TO ALL SUPPORTERS' OF PRESIDENT ELECT, BARACK OBAMA AND JOE BIDEN
AND...ALL ADMINISTRATION TEAM MEMBERS...
KINGKIDDMADE, WOULD LIKE SHARE HER THOUGHTS..."TO GIVE IS TO BE GIVEN"
WHAT TIME IS IT? THE TIME IS FOREVER!
WHAT IS YOUR TIME? "RaiIn" IN YOUR STEAD OF TIME!
WHAT TIME DO YOU HAVE? A BEGINNIG AND AN END!
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHT'S? KINGKIDDMADE!
Available in the following standard screen sizes: 1600x1200, 1280x1024, 1024x768 & 800x600. As well as the following 2 wide screen sizes: 1920x1200 & 1680x1050
A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS by Christine Bowman
Will the GOP repackage Palin to tug at voters' heartstrings?
Jill Zuckman scored a rarity in this campaign season -- an exclusive interview with Sarah Palin. Zuckman's write-up for today's Chicago Tribune is, sadly, little more than a campaign puff piece.
The softball questions and the way the article is edited allowed Palin to push her talking points and avoid any stumbles on the eve of delivering her first, and perhaps only, national speech on a public policy issue, a talk on children with special needs. There's no mention of Palin being deposed Friday by an independent investigator working for the Alaska personnel board, either.
Instead, Zuckman began by giving Palin her chance to deflect criticism of expenditures on Palin family clothing, hairstyles and makeup -- the $150,000 RNC outlay for the month of September. Palin asserted that she and her family are "frugal," and she allowed as how "It's kind of painful to be criticized ..." Zuckman didn't follow up or ask how the Neiman Marcus shopping spree jives with the campaign's Joe the Plumber talking point.
As transition into talking about any policy issues, Zuckman paused to portray Palin as a hapless victim. "Thrust into the national spotlight [to the contrary, Palin leapt into the fray with nary "a blink"] ... Palin has found herself [note passive sentence construction] under the microscope ever since, accused [there's the victim card again] of being inexperienced, a drag on the ticket, and most recently the recipient of racks of expensive clothes." Which part of that isn't true?
Palin also turned the exclusive interview into an opportunity to reestablish the link in voters' minds between herself and Senator Hillary Clinton. "I think Hillary Clinton was held to a different standard ... remember that double standard. ... I'm not going to complain about it, I'm not going to whine about it ..." Palin said, as she complained and whined about reports critical not of how she looked but of what the RNC spent to make Palin and her family look their best. Palin and her campaign are being criticized for conspicuous spending. Scrutiny of Clinton's look year in and year out was much more personal.
Zuckman did eventually let Palin preview her policy speech about funding for children with special needs. Zuckman summarized but did not analyze the McCain/Palin proposals. It appears that McCain and Palin want to piggyback two conservative issues -- school choice legislation and channeling funds to religious groups -- with more fully providing for such children. Instead of a "clean" bill, would theirs be a complex one that will be fought by special interests types and then defeated?
Then comes the piece de resistance and grand finale of Zuckman's hard-hitting journalism:
Palin's eyes well up as she talks about her sister's son, Karcher, who has autism."My sister and I have talked a lot about this. It makes me cry thinking about it," Palin said. "She asked with tears in her eyes, she says, 'What happens when Kurt and I, though, are elderly, then what happens to Karcher?' "
Palin's eyes well up as she talks about her sister's son, Karcher, who has autism.
"My sister and I have talked a lot about this. It makes me cry thinking about it," Palin said. "She asked with tears in her eyes, she says, 'What happens when Kurt and I, though, are elderly, then what happens to Karcher?' "
Well, nice try repainting Sarah Barracuda, Sarah the Moose Hunter, Sarah the Pit Bull as Sarah the Sensitive.
Last January, many pundits and campaign poobahs were impressed and puzzled when Hillary Clinton pulled out a win in the New Hampshire Democratic primary, despite all the polls and many of the pundits having predicted that Obama had the state and even the nomination sewn up. When Hillary Clinton won, many concluded that her tearful on-camera comments about how hard it all was, made the critical difference. They figured voters liked the humanized, femininized candidate and came out to support her at the polls in droves.
