Quibbles and Bits for the 4th
By LisaB on July 4, 2008 at 11:45 AM in Barack Obama, Democrats
1) “New and Not Improved”. Today’s NYT editorial on the many Barack Obama repositionings.
We are not shocked when a candidate moves to the center for the general election. But Mr. Obama’s shifts are striking because he was the candidate who proposed to change the face of politics, the man of passionate convictions who did not play old political games.
Here at NoQuarter, we were shocked! Shocked, I tell you! Wait, no we weren’t.
Read the rest ->
2) For some reason, at the Politico today is a puff piece about Caroline Kennedy and her role in vetting potential VPs for Obama. It appears her greatest quality is her discretion, as that was mentioned several times.
“One of the great assets and gifts that Caroline brings to the process is confidentiality and discretion,” said Paul G. Kirk Jr., board chairman of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation and a former Democratic National Committee chairman.
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With a soft voice and an unassuming demeanor, Kennedy peppered [CA rep] Baca with questions, asking for opinions on specific candidates and pulling ideas from him about who Obama should choose. “I felt connected with her,” Baca said. “You felt like you wanted to have a conversation with her.”
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Kennedy offered her phone number to Baca at the close of the meeting, he said.
I can’t snark this. This is beyond snark.
3) The Times of London published an overall look at Obama’s flops and what they may portend. It begins with this:
Change, it turns out, wasn’t all that it was cracked up to be. Having campaigned for the past year as the agent of transformation, the man who would lead an historic shift in America’s political direction, Barack Obama is discovering that there is quite a lot he likes about the way things are.
Since securing the Democratic nomination a few weeks ago, the only change coming from the Illinois senator has been in what he seems to stand for.
Good fun. But. But. The author, Gerard Baker, feels that this is by design.
I suspect that all this [outraged lefties like the HuffyPot] worries Mr Obama not at all. The louder the Left complains, the deeper the satisfaction at Obama headquarters.
Can you remember a time in, say the past 100 years, when the American people have rejected a presidential candidate because they thought that he was insufficiently left-wing? As for conservatives, they should be cheering Mr Obama, not complaining.
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This is another example of how smart the Obama campaign is. They understand that the biggest impediment to an Obama presidency is lingering doubt about whether their man is a straight-down-the-middle American. Despite having a couple of bestsellers to his name, he is still something of a blank page to most voters, one on which his opponents are trying to doodle all kinds of unflattering portraits of an extremist.
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A clever pragmatist, he knows that if he wins in November, he will face an overwhelmingly Democratic Congress, clamouring to push the country harder to the left. It would, irony of ironies, fall to President Obama to reassure the American people that he can hold those radical enthusiasms in check.
I think the above paragraphs are particularly interesting. Obama may, indeed, be positioning himself as the centrist after having secured the enthusiastic support of the left. Baker says to watch Obama’s tax policies and position on Iraq. He seems to think both will move rightward. I think we’re seeing preliminary steps already.
Worth reading. Obama may try to confront McCain centrist to maverick. But, I still think Obama’s roots in Chicago, with Ayers and Rezko and Wright may prove difficult to move “to the center.” He is going to have to almost completely disown his past. But how do you throw your past under the bus?
4) CBSnews has a piece about Obama’s trip to ND. He made an interesting comment during his stop:
“It may have been Woody Allen who said 90 percent of success is showing up,” Obama told a small but enthusiastic crowd of donors at a fundraiser Wednesday in Colorado Springs, the conservative heart of conservative Colorado. “If I didn’t show up, I wouldn’t get many votes around here. If I did show up, I might get something going.”
Tell THAT to Kentucky and West Virginia.
5) And an interesting picture for you. At the National Black Republican Association
The NBRA is putting up billboards, reminding people MLK was a Republican.
Have a happy 4th!
I have been anticipating this day for so long now. This is the day we Celebrate our Freedom and this is the day we give Hillary back her Freedom. I could care less about the hot dogs and parades and festivities today, it’s all about the debt and Hillary’s chance to really shine in Denver. It is our way of saying, so you think we’re gone huh……
I am headed over to Hillary’s page right now to give my 20.08. Then this evening, I’m going to do it again, just to make sure we get her out of the hole. Anyone want to join me by doing it again tonight? Please post it on any other blogs you go to today as well.
