Something Requisitely Witty and Urbane

Obama Press Conference Question

I've been reading a lot of blogs today and no one has mentioned what I thought was one of the biggest moments in last night's presser:

"And there's an interesting reason why some of these critics haven't put out their own budget. We haven't seen an alternative budget out of them. And the reason is because they know that in fact the biggest driver of long-term deficits are the huge health care costs that we've got out here that we're going to have to tackle, and that if we don't deal with some of the structural problems in our deficit, ones that were here long before I got here, then we're going to continue to see some of the problems in those out-years."

It's a totally valid point, but it was a political gamble. He just gave the Republicans an opening. If they can put together an alternative budget that still address some of the issues ahead of us but that comes in with even a moderately lower deficit than Obama's budget (a bar that he has admittedly already set pretty high), then they'll be the winners in this political tet a tet and his first 100 days will be viewed as undeniably negative (whether wrongly or rightly).

I have to figure that the certainly with which he made the statment is real and he's reasonably sure that he's right, but it sure did feel like a West Wing moment where the staff all calls each other saying, "Are you watching this?" while the congressional Republicans stand on the steps of Congress  dealing the administration a body blow (which they'll, of course, solve after the next commercial break so the episode can end with CJ's feet on her desk, smoking a preverbial cigar).

Things I am digging...

Mad Men (can't believe I missed this)

Kara DioGuardi (the new American Idol judge)

Twitter (follow me! @dylanbiles)

Secret Diary of a Call Girl

Yael Naim

Tiger Woods 2009

Streaming Netflix through my XBox360

Neal Patrick Harris on SNL

Speaking of NPH, Doogie Howser, M.D. is on Hulu!

Auditorium (take 5 minutes, but understand it will turn into an hour pretty easily)

Gemcraft (take an hour, but understand it will end up being 15 hours).

Be Kind Rewind

Ajax Carousel Displays

Jason Kottke

The Big Picture

Mighty Goods

TweetDeck

Flight of the Conchords return to S1:E1 form

President Obama

The History of Howard Stern parts 1 and 2

Satelite Radio

My new 2008 Dodge Caliber

I can't believe this exists.

They should have sent a poet...

Handshakes

So, here's something I can go ahead and cross of my list of things to see before I die: A series ending playoff game with my team on top.

I was at the Dallas Stars game tonight (in the back row of the upperdeck) where I watched this suddenly resiliant and promising young time erase a third period 1 goal deficit by scoring twice in the first 150 seconds and then tacking on two more to boot.

I've never, ever experienced the energy like was in the arena after the second and third goals were scored. And, after 4 years of first round exits, the Stars were on the right side of the handshake line.

Playoff hockey. Effing A.

I don't...

... normally go in for things where someone feels the need to say, "OMG this is the cutest thing ever," but, OMG this is the cutest thing ever.

Dear Senator Obama,

Please, please, PLEASE don't go negative on Hillary Clinton.

You'll only prove to the electorate what the Clinton campaign has been trying to say: That deep down, your just another pol. You have a chance to take the high road here. You have a chance to prove that your words, which you've gotten a whole lot of credit for, aren't empty. That unity isn't just a campaign slogan.

And you might lose if you don't.

But, I beg of  you not to. I think you'll win either way, but you'll win better this way.

Love,

Dylan

My Caucus Experience

Well, it's been an exceptional political time here in the Lone Star State and, while some of you reading from places like Ohio, Iowa, New Hampshire or Florida might be used to it, we're really not here.

For about 30 years now, the nominating process has always yielded a candidate who had things locked up long before Texas held their primaries and in any national election Texas has never been in play, going solidly red.

But not this year.

In this craziest of election seasons, we Texans found ourselves suddenly "important." We actually had a big role to play in the Democratic Party's nominating process. The candidates and their surrogates came to town (I saw Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton at rallies in that order last week) and the tried to get out the vote here.

And we found ourselves saying things to each other like, "Did you know there were this many Democrats in Texas?" or, "Did you know we had a dual primary system?" That was the real civics lesson we all received this go round. No one knew we had to do anything other than vote because, well, no one really cared before.

So, today I went to my polling place and voted and then waited it out in preparation for my first caucus. Despite the fact that I really didn't know what to expect, I certainly didn't expect this. Here's my caucus story.

I arrived to vote at about 5:15 this afternoon. At all of the rallies, the first thing anyone who took the stage would say was that we should get to our precinct between 6:45 and 7:00 to caucus, as the number of people allowed to caucus would be only those who arrived between 7:00 and 7:15.

Expecting a fairly long wait to vote in the primary portion of the election, I figured I'd be done voting about 6:00 and would just hang around for the caucus. It turns out that I didn't have to wait very long to vote, so I headed outside and walked up to some Obama supporters and asked if there was anything I could do. Before long I had an Obama sticker on my shirt and an Obama sign in my hands.

