There is much to admire about Barack Obama. David Brooks zeroed in on the attributes that I find so compelling and why Obama has my complete confidence. He is an exceptional human being and Brooks tells us why.
Brooks falls short of giving a resounding endorsement of Obama. Instead he closes with an obligatory but tepid attempt to take Obama's considerable attributes and make a case for why they are weaknesses. But any thinking person can see that Brooks truly admires Senator Obama.
Read the full column here.
We’ve been watching Barack Obama for two years now, and in all that time there hasn’t been a moment in which he has publicly lost his self-control. This has been a period of tumult, combat, exhaustion and crisis. And yet there hasn’t been a moment when he has displayed rage, resentment, fear, anxiety, bitterness, tears, ecstasy, self-pity or impulsiveness.
Some candidates are motivated by something they lack. For L.B.J., it was respect. For Bill Clinton, it was adoration. These politicians are motivated to fill that void. Their challenge once in office is self-regulation. How will they control the demons, insecurities and longings that fired their ambitions?
But other candidates are propelled by what some psychologists call self-efficacy, the placid assumption that they can handle whatever the future throws at them. Candidates in this mold, most heroically F.D.R. and Ronald Reagan, are driven upward by a desire to realize some capacity in their nature. They rise with an unshakable serenity that is inexplicable to their critics and infuriating to their foes.
Obama has the biography of the first group but the personality of the second. He grew up with an absent father and a peripatetic mother. “I learned long ago to distrust my childhood,” he wrote in “Dreams From My Father.” This is supposed to produce a politician with gaping personal needs and hidden wounds.
But over the past two years, Obama has never shown evidence of that. Instead, he has shown the same untroubled self-confidence day after day.
I will be there! And, I am volunteering at the event. Probably leaving Pinehurst around 10am (maybe earlier).
Speaking of volunteering ... WE NEED VOLUNTEERS at the Obama campaign office in Southern Pines!!!! Have you stopped into the Obama office at the corner of Bennett and Pennsylvania? 10 people making 10 calls each night can accomplish so much in these last days. We all want Obama to be elected or we wouldn't be on this site - but what are you willing to do to get him elected???
If making persuasion calls is outside your comfort zone, what about making Get Out the Vote calls? It's a simple, brief call letting voters know that early voting has begun, giving them locations and hours of operations.
If that is outside your comfort zone, how about letting everyone you know (call? email) that it is not enough to simply vote for "Straight Party Ticket" when completing their ballot. If they do not specifically vote for Senator Obama, he will not receive their vote. A vote for "Straight Party Ticket" does not apply to the Presidential race. Please make sure everyone you know knows this!
Please help!
Help!
Please.
Election Day starts today.
You can One-Stop Early Vote now.
It's the easiest and surest way to make sure your vote counts.
You can even register and vote all at the same time. It's easy, even if you have never voted before.
Visit voteforchange.com to find a polling location in your county.
Can Bush43 tell the difference between a President and a Dictator?
My son and I were talking about WHY the change in tactics on the Afghanistan and Pakistan border, and if Palin supports Obama's or Bush's position there. I hold that the original cross-border raid that killed a high-ranking Al Quaida leader, was Bush following Obama's advice since Bush's tactics were not succeeding. Now Palin, to me, seems to favor Bush's continuing raids on less valuable targets. This is an especially important policy, since the removal of the American-backed dictatorship and the return of the government to a nation of laws. This I think has lead to a deep Pakistan anger since they have a new effort of their own to rid their country of fear and terrorism; which may be part of the reason they have reinforced their Afghanistan border against us.
So I asked my son " Why do Bush, and Palin, still advocate a policy of attack over the Pakistan border?"
Tomorrow's planned debate will be successful for the Obama Campaign whether McCain shows or not. Personally, I think McCain ended any debate on experience, wisdom or leadership yesterday when he chose to "suspend" his campaign and call off his appearence at the debate. This is the second time, the first being the RN Convention ( Hurricane), in which McCain has "suspended" scheduled events. I want a President who doesn't "suspend" activity when times get tough, but instead has the character, wisdom and disposition to lead us in any time of conflict, whether it be a natural disaster, act of terrorism or economic crisis.
