Browse >
Home / Archive by category 'Democrats'
For months I have been mulling a Bob Barr endorsement. But after some consideration, I will reluctantly support Barack Obama.
In the first months of the primaries, I supported libertarian Ron Paul, since I am a libertarian. If Ron Paul would have won the Republican nomination, I am confident he would win in a landslide. But once it was inevitable that Paul had lost the nomination after loses in Iowa and New Hampshire he did fairly well in Nevada and won in Louisiana - people will tell you McCain won it, but Paul did - I endorsed Bill Richardson.
Shortly after that Richardson dropped out, and I endorsed the last good candidate left in the race, Hillary Clinton. I felt Hillary had the executive experience, and that Senator Obama’s only executive experience was on the board of Chicago’s Annenberg challenge, which is not presidential.
Obama was a state Senator, only active in the US Senate for 146 days, whoever supported him in the primaries (nearly 18 million voters) must have been high on something! But Hillary Clinton (a little over 18 million votes) had the experience to be president. But once Joe Biden was picked, I knew Barack Obama was walking away from just saying “change” and “hope” to focusing on the issues like Hillary Clinton.
Bob Barr seems like a good candidate with seven percent of responders in today’s Rasmussen tracking poll choosing someone besides Obama or McCain. But he still seems like a waste of a vote.
And so I reluctantly support Senator Barack Obama for president.
McCain is not change, and neither is his wing man, Pallin. Obama is the change candidate, he is the candidate that used the change platform. Since the Republican convention it seems the Same Old Party has been trying to adopt change as it’s new name, with little challenge from Obama (swift boats anyone?). However Barack Obama is now visibly hitting back in an email he sent to supporters this afternoon:
[McCain's] new ad uses what news organizations are calling “naked lies” to reinvent two politicians whose records embody the same culture of corruption and far-right policies we’ve seen from the Bush administration.
The biggest whopper in the ad (that’s still being repeated day after day by McCain and Palin on the campaign trail) is that Governor Palin stopped the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere” — in fact, she supported it, and even hired a lobbyist in Washington to get more pork-barrel projects like it.
If the McCain-Palin campaign wants to have a debate about who is prepared to bring the change we need, we’re more than ready.
More than this not being change, the McCain story has been floundering on their experience equals judgment claims too. It seems they can’t use judgment to come up with their own campaign motto’s (the best judgment would be actually joining the progressive platform, not just using it’s campaign language).
John McCain rocked the political world this week when he named first term Governor of Alaska his Vice Presidential nominee. Some call it calculated. Some call it dump, stupid, and petty. However it did the job. Took the story off the great convention the Democrats threw and placed it on John McCain. It also energized the conservative base in ways they haven’t been all year long. Now the major question is can she do it? Can she take away those Hillary Clinton voters that haven’t and still aren’t warming up to Senator Obama? My guess is it might.
To answer this question you have to really understand the Clinton voter. To get off to a start, they aren’t just the liberal I support abortion women of Emily’s List. Women made up the base that sustained Hillary Clinton in the hardest days of her campaign. They became unwavering votes and supporters as volunteers and donors. They are the brick her campaign was built on, but they aren’t the audience that Sarah Palin will be reaching out to.
In the end of the primary season Hillary dealt Barack Obama a series of major blows in small towns and big states like Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. These victories came with the support of women but built more on the middle class blue collar workers. These are those voters that Sarah Palin was selected to reach out to.
The Democratic response to this nomination has as often with bolted leaders who are more full of themselves then what is good for the country or the party been offensive. My grandmother who has never voted for a republican sent me this email today: ” I never considered voting for McCain before today. Every day I see (John) Kerry, Barbara Boxer, and others speak of her in their dissmisive tone my blood boils. The fact is she knows how it is to have children and higher ambitions at the same time. They don’t appeal to my type of Democrat. Never have and never will. I suggest Obama tell them to shut the hell up before they cost him the election.”
After John McCain nominated Palin Barack Obama said this about the selection, “Yet another encouraging sign that old barriers are falling in our politics. While we obviously have differences over how best to lead this country forward Governor Palin is an admirable person and will add a compelling new voice to this campaign.”
