At the Democratic National Convention next month, we're going to kick off the general election with an event that opens up the political process the same way we've opened it up throughout this campaign.Barack has made it clear that this is your convention, not his.
On Thursday, August 28th, he's scheduled to formally accept the Democratic nomination in a speech at the convention hall in front of the assembled delegates.
Instead, Barack will leave the convention hall and join more than 75,000 people for a huge, free, open-air event where he will deliver his acceptance speech to the American people.
It's going to be an amazing event, and Barack would like you to join him. Free tickets will become available as the date approaches, but we've reserved a special place for a few of the people who brought us this far and who continue to drive this campaign.
If you make a donation of $5 or more between now and midnight on July 31st, you could be one of 10 supporters chosen to fly to Denver and spend two days and nights at the convention, meet Barack backstage, and watch his acceptance speech in person. Each of the ten supporters who are selected will be able to bring one guest to join them.
Make a donation now and you could have a front row seat to history:
https://donate.barackobama.com/yourconvention
We'll follow up with more details on this and other convention activities as we get closer, but please take a moment and pass this note to someone you know who might like to be there.
It will be an event you'll never forget.
Thank you,
David
David Plouffe
Campaign Manager
Obama for America
Pandagon has done a fine bit of research and has come to find the truth behind the McLames at PUMA. Darragh C Murphy is the pig that runs PUMA. Check out Open Secrets for the truth. Murphy, a McCain contributor, has been exposed for the Right Wing trash she is..
Read the rest at Pandagon.
Right now, FOX is trying to paint Barack Obama as foreign, un-American, suspicious, and scary. They're trying to send Americans the message that our country's first viable black candidate for President is not "one of us."
We've seen this before from FOX. They won't stop until it becomes too painful to continue—until the public calls them out and advertisers start getting worried.
Now is the time to draw a line in the sand by putting FOX on notice that their behavior won't be tolerated. Nearly 100,000 Americans have already expressed their outrage. Can you express yours by adding your name to this message?
"FOX must stop injecting racism, prejudice, and fear into our political dialogue. We intend to hold FOX, its advertisers, and its personalities accountable for FOX's attempts to smear the Obamas."
Clicking here will sign the petition: http://pol.moveon.org/stopthesmears/o.pl?id=13009-9117771-JRjxPqx&t=5
FOX's longtime pattern of smearing Obama and the black community is well documented, but the outrageous moments have increased in the last month.
First, a paid FOX commentator accidentally confused "Obama" with "Osama" and then joked on the air about killing Obama. Next, a FOX anchor said a playful fist bump by Barack and Michelle Obama could be a "terrorist fist jab." And then, FOX called Michelle Obama "Obama's baby mama"—slang for an unmarried mother of a man's child, and a clear attempt to associate the Obamas with negative stereotypes about black people.
If you know others who'd find FOX's recent actions despicable, please ask them to sign the petition too. The more people who sign, the bigger our impact will be.
Our friends at ColorOfChange.org —an online advocacy group focused on the issues of importance to the black community—are leading this charge. They have already collected nearly 100,000 names to deliver as a group to FOX's headquarters (in front of other media cameras, so FOX feels more heat). Here's how they describe the situation:
After each of the incidents mentioned [above], FOX issued some form of weak apology. But what does it mean when you slap someone in the face, apologize the next day, then slap them again? It means the apology is meaningless.
Now is the time to call out FOX for these attacks and their fake apologies. The first stop is FOX. Next will be their advertisers and the FCC. If we don't push back now, we will see more of the same from now until November. Please join us to demand that FOX answer for its behavior:
Add your name to this important cause by clicking here—then tell your friends:
http://pol.moveon.org/stopthesmears/o.pl?id=13009-9117771-JRjxPqx&t=6
WASHINGTON (AFP) — They're called the Obamacons -- the conservative thinkers who are disgusted with the Republicans and are rallying to Democrat Barack Obama as the nation's economic and diplomatic savior.
They are joining younger evangelical leaders who see more to their religious mission than slavish devotion to Republican social mores, and fiscal conservatives who reject the war-fueled spending of President George W. Bush.
"The Bush coalition is dissolving," pollster John Zogby told AFP.
"We have polling showing one-fifth of conservatives supporting Obama," he said.
It seems an unlikely alliance, as some of the star intellectual names who have long given philosophical sustenance to Republican rule clamber aboard Obama's bid for the White House.
But thinkers such as Francis Fukuyama, Andrew Sullivan and Andrew Bacevich -- all vehemently opposed to the war in Iraq -- dislike Republican candidate John McCain and see something alluring in his Democratic rival.
