“Cities are not the problem. Cities are the
solution.”
Barack Obama at the U.S. Conference of
Mayors meeting in Miami (via CEO for Cities, h/t Kevin Stolarick).
A transcript of the speech is here; video, here.
Creative Class
The source on how we live, work and play
June 22nd, 2008 at 10:25 pm
This is prime get-to-know Barack Obama time. Cities would hold the solution and present opportunity for progress even if Obama didn’t say that word-for-word. Most mayors are non-affiliated politically, but still have ties to one party or another. Since Obama has his base, I’m not sure why he’s not reaching out to the conservative enclaves around cities that Bill Bishop wrote about in his book…. you know the counties that voted for Bush over Kerry in a landslide (+20 points) in 2004. Places outside of San Diego, L.A., Portland, Seattle, Minneapolis, Dallas and Houston are known to be conservative hotbeds. Obama is talking about redrawing the electoral map, but I think him winning is going to hinge on suburbs, rural areas in swing states and second-tier cities in traditional blue states. This is going to get even more interesting, as Hillary Clinton is going to be campaigning with Obama in the coming weeks. And you know, she’s not interested in being VP.
June 23rd, 2008 at 7:43 pm
A first step, I hope he takes this message outside the Conference of Mayors.
Whitney’s right about the suburbs. There aren’t many big conservative hotbeds outside Portland, but elections are won or lost in the swing suburban counties surrounding Portland. Washington County (Silicon Forest) is the deciding factor in most statewide races. When Oregon’s Republicans decided to follow the national party to the Right, they abandoned the independents and moderate (even liberal) Republicans who elected governors and senators like Mark Hatfield and Tom McCall. Aside from the endangered (and decent) Senator Gordon Smith, I don’t think the R’s have held a statewide office in almost two decades despite Oregon being a fairly conservative (small c) state.
June 24th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
My point is that Obama’s message on cities is correct, but is too liberal to pick up votes in conservative suburbs, where people live in them to get away from the city. Nancy Pelosi thinks Clinton “may run again,” but you have to be blind to not see that Clinton is still running. Everyone knows that right? Right now, she is thinking of ways to pick up superdelegate votes in the Senate.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/06/24/clinton-may-run-again-pelosi-says/