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Central Indiana For Obama

Oil Prices? What's the Problem Here?

RIYADH, May 16 (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush arrived in Saudi Arabia on Friday to renew his appeal to help tame record oil prices and shore up Arab support for his efforts to contain Iran's growing influence. Since Bush's last visit in January, oil prices have jumped nearly $30 to around $126 a barrel, adding to U.S. recession fears and boosting political pressure on the White House in a year when voters will pick Bush's successor. For his part, King Abdullah will be looking for reassurances on Bush's commitment to push a $1.4 billion U.S. arms sale through an opposition-led U.S. Congress.

Old friends recall Obama's years in LA, NY

By ADAM GOLDMAN and ROBERT TANNER, Associated Press WritersThu May 15, 2:53 PM ET

The way Sohale Siddiqi remembers it, he and his old roommate were walking his pug Charlie on Broadway when a large, scary bum approached them, stomping on the ground near the dog's head.

This was in the 1980s, a time when New York was a fearful place beset by drugs and crime, when the street smart knew that the best way to handle the city's derelicts was to avoid them entirely. But Siddiqi was angry and he confronted the bum, who approached him menacingly.

Until his skinny, Ivy League-educated friend — Barack Obama — intervened.

He "stepped right in between. ... He planted his face firmly in the face of the guy. `Hey, hey, hey.' And the guy backpedaled and we kept walking," Siddiqi recalls.

There was a time before Obama wore tailored suits — when his wardrobe consisted of $5 military-surplus khakis and used leather jackets, and he walked the streets of Manhattan for lack of bus fare. It was a time well before the political arena beckoned, when his friends thought he might become a writer or a lawyer, but certainly not the first black man with a real chance to become president of the United States.

Obama spent the six years between 1979 and 1985 at Occidental College in Los Angeles and then in New York at Columbia University and in the workplace. His memoir, "Dreams from My Father," talks about this time, but not in great detail; Siddiqi, for example, is identified only as "Sadik" — "a short, well-built Pakistani" who smoked marijuana, snorted cocaine and liked to party.

Obama's campaign wouldn't identify "Sadik," but The Associated Press located him in Seattle, where he raises money for a community theater.

Together, the recollections of Siddiqi and other friends and acquaintances from Obama's college years paint a portrait of the candidate as a young man.

They remember a good student with a sharp mind and unshakable integrity, a young man who already had a passion for the underprivileged. Some described the young Obama's personality as confident to the point of arrogance, a criticism that would emerge decades later, during the campaign.

Not everyone who knew Obama in those years is eager to talk.

Some explained that they feared inadvertently hurting Obama's campaign. Among his friends were Siddiqi and two other Pakistanis, all of them from Karachi; several of those interviewed said the Pakistanis were reluctant to talk for fear of stoking rumors that Obama is a Muslim.

"Obama in the eyes of some right wingers is basically Muslim until proved innocent," says Margot Mifflin, a friend from Occidental who is now a journalism professor at New York's Lehman College. "It's partly the Muslim factor by association and partly the fear of something being twisted."

The young man Mifflin remembers was "an unpretentious, down to earth, solidly middle-class guy who seemed somewhat more sophisticated than the average college student. He was slightly reserved and deliberate in a way that I sometimes thought betrayed an uncertainty."

But another former Oxy classmate, Robert McCrary, now general manager of a contract sewing company, saw him differently: "He definitely had a cocky, sometimes arrogant way about him. ... He was not open to others."

Of course, he was only 18 when he arrived at the small liberal arts college nicknamed "Oxy." His freshman roommates were Imad Husain, a Pakistani, who's now a Boston banker, and Paul Carpenter, now a Los Angeles lawyer.

Carpenter recalled Obama as "a good bodysurfer" who had "a funky red car, a Fiat," and who also played intramurals — flag football, tennis and water polo. "He was an athletic guy. He was gifted in that regard," said Carpenter. He also remembered Obama being "super bright. He could get through the course work in a fraction of the time it took me."

Obama had an international circle of friends — "a real eclectic sort of group," says Vinai Thummalapally, who himself came from Hyderabad, India.

As a freshman, he quickly became friends with Mohammed Hasan Chandoo and Wahid Hamid, two wealthy Pakistanis. There were others, Thummalapally recalls: a French student and both black and white Americans, including Jon K. Mitchell, who later played bass for country-swing band Asleep at the Wheel (Mitchell remembers that Obama wore puka shell necklaces all the time, though they were not in style, and that "we let it slide because he spent a lot of time growing up in Hawaii.")

The friends got together often to watch basketball games — they were Lakers fans — and eat the southern Indian food that Thummalapally cooked with his cousin.

There was serious talk, too. Obama had concerns about U.S. foreign policy — including the failed hostage rescue mission in Iran under Jimmy Carter, and American support of the Contras in Latin America.

Thummalapally lived with Obama the summer of 1980. The two ran together daily, three miles in the early morning, often chatting about their dreams. Thummalapally wanted to start a business back home; Obama talked about helping people.

"I want to get into public service," he recalls Obama saying. "I want to write and help people who are disadvantaged."

___

In 1981, Obama transferred from Occidental to Columbia. In between, he traveled to Pakistan — a trip that enhanced his foreign policy qualifications, he maintained in a private speech at a San Francisco fundraiser last month. Obama spent "about three weeks" in Pakistan, traveling with Hamid and staying in Karachi with Chandoo's family, said Bill Burton, Obama's press secretary.

"He was clearly shocked by the economic disparity he saw in Pakistan. He couldn't get over the sight of rural peasants bowing to the wealthy landowners they worked for as they passed," says Margot Mifflin, who makes a brief appearance in Obama's memoir.

When Obama arrived in New York, he already knew Siddiqi — a friend of Chandoo's and Hamid's from Karachi who had visited Los Angeles. Looking back, Siddiqi acknowledges that he and Obama were an odd couple. Siddiqi would mock Obama's idealism — he just wanted to make a lot of money and buy things, while Obama wanted to help the poor.

"At that age, I thought he was a saint and a square, and he took himself too seriously," Siddiqi said. "I would ask him why he was so serious. He was genuinely concerned with the plight of the poor. He'd give me lectures, which I found very boring. He must have found me very irritating."

Siddiqi offered the most expansive account of Obama as a young man.

"We were both very lost. We were both alienated, although he might not put it that way. He arrived disheveled and without a place to stay," said Siddiqi, who at the time worked as a waiter and as a salesman at a boutique.

The Obama campaign declined to discuss Obama's time at Columbia and his friendships in general. It won't, for example, release his transcript or name his friends. It did, however, list five locations where Obama lived during his four years here: three on Manhattan's Upper West Side and two in Brooklyn — one in Park Slope, the other in Brooklyn Heights. His memoir mentions two others on Manhattan's Upper East Side.

In about 1982, Siddiqi and Obama got an apartment at a sixth-floor walkup on East 94th Street. Siddiqi managed to get the apartment thanks to subterfuge.

"We didn't have a chance in hell of getting this apartment unless we fabricated the lease application," Siddiqi said.

Siddiqi fudged his credentials, saying he had a high-paying job at a catering company, but Obama "wanted no part of it. He put down the truth."

The apartment was "a slum of a place" in a drug-ridden neighborhood filled with gunshots, he said. "It wasn't a comfortable existence. We were slumming it." What little furniture they had was found on the street, and guests would have to hold their dinner plates in their laps.

While Obama has acknowledged using marijuana and cocaine during high school in Hawaii, he writes in the memoir that he stopped using soon after his arrival in New York. His roommate had no such scruples.

But Siddiqi says that during their time together here, Obama always refused his offers of drugs.

In his memoir and in interviews, Obama has said he got serious and buckled down in New York. "I didn't socialize that much. I was like a monk," he said in a 2005 Columbia alumni magazine interview. He told biographer David Mendell: "For about two years there, I was just painfully alone and really not focused on anything, except maybe thinking a lot."

In his memoir, Obama recalls fasting on Sunday; Siddiqi says Obama was a follower of comedian-activist Dick Gregory's vegetarian diet. "I think self-deprivation was his schtick, denying himself pleasure, good food and all of that."

But it wasn't exactly an ascetic life. There was plenty of time for reading (Gabriel Garcia Marquez, V.S. Naipaul) and listening to music (Van Morrison, the Ohio Players, Bob Dylan). The two, along with others, went out for nights on the town. "He wasn't entirely a hermit," Siddiqi said.

Siddiqi said his female friends thought Obama was "a hunk."

"We were always competing," he said. "You know how it is. You go to a bar and you try hitting on the girls. He had a lot more success. I wouldn't out-compete him in picking up girls, that's for sure."

Obama was a tolerant roommate. Siddiqi's mother, who had never been around a black man, came to visit and she was rude; Obama was nothing but polite. Siddiqi himself could be intemperate — he called Obama an Uncle Tom, but "he was really patient. I'm surprised he suffered me."

Finally, their relationship started to fray. "I was partying all the time. I was disrupting his studies," Siddiqi said. Obama moved out.

In July 1985, after spending two years as a writer for a business newsletter and as a coordinator at City College in Harlem for an environmental and consumer advocacy group, Obama left New York for Chicago — where he found a job, a wife and, eventually, a political career.

___

Andrew Roth knew Obama at Occidental and in New York. He speaks bluntly: "The thought, believe me, never crossed my mind that he would be our first black president."

And yet, here he is, on the brink of the Democratic nomination. And he's gotten there with the help of some of those friends from so long ago.

Neither Hamid nor Chandoo would be interviewed for this story; Hamid is now a top executive at Pepsico in New York, and Chandoo is a self-employed financial consultant in the New York area.

Both have each contributed the maximum $2,300 to Obama's campaign, and records indicate each has joined an Asian-American council that supports his run for president. Both also are listed on Obama's campaign Web site as being among his top fundraisers, each bringing in between $100,000 and $200,000 in contributions from their networks of friends.

Both also attended Obama's wedding in 1992, according to published reports and other friends.

Thummalapally has stayed in contact with Obama, too, visiting him in New York, attending his wedding in 1992 and joining him in Springfield, Ill., for the Feb. 10, 2007, announcement of Obama's run for the White House.

President of a CD and DVD manufacturing company in Colorado Springs, Colo., Thummalapally also is listed as a top fundraiser on the campaign Web site.

Siddiqi has not kept in touch. His has been a difficult road; years after his time with Obama, Siddiqi says, he became addicted to cocaine and lost his business.

But when he needed help during his recovery, Obama — the roommate he drove away with his partying, the man he always suspected of looking down at him — gave him a job reference.

So yes, he's an Obama man, too. Witness the message on his answering machine:

"My name is Hal Siddiqi, and I approve of this message. Vote for peace, vote for hope, vote for change, and vote for Obama."

