Hillary Clinton delivered a fine speech yesterday. Through her strong campaign, she has shown people everywhere that a woman certainly can be president of the United States. Clearly, if Barack Obama had not joined the contest with his message of change (along with his charisma and incredibly organized campaign), Hillary Clinton would have had the Democratic nomination.
And Ms. Clinton certainly brought the necessary commitment to the race to ensure she was never counted out. Her campaign was as historic as Barack Obamas, and will serve to ensure that the next woman who runs for president will never be underestimated by anyone based on her gender. In campaign management terms, Hillary Clinton’s strong performance will help woman get a more level playing field as they raise funds and build early support in seeking future nominations for president.
Along with Barack Obama’s official thanks to Senator Clinton, he has placed a thank you message on on his Myspace page which you can see here .
I love being American, and I’m particularly proud of our nation this year.
Me Too!
Oh, yeah! The Dem’s will be making history in November. I am sorry they will be inheriting such a disastrous mess to clean up.
Another Mama for Obama
(OK, all you right wing posters- pile on!)
Re: Me Too!
Not a right winger, just a concerned citizen, who just prays that most folks can get beyond an effective tele prompter speaker, and see what havoc an Obama presidency would bring (my goodness, have heard this guy speak ad lib?)
What especially concerns me if he wins, with a fulbuster-proof majority in the Senate is;
Taxes will go up. Capitol gains and dividends will bypass 20% on their way to 25% to 30%! Income taxes will go to 40% for higher income earners (the ones who create jobs!). The ceiling on payroll taxes will rise to $150k! In the meantime, govt. receipts will not grow at all. I am even more afraid an Obama presidency will create even more entitlements. Items like guaranteed college, full time child care, will have no value because people will percieve those things as free, and a right. That signals a dangerous tipping point toward socialism. God help us if that happens.
Re: Me Too!
All the right wing talking points. Have you ever heard Shrub ad-lib? ( Means without a teleprompter- or a secret transmitter wired to his back.)
Re: Me Too!
Try to add to the conversation, please!
Don’t just dismiss someone’s viewpoint just because they don’t concur, and then go onto an ad hominem
attack about someone else.
It’s beneath you and you know it.
Re: Me Too!
What else would you expect from a bleeding heart liberal? That’s all they know Ben. They can’t argue facts, it’s always emotion. Kind of like Greg Nickels banning beach fires to help global warming, and banning bottled water for county employees. Oops, not to mention the gun ban on city property too.
Re: Me Too!
History in November? What history? This Democrat is just another Harvard educated Lawyer.
If you reffering to the fact that he’s ethnically 50% of a minority race.. the rest of us are beyond that and have put that aside hundreds of years ago. If it make a big difference to you, that says more about you than it does about Obama.
Re: Me Too!
So that makes you “left wing”?
Way to go for preemptive name calling as a start for a dialog.
Way to go for the one term senator that couldn’t get elected back to the state senate.
Re: Me Too!
Calling a liberal a liberal is name calling? Like I said, it’s all emotion and that proves it.
Presidential Campaigns
Our Founding Fathers, through the Constitution, crafted a beautiful goverment with 3 branches (Executive, Legislative, Judicial). The separation of powers provides for checks and balances so that no one person can wield total control. It’s a beautiful thing! Whoever is elected in November, works within that structure. A single person, as President, can’t flush us all down the toilet.
It worries me to hear the extent of fear-mongering used by supporters of a candidate against the competing candidate in this campaign season. It worries me to hear the extent of racist and sexist comments that have been made. It worries me that candidates are blamed for comments made by other people, rather than being judged for their own comments and their own plans to address the economic concerns many of our citizens have. It worries me that people spread false statements about a candidate’s religion based upon the ethnic origin of that individual’s name. Surely we are better educated and more compassionate as a people than that.
Earlier in the year, I commented that our City’s greatest challenge over the next 5 years would be managing our City in a fluid economy. Our region has been more economically fortunate than other areas of the nation, but there is an overall trickle down that we continue to see stemming from the sub-prime mortgage problems. But is our economy collapsing? No. While there are problem areas to manage, the country is not falling apart and Chicken Little need not be frozen in fear.
Among the 2 major parties, we have 2 assumed candidates that will represent their parties in the upcoming election. Both have the ability to perform the job as President. It is up to our citizenry to listen to and study about each candidate’s positions and plans and make a decision in the voting booth on who best represents them.
