The Mark Brickman Blogs

Behind the Scenes at the Acceptance Speech

2008-11-11T16:45:00.000-08:00

Did you get to go to Chicago to see Barack's acceptance speech? Were you hanging out with them in their hotel room before the event? Would you like a little behind the scenes peak at the event?

Then check this out......

http://flickr.com/photos/barackobamadotcom/sets/72157608716313371/show/

My thanks to my friend Lamont.

A Rising Star in our Midst

2008-11-09T15:45:00.000-08:00

There are over a million active supporters of the Barack Obama campaign. At least that’s how many people are a part of the interactive community-based website mybarackobama.com. Among those people are men and women with very unique talents, and every once in a while, one rises above the crowd. I was lucky enough to have found one. Her name is Stacy Beyer.

Ms. Beyer is a huge player in the Nashville music scene. In addition to performing for the purpose of celebrating the hope and promise of the Obama campaign, Stacy is very heavily involved in Nashville’s vibrant Jewish community and writes and performs Jewish oriented music for the purpose of enhancing and promoting the enjoyment and appreciation of Jewish music.

I am very certain that Stacy Beyer’s star is on the rise. Please give a listen and a look to this wonderful video and be a part of something great.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zN_NNZyh43s

Feels Good, Huh?

2008-11-05T21:36:00.000-08:00

This is an email blast that I sent out to my team today. It's been one hell of an experience, and really the time of my life. For anyone outside of CD12, which is the northern half of the San Francisco Peninsula, it has been my privilege and pleasure to have met and worked with each and every one of you.

For those of you who came to one of our meetings, registered people to vote, canvassed a neighborhood or provided any other kind of infrastructure or input to our family here at CD12, I would like to acknowledge your participation and congratulate you on a job well done. Frankly, there is no Barack Obama presidency without each and every one of you.

I know I speak for April Vargas, Mary Twieg, Mary Kunitake and all of our incredible support staff when I tell you that in addition to your hard work and amazing contribution to this campaign, the friendships we have developed with you and the laughter and the grimaces that we’ve shared with you are permanently etched into our hearts and our memories.

Some of you spent your time in our South City office. Many of you didn’t come on board until we moved into our office in San Carlos. Some of you even split your time between either the San Francisco office or the Silicon Valley office. Most of you tirelessly cajoled your friends, families and co-workers to come on board the Obama bandwagon, even if they originally looked at you like you were from another planet.

So this is definitely not goodbye. As a matter of fact, just the contrary. If getting involved and being involved has gotten into your blood, like it has mine, and you feel like it’s feels pretty damned good to actually make a difference in your community, your state and your country, don’t become complacent. We have really just begun. There will be other races, new candidates or causes and old issues that will become deserving of your time and effort. You can take what you’ve learned and apply it to the next campaign.

Many of us are not completely satisfied with this election. Prop 8 didn’t lose. Sen. Ted Stevens and Rep. Michele Bachmann won and Al Franken didn’t. But we inched ever closer to betters days in this country, and the election of Barack Obama wasn’t just historic; it was vindication for all of us taking a stand and standing tall and proudly for fairness, equality, the end to war and the hope of a new kind of leadership.

So our offices will or have closed, but the enthusiasm and excitement that we’ve all shared will continue to burn brightly and strongly, and our paths will cross again, and yes, we’ll take a moment to chuckle and reminisce, and then we’ll dig into whatever our next project will be and work together to once again attempt to make it a better and happier day for ourselves, our families and our entire communities.

It was an absolute honor to be a city leader, a precinct captain, a precinct specialist, an Obama delegate and ultimately CD12 volunteer coordinator, and though I will hang up my virtual uniform and have to find something equally useful to do with my very rare spare time, I will smile to myself every now and then knowing what we all did together and realizing that we all did something that was right, and that we were rewarded for once with the culmination of a job well done and a candidate that actually won this time.

All the best to you! Yes, we did!!

Mark Brickman

When Campaigning is in Your Blood

2008-11-01T14:29:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the BA meeting, Barack Anonymous. I'm Mark (Hi, Mark.) And I'm addicted to the Obama campaign (groans!). No, it's true. I swear! I have been living and breathing this campaign, and with three days left, I'm not at the Obama office, and it's killing me. I will be there later and work well into the night, but I have a bi-yearly commitment and today is the day. I know I'll survive, but I'm in pain. Just sneaking on to a computer that I found here to write this is a little solace, but I must be with my compadres at the Obama office.

Oh, no...I just thought of something else. What am I going to do on Wednesday? Can I find a BA meeting anywhere? I doubt it. How will I see my Obama friends? Just pop up at their front doors and ask them if I can use their phone to call New Mexico? No, that won't work. Oh, I know...we'll all meet for dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant, or even Chinese. Yeah, that's the ticket. Oh, and I feel so positive that we'll have something really good to celebrate.

Does anyone else out there in Obamaland not know what they're going to be doing after this campaign? Oh, well. I'll think of something.

Not a Time for Gridlock

2008-10-27T22:06:00.000-07:00

This is not your ordinary election. It is a time of crisis in this country. The economy is in a shambles. We have troops fighting and dying on two fronts. We have witnessed a campaign that has opened a nasty wound of racism and hatred. We have seen numerous prominent political leaders violating ethics rules at best and heading off to jail at worst. We have just lived through a political regime that over the past eight years has been conducted like a monarchy.

I have always generally subscribed to the theory put forth by one of my favorite talk show hosts, Ronn Owens, in San Francisco -- who even wrote an excellent book outlining it -- that gridlock was one good way to keep the president and Congress in check and not have too radical a shift to the left or right come out of Washington. But this is not a time that I want the status quo and I for certain don’t want to have business as usual. Not now.

It is a given that John McCain, if elected, will offer a continuation of if not the exact political perspectives on governing this country as George Bush, will definitely offer the same divisive and toxic climate that has persisted in this country for the past eight years. I for one cannot live in that type of climate any longer, and an Obama-Biden Administration will offer a new way of governing, a fresh start, and we must have a filibuster proof Senate of sixty senators to essentially clean house in this country. I am placing my trust in the new leadership of Barack Obama and the old guard Democrats to step up and establish some new direction for this country.

There may be a time when I wish to go back to a little gridlock, but right now, this country needs a fresh start, a new beginning, and Barack and Joe are my guys. I believe that this country will be all right with 58 Democratic senators, because there are a few moderate Republicans who tend to vote with Democrats on many issues, but I will have a lot of difficulty – no. I absolutely cannot stomach John McCain and Sarah Palin in my White House.

We have exactly one week until the most historic election of our lifetime. Let’s do everything we can to make absolutely certain that Barack Obama becomes our next president. Let’s not leave anything on the table. Let’s have no regrets or say, “Damn, I could have done more.” Our time is now! Let’s get everyone to the polls to vote early and let’s allow this country to heal. Let’s remain fired up till Tuesday, November 4th and let’s give Barack the victory that we all deserve.

Brilliant Video

2008-10-25T09:35:00.000-07:00

My cousin Shelley is always sending me great stuff. Today was no exception. This is absolutely outstanding. Click on the link and be entertained. There is one thing that is a sure bet...the funniest things are also the things that are true.

Thank you, Shelley. And thank you, John McCain, for constantly reminding us that you and Sarah Palin are not the better choice for our next four years in this country.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03fcGelz8Hw

Children to Get Involved in Campaign

2008-10-24T15:58:00.000-07:00

We have had a mixed blessing here in the Obama office in San Carlos (Bay Area) California. Enthusiastic phone bankers are bringing their children. These kids are fired up and ready to go, but some of them --although they’d really love to -- are just a little too young to hit the phones.

Today we came up with a wonderful idea that I’d love to share with Obama offices and volunteers all over this great land. This is both a terrific way to get kids involved and a way to get them to be productive and doing something for the man they’re there for, Barack Obama.

With Barack in Hawaii visiting his ailing grandmother, whom he acknowledges poured everything she had into him, we thought that a wonderful way for children to demonstrate their involvement in the campaign and admiration for Barack is to accompany their parents to their local Obama office and create a get well card or a picture for Barack’s loving and supportive grandmother, Toot. Her name is Madelyn Dunham.

Let’s present our children with the most poignant example of volunteerism by coming down to your local Obama office to find out how you can put Obama over the top and allowing your kids to show their support. Let’s make it a family activity and create the path for future involvement and empowerment.

To find your local Obama office, log on to http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/statepages.

All get well cards, pictures and any other creations can be sent to Obama for America, Attn: Get Well Grandma (Toot), 233 N. Michigan Avenue, Suite 1100, Chicago, IL 60601. Please limit the size of the envelope that you send because the HQ office is unable to accept large packages or oversized envelopes.

Our kids are fired up. Let’s give them an outlet and something constructive to do for Barack and his grandma.

A NY Times Editorial Worth Sharing

2008-10-24T14:34:00.000-07:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/24/opinion/24fri1.html?scp=1&sq=barack%20obama%20for%20president&st=cse

There are hundreds of articles and op-ed pieces per day which are very good, even superbly insightful, but this New York Times op-ed article is a must-see for everyone, particularly those who are still on the fence or convinced that Barack is not ready for primetime.

Don’t be shy to share it with your friends and family.

I Had the Worst Nightmare

2008-10-23T09:51:00.000-07:00

http://www.cnnbcvideo.com/index.html?r=31274&id=14592-8087924-xnOf3hx&nid=m7bLEZH7PnOmJK44ulMDsDExNDU5MDA

Don't let this happen to you. Don't leave anything on the table. And don't sit at breakfast reading the morning paper and say, "You know, I could have done more!"

If not now, when?

Congratulations John McCain

2008-10-20T20:58:00.000-07:00

John McCain, I would like to congratulate you. You done good, my friend. I never thought that you or any other politician in my lifetime could bring back McCarthyism. But you did it! Well done. I think it’s a wonderful idea to bring back that homey, warm and fuzzy time when this country sought out citizens that didn’t go along with the wishes of the vast majority of patriotic, well-meaning and hard-working Americans.

The sad thing is that describing the McCarthy era as anything but a hateful witch hunt meant to seek out anyone who uses their brain and dares to think differently than what a few politicians or the mainstream media tell them to think and what to say is just terribly inaccurate. I wasn’t around in the early ‘50s, but it was a frightful time and a horrible blight on a time in our history when this country was emerging from World War II and on its way to prosperity and promise, but also a time when this country was in an arms race and very fearful of the Iron Curtain and the old Soviet Union.

The key element of the climate that Joe McCarthy and his cronies brought to the United States is accusing anyone whom they targeted as Communist subversives, people who hated this country and somehow supported another country or political system and therefore needed to be identified, brought before a committee and blacklisted if this kangaroo court style committee found you guilty of not being one of them.

But the scariest part, I think, is that the accusation was enough. There was many times no basis in fact or reality, and just the mere accusation was enough to destroy your credibility and/or livelihood. If you happened to be in the presence of another accused person, happened to read certain reading material and periodicals or maybe even looked like a non-patriot, that was enough to make them point the finger at you. Does that remind you of anyone’s campaign rhetoric and what we’re hearing lately?

Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann of Minnesota yesterday went far enough to bring the McCain-Palin brand of hate into a new focus, actually calling for some sort of study or committee (sound familiar?) to decide which Congress people are true patriots and love this country and which don’t. If this absurd and disgusting idea came to fruition, then I would presume that it wouldn’t be long before this committee started to turn its attention on you and me, and I’ll take a long-shot guess as to which side this committee may find me on.

This is where the hate speech and fear tactics of the new John McCain campaign has brought us. Just the fact that these ideas are being floated should make us very fearful of anyone associated with the McCain-Palin campaign getting anywhere near the White House. Let’s send these bigots, these fear-mongers and these self-righteous racist bullies a message and work our butts off to make certain that everyone gets to the polls and that everyone knows why John McCain should not be our president and why Barack Obama should.

No Problem...Let's Just Change Reality

2008-10-20T13:06:00.000-07:00

Let's review some recent history. At the last debate, John McCain gave a shout-out to Joe the Plumber. Sounded good, except he just changed a little reality to the story. Joe the Plumber isn't a plumber. He isn't even named Joe. McCain said that Joe wanted to buy a plumbing business and that he'd be overly taxed under the Obama tax plan. Oh, one additional problem...the company that Joe (Sam) apparently works for isn't for sale, and if it was, it is well under the $250,000 profit threshold that would trigger an additional tax under the Obama plan.

To be fair, McCain and his team probably didn't even check into whether Joe the Plumber's story was accurate, but would that have mattered if he wished to make his point? I sincerely doubt it.

Let's face it...it's so easy to stretch the truth or even completely reassign how we normally characterize situations to fit with reality, but I'd rather stick with a candidate who lives within the real world and doesn't need to make things up to fit within his warped sense of what argument he's trying to make.

Compliments of Mark Gershenson, blogger, I bring you this excellent post. He called it: Comment: I'm a little confused. Let me see if I have this straight???..

* If you grow up in Hawaii , raised by your grandparents, you're 'exotic, different.'

* Grow up in Alaska eating moose burgers, yours is a quintessential American story.

* If your name is Barack you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.

* Name your kids Willow , Trig and Track, you're a maverick.

* Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.

* Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you're well grounded.

* If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first blackPresident of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive thatRegisters 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Lawprofessor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and HumanServices committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a stateof 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs,Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have anyreal leadership experience.

* If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as thegovernor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you're qualified to becomethe country's second highest ranking executive and next in line behind a manin his eighth decade.

* If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 beautifuldaughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian.

* If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and then left your disfigured wifeand married the heiress the next month, you're a true Christian.

* If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use ofbirth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.

* If, while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sexeducation in your state's school system while your unwed teen daughter ends uppregnant, you're very responsible.

* If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigiousLaw firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up toraise a family, your family's values don't represent America 's.

* If you're husband is nicknamed "First Dude", with at least one DWI conviction andno college education, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and once was amember of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, yourfamily is extremely admirable.

OK, that makes it much more clearer now???

Follow the Leader

2008-10-18T21:49:00.000-07:00

Barack Obama has set the bar pretty high. Yes, it has been exasperating watching the McCain-Palin attack machine consistently and savagely beating up Obama on a daily basis. And yet Obama has tried his best to stay above the fray, take the high road and stay on message. I realize that I’m not alone, but I want my leader to be more like a Barack Obama than I do a John McCain.

I have to admit that I have never voted for a Republican for president, but I had an open mind about John McCain. I remember back to the 2000 election and thinking that John McCain was a pretty good guy. Except his for his anti-choice stance, I found him to be a pretty good guy. But John McCain has lost his soul. Literally. He has completely sold out. I never thought I’d see a candidate want to win so badly that he would agree to destroy his competitor to do it.

This campaign is defined by the people that support it. Obama drew a crowd of 100.000 to the shores of the Mississippi River yesterday. Barack’s message is fresh, sprinkled with hope and full of promise. It is a refreshing mix of humor, detail and righteous indignation. He draws huge crowds because people want to be near him. If he’s anywhere nearby, they must be with him. They must show their support and hear what he has to say. His opponent has turned the Obama candidacy into a new realm. It is now a cause, and we must persevere.

The people that I spend almost all of my days with at the San Mateo County Obama office are what keep me going. I absolutely adore them. They aren’t just friends; they’re my colleagues. They’re superb people, and they’re fun, And they’re totally dedicated to the cause. The incredible thing is that these people have duplicates everywhere in this country. That is Barack’s secret weapon, and that is why he’s going to win. We all work so hard because it is so worth it. It’s only our country and the future of civilization as we know it.

What Has Happened to Sensibility?

2008-10-17T12:09:00.000-07:00

I am proud to say that I have made thousands of calls to a battleground state, New Mexico in the past couple of weeks. The vast majority of people that I speak with are reasonable, sensible and friendly people, and almost all of them declare their support for Obama. But there was a woman yesterday that really got under my skin, and she cajoled me to check into several of her allegations that Barack Obama was unfit to run, much less be president of the United States.

I did allot much more time to this woman than I usually do, because although I had such a high amount of skepticism while speaking with her, she was polite and expressed herself with sincerity. But I’ve been around the block a few times, and having been involved in this campaign for well over a year and a half, I have had to defend the record and virtue of Barack enough times. But what has happened to people’s sensibilities? It seems that the toxic environment that has been created by the McCain-Palin campaign in complicity with Right Wing talk has encouraged and enabled some people in this country to suspend all vestiges of reality.

So what did I hear? The standard line of Obama haters. Barack Obama is a citizen of Kenya; that his birth certificate is phony and is only a certification of some kind, not an official document. I also heard that Barack’s affiliation with terrorists isn’t limited to William Ayers, but that he literally communicates with up to a hundred domestic and international terrorists. I also heard yesterday that Barack has been intimately involved with his cousin in Kenya , somehow attempting to get him elected to office so that they can combine power and take over this country for Muslims and for Kenya.

Well, I know that these things aren’t factual in any way, and just simple common sense will tell me that. It is beyond comprehension to believe that a United States Senator can be complicit in any one of these accusations without it being discovered long ago. It is also not credible that just one of these issues if not more would not have made it to the mainstream press.

I did express my feelings to this woefully uninformed woman in New Mexico, and she told me that this is understandable, because Saudi Arabia owns half of the American media, even Fox News. When I told her that I just didn’t believe that statistic, she informed me what also hadn’t come out is that Obama has been endorsed by Moammar Khadafi, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez and the entire country of Pakistan. She also threw in that Obama would work to eliminate Israel’s existence in favor of Palestine.

I decided to spend sometime yesterday and last night listening to KSFO, the San Francisco Right Wing radio station, and I now understand more clearly where this crap is coming from. I heard that Obama travels on a Kenyan passport, that Obama regularly meets with the Odinga tribe of Kenya and will not admit that he’s part of their political structure and that Obama refuses to discuss his ties to William Ayers and other people who have targeted this country as domestic terrorists.

The amount of hate and vitriol that comes out of several talk programs that I listened to is completely false, and if subjected to a truth meter, I doubt that even one of their allegations can withstand the smell test that anyone interested in facts could expose their venomous words to. But people like me and probably you cannot stand to listen to this kind of hate too long, and that leaves these stations to the people who are most vulnerable to this kind of message and are so filled with rage or hate that they just really want to believe. That is true of this woman in New Mexico who, while feeling that she has truth on her side, is really just listening to a one-sided and biased argument that is preying on just such a person.

I am absolutely delighted that we are down to our last 18 days of this presidential campaign. It will be nice to go back to a little more life as usual and maybe have a lot of these people go back to worrying about how to pay their bills and whether they’ll have a job to go to by the time that George W. Bush and the Republican-dominated Congress leave office and end their dominance of this country.

The Ignorant Wish to Stay Ignorant

2008-10-15T19:07:00.000-07:00

Contrary to the popular notion that people who don’t know any better simply don’t know any better, I don’t believe that. At least not around here, the enlighted and progressive San Francisco Bay Area where information flows freely and there is plenty of opportunity to avail oneself of it and get to the truth of any political scenario. And yet if one wishes to be a one-source news receptacle and ignore an opposing viewpoint, I suppose that is certainly possible, but that is a choice, not a limitation.

Case in point. My own brother-in-law, who sat in my living room the other evening fast asleep on the couch. His 10-year-old daughter, my niece sat at a table nearby eating ice cream and cookies, and sitting there quietly, out of the blue said, “Uncle Mark. Daddy says that Barack Obama says it’s okay to let babies die.” I was absolutely stunned by this comment, and responded, “Well, does that make sense to you?”

She very thoughtfully said, “Well, he does have two daughters, so no, I don’t think it makes too much sense.” I told her that it was not true and that her daddy was listening to something that he believed and should have known that it couldn’t possibly be true. It is refreshing that a bright 10-year-old can be more introspective and intuitive than her own 50-year-old father. And this is why I postulate that ignorance is a choice, not a permanent restriction and condition.

When my fabulous brother-in-law woke up from his brief snooze, I informed him as to what his lovely daughter had told me and asked him whether he actually told her that or whether she had somehow misunderstood him. He told me no, that he had told her that. My sister immediately gave him a good whack in the arm and chided him for saying that to an impressionable young girl who would most likely believe her dad.

Choosing to be as well informed as I can be and not mired in complete ignorance, I told him that I knew of the misinformation that he had heard and chosen to believe and that it is not only not true, but a complete distortion of a piece of legislation that Barack Obama had sponsored when in the Illinois legislature. I further told him that this piece of legislation to the best of my knowledge simply advised the doctor that in late term pregnancies, the health and safety of the mother is paramount, and if the mother’s life could be spared in a crisis, the doctor was allowed to concentrate on the mother and not put her safety behind that of the baby’s.

My sister, not being particularly well-informed herself, listened intently to what I was saying, and then turned to her husband and asked him if he was listening to me. Also within earshot of this conversation was my niece, who I thought at that point was bright enough and old enough to comprehend our conversation and could take it all in.

I immediately thought of another lie being put out by the McCain-Palin wing of the Right Wing smear campaign. I said to my brother-in-law, “So I bet you also think that Barack Obama advocates teaching explicit sex education to kindergarteners.” He responded, “Yeah. I heard that, too.” I said, “Well, do you believe that’s true, as well?” To which he said, “Well, that’s what they said on the radio.”

It doesn’t provide me with a lot of pleasure to be better informed and more curious than my brother-in-law, but it does make me pleased to get him the information that he needs. But I have no doubt that my brother-in-law still believes what he chooses to believe. Ignorance isn’t just bliss; it’s a choice, and that’s all we can all try to do is make sure that the truthful information is available to everyone. In the end, It is an individual’s personal choice to avail themselves of the information and be well informed. If they choose ignorance, then ignorant they’ll be.

When You Brush With Greatness

2008-10-14T22:55:00.000-07:00

It was the winter of 2007. After an exhausting day of walking through several icy and gritty Reno, Nevada neighborhoods, I returned to the Obama office to turn in my paperwork containing the results of my day, get a debriefing by the team leaders of the office and share the war stories with my fellow campaigners. As I observed the sights and sounds of enthusiastic and energized workers returning from all over northern Nevada, there was one thing that immediately stood out and made a truly big impact on me.

With people lining up at the food table for replenishment and with people returning and breaking up into groups full of laughter and cheer, I heard music playing and at first thought it was coming from a CD because it was so good. And then I noticed a young man sitting at an electric piano playing, singing and entertaining essentially himself. But I was intrigued and sat down nearby to listen and figure out who he was and why he’d chosen the Reno Obama office of all places to perform, and in such a chaotic and frenetic environment.

It soon became apparent that he was just like me, except playing his music was the way he unwinded after a hard day of canvassing, very much like I would stuff my face full of food. I thought to myself that this guy was really good, and not knowing who he was and what part of the country he came from, I just sat there and enjoyed the bluesy and creative style with which he played the keyboard. This guy’s music really appealed to me, and at first I was the only one seemingly enjoying it, but I was soon joined by quite a few people who seemed to also be into the surprise concert.

Well, this young man is named Sky Nelson, and he is not just a very skilled musician; he is a truly nice man. As part of his contribution to the Obama campaign, he has written a song that taps into a theme that has been a part of Barack’s campaign since the beginning, that we are the ones that we have been waiting for. Mr. Nelson has performed this song in many different venues, from his home territory in Sonoma County, California to various stages around Denver during the Democratic National Convention, and he recently received the honor of handing this recent homage to the Obama campaign to Barack Obama himself.

Like most quality musicians and musical acts, the internet is the communication device used for the average fan to find their favorite music, and Sky Nelson’s music is no exception. This is the link for you to find Sky Nelson’s latest video, and it is artistically arranged and very musically pleasing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nm97Y_0Nw7g

The song “We are the Ones” is a catchy song and Sky Nelson is performer worth a listen. He has been a very hard-working campaigner for the Obama campaign, and it is his hope that with increasing viewership of his video on YouTube, the song’s notoriety will rise and it will have a much better chance of becoming the preferred song of the Obama campaign. If you like it, pass it on. It’s that simple.

I have been quite impressed with the talent and perseverance of Sky Nelson. Please take a moment and give his new song and video a listen and a look. It is worth your time. For further links to Sky Nelson’s music and philosophy, check these out additional links to Sky’s work:
www.myspace.com/skynelson
www.facebook.com Facebook: Sky Nelson
http://www.squidoo.com/wearetheones

ACORN Scandal Presents Golden Opportunity

2008-10-13T12:55:00.000-07:00

The pendulum swings both ways, my friends. I can imagine John McCain saying that. Or how ’bout this? What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. I do like it when all sides are held to the same standard. The recent voter registration scandal is one prime example of an area where this principle should be put into practice.

Like my hero and future president Barack Obama, I am against voter suppression and fraud by anyone, no matter whom they support, and I would like to believe in my heart that everyone believes that. I know that in this cruel, partisan world of politics, there are some who have a tendency to look the other way when it’s their own side that is bending the rules, but that just shouldn’t be. Let’s play fair and insist that everyone else do the same.

This is a golden opportunity to demand that the McCain-Palin campaign, whose spokespeople and media partners are decrying ACORN for voter registration fraud, trying desperately to link this activity to Barack Obama and to use this as just another distraction to step up publicly, and just as the Obama-Biden campaign has, to denounce voter fraud in any form, and there is a panoply of examples in various states to choose from. Frankly, areas of voter registration, from purging and potential vote suppression is so rampant, I will not list them here, but they are very well known and in the news.

With 22 days left in this presidential contest, attempts at eliminating voters from voter rolls, both before and after a vote is cast, should be weighing heavily on our minds. The right to cast a ballot in an election in this country is sacrosanct, and any attempt to tamper with that right should be scrutinized thoroughly and should be revealed and punished severely when discovered. All citizens, including our candidates, should publicly denounce this un-American acitivity for what it is and do it today.

Lastly, at the debate on Wednesday evening, Barack Obama should remind every voter that they must verify that their voter registration has not been tampered with and that if they haven’t received their voter forms in the mail and expect them, they should call their county clerk’s office to make certain that they are still registered. He should further advise all voters to drop off their forms, if that is available in their area, and that if they do mail ballots, to place ample postage on them. And finally, he should announce that unlike Al Gore and John Kerry before him, whose elections for president were tainted in many ways by voter suppression and by not having every vote counted, he will, once elected, work toward eliminating all issues of voter fraud and that in an Obama Administration, every vote, whether for him or any other candidate, will be counted fairly, accurately and unencumbered by scandal.

McCain: The Red Herring Campaign

2008-10-12T17:58:00.000-07:00

Let’s demonize Barack Obama. Let’s demonize the media. Let’s turn Obama into the boogeyman. Let’s play up every rotten little stereotype that we can to scare the living daylights out of people with. Let’s say he’ll raise your taxes until we’re blue in the face. Oh, and let’s say he’s connected to terrorists, even hangs around with them, and oh yes, let’s question whether he’s even funded by foreigners who may just be terrorists.

I’m certain that these very conversations and suggestions took place in the past few months in McCain campaign strategy meetings. But like seemingly every attack that’s come from the McCain-Palin camp, they are lacking in one key ingredient to make them have the kind of impact that John McCain and his crew wishes they’d have…substance. But with a campaign that is now featuring only negative and attack television ads and with a strategy to send Sarah Palin out to stir up her crowds with the most scurrilous and vicious references and innuendo, the McCain campaign has determined that character assassination and outright fear-mongering are all they have left if they wish to influence the electorate enough to vote for them.

