Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2008, is a date that will live in fame (the opposite of infamy) forever. If the election of our first African-American president didn’t stir you, if it didn’t leave you teary-eyed and proud of your country, there’s something wrong with you.
But will the election also mark a turning point in the actual substance of policy? Can Barack Obama really usher in a new era of progressive policies? Yes, he can.
Right now, many commentators are urging Mr. Obama to think small. Some make the case on political grounds: America, they say, is still a conservative country, and voters will punish Democrats if they move to the left. Others say that the financial and economic crisis leaves no room for action on, say, health care reform.
Let’s hope that Mr. Obama has the good sense to ignore this advice.
About the political argument: Anyone who doubts that we’ve had a major political realignment should look at what’s happened to Congress. After the 2004 election, there were many declarations that we’d entered a long-term, perhaps permanent era of Republican dominance. Since then, Democrats have won back-to-back victories, picking up at least 12 Senate seats and more than 50 House seats. They now have bigger majorities in both houses than the G.O.P. ever achieved in its 12-year reign.
Bear in mind, also, that this year’s presidential election was a clear referendum on political philosophies — and the progressive philosophy won.
Maybe the best way to highlight the importance of that fact is to contrast this year’s campaign with what happened four years ago. In 2004, President Bush concealed his real agenda. He basically ran as the nation’s defender against gay married terrorists, leaving even his supporters nonplussed when he announced, soon after the election was over, that his first priority was Social Security privatization. That wasn’t what people thought they had been voting for, and the privatization campaign quickly devolved from juggernaut to farce.
This year, however, Mr. Obama ran on a platform of guaranteed health care and tax breaks for the middle class, paid for with higher taxes on the affluent. John McCain denounced his opponent as a socialist and a “redistributor,” but America voted for him anyway. That’s a real mandate.
What about the argument that the economic crisis will make a progressive agenda unaffordable?
Well, there’s no question that fighting the crisis will cost a lot of money. Rescuing the financial system will probably require large outlays beyond the funds already disbursed. And on top of that, we badly need a program of increased government spending to support output and employment. Could next year’s federal budget deficit reach $1 trillion? Yes.
But standard textbook economics says that it’s O.K., in fact appropriate, to run temporary deficits in the face of a depressed economy. Meanwhile, one or two years of red ink, while it would add modestly to future federal interest expenses, shouldn’t stand in the way of a health care plan that, even if quickly enacted into law, probably wouldn’t take effect until 2011.
Beyond that, the response to the economic crisis is, in itself, a chance to advance the progressive agenda.
Now, the Obama administration shouldn’t emulate the Bush administration’s habit of turning anything and everything into an argument for its preferred policies. (Recession? The economy needs help — let’s cut taxes on rich people! Recovery? Tax cuts for rich people work — let’s do some more!)
But it would be fair for the new administration to point out how conservative ideology, the belief that greed is always good, helped create this crisis. What F.D.R. said in his second inaugural address — “We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics” — has never rung truer.
And right now happens to be one of those times when the converse is also true, and good morals are good economics. Helping the neediest in a time of crisis, through expanded health and unemployment benefits, is the morally right thing to do; it’s also a far more effective form of economic stimulus than cutting the capital gains tax. Providing aid to beleaguered state and local governments, so that they can sustain essential public services, is important for those who depend on those services; it’s also a way to avoid job losses and limit the depth of the economy’s slump.
So a serious progressive agenda — call it a new New Deal — isn’t just economically possible, it’s exactly what the economy needs.
Obama on election eve: A guy who expects to win
By NEDRA PICKLER Associated Press Writer
Obama Voices Confidence on Election Eve
Latest Photos of Barack Obama
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) -- Barack Obama looks and acts like a guy who expects to win.
Just look at his election eve schedule. While John McCain rushed around to seven states for last-minute campaigning on Monday, Obama didn't appear before voters until after 11 a.m., the first of just three events for the day.
Before that, he did radio interviews from his hotel room - then he headed out in sweat pants and a ball cap for a 45-minute workout at a gym.
"What is the one thing at this point that has you a little bit concerned?" he was asked by syndicated radio host Russ Parr.
"You know, I feel pretty peaceful, Russ, I gotta say," Obama replied. "Because my attitude is, if we've done everything we can do, then it's up to the people to decide. And the question is going to be who wants it more. And I hope that our supporters want it bad, because I think the country needs it."
Obama's supporters were nothing if not fired up. About 9,000 came to his event in conservative-leaning Jacksonville, while across the state in Tampa, McCain drew less than 1,000. Obama's crowd was decked out in campaign T-shirts that said things like "Obama is my homeboy," and stood in their seats at Veterans Memorial Arena before he got there, dancing to a warm-up soundtrack that included India.Arie's song, "There's Hope."
By now clad in suit and tie, he told them, "I have just one word for you, Florida: 'Tomorrow.'"
Actually, he had a lot of words for them - recapping his long campaign and looking to the future - once he quieted their screaming. Sensing victory, the crowd was exuberant.
He talked about starting out "in the depths of winter nearly two years ago on the steps of the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Ill."
"I voted for you!" called out an audience member.
"Thank you for the vote," Obama said, trying with a smile to pick up the thread of his speech in front of a crowd that was ready to celebrate.
