And I thought we had a prestigious, rub-your-face-in-it speaker at NU in 2002:
President Obama to deliver U-M spring 2010 commencement address
Yet before I think this is too cool, it’s only for the undergrad graduation, as the b-school graduation is April 30. Regardless, that is one serious publicity coup for UMich. Way to go, Blue.
UPDATE: Seems grad students get four tickets after all. Sweet.
Just stated my list to my friend Brian:
Other nominees?
I’m not 100 percent bummed about tonight; this will probably force Obama and the Democrats to focus on naked job-creation projects like they should have done in the first place. The only problem is that any efforts to get job projects passed will probably get caught in the newfound morass – by gaining a seat (and maybe more in November?) and never budging an inch to support anything Democrat-initiated, Republicans have created a self-fulfilling prophecy that government can’t solve anybody’s problems.
And apologies to anyone who follows my Twitter posts, from which I basically constructed this entire post. Recycling is good for the Earth, after all.
Tomorrow is the Massachusetts special Senate election for Ted Kennedy’s seat, the coverage of which has been drawing my attention for the past week and a half. While I think it’ll be a disappointment if Coakley loses, as it would indicate reinforcement of the unsuccessful status quo of the past decade, that and a G.O.P. gain in November will surprise me about as much as our Chicago toaster oven will when it burns the toast again. (And by that I mean I will be not at all surprised.)
The stats on midterm elections are frequently trotted out, and they’re almost always bad for the incumbent President’s party. Also frequently trotted out these days is the fact that the “Tea Party” is more popular than either major party, and while that movement doesn’t seem to me to have a platform beyond “visceral howls of opposition”, that’s a lot of voter anger floating around that’s inevitably focused on the team in power.
That said, what potential G.O.P. candidate out there can win in 2012? It looks now like none of them can: Romney is too manufactured to get the nomination; Huckabee commuted the sentence of a prisoner who later murdered four police officers; Palin won’t convince enough general-election voters that she’s competent; and Pawlenty is possible but Midwestern governors are usually too nondescript (remember when people said Tom Vilsack could get the Democratic nomination?). The best remaining candidate is probably Rudy Giuliani, but his personal life is a mess, he’s too socially liberal for the base, he dropped out in 2008 when he couldn’t even win the Florida primary and he’s made enough ridiculous claims recently to turn off most voters. In early 2006 the Democrats had the Hillary machine and Obama was an untarnished star, but there’s nobody in the G.O.P. like that as of January 2010.
Anything’s possible in almost three years — caveat up in here — but the conservative part of the G.O.P. is super fired-up and determined to knock off all moderates, meaning they’re either going to nominate someone like Palin who is very unlikely to win the general election or they’ll get angry at having to swallow yet another compromise mainstream candidate like McCain. Either way, not a great situation for challenging a sitting president who’s had time to recalibrate from midterm results.
So the House version of the health-care reform bill just passed by five votes, 220 to 215. There was exactly one Republican vote in favor, from Rep. Joseph Cao of New Orleans, who I imagine is the most hated man in the party right now. (In a racially intolerant throwback, the “g–k” word is floating around online – lofty rhetoric from those on the way-right wing still living in the Korean War era.)
Me, I think it’s a mostly positive development and certainly an issue that has long remained shamefully unaddressed, even if useful explainers like this one still leave me wondering how much the system will ultimately change. And I guess that’s it: the Senate hasn’t voted yet, a compromise bill might still be necessary, and then there’s the unpredictable way that market forces will respond once any new law is in place. So I’m holding off judgment on any reform effort for now, and probably for a while. I feel like b-school has taught me that even if there oughta be a law about something, it’s only when you see how everyone works with and around that law that you can really judge if it was worthwhile.
So for now: we’ll see.
I’m not the only one:
Hark! The Voters Speak!, New York Times, Nov. 5, 2009
I saw tonight — I’m still awake doing negotiations homework, good times — that the G.O.P. won in two governor’s races but lost the 23rd Congressional District race this Tuesday. My response: wait until 2010 to make any considered response.
While I think the 23rd Congressional race is interesting because of the internal power dynamics reflected in the G.O.P. big guns’ involvement, ultimately I feel like all three elections turned more on local concerns than on national ones. Gov. Corzine has been unpopular for a long time, and people were ready to see him go since way before he argued that he should win because his opponent is fat and he isn’t. The G.O.P. can be happy about the victory, but not too happy — to win a blue state like NJ, Christie’s still gotta be a Northeastern moderate Republican and not a conservative, so he’s exactly the type of politician that Limbaugh, Palin, Malkin, etc. were trying to drive out of the party when they beat on Scozzafava in the 23rd until she abandoned her candidacy. (She later turned around and endorsed Bill Owens, the Democrat and eventual winner – doh!)
Meanwhile, the conservatives’ guy lost, and while that might have some national significance, it’s not the be-all either: Hoffman only sorta lived in the 23rd anyway, and he jumped in at a late date, both of which would certainly affect things. As for Virginia, I think it’s pretty simple: the state just liked McDonnell better than Deeds.
The big lesson: these three (only three!) elections are going to have a lot less significance for 2010 than whatever the Democrats do over the next year. Nothing benefited the Democrats in 2006 like standing by while the G.O.P. screwed up, and that’s true for any minority opposition party anywhere, ever — the party in power has a lot more to do with your fortunes than you do, so you just gotta stay in contrast and wait and see.
Things I don’t like about the G20 in Pittsburgh today:
Things I like about the G20 in Pittsburgh today:
