NDN Blog

NDN: Week In Review

Getting Specific About Economic Recovery - President-elect Obama and congressional leaders met yesterday to discuss an economic recovery proposal, a package Obama discussed in last weekend's YouTube address.

In his remarks, Obama said:

To put people back to work today and reduce our dependence on foreign oil tomorrow, we will double renewable energy production and renovate public buildings to make them more energy efficient. To build a 21st century economy, we must engage contractors across the nation to create jobs rebuilding our crumbling roads, bridges, and schools. To save not only jobs, but money and lives, we will update and computerize our health care system to cut red tape, prevent medical mistakes, and help reduce health care costs by billions of dollars each year. To make America, and our children, a success in this new global economy, we will build 21st century classrooms, labs, and libraries. And to put more money into the pockets of hardworking families, we will provide direct tax relief to 95 percent of American workers.

NDN Globalization Initiative Chair Dr. Robert Shapiro and NDN President Simon Rosenberg have long advocated creating just such a Stimulus for the Long Run and also have proposed a number of the ideas that will feature prominently in such a package, including many of those proposed by NDN Green Project Director Michael Moynihan in Accelerating the Development of a 21st Century Economy: Investing in Clean Infrastructure. Michael also wrote an essay today, Getting the Stimulus Right, in which he makes a number of suggestions for ensuring that the upcoming, record-size stimulus package is a success, including a board to oversee the vast expenditures. For more on NDN’s efforts to accelerate the development of a 21st century economy for America click here, or visit NDN’s Globalization Initiative page.

President-elect Barack Obama's Transition and Spring Training - With less than two weeks before President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration, new NDN Fellows and authors of bestseller "Millennial Makeover: MySpace, YouTube & the Future of American Politics" Morley Winograd and Mike Hais have released an important new essay, "It's a Brand New Ballgame: Presidential Transitions in a Civic Era."

As Morely and Mike wrote, "Almost before the echoes of Barack Obama's Grant Park victory speech had died, away pundits and the blogosphere began to keep score about the effectiveness of his transition. In a way, a presidential transition is like a political spring training that gives the incoming manager and his team a chance to prepare and set the tone for what amounts to a four-year long regular season. Every transition presents opportunities for an incoming Administration to put together a game plan to deliver hardball policy ideas to give the new team an early lead in the beginning of the regular season. One danger the new team faces during the transitional pre-season is being suckered by the other side into playing for keeps before opening day. With President-elect Obama’s Cabinet and White House policy team largely in place, and the maneuvering over various economic bailout options mostly behind us, it’s time for some preseason analysis of the management decisions the Obama team has made." To read the full essay, please click here.

In other "Millennial Makeover" news, the paperback edition will be released on March 15, with a new, post-election afterword by Morley and Mike. It will be a must read, so stay tuned for details. We are also very excited that "Millennial Makeover" was named one of the top 10 books of the year by Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times book critic Michiko Kakutani.

Big Challenges for the Democrats and the Republicans - In two recent essays, Simon writes about big challenges ahead for President-elect Barack Obama and the Democratic majority in Congress and also for the discredited Republicans. For the Democrats, it's a challenge of governing, of addressing incredible complex and difficult problems that will require Progress, Not Motion. For the Republicans, it's very much a political challenge. Drawing on an important essay -- On Obama, Race and the End of the Southern Strategy -- he wrote almost exactly one year ago, Simon revisits the massively discredited GOP approach to a 21st century America whose realities they have ignored or completely failed to understand. In The GOP and Magic Negros and A Long Road Back, Simon makes it clear that Democrats will be in the majority for a very long time unless Republicans get a new playbook.

Weekly Immigration Update - To find out what's new in the world of immigration reform, be sure to check out Zuraya Tapia-Alfaro's weekly immigration update. This week, she provides comments on U.S. Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid's statements on immigration reform on "Meet the Press" and analyzes the impact of Gov. Bill Richardson’s withdrawal of his nomination for U.S. Commerce Secretary on the prospects for immigration reform. She also takes a look at the prominence of immigration as an issue for Hispanics, provides examples of the need for comprehensive immigration reform, and discusses the long road back for the GOP and hate crimes.

New Tools Feature - In a quick New Tools update, "A Ball For All," I take a look at President-elect Obama's decision to host the first-ever Neighborhood Inaugural Ball.

With tickets available free or at an affordable price, it is the first official inaugural ball of its kind to be held during a presidential inauguration. A portion of tickets for this event will be set aside for District of Columbia residents. The ball will also feature a robust interactive component, including webcasting and text messaging, to link neighborhoods across the country with the new President and this premier event.

I explain why this is a smart move for Obama, both symbolically and strategically, and predicts that like the text-message VP announcement, this will help Obama down the road as he tries to build broad-based public support for his initiatives. For more new tools talk, check out the new tools section of our blog.

NDN Seeks New CFO - NDN is seeking a CFO with four years to five years of experience in financial management to direct and oversee all financial activities of the organization, including preparation of current financial reports and forecasts for economic trends and future growth. For more details, visit our jobs page or contact jobs@ndn.org for more information.

NDN Seeks Winter and Spring Interns - NDN is looking for interns to join our staff this winter and spring. If you or someone you know is interested in working at NDN during this exciting time, please refer to the internships page on our Web site or contact jobs@ndn.org for more information.

Monday Buzz: The "Magic Negro" Playbook, the GOP's Long Road Back, and More

In a recent article by Sam Stein in the Huffington Post, Simon explains why the GOP's road back to power looks to be a long one:

"The core play in the GOP playbook for 44 years has been the magic negro playbook," said Simon Rosenberg, head of Democratic organization NDN and one of the most well-versed party figures on racial politics. "They don't have another play or another playbook. Whether it is Willie Horton, or welfare queens and tax and spend, or the way they have dealt with immigration... they don't have a play in their playbook that doesn't start with the exploitation of racial divisions... They are going to have to reject 44 years of GOP politics in order to have any chance in the 21st century America."

A somewhat distorted version of Simon's argument also received some critical attention from Donald Lambro in the Washington Times.

Simon's article on the difference between motion and progress was also featured in The Hill, and Rob was quoted in Grist on getting a carbon tax right.

New Tools Update: A Ball for All

According to a release today from the Presidential Inaugural Committee,

In keeping with his commitment to make this inaugural celebration open and accessible to all Americans, President-elect Barack Obama will host the first-ever "Neighborhood Inaugural Ball" during this year's inaugural celebration. The ball will be the premier event of inauguration evening on January 20th and will take place at the Washington Convention Center.

With tickets available free or at an affordable price, it is the first official inaugural ball of its kind to be held during a presidential inauguration. A portion of tickets for this event will be set aside for District of Columbia residents. The ball will also feature a robust interactive component, including webcasting and text messaging, to link neighborhoods across the country with the new President and this premier event. The PIC will release more details soon about using technology to allow Americans who are attending neighborhood balls across the country to participate actively in this celebration.

This is a great move on President-elect Obama's part. Symbolically, it reinforces his message of creating a more open, "bottom-up" Washington; inaugural balls are usually highly exclusive and/or prohibitively expensive, and making this experience available to everyone is a great gesture. At the same time, it is also a great way to maintain and expand his technological presence and keep the momentum he built up during the campaign. Like the text-message VP announcement, this will surely help Obama down the road as he tries to build broad-based public support for his initiatives.  

Thursday New Tools Feature: The Multi Media

According to a new Deloitte survey on the state of the media, we are now living in a diverse media ecosystem where no one type of media is dominant. Unsurprisingly,

The millennial generation — ages 14 to 25 — is leading this charge now as it accesses content on all sorts of new devices and distribution platforms using a variety of pricing schemes and advertising models. The millennials consume the most media and are more likely to get entertainment from multiple media sources and applications. That’s in contrast to a few decades ago, when media was more expensive and so was consumed most often by older generations with more disposable income...

