Lest we forget, here is Caroline Kennedy's endorsement of Barack Obama from January of 2008:
A President Like My FatherBy CAROLINE KENNEDYPublished: January 27, 2008OVER the years, I’ve been deeply moved by the people who’ve told me they wished they could feel inspired and hopeful about America the way people did when my father was president. This sense is even more profound today. That is why I am supporting a presidential candidate in the Democratic primaries, Barack Obama.My reasons are patriotic, political and personal, and the three are intertwined. All my life, people have told me that my father changed their lives, that they got involved in public service or politics because he asked them to. And the generation he inspired has passed that spirit on to its children. I meet young people who were born long after John F. Kennedy was president, yet who ask me how to live out his ideals.Sometimes it takes a while to recognize that someone has a special ability to get us to believe in ourselves, to tie that belief to our highest ideals and imagine that together we can do great things. In those rare moments, when such a person comes along, we need to put aside our plans and reach for what we know is possible.We have that kind of opportunity with Senator Obama. It isn’t that the other candidates are not experienced or knowledgeable. But this year, that may not be enough. We need a change in the leadership of this country — just as we did in 1960.Most of us would prefer to base our voting decision on policy differences. However, the candidates’ goals are similar. They have all laid out detailed plans on everything from strengthening our middle class to investing in early childhood education. So qualities of leadership, character and judgment play a larger role than usual.Senator Obama has demonstrated these qualities throughout his more than two decades of public service, not just in the United States Senate but in Illinois, where he helped turn around struggling communities, taught constitutional law and was an elected state official for eight years. And Senator Obama is showing the same qualities today. He has built a movement that is changing the face of politics in this country, and he has demonstrated a special gift for inspiring young people — known for a willingness to volunteer, but an aversion to politics — to become engaged in the political process.I have spent the past five years working in the New York City public schools and have three teenage children of my own. There is a generation coming of age that is hopeful, hard-working, innovative and imaginative. But too many of them are also hopeless, defeated and disengaged. As parents, we have a responsibility to help our children to believe in themselves and in their power to shape their future. Senator Obama is inspiring my children, my parents’ grandchildren, with that sense of possibility.Senator Obama is running a dignified and honest campaign. He has spoken eloquently about the role of faith in his life, and opened a window into his character in two compelling books. And when it comes to judgment, Barack Obama made the right call on the most important issue of our time by opposing the war in Iraq from the beginning.I want a president who understands that his responsibility is to articulate a vision and encourage others to achieve it; who holds himself, and those around him, to the highest ethical standards; who appeals to the hopes of those who still believe in the American Dream, and those around the world who still believe in the American ideal; and who can lift our spirits, and make us believe again that our country needs every one of us to get involved.I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them. But for the first time, I believe I have found the man who could be that president — not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans.Caroline Kennedy is the author of “A Patriot’s Handbook: Songs, Poems, Stories and Speeches Celebrating the Land We Love.”
http://www.youtube.com/v/4FCNKwHRCQM
Smear emails like this one have been going around the Internet for months, and every word of them is manipulative and false. The truth is, Barack Obama is a committed Christian, and faith plays an important role in his life and the lives of his wife and daughters. He has never held any other faith.The YouTube video this smear cites has been heavily edited. For the transcript of Senator Obama's original speech, please click here:http://obama.senate.gov/speech/060628-call_to_renewal/Shameful shadowy smear emails started by anonymous attackers lie about Barack’s faith to create division and distrust in a time when we need to come together. Preying on cynicism and people's worst instincts is the worst kind of appeal to hate and fear, and it should have no place in our elections.There's no way to stop all of the dangerous, misleading viral emails, but together we can take the political process back from the cynical politics of fear. And we can all start by spreading the truth about Barack Obama. Start by heading to Fight the Smears, where you can find out the truth about a wide range of attacks on Barack:
http://www.fightthesmears.com Learn more about Barack's position on faith: http://www.barackobama.com/issues/faith/ And learn more about Barack's own faith: http://fightthesmears.com/articles/3/baracksfaith Here are a few facts about Barack Obama and his faith: * Barack has spoken often about his Christian faith: "I learned that my sins could be redeemed. I learned that those things I was too weak to accomplish myself, He would accomplish with me if I placed my trust in Him.… kneeling beneath that cross on the South Side, I felt I heard God's spirit beckoning me. I submitted myself to His will, and dedicated myself to discovering His truth and carrying out His works."
