Writing my column about President Barack Obama’s first year I was looking for some articles about his stop in Bloomington before the Indiana presidential primary. I stumbled across this YouTube video:

I remember attending that rally. Everyone in Assembly Hall was pretty excited. The person sitting next to me was so excited that, while chanting “yes, we can” over and again, he felt the need to keep touching me. 

The speech was pretty pretty typical for Obama. He claimed that “this election is different” and talked of our generation making its mark. 

That election was important, but in one key aspect it was just like any other. Candidates offered over-the-top rhetoric and played on political myths over substantive policy discussions.

Americans largely indulged them. I am not sure why we always forget how different governing this country is from campaigning to do so. A lot of people certainly put faith in Obama’s ability to be transformative simply because he said he would be.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think our generation is uniquely guilty of getting overhyped about these sorts of things. And I also think Obama has had a good start as President. 

But it is important to acknowledge now, a year after the election, that too much of Obama’s campaign was empty fluff.

I hinted in my column this week of the challenge Barack Obama’s message may face from tensions within the Democratic Party itself.

This article from the New York Times is interesting.

A group of liberal bloggers said it was teaming up with organized labor and MoveOn.org to form a political action committee that would seek to push the Democratic Party further to the left.

The political action committee – known as Accountability Now – will have support from the Daily Kos and the Service Employees International Union. If it becomes the thoughtless advocate I fear it will be, Obama will be best off brushing them aside.

I thought Obama’s move to the center was a key selling point for a green (in the inexperienced sense) politician. Given the popularity gap between him and other Democrats it probably helped him with other voters too.

The article goes on:

Soliciting donations from their readers, the bloggers said they were planning to recruit liberal candidates to challenge more centrist Democrats currently in Congress.

This sounds familiar. Ann Coulter threatened to run against a Republican Congressmen from Connecticut, Christopher Shays, after he voted not to impeach Bill Clinton. (Not quite delusional enough to think she could win, she planned to throw his re-election.) Conservative bloggers and radio hosts ran smear campaigns against Republicans willing to touch George Bush’s immigration reform bill.

These days the GOP has a spoiled base. Republicans willing to reach out to the electorate in the middle face regular intimidation from conservative commentators.

At a time when many Americans considered themselves conservative Republicans managed to flub everything. Now, even as America seems to be shifting to the left it is important to remember the vast amount of voters who consider themselves Independent.

Why turn to a political action committee the New York Times compared to the Club for Growth? Surely Mr. Obama can do a better job of reaching out to voters by listening to some of the talented advisers he assembled in his administration rather than the liberal blogosphere.

Barack Obama’s speech before a joint session of Congress, essentially a state-of-the-union address, was low on details and touched on a lot of familiar, perhaps too familiar, themes.

He brought up his new mortgage rescue plan in an attempt to head-off Republican criticism. He claimed “It’s not about helping banks, it’s about helping people” though Tim Geithner’s fumbles are probably helping neither.

Obama’s attempts to wrangle up Republican votes for the stimulus failed but he was still draping his plans under a mantel of bipartisanship. He channeled Theodore Roosevelt on health care reform, talked tough on deficits, and promised not to raise taxes for the vast majority of Americans.

Watching him try to frame his agenda as fiscally responsible it seems his strategy may now be about redefining the center leftward rather than getting any meaningful support from the GOP.

Few opposition responses to this sort of thing are ever that memorable. Still, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal probably could have done a better job.

Jindal claimed that “Republicans believe in a simple principle: No American should have to worry about losing their health coverage – period.” That is a tough sell. Republicans have come up with some decent health care plans but only after they were forced by popular sentiment.

Jindal’s quip about Hurricane Katrina being made worse by government bureaucracy certainly won’t change the conventional wisdom that federal relief efforts that should have been stronger. Besides, hasn’t Louisiana been doing quite well with all the federal money it has gotten since?

The common Republican mantra about Democrats was repeated: “they place their hope in the federal government. We place our hope in you, the American people.” This, after Obama spent much of speech praising American ingenuity and the power of the private sector sounds particularly tired.

Viewer response to Obama’s speech was pretty positive, though the market was less thrilled. Either way, it now seems Obama has even more promises to keep.

(Photo credit: AP)

Goodbye to one of the most audaciously corrupt governors this country has ever seen. I may almost miss his antics.

The second edition of Indiana University’s finest news source. I hope you guys all enjoyed it.

…the same candidate as just about everyone else.

One of the copy editors forwarded me this. It seems that out of all the major college newspapers sixty-three endorsed Barack Obama and only one endorsed John McCain. Many more were apparently not as cool and decided not to endorse at all.

What are we to make of these results? We endorsed Obama, perhaps great minds think alike.

It’s certainly disappointing that so many will simply write this off as a youthful liberal bias.

Bias is such a dirty accusation to make. When reporters are accused of bias it is being suggested that they have a hidden agenda. When the same claim is launched against opinion writers (who technically speaking are supposed to have a bias) the accusation takes on a completely different connotation.  Such accusations of bias become a way to dismiss arguments without going through the trouble of refuting them.

