C-Span shows China-US talks; Did Rubin zing Kissinger?

Again I get stuck in a live C-Span thing, going on for quite a while now Tuesday evening, talks between the US and China on strategic and economic issues, and no doubt quite important. After all, this connection is where we apply government health care to the sclerotic global economy and to the atmosphere choking on tons of carbon effluent.

As I flip it on, there’s a stage and people coming up and introducing each other, and here’s Robert Rubin, former guru to the Clintons, former Citibank over-achiever. And he says he’s introducing Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.

This is a reversal of their earlier roles, he said, alluding to a time when Geithner was the apprentice and Rubin the boss. And Rubin went on to say (here your blogger is closely paraphrasing) , I won’t recite his resume, but he has a long record of public service – except for the period when he worked for Henry Kissinger.

This earned a burst of startled laughter from the crowd of business and government figures. Made me snort, too, as it appears to cast aspersions on the life work of Henry Kissinger.

And sure enough, a half-hour later, up there on live C-Span is Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the microphone with an effusive introduction for Henry Kissinger as the pioneer who led the opening to China that they are now building upon. Makes him sound quite heroic, in fact, though I hear that most think Henry K was just doing what his president, Richard Nixon, told him to do, rather than being the initiator himself.

Kissinger, gracious in his advanced age, has the task of introducing the main Chinese speaker, State Counselor Dai Bingguo, and devotes most of his time to praising the courage of the Chinese side back in the 1970s, led by Deng Xiaoping, to respond to the US overtures .

Well, the significance of this event is not clear to this distant observer, so I’ll just say, Thank you, C-Span, for the amazing stuff you show live.

UPDATE: This link take you to the text of the memorandum of understanding issued after the talks. I searched around the NY Times for some analysis of this two-day set of negotiations between the two biggest polluters on earth but found only a small blog entry. The Washington Post has a nice dull article about it all. As to other atmospherics, I saw on Facebook a report from Miami's own Noah Gray that there was a HUGE anti-China demo at the White House. No doubt some fallout from human rights issues on the Uyghurs. Thanks, Noah.

MORE UPDATE:

The Huffington Post beat the big newspapers in substantial coverage of this event. Robert Borosage notes in his piece that the Times and Post are mute on the topic. Yay, blogosphere wins again!

What are we talking about here? Says Borosage:

This represents a staggering transformation that will require stark changes in policy across the world.

Our unsustainable “way of life,” as the Bush administration called it, has got to go. And we’re talking about it with China. And the mainstream media can’t get a handle on it while Sarah Palin distracts attention, so it goes uncovered.

How's Barack doing?

You've seen the headline stuff about Barack Obama's brilliant appearance at University of Miami's BankUnited Center before 8,000 very happy people. This report will assume you're up on the main points, and I'll cover some side elements.

This was the fifth time I've seen him speak in person, and never has he spoken with such power. Was it only that the sound system was totally cranked up? I don't think so. He's ahead or rising in the polls, the economic issues have turned fully negative on the Republicans and it's entirely their own doing, and Obama is in his full stride with six weeks-plus to go.

He has a way of tugging on the heartstrings that I don't see analyzed much. In the past week I finally finished reading "Dreams from my Father," his memoir that we may think of as a recent book, but which in fact was published in 1995, "before his political career began," as Wikipedia puts it.

The book is full of tender and penetrating thoughts about his parents and everything he was discovering in his background (subtitle is "A Story of Race and Inheritance"), and as I read, my eyes often welled up with emotion and admiration of his power to describe.

His standard speech uses this repeatedly. His late mother appears and becomes a reason for his race for the presidency, through the evocative trauma of her fight against cancer and the health insurance maze. His still-living grandmother Dunham is in there, too, with her determined but slow rise in the business world and encounter with the glass ceiling. In the book, his African female relatives are the lead characters in his sojourn in Kenya, and he brims over with empathy for their struggles. I don't see how women, especially, can avoid succumbing to him. "This is personal, for me," he said about health care issues and his mother's final illness.

