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I have decided I can no longer be a registered Republican. For the first time in my life I announced my support for a Democratic candidate for the presidency, in February of this year.
...
My decision came at the end of last week when it was demonstrated to the nation that McCain and this Bush White House have learned little in the last five years. They mishandled what became a crisis in the Caucusus, and this has undermined U.S. national security.
Check the first comment if you get a chance. I don't know if you need to set up an account just to read the comments.
McCain's POW Defense: Dishonoring Our Service and His Own
People are beginning to call him Noun, Verb, POW,
He needs to be careful that doesn't stick. He'll turn his heroism into a joke and he'll only have himself to blame.
From 2 GOP Sources, it's Romney
http://thepage.time.com/2008/08/21/2-gop-source...
I will say this:
1. I've said for months that Romney was the choice of the GOP Money Men - going back to that secret meeting in Utah. Nothing has changed my feelings about that.
2. We should create a drinking game: The GOP Ticket Houses Drinking game.
If it is Romney, expect him to go on the defensive quick about mormonism. Evangelicals do not acknowledge it as a legitamate form of Christianity..
Pro-life govenor of a 'purple' state, he will bring solid conservative credentials and executive experience. He is young, fresh, the face of the future Republican party.
My prediction:
McCain/Pawlenty vs. Obama/Biden
Best thing for the GOP is to write off 2008 (and possibly 2012, barring some major event that would make them electable again), and pair Pawlenty with Jindal in '16.
I'd say run him this year, but he's not ready yet. The Obama insurgency would pounce on his inexperience.
(say that in a few years, and you'll probably get the above in response)
God help me, but I actually like Kaine. Would be a shame to have to disown him....but I've already got my alcohol ready for the announcement.
I'm halfway surprised he's not making a run for Warner's seat. Then again, this may be why.
Step away from that bottle! :>
Politics is like a pendulum; if you pull it far to the right, it swings back further to the left. The country swung far right in 2000, so everything that you see in 2008 is the natural swing even further left. Can't avoid that; as conservatives, we kinda brought it on ourselves. Hopefully, by 2016, the country as a whole will be more centered.....but it ain't gonna happen in '08.
(or words to that effect)
The best future hope for the conservative movement is to groom young conservatives and moderates-especially out of the black community. Hate to say it, but we can't keep running old white guys: they've started to die, and they represent an old politics that no one's really enthused about anymore.
I have several qualms about the Democratic agenda, a few of which I disagree with Obama on, but since we are focusing on revamping the Republican party, what really turns me off is the emphasis on religion/morality, abortion, gay marriage, oh and the hawkishness (my perception anyway).
But on the other hand, and people may disagree with me on this, many in the Black community are more conservative than they think; especially on issues like religion, abortion, and gay marriage. But when they see what is presented (i.e. old rich out of touch White dudes), they are turned away. Some of this is a fair criticism, some of isn't.
In sum, the Republicans need a better message and a better messenger.
But I disagree with you about the message. The message and the tactics need to change. its not that conservatives don't have good ideas, because they do, but sometimes those good ideas get lost in the sauce and everyday people can't relate.
Conservatives, of late, are required to be extremists to be elected-abortion bad, capitalism good. That may be what we believe, but we have to look at solutions to the bad and ways to spread the good outside of our circles. To do that, we have to leave our seclusion and go to those places where we haven't been welcome. And more than that, we can't preach the conservative gospel there; we have to no-shit LISTEN to the problems. We can't begin to fix what we don't know about.
If conservatives were to run a moderate version of the Obama playbook, we'd be a force well into the future. Thing is, some people are really gonna have to die before that can happen. Screw Rove; the Obama ascendancy may well be the greatest political operation this country's ever seen. And there's lessons conservatives can learn from it.
I'm preaching. Sorry.
America is a center-right country. yet Obama, despite my 'hope' that he would be the candidate to most closely align with my views, my research into his positions and experience, have led me to the conclusion that he is not moderate.
He talks a good game, and he clearly is capable of identifying both sides of an issue, but his ability to reconcile opposing viewpoints and craft a policies and positions that support a center-right mindset does not, in my view, exist. .
His use of technology and grass roots organization to build a base of support is impressive to be sure, but he has yet to attract more voters to his side.
He has a default, liberal progressive worldview that runs counter to his vague centrist-sounding platitudes.
He is an unknown quantity, and an untested leader.
At the outset of Obama's candidacy, I came to JJP looking to have my center-right leanings affirmed, but as you very well know, this has not been such a forum. JJP has only served to drive me away from my initial inclination to support Obama.
He was also trying to get me hip to why increasing the minimum wage is not a good idea for low income workers (especially people of color),--and why the market is better equipped to handle wage differentials. Stuff like that.