That may or may not have been what happened. There are other plausible theories floating around on what happened in New Hampshire.
At any rate, it looks like the McCain/Palin team feels this sensitizing thing is at least worth a try. They can see how it flies. I wonder, did the GOP get Palin's teary-eyed moment on camera? And will their timing prove to be good enough? Stay tuned.
Interview transcript is here.
In the past two elections, voter registration and other voter fraud has been rampant. Recently, it has come to light that it is happening again.
I know it is difficult to divert campaign funds, but some should be used to expose and prosecute voting fraud.
This would accomplish:
1. Would improve Barack's already stellar image.
2. Would regain votes lost through fraud
3. Would set a precedent for others to follow
4. May dissuade future fraud
-John
For those who are still undecided, who are yet unsure, your hesitation is understandable. We are witnessing the unraveling of the very core of the institutions on which we have depended for stability, with the knowledge that those men and women who we had already elected to govern had neither the wisdom nor the courage to foresee or to warn, to enact or to guide. It is a time when it is hard to know who to believe. It is a time when we are unsure how to trust. We now both seek and fear their leadership. We now both seek and fear our responsibility in putting people in office with our single powerful irrevocable vote. We did put them, each of them, in office. We will put vast numbers of people into office again and again and again. We desperately want to know now that our next decision will right our course and yet secretly fear that it will not do so. Perhaps if we look beyond war and economics, we can make our decision based on who will help us to feel most hopeful, who will bring a kind of redemption to America, a redemption long overdue and much needed. Needed, perhaps, as much as, if not more than, economic and political savvy. If you are yet undecided, please remember, that a vote is also a terrible thing to waste. If you are looking for a reason to cast your vote, consider the power of the Inaugural Image. I tried to capture that power in a poem that I wrote during the primaries this past year.
For anyone looking for a higher resolution versions of the Obama Biden logo, I thought I would share some that I created from the PDF on the downloads section.
Below are thumbnails of the high-resolution images - click any one to where you can download them.
Note that I also have several PDFs available ready to print - these are vector based and size up without jaggies.
Only 900 people voted for her to become mayor.Only 100k votes to become governor.or as I like to say.."I can see the moon, I have astronaut experience!"
Grab them here!
While you're at it check out our growing collection of iPhone wallpapers, signs, posters, wallpapers, etc. at obamamedia.wordpress.com.
The wallpapers keep on coming! Check out mybad28’s collection of Obama wallpapers at Flickr - he currently has 8 Obama wallpapers available for download. Here’s a sampling of some of my favorites...
Check out my post at obamamedia.wordpress.com for a link to the site and while you're there check out our growing collection of signs, posters, images, wallpapers, and more!
I have an idea that might help the Obama national campaign but I can’t figure out a way to get it to the people who make campaign decisions. If you like my idea and know how to reach someone in that position please forward this message.
Many people don't vote intellectually, they vote emotionally. So we should start using people's emotions with the same effectiveness that Republicans do.
Images influence people’s emotions more strongly than words. The campaign needs to create images that portray Obama’s personality in a way that connects with undecided voters who find him too cerebral or too intellectual or just too different from themselves and their neighbors. How?
Basketball.
Why basketball? Weeks ago, when Obama was in Germany, I saw shots of him on the TV news playing basketball with some American soldiers stationed there. He hit at least one 3 pointer.
Basketball is an American sport. It was his sport in high school (or college) so he won’t look out of place playing with some well chosen young men. Basketball is a place where a lot of Americans cheer like mad for a bunch of strong black men who dominate the game. Americans want a strong president. Obama is strong. There’s no way the short elderly McCain could match this. No words are needed to convey the idea.
Also, it would give him a refreshing break from the tedium of campaigning. It might not hurt to throw in some endorsements from basketball stars, white and black.
