World Interest in Our Election

I'm on the continent of Africa for work and will visit nine countries before returning to the U.S. in mid-November.  (Yes, I voted early!)

Listening to the BBC television news station, I was reminded that America's vote on Tuesday is "the vote that affects your world."  I've known that.  In fact I've used this very concept -- the notion that Obama is who the world has been waiting for -- whenever I have a chance to talk to people about Obama.   But hearing the BBC say it somehow took it out of the realm of rhetorical hyperbole and brought it down to earth.  The world will be affected by the decisions of a few dozen million people. 

Is that fair? No.  Is it reality? Yes. 

So the world awaits news of whether America -- finally -- will get it right.

On a lighter note, I saw these up at a restaurant in Accra, Ghana (well off the tourist track).  The first is an ad for Obama t-shirts and the second is a poster for  an elections results watch party.   

The RNC: Kickin' Ass With Sarah Palin

There’s a lot I admire about Sarah Palin:  Her meteoric rise in a highly-scrutinized, male-dominated profession. Her ability to be smart and tough but also beautiful and feminine.  The challenges life has thrown her way and how she has handled them.  My friend Andy, a republican insider on Capitol Hill, says the party has had its eye on her for years.  A true rising star.  She is "feisty, with grace,” as a republican delegate recently put it. 

Sure, I find it pretty easy to be excited about all of that.

And, then there’s a lot I don't like about her.  Her belief that creationism should be taught in public schools.  Her desire to drill for more oil and build nuclear power plants instead of insisting on clean and safe sources of energy.  Her belief that government should be able to tell women what they can and cannot do with their bodies.  There’s a lot of policy to disagree about, but these disagreements are par for the course in a republican versus democratic race. 

This race isn’t going to come down to any of that.

No, this race is going to be about personality and character.  And it's now abundantly clear that Sarah Palin has a lot of both.  The question is whether she’s got the kind of personality and character befitting a person holding the second-highest office in the land. 

Or whether hers is conduct unbecoming.

During her acceptance speech I expected to hear the kind of content conservatives salivate over, just as the DNC speeches dripped with the content democrats crave.  So I wasn’t surprised by the topics.  Still, I heard some things that made my stomach churn.

I heard her ridicule Obama’s community organizing experience.  Of course we democrats know that community organizing is what you do when government is failing to meet the needs of the people.  Martin Luther King was a community organizer.  So was Jesus Christ.  Maybe she does not understand what that work is all about.  But did she have to ridicule it?

What was with the tone she took? The attitude? I was instantly reminded of the swaggering cowboy we currently have in the Oval Office who makes clear that he thinks anyone who disagrees with him is like an animal in his personal rodeo.  After hearing Sarah Palin speak, it is easy to imagine her as the new cowboy in town, with the leather chaps, metal spurs and lasso, kicking ass and taking names. This is who we want representing us in the world?

The world is so tired of an America that behaves that way. 

And so am I.

We need a president who respects people – all people – who doesn’t think we are better than everybody else, and better yet who understands that while we are but a tiny fraction of the planet’s population we have a great obligation to help lift up those around the world who are enduring tragedy and hardship. We need a president who will make America America again, both around the world and right here at home.   It is hard to imagine that a woman who is called a "barracuda" because of how she treats people would be one of our nation's highest leaders.  It is hard to imagine a woman who had no need for a passport in the first 43 years of her life being able to be an ambassador for America around the world.  It is hard to imagine such a woman being a heartbeat away from the presidency.

I am a democrat.  I believe government should actively safeguard a basic quality of life for all citizens.  I believe our leaders must believe in science, in global warming being greatly compounded by human behavior, in a woman’s right to choose.  But even more than these things, I want the highest leaders in the land to respect people.  The kick ass attitude Sarah Palin showed in her acceptance speech may be what it takes to get things done in Alaska, but in my view it is conduct unbecoming the next Vice President of the United States.

Yee haw.