Millennials are less likely to watch TV or use conventional news sources, and "their preferred way of absorbing content is watching video on the web and handheld devices or listening to music on mobile phones and MP3 music players." The survey also found that "the iPhone has had a big impact on how users communicate, get their news, and entertain themselves. Many young people are using it as a replacement for a laptop." Within the next few years, many more affordable phones will have functionality comparable with the high-end iPhone. 

Along with the Deloitte survey, another just-released study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds that 18% of households are now cell-phone only, with migration being accelerated by the recession. 

These two studies reinforce NDN's message that understanding and adapting to this new media environment is essential for survival in this political day and age. President-elect Obama's media team understood this, and its "any and all" approach to media, advertising and outreach was in tune with Americans' media consumption. To learn more about how to use these tools effectively, check out our New Politics Institute New Tools campaign, featuring great papers like Go Mobile Now, Buy Cable, Advertise Online, Leverage Social Networks, and Reimagine Video.

NDN: Week In Review

Getting the Economy Back on Track: A Stimulus for the Long Run and Keeping People in Their Homes - In President-elect Barack Obama’s last two weekly radio and YouTube addresses, he has discussed the causes and potential solutions to the nation's current economic crisis. Last week, Obama’s address made clear that any economic stimulus package he supports should be targeted both at creating jobs now and building the basis for future prosperity.

NDN has long supported a Stimulus for the Long Run. We have argued in support of a number of ideas that the President-elect has announced will play a prominent role in such a package, including many of those advocated by NDN's Green Project Director Michael Moynihan in Accelerating the Development of a 21st Century Economy: Investing in Clean Infrastructure. As this package begins to take shape, NDN President Simon Rosenberg offered More Ideas for the Stimulus: Free Computer Training for All Americans, Dr. Rob Shapiro, Director of NDN's Globalization Initiative, warned of The Politics of Trading Recession for Inflation, and Moynihan proposed an emergency board to allocate stimulus funds expeditiously.

This Saturday, Obama’s YouTube address focused on the foundation of the financial crisis: the massive deterioration of our nation's housing market. NDN has long argued that Washington needs to make it a top priority to keep people in their homes, and Obama spoke to this issue this weekend, announcing that he has directed his economic team to develop a plan that does just that and also announcing his new Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. For more on NDN’s long-standing effort to keep people in their homes, click here.

A New Coalition and a New Map - Last Friday, NDN held a special post-election forum with NDN President Simon Rosenberg, Vice President of NDN Hispanic Programs Andres Ramirez and new NDN Fellow Morley Winograd to discuss the new 21st century coalition and Electoral College map that President-elect Obama used to win, and the implications for the future of American politics. In particular, the presentations focused on the rise of Millennials and Hispanics and the impact of these ascendant demographic groups.

In his presentation (PowerPoint available in PDF format here), Morley explained why he believes we are at the start of a new cycle of American politics, with a new "civic" generation entering public life for the first time since the 1930s. He argued that young voters' overwhelming support for President-elect Obama was not a flash in the pan, but rather an indication of the generation's political and social attitudes and beliefs -- attidutes and beliefs that, among other things, make them much more likely to self-identify as Democrats than Republicans.

Andres then gave an excellent presentation (PDF available here) on the growing clout of Latino voters. Like Millennials, Hispanics significantly increased their turnout this election cycle, and voted in huge margins for President-elect Obama. Andres showed how the Latino vote was the decisive factor in four key swing states, and argued that Latinos are also poised to make other states (even Texas!) competetive in future elections.

Finally, Simon put this all in a larger context, explaining how these developments, culminating in this truly historic election, mark the end of the Southern Strategy as a way to win presidential elections. To see pictures from the event, click here.