Fukuyama, the conservative author of the post-Cold War treatise "The End of History and the Last Man," said on a visit to Sydney last month that the Republicans were a spent force intellectually.
He told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that many on the right of US politics believe "Obama probably has the greatest promise of delivering a different kind of politics" that breaks with decades of Republican orthodoxy.
Bacevich, professor of history and international relations at Boston University, believes that after eight years under Bush, the Republicans need to lose November's election to reinvent their thinking and policy platform.
"For conservatives, Obama represents a sliver of hope. McCain represents none at all. The choice turns out to be an easy one," he wrote in The American Conservative magazine.
Among conservative critics, there is often a strong streak of libertarianism that is offended by Bush's war in Iraq, his curbing of constitutional freedoms in the "war on terror" and his swollen budget deficits.
In some cases they are "neoconservatives" who started out as liberals, drifted away from the Democratic Party in search of a more muscular foreign policy, and are now deserting the Republicans in turn.
Specific critics go further in actually endorsing Obama, the first African-American nominee of a major US party whose message of change resonates with thinkers who swim in the shifting currents of history and politics.
Through publications such as National Review, the house organ of Republican seers, conservatives claim to have had the ascendancy of ideas for decades -- a point Obama has acknowledged through his praise of president Ronald Reagan.
But if that tide of ideas is ebbing, that suggests trouble for McCain at a time when the Arizonan is already battling to shore up backing from Republicans mistrustful of his maverick Senate record.
Obama is meanwhile reaching deep into the Republicans' evangelical base, arguing that concern for social justice and environmental stewardship should count as much as fulmination about abortion, gay marriage and gun rights.
"The old mantra of 'guns, God and gonads' just doesn't exclusively define younger Christian conservatives. It's not that they're turning liberal, but they're multi-dimensional," Zogby said.
"John McCain has a bigger opening than I think he realizes, of putting together a different kind of coalition. Right now, he's not doing it. He's playing '90s politics."
Sullivan, who is an atypical high priest of US conservatism in that he is British, gay and Catholic, would welcome that kind of bipartisan coalition -- but sees it coming from Obama rather than the Republicans.
The Illinois senator would end not just the war in Iraq but the war of ideology, Sullivan argued way back in December, before Obama's candidacy truly caught fire with his victory in the Iowa caucuses.
"It is a war about war -- and about culture and about religion and about race. And in that war, Obama -- and Obama alone -- offers the possibility of a truce," he wrote in The Atlantic.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrat Barack Obama told union leaders Thursday that he will pursue economic policies that benefits workers if elected president, but he also will seek input from corporate leaders.
"The economy is not working the way it should be, and that's going to be the goal of an Obama presidency — to make sure we've got bottom-up economic growth instead of the kind of tired, worn-out, trickle-down ideologies we've been seeing for so many years," Obama said as he gathered with about three dozen leaders in a Capitol Hill hotel. Reporters were allowed in to cover his opening remarks.
Obama has been working to unite the labor movement behind his candidacy in a series of meetings during two days in Washington, including with some leaders who supported his primary rivals. The AFL-CIO, which had several member unions that backed other candidates, announced after a private meeting Wednesday that they will endorse Obama within weeks once its international leadership has a chance for a formal vote.
Obama said unions will be "a critical ingredient" in restoring fairness and prosperity to the economy, but he also made clear they wouldn't be the only ones with input.
"I'm going to meet with corporate CEOs sometime next week to hear from them about what they think we need to do to make the economy more competitive," he said. "But I want everybody here to understand the reason we wanted to organize this is that if our economy is not benefiting the average person ... then it's not doing its job.
"In fact, the economy, for big chucks of the last eight years, has actually grown," Obama said. "The problem is that all the benefits have gone to a handful of people and the vast majority has seen their actual income and wages go down effectively at the same time as the price of everything from gas to food has gone up."
(This one was Inspired by FOS who asked if Bush had a Mini Me yesterday)
The Political Environment
The Republican Party is led -- and branded -- by an extraordinarily unpopular president, whose policies McCain has staunchly defended and supported (95 percent voting congruence in 2007). In the recent CBS News/NYTimes poll, Bush is at 28 percent approval, 65 percent disapproval; in the Hart/Newhouse poll, he is at 27 percent approval, 66 percent disapproval. While some presidents have fallen to low levels in the past, what is truly remarkable about Bush is how long-term and persistent voter disapproval of him has been, and the depth of voter sentiment: A May 12 Washington Post/ABC poll showed only 15 percent of voters "strongly approve," while 52 percent "strongly disapprove."
