Tuesday, February 5th, 2008

2G2K :: It’s Super Fat Tuesday

If you didn’t know already, Ferentz is back! And the crew will be getting stuffed on mad amounts of food, carnival music, and voting results porn on CNN.

Before you head out the door make sure you check with the League of Young Voters site. You can also check the League chapter’s local Voter Guides and polling place finder.

Thanks for stopping through here these past couple weeks. We don’t stop, so you don’t stop.

posted by @ 7:56 am | 0 Comments

Monday, February 4th, 2008

2G2K :: Will.I.Am And A Cast of SuperHotties Endorse Obama

Also viewable in higher def here.

posted by @ 8:12 am | 2 Comments

Monday, February 4th, 2008

2G2K Circus :: Tom Hayden Endorses Obama

I worry about the substance of Obama’s candidacy, and not just because I’m a former wonk. For me, it’s the difference between pragmatism and triangulation as an acceptable end (the old New Dem way) versus realism as a mode of pushing toward the real goal.

In other words, let’s be real and get everything.

Civility, the core Obama principle that excites folks like Andrew Sullivan, is important only as much as incivility is a sign of torpor or lack of imagination. But transformation is not a civil thing. I like transformation more than propriety.

All that said, I think Tom Hayden’s thoughtful endorsement of Barack Obama (written last week before Edwards dropped out) captures a lot of how I feel about the direction of Obama’s candidacy.

I have been devastated by too many tragedies and betrayals over the past 40 years to ever again deposit so much hope in any single individual, no matter how charismatic or brilliant. But today I see across the generational divide the spirit, excitement, energy and creativity of a new generation bidding to displace the old ways. Obama’s moment is their moment, and I pray that they succeed without the sufferings and betrayals my generation went through.

There really is no comparison between the Obama generation and those who would come to power with Hillary Clinton, and I suspect she knows it. The people she would take into her administration may have been reformers and idealists in their youth, but they seem to seek now a return to their establishment positions of power. They are the sorts of people young Hillary Clinton herself would have scorned at Wellesley. If history is any guide, the new “best and brightest” of the Obama generation will unleash a new cycle of activism, reform and fresh thinking before they follow pragmatism to its dead end.

Many ordinary Americans will take a transformative step down the long road to the Rainbow Covenant if Obama wins. For at least a brief moment, people around the world — from the shantytowns to the sweatshops, even to the restless rich of the Sixties generation — will look up from the treadmills of their shrunken lives to the possibilities of what life still might be. Environmental justice and global economic hope would dawn as possibilities.

Is Barack the one we have been waiting for? Or is it the other way around? Are we the people we have been waiting for? Barack Obama is giving voice and space to an awakening beyond his wildest expectations, a social force that may lead him far beyond his modest policy agenda.

Read it all here.

posted by @ 8:05 am | 2 Comments

Sunday, February 3rd, 2008

2G2K Circus :: Underdog Love Is Back


David Tyree wants more confetti!

Cal Men’s sweep through Washington. Cal Women’s headed for the Top 5. Cal student activists past present and future showing their huge hearts at the Activism Right There event Friday night.

Stevie Wonder’s surprise endorsement. Maria Shriver’s surprise endorsement. Michelle Obama’s brilliant, funny, and heartrending speech.

Belichick leaving his team on the field and not congratulating Coughlin, just like the ass he really is. Manning to Tyree. Manning to Burress. The best Super Bowl ever. And the rains are finally over in Cali.

Even if Obama doesn’t squeak out a victory in sunny Cali on Tuesday and shock the country by vaulting ahead of Clinton in the delegate scrum–both of which I think will happen but am now cautioned not to just come out and be like, it’s going down–The Underdog Love is back.

Doesn’t mean I won’t be a critical killjoy sometimes, but hey. Taking a letter from Maria–I’m enjoying the moment.

posted by @ 7:52 pm | 2 Comments

Friday, February 1st, 2008

2G2K Circus :: What We Learned

Hey yall, Ferentz is taking a break from the circus for a moment. Let me jot just a few notes on last night’s debate…

First off, 5pm in Cali is the wrong time. I recognize East Coast runs this, but who’s got the delegates next Tuesday? RRRRaaaah.

Leaving aside the aesthetics of debate performance, I dug the attention to issues this time.

On health care, Hillary has the better case, and the better program. That’s it.

The question from Minnesota on immigration’s effects on African American urban joblessness knocked me out of my chair. For 40 years, virtually no deep discussion of racial justice and then this? It’s a testament to how much of a break this election is from the past. But also a troubling testament to how flat the discussion remains.

For the record, I thought Obama’s answer correctly complicated the question. And it was viscerally heartening to hear him denounce scapegoating. The more Hillary spoke about immigration, the more she revealed how far she and mainstream of both parties have to go on the real issues.

Obama-Clinton or Clinton-Obama, a dream ticket? Errr. I don’t know. What do you think?

posted by @ 11:16 am | 7 Comments

Friday, February 1st, 2008

Davey D :: It’s Election Time, Where’s Diddy?

From Davey D, a great summary of hip-hop gen voting efforts and a big question:

n 2004, Diddy was everywhere. He was on Oprah, he was on CNN, he was on the campaign trail sparking rallies that drew hundreds and thousands of youth in numerous cities. Many activist and politicos cringed when Diddy showed up. They accused his ‘Vote or Die’ campaign as being nothing but a marketing ploy. Others felt that by showing up on the campaign trail he was taking away from the important issues the candidates needed to discuss. Republicans felt like Diddy was a Democratic shield, while Democrats felt like his ‘non partisan’ Vote or Die message was actually inspiring GOP youth to go the polls.

Although his Citizen Change was non partisan, there are a few of us who recall him standing on stage at a Rock the Vote Lippert Awards ceremony in Los Angeles where he was being honored in February of 2004. There he promised to do everything he could in his power to ‘Kick Bushes ass out of office’…

When I saw Diddy about 4 months later he had launched Citizen Change and was distancing himself from those remarks by insisting he was non partisan. When I pressed him he became stern and repeated his non partisan status like a mantra. After the November 2004 election Diddy was and remains silent when it came to politics. I’m still trying to figure out what happened.

Read the rest here.

posted by @ 8:07 am | 0 Comments

Thursday, January 31st, 2008

2G2K Circus: Leaders of the New? School, Part 2

Ferentz talks McCain-Hillary vs. McCain-Obama.

McCain-Hillary would be the worst possible outcome for Dems, for some of the reasons Frank Rich laid out last weekend: they lose on ‘experience’, ‘change’, and the split of the rhetorical ‘right-wing conspiracy’. They probably lose many independent voters who sat out the 90s, angry at the various sordid scandals that were the main point and chief product of the culture wars.

McCain-Obama gets me excited, because it means we just might have the thing fought out on ideas, for once. McCain and Obama agree on some big things–not just on demeanor, posture, and honor, things any Chow Yun-Fat fan would immediately recognize. But they also cross the aisles on issues like campaign finance reform or immigration reform (which deserves several posts all to itself). It might be refreshing to see two presidential candidates try to top each other on clean politics proposals.

I think this contest could potentially raise get a lot of people excited. And it will not turn just on the war–which is what I think you mean when you say ideology?–but absolutely on generation. The lion in winter versus the boy of summer. The shadow of Vietnam versus the bright day on the horizon. It could be epic.

Let’s talk Edwards a little. I would have voted for him here next week if the policy agenda alone was the determinant. But I had a lot of doubts about his ability to lead. He seemed unfocused. And though he had very very good reasons, and never made Elizabeth’s cancer into a crutch, the distractions showed.

I think he fell into positioning himself as the outsider, but he never attained gravity. Being lazy on the stump didn’t help his outsider status. He gave the exact same speech after New Hampshire as he did in Iowa–when all eyes were on him. If you’re the outsider, you have to keep pulling up the well of emotion that drives your supporters’ passions. Instead, he seemed robotic at the worst possible moments.

