As you might have heard, Vice Presidential nominee Joe Biden rides the train from DC to Delaware every night and is a huge proponent of trains. That prompted Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) to accuse Obama and Biden of this (OneNewsNow via Swing State Project):
“This is their agenda,” Bachmann states bluntly. “I know it is hard to believe, it’s hard to fathom — but this is ‘mission accomplished’ for them,” she asserts. “They want Americans to take transit and move to the inner cities. They want Americans to move to the urban core, live in tenements, [and] take light rail to their government jobs. That’s their vision for America.”
I think she’s trying to scare us, but besides the tenements and being forced into government jobs, this vision sounds pretty damn great to me. In fact, I think it’s what the East Bay should be aiming for. Let’s develop our downtown areas, help people move from the car-dependent suburban peripheries, and invest more money in transit.
And Oakland is poised to be a center of this vision. With Rebecca Kaplan spearheading a transit oriented vision for Oakland, State Senator Steinberg leading the senate, and Obama and Biden running the country, I feel confident that parts of this vision will become a reality. Now we just have to make sure they get elected.
Living in the O 
Just another lovely example of Republican code: “inner cities”, “urban core” are meant to raise the specter of black people. Yeah, Republicans are so classy.
Rep. Bachmann obviously hasn’t seen “The End of Suburbia” yet.
I wouldn’t mind a government job if it’s serving in Congress!
I think it’s long past time to reclaim the phrases “inner city” and “urban core.” Fortunately, it seems like the younger generation of this country might finally be succeeding at this, at least a bit.
Another things makes the “bad” list:
Transit
City living
Community organizing
(pardon the grammar error)
The only way they’ll pry me out of my Hummer is over my cold, dead body. Or, well, … um … if gas prices keep going up. But I’m not gonna ride a train with, you know, other people. You can’t make me, you can’t make me! it’s in the Constitution, I’m pretty sure! Besides, I might catch Liberal cooties or sumpin! Rush said so!
🙂