Obama Phoenician style

Driving to church in Scottsdale I was surprised by how many police I saw on every corner. Outside in the 105 degree heat they were on motorcycles, in SUVS and of course in cars. In the middle of church the Bishop got up and asked everyone who parked their car on 56th st. to move their car because a motorcade would be coming through. So with some laughs about a dozen people got up to move their vehicle. I did some quick searches on my iPhone, I remembered Obama would be in Phoenix to make a speech this weekend. Turns out he was staying at The Phoenician which is one of the three 5 star hotels in the valley, and it is also right around the corner from the church on 56th st. and Camelback.

President Obama has made a couple visit to AZ already this year. I wondered for few seconds why he would be spending so much time in a state that didn't elect him. Then I did some political calculations. Arizona is traditionally Republican, but elected a Democratic Governor (Janet Napolitano), who Obama appointed to be Secretary of Homeland Security. McCain won AZ last November, but not by a large margin, and had it been some other Republican, the state may have gone the other way. And so, for the next 3 years I anticipate Obama making at least a few more stops in AZ.

Presidential Seperation

It was never more apparrent than at last night Presidential Debate how separated from the masses these two senators have become. They obviously had very different lives and mingled with starkly different crowds than the people in the room. But to me it was comical how often they could hardly feign condescending to relat to the people in the room.

With McCain incessent 'my friends' blurted out multiple times (often in the same sentence) to approximate himself to the crowd. Or Obama's afterthought comment stating he and McCain are two people who will be largely unaffected by this or any economic turmoil.

They seemed like two extremely self focus senators who either didn't know how long a minute was or couldn't figure out what the red light signaling them to stop meant as they blurted out the convoluted and often very unrealistic economic plans and packages. (Which I am sure their economic advisors spent days drilling them and dumbing down for them to understand). I mean McCain suggested Warren Buffet for Secretary of Treasury, when he A) Wouldn't do it and B) is advising Obama....

They seemed less comfortable in this atmosphere than ever and more accustomed to tony fundraisers with the rich and powerful-- and both seemed to look forward to a time when that type of social environment would compose most of their social life and encounters like this would be mostly in the past.

The Obaminator

So Obama has been recieving a bit of criticism for 'borrowing' some words and ideas in his speeches, most notably from the current Gov. of Mass. Deval Patrick with whome Obama openly admits they exhange ideas and phrases.

But here is another phrase which has been central to his message lately and I believe I have the approximate source. He stated recently "the problem that we face in America today is not the lack of good ideas. It's that Washington has become a place where good ideas go to die." reference here. Now one year ago I was talking with a roomate about the Univ. of Chicago where Obama was a lecturer (I will let you check Wikipedia). My roomate said that his friend who attended school there said that people at the Univ. of Chicago called it "the place where fun goes to die". Of course the Univ. of Chicago and Obama are not the first places or people to have this statement attributed to them, but I found it very interesting given Obama's time at Univ. of Chicago, and especially with the claims from the Clinton campaign that he is borrowing ideas.

Really politicians in my opinion, very rarely 'create' ideas, they are more often the messengers who synthesize and communicate most effictively a certain message to the right audiences, and that is really what makes all the difference.

See what the polls don't show

This link was fascinating. It shows breakdowns by income, ethnictity, region and even job type of who supports which candidate. I was a little surprised by some of the results and not surprised by most of the results. Hillary never looked so dominating

http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/documents/info-flash08.html?project=DEMOPOLL1207&party=rep&sortBy=3

YouTube Debate

This is a pretty interesting exchange for the 3 top Democratic Candidates during the YouTube debate. Not talking to countries I guess can be like giving someone the silent treatment or as Dwight from the Office would say: Shunning Someone, and it undoubtedly can affect the neglected party. Obama seems to be very much for talking with leaders while Hillary attempts to build as much distance with the potential implications of such meetings with foreign leaders. This next clip is pretty rich, candidates are asked to say something like and dislike about the candidate to their left...yeh, almost unanimously ignored (or don't answer seriously) second half of the question where the are supposed to list off something they dislike about the candidate to their left and resort to "I love you guys" type generalites. Hillary's laugh in response to Edward's saying "he's not sure" about her coat sounds like true from the gut laugh that I am not sure she lets out in public (or maybe even private) too often.

Romney in New York!

I volunteered for two Romney campaign fundraisers today downtown at the Intercontinental Hotel in Downtown on 48th and Lexington (close to Grand Central). The first event was primarily big doners featuring a photo with Gov. Romney for donors of the maximum $2300 legally allowed to the Romney Campaign. I stood at one of the main entrances directing people to wait in line for a photo with Gov. Romney. Mitt does exude strong charisma and ere of optimism particularly evident as experienced businessmen wore grins of joy as they exited their photo with Mitt. In his 5-10 opening speech (sprinkled with some thoughtful humor) he sounded very confident.

I handled the microphone for the brief Q&A with the big donors. The questions were well informed and incited interesting and fairly in depth response about topics such as China in the 21st century, Culture Preservation and of course immigration. Romney advocated increased spending for by the federal government beyond $1 Billion, and in a few comments he was supportive of improving marketing our country and its people to the rest of the world. He also gave strong emphasis to getting the best people to work on projects who would most likely disagree and argue to arrive at the best possible outcome.

I was fascinated in his remark that people expect constant campaigning to be wearisome and exhausting for incessant meetings and speeches (his 8th meeting that day), he said he is energized from all the people he meets and when he gets to the hotel late he reads for a couple hours to wind down- (I've had similar thoughts in my limited campaigning experiences in college). That nightly routine is believable listening to his citing of various books and articles in his speech often with a sensitive disclaimer "not sure if you happened to have read this...". He made some good case points (success stories such as the 2002 Olympics and Healthcare in Massachussets) for his campaign and demonstrated a wide breadth of knowledge.

On a side note the food was superb. I ate so much fresh tasting jumbo shrimp and mini open faced salami sandwhiches with cheese it took care of dinner and most of breakfast!