This post by Andrew Sullivan on The Atlantic's website yesterday says it all....
Think about what the Palin pick really says about how McCain views this campaign and how he views his potential responsibilities in national security.
Think about what it says about the sincerity of McCain's own central criticism of Obama these past two months in foreign affairs.
Think about how he picked a woman to be a heartbeat away from a war presidency who hadn't even thought much, by her own admission, about the Iraq war as late as 2007.
Think about how he made this decision barely knowing the woman.
Think about the fact that the most McCain could say about his potential war-time vice-president in foreign affairs and national security when selecting her is that she commanded Alaska's National Guard as governor and has a son in the military.
Think about the men and women serving this country who have every right to trust that their potential commander-in-chief, whatever their party, would have some record of even interest in foreign policy before assuming office.
Think about how the key factor in this decision was not who could defend this country were something dreadful happen to McCain in office but how to tread as much on Obama's convention bounce and use women's equality as a wedge issue among Democrats because it might secure a few points here or there. Oh, and everyone would be surprised. And even Rove would be annoyed.
This is his sense of honor and judgment. This is his sense of responsibility and service.
Here's the real slogan the McCain campaign should now adopt:
Putting. Country. Last.
I'd like to share Steve Almond's letter from The Huffington Post yesterday as I wholeheartedly agree with his comments. -Stephanie
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Dear Barack,
I know you're on vacation, so I'll keep this brief.
Last week, John McCain previewed his election strategy, otherwise known as slanderpalooza. The MSM did what they always do, which is to serve as a bullhorn for the lies, rather than an antidote. McCain's poll numbers went up.
Let me put this bluntly: you're going to lose this thing if you don't strike back with genuine moral outrage. You're going to get typecast. It's already happening. Every time you try to dignify slander by answering in that reasonable tone of voice it happens a little more.
I get that you're worried out about appearing "too angry," lest you rile up our nation of closet bigots. But just step back for a second: McCain has called you a traitor and a lightweight and a racial whiner. He's trying to turn this into a brawl, because that's his only chance. And you know what? The media is in the tank with him on this. They want a brawl, too. This is why they publicized the unconscionable smears against Gore and Kerry.
The reason those two guys lost is because they failed to accept the underlying dynamics of political coverage in this cruel and frantic age. They got mugged in broad daylight and reacted with careful statements and disgusted sighs. If John Kerry had simply turned to Dubya during a debate and called him a poor little rich boy coward who got his daddy to keep him of the war, he'd have crushed that little turd. But he didn't.
So you've got two choices here. You either punch the bully, or you get punched. If you're defending yourself, you're losing. You need to start releasing ads that show Americans McCain's own words and deeds.
And for God's sake debate the guy. Remember: you cream him on policy. So get on a stage with that doddering coot and force him to explain why he said we'd be out of Iraq in months, and why he wants to extend Bush's tax cuts for millionaires, and why he's lying to Americans about off-shore drilling bringing gas prices down. And ask him why Americans should trust him when he's beholden to big oil. And why they should trust him with economic issues given his involvement with the Keating Five. These are all parts of his political record, Barack. He should have to answer these questions. The media isn't going to make him. You have to. The voters will love it. They've been waiting years for Strong and Right to vanquish Strong and Wrong.
And if McCain slanders you in a debate (he will) don't act all cool and collected. Look him in the eye and tell him he's full of shit. Say it however you like, but say it like you mean it. If he starts whining - and conservatives always whine when they get smacked - call him a whiner.
It's a rotten thing to face, but there's no high road here. If you want to save this country from the misrule of venal operatives, you're going to have to allow moral outrage to be the source of your eloquence. I'm sorry to say it's not enough to be smart and compassionate. You're going to have to get tough to rescue us. So roll up your sleeves, Senator, and hit this guy hard, over and over, with the truth. It's your best and only chance.
