Yesterday I was looking at the job loss stats for last month and Obama's statement on the Job loss numbers and I wanted to find out what the numbers are looking like for government programs - such as food stamps to get an idea of what is REALLY going on in this economy.
The numbers are disturbing to say the least when you put them into context and I wanted to share what I've found.
As of the month of April 2008, 28,063,229 - (28 million people) received Food Stamp benefits. That is up 184,241 from March 2008. That is 1,781,696 more than we had receiving food stamps in April 2007 and 2,047,362 more than we had in April 2006. (Taken from FNS website data report)
To truly put this into perspective, reports show that approximately 480,000 jobs have been lost in the first half of this year. The number of people that are receiving food stamps for the first half of this year (from the December figure of 27,561,755) HAS RISEN 501,474.
The entire population of the United States is estimated to be 304,543,397. Given that the USDA estimates that one in 3 people who should or could receive food stamps are missed, they estimate that there are now approximately 37.4 million people who are facing hunger in this country right now.....and that is by very conservative estimates.
Basically 12.3% of America's entire population is unable to afford to buy food - not gas, not clothing, not other essentials - but FOOD.
Although Congress did include additional funding for the food stamp program in the new farm bill, one has to wonder exactly how much more strain the system will be able to endure while the bottom continues to drop on the job market. (which they anticipate will continue through 2009)
As of April 2008, it cost $2,835,324,360 (that is 2.84 BILLION DOLLARS) to cover the approximately 28 million people receiving benefits.
I write this in the hopes that someone in the campaign will take notice - and will see that although Obama plans to offer tax incentives and rebates, etc are a good idea, that they are a benefit that people will not see until tax season next year - and these families need solutions that will get them through the months that fall between now and then. Hopefully this information will spur Obama and the rest of Congress to reevaluate entertaining the views of the oil speculator lobbyists that are currently preventing firm legislation from going through on regulating speculative practices as the fuel prices are directly resulting in the thousands upon thousands of jobs that are being lost - which is putting a severe strain on our government's ability to provide food subsidies - among other things - to sustain people.
We need action - and we need it yesterday - if speculation is not the culprit - as the lobbyists claim, then a little regulation into their practices should not be an issue. The fact that they are actively and adamantly campaigning against having to answer to the CFTC for their actions is not reassuring.
Source for numerical information: http://www.fns.usda.gov/pd/34fsmonthly.htm
This guy BLOWS WRIGHT right off the map!!!! He is deranged - and it would appear that McCain - and Bush - are both sold on this guys schpiel - if this isn't enough to sway a leaning voter nothing will - he is scary!
At First I thought McCain was just going senile - but that isn't it at all - he's flipping loony and has bought into this guy's "premonitions" hook, line and sinker. We can NOT let this man win!!!!
For the past two years, John Hagee, the televangelist and head of Christians United for Israel (CUFI), has been laying out the lesson plan for Bush's speech in the Knesset this week, in which he accused Barack Obama of appeasing terrorists like Neville Chamberlain appeased the Nazis. Since Hagee founded CUFI in early 2006, he has been beating the drums for war with Iran, and rejecting diplomacy as Chamberlain-esque appeasement.
Hagee, who endorsed Bush in 2000 with a book, God's Candidate for America, said in 2003 said that "God raised up George Bush for this time in history to crush Saddam Hussein." After he met with McCain in early 2007, Hagee declared McCain's views on Israel "on target." In other words, McCain's no weak-kneed appeaser of terrorists. If God raised up Bush, and, as Hagee has maintained, the threat from Iraq was nothing compared to the threat from Iran, then his endorsement of McCain suggests that he views the Republican nominee, once again, as God's puppet for his deranged obsession with a bloody, war-ending war.
Since the 2006 publication of his incendiary, conspiracy and fear-mongering book, Jerusalem Countdown, Hagee has been comparing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad to Hitler and accusing those favoring diplomacy of appeasing him. Ahmadinejad is not just like Hitler, though, he's like Haman, and he's like Pharaoh, too, and all those biblical stories prove, in Hagee's mind, that confronting him is essential for the survival of the Jews -- nothing short of a military strike will do. His reference to "God raising up" Bush for "this time in history" is a direct reference to Queen Esther's confrontation of Haman. And when Joe Lieberman compared Hagee to Moses last year, he no doubt was validating the Pharaoh comparison. But was he imagining Hagee leading the Jews to the promised land of a boiling lake of brimstone?
Hagee claims in Jerusalem Countdown that an Israeli government insider came to him in April 2005 with "warning to the world" that the President of Iran "will prove to be the new Hitler of the Middle East." This information compelled him, he says, to write the book and launch CUFI. His standard talking point since CUFI's launch has been "It's 1938, and Iran is Germany, and Ahmadinejad is the new Hitler of the Middle East."
In the summer of 2006, when war raged between Israel and Hezbollah, and McCain took to the airwaves to suggest we had entered into World War III, one of Hagee's friends in the Knesset, Benny Elon, said McCain got that idea straight from Hagee.
In his speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in March 2007, and again to CUFI in July that year, Hagee said:
As you know, Iran poses a threat to the State of Israel that promises nothing less than a nuclear holocaust. I have been saying on national television, in churches and auditoriums across America it is 1938; Iran is Germany and Ahmadinejad is the new Hitler... In the Bible when Pharaoh threatened the Jewish people of Egypt he became fish food in the Red Sea. When Haman threatened the Jews in Persia in modern-day Iran he and his sons hung from the gallows that he built for the Jews.
