Barack Obama's topics - tribe.net

Anyone else feeling SOLD OUT by Obama's FISA bill vote?

kallab — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 15:28:21 GMT

This is how I feel about it:
http://people.tribe.net/kallab/blog/f8b60c25-637f-4891-8b17-5c285b2a9c78

AND I'm hosting an event for the campaign at my home on the 26th
http://people.tribe.net/kallab/blog/ff7ebf66-effe-462b-8076-41725cf78a15

Pissed, but still in action.

posted in Barack Obama - 18 replies

did ya catch the speech in Germany?

lmbfreespirit — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 18:46:31 GMT

SO poised & informed~~~ did ya notice, he doesn't even HAVE to read 'em!
~GIGGLE~ & then there was teleprompter speech by mclame at a sauages manufactoring plant in Michigan!!!!!!!!!!!

posted in Barack Obama - 2 replies

Obama Supporters with a Margarita

Jolly aka Merilla — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 06:08:00 GMT

Hi All,

For any of you all that are on MY BO -- Obama Supporters with a Margarita is now live and up on the Barack Obama web site. http://my.barackobama.com/page/group/ObamaSupporterswithaMargarita

Come join the fun and help us spread some hope and democracy grassroots style. We are a grass roots organization that registers voters in social situations (concerts, festivals, art events, etc.). Pretty much anywhere we can find and engage people for change. Can't wait to raise my glass to President Obama.

Ever your HopeMonger,
Jolly

posted in Barack Obama - 3 replies

Obama Lays Out Clear Plan For Iraq Withdrawal In NYT Op-Ed

James Hussein — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 13:21:58 GMT

My Plan for Iraq
By BARACK OBAMA
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/14/opinion/14obama.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

July 14, 2008

CHICAGO — The call by Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki for a timetable for the removal of American troops from Iraq presents an enormous opportunity. We should seize this moment to begin the phased redeployment of combat troops that I have long advocated, and that is needed for long-term success in Iraq and the security interests of the United States.

The differences on Iraq in this campaign are deep. Unlike Senator John McCain, I opposed the war in Iraq before it began, and would end it as president. I believed it was a grave mistake to allow ourselves to be distracted from the fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban by invading a country that posed no imminent threat and had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks. Since then, more than 4,000 Americans have died and we have spent nearly $1 trillion. Our military is overstretched. Nearly every threat we face — from Afghanistan to Al Qaeda to Iran — has grown.

In the 18 months since President Bush announced the surge, our troops have performed heroically in bringing down the level of violence. New tactics have protected the Iraqi population, and the Sunni tribes have rejected Al Qaeda — greatly weakening its effectiveness.

But the same factors that led me to oppose the surge still hold true. The strain on our military has grown, the situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated and we’ve spent nearly $200 billion more in Iraq than we had budgeted. Iraq’s leaders have failed to invest tens of billions of dollars in oil revenues in rebuilding their own country, and they have not reached the political accommodation that was the stated purpose of the surge.

The good news is that Iraq’s leaders want to take responsibility for their country by negotiating a timetable for the removal of American troops. Meanwhile, Lt. Gen. James Dubik, the American officer in charge of training Iraq’s security forces, estimates that the Iraqi Army and police will be ready to assume responsibility for security in 2009.

Only by redeploying our troops can we press the Iraqis to reach comprehensive political accommodation and achieve a successful transition to Iraqis’ taking responsibility for the security and stability of their country. Instead of seizing the moment and encouraging Iraqis to step up, the Bush administration and Senator McCain are refusing to embrace this transition — despite their previous commitments to respect the will of Iraq’s sovereign government. They call any timetable for the removal of American troops “surrender,” even though we would be turning Iraq over to a sovereign Iraqi government.

But this is not a strategy for success — it is a strategy for staying that runs contrary to the will of the Iraqi people, the American people and the security interests of the United States. That is why, on my first day in office, I would give the military a new mission: ending this war.

As I’ve said many times, we must be as careful getting out of Iraq as we were careless getting in. We can safely redeploy our combat brigades at a pace that would remove them in 16 months. That would be the summer of 2010 — two years from now, and more than seven years after the war began. After this redeployment, a residual force in Iraq would perform limited missions: going after any remnants of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, protecting American service members and, so long as the Iraqis make political progress, training Iraqi security forces. That would not be a precipitous withdrawal.

In carrying out this strategy, we would inevitably need to make tactical adjustments. As I have often said, I would consult with commanders on the ground and the Iraqi government to ensure that our troops were redeployed safely, and our interests protected. We would move them from secure areas first and volatile areas later. We would pursue a diplomatic offensive with every nation in the region on behalf of Iraq’s stability, and commit $2 billion to a new international effort to support Iraq’s refugees.

Ending the war is essential to meeting our broader strategic goals, starting in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where the Taliban is resurgent and Al Qaeda has a safe haven. Iraq is not the central front in the war on terrorism, and it never has been. As Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, recently pointed out, we won’t have sufficient resources to finish the job in Afghanistan until we reduce our commitment to Iraq.

As president, I would pursue a new strategy, and begin by providing at least two additional combat brigades to support our effort in Afghanistan. We need more troops, more helicopters, better intelligence-gathering and more nonmilitary assistance to accomplish the mission there. I would not hold our military, our resources and our foreign policy hostage to a misguided desire to maintain permanent bases in Iraq.

In this campaign, there are honest differences over Iraq, and we should discuss them with the thoroughness they deserve. Unlike Senator McCain, I would make it absolutely clear that we seek no presence in Iraq similar to our permanent bases in South Korea, and would redeploy our troops out of Iraq and focus on the broader security challenges that we face. But for far too long, those responsible for the greatest strategic blunder in the recent history of American foreign policy have ignored useful debate in favor of making false charges about flip-flops and surrender.

It’s not going to work this time. It’s time to end this war.

posted in Barack Obama - 1 reply

buy Obama gear in SF?

Scout — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 19:15:56 GMT

I'm about to go overseas and I want to bring Obama gear for friends (t-shirts, hats, whatever). I leave Sunday & don't have time to order online. Does anyone know of a headquarters that's up & running where I might buy Obama stuff this weekend? Thanks!

posted in Barack Obama - 1 reply

speech by Al Gore on 7-17-08 ~ we KNOW who he ment, when he referred to the next president ;)*

lmbfreespirit — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 15:57:22 GMT

