Obama: Actually, I Think We Can

by hilzoy

I, too, endorse Obama for President, to no one's surprise. Since Katherine has already written a lot of what I would have wanted to say about his rhetoric, and since I've already talked about one of my most important reasons for supporting him, namely the fact that he got Iraq right from the outset, I'll say something about the peculiar idea that Barack Obama is all style and no substance.

I came to Obama by an unusual route: as I explained here, I follow some issues pretty closely, and over and over again, Barack Obama kept popping up, doing really good substantive things. There he was, working for nuclear non-proliferation and securing loose stockpiles of conventional weapons, like shoulder-fired missiles. There he was again, passing what the Washington Post called "the strongest ethics legislation to emerge from Congress yet" -- though not as strong as Obama would have liked. Look -- he's over there, passing a bill that created a searchable database of recipients of federal contracts and grants, proposing legislation on avian flu back when most people hadn't even heard of it, working to make sure that soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan were screened for traumatic brain injury and to prevent homelessness among veterans, successfully fighting a proposal by the VA to reexamine all PTSD cases in which full benefits had been awarded, working to ban no-bid contracts in Katrina reconstruction, and introducing legislation to criminalize deceptive political tactics and voter intimidation. And there he was again, introducing a tech plan of which Lawrence Lessig wrote:

"Obama has committed himself to a technology policy for government that could radically change how government works. The small part of that is simple efficiency -- the appointment with broad power of a CTO for the government, making the insanely backwards technology systems of government actually work.

But the big part of this is a commitment to making data about the government (as well as government data) publicly available in standard machine readable formats. The promise isn't just the naive promise that government websites will work better and reveal more. It is the really powerful promise to feed the data necessary for the Sunlights and the Maplights of the world to make government work better. Atomize (or RSS-ify) government data (votes, contributions, Members of Congress's calendars) and you enable the rest of us to make clear the economy of influence that is Washington.

After the debacle that is the last 7 years, the duty is upon the Democrats to be something different. I've been wildly critical of their sameness (remember "Dems to the Net: Go to hell" which earned me lots of friends in the Democratic party). I would give my left arm to be able to celebrate their difference. This man, Mr. Obama, would be that difference. He has as much support as I can give."

Imagine my surprise, then, when I heard people saying that Obama wasn't "substantive". It was exactly like my experience in 2004 when, after hearing Wes Clark for the first time, I went and looked up his positions on a whole host of issues of concern to me, and only then started reading media accounts of him in which I "learned" that no one knew what his positions were.

As some of my students would say: I was like, wtf?

I was also surprised ...

... by the number of people who said: well, all this bipartisanship stuff sounds very nice, but how do we know it actually works? Isn't this just happy talk that will evaporate in the face of reality? Or, alternately: doesn't this sort of thing involve selling our souls to our supposed partners in compromise? Curiously, Obama has an actual legislative record, and so it is possible for us to see both how he approaches bipartisan cooperation and what results it yields. And it turns out that Obama does achieve results by working with Republicans, and doesn't tend to compromise on core principles.

Last year, I considered some of his bipartisan initiatives in the Senate -- notably on nonproliferation and ethics reform -- and concluded that what Obama actually does has nothing to do with the sort of bipartisanship that people rightly object to:

"According to me, bad bipartisanship is the kind practiced by Joe Lieberman. Bad bipartisans are so eager to establish credentials for moderation and reasonableness that they go out of their way to criticize their (supposed) ideological allies and praise their (supposed) opponents. They also compromise on principle, and when their opponents don't reciprocate, they compromise some more, until over time their positions become indistinguishable from those on the other side.

This isn't what Obama does. Obama tries to find people, both Democrats and Republicans, who actually care about a particular issue enough to try to get the policy right, and then he works with them. This does not involve compromising on principle. It does, however, involve preferring getting legislation passed to having a spectacular battle. (This is especially true when one is in the minority party, especially in this Senate: the chances that Obama's bills will actually become law increase dramatically when he has Republican co-sponsors.)"

Consider a different example:

"Consider a bill into which Obama clearly put his heart and soul. The problem he wanted to address was that too many confessions, rather than being voluntary, were coerced -- by beating the daylights out of the accused.

Obama proposed requiring that interrogations and confessions be videotaped.

This seemed likely to stop the beatings, but the bill itself aroused immediate opposition. There were Republicans who were automatically tough on crime and Democrats who feared being thought soft on crime. There were death penalty abolitionists, some of whom worried that Obama's bill, by preventing the execution of innocents, would deprive them of their best argument. Vigorous opposition came from the police, too many of whom had become accustomed to using muscle to "solve" crimes. And the incoming governor, Rod Blagojevich, announced that he was against it.

Obama had his work cut out for him.

He responded with an all-out campaign of cajolery. It had not been easy for a Harvard man to become a regular guy to his colleagues. Obama had managed to do so by playing basketball and poker with them and, most of all, by listening to their concerns. Even Republicans came to respect him. One Republican state senator, Kirk Dillard, has said that "Barack had a way both intellectually and in demeanor that defused skeptics."

The police proved to be Obama's toughest opponent. Legislators tend to quail when cops say things like, "This means we won't be able to protect your children." The police tried to limit the videotaping to confessions, but Obama, knowing that the beatings were most likely to occur during questioning, fought -- successfully -- to keep interrogations included in the required videotaping.

By showing officers that he shared many of their concerns, even going so far as to help pass other legislation they wanted, he was able to quiet the fears of many.

Obama proved persuasive enough that the bill passed both houses of the legislature, the Senate by an incredible 35 to 0. Then he talked Blagojevich into signing the bill, making Illinois the first state to require such videotaping."

Getting legislation like this passed is a real achievement. Getting it passed unanimously is nothing short of astonishing. Mark Kleiman, who knows this stuff extremely well, put it best:

"1. Obama was completely right, and on an issue directly relevant to the more recent debates about torture. Taping interrogations is an issue that really only has one legitimate side, since there's no reason to think it prevents any true confessions, while it certainly prevents false confessions (over and above the legal and moral reasons for disapproving of police use of "enhanced interrogation methods").

2. Pursuing it had very little political payoff, as evidenced by the fact that Obama has not (as far as I know) so much as mentioned this on the campaign. Standing up for the rights of accused criminals in a contemporary American legislature requires brass balls.

3. Getting it through required both courage and skill. The notion that Obama is "too nice" to get things done can hardly survive this story: he won't face tougher or less scrupulous political opponents than the self-proclaimed forces of law and order. Yes, in this case the change was helpful to the cause of crime control, since every innocent person imprisoned displaces a guilty person. But that didn't make the politics of it any easier."

***

Similarly, people often wonder whether Obama's call for a new kind of politics is just empty words. Here again, I think he has a real record to point to. He has consistently worked for ethics reform. In Illinois, where he helped pass what the WaPo called "the most ambitious campaign reform in nearly 25 years, making Illinois one of the best in the nation on campaign finance disclosure." In the US Senate, he was the Democrats' point man on ethics, and was deeply involved in the ethics legislation passed this year. He didn't get all he wanted -- for instance, he and Russ Feingold couldn't get a bill establishing an Office of Public Integrity to deal with Congressional scandals. But he accomplished a lot, and wants to accomplish more.

Moreover, he is very interested in open government. The searchable database of government grant and contract recipients that I mentioned above is part of that. But Obama's proposals (pdf) go further. For instance, consider these proposals:

* Centralize Ethics and Lobbying Information for Voters: Obama will create a centralized Internet database of lobbying reports, ethics records, and campaign finance filings in a searchable, sortable and downloadable format.

* Create a Public “Contracts and Influence” Database: As president, Obama will create a "contracts and influence" database that will disclose how much federal contractors spend on lobbying, and what contracts they are getting and how well they complete them.

* Expose Special Interest Tax Breaks to Public Scrutiny: Barack Obama will ensure that any tax breaks for corporate recipients — or tax earmarks — are also publicly available on the Internet in an easily searchable format.

* End Abuse of No-Bid Contracts: Barack Obama will end abuse of no-bid contracts by requiring that nearly all contract orders over $25,000 be competitively awarded.

* Sunlight Before Signing: Too often bills are rushed through Congress and to the president before the public has the opportunity to review them. As president, Obama will not sign any non-emergency bill without giving the American public an opportunity to review and comment on the White House website for five days.

* Make White House Communications Public: Obama will amend executive orders to ensure that communications about regulatory policymaking between persons outside government and all White House staff are disclosed to the public.

* Conduct Regulatory Agency Business in Public: Obama will require his appointees who lead the executive branch departments and rulemaking agencies to conduct the significant business of the agency in public, so that any citizen can see in person or watch on the Internet these debates.

These are all proposals designed to allow public scrutiny of the business of government. As I read it, one of Obama's goals in introducing them is to permanently alter the incentives politicians have. As long as legislators did not have to disclose their earmarks, there was no way of finding out that the person who stuck a favor for an obscure casino in one state into an appropriations bill was from another state entirely. There was therefore no way for that person's constituents to wonder why s/he was expending political capital on people outside the district, and no way for reporters to see just who was doing that casino favors. Once legislators have to own up to their earmarks, however, that changes. It won't make abuse go away, of course, but it does make it a lot easier for people to notice and object to the fact that their representatives are doing inexplicable favors for people they have no obvious reason for caring about.