But the appeasers, Hagee goes on, don't just want to appease Iran:
Beyond that threat from Iran there's another more subtle threat that concerns me. I am concerned that in the coming months yet another attempt will be made to parcel out parts of Israel in a futile effort to appease Israel's enemies in the Middle East. I believe that misguided souls in Europe, I believe that the misguided souls in the political brothel that is now the United Nations and sadly -- and sadly even our own State Department will try once again to turn Israel into crocodile food. Winston Churchill said and I quote an appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile in the futile hope that it will eat him last -- end of quote. In 1938 Czechoslovakia -- Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland land was turned into crocodile food for Nazi Germany. The Nazi beast smelled the weakness in the appeasers, ate the food and marched and devoured most of Europe and systematically slaughtered 6,000,000 Jewish people. We are again hearing calls to appease the enemies of Israel.
McCain compared himself to Churchill -- although without, as Bush did, explicitly comparing his opponents to Chamberlain -- in a creepy March 2008 ad.
TO ILLUSTRATE MCCAIN'S COMPASSION FOR THOSE AMERICANS WHO ARE LOSING THEIR HOMES DUE TO PREDATORY LENDERS THAT PUT THEM INTO ADJUSTABLE LOANS WITHOUT FULLY DISCLOSING THE TERMS OF THEIR MORTGAGES - WITHOUT STRESSING THE ADJUSTABLE PAYMENT DIFFERENCES - WHEN THEY WERE FULLY AWARE THAT ONCE THEY ADJUSTED, THAT THESE LENDERS LACKED THE FINANCIAL ABILITY AND INCOME TO AFFORD THE INCREASED PAYMENTS - THIS IS THE COMPASSION AND UNDERSTANDING YOU CAN EXPECT FROM MCCAIN -
Of 80 million U.S. homeowners, 55 million have a mortgage and 51 million of these ``are doing what is necessary -- working a second job, skipping a vacation and managing their budgets,'' McCain said. Homeowners should be required to make a down payment on property purchases to ensure they ``have skin in the game.''
March 25 (Bloomberg) -- Republican presidential candidate John McCain said a government bailout of banks should be based ``solely on preventing systemic risk'' and not on helping financial and property speculators.
``I will not play election-year politics with the housing crisis,'' McCain told a group of Hispanic small-business leaders in Santa Ana, California, today. ``I will evaluate everything in terms of whether it might be harmful or helpful to our effort to deal with the crisis we face now.''
The implosion of the U.S. subprime mortgage market, surging defaults and a glut of unsold houses are depressing property prices, and mortgage-backed securities have spread losses across the global financial system. The world's biggest financial companies have posted at least $195 billion in writedowns and credit losses tied to subprime mortgages and collateralized debt obligations, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
``When we commit taxpayer dollars as assistance, it should be accompanied by reforms that ensure we never face this problem again,'' McCain said. ``Central to those reforms should be transparency and accountability.''
McCain also called for a review of so-called mark-to-market accounting rules, which require companies to estimate a value on holdings that aren't traded.
Mark-to-market has forced financial companies to write down the values of many less actively traded securities and may be ``exacerbating the credit crunch,'' said McCain.
Democrats said McCain failed to show compassion for homeowners buffeted by the subprime crisis.
`Watch it Happen'
``It's deeply troubling that John McCain is suggesting that the best way to address the housing crisis is to sit back and watch it happen -- which is just further evidence that he would continue President Bush's failed economic policies,'' Bill Burton, a spokesman for Senator Barack Obama's campaign, said in a statement.
``John McCain today showed that he doesn't understand the economy, the mortgage crisis or its impact on America's families and communities,'' said Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean in an e-mailed statement.
``Instead of offering a concrete plan to address the crisis at all levels, McCain promised to take the same hands-off approach that President Bush used to lead us into this crisis,'' Dean said.
After his 13-minute speech, McCain participated in a discussion with Hispanic business leaders at the C&H Letterpress Inc. factory, where he gave his formal remarks. The discussion was moderated by Meg Whitman, the departing EBay Inc. chief executive officer who joined McCain's campaign as a national co- chairwoman last week.
``I am hopeful the worst is over,'' McCain said in answering a question about liquidity in the market. ``I still believe the fundamentals of our economy are strong.''
``Realistically, this will take a few months to sort out,'' Whitman said.
A FEW MONTHS????? You've got to be kidding - if something isn't done and isn't done soon there will be a whole lotta bank-owned vacant homes - hasn't anyone noticed the BIG GAINS IN THE HOUSING CONSTRUCTION MARKET - -WHICH ARE PURELY APARTMENTS????? DOES THIS GIVE ANYONE A HINT AT WHAT'S COMING? PEOPLE LOSE THEIR HOMES - THEY MOVE TO RENTALS - NOT HARD TO PUT TWO AND TWO TOGETHER - AND PEOPLE DON'T GO OUT AND DO MASSIVE APARTMENT CONSTRUCTION WHEN THEY AREN'T SURE WHAT'S COMING DOWN THE ROAD. THIS MAN IS ABSOLUTELY OUT OF IT!
For those of you who associate McCain with experience, safety, and American values - here's a little glimpse into the type of people that the Senator maintains close ties to - Do you want a president with ANY KIND of ties to these types of people?
