Jeff Rusinow

OK.  Enough of blogging on politics.  In fact, for the next few months, enough of blogging much on anything, while I finish my book on angel investing and the other subjects I’ve been taking notes on for the past 20 years.  So back to showing pictures; this one was taken earlier today:

In his previous 2000 campaign and throughout much of his political career, I liked John McCain.  He was indeed The Maverick, and a war hero who had sacrificed so much for our country, and I gave him a lot of credit for who he was.  Even while I could see how he was going ‘right’ during the primaries to win over the Republican base,  when McCain won the Republican nomination, I viewed him as the most tolerable of that group.

And then, things changed.

For starters, John McCain got nasty.   And very negative.

As so many in his own party noted with disapproval during the course of the campaign,  McCain’s pandering to the red-meat base extended to the ‘fringe’:  the true ‘haters’.   Both parties have them, but oh man, did Sarah Palin incite them.  The campaign had a pervasive negative vibe to it;  I watched the Republican rallies every day on the news, and the crowds that attended were in stark contrast to the multi-generational and multi-ethnic attendees of the Obama-Biden events.  The boos, the signs, the shouts from the crowd, it was often ugly and hateful.

John McCain was pummeled in 2000 in South Carolina when 527’s went to the airwaves and made outrageous accusations about his family.  He was outraged back then, and vowed to run a ‘high road’ campaign when he began the run for the Presidency in 2007.

But then he completely reneged on that, and it made him look inauthentic and feckless.   I acknowledge that both campaigns engaged in negative campaigning.   Negative ads usually work, so I get it from a ‘business model’ perspective why campaigns invest in them.  But in my mind it is indisputable that the McCain-Palin ticket went ‘over the top’.   John McCain and Sarah Palin have engaged in outrageous behavior far beyond the ‘norms’ with an end result that cheapens our democracy. “Palling around with terrorists”?   And they paid for it:  voters got turned off by the incessant negativity of the campaign.  Our nation, in 2008, is changing: the Lee Atwater-Karl Rove style of sleaze politics that was so successful in past years will not work as well in the future.

John McCain’s ‘nice’ behavior during specific points of the campaign (such as the black tie dinner in NYC, and his appearances on SNL), as well as his gracious concession speech, do not offset or make up for the deplorable, fear mongering rhetoric that took place over the last few months.  I am not in the ‘all is forgiven’ camp, now that the campaign is over.  What John McCain and Sarah Palin did on the campaign trail was disgraceful.  Putting lipstick on a pig doesn’t work for me.

There were other aspects of Senator McCain and his campaign that become increasingly troublesome:

1.  His zigzagging and erratic, self-dramatizing behavior (does anyone really think McCain truly suspended his national campaign?) seemed so out of character.  Or was it?   John McCain’s unnerving behavior during the financial crisis was extremely disappointing for so many moderate Democrats (and now, as the polls suggest, moderate Republicans) who had been held him in high regard over the years.

And beyond that, as I noted in a previous post, when you evaluate John McCain, you have to at least acknowledge the well-documented anger management issues of John McCain.  There was a fascinating short film on YouTube of previous Senators, Congressmen, generals and others who speak about Senator McCain’s anger, and his challenges to keep it in check.  It wasn’t pretty.

It is one thing to accept the fact that McCain can at times be on edge, cranky and even downright snarly.  Can we understand the post-trauma that might occur after you are a POW in the Vietnam War for over five years?  Of course, we can.  But to ignore the reality – that Sen. McCain has serious, serious anger issues—in considering him to be the leader of the free world? 

2.  There is another aspect to this:  the military experiences John McCain has had over his life have shaped the way he looks at the world.  He frames his world as a ‘fight.’  Wars are to be won and lost.  He is a ‘fighter’ in a long line of McCain fighters.  He looks at the world as good vs. evil.  I don’t have any delusions about the amount of evil in this world; but I am very drawn to the calm, firm hand of Barack Obama wanting to ‘engage’ our adversaries and work toward raising our statue in the world once again.  I believe that this new approach, in contrast to the eight years of the Bush-Cheney administration, will have a dramatic, positive impact on our foreign relations and will reduce the threats to our country.

3.  I am very much bothered by the way the Senator McCain and the Republican ticket tries to take command of the American flag and the ‘military’ and the battles that have been fought and the sacrifices that have been made to protect our freedoms.  “Putting Country First” does not mean it is OK to create a whipped up climate that instills fear and frames your opponent as “not one of us” and who “pals around with terrorists”.  And then have surrogates introduce you and your vice presidential nominee with inferences of your opponent being a terrorist or an Arab. In my view it is simply disgraceful.

