This is the book that is going to completely alter the Presidential Election landscape for 2012.

If you don’t believe me, remember that in 1999 George W Bush penned and released a book, similarly entitled “A Charge to Keep”, and you’ll remember how it propelled him into the White House.

If you doubt Tim Pawlenty’s chances, just compare their cover stances.

Meantime, on the Democratic side of the aisle — or what’s always swirling to a “Democratic Side of the Aisle”, a bunch of politicians have gotten together to form an anti-political alliance, based off of buzz words from Barack Obama’s 2004 Democratic Convention speech.

Or maybe they’re rebooting the DLC, Third Way, UNITY ’08,
the Bi-Partisan Institute for Advancing Plutocracy…
something like that.

The non-partisan initiative with the slogan, “Not Left. Not Right. Forward”, is seeking to fill what the American people regularly tell pollsters is the vital center: a non-ideological space where the commitment is to getting things done. And its speakers—who ranged from Republican moderates like ex-Virginia Rep. Tom Davis to liberal Democrats like New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand—sang the praises of cooperation and compromise.

But the only Republicans present at Columbia University’s modern, square Alfred Lerner Hall seemed to be those who had recently lost primary races, such as South Carolina Rep. Bob Inglis and Delaware Rep. Mike Castle, or former Republicans like Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. No other senior elected Republican officials were in attendance, though a range of Democrats were present, some of them seeming a bit mystified by the bipartisan cast of the event, like the reliably liberal Gillibrand, and others whose clashes with unions – like Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Newark Mayor Cory Booker – have put some distance between them and their parties.

This may explain why Artur Davis did not show up, the fact that he was a losing Democratic Primary candidate and not a losing Republican Primary candidate:

For the hundreds of thousands of Alabamians who believe our state is capable of fundamentally changing the way we govern ourselves and the way we educate our children, and who desire a politics that is not anchored to special interest groups, there is a powerful case for an independent movement in time for the 2014 elections.

This movement, which would recruit and sustain candidates in targeted statewide and legislative races, has the potential to advance Alabama in ways that are impossible under the constraints of partisan politics.

Moving on with the article, and brushing aside some rhetorical bromides, some of his ideas are fine and dandy, though comes across as a bit of pissing over not winning an election.

Final sentence is interesting:

A writer once said something to the effect that a limited band of committed people can achieve change; in fact, it is the only thing that actually ever has.
Oh my gosh.  I thing I knew what happened there.  Artur Davis had the quote in mind, maybe thought he knew that Margeret Mead said it, looked it up, and saw that it’s a common mis-attribution — which leaves the question, who said it?
And did whoever said it have in mind the current Tax Deal that Unity ’08 / Third Way / No Logo is praising as way cool bi-partisan?

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