High Expectations and Other Post-Election Thoughts

by Scott Hall

On a taxi ride recently, I asked the young driver how his business was doing.

"It's slow", he said, "but it's going to get better next year."

"Really, what makes you think so?", I asked.

"Obama", he said. ("Wow!, that's high expectations", I thought.)

"Hope you're right", I said. I hope he is right. And I wish I were that charged up and optimistic.

The day after the election this response came to KAXE from a posting by Birdie Lyons on the Cass Lake e-democracy forum:

Wow! I am a simple 55 years young and I have seen much history in those
short years but I never thought I would see the day we would have a
president that was not white, let alone a black president. I spent most of
my time in Oklahoma as a youth in the boarding schools and I use to run away
to the 'shanty' town for protection.

Back then the south was still very segregated and the shanty towns were so named because they were communities where only black people lived. I was there when it use to say "whites only" on signs in front of stores and that was as recent as the early 60's! When the store signs said "blacks forbidden" that meant Natives too.

I was stunned to hear Obama mention the 'Native Americans' in his speech
last night and I made sure I heard it because the news station will never
let that be heard again unless they air the whole speech again.
I wonder what this man's presidency will hold for the Native people of this
country. This country was built on the white values and it remains a white,
black, Latino, Asian and finally Native country. We are always last on the
ladder but hey! that keeps us closer to Mother Earth or more grounded in our
values and lives, right?

Gordon Prickett's take on Presidential Politics

Voters have spoken loudly in the Presidential Caucuses and Primaries, starting on January 3rd.

John McCain is the presumptive GOP nominee and all his opponents have withdrawn.

Barack Obama has won a large majority of the state contests and is way ahead with the popular vote. He has a sizeable lead over Hillary Clinton in convention delegates, that is highly unlikely to shift in the 10 or so contests remaining. But he hasn't yet secured a majority of all the convention delegates. That is, he has not sown up the Democratic Party nomination

Serious challengers Edwards, Biden, Richardson, Kucinich, and Dodd have all withdrawn after realistic assessments of their results.

What remains in the contest between the two Democratic finalists are, 1) unpledged super-delegates, and 2) the disqualified state Democrats in Florida and Michigan.

The impartial analysts seem to agree that Clinton's only chance at the nomination now is to somehow convince enough party leaders, super-delegates, and Obama-pledged delegates that Sen. Obama is "unelectable" in the November 4th contest with John McCain.

Which brings the news to a local focus - with three Minnesota super-delegates who remain uncommitted, unpledged. Do they think Obama can win?

Let's ask Rep. Collin Peterson, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, and former statewide candidate and current DNC member Nancy Larson. On KAXE's Morning Show.

With the endorsement by super-delegate Gov. Richardson the other day, the remaining most prominent "supers" are Jimmy Carter, Nancy Pelosi, and Al Gore.

I would pose them with the same question.

If most of the answers are affirmative, then I believe it is time for Sen. Clinton to step aside, like John Edwards did, and help elect a Democrat in the fall.

The nation now is ready for the formation of a national and a global agenda for the next four years and beyond. Let us discuss and debate this agenda, Republican versus Democratic. And let's "turn the page" in this campaign, and begin to write a new American chapter.

-Gord Prickett is a KAXE volunteer from Nord Lake in Aitkin county