So in his speech Friday afternoon, Obama brought out memories of his mother and grandmother with the refrain, "That's why I'm running for president." And not to forget his wife, Michelle, whom he likened to the Chaka Khan song "I'm Every Woman." John McCain is a weak opponent in this area, as Obama counted McCain's deficiencies in equal pay, abortion, discrimination and health care.

McCain. in a speech earlier Friday, somehow tried to blame Obama for the economic mess. "I think it's clear," Obama retorted, "that Sen. McCain is a little panicked right now."

Further: on the silliness of Republican charges, "That's what you do when you're out of ideas."

It was interesting to hear him say that he supports the crisis intervention the Bush administration now is undertaking -- he specifically named Treasury Secretary Paulson and Fed Chief Bernanke, not Bush -- and he said he backs bipartisan work in Congress to find solutions.

Finally, he cited "my friend Hillary Clinton" and her 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling.

One last note: the honor of introducing him was given to Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL-20), who declared that Obama will be carried to the presidency "by the women of this country." A few weeks ago she was not in the Obama camp but rather fighting every way possible to get Sen. Clinton the nomination. In Denver she also was honored by giving one of the seconding speeches for Obama, so I've got to say she has come around to the good side of the ledger throughout. Reward: in all the TV images of this speech she's sitting right there behind him. Further payment by her: her endorsement of all three Democratic candidates for congress from South Florida, Annette Taddeo (FL-18), Joe Garcia (FL-25) and Raul Martinez (FL-21), who were mentioned by name in Obama's speech. (Correcting that they were NOT on stage.)

Joe Biden introduces himself

Many were hungry for him. I heard this canvassing this evening on Miami Beach, a chunk of Normandy Isle where big homes on the water are next to rather neglected properties – Florida, right?

A lovely lady from Haiti with a sparkly grandchild on her arm was thrilled to have the Obama campaign knock on her door, and quickly signed up as a volunteer. Next, she signed the absentee ballot form. “I was so happy to have Joe Biden chosen,” she said.

Those who assert that they’re sitting on the fence because Sen. Clinton wasn’t chosen must consider what they’re doing by withholding enthusiasm. We still need volunteers and donations and spirit.

Time to get to work -- the campaigns are coming

The Obama Florida staff, L-R: Michael Raphael, intern; Georgette Brammer, Florida finance assistant; Corey Ciorciari, intern.

For those who worry that Florida became irrelevant due to the fiasco over the advanced primary date, I never was convinced. I'll still bet that our convention delegates will be seated without a big fight. And the turnout for the January primary was immense -- very heartening! And it had impact: John Edwards dropped out. Rudy Giuliani dropped out. That's a lot of relevance, in my book. But OK, maybe you had something there. It diminished our relevance. I concede.

But now we're about to come back into full bloom. Did you see the lead story in the NY Times on Sunday? Obama and McCain are charting strategy for the fall campaign, and Florida is one of the chief battlegrounds.

A quote from Obama's campaign manager, David Plouffe:

"Organizationally, we have now built very powerful organizations in every state but Michigan and Florida. ... That is one huge silver lining to how long this nomination fight has gone on."

Yes, that's great for the rest of the country, and for us in Florida, we have the opportunity now to build our own "very powerful organization" for the campaign to take up and run with.

Case in point: On Saturday I went out rather late but still in time for the voter-registration training that was said to be a joint effort by the Clinton and Obama campaigns. There I saw a lot of Obama people, and took this photo of what was said to be the entire Obama staff in Florida: three friendly young people who have opened an office on Miami Beach and are working hard.

You heard it here first.

Florida somehow: A primary too early, but campaigning soon to get official

I'm at an early voting site in Miami Beach, the North Shore Regional Library, early Monday

A few weeks ago the Miami Herald was opining that the Florida primary vote wouldn’t count. To HELL with a newspaper’s civic responsibility! Citizens, don’t bother to vote. But that changed. I guess Florida’s flagship newspaper noticed that their darling, Rudy Giuliani, wouldn’t get his anticipated boost from Florida’s primary if the vote doesn’t count.

