Dear Mr. President,
It is difficult not to roll my eyes at the media's obsession with Joe Biden's use of profanity today at the bill signing. As though the bill itself is less significant than the knowledge that the Vice-President uses curse words. I think most thinking adults find this wholly unsurprising. Any one who pretends genuine offense either has forgotten the previous administration's VP entirely or is just too upset about health care reform to be reasonable. Also, with all due respect to VP Biden, on the scale of embarrassing things that he's said into a microphone, this barely registers.
Anyway, since it is such an apparently slow news day, I thought I'd offer a bit of fiction. I doubt very much you've seen the old TV show The West Wing, but, as I watch the first season for the millionth time, it's difficult not to be amused at the parallels between your administration and the fictional Bartlet administration. Life imitating art, perhaps. The episode I'm watching tonight centers around the administration's struggle to nominate the first Latino justice to the Supreme Court (See, it's freaky.) This has me thinking about the imminent retirement of Justice Stevens. I'll be sorry to see Justice Stevens go, though his lifetime of service to our country certainly entitles him to some rest and relaxation. It will be difficult, maybe even impossible to find some one truly worthy of replacing him, but I have faith in your administration, especially after the commendable confirmation of Justice Sotomayor.
What do you look for in judicial nominees? Do you look for individuals who share your political philosophy? As a constitutional scholar yourself, I'm sure you've got more insight into the role of the courts than most previous occupants of your office, do you think that makes the decision more difficult? How much of a factor are the political leanings of the departing justice? This process must involve a great number of people, as I suppose it rightly should. I'll hope that next month brings the announcement of another year with Justice Stevens on the court, but if it should not, I'll look forward to finding out who you'll nominate to be his successor.
Respectfully yours,
Kelsey
Showing posts with label West Wing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label West Wing. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Monday, February 15, 2010
Day 46
Dear Mr. President,
Happy Presidents' day. I read somewhere that your favorite President was Lincoln. I suppose he was all right. I'll admit that my fascination with the presidency comes in no small part from my love of The West Wing and, while watching an episode recently that discusses the difficulty being President in the shadow of men like Lincoln, I considered how you must feel about this. Every man who has served in your office has done so, I'm convinced, with the intention to Do Right by the people. Some certainly succeed more than others, but those that we remember best generally do so in the face of the greatest challenges. I have no illusions about the work that must be done for this country, or the glory in succeeding in health care reform or economic recovery, but there is nothing in this day and age that could compare to abolishing slavery. How fitting that Lincoln has been immortalized as he has, the larger-than life memorial looming over the mall in all of its glory, a monument not to his humanity, but to the huge burden of his legacy. I admire you, for daring to follow in such immense footsteps, in times that are perhaps even more challenging.
When I lived in DC I generally visited the memorials only when showing visiting friends around the city. I lived out in the east side of the city, and worked on L street. When I was transferred to a bookstore on F street, which required me to walk past The White House each day, I was elated. I'd start my day getting coffee spun to me through bullet-proof glass, get on the metro, and suddenly be walking in front of the President's home. DC is so surreal like that, the humblest of us passing so near to those in power. I never saw President Bush while I lived there, and I don't know that I would have cared to, much. I'll admit this was a time when my disappointment in my country was its strongest, and President Bush was a frequent reminder that I was living in a nation that did not seem to share my moral views. Since your election, I've often wondered how I'd feel if I still lived in DC, still worked down the street from the White House. I don't regret leaving, but I do miss it, sometimes.
I think for me, men like President Lincoln seem to be more fiction than fact. I'm sure that Lincoln was every bit as heroic as legend paints him, but I have a difficult time calling him my favorite. It honestly seems a bit like saying my favorite animal is a Triceratops. They may have been real, but I'm never going to know what they were really like. And so, while it may be hollow praise from a person who has lived under only 4 different Presidents, I think I can say, confidently, that you're my favorite, or at least the one I'll be thinking the most of this President's Day. You may never be President Lincoln, but I think our day demands a different kind of President, and I hope very much that you live up to that demand without wondering if it will always be overshadowed by the legends of your own heroes. I don't feel alienated by my government, these days, and, to me, that is its own kind of heroic.
Respectfully yours,
Kelsey
Happy Presidents' day. I read somewhere that your favorite President was Lincoln. I suppose he was all right. I'll admit that my fascination with the presidency comes in no small part from my love of The West Wing and, while watching an episode recently that discusses the difficulty being President in the shadow of men like Lincoln, I considered how you must feel about this. Every man who has served in your office has done so, I'm convinced, with the intention to Do Right by the people. Some certainly succeed more than others, but those that we remember best generally do so in the face of the greatest challenges. I have no illusions about the work that must be done for this country, or the glory in succeeding in health care reform or economic recovery, but there is nothing in this day and age that could compare to abolishing slavery. How fitting that Lincoln has been immortalized as he has, the larger-than life memorial looming over the mall in all of its glory, a monument not to his humanity, but to the huge burden of his legacy. I admire you, for daring to follow in such immense footsteps, in times that are perhaps even more challenging.
