The Hawaii-born Democrat ambled down a rocky slope on Oahu's southern coast, near the Halona Blowhole, to throw flowers in the sea.
Two high school friends and a Secret Service agent accompanied him as a small crowd of onlookers watched from a distant lookout point. Waves crashed against the shore, sending a giant spray over the rock where he stood.
Obama kissed the lei, then broke it so he could let several flowers fly into the water at a time in memory of his mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, who died in 1995.
The senator visited his grandfather's grave at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific on Wednesday.
He also spent more than an hour with his grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, at her apartment. He had stopped by almost every day of his stay.
Obama is due to wrap up his weeklong Hawaii vacation Friday.
It's not a ton of money or large number of donors, but it is interesting to note that more US military members deployed abroad are backing Democrat Barack Obama than Republican John McCain.
The Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group that tracks campaign money, reported today that Obama has received nearly six times as much money from troops deployed overseas at the time of their contributions than McCain. Ron Paul, who like Obama opposes the Iraq war, has received four times McCain's amount though he suspended his campaign for the Republican nomination.
Through June 30, Obama had received 134 donations totaling about $61,000 to 99 totaling about $45,500 for Paul, and 26 contributions totaling less than $11,000 for McCain, who graduated from the US Naval Academy, was a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War, and highlights his military experience.
Among all members of the military, whether deployed abroad or not, the gap between Obama and McCain is smaller, though Obama is still getting 57 percent of the cash.
The trend is a shift from both 2004 and 2000, when Republican George W. Bush substantially outraised John F. Kerry and Al Gore, respectively, among the US military. And if the shift in money translated to votes, it could be more significant.
"That's shocking. The academic debate is between some who say that junior enlisted ranks lean slightly Republican and some who say it's about equal, but no one would point to six-to-one" in Democrats' favor, Aaron Belkin, a professor of political science at the University of California who studies the military, said in the center's report.. "That represents a tremendous shift from 2000, when the military vote almost certainly was decisive in Florida and elsewhere, and leaned heavily towards the Republicans."
To sign up for the alamObama newsletter please email jenromo@msn.com
The Volunteer Party was a Huge Success!! The evening was lovely, the venue hospitable, the food plentiful, and the music absolutely delightful...And, MOST IMPORTANTLY, volunteers came from all areas of our community and were United for Change. A big Thank You to everyone who worked to make this great night a reality!Pictures from the evening can be viewed here:
alamObama Volunteer Party Pictures
July 10th 6:30pm Monthly Meeting:
alamObama is finalizing details for a new (well air conditioned) meeting location.
FIRED UP AND READY TO GO!!!Sincerely your alamObama Co-Chairs,
Jen Romo (jen@alamobama08.com)
Judy Hall (judy@alamobama08.com)
Fred Tawil (fred@alamobama08.com)
Biden, recognizing a good political opportunity when he sees one, hits McCain hard on warrantless wiretapping:
Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair Joe Biden, a former presidential candidate seen as a potential running mate for Barack Obama, has issued a statement regarding John McCain's apparent belief that the practice of wiretapping without warrants is legal....In his statement, Biden wrote that the FISA statute, which he helped draft, "made clear the exclusive legal steps the President must take in order to conduct national security surveillance.""President Bush chose to ignore the law and now it seems Senator McCain will continue this policy," Biden writes. "Once again – there is no daylight between President Bush and Sen. McCain.""We all share the goal of capturing the terrorists and protecting national security and we can do that without violating the privacy of the American people," he added. "Like President Bush, Sen. McCain is presenting the American people with a false choice—national security or civil liberties. We need a President who understands that we can have both. It’s what our values and our Constitution demands."
Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair Joe Biden, a former presidential candidate seen as a potential running mate for Barack Obama, has issued a statement regarding John McCain's apparent belief that the practice of wiretapping without warrants is legal....
In his statement, Biden wrote that the FISA statute, which he helped draft, "made clear the exclusive legal steps the President must take in order to conduct national security surveillance."
"President Bush chose to ignore the law and now it seems Senator McCain will continue this policy," Biden writes. "Once again – there is no daylight between President Bush and Sen. McCain."
