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POPSBarack Obama: Leap of Faith
but because they're confused about the roots of his politics. Sen. Obama accumulated his victorious lead early with a liberal coalition willing to vote for him mainly for reasons of faith – upper-middle-class whites, black voters and young idealists -- all attempting to complete the civil-rights promise, answer the post-partisan appeal, or vote against the war and George Bush. His coalition's limitations hit the wall in Ohio. Here Sen. Clinton discovered her Rosie-the-Riveter persona, and it worked. I watched her sell bread-and-butter policy before blue-collar crowds in Youngstown, Akron and Cleveland. She was tremendously good at it. He just wasn't. The Sunday before the Ohio vote, Sen. Obama abandoned Ohio. The way Hillary won in these crucial November swing states may have fatally damaged his candidacy. His problem is that there is nothing in it (biography) to suggest he has spent any significant time thinking about these people other than as a political abstraction.
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POPSWas Barack's Surprise Visit a Sign He Knows It's Going Badly? But when you've got the messiah's image to protect, then you've got to scrap the purpose of the convention if it's going to make him look bad. That's not a good sign. Exit question: since the entire purpose of the convention, the roll call of the states, was thrown out the window, how does this even remain a convention? How is it different from one huge campaign ad?
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POPSCongressNow: Sestak Seeks Bipartisan Approach to Ending War He was an early and ardent backer of the presidential campaign of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and served on former President Bill Clinton’s National Security Council in the mid-1990s. Sestak has since backed Obama’s campaign, although he admits he’s not among Obama’s core group of national security advisers. Still, several Democratic lawmakers have suggested Sestak’s views carry weight among House Democrats. “When he speaks, he has the ear of everyone on the committee,” said Rep. Ellen Tauscher (Calif.), a senior Democrat on the Armed Services Committee. Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.), also a member of the committee, said Sestak has already emerged as as leader on military strategy. “He’s got the expertise. Democrats should welcome his experience.” Sestak said, “My belief is that those that have more recent experience and time in the military can help explain why certain polices” are needed, he said.
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POPSAngry Clinton Supporters Toast McCain, Roast Obama "I'm a registered Republican ... for the first time in my voting life," Archuleta said. "No Obama for me. I'm voting for John McCain." "He reminds me of what the Jimmy Carter era was like. ... If they think Jimmy Carter had it bad, just wait if Obama gets into the White House. That will be bad news in so many ways," she added. McCain campaign regional communications director Tom Kise said, "Four years ago, if you said we'd be at a Hillary happy hour at the DNC, I would have called you crazy. But today is a great opportunity for people who ... agree that Sen. Barack Obama doesn't have the experience to be president of the United States." "The DNC really pushed on us. Now they've left us with two choices: somebody who has no substance or a Republican." Clinton supporters-turned-McCain converts at the event were not just angry at Obama's campaign; they're furious with the Democratic Party's nomination process this year.
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POPSBrass Knuckles and Party Unity Bubba, feeling his pain, wants to talk about securing the Clintons' future, and particularly about all the good things he did when he was president. It's all about respect he counts as his due from the Democratic wing of the Clinton Party. It's not like Hillary didn't win everything fair and square. The Democrats here are more than a little concerned about their man's slide in the polls; Gallup on Monday said the race is tied at 45-all. The news may get worse. There's the story now afloat that an Obama half brother is living in grim poverty in Kenya, scratching out a bare living on a dollar a month while the senator lives in luxury on $5 million a year. Far worse, a summerlong controversy continues about when and where the senator was actually born, and whether the circumstances of his birth could cloud his eligibility to serve. The Obama campaign has been reluctant to produce a birth certificate. The Clintons are surely trying to help sort this out.
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POPSObama's "Carefully Nuanced Refinements" Obama could have picked Hillary Clinton, who received 18,000,000 votes. (He would have done so, by the way, without sacrificing his desire to have a Vice President with strong national security and foreign policy credentials on the ticket.) That works out to 2,000 votes for Clinton for every one vote Senator Biden got.
