I can't think of a better way to start blogging than to do it as a member of the Barack Obama election campaign! Yes, my friends, this is the first time I've ever created and kept a blog so bear with me if I ramble. I am a writer, but alas my pen and journal usually get preference!
You can imagine my thrill when I discovered that I could participate in the campaign right here from home! I've joined both the Neighbor-to-Neighbor and the Woman-to-Women calling campaigns and currently have 100 people to call! Instead of feeling overwhelmed, I'm thrilled to be doing something that will help this inspirational and dynamic individual get elected so he can help get this country back on the right track.
We have, for so long, been led by incompetence and a person that can barely speak a coherent sentence without the American people shaking their heads in wonder. If he displays the same sort of backwoods conversation/communication with others across the world, no wonder we're in such a bind. People can't understand him...and that's not even counting a difference in language.
Currently, I'm reading Barack's first book, Dreams of my Father, and anyone who hasn't read this book yet, should read it if they want to really know the man that we are working so hard to get elected It will help you understand just how he became the gentle giant that he is. I have only partially completed the book and already I am eager to see how he completes the story...of course, at the time of writing, he probably had no idea he was going to run for President of the United States...or maybe he has always known. And aren’t we fortunate, if that’s true?
Untile another day. Talk with you all soon.
Does John McCain’s Experience Matter?
A Political Blog
By
James Myers
The Entertainment Critic
I was asked by a young Obama neighborhood organizer to write an article about an argument he was running into as he went door to door in Lake County, Indiana. The problem: How do you respond to someone who is considering voting for John McCain based on his ‘experience?’
After all at age 45, Barack Obama is not the youngest presidential nominee or chief executive. William Jennings Bryant was a Democratic nominee at 36; John F. Kennedy was 43 when he was elected, Theodore Roosevelt was 42 when he was sworn in. Nor is Barack the most inexperienced nominee or president ever. Wendell Willkie had never held any public office before he became the Republican nominee in 1940. Woodrow Wilson had been governor of New Jersey for only 2 years before ascending to the Presidency in 1912. George W. Bush was governor of Texas for only 6 years before becoming President. Lincoln had only served a brief time in the Illinois Legislature and only 2 years in the House before becoming President.
Time served is therefore not the issue. The real question is judgment. Who has the most active voting record? Who made the right decisions when it counted? Who has made more misjudgments? Who is the more unstable, more unpredictable? Who is smarter about the judgments they have made in the past on critical political issues?
What I would say to my young organizer friend is that you should first ask the prospective voter if they are happy with the way things are in our country today? If they are better off now than they were 8 years ago? Ask them if they realize that John McCain has voted 95% of the time with George Bush? Ask them if they are ready for 8 more years of the same failed policies? Tell them that it is time for a change. If they want details, show them this article.
There are 3 basic arguments: First, in a head to head comparison, Barack’s voting record and judgment are more consistent; Second, McCain’s opinion is flexible (he flip flops too much); and finally you have to consider the tremendous errors he has made just during the course of this campaign.
If we look at a head to head comparison, Obama has been in the Senate 3.5 years, McCain has been in the Senate 26 years. Obama’s name is on 606 bills to 128 for McCain. In other words, Barack is much more active. Senator Obama has sponsored or co-sponsored 570 bills in the 109th and 110th Congress. 15 of those have become law. He has introduced amendments to 50 bills, 16 of which were adopted by the Senate. From a blog in the Daily Kos by Heleann dated February 21st, 2008 entitled “I found the BEEF-Obama’s Senate Record” Here is what I found:
Of the 15 bills Senator Obama sponsored or co-sponsored in 2005-7 that became law:
Two addressed foreign policy: Promote relief, security and democracy in the Congo (2125) Develop democratic institutions in areas under Palestinian control (2370).
Three addressed public health: Improve mine safety (2803) Increased breast cancer funding (597) Reduce preterm delivery and complications, reduce infant mortality (707).
Two addressed openness and accountability in government: Strengthening the Freedom of Information Act (2488) Full disclosure of all entities receiving federal funds (2590)
Two addressed national security Extend Terrorist Risk Insurance (467) Amend the Patriot Act (2167)
One addressed the needs of the Armed Forces Wave passport fees to visit graves, attend memorials/funerals of veterans abroad (1184).
Of the 570 bills Senator Obama introduced into the Senate during the 109th and 110th Congress (Senate Bill numbers are in parentheses), they can be summarized as follows:
25 addressed Energy Efficiency and Climate Change Suspend royalty relief for oil and gas (115) Reduce dependence on oil; use of alternative energy sources (133) Increase fuel economy standards for cars (767, 768) Auto industry incentives for fuel efficient vehicles (1151) Reduce green house gas emissions (1324) Establish at NSF a climate change education program (1389) Increase renewable content of gasoline (2202) Energy emergency relief for small businesses and farms (269) Strategic gasoline and fuel reserves (1794) Alternative diesel standards (3554) Coal to liquid fuel promotion (3623) Renewable diesel standards (1920) Reducing global warming pollution from vehicles (2555) Fuel security and consumer choice (1994, 2025) Alternative energy refueling system (2614) Climate change education (1389) Low income energy assistance (2405) Oil savings targets (339) Fuel economy reform (3694) Plug-in electric drive vehicles (1617) Nuclear release notice (2348) Passenger rail investment (294) Energy relief for low income families (2405)
21 addressed Health Care Drug re-importation (334) Health information technology (1262, 1418) Discount drug prices (2347) Health care associated infections (2278) Hospital quality report cards (692, 1824) Medical error disclosure and compensation (1784) Emergency medical care and response (1873) Stem cell research (5) Medical Malpractice insurance (1525) Health centers renewal (901, 3771) Children’s health insurance (401) Home health care (2061) Medicare independent living (2103) Microbicides for HIV/AIDS (823) Ovarian cancer biomarker research (2569) Gynological cancers (1172) Access to personalized medicine through use of human genome (976) Paralysis research and care (1183)
20 addressed Public Health: Violence against women (1197) Biodefense and pandemic preparedness and response (1821, 1880) Viral influenza control (969) End homelessness (1518) Reduce STDs/unintended pregnancy (1790) Smoking prevention and tobacco control (625) Minority health improvement and disparity elimination (4024) Nutrition and physical education in schools (2066) Health impact assessments (1067, 2506) Healthy communities (1068) Combat methamphetamines (2071) Paid sick leave (910) Prohibit mercury sales (833, 1818) Prohibit sale of lead products (1306, 2132) Lead exposure in children (1811, 2132)
14 address Consumer Protection/Labor Stop unfair labor practices (842) Fair minimum wage (2, 1062, 2725, 3829) Internet freedom (2917) Credit card safety (2411) Media ownership (2332) Protecting taxpayer privacy (2484) Working family child assistance (218) Habeus Corpus Restoration (185) Bankruptcy protection for employees and retirees (2092) FAA fair labor management dispute resolution (2201) Working families flexibility (2419).
13 addressed the Needs of Veterans and the Armed Forces: Improve Benefits (117) Suicide prevention (479) Needs of homeless veterans (1180) Homes for veterans (1084) GI Bill enhancement (43) Military job protection Dignity in care for wounded vets (713) Housing assistance for low income veterans (1084) Military children in public schools (2151) Military eye injury research and care (1999) Research physical/mental health needs from Iraq War (1271) Proper administration of discharge for personality disorder (1817, 1885) Security of personal data of veterans (3592)
12 addressed Congressional Ethics and Accountability Lobbying and ethics reform (230) Stop fraud (2280) Legislative transparency and accountability (525) Open government (2180, 2488) Restoring fiscal discipline (10) Transparency and integrity in earmarks (2261) Accountability of conference committee deliberations and reports (2179) Federal funding accountability and transparency (2590) Accountability and oversight for private security functions under Federal contract (674) Accountability for contractors and personnel under federal contracts (2147) Resctrictions awarding government contracts (2519)
10 addressed Foreign Policy: Iraq war de-escalation (313) US policy for Iraq (433), Divestiture from Iran (1430) Sudan divestment authorization (831) Millennium Development Goals (2433) Multilateral debt relief (1320) Development bank reform (1129) Nuclear nonproliferation (3131,977,2224).
