Last week, regardless of what side you were on, was one we won’t soon forget. When is the last time you saw people standing in crowds cheering and weeping over the election of a new leader? I remember the feeling when Clinton was elected, the feeling of sheer optimism that here we had this smart, sharp, young new President, but I think that pales in comparison to the feeling that prevailed last Tuesday. I was watching inside a bar, and at the Sharks game, and here was an undeniable buzz I hadn’t heard or seen before. Now what happens from here remains to be seen.
What I find so interesting is that Obama has already been caught making two “missteps” in his comments. One about getting a “mutt” as a dog (“like me,” he said), and the other about not having a séance, like Nancy Reagan. Has he had to watch every word that has come out of his mouth so closely the past two years that he is finally without worry it will cost him the election, or is this the true Obama that we are seeing?
On the local level, BART still is facing an uphill battle, and the question is, with our economy being as it is and the fear of the bad times to come, can anything that raises taxes be approved in the next 3-5 years? I am scared that the little progress we make in this City is going to come to a complete standstill.
All we can do now is ask, “Now What?” and reticently wait for the answer.
I was mildly annoyed that the Sharks were playing during the election coverage. I already had to balance my viewing between a couple debates and Earthquakes games last month. We sports fans are not all apathetic to serious matters in this world.
As for BART, I wouldn’t call it a lack of progress. People here do not object to public transit. You should be glad that they are savvy enough to be aware of VTA incompetence and potential budget miscalculations. A huge misstep now would be to spend our old Measure A money on a half-assed BART line to Milpitas or Berryessa that serves pretty much nobody going anywhere.
I don’t understand why people would consider the mutt comment a misstep. I think it simply shows a guy who is comfortable in his own skin and didn’t strike me as out of character.
The seance remark was inappropriate, though, and he rightlfully appologized to Nancy Reagan. It was just a strange thing to say, especially from someone who will want to protect his own wife and daughters from becomeing the butt of political jokes while he is in the white house.
Who said that there can be no progress without tax increases? Local government is hardly a model of pure efficiency- it’s possible to make progress with existing revenues.
If Measure B does not pass, it would be a good time for some “outside the box” thinking. For example, the high speed rail system, which did pass, could incorporate an East Bay-South Bay component. Of course, this would work better if the CA HSR authority would think straight and route the damn thing over Altamont instead of Pacheco. If BART is extended, it should stop at the county line so that VTA does not have to pay the operating fee to BART. Or something could be built on the Bay Rail’s Caltrain Metro East route, even if it’s BART it will be more cost effective than the current poorly planned route. Unfortunately, all they’re looking at is a shorter version of the Barryessa route:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/11/11/BA0D141R9B.DTL&hw=BART&sn=001&sc=1000
mutts, seances…most people say stupid things sometimes. We are all still human, aren’t we?
But the press picks up on every little foible, misstep, miscue, faux pas and blows it all out of proportion, and the PC freaks just go all gaga over every little misstatement.
In a state where chickens noiw have rights that people don’t, this incessant nitpicking is becoming SOOOO tiresome! Can’t we just shoot all the thin-skinned/PC jackoffs who get SOOO upset over every little thing, and find some racial/culturally biased overtone in every damn thing? Guess Not…we’ll just have to put up with these people with no lives. I guess thatt’s just another form of diversity that we’re all supposed to embrace.
The BART vote was a victory. Hopefully someone learned that you can’t guarantee a voter win with flowery ‘Think of the children’ rhetoric while hiding your budget projections from the public.
If anything, it was dismaying that the vote came that close while so much information was being withheld.