OH - A LITTLE NOTE - THE MONEY REFERENCED BELOW HAS NOT AND MORE THAN LIKELY WILL NOT GET REFUNDED TO THESE PEOPLE. IF YOU CHECK OUT THE FEC ON MCCAIN YOU'LL NOTICE THAT INSTEAD OF HAVING ONE MAIN CAMPAIGN TO TAKE IN HIS FUNDS, HE STRANGELY HAS ABOUT 8 - DRAW YOUR OWN CONCLUSIONS (OH - AND I INCLUDED REFERENCES TO SHOW WHERE THE INFO CAME FROM FOR THOSE WHO WANNA CHECK =))
JOHN MCCAIN’S LOBBYIST CONNECTIONS TO DICTATORS, OIL REGIMES, AND CHILD ENSLAVERS THE WORLD OVER
Change: reshaping government so that it is transparent to Americans - meaning that we get to see what they're doing - where exactly they are spending everyone's money - who is voting for what, who is promoting what changes, giving us the ability to communicate more effectively with our leaders
Change: taking care of our veterans who have been neglected in so many ways for so long. Ensuring that they are honored even after they have provided their service to this country – which hasn’t been happening.
Change: Improving the education of our youth – making a college education obtainable to those who want it – giving us the ability to educate ourselves so we can compete with the rest of the world, rewarding our teachers for what they do and providing incentives for those who teach in the areas that most need it
Change: Investing in the technology to bring those most off the beaten path up to speed by enabling them access to modern communications – high speed internet. Investing in the technology to provide clean energy and reduce the damage we’re doing to our planet while creating new well-paid jobs in the process.
Change: Allowing seniors the ability to retire in peace without having to worry about taxes by eliminating them for seniors that make less than $50/year – who REALLY need it. Making sure they are able to monitor their pension funds and make the investors handling those funds accountable to them by requiring disclosure and access to what they’re doing. Prohibiting companies that file bankruptcy from paying off their executives while liquidating pension funds for the employees.
Change: Providing debt forgiveness for people who are being forced into bankruptcy because of their own or another’s illness – to allow them to get back on their feet without destroying their credit for a decade.
Change: Investing in research and development and providing incentives and grants for alternative fuel manufacturing, requiring more fuel efficient vehicles to decrease our dependency on oil
Change: Easing the burden on millions of families by making the Child Care Tax Credit refundable – meaning GIVING them 50% of their child care costs BACK so they have aren’t working for next to nothing and easing the financial burden so many face and providing the $1000 “making work pay credit” to the middle class.
In my complete obsession with trying to see what's going to happen with this race and trying to see if Hillary is blowing smoke saying shes the stronger nominee (and it IS SMOKE) I ran the numbers and found a whole lot more in favor of Obama - here's some of the information I found
Obama actually is within a few points - and actually ahead to steal the following REPUBLICAN STATES when polled against McCain -
NORTH CAROLINA - Tied McCain for the state (47 - 47)- HRC loses it (40) to MC (51) by 11 points
NEBRASKA - Ob (42) is only 3 down from MC (45) - HRC loses it (30) to MC (57) by 27 points
NORTH DAKOTA - OB WINS it by 4 points (46) over McCain (42) - HRC LOSES IT (33) to MC (53) by 20 points
ALASKA - OB down (43) to MC (48) - HRC down (32) to MC (57)
TEXAS - OB down 5 pts from MC - HRC down 6 pts
FLORIDA (SURPRISE!) BOTH are within 4 pts of taking it
VIRGINIA - OB down 9 pts to MC - HRC down 22 pts to MC
MONTANA - OB down 5 pts - HRC down 18 pts
NEVADA - OB down 5 pts - HRC down 11 pts
TOSSUP STATES -
COLORADO - OB takes it (46) to MC (42) - HRC LOSES IT (36) TO MC (50)
NEVADA - OB only down 5 pts - HRC down 11 pts
DEMOCRATIC STATES - HRC ACTUALLY LOSES SOME OF THEM!
IOWA - OB WINS (46) TO MC (42) - HRC LOSES IT (36) TO MC (51)
NEW MEXICO - OB WINS (45) TO MC (42) - HRC LOSES (43) TO MC (46)
WASHINGTON - OB WINS (48) TO MC (43) - HRC LOSES IT (43) TO MC (46)
OREGON - OB TAKES IT (48) TO MC (42) - HRC LOSES IT (40) TO MC (51)
WISCONSIN - OB takes it (47) to MC (43) - HRC LOSES IT (41) TO MC (47)
THE OTHER DEMOCRATIC STATES SHOW BOTH OF THEM TKAKING THEM BUT I FOUND IT AMAZING HOW SHE CAN CLAIM TO BE THE STRONGER CANDIDATE GIVEN THESE STATS - OBAMA CAN PUT SO MUCH MORE INTO PLAY FOR DEMOCRATS THAN HER AND HE'S GOING TO WIN IF THEY ALLOW HIM TO - HRC WILL LOSE TO MCCAIN IF THEY ARE THE CANDIDATES - THESE NUMBERS SHOW IT EASILY - HE'S GOT A HELL OF A BASE COMPARED TO HER IN THE GENERAL. ANYWAY - PASS THE INFO ALONG IF YOU WANT BUT I FIGURED IT WOULD GIVE EVERYONE EVEN MORE TO BE PROUD OF!~~
Reviewing the latest numbers with regard to superdelegates, Obama is now only 17 behind HRC on superdelegates - after tomorrow he will likely end up overtaking her - and removing that final basis for her to try to take the nomination from him - which was her claim that she holds a higher electoral college basis.
