Senator McCain was in Ohio as Obama spoke, but after a series of negative convention week commercials, his campaign aired a one-night advertisement that complimented Obama and noted the speech occurred on the anniversary of King's famous address. Hey, this campaign showed just a hint of gracia, for the first time in a long time...
"Senator Obama, this is truly a good day for America. Too often the achievements of our opponents go unnoticed. So I wanted to stop and say, 'Congratulations,'" McCain says in the ad. "How perfect that your nomination would come on this historic day. Tomorrow, we'll be back at it. But tonight Senator, job well done."
Barack sent an email to the faithful, or at least those of us who have signed up, about his wife's excellent speech last night. Interestingly, my wife Keelin thought Michelle's speech paled in comparison to Senator Clinton's the next night (I am just about to watch it, in case you thought this was some sort of Frenchified Real Time Blogging®). I'm not so sure...although Hillary isfully capable of hitting it out of the park for Obama. I think she probably will. Whatever you think of Hillary and The Clintons in general, I think you know in your heart of hearts she will come out slugging and she will come out hard-core and absolutely for Barack Obama. Let's face it...there are very few core values Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama do not share. Tonight's the night for her to convince that curmudgeonly, recalcitrant, and intractable 30% of her supporters that can't get behind nominee Obama that they would not only be betraying Clinton herself, but the Democratic Party, and everything they fought for as Obama supports as well. Hold tight; let's see.
Obama's email:
Jack -
I am so lucky to be married to the woman who delivered that speech last night.
Michelle was electrifying, inspiring, and absolutely magnificent. I get a lot of credit for the speech I gave at the 2004 convention -- but I think she may have me beat.
You have to see it to believe it.
And make sure to forward this email to your friends and family -- they'll want to see it too.
You really don't want to miss this.
And I'm not just saying that because she's my wife -- I truly believe it was the best speech of the campaign so far.
Barack
Here is the video of the speech, in case you missed it:
Despite what the Republicans may tell you about Smilin' Joe, this is a great pick by Obama, and it has to have them running scared. I can't tell you how happy I am that he is running, albeit just a little sad that he isn't at the top of the ticket. Joe is extremely bright, funny, articulate (yeah, and a little long-winded), has been great on the Judiciary Committee as well as the Foreign Relations committee, and is skilled politically, while still being able to get things accomplished. Joe Biden is a brawler in the best sense of the word. He knows how to play hardball. He brings depth, experience, knowledge, and humor to the ticket, and it will be a pleasure to see him debate, and act as the designated attack dog. Run Joe Run!
The Republicans will remind you that he plagiarized a couple of lines from Neil Kinnock speeches in the 80's. Yeah, he did. Once. The other times he used the lines in speeches, he attributed Kinnock. He didn't once, and it cost him his run for the Presidency. (You don't believe me?...here is the Wikipedia note on it: Then in September 1987, the campaign ran into serious trouble when he was accused of plagiarizing a speech by Neil Kinnock, then-leader of the BritishLabour Party.[26] Though Biden had correctly credited the original author in all speeches but one, the one where he failed to make mention of the originator was caught on video; the New York Times reported "Senator Biden began his remarks by saying the ideas had come to him spontaneously on the way to the debate."]
Most people don't know it--but they will soon--that Joe is not the Washington insider you might have heard. Well, he is and he isn't. He has commuted to D.C. an hour a half each way since 1973! He was elected at the age of 29 and became the fifth youngest Senator ever. He was elected in November, but before he even took office, his wife and daughter were killed, and his two sons were seriously injured (but later recovered) in a car accident.
He was talked out of resigning office, and ended up taking the oath of office at his sons' bedsides in the hospital. And to stay close to his family in their own home, he began his lifelong habit of commuting. I suspect he will move to the Naval Observatory (the traditional VP residence) once they air the place out and get rid of the Cheney vampire stench.Finally, I think you'll find that Joe Biden only owns one house.
After their shameless open courting of their old pal and cabinet member, Bill Richardson; after the two Bills most publicly drank beer, ate ribs, and watched the Superbowl together last month, and after promising to not endorse Obama, the Governor of New Mexico endorsed BarakObama for President Friday in Portland, Oregon.
"Your candidacy is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for our country, and you are a once-in-a-lifetime leader," said Richardson, the nation's only Hispanic governor, before a roaring crowd of 12,000 in Portland's Memorial Coliseum. "You will make every American proud to be an American."
Richardson broke the news to Clinton late Thursday. "We've had better conversations," he said.
In his speech, Richardson said "It is time for Democrats to stop fighting amongst ourselves and to prepare for the tough fight we have against John McCain," the Republican nominee. Or, in short, "get out of the race Hillary."
The Clinton camp, naturally, tried to brush off the endorsement, saying it was largely symbolic, and not likely to turn any votes around (well, if you don't count the superdelegates!). To find out what the Clintons are really thinking, perhaps it's best to look at their longtime loose cannon rolling around on the deck:
James Carville told the New York Times that Richardson, a former member of Bill Clinton's Cabinet, had committed "an act of betrayal." "Right around the anniversary of the day when Judas sold out [Jesus] for 30 pieces of silver, so I think the timing is appropriate, if ironic."
Now things are heating up. In response, Governor Richardson said this morning on a talk show:
"I'm not going to get in the gutter like that," Richardson said on "Fox News Sunday." "That's typical of many of the people around Senator Clinton. They think they have a sense of entitlement to the presidency."
"I am very loyal to the Clintons," said Richardson, but he said he wanted something beyond "Bush, Clinton, Bush, Clinton.""You know, what about the rest of us?" he asked. ---o0o---
"You know, I've just about had it with you nosy press c**ksuckers" OK. He didn's say it. But I bet he was thinking it.
The New York Daily News reported today in an article by Michael Saul on an Obama press conference in San Antonio where the press treated Barack like a panini.
"An exasperated Barack Obama scurried away Monday from the toughest news conference of his campaign, telling reporters who kept shouting questions that he'd spent enough time on the grill."
"Come on! I just answered, like, eight questions," Obamaa looking a little stunned, told shouting reporters as he fled the room. "We're running late."
The Clinton campaign and others have often said [ed's note: we think so too] that The Press regularly puts a blowtorch to Clinton as they lob softballs and creampuffs Obama's way.
First, they grilled him on his secret emissary to Canada, who told Canadian officials to ignore his babbling about NAFTA...the Obama emissaries essentially told the Canadians that all this dissing NAFTA was just to get votes, and that, once elected, it would be business as usual.
Obama last week categorically denied waffling on NAFTA, but after a Canadian official blew the scam, Obama admitted, "well, shucks, I guess we did send someone to Canada, after all." "When I gave you that information, that was the information that I had at the time," he said.[ed note: Richard Nixon moment No. 1].
Next up, the jackals of the press hit him once again on his troubling relationship with the corrupt, and soon to be convicted fun-raiser Tony Rezko, who went on trial in Chicago Monday on corruption charges. I find the issue troubling too, more for Obama's response than and possible crimes and miosdemeanors he committed. He is from Chicago, isn't he?
Onr reporter asked Obama why he was ducking the charges about Rezko?
Obama insisted he had told all at a news conference in Chicago media. "These requests, I think, can just go on forever. ..." and that he had furnished the pertinent information. [ed note: Richard Nixon Moment 2 - I bet I can come up with that exact same quote from Richard Nixon, who often insisted during the throes of Watergate that he had bent over backwards to povide information and that The Senate and reporters were being unreasonable.]
After a few more hardballs, Sen. Obama announced the press conference was finished. And one reporter shouted that he was dodging questions after claiming he wasn't. ---o0o---
In another desperate move, someone in the Hillary campaign has circulated a two year old photo of BarackObama in native Somalian costume. The photo was taken in rural Kenya. Obama was on a five country tour of Africa.
According to the Drudge Report, an email by one staffer asked "Wouldn't we be seeing this on the cover of every magazine if it were HRC?"
Obama's people, of course, accused the Clinton campaign Monday of "shameful offensive fear-mongering." Clinton campaign manager Maggie Williams shot back: "If BarackObama's campaign wants to suggest that a photo of him wearing traditional Somali clothing is divisive, they should be ashamed."
The Clinton campaign team really has devolved into a cheap-jack mudslinging machine. At this point, if the Senator were running against Idiocracy's Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho, I'd probably vote for Camacho.
