Getting the Campaign on Track - What We Need To Do ...

The Republican Convention was very well done.  After shamelessly belittling John Kerry's service on the rivers of Vietnam at their previous convention, the Republican machine presented Admiral's McCain's son's worst plane crash and the harrowing capture and torture that ensued as the one reason America needs to vote for him.  

I frankly don't know if Joe and I will beat the Republican Media Machine in November.  I know that the American people want change and I know that Joe and I can lead the country through that change, but I also know this country has been convinced before to buy a mirage draped in a Republican flag.  I would like to believe that the Republican machine has weakened since it kept a majority of Americans believing that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and that Saddam was complicit in 9/11.  Yet today, when most Americans believe Governor Palin actually did sell a state plane on eBay, and they believe she actually returned rather than spend more than $200 million dollars authorized for a bridge to nowhere, it's clear the Republican Media Machine has only strengthened.

As I look ahead to the next seven weeks, I know that I must respond to the Republicans.  I must try to cut through the fog of lies and get my message to America.  But I don't believe that it is good for the Campaign or America that another presidential election be 'focused on' and 'driven by' Republican tricks.  

I started this journey because I wanted to serve.  But if I run the 'tried and true' campaign, the Republican machine will do what it does best, they will control the media and win the hearts and minds of this country.  Two years later, the country will realize that it squandered another opportunity to throw the bums out.  Concerned citizens will try to effect change but many more will be subject to a paralysis of fear caused by a steady diet of Rovemeal for breakfast, lunch and dinner dished out at Fox News.

So I've decided to change the campaign, reducing or curtailing many traditional activities and focusing the majority of activity on service, the kind of change oriented service I want to be responsible for whether I am in the White House or at home in Chicago.

For the traditional campaign, Joe and I will cut our campaign stops in half.  We will travel fewer days and make fewer stops.  Those stops will be less filled with stump speeches and more focused on sustaining an open dialog about our activities that will drive real change.

We will make improvements on one area in the traditional campaign, advertising.  It's time to change our advertising firm and better tell our story.  I would like to eliminate all commercials that look like PowerPoint presentations and change those where a narrator talks about John McCain.  We have millions of volunteers who can tell their story about how an effective engine for change (such as what we've created in this campaign) can and and will work.  We need to put those Americans, real people, on the air.   When we need to address Republican lies, I think there are more effective videos on YouTube than our commercials.  I frankly don't know if anyone can effectively show John McCain's opposing truths, Republican unethical activity or that Party's steady stream of deceit without soiling themselves.   We shouldn't tell America what they should think, but I think we can do a better job of showing the truth.

But I would like to focus less on traditional campaigning.   It is difficult for many citizens to envision real change.  Everything they see politicians do on television is just too familiar.  They know that nothing politicians say will lead to action, ... without some proof that we can begin that action.

So starting in two weeks, the campaign will curtail a significant portion of its traditional campaigning and begin an effort (via volunteers and internet communications) to ignite the kind of bottom up change we've been speaking of.  

To begin, we would convert three of our campaign offices into 7 day a week policy centers.  These centers would form the basis for an 'engine for change', efforts based outside of Washington that would continue and grow regardless of the outcome of the election.

It is clear that as citizens of the United States, we need to make immediate strides forward in the areas of business growth, economic policy, and energy.   So I would like to form three groups to directly address these issues:

Scranton Project - When is the last time you heard or read "Buy America".  Don't you think that's odd, considering that unless this country highly competitive in designing, building and buying products, there won't be job growth?  Understand that I am not saying that the United States should not fully participate in the global economy.  To the contrary, I am saying that to be in that market, we must produce as much as we consume.  If we don't start making and buying more in America, we won't be able to pay our bills for what we've already purchased from China. 

Based in Scranton, PA, this team would begin to vet the best ideas for restoring America's competitive position in new and existing markets in the world.   Using donor funds, the Project would promote the best ideas and efforts of individuals, small and large companies to improve and expand product design and manufacturing in America.

Chicago Project - The Fannie Mae, Freddy Mac meltdown is part of a larger debt problem facing this country.  It's an issue that if not addressed will threaten not only our nation's financial health but its national security.   The Chicago Project would address issues caused by our 10 trillion in federal debt, 10 trillion in housing debt and nearly 4 trillion in consumer debt.   The goal would be to develop fiscal policy that encourages growth and business development while limiting expenditures that don't improve infrastructure needed for growth.

Houston Project -  Our dependence on foreign oil impedes the country's progress on several fronts, including increasing the cost of business, increasing the national debt and exposing us to increased threats to national security.  This team would work with individuals, small and large companies to promote policy, ideas and new directions in addressing energy needs.  The project would initially focus on near and mid-term solutions that encourage new products that drive energy efficiency.   This would provide two very practical and immediate benefits:  1.  These new solutions would be developed and largely built here in America, expanding jobs and helping our economy and  2.  This effort would make it possible to significantly reduce the energy consumption in cars, homes and businesses and thus extending the life of known energy reserves.  This would provide more time to develop longer term solutions.

I hope you will join me in our effort to create an Engine for Change.

Signed, Fake Barak

On Balance ... no "Up the Middle", go hard right AND hard left

The genius of America comes from balance.

Not the high wire act of finding a gentle path between left and right,

But the full court press that supports both:

The destructive power of Innovation,
that facilitates new products even when they have the adverse effect of annihilating entire markets selling the prior best, and

The constructive power of Standardization and Building a Sustainable National Infrastructure,
that will leverage the full strength of innovation and the market to ensure jobs, clean water, affordable food and first class transportation and communications.