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POPSRepublicans Spread Message of Democrats’ Disunity Because of the Republican offensive, senior advisers to Obama and Clinton were furiously trying to extinguish constant reports of party unrest Monday morning before the convention had even officially begun. The RNC and the McCain campaign have already launched an ad entitled "Debra" that features one such disaffected Clinton supporter who says she is supporting McCain. In the ad, Wisconsin delegate Debra Bartosevich says that the New York senator has "the experience and the judgment to be president." "Now, in a first for me, I'm supporting a Republican, John McCain," Bartosevich says. “I respect his maverick and independent streak, and now he's the one with the experience and judgment. A lot of Democrats will vote McCain. It's OK, really." Monday night, the GOP was hosting a "Happy Hour for Hillary" in downtown Denver, and earlier in the day, the Republicans released their first of the week's daily "Not Ready '08" memos — this one titled "A Party Divided."
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POPSIdentity Politics — It's What's for Dinner In Denver For a campaign that promised post-racial politicking, its candidate and surrogates haven't been above race-baiting at the drop of a hat. This goes hand in hand with Obama's repeated baseless smears of John McCain as a racist. Emil Jones just followed Obama's lead, as Obama has followed his. Post racial = everybody is a racist, so the word no longer has any meaning?
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POPSTensions Boiling Over Between Obama-Clinton Camps to Obama’s victory, it is up to Obama to accommodate them. In fact, some senior veterans of Clinton’s presidential campaign do believe this. “He has not fully reconciled,” said one political operative close to the Clintons, “and he has not demonstrated that he accepts the Clintons and the Clinton wing of the party.” While the Clintons have a relatively easy job in Denver — to deliver gracious speeches and accept what are likely to be loud cheers from their supporters — it is “Obama who has the heavy lifting” this week, this aide said. This is because large numbers of Clinton backers — 30 percent in a recent ABC/Washington Post poll — are still not backing Obama over McCain. The peevishness on both sides and the volume of behind-the-scenes catcalls are noteworthy because both the Clinton and Obama teams had resolved in pre-convention talks that it was overwhelmingly in the interests of both sides to get along.
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POPSPennsylvania Gov. Rendell: Obama Coverage Was "Embarrassing" At that point, PBS's Judy Woodruff, who was moderating the moderators event, said: "Why don’t we let Governor Rendell sit down." That was met with applause from the crowd of big-time media figures, which included Arianna Huffington, Gwen Ifill, Al Hunt, and Chuck Todd. Woodruff allowed Brokaw to respond, and in defending the network, he said that Matthews and Keith Olbermann are "not the only voices" on MSNBC.
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POPSHillary Clinton Gets Stiffed The Clintons also were not asked about donors to the William J. Clinton Presidential Library. “This would be the biggest leap of faith ever,” the official said. “She’s waiting for the text message like everyone else.” An Obama aide said "absolutely exhaustive research was done on her over the course of the 16 month primary. She was researched more closely than any candidate in history."
