Traditions can be broken, and traditions will be broken !!! Those voices that say that our votes won't matter better hash. North Carlina has been a red states since the 60's, but maybe the fact that people believed that their votes wouldn't matter contributed significantly to the fact that North Carolina remained republican for so long.
However, CNN's latest poll differed from most polls, but when you look at CNN's history you will see that they were the ones that noticed significant changes before anybody else did. CNN's latest polls indidated that NORTH CAROLINA WILL BE A BATTLEGROUND STATE FOR THIS YEAR'S PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS. The poll showed McCain leading with 48%, Obama had 47%.
Good job everybody that contributed in any way to this change. This should keep us even more motivated here in NC. We need to talk to our neighbors, we need to talk to our friends, we need to be aware of the issues so that we can be persuasive and convincing. This year, every vote in North Carolina will matter. And if we can win this state, I don't see how McCain will be able to make up for this. Spread the news !!!
The republican convention last weekend in St. Paul was a phenomenon. We saw thousands of people cheering to politicians that really did not reveal any points of their agenda, but based their entire strategy on patriotism, old values, and attacks on the democratic nominee for President. After watching most of the GOP convention, I came to the conclusion that this event was indeed a “bridge to nowhere.”
The slogan of the convention was “country first,” a slogan that implies that someone else does not put his country first and a very hypocritical statement. Is McCain arguing that Obama does not put his country first? Is he saying that the only reason Obama is running for President is for his own personal benefit? Well, it sure seems that he does, but even if not, Sarah Palin definitely did explicitly say that “there is only one candidate in this race that puts in country first, and that is Senator John McCain.” Not only is this an insult to a man that went into community service after graduating from Harvard and having a lot of opportunities to make ten times as much money somewhere else, it is also controversial. If anybody in this race does put himself over his country it would have to be John McCain. First of all, he changed a dozen of his personal agendas to fit those of the Republican Party in order to get support from traditional republican voters. He used to be against offshore drilling, he used to favor the Hurricane Katrina Investigations, and he changed his position on social security privatization. On almost every major issue he now stands with the republican strategies, which is a clear indicator that he puts his career first.
Furthermore, McCain’s campaign used to base all of their arguments on the theory that Obama is just too inexperienced to lead. McCain also said that he would pick a Vice President that is most capable of leading in case of his death. He picked a two year governor, who is younger and has less experience than Obama does. Either McCain was wrong about Obama being too inexperienced, or he did not pick the most capable leader for his VP ticket. Republicans are now arguing that Palin has more experience than Obama because she is a governor. Palin, however, has been dealing only with issues of the state of Alaska, and she has done so only for the last two years. Obama has been dealing with nationwide and international issues for the last twelve years. The republicans are trying to escape this logical fallacy in a very cheap manner.
Every speaker at the convention was talking about change. The idea to bring change to Washington by electing the Republicans is not only ridiculous, the slogan is simply stolen. Obama’s campaign slogan has been “Change” ever since he started campaigning in the primaries. So now the Republicans bring about change? Repeatedly it has been said that the liberal government is responsible of the mistakes made in the past years. Well, the Executive has been conservative since 2000, our Supreme Court has a conservative majority, and until 2006 Congress was conservative as well. Who are those liberals in the government? Seriously, bringing change to Washington by electing the party that has been running Washington for the last eight years is as ridiculous as using the wrong size wrench on a car and refusing to change the wrench. “If I try long enough, it might just change and fit.”
“It’s not that Obama doesn’t care, he doesn’t get it” was another stolen slogan from republican speakers at the convention. Word by word this is exactly what Obama said about McCain at the democratic convention in Denver. Every college would consider such an act plagiarism and reward it with an “F.” Untrue statements about Obama wanting to raise taxes for most Americans, never reaching across the aisle to work with republicans, and giving oil companies social welfare benefits are supposed to attract voters? It is very easy to research these issues and find out that they are sheerly not true.
Change will only come if we elect a new government. How can McCain’s campaign expect people to believe in them bringing change to the White House when they started lying now already? How can we think anything will change if we pursue the same old policies and the same old agenda? How can we believe McCain’s slogan “country first”, which to me is a self evident requirement for any politician, when he changes his position to comply more with republican strategies in order to get their support? Whereas Sarah Palin was using her refusal to have the federal government build a bridge to a local community in Alaska in order to advertise her strength to the American Public, she was actually supporting that bridge when she was running for Governor. She simply ‘changed’ her position after she was elected. So with this considered her only “bridge to nowhere” would have to be her appearances in public as well as the entire republican national convention.