"Back then we didn't have much money," he said. "We didn't have - all right, you all, let's settle down."
He said that after "21 months of a campaign that's taken us from the rocky coast of Maine to the sunshine of California, we are one day away from changing the United States of America."
The polls gave Obama reason for confidence - he was ahead in every state that Democrat John Kerry won in 2004 and a few that President Bush won as well. He said Sunday that campaigning with his family before massive crowds over the weekend had him thinking he might indeed be headed to victory, but he told the Jacksonville crowd it would be close and they needed to "work like our future depends on it in the next 24 hours, because it does."
Obama delivered the speech knowing some bad news: He found out in his hotel room Monday morning that his grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, died after a battle with cancer. She had helped raise him, and Obama and his sister issued a statement after he landed in North Carolina Monday afternoon that said, "She was cornerstone of our family, and a woman of extraordinary accomplishment, strength and humility. She was the person who encouraged and allowed us to take chances." Obama left the campaign for two days last week to spend some time with her in Hawaii.
At his next appearance at a Charlotte volunteer call center, he kept his grief to himself and bounded in asking to talk to voters they were dialing on their cell phones. On one call, he could be overheard telling the voter that as his grandmother became sick she was able to stay in her home with the help of a home care aide, without mentioning that she died late Sunday night.
Obama's aides said he would continue with his final campaign plans. On election eve, he focused on voters in Florida, North Carolina and Virginia in a schedule similar to what he's been keeping for the past couple of weeks - on offense in Republican red states, energetic but not as aggressive as McCain.
The pace had Obama unable to keep track of where he was for a moment.
"The Republicans are spending a lot of money on ads here in Ohio," he told the Florida crowd, which chided him with a chorus of boos before Obama corrected himself. "Florida! I've been traveling too much."
Obama reminded the crowd that McCain had campaigned in the same arena a few weeks ago and said the "fundamentals of our economy are strong." When the crowd jeered the idea, Obama repeated his favorite line of recent days, "You don't need to boo, you just need to vote."
In his speech, he hit his usual points:
- "We are in the middle of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression," and McCain would just give the country more George Bush.
- McCain has served the nation honorable, but "the truth is John McCain just doesn't get it."
- Something must be done about families who have no insurance - or insurance that won't pay.
- "I will end this war."
Meanwhile, the election.
When did it hit home that he might actually win? As far back as the night he won the Iowa Democratic caucuses on Jan. 3, he allowed during the day. Still, he said over and over that he and his supporters must drive through the finish, assume nothing.
Not that he wasn't thinking ahead, too.
What keeps him up at night? he was asked by ABC News Radio's Ann Compton.
"Not actually winning or losing," he said. "It's governing."
“We’re going to have to make sure they turn out, or we probably won’t win.” - Steve Hildebrand, Obama deputy campaign manager
Saturday lines for absentee voting in Virginia
This morning marked the beginning of our four day Get Out The Vote drive -- the final, all-out effort to get as many voters to the polls as possible. The phones are quiet now and the canvassing is done for the day, but in offices across the country volunteers will be up late into the night recording results and updating lists for tomorrow.
CBS News reports that in New Mexico:
The Obama ground game, says [Espanola Mayor Joe Maestas], is unprecedented. "His campaign has 39 offices statewide, in comparison to less than 10 for John Kerry in 2004. Barack Obama's total is as much as four times that of the McCain campaign," he said. That outreach has swelled Obama's corps of volunteers in the town of 10,000. "We're just honored that he even stopped in our community and so we're kind of we feel like we want to repay that courtesy by volunteering and get directly involved," said Obama supporter Albert Cata.
The story is the same in almost two dozen battleground states across the country. In large cities and small town like Espanola, we've built the largest field operation in history, with nearly a thousand field offices and hundreds of thousands of volunteers.
In the last few days, the McCain campaign's own plan for the final push has become clear. On Saturday the Washington Post reported:
Sen. John McCain and the Republican National Committee will unleash a barrage of spending on television advertising that will allow him to keep pace with Sen. Barack Obama's ad blitz during the campaign's final days, but the expenditures will impact McCain's get-out-the-vote efforts, according to Republican strategists....the Republican nominee squirreled away enough funds to pay for a raft of television ads in critical battleground states over the next four days, said Evan Tracey, a political analyst who monitors television spending.The decision to finance a final advertising push is forcing McCain to curtail spending on Election Day ground forces to help usher his supporters to the polls, according to Republican consultants familiar with McCain's strategy.
Sen. John McCain and the Republican National Committee will unleash a barrage of spending on television advertising that will allow him to keep pace with Sen. Barack Obama's ad blitz during the campaign's final days, but the expenditures will impact McCain's get-out-the-vote efforts, according to Republican strategists.
...the Republican nominee squirreled away enough funds to pay for a raft of television ads in critical battleground states over the next four days, said Evan Tracey, a political analyst who monitors television spending.
The decision to finance a final advertising push is forcing McCain to curtail spending on Election Day ground forces to help usher his supporters to the polls, according to Republican consultants familiar with McCain's strategy.
This is their strategy, to invest in television ads and automated phone calls designed to distract from the issues, to create cynicism and fear. This is what they've invested in.
