Wisdom vs. Experience

We have all heard the same refrain – "Obama is OK, but he doesn't have the experience." This is a disingenuous remark designed to subvert your perception of Barack Obama. It is meant to lead you to dismiss this candidate before you have a chance to learn about him. The lack of experience categorization is designed by the opposition to avert your eyes to a less challenging candidate.

Whether it is the Republicans, or the other Democratic front-runners, the goal of this dispersion is to prevent voters from assessing Senator Obama.

What is so great about experience? Two of the most experienced people in the current administration are Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld. Both served Presidents Ford, Reagan and Bush 42. Experience did not prevent war, it did not prevent terrorist attack, and it did not prevent recession. The experienced ones in Washington seem mired in scandal, excised from government or impotent in the policy arena. Radical partisanship and media manipulation has set the tone in Washington since the Reagan days. Is this the experience we require of Barack Obama before we consider him electable?

What we need is a gentleman of reason; one with the wisdom to accept the advice of knowledgeable advisors, work and bargain with legislators, governors and foreign leaders and be forthright with the American people. A President more like Jefferson or Lincoln and less like W.

Camelot of the Kennedy era did not consist of one man. JFK brought economists, jurists, diplomats and academics to the table. The wisdom of President Kennedy was to amass true experience and act accordingly. Could you imagine his reaction to the current administration and its efforts to quell all dissent? The parallels with fascism are so disturbing and apparently so blinding that Americans would placidly turn their backs on their own best hope – Senator Obama.

His message of hope is simple and intoxicating. There is no presidential candidate in the field today who speaks of the promise of America, the potential of America and his pact for America. Senator Obama speaks directly to us about a progressive agenda in positive tones. It is about what we can do – not about what we can't do. What we should dream about – not about what we should fear.

Wisdom trumps experience. Support Senator Obama for President.

Two quotes related to wisdom that fit this topic:

We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future.

- George Bernard Shaw

Six essential qualities that are the key to success: Sincerity, personal integrity, humility, courtesy, wisdom, charity.

- William Menninger

Maryland's Lierman Steps Down as Party Chairman

You may know Terry Lierman as Howard Dean's National Finance Chairman back in the day. For the past two and a half years, Terry has served as Chairman of Maryland's Democratic Party and has been transformed the party from a peripheral organization that hosted fundraising dinners and printed sample ballots to a vibrant channel of the electorates' activism - culminating in the 2006 Coordinated Campaign and the dramatic Democratic election gains seen in every county in Maryland.

Much of the credit goes to Terry Lierman. He provided the Party with unprecedented resources and skilled staff. His commitment to each jurisdiction in Maryland was not only evidenced by the odometer on his car, but the results at the ballot box. Democrats enjoyed victories in Southern Maryland and the Eastern Shore, as well as revitalizing traditional Democratic strongholds. The party's work on precinct organization and resource sharing allowed our candidates to focus on reaching voters. Across Maryland, old deceitful tactics and voter suppression antics of the other side seemed to backfire at every opportunity.

Today, as we look at the Maryland Democratic Party, we see a model for other states to adopt best practices. We also see a solid structure that will work with our Governor and other elected officials to keep Maryland on the right track for years to come.

With so many challenges facing our state and country, both domestically and internationally, the time has come to Terry to focus his skills and talent in another endeavor - as Chief of Staff to the Majority Leader. Steny Hoyer has asked Terry to oversee both the Congressman's House and District staffs, as well as the office of House Majority Leader. The opportunities this affords Terry are immeasurable, and we all certainly benefit by having someone of Terry's political acumen in such a key position.

This will not be Terry's first tenure on Capitol Hill. Shortly after graduating college, he joined the staff of the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations and became the youngest Staff Director/Chief Clerk in committee history under the late Senator Warren Magnuson (D-WA). There Terry guided more than 90 professional staff responsible for policy and funding recommendations for every federal program and department.

Terry has worked very hard to give Maryland's Democrats an organizational structure that benefits all Marylanders. Our Party includes people of all communities and persuasions. It is our collective responsibility to keep our Party organization vital and active.

Together, united and enabled.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/politics/bal-md.dems12may12,0,2843583.story?track=rss

The Republicans Among Us

It is hard enough to peruse our progressive agenda and portray our enlightened sensibilities through political discourse these days with such an awful administration controlling government, the media and the minds of the electorate. The last thing we need is elected Democrats - colleagues we have entrusted in public office subverting our trust and our party.

Two stories this week highlight two Maryland elected Democratic officials - Congressman Albert Wynn and Comptroller William Donald Schaefer.

Al Wynn welcomed and promoted Republican Michael Steele's US Senate campaign at Wynn's fundraiser Saturday in Largo. We all know that George W. Bush is Steele's "homeboy" and that the Ehrlich/Steele administration has done nothing but harm to Maryland's working families. From selling-off State Park land to raising car registration fees to pushing slot machines, nothing Michael Steele has accomplished has helped folks who earn less than $250,000. Al Wynn voted to gut the Endangered Species Act, voted for Dick Cheney's energy bill, voted for denying working families access to bankruptcy protection, voted to keep Terri Schiavo alive indefinitely, voted against net neutrality, voted for giving George W. Bush a line-item veto and offers nothing about our role in Iraq.

Then the Gazette newspaper reports that William Donald Schaefer can't see blue from red. "Comptroller William Donald Schaefer pledged his allegiance to the Democratic Party on Monday, but he refused to endorse the party’s presumptive nominee for governor, Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley. Schaefer said Republican Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. is as ‘‘honest as the day is long,” emphasizing their strong working relationship." That on top of Schaefer's vocal dislike of immigrants and his unseemly attraction for young female staffers embarrass all Democrats in Maryland.

