Debate Schedule

August 19, 2007 – Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa  (ABC) 8PM
August 27-28, 2007 – Cancer Forum, Cedar Rapids, IA (MSNBC & Live Streaming)
September 26, 2007 – Hanover, New Hampshire
October 30, 2007 – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
November 15, 2007 – Las Vegas, Nevada
December 10, 2007 – Los Angeles, California
January 6, 2008 – Johnson County, Iowa
January 15, 2008 – Las Vegas, Nevada
January 31, 2008 – California

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly….

he’s only human, guys….let’s go….

Obama Appearances

August 12, 2007 – Michelle Obama, Chicago, IL
August 13, 2007 – Keene, NH
August 13, 2007 – Nashua, NH
August 15, 2007 – Cedar Falls, IA
August 16, 2007 – Council Bluffs, IA
August 16, 2007 – Atlantic, IA
August 17, 2007 – Clear Lake, IA
August 18, 2007 – Waverly, IA
August 22, 2007 – KICKOFF, Brooklyn, NY
August 24, 2007 – KICKOFF, Tallahassee, FL
August 26, 2007 – KICKOFF, Lexington, KY

Well, I am back with the weekly roundup.  I took the week off, due to being at the Yearly Kos Convention in Chicago.  I thought I “might” be able to provide last week’s roundup, but was tired, drained, and reflective of the events when I got home.  So, I posted a diary about my reflections of the convention, instead.  All I have to say is, GO NEXT YEAR, start saving your pennies, NOW.  Next year is critical, it is the year of the presidential election, but more importantly we must work hard to get more democrats in the congress, in our state houses and state races.  Yes, we were fired up this year, but next year the flame is ON!!

August 5, 2007
 
  Thanks, lovingj!!!!

Senator Obama was in Park City, Utah for a fundraiser, but held an impromptu rally of over 500 and expected just a small number, at Utah Olympic Park.  Kudos to the Obama Campaign for getting this together on the “fly”, and just look at the people grateful to see him.

Obama was next in Elko, Nevada, the senator’s first trip to rural Nevada.  Attending a townhall type meeting of 900, Obama again, backed up his statements about Pakistan.  And the crowd loved it:

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Sunday stood by foreign policy comments that sparked an anti-U.S. protest in Pakistan and attacks from his opponents this week.

Obama told a group in Elko, Nevada that he didn’t think he’d made a mistake in suggesting that he would use military force in Pakistan if necessary to root out terrorists.

Pakistan has been considered a U.S. ally in the war on terrorism.

Obama also sought to clarify his assertion, prompted by a reporter’s question, that nuclear weapons would be “off the table” in such an attack.

Senator Hillary Clinton criticized him by saying leaders should not discuss hypotheticals involving nuclear weapons. Obama portrayed the question and Clinton’s critique as absurd.  more, My Silver State

The ongoing “flux” with Senator Clinton’s answer about lobbyists, their monies, “our friends”, “don’t influence”, me answers from Yearly Kos.  And the stepping up of ousting Clinton by Obama and Edwards.

…”A lot of those lobbyists, whether you like it or not, represent real Americans,” the New York senator said. “They represent nurses, they represent social workers, yes, they represent corporations that employ a lot of people…I don’t think, based on my 35 years of fighting for what I believe in, I don’t think anybody seriously believes I’m going to be influenced by a lobbyist.”

A less hypocritical answer to the question might have looked something like this: “Yes, I am taking lobbyists’ donations and I too am concerned about the disproportionate influence wealthy interest groups have on the political process. I have often had to compromise my beliefs for lobbyist cash and that troubles me as a Senator, as a citizen, as a human being. And that’s why we desperately need to switch over to a public campaign finance system. But with the system we have, in order to win, I need to take their money. If I elected, I will do my utmost to enact a public campaign finance system.”

But Clinton seems to be in denial about the power of campaign cash even though, as a matter of historical record, she has flip-flopped like a trained marine mammal at Sea World for major contributors. For example, as First Lady, Hillary Clinton convinced her husband to veto a credit card company-backed bill to make it harder for Americans to declare bankruptcy. Inspired by Harvard Law professor Elizabeth Warren’s speech about the devastating impact the legislation would have on single mothers and their children, Hillary informally lobbied the president on what she termed “that awful bill.” Yet a few years later, Hillary, now in the Senate with the help of copious contributions from the credit card companies, voted for the same bill. “The financial services industry is a big industry in New York, and it’s powerful on Capitol Hill,” Warren later explained. “It’s a [testament to] how much influence this industry group wields in Washington that…they can bring to heel a senator who obviously cares, who obviously gets it, but who also obviously really feels the pressure in having to stand up to an industry like that.”

So please, Hillary, let’s not pretend that Washington lobbyists defend the interests of social workers — or single mothers — and that their contributions don’t affect your positions anyway. The power of entrenched wealth perverts the political process and turns politicians–even those whose hearts are in the right place, as Hillary’s often is — into paid corporate spokespeople.  more

Obama is criticizing Clinton over her “lobbyist snafu” and the criticism is warranted.  Americans need to have their eyes wide open about these candidates.  We must select the right candidate who is supporting us, not the corporations who are the largest recipients of corporate welfare in the history of this government.  Those are the real welfare “kings and queens”, and not the people.

…In an interview with The Associated Press and later at a town hall-style event, Obama said the matter would be a critical issue in his campaign for the party nomination.

Obama pointed to Saturday’s bloggers forum in Chicago where he touted his promise not to take money from lobbyists. Clinton argued at the event that taking money from lobbyists was acceptable because they represented real people and real interests.

Obama declined to use Clinton’s name, though he told the AP, “I profoundly disagree with her statements.”

“If lobbyists for well-heeled interests in Washington are setting the agenda on the farm bill, in the energy bill, on health care legislation and if we can’t overcome the power of those lobbyists then we’re not going to get serious reform in any of those areas,” he said. “That doesn’t mean they don’t have a seat at the table. We just don’t want them buying every chair.”  more, KC Star, Ari Melber, Newsday, Politico

 
Al Sharpton on Barack Obama
Obama a Working Birthday
Obama to be on the Daily Show
Michelle Obama

August 6, 2007

Barack Obama has been in the hotseat for his position on Pakistan, but many are coming around and agreeing on his position,  Atlanta Constitution Journal, Washington Post, to name a few.  Now the pundits are talking and discussing the “same policy” as Obama.  Relevant it was on ABC, for the Republican Debate in Iowa on Sunday Morning, when Giulilani was pressed and “quoted verbatim” of agreeing with Obama’s stance on Pakistan, Giuliani, squirmed the question away.

So, while Obama may have gotten folks upset, as they grilled him in Iowa, the fact of the matter is that Osama bin Laden is still running amuck.  He is being harbored in PAKISTAN, the United States know it, Musharraf knows it, and the man should be caught or killed, period.  You can not play two sides of the fence on this.  And for those afraid of Pakistan retailiating, they won’t.  We have harbored and aided Musharref for too long.  He can “publicly” denounce the United States, but he will play politically and hand this man over. Why?  He is in a hot seat, as well.  While re-emphasizing, strongly, that Pakistan is not harboring or aiding al-Qaida.

The Republicans are on their last gasp of breath coming into 2008, they know it, but more importantly, we know it.  For any kind of public ratification of this party, they must get Osama bin Laden, in hope of regaining public trust and retaining the White House.  Clear and simple.  So clear, that this should have been done in the beginning, or we would not be in Iraq.  But of course, Iraq is all about lining corporate purses, period.  Isn’t it?

Obama’s Camp is reassuring its base that the national numbers are not important.  And realistically, these nubmers are not.  Not this far out.  This all comes about from the Clinton Camp releasing another “inevitablity poll number memo”.  David Plouffe has reminded the base that it is the “early states” in which polling is important.  And this statement is true.  Because if you look at the individual state polling the numbers are solidifying and he is doing well.  And from the Obama Camp, it does not look like the money train has “stopped”.

“As the Washington insiders focus on irrelevant and wildly inconsistent national polls, there are strong signs in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina of the growing power and potential of this candidacy,” Plouffe wrote.

An ABC News/Washington Post poll last week showed Clinton, Obama and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards in a virtual tie in Iowa.

A recent poll by the American Research Group in New Hampshire put Clinton and Obama at 31 percent apiece, and a poll by the same group in South Carolina gave Obama a 4 percent lead over Clinton in that state.

“Remember, each contest affects the next,” said Plouffe. “Our strategy has always been to focus like a laser on the early states to create the momentum crucial to later contests.”

Plouffe also pointed to Obama’s prowess at raising money from 258,000 individual donors as a sign of his strength. Obama raised about $5 million more than Clinton during the second quarter.  more

‘You blew it,’ student tells Obama, yes a student told Obama over the controversy of meeting with leaders of hostile countries from the YouTube Debate.  And you know what, Obama is not going to have everyone agree with him.  That is a fact.  When I was in Edwards’ breakout at Yearly Kos, there was a person who did not agree with one of his points, and he stated, I don’t expect you too.  And I don’t expect folk to agree with Obama on everything.  But if you want change, YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO.

