Our Next President

With the fading days of the Hillary Clinton campaign proven in the latest win in Wisconsin today by Barack Obama it is almost a given fact that Senator Clinton will not be our next President. This is the 9th state in a row to vote overwhelmingly for Obama and that is a hill that Hillary and crew can not overcome. She has lost the inspiration game of politics but that does not count her race for President completely out of the election process. Senator Clinton still controls her delegates to the convention that will decide the Democrat nominee for President.

Toss aside all the hype over the convention handing the nomination to the second place winner, aka Senator Clinton. That will never happen! Yes delegates can change affiliation at the convention but the likelihood of Senator Clinton stealing the convention at this point is slim to none.

All of the pre-election poll numbers to date have been full of bad numbers and the end result is that they were way off the mark and the end result in every single state. I’m chucking the polls into the composting bin and hope the bacteria can stomach them. Same thing goes for the main stream media and the run up for each state and then they look stunned like a deer in the headlights when the actual voting results come in. If Tim Russert says one more time that he did not see this coming in one more state I’m going to throw a brick at my television.

Watching the Obama speech from Houston, Texas was amazing on the eve of his Wisconsin win. Where people have said that he speaks in parables of hope without substance I would have to strongly disagree. Apparently, they have never seen or heard one of his speeches. He touched on Iraq, he touched on health care, he touched on education and he touched on jobs being outsourced and forever lost to Americans. Barack Obama doesn’t list out for you paragraph by paragraph what each of his issue plans are but tells you in concise words how we can change the future in just a few simple inspiring words. Any candidate that got up on the stage and said this is my plan for healthcare in America, page one… You would be bored off your rocker and look for the gun to shoot yourself with! If you think he doesn’t have anything to say then you have never truly heard him give a speech.

Watching the speech he gave today gave me a sense of hope for our nation. If he can inspire the up and coming generations to get involved with what our nation is all about then that in itself is an American miracle. Camelot revisited once more if you will. One of the mistakes that the Clinton campaign has made is attacking hope in the Obama message and then trying to steal the message of change. You can’t have it both ways. Bill Clinton’s political machine is busted and so is Hillary’s by association.

Looking at the voting numbers from state to state change is coming and McCain does not have a chance of getting the keys to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. One of the numbers in Wisconsin surprised me that Obama at one point had more Democrat votes than all Republican votes combined. That margin of votes has held true state after state and McCain does not have the crossover potential that an Obama campaign would. If you include the Clinton number of Democrats voting it is more than three to one in favor of the Democrat candidate. This is just the primaries!

None of the big boys in the main stream media are betting on the general election but I am putting my neck out on the line that Barack Obama will be the next President of the United States of America and he will beat Senator John McCain by far. Then again in a mega landslide if he picks Hillary Clinton as his Vice President.

Papamoka

Cross posted at MichaelLinnJones.com and Bring It On!

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NO More Red State or Blue State

Following the election after Iowa is enlightening and educational to this Biden junkie. As much as I loved Joe Biden for President I am finding the Obama camp more to my liking without Joe in the race for President. Obama’s approach to the election is not about a divided America but a United America with a common purpose. Serving all Americans and what they need first.

There is no red state or blue state or division in his speeches and he reaches out in unity for all. That principal is something that people from all walks of life can vote for and believe in that Barack Obama and his message of change is what we need as a nation. From over at Liberal Values, Ron Chusid has this great video and read on Barack Obama’s victory in Iowa…



With about 98% of the vote in from the Iowa caucus, I project Barack Obama will be elected the next President of the United States.

Sure, a lot can still happen between now and November, but baring a major change it is difficult to see any other result. Edwards’ populism won’t sell in many states outside of Iowa, and having lost her aura of inevitability, support for Clinton is likely to hemorrhage. Dodd and Biden both withdrew, and Richardson performed too poorly to be a serious candidate. As for the general election, the record turnout of 227,000 in a state that went for George Bush is just one sign of the advantage the Democrats have. Some questioned the model used by The Des Moines Register that estimated 200,000 attendees but this number was greatly surpassed. By comparison, the turnout in 2004 was 125,000.

Not only did Obama win the caucus, he “won” in the post-caucus speeches. Clinton’s speech sounded like a speech of the Democratic Party past. John Edwards’ speech was the Dean scream put to words, showing yet again Edwards would never be elected president. Barack Obama gave the speech which would be expected not only by the leader of the Democratic Party, but by the president of all the people of the United States. The Republicans might be able to beat Hillary Clinton. I believe they would have beaten John Edwards. They will have a hard time beating Barack Obama. - Liberal Values

In America we need to stand up for ourselves and vote for change simply because the Congress will not act if we do not send our elected candidates to speak for us. This is a time for great change in our nation and the only way it will happen is by voting for change.

President Bush and his crew of political thugs have convinced the American people that there are two sides to every issue and if you are on the opposing opinion then you are anti-American. With us or against us mentality works in the school yard but not in the world we adults have to leave as a legacy to our children or grand children. Living under the cloak of perpetual Republican fear because the toughest kid on the block should never talk to the political leaders of other nations because they do not agree with us is isolationist and the fast track for our nations failure.

When the folks on the right side of the aisle talk about making your life just a little bit better they are talking about the top three to five percent of income earners. When Barack Obama talks about making your lives a little better he is talking to you and I that are struggling just to pay the mortgage or the rent and fill the gas tank of the family car. He is talking about the future and ending the tyranny of oil, the energy crisis that is crippling Americans at the pump or the oil heating tank in not just your home but your business. He is talking about change and change only comes from listening to inventors and people with innovative ideas that will cripple the domination and strangle hold that the oil industry and markets hold over Americans every single day. From that perspective, his love for our country and all of our people is genuine and unquestionable.

As for those that would question his patriotism or desire to end the war in Iraq he has a time line. Iraq is free, Iraq will have sixteen months to get its own house in order and our troops will be out. Much like Ronald Reagan let the Iranians know that he would not tolerate hostage takers as President, the result was freed hostages during his inauguration.

One thing is sure as we all live here in America and go about our lives is that the state of our nation is in trouble. The perception of America is no longer the defender of freedom. We are supposedly the police of the world and we can not be that for all nations. We as a nation need to put the Teddy Roosevelt big stick down and listen to the people of the world that used to be our friends. Selling fear is easy, selling the answers to overcome that fear is someone you need to listen to. We are not the ugly Americans but that is the perception around the world of our nation and of you. Can we change that? I don’t think we have a choice.

America is not just about Americans. We are the beacon of light to the world and many times we might get it wrong on world politics but we have the innate ability to prove that change is possible. When our nation is right, then we can all do amazing things for the world. When we are wrong and our President has a twenty eight percent popularity rating then we can and will initiate change by voting accordingly. We are not red states or blue states, we are Americans. If we want our government back then we need to stand up for change. It is that easy and that simple and Barack Obama is right!

Papamoka

Cross posted at Bring IT ON!

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If not Biden then Who?

With the loss of Joe Biden and Chris Dodd in the Iowa caucus comes a fairly large dilemma for those of us in the rest of the nation that have yet to vote. As Democrat’s who in the hell do we have left now that Iowans decided that Biden and Dodd are not worthy of the Presidency. With both of them dropping out of the race and I’m sure that Bill Richardson will be throwing in the towel soon enough, our choices will be somewhat limited.

When looking at the remaining top contenders and considering what all of the polls are predicting it does not bode well for the Democrat’s that simply do not care for Hillary Clinton. Having voted for her husband twice I am guilty of being a Clinton Democrat but not a large Hillary Clinton supporter. Public speaking is not her forte but that is not a true measure of any candidate but it helps one hell of a lot. Inspiration is not something she excels at when it comes to even the debates. It’s by no means that I think that she would not make a great President, she probably would, I simply do not see it happening for her. Realistically, I can not see Hillary Clinton beating Huckabee, McCain or Romney in the general election and that is something that has to be considered.

I’ve looked at John Edwards and the possibility of supporting him and yet I can not get past a response he gave to a teenager asking him a question in the last election. This young girl that was probably about fifteen or sixteen asked him a direct question about nuclear weapons and if he would engage nations around the world to abolish them. John Edwards went into trial lawyer double speak mode and worked all the way around the question and never answered the question. He did however autograph a note book for her. Afterward, the young girl was asked if her question was answered by the camera crew and she told it like it is. He’s a good politician, knows a lot of facts but he did not answer my question. Sometimes a fifteen year old is smarter than most adults.

Could Edwards beat the nasty threesome from the Republican field? Highly unlikely. I tend to think that he really does not have the heart for the nastiness that is national politics and the crowd over on the right will never be ashamed to slam you no matter how clean of a campaign you personally run. It is the nature of the beast.

That leaves us with Barack Obama, the Senator from Illinois. Now that I am no longer allowed to be hooked on Biden and had to go cold turkey off my Jones, I will be looking at his candidacy a little more closely. According to some reports he has the younger generations actually interested in what is going on in politics in America again. That is something not done since the days of JFK but make no mistake he is not JFK. Just being able to get the younger generations to participate and vote is amazing in itself. Having heard that he is the rock star of the Democratic field of candidates is rather intriguing as well but that alone does not qualify you to be President.