New Tools Feature - In an October New Tools Feature, I discussed the possibility of President-elect Obama embracing or recreating tools like WhiteHouse2.org as a way to make government more interactive and participatory. This week, Obama's transition site, Change.gov, did just that by introducing its newest feature, a section called "Open for Questions." Built using the Google Moderator platform, Open for Questions allows users to sign in, submit their own questions, and vote on other people's questions. The top-rated ones will be answered by the transition team. Click here to learn more about why I think this feature has the potential to really shake up the debate and breathe some new life into the American political process.

New NDN Job Opening - NDN is seeking a CFO with four years to five years of experience in financial management to direct and oversee all financial activities of the organization, including preparation of current financial reports and forecasts for economic trends and future growth. For more details, visit our jobs page or contact jobs@ndn.org for more information.

NDN Seeking Winter and Spring Interns - NDN is looking for interns to join our staff this winter and spring. If you or someone you know is interested in working at NDN during this exciting time, please refer to the internships page on our Web site or contact jobs@ndn.org for more information.

Weekly Immigration Update - To find out what's new in the world of immigration reform, be sure to check out Zuraya Tapia-Alfaro's weekly immigration update. This week, she continues cataloguing the latest on the election in Minnesota and hate crimes, as well news surrounding the Committee on the Judiciary, a tough week for DHS due to programs caught midstream and controversy, demographic data, and the latest reports and new tools in the area of immigration.

From the NDN YouTube Archive - Per NDN’s recent recommendations on creating an economic stimulus that works for the long run, President-elect Barack Obama appears to be crafting a package that harnesses 21st century technology to upgrade America’s work force. Last year, Rob Shapiro released a proposal entitled Tapping the Resources of America's Community Colleges: A Modest Proposal to Provide Universal Access to Computer Training. This paper proposes a simple plan to utilize the thousands of computer labs at U.S. community colleges for continuing IT education and workforce training. As a U.S. Senator, Obama endorsed this plan, and NDN urges him to include it in the upcoming economic stimulus. U.S. Rep. John Larson, the newly elected Democratic Caucus Chairman, spoke last year about this proposal.

Odds and Ends - Be sure to read Sam duPont's daily roundup of political and economic news. Also, if you're still looking for holiday gifts, pick up a copy of Millennial Makeover -- named one of the top 10 books of the year by Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times book critic Michiko Kakutani, it makes a great stocking-stuffer!

Monday Buzz: Coalitions, Maps, and More

Lots of press this week relating to the themes of NDN's event last week, "A New Coalition and a New Map." In addition to event write-ups in the DC Examiner and Blue Commonwealth, articles in the Washington Times and the Huffington Post highlighted our arguments about immigration and the Latino vote. From the Huffington Post piece by Sam Stein:

...The leading Republican presidential candidates this cycle famously shunned an African-American themed debate, much to the chagrin of moderates like Jack Kemp, who worried that the party had become too country club. The handling of immigration reform and other related issues, meanwhile, has led students of the political process -- like NDN Simon's Rosenberg -- to seriously consider the idea that Democrats will have a generational lock on the growing minority vote.

On the economic front, Rob Shapiro is quoted in Grist on the prospects of a carbon tax, and in the San Francisco Chronicle on the Bush bailout. From the Chronicle:

Paulson has run through $350 billion veering from one strategy to another. The money may indeed have prevented a banking collapse, but it has not unglued credit markets as much as expected. His rescue of banking giant Citigroup came under fire for its lack of transparency, generous terms and taxpayer assumption of close to $300 billion in debt.

"The value of these measures thus far has been to stave off a total meltdown, which we flirted with," said Robert Shapiro, former undersecretary of commerce for economic affairs in the Clinton administration and now head of Democratic think tank and advocacy group NDN's globalization initiative. Shapiro argued, however, as do many Democrats, that Paulson has failed to tackle the underlying problem of housing foreclosures that is causing banks to rein in lending.