WASHINGTON -- Former Vice President Al Gore called Thursday for a "man on the moon" effort to switch all of the nation's electricity production to wind, solar and other carbon-free sources within 10 years, a goal that he said would solve global warming as well as economic and natural security crises caused by dependence on fossil fuels.
"The answer is to end our reliance on carbon-based fuels," Gore told a packed auditorium in Washington's historic Constitution Hall. "When you connect the dots, it turns out that the real solutions to the climate crisis are the very same measures needed to renew our economy and escape the trap of ever-rising energy prices."
Gore compared the challenge to establishing Social Security and the Interstate highway system, as well as landing a man on the moon -- all successes that took more than a single presidency to accomplish and required members of both political parties to overcome their partisanship.
The Alliance for Climate Protection, a bipartisan group Gore leads, put the 30-year cost of his plan -- both government and private -- at $1.5 trillion to $3 trillion.
Story continues belowAdvertisementTo speed up the transition to new energy sources, Gore said the single most important policy change would be to "tax what we burn, not what we earn," advocating a tax on carbon dioxide pollution.
Gore's proposal would represent a significant shift in where the U.S. gets its power. In 2005, coal supplied slightly more than half the nation's 3.7 billion kilowatt hours of electricity. Nuclear power accounted for 21 percent, natural gas 15 percent and renewable sources, including wind and solar, about 8.6 percent.
Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize for sounding the alarm about climate change and his documentary on the issue, "An Inconvenient Truth," won an Oscar. In his speech, he did not address what to do about coal, which is responsible for more than a third of the United States' carbon dioxide pollution, the most prevalent of the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.
Coal's share of electricity generation is only expected to grow between now and 2030, according to Energy Department forecasts that assume no new government controls will be put on pollution.
Renewable energy resources' share of the power production would grow to 11 percent under that scenario.
In an interview with The Associated Press after his speech, Gore said coal's place in the nation's energy future will depend on whether the industry cuts back on carbon.
"Even coal has a role to play if the carbon dioxide is captured and safely buried ... but clean coal does not exist right now," Gore said.
Gore told the AP that his plan counts on nuclear power plants still providing about a fifth of the nation's electricity while the U.S. dramatically increases it's use of solar, wind, geothermal energy and clean coal technology. He said one of the largest obstacles will be updating the nation's electricity grid to harness power from solar panels, windmills and dams and transport it to cities.
The Edison Electric Institute, the private utility industry's trade association, said it shares Gore's support for more renewable generation, a "smarter" power grid and the eventual use of plug-in electric vehicles.
"But we cannot do the job with renewable and efficiency alone," it said. A portfolio for the future must also include "an expanded role for nuclear energy, as well as natural gas and clean coal with carbon capture and storage."
Some energy experts said the turnaround Gore advocates is too fast.
Robby Diamond, president of Securing America's Future Energy, a nonpartisan energy policy group, said weaning the nation away from fossil fuels -- coal, oil and natural gas -- can't be done in a decade.
"The country is not going to be able to go cold turkey," Diamond said. "We have a hundred years of infrastructure with trillions of dollars of investment that is not simply going to be made obsolete."
Gore said the changing economics of energy, in which high gasoline and oil prices are driving investments in renewable energy, would overcome the political and technological obstacles.
His challenge comes as Congress, and the White House, are debating how to address high energy prices, particularly the oil that drives the nation's transportation. Both Democrats and Republicans are pushing for more exploration and production of domestic fossil fuels, albeit in different ways.
"It is only a truly dysfunctional system that would buy into the perverse logic that the short-term answer to high gasoline prices is drilling for more oil 10 years from now," Gore said.
In the past year, Congress has rejected initiatives that would make Gore's vision a reality. Requiring part of the nation's energy to come from alternative sources didn't have enough support in the Senate to become part of an energy bill in December. And a bill before the Senate last month to cut greenhouse gases got 48 votes.
Jonathan Lash, president of the World Resources Institute, said in a statement Thursday that the problem has been political will.
"Climate change and energy security are not just threats ... , they are opportunities," he said. "We need to change the debate in this country from what we can't do, to what we can do."
Gore told the AP he hoped the speech would contribute to "a new political environment in this country that will allow the next president to do what I think the next president is going to think is the right thing to do." He said both fellow Democrat Barrack Obama and Republican rival John McCain are "way ahead" of most politicians in the fight against global climate change.
McCain, who supports building more nuclear power plants as one solution to global warming, said Thursday he admires Gore as an early and outspoken advocate of addressing the global warming problem even though "there may be some aspects of climate change that he and I are in disagreement (on)."
Of the goals Gore outlined Thursday for generating more electricity with solar and wind resources, McCain said, "If the vice president says it's doable, I believe it's doable."

(Copyright ©2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

E-Mail story Print Article
0 comments
Post A Comment Be the first to make a comment!

(Max. 500 Characters)
abc11.com and its parent and affiliated companies are not responsible for the content of comments posted above or for anything arising out of use of the above comments or other interaction among the users. While we may delete comments and block or take other action against users who we determine at our discretion have violated our rules, we cannot always do so. Please see our Terms of Use for additional policies applicable to these comments

posted in Barack Obama - 1 reply

he wants to do the right thing!!!!!!!

lmbfreespirit — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 20:29:00 GMT

Obama would send 2 more brigades to Afghanistan
BY NEDRA PICKLER, ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON - Democrat Barack Obama said Monday that as president he would send at least two more combat brigades to Afghanistan, where U.S. soldiers face rising violence and endured their deadliest attack in three years on Sunday.The proposed force increase - about 7,000 troops - is part of Obama's plan to pull combat troops out of Iraq and focus on the growing threat from a resurgent al-Qaida in Afghanistan."As president, I would pursue a new strategy, and begin by providing at least two additional combat brigades to support our effort in Afghanistan," Obama said in an op-ed published Monday in The New York Times, a day before he plans a speech here on his vision for Iraq and Afghanistan. ......

LET'S REMEMBER: we can't agree w/everything! I have let down, myself, BUT THEN I 'member what I like about him! It makes it easier + JUST LOOK at what else there is!!!!!!!!!
Hillary must be lovin THIS! I trusted in November & will continue to trust him!

I believe in stance on education, welfare, education, stemcells, climate change & MANNNNY other things! Let's all jest take a deep/calming BREATH & 'memer WHY we voted him!!!!!!!~RELAX, TRUST, continue to be hopeful!!!!!!!!

posted in Barack Obama - 3 replies

So Obama got the presumptive status and this tribe takes a vacation? (jk)

Home — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 04:25:18 GMT

What is everyone doing out there? Come tell of any events or Obama activities you are engaging in currently. I have been registering people to vote a little here and there.

posted in Barack Obama - 7 replies

RealClearPolitics Electoral College

Home — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:17:41 GMT

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/maps/obama_vs_mccain/

Barack Obama 238

60 Solid 178 Leaning

John McCain 190

96 Solid 94 Leaning

Toss Up 110

posted in Barack Obama - 7 replies

The UPrising BY David Sorota!

lmbfreespirit — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 16:24:55 GMT

http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/growing-power-fair-trade-uprising

The Growing Power of the Fair Trade Uprising

By David Sirota
Campaign for America's Future, 6/25/08

This is an ongoing series from the national tour for THE UPRISING. You can order The Uprising at Amazon.com or through your local independent bookstore.

LOUISVILLE, KY - I spent yesterday in Ohio's three biggest cities - Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati. With the Buckeye State among the hardest hit by lobbyist-written trade policies, it wasn't surprising that NAFTA was at the center of discussion at events this week for THE UPRISING in Ohio. You can listen to my Ohio NPR interview from yesterday here for a taste:

http://streaming.osu.edu/wosu/openline/062408bOL.mp3

Over the last few years, polls show the public has moved to something of a consensus position on trade: full-on opposition to NAFTA-style pacts. That's for good reason as this Associated Press report shows. Tearing down tariffs and protections without regard for the consequences is not only a dangerous departure from the policies that built America's economy, but also a deliberate way to force American and foreign workers into a wage-cutting, environment-destroying, union-busting race to the bottom.

The AP story shows the destructive domino effect of NAFTA and the subsequent NAFTA-style agreements like China PNTR. When multinational corporations shift jobs to Mexico, right-wing trade fundamentalists in Washington offer up a "let them eat cake message" telling workers in Ohio that the shift at least helps impoverished workers south of the border. Then, of course, those workers in Mexico are forced to slash their own wages to compete with desperate workers in China. When the jobs inevitably shift to China, Mexico is left in shambles, and then Chinese workers are forced to slash their own wages to make sure jobs don't go to Vietnam or North Korea, where corporations are angling to employ enslaved labor.

Meanwhile, many of these trade fundamentalists like Tom Friedman and Fareed Zakaria flaunt their supposed environmentalism and humanitarianism by publicly worrying about issues like global warming and the erosion of human rights in the developing world - even though the domino effect they cheer on creates pressure on governments to reduce their pollution controls and human rights in order to retain foreign investment.

The problem, of course, is that it's hard to argue with NAFTA backers because they aren't interested in facts. It was none other than Friedman who admitted he vigorously backed a recent NAFTA-style trade deal without even bothering to read it. He, like every other reporter and commentator in Washington, calls NAFTA-style pacts "free trade" - despite the fact that they include thousands of pages of protectionist provisions for corporate profits, despite the fact that even the original architects of NAFTA have long admitted that these agreements aren't free, but instead create "managed" trade. That's the big problem - these deals are managed to enrich the elite at the expense of the rest of us.

Just like it's impossible to argue about reality with deranged religious fundamentalist terrorists, it's impossible to argue with deranged trade fundamentalists who cloak economic terrorism in the language of enlightenment. It gets to the point where Limousine Libertarians in wealthy enclaves like Boulder take to the websites of major newspapers to cite charts showing the decimation of Americans' wages as proof that NAFTA works for Americans.