I read on several posts on different sites that some Republicans admitted that they "became democrat for a day" - meaning that they registered as democrat only to vote in the primary (nearly everyone that posted this said they voted for Clinton - but that they retain their republican registration for the general -
You tell me - what kind of conspiracy is that!!!! Is there NOTHING this woman won't do to get the nomination??? As a woman I always said that I'd be behind a woman who actually got a chance to run for president, but I absolutely detest the machinations and tactics of this woman and truly believe she has no business holding any office of any kind in any branch of government.
She has outright lied to Americans with the Bosnia deal, misrepresented her "experience" as 35 yrs when she's held office for only 7 - she is taking credit for Bill's entire political history and incredibly no one calls her on it, she does NOT have the popular vote, has a very concentrated base - 17% of her "base" is the votes she won in New York. She has won only 15 contests as opposed to 31 won by Obama, 3 states were dead even. 22 of those won by Obama were won by MORE than 60% while hillary one only 5 of her 15 by more than 60% - clearly Obama has a much broader voter base than she does and on the few occasions he did lose, it wasn't by much.
The media is being seriously irresponsible in not grilling HRC about how she can justify her position that she wants to help Americans by saving them $20-$30/month on gas while taking the jobs and incomes of hundreds of thousands of other americans????? She says she's about jobs jobs jobs - that is such a joke.
GO OBAMA - we have GOT to win - FOR AMERICA'S SAKE!
May 1, 2008Dear Friends:I have been inspired.Today I am announcing my support for Senator Barack Obama for President of the United States of America. I am changing my support from Senator Clinton to Senator Obama, and calling for my fellow Democrats across my home State of Indiana, and my fellow super delegates across the nation, to heal the rift in our Party and unite behind Barack Obama.The hardest decisions in life are not between good and bad or right and wrong, but between two goods or two rights. That is the decision Democrats face today. We have an embarrassment of riches, but as much as we may love our candidates and revel in the political process that has brought Presidential politics to places that have not seen it in a generation, we cannot let our family affair hurt America by helping John McCain.Here is my message, explained in this lengthy letter that I hope is perceived as a thoughtful analysis of how to save America from four more years of the misguided polices of the past: you can be for someone without being against someone else. You can unite behind a candidate and a vision for America without rejecting another candidate and their vision, because in real life, opposed to party politics, we Democrats are on the same side. The battle should not be amongst ourselves. Rather, we should focus our efforts on those who are truly on the opposite side: those who want to continue the failed policies of the last eight years, rather than bring real change to Washington. Let us come together right now behind an inspiring leader who not only has the audacity to challenge the old divisive politics, but the audacity to make us all hope for a better America.Unite the Party NowI believe that Bill Clinton will be remembered as one of our nation's great Presidents, and Senator Clinton as one of our nation's great public servants. But as much as I respect and admire them both, it is clear that a vote for Hillary Clinton is a vote to continue this process, and a vote to continue this process is a vote that assists John McCain.I ask Hoosiers to come together and vote for Barack Obama to be our next President. In an accident of timing, Indiana has been given the opportunity to truly make a difference. Hoosiers should grab that power and do what in their heart they know is right. They should reject the old negative politics and vote for true change. Don't settle for the tried and true and the simplistic slogans, but listen to your heart and dare to be inspired. Only a cynic would be critical of Barack Obama inspiring millions. Only the uninformed could forget that the candidate that wins in November is always the candidate that inspires millions.I ask the leaders of our Party to come together after this Tuesday's primary to heal wounds and unite us around a single nominee. While I was hopeful that a long, contested primary season would invigorate our Party, the polls show that the tone and temperature of the race is now hurting us. John McCain, without doing much of anything, is now competitive against both of our remaining candidates. We are doing his work for him and distracting Americans from the issues that really affect all of our lives.We need to be talking about fixing the economy, not whose acquaintances once said what to whom. We need to be talking about stopping the attacks in Iraq, not stopping the attacks in Indiana. We need to be talking about policy, not politics.Barack Obama is the Right Candidate for Right NowWhile I am a longtime critic of our Party's rules that created so-called super delegates, we have the rules we have and we must live with them. I am humbled and honored to be a super delegate, and I understand the seriousness of the duty it entails. I recognize that this is a difficult decision for super delegates like me, who owe so much to President Bill Clinton. It is right to be loyal, to be grateful and to be consistent. But it is also right to acknowledge the inevitability of change, right to dare to dream for a better world, and right to know what in your heart is the right thing for the future even if your friends and family disagree. Good things, just like good people, can disagree. But as Democrats, we must disagree with dignity, debate with admiration of each other, and in the end, go forward with mutual respect.President Clinton and Vice President Gore gave me the opportunity to serve as the Chair of the Democratic Party. I pledged my loyalty to them, and I will never forget Al Gore putting ego aside, gently demurring, and simply asking me to put our country ahead of politics. It is a lesson I will remember forever, and it is what guides me now in this decision. What is best for our Party and our country is not blind loyalty, but passionate support for the candidate who can best correct the misguided policies of the last eight years.We need a candidate who will re-invigorate the economy and keep good jobs here in America. We need a candidate who will end the war in Iraq. We need a candidate who will provide health coverage for our 45 million uninsured neighbors. We need a candidate who will end our addiction to high-priced foreign oil by investing in renewable energy