Word: grasses
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...what this country can be." It was a note struck repeatedly during his first weekend of campaigning. "This is not only about me," he would say, launching into a lengthy and crowd-deadening disquisition on how, as a former community organizer, he understood that change comes from the grass roots up, not from the top down. O.K., O.K., it's a fine sentiment. But it's wrong: this campaign is all about him. In fact, given Obama's slim political résumé and drop-dead charisma, his campaign is more candidate-driven than most. It's all about the spectacular...
...suspect that Obama's aim is to rebuild the bonfire of Howard Dean's grass-roots campaign, minus the scream. But raging infernos don't just happen. First comes courage. Dean never would have had his bonfire if he hadn't opposed the invasion of Iraq in clear, plain, inspiring English. Even then, Dean had trouble stoking the fire: the campaign was failing long before his fatal Iowa mating call. It had become a campaign cult, too enamored with itself, with too much blabber about the money being raised on the Web and not enough about issues other than Iraq...
...fair, "hope" is probably Obama's way of saying "leadership." But leadership doesn't come from the grass roots. It is about as "top down" as you can get. It is best demonstrated through courage. And despite all the rhetorical confusion, there were some early signs Obama might not do too badly in that department. At his very first Iowa town meeting, he showed the courage to tell his Democratic audience things it didn't want to hear. Asked if he would cut the Pentagon budget, he said, "Actually, you'll probably see an initial bump in military spending...
DIED. Harriett Woods, 79, Missouri politician whose relentless campaigning and razor-thin loss in a 1982 bid for the U.S. Senate, despite being overwhelmingly outspent, inspired the creation of the grass-roots fund-raising group Emily's List; of leukemia; in University City, Mo. Woods won the Democratic nomination over banker Burleigh Arnold, who had the backing of party leadership. Her high-profile candidacy, which culminated in a loss to John Danforth by 26,247 votes, sparked Emily's List--short for Early Money Is Like Yeast--which in the last election cycle raised $46 million for women candidates nationwide...
...Although the pendulum of public opinion has swung swiftly and mercilessly away from them, the doubters provide a vital service. They keep the scientists and politicians in check, and are first to smack down the loons who want to shut down fossil-fuel industries. In Australia, the dynamic in grass-roots politics and public policy is toward immediate action. A joint government-business Task Group on Emissions Trading last week said "the warning signs cannot be ignored." "While debate continues about the precise scale, consequences and costs of climate change, and the scope for long-term adaptation to global warming...