PUMA stands for "People United Means Action!" You may know that there is another, more defiant meaning for the acronym P.U.M.A. There will be no unity in the Democratic party until the voices of the 18 million voters who support Hillary Clinton are heard and heeded.
We are motivated to action by our shared belief that the current leadership of the Democratic National Committee has abrogated its responsibility to represent the interests of all democrats in all 50 states. They are misleading our party and aim to mislead our country into nominating an illegitimate candidate for president in 2008. Our goals are fourfold:
1. To support the candidacy of Hillary Clinton in 2008 / 2012.
2. To lobby and organize for changes in leadership in the DNC
3. To critique and oppose the misogyny, discrimination, and disinformation in the mainstream media, including mainstream blogs and other outlets of new media
4. To support the efforts of those political figures who have allied themselves with Hillary Clinton and who have demonstrated commitment to our first three goals
DAILY Rasmussen Poll:
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Thursday shows Barack Obama attracting 49% of the vote while John McCain earns 46%.
Regarding having her name put in for nomination at the convention “I’ve made it very clear that I’m supporting Senator Obama and we’re working cooperatively on a lot of different matters,” she says. “But delegates can decide to do this on their own, they don’t need permission.” More...
By Katharine Q. Seelye
Senator Hillary Clinton asked the question herself on the night of the last primaries in early June: “What does Hillary want?”
That’s still a bit of a mystery, particularly as she and Senator Barack Obama negotiate over her role, and possibly that of her husband, at the Democratic convention in Denver and beyond.Mr. Obama has given Mrs. Clinton a speaking role on the Tuesday night of the convention. But she made it clear in a recent chat with supporters — which is now on YouTube — that she is steeped in negotiations over how to salve the wounds of her disappointed supporters so that they don’t stray in November. She suggested she may allow her name to be placed in nomination, and also that her supporters don’t need her permission to do that on their own.
It is not clear whether Mrs. Clinton is also bargaining for her husband and what role he may play at the convention or in the fall campaign; Mr. Clinton has talked with Mr. Obama since the end of the primaries.
There is no new news so far today, as Mrs. Clinton wrote in a live Web chat on her personal blog.
“While no decisions have been made yet, I will make sure that we keep you up to date and involved with all of the Convention activity,” she wrote.
Mr. Obama also told reporters today that some matters were unresolved. “As is true in all conventions, we’re still working out the mechanics, the coordination,” he said while flying to his home in Chicago.
In the video, taken July 31 at a unity event in Palo Alto, Mrs. Clinton described her bargaining position at the table:
“We will come out stronger if people feel that their voices were heard and their views were respected,” she said. “I think that is a very big part of how we actually come out unified.”
Whatever she is asking for, she described the process aptly:
“It’s as old as Greek drama,” she said.
She was referring to the “catharsis” that her supporters are seeking after enduring her roller-coaster ride through the primaries.
But she could have been referring to the Clintons themselves, the leading lady and erstwhile leading man of Democratic politics, and their knack for remaining at the center of the drama even if they do not hold center stage. That is evident in the outpouring of comments on The Caucus and elsewhere in the blogosphere.
The Clintons are entering an extremely sensitive stage of the election cycle _ and of their ongoing process to shape their legacies. It is not just about their roles at the convention or the campaign but about how history will treat them both and will in turn influence her future.
While the video of Mrs. Clinton plays across cable TV and the Internet, a new video of her husband, in an interview with ABC News, is also playing in its own endless loop. He was not quite able to say that Senator Barack Obama, the party’s all-but-certain nominee, is qualified to be president.
Mr. Clinton appears and reappears, swatting at the same furies he has tried to bat back all year _ that he used race in subtle and not-so-subtle ways during the primaries. “I am not a racist,” he says. He makes clear that any friendship with Representative James Clyburn of South Carolina, a leading black politician who despaired of the Clintons during the primary, is over.
Mrs. Clinton came very close to winning the nomination, of course. She won eight of the last 13 primaries, back when she was warning in a full-throated voice that she would be a better general-election candidate than Mr. Obama.
Interestingly, as she surely knows, she remains just as popular among Democrats these days as Mr. Obama, despite his having been campaigning for two months as the party nominee. The most recent New York Times poll puts her favorability rating among Democrats at 70 percent and Mr. Obama’s at 66 percent.
Now Mr. Obama is struggling in the polls to maintain parity with Senator John McCain. In the video, she calls for the party to unify behind Mr. Obama, even as she nurses the disappointment of her supporters _ and carefully shields any feelings of vindication.
At one point, a woman asks Mrs. Clinton what happens if her name is placed in nomination at the convention and she actually wins.
“That’s not going to happen,” Mrs. Clinton replies. “What we want to have happen is for Senator Obama to be nominated by a unified convention of Democrats. And as I have said, the best way I think _ and I could be wrong, but the best way I think _ to do that is to have a strategy so that my delegates feel like they’ve had a role and that their legitimacy has been validated. It’s as old as Greek drama. There is a catharsis. I mean, everybody comes and they want to yell and scream and have their opportunity, and I think that’s all to the good. Because then, everybody can then go (whew), great, now, let’s go out and win. That’s what we want people to feel.”
Her goal, she says, is this: “We do not want any Democrat in the hall or in the stadium or at home walking away saying, ‘I’m just not satisfied, I’m not happy.’ That’s what I’m trying to avoid.”
Her supporters in the video seem a bit puzzled by this process. Is it normal, one asks, for all of this to be negotiated back and forth?
Mrs. Clinton responds:
“If you look at recent history, I have moved more quickly and done more on behalf of my opponent than comparable candidates have. Most of them didn’t endorse until the convention, Teddy Kennedy, or Gary Hart, Jerry Brown, just a lot of people held out until the convention, kept their delegates, often waged platform or rules or credentials fights.”
But then she seems to give a green light to her supporters to go ahead and make whatever mischief they might:
“I’ve made it very clear that I’m supporting Senator Obama and we’re working cooperatively on a lot of different matters,” she says. “But delegates can decide to do this on their own, they don’t need permission.”
Still, she concludes, “it would be better if we had a plan and we put it in place and executed it.”
In an online chat today on her Web site, former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton assured supporters that she and Sen. Barack Obama are committed to making the party "fully unified heading into the November election."
Obama clinched the Democratic presidential nomination after a bruising primary battle with Clinton. Both Democrats have since sought to publicly ease tensions between the campaigns.
As Democrats near the Aug. 25 start date of their party convention, Clinton acknowledged in her chat that "excitement and curiosity is certainly starting to build" but that "no decisions have been made yet." More...
Clinton said, "I will make sure that we keep you up to date and involved with all of the convention activity."
Flying from Minneapolis to Chicago, Obama described working with Clinton's staff as "seamless".
Asked whether or not entering Clinton's name into nomination would heal party rifts, Obama said, "I don't think we're looking for catharsis. I think what we're looking for is energy and excitement about the prospects of changing this country."
Obama provided no further detail on Clinton's convention activities, stating only that "it is getting worked out by our staffs" and stressing their shared enthusiasm "for a unified party".
A Convention Nomination?
Asked whether or not her name would be placed into nomination at the convention, Clinton did not rule out the possibility and said, "Senator Obama and I share the goal of ensuring that the voices of everyone who participated in this historic process are respected."
Clinton's Thursday Web chat follows remarks she made to a gathering of supporters last week during which the New York senator said she's looking for a "strategy" for her delegates to have their voices heard and "respected" at the Democratic National Convention.
"I happen to believe that we will come out stronger if people feel that their voices were heard and their views were respected. I think that is a very big part of how we actually come out unified," Clinton said at a California fundraiser last Thursday, in a video clip captured by an attendee and posted on YouTube.
"Because I know from just what I'm hearing, that there's incredible pent-up desire. And I think that people want to feel like, 'OK, it's a catharsis, we're here, we did it, and then everybody get behind Sen. Obama.' That is what most people believe is the best way to go," she said.
"No decisions have been made. And so we are trying to work all this through with the DNC and with the Obama campaign."
Clinton's comments shed some light on a fierce behind-the-scenes squabble between the Clinton and Obama camps over how to recognize Clinton and her achievements in the primaries without overshadowing or detracting from a convention that belongs to Obama.
Clinton's Role Being Negotiated
The New York Daily News reported Friday that Clinton has decided not to submit a signed request to the DNC to have her name put into nomination; party rules require such a move for a candidate to be voted on.
But Clinton aides continue to say publicly that such details are still being discussed in consultations among the Clinton camp, the Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee.
"No decisions have been made," Clinton spokeswoman Kathleen Strand said.
"Sen. Clinton is 100 percent committed to helping Barack Obama become the next president of the United States," Strand added. "She is very appreciative of the continued commitment of her supporters and understands there are passionate feelings around the convention. While no decisions have been made at this time, they will be made collaboratively with Sen. Clinton and her staff, the DNC and Sen. Obama's campaign and released at the appropriate time."
Hillary Clinton Holds Convention Bargaining Chip
Sources close to both Obama and Clinton told ABC News that the New York senator is highly unlikely to allow her name to be formally submitted for a roll-call vote on the convention floor. The Obama campaign wants to avoid such a vote, since it would underscore the party's splits and remind voters of the divisive primary campaign between the two Democrats.