___

Associated Press writers Deborah Hastings in New York, Justin Pritchard in Los Angeles, Gene Johnson in Seattle, and AP researchers Judith Ausubel and Barbara Sambriski contributed to this story.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080515/ap_on_el_pr/young_obama_1;_ylt=AkK6VYHfHBhg1GB6EroQmexh24cA%0A

No Knock on the Door Yet

Thanks to all who wrote notes of support for my earlier message with the email I shipped to the White House. It appears no one is coming to arrest me, maybe I am on the Bush Twit Filter and no one read my outrage filled message. However, guess I should have expected this.... looks like MSM is not challenging Bush's politicizing comments before the Israeli Knesset - instead claiming this points to a weakness in the Obama foreign policy agenda?!?!?! (read more)

How to process an issue with fellow ObamAmericans

I engaged in an e-mail train with some members of groups to which I belong, and I'd like to show everyone the following train. I think we had a pretty reasoned discussion that evolved without turning into a pissing match, something that happens all too often in our groups...the point is to share without getting shouted down, respectfully asked to consider or reconsider what was just written, and not take everything personally. (read more)

Button-making project-- updated info

Hi everyone--

I could use a bit more help for button supplies. If anyone wants to donate I promise it goes to a good cause. See my web page for the details:

http://zgbethie.googlepages.com/

After yesterday's shipments to KY, we have actually sent well over 10,000 buttons-- I need to update the webpage. There are still some contests to go, though. We also plan to send buttons to swing states for the general election. This is an especially great way to help Barack if you are maxed out on contributions.

Thanks!
Beth (read more)

Please pass on to George Bush, Traitor-In-Chief:

You are a disgusting moronic low life excuse for a human being. You send our heroes to their deaths for NOTHING. You destroy our economy for your criminal pals in industry... those who build bombs and pump gasoline and rob sick people of their health and wealth. You lie to the people of America about EVERYTHING. You embarrass my great country before the entire world. Shame on you! (read more)

Lookin' Good

Sen Obama has clearly emerged as the leader of the Democratic Party. Past Presidents (with one exception) and candidates are demonstrating this through their actions and words.

I don't think either John Edwards or Bill Richardson experienced as much POSITIVE energy in a forum as they did when they each made their endorsements. Did you see the looks on their faces - yesterday for Edwards and last month for Richardson?

Fired UP!!

John Edwards

It's great that John Edwards has endorsed Barrack and hopefully it will move Hillary to give up, but don't get carried away with John for VP as he sounds too much like a used car salesman. This is where politics get muddy! (read more)

We need to transcend beyond the temporal outerward appearance of ourselves to the condition of the heart, each soul that makes up the future spirit of United States of America as well as the world as a whole.

In the Gettysburg Address, Abraham Lincoln once said the following, "It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." Of course Lincoln's fight against slavery has pass, but our nation needs a fundamental change of course. I believe Barack Obama can boldly and inspiringly read the current state of our nation’s compass and navigate us into a new more productive political platform.

If you take a strong look at business models like SAS Institute in Cary NC, among many others that have best prospered unwaveringly over the years; each understood that the CEO's voice much reach the front line or "blue collar worker" just as clear as other departmental phases of the business. Furthermore, they realized that the more layers one has in a business, the more the executive department alienates themselves through red tape from the grassroots of the business. It is the business of chained-bureaucracy and top-down approach communication that causes businesses to fail. These failed businesses did not understand (some after it was too late) the value of non-grapevine grassroots interpersonal communication with their workers that place them in a position to voice their opinion and beliefs. I am talking about cultural climate, whether it’s the leave mother who feels she deserves pay while taking off time during pregnancy, employee advancement options, independent or team management, worker’s comp or company dress policy. Culture is what runs a business.

Obama offers this kind of plan that will reach through the walls of politicial bureaucracy in Washington; to make sure everyone’s voice is heard; black, white or autistic, and that his message reaches each citizen in a non-superficial way that is in the context ‘he’ intended it to be in, not Fox News or CNN (who I enjoy watching) or local early morning radio host (with all due respect). However, we as Americans will not clearly hear the depth of his plan for a "new birth" in politics nor be able to joyfully and freely partake of it, if our hearts are not open to looking pass the stumbling factor of race or gender.

Obama For President :)

Johnathan Waters

Response to a Comment on McCain's Nuclear Proposal

Michael Purvis posted a comment on my May 13, 2008, blog: "McCain Newest, Boldest and Most Powerful Proposal: Nuclear Energy." He asked a fair question calling for an answer that can be an entire treatise. I choose to skip the quantitative analyses but instead give a reply based on my own philosophy. This might not satisfy a level of objectivity some readers require, but will hopefully have them entertain the possibility of doing things differently. With hope comes the audacity for change.

Michael Purvis said, "[Part 1][P]lease explain how this ties in all three of those things. [Part 2] [A]nd so you know, nuclear energy is projected to be twice the cost of gas prices today. [Part 3] [D]on't just spout off something without knowing anything[.]"

Reply to part 3: To chastise anyone for expressing a political opinion that maybe disagreeable to certain readers is to attempt to chill the freedom of expression, a right provided under First Amendment to the United States Constitution and an integral part of a vibrant democracy.

Reply to part 2: Nuclear energy is not free energy. The projection of cost at twice that of gas prices today does not account for the growth in demand for the commodity by an increasing world population tomorrow. Nor does the projection account for the lives lost and will be lost fighting for it, it being practically the sole commodity that fuels progress in modern civilization and preserves creature comfort that everyone seems to take for granted and demand.

Reply to part 1:

a) National Security. When a country is energy independent, young soldiers need not be sent to war to fight and die for it. A country is less secure when wars are being waged, causing resentment or hatred; a country is less secure when its very survival depends on a source that someone else owns, resulting in leadership decisions that are motivated by fear, and perhaps by greed as well.

b) Economy. A country that depends on the mercy of others and on the low cost of energy for its survival cannot have a stable economy. Oil producing countries can turn on or off the oil spigot or raise or drop prices at will. Citizens of a country who rely on oil will not likely feel secure in their lives when one day the prices of necessities rise sharply, perhaps as a result of terrorist bombings or earthquakes destroying most of the oil production facilities in the middle-east. Nuclear power generators, while not risk-free are, by comparison, more insulated from the unpredictability of foreign governments and Mother Nature. They are programmed to shut down automatically when the earth starts to move, and they are more easily protected from terrorists since they are situated in the country building them and guarded by its citizens needing the energy generated.

c) Environment. Production of nuclear energy, like crossing a street, has risks. They can be minimized, but not eliminated. Nuclear energy, unlike burning oil or coal, does not emit gases that alter the environment. Nuclear energy may or may not be the safest energy option when all of the risks are taken into account, it is certainly a different one that has the ability to generate a lot of power with environmental benefits.

Barack Obama for President!

JUST IN CASE YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY HEARD JOHN EDWARDS HAS JUST ANNOUNCED THAT HE IS SUPPORTING BARACK OBAMA. HE OFFICIALLY SAID HE WILL HELP BARACK IN ANY WAY HE CAN I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS FOR A LONG TIME BECAUSE I REALLY LIKE JOHN EDWARDS AND HIS WIFE THIS IS ANOTHER GUY WHO HAS A YOUNG FAMILY. JOHN EDWARDS HAS 19 DELEGATES AND THEY SHOULD GO TO BARCK PUTTING TO ONLY NEEDING LIKE 100 DELEGATES. ONE STEP AT A TIME WE ARE GETTING CLOSER TO 1600 PENNSYLVANIA AVE. I WOULDN'T EVEN MIND SEEING JOHN AS VICE PRESIDENT BUT I DON'T KNOW IF JOHN WANTS TO. I SURELY HOPE HE GETS A CABINTE SEAT BECASUSE I THINK THAT J. EDWARDS HAS ALOT TO OFFER. I JUST WISH THAT HILLARY WOULD END THIS RACE BECAUSE WE COULDN'T LOSE WITH THE SUPPORT OF JOHN EDWARDS, HILLARY AND BILL CLINTON AND THE KENNEDYS AND SEVERAL OTHERS. BARACK HAS THE SUPPORT OF SOME REAL HIGH POWERED DELEGATES. AND THEY ARE STARTING TO ADMIT THAT THERE ARE SEVERAL STATES WHERE BARACK COULD POSSIBLY NEVER WIN JUST BECAUSE OF HIS RACE. BUT THATS WHY WE NEED BARACK OBAMA HE IS JUST THE PERSON WE NEED TO START US MOVING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION. WHEN I SAW BARACK OBAMA AND JOHN EDWARDS ON THE SAME STAGE TOGETHER I GOT A REAL GOOD FEELING ONE OF CHANGE AND HOPE AND HELP COMING FROM THE BOTTOM UP. WE NEED TO LEAD THIS WORLD AGAIN AND SHOW THE WORLD THAT WE STILL CAN. BECAUSE WE ARE GOOD AND HONEST PEOPLE BARACK WILL STOP THE WARS AND START FEEDING THE POOR. YES WE CAN GO BARACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! RANDY M.

"EDWARDS ENDORSES OBAMA!!!"

This is "HUGE!" He is probably vying for Vice, and may be a good one, but I think Barack get's his 19 Delegates? Wooohooooo!!!!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080514/ap_on_el_pr/obama_edwards

BSG

I am organizing a "BIG" "Fishing For Obama" event. I have my boats & guides, all lined up. As it takes shape, I will keep you all posted! ;-)

this is funny

Poor, rural, working-class white folks in Appalachia didn’t vote for the rich urban former law professor senator from Chicago. They went for the rich urban former law professor senator born in Chicago instead. But since the vote went so overwhelmingly in one direction rather than the other, and rich urban former law professor senators with Chicago ties are otherwise largely interchangeable, there has to be another controlling factor here. I can’t think what it might be, though. Maybe it will come to me if I think about it.

Oh, wait, I know now. Poor, rural, working-class white folks from Appalachia wanted to strike a blow for feminism. Well, way to go, West Virginia! You’ve certainly done that. And now, clearly, you’ve shown that you’re the most feminist state in all the union.

And to think they once said it couldn’t happen there! They said that poor, rural, working-class folk such as yourself could never vote for a woman to be a presidential nominee, barring something being monstrously and unspeakably wrong with her opponent, perhaps at the genetic level. Well, you showed them, West Virginia. You showed them all.

Your reward is to have Gloria Steinem build a summer home in your borders, possibly in Mingo County, which, with a vote that went 88% for Clinton — a staggering 11 times what Obama got in that county — is inarguably the single most feminist-friendly county in the entire state. Heck, Gloria’s got the U-Haul ready; maybe she’ll live there all the time now. Maybe she’ll bring her friends. Quick, have the menfolk bake a welcoming apple pie. Tell them not to skimp on the cinnamon. You know men. Always skimping, they are.

