Lucia Brawley's Blog

President Obama's Arts, as published in The Huffington Post

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 02:41:57 EST

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lucia-brawley/president-obamas-arts_b_136616.html

PRESIDENT OBAMA'S ARTS

by Lucia Brawley

At 10 years old, Mordecai Santiago was already the toughest kid at the 52nd Street Project, the renowned Hell's Kitchen not-for-profit where I volunteered as an academic tutor and arts educator. Though diminutive in stature and "held back" in school, Mordecai wielded an authority beyond his years with children and adults alike. Officials at his over-crowded elementary school had diagnosed Mordecai with A.D.D. and wanted to put him on Ritalin. He shared a small, low-income-housing apartment with four other siblings and two parents. They had no computer.

But Mordecai was a natural on the piano. He loved to play Beethoven's Fur Elise by ear on the only piano in the after-school clubhouse. Since he'd never had a proper lesson, his fingering was incorrect, but he hit every note flawlessly. The only way I could get him to finish his homework, was by promising him "piano time" at the end of every tutoring session. He often would rather play his own haunting compositions than go home.

His unadulterated love of music inspired me to ask fellow Harvard alums to donate piano lessons to kids at the program. Offers flowed in by email in overwhelming numbers. However, the administrators of the program, already under-staffed, under-resourced and over-worked, regretfully explained that they could not accept.

In Mordecai, a tough, brilliant, little kid in baggy jeans and a puffy North Face jacket, I saw up-close the precarious fate of millions of American children who might evolve into great artists or great criminals, at the flip of a coin. Without proper funding for programs like the 52nd Street Project, the latter possibility becomes an inevitability for too many kids.

In order to stay true to the campaign's message of hope, progress and action, I would like to see an Obama administration accomplish a broad array of arts policy goals. Arts education must find its way back to American public schools, not only as a proven measure to bring up students' math and science scores, but to allow students a means of self-expression that will save their futures - as well as saving the system the cost of trying and incarcerating many of them. Even if they never go into the arts, a youth's acquired creative problem solving abilities will serve her in any field.

Imagine art and performance exchanges between students from different areas and strata of American society, in order to create dialogue that bridges psychological gaps between demographic groups and regions.

More than an educational tool, the arts offer unique diplomatic opportunities. In the Kennedy tradition, there should be exchanges between students and adult artists from our country and other countries around the globe, perhaps in partnership with the U.N.

Controversially, during the Cold War, the CIA infiltrated Eastern European theater groups, in order to inspire revolt within oppressive regimes and prevent democratic regimes from turning Communist, as illustrated in The Cultural Cold War:The CIA and the World off Arts and Letters, by Frances Stonor Saunders. Whether one agrees with such secretive programs or not, do they not reflect the diplomatic potential of the arts, as an alternative to overt military policing?

Acting in Hungary, a country famed for its great composers, I saw young students well versed in classical music. How wonderful it would be to see original U.S. musical forms as part of every American child's curriculum: jazz, folk music, rock'n'roll, and hip-hop. What could be more patriotic than embracing our nation's cultural contributions to the world? And why not include world music and dance as an integral part of the American-immigrant and global stories?

With an eye toward valuing the contributions of artists, as all other developed nations do, I would like to see artist-tailored unemployment and healthcare insurance for those who can prove a history of work in their chosen field. And, to offer alternatives to a justice system that now reinforces the dehumanization inherent in an excessively stratified society, I would like to see more programs like Rhodessa Jones' "Medea Project," that helps rehabilitate inmates in the Bay Area correctional system, by allowing them to enact their own stories, thereby exorcising the causes of their anger and accepting responsibility for their actions.

Visual art projects helped children overcome the trauma of having witnessed 9/11. Imagine the benefits of music and art therapy for every soldier returning from Iraq who suffers from PTSD.

The arts humanize society, not merely in a spiritual and emotional sense. We have tangible historical evidence of how the arts have directly contributed to the fortification of a troubled America. F.D.R.'s New Deal - especially relevant now, as we face the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression - included the Federal Writers Project, Federal Theater Project, Federal Art Project and Federal Music Project, each of which employed artists in ways that served and uplifted society and the economy as a whole. In their 1995 essay, "New Deal Cultural Programs: Experiments in Cultural Democracy," Don Adams and Arlene Goldbard state that, rather than homogenize distinct regions with a big government agenda, these projects set forward in vivid relief the unique beauties of each region, inspired progress within the labor movement, and led to commercially viable enterprises.

Today, Barack Obama often speaks of a deficit, not merely economic, but of empathy. He reminds us that, "I am my brother's keeper." Obama's campaign has inspired an unprecedented amount of creativity through songs, artwork, dance and dramatic arts, and captured the imaginations of people worldwide. If a President Obama chooses to utilize his historic grassroots organization beyond the campaign, in order to successfully put forth initiatives that stand up to corporate special interests, he must remember that the arts will be the primary mouthpiece for galvanizing the people's partnership.

Barack Obama

stumble digg reddit del.ico.us news trust huffington_post:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lucia-brawley/president-obamas-arts_b_136616.html mixx.com

A Real American

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 18:20:20 EDT

I get really upset when people like Lynn Forrester de Rothschild (ridonkulously rich former Hillary supporter now backing McCain) say things like, "Barack Obama is arrogant and out of touch with real Americans." So John McCain, who doesn't know for sure how many houses he has and was the son of an ambassador, and Sarah Palin, who ordered a tanning bed for her Alaska Governor's mansion, are IN TOUCH with real Americans?

Barack Obama was raised by his grandparents and a single mom. His family often struggled for money. He accepted a $13,000/year community organizing job, in order to help empower poor Americans, when he could have made millions on Wall Street. He and Michelle only paid off their student loans three years ago, with money from Barack's books. 8 years ago, Barack couldn't even get credentials into the DNC. He EARNED his place at Harvard Law School and his presidency of the Harvard Law Review -- he wasn't granted these things via some legacy. He has a wholesome family and has been married to one woman for 19 years. McCain cheated on and divorced his first wife when she was disfigured by illness. The heiress he cheated with and married then stole drugs from people in a hospital she was funding. Palin's husband has at least one DWI charge and their 17-year-old daughter is being forced to marry the kid who knocked her up. People have suggested that Barack is abnormal because he comes from Hawaii -- but Palin represents every American woman when she's a wolf killer from Alaska? The Obama-Biden ticket is elitist? Biden comes from Scranton, PA and has worked hard on behalf of blue-collar Americans for the duration of his long career in Politics.

Barack is the outsider? Could it be because he's half black? How is Barack "arrogant"? Would we say that about a white candidate with the same charisma, talent, and achievements? And for the record, he's the one candidate who always says, "This is not about me. It's about YOU." He is the one candidate who has inspired a movement larger than any campaign, a movement that exemplifies how Americans of all stripes can transcend their differences to overcome common problems and achieve common goals. Obama is greater than the sum of his Kansan and Kenyan parts and he inspires us to be greater than the sum of our innumerable parts as a nation of immigrants, . How is he "out of touch" with real Americans? He is a real American as much as anyone else. Every American has a unique story. Every American has something that makes them special. Since when was that a bad thing?

We cannot let all the negative static and petty ridicule stand in the way of the American people partnering with their President for the first time in a very long time. Barack Obama has earned more from REGULAR AMERICAN PEOPLE than any candidate in history. He is as beholden to us as he is to any special interest group, lobbyist, corporation or rich person. The same cannot be said of John McCain. We MUST reach out to our neighbors all over this country and let them into the REAL BARACK, clearly distinguishing what makes him more in touch with our needs by far than is John McCain. We MUST speak from our hearts about why this moment in history deserves every American's full attention and passion. Barack Obama represents our future, both domestically and internationally. We have to win. We can. And we will. But it's up to us and, with 48.5 days to go, it's now or never, y'all. So let's get out there and do this!

God Bless America,

Lucia Brawley

Judge Reject's Bush's Wiretapping

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 12:06:03 EDT

ews Judge Rejects Bush's View on Wiretaps Thursday 03 July 2008 » by: Eric Lichtblau, The New York Times photo A federal judge ruled that Bush's views on wiretapping were beyond the constitutional authority of the president. (Photo: ABC News) Washington - A federal judge in California said Wednesday that the wiretapping law established by Congress was the "exclusive" means for the president to eavesdrop on Americans, and he rejected the government's claim that the president's constitutional authority as commander in chief trumped that law. The judge, Vaughn R. Walker, the chief judge for the Northern District of California, made his findings in a ruling on a lawsuit brought by an Oregon charity. The group says it has evidence of an illegal wiretap used against it by the National Security Agency under the secret surveillance program established by President Bush after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The Justice Department has tried for more than two years to kill the lawsuit, saying any surveillance of the charity or other entities was a "state secret" and citing the president's constitutional power as commander in chief to order wiretaps without a warrant from a court under the agency's program. But Judge Walker, who was appointed to the bench by former President George Bush, rejected those central claims in his 56-page ruling. He said the rules for surveillance were clearly established by Congress in 1978 under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which requires the government to get a warrant from a secret court. "Congress appears clearly to have intended to - and did - establish the exclusive means for foreign intelligence activities to be conducted," the judge wrote. "Whatever power the executive may otherwise have had in this regard, FISA limits the power of the executive branch to conduct such activities and it limits the executive branch's authority to assert the state secrets privilege in response to challenges to the legality of its foreign intelligence surveillance activities." Judge Walker's voice carries extra weight because all the lawsuits involving telephone companies that took part in the N.S.A. program have been consolidated and are being heard in his court. Jon Eisenberg, a lawyer for Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, the plaintiff in the case, said the legal issues Judge Walker's ruling raised were significant. "He's saying FISA makes the rules and the president is bound by those rules," Mr. Eisenberg said. A Justice Department official said the department was reviewing the opinion late Wednesday and would consider its options. Officials at Al-Haramain say they were mistakenly given a government document revealing the N.S.A. operation. The Federal Bureau of Investigation demanded the document back, and Judge Walker's ruling made it more difficult for Al-Haramain to use what it claims to have seen . But he refused to throw out the lawsuit, giving the charity's lawyers 30 days to restructure their claim. "We still have our foot in the door," Mr. Eisenberg said. "The clock is a minute to midnight, but we've been there before and survived." The ruling comes as the Senate is overhauling the foreign intelligence law. The measure would reaffirm FISA as the exclusive means for the president to order wiretaps through court warrants, but it would also provide legal immunity to phone companies involved in the eavesdropping program. A vote could come Tuesday. The immunity issue would not directly affect this lawsuit because Al-Haramain is suing the government, not the phone companies. But the nearly 40 other lawsuits against phone companies that Judge Walker is overseeing would almost certainly have to be dismissed if immunity is signed into law, legal analysts say.

AMAZING SONG DEDICATED to BARACK and ALL YOU VOLUNTEERS!

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 02:02:08 EST

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2f-6lGnQ26Q

Let's stop these smears!

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 00:56:41 EST

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0308/Clinton_aide_compares_Obama_to_Ken_Starr.html

URGENT: Don't Let Clintonites Get Procedural Control at Tomorrow's Caucuses

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 21:07:56 EST

PLEASE READ AND FORWARD IMMEDIATELY, BEFORE TOMORROW!

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0308/Texas_caucus_hardball.html

And you may also want to check out this link:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/3/3/174218/4966/721/468110

Great Washington Post Article: THERE'S THE BEEF

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 17:47:11 EST

great article, giving the lie to the idea that obama is an empty suit:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/21/AR2008022102826.html

Si, Se Puede - a great new song and video

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 20:19:43 EST

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1KFsR4huV4

Best Comparison Yet of Both Dem Candidates

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 20:16:33 EST

From the article at http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/2/20/201332/807/36/458633

I Refuse to Buy into the Obama Hype (now a supporter)

by Grassroots Mom Wed Feb 20, 2008 at 05:13:32 PM PST

The next President is going to have some MAJOR challenges.
I refuse to buy into the hype, on either side, but especially on that of Obama. However the "empty rhetoric" v. "history of accomplishments" arguments have prompted me to check it out on my own, not relying on any candidate's website, book, or worst of all supporters' diaries, like this one.

I went to the Library of Congress Website. The FACTS of what each did in the Senate last year sure surprised me. I'm sure they will surprise you, too. Whether you love or hate Hillary, you will be surprised. Whether you think Obama is the second coming of JFK or an inexperienced lightweight, you will surprised. Go check out the Library of Congress Website. After spending some time there, it will be clear that there is really only one candidate would is ready to be the next president, even better than Gore. If you don't want to spend an hour or two doing research, then I'll tell you what I discovered on the jump.

Grassroots Mom's diary :: ::

I looked up Obama and looked up Clinton. I looked at the bills that they both authored and introduced. Anyone who has been around politics, and is honest, realizes that there are a lot of reasons why a Senator votes one way or another on bills or misses votes. However an examination of the bills that each of these Senators cared enough about to author and introduce revealed much to me: what they care about, what their priorities are, how they tackle problems. And the list of co-sponsors showed something about how they lead, inspire and work with others. Finally, looking at which bills actually passed is pretty indicative of how effective each would be at getting things done.

Before I get into the nitty gritty, let's all be honest here. It is damn hard to get anything through Congress these days. And Obama and Clinton care about the same issues and have obviously worked together on a lot of legislation, whatever Sen. Clinton's campaign may imply. She is a frequent co-sponsor on his bills, and he on hers. They are both completely competent senators.

I started with Sen. Clinton.

I'm not a Hillary Hater, but I certainly didn't like her much either. I didn't like her DLC history; her votes on Iraq, Iran or the bankruptcy bill; her characterization of the years she spent as First Lady as "executive experience." Hillary Clinton is no Eleanor Roosevelt. Perhaps more like Lady Bird Johnson. Hillary claims to have brought us SCHIP (with a little help from Ted Kennedy). Lady Bird brought us Head Start as well as cleaner, nicer highways. Anyone 40 or older probably remembers when the nation's highways were basically disgusting garbage dumps lined with billboards. But no one thinks Lady Bird should have been president. Might as well argue for Barbara Bush because of her efforts on family literacy, or Nancy Reagan and the War on Drugs.

