March 5th: Let the healing begin

It seems now that the March 4th primaries will give Obama an insurmountable lead and the heated debates will be replaced by a unified front prepared to do battle with the vampire McCain. We need to unify our community for this important campaign.

As a progressive, I feel we must elect representatives and senators who will support an aggressive agenda and push President Obama to take the actions we desperately need. While Obama will lead the Democratic Party, I hope it is the agenda of Al Gore, with specific proposals coming in his new book in April, that will be our goal.

To that end, a few more comments and a poll.

I think that the view here in the Kosmos is more that of Gore than Obama. Specifically, I think there is support for the four major points of the Gore agenda:

1. Out of Iraq as quickly as possible

2. Universal, single-payer health care

3. Full restoration of all constitutional American liberties

4. Massive effort to combat global warming

Obama doesn't share these goals, but he is a decent man who will make some progress. It is up to us to light the fires that will allow him to see the superiority of our goals. How do we do that?

We do it by working hard to elect a progressive congress willing to fight for our shared goals. We needs to get huge Democratic majorities able to overcome GOP and blue dog obstructionism.

Once our candidate is settled, let's get to work. I ask everyone who has weighed in on the race to post the name of a worthy progressive candidate below. I'm working with America for Gore to find ways to help these candidates. I'm sure many of you will contribute to the success of the Democratic candidate for president. I'm calling you out on the other races, confident that we will haver great success in November.

Like many of you, I have not been an enthusiastic supporter of any of our dwindling pool of candidates. But that phase is coming to an end. No more whining. Time to saddle up and join the revolution!

That's enough, no links or photos of pooties. I just want to get people thinking about the task that lies ahead.

•  How do we know

  the Clintons won't move the goalposts again if they don't win both Ohio and Texas by large margins?

  Can anyone trust anything that spins out of their campaign from day-today?

  by Judgment at Nuremberg on Sat Feb 23, 2008 at 06:14:18 PM PDT

  •  We must expect some last throes

    Yes, especially in the next two weeks we'll see some unpleasantness. We need to be like quarterbacks. We have to develop the ability to forget such things quickly.

    We must move beyond petty quarrels. We have a nation, and planet, to save.

    by MakeChessNotWar on Sat Feb 23, 2008 at 06:18:18 PM PDT

    •  And it will end March 5

      If the good people of Texas and Ohio give Obama any sliver of a victory.

      Otherwise, the bleeding goes on for awhile.

      by XOVER on Sat Feb 23, 2008 at 06:22:34 PM PDT

    •  There is plenty of time left

      for Obama to prevail in both Ohio and Texas. If he prevails in either of these states, and keeps it close in the other, there will be enormous pressure on HRC to throw in the towel and allow the party to unify.

      In the mean time, let's all do what we can to enable the healing to begin on March 5th!

      by livosh1 on Sat Feb 23, 2008 at 06:23:33 PM PDT

  •  Obama's people are moving goalposts too

    Working the superdelegates and running email campaigns calling out the superdelegates at the same time. Ultimately, Obama has the upper hand where wheeling and dealing is involved...Clinton has been shown to lack strength in this regard.

    by Alice in Florida on Sat Feb 23, 2008 at 06:40:35 PM PDT

    •  No, Obama would be happy to end it now after 11

      straight wins but Obama's people always have a plan "B" since you can never trust what team Clinton will do regardless of what they say.

      So it's not a goalpost moving by Obama but simply planning ahead should the Clintons shift their Texas and Ohio goalposts. I expect them to do so, and already they are moving away from having to win both states big.  

      by Judgment at Nuremberg on Sat Feb 23, 2008 at 07:07:54 PM PDT

•  Expect Scorched earth from Hillary

  by cmpnwtr on Sat Feb 23, 2008 at 06:20:35 PM PDT

•  Someone is 2 pawns down

  with no positional compensation.

  by ben masel on Sat Feb 23, 2008 at 06:21:07 PM PDT

  •  And we are in the endgame

    Of course a good swindle can flip things. But Obama is not likely to blunder.

    by MakeChessNotWar on Sat Feb 23, 2008 at 06:22:42 PM PDT

  •  apologies.

    not in the spirit of the diary.

    Please hide, but don't pile on?

    by ben masel on Sat Feb 23, 2008 at 06:23:04 PM PDT

•  ::dryly::

  I gather you missed the news coming out of Nevada.

  We may eventually see some healing, but clearly it won't start March 5.

