hey Hey HEY!

Worst eAppeal EVER... I just got an email from Obama with the title, "Hey."

HEY OBAMA, do you have any idea how many spam emails I get with the same subject line?

HEY OBAMA, have you run out of headline ideas for your emails? Look, I agree a lot with what you're trying to accomplish and I realize that Congress is full of whiney bitches, but this lame email appeal, dude, really?

Mall Walk

The Mall in DC is a decked out for a party. WOOT!

Just about got run over by the officers making their way to Union Station last night to meet Obama's train. So, I stopped in Johnny's Half Shell and had a delicious bowl of warming gumbo while a jazz quartet played in the background. I was the only one in the whole place... what gives?

Anyhow, if you are in town, go see Katie and Ben behind the bar... great people that like to engage in great conversation.

Cheers,
B

D to the C

On my way, soon....

The World Says, "GOBAMA!"

From Iconoculture.com,

"Not only did the world follow this election as if it were their own, but a majority would have voted for Obama if given the chance. A CTV/Global and Mail poll showed that Canadians preferred Obama over their own prime minister, Stephan Harper (CTV.ca 6.29.08). In France, Obama would have trounced McCain 9:1 (Independent 11.5.08)."

"Iconoculture Cultural Fluents report that their countries are not only enthusiastic and a little envious, but also relieved that this superpower elected someone they feel the world can work with. They pepper their comments with phrases like "a more caring form of capitalism," "better and fresher America" and "president the world was waiting for." They are also amazed that America voted for a member of the minority, which they can't imagine happening yet for, say, Uighurs in China, les Berbères in France or black youth in the U.K."

GO AMERICA! GOBAMA!

DC Inaugural Trip

Just booked my flight to DC for Obama's Inauguration... no idea where to stay yet, but I've always been nomadic and will figure that out as I go. :)

WOOT!

Change.gov: Fair to Middlin' So Far

I've been spending time on Obama's new site, http://change.gov, because I like how he transitioned from candidate to Pres-elect using social media. My hope is that he will continue to use the techniques in office that helped him to get there.

So far, the Change.gov blog is really just a means for posting press releases. That's a bit disappointing. When I was at Unity08, the most amazing part of the movement was the ability for Americans to log in and engage each other about the issues and the possible solutions we could enact to resolve them. I truly hope that Obama keeps the people involved in the process.

I realize that the issues are complicated, but we're inspired. That inspiration means that we are willing to pay attention and learn as much as we can about the issues so that we can make an informed decision on how best to resolve them.

The site is also accepting applications for jobs... very interesting. When I was in DC someone told me once that some unfathomable number of jobs are turned-over/created when a new president enters office. So, I really like that Obama is getting a head start and opening up the administration to as many job applicants as he can. Not sure what the vetting process will be like because it is going to be massive. But hopefully, the best candidates for the available positions will be selected.

To follow the process, I submitted an application. Hey, who knows, Obama might want an online marketing machine here in the middle of the country! Here is their auto-response:

Hello Robert,

Thank you for your interest in joining the Obama-Biden Administration. Within a few days, you will receive an email with a link to the more complete on-line application. Please be patient, as we are trying to respond promptly to the large number of people who are interested in working in the Administration.

You might be able to draw some parallels to what Nike has done. Their EKIN program launches experts into the field to evangelize their products to those that use them. It is this distributed network that is a such a boon to the brand... the EKINs have a real cache about them. Obama could possibly do the same by building teams of expert individuals in regions and cities (just like campaigning) that proactively and reactively engage Americans about America.

That would definitely be Change, eh?

First Thing to Change: My Hope Hangover

What an incredible night!

At the last minute, I was invited to the main Democratic Watch party at the beautifully renovated Midland Theater (thanks, TessK!). I’d never been to a watch party, especially one that was likely to produce a win for my candidate. Little did I realize that the evening would be much more than just a party for me… and for the world.

When I arrived slightly after 7pm, the crowd was still sparse. Most of the local volunteers were still out on the streets doing their thing to get Democrats into office at the local, state and national levels.