Hillary Clinton does have a solid record in the Senate, however.

I came away from my research really knowing a lot more about what is important to Hillary in her heart: kids and their well being. My research changed my feeling about her significantly. About 40% of her bills dealt with health care and/or kids. As a mom with small kids, I like her passion for children's issues. But curiously, her big bill to deliver health care to every child, the one she lauds on her website, S.895 : "A bill to amend titles XIX and XXI of the Social Security Act to ensure that every child in the United States has access to affordable, quality health insurance coverage, and for other purposes" had not a single co-sponsor. Not one, according to the Library of Congress. Why is that? Is it a bad bill? Or is she not able to recruit support for her signature issue? Or did she just submit it simply to put in the hopper, so to speak, so she could claim she was working on it. I honestly don't know the answer, but I find it curious and suspicious that not even Ted Kennedy co-sponsored it. Its sister bill in the house, H.R. 1535, introduced by John Dingell has 42 co-sponsors. It's just weird. I honestly don't know what to make of it.

S.895 was major. But most of her other bills are much smaller in scale and scope — more targeted and more careful.

For example, she introduced one bill that offered tax credits for building owners who clean up lead paint. Which is a very good thing. And Obama is a co-sponsor. "S.1793 : A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide a tax credit for property owners who remove lead-based paint hazards."

Obama's anti-lead bill (S. 1306) directed the Consumer Product Safety Commission to classify certain children's products containing lead as banned hazardous substances. He had another bill prohibitting the interstate transport of children's products containing lead. (S.2132) And Hillary co-sponsored each of these.

In other words, they both care about protecting children from lead.

The difference is in the scope and the approach.

Obama's bill shows how he thinks big: do everything we can to make sure that lead-painted Thomas the Tank Engine toys don't get into the hands and mouths of millions of toddlers in this country.

Or Hillary: encourage people by offering tax credits to clean up lead paint in old buildings. People have been talking about lead paint in old buildings hurting kids in living in inner cities, since, well when I was a kid — for decades. If it is still a big problem, is offering tax credits for clean up, i.e. scrape down the walls and repaint, the best way to protect kids from lead?

How many of you parents have lead paint problems? How many have (or had) toxic Thomas the Tank Engine Toys? They are everywhere. The local bookstore and kid's shoe store and the doctor's office and the preschool and the toystore all have train tables. There is nowhere you can go anymore with toddlers that doesn't have a Thomas the Tank Engine train table covered with toxic toys. But that's just my feeling.

Obama's bills risk pissing off the toy industry and the Chinese. Hillary's risks nothing.

A lot of Clinton's health bills focus on children. Or women. She introduced a billl for research in the causes of gestational diabetes, for more pediatric research (S.895) and a rural agriculture bill to get farm-fresh veggies into schools (S.1031).

Her bill dealing with the crisis in foreclosure is actually S.2114 : "A bill to amend the Truth in Lending Act, to provide for enhanced disclosures to consumers and enhanced regulation of mortgage brokers, and for other purposes." Again, no co-sponsors. Obama also introduced a bill in the face of the mortgage foreclosure crisis: S.1222 : "A bill to stop mortgage transactions which operate to promote fraud, risk, abuse, and under-development, and for other purposes." Sponsor: Sen Obama, Barack [IL] (introduced 4/25/2007), co-sponsored by Dick Durbin.

In her ads and speeches, Clinton claims that she's fighting to stop foreclosure while implying that Obama is empty rhetoric. Actually, Clinton is calling for "enhanced disclosures to consumers and enhanced regulation", while Obama's bill will "stop mortgage transactions which operate to promote fraud, risk, abuse, and under-development." After looking at the two bills, Obama's appears to be tougher, more directly addressing the problem.

Speaking of Obama, here's a list of some of his proposed legislation.

Four bills on energy including
• S.1151 : A bill to provide incentives to the auto industry to accelerate efforts to develop more energy-efficient vehicles to lessen dependence on oil;
•S.115 : A bill to suspend royalty relief, to repeal certain provisions of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, and to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to repeal certain tax incentives for the oil and gas industry; and •S.133 : A bill to promote the national security and stability of the economy of the United States by reducing the dependence of the United States on oil through the use of alternative fuels and new technology, and for other purposes.

Clinton had only one bill that I could find that addressed the same issue, S.701 : A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to impose a temporary oil profit fee and to use the proceeds of the fee collected to provide a Strategic Energy Fund and expand certain energy tax incentives, and for other purposes.

Obama wants to "repeal certain tax incentives for the oil and gas industry". Clinton sees the answer in a "temporary oil profit fee" and to "expand certain energy tax incentives" for alternative energy. Obama's alternative energy bill (S.133) was co-sponsored by Harkin, Lugar and Salazar. Clinton's bill again had no co-sponsors.

On health care he introduced ten bills/amendments, including one amendment that passed: S.AMDT.1041 to S.1082 To improve the safety and efficacy of genetic tests. Other issues addressed in his proposed health care legislation were AIDS research (S.823 ), hospital report cards (S.692 — the V.A., and S.1824 — Medicare), better emergency care (S.1873), and drug price controls (S.2347).

Clinton's health care bills, for the most part, didn't impress me much, although she introduced many more bills in this area than Obama did:

S.CON.RES.63 : A concurrent resolution expressing the sense of the Congress regarding the need for additional research into the chronic neurological condition hydrocephalus, and for other purposes.
S.RES.176 : A resolution recognizing April 30, 2007, as "National Healthy Schools Day".
S.RES.222 : A resolution supporting the goals and ideals of Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month.
S.201 : A bill to establish a grant program for individuals still suffering health effects as a result of the September 11, 2001, attacks in New York City and at the Pentagon.
S.907 : A bill to establish an Advisory Committee on Gestational Diabetes, to provide grants to better understand and reduce gestational diabetes, and for other purposes.
S.993 : A bill to improve pediatric research.
S.982 : A bill to amend the Public Health Service Act to provide for integration of mental health services and mental health treatment outreach teams, and for other purposes.
S.1065 : A bill to improve the diagnosis and treatment of traumatic brain injury in members and former members of the Armed Forces, to review and expand telehealth and telemental health programs of the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs, and for other purposes.
S.1075 : A bill to amend title XIX of the Social Security Act to expand access to contraceptive services for women and men under the Medicaid program, help low income women and couples prevent unintended pregnancies and reduce abortion, and for other purposes.
S.1343 : A bill to amend the Public Health Service Act with respect to prevention and treatment of diabetes, and for other purposes.
S.1712 : A bill to amend the Public Health Service Act to improve newborn screening activities, and for other purposes.

and on and on. Plenty of these have plenty of co-sponsors. Obviously, Hillary Clinton really knows her stuff on the issues of health care. None of them passed, however. On Obama's side, one of his health care initiatives passed in the Senate, the aforementioned amendment to Kennedy's S.1082, the FDA Revitalization Act.

Truth be told, it was very depressing doing this research to see all these great ideas and how little actually gets done. Looking at the legislative history of Kennedy's bill is a good example. It finally passed but its sister bill in the House, H.R.2900, was the one that was finally enacted, and with it, Obama's amendment for safe and effective genetic testing. Clinton submitted two amendments to this bill, one of would have eliminated the sunsetting of pediatric data collection; the other would have begin the process to approve generic versions of complex and expensive drugs called biologics or biotech drugs. Neither were adopted.

Now let's look more closely at Obama.

I was blown away as I started going through his record. I've already mentioned his bills on health care and energy. In addition he had introduced bills on Iran, voting, veterans, global warming, campaign finance and lobbyists, Blackwater, global poverty, nuclear proliferation, and education.
On Iran: S.J.RES.23 : A joint resolution clarifying that the use of force against Iran is not authorized by the Authorization for the Use of Military Force Against Iraq, any resolution previously adopted, or any other provision of law.

On votingPassed out of Committee and now on the Senate Calendar for Feb. 22, 2008
S.453 : A bill to prohibit deceptive practices in Federal elections Please check this out! This is a great bill. We need this. I can't believe that this time voter intimidation is not already illegal.

On veterans and military personnel: S.1084 : A bill to provide housing assistance for very low-income veterans;

On global warmingS.1324 : A bill to amend the Clean Air Act to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transportation fuel sold in the United States;S.1389 : A bill to authorize the National Science Foundation to establish a Climate Change Education Program; S.AMDT.599 to S.CON.RES.21 To add $200 million for Function 270 (Energy) for the demonstration and monitoring of carbon capture and sequestration technology by the Department of Energy. (This last one passed both the House and the Senate as part of the budget bill.)

On campaign finance and lobbyists S.2030 : A bill to amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to require reporting relating to bundled contributions made by persons other than registered lobbyists; and S.AMDT.41 to S.1 To require lobbyists to disclose the candidates, leadership PACs, or political parties for whom they collect or arrange contributions, and the aggregate amount of the contributions collected or arranged.

On Blackwater S.2044 : A bill to provide procedures for the proper classification of employees and independent contractors, and for other purposes, and S.2147 : A bill to require accountability for contractors and contract personnel under Federal contracts, and for other purposes.

On global poverty S.2433 : A bill to require the President to develop and implement a comprehensive strategy to further the United States foreign policy objective of promoting the reduction of global poverty, the elimination of extreme global poverty, and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goal of reducing by one-half the proportion of people worldwide, between 1990 and 2015, who live on less than $1 per day.

On global nuclear proliferation S.1977 : A bill to provide for sustained United States leadership in a cooperative global effort to prevent nuclear terrorism, reduce global nuclear arsenals, stop the spread of nuclear weapons and related material and technology, and support the responsible and peaceful use of nuclear technology.

I counted nine education bills, but it's getting late and I've got to get my kids ready for bed.

As I mentioned earlier, Clinton is a frequent co-sponsor on many of Obama's bills. So is Ted Kennedy. So are a number of Republicans.

Finally, Obama appears to have a better record last year in the Senate on getting his bills and amendments passed than does Clinton. I've listed everything that passed the Senate for each them at the end in boxes. But check out Thomas.loc.gov for yourself. I may have missed something.

In my eyes Obama is the superior choice in every way. He cares about more of the issues that matter to me. Kids and health care are important but so is the issue of global warming, on which Clinton introduced not a single bill last year.

Obama is a leader. With bigger majorities in Congress, much of his agenda should sail through. He can inspire this country to change course on so many things, from health care to global warming, where attitudes have to be changed first. I remember Bill Clinton's endless laundry lists of small, focus group approved initiatives. For those who say Hillary will not govern like Bill did, I respond that the people who were doing the market testing of his proposed policies were Dick Morris, of course, and Mark Penn, who is now running Hillary's campaign.

It's Obama for me! I just sent him $100. My first donation this election.

Yes, We Can!

Clinton's Successes:
S.694 : A bill to direct the Secretary of Transportation to issue regulations to reduce the incidence of child injury and death occurring inside or outside of light motor vehicles, and for other purposes. (This is currently in conference committee to reconcile difference with the House bill)
Passed in the Senate:
S.CON.RES.27 : A concurrent resolution supporting the goals and ideals of "National Purple Heart Recognition Day".
S.RES.21 : A resolution recognizing the uncommon valor of Wesley Autrey of New York, New York
S.RES.92 : A resolution calling for the immediate and unconditional release of soldiers of Israel held captive by Hamas and Hezbollah.
S.RES.141 : A resolution urging all member countries of the International Commission of the International Tracing Service who have yet to ratify the May 2006 amendments to the 1955 Bonn Accords to expedite the ratification process to allow for open access to the Holocaust archives located at Bad Arolsen, Germany.
S.RES.222 : A resolution supporting the goals and ideals of Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month.
S.AMDT.666 to H.R.1591 To link award fees under Department of Homeland Security contracts to successful acquisition outcomes under such contracts.
S.AMDT.2047 to H.R.1585 To specify additional individuals eligible to transportation for survivors of deceased members of the Armed Forces to attend their burial ceremonies.
S.AMDT.2108 to H.R.1585 To require a report on the planning and implementation of the policy of the United States toward Darfur.
S.AMDT.2390 to H.R.2638 To require that all contracts of the Department of Homeland Security that provide award fees link such fees to successful acquisition outcomes.
S.AMDT.2474 to H.R.2638 To ensure that the Federal Protective Service has adequate personnel.
S.AMDT.2823 to H.R.3074 To require a report on plans to alleviate congestion and flight delays in the New York/New Jersey/Philadelphia Airspace.
S.AMDT.2917 to H.R.1585 To extend and enhance the authority for temporary lodging expenses for members of the Armed Forces in areas subject to a major disaster declaration or for installations experiencing a sudden increase in personnel levels.