If McCain's goal was to bring together the bi-partisanship needed to pass an economic rescue bill, he failed miserably. Right Wing Conservatives will be the death of the McCain Campaign. He wants to unite the Congress to make progress for the American people, and he can't even get his own Party on board! I would think Republicans would appreciate the Democrats coming to the table to discuss the bailing out of our financial industries that crashed because of their deregulation and corruption. I don't know of one Democrat who wants to sign this bill!
McCain's latest suggestion is to post pone tomorrow's debate until the date of the VP Debate. He wants to reschedule the VP debate but has not offered another date. Don't be surprised if that date is Nov. 5! It is so obvious that he's causing this big stink over the debates in order to protect Sarah Palin from having to debate Biden.
Thanks, for letting me get that all off my chest. Blogging is cheaper than therapy!
I find it outrageous that on the Toxic Bailout McCain says "no CEO should make more than the HIGHEST paid worker of the government", Why on earth should they get more than the AVERAGE salary of all Americans, they certainly show less judgement than the average MIDDLE CLASS worker; maybe they might learn a needed lesson = especially if they spend some of that while in jail.
I can't believe that no one noticed this blinkered, out of touch response to our economic system. He just proved again, that McCain can't see any viewpoint other than his own corner of America.
If Obama and Biden do not go to Washington this week, especially if they miss the Vote on the Toxic Bail-Out, my family will be extremely disappointed. I would think that he could prepare for the first Debate there as well as in Florida. I don't think any of the Rallys and Discussions would object to some special advisor shows up instead when the economy needs immediate attention.
I also expect that Palin will not leave the campaign trail to waste electioniering time on something like a fiancial crisis, which shows what I've observed of her. Even if McCain shows up, it will only point out how many votes of importance he showed up for: talk about "voting present".
What do you think ?
I am enjoying the calls. I enjoy listening to people talk about the issues and challenges they are facing. I like that this effort requires me to discipline my thoughts and coherently express why Senator Obama is a great choice for President. I love my volunteer job!
Scanned a few news reports re: campaign point/counterpoints. Obama is on fire! Love it, love it, love it.
In other news, a son of a Democratic politician is being implicated in the Republican VP nominee's email breach. 1) Dumb dumb dumb!!! and 2) He guessed at her challenge questions - Weak, weak, weak! I think I'll check my own challenge questions now ...
I had a lackluster but not bad phone night on Tuesday; tonight was much better. I have a new policy of leaving on a high note so that I don't get bummed out or develop call reluctance ater talking to a nasty person. By nasty I mean someone who uses language that is not accepted in decent, adult company. Anyhoo, it's been a couple of good evenings. I enjoy listening to people talk about what is on their minds.
I had a date on Saturday night; he called this evening to ask how he could volunteer. How cool is that?! He is going to the office tomorrow evening. Coolioso.
I will be back on the phones tomorrow night. I'm enjoying the work and I sleep better when I am doing SOMETHING to help (I hope) the cause.
On a non-election matter note: I was scanning the news aggregator this evening and saw the stories that Republican's VP nominee lost control of her yahoo account. Someone should tell her about POP3 account downloads. For a very small fee, Yahoo will allow you to download your emails into a mail client such as Outlook, thereby limiting your exposure by removing your emails from an internet repository of emails (yahoo). Since she is trying to circumvent transparency in government laws by maintaining this account, you would think she would also have a heightened concern about the security of her account and take very minor measures to ensure her account data was inaccessible except via her hard-drive. Karma's a bitch! Or is it hubris at work? Or is she just that dumb?
Having been a republican ( in favor of balanced budgets and state laws instead of national laws where possible), I thought this needed saying. DEMOCRAT DOES NOT EQUAL SOCIALIST, COMMUNIST, OR RADICAL. This proves true in this election about ECOLOGY, ECONOMY, FOREIGN POLICY and HEALTH CARE.
