Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s Comments:
March 18, 2008
Here is a list of some of the most controversial things Barack Obama’s pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright has said:
”The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing ‘God Bless America.’ No, no, no, God damn America, that’s in the Bible for killing innocent people.”
“God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme.”
“We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye. We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America’s chickens are coming home to roost.” (He said this five days after the September 11th attacks on 9-16-01)
Thanks to the Fox News Channel for these ones:
“The government lied about Pearl Harbor. They knew the Japanese were going to attack. Government’s lied.”
“We’ve got a paranoid group of patriots in power that now, in the interest of homeland stupidity – I mean homeland security …”
“The government lied about the Tuskegee experiment. They purposely infected African-American men with syphilis …”
“Fighting for peace is like raping for virginity.”
“… what’s going on in white America, U.S. of KKKA …”
“Black men turning on black men – that is fighting the wrong enemy. You both are the primary targets in an oppressive society that sees both of you as a dangerous threat.”
“We cannot see how what we are doing is the same thing al-Qaida is doing under a different color flag … And guess what else. If they don’t find them some weapons of mass destruction, they going to do just like the LAPD and plant them some weapons of mass destruction.”
“God damn America – that’s in the Bible – for killing innocent people. God damn America for treating us citizens as less than human. God damn America …”
Can we really believe Obama was not there when any of these statements were made?
The dream ticket
March 11, 2008
Sen. John McCain is struggling to get some media attention while Sens. Clinton and Obama fight for the Democratic nomination. This week the focus has been on the “dream ticket,” a joint Clinton-Obama ticket.
On the CBS Early show, Clinton said “that may…be where this is headed.” Then her husband, former President Bill Clinton added the two would be “almost unstoppable.” But, who would be on top of the ticket? Clinton says she deserves it, while Obama says the same thing.
Clinton thinks she deserves it because she won big states in the primaries such as California, New York, New Jersey and Ohio. She also thinks she deserves it because she is Hillary Clinton. Obama points out that he has won twice as many states as Clinton and maintains both a delegate lead and a popular vote lead. Right now, Obama deserves it. Yesterday in Mississippi, Obama said, “I have won twice as many states as Sen. Clinton. I have won more of the popular vote than Sen. Clinton. I have more delegates than Sen. Clinton. So I don’t know how somebody who is in second place is offering the vice presidency to the person who is in first place.”
Allow me to inject race into the dream ticket because it is important. By all accounts Obama is winning. But, Hillary is laying claim to the throne. Once again, I see the whitey holding down the black man. Think about it. It’s Obama, the black man, that isn’t experienced enough to be the President. But, he’s good enough to be number two. Just a thought…
The impossibility of change
March 11, 2008
Sen. Barack Obama’s motto is “Change we can believe in.” Assume, Obama becomes President on January 20, 2009. What exactly will change?
Remember, the executive branch is one part of our government. Obama can’t change politics or government on his own. In order to pass any legislation he will have to work with both the House and Senate. Because Congress will remain in Democrats hands, Obama will have an easier time of passing legislation. Again I ask, what will that change?
Say Obama passes his health care plan and more Americans are covered. How will that change the costs of health care? Can we all agree that our health industry is great, but flawed? The insurance industry is a disaster. Obama’s changes will result in cosmetic changes that may look great to voters but fail to enact real change. Obama also promised to end the war in Iraq as soon as he takes office. What will that change? Iraq will still be in the midst of chaos as Sunni’s, Shiites and Kurds continue to battle over land, oil and rights. In fact, Iraq could become a power vacuum without the U.S. military there with all the sect vying for control. Once again, the change will appeal to our eyes, but fail to be real.
Sen. Obama also wants to change Washington. This is no easy task and probably the biggest uphill battle anyone could face. The President can’t possibly do this alone. He would need cooperation of Senators and Representatives. You have heard the phrase, “you can’t teach and old dog new tricks.” Well, here are 26 Senators over the age of 70 currently serving with 35 more between the ages of 60-69 (to be fair Sen. Conrad turns 60 on March 12 while Sen Coburn’s 60th birthday is on March 14th. I have included them in the 60-69 category.) Are they ready to change with Obama?
The optimist in me has always hoped Washington would wake up and politicians would change. The pessimist in me knows better. The problem is, even with Obama running with his message of change, the pessimist in me grows stronger.
A few more thoughts on Hillary…
March 11, 2008
Sen. Hillary Clinton has some version of this several times on the campaign trail, “Now I think you will be able to imagine many things Sen. McCain will be able to say. He has never been the president. He will put forth his experience. I will put forth my experience. Sen. Obama will put forth a speech he made in 2002.”
Clinton’s first point here in simple. She is trying to place Obama in the inexperienced corner by saying that experience matters. But, as Time Magazine points out, if experience alone matters, “then second-term presidencies should be more successful than first-term.” Let’s take a look at those. In his second term, Bush hasn’t been has the Iraq War looming over his head, the NSA wiretaps, Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib. Clinton’s Monica, Reagan’s Iran Contra Affair, Nixon’s Watergate, and Eisenhower’s Suez Canal all happened during their second terms. After each President should have been “experienced” enough to avoid these mistakes. Mistakes happen. They will happen to a President Hillary Clinton, a President Barack Obama or a President John McCain.
Clinton’s second point is more cryptic. Here is another example of her message, “I think that I have a lifetime of experience that I will bring to the White House. I know Senator McCain has a lifetime of experience that he will bring to the White House. And Senator Obama has a speech he gave in 2002.” I get the feeling, Hillary would rather McCain win if she doesn’t win the nomination. Don’t you also the feeling that Hillary feels she deserves the nomination despite Obama’s delegate lead and popular vote lead?
Hillary Wins, Democrats Lose
March 6, 2008
Two days after Hillary Clinton’s big wins in Ohio and Rhode Island and her surprise win in Texas the tide has turned. First, it was an amazing victory. It was another Clinton comeback and never count the Clinton’s out. Now, Hillary’s win could mean disaster for the Democratic party.
Most pundits agree Clinton can’t overtake Obama in delegate count. But, she might be able to catch him in the popular vote. Real Clear Politics has Obama leading now when you include Florida with 13,568,983 votes to Clinton’s 13,277,974. A big win in the Pennsylvania primary on April 22nd could put Clinton in the lead. Then she can make a claim that the super delegates should support her. If she does not, Obama can lay that claim. Hence the chaos.
Bob Novak notes this in his column today:
Clinton’s transformation of the political climate by her decisive victory in Ohio and unexpected narrow win in Texas coincided with Obama facing adversity for the first time in his magical candidacy, and not handling it well. The result is not only the prospect of seven weeks of fierce campaigning by the two candidates stretching out to the next primary showdown April 22 in Pennsylvania, but also perhaps what Democratic leaders feared but never really thought possible until now: a contested national convention in Denver the last week of August.
So far, Obama has 1,573 delegates while Hillary holds on to 1,464. The Democratic winner needs 2,205 delegates to claim the nomination. Those delegates are broken up into two parts, pledge delegates and super delegates. Pledged delegates come directly from the primary and caucus process while super delegates are free to choose whichever candidate they want. Democrats have a total of 795 super delegates going to the convention in August. 242 have already chosen Hillary Clinton while 207 have selected Barack Obama. They are allowed to change their mind though, as John Lewis did.
In order to capture the 2,205 delegates needed Clinton will have to capture 94% of the 611 that are left. Obama will need to capture 77% of them. It just won’t happen. In order for Clinton to take the delegate lead she will have to win 59% of the 611 left. It’s possible, but it isn’t likely.
John Dickerson writes on Slate Hillary has the momentum, but it will still be hard for her to win the nomination:
Hillary Clinton is trying to make the story matter more than the numbers, and what she won Tuesday were some good talking points for her narrative. She’s got to make the case to the roughly 300 undecided superdelegates that they should overlook Obama’s advantage among pledged delegates. Her argument has two parts: Obama doesn’t represent the Democratic Party, and he is a flawed general election candidate.