I could not believe what I heard when I read today’s newspapers and listened to the media. I was convinced that Sarah Palin’s speech last night would be ripped into pieces by everyone: the media, democrats, and indecisive and independent voters. For some reason today’s headlines are filled with comments of a “great speech of the republican nominee for Vice President.”
Sarah Palin has previously and unfairly been attacked by the media with statements that questioned her ability to rule the country due to having five children, one of whom has a disability. The media was on her for having a pregnant teenage daughter. All these accusations have nothing to do with politics and I was convinced she would use the opportunity last night to introduce herself to the nation, counter those mean media attacks, and introduce her agenda more in detail to eliminate the notion that she was too inexperienced. However, Palin’s speech consisted mainly of accusations and mocking of presidential candidate Barack Obama, half of which were sheer untrue statements designed to create misconceptions.
Palin made fun of Barack Obama for serving the Chicago community after graduating from Harvard University. Obama had all the opportunities in the world after he graduated but he decided to work for what he believes in: he helped the less fortunate community and earned only 12,000 Dollars a year. Whereas this service should earn the deepest respect for the democratic nominee even among Republicans, the Alaskan governor decided that Obama’s dedication is worth just a mock.
Palin said that the republican strategy to become independent of foreign oils by drilling offshore might not be the best one, but it is by far better than no strategy at all. Well I agree with her there, but did she even listen to Obama’s plan for energy independence? Is she not aware of the vast investments that Obama wants to put into alternative energies? Does she not know that there are other methods of producing energy such as hydrogen cars that are just too expensive to afford? And does she not acknowledge that every energy expert in the country including the U.S. Energy Department says that energy independence is more likely to be reached by using alternative energies than by offshore drilling? She forgot to mention that the U.S. has an approximate 18 billion barrels of oil beneath its surface but uses about 9 billion a year. Her only agenda is to lead Americans into a misconception, nothing else.
Palin argued that the liberal government is the reason why terrorists in Guantanamo Bay now have to be read their rights. Again, she is trying to lead Americans into a misconception. The reason why prisoners in Guantanamo Bay now have the right to be represented by in court and actually start having rights is because we like to separate the guilty from the innocent. Just like in our society, we have to prove people guilty before we can take actions against them. So far, all it took to imprison a person in Guantanamo Bay was a suspicion. We did not need “proof beyond reasonable doubt”, somebody points a finger at a person in Afghanistan, Pakistan, or Iraq and we imprison them in Guantanamo, expose them to interrogation methods that are considered torture by the Geneva convention and the International Community, and if they turn out to be innocent (which happened a lot in the past), we just say “Sorry, my bad.” Terrorists should face a tough agenda in prison and should be punished for their deeds, but exposing innocent people to our punishments without any rights will only create more anti-Americanism and will lead to less national security. On top of that, Palin’s indication that Guantanamo detainees should not have those rights is a clear violation of the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and of our value of equality.
There are tons of examples I could take from her speech, but keeping it brief this is the conclusion we can draw from her appearance. Instead of letting the American people know more about herself and her agenda, almost everything Palin said at the Republican Convention was aimed to attack Barack Obama. Whereas I believe that this strategy itself is not a very good one in the first place, the fact that she is bending the truth and in some cases telling straight lies makes matters much worse. Not only is she trying to lead Americans into misconceptions on every major issue, she is mocking Barack Obama and telling Americans that Obama is only running for President for his personal benefit. Yesterday night, Sarah Palin has proven to me that she is far from being ready to lead: her agenda is entirely based on misleading statements and offenses against her counterparts, and her character is rather radical, offensive, and exhibits no leadership skill whatsoever.
In recent weeks, the margin between John McCain and Barack Obama seemed to become smaller. Obama was leading by approximately 8 percent, but McCain could tie the race. However, the decision to pick Sarah Palin as running mate will cost McCain the presidency.
So what’s wrong with the governor of Alaska? Nothing – that is exactly the point. Barack Obama’s agenda for the next four years finds a higher approval rate than John McCain’s on just about every possible issue. McCain’s plans for offshore drilling are proven not to be a short term nor a long term solution to our energy crisis whereas Obama’s plans seem more promising to most Americans; Americans have more faith in Obama’s plans to restore the U.S. economy than in McCain’s ability to make a difference; McCain’s plans to stay in Iraq for as long as it will take worry Americans because the cost of the war are killing the U.S. economy. Obama leads just about every poll in the United States with the exception of being Commander in Chief. Even though Obama’s plans seem to make more sense than those of McCain’s, Americans are worried by Obama’s young age and relative inexperience. The main reason why independent voters tended more toward McCain is no longer valid. Sarah Palin is not only younger than Obama is, her political career, also, is younger. Thus, she has even less experience.