Obama's Success:
S.AMDT.1041 to S.1082 To improve the safety and efficacy of genetic tests.
S.AMDT.3073 to H.R.1585 To provide for transparency and accountability in military and security contracting.
S.AMDT.3078 to H.R.1585 Relating to administrative separations of members of the Armed Forces for personality disorder.
S.AMDT.41 to S.1 To require lobbyists to disclose the candidates, leadership PACs, or political parties for whom they collect or arrange contributions, and the aggregate amount of the contributions collected or arranged.
S.AMDT.524 to S.CON.RES.21 To provide $100 million for the Summer Term Education Program supporting summer learning opportunities for low-income students in the early grades to lessen summer learning losses that contribute to the achievement gaps separating low-income students from their middle-class peers.
S.AMDT.599 to S.CON.RES.21 To add $200 million for Function 270 (Energy) for the demonstration and monitoring of carbon capture and sequestration technology by the Department of Energy.
S.AMDT.905 to S.761 To require the Director of Mathematics, Science, and Engineering Education to establish a program to recruit and provide mentors for women and underrepresented minorities who are interested in careers in mathematics, science, and engineering.
S.AMDT.923 to S.761 To expand the pipeline of individuals entering the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields to support United States innovation and competitiveness.
S.AMDT.924 to S.761 To establish summer term education programs.
S.AMDT.2519 to H.R.2638 To provide that one of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act may be used to enter into a contract in an amount greater than $5 million or to award a grant in excess of such amount unless the prospective contractor or grantee certifies in writing to the agency awarding the contract or grant that the contractor or grantee owes no past due Federal tax liability.
S.AMDT.2588 to H.R.976 To provide certain employment protections for family members who are caring for members of the Armed Forces recovering from illnesses and injuries incurred on active duty.
S.AMDT.2658 to H.R.2642 To provide that none of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act may be used to enter into a contract in an amount greater than $5,000,000 or to award a grant in excess of such amount unless the prospective contractor or grantee makes certain certifications regarding Federal tax liability.
S.AMDT.2692 to H.R.2764 To require a comprehensive nuclear threat reduction and security plan.
S.AMDT.2799 to H.R.3074 To provide that none of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act may be used to enter into a contract in an amount greater than $5,000,000 or to award a grant in excess of such amount unless the prospective contractor or grantee makes certain certifications regarding Federal tax liability.
S.AMDT.3137 to H.R.3222 To provide that none of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act may be used to enter into a contract in an amount greater than $5,000,000 or to award a grant in excess of such amount unless the prospective contractor or grantee makes certain certifications regarding Federal tax liability.
S.AMDT.3234 to H.R.3093 To provide that none of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act may be used to enter into a contract in an amount greater than $5,000,000 or to award a grant in excess of such amount unless the prospective contractor or grantee makes certain certifications regarding Federal tax liability.
S.AMDT.3331 to H.R.3043 To provide that none of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act may be used to enter into a contract in an amount greater than $5,000,000 or to award a grant in excess of such amount unless the prospective contractor or grantee makes certain certifications regarding Federal tax liability.
Senate Resolutions Passed:
S.RES.133 : A resolution celebrating the life of Bishop Gilbert Earl Patterson.
S.RES.268 : A resolution designating July 12, 2007, as "National Summer Learning Day".

Best Comparison Yet of Both Dem Candidates

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 20:14:56 EST

From the article by "Grassroots Mom" at http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/2/20/201332/807/36/458633

I Refuse to Buy into the Obama Hype (now a supporter)

by Grassroots Mom Wed Feb 20, 2008 at 05:13:32 PM PST

Grassroots Mom's diary :: ::

I started with Sen. Clinton.

Hillary Clinton does have a solid record in the Senate, however.

S.895 was major. But most of her other bills are much smaller in scale and scope — more targeted and more careful.

In other words, they both care about protecting children from lead.

The difference is in the scope and the approach.

Obama's bill shows how he thinks big: do everything we can to make sure that lead-painted Thomas the Tank Engine toys don't get into the hands and mouths of millions of toddlers in this country.

Obama's bills risk pissing off the toy industry and the Chinese. Hillary's risks nothing.

Speaking of Obama, here's a list of some of his proposed legislation.

Clinton's health care bills, for the most part, didn't impress me much, although she introduced many more bills in this area than Obama did:

Now let's look more closely at Obama.

On veterans and military personnel: S.1084 : A bill to provide housing assistance for very low-income veterans;

I counted nine education bills, but it's getting late and I've got to get my kids ready for bed.

As I mentioned earlier, Clinton is a frequent co-sponsor on many of Obama's bills. So is Ted Kennedy. So are a number of Republicans.

It's Obama for me! I just sent him $100. My first donation this election.

Yes, We Can!

Clinton's Successes:
S.694 : A bill to direct the Secretary of Transportation to issue regulations to reduce the incidence of child injury and death occurring inside or outside of light motor vehicles, and for other purposes. (This is currently in conference committee to reconcile difference with the House bill)
Passed in the Senate:
S.CON.RES.27 : A concurrent resolution supporting the goals and ideals of "National Purple Heart Recognition Day".
S.RES.21 : A resolution recognizing the uncommon valor of Wesley Autrey of New York, New York
S.RES.92 : A resolution calling for the immediate and unconditional release of soldiers of Israel held captive by Hamas and Hezbollah.
S.RES.141 : A resolution urging all member countries of the International Commission of the International Tracing Service who have yet to ratify the May 2006 amendments to the 1955 Bonn Accords to expedite the ratification process to allow for open access to the Holocaust archives located at Bad Arolsen, Germany.
S.RES.222 : A resolution supporting the goals and ideals of Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month.
S.AMDT.666 to H.R.1591 To link award fees under Department of Homeland Security contracts to successful acquisition outcomes under such contracts.
S.AMDT.2047 to H.R.1585 To specify additional individuals eligible to transportation for survivors of deceased members of the Armed Forces to attend their burial ceremonies.
S.AMDT.2108 to H.R.1585 To require a report on the planning and implementation of the policy of the United States toward Darfur.
S.AMDT.2390 to H.R.2638 To require that all contracts of the Department of Homeland Security that provide award fees link such fees to successful acquisition outcomes.
S.AMDT.2474 to H.R.2638 To ensure that the Federal Protective Service has adequate personnel.
S.AMDT.2823 to H.R.3074 To require a report on plans to alleviate congestion and flight delays in the New York/New Jersey/Philadelphia Airspace.
S.AMDT.2917 to H.R.1585 To extend and enhance the authority for temporary lodging expenses for members of the Armed Forces in areas subject to a major disaster declaration or for installations experiencing a sudden increase in personnel levels.

Obama's Success:
S.AMDT.1041 to S.1082 To improve the safety and efficacy of genetic tests.
S.AMDT.3073 to H.R.1585 To provide for transparency and accountability in military and security contracting.
S.AMDT.3078 to H.R.1585 Relating to administrative separations of members of the Armed Forces for personality disorder.
S.AMDT.41 to S.1 To require lobbyists to disclose the candidates, leadership PACs, or political parties for whom they collect or arrange contributions, and the aggregate amount of the contributions collected or arranged.
S.AMDT.524 to S.CON.RES.21 To provide $100 million for the Summer Term Education Program supporting summer learning opportunities for low-income students in the early grades to lessen summer learning losses that contribute to the achievement gaps separating low-income students from their middle-class peers.
S.AMDT.599 to S.CON.RES.21 To add $200 million for Function 270 (Energy) for the demonstration and monitoring of carbon capture and sequestration technology by the Department of Energy.
S.AMDT.905 to S.761 To require the Director of Mathematics, Science, and Engineering Education to establish a program to recruit and provide mentors for women and underrepresented minorities who are interested in careers in mathematics, science, and engineering.
S.AMDT.923 to S.761 To expand the pipeline of individuals entering the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields to support United States innovation and competitiveness.
S.AMDT.924 to S.761 To establish summer term education programs.
S.AMDT.2519 to H.R.2638 To provide that one of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act may be used to enter into a contract in an amount greater than $5 million or to award a grant in excess of such amount unless the prospective contractor or grantee certifies in writing to the agency awarding the contract or grant that the contractor or grantee owes no past due Federal tax liability.
S.AMDT.2588 to H.R.976 To provide certain employment protections for family members who are caring for members of the Armed Forces recovering from illnesses and injuries incurred on active duty.
S.AMDT.2658 to H.R.2642 To provide that none of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act may be used to enter into a contract in an amount greater than $5,000,000 or to award a grant in excess of such amount unless the prospective contractor or grantee makes certain certifications regarding Federal tax liability.
S.AMDT.2692 to H.R.2764 To require a comprehensive nuclear threat reduction and security plan.
S.AMDT.2799 to H.R.3074 To provide that none of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act may be used to enter into a contract in an amount greater than $5,000,000 or to award a grant in excess of such amount unless the prospective contractor or grantee makes certain certifications regarding Federal tax liability.
S.AMDT.3137 to H.R.3222 To provide that none of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act may be used to enter into a contract in an amount greater than $5,000,000 or to award a grant in excess of such amount unless the prospective contractor or grantee makes certain certifications regarding Federal tax liability.
S.AMDT.3234 to H.R.3093 To provide that none of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act may be used to enter into a contract in an amount greater than $5,000,000 or to award a grant in excess of such amount unless the prospective contractor or grantee makes certain certifications regarding Federal tax liability.
S.AMDT.3331 to H.R.3043 To provide that none of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act may be used to enter into a contract in an amount greater than $5,000,000 or to award a grant in excess of such amount unless the prospective contractor or grantee makes certain certifications regarding Federal tax liability.
Senate Resolutions Passed:
S.RES.133 : A resolution celebrating the life of Bishop Gilbert Earl Patterson.
S.RES.268 : A resolution designating July 12, 2007, as "National Summer Learning Day".

Viva, Obama! - not to be missed mariachi song

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 19:02:35 EST

Please view and forward!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fd-MVU4vtU

www.barackobama.com/superdelegates

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 05:15:13 EST

Below is what I wrote on the page David Plouffe gave us to convince superdelegates to vote for Obama. What is your story? Send it in at www.barackobama.com/superdelegates.

I have never before felt inspired enough by a candidate to vote in a Primary, much less dedicate my life to helping that candidate win the Primary. But when I saw Barack Obama's 2004 DNC speech and then read his book, DREAMS FROM MY FATHER, I knew I would volunteer for him the moment he declared his candidacy.

The cultural plurality of his upbringing; his renunciation of the material, in favor of helping the poor on Chicago's South Side (whence my husband hails); his moral self searching; his honesty about the difficult evolution of his identity and faith; his search for guidance in his antecedents; his self-deprecating humor -- these qualities made me not only relate to him as a person, but also admire him.

My husband is black and I'm Italian-Mexican-Irish. We will have kids soon and I want them to be born into a country where the President not only looks like them, but exemplifies character, hard work, achievement over great odds -- so that they can know there are no limits to what they can become, if they work hard enough.

I signed up on My.BarackObama.com shortly after it began and thought I'd make some phone calls from home, maybe knock on a couple of doors. But then, last April, the campaign contacted MyBO groups in the LA area to attend a "Field Team" meeting in a Korea Town church. There, I met three other people from my neighborhood who had started groups online -- one was a young Korean-American public defender, one a Mexican-American and white public school dance and government teacher, one an African-American educator and former principal of Compton High; I'm a t.v., theater and film actress. The four of us started a group called Obamawood. We had weekly volunteer meetings, fundraisers, information sessions and tabling events.

Eventually, we were invited to attend Camp Obama at the IATSE union hall in Burbank. There, we gained new, even more diverse, members and met groups from all over California. We were taught 12 hours a day, for three days, by Community Organizing Professor, Marshall Ganz, of Harvard's Kennedy School of Public Policy, a man who had embarked on Freedom Rides to Mississippi and worked 15 years with Cesar Chavez, a man who volunteered his time to us. We also learned organizing skills from campaign employees.

Most educational of all, was the broad spectrum of fellow campers -- 70-year-old African-American women, 17-year-old white high school students, displaced Katrina survivors, Latino businessmen, South Asian single moms, many educators of all stripes, gay people, straight people, you name it. And we were all transcending our differences to work together toward a common, a higher, goal. That's when I realized: this is the America we could have under President Obama, an America in which nearly every citizen is a community organizer, assuming agency for their little corner of the world, working as a team with people they would otherwise never have known, to create a collective future better than anything we could have previously imagined.

All our disparate groups have since stayed in touch. And our group, Obamawood, has grown from 4 to 1,000 members and counting, with weekly activities -- such as the canvass we had in four languages, five, if you include "Former Republican Marine" as a language. Even though Clinton won California, Obama won our area, Congressional District 33, by 61.4%, tying us for first in the state. Our Primary is over, but people are signing up every day to help with the upcoming states. On February 5, busy intersections rose up with a chorus of honks in support for our GOTV efforts. It felt like a nation honking for change, cheering, "Yes, we can take back our country from the greedy, cheating war-mongers and liars. Yes, we can create the America we've all imagined in our secret dreams, but never seen."

People who'd never participated before came out to help. Long-time supporters were re-invigorated. One of our most ardent volunteers is 5 months pregnant! One is a native Canadian. One was afraid to get too involved and is now a master Data Manager. The whole experience gave me hope. Not rhetorical hope. Real hope -- the hope that only comes with collective action. And, as we watched the returns that night of February 5th, I felt I wasn't watching and drinking and eating with fellow campaigners . . . I was watching with my new family.

www.amigosdeobama.com

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 21:09:06 EST

Please do not miss this site, including the short film, "The March":

http://www.amigosdeobama.com/index.htm

Viva Obama!

Commercial: Obama and his Mother

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 20:47:34 EST

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid353515028/bctid1411847659

Great YouTube thank you to Obama & Volunteers

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 15:50:53 EST

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VH0dQ9ZPtKw

Latinos Organize for Obama - PLEASE FORWARD THESE TO TEXAS

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 05:41:30 EST

VIDEO:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrAbJ_9uvZs
SONG:
http://www.myspace.com/flowkidvip

VIDEO & SONG: Latinos Organize for Obama - PLEASE FORWARD TO TEXAS

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 05:39:11 EST

PLEASE SHARE WITH LATINO COMMUNITY, ESPECIALLY IN TEXAS
VIDEO:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrAbJ_9uvZs
SONG:
http://www.myspace.com/flowkidvip

NOT TO BE MISSED: Check out YES WE CAN song by will.i.am from Black-Eyed Peas

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 07:18:21 EST

www.dipdive.com

VIDEO: Ted Kennedy's Endorsement

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 22:27:44 EST

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Eawu8pQxRI

Let's Write a Quick, Friendly Note to Bill Richardson: Endorse!

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 22:16:46 EST

http://www.governor.state.nm.us/email.php?mm=6&type=opinion Thank you!

Get MoveOn to Endorse Obama

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 22:12:39 EST

Hey Everybody, Please take a moment to vote for Obama on Moveon.org. They will endorse the candidate with the majority vote! Here's the link: http://pol.moveon.org/2008/tempsurvey/?id=11969-8566049-ALB1Kg&t=29 YES WE CAN!!! Heathyr

Caroline Kennedy in NY TIMES: A President Like My Father

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 02:00:37 EST

This endorsement from Caroline Kennedy is going to run in tomorrow’s New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/opinion/27kennedy.html

A President Like My Father

By CAROLINE KENNEDY

OVER the years, I've been deeply moved by the people who've told me they wished they could feel inspired and hopeful about America the way people did when my father was president. This sense is even more profound today. That is why I am supporting a presidential candidate in the Democratic primaries, Barack Obama.

