Obama Loses Florida to Hillary: Despite No Awarded Points January 30, 2008
Posted by newyearskids in General Obama, Primaries.Tags: Clinton, Florida, Obama, Voters
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Senator Clinton sought to emphasise her performance in the state, declaring it a welcome victory. The New York senator, fresh off her lopsided loss to Barack Obama in last weekend’s South Carolina primary, arranged a rally in the state as the polls were closing, an evident attempt to gain campaign momentum.
“I am thrilled to have had this vote of confidence that you have given me today and I promise you I will do everything I can to make sure not only are Florida Democratic delegates seated, but Florida is in the winning column for the Democrats in 2008,” she said.
Clinton and Obama collide next weeAmong the Democrats, Hillary Clinton won the primary beating rival Barack Obama in Florida.
However, this is just a symbolic win and it will have little impact on the Democratic presidential race.
Party delegates from Florida will not be allowed to participate in the national convention in November because of party sanctions.
The state delegates are being punished for going against the party schedule and holding polls on Tuesday. The national party wanted the polls to be held later in the year.
Despite that, the turnout was high. Some reports said about 2.5 million voters cast ballots, and nearly 400,000 people cast early or absentee ballots ahead of the primary.
k in a coast-to-coast competition for delegates across 22 states.
With split decisions in the Democratic contests so far, there is increased speculation that the nominating race will extend beyond February 5 when more than 1,600 delegates are at stake.
Bush’s Final State of The Union Address January 29, 2008
Posted by newyearskids in Obama in 08, Primaries.Tags: Bush, Economy, Iraq, Presidential Address, State of the Union, Troops
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With the presidents final State of the Union Address we saw him make many promises in regard to the economy and a statement saying that we should see a budget surplus by the year 2012. Well sir this came right after your proposal to make the current tax cuts permanent. I am not in office but I am pretty sure that the concept of trickle down theory never actual worked. Your rebates to the rich are only filling the pockets of the wealthy and not encouraging them to spend. In times such as these where markets fluctuate too much to predict with any level of certainty.
On to Energy security. According to our president we need to invest more in entrepreneurs and research and development for clean energy. Then he proceeds to say we need to invest in Clean Coal, Nuclear, and Batteries. Well all of those things are both hazardous to the environment and still use fuel sources that are NOT renewable. Then our president discusses the importance of reducing our green house gas emissions but yet still refuses to accept the idea of GLOBAL WARMING but rather encourages this Global Climate Change which is his way of saying well I wasn’t wrong on the Globabl Warming thing it’s just that it’s called Global Climate Change. Semantics sir Semantics. Then you profess trusting our scientists yet at the same time ignore the overwhelming scientific proof that Global Warming does exist. Nowhere is it getting colder sir only warmer so drop your semantical arguments and get with the program. No more double speak sir.
Next our president claims to have achieved great results and high levels of success with his NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND ACT. According to our president we are seeing record levels of reading and math scores with predominantly low income demographics. Well I think quickly we should take a look at how long this testing has been mandated and recorded. 8 years. I hope we start see improvement every year. That means that our educational system is doing something. BUT it does not mean that your bill has increased the quality of these schools. When a teacher is forced to teach a test we are encouraging our students to memorize and study only small examples of problems and reduce the level of critical thinking that takes place. We need to also find ways to increase the qualitative data as well as the quantitative data. Look at the amount of students attending college and the current GPA of those students. Are they prepared for the curriculum or were they only prepared for a standardized test?
“On matters of Justice we must trust in the words of our Fore Fathers.” He wants us to believe what our constitution says. Ok I will say I agree with you sir. DROP THE PATRIOT ACT. When did our Forefathers ever say that warrantless search and seizure was a good idea? When did it state that the use of a very ambigious label such as terrorist should be used in every possible scenario to invade the privacy of any citizen who dissents or distrusts in our current leadership? Sorry I must have missed that part of class. No I do not love Terrorists, I hate them as much as any other person, I will wait and hope for the safety of all of my friends and family in Iraq. But I do not think that it is necessary or constitutional to prey on people by labeling them without just cause. Drug Dealers are not terrorists, dissenters are not terrorists, protesters are not terrorists. You may not agree with the actions of many but treat them with a level of respect demanded by the Constitution of the United States.
