Topic: Presidential Campaign 2008
Mike Gravel, Ready on Day One! What Democratic candidate Mike Gravel must do to beat Clinton and Obama at their own game.by The Indepublicrat
(Centrist)
Friday, February 1, 2008
The sudden departure of John Edwards from the race leaves three major candidates on the Democratic side: Hilary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Mike Gravel, who finished 8th in the Florida primary in a field of 4 active candidates. That is, more Floridians cast their meaningless votes for candidates who were no longer running than they did for Mike Gravel who still was. Ouch!
A bit of advice for Mr. Gravel would be to emulate his rivals and perhaps one-up them. Clinton and Obama have spent the week drifting from the theme of "change for the sake of change" to an escalating verbal battle over which of them will be more ready to "lead the country on Day One."
Traditionally, Day One of a presidential term begins one minute after Noon, Eastern Time, on January 20th, which in 2009 will be a Tuesday. There's a hand-on-Bible ceremony followed by a speech, after which the new President goes to lunch with members of Congress from about 1 to 2PM. Then the President leads a parade from the Capitol Building to the White House. It's a short parade, distance-wise, but lasts until about 5:30 with the President watching most of it from a reviewing stand. Then it's time to knock off work to attend a large number of balls, schmoozing, partying, and mugging for cameras for the rest of the evening.
So essentially, Clinton and Obama are arguing about which of them is better qualified to make a speech, eat lunch, watch a parade, and go party-hopping. What the Indepublicrat want to know is which of them will be better on Day Two, putting the Executive Branch in order while nursing a massive hangover.
Mike Gravel would do well to issue a detailed Day One plan something like this:
8:00AM - President-elect has breakfast with Congress, because there's no point putting this off until later in the day. President-elect announces legislative priorities and requests six bills be ready by 5PM to be signed or vetoed as appropriate.
9:00AM - President-elect adjourns the meeting and lets Congress get to work on those bills.
9:00AM to 10:00AM - President-elect announces pending cabinet appointments and policy changes, takes questions from the media.
10:00AM to 10:30AM - Break for Power Bars and Gatorade.
10:30AM to 11:00AM President-elect joins inaugural parade already in progress. Parade route is reversed from usual, traveling from the White House to Capitol Building. Instead of leading the parade, President-elect takes the final spot much like Santa Claus on Thanksgiving Day. The parade is televised in the afternoon on tape delay.
11:00AM - 12:00PM - President-elect gives inaugural address and a short report of pre-work already done that day.
12:01PM - President is sworn in.
12:02PM - President punches in with ceremonial time card and oversized clock.
12:03PM to 5:00PM - Limo tour of each major department in the Executive Branch, giving short policy speech at each and presenting new operating guidelines where necessary.
5:00PM - President arrives at the White House, reviews the bills sent from Congress, and signs or vetoes as appropriate.
5:30PM - President knocks off first full and productive day of work. Parties ass off per expectations.
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2008 The Indepublicrat, all rights reserved.
Published: Friday, February 1, 2008
Last modified: Friday, February 1, 2008
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Paul/Gravel 08. If not, Paul/Kucinich. Mike Gravel has it worse off than any candidate on either side. He hasn't been in a debate since God knows when. You'll probably get a lot of people talking about the Fair Tax. or any other nit-picky issue. I support Gravel, I support Paul, I support Kucinich. these are the new guys of the parties, yet they're older than the most.
Mike Gravel '08! He's the only candidate that I could vote for with no reservations. I like Ron Paul but disagree with him on several issues, and Clinton, Obama, Romney, and McCain are all corrupt and Politics-as-Usual. Thanks for writing an article that portrays Gravel in a positive light (I think); he hasn't gotten very much press attention, positive or negative, recently.
Gravel has already said some of the things he would do on Day One.
One of them is to empty Guantanamo and bomb it to oblivion as soon as he is sworn in to show the world we are serious about stopping our agression, unlawful detention and torture!
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2008 The Indepublicrat, all rights reserved.