My reasons are patriotic, political and personal, and the three are intertwined. All my life, people have told me that my father changed their lives, that they got involved in public service or politics because he asked them to. And the generation he inspired has passed that spirit on to its children. I meet young people who were born long after John F. Kennedy was president, yet who ask me how to live out his ideals.

Sometimes it takes a while to recognize that someone has a special ability to get us to believe in ourselves, to tie that belief to our highest ideals and imagine that together we can do great things. In those rare moments, when such a person comes along, we need to put aside our plans and reach for what we know is possible.

We have that kind of opportunity with Senator Obama. It isn't that the other candidates are not experienced or knowledgeable. But this year, that may not be enough. We need a change in the leadership of this country, just as we did in 1960.

Most of us would prefer to base our voting decision on policy differences. However, the candidates' goals are similar. They have all laid out detailed plans on everything from strengthening our middle class to investing in early childhood education. So qualities of leadership, character and judgment play a larger role than usual.

Senator Obama has demonstrated these qualities throughout his more than two decades of public service, not just in the United States Senate but in Illinois, where he helped turn around struggling communities, taught constitutional law and was an elected state official for eight years. And Senator Obama is showing the same qualities today. He has built a movement that is changing the face of politics in this country, and he has demonstrated a special gift for inspiring young people, known for a willingness to volunteer, but an aversion to politics, to become engaged in the political process.

I have spent the past five years working in the New York City public schools and have three teenage children of my own. There is a generation coming of age that is hopeful, hard-working, innovative and imaginative. But too many of them are also hopeless, defeated and disengaged. As parents, we have a responsibility to help our children to believe in themselves and in their power to shape their future. Senator Obama is inspiring my children, my parents' grandchildren, with that sense of possibility.

Senator Obama is running a dignified and honest campaign. He has spoken eloquently about the role of faith in his life, and opened a window into his character in two compelling books. And when it comes to judgment, Barack Obama made the right call on the most important issue of our time by opposing the war in Iraq from the beginning.

I want a president who understands that his responsibility is to articulate a vision and encourage others to achieve it; who holds himself, and those around him, to the highest ethical standards; who appeals to the hopes of those who still believe in the American Dream, and those around the world who still believe in the American ideal; and who can lift our spirits, and make us believe again that our country needs every one of us to get involved.

I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them. But for the first time, I believe I have found the man who could be that president, not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans

Response to NY TIMES endorsement of Hillary

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 05:41:34 EST

I’m not shocked, but I am appalled, that your Powers that Be have decided to endorse Hillary Clinton in her candidacy, instead of Barack Obama – especially after many of your columnists have spoken so eloquently on Obama’s behalf, and decidedly against Hillary. Frank Rich, Bob Herbert, Maureen Dowd, Gail Collins and Nicholas Kristoff have presented Senator Obama’s case persuasively, time and again. Yet, the Times publishers have confirmed their paper as the gray lady, hobbling toward obsolescence, tragically oblivious to the most exciting wave of change America has seen in 40 arid years.

Obama has proven repeatedly – if you take a look at any one of his rallies or at who voted for him in Iowa – that he can bring together young and old, black, white, Latino, Asian and Native American, disabled and healthy, rich and poor, male and female. He alone inspires a nation – depressed and defeated by 7 years of George Bush’s unimaginably disastrous blunders – to believe that we can have integrity again, we can participate in our democracy again, we can get past the divisions that have dehumanized this country for far too long. And most importantly, by electing Barack Obama as President of the United States, we will prove irrefutably to the rest of the world that we have heard the cries of our global family and are willing to re-assert our global citizenship with a fresh representative, a worldly and diplomatic leader.

Hillary Clinton is more of the same. Not only has she not once apologized for her vote on the Iraq War, she gave Bush a blank check in Iran – a nation which, it has since been proven, has no designs on a nuclear weapon. She has said that she condones certain “exceptions” to torture. Her head political strategist, Mark Penn, represents Blackwater. She hasn’t taken privatization of Social Security off the table. She set up “plants” to ask favorable questions in her Iowa Q&A sessions. There have been numerous reliable accounts of voter suppression of Obama supporters by the Hillary camp in Nevada. She attacked Obama for saying that Reagan inspired a movement, but one of the reasons the Salmon Press endorsed her is because she listed Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush as two of her favorite presidents. She and her husband have distorted Senator Obama’s record, over and over again, slandering him out of fear. It is that fear-based decision-making that convinced her the Iraq War was a great idea, when Obama was openly, and un-popularly, against it.

Senator Clinton and her husband have proven in recent weeks that they will do anything to get elected, including try to divide and conquer the very bases they pretend to love so well, minorities and women. Their campaign exemplifies division, negativity, dirty politics and the top-down, “I’m-the-decider” type of attitude America so urgently must abolish. Meanwhile, Barack Obama exemplifies unity, grace under pressure, transparent government and civic engagement.

Hillary Clinton was unable to pass universal health care when her husband was President because she did not win public support for her endeavor. Obama’s experience as a community organizer gives him a unique edge in engaging the public. Having attended a Camp Obama myself, I know that his candidacy brought together Americans from every walk of life. The staff and volunteers he chose to run those camps gave each participant tools to be community organizers of our own. Imagine an America in which every citizen assumed agency for his or her community, an America in which we might often disagree with one another, but in which we transcend our differences for the betterment or our children and in which we trust completely that our leader will listen to, and weigh, each of our beliefs and desires. That is Obama's America.

If Hillary Clinton gets the nomination, she will lose against the Republicans because they have too much dirt on her and Bill. You will be kicking yourselves for endorsing her, when America elects another war-mongering, environment-depleting, civil-rights-bleeding Republican as President just because he promises to reduce taxes and revitalize this pathetic economy George Bush is leaving us. And the cycle continues . . .

Disproving -- once and for all -- the racist & xenophobic claims about Obama

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 03:47:15 EST

Disproving the xenophobic and racist lies about Obama
Category: News and Politics

From:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/muslim.asp

Home --> Politics --> Barack Obama --> Who Is Barack Obama?

Who Is Barack Obama?

Cl.. Illinois senator Barack Obama is a "radical Muslim" who "will not recite the Pledge of Allegiance."

Status: False.

Example: [Collected via e-mail, January 2008]

Origins: Barack Obama, 46, served as an Illinois state senator for several years, and in 2004 he won a seat representing that state in the U.S. Senate. His keynote address before the Democratic National Convention in June 2004 brought him national prominence, and he is currently one of the leading contenders for the nomination to represent the Democratic Party in the 2008 presidential election.

Barack Obama has an unusual and interesting background, which the above-quoted piece draws on to paint him as a dangerous, camouflaged radical Muslim. Much of the information presented therein about his background is distorted and exaggerated, however, and no evidence supports a claim that Obama is currently, or ever has been, a Muslim (radical or otherwise).

Cl.. Barack Hussein Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Barack Hussein Obama, Sr., a black MUSLIM from Nyangoma-Kogel, Kenya and Ann Dunh am, a white ATHEIST from Wichita, Kansas. Obama's parents met at the University of Hawaii.

Barack Hussein Obama (Senator Obama's father) was born on the shores of Lake Victoria in Alego, Kenya. He met and married an American woman, Ann Dunham of Wichita, Kansas, while they were both attending the University of Hawaii. Their son, also named Barack Hussein Obama was born on 4 August 1961 at the Queen's Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Although the elder Obama was raised as a Muslim, no evidence supports the claim that he was ever a "radical Muslim," and Senator Obama's family histories note that his father was an atheist or agnostic (i.e., no longer a practicing Muslim) by the time he married the younger Obama's mother. Of his mother's religious views, Senator Obama wrote:
For my mother, organized religion too often dressed up closed-mindedness in the garb of piety, cruelty and oppression in the cloak of righteousness.

This isn't to say that she provided me with no religious instruction. In her mind, a working knowledge of the world's great religions was a necessary part of any well-rounded education. In our household the Bible, the Koran, and the Bhagavad Gita sat on the shelf alongside books of Greek and Norse and African mythology. On Easter or Christmas Day my mother might drag me to church, just as she dragged me to the Buddhist temple, the chinese New Year celebration, the Shinto shrine, and ancient Hawaiian burial sites. But I was made to understand that such religious samplings required no sustained commitment on my part. Religion was an expression of human culture, she would explain, not its wellspring, just one of the many ways — and not necessarily the best way — that man attempted to control the unknowable and understand the deeper truths about our lives.

In sum, my mother viewed religion through the eyes of the anthropologist she would become; it was a phenomenon to be treated with a suitable respect, but with a suitable detachment as well.
Cl.. When Obama was two years old, his parents divorced. His father returned to Kenya . His mother then married Lolo Soetoro, a RADICAL Muslim from Indonesia. When Obama was 6 years old, the family relocated to Indonesia . Obama attended a MUSLIM school in Jakarta . He also spent two years in a Catholic school.

Barack Obama's parents divorced when he was two years old, his father moving to Connecticut to continue his education before returning to Kenya. When the younger Obama was six years old, his mother married again, this time to Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian oil manager. Barack and his mother moved to Jakarta, Indonesia, where Obama spent 4-5 years attending both Muslim and Catholic schools before his mother sent him back to the United States to live with his maternal grandmother. The school Barack Obama attended in Indonesia was "Muslim" primarily in the sense that the preponderance of its student body was Muslim (because Indonesia is a predominantly Muslim country), but both the Muslim and Catholic schools he attended in Indonesia offered a few hours of religious instruction each week.

In his 2006 book, The Audacity of Hope, Obama elaborated on his early schooling, explaining that he attended both Catholic and Muslim schools in Indonesia — not out of any particular religious affiliation, but because his mother wanted him to obtain the best education possible under the circumstances:
During the five years that we would live with my stepfather in Indonesia, I was sent first to a neighborhood Catholic school and then to a predominantly Muslim school; in both cases, my mother was less concerned with me learning the catechism or puzzling out the meaning of the muezzin's call to evening prayer than she was with whether I was properly learning my multiplication tables.
Cl.. Obama takes great care to conceal the fact that he is a Muslim. He is quick to point out that, "He was once a Muslim, but that he also attended Catholic school." Obama's political handlers are attempting to make it appear that he is not a radical.

Barack Obama never stated that he "was once a Muslim" (radical or otherwise), so his "handlers" have nothing to "conceal." Obama communications director Robert Gibbs noted that "Senator Obama has never been a Muslim. As a six-year-old in Catholic school, he studied the catechism." Barack Obama has been associated with the United Church of Christ since the mid-1980s, describes himself as a Christian, and says that he is "rooted in the Christian tradition."

Cl.. Obama's introduction to Islam came via his father, and this influence was temporary at best. In reality, the senior Obama returned to Kenya soon after the divorce, and never again had any direct influence over his son's education.

As noted above, Barack Obama's parents divorced when he was only two years old, and his father then moved thousands of miles away, from Hawaii to Connecticut, so he couldn't have received much of an "introduction to Islam" from his (biological) father:
My father was almost entirely absent from my childhood, having been divorced from my mother when I was two years old.

At the time of his death, my father remained a myth to me, both more and less than a man. He had left Hawaii back in 1963, when I was only two years old, so that as a child I knew him only through the stories that my mother and grandparents told.
(Barack's only other childhood contact with his father occurred when he was eleven years old, and his father came to visit Hawaii for a month at Christmastime. The elder Obama died when Barack Jr. was twenty-one years old.)

Cl.. Lolo Soetoro, the second husband of Obama's mother, Ann Dunham, introduced his stepson to Islam. Obama was enrolled in a Wahabi school in Jakarta. Wahabism is the RADICAL teaching that is followed by the Muslim terrorists who are now waging Jihad against the western world.

The claim that Obama attended a radical Wahabbist school in Indonesia in the mid-1960s is exceedingly far-fetched, given that:
The large Indonesian community resident in Mecca was a medium through which knowledge about Wahhabism reached Indonesia, but the community itself appears to have remained virtually immune to Wahhabi influences. In reality there was little direct influence of Wahhabism on Indonesian reformist thought until the 1970s.
Insight magazine claimed in a January 2007 article that Barack Obama spent at least four years attending what is variously described as a "madrassa," a "radical Muslim religious school," or a "Muslim seminary" in Indonesia, but CNN has more recently reported that its own investigation found those claims to be false:
[R]eporting by CNN in Jakarta, Indonesia and Washington, D.C., shows the allegations that Obama attended a madrassa to be false. CNN dispatched Senior International Correspondent John Vause to Jakarta to investigate.

He visited the Basuki school, which Obama attended from 1969 to 1971.

"This is a public school. We don't focus on religion," Hardi Priyono, deputy headmaster of the Basuki school, told Vause. "In our daily lives, we try to respect religion, but we don't give preferential treatment."

Vause reported he saw boys and girls dressed in neat school uniforms playing outside the school, while teachers were dressed in Western-style clothes.

"I came here to Barack Obama's elementary school in Jakarta looking for what some are calling an Islamic madrassa ... like the ones that teach hate and violence in Pakistan and Afghanistan," Vause said on the 'Situation Room.' "I've been to those madrassas in Pakistan ... this school is nothing like that."

Vause also interviewed one of Obama's Basuki classmates, Bandug Winadijanto, who claims that not a lot has changed at the school since the two men were pupils. Insight reported that Obama's political opponents believed the school promoted Wahhabism, a fundamentalist form of Islam, "and are seeking to prove it."

"It's not (an) Islamic school. It's general," Winadijanto said. "There is a lot of Christians, Buddhists, also Confucian. ... So that's a mixed school."
The Associated Press reported similarly:
A spokesman for Indonesia's Ministry of Religious Affairs said claims that Obama studied at an Islamic school are groundless.

"SDN Menteng 1 is a public primary school that is open to people of all faiths," said the spokesman, Sutopo, who goes by only one name. "Moreover, he studied earlier at Fransiskus Assisi, which is clearly a Catholic school."

Obama later transferred to SDN Menteng 1 the elite, secular elementary school at the center of the controversy. The school is public but is very competitive and has exceptionally high standards. It is located in one of the most affluent parts of Jakarta and attracts mostly middle- to upper-class students, among them several of former dictator Suharto's grandchildren.