Voters think, correctly, that the country is on the wrong track. In the Hart/Newhouse poll, 15 percent of voters said the country was headed in the "right direction," while an astounding 73 percent said "wrong direction." Remember, these polls include all voters, not just Democrats.
On issues, Republicans are on the short end of everything except the military and national security. Among voters, in the NYTimes/CBS poll, when asked which party is better, on health care 63 percent say Democrats while only 19 percent say Republicans; the economy, 56 percent say Democrats, 28 percent say Republicans; sharing your moral values, 50 percent say Democrats, 34 percent say Republicans; and, dealing with Iraq, 50 percent say Democrats, 34 percent say Republicans. The Democratic Party has a 52 percent favorable and 41 percent unfavorable rating; the Republican Party has a 33 percent favorable and 58 percent unfavorable rating. A whopping 63 percent say the United States needs to withdraw from Iraq within 12 months; McCain wants to stay roughly forever -- and attack Iran. The Washington Post/ABC poll asked, "Which party do you trust to do a better job coping with the main problems the nation faces over the next few years?" Democrats were chosen over Republicans, 53 percent to 32 percent.
The U.S. economy is sinking (while McCain has said he doesn't know much about the economy); gas prices are skyrocketing; the housing market has collapsed and people are losing their homes; and the Iraq Recession shows no signs of abating.
McCain has been able to stay close to parity in polls matching him with Obama, but that is the product of the bashing Obama has taken from the Clinton campaign. Once that internal scrap is behind him and he can go head to head against McCain, his polling is going to soar.
Even in fund-raising, a traditional Republican strength, the Republicans are at a disadvantage. At last reported count, Obama had $51 million in cash on hand; McCain had $11 million. In the combined cash of the national party committees, Republicans had $55.5 million; Democrats $87.1 million. The netroots has raised unprecedented amounts of money for Democrats, especially Obama; labor unions have gone deeper into their pockets and are raising more money for Democrats than in prior elections; and, even business PACs have given more money to Democrats! Business blows with the wind, and it knows which way the wind is blowing.
Simply put, this is the worst possible time for any Republican to be running for president. And this is not simply my opinion; it is an opinion that has many adherents in the Republican Party and among traditional Republican supporters. Representative Tom Davis, from Virginia, in an internal memo to Republicans, recently wrote, "The political atmosphere facing Republicans this November is the worst since Watergate and is far more toxic than the fall of 2006. The Republican brand is in the trash can. If we were dog food, they would take us off the shelf."
The Candidates
What we are going to see in the general election from McCain is a ton of mistakes. The very thing the press likes about him, his candor and shoot-from-the-hip style, is going to kill him when the full weight of media attention is trained on him. He never has been a good speaker with a prepared text (last night, his speech was characteristically wooden, with several word confusions). The media has always loved the quick, gritty, candid McCain, but that version is gone; he now is a damaged, slower-thinking McCain, but his habits will remain the same. He will still try to be the quick wit, the maverick; it just isn't going to work. And while McCain is still capable (with help) of firing off some zingers that hit, he will be unable to sustain a narrative -- or fool the American voters -- for the next five months. This is not just about being 71; it is about being a very old 71. It might be sad to watch, but I for one will have no sympathy. There is too much at stake.
Obama is the perfect candidate for Democrats, and a nightmare for McCain. Obama, who by every metric is a brilliant strategist, thinker and speaker, is going to run circles around McCain. McCain, who is not a very good speaker even on his best day, will appear slow, befuddled and confused; he will make gaffes. Obama will be charismatic, smart, thoughtful, high-minded, alert and substantive. It will be no contest. And adding to Obama's natural advantages, McCain has just enough integrity to try to match up with Obama on issues. In that debate on substance, Obama's overwhelming intellectual superiority and mental alertness will become obvious. There will be the believers, who have jumped aboard the Obama campaign and will continue to multiply, but there also is going to be another type of vote that is going to swing heavily to Obama: the default vote. Voters are going to default to Obama because it will become obvious that McCain simply is not up to the task of being president.
This is going to be the first not-close presidential election since 1988. You heard it here first.
If you've been wondering where all the telecom lobbyists went to lick their wounds after the House rejected retroactive immunity for wiretapping, the Electronic Frontier Foundation says it's found a bunch of them smack dab in the middle of John McCain's presidential campaign organization.
The group suggested Friday that the swell of current and former telecom lobbyists in the McCain camp might have something to do with the candidate's recent reversal on the legality of warrantless wiretapping. His most recent position "reads a lot like the talking points that a telecom lobbyist might employ," writes EFF senior staff attorney Kurt Opsahl.