Upon hearing of the Palin selection Clinton said, “We should all be proud of Governor Sarah Palin’s historic nomination, and I congratulate her and Senator McCain. While their policies would take America in the wrong direction, Governor Palin will add an important new voice to the debate.”
These statements are a realization that playing the small town America doesn’t count, no experience card, and tokenism won’t work. It is time others did as well and focus on what matters.
It matters that Sarah Palin is in favor of more drilling at the expense of focusing on alternatives.
It matters that Sarah Palin agrees with John McCain that universal health-care is unneeded.
It matters that Sarah Palin believes that the Supreme Court was right to overturn the DC gun ban.
It matters that Sarah Palin is supportive of the McCain foreign policy agenda.
When did we start to ignore Obama’s campaign of an issue focused debate instead of personal and unhelpful attacks? I know when we allow idiots who have proven themselves to be unable to win national elections like Daschel, Dodd, and Kerry to issue these attacks on our behalf.
We are better advised to follow Obama’s lead on this one. She can’t win the Hillary vote unless we push them to her.
Tha-Kid JK
tha-kid@revkitchen.com
I was not pleased with the Democratic convention last week, when all the big Democrats were acting like we won this election and there is no need to attack John McCain’s negative personal record. I could tell you, during next weeks Republican national convention, the Republicans won’t be talking about how Barack Obama is a great patriotic American, and how he is only wrong on the issues! We have to stop playing Mr. Nice Guy and attack McCain for running a campaign based on his POW record. We need to swift boat him!
I was recently talking to a progressive, and asked him who he is voting for, and he said ‘McCain’. I asked why, and he said ‘ Well, Obama will win New York anyways, so lets give the underdog some respect’. The Obama camp must talk to these crazy voters!!!!
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Dear Fellow Clinton Supporters;
It is official Senator Barack Obama has picked Senator Joseph Biden to be the Vice Presidential nominee of the Democratic Party of the United States of America. As this choice made news other things came to light about the process for vetting and selecting the number 2 spot of our party and with respect to Hillary and Bill Clinton. Let me be the first to say that Senator Obama and the Obama campaign seriously dropped the ball on this issue and big time.
For weeks after Hillary Clinton left the primary and threw her support behind Obama for President the candidate himself promised that she was well qualified to be on “anyone’s” shortlist. Sadly that anyone didn’t include him. Leaks continue to come out that his campaign never seriously vetted Hillary Clinton and never really considered her as the future Vice President despite his promises she would. To say the least it pisses me off. However on the selection of Joe Biden it was a great choice.
The story of a regular Joe is no one other than Joe Biden. The Senior Senator from Delaware who is the poorest member of the United States Senate, doesn’t own a home in Washington but instead commutes everyday back to his only home in Delaware will reach those in the lunch-bucket towns of PA, IN, and OH. However more importantly this is a pick that has worked hard on a large number of the issues that we supported Hillary Clinton on.
Violence Against Women’s Act- This was and still is one of the most powerful pieces of legislation every passed by Congress to combat domestic violence. Not only did he support it but he wrote it back in 1994 and worked hard with then- President Clinton to pass it. The VAWA has it is called contains a broad list of measures to fight a rapid rise in domestic violence and gives billions of dollars in federal funds to address the gender based crimes. However many will remember in 2000 the Supreme Court threw out that gender based section as unconstitutional but that didn’t stall Biden. He worked with Congress who at the time was swaying back and forth between Democratic and Republican control to reauthorize the VAWA. More to his credit when people started to criticize the problems at the National Domestic Violence Hotline, it was Biden who worked with technology companies to find the problems and donate their own equipment and expert experience in fixing it.
Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993-Again working with President Clinton to fulfill a campaign promise, Joe Biden joined a group of Senators as strong advocates for its passage in 1993. This is a strong bill that provides for 12 weeks of leave for parents after the birth of a child, caring for a sick child or parent, or being too ill to perform the job.