I’m so proud of you, West Virginia, you glorious feminist paradise, you.

a blog post for perspective

From the Huffington Post:

* While Clinton's win in West Virginia was impressive it should be placed into context. West Virginia is populated with a high percentage of older, non-college, white voters - Clinton's strongest base of support. The impact of her overwhelming victory there is limited by the state's small size. It is the 13th smallest state - only slightly larger than Idaho - and represents .6% of the nation's population. That's why it has only 28 delegates, compared to North Carolina's 115.

* When it comes to blow outs, Obama has won 21 contests by more than 20% -- Clinton only 3 (West Virginia, Oklahoma and Arkansas).

* Even if Clinton were to win 65% of the 189 remaining pledged delegates (which she has no chance of doing), Obama would only need one of every three super delegates remaining today. In fact of course, he actually leads Clinton both in overall super delegates and number of super delegates he has picked up in each of the weeks since Super Tuesday.

* While West Virginia was another reminder that Clinton does has more appeal than Obama among lower income whites, the Washington Post/ABC Poll released yesterday shows how much that is offset by his much greater strength among the independent voters who will mainly decide the fall presidential race. The poll showed Obama leading McCain with this key group by nine points -- 51% to 42%. Clinton led McCain by only 3 points, 49% to 46%.

* The best news for Obama last night came from Mississippi. Democrat Travis Childers victory in Mississippi's first district special election demonstrated conclusively the ineffectiveness of Republican attempts to make Obama a negative for Democratic house candidates.

President Bush won the first district by 25% in 2004. The former Republican incumbent (Roger Wicker) won reelection in 2006 by 66%. Yet Childers won with a healthy 54% to 46% victory -- even after the National Republican Campaign Committee devoted almost $1.3 million of its scarce dollars trying to "tie" Childers to Obama.

It had tried the same tact in Louisiana where Democrat Don Cazayoux was also successful in taking a seat that had been in Republican hands for 3 decades.

And earlier this year, when Democrat Bill Foster won an Illinois special election to succeed retiring former Republican Speaker Dennis Hastert, he recruited Obama to make his closing pitch in a TV commercial.

As much as they wish it were true, Obama will not hurt Democratic candidates in down ballot races - even in very conservative districts. In fact in many cases just the opposite is true. By mobilizing huge numbers of young people and African American voters in November, he will make it more likely that Democrats take an increasing number of Congressional seats in former Republican strongholds - especially in the South.

Responsibility going forward for the msm

It is the responsibility of the msm to help repair the damage they done to Obama. It is now proven that they are the ones responsible for putting into the minds of people nation wide the images of the rev. And now I throw it back to them to do something about it. The msm showed it night and day, day and night around the clock 24/7. People pushed the button yesterday for Clinton because of name recognition and the memories of Bill and made their voices heard on what they think about the color of one's skin. Clinton used the dog whistle earlier last week and they responded. (read more)

McCain Newest, Boldest and Most Powerful Proposal: Nuclear Energy

NUCLEAR ENERGY.

Senators Obama and Clinton ought to be on board this one. Unfortunately, neither democrat has enough political audacity to come out of his and her carbon emitting coal closet. This is Senator McCain's most daring move in his candidacy for president, brilliantly tying together national security, the economy and the environment with two simple words. It is also an effective counterweight to the oil dynasties of Bush and Cheney.

The democratic presidential nominee who takes an opposing stance will lose on all three of the biggest issues confronting the world today. I can see the Republican slogan now: Nuclear Energy: A New Tomorrow.

Will that beat "Change"?

Bitter

Don't be bitter, Hillary, you prepared for this election as best you could with lots of experience. You were the right person at the right time but the country wants something different. If the opposition were not Barack, there would be someone else standing in your path to the Oval Office. If anyone is to blame for your failure to be nominated and elected, it is George W. Bush. If he had been a better president, the country would accept more politics as usual. Unfortunately for you and for the country, George W. Bush has discredited politics as usual, and the country is demanding change. As someone steeped in Washington with years of experience of the usual sort, you are unable to present yourself as representing change.

What should you do now? Drop out gracefully and work to elect Barack as our next president. The country really needs his leadership and will appreciate your efforts. Perhaps you will be asked to serve in his government at the cabinet level. If not, you can remain in the Senate to help pass the reforms needed to set right the wrongs of the Bush administration. If you choose to leave government, you and Bill, together or separately, can tell your story to audiences eager to hear your side of the story. Certainly the country will be more interested in your story than Bush's self-justifications.

Just in case you haven't seen this Barack video Please watch!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Csa5ehRwoac

I love this song and I can truly appreciate how much time the producer put into it. Like the song says..............

"Your Simply the Best!"...................Obama '08

Yes We Can....4 more Super Delegates today!

Hope this makes you smile,

LuAnn :)

Just in case you haven't seen this Barack video..Please watch

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Csa5ehRwoac

I love this song and I can truly appreciate how much time the producer put into it. Like the song says..............

"Your Simply the Best!"...................Obama '08

Yes We Can....4 more Super Delegates today!

Hope this makes you smile,

LuAnn :)

Choices for Vice-President

For Senator Obama to win the presidency, the choice of Vice-President is crucial. Hillary Clinton is the obvious pick but she may not accept it. Nobel Peace Prize holder Al Gore is just as good but is less likely than Hillary to take the job. Putting California's Republican Governor on the ticket is a dream since he is not a U.S. citizen. Former President Jimmy Carter is a stellar choice, so is Warren Buffet, but for different reasons. The list for a willing and able VP is short. This is going to be Senator Obama's most pivotal decision in his early political life. It will require not only good judgment but also God's blessings.

(p.s. To Torgny: Thank you for taking time to post a note on my last blog. Still not quite over my Primary Political Fatigue. Decided to make this entry because the campaign ahead is going to be even more bitterly contested than this primary. Not sure my blogs will make a difference to those whose mind are made up for reasons as immutable as race itself.)

The New GOP Slogan-Read Side Effects

This is the story about the new GOP slogan being the same as for Effexor, a popular anti-depressant. To really have fun with it though be sure you click on the side effects and think of them as the new GOP Platform. You will notice that the first one is suicidal ideation. Now theres a real Republican talking point. But given the economy maybe they are on to something. Anyway read and enjoy. You can't make stuff like this up.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/12/gops-new-slogan-already-b_n_101376.html

George Will is such a tool...

This is a letter I wrote to NEWSWEEK AND George Will after reading his column in the 5/5/08 issue: (read more)

The Secondary Market for Confetti

The Clintons are sitting on 3 rail cars of unused red, white and blue confetti. Most of the tri-colored balloons have been used prior to or sold since the Pennsylvania primary. When orders were initially placed, it was expected that massive quantities of the confetti would have been needed the evening of Super Tuesday in February.

Reports are that she has 3 of her staffers trying to obtain an optimal price per pound for the product. Currently, the staffers are calling all colleges and universities whose school colors are either red and white or blue and white.

The chief concern in the Clinton camp is that there will be a possible imbalance in the distribution in demand for the three colors. A second concern is that the collegiate football season is several months away and, due to the effects of global warming, humid summers are expected in much of the country.

Generally, there is an increase in demand and therefore price, for red, white and blue confetti in years in which Republicans are expected to win elections. This may be one reason that Mrs. Clinton earlier in the campaign endorsed Sen McCain as passing her "commander in chief test".

The secondary market for confetti is extremely complex. Most Wall Streeters prefer to place bets on safer vehicles, such as mortgage-backed securities, a Robert Rubin contribution during the 1990s.

Once she is able to obtain a satisfactory price for the remaining 3 rail carloads, it is expected that she will announce that she is suspending her campaign for the Presidency. Can anyone help her?

Let Her Continue to Lose!

No more talk of Mrs. Clinton dropping out, she must be DEFEATED!

Now that Sen Obama leads in 1) earned delegates, 2) contests, 3) popular vote, 4) superdelegates and 5) the money race, the Clinton campaign should have 24 hours to make a statement.

After that, it is time to BURY them in West Virginia, Kentucky, Oregon, South Dakota, Montana and Puerto Rico!! And, simultaneously bring out superdelegates in greater numbers than 2-3 at a time. Flood her campaign - no gloating, just bury her by the numbers!!

Fired UP!

Ready to GO!!

NOTE: All that really counts is the earned delegates.

THIS LOOKS EVEN BETTER!!!!

OUR HARD WORK IS JUST BEGINNING...NOW WE HAVE TO UNITE THE WHOLE COUNTRY TO EMBRACE A BETTER WAY OF DOING BUSINESS WITH ACCOUNTABILITY AND COMPASSION...PLEASE CHANGE YOUR PHONE MESSAGES
TO SHOUT OUT YOUR ENDORSEMENT OF BARACK OBAMA...LEAVE IT TIL INAUGURATION..."THE URGENCY OF NOW IS NOW!" THIS IS A REQUEST FOR ALL 50 STATES...THIS IS A GENERAL THING NOW!!! (read more)

For The Benefit Of New Readers....

A lifetime ago, in the context of this primary season, there was an interview on NBC's "Today Show". Mrs. Clinton was politely asked about her and her husband's past dealings with fugitives and felons, foreign and domestic and about the "vetting" process in general.

Unless you live in one of the states, territories involved in a contest at the front of the schedule, this may have gone unnoticed:

"I don't worry about that because I think we're putting together a coalition of Democrats, independents, even Republicans who are very much disappointed with the policies of the Bush administration and the approaches taken by the Republican candidates," Mrs. Clinton told NBC. "In fact, we know that whomever is nominated by our party will be subjected to the same kind of withering attacks, but what is great is that those attacks are so old. It doesn't reflect what's happening in our country today.""

Really, Mrs. Clinton?

Pragmatic Politics, Forged on the South Side

May 11, 2008
The Long Run
Pragmatic Politics, Forged on the South Side
By JO BECKER and CHRISTOPHER DREW

In August 1999, Barack Obama strolled amid the floats and bands making their way down Martin Luther King Drive on Chicago’s South Side. Billed as the largest African-American parade in the country, the summer rite was a draw over the years to boxing heroes like Muhammad Ali and jazz greats like Duke Ellington. It was also a must-stop for the city’s top politicians.

Back then, Mr. Obama, a state senator who was contemplating a run for Congress, was so little-known in the community’s black neighborhoods that it was hard to find more than a few dozen people to walk with him, recalled Al Kindle, one of his advisers at the time. Mr. Obama was trounced a year later in the Congressional race — branded as an aloof outsider more at home in the halls of Harvard than in the rough wards of Chicago politics.

But by 2006, Mr. Obama had remade his political fortunes. He was a freshman United States senator on the cusp of deciding to take on the formidable Hillary Rodham Clinton and embark on a long-shot White House run. When the parade wound its way through the South Side that summer, Mr. Obama was its grand marshal.

The secret of his transformation, which has brought him to the brink of claiming the Democratic presidential nomination, can be described as the politics of maximum unity.

He moved from his leftist Hyde Park base to more centrist circles; he forged early alliances with the good-government reform crowd only to be embraced later by the city’s all-powerful Democratic bosses; he railed against pork-barrel politics but engaged in it when needed; and he empathized with the views of his Palestinian friends before adroitly courting the city’s politically potent Jewish community.

To broaden his appeal to African-Americans, Mr. Obama had to assiduously court older black leaders entrenched in Chicago’s ward politics while selling himself as a young, multicultural bridge to the wider political world.

“There are some people who say he’s not strong enough on this or that, that he’s wishy-washy, that he’s trying to have it both ways,” said Abner J. Mikva, a former congressman and mentor to Mr. Obama. “But he’s not looking for how to exclude the people who don’t agree with him. He’s looking for ways to make the tent as large as possible.”

Mr. Obama’s ability to replicate the eclectic coalition he built in Chicago and expand it to the national stage has allowed the one-term senator to match the Clintons at their signature game: collecting influential friends and supporters.

An untraditional politician who at times uses traditional political tactics, Mr. Obama, 46, was portrayed in dozens of interviews with political leaders and longtime associates in Chicago as the ultimate pragmatist, a deliberate thinker who fashions carefully nuanced positions that manage to win him support from people with divergent views.

“Most Americans are getting a small glimmer into the rough and tumble world of the South Side of Chicago politics, which is very, very difficult to navigate,” said Representative Jesse L. Jackson Jr., an Illinois Democrat and ally of Mr. Obama’s. But Mr. Obama did it with skill: “It’s very unusual to have various factions agreeing with you and your politics,” Mr. Jackson added.

Others see his deft movements as a politician’s shifting of positions and alliances for strategic advantage, leaving some disappointed and baffled about where he really stands.

“He has a pattern of forming relationships with various communities and as he takes his next step up, kind of distancing himself from them and then positioning himself as the bridge,” said Ali Abunimah, a Palestinian-American author and co-founder of the online publication Electronic Intifada, who became acquainted with Mr. Obama in Chicago.

Even moments that supporters see as his boldest are tempered by his political caution. The forceful speech he delivered in 2002 against the impending Iraq invasion — a speech that has helped define him nationally — was threaded with an unusual mantra for a 1960s-style antiwar rally: “I’m not opposed to all wars.” It was a refrain Mr. Obama had tested on his political advisers, and it was a display of his ability to speak to the audience before him while keeping in mind the broader audience to come.

Perfect for Hyde Park

When Judson H. Miner invited a third-year Harvard Law School student named Barack Obama to lunch at the Thai Star Cafe in Chicago before his 1991 graduation, Mr. Miner thought he was recruiting the 29-year-old to work for his boutique civil rights law firm. Instead, Mr. Obama recruited him.

Mr. Obama made it clear that he was less interested in a job than in learning the political lay of the land from a man who had served at the right hand of the city’s first black mayor, Harold Washington. Mr. Miner, who had helped with the historic 1983 election of Mr. Washington and served as his corporation counsel, proved a willing tutor.

The confident younger man “cross-examined” Mr. Miner about how Mr. Washington had managed to emerge from an election riven by bigotry to form a governing coalition in which he “got along with all these different types of folks,” Mr. Miner recalled.

Mr. Obama, who had spent time in Chicago as a community organizer in the 1980s and already knew he wanted to run for office, openly weighed the pros and cons of working for the law firm. On the one hand it was beloved by many of the city’s liberals and black leaders for its work on issues like voting rights and housing equality. On the other, the firm had clashed with Chicago’s powerful mayor, Richard M. Daley, who presided then and now over the city’s sprawling Democratic organization.

“During the course of our talking, it came out that people who knew he was having lunch with me were trying to convince him that this was the worst place for him to go. He shared this with me — he was amused,” Mr. Miner said, laughing. “This isn’t where you land if you want to curry favor with the Democratic power structure.”

It was, however, exactly where an aspiring politician might land if he happened to want to run for office from Hyde Park, a neighborhood with a long history of electing reform-minded politicians independent of the city’s legendary Democratic machine. Mr. Obama chose to put down roots in the neighborhood after graduating law school and marrying Michelle Robinson, a Chicago native and fellow lawyer.

A tight-knit community that runs through the South Side, Hyde Park is a liberal bastion of integration in what is otherwise one of the nation’s most segregated cities. Mayor Washington had called it home, as did whites who marched with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and wealthy black entrepreneurs a generation removed from the civil rights battles of the 1960s.

At its heart is the University of Chicago; at its borders are poor, predominately black neighborhoods blighted by rundown buildings and vacant lots. For Mr. Obama, who was born in Hawaii to a white Kansan mother and an African father and who spent part of his childhood in Indonesia, it was a perfect fit.

“He felt completely comfortable in Hyde Park,” said Martha Minow, his former law professor and a mentor. “It’s a place where you don’t have to wear a label on your forehead. You can go to a bookstore and there’s the homeless person and there’s the professor.”

Mr. Obama quickly grounded himself in the community. He led a successful drive that registered nearly 150,000 black voters for the 1992 campaign. He became a part-time professor at the University of Chicago Law School. And, in 1993, he finally decided to join the law offices of Miner, Barnhill & Galland.

The choice sent a signal that Mr. Obama was “allying himself with the independents, which is what you have to be if you’re going to be elected from the Hyde Park area,” said Don Rose, a longtime Democratic political consultant.

Making Connections

The decision to accept Mr. Miner’s job offer quickly paid off. By the time Mr. Obama announced his candidacy for the Illinois Senate in 1995 — at the very Hyde Park hotel where Mr. Washington had kicked off his mayoral campaign — he had cultivated a network of influential supporters.

Mr. Miner was “enormously helpful” in introducing Mr. Obama to the liberal coalition of blacks and whites that had helped elect Mr. Washington, said Valerie Jarrett, a longtime friend and close adviser. “It brought in a whole new circle of people.”

Mr. Obama cultivated clients like Bishop Arthur M. Brazier, the influential pastor of an 18,000-member black church and founding president of the Woodlawn Organization, which focuses on improving conditions for blacks in a neighborhood adjacent to Hyde Park. The two men began talking politics over tennis games at Chicago’s elite East Bank Club, Mr. Brazier recalled.

Mr. Obama also worked on housing redevelopment projects involving Antoin Rezko, who became one of Mr. Obama’s most generous donors. Mr. Rezko is currently on trial for corruption charges unrelated to Mr. Obama.

It was through the law firm that Mr. Obama met Marilyn Katz, who gave him entry into another activist network: the foot soldiers of the white student and black power movements that helped define Chicago in the 1960s.

As a leader of Students for a Democratic Society then, Ms. Katz organized Vietnam War protests, throwing nails in the street to thwart the police. But like many from that era, Ms. Katz had gone on to become a politically active member of the Chicago establishment, playing in a regular poker game with Mr. Miner while working as a consultant to his nemesis, Mayor Daley.

“For better or worse, this is Chicago,” said Ms. Katz, who has held fund-raisers for Mr. Obama at her home. “Everyone is connected to everyone.”

Mr. Obama was comfortable attending performances of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra with city scions like Newton N. Minow, the father of Martha Minow. Mr. Minow, who had served in the Kennedy administration and managed the white-shoe law firm of Sidley Austin when Mr. Obama worked there after his first year of law school, began introducing him to Chicago’s business titans.

Mr. Obama also fit in at Hyde Park’s fringes, among university faculty members like Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, unrepentant members of the radical Weather Underground that bombed the United States Capitol and the Pentagon to protest the Vietnam War. Mr. Obama was introduced to the couple in 1995 at a meet-and-greet they held for him at their home, aides said.

Now, along with Mr. Obama’s former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., Mr. Ayers has become a prime exhibit in the effort by Mr. Obama’s presidential rivals to highlight what could be politically radioactive associations. In 2001, Mr. Ayers said he did not regret the Weatherman bombings. Even so, in Hyde Park, he and his wife were viewed favorably for their work in addressing city problems. Mr. Ayers was just “a guy who lives in my neighborhood,” Mr. Obama said recently.

The two men were involved in efforts to reform the city’s education system. They appeared together on academic panels, including one organized by Michelle Obama to discuss the juvenile justice system, an area of mutual concern. Mr. Ayers’s book on the subject won a rave review in The Chicago Tribune by Mr. Obama, who called it “a searing and timely account.”

Running and Winning

Mr. Obama further expanded his list of allies by joining the boards of two well-known charities: the Woods Fund and the Joyce Foundation.

These memberships have allowed him to help direct tens of millions of dollars in grants over the years to groups that championed the environment, campaign finance reform, gun control and other causes supported by the liberal network he was cultivating. Mr. Brazier’s group, the Woodlawn Organization, received money, for instance, as did antipoverty groups with ties to organized labor like Chicago Acorn, whose endorsement Mr. Obama sought and won in his State Senate race.

On the campaign trail, Mr. Obama hewed closely to liberal orthodoxy, positions that have become controversial in the presidential race. A candidate questionnaire from one liberal group, for instance, detailed his views on hot-button issues like the death penalty (opposed) and a ban on handguns (in favor).

Today, Mr. Obama espouses more centrist views and says a campaign aide had incorrectly characterized his views on those issues — a shift that does not sit well with some in the group, the Independent Voters of Illinois Independent Precinct Organization.

“We certainly thought those were his positions,” said David Igasaki, the group’s chairman, who noted Mr. Obama had also interviewed with the group. “We understand that people change their views. But it sort of bothers me that he doesn’t acknowledge that. He tries to say that was never his view.”

In any event, the group endorsed Mr. Obama, and he was easily elected to the State Senate in 1996.

In the state Capitol in Springfield, Mr. Obama was guided through the political thicket by powerful mentors. It was not long into Mr. Obama’s first term when Mr. Mikva recalled getting a telephone call from Paul Simon, the recently retired United States senator. Mr. Mikva had become friends with Mr. Obama after returning from a stint as White House counsel for President Bill Clinton to teach law at the university.

Mr. Simon suggested Mr. Mikva play matchmaker between Mr. Obama and Emil Jones Jr., the powerful Democratic leader of the State Senate. For the better part of a quarter century, Mr. Mikva had played in a golfing foursome that included Mr. Jones.

“ ‘Say, our friend Barack Obama has a chance to push this campaign finance bill through,’ ” Mr. Mikva recalled Mr. Simon’s telling him. “ ‘Why don’t you call your friend Emil Jones and tell him how good he is.’ ”

Mr. Mikva obliged, and in 1998, Mr. Obama passed one of his signature achievements in the Illinois Senate: sweeping legislation that banned most gifts from lobbyists and the personal use of campaign money by state lawmakers. His Hyde Park base applauded, but Mr. Obama would soon learn the limits of his appeal.

Learning His Lessons

The next year, Mr. Obama called Mr. Minow, his former boss, asking to see him. Mr. Obama was eyeing the Hyde Park Congressional seat held by Bobby L. Rush, a former Black Panther leader. “Are you nuts?” Mr. Minow recalled telling the younger man. “Barack, I think this is a mistake.”

Mr. Minow flipped through his Rolodex, calling black businesspeople and asking them if they would help finance Mr. Obama’s bid. He said he received a uniform answer: “No — let him wait his turn.” Nevertheless, the impatient Mr. Obama jumped into the race.

Brimming with confidence, he equated Mr. Rush with “a politics that is rooted in the past” and cast himself as someone who could reach beyond the racial divide to get things done. But it quickly became clear that while he had solidified his support among Hyde Park’s denizens, he had not built enough bridges to the surrounding black communities.

That failure was apparent on the summer day in 1999 when he walked through the South Side during the Bud Billiken Parade and Picnic. Other politicians rode on colorful floats, trailed by throngs. But Mr. Obama was on foot as he made his way through the cheering paradegoers who had shown up to celebrate black pride.

“People were asking, who is he?” said Mr. Kindle, who served as one of his emissaries to the black community. “You could see how humbling it was in his face.”

The campaign, as Mr. Mikva put it, was “a disaster from beginning to end.” Yet in ultimately losing, Mr. Obama learned that he needed to expand his base to be able to bounce back onto a larger stage, according to Mr. Mikva and others. “The beauty of Obama,” Mr. Kindle said, “is that he was willing to be taken to the woodshed” and “allow himself to grow.”

Mr. Obama, who had a reputation in Springfield as standoffish (“He socialized, but he did not hang out,” Mr. Kindle said), began making courtesy calls to black politicians and members of the clergy. He assured them that he had nothing against Mr. Rush and that “it was all cool,” said Ron Lester, who was Mr. Obama’s pollster during the race.

Mr. Jones, the State Senate president who by then had become Mr. Obama’s political benefactor, stepped up to help as well. The two were an unlikely pair: the Harvard-educated lawyer and the former sewer inspector who had risen through the ranks of Chicago ward politics. Mr. Jones let Mr. Obama take center stage on legislation important to the black community, like forcing the police to tape interrogations.

His willingness to negotiate — the interrogation law ended up with a host of exceptions — gained him a reputation as a pragmatist who could sell compromise as a victory to all sides, said Peter Baroni, then the legal counsel to the Republican caucus.

“He took what came into the fray as a very leftist bill, a very leftist proposal, a very non-law-enforcement bill,” Mr. Baroni said, “and he appeased law enforcement and brought everyone around to support it.”

Before his loss to Mr. Rush, Mr. Obama’s typical response for requests for state money would be a lecture, recalled Dan Shomon, a former Obama aide. “He would say something like: ‘You know what, you’re not going to get your money, and you know why? Let me explain the state budget,’ ” Mr. Shomon said. “Then he’d give a 20-minute treatise on how the Republicans wouldn’t raise taxes, so there wasn’t any money to do what they wanted to do.”

Now, Mr. Obama more eagerly met the demands for spending earmarks for churches and community groups in his district, said State Senator Donne E. Trotter, then the ranking Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee. “I know this firsthand, because the community groups in his district stopped coming to me,” Mr. Trotter said.

Typical of Mr. Obama’s earmarks was a $100,000 grant for a youth center at a Catholic church run by the Rev. Michael Pfleger, a controversial priest who was one of the few South Side clergymen to back Mr. Obama against Mr. Rush.

Father Pfleger has long worked with South Side political leaders to reduce crime and improve the community. But he has drawn fire from some quarters for defending the Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and inviting him to speak at his church. Father Pfleger, who did not return calls for comment, is one of the religious leaders whose “faith testimonials” Mr. Obama has posted on his presidential campaign Web site.

David Axelrod, the chief strategist for the Obama presidential campaign, said that Father Pfleger was “remaking the face” of Chicago’s South Side and that all of Mr. Obama’s earmarks went to worthy programs like his.

With his black base more secure, Mr. Obama began in 2002 to contemplate a run for the United States Senate.

“I had lunch with him at the Quadrangle Club, and we were discussing the different bases he had to touch. I said, ‘You have to talk to the Jackson boys first,’ ” Mr. Mikva recalled, referring to Representative Jackson and his father, the Rev. Jesse Jackson. “Because Jesse Jackson Jr. had his eye on that seat. He said, ‘I know. I’m working on that.’ ”

Mr. Obama soon sat down with the younger Mr. Jackson at the 312 Chicago restaurant. Michelle Obama had attended high school with Mr. Jackson’s sister and been close to the family for years, and the congressman had attended the Obamas’ wedding. “He said, ‘Jesse, if you’re running for the U.S. Senate I’m not going to run,’ ” Mr. Jackson recalled.

But Mr. Jackson had already decided against it, and he gave Mr. Obama his blessing.

A Pivotal Moment

Betty Lu Saltzman, a Democratic doyenne from Chicago’s lakefront liberal crowd, convened a small group of activists, including Ms. Katz, in her living room to organize a rally to protest the United States’ impending invasion of Iraq. It was late September 2002, and Mr. Obama was on the top of Ms. Saltzman’s list of desired speakers.

She first met him when he ran the black voter registration drive in the 1992 election, and was so impressed that she immediately took him under her wing, introducing him to wealthy donors and talking him up to friends like Mr. Axelrod. But with just a few days to go before the rally, Ms. Saltzman was having trouble reaching Mr. Obama. Finally, she said she left word with his wife.

But before Mr. Obama called her back, he dialed up some advice.

With his possible run for the United States Senate, he wanted to speak with Mr. Axelrod and others about the ramifications of broadcasting his reservations about a war the public was fast getting behind. An antiwar speech would play to his Chicago liberal base, and could help him in what was expected to be a hotly contested primary, they told him, but it also could hurt him in the general election.

“This was a call to assess just how risky was this,” said Pete Giangreco, who along with Mr. Axelrod described the conversation. When Mr. Obama tossed out the idea of calling it a “dumb war,” Mr. Giangreco said he cringed. “I remember thinking, ‘this puts us in the weak defense category, doesn’t it?’ ”

The rally was held on Oct. 2, 2002, in Federal Plaza before nearly 2,000 people. On the podium before speaking, Mr. Obama joked about the dated nature of crowd-pleasing protest songs like “Give Peace a Chance.” “ ‘Can’t they play something else?’ ” Ms. Saltzman recalled his saying.

The speech, friends say, was vintage Obama, a bold but nuanced message that has become the touchstone of his presidential campaign: While he said the Iraq war would lead to “an occupation of undetermined length with undetermined costs and undetermined consequences,” he was also careful to emphasize that there were times when military intervention was necessary.

“What’s fascinating about Barack is what he’s trying to do is reframe and change the discourse so you build support for liberal alternatives within the electorate,” said Will Burns, a former aide whom Mr. Obama also consulted on the speech. “He has an ability to frame stuff so it’s not an all or nothing proposition.”

Still, Mr. Obama’s refrain about supporting some wars perplexed some in the crowd.

An event organizer, Carl Davidson, recalled that a friend “nudged me and said, ‘Who does he think this speech is for? It’s not for this crowd.’ I thought, ‘This guy’s got bigger fish to fry.’ At the time, though, I was only thinking about the U.S. Senate.”

Straddling Two Worlds

As Mr. Obama moved closer to running, he paid a visit to James S. Crown and his father, Lester, billionaire investors who presided over a sprawling Chicago business dynasty and prominent leaders in the Jewish community.

As the meeting ended, the younger Mr. Crown said, his father — who is “fairly hawkish” about Israel’s security — was noncommittal about Mr. Obama. But, James Crown said, “I pulled him down to my office, and I said, ‘Hey, look, I think you should run, and I want you to win.’ ”

In courting families like the Crowns, Mr. Obama was gaining entree into the upper echelon of the city’s corporate boardrooms, a ripe source of campaign money. But he was also seeking to broaden his appeal to Jewish voters, and he was wading more deeply into one of the touchiest issues in American politics: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

For years, the Obamas had been regular dinner guests at the Hyde Park home of Rashid Khalidi, a Middle East scholar at the University of Chicago and an adviser to the Palestinian delegation to the 1990s peace talks. Mr. Khalidi said the talk would often turn to the Middle East, and he talked with Mr. Obama about issues like living conditions in the occupied territories. In 2000, the Khalidis held a fund-raiser for Mr. Obama during his Congressional campaign. Both Mr. Khalidi and Mr. Abunimah, of the Electronic Intifada, said Mr. Obama had spoken at the fund-raiser and had called for the United States to adopt a more “evenhanded approach” to the Palestinian-Israel conflict.

Still, Mr. Khalidi said ascertaining Mr. Obama’s precise position was often difficult. “You may come away thinking, ‘Wow, he agrees with me,’ ” he said. “But later, when you get home and think about it, you are not sure.”

A.J. Wolf, a Hyde Park rabbi who is a friend of Mr. Obama’s and has often invited Mr. Khalidi to speak at his synagogue, said Mr. Obama had disappointed him by not being more assertive about the need for both Israel and the Palestinians to move toward peace. “He’s played all those notes right for the Israel lobby,” said Mr. Wolf, who is sometimes critical of Israel.

During the Senate campaign, Mr. Obama joined in a “Walk for Israel” rally along Lake Michigan on Israel Solidarity Day. The Crowns and other Jewish leaders raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for him. Several days before the primary in 2004, some of his Jewish supporters took offense that Mr. Obama had not taken the opportunity on a campaign questionnaire to denounce Yasir Arafat, the leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization, or to strongly support Israel’s building of a security fence.

But in a sign of how far Mr. Obama had come in his coalition-building, friends from the American Israel Political Action Committee, the national pro-Israel lobbying group, helped him rush out a response to smooth over the flap.

In an e-mail message, Mr. Obama blamed a staff member for the oversight, and expressed the hope that “none of this has raised any questions on your part regarding my fundamental commitment to Israel’s security.” Mr. Abunimah has written of running into the candidate around that time and has said that Mr. Obama told him: “I’m sorry I haven’t said more about Palestine right now, but we are in a tough primary race. I’m hoping that when things calm down I can be more upfront.”

The Obama camp has denied Mr. Abunimah’s account. Mr. Khalidi, who is now the director of the Middle East Institute at Columbia University, said, “I’m unhappy about the positions he’s taken, but I can’t say I’m terribly disappointed.” He added: “People think he’s a saint. He’s not. He’s a politician.”

Mr. Crown, for his part, could not be more pleased. Since Mr. Obama was elected to the Senate Mr. Crown said that even his father had been won over, helping to arrange meetings for Mr. Obama in a visit to Israel. James Crown said he had “never had even the slightest glimmer of concern that Barack wasn’t terrific” on Israel — a view that Mr. Obama jokingly reinforced at a meeting last year in Mr. Crown’s office.

