Rumsfeld Out - The People Have Power After All

Well, it's official. Rumsfeld will step down. Leaving aside whether Robert Gates will be an improvement or not, one lesson is perfectly clear. When the people of the country speak with the clarity and volume of this year's midterm election, even a go-it-alone president who had promised to stick with Rumsfeld until the end of his term can be encouraged to rethink.

Election 2006: What does it Mean?

The pundits are already out in force to remind us that the 2006 election was just a diversion on the road to 2008. Maybe it was, but I hope we will hold our newly elected senator from Tennessee to a higher standard than that. It is time for Tennesseans to move beyond this biannual ritual of gauging the significance and purpose of our votes according to the national relevance of our state-wide races. We need to build a discussion based on the goals that Tennesseans share. We need to discuss our commitment to education for all students. We need to discuss the condition of our natural environment. We need to consider the economic conditions of ourselves and our neighbors. We need to discuss our shared hopes and dreams as citizens of Tennessee. We have far more that unites us in Tennessee than we have that divides us, and we need to spend the next two years discussing and defining those common features rather than allowing ourselves again to be divided in a national, pundit-driven, civil war over the next presidential election.

We have begin the discussion today.