Obama's Convention Danger
A rousing speech from Michelle Obama and we're off. With the conventions in full-bloom, we will be treated to two weeks of constant coverage. In fact, with 4,000 delegates at the Democratic Convention and 15,000 members of the media, the convention in Denver is as much a media event as a political one -- and that may be an understatement. The same will be true when the Republicans gather next week in Minneapolis-St. Paul. With every aspect of the agenda meticulously scripted in advance, the only drama will be scripted and produced, not spontaneous, and there will be as many surprises as there were at the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics in Beijing: none.
Lately, many have stressed that Obama needs to seize the advantage after an August of tightening polls, distressingly successful negative campaigning by McCain and his surrogates, and a natural lessening of voter interest during the summer lull. But in truth, the nature of modern conventions means that the risks are much greater for Obama than McCain.
Why? To begin with, since the 1970s, the conventions have been stage-managed to an inch of their lives. Devoid of twists and turns, they are essentially a series of coronations speeches interspersed with promotional videos and music. The visceral appeal of these gatherings for the party faithful and professionals who form the backbone of each campaign is undeniable. As motivational tools and as a way to energize and mobilize the parties, the conventions are a vital part of the presidential campaign. As a venue to bring together politicos and reporters, as well as lobbyists, they always serve a function. But they don't decide anything, and increasingly they don't really matter to the voters.
Networks have long realized that. In 2000, the networks seriously considered dropping coverage altogether except for the acceptance speeches of the president and vice president. Ratings have stabilized but are still a far cry from what they were, and in 2004 rarely surpassed 5 million viewers per network, which is a fraction of those who watched the Olympics. People don't watch largely because there are no surprises and little in the way of new information. This time will be no different. Parties have no reason to allow for spontaneity. Why take the risk?
It wasn't always this way. Conventions were once upon a time the lifeblood of national politics, where parties congregated and actually selected the nominee. When conventions were first covered by television, in Philadelphia in 1948, they were covered in toto, and by the 1950s, gavel to gavel coverage was the norm. What's more, everyone watched, in part because there was nothing else on and in part because they felt some civic duty to do so.
With the chaos of the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, party leaders determined to make the nominating process less dependent on the party insiders and more on the primaries and caucuses. They also vowed never to let dissension be televised. Dirty laundry was no longer to be aired in public. That led to the Republican Convention in Miami in 1972, which could only be reached via a causeway and avoided the scenes of protest that would almost certainly have greeted Nixon. While there have been a few surprising moments since then - Edward Kennedy in 1980, Barack Obama giving a stirring speech in 2004 - the conventions have been drained of their content and left as two-dimensional infomercials.
The result is an inverse relationship between the amount of commentary and the amount of real content. Make no mistake: conventions have assumed their own peculiar, albeit important, place on the political calendar. They offer major candidates a chance to control the agenda and the media for four days, and to craft an agenda, a tone, and an approach. But they also represent many of the failings of modern politics - the relentless messaging, scripting, and polishing of image.
In that respect, the convention carries more risks for Obama than for McCain. His strength is and has been the degree to which he promises a break from the way we've come to understand national politics. He has tried to shift the political dialogue and redefine what it means to run for office and lead a fractious country. That is the opposite of the stage-managed convention. If Obama comes off as yet another politician with the familiar trappings, he risks losing a good degree of the excitement he's generated that he represents something new. In short, he cannot afford to be "conventional."
McCain, on the other hand, needs stage-managing. He isn't great off the cuff, and speeches aren't his forte. His image can be burnished by good P.R. and bells and whistles, precisely what modern conventions excel at. He can be cast as the lead, and as long as he doesn't flub his lines, he is likely to emerge with his image buffed and polished.
