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POOR BILL RICHARDSON. Even after Obama left the stage here at the SEIU forum, the crowd continued chanting his name: "Oh-ba-ma! Oh-ba-ma!" Andy Stern had to get up and remind, "We have other candidates here. A lot of friends!"
In the ladies' room, a middle-aged white woman, hands clasped, exclaimed, "He is just so inspiring! He's gonna bring a change!"
Now the New Mexico governor infamous for his gaffes takes to the stage. Perhaps minding his reputation for touchy-feeliness, he forgoes hugs for firm handshakes. The speech starts slowly until Richardson speaks in Spanish, saying, "We are going to elect either the first woman president, the first African American president, or the first Latino president."
Richardson gets a standing ovation for promising to "fire all the union-busting attorneys at the NLRB [National Labor Relations Board]. For labor secretary, I will appoint a union member." He jokes that maybe he will appoint Andy Stern labor secretary.
Richardson says a goal for his first term would be to get 20 percent of all American workers unionized. That gets a great response. But is this guy running for V.P? He says, "You're really wound up! Obama gave ya a good speech, didn't he?" But a minute later Richardson is back on track touting his executive experience. Everybody in the Democratic race supports card check, he says, but "I did it" in New Mexico.
--Dana Goldstein
COMMENTS (1)
Obama, who graduated from Columbia and decided to go back to Chicago to organize poor people around issues, has approached his campaign as an opportunity to build a movement — a movement based in communities around issues that matter.
Why are so many people responding to Obama? Because he is straightforward, and is clearly about a lot more than his own ego. Unlike John Edwards, Obama hasn’t had to “move to the left” or discover that he was wrong about Iraq. Obama didn’t discover unions and the rift between rich and poor after losing an election in 2004.
Unlike Hillary Clinton, Obama has been consistently solid on the key issues — and unlike Hillary, we know, if Obama is elected, where he will be on the issues. (Do we really need a second Clinton presidency, framed by lots of progressive hype, which delivers so little in the way of progressive legislation, and so much to Wall St?) And, perhaps most important, Obama’s followers have the potential — with the support of their candidate — to build a new progressive movement in the U.S. and a new reform movement in the Democratic Party. Obama speaks about his candidacy, and even his possible election as president, as part of the launching of a new movement to change America. The president of the United States encouraging a movement for progressive social change? Now there’s a thought!
There are two ways that we can look at next year’s election. We can look at it as an opportunity to stop the endless mudslide of domestic and foreign disasters that have darkened our horizons during the Bush years. This would be no minor accomplishment. But, next year, we can try to do more. We can look to elect a president who not only looks different, but who thinks and acts differently, a progressive champion who boldly reasserts government’s role as protector and uplifter of the people at home, and who can reinvent American foreign policy as a force for peace, not coercive power, across the globe.
We need a candidate, and a president, who understands that he or she cannot succeed unless the people are standing alongside him — ahead of the powerbrokers and money guys — ready to help enforce their collective will. There is no question that Barack Obama is such a candidate.
Posted by: msnz911 | September 19, 2007 11:09 AM