"We all share the goal of capturing the terrorists and protecting national security and we can do that without violating the privacy of the American people," he added. "Like President Bush, Sen. McCain is presenting the American people with a false choice—national security or civil liberties. We need a President who understands that we can have both. It’s what our values and our Constitution demands."
Excellent first start. Hopefully more Dems will recognize what a liability the Bush/McCain position on warrantless wiretapping and telco amnesty, and put an end to any talk of "compromise" with the Republicans on this issue.
There's a very simple solution to the warrantless wiretapping debate: Congress can extend the orders that were established last year under the PAA and are set to expire in August for a period of nine months or a year, letting the next administration and Congress resolve the issue. That also gives Obama and the Dems an opportunity over the next five months to demonstrate, just as Biden does, that "there is no daylight between President Bush and Sen. McCain."
Hey Obamacans,
You can't Vote? Every time you forward this/ Blog This to your American Groups and Friends who can & Feel the Relief! I got this info & book ( "King of Cons" ) from my European friends,Kenyan Friends, Mexican Friends, Family in Brazil etc 3 Years ago
Why can't we get this to catch?Yes We Can!!! The Whole Worls IS Watching!*******************************RE: Clinton In Court Blog!Please Help us get this Out!!!
I have been blogging about this for over a year now! Google: Aaron Tonken+Hillary ClintonThen FAINT! Also, try and find the book Tonken published called"king of Cons"...I bought this when it first published3 years ago...Can't find it? Try AmazonNo One in Good Faith or half an education could vote for Billary after reading this Book...This whole Nation is in BIG BIG Trouble!Please comment on my blog...
From the NewsMax.com Staff For the story behind the story...
Fund-raiser Aaron Tonken Writing Hillary Tell-All
"He has a book coming out in October in which he's promising to reveal all sorts of things," Fox News reporter Eric Shawn told WABC Radio's Monica Crowley Wednesday night. "I think we're in the beginning of what could turn out to be a major brewing story dealing with campaign financing in Mrs. Clinton's campaign."
That may be an understatement, if what the New York Post's Cindy Adams says about Tonken's book turns out to be true.
After getting a peek at his manuscript, Adams reports that in Chapter 13 alone there's enough material to keep a battery of Clinton damage controllers working overtime.
During seven White House stays in the last three months of the Clintons' term, Tonken says, he became so cozy with the first couple that he and Hillary once sat in their pajamas together eating popcorn and watching TV in her bedroom.
He also says, according to Adams, that he smoked pot with Bill's brother, Roger.
When the fun and games were over, the Hollywood moneyman says, he handed out checks to "certain pols" that were "illegal." And he personally witnessed a "brown bag" stuffed with cash going "someplace it shouldn't."
Tonken claims the illegal campaign contributions he personally doled out totaled over $100,000.
And from the sound of the Hollywood fund-raiser's statements under oath in legal proceedings against him last year, he isn't talking through his hat.
"I'm a star witness against President and Mrs. Clinton," he told attorneys in an unrelated civil case. "I'm a star witness in New York in the grand jury regarding the Marc Rich pardon and regarding the fund-raising activities that I've done on behalf of the Clintons."
Tonken's story could impact the entire Democratic Party, since Harold Ickes, who masterminded Hillary's 2000 Senate race, is now busily raising tens of millions of dollars for the Democratic Party's presidential "Media Fund."
In December, Tonken pleaded guilty to federal charges that he diverted hundreds of thousands of dollars from donors and underwriters of Hollywood events he organized.
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/20/photograph-of-bill-clinton-and-rev-wright-surfaces/
The New York Times
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
In the course of his two terms in office, Bill Clinton met with, corresponded with and took pictures with literally tens of thousands of people.