http://www.barackobama.com/2007/06/23/a_politics_of_conscience_1.php
* Barack Obama has been endorsed by a number of prominent Christian leaders, including Brian McLaren and Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell. A group of pastors has also praised Obama for standing up for American families and addressing social justice concerns:
http://features.csmonitor.com/politics/2008/08/21/new-christian-group-airs-ads-%E2%80%93-for-obama/
* Other Christian leaders have announced they are supporting Barack Obama, and you can watch their video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eUkc9GCMEQ
* Barack believes faith can be a powerful force to help those who need it most. As President, he will establish a Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships to help churches and religious groups provide much-needed social services in their communities:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/02/us/politics/02obama.html?_r=1&ref=politics&oref=sloginPlease forward this to anyone you know who has received hateful smear emails about Barack. Together we can make sure these negative and divisive attacks don't affect this election.
Does anyone have any ideas about how I should answer inquiries like this one:
"I am not a US citizen, but is there anything that we can do to help the Obama campaign in/from the UK?"
I am inclined to request prayers. Any other ideas?
Thanks.
Mike Underwood
Tallahassee, Florida USA
Just in case anyone hasn't heard, the party tonight to watch Barack's acceptance speech is at The Moon, 1105 E Lafayette St. in Tallahassee followed by an after party at Waterworks, 1133 Thomasville Road. At least that's all I know about. Please comment if you know of more.
I know I promised to send you a friend request on this website, but I can't find your profile! You must be set up under a user name like "Cool Patriotic Person Who Has Just Moved Back to Tallahassee" or something. Please get in touch.
I'm encouraging everyone I know to donate $10 to the campaign -- today!!
Let's show Barack, Michelle and all the campaign workers who are out there tirelessly and tenaciously (and POSITIVELY) working for the good of America that we SUPPORT them!!
Even if it's a small donation - let's make a statement!
YES WE CAN!
http://my.barackobama.com/page/outreach/view/main/rmunderwood
This is just too great. Please let me share it with you. I've posted on my blog here and elsewhere that Michelle Obama is appearing at a fundraiser in Tallahassee next Wednesday morning (4/9/08). Because I am as clueless as the next guy about computers, I didn't realize that the Obama website would designate me the "host" and send payments for tickets to my fundraising page. In fact, I am not on the host committee and I have no tickets to sell. After my page had received $500 in payments and another $400 in pledges I figured out what had happened. I emailed everyone and asked them to cancel those payments and get the contributions to the real hosts. It is all straightened out now (I hope), but one contributor declined to cancel their $250 contribution to my "Christmas Fundraising Campaign" (now far over its fundraising target) and just gave another $250 for a ticket to the host committee. I also got this incredible message:
"What the heck! I really do believe in him. . . . The interesting thing for me about Obama is what he inspires in me, and how I see small but powerful changes in the people around me . . . Maybe it was a mistake on my part on the internet, but in doing so [it makes me] reach out in small ways - helping an older woman at the grocery store load her bags into her trunk - and I do this because I sense that I'm part of a sea change. That there is real reason to hope again. So, I'm grateful for the opportunity - thanks for making it available to me!"
For my part, I have never seen anything like this. Dare I say, I sense victory?
Michelle Obama will be in Tallahassee, Florida at The Moon, 1105 E Lafayette Street on Wednesday, April 9, 2008, for a coffee, running approximately from 11 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. The host committee is offering tickets at three price levels: $250, $125 and, for students with a valid ID, $40. The $250 tickets are for admission to the ground floor, where the speaker's platform will be, while the $125 tickets and the student tickets are for the balcony. Send checks to Don Hinkle, Hinkle & Foran, 1545 Raymond Diehl Road, Suite 150, Tallahassee, Fl 32308. For student tickets contact Andrew Gilliam at gilluma@gmail.com. If you need to use a credit card, please call Don's assistant, Patti Liedy at (850) 205-2055 and she will fax or e-mail you a donation form.
This is an excellent opportunity to galvanize and energize support in the Florida Big Bend area. This is also a testament to how successful Tallahassee was in showing that support on Barack's two visits last year. We need a good turnout so our area will continue to be a stop heading into the Fall. Of course, we also need to bring in new support to ensure that Barack Obama is the Democratic nominee and the next President of the United States!