I'm not totally converted, but I have an open mind, and I think that he made legitimate arguments that most people (moderate at least) would respond to or at least be interested in learning more about.
I agree
That's why Obama and McCain are so appealing to the electorate.
They are vying for the center-right, moderate independents.
I do not think moderate conservatives and independents are ready to give control all branches of the government to the Democrats.
Most Americans are not ready to adopt a liberal, progressive agenda without any checks and balances. Isolationist, protectionist economic and foreign policies that place us in moral equivalence with China and Russia, government controls that wade into the current of flawed European social programs.
Liberal pogressives are aiming too high, too fast, too soon.
Young black voters will remain firmly rooted in the Democrat party if Obama wins. Yet just like now, moderate, center-right blacks will not be seriously considered and will have no voice or power within the party.
You're right. Thing is, they don't know that yet.
The majority of the electorate wants the polar opposite of Bush. Regardless of what that entails.
The true centrist move will come when both extremist conservatism AND extremist liberalism have run their course.
Where the movement is now is as close as it will ever come.
I have heard the pendulum theory since I was way little, this may still be in full force.
-Well gee, we've had a neoconservative agenda without any checks and balances since December 12, 2000, and that sucked.
I'm not a complete Romney fan, but of everyone who ran, his economic credentials are unparalled. McCain would be smart to leave the domestic issues to him.
But in the pool at work, I have Ridge.. My conservative neighbor believes if not for his stance on Abortion Rights, he'd probably be your nominee..
That being said, Im hopin ya boy picks liberman personally. Challenge the system, be the maverick..all that stuff he typically talks about....
If the country really wanted bipartisan heads of the executive, we would still be making the second place finisher in the elections the VP, and the candidates wouldn't be picking their own.
Even the clean sweep in the 400 was tainted by too much ego.
Nice to see brotherman dive for the bronze though.
Can't folks just wait and see?
I'll look into it... If you don't get the podcast, you should. It's good and free.
Here's the link for the podcast with Lori L Tharps:
http://www.racialicious.com/2008/08/06/preview-...
scroll down and download after following the link...
Sorry I can't enjoy this now. Will try to, eventually, check it out!
Meanwhile, "Let The Good Times Roll!" [a 50's song :>) :>)]
p.s. Dija notice that s is EXERCISING EARLY!?? And a 1, and a 2, and a 3!! :>) :>)
by Noam Scheiber
How Cindy Hensley invented John McCain.
Post Date Wednesday, August 20, 2008
http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=0fd74...
What's inexplicable to me, is how so many working-class Americans support tax cuts for the rich, when those cuts come at the expense of the working class.
Barack needs to make plain that his tax cuts are better for the middle and working classes than McCain's plan. He just needs to hammer the phrase, "middle class tax cuts" over and over and over ad nauseum, to cut through McCain's noise about tax increases.
I am NO Hillary fan, but she offers more than Joseph Biden. Joseph Biden, for all his glory, has his history of racist comments and has not demonstrated any ability to deliver any needed demographic. Hillary, unfortunately, gives "backwood" (backward? lol) folks an outlet and a sheroe. As Vice-President she is essentially quieted until his term is up.
We don't have time to drag these people to the 20th century because we got an election to win.
I am rolling on the floor. That is the funniest and truest thing I have read! Classic.
"'Those who say it can't be done are usually interrupted by those who are doing it."--James Baldwin
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-cesca/senator...
McCain Would Forget His Head If It Wasn't Attached
OUCH!!! Where da band-aids!! :>) :>) :>)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/08/22/predic...
Prediction Market - Biden
We'll see! :>) :>)
American Prayer
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/ar...
Troop withdrawal by 2011 - a partial resolution!!
IMO: Shrub is on this fast track in order to establish some semblance of a "legacy" for himself B4 he leaves office. And to give "Mcancient" a "leg up" on his campaign. Can we say a 3rd Shrub term???
Thanks, Mr. Obama, for stimulating this movement! :>) IMHO :>)
The majority of the electorate will see Obama as the man who ended the war, because that's who they need him to be. Bush will still be the devil, even though it was his actions-namely, the surge-that put the conditions in place for a favorable withdrawal.
It's unfair and dishonest......but that's our world.
SAD!! :>(
I will B away again. Mom calls! :>) :>)
486 deaths in 2003
849 in 2004
846 in 2005
822 in 2006
903 in 2007, the deadliest year and in which the surge was underway. The administration took too long in my opinion. Also, completely dismantling the Iraqi military helped destabilized the country. Now, the military operational success of the surge does appear to have "succeeded" , however, it still does not tell us what Iraqi forces can do for their own country and we will not know the extent of "political reconciliation" among Iraq's diverse groups, at least as long as there is a U.S. military presence. In my opinion, they are the benchmarks by which we can claim "success" has been reached in Iraq. Also, it will be interesting to see what happens when the U.S. stops paying insurgents to remain peaceful. Maybe then we can "truly" assess the success of the surge.