here at home.That candidate is Barack Obama.What was best for America sixteen years ago was electing Bill Clinton. What would have been best for America eight years ago was not only electing Al Gore, which we did, but allowing him to serve as President of the United States. Imagine how the world would be different if Al Gore and not George Bush, would have been President of the United States. Let's seize the opportunity and vote for someone who like Al Gore, was against the war from the beginning, and who brings a new energy, a new excitement, and a new politics to our country.Let’s put things right.Time to ActMany will ask, why now? Why, with several primaries still remaining, with Senator Clinton just winning Pennsylvania, with my friend Evan Bayh working hard to make sure Senator Clinton wins Indiana, why switch now? Why call for super delegates to come together now to constructively pick a president?The simple answer is that while the timing is hard for me personally, it is best for America. We simply cannot wait any longer, nor can we let this race fall any lower and still hope to win in November. June or July may be too late. The time to act is now.I write this letter from my mom's dining room table in Indianapolis, Indiana. Four generations of my family have argued and laughed around this table. But what I humbly believe today is that we, as Democrats and as Americans, face what Dr. King characterized and what Senator Obama reminds us is the fierce urgency of now. As a nation, we are at a critical moment and we need leaders with the character and vision to see us through the challenges at hand and those to come. I can't guess what will happen tomorrow, so I can't tell you what kind of experience our next President will need to have to deal with those challenges. But I can tell you what kind of character and vision they will need to have -- and that is what inspires me about Barack Obama.As Democrats, however, we risk letting this moment slip through our fingers. We risk ceding the field to the Republicans and allowing the morally bankrupt Bush Agenda to continue unabated if we do not unite behind a single candidate. Should this race continue after Indiana and North Carolina, it will inevitably become more negative. The polls already show the supporters for both candidates becoming more strident in their positions and more locked into their support. Continuing on this path would be a catastrophe, as we would inadvertently end up doing Republicans work for them. Already, instead of the audacity of hope, we suffer the audacity of one Democrat comparing John McCain favorably to another Democrat. When that happens, you know it is time for all of us to stop, take a deep breath and unite to change America.We must act and we must act now.The Problems of the Process: 2000 and 2008When Al Gore got a half million more votes than George Bush in 2000, yet the Electoral College elected George Bush President, we saw the absurdity of any system that does not elect the person who gets the most votes. That is why the Democratic Party's nomination process is flawed. I will continue to fight for a 2012 process where there are only primaries, and which ever Democrat gets the most votes becomes our nominee. Delegates should decide the party platform -- voters should decide who our nominee is.But we are struck with this absurd system for 2008, and, flawed though it may be, we must work within it without betraying the voice of the people. No amount of spin or sleight of hand can deny the fact that where there has been competition, Senator Obama has won more votes, more States and more delegates than any other candidate. Only the super delegates can award the nomination to Senator Clinton, but to do so risks doing to our Party in 2008 what Republicans did to our country in 2000. Let us be intellectually consistent and unite behind Barack Obama.A New Era of PoliticsMy endorsement of Senator Obama will not be welcome news to my friends and family at the Clinton campaign. If the campaign's surrogates called Governor Bill Richardson, a respected former member of President Clinton's cabinet, a "Judas" for endorsing Senator Obama, we can all imagine how they will treat somebody like me. They are the best practitioners of the old politics, so they will no doubt call me a traitor, an opportunist and a hypocrite. I will be branded as disloyal, power-hungry, but most importantly, they will use the exact words that Republicans used to attack me when I was defending President Clinton.When they use the same attacks made on me when I was defending them, they prove the callow hypocrisy of the old politics first perfected by Republicans. I am an expert on this because these were the exact tools that I mastered as a campaign volunteer, a campaign manager, a State Party Chair and the National Chair of our Party. I learned the lessons of the tough, right-wing Republicans all too well. I can speak with authority on how to spar with everyone from Lee Atwater to Karl Rove. I understand that, while wrong and pernicious, shallow victory can be achieved through division by semantics and obfuscation. Like many, I succumbed to the addiction of old politics because they are so easy.Innuendo is easy. The truth is hard. Sound bites are easy. Solutions are hard.Spin is simple and easy. Struggling with facts is complicated and hard.I have learned the hard way that you can love the candidate and hate the campaign. My stomach churns when I think how my old friends in the Clinton campaign will just pick up the old silly Republican play book and call in the same old artificial attacks and bombardments we have all heard before.Yet, despite the simple and overwhelming pressure to do anything and everything to win, Barack Obama has risen above it all and demanded a new brand of politics. People flock to Senator Obama because they are rejecting the hyperbole of the old politics. The past eight years of George Bush have witnessed a retreat from substance, science, and reason in favor spin, cronyism and ideology. Barack Obama has dared not only to criticize it, as all Democrats do, but to actually reject playing the same old game. And in doing so, he has shown us a new path to victory.Uniting for VictoryThe simple fact is that Democrats need to be united in November to win, and Clinton supporters, in particular, will be vital to victory. We will not convince Clinton supporters to join the Obama campaign, however, by personally criticizing them. We must welcome everyone and avoid doing Republican work for them. It is therefore incumbent on all of us who once supported Senator Clinton to welcome the thousands who should now switch their support to Senator Obama. Similarly, a necessary part of the healing process for our Party is for those who supported Senator Obama early to have the grace and good sense to broaden the tent and welcome