The welter of public/private local, national and international partnerships proposed and extended in the Democratic Platform is Obama's Chicago Annenberg Challenge writ large -- very large. We run through them here, with blue text lifted from the platform and a baroque profusion of our own annotations. When we began this exercise, we had only the the draft platform to work with (yes, it took that long!).Given the length of the original list, we are confident that we have captured the spirit of the thing, and we suspect the draft may actually capture Obama, himself, more clearly than the later version. We trust you can make your own comparisons. Here's a PDF of the Draft Platform , and here's the Official version.
We do the Democratic Platform, so you don't have to!
Recognizing that considerable progress in health care delivery has been pioneered by state and local governments, necessary nation-wide reform should build on successful state models of care. It is possible that such successful state models exist, but examples would be helpful! We are confounded by the Strong Partnership with States, Local Governments, Tribes, and Territories, proposed as the vehicle for future health care delivery, when the absence of federal involvement would appear to be the hallmark of local and state success.
So too, Obama proposes federal-local partnerships to scale the success and deployment of new energy solutions. The difficulty of scaling local successes is, in this instance, the central stumbling block to the deployment of new energy solutions! The absence of federal participation, mandates, oversight and regulation is not the hitch here -- yet, it's the technology. Fear not, though, technology will be provided through another partnership (see below). We need educating first.
With the fierce urgency of now, the Democratic Platform asserts that we must come together, form partnerships, and commit to providing the resources and reforms necessary to help every child reach their full potential. If you like what Obama's Annenberg Challenge did for education in Chicago, you'll love what he brings to Washington, because that's what he's describing here. As he proclaimed in February, "every child in America" can look forward to "the best education this country has to offer from the day that child is born to the day that child graduates from college." Back in Chicago, we note that Obama chose private school for his own children. Took a whole motorcade (looking presidential, Barack!) to get them there last week too. Holy shades of Annenberg!
Obama's government will horn in on Our institutions of higher education too, which he admires as the economic engines of today and tomorrow. We will partner with them to translate new ideas into innovative products, processes and services, (told ya so!) because engines can't function without federal interventions. It's our impression that such educational institutions are generally on the receiving end of economic good times, but this wouldn't be the first time Democrats have stood conventional wisdom on its head.
We will expand the Manufacturing Extension Partnerships. Jump ball, till we check up on existing Partnerships.
We will partner with community colleges and other higher education institutions, so that we're training workers to meet the demands of local industry, including environmentally-friendly technology. They too exist to service our economic needs, and we will bend them to our federal will.
The federalized Chicago model is not just a top down proposition. Obama is scaling it up to the international playing field, where renewing our partnerships to promote our common security will work in tandem with freshly baked partnerships as well. We will Seek a new partnership with Pakistan, which as Obama informed Bill O'Reilly, has been using our military aid to prepare for war with India. Who knew? We need a stronger and sustained partnership between Afghanistan, Pakistan and NATO. We will create a properly resourced Shared Security Partnership to enhance counter-terrorism cooperation with countries around the world. We will continue direct diplomacy and are committed to working with our partners through the six-party talks to ensure that all agreements are fully implemented in the effort to achieve a verifiably nuclear-free Korean peninsula. This enthusiastic endorsement of President Bush's original six-party diplomatic model, which Democrats have spent years deploring or ignoring, is an especially welcome change!
To renew American leadership in the world, we will rebuild the alliances, partnerships, and institutions necessary to confront common threats and enhance common security. In Obama's world, we will no longer be exerting unwarranted pressure ("bullying") to accomplish "needed reform" of these institutions, we will simply convince other governments and peoples that they, too, have a stake in effective partnerships. You wouldn't believe how much bullying we actually have to make up for either! In the case of Europe, we dismissed European reservations about the wisdom and necessity of the Iraq war and their concerns about climate change. In Asia, we belittled South Korean efforts to improve relations with the North. Wait a minute, where did the six-party talks disappear to? In Latin America, from Mexico to Argentina, we failed to address concerns about immigration and equity and economic growth. Epic Fail, in blogspeak. In Africa, we have allowed genocide to persist for over five years in Darfur and have not done nearly enough to answer the United Nation’s call for more support to stop the killing. We are trying to remember the U.N. exhorting us to stop the killing in Darfur. In fact, we're pretty sure the U.N. kept hanging up on our 3:00 am calls.
In case you didn't get it the first time, Under Barack Obama, We will rebuild our ties to our allies in Europe and Asia and strengthen our partnerships throughout the Americas and Africa. We'd like to point out that repetition is emblematic Obama. An organizational chart would be handy, but we understand that even the Chicago Challenge is not yet fully mapped.