Yes, Bush, Rumsfeld et al. got some of the planning completely wrong. I'll be the first to admit that. But there is some measure of credit due to at least the military success of the surge, though you're right in that the true success will be determined by history as well.
The maker of touch-screen voting machines used in half of Ohio's counties has admitted that its own programming error is to blame for votes being dropped in some counties.
The problem can't be fixed before the Nov. 4 election, so Premier Election Solutions and Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner are issuing guidelines to counties for how to avoid the problem.
Clinton Supporters Say She's Not Doing Enough For Obama
YA THINK!??? :>) :>)
Appropriate title. Since there is a difference between FOR and TO and billary/bill are STILL doing enough TO [undermine] Mr. Obama!! :>) :>)
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/123725
How McCain came to live at 921 E. Lamplighter Lane and how he left are both interesting footnotes in his political career.
According to biographer Robert Timberg, in early 1982 McCain needed an East Valley residence, and quickly. Republican Rep. John Rhodes was stepping down from a long career in Washington, and McCain wanted that seat.
But McCain lived in Phoenix, outside the boundaries of what was then the 1st Congressional District. So wife Cindy went to work.
As Timberg states in his book, "John McCain: An American Odyssey," on the very day of Rhodes' news conference announcing his retirement, Cindy bought the Lamplighter house.
And in late 1986, before McCain was voted into his first term in the Senate, a report from The Associated Press revealed he planned to move after the election and wanted that news kept quiet.
A reporter had found permits filed with the city for the remodeling of Cindy's childhood home in north-central Phoenix. Oddly, the permits were submitted under the name "Smith" - the maiden name of Cindy's mother - rather than McCain.
Out of touch - yes. Too many homeless people (to include veterans) living on the street.
http://www.americablog.com/2008/08/elitist-mcca...
He had to buy enough for everybody!
So unless you know how much of that motorcade belonged to them and how much was just McCain's people, the point you're trying to make is moot.
Though I doubt anyone will do the research to find that little point out.
I think that was the point they were trying to make.
Which begs the question: do we really wanna have this discussion?
On A Senate Floor Speech on May 26, 2001, John McCain said the following:
"I cannot in good conscience support a tax cut in which so many of the benefits go to the most fortunate among us at the expense of the middle-class Americans who need the tax relief."
John McCain was only one of 2 Senate Republicans to OPPOSE Bush's $1.35 trillion dollar tax cuts in 2001. McCain was only 1 of 3 Senate Republicans to OPPOSE the president's 2003 $350 billion tax cut bill that accelerated the earlier tax cuts saying he opposed them because he is "very concerned about the deficit."
McCain voted AGAINST tax cuts in 2001, 2003, 2004, and 2005. He only began supporting them in 2006, obviously positioning himself for a run for the White House in 2007-2008.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVG4ROuLSf0
McCain is willing to abandon his "conscience" in order to win a political campaign----but you already knew that.
http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com...
"You people just don't get it.
McCain sacrificed for this country. He's a former POW, fer crying out loud! And you may not know this, but he suffers from PTCRHMHIOD, or Post Traumatic Can't Remember How Many Houses I Own Disorder. It is a horrible affliction that has broken the marriages of former POWs with the multi-millionaire liquor-heiress wives that own 10+ homes and a jet. "
I weep for him...
Take the McCain House Tour
while it's admirable that she is amoung the 1st millionaires... i have a problem with how she got there: she invented the hot comb, right? that can be said to have launched or contributed to an entirely new level of insecurity and esteem issues with black people. this is not to offend those of us (male and female) who press/perm. on the one hand--she made her $$, but on the other--she did it by helping black folks achieve and conform to a white standard of beauty.
"Country club economics"
LOVE that Florida ad!
I think most people realize that wealthy people can have lots of real estate. But when you don't know how much real estate you own, it proves that you are out of touch with your own life.
That's why this gaffe will be the gift that keeps on giving because the Dangerous One has revealed himself to be a caricature.
Despite his war history, he's a kept man. Which makes him seem like a little boy. A puppet. A little boy and a puppet who would be nothing in politics without his wealthy heiress wife.
I find it very interesting that McCain's revelation came just days after that picture circulated that had a picture of the White House with the blurb that this was a house his wife couldn't buy him.
Poetry.
LOL
you saw it too. I thought it was hilarious.
