, we happened to knock on the door of a rabid libertarian, his wife, two kids and a friend of theirs. They all came right out onto the porch to aggressively interrogate me as to why I support Obama. Before I could say much, the man dismissed my comments as platitudes and declared all government to be evil. We then had a lively discussion, in which, among other things, I was told that the government should run its business like he runs his rental business and that it should not  lend money to lazy people who can't afford to pay. When I pressed him on the question of what we owe to one another as members of a community, he said bluntly: "nothing."

With that, I bid him farewell, giving some of my Obama literature to his friend, who I felt to be silently supportive of me throughout. As I left, saddened and disheartened, my libertarian friend informed me that he would be writing himself in as president this year because, as he said, "I am smarter than Obama and McCain." I told him: "good luck with that," shook off my sadness and forged ahead to the next house.

After that encounter, I was so happy to meet at the next house a middle aged woman who came out in her socks to talk to me as the girls ran all over her freshly cut lawn. As I apologized for that, she assured me it was no problem, said she had not decided for whom she was voting and listened to me talk about why I was out there advocating for Obama. After our short conversation, she said: "you know, I think I will vote for Obama."

The world can indeed be changed by a conversation on the front porch.

This is a simple call for anyone who comes across this blog and agrees with what they find here to please register to vote.

The Pennsylvania deadline is Monday, October 6th.

I have added the voter registration gadget from Google below for all US citizens eligible to vote to easily determine how to register online by typing in their address here.

Please take the time to register.  If you don't vote, you have no voice; but you can't vote unless you register!

The last vestiges of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, which was passed during the first year of the Franklin Roosevelt administration in an attempt to regulate the banking industry in the face of the Great Depression, were repeled in 1999 by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, signed into law by Bill Clinton.

With a stroke of the pen, Bill Clinton, who campaigned on the idea that "the era of big Government is over," completed a process begun in 1980, in the Reagan administration.  Reagan, who campaigned on the idea that he would "get government off our backs," began the process of deregulation. In 1980, the Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act was passed. It removed the power of the Federal Reserve Board to set interest rates for savings accounts originally established by Glass-Steagall.

The process of deregulation that began with Reagan and was completed by Clinton has brought us to the crisis we face today.

To read the rest of this post, including the suggestion that Smart Government replace Big Government, see WPSU.org.