From the election results, there is a real dichotomy that’s taking shape within the military ranks that I think will surprise many:  the ‘older’ military guys are huge supporters of McCain, but the ‘younger’ guys –the guys fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan—have had it, and a very significant percentage of them voted for Barack.  Feel free to check out websites like VoteVets.org and search for Congressional Report Cards, and you will see that John McCain has a remarkably mixed voting record regarding supporting military guys and their families.  With this new dynamic of no longer ‘owning’ the military vote, Republicans are in a pickle.

In closing, perhaps what is most upsetting is how many mainstream Republicans, good guys in my ‘golf’ sub-community, looked the other way and do not repudiate the tenor of the Republican campaign.  And Palin’s lack of qualifications to be Vice President.  There were so many national high profile conservatives who put the McCain-Palin scare tactics under the bus:  George Will, William Kristol, Peggy Noonan, Colin Powell, to name a few. 

For these country club, high net worth guys, some of them good friends, it was ALL ABOUT TAX  AND CAPITAL GAINS RATES.  Everything else didn’t matter.  One of my friends made an obnoxious scene at a restaurant, furious that I would be going to the Denver Democratic Convention and supporting the Obama-Biden ticket.  Nothing mattered but that his tax rates would be going up.  

Well, guess what, guys?  You guys were in the minority for your income group.

Obama won 52 percent of the vote among those with family incomes of more than $200,000 a year, according to exit polls. That’s a 17-point improvement over Kerry in 2004.

Those people saw a lot of other things about Barack’s candidacy.  It speaks volumes of his appeal as a transformational leader.

And I feel just great that I voted for him.  Karl Rove can say whatever he wants about diminishing the bigness of the Obama victory.  Despite claiming that Obama’s win was no bigger than the Bush victory in 2004, the facts tell a different story:  Barack got over 6 million more votes than Bush did.  He got 365 electoral votes.  He won over 65% of the fastest growing segment of our population, Hispanics.  He captured a huge majority of the new, younger voter.

It was the most important vote in my life. 

I must admit:  when Senator McCain chose Sarah Palin, I thought the choice was brilliant, from purely a Republican strategic standpoint.  Talk about energizing your base and bringing evangelicals into the fold!   Guys like Tim Powlenty and Mitt Romney just wouldn’t have revitalized the campaign like Palin did.  My conclusion was that McCain, coming out of the Republican Convention with an energized Party, would take the high road and engage Obama with a serious debate about policies and direction.   Palin, like all Vice Presidential candidates, would be the attack dog.  And the 527’s would swoop in and go after Barack on character and experience issues.

But then, the unthinkable happened:  we learned that Governor Palin was a last-minute pick,  and that McCain barely knew her.   Unbelievable.  And, as we now know, not properly vetted (Troopergate, for example).  You mean to tell me in the weeks leading up to the convention, McCain and his team didn’t give the proper time and attention to one of the most important decisions to be made in the campaign?   Jesus, we’re talking about running for Vice President of the United States and be backup to a 72 year old with a history of cancer.   

I completely underestimated how stupid and incompetent John McCain and his team could possibly be in choosing a running mate.  Another incriminating sign of how poorly the campaign was run.  It just initially wasn’t on my radar screen.  So here’s my takeaway of how this played out:

1.  I can appreciate how some Republicans could initially ‘like’ Sarah Palin and her homespun, folksy, perky personality.   I have been struck by how many guys in my golf sub-community who immediately took a liking to her; they think she is a very attractive, ‘hot’ woman.   It’s one thing to lust after someone, but to vote for them to be Vice President of the Untited States?  Early in the campaign, one recently said upon leaving the club, “I need to go home and see how ‘my girl’ is doing” (I know, ugh).  The whole thing was a little weird, you know?  Her rallies, while initially attended by a lot of hockey Moms, quickly morphed into predominantly  guy-heavy events.  You never saw that at a Hillary Clinton rally, did you?  That was an early tip-off that Palin was taking the ticket down.  Sarah Palin was not brought on the ticket to help with the male voter.  

Trying to appeal to the Hillary voter with Palin’s lack of substance and her positions on most social issues was insulting to that electorate and never gained traction.  Palin’s ability to alienate so many women so quickly who were initially very receptive to her candidacy was shocking.  85% of Hillary voters ended up supporting Barack at the polls.  It’s truly a case study for the ages of how not to run for a higher office in this land as a female candidate trying to appeal to fellow women.

