“We are at the edge of losing an historic opportunity”
Steve Clemons and Mustafa Barghouti analyze Barack Obama’s recent trip to Israel and speech in Berlin and the implications both present regarding his Middle East policy as president.
Sphere: Related ContentThe Beltway as Bret Michaels
In 17 words, Gabriel Sherman unwittingly sums up precisely what is wrong with American campaign journalism:
[T]he press wants to put its love somewhere, and, right now, that love is up for grabs.
Fuck the public interest–it’s all about who’s ready to rock Adam Nagourney’s world!
h/t Atrios
Sphere: Related ContentHemispheric Dualism
Sara Miller Llana of the Christian Science Monitor reports that a most unlikely passenger may be jumping aboard the Straight Talk Express:
Sphere: Related ContentMalkin keeps it classy
She called Obama’s campaign the “Jive Talk Express” not only on her blog, but as a title for her nationally syndicated column. So much for the post-racial campaign.
h/t raw story
Sphere: Related ContentBecause those Bush tax cuts have already worked wonders!
That’s the argument which John “I was against Bush’s tax cuts before I had to shamelessly pander to the right to become President” McCain offers against any economic plan Obama sets forth:
Sphere: Related ContentDear Washington Post Editors: Here’s where the story ends
Unless, of course, you can find some more corroborating facts after this point. But your story that Obama got a home loan discount should have never included this paragraph:
Sphere: Related ContentRalph Nader Deals Race Card Against Obama, Reminds Apathetic Media and Public That He’s Still the #1 3rd Party Spoiler (Fnck Bob Barr!)
Honourary soul brotha Ralph Nader was utterly shocked when Illinois State University president (and alleged POC) Al Bowman declined to sip from the third party pimp cup - photo by Andrew Benning
Re: “talking white” - what Shark-Fu said:
Black is not a monolith and we do not all think, act, talk, eat, pray, fuck, sing, dance, vote or manifest anger the exact same motherfucking way.
You goddamn fucking right.
Also see Liss, Steve M, and Ta-Nehisi Coates for more on Nader’s racist dumbfuckery.
Sphere: Related ContentA Novel Concept: Make Them Work For Our Votes
Must-read post from KathyG on how to make Barack Obama–and politicians in general–better:
Over this past election season, on websites and listservs and in conversations, I’ve seen an awful lot of cheap, hacktacular electioneering in favor of one candidate or another. But at the end of the day, I don’t think there was ever all that much of a difference between Hillary and Barack. Or between those two and Edwards, for that manner. Hillary and Barack had voting records and positions on the issues that were closet to identical. They’ve both taken shitloads of money from Wall Street, and it’s pretty clear to me that each of them is captive to corporate special interests. Indeed, I interpret Obama’s recent rightward shift — Furman, Messina, the remarks about NAFTA, the FISA compromise — as saying to the corporate interests, “Never fear — we’ll be playing ball as usual with you folks.”
As president, either Barack or Hillary, or Edwards, would be infinitely better than any Republican, but from a progressive point of view, each of them would also far short in some pretty profound and powerful ways.
But you know what? Ultimately, I don’t think that they as individuals are to blame for that. I don’t think Barack, or Hillary, or Edwards, are bad people. I don’t think that Barack Obama, for example, went into politics so he could sell civil liberties down the river in favor of giveaways for the telecom industry. But the incentive structure in politics these days is such that he decided he had more to gain by supporting the FISA “compromise” than by opposing it.
This is where we, as liberals, progressives, lefties, activists, whatever-you-want-to-call-us, come in. I do not believe that our interests are best served by the kind of cheap electioneering we saw over the primary campaign. What would be far more effective would be an independent movement that makes strategic alliances with various political candidates but is also distinctly separate from them.
Instead of shilling for Barack, or Hillary, or whoever, we should have been pressuring the candidates to work for our votes. We should have been pressing them to take firm, non-negotiable positions in favor of things like no immunity for the telecoms, or immediate withdrawal from Iraq with no residual troops. Instead, we were really cheap dates. And when you act like suckers, don’t be surprised when something like Obama’s support for the FISA compromise comes back and bites you in the ass.
If we want real change in this country, the place to look for it is not in our so-called leaders, but in ourselves. What we need, in short, is a movement. Without such a movement, President Obama is not going to be able to achieve a whole lot more than President Clinton or President Carter did. But with such a movement, we may actually get somewhere. FDR was able to achieve great things because he had the strong support of a powerful labor movement. Similarly, the civil rights movement was the wind at LBJ’s back. But I ask you, what will President Obama have?
Huh. An independent movement pressuring candidates to “work for our votes”. Kinda sounds like the pre-Netroots blogosphere, until Chairman Kos decreed that it was now the sworn duty of DFHs to make sure Democrats (even the dreaded DINOs) get elected, regardless of how progressive they may (or may not) actually be.
“You sucker MC, you just ain’t right.”
h/t Hysperia
Sphere: Related ContentWith a sense of logic this bad…
One wonders if there’s any job David Brooks is more suited for than a hack news columnist.