9 address Voting/Elections Prohibit deceptive practices in Federal elections (453) Voter access to polls and services in Federal elections (737) Voter intimidation and deceptive practices (1975) Senate campaign disclosure parity (185) Require reporting for bundled campaign contributions (2030) Election jamming prevention (4102) Campaign disclosure parity (223) Presidential funding (2412) Integrity of electronic voting systems (1487)
11 addressed Education Increase access of low income African Americans to higher education (1513) Establish teaching residency programs (1574) Increase early intervention services (2111) Middle school curriculum improvements (2227) Public database of scholarships, fellowships and financial aid (2428) Summer learning programs (116) TANF financial education promotion (924) Higher education (1642) Build capacity at community colleges (379) Campus law enforcement in emergencies (1228) Support for teachers (2060).
6 addressed Hurrican Katrina Hurricane Katrina recovery (2319) Emergency relief (1637) Bankruptcy relief and community protection (1647) Working family tax relief (2257) Fair wages for recovery workers (1749) Gulf coast infrastructure redevelopment (1836)
5 addressed the Environment Drinking water security (218, 1426) Water resources development (728) Waste water treatment (1995) Combat illegal logging (1930) Spent nuclear fuel tracking and Acountability (1194) Asian Carp Prevention and Control Act (Introduced in Senate)[S.726.IS ]
4 addressed Discrimination Claims for civil class action based on discrimination (1989) Domestic partnership benefits (2521) Unresolved civil rights crimes (535) Equality or two parent families (2286)
4 addressed Homeland Security Judicial review of FISA orders (2369) National emergency family locator (1630) Amend US Patriot Act (2167) Chemical security and safety (2486)
This would be an impressive record for anyone. It is a remarkable record for a junior Senator from Illinois. Senator McCain has said, “[T]his election is about trust and trusting people’s word…” Another blog from the Daily Kos, written by StuHunter titled, “DAMMIT…Tell me the Truth! UPDATED” traces McCain voting record, flip-flops and all:
Signing of the GI Bill: Now enthusiastically for it... after it passed. Previously attacked the Webb Bill. Didn't even bother to vote on it. http://bravenewfilms.org/...
Campaign reform: On political reform, McCain last January opposed a grassroots lobbying bill he once supported. In 2006, the "New York Sun" reported that his presidential ambitions led McCain to reverse his support of a campaign financial bill called McCain/Feingold. http://www.nysun.com/...
Alien Minors Act/Immigration: Last October he said he would vote against the development, relief and education for Alien Miners Act that he co-sponsored, and then said he would vote against an immigration bill that he introduced. http://www.youtube.com/...
Gay Marriage: In 2006, he said on "HARDBALL," quote, “I think that gay marriage should be allowed.” Then after the commercial break he added, “I do not believe that gay marriages should be legal.” http://www.youtube.com/...
Abortion: On abortion, 1999, publicly supporting Roe v. Wade, privately opposing it in a letter to the National Right to Life Committee. In the 2000 debates, he would change the GOP platform to permit exceptions for rape, incest, the life of the mother. May 2007, "flipped", ABCNews.com reported. http://abcnews.go.com/...
Nuclear Waste: No Storing Nuclear waste at Yucca mountain earlier. Now flipped http://www.lasvegassun.com/...
Negotiating with Kim Jong-Il: Negotiating with Kim Jong-Il not acceptable until President Bush did it last week. http://bondibox.newsvine.com/...
Negotiating with Cuba/Castro: With Fidel Castro acceptable in 2000, not 2008. http://vids.myspace.com/...
Negotiating with Hamas/Terrorists: ...with terrorists appropriate when Colin Powell went to Syria and in 2006 when McCain said sooner or later we‘ll talk to Hamas, but not appropriate now re: Obama's willingness to use diplomacy. http://bondibox.newsvine.com/...
Pakistan: Unilateral action against suspected terrorists in Pakistan; "Confused leadership" when Obama suggested it, not when Bush did it. http://www.crooksandliars.com/... Warrantless Wire-taps: Six months ago, presidents had to obey the law, not anymore. http://www.nytimes.com/...
Torture: Torture detainees, no way, except for the CIA. Hold them indefinitely, wrong in 2003, the right move in 2008. http://www.youtube.com/...
Iraq War: The Iraq war, the right course 2004, stay the course 2005. Today, McCain has always been a Rumsfeld critic. http://thinkprogress.org/...
Tax Cuts: In 2001, he could not in good conscious support them. Now he can. http://www.youtube.com/...
Estate Tax: 2006, "I agree with President Roosevelt who created it". In 2008, "most unfair". http://www.crooksandliars.com/...
Privatizing Social Security: This month not for privatizing Social Security, never has been. In 2004, he "didn‘t see how benefits will last without it". http://www.youtube.com/...
Balanced Budget: In February, promised a balanced budget in four years by April, make that eight years. http://www.perrspectives.com/...
Windfall Profits Tax: In May, glad to look at the windfall profits tax. By June, that was Jimmy Carter's big idea. http://flipfloptracker.blogspot.com/...
Offshore Drilling: In 2000, no new off shore drilling. Last month, it would take years to develop. This month, very helpful in the short term. http://thinkprogress.org/...
Coyotes..Bush Big Time Fund Raisers: The Bush fund-raisers McCain called coyotes breaking the law in 2000. By 2006, they were co-chairing McCain fund-raisers. http://abcnews.go.com/...
"Agents of Intolerance": Buddy Jerry Falwell...an "agent of intolerance in 2000". Kissed Falwell's ass in 2007... The Reverend Hagee and Parsley in, then out this year alone. http://www.youtube.com/...
Martin Luther King Holiday: In 1983, opposed Martin Luther King Day. Today, all for it. http://www.boston.com/...
Confederate Flag: In 2000, defended South Carolina's confederate flag as a symbol of heritage. Two years later, McCain calling it, quote, an act of political cowardice not to say the flag should come down. Quote, "everybody said, look out. You can't win in South Carolina if you say that." http://www.youtube.com/...
Evolution in Public Schools: In 2005, McCain said alternatives to evolution should be taught in school. "Evolving" the opposite position he had taken in 2000. http://thinkprogress.org/...
Restoring the Everglades: On June 5, John McCain traveled to the Everglades to win over Floridians and environmentally-minded voters. There he proclaimed, "I am in favor of doing whatever’s necessary to save the Everglades." Sadly, as ThinkProgress documented, McCain not only opposed $2 billion in funding for the restoration of the Everglades national park, he backed President Bush’s veto of the legislation in 2007. "I believe," he said, "that we should be passing a bill that will authorize legitimate, needed projects without sacrificing fiscal responsibility." http://www.crooksandliars.com/...
Swiftboating: McCain's sudden embrace of Swiftboating --- which today is synonymous with a concerted effort to lie about an opponent's history --- is all the more deplorable because he has hired retired Col. George "Bud" Day, a proud member of the group that Swiftboated Kerry --- and someone McCain once described as having "tunnel vision" --- to lead what McCain is calling his "Truth Squad." http://digg.com/...
GITMO/Habeus Corpus:Despite John McCain's outrage last week that the Supreme Court ordered Gitmo detainees know why they were being held, or released -- Political Base has stumbled upon a McCain appearance on Meet the Press in 2005 where he argued they deserved trials, going so far as to say "if it means releasing some of them, you'll have to release them." Shameless. http://www.politicalbase.com/...
Divestment from South Africa: During his June 2 speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), John McCain called for the international community to target Iran for the kind of worldwide sanctions regime applied to apartheid-era South Africa. Unfortunately, McCain’s lobbyist-advisers Charlie Black and Rick Davis each represented firms doing business with Tehran. Even more unfortunate, John McCain was frequently not among those offering "moral clarity and conviction" in backing "a divestment campaign against South Africa, helping to rid that nation of the evil of apartheid." http://thinkprogress.org/...
Opposing Hurricane Katrina Investigations: During a June 4th town hall meeting in Baton Rouge, John McCain answered a reporter’s question regarding Hurricane Katrina and the failure of the New Orleans levees by announcing:
"I’ve supported every investigation and ways of finding out what caused the tragedy. I’ve been here to New Orleans. I’ve met with people on the ground."
As it turns out, not so much. McCain’s revisionist history neglects to mention that in 2005 and 2006 he twice voted against a commission to study the government’s response to Katrina. He also opposed three separate emergency funding measures providing relief to Katrina victims, including the extension of five months of Medicaid benefits. And as ThinkProgress pointed out, "until traveling there one month ago, McCain had made just one public tour of New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina touched down in August 2005." http://thinkprogress.org/...
McCain On His Economic Abilities: "I have not. I have not. Actually, I have not." "I said that I am stronger on national security issues because of all the time I spent in the military and others. I am very strong on the economy. I understand it. I have a lot more experience than my opponent."
-- Sen. John McCain, in an interview on ABC News, when asked why he "admitted that you're not exactly an expert when it comes to the economy."
However, NBC News compiles past McCain quotes in which he said "The issue of economics is not something I've understood as well as I should" or "I'm going to be honest: I know a lot less about economics than I do about military and foreign policy issues. I still need to be educated." http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/...
On Criticizing Obama While "Overseas": Traveling in Colombia, he told reporters that he wouldn't criticize Obama while he was overseas, but on the plane, he blasted Obama’s opposition to the proposed Colombia free trade... http://blogs.abcnews.com/...
UPDATES from KOSsacks:
Temperament and Temper: "My temper has often been both a matter of public speculation and personal concern," he wrote in a 2002 memoir. "I have a temper, to state the obvious, which I have tried to control with varying degrees of success because it does not always serve my interest or the public's." Not true and not under control, according to many of those on the "W"rong side of McCain's famous temper. http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
Drilling For Oil and Automobile Efficiency: "Last week, Senator McCain reversed himself and said we need to drill more. Today, he has reversed years of failing to support more efficient cars, new energy technologies and green jobs. http://www.speaker.gov/...
Offshore Drilling: Two weeks ago, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) offered "a bit of a capitulation to the oil companies" by announcing that he would end the federal ban on offshore oil drilling. Not only is McCain’s move a break with environmental activist, but it is also "a reversal of the position he took in his 2000 presidential campaign. http://thinkprogress.org/...
Payroll Taxes: "When he was asked in 2005 whether he could see himself lifting the cap on the payroll tax, (McCain) said, 'I could.' Two years later, during a May 13, 2007, appearance on "Meet the Press," Russert asked McCain if he was still open to lifting the Social Security tax cap as part of a compromise. "Am I opposed to tax increases?" said McCain. "Yes. But we've got to sit down together and figure out what our options are, and tough decisions have to be made, Republicans and Democrats. And I know how to do that." Asked about the 2005 remark, a McCain spokesman acknowledged the tension with his current position while arguing that the Arizona senator's criticism of his Democratic rival is still valid because McCain has spoken out against higher Social Security taxes as a 2008 White House hopeful. http://blogs.abcnews.com/...
Ethics Reform and Abramoff: On the stump, Sen. John McCain often cites his work tackling the excesses of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff as evidence of his sturdy ethical compass. A little-known document, however, shows that McCain may have taken steps to protect his Republican colleagues from the scope of his investigation. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/... http://digg.com/...
Obviously experience for McCain has not resulted in the acquired trait of common sense. My friend, Karen Young, put it this way: “If you met a parent with 6 children, all of them malnourished, you would call them "experienced" parents, but would you accept parenting tips from them? The point: not all "experience" is good for America.” You’re right Karen, and McCain judgment has been proven over and over again to be something less than we need in our President, particularly after 8 years of George W. Bush. Recently, Jack Cafferty on CNN put McCain’s candidacy in prospective, “It occurs to me that John McCain is as intellectually shallow as our current president. One after another, McCain's answers were shallow, simplistic, and trite. He showed the same intellectual curiosity that George Bush has -- virtually none. Where are John McCain's writings exploring the vexing moral issues of our time? Where are his position papers setting forth his careful consideration of foreign policy, the welfare state, education, America's moral responsibility in the world, etc., etc., etc.?
John McCain graduated 894th in a class of 899 at the Naval Academy at Annapolis. His father and grandfather were four star admirals in the Navy. Some have suggested that might have played a role in McCain being admitted. His academic record was awful. And it shows over and over again whenever McCain is called upon to think on his feet.
He no longer allows reporters unfettered access to him aboard the "Straight Talk Express" for a reason. He simply makes too many mistakes. Unless he's reciting talking points or reading from notes or a TelePrompTer, John McCain is lost. He can drop bon mots at a bowling alley or diner -- short glib responses that get a chuckle, but beyond that McCain gets in over his head very quickly."
In the sole and only issue McCain relies on for his election, his military experience and judgment, his voting record is abysmal. Karen Young again pointed out the following to me:
** 2007 McCain only showed up for 4 of the past 14 senate votes on Iraq. Showed up for none this year ** April 2003 tabled a motion to provide over $1 billion of National Guard and Reserve equipment ** Oct 2003 he tabled an amendment to provide additional $322 million for safety equipment for US troops in Iraq ** March 2004 he voted against eliminating abusive tax loopholes that would have increased veterans' medical care by $1.8 billion ** March 2006 he voted against closing corporate tax loopholes that would have increased veterans' medical services by $1.5 billion ** April 2006 he voted against providing an extra $430 million for veteran outpatient care ** May 2006 he voted against $20 million for veteran health care facilities ** March 2007 he didn't bother to vote on a resolution to start redeploying troops from Iraq by March 2008 ** September 2007 he voted against Senator Webb's amendment that would specify minimum rest periods for troops in between deployments ** May 2008 he first spoke out against Senator Web's GI Bill and then didn't bother to show up to vote on it. But none of that stopped him from accepting President Bush's praise when the Bill ultimately passed. McCain hopes that the fact that he is a veteran substitutes for the idea that he has done right by veterans as a politician Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America give the following grade for voting records John McCain D Barack Obama B+ Disabled American Veterans grades the two candidates Barack Obama 80% voting record John McCain 20% voting record
In the single most important vote in the 21st Century, the decision to invade Iraq, John McCain was on the wrong side again. Not only did he vote to invade Iraq, he incorrectly stated prior to the invasion that Iraq and Suddam Hussein were involved with the 9/11 attacks. He has said that we could be in Iraq for ‘100 years.’ Spending $10 million dollars a month in an open ended war is not something the American people can afford to support. Barack Obama opposed this war from the outset. A war that has cost us over $5 Trillion and 4,000 dead, and countless injured and maimed. On November 25th, 2002, Barack said, “I think that us rushing into a war unilaterally was a mistake and may still be a mistake. (If we have invaded Iraq) then what the debate will really be about is what is our long term commitment there? How much is it going to cost? What does it mean for us to rebuild Iraq? How do we stabilize and make sure this country doesn’t split into factions…” (Article “Does Obama Have Enough Experience to be President” contained in the embedded You Tube Video found at http://www.obamapedia.org/page/Does+Barack+Obama+have+enough+experience+to+be+president%3F )
So what was John McCain doing while Obama was accurately predicting the future? One month after the invasion, he said Iraq ‘needed to be invaded.’ He called the handling of the war ‘magnificent.’ He praised Donald Rumsfeld and said if he were President, Dick Cheney would be in his cabinet. On the floor of the Senate in May of 2003, McCain said, “We won a massive victory in a few weeks and we have done so with very limited loss of American and Allied lives. We were able to end aggression with minimal loss of life, and we were even able to greatly reduce the civilian casualties of Afghan and Iraqi citizens.” In effect as commentators have pointed out, McCain declared victory in Iraq 5 years and 3 months ago. If this were true, his singular issue of the surge would not have been necessary. But instead we get his military bluster, all of which continues the Bush policy of undermining our diplomatic stature abroad.
