I know you’re busy, stretched in a dozen different directions, but don’t let this amazing time of historical transformation pass you. Regardless of your political affiliation or leanings you need to absorb the impact that we are living in probably the most transformative time in American politics and government.

Think about what has happened in the last two years. This kind of change was unimaginable just a few years ago.

It all started with the presidential election, a uniquely historic event in a number of ways that will affect politics for many years to come. It’s not important who you voted for or if you voted at all. I don’t believe we have ever had an election like it. Consider the extraordinary moments:

• Hillary Clinton was an absolute shoe-in up until the winter of 2007/08

• John McCain was written off as a primary candidate in the summer of 2007 and again as a presidential candidate in the summer of 2008
• Barack Obama was not only the first electable African-American candidate, but also:
  • He came from nowhere with little experience and no strong party backing and captured the imagination and fervor of an exploding electoral base

  • He ran what I believe was the most effective campaign we have ever witnessed by utilizing the Internet to its fullest and by preaching the mantra of “change” that you could interpret any way you wanted
  • The campaign talked only in generalities with very few specifics. It worked unlike most campaigns in my lifetime. We probably knew less about how he might govern than any other elected president
• Then there was Sarah Palin. Talk about coming out of the blue. Forget whether you agree with her politics or her qualifications, she electrified the sinking campaign of John McCain and energized a huge supportive base of support like no one else who has ever popped up on the horizon

What an election cycle—wow!

Now we have finished the traditional first 100 days and it has been nothing like the first 100 days we have ever seen before. It’s unbelievable. Think about it:

• Obama is still campaigning. He is everywhere, every day, preaching his message with his convincing personality. Again and again we hear plans sketched in broad generalities with few or no specifics.

  There have been three “press conferences” in the first 100 days—More than any previous president has held. But they have not been press conferences as we have ever seen before. They have been carefully orchestrated opportunities for the president to expand. Each conference has had 13 questions from pre-selected correspondents in about 45 minutes. In other “press conferences” there probably would have been 30 or more questions in 45 minutes in what would have seemed a lot more like a free for all.

• The Obama White House has sketched out the most far-reaching significant programs to transform education, energy and health insurance. They have come with requests for huge funding without a real plan.

  In effect they have said to Congress, pass our funding requests and then you write a plan. Without the pressing economic crisis they probably could not have gotten away with this approach. The have cleverly portrayed these proposals as a way to help our long-term economic growth.

• The administration addressed the current economic crisis in the housing debacle, the moribund banking industry and the big three auto makers, and their approach has been pretty much the same: Propose broad principles of reform, throw a ton of money at it (the “Disneyland Solution”) and work out the details later.

  Obama’s Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, has said what appears to be the guiding principle of this administration so far, “never let the opportunity of a crisis pass you by.”

• In the process of all of this activity our president has taken on the presence of a rock star and created more adulation in the U.S. and all over the world than we have ever seen or probably ever will again. It is magical and it has served him well.

You may or may not agree with all this administration is trying to do, but it is transformative. As Katy Kay of the BBC said, “They are rearranging the furniture of government.”

We are witnesses to the most amazing period of historical transformation in our history. Don’t be too busy to let it pass you by.

What do you think?

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