In Which matttbastard Puts the Habeas Decision in a Partisan Context
Ages of the majority:
Stevens 88
Ginsburg 75
Kennedy 71
Breyer 69
Souter 68
Ages of the minority:
Scalia 72
Thomas 60
Alito 58
Roberts 55
“Rule: Use a Cutout” UPDATED
Here’s yet another disgusting antisemitic page at the official Barack Obama campaign web site, by a group calling itself “Socialists for Obama.” This group of Jew-haters has apparently been at his site since April, and there are numerous comments from Obama supporters that are indistinguishable from the hate speech you’ll find at neo-Nazi sites: Barack Obama : : Change We Can Believe In | Socialists for Obama: How the jewish lobby works. [link has been removed - mb]
Ah, the classics never get old: Read more
Sphere: Related Content“Independent Democrats” for McCain
Following on the heels of the shocking (SHOCKING!) news that Holy Joe has been advising an anti-Obama swiftboat 527, the Washington Independent brings us word of more independent Joementum for McCain:
Sphere: Related ContentHow to handle Hillary’s supporters
Now that Obama has sealed the nomination, there’s the notion that dealing with Hillary’s supporters is his next big test. How will he appease Hillary and her people to bring the party together?
I’ve got a better question: Why does he have to? Why is it his responsibility?
This isn’t to say that we don’t need Hillary’s supporters in November — we certainly do. But when Hillary continues to egg them on by insisting that she’s still in the race even after definitively losing, what can Obama do? Hillary isn’t giving him any options.
Here’s my suggestion: place responsibility for this issue on Hillary’s shoulders. The only message that Obama’s camp sends to send to the Hillary campaign is simply this, “Do you want to be blamed for a McCain administration?”
It’s Hillary who has caused — and continues to cause — the divisions which could harm the party. She’s the one who allowed her supporters to protest the DNC meeting. She’s the one who continues to peddle the lie that she won the popular vote. She’s the one who said that McCain but not Obama was ready to be president. She’s the one who didn’t quit the campaign a month ago when it was really known that she could never overtake Obama’s delegate lead. She’s the problem. And it’s time she’s forced to choke down a little responsibility for her actions.
Sphere: Related ContentAnd so it must be for us.
As I’m sure my fellow writers can attest I have been, shall we say, “absent” for these last couple of weeks. In my defense this was only partially by choice. You see, I recently moved, then had few issues with work, and then realized I was, for lack of a better phrase, in a “fightin’ mood” (as my Grandfather is so apt to say).
Somewhere during the Democratic nomination process I stopped caring about party unity, civility, and respecting the opinions of others. For all of our sakes I thought it best to step back and let things ride out, let the process come to fruition.
Well, here we are. Whether Hillary Clinton accepts that the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination fight is over or not is irrelevant, it is. We have our nominee and I’m proud to say that the General Election couldn’t have started off with more of a sea-changing bang.
I managed to catch the last half of Obama’s speech online but it was enough to drive a crystal-clear point into my mind: this man will be our next president and it’s our duty as progressives to make damn sure that happens and not a McCain presidency.
Enough with the in-fighting, enough with the name-calling, this is game-time. Regardless of what you may feel about Obama he is the man standing between the Neoconservative/Religious Right and the Supreme Court. After tonight there’s little doubt in my mind that he has the conviction to nominate the right sort of Justices to ensure America remains a secular liberal republic for another generation.
Obama may be the right man for the job but, as he reminds us, it’s up to us to live up to America’s founding ideals. It’s up to us to see this through to the end.
I’ve included the full speech transcript after the fold but, if you have 22 minutes to spare, watch it instead. It’s a display of power, conviction, and impassioned progressivism you’ve likely not seen in years (if ever). It’s well worth your time.
Sphere: Related ContentThrowing darts at a board
As the countdown to the clinch continues, the Village Idiots are growing ever more idiotic at the prospect of talking gibberish when Senator Barack Obama becomes the first black nominee for president of the USA. David Gergen, charter member of The Best Political Team on Television™, just gave a preview of what’s to come by noting that Obama’s now-all-but-inevitable nomination comes “exactly” 200 years after the end of the slave trade.
Got that, folks? We can now officially start talking about racism in the past tense.
With that–and, as this “historic” campaign goes to the next level, the promise of even more hoary, overinflated rhetoric from a punditocracy addicted to soundbite significance–in mind, this refreshingly grounded LRB essay from David Runciman couldn’t be more timely.
Sphere: Related ContentHoly Sweet Flippin’ [insert your deity of choice here], stop the parsing!
The AP reports that Obama already has enough delegates to clinch the nomination; and before voting ends tonight, CNN (currently) says that Obama has 2088 delegates and 30 more needed to clinch, and the Obama campaign itself (currently) says that it needs 29 more to clinch. But is that enough for reality-alluding Clintonistas like Talk Left’s Jeralyn Merritt? No! Of course not.
Sphere: Related ContentWhat was that noise?
Oh, it was just Mike Huckabee’s ass-hat falling off.
Seriously, if that was a joke then it means the people at the NRA convention, including possible Republican V.P. candidate Mike Huckabee and GOP Presidential nominee John McCain, thought it funny in context. Sadly that context was a meeting full of people thinking what apparently only Huckabee is crazy enough to say.
“That was Barack Obama. He just tripped off a chair. He was getting ready to speak and somebody aimed a gun at him, and he dove for the floor.”
And these are the people who want to run our country, people whose names fit better on the FBI’s most wanted list than on a ballot.
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