Hoping you figure it out before the next idiot news cycle,
Steve
------------------
The Obama we don't know: deli man SUN-TIMES EXCLUSIVE | Behind the stump speech: summer jobs, college debt July 20, 2008Recommend (19) BY LYNN SWEET Sun-Times Columnist As part of their stump speeches, Sen. Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, rely often on their life stories, how they came from modest means, rarely adding new details about their early years even after months of campaigning. Read on, because for the first time, the Obamas have decided to share how they paid for their Ivy League educations and the jobs they held while in school.On the campaign trail, I've heard them both often lament about how, back in the day, money was tight and their loans for their undergraduate years and Harvard Law School were never paid off until after Obama signed a $1.9 million book deal in 2004. Click to enlarge image Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., speaks on his Iraq policy during a news conference in Fargo, N.D., Thursday, July 3, 2008. (AP) And recently, Obama came out with a spot where a narrator talks about how "he worked his way through college and Harvard Law," a claim that reminded me how much there is to know about Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, since he never talks about jobs he held as a student and didn't write about them in his memoir.So what's the record? As a high school student, Obama's first job was at a Baskin-Robbins ice cream store. He also has mentioned he worked construction. And we know about the famous summer job between his second and third years of law school at Sidley Austin in Chicago, where he met Michelle, who was already at the firm. The summer before, Obama worked at Hopkins & Sutter, a law firm in Chicago.Here's what we know for the first time, with information passed on from the Obama campaign in response to my inquiries: As a college student at Occidental in Southern California, Obama returned home to Hawaii the summer after freshman year to sell island trinkets in a gift shop. Obama also had a summertime job at a deli counter in Hawaii -- making sandwiches. Once in New York to attend Columbia, one summer Obama worked for a private company holding a contract to process health records of either police or firefighters; I'm not sure exactly what he did. During one school year at Columbia, Obama was a telemarketer in midtown Manhattan selling New York Times subscriptions over the phone, wearing a headset. He did not like the job because "he worried that some of the people he called couldn't really afford the subscription."Michelle Robinson Obama worked at what was known then as Bob Goldman's Book Bindery in 1980-1981 while a Whitney Young High School student in Chicago.Once at Princeton, she worked for all four undergraduate years at the Third World Center o n campus, part of a paid work-study program where she started a child care program. During the summers of 1982, 1983 and 1985, she was employed at the Chicago-based American Medical Association as an assistant to the executive director. She was a typist and helped prepare materials for the big AMA fall meeting.But the summer of 1984 brought a new experience for Michelle: She was a camp counselor at the Fresh Air Fund (Camp ABC) in New York state, working with campers from the city.After her first year at Harvard Law, she was a summer associate at the old Chadwell & Keiser law firm in Chicago. The next year, she was a summer associate at Sidley, splitting the summer between the Chicago and Washington offices.The Obamas complain about their college debt, but they did attend expensive schools. Obama took out $42,753 in loans to pay for Harvard tuition. Michelle signed notes for $40,762 in loans for her Harvard years.Obama had a full scholarship for his freshman year at Occidental, taking out loans -- the best I could get was "tens of thousands" to pay for the rest of his undergraduate school, with some help from his grandparents. At Princeton, as mentioned, Michelle had the work-study grant, got some help from her folks and took out "tens of thousands" of loans to pay tuition.
If you haven't read this great interview with Rolling Stone, check it out:
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/21472234/page/1
Is the summer heat or the floods or any other thing dampening your inspiration today? Watch Marshall Ganz, community organizer extraordinaire, for two-and-a-half minutes and feel inspired again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NglXpj94Z2o
Is Obama an Enlightened One?Spiritual wise ones say: This sure ain't no ordinary politician. You buyingit?By Mark Morford, SF Gate ColumnistFriday, June 6, 2008I find I'm having this discussion, this weird little debate, more and more,with colleagues, with readers, with liberals and moderates and miserable,deeply depressed Republicans and spiritually amped persons of all shapes andstripes and I'm having it in particular with those who seem confused, angry,unsure, thoroughly nonplussed, as they all ask me the same thing: What thehell's the big deal about Obama?I, of course, have an answer. Sort of.Warning: If you are a rigid pragmatist/literalist, itchingly evangelical, ascowler, a doubter, a burned-out former '60s radical with no hope left, orare otherwise unable or unwilling to parse alternative New Age speak, clickaway right now, because you ain't gonna like this one little bit.Ready? It goes likes this:Barack Obama isn't really one of us. Not in the normal way, anyway.This is what I find myself offering up more and more in response to thewhiners and the frowners and to those with broken or sadly dysfunctionalkarmic antennae - or no antennae at all - to all those who just don'tunderstand and maybe even actively recoil against all this chatter aboutObama's aura and feel and MLK/JFK-like