Likewise, if all bills had to be posted to the internet five days before they were voted on signed (oops), it would be much, much more difficult for Congress to sneak some appalling provision through in the dead of night. If all contracts over $25,000 had to be competitively bid, certain sorts of corruption would be a lot more difficult to carry out. And if there were a database of tax breaks and tax earmarks, not to mention a database of lobbyists, it would, again, be much, much easier to track who was doing favors for whom, and why. (And I haven't even started on Obama's proposals (pdf, p. 5) to strengthen FOIA: "Barack Obama would restore the tradition of free information by issuing an Executive Order that information should be released unless an agency reasonably foresees harm to a protected interest.")

I think of these proposals, collectively, as a means of empowering journalists, bloggers, and random citizens to discover corruption and the abuse of power, and to bring the power of shame to bear on politicians who practice it. This clearly isn't all that Obama means when he talks about changing the way politics is practiced in this country. But it's part of it. And I think it's pretty powerful.

***

I sometimes wonder why, exactly, people go on saying all this stuff about Obama lacking substance. Sometimes, I suspect it's just laziness, as in the case of this dKos story in which mcjoan, who is usually much better than this, lists a whole lot of questions she wishes the candidates would answer, apparently unaware that Obama (and, for all I know, Clinton), has already answered most of them. I suspect, though, that part of it might be the assumption that idealism is necessarily woolly and misty-eyed and all about singing Kumbaya, while realism is necessarily cynical and disillusioned.

I have never believed this. There are certainly hard-bitten, cynical people who don't think particularly clearly about the world (Dick Cheney leaps to mind.) More to the point, I can't see any reason why there shouldn't also be people who are both genuinely idealistic and hardheaded at the same time. I suspect Obama is one of them. I do not for a moment imagine that he is perfect. (Cough, clean coal technology, cough cough.) But I do think that he's one of the best candidates I can remember, and that's good enough for me.

Comments

[KCinDC]

The "sunlight before signing" point is about as much as a president can do on his own, but posting the bill after it's already passed through Congress won't help that much. At that point the only option for addressing a bad amendment is for the president to veto the whole thing. What we need is to have bills posted for days before they're voted on, so that bloggers and activists can pick over them while they can still be changed.

[CaseyL]

I want to thank you and Katherine for two wonderful posts.

My own feelings about this campaign have evolved and revolved and turned 'round again. I was excited when Obama announced, angered enough by the Homophobe Preacher Singer to not care whether he or Hillary got the nomination, ecstatic when he won in Iowa, angered again (though not at him) by the venom directed at Hillary after Iowa, and therefore very glad when she won in New Hampshire.

I honestly couldn't make up my mind which one to support. I volunteer at the local Aquarium, which I adore, and my shift on Saturday conflicts with the date our state holds its caucus. So I figured: what the heck, either one is fine with me, I just won't go.

Then two things happened: the Clintons seemed bent on living down to their darker caricatures at the same time Obama seemed to really and truly find his footing.

When the Clintons and their surrogates said nasty things about Obama, and implied even nastier things, I thought: Well, that sucks, but that's politics. What tore it for me was the horse hockey Hillary's campaign pulled in Nevada, and has promised to pull in Michigan and Florida. It seems voters' rights really only matter when it benefits Hillary Clinton. Like I said at the time (here, I think), dirty pool against other politicians is one thing; dirty pool against voters is something else again.

Meanwhile, there was Obama bringing in waves of new Democrats and new voters by the tens of thousands, setting alight every crowd he spoke to and being, I think, kindled in turn by them. He's become not merely a soaring orator, but someone who can potentially reframe America's political discourse back to something we can be proud of.

So I spoke to my supervisor at the Aquarium and switched my shift to Sunday. I will spend Saturday at Northgate Elementary School, caucusing with a few hundred other people to elect as many Obama delegates as we can.

[DigDog]

Yes, We Can !!

(Let's at least try.)

[PhoenixRising]

Am I just older and more cynical than you all?

Might As Well Try And See If We Can, and If Not, Hillary Will Do All Right Too doesn't quite fit on the entire bumper. Let alone the sticker.

[Mike Schilling]

As some of my students would say: I was like, wtf?

It's good when learning is a two-way street.

[dutchmarbel]

I also follow the leftcoaster who endorses Hillary Clinton and has a lot of thoughtfull posts about why.

Though I might lean more towards HRC if I could vote in the US I think both democratic canidates are good. Enjoy supertuesday ;)

[Gary Farber]

That's "Super-Duper Tuesday. Really.

(It's not as if these are legal names, after all.)

[bitchphd]

Hilzoy, I just posted something earlier tonight about being undecided myself (and I live in California). Katherine sent me to Making Light (which I read only infrequently), which sent me over to this post (which I'd missed, b/c I checked you a lot earlier today). Here's what I said in my own comment post:

This piece by Hilzoy--which I somehow missed--deserves a link of its own for anyone who (like me) is still trying to figure this stuff out. It provides *specifics*, with links, from someone I know knows her shit.

I admit that I (like a lot of other bloggers, and a lot of smart people in general) follow politics better than most Americans, but--as Hilzoy correctly surmises--am, at bottom, lazy and don't do the kind of research she's summarizing for us in that post. That's the kind of stuff I wish The Press would do more often, and thank god there are bloggers who fill in the gaps.

Thanks so much. This is the sort of information I've been hoping to find. This kind of thing is the best blogs have to offer, and a damn sight better than anything I've seen from the mainstream media.

[Dave Pooser]

These are all proposals designed to allow pubic scrutiny of the business of government.

I think you're missing an L there. Pubic scrutiny is what the Republicans do.

[Charles]

Please watcht his important Super Tuesday campaign video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93bo0Zndgsw

[kberly7568]

Yayyy for Obama. I think he is really going to do great today, or at least I hope so. Check out this really cool and inspirational music video that features clips from baracks "yes we can" speechs.

http://campaigncircus.com/video_player.php?v=7604

[hairshirthedonist]

I'm happy to say I'll be voting in my first primary today, and for Obama. I'm considering writing the URL for this post on business cards to hand out to anyone who expresses the "long on rhetoric, short on substance" view of Obama.

[trilobite]

Hey, CaseyL, sounds like we're neighbors. I'll be at Lake Forest Park Elementary School Saturday.
See you in the funny papers!

[KCinDC]

Just heard on the radio that people are calling the Virginia board of elections wondering why their polling places are closed today. I suppose that's a good sign for voter turnout for next week, though not for an informed electorate.

[hairshirthedonist]

Oh, it isn't primary election day for the entire US? Who knew?

[Gary Farber]

Wait, you mean everyone isn't going to a caucus?

What's a "primary"?

Seriously speaking, I realize that I have deep and vivid detailed memories of whole stretches of the caucus and delegate process in 1980 and 1984.

My votes in primaries in 1988, 1992, 1996, and 2000, were so fleeting and uninvolving, with no political discussion or interaction or persuasion involved, that I can't even recall what building I must have voted in, or anything about the experience whatever, other than who I voted for.

God, I love caucuses, and hate living in states with only primaries, where you essentially participate not at all, save by the most minimal possible act of voting.

And I do think it's a bit arrogant for folks to only speak of primaries, as if states they don't live in don't exist.

Is it so hard to say "people are going to their caucuses and primaries today," rather than just "people are going to the primaries today," as if we all didn't exist, and caucuses aren't vitally different and invaluable?

[cleek]

And I do think it's a bit arrogant for folks to only speak of primaries, as if states they don't live in don't exist.

what.ever. at least you get a say, however it is you say it. NC has a primary, but it's so far out into the future that it might as well not exist. it's a primary the same way the Pro-Bowl is a football game.

[hairshirthedonist]

I kind of envy the people who get to caucus. It sound more like a party. But I live in a state with a primary today. My guess would be that most people think of caucuses (cauci?) as a special type of primary and think they've covered both with the use of "primary." Either that or they're (again, most people) just being lazy, like me. I guess that's arrogant, sort of. I, for one, will try harder.

[Gary Farber]

"NC has a primary, but it's so far out into the future that it might as well not exist. it's a primary the same way the Pro-Bowl is a football game."

I think that's unduly pessimistic as regards May 6.

And where does that leave Indiana, West Virginia, Kentucky, Oregon, Montana, North Dakota, and Puerto Rico?

(It would be interesting, if it came down to scraping for the last votes, other than the superdelegates and possible multiple votes at the convention, the candidates suddenly found themselves campaigning furiously in Puerto Rico, to win the nomination, wouldn't it?)

I have no idea what the Pro Bowl thing means, incidentally, other than obviously it's not significant to major league football, I gather, but it's likely just me who is clueless about that stuff, and has no idea what a Pro Bowl is. (A non-counted game in the league contests, just for showing off, I assume.)