Obama needs more than a good image: he needs passion and he needs people to recognize that an image is only meaningful if it is real, rather than the product of talented professionals who have labored to construct it. The edifice of the modern political convention is a straight-jacket, and it's hard not to be concerned that it will constrain Obama rather than propel him. What if he had eschewed the convention or tried to engineer it in a new way? That would have been something, but also more than his own party would have been able to stomach. His best hope is to make a great speech and then get out of town and back on the road, treating the convention as just another stop along the way. This week - which will be so full of praise and enthusiasm - is a dangerous moment for him, four days of non-stop conformity for a candidate who needs to be different in order 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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Actually none of the major TV networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) are broadcasting the convention except for one hour (10:00 p.m.-11p.m
With this lack of real coverage, how are undecided voters supposed to learn more about the candidates and their issues if our media denies them one of the few opportunities to see the whole package? All our media seems to be interested in is blood, if they don't see blood, they don't want to cover it! They are all a disgrace!
Beca, I agree with you. However, for those of us who use the internet, we can see the video or read the speeches. Also, I am an OBAMA / BIDEN 08 supporter and I will vote for them in November.
My girlfriend and I have canvassed for Obama. There are five canvassing events near my home in PA this week. What upsets me the most is all the people who complain about our government and do not vote or volunteer to get people out to vote.
I thought of a new idea. Those US citizens who vote should get a tax credit of $500.00 on their federal income taxes. Those people who do not vote should be taxed $200.00 for not voting.
Maybe my idea would get more Americans involved in our government.
OBAMA / BIDEN 08
As nice as it might sound, your idea would only increase the number of politically uneducated people to vote. And as most people of any sensibility have realized, the uneducated have a strong tendency to vote Republican when they vote.
It may increase the number of apathetic people to vote (which may vote progressiv
Have to agree with you for the most part Beca, but thank god PBS is showing it. All the networks, including PBS, are making this sound like a love fest, which it is not. As far as I can tell it is the most detail-managed party convention EVER. Every speech, even the short ones, have to be approved. Dissent is outside, but only briefly, when your Code Pink members get shoved to the ground with batons and the brief coverage of any of this is quickly covered. Reporters are not allowed to talk to these folks. Long time Democrat but never have I seen anything so tepid and so totally uninteresting to viewers or activists.
Obama should not have exposed his children to a national television performance. that was poor taste to say the least.
Obama has reliquished his claim to be the candidate of "change". Since sinching the nomination, he has tacked toward the Bush/McCain positions, saber rattling on Iraq and now Georgia, going for faith based use of tax dollars. He is clearly part of the military-industrial process. What happened to the war issue in the campaign. Obama has let it fall by the wayside.
Saying the above, I still will vote for Obama. I could not under any foreseable circumstance consider voting for McCain. In the past I have thought a lot of McCain, but since he has cast his lot with the failed and even criminal policies of the current administration, I cannot support him.
Why is it in poor taste to present their children? I think it was done is good taste and it was very adorable. People and the media keep harping on the fallacy that they don't know who Obama is, what his values are, etc., well presenting his family is one way of showing the doubters and parrots who he is, what is important to him, his values, and most importantly that he is just like every other American.
Obama has been on an uphill battle since the begining, and has been under way more scrutiny than any of the other candidates (republican and democrat), if he talks about diplomacy and does not talk tough once in a while, he is seen as a weak leader; if the talks tough he is accused of "saber rattling" and siding with Bush; For some, it seems that nothing he says is OK with them and they (you) will find fault with him.
Please remember that first he needs to get enough votes to get elected, so if he has to do some pandering to get unlikely voters on his side, so be it. Those of us who have followed him closely and studied his positions know who he is fundamentally and what he really stands for and we are not worried that he will change the color of his coat.
The premise of this article is flawed. No one can change politics completely. After all, we are all human and not likely to evolve into another life form any time soon.
Rather, I think Obama is making an effort to present to the American people an honest testament of who he is and what he stands for. This is in stark contrast to John McCaine, whose media handlers are going through contortions to make McCane seem coherent. McCaine would rather make distracting, irrelevant, and irreverent jokes and smear Obama rather than explaining why he wants to eliminate social security or force women who are raped into prison, should they get an abortion, or where he's going to get all the money to stay in Iraq while giving multimillionaires additional tax breaks.
New politics means presenting one's political views in a way that respects ALL the voters and that initiates an HONEST dialog concerning the MANY GRAVE issues facing this country. It doesn't mean that the system corruption and incompetence that characterizes republican rule is going to disappear overnight (for that he will need a strong attorney general who believes in enforcing the law).