This is what we've invested in:
And this:
We're one day in to GOTV, with three days to go. We've created a field operation that extends to every state, but it's a lifeless machine without the volunteers who power it.
We still have thousands of volunteer shifts to fill across the country, from knocking doors to making phone calls, organizing lit drops and processing data. No matter where you live, if you can commit to one or more shift between now and the close of polls on the Election Day, sign up now. Just enter your zip code and we'll show you when and where you're needed most.
After 21 months, it comes down to this -- ordinary people versus attack ads and robocalls, change versus the status quo, hope versus fear.
Polls close in three days.
From the New York Times:
Senators John McCain and Barack Obama began their final push for the White House on Saturday across an electoral map markedly different from four years ago, evidence of Mr. Obama’s success at putting new states into contention and limiting Mr. McCain’s options in the final hours. Mr. Obama was using the last days of the contest to make incursions into Republican territory, campaigning Saturday in three states — Colorado, Missouri and Nevada — that President Bush won relatively comfortably in 2004. Across the country, there was abundant evidence of just how much excitement the contest had stirred: In Colorado, 46 percent of the electorate has already voted in that state’s early voting program. Voters in states like Missouri, Montana, North Carolina and Virginia were getting knocks on their doors, telephone calls and leaflets slipped under their windshield wipers. ...“After 12 months and three debates,” Mr. Obama said in Henderson, Nev., “John McCain has not been able to tell the American people a single major thing that he would do different from George Bush on the economy.” ...The campaign’s final days brought a reminder of how Mr. Obama’s financial might had allowed him to redraw the political map. In addition to the states he visited on Saturday, Mr. Obama was planning stops Sunday in Florida, North Carolina and Virginia, which went Republican four years ago.
In response to news that the United States' Gross Domestic Product has declined for the first time this year, Senator Obama released the following statement:
This morning, we learned that GDP has fallen for the first time this year, which means America is producing less and selling less and our economy is shrinking. American consumers were especially hard hit, experiencing their largest decline in spending in 28 years as wages failed to keep up with the rising cost of living. The decline in our GDP didn’t happen by accident – it is a direct result of the Bush Administration's trickle down, Wall Street first, Main Street last policies that John McCain has embraced for the last eight years and plans to continue for the next four. These policies didn’t work then, they won’t work now, and I’m running for President to end them. We need to grow our economy by creating jobs, providing tax relief for middle class families, and helping people stay in their homes, and that is exactly what I will do as President.
Some three dozen workers at a telemarketing call center in Indiana walked off the job rather than read an incendiary McCain campaign script attacking Barack Obama, according to two workers at the center and one of their parents.
Nina Williams, a stay-at-home mom in Lake County, Indiana, tells us that her daughter recently called her from her job at the center, upset that she had been asked to read a script attacking Obama for being "dangerously weak on crime," "coddling criminals," and for voting against "protecting children from danger."
Williams' daughter told her that up to 40 of her co-workers had refused to read the script, and had left the call center after supervisors told them that they would have to either read the call or leave, Williams says. The call center is called Americall, and it's located in Hobart, IN.
"They walked out," Williams says of her daughter and her co-workers, adding that they weren't fired but willingly sacrificed pay rather than read the lines. "They were told [by supervisors], `If you all leave, you're not gonna get paid for the rest of the day."
The daughter, who wanted her name withheld fearing retribution from her employer, confirmed the story to us. "It was like at least 40 people," the daughter said. "People thought the script was nasty and they didn't wanna read it."
A second worker at the call center confirmed the episode, saying that "at least 30" workers had walked out after refusing to read the script.
"We were asked to read something saying [Obama and Democrats] were against protecting children from danger," this worker said. "I wouldn't do it. A lot of people left. They thought it was disgusting."
This worker, too, confirmed sacrificing pay to walk out, saying her supervisor told her: "If you don't wanna phone it you can just go home for the day."
The script coincided with this robo-slime call running in other states, but because robocalling is illegal in Indiana it was being read by call center workers.
Sunday Endorsements: "A landslide for Obama"by Christopher Hass
Sunday October 26 2008 11:10:46 PM
Editor&Publisher described this morning's newspaper endorsements as "a landslide for Obama." Some of the highlights include:
Iowa - Des Moines Register:
An Obama presidency presents the best hope for a unified America that aspires to greatness again.
iowa - Quad City Times:
Already, Obama is demonstrating presidential leadership and demeanor, displaying steely calm against an avalanche of unfair attacks, distortions and distractions.
Florida - Gainesville Sun:
Obama has, through the power of his rhetoric and reason, captured the imagination of millions of Americans who have little interest in politics-as-usual.
Louisiana - Times-Picayune:
We believe that Barack Obama could help restore our reputation as a land of opportunity. But that benefit is dwarfed by a larger potential that we think an Obama presidency could achieve: Seizing the chance for America to lead and, at a time of crisis and transformation, be a global pioneer.
Pennsylvania - Wilkes-Barre Times Leader:
But Obama’s composure – combined with his intelligence, ideas, communication skills and capacity to rally people to a cause – gave our endorsement board the evidence it needed to reach a decision: Democrat Barack Obama is the man for the job.
Pennsylvania - Pocono Record:
Obama's early opposition to the war attracted his initial supporters. Since then his steady, measured, intelligent approach to a wide range of issues has drawn millions more, including many well-known Republicans, to his campaign.
