Video: Barack Obama Speech - Keeping Our Faith with Veterans

Sullivan: Hillary Clinton’s Suicidal Gamble with Race Poison

I love that he calls it “race poison.”  That’s the irony.  It doesn’t just hurt blacks. It really is poisonous for whites as well.

Andrew Sullivan writes:

In the Clintons’ morphing into a crude version of racially angry Reagan Democrats, you can see an almost Shakespearian tragedy. Bill Clinton has a long and admirable record in civil rights; and was on the right side of the struggle in the South in his youth. He has an effortless rapport with black Americans, and they were his core final constituency of support in the darkest days of impeachment.

But like any southerner, Clinton also knew how to navigate racial resentment. In 1992, he interrupted the primary campaign to return to Arkansas to sign the death warrant of a mentally retarded black man. He made a point of attacking the radical black hip hop artist Sister Souljah in his first campaign. He signed off on welfare reform. His genius was in holding together a coalition that included enough Reagan Democrats to win, while never losing wide and deep black support.

But he never ran against a black candidate and neither did his wife. They are used to loving and supporting minorities – as long as the minorities know their place and see the Clintons as the instrument of their salvation. Obama broke that dependency and that relationship. And that was why the Clintons had to do all they could to destroy and belittle and besmirch him.

Precisely.  It’s almost like a more triumphant version of the Miss Millie storyline in The Color Purple.  Read more of Sullivan’s article here.

John McCain Unsure if Contraceptives Prevent Spread of HIV

“I’ve never gotten into these issues before”–John McCain

I’m just dying to know what other issues facing this generation he’s completely out of touch on. For example, does he even have a technology platform like Obama does? What is his autism plan? What is his urban policy platform? Obama would do well to make sure that voters know that there are a whole set of post-1960s issues that McCain probably isn’t up to speed on.

This was from March 2007.

The New York Times reports:

Reporter: “Should U.S. taxpayer money go to places like Africa to fund contraception to prevent AIDS?”

Mr. McCain: “Well I think it’s a combination. The guy I really respect on this is Dr. Coburn. He believes – and I was just reading the thing he wrote– that you should do what you can to encourage abstinence where there is going to be sexual activity. Where that doesn’t succeed, than he thinks that we should employ contraceptives as well. But I agree with him that the first priority is on abstinence. I look to people like Dr. Coburn. I’m not very wise on it.”

(Mr. McCain turns to take a question on Iraq, but a moment later looks back to the reporter who asked him about AIDS.)

Mr. McCain: “I haven’t thought about it. Before I give you an answer, let me think about. Let me think about it a little bit because I never got a question about it before. I don’t know if I would use taxpayers’ money for it.”

Q: “What about grants for sex education in the United States? Should they include instructions about using contraceptives? Or should it be Bush’s policy, which is just abstinence?”

Mr. McCain: (Long pause) “Ahhh. I think I support the president’s policy.”

Q: “So no contraception, no counseling on contraception. Just abstinence. Do you think contraceptives help stop the spread of HIV?”

Mr. McCain: (Long pause) “You’ve stumped me.”

Q: “I mean, I think you’d probably agree it probably does help stop it?”

Mr. McCain: (Laughs) “Are we on the Straight Talk express? I’m not informed enough on it. Let me find out. You know, I’m sure I’ve taken a position on it on the past. I have to find out what my position was. Brian, would you find out what my position is on contraception – I’m sure I’m opposed to government spending on it, I’m sure I support the president’s policies on it.”

Q: “But you would agree that condoms do stop the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. Would you say: ‘No, we’re not going to distribute them,’ knowing that?”

Mr. McCain: (Twelve-second pause) “Get me Coburn’s thing, ask Weaver to get me Coburn’s paper that he just gave me in the last couple of days. I’ve never gotten into these issues before.”

Why Obama Will Not Be Giving His Donors’ Money to Pay Hillary’s Debt

The pundits who started this story should just stop it. They are getting everyone all amped up for no good reason.

The New York Times reports:

If Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton would happen to broker a deal to help pay off her campaign debts – this remains a big if, aides said, because nothing has been formally discussed – the money would not be taken from Mr. Obama’s campaign account. Instead, he would have to make a fund-raising appeal on her behalf, asking people to contribute.