When John McCain and Barack Obama step onto the stage in Oxford, Mississippi on Sept. 26, they'll argue about taxes, about the Iraq War, about whose health care plan is better, and who has the "experience to lead."But I want to argue that this election is about more than that. It IS about "change," as Obama's been arguing since the beginning and McCain has argued since the RNC. But this election is just as much about image at home and around the world.When Barack Obama gave his acceptance speech at the DNC and was greeted by two- or three-minute standing ovation, my eyes teared up. I looked at him and saw a black man - something I didn't think I'd ever see in a presidential election. I saw a man who's better than the athletes that are flashed on the TV screen as "role models." He's better than the millionaire rappers who roll in the Hummers and rims and loud thumps.He's a magna cum laude from Harvard University. He's someone who gave up millions in order to work on the streets as a community organizer. He's someone who came from a father-less home and, by his bootstraps, made himself one of the two finalists for the most important job in the world.But more than that, Obama represents something for the rest of the world. He represents an America that can be better than it has ever been to its neighbors. It can be the first major Western country to elect a black president, or prime minister. People around the world will look at the United States and say, "Even a black man can become president in the United States. That is a wonderful place of opportunity."Yes, I agree with Obama's tax policies, his environmental policies, and his energy policies, but underlying all that support is my belief that an Obama presidency can give Americans something that's been missing since, well, Franklin Roosevelt - that the future might not be such an awful thing full of despair and failure. I believe an Obama presidency will truly give us hope.He gives me hope for a better future for our country. He gives me hope that this country can change for the better and that our great sins of the past can be overcome. He gives me hope that racism can truly become a thing of the past. He gives me hope that minorities and the underprivaledged of all colors will truly shoot to be the best. An Obama presidency will make me truly proud to be an American.
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The choice of Palin on the last day of the Democratic convention is in tune with the Republican perspective that this election will be won or lost based on image. This explains the Republican strategy to portray Obama as a celebrity (as if that were an obvious negative).
The Republicans want to view Obama's appeal as one of the senses--he's photogenic, has a nice voice, has the appeal of a rock star (of course a rock star's status has nothing to do with the quality of their music?). There is no room to acknowledge that Obama thinks and speaks clearly (they think it's all rhetorical device). They can't admit he has a solid ability to solve problems elegantly, and inspires people because of the content of his speeches, not merely the sound or look of them. In fact Obama may look good partly because he is relaxed about the meaning and power of what he has to say.
The choice of Palin, then, tells us that for Republicans they plan to compete via image. In their view of the American viewer (perhaps that is the best way to describe their image of the American voter), a young feisty former beauty queen turned governor from Alaska is, in television image, equivalentin votes to both the feisty female Hillary Clinton and the young and photogenic Obama.
This Republican reliance on image was underlined by the almost total lack of content at the Republican convention. Republicans thrive in the world of gossip, distraction, innuendo, victimization, snideness, clever riposte, passionate side-issues, narrow litmus tests, bold and threatening suggestions such as military action, terrorist threats, partial-birth abortions which affect 0.001% of our population, flag-burning, drilling for oil which may affect our oil supply in 10 years unless oil companies treat those leases the way they have many others that have not yet been put to use.
The "old" (though not so very old) politics is the politics of pure image. The photo-op in ravaged New Orleans. The "mission accomplished" aircraft carrier. The nonexistence of soldiers' coffins. The frustration of the Republicans, then, as evidenced by their celebrity ad, is that Obama has good image on top of having a command of content. He can actually sink a 3-point shot in front of cameras and the military. Looks good but is also a skill and a confident performance. He didn't need a Pentagon video crew to fake the shot and distribute a doctored film as news.
Americans are inspired not by Obama's looks but because he speaks plainly about pressing issues. His style is convincing because he is willing to cite evidence on both sides of an argument in order to make clear why his position is strongest. Those politicians afraid to cite any strength in their opponent make us suspect they are hiding something and posturing.
I guess those Republicans who like to cite "common sense" as one of their special small town values just have to cover up their political sophistry by acting "blonde".
I have carried this story with me now for years. I decided to share it wih Senator Obama and now with you.