The refusal to publicly announce her intentions is widely seen as a bargaining chip Clinton is holding on to as party officials negotiate logistics regarding her convention speech and other activities, according to several Democrats who are closely involved in the matter.
Clinton plans to hold a Web chat with supporters Thursday afternoon where she might clarify her convention role. In announcing the Web chat, she urged her supporters to continue to stay tuned to her Web site for updates about her convention activities.
But the very fact that details of her convention role remain unresolved less than three weeks before the Democrats descend upon Denver is a fresh sign of the difficulties the party will face at a convention when nearly half the delegates were chosen because of their support for a candidate who will not be the nominee.
History provides little guidance: In the modern convention era, the delegate count for the two leading candidates has never been this close.
Lanny Davis, a longtime friend and supporter of the Clintons, called the idea of putting Clinton's name into nomination a "completely idiotic idea that leads to nothing but party disharmony."
Still, the fact that some Clinton supporters are clamoring for a chance to vote for her at the convention is partly Obama's fault, he said. Davis, who described himself as "100 percent behind Obama" in the general election, said Obama should be doing more -- in symbolic and substantive gestures -- to make clear he values and needs the support of former Clinton supporters.
"It's a reflection of genuine frustration by Hillary Clinton supporters that Sen. Obama seems to have forgotten about 18 million voters," Davis said. "My concern about Sen. Obama is he doesn't recognize that the outreach to the Clinton grass roots has to be more visible, more overt, as well as more symbolic."
The two camps have worked cooperatively on a draft of the party platform, and Clinton is set to hit the campaign trail for Obama on Friday, appearing by herself at an Obama event in Nevada.
The campaigns also issued a joint statement late today, reiterating that there is no division.
"We are working together to make sure the fall campaign and the convention are a success," the joint statement said. "At the Democratic Convention, we will ensure that the voices of everyone who participated in this historic process are respected and our party will be fully unified heading into the November election."
Clinton Delegate Gathering Signatures
And party leaders are coming together to help retire her campaign debt, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid scheduled to headline a fundraiser on her behalf Sept. 17.
Still, some Clinton loyalists have complained that Obama hasn't done enough to help Clinton pay off the debt she amassed during the primaries.
Davis said that if Obama won't name Clinton as his running mate, he could at least designate her the convention's keynote speaker. Clinton will get a choice prime-time slot Tuesday night, but no decisions have been announced regarding the keynote address.
"Her supporters want -- after 18 million votes, and the record of success from March 1 through June 1 -- to feel recognized, and I think we should," Davis said.
Clinton is facing pressure from some of her die-hard supporters to request that her name to be placed into nomination.
Several groups of Clinton supporters are organizing marches and demonstrations in Denver. Major events are being planned for Aug. 26, the date Clinton is slated to speak at the convention -- which happens to be the 88th anniversary of the ratification of the constitutional amendment guaranteeing women's suffrage.
Susan Castner, a Clinton delegate from Portland, Ore., is gathering the 300 signatures from delegates that Clinton would need in case she decides she wants to be part of convention balloting.
"We will have this in hand for Sen. Clinton, should this be needed," said Castner, who said that she's already gathered about half the necessary signatures.
Castner said she and many other Clinton supporters will only feel as if their voices are being heard if they are allowed to vote for Clinton on a first ballot.
"It's been a tradition since the late 1800s -- it's a nominating convention, you vote, you nominate someone, and you come out unified. I don't see how alienating 1,800 delegates gives you party unity when we walk out of the stadium," she said. "Hillary delegates feel like we're not welcome, needed, or valued."
"I cannot believe that Sen. Clinton, after putting in that much time, energy and effort, would just say, ' Nah, take my name out,' " Castner said.
Obama Campaign Downplays Reports of Tension
Some Clinton backers have even speculated that a roll call could result in a Clinton victory, though Clinton herself has said such an outcome is nearly impossible. Many Clinton delegates have followed their candidate's lead and are fully supporting Obama's candidacy, so Clinton will likely wind up with fewer votes in a roll call than her delegate total as of the final primaries June 3.
"What we want to have happen is for Sen. Obama to be nominated by a unified convention of Democrats," Clinton said at the California fundraiser last week. "And as I have said, the best way I think -- and I could be wrong -- but the best way I think to do that is to have a strategy so that my delegates feel like they have a role, and that their legitimacy has been validated."
She added: "It's as old as, you know, as Greek drama. You know, there is a catharsis. I mean, everybody comes and, you know, they want to yell and scream and have their opportunity, and I think that's all to the good. Because then, you know, everybody can go, 'OK, great, now let's go out and win.' "
"And that's what we want people to feel. We do not want any Democrat either in the hall or in the stadium or at home walking away saying, 'Well, you know, I'm just not satisfied, I'm not happy.' Because, I mean, that's what I'm trying to avoid."
The clear challenge for Clinton, Obama, and the DNC is to allow for the Clinton delegates to feel satisfied and energized without undermining the legitimacy of Obama's nomination.
Nick Shapiro, an Obama campaign spokesman, downplayed reports of tension between the two camps.
"Sen. Clinton will play a critical role in this convention and is also playing a critical role in the campaign," Shapiro said. "She has campaigned for Obama, raised money for him and spoken on his behalf on several occasions. We appreciate and look forward to her continued support."
ABC News' John Berman and Sunlen Miller contributed to this report.
Scarlett Johansson embarrassed over Barack Obama e-mail furor By ELOISE PARKER DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Updated Wednesday, August 6th 2008, 11:02 PM
Scarlett Johansson says the hubbub over her e-relationship with Barack Obama was an embarrassing product of "extreme sexism."
The movie hottie set the political and Hollywood press atwitter with her giddy boasts of trading e-mails with the Democratic star - only to have Obama pour cold water over the notion of their online chats.
"I kept thinking to myself, 'God, if this was just like ... George Clooney or any of the other [Obama] surrogates or supporters ... there wouldn't be [any] question about it. Nobody would even talk about it.'" More...
She added, "It seemed to me to be like a product of extreme sexism."
The 23-year "Lost in Translation" star insisted she was merely expressing her delight over Obama's "wonderful and refreshing" campaign when she opened up to Politico.com in June.
She told the Web site that she traded e-mails with Obama.
"You'd imagine that someone like the senator, who is constantly traveling and constantly 'on' - how can he return these personal e-mails?" she said. "But he does."
She said Obama even responded to one e-mail about a debate, noting it was "one silly question after another."
But Obama later told reporters Johansson didn't have his e-mail address.
"She sent one e-mail to Reggie, who forwarded it to me," Obama said, referring to his personal assistant, Reggie Love. "I write, saying, 'Thank you Scarlett for doing what you do,' and suddenly we have this e-mail relationship.""
The 2008 Democratic primaries left a rich trove of quotes that are now being mined by John McCain's campaign. This video (the second in two days) just starts to scratch the surface. The effect will be to strengthen McCain's "Maverick" image and further highlight Obama's lack of substance. The real zinger comes at the end.More...
For all the forced talk about "party unity" it will be hard for anyone to forget the brutal tactics of the Obama campaign during the primaries. They slimed Hillary Clinton, former President Bill Clinton, and Hillary's backers as "racists," "low-information" "rednecks," "post-menopausal banshees" and "faggots." The bureaucratic losers in the DNC and their friends in the progressive blogosphere were quick to call out other demographics that "don't matter" anymore: people who have to work for a living, latinos, asian-americans and anyone else who didn't fit into Barack's voting bloc of young voters, black voters, upper-mid-income "progressives" and PC Republicans.
Just as in 2000, when she mismanaged Al Gore's campaign and managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by doing her best to distance Gore from the two-term Clinton presidency, the unspeakably vile Donna Brazile was at the centre of the destruction this year. Through her actions - such stating on national TV that Democrats don't need no stinking FDR coalition with white working class voters to win, her promotion of fag-baiting inside the DNC (now the subject of a lawsuit) and her incredible prediction of race riots at the beginning of the primary season if Obama didn't get the nomination - she has been a one-woman wrecking ball bashing the centre of the Democratic Party.
1) Write a certified & return receipt requested letter to the DNC demanding a meeting of the Rules and Bylaws Committee (RBC) to strip Donna Brazile of her superdelegate status.
2) Have the letter notarized.
3) Mail to this address:
Democratic Nat’l Committee Credentials Committee Attn: Alexis Herman 430 S. Capitol St. SE 2nd Floor Washington, DC 20003
After so much damage has been done, and the DNC has almost succeeded in foisting Obama on an unwilling Democratic electorate, Republicans are rubbing their hands. They've noticed how little it took for McCain to deflate Barack's hot-air balloon. The One can't withstand ridicule. Each passing day shows just what an Achille's heel the Oborg's humourless arrogance really is.
Even Obama's pal Tom Daschle, in an interview with the FT, noted that it was McCain's "Celeb" ad that cost Barack his entire lead in the polls this past week. You know, the video that the Oborg called "juvenile" in their best prissy fashion.
Here, via RealClear Politics, is Victor David Hanson's gleeful take on how the "Democratic" nomenklatura managed to saddle us with yet another loser in 2008 and his sigh of relief that Barack was selected over the candidate who can win: Hillary. Read it and weep. Remember how it happened.
