Tom Hayden Predicts Obama Will Lose
DENVER -- Speaking at a luncheon hosted by the Denver Press Club at the Denver Athletic Club today, former California state legislator and '60s political activist Tom Hayden predicted that Barack Obama will lose the 2008 Election. "An African-American candidate talking about economics and a white war hero -- it's clear to me who is going to win," Hayden said. When one of the attendees at the small luncheon, attended mostly by Denverites, asked him to be more specific about why he thinks Obama will lose the race, Hayden replied, "You don't think McCain's gonna have a convention about his being an American." Hayden seemed to be referring to the fact that Barack Obama continues to introduce himself to the American electorate. Hayden elaborated. "I've known kookie Cokie, kookie Cokie Roberts for years, but when Obama vacationed in Hawaii, she said, "He shoulda gone to Myrtle Beach." Hayden turned out his hands, as if to say what're you gonna do?
Hayden went further. "[Obama's] problem is that he's lived in the world of beating the Democratic establishment for so long, it's hard to transition to being the Democratic establishment." Hayden is part of the group Progressives for Obama, but he has his issues with the candidate. "There's the pursuit of the last white man standing in Pennsylvania," he said, rather than a fierce pursuit of the Latino vote, which is what Hayden would like to see.
Given Hayden's history of confrontation with the police, famously at the Chicago Democratic Convention in 1968, perhaps it's not surprising that Hayden has a generally dark view. Much of his talk, which was advertised as an introduction to his new book A Tom Hayden Reader, centered on the police presence at the convention in Denver. Since the 1999 Seattle protests against the WTO, Hayden said that there has been "a continuous police build-up that concerns me since then." The brother of an old friend who lives on Denver's 16th Street Mall told Hayden that "he had never seen anything like it before"--that the police presence there is overwhelming, intimidating and edgy.
Apparently, the police have said that they have hundreds of weapons stored next to the mall, and that they bring them out every night and return them to their secret cache in the morning. Or anyway that's what the brother has confided to Tom Hayden. "All these horses on the mall -- it's like St. Petersburg 1905," Hayden said. The Denver Police Department has received $50 million from the Department of Homeland Security, according to Hayden. What concerns him is not only the massive police presence at the convention (the cop who spilled the beans about the weapons cache is convinced that something is going to happen here) but also the newly purchased technology, which will be used "in the barrio" long after the Democrats are gone. When Hayden says that the police create "an imaginary argument with your mind and with your nervous system," he almost seems to have made the point.
There's no need for so many police in Denver, Hayden says. "With Obama having opposed the war, there's no real reason for demonstrations." Hayden also feels that the "radicals of the 60s don't get credit for what has happened for good in the Democratic Party." He thinks there's too much harkening back to 1968. "All this talk about '68 because we have a fascination with round numbers," he quips. "Our country is full of the wreckage of the 60s."
Hayden observes that "there is a new social movement on a vast scale" centered right now in the Obama Campaign. "These young people will plant seeds for the next twenty-five years." But they are "small-d" Democrats, Hayden says, and they are environmentalists and idealists. "They don't want a war in :Pakistan!" And "if Obama loses, which I think he might," Hayden says, nevertheless the Democratic Party will have grown bigger. As for Obama, "he is losing. He is gonna lose the electoral college."
Hayden does offer a taste of Obama hope. "He gets one more chance to reboot, re-orient, redeploy." He offers the example of the Obama ad campaign on the McCain houses as a primer on how rebooting works these days. According to Hayden, some young investigators financed by Brave New Films in Los Angeles went to Arizona and filmed all the McCain homes and put the video on Youtube. Although the video went viral, nothing happened politically until a reporter from Politico saw it and then had a chance to ask John McCain himself the now-famous number question. Only then, Hayden reminded us, did the Obama team jump on. "Outsiders triggering situations -- that's the only way to win."
For more Huffington Post coverage from the Democratic National Convention, visit our Politics @ the DNC page, our Democratic Convention Big News Page, and our HuffPost bloggers' Twitter feed, live from Denver.
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Is Tom Hayden a prophet?
What counts is that Hayden wasn't a POW. I don't believe anyone who wasn't a POW. McCain was a POW. I believe everything he says. He may not believe it, but I do. I know there are many POW's who say McCain is lying about a lot of things. I believe them, too. I have to, because they were POW's. The reason I only watch Fox News is because their entire staff is comprised of POW's. You can believe everything I've written, because I wasn't a POW, but i wanted to be-just like John McCain.
LOL!!!!
Since one can apparently do the most egregious things and get away with it because one was a POW....wel
Get a speeding ticket? Easy, let me go I was a POW.
Cheated on my income taxes? Again, I was a POW....
Cheated on my spouse? POW...
Hypocritical liar? How dare you!!!! I'm a PO......ne
"I know there are many POW's who say McCain is lying about a lot of things."
No, there aren't.
Okay, somebody explain to me why we should even pay attention to a guy who did his best to bring down the Democratic Party in '68 and helped get Richard Nixon elected.
Bingo!
He's an old-skool divisive liberal. HE needs to get with the program.
Or OFF the program.
The enemy is John McCain and the Republicans. If the Democrats don't clearly hit McCain and his crowd, Obama will definitely lose. Haven't we got an idea of what the Republican convention is going to be like? THe same asw last time and the time before that. They hit Democrats 100% of the time. And then they win.
Agreed.
Three forces working against Obama at the moment:
1. Party Unity: People need to come together around Obama
2. The Right-Wing Machine is mobilizing and has forgotten how much they used to hate McCain
3. Sloth: The Obama campaign needs to "get fired up" again and work the population into an angered frenzy about all of the bad stuff happening today: the economy, the wars, health care, civil liberties, etc.
You people don't get it......
How easy is it to shoot the messenger. Tom is right-Obama's going to lose, because he doesn't appeal to the beer-swilling NASCAR aficionado that comprises middle America-the ones that believe the press despite the fact they deride them as "liberal" and the ones that believe that Bush made them safe despite the fact he's curtailed civil liberties. The ones that believe in small government despite the fact that Republicans have inflated the size of government since they've had unfettered control of the country and vote Republican time and time again, despite their best economic interests not to do it, because they believe the old lie about lower taxes time and time again.
It was Alexander Hamilton who was right. Voting should be restricted to people who care about the system. In the 18th century, those were the landowners. In this century, I don't know who would qualify-maybe people who care a little more than "what's in it for me?"
You may well be right (though for all our sakes I hope not), but then why didn't Hayden express such concerns during the Democratic primaries?
He won't win because he doesn't appeal to blatant and secret racist alike.
You know, the "beer-swilling NASCAR aficionado" does not represent the majority of Americans. And, by the way, I have a cousin who could be described as such who has never voted before in her 56 years and she came out to vote for Obama in the primary, so even this stereotype doesn't hold. To judge anyone by the demographic they are purported to belong to is sheer mental and emotional laziness. Every individual is unique and has a higher side that can be appealed to.
You are correct, and csavage here is an example of why the Dems keep losing the presidency. They somehow think that insults and condescending stereotypes are the way to persuade the electorate.
Who knew Tom Hayden was so cynical.
On the one hand, I still believe this can work out and will do everything in my power to help elect Obama!
On the other, should he lose I fall back to the statement, "You get the government you DESERVE!"
All of us, yes Democrats who voted for Gore, Kerry, and yes, even Obama are and will be responsible for what has happened and what happens. We didn't do enough. Nothing is impossible if you really are committed to it.
If we lose, everybody loses. I honestly feel McCain is not just Bush II, he's a lot worse. We WILL get into other WARS, there WILL be a draft, Roe v Wade will be history along with even more of our freedoms, our economy will fall into a deep recession and even worse as the price of oil doubles (attach Iran and they close off 30% of the oil!), and the rest of the world will really hate us because we'll take them down with us. Hayden's comment on "reboot". If there's a world left to reboot with the rise of a new Cold War!
Folks, this really is for all the marbles. Obama is a special candidate who we are VERY lucky to have. Let's keep our eye on the prize and taking back America. With or without people stuck in the 1960's like Tom Hayden!
Obama/Biden
It remains a mystery why so many so-called Democrats are committed to losing the election. Obama could win a landslide IF Democrats would leave their doubts and divisions in the backroom and spend their public time putting up a fight for their candidate. Instead, we see the same self-lacerating public in-fighting we saw in '68, '72, '80. If bama loses it will because of the Haydens and the Clintonistas, and we get another 4 years march into utter fascism - and an end to the electoral process all together.
You are so right. It will be the fault of the Haydens and Clintonistas. They are also responsible for the Kerry and Gore losses as well. It's all been part of HRC's strategy, and nothing to do with the losing candidates.
Kerry and Gore both won. The rest of the world knows both elections were stolen. They are watching to see what we're going to do about it.
If 0bama loses, it will be his loss alone. He had all this help in the primaries.
I agreee with this comment.
Exactly. If Obama loses this election, most of my Democratic friends will be leaving the party and looking elsewhere to vote. With "supporters" like Tom Haydn, it's amazing Obama has come this far.
Yes, Hayden has it right. All this hoopla over Michelle Obama and her and her husband's American values, seems to prove the point, doesn't. Obama's campaign and the Party must be worried that he doesn't have any American values; one that seems to be missing is the marketplace of ideas as an open, tolerant one. Obama got NO bounce at all from the Biden veep selection in the polls and still with now a little more than 3 months to go he is still even with McCain. And the DNC acting as if they need to circle the wagon trains to prevent any dissent or even a suggestion of dissent, Obama is of course a part of that. It is pretty clear to most Americans what happened to the Democrats in the primary. Obama's winning this nomination will be a Pyrrhic victory for him and the Party.
Enough about the VP bounce. You can't take a poll the day afterwards for heavens sake!
The polls taken YESTERDAY all place McCain even with Obama with only 1 or 2 points separating them at different polls. There was no bounce.
Wasn't he married to Jane Fonda back in the Vietnam Era?
Yes, and he was editor of the University of Michigan paper, and yes he wrote editorials for that paper. Before you say just a university paper compared to the Harvard Law review, know a little about the U of M, one of the most prestigious non Ivy league colleges in America, and quite progressive. Tom Hayden has always been an activist..
BTW, I am a proud U of M graduate; so I am perhaps a little biased (but with facts to back it up.)
It is a sad commentary that MOST REPUBLICANS ARE HATERS OF GOOD. Why do republicans hate peace, love, and consideration for the least of these? ALL THE THINGS THAT JESUS LOVES AND DIED FOR. Seems to me, hell will be full of republicans, that could never learn to love a mankind (God's creation), who prefered the shedding of innocent blood to peace, who rant and rave about abortion, but are mute on conditions of corruption, lies and deception, as if abortion is the only sin that God will judge on that great day. It might interest many republicans to know that all liars will end up in the lake of fire with murders. (Try reading your bible). Republicans only want to lie and manipulate to get what they want. Many hate Obama just because he is a man of color. Long story short, only someone completely blind to the word of God would follow republicans to hell.
God Bless Obama, God Bless America, and God help all the haters of good!
The police are on a very red alert. I can see trouble brewing by outsiders creating problems which they hope to put the blame on disgruntled Democrats. The Republican " Rove team " used these tactics to stop the voting in Florida by storming the ballot counting rooms and the police did not stop them.. Selective law enforcement can do much damage, Bush and Cheney just loved to speak at closed sessions to law enforcement groups and seldom permitted taping or filming of these
events. Hand picked audiences is a pattern of Republican question and answer gatherings.
Well Mayhill, I'm sure you'll be just a little happy if Obama loses because then Hillary will have her shining moment in 2012.