September 6, 2008
The Honorable Barack Obama,I am a child of the "Sixties", born right in the middle of the "boomer generation". As a young child, I was fortunate to experience a period of great optimism and hope - a brief glimpse of our country's potential. I can remember the universal excitement Americans felt about our opportunities in space. I remember racing around the track at my school, participating in one of the first President's Council on Physical Fitness events. I heard of older kids leaving for far away places, to help bring healthcare, education, and hope to those less fortunate. It was the greatest time of my life. I thought anything was possible and I knew I lived in the greatest country on earth.I also remember a very sad November day and the growing realization that the hope of that period was gone - I thought forever. I grew up and got "on with my life", drifting through the cynicism and doubt of the years that followed. I am truly blessed and can look back over a successful life. My wife and I raised three wonderful, caring, and thoughtful daughters. We lived most of our lives outside the USA and experienced the great diversity that only a "citizen of the world" can enjoy. I would like to share a story from one of my "encounters with diversity".On a business trip to Ethiopia, I struck a conversation with our company driver. It was our first encounter and he asked, "Are you American?" I must interject that this was during our first Gulf War and I often felt ashamed and embarrassed to admit my nationality. However, I responded, "Yes, I am.” I quickly added, "I haven't lived there for a long time and my home is now Switzerland." There was no response and we drove along in silence, though we were both deep in thought. Finally he said, "You know, I remember a time, many years ago as a young man, when the young boys and girls from the Peace Corps would play American movies on Friday night on the lawn of the American Embassy. We would line-up early in the afternoon to get a chance to get in. But, even if we didn't get in, we would stand outside and strain to see and hear the movie - hundreds of us would be there. When, I reflect back on those times I can remember how wonderful we thought America and Americans were. It's a shame that all of that has changed - a real tragedy." He continued after a brief pause, "You know, I believe this whole mess in Iraq could be settled if the Americans would send young men and women like that to Iraq instead of soldiers,. They would win the hearts of the Iraqi people and the change would come from within. They would see there is a better world and would throw-off any dictator that stood in their way of realizing that better world" He finished, by saying, "I know these are just the foolish and naive thoughts of an old man, but I believe it is possible." He thanked me for the movies (as if I were personally responsible) and we ended our trip with well wishes for peace.This story has stayed with me all these years as a reminder of what we were and what we can be. I had forgotten that spirit of hope I once had as a child. We have the ability to use the "uniqueness" of the United States to impress the citizens of the world with our grace and goodness, not our power and might. We left a lasting impression on a young man in Ethiopia many years ago. I believe we have the opportunity to re-ignite that spirit and resume our role of benevolent inspiration.In closing, I want to thank you, for once again, making me feel the hope and inspiration I felt as a young child. I believe in you, your message, and your cause. If there is anything I can do to help - your dream - my dream - our dream - become reality; don't hesitate to call upon me.Now is our time to rise to a higher purpose.SincerelyR Tracy Thomas
I wanted to point out another great Obama wallpaper collection. Flickr user Theta75 has two really nice Obama wide screen wallpapers...
I've found another great Obama wallpapers website at wallpaperforobama.blogspot.com. Below is just a sampling of some of the wallpapers they have - including one of the first Obama-Biden wallpapers I've seen...
Check out my post at obamamedia.wordpress.com for more samples and a link to the site. Also, check out our collections of signs, posters, images, wallpapers, etc...
Even though it may not look like it or feel like it, you are making progress.
Continue working towards progress instead of perfection.
Nothing or no no one is perfect.
Just keep taking steps.
Keep making those phone calls.
Continue following your plan.
Remain focused on your goal.
Do what you have to do right now to get to the next level.
Complete every task.
Keep every promise and commitment.
Don't look back.
Let no one weaken your walk of faith and determination.
Remain teachable.
Place yourself in a blessing position by associating with people on-the-grow.
Talk with teachers.
Walk with winners.
Climb with champions.
Study successful people.
Something great is about to happen for you!
Start giving thanks right now before you can even see the outward manisfestation of your prayers and desires.
Everything you do from this day forward will take you further away or closer to your potential for successful living.
-by Dr. Jewel Diamond Taylor, Motivational Speaker & Author
