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Change will not come if we wait for some other person or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.
by First Amendment on Mon Apr 07, 2008 at 07:50:19 PM PDT
Thank you Howard Dean.
Thank you Barack Obama.
Democracy. Whodathunkit?
McCain wants to send your job overseas.
by GoogleBonhoeffer on Mon Apr 07, 2008 at 07:51:42 PM PDT
[ Parent ]
to build up a 50 state infrastructure like we have never had before. It would be a shame if we had a candidate who though 40 of them shouldn't count.
Purity Trolls: Faithfully electing Republicans since 2000
by smash artist on Mon Apr 07, 2008 at 07:55:46 PM PDT
i guess we can thank hillary for refusing to quit. helps us all in the end -- fifty states familiar with obama.
by jemjo on Mon Apr 07, 2008 at 07:57:49 PM PDT
"Evil is a lack of empathy, a total incapacity to feel with their fellow man." - Capt. Gilbert,Psychiatrist, at the end of Nuremberg trials.
by 417els on Mon Apr 07, 2008 at 09:44:15 PM PDT
Do you prefer it now or in October? I, for one, will sleep better knowing that a 30 second soundbite of Rev. Wright taken out of context is old news. Hillary is doing fine by the party by what she does. Let's just get it out of the way now, so we don't have to later.
Montesquieu and Locke are rolling in their graves right now...
by Mannabass on Mon Apr 07, 2008 at 10:48:31 PM PDT
How it took so long for that Rev. Wright clip to come out. That could've killed Obama before he even began his rise.
Not that I'm complaining.
"He's patriotic in sincere ways, and not in photo-op ways." - jenontheshore
by Ivey476 on Tue Apr 08, 2008 at 05:12:29 AM PDT
The Obama Donor Bomb
by Michael Lawrence Gallagher on Tue Apr 08, 2008 at 05:27:08 AM PDT
Come on, anyone who knows about Jeremiah Wright knows that he is a highly respected pastor, both within his church and within his community. Character only gets assassinated when people get desperate.
by Mannabass on Tue Apr 08, 2008 at 10:04:19 AM PDT
And he'll pass the test both times, because he's smart and shrewd and knows how to stay on message. But it is intensely troubling that McCain will use Hillary's own sound bites against Obama, saying in essence: "My challenger's credentials were belittled by the most prominent member of his own party. . .", etc.
Obama will hang tough, but she has done him no favors.
Though a war may well be "too stupid," that doesn't prevent its lasting. Stupidity has a knack of getting its way. --Albert Camus
by GreenMtnState on Tue Apr 08, 2008 at 07:41:50 AM PDT
The polls do not lie. They are an accurate snapshot of how the electorate feels at a given moment, worth little due to the fact that the electorate turns on a dime. The polls all showed Obama's support drop, and it took about two weeks for it to return to where it belongs. Sure, the republicans will bring it up again in October, but by then, it will be old news. The electorate is rarely enthralled with old news, imho. I think Obama said it best on Hardball in PA. Politics isn't bean bag and no one ever accused the Clinton organization of being soft, therefore his ability to defeat an all out assault on his character, even one that tries to play on racist fears that have existed as long as America, is proven. I suspect that, coupled with the bus tour, is why you see his support in PA rise. Another interesting poll is the one that says that the vast majority of the electorate says they have no problem voting for a minority candidate... and a vast majority also believes that the vast majority would not vote for a minority candidate. That kind of thinking is what leads Gov. Rendell to say the stupid shit he says. Obama is proving, in the primary, that these kinds of attacks will be ineffective. So McCain can talk about how he's ready on day one, he has the experience and Obama's former pastor sounds crazy if you take 20 second clips from hour long sermons. His whole strategy is less jobs, more war and what Hillary Clinton said. Good luck with that.
by Mannabass on Tue Apr 08, 2008 at 10:02:12 AM PDT
and it's true that attacks really get "old" after a while. (Many of the attacks in this primary season feel so old that they're ready to keel over and die.)
I hope you're right; I hope that the collective public reaction in October will be "been there, done that." I certainly think that Obama can survive it -- I will just hate to see if some of Clinton's attacks seamlessly become McCain's, and thereby appear to have real "traction." After all, the MSM has never been accused of illuminating the truth of matters.
by GreenMtnState on Tue Apr 08, 2008 at 12:52:52 PM PDT
where I've voted for a presidential candidate in a Primary season seven times since 1980, the very first time my vote was counted before the nominee was publicly announced was on March 9th, 2008.
I think that this is most overlooked aspect of the entire primary campaign.
It seems none of the TV talking heads or the Big-Name print journalists have caught the pattern showing here.
The nominee has not yet been determined beyond a doubt, every state's primary voters have actually made a difference, and those states with elections approaching carry an ever larger shadow.
This is what is keeping the whole thing going - cash influx is increasing, the democratic battle is eating up all the TV time, and the voters, not the Media Heads, are actually doing the electing this time around.
Is it any wonder the electorate is practically hypnotized by the 3-Ring-Circus aspects we're seeing lately?
It's, literally, like nothing any of us, at least those of us about 50 and younger, have ever seen before in presidential politics.
It's the best show on TV every damn night.