It reminds me of what happens during a riot. There is an announcement of a gathering at City Hall. A couple of hundred well-meaning people gather to listen to the speaker, who is standing at the foot of the steps behind a podium. The speaker tells the crowd that the government is corrupt, that the media has taken the side of the corporations and against them, the people, and as the rhetoric escalates, the crowd becomes more and more riled up, and begins to swell with more activists and people who live in the streets and are hearing the speaker’s message loud and clear.

When the speaker is done, most of the original crowd disperses to go home to their families and back to where they came from, but some of the crowd isn’t done with the evening. They form an angry mob, turn over a couple of cars and light them on fire, smash windows as they walk down the street and generally destroy everything in their path as they fan out across the unsuspecting city. Only when the police arrive in force do they dissipate and return to where they came from.

The speaker at the podium, reached for comment the next morning, registers surprise that the angry mob had come from his crowd the night before. He says that he didn’t incite them to riot, but that they acted on their own and that he had no idea that they’d do these unacceptable acts. Innocently, he tells the reporter that he just stood up there last night telling the crowd how he feels about the current situation and the crowd connected the dots and took matters into its own hands.

The other day when John McCain recognized that his crowds had gotten out of control, reacting to his rhetoric of fear, hate and terror and had begun to exhibit the signs of a stirred up mob that was now ready to riot and revolt, he faced a difficult decision. He either turned away with a wry smile and said to himself that it’s out of his hands, or he could have a gut-check soul searching moment and realize that he had created a monster that left unchecked, would be his legacy for the rest of this presidential campaign and for all time. He chose the latter, finally displaying a rare moment of sanity and realizing that it is his image that is emblazoned with this fear-mongering and politics of hate.

I don’t expect that the red herring style attacks of the McCain-Palin campaign are going to let up, because they just don’t have anything else to choose from. I do believe that their particular campaign will be studied in years to come and be the subject of documentaries and vignettes on the History Channel. But I believe that John McCain is now seeing the results of weeks of vicious attacks on Barack Obama. His low information voters are now certain that an Obama campaign will be tantamount to turning our country over to a terrorist supporting black man whose Muslim faith has taught him to only support people who don’t look and live like they do.

I think of Jackie Robinson, the black baseball star who broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball, who had to withstand the worst kind of attacks of hate and bigotry in order to persevere and become a star and a prominent player that would lead the way for other blacks to also become Major League baseball players. He overcame tremendous odds, and did it in the most classy way, just quietly doing his job and proving that he had every right to be there, just like every other Major Leaguer of his time. Barack Obama has had to be the Jackie Robinson of the political world. And while absorbing the most unfair, unsubstantiated and venomous attacks by McCain-Palin and most of the Right Wing punditry, he has withstood it, counteracted it with class and, like Jackie Robinson, will persevere and become our next president.

Barack Obama will forever break the presidential color barrier and will prevent a future black candidate’s opponent from turning to a McCain-style red herring using campaign for the purpose of character assassination, racial stereotype and innuendo. I am so unhappy to have to live through this very sad patch of history and to witness the kind of campaign that John McCain has chosen to run, but it has been a tremendously empowering source of pride to watch Barack handle it, hold his head high and show this country that he will just not allow himself and his campaign to be defined, trivialized and succumb to exactly what the McCain campaign wishes him to be.

Palin is Preeminent Energy Expert

2008-10-10T09:45:00.000-07:00

Sarah Palin was selected as John McCain’s running mate and was immediately touted by the Republican as a maverick, having foreign policy insight because she’s so close to Russia and having executive experience because she’s the only candidate to have run a city and a state. Well, we know how valid and lasting those references have become, but the one area where Palin’s knowledge seemed to resonate was with regard to energy and oil, and from John McCain on down, we have been hearing that Palin is an expert on energy issues and will be McCain’s point person on energy when they get into the White House.

So when asked in a town hall style meeting yesterday by someone in the crowd about Alaska’s oil and whether as much as 75% is sold directly to China, one would think that she’d nail that answer. Well, guess again. Not surprisingly, she isn’t even familiar with the distribution of oil from her own state.

http://www.kansascity.com/445/story/834362.html

I don’t think it’s unfair at this point to say that Sarah Palin is qualified as a snarky, sarcastic and confident point person for the McCain campaign, but to say that she has any expertise in anything relative to running a campaign on a national and international level is a stretch tantamount to saying that my preparing to ride in another local bicycle rally puts me on the same par with Lance Armstrong.

I am a pretty strong bike rider, but I’m going to hold of on buying my plane ticket to France to compete in the Tour de France.

McCain Campaign Now Officially Racist

2008-10-09T23:34:00.000-07:00

There comes a time when one observing a political campaign must acknowledge when a campaign begins to define itself. In this particular case, it seems that the McCain-Palin campaign has definitely determined the direction it will follow for the rest of this campaign, now down to 26 days. Quite sadly, it has decided that it could not compete with the Obama-Biden campaign on any legitimate issue once the economy turned south, and that their only chance of regaining lost ground is to turn to character assassination and yes, to become a racist campaign.

There are now just too many examples of this fact. We can start with McCain’s refusal to look Barack Obama in the eye or even acknowledge him at the first debate. If that’s not racist, it’s certainly condescending and contemptuous. But in this week’s presidential debate, McCain referred to Obama as “that one,” and that I would interpret as a dismissive put-down that given the tenor of the campaign that McCain-Palin are running, I would now call a racist gesture.

Sarah Palin the other day said that Barack Obama just doesn’t look at the country as “the rest of us do,” which I have no choice but to presume she means white people. She and McCain both have referred to Barack as being someone of an unknown quantity, someone whom we should be frightened of, and Palin said that he “pals around with terrorists.” At every opportunity now, the McCain-Palin team seems to remind their screaming crowds that they need to be very fearful of someone like a Barack Obama because of who he is, and they seem to have incited their audience to agree with them at a fever pitch.

At two of their recent rallies, law enforcement officials, one still in uniform, used Obama’s middle name, which might as well be followed by “the Muslim,” because that is what that is meant to imply, and the one man yesterday said that one cannot imagine waking up on November 5th and realizing that a man named Barack Obama, Barack Hussein Obama had become president. People at McCain-Palin rallies are now yelling epithets like kill, terrorist, treason when Obama’s name is mentioned by one of the candidates, and it wouldn’t surprise me at all to find someone attending one of their rallies with a noose or other symbol of old-fashioned hatred of blacks and outright racism.

If I saw one shred of an attempt by John McCain or Sarah Palin to tamp down on the frenzy that they’ve created in their crowds and to steer them back toward the issues that affect our daily lives -- healthcare, the economy, immigration -- maybe I’d feel differently, but when I see people in the crowd during the question and answer session imploring McCain to attack Obama more strongly and nail him to the cross and McCain agreeing to do just that, I can only draw one conclusion. John McCain and Sarah Palin are racists, full of hate and this is exactly where they wish their campaign to be.

My Current Fantasy

2008-10-09T08:50:00.001-07:00

Listening to John McCain tell his desperate crowds that Barack Obama has something to hide really makes me sick. Hearing Sarah Palin lying about who Barack Obama is has to be one of the more infuriating things I’ve heard in a long time.

My fantasy is this: During one of these upcoming rallies, when John McCain is spewing his hate to his less than tolerant crowd, once again telling them that Obama just won’t answer any of the serious and important questions, Barack Obama comes out from behind the stage and waves to a stunned crowd. He walks up and stands next to McCain at the podium and says, “John, this crowd deserves better than what you’re telling them.”

From there, Barack goes on tell explain that he served on a couple of charitable foundation boards which were underwritten by the very conservative Annenberg Foundation, and that dozens of people from the Chicago area, Democrats and Republicans alike, served on these boards, as well. He further explains that yes, Bill Ayers was also on these boards, but that these were boards devoted to educational pursuits and had nothing to do with palling around with an unrepetent terrorist.

I realize that this is very unlikely to occur, but a guy can wish, can’t he? After listening to the hate-baiting coming from the McCain-Palin tag team with the new theme that Obama hangs around with known terrorists, the fact that John McCain didn’t hit Barack with that charge immediately the other night should show his supporters that he is either a coward or that it’s pretty damn easy to throw out charges, no matter how weak and unsubstantiated, when there is no one to challenge the veracity of that charge.

It is the ultimate irony that John McCain is also connected to the Annenbergs and ultimately to William Ayers. As a matter of fact, truth be told, John McCain has some actual real-life connections to people who have committed crimes, been labeled as terrorists and has been part of boards and commissions that I’m betting he won’t be standing up in front of his supposedly adoring crowds to boast about.

Well, back to reality. 27 days left, and I’d rather live in fantasy world, but the truth is that this country cannot afford nor does it deserve another four years of Bush-Cheney nor can it withstand seeing John McCain and Sarah Palin destroying whatever sanity we have left.

Sean Hannity Gets a Dressing Down

2008-10-08T21:43:00.000-07:00

If you get a warm and fuzzy feeling every time you think of Sean Hannity, this video clip is for you. If you adore Sean Hannity like I do, you will truly enjoy watching this. If you like Sean’s interview style of allowing his guests to express their views no matter whether he agrees with them or not, you will appreciate this little video.

Well, I’m certain that you’re either thinking that I’m completely cracked for liking Sean Hannity or that I’m being completely tongue in cheek, and it’s the latter. I absolutely can’t stand Sean Hannity and particularly don’t appreciate the way he overwhelms his guests in the most rude and obnoxious style.

So it is with that preamble that I present the discussion between Robert Gibbs, Obama spokesperson, with the less than hospitable Sean Hannity, who so very rarely is called out as critically as Mr. Gibbs does in the spin room after last night’s debate.

Here we go.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zgn6rjGbp0c

Let's Knock Off the Mean-Spirited Negative Ads

2008-10-08T17:50:00.000-07:00

I don’t like the negative ads of a personal nature. Not one bit! I recognize where sometimes they may hit the spot or put some question in some heads, but I just don’t care for the negative backlash that they create. I don’t want our campaign to be tainted with them any longer, and I say this recognizing that the McCain campaign is featuring negative ads 100% of the time.

Let the McCain campaign be saddled with that stigma. Most of their ads are petty, misleading or completely false. At least the negative ads from the Obama campaign have validity. But I really don’t care anymore. I don’t want to see another one that has nothing to do with policy or agenda. And I’d like someone from the Obama campaign to let the country know that it is shifting its priorities and simply don’t want to be running negative ads. They can say that they were originally created to answer the negative ads of the McCain campaign, but the McCain campaign, with the inflammatory attacks of Sarah Palin, the incendiary language used at McCain rallies, including the use of the words terrorism, treason and killing, have brought their campaign to a new low in presidential history, and that the Obama-Biden campaign just simply doesn’t wish to get down and play in the mud.

I like having Barack Obama referred to as appearing presidential while at the same time John McCain being characterized as old, cranky, even out of control and full of desperation. I like watching the Obama campaign fine-tuning its message, firing up crowds while I watch the McCain-Palin campaign shifting its rhetoric and suddenly trying to cast Obama as a terrorist or at least a friend of terrorists. The evidence that the American public likes seeing Obama and Biden as their future president and vice-president is borne out in all of the independent polling done of the first three debates, particularly last night.

We are down to the last month before the biggest election of our lives, and I want us on the glide path of honesty, integrity and making certain that people who once looked toward John McCain and become disillusioned become comfortable with the idea of a President Obama. Last night was very satisfying, but over the next 27 days, John McCain, Sarah Palin and Fox News will be coming at Barack Obama with everything they’ve got, featuring the most vicious, unfair and completely false attacks that they can muster. Let’s not give them any ammunition and instead stand tall, present what a calm and cool president looks like, and leave the rebuttals to the very competent surrogates that consistently appear on TV and radio programs for the purpose of clarifying or explaining the daily activities of the campaign and what’s true and what’s not.

Big Surprise...Voter Suppression in Colorado

2008-10-07T12:05:00.000-07:00

It is very important that we all make certain that every vote is counted, and I feel very ill (literally and figuratively) that the Republican Party doctrine calls for suppression of even one vote. But that is their MO, and they are quite good at it.

But we can counteract their sleazy tactics by getting the word out to Colorado voters so that they can make certain that their voter registration form has not been invalidated by another corrupt Republican secretary of state.

Here we go… http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/2008/10/voter-suppression-in-coloradog.php

McCain Camp Loses All Credibility

2008-10-06T14:42:00.000-07:00

Can you imagine Joe Biden this past weekend making speeches in swing states saying, “John McCain has been palling around with convicted felons”? Let’s say that the accusation is that McCain has been a regular visitor to convicted Senator Duke Cunningham in his Tucson, Arizona prison cell whenever he gets back to Arizona and that he secretly meets once a week with convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff in Maryland every time he visits his Northern Virginia office.
Well, it won’t happen, because number one, it’s probably not true, and secondly, it would make Joe Biden and the Obama-Biden campaign look like petty fools, allowing them to lose all credibility and open themselves up to a tremendous amount of well-deserved criticism. This is exactly the condition that the McCain-Palin campaign finds itself in, and opens them up to a massive amount of well-deserved criticism and focuses the electorate’s attention on their hypocrisy and tremendous lack of credibility.

It was just last week in the famous vice-presidential debate that Sarah Palin chided Senator Biden for constantly looking to the past and that the McCain-Palin ticket only looks to the future. If we were to take the Bill Ayers-Barack Obama palling around attack seriously, we’d have to believe that they are good buddies, hanging around on a regular basis and secretly meeting so that Ayers can contribute advice to the Obama campaign. Yes, there was some connection during the initial efforts of Barack Obama to get elected to the Illinois State Senate, but making a link to Obama’s current campaign is just absurd and completely lacks any shred of evidence or reality.

Furthermore, Ayers’ questionable activities took place when Barack Obama was a child, and Senator Obama has made it quite clear that he thoroughly denounces Ayers’ actions and does not subscribe under any circumstances to any terrorist activities of Ayers or anybody else. I’m 100% certain that even a cursory investigation into John McCain’s memberships on boards and commissions would reveal that he associates himself with unsavory characters that would not meet with the approval of the American people, and yet the Obama campaign will not stoop so low as to accuse McCain of subscribing to the positions and actions of any such acquaintances.
With the upcoming presidential debate tomorrow evening, it is time for Barack to turn to McCain and say, “Senator McCain, your campaign has accused me of ‘palling around’ with known terrorists. Are these your words? Do you feel that I pal around with terrorists?” My assumption is that McCain will back away from such charges and certainly not expect such an interrogation, and if he has the temerity to adopt that accusation, then he should be forced to back up his charge right then and there. After all, wouldn’t a United States Senator be open to immediate investigation and discipline if he truly had known terrorists associated with his campaign?

His use of Sarah Palin as attack dog is just another demonstration of John McCain’s desperation. Ms. Palin couldn’t possibly have any firsthand knowledge of what she speaks about, and Senator Obama should point out in tomorrow night’s debate that Senator McCain’s campaign has simply run out of gas, that all it has left is to attack, to belittle its opponent and that its biggest fear is that the American people will actually concentrate on this country’s economic woes and that McCain was pretty well linked with the failures of the Iraq occupation during the last debate.
Although I’m not fond of references to McCain’s involvement in the Keating Five scandal, I do think it’s time for Barack to be prepared to make that link should John McCain continue his attack mode and outrageously rude demeanor from last week’s presidential debate. I think he should be called out on his no vote on the current GI Bill, his lack of support for the troops in almost all of his votes and his very poor rating with veterans’ groups. I also think that there are numerous references that have been made recently in debates, both by McCain and Palin, about Israel, taxes, spending and earmarks that Barack should clarify. For example, it’s not wrong to point out that Barack enjoys an A+ rating by the American-Israel lobby, which definitely wouldn’t happen if he hadn’t already proven that he is a steadfast supporter of Israel.

The McCain-Palin campaign, led by Karl Rove, dozens of lobbyists and previous Bush-Cheney staffers, has now gone into full attack mode. They are prepared to pull out all the stops in dragging Obama into the mud, and unlike Al Gore and John Kerry before them, Barack cannot sit back and allow this to happen, and we can’t sit by and just watch it, either. But the McCain campaign is hoping to play on stereotypes of blacks and play the race and fear cards, and in pointing out the complete lack of credibility of the McCain campaign’s message and the unfair and untrue way they attack, Barack must do it in a thoughtful, calm but lethal method where he looks right at McCain and calls him out for the fraud that he is and the way he conducts himself and his campaign in the most hypocritical manner.

Once again, let’s take it to ‘em, make strong points and make John McCain accountable for his campaign’s completely untrue and mean-spirited attacks. With 29 days left, it’s time for Barack to establish himself and Joe Biden as the preferred choice of the American people and why, and conversely, he must demonstrate how severely John McCain and Sarah Palin are completely out of touch with the best interests and wishes of the voters in this country.

Time for the Straight Talk Distress

2008-10-05T09:56:00.000-07:00

In the American League of Major League Baseball, pitchers are criticized for throwing at batters because with the designated hitter rule, the pitcher will not be coming to bat to face the wrath of the opposing pitcher; therefore, he can throw with impunity. Every newspaper worth its salt must cite sources and be ready to be questioned as to a story’s veracity or face the ridicule of more mainstream publications or conversely be completely ignored by the target of their negative attention and attack.

It is in this scenario that we find ourselves with the lovely Miss Sarah Palin. Like the American League pitcher, given the instruction to bean the batter on the opposing team, she does so knowing full well that she can deliver her attack line with complete exoneration. Unlike just about every other political animal in the jungle, she attacks without fear of reprisal, because she is protected in a way completely unprecedented in the annals of presidential campaign history.

In light of Governor Palin’s slur today against Senator Obama, making reference to an old story so completely discredited that it has never been taken seriously by any journalist who values truth and credibility, I feel that one that slings mud at another must either be exposed to questioning and having to back up the accusation or that person’s words of attack should be discounted as one discounts headlines on tabloid magazines in the supermarket checkout line.
It is for this reason that in addition to the Obama campaign calling Palin’s comments offensive and an obvious attempt to divert voter attention from terrible economic news, I feel that it is time to point out that Sarah Palin is being protected from exposure to the media because the McCain campaign knows that she is capable of speaking or making assertions, but incapable or unwilling to have her words scrutinized or challenged.

Further, it is my opinion that everyone except Barack, from Biden to each spokesperson, should point out that Ms. Palin speaks to crowds, but is not being allowed to be questioned by the media when she makes false or misleading statements, nor is the media allowed to explore the source of her assertions and whether there is any basis for them or even if she has any comprehension of the accusation that she is making.

I realize that these are harsh terms to use for an opposition candidate, but it is difficult to sit back and witness an attack dog who has no accountability. The McCain campaign is quite transparent, and it is my opinion that most of the educated public recognizes the desperation that drives them to make baseless accusations, but it should no longer be tolerated from someone who , like a tabloid magazine, makes headlines with outright lies and innuendo and then goes back and hides behind the scenes without any credibility.

Governor Palin apparently will be dispatched to Florida this week to stir up the base and presumably make sensational, misleading and outright false statements to her uninformed crowds. I think that the mantra has to be that in addition to the fact that what she says is absolutely false, presuming that she continues to follow the path from the past couple of weeks, that her non-exposure to the media and the McCain campaign’s tactic of shielding her from questions and investigation, diminishes her message and calls into question what they are trying to hide, and that unless they give her an opportunity to answer unrehearsed questions from the mainstream press, that her performance on ABC and CBS is what will stand as her ability to think on her feet and respond to unprepared questions or canned speeches.

Time to Change the Subject (In a Big Way)

2008-10-04T10:13:00.000-07:00

This morning was very much like a lot of Saturday mornings, except the first rain of the season here in the San Francisco Bay Area made it feel just a little cozier upstairs in our love nest, or as I euphemistically call it, the think tank. As always, my lovely wife woke up, and realizing that I was opening my first eye of the morning (not winking), she asked me to turn on some news.
Well, MSNBC was on, and I honestly lasted about five minutes before I turned it off, much to my wife’s chagrin. But then the discussion began, which is, of course, what a progressive think tank does. What I saw that got me so frustrated to the point of being fed up was watching Republican talking head, Alex Conant, being interviewed by host Alex Witt, spewing out the same old BS about Barack’s association with an unrepetent terrorist that must be exposed and a plan to raise taxes on middle class Americans, blah-blah-blah-blah-blah.

Ms. Witt, whom I have never given much thought to one way or the other, simply acknowledged the charges or said, “Okay” after each assertion, and after the interview full of unchallenged inaccurate or completely specious references ended, she quietly said, “Thank you” and moved on to Pat Buchanan so that he can tell us what a breath of fresh air Sarah Palin was in the debate and how she wiped the floor with Joe Biden.

ENOUGH ALREADY! Really. It is time to change the subject, and I mean in a huge way. So what did our love nest/think tank come up with this morning? Well, pretty radical stuff, but I like it! After I turned off the TV, we laid there saying that there has to be something that Barack can do to get the media to begin talking about something else. After all, how many days in a row on dozens of supposed news programs can we listen to pundits and talking heads from both sides belittling the plans of their political opponent? Well, I just can’t watch it any longer. It’s not just a waste of my time; it upsets me and I learn nothing new.

Then it hit me. As the head of the think tank, my ideas go first. Well, I’m self-appointed, so take it for what it’s worth. How ‘bout this? I do feel that Barack is going to be the president, and he isn’t the first politician that has received criticism for talking a good game, but having to wait until he takes office before implementing any of his plans. So instead of doing that, I propose that Barack establish six commissions – think tanks, if you will – on six separate and distinct issues that the new president will deal with upon taking office: The economy, namely establishing new banking and investment regulations for financial institutions and consumers; foreign policy, namely establishing an exit strategy for Iraq and how to deal with terrorism in the region; immigration, namely minimizing illegal entry into the country and establishing the best path to citizenship for current illegals; the environment, namely investigation of alternative energy sources, their efficacy and finding sites around the country that can be utilized for proper conversion and creation of new jobs; for healthcare, namely determining the most effective ways to break the stronghold of insurance companies and providing the best ways for consumers to get affordable healthcare; and education, retooling our schools to compete in a global economy and finding ways to rebuild crumbling infrastructure and locating and empowering new and innovative teachers.

I also have been thinking of who would head up these commissions. For the economy, Mayor Michael Bloomberg . For foreign policy, General Barry McCaffrey. For immigration, Governor Bill Richardson. For energy, Al Gore. For healthcare, Senator Hillary Clinton. And for education, former Health and Human Services Director Donna Shalala. These high profile and dynamic leaders of this country would be announced and would form multi-member commissions that would meet on a bipartisan basis to be ready to submit their ideas and recommendations to the new president after he takes office. In order to avoid undue criticism that these commissions are a bit too presumptuous of Barack Obama, these commissions will be prepared to present their recommendations to the new president, whoever the new president is.

Furthermore, Barack needs an appropriate place to make the announcement of the formation of these commissions, and I credit this idea to my fellow colleague, my wife, who laid there for several minutes to come up with this wonderful idea. Senator Obama should make this subject-changing announcement in Alaska, namely at the University of Alaska Anchorage. For several reasons. Alaska leads the nation or is close to it in school dropout rates, teen pregnancy, rape and incest charges and a generally poor education system. In making this announcement in front of a huge enthusiastic crowd in a traditionally Republican leaning state, Barack could gear his speech toward improvement and the value of education, the need for proper guidance from parents and for appropriate school programs, and he can tie in how vital these commissions will be toward providing a future that young Alaskans can feel optimistic about growing up to inherit.

I feel so strongly that it is time in this campaign and for this country to start talking about something important rather than rehashing the same old talking points and misinformation that is not only frustrating, but counterproductive to Barack’s message of change. This would surely change the landscape subject that all news programs talk about, and definitely would demonstrate that Barack means business when it comes to job creation and making this country a more prosperous place. He would emplify the word change and be backing it up with real world solutions and putting his money where his mouth is.

The Brickman Think Tank is now closed for the day. We reopen tomorrow morning for some more spirited and innovative ideas. Please pick up a lollipop on your way out and thank you for visiting.

Palin Has a Very Good Memory

2008-10-02T22:32:00.000-07:00

One thing we saw tonight in the Biden-Palin debate is that people really can’t reinvent themselves. Joe Biden is an excellent debater, and there is no doubt in my mind that he had a very good night. Sarah Palin, who has had an absolutely terrible week in one-on-one interviews, took her try at the podium, and although she performed extremely well in not repeating her disastrous interviews, showed that she is an impressive receptacle of memorized information.

But her downfall was that she was so determined to spew out her prepared information, that she was actually determined to do it no matter what the question was. She even went so far as to declare that she would not answer the way that Joe Biden wished her to nor would she answer the questions necessarily of the moderator, and during the debate, she definitely went on to prove that point. Many times, Ms. Palin actually ignored the question put to her or made an effort to return to previously prepared points, even at one time moving to a topic that had not been brought up yet by the moderator.

I was wildly proud of Joe Biden. I liked him during the primaries, and I feel so strongly that Barack selected the correct person as his running mate. He looked like a college professor debating with a student who won the right to debate in the class lottery. Sarah Palin is way out of her league, but I will give her credit in one area. She seems to have an ability to retain a tremendous amount of information, but she also does not exactly score big on the credibility factor because she doesn’t appear to fully grasp the gravity of the very words that she is reciting.

I particularly loved Biden’s rebuttal of Palin’s description of John McCain as the maverick of the Senate, and I was also quite offended with the lack of respect displayed by Palin, particularly when she looked at Senator Biden and accused him and Senator Obama of waving the white flag when it comes to Iraq.

She is folksy. I will give her that, but her informal style begins to wear very thin when it is not backed up with facts. Governor Palin was woefully short on facts. She was also quite short on details, and although I’m very certain that she excited her base, it does appear that besides showing that she can hold her own on a stage performing in debate style, she didn’t do much to move the needle on the register of the rest of the electorate.

The good thing is that unlike the first presidential debate, I was able to sit quietly and not pace the floor with tremendous frustration. As a matter of fact, this debate, if we can actually call it that, was really very entertaining. If anything, it was probably disappointing to many people, because like a good NASCAR race, the majority of people tuned in so they wouldn’t miss a good and messy crash. On that score, Sarah Palin succeeded, but in overall debate style, dependence on actual facts and pointing out the misinformation from his opponent, Joe Biden won big. He clearly emerged as the winner of this debate.

McCain Declares Himself the Winner of the Palin Debate

2008-10-02T17:51:00.001-07:00

Just wanted to get your attention, but I have no doubt that somewhere in the ether, the McCain campaign has already declared that Palin won the debate, although as I write this, it hasn’t even started yet.

This afternoon I am proud to say I rode my bike. I am preparing for a charity ride to raise money for the American Diabetes Association, my second time. Anyway, I digress. As I turned the corner from my house, the neighbors standing out on the sidewalk told me something unusual was going on. Well, it was a deer on the run through the street. Trying to catch up to him or her provided me with a very exhilarating ride.

