Some days, the Universe just seems to smile on you; serendipity surrounds you and you receive an abundance of blessings for no apparent reason at all. Hopefully, you have experienced those kinds of days, the kind when everything just seems to go your way. If you have not, I sincerely hope you are fortunate enough to enjoy one soon.
I was blessed with such a day during YearlyKos on Saturday, August 4th. Oh, Thursday and Friday had been pretty magical, no doubt about it--meeting up with friends old and new, immersed in political talk, wicked good snark, and banding together with The Caucus out on the patio. So maybe I was just open to it, who knows.
Whatever the reason or randomness of it, I'll always be grateful for that day.
The Caucus had toiled late into the night on the preceeding Friday, not adjourning until well into the wee hours of the morning after discussing Very Important Issues Affecting The Future Of Our Great Nation. We were tireless in our efforts to restore democracy and the rule of law. Kudos and ♥ to all fellow Caucus goers out there, I enjoyed our time together more than I can ever express.
But I digress. My dear friend maeve, recent first-time diarist who is also known as Queen of the Faeries, agreed to check on whether the Congressional Leadership Forum would be a go or not and then wake me in time for a quick shower if it was or let me sleep in a bit if not, did just that, and I was treated to an extra hour of restorative, blissful sleep (thank you, dear maeve!).
So I arrived at the Progressive Book Club's booth in time to enjoy a rather leisurely chat with my favorite media hero, David Brock about the disingenous Nedra Pickler and other nefarious correspondents on the payroll of the AP, shake his hand, congratulate him on his commitment to exposing the right-wing noise machine, and ask him for a job (he told me to send him my resume!).
On my way back to meet up with my friends in the Grand Ballroom, I was fortunate enough to obtain a wristband for the Hillary Clinton breakout session (my wristband was for the Obama session, and with her rescheduling of the event, I was thus able to attend both. Score! Thank you to the kind soul who provided me with this!).
Clinton's breakout was an extraordinary experience for me, having long admired her and having just met with Mr. Brock, who had been, back in the day, one of my chief media villans whose work I would debunk over and over when people would point me to articles attacking her. I remember pointing them to the byline of whatever attack piece and dismissing attacks as, "consider the source. This article was written by David Brock. He is a GOP propagandist hack." And now here I was, having just visited with Mr. Brock, sitting in a room to hear what Senator Clinton had to say. Brain explosion, right there!
On the way out of the breakout, the fact that deep change is, indeed, possible had me grinning from ear to ear.
Next stop: Front row seating at the Presidential Leadership Forum, where our own mcjoan did an absolutely outstanding job co-moderating with Matt Bai and Jeffrey Feldman. I cheered, I jeered, I hissed, I sang "Happy Birthday". Fantastic!
Next stop, the Obama breakout session. I was really looking forward to this. The session was packed, and when Senator Obama appeared, he received another rousing greeting of the "Happy Birthday" song, apparently delivered as a round, albeit probably not by design.
Obama's opening remarks were very brief, and he spent the bulk of his time taking questions. I was impressed with the thoughtfulness and thoroughness of his answers, and struck once again at how he actually answers the questions put to him, rather than change the question to give an answer he would prefer to give, which is such a common political tactic.
Naturally, in between answers, nearly every hand in the room would shoot up, including mine. There is just one question I would like to ask each of our Presidential candidates, and I was a bit shocked when Senator Obama called on little 'ol me (thanks, potus2020, for your bright smile and pointing at me and maeve so enthusiastically! I mean, I almost never get called on!).
My question is pretty simple (paraphrasing):
Given the unprecedented amount of power the current administration has claimed the President is authorized to wield, what will you do to limit your own power and restore co-equal branches of government?
Now, I have to paraphrase because, even given all of the dang video cameras in the room, I cannot find video of it anywhere on the world-wide web! There is one video that includes an edited version of Senator Obama's answer, which I will include here. His answer begins at around 6:02 in the video, but you should watch the whole thing, it's nicely done. Thanks to Veracifier for putting it together. (potus2020 and I speculated that maybe my question would be shown on C-Span, and we had a good laugh about what came to be the title of this diary.)
Obama answered the question beautifully. One of the most important parts of his answer was:
(I will) call in my Attorney General and say that I want a thorough review of every single executive action that this President has taken, because most of the egregious stuff that has been going on has been happening outside of legislation...
A lot of this is going to depend on the quality of my Attorney General, so let me just give you my philosophy, because I voted against Alberto Gonzales. Because it was clear that he saw his role as being the President's lawyer. Well, that's not the Attorney General's job. The Attorney General's job is to be the People's lawyer, and tell the President, "I'm sorry, Mr. President, but you can't do that. You can't lock up people without charges. You can't authorize renditions." So, part of the task is to make sure we have a Justice Department and an Attorney General that is respectful of the rule of law.
He nailed it right there, but Obama also discussed the importance of the ethics reform package he introduced with Senator Feingold last January and his ideas on how to go about addressing the problem of corruption in Washington DC, including his promise to implement a ban on anyone who works for an Obama adminstration from taking a job as a lobbyist for the duration of an Obama administration.
An altogether satisfyling answer. As I said, the video is edited pretty heavily, but it shows some of the main points:
Finally, it was off to the Teamsters' barbeque. By this time I am so amazed at the day, that I am describing it to our own, lovely cosmic debris, who patiently listened to my story, flashed her wonderful, welcoming smile, and gifted me with the amazing Art In A Lberal Frame, which I had sooooo wanted to buy, but my budget was already way in the red. Thank you from the bottom of my heart, cosmis debris, I love this little book, and you did a fantastic job editing it!
Lake Michigan was glistening, the Canadian Geese were flying by in formation, the Caucus was calling another meeting.
Does a day get any better than that?