newcomers into the fold.The old players of the old political game will claim that I am betraying my old friend Senator Evan Bayh by switching my support to Senator Obama. I believe that Evan Bayh would be a great President, and therefore a great Vice President. I will continue to argue that he would be a great choice to be on the ticket with Barack Obama. Evan Bayh is uniquely positioned as a successful governor with executive experience who is now a U.S. Senator with foreign policy experience and who is young enough to not undercut the message of vitality and hard work that Barack Obama represents. Part of healing the Party may be to have a Clinton supporter on the ticket, let alone someone who would help with Indiana, Ohio and the moderate Midwest in the general election.Being for Evan Bayh, however, does not mean that you have to be for Hillary Clinton. The important message to Hoosiers, and to super delegates, is that being for someone does not mean that you agree 100 percent of the time. Regardless of whether Evan Bayh and I support different candidates, I will support Evan Bayh.We must reject the notion that we have to beat the Republicans at their own game -- or even that the game has to be played at all. It is so easy for all of us involved -- candidates, campaigns and the media -- to focus on the process and the horse race that we forget why we got into it in the first place. Barack Obama has had the courage to talk about real issues, real problems and real people. Let's pause for a second in the midst of the cacophony of the campaign circus and listen.In 1992, I was inspired by Bill Clinton because he promised, and delivered, a framework for addressing America's problems. President Clinton ended a long-running left-right debate in our Party, and inspired millions. He drew giant crowds and spoke passionately for a generation of Americans who often disenfranchised and rarely participated in governing. Today, Barack Obama does the same thing. Winners redefine the game. Winners connect with the American people and not only feel their pain, but inspire them to take action to heal the underlying cause. Barack Obama is that kind of candidate and that kind of leader, which is why he will win in November.Welcoming Everyone into the PartyWe face significant challenges as a nation and as a Party, but time and again, Americans have shown the resilience and determination necessary to overcome even the highest obstacle. We have a difficult road ahead, but I have complete confidence that Barack Obama is the candidate who can lead our Party to victory and the President who can guide us to even greater heights.Many Democrats know me for one short speech I gave over and over again in the 2000 Presidential campaign. That speech was about welcoming people into our Party and welcoming undecided voters to our campaign to elect Al Gore. Today, we need to welcome Clinton supporters, undecided voters, and all Americans to join Barack Obama's cause to fight for a better America. My speech ended with these words, which are even more relevant today:The difference between the Republican Party and the Democratic Party is that you are always welcome in the Democratic Party. Because Democrats don’t care if you are black or white or brown or a nice shade of green, you are welcome in the Democratic Party.We don’t care if you pray in a church or a synagogue or a temple or a mosque, or just before math tests, you are welcome in the Democratic Party.We don’t care if you are young or old, or just don’t want to tell your age, you are welcome in the Democratic Party.We don’t care what gender you are, or what gender you want to hold hands with; as long as you want to hold hands, you are welcome in the Democratic Party.We don’t care about the size of your bank account, just the size of your heart; and we don’t care where you are today, just where you dream you want to be tomorrow.That is your Democratic Party.That is Barack Obama's Democratic Party.That is the Party that will win in November. joeandrews2008@gmail.com jandrew@sonnenschein.com 1301 K Street, N.W. Suite 600, East Tower Washington, DC 20005-3364 Phone: 202-408-5210 Ph.: 202.408.6400 Fax: 202.408.6399
May 1, 2008
Dear Friends:
I have been inspired.
Today I am announcing my support for Senator Barack Obama for President of the United States of America. I am changing my support from Senator Clinton to Senator Obama, and calling for my fellow Democrats across my home State of Indiana, and my fellow super delegates across the nation, to heal the rift in our Party and unite behind Barack Obama.
The hardest decisions in life are not between good and bad or right and wrong, but between two goods or two rights. That is the decision Democrats face today. We have an embarrassment of riches, but as much as we may love our candidates and revel in the political process that has brought Presidential politics to places that have not seen it in a generation, we cannot let our family affair hurt America by helping John McCain.
Here is my message, explained in this lengthy letter that I hope is perceived as a thoughtful analysis of how to save America from four more years of the misguided polices of the past: you can be for someone without being against someone else. You can unite behind a candidate and a vision for America without rejecting another candidate and their vision, because in real life, opposed to party politics, we Democrats are on the same side. The battle should not be amongst ourselves. Rather, we should focus our efforts on those who are truly on the opposite side: those who want to continue the failed policies of the last eight years, rather than bring real change to Washington. Let us come together right now behind an inspiring leader who not only has the audacity to challenge the old divisive politics, but the audacity to make us all hope for a better America.
Unite the Party Now
I believe that Bill Clinton will be remembered as one of our nation's great Presidents, and Senator Clinton as one of our nation's great public servants. But as much as I respect and admire them both, it is clear that a vote for Hillary Clinton is a vote to continue this process, and a vote to continue this process is a vote that assists John McCain.
I ask Hoosiers to come together and vote for Barack Obama to be our next President. In an accident of timing, Indiana has been given the opportunity to truly make a difference. Hoosiers should grab that power and do what in their heart they know is right. They should reject the old negative politics and vote for true change. Don't settle for the tried and true and the simplistic slogans, but listen to your heart and dare to be inspired. Only a cynic would be critical of Barack Obama inspiring millions. Only the uninformed could forget that the candidate that wins in November is always the candidate that inspires millions.