Media types and bloggers, who attempt to trivialize the dialog with the "horse-race" and personality aspects of the campaigns do so largely for their own pecuniary interests, political bias, or simply out of intellectual laziness and do a disservice to the purpose of elections by degrading the quality of the dialog.
Tonight I did something I thought that I would never do.
I signed into Hillarycli
I’m a Republican grandmother from Arizona that has been supporting Barack Obama since day one. Hillary tonight shared with us the reason this world cannot afford four more years of McCain./Bu
So did I. I have been pro-Obama from the beginning as well. However - Clinton gave an excellent speech tonight and seemed sincere. From this point we have to move forward in UNITY, so I will not blast her "supporters" for not helping her out of debt. It does not matter at this point. WE have to help Clinton out of debt (and show our support for her endeavors). I also just donated to Obama/Biden 08. Must take care of home. Actually, the campaigns split my donation.
This convention is great! Duval Patrick was wonderful. The MSM are not televising the whole convention, but instead churning out their own agenda. Instead of what is really happening they are talking about how divided the party is. HA. It is best to watch PBS to see it all, instead of the propaganda channels. I can't wait to hear Hillary. This is a united party. We rock.
I agree, the media have been just awful throughout this convention and are doing a great disservice to all voters. Not showing the convention at all in any of the major newtwork channels, except for one hour (10-11p.m.
I wonder how they are going to broadcast and report on the Republican Convention?
We hear from Air America that all the video from the Democratic Convention is from one network: Fox News. Can this be true? We also hear it was Fox news who were responsible for the crowd shots during Michele Obama's speech (people yawning and bored). Can this be true? I watched the speech on PBS which kept the camera squarely on our beautiful Michele. Strongly urge the rest of you to tune in to your local Public television station.
Unfortunately, PBS in Philadelphia has been providing a sub-par coverage of the convention. They have cut off so many speakers so their stupid and opinionated commentators could blab about theyr erroneous takes on the Democraticd party, how still nobody is telling them who Obama really is (what the hell do they want to know? how he blows his nose? if he farts? what?! )
How Michelle was "ok" but still didn't tell them who she really was (WHAT? do they want to know when she gets her period, what kind of soap does she use? WHAT!)
In doing their stupid and long winded comments they are cutting out all speakers who don't happen to be big political wigs and that is awful, unfair and undemocratic. They are denying the viewers the opportunity to really know different aspects of Obama, like the home health worker who spoke of her day with Obama as he did all her work (he literally walked in her shoes for a day), and other equally moving and revealing speakers.
I don't have cable/satellite or anything like that so I was stuck with PBS or nothing. I watched the convention
Actually, they are making it easy to comment on the republican convention.
It already sounds as if every word, including those not yet spoken, will be mean spirited, old, very old, and completely irrelevant to the modern issues now facing the nation and the world.
For them it will be about painting a world, like the Walgreen drug-store commercial, where everything always stays exactly the same, every one everywhere is white, everyone is rich, everyone is happy about the economy, everyone never gets sick and needs health care, all kids are highly educated even without schools or teachers, prices never go up, and there are never any wars or if there are, all we have to do is to talk tough and our adversaries will bow down to our innate superiority and no longer challenge us.
It will be the SAME OLD kind of "change" they are always offering, "rich grandpa always knows best".
All they need to do (Obama's campaign) is showing all the acts of corruption, negligence, incompetence and their machiebelic mentality to the American people and ask them, is this what you want to continue and why the Bush administration should not be taken to jail right after the Innaguration.
I agree 100% that Offense is a real necessity.
1) the McCain/ Rove/ Media machine offense relentlessly places itself in advantageous positions (in the media and on the web) - anticipates what we do, overwhelms us as we do it, and leaves us reeling back on our heels in defense while they mount the next offense.