I never did catch up to the very fleet running deer, but I felt the need to protect him. He seemed to understand what a danger a moving car was, so I hope he finds his way back to the woods or wherever a deer hangs out around here.

But I decided that he came to my neighborhood to see how many McCain signs are up. Well, the answer is one that I can see. I have not been on every street, but I’ve been on most of them, and I live in a pretty good -sized neighborhood. There are Obama-Biden signs galore, and the one house that I passed today that has the McCain sign is next to a house that has an Obama sign. Feels pretty good, frankly.

I realize that this is a bit presumptuous, but I feel like that deer is a Democrat. Otherwise, he’d live down in Atherton or up in Hillsborough where the uber-millionaires live. But this deer has taste, and as he ran frantically through the streets of San Mateo, California, I hope he was able to tell that he was in good company.

Palin is Irrelevant

2008-09-30T19:26:00.003-07:00

I will make this prediction right now, Tuesday night, September 30th. Most Democrats, including the vast majority of the media, will find Sarah Palin’s performance in Thursday night’s debate substandard or further demonstration that she is woefully unqualified to be vice-president and a hair’s breath away from the presidency. And I also have this revelation. All McCain spokespeople, including Right Wing pundits and Fox News, will find her performance satisfactory and proof that she is adequately prepared.

So why am I still so anxious to see this debate? I can’t help myself. Sarah Palin is so damned entertaining. Just like George W. Bush and former Vice-President Dan Quayle, they just say the darndest things. I just have to see what all this supposed preparation does to a person so dreadfully unprepared.

But in the end, whatever she says, however she performs, and even if she puts on a tutu and dances around the stage in front of Senator Biden, what she does has absolutely no bearing on this presidential race, and I sincerely doubt that any viewer will actually change his or her mind based on what they see. If you loved her, you still will, maybe more. If you despised her, my guess is that you still will, almost certainly more.

But watch we will. Let’s just not lose sight of the one thing that is relevant about Sarah Palin. She was John McCain’s pick as his vice-presidential running mate. He has flat out stated that she is the most qualified person in this country to be vice-president and that she is an expert on energy issues. I want us all to keep that in mind as we remind ourselves of what has transpired this past month and what we see on Thursday night.

It will be entertaining if nothing else. I can’t wait!

McCain Retools for Next Debate

2008-09-27T11:49:00.000-07:00

This morning at the McCain office in Northern Virginia, the brain trust of the McCain campaign hunkered down for a post-debate strategy meeting, and I happened to get a copy of the discussion transcript. It turns out that McCain feels that he was too respectful and deferential to Obama last night and is feeling that he needs to make it even more clear how much he despises Obama and wants the viewers to recognize that Obama does not have enough experience or judgment to lead this country .

There are plans for call Barack “Sonny” a couple of times and use the term “Young Man” several times, as well. There was talk about invoking Senator Bentsen’s line against Dan Quayle that he knew Jack Kennedy and that Quayle’s no Jack Kennedy the first time Obama used the name Roosevelt, saying, “Senator, I knew Teddy Roosevelt, I worked with Teddy, and you’re no Teddy Roosevelt,” but in the end, it was felt that being a name dropper would not be too appealing.

What was decided is that every time Barack mentioned a region of the world, McCain would say, “Been there. Done that” or would say, “I was there in 1987, 1992, 1999 and 2004” just to make absolutely certain that the whole world knows that McCain has the experience it takes to be president. The McCain debate team has also contacted the Federal Debate Commission to request that McCain’s podium for the next debate be pointed another several inches away from the Obama podium, thus ensuring that McCain doesn’t look over at Obama accidentally or inadvertently.

For those of you who haven’t caught on by now, the first three paragraphs of this blog were tongue in cheek. But sadly, it’s not that hard to imagine any of it being true. McCain’s behavior during last night’s debate was deplorable. I had originally hoped that Barack would nail him every chance he got, but after watching the debate and some of the commentary, I realize now that there is a strategy to handle McCain with a little more gentility and for Obama to make points without belittling McCain at the same time. I did wear a hole in the carpet where I paced back and forth last night for close to an hour and a half.

The strongest message that Barack had last night is that this country needs to reestablish its stature in the world and that we cannot accomplish its objectives while alienating the rest of the world. He also said that our continued involvement with Iraq is bogging us down with the rest of the world, and on this point, I agree wholeheartedly. It is so obvious that McCain has complete disdain for Barack, and I feel that this point wasn’t lost on anyone who witnessed last night’s debate. It wouldn’t hurt my feelings if Barack wouldn’t start almost every statement with first agreeing with McCain’s point, but Barack is a true statesman and a gracious debater, and it is not within his nature to bash just for the sake of beating someone up.

So I have once again been reminded that Obama and his talented team know what they’re doing. McCain showed in this debate and in the weeks leading up to it what kind of president he’d be. Impetuous, angry, inconsistent and full of contempt, and in his first major decision as a presidential candidate, picked an unqualified and disingenuous candidate whom he had hardly met, only worried about changing the subject and not thinking about the ramifications of his choice once the excitement died down. McCain also pretended to suspend his campaign and attempt to postpone the debate, while Obama looked presidential in his immediate responses to McCain’s histrionics leading up to the debate, and demonstrated tremendous knowledge and poise by answering questions knowledgably and suggesting stark differences between himself and his opponent.

One thing we know for sure, that it remains a bumpy road to the White House for Barack Obama. He is negotiating this road skillfully and artfully, and John McCain is a much more formidable candidate than I ever thought he’d be. But in his zeal to present himself as the better candidate for president and continue to attack Obama as an inexperienced young man who lacks proper judgment and character, he spews out misinformation, inaccurate statistics and glowing representations of his own record which turn out mostly to be exaggeration or what he’d love uninformed people to believe.

Obama has a real opportunity to point out who he is and what he represents over the next several weeks, including two more debates, and as has been true for months now, Barack’s success or failure is his to control. McCain has now established who he is, what he’s going to say and how he campaigns, and his is an old tired message with the exact same tactics that have been the mainstay of the Bush-Cheney regime. It is now the time for Obama to clearly and distinctly point out what he will mean to this country as its president, and he must not let up for one moment letting voters recognize that he actually is the most qualified presidential candidate and does have the judgment to lead this country into the next four years and beyond.

Taking a Page from the Movies

2008-09-26T14:37:00.000-07:00

I can’t get the movie A Few Good Men out of my mind. There are just too many similarities to tonight’s debate. I see Barack as the Tom Cruise character, someone who fights for what’s right, and even though the character played by Jack Nicholson doesn’t exactly fit with John McCain, I do see that in my mind in this debate and campaign, he is not right on the issues and that Barack must do a superb job making his case.

Tom Cruise plays an attorney who knows that Jack Nicholson’s character, a cocky military leader who has broken the law, is going to walk away from a trial unless Cruise, an upstart attorney with brash talent, but quite a bit of inexperience, can prove that he broke the law. Another attorney, played brilliantly by Demi Moore, rushes to the courtroom right before the final day of the trial to remind Cruise’s character that if he can’t nail Nicholson’s character, don’t try, because a wounded but free man who isn’t literally destroyed will spend the rest of this career trying to ruin Tom Cruise’s character.

I realize this is confusing, but the parallel is clear to me, at least. If Barack is going to beat around the bush (pardon the pun) and simply make vague references to McCain’s lack of effectiveness, wishy-washy behavior and inconsistent messaging, then he might as well not waste his time. In blunt terms, he needs to go for the jugular. Like Cruise, he needs to take every opening to respectfully, but with conviction point out in just a few words how absolutely destructive it will be for a John McCain to be president of this country and that it is just another Bush term.

This past week, John McCain has been all over the map, and I don’t mean geographically. He was originally against the bailout of AIG, then for it. He was originally for the proposed bailout plan, but against it. He announced that he would suspend his campaign, but it was simply a charade. His offices were all kept open and his ads continued running on TV. He lied to Letterman about needing to get back to DC immediately and received way more than a tongue lashing from him, and when he did get back to Washington, he said next to nothing and seemed to negatively affect what looked like the framework of a deal.

In short, instead of Barack saying that McCain didn’t have much to contribute to the delicate negotiations in Congress, he should say that McCain pulled a publicity stunt that backfired and he is left with egg on his face. Barack should say that McCain has told so many lies that even Fox News can’t support his antics any longer, and that instead of suspending his campaign, he was in suspended animation, because his behavior made him look and act like a cartoon character, completely out of control. Okay. Maybe that one’s a stretch, but you get where I’m going with this.

When questions start about Iraq and McCain says that Obama just won’t admit that the surge worked, Barack must say that this country has grown tired of listening to McCain use that tired line over and over. He needs to say that it is time for McCain to take responsibility for his vote and continued support of the Bush-Cheney occupation when it was obvious that it is and was a disaster, and that if McCain wants to have our troops come him victorious, then he must define what victory is and not just use that as a tag line with absolutely no meaning or substance.

I want to see Barack Obama thoughtfully and methodically take McCain apart. Not rudely, not unfairly, but with the class and style that Tom Cruise’s character did in A Few Good Men. A lot of this country will not support just a general mudslinging of John McCain, because his overall character and personality seem to draw a lot of sympathy and compassion, but if it is done right, with McCain left looking inept, angry and bewildered because Barack has clearly pointed out why he is the man this country needs and why McCain is just not mentally or strategically up to the task, the country will rally around Obama and we will witness for the first time a significant uptick in the polls for Obama and the general understanding that McCain gave it a good run, but it is truly over.

McCain Gets Drubbing on Letterman

2008-09-25T17:10:00.000-07:00

John McCain cancelled his scheduled appearance tonight on the David Letterman Show. His last-minute cancellation definitely struck a bad chord with Letterman, and this video will not make McCain and his supporters very happy.

Watch this!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjkCrfylq-E

McCain Throws Curve to Cover Up Another Mess

2008-09-25T14:41:00.001-07:00

This has not been the best week for the McCain-Palin campaign. Well, that’s an understatement. His numbers are tanking in just about every state polling, his vice-presidential candidate is pretty much embarrassing herself every single day and his own discomfort with the economic condition of this country is becoming more and more apparent. But none of these things was enough to cause the McCain camp to come out and tell the world that they were suspending their campaign and that they wished to cancel tomorrow night’s debate with Barack Obama.

Then what was the huge calamity that suddenly caused John McCain to feel that he couldn’t go on with his regular schedule? Was it the economic disaster that is befalling our financial markets and the banking industry? Well, I sincerely doubt that. If that was the reason, then McCain would have headed to Washington on Monday or over this past weekend. Was it the fact that McCain was being summoned back to the Senate by Senate Leader Harry Reid or even perhaps by the president? Well, hardly. Not only was McCain not expected or needed to confuse the people negotiating this delicate deal in the making, but it was McCain himself who requested that the president invite he and Obama for today’s meeting.

No, McCain’s political world is crumbling around him. Word has made it to the mainstream media that John McCain’s own campaign manager, Rick Davis has had very close ties to beleaguered mortgage leader Freddie Mac and only went off their payroll last month. Records of the company show that Davis and/or his company have performed no specific task for Freddie Mac, and that leads one to conjecture that keeping Davis on the payroll was buying influence with the McCain presidential campaign, which not only belies previous statements of John McCain himself, but just continues to demonstrate McCain’s reliance on professional lobbyists and that he is just another Republican who has very close ties to big business and the very companies that are currently being bailed out by the federal government.

We have witnessed John McCain and his Rove-trained staff throwing this country a curve every time they need to change the subject. It started with the selection of Sarah Palin as the potential vice-president, and it has continued on about a weekly basis. I would strongly advise everyone, particularly all people interested in fairness and the future of this country, plus the mainstream media to keep their eye on the ball and not allow the Republican Party, currently represented by the McCain-Palin campaign, to divert our attention off of the subject at hand, whatever it is on any particular day. Sadly, John McCain’s motivations and actions are quite transparent, and he and his running mate should be held to the same standard that Barack Obama is held to and be forced to answer any and all questions that are prompted by their actions and agenda.

Let's Slow Down This Frantic Rush to Action

2008-09-22T23:34:00.000-07:00

I have been doing my best to follow the current financial crisis in this country, and although it is very complex, one thing I know for sure…there is absolutely no reason to rush to get this bailout done. I would rather see a deal that is fair to the American taxpayer, and it strikes me that getting this done rapidly just does not serve the American consumer. I have no doubt that a bailout, whether it’s done tomorrow or whether all parties are taken into account before a deal is struck, will satisfactorily bail out the offending financial institutions and give them what they require to keep afloat.

What I would like to see Barack do is come out and say that before Congress rubber-stamps the deal quickly thrown together by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke that has language in it that the deal can’t be reviewed by any oversight committee, court or government agency, that they should allow the experienced team of advisors that have already assembled to assist Obama with his economic plan to meet this week or next for the purpose of reviewing the plan on the table and to make certain that it meets all of the objectives that have been laid out by Barack recently and what he has said in the past. It will demonstrate tremendous leadership standing up and making sure that this is the best and most thoughtful deal that will protect the American people while providing the necessary resources to the offending companies in question.

Furthermore, Barack should announce that other experienced voices with their own bailout plans be considered before this country is forced to live with a bailout that protects large multi-national corporations who should not be rewarded for gross mismanagement and the McCain-Bush led Republican Party, which has basically given their approval to these companies to conduct themselves unethically when they all knew that we would ultimately arrive at this time of crisis. But it is a crisis that deserves more than just a band-aid, and haven’t we allowed the Republicans to destroy this country’s financial infrastructure enough already?

it can also be argued quite successfully that this crisis has actually been manufactured and that George Bush’s and Dick Cheney’s greatest wish is to leave this country in a colossal fiscal mess so that whoever becomes president will literally have no money to deal with and very few options to manage their way out of this totally preventable disaster. It is also probable that it is the wisdom of the McCain campaign that the more emergency issues that the new president will face, the less attractive that Obama will appear to people who are the most susceptible to the fear mongering that the McCain campaign has been peddling since this election season began.

There are a couple of things to read that reinforce the concept that we definitely should not rush into a deal that I believe strongly will surely make Wall Street and higher end investors absolutely delighted, because this is truly a legal theft of the American treasury without any ability for the average American to recoup anything for giving this lovely gift to the wealthiest among us, but I also believe that in the end, we, the lowly American taxpayer, will be left with very little to show for our hard-earned money just being handed over to what I consider the least deserving recipients of these funds, the very people and companies who knowingly and completely voluntarily ran their companies with a cavalier attitude knowing that they would just be turning their bad debts over to financial speculators who would be left holding the bag and would eventually be holding their hands out and begging to be bailed out.

Barack, let’s not join the chorus of people who bow our heads and just agree to go along with everyone else. I realize that we will have a bailout program ultimately one way or the other, but it should not ignore the very people who are the ones providing the ultimate funding of this close to trillion dollar bailout, the American taxpayers and consumers.

Finally, while I don’t believe in restricting how much money any CEO or the hierarchy of any company can earn, I do believe that it is highly appropriate to call for an investigation into the actions and procedures leading up to this financial debacle, and should anyone in any one of these companies, or governmental agencies for that matter, be found to have violated any laws or protocols established by government regulation, they should be held accountable and be subject to any civil or criminal penalties that apply.

http://krugmhttp://money.cnn.com/2008/09/22/news/economy/bailout_proposal_Monday/index.htm

http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/22/news/economy/bailout_proposal_Monday/index.htm?cnn=yes

The Ad That John McCain Does Not Want You to See

2008-09-20T11:52:00.000-07:00

Check this ad out, and I think you'll agree that it should be in everyone's mailbox tomorrow morning.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/9/20/85055/0190/606/604527

The New Outcry: Give it Back

2008-09-17T14:51:00.001-07:00

In this past week, we have witnessed the complete collapse of the financial markets in this country. Almost every mid-size and large bank and financial house is in deep trouble and is getting in line for a bailout. The stock market has gone down almost a thousand points over the past week and consumer confidence is in the toilet.

I acknowledge that Barack Obama will finally be the recipient of positive attention because he is the only candidate that is offering some concrete plans to turn this crisis around short-term and long, but he cannot let this moment go by without alerting the American people not only how he will be the president that this country needs to spur this new economy on, but that John McCain, as a long-term member of the Commerce Committee and working in cahoots with Senator Phil Gramm and other Republican leaders, caused oversight and regulation of financial institutions to evaporate and has made a dramatic negative impact on this country’s economic situation and has had a huge hand in what is happening at this moment.

Additionally, I do believe that the meltdown of the savings and loan industry and McCain’s involvement and complicity in that fiasco – called the Keating 5 -- is tremendously relevant to what is happening right at this moment, and I believe strongly that American consumers and current voters should be brought up-to-date on McCain’s history of intervening on behalf of these gigantic financial corporations and that he cannot be expected to suddenly provide oversight and regulatory power over companies that he has spent over twenty years protecting and making them more and more powerful and dominant over the American consumer.

I also recognize that it is not feasible or wise for Barack to suggest that he clamp down on salaries that CEOs and/or the hierarchy of these companies earn, but that shouldn’t stop him and all of us from stigmatizing large corporation CEOs like Carly Fiorina and others who have ridden their companies down and then walk away with a golden parachute or get huge supposed retirement packages from these huge failing companies that are now being bailed out while employees of these companies lose their jobs and most of the time their pensions.

Barack should be saying, “Give it back!” These CEOs can’t be required by law to forgo their millions. Most of these separation packages for “retiring” CEOs are predetermined or designated by the company’s shareholders, but any CEO who has the slightest bit of decency and honor should hear that the American people, starting with the future president, Obama want this obscene amount money or even a part of it that they are walking away with, sometimes in the tens of millions of dollars, given back to whatever fund which could be disseminated to the people within the company that are losing their jobs, livelihood and sometimes all the money they have saved in 401K plans, retirement plans and the like.

I think this would be a very good message, and I can’t imagine that anyone would support a CEO who did everything a greedy leader could do to destroy the company that they were supposed to be running positively be allowed to accept millions while the company they headed gets bailed out for billions by our government while the vast majority of the employees get laid off or while the company gets restructured as it gets swallowed up for pennies on the dollar by another corporation or by the government itself.

Experience, Exschmerience

2008-09-16T16:03:00.000-07:00

The experience argument is old and tired, and frankly, just not relevant. It is obvious at this point that the vast majority of supporters of the Republican ticket and apparently many uninformed women in this country seem to be flocking to Sarah Palin, who on the experience scale ranks somewhere between a small city administrator and a parent who shuttles her kids back and forth to the ice hockey rink. The old adage that the longer one serves, the more presidential one appears seems to have gone out the window.

Let’s face facts. If experience was what counts in this country, West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd, at 82, would be the president. He would have just been elected after the death of President Strom Thurmond, who would have died in office at age 101. Vice-president Mickey Rooney, who was selected as Byrd’s vice-president because he’s so doggone cute, is relatively young at 87. We should respect and revere people who have made it to the twilight years of their lives, but these are not criteria and qualification for the office of president and vice-president.

I live here in Silicon Valley, California. The energetic, educated and insightful youth running innovative multi-national companies that reside here in the San Francisco Bay Area set a standard that is unparalleled in this country. Yes, there are still people at these companies who have years of experience and have plenty of years on this earth, but there is a tremendous amount of room made in these companies for the most skilled and the most qualified person, and in many of these companies, the person at the top is the youngest person in the company.

The amount of experience that one has, while a factor in most industries and certainly in politics, is not as high on the list, in my opinion, as intelligence, ability to reach out to others, particular those on the other side of an issue, and their track record; in other words, what they’ve already done and accomplished or not accomplished. For example, if a candidate has worked hard to pass sweeping ethics reform, I would expect that person to set very high ethical standards in their own life and the way they govern. If a candidate has voted against raising the minimum wage dozens of times or eliminating regulations on banks and financial institutions, I wouldn’t suddenly expect that person to crack down on those same companies once he becomes president.

So to get to the bottom line, let’s not waste any more time speaking of experience or comparing who has more experience in office or years on this earth. It is a specious argument, and if that is the criterion we go by, John McCain wins hands down. But does that make him the better choice for president? No way. Does the fact that Sarah Palin has been the mayor of Wasilla, Alaska and is the only candidate with executive experience make one damn bit of difference? Absolutely not. If we simply take a look at what these candidates have done with their time in office, whether they were there for one year, five years or twenty-six, that tells the real story. I will take a less experienced Barack Obama 100 times out of 100 over the very experienced, but highly unqualified John McCain.

Picking Your President by the Color of his Skin

2008-09-15T17:21:00.000-07:00

I have been talking to a lot of people recently, including dozens of people in the State of Nevada. I am very pleased to report that there are a lot of Obama supporters out there, but I do feel that some of the people who just won't comment or come up with completely bogus reasons why they won't consider the candidacy of Barack Obama are quietly or secretly thinking that they're just not ready to vote for a black man.

This is so sad. I recognize that there were times when blacks were denied the vote, a time when even women were denied the vote. Although I never lived there, I acknowledge that there was a time when blacks were denied the use of certain hotels, the front of the bus or even use of a public restroom. Somebody had to break the mold, realize that we live in a different world and that all people in this country are created equal and everyone is entitled to the same rights and privileges, including the right to be voted into the presidency.

I have found the most profound yet simple vignette that I believe puts racism so succinctly into a very easily digestible nugget. Pass it on, because it is something that everyone should see.

How racism works

What if John McCain were a former president of the Harvard Law Review? What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating class? What if McCain were still married to the first woman he said “I do” to? What if Obama were the candidate who left his first wife after she no longer measured up to his standards?What if Michelle Obama were a wife who not only became addicted to pain killers, but acquired them illegally through her charitable organization? What if Cindy McCain graduated from Harvard? What if Obama were a member of the “Keating 5”? What if McCain was a charismatic, eloquent speaker?If these questions reflected reality, do you really believe the election numbers would be as close as they are?This is what racism does. It covers up, rationalizes and minimizes positive qualities in one candidate and emphasizes negative qualities in another when there is a color difference.

Forget the Insults, Stick to the Facts

2008-09-14T11:45:00.000-07:00

I enjoy the image of John McCain as an out-of-touch buffoon with big 1980s glasses and being reminded that he doesn’t even know how to send an e-mail as much as the next guy, but it is just not getting us anywhere. The truth is that in this last fifty days, this race is going to be about issues. I can’t state that strongly enough! John McCain simply speaking is the weaker candidate in every category that we measure presidential candidates, but as his people have been saying over and over, this race isn’t about issues.

They are wrong! Clearly that is the campaign that they’re running, but up until this past week, we have been playing right into their hands. Yes, we respond, we react, we coil in shock and surprise, but in the end, the McCain campaign, being run by the same people who brought us the Bush-Cheney regime for eight years, know exactly what they’re doing. They are defining who Barack Obama is, and it wouldn’t shock me at all to hear that Barack once voted in favor of bringing back slavery and having Fox News polling on that within five minutes of that pronouncement.

My cousin gave me a phrase that I think must be coming out of Obama’s mouth every day from now until the election, and that is that every time (which we know will be every day until the election) McCain lies about Obama, his positions, his votes, his life, Barack says something like “That’s not honest and that’s not honorable.” It has already been said, but the difference from the past few weeks till now is that Barack should be talking about honesty and honorability and then move on to the issues and show over and over again that McCain refuses to speak about the issues because he would rather divert the public’s attention from his own positions, because his positions are not consistent with what is either best for this country or he knows deep down that the average American would not like his positions on the issues.

This is crunch time. If we don’t make some significant headway here, we will all be licking our wounds, shaking our heads and saying “I give up.” Well, I for one am not ready to throw in the towel. This is still our race to lose, and I say we are going to win. We can win, but it’s going to take some new slogans. As Thomas Friedman said in the NY Times, the McCain-Palin ticket has hijacked the change slogan. Who cares? It’s a tired slogan, anyway. Let’s come up with something new, something like “John McCain thinks that change means doing things in exactly the same way as before. Well, if that’s his definition, he can have it. I will use a different word, and that is action. Put me in office and watch the difference between the last eight years and the next four. I will provide new leadership for this country. I am you. I livemy life like you live yours. I know what to do when I get into the White House. John McCain tells you he knows what to do on day one, but he can’t even do it with a straight face. Elect me and I will never forget one day that I work for you, not corporations, not TV networks, not the Pentagon and not the leaders of any other country. I am you.”

That is off the top of my head, but let’s shake things up, come up with some slick catchy phrases that people will find themselves repeating to their friends and family, and let’s not spend one more day allowing McCain and Palin defining who we are and what we stand for. They have shown us that like puppets, they will do whatever they are told, and their masters aren’t called masters for nothing. They are damn good at what they do.

McCain Campaign Committing Fraud

2008-09-11T23:35:00.000-07:00

Let’s not kid ourselves. The Republican Party is just getting started. They will do anything, absolutely everything to stay in office for the next four years. They have no hesitation to commit fraud if they need to, and they are actually in the process. Right now, in many areas of this country, the Rove-lead Republican Party under the label McCain campaign is sending out absentee ballots to Democrats.

Providing this service makes the McCain campaign appear to be helpful to voters across this land, except pay very close attention to these absentee ballots. They all don’t have the proper return address. Some of them list a registrar of voters in the wrong city, the incorrect P.O. box number or simply contain misinformation that will cause the absentee ballot to be mailed to the incorrect location and will not reflect the voter’s wishes.

If you see one of these arrive in your mailbox, alert your local registrar’s office immediately, or at least make certain that if you want send back an absentee ballot request, that the form you’re filling out comes from an authorized source and gets mailed back to the appropriate location so that every vote is counted and every vote counts.

One really has to question a party that tries so desperately to suppress votes in so many different ways. Between providing an inadequate amount of voting machines in heavily populated Democratic areas, to removing voters from voter rolls for reasons that do not necessarily prove that there is no voter at an address, to literally removing voters whose names resemble convicted felons, to manipulating the hard drives of voting machines to switch Democratic votes to the Republican candidate, the Republicans are in the process of attempting to steal another election.

Let’s stand up and not allow them to do it again. And if we show up in overwhelming numbers, we can defeat the scurrilous and nefarious activities that we know will happen. Let’s make certain that Barack gets in the White House so that we can put an end to these unacceptable practices and sadly the Republicans have just gotten too good at.

Distortions, Lies and John McCain Approves it All

2008-09-11T10:56:00.000-07:00

Every once in a while, a video comes along that is a must-see. This is one of them. If you agree with me, please pass it on to everyone in your group and those of your friends and family that will need to see this.

Here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH0xzsogzAk

Time to Stay on the Offense

2008-09-10T13:31:00.001-07:00

Well, finally. Good for you! Barack, I always knew you had it in you. Doesn’t it feel better to defend yourself and not allow yourself to be incorrectly defined? All of your supporters see what’s been going on, but there are millions of people out there in TV land who, with the help of the media (which will never be on your side), believe what they hear and sadly will probably never hear an opposing viewpoint or rebuttal to the tremendously biased information that is fed to them.