Another superdelegate has jumped on the Obama bandwagon. Senator Otis Hoolihan held a press conference in Crockett, West Dakota this morning to announce he was throwing his support to Senator Obama. Hoolihan urged Obama to run on a split ticket--with Senator Larry Craig (!), and asked him to put a lid "on all this fainting at rallies silliness." ---o0o---
The Presidential Candidates Left Standing, are paintings of the last candidates in the race for the Presidency (excluding the absolutely hopeless Communists, Socialist Workers, Libertarian, and other fringe parties). Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee are just barely standing. Hillary is standing, but becoming very wobbly.
This is a really weird story and it is spreading rapidly--as these things tend to do--over the 'net.
My son, Del, came home from the Obama rally in Seattle a week ago today and told us about a woman fainting in the audience, and how Obama asked the crowd for help, and then passed a bottle of water down from the stage. At the time, I jokingly told Del, "yeah, she travels on his plane. She's his fainter."
Fainting is not unusual at campaign rallies. If you do a G.I.S., you'll find several stories of people fainting this month at rallies held by all three Clintons: Bill, Hill, and Chelsea. It will be interesting to see if this story has legs. I hope not.
There is a hint in some accounts I've read that the faintings are a direct response to Senator Obama's power as a vector of hope, love, and change; to his almost Messianic followers who look at him figureatively and literally as a sort of savior. When I was a young river-dunked Baptist, I went to a few revivals, and it was a feature of these big meetings in arenas, racetracks, and camps. When there was serious testifying going on, women would faint. The "Deacons" were all equipped with smelling salts and extra handerchiefs. And people would faint when The Call came (the call to come on stage and accept Jesus Christ as your personal savior) and you could stand up and wash away your sins with the blood of the lamb.
As it turns out, the usual Republican suspects are trying to make something of all this fainting. Like James Vicevich, a Connecticut radio talk show host, who has gone into some detail on this. Like Dory Monson, a conservative and reactionary hater and talk show host at Seattle's KIRO 710 AM.
This story is either a shocking revelation, or the usual Republican/Conservative claptrap. Today a Connecticut radio host show host cites several instances of an occurrence that has become common during Obama events:
The formula-->a woman faints-->Obama pauses his speech to speak about the fainting woman-->a bottle of water is passed down from the podium-->someone in the audience shouts "what a man!"
Seattle, Feb. 8, 2008. "Obama tossing a bottle of water to a woman about to faint received big cheers," MSNBC.com reported. " Obama told the crowd to part so that the woman in question could leave and called for help. A young girl in the crowd shouted out, 'What a man!' [ed's note: We can verify this one, because Jack's son Del was at the rally and repeated the above story almost verbatim]. The audience roared with laughter (although "the press that has seen this happen before rolled its eyes").
Hanover, N.H., Jan. 8, 2008. "A young woman in the Dartmouth College gym fainted, and was eventually rolled off on a gurney by emergency medical technicians," the Los Angeles Times reported. " Obama was speaking of the episode from the stage: 'She's OK,' 'She's talking.' The Times reported "Obama looked worried as the medical crew worked." Minneapolis's WCCO-TV has a video clip of Obama handing a bottle of water to the Dartmouth fainter, and asking the crowd to part for the EMTs.
Madison, Wis., Oct. 22, 2007. According to the Associated Press, "Three people fainted in the midst of all the enthusiasm."
Montecito, Calif., Sept. 8, 2007. " A woman standing in front of the stage fainted. The Associated Press reported. "The candidate paused and asked the crowd to make way for firefighters. A supporter shouted, 'You're a good man,' and Obama appeared a little embarrassed. "
It's just a little sad for me to realize we won't have a female President, after all. This is an important thing, and it's shameful we've let it go this long (and now, for four, eight, or twelve years further out).
Unless Hillary comes up with unprecedented margins in the upcoming primaries, it's over, and it may already be over. Nine months until the General election leaves nine months to doubt and wring our hands. I am hoping that instead, we can enjoy the next year as one that will leave us Bush-free and Obama will come on strong and decimate the competition by mid-summer. ---o0o---
The new partners discuss the finer points of the ongoing campaign for the White House.
Birds of a feather
Senator Barack Obama today stunned Democrats and even his own staffers by announcing he would select Senator Joe Lieberman (now an independent) as his running mate. The statement sent shockwaves through the Obama network of supporters.
