Category Archives: Obama 08

Painting Obama

Obama Bin Laden Tom Toles

As I have mentioned, Hillary and the Republicans have tried to paint Obama as everything from a radical Black Panther to an elitist. And even at the Associated Press’ annual luncheon in Washington, DC — Dean Singleton, board chair of the Associated Press, mistakenly called Osama Bin Laden, “Obama Bin Laden” while asking Obama a question. Obama graciously corrected the “error”.

Here’s a great Tom Toles Cartoon from the Washington Post. Ironically, no matter how Hillary paints Obama, she is still not gaining much ground as her trustworthiness erodes away — the majority of Americans find her dishonest.

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Who’s Being Patronizing?

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Obama has stated that decades of working-class neglect has caused working class bitterness. According to Hillary and McCain, that makes Obama an elitist. Is it as ridiculous as a bunch of right wing Republicans saying that it was the black guy who had the racial issues, or Ferraro claim that Obama was in a racially privileged position?

How does McCain with his family’s elite military tradition and twenty plus years in government call Obama an elitist? How does a guy who believes that patriotism requires war or threats of war call Obama an elitist?

Hillary, in an obvious attempt to show that she was a better Christian than Obama due to his multi-cultural heritage, highlighted that her parents and grandparents had been Christians. How elitist can you get? It sounds to me that Hillary would see the world made up of first and second class citizens based on birth right. John Baer described Hillary’s depiction of Obama as such:

Just don’t tell me that he insulted a state or, given his background, that he’s an out-of-touch elitist.

And I especially don’t want to hear such arguments from a candidate who spent decades in the bubble of a governor’s mansion, the White House and the U.S. Senate, and under the blanket of $109 million income during the last eight years.

Eugene Robinson, in “Shot and a Chablis” describes best who’s really being patronizing: Continue reading

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Hillary’s Man for All Seasons

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If there is one true renaissance man in this election, it is Barack Obama. At least as Hillary has described him, you’d think he was her “Man for All Seasons”.

According to Hillary’s characterizations, Obama was too Republican for having spoken about Reagan. Then Obama became too liberal, having voted too Democratic in the Senate. Unlike Clinton’s former Senior Campaign Strategist-demoted to Campaign Strategist for having recently negotiated with the Colombian government to lobby Congress (no one worried about his work for Blackwater), in Ohio, Obama was unreliable because one of his supporters had negotiated on behalf of Canada.

At one point way back in the day, Obama was too white and not black enough to get elected. Then Hillary and Bill decided that he was too black for whites. Next thing we learned was that he was also radical African American (some even think he’s too Muslim although he isn’t a Muslim). But now after disclosing that the Clintons earned $110 million during the Bush years, Obama is the elitist candidate.

The United States is a wonderful country where a candidate can go, in a just a matter of a few months, from being too Republican to too liberal to too Black to being labeled by the two term White House first lady and present millionaire senator Hillary Clinton as being too elite. Obama has it all. He is the Man for All Seasons.

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The Better Leader

Obama

In February, I pointed out that Obama had better leadership skills than Hillary by simple virtue of how he was executing his campaign campared to her management woes. The is now even more apparent every day that goes by. In Poltico today, Jim Vandehei and David Paul Kuhn write,

Obama can rightly claim he has run a more consistent, disciplined and technologically savvy campaign. While Clinton has blown though nearly a half-dozen campaign slogans and failed to put concerns about her credibility to rest, he has clung to essentially the same leadership and governing message he outlined in his 2004 speech at the Democratic convention. There has been little drama inside his operation — or at least if there was, it has been kept largely concealed.

and later

The Clinton campaign, by contrast, has been marked by strategic missteps, financial uncertainty and personnel drama. Its strengths — a supremely disciplined candidate and remarkable fundraising — have been undermined by other aspects of the enterprise, such as a headstrong, factionalized staff and a spendthrift approach. The conventional wisdom once held that it was Bill Clinton who was chronically improvisational and unable to run a tight ship. That flaw, it seems, runs in the family.