McCain himself has recently said, “Good judgment will be at a premium in the term of the next American president.” Comparing his statements to Senator Obama’s you cannot help but conclude that John McCain made the wrong decision, and evaluated the possible consequences of our actions in a totally incorrect way. Even with his single issue of ‘the surge’ he has evaluated that incorrectly, too. If the surge has in fact worked, our troops would be home or at least we’d have the same troop level as we had before the surge. His judgment continues to be at best questionable, while Senator Obama once again is right on target.
What do their peers say about their judgment? Barack Obama’s fellow legislators have assessed his judgment in a positive light. Krik Dillard, a Republican Senator said, "Sen. Obama was someone who I thought — and I was right — could tackle extremely complex things like ethics reform, the death penalty or racial profiling by law enforcement." Dillard called Barack, “a full partner” n drafting and passing the state's first major ethics law in 25 years, Dillard says. Obama also helped pass laws requiring that police interrogations and confessions in capital cases be videotaped and creating a state earned-income tax credit.
Donne Trotter called Obama, “a quick read, a quick study.” His tenure as a constitutional lawyer, “prepares him to learn the intricacies and nuances of what the federal government is all about." Trotter picked up right away his savvy in the areas of universal health care and was most impressed by his ability to educate his fellow senators and become the author and leader of legislation. Obama "is a reader, a learner of different approaches and philosophies," he says. "He has the brainpower to absorb the facts … and make good decisions." Mel Brook, Democratic Chairmen in Littleton, NH perhaps said it best, "No doubt 20 years' experience is better than 10," he says." For some individuals, it might well be a drawback, but it depends on the intellect, the knowledge and the ability of the candidate," he says. "For Obama, inexperience is not a big drawback."
What do his contemporaries say about John McCain? Senator John Kerry thinks McCain’s judgment is dangerous. "John McCain has changed in profound and fundamental ways that I find personally really surprising, and frankly upsetting," the Democratic Senator from Massachusetts said on CBS' Face The Nation. "This is a different John McCain. This is not the Senator John McCain; this is want-to-be president John McCain. "And the result is that John McCain has flip-flopped on more issues than I was even ever accused possibly of thinking about! I mean, this is extraordinary what he's done: He's changed on taxes; he's now in favor of the Bush tax cut. If you like the Bush economy, if you like the Bush tax cut and what it's done to our economy, making wealthier people wealthier and the average middle class struggle harder, then John McCain is going to give you a third term of George Bush and Karl Rove. "If you like what has happened to oil prices, John McCain is going to continue that policy. If you like what you see about health care, John McCain has no health care plan. "I would have at least expected the John McCain that I knew back then to realize what almost every person in the Pentagon has admitted. There are very few who walk around and say, 'Going into Iraq was the right thing to do, and we should have done it, or do it again if I have the chance.' John McCain does. "I'm challenging Senator McCain's judgment," Kerry said, "that says, 'There's no violent history between Sunni and Shia.' That's wrong. His judgment that says, 'This is going to increase the stability of the Middle East.' It hasn't, it's made it less stable. The judgment that says, quote, 'This will be the best thing for America and the world in a long time. It's the worst thing that we've done in a long time. And he's turned his [focus] away from Afghanistan and al Qaeda and made America less safe. That's dangerous for our country." Kerry criticized McCain's continued support of the occupation, given the effect of a continuing presence of U.S. troops on the situation in Iraq and the region at large. He pointed to remarks by leaders in the Middle East who told him during a recent visit, "You, America, have served up to Iran Iraq on a platter." "They are outraged by the ineptitude of what has been done by those who decided it was smart to go into Iraq," said Kerry, who feels the Republican Party is now in turmoil over the "reality" of McCain's position, which is that "he has a plan for staying in Iraq and Barack Obama has a plan for getting out of Iraq."
Recently, a blog entitled “Obama’s Judgment is Right; the Conventional Wisdom is Wrong” by David Sanders may have summed it up best. The worst strategic blunder of U.S. History was invading Iraq. The Bush administration then advocated a policy of labeling opponents as “weak, inexperienced, and naïve.” Barack Obama defied conventional wisdom and opposed the Iraq invasion. He was told this would damage, maybe even doom his political future. Barack felt we were in the wrong place and we needed to be in Afghanistan where we could fight with the people who attacked us, Bin Laden and al Qaeda. He called it “a dumb war” that could result in an “occupation of undetermined length, and undetermined cost with undetermined consequences.” Barack was right; conventional wisdom was wrong. According to National Intelligence, Iraq is a mess; the threat to us is “persistent and evolving”, Al-Qaeda has a safe haven in Pakistan, Iran has grown stronger and ultimately Americans are less safe. Judgment: Obama.
Barack’s judgment has in fact already tilted the table from conventional wisdom in Washington on the issue of diplomacy. Washington through Bush and McCain have taken the position that we cannot talk to our advisories because that would reward them. The result? Iran has continued to build its nuclear weapons program, terrorize Iraq and support terrorists. Syria continues to ‘meddle’ in Lebanon and support terror. North Korea produced 6-8 nuclear bombs. McCain wants to use the conventional wisdom to continue this policy of blustery, loud brave talk at home, with no discussions abroad. Obama is right; tough skillful discussion with our enemies is the only way in the 21st Century to bring about a peaceful balance. Judgment: Obama
Supporting President Musharraf has only aided the terrorists. Nuclear attacks on terrorist targets via ratcheted up rhetoric based on McCain’s so called military experience goes against the conventional wisdom of Washington. Killing innocent Pakistanis’ and lower our prestige in the world is not good judgment. Judgment: Obama.
American foreign policy has been broken by supporting the Iraq War and failing to finish al Qaeda, and worse alienating the rest of the world with our arrogance. Conventional wisdom tells us that this is the stance we must take in ‘times of trouble.’ Barack Obama is clear that we must go another direction. We must end a war we never should have begun; get the real perpetrators of 9/11; we need to talk to our adversaries and end the blustery politics of loud talk with ‘no substance.’ “Barack Obama’s judgment is right. It is conventional wisdom that has to change.”
So what would I tell my young organizer? After they admit they are not happy with the way things are and they are not better off then they were 8 years ago, remind them that the best we can hope for with all of McCain’s so called experience is more of the same, and that it is time for a change. That when it comes to judgment, Obama is right on target and his record proves he’s the most viable candidate for a change.
Why You Should Vote for Barack Obama?
Because He Has Already ‘Tilted the Table’
By James Myers
A few months back I did an interview with Mr. Jonah Goldberg, The author of a book called Liberal Fascism. He used a term that has stuck with me, I believe that I have ‘tilted the table’ in the way history will view this topic from now on, is a rough paraphrase of what he said. Tilting the table means that you have changed the way people view a particular topic. The way historians will record the topic in the history books. It means that you have exerted such insight, that others have come to rely on your judgment. It much your thoughts were fresh, original, and without any question, now considered to be correct. Much like tilting a pin ball machine, you have changed the direction that the ball will travel.