Slate.com reports:

Meanwhile, diarists at DailyKos started hyperventilating that their Obama donations would be given to subsidize Clinton’s ailing campaign. Is their fear justified?

No it’s not. Obama can’t just “pay back” Clinton’s debt. FEC rules limit contributions from one candidate committee to another at $2000, according to FEC spokesman Bob Biersack. So even if Obama wanted to cut Hillary a $10 million check, he couldn’t. Nor could he route his money through the DNC, since national party committees can only give $5000 to a candidate committee.

What Obama can do is fundraise for her. Over the past year, Obama has established a formidable online fundraising apparatus that has raked in more than $240 million since the campaign began. If he called for supporters to chip in for Clinton, or set up a joint fundraising committee, he could probably drum up some cash. How much is unclear. Obama/Clinton relations remain icy, and many Obama supporters might hesitate to cut $2300 checks for the candidate they see as overstaying her welcome in order to weaken Obama against McCain. Plus, if small-bore donors have limited funds, they’re more likely to give Obama cash for the general than to get the multi-millionaire Clinton back on her feet.

So no, our hardearned money will not be going to bail out someone worth $100+ million and to pay for someone who lost the nomination on February 5 because they failed to have a post-Feb. 5 strategy and and to pay for the likes of Mark Penn and Howard Wolfson and to pay for the many insults to our intelligence and our identities that we have had to endure over the past year…

That is, unless you want to give to that effort.

On the other hand, this might be a good moment for him to reach out to her female supporters by headlining fundraising events for women who support her and wouldn’t mind retiring her debt. They can do a 50-state women’s tour where he can bring them into the fold and she can get her debt paid by them.

Video: Lookin’ Very Presidential There, Mister

haha!  Obama can’t even take a leisurely walk through the most elite halls of power in this country, without being mobbed…

He’s looking very Presidential these days…especially in this interview…

Part 1

Can Nice Guys Finish First?

A great American triumph over cynicism and Machiavellianism…

We should all breathe a tremendous sigh of relief…

Not for Barack Obama…

But that we have saved ourselves from ourselves.

Video: Barack Obama North Carolina Primary Victory Speech

Random North Carolina and Indiana Primary Results Thoughts

• Ummm…Take that, Linda Daves!
• What’s up with Chris Matthew’s whole, “Obama is learning from Hillary” thing? Obama has much more time spent on the ground connecting with the working-class than does Hillary.
• Obama gave a doggone good speech tonight.
• It was pretty cool to see Obama talking when his lead in Indiana went within 4 percentage points. If he wins Indiana, awwww man.
• We’re waiting on Lake County which holds Gary, Indiana, birth home of Michael Jackson.
• Here’s a report from a few days ago about the ground game in Gary:

Despite a bruising several weeks in the national media, Barack Obama supporters in Indiana remain “fired up and ready to go,” confident of victory in Tuesday’s primary and optimistic that the party will begin to coalesce.

The atmosphere at Obama HQ in Gary, IN highlighted that sentiment Saturday, as both the campaign and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) sent out hundreds of volunteers “targeting the whole city,” according to Shana Caruthers, a volunteer in the Obama field office.

“Everybody that comes in here is excited about the cause,” said Caruthers, a lifelong Gary resident. “It’s crunch time. We’re gonna get it. We’re gonna bring it home.”

Despite a perpetual, misty cold, Genie Kastrup, political director for the SEIU Illinois Council, said more than 350 SEIU, Change to Win, and Obama campaign volunteers showed up to canvas the Steel City.

…

Yet on the ground in Gary, Indiana - an undeniable, blue collar buckle in the Rust Belt - all signs indicate an Obama victory.

“It’s gonna come down to getting out the voters,” said Erik Sjobeck, an Obama volunteer who flew in from California a week ago to help. This is Sjobeck’s first time volunteering on a political campaign. He’s been a supporter of the Illinois senator since February, when he was impressed by the personal attention he received after sending a letter.

“I’m still waiting for my letter from the Hillary campaign,” he said. Sjobeck sent that letter in November of 2005.

