Pennsylvania is rising -- the polls everywhere are showing a seismic shift from Clinton to Obama in the last 48 hours. Rasmussen only has Hillary ahead by 3 points after being up 9 the night before. Newsweek has Obama ahead nationally by 19. SurveyUSA has Obama ahead in Indiana for the first time. And Obama is ahead in North Carolina by double digits, as he has been all race.
Robert Reich, Sam Nunn, and Dan Boren endorse Obama:
In his official endorsement, posted on his blog, Mr. Reich says he was unsure about whether to come out in support of Mr. Obama since he has such personal ties to his rival. (He once reminisced in a Web video last year about a date they had in college, going on about how she liked a lot, a lot, of butter on her popcorn.) His endorsement didn’t surprise many because Mr. Reich, now a professor at the University of California at Berkeley, has been critical of both Clintons throughout this campaign.
"My avoidance of offering a formal endorsement until now has also been affected by the pull of old friendships and my reluctance as a teacher and commentator to be openly partisan," Mr. Reich said. "But my conscience won’t let me be silent any longer."
"Although Hillary Clinton has offered solid and sensible policy proposals, Obama’s strike me as even more so," Mr. Reich adds. "His plans for reforming Social Security and health care have a better chance of succeeding. His approaches to the housing crisis and the failures of our financial markets are sounder than hers. His ideas for improving our public schools and confronting the problems of poverty and inequality are more coherent and compelling. He has put forward the more enlightened foreign policy and the more thoughtful plan for controlling global warming."
OK -- as long as she doesn't touch:
Harley-Davidson cutting 300 jobs at York plant:
Harley-Davidson is looking for workers with seniority to take early retirement to help downsize its work force in Springettsbury Township.
If that is not enough, the company will permanently let workers go according to the terms of a union contract.
About 300 union workers are being cut from the payrolls on Eden Road, the motorcycle maker's largest manufacturing plant. That represents about 80 percent of the 370 union jobs to be cut company-wide, Harley said Thursday.
It is part of a companywide plan to cut costs and slow production for the foreseeable future because of weak sales of its motorcycles.
"There is no sign about when things will turn around," Chief Executive Officer Jim Ziemer said.
Harley employs about 3,200 workers in Springettsbury Township, where it makes Softail and Touring motorcycles. About 2,800 are union workers.
People in York are looking for answers. They are looking for hope and optimism again after getting their jobs cut. It is insulting to people like the 300 in York who are getting their jobs cut for ABC and the rest of the media to claim that somehow flag pins or something some Scary Black Person said is more important than the bread and butter issues that any community would face. The debate last night does not reflect on either of the two candidates; instead, it reflects on the contempt that the media has for its viewers.
Barack Obama on his plans for 2008:
Latino-owned businesses are growing three times the rate of other businesses:
Six years after a national study revealed that the number of Hispanic-owned businesses was growing at three times the average of non-Hispanic businesses, the Latino Economic Council (LEC), Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation (LVEDC), Lehigh Valley Workforce Investment Board Inc., and the Center For Community and Organizational Research at Penn State Lehigh Valley have partnered to study the economic contributions of Latinos in this region.
While this will be the first study to emphasize Latino successes and contributions to the Lehigh Valley’s economic expansion, statistics show that the Valley mirrors the national trends.
"Latinos account for about 10 percent of the Lehigh Valley’s economic expansion and a substantial number have become business owners or high-level executives and professionals," said LEC Vice Chair Eduardo Eichenwald.
"This trend points to the need and significance of a study that will both measure and raise the visibility of Latino business owners and professionals who are key players in the Lehigh Valley’s economic growth," said David Vaida, chairman of the LEC Business and Economic Development Committee.
A September 2005 report titled "Latinos in the Lehigh Valley: The Dynamics and Impact of This Growing and Changing Population," which was sponsored by LVEDC, led to the creation of the Latino Economic Council and the implementation of several recommendations to encourage business growth in the Latino Community.