And that is when this dem will stay at home. It will take two things to make me get out of my chair and fight against Hillary in the 2012 election. 1. If anything happens to Obama, especially during this convention and around the dates she stated around the end of the primaries. 2. She does not show full support that appears really geniune during this process, until the very end, and that includes Bill Clinton.
She will never get a vote from me and my family if these things happen because in the primaries she was really divisive in so many ways.
No one I know would ever vote for Senator Clinton in 2012. Nor would any new voter as they don't remember "the Clinton era".
Tom Hayden offered some really useful analysis during the primary. But now that John McCain is answering every single criticism with the rejoinder, "But I was a P.O.W. 40 years ago" --- as if that explains and excuses all...
Why on earth is Tom Hayden, of all people, making himself an adjunct of the Republican Party and Big Media --- the two-headed monster of positive McCain branding --- by calling McCain a "war hero"?
"War hero" is McCain's message --- not ours. It's a message we must not --- MUST not --- under ANY circumstances advance or reinforce. Indeed, for the purposes of the rest of this campaign, John McCain is NOT a "war hero." Nor, for any purposes at all, is he "independent" or a "maverick" or a "renegade.
When remarking on John McCain, these words --- "war hero"; "independent"; "maverick"; "renegade" --- are verboten from the lips or pens of any person who has the slightest interest in seeing Barack Obama elected President.
Tom Hayden should know better.
Tom Hayden knows McCain personally and respects him, because McCain has forgiven him.
McCain and other POWs were beaten and tortured for refusing to meet with with peace delegations led by Tom Hayden.
I'll say that again: McCain was beaten for refusing to meet with Hayden and be used as a propaganda tool.The NV forced POWs to lie about their treatment by the NV. The NV wanted POWs tomeet the delegations publicly state that they were being well treated under Geneva convention rules. Ironically, the POWs had to be tortured into making statements that they weren't being tortured.
When word finally got out about what the POWs were suffering, Hayden's wife Fonda called the POWs liars. Notice how Jane Fonda has vanished from the scene for this election? That's why.
Hayden knows that compared to McCain he's a poseur. McCain and the other POWs stood up to real persecution and torture and murder, and they didn't know if they would ever be released. Hayden never had to be in real fear for his life or health or freedom.
If there's anyone who knows what McCain is all about, it's Tom Hayden.
"Why on earth is Tom Hayden, of all people, making himself an adjunct of the Republican Party and Big Media --- the two-headed monster of positive McCain branding --- by calling McCain a "war hero"?"
Good question.
A similar type of question should be asked of Biden:
http://www
Note, however, that even when those of military stature have refused to go along with the McCain-war
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HILLARY'S REASON FOR OBAMA'S COMING DEFEAT
Back in May Hillary Clinton offered the best reason why Obama will be defeated in November. She said: "John McCain and I offer experience. Obama only offers speeches." For Hillary Obama is just an empty suit striving for a goal he's woefully unprepared and unsuited for. An imaptient man in a hurry to get nowhere.
"Empty suit" is a metaphor for those who can't hear and can't read. I guess Clinton must be one of those now, since one of her supporters tells us so.
And even if his speech tonight is spectacular, that is all that he will ever be: an empty suit with a gift for speeches.
Hayden is correct. That IS the problem with the USA. There are many fearful non thinkers and it is ONLY going to get worse.
For once I agree with Tom about his take on why O is unconvincing. He has gone up against the Dem establishment. From the beginning, his supporters, his campaign, have felt more like a take-over than an election.
That's a huge turn-off now.
PUMA!!
Obama has voted to fund bush's illegal war every time but one, when it was safe not to. Sorry, hes not quite the anti establishment candidate his supporters want us to believe he is.
POOPaAnn is upset because the Clintons have controlled the Democratic party for so long and have tried to bully people within the party to support them rather than O in this election, and now that someone else has received something that the Clintons felt they were entitled to, it feels like an unfair "takeover".
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