With the passing of each primary state I’ve been in the tank for Barack Obama for the most part. I’ve written several post’s on why Hillary should get out of the race with my own personal opinion on that subject. (links below)
Since the North Carolina vote I’ve been amazed at how resilient Senator Clinton is when faced with the fact that the numbers and super delegates will just not add up for her campaign for President. One thing I have not done is insult the Senator with derogatory comment or condescending remarks… well calling her the Queen could be complimentary in some respects. Over at the Washington Post they have this on the “Poor Hillary” hype.
Belittled Woman The Candidate Refuses to Bend, Or Bow Out. Cue Another Chorus of 'Poor Hillary.'
By Libby Copeland Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, May 16, 2008; Page C01
At some point along the way, Hillary Clinton became "poor Hillary" and it stuck. She went up against a charmer who once made an audience cheer just by blowing his nose (poor Hillary), and she lost states and delegates and she bet on a filly that died (poor Hillary), and nobody cares that she won West Virginia because it's over, except she can't see it because she's . . .
"Poor Hillary," write the op-ed writers and the bloggers and the newspaper letter-writers. "Poor Hillary's done," writes a gleeful reader in Portsmouth, Va., on Mother's Day. "The Billstone Around Poor Hillary's Neck," reads a New York Daily News headline yesterday. The talk show host Bill Maher has used the phrase, and the occasional CNN anchor, and, of course, the conservative yakkers who like the pure, distilled schadenfreude of those two words.
"Poor Hillary," Sean Hannity said at one point during this never-ending primary. "Running out of money, couldn't pay her staff."
This article ticked me off because it was more of a bully in the school yard piece. If you look at the facts, Hillary Clinton should be damn proud of what she has been able to do in this race. No other woman in this nation could have come this far and kept the race so very close. Hillary and her campaign crew should be proud that the issues they care about are front and center and still being debated in the Democrat Party simply because Hillary is still in the race.
If you think politics is as easy as picking a candidate and sticking with them come hell or high water then you would be mistaken. Yes, I am still a large Obama supporter but now I think Hillary Clinton has a very good reason for staying in the race now more than ever. That reason is to use her influence and strength at the convention to form a better Democrat platform that can beat McCain come the general election in November. Without her influence on this race then Barack Obama could become complacent and “Yes We Can” us to death. Personally, I prefer discussion on the issues rather than creative jingles and speeches littered with catch phrases.
Make no mistake about it, even if you are not a Hillary Clinton supporter, Democrats owe her a huge amount of gratitude for staying in this election.
Personally, I don’t like to knock the distinguished Senator from New York and former First Lady when it comes to politics. And yet this post is all about politics and reality. The Democrat Party is united in one message, no more Bush! That is a concept that we all can agree on. Something that makes your blood boil and your heart race in anger as you contemplate the unbelievable morphisim of Senator John McCain over the last couple of years into a George W. Bush clone. The war in Iraq and Afghanistan is a total wag the dog hypocrisy created by Bush and Cheney and the soldiers coming home in caskets continue on a daily basis simply because they serve our nation.
Do we as Democrat’s want more of this or do we want to pick one another’s pockets to see what deep dark secrets our candidates really have? Do we as Democrat’s want to see our political party dissolved and lose the next election because the opponent on the Republican side loaded his gun with the ammunition we supplied willingly? As many main stream media pundits have pointed out, Hillary Clinton can not win the nomination from the Democrat Party. Mathematically, it is impossible and yet she continues for the sake of what? Being right? Being a political party contender? Or simply for believing that the Clinton political machine will come through for her? That isn’t going to happen. The votes are not there for her, the delegates are not there for her and the ride is over.
Bill Clinton destroyed the Clinton political machine with the disgrace he brought to the Presidency. What Bill did should not reflect on Hillary but it does whether she or you like it or not. People see a cheater, a liar, a man that looked us all straight in the eye and told us all that he did not have sexual relations with Monica Lewinski. What part Hillary had to do with what is irrelevant. Bill Clinton lied, destroyed the trust of the people in doing so and is now a President that achieved such great heights but the matter still comes down to the blue dress evidence. Again, not Hillary’s fault.
Politics is a very strange business and Hillary Clinton has given this a good run. I respect her gumption for sticking in it for so long but her place is in the Senate from the great state of New York. From that post she can do much good and use her skills to work across party lines to unify a divided nation. From that spot she can make change possible with one voice among many with a hammer as strong as her personal convictions.
For the good of the Democrat Party, Hillary Clinton should bow out in an honorable manner. If she and her husband the former President, are in fact true Democrat’s, then they both know that the unification of all Democrat’s is the most important fact facing America today. This nation can not survive another President in the pocket of big business and the industrial military complex. Those free range pigs need to be rounded up and brought back to the family farm so to speak.