2) Counter attack - "channeling" truth based inspiration into passionate, articulate, responses attacking lies with evidence, disecting relevance, fear and 3) DEMAND they answer - PURSUE THEM - Analyze THEIR POST PATTERNS. EXPOSE THEM!!! I find them to be just lonely misguided human beings who think they are justified. That is until 4) BOMBARD THEIR FALSE INFORMATION WITH TRUTH: OBAMA'S RECORD, THE BILLS HE WROTE, CO-AUTHORED AND HELPED PASS -'DETAILS' OF HIS ECONOMIC, ENERGY, WAR, POLICIES, DETAIL COMPARISONS BETWEEN HIM, MCCAIN AND POLICIES 90% APPROVAL RATINGS TO MCCAIN'S ZERO'S and "THAT" usually clinches it.
Other offensive weapons include the "Experience Myth" (i copped from Mr Vogals Blog), Web sites for workers rights, and statistical data
That is our turf - our real strength (all we really need if you ask me) is to stop limiting our discourse to each other.
We are giving them free riegn of the internet while they overwhelm members of our party from the inside and out.
Need motivation? Return to the roots, "REALITY" of unemployment, environment, war, dead troops, slave labor underclass, inferior education, Job export, oil dependence etc
I agree, just reiterate the justification for war in Iraq, talk about the plan for the new century that called for a pearl harbor type event to help justify sending the military to conquer Iraq, talk about the contracting out of the war, talk about torturing people, holding without habeus corpus, talk about the gas prices, the energy crisis and on and on. Cudos to the governor of Montano for pushing on the energy crisis theme. I am waiting for someone to push on the perpetual war idea. I would like someone to come out against the drug war too, but then I know that high position politics is dominated by deep pockets that like both wars, the foreign war for oil and the domestic war supposedly against drugs. .
its strange how repubs say america dosnt know who obama is , family in uk and australia say they know who he is, the hope of america and the world,if america sneezes the world catches cold. repubs have spoilt the reputation of america, nearly bankrupted the country ,killed people in a bad war, and the administration has grown rich at the expense of the people, is there anyone who could have done worse? obama is the change needed, he is brilliant ,this lack of experience talked about , is the bush fiasco the experience america needs! how can any right thinking person vote for mc cain ,what experience has he had and what improvements could be expected except more of the same, he lives on his perceived glory of 40 years ago, time to move on, put race away , nelson mandela is black and he is revered the whole world over, condi rice is black, donna brazille is black, they are to be admired ,michelle obama is a beautiful strong compassionate person, if america cant see these people as leaders then shame on you .
We don't know who he is or if we can trust him yet. He has NO real record yet. He talks of change, but then leans on Biden.
He says NO corporate donations will be accepted, but the Corps have donated millions to the DNC, and Obama says that is OK.
He supports a womans right to choose, then says he's against some type of abortion.
He's against drilling at home for oil, then McCain says we need too, then Obama says we need to.
He's soft on Russian invasion, McCain tough on Russia, then Obama gets tough on Russia.
Seems he's taking alot of ideas from McCain.
He does too much pandering left, then he trys moving to the center.
He belongs to a church that preaches HATE, and then finally quits, because it's not politically right.
No, I don't know where he stands, and I don't think we can trust him.
well you can trust McCain to carry on all of the horrible misguided policies of the Bush administration. Ugh!
How many more wars do you want? How many more of America's finest mist military have to be killed in order to satisfy John McCain. Obviously, he just considers the deaths of soliders, citizens and children are just collateral damage in his quest to win a war.....so you can be guaranteed that he will reinstate the draft because all he knows is war....and how to throw the POW card over and over and over and over and over again.
So go ahead and vote for McCain, Gramm, his lobbyists, his BIG OIL friends, etc. Screw over america. Hope you are happy.....
He didn't just crawl out of a cave! He is the same age Bill Clinton was when he ran for President, and Bill Clinton, outside of being Governor of Arkansas, had absolutely no National or International experience. Why was he not scrutinized like this?