The new study will follow up that initial report by identifying Latino business owners and professionals in the Lehigh Valley and documenting their contributions to the region.
Obama was one of the chief voices in the comprehensive immigration reform debate in Congress. And these numbers mean that we can make an economic argument for comprehensive immigration reform -- we must strengthen our borders; however, we can't just create a police state and deport the 12 million who are here. If we do that, we throw away the economic impact that these people contribute to our country. In fact, the rise of Latino-owned businesses, which would be encouraged by Obama's comprehensive immigration reform proposals, could be one of the keys to reviving our stagnant economy because it would result in the creation of even more businesses as more and more immigrants come out of the shadows as they do not have to work for substandard wages.
Obama spoke in the video above announcing his run about bringing this country together to find solutions. And when times are hard, people simply don't care about one's race, religion, or color -- they just want to get back on their feet and back to work again. Back in 1862, the Mexicans saved our union from extinction at the hands of the South and the French. It could be that the Latinos could once again save our country from recession through their economic contributions to this country.
Fact Check on Obama and Ayers:
REALITY: OBAMA WAS EIGHT YEARS OLD WHEN THE WEATHERMEN WERE ACTIVE
Obama Turned Eight In September 1969, The Days Of Rage Occurred In October 1969. Barack Obama was born on September 4, 1961. He turned eight on September 4, 1969. The Days of Rage, in which William Ayers participated, occurred in October 1969. [Obama Birth Certificate, UPI, 10/21/81]
William Ayers Participated In The "Days Of Rage" In 1969. The AP reported, "In the autumn of 1969, the Weatherman, led by Bernardine Dohrn and Mark Rudd, converged on Chicago and planned a series of demonstrations to dramatize their beliefs. The riots, which came to be known as the "Days of Rage," caused thousands of dollars in damage in the downtown and Near North Side areas and resulted in injuries to several policemen. Rudd and Ms. Dohrn were named in federal riot indictments with ten others -- William Ayers, Kathy Boudin, John Jacobs, Jeff Jones, Michael Spiegel, Howard Machtinger, Terry Robins, Lawrence Weiss, Linda Sue Evans and Judy Clark. Another prominent activist, Cathy Wilkerson, was arrested on state charges of mob action and resisting a police officer. Some surrendered years ago. Two -- Ms. Dohrn and Ayers, son of the former chairman of Commonweath Edison Co. -- surfaced Wednesday. Charges against Ayers had been dropped in 1978 but Ms. Dohrn still faces charges of aggravated battery and jumping bail." [AP, 12/3/80]
REALITY: AYERS CONNECTION IS "PHONY," TENUOUS," "A STRETCH"
Chicago Sun Times: Obama's Connection To Ayers Is A "Phony Flap". The Chicago Sun-Times wrote in an editorial, "But Ayers, it is also true to say, has since followed in the footsteps of the great Chicago social worker Jane Addams, crusading for education and juvenile justice reform. His 1997 book, A Kind and Just Parent: The Children of Juvenile Court, has been praised for exposing how Cook County's juvenile justice system all but eliminates a child's chance for redemption. Is Barack Obama consorting with a radical? Hardly. Ayers is nothing more than an aging lefty with a foolish past who is doing good. And while, yes, Obama is friendly with Ayers, it appears to be only in the way of two community activists whose circles overlap. Obama's middle name is Hussein. That doesn't make him an Islamic terrorist. He stopped wearing a flag pin. That doesn't make him unpatriotic. And he's friendly with UIC Professor William Ayers. That doesn't make him a bomb thrower. Time to move on to Phony Flap 6,537,204." [Chicago Sun-Times, 3/3/08]
Washington Post: Obama-Ayers Link "Is A Tenuous One." The Washington Post reported in a fact check, "But the Obama-Ayers link is a tenuous one. As Newsday pointed out, Clinton has her own, also tenuous, Weatherman connection. Her husband commuted the sentences of a couple of convicted Weather Underground members, Susan Rosenberg and Linda Sue Evans, shortly before leaving office in January 2001. Which is worse: pardoning a convicted terrorist or accepting a campaign contribution from a former Weatherman who was never convicted?" [Washington Post, 2/18/08]