But you have gone a long way toward counteracting that condition. The media will pay attention to you if you rise up in defense of your position if it is done in easily digestible bites, where the average American can easily understand your point and is able to contrast the truth with the lies that are being served up by your opponents. I think you have breathed life back into half of this country today.

Now it’s time to go on the offense. How do you do that? Easy and quite simple! Start asking John McCain how it is that he can claim to be supporting the troops when he recently rallied against the 2008 GI Bill and didn’t even show up to vote for it. You need to explain McCain’s stated reason for being against it and why he was so completely misguided and just plain wrong. You can also throw in that McCain also voted against almost a dozen bills over the past twenty years that would have provided support to troops in harm’s way, assistance to returning veterans in both healthcare and other financing, and that it is just unbelievable that a veteran like McCain would not be empathetic to the plight of the men and women in uniform and recognize that they, like him at the time, deserve the compassion and appreciation of their government.

Another great issue is this conjured up benefit to drilling offshore in all areas of this country and the manufactured criticism that you are somehow against helping to find domestic sources of fuel and energy and just want to stick it to the American people and continue supporting foreign dictators. This is just a ridiculous argument and should be turned right back on McCain. You have had to endure being mocked about keeping our tires properly inflated, etc. It is imperative that you turn the tables on McCain by asking him to explain how long this supposed drilling will actually benefit our country, to acknowledge that any newly discovered gasoline would be owned and controlled by the very oil companies that are already screwing the American consumer and that they will most likely try to sell any new-found oil to foreign buyers that are willing to pay top dollar for it. You can also point out that McCain has voted for years against wind farms, searches and funding for alternative sources of energy, etc.

Let’s face it, Barack. There are a lot of issues to choose from. John McCain is a walking contradiction and a flip-flopper extraordinaire. He is busy at the moment hiding behind the media created and overly hyped Sarah Palin, but if you handle this correctly and call on him to answer some very serious questions that not only deserve an answer, but will actually get the attention of the media and ultimately of the American people, he will be forced to come out and at least bob and weave, and you will have successfully turned some of these wedge issues that he’s been slamming you with right back on him, and I believe with all my heart that he is very vulnerable on so many topics and the last thing he’s expecting or prepared to do is have to answer to anybody at this point.

We’re all fired up, Barack. You got us to this point. Take us the rest of the way!! We’re almost there. Let’s take it to ‘em.

Barack,Where's the Outrage?

2008-09-10T00:16:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I wrote about the need for a press conference or special speech regarding a clarification of Barack’s record and an effort to explain the truth of the Obama history and positions for all to see. Well, I have given this a lot of thought today, and after reading a lot of heartfelt and impassioned blogs and listening to Ed Schultz, Thom Hartmann and Mike Malloy on the radio, particular tonight, I have ramped up my opinion on what kind of reaction Barack and Joe should have on the lies being made against them on a daily basis.

It’s pretty simple, really. Call a liar a liar. When John McCain says that you have no record in the US Senate, you say, “Senator McCain, you are a liar! I have had enough of your lies and distortions of my record. You know damn well that…” and then you can clarify what the truth is. When Sarah Palin repeats her ridiculous assertion that being the mayor of Wasilla is kinda like being a community organizer, you should be saying, “Mrs. Palin, apparently you have not a clue what being a community organizer does,” and then you can go on to explain what you did as a community organizer, which is a fabulous and noble profession.

When McCain strategist Tucker Bounds told Campbell Brown on CNN that both Obama and Biden voted for the legislation containing the “bridge to nowhere,” which they absolutely did not, Obama and Biden both should have been on the TV within twenty minutes saying in a very indignant manner “Mr. Bounds speaking on behalf of the McCain campaign just lied to CNN about my record. I did not vote for the bridge to nowhere, and he knows that I didn’t and is being instructed to lie by John McCain and Karl Rove.” When the latest ad came out painting Obama as advocating teaching sex education to little children, Barack needs to come out immediately and completely and vehemently denounce this type of ad as unacceptable, below the belt, absolutely despicable and reflective of people who are so desperate that they’ll say anything to get elected.

I watched the Obama interview over the past two days on Keith Olbermann and with all due respect, Barack, you are too kind, too literate and just too esoteric. I suggest following the KISS doctrine that McCain and Palin obviously follow, which is keep it simple, speak in short spurts so that people of every level of intelligence get what you’re saying, and when they say that you’ll raise taxes, you say “I will not raises taxes on anyone but rich people. I have had enough of McCain lying about my record and position.” When Palin or any of the other Republican clones say that you are so weak on terrorism that you’ll insist that terrorist get their rights read to them, you say, “Well, I know this is hard for McCain and Palin to understand, but I actually insist on following the constitution of the United States.”

Barack, we can win this, and I know that you are a nice guy. As a matter of fact, Joe Biden is a wonderful and honest guy, too, but being nice and sweet and genteel will only win you points at a neighborhood barbeque. McCain, Palin, Rove and their attack dogs are playing hardball. They are in the process of defining you, just like they did John Kerry. Kerry was an acknowledged war hero that they turned into a US hating unpatriotic buffoon. That became known as Swiftboating. Let’s not allow it to happen again.

Feeling of Hope, Prosperity and Community

2008-09-09T11:53:00.001-07:00

This is something that I’ve wanted to try to put into words for a while now. During the Clinton years, despite a couple of bumps in the road, people in this country felt proud, energized, prosperous, hopeful and happy about their lives and anticipated better days ahead. When George W. Bush was appointed president, people became increasingly disillusioned by an administration that ignored their wishes, trampled on their rights and passed legislation into law that gave more rights and privileges to corporations and large entities and less for individuals, consumers and – well, just regular folks.

I believe with all my heart that a McCain Administration will bring more of the same. Barack Obama doesn’t just use change and hope as a slogan; it is a state of mind, a realization that there will be a change in Washington. Change for the good, a change in the way that our president governs and the feeling that he won’t do things because he has a hunch or a theory, but that he has consulted with experienced leaders from all perspectives to come up with what is the best direction for the American people.

This cannot be overlooked. How people feel in this country, whether they’re hopeful or in despair, makes a difference and means something. I, like millions of people in this country, wish to go back to better times, happier times when we were considered into the equation of our government, where our leader and the leader of the free world looked at all angles and into the future to see whether his decisions are right, to figure out how they will affect this country and didn’t just shrug off the wishes of the citizens of this country as just another voice looking for attention. In case anyone has forgotten, this is our country, and the president of the United States works for us, not the other way around.

So let’s not ignore the climate and the good feeling that a President Obama will bring to this country. We are a country of doers, of hard workers and will work with pride, and when our leader includes us in the mix, we will give everything we have to support him and make this country the most prosperous it can possibly be. Obama will give us all the tools we need to fulfill that mission. I want to feel good. Don’t you? Let’s get going and do everything we can to elect Barack Obama.

Time for Another Huge Address

2008-09-09T10:04:00.000-07:00

There are have been a couple of times in this campaign when Barack Obama has felt it vital to hold large press conferences to crystallize certain ideas and clarify an issue or group of issues that needed to be focused on and drive home his perspective and position. One was on religion and the Reverend Wright issue, and the other was about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and how he would pursue them as president and bring the occupation of Iraq to an end.

Well, I think it’s time for another one. Barack has been under attack for the past few weeks, having his record and position twisted like a pretzel and misrepresented or even lied about. He is still thought to be a Muslim by up to twenty percent of this country and certain networks still put forth this idea that his relationships with Tony Rezko and William Ayers have yet to be investigated. His activities in the US Senate have been characterized as zero, that he refuses to reach across the aisle to work with members of the other party. He has been accused of being soft on terrorists, plans to meet with world leaders without conditions, pulling out of Iraq without giving thought to victory, an unwillingness to acknowledge the success of the surge, and essentially making speeches that are full of promises that he has no intention of following through on. And lastly, McCain keeps repeating the mantra that Obama will raise taxes and just wants to grow government with no accountability.

Obama has tended to draw every network and create huge buzz when he announces one of these speeches and press conferences, and I believe these recent lies and distortions justify another one. There are certain issues that I don’t think merit any reference or could be left to surrogates to address, but his tax plan and that he will not raise taxes, his accomplishments in the Senate, his plans for Iraq and that he acknowledges the surge but that it doesn’t override McCain’s lack of plans to get us out of Iraq need to be brought out and the truth clarified. He also needs to state unequivocally that he has had enough of the mean-spirited lies that have been directed at him and his record, and he needs to use that word, “lie.” When one has evidence that his opponent has deliberately and knowingly stated things they know to be false, it is okay to call them out on it.

I have been recognizing within myself that I have been feeling very satisfied to be on the right side of history, to be supporting a candidate that I know will change this country drastically for the better, but I also have to admit that I also want my candidate to stand up strongly to defend himself and his record, to feel confident to say and do what’s right and to call your opponents who publicly and rudely distort or misrepresent your record and your positions what they are, liars.

Just Because They Say it Doesn't Make it So

2008-09-08T09:38:00.000-07:00

Has anyone else out there in Obamaland been as frustrated as I am that Barack’s record and really his entire history has either been distorted or mocked unmercifully? It came out of the mouth of Fred Thompson, Joe Lieberman and Rudy Giuliani, and since their speeches last week, McCain and Palin just repeat the same lies over and over again, with impunity and without the slightest challenge to their veracity of some absolutely unbelievable assertions.

So for my benefit and for everyone else who needs a few quick facts to call upon when someone out there repeats one of the lies or misrepresentations that we know is just not true, we can simply cite the truth and frankly feel pretty good about doing so.

Yes, Barack was a community organizer from 1985 to 1988. He was the director for the Developing Communities Project, a church-based organization on Chicago’s South Side. Unlike the accusations that he has never had a real job or went from school to the US Senate, this organization that he headed expanded to a staff of thirteen, and their annual budget grew from $70,000 to $400,000.

After that, he entered into legal practice in 1992 as an attorney with Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland, a firm specializing in civil rights litigation and neighborhood economic development. During that same period, he became a professor of law at the prestigious University of Chicago Law School and taught constitutional law. Barack held both positions until 2004.

As if that wasn’t enough, halfway through his law career in 1997 Barack ran for the Illinois Senate and won. He supported legislation which included gaining bipartisan support for ethics reform and healthcare. Barack sponsored a law increasing tax credits for low income workers, negotiated welfare reform and promoted increased subsidies for childcare. He was co-chairman of the Joint Committee of Administrative Rules and was chairman of the Health and Human Services Committee.

In 2004, he was elected to the United States Senate. The legislation that he sponsored and supported includes the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act. The Lugar-Obama Act served to keep weapons of mass destruction out of terrorists’ hands. The Coburn-Obama Act established a web search engine to monitor government spending with follow-up legislation called Strengthening Transparency and Accountability in Federal Spending Act of 2008.

Barack also was the primary sponsor on the Democratic Republic of the Congo Relief, Security and Democracy Promotion Act. He also sponsored the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act, the Iraq War De-Escalation Act of 2007, the Iran Sanctions Enabling Act and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, an amendment providing one year of job protection for family members caring for soldiers with combat-related injuries.

Committees that Barack sits on include the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the Senate Committee on Veteran’s Affairs, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions and the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

I for one will not sit back and watch Barack’s positions, record and history be distorted by people who specialize in being in attack mode while at the same time remaining completely silent on what their own positions are and what their own record and history is. Let’s use our own mouths and our own brains to counteract the disingenuous rhetoric and the Palinization of this entire country. A little over one week ago, John McCain was the world’s most prolific flip-flopper, was promising to govern exactly like the Bush-Cheney regime and had become the master of the gaffe and was demonstrating a complete lack of preparedness to be president.

Let’s not lose sight of who Barack Obama is running against, who will be president if Barack isn’t and go after him with tenacity, honesty and a great amount of spirit with the knowledge that we feel thoroughly confident in our choice for president and vice-president, Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

This is Our Time, This is Our Country

2008-09-06T20:42:00.001-07:00

At this very moment, I am sitting in the Camp Obama in South San Francisco with a couple of hundred of extremely dedicated and passionate supporters of Barack Obama. We are all leaders, but we’re not special. We are all motivated to elect our candidate of choice, but only because we recognize how he will change this country. Most importantly, you are also supporters of Barack Obama, you are motivated to elect Barack Obama and you desire the kind of change that Barack Obama will bring to this country.

So where do we go from here? Well, I do have a couple of ideas. We have 59 days left until the election on November 4th. After that, you can go back to your regular life, sit back and hopefully reflect on a successful campaign and a very satisfying victory, but until then, the success of this campaign is on your shoulders. If you can’t get fired up over the next two months, it is doubtful that there will be another time in your life that you will. This is the cause we have been waiting for. This is the candidate that we have all been looking for. This is the time of our lives that it is mandatory to put everything else on the back burner and work for our most important goal, to do everything we can to get Barack Obama into office.

It is really this simple. We can sit back and watch our family, friends, neighbors and co-workers slowly begin to question whether Barack should be their next president while they listen to his opposition belittling his accomplishments, misrepresenting his agenda, literally lying about who he is and what he stands for, or we can spring into action, remind people that what they knew about Barack hasn’t changed, that the Obama-Biden ticket is our best hope for the future and that what we all want for this country is what the Obama campaign represents for every American.

How do you get involved or reinsert yourself back into this campaign? We have literally 59 days left. There are calls to make, doors to be knocked on, voters to be registered, and for those of you willing to make just a little more commitment, there are doors to knock on in Nevada and other battleground states. An hour a day, a day per week or a half an hour here or there will make such a huge difference between the election of McCain-Palin and Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

I just got back from Denver, and it was a great privilege to represent all of you who couldn’t be there. I am truly fired up and I want you to join me and every other dedicated, passionate person in this campaign today. Contact me at markbrickman2002@yahoo.com or log on to www.mybarackobama.com and see what events are taking place near your home. We have a beautiful office in San Carlos (El Camino Real one block south of San Carlos Avenue) waiting for you filled with computers, telephones and friendly staff.

If not now, when? There is no sense of empowerment and a sense of satisfaction and involvement that is like getting involved, making a difference and working on behalf of a spectacular candidate, an aggressive and progressive movement and the opportunity to be a part of changing this country and world for the better in every way. You are the one that we have been waiting for. Come on. Get fired up! Our time is now.

The Secret to Putting McCain Away

2008-09-05T21:36:00.000-07:00

I have given some significant thought over the past couple of days as to how defeat the McCain-Palin ticket and to put Obama-Biden ahead to stay and on the road to a handsome victory six weeks from now. Number one is this: As popular and energized as the Republican base and media has become since Sarah Palin was selected as McCain’s running mate, the truth of the matter is that she was ultimately selected for one reason and one reason only, and that is to change the conversation and put Barack Obama on a different track from what he was on just one week ago.

There is one person that Barack Obama and Joe Biden should be focusing on…John McCain. If he wins, he will be the president. Despite what we’ve been hearing from almost everyone that gets a microphone stuck in their face, Sarah Palin has very little experience and is not qualified to be a heartbeat away from the presidency, and everyone knows it. But going after her shortcomings, her lies, her controversial history will not win many points and will definitely not put any major dents into John McCain. Only placing criticism squarely on McCain and pointing out his limitations, his terrible record, his history of flip-flops and his devotion to the Bush-Cheney regime is going to score any points and make people sit up and take notice that he is not the better choice for president.

But criticism and reminding people of the truth about McCain will not do it alone. Barack Obama with the assistance of Joe Biden must be constantly talking about why they will be the better choice for president. They must talk about the economy, Social Security, the middle class, the truth about the occupation of Iraq, their new approach to foreign diplomacy, their plans for change on the first day they take office. It is also absolutely mandatory that Barack clarify how he plans to pay for what appears to most people like a grandiose list of promises of programs and this will also serve to eliminate a major talking point of Republican pundits and candidates, as well.

Finally, Obama and Biden must make it very clear that they represent the future, that their style of governing is not only the real change in this election, but will provide a new feeling of hope, of prosperity and the promise of a new way of thinking and a dynamic new direction for this country. It is this very vital point that must be driven home every time either Obama or Biden speak, and it is this crucial piece that will allow people in this country to realize the huge chasm between an Obama presidency and a McCain.

Read My Lipstick...No New Ideas

2008-09-05T09:18:00.001-07:00

In an attempt to deliver a stirring, dramatic and historic speech, Sarah Palin instead resorted to a speech filled with unfair attacks, sarcasm and inaccurate references to herself and promising changes that were both disingenuous and not plausible. Check out this article from her hometown newspaper http://www.adn.com/sarah-palin/story/515517.html

What Palin failed to mention is anything about many of her extreme positions on abortion rights, global climate change, equal pay for women and gun control issues. She gave the impression that she is against government waste and fights for her citizens as a reformer, but her limited experience as mayor and then governor of Alaska shows us just the opposite.

But a recent list of books that she wanted banned from the Wasilla Public Library truly demonstrates that Palin not only has no new ideas, but is really a throwback to days of old when we needed to always be full of fear, to go back to days when we had a less than equal world and where anyone who does not look like Sarah Palin must fight every day for the same rights and privileges that she and her family have come to take for granted.

This is the list that comes from the records of the Wasilla library. Most of these books are not a surprise, but some of them do raise some questions as to whether she wants citizens to be left completely uninformed and uninspired.

Here’s the list and a little preamble that goes along with the list from the person who provided this list of proposed banned books:

More things to learn about Sarah Palin
>
>For those of you who think that all of the opposition to Sarah Palin is
>from "leftwing" nuts; the following is a list of books that she tried to
>get banned when she was mayor of Wasilla. I am not sure that Mark Twain,
>William Shakespeare, Maya Angelou and Geoffrey Chaucer would be considered
>dangerous to children. Judy Blume give me a break. Harry Potter, who is
>kidding who. I also fail to see how Webster's Ninth New Collegiate
>Dictionary by the Merriam-Webster Editorial Staff should be banned.
>
>This information is taken from the official minutes of the Wasilla Library
>Board. When the librarian refused Palin tried to get her fired as she did
>with the Safety Director of the State who refused to fire a trooper who was
>getting a vicious divorce from her sister
>
>She also told her Assembly of God Church in June 2008 that it is "God's
>Will" that the federal government contribute to the expansion of the Alaska
>pipeline. (M ust have been talking to George Bush). She sounds like one of
>those lawyers Bush put into the justice department.
>
>This is the list of books Palin tried to have banned. As many of you will
>notice it is a hit parade for book burners.
>
>A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
>A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
>Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden
>As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
>Blubber by Judy Blume
>Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
>Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
>Canterbury Tales by Chaucer
>Carrie by Stephen King
>Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
>Christine by Stephen King
>Confessions by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
>Cujo by Stephen King
>Curses, Hexes, and Spells by Daniel Cohen
>Daddy's Roommate by Michael Willhoite
>Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Peck
>Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
>Decameron by Boccaccio
>East of Eden by John Steinbeck
>Fallen Angels by Walter Myers
>Fanny Hill (Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure) by J ohn Cleland
>Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes
>Forever by Judy Blume
>Grendel by John Champlin Gardner
>Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam
>Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
>Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
>Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
>Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
>Have to Go by Robert Munsch
>Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
>How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
>Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
>I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
>Impressions edited by Jack Booth
>In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
>It's Okay if You Don't Love Me by Norma Klein
>James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
>Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence
>Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
>Little Red Riding Hood by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
>Lord of the Flies by William Golding
>Love is One of the Choices by Norma Klein
>Lysistrata by Aristophane s
>More Scary Stories in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
>My Brother Sam Is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
>My House by Nikki Giovanni
>My Friend Flicka by Mary O'Hara
>Night Chills by Dean Koontz
>Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
>On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
>One Day in The Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
>One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
>One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
>Ordinary People by Judith Guest
>Our Bodies, Ourselves by Boston Women's Health Collective
>Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy
>Revolting Rhymes by Roald Dahl
>Scary Stories 3: More Tales to Chill Your Bones by Alvin Schwartz
>Scary Stories in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
>Separate Peace by John Knowles
>Silas Marner by George Eliot
>Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
>Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
>The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
>The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
>The Bastard by John Jakes
>The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
>The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
>The Color Purple by Alice Walker
>The Devil's Alternative by Frederick Forsyth
>The Figure in the Shadows by John Bellairs
>The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
>The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
>The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
>The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Snyder
>The Learning Tree by Gordon Parks
>The Living Bible by William C. Bower
>The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
>The New Teenage Body Book by Kathy McCoy and Charles Wibbelsman
>The Pigman by Paul Zindel
>The Seduction of Peter S. by Lawrence Sanders
>The Shining by Stephen King
>The Witches by Roald Dahl
>The Witches of Worm by Zilpha Snyder
>Then Again, Maybe I Won't by Judy Blume
>To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
>Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
>Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary by the Merriam-Webster
>Editorial Staff
>Witches, Pumpkins, and Grinning Ghosts: The Story of the Halloween
>Symbols by Edna Barth

I'm Thrilled This Isn't My Party

2008-09-04T23:31:00.001-07:00

I am a proud Democrat and fully support my party’s candidates for president and vice-president. Because of this fact, I would be very upset if I watched speeches coming from my party that I either knew or found out later contained so much misinformation and/or complete lies about our opponents. In fact, I’d be extremely embarrassed and probably would have to scale back my support and my admiration for candidates that I am so thrilled about.

Maybe this is one of many reasons I’m not a Republican, because I’d be horrified if I had to sit through the drivel that I heard last night. From Mitt Romney to Rudy Giuliani to Mike Huckabee all the way through to Sarah Palin, their speeches were filled with hollow references to patriotism, vague promises to change by keeping the status quo and of course lies about the record and life story of Barack Obama.

That is why I am absolutely delighted these speeches are taped, scrutinized and carefully examined by people who actually use their heads and objectively weigh what’s the truth and what’s possibly less than true. So without further adieu, please check this out http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/gop_convention_spin_part_ii.html

Palin Delivers Hollow Speech

2008-09-04T10:55:00.000-07:00

As my wife and I sat in our darkened living room watching Sarah Palin’s momentous speech last night, I was left with a lot of anger, bewilderment and admiration that she would talk for such a long time without saying anything of substance about herself and John McCain. But as the evening progressed and I listened to the praise that she was getting and the excitement that she had engendered, I was struck with one overriding thought: Who in the hell does she think she is? Or more precisely, who in the hell does Bush’s speech writer think she is? This woman spent a good part of her speech unmercifully blasting Barack Obama, and yet to my observation, she is so far removed from national politics, I just couldn’t shake the feeling that she has no right to criticize anyone, much less a solid, popular and fully vetted candidate who has been campaigning in the open for just about the same amount of time that Palin has been the governor of Alaska.

It might not have bothered me as much if she was debating the issues with Obama and contrasting them with her own, but her attacks were overly sarcastic, curiously divisive and mean, but most critical, downright inaccurate or just an outright lie http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080904/ap_on_el_pr/cvn_fact_check

There is no doubt that Palin is a formidable candidate. She is ballsy and no shrinking violet. She is a very persuasive and passionate speaker, and her style will cause most people to overlook or completely ignore her severely conservative social positions and the fact that she plays hardball Republican politics with the best of them.

It is absolutely essential that we, the Obama supporters and the campaign itself, not take this woman lightly or count on the fact that the rest of this country will recognize who this woman is and what she represents. They won’t!! Barack Obama, Joe Biden and the campaign must come out with guns blazing, and it is up to all of us to communicate to everyone, including the media, who Sarah Palin is, what a bundle of hypocrisy she is, and insist that she be questioned thoroughly and in a detailed manner drawing out all of her objectionable positions and just tremendous lack of exposure to foreign policy and most issues that are most important to people of the lower 48.

If we witness the love affair that most media outlets are having with the image being created of Sarah Palin and sit back while they get lulled into a stupor and somehow forget to ask Palin or McCain for that matter about anything of substance and/or challenge any statements or assertions that they’ll be making over the next several weeks, then the last line of defense will be all of us making absolutely certain that we work our butts off making sure that Obama’s message gets out and we take advantage of every opportunity to let anyone who will listen realize that Sarah Palin will only push a McCain presidency even further to the right and force a continuation and perpetuation of the Bush-Cheney regime that we are trying to overcome after eight very difficult years.

The very sad thing is that Barack has been constantly criticized for being just a gifted speech-giver filled with hollow rhetoric and not much to offer. As insulting and untrue as that is, this is exactly what Sarah Palin has done so far. She’s delivered one speech. She has not campaigned for the office of vice-president nor has she sat down for even one interview since she’s been named as the Republican nominee for VP. And just like Obama, she has a record to run on. So far, Obama’s record has been mischaracterized, mutilated and really just unfairly mocked during this convention. I can only hope that Palin’s, which also has been embellished and glossed over depending on the issue in this convention, will be exposed and examined fairly and accurately as this presidential campaign draws toward the finish.

Sarah Palin is the Consummate Washington Insider

2008-09-03T17:58:00.000-07:00

Anyone who looks at Governor Sarah Palin and sees a pretty, naïve little hockey mom is very sadly mistaken. This is a woman whose name appears on John McCain’s pork barrel list for requesting earmarks for her town of Wasilla, AK, a town at the time of under 6,000 people, to the tune of twenty-seven million dollars for purportedly town infrastructure that was not necessary at best and redundant and caused confusion at worst. As governor, it turns out that she is currently requesting close to two hundred million dollars in earmarks for her state, even going as far as to hire indicted Senator Ted Stevens’ son and his firm as her lobbyist to negotiate the federal funding.

Additionally, during Palin’s time as mayor of Wasilla, she built up a budget deficit of twenty-two million dollars, the first deficit in the town’s history. She, as we know, plays hardball politics with oil companies, fights very hard to bring new businesses and new resources to Alaska and consistently beckons the help of her Republican pipeline to Washington, Senator Ted Stevens. But as we also realize by now, she denies the human involvement of global climate change, is a militant gun user and a lifetime member of the NRA and passionately works against a woman’s right to choose, even in the event of incest or rape. Palin also is a staunch advocate for drilling all over Alaska and the continental shelf, even in the precious Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge.

Possibly most disturbing is that it has now come out that Palin has attempted to ban books of apparently a religious nature from her local libraries, believes very strongly in abstinence only sex education and none other, and Palin also is embroiled in a controversy and bipartisan investigation of her behavior in the firing of a state worker who refused to discipline and/or fire her brother-in-law, a state trooper. Furthermore, like many other Republican candidates, she mischaracterized her resume by claiming that she traveled to Europe even though it was simply a fuel stopover in Shannon, Ireland on her way to her one trip out of the US, to Kuwait to visit the Alaska National Guard members.

The head of the Alaska National Guard has apparently admitted that neither he nor Governor Palin has any say-so or command over the National Guard as it gets deployed overseas. It seems like a ridiculous reference to call her the commander-in-chief of the Alaska National Guard. As a matter of fact, Republican cronies and spokespeople have been falling all over themselves pointing out that she has more executive experience than Obama and Biden, but under that presumption, she then has more experience than John McCain, as well. As mayor, she was only considered a part-time employee, and as mayor of a small town and governor of the State of Alaska, it would be disingenuous to suggest that she deals with the issues that are inherent with the governance of just about any big city mayor or any other governor in this country.

