Was it worth it?

How do you disobey the President if you’re a lowly NASA administrator.   Mike Griffin seems to think he can pull it off.

CAPE CANAVERAL – NASA administrator Mike Griffin is not cooperating with President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team, is obstructing its efforts to get information and has told its leader that she is “not qualified” to judge his rocket program, the Orlando Sentinel has learned.

In a heated 40-minute conversation last week with Lori Garver, a former NASA associate administrator who heads the space transition team, a red-faced Griffin demanded to speak directly to Obama, according to witnesses.

In addition, Griffin is scripting NASA employees and civilian contractors on what they can tell the transition team and has warned aerospace executives not to criticize the agency’s moon program, sources said.

Griffin’s resistance is part of a no-holds-barred effort to preserve the Constellation program, the delayed and over-budget moon rocket that is his signature project.

Obama v. NASA administrator Griffin.  Obama took down Hillary Clinton and John McCain . . . but Griffin, Griffin will take Obama down.

Sounds good.

Session.

WASHINGTON — A $14 billion emergency bailout for U.S. automakers collapsed in the Senate Thursday night after the United Auto Workers refused to accede to Republican demands for swift wage cuts.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he was “terribly disappointed” about the demise of an emerging bipartisan deal to rescue Detroit’s Big Three.

He spoke shortly after Republicans left a closed-door meeting where they balked at giving the automakers federal aid unless their powerful union agreed to slash wages next year to bring them into line with those of Japanese carmakers.

Republican Sen. George V. Voinovich of Ohio, a strong bailout supporter, said the UAW was willing to make the cuts _ but not until 2011.

Assuming this account is true, if our economy implodes because the good folks at the UAW are willing to accept cuts, but just not until two years from now, instead of right now, I don’t know what I will do with myself.

In two years . . . half of you may have no job to speak of, let alone take a pay cut.

Seriously.

Obama’s interview Sunday on Meet the Press strangely foreshadows today’s scandal regarding the arrest of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich for attempting to sell the Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama:

MR. BROKAW: You still have some appointments to make coming up, and there’s also a good deal of consideration here in Illinois about who will replace you in the Senate. But in New York this weekend the big buzz is Caroline Kennedy in the United States Senate, perhaps as the appointment to fill the seat that Hillary Clinton is expected to vacate if she gets confirmed as secretary of state.

PRES.-ELECT OBAMA: And?

MR. BROKAW: Is that a good idea

PRES.-ELECT OBAMA: Well, let me tell you this. Caroline Kennedy has become one of my dearest friends and is just a, a wonderful American, a wonderful person. But the last thing I want to do is get involved in New York politics. I’ve got enough trouble in terms of Illinois politics. . . .

- Meet the Press December 7, 2008

Foreshadowing from hell.

It’s kind of amazing how watching Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation, and reading the lyrics, makes you think of the Obama campaign message

Watch the video, get motivated, and join Obama’s rhythm nation of hope.

Janet reminds us that hope can be sexy.

With music by our side
To break the color lines
Lets work together
To improve our way of life
Join voices in protest
To social injustice
A generation full of courage
Come forth with me
People of the world today
Are we looking for a better way of life
We are a part of the rhythm nation
People of the world unite
Strength in numbers we can get it right
One time
We are a part of the rhythm nation

This is the test
No struggle no progress
Lend a hand to help
Your brother do his best
Things are getting worse
We have to make them better
Its time to give a damn
Lets work together come on

People of the world today
Are we looking for a better way of life
We are a part of the rhythm nation
People of the world unite
Strength in numbers we can get it right

One time
We are a part of the rhythm nation

(link)

I came across this moving article yesterday.  It’s so interesting to see the same event through another person’s eyes.  Philly and North Carolina are different, but the fundamentals are the same in black communities across the nation.

If you read my Thoughts on Canvassing in South Philadelphia, the overlay with the perception of a conservative white Republican are thought provoking.

What both of our experiences make clear is the inspirational effect Obama is having for black people and black communities.

A bit of my reflections on canvassing:

There is so much support for Obama in these communities it is unbelievable. Moreover, there is so much pride in him as a candidate. Obama will win Pennsylvania if they keep canvassing and applying resources to these communities.

Little kids biked by asking us for Obama buttons, and every single person we spoke with was either for Obama, or ENTHUSIASTICALLY for Obama.

