LEADERSHIP CULTIVATION

President Obama Works For Mid-Term Surprise

President Obama is fighting back against his Republican troublemakers and has gotten his supporters "fired up and ready to go." It's this President Obama we need to re-ignite and lead the charge for the change we need to change America. It's this Obama that will once again beguile his competitors and keep this nation on a forward progress track that thwarts the return the GOP seeks of a return to their failed policies that put this country in the mess that it is in. 

The President warned that change would not be easy and it has been just that with Republicans being hell-bent on denying the President a victory on any solution he brings forward. Although progress has been slow, I think the media and pollsters have miscalculated the true mood of the majority of voters in this country in their prediction of wide-sweeping GOP victories in the mid-terms. Let me be the first to say they we supporters of real change have not been drinking the kool-aid. We may have taken a nap because of the toughness of the fight to elect Mr. Obama in the first place, but we are now awakened. And quite frankly, we don't intend to sit these elections out because they are just too important. 

There is a surprise coming in November when voters will soundly reject the GOP politics of no progress. Maybe then, Republicans will stop their stupidity and their selfish 24/7 campaigning and honestly work to dig America out of the hole that their leadership put it in. We can only hope. 

Health Care Reform is GOP's Waterloo, Not President Obama's

Senator Jim DeMint and his Republican cronies would have you believe that health care reform will be a Waterloo moment for President Barack Obama. It is quite the contrary. The Waterloo moment belongs to Republicans who have everything to lose.  After having maintained a 24/7 assault upon President Obama in an attempt to weaken his presidency, Republicans now perceive they have a winner with their organized opposition to health care reform.  Imagine that, the GOP for political gain has no shame in their game nor any reservation to sticking it to everyday Americans. Republicans are desperate for a victory and see a defeat of health care reform as the Promised Land.  Anything less than their total defeat of health care reform means farewell to the Republican Party as a major political force in America, but the demise of the GOP is eminent.

America has changed and is not excited about reversing course on a movement away from political gridlock.  Sensible Americans want progress to continue and are smart enough to understand that helping a neighbor who is less fortunate is not Socialism, but a principle of compassion taught and advocated by Jesus Christ. You would think that Bible-thumping Republicans would know better. A question I hear posed repeatedly is whether an individual is satisfied with their insurance plan.  More times than not the answer has been yes.  But health care reform is biggest than looking out for number one. It is needed to help the 48 million Americans whose insurance coverages are inadequate or nonexistence.  

It defies logic how right-wing Republicans can be so selfish or how Blue Dog Democrats can so easily check their spines at the door in order to retain Congressional seats. Dedicated servants of the people would rather lose their precious seats than lose their integrity by being a sellout.  It is a pathetic situation to witness. Some of these good men and women sing "When We All Get to Heaven" in church on Sunday morning, then exit the church doors and proceed to make life a living hell for many others who are less fortunate. For some, even Christian values are not sacred.  But there is another song sung entitled "They Will Know We Are Christians" by our love. It is not a selfish love for ourselves or our possessions, but refers to the love we demonstrate to others by our actions.

In the end, it is by our love that we show people we care about their problems. Every American should have access to adequate health care.  It is a need that is everyone's responsibility to ensure that it becomes a reality. We cannot leave that humanitarian act to chance or allow complacency to result in a self-serving GOP victory enabled by faux Democrats or the mainstream media that long ago lost its way.  It is time for compassionate people to mount up and join the fight for health care reform.  I think that President Obama will make it clear in his Wednesday night speech that he will lead that charge. I predict the eventual outcome will not favor the opposition.

The Professor, the Police Officer, and the President

I think most of us are familiar with the phrase "let cooler heads prevail." On the outside looking in that was probably not the case with the situation where Harvard Professor Skip Gates was arrested by Cambridge Massachusetts Police Officer James Crowley. I can see where Professor Gates might have gotten a little testy if he perceived that Officer Crowley had pressured him more than was required to establish his identity as he stood in his own residence. I can also see where Officer Crowley might have intentionally pressed harder if he perceived that Professor Gates had unduly resisted his request for cooperation.

I also understand President Obama coming to the defense of a friend whom he felt might have been mistreated or been the victim of racial profiling since it falls within the realm of reality. Since he is the President of the United States and doesn't always check his polling numbers before he responds, President Obama's candidness, Professor Gates' resistance, and Officer Crowley's insistence on making what was in my opinion an ill-advised arrest, extended the shelf life of an unfortunate incident. 