Left for dead, of course, is a place like Ohio.

Wealthy pundits from New York and Washington drop into the Buckeye State every four years to berate the occasional Democratic presidential candidate who dares to question NAFTA at the quadrennial photo-op at an abandoned manufacturing plant. In the general election, those Democratic presidential candidates then inevitably hire teams of Wall Street insiders who back NAFTA as their top economic advisers, and then scurry to business publications to reassure corporate lobbyists that no, they aren't really serious about reforming our trade policy. Their Republican opponents, meanwhile, head to places like Colombia to tell the right-wing regime there that America - that purported beacon of freedom to the world's masses - will be helping murderous developing-world governments continue to brutalize workers.

But this quadrennial cycle of deception may finally be changing - and not because of the benevolence of any presidential candidate, but because the political tectonics of trade have shifted so dramatically thanks to those who are doing the unglamorous - but critical - work of leveraging real power.

Groups like Public Citizen and the Citizens Trade Campaign have ignored the Partisan War Syndromeelicit concrete commitments on trade policy from the candidates - including nominee Barack Obama. Those efforts have been supported by a group of industrial state lawmakers, who have similarly leveraged the election as a way to force a conversation about trade into the national political debate. That conversation has been so intense it even wedged its way into the Republican presidential nomination through the candidacy of Mike Huckabee - a candidacy that won Republican primaries in some of the most conservative states based, in part, on his fair trade message. that plagues parts of the blogosphere and the progressive left, and used this election as an instrument of the uprising - rather than seeing the election as an objective unto itself. They have, for instance, used the hard-fought Democratic primary to

These moves around trade suggest the emergence of true movement thinking out of the tumult of the uprising I describe in my book. This fair trade movement may continue to be ignored by the media (and, frankly, much of the blogosphere), but it represents one of the most encouraging transpartisan developments of the last few years. Out of the shadows of the crumbling factories that I have driven by here in Ohio may indeed come real change - if this movement continues to coalesce.

--------------------
Order David Sirota's brand new book The Uprising: An Unauthorized Tour of the Populist Revolt Scaring Wall Street & Washington. The book was just released in June of 2008. A logical follow-up to his 2006 New York Times bestseller Hostile Takeover, Sirota's new book uses firsthand, on-the-ground reporting far away from the national media spotlight to explore the most intense and successful organizing at the edges of American politics. To pre-order the book, go to Amazon, Barnes & Noble or Powell's Bookstore. To subscribe to Sirota's regular newsletter, go to www.davidsirota.com and sign up on the left hand side.

posted in Barack Obama - 1 reply

NEWenergy!

lmbfreespirit — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 16:13:38 GMT

http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/newenergy

posted in Barack Obama - 0 replies

please come join new site

prometheusPAN — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 16:05:09 GMT

please come join a new site.
This is an open source think tank.
We support Obama, but we are more importantly working on the problems and solutions we face.

http://mytalktoday.com/forum/forum.php
http://mytalktoday.com/forum/index.php

posted in Barack Obama - 0 replies

action alert!!!!!!!!!

lmbfreespirit — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 20:22:30 GMT

Michelle Obama is introducing herself to America
and it's time for all of us to do our part and share
her inspiring story.

This week, Michelle appeared as a co-host on ABC's
"The View."

TAKE ACTION NOW:

Watch the video and forward this email to your
friends and family:

my.barackobama.com/AWmichellevideo

posted in Barack Obama - 2 replies

* TRUST!

lmbfreespirit — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 18:11:43 GMT

http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/fightthesmearshome

posted in Barack Obama - 0 replies

ALERT: AP REPORTS SMEARS AS TRUTH

Home — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 01:30:22 GMT

AP REPORTS SMEARS AS TRUTH
by buckeyemike
Wed Jun 18, 2008 at 11:16:51 AM PDT

Listening to my local radio stations news, I was shocked to hear the right wing smears againist Michelle Obama have now made it into the Associated Press's daily news feed to small radio and newspapers.
The report was that "the Obama campaign is trying to react quickly to reports againist Michelle Obama. She was quoted as saying that she had never been proud of America in her adult life.
She has been trying to improve her image with appearance today on "The View".

"She is reported to have made remarks about WHITEY in a speech at a church in Chicago."

I was shocked that there was no reference that this is just a claim, they reported it as if they had evidence that she truly said this in a speech, not what some right wingnuts had alledged. They say it enough times and now the AP is reporting it as TRUE.

I have called the radio station and written to AP, but I think we need to take more action. Any ideas on what we can do to combat this???? Listening to my local radio stations news, I was shocked to hear the right wing smears againist Michelle have now made it into the Associated Press's daily news feed to small radio and newspapers.

Educate the AP on the TRUTH!!!! Flood their phone lines tomorrow. Show them what messing with one of the largest groups in the country get you. Lies will not be tolerated.
-------------------------------------------
The Associated Press

Headquarters
450 W. 33rd St.
New York, NY 10001

Main Number
+1-212-621-1500

Associated Press
50 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10020
Phone: 212-621-1500
Fax: 212-621-7523

General Questions and Comments: info@ap.org

Please send this to everyone you know.

posted in Barack Obama - 2 replies

Gore to Endorse Obama in Speech Tonight

ravenshadow — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 23:37:21 GMT

By Anne E. Kornblut
FLINT, Mich. -- Former Vice President Al Gore is making his debut appearance with Sen. Barack Obama in Detroit tonight -- finally endorsing the Democratic nominee officially in a joint event that is likely to spur speculation about a joint ticket.

"A few hours from now I will step onstage in Detroit, Michigan, to announce my support for Senator Barack Obama," Gore wrote to his supporters on Monday afternoon. "From now through Election Day, I intend to do whatever I can to make sure he is elected President of the United States." Gore solicited a donation from members of his e-mail list and algore.com on behalf Obama, in what he said was the first time he had ever asked his supporters to donate to a political campaign before. "But this moment and this election are too important to let pass without taking action," Gore wrote.

When Barack Obama first geared up for his campaign, a group of Democrats tried to draft Gore to run and pick Obama as his nominee. More recently, some Democrats have wondered if Obama should now pick Gore, who has stayed out of electoral politics since 2000.

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/06/16/gore_to_endorse_obama_in_speec.html?hpid=topnews

posted in Barack Obama - 4 replies

Who will John McCain pick?

Arabella — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 15:13:50 GMT

I still think the GOP convention will be a big fight, with Ron Paul having his own side-show, and they may just come up with a different nominee in the end - how ironic would that be?

Meanwhile, who do we think John McCain will pick for his VP? Mitt Romney? Mike Huckabee? Giuliani? Someone else?

posted in Barack Obama - 6 replies

I'm Voting Republican...

Aurophobia — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 18:41:15 GMT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiQJ9Xp0xxU

I found this clip on PZ Myer's blog, Pharyngula ( http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/ ). It made me smile and I thought I'd share.

posted in Barack Obama - 1 reply

Kathleen Sebelius as VP?

Home — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 15:28:35 GMT

Brings heartland states into play. Father was a well respected Gov of Ohio, female, Governor experience, too much change? I like her shes in my top two.

posted in Barack Obama - 8 replies

Jones as VP?

Arabella — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 14:24:36 GMT

From msnbc's political blog, First Read:

" ... The conversations [with Dems in Congress] are free-flowing but one name the vetters are inserting in the conversations is one that is not a household name... Ret. Gen. James Jones, the former Marine-turned-NATO Supreme Allied Commander.

Jones, a Vietnam vet born in Kansas City, MO (swing state alert!), was a career military officer rising to one of the highest posts possible. Now retired, Jones has been critical of the number of troops currently in Afghanistan. He's been appointed to independent posts by both the Democratic Congress and the Republican-run State Department. ..."