Indonesia is home to several of the most radical Islamic schools in Southeast Asia, some with alleged terrorist links. But Akmad Solichin [the vice principal at SDN Menteng 1], who proudly pointed to a photo of a young Barry Obama, as he was known, said his school is not one of them.
Moreover, a statement released by the Obama campaign affirmed that:
In the past week, many of you have read a now thoroughly-debunked story by Insight Magazine, owned by the Washington Times, which cites unnamed sources close to a political campaign that claim Senator Obama was enrolled for "at least four years" in an Indonesian "Madrassa". The article says the "sources" believe the Madrassa was "espousing Wahhabism," a form of radical Islam.

All of the claims about Senator Obama's faith and education raised in the Insight Magazine story and repeated on Fox News are false. Senator Obama was raised in a secular household in Indonesia by his stepfather and mother. Obama's stepfather worked for a U.S. oil company, and sent his stepson to two years of Catholic school, as well as two years of public school.

To be clear, Senator Obama has never been a Muslim, was not raised a Muslim, and is a committed Christian who attends the United Church of Christ in Chicago. Furthermore, the Indonesian school Obama attended in Jakarta is a public school that is not and never has been a Madrassa.
Cl.. Since it is politically expedient to be a CHRISTIAN when seeking major public office in the United States, Barack Hussein Obama has joined the United Church of Christ in an attempt to downplay his Muslim background.

As noted above, Barack Obama describes himself as "a Christian," says that he is "rooted in the Christian tradition," and his association with the United Church of Christ began over twenty years ago, long before he contemplated a political career. (Obama was first elected to the Illinois state senate in 1996, but he has been involved with the United Church of Christ since the mid-1980s.) The beginnings of Obama's relationship with the church were described in an April 2004 Chicago Sun-Times article:
Obama is unapologetic in saying he has a "personal relationship with Jesus Christ." As a sign of that relationship, he says, he walked down the aisle of Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ in response to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's altar call one Sunday morning about 16 years ago.

The politician could have ended his spiritual tale right there, at the point some people might assume his life changed, when he got "saved," transformed, washed in the blood. But Obama wants to clarify what truly happened.

"It wasn't an epiphany," he says of that public profession of faith. "It was much more of a gradual process for me. I know there are some people who fall out. Which is wonderful. God bless them ... I think it was just a moment to certify or publicly affirm a growing faith in me."

These days, he says, he attends the 11 a.m. Sunday service at Trinity in the Brainerd neighborhood every week — or at least as many weeks as he is able. His pastor, Wright, has become a close confidant.

So how did he become a churchgoer?

It began in 1985, when he came to Chicago as a $13,000-a-year community organizer, working with a number of African-American churches in the Roseland, West Pullman and Altgeld Gardens neighborhoods that were trying to deal with the devastation caused by shuttered steel plants.

"I started working with both the ministers and the lay people in these churches on issues like creating job-training programs, or after-school programs for youth, or making sure that city services were fairly allocated to underserved communities," he says. "And it was in those places where I think what had been more of an intellectual view of religion deepened.

"I became much more familiar with the ongoing tradition of the historic black church and its importance in the community. And the power of that culture to give people strength in very difficult circumstances, and the power of that church to give people courage against great odds. And it moved me deeply."
Cl.. ALSO, keep in mind that when he was sworn into office he DID NOT use the Holy Bible, but instead the Koran.

This statement is completely false. It is a mistaken reference to a different politician, Minnesota congressman Keith Ellison, not Barack Obama.

Cl.. Barack Hussein Obama will NOT recite the Pledge of Allegiance nor will he show any reverence for our flag. While others place their hands over their hearts, Obama turns his back to the flag and slouches.

Senator Obama drew some criticism over a photograph that showed him standing without his hand over his heart during the playing of the U.S. national anthem, but the claim that he "will NOT recite the Pledge of Allegiance" is false.

Additional information:
Debunked Insight Magazine and Fox News Smear Campaign Debunked Insight Magazine and Fox News Smear Campaign
(U.S. Senator Barack Obama)
Last updated: 7 January 2008

The URL for this page is http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/muslim.asp

Urban Legends Reference Pages © 1995-2008
by Barbara and David P. Mikkelson
This material may not be reproduced without permission.
Sources Sources:

Falsani, Cathleen. "'I Have a Deep Faith.'"
Chicago Sun-Times. 5 April 2004.

Goldenberg, Suzanne. "Candidate Obama Attacks Madrasa Smear."
The Guardian. 26 January 2007

Kurtz, Howard. "Campaign Allegation a Source of Vexation."
The Washington Post. 22 January 2007 (p. C1).

Obama, Barack. Dreams from My Father.
New York: Three Rivers Press, 1995. ISBN 1-4000-8277-3.

Obama, Barack. The Audacity of Hope.
New York: Crown Publishers, 2006. ISBN 0-307-23769-9.

Pickler, Nedra. "Obama Debunks Claim About Islamic School."
Associated Press. 24 January 2007.

Reid, Tim and Tom Baldwin. "Obama 'Was Educated in Madrassa'."
The London Times. 20 January 2007.

Turow, Scott. "The New Face of the Democratic Party — and America."
Salon. 30 March 2004.

van Bruinessen, Martin. "Wahhabi Influences in Indonesia, Real and Imagined."
Summary of paper presented at the Journée d'Etudes du CEIFR (EHESS-CNRS) et MSH sur le Wahhabisme.
Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales / Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, Paris, 10 June 2002.

Watson, Paul. "As a Child, Obama Crossed a Cultural Divide in Indonesia."
Los Angeles Times. 15 March 2007.

CNN.com. "CNN Debunks False Report About Obama."
22 January 2007.

Insight. "Hillary's Team Has Questions About Obama's Muslim Background."
16 January 2007.

There are times in history when we must surpass ourselves. Now is that time.

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 02:07:12 EST

Although Barack Obama lost by 2 points in New Hampshire, his "concession" speech was a speech for the ages, the speech of a world class leader. It inspired me to give the full amount possible to his campaign. An amount that is an enormous financial sacrifice to me, but that is ultimately an investment in America's future and the future of the world. Here's what he said, as quoted from CNN's PoliticalTicker:
"'there is something happening in America.'
'You, all of you who are here tonight, all of you who put so much heart and soul and work into this campaign, you can be the new majority who can lead this nation out of a long political darkness," he said. "Democrats, independents and Republicans who are tired of the division and distraction that has clouded Washington.'
'For most of this campaign, we were far behind,' he said. 'We always knew our climb would be steep. But in record numbers, you came out and you spoke up for change.'
Obama pledged to end tax breaks for the rich, to 'end the outrage of unaffordable and unavailable healthcare' and 'end this war in Iraq and bring our troops home.'
'We will finish the job against al Qaeda in Afghanistan. We will care for our veterans. We will restore our moral standing in the world, and we will never use 9/11 to scare up votes. 9/11 is not a tactic to win votes, but a challenge to unite America.'
Obama also responded to critics who he said cautioned his campaign against offer "false hope."
'In the unlikely story that is America," he said, "there has never been anything false about hope.'
And, he said, his response to those naysayers is 'one simple creed -- yes, we can.'
'Yes, we can heal this nation. Yes, we can repair this world. Yes, we can, and so tomorrow as we take the campaign south and west ... we will remember that there is something happening in America, that we are not as divided as our politics suggest, that we are one people and one nation and together we will begin the next great chapter in the story with three words that ring from sea to shining sea -- yes, we can'."
Please join me. Barack Obama is the real deal:
https://donate.barackobama.com/momentum
For the sake of our nation,
Lucia Brawley

The Obama Phenomenon - NY TIMES

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 04:33:44 EST

The Obama Phenomenon - NY TIMES By Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD - Jan 6th, 2008 at 4:17 am EST Op-Ed Columnist The Obama Phenomenon By BOB HERBERT Published: January 5, 2008

Manchester, N.H.

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The historians can put aside their reference material. This is new. America has never seen anything like the Barack Obama phenomenon.

I was surprised all day Thursday, before the results of the Iowa caucuses were in, by the apparent serenity of the Obama forces here in New Hampshire. The stakes were enormous, but the campaign staff members and volunteers seemed as cool as the candidate.

The students, veterans, middle-aged moms, retirees and others working steadily to make Barack Obama president seemed to accept as fact that the country is ready for profound change and that their job is to help make it happen.

“We’ve been busy knocking on doors, making phone calls, inputting data and basically just spreading hope,” said Kathryn Teague, a 19-year-old who has taken a year off from Keene State College to work in the campaign.

There is no longer any doubt that the Obama phenomenon is real. Mr. Obama’s message of hope, healing and change, discounted as fanciful and naïve by skeptics, drew Iowans into the frigid night air by the tens of thousands on Thursday to stand with a man who is not just running for president, but trying to build a new type of political movement.

By midnight, Joe Biden and Chris Dodd had been chased from the race; John Edwards was all but literally on his knees; and the Clintons were trying, for the umpteenth time, to figure out how to remake themselves as the comeback kids.

Shake hands with tomorrow. It’s here.

Senator Obama’s victory speech was a concise oratorical gem. No candidate in either party can move an audience like he can. He characterized his stunning victory as an affirmation of “the most American of ideas — that in the face of impossible odds, people who love this country can change it.”

Mr. Obama has shown, in one appearance after another, a capacity to make people feel good about their country again. His supporters want desperately to turn the page on the bitter politics and serial disasters of the past 20 years. That they have gravitated to a black candidate to carry out this task is — to use a term I heard for the first time this week — monumentous.

The Clintons, especially, have seemed baffled by the winds of change. They mounted a peculiar argument against Senator Obama, acknowledging that voters wanted change but insisting that you can’t achieve change by doing things differently. Senator Hillary Clinton has had a devil of a time trying to cope with the demand for change while shouldering the legacy of an administration that defined the 1990s.

Barack Obama has none of that baggage.

But for all the talk of change, it’s just one of the factors driving the Obama phenomenon. The simple truth is that hardly anyone — in politics, in the news media or anywhere else — realized what an extraordinary candidate Senator Obama would turn out to be.

He’s smart, hard-working, charismatic, good-looking and a whiz at fund-raising.

He has an incandescent smile, but it’s not frozen in place. He seems authentic. When he laughs, you have the feeling it’s because something is funny.

People are lining up to believe in him. He has the easy demeanor (in a long, lanky frame) of someone who’s comfortable with himself. Even when he fires up a crowd, he doesn’t get too hot. He has the cadences that remind you of King but the cool that reminds you of Kennedy — John, not Robert.

If the Clintons are going to stop Mr. Obama, they need to do it now. If he wins the New Hampshire primary Tuesday, the news media will go nuts and he will head toward the Jan. 19 caucuses in Nevada and the Jan. 26 primary in South Carolina (where half the voters are African-American) with incredible momentum.

I expect that African-Americans, under those circumstance, would view his campaign with almost religious fervor. All those questions about whether he’s black enough would be history. Mr. Obama would be perceived by many as within striking distance of the presidency, and there will be very few blacks in favor of stopping that train.

However this election turns out, Mr. Obama can be credited with a great achievement. He has drawn tons of people, and especially young people, into the political process. More than anyone else, he has re-energized that process and put some of the fun back into politics. And he’s done it by appealing openly and consistently to the best, rather than the worst, in us.

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Congrats, Kudos and YEEEHHHAAAA!!!!

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 00:28:55 EST

THANK YOU, IOWA, for making this miraculous win possible. We love you and are so proud of you. It's up to the rest of us now to take this baby all the way home.

Today is one of the happiest days of my life -- so far -- because the youth have come out in record numbers and been the determining factor in this historic victory. That is what makes Barack Obama great . . . he reminds us how great we are when we dedicate ourselves to our collective future.

Happy New Year and here's to victory with a capital "V" in 2000-and-GREAT!

Lucia "Obamawood" Brawley

Los Angeles, CA

Join the movement: www.barackobama.com

Congrats, Kudos and YEEEHHHAAAA!!!!

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 00:19:50 EST

Congrats, Kudos and YEEEHHHAAAA!!!!

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 00:18:02 EST

Congrats, Kudos and YEEEHHHAAAA!!!!

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 00:11:18 EST

Congrats, Kudos and YEEEHHHAAAA!!!!

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 00:08:51 EST

Congrats, Kudos and YEEEHHHAAAA!!!!

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 00:01:33 EST

Frank Rich's latest Obama piece

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 11:22:10 EST

Résumé Can’t Buy You Love

By FRANK RICH Published: December 23, 2007

WE can only imagine what is going on inside John McCain’s head when he contemplates Mike Huckabee. It can’t be pretty. No presidential candidate in either party has more experience in matters of war than the Arizona senator, and yet in a wartime election he is being outpaced by a guy who has zero experience and is proud of it.

Skip to next paragraph Barry Blitt

“I may not be the expert that some people are on foreign policy,” Mr. Huckabee joked to Don Imus, “but I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night.” So much for the gravitas points earned during a five-and-a-half year stay at the Hanoi Hilton.

But if Mr. McCain has so far resisted slapping down the upstart in his party, Bill Clinton has shown no such self-restraint about Barack Obama. Early this month the former president criticized the press for not sufficiently covering the candidates’ “record in public life” and thereby making “people think experience is irrelevant.” His pique boiled over on Charlie Rose’s show on Dec. 14, when he made his now-famous claim that the 2008 election will be a referendum on whether “no experience matters.” He insinuated that Mr. Obama was tantamount to “a gifted television commentator” and likened a potential Obama presidency to a roll of the dice.

Attention Bill Clinton: If that’s what this election is about, it’s already over. No matter how much Hillary Clinton, Mr. McCain or Rudy Giuliani brag about being tested and vetted, it’s not experience that will be decisive in determining the next president.

For many, Mr. McCain’s long record of experience may be a liability even greater than his party-bucking moderation on immigration and his bear hug of President Bush on Iraq. What his résumé mainly does is remind a youth-obsessed culture of his age. When Gallup asked voters in August to rate traits as desirable or not in the next president, the “undesirable” percentages for being a member of a racial or ethnic minority group (13), a woman (14), a Mormon (22) or having “strained relationships” with one’s children (45) all paled next to being age 70 or older (52). It’s not morning in America for Reaganesque elders in the political arena anymore.

