With all of our continuing hard work, Barack will essentially wrap up the primary campaign next week and begin the general election phase of this historic race. In this joyous moment, our first task is to reach out to Clinton supporters to show them that the dream held by the vast majority of them -- a fairer, healthier, safer, stronger, more just and sensible America -- is our dream. We must all now move immediately to unite behind the inspiring and once-in-a-lifetime candidate and movement that will help make this dream come true for all.
Just as President Obama will be reaching out to speak with our enemies abroad, we can now reach out to work with our friends at home to lead this movement forward. For the sake of our dreams and our children, we need each other in order to get the job done.
The traditional saying goes, "To the victor go the spoils." But this very un-traditional victory is different. As Barack first challenged us to see at the convention four years ago, this can be a victory for all of us. As John Edwards said, we can be one America.
I have had tough criticism of the Clintons throughout the primary season. But that is now over and done. So to the entire Clinton family, I now say thank you for your determination and leadership. To Hillary, thank you for standing up yesterday against the Bush attack on Barack as the equivalent of a Nazi appeaser. I know you are going to let these last few days of the primaries wind down, but I believe that you now see that the time has come to unite against the insanity.
And to Barack and the entire extended Obama family of so many millions across our land, and on behalf of my son who turns three next week, I thank you for giving our country and world a chance at making a very different kind of future for our children.
Yes we can!
The New York Times, an HRC endorser, weighed in this morning on Hillary's disgusting race-baiting.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/09/opinion/09fri1.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin
The time has come for her to take a hard look in the mirror and ask what resemblance the current face she is presenting has with the gutsy idealist who went to work with Marian Wright Edelman so many decades ago. Her win-at-any-costs strategy now has the potential to take down not only Barack, the Democratic Party, and the nation, but whatever is left of her own legacy.
And if she can't see it, at least her supporters can, as they are showing in coming over to Barack in droves to unite the country in turning the page from the Old Politics. Welcome!
Jon Stewart hit the nail on the head analyzing the Clintons' view of the democratic process:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi6mP6l6nBI
On a related note, Senator Clinton was invited to address a major gathering of The American Indian Nation recently in upper New York State. She spoke for almost an hour on her future plans for increasing every Native American's present standard of living, should she one day become the first female President.She referred to her career as a New York Senator, how she had signed "YES" for every Indian issue that came to her desk for approval. Although the Senator was vague on the details of her plan, she seemed most enthusiastic about her future ideas for helping her "red sisters and brothers".At the conclusion of her speech, the Tribes presented the Senator with a plaque inscribed with her new Indian name - Walking Eagle.The proud Senator then departed in her motorcade, waving to the crowds. A news reporter later inquired of the group of chiefs of how they had come to select the new name given to the Senator.
They explained that Walking Eagle is the name given to a bird so full of crap that it can no longer fly.
Keep smiling. Keep believing. Keep working. We will win this change we seek.
Obama '08.
America is waking up that there is an alternative to the tired politics of Washington.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7s9ubMQX7WE
Clinton lost last night's debate, as her intense negative glare only added to her own intense negatives.
ABC News also lost, missing a major opportunity for a genuinely newsworthy debate by choosing instead to mudsling at Barack any scrap of guilt by association that they could scrape together.Here's this morning's take from the Washington Post:LinkI made the mistake of looking forward to the debate, and of thinking that Stephanopoulos would ask fair, tough, substantive questions of both candidates. Instead, this former Clinton aide and his colleague evidently decided to join Hillary's strategy of thinking they would make themselves look better by playing gotcha with Barack. What a sham network news has become.Fortunately, this debate will only remind the vast majority of voters all that is wrong with political discourse and the media today, as illustrated last night by Stephanopoulos, Gibson, and Clinton, and why we need Barack now more than ever.
I grew up in Pennsylvania, but I now live in Washington, DC, where I have worked for the past 25 years to try to get our government to represent our people.
My neighborhood in Washington is like a small town -- the first truly diverse comumunity you get to heading up the hill on 16th Street from the White House. We haven't ever had much connection with the White House. We're a real community of working people of all colors, cultures, creeds, classes, and callings. And we're as frustrated with the White House as the rest of small-town America.
As the child of immigrants who came to this country because they believed in its ideals, I am ashamed of the way that our country is being led, tired of business as usual in Washington DC, and shocked by the cynical and pandering elitist maneuvering of the Clinton and McCain campaigns, as most recently evidenced by their attacking him for honestly describing the despair about Washington across small-town America.
I believe Barack Obama is the most honest leader we have had come forward in generations. His words about the frustration and bitterness people feel about Washington were right on target. In the face of this justifiable bitterness, Barack has offered the most visionary and far-reaching leadership to help us change Washington, unite and advance our nation for all, and lead the world in countering the toughest problems that we face.
Because we have not given up hope that the problems of our nation and world can be righted, my small-town neighborhood voted overwhelmingly for Barack Obama. I urge the people of my native Pennsylvania to do the same.
There is a name for the neighborhoods and small towns all across the country that are standing for change, and one that we will proudly wear throughout the next eight years and beyond: Obamaville -- where division turns to community, bitterness turns to hope, and our country turns to genuine, practical, lasting change for the better for all those who have been forgotten for so long.
Help us make our Welcome to Obamaville sign for January 20. Vote Obama 2008.