Virginia - Staunton News Leader:
Obama brings a freshness, good ideas and, above all, the confidence that we will be led by an administration that will restore a better life for Americans, trust among the nations of the world and decisions made with all of us in mind, not just the upper class.
Other newspapers endorsing Barack today included the Coloradoan, the Vail Daily, the Pensacola News Journal, the Bloomington Pantagraph, the Decatur Herald & Review, the Southtown Star, the Billings Gazette, the Keene Sentinel, the Valley News, the Cherry Hill Courier Post, the Pottstown Mercury, the Patriot News, the Beaver County Times, the Delware County Times, the Times West Virginian and more.
In all, over 35 newspapers endorsed Barack Obama today, bringing the current total number of endorsements to over 173.
Barack spoke to residents of Richmond, Virginia this morning. He reminded them that the last two weeks of the campaign will be full of distractions -- with the Republican party trying to change the subject from the issues at hand to distract Americans from what really is at stake in this election.
Because one thing we know is that change never comes without a fight. In the final days of campaigns, the say-anything, do-anything politics too often takes over. We’ve seen it before. And we’re seeing it again today. The ugly phone calls. The misleading mail and TV ads. The careless, outrageous comments. All aimed at keeping us from working together, all aimed at stopping change. Well, what we need now is not misleading charges and divisive attacks. What we need is honest leadership and real change, and that’s why I’m running for President of the United States. ...Now my opponent is doing his best to change the subject and try to distract attention from the economy. Senator McCain’s campaign actually said a couple of weeks ago that they were going to launch a series of attacks on my character because, they said, “if we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose.” And that’s a promise my opponent has kept. He’s been on the attack. That’s what you do when you are out of ideas, out of touch, and running out of time. Well, Virginia, here's what my opponent doesn't seem to understand. With the economy in turmoil and the American Dream at risk, the American people don't want to hear politicians attack each other - you want to hear about how we're going to attack the challenges facing middle class families each and every day. That’s what I’m talking about in this campaign. That’s what I’ll do as President. Because I can take two more weeks of John McCain’s attacks, but the American people can’t take four more years of the same failed policies and the same failed politics. Read Barack's full remarks as prepared for delivery...
65 U.S. Nobel Laureates in Science send an open letter to the American people strongly urging support for Senator Obama.
The letter marks the largest number of US Nobel Laureates - "the nation's greatest minds" - ever to endorse a political candidate. Note: these are all Scientists who are concerned about America’s Economic decline. October 14, 2008An Open Letter to the American People, This year's presidential election is among the most significant in our nation's history. The country urgently needs a visionary leader who can ensure the future of our traditional strengths in science and technology and who can harness those strengths to address many of our greatest problems: energy, disease, climate change, security, and economic competitiveness. We are convinced that Senator Barack Obama is such a leader, and we urge you to join us in supporting him. During the administration of George W. Bush, vital parts of our country's scientific enterprise have been damaged by stagnant or declining federal support. The government's scientific advisory process has been distorted by political considerations. As a result, our once dominantposition in the scientific world has been shaken and our prosperity has been placed at risk. We have lost time critical for the development of new ways to provide energy, treat disease, reverse climate change, strengthen our security, and improve our economy. We have watched Senator Obama's approach to these issues with admiration. We especially applaud his emphasis during the campaign on the power of science and technology to enhance our nation's competitiveness. In particular, we support the measures he plans to take – through new initiatives in education and training, expanded research funding, an unbiased process for obtaining scientific advice, and an appropriate balance of basic and applied research – to meet the nation's and the world's most urgent needs. Senator Obama understands that Presidential leadership and federal investments in science and technology are crucial elements in successful governance of the world's leading country. We hope you will join us as we work together to ensure his election in November. Signed, Alexei Arikosov Physics 2003Roger Guillemin Medicine 1977Peter Agre Chemistry 2003John L. Hall Physics 2005Sidney Altman Chemistry 1989Leland H. Hartwell Medicine 2001Philip W. Anderson Physics 1977Dudley Herschbach Chemistry 1986Richard Axel Medicine 2004Roald Hoffmann Chemistry 1981David Baltimore Medicine 1975H. Robert Horvitz Medicine 2002Baruj Benacerraf Medicine 1980Louis Ignarro Medicine 1998Paul Berg Chemistry 1980Eric R. Kandel Medicine 2000J. Michael Bishop Medicine 1989Walter Kohn Chemistry 1998N. Bloembergen Physics 1981Roger Kornberg Chemistry 2006Michael S. Brown Medicine 1985Leon M. Lederman Physics 1988Linda B. Buck Medicine 2004Craig C. Mello Medicine 2006Mario R. Capecchi Medicine 2007Yoichiro Nambu Physics 2008Martin Chalfie Chemistry 2008Marshall Nirenberg Medicine 1968Stanley Cohen Medicine 1986Douglas D. Osheroff Physics 1996Leon Cooper Physics 1972Stanley B. Prusiner Medicine 1997James W. Cronin Physics 1980Norman F. Ramsey Physics 1989Robert F. Curl Chemistry 1996Robert Richardson Physics 1996Johann Diesenhofer Chemistry 1988Burton Richter Physics 1976John B. Fenn Chemistry 2002Sherwood Rowland Chemistry 1995Edmond H. Fischer Medicine 1992Oliver Smithies Medicine 2007Val Fitch Physics 1980Richard R Schrock Chemistry 2005Jerome I. Friedman Physics 1990Joseph H. Taylor Jr. Physics 1993Murray Gell-Man Physics 1969E. Donnall Thomas Medicine 1990Riccardo Giacconi Physics 2002Charles H. Townes Physics 1964Walter Gilbert Chemistry 1980Roger Tsien Chemistry 2008Alfred G. Gilman Medicine 1994Daniel C.Tsui Physics 1998Donald A. Glaser Physics 1960Harold Varmus Medicine 1989Sheldon L. Glashow Physics 1979James D. Watson Medicine 1962Joseph Goldstein Medicine 1985Eric Wieschaus Medicine 1995Paul Greengard Medicine 2000Frank Wilczek Physics 2004David Gross Physics 2004Robert W. Wilson Physics 1978Robert H. Grubbs Chemistry 2005
Frank Schaeffer
Posted October 8, 2008 | 02:45 PM (EST)
Great presidents are made great by horrible circumstances combined with character, temperament and intelligence. Like firemen, cops, doctors or soldiers, presidents need a crisis to shine.