For Mrs. Clinton, the failure of “experience” as a selling point was becoming apparent even as her husband continued to push it on Charlie Rose. Last week’s ABC News-Washington Post poll in Iowa found that she clobbers Mr. Obama on the question of who has the most experience — 49 percent to 8 percent. But to little end. That same survey had Mr. Obama ahead by 4 points over all because, as this year’s pervasive polling matchup has it, the electorate values change over experience.

The rabid hunger for change, it turns out, has made the very idea of experience as toxic as every other attribute of the Bush White House. The once-heralded notion of a C.E.O. presidency, overstocked with “tested” Washington and Fortune 500 executives like Cheney and Rumsfeld, is now in the toilet with Larry Craig. You couldn’t push the pendulum further in the other direction than by supporting a candidate like Mr. Huckabee, who is blatantly unprepared to be president and whose most impressive battle has been with his weight. In a

Frank Rich's latest Obama piece

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 11:19:30 EST

Résumé Can’t Buy You Love

By FRANK RICH Published: December 23, 2007

Skip to next paragraph Barry Blitt

But for Mrs. Clinton, the problem isn’t just that the Bush years have tarnished the notion that experience is a positive indicator of future performance. She has further devalued that sales pitch with her own inflated claims of what her experience has been. Ted Sorensen, the J.F.K. speechwriter now in the Obama camp, saw the backlash coming in a recent conversation I had with him after Mrs. Clinton had mocked Mr. Obama for counting his elementary-school years in Indonesia as an asset.

“Hillary should be careful about scoffing at other people’s experience,” Mr. Sorensen said. “It’s not as if the process of osmosis gives her presidential qualities by physical proximity.”

Whatever Mrs. Clinton’s experience as first lady or senator, what matters most in any case is not its sheer volume, that 35 years she keeps citing. It’s what she did or did not learn along the way that counts. That’s why one of the most revealing debate passages so far came in an exchange that earned much laughter but scant scrutiny this month in Des Moines.

This was the moment when Mr. Obama was asked how he could deliver a clean break from the past while relying on “so many Clinton advisers.” Mrs. Clinton jokingly called out, “I want to hear that,” prompting Mr. Obama to one-up her by responding, “Well, Hillary, I’m looking forward to you advising me, as well.”

Well, touché. But what was left unexamined beneath the levity was a revealing distinction between these two candidates. The questioner was right: Mr. Obama, like Mrs. Clinton, has indeed turned to former Clintonites for foreign-policy advice. But the Clinton players were not homogeneous, and who ended up with which ’08 candidate is instructive.

The principal foreign-policy Clinton alumni in Mr. Obama’s campaign include Susan Rice, a former assistant secretary of state, and Tony Lake, the former national security adviser and a prewar skeptic who said publicly in February 2003 that the Bush administration had not made the case that Saddam was an “imminent threat.” Ms. Rice, in an eloquent speech in November 2002, said that the Bush administration was “trying to change the subject to Iraq” from the war against Al Qaeda and warned that if it tried to fight both wars at once, “one, if not both, will suffer.” Her text now reads as a bookend to Mr. Obama’s senatorial campaign speech challenging the wisdom of the war only weeks earlier that same fall.

Mrs. Clinton’s current team was less prescient. Though it includes one of the earlier military critics of Bush policy, Gen. Wesley Clark, he is balanced by Gen. Jack Keane, an author of the Bush “surge.” The Clinton campaign’s foreign policy and national security director is a former Madeleine Albright aide, Lee Feinstein, who in November 2002 was gullible enough to say on CNBC that “we should take the president at his word, which is that he sees war as a last resort” — an argument anticipating the one Mrs. Clinton still uses to defend her vote on the Iraq war authorization.

In late April 2003, a week before “Mission Accomplished,” Mr. Feinstein could be found on CNN saying that he was “fairly confident” that W.M.D. would turn up in Iraq. Asked if the war would be a failure if no weapons were found, he said, “I don’t think that that’s a situation we’ll confront.” Forced to confront exactly that situation over the next year, he dug in deeper, co-writing an essay for Foreign Affairs (available on its Web site) arguing that “the biggest problem with the Bush pre-emption strategy may be that it does not go far enough.”

In a two-page handwritten letter in response to a recent column of mine criticizing Mrs. Clinton’s Senate votes on Iraq and Iran, Bill Clinton made a serious and impassioned defense of her foreign-policy record. On the subject of her support for the so-called Kyl-Lieberman amendment on Iran this fall, Mr. Clinton wrote: “If Senator Obama, for example, had really believed it was an indirect authorization to attack Iran, he would not have stayed away on the campaign trail, but would have come back to vote against it.” That’s a fair point — and a fair criticism of Mr. Obama as he continues to vilify this particular Hillary Clinton vote. If voting for Kyl-Lieberman was as grave a step toward war as Mr. Obama claims, there’s no excuse for his absence.

Mr. Clinton’s narrow defense of his wife’s Iraq vote in 2002 — it was not “a blanket authorization to go to war,” he wrote — doesn’t persuade me. But even if it did, her choice for foreign-policy director in 2008 makes me question her ability to profit from experience and make a clean break with the establishment thinking in both parties that enabled the Iraq fiasco. Judgment calls like this rather than failures of the press may answer her husband’s question as to why the public finds her experience “irrelevant.”

What Mrs. Clinton clearly has learned from her White House experience, as she reminds us, is to strike back at her critics. Unfortunately, she has assimilated those critics’ methods as well. Attacks on Mr. Obama’s record and views are fair game. But the steady personal attacks — the invocations of “cocaine” and “Hussein” and “madrassa” by surrogates — smell like the dirty tricks of the old Clinton haters. The Clinton-camp denials that these tactics have been “authorized” sound like Karl Rove’s denials of similar smear campaigns against John McCain in 2000.

If Mrs. Clinton is to win, she won’t do so by running on that kind of experience but by rising above it. Bill Clinton wouldn’t have shifted gears to refer to his wife constantly as a “change agent,” however implausibly, if his acute political sensors didn’t tell him that Americans are not just willing but eager to roll the dice.

Frank Rich's latest Obama piece

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 11:17:56 EST

Résumé Can’t Buy You Love

By FRANK RICH Published: December 23, 2007

Skip to next paragraph Barry Blitt

“Hillary should be careful about scoffing at other people’s experience,” Mr. Sorensen said. “It’s not as if the process of osmosis gives her presidential qualities by physical proximity.”

Frank Rich's latest Obama piece

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 11:17:01 EST

Résumé Can’t Buy You Love

By FRANK RICH Published: December 23, 2007

Skip to next paragraph Barry Blitt

“Hillary should be careful about scoffing at other people’s experience,” Mr. Sorensen said. “It’s not as if the process of osmosis gives her presidential qualities by physical proximity.”

Frank Rich's latest Obama piece

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 11:12:42 EST

Résumé Can’t Buy You Love

By FRANK RICH Published: December 23, 2007

Skip to next paragraph Barry Blitt

“Hillary should be careful about scoffing at other people’s experience,” Mr. Sorensen said. “It’s not as if the process of osmosis gives her presidential qualities by physical proximity.”

Frank Rich's latest Obama piece

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 11:09:46 EST

Résumé Can’t Buy You Love

By FRANK RICH Published: December 23, 2007

Skip to next paragraph Barry Blitt

“Hillary should be careful about scoffing at other people’s experience,” Mr. Sorensen said. “It’s not as if the process of osmosis gives her presidential qualities by physical proximity.”

Frank Rich's latest Obama piece

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 11:06:14 EST

Op-Ed Columnist A Résumé Can’t Buy You Love

By FRANK RICH Published: December 23, 2007

Skip to next paragraph Barry Blitt

“Hillary should be careful about scoffing at other people’s experience,” Mr. Sorensen said. “It’s not as if the process of osmosis gives her presidential qualities by physical proximity.”

Frank Rich's latest Obama piece

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 11:04:23 EST

A Résumé Can’t Buy You Love
By FRANK RICH Published: December 23, 2007

Barry Blitt

Amazing Obama column! Not to be missed!

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:53:57 EST

gton Post Bob Cesca| BIO | I'M A FAN OF THIS BLOGGER Barack Obama For President

Posted December 19, 2007 | 03:43 PM (EST)

Read More: 2008 Election, Barack Obama, Obama Endorsement, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Breaking Politics News

From the very beginning -- back when our torture chambers still had that new torture chamber smell; and before our chief executive's incompetence exploded like an M80 inside the clenched-fist of the world -- George W. Bush has been an embarrassment.

We know his disgraceful deeds and policies. But it's his utter lack of quality; his unsubstantial presence; his marble-mouthed oratorical retardation; his inability to inspire greatness; and his empty-suit absence of intellectual curiosity which preordained him to be the worst President of the United States in modern history.

Admittedly, when it comes to the presidency, my personal level of idealism rests somewhere between Frank Capra and Aaron Sorkin. I'm a presidential geek. One of my life goals is to work in the White House for one week. My Dad's old office at the Treasury Department used to look out over the east lawn, and when I was a kid I used to imagine that one day the president would invite me and my Dad for a ride on Marine One.

But after seven years in this Dark Age, I've almost forgotten what it was like to have a real president occupying the White House: a president who, even if I disagreed with his policies and ideology, dignified the office with a stature that symbolized the awesomeness of America.

Emerson wrote, "Every hero becomes a bore at last. Perhaps Voltaire was not bad-hearted, yet he said of the good Jesus, even, 'I pray you, let me never hear that man's name again.'"

We seem to experience this routine with almost every two-term president. But President Bush was never a hero in the first place and only grew more ridiculous with each subsequent crime against the Constitution, against human decency and against democracy itself. If there's any justice left in this nation, history will record that President Bush was an entirely inadequate tool; a bungling villain whose early popularity grew out of a traumatic and patriotic need to support the office regardless of who occupied it.

And when the flood waters literally rose up and washed away the disguise, the slack-jawed poseur was revealed -- the "bore" who had always been there, but who had been previously and cynically costumed in cowboy drag. Some of us recognized the charade from the beginning, but it required a second national tragedy, this time in New Orleans, to alert the media and the rest of America to his criminal incompetence.

American history is inextricably tied to the presidency. It's how we mentally assemble the chronology of our past. For going on eight years, we've endured a chief executive who never should have ascended to this post. Consequently, this decade has been an aberration; a time when Americans somehow championed an illegitimate, Orwellian hooplehead and, naturally, we suffered for our lack of vision. This is how most of the first decade of this century will be remembered.

Yet our generation is being offered another chance here -- an opportunity to set things straight and elect a president who not only illustrates the historical qualities of the office, but who also defines an energetic new approach.

The next president has to be Senator Barack Obama.

Senator Obama's intelligence, passion and quality of character can inspire us to recapture our own potential for greatness. And after all these years of darkness, there is no alternative other than to correct our trajectory with someone who can elevate our common goals -- the American Dream. For the American Dream to survive, this era demands a new president who will include all of us in the debate over our future, whether or not we agree on every issue.

And I'm proud to say that I don't agree with the senator on everything. But it doesn't matter because this campaign is about much more than individuals and their pet issues. This is about the reacquisition of an ideal -- of a benevolent greatness which has been stolen away from us.

I see in Senator Obama an historic character who fits within my persnickety and idealistic template for the presidency -- and this time around, it happens that my idealistic choice has a realistic chance to win. So this isn't necessarily an endorsement based on ideology, but an endorsement based on that which is required from an historical perspective.

The alternatives on either side of this campaign are ultimately redundant to what we have now.

On the Republican side, each frontrunner represents a rage-inducing aspect of the present Bush regime. The Romney Unit represents the Paris Hilton fiscal policy of the Bush administration; Giuliani is the unstable, crazy-ass hubristic gunslinger; and Mike Huckabee is the cross-bearing fundamentalist who floats in the same fantasy world as Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort.

On the Democratic side, John Edwards is a tough call because he has the right idea. But there was a thing with Edwards from 2004 that I can't seem to shake. And I've really, really tried. During one of the primary debates, Howard Dean stood up to answer a question. As was the campaign fashion at the time, Dean rolled up his sleeves. Then, behind him, I spotted John Edwards whose eyes suddenly widened at Dean's sleeve-rolling as if to say, Oh crap, I should roll up my sleeves now or else I won't be awesome like Howard. Then he quickly rolled up his sleeves. It was an awkwardly candid moment which revealed a lack of originality and, for my admittedly nitpicky tastes, a little too much of the staged illusion of it all. But most importantly, I imagined him exhibiting the same derivative behavior when voting with the president on Iraq.

Senator Clinton, meanwhile, is certainly more intelligent and centrist than President Bush, but there's a secretive, calculating DLC side to the senator which drifts too dangerously close to the universe of Dick Cheney than the fresh approach her husband, President Clinton, offered in 1992.

Speaking of which, President Clinton said this week that Senator Clinton would dispatch the first President Bush on a world tour in order to repair America's reputation abroad. First, 'the hell you say?! Second, wouldn't that be just like a Cheney -- to use a Bush as a political tool. Seriously, we can't have this. Not even as a speculative talking point. Not any more.

This is what we're desperately trying to escape, goddamn it. This is why it's imperative that Senator Obama win the nomination and ultimately the White House itself.

Naturally, the day might arrive when President Obama becomes Emerson's bore. One day, years from now, we'll likely be lamenting the traditional media's "Obama Fatigue" narrative. But, by that time, I think we'll be prepared for the next era in American history. Hopefully, after two terms and eight years, President Obama will hand over his legacy to his vice president. But for now he's the historical antidote to the darkness and division we've endured for too many years. He's our best hope to restore the national equilibrium and to fulfill both the expectation of greatness the presidency deserves and, thusly, the greatness of America.

And no. However awesome it'd be, I'm not saying these things in exchange for a flight aboard Marine One. I mean, I wouldn't turn it down, of course... but that's not why.

Amazing Obama column! Not to be missed!