Hillary and Barack are alike when it comes to all of the issues and if the outcome of the election process is that our political party is too divided over personal issues then who wins? Answer the door because John McCain is knocking on the door of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Is that what we want as a political party?
Let me first start out that this is an in the tank slam on the Obama campaign for President from MSNBC. While his tax filings are released, his opponent, the well respected foggy memory Senator from New York are not. I might also point out that out of all the Democrat candidates in the original field of candidates, Barack Obama was among the poorest of the mega millionaires.
Why is this even a story plays into the racial card that the Clinton campaign unleashed with the Reverend Wright matter. If black people are not supposed to make it in the big time roll of millionaires and politics then Oprah and Bill Cosby should just sit down and shut the hell up. I don't think so! Screw you MSNBC!
The beginning of this lead story on MSNBC should have read that the Clinton family has not as yet released their tax returns but the Obama family has. Yellow journalism is alive and well at this story over at MSNBC…
Obama's tax returns show leap in income The family's best year came in 2005 with a combined income of $1.6 million
By Jim Popkin Senior Investigative Producer, NBC News updated 4:05 p.m. ET, Tues., March. 25, 2008
WASHINGTON - The tax returns for Sen. Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, offer new insights into the power couple's rising fortunes. They chronicle the candidate's rise from state legislator to U.S. senator and beyond.
The tax returns are dated between 2000 and 2006, showing a steep increase in family income.
For example, the first return indicates that the Obamas' combined income was $240,505. That included Obama's salary as a young state senator in Illinois, $16,500 in fees as a "foundation director/educational speaker," and his wife's salary as a hospital administrator.
But just six years later in 2006, the Obamas' combined income was $983,826, some $740,000 more. Obama had become a U.S. senator by then, making about $165,000 a year, and his wife's income from the University of Chicago Medical Center had sharply climbed to about $265,000 a year.
Obama's book-writing career had also become profitable, earning him $551,240 in author fees for 2006 alone.
Michelle Obama also made an additional $51,200 that year, as working as the director of TreeHouse Foods. According to the company's website, it's a "food manufacturer servicing primarily the retail grocery and foodservice chains."
The Obamas' best financial year came in 2005, when their total combined income was $1.6 million. That included $1.2 million in author fees for Obama's best-selling books. Michelle Obama's salary that year was $316,962 plus another $45,000 from TreeHouse Foods.- MSNBC
Maybe we need to be realistic and ask how much Bill Clinton as a former President of the United States of America gets for every speech he gives. Last I heard it was upward of $100,000 bucks for thirty to forty minutes worth of breath from Bill Clinton to spew his sense of reality to any organization with the check book big enough to pay him. Good for him to be able to take that kind of coin down!
Maybe we need to look at what Senator Clinton made off of her book deals. Not that having a book in print is a crime but that income is a play on politics just as Obama’s was so is Obama a bad person for making money off of a book deal?
Mud is flying and the press is just as guilty as the political campaigns of both candidates. What this story from MSNBC stunk, stank, and filled the back of my throat with bile was the simple fact that they do not think a Black African American should be making that kind of money? Baffles my mind!
What bothers me is not how the story was placing facts as much as it was the manner of the facts. He made X amount of dollars and his wife made X amount of dollars as if it was all ill gotten income and not deserved. Again, Screw you MSNBC!
Barack Obama and his wife Michelle earned their lot in life the hard way and overcame the many obstacles that our society threw at them. I give them full credit for a job well done and hope my children can be half as good in their life travels.
In this latest phase of the political campaign for President it seems that a black man is not allowed to have a life with financial gains even though his Harvard education and life mission is to be in public service. Hillary Clinton is somehow absolved of this guilt trip.
Hillary’s income is clean but Barack Obama’s is wrong? That is political stereo typing gone wrong and the Main Stream Media is playing it up as if the Obama’s do not deserve to have a life with rewards based on the same life mission.
Even before the votes are counted Senator Clinton is counting the great state of Mississippi out for Senator Obama. Not that that surprises me but you would have thought she at least might have thought the contest might just be close before the results were even tallied. Given all the blunders of all the polling numbers I would never personally give the state to any candidate before the full vote count was in.
When it comes to delegates to the Democrat Convention and that is what the primaries are all about, this state plays a key role when it comes to the final process. Not simply because they are holding a primary but simply because they played by the rules of the Democrat Party on selecting a candidate. We’ll get into that a little bit latter after we look at this piece from MSNBC on Hillary Clinton’s white flag campaign for Mississippi…
Clinton battles Obama for Mississippi votes Illinois senator favored to win majority of state's 33 delegates
Obama began the night with 1,579 delegates, to 1,473 for Clinton. It takes 2,025 to win the nomination.