So the political tune has a new verse, and its title is “Florida still critical for Democrats.” That was the lead headline in Sunday’s Miami Herald, Jan. 13. Flip to the jump inside, and the headline is “Florida is pivotal in general election.” (Don’t ask how they leaped from the impending primary election to the November general election.) Nice photo there of my friend Big Dave Patlak and his wife Maryanne with a cardboard cutout of Barack Obama and a delighted passerby as if they’re doing a honk-and-wave – all gracing a long story to the effect that there is no official campaigning by the candidates in Florida, but it’ll count anyway. Bigtime. Somehow.

We have 10 million registered voters and a primary on Jan. 29. The problem is that the Republican-dominated state legislature passed legislation putting the 2008 primary ahead of the Feb. 5 Super Tuesday – flouting rules of both parties – thereby screwing us addled beach bums out of our seats at the national nominating conventions. Except the rules will change by the time of the conventions. And we’ll be seated. Somehow.

We have a history in Florida of mangling elections, and this is Chapter Umpteen. Plus, we’re already voting: Our early voting started on Monday Jan. 14. I’ll put up a photo of myself trying a honk-and-wave at the early-voting site near my addled beach home. You’ll see that I’m for John Edwards. I even went to Iowa, my birth state, and campaigned for him before the caucuses. Now I’m on a steering committee helping to organize grass-roots campaigning in South Florida – alas, no cardboard cutout of JRE, but we’re doing the best we can. Unofficially. Somehow.

I’m glad we already started, because the pressure is building to let the Democratic campaigns wash over Florida like Global Warming in Al Gore’s wet dream.

My little steering committee is begging John Edwards’ campaign to come and do (permitted under the rules) fund-raisers in Florida. I should know, I wrote the news release and the DailyKos diary about it.

Hillary Clinton is about to do Florida fund-raisers after the Jan. 26 South Carolina primary, and the Obama campaign is complaining loudly. Funny, but wasn’t that Barack Obama raising money like gangbusters in Florida back in the summer? Including a rally for 2,000 people in Miami’s Little Havana to benefit the local Democratic Party? I should know, I wrote some of the news releases for that and organized the media as best I could. Even the Wall Street Journal covered that event – but it wasn’t campaigning, just a little fund-raising.

Others have noticed the logic of campaigning in Florida. Here’s the Orlando Sentinel’s editorial of a few days ago urging the national parties to let up on Florida:

The surprising results and record turnouts in Iowa and New Hampshire show this year's presidential race has lit a fire among voters. So why would national party bosses, of all people, want to pour cold water on that fire in Florida?

Indeed. I saw the enthusiasm in Iowa. Trying to get to a caucus site in Waterloo, where I was working for Edwards, I found myself in a huge traffic jam, and like hundreds of others I never got to the site. They couldn’t caucus; I couldn’t observe, though the view was good when I got to the Irish bar downtown and watched C-span with a jar of well-tended Guinness in hand.

A break here to defend Iowa. The newspapers all call it overwhelmingly white, and therefore, sort of, unAmerican. Well, the Democratic side of the Iowa equation is NOT overwhelmingly white. Maybe the Republicans are, but the Democrats in Iowa are more concentrated in the strongly industrial cities in the east, like Waterloo, Cedar Rapids, Davenport and Dubuque (where I was born), some with sizeable minority populations. I’m not saying it’s like Birmingham, just not lily white. Waterloo has several Mexican restaurants and groceries. And Iowa is where I went on my first civil rights marches, in the late ‘50s, so I like to think Iowans have their hearts in the right place in as high a proportion as anywhere in this country. And their reps in the U.S. House are four Democrats and one Republican, with a Democratic governor. What’s yours, progressive Florida? A lot of ground to make up, huh? Well, Florida and Iowa are tied in the U.S. Senate with one each of Republican and Democrat. The Iowa climate is ahead of Florida’s in suitability for having the occasional jar of Guinness. Enough. Not talking here about the perils of glaze ice on the Waterloo driveway.