Barack Obama had a theory. It was that the voters are tired of the partisan paralysis of the past 20 years. The theory was that if Obama could inspire a grass-roots movement with a new kind of leadership, he could ride it to the White House and end gridlock in Washington.
Obama has built his entire campaign on this theory. He’s run against negativity and cheap-shot campaigning. He’s claimed that there’s an “awakening” in this country — people “hungry for a different kind of politics.”
This message has made him the front-runner. It has brought millions of new voters into politics. It has given him grounds to fend off attacks. In debate after debate, he has accused Hillary Clinton and others of practicing the old kind of politics. When he was under assault in South Carolina, he rose above the barrage and made the Clintons look sleazy.
Yet at different times during this election, he’s been told to get off the white horse and start fighting. In the current issue of Time magazine, Michael Duffy and Nancy Gibbs report on a meeting that took place in Chicago last Labor Day. All of Obama’s experienced advisers told him: “You gotta get down, get dirty, get tough.”
Obama refused. He argued that if he did that, the entire basis for his campaign would evaporate. “If I gotta kneecap her,” he said, “I’m not gonna go there.”
Now, the Obama campaign is facing another test. There are a few ways to interpret the losses in Texas and Ohio. One is demographic. He didn’t carry the groups he often has trouble with — white women, Latinos, the less educated. The other is tactical. Clinton attacked him, and the attacks worked.
The consultants, needless to say, gravitate toward the tactical interpretation. And once again the cry has gone up for Obama to get tough. This advice gets wrapped in metaphors. Obama has to start “throwing punches” or “taking the gloves off.”
Beneath the euphemisms, what the advice really means is that Obama has to start accusing Clinton of things.
This time, Obama, whose competitive juices are flowing, has apparently accepted the advice. The Obama campaign is now making a big issue of Hillary Clinton’s tax returns and dropping hints about donations to President Clinton’s library and her secret White House papers. It’s willing to launch an ethics assault. “If Senator Clinton wants to take the debate to various places, we’ll join that debate,” the Obama strategist David Axelrod told reporters the other day.
These attacks are supposed to show that Obama can’t be pushed around. But, of course, what it really suggests is that Obama’s big theory is bankrupt. You can’t really win with the new style of politics. Sooner or later, you have to play by the conventional rules.
The Obama people seem to have persuaded themselves they can go on the attack, but in the right way. They can be tough and keep their virginity, too. But there are more than five long months between now and the convention.
Unless they consciously reject conventional politics, the accusations will build on each other. The BlackBerries will buzz. The passions will rise. The Obama forces will see hints of Clinton corruption all around, and they’ll accuse and accuse again. The war will begin to take control, and once you’re halfway through you can’t suddenly surrender because it’s become too rough.
And the Clinton people will draw them every step of the way. Clinton can’t compete on personality, but a knife fight is her only real hope of victory. She has nothing to lose because she never promised to purify America. Her campaign doesn’t depend on the enthusiasm of upper-middle-class goo-goos. On Thursday, a Clinton aide likened Obama to Ken Starr just to badger them on.
As the trench warfare stretches on through the spring, the excitement of Obama-mania will seem like a distant, childish mirage. People will wonder if Obama ever believed any of that stuff himself. And even if he goes on to win the nomination, he won’t represent anything new. He’ll just be a one-term senator running for president.
In short, a candidate should never betray the core theory of his campaign, or head down a road that leads to that betrayal. Barack Obama doesn’t have an impressive record of experience or a unique policy profile. New politics is all he’s got. He loses that, and he loses everything. Every day that he looks conventional is a bad day for him.
Besides, the real softness of the campaign is not that Obama is a wimp. It’s that he has never explained how this new politics would actually produce bread-and-butter benefits to people in places like Youngstown and Altoona.
If he can’t explain that, he’s going to lose at some point anyway.
Just in case anybody hasn't seen this. Also recommended is Frank Rich on Hillary's W-like Hallmark Channel fiasco.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/11/opinion/11kristol.html?_r=1&WT.mc_id=GN-P-E-FB-WI-TXT-ME1-X-X-0000-NA&WT.mc_ev=click&oref=slogin