With tears in his eyes, President Clinton told a roomful of clerics this morning that he had sinned, speaking just hours before the world was presented a painstaking account by prosecutors of when, where and how. Addressing an annual prayer breakfast at the White House, Mr. Clinton drew on the New Testament, the Yom Kippur liturgy and Ernest Hemingway as he made his most abject confession yet of personal failure, while declaring that he would defend and redeem his Presidency. ‘’I don’t think there is a fancy way to say that I have sinned,'’ he admitted softly, saying that after resisting expressions of contrition he had reached ‘’the rock-bottom truth of where I am.'’For the first time, Mr. Clinton also asked for forgiveness from Monica S. Lewinsky, on the day that the details of their intimate relationship — details that he had denied and struggled to suppress — poured out through the Internet, whose wonders as a tool of communication he has so often extolled.
“Religion Leaders Breakfast (w/POTUS)” in the East Room from 9-10:30 a.m.Format:- The President and First Lady are announced into the East Room and proceed to their tables.- The Vice President makes remarks and introduces The President.- The President makes remarks and introduces Dr. Reverend Gerald Mann.- Dr. Reverend Gerald Mann gives blessing.- Breakfast is served.- Following breakfast, The President opens discussion.- Upon conclusion of the discussion, The President introduces Dr. Reverend James Forbes.- Dr. Reverend James Forbes gives benediction.- The President, First Lady, and Vice President depart.PARTICIPANTS: Approx. 130 guests to attend.
Dear Pastor Wright:Thank you so much for your kind message.I am touched by your prayers and by the many expressions of encouragement and support I have received from friends across our country.You have my best wishes.Sincerely,Bill ClintonGoogle: "Aaron Tonken+ Bill Clinton" for further info on the Billary Machine!
PJB: A Brief for Whiteyposted by Linda By Patrick J. BuchananHow would he pull it off? I wondered.How would Barack explain to his press groupies why he sat silent in a pew for 20 years as the Rev. Jeremiah Wright delivered racist rants against white America for our maligning of Fidel and Gadhafi, and inventing AIDS to infect and kill black people?How would he justify not walking out as Wright spewed his venom about "the U.S. of K.K.K. America," and howled, "God damn America!"My hunch was right. Barack would turn the tables.Yes, Barack agreed, Wright's statements were "controversial," and "divisive," and "racially charged," reflecting a "distorted view of America."But we must understand the man in full and the black experience out of which the Rev. Wright came: 350 years of slavery and segregation.Barack then listed black grievances and informed us what white America must do to close the racial divide and heal the country.The "white community," said Barack, must start "acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination -- and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past -- are real and must be addressed. Not just with words, but with deeds ... ."And what deeds must we perform to heal ourselves and our country?The "white community" must invest more money in black schools and communities, enforce civil rights laws, ensure fairness in the criminal justice system and provide this generation of blacks with "ladders of opportunity" that were "unavailable" to Barack's and the Rev. Wright's generations.What is wrong with Barack's prognosis and Barack's cure?Only this. It is the same old con, the same old shakedown that black hustlers have been running since the Kerner Commission blamed the riots in Harlem, Watts, Newark, Detroit and a hundred other cities on, as Nixon put it, "everybody but the rioters themselves."Was "white racism" really responsible for those black men looting auto dealerships and liquor stories, and burning down their own communities, as Otto Kerner said -- that liberal icon until the feds put him away for bribery.Barack says we need to have a conversation about race in America.Fair enough. But this time, it has to be a two-way conversation. White America needs to be heard from, not just lectured to.This time, the Silent Majority needs to have its convictions, grievances and demands heard. And among them are these:First, America has been the best country on earth for black folks. It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known.Wright ought to go down on his knees and thank God he is an American.Second, no people anywhere has done more to lift up blacks than white Americans. Untold trillions have been spent since the '60s on welfare, food stamps, rent supplements, Section 8 housing, Pell grants, student loans, legal services, Medicaid, Earned Income Tax Credits and poverty programs designed to bring the African-American community into the mainstream.Governments, businesses and colleges have engaged in discrimination against white folks -- with affirmative action, contract set-asides and quotas -- to advance black applicants over white applicants.Churches, foundations, civic groups, schools and individuals all over America have donated time and money to support soup kitchens, adult education, day care, retirement and nursing homes for blacks.We hear the grievances. Where is the gratitude?Barack talks about new "ladders of opportunity" for blacks.Let him go to Altoona and Johnstown, and ask the white kids in Catholic schools how many were visited lately by Ivy League recruiters handing out scholarships for "deserving" white kids.Is white America really responsible for the fact that the crime and incarceration rates for African-Americans are seven times those of white America? Is it really white America's fault that illegitimacy in the African-American community has hit 70 percent and the black dropout rate from high schools in some cities has reached 50 percent?Is that the fault of white America or, first and foremost, a failure of the black community itself?As for racism, its ugliest manifestation is in interracial crime, and especially interracial crimes of violence. Is Barack Obama aware that while white criminals choose black victims 3 percent of the time, black criminals choose white victims 45 percent of the time?Is Barack aware that black-on-white rapes are 100 times more common than the reverse, that black-on-white robberies were 139 times as common in the first three years of this decade as the reverse?We have all heard ad nauseam from the Rev. Al about Tawana Brawley, the Duke rape case and Jena. And all turned out to be hoaxes. But about the epidemic of black assaults on whites that are real, we hear nothing.Sorry, Barack, some of us have heard it all before, about 40 years and 40 trillion tax dollars ago..