Ecological MISMANAGEMENT has proven that GLOBAL WARMING is occuring faster than predicted and the FREE MARKET has not handled this well as either an economic solution, a political solution, and most certainly not as STEWARDS of GOD. The ECOLOGICAL CRISIS is a national problem that needs emergency care. McCain-Palin want to gently encourage a quick fix solutions with expansion of currently available technology, totally ignoring that this quick fix has already failed repeatedly. Obama-Biden see it as a crisis, and have already tried to use this opportunity to have government help finance immediate help for RETOOLING & INVESTIGATING as many new solutions as possible.
On Economic Policy McCain has promoted : DEREGULATION of all banks and insurance, DEREGULATION of extensions for all types of credit without realistic limits, ALLOWING UNDER CAPITALIZED mortgage bundling, ALLOWING UNLIMITED trading in Oil and other critical Futures, ALLOWING UNREGULATED offshore accounts and other tax dodges. OBAMA and the DEMOCRATS say the Republicans obviously want to add red tape to limit business opportunities. ACTUALLY under the Constitution this is the one area agreed on that needed to be REGULATED from the NATIONAL government. ( I wrote a note on this 2 weeks ago, I just didn't get around to typing this in until it seems moot; seeing as how the ECONOMIC house of cards just came tumbling down on McCain-Palin and the Republicans.
Sen. Barack Obama's $52 million haul in the month of June is nearly certain to quiet whispers that his vaunted fundraising machine had slowed, and seems to justify his decision last month to opt out of public financing for the general election.
Obama's campaign announced this morning the $52 million take and that Obama had ended the month, his first as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, with $72 million in the bank.
"You continue to prove what ordinary Americans committed to change can accomplish, despite the Washington lobbyists and special interest PACs funding so much of our opponents' campaign," wrote campaign manager David Plouffe in an e-mail to supporters announcing the news that doubled as a fundraising pitch of its own.
"As I mentioned in my video message to you earlier in the week, we're facing a Republican machine with unprecedented resources at its disposal," writes Plouffe. "The McCain campaign and the Republican National Committee finished June with nearly $100 million in the bank."
While the money chase tends to get outsized attention in the media -- it's easily quantifiable and the numbers are BIG -- it's impossible to overstate how much money matters in the race between Obama and John McCain.
Obama's decision to opt out of public financing for the general election -- the first presidential candidate to do so since the system was put in place in the early 1970s -- means that money will be front and center to every strategic decision made by both sides in the coming months.
Obama took a calculated risk in opting out: that his fundraising advantage over McCain would be large enough to justify the time and energy it takes to collect hundreds of millions of dollars.
So, how did he do in his first month as the nominee?
That depends on who is doing the analyzing.
Obama soared well above the $30 million figure laid out in the Wall Street Journal (and vehemently disputed by the campaign at the time) but well below the $100 million number that some Democratic fundraisers floated.
Compared to the cash-collecting performance by Sen. John Kerry (Mass.) following his own securing of the nomination, Obama measured up well.
Kerry collected $44 million in March 2004, the first full month it was clear that he would be the Democratic nominee. That was a huge spike from the $8.4 million he had raised in February and the $7.6 million (including a $3.5 million loan) he collected in January of that year. All tolled for his primary campaign, Kerry raised $249 million; Obama, as of the end of June, had collected $347 million -- all but a few million of which is in primary dollars.
Obama did not set his own personal fundraising record for a month. The $52 million in June was close but not quite as much as the $56.7 million the campaign raised in February. In that, Obama is the victim of his own successes; had he not raised $136 million in the first three months of the year (Kerry raised $60 million during that time in 2004, McCain raised just $39.7 in that same time period this cycle), there would be no question about the unmitigated success of Obama's fundraising.
Taken broadly, what Obama's June fundraising number means is that rumors of his fundraising machine's demise have been vastly exaggerated. Obama continues to compete only with his past eye-popping totals when it comes to cash collection and, due to the relatively small average contribution to his campaign ($68 in June), he continues to grow a massive list of donors who can keep giving as he turns his attention to raising money for the general election.