Despite the remarkable distance, Sjobeck’s dedication clearly is not unusual. Many volunteers came from neighboring Illinois to help.

Mark Inendrino, from Schiller Park, IL, summed up the volunteer’s excitement well.

“We’re winning, definitely,” he said, preparing to head out for a second round of canvassing. He called the Wright controversy “nonsense,” saying “people are smarter than that.”

Devlin Schoop, from Chicago, agreed, saying the controversy has had “no effect whatsoever” on both volunteer - and voter - enthusiasm. He and his wife, Lynda, predict nothing short of victory on Tuesday.

“I think things have been coming together for quite a long time now and, well,” he said, “we’ll leave it at that.” According to Obama volunteers on the ground, Indiana turnout is expected to be high.

“There were a lot of people that were dead set on voting,” said Mark Drury, a volunteer from Hyde Park, IL who spent the morning canvassing Gary neighborhoods. Drury and his companion, Jackie Sibblies, drove to Indiana to volunteer after watching the Clinton campaign advance in recent weeks.

According to most volunteers, however, Clinton has not made visible inroads in Gary.

“I haven’t seen a single Hillary sign all the time I’ve been here,” said Inendrino. Similarly, neither he nor fellow volunteer Bridget Shopp have seen a single Clinton volunteer.

“We actually had one woman who tried to threaten us,” laughed Shopp, of Algonquin, IL.

“She was afraid we were with the Hillary campaign,” explained Inendrino.

I Finally Get to Vote for Obama!!!!

Woooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yeahhhhhhh!!!

Here is the #1 thing that put me leaning Obama in spring of last year, even though I was neutral about Hillary and was almost willing to give her the benefit of the doubt on her war vote just because she would be the first woman President.

Yet over the course of blogging this campaign, I have come to better understand the candidates and have developed a more intense case for Obama over Hillary on multiple issues. My attitude toward Hillary went from neutral to most negative possible. Here are some of the reasons why:

Democracy

1. In Iowa, the Hillary Clinton campaign actively worked to suppress the votes of Iowa students.
2. In New Hampshire, the Hillary Clinton campaign harassed “get-out-the-vote” workers at the polls to hinder their efforts.
3. In Nevada, the Hillary Clinton campaign’s supporters filed a lawsuit that aimed to suppress the vote of culinary union members.
4. In Nevada, the Hillary Clinton campaign shut the doors on caucus-goers 30 minutes earlier than the official rules stated. Caucus-goers were not allowed to participate.
5. The Clinton campaign announced that they would go after Barack Obama’s pledged Democratic delegates (the delegates he won in the primaries and caucuses) if the nomination went to the convention. In other words, if you voted or caucused for Obama, your vote may not count. After public outrage, the Clinton campaign backtracked.
6. Hillary’s name was on the Michigan primary ballot. Barack Obama and other major candidates’ names were not on the ballot. Hillary believes the Michigan primary was fair and should count in her favor. What is this a dictatorship?!
7. It is a sad day when America becomes dominated by two political families–the Bush family and the Clintons. America should be a democracy, not a dynasty.

Economic Concerns

1. In 1998, Hillary Clinton praised NAFTA, the bill President Bill Clinton signed into law. Now she opposes it. Barack Obama opposed it. NAFTA has been devastating to rural America.
2. Hillary Clinton has gone to other countries and proclaimed that “outsourcing will continue.” However, in front of American audiences she tempers this and talks about the problems with outsourcing American jobs. Why isn’t she saying the same things in both places?
3. Hillary Clinton misled an Iowa voter about her position on social security. The voter is still unsure where she stands.
4. Hillary Clinton argued that Americans who make over $97,000 per year are the middle-class.
5. The Washington Post gave Barack Obama an A- for his economic stimulus plan and gave Hillary Clinton a C+.
6. Hillary Clinton has had numerous problems with debt and unpaid bills to small business owners, universities, charities, and even health insurance companies. How people run their campaigns may give us insight into how they will handle a national job market, housing market, or health care system.

