After the popularity of the “Yes We Can” video by will.i.am, now there’s a new John McCain parody video. Then there is always the Onion: Continue reading
Category Archives: Obama 08
Obama’s Potomac Sweep and the Race Fallacy
Obama has swept the “Potomac Primaries” consisting of my hometowns: Virginina, Maryland and the District of Columbia. Not only did Obama win by large margins in all three jurisdictions, he has also proven that there is no “race card” or ethnocentric voting imperative. The only voters who overwhelmingly sided for Clinton were middle aged women, and there is nothing to indicate that their votes for Hillary was a personal or racial rejection of Obama. They simply preferred Hillary. Everyone else voted for Obama or were equally divided between the two. Continue reading
Now and Forever: Bill Clinton
This weekend I was listening to Bill Clinton defending himself with that self-righteous wagging finger so characteristic of Bill assuming the “self-defense” defense. According to Bill, in relation to his pro-Hillary at-any-cost support, he had done and said nothing wrong. He had said things about Obama that were “factually accurate” whereas others had said things that were “factually inaccurate”.
This was a flashback to Bill and his use of language to exculpate his use of other language. What your meaning of “is is”, not having “sexual relations” with “that woman”, smoking but not inhaling are all sad reminders of how a talented politician can waste so much potential as he tangles himself in his own web of slim.
This got me to questioning the 1990s and what I had once perceived as very good years and, despite Clinton’s holier-than-thou liberal condescension, a relatively successful presidency. But when you really concentrate on those years, I think you’ll find that they were definitely not positive for the Democratic Party (of which I am not a member) and for the U.S. in the mid to long term. Continue reading
Obama’s Contagious Hope, Hillary’s Contagion: Part II
I know I now sound like a senile broken record, but the saga continues. Each time I run into the “Hillary experience” or “proven track record” arguments, I get nausea. Hillary’s only track record is in the Senate, and her Senate record is very Bush, very hawkish, and very careful in preparations for a presidential bid. Even if we conceded, for the sake of argument, that she was a co-president from 1992-2000 (and don’t care about the constitutional smell-test), playing behind the scenes president doesn’t count because you’re ass isn’t on the line. But all of the voice-finding, shfits in campaign strategy, misinterpreted statements by Billary, and today changing her campaign manager in mid-game, don’t seem like examples of someone who is “ready for day one” or whose track record is proving reliable.
Meanwhile, Obama’s positive messages and excellent results in Washington, Nebraska and Louisiana highlight that Americans just may be better people than the Clintons have calculated. As so, here is another good New York Times by Frank Rich keeping the Billary contagion in perspective: Continue reading
Obama’s Contagious Hope, Hillary’s Contagion
Yesterday I read a funny piece by a Joel Stein in the L.A. Times explaining how he was actually a little embarrassed by his Obamamania. Sometimes I too watch Obama’s speeches, listen to the crowds chanting “Yes We Can” and think that there is something incredibly innocent and over-the-top about it all. And when I show Obama’s South Carolina speech and explain its importance to my co-workers here in Spain, they just think this confirms their idea of America’s strange cheerleading culture.
But what you have to understand here about Obama’s contagious hope is not that it may be impossible to achieve, but that millions of Americans are coming together with Obama to say that they are fed up with the nation’s politics. And more importantly, they are coming together to say that they want the country to be a better place for all. It is a remarkably powerful message and reflection that our nation is not rotten.
On the other side, I just read this op-ed in the Wall Street Journal by Peggy Noonan called, “Can Hillary Lose with Grace” that did a good job of explaining why Hillary is not the person to make this country a better place: Continue reading
The Obama Revolution
The 2008 Presidential Elections’ headline should simply read, “Obama”. Obama, whether or not he wins the Democratic primaries or the general elections thereafter, has single-handedly defined this election year and transformed it into the most exciting, energizing and most participative one in recent memory.
Notice how Hillary with her claim of superior experience and ready-for-day-one sound bite has been continuously re-locating her own voice to sound more like Obama’s. Even the Republican candidates have each claimed to be the one who would bring an Obama-like change to the White House. I even get the feeling from George Will’s recent columns that he has secretly become an Obama supporter.