That to me is a worse image for McCain. I would rather be painted an uncaring rich guy who doesn't know how many houses I own than a POW being punked by his wife.
That's the story here.
Pretty clearly, I bet.
Now, let's see what lie the McCain campaign can peddle to try to change the subject.
Exclusive Premiere: An Anthem For Change
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dave-stewart/an-a...
http://wearerespectablenegroes.blogspot.com/200...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7PfSEtiXPw
Gen. David Petraeus is used to controversy surrounding the war in Iraq, but his publicized thoughts on an Army chaplain's book for Soldiers put him squarely in the middle of the ongoing conflict over religious proselytizing in the U.S. military.
The book is "Under Orders: A Spiritual Handbook for Military Personnel," by Army Chaplain (Lt. Col.) William McCoy, and according to Petraeus' published endorsement of the work, "it should be in every rucksack for those times when soldiers need spiritual energy."
With his plug for "Under Orders," Weinstein said in a statement to Military.com, Petraeus - one of the most widely recognized officers in the American military - is endorsing religion as something all Soldiers should have and, specifically, the Christian religion.
"General Petraeus has, by his own hand, become a quintessential poster child of this fundamentalist Christian religious predation, via his unadulterated and shocking public endorsement of a book touting both Christian supremacy and exceptionalism," Weinstein told Military.com Aug. 16.
Proof that gay marriage is a threat to the nation.
There will be lots of lobster later.
We miss you, Daddy.
Beautiful pictures on your site, thank you for linking there.
Keep threatening the nation with that love and commitment, you two :)
Congratulations!!!
Happy anniversary and may you two have many more.
I really want Barack to "shock the shyt" out of us all. It doesn't have to be Hillary, but I sure hope that itz someone who will help "excite" the people. Biden feels like Lieberman in 2000...a big mistake.
And the meme they're peddling is that if he didn't vet her, then she wasn't on his short list. Then he was lying when he said she'd be on anybody's short list.
That's making huge assumptions.
Define short list? What if his short list had 10 names, but he only vetted the top 5 and Clinton was, say, No. 7?
We take what these smear merchants peddle to us with so little independent thought that we become gullible.
For people to ignore these facts are a disgrace. Why would he want to work for someone like that? I get that they have to do this cute unity BS for the cameras, but seriously? Why do people to expect him to have a short term memory of all the shit that went down during the primary, because I don't.
And the more I think about, the angrier I get. This back and forth BS about Hillary not being vetted, Hillary's debt not being paid, Hillary not getting heard....GET OVER IT!!!! It is not about her. This is why democrats lose elections. Instead of concentrating on a common enemy, they tear down and back bite against each other.
Co-signing on all points!! :>) :>)
I know what Hillary and Bill Clinton attempted to do. It was dirty pool. It was dirty shyt.
If HIllary had won, then the democratic party would have been demolished. I'd be trying to rationalize how why I would be voting for John McCain (just like a sizable percentage of Hillary supporters are doing right now).
But Hillary did not win.
Why do so many of you still place her on equal footing with Barack when she clearly is NOT on equal footing with this man? Nor is Bill Clinton on equal footing with Barack Obama.
You can think that Hillary Clinton is the scum of the earth, poising as white-trash in repose with a Yale Law degree.
Here's my bottom line. Barack Obama is a G.O.A.T.--Greatest of ALL TIME--like Muhammad ALi or Lincoln.
Let me make it plain--HE AIN"T SCURRED OF THAT *****.
...Biden seems so boring.
Telling the simple truth here.
My memory is as long as yours.
It was NEVER going to happen.
I just wanted to remind us how easily we can be persuaded.
We must remain vigilant.
The times require it.
if, in order to vet her, he needed the answer to the following questions:
1. All HER earmarks
2. What's in the 18 million missing from the tax returns
3. Bill's Donor List to the Library
4. Bill's Donor List to the Foundation
She wasn't vetted because they refused to pony up this info.
End of story.
The vetting didn't happen NOT because of Obama. It didn't happen because of HILLPATINE.
AS IF that would help. Because, you and I both know, that the MEDIA should have gotten the answers to these questions.
On July 20, just four weeks ago, the NYT ran an article that included this quote:
Democrats said they thought it was less likely now than it was a month ago that Mr. Obama would choose Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York as his running mate, though they said she remained in consideration and that she was being vetted.
Some of you may remember me asking who these "democrats" were. The timing was interesting. Barack was polling well and pundits were saying Barack didn't need Hillary. But she got a lot of air time for reportedly being vetted.
Even Politico reported that story.
Fast forward four weeks.
Today, Politico is reporting that Hillary hasn't been vetted based upon this quote:
“She was never vetted,” a Democratic official reported. “She was not asked for a single piece of paper. She and Senator Obama have never had a single conversation about it. How would he know if she’d take it?”