2.  Then there’s the matter of Sarah Palin’s lack of intelligence and huge deficits in the knowledge department.  To be clear, Palin possesses excellent political ’street smarts’ and knows how to campaign in front of a partisan crowd.  But that’s not what I’m talking about:  I’m referring to the fact that Palin is just not ’smart’, much less ‘world smart’; she didn’t learn much when she went to school, and she demonstrates an overall lack of understanding of what Vice Presidents and Presidents need to have a real handle on:  stuff like foreign affairs, the Supreme Court, the economy, things like that.

Intelligence matters.  If there is anything we should have learned in the last 8 years, intelligence matters.  Conviction is not more important than analysis.   I am deeply offended by attempts to equate intelligence with elitism; as Jon Meacham points out, “it is not about educational or class credentials, but more about the pursuit of excellence where you started your life. 

Sarah Palin is completely unqualified to have run for the office of Vice President of the United States of America.  Her verb-deprived sentences often amount to word salad.  We have over 300 million people in this great land and this was the best the Republicans could come up with?

3.  I knew that Sarah Palin was going to appeal to the red meat of the Republican Party.  But what really surprised me was that she not only scorned liberal ideas (that certainly wasn’t a shocker), but scorned ideas entirely.  There is an anti-intellectualism, anti-smart vibe that permeates her entire being.  To be an attack dog in the historical sense of the word is one thing; but Sarah Palin has taken it  to an extreme, a combustible mix of “My God is Better Than Your God” and “Real America” party-damaging hatespeech.

One aspect of Palin’s incredibly divisive politics and her inciting rhetoric has not really been covered much by mainstream media:  from what I could gather from the Obama campaign, every time Palin launched an outrageous claim about Barack’s love of country, the Obama donation phone banks lit up lit up like a Christmas tree (using a metaphor, of course)!  The effect that Sarah Palin’s polarizing politics had in generating more donations for Barack Obama’s campaign was HUGE.  It was the campaign’s secret weapon to getting more money into the campaign.  Every time Sarah said one her trademark “he’s palling around with terrorists,” donations would spike.  It was the gift that kept on giving.   And now, post-election, shows no signs of stopping! 

4.  And when you can finally extract a ‘position’ from Palin’s alternate language universe, on matters like right to choose, global warming, the war in Iraq, the economy and dealing with our many crises, etc., I can safely say that they are positions that I disagree with.  As Governor, she has regularly blurred the line between church and state, traveling exclusively at taxpayer’s expense (and taking her well documented per diems) to Christian gatherings and promoting religious causes.  And supporting the Dick Cheney manic interpretation of the role of the Vice President (her words:  “we have a lot of flexibility in there” under the Constitution): Palin is way, way on the opposite side of my beliefs.  Like in the next universe.  There should never be another Vice President like Dick Cheney, who played such a major role in starting the war in Iraq, in misleading Americans about weapons of mass destruction, just to name a few items that will forever be part of his tarnished legacy.

There has been some post-election conjecture that Palin can go into a library for the next four years and bone up on her knowledge of the world, then come back as a new-and-improved candidate for 2012.  To that I say:  Bring It On!  I really mean that; it would be great to have her at the top of the ticket for 2012.  She is more polarizing to more people than Hillary ever was (and Hillary upset a lot of Republicans).  Sarah Palin has The Stink of not being smart. And having a complete lack of intellectual curiosity.  And it will be virtually impossible to get it that stink off.   Republicans would be much, much better off bringing in a uber-smart Bobby Jindal than Sarah Palin to run in 2012.  We will see.

And here is perhaps the most damning aspect about the McCain-Palin ticket.  Once you reach the conclusion (as so many key Republicans, like Colin Powell, did)  that Sarah Palin is completely unqualified, you have to ask yourself:  what does that say about the judgment of John McCain?  It’s one thing to be Sarah Palin and not have the sense to realize that running for VP is getting in way over your head;  that’s where blind ambition will lead you.  And having a limited desire to learn and the ability to achieve through pure force of personality.

But what in the hell was John McCain thinking?  Or not thinking about?

Stay tuned to my next and last post of the post-election recap.

In the weeks leading up to Election Day, I spent a fair amount of time drafting what I planned  to be an email that I was going to send to all of my friends, but particularly to my Republican friends, urging them to vote for Barack Obama and Joe Biden.  As the appeal took shape and form, it became apparent that while I did cover the bases pretty well as to why I thought Barack would be an extraordinary,  transformational leader, much of what I was writing was essentially a rant against the Republican ticket, particularly Sarah Palin.  I decided against sending the email.