But if it comes to a brokered convention, he will play an important role in shaping the platform and choosing the final candidate. And that could be good good thing.

Here are two links that Ned Sublette, who has just written the definitive work on the roots of the music of New Orleans,The World That Made New Orleans: From Spanish Silver to Congo Square, passed on about Edward’s exit:

1) “Through fourteen Republican Debates, no moderator has asked any Republican Presidential candidates a single question about rebuilding New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.”

2) He started his address about 30 minutes after stopping at an interstate underpass to talk to homeless people at an encampment of about 200 people. “One woman said to me, ‘You won’t forget us, will you?’ Well, I say to her, we will never forget you. We will fight for you, stand up for you,” he said.

posted by @ 7:13 am | 0 Comments

Tuesday, January 29th, 2008

2G2K Circus :: Turning Mothers (And Sons And Daughters) Out

The topic on the table is whether Dem enthusiasm in the primaries now means a lick. Here’s what Ferentz says. My reply::

I agree with you and yours that people just don’t feel Hillary like they do Barack, or even Edwards. Quite a few people I know very well get nigh hysterical about the prospect. (That’s no doubt part of why my knee has been jerking so hard against Obama this past week–it’s the protection reflex at work.)

But I lean towards thinking that will not be a problem for Dem enthusiasm in November.

To take but one demo, young people displayed mad enthusiasm in 2004, came out in huge numbers for Kerry, despite perhaps a general lack of feeling for dude in comparison to, say, Dean. I kinda think whomever the Dem nominee is, that trend will continue. If Hillary is the nominee, there will likely be a groundswell of feminist fundraising and GOTVing as well.

If Romney is the nominee, that might be an electric prod too. McCain and Huckabee generate much more buzz amongst independents and evangelicals respectively, (Reep voters under 30 are a rare breed, and have been rarer still in the primaries…) and their relative authenticity–setting aside their platforms for a second–makes either of them tougher opponents. But Romney seems like the perfect enemy for Dems to rally against: a double-talking, attack-dogging, vote-pandering, inauthentic, officious, 6-foot-2 square-jawed version of W.

Thing is, as of tonight, it looks like McCain may win.

Obama vs. McCain or Hillary vs. McCain. Do those contests sound exciting?

posted by @ 7:22 pm | 0 Comments

Tuesday, January 29th, 2008

Activism Right There! At Cal


posted by @ 10:27 am | 0 Comments

Tuesday, January 29th, 2008

2G2K Circus: Rudy Can Fail

Ferentz sets it off here. Here’s my reply:

So I’m with you and man, I can’t tell you how mad I am Rudy is half-stepping through all this. If there’s anyone who is sharkbait for folks like us the way Hillary is for the Reeps, it’s Rudy. Nobody would get a bloc of militantly skeptical hip-hop non-voters ready to rock like the prospect of nationalizing Giuliani Time for 4 years, after 8 of what we’ve just been through.

But anyway, put a fork in him.

What’s funny about politics is the way it twists a candidate up. As the Times notes today, Rudy is now campaigning as a Reep version of Obama Lite, decrying negativity, trolling for votes in multiculti neighborhoods, and hugging it up with Judith and everyone. (An anti-Romney move, though since Giuliani is so far behind in the polls, it doesn’t matter.)

It might be added that since he’s started late, his basically bicoastal campaign makes him seem like exactly the kind of stereotypical NY-CA liberal that most of the country loves to hate. So yeah, you’re right. He can’t have been serious. If he was, he might have used his bank to hire someone who actually had a clue.

On a different topic, The Times and some commenters here have noted that there’s a huge enthusiasm gap with the Reep race this year. Nevada alone turned out over 10x as many Dems to the caucuses this year as they did in 2004, and 3x as many as Reeps. How do you think this translates to the general election?

posted by @ 7:22 am | 0 Comments



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