Woods Fund President Harrington: "This Whole Connection Is A Stretch." The Washington Post reported in a fact check, "Whatever his past, Ayers is now a respected member of the Chicago intelligentsia, and still a member of the Woods Fund Board. The president of the Woods Fund, Deborah Harrington, said he had been selected for the board because of his solid academic credentials and 'passion for social justice.' 'This whole connection is a stretch,' Harrington told me. 'Barack was very well known in Chicago, and a highly respected legislator. It would be difficult to find people round here who never volunteered or contributed money to one of his campaigns.'" [Washington Post, 2/18/08]
Noam Scheiber Of TNR: "I Don't See Evidence Of Any Relationship" Between Obama And Ayers. Noam Scheiber of The New Republic wrote, "Ben says Ayers and Obama were, at best, casual friends. Even that seems to overstate things, though. I don't see evidence of any relationship. The only concrete connection we know of is the meeting, which was attended by a number of local liberals; their contemporaneous membership on the board of a local organization; and a $200-donation by Ayers to one of Obama's state senate campaigns. (Obama also once praised something Ayers had written about the juvenile justice system.) I'm not saying they couldn't have been casual friends; just that there isn't much evidence for that at this point." [The New Republic, 2/22/08]
Birdsell: Obama Links To Ayers Were "Pretty Slender Ties." The New York Sun reported, "'Those are pretty slender ties to a controversial figure,' the dean of Baruch College's School of Public Affairs, David Birdsell, said of Mr. Obama's links to Mr. Ayers." [New York Sun, 2/19/08]
RHETORIC: He was then asked about his association with William Ayers, a member of the Weather Underground, a radical group from the 1960s and '70s. Ayers was quoted after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, as saying he did not regret setting bombs and that "we didn't do enough." [Washington Post, 4/17/08]
REALITY: AYERS COMMENTS WERE PUBLISHED ON SEPTEMBER 11; THE INTERVIEW OCCURRED PRIOR TO PUBLICATION
On September 11, 2001, A Story About William Ayers' Memoir Was Published In The New York Times; The Interview Occurred Prior To Publication. "'I don't regret setting bombs,' Bill Ayers said. 'I feel we didn't do enough.' Mr. Ayers, who spent the 1970's as a fugitive in the Weather Underground, was sitting in the kitchen of his big turn-of-the-19th-century stone house in the Hyde Park district of Chicago." [New York Times, 9/11/01]
AYERS IS A TENURED PROFESSOR AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO AND WAS A "RESPECTED ADVISOR" TO MAYOR DALEY ON SCHOOL REFORM
Ayers Is A Professor Of Education At UIC. According to his website at UIC, "William Ayers is a school reform activist, Distinguished Professor of Education, and Senior University Scholar at the University of Illinois at Chicago where he teaches courses in interpretive research, urban school change, and youth and the modern predicament. He is the founder of the Center for Youth and Society and founder and co-director of the Small Schools Workshop. A graduate of the Bank Street College of Education and Teachers College, Columbia University, he has written extensively about social justice, democracy and education. His interests focus on the political and cultural contexts of schooling as well as the meaning and ethical purposes of teachers, students, and families." [Ayers UIC Site, Ayers Personal Site, Accessed 5/31/07]
Ayers Advised Chicago Mayor Richard Daley On School Reform Issues. Bill "Ayers is now mainstream -- an educator with distinguished professor status. He has written three books about education and has advised Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley on the subject of school reform." [AP, 10/14/01]
Terkel: Ayers Is A "Sensitive And Gifted" Writer And Teacher. Studs Terkel wrote, "William Ayers is as sensitive and gifted a chronicler as he is a teacher." [Beacon]
AYERS AND DOHRN BECAME RESPECTABLE FIXTURES OF THE MAINSTREAM IN CHICAGO