Some arguments as to why Palin supposedly has more experience than Obama are sheer nonsense. Some republican analysts argued that on top of her two years of being governor of Alaska, she also has executive experience being the mayor of her hometown before she started governing the state. Her hometown has approximately 5,000 inhabitants, and if this would qualify her to be President of the United States, the mayor of Mount Airy should have even better chances to win the vice presidency. Furthermore, Fox news countered the statements of Palin lacking experience in foreign affairs by saying that she is governor of Alaska, a state that is only a few miles away from Russia and that she has a son that is about to be deployed to Iraq. With all due respect for her son enlisting in the United States Army, none of these facts give her any credentials in foreign affairs.
I am not arguing that Sarah Palin will make a bad Vice President due to her lack of experience. I am only suggesting that the argument of Barack Obama not having enough experience to be Commander in Chief is no longer valid. After all, the main reason of having a Vice President is that he or she can take over if something should happen to the President. Accordingly, the argument that Palin is only number two on the ticket is also not valid.
During Palin’s first appearance as McCain choice for Vice President she said that women of America do have a choice to get a woman in the White House after all. This statement was an insult to many Hillary-supporters. It suggests that the only reason why Hillary enjoyed such tremendous popularity was the fact that she was female. Clinton was standing up for women’s rights, equal social standard and equal pay when working the same job. Hillary had a pro choice agenda and did a lot for women across the country. Palin on the other hand opposes everything Hillary Clinton stands for. Appealing to Hillary supporters to vote for Palin instead of Barack Obama gives the impression of Hillary being nothing but an object – a Lego block which you can exchange a blue one for a red one and it won’t make a difference.
The race is still close and most conservatives will remain backing John McCain and Sarah Palin, especially since Palin is extremely conservative. Barack Obama’s supporter on the other hand will remain firmly behind his agenda. The decision to put Sarah Palin on the ticket will mainly bring Hillary-supporters behind Obama and contribute to giving indecisive voters less of a reason not to vote Barack Obama. After all, he does have the better vision for this country.
At the beginning of the interview, Pastor Rick Warren told the audience that they had flipped a coin to determine which one of the candidates would be interviewed first, and since Barack Obama was to go first, Senator John McCain would be placed in a “cone of silence” where he would not be able to hear any of the questions that he would later be exposed to. After a great interview between Obama and Warren, John McCain appeared on the stage, the two candidates shook hands, and Warren asked McCain if the “cone of silence” had been comfortable, to which McCain responded “I was trying to hear through the wall.”
As it turns out now, John McCain was not even in the building at the time Warren was interviewing Obama. He was on his way to the church. He was in a car during the interview with Barack Obama which was broadcasted live on several TV channels and radio stations. I have a lot of respect for John McCain as a veteran and a U.S. Senator. He has done a lot for this country and I will not accuse him of cheating. But isn’t it fair to ask why Rick Warren told the audience that John McCain was placed in a “cone of silence” when indeed he was not? Isn’t it fair to ask why he mentioned flipping a coin to determine which candidate would go first when indeed only one candidate was there to choose from? Doesn’t it make you wonder why John McCain was asking if they would get back to the Supreme Court Justices when that question was not yet asked?
This video shows CNN’s Rick Sanchez interviewing Rick Warren and asking him about the issue: http://thepoliticalcarnival.blogspot.com/2008/08/video-pastor-rick-confirms-mccain-not.html
This link takes you to an article of today’s issue of New York Times talking about this issue: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/18/us/politics/18mccain.html?ref=politics
A spokeswomen for John McCain said “the insinuation from the Obama campaign that John McCain, a former prisoner of war, cheated is outrages.” Again, without accusing anybody of anything, I think it is only fair to ask those questions. After all, the rules were clearly stated but not adhered to. But of course a Republican politician would never lie to the public.
The ultimate source of this John McCain ad was Senator Obama’s appearance in Berlin during his trip to Europe and the Middle East. More than 200,000 people showed up too see him speak and cheered as they waved American flags. I would like to share my point of view in regard to why Barack Obama enjoys so much popularity among Europeans.
First, let me briefly introduce myself. I am a German citizen and legal resident of North Carolina. I moved to this great country because I believe in its values as I believe in the opportunities it gives to its residents. I am a college student and I am trying to receive a Masters degree in International Relations and Foreign Affairs. I do not intend on moving back to Europe, and I hope to become a naturalized American citizen.