Neither of the two rivals appears able to win enough delegates through primaries and caucuses to prevail in their historic race for the nomination, a development that has elevated the importance of nearly 800 elected officials and party leaders who will attend next summer's national convention as unelected superdelegates.
Obama leads Clinton among pledged delegates, 1,368-1,226 in The Associated Press' count, while the former first lady has an advantage among superdelegates, 247-211.
Adding to the uncertainty of the nominating campaign, Democrats from Florida and Michigan are pressing for their delegations to be seated at the convention.
Snip and Tuck
"Some people have said 'Well Mississippi is very much a state that will most likely be in favor of Senator Obama.' I said 'Well, that's fine,' but I want people in Mississippi to know I'm for you," she said in Hattiesburg before flying to Pennsylvania.
Obama made a stop Tuesday in Greenville before heading to Pennsylvania, too.
Both Obama and Clinton probably have better access to polling numbers than I do and I would hope that they do. What I’m getting at is even if the numbers are bloody ugly, a candidate for President should never leave any state chucking the bird at the folks that just happen to be in the middle of the road and undecided. How many times do you have to see on the local news, national news and every single online news site that many people made their decision on who they want for the Democrat candidate for President when they actually were in the voting booth?
As for the ongoing debate over the delegate’s to the Democrat Convention from Florida and Michigan, that is or should be ended with three words, “Let Them Vote”.
Make no mistake about it, this process is not a popularity contest for the general public. This is the Democrat primary for President of the United States of America. It is a political party that allows Independent voters to participate but there are rules for all candidates to abide by. Florida and Michigan broke the rules of the Democrat Party by moving their voting dates up. In doing so the Democrat Party stripped them of their delegates to the Democrat Party Convention. If you broke the rules you get penalized for it.
There are some that say the delegates from each state should be seated as the process stands and I would have to argue with you on that point. Both candidates vowed to not run in Florida and yet Senator Clinton’s name was the only one on the ballot? Knowing many a friend and family in Florida that just happen to be Democrats they didn’t even bother to vote because they were told the election process did not count. Same goes for Michigan!
If you want to make this a fair fight then schedule a re-vote for both states with all of the candidates on the ballot. Schedule it, let the candidates campaign in the states and let the voters decide with an actual vote that THEY know will count. Don’t back door, smoke filled room, old boys of the Democrat Party decide who can and can not be seated at the convention. Doing that wreaks of political election corruption and we have had enough of that under the current occupant of the White House.
It is our political party and the people in Florida and Michigan should be given the opportunity to decide who THEY want to face John McCain in the next general election for President. If the Democrats back room dealings seat the delegates from Florida and Michigan without a re-vote then the election process is a joke for every single Democrat.
Hillary Clinton is running for the exits with her latest political strategy of attacking the new and improved Teflon Don Obama. Barack Obama will gain no ground on attacking the American version of the Iron Lady Prime Minister Thatcher that is Hillary Clinton. In the political cook book of Presidential politics there are way too many cooks in the kitchen and in that respect to0 many people in both campaigns tossing everything they have into the pot. When the original recipe called for boiling some water, adding plans to change America, debate plans, and simmer and allow public opinion to decide. Clinton and Obama are adding one too many Emeril-eske Bam’s (No offense Emeril) to this recipe! The end result is that the political dogs may sleep well with a full belly, the rest of us will be reaching for the Pepto Bismol or Alka Seltzer.
What you get with all of those unnecessary Emeril-eske Bam’s (Sorry Emeril) is fodder for the McCain political machine to pick up and run with come the general election. Just a note of interest, Karl Rove is in fact a political donor to the John McCain for President campaign. Don’t kid yourself, if a woman or a black man wins the nomination for President that the Republican war machine with its tap on hundreds of millions of corporate dollars will not pull any punches to get their man elected to the White House. When both of these Democrats are making Healthcare, Education, ending the war in Iraq and Energy consumption the base of their platform then that is the call to arms for Republican big business donors. That is the Republican pocket book in the nutshell. Do not pass Go, do not collect $2oo Billion dollars.