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/06/10/1127710.aspx

posted in Barack Obama - 4 replies

TANXto SunburnSarah;)*

lmbfreespirit — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 23:26:37 GMT

http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/fightthesmearshome/

posted in Barack Obama - 0 replies

~FIGHT the SMEAR! TANX, SunburnSarah!

lmbfreespirit — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 23:24:17 GMT

http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/fightthesmearshome/

posted in Barack Obama - 0 replies

Obama parrot!

ravenshadow — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 14:15:51 GMT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuKqWEYzhEA

posted in Barack Obama - 3 replies

WOW - NBC/Wall Street Journal poll shows really good numbers for Obama

Arabella — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:16:33 GMT

From msnbc's "First Read" email update this morning:

Days after becoming his party's presumptive nominee and receiving Clinton's endorsement, Obama has opened up a six-point advantage over McCain (47%-41%) in the latest NBC/WSJ poll, which is up three points from Obama's lead in April.

Perhaps the most fascinating numbers are in the crosstabs, and some of the numbers will surprise folks who memorized every exit poll from the Democratic primaries:

Obama leads McCain among African Americans (83-7),
Hispanics (62-28),
women (52-33),
Catholics (47-40),
independents (41-36)
and even blue-collar workers (47-42).

Obama is also ahead among those who said they voted for Clinton in the Democratic primaries (61-19).

Meanwhile, McCain is up among evangelicals (69-21), white men (55-35), men (49-41), whites (47-41), and white suburban women (44-38). However, Obama has a seven-point edge (46-39) among all white women.

How important is that lead? NBC/WSJ co-pollster Neil Newhouse (R) explains that Republican candidates always expect to win white men by a substantial margin, but it's white women that usually decide the race. "If a Republican wins among white women, we usually win that election," he says, noting that George Bush carried that group in 2000 and 2004.

The poll was conducted of 1,000 registered voters from June 6-9 (Clinton endorsed Obama on June 7), and it has a +/- 3.1% margin of error.

posted in Barack Obama - 1 reply

Video of Obama speaking to HQ staff and volunteers last week

Arabella — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 17:16:21 GMT

I think this provides a good portrait of who Barack is and what his candidacy means:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnhmByYxEIo

posted in Barack Obama - 0 replies

A Vote for McBama

Home — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 15:34:18 GMT

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/06/vote_for_mcbama.html

A Vote for McBama
By Robert Samuelson

WASHINGTON -- For the party faithful, this is a sweet moment. They have their candidates and, whatever the obstacles, can still imagine victory in November. But the rest of us ought to remember that the politics of winning and governing often collide. The first involves maximizing popularity. The second requires farsighted choices that ultimately benefit the country but may initially hurt a president's approval ratings. What have we learned about the candidates' capacity for governing? Enough, I think, to temper the excitement.

Start with Barack Obama. Even those who disagree with him ought to feel pride in his impending nomination, because it continues America's racial reconciliation and atonement for slavery. But symbolism can't substitute for policy, and any feel-good fallout from electing Obama would soon fade. He'd have to earn popular support, and this would be made harder by a problem of his own making: He'd have to disavow much of his campaign rhetoric. The reason is that his campaign is itself a contradiction.

On the one hand, he projects himself as the great conciliator. He uses the metaphor of his race to argue that he is uniquely suited to bridge differences between liberals and conservatives, young and old, rich and poor -- to craft a new centrist politics. On the other hand, his actual agenda is highly partisan and undermines many of his stated goals. He wants to stimulate economic growth, but his hostility toward trade agreements threatens export-led growth (which is now beginning). He advocates greater energy independence but pretends this can occur without more domestic drilling for oil and natural gas.

All this reflects Obama's legislative record. From 2005 to 2007, he voted with his party 97 percent of the time, reports the Politico. But Obama's clever campaign strategy would put him in a bind as president. Championing centrism would disappoint many ardent Democrats. Pleasing them would betray his conciliating image. The fact that he has so far straddled the contradiction may confirm his political skills and the quiet aid received from the media, which helped him by virtually ignoring the blatant contradictions.

And what does the straddle tell us of him? Aside from ambition -- hardly unique among presidential candidates -- I cannot detect powerful convictions in Obama. He seems merely expedient in peddling his convenient conflicts. He strikes me as a super-successful graduate student: the brightest, quickest, most articulate guy in the seminar. In his career, he has advanced mainly by talking and writing -- not doing -- and may harbor a delusion common to the well-educated: that he can argue and explain his way around any problem.

By contrast, no one can claim that McCain lacks convictions. He has often defied Republican-party orthodoxy, and his credentials to lead a centrist coalition are stronger than Obama's. According to the Politico, he sided with his party only 83 percent of the time from 2005 to 2007. Even in this election year, he has taken unpopular positions. Note his criticism of farm subsidies, which won't help him in the Midwest. The trouble with McCain is that he often mistakes stubbornness for principle.

He has a hard time changing his mind, even when the evidence overwhelmingly suggests he's wrong. He has stuck with "campaign finance reform" despite its dismal record. After three decades, it has entangled political campaigns in rules and paperwork without solving any notable problem (for example, people continue to believe that wealthy "special interests" have too much influence). On immigration, he still does not grasp what I think is the actual problem: not illegal immigration so much as too many poor and unskilled immigrants, whether legal or illegal. Like Obama, he seems oblivious to the possible unintended consequences of endorsing an anti-global warming "cap-and-trade" program.

Steadfastness and good judgment are qualities we value in a president, and McCain has often displayed these. He was early and correct in his criticism of the Bush administration's conduct of the Iraq War and of its treatment of prisoners. He has been consistent in his opposition to high and wasteful federal spending. But good judgment must accompany steadfastness, and there are enough instances of McCain's bad judgment to make you wonder which would prevail.

So, vote for McBama. The truth is that both candidates leave room for doubt, and neither has forthrightly addressed some of America's obvious problems -- costly government retirement programs, immigration, our energy appetite. But for me, McCain does have one provisional and accidental advantage. By most appraisals, the Republicans will get slaughtered in congressional elections, and I have a visceral dislike of one-party government. It didn't work well under Bill Clinton or George W. Bush. Divided government doesn't ensure good government, but it may limit bad government by checking the worst instincts of both parties.

Copyright 2008, Washington Post Writers Group

posted in Barack Obama - 2 replies

Completely Predictable Results for Oil Windfall Profits

Pi — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 23:19:34 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS/AP) -- The disagreement between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain on the windfall profits tax measure blocked in the Senate Tuesday is just one of several sharp differences in their energy policy.

McCain supports a summer holiday from the federal gas tax, a move Obama has labeled a cheap gimmick that won’t produce real savings for consumers.

The Democrats fell nine votes short of the 60 votes needed to overcome a GOP filibuster against the energy package.

High gas prices appear destined to be one of the dominant issues when voters choose a new president in November, and the two major candidates disagree on how to quench America’s thirst for oil.

McCain wants to build more nuclear power plants, and store the waste at Nevada's Yucca Mountain. Obama opposes Yucca Mountain, but says limited nuclear expansion is still down the road.

Both of them support carbon emissions controls to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but McCain has come out against an Obama proposal to offer more subsidies for wind and solar energy.

Both oppose drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

posted in Barack Obama - 1 reply

Flood the Fox news Opinion poll!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Home — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 15:35:41 GMT

http://gretawire.foxnews.com/2008/06/08/read-poll-carefullyand-then-vote/

posted in Barack Obama - 5 replies

Bill Richardson for VP

Home — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 14:38:58 GMT

In 2006 Bill was reelected with almost 70% of the vote -- and with almost 40% of the Republican vote!

He would bring home the Latino vote, add the Governor experience Obama needs and foreign policy. But would a Latino man and a Black man get the undereducated under 50K white male vote?

posted in Barack Obama - 8 replies

Webb as VP?

Home — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 16:29:16 GMT

Military, former Republican, Missouri native, Virginia popular. Hot head.. Thoughts?

posted in Barack Obama - 18 replies

Foreign reaction to Obama's claim is favorable

Enrika — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 21:02:48 GMT

I *love* this. :)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24973623/

posted in Barack Obama - 2 replies

Hillary as VP

Home — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 15:15:51 GMT

What does everyone think? For the naysayers. What do you think about this perspective? Barack having a close contest with Mccain, or totally blowing him out of the water with Hillary on the ticket...

posted in Barack Obama - 18 replies

Who here LOVES the Stephanie Miller Show?