PJB: A Brief for Whiteyposted by Linda By Patrick J. BuchananHow would he pull it off? I wondered.How would Barack explain to his press groupies why he sat silent in a pew for 20 years as the Rev. Jeremiah Wright delivered racist rants against white America for our maligning of Fidel and Gadhafi, and inventing AIDS to infect and kill black people?How would he justify not walking out as Wright spewed his venom about "the U.S. of K.K.K. America," and howled, "God damn America!"My hunch was right. Barack would turn the tables.Yes, Barack agreed, Wright's statements were "controversial," and "divisive," and "racially charged," reflecting a "distorted view of America."But we must understand the man in full and the black experience out of which the Rev. Wright came: 350 years of slavery and segregation.Barack then listed black grievances and informed us what white America must do to close the racial divide and heal the country.The "white community," said Barack, must start "acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination -- and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past -- are real and must be addressed. Not just with words, but with deeds ... ."And what deeds must we perform to heal ourselves and our country?The "white community" must invest more money in black schools and communities, enforce civil rights laws, ensure fairness in the criminal justice system and provide this generation of blacks with "ladders of opportunity" that were "unavailable" to Barack's and the Rev. Wright's generations.What is wrong with Barack's prognosis and Barack's cure?Only this. It is the same old con, the same old shakedown that black hustlers have been running since the Kerner Commission blamed the riots in Harlem, Watts, Newark, Detroit and a hundred other cities on, as Nixon put it, "everybody but the rioters themselves."Was "white racism" really responsible for those black men looting auto dealerships and liquor stories, and burning down their own communities, as Otto Kerner said -- that liberal icon until the feds put him away for bribery.Barack says we need to have a conversation about race in America.Fair enough. But this time, it has to be a two-way conversation. White America needs to be heard from, not just lectured to.This time, the Silent Majority needs to have its convictions, grievances and demands heard. And among them are these:First, America has been the best country on earth for black folks. It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known.Wright ought to go down on his knees and thank God he is an American.Second, no people anywhere has done more to lift up blacks than white Americans. Untold trillions have been spent since the '60s on welfare, food stamps, rent supplements, Section 8 housing, Pell grants, student loans, legal services, Medicaid, Earned Income Tax Credits and poverty programs designed to bring the African-American community into the mainstream.Governments, businesses and colleges have engaged in discrimination against white folks -- with affirmative action, contract set-asides and quotas -- to advance black applicants over white applicants.Churches, foundations, civic groups, schools and individuals all over America have donated time and money to support soup kitchens, adult education, day care, retirement and nursing homes for blacks.We hear the grievances. Where is the gratitude?Barack talks about new "ladders of opportunity" for blacks.Let him go to Altoona and Johnstown, and ask the white kids in Catholic schools how many were visited lately by Ivy League recruiters handing out scholarships for "deserving" white kids.Is white America really responsible for the fact that the crime and incarceration rates for African-Americans are seven times those of white America? Is it really white America's fault that illegitimacy in the African-American community has hit 70 percent and the black dropout rate from high schools in some cities has reached 50 percent?Is that the fault of white America or, first and foremost, a failure of the black community itself?As for racism, its ugliest manifestation is in interracial crime, and especially interracial crimes of violence. Is Barack Obama aware that while white criminals choose black victims 3 percent of the time, black criminals choose white victims 45 percent of the time?Is Barack aware that black-on-white rapes are 100 times more common than the reverse, that black-on-white robberies were 139 times as common in the first three years of this decade as the reverse?We have all heard ad nauseam from the Rev. Al about Tawana Brawley, the Duke rape case and Jena. And all turned out to be hoaxes. But about the epidemic of black assaults on whites that are real, we hear nothing.Sorry, Barack, some of us have heard it all before, about 40 years and 40 trillion tax dollars ago.
