Don't get me wrong. I like Barack Obama. If the primary were held today, he'd probably get my vote. But the honeymoon is over in Obamaland and it can't be written off with canned responses about how unreliable early poll numbers are.
If you look around the liberal blogs today, there's a lot of frustration with the Senate bill to grant immunity to telecoms who have helped the Bush administration illegally spy on Americans. High profile bloggers like Glenn Greenwald, Markos Moulitsas, Atrios, Jane Hamsher, and Big Tent Democrat at MyDD have been urging their readers to put pressure on the Senate to block the bill by contacting...Chris Dodd.
If anyone from the Obama campign is paying attention, this should serve as a wake-up call. A representative cross section of the liberal blogosphere no longer thinks Barack Obama is willing to stand up to the Bush Administration. These bloggers have already been disappointed enough over the last few months they didn't even bother asking Obama to oppose the bill this time around, instead throwing their support behind a candidate who's trailing Dennis Kucinich and Undecided in the polls. Writing about an Iraq appropriations bill last month, Markos Moulitsas perfectly summed up frustration with Obama (and Clinton) :
So where are the two "front runner" candidates on Iraq? Have they conquered their fear and actually said something of substance regarding the pre-emptive capitulation bill?. . .
Last supplemental, Hillary and Barack hid in the shadows, refusing to talk about the issue. They voted at the last second possible. They may have voted the right way, but did ZERO to move their caucus, the party, and the national electorate on the debate.
For a bunch claiming they deserve to lead our party and our nation, they've done everything possible to avoid any leadership.
The Obama campaign has been playing it safe for months now, so it should be no surprise that the base no longer expects him to, in the words of his campaign, "challenge the status quo and get results". It's not too late for Obama to turn things around. I still think Obama would make a fantastic president, but if he wants his grassroots-fueled campaign to regain some momentum, he needs to start by recognizing that people no longer see him as the go-to guy to buck the Washington establishment and be a champion for change.
A peacock may be stunning as an individual, but when you heard 10 of them together, they all look the same.
petroleum supplies worldwide paired with astronomical increases in worldwide demand for petroleum.
I wish someone would also tell them the Bush/Cheney strategy to preserve American hegemony isn't going to work. Nothing is going to preserve America's top dog status because it's already gone. Why? One reason is that we use more petroleum than any other nation and we have very little left of our own. We are dependent on oil producing nations and we are no longer one among a few elite buyers. You might say we sold our birthright to China and other new economies so we could buy cheap toys that poison our kids and make huge profits for corporate shareholders. These new economies are not only undermining American workers they are competing with us for larger and larger slices of an ever-shrinking petroleum pie.
Fossil fuel, a finite resource, will soon give the lie to the myth of unlimited growth. It's time to replace neo-classical economics (a belief system based on money) with something like true-cost economics which is based on the recognition that natural resources do not expand infinitely but are depleted and ultimately used up.
Our current economic system does not take into account the truth about diminishing nonrenewable natural resources such as air, water, fossil fuels, etc. It rewards those who exploit such resources for their own profit (and that of others in select groups) and barely asks nothing in return. Wall Street encourages the idea that playing with money is a legitimate means of increasing wealth while the value of work and of natural resources is undervalued. So far the availability of cheap energy has underwritten this system. But the era of cheap energy is gone. The ground is shifting under our feet and neither American politicians nor the American people are facing it.
In 2016. Until then he's earning his spurs.
John Edwards - 6 (one term, U.S. Senate)
Hillary Clinton - 7 (one term, U.S. Senate; re-elected 2006)
Barack Obama - 11 (4 terms, Illinois Legislature; elected to U.S. Senate in 2004)
On the other hand, what elections? Does anyone really believe that Cheney will hand over the dictatorship he's created to someone else? Dream on.
You just might be a little too paranoid for your own good. Relax. Election time will be here before you know it.
Luckily for me, my state, PA, won't be in an early primary contest. By the time we vote in any primary, the choice made have been made.
I'm horrified at Washington's political cynicism although as a old woman, I realize poltics is not what it seems; few have ideals once they state in Washington. I just wish I didn't have to view the crass corruption.
would make a fantastic President." This is a
guy who instead of voting on the Kyle Lieberman
bill, decided to campaign in New Hampshire
instead. And when asked about this said, "I
don't always know when voting takes place."
This is a guy who promised the people of
Illinois he "would not run for President in
2008." HE LIED. This is a guy who when asked
a direct question, such as in all the debates,
is a disaster. He is an empty suit, a guy
who tried to sell "hope" in a jar and the jar
was always empty. He speaks in sweeping
generalities - and there is clearly no -
there - there. He is a media manufactured
candidate - and the media still keeps pushing
this guy. Hillary is 30 points - ahead of him -
30 Points! He is losing the black vote to
Hillary. I am NOT a supporter of Hillary -
but she dwarfs this guy in the debates and in
substance. Obama is an arrogrant as Bush, he
is a guy with less than 2 years in the Senate,
when he decided he wanted to be President.
He is beyond arrogrant and now he is getting
desperate trying to attack Hillary and even
President Clinton - the latter making no sense,
it merely shouts Obama's desperation!
By the way, did you know that Reid's son works for the Hillary Clinton campaign?
I'll vote for Obama in the primary (and hopefully the presidential election). The more I watch Hillary the more I believe she really is Bush Lite.
Students at Claflin University, a historically black college in Orangeburg, S.C., are accusing the school's administration of prohibiting them from forming a "Students for Barack Obama" chapter, yet simultaneously compelling them to attend a press conference supporting his chief rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, Sen. Hillary Clinton.