Anybody that has traveled to Europe within the last two decades will agree that American popularity has suffered substantially throughout the entire continent (with the few exceptions of some Eastern European countries that recently joined the European Union and had to U.S. to thank for its support). Whereas America used to be considered a respected global companion, many Germans now strongly resent America’s policy shift from “protector” to “aggressor.” This is what happened to me. Before I immigrated to the U.S. in 2007, I vigorously defended American policies. I trusted the intelligence and optic of this great nation. Unfortunately, I too, was let down as recently released U.S. intelligence and Senate reports revealed. We now know that Iraq did not possess any weapons of mass destruction, and we know that there was no link between Saddam Hussein and the perpetrators of 9/11.
However, what I also realized through these discussions with my German friends is that, despite their aversions to President Bush’s foreign policy, they still like Americans. The positive feelings that developed after World War II, where Americans were seen as liberators and as an optimistic simple people with good morals and well intentions, still exists. Indeed, Americans are known for their generosity and their courtesy. Where I grew up, several major American military bases meant we shared our habitat with many Americans. Restaurants, guest houses, and pubs used to be filled with countrymen from both nations, who enthusiastically bonded with one another. These feelings of camaraderie culminated after 9/11 when Europeans expressed their empathy for the American people by willingly sending troops to Afghanistan to support the U.S.
However, this empathy was quickly transformed into disappointment. In fact, the shift in European perception towards the United States is simply the result of a desecration of what we think of as American values. Americans are supposed to be the good guys, the protectors. They are not supposed to wage war against a country without the legitimacy of the U.N. Security Council. They are not supposed to have wrong intelligence about a country, and they are not supposed to wage war on it for the wrong reason. Americans are not supposed to use interrogation methods that are considered torture by the Geneva Conventions which the U.S. usually enforces in any other country that violates them. And Americans are not supposed to imprison people indefinitely without either representation or allowing the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) to access the prisons as is demanded by international law for prisoners of war.
When Europeans see Barack Obama, they see old American values come back to life. Obama’s promise for change includes a change in respect towards the European allies of the United States, and change in how America will fight the global war on terrorism. Obama’s popularity then has a reason. As Europeans and Americans have the same global interests in terms of stability, security, and economical progress, Barack Obama appears to be the bond to reunite Europeans and Americans. Europeans cherish American values, but disagree with recent policies that have violated human rights and the Geneva Convention, and disregarded the U.N. Security Council as well as most of its allies. Europeans see the effort of creating a better world as a combined endeavor of all Western nations. Furthermore, they want the United States to lead this global effort, but they do not want a single nation to run this endeavor by itself and they definitely do not want a nation to break the rules that it once established and enforced in a global effort to create a better world.
The reason why Obama enjoys such extreme popularity is simply because he is a great candidate. He promises the change this country needs so direly whether it is in terms of the U.S. economy, in terms of the global war on terror, or in terms of environmental issues and oil dependency. The presidential elections 2008 are by far more than the election of a national leader. The outcome of this election will have a substantial effect on the rest of the world as the U.S. Economy and American foreign policies significantly impact the global market and international politics. As citizens of this great country, we have the responsibility not only to make a good decision, but also to go to the polls in November and make that decision count.
A lot of the false accusation that are circling about Barack Obama find their origin at Fox News. What most people don't realize that Fox News is one of the most biased news channels not only in the United States but in the entire Western hemisphere. Fox News does not only appear more biased than any other news station, the channel also broadcasts untrue statements which they might revoke sometime late at night when nobody is watching. One example is the origin of the statement that Barack Obama attended a Madrassa (radical Muslim school) in his teenager years, which has been aired on Fox News and by now is clearly shown to be false, but is still stuck in the minds of thousands of potential voters.
Research the candidates, get as much information on both of them as you can, but disregard Fox News. Forward this link: http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1067 ( a .org website) to anyone that you think might trust this news station.
It is just like Barack Obama has stated it in one of his speeches: the only working republican strategy right now is to spread fear among Americans. Fear that Obama's change will make things worse, fear that his inexperience will cost us defeat in the war on terror, and fear the Obama will raise taxes which would have severe economical implications. McCain's reaction to Obama's speech were accusations of playing the "race card". The entire McCain campaign is absolutely rediculous right now. Not only does he have no clue how to change our foreign policies to a better or turn the regressing economy around, he also has no clue how to counter Barack Obama's statements. Unfortunately, there are still a lot of people out there who actually believe McCain's words. I strongly believe that a President McCain in 2009 would have severe implications for this country.
Here's an interesting factor: The Sunni Awakening
John McCain claimed that if the United States would have acted according to Barack Obama's agenda in regard to the surge in Iraq, the progression we are seing today would not have occured. He sees the Sunni Awakening in the Anbar province as a result of the reenforcement of U.S. troops in the spring of 2007. Here is where it does not add up: the Sunni awakening in the Anbar province started in the summer of 2006; almost a year before the surge.