It wasn't so long ago that Obama praised the turncoat former Democrat Senator. There is no question, Obama has long been a Lieberman fan...click here for more on that.
"I know that some in the party have differences with Joe," Senator Obama said, all but silencing the crowd. "I'm going to go ahead and say it. It's the elephant in the room. And Joe and I don't agree on everything. But what I know is, Joe Lieberman's a man with a good heart, with a keen intellect, who cares about the working families of America." Then, with applause beginning to build, he finished the thought: "I am absolutely certain that Connecticut's going to have the good sense to send Joe Lieberman back to the United States Senate." That time, people cheered loudly. ---o0o---
Geoff Elliott, an Australian political correspondent, writes a fascinating article on some obstacles facing Barack Obama (whom I now move into the presumptive nominee column, having seen his effect on literally thousands of people at my local caucuses). Click here to read the entire article....
"It was early 1994 when Nelson Mandela gave a speech in a slum outside Cape Town and spoke in grand terms of a new beginning and how when he was elected president every household would have a washing machine.People took him literally. A few months later he became South Africa's first black president. That's when clerks in department stores in Cape Town had to turn people away demanding their free washer and dryer.
"Having spent some time as a reporter in South Africa watching the Mandela presidency I was reminded of that story this week when I travelled with Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on the campaign trail.
"How does a cult figure, in the eyes of some something akin =to a messiah, make the transition to a political frontrunner - president even - where disappointment will soon crush what seemed to be a journey to a promised land?
"Looking into the faces of a more than 16,000-strong crowd in a basketball stadium in Hartford, Connecticut this week, the Mandela magic I'd seen before was there too. Black and white, and the youth; they appeared in a state close to rapture watching Obama speak. Here and there one could see women crying and the some men wiping away tears too. "
We went to our local caucus as we usually do. One difference this time around--instead of 18 people, our caucus had 94 people.
In our precinct, the vote went 72 for Obama and 22 for Clinton, or, five delegates for Obama, and two for Clinton. The majority of the undecided later went for Clinton, although not enough to give us an additional delegate to the county convention.
Interestingly--and this may be an anomaly--of the 72 Obama voters, about 15 were women. On the Clinton side, about 12 of our 22 voters were women. Keelin made a good speech for Hillary Clinton, and even brough up my Joe Lieberman argument. A lot of Obama supporters seem to think he will nominate George Clooney for VP, rather than the tired old hack or wardheeler he will inevitably have thrust upon him. They also seemed to believe he would end the war January 21st, fix the economy within a few months, and become fast friends with many of the other world leaders.
In the end, of course, we'll all pull for whichever candidate ends up on top. At the moment, Obama definitely has momentum. But all it takes is one little F**k-up to reverse that momentum. He's been pretty steady so far, but that only means he's due for one. This time, 'though, all of our skin will be in the game. ---o0o---
Since they have been so nice about calling to ask for money, I elected to make an in-kind contribution instead. I wrote the Obama campaign tonight, and offered this poster for their use free of charge.
[ed's note: Now that we've posted this, we notice Jack left off an important bullet point: "- He has the smallest mansion of anyone running!"] ---o0o---
It appears that you missed the latest on your candidate, "the world class genius" "Hillary loses voice, bawls again, kills Vince Foster and will garnish your wages". Now that's someone to get behind.
Monday, February 04, 2008
They're coming out of the woodwork again. The Clinton haters----the most vehement of who seem to be Obama supporters--are joining ranks with the fellas, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, and the other radical conservatives looking for any flimsy reason to dismiss the New York Senator's presidential bid. Even Ann Coulter has backed off, and said she would vote for Clinton. The Obamanites don't much cotton to emotion, although they have hoisted their man onto a pedestal and generally characterize the Illinois Senator as Gandhi, Socrates, and Jesus rolled up into one smiling, marketable package.
If Hillary cried, so what? In context, and it's easy to see why it WAS an emotiomnal moment. People had a ball when George Bush shed a few tears. But it is apparently not seemly for a woman to exhibit the same emotion. The Obamanites scoff at tenderness and compassion in a woman as scripted and cynical but swoon over and venerate their Chosen One for showing the same emotions without the waterworks.
In fact, it appears to us that Saint Obama himself may have shed a discrete tears on the hustings. But even if he had, the Obama idolators would tell you it's OK, it comes from his heart.