Arabella — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 13:59:38 GMT

Ravenshadow's post on the 'Clintards....' thread referred to Steph, Mama for Obama, and possible future wife of Keith Olbermann, Jack Cafferty, and many others. I get the podcasts of the Right Wing World, Stand-Up News, and Tinsel Talk segments and totally love them. Is anyone else here besides me (and Ravenshadow) a fan of Steph and the mooks? (Jim Ward totally rocks!)

posted in Barack Obama - 0 replies

Clintards Shocked By Obama Supporters’ Decent Manners

Enrika — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 19:01:49 GMT

http://wonkette.com/400236/clintards-shocked-by-obama-supporters-decent-manners

posted in Barack Obama - 11 replies

Is Obama an enlightened being?

Enrika — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 07:05:34 GMT

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2008/06/06/notes060608.DTL

posted in Barack Obama - 3 replies

Obama is Bush lll - McCain policy advisor Douglas Holtz-Eakin

ravenshadow — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 17:19:08 GMT

McCain Adviser Holtz-Eakin Ludicrously Asserts Obama Would Be A Third Bush Term

Apparently the McCain campaign is feeling the sting of comparisons to George Bush. McCain describes himself as the strongest support of the war in Iraq. His answer to $4.00 gasoline is to cut oil company taxes by $4 billion a year. And McCain has embraced a Bush proposal to radically change our health care system. (These and other similarities are described in a memorandum released today by the Center for American Progress Action Fund.)

Swimming upstream, McCain policy advisor Douglas Holtz-Eakin now argues that it is Senator Obama – not McCain – who wants to continue Bush’s fiscal policies. Obama’s budget “is dedicated to the recent Bush tradition of spending money on everything,” he said.

This is exactly backwards. Consider:

– Like Bush, McCain has proposed massive tax cuts that primarily benefit high-income households. McCain’s $300 billion a year in tax cuts – over and above the cost of extending the Bush tax cuts when they expire in 2010 – would essentially double the size of the Bush tax cuts and make them even more regressive.

– Like Bush, McCain’s massive tax cuts and spending on security leaves little for other priorities. Over the past eight years, other types of discretionary spending have remained essentially unchanged after inflation and population growth. McCain would continue the pattern of putting huge tax cuts and defense spending ahead of other needs, like preschool and renewable energy.

– Like Bush, McCain rails against wasteful spending in the abstract but fails to target any actual programs. His promises to eliminate earmarks and freeze spending could save $30 billion a year or even less. That leaves him short the quite noticeable sum of $270 billion a year. (Holtz-Eakin told Bloomberg that McCain has a secret plan to balance the budget, but he hasn’t shared it with the Concord Coalition — or those of us at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, for that matter.)

– Like Bush, McCain is likely to drive up the national debt by trillions of dollars. Bush took a debt of $3.4 trillion – and headed down – up to $5.4 trillion. McCain’s budget plan would drive the deficit to $12.7 trillion.

Obama also has expensive proposals, such as his health care coverage plan and middle-class tax cuts. But he is clear where the money is coming from: higher taxes on high-income families, ending the war in Iraq, selling the right to emit greenhouse gases, and cutting subsidies to oil and gas companies, health insurers, drug companies, and the student loan industry.

That’s why the Wall Street Journal concluded that Barack Obama’s budget “adds up, probably.” But McCain’s plan, it concluded, “would either cause the federal deficit to explode or would require unprecedented spending cuts.”

http://thinkprogress.org/wonkroom/2008/06/06/dhe-obama-bush-term/

posted in Barack Obama - 2 replies

GREAT article on the Clinton campaign

Pi — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 16:51:46 GMT

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25026451/

posted in Barack Obama - 0 replies

the NEW feminists! ~LIKE Michelle ;)*

lmbfreespirit — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 21:05:32 GMT

WE ARE: ladies, smart, we don't hate ALL men, we shave our legs and armpits~
~we HAVE to with the heat from global warming ;)* GIGGLE

posted in Barack Obama - 5 replies

Clinton's Concession Message

Pi — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 17:20:06 GMT

Copied from the Internets

"I wanted you to be one of the first to know: on Saturday, I will hold an event in Washington D.C. to thank everyone who has supported my campaign. Over the course of the last 16 months, I have been privileged and touched to witness the incredible dedication and sacrifice of so many people working for our campaign. Every minute you put into helping us win, every dollar you gave to keep up the fight meant more to me than I can ever possibly tell you.

On Saturday, I will extend my congratulations to Senator Obama and my support for his candidacy. This has been a long and hard-fought campaign, but as I have always said, my differences with Senator Obama are small compared to the differences we have with Senator McCain and the Republicans.

I have said throughout the campaign that I would strongly support Senator Obama if he were the Democratic Party's nominee, and I intend to deliver on that promise.

When I decided to run for president, I knew exactly why I was getting into this race: to work hard every day for the millions of Americans who need a voice in the White House.

I made you -- and everyone who supported me -- a promise: to stand up for our shared values and to never back down. I'm going to keep that promise today, tomorrow, and for the rest of my life.

I will be speaking on Saturday about how together we can rally the party behind Senator Obama. The stakes are too high and the task before us too important to do otherwise.

I know as I continue my lifelong work for a stronger America and a better world, I will turn to you for the support, the strength, and the commitment that you have shown me in the past 16 months. And I will always keep faith with the issues and causes that are important to you.

In the past few days, you have shown that support once again with hundreds of thousands of messages to the campaign, and again, I am touched by your thoughtfulness and kindness.

I can never possibly express my gratitude, so let me say simply, thank you.

Sincerely,

<gif of her signature>"

So it is with great joy of an advancing party unity that I present to Enrika the following:

http://www.crazybruces.com/images/selection2.jpg

posted in Barack Obama - 2 replies

Jesus, talk about sour grapes

Pi — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 18:31:47 GMT

I just wandered over to the Hill tribe to see what chatter was going on about the Veep posturing. Good lord.

http://tribes.tribe.net/hillaryforpresident

Very little talk about issues. It's primarily about sexism, misogyny, etc. WTF? I'm not voting for Barack because he's male. I'm not voting for him because he has African blood (I'm Native American). I don't dislike Hillary because she's female. I'm voting for Barack because he's going to hobble the dominant paradigm of politics. I dislike Hillary because she is a self-serving politico that has absolutely no remorse about her back stabbing manipulations or her shady financial practices. If this is the best they could come up with than Hillary's supporters here are naive, politically unaware, and extremely sexist. Sort of like the bulk of the conservative movements.

PS: Did anybody here catch that McCain has started to refer to the DNC as the 'Democrat' Party? He's already channeling Bush's general disrespect with direct hostility quoted from the Bush Dictionary of Incorrect Lexicon.

posted in Barack Obama - 21 replies

For those who think Obama has no plans send them here:

Home — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 17:48:15 GMT

http://www.barackobama.com/issues/

It always amazes me how people invest no time into who they are voting for.

posted in Barack Obama - 5 replies

Ehh heemm Hillary voters...

Home — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 17:44:12 GMT

http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/issues/95b18512-d5b6-456e-90a2-12028d71df58.htm

Overturning Roe v. Wade

John McCain believes Roe v. Wade is a flawed decision that must be overturned, and as president he will nominate judges who understand that courts should not be in the business of legislating from the bench.

Constitutional balance would be restored by the reversal of Roe v. Wade, returning the abortion question to the individual states. The difficult issue of abortion should not be decided by judicial fiat.

