RSS
host-posts

Upcoming

- Sunday - 4pm

Politically Direct Sunday 11-09-08

By Scott Millican
(AP/Morry Gash)

Hi, it's David Bender....well, our long national nightmare is finally over.  The election of Barack Obama as our nation's 44th President is now official.  But what does it mean?  What change will he really bring?  This Sunday on Politically Direct we'll break down the election returns and look ahead to the Obama Administration with two of the country's smartest political insiders, Newsweek's Jonathan Alter and former West Wing writer and producer Lawrence O'Donnell.  O'Donnell, Alter and your calls - this Sunday on Politically Direct, right here on Air America Radio and Air America Dot Com.

For more information on the Al Franken for Senate recount, click here.

Comments

(12)

Last Sunday's Show

Last Sunday a gentleman called who said something like "There is no way Obama will become President" he went on to say "Obama's biggest mistake was voting against a war that has been a big success". The guy is from Illinois and you asked him to call in again today.

Just wondering if you've heard from him and if we'll hear him today on your show.

Thanks David

Paul Tikalsky

By paultikNovember 9, 2008 - 2:51pm

Kudos to Mr. O'Donnell

Wish I'd gotten this posted a few min earlier. Great show David.

Please pass my thanks to Mr. O'Donnell for his fine work over the years - West Wing is a masterpiece that belongs at least on the level of other superb television accomplishments such as MASH, All in the Family & Hill Street Blues. And how prophetic the storyline turned out to be! I'm also glad Mr. O'Donnell remains in the discussion circles that are keeping an eye on current events. His comments re: Palin are right on of course.

I wanted to point out another very important aspect of the character (Sen Vinnick) played by Alan Alda on the show. As his campaign faltered, he was forced to reach out to the religious right, and in fact brought in a politically savvy religious zealot to help him craft his message and bring in the religiously focused voters. This may be a natural course of business for folks like Huckabee but for McCain and a fair amount of other GOP candidates, the RR is indeed an 'interest group' that doesnt necessarily share the goals of the business-focused neo-cons, but they are a sizeable and necessary part of a successful GOP campaign. The RR knows they have this power - too bad they don't realize that behind closed doors the neo-con leadership couldn't give a rip about their Bible-thumping issues.

The campaign portrayed on West Wing was a joy and was all too real. If the 'real Republicans' want to ressurect their party they need an Arnold Vinnick, perhaps even a version of him that is not willing to compromise and bow to the religious right. If the GOP continues to bring people like Huckabee, Palin and Romney to their podium, they will keep losing elections.

By docjeffNovember 9, 2008 - 4:48pm

Re-vote in Ga.

david
please remind everyone in Ga. to remember to vote Dec 2 for Martin
lets give saxby chamblis the boot.
ricky from savannah

By ricky sNovember 9, 2008 - 6:11pm

Re-vote in Ga

by the way saxby is running adds saying

"Together with Obama, Martin will work to raise your taxes"

he's on the air all the time down here
we've got to have a sense of urgency
about getting out the vote again
ricky

By ricky sNovember 9, 2008 - 6:19pm

revote in ga

thanks david ricky

By ricky sNovember 9, 2008 - 6:55pm

Electorally

it was a landslide. But, given all of the advantages in favor of the Dimocrats, there was only about a six point spread between the two, 52-46. Is anyone concerned that next time, how close will it be?

By NickyRoseNovember 9, 2008 - 6:58pm

Personal experience on election day

I was a poll challenger. I cannot tell you how nervous that made me going into election day. We were trained on the whole polling procedure and told who to call if we saw anything suspicious. I was responsible for one of two precincts in the same room, a fire station. The other precinct had another challenger, who was the lawyer who had trained all the challengers for our county, half of whose precincts were to be observed by challengers. There was also a Republican challenger covering both precincts. The precinct I watched over was following the law to the letter, and there wasn't much to watch. But the other precinct judge was stubbornly refusing to follow procedure and the two challengers were asked to leave. The State Police was even called in to remove them. There were lawyers from both party in, and the County Clerk and people from the Secretary of State's office. Process was temporarily followed, but would revert to the easier, not law abiding process the precinct judge preferred. The County Clerk apparently had decided that the challengers and watchers were "annoying", but failed to keep the precinct following the law. This was Rio Arriba County in New Mexico, and we had a new County Clerk on the ballot, so this guy (Fred Vigil) is outta here, but I found it a fairly disconcerting event nevertheless, since our county has a really bad reputation when it comes to elections. And all of this nonsense really cast a pall over the polling place, voters and poll workers alike were just unhappy in that room.

But as soon as I got in my car to drive to the Obama office in town I heard you say that they had called NM and OH for Barack Obama. And I was ecstatic! It's been hard to process all of this. I intend to seek out our new County Clerk to tell him what happened, and see if he wants to do anything about the problem. One thing though. The Republican lawyer came by to thank me for supporting him in trying to get things working right. I think he was genuinely surprised that we wanted things to be run fairly.

All in all a bizarre experience.

