Carlos Rangel - Campaign Journal 2008: A Chronicle of Vision, Hope, and Glory

A Chronicle of Vision, Hope, and Glory

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Library of Congress Catalog Number: 2009026179

Any project such as this saps time and energy from other endeavors, so I am especially grateful to my wife, Dr. Esmeralda Garbi, whose patience and support allowed me to finish what started as a simple exchange of ideas in discussion and banter. Her keen insight, judgments and revisions made this a much better work. I wish to also thank Dr. Irving Louis Horowitz, who from his first glance to the partial manuscript encouraged me to turn it into a complete product, which I delivered to him on January 19, 2009, the day before the inauguration. I also appreciate the efforts of the editorial, marketing, and administrative staff of Transaction Publishers for turning the draft I handed in into the book you have in your hands, in particular Laurence Mintz and Maureen Feldman. There are countless others among family, old and new friends that supported, encouraged or otherwise assisted and helped in the making of this book. To all of them, I give my heartfelt gratitude.

Carlos J. Rangel
May 2009, Coral Springs, FL

When in February 2007 the junior senator from Illinois announced his intention to run for president of the United States of America, his announcement came in almost under the radar. With this early start, one of the most remarkable U.S. political campaign seasons got under way in earnest. It would be a campaign that transformed the way our own society sees itself. For the first time, an African American was seen as a viable candidate for president, a woman was the early favorite to win, and potentially the oldest president to be sworn in could be elected.

Over the course of just a few months from 2007 to 2008, the political passions of many were rekindled or fired up. Some of us remembered why we were enthralled about politics in the first place. My personal political experience had ranged from staffing polling places to social activism. The 2008 presidential campaign season as it unfolded motivated me to write down thoughts and observations, most of which I then forwarded as letters to friends, family members, newspaper editors, columnists, journalists, my U.S. Congress representatives, David Axelrod and AKP&D MediaSenator Barack Obamas political campaign headquartersthe DNC, Meet the Press, Morning Joe, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and others. Sometimes I sent a rough, almost ranting draft of a quick reaction to a current event, which I later edited and refined as part of the chapters included in this book. At other times I thought and wrote at length on a topic and then sent excerpts, as relevance to discussion befitted, to interested parties. The content and specifics of each chapter is not changed, however, and it represents the exact sentiments and information that I had at the time in which the original letter or thoughts were circulated. The date, indicated within each chapter section, reflects that timing.

I received specific feedback from some people, including Chuck Todd, senators Bill Nelson (D-FL) and Mel Martinez (R-FL), and Rep. Ron Klein (D-FL), and encouragement from Beatrice Rangel, chief of staff of former president of Venezuela Carlos Andrs Prez, and others for which I am grateful.

I am proud of America, of what it represents, and of its promise of social justice embedded in the Constitution. I am an ordinary citizen, a typically average modern American. Typical and average in the same way that no one is and everyone is. As an American born abroad, I have multicultural roots; I have lived in major cities and little towns across America and in foreign countries in Europe and Latin America. I graduated from a small-town public high school in upstate New York, but also went to private Catholic school in Latin America. I went to college in New York City; I studied abroad in Italy, graduated from business school in Venezuela, and attended graduate school in Los Angeles, California. I have lived and worked in several U.S. and Latin American cities. I am a modern America man, much like any other, with a deep love of country, and great expectations about its development. My thoughts, positive and negative, are framed from what I have seen in America and elsewhere.

I am troubled, as many are, by current trends allowing and fostering ignorance, poverty, and divisiveness in America. These trends seem driven by factors and players in the sole pursuit of self-interest. My economics background taught me that mans pursuit of self-interest is the driver of economic and social development, but it also taught me that greed, when taken to an extreme and left unrestrained, leads to inequality and devastation. I believe some economic revisionism may be in order at this time, given the current state of our nationfrom the economy to the culture wars.

The chapters that follow were motivated by the unique combination of events that occurred during the remarkable electoral year of 2008. Many issues made this electoral season an exceptional one: a truly diverse field of candidates; fighting two wars abroad; and being on the verge of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. These chapters describe thus, in chronological order, my personal journey through the presidential elections, starting in early March and ending in late December of 2008. The book opens with the Democratic primaries, and follows through with the campaign, the debates, and the presidential election. The topics range from key differences between candidates regarding character, values and their positions on current issues such as health care, unemployment, tax policy, trade and the economy, among others. Throughout the book, I include my own positions regarding the topics that framed the political standings of the presidential candidates. I also present opinions and suggestions regarding campaign strategyin a way, a cathartic response that helped me cope with the anxieties generated by this electoral process. The wide range of topical essays discuss the hot topics of the 2008 election such as McCains VP choice, Joe the Plumber, and the financial industry bailout, as well as other domestic and international topics that, although never a core of the electoral debates or the newscast electoral topic of the day (i.e., international trade, the war on drugs and its links to terrorism, the outside influences to U.S. policy, etc.) are so significant that they will shape the future of our nation under any presidency.