Strategist Says Blacks Are Obama’s ‘Base’
Obama Vows to Stand Up Against Corporate Mega-Farm Lobbyists

Why are the GOP candidates, ganging up on Barack Obama?  What does that tell you?  Obviously, he has hit a nerve with somebody, somewhere?  And why aren’t the GOP candidates worried about “their” nomination and trekkin’ over to spit in our pool?  Yes, these are the questions, one must ask and try to answer.  I have been saying alot about poll numbers and to start looking at them in the fall, and I still mean it.  But their poll numbers must be awful to come sniffin’ around Obama.  Especially, Mitt Romney.  Matthews, from Hardball on Today Show, stated something that caught my attention, quick.  He stated that Brownback has been coming after Romney “hard” about his “flip/flop” on the right to life and questioning his “religion”.  Matthews stated that Romney’s anger was real in his response and that his gut feeling is that Romney’s “poll numbers” must be slipping in Iowa. 

Well, Matthews was RIGHT.  The current polling numbers for Republicans by the University of Iowa, Obama comes in THIRD, as the candiate Republicans will caucus for.  Unbelievable?  NO.  We know that Clinton is the candidate the Republicans want to run against, Obama is the one they do not want to run against.  If Obama gets the nomination, he will win.  He will siphon off enough Republicans, get the independents and the Democrats will be behind him.  No wonder Romney spewed all those “cheap shots” against Obama on Sunday, he knew what the polling numbers, would be.  Oh, and who won on Sunday?

Barack Obama: Obama was all over this debate and was even the basis of one of the questions. That’s great news for the Illinois Senator. It shows he has become a major center of gravity in this race although he has not yet reached the villain status enjoyed (and we do mean enjoyed) by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) It also allowed him to put out a statement of his own that drew a bright line between him and the GOP candidates on the war. “The fact that the same Republican candidates who want to keep 160,000 American troops in the middle of a civil war couldn’t agree that we should take out Osama bin Laden if we had him in our sights, proves why Americans want to turn the page on the last seven years of Bush-Cheney foreign policy,” Obama said.  more

Pure Horserace

Obama Rising? Agree with him or not, Barack Obama has become the hot candidate over the past week, gaining the attention of presidential candidates from the other party as well as his own. Obama and Hillary Clinton have sparred recently over what conditions they would or would not set for a presidential-level meeting with some of the world’s most shady characters. And at yesterday’s Republican debate in Iowa, the Illinois senator’s insistence that, as president, he would attack terrorists in part of Pakistan – with or without that nation’s cooperation – triggered discussion.  more

Obama and Vote Hope
Media Matters On It
Obama Goin’ to Miami
Warren Buffett to Host Obama Fundraiser
Visting all 50 States?
Pandering the Teachers Union

August 7, 2007

Fundraising Bundlers
Not So Nice, Uh?

Will Clinton Sever Ties With Penn?
No.  My take on all of this with the Penn/Clinton association is that he has been effective for her, period.  He is associated with a firm that prides itself with parrying union pressure.  When I look back on growing up, I grew up in a union home.  A home that allowed my parents to become middle class, to afford the dream home, to purchase a new car every 3-4 years, a home that produced four children who graduated from college.  We need more than a tax break and lip service.  We need “living wages” for workers in America, along with “living wage jobs”.  We need a president who is not a sell-out to corporate America.  We need a leader who will stand with us and beat back the influx of China in this country.  We surely do not need anymore Penn’s, and I am confident many will agree with me on this one.

Obama: Part Hawk, Part Dove?
Obama’s Heritage
What The Polls Say V. What They Mean

AFL-CIO Debate, Soldiers Field, Chicago, IL
I watched the debate and came to this conclusion.  Chris Dodd and Joe Biden want a “cabinet position” with the “hopeful president to be”, that is Clinton.  The way they went after Obama was comical, at best, with tints of desperation, to be nice.  But this gave Obama a chance to speak and clarify (video here) his position on Pakistan.  As Ben Smith from Politico wrote:

…”Well, look, I find it amusing that those who helped to authorize and engineer the biggest foreign policy disaster in our generation are now criticizing me for making sure that we are on the right battlefield and not the wrong battlefield in the war against terrorism,” Obama said to applause for the crowd.  more

One shameless moment came from Senator Biden.  This was during the union members Q&A, when the widow, Deborah Hamner, whose husband died at the Sago Mines, addressed Senator Biden about federal safety regulations for mine workers.  Instead of him answering the question, he was still in tag team form of answering a question about Pakistan!!!  He was booed soundly and loudly.  The most stupid question of the night went to Senator Obama from Keith Olbermann.  Will you invite Barry Bonds to the White House?  Umm, can I categorically let you know that we don’t give a damn.  The most passionate and one that left impressions was Dennis Kucinich.  Even my husband, had to sit up and take notice.  Kucinich was the only one who would ban NAFTA for good.  And wouldn’t any union household cheer that?

During the analysis on MSNBC former Mayor Willie Brown stated something that stuck with me, and I have been writing about it on the boards.  He stated that Senator Clinton need to address and put to bed, the “lobbyist” snafu.  She had an opportunity to address this tonight and her answer was everthing but the “right answer”.  The former mayor also stated that this issue could run like a “virus”.  I have posted my comments on this and agree.  Everyone must understand this.  We follow these candidates, polls, campaign stops, etc.  The average public does not.  So, when hearing about this “lobbyist snafu”, they only have one reminder, the Jack Abramhoff lobbyist scandal.  To publicly, admit, that it is “okay” to take monies from lobbyists, puts you in the bed of “business as usual”.  This is something her campaign need to address and expect ads out “very soon”, on this issue.

Overall, Clinton is unscathed.  Obama held his own and scored some points on foreign policy.  Biden and Dodd are riding out to “Desperado”.  Edwards was just OK for me.  With the exception of calling Clinton out for being on the cover of “Fortune” or is it “Money” magazine?  Richardson better, but forgettable.  And the winner is Dennis Kucinich.  The only candidate that will send NAFTA out to pasture, and kick WTO to the curb.  AP, Washington Post, Newsday, Chris Cillizza, Full Debate Transcript
And the moment of the debate, was here, Steve Skvara, retired LTV Steel Worker:
 

Obama Will Be in Oakland for Walk A Day In My Shoes
Using PAC Money

August 8, 2007

Seeking the Hispanic Vote

…Despite becoming this presidential race’s phenomenon, with the power to draw huge crowds and raise millions of dollars, Mr. Obama remains relatively unknown among the country’s fastest-growing electorate: Nearly half of Latino voters have never heard of him, according to a June Gallup poll.

Even as he gains awareness among Hispanics, he may find wooing them to his campaign a challenge. Across the U.S., tensions simmer between Hispanics and blacks who regard each other as rivals for jobs, educational resources, housing and political power. In Los Angeles, Hispanics have become the majority in traditionally black enclaves and clashes have erupted between the groups in schools and on the streets.

For Mr. Obama, this has created a tricky situation. The fiery debate over immigration in Congress alienated many Hispanics, pushing conservatives among them into the Democratic camp and encouraging others to register to vote. But to tap into that, Mr. Obama must navigate past Democratic primary opponents who are better positioned to capitalize on those voters.

“If Obama were the Democratic presidential nominee, he would do well in the Hispanic community,” says Mark Mellman, a Democratic pollster. But “he will have to fight for their support in the primaries.”  more

Rasmussen 24 Hour Trend Reversal
Obama, an Opportunistic Hawk?

Well, the Yearly Kos Presidential Forum has unleashed the “real”.  From new polling data 48% believe Senator Clinton will be “influenced” by lobbyist monies.  Since this blunder, or we can say the “keepin’ it real Hillary moment”, this put the pause in folk to say, “hold up, lobbyist represent average americans”?  Yes, folk are questioning this.  See, when you are in the “beltway”, you do get “disconnected” with how people feel.  That is why I do give kudos to Clinton for consistantly polling to keep up with the “pulse” of people.  But to come out and say that “lobbyist” gaffe is just another question to throw onto the “who is Hillary” pile.  Lastly, former Mayor Willie Brown from San Francisco summed it up.  That Hillary Rodham Clinton need to address the lobbyist issue, if she does not it will be come a virus.  And this may just be the start.

Read, Glenn Greenwald
Obama, Clinton Fighting for the Gay Vote
Gay Community Want Action, Not Just Talk

Clinton Rivals, HOLD UP, WAIT A MINUTE!!!!

Hillary Clinton has surged to a big lead in national polls for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination but her chief rivals say the polls are overblown and the race is far from over.

According to a realclearpolitics.com average of recent polls, the New York senator and former first lady is enjoying a gap of 18 percentage points over her closest challenger, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, 41 percent to 22 percent, while former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards has 11.5 percent.

Democratic strategist Jenny Backus, who is neutral in the 2008 nomination race, said the national polls are important but that Obama and Edwards are making the race a more difficult one for Clinton than her camp had anticipated.

“I think Hillary is the front-runner but not the front-runner she thought she was going to be when this race started. She was supposed to be this colossus striding over a field of pygmies. But instead she’s in a hand-to-hand battle with one very ferocious competitor and a couple others breathing on her heels,” said Backus.  more

Fundraising in Sacramento, California

Sympathy for Musharraf

“President Musharraf has a very difficult job, and it is important that we are a constructive ally with them in dealing with al-Qaida,” the Illinois senator said.