So, make your donation in the morning, enjoy the Fourth and tonight before you go to bed, light a candle and donate another $20.08.
Happy 4th everybody.
Good!
It should scare them a little that Appalachia is paying attention and is WIRED UP to the truth!!
I include WNC and TN as well.
Quite a few Mountain PUMAs! hehe.
so the game plan is to lie to as many people as he can to get elected… yeah, sounds like something far worse than politics as usual…
especially when you factor in the corrupt chicago pals he has been hanging out with for the last 20 years while they plunder the tax payer’s cash for their mansions etc etc…
so the hope and change was just a lie?
oh dear…
a. hillary
b. mccain
america first!
Did you guys see the news story regarding this black chick with red, blonde hair who at the “State of the State” address in Denver sang “the black national anthem” instead of what she was asked by Denver’s mayor to sing and agreed to sing, our America’s “Star Spangled Banner”
Talk about the Audacity of Hope, this is the Audacity of destruction of America if we Americans let this kind of blatant rebellion continue and it will only get worse if Obama is elected. It will be unbearable for whites in our own country.
I doubt this chick would have had the nerve to do this if Obama had not been the “presumptive Democratic nominee”.
There is an ancient Chinese fable that tells the story of a young prince who found a baby snake, brought it home and kept it as a pet. His servant warned him that snakes are dangerous and he should set it free. The prince didn’t listen. The beloved snake kept growing and the happy prince played with it every day. Finally when the snake became mature, it bit the prince and killed him.
If Obama was never to the Left and was always a Centrist then that means he’s lied to his supporters all of this time.
Even the media, that adore him, don’t think he’ll move to the left if he wins the White House. They think he’ll control the radical Democrats in the Congress and Senate.
So all of you legislators on the Obama bandwagon you’re not going to get what you want. Pelosi and Reid I’m looking at you.
You were played. But that can’t be too hard as you can’t get witnesses issued subpoenas to appear.
You can’t impeach a President that publicly admitted to authorizing torture. On national television.
If you can’t do that you can’t control Obama. I’m sure you thought you could. I hope, if he gets the WH, he disses you the same way Bush did. He’s looking more Bush-like everyday. I feel sorry for the people of America. I have no sympathy for our weak and worthless so-called party leaders.
If we look at Obama’s past, he was always to the left.
He should stay there.
To the left, to the left, to the left, to the left
Everything you own in the box to the left
Bye bye Obambi
nd in other news:
In an interview this week with “Relevant,” a Christian magazine, Obama said prohibitions on late-term abortions must contain “a strict, well defined exception for the health of the mother.”
Obama then added: “Now, I don’t think that ‘mental distress’ qualifies as the health of the mother. I think it has to be a serious physical issue that arises in pregnancy, where there are real, significant problems to the mother carrying that child to term.”
Frankly, I don’t believe ANY man has the right to tell a woman what choices she is allowed regarding her physical, mental, or emotional health. That includes the 8 male Supreme Court justices and ALL male politicians.
Notes from the DLC: Obama Disses the Centrists
http://time-blog.com/real_clear_politics/2008/07/notes_from_the_dlc_obama_disse.html
Well if he’s not a Centrist and he’s not Left or Progressive, there’s only one position remaining. He must be to the Right. Which are the positions he’s been taking lately. That means he lied to his supporters.
There’s a shocker.
except UNless he’s changed his mind on this one too????
isn’t he pro-partial birth abortions?
That’s as FAR LOUIE as you can roll imo!
and makes me think he’s just got some BS ass backwards ideas and they sound like the rantings of Jeremiah Wright!!
OFF key, OFF balance, OFF the WALL! WRONGO!
I am a bit surprised that NYT is just coming to the realization that he is not the candidate they thought he might be. Is it because Hillary bashing provided the smokescreen for him to careen onto the political stage with so little substance? I do not have an answer to this situation as I find myself in the position of not having any candidate that I trust. At the democratic convention, I am hoping for a return to the childhood principle of a complete “do over”.