Yet hindsight is 20/20. I think all principals would agree to a do-over if it was possible. In Bible study, my pastor taught that it is not a sin to get angry.  He said the sin occurs when we stay angry. Judging from their recent positive actions, it appears that the central cast members of this short story are repentance, wish to reconcile their differences and move forward. It remains to be seen if casual spectators, the mainstream media, and interfering back seat drivers let them.

WaPost Wrong, No Presidential Divide for Black Americans

Throughout the 2008 Presidential Campaign, the public was subjected to a regular dose of fabrications about Barack Obama. Add to that regiment a Washington Post article that implies that there exists a widespread split in the Black community over the President, supposedly because some Black commentators like Tavis Smiley and Jeff Johnson have been outspoken critics.  The Post erroneously thinks that Black people rely upon these commentators for forming their opinion about how to feel about Mr. Obama.  That is simply not true. 

Believe it when I tell you that Tavis Smiley and Jeff Johnson do not speak for the masses.  Smiley lost favor with a lot of Black people when he rejected Michelle Obama as a suitable stand-in for candidate Obama at his New Orleans Covenant on Black America Summit. It doesn't help Johnson's case that Smiley was a consultant to Tom Joyner about who his replacement should be on his Morning Show. It doesn't take an Einstein to figure out that it is these guys who need the lesson.  Black America is not asleep at the wheel or stuck in some naivete zone. We simply do not expect the President to be held to a higher standard or pass some litmus test not required of his predecessors.  

For those who can't see the forest for the trees or somehow missed the real implication of the election of Mr. Obama, maybe this will help.  The significance for Black America or other non-whites is that now they can unequivocally tell their children that they could grow up to one day be President of the United States because there is empirical data to back up their assertions.  And Mr. Obama's election was a victory for Whites as well.  A false promise of equality had been draped across America from it's inception.  With the merit vote cast by Americans on November 4, 2009 that elected Mr. Obama, that burden was removed. 

When I posted in my blog that "Black people now look at White people differently and there is nothing that they can do about it", a White woman responded and thanked me for my statement that had presented her with a degree of relief.  My followup response to her was I hadn't harbored any ill feeling, but that a burden I didn't realize existed was now lifted from my shoulders. I understood why Americans cried on Election Day. Mr. Obama's election helped to heal some deep wounds.  So listen up pundits.  It wasn't some fleeting feel good moment and we don't need a play by play accountability tab kept on the President. We get it!  Mr. Obama needs to be judged by his performance and he will be as all the Presidents before him.  Isn't that the real point?

"I Like to Know What I'm Talking About Before I Speak"

Ed Henry of CNN will think twice before his next smart-a follow-up question to the President. In substance, the President told Henry not to pigeon-hole him or play silly games and compare him to someone else.  The President made it clear to Henry that he sets his own "presidential" standard.  Ed will need micro-surgery to remove Obama's stinger from his rear end.

Isn't it refreshing to have a President who is quick on their feet?  Old Ed should have checked the President's resume more closely, especially the part that reads editor of the Harvard Law Review.  That achievement alone implies that the President is use to participating in a good debate.  So Republicans and unsuspecting reporters take note.  If you plan to one up the President, you had better bring your "A" game or make sure that you are wearing your chastity belt!

Barack Obama is a President of the People

President Barack Obama exudes confidence and it is contagious.  He is quickly becoming the president of the people.  Americans are really excited about the positive energy that he is generating and despite hard economic times, people are optimistic about the future.  President Obama faces high expectations.  However, with a smile on his face, the President has said that he is eager to get started in his quest to get the country and yes even the world back on the right track.  And it appears that the people are committed to helping.

Some critics will try to focus on little things when trying to define the success of the Obama presidency.  But Obama represents an American success.  He is already on the mountaintop and America sits there with him.  There are no more blue or red states or liberals or conservatives or special interests.  Instead, President Obama is leading the charge for a United States of America much as he communicated during his presidential campaign.  He wants a country where it's okay to disagree but advocates doing so without being disagreeable.

That's why it's okay to have Rev. Rick Warren pray at his inauguration and that's why it's okay for the good reverend to invoke the name of Jesus.  We don't all have to be on the same page or walk in lockstep to avoid dismissal as not relevant.  That's the old way.  The election of Barack Obama was the beginning of a new way and the movement which he is leading now has wheels. Persons like Rush Limbaugh who are slow to accept this fact that change has come to America will have a hard time.

