Every election cycle we see candidates moving towards the middle.  Some call this ‘flip flopping’. 

In the past 40 years Democrats have won the White House three times.  Two out of three times was by Bill Clinton.  Bill Clinton was a master at moving towards the middle.  Many now say that Obama is following Clintons’ lead.  All our Democratic nominees would have followed Bill Clintons lead and moved towards the middle to win the GE.  This is what CNN has to say about the ‘flip flop’ GE:

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2008/07/03/schneider.flip.flop.primary.cnn

We do have one politician that no matter what the polls say, no matter what the people want…he stays the course.  I say, “Flip flop Mr. Bush.  The majority of the country does not agree with you.”  Even Jesse Helms who was one of the most conservative in Congress worked with Madeline Albright on AIDS in Africa.  He ‘flip flopped’.

Am I disappointed in some of the stands Obama has on the issues?  Of course I am.  Do I know that Obama will not be with me on 100% of the issues?  Of course I do. 

The FEC has a webiste with information on where the candidates get their money. You can even put in anme and it tells you how much they gave to who... also does it by zip code.

Notice the donations for each of $200 and under!!!  Obama raised the majority of the money from people who don't have much money.  His supprters sucked up and put their money where there mouths were.  Perhaps that's why Obama was able to pay his bills. 

Here is Obama's as of May 31st:

$66,841,762

CLinton's:

Summary Contributions   Individual $204,625,284 PAC $1,276,129 Party $2,000 Candidate $12,175,000 Transfers-In $10,000,000 Disbursements $202,697,707 Cash On Hand $26,724,323  Size of Donations $200 and Under $68,446,409 $200.01 - $499 $15,182,604 $500 - $999 $15,188,373 $1000 - $1999 $28,949,953 $2000 and Over $80,622,428

I haven't been able to sleep much latley and have been thinking a lot.  I have put  these thoughts down. With he 4th of July coming..I thought it was relevent. 

We’ve come a long way?

I have been giving this a lot of thought.  With the Fourth of July approaching I think this may be good time for this post.

I grew up in much different times.  Things were much simpler..And better in so many ways. 

We had disease.  My sister went out to play with us one morning and could only crawl up the back porch stairs for lunch.  Yes, polio hit that fast.   I remember standing in long lines to receive my ‘sugar cube’ laced with the polio vaccine at the local school. 

Family time was ‘forced’ upon us, in a way.  Sundays there were only ‘emergency drug stores’ open a few bowling alleys.  So, every Saturday night we would take turns sleeping at our grandparents.  The night began with rolling back the rug in the living room and being forced to learn how to polka with Lawrence Welk on the television in the background.  Then baths with a bar of Fells Napta to wash even our hair.  We awoke to a pair of little white gloves for each of us and a dime to put in the collection basket at the 6:00 Mass my grandparents took us to.  By the way, not a word of English at the Mass as they were in Latin.  We were learning a third language and didn’t know it.  We already knew Slovak and a little German.  English was our primary language. We were Americans and ever so proud of it.

I never knew this until I was adult, but my grandmother could never read.  She put on such a good show no one would have known.  She came to the US at 15 years of age.  She worked in a factory in St. Louis and saved until she had earned enough for the passage for her parents and brothers and sisters to follow. 

My parents sent all 9 of us to Catholic School.  The government was helping parents with this until I was a teenager.  Then it stopped abruptly.  We walked almost 2 miles every day to school in Cleveland weather.  Two miles was the threshold for busses.  We missed it.  We were sure never to cut through the ‘beer joint’ as it was forbidden by my parents. 

We never questioned authority.  The worst thing that could have happened was an adult call our parents to complain about our behavior.  Back then parents believed adults and asked questions later.

I can remember the day JFK was shot as we were in school.  That is a day I will never forget.  People were crying everywhere you looked….. In the stores, the streets…everywhere…everyone.  We were all just ‘Americans’ back then.  Schools were closed the day of the funeral.  We sat in front of our televisions and watched…crying.

My father worked in a factory.  He drove cabs at night.  He began his career as a bolt makers’ helper.  He worked hard, and later took some college classes.  He rose from the bottom of the ladder to management with a 6 figure income and profit sharing.  He became management representation to negotiate with the Union for new contracts.  He did this fairly and always remembered where he came from.  Later he would travel abroad for the company.  That thriving plant that employed so many has been bought and sold in the last 10 years.  It has now moved and is no longer a Union shop. 

We didn’t have video games and didn’t watch much television.  Lucy and Desi slept in separate beds.  We spent our days swinging and singing on the swings in the back yard, playing baseball, hula hooping and sharing our pogo stick.  Dinner time was mandatory.  Period, no questions asked.  We discussed current events and how our days went.  And we talked about ‘the word’.  Everyday my mom would tape a new word on the fridge.  We were to use it 3 times during the day, because she said we would ‘own it’ if we did.  My mother never had to wash a dish because it was our job and we took turns.  No one complained.