Obama is one of the most intelligent presidential aspirants to ever step forward in American history. The likes of his intellectual capabilities have not been surpassed in public life since the Founding Fathers put pen to paper. His personal character is also solid gold. Take heart, America: we have the leader for our times.
I say this as a white, former life-long Republican. I say this as the proud father of a Marine. I say this as just another American watching his pension evaporate along with the stock market! I speak as someone who knows it's time to forget party loyalty, ideology and pride and put the country first. I say this as someone happy to be called a fool for going out on a limb and declaring that, 1) Obama will win, and 2) he is going to be amongst the greatest of American presidents.
Obama is our last best chance. He's worth laying it all on the line for.
This is a man who in the age of greed took the high road of community service. This is the good father and husband. This is the humble servant. This is the patient teacher. This is the scholar statesman. This is the man of deep Christian faith.
Good stories about Obama abound; from his personal relationship with his Secret Service agents (he invites them into his home to watch sports, and shoots hoops with them) to the story about how, more than twenty years ago, while standing in the check-in line at an airport, Obama paid a $100 baggage surcharge for a stranger who was broke and stuck. (Obama was virtually penniless himself in those days.) Years later after he became a senator, that stranger recognized Obama's picture and wrote to him to thank him. She received a kindly note back from the senator. (The story only surfaced because the person, who lives in Norway, told a local newspaper after Obama ran for the presidency. The paper published a photograph of this lady proudly displaying Senator Obama's letter.)
Where many leaders are two-faced; publicly kindly but privately feared and/or hated by people closest to them, Obama is consistent in the way he treats people, consistently kind and personally humble. He lives by the code that those who lead must serve. He believes that. He lives it. He lived it long before he was in the public eye.
Obama puts service ahead of ideology. He also knows that to win politically you need to be tough. He can be. He has been. This is a man who does what works, rather than scoring ideological points. In other words he is the quintessential non-ideological pragmatic American. He will (thank God!) disappoint ideologues and purists of the left and the right.
Obama has a reservoir of personal physical courage that is unmatched in presidential history. Why unmatched? Because as the first black contender for the presidency who will win, Obama, and all the rest of us, know that he is in great physical danger from the seemingly unlimited reserve of unhinged racial hatred, and just plain unhinged ignorant hatred, that swirls in the bowels of our wounded and sinful country. By stepping forward to lead, Obama has literally put his life on the line for all of us in a way no white candidate ever has had to do. (And we all know how dangerous the presidency has been even for white presidents.)
Nice stories or even unparalleled courage isn't the only point. The greater point about Obama is that the midst of our worldwide financial meltdown, an expanding (and losing) war in Afghanistan, trying to extricate our country from a wrong and stupidly mistaken ruinously expensive war in Iraq, our mounting and crushing national debt, awaiting the next (and inevitable) al Qaeda attack on our homeland, watching our schools decline to Third World levels of incompetence, facing a general loss of confidence in the government that has been exacerbated by the Republicans doing all they can to undermine our government's capabilities and programs... President Obama will take on the leadership of our country at a make or break time of historic proportions. He faces not one but dozens of crisis, each big enough to define any presidency in better times.
As luck, fate or divine grace would have it (depending on one's personal theology) Obama is blessedly, dare I say uniquely, well-suited to our dire circumstances. Obama is a person with hands-on community service experience, deep connections to top economic advisers from the renowned University of Chicago where he taught law, and a middle-class background that gives him an abiding knowledgeable empathy with the rest of us. As the son of a single mother, who has worked his way up with merit and brains, recipient of top-notch academic scholarships, the peer-selected editor of the Harvard Law Review and, in three giant political steps to state office, national office and now the presidency, Obama clearly has the wit and drive to lead.
Obama is the sober voice of reason at a time of unreason. He is the fellow keeping his head while all around him are panicking. He is the healing presence at a time of national division and strife. He is also new enough to the political process so that he doesn't suffer from the terminally jaded cynicism, the seen-it-all-before syndrome afflicting most politicians in Washington. In that regard we Americans lucked out. It's as if having despaired of our political process we picked a name from the phone book to lead us and that person turned out to be a very man we needed.