Our president professes that when given the chance people will choose freedom over everything else. Well if that is the case then let them choose. Do not force democracy down the throats of the religious extremists. If they wish to rule their country by religious doctrine then help those who want to leave and let the rest stay. This would require us to open our borders though. If we wish to be the embodiment of freedom then we must allow ANYBODY to be free if they please. No I do not like the fact that many potential jobs will drop in their payment do to immigrants but this should force many of us to rise above a level of mediocrity.
On Iraq our president still insists that we are the victors thus far. A claim that our surge has worked and that we are ensuring that the “enemy does not return.” We are supposedly improving the daily life in Iraq and will not abandon the Iraqi’s who depend on us. I agree that we have helped a number of Iraqi’s in the wake of our invasion but we have also ruined the lives of many for reasons that did not exist. We are spending billions of dollars on a war that CAN NOT BE WON. “The American and Iraqi surges are achieving results that few of us could have imagined possible just a few months ago.” said our president. Sorry sir but I do not see the outcome you see. Our troops may be critical to the future of their country as you stated but they are also critical to the future of OUR country. They are critical to the future of OUR economy. They are critical to OUR safety. You say Al Qaeda can be defeated but it is not in Iraq where this will take place.
Beyond the rhetoric I am glad that we did not see a lot of nostalgia. I was not forced to sit through a dreamy afterthought of how our President viewed his presidency. We also got the good news of 20,000 troops coming home in the following months. Very good news. Just make sure that these troops are guaranteed their health and insurance upon their return. Do not ignore them and do not FAIL them. And I swear to God DO NOT SEND OUR TROOPS TO IRAN. The comments you made regarding Iran and the address you made to their leaders sound Eerily similar to the comments you made regarding Iraq. If you have any respect for our country sir PLEASE do not start another war. I do think it is great though, that you will allow the passing on of troops unused money for education and the like, to his family. This will encourage not only further education with our troops but to their families as well.
Advantage to Obama in 08 South Carolina Elections January 28, 2008
Posted by newyearskids in Obama Support, Obama in 08, Primaries.Tags: African American, Black Voters, Clinton, Obama, South Carolina
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“Before they started getting into the ugly stuff, I really wanted Hillary to win,” Bryan said as a stylist cut her hair inside a tiny salon at the corner of Sea Island Parkway and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. “I prayed about it, and I decided I was going to back Obama.”
As a black woman, Jeanettea Bryan had been waiting eight years to cast a presidential vote for Hillary Rodham Clinton, until the rhetoric in the Democratic primary got rough and racial.
Whoever was to blame for the nasty tone of the South Carolina race in its final days, it caused the 45-year-old nanny to question her loyalties.
Bill Clinton, Bryan says, was the one president who deserved a third term. Barring that, she’d wanted Sen. Clinton to run since her husband left office in 2000.
But reminders of America’s racial divisions run deep on this quiet sea island that’s home to many blacks descended from the slaves who worked its plantations. Bryan switched her support to the man who would be America’s first black president.
While blacks overwhelmingly favored Obama, the exit poll showed he got only about 25 percent of the white vote. The racial split raises fresh questions about whether Obama can win in states outside the South, despite his early victory in overwhelmingly white Iowa.
In South Carolina, scene of plenty of racially tinged campaigns, black voters who had been leaning toward Clinton turned against her after the mudslinging with Obama became more personal.
“African-American leaders took umbrage with the Clintons, who otherwise are seen as supporters of the African-American community, for what they saw as slights and insults” aimed at Obama, said Todd Shaw, a political science professor at the University of South Carolina who specializes in racial politics.
Barack Obama’s supporters chanted “Race doesn’t matter” at a Columbia rally Saturday after his landslide victory in South Carolina. But black voters here, the first primary state where they counted in large numbers, said the chance to send a black man to the White house mattered greatly, even if it wasn’t their first concern.
“African-American leaders took umbrage with the Clintons, who otherwise are seen as supporters of the African-American community, for what they saw as slights and insults” aimed at Obama, said Todd Shaw, a political science professor at the University of South Carolina who specializes in racial politics.
An exit poll conducted for The Associated Press and the networks showed eight in 10 black voters backed Obama. They made up 55 percent of voters Saturday in South Carolina, which shattered its Democratic primary record with more than 532,000 ballots cast.