vibe.To them I say all right, you want to know what it is? The appeal, the draw,the ethereal and thing that keeps drawing millions of people in from allover the world, that keeps opening up and firing into new channels of theculture normally completely unaffected by politics?No, it's not merely youthful vigor, or handsomeness, or even inspiringrhetoric. It is not fresh ideas or cool charisma or the fact that a blackpresident will be historic and revolutionary in about a thousand differentways. It is something more. Even Bill Clinton, with all his effortless,winking charm, didn't have what Obama has, which is a sort of powerfulluminosity, a unique high-vibration integrity.Dismiss it all you like, but I've heard from far too many enormously smart,wise, spiritually attuned people who've been intuitively blown away byObama's presence - not speeches, not policies, but sheer presence - to sayit's just a clever marketing ploy, a slick gambit carefully orchestrated byhotshot campaign organizers who, once Obama gets into office, will suddenlyturn from perky optimists to vile soul-sucking lobbyist whores, with Obamaas their suddenly evil, cackling overlord.Here's where it gets gooey. Many spiritually advanced people I know (notcoweringly religious, mind you, but deeply spiritual) identify Obama as aLightworker, that rare kind of being who has the ability to lead us notmerely to new foreign policies or health care plans or whatnot, but who canactually help usher in a new way of being on the planet, of relating andconnecting and engaging with this bizarre earthly experiment. These kinds ofpeople actually help us evolve. They are philosophers and peacemakers of avery high order, and they speak not just to reason or emotion, but to thesoul.The unusual thing is, true Lightworkers almost never appear on such abrutal, spiritually empty stage as national politics. This is why Obama isso rare. And this why he is so often compared to Kennedy and Martin LutherKing, to those leaders in our culture whose stirring vibrations stillresonate throughout our short history.Are you rolling your eyes and scoffing? Fine by me. But you gotta wonder,why has, say, the JFK legacy lasted so long, is so vital to our nationalidentity? Yes, the assassination canonized his legend. The Kennedy family isour version of royalty. But there's something more. Those attuned toenergies beyond the literal meanings of things, these people say JFK wasn'tassassinated for any typical reason you can name. It's because he was justthis kind of high-vibration being, a peacemaker, at odds with the warmachine, the CIA, the dark side. And it killed him.Now, Obama. The next step. Another try. And perhaps, as Bush laid waste tothe land and embarrassed the country and pummeled our national spirit intodisenchanted pulp and yet ironically, in so doing has helped set the stagefor an even larger and more fascinating evolutionary burp, we are finallytruly ready for another Lightworker to step up.Let me be completely clear: I'm not arguing some sort of utopian revolution,a big global group hug with Obama as some sort of happy hippie campcounselor. I'm not saying the man's going to swoop in like a superheromessiah and stop all wars and make the flowers grow and birds sing and solveworld hunger and bring puppies to schoolchildren.Please. I'm also certainly not saying he's perfect, that his presidency willbe free of compromise, or slimy insiders, or great heaps ofpolitics-as-usual. While Obama's certainly an entire universe away fromGeorge W. Bush in terms of quality, integrity, intelligence and overallinspirational energy, well, so is your dog. Hell, it isn't hard to stand farabove and beyond the worst president in American history.But there simply is no denying that extra kick. As one reader put it to me,in a way, it's not even about Obama, per se. There's a vast amount ofpositive energy swirling about that's been held back by the armies of BushCodarkness, and this energy has now found a conduit, a lightning rod, is noweffortlessly self-organizing around Obama's candidacy. People and emotionsand ideas of high and positive vibration are automatically draw to him. It'sexactly like how Bush was a magnet for the low vibrational energies of fearand war and oppression and aggression, but, you know, completely reversed.And different. And far, far better.Don't buy any of it? Think that's all a bunch of tofu-sucking New Ageybulls-- and Obama is really a dangerously elitist political salesman whoseinexperience will lead us further into darkness because, when you're talkingnational politics, nothing, really, ever changes? I understand. I get it. Ioften believe it myself.Not this time.
Hooray! Yahoo! Whee! What a glorious day - our man is THE NOMINEE!
As we brush off PA from our weary shoulders, may this ditty from last night's Huffington Post help us move on to NC and IN.
Ten Things to Remember on Tuesday Night
by Seth Grahame-Smith
Hillary Clinton will win Pennsylvania.
Arguments over the meaning or meaninglessness of her win will dominate MSM and stretch bandwidth to its breaking point. Bloggers and pundits will dust off their favorite boxing metaphors: "Hillary's off the ropes!" "Obama can't land the knockout!" Hillbots will rejoice, Obamabots will panic, and McCainbots will watch Murder She Wrote and go to bed at six-thirty. I'll probably write a scathing post attempting to prove that Hillary is the devil incarnate. We'll all lose our minds.
In hope of preventing some of this hysteria (especially my own), I thought it'd be helpful to keep a few things in mind during Tuesday night's results -- from Hillary's "victory" speech to the blizzard of spin that's sure to follow:
1. Remember that there's no way Hillary can become the nominee without a superdelegate coup -- which would alienate a generation of young Democrats and dangerously fracture the party.