McCain has long supported amnesty for telecoms who cooperated with Bush's warrantless domestic spying, but until recently questioned the legality of the program. After zig-zagging on the issue over the last few weeks, he eventually settled on a position nearly identical to President Bush's -- that presidential war-making powers trump the law when it comes to warrantless wiretapping.
• Charlie Black, a top McCain political adviser, worked for lobbying firm BKSH until March of this year. AT&T paid the firm $120,000 for the first three months of 2008, in part to lobby for the FISA amendments. Black was listed as one of AT&T's lobbyists.
• The influential Wayne Berman, one of McCain's national finance co-chairs, works for Ogilvy, a prestigious lobbying firm which represents AT&T on FISA. Berman was listed in the first quarter of 2008 as having lobbied for the company.
• John Green, also from Oglivy, lobbied on wiretap bills and amnesty for AT&T. He now reportedly works as a full-time liaison to Congress for the McCain campaign.
• Dan Coats, a member of the McCain's Justice Advisory Committee, formerly lobbies for Sprint on FISA reform.
When asked about the ties, McCain's campaign declined to comment, though did say the senator would be providing comment on the matter to cable news channels Friday afternoon. But no remarks seemed to have been carried by the networks.
In remarks to reporters Friday, McCain called the legality of the program "ambiguous," but did not want to dwell on it, according to MSNBC.
Someone posted here yesterday and rather loudly that Barack Obama was playing golf during Hillary's speech and as such had totally disrespected her. It turns out that isn't true like a lot of other myths started right here on this blog. Here's a small part of a story from Yahoo news...
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Watching the speech at home in Chicago, Obama clearly recognized the message Clinton was sending to women and quickly embraced it.
"I honor her today for the valiant and historic campaign she has run," he said in a statement. "She shattered barriers on behalf of my daughters and women everywhere, who now know that there are no limits to their dreams."
---------------
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080607/ap_on_el_pr/clinton_analysis
"To the people of Minnesota, let me say this: I'm not a perfect person," said Franken, a former "Saturday Night Live" writer and performer. "I'm not going to pretend to have all the answers. But I'll tell the truth, I will keep my spine, and I will work for you."
Franken's only competitor, college professor and peace activist Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, withdrew after Franken passed the necessary 60 percent threshold on the first ballot. Nelson-Pallmeyer proposed that delegates unanimously back Franken, putting him over the top
Conservative NRO blogger Jim Geraghty asks why the apocryphal Whitey Tape bears such an astonishing resemblance to a plot point in the 2006 political thriller novel The Power Broker, by Stephen Frey:
A major plot line of the novel is the presidential campaign of Democrat Jesse Wood, aiming to be the country's first African American president " "Wood was handsome, smart, charismatic, and being mentioned increasingly often in the press as someone who could unite a twenty-first century America growing more, not less, racially and economically divided." (p.35)
He's a U.S. Senator from New York and former senior partner at a prestigious law firm. His backers include "some of the old Black Panthers." He wants to make Puerto Rico a state, and a recurring figure in his campaign is a controversial minister from Philadelphia called "Jefferson Roundtree."
Holy. Sh$%.
The Termite's diary :: ::
Of course, there's a videotape. And on the tape, the candidate uses the word "whitey."
Later the tape is used for blackmail by an ally, and then the real badguy " a Texan who owns a giant oil company named Hewitt (sorry, Hugh) " gets his hands on the tape. The description of the appropriate timing of the release of the videotape on p. 237 will sound familiar to those tracking the rumors of the alleged Michelle Obama tape.
Hewitt thought for a second. "I'm going to let Jesse win the nomination and let the public get used to him as the Democratic candidate. Give the country some time to get to know Jesse Wood, to start to like him. And they will because he's a very likeable guy. Then I'm going to drop the bomb, after everyone's started to like him. That way the clip will have maximum effect and people will be as angry as they can be. Whites and blacks. Whites for the obvious reason, blacks because they'll feel like he let 'em down."
Now. Either author Stephen Frey is clairvoyant, writing this book in 2006. Or this is one of the all time amazing coincidences. Or whoever started this rumor got the idea from a novel.
Remember, this is coming from a conservative blogger on a conservative site (in fact, Geraghty explains why he wants this shit debunked, which is interesting reading in and of itself).
If there was any lingering doubt as to whether this tape actually existed, this should drive a stake right through its heart. Not only was this a hoax; it was a poorly conceived hoax, designed by people with the brains of a garden slug and the morals of a nose hair trimmer.