Finally, Simon was quoted in the Financial Times and Brand Republic about how President-elect obama will continue to use his network of supporters for advocacy:

Will US president-elect Barack Obama live up to the marketing promise of his election victory and use direct channels to make government more transparent and interactive? "There has been an expectation created," concedes one person who has been advising the Obama team on its use of the internet, the Financial Times reports. Simon Rosenberg, president of NDN, a progressive think-tank, predicts that the internet will become a central medium for Obama to communicate with voters and test policy ideas. "It allows him to speak more directly to his people than ever before," he says.

How to make use of the campaign database containing 13 million email addresses, including details of 3 million donors - is the immediate question for the Obama camp. Rosenberg says the new president is likely to use it as an "advocacy network" to further his policies: "He will call on the American people to help him pass his agenda." Financial Times, 8 December 2008

A New Coalition and a New Map

Today, NDN held an event with NDN President Simon Rosenberg, Vice President of NDN Hispanic Programs Andres Ramirez, and new NDN Fellow Morley Winograd to discuss the new 21st century coalition and Electoral College map that President-elect Obama used to win, and the implications for the future of American politics. In particular, the presentations focused on the rise of Millennials and Hispanics and the impact of these ascendant demographic groups.

In his presentation (PowerPoint available in PDF format here), Morley explained why he believes we are at the start of a new cycle of American politics, with a new "civic" generation entering public life for the first time since the 1930s. He argued that young voters' overwhelming support for President-elect Obama was not a flash in the pan, but rather an indication of the generation's political and social attitudes and beliefs -- attidutes and beliefs that, among other things, make them much more likely to self-identify as Democrats than Republicans. 

Andres then gave an excellent presentation (PDF available here) on the growing clout of Latino voters. Like Millennials, Hispanics significantly increased their turnout this election cycle, and voted in huge margins for President-elect Obama. Andres showed how the Latino vote was the decisive factor in four key swing states, and argued that Latinos are also poised to make other states (even Texas!) competetive in future elections. 

Finally, Simon put this all in a larger context, explaining how these developments, culminating in this truly historic election, mark the end of the Southern Strategy as a way to win Presidential elections.   

Thursday New Tools Feature: "Open for Questions" Now Open for Business

Back in October, I discussed the possibility of President-elect Obama embracing or recreating tools like WhiteHouse2.org as a way to make government more interactive and participatory. This week, Obama's transition site, Change.gov, did just that by introducing its newest feature, a section called "Open for Questions." Built using the Google Moderator platform, Open for Questions allows users to sign in, submit their own questions, and vote on other people's questions. The top-rated ones will be answered by the transition team.

A few kinks remain to be worked out. After being up for only a couple of days, there are already more than 600,000 votes on more than 7,000 questions. However, the front page displays only the top-rated questions, except for one randomly-selected question at the top. This means that navigation of the questions is difficult, and it's easy for new questions to get quickly buried.  

Even so, this is a very promising system, and a lot of the top-rated entries are really excellent -- big, important questions that don't often get addressed on the campaign trail or in televised debates. Of course, the first thing on everyone's mind is the economy, and the first-rated question is

"What will you do to establish transparency and safeguards against waste with the rest of the Wall Street bailout money?"

But there are a lot of other interesting questions, too. A few examples from the top 20 questions that you might not have heard from George Stephanopoulos:

"What will you do to end the use of mercenary forces (ie Blackwater) by our military?"

"Will you consider legalizing marijuana so that the government can regulate it, tax it, put age limits on it, and create millions of new jobs and create a billion dollar industry right here in the U.S.?"

"Why are we rebuilding our national highway system instead of building high-speed passenger rail and revitalizing our cities and towns through the development of mass transit? Is this not key to our long-term economic and environmental well being?"

"Our agricultural policy, formed by Pres. Nixon, has resulted in our being both overfed and undernourished. Will you appoint a Secretary of Agriculture who understands that we have been operating using unsustainable/unhealthy farming practices?"

