powered by hope

I really don't like a lot of the sneering and snark flying around (I'm talking to you Rachel Maddow), but I did take a perverse pleasure in this Times profile of McCain campaigners on college campuses. Favorite part:

[Chairman of Gators for McCain] Mr. Simmons was stopped midsentence while walking through campus recently and talking on his cellphone. “What is that, a robot?” he said, exhaling noisily. “The Obama campaign has a robot set up in the plaza. It’s holding a sign that says ‘Powered by hope.’ Which I don’t think is entirely accurate.”

While I'm not ready to place faith in an Obama victory yet and am waiting to see if he can actually accomplish all this stuff he's setting out to do (my personal wish-list: building a US sustainable energy industry, universal healthcare, and trolley-cars on every street. By 2010 please, thanks!), at least this New York Magazine article brings gives an inkling of what an Obama administration would look like. At least it looks like they're doing the homework, and then some.

Also, my favorite paragraph:

...the unconventional way he ran for office, the whole bottom-up movement thing, may grant him a degree of independence unique in modern history. “Personally, I think the depth of the Obama realignment is being underestimated,” says the Republican media savant Stuart Stevens, who helped elect Bush twice. “They have basically invented their own party that is compatible with the Democratic Party but is bigger than the Democratic Party. Their e-mail list is more powerful than the DNC or RNC. In essence, Obama would be elected as an Independent with Democratic backing—like Bernie Sanders on steroids.”

Also, these kids: