WHILE IT WOULD BE GREAT IF HE EMULATED THE MAYOR...:

Want to See Obama’s Future? Take a Look at Cory Booker.: Newark Mayor Corey Booker is converting campaign inspiration into capable governance. (Ellis Cose, May 17, 2010, Newsweek)

Booker's success at turning inspirational rhetoric into effective governance might well provide something of a template for Obama. And last week, as Booker basked in the afterglow of his recent reelection for a second term, I asked him to reflect on what he has done. "Four years ago, I was really selling … the rather ephemeral qualities of hope and possibility. 'Believe in me. Believe in us.' And those are all important things," he said. "But when you have nothing to back it up with, it made it very difficult … Now I can talk not just about what we're going to do, but point to examples of what we've done."

He has plenty to boast about, as The Star-Ledger, Newark's newspaper, pointed out in endorsing him: "Under Booker, gun violence in Newark has been cut in half. The city payroll has shrunk by 17 percent. New parks have sprouted up across the city. The Housing Authority has been brought back from the dead, and the pace of new construction of affordable housing has picked up. New programs have helped hundreds of released prisoners find jobs, arranged financing for small businesses and helped families combat foreclosure. The list of innovative programs goes on."

...does anyone really think the UR is going to be running on a record of cutting the federal workforce be nearly a 5th?

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 17, 2010 8:18 PM