These two major acts of congress are just a drop in the bucket on the others that aligned our dream President with the hopefully next Vice President. It is okay to be angry and disappointed at the failure of what a growing number of Americans see as an arrogant Obama campaign. However to seek to sink this ship and turn the keys to the White House over to John McCain borders on treason.
We know that if Obama is elected President he will work to bring our troops home and end the war in Iraq while winning the war in Afghanistan. We know that if Obama is elected President he will fight for real middle class tax cuts, higher taxes and revoked financial assistances to the oil companies. We know that if Obama is elected President he will bring real reform to an urban education community that has been under attack by No Child Left Behind that came with all new standards but forgot all the money.
These are real issues that affect real people and real lives. No one is above these issues, yes no one, not even Hillary Clinton. It is time to realize she lost and get over it.
Tha-Kid JK
tha-kid@revkitchen.com
An article penned by David Brooks, called “Hoping It’s Biden,” just went up on the New York Times website. Brooks makes a very strong case for Joe Biden as VP, and the article was so well-written, I just had to post an excerpt here:
Even today, after serving for decades in the world’s most pompous workplace, Senator Biden retains an ostentatiously unpretentious manner. He campaigns with an army of Bidens who seem to emerge by the dozens from the old neighborhood in Scranton. He has disdain for privilege and for limousine liberals — the mark of an honest, working-class Democrat.
Democrats in general, and Obama in particular, have trouble connecting with working-class voters, especially Catholic ones. Biden would be the bridge.
[...]
Biden’s the one. The only question is whether Obama was wise and self-aware enough to know that.
On the Republican side of the Veepstakes, Mark Halperin of Time Magazine reports that he has spoken with two Republican sources close to McCain who say that Sen. McCain has settled on Mitt Romney as his VP. It should come as no surprise to anyone that I’m not really in tune with Republican political buzz, so I’m not sure whether the GOP’s base would consider it a victory or disappointment if McCain chose Romney as his running mate. Maybe some of Think Youth’s occasional Republican readers can provide their insight.
In the past few weeks I have seen lifelong Democrats reluctant to vote for Barack Obama. In my neighborhood (which is Democratic by a large margin) most people supported Hillary Clinton (as I did). I have seen cars parked who used to have Hillary stickers now have McCain stickers. Why? I asked some people about it and they think Obama would be the presidential version of the former NYC African American mayor David Dinkins, who was not popular even among the black community.
Polls show Barack Obama winning by a razor thin margin. There is always the possibility that people are donating money and telling pollsters that they will vote for Obama to sound politically correct, and by the election they will vote for McCain or not vote at all.
I asked that question to Professor KC Johnson (BA and PhD. from Harvard University, MA from University of Chicago) who a few weeks ago predicted Obama would win in a landslide with well over 300 electoral votes.
Read more
Today the Washington Post reported that Barack Obama’s campaign for president will open 20 new offices in the state of Virginia. Some of these offices are located in areas where he didn’t do well in the Virginia Primary, and where Senator McCain is favored greatly. The Obama campaign is putting resources into areas where the pundits would have you believe he doesn’t stand a chance. This campaign, however, is not going to concede any state without a fight. Read more
The FISA Amendments Act of 2008 has passed the Senate. For those who did not read my post yesterday, this bill grants the telecom companies immunity for helping the NSA spy on phone conversations so that we may never know the extent of the NSA’s warrentless wiretapping program, and grants the president even more warrentless wiretapping powers. What follows is a list of all the senators that voted in favor of the FISA bill. Hopefully, I never have to meet any of these people (again), because I do not want to shake their slimy hands. Read more
The uproar over Sen. Obama’s plan to keep President Bush’s White House Office of Community and Faith Based Initiatives from the left of the Democratic Party shows the growing split in the nation’s largest political party. This is a split between the vocal and to their credit active liberal wing that icons like Howard Dean, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Russ Feingold, and more. It is clear that they are at odds with their inter-party rivals who are quickly gaining attention as progressives with leaders like Sen. Hillary Clinton, Sen. Chuck Schumer, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, and more.