Post DNC: "The Angry Left"

Driving home from work tonight I heard some snippets on NPR of the President and the First Lady speaking at the Republican Convention. George W. opined that McCain would never yield to the "angry left." And I found myself thinking, "Angry Left? Huh, yep, well, I guess that's me."  Of course the crowd of adoring delegates roared their approval and I got this snarlish look on my face and a feeling of dread in my stomach which presumably is what the republicans felt and looked like listening to our great lovefest last week.  It pains me that we are so divided as a country, and that this process by very definition polarizes us.  Yet, it is what it is and here we are, Angry Left. Let's put this anger to good use, even if it means giving the Right something to be angry about.

Post DNC: Stoking the Fire With My Kids

Against my better judgment, when I arrived back home from Denver at midnight on Friday night, I woke my daughter up with kisses.  Six, seven or eight, of the deep nuzzle in the face and neck variety.  I knew I shouldn't wake her -- she's the one who at age seven still has trouble going to sleep every night -- but after my longest trip away from home ever, I just had to reconnect with her scent, her texture, her sweetness.  Thankfully, after a brief conversation she nestled back into her pillow and within a few minutes fell asleep.

By the time I made it to the next door down the hallway, I had regained some sense.  So when I climbed the ladder to my nine year old son's elevated bed, I went in for the strategic kiss of the non-waking kind.   In his sleep his arm was outstretched toward the ladder, so I started there and then gave a quick peck on the forehead while murmuring "I love you baby."  He stayed asleep.

Finally, I was home.

The DNC: My Favorite Photos, Favorite Memories

Ten MOMocrats spent the last week at the DNC, attending events, meeting politicians and celebrities, writing, videoing, twittering, and watching.  We experienced the highest highs and some of the lowest lows.  We were conflicted when the duties of motherhood called, when a little one tumbled down the stairs, several others started school, and all of our kids missed our hugs and our presence and we missed them.  We had to check our emotions many times, and other times let them flow.

We were a part of history, bearing witness to the fruit of Dr. King's dream so long ago, when some of us were children, and others weren't even born yet.  Barack Obama may not have been our first choice, but we rallied around him, our party, and our nation.  He likes to say that his "is an impossible story" and so, too, is the story of the MOMocrats.

I can't say what my favorite moment was.  There are too many.  I can't describe it adequately in words; words fail me.  All I know is that I was surrounded by a group of women I adore more every second, and cannot imagine the experience without any one of them.  I wished that the other MOMocrats--Stefania, Jen, Joanne, Jenn, and Christine--who planned to come but couldn't make, had been there.  We carried their strength and humor with us, and tried hard to do them proud.

These are some of my favorite people and moments of the Convention. I wish you could have been there.

Illinois Secretary of Veteran's Affairs, Iraq War heroine, and triple amputee, Tammy Duckworth at the Asian-Pacific Islander Caucus.  The Caucus featured a panel moderated by Yul Kwon, Survivor Cook Islands Winner, and in true API fashion, singing.  It was wonderful to see so many APIs, from so many different cultures and circumstances, all in one place.  Growing up in Ohio, we were the only Asian family in our town for many years.  It was wonderful to see so many successful Asian-Americans together with a common goal.

MOMocrats around the web

• Check out our very own Sheila Bernus Dowd's interview with Patrick May of the San Jose Mercury News on McCain's puzzling VP pick, Sarah Palin.
• Start subscribing to Stefania Pomponi Butler's picks for 10 Political Blogs Every Progressive Mother Should Read (with suggestions from MOMocrats) as featured on Blogs.com.
• And lastly, read about our very own MOMocrat and Obama delegate, Julie Lythcott-Haims, whose thoughts about Hillary Clinton's speech at the DNC were picked up by Wired's blog.

The DNC: The Convention is Over But the Connections Continue

Speaker Nancy Pelosi struck the final gavel of the Democratic National  Convention last night, signaling an immediate and inevitable end to  the four days of frenzied activity, intense emotion, and the constant  sense that what you are doing matters.  Quite frankly, I'm relieved it  is over.  There is only so much exhilaration a person can take all at  once.

I spent the night last night with old friends who live in Denver. This  morning, they shared with me this reaction from a neighbor to Obama's  speech: "I didn't like the speech. I mean, why should we help the poor?"

Ahem.

What a lovely opportunity to discuss the role of government from a  Democrat's perspective, that is if you can stomach any further  engagement with one so minded.  And of course, you have to engage  because hearts and minds don't change any other way. Still, it was  trying if not alarming, leaving my friend to contemplate why she is  living where she is living and how in 2008 we still have so far to go.

