Archive for November, 2008

President-elect Barack Obama

It’s taken me almost 36 hours to be able to write anything meaningful here, post-election. Sure, I feel an incredible sense of relief — as a Democrat (big D or small D, how could you not?) that the voice of the people has been heard and that again democracy (small D) has again emerged triumphant.

Understand what it is I’m saying: it’s not that Obama won, it’s that the polls were largely bourne-out by the election results, which means the election was on the whole, honest and fair. Many, many people I spoke with were worried that “them” “those people” wouldn’t allow Barack Obama to become president.

Although I’ll admit to having a pit in my stomach, I continued to argue for my faith in the American people. Even four years ago, with a race that was decidedly closer than it might have been, I told people that the American people would eventually come to the right conclusion and do the right thing. History has repeatedly show that patience, although eventually when pushed to the breaking point, massive and seemingly sudden change is embraced. Read the rest of this entry »

Colin Hanna, Liar.

I get that politics is rough and tumble and the both sides stretch the truth; I don’t love it as an old-school trained journalist, but with a decade of covering politics and nearly another decade as a participant, I kind of have a sense that you can stretch the truth in politics and people get that and factor it into their digestion of news and reporting.

But there are times when something gets so badly stretched that the truth is utterly snapped and someone needs to point it out. This time it comes from Chester County’s own Colin Hanna.

You might remember Hanna as a short-tempered, personality-challenged former county commissioner or may know him from his “Swift-Boat-Lite” PAC, LetFreedomRingUSA (and how someone showed up in both an LFRUSA commercial — the guy who says he won’t hire anybody if Obama is elected — and a McCain commercial makes one wonder about blatant violations of — wait for it — McCain-Feingold, but I digress).

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Barack Obama

Not one word for three weeks in the middle of a historic presidential campaign. I know. I suppose I could blame the five root canals I’m in the middle of, but that wouldn’t be the truth.

The truth is this: there were too many things to say and too many of them just wouldn’t have helped. As someone who expects to run county-wide next year, I realized there were few good things I could add to the conservation without being patently obnoxious. I also didn’t want to jinx anything. So, I’ve quietly consulted with a couple of legislative campaigns and kept my head down.

And worked.

But I will make this plea to my fellow Pennsylvanians: don’t skip out on voting Tuesday. While some analysts have likened our commonwealth to John McCain’s Alamo, everyone needs to get out and vote. There are no sure things in elective politics and no matter how sure the pundits are that Barrack Obama is going to win, we need each and every single vote.

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