2. Remember that her campaign leaked internals showing an eleven point lead (as a means of firing up her supporters and getting out the vote). Therefore, any win smaller than eleven points should be considered a disappointment by her own assessment.
3. Remember that every time Hillary begins a sentence with "you know," or "my opponent," the next thing out of her mouth is a lie.
4. Remember that when Clinton surrogates say "this proves Obama can't win the big states," they're ignoring the fact that he actually won more delegates in Texas -- not to mention twice as many states as she has.
5. Remember that when the pundits argue that Obama can't win in white rural areas because they broke for Hillary, they're ignoring the fact that he won (in alphabetical order): Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
6. Remember that when Hillary talks about who will be "better against John McCain in the fall," she's talking about the fall of 2012.
7. Remember that Hillary's campaign is $10M in debt, while Obama's has more than $40M in cash on hand.
8. Remember that Hillary's lead in Pennsylvania was as a high as 26 points only a month ago.
9. Remember that Hillary's late Pennsylvania rebound was forged in the fires of negativity and fear-mongering.
10. Remember that the only manufacturing job Hillary ever brought to Pennsylvania was the manufactured notion that she was a middle-class, whisky-swilling duck killer, and not an anti-union multi-millionaire.
Like many of you, I've logged a lot of time calling undecided voters in PA this week. I try to engage folks in conversations about the issues and I've read through pages on the official Obama website so I can speak intelligently about his positions. One thing I'm surprised to still hear from voters, though, is this idea that he lacks experience to be President. So I finally did some googling and found this nifty site - http://www.obamapedia.org/page/Does+Barack+Obama+have+enough+experience+to+be+president%3F?t=anon
Saying something as simple as this paragraph from that page works on some folks:
Did you watch the debate in Philadelphia tonight? Although I was really looking forward to hearing something compelling (particularly after a week of calling undecided voters in PA!) I found it hard to fight off the kids' plea to switch to the dreaded American Idol results show. Neither the moderators nor Hillary Clinton seemed interested in discussing the real issues. Frustrating stuff.
Here are comments from Obama campaign manager David Plouffe...
Tonight we saw a real choice between the old politics of point-scoring and distraction and a politics that focuses on bringing us together to actually solve the challenges we talk about every single election. Continuing the theme of her campaign, Senator Clinton used every single opportunity she had to launch misleading attack after misleading attack against Barack Obama, which is why polls show that most Americans think she’s running the most negative campaign and don’t believe she’s trustworthy. Barack Obama spoke about the issues that actually matter in people’s lives, like how he plans to end the war in Iraq, cut middle-class taxes, help people stay in their homes, and provide a secure retirement for our seniors. That’s why more Americans are putting their trust in Barack Obama to bring about the change we need in Washington.
Tired of this kind of slash-and-burn politics?
Fight back.
A fellow volunteer (thanks LV!) on the Jon Stewart and Obama Enthusiasts lists posted a great explanation of both the "bitter" comment discussion gone awry and another media blunder that I'll save for a different post. This led to a great post on Liberalland that makes for good reading and includes an interesting clip from Charlie Rose's interview with Barack back in 2004. Check it out:
http://liberalland.com/2008/04/15/obama-said-it-better-with-charlie-rose-in-2004/
Have you seen this Rocky-inspired video? Let it motivate you to help with the PA campaign this week!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyhIBXNfqMA
I live in Montgomery County, Maryland, and have been wearing my Barak Obama in Hebrew pin everywhere. I bought a 10-pack and passed them out at synagogue so I like to think we are getting the attention of Jews in our area. Still, the Jews in Montgomery County, PA, have even more reason to be talking about Obama. Check out this article from the Jerusalem Post (forwarded to me by one of my husband's former teachers at Catholic High School, interestingly enough).
Suburban Jews could swing vote in Pennsylvania
Marcel Groen, the head of the Montgomery County Democratic Committee: 17% of the 560,000 registered voters are Jewish, with overwhelming majority registered as Democrats.
Click here to view the entire article:
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull&cid=1207649969392
By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Friday, April 4, 2008
Nope, it's not what you might think. The best thing about Barack Obama has almost nothing to do with him as a person or as a leader or even as Oh My God The First Black President Who Could Really Change Everything I Mean Wow. It's not even the wondrous oratory power or the charisma or the sweet sense of deeper change overlaid with all kinds of sparkly utopian futuriffic goodness.
There is, I think, something more. Something richer. And it's rather startling.
See, I've read the profiles and the liberal fawnings and the intelligent analysis, the attempted takedowns and the right-wing smears, all the valiant attempts to dig up something dirty or problematic or frightening about Obama and his family, his past, his middle name, his beliefs and his pastor and his favorite flavor of ice cream — attempts that, rather amusingly, have all failed.