I wandered around the Midland admiring the immense chandeliers hanging from the ceiling and the ornate woodcarvings on the walls. “Historic,” I thought, “this place hasn’t changed at all.” I’d been to the Midland once before when, as a child, my father brought me out to see “The Empire Strikes Back.”

As the night continued, both attendance and electoral votes were building for Obama. As CNN, the channel of choice at the party, put a state into Obama’s column, the crowd would stop their merriment and roar with delight. Pennsylvania. Indiana. OMG OHIO!

CNN reports that GOP insiders admit that the race is over, yet the crowd remains pensive. We are all waiting for the same thing, 270 electoral votes. A wave of energy—of Hope—that had been building for generations was coming to a crest.

While CNN breaks for commercials, the sound system at the Midland plays inspiring tunes such as “Change Is Gonna Come.”

“Oh, there been times that I thought I couldn’t last for long,
But now I think I’m able to carry on.
It’s been a long, a long time comin.'
But I know a change gonna come.
Oh, yes it will.”

The music takes my eyes from the projected television and prompts me to look around. White. Black. Asian. Latino. Tall. Short. Known. Unknown. Young. Old. T-shirts. Suits. Smiles. All smiles. Everyone sitting up straight or standing tall. Everyone smiling.

I was micro-blogging the event, so I tried to stay on the outside of the experience and looking in. I took a break for an Obama-dog and an ObaMerlot. In a corner of the lobby, I saw the head honcho for the Obama movement in KC pacing back and forth on her phone. Missouri wasn’t going to easily go blue, it was going to kick and scream. I could see the tension on her face; she wanted to win the battle and the war.

The wave crested around 10pm. It still gives me goosebumps to recollect the experience. The crowd counted down, 5-4-3-2-1 and CNN posted that Obama had won the election. This wave, made up of millions of hopeful Americans, flooded the Midland Theater and we all splashed about in it for countless minutes. I was no longer on the outside looking in. I was smiling, too. I was clapping, too. I was high-fiving, too. I was singing, too. The elation changed into dancing and singing. An old theater was colored with Hope. An old theater was remade into a kaleidoscope of Hope.

“YES WE CAN!”
“YES WE CAN!”

And then, I promptly got off of the wave. The very first speaker to stand at the podium kept repeating, “WE WERE RIGHT! THEY WERE WRONG!” in reference to health care, to taxation and to all the issues that were a major part of this election. “WE WERE RIGHT! THEY WERE WRONG!”

That’s not Change. That’s not Hope. That’s the same shit, different day.

Those that spoke to us were unknowingly confused. They spoke of unity, yet boasted of victory over their enemies. They spoke of Democratic success in the state that would give them license to lord over their enemies.

That’s not Change. That’s not Hope. That’s the same shit, different day.

I began to wonder if the evil Empire was the Democratic Party. Much like the Red Sox have become the hated Yankees, would the Democratic Party take the crown of hatred from the Republicans?

Congressman Cleaver took the stage. He spoke of how “YES WE CAN!” had changed to “YES WE DID!” His words brought me back to Hope. He said it was okay to strut a little bit tonight, a little bit more tomorrow and to put a skip in your step on January 20th, but that we must remember that “YES WE CAN!” is only the beginning. We have to come up with a new slogan and continue riding the wave of Hope and Unity.

McCain concedes. The watch party boos his recognition of Palin’s hard work. And just like that, division returned.

But then our Leader-elect entered the room with a calm, omniscient, kingly presence. His face filled up the screen and his spirit the entire theater. As he walked to the stage in Chicago, one of his volunteers was singing the National Anthem to us in Kansas City. Hope.

All I can recount from the emotion of Obama’s speech was what I Twittered to the world:

“Obama captured this crowd, this country, this world. We barely blink. Eyes and ears open. We're ready. Lead.”

It will be a few days before I fully realize the unprecedented nature of the experience that I had at the Midland Theater. The world is a different place this morning. I've realized that the Empire is truly the American people, the Empire is good and last night we executed the first step of a long-term plan to renew our country.

My ears are still ringing from the roar of the party last night. I’m Hoping that, at least, will Change.