This week while progressives, who use to call themselves moderates, praised the new position of the Junior Senator from Illinois to make outreach and involvement with communities of faith a cornerstone of his campaign and if elected administration, liberals led by the Executive Director of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State took it to the trash. However Obama’s plan and the reaction by the very group that propelled him to the forefront of the parties nomination for President who why so many people refuse to own the liberal label. They are wrong!
I must be up front and remind some that I was a very vocal and supportive advocate for Senator Hillary Clinton’s bid for the White House. We refuse to be called moderates because we believe that our values and our politics are what built the party to the strength we have today. A party that is center left as opposed to one that is far left. The reaction to Sen. Obama saying that he intends to reform and revitalize an office that believes that organizations of faith don’t deserve equal funding opportunities to serve their communities instead of special treatment.
The sad opposition from the liberals on the far left can be summed up in the fact that this is a failed Bush Administration policy as Rev. Berry Lynn said. What their opposition refuses to hear is the reform and change that during the primary they belted was a call to unite behind and what the Senator is proposing. A gut opposition rooted in being the opposition for the sake of opposition instead of listening and hearing the change and positive services these programs can provide is why liberals lose out to progressives on a number of issues that include: education reform, the economy, FISA, healthcare, and the list goes on. It is hard for many of the most passionate liberals to get past the ideology and compare it with the very real lives of the American.
An example of this disconnect with their reality verses real reality is their unwillingness to view Sen. Obama’s plan for faith outreach compared with our knowledge of the Bush Administration. As I see it the new President’s Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships will from the plan the campaign released, “work to engage faith-based organizations and help them abide by the principals that federal funds cannot be used to proselytize, that they should not discriminate in providing their services, and they should be held to the same standards as other federal grant recipients.”
Liberals like Rev. Berry Lynn and others who are up in arms about Sen. Obama’s plan have offered no real alternative for the communities that the plan was created to reach out to. Communities like mine. Communities that have been underserved by the government in the past and some that have an unwelcoming attitude towards government authority. It is communities like these that are held up by these very churches who provide in some instances education, health advice, legal counsel, and so much more. Examples below the fold:
Read more
Veteran Investigative Journalist Seymour Hersh has published an article in the New Yorker Magazine that asserts that congressional leaders agreed to a request from President Bush last year to greatly increase funding, to 400 million dollars, for a major escalation of covert operations against Iran. This escalation of these covert and secret activities is meant to destabilize the religious leadership of Iran. Hersh wrote his article based upon information from “current and former military, intelligence, and congressional sources.” The article notes that covert activities by the United States are not new in Iran–we have been conducting cross-border operations from Southern Iraq since last year.
The request for the $400 million was described in something called a “Presidential Finding”, signed by President Bush, and, under Federal Law, these Presidential Findings “must be issued when a covert intelligence operation gets under way and, at a minimum, must be made known to Democratic and Republican leaders in the House and the Senate and to the ranking members of their respective intelligence committees”. The article by Hersh noted later that, “In other words, some members of the Democratic leadership—Congress has been under Democratic control since the 2006 elections—were willing, in secret, to go along with the Administration in expanding covert activities directed at Iran, while the Party’s presumptive candidate for President, Barack Obama, has said that he favors direct talks and diplomacy.” This is a glaring contradiction and hypocrisy that is certainly not unfamiliar to the politics of the United States.
I hope that we all can now clearly see that the Republican Party is a war-like party of imperialists and interventionists. And I hope that we can now also clearly see that the Democratic Party is a war-like party of imperialists and interventionists, through their aiding and abetting of policies that are as such. I hope that we can now clearly see that both political parties are about policing the world, and spending huge amounts of taxpayer dollars to do so. We are spending 400 million dollars alone on trying to destabilize one single country. That money could have gone to education. That money could have gone to healthcare. That money could have gone to infrastructure. But, out of all of the needy areas of our country, our political leaders, of both parties, decided to direct the money instead towards destabilizing another country. 400 million dollars! That could not be described as “spare change”. Obviously, though, there is no “change” that our leaders can spare. And the small, superficial change that they do provide is worthless.
