Post about "2008 election"

I spent some time today starting the cleanup from the election. What to do with the local grassroots web site? How about the email addresses tied to the local url? Do we park them all for four years for the re-election, or just let them evaporate when they expire and start over.

In 2000, and again in 2004, we cleaned up after a disaster. Its been so long, since we’ve won one, I don’t quite remember how its done.

We have such a mess of problems, and no doubt we’ll discover there are many more that the Bush/Cheney administration was able to hide or spin hoping the truth wouldn’t emerge until the transition is over. I’ve never seen such problems, but I’ve never had more faith that the new folks in charge are up to the task.

Congratulations to everyone who helped elect Mr. Obama, and I hope those who didn’t will give him a fair chance to be everybody’s president.

When the Sarah Palin apologists tried to explain away her hedge to Charlie Gibson’s “Bush doctrine” question on her first major television interview, the talking point went that it was unfair that when a similar “Bush doctrine” question was asked during the ABC Democratic debate, it was defined. But Charlie Gibson didn’t define it when it was asked of Sarah Palin.

Of course, one was a real-time statement the audience was sure to hear, the other was a raw interview which would be heavily edited for time, and the questions and question definitions would either be eliminated, re-shot, or handled in voice-over.

Today, on Meet the Press, when Tom Brokaw asked Michael Bloomberg about Joe Biden, adding “vice-presidential candidate with Barack Obama,” as an appositive, Bloomberg quipped, “I know who he is.”

There was a time that interviewing a major political figure, you could assume you could talk in shorthand. They were busy, and would be more than happy to launch into a long explanation at even a pregnant pause.

But Sarah Palin, and more important, her apologists, have moved the goal post. Now, if you don’t ask the question the same way for the candidates as you do when you’re trying to teach the audience, you’re unfair.