FISA, Campaign Finance, Kicking Electoral Ass

Well, somehow, blessedly, I am no longer totally obsessed with minutely following every single political story. Yes, it's true: I haven't watched Countdown every night in the last two weeks. It's almost like a fever broke...

I know that you'll profess, publicly, to be happy that I've been able to resume a somewhat normal life...but secretly, you're a bit worried about what you might be missing. "Awww," you say, "but how am I going to get all those cool links and tidbits now?"

Well, I recommend checking in on DailyKos and HuffingtonPost whenever you need a fix.
Almost all they do there is talk politics. Like I have done for the last six months, as many of you know all too well.

I do, perhaps unsurprisingly, have a few opinions on recent developments. Here's what I think the big stories are (or should be), and my take on them.

1) Telecom Immunity/Warrantless wiretapping/FISA...and the upcoming "FISAbuster" (cute derivation of filibuster). This bill is terrible. It just passed the House, and few people have any real understanding why the Dems caved. Is is money from the telecom industry? Is it cover-your-ass action? And why won't Obama fight it harder? How will MoveOn try to hold him to his earlier promise to filibuster any such provision? These are the questions swirling in the air. (To get caught up: here's a good essay on why we care about FISA)

It's a classic case of the Repubs trying to paint anyone who refuses to participate in the gutting of our constitution as "soft on terror," and our going along with that framing. Obama should know that he could fight this one, teach the public what it's about...but he's backing away from it. All I can say is that, unfortunately, few people seem to really be talking about this, even though the campaigns to stop this probably-unconstitutional legislation have been going on for months. The one bit of good news is that Dodd, Feingold, Boxer and maybe a few others have promised to filibuster. Starting tonight.

If you want to take action, and I know you do, you can watch Feingold all explain this and call your senator. You can call Obama's campaign through MoveOn and urge him to fight. You can also "hang up on big telecom" by switching your phone service to Credo, a sub-company of Working Assets. I'm really thinking about doing it...does anyone have Sprint, the network Credo is carried on?

2. Dustup about campaign financing. McCain is trying to make a big hullabaloo about Obama "backing out of his promise" to accept public financing. First, that premise is inaccurate--Obama promised to try to come to an agreement with his opponent...and McCain has been gaming the public finance system for months, and has made his intention not to stick to the letter or the spirit of public financing clear through his own (probably illegal) actions. Second, McCain has done almost nothing to rein in his surrogates, his supporters, and those who would want to form 527s (altho there's nothing of Swift Boat proportions formed yet). He's not shown any strength in trying to actually organize a campaign funded only by the public financing system. But most importantly, the public financing system is broken and the so-called campaign finance reformers have gotten lost along the way. Kos writes about mainstream "reformers" attitudes toward ordinary people's involvement in political blogging, in a way that is highly illuminating; his further explanation of what's broken in campaign financing has helped me solidify my position that the important thing is that campaign contributions don't buy access. It was never simply about limiting money, but about limiting influence. McCain hardly has a leg to stand on, with the kinds of lobbyists he has on his staff, his close ties to Vicki Iseman--he's not actually interested in limiting influence, just in limiting his opponent's fundraising. And Obama's interested not only in raising money, but in getting people activated...and we can see how powerful such people-powered fundraising and involvement is.

3. How Obama is kicking electoral ass everywhere. I can't spend the time to reference all the polls, but let me sum up: two polls in the last week show Obama with a 12-15% lead over McCain. (you wouldn't know it if you watch the cable news...as they breathlessly try to convince themselves that the race is tied). Obama is tied with McCain in red, red, red Indiana. He's got a decent shot at pulling close in Georgia, due to the Bob Barr effect. Obama's got a huge lead in Oregon, in southern Florida, in Maine, and is well ahead in all the swing states, even Pennsylvania and Michigan. Obama has a 13-19 point lead among women, when Kerry led women by only 3. And these are just the highlights of the last two weeks.

All these polling figures have made so, so, so clear to me that all my (obsessively) close attention to the traditional media pundits during the primary was for naught. They are idiots. The conventional wisdom is simply wrong.

This doesn't mean we can rest easy: the fight against the Republicans will be tough, and we have to be sharp and stay on top of what's happening politically. But it does mean that I'm going to stop having palpitations and following every word said by the mainstream news and the punditocracy. David Broder, Chris Matthews, Adam Nagourney--they can all bite me.

I'll still follow the news online, and send you interesting bits. And I'll still encourage you all to organize, give money, and volunteer to make sure we win the White House back. You can host/attend Obama events through the Obama campaign or volunteer with MoveOn; you can give money to ActBlue, the DailyKos-endorsed candidates on ActBlue, MoveOn, the DNC, and, of course, the Obama campaign...

(oh yeah, and did i mention that the bush administration seems to be getting caught more and more often these days? that the GAO released a report showing the "surge" (can a surge last indefinitely) isn't working? that courts have restored habeus corpus to detainees, and ruled that one such detainee can't be classified as an enemy combatant? these are surely interesting times. but let's not forget ourselves: the mainstream media is only spending 2 minutes per week covering Iraq.)