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:53:21 EST

gton Post Bob Cesca| BIO | I'M A FAN OF THIS BLOGGER Barack Obama For President

Posted December 19, 2007 | 03:43 PM (EST)

Read More: 2008 Election, Barack Obama, Obama Endorsement, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Breaking Politics News

Emerson wrote, "Every hero becomes a bore at last. Perhaps Voltaire was not bad-hearted, yet he said of the good Jesus, even, 'I pray you, let me never hear that man's name again.'"

The next president has to be Senator Barack Obama.

The alternatives on either side of this campaign are ultimately redundant to what we have now.

This is what we're desperately trying to escape, goddamn it. This is why it's imperative that Senator Obama win the nomination and ultimately the White House itself.

And no. However awesome it'd be, I'm not saying these things in exchange for a flight aboard Marine One. I mean, I wouldn't turn it down, of course... but that's not why.

Amazing Obama column! Not to be missed!

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:52:22 EST

gton Post Bob Cesca| BIO | I'M A FAN OF THIS BLOGGER Barack Obama For President

Posted December 19, 2007 | 03:43 PM (EST)

Read More: 2008 Election, Barack Obama, Obama Endorsement, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Breaking Politics News

Emerson wrote, "Every hero becomes a bore at last. Perhaps Voltaire was not bad-hearted, yet he said of the good Jesus, even, 'I pray you, let me never hear that man's name again.'"

The next president has to be Senator Barack Obama.

The alternatives on either side of this campaign are ultimately redundant to what we have now.

This is what we're desperately trying to escape, goddamn it. This is why it's imperative that Senator Obama win the nomination and ultimately the White House itself.

And no. However awesome it'd be, I'm not saying these things in exchange for a flight aboard Marine One. I mean, I wouldn't turn it down, of course... but that's not why.

Amazing Obama column! Not to be missed!

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:51:40 EST

gton Post Bob Cesca| BIO | I'M A FAN OF THIS BLOGGER Barack Obama For President

Posted December 19, 2007 | 03:43 PM (EST)

Read More: 2008 Election, Barack Obama, Obama Endorsement, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Breaking Politics News

Emerson wrote, "Every hero becomes a bore at last. Perhaps Voltaire was not bad-hearted, yet he said of the good Jesus, even, 'I pray you, let me never hear that man's name again.'"

The next president has to be Senator Barack Obama.

The alternatives on either side of this campaign are ultimately redundant to what we have now.

This is what we're desperately trying to escape, goddamn it. This is why it's imperative that Senator Obama win the nomination and ultimately the White House itself.

And no. However awesome it'd be, I'm not saying these things in exchange for a flight aboard Marine One. I mean, I wouldn't turn it down, of course... but that's not why.

Amazing Obama column! Not to be missed!

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:51:01 EST

gton Post Bob Cesca| BIO | I'M A FAN OF THIS BLOGGER Barack Obama For President

Posted December 19, 2007 | 03:43 PM (EST)

Read More: 2008 Election, Barack Obama, Obama Endorsement, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Breaking Politics News

Emerson wrote, "Every hero becomes a bore at last. Perhaps Voltaire was not bad-hearted, yet he said of the good Jesus, even, 'I pray you, let me never hear that man's name again.'"

The next president has to be Senator Barack Obama.

The alternatives on either side of this campaign are ultimately redundant to what we have now.

This is what we're desperately trying to escape, goddamn it. This is why it's imperative that Senator Obama win the nomination and ultimately the White House itself.

And no. However awesome it'd be, I'm not saying these things in exchange for a flight aboard Marine One. I mean, I wouldn't turn it down, of course... but that's not why.

Amazing Obama column! Not to be missed!

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:50:11 EST

gton Post Bob Cesca| BIO | I'M A FAN OF THIS BLOGGER Barack Obama For President

Posted December 19, 2007 | 03:43 PM (EST)

Read More: 2008 Election, Barack Obama, Obama Endorsement, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Breaking Politics News

Emerson wrote, "Every hero becomes a bore at last. Perhaps Voltaire was not bad-hearted, yet he said of the good Jesus, even, 'I pray you, let me never hear that man's name again.'"

The next president has to be Senator Barack Obama.

The alternatives on either side of this campaign are ultimately redundant to what we have now.

This is what we're desperately trying to escape, goddamn it. This is why it's imperative that Senator Obama win the nomination and ultimately the White House itself.

And no. However awesome it'd be, I'm not saying these things in exchange for a flight aboard Marine One. I mean, I wouldn't turn it down, of course... but that's not why.

Amazing Obama column! Not to be missed!

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:49:31 EST

gton Post Bob Cesca| BIO | I'M A FAN OF THIS BLOGGER Barack Obama For President

Posted December 19, 2007 | 03:43 PM (EST)

Read More: 2008 Election, Barack Obama, Obama Endorsement, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Breaking Politics News

Emerson wrote, "Every hero becomes a bore at last. Perhaps Voltaire was not bad-hearted, yet he said of the good Jesus, even, 'I pray you, let me never hear that man's name again.'"

The next president has to be Senator Barack Obama.

The alternatives on either side of this campaign are ultimately redundant to what we have now.

This is what we're desperately trying to escape, goddamn it. This is why it's imperative that Senator Obama win the nomination and ultimately the White House itself.

And no. However awesome it'd be, I'm not saying these things in exchange for a flight aboard Marine One. I mean, I wouldn't turn it down, of course... but that's not why.

Amazing Obama column! Not to be missed!

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:48:02 EST

gton Post Bob Cesca| BIO | I'M A FAN OF THIS BLOGGER Barack Obama For President

Posted December 19, 2007 | 03:43 PM (EST)

Read More: 2008 Election, Barack Obama, Obama Endorsement, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Breaking Politics News

We know his disgraceful deeds and policies. But it's his utter lack of quality; his unsubstantial presence; his marble-mouthed oratorical re

Amazing Obama column! Not to be missed!

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:46:32 EST

gton Post Bob Cesca| BIO | I'M A FAN OF THIS BLOGGER Barack Obama For President

Posted December 19, 2007 | 03:43 PM (EST)

Read More: 2008 Election, Barack Obama, Obama Endorsement, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Breaking Politics News

Emerson wrote, "Every hero becomes a bore at last. Perhaps Voltaire was not bad-hearted, yet he said of the good Jesus, even, 'I pray you, let me never hear that man's name again.'"

The next president has to be Senator Barack Obama.

The alternatives on either side of this campaign are ultimately redundant to what we have now.

This is what we're desperately trying to escape, goddamn it. This is why it's imperative that Senator Obama win the nomination and ultimately the White House itself.

And no. However awesome it'd be, I'm not saying these things in exchange for a flight aboard Marine One. I mean, I wouldn't turn it down, of course... but that's not why.

Amazing Obama column! Not to be missed!

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:45:48 EST

gton Post Bob Cesca| BIO | I'M A FAN OF THIS BLOGGER Barack Obama For President

Posted December 19, 2007 | 03:43 PM (EST)

Read More: 2008 Election, Barack Obama, Obama Endorsement, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Breaking Politics News

Emerson wrote, "Every hero becomes a bore at last. Perhaps Voltaire was not bad-hearted, yet he said of the good Jesus, even, 'I pray you, let me never hear that man's name again.'"

The next president has to be Senator Barack Obama.

The alternatives on either side of this campaign are ultimately redundant to what we have now.

This is what we're desperately trying to escape, goddamn it. This is why it's imperative that Senator Obama win the nomination and ultimately the White House itself.

And no. However awesome it'd be, I'm not saying these things in exchange for a flight aboard Marine One. I mean, I wouldn't turn it down, of course... but that's not why.

Amazing Obama column! Not to be missed!

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:45:03 EST

gton Post Bob Cesca| BIO | I'M A FAN OF THIS BLOGGER Barack Obama For President

Posted December 19, 2007 | 03:43 PM (EST)

Read More: 2008 Election, Barack Obama, Obama Endorsement, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Breaking Politics News

Emerson wrote, "Every hero becomes a bore at last. Perhaps Voltaire was not bad-hearted, yet he said of the good Jesus, even, 'I pray you, let me never hear that man's name again.'"

The next president has to be Senator Barack Obama.

The alternatives on either side of this campaign are ultimately redundant to what we have now.

This is what we're desperately trying to escape, goddamn it. This is why it's imperative that Senator Obama win the nomination and ultimately the White House itself.

And no. However awesome it'd be, I'm not saying these things in exchange for a flight aboard Marine One. I mean, I wouldn't turn it down, of course... but that's not why.

Amazing Obama column! Not to be missed!

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:44:25 EST

gton Post Bob Cesca| BIO | I'M A FAN OF THIS BLOGGER Barack Obama For President

Posted December 19, 2007 | 03:43 PM (EST)

Read More: 2008 Election, Barack Obama, Obama Endorsement, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Breaking Politics News

Emerson wrote, "Every hero becomes a bore at last. Perhaps Voltaire was not bad-hearted, yet he said of the good Jesus, even, 'I pray you, let me never hear that man's name again.'"

The next president has to be Senator Barack Obama.

The alternatives on either side of this campaign are ultimately redundant to what we have now.

This is what we're desperately trying to escape, goddamn it. This is why it's imperative that Senator Obama win the nomination and ultimately the White House itself.

And no. However awesome it'd be, I'm not saying these things in exchange for a flight aboard Marine One. I mean, I wouldn't turn it down, of course... but that's not why.

Amazing Obama column! Not to be missed!

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:43:05 EST

The Huffington Post Bob Cesca| BIO | I'M A FAN OF THIS BLOGGER Barack Obama For President

Posted December 19, 2007 | 03:43 PM (EST)

Read More: 2008 Election, Barack Obama, Obama Endorsement, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Breaking Politics News

Emerson wrote, "Every hero becomes a bore at last. Perhaps Voltaire was not bad-hearted, yet he said of the good Jesus, even, 'I pray you, let me never hear that man's name again.'"

The next president has to be Senator Barack Obama.

The alternatives on either side of this campaign are ultimately redundant to what we have now.

This is what we're desperately trying to escape, goddamn it. This is why it's imperative that Senator Obama win the nomination and ultimately the White House itself.

And no. However awesome it'd be, I'm not saying these things in exchange for a flight aboard Marine One. I mean, I wouldn't turn it down, of course... but that's not why.

Amazing Comparison of Hillary & Barack's Healthcare Plans

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 17:10:35 EST

From Robert Reich's Blog:

Monday, December 03, 2007 Why is HRC stooping So Low?

I’m becoming increasingly concerned about the stridency and inaccuracy of charges in Iowa -- especially coming from my old friend. While I’m as hard-boiled as they come about what’s said in campaigns, I just don’t think Dems should stoop to this. First, HRC attacked O's plan for keep Social Security solvent. Social Security doesn’t need a whole lot to keep it going – it’s in far better shape than Medicare – but everyone who’s looked at it agrees it will need bolstering (I was a trustee of the Social Security Trust Fund ten years ago, and I can vouch for this). Obama wants to do it by lifting the cap on the percent of income subject to Social Security payroll taxes, which strikes me as sensible. That cap is now close to $98,000 (it’s indexed), and the result is highly regressive. (Bill Gates satisfies his yearly Social Security obligations a few minutes past midnight on January 1 every year.) The cap doesn’t have to be lifted all that much to keep Social Security solvent – maybe to $115,00. That’s a progressive solution to the problem. HRC wants to refer Social Security to a commission. That's avoiding the issue, and it's irresponsible: A commission will likely call either for raising the retirement age (that’s what Greenspan’s Social Security commission came up with in the 1980s) or increasing the payroll tax on all Americans. So when HRC charges that Obama’s plan would “raise taxes” and her plan wouldn’t, she’s simply not telling the truth . . . ."

Read the rest at: http://robertreich.blogspot.com/

Amazing Comparison of Hillary & Barack's Healthcare Plans

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 17:09:45 EST

From Robert Reich's Blog:

Monday, December 03, 2007 Why is HRC stooping So Low?

Read the rest at: http://robertreich.blogspot.com/

Amazing Comparison of Hillary & Barack's Healthcare Plans

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 17:08:43 EST

From Robert Reich's Blog:

Monday, December 03, 2007 Why is HRC stooping So Low?

Read the rest at: http://robertreich.blogspot.com/

Amazing Comparison of Hillary & Barack's Healthcare Plans

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 17:07:54 EST

From Robert Reich's Blog:

Monday, December 03, 2007 Why is HRC stooping So Low?

Read the rest at: http://robertreich.blogspot.com/

Amazing Comparison of Hillary & Barack's Healthcare Plans

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 17:06:37 EST

From Robert Reich's Blog:

Monday, December 03, 2007 Why is HRC stooping So Low?

Read the rest at: http://robertreich.blogspot.com/

Amazing Comparison of Hillary & Barack's Healthcare Plans

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 17:05:43 EST

From Robert Reich's Blog:

Monday, December 03, 2007 Why is HRC stooping So Low?

Read the rest at: http://robertreich.blogspot.com/

Amazing Comparison of Hillary & Barack's Healthcare Plans

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 17:04:43 EST

From Robert Reich's Blog:

Monday, December 03, 2007 Why is HRC stooping So Low?

Read the rest at: http://robertreich.blogspot.com/

Amazing Comparison of Hillary & Barack's Healthcare Plans

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 16:59:40 EST

From Robert Reich's Blog:

Monday, December 03, 2007 Why is HRC stooping So Low?

Read the rest at: http://robertreich.blogspot.com/

Amazing Comparison of Hillary & Barack's Healthcare Plans

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 16:58:36 EST

From Robert Reich's Blog:

Monday, December 03, 2007 Why is HRC stooping So Low?

Read the rest at: http://robertreich.blogspot.com/

Amazing Comparison of Hillary & Barack's Healthcare Plans

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 16:57:31 EST

From Robert Reich's Blog:

Monday, December 03, 2007 Why is HRC stooping So Low?

Read the rest at: http://robertreich.blogspot.com/

Amazing Comparison of Hillary & Barack's Healthcare Plans

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 16:56:39 EST

From Robert Reich's Blog:

Monday, December 03, 2007 Why is HRC stooping So Low?