For Love of the American Dream

I voted with a smile. I didn’t need to get up before the sun and stand in line, but I couldn’t sleep any longer. In fact, when I saw the line I became more exhilarated for the great opportunity that we have in this country to make a statement with our vote.

It was chilly and it took an hour to complete the task, but no one complained and absolutely no one that stood in line, or even did a drive by, turned and left. There was a sense of community amongst those nearest me in line. We were all telling jokes and talking about hope. We were liberals and conservatives, and we were there to fix the country.

However, no one was talking about politics and I find that to be a problem with our country. Just last night, a friend said to me, “Can I ask you a personal question?” He wanted to ask about my candidate preference. I have no problem talking about politics (or religion), for my freedom of speech gives me the right to do so. We ‘should’ talk about these things at the dinner table and amongst friends. “Of course,” I replied and continued with conviction, “Obama.”

There is passion in politics and that is the beauty of it! How do you form your own opinion if you don’t listen to the opinions of others? We should talk these things out whether we have a solid stance or we’re sitting on the fence. The community aspects of social marketing and Web 2.0 are making opinions more visible. I hope that will eventually make its way to the more traditional forms of media. In fact, we’re seeing some of the 24-hour news channels run opinions on their tickers and incorporate them into the newscast.

The fear machine is alive and well here in the mid-west: a Muslim, a terrorist, an illegal immigrant in the family, a harbinger of racial riots, the destruction of small business. For every person that brought these concerns to the conversation I asked, “How can you vote based on fear and not the issues?” You have to vote based on what they say they will do and, to a degree, what they have done. You have to do your homework and skim off the contextual slander to get to the foundation of the candidate.

So many people are voting based on what they think the candidate will do for/against them personally. I’ve always found that to be a faulty way to cast a ballot. It’s the hangover from issue-based, divisive voting that has made up the past couple of elections since the far right pushed to make the focus of the election such issues as abortion, flag burning, gay marriage and gun control. They did this to get more voters to the polls. I’m happy to see that more people are going to the polls for issues other than those that have historically divided us so greatly.

Vote for what is best for our country. We are a resilient, innovative population of Americans, but we need a true leader that can rally our spirit to forge a new world. It’s been a long time since there was a beacon of hope in the world. Today we have the opportunity to resuscitate the American Dream.

Go. Vote. Now.

The BAM in Obama

I'm sorry to have to write this, but channeling your revolutionary tendencies circa late 1700's for the coming election is really childish don't ya think?

KMBC News reports:

Police are investigating after two bricks were thrown through the windows at Barack Obama's Kansas City campaign headquarters early Tuesday morning. Investigators said they found two bricks with messages on them. One brick had "False Hope" written on it and second had "Means Social War" written on it.

Is our country in such political upheaval that you have to resort to violence? The answer is no, you idiots.

Me thinks I'd attach a note to each brick and throw them back out of the window. On the back of "False Hope" I'd write "For falsetto, drop on balls." And on "Means Social War" I'd write "Pen Trumps Sword." While they stood there scratching their heads trying to figure out what I'd written I'd have my uncle wrap them up completely in duct tape from head to toe and wait for the authorities to arrive (he once did this to a purse snatcher... totally awesome).

Even cavemen have already evolved. Don't you idiots watch TV?

The Choice for Change

If you want to read a moving Editorial, then this is the one that you should put on your radar today. The Editors of "The New Yorker" have written an amazing piece on how our country must believe in the word "change" and make as large a change as we possibly can to make progress at home and abroad.

The article is called "The Choice" and I urge you to read it by clicking here NOW.

I'll warn you in advance that this is simultaneously a pro-Obama and anti-McCain article. In any Presidential election, we rarely get the ideal candidate, but in this one we've got one candidate that gives us a chance to avoid the pending collision of the economy, war, health care, entitlements, education and environment. A "maverick" is the last thing that I want in this age... please give me someone with the intelligence and charisma to make a difference... to be the change agent that we need.