Once again, the NY Times just can’t quite bring itself to tell the truth and nothing but the truth about the real Obama, or somehow it’s the only major news outlet in the world that missed Obama’s backtracking on his Iraqi position yesterday. As a McCain aide noted, Obama was essentially reiterating McCain’s position that future troop withdrawals depended on the situation on the groud, contrary to Obama’s primary mantra of immediate troop withdrawal starting on his first day in office. From today’s NYT editiorial.
“There are still vital differences between Mr. Obama and Senator John McCain on issues like the war in Iraq.”
Nah, all the major news outlets missed it way back before the end of the primary. He lies to the public every time he opens his mouth.
http://www.townhall.com/blog/g/59f60d7a-f682-4fde-b247-e8ea80906d7b
Oh, this is rich.
Joe Baca from the Inland Empire? His politcal time has come and gone. Why in hell would Caroline query Baca in this? This is like asking Freddie Kruger where to find a nice glove. Baca is probably the only person in S.B. County let alone politician who still shills for Obama.
On too Obama (literally), I know politics but this is the sloppiest, most inane reposition of any candidate I have ever seen. Careening out of control with one hand on the wheel and one hand on the pavement.
Hillary was a static constant and we wouldn’t be having this discourse with her in place. On to Denver!
KOS to his dismay is seeing that there is no carpet for this magic carpet ride and he’s trying to keep the KOSacks from committing hari-kari justifying it all. Arianna on the other hand is an opportunist. She could care less as long as she can smell the money.
Example: Mr. Simpson, did you or did you not have anything to do with these murders? No I did not. Okay then….
Happy 4th of July and God Bless America, Our Troops and the unstoppable PUMA’S
Tangerinesong
Mr Ego says he needs to move the Denver Convention to Mile High Stadium, because he’s got 50,000 more of his friends coming to HIS convention….This mutha fucker is to stupid for words
The Times editorial page endorsed Hillary against Barack on January 25, 2008:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/25/opinion/25fri1.html
I will never hold Caroline Kennedy in any esteem again. To put it crassly, she sucks.
It reminds me of the scene in The Aviator where DiCaprio’s Hughes is at Katherine Hepburn’s Massachusetts (I think it was MA but it could have been another New England locale) family compound and they are all giving Hughes a bunch of crap because they’re wealthy and set and he’s not. And he’s like, basically, ’screw this’ and just starts dropping bombs on the effete crew.
Caroline Kennedy, you aren’t jack. All you and Teddy care about is protecting your family’s legacy from the Clintons’ usurping the primacy of your family.
That you did this to a woman is particularly galling.
So take yourself, Teddy, Oprah and Maria and go fornicate yourselves. You have taken a once-proud name and associated it with misogyny, racism and farce.
Perhaps the quote should be changed on her bahalf,
“Madam, you are no Jack Kennedy.” Being related is not good enough.
Damn right. Definitely not enough for Caroline. She blew it.
I agree. She’s totally out of her element in politics. And she’s aligned herself with the ultimate loser.
It’s kinda sad what they’d do to protect their ‘legacy’, isn’t it?
I’d held her in great esteem for so many years simply because she showed principles by not becoming involved in the ‘family business’. I thought she showed class by being more what her mother was. But alas, I guess the lure was too great, to be associated with a ‘populist’ candidate.
So, she’s now off my lists of ‘good ones’.
It is sad, FlordiaDem. As you said, she apparently could not resist the lure to try to protect a legacy which should be better than rebuffing proven quantities like the Clintons for race-baiters like Bwak.
Truly a diminishing of the Kennedy name. It’s a shame.
From Dreams of My Father: “I ceased to advertise my mother’s race at the age of 12 or 13, when I began to suspect that by doing so I was ingratiating myself to whites.”
From Dreams of My Father: “I found a solace in nursing a pervasive sense of grievance and animosity against my mother?s race.”
From Dreams of My Father: “There was something about him that made me wary, a little too sure of himself, maybe. And white.”
From Dreams of My Father: “It remained necessary to prove which side you were on, to show your loyalty to the black masses, to strike out and name names.”
From Dreams of My Father: “I never emulate white men and brown men whose fates didn’t speak to my own. It was into my father’s image, the black man, son of Africa, that I’d packed all the attributes I sought in myself, the attributes of Martin and Malcolm, Dubois and Mandela.”