Bill Ayers And Bernadine Dohrn "Became Respectable Fixtures In Mainstream Liberal Chicago Years Ago." Alexander Cockburn wrote in and op-ed for the Las Vegas Review Journal, "Late last week, the Clinton campaign was leaking stories about support for Obama from the former Weather Underground couple Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, both of whom became respectable fixtures in mainstream liberal Chicago years ago." [Las Vegas Review Journal, 3/2/08]
CHARGES AGAINST AYERS WERE DROPPED AND HE SERVED NO TIME
- Charges Against Ayers Were Dropped Because "The Government's Case Was Based On Illegal Wiretaps." The New York Times reported, "William Ayers was a fugitive, too, for nine of those years, but the Federal charges against him, Miss Dohrn and other members of the revolutionary organization were dropped in 1979, when it was ruled that the Government's case was based on illegal wiretaps." [New York Times, 12/5/80]
Ayers "Served No Time." "William Ayers: Surrendered and pleaded guilty in 1980 to possession of explosives and served no time. Teaches early childhood development at the University of Illinois." [Boston Globe, 9/19/93]
A hilarious debate between an Obama and Clinton supporter:
Obama on the Miss Jones show in September, 2007:
At the start of the second part, listen to him demolishing the experience argument.
Philly City Paper Mike Newall on being a volunteer for Obama:
he elevator doors slide open into what feels like an adult kindergarten class. Campaign staffers pinball around the room like dizzied Duck Duck Goose contestants, stopping only to answer questions or direct traffic while volunteers leap for ringing phones, pound away at laptops, and huddle around tables covered with mounds of charted maps and voter scrolls. The carpet is a sea of crumpled paper and Dunkin' Donuts coffee cups, and the walls are plastered with magic marker Obama portraits and finger-painted campaign banners — the artwork of college students who have descended on the office en masse. There's a crowd in the kitchen chomping down on soft pretzels and tuna-fish hoagies, and the scene at the merchandise table resembles something you'd see on the floor of the Stock Exchange. Plus, everyone's wearing name tags.
Standing there, taking it all in, I half expect someone to recruit me for dodgeball, but instead I'm nearly stampeded by a group of large women bearing armfuls of Obama lawn signs. The leader of the pack accidentally spears me with her metal posts. "Sorry now, honey," she shouts before the elevator doors close in front of her.
I figured the place would be busy, but it's a Monday morning in early March, six full weeks before the primary, and there must be a hundred people here. The line at the volunteer registration table is 10 deep.
An excellent overview of the nuts and bolts of grassroots organizing.
In the same issue, the City Paper endorses Obama:
We should acknowledge up front that one reason for supporting Obama at this stage is a strategic one. The candidates are not coming in to Pennsylvania tied at zero; Obama has a non-negligible lead, and while Clinton could still pull out a win, the more likely outcome of a successful showing by her in the Keystone would be a long, drawn-out primary that ends with Obama victorious, but weakened. Philly's choice, then, is not so much between Clinton and Obama as it is between Obama and more of this primary. Meanwhile, McCain tours the country making his twisted case, and no one concentrates on refuting it. Pennsylvania would do well to end this undercard, and make itself the launching site for the fight against McCain. Call it the war against perpetual war.
If you feel, however, that a strategic vote is too cynical for you, never fear: Even without strategery, Obama should still be regarded as the preferable candidate. His track record is more assuring, and, at this moment when the country seems prepared to rebuke the Republican party, his ceiling so much higher.
We respect Hillary Clinton. We admire her grasp of policy and procedure, and, should she be elected, we like her chances of making major changes to America's obscene health care system (in fact, in an election where there are few actual policy differences between the candidates, Clinton's advantage on health care is an important one, and a real reason to consider choosing her). It should also be noted that she's made great strides in a society where women are still not comfortably received as executive figures, of breaking down those boundaries, and establishing new, better norms.