“It was pretty much a no-brainer,” said Warren Bolden, 57, a retired maintenance man who voted for Obama in Columbia. “I was raised in the Civil Rights era. I remember when it was said blacks couldn’t play quarterback in the NFL, they didn’t have the brain power. Our kids should see we can be whatever we want to be.”
He’ll have a tougher time in states such as California, where blacks make up a far smaller share of the electorate.
“His challenge will be to get larger shares of white Democrats,” Black said. “I think he’ll go back to his main issues and not talk so much about race. Now you would assume he’ll get the majority of African-American votes.”
Oddly, while Obama’s campaign has inspired hope in many black voters, his race has dredged up decades-old anxiety and fear in others.
Factory worker Loretta Miller, 54, limited her choices to Clinton and John Edwards when she went to her precinct in rural Orangeburg, site of the 1968 “Orangeburg massacre” in which state police fired on demonstrators trying to desegregate a bowling alley, killing three civil rights protesters and wounding 27.
She couldn’t bring herself to vote for Obama, “though I would love for him to win,” because she was too afraid Obama would suffer the fate of two other heroes of black Americans — John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.
“Maybe I’m wrong, but I think we’re not quite ready for that, a black man being president,” said Miller, whose concerns were echoed by other black voters interviewed. “I don’t want him to get hurt.”
“It takes a lot of money to win the presidency, and I had my doubts about whether he could do it,” Wright said with a grin. “But when I saw Oprah, it was over.”
Kenneth Wright wasn’t sold on Obama at first. The self-employed house painter, folding his clean shirts and jeans at a coin laundry in Charleston, recalled previous black presidential hopefuls, the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, as more symbolic candidates than serious contenders.
Obama seemed different to Wright after he drove 115 miles last month to see the Illinois senator at a campaign stop with celebrity supporter Oprah Winfrey. Wright found himself in a crowd of 30,000 people, and decided Obama had a real shot at the White House.
Mistakes for Obama in 08 Anger some Democrats as Race Tightens January 24, 2008
Posted by newyearskids in General Obama, Obama Support, Obama in 08.Tags: Democrat, Mistake, Obama, Obama in08, Vote
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Democratic race gets closer, poll shows
The race for the Democratic presidential nomination is tightening as voters say they want both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama on a national ticket, a Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times poll shows.Clinton leads Obama, 42 percent to 33 percent, down from the 24-point advantage she held in December. Three out of five supporters of each candidate say they would like Clinton or Obama to choose the other as a running mate.
Among Republicans, John McCain tops the field with 22 percent, followed closely by Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney. The biggest change in the poll is the shift from former front-runner Rudy Giuliani, whose support plummets almost by half to 12 percent since a survey last month.
The poll of 1,541 adults included 1,312 registered voters and had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points for both groups. For the 532 Democratic primary voters, the margin is 4 points; for the 337 Republicans, it is 5 points.
Barack Obama angered fellow Democrats in the Illinois Senate when he voted to strip millions of dollars from a child-welfare office on Chicago’s west side. But Obama had a ready explanation: He goofed.
“I was not aware that I had voted no,” he said that day in June 2002, asking that the record be changed to reflect that he “intended to vote yes.”
During his eight years in state office, Obama cast more than 4,000 votes. Of those, according to transcripts of the proceedings, he said six did not reflect his true intent because he hit the wrong button.
The rules allow Illinois lawmakers to clear up a mishap if they suffered from a momentary case of stumbly fingers . But some lawmakers say the practice also offers a way to placate both sides of a difficult issue. Even if a lawmaker claims an error, the actual vote stands and the official record merely shows the senator’s “intent.”
A spokesman for Obama said the mistaken votes were not a meaningful issue. “Legislators often have just a few seconds to cast a vote, so after thousands of votes they’re bound to make a few mistakes,” Tommy Vietor said.
Youth Love Obama in 08 January 24, 2008
Posted by newyearskids in Obama Support, Obama in 08.Tags: Crowd, Obama, Obama in 08, Student, Young People, Youth
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Obama, who gained a significant boost with the endorsement of talk show queen Oprah Winfrey, is on a feverish tour of colleges and universities, and is often accompanied by hugely popular young artists such as the singer Usher and comedian Chris Tucker.
