Thursday, January 31, 2008
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Jimmy Carter praises Obama
Carter praises Obama.
Carter also said Obama "will be almost automatically a healing factor in the animosity now that exists, that relates to our country and its government."
Carter also said Obama "will be almost automatically a healing factor in the animosity now that exists, that relates to our country and its government."
Even Conservatives Love Obama
The Kennedy Mystique.
“With Barack Obama, we will turn the page on the old politics of misrepresentation and distortion,” Senator Kennedy declared. “With Barack Obama, there is a new national leader who has given America a different kind of campaign — a campaign not just about himself, but about all of us,” he said.
This is a very telling op-ed piece -- by a conservative columnist.
“With Barack Obama, we will turn the page on the old politics of misrepresentation and distortion,” Senator Kennedy declared. “With Barack Obama, there is a new national leader who has given America a different kind of campaign — a campaign not just about himself, but about all of us,” he said.
This is a very telling op-ed piece -- by a conservative columnist.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Another endorsement
Toni Morrison endorses Obama.
"In addition to keen intelligence, integrity and a rare authenticity, you exhibit something that has nothing to do with age, experience, race or gender and something I don’t see in other candidates. That something is a creative imagination which, coupled with brilliance, equals wisdom," she wrote.
"In addition to keen intelligence, integrity and a rare authenticity, you exhibit something that has nothing to do with age, experience, race or gender and something I don’t see in other candidates. That something is a creative imagination which, coupled with brilliance, equals wisdom," she wrote.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Why Kennedy Endorsement is a Big Deal
Six reasons why the Kennedy endorsement of Obama is a big deal.
While endorsements don't usually matter much, Edward Kennedy's does...
While endorsements don't usually matter much, Edward Kennedy's does...
"New Generation of Leadership"
Senator Ted Kennedy endorses Obama.
"It is time again for a new generation of leadership,” Mr. Kennedy said, speaking over a crowd of cheering supporters here at American University. “It is time now for Barack Obama."
"It is time again for a new generation of leadership,” Mr. Kennedy said, speaking over a crowd of cheering supporters here at American University. “It is time now for Barack Obama."
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Goodbye, Mother Hillary. Hello, Tomorrow.
“I’m going to tell them I bought my outfit second-hand from Hillary in Chappaqua,” my mother jokes each year as we make our way to Yonkers, NY to spend Thanksgiving with my father’s (mostly conservative) family. I don’t know if it’s the pants suit or the hair, but for years now my mother and Hillary Clinton have reminded me of one another. Smart and engaging and almost the same age, they even share an overbite. Clinton may appear cold to many, but, until she unleashed her husband as attack dog, she always exuded maternal warmth and the security of family for me. And so, it is with something akin to the angst of a child preparing to leave home that I plan to vote for Barack Obama.
The 1990s were the Clintons' decade - one that started with war and recession but ended in the longest peacetime expansion of the economy. The advent of email and the Internet was presided over by the luminaries from Arkansas. Bright and new, the Clintons were the first baby boomers to take over the national government. They were young, hopeful and said we were getting two for the price of one. They, like their theme song, beseeched the country to not stop thinking about tomorrow.
Today’s Clinton campaign takes a different approach. It talks more about yesterday than tomorrow. Clinton reminds us that in the 1990s there was peace and prosperity and that she was there. That's why she's tested. That's why she's ready. It took one Clinton to clean up after the last Bush, she often says, it's going to take another to clean up after this one.
Before rushing to agree with her, it is important to examine those years carefully. I was eleven when the nineties began and twenty-one when they were over. I grew up with the Clintons in that time. And just as I went through the inevitable loss of innocence that accompanies those years, so did the country.
The nineties were a decade-long political soap opera, replete with lies, sex and melodrama. They introduced the term triangulation into the national vocabulary - a deft policy of stealing ideas from political opponents and then playing the extremes of the opposition party against those of the one in power, as the executive appears to rise above the fray. In government, the supremacy of polling outstripped the importance of moral leadership. The administration decried vast right wing conspiracies – real or imagined - and inspired the worst tendencies in the Republican Party, who not only impeached the president and shut down the federal government, but also gained control of Congress, the presidency and a majority of the country's governorships by the time the Clintons took leave of the White House.
As bad as things are now, is this what we want to go back to?
Enter Barack Obama.
With political skills and smarts that match both Clintons, he has important qualities they lack – namely moral leadership, vision and an ability to unite diverse groups. As Clinton was casting her vote for the Iraq war, a poor decision that many of her former supporters – myself included – find hard to fathom she believed in, Obama was taking a public stance against it. Read from today’s vantage point, his speech opposing the war is prescient in its foresight of the imbroglio the government was about to enmesh the country and troops in. More impressively, the speech was given while Obama was planning to run for US Senate and the war was a popular idea with the public. This ability to speak honestly, even when it’s not politically advantageous, was further on display when Obama outlined his environmental positions to, of all people, the automobile industry. Obama’s message has been consistent and inspiring, resonating beyond the confines of the party faithful, to reach independents and Republicans. It is his ability to bridge these political divides – to remind us that we are not just a collection of red and blue states, but the United States – that provides a fresh alternative to both the Clinton and Bush eras.
Finally, when Obama lays out his vision for America, he does so in the most American of ways – by looking to tomorrow, not yesterday. The Clintons say that this is a dangerous roll of the dice, but I see it as something else, something akin to the children of this nation choosing to leave their homes to step boldly into the future. By 2009, the White House will have been inhabited by the Bushes and Clintons for twenty straight years. Enough’s enough.
So, sorry, Mom. This time, I’m voting for tomorrow.
The 1990s were the Clintons' decade - one that started with war and recession but ended in the longest peacetime expansion of the economy. The advent of email and the Internet was presided over by the luminaries from Arkansas. Bright and new, the Clintons were the first baby boomers to take over the national government. They were young, hopeful and said we were getting two for the price of one. They, like their theme song, beseeched the country to not stop thinking about tomorrow.
Today’s Clinton campaign takes a different approach. It talks more about yesterday than tomorrow. Clinton reminds us that in the 1990s there was peace and prosperity and that she was there. That's why she's tested. That's why she's ready. It took one Clinton to clean up after the last Bush, she often says, it's going to take another to clean up after this one.
Before rushing to agree with her, it is important to examine those years carefully. I was eleven when the nineties began and twenty-one when they were over. I grew up with the Clintons in that time. And just as I went through the inevitable loss of innocence that accompanies those years, so did the country.
The nineties were a decade-long political soap opera, replete with lies, sex and melodrama. They introduced the term triangulation into the national vocabulary - a deft policy of stealing ideas from political opponents and then playing the extremes of the opposition party against those of the one in power, as the executive appears to rise above the fray. In government, the supremacy of polling outstripped the importance of moral leadership. The administration decried vast right wing conspiracies – real or imagined - and inspired the worst tendencies in the Republican Party, who not only impeached the president and shut down the federal government, but also gained control of Congress, the presidency and a majority of the country's governorships by the time the Clintons took leave of the White House.
As bad as things are now, is this what we want to go back to?
Enter Barack Obama.
With political skills and smarts that match both Clintons, he has important qualities they lack – namely moral leadership, vision and an ability to unite diverse groups. As Clinton was casting her vote for the Iraq war, a poor decision that many of her former supporters – myself included – find hard to fathom she believed in, Obama was taking a public stance against it. Read from today’s vantage point, his speech opposing the war is prescient in its foresight of the imbroglio the government was about to enmesh the country and troops in. More impressively, the speech was given while Obama was planning to run for US Senate and the war was a popular idea with the public. This ability to speak honestly, even when it’s not politically advantageous, was further on display when Obama outlined his environmental positions to, of all people, the automobile industry. Obama’s message has been consistent and inspiring, resonating beyond the confines of the party faithful, to reach independents and Republicans. It is his ability to bridge these political divides – to remind us that we are not just a collection of red and blue states, but the United States – that provides a fresh alternative to both the Clinton and Bush eras.
Finally, when Obama lays out his vision for America, he does so in the most American of ways – by looking to tomorrow, not yesterday. The Clintons say that this is a dangerous roll of the dice, but I see it as something else, something akin to the children of this nation choosing to leave their homes to step boldly into the future. By 2009, the White House will have been inhabited by the Bushes and Clintons for twenty straight years. Enough’s enough.
So, sorry, Mom. This time, I’m voting for tomorrow.
Return to Camelot?
A touching piece from JFK's only living child, in "A President Like My Father," Caroline Kennedy explains why - for the first time in her life - she's inspired by a candidate the way people have always told her they were inspired by her father. That candidate is Senator Barack Obama.
Read the whole article at:
www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/opinion/27kennedy.html?ref=opinion
Frank Rich's article "The Billary Road to Republican Victory"
New York Times columnist, Frank Rich, says this of Obama: "Unlike Mrs. Clinton, he would unambiguously represent change in a race with any Republican. If he vanquishes Billary, he'll have an even stronger argument to take into battle against a warrior like Mr. McCain."
Read the whole article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/opinion/27rich.html?hp
Barack wins South Carolina -- at a margin of more than 2 to 1 over Hillary!
And, in case you missed the victory speech, saddle up to your computer, copy the link below, and get ready to say, "Yes we can."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/01/26/barack-obamas-south-caro_n_83417.html
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