Obama brings a healing and uplifting spiritual quality to our politics at the very time when our worst enemy is fear. For eight years we've been ruled by a stunted fear-filled mediocrity of a little liar who has expanded his power on the basis of creating fear in others. Fearless Obama is the cure. He speaks a litany of hope rather than a litany of terror.
As we have watched Obama respond in a quiet reasoned manner to crisis after crisis, in both the way he has responded after being attacked and lied about in the 2008 campaign season, to his reasoned response to our multiplying national crises, what we see is the spirit of a trusted family doctor with a great bedside manner. Obama is perfectly suited to hold our hand and lead us through some very tough times. The word panic is not in the Obama dictionary.
America is fighting its "Armageddon" in one fearful heart at a time. A brilliant leader with the mild manner of an old-time matter-of-fact country doctor soothing a frightened child is just what we need. The fact that our "doctor" is a black man leading a hitherto white-ruled nation out of the mess of its own making is all the sweeter and raises the Obama story to that of moral allegory.
Obama brings a moral clarity to his leadership reserved for those who have had to work for everything they've gotten and had to do twice as well as the person standing next to them because of the color of their skin. His experience of succeeding in spite of his color, social background and prejudice could have been embittering or one that fostered a spiritual rebirth of forgiveness and enlightenment. Obama radiates the calm inner peace of the spirit of forgiveness.
Speaking as a believing Christian I see the hand of a merciful God in Obama's candidacy. The biblical metaphors abound. The stone the builder rejected is become the cornerstone... the last shall be first... he that would gain his life must first lose it... the meek shall inherit the earth...
For my secular friends I'll allow that we may have just been extraordinarily lucky! Either way America wins.
Only a brilliant man, with the spirit of a preacher and the humble heart of a kindly family doctor can lead us now. We are afraid, out of ideas, and worst of all out of hope. Obama is the cure. And we Americans have it in us to rise to the occasion. We will. We're about to enter one of the most frightening periods of American history. Our country has rarely faced more uncertainty. This is the time for greatness. We have a great leader. We must be a great people backing him, fighting for him, sacrificing for a cause greater than ourselves.
A hundred years from now Obama's portrait will be placed next to that of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt. Long before that we'll be telling our children and grandchildren that we stepped out in faith and voted for a young black man who stood up and led our country back from the brink of an abyss. We'll tell them about the power of love, faith and hope. We'll tell them about the power of creativity combined with humility and intellectual brilliance. We'll tell them that President Obama gave us the gift of regaining our faith in our country. We'll tell them that we all stood up and pitched in and won the day. We'll tell them that President Obama restored our standing in the world. We'll tell them that by the time he left office our schools were on the mend, our economy booming, that we'd become a nation filled with green energy alternatives and were leading the world away from dependence on carbon-based destruction. We'll tell them that because of President Obama's example and leadership the integrity of the family was restored, divorce rates went down, more fathers took responsibility for their children, and abortion rates fell dramatically as women, families and children were cared for through compassionate social programs that worked. We'll tell them about how the gap closed between the middle class and the super rich, how we won health care for all, how crime rates fell, how bad wars were brought to an honorable conclusion. We'll tell them that when we were attacked again by al Qaeda, how reason prevailed and the response was smart, tough, measured and effective, and our civil rights were protected even in times of crisis...
We'll tell them that we were part of the inexplicably blessed miracle that happened to our country those many years ago in 2008 when a young black man was sent by God, fate or luck to save our country. We'll tell them that it's good to live in America where anything is possible. Yes we will.
McCain's attacks fuel dangerous hatred
By Frank Schaeffer October 10, 2008
John McCain: If your campaign does not stop equating Sen. Barack Obama with terrorism, questioning his patriotism and portraying Mr. Obama as "not one of us," I accuse you of deliberately feeding the most unhinged elements of our society the red meat of hate, and therefore of potentially instigating violence. At a Sarah Palin rally, someone called out, "Kill him!" At one of your rallies, someone called out, "Terrorist!" Neither was answered or denounced by you or your running mate, as the crowd laughed and cheered. At your campaign event Wednesday in Bethlehem, Pa., the crowd was seething with hatred for the Democratic nominee - an attitude encouraged in speeches there by you, your running mate, your wife and the local Republican chairman. Shame! John McCain: In 2000, as a lifelong Republican, I worked to get you elected instead of George W. Bush. In return, you wrote an endorsement of one of my books about military service. You seemed to be a man who put principle ahead of mere political gain. You have changed. You have a choice: Go down in history as a decent senator and an honorable military man with many successes, or go down in history as the latest abettor of right-wing extremist hate. John McCain, you are no fool, and you understand the depths of hatred that surround the issue of race in this country. You also know that, post-9/11, to call someone a friend of a terrorist is a very serious matter. You also know we are a bitterly divided country on many other issues. You know that, sadly, in America, violence is always just a moment away. You know that there are plenty of crazy people out there. Stop! Think! Your rallies are beginning to look, sound, feel and smell like lynch mobs. John McCain, you're walking a perilous line. If you do not stand up for all that is good in America and declare that Senator Obama is a patriot, fit for office, and denounce your hate-filled supporters when they scream out "Terrorist" or "Kill him," history will hold you responsible for all that follows. John McCain and Sarah Palin, you are playing with fire, and you know it. You are unleashing the monster of American hatred and prejudice, to the peril of all of us. You are doing this in wartime. You are doing this as our economy collapses. You are doing this in a country with a history of assassinations. Change the atmosphere of your campaign. Talk about the issues at hand. Make your case. But stop stirring up the lunatic fringe of haters, or risk suffering the judgment of history and the loathing of the American people - forever. We will hold you responsible. Frank Schaeffer is the author of "Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back." His e-mail is frankaschaeffer@aol.com.