But it gets even more interesting: the Sunni awakening is the commonly known name for the turn of the Sunni tribal leaders in Iraq against Al Qaida. After the Iraqi invasion by U.S. troops and after Al Qaida militants streamed into the country, the Sunnis saw the United States as well as Al Qaida as enemies occupying their home country. They then became allies of Al Qaida in order to get rid of the more unpopular non-Muslim occupant force. However, after Al Qaida started imposing their fundamentalist social norms onto Iraq, interfering with smuggeling revenues of the Sunnis and declaring the establishment of an Islamic state of Iraq in 2006, the Sunni realized that Al Qaida might not be the perfect ally. Then a very significant event occured: the message of the Democratic Party taking over congress and the United States presumably leaving Iraq soon made its round among the Sunnis in Iraq. The idea that the U.S. occupation was not to be open ended but might come to an end soon led many more Sunnis to turn against Al Qaida and rather work with a temporary occupation force than terrorists. The fear of being helpless against the terror group also encouraged Sunni tribes to achieve fast progress.
Here's what Colonel Sean MacFarland (Commander of the U.S. forces in Ramadi at the time) said: "A growing concern that the U.S. would leave Iraq and leave the Sunnis defenseless against Al Qaida and Iranian supported militias made these younger leaders open to our overtures."
In short: not only had the surge not much to do with the Sunni Awakening, it was rather the message of democrats taking over congress that led to the progress in Iraq than any republican strategy !!!
Sources: CNN, BBC, Foreign Affairs (July/August edition - was printed before McCain's claims). Research it !!!
I admit, at first i was a little skeptic about Barack Obama's candidacy mainly because of his fairly new appearance on the political scene. I was worried about him lacking experience. But now I can confidently say that Barack Obama would make a great President. Not only does he have great ideas and visions for the future of this country, he does have the leadership potential he needs for this position.
After the 9/11 attack the entire world stood behind the U.S. and was ready and willing to help fight the source of the attack. Barely ever do you see this kind of unity among countries. Yet, somehow the current administration managed to destroy this unity, go to war "with the wrong country", disregard the United Nation Security Council and the International Community, and alienate the U.S. from the rest of the world. Anyone that travels a lot will have to agree with me by saying that there has been a major shift in U.S. popularity within the last five years, and it was not a good shift. Even though this is not about being popular abroad, we have to admit that the U.S. has made mistakes, and other countries were right about Iraq not possessing WMDs and not being linked to the 9/11 attacks. We now have proof of that. The U.S. senate has released an intelligence report that states that not only was the administration wrong about Iraq, they also appear to have known all along that they were not speaking the truth.
John McCain is not George Bush. I believe that McCain's ideas for this country are better than George Bush's. However, he does not bring about a significant change. The impact of change that McCain promises is just not big enough. He does not want to end the war in Iraq as soon as it is anyhow possible without endangering the internal security of the country, he does not want to change current interrogation methods used in Guantanamo that violate Genever Conventions, he does not want to change current methods for detaining terror suspects (suspects, not terrorists) indefinetely without representation, and he does not appear to have policies that will have a positive impact on the weak U.S. economy.
There are a lot of more issues that Barack Obama will just be able to handle better. Unfortunately, a lot of people do not know this. A lot of people base their decision on who to vote for entirely on rumors. It is amazing to see how many people's mind you can change just by bringing them some truth. Barack Hussein Obama is not Iraqi, nor is he Muslim. He is not Kenian either. A lot of people don't even realize that someone that has been born a different citizenship can't run for President. Obama scares people for whatever reason. It is one of the tactics that some republican devotees use. Barack Obama did not attend a madrassa (thanks Fox News !!!), and he is not envolved with Al Qaida. Good god people, open your eyes.
It is people like you and me that can open the eyes of other people, just by talking to them, being open to different opinions, listening, and arguing rationally. I am always open for opposing opinions, but so far none of them could change my mind and I am petty sure none of them ever will. We need Barack Obama, we need him to be President, and we need to spread the word. We need people to understand that you don't have to vote republican because you are Christian (I'm Christian), we need people to understand that Barack Obama does not pose a threat and that he actually is a very good and talented candidate. I think he has the potential to be a historical President (not because of his skin color, that really does not matter), but he needs to be elected first. I know it can be tough sometimes to talk about politics to certain people, but if we don't do it then those people might never learn the truth. Let's talk about politics folks; let's help Barack Obama become the next President of the United States.