Elizabeth
Re: Presidential Campaigns
Elizabeth, you are missing the point about the danger of electing the documented most liberal member of the sentate, into a position of power with a veto proof congress. The fundamental problem with Obama is not that fact that he is half white, or ignored the racist chants of his pastor for 20 years. It is simply his love of big government, expanding entitlements, and moving us to a welfare state. I agree the economy is challenging, just wait until the Obama regime and his accomplices are set free to install massive costs on tax payers, while stifling risk taking, opportunity creating, and job growth. Our citizenry does indeed need to listen, very carefully.
In Honor of Tim Russert
Is Obama truly “THE” most liberal member of the senate? There isn’t the possibility of anyone being more liberal? Not any possibility at all? Might this be an exaggeration?
Rev. Wright’s comments, especially when taken out of context, are indeed incendiary. But those are his comments and not Obama’s. Many find John Hagee’s comments offensive about God sending Hitler to help Jews reach the promised land and asserting that Hurricane Katrina was punishment for homosexuals. He certainly isn’t following Jesus’ teachings of compassion. And, as a Catholic, I find his referring to my church as a “great whore” to be incendiary. I find Rod Parsley’s broad brushing the Muslim faith as violent to be ill informed. McCain sought and received their endorsements and then rejected them. But I don’t believe their comments are McCain’s comments. And someone could easily take comments made by Pastor Dan Yeary out of context and someone would be offended. And I still wouldn’t take those comments and somehow paint McCain with them. Some preachers are just nuts.
Our economy is challenged now, but not falling apart. Much of this is driven by the exorbitant cash outflow for military costs in Iraq by a Republican president with the support of Congress (members of both parties) without a plan for how this would be financed. We now have government budget problems as a result that we will all be paying for over many years. Our citizens are facing the credit crunch due to sub-prime and predatory lending because investors had excess funds to put into the market and lending institutions fell all over themselves to greedily grab a piece of the pie. There was a quick bail out of one of the investment firms that was involved. And we now watch as some financial institutions teeter on the edge.
I’d be interested in your analysis of how our current leadership has contributed to where we are today with our economy. Is there one individual to blame for it all? Likely not because of the checks and balances. And can blame purely be placed on one party? Again, likely not because Congress is made up of both parties. Similarly, one presidential candidate, Obama or McCain, would not be able to single-handedly bring about a great downfall for tax payers across the board. And our Constitution does not allow for a regime. We have elected representatives with limited terms in office in a structure providing checks and balances.
Now that we have our two presumptive nominees, I am looking forward to hearing them speak more about economic issues, military issues, etc. I am also looking forward to hearing from the Libertarian nominee and those of other parties that we rarely hear about on the news. And I encourage everyone to avoid the emotional side-bar comments that detract from hearing from the candidates themselves.
With the passing of Tim Russert today, we have lost a member of the media who covered political campaigns with equanimity and balanced, clear thinking. And I will greatly miss his positive attitude and passion for political coverage. My Sundays won’t be the same.
Go Bills!
Elizabeth
Re: In Honor of Tim Russert
Thank you for jumping in there with thoughtful comments and an intelligent viewpoint. Please come back more often. You have been missed!
Re: In Honor of Tim Russert
Most liberal Senator- opinion of many, non partisans, based on his voting record
You attempting to make Wright and Hagge the same is in itself, offensive- McCain did not sit idly in a pulpit for 20 years, to hateful speech, that even the Wright claims was not taken out of context. Big difference, of having a hate monger so intricately part his life, versus someone not evenly remotely connected to McCains.
Our economy- it is all about liquidity, availability of capitol, brought on by our government as well as individuals overextending. By overextending, I mean big government, entitlements, out of control spending, the kind of stuff Obama would inflict on our nation.
The Iraq war cost is a red herring to those who it out as the root cause. By the way, read Charles Krauthammer column today, the tide is turning! I hope when you right “exurbanite cash outflow for military costs” does not mean you would support gutting the military in the middle of success, our troops deserve out praise, thanks and support.
You say there are checks and balances, as a result of 2 parties, but that is exactly my point! Obama’s love of promising big government entitlements + a likely veto proof congress, removes most checks and balances.
I too look forward to hearing more from the candidates. My fear is the Obama phenomenon is blinding those would vote on slogans, and provide the path to socialism.
Re: In Honor of Tim Russert
I truly am interested in hearing you, but would like to see facts rather than gross generalizations, exaggeration or emotionally charged language.
