Wow – this is pretty fricking bad. This thing is going until June. The Republicans have to love the Democrats beating on each other for another 6 weeks.
Let’s hope they tone it down for the good of the party (and the country).
Really that should be “Voted for Obama”. We just cast our votes for the next President. Hoping PA comes through (coming through would be losing by less than 10%). We need this campaign to end so we can focus on the man who is so wrong for this country – John McCain).
Apparently Hillary was here in Conshohocken today – while Barack got his cheesesteak from Pat’s (not Geno’s – good man), Hillary got her cheesesteak from Bocella’s – and ordered it to go. Want to bet she didn’t even eat the thing? Isn’t the whole idea to get a press op biting into the cheesesteak and talking with the locals at the luncheonette?
I don’t know if Obama or Clinton won the debate, but sure as hell ABC lost. Half of the debate spent on trivial issues (why doesn’t Obama wear the flag pin? Really?)
As for the candidates, it was a tough night for Obama. I’m trying not to be biased – but there really was a lack of talk about issues and policy, as if the script for tonight was written by the writers from Lost as opposed to journalists. The focus on the tabloid issues, is not a good place for Obama – and being that they spent an hour on it – this wasn’t a good debate for him. As for the comments of him looking defensive – kind of hard not to be, but I think he went on too long, and should have pushed harder to get the dialog to the issues.
That said – if Obama is going to become the nominee and ultimately the President, he’s going to have to take his lumps and respond better than he did tonight. Clinton fights like a Republican – dirty tricks and all. I think it was Pat Buchanan or Keith Olbermann said she’s a knife fighter and Obama isn’t used to knife fights. It’s part of her appeal and her selling point – that we need someone that’s going to fight like that to beat the Republicans and their games. I hope not. I’d like to be a little more optimistic and have a little more faith in people than that.
What were your thoughts?
Her new ad. I love how these multi-millionaires are all talking about how in touch they are with you and I. I’d like to be in touch with their bank account.
Barack really gave the Clinton’s a gift.
And Hillary Clinton isn’t any better. They’re both giving Obama hell for saying the following:
“You go into 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,” Obama was quoted as saying by the Huffington Post.
“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,” he said.
To this, a McCain aide said the following
A McCain aide, Steve Schmidt, also criticized Obama for the comments, telling Politico newspaper “it shows an elitism and condescension towards hardworking Americans that is nothing short of breathtaking.”
This is a man that implies that the mortgage crisis is being caused by people not working second jobs, skipping vacations, or living on a budget all the while he’s one of the richest men in the Senate. He supports the tax cuts for the rich (of course).
And of course there’s Clinton who can only speak in soundbites and politically correct terms.
“As I travel around Pennsylvania, I meet people who are resilient, who are optimistic, who are positive, who are rolling up their sleeves. They are working hard everyday for a better future, for themselves and their children,”
Resilient just means they’ve put up with a lot of shit and not committed suicide or murder. What they are is working hard and not getting any further ahead.
Here’s the thing about what Obama said – it was cold and not PC, but he’s mostly right. These people are bitter and pissed off. Their homes are being foreclosed on, their jobs moved to India, the mom and pop stores have long been replaced by Walmarts. They should be more pissed off.
Here’s where Obama is wrong – it’s not just middle America that’s bitter. It’s not just the small towns – it’s the big cities too. It’s not just white people – it’s people of all colors. They look at the government, the lack of jobs; the bending over backward for banks, insurance companies, or pharmaceutical corporations and wonder why they don’t bend over backwards for the citizens of this country. This government made it harder for hard working people to get the relief of bankruptcy, but corporations don’t seem to have this problem.
It’s a wonder that Ralph Nader doesn’t have more support when you see how stacked the cards are against the people.
What an amazing speech today by Barack Obama. Even though his competitors are blanketing the web with divisive vitriol, Obama chose to spoke of unity. He took the comments of Reverend Wright on headfirst, and spoke of a reality that most politicians are afraid to discuss.
Tonight I got a comment from someone who obviously had an ax to grind. She chooses to believe in hate. I won’t. Here’s my response to this woman:
Barack Obama doesn’t represent the entire black experience. He will know people that he doesn’t agree with. He will be close to people who are racist and not agree with them. Here’s the thing – what people need to realize is that many black people inherently distrust the government and by extension white people. Every black person, no matter how caring and open-minded, will know people like Rev. Wright. Just like every white person probably knows some one that is racist – doesn’t mean that they are racist. Hillary Clinton grew up in Chicago with a father from Scranton – let me tell you, she knew (knows) some people with racist tendencies. Bill Clinton grew up in Arkansas – need I say more?
What Obama effectively did today was distance himself from the words of another, while recognizing that the disenfranchisement from which it is born is real and justifiable. While Wright chooses to deal in a world where there is no improvement possible, Obama spoke of unity.
One more thing – just because Obama is black, doesn’t mean he speaks for all black people. Why do people think that Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and now Barack Obama need to speak for the entire community?
Obama speaks for the United States. People like you speak (and not very well – it’s called a 7th grade education, look into one) for isolationism.
As for your ridiculous comments about the anthem and the pin – they are just that, ridiculous. You said it yourself, they are code – and you do it because you’re suppose to. That diminishes the meaning of the symbol. The same for placing you hand over your heart.
You should read the text of the Obama speech today. It was a game changing speech. I’m sure HRC supporters didn’t want this kind of response. If you want to know if the man can handle pressure, today he showed he could. Today’s speech didn’t help HRC at all.
I really have to think about the racial controversies that have hit the Obama/Clinton campaign over the past few months. When Ed Rendell said that there were white Pennsylvanians that wouldn’t vote for a black candidate, I agreed with him. Having experienced the center of this state as a black man, I have said that I feel more comfortable down south than I feel in my own state. What Rendell said was not politically smart, but he was dead on. We’re have more in common in Pennsylvania with Mississippi than we do with the rest of the north east.
So now we have Geraldine Ferraro’s statement that Obama gets better treatment because he’s black. So here’s the thing – I do think a lot of people have been taken by the idea of a black President, but of course I’ve heard more than my share of women say they’re voting to see a woman President – so it goes both ways.
There is all the other stuff that other candidates don’t have to experience because they’re not black. The whole thing about Obama’s middle name Hussein. The internet hoax about him being sworn in on a copy of the Koran. If Obama wins the election he’ll have overcome his share of obstacles. It bothers me that this gets forgotten in all the complaints of the preferential treatment that Obama gets. He has had the most Roveian incidences take place, but that’s this country’s system; unfortunately that’s politics.
Ferraro and others that believe her need to take a step back and view the election in its entirety and not through the eyes of a Clinton hawk.