Politics

Theodore Roosevelt once said the following:

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.

I learned that quote working in Iowa for the Dean campaign as a novice in politics, just before our soul crushing loss. It has been engrained in my skull ever since. This is our opportunity to reverse 8 years of impropriety, corruption, aggression, war, greed, and Bush's every man for himself attitude. This is our opportunity for us to make positive changes for our country and the world. This Tuesday is our chance to improve Education, The Environment, Voters Rights, Freedom of Speech, The Court System, Congress, The Senate, Women's Rights, Foreign Policy, Technology, The Military, The Healthcare System, Immigration, Civil Rights, homeland Security, Government Infrastructure, and Iraq. This election can't be a simple 50+1 majority, it has to be a shellacking that makes people understand that fundamental changes have to happen in this country. It needs to an absolute rejection of Bush, McCain and the entire Republican movement.

Even if you've never volunteered before, think about the direction you want this country to go, take the next step and VOLUNTEER . Wether it's one hour or one day. Take a day off if you can. Having no experience is no excuse, as a lot of the volunteers are new to this. Obama's team will train you, it will be ok. You can even do it from your own home.

I'm in a Regional Get Out the Vote office, printing canvas packets all day. I'll be doing it Sunday and Monday too. Then I'm going to a polling place and acting as a poll watcher to make sure no one loses their vote. I won't stop until the polls are closed.

If a lazy bastard like me can do that for 4 days out of my life, you can give an hour. Your family will be there when you get back, they'll have you the other 361 days this year. Cancel whatever you are doing, and help finish this thing once and for all. An hour, a day, 4 days, whatever you can give.

Do it for me, do it for Charlie, do it for your family, do it for yourself. We're on the verge of making history and we can not get complacent. Do what Teddy asks, get out there, and please make a difference.

If you don't, you'll make this sweet innocent baby cry.

Don't be a punk. Go do something more than vote. Then let me know that you did it so I can have even more respect for you than I already have.

Like Teddy says, Know in the end the triumph of high achievement.

Love and hugs,

The Mordecai Hope and Change Factory

The Democratic Conventio Podium, originally uploaded by Advodude.

It's clearly stressing Charlie out.

Traveling to Netroots Nation this year was a ton of fun and as always an educational experience. I'm sad to see that Gina is retiring as director, but hopefully there will be much fun next year in Pittsburgh. Things I learned at the conference:

• Being away from my kid and wife now officially is a bowl of suck.
• Joe Trippi can look un-disheveled.
• I miss my kid.
• Old friends are good to catch up with.
• I perpetually wonder if I'm missing something cool that my kid did every minute I'm away from him.
• A lot more people than just my immediately family read this blog. I had no idea that many people were interested in poop.
• I can not handle booze like I used to.
• I can beat the smartest lawyer ever at poker.
• I often miss my wife.
• The Alamo Drafthouse is everything I hoped it would be and more.
• I like not being peed on.
• I was really excited to get 5 full nights of sleep. Too bad I still only got 1.
• I can not handle booze like I used to.
• Sometimes things I think will be exciting are in fact incredibly boring.
• Sometimes things I think will be boring are in fact incredibly exciting.
• Tearing up after watching a video of my kid yawning does not make me lame...I think.
• Sometimes, there can be such a thing as too many parties.
• I really can not handle booze like I used to.
• Austin is a awesome place.
• If you sponsor an event, the chance of you hearing your company get a shout out works in direct correlation with your inability to hold you bladder. The more you leave an event to pee, the more they will say your name without you there. If you stay in the room they will conversely refrain from mentioning you at all.
• Charlie and Heather can apparently function without me. That's disconcerting as everything is supposed to be about me.
• Everybody wants an Advoshirt.
• Being away from my kid and wife now officially is a factory of suck.

Can't wait till next year.