If Obama can put together four more months of $50 million raised, he will have $200 million to spend on the general election; more than double the $84 million that McCain will get from the public financing system. (UPDATE: The Fix, no math whiz, has been informed by several smart sources that the previous calculation is not entirely accurate. Of the $52 million Obama raised in June, jusr $2 million was for the general election. Therefore, Obama needs to find a way to continue to raise considerable cash for the primary -- until he becomes the party's formal nominee in late August -- AND collect money for the general election, a more daunting feat that was made clear above.)
It now seems clear that Obama is positioned to enjoy a significant financial edge over McCain in the general election.
It's important to remember that money, especially at the presidential level, is not determinative of the outcome as demonstrated by McCain's underfunded run to the Republican nomination earlier this year.
But, any campaign or candidate would rather have more money to spend than their opponent coming down the home stretch. And, as of today, Obama seems likely to be in that position when summer turns to fall.
By Chris Cillizza | July 17, 2008; 10:05 AM ET | Category: Eye on 2008 Previous: Fix Pick: Get To Know Sheldon Adelson |
The New Yorker described Barry Blitt's work as lampooning of "scare tactics and misinformation in the Presidential election to derail Barack Obama's campaign.""The New Yorker may think, as one of their staff explained to us, that their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Senator Obama's right-wing critics have tried to create," Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton said."But most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive. And we agree," Burton added.
I think the idea that the Obamas are branded as unpatriotic [let alone as terrorists] in certain sectors is preposterous. It seemed to me that depicting the concept would show it as the fear-mongering ridiculousness that it is.
I've invited Obama supporters to write one "blog" post per week about Obama for the next 10 weeks. This will take us through the convention in Denver. Our guidelines are simply that the posts are positive and honest. The movement is building: already 25+ bloggers signed up, so that's at least 250 posts over the next 10 weeks, and more folks sign on everyday!
If you're new to blogging, it is just as easy as emailing--so if you can send an email--you can be a blogger! I can get you set up with you own blog in less than 5 minutes! So why not? Join Operation HOPE!
Especially if you are already an active blogger, it doesn't take any extra effort. and your blog will probably get more traffic, since I'll be linking all the bloggers and promoting the event.
Please check out the event details and sign up if you're interested in blogging for Obama: http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/44hfj I am coordinating the bloggers (with links to all the active bloggers doing 10 posts in 10 weeks) on my "Crush on Obama" blog at: http://rubycrushonobama.blogspot.com I look forward to joining with you to spread Obama's positive message of change in action! -Ruby
I WOULD REALLY LIKE TO GET A CHANCE TO HELP ORGANIZE 5 EVENTS LEADING TO A TOWN-HALL MEETING FOR BARACK or A SURROGATE; NC HAS BEEN NAMED A SWING STATE - I LOVE REALLY HELP PUT OBAMA IN THE WHITE HOUSE.Although I'm basically housebound, I have a lot of time to organize things.
WE HAVE A CRITICAL DEMOGRAPHIC THAT HE NEEDS TO SHOW HE CAN WIN WITH: MIDDLE-CLASS WORKERS many of whom are women; RURAL AREAS, MANY OF THE OLDER WOMEN who were either Repulicans or for HRC, EVEN THE HISPANIC VOTE
WE HAVE A GREAT ORGANIZATIONAL BASE WITH STUDENTS AT SANDHILLS.
I SEE THIS AS A SERIES OF 5 EVENTS.
1 SIGN UP TO REQUEST A TOWNHALL & REGISTER VOTERS AT THE SAME TIME.
2 YES WE CAN DRIVE FOR ORGANIZATIONAL ADVISER & SCC VOLUNTEERS. :: AGRICULTURAL, ART, BUSINESS, COMPUTER, CULINARY, EDUCATION, ENGLISH, HEALTH CARE, SERVICE INDUSTY, ETC.
3 ITS OUR COUNTRY & COUNTY DRIVE :: phonebank & door-knocking.
4 SCC TOWN HALL MEETING
5 SCC VOLUNTEER DINNER