We recognize Africa's promise as a trade and investment partner. As the ostensible senior partner in that relationship, our responsibilities include, sustainable economic growth, job creation and poverty alleviation. We are committed to bringing the full weight of American leadership to bear, in contradistinction to bullying, in unlocking the spirit of entrepreneurship and economic independence that is sweeping across markets of Africa. Thank heaven all this requires only leadership, because we think Obama will have his hands full with job creation here at home. Before we do any unlocking, alas, we must face the daunting prospect of failing states and regional organizations, along with conflict to prevent and resolve, and a humanitarian crisis and genocide to deal with. Never fear, Barack Obama will work with the United Nations, and We will defend democracy and stand up for rule of law when it is under assault, such as in Zimbabwe. How will we do this, you ask? Under Barack Obama, We are committed to bringing the full weight of American leadership to bear to work in partnership with Africa to confront these crises. Just how much can Barack Obama's leadership actually weigh? Roughly the same as Hillary's, we suppose, which seems a little on the skimpy side for this project.
What's good enough for Africa is good enough for everyone. We believe that in the 21st century, the U.S. must treat Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean as full partners, just as our neighbors to the south should reject the bombast of authoritarian bullies, as we reject the bombastic democratic bullies we elected here the last two times around. We must work with close partners like Mexico, Brazil and Colombia on issues like ending the drug trade, fighting poverty and inequality, and immigration. Ditto for maintaining strong relationships with allies like Japan, Australia, South Korea, Thailand and the Philippines and deepening our ties to vital democratic partners, like India, in order to create a stable and prosperous Asia. Especially India. With India, we will build on the close partnership developed over the past decade. We're please to note that the Bush administration will be leaving a passel of well-oiled partnerships above for Obama to work with. Those cowboys can really fool you sometimes! It's a good thing, because seeking American redemption everywhere else looks like a pretty full plate. And did we mention India? We also will pursue effective collaboration on pressing global issues among all the major powers–including such newly emerging ones as China, India, Russia, Brazil, Nigeria, and South Africa. We figure collaboration is just partnership by other means, but didn't Russia emerge a rather long time ago? Speaking of India (and Brazil), permanent seats on the U.N. Security Council for those two partners might be nice for them and helpful to us. Just a thought.
Moving right along, forget Maddy Albright! Europe remains America’s indispensable partner. Forget the Bush Administration's unrelenting pressure on NATO too! NATO has made tremendous strides over the last 15 years, transforming itself from a Cold War security structure into a partnership for peace. How NATO managed to transform itself with no Americans in sight escapes us. Vladimir Putin sure blames the U.S. for raising NATO's profile. Fortunately, shop time for European repairs should be shorter now, given the Euro craze for righty heads-of-state. Forget the Vienna Convention too! We need to get crackin' on a whole new body of international law for all these ventures, because this stuff supersedes the Constitution. Unless that's the point. Did we mention Obama is a lawyer? A constitutional lawyer who thinks the 2nd Amendment was designed with clay pigeons in mind. Best not to linger, we've got partnerships to go before we sleep.
We will seek to strengthen and broaden our strategic partnership with Turkey. In light of Russian activity in the Caucasus, we are pleased to endorse this plank unreservedly. We look forward to hearing more details from Obama in the upcoming debates, as we have yet to repair the damage done during Colin Powell's feckless tenure at the State Department.
[W]e must help Israel identify and strengthen those partners who are truly committed to peace, because Israel obviously has no clue who its friends and enemies are. We suggest that it would be more productive to strengthen Israel and bring the full weight of American leadership to bear on both potential and identifiable partners in peace.
The United States and its Quartet partners should continue to isolate Hamas until it renounces terrorism because it's working so well for us. Whatever. Maybe Bush was right. We are, however, surprised to learn that we have yet more diplomatic partners! We do hope someone will tell Harry Reid and poor Nancy Pelosi. That outreach to Syria seems like such a waste. Harry and Nancy apparently never heard about the six-party talks on the Chinese side of the globe either.
Next up, democratization! No country in the world has benefited more from the worldwide expansion of democracy than the United States. Democracies are our best trading partners, our most valuable allies, and the nations with which we share our deepest values. The United States must join with our democratic partners around the world to meet common security challenges and uphold our shared values whenever they are threatened by autocratic practices, coups, human rights abuses or genocide. Sounds like the more democracies the better, doesn't it? Sounds like Bush Lite, actually, except for the unacknowledged hitch coming right up.