As Mr. Mikva recounted it, after discussing a lukewarm response by more conservative Jews to some of Mr. Obama’s comments, “I turned to Barack and said, ‘Your name could be Chaim Weizmann, the founder of the Jewish state, and some of these Jewish Republicans wouldn’t vote for you.’ ” And, Mr. Mikva said, “He joked, ‘Well, you know my name is “Baruch” Obama.’ ”

But for all of Mr. Obama’s attentiveness to Jewish concerns about Israel, Republican Party officials have made it clear that they think this is an area of vulnerability. Though Mr. Obama has condemned Hamas, a militant Palestinian group, as a terrorist organization, just last week Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, suggested that the group wanted to see Mr. Obama in the White House. Mr. Obama denounced that suggestion as a “smear.”

Embracing the Machine

When Mr. Obama delivered a now-famous speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention that catapulted him onto the national stage, sitting in the audience was Mayor Daley of Chicago.

As Mr. Obama spoke, Mr. Daley and other Illinois officials “were just as wide-eyed as the thousands of conventiongoers,” said James A. DeLeo, a Democratic leader in the Illinois Senate.

The mayor and the senator had some ties, but they had never had a close relationship. Mr. Obama’s friend Ms. Jarrett had worked for Mr. Daley, and had hired Michelle Obama into the administration in the early 1990s. Yet Mr. Obama had run multiple times as a candidate without the mayor’s help.

Now, as Mr. Obama ascended to the larger stage, he also took the final step in his evolution from Hyde Park independent to mainstream Chicago politician, establishing an overt alliance with Mr. Daley. “Over the years, Senator Obama and I have been like-minded in most of the issues facing Chicago,” the mayor said in a statement.

His former chief of staff, Gary Chico, said the mayor’s alliance with the senator was “based on mutual interest and what the mayor saw in the man. They’re both pragmatic.”

But Mr. Obama’s closer relationship with the mayor, coupled with some of his endorsements of Democrats who championed the kind of patronage politics Mr. Obama had once denounced, left some supporters feeling as though he was straying from his roots in the reform movement.

Last year, Mr. Mikva said he took Mr. Obama aside to complain about his endorsement of an alderwoman who had supported Mr. Obama in his United States Senate run and was the focus of newspaper reports about questionable spending on a $19.5 million cultural center. Mr. Mikva said Mr. Obama’s response was simple: “Sometimes you pay your debts.” Early last year, Mr. Obama endorsed Mr. Daley in his re-election bid, asserting that Chicago had blossomed during his tenure.

Mr. Miner, the mentor who had brought Mr. Obama into his law firm in the early 1990s, said he remained an enthusiastic Obama supporter. But, when it comes to some of Mr. Obama’s endorsements, “I don’t know who he’s listening to,” Mr. Miner said.

“I’ve thought sometimes that I should have picked up the phone and called him,” Mr. Miner said. “Why did he think he needed to do this?”

Just before Mr. Obama complimented Mr. Daley, the mayor did something unusual, as well. He broke with his tradition of remaining neutral in Democratic primaries and threw his support behind Mr. Obama’s presidential bid.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/11/us/politics/11chicago.html?_r=2&hp=&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1210522503-RROYK/Fq0ek+ru837XfpRA&oref=slogin

Action: McCai's PR Man Has Ties To Militia

Let's not wait on this one. This needs to hit all the media airwaves. McCain's public relations man resigns because of ties to a military junta. Did I mention, this man works for a lobbyist group. Something McCain has vowed he would never be involved with.

Official Chosen by McCain to Run Convention Resigns
By MICHAEL COOPER
Doug Goodyear, a public relations executive whose firm had been paid to represent the military junta, quit his post as coordinator of the Republican National Convention.

Declare war on oil

American doesn't need a piece meal temporary and phony holiday on gas taxes, we need to declare war on oil.

Barack is the only candidate who, as president, could give America a real break from oil prices since he is absolutely the least owing to the power brokers in the oil imdustry that have kept us from exploding into an energy independant golden age.

I would like to see the next president (Barack of course), make an absolute declaration of war against oil. It can be done, but we need a national will to do it, and an effrort that reflects the national security needs for it.

We need to establish a Manhattan Project like priority to do it, bringing together the very best from the Auto industry, academia, and manufacturing to produce fuel cell technology to power all of America's vehicles. Simultaneously they need to develop a conversion system for all the cars on the roads today.

A second task force needs to be working as well, to design a delivery system, and source all the manufacturing capability to produce, deliver and install this mechanism.

We must make absolutely sure that none of the technology, none of the manufacturing , none of the installation , and none of the jobs this creates in allowed to benefit anyine other than the people of America first.

As a matter of vital national security all members of this effort need to be located together, and absolutely no access, political or otherwise , be allowed to disrupt this process. Especially from the oil companies, and their lobbyist's.

While this project is underway legislation will need to be passed to protect the technology developed as a result of this process. Absolutely no foreign entities, corporate, government or otherwise will be allowed to control or access the technology until it can be demonstrated that America, and Americans do not lose security, or jobs from it's dissemination

It is not impossible that up to a million jobs can be created with technology alone, and it is imperative that the jobs created in America need to STAY in America. While it would indeed be irresponsible not to share this technology for the good of the planet, we must not outsource what could be the most important change in the course of humanity since the industrial revolution.

We would also need to assist the manufacturing parters in the project by eliminating unfair and unbalanced trade conditions that already exist , or could take shape as a result of our effort to secure and redefine our dependance on oil. Also, as with the Manhattan Project, our military needs to fully engaged and on high alert to prevent any form of saboatge, from all possible sources.

How do we fund it. Get out of Iraq but, redirect the funding the war currently consumes. We certainly can afford to use this money to truly secure American and it's future.

4 Pandering Politicians

Mitt Romney, John Edwards, Hillary Clinton, John McCain
Four pandering politicians standing in a line
Mitt Romney dropped out and then there were three.
Three pandering politicians saying things will be fine
John Edwards dropped out and then there were two.
Two pandering politicians debating a gas tax holiday
When Hillary throws in the towel, there will be one.
One remaining pandering politician, John McCain is the name
Come election day and Barack's victory, there will be none.
...... except for the House and Senate.
In 2008, 2010 and 2012 let us make it clear
If you pander to us, we will put an end to your career.
(read more)

My thoughts on VP - Obama/Sebelius '08

Now that Senator Obama is the presumed nominee, our thoughts move towards who we'd like to see as VP. This post title tells you my preference.

Making Hillary his VP would be against everything Barack stands for - a complete destruction of his principals. So, it's not going to happen. At no point so far has Senator Obama compromised, so he won't start with something so controversial!

For this same reason, he shouldn't pick Evan Bayh. Bayh used horrible tactics against Obama during the Indiana primary campaign, showing his old school leanings.

McCaskill is fantastic, but she is also a Junior Senator, so too inexperienced to be on the same ticket. Barack needs a governor, a general, or an elder statesman (stateswoman). How does he find someone with experience, who also is not too caught into the Washington web?

My choice is Governor Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas: http://www.governor.ks.gov/about/bio.htm and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nHp90Z2NJk. She has had great success in Kansas, is likable, and knows how to run a campaign (she's won twice). Let's not ignore the fact that, as a female, some of those Hillary supporters would feel vindicated.

Bill Richardson has proven through the primary that he is not competent as an executive branch candidate. He should be made Secretary of State.

Wesley Clark often comes across as crazy, like Mike Gravel, so I think he'd hurt the campaign, like Vice Admiral Stockdale hurt Ross Perot's campaign in 1992.

John Edwards - he lost his chance to be VP by not endorsing Obama. By playing it safe, he has at best earned the position of Attorney General.

How about General David Petraeus? Petraeus won't be able to run because he's serving in the Middle East, but he'd be an interesting candidate. Maybe too conservative.

NYC Mayor Bloomberg? That's worthy of a book of comments...

I also would be okay with the idea of Senator Chuck Hagel: http://hagel.senate.gov/public/

Here's an interesting article from way back in December: http://www.nationalledger.com/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi?archive=20&num=17657

Check the excellent comments by politicoswizzlestick, who answered a question about this: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080222114338AAazfDL. The answer starts with, "The Obama camp has thus far wisely not leaked any VP choices..."

What are your thoughts?

Live By The Sword; Die By The Sword!

This campaign will DISAPPOINT me if Mrs. Clinton is offered the VP slot and/or absorbs any of the Clintons' campaign debt.

Fellow bloggers have counseled me that it is "typical" or customary for the winner to share money with the "loser". Well, Mrs. Clinton has chosen to run a disrespectful, disgraceful campaign in my estimation.

With respect to "customs", how much campaign debt of opponents did they assume when:

- Bill ran for Arkansas Attorney General?

- Bill ran for Governor of Arkansas?

- Bill ran for President in 1992?

- Bill ran for President in 1996?

- Hillary ran for Senator in New York in 2000?

- Hillary ran for Senate re-election from NY in 2006?

Does anybody in here think that the MULTIMILLIONAIRE, narcissistic, carpetbagging Clintons would be offering to pay Sen Obama's campaign debt if the outcomes were reversed?

As taxpayers, the Clintons will be on OUR payroll for the rest of their natural lives - Federal pensions, health care and Secret Service protection. How many of the 1.5+ million contributors for Sen Obama enjoy that kind of financial security?

Mrs. Clinton has not changed her tone since Indiana and North Carolina. Sen Obama has given her space and opportunity to take the high road. Yet she takes a shot at we Obama supporters implying that she and she alone can deliver 'hardworking, white, uneducated voters'. As a hard working 50+, educated white guy, I take OFFENSE in her remarks.

She has not accepted responsibility for her lies, misstatements and misrepresentations. She is neither Presidential material, nor VP material.

The Democratic Party needs to disown, denounce and distance itself from the Clintons as soon as possible or the Republicans will gain the upper hand in November!

Obama As Second Lincoln

From a May 8th post on the main Obama website. This brief article inspires me:

'We may have a second Lincoln': McGovern explains endorsement switchThe Mitchell Daily Republic | May 08, 2008

By Seth Tupper

George McGovern has a history of associations with transformative political figures.

He campaigned at the sides of John F. and Robert Kennedy during their respective runs for the White House, and he’s currently writing a book about Abraham Lincoln.

McGovern thinks Barack Obama may be cut from the same historic mold as those men, and that’s one reason McGovern said Wednesday that after eight months of supporting Hillary Clinton for president, he is switching sides.

McGovern even compared Obama to Lincoln, saying he discovered similarities between the two men while doing research for the Lincoln book.

“As I have researched this book and followed the current presidential nomination contest, I have slowly come to believe that, in Barack Obama, we may have a second Lincoln,” McGovern, a Mitchell native and resident, said in an Obama campaign news release.

“With passion and eloquence, he is calling America home to its founding ideals, both at home and abroad.”

Read the full article from The Mitchell Daily Republic

Please help Barack before the Kentucky and West VA primaries

Wednesday, I became so upset with Hillary , that I decided to set a goal to collect money for Barack so that he will be able to counter all of her negative ads before the Kentucky and West Virginia primaries.

She has not only played the “race card” but has implied that “white working class men”, will not vote for Barack. If you know anything at all about Kentucky or West Virginia, you know that was thrown out there to both states as “red meat”.

I am asking if you will please help me reach my goal for Barack before those 2 primaries. You can go to this link which will go directly to the Obama campaign.

http://my.barackobama.com/page/outreach/view/main/LuAnninIndiana

We can not let Hillary claim a” huge win” in those states or she will use that as an excuse to continue forever.

Any amount you can give may help Barack against the “Barracuda”.

Thanks so much,

LuAnn

No Time for Complacency

Just a reminder; I'm sure there's no need to elaborate. (read more)

Bushisms and more!!!

I'm going to start blogging Bushisms from my Countdown to the end of the Bush years Calendar. (read more)

A personal reflection on race

I'm copying and pasting an e-mail exchange between me and some MYBO friends: (read more)

Obama Pulls Even With Clinton in Superdelegates

May 10, 2008 Obama Pulls Even With Clinton in Superdelegates By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM

Senator Barack Obama has caught up to his opponent, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, in the count of superdelegates, one of the few mathematical areas where Mrs. Clinton still maintained an advantage in the race.

Mr. Obama picked up endorsements on Friday from three more superdelegates, the Democratic Party insiders who are granted autonomy to support whomever they wish at the convention in August. One, a New Jersey congressman, switched his allegiance away from Mrs. Clinton, allowing the Illinois senator to pull even with his rival, according to the latest New York Times count.

The Times’s tally shows each candidate with 263 superdelegates, based on telephone polls conducted with CBS News as well as public endorsements. A separate count by The Associated Press shows Mr. Obama still trailing by fewer than four votes. And a measure by ABC News shows the Illinois senator already ahead, 267 to 265.

Mrs. Clinton trails her opponent in the popular vote and the total Democratic delegate count. But this is the first time since the outset of the race that she has lost the lead in one of her few remaining trump cards.

Superdelegates represent up to a fifth of the Democratic convention delegation, and have historically supported the front-runner at the convention. More than 250 superdelegates have yet to publicly announce their decisions.

On Thursday, Mr. Obama picked up the support of Representative Donald Payne of New Jersey, who told The Star-Ledger of Newark that he was switching away from Mrs. Clinton after thinking through “one of the most difficult decisions I have made.” Peter DeFazio, an Oregon congressman, also said he would back Mr. Obama.

Ed Espinoza, a Californian who is a member of the party’s national committee, pledged his support on Friday, according to the Obama campaign.

Mr. Obama’s gains came as other senior members of his party appeared to be closing ranks around him. The Huffington Post reported that Representative Rahm Emanuel, the influential Democrat from Illinois, referred to Mr. Obama as the “presumptive nominee” at a discussion panel held by The New Yorker on Friday morning.

(A spokeswoman for Mr. Emanuel told the Politico that “all Rahm said was that Senator Obama was now the front-runner, which by and large means, because of the calendar, he is the presumptive nominee, at this point.”)

Meanwhile, the fate of another significant endorsement in the race may hang on the interpretation of a pronoun — for now, anyway.

Appearing on MSNBC this morning, John Edwards said he was “very likely” to endorse the candidate he voted for in the North Carolina primary on Tuesday. But, the anchors asked, which candidate was it?

In his demurral, Mr. Edwards may have slipped: “I just voted — I just voted for him on Tuesday,” he said. But given Mr. Edwards’s Southern accent, that pesky pronoun may have been plural, albeit in a shortened form: “I just voted for ’em on Tuesday.”

David Schuster, an MSNBC host, attempted to ferret out the truth. “So it was a him or a her that you voted for?” he asked, interrupting the former senator. Mr. Edwards then backpedaled, saying, “No, no,” and laughing.

Ariel Alexovich and Julie Bosman contributed reporting.

And now... HRC Plays the Race Card

One of the more thoughtful, less emotional posters to an Obama Campaign EMail list service today suggested Hillary is behaving like a terrorist. My response was, " I do not think it wise or fair to draw a parallel between Hillary and terrorists. I will say, having proof she is now blatantly resorting to playing the race card as we are hearing with her own voice this morning... she has lost all political capital she had to become the nominee or decide a splinter of what goes into the Democratic platform this year.

Don't Fly Over West Virginia!! Please

We will all phone bank to WV, donate so the people "on the ground" have resources. Nonetheless, it is critical - from my humble perspective - that Sen Obama introduces himself to the good people of the "Mountain State". It is unclear if any events have been planned.

If anyone in the campaign is reading these blogs, please take it to heart.

Fired UP!!

Ready to GO!!

Give Her 24 Hours

Now that Sen Obama leads in 1) earned delegates, 2) contests, 3) popular vote, 4) superdelegates and 5) the money race, the Clinton campaign should have 24 hours to make a statement.

After that, it is time to BURY them in West Virginia, Kentucky, Oregon, South Dakota, Montana and Puerto Rico!! And, simultaneously bring out superdelegates in greater numbers than 2-3 at a time. Flood her campaign - no gloating, just bury her by the numbers!!

Fired UP!

Ready to GO!!

NOTE: All that really counts is the earned delegates.

"Dream Ticket"...Good idea or bad? What do you think?

Rumors are in the air again about the so-called "dream ticket." I want to know what everyone thinks of it. Would it benefit Sen. Obama to have Sen. Clinton as his #2 to real in the "blue collar" voters? One e-mail to CNN said that it would contradict his message of change since Sen. Clintons "experience" is just another way of saying old politics. So, I want you to reply to this post and tell me what you think and why.

What do my brother, my cat, and Senator Obama have in common?

They all dominated my day, if not in deed in thought. (read more)

From Inside The Clinton Campaign

Most of my inside sources dropped out of sight in February when I published the news that the Clintons had moved the goal posts to Montana. The staffer she castrated when he told her that, after Super Tuesday, she would have to go past Pennsylvania was particularly offended that his experience was put out publicly.

At any rate, more news has recently leaked out. It looks as though the campaign is being approached by several publishers offering large advances to key players. Spirits are up.

Campaign Manager Maggie Williams has been approached to author a book on "How To Obtain A Subprime Mortgage". The publisher who contacted her feels that her experience as a member of the Board of Directors of one of the most active subprime lenders gives her special perspective.

Mrs. Clinton has been solicited to research, document and write a book entitled "Tales from the Trail" to share her experiences first stumping for Bill, then for herself across the country. There is talk of a special 2nd book to be entitled "Tall Tales from the Trail" that will let readers re-live her experience under sniper fire in Bosnia, bringing peace to Ireland, and so forth. This 2 volume set should help her pay off some of her campaign debt.

Finally, expelled Rhodes Scholar and ex-Prez Slick Willy has actually agreed to write a book entitled "Tail from the Trail".

Now that they have come up with some ideas to support their lavish lifestyles, sentiment is much more positive in Hillaryland. We can all thank the publishing industry!

The Trolls Are Out

We must be in the lead here....

May I challenge everyone who reads to choose a state/territory and make 10 calls for each troll sighting?

The good people of

West Virginia, Kentucky, South Dakota, Oregon, Montana and Puerto Rico

are waiting to hear from us.

Yes, we CAN!!

Mrs. Clinton's Next Photo Op

What will they think of next?

There was the "shot and beer" stunt in Crown Point IN followed by the PANDER bear herself trying to pump gas and get coffee for a caravan of gas guzzlers and their occupants.

She did the Rocky thing on the steps of the library in Philadelphia.

For her next stunt, how about posing as she readies herself to go down a mine shaft in West Virginia?

PHONE BANK!

CANVAS!

Let's WIN this thing!!

Watch great add Barack is running in Kentucky!

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1386357098/bctid1522775495

I have a special favor to ask of you..maybe you will help me

http://my.barackobama.com/page/outreach/view/main/LuAnninIndiana

I stayed up all night and was watching the news and I got so upset hearing about all the ways Hillary is trying to win. I guess what got me the most was hearing she is really going to try to make it a massive win. She already knows Kentucky and West Virginia are probably hers...but if she makes him look real bad...that won't be good and she will just go on and on and on. I have never collected for a campaign before. I just thought Barack might need some extra help to run a lotof TV adds to counter whatever she throws at him.

I would be thrilled if you'd like to help me reach a goal I set to give Barack before the 2 contests. I know everyone has there own but I had never activated mine until last night and I know this is not a novel idea. I just figured if I could get severa people to maybe give $5.00 or $10.00 and they asked a few people we might be able to help Barack against the "Baracuda".

Thamks if you help and have a great day.

I just don't want t see a gloating Hillary in a couple of weeks.

This is my site http://my.barackobama.com/page/outreach/view/main/LuAnninIndiana

Shared Comment To One Of My Posts

"Blake and Jen - who staffed the Allentown and Easton operations - are now in Parkersburg, WV.
Let's support them with lots of calls!

"WV is next week, if she wins by less than 10 points it will be another sign that Barack is bringing the country together."

Let's pull together and give them some phonebanking support!

End the Drama; Elect Obama!!

"CNN QUICK VOTE!"

Lately I have been hearing that CNN is biased, and maybe so (not nearly as bad as Fox News!) But right this moment, on the morning show, they are airing a "Quick Vote" "Should Hillary Drop Out Of The Race" it really is "QUICK" takes a nano-second, and it it already ~69% YES 31% NO!~It is now ~70%-30%~ Hehehehe! Thanks for voting!

Please take advantage of this FREE advertising! The numbers don't lie!

http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/american.morning/

Also, Barack will be on CNN's "The Situation Room" with Wolf Blitzer, today at 2:00pm Mountain Time, and 4:00pm Eastern Time. I am recording it. We are "Biking For Obama" to early vote today!

BSG

Let's WIN This Thing!!

Who cares what Mrs. Clinton does next in her political career, or even if she has one?

Hit that phone bank link and let's start making some calls to the good people of -

West Virginia

Kentucky

Oregon

Montana

South Dakota

Puerto Rico

Fired UP!!

A Reminder

A Reminder to all Barack Obama supporters:

We are the part of the democratic party that does not slam, does not put down, does not get angry, does not hate, and does not take revenge physical, psychological or otherwise.

I was a little taken aback after reading a bit about the behavior of some Obama supporters in West Virginia who heckled Hillary and Chelsea during her speech. Please do not do this.

