If there's a harsh political lesson to be learned from the monorail fiasco and the viaduct fiasco, it is this. If you want really change, quit playing games with citizen initiatives and do like Obama did--run for elective office. Or even just back somebody else to run for office.

I'm thrilled to see Mike O'Brien is running for City Council. I applaud him and his considerable guts. And I hope he will not be the last environmental activist to finally realize that Seattle public office is not strictly the domain of the "Seattle establishment."

Isn't he a little too honest for politics?

BTW, not to put anyone on the spot, but... Here's my wish list of urban activists who really ought to run for political office in the not-too-distant future:
* Cary Moon
* Michael McGinn
* Jessyn Farrell (that would be in Tacoma)

Oh, and there's got to be somebody in the 43rd District who can actually represent the 43rd District better than Frank "The Democratic Party Hasn't Changed Since Tip O'Neill" Chopp.

Mike is a stand-up guy and will make an excellent councilmember. He's got my vote.

Mike O'Brien is vocal--absolutely. Zealous? Sure. Accurate? Not so much. In a public presentation he said repeatedly that the US is the highest per capita emitter of greenhouse gases; that's false, it's Australia. He also said that he opposed the previous Sound Transit package on because he "had a real problem with how it was financed." Meaning we have a crap sales tax that makes big public expenditures extremely regressive. Since that's the case, why doesn't he tell Sierra Club members to work on changing the sales tax before working on changing the climate? That would be a ridiculous, although logical extension of his argument. Similarly ridiculous, he also denied that building light rail would have a short-term carbon impact...which is just dumb, you can be in favor of light rail and acknowledge that its construction will cause substantial emissions.

Still, he'd be better on the council than Sally Clarke is or Della was. Let's hope that he matches the effort he brings to organizing around environmental issues with creativity. And maybe a little more accuracy.

AF, I'm with you that Mike O'Brien has at times been intellectually inconsistent. But you know what, I'll take someone like O'Brien who's actually fighting for something any day over a Sally Clark, whose whole political reason-for-being seems to be her sheer innocuousness.*

I've come to believe in politics that to stand for nothing controversial is no better than to stand for nothing at all.

* Of course, it helps that I agree, by and large, with what O'Brien is fighting for.

About frickin time.

He's one of the few sensible direct people I've met around here.

And right now we've got a lot of lightweights on the council who aren't pulling their weight.

Cressona @ 3: Here, here!!! All three, along with Mike O'Brien, would bring much-needed new blood and smarts to local politics. If all the excitement about the Obama campaign and presidency should teach us anything it's that a politician who's competent is good; a politician who's competent and has a vision for the future is even better. That's what unites Mike O'Brien, Michael McGinn, Jessyn Farrell and Cary Moon, vision combined with competence. Thanks for throwing your hat in the ring, Mike! Michael? Cary? Jessyn? What'd you say?

I'd LOVE to have him on city council. His personality doesn't seem suited to the political bulldog type, so I'd have my doubts about his effectiveness, but I'd feel very comfortable knowing he's representing my interests.

Go O'Brien!

Mike O Brien represents change we can believe in!