Rush does not stand alone as an obstacle to a better America.  He has teammates, because many who perceive change as a loss of power or influence will stand with him.  So President Obama shouldn't be surprised when he encounters resistance from the so-called political Right and the Left, Republicans and Democrats, White and Black Americans, the media, and countless others who will insist on skinning their cats the same way.  However, right now the nameless masses who are heeding the call to help President Obama make positive change a group effort, appear to have the advantage.

Pollsters and GOP Lack Walter Cronkite-Like Standard

A few days ago, I opined that any poll of likely voters is extremely unreliable for this 2008 Presidential Election.  It appears that Dick Diver of the DailyKos agrees with my sentiments.  According to Diver, the well-regarded Gallup Poll intentionally changed their polling methodology to favorably skew the bounce that John McCain got coming out of the GOP Convention. The poll of likely voters showed McCain with a 54-44 lead over Barack Obama. That's significant because a poll of likely voters showing an even contest, spells big trouble for the GOP because "likely voters" overlook new voters and Democratic-leaning voters that primarily use cellphones i.e. the young. 

Embellishment of the facts all too frequently have become standard operating procedures for the McCain Campaign. You know things have gotten bad when conservatives take conservatives to task as Andrew Sullivan recently did with Sarah Palin and Karl Rove with the McCain Campaign. Telling the truth is important again?  It appears that the McCain and Palin honeymoon has officially ended.  Now maybe we can talk about things that really matter such as how McCain helped invent the Blackberry.  But seriously, where can we turn to get Walter Cronkite-like integrity. 

Until recently, I thought the place to go to was POTUS '08, Channel 130 on XM Radio. "Politically neutral." Maybe sometimes, but not this morning. Today as I listened to Scott Walterman, host of the "The Morning Briefing", interview Susie Turnbull of the DNC, I was taken aback by the flippant manner that Walterman tried to refute most of what Turnbull had to say about McCain. Turnbull talked about how McCain was making the claim that the U.S. economy was still strong despite the problems on Wall Street.  Walterman spent too much time trying to defend McCain. Walterman acted like McCain's press secretary and awkwardly injected how polls showed that McCain was gaining in New Jersey and even managed to snidely remark how Obama would travel to Hollywood later in the day. "Unbiased".  How do you define unbiased? A like-minded irritated listener emailed Walterman and offered an accurate description of his conduct, "bag of hot air".

So the lesson to the wise, don't sweat the small stuff.  Clueless polls numbers or hot air commentators are definitely small stuff. Seeing beyond the trees is not their strong suit. They lack vision. Don't perish with them and don't let them drain your energy. Instead participate in the only poll that really matters. Vote for real change in November.

The Mass Deception of McCain and Palin

1. Oh, those tricky Republicans.  When Tim Kaine was on the Democratic vice presidential short list, GOP strategist Karl Rove argued that Kaine's experience as a former mayor of Richmond, a small city, along with being Governor of Virginia, a state that actually has people living in it, would not sufficiently prepare him for the Office of President of the United States.  Contrast Rove's assessment of the readiness of Gov. Kaine to his assessment of Sarah Palin.  Although Palin's experience includes being the former mayor of a small Alaskan village and as Governor of Alaska, the largest state in the nation but with a population smaller than most medium-sized American cities, Rove claims that Palin is ready for the U. S. presidency.  Yes Barack, Republicans do think that the American people are stupid.
2. In grand forked-tongue fashion, the GOP plan of mass deception is fully operational.  In addition to double-speak, the plan calls for mocking Democratic successes which their empirical data shows can be very effective.  Just ask John Kerry.  Of course any good GOP plan includes attacking the media which energizes their base.  Their claim that the media is being extra hard on Palin is pure rubbish.   Well after Alaska trooper-gate, and lies about selling an airplane on eBay for a profit, and five colleges in six years, somebody had better take a microscopic look into Sarah Palin's background given that as vice president Palin would be a heartbeat away from the presidency. Belated kudos to Campbell Brown who in Donna Brazile-like fashion, tried to uphold her journalistic integrity.
3. Nonetheless, give the GOP credit for being cocky.  While accusing the media of gender bias, they have the audacity to try to bully Oprah Winfrey another female into featuring Sarah Palin as a guest on her television show.  Yes, I'm referring to the same Sarah Palin that the GOP is trying to shield from press conferences and serious news shows such as Meet the Press.  The GOP knows that Oprah like Hillary Clinton, is as tough an adversary as any man and realize that Oprah will not blink.  However, being the cynic that I am, I see the Oprah ploy as a subliminal attempt by the GOP to inject race into the final weeks of the presidential campaign.  And we all know that next to media-bashing, race-baiting is a GOP candidate-in-trouble strategy favorite. 
4. McCain is in trouble? If you swallow the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde polling data you might miss the fact that the McCain Campaign is in trouble.  When I listen to Rasmussen and Zogby analyze likely voter trends, it's very obvious to me that these guys are everything but objective.  When they include sampling data from young voters who are dedicated followers of the Obama movement, then I might place some stock into their opinions.  To the chagrin of the GOP, I expect a majority of these young Obama supporters to show up on election day.  That's when the GOP will see that despite their negative attempts to turn his popularity against him, being a "celebrity" will be a positive for Obama.
5. So Barack, Republicans do think or at least hope that we are stupid.  But this time I sense that enough people really are tired of the same old politics which have a snowball chance in hell of undergoing any substantial overhaul under a government led by the same old McCain.  Therefore Barack, I'm optimistic that after this election, media pundits will be scratching their heads trying to explain how the United States ended up on the right side of history, despite organized and determined efforts to preserve a culture of more of the same.  I hope the pundits begin by proclaiming an end to a nation of Red and Blue States and hail the rediscovery of the United States.