Having watched one clip after another it has been already decided by the main stream media that Hillary Clinton is done. I was not shocked to see it on many of the networks at how they all posed Senator Clinton in a negative light. MSNBC and Chris Matthews pretty much made toast of Senator Clinton. Keith Olberman continued the bashing relentlessly. With her message at most of her campaign stops more or less telling voters that Barack Obama is not the second coming of JFK or Jesus Christ and in doing so she lost some appeal to moderate voters. Attacking the issues is fine and good politics, attacking your opponent on the fact that he is a better public speaker comes off shallow and resentful. “The sky will open up, the celestial choir will begin to sing”… not getting it Hillary, not buying it. That was the MSNBC spin.
On February 26th, MSNBC is hosting the debate in Ohio with Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. This is the Iron Chef debate where one of them is in the cook off of their life and the other has the latest Teflon pan set that pretty much tosses the sticky stuff out of the pan and at the opposing Chef. Hopefully, the viewers and voters will get to see a real debate on the issues and not another damn love fest.
What would ultimately be best for the Democrat Party is that both candidates of course debate their plans but stipulate the differences with their own plans and what Senator John McCain does not have to offer? Sell that and the Democrat political base will not be lost in the food fight of who can bake a better damn Health Care roast! Now that is a Papamoka Bam! (Sorry Emeril)
There is some confusion in many of the political blogs that we all read when it comes to the brutality that elections and primaries end up being all about. This is an election for President of the United States and no matter who you think you are as a candidate the questions need to be answered more so now during the primaries than when or if they sit behind the desk of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in our nations capitol. It is simply part of the process and I find myself guilty by a long shot of slamming some of the candidates I simply do not care for with one iota. Republican or Democrat makes no difference to me simply because I do not have an editor over my head telling me what I can or can not write. It’s called blogging. God I do love America! I could be shot for less in some countries.
Right here, right now on this site, I could call any single one of the Presidential candidates the biggest @&#^$% and that is my right as an American citizen. That would be my first amendment right under what used to be the Constitution pre Bush2 but that is another topic for another debate on the Bush Presidency.
Then again I think we tend to see to much of that kind of mentality in the past politics where division of the people is the main goal and the problem with our society during this election cycle.
Speaking with my best friend the other night she told me that she was divided as a lifetime Democrat over the vote she would cast and her mind was still not made up until the minute she voted. Our discussion regarding our votes was based in the fact that we both appreciate each of the candidates and yet we were divided on who should face the Republican’s in the general election.
Her desire to vote for both overwhelmed her mind simply because she always wanted to see a woman for President and she always wanted to see an African American for President. Finally, a strong woman, finally a strong African American? How she voted eventually she has sworn to secrecy till the results are all out. In her heart as in many others is the super ticket of either candidate in any position as President or Vice President. A ticket where hope and the political machine meld for one objective and that would be you the American people. Not a tough sell but super ego’s have their little agenda’s.
I voted for Obama and gladly did so. For the record I think Hillary Clinton has the right stuff to lead our nation as President and she might be able to cross party lines to draw Republican votes in the general election. I just don’t believe that she could draw as many Republican’s as Obama could. What she does not have is the ability to sell herself and her abilities like Obama does. In all of the recent campaign states, Obama has drawn huge crowds of the people that need his message of change where as the Clinton crowds are just not there. That in itself tells you where the people are going and that in itself tells you who can sell the needed change in our nations mentality that looks at our federal government as broken. Independent and Undeclared voters in many states will play a huge roll and that factor is not in the polls you see on the television night after night. And no, we are not lemmings running over the cliff following any form of change, we are just far smarter than the political media brainiacs give us credit for.
One of the greatest communicators to the American people was Franklin Roosevelt and in his message to the people was always hope. From the depths of the depression through World War II he managed to present hope to the people that was believable and they knew that he would not let them down.
Kennedy came along and the message of hope continued for the common man and America could once more dream of Camelot and beyond the stars. His dreams became ours with the hopes of Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King. Dreams of a better tomorrow and a brighter future were never bigger. Change had a taste, a feel and it was once within our grasp.
That was then, this is now. America is not corrupt of heart when it comes to our vision of what hope and change is, we just forgot what it was like to see it, touch it, and feel it. Feel it again and just vote for change. If you have voted, I thank you.
When you think of a political ideology like liberalism then one of the front runners in that thought process is Move On. I like to think of them as my loony friends on the left simply because I love being a moderate liberal. I’m not an extremist but I believe in my heart many of the same thoughts that Move On proposes as they seek a progressive liberal agenda. They give a sense of direction for the political junkies amongst us and in that direction millions more that are not members or affiliated with Move On tend to lean on the fence post and listen, read, and form our own opinion.
Move On is endosing Barack Obama and over at the New York Times they have this little piece on it…
February 1, 2008, 12:11 pm MoveOn Endorses Obama By Jeff Zeleny
LOS ANGELES – Senator Barack Obama has won the endorsement today from the membership of MoveOn.