However, the reversal of Roe v. Wade represents only one step in the long path toward ending abortion. Once the question is returned to the states, the fight for life will be one of courage and compassion - the courage of a pregnant mother to bring her child into the world and the compassion of civil society to meet her needs and those of her newborn baby. The pro-life movement has done tremendous work in building and reinforcing the infrastructure of civil society by strengthening faith-based, community, and neighborhood organizations that provide critical services to pregnant mothers in need. This work must continue and government must find new ways to empower and strengthen these armies of compassion. These important groups can help build the consensus necessary to end abortion at the state level. As John McCain has publicly noted, "At its core, abortion is a human tragedy. To effect meaningful change, we must engage the debate at a human level."

posted in Barack Obama - 2 replies

ok now we can say finaly

pythia — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 23:34:11 GMT

Just hearing now that Clinton is expected to "suspend" her campaign as of Friday, could it be true?
and what about all the money she owes who's going to pick up the tab for that, she owes Oregon a bit of pocket change.

posted in Barack Obama - 1 reply

All of Obama' speeches

Enrika — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 20:26:30 GMT

http://www.barackobama.com/tv/speeches.php (has every speech except yesterday's)

http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/samgrahamfelsen/gG5gtT (yesterday's speech)

Yesterday's speech will undoubtedly be on the main "speeches" page soon.

posted in Barack Obama - 4 replies

12 delegates to go...

Pi — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 22:32:15 GMT

And I'm going to make it my mission to have Barack Obama be the first president to attend Burning Man

posted in Barack Obama - 39 replies

YAH!~ good luck with that, then ;)*

lmbfreespirit — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 14:39:09 GMT

Clinton seeks to go after Obama superdelegates
By JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 29 minutes ago

RAPID CITY, S.D. - As Barack Obama turns to concentrate on his general election challenge, his rival Hillary Rodham Clinton is mounting a last ditch campaign to stay relevant in what is left of the Democratic presidential contest.

ADVERTISEMENT

The former first lady enters this week with an insurgent strategy not only to win over undecided superdelegates but to peel away Obama's support from those party leaders and elected officials who already have committed to back him for the nomination.

"One thing about superdelegates is that they can change their minds," she told reporters aboard her campaign plane Sunday night.

Obama displays no signs of worry, pivoting toward his new contest with Republican John McCain and responding to Clinton with a shrug. And some of Clinton's own backers are saying the time is near for her to fall in behind him.

Obama, campaigning in Mitchell, S.D., confidently predicted Clinton "is going to be a great asset when we go into November."

"Whatever differences Senator Clinton and I may have, those differences pale in comparison to the other side," he said.

South Dakota and Montana, which hold primaries on Tuesday, are the last Democratic nominating contests. Obama is favored in both states and he goes into them with 2,073 delegates, 45 away from the number now needed to secure the nomination. Clinton has 1,915.5 delegates.

Obama has made up most of the ground he lost Saturday when the national party's rules committee agreed to reinstate delegates from Michigan and Florida. The party had initially refused to seat the delegates as punishment for scheduling their contests in violation of party rules.

With 31 delegates at stake Tuesday, Obama could close the gap further and cue undecided superdelegates to come to his side. He picked up two more on Monday, Nancy DiNardo, chairwoman of the Connecticut Democratic Party, and Virginia's Jerome Wiley Segovia, a Democratic National Committee member.

But Clinton argues she now leads in the popular vote — a debatable point given that she relies on Michigan and Florida outcomes. None of the candidates campaigned in either state and Obama received no votes in Michigan because he removed his name from the ballot. Clinton also continues to present herself as better able to confront McCain in the fall.

She and her campaign's national chairman, Terry McAuliffe, made it clear that Obama's supporters were now fair to pluck with those arguments.

Clinton invited Virgin Islands superdelegate Kevin Rodriguez, a recent convert, to travel with her to South Dakota where she planned to campaign Monday. Rodriguez had initially supported Clinton, switched to Obama, and recently returned to her camp.

"This has been such an intense process," she said, "I don't think there has been a lot of time for reflection. It's only now that we're finishing these contests that people are going to

posted in Barack Obama - 11 replies

AP tally: Obama effectively clinches nomination

Home — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 19:44:54 GMT

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080603/ap_on_el_pr/primary_rdp

By DAVID ESPO and STEPHEN OHLEMACHER, Associated Press Writers 16 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Barack Obama effectively clinched the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday, based on an Associated Press tally of convention delegates, ending a grueling marathon to become the first black candidate ever to lead his party into a fall campaign for the White House.
ADVERTISEMENT

Campaigning on an insistent call for change, Obama outlasted former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton in a historic race that sparked record turnout in primary after primary, yet exposed deep racial and gender divisions within the party.

The tally was based on public declarations from delegates as well as from another 16 who have confirmed their intentions to the AP. It also included 11 delegates Obama was guaranteed as long as he gained 30 percent of the vote in South Dakota and Montana later in the day. It takes 2,118 delegates to clinch the nomination.

The 46-year-old first-term senator will face John McCain in the fall campaign to become the 44th president. The Arizona senator campaigned in Memphis, Tenn., during the day, and had no immediate reaction to Obama's victory.

Clinton stood ready to concede that her rival had amassed the delegates needed to triumph, according to officials in her campaign. They stressed that the New York senator did not intend to suspend or end her candidacy in a speech Tuesday night in New York. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they had not been authorized to divulge her plans.

Obama's triumph was fashioned on prodigious fundraising, meticulous organizing and his theme of change aimed at an electorate opposed to the Iraq war and worried about the economy — all harnessed to his own innate gifts as a campaigner.

With her husband's two-White House terms as a backdrop, Clinton campaigned for months as the candidate of experience, a former first lady and second-term senator ready, she said, to take over on Day One.

But after a year on the campaign trail, Obama won the kickoff Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3, and the freshman senator became something of an overnight political phenomenon.

"We came together as Democrats, as Republicans and independents, to stand up and say we are one nation, we are one people and our time for change has come," he said that night in Des Moines.

A video produced by Will I. Am and built around Obama's "Yes, we can" rallying cry quickly went viral. It drew its one millionth hit within a few days of being posted.

As the strongest female presidential candidate in history, Clinton drew large, enthusiastic audiences. Yet Obama's were bigger still. One audience, in Dallas, famously cheered when he blew his nose on stage; a crowd of 75,000 turned out in Portland, Ore., the weekend before the state's May 20 primary.

The former first lady countered Obama's Iowa victory with an upset five days later in New Hampshire that set the stage for a campaign marathon as competitive as any in the last generation.

"Over the last week I listened to you, and in the process I found my own voice," she told supporters who had saved her candidacy from an early demise.

In defeat, Obama's aides concluded they had committed a cardinal sin of New Hampshire politics, forsaking small, intimate events in favor of speeches to large audiences inviting them to ratify Iowa's choice.

It was not a mistake they made again — which helped explain Obama's later outings to bowling alleys, backyard basketball hoops and American Legion halls in the heartland.

Clinton conceded nothing, memorably knocking back a shot of Crown Royal whiskey at a bar in Indiana, recalling that her grandfather had taught her to use a shotgun, and driving in a pickup to a gas station in South Bend, Ind., to emphasize her support for a summertime suspension of the federal gasoline tax.

As other rivals quickly fell away in winter, the strongest black candidate in history and the strongest female White House contender traded victories on Super Tuesday, the Feb. 5 series of primaries and caucuses across 21 states and American Samoa that once seemed likely to settle the nomination.

But Clinton had a problem that Obama exploited, and he scored a coup she could not answer.

Pressed for cash, the former first lady ran noncompetitive campaigns in several Super Tuesday caucus states, allowing her rival to run up his delegate totals.

At the same time, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., endorsed the young senator in terms that summoned memories of his slain brothers while seeking to turn the page on the Clinton era.

In a reference that likened former President Clinton to Harry Truman: "There was another time, when another young candidate was running for president and challenging America to cross a new frontier. He faced criticism from the preceding Democratic president, who was widely respected in the party."

Merely by surviving Super Tuesday, Obama exceeded expectations.

But he did more than survive, emerging with a lead in delegates that he never relinquished, and proceeded to run off a string of 11 straight victories.

Clinton saved her candidacy once more with primary victories in Ohio and Texas on March 4, beginning a stretch in which she won primaries in six of the final nine states on the calendar, as well as in Puerto Rico.

It was a strong run, providing glimpses of what might have been for the one-time front-runner.