Now we all remember the clandestine meeting Barack and Hillary had at Diane Feinsteins where they ditched the press. There was no reportage on the content of their discussions because no one was privy to the discussion.
How could this "Democratic official" know what they discussed at Diane's house? Who is this unnamed official?
So the timing now is to get more Hillary diehards resentful heading into Denver. To keep Hillary on the airwaves. To keep her supporters on the airwaves bashing Barack for "not keeping his word" and disrespecting Hillary.
And no "journalist" is calling anybody on this shit.
Journalism is dead.
I also thought the new memo that Obama didn't vet her was strange because I could've sworn there was a report that he did.
I say -- let them all self implode.
If it doesn't happen by 10:00PM, it won't happen until, say, 3:00AM.
They are not wrapping their heads around the fact that he is the WINNER, are they?
But, she wasn't vetted. Because she wouldn't answer the following questions:
1. All HER earmarks
2. What's in the 18 million missing from the tax returns
3. Bill's Donor List to the Library
4. Bill's Donor List to the Foundation
She wasn't vetted because they refused to pony up this info.
End of story.
As for her NOT BEING CONSULTED?
HELL NO...why the hell would he 'consult' her?
GTFOH.
I had ta keep reminding myself of those items of vetting which precludes her being chosen!
Thank God for the VETTING!! :>) :>)
I'll say it again, even though you all remain unimpressed. Bill clinton is a lobbyist for foreign countries. Bush & crew might be able to get away with it, but they would use it to sink Obama's candidacy. Bill gets paid to promote the interests of foreign nations over that of the United States. The conflict of interest should be clear, but the MSM & clinton surrogates are trying to pretend like it doesn't exist.
I hope O had Patty Solis Doyle call Hillary and give her the official news that she wouldn't be VP. That would be a trip!
They pretend that they
Oh, McCain's people REAALLLLY dont want to get into a guilt by association contest. He will lose on sooooooooo many fronts.
"And I am telling you
IIiiiiiiiiiiiii'm not going
Detroit's the best thing I've ever known
There's no way I'll ever go
no no no NO way
no no no no way I'm texting without youuuuuuu
I'm not the mayor without you
I'm gonna make sure I stay free
I'm stayin
Just sayin'
and YOU and YOU and YOU
You're gonna vote me (back in)
You're gonna vote for me
And Sandman comes to sweep Kwame off the stage...
You have taken this "ALWAYS A SONG" concept to a BRAND NEW LEVEL!!!
:>) :>) :>)
WHEW! Still laughing Deep Breaths!! :>) :>) :>) :>)
Thanks!! :>) :>) :>)
By the way, there has been a NEW proposal on the 2 alleged assaults:
One charge gets dropped - - HE RESIGNS!!! On Sept. 3 . We'll See.
Still laughing. :>) :>) :>)
BWA HA HA HA AH AH HA
His explanation - women take care of everything financial in their family...why, their Daddy didn't even know how many oil leases he had.
BWA HA HA HA HA HA
sorry msmartin couldn't resist. lol things have been so crazy who knows what they are trying to do. They will probably say "why isn't Obama helping his half brother -- then if he does try to help him they will say " see Obama is trying to turn the US into Africa". . . . bottom line - I wouldn't sweat it. These people are lunatics. The closer we get to November . . . the more psychopathic they will become.
CNN I see you. You ain't sllck,
I was waiting for them to ask his brother if he was a Muslim.
He's the younger brother Obama spoke about playing basketball with I believe.
He's the younger brother Obama spoke about playing basketball with I believe.
That said, he represented the Obama name with pride and dignity. I hope O will reach out to him. He seemed to be very intelligent and mellow.
He's the VP.
Sigh.
Can you imagine the shock waves???
Anyway, I think Biden will fight for Obama. I don't sense any guile or treachery in him....despite his gaffes.
I'm SO EXCITED!!
I hope it will be Biden, in spite of what we learned the other day about his gaffes. He will not mind going after McCain and being Obama's henchman.
I'm on the West Coast, so I haven't gotten mine yet. Probably won't until 3 AM PDT.
3 AM. That's cold. That's cold-blooded cool.
**Shakes Coach keyring of 7-10 keys at neo-cons in honor of McCaca's many unknown houses**
McCaca is having his macaca moment.
Still don't believe it'll be Biden; I'm going with the Obama three point play at half-court - Brian Schweitzer.
His campaign has been really good at keeping his cards close to his vest. I just don't think the media's on the right track with this.
Anyone who starts an article with "Loserville" and quotes a Zogby poll as a credible source doesn't get my attention.