Just look at that the numbers and you’ll see that what Obama has done is astonishing. Continue reading
Super Tuesday, Spin Wednesday
On Super Tuesday, the campaigners were already preparing for Spin Wednesday, the day after when they spin the results to make it look like they’re in the strategic lead, regardless of what the (Washington Post) diagram above and calendar may say. Continue reading
There’s Got to Be a Better Way!
It’s Super Tuesday, and I am not going to know anything until I wake up tomorrow morning (there’s a 9 hour time difference between Madrid and California). I know there’s a Democrats Abroad event tonight in Madrid where people will be following the elections. But you wouldn’t catch me dead labeling myself a Democrat (or a Republican for that matter) or wanting to spend a long evening with a mass of people who did.
By the looks of things, Hillary will win but her lead will have been drastically reduced. It’s hard to measure the reality of things from what the press is saying because the press, like any other business, is trying to sell its “product” by creating suspense and drama and therefore hoping for a long drawn out campaign. Let’s just hope Obama will hold his own, and get important delegates to keep the hope alive. Sure, we can continue to live under the status quo. We can go back to the Clintons and the Bushs, but wouldn’t it be nice to mix it up a little. There’s got to be a better way.
Hillary’s Baggage
Over the course of the past few months as I have been following the elections (and ultimately given my support to the Obama campaign), I have found Eugene Robinson’s op-ed pieces in the Washington Post to be very insightful and on point. In his latest piece for called “The Baggage Hillary Bears“, Robinson raises the critically important questions that need to be answered about Bill Clinton’s role in a potential Hillary White House. For example,
Why won’t the Clintons speed up the release of White House papers that would let us see what kind of authority Hillary Clinton enjoyed? Who donated how much to the Clinton presidential library, and might those donors expect anything from a Hillary Clinton administration? What business tycoons have snuggled up to the former president, and what — other than the chance to bask in the radiance of his wit — did they hope to get out of the exercise?
Would Bill return to his foundation and its high-profile international projects? If so, would that work be coordinated with Hillary’s foreign policy? Could donors be sure that the foundation’s priorities were still being set independently, in accord with what they were told when they wrote the check?
Just the other day a New York Times article revealed a shady Kazakh uranium deal, possible political favors, an unknown shell company suddenly becoming one of the world’s largest uranium companies, and ultimately a large donation to Clinton’s foundation. According the New York Times’ investigation:
Just months after the Kazakh pact was finalized, Mr. Clinton’s charitable foundation received its own windfall: a $31.3 million donation from Mr. Giustra that had remained a secret until he acknowledged it last month. The gift, combined with Mr. Giustra’s more recent and public pledge to give the William J. Clinton Foundation an additional $100 million, secured Mr. Giustra a place in Mr. Clinton’s inner circle, an exclusive club of wealthy entrepreneurs in which friendship with the former president has its privileges.
Richard Cohen of the Washington Post also has an excellent piece on why, in a similar vain, he is endorsing Obama over Hillary. Kudos to the Washington Post! In any event, here is Robinson’s entire story about the questions we should be asking: Continue reading
Bubba’s Fallen Ex Presidency
I have already discussed how Bill Clinton crossed the line of appropriate ex presidential behavior in acting more like James Carville than an elder statesman. For the good of the Hillary campaign, he tried to stay quiet for about a week, but then he just couldn’t control himself in Arizona.
Frustrated because the Democratic Party is turning against him with key endorsements, Bill went back to sounding like Bubba and trashed Ted Kennedy. The problem was that Bubba’s attack was so absurd because, by doing so, he was actually also criticizing Hillary’s policies and endorsing Obama’s judgment. In his most Bubba I-condescend-to-thee voice, Bill gave the good people of Arizona a lesson:
I want you to think about this, and I have to say, this was a train wreck that was not intended. No Child Left Behind was supported by George Bush and Sen. Ted Kennedy and everybody in between. Why? Because they didn’t talk to enough teachers before they did that.
Who is everybody in between? Hillary, of course. She voted alongside Ted Kennedy on Bush’s No Child Left Behind initiative. Obama was a critic of the law.
James Carville can go around the country all he wants, yelling and screaming, speaking in funking accents. He can stretch the truth, play with numbers, and distort the facts. The ex president of the United States, a representative of the American people, should not. This is just another example of how Bubba is destroying his ex presidency.
Grave Error 