From Audacity of Hope: ‘I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.’
Happy Birthday America. Please do one thing for America today, and help Hillary retire her debt. Doing so, will prove to the DNC just how much support she still has, and it will enable her to tell BO to FO!!!!
Happy Independence Day.
This is a repost from another thread.
The Patriots Who made Freedom Possible
Richard Roberg, The Daily Mail
Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men signed the Declaration of independence?
Five were captured by the British, charged with treason and tortured to death.
12 had their homes ransacked and burned.
Two lost their lives serving in the resistance.
Nine died from wounds of hardships of the Revolutionary War.
They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortune and their honor. What kind of men were they?
24 were jurists, 11 were merchants, and 9 were farmers.
They were men of means and education but they signed the Declaration knowing the penalty would be death if they were captured.
Carter Braxton of Virginia saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy, sold his home to pay his debts and died a pauper.
Thomas McKeam was forced to move his family by the British harassment. He served in Congress without pay while his family lived in hiding. His property was seized and he was impoverished.
Francis Lewis lost his home, his wife was arrested and she died in jail.
John Hart was driven from his wife’s bedside as she was dying. He lived for over a year in forests and caves returning to find his 13 children had vanished and his wife was dead.
Can you imagine Obama making these sacrifices for this country?
How about Hillary Clinton and John McCain?
We all know the answer to that.
wow thanks, I’m going to throw that into a blog post today! very interesting info- i knew none of that!
i have no sympathy for the people of america. they were and continue to be too god damn stupid to look into who they are “worshiping”. they deserve the hell they will get with this asshole.
yea but the problem with that shit
unless you are from another country
there is the collateral damage that all of us suffer because of it
THAT is not fair.
why should we ALL suffer what THEY deserve (or brought on themselves)
not fair
I have to admit I’ve felt this way a long time starting with the moron imbecile Bush. First that messiah and now this one- it is stunning.
I posted on the comparison a long time ago and can’t believe the adult zombies in this country, but hey I’m an atheist so I can’t comprehend any type of spiritual worship and rhetoric.
Who are those ‘friends’? This is more than ‘friends’ this is something else and not pretty. Are they Americans or are they part of the Odinga/Kenya parade? Are they the students and others he has had in training camps throughout the summer to prevent any changes in the minds of super delegates at the Convention? Are they part of “Farrakhan’s million men march of which Barack Hussein Obama was a part of?”
Something has to be done before America loses its soul.
Remember to go to HillaryClinton.com today and pledge $20.08 to help her retire her debt. I just did!
Adore the lady but I’m one of those supporters that won’t take part in this. I think it’s a huge mistake for people to do this and their reasoning behind it.
Please pass this around. Something is brewing.
It’s a questionaire about caucuses.
Please participate if you attended a caucus.
Caucus survey-scroll down for the survey by a PUMA.
http://www.lynettelong.com/my_weblog/
Oh. When you donate to Hillary today, please post your receipt here. Thanks!
pardon me but I would never do that sorry
(mostly because I survive on disability pay and can rarely contribute)
but even before my disability I’d rarely share my money info with anyone
maybe it’s just me but I think it’s a private thing
I notice the article at NYT has blocked further comments and the ones that do show are chosen by the editor. All the ones I browsed through were so pro obama it was sickening. These people are so blind, so ignorant, so brainwashed words just can’t describe my shock at it.
I will not ever give the DNC, the blog editors, and the Obama campaign a pass for framing Hillary as too centrist to be our candidate and now they’re all peddling furiously to make the case that OF COURSE Baracky has to move to the center. What a crock. We could have had a WONDERFUL, perfectly WONDERFUL president, but instead the Dems give us this total loser.
We marched with our Democrat club in our community this morning, with mixed feelings. Right before we were put into line to start moving a bunch of Obama backers showed up and joined our group. All loud obnoxious people. It was very uncomfortable. I noticed as the parade wound along the route no great cheering outcry ever arose for Obama.
Someone is finally holding him accountable.
Obama said he’s standing for change. So he changes, please don’t blame him; change every thing:Iraq war; public election fund, frisa. I’m following him in change this Nov: a vote for Mc Cain.