Every summer I would spend 2 weeks at my other grandmothers.  She was a widow and lived on a farm.  My grandparents had ‘taken in’ a vagrant alcoholic that had no place to go and he stayed long after my grandpa died to help run the farm….free of his problem.  He was Uncle Bob to us.  There was little or no trash at grandmas.  She canned everything from meet to vegetables (all produced on the small family farm) and we just washed the jars to be used again.  Any leftover food was given to the pigs.  I still remember the crisp, clean smell of the sheets on the beds at grandma’s after they had hung to dry.

Vacations were seldom to far off places.  Driving was the only option because only ‘rich people’ flew.  We would and go to an amusement park one day; it was Tuesday ‘nickel’ day where the rides were only a nickel each.  One day was saved for swimming at East Harbor in Lake Erie.  Few swim in Lake Erie now.  It was cleaned up but now since the Great Lakes Act has been gutted; it is not safe to swim now.  The Walleye and Perch are abundant but caution is given as to how much you can eat due to high Mercury levels.

Then there was the Fourth of July.  Always the same, and always one of the best events of the year.  Family, neighbors and friends all barbecuing in the street and sharing.  We knew our neighbors by name up and down the street.  We knew about them as well.  Once a couple were divorced and moved away.  Divorce was not common them.  The event began after most went to the Parade.  It went on into the night to watch the fireworks.  The memories of the celebration are still vivid.  The unity of the neighborhood was pronounced.  No one close ever had a problem with more help then they needed from their neighbors.

I remember once when my father was ever so disappointed in me.  We were all watching the nightly news.  The news showed pictures of a local protest march against the Viet Nam War.  My father was upset and vehemently said so.  Then my face was shown on the television as one of the protestors.  His face turned white and he left the room.  Nothing was ever said.  In years to follow my father began to question government policy.  Many Americans came to the same realization and did the same.  

Last year I decided to stop by the home I grew up in.  It was once a rural suburb of Cleveland.  I laughed thinking how small the 3 bedroom house was.  I had not remembered it that way.  I just thought it was fun to share a full bed with two of my sisters.  The huge field that was in the back yard is not a parking lot full of cars for the Honda dealership that sits there.  The ditch that was a part of our front yard is gone as underground sewers and sidewalks take their place. 

I look back at it all now and I mourn for the loss of pride we had in America.  I miss the family as it was.  I realize how much smaller the world has become.  I see it every time I go to the grocery store or out to eat.  The variety we now have from all corners of the earth. 

I still think if we take back a little of the good from days gone by…. We could be a better country and better people. 

With the drums beating for an attack on Iran and US coverts ops escalating there.... I have some faith this will not happen.  We won't be fooled again.  We all need to get busy and stop it now. 

Please take a moment to read Obama's anti-war speech in 2002.  Not only did he have the judgement to stand up and say, "No." when it was unpolular, but he projected what would be the result.  He was hit the nail on the head.

Remarks of Illinois State Sen. Barack Obama

Against Going to War with Iraq

Chicago, IL | October 2, 2002

Good afternoon. Let me begin by saying that although this has been billed as an anti-war

rally, I stand before you as someone who is not opposed to war in all circumstances. The

Civil War was one of the bloodiest in history, and yet it was only through the crucible of

the sword, the sacrifice of multitudes, that we could begin to perfect this union, and drive

the scourge of slavery from our soil. I don't oppose all wars.

My grandfather signed up for a war the day after Pearl Harbor was bombed, fought in

Patton's army. He saw the dead and dying across the fields of Europe; he heard the stories

of fellow troops who first entered Auschwitz and Treblinka. He fought in the name of a

larger freedom, part of that arsenal of democracy that triumphed over evil, and he did not

fight in vain. I don't oppose all wars.

After September 11th, after witnessing the carnage and destruction, the dust and the tears,

I supported this administration's pledge to hunt down and root out those who would

slaughter innocents in the name of intolerance, and I would willingly take up arms myself

to prevent such tragedy from happening again. I don't oppose all wars. And I know that in

this crowd today, there is no shortage of patriots, or of patriotism.

What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war. What I am

opposed to is the cynical attempt by Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz and other

armchair, weekend warriors in this administration to shove their own ideological agendas

down our throats, irrespective of the costs in lives lost and in hardships borne.

What I am opposed to is the attempt by political hacks like Karl Rove to distract us from

a rise in the uninsured, a rise in the poverty rate, a drop in the median income - to distract

us from corporate scandals and a stock market that has just gone through the worst month

since the Great Depression. That's what I'm opposed to. A dumb war. A rash war. A war

based not on reason but on passion, not on principle but on politics. Now let me be clear -

I suffer no illusions about Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal man. A ruthless man. A man

who butchers his own people to secure his own power. He has repeatedly defied UN

resolutions, thwarted UN inspection teams, developed chemical and biological weapons,

and coveted nuclear capacity. He's a bad guy. The world, and the Iraqi people, would be

better off without him.