His VP will be Biden or Bayh, again, to try and appear more moderate than he truly is. Will voters buy this ruse? I think not.
Tearing down McCain will not work. Republicans have more than enough ammunition and money to wage a negative campaign and now that Obama has opened the door with his silly attack on McCain's houses, they will rush in en masse and throw everything they have at him.
He was baited and advised into going negative and he has undercut the main theme of his candidacy and his post-partisan persona. His facade is crumbling faster than the illusion of 'vastly superior' Chinese infrastructure.
I am NO Hillary fan, but she offers more than Joseph Biden. Joseph Biden, for all his glory, has his history of racist comments and has not demonstrated any ability to deliver any needed demographic. Hillary, unfortunately, gives "backwood" (backward? lol) folks an outlet and a sheroe. As Vice-President she is essentially quieted until his term is up.
We don't have time to drag these people to the 20th century because we got an election to win.
"'Those who say it can't be done are usually interrupted by those who are doing it."--James Baldwin
Ayers, on the other hand, speaks to perception. Terrorists-of any sort-are bad, and any association with them is frowned upon. Best believe that if McCain had some sort of a tie to, say, McVeigh or the Unabomber, liberals would be all over him.
But at the end of the day, will it be that big a deal? Only to the people who weren't gonna vote for Obama in the first place.
McCain had a senior moment. It's gonna happen.
Not so fast.....that is a disingenuous concession. In that non sequitur, you will have to frown upon all Ayers' students, his colleagues at the University, and all his respected and distinguished and even ordinary friends.
Ayers doesn't equate with the unibomber.
Most Americans, I would think, don't like terrorists....and view their associates as, at a minimum, questionable. It looks bad, even if it's really not.
Obama's saving grace here is that he may not have known what a "terrorist" was when Ayers was acting a fool. So, for most people, it is-or should be-a non issue.
Personally, I'm not gonna beat Obama up over it. I got bigger issues than Ayers.
"Most Americans" are reasonable and rational enough to know that if Ayers gets to keep his job and his life in Chicago, Barack Obama should not be judged for a tenuous association with him.
The right wing has nothing on Obama.
In due time, my friend.
Assuming the left wing doesn't get him first.
Most voters are just starting to pay attention. I would bet that all but the most astute political junkies even know who Tony Rezko is. Given that take, is it still a non-issue, or an effective rebuttal that opens the door that Obama opened when he tried (unsuccessfully) to link McCain with Jack Abrahamoff via Reed?
This issue will not be the political 'gold mine' that the dems hope it will be.
Either of those read/look better than "I don't know."
His answer wasn't smart. I don't think the question was either....but when someone askes a dumb question, you don't respond with an equally-or exceedingly-dumb answer.
Course, at the end of the day, both McCain and Obama are better off than me, so the discussion really has no bearing.
Where is LIEberman when he needed him!?? :>) :>)
Can't wait to hear the LIE [uh- answer] that is is crafting in order to respond! :>) :>)
"Our House (s) In The Middle of Our Street(s)" [the Beatles??] :>) :>) :>)
He comes off as a child, and has for some time now. until now I have refrained from the cutesy nicknames, i.e. McCaint or McAncient, because I thought it was inappropriate. But I think his childhood nickname fits him to the T: McNasty.
Where does he spend his time residing? In a condo in VA., a ranch in Sedona, and a condo in Pheonix. If he had answered that he has 3 primary residences, he would have answered incorrectly and he knew it.
The truth of the matter is that McCain doen't seem all that concerned with wealth (sure that's easy when your wife is loaded) but hey, Cindy McCain's family earned their money honestly, and in America we say, more power to them.
Let's all be rich!
Still not to know how many houses you own. Put it this way, would you still feel the same way if Hillary didn't know how many houses she owned because Bill makes all the money?
Elitest.
Even though I don't think that is a bad word.
Heh
Looking over the complete list of speakers at the Democratic convention, I note... that there is not a single businessman, entrepreneur, or private sector innovator speaking in the entire four nights, barring some last-minute addition.
http://pajamasmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2008/08/21/...
"...I am troubled by the “cone of silence” around the details of their association, including the “cones” erected by the University of Illinois and the Daley machine that has, despite moments of reform, made the city of Chicago synonymous with corruption in many people’s eyes.
Still, I have nothing to add to that story, which may reveal itself, as the saying goes, in the fullness of time. But I do have some feelings about past associations and what they mean from personal experience. Like it or not, to one degree or another, they are part of our fabric, though not in a simple-minded sense. Knowing communists in the past obviously does not make you one now, or then, for that matter. Nevertheless, the 1972 Roger Simon who gave money to the Black Panthers is a building block of the 2008 Roger Simon who now despises identity politics and thinks it a reactionary betrayal of black people. That past is part of my emotional and intellectual DNA. If I hid that from you, you would not understand my present, where it comes from and what it means. You would be missing important context with which to analyze my current views.