When I lived in DC I generally visited the memorials only when showing visiting friends around the city. I lived out in the east side of the city, and worked on L street. When I was transferred to a bookstore on F street, which required me to walk past The White House each day, I was elated. I'd start my day getting coffee spun to me through bullet-proof glass, get on the metro, and suddenly be walking in front of the President's home. DC is so surreal like that, the humblest of us passing so near to those in power. I never saw President Bush while I lived there, and I don't know that I would have cared to, much. I'll admit this was a time when my disappointment in my country was its strongest, and President Bush was a frequent reminder that I was living in a nation that did not seem to share my moral views. Since your election, I've often wondered how I'd feel if I still lived in DC, still worked down the street from the White House. I don't regret leaving, but I do miss it, sometimes.
I think for me, men like President Lincoln seem to be more fiction than fact. I'm sure that Lincoln was every bit as heroic as legend paints him, but I have a difficult time calling him my favorite. It honestly seems a bit like saying my favorite animal is a Triceratops. They may have been real, but I'm never going to know what they were really like. And so, while it may be hollow praise from a person who has lived under only 4 different Presidents, I think I can say, confidently, that you're my favorite, or at least the one I'll be thinking the most of this President's Day. You may never be President Lincoln, but I think our day demands a different kind of President, and I hope very much that you live up to that demand without wondering if it will always be overshadowed by the legends of your own heroes. I don't feel alienated by my government, these days, and, to me, that is its own kind of heroic.
Respectfully yours,
Kelsey
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Day 12- Why I love push polls
Dear Mr. President,
My mother, who has been a Democrat as long as I've known her, was surprised to receive the "2009 Obama Agenda Survey" from RNC chairman Michael Steele. She was kind enough to share it with me, knowing I, too, enjoy a good laugh. It has me musing on the things that make me a Democrat. The thought that Democrats don't send out surveys this absurd (or, if we do, that we at least have a more professional editor,) is particularly comforting.
An example question:
"Do you agree with Barack Obama's budget plan that will lead to a $23.1 trillion national debt over the next ten years?"
My response options are "yes", "no", and "no opinion". First of all, the 2010 budget is 2.381 trillion dollars and 140 pages of information so dull I can't stay awake to read the table of contents. Do I agree with all of it? I don't even understand all of it! If I did, how could I have a one-word opinion about something so complex? How many people, looking at this survey question, have read enough of, or even about, the budget to be able to answer that question intelligently? Even if given a week to study, and an unlimited word count with which to respond, I could not feel confident about answering that question completely, so the idea of checking a box next to "yes" or "no" is laughable. Do the people this survey was intended to reach not recognize that they are being manipulated to provide meaningless statistics to support equally meaningless talking points? And don't even get me started on the wording. I may have had no love and little respect for President Bush, but I always referred him as such, and Chairman Steele should know better than to sign his name to something that doesn't respect, at least, the office of the Presidency.
Last night I watched the 60 minutes report on the revelations Game Change provides about the 2008 campaign. A friend had expressed his shock at Steve Schmidt's treatment of Sarah Palin during the interview, which made me curious to see it. I thought it was courageous. Clearly, Mr. Schmidt is not worried about his own reputation. Anderson Cooper obliquely calls him out on putting politics ahead of patriotism by selecting some one Schmidt himself sees as obviously unqualified for the VP nominee, but Schmidt can always just call that "gotcha journalism." What's truly brave about his interview is how fearlessly he risks his future as a campaign director. I know if I were a Republican running for office in 2010, I'd want some one who at least waits for the concession speech to finish before he find the nearest camera and starts telling the liberal media elites how it was all my fault that we lost. Seriously, is this man what passes for a professional political operative these days? Has he never seen an episode of West Wing?
As a Democrat and die-hard Tina Fey fan, I'll admit I was sad to hear that Sarah Palin will be joining the Fox 'news' team and unlikely to pursue the 2012 Presidential nomination. As much as I appreciate a race with some elements of suspense, the sight of you and her on the same debate stage would make for an entertaining evening. The erstwhile governor of Alaska represents everything that is wrong with the GOP. She's an insubstantial reactionary who talks in soundbites and bumper sticker slogans. "We've got room in Alaska for all of God's creatures- right next to the mashed potatoes!" Seriously, does she know she ripped that off from some one's T-shirt or does she think she made it up?