By Patrick J. Buchanan
How would he pull it off? I wondered.
How would Barack explain to his press groupies why he sat silent in a pew for 20 years as the Rev. Jeremiah Wright delivered racist rants against white America for our maligning of Fidel and Gadhafi, and inventing AIDS to infect and kill black people?
How would he justify not walking out as Wright spewed his venom about "the U.S. of K.K.K. America," and howled, "God damn America!"
My hunch was right. Barack would turn the tables.
Yes, Barack agreed, Wright's statements were "controversial," and "divisive," and "racially charged," reflecting a "distorted view of America."
But we must understand the man in full and the black experience out of which the Rev. Wright came: 350 years of slavery and segregation.
Barack then listed black grievances and informed us what white America must do to close the racial divide and heal the country.
The "white community," said Barack, must start "acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination -- and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past -- are real and must be addressed. Not just with words, but with deeds ... ."
And what deeds must we perform to heal ourselves and our country?
The "white community" must invest more money in black schools and communities, enforce civil rights laws, ensure fairness in the criminal justice system and provide this generation of blacks with "ladders of opportunity" that were "unavailable" to Barack's and the Rev. Wright's generations.
What is wrong with Barack's prognosis and Barack's cure?
Only this. It is the same old con, the same old shakedown that black hustlers have been running since the Kerner Commission blamed the riots in Harlem, Watts, Newark, Detroit and a hundred other cities on, as Nixon put it, "everybody but the rioters themselves."
Was "white racism" really responsible for those black men looting auto dealerships and liquor stories, and burning down their own communities, as Otto Kerner said -- that liberal icon until the feds put him away for bribery.
Barack says we need to have a conversation about race in America.
Fair enough. But this time, it has to be a two-way conversation. White America needs to be heard from, not just lectured to.
This time, the Silent Majority needs to have its convictions, grievances and demands heard. And among them are these:
First, America has been the best country on earth for black folks. It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known.
Wright ought to go down on his knees and thank God he is an American.
Second, no people anywhere has done more to lift up blacks than white Americans. Untold trillions have been spent since the '60s on welfare, food stamps, rent supplements, Section 8 housing, Pell grants, student loans, legal services, Medicaid, Earned Income Tax Credits and poverty programs designed to bring the African-American community into the mainstream.
Governments, businesses and colleges have engaged in discrimination against white folks -- with affirmative action, contract set-asides and quotas -- to advance black applicants over white applicants.
Churches, foundations, civic groups, schools and individuals all over America have donated time and money to support soup kitchens, adult education, day care, retirement and nursing homes for blacks.
We hear the grievances. Where is the gratitude?
Barack talks about new "ladders of opportunity" for blacks.
Let him go to Altoona and Johnstown, and ask the white kids in Catholic schools how many were visited lately by Ivy League recruiters handing out scholarships for "deserving" white kids.
Is white America really responsible for the fact that the crime and incarceration rates for African-Americans are seven times those of white America? Is it really white America's fault that illegitimacy in the African-American community has hit 70 percent and the black dropout rate from high schools in some cities has reached 50 percent?
Is that the fault of white America or, first and foremost, a failure of the black community itself?
As for racism, its ugliest manifestation is in interracial crime, and especially interracial crimes of violence. Is Barack Obama aware that while white criminals choose black victims 3 percent of the time, black criminals choose white victims 45 percent of the time?
