Positive Obama thread

Regarding the supposed "broken telemprompter" - that's a myth.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/jonathanmartin/0908/The_teleprompter_did_not_break.html?showall

Happy to see that Biden, et al are already on the counter-offensive.  If anyone's interested in a detailed description/account of Palin, good and bad, I'm came across this letter to the Washington Post: 

http://my2bucks.wordpress.com/2008/09/02/a-letter-from-someone-who-has-known-sarah-palin-since-1992/

I thought it was interesting that the writer made a special point of saying that she feels relatively safe criticizing Palin as she doesn't work outside the home and can't be fired.  One major tendency of Palin's character and governing style that comes through when you read about her is her vindictiveness.  No wonder McBush likes her! 

I am going to make a nominal donation to Obama (already made 2 this week) to show my support.  I am proud to be part of Obama's "Palin bounce"!

I have had this week off, in between projects, and using the time to do my 90-day follow-ups, giving me extraordinary amount of time to watch the cable news outlets.  Sarah is an inspiring woman, but I can't see how she will attract Hillary supporters.

And, like I said before, she has way too much baggage.  Passing her baby around last night while she delivered a host of prepared, insulting, condascending, pithy one-liners against Obama and anyone who supports him will backfire.

Are you people for real. Obama cannot speak without a teleprompter - that is why he refused to have town hall meetings with McCain. When asked to speak off the cuff all you get is uh, uh, duh, uh, um, well........ if it's not scripted he's lost!

LA:  Love the bumper sticker!   I saw another one the other day, it said:

"Get out of Iraq and into New Orleans"....  

I didn't watch McCain's speech, but in looking at all the pundits reviews it was lackluster at best.  No soulutions, no plan just more of the "I was a POW" stuff.  While I certainly admire his service to our country, that was some 40 years ago.  He's getting like Giuliani - every other word is "911"

Palin's vitriolic, venomous speech is backfiring on her.  How dare she scoff at community service and community organization. 

So, to recap..

 Palin can deliver a speech written by someone else.  

John McCain can't fill a high school auditorium for his speech (hence, the "Town Hall" style acceptance).  The repubs actually said they knew he couldn't compete with that and that he is "uncomfortable" standing behind a podium.  So, it was "their" decision to change up the style.

There is nothing new, no solutions, no plan, just "attack the other party".

Palin's nasty attacks caused people to donate on line to the Obama/Biden ticket to the tune of 10 million dollars.  I hope she "reads another speech" real soon.   We could see 20 mil.

Can't wait for the debates.  Don't know which will be better, Obama vs McCain or Biden vs Palin.

Have a good day everyone! 

haha, I misstyped it as nulcear, sorry!

LAPhoenix, here's a clip of the Daily Show you mentioned:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1lCMH8rlHE

So great!  Toward the end, you'll hear how Dick Morris and SARAH PALIN said Hillary Clinton should "stop playing the gender card" and "quit whining" -- just to remind us how totally hypocritical it will be if all criticism of Palin is called "sexist"!

(P.S. In the clip, Karl Rove says SP was mayor of the "2nd largest city in Alaska", but it was really the 5th-largest)

Nucular!  Apparently mispronouncing that is a conservative badge of honor.  Of course, Carter was the one that started that trend back in the 70s. 

I wouldn't normally discuss fashion, but there's been a lot of buzz about Cindy's opening night outfit and how much it was worth--an estimated $300,000.  At least Palin's outfit was more in tune with the narrative she's projecting.

I read McCain's speech and watched clips.  It read better than it sounded.  The whole "future" theme doesn't quite resonate when spoken by a 72-year-old man.  And how do you sell the idea that you're an agent for change and acknowledge that change is needed, when you're a proud member of the party that created the mess in the first place, and you voted with that party time after time?  It all comes back to that.  Own your failures. 

I think they're also keeping Palin away from the press because they don't want her responding to questions about the various scandals she's linked to (with more to come apparently) and getting on the record about them.  If she's not on the record denying anything, it won't seem as bad when she's implicated I guess. 

I too was hugely offended by the Repugs' snarky, disparaging of community organizers.  It wasn't just Palin who did it.  Giuliani was also jumping on that cynical bandwagon.  I hope it does backfire on them.  I also think the people of NYC should somehow collectively tell the Repugs to stop using their tragedy to promote their fear-mongering agenda.  They have no shame.     

I watched Obama's interview with O'Reilly, the first of 3 or 4 parts.  I thought Obama handled it pretty well.  I'm sure he didn't persuade anyone in O'Reilly's audience, but at least he took him on and answered his questions.  I'd love to see Palin being interviewed by Olbermann, but apparently that's not going to happen because she's too busy studying for the test and meeting with her lawyers!   

LA-  the repugs are disgraceful..  they have been playing the twin towers card for 7 years.  As a New Yorker, I find it offensive and I can assure you I am not alone in that sentiment.  Just shows you they will do anything to try to win. 

Amy:  Could you imagine if Tim Russert were here and  could get Palin in the hot seat?  Boy I miss that man.  He would have loved this!!!!

The "community" that Jesus organized, i.e. the Christians, crucified him?  It wasn't the establishment led by Pontius Pilate?  The point of the bumper sticker is to say that community organizers work for the poor and disenfranchised, for little money.  Just like mayors, they work hard.  They don't get any percs of elected office but they get lots of person-to-person contact and learn how to, well, organize and get things done on shoestring budgets.  

Since you seem so interested in Obama, here's a description of his organizing work in Chicago, from an article in U.S. News and World Reports.  Please note that the community he worked in was about the same size as Wasilla:

"In 1985, he moved to Chicago to work with local churches organizing job training and other programs for poor and working-class residents of Altgeld Gardens, a public housing project where 5,300 African-Americans tried to survive amid shuttered steel mills, a nearby landfill, a putrid sewage treatment plant, and a pervasive feeling that the white establishment of Chicago would never give them a fair shake.

Jerry Kellman, a social activist who recruited Obama, recalls, "He was very bright, very articulate, very personable, and very idealistic," inspired by civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.'s philosophy of nonviolence. Kellman offered Obama a job at the annual salary of $10,000, and he threw in $2,000 so Obama could buy a ramshackle car to get around.

Obama was a stranger to the area but caught on quickly by showing humility and a strong work ethic. "We knew what was wrong in the community but we didn't know how to get something done about it," recalls Yvonne Lloyd, 78, who worked with Obama. Obama insisted on "staying in the background while he empowered us." By Obama's own admission, there were few big victories. But whether it was getting the city to fill potholes, provide summer jobs, or remove asbestos from the apartments or persuading the apartment managers to repair toilets, pipes, and ceilings, Obama encouraged residents to come up with their own priorities with the gentle admonition: "It's your community."

Martln Luther King was a community organizer.  Ghandi was a community organizer. Every candidate has strengths and weaknesses, and good and not-so-good things in their public backgrounds.  Obama's community organizing is something he can be proud of, just like McCain's military service and Palin's Down Syndrome baby.  For Palin to mock community organizers as a group was just petty.  Although the words weren't hers, she and Republicans can and should do better. 

suzfive: I'm not going to argue Obama's platform with you.  You don't like Obama, you think Palin's the bees-knees, fine.  I'm glad you have an opinion and feel passionately about it.  Obviously I don't like McCain and could argue against many things in his platform.  We could go back and forth from now till the election.  But what's the point?  This thread is for Obama supporters to chat and share reactions to the campaign and be a community.  If you want to start a debate, you can resurrect the Presidential Election thread from a few months ago.  I know there would be other women who would love to participate.  So, please, why don't you do that?  Could be fun.

Bottom line: we don't need another 4 more years. We need a change of party. Enough said! Go Obama!!! And I was a Hillary supporter.....but I have switched.

Hi all:  Was out to dinner with friends last night and of course during our meal, the subject of politics came up.  Someone mentioned that the crowds at the repug convention started chanting USA....USA... when McCain was being heckled....we started talking about how it always seems to go back to the repugs standard line...that being that if you're not on board with them you are somehow anti-american....

Ok, here is where it gets interesting... one of the people at our table offered the following:

Hermann Goering, a leading member of Hitler's Nazi party as quoted in the Neuremberg Diary:

"Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany, that is understood.  But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is a simple matter to drag the people along........voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders.  That is easy.  All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifist for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger.  It works the same way in any country." 

Now, I am no suggesting the current administration or the repugs are a bunch of Nazi's, but someone surely took a page from their play book. 

I just re-read Biden's speech and compared it to Palin's.  How different they are in tone and attitude!   One of the things that struck me about the RNC convention was how they worked the "us and them" mentality.  This year it was small towns vs. cities, small-town mayors vs. community organizers, small-town values (whatever those are) vs. urban elitists.  Divide and conquer has always been their strategy.  Their speeches were aimed at the partisan crowd in the arena and their base, not at the American people.  McCain tried to elevate the discussion with his speech, but it was too little, too late.  Although the Dems pushed back against the Rovian attack machine this time, they didn't say, or imply through sarcasm, that small town folks or evangelicals were the enemy.  They didn't create a "them" with their rhetoric.  Hopefully enough people will sense and appreciate that come November.