The George W. Bush administration has been, to say the least, inflexible. They take strong positions and right or wrong (and as we have seen they are wrong more often than not) they stick with these positions, to the point of an uncaring arrogance. Convincing Bush to change his position is kind of like commanding pigs to fly; it just isn’t going to happen. Rigid to the point of infamy is more what you can expect from this group.
Recently there have been some changes in position by the Bush Administration; surprising changes. Even more surprising is the source from where these shifts in policy originate. A source of original thought. A voice alone in its objections to the Bush policies. A leader that who thinking, just by his espousing a position has ‘tilted the table,’ even with ‘W’s’ rigid tough guys. A history changer. None other than Barack Obama. Not the presumptive Republican nominee, but their opposition’s leader, Obama. The junior Senator from Illinois. And oddly enough, the area of foreign policy seems to be the area of the biggest shift in direction; the biggest tilt.
What policies have been affected?
· The covert political action in Pakistan he suggested that the Bush Administration put into action;
· The 12,000 additional troops Barack called for in Afghanistan, which the Bush Administration approved yesterday, August 20, 2008;
· Yesterday, Secretary of State Rice reported from Bagdad that there is an agreement between the US and Iraq to set a timetable for withdrawal of our troops from that country by the 30th of next June, something Mr Obama has repeatedly stated during his campaign for President;
· Recently, Bush has shown more of an acceptance to speak to those who are our opposition, then to ignore them as he had in the past. Clearly this is the Obama position.
Notice that the tilt has occurred in the area of expertise that is supposed to be McCain’s strength, foreign policy. But yet, despite stubborn resistance to most opposition by Bush and his cronies, almost to the point of ignorance, they have drifted towards Obama’s positions over McCain. They have adapted the Democrats position, in an effort to effect a pre-emptive strike.
Why is this important? He is a man; a black man, so called inexperienced man; a member of the hated and dreaded other party; a liberal; yet he has in his own persuasive manner, given them such cause to pause, that they are willing to change 8 years of harsh, stoic resistance to a more moderate approach, to attempt to avoid loosing an election. Based on conduct alone, you can only conclude that Barack Obama has tilted the table. He has already made a difference before he is elected to the Presidency. He is what we call in sports a difference maker, a gamer, the go-to guy. The playmaker. Why should you vote for Barack Obama? Because he has the judgment to change history. If he can persuade the Neo-Cons by his advocacy, just think about what he could do as President in dealing with our international problems. This is a lot more effective then the hot headed; let’s go to war, ‘I know how to win wars’ John McCain. This is not advocacy that comes at the end of a barrel of a gun. Barack can change minds. He can advocate. He is a history maker. In the world’s eyes, he is that table tilter that can make a difference.
August 24, 2008Obama Chooses Biden as Running MateBy ADAM NAGOURNEY and JEFF ZELENYWASHINGTON — Senator Barack Obama has chosen Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware to be his running-mate, turning to a leading authority on foreign policy and a longtime Washington hand to fill out the Democratic ticket, people told of the decision said.Mr. Obama’s selection ended a two-month search that was conducted almost entirely in secret. It reflected a critical strategic choice by Mr. Obama: To go with a running-mate who could reassure voters about gaps in his resume, rather than to pick someone who could deliver a state or reinforce Mr. Obama’s message of change.Mr. Biden is the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and is familiar with foreign leaders and diplomats around the world. Although he initially voted to authorize the war in Iraq — Mr. Obama opposed it from the start — Mr. Biden became a persistent critic of President Bush’s policies in Iraq.The selection was disclosed as Mr. Obama moves into a critical part of his campaign, preparing for the party’s four-day convention in Denver starting on Monday. Mr. Obama’s aides viewed the introduction of his vice presidential choice– including an afternoon rally Saturday at the old State Capitol in Springfield, Ill., the same place where Mr. Obama announced his candidacy on a freezing winter morning almost two years ago, and a tour of swing states – as the beginning of a week-long stretch in which Mr. Obama hopes to dominate the stage and position himself for the fall campaign.Word of Mr. Obama’s decision leaked out hours before his campaign was scheduled to inform supporters via text and e-mail messages, and hours after informing two other top contenders for the vice presidential nomination – Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana and Gov. Tim Kaine of Virginia – that they had not been chosen.As the selection process moved to an end, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, who Mr. Obama had defeated in his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, had slipped out of contention -- to the degree that Mr. Obama had ever seriously considered her.Mr. Biden is Roman Catholic, giving him appeal to that important voting bloc, though he favors abortion rights. He was born in a working class family in Scranton, Pa., a swing state where he remains well-known. Mr. Biden is up for re-election to the Senate this year and he would presumably run simultaneously for both seats.Mr. Biden is known for being both talkative and prone to making the kind of statements that get him in trouble. In 2007, when he was competing for Mr. Obama for the presidential nomination, he declared that Mr. Obama was “not yet ready” for the presidency, a line certain to show up in Republican attack ads.Although Mr. Biden is not exactly a household name, he is probably the best known of all the Democrats who were in contention for the spot, given his political and personal history (not to mention his regular appearances on the Sunday morning television news shows.) He first ran for the Senate from Delaware when he was just 29 years old.Mr. Biden has run twice for the presidency himself, once in 1988 and again in 2008, dropping out early in both cases. He was also the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee during two of the most contentious Supreme Court nomination battles of the past 50 years: the confirmation proceedings for Robert H. Bork, who was defeated, and Clarence Thomas, who was confirmed after an explosive hearing in which Anita Hill accused Mr. Thomas of sexual harassment. Mr. Biden led the opposition to both nominations, though he came under criticism from some feminists for not immediately disclosing what were at first Ms. Hill’s closed-door accusations against Mr. Thomas.Mr. Obama’s choice of Mr. Biden suggested some of the weaknesses the Obama campaign is trying to address at a time when at a time when national polls suggest that his race with Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, is tightening. Chief among Mr. Biden’s strengths is his familiarity with foreign policy and national security issues, highlighted just this past weekend with the invitation he received from the embattled president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili, to visit Georgia in the midst of its tense faceoff with Russia. From the moment he dropped out of the presidential race, he had been mentioned as a potential Secretary of State should either Mr. Obama or Mrs. Clinton win the election.He is also something of a fixture in Washington, and would bring to the campaign – and the White House – a familiarity with the way the city and Congress works that Mr. Obama can not match after his relatively short stint in Washington.At 65 years old, he adds a few years and gray hair to a ticket that otherwise might seem a bit young (Mr. Obama is 47). He is, as Mr. Obama’s advisers were quick to argue, someone who appears by every measure prepared to take over as president, setting a standard that appears intended to at least somewhat hamstring Mr. McCain should he be tempted to go for a more adventurous choice for No. 2. He has a long history of making statements that get him in trouble. He was forced to apologize to Mr. Obama almost the moment he entered the race for president after he was quoted as describing Mr. Obama as “the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,” a remark that drew criticism for being racially insensitive. While campaigning in New Hampshire, Mr. Biden said that ”you cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent.”Mr. Biden quit the presidential race this year after a barely making a mark; he came in fifth place in Iowa. He was forced to quit the 1988 presidential race in the face of accusations that he had plagiarized part of a speech from a Neil Kinnock, the British Labor Party leader. Shortly afterward, he was found to have suffered two aneurysms.He is also, at least arguably, a Washington insider, having worked there for so long, though he still commutes home to Wilmington every night by train.The choice by Mr. Obama in some ways mirrors the choice by Mr. Bush of Dick Cheney as his running mate in 2000; at 65, it appears unlikely that Mr. Biden would be in a position to run for president, should Mr. Obama win and serve two terms. Shorn of any remaining ambition to run for president on his own, he could find himself in a less complex political relationship with Mr. Obama than most vice president have with their presidents.Mr. Biden was born in Scranton, , grew up in the suburbs of Wilmington, Del., and went to Syracuse Law School. He also was, as a young man, in the center of a gripping family drama: barely a month after he was elected to the Senate, his wife and their three children were in a car accident with a drunken driver resulted in the death of his wife and daughter. His two sons survived and Mr. Biden remarried five years later.Carl Hulse and Jim Rutenberg contributed reporting.