I ask the leaders of our Party to come together after this Tuesday's primary to heal wounds and unite us around a single nominee. While I was hopeful that a long, contested primary season would invigorate our Party, the polls show that the tone and temperature of the race is now hurting us. John McCain, without doing much of anything, is now competitive against both of our remaining candidates. We are doing his work for him and distracting Americans from the issues that really affect all of our lives.
We need to be talking about fixing the economy, not whose acquaintances once said what to whom. We need to be talking about stopping the attacks in Iraq, not stopping the attacks in Indiana. We need to be talking about policy, not politics.
Barack Obama is the Right Candidate for Right Now
While I am a longtime critic of our Party's rules that created so-called super delegates, we have the rules we have and we must live with them. I am humbled and honored to be a super delegate, and I understand the seriousness of the duty it entails. I recognize that this is a difficult decision for super delegates like me, who owe so much to President Bill Clinton. It is right to be loyal, to be grateful and to be consistent. But it is also right to acknowledge the inevitability of change, right to dare to dream for a better world, and right to know what in your heart is the right thing for the future even if your friends and family disagree. Good things, just like good people, can disagree. But as Democrats, we must disagree with dignity, debate with admiration of each other, and in the end, go forward with mutual respect.
President Clinton and Vice President Gore gave me the opportunity to serve as the Chair of the Democratic Party. I pledged my loyalty to them, and I will never forget Al Gore putting ego aside, gently demurring, and simply asking me to put our country ahead of politics. It is a lesson I will remember forever, and it is what guides me now in this decision. What is best for our Party and our country is not blind loyalty, but passionate support for the candidate who can best correct the misguided policies of the last eight years.
We need a candidate who will re-invigorate the economy and keep good jobs here in America. We need a candidate who will end the war in Iraq. We need a candidate who will provide health coverage for our 45 million uninsured neighbors. We need a candidate who will end our addiction to high-priced foreign oil by investing in renewable energy here at home.
That candidate is Barack Obama.
What was best for America sixteen years ago was electing Bill Clinton. What would have been best for America eight years ago was not only electing Al Gore, which we did, but allowing him to serve as President of the United States. Imagine how the world would be different if Al Gore and not George Bush, would have been President of the United States. Let's seize the opportunity and vote for someone who like Al Gore, was against the war from the beginning, and who brings a new energy, a new excitement, and a new politics to our country.
Let’s put things right.
Time to Act
Many will ask, why now? Why, with several primaries still remaining, with Senator Clinton just winning Pennsylvania, with my friend Evan Bayh working hard to make sure Senator Clinton wins Indiana, why switch now? Why call for super delegates to come together now to constructively pick a president?
The simple answer is that while the timing is hard for me personally, it is best for America. We simply cannot wait any longer, nor can we let this race fall any lower and still hope to win in November. June or July may be too late. The time to act is now.
I write this letter from my mom's dining room table in Indianapolis, Indiana. Four generations of my family have argued and laughed around this table. But what I humbly believe today is that we, as Democrats and as Americans, face what Dr. King characterized and what Senator Obama reminds us is the fierce urgency of now. As a nation, we are at a critical moment and we need leaders with the character and vision to see us through the challenges at hand and those to come. I can't guess what will happen tomorrow, so I can't tell you what kind of experience our next President will need to have to deal with those challenges. But I can tell you what kind of character and vision they will need to have -- and that is what inspires me about Barack Obama.
As Democrats, however, we risk letting this moment slip through our fingers. We risk ceding the field to the Republicans and allowing the morally bankrupt Bush Agenda to continue unabated if we do not unite behind a single candidate. Should this race continue after Indiana and North Carolina, it will inevitably become more negative. The polls already show the supporters for both candidates becoming more strident in their positions and more locked into their support. Continuing on this path would be a catastrophe, as we would inadvertently end up doing Republicans work for them. Already, instead of the audacity of hope, we suffer the audacity of one Democrat comparing John McCain favorably to another Democrat. When that happens, you know it is time for all of us to stop, take a deep breath and unite to change America.
We must act and we must act now.
The Problems of the Process: 2000 and 2008
When Al Gore got a half million more votes than George Bush in 2000, yet the Electoral College elected George Bush President, we saw the absurdity of any system that does not elect the person who gets the most votes. That is why the Democratic Party's nomination process is flawed. I will continue to fight for a 2012 process where there are only primaries, and which ever Democrat gets the most votes becomes our nominee. Delegates should decide the party platform -- voters should decide who our nominee is.
But we are struck with this absurd system for 2008, and, flawed though it may be, we must work within it without betraying the voice of the people. No amount of spin or sleight of hand can deny the fact that where there has been competition, Senator Obama has won more votes, more States and more delegates than any other candidate. Only the super delegates can award the nomination to Senator Clinton, but to do so risks doing to our Party in 2008 what Republicans did to our country in 2000. Let us be intellectually consistent and unite behind Barack Obama.
A New Era of Politics
My endorsement of Senator Obama will not be welcome news to my friends and family at the Clinton campaign. If the campaign's surrogates called Governor Bill Richardson, a respected former member of President Clinton's cabinet, a "Judas" for endorsing Senator Obama, we can all imagine how they will treat somebody like me. They are the best practitioners of the old politics, so they will no doubt call me a traitor, an opportunist and a hypocrite. I will be branded as disloyal, power-hungry, but most importantly, they will use the exact words that Republicans used to attack me when I was defending President Clinton.