Now it has come out that she and her husband are not only members, but that she addressed the most recent convention of an Alaska secession group, an organization that continues to call for Alaska to secede from the United State and become its own country. Although people who are biased or have a stake in the success of the Republican ticket promote Palin as a reformer, a rebel and a maverick just like McCain, the honest assessment is that Palin is a non-prominent politician from a far off state, and even though it is portrayed that she is a popular governor with an 80% approval rating, she was elected governor only because of a scandal right before the election with an extremely popular governor of vastly more experience, and even as mayor, the number of votes that she received in her re-election is equivalent to the people that go to the polls in my neighborhood.

I believe that it is the consensus in this country that Governor Palin is an exciting, bold move consistent with the status of a man who wishes to go out of the box and break out of the doldrums that the Republican Party has become, but I also believe that the selection of someone like a Sarah Palin over that of a more qualified, higher stature and vastly more experienced man or woman demonstrates that John McCain wants to win at all costs, displaying a desperation that makes him anything but the president that this country desires or deserves.

Apparently the pundits agree with us. Take a look at this little video http://www.politico.com/blogs/jonathanmartin/0908/What_many_Republican_elites_really_think_about_the_Palin_pick.html

You Gotta Like that McCain Style

2008-09-03T10:40:00.000-07:00

Let’s project about six months down the road, and let’s sadly assume for the purpose of this discussion that the McCain ticket is elected. I would like to explore the decision-making ability and judgment of McCain as he begins to tackle the issues, both domestic and international, that will immediately bombard him from day one as president. In the past couple of weeks, we had the conflict between Russia and the Country of Georgia, and even today, we have North Korea announcing that they’ll begin the process of rebuilding their nuclear infrastructure for the purpose of demonstrating to the US that they don’t like US policy and the fact that the US still considers them an evil empire.

Witnessing John McCain recently speaking out against Russia’s aggression toward Georgia and hearing his bluster, his attempt to immediately turn this back into a Cold War climate and to completely blow this skirmish totally out of proportion both scared me and reminded me that he is not the kind of reasonable, thoughtful and informed leader that I’m looking for to lead my country into the next presidency. And now hearing that McCain’s vetting team had barely spoken with Sarah Palin, only speaking to her the day before McCain offered her the vice-presidency, and knowing that McCain only had one five-minute exposure to Palin months ago before this past Friday is something that would not even be believable in a political movie, much less the real life that we live in.

If you then add Palin’s tremendous lack of experience with a thoroughly blank slate when it comes to foreign policy and recognize that John McCain is of advancing age, we have an even bigger problem. Her position on social issues is nothing short of scary, and hearing every Republican elected official and pundit rallying behind her stating Palin has more experience than Obama and Biden combined is just laughable. When reminded that that same criteria would also apply to John McCain, Rudy Giuliani actually stated that oh no, John McCain commanded his military squadron. Under this scenario, every CEO, president of a company or Boy Scoutmaster who has been involved in any kind of local community issues or political activity would be qualified to be a heartbeat away from the presidency.

On the other hand, it has been incredibly entertaining, although a bit frustrating, watching Republican spokespeople lining up to sing the praises of Palin and all but ignore or excuse McCain’s lack of judgment or shoot-from-the-hip and potentially ill-advised choice of Palin. Although the attacks on Obama regarding his lack of experience, no matter how specious, had been scoring some points in certain parts of this country, McCain has all but eliminated that argument from having any weight because Sarah Palin is the poster child for people lacking experience and national political credentials, despite what we’re currently hearing on TV and radio.

Mike Barnicle of Boston newspapers and MSNBC had a great line. He said that three years ago, Sarah Palin was the person you’d go to for an ice fishing permit. The apparent fight that she had against oil companies in Alaska was not whether or not drilling should take place, but how much money should go to the state from the obscene profits that are generated by oil companies. If you add in the fact that this woman and her family are currently undergoing a crisis with a pregnant teenager and her political office is in the middle of a corruption investigation that gets more complex and sticky as we get more knowledge of her biography and history, it is just possible that picking almost anyone else would have been more advisable for McCain and the Republican Party. If all of the above isn’t enough, I just heard that Ms. Palin has reportedly tried to ban books from her local library according to Time Magazine.

John McCain has already said in one speech that there will be more wars in the near future. He said he didn’t think that we’d have any problems with his leaving troops in Iraq for 100 years. He has admitted that the economy is not his strong suit and has gone out to prove it. He has consistently and repeatedly made errors in judgment, made incorrect references to world leaders, countries and the players within, and truth be told, he has demonstrated numerous times that he is out of touch with the lives of ordinary American people, not being familiar with the internet and certainly pretending not to know how many homes he owns. Adding Sarah Palin to the ticket is not just an insult, it is just frightening. As I heard Chris Matthews say this morning, the last person that McCain would go to for advice among his cabinet and his cronies would be Sarah Palin, and yet it is Palin who will become our president if something happens to John McCain.

The Supreme Distraction

2008-09-02T10:47:00.000-07:00

I like to watch and listen before I jump to conclusions, but John McCain’s selection of Alaska’s governor, Sarah Palin brought out some immediate reaction. Even as I was hearing news of the new VP pick while having my early morning breakfast in Denver, I was struck by several things I heard about Sarah Palin just as I was hearing her name for the first time. Palin is a first-term governor from an unusual state, anti-choice to the point of being against abortion even if it saves the woman’s life or in the case of incest, so pro gun that she advocates shooting bears from the air, promoting home schooling over a public school education and completely against sex education in schools in favor of abstinence only classes. We can see how well that works in the Palin home-schooling educational plan.

But even after mulling over all of this information and taking it into consideration and putting it into perspective with realizing that I will never find a candidate that I completely agree with, I recognize that most of these things are simply a matter of personal choice and just different from my outlook and the way I look at my life and how I live it. We were originally told that McCain, who is now 72 years old and vulnerable to a charge of being old and out of touch, would need and want to pick a vice-presidential candidate ready to take over immediately should something happen to him, with a track record and documented experience in the economy and yes, an established foreign policy resume.

So with an acknowledgement that Palin has some significant intimacy with energy issues and deals with the oil industry and pipeline issues, which are inherent in the daily life of an Alaskan politician, it is not an appropriate qualification to say that she is a wife and mother, and although she did serve two terms as the mayor of a relatively small and insignificant town, a place where the issues plaguing most mid-size and large cities are not present, but calling her the commander-in-chief of the Alaska National Guard is both an inappropriate reference and an insult. I took the liberty of looking up the recent activities of the Alaska National Guard, and I don’t think that the occasional rescue mission and the receipt of an award for bravery tests the mettle or split-second decision-making prowess of any elected official.

The sad thing is that between Hurricane Gustav, the pregnancy of Palin’s daughter and the admittedly interesting and provocative selection of such an enigmatic figure is overriding the one thing that is being essentially ignored…this woman just got her passport last year. Fox News, Cindy McCain and other political pundits pointing out that Alaska being up near Russia does not a successful foreign policy make. Palin has already gone on record just last month admitting that she wasn’t aware of what the vice-president actually does, and she has also taken positions that are so extreme on the environment that she has called for removing the polar bear from the endangered species list and does not believe in global climate change nor would she do anything about it.

John McCain and Sarah Palin must be questioned and challenged vigorously just as this interview of a McCain spokesperson took place yesterday http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYYiw_y2qDI. To my observation, media outlets across this country are requesting interviews with Palin and McCain and these requests are being ignored or at least postponed. Yes, Palin is an energetic, attractive and seemingly well-spoken advocate for her positions, the State of Alaska and the issues that affect her family and her community in the state, but her flip-flop on Ted Stevens’ bridge to nowhere must be investigated along with her support of a group that has pushed the notion that the State of Alaska secede from the United States and become an independent territory.

More importantly, this is another demonstration of John McCain’s kneejerk decision-making and shortsighted perspective that calls his judgment into question. I can only imagine that the same handlers that disallowed the selection of a Joe Lieberman and a Tom Ridge must have really rallied against a Sarah Palin. The fact that she is a woman is very appealing, but her drastic and almost draconian viewpoints, policies and life-style are completely and diametrically opposed to the agenda and perspectives of most of the women in this country, particularly those passionate and potentially disgruntled Hillary Clinton supporters that may be looking for an alternative to Obama. If that was the motivation behind the selection of Palin, it was rather misguided and thoroughly miscalculated.

But I can’t say this strongly enough: Sarah Palin is simply not qualified to be the vice-presidential candidate running with John McCain. Although the odds are against it – and I certainly wish him a long and healthy life – John McCain may have a serious health issue and is a multiple cancer victim. His vice-president must have vast experience, be a known quantity and have an established foreign policy and exposure. Ms. Palin has already admitted that she has no such policy, and even though she at some point will have go undergo an intense crash course in the ways of the world, I for one am not comfortable with a complete neophyte suddenly being thrust into the presidency and having to make immediate and significant decisions on Iraq, al-Qaeda, Russia, Europe, Israel, Sudan, Mexico and the myriad of serious issues surrounding the relationships and conflicts that demand familiarity, comfort and diplomacy experience that she arguably does not possess.

Barack Obama set just the right tone regarding Governor Palin’s daughter, that this is an internal family issue and that children of candidates are particularly off limits. I do respect his words and agree with him. But this information, or for that matter the fact that Palin is a woman, won Miss Congeniality in a beauty pageant, has five children, one just born with Down’s Syndrome and a son soon to go off to Iraq, should not cloud our vision as to who this woman is and what she stands for. I do not think even an informal investigation into what she advocates, the views she espouses and how completely out of touch she is with those of us in the lower 48 should be ignored or glossed over while we get wowed with her irreverence, the McCain spokespeople’s bluster or the pundits falling all over each other to point out how amazing she is and her vast experience heading the State of Alaska, a state that everyone knows is representative of the rest of this country and where everyone looks to say as Alaska goes, so goes the nation. Right!

What an insult to women, to governors like Charlie Crist and Tim Pawlenty who are so well-known and accomplished being passed over, to those of us who believe strongly in a woman’s right to choose, believe that weapons should not be promoted and disseminated freely in our society, believe that global climate change is real and that we should work to protect our environment and not drill for oil in every available territory without considering the ramifications and feel that we should be free to raise our families in the way that we choose to without being forced to have any religious education or moral restrictions or lack thereof.

Let’s encourage our media, our representatives and anyone with a voice to perform the vetting process that McCain and his surrogates apparently did not do. I think it’s an important indication of things to come that last Friday, we witnessed the introduction of Sarah Palin to the world with her five-month pregnant daughter being covered with a blanket, holding Palin’s baby and no mention that the 17-year-old high school –aged daughter is expecting a baby. I feel strongly that this lack of disclosure is a window of things to come, and I think we all need to look very closely at the frightening thought of an unconventional John McCain as president, an incredibly right wing Sarah Palin pushing McCain even further toward evangelical conservatism and a White House that once again pursues its own agenda without much care or consideration of what the vast majority of the American people want or need.

The Truth-o-Meter Exists

2008-09-01T16:49:00.000-07:00

As I was sitting on the bus taking the delegate bus to Invesco Field at Mile High on Thursday afternoon, I was stuffing down a sandwich, listening to the conversation and thinking ahead to the Republican convention. I was thinking about how tremendous and inspiring the Democratic convention had been so far, and realizing that my reaction to the negative rhetoric and mischaracterizations and misrepresentations that will be coming out of the Republican convention would end up leaving me with a completely different feeling and most likely an unsettled reaction that would make me wish that I had a way to discern the difference between what’s true and what is a lie.

And then it suddenly hit me! There should be a little bubble in the right-hand corner of the screen, a kind of truth or lie register that would turn red for a lie, perhaps orange for a half truth and maybe green for the truth and even a place to go online to check out why it was not true or what the real story was. It got some good reaction on the bus and in the huge line waiting to get into the stadium, but the logistics and infrastructure that is necessary to create such a service seemed just too difficult too throw together in such a short time, since I would have loved it to be available for this upcoming Republican convention.

And then I came across something that is almost exactly that. It only proves to me once again that almost all good ideas have already been thought of, and this is no exception. It is called PolitiFact.com sponsored by the St. PetersburgTimes of Florida, and it is exactly what I envisioned. A website with a truth-o-meter to verify whether the statements and assertions of each candidate is the truth, a half-truth, a partial truth or a bald-faced lie. I am absolutely thrilled that this service is available to all of us, and we should all take advantage of it and support all of this newspaper’s hard work.

So go to www.politifact.com and check it out. And the great and equitable thing is that both sides, Democrats and Republicans alike, get the same treatment. But just between you and me, I think that the Republicans will get just a little more partial truths and outright lies and the Democrats will come out clean as a whistle more often, which makes me feel very good.

Like a Kid in a Candy Store

2008-09-01T13:23:00.000-07:00

In addition to being a political junkie, I am the kind of person who loves to see and recognize famous faces. The Democratic National Convention in Denver was the Mother Lode of famous faces. It is the Oscars for people like me who are addicted to political theater, particularly on the Democratic side of the aisle. I started out on Sunday once arriving in Denver making a list of all of the well-known people I either saw or talked to, and by Monday morning, I ran out of paper. Between the elected officials, the media and just standard celebrities, people now have to ask me if I saw so-and-so, not have me rattle them off. There’s just too many to count.

Walking into the Sheraton Downtown Hotel, home to the California and New York delegations, was like arriving at summer camp. You knew you didn’t know hardly anyone, but somehow these people were kind of your friends. You were all there for the same purpose…to have fun, vote for the future president and to be a part of history, and in this presidential campaign, we were plotting some significant new ground. Even as I stood in the line to check in, I was already engaged in conversation with delegates from New York and sharing the excitement and anticipation of the days ahead.

Pepsi Center was an absolutely outstanding facility. Finding and getting on the bus that one could only enter with the proper credentials gave me a real sense of importance, but it was entering the convention hall that was truly exhilarating. It was as if the Pepsi Center had been built to house the Democratic convention. The staging, the ornate décor, the video display and the complete layout was truly magnificent. Being seated just across from the CNN broadcast platform and watching Anderson Cooper, Wolf Blitzer, James Carville and the comings and goings of people to be interviewed was a real coup in my opinion. I loved every minute of it.

There were just too many special and magical moments to delineate here. Speeches that stand out to me are John Kerry, Bill Clinton, Gov. Brian Schweitzer, Ted Kennedy, Barney Smith (who delivered maybe the most memorable line of the convention when he said he wants his president to care more about Barney Smith than he does about Smith Barney) and of course Barack Obama. We live in a fabulous time when all speeches are available on the internet by going to YouTube.com, and please take advantage of this technology by going back and listening to some of the most profound speeches in American history.

I loved every minute of this convention. Denver went crazy hosting the Democratic Party. It is a beautiful, clean, friendly and innovative city sitting at the foot of one of the most breathtaking sights in the world, the Rocky Mountains. There are great restaurants to eat at, lovely shops to visit and the City of Denver welcomed the many thousands of visitors with great signage, decorations everywhere and stores with an Obama theme and spectacular displays. From the greeters at the airport to the people of Denver making all of us feel at home, it gave us all the feeling that Denver had become the center of the world in the Obama campaign.

I was interviewed by various newspapers, television stations and radio stations, and several stand out. I was interviewed twice by KGO Radio in San Francisco and twice by the SF Chronicle, but the most unusual interviews I gave were to a newspaper reporter from Holland and a television station sending its signal live back to Denmark. I was approached by probably ten different reporters from TV and radio asking me for an interview, only to turn and walk away when they discovered that I was an Obama delegate. They were only looking for controversy and spice, and being in the spirit of unity and the desire to turn the page on the Clinton candidacy, I wasn’t about to give any red meat to the rabid and drooling media.

I was able to watch the frost on about twenty percent of the Hillary supporters literally melt before our eyes. There were a few pretty militant Hillary Clinton supporters who wouldn’t give up the fight to somehow get her the respect she deserves. There were petitions being passed around the delegation somehow demanding that a full roll call of all fifty states be done even though Senator Clinton had already conceded and said that she’d suspend her campaign and relinquish all of her delegates to Obama somewhere in the middle of the count. I refused to sign the petition, as did quite a number of the delegates, most likely believing that we should follow the wishes of the candidate herself and of the schedule and protocols already established by the Democratic Party.

There were some unforgettable moments, however. Avid Cliinton supporter and women’s rights attorney Gloria Allred walked into the California delegate’s breakfast with a gag in her mouth in the spirit of the women’s suffrage movement as if her perspective and voice was being silenced, a sad and juvenile display if I’ve ever seen one. But this is a free country, and yes, I believe in free speech and free expression, no matter how offensive that expression happens to be. I did talk to Ms. Allred a couple of times during the convention, including being in line right behind her on Thursday night at Subway sandwich shop, one of the few restaurants still serving food after midnight, and yes, I even saw her wearing an Obama button.

That is what makes this selection of Sarah Palin of Alaska so ridiculous if John McCain actually thought that Palin being a woman would peel off Hillary voters. After what I saw in Denver, and if the Democratic delegation is any kind of representation of the general Democratic population, there aren’t many people left who will not vote for the Obama-Biden ticket. Sarah Palin’s political and social outlook could not be more different than Hillary Clinton, and I don’t expect too many Democrats who once supported either Obama or Clinton to jump over, compromise almost everything they believe in to vote for a woman simply because she is a woman. I am Jewish, and I wouldn’t vote for Lieberman if he was the only candidate on the ballot.

Among the wonderful people that I had the good fortune to talk to in Denver was one gentleman who randomly stopped my friend and fellow delegate April Vargas and I as we walked back from Mile High Stadium – we obviously looked like delegates – to tell us that earlier that morning, he was working out at Denver Athletic Club and all of a sudden Barack Obama showed up and sat at a machine right near him and started working out. He told us that he was just amazed to see Barack right next to him, and when Barack asked him if he’d like to join a few other guys in the gym for a little basketball scrimmage, he jumped at the chance. He said that he hadn’t been convinced to vote for Obama, but after seeing him in action, meeting him and getting to play basketball with him, he now is an enthusiastic supporter of Obama and wanted to tell us that he is genuine, real and cared about him as if they were old friends.

A few of the more prominent people that I met and had a great experience with were Terry McAuliffe, Paul Begala and former Governor Gray Davis, each of whom were warm, friendly and people that I had more than one conversation with. I’m a pretty good judge of character, and I found these gentlemen to be more than just friendly and congenial. I also saw several celebrities that were very nice, including Susan Sarandon, former Pittsburgh Steeler Franco Harris and Jennifer Garner (at least I thought it was Jennifer Garner). I was blown a kiss from Dana Bash of CNN and got my picture taken with people like James Carville, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher just to name a few. Like I said, I was like a kid in a candy store.

I could not imagine the Democratic Party doing a more thorough job and putting on an event with more pageantry, more important and dramatic moments and a more entertaining and beautiful convention. Thursday night’s extravaganza at Invesco Field was an amazing experience with an adoring and energized crowd of 83,000 and a TV audience exceeded the viewers of the opening night of the recent Olympics. Like Pepsi Center, it was another masterful and skillful effort to turn a huge football stadium into a wonderful stage and backdrop for one of the most spectacular, important and historic speeches of our time, and if you combine Obama’s speech with performances by Stevie Wonder, Jennifer Hudson and amazing speeches by Al Gore, Joe Biden and Senator John Lewis giving tribute to Martin Luther King, you have the makings of a night that no one in attendance in person or on TV will ever forget.

I am so honored and humbled to have been elected to be the only male Obama delegate from my Congressional district, and being there from gavel to gavel was the most rewarding and thrilling thing I’ve ever done. I represented my family, friends and neighbors to the best of my ability, and it was my greatest honor and my highest privilege to cast my ballot for Barack Obama and Joe Biden. We still have plenty of work to do to get Obama into office, and it is every one of our responsibility to help in that process. We must register as many people to vote as possible, and it is also vital to make calls to swing states to get as many undecided or uncertain voters into the Obama-Biden column. We can do this, but it won’t happen by itself. Take a half an hour or more out of your busy schedule and do something for this campaign. Our future is dependent on it.

Happy Birthday, Mr. McCain

2008-08-30T11:21:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning, as I was sitting in the restaurant of my Denver hotel putting the finishing touches on my blog entry for the day, someone said, “McCain picked his VP.” I momentarily sat there ready to hear a familiar name, vaguely equivalent to getting confirmation of a foregone conclusion. A Romney, a Pawlenty, even a Lieberman. When I heard “Governor Palin from Alaska,” I thought it was a joke. In an amusing moment sitting there with several other delegates up early to have breakfast and get on with their day, I thought to myself that I couldn’t pick the governor of Alaska out of a line-up of two!

When I exited the restaurant, I needed to get official word from someone I knew or the news. I realize now that I could have just turned my computer back on and verified it for myself, but I was already running several minutes late to catch my shuttle to the airport. I hadn’t taken more than five steps from the restaurant toward the front desk when I heard someone in the packed lobby telling a friend about McCain’s VP pick. So it was true. But Sarah Palin? Who the hell is Sarah Palin? He could have chosen Barney Smith of Indiana, who got off one of the most memorable lines at the Democratic Convention. I would bet at this point that millions more know this previously unknown person than Governor Palin. If you didn’t see it, here’s the link to that great moment http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuAVw_v3br8

When I got on the SuperShuttle for my ride to the airport, the only thing anyone was talking about was McCain’s new VP selection. Everyone on that bus had the same reaction. “What?” “Who?” The woman sitting directly behind me, a delegate from Buffalo, New York, told me that as a woman, she was very insulted, that there were so many highly qualified Republican women to pick from, a Kay Bailey Hutchinson, an Elizabeth Dole to name but a few, and he chose someone with seemingly very little local experience and apparently zero national or international exposure. This woman thought that he was simply pandering to the supposedly disgruntled women who were Clinton supporters looking for a woman to support, and this would be that woman. “Not her,” she said.

It is pretty common knowledge that John McCain, who turned 72 yesterday, needed to pick a vice-presidential candidate who had rather significant national and international experience and is prepared to ascend to the presidency should something happen to McCain, which is a distinct possibility given his relatively old age for a president of the US. McCain’s selection of Palin is not just another demonstration of McCain’s lack of judgment; it sadly makes what is already an unacceptable choice for president completely impossible with a vice-president who is woefully unprepared to become the president.

When I got on the plane, once again filled with delegates and others who were returning from the DNC and heading home to their families and their normal lives, the VP choice was on everybody’s mind. The gentleman directly across from me asked me if I had heard the news. The woman behind him joined in with her critique and comment. Several others that were within earshot chimed in. McCain had accomplished one thing. He got us all talking about his selection. If his plan was to get our attention focused away from the Democratic convention, he is temporarily successful, but in the long run, this is nothing more than a stunt. And an ill-advised one at that.

I was thinking this morning that if McCain wanted to really shake things up, divert the country’s attention away from the most spectacular and monumental DNC in modern American history, that he should have chosen his wife, Mrs. McCain. Like Sarah Palin, she is a former beauty pageant contender. Like Sarah Palin, Cindy McCain has dealt with trying to balance a rather sizable budget and make serious policy decisions on where that funding should go. Cindy McCain is a wife and mother, and once even brought home an orphan baby from Bangladesh, a heroic act that surprised her husband, who had no idea that the baby was coming home with his wife.

Yes, even Mrs. McCain would have been a wiser choice than Mrs. Palin. The one stark difference between the two women is that Cindy McCain has traveled the world helping to bring awareness and raise money for underprivileged children in many blighted areas, whereas Sarah Palin is from a state that is huge in physical size, but tiny in population or importance (except for its oil industry…hey, wait a minute!!).

The ironic aspect of this selection is that it removes the ability for John McCain, his supporters and pundits to criticize Barack for his inexperience and lack of exposure to foreign policy. To be completely serious, Sarah Palin, a two-term mayor of a small town in Alaska and first term governor does not deal with issues facing Americans on a national and international stage. Howard Fineman said last night on Countdown with Keith Olbermann that Sarah Palin makes Barack Obama look like John Adams. If I were a Republican supporter of McCain’s candidacy, I would just be flummoxed to witness the very poor decisions being made by McCain and his handlers, this one setting a new record for ineptness and a true sense of pure desperation.

Having just been at an event that was life altering, I was sitting on the plane flight home perusing a couple of newspapers for all the news of the convention, the campaigns and anything and everything fit for a political junkie like myself. I came across this quote in an article written about McCain’s potential VP choice, obviously written the day before McCain’s historic and questionable selection. The article said: “Obama aids are preparing for the GOP vice-presidential pick. It won’t make a lick of difference to struggling American families who John McCain chooses to be the next Dick Cheney if he continues to insist on being the next George Bush., Obama spokesman Hari Sevugan said. Ken Duberstein, former chief of staff to President Reagan, said, ‘McCain needs to pick a running mate whom Americans can automatically see as presidential material. McCain should also have been looking for a ‘strong partnership and chemistry’ with his vice-presidential candidate. He needs to be viewed by the American people as credible, Duberstein said. This is not the time for on-the-job training.’”

So Happy Birthday, Senator McCain. On your 72nd birthday, you have actually provided us, the American people, with the real gift. You had the choice of Romney, Pawlenty, Crist and several other prominent governors who are from large states that have a national presence, a national following and are from states much more representative of the trials, tribulations and daily issues that affect all Americans. Sarah Palin seems like a fine woman, one who is rising in stature in the State of Alaska and one who is just beginning a career on a statewide basis after holding office in a tiny hamlet in Alaska that is a far cry from resembling any other part of this country that is dealing with issues of race, poverty, crime, rising home foreclosures and dozens of other big city and big state issues that test the character of a leader, but also prepare a candidate to deal issues that will be part of their everyday life as vice-president.

As Palin’s first act as the presumptive vice-presidential nominee, making her first official speech, and with John McCain proudly standing at her side, she committed her first flip-flop by claiming that she stood up against Senator Ted Stevens’ bridge to nowhere, but unfortunately for her credibility, she had previously come out publicly in full support of its construction. I will make this prediction: This will not be her only one.

Oh, What a Night!