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POPS'Obama Sued in Philadelphia Federal Court' "If", and that's a BIG IF, this isn't all some kind of hoax or a simple case of the Obama campaign not having provided the correct information or certificate, or there's some other legitimate explanation, all hell is about to break out in the Obama campaign and Hillary Clinton will have pulled off a hell of a coup! Update; Factcheck.org (owned by The Annenberg Foundation) has a new birth certificate story. As Texasdarlin suggests in her post, this is interesting timing since Obama has just returned from Hawaii. Indeed, what a coincidence that it's today! Update on Federal Lawsuit (Things may be getting more interesting) (As TD suggests, are there links worth investigating between the Barack Obama campaign, William Ayres, the Annenbergs, and ACORN.) Federal Lawsuit http://texasdarlin.wordpress.com/2008/08/21/update-on-federal-lawsuit/
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POPSA Warning to Obama Neglect by the Clintons is hardly to be overlooked as this ambitious pair had better things to pay attention to in their furious political rise to the top than their daughter. And sexual abuse is not to be totally ruled out either given Bill’s sexual tastes. Not for Hillary, who is sufficiently self-serving and devious that one would not be surprised to see her team up with Huckabee on a national reconciliation ticket to satisfy her political ambition. Hopefully Obama will not be removed by the ruling class by assassination, which they would do if methods to remove him don’t work. These could include much media humiliation or using their federal prosecutors on a leash to try Resko at this most inopportune time or even Resko inventing a story about Barack in order to trade 15 years over his head for two. Or something like that. Post from supporter
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POPSLarwyn's Links: Why Oh Why Did We Kick Hillary to the Curb? Larwyn is in the process of moving, but I was able to connect with Larwyn's link: http://www.talkleft.com/story/2008/8/10/22149/9588 John Edwards' New Age Friends First, there's Newsweek reporter Jonathan Darman's new article about his relationship and many meetings with Rielle Hunter. She's very new age -- astrology, auras, energy fields, etc. He was covering Edwards in Iowa in 2006 when he met Rielle and they stayed in touch and met several times. Very strange story. Then, there's the real mystery man in all this: Bob McGovern. He's the guy who separately drove both Rielle and Edwards to the Beverly Hilton for their meet-up. Edwards told Nightline that McGovern was the one who called him that afternoon and asked for the meeting. Edwards also told Nightline that he only agreed to the meeting if McGovern would be there too. Edwards' never said how he knew Bob McGovern. So who is Bob McGovern? Apparently, a new age healer from Santa Barbara.
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POPSClintons vs Obama = McCain.......AGAIN Century, the American Strategic Energy Fund. Let’s use our logo to make some flags we can give out. Let’s add flag symbols to the backgrounds.” A video on the internet of Hillary, is reported to have her saying something like ‘her’ supports should be heard at the convention, Seeing how they ran their campaign against Barack Obama, and a fellow American and fellow Democrat and now this latest article -- it is just heart breaking. Once this report is made public, Senator John McCain’s camp, I’m sure, will use these words made by the Clinton camp by showing them in commercials saying something like, “Even President Clinton and Hillary think Obama’s not patriotic or American enough to run our nation.
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POPSParis To "White-Haired Dude" --- "What Ever" Most astonishing of all, Big Media (the broadcast and cable networks, The Associated Press and major newspapers) continue their near-total blackout of reporting on a story that broke in the National Enquirer on July 22, well before we went on vacation -- where the tabloid's reporters and a photographer staked out a Los Angeles hotel where former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards allegedly visited his rumored mistress. You can read or hear all about it in the British press, online bloggers, Internet Web sites (including the Huffington Post and most exhaustively on Mickey Kaus' blog), the usual right-wing radio suspects. Even late night comics like Jay Leno are starting to joke about it. But don't expect a word of it to pass the lips of Brian Williams, Charlie Gibson or Katie Couric. Elizabeth Edwards Speaks Out On Her Husband's Affair http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/08/elizabeth-edwar.html
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POPSHillary Shadow Lengthens As Obama's Fades That discovery of racial chauvinism wasn't hard once his former associate, his pastor for over 20 years, the racist Rev. Jeremiah Wright, spewed his venom. Obama himself didn't help things as he taught the nation that his dutiful grandmother was at times a small-minded bigot—no different from a "typical white person." And in an impromptu riff, Obama ridiculed small-town, working-class Pennsylvanians' supposed racial insularity. Second, many are beginning to notice how a St. Obama talks down to them. We American yokels can't speak French or Spanish. We eat too much. Our cars are too big, our houses either overheated or overcooled. And we don't put enough air in our car tires. Third, Obama knows that all doctrinaire liberals must tack rightward in the general election. But due to his inexperience, he's doing it in far clumsier fashion than any triangulating candidate in memory. Fourth, Obama is proving as inept an extemporaneous speaker as he is gifted with the teleprompter.
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POPSMcCain VP Talk Turns To 2 Female Conservatives "She's got it all, and is a remarkable leader who brings a number of good qualities to the table," said Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America. Mrs. Palin is "a mother of five, is a genuine Alaskan, is a hunter, is a dog sledder, is very much for drilling for oil, has a great reform reputation, took on big oil on behalf of the people of Alaska," Mr. Gingrich said. "I think she would bring a level of excitement and uniqueness that people would have to stop and say, 'Boy, this is kind of intriguing.'"
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POPSMcCain Should Pick Romney, And Soon (3) Romney will bring economic credibility. With a few exceptions, qualities or qualifications have not been transferred from veep to the top guy. It's just as possible that, rather than boost McCain's economic bona fides, Romney would underscore the impression that those bona fides are pretty weak. (4) Romney can raise extra cash. He probably can, but by itself this is not a reason to select him. A veep nominee is more important than an ATM, so Romney has to offer McCain something else. If he can, his fundraising prowess is really just a supplement. McCain has an asset that Hillary simply lacked. He can outsource the attacks, handing the duties over to the veep pick. McCain can go back to being the maverick straight talker while the vice-presidential nominee can go after Obama. Never in his political career has Obama encountered an opponent who can land a blow as well as Romney. This is why Mitt Romney might make a good veep candidate.
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POPSRapper Ludacris - Obama Is Here Video Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and rapper Ludacris met in the senator’s Chicago office. The rapper said talking to the politician was like meeting with a relative. paint the White House black and I’m sure that’s got ‘em terrified McCain don’t belong in ANY chair unless he’s paralyzed Yeah I said it cause Bush is mentally handicapped Ball up all of his speeches and I throw em like candy wrap cause what you talking I hear nothing even relevant and you the worst of all 43 presidents get out and vote or the end will be near the world is ready for change because Obama is here! cause Obama is here The world is ready for change because Obama is here!
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POPSThe Anointed One Ventured Forth To Bring Light Unto The World In the great Battles of Caucus and Primary he smote the conniving Hillary, wife of the deposed King Bill the Priapic and their barbarian hordes of Working Class Whites. And so it was, in the fullness of time, before the harvest month of the appointed year, the Child ventured forth - for the first time - to bring the light unto all the world. He travelled fleet of foot and light of camel, with a small retinue that consisted only of his loyal disciples from the tribe of the Media. He ventured first to the land of the Hindu Kush, where the Taleban had harboured the viper of al-Qaeda in their bosom, raining terror on all the world. And the Child spake and the tribes of Nato immediately loosed the Caveats that had previously bound them. And in the great battle that ensued the forces of the light were triumphant. For as long as the Child stood with his arms raised aloft, the enemy suffered great blows and the threat of terror was no more. YouTube video 6:13
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POPSAnti-Obama Movie On The Way: Citizens United One prominent Citizens United movie is “Celsius 41.11,” which says it tells the “truth behind the lies” of the Michael Moore movie “Fahrenheit 9/11.” Other Citizens United movies are critical of the United Nations, illegal immigration, and the American Civil Liberties Union, while one movie promotes Newt Gingrich and his ideas. The conservative group is also looking to the U.S. Supreme Court for help in advertising the anti-Hillary movie. It is opposing a federal regulation, under the McCain-Feingold Act, requiring that a disclaimer that identifies the group be placed at the end of television ads promoting the movie and criticizing Mrs. Clinton. It is also arguing that it should not have to disclose how much it spent to produce the movie and the ads, nor who contributed to it. The Supreme Court is scheduled to decide next week whether it will hear the case.
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POPSMAKING IT: How Chicago Shaped Obama. There was also a more general belief that, after Obama won the 2004 United States Senate primary, he ignored his South Side base. Preckwinkle said, “My view is you have to bring your constituency along with you. Granted, you have to make some tough decisions. Granted, sometimes you have to make decisions that people won’t understand or like. But it’s your obligation to explain yourself and try to do your supporters the courtesy of treating them with respect.” Ivory Mitchell, who for twenty years has been the chairman of the local ward organization in Obama’s neighborhood—considered the most important Democratic organization on the South Side—was one of Obama’s earliest backers. Today, he says, “All the work we did to help him get where he finally ended up, he didn’t seem too appreciative.” A year ago, Mitchell became a delegate for Hillary Clinton. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/07/21/080721fa_fact_lizza?printable=true
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POPSFreedom Rider: Obama's Iraq "Fairy Tale" The latest case of buyer’s remorse concerns Obama’s statements about his plan to visit Iraq in the near future. “I’ve always said that the pace of withdrawal would be dictated by the safety and security of our troops and the need to maintain stability. That assessment has not changed. And when I go to Iraq and have a chance to talk to some of the commanders on the ground, I’m sure I’ll have more information and will continue to refine my policies.” It may be helpful to take a trip down memory lane and fully dissect the fairy tale of the anti-war candidate. In 2004 Senate candidate Barack Obama did not brag about being against the occupation of Iraq e was far more circumspect, criticizing president Bush only for badly managing a war of aggression, and emphasizing that he was not that much different. "There's not that much difference between my position and George Bush's position at this stage. The difference, in my mind, is who's in a position to execute."
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POPSWill Rookie Mistakes Sink Obama? Barack Obama’s claim to be the Agent of Change is already unraveling He is proving belatedly that Bill and Hillary’s prediction was right: he is not ready for prime time.
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POPSABC Poll: A Careful Balance Between Left And Far-Left 3 for Obama and 2 for Clinton... No mention of the 54 for McCain. Maybe it wasn't bias --- maybe they just randomly picked five out of the 60 who didn't favor McCain. Never mind the odds of that happening are roughly 1 in 100,000. It was just luck of the draw! Luck of the draw, I tell you!
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POPSGoogle Locks Down Anti-Obama Sites On Blogger Platform **UPDATE** I have been hesitant to post this update because I cannot find a link to prove the claim, but it is starting to look like this Blogspot shut down of anti-Obama sites occurred because of a concerted effort by Obama supporters. What they did was go to the Blogspot addresses found on the site of the NoObama coalition called Just Say No Deal and constantly hit the “mark as spam” link so that Google’s Blogger would be flooded with spam warnings. This caused Google/Blogger to freeze the sites marked. Apparently, this campaign merely took advantage of Google/Blogger’s flawed system of finding spam blogs. So, it looks like what we have here is an Obama dirty trick to shut down political opposition. Looks like Obmatons aren’t much for that whole democracy thing, eh? Once I find a link to an Obama site talking about this attack, I will post it.
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POPSIt's All About Obama Americans overwhelmingly find it a hopeful, optimistic sign that the country could elect an African-American president. But they rightly want to know what kind of leader he might be. They may well reject as cynical any maneuver to discourage close examination of him by suggesting any criticism is racially motivated. The candidate's self-centeredness has been on display before. Having effectively sewed up the Democratic nomination, he could have agreed to seat the Florida and Michigan delegations (states Hillary Clinton had carried). While reducing his lead by 50 to 55 delegates, it would not have altered the outcome. But Mr. Obama supported cutting these battleground-state delegations in half. At a time when magnanimity was called for, the candidate decided he'd strut. In a contest over who is willing to put principle above personal ambition and self-interest, John McCain, a war hero and a former POW, wins hands down.
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POPSThe New Meaning Of "Politics Of Change" * Obama repeatedly vowed to meet with various heads of terror states - most notably Ahmadinejad of Iran - "without preconditions." Then, with the nomination in sight, he zigzagged: "There's no reason why we would necessarily meet with Ahmadinejad. He's not the most powerful person in Iran." * In October, he supported NAFTA expansion. In March, campaigning in the Ohio primary, he called for a "reopening" of the trade pact's terms. This week, he called his own primary rhetoric "overheated" and said NAFTA has had a positive effect on the US economy. Change, yes. But "change we can believe in"?
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POPSWhen Obama Is Off The Teleprompter I suspect this is why John McCain is so eager to get Obama into those town-hall meetings Obama seems intent on avoiding. McCain has been doing them for 25 years and is very good at them; it’s a mark of how good he is at them that he doesn’t make career-threatening gaffes during them. McCain wants Obama off that teleprompter, which is sound strategy. But he can’t make Obama go anywhere Obama doesn’t want to. The media pose a different challenge for Obama.
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POPS Only As Strong As The Weakest Link Beyond policies, though, a president should unite, not divide; however, Obama’s severe case of liberalism segregates the country into left and right. Rep. Dan Boren (D-Okla.) recently stated he might vote for Obama, but he refuses to endorse him. Why? Because the congressman believes Obama is the most exclusive club’s liberalist. As such, he doesn’t believe he can represent his constituency if he endorses the Democratic nominee. Others have joined the Boren ranks. If he can’t convince his own party to band together, how will he unite a country? Failing to acknowledge weaknesses does not translate into an absence of flaws, and finding the strongest links doesn’t prevent the chain from breaking. We have the choice to either anticipate the weak link or we can wait … wait until the last moment when the chain is most strained … wait until the instant the country is most vulnerable … wait until it can no longer hold … wait until it snaps. Visit www.armstrongwilliams.com .
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POPS"Whiskey for my men, beer for my horses" The academicians' theme songs are "Kumbaya" and "Imagine," while Jacksonians prefer Toby Keith: "Whiskey for my men, beer for my horses." It was when they lost their warrior edge that Democrats started losing the White House, winning only in unusual circumstances such as the Watergate scandal or in that brief window in history (from the fall of the Berlin Wall through September 11) when foreign threats had faded out of the picture. "Priests . . . write books and sometimes verse," and indeed, Obama wrote two of them. Their campaigns become crusades, fueled as much by an inchoate longing for a 'new politics'. "Obama is not at all a warrior, and is something of an academic," writes Barone: He is all college campus and not at all boot camp. He has campaigned consistently as an opponent of military action in Iraq. He is up against John McCain, a true Jacksonian if ever there was one. Of course, he dispatched another Jacksonian in Hillary Clinton.
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POPSObama and Iran:The Democrats Modern-Day McGovern Judging from last week's address to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), Sen. Barack Obama doesn't want voters to see him as soft on Iran and its genocidal President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The Iranians "understand - sometimes, it seems, better than a lot of Americans do - that if American power collapses in Iraq, if we abandon our allies" then "our position throughout the region will become much weaker and Iran's position much stronger," Lieberman added. The Senate - including well over half of the Democrats - voted for the amendment, which passed 76-22. Obama, who was absent, said he opposed the amendment because it could be used as pretext to invade Iran. Obama denounced Kyl-Lieberman as "reckless" and criticized his chief rival, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, for supporting it. However tough he tries to sound when talking to AIPAC, Barack Obama's real sympathies are with the George Soros/MoveOn.org wing of the Democrat Party.
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POPS"Vetters" Search For Obama Veep Jones, a Vietnam vet born in Kansas City, MO (swing state alert!), was a career military officer rising to one of the highest posts possible. Being the least known potential veep, it shouldn't be surprising that the vetters have to spend more time on him in their various conversations on the Hill. But the fact that he's being, um, added to the very long short list, is an interesting development. Besides Jones, the other names on the list bandied about with congressional Dems include (and not in any order): Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, John Edwards, Evan Bayh, Kathleen Sebelius, Ted Strickland, Mark Warner, Tim Kaine, Jim Webb, Bill Nelson, Jack Reed, Joe Biden, Chris Dodd, Tom Daschle, and Sam Nunn. You'll notice a few names NOT on this list (that's not my exclusion -- hint hint). Besides Jones, I'm told the two other names that invited extended discussion were Biden and Strickland. Take this chatter for what it is -- chatter.
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POPSReverend Wright, Gone, But Not Forgotten and the abject absence of a truly honest and principled discussion of his disturbing past subsidy of it. A more honest candidate might have explained why a future president of the United States should never have abetted the racialist mentality, by encouraging, by his presence and purse at Trinity, some to blame others for their problems, and why as people first we cannot advance our own careers and agendas by investing in the tribe rather than in transcendent ideas and values. So here we have the Obama paradox: The more he poses, and is praised, as the post-racial healer, the more 25 years of his career belie the rhetoric. In short, he now talks far more humanely than most about race, but the way in which he started and nourished his career proves that he was also far more cynical and divisive than most.
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