Many of the people who commented on our Obama endorsement didn’t seem to read anything besides the headline. I was personally accused of swinging our endorsement to Jill Long Thompson by another Indiana blogger who discovered an Obama profile I made my senior year of high school. Apparently, after finding that, he didn’t check out any of my columns.

I don’t consider the newsroom or our editorial board a bastion of liberalism. Certainly we aren’t just robots spewing out pre-conceived notions and ideals.

Occasionally we actually do think.

If I noticed a trend at all it was a frustration with both Republicans and Democrats. Our most active election reporters had plenty of bad things to say about nearly ever nearly candidate. One even said she didn’t even want to bother voting anymore. Almost everyone I know who voted for Libertarian Eric Schansberg worked at the IDS (including yours truly).

If anyone wonders why so many college newspapers endorsed Barack Obama I suggest they try reading the actual endorsements.

The likely fate of those Obama volunteers outside Ballantine—everyday—to make sure I was registered to vote:

Something of a response to Chase about Republican prospects in 2010. I agree with the sentiment that, depending on their approach to governing, Democrats could make the Republican exile much shorter than it should be.

I found this video. See if you can spot anything unusual.

Now there could be plenty of explanations for the appearance of a Soviet flag at an Obama victory rally. As the FOX corespondent noted with such disdain, the young people carrying the flag could have just been a little drunk. They also may have been making fun of conservatives who tried to pin Obama as a socialist.

I certainly don’t think it reveals an abhorrence of private wealth by the Democratic party, even if that’s what FOX News and Michelle Malkin might want you to think. I am sure a few people who thought communism never got it’s fair shot voted for Obama. I am also sure a few people who believe we are living in the end of days voted for McCain. Such people, minority that they are, get to vote like anyone else.

However, I do feel like many people celebrating Obama’s victory last Tuesday might have agreed with a less extreme symbol of skepticism towards the free market.

Democats have rightly seen a role for the government in fighting global warming, fixing our quality of education, and improving access to health-care.

Yet, I hope Democrats realize the market is the greatest tool in dealing with most of their issues.

So if Democrats fight global warming with green protectionism, farm-subsidies, and massive investment projects.

If they try to fix education by pouring money into failed schools without increassing teaching standards or considering the private sector.

If they continue to embrace employer based health care while maintianing the system of state-by-state regulation.

Well then, in future elections my vote will very much be up for grabs.

It seems this presidential election – one that has consumed all of our lives – has finally come to it’s conclusion.

I must say voting in my first major election was a pretty satisfying experience, but that could be because most of the candidates I voted for won. Barack Obama not only won the presidential election but also edged ahead in Indiana.

I was happy to see Governor Mitch Daniels win re-election, and by a healthy margin. His victory assures that a significant portion of the electorate voted for both a Democratic president and a Republican governor. it’s always nice to know plenty of people don’t vote along partisan lines.

I don’t have much to say about the future of Indiana’s 9th District. I wasn’t surprised to see Rep. Baron Hill win his re-election bid. I hope his strong showing will convince Republicans to draft someone besides the recurrent Mike Sodrel in 2010. Personally I voted for Libertarian Eric Schansberg. Plenty of us in the newsroom were happy with his four percent of the vote.

It’s hard to deny that the results of this election were inspiring. Obama’s victory was a milestone; one that, surprisingly, became most clear when I witnessed Rev. Jesse Jackson’s tears.

Plenty of the red states Obama snatched, including Indiana and Virginia, hadn’t gone for a Democrat since 1964. Lyndon Johnson won a landslide that year; Obama’s victory tonight was one of the largest for the Democrats since then. Mr. Obama may now have the chance to shape a coherent philosophy for a party that has seemed adrift for decades.

At some points Obama’s speech was a little heavy on triumphalism but I think he hit all the right notes. He avoided what could have been cheer fest by instead urging the American people to look ahead. McCain’s speech really got me; a humble concession speech worthy of the old Straight Talk Express. He acknowledged the significance of Obama’s victory while rightly hushing his more obnoxious supporters. Alas, these were the truest words he spoke last night:

We fought — we fought as hard as we could. And though we feel short, the failure is mine, not yours.

The unpopularity of George W. Bush seemed like it could sink the Republican Party for years to come. The nomination of John McCain held out hope that the party could reform itself quickly. But Mr. McCain, facing the difficult task of appealing to both his doubtful base and skeptical independents, made all the wrong choices. He seemed almost relieved to have finally lost, hopefully now that he is free from this race he will go back to being the exceptional senator he once was.

I doubt we will get as much respite from politics as we want or deserve. Bush may give us plenty of things to write about in the twilight of his presidency and Obama will probably try to hit the ground running.

For now though I am going to get some sleep and maybe even start going to a few of my classes. Good night, or perhaps at this hour, good morning. America is truly a different place.

I would have to say that last night’s presidential debate was easily the best one yet. Sure, both candidates lied about each others health care plan’s and Obama couldn’t help but misrepresent the Colombian free trade deal, but some solid questions helped the candidates stay more on the issues.

For some slightly more light-hearted debate commentary I thought I would post this g-chat conversation that took place between me and a slightly tipsy Weekend Features Editor Megan Clayton during the debate.

me: I loved John McCain’s Joe the plumber story.