Would "what.ever." be an appropriate response to people only mentioning primaries, then? I'd have thought it kinda on the rude side, and rather dismissive, but I'm not the best judge of that sort of thing, so I try to pick up clues from others as how to be appropriately courteous.

[KCinDC]

Gary, I get similarly annoyed when people use the word "states" when talking about a set that includes the District of Columbia (which is not a state, as those of us who live there are painfully aware). For the sake of your blood pressure, it may be best to imagine footnotes saying "For the purpose of this article, 'primary' means 'primary or caucus'."

[cleek]

And where does that leave Indiana, West Virginia, Kentucky, Oregon, Montana, North Dakota, and Puerto Rico?

same place. the primary system is broken.

Would "what.ever." be an appropriate response to people only mentioning primaries, then?

yes

but I'm not the best judge of that sort of thing

here's a little guidance, then: "what.ever." should always be read in the tone of a bratty 15 year old girl. and what follows it is usually exasperated, but pointless, whining. in other words: it was a joke.

[hairshirthedonist]

I'd probably just stick to something like "Here in Colorado we caucus, as they do in several other states as well." But it's probably useless for the most part.

[Gary Farber]

I like to think that it's useful for citizens to actually understand the political process in the United States, though.

As it is, it's my strong impression that not only do most citizens in most primary states not even understand that many states (other than Iowa) don't have primaries, but they have absolutely no clue how a caucus works.

So we see lots of reports like this: HuckaMcCain steals West Virginia?

Because, you know, if there's a second round, and the winner didn't win the first round, that's stealing. Which is to say: this is a clueless understanding of how a caucus votes.

I don't think this lack of knowledge is uncommon, and I don't think it's helped when endless number of citizens, particularly bloggers who are ostensibly interested in educating people about the political system, elide caucuses (other than Iowa, which is treated as unique) into invisibility, along with the voters of Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Minnesota, North Dakota, Nevada, Nebraska, Washington, Maine, and Wyoming.

These are actually real states, with real voters, even if they're not California or New York or in the BosWash corridor. and it's only an eighth of the states.

And I think it's specifically bad for the Democratic Party, and for Democrats, to speak and use language that makes these states and voters and our political system invisible footnotes.

Because, oddly, people tend to feel resentful when they're ignored, and people pretend they don't exist, and make clear in their language that they don't even have to have their existence acknowledged.

Thus, the phenomenon in the past of Democratic politicians and supporters driving a lot of western voters towards the Republicans, who have noticed and played on this resentment for decades, while Democrats have only started to show some awareness in the last few years.

It's still a long fight to solidify Democratic wins and precincts out here, and it's not helpful when Democratic coasters say, oh, be content with making an invisible footnote that your states and eighth of the country exist.

It's hard for me to take that to my neighbors as a reason to vote for us.

[KCinDC]

The invisible footnote isn't about whether those states exist, just about whether they have caucuses or primaries, which is mostly irrelevant for lots of articles. I don't see bloggers ignoring the existence of caucus states any more than they ignore primary states of similar population.

[Andrea]

@charles, why, that wasn't an Obama video at all -- it was a Clinton video! You're so clever -- trickery and lies will surely win people over to your side.

[Gary Farber]

Let me clarify, KCinDC, and apologize if necessary, that I wasn't bothered by your statement at all, actually; I took it in the spirit meant.

It wound up being convenient to point out problematic aspects when responses such as that are made in other contexts by other people, but I in no way meant to imply there was anything untoward or inappropriate about your suggestion to me, which I retrospectively realize I didn't make in the least clear, so I do so now.

The ignoring I was speaking of was the linguistic ignoring, by failing to acknowledge the existence of caucuses when speaking of the contests. People's intent is irrelevant.

It's no different than arguing about whether speaking of all humans as "men" ignores women or not: the intent of the speaker/writer is irrelevant to whether some people -- maybe, who knows, women? -- feel unacknowledged.

But I don't mean to make a summit out of a foothill; I've made my point, and are done.

[Gary Farber]

"@charles, why, that wasn't an Obama video at all -- it was a Clinton video! You're so clever -- trickery and lies will surely win people over to your side."

Could you quote the "lies," please?

That person's entire text, other than the dead link, was this: "Please watcht his important Super Tuesday campaign video."

Apparently "Obama" is inserted in invisble ASCII betweet "Tuesday" and "campaign."

Shocking, shocking, lies.

I get fussy about precision in language because when so many people in our polity read so poorly, and are incapable of understanding or making use of precise language, politics suffers.

Which means people end up suffering.

Making one's self understood, and understanding other people, via words, via writing, matters.

[KCinDC]

Gary, "watcht his" can be mentally corrected to "watch his" as well as "watch this". In fact, that may be an intentional part of the spam, assuming it's being spewed across blog posts about Obama.

[Ara]

I just want to sneer in contempt at the first quote out of the Lessig endorsement (which was fantastic, thanks for linking to it: I passed it on to many who care about the transparency issue). Craven cowardly Democrats who wanted to protect their own hides because they thought HRCs nomination was preordained. Not her *Presidency*, mind you, just her nomination. She could have been a limping candidate and *that* unnamed person would still have the same reasons not to speak out against it or try for something different. That's just the kind of cowardice then gave us terrible policies like this war, when there were plenty of people around within the government who did know better.

[Ara]

But the other thing that comes out of that little tidbit: the admission that HRC will shut anyone who did not help her out of the next administration.

Is that what we want?

[Gary Farber]

"Gary, 'watcht his' can be mentally corrected to 'watch his' as well as "watch this'."

Be that as it may, I'm unclear how it would justify accusing someone of "trickery and lies."

Maybe I take that sort of thing a lot more seriously than some people do. Because I regard those as very serious and offensive charges. I wouldn't make them lightly.

It's not the sort of rhetoric I think people should engage in casually, at least, beyond a small circle of like-minded friends.

[john miller]

Gary, if what was read was "watch his" then the accusation is valid. However, it is an accustaion that should then be taken back when the other interpretation is presented.

After all, if one reads "watch his" and turns out to be "hers" that would be deceitful. I originally read it that way, but since my own typing borders on the pathetic, I see the "watch this" as far more likely.

[Ara]

Could also add that Obama has the best stimulus plan, red or blue.

[hilzoy]

Belle Waring:

"Dear Democratic Primary Voters

Please vote for Obama, oh pretty please with whipped cream and a cherry and sprinkles on top!!1!! I would also like a pony KTHX BYe."

[hilzoy]

Mark Kleiman:

"Lots of bloggers have come out with Presidential endorsements over the past couple of days. I think it the wiser course to remain scrupulously neutral as between the most inspiring politician of my lifetime and Mark Penn's latest sock-puppet. Otherwise some of my readers might come to doubt the objectivity of the analysis here."

:)

[KCinDC]

John Cole gets in on the act, even though he doesn't get to vote until May:

I intend to vote for the unity pony.

[Gary Farber]

CNN claims Georgia has been won by Obama by 2-1.

[...] On the Democratic side, those who made up their mind in the last three days appear to be torn between Obama and Clinton.

According to the exit polls, Obama and Clinton are essentially splitting those voters, with 47 percent going for Obama and 46 percent for Clinton.

[Gary Farber]

Here is how Obama will win, if he does:

According to nationwide early exit polling, [...] [j]ust over half, 51 percent, said the ability to bring change was the most important quality in a candidate, with 23 percent citing experience."

[Nell]

Thanks for this, hilzoy.

The police videotaping bill is the one that counts for the most with me.

Chicago police tortured prisoners for years and years, and very few people wanted even to acknowledge it, much less do anything about it. The dominant response among those forced to acknowledge it was to pass off the unit that carried it out the most viciously and systematically as ... wait for it: "a few bad apples".

[Doctor Science]

the peculiar idea that Barack Obama is all style and no substance

It's not a peculiar idea. If you listen to or read Clinton & Obama's speeches side by side, you can't help noticing that Obama's speeches are poetically stirring but incredibly vague. You can find plenty of detailed, wonky policy papers on his website and by surfing around, but what he's actually campaigning on *is* style more than substance.

[Keli]

Am I just older and more cynical than you all?

Might As Well Try And See If We Can, and If Not, Hillary Will Do All Right Too doesn't quite fit on the entire bumper. Let alone the sticker.
-I must be just as old and cynical as you. Change is good, but actions speak louder than words. The thing is, people seem to brush Obama's lashes at Hillary under the wrong. Bill and Hillary are the big bad bullies...well, if the public and other politicians feel the need to protect him in the democratic primary, what's going to happen when he runs against the Republicans.

[Keli]

correction
under the rug, not wrong.

[mary ellen]

What about Obama's connection to Exelon and how he rewrote his bill to force them to let the public know if there are leaks from their nuclear facility, to giving them the opportunity to police and regulate themselves? He stuck it to those in Illinois who lived near the Braidwood nuclear facility and had a dangerous chemical leak into their water?

He lied to Iowan voters when he spoke about this before the primary and the media didn't call him on it.

He also voted no on a bill which angered fellow Democrats in the Illinois Senate when he voted to strip millions of dollars from a child welfare office on Chicago's West Side.