But by then Obama was well on his way to victory, Clinton and her allies stressed the popular vote instead of delegates. Yet he seemed to emerge from each loss with residual strength.

Obama's bigger-than-expected victory in North Carolina on May 6 offset his narrow defeat in Indiana the same day. Four days later, he overtook Clinton's lead among superdelegates, the party leaders she had hoped would award her the nomination on the basis of a strong showing in swing states.

Obama lost West Virginia by a whopping 67 percent to 26 percent on May 13. Yet he won an endorsement the following day from former presidential rival and one-time North Carolina Sen. John Edwards.

Clinton administered another drubbing in Kentucky a week later. This time, Obama countered with a victory in Oregon, and turned up that night in Iowa to say he had won a majority of all the delegates available in 56 primaries and caucuses on the calendar.

There were moments of anger, notably in a finger-wagging debate in South Carolina on Jan. 21.

Obama told the former first lady he was helping unemployed workers on the streets of Chicago when "you were a corporate lawyer sitting on the board at Wal-Mart."

Moments later, Clinton said that she was fighting against misguided Republican policies "when you were practicing law and representing your contributor ... in his slum landlord business in inner city Chicago."

And Bill Clinton was a constant presence and an occasional irritant for Obama. The former president angered several black politicians when he seemed to diminish Obama's South Carolina triumph by noting that Jesse Jackson had also won the state.

Obama's frustration showed at the Jan. 21 debate, when he accused the former president in absentia of uttering a series of distortions.

"I'm here. He's not," the former first lady snapped.

"Well, I can't tell who I'm running against sometimes," Obama countered.

There were relatively few policy differences. Clinton accused Obama of backing a health care plan that would leave millions out, and the two clashed repeatedly over trade.

Yet race, religion, region and gender became political fault lines as the two campaigned from coast to coast.

Along the way, Obama showed an ability to weather the inevitable controversies, most notably one caused by the incendiary rhetoric of his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

At first, Obama said he could not break with his longtime spiritual adviser. Then, when Wright spoke out anew, Obama reversed course and denounced him strongly.

Clinton struggled with self-inflicted wounds. Most prominently, she claimed to have come under sniper fire as first lady more than a decade earlier while paying a visit to Bosnia.

Instead, videotapes showed her receiving a gift of flowers from a young girl who greeted her plane.

posted in Barack Obama - 0 replies

Clinton expected to admit that Obama has enough delegates for nomination, however will not concede the race

Pi — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 17:19:20 GMT

Reposted from MSNBC:

CHICAGO - Hillary Rodham Clinton will acknowledge Tuesday night that Barack Obama has the delegates to secure the Democratic nomination, campaign sources told the Associated Press.

After the report, her campaign promptly issued a statement saying, "Senator Clinton will not concede the nomination this evening."

But the statement did not say Clinton wouldn't acknowledge Obama's delegate count, a move that would effectively end her bid to be the nation's first female president.

The AP report, which cited two campaign sources, said the former first lady would stop short of formally suspending or ending her race in her speech in New York City, but that for all intents and purposes the campaign was over.

Harold Ickes, a top campaign official, said that Clinton would not drop out of the race. Asked on MSNBC what she would say if, after primaries Tuesday in Montana and South Dakota, Obama had enough delegates to clinch the nomination, he replied: "She will say what she will say when she says it."

Earlier on the TODAY show, Clinton campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe said Tuesday that once Obama gets the majority of convention delegates, "I think Hillary Clinton will congratulate him and call him the nominee."

The outcome could come by the end of the day with some choreography by the party's superdelegates. The party insiders were lining up behind Obama at a rate that could seal the nomination once results are in from Montana and South Dakota — or even before.

According to NBC's tally, four more superdelegates endorsed him Tuesday morning leaving him just 35.5 delegates short of the 2,118 needed to put him over the top and make him the nation's first black presidential nominee from a major party.

Clinton, once seen as a sure bet in her historic quest to become the first female president, was still pressing the superdelegates to support her fading candidacy. But McAuliffe indicated she was not inclined to drag out a dispute over delegates from the unsanctioned Michigan primary despite feeling shortchanged by a weekend compromise by the party's rules committee that she could still appeal to a higher level

I don't think she's going to go to the credentials committee," he said on NBC's "Today" show. Taking the matter to that committee would essentially extend the dispute into the convention and deny Democrats the unity they sorely want to achieve against Republican John McCain.

However, the campaign was upset that the AP report came out as voters were still going to the polls.

Meantime, seeing the cards fall into place for his November rival, McCain planned a prime time speech Tuesday night in the New Orleans suburb of Kenner, La., in what is essentially a kickoff of the fall campaign.

On Tuesday, House Majority Whip and unpledged delegate James Clyburn told the TODAY show that he was throwing his support behind Obama.

"I believe the nomination of Senator Obama is our party's best chance for victory in November, and our nation's best hope for much needed change," the South Carolina representative said.

"Once the last votes are cast, then it's in everybody's interest to resolve this quickly so we can pivot," he added.

Obama has said there were a lot of superdelegates who have been private supporters of his but wanted to respect the process by not endorsing until the final primaries were done.

"We're still working the phones and we're still talking to people ... so we'll certainly have to wait until a little later tonight to see what the final tally is, but we certainly feel good waking up this morning," Robert Gibbs, Obama's spokesman, told CNN on Tuesday.

In a defiant shot across the GOP bow, Obama, who returned to hometown Chicago late Monday, planned to hold his wrap-up rally in St. Paul, Minn., at the arena that will be the site of the Republican National Convention in September.

Clinton returned to New York, the state she represents in the Senate, planning an end-of-primary evening rally in Manhattan after a grueling campaign finale as she pushed through South Dakota on Monday.

"I'm just very grateful we kept this campaign going until South Dakota would have the last word," she said at a restaurant in Rapid City in one of her final campaign stops. Polls suggested Obama would win both South Dakota and Montana.

She still sounded buoyant. Her biggest booster and most tireless campaigner, husband Bill Clinton, didn't. "This may be the last day I'm ever involved in a campaign of this kind," the former president said somberly as he stumped for her in South Dakota.

Ahead of Tuesday's concluding primaries, Obama sought to set the stage for reconciliation, praising Clinton's endurance and determination and offering to meet with her — on her terms — "once the dust settles" from their race.

"The sooner we can bring the party together, the sooner we can start focusing on McCain in November," Obama told reporters in Michigan. He said he spoke with Clinton on Sunday when he called to congratulate her on winning the Puerto Rico primary, most likely her last hurrah

That fueled speculation for a "dream ticket" in which Clinton would become Obama's running mate — but neither camp was suggesting that was much of a possibility.

In the AP interview, Obama was asked when he would start looking for a running mate.

"The day after I have gotten that last delegate needed to officially claim the nomination, I'll start thinking about vice presidential nominees," he said. "It's a very important decision, and it's one where I'm going to have to take some time."

Clinton finished a whirlwind four days of campaigning that took her from New York to Puerto Rico to South Dakota and back. For a campaign pushing against long odds, it was a show of determination.

The former first lady, suffering from a recurrent cough, had to cede the microphone to her daughter Chelsea twice Monday as she struggled to recover her voice. Chelsea promptly took the opportunity — to discuss health care.

posted in Barack Obama - 0 replies

Obama's Debt To Harold Ickes

Home — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 15:26:30 GMT

Barack Obama stands on the brink of capturing the presidential nomination in large part because of Democratic Party reforms initiated by the civil rights and anti-war movements of the 1960s -- movements in which Hillary Clinton's top strategist, Harold Ickes, was a key player.

When Obama was barely three, Ickes took part in Mississippi Freedom Summer, helping the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party send a primarily black delegation to the 1964 national convention in Atlantic City.

After the Freedom Democratic delegation was denied seating by the virtually all white male Democratic Party establishment, Ickes -- then 24 -- went on to help organize the party's reformist Harold Hughes Commission, the precursor to the McGovern Commission.

The anger against entrenched power of the old-line Democratic Party intensified, and by 1968, young civil rights, women's rights, and anti-war activists were beaten in the streets of Chicago outside the convention hall, and the protests of dissidents were gaveled down by party bosses on the convention floor. The outrage gave birth to the Democratic Party's Commission on Party Structure and Delegate Selection, aka the McGovern Commission.

