Despite reports of voter registration barriers, voter intimidation, and non-compliance with voting rights law in recent elections, it appears that state legislatures and Congress are not actively focusing on the real issues in election administration. Considering the current economic state, almost the only attention that election reform is getting is through messy, partisan fueled debates to require photo voter ID on the state level-a fight that, just last week, quietly brought Utah to the list of eight other states that go beyond the Help America Vote Act in voter ID requirements. In recent Congressional hearings regarding voter registration and other election issues experienced in 2008, a number of groups have expressed their concerns with the current voting system and its impact on voters.
The Wall Street Journal is running a poll this morning that says Obama is picking up support from a wide range of people, including mnay former McCain supporters.
Overall, a majority of Americans are confident in Mr. Obama's ability to govern and unify the country, with many who didn't vote for him now seeing him in a positive light. The poll found that 73% of adults approve of the way he is handling the transition and his preparations for becoming president.
Apparently, there is more unity behind Obama than there was behind Clinton in 1992 or Bush in 2000.
And what about our economy and the way our corporate culture approaches it? Circuit City is in Chapter 11 (just as my wife and I are shopping for anew television to meet the February HD deadline imposed on us by the FCC), American Express is turning into a bank holding company and has been given a head start by being let out of the required waiting period (I don't now why this bothers me... I guess it is the banking industry which lies underneath the current monster recession which makes me want longer waiting periods, not shorter ones), The AIG bailout seems to grow in size daily - as does the size of General Motors' pleas for loans - and I wonder where this money will come from.
We hear claims that the jobs market will be expanded... perhaps with FDR-level National infrastructure construction projects. Since the infrastructure is falling apart, with bridge collapses all the way down to unfilled potholes as evidence that such work would be a plus to the country... but we wonder what will pay for such giant labor expenses. Restoring the tax levels of the rich? Adding taxes somewhere else? And what about my personal concern: 62- year- olds like me who were cut out of full-time jobs during the Bush debacle and who are forced into part-time low-income work while watching our retirement funds lowered to the point where any retirement by 65 will probably be impossible? Will we be able to find acceptable paying jobs in the recovery attempt? I doubt it. We are not even part of the discussion.
I have confidence in the team Obama and his friends are putting together. So far, it looks like they are making the kind of moves and appointment suggestions that make sense given the situation. This is not going to be easy... hell, it's not even going to be just hard. It's going to be a perceptually impossible set of circumstances to confront.
In an article in today's New York Times, unnamed Obama advisers float a Tom Daschle trial balloon for Chief of Staff in an Obama administration; he's already been widely mentioned for other senior policy positions.
Appointing Daschle, who's pulls in around a million dollars a year as a "Special Policy Advisor" (not a lobbyist) for the law firm Alston and Bird, would be a violation of the spirit, if not the letter, of Obama's pledge that lobbyists "will not run my White House" or his administration, one of the hallmarks of his platform and one of the main way he differentiates himself from John McCain's lobbyist-riddled campaign.
Although Daschle technically avoids lobbying requirements, here's how Bob Dole described the reasoning behind recruiting Daschle to join him to the Washington Post:
"He's got a lot of friends in the Senate, and I've got a lot of friends in the Senate, and, combined, who knows -- we might have 51," Dole joked. "It's going to work fine. You need some flexibility and diversity. I don't think any successful firm is all Democrat or all Republican."
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