HAPPY ANNIVERSARY "BREAK IT DOWN!"
Last week,
in the spirit of the Olympics, I reprised a Gabby Douglas story from four years
ago, primarily due to the fact a number of folks just couldn’t let it go, when
it came to Gabby’s tresses. Today,
partly due to the Olympics, which are now in full swing, and partly to
acknowledge the anniversary of “Break It Down,” I am revisiting my inaugural
post.
Tempus fugit (Time
Flies)! Saturday will mark another significant milestone in the
life and development of “Break It Down!” I initiated this blog
August 20, 2007, on a lark…almost a dare. That was nine years
(and 476 editions) ago. Having related the story several times
over the past several years, I will not repeat the complete details today.
I will note
that on that summer’s eve, I contemplated, in five paragraphs, the
experience, or in reality the lack thereof, of then Senator Barack Obama, as he navigated
the early stages of his historic Presidential Campaign. The prodigious
parameters
of that history were not evident at the time. To be sure, over the next 14-½
months, he bested the odds and won not only the Democratic
Nomination, but also the Presidency. In so doing, my lack of
conviction, along with that of many others, in Mr. Obama’s ability to
claim the nation’s biggest political prize exposed for what it was; a patently
errant
assessment.
I want to
make one more note about the blog. In addition to this week
marking the Sixth Anniversary of Break It Down, this week’s post commemorates
the Four-year Anniversary of my using WordPress as my
primary Host Platform. The link, http://TheSphinxofCharlotte.com is
simpler and more straightforward than the Blogger (Blogspot)
link, http://TheSphinxofCharlotte.blogspot.com.
The site design and presentation at Word Press is cleaner, and less busy
than the one at Blogger. Please note, while I may migrate Break
It Down exclusively to WordPress, the blog remains available
at both sites for the foreseeable
future.
So this was
the message in Post #1, five brisk paragraphs and a sign-off:
In an apparent calculated
act of derring-do, Obama declares the virtue of inexperience. Gotta love
it! ;-)
Personal footnote of
recollection: I recall Jimmy Carter running the "anti-Washington"
(i.e., lack of Capitol Hill experience) campaign in '75-76. You know what, it
worked.
The problem was, once JC
sent all the reigning bureaucrats & policy wonks home, he was left with an
assembly of newbies who didn't understand how to get things done in DC. The
result was a very smart guy, genuine humanitarian, and erstwhile successful
leader presided over a disastrous presidency, fraught with innumerable policy
failures (see the Shah of Iran, double-digit inflation, & the outrageous
Interest/Mortgage rate morass) and public relations gaffes (remember the killer
rabbit, and the failed helicopter gambit).
Fortunately for him he was
able to live long enough and subsequently do enough good deeds to distance
himself from most of an unremarkable tenure as a one-term president, followed
by a resounding defeat by that cowboy actor Teflon guy.
Of course none of that has
anything to do with Obama...except in the unlikely even he prevails, let's hope
he doesn't take that inexperience thing too far. As W constantly reminds us,
getting to the White House is one thing (after all, he's done it twice),
providing prudent and effective leadership once there is quite another.
'06!
Posted on Mon, Aug. 20,
2007
PS. Just for perspective,
see a story the news carried on the subject that day:
DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL
HOPEFULS DEBATE IN IOWA
Obama posits virtue of
inexperience
What rivals criticize as naiveté,
he presents as break from status quo
MIKE GLOVER
Associated Press
DES MOINES, Iowa
--Democrat Barack Obama on Sunday tried to parlay his relative lack of national
experience into a positive attribute, chiding his rivals for adhering to
"conventional thinking" that led the country to war and has divided
the country.
In their latest debate,
the candidates also said they favored more federal action to address economic
woes that have resulted from a housing slump and tighter credit. New Mexico
Gov. Bill Richardson called the current financial crisis "the Katrina of the
mortgage-lending industry."
Prodded by moderator
George Stephanopoulos at the outset of the debate, Obama's rivals critiqued his
recent comments on Pakistan and whether he would meet with foreign leaders --
including North Korea's head of state -- without conditions.
"To prepare for this
debate I rode in the bumper cars at the state fair," the first-term
senator from Illinois said to laughter and applause from the audience at Drake
University.
The debate capped an
intense week of politicking in Iowa, an early voting state in the process of
picking a nominee. The Iowa State Fair is a magnet for White House hopefuls
each presidential election.
Sen. Christopher Dodd,
D-Conn., directly addressing a question about Obama's relative inexperience,
said: "You're not going to have time in January of '09 to get ready for
this job." Dodd has served in Congress for more than 30 years.
Former Sen. John Edwards
said Obama's opinions "add something to this debate." But Edwards
said politicians who aspire to be president should not talk about hypothetical
solutions to serious problems.
"It effectively
limits your options," Edwards said.
Obama said he could handle
the rigors of international diplomacy and noted that many in the race,
including Dodd, Edwards and Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Joe Biden, voted
to authorize the Iraq war in 2002.
"Nobody had more
experience than Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney and many of the people on this
stage that authorized this war," Obama said. "And it indicates how we
get into trouble when we engage in the sort of conventional thinking that has
become the habit in Washington."
The debate, hosted and
broadcast nationally by ABC, took place less than five months before Iowa
caucus-goers begin the process of selecting the parties' presidential nominees.
As we reflect upon the Campaign of 2008 it really does harken the recognition of how swiftly time and events pass. Indeed, I am especially reminded of how a supremely confident Senator approached his moment. I shall always recall that it propelled me to write, "Obama Plays the Inexperience Card!" Needless to say, he has gained an enormous amount of experience in the intervening years.
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