And join us in saying NO DEAL. Before it's too late: we want an open convention.
WASHINGTON — Sixteen years ago, the Democratic Party refused to allow Robert P. Casey Sr., then the governor of Pennsylvania, to speak at its national convention because his anti-abortion views, stemming from his Roman Catholic faith, clashed with the party’s platform and powerful constituencies. Many Catholics, once a reliable Democratic voting bloc, never forgot what they considered a slight.More...
This year, the party is considering giving a speaking slot at the convention to Mr. Casey’s son, Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, who like his late father is a Roman Catholic who opposes abortion rights.
The likely shift reflects concern among Democrats that they need to do more to regain the allegiance of Roman Catholic voters, who broke decisively for President Bush in 2004 and could be crucial to the outcome in a number of battleground states this year. Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, lost the Catholic vote badly to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, who, like Mr. Obama, is a supporter of abortion rights, during the primaries in states like New Hampshire, Missouri and Ohio. In Pennsylvania, Catholic voters preferred Mrs. Clinton to Mr. Obama by a 40-point margin.
The Obama campaign is being close-mouthed about its convention plans and would not confirm whether Mr. Casey would be given a prime-time speaking slot. Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said that the call was Mr. Obama’s, but that a prominent speaking role for Mr. Casey would assist in the candidate’s efforts to woo Roman Catholic voters.
Mr. Casey, who endorsed Mr. Obama early and campaigned extensively for him in Pennsylvania, said there was no formal offer yet from Mr. Obama or the party. But, he said, “I think we’ll get something worked out.”
Mr. Casey’s appearance would be an important signal to Catholics, especially those who follow church teachings and oppose abortion. Mr. Obama could also use his choice of a vice-presidential running mate to reassure Roman Catholics. Among those that his campaign is vetting is Gov. Tim Kaine of Virginia, a Roman Catholic whose faith has been part of his political identity. At least three other Catholics have also been mentioned as possible running mates: Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut and Gov. Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas.
Although abortion is central to the political crosscurrents around Catholics — Ms. Sebelius has vetoed a number of bills that would restrict abortion rights in Kansas, prompting the archbishop of Kansas City to suggest that she stop receiving communion — part of Mr. Obama’s strategy is to emphasize that there are other issues on which they can base their votes. It would be a way to address the perception that Mr. Obama has a “Catholic problem.”
Douglas W. Kmiec, a conservative Catholic legal scholar at Pepperdine School of Law, said that although the formal teachings of the American Catholic bishops put primacy on the sanctity of life, including fetuses and embryos, doctrine allows for voting on other grounds, including the Iraq war, which the Vatican has opposed from the start.
Mr. Kmiec, a Republican who served in the Justice Department under President Ronald Reagan, said he was supporting Mr. Obama because his platform met the standard of justice and concern for the poor the church has always defended. This year, Mr. Kmiec was denied communion by a priest at a gathering of Catholic business people because of his support for Mr. Obama. Mr. Kmiec said, “The proper question for Catholics to ask is not ‘Can I vote for him?’ but ‘Why shouldn’t I vote for the candidate who feels more passionately and speaks more credibly about economic fairness for the average family, who will be a true steward of the environment, and who will treat the immigrant family with respect?’ ”
He urged Mr. Obama to invite Mr. Casey to speak as an answer to those who believe they cannot vote for someone who supported abortion rights.
Mr. Kmiec’s and Mr. Casey’s views put them in conflict with millions of lay Catholics, for whom abortion is a nonnegotiable issue, and many Catholic clerics, including Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Denver, the site of the Democratic convention.
Archbishop Chaput, who has stopped short of telling his flock how to vote, has called abortion a “foundational issue.” He has said that a vote for a candidate who supports abortion rights or stem-cell research, like Mr. Obama or Senator John Kerry in 2004, was a sin that must be confessed before receiving communion. Mr. Obama’s Republican rival, Senator John McCain, an opponent of abortion rights, met last week in Denver with Archbishop Chaput.
The archbishop declined an interview request but his spokeswoman, Jeanette DeMelo, said that his views had not changed. In a column this year, Archbishop Chaput wrote that Catholics could support a politician who supported abortion only if they had a “compelling proportionate reason” to justify it. “What is a ‘proportionate’ reason when it comes to the abortion issue?” the archbishop wrote. “It’s the kind of reason we will be able to explain, with a clean heart, to the victims of abortion when we meet them face to face in the next life — which we most certainly will. If we’re confident that these victims will accept our motives as something more than an alibi, then we can proceed.”
That is a tough standard for Mr. Obama, or any supporter of abortion rights, to meet. Republicans are gearing up campaigns to depict Mr. Obama as a radical on the question of abortion, because as a state senator in Illinois he opposed a ban on the killing of fetuses born alive.
Mr. Obama has said he had opposed the bill because it was poorly drafted and would have threatened the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade that established abortion as a constitutional right. He said he would have voted for a similar bill that passed the United States Senate because it did not have the same constitutional flaw as the Illinois bill. Mr. Obama has opposed the federal ban on so-called partial-birth abortions for similar legal and constitutional reasons.
That explanation did not wash with many abortion foes and most Republicans.
“When you look at his opposition to the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act in Illinois and the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban, which many Mass-attending Catholics view as bans on infanticide, Obama’s more extreme than any other Democratic presidential candidate,” said Leonard Leo, who directed Catholic outreach for Republicans in 2004, and is an informal adviser to the party and the McCain campaign.
Mr. Leo also said that the appearance of Mr. Casey on the dais at the Democratic convention would not be enough to address the concerns of faithful Catholics.
“He might get a slight bump from Casey among Catholics generally, but it doesn’t get him all the way there because Casey-the-Younger isn’t his father, and Mass-attending Catholics have figured that out,” Mr. Leo said.
William A. Galston, a domestic policy adviser to President Bill Clinton and now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said Catholics were the quintessential swing voters. Mr. Galston said they were roughly a quarter of the electorate but lived in disproportionate numbers in the swing states of the Midwest. Polls show them closely divided between the two candidates. Mr. Galston said Mr. Obama could improve his standing with Catholics by, like Mr. Clinton in 1992, conferring with a group of Catholic leaders and then giving a substantive speech at Notre Dame or another Catholic institution.
Mr. Obama should also speak out in favor of legislation now before Congress to provide financing for alternatives to abortion like free prenatal care and adoption assistance, Mr. Galston suggested. Mr. Obama should also invite Mr. Casey to speak at the convention, he said.
“I spend a lot of time with Catholic intellectuals, and no matter how liberal they are and inclined to support Democrats, they speak with vehemence about the exclusion of Casey’s father from the 1992 convention,” Mr. Galston said. “They don’t accept any of the explanations. I think it would be a dramatic act of historical rectification that would resonate with Catholics.”
By TOM RAUM, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 20 minutes ago
CHICAGO - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Thursday dismissed suggestions that the nominating convention could be marred by tensions between his supporters and the die-hard backers of Hillary Rodham Clinton. ADVERTISEMENT
Obama told reporters that their staffs were working out mutually agreeable convention logistics. At the same time, Clinton was assuring her supporters in an online chat that she and Obama were "working together to make sure it's a big success." More...
Neither directly answered questions about whether Clinton's name should be placed in nomination so that her backers could record their votes.
Obama clinched the nomination after a sometimes bitter primary contest with Clinton. Amid reports that some Clinton backers hope to raise her profile at the convention or even continue to push her candidacy, Clinton and Obama were publicly trying to ease the strained relations that exist between some of their supporters.
Flying home to Chicago, Obama told reporters on his campaign plane that he talked separately this week to Clinton and her husband, the former president, and that they were enthusiastic about having a smooth convention at the end of the month in Denver.
"As is true in all conventions, we're still working out the mechanics, the coordination," Obama said. One such issue is whether there will be a convention roll call on Clinton's nomination, he said.
"I'm letting our respective teams work out details," he said. Asked if that meant he wouldn't object to her name being placed in nomination and a vote taken, Obama said: "I didn't say that. I said that they're working it out."
Clinton has not said whether she will seek a formal vote on her bid for the nomination. For the online chat on her Web site, she wrote that she and Obama will ensure Democrats are "fully unified."
Clinton was expected to deliver a prime-time address to delegates on Aug. 26, the second night of the convention. With the delegate roll call planned for the next evening, Obama was set to accept the nomination with a speech on its fourth and final night.
"We will ensure that the voices of everyone who participated in this historic process are respected and our party is fully unified heading into the November election," Clinton wrote. "While no decisions have been made yet, I will make sure that we keep you up to date and involved with all of the convention activity."
Obama was asked whether allowing Clinton's name to be placed in nomination might lead to a catharsis for the party, an emotional coming together that relieves pent-up stress.
"I don't think we're looking for catharsis. I think what we're looking for is energy and excitement," he said.
In the Web chat, one person asked Clinton directly: "Are you truly supporting Sen. Obama and encouraging your supporters to do the same or are you just saying what you have to?" Clinton insisted she was sincerely behind Obama.
Another questioner wanted to know if there was "any possibility" her name would be placed in nomination, arguing that doing so "would at least give your supporters a voice in the choice for the party's nominee." She was noncommittal.
As to those avid Clinton supporters who still haven't warmed up to him and may even resent him, Obama said, "We're not talking to those people, we're talking directly to the Clinton campaign people and staff."
Another participant in the Clinton chat posted a note saying he hopes Clinton becomes Obama's running mate. In her response, Clinton repeated that she will do whatever Obama asks her to do but it is his decision "and I am going to respect the privacy of that process by not discussing it."
The Clintons' stance toward Obama's candidacy is being closely scrutinized as the convention nears — particularly after remarks Bill Clinton made earlier this week during a trip to Africa. Asked whether Obama was prepared to become president, the former president replied, "You can argue that nobody is ready to be president," and said he himself learned a lot in his first year on the job.
The remark was widely viewed as tepid and unenthusiastic, particularly in light of Republican candidate John McCain's frequent criticism that Obama is not ready to be president.
___
Associated Press writer Devlin Barrett in Washington contributed to this report.
Paris Hilton may think John McCain is just a “wrinkly white-haired guy,” but the Republican presidential candidate apparently has figured out the younger generation just fine. Over the past two weeks, his “celebrity” attacks have stomped Democratic presidential opponent Sen. Barack Obama in YouTube hits. More...
Mr. McCain has pumped out a series of brutal yet entertaining attack ads and Web videos mocking the press and Mr. Obama, and the combination of wit and insult has pushed his YouTube channel to the sixth most watched on the site this week. Mr. McCain has beat Mr. Obama's channel for seven straight days and 11 of the past 14 days, in a signal he intends to compete for the YouTube vote.
That is a giant reversal. Mr. Obama had been quadrupling Mr. McCain's YouTube views and beat him every day since February, according to TubeMogul, which tracks online video viewing.
“I want to know who he hired. They went from recycling their TV ads to like putting out these witty shorts,” said David Burch, marketing manager for TubeMogul.
The McCain campaign said it was simply a decision to have fun with commercials, like the “Celebrity” ad released last week that compared Mr. Obama to Miss Hilton and Britney Spears, and “The One” Web ad that mocks the adulation from Obama supporters and compares the Democrat to Moses as he parts the Red Sea.
The videos were linked on key sites such as the Drudge Report and broke into mainstream coverage through television and celebrity blogs, expanding viewership to people Mr. McCain has never reached before.
“I think we knew it would draw some attention. I don't think we knew it would be as big a hit on YouTube,” said spokesman Brian Rogers.
Among the attention it drew was a rebuke from Miss Hilton's mother, a McCain campaign contributor. Even some Republicans said it was beneath Mr. McCain, who had promised a campaign on the issues.
Miss Hilton responded with her own Web video Tuesday night comparing Mr. McCain to "Star Wars" character Yoda and calling him “old enough to remember when dancing was a sin.”
While basking in the sun in a bikini, Miss Hilton says that since she's been dragged into the race, she would offer up some ideas of her own to combine both candidates' ideas: “We can do limited offshore drilling with strict environmental oversight while creating tax incentives to get Detroit making hybrid and electric cars. That way the offshore drilling carries us until the new technologies kick in.”
“It's actually surreal,” Mr. Rogers said about the attention and the response from Miss Hilton. “I know that Senator McCain watched Paris Hilton and thought it was hilarious.”
Mr. Obama's YouTube channel beat Mr. McCain's every day from February through mid-July, when Mr. McCain's new style began to show. That was when the campaign launched “Obama Love,” mocking press coverage of the Democrat, set to Frankie Valli's “Can't Take My Eyes Off You.”
That video was pulled after Warner Music Group lodged a copyright claim, but not before it helped Mr. McCain to several YouTube viewership victories.
The Republican followed it up late last month with the celebrity ad featuring Miss Hilton and Miss Spears and announced another commercial Wednesday continuing the celebrity attack, with the announcer wondering: “Is the biggest celebrity in the world ready to help your family?”
Mr. Obama's campaign has studiously avoided talking about Mr. McCain's celebrity attacks, instead responding to the substance of the attacks included in most ads.
But Mr. Obama himself couldn't resist, telling voters last week that the Spears-Hilton references were demeaning to the election.
“Given the seriousness of the issues, you´d think we could have a serious debate,” he said in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. “But so far, all we´ve been hearing about is Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. I mean, I do have to ask my opponent, is that the best you can come up with? Is that really what this election is about? Is that what is worthy of the American people?”
Overall, Mr. Obama's YouTube channel still dominates, with 51 million all-time video views. Rep. Ron Paul, Texas Republican, is second with 15.3 million views and Mr. McCain trails in third with 8.3 million views.
“The Obama folks get it,” said Mr. Burch at TubeMogul. He said they always have new material coming out to keep continually peaking.
But Mr. McCain is catching up, with 4.1 million views this month compared with Mr. Obama's 2 million as of Wednesday evening.
“He made a smart move because he jumped out of the political blogosphere and chattering class, and got into the celebrity chattering class, and that's where most of the energy is,” said David All, a Republican strategist who runs Slatecard.com, an online contributions site.
Mr. All attributed the change in attitude to the elevation of Steve Schmidt at the McCain campaign. The former Bush White House aide and campaign aide to California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger took over day-to-day operations at the McCain campaign a month ago and brought an aggressiveness that put the campaign beyond the usual political talk.
“The [Stephen] Colberts, Jon Stewarts, Saturday Night Lives, all of those things do a really great job of helping humanize a really great candidate, a really authentic candidate,” Mr. All said.
Joe Trippi, a Democratic consultant credited with bringing campaigning into the Internet age when he managed Howard Dean's 2004 presidential bid, said the ads are the best entry Republicans have made in competing for YouTube attention.
“Look, they've entered the fray. These are clearly successful - the right take on humor, the right mix,” he said. “Any time you take items out of the pop culture, like Paris Hilton or someone who's in that world, there's a chance it'll go viral.”
He also said Mr. Obama is right not to get baited into talking about the celebrity charges.
“It's a classic strategy. Push off and get back to your issues. It's not a good idea to dwell on the turf McCain wants you to dwell on,” he said.
We are just weeks from the Democratic and Republican conventions. The WMC will be reporting from both -- keeping you informed on the media aspects of our political process, straight through to the November election and beyond.More...
We are just weeks from the Democratic and Republican conventions: The WMC will be reporting from both -- keeping you informed on the media aspects of our political process, straight through to the November election and beyond.
Up first, at the Democratic Convention, on Tuesday, August 26th, the WMC will reprise our tremendously successful forum, From Soundbites to Solutions: Bias, Punditry and the Press in the 2008 Election, and release the report from the original event. We first co-sponsored the forum with our partners, The White House Project and The Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, on June 17 at the Paley Center for Media. We are thrilled to continue the discussion, this time with Michel Martin of NPR, Jonathan Alter of Newsweek, Patricia Williams of The Nation, Rebecca Traister of Salon, Jamal Simmons of CNN, and MarÃa Teresa Petersen of Voto Latino, among the early confirmed participants. Video clips from the Paley event can be accessed from our website at www.womensmediacenter.com.
The report, "Bias, Punditry, and the Press: Where Do We Go From Here," will include recommendations for the media and consumers of media and will be available for download on our website after the August 25 release. Please help the WMC distribute printed copies of this important report.
In addition, on Wednesday, August 27, the WMC is also hosting a panel with another of our partners, Women's eNews. Six leading congresswomen (Loretta Sanchez-CA, Rosa DeLauro-CT, Carolyn Maloney-NY, Gwen Moore-WI, Lois Capps-CA confirmed so far) will discuss WEN's The Memo-- a status report of six areas that the candidates and delegates must address. The WMC will issue its complementary Election Dispatches, a special series of commentaries related to the 2008 presidential election. The congresswomen will address the media's handling of women and the economy, immigration, women in the military, international issues, war and peace, and health. Read Pramila Jayapal's Election Dispatch on Immigration and Jennifer Hogg's Election Dispatch on Women in the Military, and let us know what you think by posting on our blog, Majority Post.
This convention holds the potential for great symbolism for women: it marks the 100th anniversary of the last Democratic convention in the city of Denver. In 1908 women did not have the right to vote. Party leaders refused to even discuss the issue, although women suffragists protested. This year, the convention is chaired by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, the highest ranking woman elected official in the country, co-chaired by Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, Texas State Senator Leticia Van de Putte, and Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin. The CEO of the Democratic National Convention Committee is Leah D. Daughtry.
On Tuesday, August 26, Senator Hillary Clinton will address the delegates. That is the 88th anniversary of the day the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution became law, which gave women the right to vote in 1920. Senator Barack Obama accepts the nomination on Thursday, August 28th, before a public audience of 75,000 people. That is the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech.
We've certainly come a significant distance in the last 100 years, but among our continued fights is the one to make women visible and powerful in the media. We'd love to have you join us.
With best wishes,
Carol Jenkins
WMC President
p.s. Sign up for for the WMC's Exclusive Election Dispatches, Daily News Brief, and other news from the WMC!