2008-08-29T07:57:00.001-07:00

As I walked out of Invesco Field at Mile High last night attempting to find a bus back to the hotel that we’d never find (more on that later), I was lost in thought, trying to find the words that would even come close to characterizing my experience of being one of the privileged few to get to see it live and in person. And then it came to me…Imagine the end of your favorite musical, Les Miserables, Phantom of the Opera, you’re standing screaming at the top of your lungs because you just witnessed something wonderful. Imagine you’re at your hometown team’s stadium and it’s the bottom of the ninth and your favorite player hits a grand slam to win the game to put them in the playoffs. Yeah, that’s pretty good – okay. Really good, but this was better!
I just emailed my fabulous cousin Shelley, who has been so supportive and loving with her kind words, that outside of the miracle of my loving wife, children and grandchildren, this was it. I still can’t believe that I got to be there, and I now realize that I was there for you, for everyone who couldn’t be here. I met so many of the California delegation, and we’re all here because we’ve worked hard for the Obama campaign, but there are hundreds if not thousands who could have easily been here, as well. But in my Congressional district, one man got to be an Obama delegate, and I am that man. I have been so blessed, but as I told my friend and fellow Obama campaigner who has also been so kind to keep in touch with her support, I am here representing everyone who couldn’t be here.
This convention went off without a hitch, and each day had something new to offer, but last night’s extravaganza before a packed stadium in Denver was the pinnacle. Al Gore wowed the crowd with the speech of his life. Like me, he is so respected and admired by so many, and his presence on that stage was not just symbolic; it was historic. With a spectacular and touching tribute to Martin Luther King’s legacy and speeches earlier in the day by Reverend King’s son and daughter, a large line-up of military generals and other military leadership standing on stage demonstrating support for Obama, and with a smattering of entertainment thrown for good measure, including Stevie Wonder, Sheryl Crow and Jennifer Hudson completely wowing the crowd, it just got better and better. I feel confident that if Barack came out and asked 80,000 people to make 100 calls from their seat before they left the stadium, everyone would have done just that.
I have got to get to the airport. It is now 8:45 AM Denver time, and I am leaving four hours early for my flight. Yikes! But with thousands heading out of town on the same day, it is necessary. Thank you again to all who have been here to support me, keep in contact with me and let me know you’re out there. It has meant a lot! And I will put more thoughts together when I have a chance. Thank you also to John Scott and Green 960 AM Radio in San Francisco for linking this blog on their website.
Next stop, San Francisco. Let’s get to work and get Barack over the top. It’s going to be a bumpy road, and I feel confident that if we get everyone out to vote, particularly people of color, women and young people, that will be enough to get Barack into the White House.
Bye for now!

It Feels Mighty Good to be a Democrat

2008-08-28T10:48:00.000-07:00

Tonight was the night that we’ve all been waiting for. Tonight was just what the doctor ordered. After a night yesterday when the Democratic Party seemed to become unified behind Barack Obama, tonight was proof positive. As the roll call procedure progressed, it became increasingly obvious that the hall filled with thousands of delegates from the United States and its territories were uniting behind Barack Obama. The momentum was building when all eyes turned to the New York delegation where Hillary Clinton with New York Senator Charles Schumer at her side ceded this race to Barack Obama by releasing all of her delegates to Senator Obama.

The speeches tonight were nothing short of brilliant. If John Kerry had delivered a couple speeches like tonight http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MiBBb7DQpI we would be working to re-elect Kerry to his second term. President Clinton dazzled the crowd and reminded this country how a powerful speech was meant to be given. As the torch is passed from the Clinton era to the next generation of leadership, Bill Clinton delivered a speech that was absolutely magnificent. Although the speeches up until then placed the crowd into kind of a euphoric trance, the speech by vice-presidential nominee Joe Biden was still greatly anticipated.

Biden delivered the speech of his life. His emotion filled speech brought tears to my eyes, and for a guy who isn’t prone to crying often, that’s saying something. The theme was national security, and one speech that poignantly delivered that message was given by military hero Major Tammy Duckworth, which struck just the right chord http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6mvMpB2t9Y It was accompanied by a video filled with testimonials and interviews of war veterans from the current war and occupation and of World War II, and it was so tremendously moving. The message came through loud and clear that this country will be guided with the leadership of Barack Obama in a much more thoughtful way with a foreign policy that favors strong diplomacy over reckless military force and a desire to reassert the US as a respected leader on the world stage.

Melissa Etheridge came out early in the evening for one song, but it was an extraordinary moment http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30hwuCYshQU As thousands of people sang and danced together as one, the overwhelming feeling that we are all part of something huge and life-changing was palpable. I have made so many new friends from all over California, and it was so special to share this moment with them. State delegations are a representative cross-section of our society, and it is such a privilege to be with them and get to know so many special and dedicated public servants. If I were so honored, I would serve as a delegate in four years again in a heartbeat. I am having the time of my life.

On a personal note, I am feeling quite satisfied. Three incredible things happened that have really enhanced my experience so much. Even though leaving the convention floor is not only difficult, but risky because one’s seat may be in jeopardy, nature does occasionally call. As I headed up the stairs and on to the main concourse, I heard my name, looked up and there stood a friend of mine from Washington, D.C. who was once the legislative counsel for Congressman Lantos and now in private legal practice. He is in Denver representing a client with Democratic business. I met Jason when I was doing some lobbying in his office and several others during my years of political action related to my profession. We have kept in contact ever since.

My friend Sarah, who until a few weeks was living in the Bay Area working very hard on the Obama campaign, took the plunge and fulfilled a dream by moving to Washington, D.C. to procure a job with a Congressional office. Knowing I was at the DNC, she texted me yesterday to say hello, find out how things were going in Denver and to tell me that she had an interview set up with Senator Klobuchar’s office at the end of the convention. It got me thinking that it would be amazing to be able to talk to somebody from the senator’s office about it. What good fortune it is to have the California delegation sitting right next to Minnesota’s, and how crazy is it that Senator Klobuchar was the one at the microphone as her state announced its votes in the roll call for Barack Obama. Oh, did I mention that she was about fifteen feet from me? You can guess the rest. It was a magical moment, and I was so pleased and proud.

Lastly, a wonderful guy that I met while in Reno, Nevada working on the Obama campaign called me yesterday to say that he was coming to Denver, and knowing that I was here as a delegate, wanted to see if I had time to get together. Well, we did, and he joined me and probably a thousand of my closest friends at a California delegation gala at the Denver Museum of Science and Nature for a truly spectacular affair. He was dazzled by being a small part of the delegate process and I was thrilled to see him and share my extra ticket to the event with him.

This great guy is named Sky Nelson, and I know he won’t mind my mentioning his name because he is quite a talented musician. He has written a song for the Obama campaign, and I know he would be delighted if you’d visit his website and acquaint yourself with his music and message. http://www.skynelson.com/index.cfm?CFID=42298235&CFTOKEN=97418193 I first saw Sky after a long day of canvassing through the streets of Reno sitting in the Reno Obama office sitting there playing the piano, and I said to myself, “Wow! This guy’s good.”

I know that people are busy, but don’t cheat yourself. Go back and listen to the speeches tonight. They are so well worth your time, and if you do – or if you already got to see what I saw in person – you will agree with me that if you are a Democrat, this was a very satisfying and empowering evening. It hasn’t always been a peaches and cream campaign. There has been divisiveness, rancor and some real tough times that have served to temper what has been an amazing ride for Barack Obama and his campaign, but tonight’s strong message of support, admiration and oneness as a party is the perfect way to lead us into the next 68 days of this campaign against John McCain for the presidency.

Oh, I almost forgot. I have also had the pleasure of meeting a gentleman running for Congress from California’s 48th Congressional District, the southern part of Orange County, home to a huge Republican population. Steve Young is a genuinely nice guy, but he is also a candidate in the image of Barack Obama. He has a strong platform of job growth, a fair middle class tax plan, environmental awareness and securing a proper retirement for working families, and his incumbent opponent John Campbell, like John McCain, has voted in lockstep with George W. Bush 95% of the time. If you’re interested in supporting a wonderful candidate for Congress and helping him replace another clone of George Bush, log on to www.steveyoungforcongress.com and give him your support. He is an agent for change and is changing hearts and minds and will provide new leadership in Congress for all the citizens of a majority Republican Orange County.

That’s it for now. Once again, I can’t thank you all enough for your good wishes, your support and encouragement. I want to give a shout-out to my mom, who called me a couple of nights ago to share her excitement with me for my being part of history and that she was watching all of the festivities and that it was such a spectacular event. That meant a lot to me, Mom!

For those of you who are wishing to be a part of this campaign and do more than just watch the proceedings and vote in November, there is a way you can get involved. Log on to www.mybarackobama.com, sign in and press the events button, put in your zip code and find an event that suits you. Even a couple hours a week would be invaluable. I feel strongly that you’ll find donating a little bit of time rewarding, enriching and very empowering.

Onward to Mile High….

A Night of Unity, a Night to Remember

2008-08-27T10:07:00.001-07:00

Oh, what a night! I am sure that most of you have seen tonight’s convention or at least saw snippets of it on the news, but suffice it to say that the Democratic party outdid itself. The keynote speech by former Governor Mark Warner set just the right tone, a good mixture of everything great about Barack Obama and a sad reminder of how disastrous a McCain presidency would be. But with the anticipation of Hillary Clinton’s arrival, everyone in the hall knew what we were there to witness tonight.

Well, as we all know, Hillary Clinton hit a grand slam. She touched on all the points and was hitting on all cylinders. The California delegation, 441 strong, has a few more Clinton members than Obama, and these people are for the most part rabid Hillary supporters. More power to them, but there is no doubt, even after witnessing last night’s spectacular presentation and the abundance of adulation of Hillary Clinton, that this convention is all about Barack Obama. I am hopeful that we can now move on in a spirit of unity to nominate Obama and put him in the best position to defeat John McCain and go on to the White House.

As I was watching the hall fill up tonight, I was struck by the air of fellowship, good vibrations and a sense of oneness. Then it hit me! There are 10,000 people that will soon pack this arena and not one Republican, save and except a couple of journalists and possibly some of the employees of the Pepsi Center. No wonder I’m so comfortable and having such a wonderful time. No Republicans! I can’t begin to tell you how incredibly empowering it is to be with thousands of amazing, enlightened and well-informed people from all over this country gathering for one goal, to nominate Barack Obama and radically change this country for the better.

Denver has become a city of sights and sounds. Everywhere one turns, there is a famous person. Politicians, performers, television reporters and anchors walk around in every venue and all locales. While I keep an eye on all the speakers and convention formalities, I am aware that every radio and TV network reporter, cameraman and whatever support staff they have are swarming around the hall like bees. I have been interviewed numerous times now, and it is just a fabulous experience.

If it wasn’t broadcast live, please make certain to watch Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer’s speech http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8iatxuU3OU that preceded Senator Clinton’s. It was a barn-burner, and it definitely answered the criticism that the Democratic National Committee received from last light’s softer than expected approach to the Republicans and John McCain. As a matter of fact, there were several really powerful speeches, but Hillary Clinton’s speech was a critical part of this election and a truly magical moment in what has been a campaign season that is filled with ups, downs, surprises and emotions that may not have been present quite like this in any campaign of our lifetimes.

I also have a feeling that some of you may have missed Nancy Pelosi’s speech, and it was a knock ‘em dead call to arms that Barack is the man and John McCain is not. I’ll provide that link, as well. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6a1avwl0cs.

Lastly, I would like to thank all of you for your kind remarks and efforts to get in touch with me to tell me you saw me on TV and that you read my blog or saw me quoted in the newspaper. For those of you that are political junkies like me and like to know what I’m up to, I was in the SF Chronicle yesterday, and I was interviewed by the same reporter today, Carolyn Lockheed, so I may be in there tomorrow, as well. Today I’m supposed to be in the Half Moon Bay Review, and on Monday, there was a wonderful article in the San Mateo Daily Journal that highlighted some of us heading to the convention. These can all be accessed online if you don’t have access to the physical paper.

I was interviewed last night by John Rothmann and Brett Burkhardt of KGO live on the air and have been asked to stop by the KGO table along famed Talk Show Row to get interviewed by Gil Gross, sometime between 2:00 and 4:00 today. And if that’s not enough, I gave an interview to a reporter from one of Holland’s largest newspapers and last night was interviewed by a TV station beaming live back to Denmark. I must admit that my Danish is a bit rusty, but to make up for it, I had one for breakfast this morning while I listened to Barbara Boxer and Senators John Kerry and Claire McCaskill.

Do I sound a bit excited and a bit dazzled? Well, that’s because I am. Oh…my aunt and uncle are traveling in Russia at this very moment and I got a wonderful email from them that they are watching the convention from there and reading my blog. Could life get any better? I think not!

A Morning Breakfast with a Twist

2008-08-26T12:05:00.000-07:00

At a breakfast that was devoted to meeting some of the up and coming governors from around the country and a tribute to Edmund G. “Pat” Brown, former governor of the State of California and father of current California Attorney General Jerry Brown, there was an interesting spectacle to spice up the festivities. Upon entering the Sheraton Hotel ballroom, we were given a handout not exactly sanctioned by the Democratic Party. It said: “Why is Gloria Gagged?”

Just as the program began, Attorney/Activist Gloria Allred entered the room fitted with Suffragette style gag and scarf, and as a believer in free speech and recognizing that some Hillary Clinton supporters still feel at this point that their candidate has not received a proper tribute and attribution, I don’t really have a problem with anyone having his or her issues aired, but I did find it a bit comical and somewhat melodramatic that Ms. Allred spent the entire breakfast with a gag stuffed in her mouth and attempting to gather a group of ultra dedicated Hillary supporters after the breakfast.

As I left the room, there was a relatively small group gathered to listen to an impassioned plea from Allred planning something, but whatever it is, it will not overshadow the emotion and atmosphere of this convention. All major high profile leaders in this country, people who came out early for Barack and people that were once strongly in the Clinton camp, are now united behind the Obama-Biden presidential campaign. The theme is unity, and the overall feeling in the room this morning and in the convention hall last night is we are all Democrats, and we have an awesome candidate who we will all work hard to see that he becomes our president.

This morning we were addressed by a few exciting and emerging prominent Democratic governors from key states, David Patterson of New York, Ted Strickland of Ohio and also the governors of West Virginia and Iowa, each with an inspiring message offering support for Barack, and looking forward to each one of their states receiving a boost and an economic injection that will only arrive with the return with a Democratic president. The speeches were good, entertaining and uplifting.

The morning culminated with a spirited tribute to the group of women elected officials that we have in the State of California that were in the room, and the standouts for me were my Congresswoman Jackie Speier, Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey of the north Bay Area and Congresswoman Maxine Waters of Los Angeles. It was a fitting tribute to the emergence of the powerful, successful and skilled political women that hold many offices in our diverse state.

After a little get-together with Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher at another hotel, I will meet up with my fellow delegates from CD12, Susan Pfeifer and April Vargas, and we’ll head over to the Pepsi Center for what will most likely be a historic and very memorable night of sights, sounds and one speech better than the other.

A Delegate is a Busy Person

2008-08-26T00:33:00.000-07:00

The life of a delegate is hurry up and wait. The California Delegation breakfast this morning started at 8:00, but it really started closer to 9:00, but it did give me an opportunity to schmooze with my fellow Peninsula (SF Bay Area) delegates and see all of the other dedicated delegates from all over the state. I said hello to Congresswoman Anna Eshoo, LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, SF District Attorney Kamala Harris to name but a few of the wonderful people who represent us.

California Delegate Chairman Art Torres got us off to a rousing start, and speeches by people like Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Congressman Mike Honda made us feel welcomed and gave us a glimpse of the days ahead. The ballroom was packed with an excited crowd, with elected officials and press scattered everywhere. It was a great start to a remarkable day.

As I write this, it’s close to midnight Denver time. I have had so many people emailing me and telling me that they’ve read my blog from yesterday that I feel like I better write something before I head off to bed. I am also honored to have progressive talk radio station Green 960 in San Francisco linking my blog on their website. And my wife tells me that she’s sent out my blog site to numerous family and friends, and so whoever you are out there, I feel like I’m here for you. I realize that not everyone gets to experience this, and I don’t take my responsibility or good fortune lightly.

I had a little time in between official activities this afternoon, so after finishing an interview with a reporter from Wick Communications writing for the Half Moon Bay Review, I was off to check out the town. Denver has spared no expense preparing for this event. The entire downtown area has been turned into a kind of DNC Disneyland. Obama gear is for sale everywhere. People are all decked out in Obama finery, and every storefront, restaurant and street sign has some kind of DNC reference on it.

Denver is a lovely city anyway, but they’ve really outdone themselves. I am truly impressed, and there is something related to this convention in every corner of this city. I would imagine that the entire state of Colorado has leant buses, police and everything else to make this event come off without a hitch. My only complaint is that the bus from my hotel to the convention site took about 45 minutes to travel two miles because of the packed streets and security.

Speaking of security, it reminds me of Times Square on New Year’s Eve. The Pepsi Center is locked up tight as a drum. Without a credential, don’t bother knockin’. On the way in, our credentials, IDs and bags were checked at several checkpoints, and I for one am happy. I like to be safe, and this is a good place to feel protected. Inside the Pepsi Center, more than half of this country’s brain trust is walking around.

I did get a chance to hang around at MSNBC’s outdoor studio, about a mile from my hotel. It was fabulous. Andrea Mitchell interviewed people like Vice-President Walter Mondale, Debbie Dingle and Terry McAuliffe. I actually spotted McAuliffe standing right near me waiting for his ride, and I walked up and we had a really good conversation. Before you say that you’re still upset with him for his behavior during the primary, he said some very good things to say on camera and off, and I have decided to take the high road at this convention and acknowledge that we’re all Democrats and we all want the same thing, to elect Barack Obama and defeat John McCain.

Pepsi Center is a spectacular facility, but the crowd that has shown up for Barack Obama is causing the huge building to burst at the seams. We were pre-warned that there wouldn’t be enough seats for every delegate, and that is a fact. You don’t dare disappear for too long or you’ll find another person in your seat. The California delegation is directly adjacent to CNN’s floor studio, and I literally sat twenty feet from Wolf Blitzer, Anderson Cooper, James Carville, Donna Brazile, Gloria Borges and Paul Begala the entire evening. That is a hot spot in the room, I can tell you. And speaking of news celebrities I also saw Sam Donaldson, Charlie Gibson, Katie Couric, Roland Martin, Katty Kay and even Ted Koppel.

The convention decorations are magnificent. I really think they’ve thought of everything, and if you can’t get a close enough look at the speakers, two jumbo screens display all of the activity in huge living color. There is a live band that I think I would actually pay to hear, and the staging, the elaborate layout and the sensational decorations are nothing short of brilliant. Even though we are literally packed in like sardines, it is a room full of love, hope, camaraderie and a feeling of great anticipation. I believe that everyone there believes that Barack Obama will be our next president because he is not only the better candidate, but the best candidate that we’ve had in many generations.

Caroline Kennedy delivered a beautiful speech, culminating with an introduction of her uncle, Senator Ted Kennedy, who gave a very moving and powerful speech to a very warm and receptive crowd. Michelle Obama’s speech to the crowd and to the entire country was extraordinary, really breathtaking. I am not a cryer, but when the Obamas’ two daughters came out at the end of her speech, I had a couple of tears. She was brilliant and set just the right tone for this convention. Other terrific speeches were made by Nancy Pelosi, Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr., and Senator Claire McCaskill, who was actually introduced by her three eloquent children.

Even though we were all sitting there for hours, it didn’t really seem like it. There was so much to see and observe, and for a people watcher like me, it was like an addictive drug. I saw Susan Sarandon, Bill Maher, Angela Bassett and dozens of other well-known people, many of whom I actually got to say hello to. In the lobby as I was walking around, I shook Congressman Dennis Kucinich’s hand, who actually told me that he thought the San Mateo County Straw Poll was a great event, and I saw Congressman Barney Frank and numerous members of our local leadership, including Lt. Governor John Garamendi, former State Controller Steve Westly, Congresswoman Barbara Lee and former State Treasurer Phil Angelides.

During the convention, I was interviewed by the San Francisco Chronicle, and on the bus back, I actually spoke for half an hour with a reporter from one of the largest newspapers in Holland. I may never see that newspaper, but it was a great opportunity to share my thoughts with readers from far, far away.

Today’s first day was an outrageously wonderful experience. Oh, we did get to vote for the Democratic platform and make several other procedural votes, but the rest of the time was devoted to speeches by people like Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar and more than two dozen other wonderful and terrific speakers. We were handed signs to hold up to welcome several key speakers, including a Kennedy sign for Ted Kennedy, a Michelle sign and a couple of signs to help frame the theme of the moment.

If you watched tonight’s convention telecast, you may have seen more closely the presentations and heard some of the speeches even better than I did, but what you may not have captured is the overpowering feeling of hope in the room, the environment of a shared vision, a overwhelming desire to see change occur in this country, and a palpable realization that every delegate and elected representative is there for one purpose, to elect Barack Obama as the next president of the United States.

I don’t know everything taking place tomorrow or what new sight and sound I’ll come across, but I feel very confident that it will be another day packed with amazing activities that I have never experienced before and may never again, and whatever happens, I’ll do my best to share it with you.

Goodnight from Denver…

Welcome to Obama City

2008-08-24T16:38:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Obama City. On your left is an Obama swag stand. On your right is an Obama swag stand. Straight ahead is an Obama swag stand. Some pretty cool stuff, too! As I stepped off the tram from the arrival terminal and entered the main terminal, it was an Obama feast for the eyes. Men and women dressed up in western outfits to direct all arrivers, a welcoming line from every lobby group, special interest concern and people scattered through with signs welcoming Obama delegates from all over the country.

I have been to dozens of conventions all over this country, but never had I gotten on an airplane mostly filled with people all heading to a city to attend the convention or activities surrounding that convention. And unlike most flights, people are energized, talking to others as if they’ve known them for years, and everyone decked out with an Obama shirt, hat or button. It is hard to describe my excitement as I sit on the plane and listen to the conversations flowing around me dripping with anticipation and a promise of the time of their life.

Last week, I had the pleasure and honor of speaking before a group of Obama supporters and voters at a fundraising party in San Carlos, California, and in addition to raising $5500 for the Barack Obama campaign, I had the pleasure of getting to meet most of the attendees. They were a wonderful group of people, and as I sat on the plane thinking about that event and also imagining what is in store for me in the coming week, I casually turned around to peek through the opening in the seats to see who was having the interesting and spirited discussion behind me, and sitting there was one of the lovely couples I met last Sunday at the fundraiser. It is a small world.

Waiting in line for the SuperShuttle with hundreds of my closest new friends was like old home week or like rush week at college, each of us trying to figure out which one of the dozens of shuttles and buses was heading in the direction of our hotel. In my shuttle was delegates from Ohio and North Carolina, and it was fun sharing a couple of stories with them and realizing that we’re all coming to Denver to accomplish something very important, but also to rub elbows with the bigwigs and to have a great time. When we stopped at a red light in the center of downtown, I looked over to my left and saw Senator Carl Levin of Michigan sitting in the passenger seat of his car.

As I approached my hotel, it looked like Obama City Hall. My hotel will be my home for the next six days and for the delegations of both California and New York, and it was a feast for the eyes to walk into a lobby filled with delegates checking in, visiting the Obama swag table (they’re like Starbuck’s coffee stores) and gathering together to meet and greet and reacquaint with each other and share their excitement and thrill to be part of something this big. The lobby is filled with reporters and party officials bustling about.

Once I got into my room, I had to go get something to eat because it was well after noon and I had not eaten since 6:00 AM. As I sat there alone at my table in the lobby restaurant rifling through the two bags stuffed with literature and goodies from the California Democratic Party, a woman at the next table behind me, a delegate from New York, was curious as to what all of that stuff was. As I showed her some of the things and as we started talking to each other about where we were from, I had the opportunity to meet a really fabulous person who is as enthusiastic and as supportive as I am about our candidate, Barack Obama, and about our country and its vast diversity and the promise of better days.

Tonight I have the choice of three equally compelling events, and I will try to present myself at all three. This is the land of opportunity, Obama City, and it is one beautiful place. Tomorrow starts the big festivities, starting with a California delegation breakfast, and in the next few days, I will be in the presence of the vast majority of the Democratic leadership of this country. I can honestly say that this is one of the greatest things that I’ve done in my life, and I am honored and humbled that I get to live this unique privilege, and although I guarantee that I’ll have lots of fun and eat everything that’s not attached to the food tables, I am also here for serious business, and I do take this business very seriously.

I Have Just Been Biden My Time

2008-08-23T08:37:00.000-07:00

Not to toot my own horn -- oh, why not? Over the past few weeks, every time I was asked who I think Obama will pick as his VP (and I must have been asked 200 times) I've said Joe Biden. I was even interviewed by KCBS Radio in San Francisco last Saturday and answered Joe Biden. Am I just psychic or just a talented swami? No way. Yes, I may be just a little astute, but in truth, Barack's choice for VP seemed to be clearly leading him toward Joe Biden.

I have always liked Joe Biden. Yes, he shoots from the hip, but his candor is just what Barack Obama needs at this point. The VP slot has traditionally been seen as an attack dog role during the time leading up to the election, but Obama needs someone strong and glib to bolster his populist and progressive message. Although Barack does a spectacular job of delineating his strengths and the bold agenda that he is laying out, his weakness has been getting any accurate representatiions of John McCain's weaknesses and negatives to resonate with the American people. I do believe that Biden will make them stick.

Tom Lantos was my Congressman and I knew him and respected him, so his memorial service that was held in Washington meant a lot to me. During the service, Joe Biden spoke so warmly and eloquently, and his off-the-cuff words were so incredibly moving and touching. His ability to move a crowd, speak from the heart and say it like it is is exactly what will bring additional substance, weight and yes, credibility to the Obama campaign.

This is still an uphill battle. The Obama-Biden ticket is not just running against John McCain and whoever he selects as his running mate, most likely Mitt Romney. They are also running against the Bush-Cheney White House, who still controls much of the spotlight when they demand it, but much more critically, they are truly up against Fox News and the corporate-driven Right Wing media and pundits who will do and say anything to try to prevent a president who will put the American people first and not continue the benefit-rich playing field that has been the stalwart of the Bush-Cheney regime.

Not shockingly, the McCain campaign was ready with a negative Obama-Biden ad this morning, and it is just a sad way to continue to operate a campaign. A candidate can only push the negative attack button so many times, and McCain is really pushing his luck right now. The American people are bright enough to recognize that Biden, who at one time was running for president himself, said some provocative things about Obama in the heat of the battle, but those things were relatively benign, and certainly don't concern me. McCain will also pick on a couple of minor gaffes that plagued Biden over twenty years ago, but the presumed attacks that will stem from that will just be hollow, similar to McCain's overall message.

The selection of Joe Biden shows a tremendous amount about Barack Obama. Instead of feeling threatened by the deep resume and the strong and boisterous personality of a Joe Biden, Obama can instead absorb the strengths and varied positive attributes of Biden and incorporate them into his own long list of accomplishments, and together they make a very formidable team. I am absolutely thrilled with Barack's choice of Joe Biden, and it doesn't bother me at all that I was correct on at least one prediction.

Serving as a Delegate a Tremendous Honor

2008-08-22T03:15:00.000-07:00

I don't take what I'm about to do lightly. I am humbled and honored. I am now getting calls from media, getting last-minute calls from family and friends wishing me well, and it is settling in that I am actually going to a Democratic National Convention. Running for delegate and attending the delegate caucus seems like a distant memory. Recognizing that I actually won an election myself seems like a dream, but starting to think about what I'll pack, planning for which events I'll make an appearance at and knowing that I will be rubbing elbows with some of the more famous and important people in this country is actually giving me chills at this moment.

To think that only two short years ago, I told my wife that I was tired of doing nothing but voting every four years. I vowed that I would do more this presidential election. I had no idea that that innocent statement would land me here. I have met so many dedicated, spirited and amazing people along the way that I feel truly blessed by all of them. I can honestly say that I have never known more wonderful, enjoyable and genuine people in my entire life. If one were to judge a candidate by the people that work so hard to support him and truly admre and cherish him, then Barack is the candidate of not just this generation, but of the last three generations.