But we have major concerns with Clinton, too. She is, in many ways, a creature of the late 1990s and early 2000s — a Democrat who believes herself to be naturally in the minority, and who has to play defense by running to the right when threatened. She exhibited this tendency when she staunchly supported the war in Iraq, and she's exhibited it several times in this campaign. And though it's not necessarily Clinton's fault that she reacts this way — she was raised in that political environment — there is a legitimate concern that her name and history could mobilize the conservative base and take the country back to that unfortunate era.
Which brings us to Obama. It's true that some supporters of the Illinois senator can go a bit overboard at times, and also true that Obama is, in fact, not the messiah — witness his disappointing "Annie Oakley" comment, or the more general fact that, upon arriving in the Senate, Obama transformed from a progressive community activist to a broadly mainstream politician, in terms of his voting record.
But to say that someone isn't the messiah doesn't mean that he can't offer something new and different, and we believe Obama does. On questions of foreign policy — where the president's agenda is implemented most directly — Obama seems to be of a new era, in which Democrats can exhibit "toughness" not by offering fake tough talk or advocating for more war but by standing for diplomacy and the pursuit of peace, even when doing so seems politically risky. Not for nothing, but electing a candidate so steadfastly committed to cooperation could do wonders for America's troubled international relationships (his success in managing a huge national campaign — which he'd never done before — helps ease our concerns about his "experience" in these matters).
Pennsylvania will rise with the election of Obama as the next President of the US. The Philadelphia City Paper will rise right along with it, as it has shown that it has become a strong journalistic voice within Philadelphia, reporting on stories that the Very Important People will not touch. One of the nice things about this campaign is finding allies in our fight against the lies of the right.
Miss Monique interviews Barack Obama in October, 2007:
Thousands of people are coming to a rally for Obama in Philly tonight:
More on the Obama rally in Erie:
With the contest closing, Mr. Obama today turned to swelling oratory, aiming for a final glow by sketching a tableau of a nation mired in an unnecessary war in Iraq, weighted down by rising energy prices and dragged into an economic mire amid record home foreclosures.
"We can't wait to fix our schools, we can't wait to fix our health care system, we can't wait to bring good jobs here to Erie, Pennsylvania -- we can't wait," Mr. Obama told the crowd.
He was drowned out by chants of "We can't wait! We can't wait!" His sole swipe at Mrs. Clinton was a criticism of the business-as-usual attitude that he said was exemplified by her remarks that lobbyists have a role in the public debate over issues.
He promised that the sometimes bitter rivalry for the nomination would not harm the party's chances at the ballot box in the autumn.
"I know that a lot of people have been worried about how long this Democratic contest has been going," he said. "Let me tell you something: Our party will come together. Our party will come together in August.
"Not only will our party come together, but we're going to try to get the independent voters and disaffected Republicans."
Here is part of Obama's speech in Erie:
Petraeus concealed the fact that Maliki launched his offensive to undermine the McCain Doctrine:
General David Petraeus, in testimony before US congressional committees last week, portrayed Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's late March offensive in Basra as a poorly planned effort that departed from what US officials had expected.
What Petraeus, the US commander in Iraq, did not reveal is that Maliki was deliberately upsetting a Petraeus plan to put US and British forces into Basra for a months-long operation to eliminate the Mahdi Army from the city.
Petraeus referred to a plan for an operation to be carried out in Basra that he and his staff had developed with the head of the Basra Operational Command, General Mohan al-Furayji. But Petraeus carefully dodged a question from Senator Hillary Clinton about what resources he was planning to deploy to Basra and over what length of time.
Clinton evidently suspected that the plan envisioned the deployment of US troops on a large scale in the Shi'ite south, despite the fact that the Iraqi government is supposed to be responsible for security there. Petraeus responded vaguely that it was "a phased plan over the course of a number of months during which different actions were going to be pursued".
Reports in the British press indicated, however, that the campaign plan was based on the assumption that British and US troops would play the central role in an effort to roll up the Mahdi Army in Basra. The Independent reported March 21 that Furayji had publicly declared there would be a "final battle" in Basra, probably during the summer, and that Britain had already promised to provide military forces for the campaign. It quoted "senior government sources" as saying that Prime Minister Gordon Brown's earlier pledge to cut the number of British troops in the south from 4,100 to 2,500 would "almost certainly be postponed until at least the end of the year".