But I also know that Saddam poses no imminent and direct threat to the United States, or

to his neighbors, that the Iraqi economy is in shambles, that the Iraqi military a fraction of

its former strength, and that in concert with the international community he can be

contained until, in the way of all petty dictators, he falls away into the dustbin of history.

I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a US occupation of

undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences. I know that

an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will

only fan the flames of the middle east, and encourage the worst, rather than best,

impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of Al Qaeda. I am not

opposed to all wars. I'm opposed to dumb wars.

So for those of us who seek a more just and secure world for our children, let us send a

clear message to the president today. You want a fight, President Bush? Let's finish the

fight with Bin Laden and Al Qaeda, through effective, coordinated intelligence, and a

shutting down of the financial networks that support terrorism, and a homeland security

program that involves more than color-coded warnings. You want a fight, President

Bush?

Let's fight to make sure that the UN inspectors can do their work, and that we vigorously

enforce a non-proliferation treaty, and that former enemies and current allies like Russia

safeguard and ultimately eliminate their stores of nuclear material, and that nations like

Pakistan and India never use the terrible weapons in already in their possession, and that

the arms merchants in our own country stop feeding the countless wars that rage across

the globe. You want a fight, President Bush?

Let's fight to make sure our so-called allies in the Middle East, the Saudis and the

Egyptians, stop oppressing their own people, and suppressing dissent, and tolerating

corruption and inequality, and mismanaging their economies so that their youth grow up

without education, without prospects, without hope, the ready recruits of terrorist cells.

You want a fight, President Bush? Let's fight to wean ourselves off Middle East oil,

through an energy policy that doesn't simply serve the interests of Exxon and Mobil.

Those are the battles that we need to fight. Those are the battles that we willingly join.

The battles against ignorance and intolerance. Corruption and greed. Poverty and despair.

The consequences of war are dire, the sacrifices immeasurable. We may have occasion in

our lifetime to once again rise up in defense of our freedom, and pay the wages of war.

But we ought not -- we will not -- travel down that hellish path blindly. Nor should we

allow those who would march off and pay the ultimate sacrifice, who would prove the

full measure of devotion with their blood, to make such an awful sacrifice in vain.

I have created a group for people like myself who would like to be proactive in attempting to stop an a conflict with Iran. I am hoping we could exchange ideas on things we can do to stop this confict including making people aware that the battlefields are being readied for this war now.

 We will also be exchanging news and developments.

No moderation in this group. All are welcome.

 Let's do something before it's too late!

 http://www.democrats.org/page/group/StopaWarWithIran

McCain notes on a poll were leaked to the press. Please read his handwritten notes. This is a very angry man. I am afraid. Very afraid.

http://www.236.com/blog/w/lee_camp/mccains_personal_notes_about_t_7318.php

 As Democrats one thing we should all agree on that the color of someone's skin, gender, sexual orientation or religion does not matter to us. I believed we all shared that value.

I believed as Democrats we share the common thread of reaching out caring for the less fortunate by giving them a helping hand, not a handout.  We help them by giving them their dignity and respect. 

I find it sad, very sad that on this site, a site for Democrats to exchange ideas and build our party....inclusive of everyone, that we are seeing Democrats speaking up against helping people, blaming the less fortunate for their own perils and the worst sin...labeling and stereotyping people because of the color of the sin. 

Think for a moment, please.  Would race be the prevelent issue it has become on this site if we did not have a man of color as our nominee?  My guess is not. 

I believe we shame our party, the candidates we stood up and most importantly ourselves if we show even a spark of racism.

I thank everyone who stood up and said, "Not Now, Not here, Not this time."

  Let's look through color, not at it. 

I am and have always been opposed to the death penalty. I have never figured out why people that were anti abortion could say they are 'pro-life' when they support the death penalty.

My belief in being against the death penalty comes from being agianst killing anyone and the judicial system stacked against minorities. I am pro-choice but that is due to my belief of when life begins. I belive I am really pro-life, as I am against any killing including war.

Bill CLinton took his stand and supported the death penalty in some cases. With the Supreme court ruling this week, Obama said he would support the death penalty in cases of the brutal rape when victims are children. This is an unthinkable crime. But I still do not and never will support the death penalty.

 Everyone on here knows that I am a staunch Obama supporter. I know as BC did, Obama has to move to the center to pick up the Independents he needs to win the race.

Even though I strongly disagree with the stand Obama took on the death penalty, I still support him. I look at the big picture. I know how bad a McCain presidency would be. I know that my voice will never be heard on so many other issues I care deeply about in a McCain White HOuse. I know how bright an Obama presidency would be.

Some times we have to lose battles to win the war.

This video is the summation up what Obama has done to engage the youth in the country. It is inspiring.  This is a movement.

Got hope?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9IldaegAB0

nice to see the Obama campaign is posting on our DNC PB blog and becoming part of the Blog!

 Welcome!!!

Obama '08, '12