On a road that is now taking a wild turn toward the Rocky Mountains and to the aptly named Mile High City, there are have been so many spectacular stops along the way. From sitting in a veterinarian's office and finding myself raising my hand at my first meeting, the group's second meeting to volunteer to become the communications director, to helping to organize and ultimately meeting with a couple dozen people at Martin Luther King Center to fan out across San Mateo County to canvass for the first time, to ultimately hosting city meetings in my living room, this has been an amazing ride.

And now I and hundreds of my fellow delegates will go do what will hopefully be the next big step in nominating the next president of the United States. That awesome responsibility is easily the most important thing I've ever done. I feel like I carry each and every one of my friends, family, neighborhood, city and county on my shoulders as I go to Denver to represent every Democrat at the DNC. My task is clear, but the remarkable thing is that I have never been more sure of anything in my life. I have not had one reservation about the man that I will cast a vote for.

Although the convention will be a tremendous event, one filled with pageantry, memorable speeches and the culmination of a dream when an unknown man who would soon become a new senator made the speech that would launch a national political career that would catapult him on to the national stage and into a presidential bid, this road has a lot of traveling yet to go. We must get out the vote. We must register as many voters as is humanly posible. We must train as many volunteers as we can to go out into every community of this country to reach out to every possible voter and make sure that they get the message that we have all received.

This has been a campaign filled with excitement and spirit, but also one with frustration and some resentment. I have never experienced so many triumphant moments, from surprisingly seeing Barack win the Iowa caucus so handily, to watching a candidate who transcends race getting picked apart by bigotry, fear and yes, outright hatred. But at the same time, I have been so moved and inspired watching a man who never gives up, lives up to his word and tells me every day that we are doing the right thing. Along with the hundreds of people I've worked with in three dynamic and vibrant Obama offices in three separate counties, it is my candidate, the next president of the United States, who lifts me up and encourages me to keep carrying his torch each and every day.

I will hopefully be blogging from either the convention floor or from my hotel room late at night. If you want to follow along and get some of my thoughts, insights, reactions and experiences on a daily basis, you can log on to www.markbrickman.blogspot.com or find me on myBO. My wife tells me that I have finally found an outlet that allows me to express myself and let off some steam, and I can honestly say that if I wasn't able to write my blog every day or so, I'd have probably exploded a long time ago.

So this convention is huge, but it will be just another fun party if we don't get Barack elected president. Let's give it everything we've got. There are only 75 days left until election day. We can all rest on November 10th, but until then, let's go for it. This country desperately needs new leadership. It is time for massive changes, and Barack Obama can deliver those changes. Please join me, my fellow delegates and my hundreds of dedicated volunteer colleagues and let's put everything else on the back burner for a couple more months. We can do this! Let's elect Barack Obama president of the US. This is our time, and if we aren't willing to devote our time to this cause, then when will we?

I am dedicating this blog to my dad, who I sadly lost just after New Year's 2000. On Sunday, the day I leave for Denver, is his birthday. He would be so proud of me right now. He was a staunch Democrat, and one of my fondest memories are of him calling me the night before every election to find out how I was voting. He knew that I had done my homework, and he wanted to discuss his ideas with me. I miss him terribly, and it is for him, my wonderful family, but particularly my lovely grandchildren that I am wishing to make this a better and more prosperous country, a safer world and a place where they can live in peace and where they are free to pursue happiness.

The Convention Must Educate the Low Information Voter

2008-08-21T14:06:00.000-07:00

Just like you, I have been watching Democratic and Republican conventions ever since I can remember. And what do we learn? Well, one thing we learn is that other Democrats and Republicans speaking at their respective conventions support their party's candidate and platform. Duh!! I think we get that part, and since I'm a Democrat, I will only speak of that convention.

We have a spectacular convention coming up in Denver, and it should be an entertaining lovefest of the Democratic Party, our candidate Barack Obama and a celebration of our patriotism and love of America. But it will be missing something that seems mandatory at this point to make available to the viewers, and this is a guaranteed huge audience with the maximum exposure to the voting public.

Let's face facts...this is the disinformation age. John McCain and the Republican talking heads and their network participants have distorted almost everything about Barack, from his religion to his tax plan to his energy plan to his foreign policy expertise and agenda. What I am suggesting is probably radical, but I feel that it's the right forum to take advantage of the unfettered media coverage and to speak directly to the American people.

I will be in the convention hall. I am humbled by getting the opportunity to be there to nominate Barack, and I am proud to say that I have been studying our candidate for a year and a half. Although I listen to it, I am not swayed by the lies and misrepresentations of the McCain campaign, but about thirty percent of this country is. It is time for a reorientation of their opinions and this is the place to do it. We will not get another opportunity after this event. Not at a place where the speakers won't be constantly interrupted, contradicted or answered with more lies and deceptions.

I feel pretty strongly about this. I don't want to take away from the pageantry, the majesty and the magic of this week's festivities, but a little Obama 101 won't hurt anyone. It will set a new precedent, and for the first time in my lifetime, we will have pundits saying that people actually learned something at this convention, which they usually predict the opposite and wind up being correct.

What do you think? Let's educate the low information voter. Let's turn them from low info to informed. It can happen. If nothing else, it will put what Obama stands for -- and conversely what McCain stands for, and everything should come out, all the misrepresentations of McCain's own record and what he does or does not stand for -- front and center in the media, and while they're discussing the fabulous speeches, the exuberant crowd, they can discuss for the first time ever at a convention what talking points are being made.

Let's do it! Go Obama!! I'll see you next week.

Turning the Spotlight on McCain's Military Record

2008-08-19T15:34:00.000-07:00

In the midst of a presidential campaign filled with so many complex details, for a long time, John McCain's military record and his time as a POW, not to mention his time at the Naval Academy, has been pretty much off-limits, and rightly so. Even the candidate had not made it an issue. But recently it has been coming up more and more, mostly by McCain himself, who is making his military service and several key stories about it front and center in his own definition of who he is and how he'll govern if he becomes president.

This is totally unlike John Kerry, who very rarely, if ever, used his prior military service in any identification of who he was or as a qualification to be president. The irony is that the same people who "outed" Kerry as a supposed turncoat or someone who came back and misrepresentated his service in Vietnam are now touting McCain as a huge war hero and eating up his stories of heroism and his various military experiences as if they were as sweet as chocolate.

I used to feel strongly that McCain military service was an issue that should remain in the background and that he should be recognized and honored for his time wearing the uniform of our country, but I have changed my mind given the fact that I have seen his military service used in his ads, his talks at his events, and most recently in a big way at the event on Saturday night at the Saddleback Church.

There is a website that is dedicated to telling the truth about John McCain's military service and attempts to shed some light on the background stories of McCain's long history of military service before he entered political life. It is very worth a look. I realize that some items within it must be viewed with some skepticism, but much of this site is backed up with verification and documentation, and unlike the Swiftboaters of the Kerry campaign, the people who are speaking out about John McCain and his military service are not being funded by any Left-Wing billionaire.

Finally, I also understand that John McCain has the ability to make his military service record available to the public for review, but refuses to do so. It seems that anyone who is making a huge part of his life a central part of his campaign would like to open up his military records to the American public and media for review and confirmation of the descriptions and accounts of McCain's version of what he went through and verification so that he can discount or refute what is part of the linked website.

Here it is. Please take a moment to check it out. http://www.vietnamveteransagainstmccain.com/

Are We Heading Back to the Cold War?

2008-08-19T01:33:00.000-07:00

During one of the most exciting Olympic Games and possibly the most entertaining in history where over two hundred counries are competing, getting along in the spirit of interrnational cooperation and equitable participation, we have just the opposite situation taking place in the real world. In a country that has a less than stellar record of civil rights and where the kinds of freedoms that we in the United States take completely for granted don't exist, athletes from all over the globe have come to fairly and earnestly perform at their highest levels to compete on the international stage.

It would be lovely if the rest of the world operated under the same rules and fairness doctrines that the Olympics does, but that is just a pipe dream at this moment in history. It was be one thing if the more cruel and dictatorial countries were contained by international organizations or the countries in the region around them, but that is not always the case, either. But the United States has traditionally been the moral compass and the country that represented what is right with proper justice, but lately, I'm not as certain as I have been in my half century on this planet.
I have been under no illusion that Russia, the principal player in a region that was once known as the Soviet Union, has kind of been the hibernating bear that seems to have woken up in kind of a bad mood. In what looked like a solid attempt at democracy and a desire to be a responsible and active participant in the international community of nations, Russia is once again showing its might by making quite certain that the entire region knows that its military is potent, prepared and itching for a fight.

What we have been spoon fed in the last week by our mainstream media working in concert with George Bush and John McCainn is that the conflict stems from an unprovoked attack on Georgia by the big bad Russians. John McCain has even described the Country of Georgia as a "good little country," a fledgling democracy that is led by a Columbia educated maverick who, like himself, is just out to protect his people, mind his own business and keep his nose clean. He even said that "we are all Georgians." I really doubt that.

But sadly, McCain's version just isn't accurate. Not by a long shot. Now I don't excuse Russia's aggressive action, but I sincerely feel that it would not have even begun had Georgia not created the original problem by having its own military enter the territory of South Ossetia, disturbing Russia's military guarding the area and generally causing havoc at best and violence against Russian troops and South Ossentian citizens at worst. This is my rudimentary understanding of what has happened in the recent couple of weeks.

The real issue and my rising concern is that John McCain is taking advantage of this regional issue to severely ratchet up the rhetoric. To listen to McCain is to believe that Russia is getting ready to invade many former Soviet satellite countries, namely Poland, Lithuania, and who knows who else. To the best of my knowledge, there are still international organizations, such as the UN, NATO and I'm sure other outfits that oversee incidents between countries that make it unnecessary for the Unites States to go it alone. McCain doesn't seem to remember that or acknowledge that fact.

George W. Bush, McCain's partner and current leader of this country, has used some rather tough words on Russia, as well, along with Secretary of State Rice. Both Bush and McCain have demonstrated a complete lack of understanding of the seriousness and tenuousness of the relationship between Russia and Georgia, and I have no doubt that McCain's foreign advisor, who until recently was on Georgia's payroll, has a lot to do with Georgia's provocation and McCain's current criticism of Russia's activities.

All of this accusatory talk against Russia is so reminiscent of the Cold War days when Richard Nixon and ultimately Ronald Reagan spoke of Russia and the old Soviet Union. Yes, they were bad guys, but in 2008, instead of creating additional animosity, placing blame, pointing fingers and making the Russians the fall guy, maybe it would be better to either stay out of it or at least tell the people of this country the truth of what actually happened.

The truth is that Georgian president Saakashvili isn't such a Boy Scout after all. We would not tolerate his brand of democracy in this country, although the Bush-Cheney regime sometimes seems to be heading that direction. I am afraid that John McCain likes the kind of leader that Saakashvili is. When there are demonstrations and protests in the streets, instead of allowing them their right to speak out, like a democracy is supposed to run, Saakashvili sends in his military to knock some heads around and break it up. He certainly doesn't operate under anything resembling our constitution and Bill of Rights.

The bottom line is that a future under McCain seems too full of these kinds of problems. I am scared to death of what a President John McCain would say or do, and I don't think he would hesitate for a moment to send troops anywhere to prove his manhood and bring him back to his glory days in the Naval Academy and to quell any demons that he still has for his painful and torturous days in Vietnam.

For my president, I want a level-headed, thoughtful, skilled negotiator who doesn't shoot from the hip, but considers what the circumstances are and what his words mean, looks at all the possibilities and consults with advisors representing many different viewpoints before taking any action that could have such dire consequences on this country and the rest of the world. Barack Obama is the leader we need to face the difficult challenges that lie ahead, and I believe that the last week or so has provided us with more than enough of a glimpse into what a presidency under John McCain would be like.

Was McCain Pandering to the Crowd on Saturday Night?

2008-08-18T13:11:00.000-07:00

It has already been well established that John McCain has given new meaning to the word flip-flopping, but McCain's current positions on abortion rights and a review of recent statements and positions is not only relevant, but must be brought to the attention of people who automatically presume that McCain is a man of his word. A quick review of a 1999 CNN interview makes this issue crystal clear http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Trbaufpok8

Frankly, I have always been anti-abortion, but staunchly pro-choice. Like Barack, I do not believe that anyone has a right to interfere with a woman's right to choose for herself whether to have a baby or terminate her pregnancy. I do feel that Barack must refine his response when it comes to the question of when life begins, but I also believe that almost any answer except absolute overturn of Roe v Wade and any other rhetoric that goes along with that position will not satisfy any Christian and/or evangelical crowd.

It is also imperative to point out that John McCain will say anything to an audience at any given time. The relevance is that Barack Obama, like his answers or not, says the same thing in Biloxi, Des Moines, San Francisco or Berlin. Please take a listen to this little video about McCain that points out so many altered or changed positions and compare his past statements with so much of what he said this past Saturday night at Saddleback Church http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9W_K4RCisxc&feature=related Sure he makes decisive statements, and he sounds folksy and is an aw shucks kind of guy, but what will he be saying next week? Your guess is as good as mine.

If we're going to be fair, then McCain appearing at any forum where he will be unchallenged or not receiving follow-up questions should have a screen behind him displaying what he has said in the past that contradicts what he's currently saying or at least listing previous positions that he's taken that differ from his current position. It is only fair that unsuspecting audience members be given a fair opportunity to know what McCain stands for, has stood for and possibly will stand for in the future, because all three positions may be diametrically opposed to one another.

In the process of writing this blog, I reviewed about ten other youtube videos and found them interesting, even entertaining because they follow the same theme, which is demonstrating John McCain's hypocrisy, his anger, his tendency to have a steadfast belief no matter what he learns in the interim, and of course the dozens of times on a myriad of issues where he's said one thing and now says another. I must say in the strongest language that I can muster that we (and I mean us and the Obama campaign) must stick to the issues. Although it proves a point to say that McCain needs anger management counseling or that he and his gang are manipulative, conniving and crafty, it gets us off message, and McCain will win that war every time, my friends.

A Very Valuable Article to Read

2008-08-17T20:29:00.000-07:00

These days, there is so much to read. Occasionally we come across a gem, and this is one. If you've been frustrated by watching John McCain getting a pass by the media, witnessing him making flip-flopping an Olympic event and generally developing an overall disdain for McCain's swagger that is reminiscent of George W. Bush, then you must read the following article.

It's a little long, but it is chock full of valuable information. I spoke to a group today at a house party in San Carlos, California, and during a Q&A session during the event, it was obvious that McCain's treatment in the media, his overall demeanor and the way he disrespects Barack was on the minds of the engaged and involved gathering of Obama voters.

So please take a couple of minutes to read the following superb article by Frank Rich published today in the NY Times.

August 17, 2008Op-Ed ColumnistThe Candidate We Still Don't Know By FRANK RICHNY TIMES

AS I went on vacation at the end of July, Barack Obama was leading John McCain by three to four percentage points in national polls. When I returned last week he still was. But lo and behold, a whole new plot twist had rolled off the bloviation assembly line in those intervening two weeks: Obama had lost the election!

The poor guy should be winning in a landslide against the despised party of Bush-Cheney, and he's not. He should be passing the 50 percent mark in polls, and he's not. He's been done in by that ad with Britney and Paris and by a new international crisis that allows McCain to again flex his Manchurian Candidate military cred. Let the neocons identify a new battleground for igniting World War III, whether Baghdad or Tehran or Moscow, and McCain gets with the program as if Angela Lansbury has just dealt him the Queen of Hearts.

Obama has also been defeated by racism (again). He can't connect and "close the deal" with ordinary Americans too doltish to comprehend a multicultural biography that includes what Cokie Roberts of ABC News has damned as the "foreign, exotic place" of Hawaii. As The Economist sums up the received wisdom, "lunch-pail Ohio Democrats" find Obama's ideas of change "airy-fairy" and are all asking, "Who on earth is this guy?"

It seems almost churlish to look at some actual facts. No presidential candidate was breaking the 50 percent mark in mid-August polls in 2004 or 2000. Obama's average lead of three to four points is marginally larger than both John Kerry's and Al Gore's leads then (each was winning by one point in Gallup surveys). Obama is also ahead of Ronald Reagan in mid-August 1980 (40 percent to Jimmy Carter's 46). At Pollster.com, which aggregates polls and gauges the electoral count, Obama as of Friday stood at 284 electoral votes, McCain at 169. That means McCain could win all 85 electoral votes in current toss-up states and still lose the election.

Yet surely, we keep hearing, Obama should be running away with the thing. Even Michael Dukakis was beating the first George Bush by 17 percentage points in the summer of 1988. Of course, were Obama ahead by 17 points today, the same prognosticators now fussing over his narrow lead would be predicting that the arrogant and presumptuous Obama was destined to squander that landslide on vacation and tank just like his hapless predecessor.

The truth is we have no idea what will happen in November. But for the sake of argument, let's posit that one thread of the Obama-is-doomed scenario is right: His lead should be huge in a year when the G.O.P. is in such disrepute that at least eight of the party's own senatorial incumbents are skipping their own convention, the fail-safe way to avoid being caught near the Larry Craig Memorial Men's Room at the Twin Cities airport.

So why isn't Obama romping? The obvious answer -- and both the excessively genteel Obama campaign and a too-compliant press bear responsibility for it -- is that the public doesn't know who on earth John McCain is. The most revealing poll this month by far is the Pew Research Center survey finding that 48 percent of Americans feel they're "hearing too much" about Obama. Pew found that only 26 percent feel that way about McCain, and that nearly 4 in 10 Americans feel they hear too little about him. It's past time for that pressing educational need to be met.

What is widely known is the skin-deep, out-of-date McCain image. As this fairy tale has it, the hero who survived the Hanoi Hilton has stood up as rebelliously in Washington as he did to his Vietnamese captors. He strenuously opposed the execution of the Iraq war; he slammed the president's response to Katrina; he fought the "agents of intolerance" of the religious right; he crusaded against the G.O.P. House leader Tom DeLay, the criminal lobbyist Jack Abramoff and their coterie of influence-peddlers.

With the exception of McCain's imprisonment in Vietnam, every aspect of this profile in courage is inaccurate or defunct.

McCain never called for Donald Rumsfeld to be fired and didn't start criticizing the war plan until late August 2003, nearly four months after "Mission Accomplished." By then the growing insurgency was undeniable. On the day Hurricane Katrina hit, McCain laughed it up with the oblivious president at a birthday photo-op in Arizona. McCain didn't get to New Orleans for another six months and didn't sharply express public criticism of the Bush response to the calamity until this April, when he traveled to the Gulf Coast in desperate search of election-year pageantry surrounding him with black extras.

McCain long ago embraced the right's agents of intolerance, even spending months courting the Rev. John Hagee, whose fringe views about Roman Catholics and the Holocaust were known to anyone who can use the Internet. (Once the McCain campaign discovered YouTube, it ditched Hagee.) On Monday McCain is scheduled to appear at an Atlanta fund-raiser being promoted by Ralph Reed, who is not only the former aide de camp to one of the agents of intolerance McCain once vilified (Pat Robertson) but is also the former Abramoff acolyte showcased in McCain's own Senate investigation of Indian casino lobbying.

Though the McCain campaign announced a new no-lobbyists policy three months after The Washington Post's February report that lobbyists were "essentially running" the whole operation, the fact remains that McCain's top officials and fund-raisers have past financial ties to nearly every domestic and foreign flashpoint, from Fannie Mae to Blackwater to Ahmad Chalabi to the government of Georgia. No sooner does McCain flip-flop on oil drilling than a bevy of Hess Oil family members and executives, not to mention a lowly Hess office manager and his wife, each give a maximum $28,500 to the Republican Party.

While reporters at The Post and The New York Times have been vetting McCain, many others give him a free pass. Their default cliché is to present him as the Old Faithful everyone already knows. They routinely salute his "independence," his "maverick image" and his "renegade reputation" -- as the hackneyed script was reiterated by Karl Rove in a Wall Street Journal op-ed column last week. At Talking Points Memo, the essential blog vigilantly pursuing the McCain revelations often ignored elsewhere, Josh Marshall accurately observes that the Republican candidate is "graded on a curve."

Most Americans still don't know, as Marshall writes, that on the campaign trail "McCain frequently forgets key elements of policies, gets countries' names wrong, forgets things he's said only hours or days before and is frequently just confused." Most Americans still don't know it is precisely for this reason that the McCain campaign has now shut down the press's previously unfettered access to the candidate on the Straight Talk Express.

To appreciate the discrepancy in what we know about McCain and Obama, merely look at the coverage of the potential first ladies. We have heard too much indeed about Michelle Obama's Princeton thesis, her pay raises at the University of Chicago hospital, her statement about being "proud" of her country and the false rumor of a video of her ranting about "whitey." But we still haven't been inside Cindy McCain's tax returns, all her multiple homes or private plane.

The Los Angeles Times reported in June that Hensley & Company, the enormous beer distributorship she controls, "lobbies regulatory agencies on alcohol issues that involve public health and safety," in opposition to groups like Mothers Against Drunk Driving. The McCain campaign told The Times that Mrs. McCain's future role in her beer empire won't be revealed before the election.

Some of those who know McCain best -- Republicans -- are tougher on him than the press is. Rita Hauser, who was a Bush financial chairwoman in New York in 2000 and served on the Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board in the administration's first term, joined other players in the G.O.P. establishment in forming Republicans for Obama last week. Why? The leadership qualities she admires in Obama -- temperament, sustained judgment, the ability to play well with others -- are missing in McCain. "He doesn't listen carefully to people and make reasoned judgments," Hauser told me. "If John says 'I'm going with so and so,' you can't count on that the next morning," she complained, adding, "That's not the man we want for president."

McCain has even prompted alarms from the right's own favorite hit man du jour: Jerome Corsi, who Swift-boated John Kerry as co-author of "Unfit to Command" in 2004 and who is trying to do the same to Obama in his newly minted best seller, "The Obama Nation."
Corsi's writings have been repeatedly promoted by Sean Hannity on Fox News; Corsi's publisher, Mary Matalin, has praised her author's "scholarship." If Republican warriors like Hannity and Matalin think so highly of Corsi's research into Obama, then perhaps we should take seriously Corsi's scholarship about McCain. In recent articles at worldnetdaily.com, Corsi has claimed (among other charges) that the McCain campaign received "strong" financial support from a "group tied to Al Qaeda" and that "McCain's personal fortune traces back to organized crime in Arizona."

As everyone says, polls are meaningless in the summers of election years. Especially this year, when there's one candidate whose real story has yet to be fully told. Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

Obama Does Beautiful Job in Orange County Church

2008-08-17T09:55:00.000-07:00

I had a very interesting afternoon and evening. My wife and I watched the Q&A at Pastor Rick Warren's Saddleback Church in Orange County, California. We watched Barack's sit-down for a one-on-one with Pastor Warren, and were quite satisfied with another terrific performance by Barack. He was calm, engaged, humorous but quite serious about responding to questions on a variety of topics, many of which had religious content or dealt with issues of a personal nature and much less on policy.

We interrupted the two-hour program and went to dinner on the coast to celebrate our anniversary. Thank you very much! Having taped the portion where John McCain answered essentially the same questions from Warren, we really couldn'twait to sit down and witness McCain's performance. I don't think I've yelled at the TV more since the Gore-Bush debates just about eight years ago.

Obama listened politely to the questions and answered them fairly, succinctly and thoughtfully. McCain. on the other hand, anticipated every question and seemed prepared to answer as if he had written the questions. He had obviously heard the questions beforehand. Obama was warned by Warren not to give his standard stump speech as his answers, and he didn't. McCain was given no such admonition, and he should have been, because his presentation was his stump speech.

My lowest grade goes to Pat Buchanan for his comments after the show that Barack looked tortured and gave answers that were essentially all over the place. I told my wife that he must have been watching a different show than I. I am in agreement that McCain did excel at this format, but there is no follow-up question nor challenge to any of McCain's grandiose pronouncements and/or statements that could only be called over the top and grandstanding, and it was tremendously frustrating.

Obama was polite, answered quite thoroughly and gave answers that genuinely reflected his true feelings and I believe encompass the viewpoints of the vast minority of the American people. He expressed himself with warmth, honesty and with a great amount of skill, whereas McCain seemed to take almost every question and turn it into a long-winded opportunity to pander to the obviously partisan crowd and said "my friends" probably eight times. I am not his friend!

This following article does a superb job of accurately covering the events of tonight. If you get a chance to watch these two presentations, see if you agree with me. Obama was quite good tonight. I was proud of him and pleased to enjoy what he had to say, and I honestly felt sad watching McCain and realized that he's very good in this format. It doesn't make him a good choice for president, but on this night, I will acknowledge that he was masterful. But as a final thought, I'll take Obama 100 times out of 100. He is my guy.

Obama slams Thomas, hugs McCainBy MIKE ALLEN 8/16/08 9:14 PM EST Text Size:

The candidates meet at Saddleback Church in California to discuss religion, morals and personal questions.Photo: AP

Asked which justice he wouldn’t have nominated to the Supreme Court, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) on Saturday night named Justice Clarence Thomas, the court’s only African American. Obama was asked the provocative question by Pastor Rick Warren, the moderator of the “Saddleback Civil Forum on the Presidency” at the megachurch Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, which is in Orange County, Calif. Thomas was nominated by President George H.W. Bush, the current president’s father. “I don’t think that he was a strong enough jurist or legal thinker at the time, for that elevation, setting aside the fact that I profoundly disagree with his interpretations of a lot of the constitution,” Obama began. The forum went for two hours – the first hour with Obama, based on a coin flip, and the second hour with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

In between, they shook hands onstage in their first meeting since they clinched the nomination. Obama reached out and gave McCain a hug. They then waved to the crowd with Warren between them, and McCain flashed his trademark thumbs-up. All three men were tieless. They appeared before a large live audience at the church, and the forum was shown live on Fox News, CNN and MSNBC. Warren said he was going to ask the two “identical” questions so viewers could compare. Warren joked that he would keep McCain in a "cone of silence" during Obama's segment. Obama, just back from a Hawaiian vacation, was quite relaxed. McCain turned solemn early in the interview when he was asked his greatest moral failure. "My greatest moral failing, and I have been a very imperfect person, is the failure of my first marriage," McCain said. "It's my greatest moral failure." On the Supreme Court section, Obama added that he “would not nominate Justice Antonin Scalia, who was nominated by President Ronald Reagan. Scalia and Thomas are the court’s most conservative justices. Obama said of Scalia: “I don’t think there’s any doubt about his intellectual brilliance. … He and I just disagree. You know, he taught at the University of Chicago, as did I, in the law school.” Asked about Chief Justice John Roberts, nominated by President Bush, Obama said: “You know, John Roberts, I have to say, was a tougher question, only because I find him to be a very compelling person, you know, in conversation, individually. “He’s clearly smart – very thoughts. I will tell you that how I’ve seen him operate since he went to the bench confirms the suspicions that I had, and the reason that I voted against him. And I’ll give you one very specific instance, and this is not a stump speech.” Warren had warned Obama against pulling answers from his stump speech. Now, he made a “cut” sign across his throat. “I’m getting the cues,” Obama quipped. “One of the most important jobs of, I believe, the Supreme Court is to guard against the encroachment of the executive branch on the power of the other branches. And I think that he has been a little bit too willing and eager to give an administration – whether it’s mine, or George Bush’s – more power than I think the constitution originally intended.” Two-third of the way into the hour, Warren high-fived Obama for a clever reference to the pastor’s “The Purpose Driven Life,” said to be the best-selling non-fiction book in U.S. history. Warren asked Obama to define rich: “Give me a number.” Obama drew laughter when he briefly hesitated, then quipped: “You know if you’ve got book sales of 25 million … ” Turning serious toward the end, Obama said: “I want people to know me well,” and added that if they do, “they’re going to make a good decision and we’re going to be able to solve the big problems that we face.” Asked what he would tell the American people if he knew there would be no repercussions, Obama said: “Solving big problems —- like, for example, energy – is not going to be easy. Everybody’s going to have to get involved.” The crowd was mixed. Audience members thundered applause when Obama said he believes marriage is the union of a man and a woman. But the crowd also clapped when he said he would not support a constitutional amendment codifying that definition.