About us: The Women's Media Center strives to make women visible and powerful in the media. From our founding in 2005 by Jane Fonda, Robin Morgan, and Gloria Steinem to our advocacy and media relations work today, we are part of a strong feminist tradition that seeks to hold the media accountable for presenting the world as we know it. Our mission is to ensure that women and women's experiences are reflected in the media just as women are present everywhere in the real world; that women are represented as local, national, and global sources for and subjects of the media; and that women media professionals have equal opportunities for employment and advancement. In addition to the WMC founders, current board members include Loreen Arbus, Cristina Azocar, Jodie Evans, Gloria Feldt, Carol Jenkins, Teresa McBride, Pat Mitchell, Jessica Neuwirth, Rossana Rosado, and Helen Zia. For more information, please visit www.womensmediacenter.com.
The campaign was offering a chance to be picked for a trip to the Democratic National Convention for a contribution of at least $5. However, as a gambling analyst for Colorado-based Focus on the Family told WND, that not only probably violated state laws banning gambling, it also probably violated federal bans. More...
Now the campaign has added a statement to the fundraising website that says, "If you do not wish to make a donation but would like to participate in this program, you can still be selected to join Barack at the Democratic National Convention in Denver by clicking here."
According to regulators, that takes the procedure out of the realm of gambling, because a "donation" no longer is required.
The Obama campaign has declined to respond to WND telephone messages requesting comment on the issue. A WND e-mail to a contact address provided by the campaign on the web also did not generate a response.
However, Nick Kimball, a spokesman for the Obama campaign in Minnesota, told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, "We are happy to have resolved this issue working closely with state officials. We look forward to continuing a substantive conversation with Minnesotans about Senator Obama's ideas."
Doug Forsman, a special agent with Minnesota's Department of Public Safety, had confirmed the illegality of the promotion.
He gave the campaign two options, the newspaper said, to void the contest where such bans exist or to change the rules to allow people to participate without gambling any of their money.
Forsman confirmed Kendall Burman, staff counsel at Obama's Chicago headquarters, informed him the "donation," which had been a requirement earlier, would be made optional.
The Star-Tribune said the Minnesota Gambling Board received a tip Monday saying it might represent an illegal raffle and turned the matter over to the Public Safety Department.
Officials with the state secretary of state's office confirmed to the Rocky Mountain News Democrats would need a license to continue the original game of chance in Colorado.
Chad Hills, the Focus on the Family analyst for gambling research and policy, had told WND the campaign promotion included all three ordinary elements of gambling.
"I think not only does it cross the line on a state level, but on a federal level it also crosses the line," he said.
For one thing, Internet gambling is banned in all 50 states, as are commercial gambling operations unless, like a state lottery, they are specifically authorized.
Obama's fundraiser, distributed via Internet, said, "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."
The office of Colorado Attorney General John Suthers declined to comment on the specific situation. But he provided to WND a statement that said, "For 'gambling' to occur, three elements must be present: consideration, chance, and reward. These elements are sometimes expressed as 'payment, luck, and prize.'"
Hills said, "I think they've stepped on the darker side of the gray line, if you want to call it a gray line."
He clarified he was specifically expressing his views on the issue of gambling, not on any particular political candidate.
Obama's e-mail pitch said:
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:
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.
Signed by campaign manager David Plouffe, it included an Internet link to a donate.BarackObama.com website to pay the money and enter the competition for the trips.
The campaign website now includes basically the same message but includes the line of fine print at the bottom of the page that authorities said was needed to make it a legal promotion, instead of an illegal gambling operation.
On the Rocky Mountain News' forums page, one reader commented, "Democrats were violating the law? How is it news that Democrats are criminals?
Another, however, cited the Iraq war, wiretapping and "political prosecution" disputes, saying "nahhh those aren't news worthy as they were committed by republicans in this administration. actual premeditated crimes by republicans= nada… simple mistake by Democrats= headlines."
On the Minneapolis newspaper's comment page, one reader said, "I read the donation invitation and it clearly reads like a raffle to the point of pressing the DONATE button. There's no such thing as breaking the law a little bit. Not a good start. This should have been vetted for applicability in all states prior to placing it on the national web site. Is this an example of inexperience? I hope not … it's awfully early."
Another added, "In Wisconsin 3 elements constitute illegal lottery, prize, chance and consideration. This offer has them all. How can a man be our president when he cannot understand simple rules of fundraising? … The facts are the facts."
Hillary Clinton fans are not going to let the Democratic National Convention in Denver happen later this month without pushing for her name to be at the top of the ticket, despite her primary campaign concession to Sen. Barack Obama.More...
The city has issued permit to an organization called the Colorado Women Count/Women Vote for a parade on Aug. 26, and officials have announced plans to team with the group 18 Million Voices, made up of Clinton supporters, for a rally in a still-to-be-determined Denver park.
Aug. 26 is the 88th anniversary of women's suffrage and the day Clinton reportedly is scheduled to speak at the convention, according to a report in the Denver Post.
"We just want to celebrate Hillary's accomplishments and what she's done for the country as a whole and women in particular," Katherine Vincent, 55, of Louisville, told the newspaper. She is organizing the parade and rally.
She said she believes those delegates who committed earlier to Clinton still have a right to vote for her at the DNC. "That's why they were selected," she stated.
WND reported earlier about an assembly of Clinton supporters who call themselves PUMA, which is short for "Party Unity My A**."
Officials then estimate millions of Democrats have been disenfranchised by the upstart Obama, and won't be in his camp come November.
The Post report said those individuals are arranging buses to Denver and coordinating their efforts for the greatest impact.
The Post, however, said since Clinton conceded the primary battle in June, she would have to request a nomination in writing and published reports say she won't do that.
The Associated Press even has reported Clinton plans to campaign for Obama in Nevada and Florida this month.
That doesn't dampen the spirits of her supporters, though, and even Obama supporters want to give her her due.
"Sen. Clinton is going to play a critical role in the convention," said Jenny Backus, a senior adviser to Obama.
"I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Hillary is NOT dead. Obama is dropping in every single poll versus McCain, including those run by typically left-of-center organizations. If he continues to lose ground, continues to play the race card, however inartfully, and takes another hit or two on his 'refining' of his positions, questions will be raised by Dem insider power brokers about his 'viability,'" said Mike846 on the newspaper's forum page.
"Then all Hill has to do is survive the first ballot at the convention without him being nominated, and then its (sic) wide open."
Below is an article written by another Chicago community organizer. What I find fascinating is that he makes it very clear that community organizing is not about helping the community in a warm and fuzzy way. Rather it is about manipulating the power structures already present in disadvantaged populations to achieve a political end (see related story "Who sent Obama?"). The question this brings to mind is what are Obama's politcal ends? He has never made that clear. More...
By John Maki Monday July 28, 2008
"Community organizer."
If you've heard the term, you likely learned about it through Barack Obama's memoir or one of his speeches where he talks about his time working in poor neighborhoods on Chicago's South Side in the 1980s. He refers to this time in his life a lot. Obama leans on it, hard, while stumping. But what does it mean?
If you've heard the term, you likely learned about it through Barack Obama's memoir or one of his speeches where he talks about his time working in poor neighborhoods on Chicago's South Side in the 1980s. He refers to this time in his life a lot. Obama leans on it, hard, while stumping. But what does it mean?
What do community organizers actually do? How do they do it? And how has Obama's experience as a community organizer shaped his run for the presidency?
Since 2002, I have worked with several Chicago-based community organizers and even done some organizing myself. My experience has taught me to view Barack Obama, Chicago's most famous community organizer, in a different light than you will likely encounter from most political commentators.
Community organizing is old-fashioned, bare-knuckle politics for the little guy.
Were you picturing Obama in a soup kitchen instead? It is not your fault. When Obama talks about his time as a community organizer, he does not go beyond a vague and benign description of how he worked with unemployed steelworkers and their families to fight for change. Media coverage of Obama's days as a community organizer has not been much better. Most journalists tend either to repeat stories that Obama has told in his books, or merely interview people who worked with him at the time without giving you a clear idea of what community organizing entails.
The words "community organizing" themselves probably present the biggest problem.
Hearing the touchy-feely sound of "community," you may assume organizing has something to do with community service, like working at a homeless shelter.
But there is nothing touchy or feely about community organizing. It has more in common with the brutal contact sport of Chicago politics than it does with any kind of charitable act, such as serving food to homeless people. And like the neon-green relish that garnishes a Gold Coast dog [2], community organizing is pure Chicago.
Saul Alinsky: Godfather of modern community organizing, cleaning up cesspools by appealing to self-interest
The history of community organizing begins in the slums of Chicago's South Side in the 1930s, when Saul Alinsky organized the people who lived in the Back of the Yards, the neighborhood Upton Sinclair wrote about in The Jungle. Alinsky was himself a South Sider and knew that the Back of the Yards was not only one of the worst slums in the country, the neighborhood was also, as he put it in a 1972 interview for Playboy Magazine, "a cesspool of hate: the Poles, Slovaks, Germans, Negroes, Mexicans and Lithuanians all hated each other and all of them hated the Irish, who returned the sentiment in spades."
That was fine with Alinsky. His goal was not to get the people he organized to love each other, just work together. As Alinsky once put it, "to [expletive] your enemies, you've first got to seduce your allies."
Alinsky's key insight was that while poor people who lived in places like the Back of the Yards do not have access to traditional forms of power, they do have numbers. He believed that if enough poor people realized it was in their interest to work together and fight for particular issues, they could pressure people in power to give them what they want.
To build a base of support, Alinsky formulated a set of strategic principles he later taught people at the Industrial Areas Foundation [3], an institute he established to disseminate the art of community organizing. In 1965, shortly before he was assassinated, Malcom X said that Alinsky knew more about organizing than anybody in the country [4]. Today, there are probably few community organizers alive who either do not have a direct connection to Alinsky or to one of his students.
One of the most important lessons that Alinsky taught community organizers is not to rely on high-minded ideals like "brotherly-love or "the common good" to get people to fight for particular goals. Instead, as a community organizer you are always looking for ways to appeal directly to a person's self-interest, whatever that may be. This is not to say ideals do not matter to community organizers. But at the end of the day, an ideal is only as good as what it can help you accomplish.
So, if you are a community organizer and want to organize an area, you first try to meet with as many indigenous leaders as possible, the kinds of men and women who populate neighborhood churches and civic groups that others will listen to and naturally follow. The purpose of these one-on-one meetings is not to become their friend. You want to find out what their self-interest is so you can use it. This includes milking their personal connections to expand your base of support. As a community organizer, the sole source of your power is your relationships. And the more people you have in your pocket, the more likely it is that you can use them to get what your base wants.
Here is a typical community-organizing scenario. Let's say you are a community organizer who has cultivated and trained a strong base of support and identified a particular problem to attack. You then target a public official who can get you something you want. Let's call him Official X. He chairs an appropriations committee that is deciding whether to fund a program your base supports. You and your base request a meeting with him. Official X agrees and asks that you come to his office. Before you go, you coach a core group of your base, the people you call ‘your leaders,' on what to say and how to behave at the meeting.
After painstakingly rehearsing everyone's roles, so that no part of the meeting is left to chance, you are ready to do the real thing. You take your leaders to the meeting, and you have one of them present your base's demands. Your leader explains to Official X what you want him to do, and why it is in his self-interest to do so. Whatever arguments your leader uses to make their case, he also makes sure that Official X understands that he will pay a price for not helping. If Official X stands in your way, your base is going to try to find a way to hurt him, whether it's by attacking him through the press, or turning out people to vote against him. If this tactic makes Official X angry, you could not care less. You do not want people in power to like you. As a community organizer, you want them to respect and fear you.
But you also make sure that Official X knows so long as he helps you out, you will help him out too. After all, as a community organizer, your job is not to change the system; it is to master and use the system's rules to your advantage.
If you think these tactics resemble standard forms of political intimidation, you are right.
As I said before, community organizing is old-fashioned, bare-knuckle politics for the little guy.
This is also what most coverage of Obama's days as a community organizer fails to appreciate. For whether you are an Alinksy-schooled community organizer or a Chicago politician, you are a student of power. If you have survived long enough to succeed in either position, like Obama has, you have learned not to worry so much about the power you have. What keeps you up at night is the power you do not have. In community organizing and politics, you know the only thing that can hurt you is what you cannot control.
Since Obama became the presumptive Democratic nominee for President, he has been accused of moving to the center and flip-flopping on positions he adopted during the primary. This criticism misses the point. In his recent moves, Obama, the community organizer, is simply trying to build new alliances as he neutralizes threats to his power. It is what any Chicago-trained community organizer worth his salt would do.
Update: I tried to write a neutral analysis of how Obama's community organizing experience has influenced his presidential campaign. Archpundit -- a stellar Illinois politics blogger -- see this experience as a significant advantage for Obama. Check out his take here. [5] Source URL: http://www.windycitizen.com/2008/07/ask-a-community-organizer-what-is-community-organizing-anyway
Barack Obama and John McCain are running neck and neck. Impossible?
It would seem so. Republican President Bush still has less than a 30 percent approval rating. Headlines blare that unemployment and inflation are up -- even if we aren't, technically, in a recession. Gas is around $4 a gallon. Housing prices have nosedived. Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, has been indicted -- another in a line of congressional Republicans caught in financial or sexual scandal. More...
Meanwhile, the GOP's presumptive candidate, John McCain, is 71 years old. The Republican base thinks he's lackluster and too liberal.
So, everyone is puzzled why the Democratic candidate isn't at least 10 points ahead. It seems the more Americans get used to Barack Obama, the less they want him as president -- and the more Democrats will soon regret not nominating Hillary Clinton.
First, Obama was billed as a post-racial healer. His half-African ancestry, exotic background and soothing rhetoric were supposed to have been novel and to have reassured the public he was no race-monger like Al Sharpton. On the other hand, his 20-year career in the cauldron of Chicago racial politics also guaranteed to his liberal base that he wasn't just a moderate Colin Powell, either.
Yet within weeks of the first primary, the outraged Clintons were accusing Obama of playing "the race card" -- and vice-versa. Blacks soon were voting heavily against Hillary Clinton. In turn, Hillary, the elite Ivy League progressive, turned into a blue-denim working gal -- and won nearly all the final big-state Democratic primaries on the strength of working-class whites.
Americans also learned to their regret how exactly a Hawaiian-born Barack Obama -- raised, in part, by his white grandparents and without African-American heritage -- had managed to win credibility in what would become his legislative district in Chicago. That discovery of racial chauvinism wasn't hard once his former associate, his pastor for over 20 years, the racist Rev. Jeremiah Wright, spewed his venom.
Obama himself didn't help things as he taught the nation that his dutiful grandmother was at times a small-minded bigot -- no different from a "typical white person." And in an impromptu riff, Obama ridiculed small-town working-class Pennsylvanians' supposed racial insularity.
The primary season ended with a narrow Obama victory -- and a wounded, but supposedly wiser, Democratic candidate.
Not quite. Without evidence, he unwisely has claimed his opponents ("they") will play the race card against poor him. In contrast, on the hot-button issue of racial reparations, he recently played to cheering minority audiences by cryptically suggesting that the government must "not just . . . offer words, but offer deeds." He later clarified that he didn't mean cash grants, but his initial words were awfully vague.
Second, many are beginning to notice how a Saint Obama talks down to them. We American yokels can't speak French or Spanish. We eat too much. Our cars are too big, our houses either overheated or overcooled. And we don't even put enough air in our car tires. In contrast, a lean, hip Obama promises to still the rising seas and cool down the planet, assuring adoring Germans that he is a citizen of the world.
Third, Obama knows that all doctrinaire liberals must tack rightward in the general election. But due to his inexperience, he's doing it in far clumsier fashion than any triangulating candidate in memory. Do we know -- does Obama even know? -- what he really feels about drilling off our coasts, tapping the strategic petroleum reserve, NAFTA, faith-based initiatives, campaign financing, the FISA surveillance laws, town-hall debates with McCain, Iran, the surge, timetables for Iraq pullouts, gun control or capital punishment?
Fourth, Obama is proving as inept an extemporaneous speaker as he is gifted with the Teleprompter. Like most rookie senators, in news conferences and interviews, he stumbles and then makes serial gaffes -- from the insignificant, like getting the number of states wrong, to the downright worrisome, such as calling for a shadow civilian aid bureaucracy to be funded like the Pentagon (which would mean $500 billion per annum).
If the polls are right, a public tired of Republicans is beginning to think an increasingly bothersome Obama would be no better -- and maybe a lot worse. It is one thing to suggest to voters that they should shed their prejudices, eat less and be more cosmopolitan. But it is quite another when the sermonizer himself too easily evokes race, weekly changes his mind and often sounds like he doesn't have a clue what he's talking about.
In a tough year like this, Democrats could probably have defeated Republican John McCain with a flawed, but seasoned candidate like Hillary Clinton. But long-suffering liberals convinced their party to go with a messiah rather than a dependable nominee -- and thereby they probably will get neither. Victor Davis Hanson is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and author, most recently, of "A War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War." You can reach him by e-mailing author@victorhanson.com.
With rumors flying about whether Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton will seek to include her name in a roll call vote of delegates at the Democratic convention, the Clinton and Obama campaign teams issued a rare joint statement on Wednesday night confirming that they are "working together" to come up with a suitable solution. More...
"At the Democratic Convention, we will ensure that the voices of everyone who participated in this historic process are respected and our party will be fully unified heading into the November election," Obama spokesman Bill Burton said in a statement on behalf of the two camps.
Clinton has made it clear that she is not considering formally fighting Sen. Barack Obama for the nomination in Denver later this month. But her supporters, some still riled from the close primary contest, have threatened to create at least a disturbance if she is not given enough respect, including, possibly, having her name entered into contention and the votes of her delegates read aloud.
At this point, it is as likely as not that Clinton will be formally nominated at the convention, individuals close to the negotiations said. Officials have firmly denied a report last week that Clinton had decided not to have her name put into the record. Advisers on both sides also said that relations between the two are improving; Clinton is scheduled to appear in Nevada for Obama later this week.
Details of how Obama's campaign plans to stage the convention have still not been announced, but officials involved in the planning said they expect that Tuesday of that week - two nights before Obama officially accepts the nomination - will belong to Clinton. Her husband has not yet been invited to speak, and it is unclear whether he will appear at all.