I apologize for this tangent away from family into politics, but I just couldn't let this slide. Last night I was watching MSNBC's coverage when I saw Tweety Mathews corner a guy from Texas like so (the fun starts at 3:30 in the video) :

I was so annoyed I was basically yelling at the TV, "Tell him, dude. Tell him what Obama did. Just name one thing!" But then I thought to myself, "What a minute, I CAN'T NAME ONE THING." At 6:12 into the video Olbermann does a good job of putting Tweety back in his place, which felt good, however I was still without an answer on what Obama had done.

I have always based my support for Obama on the fact that he's inspirational enough to triple the youth vote and bring in independents, thus shellacking McCain in the general election and giving us a more successful chance of getting more congress critters in the house and senate. It was more a pragmatic decision than one based on who I thought was the more substantial candidate. So I never bothered to learn the details of what he actually did. So this morning I went back and looked on Daily Kos where they were also talking about last night. What I discovered was not only did he sponsor some legislation, he sponsored a metric tonage of legislation.

In Illinois, he sponsored over 800 bills.

On the federal level, in his short time, he passed a decent amount of legistlation, in a bi-partisan manner>. His first year in the U.S. Senate, he authored 152 bills and co-sponsored another 427. Mind you, not many passed with that idiot Republican and limpy Demcratic Senate in his way, but that's a lot of bills. The big ones are:

• the Coburn-Obama Government Transparency Act of 2006 (became law)
• The Lugar-Obama Nuclear Non-proliferation and Conventional Weapons Threat Reduction Act,(became law)
• The Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act, passed the Senate
• The 2007 Government Ethics Bill,(became law)
• The Protection Against Excessive Executive Compensation Bill,(In committee

More about his record can be found here, here, here, and here.

Finally, to learn details of his entire plan for the country should he become president you can go to his website. You can also download his Blueprint for Change here (WARNING: Large substantial 64 page PDF).

The Obama campaign better make sure all of his surrogates know his record from now on. The dude is substantial. Don't let the media bully America into thinking otherwise.

A lot of friends and family have been asking me what it is about Barack Obama that makes me want to vote for him. He hasn't run a policy driven campaign. He's supposedly "inexperienced" and young (for a presidential candidate anyways.) I basically argued that he's "got Elvis", that pure unadulterated charisma that could excite the electorate. Which sounds like a really vain and stupid reason to vote for someone. However, DHinMI, a front pager at Dailykos, has taken all my fancy brain thoughts and added nuance to what I am actually thinking.

This is maybe the most important difference between a ticket led by Barack Obama and one headed up by Hillary Clinton. As I said above, I think Hillary Clinton will win if she's our nominee. But I believe Barack Obama could win in a landslide.

It's Super Bowl night, so allow me a football analogy. For the last 30 years or so, we've been stuck in our own territory, and the other team has had the ball. Occasionally, like in the Clinton years, we get slightly better field position. But we've been on defense since the last days of the Carter administration. It's time we throw downfield and get in the end zone.

The American public wants change. They hate George W. Bush. They hate the political gridlock—AKA Republican obstructionism, even if they don’t realize that's the problem in Congress—and they want new leadership. They will vote for Clinton. But I believe many of them will embrace Obama. And the difference between a Clinton win at 53% and an Obama win at 58% is probably 12-15 extra members of Congress, and maybe another 3-6 Democratic Senators.

(Emphasis Mine) He goes on to explain a bunch of other reasons that are just as valid. I think this election could be a turning point. Barrack just excites the shit out of people, particularly young people. The youth vote has trippled pretty much everywhere he runs. And that is INSANE.

So, I'm going out and caucusing for Elvis on Tuesday. I ask that you do the same. Email me if you need convincing.

I've been getting a lot of emails and IMs today and I thought it would be best to offer a clarification. I am not the mascot for the DNC Convention. Despite our many similarities (being mammals, stubborness, teeth) the actual Mordecai the Donkey is not related to me in any way.

Here's a handy chart to make it more obvious.