I've read, too, the glut of wonderment, how Obama is this generation's JFK, how he makes Hillary Clinton's brand of retro cronyist politics feel like the equivalent of rubbing salt on a paper cut. He is, they say, that once-in-a-lifetime candidate, a fantastically rare mix of intelligence, consistency, inspiration, hope, charisma, humanity, articulation, and an almost shocking lack of manipulation and sheen (well, relatively speaking), all packaged in a strikingly handsome unit in whose closet apparently live almost no skeletons at all.
I also nodded in agreement when snark-master Jon Stewart appeared slightly stunned and taken aback and very nearly jokeless as he pointed out, following Obama's remarkable speech on race in America, that at long last, here was a top-tier politician who dared to speak to us like we were adults. It wasn't just refreshing; after seven-plus years of humiliating, monosyllabic dumb-guy Bushisms, it was downright jarring.
And I even enjoyed the overall assessment that the fact that Obama is untested and inexperienced in the higher and more dire realms of government is actually a good thing, just the kind of wild card we crave and need, given how he shows absolutely zero signs that he'd screw it up, not to mention how the last thing anyone really wants is more of the same old-school, inbred crap we've had for decades.
Still, this wasn't what riveted me the most about Obama, still not what's most fascinating about this moment in political history. It was still something more.
Initially I thought the most impressive aspect of Obama's run was, well, how the guy made it this far at all. That someone of his caliber and obvious intelligence could survive what has become a truly caustic, brutal political system and still emerge into the international spotlight as, well, not deeply f—ed-up and insane, not possessing that creepy demonic gleam shared by so many politicos (hi, Sen. McCain!) that suggests they've had souls eaten whole by the same scabrous trolls of greed and war and corruption that birthed two Bushes and gave Bill Clinton that nearly intolerable aura of ego and slickness.
See, I've long believed that, if nearly eight years of the World's Worst President has taught us anything, it's that the American political system has moved well beyond merely deeply flawed and broken and sad, and is now wholly rotted, ruined from the inside out, a true moral wasteland barely suitable even for cockroaches and leeches and Rick Santorum. I thought George W. Bush had actually managed to do the impossible: make an already defective system truly unbearable, turning something already gray and murky to turgid and pathetic, toxic to all decent human life.
And I'm happy to report that the fact that Obama exists at this stage of the game is proving me very wrong indeed.
But I'll even take it a step further. Because the greatest thing about Obama isn't really about Obama at all, per se. It's actually about, well, us.
This is the great revelation: We still got it. The collective unconscious, the deep sense of inner wisdom, that intuitive knowing that borders on a kind of mystical proficiency, where millions of people can actually look beyond rhetoric and media spin and merely feel the presence of something great in the room? Yep, still there. Who knew?
See, this is what I hear most from relatives and readers and friends and newborn activists who were never activists before: Obama speaks to the intuition. It's about the sixth sense. It's not just what he says or how he behaves in the debates or the policy wonking or the "Change" banners or any of the typical, tangible factors — although those have proven to be remarkably positive, too.
It's this: People feel it. They hear an Obama speech or read the articles or talk to like-minded folk, and they squint their eyes and weigh everything and then dismiss all that surface crap and get that look on their face that says, you know what? This guy gets it. He feels right. It's not a trick of light. It's not complete bulls—. It's not the usual spin and manipulation and fakery. There is actual meat on this bone. What a thing.
Of course, I've plenty of readers who are die-hard cynics and jaded anarchists who say: What the f— is wrong with you? Can't you see it's just another vicious ploy? All candidates at this level are essentially the same, interchangeable, all abhorrent simply by default because when you reach that stage of the game there is simply no way to avoid deep corruption and rampant lies. They tell me that even just to write a column like this is akin to merely washing the windows in your little pod in "The Matrix." Sure, the world may seem shinier, but you're still just buying into the same old revolting corporate/military machine.
After all, once the vipers of big money and big oil and military spending and corporate cronyism get their fangs sunk in, it's pretty much "game over" for any candidate's remaining integrity. Has Mr. Perfect Obama spoken out against the insidious Patriot Act or taken on the absurd farm subsidies or talked up issues of global warming? No he has not. As nice and smart as he may be, strip away all the fawning and the oratory tricks and give him a year in office and boom, just another corrupted, compromised former visionary. Right?
Whatever. I'm not buying it. At least, not yet. For the moment, I trust the collective intuition. I trust the shockingly widespread sense, not merely of hope and change, but of collective wisdom swimming though the air like an electrical surge between every smart, creative person on the planet right now, a bolt of energy that says: Hey, we're still together. We still got it. Smart, intuitive people are still a force. There is life in the revolution yet.