Over the next hour and a half or so, people came up asking questions about the caucus and we all did our best to explain it and give the best information we could. It did become fairly clear that no on REALLY knew for sure what was going on. I mean, there was a general idea, but there didn't seem to be anyone in charge.

As 6:45 approached, the number of both late voters and caucus-goers began to grow and we began to group ourselves together by precinct. I was in precinct 4637 (Represent!).

So, here's where things happen in a bit of a whirlwind (which is kind of an ironic word considering that the reality of the situation was anything but fast-moving). Someone who had seen me working earlier asked me to hold a sign with my precinct number on it up. My polling place was the same as 5 other precincts, so there was a matter of getting everyone grouped up.

Here I am in a room full of people who obviously don't know what they should be doing and they are all looking at the idiot holding the sign to give them answers. Of course, he has none.

And that's when it really sank in: A caucus is REALLY a moment where the voters organize themselves. There are no party workers or election officials. It's just a group of citizens and we're all required to organize ourselves.

Or at least, that's what happened in this relatively virgin caucus electorate. As we all stood around waiting for someone to tell us what to do, people began to get restless and I still had a sign in my hands, so they were getting restless at me. I left the room to try to find someone who looked official (a look in short supply) and tried to find some answers. Finally someone said we need to find the "packet of caucus election material."

It took some searching, but we found the packet in the hand of a voter who had just been handed it without any explanation. At that point, one man who I'd been joking around with for a while looked at me and said, "You're in charge here, bub."

And that's how I became a precinct chair for precinct 4637.

After a little bit of time reading through the packet, we elected a temporary chair (me) and a temporary secretary and slowly we got the vote underway. And I just stood there, answering questions as best I could, helping some people read the ballot sheet when they needed. I showed up to vote and somehow I'd ended up running the show.

There were 79 people in my precinct and I'm happy to say that, with one exception, everyone remained in good spirits. It was chaotic but it was interesting. And, who knows when there will be another moment like this in Texas.

I got home, told my tale to a few friends and family members and then settled in. I'd done quite a lot that evening. I'd campaigned for my candidate, I'd answered questions, I'd met some interesting people, I organized a precinct and ran a caucus. It wasn't until a few hours after I got home that I realized that, in all the chaos of the moment, I'd forgotten to do something in the caucus.

I forgot to vote.

When Jimmy Kimmel gets scorned...

... he doesn't hide, he gets even.

Yes We Can

Ann Althouse says this, today:

Throughout the rally, supporters waved Hillary signs, wore shirts with logos such as, "Got experience?," and chanted, "Yes she can."My emailer snarks:
[It] kind of sums up the difference between their two candidacies (hers is about her, his is about us). That's funny, but in fact we are electing a President. "We" are not going to be doing the job, that one individual is. The only thing we are going to do is pick the person who will take over the immense job of running the country.

This is in discussion of this video that I'm sure most everyone has seen by now.

I'm really struck by this video not just because of it's production value and quality but because so many people, including me, are buying into Barack Obama to the point that we can watch something like this and be moved completely and without irony.

The above comment on Althouse is true in practice, but I think it illustrates the difference in philosophies, not of the candidates, but of the people who are voting for the candidates. For the first time in a long, long time, the Obama supporters feel like THEY are the important ones in this election.

I've been struck over the past few weeks by the feeling that I'll be really, really disappointed if Obama DOESN'T get the nomination. I was pretty much undecided between the two for the longest time but now find myself becoming emotionally invested in Obama's candidacy.

I think it's because, as a 28-year-old American, I've longed for a President that inspires. I've heard tale of people who felt inspired by leaders but I had really begun to believe that it was either no longer possible or that, like so much of the 60's, the idea was something that has been exaggerated over time and sold back to us. A willful deception by our parents generation who merely wanted to make themselves feel superior to our generation just as their parents did to them.

But Obama makes us "feel" like it's possible to have inspiring leadership. That it's possible to have a leader who we are proud of. As sappy as that may sound, it's the first time most in our generation have dared to feel this way.

But we, The Gen-X/Y-ers desperately WANT to feel like we are part of something. We WANT that story that we can tell our kids about. "I was at home, watching when the first Black candidate to win a primary moved me to tears."

And, yet, I find myself almost unwilling to believe that it will actually happen. That I will be disappointed. That my party, as it so often has and that my country, as it so often does, will let me down.

However, for the first time in my lifetime I'm beginning to believe that it's possible. I'm beginning to believe, unironically, in "Hope", in "Movement".

I'm beginning to believe unironically that yes we, in fact, can.

UPDATE: I've closed the comments for the first time in the history of this blog because we can't keep it constructive and because, given the fact that I've been blogging so little over the past few months that I can't imagine HOW a little post would engender this much response naturally. The only explanation is that something else is influencing the commenting, so I'm closing them on this post.