Larry Johnson is a boil on the ass of the body politic. May he rot.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/6/6/123441/5219/827/531074
There is no doubt in my mind that there a quite a few smiles within the Obama camp today as the latest round of polling has him ahead of John McCain in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Virginia and depending on the VP candidate paired with him (some of the polls included different VP possibilities attached to the Obama/McCain choice) the lead he holds is quite substantial. They are even tied in NM. That said, it should be noted that each poll also has a straight head-to-head match up between Obama and McCain, without the names of possible VP's attached, and Obama is ahead in these as well, which is nothing short of music to the ears of Democrats across the country.
Here are the numbers coming from SurveyUSA
Head to Head in Ohio (without VP's attached):
(D) Obama: 48% (Obama +9)
(R) McCain: 39%
Head to Head in Pennsylvania (without VP's attached):
(D) Obama: 48% (Obama +8)
(R) McCain: 40%
Head to Head in New Mexico (without VP's attached):
(D) Obama: 44% (tie)
(R) McCain: 44% (tie)
Head to Head in Virginia (without VP's attached):
(D) Obama: 49% (Obama +7)
(R) McCain: 42%
Given the situation at hand (HRC) that has not yet allowed Obama to fully focus his energy on McCain and his general election campaign these numbers are quite impressive.
Also I want to mention that these numbers are simply McCain versus Obama, heads up. When possible VP names are added into the equation, Obama's lead absolutely blows up, putting him ahead in certain instances by as much as 18 points, which is the case in Pennsylvania, Virginia.
Interestingly enough it appears that John Edwards is hands down Obama's best choice as a running mate at this point (remember some of the other VP possibilities do not have the name recognition that Edwards enjoys). An Obama/Edwards ticket beats McCain paired with anyone huge: In Ohio, an Obama/Edwards ticket leads McCain and any of his possible VP running mates from as little as 12 points to as large as 18 points, in Pennsylvania we see the same thing Obama/Edwards beats McCain and anyone from as little as 12 points and as large as 17 points. Virginia and New Mexico are no different, Obama/Edwards ahead by margins ranging from 6 points to 9 points in New Mexico, and 9 points to 18 points in Virginia.
As you can see Edwards looks to be Obama's strongest option as a running mate, however I am not sure how likely that is too happen seeing as though Edwards has already stated that he has absolutely no interest in another VP run. However we all know that politics is for those with an ego, so with numbers like these I would not be surprised if Edwards in fact changed his mind and gave the possibility of being Obama's running mate at least a little thought.
Many of the factors that led Hillary Rodham Clinton's historic presidential campaign to fall short are by now well-cataloged.
The New York senator based her initial message on inevitability, toughness, and experience when the public was clamoring for change. She underestimated the importance of small caucus states, barely competing in some, and allowed Barack Obama to rack up a lead in pledged delegates that proved impossible to overcome.She assumed she would have the nomination wrapped up on Feb. 5, Super Tuesday, and when she didn't, had to scramble to organize and raise more money. She got beaten by Senator Obama in Internet fundraising and organizing. And her husband, the former president, proved at crucial times to be a liability.
But with Senator Clinton prepared to suspend her campaign Saturday, gender does not belong on that list, analysts say. Certainly, she encountered sexism on the trail and in media coverage, and a quick cruise around the Web could have found some of the crudest examples of misogyny imaginable aimed at her. But being female did not cost her the nomination.
"No, it was a good thing," says Dianne Bystrom, director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics at Iowa State University. "I think she got support because she's a woman. I think Barack Obama is getting support because he's African-American. It's because people want something different. Both campaigns are historic, and the [simultaneous] timing is unfortunate."
A new CBS News poll shows most voters think that by making a serious run for the Democratic nomination, Clinton made it easier for other women to run for president. Sixty percent of men and 76 percent of women agree with that statement. Among Democrats, 75 percent agree; among Republicans, it's 63 percent.
Overall, 88 percent of voters agree with the statement "I am glad to see a woman as a serious contender for president." In 1984, when Geraldine Ferraro made history as the first female vice-presidential nominee for a major party, a CBS poll found only 62 percent of voters were "glad that a woman was nominated."
This has been over for a few days now but all of you are still here telling us what you have been telling us for months. We get it, you are voting for McCain. Go to your candidates site and start supporting him as any good supporter should do. He's short on cash and needs the donations. If you don't start now he will not be able to compete in November. Put your money and yourself where your mouth is, www.JohnMcCain.com
The only reason any of you would honestly still be here after today is if you are all full of shit and plan on voting for Obama anyway so go ahead and prove me wrong. Once again that's www.JohnMcCain.com
We'll know who the bullshitters are by the replies to this post :)
Your choice:
REVENGE OVER VICTORY.
or
VICTORY OVER REVENGE.
You can't have both.
It's up to you.
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