What a way to spend the day. (link)

A few excerpts from an op-ed by a white conservative republican dragged out to canvass for Obama in North Carolina:

Let me make it clear: I’m pretty conservative. I grew up in the suburbs. I voted for George H.W. Bush twice, and his son once. I was disappointed when Bill Clinton won, and disappointed he couldn’t run again.

. . . .

I am the dreaded swing voter.

So you can imagine my surprise when my wife suggested we spend a Saturday morning canvassing for Obama. I have never canvassed for any candidate. But I did, of course, what most middle-aged married men do: what I was told.

. . . .

Instead of walking the tree-lined streets near our home, my wife and I were instructed to canvass a housing project. A middle-aged white couple with clipboards could not look more out of place in this predominantly black neighborhood.

We knocked on doors and voices from behind carefully locked doors shouted, “Who is it?”

“We’re from the Obama campaign,” we’d answer. And just like that doors opened and folks with wide smiles came out on the porch to talk.

Grandmothers kept one hand on their grandchildren and made sure they had all the information they needed for their son or daughter to vote for the first time.

Young people came to the door rubbing sleep from their eyes to find out where they could vote early, to make sure their vote got counted.

We knocked on every door we could find and checked off every name on our list. We did our job, but Obama may not have been the one who got the most out of the day’s work.

I learned in just those three hours that this election is not about what we think of as the “big things.”

It’s not about taxes. I’m pretty sure mine are going to go up no matter who is elected.

It’s not about foreign policy. I think we’ll figure out a way to get out of Iraq and Afghanistan no matter which party controls the White House, mostly because the people who live there don’t want us there anymore.

. . . .

I’ve learned that this election is about the heart of America. It’s about the young people who are losing hope and the old people who have been forgotten. It’s about those who have worked all their lives and never fully realized the promise of America, but see that promise for their grandchildren in Barack Obama. The poor see a chance, when they often have few. I saw hope in the eyes and faces in those doorways.

My wife and I went out last weekend to knock on more doors. But this time, not because it was her idea. I don’t know what it’s going to do for the Obama campaign, but it’s doing a lot for me.

Jonathan Curley is a banker. He voted for George H.W. Bush twice and George W. Bush once. (link)

“It would be a shame for it to slip away because we didn’t finish strong.” Haunting and motivations words from Obama on a conference call to volunteers. Let’s get back out there folks.

Here’s some key points about, and a recording of, Obama’s conference call to 20,000 teams canvassing and phonebanking throughout America.

I’m listening to an Obama conference call for the 20,000 teams across the country who have been canvassing and phone banking for Democrats all around the country. Plouffe just announced the campaign has turned in 1.9 million voter registration sheets, flipping such states as Nevada in terms of registration numbers. He said that the campaign has had 13.3 million conversations across the country about Obama, not just knocks on doors or on the phone but actual conversations.

… There’s a 500,000 early vote advantage in North Carolina for Obama

… Nevada, 13 points more Democrats in early voting (it was 4 in 2004) (via openleft)

Canvassing yesterday in south Philly was amazing. In contrast to my my trip to a more suburban part of Penn. targeted at swing voters, this trip was geared directly at making sure Obama supporters go to the polls.

We were sent to a low-income black community with how to vote materials, and a list of important things to remind voters about election day.

There is so much support for Obama in these communities it is unbelievable. Moreover, there is so much pride in him as a candidate. Obama will win Pennsylvania if they keep canvassing and applying resources to these communities.

Little kids biked by asking us for Obama buttons, and every single person we spoke with was either for Obama, or ENTHUSIASTICALLY for Obama.

What a way to spend the day.

At the campaign headquarters they specifically said that canvassing is more helpful than phone banking, although both are helpful. So if you can this weekend or election day, canvass in a swing state (although don’t forget to vote)! If you can’t canvass then phone bank. If you can’t do either donate.

Folks, if you’re for Obama GET OUT THERE AND DO SOMETHING.

I promise you you will not regret it!

First of all, thanks big guy upstairs for this amazing political gift right before our national elections. It just put a smile on my face to read this headline.

WASHINGTON — Senator Ted Stevens, Alaska’s dominant political figure for more than four decades, was found guilty on Monday by a jury of violating federal ethics laws for failing to report tens of thousands of dollars in gifts and services he had received from friends.

The jury of District of Columbia residents convicted Mr. Stevens, 84, on all seven felony counts he faced in connection with charges that he knowingly failed to list on Senate disclosure forms the receipt of some $250,000 in gifts and services used to renovate his home in Girdwood, Alaska

Second of all, Stevens man . . . didn’t you know about more money more problems?

Well, I guess you do now.