Writing in the January 1970 issue of Harper's about the '68 convention, McGovern described the "tumultuous floor debate, bloodshed and tear gas in the streets...it also evokes the image of rigged procedures, a political party assembled to reach predetermined decisions. The convention became the shame of the Democratic Party."

Coming out of the turmoil of the sixties, the 1972 McGovern rules, as they came to be known, radically altered the way Democrats pick their presidential nominees, opening up the political process by mandating proportional inclusion of previously excluded constituencies -- African Americans, voters under 30, and women.

All of the reforms adopted then, and modified over the years, have been in play this year, including the expanded role in party proceedings of blacks, women, and the young; the required use of proportional representation; and superdelegates.

One reform stands out particularly in Obama's march to victory: the much wider use of open caucuses as a key component of the nomination process. Caucuses differ from primaries in that participants must spend many hours in a complex rule-ridden bargaining process that determines how a precinct or ward will allocate its support among the presidential candidates.

Now, some 36 years after the adoption of the McGovern rules, caucuses as a vehicle for the selection of convention delegates have empowered a key Obama constituency: young and relatively well-educated social-cultural liberals -- just the class of political activists that Ickes and the Clintons came out of and made salient.

In the arcane caucus procedures, with turnout ranging from only two to eight percent of the eligible Democratic electorate (compared to voter participation rates in primaries ranging from 20 to 35 percent), smart and strategically savvy party activists make up a disproportionately large share of participants.

"The caucuses made Obama, there is no doubt about it," argues University of Wisconsin political scientist Byron Shafer, the foremost expert on changes since the 1960s in the Democratic nominating process.

"Caucuses were the preferred institution of the reformers. The argument of the reform theorists was not about the gross bulk of participation, but about the character of the participation," Shafer said. In a primary, "you could go and vote, but it was limited: you pull the lever that was it. In a caucus, it wasn't that turnout would be lower, it was the quality of the turnout was higher."

It would be difficult to overestimate the consequences for Obama of Democratic Party reforms promoting caucuses. If the caucus states were eliminated, Obama would not be the one on the verge of declaring victory.

As of June 2, according to RealClearPolitics, Obama had a 157 delegate vote lead over Clinton, 2072 to 1915.

In the 14 states that picked some or all of their delegates through caucus systems this year, Obama won 400 delegates to Clinton's 193, a 207 delegate advantage that more than accounts for his overall delegate lead.

An analysis (pdf) published on TalkLeft found that total Democratic voter participation in the caucus states amounted to 1.1 million people, compared to the 32.4 million voters in Democratic primaries, a ratio of 30 to one. Caucus participants made up 3.2 percent of the total of 33.5 million primary voters and caucus goers combined.

In contrast to the relatively close results in most primary states, Obama won many of the caucus states by huge margins, often substantially exceeding 60 percent. As a consequence, he piled up large numbers of delegates in the relatively low turnout contests.

The TalkLeft analysis noted that Clinton won 11 more delegates than Obama in the New Jersey primary, which she won by 112,128 votes, while Obama won 12 more delegates than Clinton in the Idaho caucuses which he won by 13,225 votes. Similarly, Clinton netted 12 delegates by winning the Pennsylvania primary by 214,115 votes, while Obama came out ahead by 14 delegates by winning the Kansas caucuses by 17,710 votes.

Charles Stewart III of MIT did a separate analysis of primaries and caucuses with results similar to those of the Talk Left study, finding that in primary states, Clinton won 1,557.5 delegates, 16 more delegates than Obama's 1,521.5. In caucus states, Stewart found, Obama won 366 delegates, or 191 more than Clinton's 175.

In private, a number of Clinton strategists now acknowledge that they made a disastrous, if not fatal, mistake in failing to recognize the profound impact of the caucuses on the delegate count.

"We just thought we'd win the primaries, and the caucuses would follow along," one key Clinton strategist said. "It's on the top of the list of things we'd like to do over."

posted in Barack Obama - 0 replies

NYC Vote for Change voter registration drive 6/3 -- DeFine Destiny '08

Jolly aka Merilla — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 06:10:07 GMT

Hi All,

I am organizing a Vote for Change voter registration drive here in NY on Tuesday(6/3). We will be outside the Hill Harper books signing at Hue Man bookstore (6-8pm). Hill went to Harvard Law with Senator Obama and is a frequent Obama surrogate. Afterwards we will be taking in the Montana and South Dakota results (hopefully with a margarita in hand and hope and democracy in our hearts).

I'd love to have you along if you'd like to help me, help Obama, help America.

Ever Your HopeMonger,
Jolly

The details and signup can be found here: http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/manage/4b5m

posted in Barack Obama - 2 replies

can we be done already

pythia — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 18:18:52 GMT

I am beyond done with the incessant whining from the Clinton camp, if this is what we should expect fron her as President then I am still confirmed in my original support of Obama, (Sorry ladies) but she's playing the whiny girl card, I'm as girly girl as they come and I hate the whiny "I'm not getting what I want" crap.
just saying if I won't put up with it from my girl friends I certanly don't want it from the president!
jeannie

posted in Barack Obama - 5 replies

The RBC results are in

Enrika — Sat, 31 May 2008 23:59:33 GMT

"The vote is 27 votes to seat the entire Florida delegation, with everyone getting a half vote. No committee member voted no or abstained."

"Michigan Delegation to Be Sat at Half Strength. 19 votes for, 8 votes against. Again, 69 pledged delegates to Clinton, 59 pledged delegates to Obama, each delegate gets a half vote."

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/5/31/184311/435/559/526265
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/5/31/1973/67320/515/526285

posted in Barack Obama - 3 replies

Obama asks supporters NOT TO PROTEST OR ENGAGE PROTESTERS outside of the Rules and Bylaws Committee (RBC) meeting tomorrow morning

Enrika — Sat, 31 May 2008 06:01:29 GMT

Okay, it's a little late but...

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/5/30/8228/39157/420/525371

Pass his request on to as many people as you can! (Which might be no one at this point, but heck, every little bit helps.)

posted in Barack Obama - 4 replies

Olbermann rips HIll a new one over the RFK assassination remark! Have you guys seen this?

kallab — Wed, 28 May 2008 01:01:10 GMT

It's SCATHING! Kinda made me cringe.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/24798368#24798368

posted in Barack Obama - 14 replies

MIGHT be a REpost, but isn't it worth it??????

lmbfreespirit — Sat, 31 May 2008 00:51:35 GMT

http://tribes.tribe.net/stemcellsgivelife

posted in Barack Obama - 0 replies

Hilary jokes on Letterman

Susie — Fri, 30 May 2008 12:57:05 GMT

We do get Lettermans show here, it used to be about 2 weeks behind, though lately it seems to be a bit more recent. we have been getting a good laugh from his Hilary jokes. Has anyone else seen them?Here's an example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49ZnTs7xuxw

posted in Barack Obama - 0 replies

Clinton's (and her supporters') situational ethics

Enrika — Thu, 29 May 2008 01:40:03 GMT

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/5/28/131524/628/571/524211

posted in Barack Obama - 3 replies

Turn John McCain's YouTube Problem into a Nightmare!

Enrika — Thu, 29 May 2008 00:47:33 GMT

From Brave New Films:

"There's no question John McCain is getting a free ride from the mainstream press. But with the power of YouTube and the blogosphere, we can provide an accurate portrayal of the so-called Maverick. We can put the brakes on his free ride!

Since we first released The Real McCain a year ago, our REAL McCain series has garnered close to 2 million views, with over 13,000 comments and tens of thousands more in petition signatures! Clearly, John McCain's record is something the public wants to discuss, and yet the corporate media is doing NOTHING to present the truth. We feel obliged to continue countering the mainstream media's love of McCain. And so we thought it was high time for a sequel: The Real McCain 2."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEtZlR3zp4c

http://therealmccain.com/

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/5/27/191613/927/960/523806

posted in Barack Obama - 0 replies