Electability

1. The polls consistently show that Barack Obama does better against John McCain than does Hillary Clinton.
2. Hillary may have trouble winning Iowa and New Hampshire in a general election after she trashed the Iowa caucuses once they were over and went back on her word to New Hampshire, leading the New Hampshire Union Leader to declare, “New Hampshire voters, you were played for suckers.”

The Environment

1. The League of Conservation Voters gave Barack Obama a higher score on his environmental voting record than all the other Democratic nominees.

Ethics and Lobbyist Reform

1. Barack Obama has a superior record to Hillary Clinton on confronting lobbyists and special interests.
2. Barack Obama does not take federal PAC or federal lobbyist funding for his Presidential campaign, while Hillary Clinton does. In fact, Hillary Clinton said, “Lobbyists represent real Americans.”
3. Barack Obama has released his personal income tax returns to the public for scrutiny, while Hillary Clinton has not. (Update: Hillary Clinton finally released her tax returns in April 2008.)
4. Hillary Clinton uses more earmarks and pork spending than any other Democratic nominee or Republican nominee.
5. Barack Obama passed the toughest ethics reform legislation in the U.S. Senate since Watergate, while Hillary has not passed a bill yet of this magnitude.
6. The majority of Barack Obama’s campaign funding comes from small donors, while the majority of Clinton’s comes from large donors.
7. Barack Obama was the leader in revealing to the public all of his federal earmark requests, while Hillary Clinton was not.

Experience

1. Barack Obama has both sufficient experience and a record of good judgment.
2. Barack Obama will have held elected office for 12 years before becoming President. Hillary Clinton will only have held office for 8 years
3. She cited her experience as the reason she voted to go to Iraq, so that nullified her experience argument.
4. Even Bill Clinton said when people criticized him for being inexperienced in the 1990s that, “The same old experience is not relevant.”
5. Barack Obama will be older than Bill Clinton, Teddy Roosevelt, and John F. Kennedy were before they took the presidency. He can’t help that he takes care of himself and ages well.
6. As John Kerry argues, Barack Obama has more legislative experience than either Hillary Clinton or John Edwards.
7. Barack Obama has passed more progressive legislation in his lifetime than Hillary Clinton. As an Illinois Senator he passed over 200 of the bills he wrote. These bills include:
   1. A bill that expanded healthcare to over 100,000 people in Illinois.
   2. A bill that set up community health centers to serve underserved populations.
   3. A bill that provided the earned income tax credit to thousands of Illinois families.
   4. A bill that reformed the death penalty that had sent innocent people to death row
   5. A bill that banned gifts and meals from lobbyists.
   6. And much more.
8. While Hillary Clinton has spent more time in the U.S. Senate, Barack Obama has gotten more substantive legislation that affects the American people passed while he’s been there. Many of Clinton’s bills were about naming post offices and buildings. However, Obama’s legislation includes:
   1. A bill with Senator Richard Lugar which bans the development of nuclear weapons.
   2. A bill that created a public database where average Americans can see how the government is spending their money.
   3. A bill that provided important assistance to address the situation in the Congo.
   4. A bill that Nancy Pelosi calls “one of the toughest ethics reform” bills in this history of the Congress.

Foreign Policy

1. Hillary Clinton voted for the Iraq War, while Barack Obama opposed the war from the start.
2. Hillary Clinton did not read the National Intelligence Estimate report before voting to send troops to Iraq.
3. Barack Obama agrees that America should talk to countries that are our foes, while Hillary Clinton takes issue with his position.
4. Barack Obama understands the basic facts about Pakistan’s electoral system better than Hillary Clinton.
5. While Barack Obama has proposed a detailed foreign policy plan, Hillary Clinton has not provided Obama’s level of detail.
6. Hillary Clinton’s current foreign policy advisers were largely supportive of the war in Iraq. Obama’s current foreign policy advisers are more “forward thinking” and generally did not support the war. We need people advising our president who have good judgment on foreign policy, not people who carry the old conventional wisdom.
7. Hillary Clinton said she would like to create an “umbrella of deterrence” in the Middle East which means that the U.S. would get involved in Middle East conflicts to an extent that even George Bush and John McCain have not advocated.