If you read a bit you would be able to find out exactly who Obama is from birth until now-read his biography, go to his web site, go to Wikipedia, read his books! There are numerous credible sources that can tell you who Obama is. His record speaks for itself. He is an honest, highly intelligent person who has amassed many great accomplishments. I think your problem and the problem of those who think like you is two fold: 1) you don't want to know who Obama is, 2) regardless of who he is, you will never be satisfied with him--he could have been anointed by the Pope and you still would be saying, "yeah but I don't know".
Don't know who he is? He was born in Hawaii to a white mother from Kansas and a Black father from Kenya. HIs parents met while studying at the University of Hawaii, they married and had Barack Obama. His parents were divorced when Obama was 2y/o. His father went on to be a graduate student at Harvard University. They moved to Indonesia when Obama was 4y/o, they lived there for a few years. Barack and his mother returned to Hawaii when he was about 6y/o, he stayed with his maternal grandparents in Hawaii from that point on.
He was a brilliant student and a typical teen. He first attended college in California, transfered to Columbia. He moved to Chicago, worked as a community organizer helping families who had lost everyithing in the factor and plant closings. He went to Harvard University School of Law, graduated madna cum laude. He also became the first Black President of the prestigious Harvard Law Review.
He returned to Chicago where he worked as an intern in a prestigious law firm, then obtained a law position as a Civil Rights Attorney. He then ran for state office, he eventuall ywon a seat in the Illinois State Senate. At the same time, he became a senior lecturer/professor in Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago'sSchool of Law. He served in the State Senate for 8 years, then became US Senate in 2004, and now he is running for President.
Just another republican troll. If they don't know who he is by now, then you can pretty well expect that: 1) they are just making things up (a sign of what modern republicanism is all about - bearing false witness) or 2) they are proud of their own ignorance (another sign of a modern republican).
PS The notion that McCaine is tough on Russians is ludicrous. All you have to do is look at his voting record in support of Russian oil and gas interests and you can see that is just so much BS.
With thinking like TRWSEW's, its not surprising that republicans keep electing Keating-5 stars like McCaine. They never seem to stop their admiration for worn out, outdated and basically dishonest thinking, especially when it comes to campaigning, no matter how damaging they prove to America's economy or standing in the world.
Sadly the cynics will come away from this with one reaffirmed disillusioning realization, Barack Obama is just another Democrat. He so wants to different, right? But in the end the Democrats ala Kennedy-Clinton will see to it otherwise. It's not Barack Obama's party today, yesterday and it won't be tomorrow.
Please Foxy lady - give my eyes a break and ease up on the CAPS LOCK.. BTW I agree with you...
Watching translated Arab TV coverage of the Democratic convention, one reporter said that putting on the convention cost 100 thousand dollars. Apparently the mid east reporter did not know his dinars from his dollars. The actual cost of putting on the convention is $ 100 million.
With the exception of Kennedy's and Michelle Obama's speeches, the opening of the convention was a bomb. Those "tribute" video clips were a bore, not unlike the format of the Academy Awards. It's a shame that millions of dollars worth of prime time were wasted and frittered away. Given the disastrous eight years of Bush and his enablers like McCain, why was there no compelling speech pointing out the failure of Bush/Mcain? The convention need some compelling speeches and a show of spontaneity.
Actually the video about Michelle sold me on her in a way nothing else has the entire campaign and even her speech last night. I thought it was terrific. I was upset that the DNC caved in to the Jewish lobby and did not let our only other former president, Jimmy Carter, speak so his video9 was hardly sufficient. Perhaps the over management may be great for some factions, but it has insulted those of us who voted for him and who respect a great deal of what he has done since leaving office. And, it reminds some of the terrible tight fisted management the Bush administration has practiced day after day after day for the past 7.5 years.
Having Jimmy Carter,aka "worst president in the last 50 years" speak would be a disaster. Why do you think that the Republicans have conveniently banished any mention of Herbert Hoover for 76 years?
Ultimately, I think Obama is right. If you want to win you need to create a positive vision of what you want to do. Leave the attacking to others, who will not need to govern.
While McCaine may win, its fairly obvious that the kind of campaign he is wagging will make it impossible for him to govern. I don't think that is what the American people want after 4 years of Bush and McRepublicans in the Senate.
Ironically, you would think ALL the media would be pushing for Obama. Just think of the gold mine of stories that will surface when the veil of secrecy is lifted from the inner workings of the Bush administration. If Obama wins, a prediction:
The Bush library will be the largest repository for shredded documents in the world, except perhaps for that one famous copy of "My Pet Goat"!, the only book we know for sure he ever read.
I disagree that Obama must appear spontaneous and new.
McCain's making this race about Obama, and he's turning new and spontaneous into untried and scary.
If we make it a race between Democrats and Republicans we will win. Americans are sick of Reublcians. McCain is hiding behind his flimsy "Maverick" smokescreen. Blow away that smokescreen and we win.
"Americans are sick of Reublcians
Really? Are they not sick of Democrats too?
Americans are sick of politicians in general . . .
Democratic led Congress has passed 104 bills this year, 98% of them including renaming post offices or lands . . . change we can believe in?
We need a NEW party with VISION creating a REAL PLAN for this country!
We just saw a spectacular two week event in Beijing - we do not need another one! Instead we are getting more celebrity, more motivational speeches with more incessant generalizations and chants about CHANGE and UNITY! PROVE IT BARACK OBAMA!!! "PROVE YOU CAN" by SHOWING us some creativity on the convention floor NOW! PROVE that you know how to work on these issues in NEW ways and you will get many new and now angry voters attention! Is there no one in EITHER party with the GUTS to truly get back to the basics and forget about advancing their own personal careers and going to any length to WIN! In the meantime, We the People are LOOSING! A record of a few years of community service while you are deciding what to do with your life is NOT ENOUGH experience for THIS TIME in history! The Democratic Party and Barack Obama are doing NOTHING NEW or different - in fact it's no surprise that the Kennedy's are trying to make a comeback by drawing on the PAST - it all falls profoundly short!
WE NEED a NEW VISION for REAL CHANGE and we need a NEW PARTY in this country!
Republicans have obstructed every meaningful piece of legislation they could, including the GI Bill that was eventually passed despite threat of veto.
Democrats are ineffectual clowns, but Republicans are dangerously psychotic incompetent clowns. Or is $9 trillion worth of Republican debt not enough for you? Or a $3 trillion war against a defenseless nation that didn't attack us? Or $4 a gallon gas thanks to said war? Or the entire world by turns fearing us, hating us, laughing at us, and ripping us off?
Get a clue, please.
Yes, but every bill of substance that did not get passed is because the Republicans changed the filibuster rule before they went out of control so that it now allows them to control whether to even vote for any bill by merely having 40 people stand together rather than the simple majority rule that was in place through the first 200 years of our Constitution. Almost all bills would have been voted on without their obstructionist rule. Sadly most of the public is so ignorant about legislative processs they donw know or understand why noghting has gotten done. If you block a vote on eveyr bill you don't want to see the light of day and will only vote on bills the president dictates, then you have perpetuated an autocratic form of government. THE ONLY way to stop this is to vote the darn repubs out of office and then make sure to change the rule badk to what served us well for over 200 years.
A lot more substantive measures would have been passed, like immediate gasoline tax relief and help for many in need, had not republicans in the Senate and Bush in the White House blocked them.
Its simply disingenuous, or should we say "BIASED" and perhaps a bit of bearing false witness to ignore this aspect of contemporary American politics.
It isn't just the conventions that are staged. Our entire political process is nothing but a staged puppet show with big money pulling and yanking the strings. Neither of these two puppets have mentioned anything about restoring our constitutional rights lost during the insidious Bush years. Just mentioning lost rights and the fact that Obama is as mute as the Sphinx on the subject practically guarantees this post will be rejected by HP that niavely think that Obama represents sweeping change refusing to see that he is as mainstream as they are.
Hate to disappoint you, but Barack has mentioned enough times in the past he will appoint someone to look into and overturn Bush's signing BS and whatever else needs obliterated.
Pay attention.
Yeah and then he voted for Bush's domestic spying bill.