I live in Illinois, Obama is not what he is portraying to the public.

[Erik Ostrom]

It's kind of a side note, but does anyone know what this sentence is about?

There were death penalty abolitionists, some of whom worried that Obama's bill, by preventing the execution of innocents, would deprive them of their best argument.

Really? I mean, not just worried, but actively opposed the bill for that reason?

[Gary Farber]

"What about Obama's connection to Exelon and how he rewrote his bill to force them to let the public know if there are leaks from their nuclear facility, to giving them the opportunity to police and regulate themselves?"

Name the bill that stood a chance of passing that he opposed that would have done better.

Meanwhile, explain how Senator Clinton's record is clean of corporate campaign contributions, and that her staff has never met with corporate executives to hear their concerns about a bill.

Then, sure, I'll be concerned.

[Mary]

I am not planning on voting for Obama.. he is just not ready.. maybe in 8 years Maybe! but did not his wife say we only get this one shot..

[verycold]

I would like to comment to hilzoy. I lived outside of Chicago for a number of years, and although I am very fond of that city for sentimental reasons, it is a lousy state to live in. The property taxes are horrible. The roads are even worse. The Chicago machine is very corrupt and frankly the poverty is overwhelming. The drop-out rate for blacks in Chicago is appalling. The rich are getting richer in the Chicago area, while the poor really live poor. Take the train sometime - I did for years and it will point out those stark differences. Barack's children go to private school. Hmmmm He lives large and living even bigger every day. I do like the idea of his premise for ethical reform. However why does he have ear-marks still? Hillary supports them and is proud because she feels that she is doing her job for her state by getting funds to do special projects for the people she represents. It is no wonder she does have a high approval rating. It would seem one would either approve of earmarks or not. I don't. Barack has raised more money for his campaign than any of the others. I would definitely say it is because his campaign is much better run. I get e-mails from him daily. I signed up with many candidates and rarely get updates. He is much, much better than the others. However it took gobs of money to get this well-oiled machine and he is blowing through that money at a record pace. I am not in favor of candidates raising money privately, but would instead like to see each party be represented by a few and given the exact same amount of money to get their message out. So....if everybody had the same resources and one was thrifty and still had a well-oiled machine, then I would be very inclined to believe they will be thrifty when they get to the WH with MY money. As it is now, all I know is that he can raise it and spend it and so the candidate with the most gets the most attention. I am not so thrilled with only the rich getting elected. I am not so thrilled with rich lawyers always getting elected. Barack is a millionaire.

I think Bush has done a lot of damage to the spirit of the American people, helped along by the very liberal media h...bent on digging a bigger divide between the two parties. If Barack can repair that I will be very happy, but judging from the horrible comments said daily to me from liberal democrats that is wishful thinking. That is exactly what is wrong with Hillary. She represents the angry left. It is hard to think clearly when hatred is the primary emotion.

I have read tons about Barack and so far not terribly impressed except of course by his charm and oratory skills.

Here is my biggest complaint about Barack. I am extremely conflicted that he is choosing NOW to run for this office when he has very young children at home. We pay lip service in this country to the idea of a family that eats together and just spends time hanging out with each other. I am not talking just about attending organized sports either. I raised a son and I know how quick the grow up. I know that what we both cherish the most about our past together is those times we went on hikes after school, walked to the library after school, fished together, rode bikes together, planted our yearly garden together, watched and played tennis nightly during the summer at the local park, went to the movies after school, etc. See, just a bunch of small, little events that have such importance to us today. Barack's children are being raised by her mother, which is certainly better than nannies, but from my perspective his timing is lousy. My husband turned down so many jobs when my son was growing up just to minimize the pressure outside the home. He had plenty of time to excel which he did after my son was out of the house on his own. He excelled all the way to president. Nope, the more I think about this issue of timing, the more I think he and his lovely wife will regret putting their political concerns above their family.

[MrChumChum]

Hilzoy,
Your diary is simply excellent. No other word for it.

If I'm conducting a job interview, the first question is, of course, experience. Have they shown that they are capable of handling the kinds of situations they will need to handle? It's unfortunate that Obama doesn't have executive experience, but his campaign has shown such astonishing professionalism and rigor that I'm prepared to count that as part of the equation. Not to mention no one else applying has executive experience. Obama's resume is not the longest, but it definitively shows a range of accomplishments and a proven and consistent commitment to getting things done and getting them done for the Progressive agenda.

The second question is the intangibles. Do they have the right demeanor, character, attitude, vision for the job. Obama has these qualities more than any other candidate I've ever seen for the job.

My interview is done, if I'm hiring, Obama gets the job.

[DaveinOz]

Many thanks for bringing this all together.

It's a fascinating piece that should be required reading for all political pundits (and all Obama supporters who may potentially be interviewed!)

[Bob Lipton]

I, too, have been amazed that people fall for the "inexperienced" label that has been incorrectly directed at Barack Obama.

I sent you an email, asking for a tiny bit more information. Thanks in advance for your kind reply.

[eRobin]

Thanks for this very encouraging article.

[gadabout]

Thanks. Excellent and informative post.

[jrs6776]

I am wondering just who you are, I cant believe you believe this garbage you are writing. He was against the war but so were a lot of other people & he had a 50 percent chance of getting it right. I dont see all this legislation you say he passed & in ill you have to be kidding. It looks to me like you have been paid to blow his horn & that is all this is 'so much garbage'

[hilzoy]

jrs6776: believe what you like. No one pays me to write here: heck, I pay the princely sum of $14.95/month to keep the blog up. I have a different job entirely.

[cleek]

I am wondering just who you are...

says "jrs6776"

[hilzoy]

I should also say, to jrs6776: my identity has been described as the worst kept secret in the blogosphere.

[Janet Reno]

Obama’s efforts to connect to the Republican Party, specifically Bush, and Dick Chaney, of the Halliburton Company, dates back to the Presidents Grandfather, Prescott Bush, and indeed Chaney was once an executive officer of Halliburton.

The American military pounds Iraq with Artillary, bombs, and the like, destroying large sections of cities, and infra-structures, then Halliburton comes in to rebuild. Halliburton and Halliburton associated companies have raked in ten’s of billions.

Obama is just like the BIG HALIBURTAN. Haliburton has contracted to build detention centers in the U.S. similiar to the one in Quantanammo Bay, Cuba. Halliburton does nothing to earn the Two Dollars for each meal an American Serviceman in Iraq eats.

http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/

Halliburton was scheduled to take control of the Dubai Ports in The United Arab Emiirate. The deal was canceled when Bush was unable to affect the transfer of the American Ports.

Now we see what some might suspect as similiar financial escapading from the Democrats.

Two years ago, Iraq’s Ministry of Electricity gave a $50 million contract to a start-up security company - Companion- owned by now-indicted businessman (TONY REZKO) Tony Rezko and a onetime Chicago cop, Daniel T. Frawley, to train Iraqi power-plant guards in the United States. An Iraqi leadership change left the deal in limbo. Now the company, Companion Security, is working to revive its contract.
Involved along with Antoin “Tony” Rezco, long time friend and neighbor of Democratic Presidential hopeful Barack Obama, and former cop Daniel T. Frawley, is Aiham Alsammarae. Alsammarae was accused of financial corruption by Iraqi authorities and jailed in Iraq last year before escaping and returning here.

LIKE FATHER LIKE SON --
Recently, Obama's campaign staff have been vetted by the IRS to disclose his connection to the criminal money generating underworld. Besides, his connections to the REZCO MAFIA types, his up-coming tax fraud charges — Obama needs to disclose why he is a MUSLIM "PATWANG-FWEEE" and disclose Obama's MUSLIM Farrakhan mob connection to Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ. Its minister, and Obama's spiritual adviser, is the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. In 1982, the church launched Trumpet Newsmagazine; Wright's daughters serve as publisher and executive editor. Every year, the magazine makes awards in various categories. Last year, it gave the Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. Trumpeter Award to a man it said "truly epitomized greatness." That man is Louis Farrakhan. Farrakhan and Chicago's Trinity United Church are trumpeting Barack Obama AKA Barack Hussein Obama as the second coming of the messiah. Obama should stop suppoting our intervention in IRAQ. It’s time to introduce this false, fake Xerox - X box Obama and invite the self-indicting thief plagiarizing pipsqueke "GLORK" Xerox - X box to meet the Buffalo "GAZOWNT-GAZIKKA" Police Department Buffalo Creek. He is MAD!!! --

OBAM YOU'RE NO JFK --

"GLORK" Obama looks like Alfred E. Newman: "Tales Calculated To Drive You." He is a MUSLIM "Glork" He's MAD!!! Alfred E. Neuman is the fictional mascot of Mad. The face had drifted through American pictography for decades before being claimed by Mad editor Harvey Kurtzman after he spotted it on the bulletin board in the office of Ballantine Books editor Bernard Shir-Cliff, later a contributor to various magazines created by Kurtzman.
Obama needs to disclose why he is a MUSLIM "PATWANG-FWEEE" and stop suppoting our intervention in IRAQ. It’s time to introduce this false, fake "GLORK" Xerox - X box Obama and invite the self-indicting thief plagiarizing pipsqueke Xerox - X box to meet the Buffalo "GAZOWNT-GAZIKKA" Police Department Buffalo Creek.

Michelle Obama should be ashamed.

"GLORK" Michelle Obama should be ashamed of her separatist-racist connection to Farrakhan and Chicago's Trinity United Church trumpeting Barack Obama AKA Barack Hussein Obama as the second coming of the messiah. If Michelle Obama new what her husband -- the Hope-A-Dope, Fonster Monster -- Barack Obama AKA Barack Hussein Obama did in Harlem, she would wash her wide-open, Hus-suey loving MUSILM mouth out, with twenty-four (24) mule-team double-cross X-boX-BorraX. He is a MUSLIM "Glork" It’s time to introduce this false, fake "GLORK" Xerox - X box Obama and invite the self-indicting thief plagiarizing pipsqueke Xerox - X box to meet the Buffalo "GAZOWNT-GAZIKKA" Police Department Buffalo Creek. He's MAD!!!

http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/

[cleek]

in case you were wondering, yes, Janet Reno is a spammer. GLORK!

[Jesurgislac]

I have to say: I wasn't wondering. Somehow, you can always tell.

[Slartibartfast]

And here I thought Obama was only the next Hitler. Turns out, instead, that he's closer to Satan.

[Howard]

I WANT A PRESIDENT WHO REPRESENTS ALL AMERICANS

Here is Pastor Wright's 'Black Value System'
posted at his website. This is what Barak Obama
pledged an oath to for the past 20 years:
http://www.tucc.org/black_value_system.html

Pastor Wright gave Louis Farakan a life time
achievement award. Here is what Louis Farakan believes:
Posted at his own website.
http://www.noi.org/muslim_program.htm

[Janet Reno]

Obama's efforts to connect to the Republican Party, specifically Bush, and Dick Cheney, of the Halliburton Company, dates back to the Presidents Grandfather, Prescott Bush, and indeed Cheney was once an executive officer of Halliburton.

The American military pounds Iraq with Artillary, bombs, and the like, destroying large sections of cities, and infra-structures, then Halliburton comes in to rebuild. Halliburton and Halliburton associated companies have raked in ten’s of billions.

Obama is just like the BIG HALIBURTAN. Haliburton has contracted to build detention centers in the U.S. similiar to the one in Quantanammo Bay, Cuba. Halliburton does nothing to earn the Two Dollars for each meal an American Serviceman in Iraq eats.

http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/

Halliburton was scheduled to take control of the Dubai Ports in The United Arab Emiirate. The deal was canceled when Bush was unable to affect the transfer of the American Ports.

Now we see what some might suspect as similiar financial escapading from the Democrats.

Two years ago, Iraq’s Ministry of Electricity gave a $50 million contract to a start-up security company - Companion- owned by now-indicted businessman (TONY REZKO) Tony Rezko and a onetime Chicago cop, Daniel T. Frawley, to train Iraqi power-plant guards in the United States. An Iraqi leadership change left the deal in limbo. Now the company, Companion Security, is working to revive its contract.
Involved along with Antoin “Tony” Rezco, long time friend and neighbor of Democratic Presidential hopeful Barack Obama, and former cop Daniel T. Frawley, is Aiham Alsammarae. Alsammarae was accused of financial corruption by Iraqi authorities and jailed in Iraq last year before escaping and returning here.

LIKE FATHER LIKE SON --
Recently, Obama's campaign staff have been vetted by the IRS to disclose his connection to the criminal money generating underworld. Besides, his connections to the REZCO MAFIA types, his up-coming Tax Fraud charges — Obama needs to disclose why he is a MUSLIM "PATWANG-FWEEE" and disclose Obama's MUSLIM Farrakhan mob connection to Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ. Its minister, and Obama's spiritual adviser, is the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. In 1982, the church launched Trumpet Newsmagazine; Wright's daughters serve as publisher and executive editor. Every year, the magazine makes awards in various categories. Last year, it gave the Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. Trumpeter Award to a man it said "truly epitomized greatness." That man is Louis Farrakhan. Farrakhan and Chicago's Trinity United Church are trumpeting Barack Obama AKA Barack Hussein Obama as the second coming of the messiah. Oddly enough, Barack Obama, and his mentor Rev. Wright, failed to mention Planned Parenthood, an organization established by eugenicist Margaret Sanger expressly for the purpose of black genocide. The Obelus -- Kiss-A-Cuss and "GLORK" black demagoguery of Obama's Stump Lines Echo Malcolm X, foreshadows X - PATRIOT Obama as the bringer of a "new politics," rising above the old Washington ways of expediency. It's hard to think of an act more blatantly expedient than renouncing Wright when his show, once done from the press club instead of the pulpit, could no longer be "contextualized" as something whites could not understand and only Obama could explain in all its complexity. Obama should stop suppoting our intervention in IRAQ. It’s time to introduce this false, fake Xerox - X box Obama and invite the self-indicting thief plagiarizing pipsqueke "GLORK" Xerox - X box to meet the Buffalo "GAZOWNT-GAZIKKA" Police Department Buffalo Creek. He is MAD!!! --

OBAM YOU'RE NO JFK --

"GLORK" Obama looks like Alfred E. Newman: "Tales Calculated To Drive You." He is a MUSLIM "Glork" He's MAD!!! Alfred E. Neuman is the fictional mascot of Mad. The face had drifted through American pictography for decades before being claimed by Mad editor Harvey Kurtzman after he spotted it on the bulletin board in the office of Ballantine Books editor Bernard Shir-Cliff, later a contributor to various magazines created by Kurtzman.
Obama needs to disclose why he is a MUSLIM "PATWANG-FWEEE" and stop suppoting our intervention in IRAQ. It’s time to introduce this false, fake "GLORK" Xerox - X box Obama and invite the self-indicting thief plagiarizing pipsqueke Xerox - X box to meet the Buffalo "GAZOWNT-GAZIKKA" Police Department Buffalo Creek.

Michelle Obama should be ashamed.

"GLORK" Michelle Obama should be ashamed of her separatist-racist connection to Farrakhan and Chicago's Trinity United Church trumpeting Barack Obama AKA Barack Hussein Obama as the second coming of the messiah. Beneath that Darth-Vader-Mace-Windu-Jedi-Me ssiah Helmet Hairdo of Michelle Obama lurks a Wildabeast. If Michelle Obama new what her husband -- the Hope-A-Dope, Fonster Monster -- Barack Obama AKA Barack Hussein Obama did in Harlem, she would wash her wide-open, Hus-suey loving MUSILM mouth out, with twenty-four (24) mule-team double-cross X-boX-BorraX. The Lexis-Nexis-Albatross-Abacus-Complex of Barack and Michelle's relationship with MUSLIM "PATWANG-FWEEE" Rev. Wright, Louis Farrakhan, and black demagoguery of Obama's Stump Lines Echo Malcolm X; is about as much of a Hoax as Oxfam volunteers believe in HIV-- AIDS Witch Doctors in Africa they feed.
"God damn America" - Jeremiah Wright and Barack Obama.
"God bless America" - Pope Benedict XVI and Hillary Clinton --
Michelle Obama AKA Wildabeast -- failed the Illinois Bar Exam. If Barack Obama had married Shaniqua instead of the leftist-separatist-racist-beast-'ist Michelle, his jackanapes' excitedly-fixed-elitism, Nemet-Oure-Saxas Our Father Our King -- black rage, and "GLORK" black demagoguery of Obama's Stump Lines Echo Malcolm X; would be taken a lot more expeditiously. Its expected that Obam will manage his explosive MUSLIM JIHADI -- FATIMA EXTREMISM obsession bitter. He is a MUSLIM "Glork" It’s time to introduce this false, fake "GLORK" Xerox - X box Obama and invite the self-indicting thief plagiarizing pipsqueke Xerox - X box to meet the Buffalo "GAZOWNT-GAZIKKA" Police Department Buffalo Creek. He's MAD!!!

http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/

THE SPEECH --

The Apologia has arrived and once again the self-indicting, separatist-racist Barack Obama AKA Barack Hussein Obama, promises to heal the wounds of the world. The speech is the rude awakening of mass messianism of his campaign. Apologetically, Obama the MUSLIM double-cross X-boX-BorraX has an astonishingly empty two-prawn echelon explanation of his misjudgment.
In the first prawn: with regard to his connection to separatist-racist Rev. Wright; Obama summons voodoo and juju to express slavery as beginning and ending with the Rev. Wright.
In the second prawn: Obama's speech takes credit for Ashley's dream. A dream of unity Martin Luther King, Jr. borrowed from Ashley for his historic "I Have A Dream" speech. In Obama's speech, the connective bond Ashley, the elderly black man and Obama's grandmother share; represents Obama's self-indicting rise to the Harvard Yard. For Obama, the grand flag of language is the semi-fore of words, bestowed upon our nation by the messiah-alumni from Harvard. Obama's Swoon-Song Apologia to the nation represents a failed hymn -- a hymn that fails to heal the nation, repair the world, or make this time different than all the rest. Obama's speech is a brilliant failure.

http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/

MUSLIM LIES --

The ILLIGITIAMTE MUSLIM MESSIA has blundered yet again!!! The self-indicting, separatist-racist Barack Obama AKA Barack Hussein Obama, lied about the politics of his campaign. The danger involved with this self-aggrandizing, -a-hoop, Hope-A-Dope, Fonster Monster -- Barack Obama AKA Barack Hussein Obama is that -- "Like Father Like Son" Obama is constantly wanting to impress America with "...his incapacity for sound judgment." In 2005, Sen. Obama voted for the Dick Cheney energy bill, which Cheney wrote in secret with the Exxon Mobil oil industry. Hillary Clinton opposed Cheney's energy bill, has a plan to eliminate oil industry tax breaks, and would require oil companies to contribute to a $50 billion strategic energy fund to jump-start research and investment in clean energy technologies. On top of the horrible crime Obama executed in Harlem, the fact is, we have to hear it from Karl Rove about Obama's latest Campaign Crisis.

