Did you know that Los Angeles Mayor Vilaragosa supported Clinton in the Primary?
Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. JFK There was a time for change, but now we need to change the results.
Maybe I'm a little early but Obama did allude to his re-election in 2012 in his acceptance speech. So, this morning I surfed the groups and joined some. If You-re stopping by to see who this new member is, post a "hi."
Also, my first blog followed research dat that I posted for Colorado's Electoral College history. I advocated a massive voter registration program that worked. Obama is the first Democrat to take a majority in Colorado since Johnson in 1964.
To take Colorado again, Obama will have to deliver on his campaign promises & I want to help him do that.
180 days until Barack is inaugurated!
Pack your stuff George!
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1723302,00.html?iid=sphere-inline-sidebar
Click on link below to read the McCall article entitled "Obama keeps his faith despite criticism of pastor."
http://www.mcall.com/news/opinion/anotherview/all-right_col-a.6317486mar18,0,4493401.story
Obama Camp Fires Back on Iraq (click on link below to read article)
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video_log/2008/03/obama_camp_fires_back_on_iraq.html
Yesterday the New York Times reported that McCain challenged Obama to accept public financing in the general election if McCain also does. The headlines suggested that McCain "slammed" Obama and that Obama was backpeddling on an earlier "pledge."
I think it is clear that Obama suggested that he would consider accepting public financing IF he were the democratic nominee, and IF the republican nominee made the same commitments. The headlines on this issue yesterday were misleading and tried to sensationalize this as Obama stepping away from a pledge he made (at least in the New York Times and HuffPost). I agree that he did not make a pledge per se, but that he said he would consider doing this under FAIR tems.I think it is also important to point out that Obama believes in public financing as an important ethics issue and piece to campaign finance reform. Fromthis barackobama.com website in the "Issues" section under "Ethics:"Support Campaign Finance Reform: Obama supports public financing of campaigns combined with free television and radio time as a way to reduce the influence of moneyed special interests. Obama introduced public financing legislation in the Illinois State Senate, and is the only 2008 candidate to have sponsored Senator Russ Feingold's (D-WI) tough bill to reform the presidential public financing system.
Last year the FEC responded to a request by Obama's campaign to address whether if Obama did not accept public financing in the primary campaign, would he be able to in the general election, returning any already collected general election funds to donors. The FEC document included the following: "Nevertheless, if he receives the Democratic nomination for President, Senator Obama has represented that he will consider opting to receive public funds for his general election campaign if the Republican candidate agrees, or independently decides, to receive public funds."
This seems to be the "pledge" that people are referring to. In any case, I think it would be great if Obama and McCain are the nominees that both comitted to accepting public financing. I posted this on other COmmunity Blogs on the Obama website and got mixed responses. One concern is whether a third party candidate with deep coffers were to enter the race. However, with McCain and Obama as nominees from each party, I think that would likely not happen.
I have just read an amazing book called "The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot" by Naomi Wolf. In the book Wolf spells out 10 different steps that dictators and authoratarian regimes enact when trying to close down an open society. All of these steps are currently under way in America. Wolf details how other regimes such as Nazi Germany, Stalin's Russia, Pinochet's Chile ,and many more, have done the very same things that Bush and Cheney are doing right now. If your eyes are not completely open now, they will be after you read this book. Here are Wolf's ten steps:
1. Invoke and external and internal threat 2. Establish secret prisons 3. Develop a paramilitary force 4. Surveil ordinary citizens 5. Infiltrate citizens groups 6. Arbitrarily detain and release citizens 7. Target key individuals 8. Restrict the press 9. Cast critism as "Espionage" and dissent as "Treason" 10. Subvert the rule of law
All of these steps are underway right now in the United States. We must put significant pressure on our current candidates and incumbents for President and Congress. We must have these abuses addressed by Senator Obama, if he does he will galvanize support on both sides of the ailse, for the Bill of Rights and the Constitution should not be partisan. He will also frame the debate of this campaign, and have a significant advantage over Hilary on these terms, since she has been almost in lockstep with the Bush Administration on this issue.
-Mike
For weeks I've been meaning to write something here about the need for Barack Obama to make reform a centerpiece of his presidential campaign. Fortunately, he went ahead and did just that, without my prompting, at his Reform Town Hall Meeting in Iowa. So my post ends up being partly a pat on the back, but it's also a call for more.
Obama's speech was delivered at a middle school named for Theodore Roosevelt, and Obama took the opportunity to talk about how that old-school reformer helped break up monopolies and put an end to the "Gilded Age", in which power and money became concentrated in very few hands. Given Karl Rove's admiration of that era, Obama's casting himself as a modern Teddy Roosevelt is especially fitting.
I sincerely hope this wasn't just a speech for the occasion, though, because I would like to see Barack Obama make political reform his #1 campaign issue. He has a strong track record in Illinois and Washington of focusing on congressional ethics, especially with regard to gifts from lobbyists. Given the timeliness of that issue with the Abramoff case and the FBI just today searching Republican senator Ted Stevens's house, Obama's experience and credentials on this issue must be emphasized.
Reform is an issue where Obama has a strong advantage over Hillary Clinton. It was Obama who agreed with McCain to limit campaign spending in the general election. And it definitely means something that Hillary Clinton gets the lion's share of the $4600 checks, while Obama is vastly ahead of the pack in small donations.
Of particular importance, Obama refuses to accept money from corporate PAC's and lobbyists, while Clinton continues to take almost any kind of money she can get. I would like to see Barack Obama make a direct public challenge to Hillary Clinton on this point:
"Won't you join me in saying 'no' to corporate PAC money and donations from lobbyists?"
If she refuses, America sees that Obama has a clear edge in the clean fundraising department. If she agrees, Obama was the leader on this issue, Hillary the follower, and some of her dirty money edge is erased. Ideally, I would like to see this challenge made in a head-to-head debate, rather than through a press release, so the Clinton campaign has a harder time dodging the issue.
I would also like to see Barack Obama set forth a comprehensive blueprint for election reform and ethics reform - one that goes well beyond simply ensuring that votes are counted and that lobbyists aren't allowed to offer certain types of gifts. Obama should become the candidate who is serious about reducing the role of money in American elections, advocating the sort of "clean money" campaign finance reform that has worked in Maine, Arizona, and elsewhere. He's already a co-sponsor (with Feingold and Specter) of Durbin's Senate Fair Elections Now Act, which calls for just this type of solution. Here's a video of Obama explaining his support. All that's needed is to draw attention to Obama's leadership on this issue.
Obama's strength on reform has the potential to help him with voters from all across the policital spectrum, especially the independent-minded swing voters who have been drawn to candidates as diverse as Perot, McCain, and Nader in past elections. Obama is the Democrat who is best able to claim the mantle of reform, and this could be his greatest advantage in his quest for the White House.