Jonathan Alter writes in Newsweek:
Superdelegates won’t help Clinton if she cannot erase Obama’s lead among pledged delegates, which now stands at roughly 134. Caucus results from Texas aren’t complete, but Clinton will probably net about 10 delegates out of March 4. That’s 10 down, 134 to go. Good luck.
Ellen Goodman is the lone voice holding out hope. Democrats are excited about both of their candidates and it is driving voters to the polls. This will help come November.
Allow me to offer the contrarian view that “playing with our heads and hearts” has been a good thing, and that the primary campaign may strengthen, not weaken the party’s chances.
For openers, it’s the “embeds” — the traveling press who look as weary as the candidates — and the party honchos who want it over. Two-thirds of the polled Democrats think it should go on.
A good part of the energy and excitement of this campaign comes — still — from having a woman and an African-American on the ballot. So far, Clinton and Obama have brought more voters to the polls than any primary campaign in recent memory.
A full 59 percent of the Ohio voters were women this year, up seven points from 2004. In Texas they were 57 percent, up four points. Obama engages younger voters. In Ohio alone there was a 10 percent increase in the under-30 vote compared to 2000. If it’s good for Ohio, why not Pennsylvania? Indiana?
Howard Dean and the Democratic National Committee will do whatever they can to avoid a fight at their convention in August. They remember 1968. The question will become who will agree to be on the bottom half of the “dream ticket.”
Why Hillary Won…
March 5, 2008
The Democrats aren’t quite sure they are ready to crown their nominee yet. Who can blame them? In their eyes they have two great candidates in Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama. Either will become part of history if they are elected. This excitement is driving up the turnout numbers on the Democratic side. Republicans have to be worried about this. For example in Texas, the Democrats turned out 2.8 million voters, while the Republicans turned out about 1.3 million. That might be meaningless come November, but this has been consistent in every state in the primaries so far.
As we know today, Clinton won big in Ohio and Rhode Island and surprised Obama in Texas with a popular vote there. The exit polls show a similar story after Iowa. Women voters made up a majority of the Democratic voters in Ohio and Texas and Clinton won that vote in both states. Clinton also won the White vote and the Latino vote. Obama continued to win the young vote and the Black vote. Democratic voters in both Texas and Ohio think Obama has the better chance to win in November, but Clinton has more experience and a clearer plan for America. The economy was the number one issue yesterday.
But, one of the most important facts for Hillary Clinton yesterday was the late voters. She won voters who decided within the last three days. Why? The 3AM experience ad obviously worked, Saturday Night Live poked fun at the media’s love affair with Obama, Clinton later appeared on both SNL and the Daily Show and was seen drinking a beer with the press corp. Obama has the charisma. But, Clinton stole some of it last week. As she said this morning on the Today Show, “voters are starting to ask tough questions” about Obama. Advantage and momentum: Hillary.
A look at all the delegate counts…
March 5, 2008
All the news outlets have different delegate counts. Here is a list of them:
Obama Clinton McCain
ABC NEWS:
REAL CLEAR POLITICS
Total Delegates 1542 1447 1260
POLITICO
Total Delegates 1477 1391 1224
Needed: Democrats 2205 Republicans 1191
The Obama-Rezko connection
March 4, 2008
Sen. Barack Obama’s friend Tony Rezko is on trial for corruption in Chicago. Most of Rezko’s ties are with Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. But, Rezko has some ties to Obama.
Obama has known Rezko since he was in law school. Obama turned down a job offer from Rezko upon his graduation, but Obama billed him for five hours of work when he was a community organizer. Rezko made all his money in real estate and from Papa John’s and Panda Express fast food restaurants. Read more about the case and Rezko’s big ties to Gov. Blagojevich here.
Obama wanted to buy a mansion on Chicago’s South Side with money from his second book. He found a house to buy, but the owner of that house also owned the adjacent property next door and was only going to sell both of them. Obama bought the house and Tony Rezko’s wife bought the land next door. Obama paid $1,650,000 for the house while (which was valued at $1,950,000) Mrs. Rezko bought the land for $625,000. Obama later paid the Rezko’s $104,500 for a strip of the land in 2005, after Rezko was already being investigated.