Today, I want to talk about the amazing sign making party we had a couple weeks back! Charles from Peterborough got the ball rolling, spreading the word amongst other volunteers as well helping put out an email about the event. The volunteers decided that we needed lots of creative, large signs to ensure that the office had enough signs for our visibilities, as well as a few extras to give out to folks coming in looking for signs for their own homes.
With just a single email from myself to our excited local volunteers, we had about 15 people all making signs on a Tuesday evening! This was an amazing example of volunteers organizing themselves, all for the cause, with some great contributions to the office! We made about a dozen signs, using blue tarps and different colors of duct tape. They look great in the office and try and notice them as you drive around town!
Now, with just 26 days to go, we have a great group of signs, but more importantly, a great group of empowered volunteers! Each of these volunteers at the sign making party has contributed also by knocking on doors or calling folks. These signs will help us greatly in the election, but also, face to face contact, with neighbors talking to neighbors could make the difference in keeping New Hampshire blue! So, come join us and our great group of volunteers for our next events, the Musical Monday or Women’s Wednesday phone banks! Hope to see many of you there!
Mike Rosenblatt
Monadnock Region Field Organizer
Obama’s Campaign for Change
www.nh.barackobama.com
(603) 924-2308
MEMO: McCain's Plan to Reward Lenders at Taxpayer Expenseby Amanda Scott
Thursday, October 09 2008 01:10 pm
Campaign spokesperson Bill Burton just sent out this memo about John McCain's plan to reward lenders at taxpayers expense...
TO: Interested PartiesFR: Jason Furman, Obama-Biden Economic Policy DirectorRE: The Facts on McCain’s Plan to Reward Lenders at Taxpayer ExpenseDA: 10/9/08 In light of the McCain campaign’s latest erratic move on the economy, see below for details on Senator McCain’s plan to reward irresponsible mortgage lenders at taxpayer expense. In the course of twelve hours, McCain transformed a “new” mortgage plan which was simply restating a policy the government had already authorized into what is possibly the largest taxpayer funded handout to irresponsible lenders in U.S. history. In short, this plan guarantees taxpayers lose money, rewards bad behavior in the past and discourages responsible behavior in the future. Tuesday Night: McCain announces “plan” which restates current law. On Tuesday night, the McCain Campaign released a plan to “purchase mortgages directly from homeowners and mortgage servicers, and replace them with manageable, fixed-rate mortgages that will keep families in their homes.” As Senator McCain said, “it's my proposal, it's not Sen. Obama's proposal, it's not President Bush's proposal.” But he was wrong: the Treasury Department and Federal Housing Administration already have the authority to purchase, restructure and guarantee mortgages for struggling families. McCain’s plan appeared to simply restate these authorities, which Barack Obama had previously fought for and supported when they were included in legislation. Importantly, the plan McCain released on Tuesday night required lenders to take a “haircut.” McCain’s plan on Tuesday night explained that in circumstances when loans were purchased and restructured by the government “[l]enders in these cases must recognize the loss that they’ve already suffered.” This approach was not new – it reflected the shared responsibility approach embodied in the Dodd/Frank housing legislation which forced current lenders to sacrifice by backing mortgages for only 90% of current market value. Also, borrowers who benefit from the program share any upside in their house price with the government. Wednesday Morning: McCain announces a new plan – financial institutions no longer have to take any losses and the McCain Bailout guarantees that taxpayers lose money, rewarding the most irresponsible lenders. Overnight, the McCain campaign changed their plan and eliminated this reference to shared responsibility for lenders from the plan on their website, deleting from their plan the phrase “Lenders in these cases must recognize the loss that they’ve already suffered.” Top McCain advisor Douglas Holtz-Eakin explained that, rather than asking lenders to take a haircut, the McCain plan called on the government to purchase mortgages at their full face value. This approach would reward irresponsible banks with taxpayers’ money and would give no upside to the government. • Rewarding Irresponsible Banks. If a homeowner has a mortgage of $200,000 on a house now worth $150,000, the McCain plan would pay off the original lender at the full $200,000 price. His plan would not insist on any sharing of sacrifice by the lender. Indeed, if the original lender engaged in fraud to inflate the size of the initial mortgage, they would be explicitly rewarded for it under the new McCain plan since they would be paid back the full, inflated value of the mortgage. • Guaranteeing a Taxpayer Loss. The McCain plan will stick taxpayers with the full loss on houses and put them at risk of losing even more if home values don’t recover. It would do so without asking anything of the lenders themselves and without giving the taxpayers share in any future upside should house prices recover. It is a recipe for the worst kind of bailout abuse.• Inhibiting Private Solutions to the Problem That Do Not Cost Taxpayers a Dime. Today some lenders, voluntarily or as part of settlements, are working on solutions to the mortgage mess that involve the financial institution modifying mortgages to help homeowners stay in their homes – without costing taxpayers a dime. But if the McCain plan were in place, this process would stop because lenders would know they could always sell their mortgages at full face value to taxpayers.