And Obama? He gets it, too. Hell, he may have kindled it anew, all by himself. Either way, it's back. And it's powerful. And that, to me, is the most hopeful thing of all.
I spent Monday afternoon volunteering at the Gettysburg campaign office, learning about the issues that are important to Central Pennsylvanians and making more thna 60 phone calls to local residents in their 60s, 70s, and older. Most of the calls were pleasant and I spent as much as 15 minutes talking to folks about their thoughts on the election. I was surprised that most people are still undecided, even after more than a year of the campaign. Hearing how many people aren't sure they can trust anyone after the current administration was certainly disappointing. Still, there were several visitors to the office while I was there and they all were eager to purchase buttons and bumper stickers or find out how they can get involved.
Living only an hour away from Pennsylvania, this was a fairly easy way to contribute. If you live near PA too, I hope you'll consider paying a visit. The volunteer at the Gettysburg office is named Matt Armstrong and he was very welcoming. Some of the offices have a paid Obama campaign staffer but small offices like Gettysburg run purely on volunteers. I suggest you bring warm clothing (there was no heat at this office!), a headset if you like to use them while making calls (the office has prepaid cell phones for you to use), and any extra campaign literature or signs you have from prior campaigning. You might also bring some snacks or treats to share with fellow volunteers and leave behind for the next crew. These are sparse places and all contributions are appreciated.
If you can travel on a weekend, then add sturdy shoes to your checklist and plan to do some canvassing. Weekday shifts are mainly phone calling. Of course, there are signups for the final weekend and day before the April 22nd primary election when they will need all hands on deck.
Anyone in my area (Montgomery County, Maryland) who would like to drive North to Adams County, here is the contact information for that office.
233 W. High Street, Gettysburg, PA 717-253-8359
Drive North on I-270 beyond Frederick, Continue North on Route 15 into PA, Exit onto Route 116/Hanover Street, Turn Left onto Route 116/Hanover Street. At the square, go 3/4 the way around (essentially turning left) onto Baltimore Street. After about four blocks, turn Right onto High Street. The office is three blocks down on the right side. Park along the street or in the lot across the road.
The office is officially open T/W/Th 11-2, weeknights 5-9, Saturdays 11-4, and Sundays 1-4. If you want to come up any other time, call in advance and someone will meet you. Either contact the office by phone or email Will Bittinger at the York County office wbittinger@barackobama.com. You can also email the amazing volunteers in Gettysburg - Tim Diehl at secfor1@aol.com or Matt Armstrong at marmstr1@gmail.com.
They even gave me a gift for driving up - a big stenciled painting of our future president! Hurry up to Gettysburg before they're all gone!
Fired up! Ready to go!
By Bill RichardsonTuesday, April 1, 2008; 10:29 AM
My recent endorsement of Barack Obama for president has been the subject of much discussion and consternation -- particularly among supporters of Hillary Clinton.
Led by political commentator James Carville, who makes a living by being confrontational and provocative, Clinton supporters have speculated about events surrounding this endorsement and engaged in personal attacks and insults.
While I certainly will not stoop to the low level of Mr. Carville, I feel compelled to defend myself against character assassination and baseless allegations.
Carville has made it very clear that this is a personal attack -- driven by his own sense of what constitutes loyalty. It is this kind of political venom that I anticipated from certain Clinton supporters and I campaigned against in my own run for president.
I repeatedly urged Democrats to stop attacking each other personally and even offered a DNC resolution calling for a positive campaign based on the issues. I was evenhanded in my efforts. In fact, my intervention in a debate during a particularly heated exchange was seen by numerous commentators as an attempt to defend Sen. Clinton against the barbs of Sens. Obama and John Edwards.
As I have pointed out many times, and most pointedly when I endorsed Sen. Obama, the campaign has been too negative, and we Democrats need to calm the rhetoric and personal attacks so we can come together as a party to defeat the Republicans.
More than anything, to repair the damage done at home and abroad, we must unite as a country. I endorsed Sen. Obama because I believe he has the judgment, temperament and background to bridge our divisions as a nation and make America strong at home and respected in the world again.
This was a difficult, even painful, decision. My affection and respect for the Clintons run deep. I do indeed owe President Clinton for the extraordinary opportunities he gave me to serve him and this country. And nobody worked harder for him or served him more loyally, during some very difficult times, than I did.