The youngest runner in the White House race, 46-year-old Barack Obama, hopes his rapport with young voters will translate into victory at Saturday’s Democratic primary in South Carolina.
His campaign hopes that his own youth and message of unity and change will inspire a large chunk of voters in South Carolina, where more than 600 000 voters are under 30.
“I’m so happy to see people my age getting involved,” said Trottie, outfitted in a black leather jacket decorated with cartoon characters on the back.
“He’s an inspiration for young people,” said Kelonda Trottie, 19, a student who turned out along with 600 of her peers at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina to hear the Illinois senator speak Wednesday.
While Obama’s rival, former first lady Hillary Clinton, left South Carolina after a debate earlier this week to continue her campaign in other key primary states, Obama stayed on and is focusing his attention on schools.
Young people, many of whom like Trottie are preparing to vote for the first time in a presidential election, turn out in droves to hear a speech by the son of a Kenyan father and white American mother.
The atmosphere is relaxed. Many students keep their baseball caps and hats on. Speakers blast rock and roll or rhythm and blues while the crowd waits for Obama to appear.
Some, like Lori Bass, 25, admit they are undecided. Bass says she will probably pick either Obama or former senator John Edwards, who won the state’s Democratic primary four years ago when campaigning on John Kerry’s ticket.
Thomas Kay, 20, says he was first drawn by Obama’s proposal for a 4,000 dollar tax credit on student tuition, because education costs are high.
When Obama arrives, a little bit later than scheduled, the students jump to their feet and give him a standing ovation.
Chants of “Obama, Obama,” compete with the blasting sounds of Irish rock group U2’s song “City of Blinding Lights,” which is habitually played whenever Obama comes out on stage.
Obama’s oft-repeated message of “unity” resonates with young voters, and his appeal to independents and Republicans who are disappointed with the record of President George W. Bush’s administration is seductive to the students.
Some students carry signs that read: “Unity is here,” and shouts of agreement from the crowd regularly punctuate Obama’s speeches.
Then, it was Obama’s call to unity that sealed the deal.
“I personally think Hillary is divisive. Obama is a much more uniting person,” says Kay.
Obama elicits grins when he mentions a news report, released some months ago, that said Lynne Cheney, the wife of Vice President Dick Cheney, had been doing research on a memoir when she uncovered shared family lineage between her husband’s ancestors and Obama’s.
“I would have preferred George Washington,” Obama says, referring to America’s first president and eliciting laughs from his admirers.
When the crowd’s interest appears to wane, Obama punches it back up with the question: “Are you ready for change?”
“Yeah,” shouts the audience in response. And when Obama rounds up his speech after 50 minutes, a young female voice cries: “Obama, we love you!”
Afterward, a black student asks Obama if his skin color is a handicap in his White House bid.
“Imagine if John F. Kennedy had looked up at the moon and said, ‘That’s too far.’” Obama replies.
Boogie Down Bureaucrat’s: Dance Battle Obama in 08 January 23, 2008
Posted by newyearskids in Obama Support, Obama in 08, Primaries.Tags: Black President, Clinton, Dance, Debate Obama in 08, Hillary, Obama, Primary
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In the most bitter, personal, finger-wagging clash yet between Obama and Clinton in the nearly yearlong presidential campaign, Obama for the first time slammed Clinton as a one-time “corporate lawyer” who served on Wal-Mart’s board while he was working as an organizer on the streets of Chicago.
Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton brawled Monday night during a tension-filled debate here in advance of Saturday’s South Carolina primary, where John Edwards joined with Clinton in pummeling Obama about his present votes while a state senator in Illinois.
Obama brought up Clinton’s tenure on Wal-Mart – many Democratic activists consider the retail giant anti-labor – in the context of defending comments he made about former President Ronald Reagan being a transformative figure who lured Democrats into the GOP during an interview with a Nevada newspaper.
That opened the door for Clinton to hurl back that while she was “fighting against” Reagan’s “ideas,” Obama was “practicing law and representing your contributor, [Tony] Rezko in his slum landlord business in inner city Chicago.”
