Posts filed under 'Barack Obama'
Over the last week, General Wesley Clark decided to run his mouth. . He then dug the hole a little bit deeper with an obnoxious Facebook update of all things, and then tried, badly, to clarify whatever it is he may have meant.
Clark’s comments have backfired badly. They make Clark look really bad, while at the same time, reminding people how utterly unqualified Obama is for the Presidency.
Because in the matters of national security policy making, it’s a matter of understanding risk, it’s a matter of gauging your opponents and it’s a matter of being held accountable. John McCain’s never done any of that in his official positions. I certainly honor his service as a prisoner of war. He was a hero to me and to hundreds of thousands of millions of others in the armed forces as a prisoner of war. He has been a voice on the Senate Armed Services Committee and he has traveled all over the world. But he hasn’t held executive responsibility. That large squadron in the Navy that he commanded wasn’t a wartime squadron. He hasn’t been there and ordered the bombs to fall. He hasn’t seen what it’s like when diplomats come in and say, `I don’t know whether we’re going to be able to get this point through or not. Do you want to take the risk? What about your reputation? How do we handle it publicly?
SCHIEFFER: I have to say, Barack Obama has not had any of those experiences either, nor has he ridden in a fighter plane and gotten shot down. I mean…
So while General Clark’s comments make work out to McCain’s advantage in the long run anyway, Senator McCain decided to take a page out of Senator Obama’s playbook and demand that Obama dump Clark.
“I think it’s up to Sen. Obama now to not only repudiate him, but to cut him loose,” McCain said to a small group of reporters somewhere between Indianapolis, IN, and Cartagena, Colombia.
Tags: Barack Obama, Wesley Clark
July 1st, 2008
Clinton supporters are making a statement that they are NOT going to unite behind Barack Obama. There are a variety of reasons why; Michigan and Florida, poor treatment of Senator Clinton by the media, disrespectful behavior by Obama supporters, or simply doubts about Senator Obama and his qualifications. For these, or other reasons, many Clinton supporters are actively campaigning for Senator McCain. The site Just Say No Deal lists over 125 sites, many newly started, that agree that they will not be voting Obama in November. Some like Savage Politics are even raising money for Senator McCain. Many are planning to donate to the McCain campaign on July 4th to show their committment. Here are just a few of the numerous sites committed to NOT unifying the Democratic Party.
clintondems.com
hireheels.com
hillarysupporters.com
clintons4mccain.com
riverdaughter
hillaryclintonforum.net
womenforfairpolitics.com
donedems.com
pumaparty.com
savagepolitics
hillarygrassrootscampaign.com
pumapac.org
millionwomenmarch.blogspot.com
Clinton Supporters Making A Statement About Not Supporting Obama
Tags: Clinton, clinton supporters, Democrats, mccain, Obama, unity, unity nh, unity rally
June 27th, 2008
Obama’s record on gun control is clear - he’s for it. He’s supported handgun bans, and even answered a questionaire stating he would support banning the manufacture, sale and possession of handguns. Now that he is running for president, and the Supreme Court struck down the DC gun ban, Senator Obama has changed his mind saying that, “The second ammendment means something”. The following clip from Hot Air gives his most recent position on gun control.
From Yahoo/Politico
Barack Obama’s presidential campaign has worked to assure uneasy gun owners that he believes the Constitution protects their rights and that he doesn’t want to take away their guns.
But before he became a national political figure, he sat on the board of a Chicago-based foundation that doled out at least nine grants totaling nearly $2.7 million to groups that advocated the opposite positions.
The foundation funded legal scholarship advancing the theory that the Second Amendment does not protect individual gun owners’ rights, as well as two groups that advocated handgun bans. And it paid to support a book called “Every Handgun Is Aimed at You: The Case for Banning Handguns.”