In a vote of the group’s members, Mr. Obama outpaced Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton 70 percent to 30 percent. The political action committee of MoveOn.org has 3.2 million members across the country, including 1.7 million members who live in the 22 states with Democratic primaries or caucuses on Tuesday.
“Our members’ endorsement of Senator Obama is a clear call for a new America at this critical moment in history,” said Eli Pariser, executive director of MoveOn. He added, “The enormity of the challenges require someone who knows how to inspire millions to get involved to change the direction of our country, and someone who will be willing to change business as usual in Washington.” -New York Times
After watching the love fest debate of Obama and Clinton on CNN in California several differences emerged between the two candidates. Politicians are sneaky and vague for the most part but one thing I noticed was the use of two simple words. When and If. Two little words but when they are used in a political debate they can portray a great difference between the candidates talking about the issues. Those two words play to the back of your mind and depending on the topic and how they are used can have a direct effect on how you subconsciously perceive the discussion.
In the debate I found it ironic that in many of the replies that Senator Clinton gave were started with “If” which opens up the question of doubt as to her ability to achieve the high goals she has set for her platform and candidacy. So many “If’s” seem to have to happen “If” she can deliver the promises she proposes in her universal health care plan. That in itself wreaks of a true politician telling you what you would like to have happen in our nation “If” we can overcome all the hurdles she spoke of. It almost seems that she is afraid to cross the secret line of politicians in Washington? You tell me?
On the other side of the cookies and milk debate was Barack Obama using the word “When” in many of his responses. Along with that word he used the word “We” which seemed more appropriate when you are talking about the political issues that will effect 300 million plus Americans. “When” we negotiate with the pharmaceutical industry for lower prescription costs and “When” we pass health coverage is just more believable. Backing it up with an insistence on CSPAN coverage of the actual debate on health care for all takes the closed doors discussion of screwing America out of the equation.
In the end the debate was not a debate in the sense where one politician calls another on the carpet on any issue. The questions were all softball lobs and played into both of the candidates best interests.
It’s all politics but I have to go with the majority of Move On members and believe that Obama is the path to a new America and the force for change in all of our lives.
Hillary can be very articulate in her answers to any question but she proved last night during the CNN debate that she can circle the question directly asked with the best of them and never answer the question asked. I tend to think that as things go, “If” Senator Clinton were the party nominee, and “If” she were to become President, then we could be faced with two many “If’s” and not enough “When” or “We“.
While on a recent road trip Hillary Clinton is talking about the economy and now is the time to talk about the economy and how we all got into this horrible mess. The near future is not as positive as some people would like to think and a clear path through it is needed. With the latest reports coming in from all of the world stock exchanges, the “Maybe Recession” is a world wide concern when you are talking about the United States of America. World economics is the key to saving not only our own economy but the worlds.
One of the key factors to the U.S. economy is the middle class and the shear numbers of them with disposable income. The facts are simple and the middle class in America has been downsized and locked out of the “Bush” economy from benefits too salary increases. In that same time period the cost of living in America has gone through the roof. One large contributor to that lockout was the executive release of responsibility in corporate America. In the world of business it should be called a signing statement, similar to the thoughts of our current President and the Constitution. Downsizing and outsourcing of entire manufacturing plants out of the country not to be competitive but to ensure the yearly top executives bonuses are protected and of course adjusted for inflation.
In some circles it could be argued that NAFTA and every other acronym for free trade helped to boost the economy in America but they never really stipulated if it was South America or North of the border of America? In reality, free trade literally meant a migration of American middle class jobs out of America and that is yet just one more source of the downfall of our economy. When our government supports the rights of other nations citizens for good jobs at good wages you better look at your last days of employment because that is the first tax break for corporate America to send your job over the border. Key phrases for shutting a factory or manufacturing plant here in the states is “Stock Holder Value”. Largest benefactors to stock holder value are CEO’s and top executives with stock options.
Senator Clinton in her race for the White House spoke about where she thinks we as a nation need to be and it is hard to argue with her thoughts when you look at the numbers realistically. Over at the New York Times they have this interview with Senator Clinton…
Todd Heisler/The New York Times
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton said that if she became president, the federal government would take a more active role in the economy to address what she called the excesses of the market and of the Bush administration.
In one of her most extensive interviews about how she would approach the economy, Mrs. Clinton laid out a view of economic policy that differed in some ways from that of her husband, Bill Clinton. Mr. Clinton campaigned on his centrist views, and as president, he championed deficit reduction and trade agreements.
Reflecting what her aides said were very different conditions today, Mrs. Clinton put her emphasis on issues like inequality and the role of institutions like government, rather than market forces, in addressing them.
She said that economic excesses — including executive-pay packages she characterized as often “offensive” and “wrong” and a tax code that had become “so far out of whack” in favoring the wealthy — were holding down middle-class living standards.
Interviewed between campaign appearances in Los Angeles on Thursday, she said those problems were also keeping the United States economy from growing as quickly as it could.
“If you go back and look at our history, we were most successful when we had that balance between an effective, vigorous government and a dynamic, appropriately regulated market,” Mrs. Clinton said. “And we have systematically diminished the role and the responsibility of our government, and we have watched our market become imbalanced.”
She added: “I want to get back to the appropriate balance of power between government and the market.”- New York Times
Senator Clinton is obviously correct in stating that the markets from housing to Wall Street’s power brokers are out of control and need government oversight more now than ever. If our nation is to survive the current recession then restraints and intervention needs to come from our government. If it does not then the Robber Barron’s of days long gone will run the economy and the nation into the ground and ride out the destruction on the billions earned prior. And you can bet your last Rockefeller shiny new dime that they will pull their investments out of the stock market long before it crashes and outsource it to safer shores.
Salaries of record for one year to think about from Too Much…
$118.9 million for Leslie Blodgett, CEO of Bare Escentuals, who cashed out over 5 million option shares in her cosmetics company for a $117.6 million personal profit.
$415.5 million for Occidental Petroleum CEO Ray Irani. To reach this total, the Times added to Irani's $52.1 million in pay, as calculated by Equilar, the $270.1 million Irani cleared from cashing out stock options and the $93.3 million he withdrew from his deferred stock plan. Irani still holds another $124 million in deferred pay.
$647million for Apple CEO Steve Jobs
$127 million for UnitedHealth CEO William McGuire
$32.6 million for Todd Nelson, CEO of the Apollo Group, a profit-making collection of higher education institutions
$131 million for Robert Nardelli, the Home Depot CEO forced out in January
$97 million for Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis
$1.5 billion for James Simons, Renaissance Technologies
$39.1 million for Ford CEO Alan Mulally, a sum that includes an $18.5-million bonus for leaving Boeing to join Ford. Ford had six executives in the industry's top 15, despite record 2006 losses of $12.6 billion.
Some people would say that each one of these people earned their pay and in some cases I might not argue with you. In most cases though it is a race to the top of the heap and they never look back at all the folks they stepped on to get those annual salaries and mega stock options. That is not part of the horizon they are looking at when they cash out, sell out or move on to another corporate position to repeat the process all over again. Once there they never forget the politics that kept them there either with donations that max out. Atilla the Hun would have been very comfortable in corporate America but he would have owned it all.
Hillary Clinton is talking the talk and I would not be surprised if she became President that she would look at corporate politics with an evil eye but she will not hesitate to cash those campaign checks coming in till that day comes. She isn’t alone in the cashing of those check and that my friends scares me.
If your interested in seeing whom is giving political donations to whom and how much then I highly recommend NewsMeat. It’s a great search engine for political thoughts and seeing who is maxing out to their favorite candidates.
Seeing how all of the main stream media television is for the most part delegating Joe Biden’s run for President to the last sentence in every single news broadcast then I guess it is up to the “New Media” to really report the facts. Joe Biden is forming a wave of support and frankly I do not believe that even his own campaign knows that the Biden Tsunami is coming. Much like a Tsunami, the tremors and shocks of the earthquake from all over the United States on the internet and all the blogs supporting him will hit Iowa alone on January 3rd.
Could I offer you a list of blogs writers that are supporting Joe Biden? I can think of four not including myself that have thrown up videos, did posts on or mentioned him as the only person worth voting for in the next Presidential election. That is just my little part of the blogging world. We are breaking three thousand visitors a month here at Papamoka Straight Talk. This is all free media and advertising for Joe Biden, we are not getting paid for this effort and we do not want his money. That is not the case with every single newspaper or television station in Iowa or New Hampshire. You can tell by the major evening news stations that Biden is not spending his hard earned campaign donations with them. “Oh and Joe Biden was in Iowa today.” HUH?
Here is what is really happening according to the Joe Biden camp…
The estimated 250 people at Biden's campaign rally cheered and waved signs, manufactured and homemade, in a scene more typical of the events of Democratic front-runners. "Ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna shock the hell out of you," Biden said over the din of a cheering crowd Saturday night in an uncharacteristically short speech. He spent less time selling himself and more time answering questions from the audience.
