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Karoli's Blog
I'm still digesting Barack Obama's amazing speech and also digesting the reactions to it, so my comments here are the off-the-cuff reactions that come from reading the expected "buts" from those whom I'd expect to reject the challenge of his remarks in favor of the more banal and simple knee-jerk responses.
There's one theme that I keep seeing from the TV pundits (who must be beside themselves with frustration that they cannot simply spin this one back to a Jeremiah Wright sermon and be done), the intellectually dishonest, and the outright racists that I just can't resist responding to. Their question: Why didn't he reject, repudiate, leave, resign, challenge, insert-your-verb-of-choice-here Trinity Church and Jeremiah Wright? Here's the answer, right in the text of Obama's speech: Read More » 
From youngest to oldest, our endorsement on St. Patrick's Day. This is, of course, the message of the Clinton campaign. Hope doesn't pay for $3/gallon gas, hope doesn't pay for medical bills, hope doesn't pay overdue mortgages, hope doesn't fill the prescriptions at the drug store, hope doesn't pay. Bill Clinton restated this again at a campaign stop where he appealed to supporters for -- you guessed it -- hope. Hope that supporters would vote and attend the caucus Tuesday night, hope that Hillary could hold onto her candidacy via the Alamo, hope that her message would resonate with voters. This, from the man who came from the "town called Hope". How sad that ambition springs so eternal that the Clinton campaign would be nothing more than a massive effort to tell voters in this nation that the status quo is all that matters, hope is dead, and screw all the people sacrificing time, effort, money and talent to get that hope message heard, because what really matters is 'experience'. Read More »Hillary Clinton says, "I have experience." Barack Obama says, "I have vision."
Both of them have similar policy ideas. But where they differ is on the question of leadership. As I've been watching the campaigns unfold over the past months, what I see is a consistent pattern of one leading and the other following by imitation. I've taught my kids for years that they shouldn't be offended by imitation but instead count it as flattery and an affirmation that they are thinking creatively and constructively. Read More » Steve Gillmor, host of The Gang and NewsGang podcasts, took note of my post yesterday addressing those who dismiss the fervent, broad-based grass roots support of Barack Obama as a "cult of personality", and invited me onto his NewsGang podcast today to talk about politics and how the web has accelerated the news stream, especially Twitter. You can give it a listen here. Steve is a vocal supporter of Barack Obama and has excellent discussions of politics and tech on the NewsGang every day. I was really honored to be asked and hope I did a decent job of communicating the reasons for our passionate support of Senator Obama's presidential bid. In an op-ed published in the Baltimore Sun yesterday and augmented on the Huffington Post today, Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson argues that Hillary Clinton is the only candidate who can come away from the national election still standing.
He centers his argument on a single exchange of letters between Senator Obama and Senator McCain concerning a bipartisan effort to draft campaign finance reform laws. Unfortunately, his Huffington Post article links to a completely unrelated and somewhat bombastic series of comments relating to an exchange between McCain and Obama on the campaign trail last May, shortly after McCain paid a visit to Iraq and then argued for the 'surge' upon his return. Read More » This is the new American majority. This is what change looks like when it happens from the bottom up. And in this election, your voices will be heard.
Sen Barack Obama, in Madison, WI 2/12/08 The backlash to Barack Obama's momentum is continuing. Paul Krugman accuses Obama supporters of engaging in the 'politics of hate' , a term that has largely been associated with the Nixon/Bush/Rove politicians who tear down, rather than build up. I cannot think of a more gratuitious smear tactic than the one Krugman indulged himself in. Not only is it dishonest, it is an intentional effort to tear down one of the pillars of Barack Obama's campaign -- a different campaign, constructed on issues and hope rather than hate and negativism. A campaign that Bill Clinton wants to characterize as "smoke and mirrors". Read More » If the voters in Washington, Nebraska, Louisiana and the US Virgin Islands are any indication, inspiration and hope are definitely factors when making a decision for a candidate. Still, I see the same old comments every day about how Obama is untested, not substantive, hasn't been specific about how he would lead, what his policies are, or what he would do.
Plain and simple, the folks who say that aren't reading. Or more to the point, they aren't watching, because if they were, they'd understand exactly what his positions on the issues are, exactly how he plans to organize his Presidency, and they'd have a clear idea of whether he would be nothing more than a tax-and-spend fiscal liberal or a progressive thinker with ideas and concrete plans for how to turn around the economy and direction of this country. Read More » If you are an independent voter in LA County and are requesting a ballot to vote for a Democratic candidate, you need to be SURE you mark the EXTRA bubble at the top of the ballot establishing that it's a vote for a Democrat. Why it isn't enough to mark the ballot for a Democratic candidate is beyond me, but there you have it. See the scan below and in particular, #6. If you do not fill in that bubble, your vote for the candidate will not be counted. I could rant and rave about how incredibly stupid it is to have to mark a ballot twice -- once to indicate that you're voting for a Democrat and once to indicate which Democrat you're voting for, but for now, just know you need to do this to be counted. More here.
 When I first heard Barack Obama speak at the 2004 Democratic convention I turned to my kids and told them to watch him now, because one day he would be running for President. Earlier this year, before I'd made up my mind which candidate to support, I confessed to my middle son that as much as I liked Barack Obama, every time I heard him speak, my painful childhood memories of Bobby Kennedy's assassination, JFK's funeral (with little Caroline and John looking on) and Martin Luther King's funeral flooded back. Obama has so many of the same qualities they had - idealism peppered with a dash of realism, hope, an amazing gift for inspiring and mobilizing support, and most of all, practical ideas to begin putting our country back together. He is clearly the right voice at the right time and I knew it. But I was afraid. Read More »
This is an amazing and powerful endorsement, which probably will slip by unnoticed by many Democrats, but not by Republicans. Granddaughter of Dwight D. Eisenhower and lifelong Republican, she writes: Read More »
Back in the day, when you were First Lady and your husband was President, I had enormous respect for you. I couldn't understand why the mere mention of your name would cause otherwise reasonable people to begin foaming at the mouth as though they'd were demon-possessed with some unspeakable evil. When your husband was impeached for philandering, I applauded your backbone in standing by him and working through your marriage in a very, very public arena, instead of walking away when you had every reason to do so.
But Hillary, somewhere between your departure for the last time on Air Force One and your arrival on the scene as The Anointed Democrat, things changed. You changed. I changed. Enduring eight years of George Bush and his minions has left me with zero tolerance for the dirty backroom political gamesmanship, the subversion of the Constitution and the power politics that symbolizes the White House today. Read More » The Senate needs you, needs your leadership. Please take a campaign break and go to Washington to support the fight for a FISA extension that does NOT include immunity for the telcos. This will translate your words into action, because right now the Bush Administration and his cronies in the Senate are posturing toward giving the telcos a complete pass on their illegal spying. The message you will send by returning to Congress tomorrow and voting against cloture will be a strong campaign statement -- that you respect our Constitution and civil rights. Real change needs to begin today -- use your vote. I'm glad to see the South Carolina vote projected so strongly for Barack! I do wish that CNN would analyze the numbers a little differently -- to me, it isn't a case of race trumping gender as much as it is a case of the message trumping all of the external factors like race and gender. Looks like it will be a wonderful outcome! |
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