Obama did not repeat the most incendiary line from his foreign policy speech last Wednesday, when he promised: “If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won’t act, we will.”  more

Obama Blasts Fundraising Group
Michelle Obama to Campaign in Reno, Nevada

 
  Good interview here….Mike Lux, Open Left

Obama does housework, homecare for labor support

With a television crew and photographers in tow, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama spent Wednesday morning mopping floors, cleaning cobwebs and preparing breakfast for an 86-year-old wheelchair-bound amputee, as he accompanied a home health care worker on her daily duties.

A day on the job has become a new ritual of the Democratic presidential campaign this year, after the powerful 1.9 million-member Service Employees International Union demanded that candidates “Walk a Day in My Shoes” with a union member in order to be considered for endorsement.

On Wednesday, it was the Illinois senator’s turn. Obama joined 61-year-old Pauline Beck, an African-American woman with gray hair and an easy manner, as she cared for John Thornton, a retired cement mason and widower who lives in a modest clapboard home in a low-income neighborhood of Oakland.

“I’m not going to lie to you. It’s been a while,” Obama said, after mopping the kitchen and bathrooms.

“I probably haven’t mopped a floor since I started my Senate race,” Obama continued, though he quickly added, “Before that, that wasn’t something I was averse to doing.”

Obama gamely assembled Thornton’s customary breakfast of coffee, frosted flakes and watermelon cubes, washed and folded laundry and gingerly approached the task of making the bed.

“Is this the way he likes it?” Obama asked. “This is the hard part for me. My wife says I’m kind of shaky.”  more, Barack Walked A Day in Pauline Beck’s Shoes

New Radio Ad in South Carolina
 
  New Ad in Iowa, “What If”

To naivesayers: Can’t Obama be new blood?

The conventional thinking – especially in Washington – is that Barack Obama is flunking foreign policy. But this is one case where conventional thinking may be too closely tied to convention and not all that well thought out.

Yes, we’ve had a glimpse of the world according to Obama. And it doesn’t look half bad.

Not the world itself, which is as dangerous and unpredictable as ever – full of petty tyrants, enemies posing as friends, and rogue states in search of nuclear weapons.

I’m talking about the worldview of the junior senator from Illinois. What seemed like a rookie mistake – i.e., suggesting that, as president, he’d meet with dictators from countries such as Cuba, Iran or North Korea – may actually wind up serving Obama well.

First, it let him draw a distinction between himself and the front-runner. Hillary Clinton helped the cause when she blasted Obama’s comments as “irresponsible and frankly naive.”

That’s baby boomer code for “young and immature.” The 46-year-old Obama stresses the fact that he’s of a different generation than his opponents. This was Clinton pushing back. She might as well have sent the whippersnapper to his room without dessert. After all, Clinton lectured, the president of the United States must be careful not to be used “for propaganda purposes.”  more

Trying to Seal the Deal With Hispanics

August 9, 2007

Obama Against the GOP
Obama’s Rise and PAC Monies
Race for ’08: Devotion, dollars for Obama

Obama Commander-in-Chief

..Over the past few weeks, Obama has been working to create a commander-in-chief moment, and it has resulted in a rough patch for his campaign. But if he wants to win the nomination, he can’t give up working for this moment.

Obama made the right decision in not backing off his comments about pursuing terrorists in Pakistan. At the AFL-CIO debate earlier this week, Chris Dodd urged Obama to admit that his statement about Pakistan was a mistake — but Obama forcefully defended himself.

Obama is correct to stand by his statement because what he originally said makes perfect sense:

“It was a terrible mistake to fail to act when we had a chance to take out an al-Qaida leadership meeting in 2005. If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won’t act, we will.”

Since when did going after al-Qaida become a controversial platform? Bush, Cheney and Giuliani have based their entire political identities on the vague assertion that they will hunt down the terrorists and kill them, but Obama suggests we might actually want to do this and he is hit for being naïve.

The truth is that Bush and Company gave up on catching bin Laden four years ago to focus on what they thought would be an easier time in Iraq. Intent on solidifying her hawkish credentials, Hillary went along for the ride.  more

Obama and Pakistan
Candor in the Age of Spin
Eric Michael Dyson Video, a must see

As ABC says:  “She said vs. She said?”
Hillary Rodham Clinton need to hire a staff just for canvassing “youtube, “audio, “print”, files before she opens her mouth, for criticism.  In fact, I would hope “all these campaigns” are doing just that, if not, “heads up”, you should.  Back to Clinton, who publicly “berated” Obama stating that he would not resort to using “nukes” to rule out terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan.  The bait and switch is that Clinton said almost the exact same thing.

“I would certainly take nuclear weapons off the table,” Mrs. Clinton told Bloomberg Television in an interview in April 2006, responding to a question about how the Bush administration would try to prevent Iran from building up its nuclear program.

Last week, Mr. Obama said it would be a “profound mistake” for the United States to use nuclear weapons to fight terrorism in Afghanistan or Pakistan. Asked to reply, Mrs. Clinton said: “I think that presidents should be very careful at all times in discussing the use or non-use of nuclear weapons.”

For weeks, Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama have tangled over their foreign policy views, judgment and experience in their quest to win the Democratic presidential nomination. Mrs. Clinton has challenged Mr. Obama – at one point, calling his foreign policy stands “irresponsible and frankly naïve” – while he has sought to portray his positioning as an example of how he would change Washington.

But during the television interview more than a year ago, the comments of which were reported by The Associated Press, Mrs. Clinton also discussed the role of nuclear weapons.

“I have said publicly no option should be off the table, but I would certainly take nuclear weapons off the table,” Mrs. Clintons said. “This administration has been very willing to talk about using nuclear weapons in a way we haven’t seen since the dawn of a nuclear age. I think that’s a terrible mistake.”  more, ABC, Bloomberg

Republicans for Obama

Obama argues for civil unions for gays

Sen. Barack Obama said Thursday he wanted to tap into the “core decency” of Americans to fight discrimination against gays and lesbians, and argued that civil unions for same-sex couples wouldn’t be a “lesser thing” than marriage.

At a televised forum focusing on gay rights, the Illinois senator was asked to explain how civil unions for same-sex couples could be the equivalent of marriage. He said, “As I’ve proposed it, it wouldn’t be a lesser thing, from my perspective.

“Semantics may be important to some. From my perspective, what I’m interested (in) is making sure that those legal rights are available to people,” he said.

“If we have a situation in which civil unions are fully enforced, are widely recognized, people have civil rights under the law, then my sense is that’s enormous progress,” the Illinois Democrat said.  more, post conference

Rasmussen Poll, Obama Cut Clinton’s Lead to 12

August 10, 2007

Over on mydd bloggers for their “candidate” will be given featured author status.  This event starts Monday, and on Wednesday check out psericks and Max Fletcher, blogging for Barack Obama.  Don’t miss it.

Owner of the Utah Mine Fiasco Uses Media Against Union for Safety Conditions, a must read

Being on the Outside

Obama was compared to a rock star at the LGBT forum and received a strong welcome from the crowd. He acknowledged his experience as an African American, and how it helps him relate to the LGBT community. “When you are a black guy named Barack Obama, you know what it’s like to be on the outside.” He also said, “It is important not to look at the black candidate and wonder whether or not he’s going to be more sympathetic, or less sympathetic to these issues. I’m going to be more sympathetic not because I’m black, but because this has been the cause of my life and will continue to be the cause of my life making sure that everybody is treated fairly and we have an expansive view of America, where everybody is invited in and we are all working together to create the kind of America we want for the next generation.”
Link

Michelle Obama in Reno, NV
Emulating Bush?

Obama at National Association of Black Journalists

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Friday that rival Hillary Rodham Clinton was wrong when she said politicians shouldn’t discuss hypothetical decisions on foreign policy.

Speaking at a conference of the National Association of Black Journalists, the Illinois senator defended his recent call for military action to hunt down terrorists if Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf doesn’t act. Obama also said it would be “a profound mistake” to deploy nuclear weapons in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Clinton, who has tried to cast her rival as too inexperienced for the job of commander in chief, said presidents shouldn’t make “blanket statements” with respect to the use or non-use of nuclear weapons.

“She said, I don’t I think we should talk about it. Well, I think we should talk about it. I think the American people ought to have a debate about our foreign policy because it’s so messed up and if we don’t talk about it we’re going to end up repeating the same mistakes,” Obama told an audience at a conference of the National Association of Black Journalists.

“Being experienced is not enough. The question is, what lessons do you learn from your experience?” he said. “Nobody had a better track record in experience than Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, but they had bad judgment … The people who have been criticizing me over the past two weeks are the people who engineered what is the biggest foreign policy fiasco in a generation.”

  more, audio of the event, psericks

Obama Fires Up Culinary Union Rally
Obama Can SING!!!
The One Catch All Candidates Are Trying To Snare”
 
  Obama and his girls in Las Vegas, Nevada

Barack Oblogger

August 11, 2007

Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama on Saturday served as grand marshal of the annual Bud Billiken Parade, an event founded in 1929 by the Chicago Defender newspaper to celebrate area children.

Before the parade began, Obama said he was glad to be on the South Side.

“Everybody here has looked after me for years,” Obama said.

Asked if participating in the parade was part of a strategy to court black voters, Obama said, “This is my crew. I don’t worry about them. We’re doing fine.”  more, ABC7 Chicago, Video

Fighting the Arugula Factor

Professors Like Obama

Barack Obama appears to be winning the faculty lounge straw poll — his presidential campaign is cultivating academics and pacing the field in collecting cash from them.

Obama, whose website features an “Academics for Obama” page, raised nearly $1.5 million in the first half of the year from people who work for colleges and universities, according to an analysis of campaign finance data by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. And that’s 55 percent more than the $939,000 brought in by the next biggest professor’s pet, fellow Democratic senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.  more

Clinton, Obama and DOMA
Tucker, the Tool

A Series of Fortunate Events
This piece is slated for August 12, 2007, Washington Post.  I decided to include this piece with this week’s roundup because it is a facisnating read about Obama’s rise in politics.

In the summer of 2002, a little-known Illinois state legislator named Barack Obama thought he saw the political opening he’d been looking for. It was a long shot, a flier — a race for the U.S. Senate against a sitting Republican. Obama believed he could beat the incumbent, Peter Fitzgerald. The immediate and, in some ways, harder challenge would be getting the Democratic nomination.

Obama was about to turn 41. An attorney and law lecturer at the University of Chicago, he had been elected to the state Senate in 1996, but had been chafing for some time at the limitations of legislating in Springfield. In 2000, he’d overreached by challenging former Black Panther Bobby Rush for the seat Rush held in the U.S. House of Representatives. It had been a disastrous bid, but understandable given that in Illinois, as around the country, paths to higher office for black politicians are few.
 
But this new opportunity looked, to him, feasible. In 1992, another Chicago politician, Carol Moseley Braun, had demonstrated that it was possible for an African American to win a statewide U.S. Senate primary, as long as there were at least two white Democrats to split the white vote. And several were already lining up to take on Fitzgerald.

There was just one problem, and it was a big one: Moseley Braun was talking about running herself. Only the second African American U.S. senator since Reconstruction, she had lost to Fitzgerald in 1998, in part as a result of allegations, never proved, that she had misused campaign funds. After the loss, she had been appointed U.S. ambassador to New Zealand. But now she was back in Hyde Park, the neighborhood that surrounds the University of Chicago, where Obama also lived. If she did run, there would be two credible black Democrats in the primary — one far better known than the other.  more

Leave it to Barack Obama

Leave it to Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) to stir up an international incident by acknowledging something everyone already knew.

Obama’s bombshell: If the Obama administration knows Osama bin Laden is in Pakistan and President Pervez Musharraf doesn’t act to take him out, President Obama will. Obama’s rivals in the race for the White House pounced, calling his stance naive and a sign of his lack of foreign policy experience. They didn’t disagree with the policy. They didn’t like the way he said it.

The gloves are coming off. We’re seeing a new debate emerging in the dog days of summer that’s centering on how much Obama has to learn about foreign policy. The former first lady and second-term senator, who has been widening her lead over Obama in polls, certainly has the edge on experience. But Obama has a big comeback of his own: If experience got us into the foreign policy mess we face today, that kind of experience is overrated.

Yet, Clinton and other leading Democratic rivals, Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware and Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut, saw an opportunity to criticize Obama and they took it. So did former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani on the Republican roster.

Yet, Obama’s critics acknowledged that his policy is already the Bush administration’s policy. Furthermore, none of the leading candidates disagreed with it.

So what was the problem? The issue quickly became a question of international etiquette.  more

Obama Gets His Groove Back
 
If you want “business as usual”, and believe “lobbyists represent the average american”, well you know who your candidate is.  If you want change, real change, you know WHAT TO DO.

Shoutouts:  a must read foreclosures; harold ford, exposed; glenn w smith, on the dlc; did you miss hillary and the lobbyists?; read my entitlement diary; iowa caucus in december?; apology for my gaffe, giuliani; a must read by FishOutofWater; clammyc; giuliani’s daughter backs barack; more katrina; govenor spitzer; NYTimes video of Yearly Kos; yearly kos photos; mike lux; we still do need unions;  minnesota bridge update; the gloves are off!!!; my partner in crime, lovingj; another lovingj video; kos and cafe standards; amen, kos, amen; cowards; more troops in iraq, than ever; a message for us; iraq casualty list; army recruiting incentives; general wesley clark; cenk uygur, not once but twice; jeffrey feldman; psericks afl-cio recap; no endorsement from labor; brooklynbadboy, great diary; jerome a  paris; soldier field’s tailgating parties by bored now; kos is right, mitt romney is full of it!!; canvassing in NH; and donate to the obama campaign, here

Missed YKos Presidential Forum?  Right Here
yearly kos presidential forum part I and part II;

Missed AFL-CIO Debate?  Right Here
afl-cio debate part I, part II, part III, part IV; part V; part VI; part VII; part VIII; part IX

icebergslim’s final word:  This week’s final word is about a “supposed to be” Democrat by the name of Harold Ford, Jr.

I don’t really know where to begin.  One thing I do know for sure, we can have knockdown, drag out fights, arguments, amongst each other.  Even when our candidate does not win the primary, we begrudgingly rally behind the Democrat.  Now this is something I have not witnessed in a while, a “Democrat” assaulting a Democratic Progressive Website, Daily Kos.

I don’t know what Mr. Ford is trying to accomplish by “bashing us”, but let me remind him a tad bit of what this community is about.  During his campaign he got a “hell of a lot of money” from the community of that site and all through the progressive community.  Many did not believe he could win, but many of us, did.  He may not be on the same “page” as many of us, but he is a Democrat and thus so, we supported him.

Now, since Mr. Ford did not win, he is working as a correspondent with the Fox News Channel, Vice Chairman and Senior Policy Advisor for Merrill Lynch, and is Chairman of the Democratic Leadership Conference. 

He started with an op-ed piece, tag-teaming with Governor O’Malley of Maryland titled, “Our Chance to Capture the Center”, and his opinion piece from the Wall Street Journal.  I am not going to comment about these articles, it speaks for itself.  But, what I found rather “odd” is that this is not how most Democrats think.  It is not.  Nor are we trying to get back to “center”, look what that has done for us?  Nothing.  So, is he out of touch?  Is he ranting because the presidential candidates decided to support and address, the Yearly Kos Convention, instead of the DLC, which they did a “no-show”?  If so, what kind of “cheese” do you wish with your “whine”?

Moving on, Mr. Ford presumes that we think next year will be a “cakewalk”, I hardly think so.  Every vote will be fought for, we totally get that.  We, Democrats, have been fighting this battle for as long as I can remember, which includes for me, my mother, dragging me and my brothers and sister, through the neighborhood knocking on doors, for DEMOCRATS.

What I am getting from Mr. Ford’s article is a “throwback” to the “Clinton Years”, the “90’s”.  That reads well on paper, but this is 2007, driving into 2008.  People are different, times are different, and issues are different, period.  And to think “that time” will fit into “this time” is wishful thinking, at best.

Mr. Ford can continue to go on Bill O’Reilly’s show, continue to write op-ed pieces, rant and rave, all he want  Oh, by the way, Mr. Ford, did you read Markos’ op-ed, by chance?  Anyway, he has assaulted us, the many of us who commune at Daily Kos because many do not agree with him, and many of us are Democrats.  And he has taken it public.  On this note, for me, he is just like Joe Lieberman, ’nuff said on that one.  Mr. Ford has lost any support or admiration he got from me, and if it was up to my husband this would not be “readable”.  So, in closing, Mr. Ford definately will not get another check for his endeavors from, icebergslim, again.

 
  Obama @ YKos breakout, thanks casperr for the pix!!

email me for any questions, read ya next week, remember to focus on Obama, not the drama….

donate to next year’s netroots nation conference/convention, (a.k.a. Yearly Kos) here

p.s. a wonderful shoutout to pastordan

cross posted @ mydd, openleft, prairiestateblue

Debate Schedule

August 7, 2007 – AFL-CIO Debate, Chicago, IL (MSNBC) 6-7:30 PM CST  Link
August 9, 2007 – Los Angeles, California (LOGO TV/LOGOonline.com Live Streaming) 9PM EST  Link
August 19, 2007 – Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa  (ABC) 8PM
August 27-28, 2007 – Iowa, Cancer Forum (MSNBC) Moderators: Lance Armstrong and Chris Matthews
September 26, 2007 – Hanover, New Hampshire
October 30, 2007 – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
November 15, 2007 – Las Vegas, Nevada
December 10, 2007 – Los Angeles, California
January 6, 2008 – Johnson County, Iowa
January 15, 2008 – Las Vegas, Nevada
January 31, 2008 – California

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly….

he’s only human, guys….let’s go….

July 22, 2007

 

The REAL Obama Girl

Michelle Obama is the authentic Obama Girl. And on Friday, this Obama Girl was at home pinch-hitting for her husband, Sen. Barack Obama, as she cut the ribbon for a new volunteer office at 300 W. Adams, posed for fans armed with cell phones, and revved up the crowd with her passionate stump speech.

Wearing a white top with ruffled sleeves, fitted black pants (that affirmed that Michelle still works out despite her grueling campaign schedule) and her trademark pearls, this Obama Girl couldn’t be more unlike model Amber Lee, the woman who’s using the Obama campaign to make a name for herself.

More than 2.5 million people have viewed “I’ve Got A Crush On Obama,” a video featuring the scantily clad rump-shaker on YouTube. That fact alone is enough to push the video-sharing Web site into the same cesspool that spawned the raunchy videos that became the bedrock of BET and MTV.  more…

The Social Event of OBAMA’S Season

Invitations have gone out for what promises to be a must-attend event for much of California’s Democratic elite, particularly those in the entertainment industry: a Sept. 8 fundraiser for Barack Obama at Oprah Winfrey’s Santa Barbara-area home.

In the best tradition of Hollywood, the e-mail touting the afternoon gathering doesn’t mince words, promoting it as no less than “the most exciting Barack Obama event of the year anywhere.” And the invite urges haste in responding, saying: “Please get back to us soon before it sells out.”  more..

Mitt Romney is NOT Ready for Prime Time

You have to ask yourselve: when will they ever learn?

TMZ.com has the pictures above of Mitt Romney — a supposedly slick political candidate — getting himself into the most fundamental kind of political pickle: he allowed himself to be standing next to and be photographed with a supporter with a sign saying “NO TO OBAMA OSAMA AND CHELSEA’S MOMA” with a big smile on his puss. Even WORSE: in one of the photos he’s holding it.

Is Mitt ready for Prime Time??????

And what has ensued? Exactly what you’d expect.

There’s a firestorm suggesting he’s suggesting a link between or Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Osama bin Laden. Others demand he disavow the poster. Just read memeorandum or this link to Technorati and you’ll see how this has become a big issue.  more…

Obama Taking on Rural Challenges

Barack Obama wants to hear about the challenges facing rural communities.

The Democratic presidential candidate plans a rural policy summit in Iowa in mid-August that will focus on rural economic development, quality of life and agriculture and renewable energy policy.

“People in the rural economies suffer from many of the things people do all across the country,” he said in a telephone interview Sunday with The Associated Press.

He noted common problems with health care access, failing school systems and lack of livable wages. But the Illinois senator said there are unique issues that must be addressed as well.  more…
NYT

Obama Speaks to National Council of La Raza

…Clinton initially voted to give President Bush the power to go to war in Iraq, although she has since become an opponent of the war. She made no mention of the conflict Sunday. But Obama drove home his point that lack of money for social programs important to Hispanics was partly due to the war.

“We are spending $275 million per day on the war,” he told a crowded hall at the Miami Beach Convention Center. “It is time for us to start bringing our troops home.” He also told the crowd that Hispanics are over-represented in the military and are at risk. His comments drew one the loudest ovations of the day.

Krista Cardona, 26, a university recruiting officer from Bloomington, Ill., cited Obama’s opposition to the war as a principal reason she supports him. “He just speaks to my generation,” she said. “First because he will pull out of Iraq if he is elected.” Manuel Gutierrez, 41, of Miami-Dade, saw it differently. He arrived “a Hillary supporter” and left on the same side.  more…
AP
read more HERE….

Wall Street Leaning Democratic

Oh, Pahleaze….

Givhan routinely writes about the fashion lives of famous men and women, so I cut her a lot of slack; this is her beat after all. In an attempt to provide full coverage, I’ve asked presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) where he buys his suits (Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s) and I asked him after a Sun-Times editorial board meeting last December if it he could confirm a tip I got that he took manicures from an upscale salon on Michigan Ave. in Chicago. After shooting me a look of irritated disgust, he said he did not.

But I’ve got something to add to the discussion: I see Clinton fairly often and she does not dress in an unfeminine way. Sure she wears pants suits all the time in the Senate — most of the Senate women prefer pants suits to dresses and skirts (and most of the Democratic Senate women, I’ve noticed, wear pants more than GOP female senators).  more…

Oprah and Michelle

The question of God’s role in American politics has not exactly been on the back burner these past few years. And so it is worth noting that God has finally made her presence felt and directly intervened in the current campaign. She has actually endorsed one candidate and is even throwing a fundraiser for him on September 8.

By God, I mean, of course, Oprah Winfrey. Who else? It is extremely hard to think of a figure who attracts more instant awe, reverence and eyeballs than the billionaire entertainment mogul. She manages somehow to transcend blue and red America, with her combination of endless compassion and sensible self-help. She is white America’s favourite black woman, and black America’s favourite mainstream star.  more…

July 23, 2007

Clinton Ahead in Polling

…To close the gap with Clinton, Obama will need to convince more voters that he is the best candidate to offer the country a new direction after the partisan wars of the past decades. He must also neutralize Clinton’s advantage among those who emphasize strength and experience, or draw significant numbers of new voters to the primaries. The nomination battle could also be decided on the question of who Democrats believe has the best chance of recapturing the White House after eight years of Republican rule.

Clinton is a polarizing figure, which has raised questions about whether she could win a general election. But Democrats appear to dismiss that argument. Asked which Democratic candidate has the best chance of winning the general election in November 2008, 54 percent said Clinton, more than twice the percentage saying Obama (22 percent). Nine percent think former senator John Edwards (N.C.) would be most likely to win. Among Democratic-leaning independents, 44 percent said Clinton, 25 percent Obama and 11 percent Edwards.  more…

Experience Trumps for Clinton; ‘New Direction’ Keeps Obama Going

A steady hand outscores a fresh face in uncertain times, much to the benefit of Hillary Clinton in the Democratic race for president. But demand for a new direction is strong, nonetheless — a lurking threat to her front-running candidacy.

Clinton and Barack Obama are tied for support among Democrats who chiefly seek “a new direction and new ideas” in the nation’s leadership. By contrast, she trounces him by more than 30 points among those looking more for strength and experience, maintaining the overall advantage she’s held all year in ABC News/Washington Post polls.  more…
Full PDF File

Obama’s Neighborhood

Barack Obama could have lived anywhere. He was born in Hawaii, had family in Kenya, worked in New York and went to school in California and Massachusetts.

But he settled here, in a prominent neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side that has a history of influential residents. In many ways, the Democratic presidential candidate is the epitome of the place he calls home: a mix of black and white residents who are wealthy, well-educated and liberal-leaning.

Ringed by communities where people are poorer and more likely to have a high school diploma and not a college degree, the neighborhood where the Obamas live is an urban island of intellectual and financial prosperity, although it too has residents living below the poverty line.

Just off the south shore of Lake Michigan, the Hyde Park-Kenwood area is a showcase of high-rises, condominiums, vintage homes and stately mansions. It has generic national chain stores and unique local businesses like the barber shop where Obama gets his hair cut, the pizza place his family calls for takeout and the island-inspired restaurant where Michelle Obama fancies the grilled tilapia.  more…

Rasmussen Poll:  Clinton 38, Obama 25, Edwards 14

Pompous Ass, Clear and Simple

Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney is refusing to apologize for posing with a sign lumping together Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and September eleventh mastermind Osama bin Laden.

Romney posed with a woman holding a sign that said — quote “No to Osama, Obama and Chelsea’s Moma” — while campaigning last week in South Carolina. At a town hall meeting yesterday in Exeter (New Hampshire), Romney refused an audience member’s request that he apologize.

Jerid Kurtz, a New Hampshire-based contributor to Buckeye State Blog, said it was inappropriate to compare the Democratic senators to bin Laden. Kurtz is a former Democratic campaign operative.

Romney told Kurtz to lighten up and added he is not responsible for messages on other people’s signs. He said also that he has taken a lot of photos with people holding signs and doesn’t have time to read them all.
Link, Photo

Democrats Lead by 100M

…Among presidential candidates, Sen. Obama is the online star, raising $17 million, or 29%, of his donations this year over the Web. His campaign has a list of 258,000 donors, about half of whom are eligible to give him more money if they choose. But since many of those his campaign counts as donors were just buyers of campaign paraphernalia, it is difficult to assess the depth of either their commitment or their pockets. The campaign wouldn’t say how many people on its list of donors gave money, and how many just purchased something.

Combined, the three leading Democratic presidential candidates — Mr. Obama, Mrs. Clinton and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards — have raised more than $28 million online through June 30.  more…

Do Debates Have Impact?
Obama Wins Planned Parenthood Straw Poll

Small Donors Playing “Bigger Roles” in Campaigns

From her computer in Anchorage, Sharon Pipino hits the “send” button once a month, and delivers another $25 to Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.

“I just can’t help myself,” Pipino said with a chuckle. A massage therapist who had never made a campaign donation until this year, she added: “If I have some left over at the end of the month, I send him more.” She has made at least four donations totaling $164.21.

With the 2008 presidential campaign generating intense interest, candidates are finding that small donations are anything but chump change. They are raising unprecedented amounts in small sums, employing the Internet and traditional direct-mail and telemarketing techniques, and holding low-budget fundraising rallies.

In a campaign expected to cost the two major-party nominees a combined $1 billion, a few bucks from Anchorage don’t mean much on their own. But candidates hope to leverage those donations into more money and something at least as valuable: volunteer campaign workers.

“You want people to give their time,” Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said. “We need people to do phone banks and canvassing…. These are the people who are going to provide the foundation of a very strong national organization.”  more…

Obama, Commander in Chief Video

Obama’s Rural Policy Plan

Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama says he wants to reach out to all voters, including those struggling to keep up with the challenges facing rural America.

Obama plans to host a rural policy forum on Friday in Dallas County, Iowa, where he said he will gain insights directly from rural voters. He will also host a rural policy summit in Iowa in mid-August, which will focus on rural economic development, quality of life in rural communities, agriculture and renewable energy.

“People in the rural economies suffer from many of the things people do all across the country,” he said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.

He noted common problems with health care access, failing school systems and lack of livable wages. But the Illinois senator said there are unique issues that must be addressed as well.

He mentioned spotty rural broadband and wireless coverage, underfunded community colleges and a need to make the most of the growing alternative energy industry.

“We’ve got to provide, I think, some seed money to help boost not just the production, but also the distribution of alternative fuels,” he said. “We’ve got to train people to have the skills” that are needed in those new industries.

Some candidates, including former Sen. John Edwards, already have released plans for rural development, and others will likely do so in coming months.

While Obama gave no specific date for rolling out his rural policy plan, he said he has put together a team of experts to assist in the effort.  more…

Obama Big Lead in Contributions from Hawaii
Debate Prep What to Look For

Obama Fundraises in Massachusettes

At a dark-shingled mansion, one of many tucked along Washing Pond Road on this island’s north shore, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) met a couple hundred of the nation’s wealthiest Democrats at a $1,000-a-plate fundraiser on Friday to explain why he should be president even though he’ll raise their taxes.

Many residents with summer homes here have made fortunes from private equity deals and hedge funds. (A local neighborhood association recently made national headlines by raising $25 million to combat beach erosion.) 

The host of Obama’s fundraiser, Louis Susman, sits on the executive advisory board of Edgewater Funds, a private equity firm based in Chicago, according to the firm’s website.

But tax raises on private equity firms and hedge funds did not come up during Obama’s visit, even though the candidate has proposed them.

“We need to close the loophole that allows managers at some large hedge funds and private equity funds to unfairly cut their tax bills more than in half by treating regular service income as capital gains,” Obama said recently.  more…

YouTube, The Way of the Future?
Dems Face Blunt Questions on Iraq, Draft
Debate Postview

The differences between Sen. Hillary Clinton and her chef rivals were drawn out in sharp relief tonight, perhaps more so than in any previous debate.

Clinton acknowledged — and demanded that her rivals acknowledge — that withdrawing from Iraq would be a lot harder than the party’s soundbites would suggest.

And she refused an invitation to cater to the left wing of her party by saying she’d meet with out-of-step world leaders in the first year of her presidency.

“Well, I will not promise to meet with the leaders of these countries during my first year,” she said. “I will promise a very vigorous diplomatic effort because I think it is not that you promise a meeting at that high a level before you know what the intentions are.”

Barack Obama answered without hesitation — he’d meet “without preconditions” with the leaders of Syria, North Korea, Iraq, Cuba and Venezuela.

“And I think that it is a disgrace that we have not spoken to them,” he said. “We’ve been talking about Iraq — one of the first things that I would do in terms of moving a diplomatic effort in the region forward is to send a signal that we need to talk to Iran and Syria because
they’re going to have responsibilities if Iraq collapses.” 

…And there are two of them in the Democatic race: Obama and Clinton. To borrow a Harry Potter analogy, “change agent” is the snitch and Obama and Clinton are competing seekers. (That Hillary Clinton is seen as a change agent is remarkable at this point, attributable to her status as a Democrat, the earliness of the race, or the hard work of her campaign. It raises the question: change from what? The old order? Or just President Bush?)

The third-to-last question, in fact, was just that, from a guy named Cris Nolan. Wouldn’t Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton represent continuity, not change? “I think it is a problem that Bush was elected in 2000,” Clinton began. She asked to be judged on her own merits. Obama: “I think every question we’ve heard you see cynicism about the capacity to change this country. The question for the American people is: who has the track record of bringing about change?”  more…

Obama Wins CNN Focus Group
Clinton, Obama court colleagues

July 24, 2007

 
  Join Us

Video kills the old-media stars
Obama Chills Hill
YouTube debate ‘brings politics to people’

US Democratic presidential hopefuls have taken part in the first campaign debate hosted by a video-sharing website, in what has been hailed as a milestone in bringing politics to the people.

Broadcaster CNN teamed up with the YouTube website to host a debate with a difference, with ordinary Americans using their home videos to ask the questions of eight Democrats vying to be their party’s preferred candidate.

The first question was really more of a challenge to all of the presidential wannabes: “I’m wondering, since this is such a revolutionary debate, that if you as politicians can do something revolutionary and that is to actually answer the questions that are posed to you tonight versus beating around the… Bush.”  more…

Obama is the Democrats’ common sense ‘liberal’
Obama Speaks in Hampton, NH

Will the ‘buzz’ turn into VOTES?”

In 1996, Bob Dole promoted his Web site at many public events. Four years later, John McCain pioneered fund raising over the Internet. In 2004, Howard Dean attracted thousands of online volunteers to his cause.

None of them came close to winning the presidency. And that history should serve as a warning to Barack Obama, who’s currently busting all records for online donations. The Internet has enormous potential for reshaping the political process. But it’s still just a tool, not a magic lamp.

The basic rules remain the same. Whether a voter scratches an “X” on a piece of paper or touches a computer screen, politics has one purpose: winning. Mark SooHoo, an adviser to McCain, is on target when he says: “Politics at its core is about social networking. What we’re doing is putting a new spin on things, but really at the end of the day, the goal hasn’t changed.”  more…
Campaigns & Elections, L.A. Times, Huffington Post

After Debate Video
Wide Divide Between Democrats and Republicans

Clinton, Obama clash over diplomacy

The rival camps of Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama clashed Tuesday over the meaning of Obama’s claim in a Democratic presidential debate that he’d be willing to meet with leaders of rogue nations such as Cuba, North Korea and Iran.
a
Clinton supporters characterized it as a gaffe that underscored the freshman senator’s lack of foreign-policy savvy while Obama’s team claimed his response displayed judgment and a repudiation of President Bush’s diplomacy.

“I would think that without having done the diplomatic spadework, it would not really prove anything,” former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said in a conference call with reporters set up by the Clinton campaign.

Obama’s team summoned Anthony Lake, who was national security adviser in President Clinton’s first term and now serves as a foreign policy adviser to Obama.

“A great nation and its president should never fear negotiating with anyone and Senator Obama rightly said he would be willing to do so — just as Richard Nixon did with China and Ronald Reagan with the Soviet Union,” Lake said.  more…
Quad Cities, Chicago Sun-Times, They are fightin’

Audio of Clinton and Obama on Iowa Radio Station
Did Obama Win?
Full CNN/YouTube Transcript and Complete Video
Obama launches radio ads in S. Carolina
Missouri Auditor Endorses Obama

July 25, 2007

Why Obama Got It Right

Give Obama a Break on Talking to Dictators

You would think that White House contender Barack Obama had proposed giving Fidel Castro the Presidential Medal of Freedom. That is, if you listen to the Illinois senator’s Democratic rival, Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, try to exploit his casually positive response Monday to a simplistic debate question about whether he would meet with the Cuban dictator and other bad guys in the first year of his presidency.

Among Cuban voters in pivotal Florida, it might not be politically savvy to show any openness to a Castro meeting. Clinton went much further yesterday, calling it “irresponsible and naïve,” clearly hoping to boost her ongoing message that Obama lacks the proper training for the Oval Office.

But to voters who are growing weary of the Bush administration’s unrelenting belligerence on the international stage, Obama’s willingness to at least talk to others probably sounds more promising than Clinton’s apparent preference for maintaining a war footing against potential enemies.
Link

Democrats Now Trusted More than GOP on Ten Out of Ten Key Issues

When it comes to National Security, Democrats are now trusted more by 42% of likely voters, Republicans by 40%. This means that Democrats now enjoy at least a nominal edge on all ten issues regularly tracked by Rasmussen Reports to gauge voters’ trust of the two major parties.

In late June Democrats had the edge on nine of ten issues. At that time, the GOP had a single point advantage of the National Security issue.

Republicans had enjoyed an historic advantage on National Security for several decades but are burdened by the unpopular War in Iraq. Last year’s Dubai Ports debacle also hurt perceptions of the GOP on national security.  more…

Barack Obama’s People Problem

Lauren Smith, 22, drove an hour from her home in Manchester, N.H., and then waited 90 minutes in torrential rain to see Senator Barack Obama speak at an ice cream social in this small town of Sunapee.

She was excited to ask the freshman senator from Illinois about whether he would, if elected President, fund drugs for AIDS victims abroad, especially in Africa. But Smith was disappointed when, after an hour and 13 minutes, Obama left before she could pose her question to him.

The Sunapee event, on July 19, was meant to be one of a more intimate series of gatherings that the Obama campaign has been trying to pull off in recent weeks. But the lure of Obama drew more than 500 people, many of whom drove for more than three hours from neighboring Massachusetts to this hamlet of 3,000. The candidate has proven he can draw rock-star-like crowds across the country. But he is having trouble limiting audiences so that he can focus on what is known as “retail” campaigning, in which candidates meet voters in calmer settings and spend more time answering their questions.  more…

Obama Fundraising August 12th in Chatham

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama will make an appearance in town next month to attend a $500 per person fundraiser.

The Illinois senator will fly into town for the Aug. 12 brunch at the home of Helene and Grant Wilson, overlooking Stage Harbor, and then leave again for another event in New Hampshire that evening.  Obama is not expected to make any public appearances in Chatham.

The event is being sponsored by the Wilsons, Kathy and Michael Schell and Gail and David Oppenheim.  David Oppenheim, owner of the Wayside Inn, said the couples thought it would be an “interesting and educational adventure” to invite Obama to town for a summer fundraiser.

Up to 250 people are expected to attend, Oppenheim said.  As of Monday, about 200 people had responded to invitations.  more..

Obama in Elko County, Nevada for Rural Listening Tour

Barack Obama is going to boldly go where few Democratic presidential hopefuls have gone before… Elko County.

The Illinois senator is launching a rural America listening tour, which will bring him through Elko early next month. It’s a town typically skipped by Democratic candidates.

Obama says he’s out for every vote and he hopes to hear from people living in small communities about how to strike a balance on issues such as gun control, economic development and the environment.

Obama will make a campaign stop in Elko on August third or fourth.  more…

Obama Leads Donations Race
Obama Hits the Country
The Foreign Leaders Kerfuffle: Why Obama’s Obama’s Gaffe Shouldn’t Matter

Obama Models Campaign on Regan Revolt

Awash in money and publicity but behind in the polls, Barack Obama, advisers say, is planning a classic insurgent’s campaign to wrest the Democratic nomination from Hillary Rodham Clinton — one that relies on a surge of momentum from early-state victories and faces a make-or-break test in the South Carolina primary.

Obama is touting a new and unconventional brand of grass-roots politics, but his strategy borrows from precedents set by a previous generation of Democrats such as Jimmy Carter and Gary Hart. His advisers also invoke as inspiration a surprising Republican: Ronald Reagan.  more..

Obama campaign seeks closure of group using his name
Bloomberg Joins Obama in Merit Teacher’s Pay
Here Comes this Racial Stuff, and This

Totally Misrepresentative and Outrageous

The July 20 edition of Fox News’ Hannity & Colmes, previewing a discussion of comments Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) made July 17 in support of age-appropriate sex education, aired video footage of a woman applying a condom to a cucumber as co-host Sean Hannity asked, “Later, what is it that Barack Obama was thinking when he said he supported sex ed for kindergartners?” But the Obama campaign has made clear what he meant. Obama campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki reportedly told David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network: “Barack Obama supports sensible, community-driven education for children because, among other things, he believes it could help protect them from pedophiles. A child’s knowledge of the difference between appropriate and inappropriate touching is crucial to keeping them safe from predators.”  more….

New Hampshire Congressman Hodes Endorses Obama

Congressman Steve Rothman Endorses Obama

The claws came out in the Hillary Clinton camp in the wake of a CNN youtube presidential debate among the Democratic candidates two nights ago.

Clinton called rival Sen. Barack Obama’s willingness to sit down with government leaders who are enemies of the United States “irresponsible and naive.”

But U.S. Rep. Steve Rothman disagrees. In fact, the New Jersey Congressman said when he watched that debate he finally decided he was going to support Obama for president, and today he fired off a press release enthusiastically endorsing Obama ‘08.

“Barack’s appearance in the last debate confirmed for me what I’ve believed all along,” said Rothman. “It’s new thinking versus old thinking. This notion of Hillary Clinton’s that we should continue down this path of not talking to our enemies is a policy that has proven to be disastrous to our country. These are not the views of someone who professes to be an agent of change.”

Just, “HOT DAMN”
Democrats Fighting for South Carolina
Coffee, Pie and a Side of Politics

July 26, 2007

Funds Raised for Obama, Did Not Reach Campaign  Text and Audio

For Obama, Just How Critical Is a Win in N.H.?

…So what should we make of freshman New Hampshire Rep. Paul Hodes’s endorsement of Sen. Barack Obama?

Well, it’s clear the Obama campaign believes it is a significant development. They put out a press release yesterday afternoon touting a “MAJOR” campaign endorsement. Then, today, the Obama camp set up a conference call with national reporters to allow the candidate to tout the endorsement and the installation of Hodes as a national campaign co-chairman.

There’s no question that Hodes’s decision to back Obama provides a nice boost for his chances in New Hampshire. Hodes rode a wave of anti-Republican and anti-war sentiment to victory in 2006 over Rep. Charlie Bass (R), and he represents the geographic majority of the Granite State — a district that stretches all the way from Nashua in the south to Berlin in the state’s North Country.

Obama sought to draw a parallel between the presidential race and Hodes’s ’06 congressional victory, pointing out that Hodes “overcame a lot of the predictions that he couldn’t beat an incumbent several years ago,” but won anyway because he offered “a fresh new voice and spoke the truth.”  more…

The debate is not just about life experience
LEARN LE$$ON FROM OBAMA: MIKE

Mitt Romney Attacks Clinton, Obama

Republican Mitt Romney today jumped into the fracas between Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama.

Weighing in today during the first of a series of “Ask Mitt Anything” forums in Iowa, Mr. Romney declared Mrs. Clinton’s answer to be the right one. Diverging from his usual stump speech, he spent the first 10 minutes of his remarks attacking the Democratic presidential hopefuls and singling out Mr. Obama for excoriation.

Mr. Romney told his audience of about a hundred people that Mr. Obama “told us his agenda for the people he’d be visiting his first year: Ahmadinejad, Chavez; he’d be going to Syria, meeting with the president of Syria,” referring to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, and Hugo Chavez, the leader of Venezuela.

“It’s absolutely extraordinary that somebody can be so out of touch with the nature of our world,” Mr. Romney said. “It’s a bit like Chamberlain. It’s more Chamberlain than it is Churchill. We need to have leadership that understands the importance of a strong America and understands the willinginess to stand with our friends and to be able to say no to those who are evil around us.”  more, with audio…

Local company makes stickers, signs for Obama ’08 campaign

Obama and the Cabs?

May God strike me dead for citing an Ann Coulter column — but I’m actually citing it (really, truly) for an insightful point she’s made, not for her normal, racist, faux-provocativeness (though, there’s plenty of that in there, too).

I didn’t get into it at the time, but there was one comment from Barack Obama at the YouTube debate that really struck me as false (and pretty phony). It was when he said he was “black enough” because cabs in New York City wouldn’t stop for him. Now, I’m not black, but I am a New Yorker, and this just strikes me as somewhere between an exaggeration and a lie.

There was a time in New York when this was true. And it roughly correlated with the time when there were 2,000 murders a year, under David Dinkins. Post-Giuliani, however, this isn’t much of a problem. As Ms. Coulter notes, not only did the general decline in crime help, but regular taxi sting operations by the police show an extremely high rate of compliance as regards picking up black passengers.

This, again, is one of the many ironies of the supposed hatred in the black community for Mr. Giuliani. Those 2,000 people getting killed every year, by and large, were not white people. Policies that Mr. Giuliani pushes, like school vouchers, are not aimed at benefiting white people. (Mr. Giuliani has, in fact, criticized white suburbanites for being selfish in opposing vouchers.)

A Giuliani-Obama race would be an interesting debate between symbolic concern for minorities versus policies that have actually helped minorities in a tangible way. (To go back to education, Mr. Obama’s concern for minority children apparently is less than his concern for placating the teachers unions, as his educational positions would do nothing to break up the union-dominated status quo that does so much to destroy the lives of black and Latino students.)

I’m sure Mr. Obama would win the black vote in a landslide — bigger than usual for a Democrat, that is — in such an election. But that doesn’t mean he should.
Link

SF gays supporting Obama, records show

Can Oprah Deliver Her Fans to Obama?

Oprah’s endorsement of Obama isn’t only important for the sheer power attached to her name. With an overwhelmingly female audience — comprised especially of lower- to middle-class women — she’s the cultural leader of Hillary Clinton’s base. So far much of that demographic has seemed inclined to support Hillary; Oprah could help swing it the other way. Plus, she has tremendous appeal in the black community, which — though it’s still early — has only half-heartedly flocked to Obama’s camp. When, for example, it came time in 2005 for politicians and celebrities to deliver eulogies at Rosa Parks’s memorial service in Washington, DC, you can guess whose speech stole the show.

It’s that cross-cultural appeal, and facility in any situation, that Obama will benefit from by having the country’s top leading lady on his side. Her gregarious nature, street sass (“Hey, girl!”), and TV ministry of empathy have allowed her to walk the narrow line between the races, and to put together a biracial coalition of the sort Obama wouldn’t mind electorally emulating.

As such, she might be able to do for Obama what Elizabeth Edwards has been trying to do for her husband: provide a more accessible avenue for the candidate’s message, in a “non-political” forum (think: the Living section of newspapers), which candidates often crave.  more..

Dems look to rural areas for caucus-night edge

July 27, 2006

The Fight Won’t Die

…Instead, the issue continued to spiral, thanks in large part to Obama’s decision to keep it going. Yesterday morning, during a conference call in which he received the endorsement of Rep. Paul W. Hodes (D-N.H.), Obama pressed the argument that his approach to dealing with hostile governments represents real change.

“Nobody expects that you would suddenly just sit down with them for coffee without having done the appropriate groundwork,” he said. “But the question was: Would you meet them without preconditions? And part of the Bush doctrine has been to say no.”  more..