Earned Media Reports
SEPTEMBER 1996: In Response To A 1996 Independent Voters Of Illinois Questionnaire, Obama Indicated That He Supported Banning The “Manufacture, Sale And Possession Of Handguns.” Question: “Do you support state legislation to … ban the manufacture, sale and possession of handguns?” Obama’s Response: “Yes.” (Independent Voters Of Illinois Independent Precinct Organization 1996 General Candidate Questionnaire, Barack Obama Responses, 9/9/96)
Obama’s Gun Reversal - NH4McCain
Tags: gun ban, gun control, obama dc gun ban, obama flip flop, obama gun rights, second amendment
June 27th, 2008
Senator Obama’s opt-out of public financing came as no surprise. It was a politically expediant move. However, the switch is disconcerting, not just because he broke his word or changed his mind; it’s troubling because he signed a pledge. When most Americans sign a ‘pledge’ it’s considered a legally binding contract. Yet this was a ‘pledge’ and not a contract? So it should be noted that a pledge from Senator Obama is a non-binding agreement. Signature, no signature, this is different than changing on a position, he promised to do ‘x’ signed off on it then did ‘y’. Politically it was most likely the right thing to do, he will have much more money this way. However, he revealed to the American people in the process that a promise, a pledge, and his word are negotiable.
Tags: broken word, campaign finance, contract, dishonest, honesty, oath, public funding, signed
June 22nd, 2008
Well, so much for being a post-racial candidate.
JACKSONVILLE, Florida (Reuters) - Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama said on Friday he expects Republicans to highlight the fact that he is black as part of an effort to make voters afraid of him.
“It is going to be very difficult for Republicans to run on their stewardship of the economy or their outstanding foreign policy,” Obama told a fundraiser in Jacksonville, Florida. “We know what kind of campaign they’re going to run. They’re going to try to make you afraid.
“They’re going to try to make you afraid of me. He’s young and inexperienced and he’s got a funny name. And did I mention he’s black?“
In many ways, its an absolutely brilliant strategy. It is impossible to prove a negative, and no one wants to be branded with the scarlet letter of racism. After far too many years in the country, we have finally reached an age where being a racist has a negative stigma attached to it. Unfortunately, this has also led to the dawn of an era where false accusations of racism can be used as a tool to gain political and financial leverage.
Men like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson have cried wolf on racism for their own political and financial gain for decades now. It looks like we can add Barack Obama to that list as well.
Senator Obama, it has become very clear that you will say and do anything to become President of the United States of America. And if this is the campaign you choose to run, good for you. Call John McCain a racist until your face turns blue. Call whomever his running mate is a racist. Hell, call me a racist. And, if, by chance, you do happen to get enough votes to achieve your dream of the Presidency, I hope the damage you’ll have done to this country is worth it.
Change You Can Believe In.
Tags: Barack Obama, race
June 21st, 2008
David Brook’s excellent article The Two Obama’s does an excellent job laying out how Senator Obama talks reform and inspiration, but plays old school politics as well as anyone out there…
“God, Republicans are saps. They think that they’re running against some academic liberal who wouldn’t wear flag pins on his lapel, whose wife isn’t proud of America and who went to some liberationist church where the pastor damned his own country. They think they’re running against some naïve university-town dreamer, the second coming of Adlai Stevenson…”
“…But as recent weeks have made clear, Barack Obama is the most split-personality politician in the country today. On the one hand, there is Dr. Barack, the high-minded, Niebuhr-quoting speechifier who spent this past winter thrilling the Scarlett Johansson set and feeling the fierce urgency of now. But then on the other side, there’s Fast Eddie Obama, the promise-breaking, tough-minded Chicago pol who’d throw you under the truck for votes…”
Brooks goes on to explain Obama’s history of old school politics. That he is smart and calculating, and has laid out a path for himself that any old-school Chigago politician would be proud of…
“…Back when he was in the Illinois State Senate, Dr. Barack could have taken positions on politically uncomfortable issues. But Fast Eddie Obama voted “present” nearly 130 times. From time to time, he threw his voting power under the truck.
Dr. Barack said he could no more disown the Rev. Jeremiah Wright than disown his own grandmother. Then the political costs of Rev. Wright escalated and Fast Eddie Obama threw Wright under the truck.
Dr. Barack could have been a workhorse senator. But primary candidates don’t do tough votes, so Fast Eddie Obama threw the workhorse duties under the truck.
Dr. Barack could have changed the way presidential campaigning works. John McCain offered to have a series of extended town-hall meetings around the country. But favored candidates don’t go in for unscripted free-range conversations. Fast Eddie Obama threw the new-politics mantra under the truck.