Lisa Trujillo
Chimayo, NM

By centinelaNovember 9, 2008 - 7:18pm

election

I worked for and donated to the Obama campaign, but I can feel little of the happiness that his victory has brought because my marriage to my partner of 15 years has apparently been invalidated by the voters in Ca. I am happy for my country, but since when have civil rights for any group of people ever been put to the voters for ratafication?
Robert

By stone621November 9, 2008 - 7:23pm

Agreement

I agree with Robert. California must have been in a total fog or on another planet when they voted to ban the rights of gay and lesbian marriages. Why do others care? Gay and lesbian couples just want to live their lives like others do and have their life commitments recognized by society. Who are they hurting?? No one. Why do those who have voted for this ban spend their time making other loving, giving, intelligent individuals' lives miserable. They are fellow humans, and deserve all the rights that other Americans receive. Don't we want to embrace individuality and life commitments? I rather think that God looks on these loving couples as those who live by his word than those who spread hate and isolation by invalidating their neighbors' loyalty and dedication to each other. My hope is that those who feel superior to others can find it in their heart to love their neighbor and not condemn their way of living. Our children should be so lucky to have parents--no matter what the gender--who love each other and fill their lives and homes with that love.
Janice

By janaramaNovember 9, 2008 - 9:00pm

Republicans redo Florida

The Minnesota Republicans are trying a redo a Florida 2000. Coleman claimed victory with a 700 vote lead out of 2.9 million and called on Franken to concede. They're calling into question the honesty of each change in the vote total, as if they didn't know there are always small changes between election night and the certification. Amazing, people at the end of 14-hour days made some errors --- go figure. Republicans are trying to make is seem suspicious that all adjustments were in Franken's favor ---- except they weren't. Overall they have been, but it's been up and down.

The Republicans now are accusing Franken and the DFL of casting doubt on the integrity of the election and recount process, and the evidence they cite is repeated calls to have every vote properly counted, as if that implies the votes won't be properly counted by a DFL secretary of state who was a voting rights activist.

And yes, they're going after the secretary of state too.

The link to donate to Al's recount fund is in the blog post, and this is separate from the campaign fund, so anyone who has reached the $2300 limit can donate to the recount. Also, they have an e-mail address to report useful information, like what the Republicans are trying to pull, or any irregularities during election day, recount@alfranken.com.

It seems we've beaten back the attempt to establish the media narrative that Coleman won and Franken is trying to overturn it, but we need to keep on top of media misreporting the story. They might still fall for the "they're both trying to cheat" idea.

The Raven's Blog: May the Better Bird Win
http://www.ravensblog.net

By ericfNovember 9, 2008 - 8:24pm

RFK Jr at the EPA

I'm a Democrat in Oregon. I voted for Obama, Merkley, Schrader... My husband and I donated money to Democrats and I made phone calls and walked neighborhoods to get out the vote. I do not have latent conservative leanings, nor am I a Republican troll. That being said, I do not support Robert Kennedy Jr to chair the EPA or really to hold any other high executive position in the Obama administration and here's why.

RFK Jr has a history of being unable to objectively assess facts that run counter to his own prejudices. He then uses the bully pulpit of his Kennedy name to publicize and promote his faulty conclusions.

The biggest example, but not the only one, is that his distrust of the pharmaceutical industry has led him to ignore the scientific studies and the consensus of the medical community that there is no link between childhood vaccines and autism. This is a complex scientific and public policy issue - exactly the kind of thing that the EPA chief must objectively evaluate and competently manage.

RFK Jr is a passionate advocate for the environment, but passion alone isn't enough to effectively lead a huge, science-based organization that must deliberate upon and implement detailed regulation to deal with enormous environmental problems like global warming.

We've seen eight years of the Bush administration putting people into jobs for which they did not have the requisite skills. Think of "Brownie", the Heritage Foundation kids inside the green zone, and Harriet Miers, among many others. Yes, we Democrats completely disagreed with their ideology and principles, but these Bushies were also incompetent to handle the jobs they were given.

Putting RFK Jr in a high executive position undermines one of the key reasons I voted for Obama - I want both a liberal and a competent government.

Here's a link to an evaluation of RFK Jr by Steven Novella, a skeptical thinker and neurologist whom I respect. You can find other links to his writings and podcasts on this site. http://www.theness.com/neurologicablog/?p=414#more-414

By CayNovember 10, 2008 - 12:52pm

Proud to be An American Again

Hi David,

I listen to your show via podcast. On 11/9 a woman (from Washington state I believe) said something related to being proud to be an American after this election. I felt that you were quick to ensure that the sentiment was broadened to mean we have one more thing to be proud of to be an American. Perhaps in some memory of how Michelle Obama was pilloried for her comment during the campaign.

I am not shy in stating categorically that I have not been proud to be an American for the past 8 years. For so many reasons. And I consider myself a patriot for saying so. Here's why.

I don't believe the Founding Fathers wanted us to promote America the country, right or wrong. I think it's always been about the larger issue values of America. Democracy, Free Speech, Freedom of Religion, Freedom of the Press, Separation of Church and State, Balance of Powers, upholding the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. It's these issues that I would defend to my dying breath--not just the symbol of a flag, or the name without the substance.

So many of these American issues have failed under the leadership (sic) of George Bush and cronies.

Fighting a preemptive war in Iraq for oil.
Killing and maiming thousands of Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraquis because of the war
Demonizing natives of the Mideast and the religion of Islam
Legitimizing torture
Imprisoning people without due process
Illegal wiretapping of citizens
Replacing science with religious extremism
The Dumbing of government
The solitary executive.
Office of the Vice president as separate from the Executive Branch
Attacking Americans who have a different sexual preference and want a family
Destruction of the Environment
Deregulation and destruction of our economy

What have I had to be proud of that the government has done in my name in the last 8 years? Not a whole lot. Why do I feel that way? A Republican-appointed Supreme Court in 2000 stole the election and Ohio election fraud stole the election in 2004. How can I be proud of such unprecedented events in our country?

Now that we’ve had an election that even the Rovians could not steal, I am proud of the future potential of our government over the next 8 years.

Peace

By gpaisndNovember 15, 2008 - 11:58am

Comments

(12)