This is a trust issue -- why should we trust the Bush administration for another four years when his own allies are deliberately undermining his efforts to continue the occupation of Iraq? I furthermore suggest that the reason that Maliki did what he did was so that he could undermine a possible invasion of Iran by Bush or McCain -- Basra is right near the border with Iran. I suggest that given the fact that George Bush is a known liar given his lies during the leadup to the war with Iraq that Maliki simply doesn't trust him to do the right thing anymore.
Obama on the Colbert Report:
And Michelle:
Howard Dean calls on party leaders to end the race by July 1st:
Gas prices continuing to shatter records:
The average price for unleaded regular gas in the five-county Philadelphia area jumped three cents overnight and hit an all-time record high Friday, the AAA Mid-Atlantic automotive services organization said.
The average unleaded price of $3.38 for the Philadelphia area topped a record of $3.36 set on Sept. 7, 2005, following Hurricane Katrina.
Meanwhile, the average price for a gallon of diesel, which has been selling at all-time highs for several weeks, hit a new standard on Friday at $4.46.
Prices in South Jersey rose 4 cents overnight to $3.21 per gallon. Before this month, the all-time high had been $3.17 after Hurricane Katrina. The average diesel price in South Jersey Friday was a record $4.19 a gallon.
And once again, it is really interesting how the media continues to be stuck in the past. Instead of focusing on the issues that matter, they focus on issues that have nothing to do with the race whatsoever. It's not like Charlie Gibson or George Stephenopolous have any personal hardships because of the alarming rise in gas prices. So, there is a major difficulty on their part in their ability to relate to what the voters want this time around.
Booman on how Obama is winning:
Demographics represent one of the key elements of a new left-leaning governing majority. But that is true for any Democratic nominee, including Clinton. Obama, however, has a new and unfamiliar coalition of voters. On the one hand, Obama has attracted the liberal elites. These are college professors, urban and suburban professionals, people that work in performing arts, etc. This group is whiter, wealthier, and more educated than the Democratic Party as a whole. They have had a string of electoral champions and electoral disappointments. And one reason for those disappointments has been that the African-American community did not support Dean over Kerry, Bradley over Gore, Tsongas over Clinton, or Hart over Mondale.
But Obama has managed to create, for the first time, a coalition of liberal elites and African-American voters. As an aside here, as someone that has done political work in urban black neighborhoods and has been active in reforming the machine-driven politics of Philadelphia, this coalition is a dream come true.
But what does it mean that Obama has put together this coalition? And, here I must add, Obama is also attracting young people in droves and pulling in independents and some former Republicans. That's important because he needs an expanded base for the general election. Yet, Obama is doing all this without relying on 'lunchbucket' Democrats. And lunchbucket Democrats have been decisive in every Democratic primary since McGovern and every general election since FDR built his majority coalition.
This man has singlehandedly created a Third Party!
...I don't recall ASKING anyone to remake OUR party... ...they are actually a bastard third party.
There is nothing radically different about Obama's policies. Most people agree that his policies differ little from Clinton's. What's new is his base of support. And aside from young people who swing back and forth (see their support of Reagan), Obama's core support is still coming from loyal and reliable Democrats. Liberals and blacks are the most reliable Democrats. So, there is nothing too radical in his base supporters. What's new is only that his base is not built on 'lunchbucket' Democrats.
But moving back to policy, if there are not large differences between Clinton and Obama, what do lunchbucket Democrats have to fear? The answer is obvious: influence. They may not be the decisive voting bloc anymore in either Democratic primaries or general elections. And that makes some of them so uncomfortable that they view this new coalition as a 'bastard party'. They also share the view of many in the punditry class, that this new coalition is unelectable because its face (as opposed to its policies) are too liberal and too black.