"GLORK" Top Ten Obama Lies:

1. Obam said his parents met at the Selma march -- Reality: He was born 4 years before that.

2. Obam said he was a constitutional law professor -- Reality: . . . Obama Made This False Claim In His 2004 Senate Race. “Several direct-mail pieces issued for Obama's primary [Senate] campaign said he was a law professor at the University of Chicago. He is not. He is a senior lecturer (now on leave) at the school..

3. Obam said he spoke fluent Indonesian as a child -- Reality: . . . Obama has claimed on numerous occasions to have become fluent in Indonesian in six months. Yet another Phi Beta Krakatau lie from Obama. Those who knew him disputed that during recent interviews. Israel la Pareira Darmawan, Obama's 1st-grade teacher, said she attempted to help him learn the Indonesian language by going over pronunciation and vowel sounds. Truth-be-told: Obama's Indonesian teachers say Kaku-Pooh.

4. Obam said he was involved in community asbestos and housing project for the poor -- Reality: . . . Didn't happen. This was the basis for Barack and Michelle's claim, that he was a community activist on the South and East Side of Chicago. Usher United Arab Emirates (UAE) A+ lie both he and his twenty-four (24) mule-team, Hus-suey loving wife Michelle Obama have been claiming in the campaign -- Reality: The Chicago Newspaper's Obelus -- Kiss-A-Cuss:...NO-MAMA.

5. Obam said in his book that he received his racial awakening at age nine reading a Life/Ebony Magazine story about a black man who was scarred trying to dye his skin white -- Reality: . . . Didn't happen. Both Magazines (Life and Ebony), and the Rev. Wright and Farrakhan MUSLIM Trumpet Newsmagazine say, just didn't happen.

6. Obam’s Campaign Didn’t Have The “Technical Capacity” To Produce The “1984” Ad:

Obama: “But it's not something that we had anything to do with or were aware of and that frankly, given what it looks like, we don't have the technical capacity to create something like that.” (CNN’s “Larry King Live,” 3/24/07) -- Reality:...The Creator Admitted All It Took Was A “Sunday Afternoon” On His Mac. Phillip de Vellis: “I made the ad on a Sunday afternoon in my apartment using my personal equipment (a Mac and some software), uploaded it to YouTube, and sent links around to blogs.”

7. Obam’s Campaign Claimed His High School Friend Tried To Extort Money From Them:

“According To The Obama Campaign, [Obama’s Punahou Classmate Keith] Kakugawa Explicitly Raised The Possibility That He Could Make Up False Stories About Obama, Implying He Would Do So If The Campaign Did Not Give Him Money.” (Maurice Possley, Kirsten Scharnberg and Ray Gibson, -- Reality: “...An Old Friend's Troublesome Return,” Chicago Tribune, 3/25/07).

8. Obam voted to bring low-cost foreign labor into New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina -- Reality: . . . This was a slap in the face against the African-Americans who were displaced in that city. Obama also voted to place Michael Chertoff, the man responsible for the Katrina catastrophe, in charge of Homeland Security. Obama voted for Senate-Bills that gave Blackwater the funding they needed to shoot the folks of New Orleans who were only trying to save their own lives. Inextricably, the towel head voted to allow Michael Chertoff to waive all applicable laws, including murder, torture, kidnaping, and he suppoted water-boarding.

9. Obam voted more than five times for USA-PATRIOT ACT renewal -- Reality: . . . This is a Senate-Bill patently offensive to most Americans. City after city has passed resolutions condemning USA-PATRIOT ACT. Passively or reflexively, Obama chose to side with tyranny over freedom and Bush over the folks on this issue. The Real ID Act, which would allow Michael Chertoff to declare martial law and imprison Americans, was supported by ex-patriot Obama, as noted above.

10. Obam is not a MAD MAN. Sen. Obama has not exaggerated the disconnection with . . ."The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth" --Ex. xxxiv. 6; or extolled his venomous-vexatious-Vesuvius MUSLIM madrassahs'-faux-pas on us. Sen. Obama Is not involved along with Antoin “Tony” Rezco, long time friend and neighbor, now-indicted businessman (TONY REZKO); or Tony Rezko and a onetime Chicago cop, Daniel T. Frawley. Sen. Obama is not involved with- nor has Sen. Obama exhibited any nuclear security, bribery, money payoffs, or cronyism in the state of Illinois; or criminal activities related to the BIG HALIBURTAN and V.P. Cheney's Halliburton bribery case; or any political misjudgment in his escalating Campaign Crisis. Sen. Obama does not take money from people who hire lobbyists, partners of lobbyists, spouses of lobbyists, former lobbyists or state lobbyists. "GLORK" Sen. Obama Is not involved with any Hoax or Oxfam volunteers and HIV-- AIDS Witch Doctors in Africa they feed. Sen. Obama is not associated with Exiled "God damn America" SOULJAH JIHAD -- Rev. Jeremiah Wright, MUSLIM EXTREMIST Malcolm X KillA -- Louis Farrakhan and black-rage demagoguery; or Obama's Mea Culpa-Apologia; or Stump Lines Echo Malcolm X; Sen. Obama has not exulted the virtue of being an aggrieved black man. Sen. Obama does not accept political contributions from terrorists. Sen. Obama has not expressed the troublesome sub-text of the October Surprise: "X-Files" -- The 1980 election scandal exposed... the extraneous-demon-us-venomous anger driven association between Obama and aging [VX] Vietnam-era Weather Underground Radical Terrorist William Ayers. Sen. Obama has not expressed the troublesome sub-text of the November Surprise: "X-X-Files" -- The 2008 election scandal exposed... the extraneous-demon-us-venomous anger driven association between Obama and 501-(C)-Shaddy-Sharpton-Semilunar-Crescent of Allah Islam and Solar-Solecism-Sista-Soljah-Souljah-Jihad -- AXIS OF EVIL Rev. Sharpton, Rev. Wright and MUSLIM EXTREMIST Malcolm X KillA -- Louis Farrakhan, and Malcolm X Mosque No. 7 - JIHADI -- FATIMA EXTREMIST underground-money connection to Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ. Sen. Obama is not a separatist-racist. Michelle Obama AKA Wildabeast is not a liberal-leftist-sexist-racist. Michelle Obama AKA Wildabeast -- did not fail the Illinois Bar Exam and trot out her Marxist leftist-separatist-racist Socialist X box - Soapbox; Sen. Obama is not a self-indicting thief plagiarizing pipsqueke Xerox - X box. "GLORK" Obama executed no crime in Harlem. Obama is Not America's Poison -- Reality:...He's Radio-Active.

http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/

SOULJAH JIHAD -- OBAMA CAMPAIGN CRISIS

The Republicans' disengagement (media bias), if not disillusionment, with the economic campaign issues is borne out by the fact that many more Republicans are able to explain, extinguish, and excoriate the name Barrack Obama with the term (JIHAD), than can name Bush/Dick Cheney and McCain -- as the Big Oil -- BIG HALLIBURTAN politicians expanding GOP IRAQ WAR ideology, and Republican White House Party Elders' GI Bill of Rights for the 21st century IRAQ WAR ECONOMY. Even among Tupac Shakur, Bob Marley, Muhammad Ali, Ben Holt, Cotton-Club to Lenox Club- a.k.a. "The Breakfast Club," Staples Singers In Ghana 1971: "When Will We Get Paid," Paul Robeson or Jay-Z . . . excerpts from the infamous Malcolm X speech “The Ballot or the Bullet” Obama and conservative Republicans: Clinton is much more visible than GOP presumptive candidate John McCain towards affecting positively the important economic issues facing America's middle class economy. Next, Speaking at an awards banquet for the Society of Professional Journalists on April 4, "Phoenix New Times" and Village Voice Media Inc. Executive Editor Michael Lacey used the "N-word" to refer to a former colleague who voted for the godless, money-laundering, call-girl-reach-around loving liberal McCain, who collaborated with the Viet Cong, hides a Rx- cyanide pill in his check, and secretly fathered a black child with a Unicorn Crêpe Suzette look-alike, who turned out to become -- you guessed it -- Barack Obama?