Clinton’s reference was to a Chicago Sun-Times investigation that revealed legal work Obama did for a major political patron, Rezko, currently facing trial on federal fraud charges. Obama took campaign donations from Rezko even as Rezko’s low-income housing empire was collapsing, leaving many African-American families in buildings with problems,” the Sun-Times reported. Obama replied that he did only about five hours of work for Rezko, and Clinton did not bring it up again.
“Sen. Obama, it’s hard to have a straight-up debate with you because you never take responsibility for any vote,” Clinton said, earning boos from the audience. “That’s not yes, that’s not no, that’s maybe,” Clinton said.
Turning to Obama, Edwards said it was “important” whether “you are willing to take hard positions . . . what I didn’t hear was an explanation.”
Clinton first and then, unexpectedly, Edwards, ganged up on Obama over some 130 present votes he took as a state senator. Clinton has been dogging Obama on those votes from Iowa through New Hampshire and Nevada.
The fireworks came in a debate co-sponsored by CNN and the Congressional Black Caucus Institute on the national holiday celebrating the birthday of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in a state where race is likely to be a factor and half the primary vote is expected to be African-American.
Obama is heading into the South Carolina primary as a favorite and Clinton, already looking ahead to the Feb. 5 “Super Tuesday” contests, was going to other states after the debate, to return to the Palmetto State on Thursday night.
For a short time in the two-hour encounter between Obama, the first viable African-American contender; Clinton, the first viable female and Edwards the white male, things cooled off when the discussion turned to race.
Noting that former President Bill Clinton is often called the “first black president,” Obama was asked if he shared that opinion.
First, said Obama, he would have to investigate Bill Clinton’s “dance abilities” to more accurately judge “if he is a brother.” Clinton said that could be arranged.
For More information on the Presidential Election in 2008, check out the Election Blog.
Times on Islam, Racism & Obama in 08 Rumors. January 17, 2008
Posted by newyearskids in Obama in 08.Tags: Clinton, Democratic, Hillary, Islam, Muslim, Obama, Obama in 08, Racism, Win
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“Let’s make clear what the facts are: I am a Christian. I have been sworn in with a Bible. I pledge allegiance [to the American flag] and lead the pledge of allegiance sometimes in the United States Senate when I’m presiding.”
Mr Obama is a member of Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ and is an actively practising Christian. But opponents, particularly on the Republican side, delight in reminding people that his middle name is Hussein, taken from his father, a Harvard educated economist who left the family when Mr Obama was two.
After a deeply acrimonious dispute between Hillary Clinton and Mr Obama over the issue of race, which has dominated the campaign for over a week, the two blamed aides and campaign surrogates for the controversy and jointly pledged, on Martin Luther King’s birthday, to put the matter behind them.
Yet both sought to gain the advantage on other issues. Mr Obama accused Mrs Clinton of taking a page from President Bush’s playbook with earlier statements that the next commander-in-chief could expect to be tested quickly by terrorists – and that the next president would not have time to learn on the job.
Mr Obama said: “When Senator Clinton uses the spectre of a terrorist attack… I think that is part and parcel with what we’ve seen, the use of the fear of terrorism in scoring political points, and I think that’s a mistake.”
Asked during the NBC debate whether she had meant to say terrorists would test Mr Obama more than her, Mrs Clinton replied, “No, of course not,” before adding, “it matters who’s president.”
The debate comes four days before Nevada’s Democratic caucuses. In contrast to previous contests in predominately white Iowa and New Hampshire, Hispanic voters and union muscle in Las Vegas will have a big say in who prevails.
Mr Obama has been endorsed by the state’s biggest union, but Mrs Clinton is being backed by several smaller trade organisations. This led her husband Bill to tell an audience in Nevada yesterday that Mr Obama was the “establishment” candidate in the Silver State and his wife the insurgent – a new interpretation on the Democratic race.
John Edwards, who is pressing on despite his losses in Iowa and New Hampshire, is hoping for victory in Nevada to keep his campaign alive. He was boosted by a poll this week which showed the three candidates in a close race, with Mr Obama just ahead. He was the third candidate on stage.
On the corrosive dispute over the subject of race in recent days, Mr Obama said “not only in hindsight, but going forward,” he regretted that his staff had prodded reporters to pursue the issue. He was confronted with a four-page memo put together by an aide listing statements made by the Clinton camp that could be construed as racist.