Is Barack aware that black-on-white rapes are 100 times more common than the reverse, that black-on-white robberies were 139 times as common in the first three years of this decade as the reverse?
We have all heard ad nauseam from the Rev. Al about Tawana Brawley, the Duke rape case and Jena. And all turned out to be hoaxes. But about the epidemic of black assaults on whites that are real, we hear nothing.
Sorry, Barack, some of us have heard it all before, about 40 years and 40 trillion tax dollars ago.
Now we see how Obama just eloquently threw Rev Wright under the BUS & Backed up a few times! Just as He should have!
These antics of the Reverend are unforgivable not just to Obama, His Family & His Supporters but to all Americans, Black, White, Yellow & Red
I am embarrassed for you/us as a Nation and the Entire World is Watching!
Rev Wright has destroyed HIMSELF & seems to be in need of a "Psychiatric Intervention"
How dare you, Rev. Wright", disrespect US as Americans and as a Nation!
Forward>>>>MARCH!
Our Obama is in a fight for his life!
Obama, You shall "Rise From the Ashes" like a Phoenix.
I feel certain that You are Poised & Preparing for the most rivetting & important speech we will hear in our lifetime...You MUST Rally your Supporters to ultimately Heal This Weary Nation...Focus Obama...We NEED a "Spiritual Cleansing & Healing"...Focus...Hope...Change...Soar...Fight for Us...Focus.
The Whole World Is Watching...Come On, Obama. You can change the entire World! For the first time we can be free from the Bondage of American Politics as usual...We are with you...just soar Higher & Higher. Just Do IT!
Wow! Even back in September 2007...George Stephanopoulos? Phila., PA Debate?
Exactly What Role does "George" REALLY Play in THIS Election? Hmmm...
http://www.nypost.com/seven/09242007/news/nationalnews/bush_says_dems_will_have_hill_.htm
By Kate Phillips
During one of the most difficult periods in the presidency of Bill Clinton, he addressed a group of clerics at an annual prayer breakfast in September 1998 just as the Starr report outlining his dalliance with Monica Lewinsky was about to be published.
Among those in attendance, was the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., who is seen shaking hands with Mr. Clinton in a photograph provided today by the Obama campaign. Mr. Wright’s relationship with Senator Barack Obama, as his longtime pastor, has been the subject of considerable controversy in recent days because of incendiary excerpts of sermons Mr. Wright gave at their church, Trinity United Church of Christ, in Chicago.
In providing the photograph to The New York Times, the Obama campaign appeared to be trying to divert some attention to the Clintons after a week in which Mr. Obama’s relationship with Mr. Wright has left him facing one of the biggest challenges of his campaign. There is nothing in the picture or the note that addresses whether Mr. Clinton had met Mr. Wright prior to the White House meeting or whether he or Mrs. Clinton knew anything about Mr. Wright’s views.
Asked for a response tonight through email, Howard Wolfson, a top aide to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, wrote, “Urgent indeed — a picture — oooooooo!”
Senator Clinton’s spokesman, Phil Singer, sent along this reply to a request for comment:
Mr. Wright was invited to the 1998 prayer breakfast, and in addition, he received a thank-you note from former President Clinton for his expressions of support about six weeks later.
According to an account by James Bennet, former White House correspondent who has since left The Times:
With tears in his eyes, President Clinton told a roomful of clerics this morning that he had sinned, speaking just hours before the world was presented a painstaking account by prosecutors of when, where and how.
Addressing an annual prayer breakfast at the White House, Mr. Clinton drew on the New Testament, the Yom Kippur liturgy and Ernest Hemingway as he made his most abject confession yet of personal failure, while declaring that he would defend and redeem his Presidency.
‘’I don’t think there is a fancy way to say that I have sinned,'’ he admitted softly, saying that after resisting expressions of contrition he had reached ‘’the rock-bottom truth of where I am.'’For the first time, Mr. Clinton also asked for forgiveness from Monica S. Lewinsky, on the day that the details of their intimate relationship — details that he had denied and struggled to suppress — poured out through the Internet, whose wonders as a tool of communication he has so often extolled.
Mr. Wright is not mentioned in the article. Also visible in the photograph is Vice President Al Gore.