I would occasionally pick up the paper [Louis Farrakhan’s “The Final Call”] from these unfailingly polite men, in part out of sympathy to their heavy suits in the summer, their thin coats in winter; or sometimes because my attention was caught by the sensational, tabloid-style headlines (CAUCASIAN WOMAN ADMITS: WHITES ARE THE DEVIL). Inside the front cover, one found reprints of the minister’s [Farrakhan’s] speeches, as well as stories that could have been picked straight off the AP news wire were it not for certain editorial embelleshments (”Jewish Senator Metzenbaum announced today…”).Barack Obama, “Dreams From My Father,” p. 201It contradicted the morality my mother had taught me, a morality of subtle distinctions–between individuals of goodwill and those who wished me ill, between active malice and ignorance or indifference. I had a personal stake in that moral framework; I’d discovered that I couldn’t escape it if I tried. And yet perhaps it was a framework that blacks in this country could no longer afford; perhaps it weakened black resolve, encouraged confusion within the ranks. Desperate times called for desperate measures, and for many blacks, times were chronically desperate. If nationalism could create a strong and effective insularity, deliver on its promise of self-respect, then the hurt it might cause well-meaning whites, or the inner turmoil it caused people like me, would be of little consequence.
If nationalism could deliver. As it turned out, questions of effectiveness, and not sentiment, caused most of my quarrels with Rafiq. “Dreams From My Father,” pp. 199-200
That was the problem with people like Joyce [a college classmate of Italian, African-American, Native American, and French ethnicity]. They talked about the richness of their multicultural heritage and it sounced real good, until you noticed that they avoided black people. …The truth was that I understood [Joyce], her and all the other black kids who felt the way she did. In their mannerisms, their speech, their mixed-up hearts, I kept recognizing pieces of myself. And that’s exactly what scared me. Their confusion made me question my own racial credentials all over again. …To avoid being mistaken for a sellout, I chose my friends carefully. The more politically active black students. The foreign students. The Chicanos. The Marxist professors and structural feminists and punk-rock performance poets.
“Dreams From My Father,” pages 99-100
Yes folks. Stephanopoulos actually asked if being cool is an inherently black trait. In May 2007.
But make sure you also see the second article in this post, "The Conciliator." And remember it too is from May 2007.
SENATOR BARACK OBAMA ON “THIS WEEK WITH GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS” from ABC News... MAY 13, 2007 ... STEPHANOPOULOS: When we sat down in Des Moines, I asked Obama where he got that confidence. ... OBAMA: Well, you know, I think it comes from the set of experiences that I brought with me to this race. As somebody who worked as a community organizer in Chicago, not knowing anybody when I arrived and being able to pull people together around the issues that folks were facing after they'd gotten laid off of work; the work that I've done as a civil rights lawyer and a constitutional law professor. And then in the state senate, being able to get Democrats and Republicans together around tough issues like reforming the death penalty or expanding health insurance for kids -- those skills seem to have translated in Washington. ...Did Someone Say 3AM?... STEPHANOPOULOS: What's the most difficult crisis you've had to manage in your public life? OBAMA: Well, you know, the truth is, in my public life as a legislator, most of the difficult tasks have been to build consensus around hard problems. And what I think the country needs more than anything right now is somebody who has the capacity to identify areas of common interest, common good, build a consensus around it and get things done. STEPHANOPOULOS: That is part of the job. There's no question about it. OBAMA: Yes. STEPHANOPOULOS: But you know a big part of the job of a president is what you do in a crisis... OBAMA: Right. STEPHANOPOULOS: ... the crisis you didn't expect. OBAMA: Right. STEPHANOPOULOS: And you never really ever had to deal with something like that, right? OBAMA: Well, what I think is absolutely legitimate is that my political career has been on the legislative side and not in the executive branch. Now, that's true for a lot of my colleagues, you know, who aren't governors. And one of the things that I hope over the course of this campaign I show, is the capacity to manage this pretty unwieldy process of a political race. And one of the great things about the press is that they're going to be watching very carefully... STEPHANOPOULOS: Every move you make. OBAMA: ... every move you make, and to make sure that people have a sense of how I deal with adversity, how I deal with mistakes, who do I have around me to make sure that we're executing on the things that need to get done. .... STEPHANOPOULOS: One of your heroes is Abe Lincoln. He was ruthless when he had to be. Can you be ruthless? OBAMA: You know, I think that somebody who has arrived where I am out of Chicago politics has to have a little bit of steel in him. I have not made a promise -- and I won't make a promise -- that I'm going to be able to perfectly balance the budget immediately. What I can say is that we're going to pay as you go; that if I start a new program, I'll find a way to pay for it; if I want tax cuts, then I'm going to find a way to pay for them; and that, over the long term, we get a stable budget that is not simply running up the credit card on our children. STEPHANOPOULOS: You've also said that with Social Security, everything should be on the table. OBAMA: Yes. STEPHANOPOULOS: Raising the retirement age? OBAMA: Everything should be on the table. STEPHANOPOULOS: Raising payroll taxes? OBAMA: Everything should be on the table. I think we should approach it the same way Tip O'Neill and Ronald Reagan did back in 1983. They came together. I don't want to lay out my preferences beforehand, but what I know is that Social Security is solvable. It is not as difficult a problem as we're going to have with Medicaid and Medicare. STEPHANOPOULOS: Partial privatization? OBAMA: Privatization is not something that I would consider, and the reason is this: Social Security, I think, is -- that's the floor. That's the baseline. Social Security is that safety net that can't be frayed, and we shouldn't put at risk. STEPHANOPOULOS: Your candidacy brings the issue of race right to the top... OBAMA: Right. STEPHANOPOULOS: ... of the national conversation. You've been a strong supporter of affirmative action... OBAMA: Yes. STEPHANOPOULOS: ... and you're a constitutional law professor, so let's go back in the classroom. I'm your student, I say, "Professor, you and your wife went to Harvard Law School. You've got plenty of money. You're running for president. Why should your daughters, when they go to college, get affirmative action?" OBAMA: Well, first of all, I think that my daughters should probably be treated by any admissions officer as folks who are pretty advantaged, and I think that there's nothing wrong with us taking that into account as we consider admissions policies at universities. I think that we should take into account white kids who have been disadvantaged and have grown up in poverty and shown themselves to have what it takes to succeed. So I don't think those concepts are mutually exclusive. I think what we can say is that in our society, race and class still intersect, that there are a lot of African-American kids who are still struggling, that even those who are in the middle class may be first generation as opposed to fifth or sixth generation college attendees, and that we all have an interest in bringing as many people together to help build this country. STEPHANOPOULOS: Sandra Day O'Connor wrote that in 25 years, affirmative action may no longer be necessary. Is she right? OBAMA: I would like to think that if we make good decisions and we invest in early childhood education, improve K-12, if we have done what needs to be done to ensure that kids who are qualified to go to college can afford it, that affirmative action becomes a diminishing tool for us to achieve racial equality in this society. STEPHANOPOULOS: You have a very cool style when you're doing those town meetings, when you're out on the campaign trail. And I wonder, how much of that is tied to your race? OBAMA: That's interesting. STEPHANOPOULOS: One of your friends told the New Yorker Magazine that "the mainstream is just not ready for a fire-breathing black man." Did you turn down the temperature on purpose? OBAMA: You know, I don't think it has to do with race. I think it has to do with when I'm campaigning, I'm in a conversation. And what I don't do when I'm campaigning is to try to press a lot of hot buttons and use a lot of cheap applause lines, because I want people to get a sense of how I think about this process. OBAMA: I want them to have some ability to walk through with me the difficult choices that we face. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) OBAMA: We're spending $275 million a day, a day, in Iraq. (END VIDEO CLIP) OBAMA: And I think that one of the problems with political speeches is that we all know what folks want to hear. We know who the conventional, stereotypical enemies are on any given issue, and we have a tendency, I think, to play up to that. And I actually think that we're in this moment in history right now where honesty, admitting complexity is a good thing. STEPHANOPOULOS: How about passion? How about anger? I mean, you've written about how you dealt with issues of anger. Don't you think sometimes voters need to see that too? OBAMA: Oh, absolutely, and I think they do see it. Listen, the one thing that I don't think people are going to be able to accuse me of is not being able to give a fiery speech. I came onto the national scene after getting folks fired up pretty good. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) OBAMA: There is not a black America and a white America and Latino America and Asian America. There's the United States of America. (END VIDEO CLIP) OBAMA: But keep in mind, I'm not interested in bringing people together just for the sake of bringing people together. I'm not naive enough to think that if we all hold hands and sing "Kumbaya" that somehow health care gets solved or, you know, education gets solved. Right now, what we need to make significant progress on these problems is to be able to build enough bridges to get things done. So, I'm furious about the young men that I see standing on corners on the South Side of Chicago without hope, without opportunity, without prospects for the future. I am furious about the mothers I meet here in Iowa who are giving me hugs and telling me about their son who died in a war and asking, did their son die for a mistake? It breaks my heart. But what I know is that the only way we're going to solve the problem is not to assign blame. It's to say, "Here's a vision for the future that we can do something about." STEPHANOPOULOS: You've had to ask for Secret Service protection awful early in this campaign. Were you reluctant? OBAMA: Yes. STEPHANOPOULOS: Why? OBAMA: I'm not an entourage guy. You know, up until recently, I was still, you know, taking my wife Michelle's grocery list and going to the grocery store once in awhile. And so obviously it's constrained, but I'm obviously appreciate of their efforts. They're extraordinarily professional. STEPHANOPOULOS: Senator Durbin, your friend, who talked to the review board, said a lot of the threats that were coming in are racially motivated. How serious are they? How much are you told? How much do you worry about it? OBAMA: You know, I don't spend a lot of time thinking about it or considering the details of this. But just to broaden the issue, are there people who would be troubled with an African-American president? Yes. Are there folks who might not vote for me because I'm African-American? No doubt. What I'm confident about, though, as I travel around the country, is that people are decent at their core in America. The vast majority of folks want to do the right thing. If I don't win, it's not going to be because of my race. It's going to be because I didn't project a vision of leadership that gave people confidence. It's going to be because of something I didn't do as opposed to because I'm African-American. STEPHANOPOULOS: You've been thinking about running for president a long time. Your brother-in-law says he talked to you about it in the early '90s. OBAMA: He might have brought it up. I'm not sure. STEPHANOPOULOS: So you dispute that? (LAUGHTER) OBAMA: You know, what's wonderful about this whole process is that everybody has -- everybody looks at me now through the lens of where I am now. You know, I had my high school teacher saying what a wonderful, studious guy he was. And I was goofing off the whole time, and they were calling up the principal. I think there's a lot of self-correction that takes place (inaudible). STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, but there's one more. Valerie Jarrett, a good friend of the family says, you told her in your Senate race, "I just think I have some special qualities, and wouldn't it be a shame to waste them." OBAMA: That, I think I probably did say. STEPHANOPOULOS: What are they? OBAMA: I think that I have the capacity to get people to recognize themselves in each other. I think that I have the ability to make people get beyond some of the divisions that plague our society and to focus on common sense and reason. OBAMA: And that's been in short supply over the last several years. You know, I'm not an ideologue. Never have been. Even during my younger days when I was tempted by sort of more radical or left-wing politics, there was a part of me that always was a little bit conservative in that sense, that believes that you make progress by sitting down, listening to people, recognizing everybody's concerns, seeing other people's points of views, and them making decisions. STEPHANOPOULOS: One final question. Everyone is going to be watching this on Mother's Day, and a lot of America is going to get to know a lot about you over the next year, but they're never going to know your mom. She passed away a little more than 10 years ago. What's the most important lesson she taught you? OBAMA: She was the sweetest soul I've ever known, and I think that quality that I just talked about, the capacity to see the world through somebody else's eyes or to stand in their shoes, is what she gave to me in great abundance. And I think that capacity is what's needed right now in this moment. There have been other moments in history where maybe some other skills were needed, but I think bringing the country together -- and, by the way, bringing the world together -- so that there's that sense of mutual recognition is something that I get directly from my mother. And I think her spirit acts powerfully on me throughout the course of this campaign. STEPHANOPOULOS: Senator, thanks very much. OBAMA: Thank you so much, George. I appreciate it. STEPHANOPOULOS: The roundtable is next with George Will, Cokie Roberts and Sam Donaldson. And later, Brooke Shields.
Transcript exerpts from - Lynn Sweet, Chicago Sun-Times. The scoop from Washington May 31, 2007
Steph also refers to this article, from The New Yorker.
The ConciliatorWhere is Barack Obama coming from?http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/05/07/070507fa_fact_macfarquhar?printable=true
He's talking to farmers about ethanol.
Interesting point about when he gets into detail as opposed to rousing rhetoric.
"This mode of his is often called professorial, and Obama himself likens these forums to the constitutional-law classes that he taught at the University of Chicago. But “professorial” implies that he seems cerebral or didactic, and he doesn’t. Despite the criticism he has received for being all inspiration and no policy, Obama has so far stuck to what appears to be an instinct that white papers belong on Web sites, not in speeches."
"Obama’s calm is also a matter of temperament. The first thing almost everybody who knows Obama says about him is how extremely comfortable he is with himself. “He was almost freakishly self-possessed and centered,” Christopher Edley, Jr., one of Obama’s professors at Harvard Law School, who is now a dean at Berkeley, says. There is something freakish about Obama’s self-possession—it’s conspicuous, it draws attention to itself, like the unnatural stillness of someone able to lower his blood pressure at will. He doesn’t strive for an Everyman quality: he is relaxed but never chummy, gracious rather than familiar. His surface is so smooth, his movements so easy and fluid, his voice so consistent and well-pitched that he can seem like an actor playing a politician, too implausibly effortless to be doing it for real. "
"“When I read the book,(Dreams Of My Father) I was surprised—the confusion and the anger that he described, maybe they were there below the surface, but they were not manifest at all.” Asked about this, Obama says, “You know, what puzzles me is why people are puzzled by that. That angry character lasts from the time I was fifteen to the time I was twenty-one or so. I guess my explanation is I was an adolescent male with a lot of hormones and an admittedly complicated upbringing. But that wasn’t my natural temperament. And the book doesn’t describe my entire life. I could have written an entirely different book, about the joys of basketball and what it’s like to bodysurf as the sun’s going down on a sandy beach.”
“Barack used to say that one of his favorite sayings of the civil-rights movement was ‘If you cannot bear the cross, you can’t wear the crown.’ ”
He married Michelle Robinson, a woman who already owned the memories and the roots, who was by birth the person he was trying to become: the child of an intact, religious black family from the South Side. He took a job organizing a South Side community that was disintegrating but that he hoped, through work and inspiration, to revive. Later, rejecting the agnosticism of his parents and his own skeptical instincts, he became a Christian and joined a church. “I came to realize,” he wrote in his second book, “The Audacity of Hope,” that “without an unequivocal commitment to a particular community of faith, I would be consigned at some level to always remain apart, free in the way that my mother was free, but also alone in the same ways that she was ultimately alone.”