Mr Obama, seeking to become America’s first black president, said: “Our supporters, our staff, get overzealous. They start saying things that I would not say.” He said memos such as that were not the way he wanted to run his campaign.
Mrs Clinton said: “We both have exuberant and sometimes uncontrollable supporters. We need to get this campaign where it should be.”
The Clinton campaign in particular believed the dispute about race was damaging the former First Lady’s White House bid. It erupted last week when, trying to make a point about presidential leadership, she said it took a president – Lyndon Johnson – to turn Dr King’s dream about racial equality into law. Black leaders condemned her for appearing to diminish the Civil Rights leader’s legacy. Mrs Clinton accused the Obama campaign of “deliberately distorting” her remarks.
But the race row has caused much damage within the Democratic party and the message appeared not to have fully spread among surrogates. Charles Rangel, a veteran black congressman and Clinton supporter, accused Mr Obama of playing the race card in just one instance on a day when aides in both camps continued the insults and accusations.
Last night Mrs Clinton said comments at the weekend about Mr Obama by Robert Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television and one of her prominent African American supporters, were inappropriate. But she demurred when asked if she would bar him from playing a role in her campaign. Mr Johnson appeared to make a clear reference to Mr Obama’s youthful, and acknowledged, drug use, something which led to the forced resignation of another Clinton campaign advisor last year.
After Mr Obama’s victory in Iowa and Mrs Clinton’s stunning comeback in New Hampshire, the Democratic race is close and hard fought between two well-funded candidates. Both want to win Nevada. It would not only be a boost, but will influence voters’ perceptions in California, the biggest prize on February 5, “Super Tuesday”, where Hispanic voters will play a significant role.
Can Obama Really Win in 08? New Statesman Report January 17, 2008
Posted by newyearskids in Obama in 08, Primaries.Tags: Bill, Clinton, Democratic, Harvard, Hillary, Obama, Obama in 08, Race, Win
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In Britain, we fail to understand how deep the fissures around race in America can be. Before the end of this election, all efforts will be used to discredit Obama
I have just returned from the United States, where political insult and invective hit lows that would be considered beyond the pale in Britain. Race and sex stir deep emotions and there are undoubtedly deep hostilities in the presidential contest.
Barack Obama is the first viable black American candidate for the presidency. He has the wit to realise that if he panders to “special interests” and is seen as the candidate of the blacks, he has no chance of succeeding; thus his efforts to reach a wide audience have seen him characterised as “not black enough”.
In Britain, we fail to understand how deep the fissures around race in America can be. Before the end of this election, all efforts will be used to discredit Obama. To some, the idea of a black president is still unthinkable.
Many of us are waiting to see whether Obama will add flesh in terms of policies to the brilliance of his oratory. But what cannot be denied is his huge intelligence. Last week in this magazine, Andrew Stephen suggested that “far from being the brilliant student . . . Obama was a consistently B-grade pupil”, who ended up at a none-too-great liberal arts college before moving to Columbia University and then Harvard Law School. But this trajectory could not be achieved by a B-grade brain. Columbia is very competitive and places at Harvard Law School are highly prized.
Obama went on to become the first black president of the Harvard Law Review, the most prestigious of legal journals, which had been an exclusionary zone to women and blacks. He was the first black person to break the barrier.
Obama’s political team has been criticised for allowing the media to interview his very elderly Kenyan “grandmother”. Stephen wrote: “The only problem was that the woman in rural Kenya was not Obama’s grandmother but the alleged foster mother of Obama’s father.” Obama has written about his father’s foster mother, who was not his birth mother but was in every other respect his parent. It should not be presented as a manufactured relationship.
There have been suggestions that Obama’s opposition to the war may be a recent invention since he was not able to vote in the Senate in 2002. But Obama was in the Illinois state legislature and, unlike Hillary Clinton, was highly vocal in his opposition to the war.
Nor is it true that there is little difference politically between the leading Democrats. There is an important difference. The only Democratic candidate who does not totally oppose “enhanced interrogation techniques” is Clinton. She has said there may be circumstances in which special methods of interrogation might be used on the authorisation of the president. Such a position is an assault on the absolute prohibition on torture. Politicians who betray their ideals to secure power rarely recover those ideals once in office.