From my friend's house I came to the   Denver airport which seems to  have mopped itself up from the flood of visitors that came in for the  Convention.  I was uncharacteristically early, so had some time for a  breather at the Food Court where I checked my much-neglected email,  and had the kind of fast food meal I don't let myself eat much anymore.

Quite deliberately, I wore an Obama t-shirt to the airport today. I  hoped to invite conversation by wearing it, and it served it's  intended purpose.  A woman named Genie came over to me with a wry  smile and said, "it was pretty great, huh?" A Political Director for  the SCIU union in Illinois, she is from Obama's home district and  proudly told me that her support pre-dated his senate run.

She then went on to tell me that her boss was a speaker at Invesco so  she and a few coworkers got tickets. As she stood in the long line  approaching the stadium last night, a guy walked by with a concert or  sporting event-style sign saying "I need a ticket." Though it had to  have been the hottest ticket on the planet, she just gave him one.  Later, when she was at guest services trying to recharge her cell  phone, she lamented to the clerk that she was up in the nosebleed  seats, and the clerk gave her a ticket in a better section. This kind 
of generosity kept paying itself forward throughout the event.

Genie, a Caucasian, told me that she was sitting with her male African  American coworker. At the end of Obama's speech, a White male stranger  came up to the coworker and gave him a full embrace. Then the stranger  pulled back, looked the coworker in the eye and said, "I didn't think  I would ever vote for a Black man."

This was a week for hearing that kind of thing, for watching people  step gingerly or leap across lines they had drawn, and to see them  seek --and usually find -- embrace on the other side.

Genie and I were soon joined in conversation by Randy, a baggage  worker here at the airport.  He asked us what we thought of McCain's  VP pick. And then Randy talked about how he usually gets three days  off in a row, and how he would use those days off to do voter  registration right here in Colorado.

That's what these final 67 days will be about. Talking to strangers,  crossing lines, reaching out, engaging.  All of it hard work, all of  it essential.

Something tells me there's more fast food in my future. But I hope  also more  people like Genie and Randy.

The DNC: Brilliant

This strategy to have real folk talk about their experiences is  brilliant.

The woman who received the republican smear email just told millions  of people why it was trash.

The former republicans with horror stories were more compelling than  dems with the same stories would have been.

And now we're singing "Born in the USA" and people are waving not only  the small flags we were given, but huge flags brought from home. The  Republicans' claim of ownership of the flag is over.  These are patriots in this stadium and we're taking our country back.

When has there ever been a convention with 70,000 people shouting in  Spanish?

Sent from my iPhone

The DNC: The Wave

It is 7:05 MDT. Gore just finished and we must be on commercial break  cuz nothing is happening. Nothing, that is, until the audience in the  bowl started doing a very energetic wave around the stadium.

And now  Michael McDonald sings...

Sent from my iPhone

The DNC: Practical Realities of the Big Day

Today is the big day.  Although, yesterday was an unbelievably big day and it is hard to imagine any day -- even a day on which Barack Obama accepts the Democratic Nomination for President -- being any bigger.  Yesterday was THAT big. 

The rumor is that we need to get to Mile High/Invesco at one, and that we will be there until 9pm MDT. We will walk the two miles to get there because the buses have to slog through traffic. I've been doing all of my live blogging from my iPhone which I was able to recharge while in the Pepsi Center but I'll have no such luck down on a football field. To conserve my phone battery, I'm going to take my laptop and record stuff there. It has no wireless connection, but at least I can record stuff real-time and post it later.

The other practicality is the fancy outfit I brought is going to feel like a straitjacket under Denver's August heat in the afternoon. This may be the most important speech I will ever attend in my lifetime, and of course I want to honor that by looking the part, but practically speaking I may be indistinguishable from a tourist on a summer day. Or a fan on a football field.

The final practicality of the morning is checking out of the hotel and packing for home. Today is about endings and beginnings for our party, our campaign, our nation and for me. Try as I will to stuff everything into boxes and bags -- the buttons, posters, goodies, business cards -- there isn't a bag in this world big enough to carry all of these precious memories home.