Carville and others say that I owe President Clinton's wife my endorsement because he gave me two jobs. Would someone who worked for Carville then owe his wife, Mary Matalin, similar loyalty in her professional pursuits? Do the people now attacking me recall that I ran for president, albeit unsuccessfully, against Sen. Clinton? Was that also an act of disloyalty?
And while I was truly torn for weeks about this decision, and seriously contemplated endorsing Sen. Clinton, I never told anyone, including President Clinton, that I would do so. Those who say I did are misinformed or worse.
As for Mr. Carville's assertions that I did not return President Clinton's calls: I was on vacation in Antigua with my wife for a week and did not receive notice of any calls from the president. I, of course, called Sen. Clinton prior to my endorsement of Sen. Obama. It was a difficult and heated discussion, the details of which I will not share here.
I do not believe that the truth will keep Carville and others from attacking me. I can only say that we need to move on from the politics of personal insult and attacks. That era, personified by Carville and his ilk, has passed and I believe we must end the rancor and partisanship that has mired Washington in gridlock. In my view, Sen. Obama represents our best hope of replacing division with unity. That is why, out of loyalty to my country, I endorse him for president.
The writer is governor of New Mexico and a former Democratic candidate for president.
You can find all about it in a widely under-read article in the September 2007 issue of Mother Jones, in which Kathryn Joyce and Jeff Sharlet reported that "through all of her years in Washington, Clinton has been an active participant in conservative Bible study and prayer circles that are part of a secretive Capitol Hill group known as the "Fellowship," aka The Family. But it won't be a secret much longer. Jeff Sharlet's shocking exposé, The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power will be published in May.
Sean Hannity has called Obama's church a "cult," but that term applies far more aptly to Clinton's "Family," which is organized into "cells" -- their term -- and operates sex-segregated group homes for young people in northern Virginia. In 2002, writer Jeff Sharlet joined the Family's home for young men, foreswearing sex, drugs, and alcohol, and participating in endless discussions of Jesus and power. He wasn't undercover; he used his own name and admitted to being a writer. But he wasn't completely out of danger either. When he went outdoors one night to make a cell phone call, he was followed. He still gets calls from Family associates asking him to meet them in diners -- alone.
The Family's most visible activity is its blandly innocuous National Prayer Breakfast, held every February in Washington. But almost all its real work goes on behind the scenes -- knitting together international networks of rightwing leaders, most of them ostensibly Christian. In the 1940s, The Family reached out to former and not-so-former Nazis, and its fascination with that exemplary leader, Adolph Hitler, has continued, along with ties to a whole bestiary of murderous thugs. As Sharlet reported in Harper's in 2003:
During the 1960s the Family forged relationships between the U.S. government and some of the most anti-Communist (and dictatorial) elements within Africa's postcolonial leadership. The Brazilian dictator General Costa e Silva, with Family support, was overseeing regular fellowship groups for Latin American leaders, while, in Indonesia, General Suharto (whose tally of several hundred thousand "Communists" killed marks him as one of the century's most murderous dictators) was presiding over a group of fifty Indonesian legislators. During the Reagan Administration the Family helped build friendships between the U.S. government and men such as Salvadoran general Carlos Eugenios Vides Casanova, convicted by a Florida jury of the torture of thousands, and Honduran general Gustavo Alvarez Martinez, himself an evangelical minister, who was linked to both the CIA and death squads before his own demise.
At the heart of the Family's American branch is a collection of powerful rightwing politicos, who include, or have included, Sam Brownback, Ed Meese, John Ashcroft, James Inhofe, and Rick Santorum. They get to use the Family's spacious estate on the Potomac, the Cedars, which is maintained by young men in Family group homes and where meals are served by the Family's young women's group. And, at the Family's frequent prayer gatherings, they get powerful jolts of spiritual refreshment, tailored to the already-powerful.
Clinton fell in with the Family in 1993, when she joined a Bible study group composed of wives of conservative leaders like Jack Kemp and James Baker. When she ascended to the senate, she was promoted to what Sharlet calls the Family's "most elite cell," the weekly Senate Prayer Breakfast, which included, until his downfall, Virginia's notoriously racist Senator George Allen. This has not been a casual connection for Clinton. She has written of Doug Coe, the Family's publicity-averse leader, that he is "a unique presence in Washington: a genuinely loving spiritual mentor and guide to anyone, regardless of party or faith, who wants to deepen his or her relationship with God."
Furthermore, the Family takes credit for some of Clinton's rightward legislative tendencies, including her support for a law guaranteeing "religious freedom" in the workplace, such as for pharmacists who refuse to fill birth control prescriptions and police officers who refuse to guard abortion clinics.