Read the rest at: http://robertreich.blogspot.com/

Amazing Comparison of Hillary & Barack's Healthcare Plans

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 16:55:31 EST

From Robert Reich's Blog:

Monday, December 03, 2007 Why is HRC stooping So Low?

Read the rest at: http://robertreich.blogspot.com/

Obama & Oprah South Carolina YouTube Post

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 15:17:36 EST

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBUnq_cHCDU

Obama & Oprah South Carolina YouTube Post

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 15:17:15 EST

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBUnq_cHCDU

Obama & Oprah South Carolina YouTube Post

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 15:16:37 EST

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBUnq_cHCDU

Obama & Oprah South Carolina YouTube Post

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 15:13:25 EST

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBUnq_cHCDU

Obama & Oprah South Carolina YouTube Post

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 15:12:19 EST

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBUnq_cHCDU

Obama & Oprah South Carolina YouTube Post

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 15:11:37 EST

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBUnq_cHCDU

Obama & Oprah South Carolina YouTube Post

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 15:10:23 EST

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBUnq_cHCDU

Obama & Oprah South Carolina YouTube Post

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 15:08:47 EST

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBUnq_cHCDU

Obama & Oprah South Carolina YouTube Post

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 15:02:33 EST

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBUnq_cHCDU

Obama & Oprah South Carolina YouTube Post

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 14:54:23 EST

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBUnq_cHCDU

Obama & Oprah South Carolina YouTube Post

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 14:49:45 EST

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBUnq_cHCDU

Obama & Oprah South Carolina YouTube Post

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 14:48:26 EST

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBUnq_cHCDU

Hillary had Plants in the Crowd

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 16:58:42 EST

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/11/13/clinton.planted/index.html

Hillary had Plants in the Crowd

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 16:52:48 EST

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/11/13/clinton.planted/index.html

Hillary had Plants in the Crowd

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 16:50:09 EST

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/11/13/clinton.planted/index.html

Hillary had Plants in the Crowd

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 16:48:50 EST

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/11/13/clinton.planted/index.html

Hillary had Plants in the Crowd

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 16:42:36 EST

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/11/13/clinton.planted/index.html

Hillary had Plants in the Crowd

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 16:41:28 EST

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/11/13/clinton.planted/index.html

Hillary had Plants in the Crowd

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 16:40:06 EST

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/11/13/clinton.planted/index.html

Hillary had Plants in the Crowd

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 16:37:33 EST

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/11/13/clinton.planted/index.html

Hillary had Plants in the Crowd

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 16:35:48 EST

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/11/13/clinton.planted/index.html

Hillary Had Plants in the Crowd

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 16:33:34 EST

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/11/13/clinton.planted/index.html

Hillary had Plants in the Crowd

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 16:31:44 EST

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/11/13/clinton.planted/index.html

Hillary had Plants in the Crowd

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 16:29:52 EST

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/11/13/clinton.planted/index.html

Obama for Veterans

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 20:44:46 EST

On November 9th, Barack Obama introduced the Veterans Homelessness Prevention Act, which would launch an innovate pilot program to pair housing for at-risk veterans and veteran families with supportive services in an effort to prevent veterans from falling into homelessness. According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, over the course of 2006, there were approximately 495,400 homeless veterans. To learn more about Barack's bill go to -- http://obama.senate.gov/press/071109-obama_introduce_21/ African Americans for Obama - LA will be working with the Senator to fight the problem of homelessness. This Saturday, our team will participate in Homewalk LA in Exposition Park (700 Exposition Park Drive) on Saturday, November 17th at 8:00 am. Homewalk is a non-competitive 5K family walk supporting initiatives to address homelessness in Los Angeles. For more information and to join our team, go to http://www.homewalkla.org. If you're interested in getting a little exercise right before Thanksgiving, supporting a great cause, meeting your fellow Obama supporters and signing up new ones, then we hope you will join the African Americans for Obama Homewalk team. The registration fee is $25 for adults and $15 for children (9-15). If you don't have an Obama button to wear, we'll give you one! African Americans for Obama - LA is a group of grassroots activists working with Obama for America to support Barack Obama's candidacy with outreach and educational efforts designed to ensure that a large majority of registered Black voters in the Los Angeles metropolitan area vote for Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election. To join our group, sign up at http://my.barackobama.com/page /group/AfricanAmericansforObama -LosAngeles

Obama for Veterans

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 20:43:03 EST

On November 9th, Barack Obama introduced the Veterans Homelessness Prevention Act, which would launch an innovate pilot program to pair housing for at-risk veterans and veteran families with supportive services in an effort to prevent veterans from falling into homelessness. According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, over the course of 2006, there were approximately 495,400 homeless veterans. To learn more about Barack's bill go to -- http://obama.senate.gov/press/071109-obama_introduce_21/ African Americans for Obama - LA will be working with the Senator to fight the problem of homelessness. This Saturday, our team will participate in Homewalk LA in Exposition Park (700 Exposition Park Drive) on Saturday, November 17th at 8:00 am. Homewalk is a non-competitive 5K family walk supporting initiatives to address homelessness in Los Angeles. For more information and to join our team, go to http://www.homewalkla.org. If you're interested in getting a little exercise right before Thanksgiving, supporting a great cause, meeting your fellow Obama supporters and signing up new ones, then we hope you will join the African Americans for Obama Homewalk team. The registration fee is $25 for adults and $15 for children (9-15). If you don't have an Obama button to wear, we'll give you one! African Americans for Obama - LA is a group of grassroots activists working with Obama for America to support Barack Obama's candidacy with outreach and educational efforts designed to ensure that a large majority of registered Black voters in the Los Angeles metropolitan area vote for Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election. To join our group, sign up at http://my.barackobama.com/page /group/AfricanAmericansforObama -LosAngeles

Obama for Veterans

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 20:41:28 EST

On November 9th, Barack Obama introduced the Veterans Homelessness Prevention Act, which would launch an innovate pilot program to pair housing for at-risk veterans and veteran families with supportive services in an effort to prevent veterans from falling into homelessness. According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, over the course of 2006, there were approximately 495,400 homeless veterans. To learn more about Barack's bill go to -- http://obama.senate.gov/press/071109-obama_introduce_21/ African Americans for Obama - LA will be working with the Senator to fight the problem of homelessness. This Saturday, our team will participate in Homewalk LA in Exposition Park (700 Exposition Park Drive) on Saturday, November 17th at 8:00 am. Homewalk is a non-competitive 5K family walk supporting initiatives to address homelessness in Los Angeles. For more information and to join our team, go to http://www.homewalkla.org. If you're interested in getting a little exercise right before Thanksgiving, supporting a great cause, meeting your fellow Obama supporters and signing up new ones, then we hope you will join the African Americans for Obama Homewalk team. The registration fee is $25 for adults and $15 for children (9-15). If you don't have an Obama button to wear, we'll give you one! African Americans for Obama - LA is a group of grassroots activists working with Obama for America to support Barack Obama's candidacy with outreach and educational efforts designed to ensure that a large majority of registered Black voters in the Los Angeles metropolitan area vote for Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election. To join our group, sign up at http://my.barackobama.com/page /group/AfricanAmericansforObama -LosAngeles

Obama for Veterans

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 20:39:36 EST

On November 9th, Barack Obama introduced the Veterans Homelessness Prevention Act, which would launch an innovate pilot program to pair housing for at-risk veterans and veteran families with supportive services in an effort to prevent veterans from falling into homelessness. According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, over the course of 2006, there were approximately 495,400 homeless veterans. To learn more about Barack's bill go to -- http://obama.senate.gov/press/071109-obama_introduce_21/ African Americans for Obama - LA will be working with the Senator to fight the problem of homelessness. This Saturday, our team will participate in Homewalk LA in Exposition Park (700 Exposition Park Drive) on Saturday, November 17th at 8:00 am. Homewalk is a non-competitive 5K family walk supporting initiatives to address homelessness in Los Angeles. For more information and to join our team, go to http://www.homewalkla.org. If you're interested in getting a little exercise right before Thanksgiving, supporting a great cause, meeting your fellow Obama supporters and signing up new ones, then we hope you will join the African Americans for Obama Homewalk team. The registration fee is $25 for adults and $15 for children (9-15). If you don't have an Obama button to wear, we'll give you one! African Americans for Obama - LA is a group of grassroots activists working with Obama for America to support Barack Obama's candidacy with outreach and educational efforts designed to ensure that a large majority of registered Black voters in the Los Angeles metropolitan area vote for Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election. To join our group, sign up at http://my.barackobama.com/page /group/AfricanAmericansforObama -LosAngeles

Obama for Veterans

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 20:37:42 EST

On November 9th, Barack Obama introduced the Veterans Homelessness Prevention Act, which would launch an innovate pilot program to pair housing for at-risk veterans and veteran families with supportive services in an effort to prevent veterans from falling into homelessness. According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, over the course of 2006, there were approximately 495,400 homeless veterans. To learn more about Barack's bill go to -- http://obama.senate.gov/press/071109-obama_introduce_21/ African Americans for Obama - LA will be working with the Senator to fight the problem of homelessness. This Saturday, our team will participate in Homewalk LA in Exposition Park (700 Exposition Park Drive) on Saturday, November 17th at 8:00 am. Homewalk is a non-competitive 5K family walk supporting initiatives to address homelessness in Los Angeles. For more information and to join our team, go to http://www.homewalkla.org. If you're interested in getting a little exercise right before Thanksgiving, supporting a great cause, meeting your fellow Obama supporters and signing up new ones, then we hope you will join the African Americans for Obama Homewalk team. The registration fee is $25 for adults and $15 for children (9-15). If you don't have an Obama button to wear, we'll give you one! African Americans for Obama - LA is a group of grassroots activists working with Obama for America to support Barack Obama's candidacy with outreach and educational efforts designed to ensure that a large majority of registered Black voters in the Los Angeles metropolitan area vote for Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election. To join our group, sign up at http://my.barackobama.com/page /group/AfricanAmericansforObama -LosAngeles

Obama for Veterans

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 20:36:11 EST

On November 9th, Barack Obama introduced the Veterans Homelessness Prevention Act, which would launch an innovate pilot program to pair housing for at-risk veterans and veteran families with supportive services in an effort to prevent veterans from falling into homelessness. According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, over the course of 2006, there were approximately 495,400 homeless veterans. To learn more about Barack's bill go to -- http://obama.senate.gov/press/071109-obama_introduce_21/ African Americans for Obama - LA will be working with the Senator to fight the problem of homelessness. This Saturday, our team will participate in Homewalk LA in Exposition Park (700 Exposition Park Drive) on Saturday, November 17th at 8:00 am. Homewalk is a non-competitive 5K family walk supporting initiatives to address homelessness in Los Angeles. For more information and to join our team, go to http://www.homewalkla.org. If you're interested in getting a little exercise right before Thanksgiving, supporting a great cause, meeting your fellow Obama supporters and signing up new ones, then we hope you will join the African Americans for Obama Homewalk team. The registration fee is $25 for adults and $15 for children (9-15). If you don't have an Obama button to wear, we'll give you one! African Americans for Obama - LA is a group of grassroots activists working with Obama for America to support Barack Obama's candidacy with outreach and educational efforts designed to ensure that a large majority of registered Black voters in the Los Angeles metropolitan area vote for Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election. To join our group, sign up at http://my.barackobama.com/page /group/AfricanAmericansforObama -LosAngeles

Obama for Veterans

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 20:34:49 EST

On November 9th, Barack Obama introduced the Veterans Homelessness Prevention Act, which would launch an innovate pilot program to pair housing for at-risk veterans and veteran families with supportive services in an effort to prevent veterans from falling into homelessness. According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, over the course of 2006, there were approximately 495,400 homeless veterans. To learn more about Barack's bill go to -- http://obama.senate.gov/press/071109-obama_introduce_21/ African Americans for Obama - LA will be working with the Senator to fight the problem of homelessness. This Saturday, our team will participate in Homewalk LA in Exposition Park (700 Exposition Park Drive) on Saturday, November 17th at 8:00 am. Homewalk is a non-competitive 5K family walk supporting initiatives to address homelessness in Los Angeles. For more information and to join our team, go to http://www.homewalkla.org. If you're interested in getting a little exercise right before Thanksgiving, supporting a great cause, meeting your fellow Obama supporters and signing up new ones, then we hope you will join the African Americans for Obama Homewalk team. The registration fee is $25 for adults and $15 for children (9-15). If you don't have an Obama button to wear, we'll give you one! African Americans for Obama - LA is a group of grassroots activists working with Obama for America to support Barack Obama's candidacy with outreach and educational efforts designed to ensure that a large majority of registered Black voters in the Los Angeles metropolitan area vote for Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election. To join our group, sign up at http://my.barackobama.com/page /group/AfricanAmericansforObama -LosAngeles

Obama for Veterans

Lucia - Team Coordinator for OBAMAWOOD — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 20:33:40 EST

On November 9th, Barack Obama introduced the Veterans Homelessness Prevention Act, which would launch an innovate pilot program to pair housing for at-risk veterans and veteran families with supportive services in an effort to prevent veterans from falling into homelessness. According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, over the course of 2006, there were approximately 495,400 homeless veterans. To learn more about Barack's bill go to -- http://obama.senate.gov/press/071109-obama_introduce_21/ African Americans for Obama - LA will be working with the Senator to fight the problem of homelessness. This Saturday, our team will participate in Homewalk LA in Exposition Park (700 Exposition Park Drive) on Saturday, November 17th at 8:00 am. Homewalk is a non-competitive 5K family walk supporting initiatives to address homelessness in Los Angeles. For more information and to join our team, go to http://www.homewalkla.org. If you're interested in getting a little exercise right before Thanksgiving, supporting a great cause, meeting your fellow Obama supporters and signing up new ones, then we hope you will join the African Americans for Obama Homewalk team. The registration fee is $25 for adults and $15 for children (9-15). If you don't have an Obama button to wear, we'll give you one! African Americans for Obama - LA is a group of grassroots activists working with Obama for America to support Barack Obama's candidacy with outreach and educational efforts designed to ensure that a large majority of registered Black voters in the Los Angeles metropolitan area vote for Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election. To join our group, sign up at http://my.barackobama.com/page /group/AfricanAmericansforObama -LosAngeles