The election of Obama—a man of mixed ethnicity, at once comfortable in the world and utterly representative of twenty-first-century America—would, at a stroke, reverse our country’s image abroad and refresh its spirit at home. His ascendance to the Presidency would be a symbolic culmination of the civil- and voting-rights acts of the nineteen-sixties and the century-long struggles for equality that preceded them. It could not help but say something encouraging, even exhilarating, about the country, about its dedication to tolerance and inclusiveness, about its fidelity, after all, to the values it proclaims in its textbooks. At a moment of economic calamity, international perplexity, political failure, and battered morale, America needs both uplift and realism, both change and steadiness. It needs a leader temperamentally, intellectually, and emotionally attuned to the complexities of our troubled globe. That leader’s name is Barack Obama.

Read the full article... for your country if not for yourself.

Thanks to @fredwilson for pointing out this amazing article in a Tweet this morning.

Where's Bob? Two-festing & Road-trippin'

Bobby Blogger took a few days off, have you missed me? I'm going to give you a quick photo montage to get you caught up with what's going on in my world.

After having been immobile for most of the year, I've broken out and taken to the road! WOOT!

First photo is a shot from the Lee's Summit, MO Oktoberfest where my niece did the cutest little dance number ever... sassy-walk girl! She's just the cutest lil' thing and loves to dance pretty much non-stop all day and night. SMOOCH!

The next photo is from the KC Beer Festival (hence the play on words with Two-festing) where a good time was had. Unfortunately we hit up three bars AFTER the BeerFest and that pretty much ruined my entire Sunday. I definitely made a new friend in Brenda at the first bar we visited, then completely copped-out on a real dinner and macked on some chili-cheese fries (which will be the death of me), totally don't remember a debate about preferences in regard to sexual frequency (which I'm sure was more interesting than the VP Debate last week) and then hit up another bar on the way home. I think the tally was about a case of beer, three DarkRum+OJs and two Negronis. Oops.

Photo #3 was snapped cruising east on I-80 through Iowa. It's tough to tell, but this SUV flew past me swerving all over the road. The SUV was covered with Obama stickers and the trailer had a bunch of banners duct-taped to it. I later saw the trailer make an emergency roadside stop... hopefully this isn't an indicator of the campaign trail yet to come for the Senator.

The fourth photo is from last Saturday night. The Cubs got swept, but some lady in the bar was having a Bachelorette or Birthday party (after a day of bocce ball and drinking I can no longer remember which) and she made us all feel better with the best chocolate cupcakes I've ever had in my life. Thanks, Cupcake Lady. BTW, MIZZOU kicked some Cornhusker arse that night which made this MO boy feel better than the IL crew.

Reader VOTE...
Where should I stop on the way home from Chicago?

• The Bridges of Madison County (& home of John Wayne).
• Herman, MO Oktoberfest.
• A B&B somewhere on the Mississippi River.
• An MU game at Faurot Field.
• Tour an ethanol plant.
  

Log your response by placing a comment! Thanks!

700 Billion (Un)Served

Nice week for McCain:

• Call off your campaign to focus on the economy.
• Wiggle-waddle about whether you're going to debate.
• Absolutely stink at the debate.
• Call for a vote on a bill that doesn't have enough votes to pass (and crash the markets, thanks for that).
• Take off on your plane without making a statement.

And you say Obama phoned it in? You went crazy last week talking about how we have to and you will get this done. Boink. Where are you going on your plane anyhow? Mr. McCain, you made this a presidential politics issue. Now, more than ever, leadership must get together and pass something! Turn that plane around, dude.

Basically, McPain, you suck ass.

To Clear Up the Confusion about Obama vs. McPalin

* If you grow up in Hawaii , raised by your grandparents, you're exotic, different.
BUT IF...
* Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers, a quintessential American story.

* If your name is Barack you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.
BUT IF...
* Name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you're a maverick.

* Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.
BUT IF...
* Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you're well grounded.

* If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.
BUT IF...
* If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you're qualified to become the country's second highest ranking executive and next in line behind a man in his eighth decade.

* If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian.
BUT IF...
* If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and then left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a true Christian.

* If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.
BUT IF...
* If, while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state's school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you're very responsible.