Si, se puede cambiar~~Yes, we can change~~Obama '08
by Angie in WA State on Tue Apr 08, 2008 at 01:09:02 AM PDT
as much as i detest the MSM for so very many reasons, i CANNOT stop watching....and sit here obsessively for hours a day when i could be doing other necessary things. it is amazing.
i am a recent trasplant to california -- lived in Massachusetts since college. I cast my first vote in a presidential campaign as a college freshman in 1992 (for Clinton). I cannot wait for the general election -- to be in a state that is not a "given." I have never gotten phone calls or even seen many tv ads for who would waste money in Mass?? Bring it on!!
So, yes, Angie you are dead on correct. As much as part of me wants to bring this thing to an end, I cannot help feeling that all of this in-fighting is for the better. I have always been very interested in politics, but this is the first time I have ever felt that it actually matters. It is fabulous.
(of course, if the republicans win I'm leaving the country) haha..
by jemjo on Tue Apr 08, 2008 at 01:20:16 AM PDT
I'm losing large amounts of work time to my obsession over this campaign. (That's one reason I'd like it to be over soon - I've gotta get some work done!)
by Audio Guy on Tue Apr 08, 2008 at 05:20:45 AM PDT
Hillary did not quit campaigning. She did quit campaigning constructively.
She didn't abandon the fight. But she did abandon the good fight.
by chicago jeff on Tue Apr 08, 2008 at 03:53:11 AM PDT
that's my only problem with her now, but it's a HUGE one.
But, as said elsewhere, in the long run it's probably to our benefit.
-8.25, -6.26 "I'm not superstitious. But, I AM a little stitious." - Michael Scott
by snookybeh on Tue Apr 08, 2008 at 07:17:27 AM PDT
If we do not change the deeply corrupt system in Washington soon, we may never get our government back again. As long as money trumps people in Washington, it hardly matters who we elect.
Barack Obama's campaign has been an inspiring demonstration of the power of people over organized money. In order to consolidate the advance his campaign represents, though, we need to press Obama to push public campaign financing through Congress in 2009. Until we buy our own politicians, somebody else always will.
Hanoi didn't break John McCain, but Washington did.
by Dallasdoc on Mon Apr 07, 2008 at 07:57:36 PM PDT
It illustrates the power of people, and the power of those people aggregating their money to compete in a system that (currently) requires money.
$50 at a time, multiplied by millions. And Obama is speaking to the need to reform the system, and how the "campaign finance reform" we have seen thus far is worthless.
Peace.
Not a Cent to those who won't fight torture.
by not a cent on Mon Apr 07, 2008 at 08:02:44 PM PDT
Only one segment of America is not deteriorating and that would be the big donor class. I'm sure they have the ability to price us out of the election market soon if not now. We need to stop this trend and change the nation's communication environment fundamentally.
It's the insane need to pay to communicate the peoples' electoral business that's driving the costs which attract the corruption.
We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for victims of our nation and for those it calls enemy.... --ML King "Beyond Vietnam"
by Gooserock on Mon Apr 07, 2008 at 08:43:48 PM PDT
The money class will come back and overwhelm the hoi polloi with their $50 checks. Maybe not this year, but soon. It's critical to take this opportunity to stop money dictating politics.
by Dallasdoc on Mon Apr 07, 2008 at 09:04:42 PM PDT
if they do that, they risk revolution.
Not just from people voting - from people with guns pissed as hell that they're not getting a fair shake.
there are a hell of a lot more poor people than rich ones. And the poor ones know how to do things. Things like fix the plumbing, and clean the pools, and the house, and fix the cars, and pave the roads, and tend to their children, and cook their food, and run their computer systems...
The rich ones know how to move money around, and tell other people to do stuff. They don't know how to actually DO much of anything else.
We do.
If push comes to shove, my money is on us. Not them.
by mmacdDE on Mon Apr 07, 2008 at 09:37:29 PM PDT
Seriously, it is extremely problematic. Can I not spend $1000 to send out info to my friends, or enlist someone to host a server to distribute information?
Can I not get 100 friends together, or a 1000, or 10,000, to buy a page in a newspaper in order to articulate a political message? And what is partisan/political and what is not?
This is the problem we already have with 527's, and there are no simple solutions short of out and out censorship.
by not a cent on Mon Apr 07, 2008 at 10:02:50 PM PDT
Please read http://www.dailykos.com/...
Put Thursday the 10th on your calendar - A conspiracy, hiding in plain sight. Hope you (and the rest of our community) will come to the party.
Healthcare for ALL! NOW! & OneCare at MySpace
by SarahLee on Mon Apr 07, 2008 at 11:15:57 PM PDT
particularly without violating the first amendment. There are no simple solutions, and anyone who claims there are is either ill-informed or not telling the truth.
One of the Democratic candidates yesterday floated the idea of lowering the individual contribution cap from $2300 per primary/ge. You guess who it was.
The only way you get the money out of it is to abridge free speech rights in a way that we cannot, and for all it's attendant problems, should not do.
But if you have ideas, I would love to hear them.
by not a cent on Mon Apr 07, 2008 at 09:58:49 PM PDT
or the Republican caucus.
Them for democracy?
Never.
Josh around at Joshing Politics
by proudprogressiveCA on Mon Apr 07, 2008 at 07:59:30 PM PDT
wide narrow
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