But Iran is not the only country targeted by the United States. According to Dennis Kucinich’s 35 Articles of Impeachment against President Bush, “On September 30, 2001, then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld established an official military objective of overturning the regime in Iran, as well as those in Iraq, Syria, and four other countries in the Middle East, according to a document quoted in then-Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith’s book, ‘War and Decision’.” The four other countries in the Middle East were, according to Wesley Clark, Libya, Sudan, Somalia, and Lebanon.
It is my opinion that the United States has been the interventionist policeman of the world for too long. And especially covert interventions, because that promotes “blowback”, defined as a term used in espionage to describe the unintended consequences of covert operations. Hatred in the Middle East towards the United States as a result of our covert operations targeting Middle-Easterners, and then Middle-Easterners demonstrating their hatred in a terrorist attack, is an example of blowback.
Is it honestly in our best interest to undertake operations such as this, especially when domestic issues are in such dire need of attention? And, ask yourself, do we even have the right to interfere in and destabilize another country, someone else’s country, as such? My personal opinion is that we have neither the right nor the obligation to try to destablize the governments of other countries and throw them into political chaos. Aside from the concerns of blowback and the misplacement of tax money, it is very important to do unto others as you would want done unto yourself.
Filed Under:
Congress,
Democrats,
Dennis Kucinich,
Executive Branch,
Foreign Affairs,
George W. Bush,
Government,
Iran,
Military,
Nancy Pelosi,
War on Terror,
White HouseTagged:
Year after year, more than 40% of Americans say they attended church at least once a week. Americans attend church more regularly and interpret the Bible more literally than even their neighbors to the north, according to a Gallup Poll. This follows other polls by the organization that religious observance in the United States is greater than most of the world powers. It seems as if the Democratic Party has began to realize the importance of these voters, and have begun to reach out to them. It is lead by party organizations like the DNC’s Faith in Action program, the House Democrats’ Faith Working Group, and the Senate Democrats A Word to the Faithful website. Their efforts are combined with grassroots efforts from groups like Matthew 25 and even a new movement that I am apart of in the Young Democrats of America to create a Faith Caucus (www.youngfaithdems.org) that will work alongside the College Democrats of America’s Faith Caucus. Democrats and even more those in the Obama campaign have understood from talking to young people of faith that the GOP grip on this group is loosening, and we have an opening.
Last week I met with a kid named Jonathan in North Carolina. This 6′4, blond hair, blue eyed, clean cut native of the bible belt belongs to what some are calling a “growing minority” of young evangelicals. They believe deeply in God and their church, but have grown tired of the narrow political agenda of some in opposition to abortion and gay marriage. However, if you talk to Jonathan, he will identify a new list of items he and friends want to be active on. They include erasing poverty, fighting HIV/AIDS, the genocide in Darfur, and even global warming. When you ask Jonathan what party he is a member of, his response is a very unexcited, “Republican”. When you seek more insight into his delay, it comes from his confusion over who to support in November. “I am a Republican and have been one all my life. My parents are Republicans, and I think even their parents have been Republicans. It is what I know. Am I voting Republican in November? I just don’t know.” Jonathan’s view isn’t uncommon in many areas of the GOP strongest voting blocs.
According to an August 2007 poll by the Pew Forum and the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, 69% of Americans agree that it is important for a president to have strong religious beliefs. However what has stopped Democrats in the past from wining this group is that a recent poll says 52% of Americans view the Republican party as friendly to religion and only 40% say the same for our party. 10% see the GOP as unfriendly to their faith with 13% saying the same of our party. I look at these numbers with promise. Promise because the problem isn’t as big as it once was. The group with the largest promise for our party is young people.
Just recently Pew put out another survey that showed a 15% point drop in support among white evangelicals aged 18-29 with the GOP over the past two years. What is causing this drop? Well for Jonathan it was issues he determines to be “social economic fairness” or policies to ensure a fairer economy and tackle issues of poverty. However some defections to the GOP have come because of their consistent policies on Iraq while others say they believe that it is the duty of government to respect God’s creation (the planet) and favor stricter laws that often times aren’t in line with the Republican platform.