Palin or no, the Republicans don't have a serious contender for 2012. Yet. They seem to be counting on Democrats to provide the tools of our own destruction, by angering their base enough to get them to organize against you. Now, I can't claim to have done much to help you get elected. I voted, wrote a blog on Daily Kos, and spent a few hours calling voters in Washington and Montana. This time around, even if I'm not the most impressed with your presidency thus far, even if you accomplish absolutely nothing for the next 3 years, I swear to God, if the RNC keeps sending this anti-intellectual BS to my mother, I'll go door-to-door in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida for your re-election. And I hate Florida. Which, I suppose, is to say that, between being their own worst enemies and eating their young for a chance to meet Anderson Cooper, the Republicans may have more in common with Democrats than any of us would like to admit. As much as I'd like to see the congressional Democrats take a few pages from the Bush-era playbook on party unity and efficiency, I'll comfort myself with the fact that we control the House, the Senate, the White House, and they're giving new meaning to the term "sore loser" and sending out push-polls that reek of desperation.
All joking aside, I'd really like 2012 to be about more than just beating the Republicans. If I promise to spend the next 3 years learning more about the budget, do you think you could promise to spend them making 2008's victory mean something more concrete? I'll probably need better material for the swing states.
Respectfully yours,
Kelsey
My mother, who has been a Democrat as long as I've known her, was surprised to receive the "2009 Obama Agenda Survey" from RNC chairman Michael Steele. She was kind enough to share it with me, knowing I, too, enjoy a good laugh. It has me musing on the things that make me a Democrat. The thought that Democrats don't send out surveys this absurd (or, if we do, that we at least have a more professional editor,) is particularly comforting.
An example question:
"Do you agree with Barack Obama's budget plan that will lead to a $23.1 trillion national debt over the next ten years?"
My response options are "yes", "no", and "no opinion". First of all, the 2010 budget is 2.381 trillion dollars and 140 pages of information so dull I can't stay awake to read the table of contents. Do I agree with all of it? I don't even understand all of it! If I did, how could I have a one-word opinion about something so complex? How many people, looking at this survey question, have read enough of, or even about, the budget to be able to answer that question intelligently? Even if given a week to study, and an unlimited word count with which to respond, I could not feel confident about answering that question completely, so the idea of checking a box next to "yes" or "no" is laughable. Do the people this survey was intended to reach not recognize that they are being manipulated to provide meaningless statistics to support equally meaningless talking points? And don't even get me started on the wording. I may have had no love and little respect for President Bush, but I always referred him as such, and Chairman Steele should know better than to sign his name to something that doesn't respect, at least, the office of the Presidency.
Last night I watched the 60 minutes report on the revelations Game Change provides about the 2008 campaign. A friend had expressed his shock at Steve Schmidt's treatment of Sarah Palin during the interview, which made me curious to see it. I thought it was courageous. Clearly, Mr. Schmidt is not worried about his own reputation. Anderson Cooper obliquely calls him out on putting politics ahead of patriotism by selecting some one Schmidt himself sees as obviously unqualified for the VP nominee, but Schmidt can always just call that "gotcha journalism." What's truly brave about his interview is how fearlessly he risks his future as a campaign director. I know if I were a Republican running for office in 2010, I'd want some one who at least waits for the concession speech to finish before he find the nearest camera and starts telling the liberal media elites how it was all my fault that we lost. Seriously, is this man what passes for a professional political operative these days? Has he never seen an episode of West Wing?
As a Democrat and die-hard Tina Fey fan, I'll admit I was sad to hear that Sarah Palin will be joining the Fox 'news' team and unlikely to pursue the 2012 Presidential nomination. As much as I appreciate a race with some elements of suspense, the sight of you and her on the same debate stage would make for an entertaining evening. The erstwhile governor of Alaska represents everything that is wrong with the GOP. She's an insubstantial reactionary who talks in soundbites and bumper sticker slogans. "We've got room in Alaska for all of God's creatures- right next to the mashed potatoes!" Seriously, does she know she ripped that off from some one's T-shirt or does she think she made it up?
Palin or no, the Republicans don't have a serious contender for 2012. Yet. They seem to be counting on Democrats to provide the tools of our own destruction, by angering their base enough to get them to organize against you. Now, I can't claim to have done much to help you get elected. I voted, wrote a blog on Daily Kos, and spent a few hours calling voters in Washington and Montana. This time around, even if I'm not the most impressed with your presidency thus far, even if you accomplish absolutely nothing for the next 3 years, I swear to God, if the RNC keeps sending this anti-intellectual BS to my mother, I'll go door-to-door in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida for your re-election. And I hate Florida. Which, I suppose, is to say that, between being their own worst enemies and eating their young for a chance to meet Anderson Cooper, the Republicans may have more in common with Democrats than any of us would like to admit. As much as I'd like to see the congressional Democrats take a few pages from the Bush-era playbook on party unity and efficiency, I'll comfort myself with the fact that we control the House, the Senate, the White House, and they're giving new meaning to the term "sore loser" and sending out push-polls that reek of desperation.
All joking aside, I'd really like 2012 to be about more than just beating the Republicans. If I promise to spend the next 3 years learning more about the budget, do you think you could promise to spend them making 2008's victory mean something more concrete? I'll probably need better material for the swing states.
Respectfully yours,
Kelsey
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