When asked who they would vote for in the general election for president of the United States, the natural pendulum swing in America is approximately 79% of Republicans named Hillary Clinton as their choice. Reasons for Obama's Campaign Crisis "GLORK" Campaign Crisis include:

No excuses. Sen. Obama accepted more money from oil company executives last month than any other candidate, while he ran an ad saying he didn't take money from oil companies. Context of ad extends that oil money taken by IL Sen. Barrack Obama from BIG HALIBURTAN spells bad MO-Jo for Obama Campaign Crisis and RX for U.S. stock x-change = VX for U.S. economy. Sen. Obama's giveaways to the oil industry are not limited to tax breaks. They also include provisions like royalty relief that are worth billions. And many of the tax "increases" are simply extensions of existing taxes that do not impose any additional burden on oil companies. Exactly half of giveaways were not tax provisions. For instance, the oil companies received billions in royalty waivers. Obama voted for Big Oil -- BIG HALLIBURTAN Dick Cheney's 2005 energy bill containing "billions in dollars in giveaways to the oil companies." Ludacris

Big Oil -- BIG HALLIBURTAN -- OBAM 50 Cent LIES --
EXAMPLE:

Sections 344-345
Waives royalty payments for drilling for some natural gas in the Gulf of Mexico.

Section 346
Waives royalty payments for drilling in offshore Alaska.

Sections 353-4
Waives royalty payments for gas hydrate extraction on the Outer Continental Shelf and public land in Alaska.

Section 383
Allows oil companies drilling in federal land off the coast of a particular state to pay the state 44 cents of every dollar it would have paid to the federal government for the privilege of drilling on federal land.

"Sen. Barack Obama continued accepting donations from oil company executives and employees last month even as he aired ads in which he stated he took no oil company money, his campaign finance reports show. Obama has taken at least $263,000 from oil company executives, family members and employees since entering the presidential race last year, including $46,000 last month. At least $140,000 has come in chunks of between $1,000 and $2,300, the maximum permitted under federal law." [LA Times, 4/24/08]

"Obama has more holes in him than Swiss-Cheese." [CNN's "Politics.com," 4/01/08]

Obama's presidential campaign has received $2,812,336 from firms that employ registered federal lobbyists. [fec.gov]

Obama has taken $405,747 from the Pharmaceutical industry. [opensecrets.org]

Obama has received $1,185,937 from the Commercial Banking industry. [opensecrets.org]

Obama has received over six million dollars from the Securities & Investment industry. [opensecrets.org]

Obama has taken $608,822 from the Insurance industry. [opensecrets.org]

Obam has taken $168,584 from the Mortgage Banking industry. [opensecrets.org]

"GLORK" SOULJAH JIHAD -- CAMPAIGN CRISIS
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3369102968312745410&q=Fitna&total=1413&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=5

WASHINGTON -- Obama's support among Democrats nationally has softened.

"GLORK" Sen. Barack Obama’s support among Democrats nationally has softened over the last month, particularly among men and upper-income voters, as voters have taken a slightly less positive view of him than they did after his burst of victories in February, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

The survey suggests that Mr. Obama's proximity to Chicago, Democrat of Illinois, may have been at something of a peak in February, propelled by a string of primary and caucus victories over Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, and that perceptions of him are dramatically trending downward.

Mr. Obama’s favorability rating among Democratic primary voters has dropped seventeen percentage points, to 42 percent, since the last Times/CBS News survey, in late February. While that figure is steadily declining, this dramatic decline came in a month during which he endured withering attacks from Mrs. Clinton, and responded to reports that his exiled former pastor had made politically inflammatory statements from his church’s pulpit in Chicago, and swirling questions about the criminal money generating underworld of 501-(C)-Shaddy-Sharpton-Semilunar-Crescent of Allah Islam Mosque No. 7; and what Barack Obama did in Harlem -- from which he cannot extricate himself.

The events of the last month appear to have fundamentally altered the race for the party’s nomination and provided Mrs. Clinton’s campaign extensive evidence of a collapse in Mr. Obama’s standing or an overwhelming preference voiced for Mrs. Clinton by Democratic and Republican voters in polls: -- perplexing developments in Obama's ongoing Campaign Crisis, that could be used to persuade uncommitted super-delegates to sign on with Hillary Clinton.

Twenty-six percent of the general electorate voters who heard of the Apologia speech that Mr. Obama the self-indicting, separatist-racist Barack Obama AKA Barack Hussein Obama gave to try to deal with the controversy over Obama's separatist-racist connection to Farrakhan and Chicago's Trinity United Church trumpeting Barack Obama AKA Barack Hussein Obama as the second coming of the messiah, said it made them dislike him. And 74 percent of Democrats and Republicans said Mr. Obama's Campaign Crisis "GLORK" Campaign Crisis "God damn America" - Jeremiah Wright and Barack Obama. "God bless America" - Pope Benedict XVI and Hillary Clinton... stems from the fact that he shows continued misjudgment for even the most challenging problems. Next, the overall opinion of people in the news this year; Mr. Obama lacks the decisive capability to lead, willingness to listen, conviction and courage. Mr. Obama is no Alexander Manly when it comes to sexist-racist issues, and he uses false charges and exaggerated hate-the Saxon-race claims to play politics with national security.

For a United States Senator, Barack Obama has been doing a lot of explaining about the company he has kept for the last 17 years or so. He's the change... as in La change, c'est moi!
Exactly. Barack Obama the MUSLIM double-cross X-boX-BorraX, and his wife Michelle Obama AKA Wildabeast -- the Marxist Leninist Separatist-Racist Socialist X box - SoapboX come across as condescending Ivy League black rage liberationists. A politician can not chose the family he has However; he can chose the pastor he keeps. The Rev. Jeremiah Wright has influenced IL Sen. Barack Obama's liberal-elitist-separatist-racist Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammad views on a variety of subjects. This flare-up may have exacerbated what happened to Obama over the years, as his MUSLIM radicalism and demonize the White-Saxon-race, may expel the same Rev. Wright belief -- that America and its US allies brought on 9/11. In a sincere re-examination of his world-view, Obama's Mea Culpa-Apologia says this guy is like an uncle to him. To Obama the excursus of AXIS OF EVIL Rev. Sharpton, Rev. Wright and MUSLIM EXTREMIST Malcolm X KillA -- Louis Farrakhan black rage, is grounded in extremist-racist hate Israel world-view, and extols Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s praise of Barack; while white resentment of Obama's black-rage demagoguery is exaggerated and exploited. But shouldn’t his long term relationship with these despicable characters call into question at the very least Obama’s judgment? From Waxahache, TX.-- to Axis-of-Evil, Mr. Obama lied about the politics of his campaign, and knew about Ex-Pastor Rev. Wright's MUSLIM Militant Farrakhan Malcolm X Mosque No. 7 - JIHADI -- FATIMA EXTREMIST mob connection to Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ.

http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/

Colfax: Sen. Obama on Lobbyists --

“Considering that Sen. Obama voted to suspend the gas tax three times when gas cost less than $2 a gallon and has an energy lobbyist chairing his Indiana campaign, it's hard to take his latest criticisms very seriously. Senator Obama wants Americans to pay the gas tax but Senator Clinton thinks the big oil companies should pay it this summer.” - Clinton spokesperson Phil Singer

Colfax: Sen. Obama voted three times for a gas tax holiday in 2000 when gas prices were less than $2 a gallon. Next, Kip Tew, the top advisor to Obama's Indiana campaign is an energy lobbyist. Tew said recently, "I'm not running away from the fact that I'm a lobbyist. I have a healthy client list, and I'm proud of it."

May 3, 2008--APEX-- 2:11:35 PM #

The choice is simple: Senator Obama wants the American people to pay the gas tax this summer but Senator Clinton thinks Big Oil should.

The Clinton gas tax holiday is financed exclusively through a tax on windfall profits from oil companies and keeps the Highway Transportation Trust fund intact. Hillary opposed a plan in 2000 for a gas tax holiday because it was financed with transportation funds.

Sen. Obama voted three times for a gas tax holiday in 2000 when gas prices were less than $2 a gallon.

MAY 2, 2008--APEX-- 11:54:21 AM #

"When it comes to lobbyists, Senator Obama’s words might sound nice but voters need to make sure they read the fine print. Despite trying to give the impression that he has no relationship with lobbyists or special interests, the reality is that Senator Obama takes money from people who hire lobbyists, partners of lobbyists, spouses of lobbyists, former lobbyists and state lobbyists."
Statement from Clinton Deputy Communications Director, Phil Singer
Sen. Obama Has Ties to Lobbyists in His Presidential Bid.