So once again, as goes the young people of this nation, so goes the country. Today, those young people are turning away from a party that urged us to hate each other, and find out what makes us different, to a party that says lets work together, lift everyone up, and find what we have in common. Democrats today are doing just that, and we are doing it by finally reaching out to voters we’ve often ignored.
Tha-Kid JK
tha-kid@revkitchen.com
I’m going to give you some biographical information about an individual who I think would be a perfect VP choice for Barack Obama. Based on the information, see if you know right away who I’m talking about:
… Graduated from La Salle Academy in Providence and attended the United States Military Academy in West Point, where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1971. Following his graduation and receiving an active duty commission, [he] attended the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where he received a Masters in Public Policy.
[...]
… An Army Ranger and a paratrooper, served in the 82nd Airborne Division as an Infantry Platoon leader in the 325th Infantry Regiment, a Company Commander, and a Battalion Staff Officer. He returned to West Point in 1978 as an Associate Professor in the Department of Social Sciences.
[...]
… Resigned from the army in 1979 as a captain and enrolled in Harvard Law School.
[...]
… Elected as a state senator in 1984 and served three terms. In 1990, was elected to the United States House of Representatives. For the next six years, [he] became well known in his state for his positions on education and health care…
[...]
U.S Senator since 1996… currently a member of the Senate Armed Forces Committee, the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and the Senate Appropriations Committee. Americans for Democratic Action has often listed him as a “hero” as they indicate he has one of the most liberal voting records in the Senate.
[...]
Voted NO on authorizing use of military force against Iraq; voted NO on constitutional ban of same-sex marriage; rated 100% by NARAL, indicating a pro-choice voting record; rated 100% by the NAACP; rated F by the NRA, indicating a pro-gun control voting record; rated 100% by the AFL-CIO, indicating a pro-union voting record; voted YES on adding 2 to 4 million children to SCHIP eligibility; the list goes on and on.
Read more
I was talking to my mother yesterday because Senator John McCain had recently made a visit to my hometown of Fresno, California. She said that actually she was unaware that he was even in town until after it happened, but she wished she knew. She will be voting for John McCain. What!? She will be voting for John McCain! My mother has been a Democrat since she knew what the word meant. She has NEVER ever even considered voting for a Republican. So what could get her to vote for one now?
Let me tell you, it is not because John McCain has used his charm and political leadership to win over her vote. For my father, who has likely been voting Republican for years, it wasn’t anything new. What was new on that front is that he might NOT vote for McCain but a third party. For my mother it was Hillary Clinton. During the days that at times Sen. Obama called the divisive days of the 90’s, my mother stood tall in her support of President Bill Clinton. She loved his leadership, and felt he was being wronged. In 2008, when Hillary launched her campaign, my mother was right on board. She even refused to give my younger brother a ride to the polls because he might have voted for Obama. As the campaign went on, and the attacks got greater, my mother got more mad. When it seemed to come to an end, lets just say she was pissed off. Those wounds haven’t healed, and in my mothers words, “They won’t, unless he picks her.” Picks her? Yes, my mother won’t vote for Sen. Obama unless he selects her to be his running mate as Vice President.
I don’t think that my mother is unique. I think that she represents the voice of millions of women and other voters who gave their time, tears, and painfully helped wage a historic campaign for the White House on behalf of Mrs. Clinton. To many of them, she should be awarded with the Vice Presidential nomination, and I am proud to announce I agree.
Senator Clinton has spent her life fighting for people in poverty, people who look like me. She has spent a career advocating for just what America needs at this time, and that is healthcare for all Americans, that is affordable and works. Her experience on the details of this issue that cripples many family budgets, is bringing down budgets of states and local governments nationwide, and is the largest expense of businesses that drive them to other countries, is what he needs. Her willingness to fight for things that are important regardless of what the storyline might be tomorrow is what he needs. Her ability to seek compromise, but only good compromise, and have friendly relationships with countless numbers of people on the other side of the aisle is what he needs.
So when it comes to who should be selected to the job of inquiring daily as to the health of the President, and preside over the proceedings of the Senate, I nominate Hillary Clinton.
Tha-Kid JK
tha-kid@revkitchen.com
Next Page »