(a/k/a in difficult times, one clings to...see where that comes from?)
"Obama’s voting record is one of the most liberal in the Senate, but he has always appealed to Republicans, perhaps because he speaks about liberal goals in conservative language. When he talks about poverty, he tends not to talk about gorging plutocrats and unjust tax breaks; he says that we are our brother’s keeper, that caring for the poor is one of our traditions. Asked whether he has changed his mind about anything in the past twenty years, he says, “I’m probably more humble now about the speed with which government programs can solve every problem. For example, I think the impact of parents and communities is at least as significant as the amount of money that’s put into education.”
"After Obama’s Convention speech, Republican bloggers rushed to claim him, under headings such as “Right Speech, Wrong Convention” and “Barack Obama: A Republican Soul Trapped Inside a Democrat’s Body.” The Convention speech was uncharacteristically Reaganesque for Obama, being almost uniformly sunny about America, which he called a “magical place”; these days, he tends to be more sombre. Even so, Republicans continue to find him congenial, especially those who opposed the war on much the same conservative grounds that he did."
“The issue of the Second Amendment came up and Fried is pretty much a Second Amendment absolutist. One of our classmates was in favor of gun control—he’d come from an urban environment where guns were a big issue. And, while Barack agreed with our classmate, he was much more willing to hear Fried out—he was very moved by the fact that Fried grew up in the Soviet bloc, where they didn’t have those freedoms. After the class, our classmate was still challenging Fried and Barack was just not as passionate and I didn’t understand that.”
Obama is, in fact, committed to respecting the opinions or cultures of others even when religious beliefs aren’t involved. “There are universal values that I will fight for,” he says.
When I saw you at the Convention what really struck me was that you told a story from the beginning to the end of that speech—a story about your life, about how it fit in with the larger American story—and it built to a point where people wanted to applaud, rather than using forced applause lines. Democrats just haven’t done that. And Barack said, That’s exactly what I try to do.” That is Obama’s theory of speeches, and it seems, also, to be his theory of campaigning: don’t try to score huge points at every moment, don’t kill yourself for every vote—a campaign is a long, slow story, and you don’t want to exhaust your audience or yourself. “One weekend I was with him they were making a big deal about his school in Indonesia being a madrassa,” Valerie Jarrett says. “I said, ‘How could they have even run with this story? It’s so completely inaccurate!’ He said, ‘You know, we’ve contacted the school and the principal’s gonna explain what kind of a school it is and we’re gonna refute it all. You need to just calm down. This is gonna be fun! Valerie, you’re not a guy but let me explain it to you in sport terms. It’s like we’re in a basketball game, and I’m gonna fumble the ball, and someone’s gonna steal the ball, and I’m gonna miss a free throw, but we’re gonna win the game. You can’t get yourself worked up over every little thing that somebody says about me or you’re gonna go crazy.’ ”
Washington “held out an offer of collective redemption.”
But redemption is brittle. ... charisma is misleading, that revolutions are illusory, that real change is slow...
so for my 20th birthday my parents took me out to eat.
we went to eat at pf chang's and one of two gifts they got me was "Dreams of my Father"
i absolutely love that book now and I'm glad that I could express to my parents how much i believe in what Barack Obama says. One day my mom, the paren't that thought of getting the book, will actually believe he is the better candidate than Hillary.
I think it will be soon!
:D
THE AUDACITY OF SLASH
By Ramsey Dean
“My mom is an African American and my dad is English and white.”
Yes, if you didn’t know it, and it is hard to make out behind the sunglasses and top hat, famed Guns n’ Roses guitar god, Slash is not part Latino or maybe one of the other dark-blooded Caucasoid combinations. In fact, just like Barack Obama, he’s half African; as in the grandmother who helped raise him is Nigerian. It’s right there on the first page of his new autobiography, “Slash” (with Anthony Bozza, Harper-Collins), yet in the next 479 pages, this tacit entry is only followed by, “I could count on one hand the confrontations I’ve had that were racially motivated.” How can that be? One hand? Could this really happen in the same reality as Barack Obama’s?
Obama pined through 457 pages in “Dreams of My Father” searching the world over for his black essence, an unresolved cross he still carries through his campaign. Barack’s infatuation with his identity has now spawned a new book “A Bound Man: Why we are Excited About Obama and Why He Can’t Win,” where the bi-racial Shelby Steele picks apart the bi-racial Obama. But it seems the rock star might have upstaged both of these learned men in his non-treatment of the subject.
Clearly Slash is black, we can see it in the book’s childhood pictures. Yet we don’t get the mulatto victim story, the tender realization that he was not like the other kids, his wrestling with the n-word, his uncomfortable apathy toward basketball and rap music, the story of a fearful club owner that didn’t want a black man playing suggestive rock n’ roll in front of white kids, his desire to take his people’s music back, or even a fascination with Jimi Hendrix. It’s as if his situation had no effect on his life. Do we need to grab him and tell him how important this stuff is, or is he telling us something?
The question these two unlikely kindred souls pose is, What defines race? Despite being equally black and white, we perceive Slash as being “white” and Obama as being “black.” Where Slash makes his roots a mere footnote in his life story, Obama treats it like his religion. While both racially identical they’ve also led oddly similar lives: both were brought up in foreign countries (Obama spent his childhood in Indonesia, Slash in England), both were raised predominantly by their mothers and grandparents, and both lived in Los Angeles at the same time. Yet digging a little deeper, it seems that Slash should have ended up “black” and Obama “white”.
Slash not only had his black grandmother’s direct line to his heritage and the culture of “his people” in Africa, he had an extended African-American family in Los Angeles. He grew up low-income and on the streets of LA, became a an anti-social drug abusing kleptomaniac with a prison record at an early age, and could have easily rested on the excuse of his outcast race.
Obama, on the other hand, was raised by his white mother and white grandparents, lived in white neighborhoods, went to the best schools and colleges, and, so it appears, would have been a more likely candidate to leave his black roots behind.
Yet 20-years ago while Slash was being embraced as the epitome of rock icon to white teenagers everywhere as “Welcome to the Jungle” took over the airwaves, Obama was wandering the streets of Upton Sinclair’s version of The Jungle, laying the groundwork for his rise as a black politician.
One could say it’s the father effect, where our sexist last name creates an ethnic specter that often impedes the development of our true destiny. While Obama’s father was closely attached to his native Kenya, Slash’s father, a Jewish Englishman, rejected both religion and country early on, perhaps setting an example to his son, casting these relics as excess baggage. The young Saul Hudson took his father’s tribal rejection one step further and became know as Slash, while Obama rejected his “white” childhood nickname, Barry in favor of the more ethnically correct Barack.
Slash defines being a rock star as “the intersection of who you are and who you want to be.” While he may not have set out to prove it, Slash, shows us that you can rebel against race; not with speeches, demonstrations, calls for tolerance or wars, but by simply not participating in its constricting fictions and developing a truly unclouded persona. By not acknowledging ethnicity, he has in fact, made the best case against its existence. In removing race from his personal equation, Slash has achieved more than Obama will if he becomes president because Slash proves that race can be overshadowed and ultimately forgotten, while Obama’s pursuit only re-asserts that race is somehow venerable.
In an increasingly globalized world, we will soon come to live in ethnicity’s twilight, quite simply because love, as both Slash and Barack’s parents proved, has no respect for the musings of race. A comparison of these men does yield something of great political concern: that we have the power to decide the role of ethnicity in our own lives. One has to wonder if Barack couldn’t take a few pointers from a guitar wielding wildman who defines himself only as Slash.
Ramsey Dean is a novelist and screenwriter. His latest novel, The CoolKids, is available at www.wearethecoolkids.com.
Ramsey Dean
Chicago, IL 60610
ramsey_dean@yahoo.com