* If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America 's.
BUT IF...
* If your husband is nicknamed "First Dude," with at least one DWI conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.

This really clears things up for me, you?

McCain Can't Multi-task?

Obama called McCain and suggested that they get together and focus on the economy. McCain said okie-dokie, but then suggested that they delay this Friday's first debate.

Does this bother you as much as it bothers me?

In this day and age, if you can't focus on multiple things at once, then you aren't going to connect with the rest of us who are. In this country we have many issues that are coming to a head at the same time: poor education, faltering economy, war in Iraq (Afganistan), immigration, senior entitlements, health care and more.

Two years ago, "TIME" magazine's Claudia Wallis wrote an article about the wired age. In it she states, "Human beings have always had a capacity to attend to several things at once. Mothers have done it since the hunter-gatherer era--picking berries while suckling an infant, stirring the pot with one eye on the toddler. Nor is electronic multitasking entirely new: we've been driving while listening to car radios since they became popular in the 1930s. But there is no doubt that the phenomenon has reached a kind of warp speed in the era of Web-enabled computers, when it has become routine to conduct six IM conversations, watch American Idol on TV and Google the names of last season's finalists all at once."

Perhaps McCain needs to send Palin to the debate... after all, she needs to prove that she can run a family and attend to the needs of a country at the same time. Or is that attend to the needs of a family and run a country?

The "TIME" article continues, "That level of multiprocessing and interpersonal connectivity is now so commonplace that it's easy to forget how quickly it came about. Fifteen years ago, most home computers weren't even linked to the Internet. In 1990 the majority of adolescents responding to a survey done by Donald Roberts, a professor of communication at Stanford, said the one medium they couldn't live without was a radio/CD player. How quaint. In a 2004 follow-up, the computer won hands down."

At this point, McCain should know his agenda well enough to talk about it at any time and in any place. I'm tired of these so-called "debates" not really being a debate at all.

In the words of Mills Lane, "Let's get it on."

The Election is an 8-course Meal, not Fast Food.

Great post on 3 Garzas & La Gringa today about how people don't take the time to really understand how politics impacts their lives... much beyond the divisive issues that continue to permeate our decision-making: abortion, immigration, war.

I'm not saying that these issues aren't important, but you have to see the whole menu people. Even though you prefer fast food news to fuel your tank, we're taking about an 8 course meal here and you can't get up from the table early.

Americans have to learn to take the time to understand that "change" is real, whether they like it or not. And that change can come at you from so many different directions that you better take the time to know what's going on with the war, the economy, social security, health care, education, immigration, energy and crime before you run off to the polls and vote for a barbie-doll VP who won't even be running the country.

Obama out-fems HRC

I constantly wondered why Hillary never took advantage of the fact that she is a woman. She tried so hard to be like a man during her campaign that she ultimately lost because her opponent, Obama, was more feminine than she.

Seriously.

A friend, author (The Culture Code) and respected psychologist, Dr. Clotaire Rapaille, recently wrote:

"Hillary lost the nomination because she was not wearing a skirt; she missed the feminine trend. She did not lose because she is a woman, she lost because she is not
enough of a woman – she is not feminine enough.

Obama won because he was more feminine than Hillary. He is soft, integrative, is not exclusive and for unity. Men make definitions by exclusion. Woman are into inclusion, they make definitions by adding – “this is it, this is it too, and this is also it” and it never really ends. This is the Obama structure. He integrates different countries, different races, different classes and this is what is appealing
to the world.“we have to be on the Internet.”

How many times did I ask, "Why doesn't Hillary ever wear a skirt?" Too many! I'm not saying that I was a supporter or HRC during her campaign, but I was vocal about how she was trying so hard to avoid her gender that she was losing out on a real opportunity.

When we've been a divided country for this long, the natural tendency is to seek unity. Men are exclusive (the sword). Women are inclusive (the chalice). We want inclusion. We see the problems. We want to be part of the answer.

Too bad, HRC. BTW, did you pay off that campaign debt yet? If that's how you're going to run a campaign, I'd sure dislike how you woulda run the government anyhow.