The Obama Store

I hate to admit this but today was the first day that I looked at Obama and McCain's websites. McCain's website is really well, ugly. It is low tech and feels really old. Obama's is sleek, smart, and links to your entire world (makes sense since he hired the founder of Facebook). There are online tools for you to organize locally (my.barackobama.com) and links to youtube, myspace, facebook, linkedin, blackplanet, asianave, migente, etc. You can get text messages to your phone. Oh, my phone is vibrating, hello Barack!

The most exciting item McCain has in his store is a very sad Palin cap. What does "1 of 2008" mean? The Obama store is so awesome. Obama has art by amazing artists for sale and this section called Runway to Change where designers have created t-shirts, bags, scarves, etc. Designers include Isaac Mizrahi, Rag and Bone, Jeffery Costello and Robert Tagliapietra, Juicy Couture, Tory Burch, Russell Simmons, Pharrell Williams, Vera Wang, Tracy Reese, Jay Z, Zac Posen, Narciso Rodriguez, Diane von Furstenberg, Marc Jacobs, etc. I love the Maria Cornejo t-shirt pictured. I love that designers I love love Obama! There's even a "Gear for Less" section with tank tops for $10. N says that she had seen guys in clubs wearing Obama t-shirts that lit up. Can't wait for those to go up in the Obama store!

Before you go, oh, this is just about shopping. That it has nothing to do with the election. I think that this shows that Obama is someone who inspires and who is current. He is someone who can take us into the future, not bring us back. Also, he surrounds himself with great people. He may not know all the answers but he knows who to go to.

2008 Presidential Election: A Choice between the Past and The Future

"...I’m going to try to make this simple. On the Democratic side you have a guy whose campaign has been based on the Internet, who believes America may have something to learn from other countries (like universal health care) and who’s unafraid in 2008 to say he’s a “proud citizen of the United States and a fellow citizen of the world.”

On the Republican side, you have a guy who, in 2008, is just discovering the Net and Google and whose No. 2 is a woman who got a passport last year and believes she understands Russia because Alaska is closer to Siberia than Alabama.

If I were Obama, I’d put it this way: “Senator McCain, the world you claim to understand is the world of yesterday. A new century demands new thinking. Our country cannot be made fundamentally secure by a man who thought our economy was fundamentally sound.”

American exceptionalism, taken to extremes, leaves you without the allies you need (Iraq), without the influence you want (Iran) and without any notion of risk (Wall Street). The only exceptionalism that resonates, as Obama put it to me last year, is one “based on our Constitution, our principles, our values and our ideals...”

From Roger Cohen Op-Ed in today's NYTimes: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/25/opinion/25Cohen.html?hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1222362101-4IpL08RfTqsEh/1EfM9KuQ

Sarah Palin: the short and the NO

Succinct summary from moveon.org:

"Yesterday was John McCain's 72nd birthday. If elected, he'd be the oldest president ever inaugurated. And after months of slamming Barack Obama for "inexperience," here's who John McCain has chosen to be one heartbeat away from the presidency: a right-wing religious conservative with no foreign policy experience, who until recently was mayor of a town of 9,000 people.

Who is Sarah Palin? Here's some basic background:
She was elected Alaska 's governor a little over a year and a half ago. Her previous office was mayor of Wasilla, a small town outside Anchorage.
She has no foreign policy experience.1
Palin is strongly anti-choice, opposing abortion even in the case of rape or incest.2
She supported right-wing extremist Pat Buchanan for president in 2000. 3
Palin thinks creationism should be taught in public schools.4
She's doesn't think humans are the cause of climate change.5
She's solidly in line with John McCain's "Big Oil first" energy policy. She's pushed hard for more oil drilling and says renewables won't be ready for years. She also sued the Bush administration for listing polar bears as an endangered species—she was worried it would interfere with more oil drilling in Alaska.6
How closely did John McCain vet this choice? He met Sarah Palin once at a meeting. They spoke a second time, last Sunday, when he called her about being vice-president. Then he offered her the position.7


1. "Sarah Palin," Wikipedia, Accessed August 29, 2008
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Palin
2. "McCain Selects Anti-Choice Sarah Palin as Running Mate," NARAL Pro-Choice America, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17515&id=13661-5536293-5_Mivtx&t=1
3. "Sarah Palin, Buchananite," The Nation, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17736&id=13661-5536293-5_Mivtx&t=2
4. "'Creation science' enters the race," Anchorage Daily News, October 27, 2006
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17737&id=13661-5536293-5_Mivtx&t=3
5. "Palin buys climate denial PR spin—ignores science," Huffington Post, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17517&id=13661-5536293-5_Mivtx&t=4
6. "McCain VP Pick Completes Shift to Bush Energy Policy," Sierra Club, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17518&id=13661-5536293-5_Mivtx&t=5
"Choice of Palin Promises Failed Energy Policies of the Past," League of Conservation Voters, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17519&id=13661-5536293-5_Mivtx&t=6
"Protecting polar bears gets in way of drilling for oil, says governor," The Times of London, May 23, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17520&id=13661-5536293-5_Mivtx&t=7
7 "McCain met Palin once before yesterday," MSNBC, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=21119&id=13661-5536293-5_Mivtx&t=8

McCain: No Solutions to fix a "Washington that's not Working"

Okay, so here's the other side:

"Mr. McCain cannot escape the burdensome shadow of President Bush because his policies offer no real change. On the all-important issue of the economy, Mr. McCain has no prescription for ending the mortgage-driven crisis or for fixing the huge fiscal problems Mr. Bush has bequeathed the nation. He wants to make even deeper cuts in corporate taxes, eliminate the alternative minimum income tax and make permanent the Bush tax cuts that vastly favor the wealthy and that he once correctly opposed.

His only idea for balancing the budget seems to be controlling earmarks, which Republicans now denounce with the sort of single-minded fervor they used to reserve for Democratic-appointed judges.

Permanently extending the tax cuts would reduce tax revenue by $1 trillion over four years. If Mr. McCain eliminated every earmark (including money for the gas pipeline that Ms. Palin wants to build in Alaska), the savings would total about $18 billion a year. He hasn’t offered any idea of where he’ll get the rest of the money.

He has not explained how he plans to rein in out-of-control financial firms and avoid a repeat of the mortgage disaster. Mr. Bush’s ideological opposition to sound government regulation is in large measure to blame for the economic crisis, but when Mr. McCain talks about fixing Washington, that subject never comes up.

Mr. McCain also has yet to explain to voters how he intends to go on paying for the war in Iraq — and also fix a dangerously stretched and overburdened military. Mr. McCain talks about energy independence. But his primary solution is not a solution: drilling and more drilling."

NYTimes Editorial

McCain Chooses Palin as Running Mate

My spidey senses were tingling. On Sunday, mom, D and I were driving back and I was telling them that they NEED to vote in November. Mom goes, "I don't like Obama. I really wanted Hillary. I really wanted a woman for president." Then, as news started speculating about McCain's potential running mates and how many of Hillary's supporters would back McCain instead of Obama, I thought, he should pick a woman. And he did. She is the Republicans’ first female candidate for vice president, conservative, pro-life and supports drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve. This is serious.

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M sent me a long email this morning about her thoughts of the campaign. Being in DC and and a Republican, it has been really interesting to talk through issues with her and see where she's coming from. A friend said, "In DC people don't date across party lines" but in all the ways we are different we expand each other's boundaries.