It is only in fully supporting both ... that America will be able rediscover its destiny as the last, best hope for mankind.

On Economic Growth ... what it is about the American System that made sustained growth possible

America's founders ... Washington, Hamilton, Adams, Jefferson, Franklin, and Madison in balancing their own political objectives, created something greater than any of their individual ambitions, an enduring system for prosperity.  

It is a system that for the first time enabled men and women to believe it rational to strive for something better with each generation ... rather than fear someone with power would ultimately take all that they have earned.

It is a system that provides for a free people by enabling all to have access to free markets that make it much easier (than before America) for people to efficiently sustain themselves and prosper.

Here are the fundamentals of the American System.  

1. Banking, that the pig farmer can trust to store his coins
vs. fearing that a thief, land owner, earl or king might seize it to fund his ambitions

2. Intellectual Property Law that enables the truck builder to protect his design
vs. fearing it being stolen by a competitor or the state

3. Employment Rights that force the truck company to profit by innovation
vs. taking more from labor as did the barons and earls of the past

4. Contract Law that enables manufacturers, suppliers, employers and employees to set clear and binding terms
vs. a system of bribery, cronyism and patronage

5. Honest Judges that enable businesses and individuals to resolve disputes
vs. resorting to violence that might end a business or a life

6. Property Law and Law Enforcement that enables successful businesses and individuals to accumulate wealth that can be invested in new businesses and homes
vs. the poor periodically burning and looting the very wealth that provides jobs

7. Monetary Systems that enable each State's market to dynamically set a value for all goods and services and enable a Global Market to dynamically set valuations for each State's Market
vs. trade being limited because of the inflexibility of currency.

That American System is the difference between poverty and wealth,
It is the difference that today separates 

countries that have fully stocked supermarkets and trains that run on time and 

countries that don't.

On Making Money ... in a Global Market

America's greatest innovation was creating an infrastructure for making money.

Before America, everyone could transfer one form of money (i.e. 20 pigs) into another form (i.e. 20 gold coins), but economies rarely grew.

America made it easier than ever before to grow or make money i.e.

▪ the pig farmer saves his coins in a bank
▪ the bank loans half of his gold coins to a man hoping to build a new truck factory
▪ the truck factory pays wages and buys supplies for manufacturing
▪ the factory workers buy bacon and clothes
▪ the bank loans more of the pig farmer's money to a truck parts supplier
▪ the suppliers buy shipping services and pay workers
▪ the trucks made by the factory drive a need to build new roads
▪ the taxes paid by the farmer, the truck company, the bank, the shipping company and the equipment suppliers pay wages for road workers and supplies for construction
▪ the shipping companies buy trucks from the truck company
▪ the shipping company uses the trucks and new roads to carry more freight at lower cost
▪ the truck company and the shipping company repay their loans to the bank with interest
▪ the bank pays interest to the pig farmer
▪ some successful employees from the truck company leave and start a car company
▪ the workers of all the companies buy more bacon, clothes and houses and have children who drive a need for schools, construction, stores, more roads and cars,
▪ all the companies use the roads to pay less for shipping, supplies and to get more employees to work

in short, the farmer is able to sell to more customers at lower cost,
those that have creative ideas are able invest their time, money, ideas and effort to start companies, hire workers, sell products and gain a return (wealth) on their investment
by using money saved to support the creation of new wealth, the economy grows
money is made at every level.

On Balance ... Creative Sprit and Government

The ultimate genius of America is balance.

Balance between
its philosophies,
its agencies of power,
its parties.

Oddly enough, that genius is sometimes sustained by the ignorance of its dominant political parties.

It's the ignorance that makes the party on the right always believe three competing companies building subways in New York City is a good thing,
Thinking that the market will ensure transportation for all in the city.

It's the ignorance the makes the party on the left that think companies that compete to build subways is pure folly,
Thinking that the government is the best agent to provide infrastructure that can enable many more companies to thrive and grow,
Using those subways to feed more "sensible" competition above street level.

This ignorance, that both parties often possess ... is that success stories in America often have two factors.

The first is the creative spirit of man ...
In that America empowers bold people to create bigger and better things (i.e. to develop and sell new trains).
That only some innovators will succeed in any market.
That fewer still will come to dominate a market and
Be defined by the People of America as winner for a day (i.e. iPod).

The second is that until there was an American government, the creative power of man was never free. That is America was first and best in creating
A government where man declared himself free not to follow any king or company,
A government that enabled man to create, own and profit from property,
A government that ultimately declared no man or woman property,
A government that was empowered by its people to enforce real fairness of competition,
such that whomever built yesterday's winning product, would never gain the power to impede the invention or inventor of tomorrow's vital solution.

On Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand, was an imperfect woman.

She smoked too much,
defined a code of morality that frankly scares me, and
denied value in faith in anything beyond weak and fragile man.

But the one concept central to her thought and philosophy,
That the creative power of man is the key to the success of America and ultimately mankind ...

Is more right than every combined wrong in her tortured life.

On Leadership ... a true Leader Knows When to Quit

The mark of a great leader, be it George Washington or Nelson Mandela,
Is that at the peak of their power,
They define themselves as subjects of the democratic institutions they helped create.

Thus, when the prescribed time to relinquish all power comes,
They do just that, relinquish it ... even when most demand that they stay.
Such is it that democracy, and the institutions they helped create to sustain that democracy,
Are set forever supreme above the will and authority of any man or woman."