The first day of the second week was one of the most interesting ones, as it was closely related to my personal interests. We traveled to Denver, where we met with the CEO of the Denver Chamber of Commerce early in the morning. Even if business is not exactly my area of expertise, it was still very interesting to explore the political link in it, and all that happens in the backstage. We were able to get a broad overview of how business is conducted in CO, how hard it is to try to define priorities with so many different members, and how the crisis has affected the state, business-wise.
After a very pleasant lunch and walk through Denver’s downtown, we went to meet Dick Wadhams, chair of the GOP in Colorado. This would, by itself, be extremely interesting, but we met with Pat Wawk, chair of the Demoratic party in Colorado afterwards, so we had a chance to compare their points of view in the same topics and how different their overview of the past, current and future events is.
Dick Wadhams is a very direct, no-nonsense person. He answered our questions in a very pragmatic way, not taking any detours or trying to be politically correct, which was incredibly surprising and refreshing, especially in a political party. He has surprisingly praised Obama and how he maintained his word, doing everything he promised during the campaign, saying he doesn’t quite understand why people are so surprised with his policies. While he admires an ideological president, he believes the people are now aware of the dangers of having one, together with a majority in both Houses. He sees people disapproving Obama’s policies, but could not say who would be the most likely Republican candidate for the 2012 elections. Pawlenty, Barbin and Romney appear to be the most likely candidates, but it’s still wide open and some surprise names could appear.
He has, also rather surprisingly, pointed big government as being a key issue to be debated, as it’s being proved that a big government means stagnation. When asked about immigration, he said no party had the stomach to openly debate the topic, but he’d like to see it being widely discussed, as it’s an issue that divides even Republicans, and as 62% of Coloradans support the highly controversial Arizona law.
Pat Waak was more of a politician. There was never a bad or even doubtful word said about Obama and his mandate, with optimism being a key word in her speech. She admitted one of the biggest challenges for the upcoming elections would be to make all the Democrats come together, as many were disappointed with Obama’s policies. She was much more defensive on the immigration issue, due to the elitism, racism and mean-spiritedness of how the debate is often held, admitting it’s an issue that should be debated on a federal scale. She was extremely friendly, but it was very hard to get a direct answer to many of our questions. She has, admittedly, a much harder job than Dick Wadhams at the moment, due to the rising discontent with Obama.
She did not consider the role/scope of the state as an issue per se, as people can recognize that it is the government who paves the roads and provide with much of what we have accessible on our daily life. She concluded by saying that the worrying part is that the loss of faith in Government will, ultimately, lead to economic stagnation.
We returned to CS afterwards, with much food for thought.