1. You state Obama is the most liberal member of the senate. Show us the comparative voting record of the senate members to evidence this. Such a label can’t rest on one single vote, but must be the entire voting record to be so entitled. Does actual data support this opinion of others?
2. I’m glad McCain didn’t sit in the pulpit. Nor did Obama. A church attendee does not sit in the pulpit. The pulpit is the lectern where the preacher speaks from. Wright did, in several interviews, state the snippets on YouTube, etc., were out of context, so your comment is incorrect. When the Wright issue arose, I watched/read the entire sermons in question. The clips were out of context. What was shown on YouTube, etc., was taken from 2 sermons. Assuming 20 years of sermons, equaling 1040 sermons, this means 0.19% sermons with incendiary language. To equate 0.19% with 20 years of hateful speech (100%) is inaccurate. I urge anyone (Wright, readers of this post, etc.) wanting to have their points of view listened to and not dismissed as ill informed, or hateful, to avoid gross generalizations and emotionally charged language.
3. You worry that Obama will overextend our nation. I read “overextending” as spending more than is being brought in. Please comment on what the current Republican administration has done in overextending our expenditures without sources of funding.
4. The Iraq War is not a red herring when looking at the financial impact this has on our economy and citizens. We must look at cash outflow and cash inflow, aside from the highly emotional positions for or against the War. The cash inflow needs to cover the cash outflow unless we want to indebt future generations. Our national debt has grown from $5.67 trillion as of 9/2000 to $9.42 trillion as of 6/12/08, and is growing $1.58 billion per DAY since 9/28/07. We are spending more than we are bringing in and we either need to cut back on expenses or raise income (taxes).
Our troops do deserve our support. I am actively involved in service to our troops and veterans, and fundraising to help veterans in need of medical and financial support upon their return. There is not adequate government financing to support these men and women that have been in harm’s way. The percentage of our homeless that are veterans is heartbreaking.
5. You assume a veto proof Congress, which assumes Democrats in Congress (Senate and House) will have a slam dunk in their own venues of passing their bills. The Senate is 49% Republican, 49% Democrat, 2% Other. The Senate is evenly split so not a slam dunk on issues. The House is 46% Republican and 54% Democrat. In the House, one might assume the Democrats will easily approve any legislation they want but this is a false assumption. Senate and House members do cross the aisle to vote in representation of their constituents and not automatically on party lines. We’ve seen the impact of Republican filibusters as recently as April 2008 with the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and this past week on the proposal to tax windfall profits of the oil companies which kept these from reaching the Senate floor for a vote. Remember, for a bill to become law it must be passed, in identical form, by a majority of votes in the House and the Senate. It’s not a slam dunk getting legislation passed. Legislation must be passed to provide even an opportunity for a presidential veto.
Whether McCain or Obama are elected as President, we have a strong government with checks, balances and limits necessary to lead us into the future. Our voices as citizens are heard best by getting involved and voting. But let’s be sure we practice critical reading and listening skills. Call to task gross generalizations and search out the actual data from impartial sources to validate if the statements are true or false. Eliminate emotional verbiage that creates an emotional response rather than an informed, logical response. Be clear minded and give all candidates an equal opportunity to be heard.
Elizabeth
Re: In Honor of Tim Russert
Could not diagree with your rationalization of someone actively involved in the church, led by such a hate monger. When he had a chance to clarify his comments over 20 years, he confirmed just what a wack job he is. The issue is Obama judgement, if he sat quietly for all those years, and was unwilling to make a tough decision to move on, then my God, what judements will he show as President. I implore you to be clear minded, and give all candidates and equal chance to be heard (which is to say, do not blind yourself to the realities of what Obama will bring). The last one of his ilk was Carter, what a success that was!
Re: In Honor of Tim Russert
Thanks! I had a daughter get married and have been busy with that. Such a joyous event without an ounce of stress… really! But what a loud sucking sound from my wallet… cash outflow exceeded inflow. Somehow I was blessed with a child that never caused a moment of worry. She deserved the wedding of her dreams. 🙂
Elizabeth
Re: In Honor of Tim Russert
Congratulations! Sounds like you did an excellent job being her mother.
I hope you don’t burn yourself out trying to be rational with posters who are not looking for an actual exchange of ideas. I always enjoy your comments on this blog; they are very well thought out and interesting.
Re: In Honor of Tim Russert
I agree! A lot of these posters are nothing but shill for the vast right wing media. Who let them out of their cages?!?
GOBAMA!