The same goes for Obama, only his past is being shrouded by the institutions and cronies above. No matter what the truth is, this obfuscation makes it worse. Indeed, the obfuscation is the problem, in itself probably worse than almost any possible fact being hidden. (Obama is far too young to have been a Weatherman himself anyway—and, I suspect, far too great a careerist.) As usual, the cover-up is apparently more serious than the crime.
And yet, what if… arguendo… there is something significant buried in those unreleased Chicago documents that is finally revealed after Obama is elected President? The fallout could be highly destructive to our country. (And people thought John Edwards running while having an affair was problematic…) In an era that is at once domestically polarized and internationally dangerous, those Chi-town institutions owe it to us to be as transparent as possible."
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/21/world/middlee...
Stability in Iraq will come from a joint effort between Washington and Baghdad to plan for the future, not stay stuck in the declarations of the past. If we run away now, we will have thrown away victory and left Iraq to the tender mercies of terrorists, militias, and Iran. That would deliberately make Iraq into a Somalia with massive oil wealth and strategic implications that will threaten American interests for decades.
I leave disrespect of our military to the liberal element in America; they seem to be good at it.
Conservatives are QUICK to call anyone who disagrees with them "traitors" and how you can get so bent out of shape over a perfectly valid question for Petraus and not have the same for conservatives is beyond me.
Opening line: “The Democratic Party would never nominate a candidate who owns multiple homes. Would they?” Cut to photos of mansion after mansion, each tagged with its property value and synced to the sound of cash registers: $4.9 million, $6.6 million, $9.1 million. Grand total: $29 million, more than twice what ol’ Moneybags McCain’s properties are worth. Nail it down with a graphic citing the 2004 net worth financial disclosure — somewhere between $198,794,683 and $839,038,000 — and wrap it up in a bow with a shot of Barry O and his buddy Waffles palling around on the trail. Closing kicker: “The Democratic Party: For Multimillionaire Nominees Before They Were Against Them.” The script writes itself, boys. Chop chop.
A Lenexa, Kansas printing company has started producing Obama-Bayh bumper stickers, according to a Kansas City television news report. KMBC-9 has three sources and an example of the bumper sticker for its proof that Barack Obama has selected Evan Bayh as his running mate:
After weeks of speculation and days of intense rumors, the answer to who Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama would name as his running mate may have come down to a bumper sticker printed in Lenexa.
KMBC’s Micheal Mahoney reported that the company, which specializes in political literature, has been printing Obama-Bayh material. That’s Bayh as in U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana. Word leaked out about the material as it was being printed up by Gill Studios of Lenexa. The Obama campaign had said it would make the announcement by text message on Friday.
Gill Studios, would not confirm information about the material. They would not deny it either. The company president would not comment when asked by Mahoney about the reports. But at least three sources close to the plant’s operations reported the Obama-Bayh material was being produced.
T.
LET THE GAMES BEGIN!!
2. Those stickers are ugly as sin. If nothing else, Obama has style. Why would the Obama campaign co-sign on those fugly stickers?
http://www.qando.net/details.aspx?entry=9143
"You gotta hand it to totalitarian dictatorships. They certainly know how to put on a show. And when you can expropriate all the nation's wealth, if necessary, to fund the thing, money's obviously no object. And, I suppose the incentive to dance well—even flawlessly—at the opening ceremonies is always increased by the thought of a cold steel muzzle at the nape of the neck for failure."
"The Chinese infrastructure that so enthralls Obama remains decades behind that of the US. What infrastructure China manages to build, however, gets its energy from oil and coal, not from wind and solar. China has become the highest emissions nation in the world and shows no sign of slowing itself down over concerns about anthropogenic climate change. In fact, the air in Beijing is so bad that outdoor Olympics events almost had to be moved.
Meanwhile, the regime where Obama thinks the world would love to do business maintains itself through brutal oppression. China blocked access to the Internet for international journalists despite promising to allow full access to reporters for the Games. They arrested reporters covering peaceful protests. And these are the actions they took while trying to make themselves look good.
If Obama wants us to build up American infrastructure, he can start by ending the flow of American wealth overseas for energy. Create hundreds of thousands of jobs by building the American energy infrastructure through drilling in the OCS, ANWR, and interior shale formations. Lower capital-gains tax rates to encourage more investment and generate more revenues (and jobs).