In a working-class city with a strong Irish and Catholic influence, Biden appeals to people, said Teri Goodmann, Iowa co-chairwoman for Biden's campaign. "In spite of people's desire to have the first African-American, the first woman, the first Hispanic, the reality of our lives is that we have a tremendous demand right now in this job for someone who has experience in foreign relations," she said."- Des Moines Register
Then there is this one…
Take, for example, the Joe Biden event I attended last night in Council Bluffs, about ten minutes after I drove out of the Omaha airport. At least 150, maybe 200 people gathered in an Elks Lodge, during the dinner hour, on a week night with the thermometer reading 18 degrees to hear...Joe Biden! And it was vintage Biden....This went on for two hours and came to an end only when Brother Jim had to literally drag the candidate to a waiting car. At no point did the audience grow restless or bored. After each answer, five or six more hands shot up. The interest was avid and, in fact, Biden's biggest applause line of the night had nothing to do with the usual sort of pandering, bur rather when he vowed that in a Biden administration he would outlaw all forms of torture."- Huffington Post
And then this…
To complicate matters today, the ground in central Iowa was blanketed with snow by early morning, and the highways surrounding Des Moines were littered with cars that had slid off the road. But about 100 people crowded into a public library meeting room to listen to Biden speak.
"He's an honest, good man. He tells it like it is," said Glenda McIntire of Waukee, Iowa. She said she's a long-time supporter. "It's been uphill all the way, but the first time we met here we probably had 15 people. When I see him in person I get revved up again."- Guardian Unlimited (UK) Or this on the MSM just ignoring Biden even exists...
Immediately after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto the front page story in the Washington Post about Pakistan and the presidential campaign did not even mention Joe Biden, the only candidate who seriously distinguished himself on the Pakistan crisis.
Upon reflection, the Washington Post editorial page, which has supported Bush on the Iraq war as Pravda supported Leonid Brezhnev, followed up with a lead editorial on candidates and Pakistan, which, incredibly, did not even acknowledge of Joe Biden.
Here is why the major media, including the daily newspapers, has lost such credibility with the American people and in the case of insider print media, so many subscribers who moved their business to internet sites, including this one.- The Liberal Journal
This is going to be an uphill battle to get the word out for Joe Biden by January 3rd but it is not a mountain. We can all do this and if you can’t stand the main stream appointed front runners on the Democrat side of the process then by all means speak up loud and clear. One of the things that I love about Biden besides all of his life experience, political experience and personal candor is the where the majority of the money for his campaign is coming from. Ten bucks here, fifteen bucks here and twenty bucks from over here. There are not to many thousand dollar a plate dinners scheduled in his past or current campaign. That speaks volumes as to whom is really behind the Biden campaign and it isn’t Wall Street or special interest groups. I’m off to box up a couple of dozen rolls of paper towels for the Biden Tsunami in Iowa and New Hampshire.
Bloggers for Biden, leave a link in the comment section and I’ll toss up a Bloggers for Biden list in the sidebar of this site. And for those of you who think the other candidates running for President are not scared of Joe Biden then you have to see this amazing video from YouTube.
Catch the wave and surf it out all the way to the White House in 2009! Four out of five Dentist recommend Joe Biden. Bill Gates will pay you $1000 if you forward this post to ten friends. And some guy in Africa is willing to give me a piece of the action on $30,000,000 from his deceased fathers uncle who was some big wig in the government and all the money he embezzled we can split. Okay, I made up the Dentist thing, the Gates payment and the millions from Africa but you can believe in Joe Biden. That is a sure thing! Check him out at Joebiden.com
All of the main stream media is in a buzz and so are all of the candidates running for President. This is the time of the last dash to the finish line and it is not a time for stupid mistakes by anyone associated with any campaign. Iowa and New Hampshire can pull any single campaign up out of the dust and propel them into super stardom in the next week. Mistakes, errors in judgment, or even a comment taken off the record could kill a campaign.
One thing that is certain in this election is that the people of Iowa and New Hampshire will get a better look at any of the candidates than you and I could ever dream of. Being able to size the candidates up by actually meeting them one on one is the best possible way to cast a vote for the most powerful office in the world. Somehow the actual person in the same room with you and being able to actually interact with them is by far a better way to form an opinion on their ability to serve as President of the United States. Personal chemistry is funny like that.
The next obvious question is if we should trust Iowans or the good folks of New Hampshire with this process of vetting our next political parties choice for President? Peggy Noonan is somewhat asking that same question over at WSJ Opinion Journal…
Be Reasonable As Iowa sizes up the candidates, so do I.
Friday, December 28, 2007 12:01 a.m. EST
By next week politically active Iowans will have met and tallied their votes. Their decision this year will have a huge impact on the 2008 election, and a decisive impact on various candidacies. Some will be done in. Some will be made. Some will land just right or wrong and wake up the next day to read raves or obits. A week after that, New Hampshire. The endless campaign is in fact nearing its climax.
