Hey! Get'cher Program Here!

I read somewhere recently (on somebody's blog)that a good blog should be able to surprise you.

Well, now that my 8 year old has finished playing boats on the counterpane sea and has snuggled down for some ZZZZ's with his all but depleted CPA mother (it is tax season you know!) And Teenager is in bed reading a science fiction adventure, I'm free to share a surprise I found in my never ending obsession to individually will the Obama campaign to victory through prose.

I should first add that Teenager tries to take an interest in my political musings but is far more interested at present in a girl named Jennifer and playing second base on the High School baseball team. And 2nd grader is far more interested in burning things with a magnifying glass and the collection of Tom and Jerry cartoons I bought him than he is with his weekly homework packet or anything I have to say about anything. The wife is more interested in our real life than in my imagined one.

So I'm left with you to join me in this foray.

I find the LA Times "Top of the Ticket" blogs one of those must read items for political analysis these days. Don Frederick and Andrew Malcolm are always a good read.

In the blog today they linked me to wonderful piece of journalism.

This article in the National Journal by James Barnes is like picking up a program at the ball park. "Hey - You can't tell the players without a program." barks the hawker.

This is a solid reference work that told me who the players are on the Obama team.
It's a good read no matter which way you intend to cast your vote.

It also left me feeling that the top of Obama's team thus far is a bit provincial. Mostly Chicago and Harvard based. And while there are a lot of solid people (and a load of former Clinton people) on board, the campaign is going to have to be able to expand a bit to include more local/regional voices if it wants to maintain a grasp on national politics.

Now, even suggesting that Harvard could possibly be provincial would be obscene in some places...but the fact that natural disasters and farm crises, immigration issues and veterans care, jobs and water policy,school districts and real estate collapses are fundamentally local issues in every corner of the land which may not effect a Harvard Scholar...well, you get my drift.

The campaign is going to need some local wisdom in it's national plans. Or it's prone to make the kind of mistakes that turn populists into princes. If nobody knows New Orleans BEFORE the next hurricane hits...well, you know the rest. And when the President's mother helpfully suggests, "They can eat cake!" you know the dream is over.

So that's my surprising surprise. Meanwhile, I've been fighting the flu.
I'm going to bed.