Something is different about Barack Obama’s style and the way that he speaks to the crowds of enthusiast that seem to show up no matter where he goes. Maybe his message of change is something to grab onto and hope that it is in fact possible. Obama reminds me a little about our current Governor in Massachusetts, Deval Patrick, who just happens to be an African American, who ran his political campaign on hope and “Together we can” which I supported and voted for in the election. Many of Governor Patrick’s detractors were hell bent on the fact that the people of the Bay State would never elect a black man as Governor and they were dead wrong. And now that same mentality is popping up all over the nation whenever Barack Obama’s name is mentioned.

Are we voting for the color of a persons skin or their position on the issues we feel strongest about? Basing our choice for any political office where true leadership is required, I would tend to think that the majority of people would opt for the later. Now more than ever our nation needs change and if the only person offering true change happens to be a black man from Illinois then that is the path to choose.

Winning Iowa is not a guarantee that the race in New Hampshire will draw the same conclusion. With an Iowa bounce many candidates in the past have soared in the Granite State election and others have tanked. Then again, the amount of coverage the local media is giving Senator Obama is surely a good indicator that if he does not finish first then it will be a close second.

One other thought to this process we call electing a President is that the previous couple of occupants of the White House have all been elected by people above the age of thirty five and that seems to have led to a division of the masses. Maybe the younger generation can see the whole environment of the forest and not just a bunch of trees.

I’m off with my marker pen to edit all of my “Joe is Right!” signs and bumper stickers. “Change is Right” seems to sound more appropriate for the task at hand that we ALL like to call America.
Papamoka

Cross posted at Bring It ON! and Michael Linn Jones

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Is America Ready For A Black President?

BY MICHAEL LINN JONES

My first reaction to such a question is, looking back over the last 16 years.....can we afford any more white ones? The political system has become so institutionally corrupt that those who control events in the now smoke-free rooms have no concept of how transparent their hubris is.

For the first time in American history, a man stands forth as a candidate for the presidency who is black. Barack Obama is not exactly a child of privilege, but his success in education and politics puts him firmly in the elite class.

Senator Joe Biden got blasted for commenting on the fact that Senator Obama is "clean, educated, etc." Poor choice of words maybe, but another way of putting it is that Obama is unique in that he is addressing ALL Americans, not just one particular ethnic group. With all due respect, the Reverends Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton cannot do this without "betraying" their traditional base.

Obama may be that fluke, that rarity that Jackson and Sharpton will tell us happens despite the ingrained racism of American society. Franklin Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy were flukes also in that they carried certain convictions about the wealth of a nation being more than Wall Street and its boosters. In fact, FDR was castigated as a "traitor to his class."

Perhaps Obama may be cast as a "traitor to his race" since that is how he is supposed to run for office. Not as an American, but as a victim. But this man is not. He is an inspiration in many ways, and God only knows how his abilities and accomplishments might make his ego swell to planet-sized proportions. We always pray that no matter how far a person goes in life, they maintain a sense of equilibrium.....that they remember where they came from.

This is not an endorsement of Senator Obama. There are some points upon which I am uncomfortable such as immigration policy and gun control. The title of his book, "The Audacity of Hope" bothers me. It seems to me that if in the America we now live the word "hope" can be tied to "audacity" then we've lost something as a people.

Of course, we already feel that way. No matter one's political persuasion, there seems to be much out of kilter in how the nation's business is done. It is way past time for someone to offer the people as a whole something beyond platitudes. Platitudes, by the way, is a fancy way of saying "bald-faced lies."

Be prepared, however, for some racial slandering if Senator Obama attains success in Iowa. It will be subtle, of course, with enough innuendo to protect the slinger from charges of outright racism while at the same time doing just that. And, ironically, the first such use of such tactics will not come from Republicans, but Democrats. I won't say who, but if it takes a village (whatever that means) then said village should not be walled and gated.

Before George W. Bush, I always felt that Lyndon Johnson was the worst president in my lifetime. But he wasn't all bad...I do admire Johnson appealing to a Southern audience in the 60's with a plea for a "real" election, one that wasn't the usual chant of "nigra, nigra, nigra." It brought applause and in truth was a gutsy thing to say. Racism in the South was the most easily discernable in those days, although it wasn't until his march on Marquette Park in Chicago that Martin Luther King got belted with a thrown rock.

Racism exists everywhere, and is such a useful catalyst for the selling of fear and hatred. I grew up in Florida during the Jim Crow days; my parents hated it and were rather radical for their time in refusing to acknowledge the inherent goodness of segregation. It didn't make them many friends, but my Old Man always said that people liking you was nice but respecting you was necessary first.

Agree with Barack Obama or not, try to ignore the clouds of racial chaff that will be thrown into the wind. Even if just for the novelty of the experience, try to judge him by the content of his character.

If any candidate in 2008 appeals to the better Angels of our nature rather than the poisonous veins of suspicion and resentment, then we might actually be getting a little slice of our nation back.

And I don't think it matters a damn what his skin color is.
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Cross-posted at Michael Linn Jones.com