Blogiversary bookends

The first entry in this blog was posted on November 7, 2004:

angry

pissed. frustrated. perplexed. but mostly pissed.

What a difference fours years make, eh? On November 10, 2004, I linked to the Sorry Everybody website, where liberals apologized for our country to the rest of the world; now we see pictures of ecstatic reactions from all around the world. Then, cartoons looked like this:


And this:




Ah, those were the days....

In many ways it makes sense to stop here.

In a micro sense, readership has, after growing to a reasonable level, retreated to numbers not much larger than when we first started. And growing is harder now than it was then; the blogosphereic firmament is pretty static at this point, and this blog's impact on it rounds to zero.

More importantly, in a macro sense, the distance from Kerry's loss to Obama's win has been traversed. I think the blogosphere has had a major role. And I have been willing to be one of countless minions in the army of ants swarming the stupid. I think the blogosphere has a real role going forward as well, but is there sufficient return on investment from this one small platform? I will have to ponder that one. I am sometimes pleased by the sound of my own voice here, but self-indulgence is a luxury, and these are tough times. It is nice having a place to vent, but there comes a time when blogs must be beaten into ploughshares.

Anyway, much has been said and (collectively) accomplished. So:


Proud.

Cautiously hopeful. Relieved. Strangely wistful. But mostly proud.

The solution to the Lieberman problem

Joe Lieberman is simply amazing in his burning need and undeniable ability to make himself important in the face of overwhelming evidence of irrelevance.

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has reached out to Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) about the prospect of joining the Republican conference, but Lieberman is still bargaining with Democratic leaders to keep his chairmanship, according to Senate aides in both parties.

"Senator Lieberman's preference is to stay in the caucus, but he's going to keep all his options open," a Lieberman aide said. "McConnell has reached out to him and at this stage his position is he wants to remain in the caucus but losing the chairmanship is unacceptable."

The solution is so obvious: Obama should offer Loserman a senior administration position. A real Dem will take his Senate seat; Obama looks magnanimous; and Joe gets canned the minute he (inevitably) goes off script.

And continuing the "echoes of "West Wing" parallels," the Obama team should announce that Lieberman has accepted even before he is asked, and effusively praise his patriotism, bipartisanship and willingness to put country before personal interest.

Heh.

Song without words

Not "Not my President" any more

I have never felt what I feel tonight.

Words fail.

The closest thing I can compare it to was watching Neil Armstrong step off the ladder and into immortality. I was only 10 years old, but I grasped the magnitude and improbability of the accomplishment.

Almost 40 years later, the next giant leap.

Tomorrow, or perhaps the day after, the give and take and the gap between promise and fulfillment will surely return. Tonight, I exalt in my country.

He got game

I put in a couple of hours volunteering on the phone bank at the local Obama office today. I did the same thing 4 years ago, and the difference was striking.

In 2004, the office was small, the volunteers sparse and low-energy, and the targets of the calls not too happy to receive them.

This time, there were at least 50 people jamming the office, and probably more than 75. The place hummed with enthusiasm, and we overflowed the available space (I made my calls from the parking lot). And out of perhaps 100 calls, I only had one or two hangups -- I suspect the list was better, and the country was more receptive to the message.

I'd guess that in just the two hours I was there, more than 5000 calls were lobbed into Pennsylvania from just one office in suburban California. Extrapolate that by perhaps 25 California offices (I don't know the number, but that is probably conservative) and maybe 12 hours and you get more than a half million calls just on election day.

Yeah, he got game.