But that was then and this is now.  For the next couple of posts, I want to reconstruct my recent thoughts about this past election.  I am beyond exhilarated.  I feel like I won a gold medal at the Olympics.  I feel really, truly terrific about Barack winning.  But I shake my head when I think he could have lost.

Here is what I want to say, and then I’ll move on:

1. Let me be clear:  I don’t love everything about Barack Obama.  I am disturbed about the Obama’s attending church for 20 years where Reverend Jeremiah Wright was the pastor.  I have tried to get it –tried to understand it from the perceived vantage point of a older African-American who has experienced much racism and difficulty in his life and is compelled to vent this anger while preaching—but I can’t.  Barack and Michelle should have moved to another church with a pastor who was far more tolerant and inclusive.

Other things I don’t like about Barack and the Democratic Party?  Well, people who know me well probably know that I’m about as anti-union as you can be.  Why?  For starters, can you say ‘U.S. auto industry?’  When we were in Denver at the Democratic Convention, the ‘pro-union’ presence was huge and one of the few negatives of an amazing trip, highlighted by a magical and patriotic day at Invesco Field. To cut to the chase, the whole ‘entitlement’ vibe of many Democrats, past Democratic platforms and legislation is one of the primary reasons why Republicans solidified their base over the past 20-30 years.

2.  I had a hard time deflecting the argument that he has been a ‘mediocre’ Senator.  While he had been spending a lot of time running for President in his first term as Senator, I sure wish he had more experience under his belt sponsoring legislation and getting things done.  Inexperience was a truly valid argument to make against his candidacy.  And yes, I also wish Barack had more ‘executive’ experience.  As a business guy, I just have a bias toward politicians who have had some experience in corporate mainstream with direct involvement in large budgets and four wall accountability. 

3. But now here’s the deal that closed me:  the guy is smart, smart, smart.  He surrounds himself with wicked smart people.  I got a real up-close sense of this when I went to Chicago and met with David Plouffe and Jon Carson. He works hard to gain consensus.  Barack is even-keeled, which I really like.  Measured, thoughtful and and a ‘big tent’ guy, something we haven’t seen in the past eight years with our current President.  As I was getting to know people in the campaign, I never got the sense he was going to go ‘left’ if he won; to the contrary, I keep hearing how far left liberals are going to be somewhat disappointed with how ‘moderate’ the Obama administration is going to be.   Barack oversaw the most impressive, organized, unbelievable presidential campaign in the history of the United States.  It competely blew away the competition.  He recognized the value of organizing communities.  To those who ridiculed his previous roles as a community organizer: you guys are idiots. Take back what you said and re-group for 2012!  You embarrassed yourselves. 

4.  And then there’s the ‘magic’ when you hear him speak in person, like we did on four separate occasions during the campaign:  Austin, Denver, Milwaukee, Chicago.  For starters, the crowds are multi-generational and multi-ethnic.  It was so fundamentally different than the competition.  It just makes you proud to be part of the movement.  And to be an American.  I’ve never experienced anything quite like this in my life. This guy is will be an amazing, transformational leader.  He will lift our stature in the world and we will all benefit from it.  

5.  If you took the time to really, truly get into Barack’s website and read about his positions, you will see that they were extremely well presented  and  thought out.  Obviously I was attracted to most of his positions; but this is not the point I am trying to make.  Barack is a very thoughtful, articulate guy who really understands what’s going on in the world.  He truly has a worldly view.  Intelligence and temperament matters.

6.  From all accounts from people who know Barack, he posseses extraordinary persuasion skills.  If you stop and really listen to him, he is far more of an accomodater.  Unlike what we’ve had the past eight years, Barack is willing to compromise.  He reaches out to find middle ground.  Not ‘Sean Hannity’ middle ground, mind you, but ‘America’ middle ground.

7.  Not to be underestimated, particularly in light of who ran for VP on the other side:  I am at complete peace with Joe Biden being President of the United States should the need, God forbid, arise.

8.  And perhaps most exciting to me about Barack being President?  I am deeply drawn by Barack Obama’s call for change and his immense faith in the power of ideas.  And the possible.  This attraction is what separates Dems from Republicans.  Republicans just don’t get the concept of the power of ideas.  They start from a place that’s more like “Show me the money.”

OK, this is why I am so fired up about Barack becoming our next President.  Next:  why I was so fired up about Sarah Palin not becoming our next Vice President.

Back in May, I blogged about a great new political website FiveThirtyEight.com.  In the months leading up to last week’s historic election, it became one of the most popular sites for political junkies like me.  Nate Silver, and later his fellow blogger Sean Quinn, did an absolutely outstanding job aggregating data from all the polls and putting it through their ‘black box’ of regression analysis and God knows what else, in NEAR REAL TIME.  By state analysis.  Electoral Vote win percentages. Popular Vote projections.  FiveThirtyEight.com helped me keep my sanity as we got closer and closer to the election.