Public Citizen: 10 of Sen. Obama's bundlers have been federal lobbyists. The Public Citizen report listed the following ten bundlers for Sen. Obama who have registered as federal lobbyists: Frank Clark, Commonwealth Edison; Scott Harris, Harris Wiltshire and Grannis; Allan J. Katz, Akerman Senterfitt; Robert S. Litt, Arnold & Porter; Thomas J. Perrelli, Jenner and Block; Thomas A. Reed, Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis LLP; Paul N. Roth, Schulte Roth & Zabel; Miriam Sapiro, Summit Strategies; Alan Solomont, Solomont Bailis Ventures; and Tom E. Wheeler, Core Capital Partners. [Public Citizen, 1/29/08]

Sen. Obama extorts money from employees of firms that lobby and has lobbyists as advisers. "But those who lobby for a living say it's not that simple, and even Obama's stance shows some flexibility. He won't take money from federal lobbyists but accepts money from employees of firms and corporations that lobby, and he uses lobbyists and other government relations professionals as advisers... Obama has also used major fundraisers who are registered lobbyists on the state level. And he uses registered federal lobbyists such as Broderick Johnson, who lobbies for AT&T and Shell Oil, among others, as a campaign adviser. Because Johnson isn't giving money to Obama, his name won't show up in Federal Election Commission records." [Chicago Tribune, 2/10/08]

Bloomberg: Five of [Obama’s] ten biggest sources of funds are groups of employees at law firms that lobby in Washington. "While Obama doesn't accept money from registered federal lobbyists, five of his 10 biggest sources of funds are groups of employees at law firms that lobby in Washington…Among Obama's top donors were employees of the Chicago-based law firm of Sidley Austin LLP, who gave $105,750 in the first quarter. The firm was paid $4.5 million last year" for lobbying the federal government. [Bloomberg, 6/7/07]

Obama's presidential campaign has received $2,812,336 from firms that employ registered federal lobbyists. [fec.gov]

Obama has taken $405,747 from the Pharmaceutical industry. [opensecrets.org]

Obama has received $1,185,937 from the Commercial Banking industry. [opensecrets.org]

Obama has received over six million dollars from the Securities & Investment industry. [opensecrets.org]

Obama has taken $608,822 from the Insurance industry. [opensecrets.org]

Obama has taken $168,584 from the Mortgage Banking industry. [opensecrets.org]

Obama has extracted $666,357 from Exxon-Mobil oil industry. [factcheck.org]

Obama has taken $213,000 from Exelon- a nuclear plant operator in Illinois. [truthdig.com]

Obama voted for the Big Oil -- BIG HALLIBURTAN Dick Cheney's 2005 Energy Bill, Hillary opposed. [H.R. 6, Vote #213, 07/29/05]

Prior to His Presidential Campaign, Sen. Obama extorted Money from Lobbyists and PACs

Obama's Leadership PAC includes John Gorman of Texas-based Tejas Securities, a major supporter of Senate Democrats as well as the Bush presidential campaigns. [truthdig.com]

1996-2004: $296,000 of the $461,000 Sen. Obama raised as a state senator came from PACs, corporate contributions or unions. "But behind Obama's campaign rhetoric about taking on special interests lies a more complicated truth. A Globe review of Obama's campaign finance records shows that he collected hundreds of thousands of dollars from lobbyists and PACs as a state legislator in Illinois, a US senator, and a presidential aspirant. In Obama's eight years in the Illinois Senate, from 1996 to 2004, almost two-thirds of the money he raised for his campaigns -- $296,000 of $461,000 -- came from PACs, corporate contributions, or unions, according to Illinois Board of Elections records. He tapped financial services firms, real estate developers, healthcare providers, oil companies, and many other corporate interests, the records show." [Boston Globe, 8/9/07]

In his 2004 U.S. Senate race, Sen. Obama raised $128,000 from lobbyists and $1.3 million from PACs. "Obama's US Senate campaign committee, starting with his successful run in 2004, has collected $128,000 from lobbyists and $1.3 million from PACs, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonprofit organization that tracks money in politics. His $1.3 million from PACs represents 8 percent of what he has raised overall." [Boston Globe, 8/9/07]

http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/

[Bruce]

I'm sorry, but I'm still bitter over the bitter, clinging to Bibles and guns comment. I guess there should be no doubt then, why I wrote and recorded this song:

I've Got one hand on my Bible (The other, on my Gun)
Dr BLT
words and music by Dr BLT copyright 2008
http://www.drblt.net/music/OneHandRegDem2.mp3

[Bruce]

I'm sorry, but I'm still bitter over the bitter, clinging to Bibles and guns comment. I guess there should be no doubt then, why I wrote and recorded this song:

I've Got one hand on my Bible (The other, on my Gun)
Dr BLT
words and music by Dr BLT copyright 2008
http://www.drblt.net/music/OneHandRegDem2.mp3

[Bruce]

I'm sorry, but I'm still bitter over the bitter, clinging to Bibles and guns comment. I guess there should be no doubt then, why I wrote and recorded this song:

I've Got one hand on my Bible (The other, on my Gun)
Dr BLT
words and music by Dr BLT copyright 2008
http://www.drblt.net/music/OneHandRegDem2.mp3

[TB]

*sigh*

That comment (that they are now calling "cling/bitter") was conflated, and taken ENTIRELY out of context!

I understood 100% what he was saying,. when he said it. I was puzzled at how everyone seemed to be twisting it around.. but I suppose, that's the press for you.

Here is the real quote, IN CONTEXT:

"But the truth is, is that, our challenge is to get people persuaded that we can make progress when there's not evidence of that in their daily lives. You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

[TB]

Here's the entire speech:

http://factcheck.barackobama.com/factcheck/2008/04/11/transcript_of_obamas_remarks_a.php

[TB]

Whoops :) Here it is:

http://tinyurl.com/6mwyqd

[giant]

Its great reading this blog and i just thought i would share this with you i have discovered a great t-shirt at nerdyshirts.com "Once you go Barack you never go back' its very cool check it out!

[Richard Griffith]

I recently helped Tom Army, Headmaster at the Rectory School in Pomfret, CT., create a very interesting observation on the role of experience in a race for the Presidency of the United States. Tom takes his history very seriously, and I think you will enjoy the 4 minute long observation that he makes. Thanks for taking a look.

[Howard]

OBAMA = BETRAYAL
Obama supporters are foolish to think that he will never betray them.
Obama was a close friend of Pastor Wright for TWENTY YEARS.
Obama threw Wright under the bus for personal ambition.
McCain would not betray his country even after 5 years of torture.
You can put lipstick on a traitor, but he's still a traitor.

[Gary Farber]

"McCain would not betray his country even after 5 years of torture."

Gee, John McCain claims differently.

[...] "I thought they were bluffing and refused to provide any information beyond my name, rank and serial number, and date of birth. They knocked me around a little to force my cooperation."

The punishment finally worked, McCain said. "Eventually, I gave them my ship's name and squadron number, and confirmed that my target had been the power plant."

Recalling how he gave up military information to his interrogators, McCain said: "I regret very much having done so. The information was of no real use to the Vietnamese, but the Code of Conduct for American Prisoners of War orders us to refrain from providing any information beyond our names, rank and serial number."

The episode wasn't the only instance when McCain broke under physical pressure.

Just after his release in May 1973, he detailed his experience as a P.O.W. in a lengthy account in U.S. News & World Report.

He described the day Hanoi Hilton guards beat him "from pillar to post, kicking and laughing and scratching. After a few hours of that, ropes were put on me and I sat that night bound with ropes."

"For the next four days, I was beaten every two to three hours by different guards . . . Finally, I reached the lowest point of my 5 1/2 years in North Vietnam. I was at the point of suicide, because I saw that I was reaching the end of my rope."

McCain was taken to an interrogation room and ordered to sign a document confessing to war crimes. "I signed it," he recalled. "It was in their language, and spoke about black crimes, and other generalities."

"I had learned what we all learned over there," McCain said. "Every man has his breaking point. I had reached mine."

Here is McCain's account from 1973. Why are you calling John McCain a liar?

[Gary Farber]

"You can put lipstick on a traitor, but he's still a traitor."

That's a harsh thing to say about John McCain; more or less everyone breaks under torture.

[Phil]

Howard, if you have reason to believe you have witnessed an act of treason being committed, here is a link to the form with which you can report a tip for investigation by the FBI. When you fill it out with Barack Obama's name and the particulars, can you please screen capture it and email it to me at the address linked to in my name? I'd be interested in whether or not you truly love your country enough to protect it from traitors.

[GARY]

Pull out of Iraq?
Perhaps the U.S. should pull out of Chicago!

Body count:
In the last six months:
292 killed (murdered) in Chicago;
221 killed in Iraq.
Chicago.... Who Runs it:
Senators: Barack Obama & Dick Durbin
Rep: Jesse Jackson Jr.,
Illinois Gov: Rod Blogojevich,
Illinois House leader Mike Madigan,
Illinois Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan (daughter of Mike),
Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley (son of Mayor Richard J. Daley)

.....our leadership in Illinois.....all Democrats.

Thank you for the combat zone in Chicago.
Of course, they're all blaming each other!

Can't blame Republicans; they're aren't any!

State pension fund $44 Billion in debt, worst in country.
Cook County (Chicago) sales tax 10.25% highest in country. (Look 'em up if you want).
Chicago school system rated one of the worst in the country.

This is the political culture that Obama comes from in Illinois. And he's gonna 'fix' Washington politics for us!

Wake Up America!