From the Huffington Post by Johann Hari
In five weeks, I hope look back on this column with a wry chuckle at my paranoia. If the system works, Barack Obama will take the White House. The two issues John McCain is most closely associated with - invading Iraq, and deregulating the economy - have produced history-snatching catastrophes in the eyes of 80 percent of Americans. In the first debate, McCain revealed he had nothing to say except more of the same: aggression abroad, market fundamentalist ideology at home. So why am I worried?
Obama is only a few jittery points ahead in the polls, and he has yet to face an October Surprise. This is an old term in US politics, invented when, on the eve of the 1968 election, Lyndon Johnson announced a halt to the bombing of Vietnam. It was a desperate attempt to push the Democratic nominee, Hubert Humphrey, over the finish line - and it failed. But October Surprises need not come from the opposing party. They can come from anywhere.
The first and worst would be the reappearance of Osama Bin Laden. Just five days before the 2004 election, he released a video effectively endorsing John Kerry. He told Americans to imagine corpses crying "Call to task those who have caused our death!" and said they should "return to what is right," rather than reward "the liar in the White House."
Why would he do this? Bin Laden's long-term strategy is "provoke and bait." He explains to his supporters: "We conducted a war of attrition against Russia with jihad fighters for ten years until they went bankrupt. We are continuing in the same policy - to make America bleed profusely to the point of bankruptcy." To achieve this, "all we have to do is send two mujahideen [to a remote, irrelevant area] and raise a piece of cloth on which is written 'Al Qaeda' in order to make the [US] generals race there, to cause America to suffer human, economic, and political losses."
This is his goal, in his own words - to bleed America through irrational, wildly expensive wars that will tilt thousands more fanatical young men from Islamism to full-blown jihadism. So who would you want in the White House? The guy who will wean the US off Middle Eastern oil and the wars and tyrannies it supports to get it - or his opponent? Bin Laden is a monster, but he is not an imbecile. He knows that his endorsement is a kiss of death. The man he publicly praises is the man he wants to lose. Kerry failed to expose Bin Laden's trick; Obama must do it as soon as the tape hits the air.
Beyond this, there could be November 4th surprise: the Republicans may try to steal the election. Again. They loudly claim to be concerned about voter fraud, even though a New York University study recently found that it "is more likely an individual will be struck by lightning than that he will impersonate another voter at the polls." But in the name of this paltry risk, they are effectively stripping millions of people - overwhelmingly black and Democrats - of their vote.
Their first vote-stripping tactic is to require elaborate voter I.D. that black people disproportionately lack. For example, in Indiana - a crucial swing state - Republicans have passed a law requiring voters to bring an official government document bearing their photograph to the polling station. But a study by the University of Wisconsin found that 53 percent of black adults didn't have a passport or driving license, compared to 15 percent of white people. So they can't vote unless they travel for hours (often without a car) to a sparse government registry and queue for half a day to get the correct the correct documentation. The former political director of the Texas Republican Party, Royal Masset, explains: "Requiring photo IDs could cause enough of a drop-off in legitimate Democratic voting to add 3 percent to the Republican vote."
Their second tactic is to strip the electoral rolls of black names. In almost all US states, criminals lose their vote for life. This is shocking in itself - it disenfranchises a quarter of all black men in Kentucky, for one. But many states have a sloppy process where they simply scrub anyone with the same name as a criminal off the list. So if there is a criminal called 'Chris Wayne' in a county, every black man called 'Chris Wayne' loses their vote. That's a lot of Democrats. In Florida in 2000, black voters made up 13 percent of the electorate yet they were 26 percent of the people wrongly disenfranchised.
When a judge ordered the release of the paper-work, he found out why. The team under Florida governor Jeb Bush had ordered that black criminal names had to go - but Hispanic names were not to be touched. Black Floridians overwhelmingly vote Democrat, while Hispanics lean towards the Republicans. The Bush team said this was "absolutely unintentional" and "a coincidence."
This time, the Republicans have added another group to strip from the rolls. James Carabelli, a Republican Party chairman in Michigan, says: "We have a list of foreclosed homes and will make sure people aren't voting from those addresses." These voters are supposed to register from their new addresses - but many are out of time, or too stressed to do it. So the Republicans have launched a national "voter challenge campaign" against honest people who have lost their homes. They know that 60 percent of sub-prime mortgages went to black voters, and virtually everyone who lost their home is angry with the Republicans.
If these acts of electoral sabotage go ahead on November 4th and tilt the election to McCain, Obama needs to learn from Al Gore's mistake. As the recent HBO film Recount shows, Gore was consensual and statesmanlike - in the middle of a knife-fight. He sent urbane professors to make his case, while the Republicans drummed up mobs that physically stopped the vote-counts in Palm Beach County while the clock ticked. If the need comes, Obama needs to call fraud by its real name - and fight.