America needs a President who can see past the facades. Obama has given every indication of gullibility, first with his pledge to conduct presidential-level diplomacy without preconditions with regimes like Iran, Cuba, and North Korea, and now in declaring China the place to do business. Obama isn’t at all ready to lead this nation; he’s not even ready to run a business, with thinking like this."
http://www.city-journal.org/2008/eon0820mt.html
"Obama needs to come out unambiguously for a quick end to the war in Iraq. He needs to do an about face on his call for an expansion of the war in Afghanistan. He needs to flatly rule out preemptive war as a policy for the United States of America, unless the country is in danger of imminent attack. He needs to scotch plans for expanding the military, and instead to start talking about how to reduce military spending, so that those funds can be shifted to domestic priorities like improving education and dramatically increasing research into carbon-free energy production. He needs to call for a national healthcare system that will provide quality, affordable medical care for all, and he needs to call for an aggressive campaign to combat joblessness and to reduce income disparity within the US."
Via hotair.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/ar...
The Washington Post notes an odd coincidence between the University of Chicago Medical Center, where Michelle Obama worked as a vice-president until recently, and a major Barack Obama donor. The UCMC, under Michelle’s supervision, granted a $650,000 contract to a local minority contractor for upgrading the center’s intranet. In her 2006 report, Michelle listed only Blackwell Consulting in demonstrating how she had strengthened ties to the local community. Robert Blackwell, however, turns out to be something more than just a lucky local:
Two years ago, the office of Michelle Obama, the vice president for community relations at the University of Chicago Medical Center, published a glossy report detailing the improvements her office had made in the lives of local residents, in part by increasing ties to minority contractors.
Center administrators declined to disclose which businesses benefited; the report lists one — Blackwell Consulting Services.
In 2005, the center expanded its bidding process and invited African American businessman Robert Blackwell Sr. to join a competition to upgrade the center’s intranet, the in-house equivalent of a Web site. His company, Blackwell Consulting, won contracts totaling nearly $650,000.
Blackwell and his family, records show, have been longtime donors to the political campaigns of Michelle Obama’s husband, Barack. Robert Blackwell Jr., a former partner in the firm, is a major fundraiser for Barack Obama. At various times, Blackwell Sr. says, his and his son’s businesses each have retained Barack Obama as an attorney.
Blackwell not only is a major fundraiser for Obama, but employed him as an attorney — while getting public funds through UCMC from Michelle Obama. Does this sound like a conflict of interest? For one thing, did Blackwell’s payments to Obama for legal services result from any actual work, or was this a method of getting cash to the Obamas while avoiding campaign-finance regulations?
Michelle’s contract award raises even more questions. Did she give the contract to Blackwell as a payoff for his efforts to raise money for her husband? Even more to the point, did the contract give Blackwell money to put back into Obama’s campaign coffers? UCMC is a public entity, run from public funds. The appearance here is that the Obamas had a way to channel taxpayer funds to a major contributor and then back to themselves, both personally and politically.
That also puts a new light on Barack Obama’s earmarks for UCMC. In 2005, he almost tripled the pork to the medical center to over $310,000; in 2006, he more than tripled it again to $1 million for the construction of a new pavillion for the hospital. How much of that ended up with Blackwell, or with other “local contractors” who either employed Obama as an attorney or contributed to his campaigns?
Chicagoans may slough this off as normal politics. It looks pretty slimy from everywhere else.
Ask the typical Obama supporter why this should be so and you’ll get a range of answers. Some just stare at the poll numbers the way my late basset hound would look at me when I tried to feed him a grape: with pure unblinking incomprehension. Others act like the guy who sits alone with his shopping bags at the public library, muttering about Fox News conspiracies and how Karl Rove-like aliens are doing terrible things with probes of proctological exactitude. Still others just shake their heads at the racism of anyone who could possibly have a problem with a very left-wing politician with almost no experience, who often sounds like his campaign slogan is: “People of Earth! Stop Your Bickering. I Am From Harvard, And I’m Here To Help.”
Perhaps therein lies the answer to this supposed mystery. Indeed, perhaps there’s no mystery at all, and Obama’s problems are the same problems Democrats always have at the presidential level: He’s an elitist.
Oh, I know. Upon reading that, some liberal spluttered herbal chai tea from her nose at the injustice of this whole elitist canard, and the earnest Ivy League interns at some liberal magazine have burst into laughter, offering the appropriate bons mots from Balzac at the preposterousness of such a suggestion, saying: “Don’t you conservatives understand? Democrats care about the little guy. They’re on the side of the proletariat — I mean workers — and as Obama has so eloquently put it, if the workers would only stop clinging to their silly sky god and guns, they’d understand that.”
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YTRjNjQ1ZD...
I still wouldn't be ahead by much. When people are wed to a certain order of things, they don't need much of a reason to resist a threat to that order.