What drew Clinton into the sinister heart of the international right? Maybe it was just a phase in her tormented search for identity, marked by ever-changing hairstyles and names: Hillary Rodham, Mrs. Bill Clinton, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and now Hillary Clinton. She reached out to many potential spiritual mentors during her White House days, including new age guru Marianne Williamson and the liberal Rabbi Michael Lerner. But it was the Family association that stuck.
Sharlet generously attributes Clinton's involvement to the underappreciated depth of her religiosity, but he himself struggles to define the Family's theological underpinnings. The Family avoids the word Christian but worship Jesus, though not the Jesus who promised the earth to the "meek." They believe that, in mass societies, it's only the elites who matter, the political leaders who can build God's "dominion" on earth. Insofar as the Family has a consistent philosophy, it's all about power -- cultivating it, building it, and networking it together into ever-stronger units, or "cells." "We work with power where we can," Doug Coe has said, and "build new power where we can't."
Obama has given a beautiful speech on race and his affiliation with the Trinity Unity Church of Christ. Now it's up to Clinton to explain -- or, better yet, renounce -- her longstanding connection with the fascist-leaning Family.
Did you hear the speech on Tuesday? If not, go watch or read it at http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/hisownwords and then check out this editorial in the NYT. Good stuff!
NY Times: 'Mr. Obama’s Profile in Courage'
In response to Barack's speech in Philadelphia today, the New York Times just released the following editorial:
There are moments — increasingly rare in risk-abhorrent modern campaigns — when politicians are called upon to bare their fundamental beliefs. In the best of these moments, the speaker does not just salve the current political wound, but also illuminates larger, troubling issues that the nation is wrestling with.Inaugural addresses by Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt come to mind, as does John F. Kennedy’s 1960 speech on religion, with its enduring vision of the separation between church and state. Senator Barack Obama, who has not faced such tests of character this year, faced one on Tuesday. It is hard to imagine how he could have handled it better.Mr. Obama had to address race and religion, the two most toxic subjects in politics. He was as powerful and frank as Mitt Romney was weak and calculating earlier this year in his attempt to persuade the religious right that his Mormonism is Christian enough for them.It was not a moment to which Mr. Obama came easily. He hesitated uncomfortably long in dealing with the controversial remarks of his spiritual mentor and former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., who denounced the United States as endemically racist, murderous and corrupt.On Tuesday, Mr. Obama drew a bright line between his religious connection with Mr. Wright, which should be none of the voters’ business, and having a political connection, which would be very much their business. The distinction seems especially urgent after seven years of a president who has worked to blur the line between church and state.Mr. Obama acknowledged his strong ties to Mr. Wright. He embraced him as the man “who helped introduce me to my Christian faith,” and said that “as imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me.”Wisely, he did not claim to be unaware of Mr. Wright’s radicalism or bitterness, disarming the speculation about whether he personally heard the longtime pastor of his church speak the words being played and replayed on YouTube. Mr. Obama said Mr. Wright’s comments were not just potentially offensive, as politicians are apt to do, but “rightly offend white and black alike” and are wrong in their analysis of America. But, he said, many Americans “have heard remarks from your pastors, priests or rabbis with which you strongly disagree.”Mr. Obama’s eloquent speech should end the debate over his ties to Mr. Wright since there is nothing to suggest that he would carry religion into government. But he did not stop there. He put Mr. Wright, his beliefs and the reaction to them into the larger context of race relations with an honesty seldom heard in public life.Mr. Obama spoke of the nation’s ugly racial history, which started with slavery and Jim Crow, and continues today in racial segregation, the school achievement gap and discrimination in everything from banking services to law enforcement.He did not hide from the often-unspoken reality that people on both sides of the color line are angry. “For the men and women of Reverend Wright’s generation,” he said, “the memories of humiliation and fear have not gone away, nor the anger and the bitterness of those years.”At the same time, many white Americans, Mr. Obama noted, do not feel privileged by their race. “In an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero-sum game,” he said, adding that both sides must acknowledge that the other’s grievances are not imaginary.He made the powerful point that while these feelings are not always voiced publicly, they are used in politics. “Anger over welfare and affirmative action helped forge the Reagan coalition,” he said.Against this backdrop, he said, he could not repudiate his pastor. “I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community,” he said. “I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother.” That woman whom he loves deeply, he said, “once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street” and more than once “uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.”There have been times when we wondered what Mr. Obama meant when he talked about rising above traditional divides. This was not such a moment.We can’t know how effective Mr. Obama’s words will be with those who will not draw the distinctions between faith and politics that he drew, or who will reject his frank talk about race. What is evident, though, is that he not only cleared the air over a particular controversy — he raised the discussion to a higher plane.
