Category Archives: Obama 08

On the night of the last presidential debate of the Democratic party’s primaries, I think it is a good time to reflect on the obvious: Hillary should finally give it a rest. It is time for her to end her campaign. Her staying in the race does nothing but harm the party and its possibilities at winning the election in November. Her campaign has also reached an annoyingly offensive tone that it almost too ugly to bear.

Notice that last Thursday she was proudly Barack’s best friend, and then out of nowhere, she is screaming and yelling about shameless tactics and other absurdities. I don’t even think that it is worth it to humor her accusations. It is just another example of Hillary throwing a stone and hiding her hand. She has been playing gutter politics since Nevada, and now her team is trying to figure out just how low they should go. Likening Barack to Bush or stating that he is not ready for the White House not only violate the unspoken rules of the game, they also debilitate the party. The other antics are simply disgusting.

In the past couple of days, many newspapers have run stories on why and how Hillary should honorably concede defeat — for the benefit of us all. For example, yesterday there was Robert Novak’s “Who Will Tell Hillary?” and this op-ed piece by Richard Cohen in today’s Washington Post: Continue reading →

A few days ago in reference to Castro stepping down from absolute power in Cuba, John McCain said that he hoped Castro would soon meet Karl Marx. In other words, McCain publicly stated that he hoped Castro would die. Who says that? How can a guy running for president of the United States say that he hopes that another human, no matter who that person may be, should die? What does that say about our country and our values? Continue reading →

I was checking out some of the highlights from last night’s CNN/Univision debate in Austin, Texas between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Hillary said something that sounded awfully familiar,

Whatever happens, we’re going to be fine. You know, we have strong support from our families and our friends. I just hope that we’ll be able to say the same thing about the American people, and that’s what this election should be about.

This sounded incredibly familiar to me, and I couldn’t remember from where. Then it hit — I could hear John Edward’s Southern accent with a head cold in my head. So I looked it up. And there you go, John Edwards talking in New Hampshire this November 2007:

To be perfectly honest about it, my life is going to be fine no matter what happens. So is Barack Obama’s. So is Hillary Clinton’s. Our life is going to be fine. On the other side, Mitt Romney is going to be fine. Giuliani is going to be fine … But [this election] should not be about any of us; it should be about the country we believe in. The democracy we want to change. Where the people who we all grew up with — your story — get heard.

Hillary may not have used each and every one of Edwards’ words, but if you want to get legal about plagiarism, the ideas are clearly not hers, have not been authorized for her to use, and do reference Edwards. Maybe, just maybe, Hillary should be more careful about her criticisms. Dave Scaggs at the Maryland Soccer School where I used to be a summer camp coach used to always tell us, “point your finger, and you’ll have three pointing right back at you.”

Yesterday I read an article in the Washington Post by Susan Jacoby called “The Dumbing of America“. The article argued that video, the Internet, the fact that people don’t read any more, and the culture of anti-rationalism have all (further) reduced the limited attention spans of Americans.

This got me thinking about how the candidates and the press treat us like we’re dumb and how we often fall into the trap. They tell us about themselves and about the other candidates, and we believe them — especially when they repeat the same stuff over and over again. Hillary is the perfect example of how using quick and repeated sounds bites work even though her words are empty of any real foundation in fact. And now that she sees herself as losing, she is getting even worse and even more sketchy.

Personally, I find her cheap attacks on Obama offensive to my intelligence. But the question is, just how dumb does she think Americans are, and just how dumb are we? Continue reading →