Barack Obama

Odds Of Pop-Locking During Inauguration:
1 in 12

Issues:
Pro-hopes, also supports dreams

Political Experience:
(2005–) Junior Senator from Illinois. Working directly under Senior Senator Richard Durbin himself, duties included fact-checking and copyediting the 2006 highway appropriations amendment bill. Member, Illinois State Senate (1997-2004)

Favorite Way To Mollify Supporters:
Nodding solemnly while gripping podium

Personal Best For Getting Digits:
32 seconds

Difficulty Catching A Cab:
Moderate

John McCain

Where He’d Be If Not Running For President:
Dead

Thoughts On Torture:
Doesn’t support stuff he couldn’t handle

Saturday Night Live Appearance:
Solid

Awards:
Distinguished Flying Cross (Vietnam War); Silver Star (World War II); Bronze Star (Crimean War)

Inspiring Example:
Co-sponsored a campaign finance act with Democrat Russ Feingold, the aim of which is to leave every campaigner as broke as McCain and Feingold

This button was sold at the recent Texas Republican State Convention

Today’s video of the day shows Kevin Garnett immediately after winning his first NBA championship.

Why Michigan Needs Obama
Matthew Birkhold

In Detroit last night, Al Gore comically relayed that the Bush administration’s catastrophes have taught all Americans that elections are important.  According to Gore, over the last eight years, because of dangerous Chinese manufactured cat and dog food, even our cats and dogs learned how important elections are.  Following this, Gore mentioned the importance of revitalizing the auto industry for Michigan’s economy.

At this point, I stopped listening to Gore but began to see that Obama can play an incredibly important role in shaping the future of the United States and that Michigan is one of the places that needs shaping the most.  Both Gore and myself think Obama can assist here. but we have very different reasons for believing so.

The average income for Michigan residents in 9.1% lower than the national average, Detroit has more foreclosures than any other major city in the country, and the state has the highest unemployment rate in the country.  Making all of this worse is the reality that just thirty-five years ago, Detroit was the fifth biggest city in the country and just twenty years ago, working class people, without college degrees, owned homes, multiple cars, and fishing boats.

I grew up amongst these folk and remember when Michigan began to change.  In Kalamazoo, where I grew up, I remember things changing when GM’s Fisher Body stamping plant closed in 1992.  However, Fisher Body was only the nail in a coffin that had first been filled by the closing of several paper factories and finally by the sale of Upjohn pharmaceuticals to Pharmacia before they were bought by Pfizer.

When this happened unemployment and crime grew, crack appeared, and the city I grew up in changed in real major ways.  These same changes occurred all over the state.  As I’ve gotten older I’ve begun to understand the root causes of these changes.  According to Conservatives, Michigan’s high tax rate and high labor costs make business unaffordable and are therefore the reasons why corporations won’t relocate to Michigan or open plants in Michigan.

On the surface, conservatives are right.  Below the surface, there is a very important cultural and historical explanation for Michigan’s economic decline that conservatives miss.

In the 1950s the auto industry began to decentralize as a way to limit the power of striking workers.  In the late 60s they began to build plants outside Detroit and in the 70s they started building plants outside Michigan.  In the 80s, plants in Michigan began closing.  The reason these plants closed have nothing to do with high taxes or high labor costs.  When GM closed its huge Buick plant in Flint, it was the wealthiest corporation in the world.  Plants close because they can make greater profits in formerly colonized countries than they do in Michigan and other states.

Because of this, Gore’s insistence that the auto industry be revitalized misses the point.  The only way to change the direction of Michigan is to create a radical revolution in values that will create a culture that cares more about human beings than profit.  On Sunday, Obama said that a culture exists in our society that says that remembering our obligations to one another somehow makes us soft.  He argued that the way to remedy this is to practice empathy.  While Obama is certainly no Dr. King, if people begin to empathize with one another as he suggests, we may very well be on the way to creating the radical revolution in values Dr. King said we needed so badly.

Matt Birkhold is a Brooklyn based writer and educator.  He can be reached at birkhold (at) gmail (dot) com.

Here’s what’s in mine:

Lil Wayne – Comfortable
Aretha Franklin – Till You Come Back To Me
John Legend – Again
Cassidy – Get Retarded Freestyle
Lil Wayne feat Kanye West – Lollipop Remix
Aretha Franklin – One Step
Fergie – Clumsy
Lil Wayne – Mr. Carter
Jay-Z & Mary J. Blige – You’re Welcome
Earth, Wind, & Fire – Reasons
Erykah Badu – Me
Usher feat. Jay-Z – Best Thing
Dannity Kane – Damaged
Lil Wayne – Dr. Carter