There isn’t much to go on here and it certainly won’t stick to Obama.
Obama: The Untouchable
March 4, 2008
Sen. Barack Obama is the modern day Eliot Ness. He is untouchable. He is Teflon. Nothing sticks to him. Not the Rezko ties and trial, not the NAFTA fight with Canada. Nothing. Why?
Abraham Katsman points out Obama is no different policy wise from either Sen. Hillary Clinton or Sen. John Edwards, but for some reason people faint if when they see him like he was Michael Jackson.
His evident charisma aside, a clue to the source of Obama-mania may be found in the demographics of his support: he is far and away the favorite of younger voters and college students, routinely winning over 75% of the votes of Democrats under 30. Obama has tapped into is the first generation educated in schools focused on “self-esteem.” Now, the products of self-esteem education have come of political age in substantial numbers, perhaps with profound implications for this and future elections.
For the past two decades, America’s educational establishment has stressed the inculcation of self-esteem as the supreme educational goal. Self-respect - the product of struggle and achievement - is out; self-esteem - the entitlement tofeel great self-worth regardless of actual accomplishment - is in.
Strict correction of misspelling or of wrong answers to math problems is discouraged. Competition is a big no-no: many youth sports leagues forbid keeping score, lest any child’s self-esteem suffer from the indignity of losing. Posting honor rolls is discouraged, as it might injure the self-esteem of those who did not make the grade.
Grade inflation is rampant in schools: according to one recent study, about half of today’s college freshman had an “A” average in high school compared to under 20% in the late 1960s, even though SAT scores have tanked over the same period. The focus on self-esteem has, in a sense, been a huge success.
We live in a time where every kid who plays sports gets a trophy. I turn 30 in June. My younger brother will be 27 in July. When I played little league trophies were given out to the championship team. Three years later, when he played, everyone in little league was given trophies just for playing. It’s amazing the difference just three years can make.
I am also part of the grade inflation era. I did well through elementary, middle and high school and I would like to think it was because I worked hard. But, I do believe there is some truth to grade inflation. After all, we can’t make kids feel bad by giving them failing grades. Some teachers aren’t even using red pens anymore because of the psychological effects on the children. One teacher said, “If you see a whole paper of red, it looks pretty frightening.” We are raising a nation of wimps and it makes you wonder how we as a nation survived all these years.
Is our nation of wimps the reason Obama gets all the support he does because of his messages of hope?
The Remake of Hillary Clinton continues
March 4, 2008
Because Sen. Hillary Clinton was an active first lady during the Clinton years, many Americans already had an opinion of her before she decided to run for President. In fact, most Americans think poorly of her. Recent polls show her unfavorability numbers as high as 51%. This Rasmussen poll shows 50% don’t like Hillary. It’s hard to win an election when so many people don’t like you.
Hence, the remake of Hillary Clinton. This has been going on for more than a year. Clinton is trying to make herself appear more human and less shrill. She smiles on the campaign trail, she laughs and she jokes with the media. Hillary didn’t do that back in 1993.
She cracked a joke about a year ago saying, “we face a lot of evil men, you know, people like Osama bin Laden comes to mind and what in my background equips me to deal with evil and bad men.” An obvious shot at her husband. This was Hillary trying to be funny. In one of the later debates, Hillary again joked about her husband’s infidelities. She said, “everybody here knows I have lived through some crises and some challenging moments in my life.” The crowd loved it.
She produced a Soprano’s spoof to pick her campaign song, flew on Hill Force One, and has cried three times so far. The message: Sen. Hillary Clinton is not a robot. In the past few days, she has appeared on Saturday Night Live to make fun of herself. She cracked a couple jokes on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
I have seen Clinton during a couple of campaign stops in Iowa and New Hampshire. She appeared motherly and friendly in order to remake that cold-hearted image. I have to be honest. It has worked. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t agree with Hillary Clinton on much if anything and I certainly won’t vote for her. However, I no longer think she is an inhumane, emotionless, shrill politician. I have seen her laugh, cry, and drink a beer with the press corp. All of it has been calculated and planned, but if she wins, I know she is capable of being human.