The temptation is there, especially now that we can see victory in our sights, to take some meausre of revenge upon the Clinton campaign and its supporters for the unfair treatment we have received. The temptation is there to call the members of our family and some of our friends who are Clinton supporters and tell them, "See, told you so." But please do not.

It would be easy to catcall, to chide, to bloat ourselves big and fat with arrogance and express our disdain for Clintonites everywhere. It would be so easy. But if we do this, we will not be better than those who slammed us. We will, in fact, become worse than them because we know better. We know that it is wrong. We remember what it was like to have to deal with the "Hussein" comments and the "muslim" comments and the "friendly with radicals" comments. We know how it feels, and we know it is wrong. For that very reason, do not become what you know to be wrong - a hate-spewer, a revenge-taker, an angry Obamaite. We do not need this. Ask yourself: What would Barack want you to do?

Barack has taken the high road, and I encourage you to do the same. We, even though we may have some bruised feelings, are still brothers and sisters within the Democratic Party. The way to make the Clinton camp come around, even those who say to the pollsters they will not vote for Obama in the general election, is to be nice to them. To some it will sound crazy, but it is the way. Be nice, and be nice, and be even more nice. That is the high road, and it is the road Barack wants us to take.

It is time for unity. We are a unified nation only so much as we are a mature one. So please bring that maturity to bear in your dealings with Clinton supporters, McCain supporters, and supporters of all kinds. If we continue to hold and live this positive front, the undecideds and the leaners will lean our way. They will ask themselves, "What do they have? Why are they so positive? What do they know?" And we will be able to tell them that we only know that divisiveness is not the way, that anger is not the way. That we can be the change we wish to see; we can, in fact, be the high road, and people will come to our side.

Do not join the dark side. I know it is tempting. But we are the light, and the only way to fight the dark is not to fight it at all, but to turn on the lights ever and ever more brighter. Turn on the lights of your positivity, your compassion, and your drive for success. Invite the Clintonites over for breakfast, pour them a cup, and tell them that you appreciate their passion. Let them know that you want to work with them to make this country great. That no matter who the candidate was to be, we were never going to be able to do this alone. There are no winners and no losers here; there is only us, and we have to tackle the problems of this great country. Tell them we are one people, we are one nation, and together we will begin the next great chapter in America's story.

Tell them, let them live the power of who you are, and do not take revenge. We have already won; what reason would there be to gloat?

There is a long road ahead of us. John McCain is on the horizon and he does not look like a nice, neat package covered in bows. The attacks will get worse, the hate-spew will get worse and we will need our Clinton friends on our side. Make friends today. Make nice today, and by no means gloat and be arrogant. It is not our way; it is not who we are. We are Barack's soldiers - confident, truthful, and... nice. Whoever said those things did not go hand in hand did not understand what true power is?

I hope this helps you. I hope you can gracefully extend this same message to anyone you meet wishing to take revenge upon Clinton's supporters. Please do not.

Please be... who we really are.

Ryan

Barack Obama for President!

I JUST WANTED TO TAKE A MINUTE AND THANK ALL OF YOU WHO ARE SUPPORTING BARACK OBAMA AND WORKING REALLY HARD FOR OUR CAUSE. WITH THE WIN IN NORTH CAROLINA AND BASICALLY A TIE IN INDIANA AND WITH ALL THE ROAD BLOCKS HILLARY PUT UP FROM THE KITCHEN SINK TO A FAKE GAS TAX HOLIDAY WHICH WE ALL KNOW CAN NEVER HAPPEN, SHES ONLY USING THAT SPEACH TO GET VOTES.
ON TO WEST VIRGINIA A VERY BEAUTIFUL STATE WITH REALLY NICE PEOPLE. WE NEED YOU WEST VIRGINIA CAUSE I BELIEVE A BARACK OBAMA WIN THERE, WOULD JUST LET THE AIR OUT OF HILLARYS TIRES.
SO I KNOW I SPEAK FOR BARACK OBAMA SUPPORTERS ALL OVER THE COUNTRY VOTE, VOTE, AND VOTE FOR BARACK OBAMA AND GIVE US THAT WIN WE NEED TO TRY TO PUT AND END TO THIS FIGHTING BETWEEN DEMORCRATIC PARTY. BECAUSE WE NEED TO START FOCUSING ON J. MCCAIN WHO THE NEWS HAS BEEN GIVING A FREE RIDE. WITH ALL THE ATTENTION BEING PUT ON THE DEMORCRATS THE REPUBLICANS ARE LOVING IT.
AND I'M NOT QUITE OLD ENOUGH BUT 40 YEARS AGO WEST VIRGINIA VOTED BIG TIME FOR J. F. KENNEDY IN A LAND SLIDE SO I KNOW THAT WEST VIRGINIA CAN DO IT AGAIN.
GO WEST VIRGINIA (YES WE CAN) RANDY M.
(read more)

The Political Currency Of Back-Scratching

Mrs. Clinton claims to be the only candidate to win "big" states, particularly big "blue" states. The principal reason she has been able to do so has been her ability to call in old favors from past political cronies. It has NOT been her special magic or appeal to voters in these jurisdictions.

The story is an old one that dates back to the elder Mayor Daley's regime in Chicago and Boss Tweed before that.

She won Ohio with the aid of the political patronage machine of Gov Ted Strickland with concentrated support from US Rep Stephanie Tubbs Jones' minyans in the Cleveland area.

She won Pennsylvania with the aid of Gov Ed Rendell's powerful patronage machine with a local boost from Mayor Nutter to keep the lid on a Philadelphia blow-out.

She had the New York machines locked up.

Though neither "blue" nor a "big" state, she had the machinery of Sen and former Gov Evan Bayh in Indiana against which the Obama campaign pushed hard and almost won. And the machine of lame duck Gov Easley just couldn't deliver aganst the energetic forces for change.

We must keep the pressure on the opponent. She wants to win - desperately. Personally she has made many sacrifices over many years. But, she has to be DEFEATED - again and again. Yes, we can maintain the high road, but she must be defeated - that is what she understands.

Fired UP!

Let's make some calls to Kentucky, West Virginia, Montana, Oregon, South Dakota and Puerto Rico!

Indiana primary aftermath

(originally posted at my blog on my website - www.sherylhugill.com)

Yesterday was a big day here in Indiana. For the first time in a really long time, people came out in droves and voted in a primary election. This is the one opportunity we had to really make our votes count. Whether you voted on a Democrat or Republican ballot, whether you voted for Clinton, Obama, McCain, Paul, or someone else - your vote still counted. You can tell yourself “I’m only one vote, what difference does it make?” or “I voted for Ron Paul, he won’t win anyway.” - but the truth is that if all the people that think that would go vote anyway - you just might make a difference.

Here’s my example. I’m just one vote, right? But I’m a very passionate vote. I’m a declared Barack Obama supporter. Everyone around me knows it. I’ve talked about it, and I’ve talked about why I think what I do. And on top of that, I’ve gone out and knocked on doors to talk to people about it. I took a vacation day from work to talk to people about it. And I know, for a fact, that my vote - because I’ve been so passionate about it - has influenced at least a minimum of 4 other people to vote for the candidate that I support. Those are just 4 people that I can specifically name. I have no doubts that I’ve influenced more than that.

OBAMA sign I did take yesterday, primary day here, off of work to volunteer for the Obama campaign. I spent the morning out by myself in a neighborhood of big, expensive houses knocking on doors and encouraging people to go vote. I left information for those not at home about where to go vote. I spent the afternoon painting a huge “OBAMA” sign that I helped hold up at a corner by a local high school/polling location and on an overpass over a very busy interstate. And I got a sunburn from all that time spent outside - but I had an absolute blast and enjoyed every second of it. I wouldn’t do a single thing differently, either yesterday or on any of the time I’ve spent on the Obama campaign.

I can’t even say I’m really too disappointed that Obama “lost” Indiana. Hillary was predicted to win it, and since we’re not an “all or nothing” delegate state, the delegates were split almost evenly. So for yesterday - my candidate still came out ahead overall. And what I’m really proud and excited about - is that Hamilton County - my county - voted for Obama at a percentage of 61 to 39. I know that that’s due in no uncertain terms at least partially to passionate voters like myself and the amazing people I’ve worked with over the last few days and weeks. People that have believed in something so much that they are willing to devote their time and energy to doing their absolute best to make sure that it happens. People whose enthusiasm and commitment shows through enough to make the people around them reflect on what exactly it is that makes them care so much, enough to turn a vote or cause someone to visit the polls that originally wouldn’t have.

Why should I be disappointed? I had fun, met some awesome people and built relationships that I already had, and saw evidence that I made a difference. You know why I decided to become actively involved in the Obama campaign? I mean, it’s one thing to say you support a particular candidate - it’s quite another to get so actively involved in their campaign, right? Honestly - it almost came down to “why not?” I decided I thought Obama would make a great next president, so why shouldn’t I work to get him there? If nothing else, I know I’m contributing to history being made, and I’ll never look back on it with regret.

Political Star Wars

In the week before the Indiana and North Carolina primaries, a new viral video started sweeping through the land, The Empire Strikes Barack! It is not too much of a stretch from art imitating politics: Darth versus Luke; light sabers versus sound bites; nice versus nasty; Clintonites versus Obamans.

It is difficult to fathom why the Clintonites of this country would wish to continue without integrity in the White House when another option is available. Twisting words, pandering, and innuendo are smarmily called "great politics" by the Punditocracy. Accepting and supporting bad behavior shows a lack of honor, and is tantamount to supporting the Bush administration. And further, to enable Hillary to somehow steal the nomination through crazy math, rule changing, and sickening division of the country in 2008 would be as bad, if not worse than what George W. Bush did in 2000. That Clinton is qualified is not enough. Her negative attributes are substantial and the record is lengthening daily. And Hillary is doing it front of cameras with a record that will endure for centuries.

Many good people will betray anyone, will claim integrity and high moral values while displaying none. When that rare person comes along who we sense is the real thing, we must jump into that light -- not the darkness surrounding it. Senator Barack Obama, whose name already, uncannily, fits as President Obama, is that one, imperfect human being in whom we may put faith, and yes, HOPE.

Consortium for the Restoration of Election Integrity

My previous O-Blog posting addressed Senator Clinton falsely taking credit for her small (and now shrinking) victory in indiana early today. It is now estimated that one of every ten - 10% - of her tallies in Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania were generated by cross-over Republicans. She has apparently forgotten those were sparked by followers of Rush Limbaugh. His Operation Chaos seeks to deliver the nomination to Hillary, only so John McCain will face a weaker opponent in November. Today I launch a campaign to stop that corruption of the American election.

Swift-Boating By Proxy

Swift-Boating By ProxyIn Hillary's press conference in West Virginia today, she said that Senator Kerry hadn't been able to appeal to working-class or African-American voters. The not-so-subtle inference:

In 2004 the "right-wing conspiracy" declared Kerry elite
In 2008 Ker