The Longest Faces In the Room...

Sen. Claire McCaskill was on point when she told Keith Olbermann that the longest faces in the room tonight belonged to the mainstream media who were disappointed that their continued insistence on Democratic Party disunity had lost its steam.  She accurately proclaimed that the Democrats are unified.

Also tonight, President Bill Clinton got his legacy back on track.  He was outstanding with his talking points.  Sen. John Kerry's speech which the egotistical media somehow felt was less appealing than their off target yakking, was also outstanding. I watched it on C-Span.

And not to my surprise, Chuck Todd was way off target in thinking that we who were watching and listening at home would give a bucket of spit for his opinion that Sen. Joe Biden somehow flubbed his zingers.  Joe Biden did just fine.  All the speeches were impressive and inspiring and judged on the basis of their content rather than some juvenile-type critique by a reporter.

The Democrats will do just fine in November and a President Barack Obama and his team were be as successful in returning this country to prosperity as was President Clinton and his team.

Barack Obama Critics Try to Discount His Overseas Success

Most of us are familiar with the fairy tale about the emperor who foolishly strutted around naked because he had been deceived by a scam artist into believing that he was wearing an invisible suit of clothes. The folly continued until a courageous child spoke up and told the emperor the truth. Contrast that story with the one where Barack Obama went overseas and simply blew expectations out of the water and yet his critics expect the public to believe that Obama "is not wearing any clothes." Will it take another child to also dispel this nonsense?

Foreign policy was supposed to be John McCain's strong suit. It was believed to be so strong in fact that McCain practically begged Obama to travel overseas. After all, Obama was supposed to be just an empty suit. Surely Obama would flounder on the world stage and then finally everyone would see that McCain was better suited to lead the free world. Does anyone have a mulligan lying around so that McCain can get a do-over? As other opponents have found out the hard way, do not underestimate this guy. Like the Energizer Bunny, Obama just keeps going and going and going. After Obama's extraordinary reception on the world stage, the aimless wandering of the McCain campaign is destined to continue.

One hundred thousand people were expected to show up to hear Obama's speech in Germany. Instead, two hundred thousand people showed up with some even waving the American Flag. So what did the critics say?  Take your pick. "I don't know how well it's going to play back in America with the great affection that Obama is receiving overseas". "Obama may be peaking too early... it's still a long ways to November."  "Obama must be careful not to act too presidential."  Then there is the ever popular "Obama is just words".  Surely that last one will stick since all of our previous presidents have campaigned as mimes. 

Will the silliness ever cease?  Instead of acting like professional wrestling promoters, is it too much to expect the media to admit the obvious. Obama is outperforming the competition. Obama is no different from the smart kid who destroys the academic curve in class, or the athlete who hits more homeruns or anyone who excels because of their special gift. The sad reality is that the success of high potential people is often met with jealousy, disbelief or disingenuous attempts to undermine their achievements.

Make no mistake about it, John McCain knows that his campaign is in trouble. In his dogfight against a phenomenon opponent, McCain thinks his only chance for victory is to get one of his frivolous accusations about Obama to stick. His prospects are not very good however, because intelligent people would have to believe his insinuation that Barack Obama, the best choice to lead America now, is not wearing any clothes.