But all eyes are on Iowa. Iowans bear a heck of a lot of responsibility this year, the first time since 1952 when there is no incumbent president or vice president in the race. All of it is wide open.
Iowa can make Obama real. It can make Hillary yesterday. It can make Huckabee a phenom and not a flash, McCain the future and not the past. Moments like this happen in history. They're the reason we get up in the morning. "What happened?" "Who won?"
This is my 2008 slogan: Reasonable Person for President. That is my hope, what I ask Iowa to produce, and I claim here to speak for thousands, millions. We are grown-ups, we know our country needs greatness, but we do not expect it and will settle at the moment for good. We just want a reasonable person. We would like a candidate who does not appear to be obviously insane. We'd like knowledge, judgment, a prudent understanding of the world and of the ways and histories of the men and women in it.- Opinion Journal
Putting our faith in the folks living in Iowa and New Hampshire is not the issue. We live in a world of bombardment news and advertisers that simply cash the checks from the political campaigns. Iowans I’m sure are sick to death of the non stop political ads as much as the people of New Hampshire are. And in that respect the advertisement are not the candidates.
We should be thankful that our election process is not full of the blood boiling hate that is found in some parts of the world. Places where a candidate is shot at and a suicide bomber detonates his opinion maker that kills the candidate as well as anyone in close proximity. My heart goes out to the people of Pakistan with the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. Her candidacy could have had a huge impact on the much needed changes in that part of the world if she were elected.
If elected is a key point for all of the candidates running here in America as well. America needs substance in our next President and not someone that gives a great speech. We need someone that knows the world issues just as well as they know the street map of our nations capitol. They will need to know how to drive from the White House over to the House to get the job done as it should be done. Selling ideas is not about who can stand the firmest on their soap box, its about who is willing to move that soap box over to the folks that will listen and actually think about your ideas, be convinced about your ideas, and vote for them. That has been the mistake of the house of Bush and the house of Clinton.
One of things mentioned to me over and over again is the thought that our nation has been taken over by two families for more than two decades. Starting with Papa Bush with one term of four years and then moving on to Bill Clinton and eight years, followed by Junior W Bush with another eight years. Can America truly survive if ruled by two families for close to thirty years if Hillary Clinton is elected President and possibly serves two terms?
So what are the choices facing the people of Iowa and New Hampshire?
From the Democrats, something isn’t right about Hillary and her having Billy take over her campaign. It screams of “I’m not really doing this, Bill is!” but I could be wrong. Then again, if she could not keep an eye on what his sexual tensions were as first lady then what the hell is she going to do as President. I don’t think we need the FBI to be renamed FBB or FIND BILL’s BABES. Enough with the Clinton legacy of endless political scandals.
Barack Obama, probably a nice guy. Most likely one of the most highly educated people in the run for President but being book smart does not always make you common sense smart. During every single debate he was slapped down by people that actually know about world events on the same stage. Vice President, hell yes! President, not this go round.
John Edwards… No! Your wife is dying of cancer and you have something better to do? God bless his wife Elizabeth for letting him go out and play while she is facing her last days. The character of a man is shown on how he treats his wife no matter her wishes. If he bowed out of this race, in four years he would have a solid chance at the Presidency because he bowed out simply to care for the love of his life, his wife. Huge family values bump.
Meat and Potatoes of this election is in Joe Biden’scampaign. He isn’t running on dollars from the political elite contributors in the Democrat Party. He’s running on the same gas as Ron Paul. Grass roots and people to people. He isn’t counting on anyone in the media to support him because he is not sending them all checks to cash. He has however criss crossed all of Iowa to talk to the people one on one. One of things I like about Joe Biden is that he is not owned by any special interest group. His personal wealth of knowledge on anything happening here at home or abroad is not delegated to a staffer on what he should say, he just speaks his mind. That is the best you could ever get. When it comes to crossing party lines, if it is right then Joe is Right! That fact is something that will sell come the general election come next November that will be the deciding factor. No other candidate can do what he does and win the Oval Office in the Democrat Party.
But I’m sure that the people of Iowa and New Hampshire already know that simply because they have met Joe Biden one on one all across their states.
Do not be surprised if the good people of Iowa and New Hampshire vote for substance over spin. I have faith that they will vote for a realistic choice for President.
As for the Republicans, umm, over at the Gun Toting Liberal he has this latest melt down from the Giuliani campaign. Crooks and Liars has it too… Muslims are bad people? I didn’t say it the Giuliani camp did!