Obama “The Uniter”

In a slap at his chief rival, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Thursday the most important asset the next president can offer is the ability to unite the country.

The Illinois senator did not mention Hillary Rodham Clinton, but sought to make the case the U.S. cannot afford a divisive commander in chief after George W. Bush’s two terms.

“The reason that this president has failed to lead this country is because he hasn’t been able to unite our country. He’s polarized us when he should have pulled us together,” Obama said in a speech at the College Democrats of America convention at the University of South Carolina. “That’s why the experience we need in the next president is the ability to bring this country together.

“It’s not enough to just change parties,” Obama said.

Despite being viewed unfavorably by nearly half the public, Clinton is ahead of Obama in national and most state polls in the Democratic primary race.  more…

Obama “WOWS THEM”, College Democrats of America

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama brought college students to their feet Thursday at USC, reinforcing for many of them why he has captured their attention in the 2008 Democratic presidential race.

Speaking to several hundred college Democrats gathered for a weekend of organizational politics, Obama painted the students a picture of an American journey to a better life, then invited them to come along.

“I need you,” Obama told the College Democrats of America, who are holding their national convention in the Palmetto State for the first time. “This is our moment to make a difference.”

In his speech, which lasted about 45 minutes, Obama encouraged students that they could help solve the problems they face in the world today — problems such as global warming, the war in Iraq and the need for better education — because those before them had helped solve such intractable problems as slavery, Jim Crow segregation and the Vietnam War.

“Now, in this election, it’s our turn. It’s your generation’s turn to write a new page,” he said.

Obama drew his strongest reaction when he mentioned the need for health care for college students and a means to pay for college tuition.  more…

 

Defining Moment?

A dozen or so young staffers were gathered around a bank of television sets at Barack Obama’s vast campaign headquarters here on Michigan Avenue. They were cheering on Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) as he took their candidate’s side in the great Obama- Hillary Clinton debate over how presidents should negotiate with unfriendly dictators.

The mood was upbeat not only because the Obama loyalists judged Smith the winner in his Wednesday clash with Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) on MSNBC’s “Hardball,” but also because Obama had pulled the front-runner into a direct confrontation over foreign policy.

Obama’s own confidence was clear yesterday morning during a conference call announcing that he had won the endorsement of Rep. Paul Hodes, a freshman Democrat from New Hampshire.

Politicians often underscore their own virtues by discovering the same traits in others, and Obama is no exception. He praised Hodes, an upset winner in the 2006 elections, as “a fresh new voice” who “spoke the truth” and “believed he could be an agent of change.” Hodes, right on message, explained his support for Obama as an effort to “complete my mission” in politics, which is — you guessed it — “to make some change.”  more…
First Read, L.A. Times, Boston Globe

Obama taps Rothman for role in campaign
Obama Wins Over Thompson, Giuliani
New polls: Obama strongest in general election, Romney leading GOP in Iowa

Edwards, Scolds Clinton & Obama

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards claimed the clean-campaigning high ground Friday before an Urban League assembly, as he tweaked his two leading opponents for their weeklong spat over foreign policy.

“We’ve had two good people, Democratic candidates for president, who’ve spent their time attacking each other, instead of attacking the problems that this country faces,” he said at the annual convention of the National Urban League here. “We need to be staying focused on the things that all of us want to do together for America.”more…

Clinton “Bush-Lite”  Audio
Giuliani, Obama target younger voters at Dallas fundraisers

Edison Mayor Backs Obama

Edison Mayor Jun H. Choi, the Mayor of New Jersey’s fifth largest town and a leader in the state’s Korean American community, has endorsed Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination for President. 

“I’ve been leaning Obama for quite some time now,” said Choi. “I wanted to see if there was real momentum in the campaign, and there is.”

This is Obama’s second New Jersey endorsement this week: Rep. Steven Rothman announced two days ago that he would support the Senator from Illinois.

Choi likened Obama’s candidacy to his own upstart bid in 2005.

“I ran because the establishment was not working for Edison, and I was the only outsider to ever win,” said Choi, who made his announcement at a Young Lawyers for Obama fundraiser in Newark on Thursday.

“What I see in Obama is the ability to shake things up and get things back to the grassroots.”  more…

Readers Weigh In On Clinton, Obama

Is the mainstream media clueless when it comes to Barack Obama?

Pundits declared Hillary Clinton and John edwards the winners of Monday’s YouTube debate, leaving Obama in the cold. So The Fix’s Chris Cillizza asked the question: Is the media in America “just missing the boat” on the Obama craze?

What followed could have been a stream of angry rantings about the media, or a polarized argument between supporters of Clinton and Obama, who have been clashing publicly with each other this week. Instead, the question provoked a substantive discussion among more than 100 people about the contrasts between Obama and Clinton, and the ways in which the media portrays those differences.  more…

Obama Wins “Mock Election”
Obama faces doubts among S.C. blacks
Obama’s Stance on Castro Sensible
Clinton vs. Obama is Good for the voter
Attacks could tarnish Obama’s ‘hope’ theme
Clinton-Obama Dispute: Why Wall Street Should Take Note
 

Picking the First Fight

…Why would Clinton, who’s been comfortably ahead in every recent poll, risk the potential boomerang effect of such an attack just as Obama’s popularity balloon was gradually deflating on its own? Her advisers privately suggest that the maneuver was less about hurting Obama and more about the Clinton camp’s current focus on the male voters resisting her candidacy — which also would explain her recent high-profile spat with the Pentagon over Iraq War policy. The idea is that, while Clinton builds on a strong lead among women, she is looking for ways to impress men by demonstrating toughness on high-stakes issues.

The Obama team insists the Clinton attack backfired, offering him a chance to counterattack without taking on criticism for the politics-as-usual negativity he’s vowed to avoid. And they relished the chance to ding Clinton once again for her war vote.  more..

Democrats Speak at the Urban League Convention
It continues….

My presidency would unleash a ‘transformation’

He would surely make history. But would Sen. Barack Obama’s election as America’s first black president transform the nation? Obama says yes.

“The day I’m inaugurated, the country looks at itself differently. And don’t underestimate that power. Don’t underestimate that transformation,” Obama told the crowd Friday at the National Urban League convention in St. Louis, Missouri.

The Democrat from Illinois was answering a question about the racial polarization in America. Obama said “race is still an enormous factor in our society. But economics can overcome a lot of racial division.”

The Democratic presidential hopeful also said that action, rather than high-minded discussions, is the way to end racial inequality.

Obama said “if we’re doing the right thing and making sure that our young people are going to school, that they’re getting good jobs, that they’re starting businesses, that they’re living in thriving neighborhoods and communities, that will do more to lessen racial tension, division and conflict than any set of roundtables and blue ribbon commissions are going to do.”  more…

Foreign Policy Stokes Clinton-Obama Rivalry (Audio)
Obama Down on the Farm
Obama Says Lobbyists and Special Interest Groups Are Blocking Key Rural Reforms

July 28, 2007

SS Nabs Obama Intern
They Still Fightin’
Obama Calls for Shift in Diplomacy
Obama Rises in New Era of Black Politicians
Obama Gains Over Thompson and Giuliani
Now Vilsack in THIS!!!!
State of the States

The Last Word:  Much ado about nothing, or is it?  It is not.  You can argue the finer “points” until the cows come home.  The bottomline out of all of this is, “will you speak with countries we are not friends with.”  For the public, this is very important.  Why?  Look at the glowing example that resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC.  President Bush in the past seven years have put this country in the stone age.  Yes, that far back.  His mantra and policy of, “I’m the Decider”, and “You are with us or against us”, has harmed our worldwide image.  Now when we need help, at the most crucial time with the Iraq situation, there are no phone numbers to dial and no countries to visit, for help.  If that is not a “cold shoulder”, then I don’t know what it is.

The MSM got this wrong.  And they are seeing it now.  It does not matter if you are for Barack or Hillary.  The question that the public heard was “will you talk to countries that are not our friends.”  And the resounding polling from the country is WE WANT YOU TO TALK, we want you to “communicate”.  And if any of these candidates want to continue swimming in the waters of “George W. Bush”, then they should drown.  The sooner, the better.

Shoutouts:  obama and rural issues, by psericks; obama/hillary smackdown; geekesque is on it!!; sue them ALL; hillary the change candidate?; bored now is right, not once but twice; obama’s rural strategy; missed micheal moore on hardball, here; angrydemocrat’s diary on the clinton/obama fight; my partner, “in crime”, lovingj; dlc snubbed; IMPEACH GONZALES;  turneresq does it again; The Public Wants Us The Hell Out; send them to JAIL; clammyc spot on; is bloomberg in?; what????? south carolina in play?; bill o’reilly’s website investigated?; can we read bogus??; hrc to stay in iraq, through 2017?; bush subpoenas michael moore; bush reaches rare heights; a must read; fred thompson, ain’t all THAT; richardson will meet dictators, ANYTIME;  back by POPULAR DEMAND, dinner with Barack; new obama downloads; missed last week’s roundup, here;  and donate to Senator Obama’s Campaign. (Don’t forget August 4th is Obama’s 46th Birthday.  We are going to donate 46 dollars to the Obama Campaign for Barack’s Birthday.  Make sure you donate by August 4th!!!)

 
  it’s been a hell of a week, but focus on obama and not the drama….