These men contribute nothing to the Democratic Party or the progressive movement. They don't represent the ideals of the Democracy for America movement - Howard Dean's legacy. They certainly don't represent my beliefs.

We do have a choice and I encourage you to consider the candidacies to Donna Edwards and Peter Franchot.

In Maryland's Fourth Congressional District (Prince George's and Montgomery Counties), Donna Edwards is an African-American from Ft. Washington with a very distinguished background as a community organizer, a successful CEO of a major national foundation and a leader of the progressive movement in Maryland. She has earned many impressive endorsements and is truly interested in representing the views and beliefs of her constituents.

Running statewide for Comptroller, Peter Franchot can stop Governor Ehrlich's use of the Board of Public Works as a regressive tool to subvert the state legislature. The Comptroller has great independent authority over the purse-strings of state government and Schaefer repeatedly votes with Ehrlich to zero-out education budgets and other initiatives of the legislature.

There is no time like the present to clean our own house.

www.DonnaEdwardsforCongress.com

www.Franchot.com

Quagmire Accomplished

Today, President Bush said that he would not "cut & run" - that he will stay in Iraq until our mission is accomplished.  "...we will stay in the fight until we have achieved the victory our brave troops have fought and bled for."

Well, I remember he said we had to act to stop Sadam's weapons of mass destruction.  (No weapons - mission accomplished.)  Then we had to stop Iraq's support of terrorism.  (Sadam removed - mission accomplished.)  We need to protect the Iraqi people for a evil dictator. (Sadam captured - mission accomplished.)


There can be no victory because the mission keeps changing to match Bush's ever-moving political agenda.  He already declared Mission Accomplished on the deck of an air craft carrier on May 2, 2003. So the mission ended over two years ago.  Over 2,000 American lives ago.

What is going on now can't be described as a failed policy  -  it's no policy.  There is no plan, there is no mission.  Bush/Cheney/Rove simply want to kill American sevicemen and women.

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I want to thank Representatives McKinney, Serrano and Wexler for voting for H. Res 571 - the immediate pullout from Iraq.  These three courageous Democrats were the only three Aye votes recorded.

While this was a stunt by the majority, it was an opportunity to place our party on the record that our mission was accomplished and it is time to begin removing troops from this quagmire.

I wrote to these three representatives acknowledging my satisfaction with their vote.  I asked them to continue voicing their conscious in hope it will demonstrate to my congressman it is acceptable to display the same courage.

Where is the outrage?

There was a time in our history when outrage would follow the shooting of an individual. The names of shooting victims became a rallying cry for change: Emmitt Till, Medgar Evers, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, Malcolm Little, Viola Liuzzo, James Reeb.

So far this year there have been over 120 murders in Prince George's County without any true outrage. The lawlessness simply continues and sometimes short paragraphs noting the devastating destruction of another family appear in the newspaper.

Nothing in our county will improve until we fix this problem. No company will invest jobs for fear of crime. No qualified school teachers will relocate here for fear of crime. No child can spend a day without worry of crime.

For too long, we have allowed our County Executive Jack Johnson to go without blame. He may not be the cause of crime, but he has certainly not done anything to address this problem. He is almost through his term in office and he still uses the excuse that there are not enough police officers in this county. How long must he be in charge before he fixes it? How long must Jack Johnson be County Executive before he takes a leadership position?

Our outrage of murders should compel us to demand change. How many more people will be senselessly killed before Jack Johnson becomes outraged?

Progressive Cheverly                         

I am proud to be a member of Progressive Cheverly. This is a true grassroots neighborhood organization that have been mobilized to act by recent events.

We have accomplished so much in the past few months. I invite you to look at our Statement of Mission and Principles. It is a document born of consensus of the community where we live. We will use this to guide our activities in local, state and national matters.

The new organization has taken on a huge, unexpected project - a Wal-Mart store coming into our community trying to sneak in under the radar. Progressive Cheverly, as a new organization, has rallied it's members and neighboring community governments and civic associations. While fighting that battle, we were able to draft and enact organizational bylaws, conduct organization elections, work on other projects and sessions with our legislators and earned the respect of those legislators.

Progressive Cheverly not only has invigorated many of us - it has helped validate our inner compass. We shall prevail.

The Democratic Message
                         
I think we could wrap our message around one word - security.

In terms of framing (see George Lakoff), security has a very warm connotation and invokes ease and assuredness.

Democrats offer security. Economic Security. Health Security. Physical Security. Family Security.

We offer families financial security by managing taxes and budgets with fiscal restraint. Outlandish deficits impair our economy's comeback and over time undermine the value of families' savings and investments.

We offer health security by making care available and affordable. We offer legacy security by making education affordable; ensuring equal opportunities in the workplace and fostering an economy that grows retirement savings.

We fight for maintaining our social safety nets - like Social Security and Medicare. We meet our obligations to our veterans and their families.

We provide physical and national security. Democratic administrations avoided wars and protected us from terrorism. Democrats fund first-responders and maintain our infrastructure and military. Our initial successes were due to Democratic administration military preparedness; our recent failures are due to Republican administration policy.

We provide economic security by ensuring each strata of wealth contribute their fair-share to the community - without undue burden upon anyone. Democrats open avenues to success - allowing everyone opportunities to gain wealth.

FDR said we only need fear fear itself. Democrats provide security and that message can be summed-up on a bumper sticker.

Democratic Security vs. Republican Uncertainty