MDSF: Barack Obama

Showing posts with label Barack Obama. Show all posts

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Breakfast with The Family

American cultural icons, apple pie, baseball, ...

Here's a quote from Breakfast with The Family at KtBlog:

So when Obama admits that “something’s broken, that those of us in Washington are not serving the people as well as we should,” I completely agree. When he speaks of “division and distrust among our citizens,” I can understand why. When he insists, “neither side has a monopoly on truth,” I think of how The Family stands in tacit disagreement with that sentiment. And when he emphasizes the importance of “stepping out of our comfort zones,” I wonder why he couldn’t have stepped out of his own and refused to participate in the Family’s Breakfast.
It’s not like there weren’t alternatives. The National Prayer Hour founded in part to protest the Family, would have permitted me to hear Obama’s words as he meant them. It’s difficult to take him on face value when, writes Jeff, “the breakfast is regarded by The Family as merely a tool in a larger purpose: to recruit the powerful attendees into smaller, more frequent prayer meetings, where they can ‘meet Jesus man to man.’” The only thing holding Obama back is tradition—the event has taken place since 1953—but for a man dedicated to change, that’s no excuse at all.

I'm a little surprised that the author Garrett Baer misses the point about national prayer breakfasts that jumps out to me, but which sneaks into the article in the photo caption "Who are we praying to, again?" As a Christian I am perplexed by the very idea of a "national prayer breakfast" in a country with Constitutional support for separation of Church and State, and tend to think of any such event as an exercise in American civil religion, so the best alternative might be no prayer breakfast at all.

Monday, December 8, 2008

still too soon for the last word on the Obama Administration

I had the mixed pleasure of hearing most of an hour with Brannon Howse this weekend; he's the host of Worldview Weekend and a rising star on conservative Christian talk radio. He's very good at staying on message; by the time he was done I found myself starting to believe that Saul Alinsky, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton were all the same person. Or possibly three heads on the same Cerberus. Or part of the same vast left-wing conspiracy. etc.

I thought I had the next four years all figured out: Barack Obama will take office in January, and then, according to Howse, it's a long forced march to a socialist nightmare.

Then I visited Frank Turk's weblog this morning and found this. Evidently not all of America's leftists are (wait for it) tickled pink with Obama's transition team and nascent Cabinet.

There don't seem to be any liberals in Obama's cabinet,” writes John Aravosis, the editor of Americablog.com.

"If you don’t think the labor secretary is on the same level as treasury secretary, that gives me pause,” said Jonathan Tasini, who runs the website workinglife.org.

Juan Cole, who runs a prominent anti-war blog called Informed Comment, said he worries Obama will get bad advice from Clinton on the Middle East, calling her too pro-Israel and “belligerent” toward Iran.

etc.

I for one wish the President-Elect all the luck in the world. And my most cynical self suspects that the ruckus on the right (and left) is just sound and fury: the election's over, so now the partisans, especially the diehard Fear Story people, need to get back to consolidating their readership.

And I hate to say it, but I'm still holding out hope that the new occupant of the White House will turn out to be more conservative than his predecessor.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

brain candy today

In this hybrid of an orchard apple with a red-...

Image via WikipediaToday's just awash in interesting things to read. These three stand out:

Love-Hate: Why iPod chief Tony Fadell is really leaving Apple

Steve Jobs believes the key to his success is in finding, hiring, retaining, then firing the best talent in the world.

Mark Galli nails the biggest problem facing the American Church today in an article titled The Leadership Cult. It's high time somebody called out "servant leadership" for the double-talk it is.

Today, it is the rare pastor who does not think of himself first and foremost as a leader who must employ leadership skills to lead his people. Gone are the days when pastors thought of themselves as, well, ministers — those who "attend to the wants and needs of others" (American Heritage Dictionary).

And finally, from Asia Times, an analysis by someone named David P Goldman of the economic options the Obama Administration will face. Hint: Obama has fewer options than Reagan had.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

the perils of being unprecedented

Image by drewsaunders via FlickrThe Washington Post talks about the Obama Administration applicant questionnaire:

Applicants are asked whether they or anyone in their family owns a gun.

The application also asks applicants to “please list all aliases or ‘handles’ you have used to communicate on the Internet.”

“Briefly describe the most controversial matters you have been involved with during the course of your career.”

I wouldn't dare parse this article; I can't tell from the tone if it's sympathetic (Mr Obama has lots of enemies) or cynical (Mr Obama has lots of supporters and can afford to be very picky) or accusatory (what now he's all corporate and such? etc.).

Good luck Mr President. I wouldn't trade places with you for the world.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Barack Obama in Espanola Thursday

I heard on the local news this morning that Barack Obama will be in Espanola on Thursday. It certainly makes sense for him to visit New Mexico: 538 has the state as a toss-up today; last week it was shaded in favor of Obama but it has gradually drifted to undecided as more polling data has come in.

I'm perplexed as to why he's visiting Espanola, of all places. He'd see more people in Albuquerque or even Las Cruces, and Santa Fe would go nuts for him. He wasn't popular during the campaign for the nomination: for some reason the Espanola area and the surrounding county is still populated with largish, wooden, hand-painted signs supporting Hillary Clinton. Further north I actually saw signs that said to vote for Hillary because "she's the smarter candidate." Not the smarter choice, but the smarter candidate. These may have been holdovers from when our governor, Bill Richardson, was still in the race, but I rather doubt it: that's not how things are typically done in northern New Mexico.

I suspect Senator Obama will be symbolically if not directly confronting a racial issue; black people have not historically been welcome in northern New Mexico towns. Good for him, and good luck to him.

I would still bet on New Mexico going for Obama; the state was very close in the last two Presidential elections, and this year we're expecting a Democrat to win our open Senate seat and I think all three Congressional seats (all also open) are expected to go to Democrats as well, and given that today we have two Republican Congressional representatives and one Republican Senator, that's a clean sweep downticket.

John McCain came south to Albuquerque from Minneapolis to proclaim himself to be different from George W. Bush immediately after the convention; I'll be surprised if we see him again.

MDSF