The opening Monday night of the convention is expected to honor Sen. Edward M. Kennedy and his family. Obama will arrive late in the festivities, and will deliver his acceptance speech at a 75,000 seat Invesco Field, the outdoor stadium.used by the Denver Broncos. Posted at 10:24 PM ET on Aug 6, 2008
Everybody's favorite battle is back: Hillary Clinton's refusal to rule out having her name put up for a convention roll call ensures another chapter (at least) of the drama that is the Clinton-Obama relationship.."
"At this point, it is as likely as not that Clinton will be formally nominated at the convention, individuals close to the negotiations said," per The Washington Post's Anne Kornblut.
By RICK KLEIN with HOPE DITTO, ALEXA AINSWORTH and JASON VOLACK August 7, 2008
Sen. Barack Obama is set to leave for his much-deserved vacation with one very big loose end that doesn't want to be tied -- and that's not counting the veepstakes. More...
It's the drama that won't go away, the storyline that's too delicious to recede, the symbol of a party's divisions the very mention of which brings smiles to the faces of editors and producers: Obama vs. Clinton. (Welcome back.)
Everybody's favorite battle is back: Hillary Clinton's refusal to rule out having her name put up for a convention roll call ensures another chapter (at least) of the drama that is the Clinton-Obama relationship.
To former President Bill Clinton's missing praise (to say nothing of what he is saying), we add this: A steadfast refusal by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton to rule out allowing her delegates to vent in the peculiar fashion of voting for her on the convention floor, instead of the candidate she's campaigning for.
"I happen to believe that we will come out stronger if people feel that their voices were heard and their views were respected," Clinton, D-N.Y., told a gathering of supporters last week, ABC News reported Wednesday. "We do not want any Democrat either in the hall or in the stadium or at home walking away saying, well, you know, I'm just not satisfied, I'm not happy."
"It's as old as, you know, Greek drama," Clinton said. (We couldn't agree more.)
Clinton gets a chance to clear the air with a noon ET Web chat Thursday organized for supporters (hope you weren't expecting softballs -- or donations that don't come with a price). What does it say about the most important relationship in the Democratic Party that this is still an unresolved issue, three weeks before Obama is set to formally claim the nomination? Can a party heal if one of its principal players -- and a few million of her supporters -- aren't ready for it?
"The refusal to publicly announce her intentions is widely seen as a bargaining chip Clinton is holding on to as party officials negotiate logistics regarding her convention speech and other activities," per ABC News.
Said Clinton friend Lanny Davis(who, like most inside Camp Clinton, don't want a roll call): "It's a reflection of genuine frustration by Hillary Clinton supporters that Sen. Obama seems to have forgotten about 18 million voters."
Think of how much the joint Obama-Clinton statement released late Wednesday doesn't say: "We are working together to make sure the fall campaign and the convention are a success. At the Democratic Convention, we will ensure that the voices of everyone who participated in this historic process are respected and our party will be fully unified heading into the November election."
This is the individual who'll be hitting the trail for Obama on Friday?
"Embedded in those remarks, say friends and advisers, are hints of Clinton's own feelings in the aftermath of a race in which she fought so hard and still fell short," Time's Karen Tumulty reports. "Behind the united front, says an adviser, 'it's not a great relationship, and it's probably not going to become one.' "
More from Tumulty: "In private conversations, associates say, Clinton remains skeptical that Obama can win in the fall."
"At this point, it is as likely as not that Clinton will be formally nominated at the convention, individuals close to the negotiations said," per The Washington Post's Anne Kornblut. "Officials have firmly denied a report last week that Clinton had decided not to have her name put into the record. Advisers on both sides also said that relations between the two are improving." (But still have a ways to go?)
"You only thought it was over," ABC's John Berman said on "Good Morning America" Thursday.
The Clintons, you'll recall, are very good lawyers: "The possibility provides her with a strategic advantage in negotiations with the Obama campaign about her role at the convention and fund-raising to relieve her debt," Sarah Wheaton writes in The New York Times.
Even if it's just a bargaining chip -- does that mean it has to be on the table?
Politico's Ben Smith: "A veteran of Democratic Convention mechanics, Matt Seyfang, explained that Clinton holds some real procedural power, and could probably -- if she chooses -- force a symbolic vote at which her supporters could express their public dissent with the Democratic Party's decision." http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0808/Clinton_Obama_reiterate_unity.html
Who needs this? "I feel there's hope now that Hillary may get the nomination," one organizer of the marches in Denver tells Newsday's Janie Lorber.
This is all drama Obama can afford to lose. Fifty never looked so far away: New CBS numbers have the race at Obama 45, McCain 39.
It's Obama 46, McCain 41 in the new Time poll. "On specific issues, Obama is treading water or sinking a bit," Massimo Calabresi writes.
Cue the Democratic angst: "Such attacks [by Sen. John McCain] have raised worries among Democratic strategists -- haunted by John F. Kerry's 2004 run and Al Gore's razor-thin loss in 2000 -- that Obama has not responded in kind with a parallel assault on McCain's character," Jonathan Weisman and Perry Bacon Jr. write in The Washington Post.
"Interviews with nearly a dozen Democratic strategists found those concerns to be widespread, although few wished to be quoted by name while Obama's campaign is demanding unity." (Does anyone remember Kerry inspiring the same courtesy/respect/cowering?)
"Democrats are worried," said Tad Devine, a veteran of those Kerry efforts.
The most important point in that story: "Most of the independent groups that would have taken the lead in such an independent campaign have been sidelined by Obama's insistence that Democratic donors channel their money to him," Weisman and Bacon write.
Such serenity from Obamaland, except: "Tom Daschle, the former Democratic Senate majority leader, said in an interview with the Financial Times that the Mr Obama's Republican rival John McCain was seeing a 'short-term blip' as a result of the advertising," per the Financial Times' Stephanie Kirchgaessner and Edward Luce.
Said Daschle: "To a certain extent the ads are having some effect. . . . But you can't be thrown off your game plan by a momentary dip in polls."
Some analysis from the other side: "At least temporarily, Mr. Obama's tactics have raised a damning political question: Who is this man?" Michael Gerson writes in his column. "And the McCain campaign has begun to cleverly exploit these concerns, not with a frontal attack on his liberalism or his flip-flops, but with a humorous attack on his 'celebrity' -- really a proxy for shallowness."
Bad for the brand: The New York Times follows The Washington Post's reporting on some rather questionable donations flowing McCain's way (and this story is building, slowly, into Hsu part two).
"Amid a sea of contributions to the McCain campaign, the Abdullahs stand out. The checks come not from the usual exclusive coastal addresses, but from relatively hardscrabble inland towns like Downey and Colton," the Times' Michael Luo reports. "The donations are also startling because of their size: several donors initially wrote checks of $9,200, exceeding the $2,300 limit for an individual gift."
"[Harry] Sargeant's business dealings have caused controversy. Representative Henry Waxman, Democrat of California, opened an investigation last month into whether his company has been overcharging the military for its contract in Iraq, although Mr. Sargeant said Mr. Waxman's office had an erroneous understanding of what the company was billing," Luo continues.
Veepstakes implications? "Democrats pounced on reports Wednesday that a major fundraiser for Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and Republican presidential candidate John McCain had tapped suspiciously apolitical Californians of modest means for thousands of dollars in campaign contributions over the past two years," Wes Allison and Steve Bousquet writes the St. Petersburg Times.
Yet this is as good a metric as any: "Over the past two weeks, his "celebrity" attacks have stomped Democratic presidential opponent Sen. Barack Obama in YouTube hits," Stephen Dinan writes in the Washington Times. "Mr. McCain has beat Mr. Obama's channel for seven straight days and 11 of the past 14 days, in a signal he intends to compete for the YouTube vote. That is a giant reversal. Mr. Obama had been quadrupling Mr. McCain's YouTube views and beat him every day since February, according to TubeMogul, which tracks online video viewing."
Next phase of the messaging isn't all that different from the last phase: "Is the biggest celebrity in the world ready to help your family?" the new McCain ad (one that's actually running in battleground states) says.
Point taken: "By going after Obama for celebrity, [McCain strategist Steve] Schmidt is taking a page out of the failed playbook of [Arnold] Schwarzenegger's opponent, Phil Angelides. Very odd," Todd Beeton blogs at myDD.com. http://www.mydd.com/story/2008/8/6/14717/11279 It doesn't make it right, but it's not hard to envision how Obama's choice of vacation destinations fits with the frame being built around him. (If you have trouble imagining this, stay tuned to the RNC's Barackbook.com page on Thursday.)
Not that it's a fair one: "It's funny to have anybody characterize Barack as an elitist," Michelle Obama told ABC's Robin Roberts in a "Good Morning America" interview Thursday morning. "This is the kid who was raised by a single mother, who didn't have access to many resources who, you know, has walked away his entire life from lucrative careers to work in the community."
Michelle, on her thoughts on the famous New Yorker cover: "This is tacky." This doesn't help: "Barack Obama, heavily reliant on major donors and celebrities despite his public emphasis on small contributors, upped the ante this week to enter his VIP donor world," Lynn Sweet reports in the Chicago Sun-Times. "A new high was set Monday for hosting or chairing an Obama event; chairs of his birthday fund-raiser in Boston had to raise $285,000; co-chairs needed to collect $142,500."