And then on Thursday, Fast Eddie Obama had his finest hour. Barack Obama has worked on political reform more than any other issue. He aspires to be to political reform what Bono is to fighting disease in Africa. He’s spent much of his career talking about how much he believes in public financing. In January 2007, he told Larry King that the public-financing system works. In February 2007, he challenged Republicans to limit their spending and vowed to do so along with them if he were the nominee. In February 2008, he said he would aggressively pursue spending limits. He answered a Midwest Democracy Network questionnaire by reminding everyone that he has been a longtime advocate of the public-financing system.
Full David Brook’s article The Two Obama’s
Tags: change, chicago politics, hope, Obama
June 20th, 2008
Susan Rice’s false statement about the Kennedy Khruschchev meeting leaves open two questions. Are Obama foreign policy advisors up to snuff to guide a candidate and potential president? Are Obama advisors making misleading or false statements in order to win votes? First, Dr. Susan Rice is a Rhodes Scholar, a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institute, and has worked on the Kerry and Dukakis campaigns. It seems hard to believe that she would have thought that the Kennedy Khruschchev meeting really resolved the Cuban Missile Crisis. If she did, it is a troubling gap in knowledge for such an accomplished international relations scholar.
Consequently, that raises the second question of whether this is a tactic to sway votes by misleading people. Was Susan Rice trying to cash in on the popularity of JFK by assuming most people would not know their history well enough to challenge her? This isn’t Rice’s first misstatement. She has been trying over the last few months to walk back Senator Obama’s statement that he would meet with dictators of rouge nations in the first year of his presidency without preconditions. The tactic being to confuse people with a debate between ‘precondition’ and ‘preparations’. Yet, Dr. Rice expressly stated, “Nobody said he would initiate contacts at the presidential level; that requires due preparation and advance work.” That is false, Senator Obama in a YouTube debate expressly stated he would meet with the leaders of Iran, Cuba, and Venezuela without preconditions, which drew criticism from people on both sides of the isle. This begs the question is this a bumbling foreign policy, or old school politics. A decission to say anything regardless of its veracity to put your candidate in office.
YouTube Clip of Senator Obama agreeing to meet without preconditions
First published at Purple People Vote
Tags: 2008 election, foreign policy advisor, ignorance, Obama, politics
June 12th, 2008
You all know the drill by now.
Barack Obama uses his famed judgment to associate himself with someone he probably shouldn’t.
Obama’s own words come back to haunt him
Obama’s first response is to dismiss the problem.
Obama supporters come out of the woodwork to support both The Senator and the man responsible for the latest scandal.
Obama throws the problem under the bus, expects everyone to forget it and vote for him based on his judgment.
Rinse. Repeat.
I’m just sad that we didn’t get the standard “[X] is not the man I thought he was.” response.
Tags: Barack Obama, Jim Johnson, judgment, mortgage crisis
June 11th, 2008
YouTube Clip of Susan Rice’s Statement
Unfortunately, Susan Rice’s statement regarding the Kennedy Khrushchev meeting, “Thank God he did because if he hadn’t we would have not been able to resolve the Cuban Missile Crisis” is completely false. In fact historians agree that this meeting fueled the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The Weekly Standand, in detailing the Kennedy Khrushchev meeting, quotes NYT columnist James Reston who interviewed President Kennedy right after his meeting with Khrushchev,
“Reston reported that Kennedy said just enough for Reston to conclude that Khrushchev “had studied the events of the Bay of Pigs” and that he had “decided that he was dealing with an inexperienced young leader who could be intimidated and blackmailed.” Kennedy said to Reston that Khrushchev had “just beat [the] hell out of me” and that he had presented Kennedy with a terrible problem: “If he thinks I’m inexperienced and have no guts, until we remove those ideas we won’t get anywhere with him. So we have to act.”
Kennedy responded to the meeting with a congressional request for a dramatic increase in defense spending, and a significant increase in the size of the military. Khrushchev responded to Kennedy’s actions with above ground nuclear testing and erecting the Berlin Wall. The tensions between the US and Soviet Union dramatically increased due to the Kennedy Khrushchev meeting; the Cuban Missile Crisis followed.
Susan Rice’s statement is simply false. There is no historical record of the Kennedy Khrushchev meeting being at all helpful in resolving the Cuban Missile Crisis and actually the exact opposite true that an inexperienced leader was bullied into an arms race.
First Published at Purple People Vote
Tags: cuban missile crisis, experience, foreign policy, john lehman, Obama, obama advisor, obama foreign policy, susan rice
June 11th, 2008
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