Back to voter enthusiasm. It’s cooking in Florida. On Monday over 20,000 Democrats used the early-voting privilege, topping Republican turnout by about 3,000. Democrats also are cutting into the usual Republican advantage in absentee voting. Read about it here on the Democratic Party web site. They’re forecasting almost a doubling of the Democratic absentee vote.

Does that sound like Iowa? Yes, Iowa Democrats also came out in almost double their numbers from the previous cycle. That amounted to about 240,000, while in Florida, maybe one million Democrats will vote. That’s to admire and strive for, to campaign for. And that’s why this observer and participant expects campaigning to start to look almost official in the next week.

Footnote: this analysis doesn’t apply to the Republicans, who are campaigning in Florida like no tomorrow. As usual, they don’t care about rules.

Jeb backed driver’s licenses for the undocumented

Not often in agreement with our former governor, I found myself nodding positively through Beth Reinhard’s column in the Saturday Miami Herald. The other day I was mentally arguing against “Big Ed” Schultz on normally reliable Air America, WINZ AM940, as he raved against letting undocumented immigrants have licenses.

Schultz’ argument was that immigrants “take jobs” from American workers (Evidence, Ed?) and “drive down” wages (Maybe true), and so “80 percent” of Americans are against letting such immigrants have licenses. Ed, I’d like to hear what wording was used in the survey to get that overwhelming result. Maybe this: Should illegal aliens be given driver’s licenses so they can run down your grandmother?

Because I also have heard that Americans in general feel that immigrants should get a path to legalization and eventual citizenship, and it would seem contradictory that they not also get a driver’s license along the way.

My life experience includes living overseas a lot, and I’ve had driver’s licenses from Israel, Britain, Japan and Germany – as a legal resident, of course. Seems pretty routine to me – you live somewhere, you get a driver’s license there. If you get stopped it’s one less problem. It’s also part of living openly.

Reinhard’s column recalls that three years ago Jeb Bush supported a bill by a fellow Republican, Sen. Rudy Garcia of Hialeah, requiring background checks before granting such licenses. It failed utterly with other Republicans and did not become law.

Now it’s a fuss in New York with Gov. Elliot Spitzer’s proposal and Hillary Clinton’s wavering reply in this week’s Democratic presidential debate.

From neo-con paradise (The Hoover Institute) emerges a quote from Jeb: “Politicians use this as a wedge issue – it’s a loser.”

Again, I agree with Jeb on this. Thanks to Beth Reinhard for laying it out. Click here for a link to her column.

Quick response to flap around Raul Martinez

Not letting the ink dry for long: Joe Garcia, chair of the Miami-Dade Democratic Party, lept to the defense of former Hialeah Mayor Raul Martinez after the Republican state chairman, Jim Greer, ripped Martinez for hosting a fund-raiser for Hillary Clinton on Monday.

"It is beyond ironic that the Republican Party, responsible for the most corrupt administration in the history of this country, would attempt to discredit a distinguished public servant like Mayor Martinez," Garcia said. "Of course, the GOP fails to mention that Raul was exonerated of all charges."

"The people of Miami-Dade County, including all of Raul's supporters in Hialeah, see right through this campaign. Ultimately it's a clear sign that their fears are coming true. The public is calling for change, and as they launch these attacks the Republicans lose more and more of the electorate's faith – including that of the Hispanic community," Garcia added.

Garcia also looked for the reason behind the Republican blast: an inroad that Raul Martinez is paving into the Republican dominance of the Spanish-language airwaves. On Monday Martinez will begin hosting a talk show on WQBA 1140 AM, 4-5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

All this is fodder for the grist mill churning up talk that Martinez will run for Congress against Lincoln Diaz-Balart. The Miami Herald reported Tuesday that Martinez hasn't decided whether to run. "But if I do, I'll give anyone a run for their money," he was quoted as saying.

Mayor of Hialeah for 24 years, Raul Martinez garnered immense popularity as a Democrat in a city with a large Republican majority. He was prosecuted for alleged corruption but successfully appealed a conviction, and two subsequent trials ended in hung juries. Despite these distractions, he led Hialeah to new levels of excellence, bringing about successful public works projects and groundbreaking infrastructure and transportation improvements. Hialeah's affordable housing program is a national model for excellence. He was elected to eight terms, twice unopposed, before stepping down in 2005.

What’s this “pandering to dictators?”

It was one of the better questions in the YouTube debate – whether to meet with the bad guys. Meeting with the foe, to my mind, ought to be a judgment call. Are we ready to meet? Can anything good come of it? Be careful of unintended consequences. Favor being bold.

Look at the Cold War. After a lot of cold shoulders, there were thaws and refreezes, some surprise meetings, and finally it came to an end. I had the luck to be a close observer of an unexpected meeting regarding the Middle East: Anwar Sadat’s trip to Jerusalem in November 1977, when I was an Associated Press correspondent based in Israel. The Egyptian leader was welcomed warmly by the Israeli leadership and population; soon there was a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel, and Egypt got back all its lost territory. The Palestinians got little from that deal; they also invested little in what was then called the peace process. And today, 30 years later, we are where we are in that region. Many volumes have been written about all the bad stuff that has happened meantime, but Israel and Egypt still have their peace treaty. In 1981 Sadat paid with his life for his temerity (for me, there was a trip to Cairo to help cover his funeral).

In other words, a mixed result from Sadat’s bold move. But it did not happen at the spur of the moment, as it seemed at the time. There had been a great deal of secret diplomacy beforehand, and Sadat and the Israelis had a good understanding of the way they would resolve their issues before CBS guru Walter Cronkite appeared to be the intermediary who got Sadat and Israeli leader Menachem Begin to agree to meet.

The Clinton and Obama campaigns now are trading barbs about what they said – Hillary Clinton more cautious about meeting with such as Fidel Castro, the Iranians and North Koreans; Barack Obama more willing to have a meeting. I like Miami-Dade Democratic Chairman Joe Garcia’s wise comment on the controversy, as reported in an AP roundup:

“Obviously, Hillary’s answer was a seasoned answer within the realm of what we’re doing. But I don’t think Obama was intending to say we want to give legitimacy to dictatorships,” said Garcia, who said he was not affiliated with any of the candidates. Obama speaks to the Miami-Dade Democrats at an Aug. 25 dinner.

On the other hand we have the Republican ideologue’s comment, also from the AP roundup:

“Anything that looks like pandering to dictators is bad politics in South Florida,” said Republican state Rep. David Rivera of Miami. He predicted Obama’s comments would come back to haunt him, particularly if he becomes the Democratic nominee.

There must be some playbook where they get phrases like “pandering to dictators.” Loaded language is their stock in trade. Who panders anymore, anyway? Well, I know where that takes us in their playbook: it’s a word found under C.

An interesting sidelight is that the Miami Herald on Thursday printed three letters about the Clinton-Obama dustup, and all three were against the hard line of the Rivera camp.

Could more people be coming to understand that some bold thinking and action will be required? Our beloved country is in difficult straits. Being stuck with calcified thinking like "pandering to dictators" gives little chance to find a better course.

Local party to benefit from Barack Obama appearance

The news is out: Sen. Barack Obama will join a fund-raising meeting of the Miami-Dade Democrats, and the profits will stay here to strengthen our local party.

Your calendar needs to have a lock on Aug. 25. That Saturday afternoon, the Illinois senator and candidate for the highest nomination will break away from his activities on behalf of his own campaign and help the Miami-Dade Democrats raise funds for their own purposes.

Chairman Joe Garcia announced it Monday at the July meeting of the Democratic Executive Committee -- a standing-room-only crowd at the American Legion in Miami. "This is not an endorsement. We don't endorse," Garcia said. Planning for the event is still incomplete, but he described it as a meeting "to show our appreciation" to Sen. Obama.

Whether he becomes the nominee and president or not, "this is going to be one of the most important people in America for the next quarter-century," Garcia said.

Former Congresswoman Elaine Bloom asked whether other candidates could appear at the same meeting, and Garcia said the date had been suggested by the Obama campaign, so other candidates were more than welcome to suggest times for their own separate appearances to benefit the local Democratic Party. Sen. Hillary Clinton has expressed willingness to do a similar event, and the John Edwards campaign also has been approached.

The plan is to keep the required contribution low enough to ensure a big turnout, and some fun for the party faithful and the Obama supporters.

Endorse ... or wait ...?

Maybe this will be cleared up soon. The question: Is Congressman Kendrick Meek endorsing Hillary Clinton? In Friday's Miami Herald we who dug well back in the Metro section saw that the rising national figure from District 17 was for Clinton. On rereading, a careful editor might question the verb tenses. OK, did this happen? Or will it happen? And who said it?

On Saturday we who dug equally far back into the paper learned that it hasn't happened. Headline: "Meek says he has not endorsed Clinton." The article also added some attribution notes to the previous day's article, saying its news had come from "sources close to the campaigns of Clinton and rival Barack Obama." No mention of Meek among the sources for Meek's choice? Uh oh.

But all's OK, as Saturday's story concludes: "Meek told the Miami Herald Friday that the newspaper did not need to correct its story." All right.

Friday's story.

Saturday's story.

Political donations help victory -- It happened here

You probably wonder what happens to the money when you dig into your pocket and send the Democratic Party a donation. Maybe it’s only $25 on your stretchy credit card. Maybe more significant amounts. Well, here we have a report from one of our rare paid staff from the Florida Democratic Party on what the money means: Victory in a special election for the Florida House! Money puts feet on the ground to convince and activate voters. It happened in the past week in the Orlando area. A Republican seat became a Democratic seat.

So, my friends, please be generous when Karen Thurman or Joe Garcia or Howard Dean asks for financial help!

Here’s BJ Chiszar’s report on a month he spent seconded away from his Miami-Dade post to help Darren Soto’s campaign.

Hello fellow Democrats!

Every member of the statewide field team was in Orlando/Osceola for the final month of the Darren Soto campaign. Soto defeated GOP heavyweight Tony Suarez in a close race decided by about 300 votes.

Soto, a 29-year-old civil rights attorney, built a solid coalition with labor, firefighters, teachers, ACORN, and many other progressive groups. One group stood out -- the Young Democrats of Orange County were an amazing field force, knocking on almost every door in the district.

The Florida Democratic Party focused our efforts on absentee ballots and GOTV on election day. I was joined by Ted Miller and the Young Democrats of Dade and also Michael Calderin and Georgi Blumenthal of DFA came up to get in the fight. It was awesome to have Dade county people in Central Florida, demonstrating our commitment to victory in 2008!

It also must be noted that our House Victory Director Steve Schale joined us on the ground, as well as Executive Director Leonard Joseph and most of the senior staff from Tallahassee. This showed leadership by example and let Democrats all across the state know that we mean business as it relates to winning elections.

We are excited about the renewed buzz around the state about our party! I hope that you will join us in our efforts to create positive change in America.

If we all do just a little, then together we can achieve so much!

UPDATE:

Here's a fresh angle on this from Beth Reinhard's column in the Saturday Herald. Fair to say that people in politics are looking at this Orlando result with strong interest.

Lessons from Orlando column.

UPDATE 2:

Yet another angle from The Buzz, St. Pete Times political blog. Hillary Clinton is said to be the only presidential candidate to help with this race, and here's her congratulatory message to Darren Soto.

Buzz link re Hillary.