  Maybe August 25, maybe not.

  Maybe never...

  by Free Spirit on Sat Feb 23, 2008 at 06:21:53 PM PDT

  •  This primary battle

    shows we have our own little divide going on doesn't it?

    by cwaltz on Sat Feb 23, 2008 at 08:28:25 PM PDT

    •  Indeed...

      Not a recent development, either.

      BTW, August 25 is my birthday. Been wondering what Dr. Dean is going to get me this year. :-)

      Haven't seen you around lately. Nice to have you back if you've been away.

      by Free Spirit on Sat Feb 23, 2008 at 09:31:29 PM PDT

•  why do you say Obama

  does not share these goals?   #'s 1 & 3 are undeniable.  As far as #2, I think he does believe in single payer but knows it's not going to get there in one step.  It seems he doesn't want the world to end in global environmental demise as much as any of us.  I personally would like to go back to a hunter gatherer society but realize that it may take a few steps to get off additional to foreign oil.

  by fayea on Sat Feb 23, 2008 at 06:24:38 PM PDT

  •  whoooooopppps

    that's addiction to foreign oil

    by fayea on Sat Feb 23, 2008 at 06:26:08 PM PDT

  •  Action needed

    We need an effort the cpe of the Space Program to fight climate change. Single-payer won't happen if we don't fight for it. Obama plans to take steps in the right direction but we need to run, not walk.

    Obama is a candidate we can get behind but we'll need to kick him in the butt from time to time and give him a congress hungry for more change than Obama is willing to go for.

    Those of us who are Gore, Edwards or Kucinich supporters want more. But we have to do so while getting Obama elected by a comfortable (theft-proof) margin.

    by MakeChessNotWar on Sat Feb 23, 2008 at 06:30:09 PM PDT

  •  this is what the diarist means

    This is how Gore speaks:

    We face a true planetary emergency. The climate crisis is not a political issue, it is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity.

    Obama, right now, is a conventional politician. His job is to get elected first. He will try hard to do a good job, and he is definitely forward looking.

    But the flame, the great moral and spiritual force and the sense of high purpose that Gore possesses, Obama lacks. He still sees the environment as one issue on a list of issues--an important one, to be sure, but still one among many.

    How to ignite it, or failing that, how we can best try to compensate for it, is the question.

    by limpidglass on Sat Feb 23, 2008 at 06:40:43 PM PDT

•  Given her outburst today

  I think Mark Penn is inclined to take this to the convention, destroy Obama, and then work for the RNC.

  by IhateBush on Sat Feb 23, 2008 at 06:30:11 PM PDT

  •  Mark Penn is just one asshole

    We are legion, and will crush him like a bug if he gets in our way.

    by MakeChessNotWar on Sat Feb 23, 2008 at 06:31:16 PM PDT

    •  What's gonna happen

      when he goes to John McCain or the RNC for work this fall?

      I think that is Penn's plan, destroy Obama as much as he can, and then go work for McCain and the RNC with all his oppo research.

      by IhateBush on Sat Feb 23, 2008 at 06:34:17 PM PDT

      •  We can hope

        Maybe he can do for McCain what he did for Hillary...except that I don't think McCain can afford him, unless he offers sliding scale fees for Republicans...

        by Alice in Florida on Sat Feb 23, 2008 at 06:36:30 PM PDT

•  Before we heal she must give up officially

  That's when it starts.

  It's a Clinton trap to let any guards down now.

  Every effort to end this and stem the inter-party bleeding must be made now. And the best way is not to pretend everything is fine and make it worse by dragging this out, but by removing the Clintons off the stage as soon as possible. Their personal ambitions are in the way and they are only playing for 2012 now.

  by Judgment at Nuremberg on Sat Feb 23, 2008 at 06:35:27 PM PDT

•  i agree that healing will be needed

  but for that to happen, we need to wrap this nomination up with a bow for Senator Obama on March 4.  Phonebank, donate, and volunteer.  This thing needs to end for the good of the party, and the party has chosen.  We need to make sure that Hillary gets that message loud and clear on the fourth.
  I think that any sort of argument for her continued candidacy, bare wins in both big states, a big win in either one, anything that might convince her she's still in it will likely keep her in.  It is time to send a clear message- Wisconsin has made a motion to end this primary.  Let Texas and Ohio (along with Rhodes Island and Vermont) stand up to second it.

  by TobyRocksSoHard on Sat Feb 23, 2008 at 07:00:24 PM PDT