Barack Obama

Words Illuminating the Night

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January 21, 2013

A few years ago I had the privilege of working on a project with the namesake of Bryan Potter Design. Every year since I’ve received from Bryan a card commemorating the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. It arrives in the mail a a few days before the MLK Day holiday. The cards are always […]

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“When do we start a serious dialogue about the Birther movement being a proxy for racism that is unacceptable to articulate in more direct terms?” So asks Glen Thrush at Politico about a new poll on whether President Barack Obama is a U.S. citizen. The poll shows 58 percent of Republicans believe Obama isn’t a […]

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Finally, a Leader

June 4, 2009

I don’t agree with everything President Obama does or doesn’t do. But too many people miss his essential, rare quality: he is a real leader, a leader unafraid to take on difficult and complex problems by confronting them with blunt yet uplifting language, language that holds up a mirror, a mirror reflecting truth. From his […]

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Obama and Torture

April 10, 2009

A sometimes irrationally exuberant supporter of Barack Obama, I’m puzzled and dismayed at his administration’s failure to address the torture scandal. Repudiating torture isn’t enough. Finding the truth and punishing lawbreakers are only way to right terrible wrongs. The most lucid assessment of the administration’s failure comes via the always-trenchant Scott Horton. He accuses the […]

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The Great Takeover

March 26, 2009

Has Matt Taibbi written the definitive account of what’s really happened to the economy and why

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Media Bashathon

March 25, 2009

I usually wield no club in the intensifying mainstream media bashathon. But Todd Gitlin, whose journalism bona fides make his views worth a read, rightly hammers Big-Time Reporters’ coverage of President Obama’s press conference last night. Petulance born of arrogance is especially repugnant when it leads to stories focusing on style at the expense of […]

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Panhandlers for Obama

March 6, 2009

Long before The Sopranos, I learned about real-life Mafia from Gay Talese in his stunning 1971 book Honor Thy Father. So his recent byline in the New York Times‘ City Room blog caught my eye. Talese recounts helping panhandlers improve their income by composing better-worded signs that invoke President Obama’s name. Word gets around. Tonight, […]

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Grading Presidential Language

February 10, 2009

This is akin to shooting fish in a barrel, I suppose. But if you treasure words and how they’re put together, you’ll enjoy Mark Nickolas’ simple but clever idea: use Microsoft Word’s readability tool to compare the language Barack Obama used Monday answering questions at his first presidential press conference versus that of George W. […]

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Making Things Right

February 8, 2009

A story of redemption and grace starts my morning: 48 years after beating a prominent member of the Civil Rights Movement, a former Ku Klux Klan member apologizes in person with a handshake and hug. “I tried to block it out of my mind. It kept coming back,” says Elwin Wilson, who attacked John Lewis, […]

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Trust in Obama

February 5, 2009

How many people are paying attention to President Obama now that the hoopla over his election and inauguration has died down? Not enough. Listen to this video clip (requires a scroll down) of what he said today about our stricken economy. Better yet, read the transcript of his speech after the clip. He understands what […]

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GOP Busted

January 29, 2009

This homemade Obama sign in a yard not far from my house seems more appropriate now than during the campaign. Without the new president’s leadership, the economy would indeed end up busted. Like anyone, I don’t like the prospect of Himalaya-like deficits. But nearly every economist whom I’ve seen quoted says the only way to […]

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Inauguration Day

January 20, 2009

My day began with champagne and two friends, Benjamin Alexander Clarke and Kelley Burke, at an elbow-to-elbow cafe, Krakow Koffeehouse, where we watched President Obama sworn in. It ended with a neighborhood potluck dinner and never-to-forget, flag-waving march with 40 other people through the streets of Portland.

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Perfect Prelude

January 19, 2009

An email promoted tonight’s showing of vintage film footage from the civil rights movement. The location: a pizza place on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Northeast Portland. It seemed a fitting way to spend the evening with wife and little boy. So we sat with about fifty people we didn’t know — white, black, […]

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