And beyond the number crunching, which in itself was incredibly fascinating and generally reassuring to us Barack supporters, these guys went out in the field, driving over 10,000 miles, to visit (and photograph with the help of Brett Marty) both the McCain and Obama ground games.  The disparity was startling (McCain offices were often empty of people or simply closed, the Obama offices were vibrant and electric, with an amazing cross-section of multi-ethnic, multi-generation supporters).  I get choked up just reliving this as I type this.  There was nothing like this going on anywhere else in the media, which in retrospect, was crazy.  The ground game turned out to be huge, and FiveThirtyEight.com was really the only place that really got out there and recorded it on film and by regularly reporting on it.

Nate slam-dunked the the projections.  He analysis, in a word, was FANTASTIC.  When you go state-by-state, it’s just incredible how close his projections were to the actual vote.  Within 1% or right on the money in close states like FL, MO, NH, OH, PA.  Some of the redder states ended up more red than he projected and the bluer states ended up more blue than he thought, but with the close ones, he was on it.  Now mind you, going into this I was nervous about supposed ‘tightening’ and uncertainty about whether kids would show up, the impact on early voting, etc..  I believed you, Nate, but I’ve seen the prize get snatched away before.  But in retrospect, Nate had it all figured out.  Amazing.  

Nate, if you do this again next election, I will worry much, much less about whether you are 99% or 70% accurate.  

You even had Virginia, my home state, nailed for a 5.6% Obama margin win.  

Thank you, Nate Silver, for what you did, and keeping the analysis flowing in a way that put all the major news networks to shame.  Best wishes for your next big gig; my hunch is that it will be very impressive.

OK, this is a belated post, but I’m back, after taking a hiatus in October and early November while consumed with the presidential election.

On Halloween night, we visited Cedarburg, Wisconsin, where a friend I used to work with when I was at Kohl’s moonlights as a one-man band, on his drums and singing backup to the playing of one of the best dance song lists I have ever heard.  When you approach the bar from outside, and you’re hearing the Rolling Stones’ ‘Brown Sugar’, it actually sounds ‘live’.  Really great.  Here are pics from the night:

My friend Sam Fried and I played the three courses at Bandon Dunes in Oregon during the week of September 29.  First up:  Bandon Trails, the newest course.  87 off the greens.  Great course, several holes reminded me of Pine Valley:

Next up, Bandon Dunes, the first one, which opened in 1999.  Back then, Golf Digest rated the top new upscale public courses in the U.S.:  Bandon Dunes was ranked #1 and Whistling Straights in Wisconsin was ranked #2.  Here is my take on this:  I’ve played Whistling Straights about 8 times in weather both good and bad and have never shot better than a 92.  In very decent weather, I shot an 82 at Bandon Dunes, three shots within my all-time career low score on any golf course (I’m a 13 handicap).  Look, my caddie Harry was terrific and clearly helped me with that score.  But Bandon Dunes is much, much easier than Whistling Straights.  There are usually huge landing areas, not nearly as much sand to deal with, and fewer shifts in elevation to deal with.  Looking out over the Pacific Ocean while playing golf is an amazing experience.  

Next day:  Pacific Dunes; like Bandon Dunes, on the ocean.  The course is terrific, and very challenging.  The weather was classic ‘links’ rainy/windy (sustained 30 mph), and my score reflected it:  102 from the greens!

I’m having trouble putting another set of photos in this post without screwing things up so check my next post for pics of Bandon Dunes and Pacific Trails.

This past Friday, on the day of the first debate between Barack Obama and John McCain,  I had an extraordinary opportunity to meet with Joe Biden at The Pfister Hotel while he was visiting Milwaukee (more on this later):

Today I travelled to Chicago and  attended briefings and Q & A’s with some senior staffers with the campaign:

David Plouffe (Campaign Manager); Jon Carson (National Field Director); Pete Giangreco (Polling & Media Strategist); Austan Goolsbee (Senior Economic Advisor).  I’m not going to detail what was said, but all I’ll say is:  1. Barrack has surrounded himself with some very smart people; 2. their attention to the field/ground game is extremely impressive; it’s sort of a ’secret weapon’ that may very well not being fully covered in current polling numbers; and  3.  they’re calm and ready for the twists and turns of the campaign.

Later in the day we went to The Standard Club and attended a reception where Barack spoke.  Here are pics from that event: