Going Up(date), World’s Best Volunteer, and Shopping Glibly No Longer
1. While things get more dire economically, Obama’s favorability numbers continue to rise as his unfavs continue to drop. The graph below is through 11/28. Barack should hope his approval rating trends like this when he is paid to work for us.
Results through November 28, 2008
2. I’d like to note, in case I’m the first, that Obama doesn’t have an official job right now and he is working his tail off. He’s probably paying for his own press conferences knowing we need a leader and the one getting the paycheck has gone AWOL, or even more AWOL than usual. Doesn’t this make Barack the ‘World’s Best Volunteer Ever?’ I hereby nominate him for that and I’ll never complain about volunteering for him again.
3. Finally, helping your country by shopping has been soundly rejected once and for all. It’s not just being spoon-fed paternalistic pablum by every administration since Jimmy Carter that is now distasteful but, in contrast to calling upon our charity and courage as Obama has, George Bush’s vapid advice ’to shop’ is now spot-lit as the poverty of purpose it has always been. Many bummer consumer stats here and one telling graph below. The silk lining may well be that we are ready to pitch in and work off our national malaise of powerlessness by powerfully working toward solving our problems. Living modestly, conserving in all things, volunteering to help ourselves, each other, our communities, the country and our fellow earthlings toward a sustainable future will be a good thing. As the great American proponent of ‘Self-Reliance’, Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “As a cure for worrying, work is better than whiskey.”
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