Health Care

1. Hillary Clinton should be applauded for her work trying to get health care passed during the 1990s. However, Obama should be applauded as well for his eight-years of writing health care legislation and getting it signed into law at the state level. Obama has a lesser known, but impressive record of getting results on health care.
2. Hillary Clinton has said that she would be willing to garnish people’s wages if they do not sign up for her health care plan. Is that really politically feasible to get passed?

Homeland Security

1. CIA officials agree more with Barack Obama’s approach to finding Osama Bin Laden than with Hillary Clinton’s.
2. Hillary Clinton’s assessment of America’s homeland security status contradicts the assessment offered by national intelligence agencies.

Human Rights

1. Hillary Clinton was the last Democrat to support the torture pledge.
2. Hillary flip-flopped on the issue of whether America should use nuclear weapons.
3. Obama voted to ban the use of cluster bombs in civilian areas. Hillary Clinton voted against the ban. Cluster bombs have a high failure rate and are often mistaken by children for toys. They are indiscriminate and result in thousands of civilian deaths.

Judicial System

1. Hillary Clinton attacked Barack Obama for his position on mandatory minimum sentencing behind-the-scenes, while she touted her support for it in front of minority audiences.
2. Hillary Clinton was the only Democratic nominee to oppose retroactivity for mandatory minimum sentencing. All the other Democrats supported it. Even George Bush and the Supreme Court supported it.
3. While Hillary Clinton is opposed to retroactivity for crimes of poor people, she does not hold this standard for crimes of the rich.

Lying

1. News reporters have shown that Bill Clinton lied to voters about being opposed to the Iraq War from the start. The reporters have video of the Clintons expressing support for Bush’s actions back in 2002.
2. While Hillary Clinton gives traditional Washington non-answers to questions, Barack Obama has been praised by commentators for telling the truth.
3. All the Democrats made a pledge not to campaign in Florida or Michigan because the two states broke Democratic rules by moving their primaries ahead of other states. While Obama and Edwards abided by the rules and took their names off the Michigan ballot, Clinton kept her name on the ballot. Right before the Florida primary, Clinton started working to get the Florida delegates counted even though she agreed not to do so at the beginning of the primary season. If she cannot keep her promises during the campaign season, how will she keep her promises as President?
4. Hillary was found to have been dishonest about her support for NAFTA. She has told voters that she opposed it, but after an advocacy group sued to have her First Lady records released, the records revealed that she had indeed advocated for the policy.
5. Hillary was found to have been dishonest about a trip to Bosnia in 1998 that she used to explain her foreign policy credentials.
6. Hillary was found to be dishonest about what she did in the peace efforts in Northern Ireland.
7. Hillary Clinton told supporters at her rally that she began criticizing the Iraq War before Barack Obama did once he got to the Senate. As ABC News reports, that was completely untrue.

Poverty

1. Hillary Clinton has the weakest formal platform of the top three Democratic nominees on addressing urban poverty.
2. Barack Obama has gotten more anti-poverty legislation signed into law in his lifetime than Hillary Clinton has. He passed numerous bills during his work in Illinois.

Technological Innovation

1. TechPresident rated Barack Obama’s technology platform as superior to Hillary Clinton’s.

Women’s Rights

1. In New Hampshire, the Hillary Clinton campaign misled female state senators to sign a letter attacking Senator Barack Obama’s women’s rights record. After the New Hampshire primary, the senators apologized for misleading people about his record and took issue with the Clinton campaign’s practices. This incident left great division among women’s rights activists in New Hampshire.
2. When women’s rights came under attack in South Dakota, women’s rights activists asked all the senators in Congress to write a letter and help fundraise on their behalf. Barack Obama was the only Senator who wrote a letter and fundraised on their behalf. Hillary Clinton did not.
3. Hillary Clinton also tried to mislead voters about Barack Obama’s commitment to helping victims of sexual abuse, an issue on which he has been a strong advocate.
4. Hillary Clinton has declined to give back campaign money from a company that has been accused of wide-scale sexual harassment of its female employees. Many other Democrats, including Senator Barack Obama, have chosen to give back money from men working for this corporation.

And because of this….

And because I’ve come to understand that this thing is ultimately about this…

Video: Barack Obama’s North Carolina Jefferson-Jackson Speech

Part 1