In non-democratic countries, we pledge to work with international partners to assist the efforts of those struggling to promote peaceful political reforms. Alas, our democratic partners have never expressed serious interest in such endeavors, although it might be marginally easier to bring the full weight of our leadership to bear if Russia and China didn't wield that pesky veto power at the U.N. Of course, if peaceful reform is the bar folks have to jump before we lend a helping hand (we're lookin' at you, Zimbabwe), they probably won't be needing that much help from us. Say goodbye to Democracy! Whiskey! Sexy!
The United States should renew its own commitment to respect for workers' fundamental human rights by ensuring that our trade partners are required to enforce the ILO's core conventions. We will accord greater weight to human rights, including the rights of women and children, in our relationships with other global powers, recognizing that America's long-term strategic nterests are more likely to be advanced when our partners are rights-respecting. This requires a paragraph of its own:
We clearly have our Unions to thank for this particular plank, because it violates key tenets of Obama Leadership Theory. No full partnership for you, Colombia! We dismiss your concerns. We belittle the enormous progress made by the Uribe government on all the battles (outlined above) that we want you to fight for us. NAFTA is the reason we're shipping jobs to China! (Oh! Canada!). Despite the boost to North and South American economies, our Union partners have crossed you off the list, and that's a partnership we can't afford to jeopardize. You may be the one bright light in an oil producing neighborhood beset by Bolivarian revolution, but we have other priorities, and an election to win right now. Mostly an election. Check back with us later, if you still can.
Which brings us back around to domestic partnerships, so to speak. We will partner with the people of the Gulf Coast to assist the victims of Hurricane Katrina and restore the region economically. September Newsflash: The Democratic nominee informs us that he was closely monitoring the recent Gustavian emergency from an undisclosed location. He is pleased to report that the Bush Administration, under Barack Obama's leadership, has made significant strides on this front.
You thought we were almost through, didn't you? First and last, but not least, we have Partnerships with States. We will give the states a partner in the federal government, and a president who understand that prosperity comes not only from Wall Street and Washington, but from the perseverance of the states and the American people. We feel compelled to look this gift horse in the mouth. When it comes to giving, we do not think that word means what Obama thinks it means. To our knowledge prosperity never comes from Washington. Although Obama's own gift for giving words new meaning is considerable, this is not the change that we've been waiting for. Wall Street will doubtless make its feelings known in timely fashion, but the cognitive dissonance that struck us at the outset, strikes again. We can only hope that a Supreme Court under Barack Obama won't go wobbly on the Tenth Amendment or take too liberal a view of the Commerce Clause, which has already been stretched beyond recognition by Attorneys General who must not be named.
We look forward to greater partnership with urban America. As admitted denizens of red state America, we would be inclined to check this one off without further ado from the Democratic party.
But wait, what's this that to our wondering eyes appears? We honor the central place of faith in our lives. How on earth did this Christianist jargon end up in the Democratic platform? There's more! We will empower grassroots faith- based and community groups to help meet challenges like poverty, ex-offender reentry, and illiteracy. Are you crazy? Somebody get the ACLU on the phone! We believe that change comes not from the top-down, but from the bottom-up, and that few are closer to the people than our churches, synagogues, temples, and mosques. You can't fool us with your synagogues, temples, and mosques. George Bush already tried putting that one over on us, but we know code when we see it. What happened to expunging all those unitary executive orders? Democrats will never stand for this assault on the separation of church and state. And hey, what's up with the grass roots here any way? We're talking federal government, aren't we? At the same time, we can ensure that these partnerships do not endanger First Amendment protections and that public funds are not used to proselytize or discriminate. Oh, well, never mind then. We Democrats staunchly defend the First Amendment, unlike another party we know. Especially on college campuses. And talk radio. That's why we're so psyched about bringing back the Fairness Doctrine, dontcha know?
As if Obama senses our unease, he finishes up with a partnership which rolls the ball right down our old familiar liberal alley. Partnership with Civic Institutions is, like, our middle name. Just close your eyes and imagine this: Social entrepreneurs and leading nonprofit organizations are assisting schools, lifting families out of poverty, filling health care gaps and inspiring others to lead change in their own communities. We will leave this shining city for our next post, in which we hint at the influence of William Ayers made manifest in the very platform we're examining now. When we've rested from our labors, we will make a run at the cornucopia of Investment and Funding Opportunities the platform has on offer. It's hard to believe, but there are more than twice as many of 'em as there are partnerships.
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