In fact, several students who serve as volunteers on Obama's presidential campaign tell FITSNews that they were coerced into holding Clinton signs and standing behind State Sen. John Matthews, who unveiled Clinton's higher education plan at a press conference held at the school last week.
About three weeks ago, an honors student at Claflin University says she approached the administration about establishing a Students for Bar ack Obama chapter at the school. The student was told that she and fellow students could not form such a group on campus, but no reason was given for the school's decision.
ETC
ETC
ETC
Which would probably explain some of the unenthusiastic expressions visible in this photograph
http://www.hillaryclinton.com/blog/view/?id=14620
WOULD-BE “STUDENTS FOR BARACK OBAMA” TOLD ATTENDING
HILLARY PRESS CONFERENCE WAS “PART OF CLASS”
Thanks.
Draft the next Executive Branch. Through out in Congress that has paved they way to this Imperialistci agenda. Revoke all Bush Appointees. '00 was stolen and thus the rest is fruit from the poisonous tree.
Real national unity will come when the wrongs have been righted, Treason charges and punishments- then we can address the global f*ck ups.
All the main candidates are DC Whores and complicite in crimes against US and humnaity.Queen of Hearts? "Off with their heads!"
Who stood on a corner in 2002 and publicly denounced the war? Who stood in front of the bigwigs of GM, Ford, Chrysler and told them they had to stop making crappy cars? Who stood in front of Wall Street and told them that they have to check their greed? Who stood in front of a black congregation and told them they had to curb their homophobia?
Pander? How can you say that?
Who put a "hold" on Bush's von Spakovsky nomination three days ago when Harry Reid was willing to just hand it over to Bush? von Spakovsky? The guy who erased the Dem voting register in Florida in 2000? Bush wanted to make him head of the FEC.
No gonads? Right.
Do I smell the odor of the "race" card? The stench grows ever more pronounced.
Oh did I mention that was his idea. He wants the American people to have a say in the laws that govern the people of the country.
He's not a whore, and his supporters of low income, elderly republican and democratic voters, as well as our brilliant young leaders in college, longing for our country to invest in their own people for a better world.
It's our turn to lead and all the old war hungry WWII vets, still want to have remember whens.
This situation of "Saber Rattling" that George Bush does to boost the ignorant's rants of divisionalism, is the stupidest thing to happen to this country since, the board stretcher.
I am having a lot of difficulty understanding why Americans can's see through the Hillary poll numbers and her inability to unite the country. I guess it's the Bill factor!
To be a lawyer is the primary qualification to become a LAW MAKER.
I would be far more concerned by the fact that our government is no longer being run by lawyers - but by unelected MBA's who sit in large corporate offices and are now being allowed to DICTATE legeslation to the lawmakers we elect, because we have now made the election process so expensive and unfair that the only way to win is to become a legal secretary for big oil, big pharma, and big media.
But is he still, going with the flow as usual?
I think the same about Dodd and all the others who have had time to do something towards change in every issue we face today, including Iraq the authorization to a President who had vendetta on the brain since day one of office.
Americans knew it when he slipped up and said, Sadaam tried to kill my Daddy.
Sadaam had nothing to do with 911, and the Congressional members and Senate authorized a dry drunk to go to war with Sadaam on trumped up, non proven, inspector denied, WMD "Weapons of Mass Distraction programs of Karl Rove and Dick Cheney.
In short we sold our troops out for the Oil Companies Quarterly Profit Quota.
BLOOD FOR OIL. YOUR CHILD'S BLOOD FOR THE OIL COMPANIES OIL VENTURES AND INTEREST.
AMERICA IS BEING PLAYED YET AGAIN, WITH THEIR EYES WIDE OPEN.
SHOCK AND AWE WON'T ALLOW IT TO COMPUTE IN OUR BRAINS BECAUSE THE TRUTH IS SO VERY EVIL.
GREED!
Barack Obama is a genius he knows what he is doing. People are no longer interested in your left-wing politics, they want justice.
You sound like the others saying that he is not enough of this or enough of that. He is enough of what he should be-a just man looking to bring everyone together. Eat your left wing and liberal politics. You are just scaring people. Look at the spineless liberals in the congress.
Obama knows what he is doing. You want him to be a flamethrower, so then you can write him off like you have done Kucinich.
No thanks
And then he missed the Iran vote.
As an Edwards supporter, and definitely not a Clinton supporter (I detest the whole calculation, triangulation thing) I wonder why, as with the main stream media, these pages seem to see it as a Clinton-Obama fight.
I know, I know: the national polls --the money run. But, if you look at the real progressives in the race and add in who could be elected in a general election, and who knows how to roll up his sleeves and fight, then John Edwards (still close in Iowa) is still in the race. But everywhere there is yes, an aura of inevitability about another Clinton in the White House, and yes, the aura of unreliability is beginning to touch Obama.
Depression can be painful.
http://my.barackobama.com/page/-/HQpress/100707%20Fact%20Sheet%20Energy%20Speech%20FINAL.pdf
And he got beat up on the issue discussed in this article because he announced opposition to it 3 hours after Dodd did. (The bill isn't even fully written yet, let alone up for a vote!)
"Nice guys" need not apply.
In his spare time he was always thinking "Change for the Betterment" of the community.
Rolling up his sleeves as Kennedy, Bill Clinton and Martin would have done in the instance of Hurricane Katrina, He rolled up his sleeves and jumped in.
Now I don't think Hillary would have done it, she would have sent somebody. Bill would have, and so will Obama.
Please post proof of his gang organizing.