Bold-faced name alert: "A string of celebrities from the entertainment world are helping Obama raise campaign money in August and September: Bruce Hornsby, Luciana and Matt Damon, Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck, Star Jones, Kal Penn, Mira Nair, Ellen Pompeo, Justin Chambers and Scarlett Johansson. Leon Fleisher, Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman will perform at an Obama fund-raiser in Phoenix next month," Sweet reports.
Whose vacation is it again? "There has always been a fine line in politics between fame and success," Peter Nicholas writes for the Los Angeles Times. "According to the latest poll by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, nearly half of those surveyed said they are tired of hearing about Obama; about one-quarter said the same about McCain."
"Obamamania may be filling Barack Obama's campaign coffers and making him a global celebrity, but Americans are getting tired of hearing so much about him," Charles Hurt writes in the New York Post.
How conventional can we get? "In a presidential campaign billed as 'the maverick vs. the outsider,' this was supposed to be a different sort of election," John McCormick writes in the Chicago Tribune. "So far, however, the nastiness is just as intense as in previous contests, with tire gauges, pop stars and some choice adjectives being tossed about in recent days."
David Broder remains optimistic: "The first question I asked John McCain and then Barack Obama was: How do you feel about the tone and direction of the campaign so far?" Broder writes in his column. "No surprise. Both men pronounced themselves thoroughly frustrated by the personal bitterness and negativism they have seen in the two months since they learned they would be running against each other."
It's not just Democrats who are worried about their candidate. More advice from Karl Rove, in his Wall Street Journal column: "Mr. McCain must also make a compelling case for electing John McCain. Voters trust him on terrorism and Iraq and they see him as a patriot who puts country first. But they want to know for what purpose?"
Rove continues: "Mr. Obama has the easier path to victory: reassure a restive electorate that he's up to the job. Mr. McCain must both educate voters to his opponent's weaknesses and persuade them that he has a vision for the coming four years. This will require a disciplined, focused effort. Mr. McCain has gotten this far fighting an unscripted guerrilla campaign. But it won't get him all the way to the White House."
(But Rove likes the tire-gauge gag: "What is the president of the United States going to do, send out the tire police to make certain we all have inflated our tires to the proper level?" Rove said on Fox News Wednesday.)
McCain Thursday tries to get control of a damaging Ohio storyline: "Republican presidential candidate John McCain is taking up the issue of possible job losses due to the closure of a DHL shipping site in Ohio, the result of a corporate merger aided by his campaign manager during his work as a lobbyist," per the AP's Beth Fouhy. "McCain on Thursday was to discuss DHL's plans with local officials and others affected by the potential job losses."
Still not sorted out: McCain on the Social Security payroll tax.Bloomberg's Ed Chen: "These contradictions reflect a central conundrum for the Arizona senator: He's seeking to both placate conservatives -- suspicious of him because of his willingness to buck the party in areas from climate change and campaign finance to President George W. Bush's tax cuts -- and project himself as an independent ready to work with Democrats on many of these issues."
Since the surge "worked" . . . "John McCain called for an 'economic surge' Wednesday, marrying key language from the war in Iraq with the economic troubles facing the United States," ABC's Bret Hovell reports. "Our surge has succeeded in Iraq militarily, now we need an economic surge," McCain said at a cabinet manufacturer in Southeastern Ohio, "to keep jobs here at home and create new ones." (Anyone clear on what this means?)
"The Surge is so much a part of his mantra that it is now on the verge of becoming McCain's cure-all for America's problems," ABC's David Wright reports.
Those House protests are great optics, but are missing just a few pieces. "It turns out [House Minority Leader John] Boehner was at Muirfield for his annual Freedom Project fundraiser/golf tournament," Ben Pershing writes for The Washington Post. "As for McCain, it would be a big deal indeed if Congress came back into session for an energy vote and the Arizonan actually showed up. This Friday will mark the four-month anniversary of the last time McCain actually cast a vote in the Senate."
Gas gaffes abound: "This morning, officials from Sen. Barack Obama's campaign proudly announced its cool new way to wage the political energy war -- it would run TV advertisements on the subject, starting today, on Gas Station TV, a network of televisions in gas pumps in Florida," per ABC's Jake Tapper. "How cool, how cutting edge, how innovative and unique. Except for the fact that the ads never ran."
"The Obama campaign was apologetic, maintains the ads were confirmed and offered back-up; the company says otherwise. Regardless, it's a major gaffe by a campaign that is typically well-organized," Beth Reinhard writes for the Miami Herald.
The Sked: A light summer Thursday. McCain has an 11:30 am ET town-hall meeting in Lima, Ohio (GOP territory).
Obama is in Minneapolis and Chicago for private meetings (and a whole lot of Hawaii packing, we can only assume by the need to take a pre-vacation vacation day).
The Veepstakes: Let's hug it out. "It was almost a double man-hug. But just what does it mean?" ABC's John Berman, Sunlen Miller, and Andy Fies report. After Indiana Senator Evan Bayh gave a rousing 12-minute introduction to Barack Obama in Elkhart, Ind., this morning, Senator Barack Obama bounded on stage for an embrace. The two men held each other for a moment, speaking words no one else could hear. And just when it looked like it was over, they went in for more."
"The reasons for Mr. Bayh's apparent presence in the inner circle of potential ticketmates are varied, and they say something about the nature of the 2008 race and the correlation of forces within the Democratic Party," Larry Rohter writes in The New York Times.
Gov. Tim Pawlenty, R-Minn., had his day in the limelight Wednesday -- and he had something to say (and just maybe one too many kind things to say about Obama).
What's the most important trait in a vice president? "Discretion," Pawlenty said.
"Sketching a profile that in many ways describes himself, the 47-year-old governor said a new generation of Republican leadership is needed to find new ways to engage voters who are worried about the future but who see the GOP as a party of business elites," Kevin Diaz writes in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
"Even if Gov. Pawlenty doesn't wind up on Sen. McCain's ticket, some believe the Minnesota governor represents the party's future, along with a handful of other relatively young governors, including Louisiana's Bobby Jindal," John D. McKinnon and Douglas Belkin write in The Wall Street Journal. "They have become the public face of what is seen as the party's reformist wing."
Terrible timing for the Mittster: "A former executive who says his boss pressured him to contribute to Republican Mitt Romney's presidential campaign has filed an employment-bias complaint that offers a rare glimpse behind the curtain of big-money corporate fund raising," JoAnn S. Lubin and Mary Jacoby write in The Wall Street Journal. "Emails from [Gary] Holdren refer to conversations with Mr. Romney, deals Huron supposedly won from Romney supporters at other firms and promises to reward Huron executives with 'business for your contributions.' "
Also in the news: A small item that could mean a whole lot: "Bob Barr and Ralph Nader, the best-known third-party presidential candidates, are on their way to getting onto most state ballots," USA Today's David Jackson reports.
Obama isn't the black candidate Nader wants him to be. "People who have fought the civil rights battle -- politically, economically, legally -- as we have since the 50's would often talk about, 'Look what would happen if we had an African-American president or chairpersons of major congressional committees,'" Nader said at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast, per ABC's Teddy Davis. "It doesn't look like it's going to be what we all thought it would be."
Mr. Nader isn't black. From Matt Bai's stellar piece in the forthcoming New York Times magazine: "The generational transition that is reordering black politics didn't start this year. It has been happening, gradually and quietly, for at least a decade, as younger African-Americans, Barack Obama among them, have challenged their elders in traditionally black districts. What this year's Democratic nomination fight did was to accelerate that transition and thrust it into the open as never before, exposing and intensifying friction that was already there."
Cue the campaign issue: "An election-year standstill in Senate confirmation of George W. Bush's judicial nominees will give the next president a chance to tip the ideological balance of U.S. appeals courts that decide such issues as job discrimination, national security and pollution-cleanup disputes," Bloomberg's James Rowley reports.
Seriously -- scalping? "The good news for Barack Obama supporters on Wednesday was the highly anticipated announcement of the plan for distributing free tickets to see his nomination speech at Invesco Field at Mile High during the Democratic National Convention," David Montero writes in the Rocky Mountain News. "The bad news was that party officials left many questions unanswered -- including how early people should get to Invesco Field to clear security, what items could be brought into the stadium and details about how fraud or ticket scalping would be prevented." Another piece of convention programming to figure out (and another rebuke to Clinton?): "The party is considering giving a speaking slot at the convention to Mr. Casey's son, Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, who like his late father is a Roman Catholic who opposes abortion rights," John M. Broder writes in The New York Times. "Mr. Casey's appearance would be an important signal to Catholics, especially those who follow church teachings and oppose abortion."
The Kicker: "There can be mean games of Scrabble. He and his sister Maya -- oh, they are deadly, in fact. Sometimes we all just walk away and let them, you know, compete into the night." -- Michelle Obama, to ABC's Robin Roberts, on an Obama family tradition.
Episode 16: Public Speaking
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Here’s another experiment in podcastland. How is MSNBC hiring Ronna
McDaniel like a high school public speaking class and a couple other things
in this sho...
The One Can't Withstand Ridicule
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In the space of 5 days, the Precious One's 9 point lead over Mccain in the
Gallup Daily following survey has totally vanished. When the Oborg began
unctuou...
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