Pay attention is right! Most of the people in this country will waste hours listening to the repetitive news media that is losing their audiences because they sound like broken records, yet they don't take 10 minutes to READ what Obama has on his website. The news media controls this country! Sad to say, people allow themselves to be brainwashed instead of getting off their fat asses and reading the facts or watching C-SPAN instead of American Idol to get the facts. CNN isn't even showing the convention, they are just sitting outside and talking aimlessly back and forth about their opinions of every syllable spoken. WE ARE SICK of the media criticism and negativity. Maybe Obama is a fresh face in Washington but he was in the State Senate for 10 years. Does that not count for experience. At least he can count up to 10 and knows he only has one house. McCain is not very intelligent and hides behind his POW crutch. As an ex-republican, I'm ready for change and I'm willing to give a young black man the chance to save our country from the disasters the white man has caused! The future looks brighter with Obama, we need to stop the fear and negativity being pushed on us by the right. Only 25% of the people approve Bush and that's all McCain is really going to get- the polls are false. Obama is ahead. Obama in November.
"Neither of these two puppets have mentioned anything about restoring our constitutional rights lost during the insidious Bush years"
I must have missed something, can you cite a specific PERSONAL example of your constitutional rights being lost in the last 8 years.
The right to not have my emails , phone lines etc tapped in a wide sweep without warrants might be one mr/mrs/ms unbiasview person.
You obviously have not been listening! Obama has spoken about our lost Constitutional rights and how they must be restored. He has also spoken about the fact that not every American is granted all the same rights, privileges, benefits and protections guaranteed under the Constitution, and promises that he will change that to make sure every American has trully equal rights under the law.
Also, Obama is the best candidate to restore our lost Constitution because he is the only candidate who has true expertise in Constitutional Law. He practiced as a Civil Rights Attorney for several years, and also was a senior lecturer/professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago's School of Law for many years. If anybody can restore our Constitution and ensure that every American is equally protected under the Constitution, is Barack Obama.
McCain has no idea what the Constitution is! He supported all of Bush's efforts to systematically destroy our Constitution.
Please remember that before he can make any real changes he needs to be elected into the Presidency. In order for him to be elected, he has to make sure that those voters who are on the fence don't get their panties twisted in a knot too much, so he has to tone down his "unconventionalism" a bit in order not to scare them off. Nothing will matter if he doesn't get elected. We first have to make sure he gets elected. I am confident that he will deliver on his promises.
Michelle's speech last night was fantastic. Everyone here has become too cynical - I saw the effect it had on Keith Olbermann, and yes, Chris Matthews is...well, Chris Matthews, but they all seemed pretty moved. I'm afraid of the cynicism that is gripping this country and thrown out there by the very people who eschew it - Democrats. James Carville and his ilk need to shut up and listen.
"I saw the effect it had on Keith Olbermann, and yes, Chris Matthews is...well, Chris Matthews, but they all seemed pretty moved"
Preaching to the choir my friend . . . they were already in the bag so what would that show you?
Could you even imagine the Republicans showcasing in prime time John McCain's wife? Video begins - Cindy Hensley McCain's - Marriage and Family (from Wikipedia)
"Hensley met John McCain in April 1979 at a military reception in Hawaii. He was the U.S. Navy liaison officer to the United States Senate, almost eighteen years her senior. McCain and Hensley quickly began a relationship, traveling between Arizona and Washington to see each other. John McCain pushed to end his marriage of fourteen years; Carol McCain and John McCain stopped cohabiting in January 1980, and Carol accepted a divorce in February of 1980. John and Cindy were married on May 17, 1980. They made a prenuptial agreement that kept most of her family's assets under her name; they have since kept their finances apart and file separate income tax returns.
Her father's business and political contacts helped gain her husband a foothold into Arizona politics. Her wealth from an expired trust from her parents providing significant loans to the campaign and helping it survive a period of early debt.
In April 1986, she and her father invested $359,100 in a shopping center project with Phoenix banker Charles Keating. This, combined with her role as a bookkeeper who later had difficulty finding receipts for family trips on Keating's jet,caused complications for her husband during the Keating Five scandal, when he was being examined for his role regarding oversight of Keating's bank."
I can't imagine that this will happen....
Good job!!!!
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