If they can get the navigation issues worked out, I think this feature has the potential to really shake up the debate and breathe some new life into the American political process. Of course, part of being a leader is prioritizing and making decisions, but I really hope that the Obama Administration works hard not just to ask for our input, but to thoughtfully answer the important questions that the American people are asking. 

NDN: Week In Review

NDN Applauds Direction of Stimulus, Auto Talks - On Saturday, President-elect Obama released more details of his economic recovery plan, which contains many ideas long advocated by NDN, including massive infrastructure investment, computers in our schools, universal connectivity to the Internet, health IT, and greening the federal government. NDN applauds this bold, timely agenda from the incoming administration and is pleased that the plan is indeed a stimulus for the long run. As this package begins to take shape, Michael Moynihan has argued that such a vast and time-sensitive distribution of money will not be able to go through the normal agency process and that a specific board should be created.

Additionally, with Congress considering the automakers' loan request, NDN Globalization Initiative Chair Dr. Robert Shapiro has argued that the bailout should happen, with strong conditions, and NDN is pleased by the progress made in the last week. Moynihan also discussed sympathy – or lack thereof – for the "car guys."

NDN Event Thursday, December 11: Forum on Latin America and the Economic Crisis - NDN is proud to host a forum to discuss "The Current Economic Crisis and Its Impact on Latin America." Joe Garcia, our good friend and collaborator and former NDN Vice President for Hispanic Programs, will moderate a panel that includes: The Honorable Luis Alberto Moreno, President of the Inter-American Development Bank; Dr. Nora Lustig, international visiting Professor at the George Washington Elliot School for International Affairs; and Mr. Paulo Sotero, the Director of the Woodrow Wilson Center's Brazil Institute.

This briefing will take place this Thursday from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Please RSVP as soon as possible. The event is open to the public, but space is limited. Refreshments will be served. For directions, maps, parking, and other information, please visit the event page.

NDN Event Friday, December 12: A New Coalition and a New Map - This Friday, NDN will be hosting a special-post election event to take a look at one of the most important outcomes of this year's election - the emergence of a new and very 21st century progressive electoral coalition, and a new and very 21st century Electoral College map. Joining NDN President Simon Rosenberg for the discussion will be Morley Winograd, new NDN fellow and co-author of Millennial Makeover, and Andres Ramirez, Vice President of NDN's Hispanic Programs.

The event will take place at NDN's offices from 12 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. Lunch will be served, and seating will be first-come, first-served. Space is limited, so please RSVP as soon as possible. For full event details, please visit the event page.

New Tools Feature - In my latest New Tools Feature, I explore how the incoming Obama administration has begun putting new tools to work to fix the U.S. healthcare system. From a Washington Post article last week on the subject:

The Obama team, which recruited about 13 million online supporters during the presidential campaign and announced its vice presidential selection via text message, is now moving to apply those tools to the earliest stages of governing.

"This is the beginning of the reinvention of what the presidency in the 21st century could be," said Simon Rosenberg, president of the center-left think tank NDN. "This will reinvent the relationship of the president to the American people in a way we probably haven't seen since FDR's use of radio in the 1930s."

Click here to read more about how Obama continues to reinvent the presidency.

NDN Seeking Winter and Spring Interns - NDN is looking for interns to join our staff this winter and spring. If you or someone you know is interested in working at NDN during this exciting period, please refer to the internships page on our Web site or contact jobs@ndn.org for more information.

NDN Breaking Through - NDN's thinking about how Obama will reinvent the presidency (see Simon's last video blog on the subject here) was featured this week on NPR and in the Guardian, the Washington Monthly, the Globe and Mail, and PopMatters. From Michael Tomasky's piece in the Guardian about how Obama will use new tools to pass healthcare reform:

The Washington Post reports today that the Obama transition team is trying "to harness its vast and sophisticated grassroots network to shape public policy" – specifically, major healthcare overhaul.

