Tag: Barack Obama (page 55)

Barack Obama spoke in Denver today. Here's what he said:

“It’s time for new leadership that understands that the way to win a debate with John McCain is not by nominating someone who agreed with him on voting for the war in Iraq; who agreed with him in voting to give George Bush the benefit of the doubt on Iran; who agrees with him in embracing the Bush-Cheney policy of not talking to leaders we don’t like, and who actually differed with him by arguing for exceptions for torture before changing positions when the politics of the moment changed.”

Hillary's refutes him point by point on her website.

This is a dangerous road for Obama. Check out his past support for Rumsfeld and Bush, expressed during the confirmation process of John Ashcroft. He even calls Rumsfeld "not out of the mainstream." (video here)

"The proof in the pudding is looking at the treatment of the other Bush nominees," Obama said. "I mean for the most part, I for example do not agree with a missile defense system, but I dont think that soon-to-be-Secretary Rumsfeld is in any way out of the mainstream of American political life. And I would argue that the same would be true for the vast majority of the Bush nominees, and I give him credit for that."

I would say "pot meet kettle" except his statements about Hillary were not true. Hillary has been the most vocal critic of President Bush and his policies among all the Democratic candidates. From the early debates, while the others criticized her because they perceived her to be the frontrunner, she kept her eye on the real enemy: President Bush, his Administration and its failed and misguided policies.

All the early voting states are now behind us. The big deal is Tsunami Tuesday, Feb. 5.

Delegates will matter. This map shows the states holding Democratic caucuses and primaries.

More than 1,500 delegates will be delivered from these states. 2,025 is the number needed to secure the nomination.

The delegate breakdown by states voting Feb. 5 is below:

Here are the vote tallies by county. Here's what they show: Obama won the counties closest to Georgia and the deep south. He won no county below the top of the state.

It's the talk of the town:

• Chicago Tribune

Obama stood icily staring at Clinton during this, then turned his back and stepped a few feet away. Kennedy may've wanted to make peace with Clinton but Obama clearly wanted no part of that.

The sense in the press gallery was that Obama didn't cover himself in glory. Someone even used the word "childish." (Not this writer.) Judging by how much conversation there was about this brush off in the press gallery, Americans will be hearing a lot more about this tomorrow and in coming days.

• Associated Press

  Clinton, clad in scarlet, crossed the aisle between their seats on the House floor and reached out a hand to greet Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, the Democratic icon whose endorsement she had courted only to lose it to Obama. Kennedy shook her hand while Obama, wearing a dark suit and standing between the two, turned away.

Caroline Kennedy in Sunday's New York Times, writes "A President Like My Father."

Shorter version: It's all about change. He's inspiring to her children. Hope, vision and again, change.

On his experience, aside from his three years in the Senate and community organizing:

in Illinois... he helped turn around struggling communities, taught constitutional law and was an elected state official for eight years.

This is a disappointing piece, very short on substance.

Barack Obama is expected to make his victory speech any minute. Here's a place for your thoughts on it.

Incredible. Barack Obama just wins the primary in South Carolina and less than an hour after the polls close, CNN switches to cover an endorsement of McCain and a speech by him.

Is that a sign of the lack of importance the media gives to South Carolina?

I may not be an Obama supporter, but this is insulting.

Beginning now, Big Tent Democrat and I are live-blogging the South Carolina Primary results and the media coverage of them. I'll be concentrating on the results and the demographics and electoral storylines. Big Tent will focus on the media coverage.

We're using a new platform, I described it here, and to make it wider, I've put it below the fold. Just click on the "there's more" link and join us. If you want to come back to it, here's the permalink for you to bookmark.

Here we go. [More...]

Another Hillary Clinton endorsement, this time from the Sun News in Myrtle Beach, S.C. It sounds like the paper's views are normally Republican. And, while it's endorsing her for the Democratic nomination, it's not endorsing her for President.

There are some things about Clinton and the other Democratic candidates we don't like: their view that the best way to create universal health care is a big new government entitlement program; their belief that new federal spending of many kinds is the path to a more prosperous, happier America. As for soaking "the rich" with tax increases, that only dries up private investment, the true path to greater prosperity.

Nonetheless, as to Hillary, it says: [More...]

A post-debate South Carolina Reuters-Zogby poll was released today. Obama is still ahead, but his lead has narrowed and Edwards has gained.

Obama's lead fell 3 points overnight to give him a 39 percent to 24 percent edge over Clinton in South Carolina, according to a Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll released on Thursday.

Edwards, a former senator from neighboring North Carolina, climbed four points to reach 19 percent -- within striking distance of Clinton and second place.

Obama's drop is among black voters -- and Hillary gained two points with them. Among white voters:

Edwards held a slight lead over Clinton among likely white voters at 35 percent to 32 percent. Obama had 19 percent.

A reader sent me the link to this four page Chicago Tribune article from April, 2007 about Barack Obama's first campaign for U.S. Senate.

It's quite an interesting read.

A close examination of Obama's first campaign clouds the image he has cultivated throughout his political career: The man now running for president on a message of giving a voice to the voiceless first entered public office not by leveling the playing field, but by clearing it.

I'll let you all take it from there.

Nat Hentoff, writing in the Village Voice, has some constitutional questions for Barack Obama.

Once in a while, Obama makes a passing reference to our diminishing individual liberties, but hardly ever in his stump speeches. At an early-morning rally the day of the New Hampshire vote, he told some 300 students at the Dartmouth College gym: "My job this morning is to be so persuasive . . . that a light will shine through that window, a beam of light will come down upon you, you will experience an epiphany, and you will suddenly realize that you must go to the polls and vote for Barack." One of the reasons to vote for him, he continued, was his pledge to end the Bush-Cheney era of "wiretaps without warrants."

He didn't add that Bush wants to make this spying on us permanent. And when he's not in front of a roomful of students with the television cameras on him, Obama hardly ever shows the urgent passion for restoring the Constitution that he exhibits on other issues. Hillary Clinton also invokes "change" as if it's a medicine to cure all ills, but she too largely ignores the incremental disappearance of the Bill of Rights—including the last rites for our guarantees of personal privacy.

Hentoff's questions for Obama:

So what are Obama's plans to restore the Constitution—especially regarding the activities of our domestic and international intelligence agencies? And in view of Bush's legacy with the Roberts-Alito Supreme Court, what would President Obama's criteria be for filling any vacancies during his time in office? It would help if he would tell us now which Supreme Court justices, past and present, he most respects, and why.

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