I am on my annual football bender. So I continue with the polls until Monday...or i get bored with football and decide to write something...Happy 2010!
Movie Trailer for Hype, The Obama Effect. - It makes me sad as hell that only conservatives are doing the heavy lifting on Barry Soetoro. It is a blot of shame on progressives that so many have gulped this craven creep's kool aid.
After you get past the annoying footage of Senator Dork dancing on Ellen it gets good. I really don't need to see that footage again for my next ten lifetimes. The "no nukes, no missile defense" clip of Obama is going to be used to great effect by the GOP in the Fall. It is a sort of "whitey tape" for security voters.
This campaign, endless as it is, has had a positive effect on me.
I have, indeed, CHANGED.
It has taught me that I will no longer judge a candidate by the letter at the end of his name but on the content of his character. (Thank you Dr. King)
Having been lambasted for not being a Democrat because I cannot support Senator Obama I am no longer a Democrat. I believe we call that a self fufulling prophecy. I wonder how many other people feel the same way?
I have tremendous respect for Senator Brownback. I disagree with most of what he believes in but I still respect him for the courage of his convictions. And, please, check facts before you start yelling because Senator Brownback and Senator Obama wrote an op-ed together on Darfur.
I worked for Senator Larry Pressler from South Dakota. He was the one who turned down the money in Abscam. He was scary smart, a bit of an absent minded professor, and a very nice man. About half of his staff in Washington were Democrats.
I like Lindsey Graham. Once again, I don't agree with him but I respect his service to our country.
I don't care for Harry Reid or Nancy Pelosi.
I still love Bill Bradley, and not just because he was going to introduce me to Bruce Springsteen. I still admire Jimmy Carter. They disagree with me on who should be the nominee but I can see past that because they are more than that.
There are still more Democrats that I prefer than Republicans, Jack Murtha, Barbara Boxer, Diane Feinstein, John Conyers, Bill Nelson, Debbie Wasserman-Shultz, Barney Frank, Tom Lantos, Tip O'Neill, FDR, Jack Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, Bill Clinton and, of course, Hillary Clinton.
But I will no longer be taken for granted by the Democrat party and I am no longer going to pull the lever for "d" across the board.
On a previous post a comment was made asking what are we afraid of if Obama gets the nomination?
I'm afraid in the next few years the shit is going to hit the fan and we need someone who is present and doesn't just vote "present."
We are running out of oil. John is Mr. Peak Oil guy and can tell you that our whole economy is based on cheap oil. Cheap oil is gone. Hello $200 per barrel. We're going to need someone in the Oval Office who can offer solutions and not platitudes.
I live in Florida and was hit by three hurricanes in 2004. Charlie was BAD. Global warming will increase the severity of hurricanes. I don't trust someone who caved on nuclear regulations for his home state to fight for a carbon tax.
There is a global food shortage. Can someone who is concerned about the price of arugula deal with the price of rice? Or the lack of rice? Or corn?
We are losing our standing in the world. A man who sat in a pew for twenty years and never saw a problem with a pastor who had the audacity to dry hump on the pulpit to mock a former Democratic President is not someone who I want representing me. A man who says he transcends race but race baited and only disowned his racist pastor after the pastor accused him of acting like a politician has no moral compass or morality.
I am afraid of Michelle Obama. She complains because she got in to Princeton despite her low test scores. Wow, that's such a drag. She complains about paying back student loans. Man, I feel so sorry for her. She went to two expensive schools and they actually expect her to pay for it?
I'm afraid of never getting universal health care. Senator Obama's plan stinks and he used Republican talking points to put down Senator Clinton's. I just can't see him pushing it through.
I'm afraid of re-living Jimmy Carter's presidency.
I'm afraid I'm going to have to vote for McCain. Because you can scream about the Supreme Court or a Bush third term but we need a grown up in the White House and if that grown up isn't Senator Clinton I'll take my chances with McCain.
I woke up this morning thinking about Sistah Souljah. Clearly I'm too immersed in politics. I thought, man, I would hate to be her. Everyone is calling Senator Obama's denunciation of Reverend Wright a Sister Souljah moment. I could not remember who she was. I was going to check the internets out and do the google but Real Clear Politics to the rescue! They linked to this story by John Heilemann:
For many months now, the political class has been wondering when Obama would get around to such a moment - an instance in which he loudly challenged a core Democratic constituency on an issue of principle, as Bill Clinton famously did in 1992 when he pilloried a B-list hip-hop act for some incendiary comments she made to the Washington Post regarding that year's L.A. riots. For those whose memories on this topic are incomplete, the comments in question were these: "If black people kill black people every day, why not have a week and kill white people?" Which prompted Clinton to declaim at a meeting of Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Coalition, which had hosted Souljah the night before, "If you took the words 'white' and 'black' and reversed them, you might think David Duke was giving that speech."
To start with, whatever admixture of courage and calculation that one ascribes to Clinton's maneuver, the risk he took in going after Lady Souljah was one that he took voluntarily - it was a risk of choice. The rapper, though every bit as hysterical and inflammatory as the reverend, had not become an issue in the 1992 campaign. Clinton had no relationship to her. Certainly, her comments posed no peril to his nomination. In all of this, Obama's situation was starkly different. His decision to cut his ties from Parson Wright, which might have been construed as brave if it had come a year or even a month ago, was by no means an act of political fortitude. It was an act of political necessity.
Bill Clinton, in front of the Rainbow Coalition (whatever happened to them?), denounced a black woman who said something vile. Yet he still managed to get most of the black vote. He didn't have to, she wasn't his rapper of twenty years. He didn't call a press conference to do it. He stood up in front of Jesse Jackson and said it. Hmmm, I'm going with courage.
So when I hear Obama throw Bill Clinton's presidency in with Bush, Bush and Reagan I get a bit disgusted. When I hear his supporters say it's time to have a President with a brain I get really frosted. Because the last two Democratic Presidents were anything but stupid. One was a successful President, one has had success since. Lest we forget, Jimmy Carter was a nuclear physicist. (Just as an aside - my friend Katy's brother builds nuclear subs. One of the newest ones was named the Jimmy Carter. When they went down to show him the plans he corrected them. Roselyn also got the boys some lemonade. I love that.)
Senator Obama is not a Profile In Courage. He is a calculating politician.
And though I would hate have my name brought up in the context of Reverend Wright I think Sistah Souljah might be proud. Maybe even sell a few records.