I recommend the entire article. Continue reading

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Today’s News in the Democratic Primaries

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Hillary goes back and forth between saying that she’s vetted and complaining that the press is too hard on her. The problem is that she has a tendency to avoid the truth, to say anything, and to associate with anyone. This means that she is always open for a fresh vetting.

The most recent absurdity is or was her Senior Campaign Strategist. It just doesn’t quite pass the smell test that he suddenly resigns right when Bush is about to present the Colombian free trade bill to Congress. Clinton should have done her research and know (i) that the vote was coming up and (ii) that the Senior Campaign Strategist as a mercenary representing a foreign nation against what Hillary argues is in the best interest of the American people. You can’t dump on Obama for his choice in former preacher when you’re right hand man is lobbying in the present against what you’re saying in public. She’s not even firing, but only demoting the guy. It just doesn’t fly and only enhances Hillary’s reputation for truth aversion. George Will had this to say about Hillary,

She favored the North American Free Trade Agreement until she opposed it: She favored it back when she was a Cub fan, before she imagined being senator from New York and discovered, or remembered, that she had always been a Yankee fan. She opposes NAFTA and the Colombia agreement now that she is a presidential candidate, but her views might change again in a few weeks, when her status does.

With all due respect to Hillary, the conservative Will also trashed Obama in the same article for Obama’s position on trade. Personally, I don’t agree with either Hillary or Obama’s trade protectionism. I also don’t agree with the Washington Post’s assertion that somehow Mark Penn was right on trade. Penn is a lobbyist. His job isn’t to believe in what he is selling but to sell. Don’t confuse the two. Continue reading

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Bronx Students Moved by Obama

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Conflicts of Interest

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Sleep deprivation may or may not cause deliberate lying, but having trouble sorting out reality when you’re tired does not lead to “day one readiness” or fair well at 3:00 am under any circumstances. But what we have here today is some good old fashioned American hypocrisy. No, I am not talking about telling the American people that you have real solutions to their economic problems when you’ve just brought in over $100 million.

I am talking about traveling the country telling working class people that you’ve always been firmly against NAFTA and other free trade agreements when you weren’t in the past and you’re not in the present. Just ask Hillary’s Chief Campaign Strategist, Mark Penn. Penn continues to work as a lobbyist for a company that has recently been contracted to lobby Congress to pass a trade deal with Colombia. No matter how you pin it, it’s a conflict and smells real bad.

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Honey, We’re Rich!

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The Clintons are dirt. Dirt Rich! Hillary and Bill have just finally released their tax returns for the past seven years. In 2000, the last time they made their income public, the Clintons reported an adjusted gross income of $416,039. From that point until now — in only seven years — they’ve earned $109.2 million. Not bad at all! The Bush economy and NAFTA were sure good for some people. I never knew that politics could be so profitable. Being president was sure a solution for one family’s economy. Now it is pretty obvious why Billary is staying in the race until the very end.

Nevertheless, it will probably be a few more days before the information is fully scrutinized.

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Barack Likes Mediterranean Food

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The Spanish newspaper, El Mundo, published this photo today of Obama enjoying Mediterranean cuisine. “Mediterranean cuisine”? Mediterranean cuisine can be Moroccan, Tunisian, Lebanese, Turkish, Greek, Italian, French, and so on. Not necessarily Spanish. My guess is Barack is surrounded by French and Italian food, but if it makes El Mundo feel more patriotic to call it Mediterranean and have its readers believe it is Spanish, then more power to them.

It’s a shame that Spain does not do a better job of marketing and exporting its food.

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“Yes We Can” T-Shirt

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My friend and co-worker Jacobo (who I used to affectionately call Hysidro) made this Obama “Yes We Can” T-Shirt for me. It actually looks much better on than in the photo. Unfortunately, I had to crop the image to hide sweat marks.

Thanks Hysidro! ¡Eres el mejor!

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