Looking For Michelle

I never asked Barack to deliver Iowa. But I did ask Michelle - in person - to deliver Iowa, and deliver she did.

Michelle Obama Is Just Fabulous
I Stand With Michelle: Iowa Must And Can Be Won
Before Michelle And I Became Rich And Famous

Michelle was right. No Iowa was Obama going home instead of to the White House, and she delivered. She publicly stated in the fall of 2007 that Iowa was a must, and became a little unpopular with some of the staff. But that was okay. Truth be told.

And now it is election time all over again. And I don't see how Barack can win if Michelle is not going to hit the campaign trail.

Barack Obama is a politician. Hillary Clinton is a politician. Bill Clinton is a politician. But Michelle Obama is not a politician. That is her appeal.

Her brother said in 2007, she hates politics, but she hates losing even more, and that is why she was pounding the pavement for Barack Obama.

Barack defied history in 2008. Black folks were not meant to become president, I don't care if your father is from Kenya, and mother from Kansas. Well, Barack broke that rule.

Now the rule is he is supposed to lose the House and the Senate in November. If he loses the House and the Senate in November, no one is going to come out and say Barack is a bad guy. First term presidents are supposed to lose the first midterm election. That has been the norm.

But I am of the mind that Barack needs to defy history all over again. He needs to do whatever it takes to keep the House and the Senate. He needs that to be able to do the good work he wants to do on immigration reform next year. He needs that to be able to present himself as the guy who will cut the deficit and bring down the debt as he gears for re-election.

Keeping The House And The Senate
Crisis: Opportunity For Greatness For Obama
The Dumbfuck Immigration Laws
Save Immigration For 2011
In South Africa They Had Apartheid, In America They Got Immigration

And that is where the non politician comes in. The politician could not have done it without the non politician in 2008. He sure can't do it in 2010.

Looking For Professor Obama

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Assigned To The Astoria Office

Image via CrunchBase

I have been assigned by Reshma 2010 to work out of the Astoria office the final few days that I signed up to volunteer. I will be making phone calls and knocking on doors. And I will do whatever else I am asked to do. One thing would be boost the morale of the staff/interns/volunteers/gawkers in the office, and any passers by on the sidewalk.

I signed up for Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. But I have a feeling I might show up also tomorrow, Friday. The idea would be to show up after lunch and stay as late as possible.

I have emailed some key people on the staff saying we need a ton of cookies and vitamin water in the two offices. Every time I have sat down to make phone calls, it has felt like a sea voyage. I have labored over it. Phone calls don't come naturally to me. I do much better with small group small talk. Did I say I don't own a phone?

I showed up for the office opening party in Astoria. (Reshma 2010: Queens Office Opening Party: August 9) My first reaction that I shared with many people was, I actually like this office better than the Manhattan office. The Astoria office is democracy, the Manhattan office is capitalism. Voters are not elevator fodder. Voters are sidewalk people.

The Astoria office is on the ground floor. It is at street level. The entire office is see through. People on the sidewalk can see the entire office except the inside of the restroom, and that probably is by design.

I really like that proximity to the sidewalk. You can step out and suddenly you are a man of the people. You could be someone gawking in while passing by.

Before I started volunteering for Reshma 2010, it is like I had never been to Astoria proper. The neighborhoods are so great. They are so very inviting. I mean, I had been to the Beer Garden during Obama 08. Alexis, who was a key Obama person in Queens, was out of there. That Beer Garden place is really something. It has got to be the best beer place in the city, and I am not even much of a beer drinker. It is the setting I dig.

The last time I was at the Astoria office was right after the community conversation event in Queens 10 blocks away. I walked the 10 blocks to the office and picked two more Reshma 2010 red, white, and blue shirts, my uniform for this election season. Right before that 10 block walk, I got lost for a few blocks after I stepped outside the Holiday Inn where the event was. It is much easier to not get lost when you follow the train tracks.

Jon Gardiner in tow, I showed up. My first reaction, we need Reshma 2010 posters all over that thing at the top of the entrance. That is so much wasted free advertising space. That would work 24/7.

NY1, NY1, NY1, NY1, NY1
Roosevelt Island: Community Conversation
Community Conversation: Upper East Side
Reshma's Lower East Side Community Conversation

NYConvergence: Custom Shirts, GPS Dating And Hyperlocal News At The NY Tech Meetup: The NY Tech Meetup celebrated Rosh Hashanah last night the traditional way: hosting 800 people for a full course of startup demos. Thrown into the mix were a presentation by Google and an appeal from Democratic Congressional candidate Reshma Saujani (running in New York's 14th district) to get involved, specifically by voting or volunteering for her. She has emphasized technological innovation and tax breaks for investment in her campaign.

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Hillary's Peace Efforts In The Mideast

Time: Hillary Clinton's Risky Return To Mideast Peace Talks: last March, when she called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to scold him for a perceived slight to Vice President Joe Biden. ..... see her take center stage in this week's meetings relaunching peace talks between Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas...... she also has the ability to talk to these leaders as a significant political figure in her own right and also as a political figure who can appreciate their dilemmas and can help them work through the tough politics on both sides......Netanyahu and Abbas have agreed to meet every two weeks ..... Behind the scenes, Clinton has been preparing for her new role. She ordered a review of all previous U.S. efforts in the peace process, including analyses of what worked and what didn't.... she thinks it's possible

Hillary was a great choice for Secretary Of State. I rooted for her the first chance I got. For someone who almost became president to agree to become Secretary Of State, I appreciated the gesture.

This Mideast permanent mess is one area where she can rely greatly on her husband. Bill Clinton is the last guy who came really, really close to getting it done. If Arafat had settled for a good peace instead of the perfect peace he wanted, it would have been done back in 2000.

The pendulum swung the other way for a decade. Now it is time to get the pendulum swinging our way one more time. It is time to engage, it is time to talk peace.

I don't think there is any debate that a two state solution is where it is at. Even the roadmap is quite obvious. It is the drama of all the intermediate steps that is the challenge.

Could Hillary dance the dance? If she could she will get something Bill Clinton never got, although I can't imagine he did not want to, a Nobel. That guy also wanted Warren Buffett's money.

I am confident she can get it done. For one, she is not starting in the final year of a two term president.

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