When they use the same attacks made on me when I was defending them, they prove the callow hypocrisy of the old politics first perfected by Republicans. I am an expert on this because these were the exact tools that I mastered as a campaign volunteer, a campaign manager, a State Party Chair and the National Chair of our Party. I learned the lessons of the tough, right-wing Republicans all too well. I can speak with authority on how to spar with everyone from Lee Atwater to Karl Rove. I understand that, while wrong and pernicious, shallow victory can be achieved through division by semantics and obfuscation. Like many, I succumbed to the addiction of old politics because they are so easy.
Sound bites are easy. Solutions are hard.
Spin is simple and easy. Struggling with facts is complicated and hard.
I have learned the hard way that you can love the candidate and hate the campaign. My stomach churns when I think how my old friends in the Clinton campaign will just pick up the old silly Republican play book and call in the same old artificial attacks and bombardments we have all heard before.
Yet, despite the simple and overwhelming pressure to do anything and everything to win, Barack Obama has risen above it all and demanded a new brand of politics. People flock to Senator Obama because they are rejecting the hyperbole of the old politics. The past eight years of George Bush have witnessed a retreat from substance, science, and reason in favor spin, cronyism and ideology. Barack Obama has dared not only to criticize it, as all Democrats do, but to actually reject playing the same old game. And in doing so, he has shown us a new path to victory.
Uniting for Victory
The simple fact is that Democrats need to be united in November to win, and Clinton supporters, in particular, will be vital to victory. We will not convince Clinton supporters to join the Obama campaign, however, by personally criticizing them. We must welcome everyone and avoid doing Republican work for them. It is therefore incumbent on all of us who once supported Senator Clinton to welcome the thousands who should now switch their support to Senator Obama. Similarly, a necessary part of the healing process for our Party is for those who supported Senator Obama early to have the grace and good sense to broaden the tent and welcome newcomers into the fold.
The old players of the old political game will claim that I am betraying my old friend Senator Evan Bayh by switching my support to Senator Obama. I believe that Evan Bayh would be a great President, and therefore a great Vice President. I will continue to argue that he would be a great choice to be on the ticket with Barack Obama. Evan Bayh is uniquely positioned as a successful governor with executive experience who is now a U.S. Senator with foreign policy experience and who is young enough to not undercut the message of vitality and hard work that Barack Obama represents. Part of healing the Party may be to have a Clinton supporter on the ticket, let alone someone who would help with Indiana, Ohio and the moderate Midwest in the general election.
Being for Evan Bayh, however, does not mean that you have to be for Hillary Clinton. The important message to Hoosiers, and to super delegates, is that being for someone does not mean that you agree 100 percent of the time. Regardless of whether Evan Bayh and I support different candidates, I will support Evan Bayh.
We must reject the notion that we have to beat the Republicans at their own game -- or even that the game has to be played at all. It is so easy for all of us involved -- candidates, campaigns and the media -- to focus on the process and the horse race that we forget why we got into it in the first place. Barack Obama has had the courage to talk about real issues, real problems and real people. Let's pause for a second in the midst of the cacophony of the campaign circus and listen.
In 1992, I was inspired by Bill Clinton because he promised, and delivered, a framework for addressing America's problems. President Clinton ended a long-running left-right debate in our Party, and inspired millions. He drew giant crowds and spoke passionately for a generation of Americans who often disenfranchised and rarely participated in governing. Today, Barack Obama does the same thing. Winners redefine the game. Winners connect with the American people and not only feel their pain, but inspire them to take action to heal the underlying cause. Barack Obama is that kind of candidate and that kind of leader, which is why he will win in November.
Welcoming Everyone into the Party
We face significant challenges as a nation and as a Party, but time and again, Americans have shown the resilience and determination necessary to overcome even the highest obstacle. We have a difficult road ahead, but I have complete confidence that Barack Obama is the candidate who can lead our Party to victory and the President who can guide us to even greater heights.
Many Democrats know me for one short speech I gave over and over again in the 2000 Presidential campaign. That speech was about welcoming people into our Party and welcoming undecided voters to our campaign to elect Al Gore. Today, we need to welcome Clinton supporters, undecided voters, and all Americans to join Barack Obama's cause to fight for a better America. My speech ended with these words, which are even more relevant today:
Because Democrats don’t care if you are black or white or brown or a nice shade of green, you are welcome in the Democratic Party.
We don’t care if you pray in a church or a synagogue or a temple or a mosque, or just before math tests, you are welcome in the Democratic Party.
We don’t care if you are young or old, or just don’t want to tell your age, you are welcome in the Democratic Party.
We don’t care what gender you are, or what gender you want to hold hands with; as long as you want to hold hands, you are welcome in the Democratic Party.
We don’t care about the size of your bank account, just the size of your heart; and we don’t care where you are today, just where you dream you want to be tomorrow.
That is your Democratic Party.
That is Barack Obama's Democratic Party.
That is the Party that will win in November.
joeandrews2008@gmail.com jandrew@sonnenschein.com 1301 K Street, N.W. Suite 600, East Tower Washington, DC 20005-3364 Phone: 202-408-5210 Ph.: 202.408.6400 Fax: 202.408.6399