Tom Daschle, the former senator whom Obama has nominated to be his health department secretary and his healthcare reform czar, has been having lots of meetings, and other members of the team are reaching out to the nationwide network of some 13 million Americans who signed up during the campaign for email action alerts.

Very little is new under the sun. But this, friends, is new. No one has ever done it like this before. Simon Rosenberg, a sharp Democratic insider known for his enthusiasms, is dead-on accurate in describing the healthcare effort to the Post in these terms: "This is the beginning of the reinvention of what the presidency in the 21st century could be. This will reinvent the relationship of the president to the American people in a way we probably haven't seen since FDR's use of radio in the 1930s."

Rob's commentary on bailouts was featured in the Associated Press, the Hill, and the San Francisco Chronicle. From the AP article by Tom Raum:

Rob Shapiro, a top Commerce Department official in the administration of former President Bill Clinton who is on Obama's team of transition advisers, said that if these were good economic times, his view would be to let the automakers fail.

"But demand for everything has collapsed because we're in a deep recession. The movement of the auto industry from dire conditions to near-terminal conditions has been driven by the financial crisis," said Shapiro, now an official with NDN, a think tank formerly known as the New Democratic Network.

Rob also made appearances in Carbon Tax Center and MarketWatch.

Finally, Michael's essay about the need for an emergency board for the stimulus was featured in Grist.

Odds and Ends - To find out what's new in the world of immigration reform, check out Zuraya Tapia-Alfaro's weekly immigration update. Also, be sure to read Sam duPont's daily roundup of political and economic news. Finally, if you are intrigued by President-elect Obama's call to create 21st century schools by putting computers in every classroom, you may want to read NDN's 2007 paper, "A Laptop in Every Backpack."

Monday Buzz: Obama's Army, Big Three Bailout, More

NDN's thinking about how Obama will reinvent the presidency (see Simon's last video blog on the subject here) was featured this week on NPR and in the Guardian, the Washington Monthly, the Globe and Mail, and PopMatters. From Michael Tomasky's piece in the Guardian about how Obama will use new tools to pass healthcare reform:

The Washington Post reports today that the Obama transition team is trying "to harness its vast and sophisticated grassroots network to shape public policy" – specifically, major healthcare overhaul.

Tom Daschle, the former senator whom Obama has nominated to be his health department secretary and his healthcare reform czar, has been having lots of meetings, and other members of the team are reaching out to the nationwide network of some 13 million Americans who signed up during the campaign for email action alerts.

Very little is new under the sun. But this, friends, is new. No one has ever done it like this before. Simon Rosenberg, a sharp Democratic insider known for his enthusiasms, is dead-on accurate in describing the healthcare effort to the Post in these terms: "This is the beginning of the reinvention of what the presidency in the 21st century could be. This will reinvent the relationship of the president to the American people in a way we probably haven't seen since FDR's use of radio in the 1930s."

Healthcare reform always fails. But it fails not because majorities of regular people are against it. Majorities of regular people consistently support the major features of healthcare overhaul, and why wouldn't they, given that the system in America is such a disastrous muddle.

Rob's commentary on bailouts was featured in the Associated Press, the Hill, and the San Francisco Chronicle. From the AP article by Tom Raum:

Rob Shapiro, a top Commerce Department official in the administration of former President Bill Clinton who is on Obama's team of transition advisers, said that if these were good economic times, his view would be to let the automakers fail.

“But demand for everything has collapsed because we're in a deep recession. The movement of the auto industry from dire conditions to near-terminal conditions has been driven by the financial crisis,” said Shapiro, now an official with NDN, a think tank formerly known as the New Democratic Network.

Rob also made appearances in Carbon Tax Center and MarketWatch.   

Finally, Michael's essay about the need for an emergency board for the stimulus was featured in Grist.

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