Barack Obama will be sworn in as the 44th President of the United States on Jan. 20. The election is no doubt historic — breaking an invisible barrier of race as the nation’s first black president, a voter turnout level not seen since the 1960s, the viability of women campaigning for both President and Vice-President … and, of course, the absurd amount of time and money spent for all of it.
While not embracing Obama as firmly as the rest of King County (at 70 percent), Kirkland overwhelmingly chose him in November with 65 percent of the vote in the city limits. In unincorportated Kirkland, the margin was nearly identical with 63 percent backing the winner. In fact, Sen. John McCain didn’t win a single voter precinct with a Kirkland address. Obama offered you “change” and Kirkland, never a big supporter of the 43rd president, overwhelmingly took him up on it.
Looking back, the legacy of ashes left behind by former Pres. George W. Bush will be hard to erase.
Literally. This Christmas, over 1 billion tons of coal ash burst the banks of a Tennessee containment pond, contaminating 300 acres of land and shutting down the water supply for thousands — thanks in part to his direction (or lack thereof). The government actually can do some things and do them well.
But not under President Bush.
For example, while he espoused rhetoric about education funding through the No Child Left Behind program, Kirkland’s schools formed The Lake Washington Schools Foundation and raised their own money for school supplies and vital arts programs. Or his pre-emptive, ill-advised war with Iraq, which put the health and welfare of a number of local families on the line, serving bravely in the military. Or the misguided efforts of federal authorities — emboldened by ever-stronger police powers — in trying to deport local resident Sam Malkandi on flimsy evidence and innuendo.
The mismanagement of government over the past eight years is simply too vast to quantify. It will take a Herculean effort to first and foremost restore the role of government as a competent, respected institution that can do more than one thing at the same time and do it with integrity.
We wish Pres. Obama well and hope that he’ll be able to emerge as an effective leader in the White House, despite the mess left by his predecessor.
Looking forward on a local note, another election is already right around the corner. King County Elections Director Sherril Huff is running as a candidate to retain her position in the Feb. 3 special election, along with David Irons, Julie Anne Kempf, Pam Roach, Bill Anderson and Chris Clifford. While Washington State’s new mail-in-ballot voting system takes a lot of time, we’d trade that any day for properly counting the votes. Despite missing a target to make the change-over earlier, Huff handled the transition well: She oversaw the provisional ballot process adequately and consolidated the results from polling places, absentee ballots and mail-ins to an accurate, verifiable count. While the Kirkland Reporter does not make political endorsements, we believe the 2008 election vindicated Huff after the disastrous results of Dean Logan as Director in 2004. We look forward to the election on Feb. 3.