Obama is now being patronised as a “kid” and a purveyor of “fairy tales” by Bill Clinton. These insults echo a past in which black people in America were not dignified with adulthood but were referred to as “boys”.
Racism: Hillary Clinton Chats with Barack Obama in 08 Elections January 17, 2008
Posted by newyearskids in Obama in 08, Primaries.Tags: Black, Clinton, Obama, Obama in 08, Racial, Racism, Racist, white
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On Martin Luther King’s birthday, the leading Democratic presidential candidates promised to put bickering over race behind them, blaming overzealous staffers for a string of recent statements that many political observers said risked alienating voters as the primary season moves to contests with many minority voters.
Nevada, whose population is 25 percent Latino, holds caucuses on Saturday and is being closely watched by voters in several Western states, including California, where the candidates are trying hard to woo the support of Latino voters.
Sen. Hillary Clinton blamed “exuberant and sometimes uncontrollable supporters,” referring to comments by a black businessman who alluded to Obama’s drug use as a teenager. Robert Johnson, founder of the Black Entertainment Television, later said he was referring to Obama’s community organizing efforts.
Obama suggested his staff may have been too eager to push a story about Clinton’s comments in Newsweek that President Lyndon Johnson had as much to do with winning civil rights for African-Americans as Martin Luther King. She cited Johnson’s signature on the Civil Rights Act, but later called King one of “our heroes.”
“Our supporters, our staff, get overzealous,” Obama said, adding “They start saying things that I would not say.”
Race and ethnicity boiled to the top as Clinton and Obama are locked in tight contests in Nevada and South Carolina, where half of the voters in the Democratic primary on Jan. 26 are expected to be African-American. When NBC’s “Meet the Press” moderator Tim Russert asked Obama if he believed a Clinton pollster’s statement that Latino voters have not “shown a lot of willingness or affinity to support black candidates,” Obama said, “Not in Illinois. They all voted for me.”
Clinton said her campaign staffer was making a historical statement, adding, “We need to have a political system where people feel like they can vote for anybody because we are all on the same page.”
Rep. Mike Honda, D-Campbell, said it was helpful to play down the differences with so many minority voters poised to go to the polls on Feb. 5, when California and more than 20 other states, including Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico, which also have large Latino populations, will vote. He was in Las Vegas to draw attention to Asian-American issues and is remaining neutral in the Democratic primary.
“They behaved. They took the high road,” Honda said.
The two-hour debate, sponsored by African-American and Latino groups and aired on MSNBC and in Spanish on NBC-owned Telemundo, was mostly a polite affair.
Clinton and Obama debated cordially over whether a president needs to be a manager, something Clinton stressed was important to achieve results from bureaucracy, or a visionary, a trait Obama said has been sorely missing during the Bush presidency. They finally agreed that a president should be both.
Sen. John Edwards, given an opportunity to ask a question of his rivals, pointedly asked what the pharmaceutical and insurance companies, both major contributors to Clinton and Obama, might expect: “Do you think these people expect something or are they just interested in good government?” he asked.
Obama pointed out he does not take money from federal lobbyists or political action committees, but would not turn down a contribution from a mid-level executive at a company who is inspired by him.
Noting that the subprime mortgage crisis was having a disproportionate effect on Latinos and African-Americans, Clinton said she was outraged that “Countrywide gets bought and the CEO, who was one of the architects of this whole subprime mess, is sent off with $100 million – $100 million in severance pay.”
Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich had sued NBC to be included in the debate, but the Nevada Supreme Court ruled against him just before the debate began.
As the race in Nevada enters the final stretch, Clinton and Obama have mostly tailored their campaign messages to Latinos in particular.
The strategy is hinged in large part on reaching California Latinos, said political observers. Latinos could make up 20 percent or more of the Democratic turnout in California.
“Nevada opens the door to the west. It’s really close to California and Super Tuesday,” said Jaime A. Regalado, director of the Edmund G. “Pat” Brown Institute of Public Affairs at Cal State-Los Angeles.