And according to the newly released schedules of Mrs. Clinton by the National Archives of her years as first lady, she was in attendance, too.
Her schedule reads:
“Religion Leaders Breakfast (w/POTUS)” in the East Room from 9-10:30 a.m.
Format:- The President and First Lady are announced into the East Room and proceed to their tables.- The Vice President makes remarks and introduces The President.- The President makes remarks and introduces Dr. Reverend Gerald Mann.- Dr. Reverend Gerald Mann gives blessing.- Breakfast is served.- Following breakfast, The President opens discussion.- Upon conclusion of the discussion, The President introduces Dr. Reverend James Forbes.- Dr. Reverend James Forbes gives benediction.- The President, First Lady, and Vice President depart.PARTICIPANTS: Approx. 130 guests to attend.
The wording of Mr. Clinton’s thank-you note to Mr. Wright, dated Oct. 28, 1998:
Dear Pastor Wright:Thank you so much for your kind message.I am touched by your prayers and by the many expressions of encouragement and support I have received from friends across our country.You have my best wishes.Sincerely,Bill Clinton
Dear Pastor Wright:
Thank you so much for your kind message.I am touched by your prayers and by the many expressions of encouragement and support I have received from friends across our country.
You have my best wishes.
Sincerely,Bill Clinton
One of Barack's unique characteristics is his respect for others. This respect is most evident in (1) in his response to criticism, and (2) his attitude when expressing his disagreement or differences with another. He expresses and informs, without devaluing Hillary or McCain.
You will notice that when he is criticized, rather than attacking back with a criticism, he is able to tolerate the vulnerability of the judgment. He typically pauses briefly and then responds with information, which he expresses in the form of explanation rather than in a tone of excuse. This information is expressed directly and typically does not include any hidden sarcasm, devaluation, or passive attacks on the other. Instead, he is able to hear the comments and to respond without the need to protect his ego; in some sense he is able to inform without being attached to the opinion of the other person. This allows him to remain objective, to remain respectful, and to sustain dialogue with the other person who will more likely listen to him openly if he has listened respectfully first.
When he expresses disagreement or differences between himself and others, he typically does so in a tone and attitude of imparting information rather than in a tone of devaluing the person. Similarly, it would be uncharacteristic for him to disregard or devalue someone with a smirk, eye roll, or snide chuckle. He does sometimes poke fun, but most often it seems to be self-directed.
These points are important, not simply in their highlighting his strength of integrity and respect, but also to highlight the importance of our modeling these qualities as supporters and advocates of his campaign. When we devalue Hillary or McCain or Bush, we aren't really supporting Barack. Our best support comes in the form of respect while listening fully to others; informing them of Barack's record, strengths, and plan; and when needed comparing candidates with a tone of objectively imparting information rather than one that is devaluing anyone. This will require a bit more effort on our part to read his Blueprint, read his books, and listen to his speeches; we won't have the short-cut of diverting attention away by criticizing others. The extra effort is well worth the difference it will make in our ability to inform others through both our knowledge and our attitude/way of being.
At the Obama Rally in Wilmington, DE there were an estimated 20,000+ people who lined up to see and hear him. They waited in line from early morning and most could recognize that everyone would not be able to get into the venue. I was impressed that everyone remained cooperative and respectful, managing their own anxieties about getting into the venue by asking questions but not expressing frustration or anger. I did not see or hear of any aggression, shoving, or even harsh words. Each individual and the group as a whole seemed to model his faith, unity, respect, and shared responsibility. One woman walked several blocks to get coffee for several with her, only to realize after she ordered that she'd forgotten her money. Another woman loaned her the money and trusted the woman's promise to find and repay her at the venue. Given the thousands already at the rally, this promise may have seemed unrealistic. But their faith and trust in each other proved realistic ... she was able to find the woman and repay her before the start of the rally.
My sense that day was that this crowd had demonstrated the profound social changes which come from a sense of hope, unity, and pride which Barack inspires in us.
I encourage volunteers and supporters to consider their own responses and attitudes in an effort to model these values when representing his campaign and being lived examples of the changes that have already begun.
