StoryWorks

I love this story.

I'm stunned and saddened to see this news from President Obama. (This is not why I voted for him. This is a mistake for our coastal environment and this will backfire politically.)

What I can't wait to see is the reaction from the GOP -- they will be thrilled -- but how can they praise the president?

If you read one op-ed today, read this one by Frank Rich. The irrational thinking rampant in the GOP is dissected here in a way which makes a great deal of sense to me.

As for me and my family, we support President Obama and the Democrats. They did the right thing on healthcare. In my view, Rep. Boehner and the GOP have jumped off the edge a cliff with their angry, hateful and irrational rhetoric.

Frankly, I've had enough.

Americans will always side with the optimistic choice. (That's what we did in 2008 and we will do it again in 2010 if Democrats continue to articulate a hopeful and positive message and vision for America.)

Trust me. Yes we can.

Usually when the NY Times writes about the South, and especially when they write about the Deep South, they end up resorting to stereotypes which are no longer representative of the what I like to call, "The Place Where People Talk Like Me."

This story is an exception and this story explains how an African-American Democrat has been repeatedly elected by a rural, conservative white Republican electorate. Along the way it gets at what's long been true about local politics around the country: when a race is a "friends and neighbors" election, the person with the most friends wins.

Have you ever gotten one those emails calling President Obama some kind of cryptic Muslim? Or did you get the one claiming that former President George W. Bush interrupted a GOP fundraising dinner to proselytize?

This story asks an important question: "So, why are Christians so willing to believe unsubstantiated rumors? And more troubling, why are Christians, who should hold the highest standards of truth-telling, so eager to spread such rumors -- and even downright libels?"

And here's one of the answers:

"Some Christians are so willing to believe rumors that reflect well on their heroes and poorly on their opponents that they abandon even a modest concern for the veracity of the rumors. Yet the Bible clearly prohibits “bearing false witness” and spreading rumors and gossip. Perhaps Christians who spread such rumors think they serve a greater purpose, as if the end justifies the means, some ethicists speculate."

In his eulogy for Sen. Kennedy earlier today, President Obama spoke these words. They caught my ears' attention.

We cannot know for certain how long we have here. We cannot foresee the trials or misfortunes that will test us along the way. We cannot know God’s plan for us.

What we can do is to live out our lives as best we can with purpose, and love, and joy. We can use each day to show those who are closest to us how much we care about them, and treat others with the kindness and respect that we wish for ourselves. We can learn from our mistakes and grow from our failures. And we can strive at all costs to make a better world, so that someday, if we are blessed with the chance to look back on our time here, we can know that we spent it well; that we made a difference; that our fleeting presence had a lasting impact on the lives of other human beings.

This is how Ted Kennedy lived. This is his legacy.

The dream shall never die.

President Obama has a compelling op-ed in today's New York Times stating the case for healthcare reform, but the opponents of reform aren't going to read it.

Fundamentally, these are people who distrust government and they fear doing anything will raise taxes. They also don't see any intellectually inconsistent in raising fears about a "government-run health care system" while praise medicare and social security -- which are -- ahem -- "government run healthcare systems".

Instead, these GOP opponents sit by silently as the craziest among them lie about "pulling the plug on Grandma" and "death panels".

If our country is going to have healthcare reform, I've concluded that the only Republicans who are going to support it are the GOP Senators from Maine. It really is a waste of time to talk to anyone else.

When I worked on Capitol Hill a million years ago, Rahm Emanuel was the political director for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee -- the political arm of House Democrats.

The Democratic Congressman I worked for at the time represented a very Republican District. At election time, the Congressman routinely attracted the support of Republicans and Independents, but not in large margins. I don't think he ever was re-elected with more than 55% of the vote in his 20 year career.

At political director, Emanuel hounded the boss over fundraising and making sure he was taking care of the politics back home. He was relentless. While the boss hated it, because of Emanuel's tenacious approach to politics, his re-election bids weren't as stressful the times Emanuel was involved.

And that's how the Democrats kept the majority -- at least until 1994. (By then Emanuel was gone from the DCCC.)

Now that he's President Obama's chief of staff, I expect -- and hope -- he's chasing after the Democrats who aren't supporting the President's agenda, particularly on health care.