Underscoring the importance of California, Obama and Clinton are planning trips to the state before Saturday’s Nevada caucus. Obama is scheduled to hold a round-table discussion with women in San Francisco on Thursday morning, in addition to holding fundraisers in Atherton and San Francisco. Clinton’s campaign is planning stops in Southern California and Santa Barbara on Thursday. And Bill Clinton will be campaigning for his wife in Oakland today to talk about the subprime mortgage crisis.
From the Times in London: Clinton Tied w/ Obama in 08 January 17, 2008
Posted by newyearskids in Obama in 08, Primaries.Tags: Clinton, Edwards, Election, Huckabee, Obama, Obama in 08, Tied
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Though Mrs Clinton has regained some momentum since her surprise win in last week’s New Hampshire primary, her comeback has failed to halt Mr Obama’s rise in the polls on the back of his sweeping victory in the Iowa caucus on January 3.
A surging Barack Obama has wiped out Hillary Clinton’s once substantial poll lead in the race for the Democratic nomination and is now in a virtual tie nationally with the former first lady, according to a poll released today.
The one-time presumptive nominee held a 21-point edge over Mr Obama in October, a lead which he had cut to 8 points by December. The latest Reuters/Zogby poll, however, indicates she now leads Mr Obama by just 39 to 38 percent. With the 1-point gap well within the poll’s margin of error of 4.7 points, the results mean she can no longer lay claim to frontrunner status.
“This the definition of a hard-fought race,” John Zogby, the pollster, said.
Mr Obama, the young Illinois senator who would be America’s first black president, and Mrs Clinton – who hopes to be the first woman in the Oval Office – were effectively deadlocked among a variety of groups, including men, women, Democrats and independents. However Mr Obama commanded a substantial lead of 65 percent to 15 percent among black voters. Taken on Thursday and Friday last week, at the height of a heated row between Mr Obama and Mrs Clinton on Martin Luther King’s role in the civil rights movement, the poll indicates that the incident may have damaged her standing among African-Americans.
However in an unexpected turnaround, Mr Obama has all but lost his once commanding lead among voters under age 24, but has leached support from Mrs Clinton among voters aged 55 to 69, normally one of her strengths.
“This is an unbelievably close race at almost every level,” Mr Zogby commented.
John Edwards, the former North Carolina senator and the only other major Democratic contender still in the race, was trailing in a distant third place with 9 p
On the Republican side, John McCain charged to the front of an increasingly volatile presidential field, soaring past Mike Huckabee and a wilting Rudy Giuliani as the opening contests of the 2008 White House campaign dramatically reshaped the races in both parties. However the poll will not reflect any shift in dynamics following yesterday’s Michigan Republican primary, in which Mitt Romney, the former Massachussetts governor, beat Mr McCain by 39 percent to 30 percent. Mr Huckabee came in third with 16 percent.
Mr Romney stormed to victory in Michigan on the back of a promise to revitalise the economically beleaguered state, which, while once the powerhouse of the US automotive industry, now has some of the highest poverty and unemployment rates in the country. The Reuters/Zogby poll found that economic concerns are growing in prevalence among American voters, and suggested that the malaise would increasingly filter their views on the presidential election.
However that is not necessarily good news for Mr Romney’s presidential bid, as many voters thought they would be better off with a Democrat in the White House. 20.1 percent said Mrs Clinton would be best for their financial situation, making her the top choice. Some 17.5 percent were unsure, and 13.6 percent picked Mr Obama. Mr McCain led Republicans with just 10.9percent of the vote, followed by Mr Romney at 8 percent.
“We’re no longer waiting for the economy to be the No. 1 (election) issue. It is far and away the issue,” Mr Zogby said.“Democrats have a very simple message on the economy: It stinks. It’s Bush’s fault. A Republican can’t say that.”
Republican voters have now nominated three different candidates in the three state contests so far, leaving no candidate able to claim the advantage in a wide open race.
Democrats also held a primary in Michigan but a dispute over the date of the vote led the national party to strip the state of its delegates to this summer’s presidential nominating convention, leaving the contest meaningless.
The survey found only marginal support for a potential independent candidacy by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has flirted with the idea of a third-party run for the White House while officially denying any interest.
But, after Mrs Clinton’s dramatic New Hampshire win confounded pollsters who were predicting a double-digit victory for Mr Obama, it is likely that few pundits will be staking their careers on the latest findings.
ercent in the national poll.