Warren and the candidates sat at a spare set, with just two mugs on it. Asked his definition of "rich," McCain tossed off "$5 million," then seemed to recognize comments he had tossed off in the past that had come back to him in ads by the opposition. "I'm sure that comment will be distorted," McCain said. "The point is we want to keep people's taxes low. ... I don't want to raised anybody's taxes." McCain, who in the past has rarely talked about his captivity during the Vietnam War after he crashed as a Navy aviator, spoke of the mistreatment by guards — and of the guard he showed his faith by tracing a cross on the ground. On the justices-he-wouldn't-nominate question, McCain had a near-majority — Justice Bader Ginsburg (nominated by President Bill Clinton), Stephen G. Breyer (Clinton), David Souter (the first President Bush, John Paul Stevens (President Gerald Ford). "This nomination should be based on the criteria of proven record of strictly adhering to the Constitution of the United States of America, and not legislating from the bench," McCain said. McCain named the chief justice and Justice Samuel Alito — President Bush's nominees — as among his favorites. McCain got a huge cheer when he spoke up for charter schools, vouchers and home schooling. "Choice and competition," he said. "Home schooling works."

The Audacity of Dopes

2008-08-16T08:24:00.000-07:00

In an unprecedented move, John McCain assumed the presidency on August 15, 2008. This was apparently necessitated because George W. Bush abdicated his throne. President McCain's first official act was to dispatch two prized members of his newly formed cabinet, known affectionately in the inner circle as Abbott & Costello, to Georgia to demonstrate that McCain means business when he says that we are all Geogians. There is talk of leaving new Georgian citizen, Secretary of State Joe Lieberman, in Tbilisi permanently just in case President Saakashvili makes a misstatement, because as it turns out, Lieberman's main talent is whispering.

There is one positive thing that one cay say about McCain's bold moves in response to Russia's aggressive military reaction to Georgia's provocative move on South Ossetia...he sure can take advantage of a situation that has next to nothing to do with him. Not only that, but he can sure spin a good yarn. To most of this country, including several people I have spoken to recently who don't have time to dig deeply into the news, Georgia, this shining beacon of democracy and brushed with just the hint of innocence, was sitting there pledging allegiance to its flag and encouraging open and unfettered free speech when all of a sudden, that mean neighborhood bully, Russia, decided to attack for no good reason. Those meanies!

It is only a matter of time before President McCain dispatches his elite squad of peacekeepers, the McCainanites, into the region to restore order. In McCain's expert assessment based on reports from Secretary of State Lieberman and Secretary of Defense Lindsay Graham, there is a requirement for a permanent force to restore order in the cities of Tbilisi and Gori. There is no need for the involvement or consultation with NATO, the United Nations or even the current but still resident regime of Bush, Cheney, Rice and the rest of the recently departed US Government.

The really lucky break for McCain is that his chief Georgian envoy, Randy Scheunemann, who until this spring was a lobbyist working directly with Georgia and most likely setting in motion the events that are now unfolding, is able to perform two very important functions: One, giving McCain tremendous insight into a region that he ordinarily would not be that familiar with; and two, giving Georgia exactly what it bought for the $800,000 they paid him, protection, appropriate representation and propulsion on to the world stage, and most importantly, having exclusive access to the next president of the United Stetes, the fabulous President John McCain.
I hope that throne hasn't made its way to the Smithsonian just yet, because we're going to need it.

Oh, and just a prediction. Just in case any of McCain's recent action garners any criticism that he may have overstepped his bounds or that he may be acting just a bit presumptuous, McCain's Right Wing henchmen are busy concocting the story that while in Hawaii this past week, Obama and his team were investigating whether Barack Obama or anyone in his family is related, even remotely, to former Hawaii monarch King Kamehameha, who ruled the Hawaiian Islands in the 18th and 19th centuries. If necessary, a well-placed ad will be released that alleges that Obama will ascend to the throne of Hawaii and plans to reclaim his rightful place as the new King of Honolulu.

There is always a silver lining. Maybe Barack can get me a deal at the Hyatt Regency!

McCain: I've Been to the Mountaintop

2008-08-14T17:33:00.001-07:00

There is a growing suspicion that John McCain is in love with the idea of war. He dreams about it. He can taste it. He seems to long for the days when this whole country was involved in a war economy and living with the threat of being incinerated by a nuclear bomb. His recent rhetoric seeming to stir up memories of harsh words and a suspicious if not cold relationship with the old Soviet Union is outrageously scary, and as the details and facts unravel about this skirmish between Russia and Georgia, it seems that McCain is very and inextricably connected with the Bush-Cheney regime along with Condi Rice, Karl Rove and his own personal envoy, former Georgian lobbyist Randy Scheunemann pulling strings in this conflict well before the rest of us knew anything about it.

So John McCain is looking over that mountaintop, and he sees war, a return to the Cold War, a continuation and perpetuation of the Bush doctrine of threaten first, consider sending in troops second and avoid diplomacy and negotiation at all cost. It reminds him of the good old days when the United States was always right, when the rest of the world was scared and respected a strong leader and we truly had a moral imperative. Well, Mr. McCain, this isn't 1945 or 1968 or even 1981. This is a different world, my friend, and the world and our role in it has drastically changed and become way more complicated.

This is a superb blog to read on the same theme http://pundits.thehill.com/2008/08/14/john-mccain-on-russia-angry-bellicose-belligerent-and-extreme/

There is a lot to say about this subject, but I don't think it's too much of a stretch to say that not only is the Bush regime going to be generally continued for another four years if McCain is elected, but this man has no problem with violating any pledge or promise, doing exactly what his latest strategist or advisor tells him to do or say, and he only has a very small portion of this country on his mind, namely big business, big oil, the high-end Republilcan elite and any person or entity who brings a lot of money and influence to the McCain fundraising party.

Grassroots Activities Still Pay Dividends

2008-08-14T10:06:00.000-07:00

Last night Cynthia and I worked a couple of hours at the San Mateo County Fair, and immediately I was reminded why being in the trenches is the way to go. Within five minutes of being there, at least five groups of people walked by and just couldn't resist smiling broadly, displaying a thumbs up and uttering the word "Obama." Although satisfying, this is the low hanging fruit. The true reward is interacting with the undecided voter or the person who likes Obama, but has never voted for a Democrat.

But before I delve into our experience with a couple of ambivalent voters, I would like to talk about the McCain booth. As we walked into the hall where probably a hundred booths are laid out in several rows, among dozens of vendors selling and displaying everything from lighted rollerskates to roofing, we noticed the McCain booth. As you would expect, it was unattended, and the most unusual feature was one of those rubber Halloween style masks in the form of a McCain head. Sitting there on a table in the middle of a flag display and literature, McCain's head sitting there kind of crumpled and wrinkled reminded me of what someone who was beheaded would look like. I couldn't decide whether this was someone's idea of a great backdrop or whether they were scrambling just to get any McCain material out to fill the tables. In any case, it was creepy and maybe apropos.

As we located the Democratic booth, besides being greeted warmly by several smiling and friendly campaign workers, standing near the back of the booth was a life-sized cardboard cutout of Barack Obama, and during the next two hours, at least half a dozen people asked if he was for sale. I bet you no one was offering to take home the creepy McCain head! Bumper stickers, buttons, t-shirts, Obama literature and voter registration forms were a huge feature, but the human element was the star. Probably three large groups of teenagers made a point of slowly walking by and making their way toward our table to let us know that they love Obama and wish they were old enough to vote for him, and I told them what I tell all young people, which is not to rush getting older; it happens faster than they think and they'll get to be as old as me pretty quickly.

One woman that stands out was a woman of about 60 who identified herself as a school teacher, and as she lingered in front of the booth making vague references to her tepid admiration of Barack, she admitted that she hadn't registered to vote for fear of being called for jury duty. Her statement that she couldn't bear to be separated from her class sounded plausible, but as we talked about Barack, it was obvious to me that this woman was perhaps considering supporting a Democratic for the first time in her life.

We spoke to her about reading Barack's book Dreams From My Father, and as she gently mentioned several standard Republican talking points that can only come from Fox News or someone like Sean Hannity -- which I didn't take as a challenge but more as a request to dispel her of the myths -- she listened very thoughtfully and intently to our responses and actually seemed pleased to find out that there is an alternative way of looking at and perceiving Barack Obama and the profound impact that he'll have on the issues that are important to her.

Although this woman said that she had a voter registration form at home, it seemed that if that were true, it was probably yellowed from old age. She eventually admitted to me that she had retired last year from a long teaching career after thirty years, and upon saying her goodbyes and thank yous, seemed to pause at the display of voter registration forms. She donned a rather wry smile and said, "Well, maybe I'll just take one of these and fill it out at home," and as she walked away, Cynthia, Nadia (a very dedicated Obama office veteran) and I felt like we had made a difference. I have no doubt that this woman will go back to wherever she hangs out and let everyone know what she learned last night.

As we continued on with our evening, this same woman came back to the booth to show my wife a necklace she had purchased from another booth nearby. It seems like she felt that she had made some new friends, and we felt very satisfied that we are spending our time doing something worthwhile.

In every community in every corner of this country, some event like our county fair is taking place. Don't be shy...go see whether you can spend an hour or two hanging out, passing out bumper stickers, greeting potential Obama voters and letting them put a face to this presidential campaign. I promise that you'll feel very good and you will definitely be making a difference.
Oh, by the way, curious people that we are, we just had to pop on by the Republican booth to see whether someone actually showed up to "person" it, and sure enough, there was a woman there. The wrinkled head was still there, too. It was as quiet as a tomb, and the woman was standing there with her paperwork spread in front of her...her work work. This woman had her letters and memos from work in front of her and she was getting her personal work done while she stood there with no one to talk to. We were nice and said hello. After all, we are representatives of Barack Obama every second.

As we turned the corner on the way out of the hall, the lighted rollerskate man called us over and smiling, quietly said, "Did you see the McCain lady there?" We acknowledged that we had, and he said, "Yeah. Nobody goes over there." He added, "I'm voting for Obama, too!" As we exited the building and headed for home, we felt pretty damned good.

Newsflash: Hawaii is Part of the United States

2008-08-14T09:03:00.000-07:00

Have you ever heard of Hawaii, the birthplace of Barack Obama and home of his grandparents? It was recently admitted as the newest state in the United States......in 1959!! Give me a break. Next week, Hawaii will celebrate its 49th year as a state. John McCain was 22 years old in 1959. You'd think he would have heard the big news. Apparently not.

The new mantra in the McCain campaign, being repeated by anyone even remotely related to the candidate, is that McCain is the only patriot in this presidential race, the only candidate who truly cares about this country, the only candidate who is an American citizen. The campaign is actually trying to imply in several different ways on several different fronts that Barack Obama is technically not an American, that he has some kind of allegiance to another country and that he is just not to be trusted to come down on the side of America if some kind of skirmish were to break out.

McCain's latest ads have taken a real patriotic bent http://www.mahalo.com/John_McCain_Patriot_Ad.

If you listen to Joe Lieberman describing the attributes of his buddy, John McCain, you would think that McCain has been sitting in on every foreign policy strategy meeting with Bush, Cheney, Condi and Gates. He and McCain also imply that while McCain has his finger on the pulse of Russia's new push to become the equivalent of the old Soviet Union, Barack Obama is a nice guy, but he doesn't know squat when it comes to what's really going on in the rest of the world.

The truth is that McCain's chief advisor on the region that includes the country of Georgia is none other than lobbyist Randy Scheuneman, who until very recently was working directly with Georgian president Mikheil Saakachvili and negotiating energy deals with the strategically located country. I wonder what caused McCain to ask us to consider that we're all Georgians in spirit. Instead of sounding like he'll call out the entire cavalry to bust into Russia and take care of business if they don't back off, maybe he should tell the truth, if he even actually knows it, that Georgia actually provoked the attack by having its military enter South Ossetia, which technically is a province of Georgia, but whose citizens consider themselves part of Russia and where the Russian Army was guarding the border at the time.

The bottom line is that I wouldn't be shocked to find out that somehow McCain through his lobbyist representative actually encouraged Georgia to make a military move believing that the US would have its back. McCain's response and rhetoric over this military aggression on both sides has been way out of proportion for a presidential candidate, and I am unhappy that Barack, whose comments have conversely been appropriate for a presidential candidate and demonistrating a much better understanding of the current events on the ground, may appear to be relatively unprepared because he's not, like McCain, looking and talking like he's ready to command the troops himself and march them right into Russia to take care of business.

I am at this moment at a loss as to how to counteract the bluster and over-the-top posturing that is currently coming out of the McCain campaign, not to mention the deceptive lies that are a major part of its advertising strategy, but something must be done. John McCain and his surrogates are so very full of it, and I think the only way to contrast his lack of preparedness with Obama's skillful leadership and mastery of the issues that will actually benefit Americans, the kind of change that Americans are yearning for, is to have difficult questions put to McCain every day. Questions from Barack, questions from the media (presuming McCain will actually answer their questions if they ask him something more difficult than how are you feeling patriotic today?) and challenging every misstatement, mischaracterization and outright lie that comes out of his mouth or anybody working on his behalf.

Let's get to it! In the meantime, go visit our newest state, Hawaii. Get there before the word gets out that it's kind of tropical and very pretty.

McCain is Just Too Predicable

2008-08-12T09:45:00.000-07:00

With the sudden aggressive action of Russia against the sovereign country of Georgia, I predicted that John McCain would over-react and use this conflict to show his mastery of foreign policy and understanding of the region. Although I knew he'd do something dramatic, I was really negatively impressed by what he came up with yesterday.

Unlike Obama, who presented a proportioned response appropriate for a presidential candidate who at this point has no particular power nor should overstep the office of the sitting president, McCain came out for a full-blown press conference at a podium in front of a backdrop of American flags. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/07/09/mccain_campaign_restricts_pres.html

As the article points out, this press conference is a gimmick, a stunt, a show. McCain's attempt to look and sound presidential is impressive at first blush, but his bluster is just that, bluster. He used very strong and somewhat aggressive sounding words, but his words are hollow. He at this point has no more power to do anything in the region than Obama, and yet he perseveres, condemning Russia, rattling off names of leaders, landmarks, pipelines as if he wrote the speech himself. As is his usual practice, he demonstrated that he didn't know that name of Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYjb7EfhLls

John McCain pulled a fast one yesterday. His new campaign team really has put him in a similar path to the way the Bush-Cheney regime has been run. With his usual group of pool reporters that travel with the McCain campaign sitting on a tarmac many miles away without any knowledge that McCain was about to make a speech, McCain delivered his speech to a much smaller group of local and regional reporters, who did get to ask a few questions, but McCain was spared the more detailed and difficult questions that undoubtedly would have been put to him by the more experienced and seasoned national reporting pool. McCain's speech yesterday brings to mind Bush's speech to an empty square in New Orleans with lights flooding the church while the rest of New Orleans had no power.

Barack Obama, on the other hand, also demonstrated rudimentary knowledge of the region, but without the bluster that McCain presented. This is not the time to grandstand, to attempt to show that you're ready to lead. Being a credible leader means showing restraint, recognizing proportion and reality, and not calling for troops to be sent to Georgia, like McCain did, when our own president is not speaking in the same vein, and which every other military and political leader in this country is not calling for. McCain knows damn well that we don't have the troops available nor are we going to be interfering in a skirmish between two former Soviet states.

As I have said before, I am not impressed with a potential commander-in-chief that gives powerful speeches that carry no actual weight. We have lived with a president for the past eight years that says one thing and does another. My man is Barack Obama, who just doesn't feel the need to fabricate a venue filled with a staged audience, a deception perpetrated on the press, and speech filled with platitudes and sabre rattling and demonstrating that what he's talking about is way over his head. He simply speaks from his heart and uses his head. Go figure.

My Candidate Must Be of Good Character

2008-08-11T14:46:00.000-07:00

I have to say that at this point, I'm absolutely thrilled that Barack Obama is my presidential candidate. I am not so naive to expect that a candidate, man or woman, be as pure as the driven snow, but what is happening before our eyes with John Edwards is not just sad, it is just pathetic. When it comes to fidelity in marriage, I want my candidate to be faithful. It just says something about what he or she is made of, how important is h is/her commitment and whether he's able to look the public in the eye and tell the truth without knowing that that's a lie.

John McCain is also one of these tragic figures who has been less than a stellar husband. In his case, he also cheated on his wife who was in ill health, but unlike Edwards, he ultimately left his former wife for his current wife, beer heiress Cindy Hensley. Many people are not privy to the details of McCain's indiscretion, but I think it's relevant and important to know.

http://www.voiceofarizona.com/McCains_broken_marriage_and_fra-5031-2-33278.htm

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-divorce11-2008jul11,0,6546861.story?page=2

Former President Clinton has a sordid past that he has not really been able to overcome. Other previous presidents or presidential candidates have been able to keep their extramarital affairs under wraps for two main reasons: The mainstream simply looked the other way, and we didn't live in a 24/7 news era where newsrooms had to dig deep for stories and will now report on anything and everything.

Of course the only person who seems to get away with having relationships outside of marriage is our current president, W. To this day, we have no clue what Jeff Gannon, the fake journalist/male escort for men, was doing in the West Wing of the White House dozens of times at all times of the day or night. We also know that rumors of Bush's relationship with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice are legendary, but the only one that's really talking is Laura Bush, whose body language and eyes tell the very dark story of a woman who lost any spark that existed in that marriage a long time ago.

I would rather have my presidential family happy, together, living in a world based on trust, fidelity and honesty. This translates to how the president looks at the American people, and conversely, this affects how the American people view their president. A politician who has such a huge secret that he's working hard at hiding or dodging will ultimately spend more time working at keeping that secret than they will working for you and me.

I realize that 50% of men and women in this country are not faithful to their spouse or significant other, but these are people who make life and death decisions that have such a profound effect on all of us.

What's Wrong With Being a Celebrity?

2008-08-10T22:21:00.000-07:00

My friend, Mary sent me a blog tonight, and it has really helped me to synthesize some thoughts I've had since this ridiculous label has been bestowed on Barack. The accusation of being a celebrity and the comparison to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, along with the absurd and unfair mocking of Obama's suggestion that keeping one's tires inflated to proper pressure is somehow his complete energy policy has been really bugging me, and I realize that this parallel isn't exactly equal, but it has been reminding me of the Republican Party trying desperately to supress voting over the past couple of presidential elections.

This blog is really quite good, and I recommend it to you.

http://www.anonymousliberal.com/2008/08/how-obama-should-respond-to-celebrity.html

Obama a Leap of Faith?

2008-08-10T17:22:00.000-07:00

As I usually do on Sunday morning, I lay in bed with my lovely wife and watch Meet the Press. But it was The Chris Matthews Show this morning that had a little more relevance to me today. The discussion, as usual, was Barack Obama's experience or lack of it and whether that was a liability versus John McCain's vast experience at foreign policy and his elevated status having been a war hero and prisoner of war.

On The Chris Matthews Show, as well as the discussion over on ABC's This Week, it seems that Obama takes a beating overall. It's a little frustrating to watch, but in the end, Barack makes a huge rebound. The question is posed as to whether voting for Obama is a leap of faith, and the overall feeling is yes, but the ultimate clarifier is that Obama, despite lacking in critical experience in key areas, particularly world exposure and foreign policy, is smart and can learn what he doesn't already know.

On the segment of The Chris Matthews Show where the guests tell the host something that he doesn't know, David Brooks of the New York Times said something that is critical to recognizing and acknowleding the kind of change that Barack brings to this country, and conversely what John McCain is lacking in terms of his quest to keep us clinging to the status quo. Brooks announced that he had it on very good authority that Obama's first two bills that he'd try to get through Congress is the SCHIP program, benefitting children's health issues, and a stem cell research program, obviously benefitting innovative health research and dynamic new medical procedures.

The other theme that was discussed was Obama's ultimate popularity with women, which could potentially put him over the top, and the presence and expertise of Hillary Clinton who, if utilized properly, could assist Barack Obama in bringing about a health plan that resonates with the American people and could spark Congress to work on a bipartisan basis to pass a comprehensive universal healthcare plan.

This then brings up the concept of what does McCain plan to do if he becomes president. The SCHIP program and stem bell research are a very aggressive agenda, and can we expect John McCain to support these programs? I sincerely doubt it, but he should be questioned on these issues immediately.

Finally, both candidates were asked to comment on Russia's very aggressive attack on the country of Georgia over the past few days. First off, seeing Bush sitting there at the Olympics a couple of seats away from Vladimir Putin yucking it up as if nothing was going on was absolutely repulsive, but I digress. I have not studied this to any degree, but listening to what McCain said, which was an immediate repudiation of Russia without much of the facts being available, seemed over the top and almost grandstanding.

Barack, asked what he would say about the acts of Russia on Georgia, originally tempered his comments by speaking in hypotheticals, and then once the actions of of Russia were clarified and it was confirmed that Russia was the aggressor who is once again pushing its agenda of dominance in the region and trying to spread its control over a former Soviet state, stepped up his comments and reiterated his concerns that Russia's actions were not well received in the US and across the world.

I do have to say that on first blush, I like a president (or future president) who doesn't jump to conclusions, doesn't say things that he'll end up having to take back later, and one that doesn't start all comments with cliches and rhetoric that could apply to many situations. McCain, who seems to have made comments that were strong but appropriate, could very well have been wrong if that situation on the ground turned out to be different. I like the fact that Obama chose to modify his comments until he had more confirmation of what was going on in Georgia.

Barack Obama is ready to be our president. Yes, he does lack experience in some areas, but a smart man can learn the nuances that will make him a more well-rounded leader. I am more comfortable with that kind of president. Call it a leap of faith, but I'd prefer to call it a good bet, a calculated risk rather than a known quantity, McCain, that yes, we do know what he's all about, but is that really what we want for our future? I don't think so.

Maybe McCain Should Start Worrying About Himself

2008-08-08T11:21:00.000-07:00

The key to the next couple of months, in my humble opinion, is how Barack Obama can get his message out to the general public. It seems that John McCain has really staked his entire campaign on daily criticisms and an ongoing tirade against Barack and misrepresenting anything and everything he says. Maybe he should spend a little more time thinking about how he can best represent himself http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWX5u69hmzY

The real ironic aspect of the McCain campaign's unfair characterization and constant attacks on the words and actions of Obama is that they eventually end up agreeing with what they initially criticize. There is a long list of examples, but let's just take two. McCain initially went ballistic about Obama's suggestion that it's better to be communicating with our enemies than isolating them, and that if he becomes president, he'd do exactly that. McCain now agrees that having talks with these world leaders would be a viable option.

Additionally, McCain had vehemently belittled Obama for his supposed lack of knowledge and experience when it comes to carrying out the ultimate withdrawal of troops from Iraq. He had said over and over again that he rejects timetables which Obama supports, and when Barack said that the central battleground against terrorists is Afghanistan, McCain said that it was Iraq. Well, guess who now is speaking of timetables and is even entertaining the idea of shifting troops from Iraq to Afghanistan. If you said John McCain, give yourself five points.

I do believe that Obama's strong message of change in domestic and foreign policies is slowly getting out, but the mainstream media and the vast majority of the talking heads would rather focus on the McCain attack machine and whether it has any merit and is how much damage it is doing to Barack Obama. Maybe it's time that they started investigating how much damage it's doing to John McCain. This constant barrage of negativity is taking its toll for sure, but it is now creating much more negative attention on the McCain camp than it is Obama's.

Even though it is very tough at times to sit through the drama that is this presidential campaign and witness the give and take between the two campaigns and how it is either correctly and honestly reported or unfairly spun on various radio and television broadcasts, it remains one of the most engaging and empowering spaces of time in my life. I am still overwhelmingly encouraged by what I see, because above all else, we have one of the best candidates if not the best that we have had in my lifetime, which unfortunately is into its second half century.

Last night my daughter, who technically is my stepdaughter, told us at dinner that she received an anti-Obama hit piece in her email from the man we call Bio, her biological father. It was the typical Obama is a Muslim and we need a Christian crap that we've all seen. Ordinarily, I believe she either wouldn't tell us that she got it (because that would make him look bad) or she'd tell us and just hit the delete button. She instead proudly informed us that she responded by telling him the truth about Barack Obama, and that she doesn't like the fact that he's spreading lies about her candidate.

See? Things are definitely looking up. Let's not be discouraged. We have a lot of work yet to do, but nothing really worthwhile is handed over on a silver platter. This is a win that we will truly savor. Let's go get 'em!

Hill and Bill...Get Over Yourselves!

2008-08-07T10:42:00.000-07:00

Can you imagine a Mitt Romney or a Mike Huckabee meeting in backyards and small gatherings, under the guise of campaigning for John McCain, telling their supporters that they need a strategy to nominate her at the Republican convention? Can you even imagine a Bill Richardson or John Edwards doing the same thing? There is a reason that this isn't done...there are two candidates that have already secured the required threshold to become their partys' presumptive nominees, Barack Obama and John McCain.

Yesterday, Hillary Clinton met with a small gathering of supporters in a backyard in California, and in the process of making the rounds drumming up support for Obama, made it clear that she and her supporters need to concoct a plausible and workable strategy to get her name placed in nomination at the Democratic convention.

Bill Clinton, who has made a rather public display of distancing himself from the Obama campaign, was interviewed in Africa yesterday and instead of speaking glowingly at the thought of an Obama presidency, gave him a tepid if not ambivalent nod as he said that no one is really prepared to become the president. Both he and his wife have made natioal news with their arguably annti-Obama comments.

Well, Bill and Hillary, it is time to stand up, walk over to the mirror and say, "Okay, Bill/Hillary, yes, it stings that I/we didn't get the nomination. It sucks, actually! But I have a job to do. And...oh, yeah. I can really score some major points with everyone, especially a lot of my detractors, by coming out big for Obama." Bill should say, "Dammit, I was the first black president. I'll be damned if -- no! Obama is a good man, and I can't let my stubbornness stand in the way of him winning!" Hillary should say, "I wanted to be president! I wanted to be pre -- no! I won't allow John McCain to be president if I have anything to say about it!"

At the same time, Barack must gently nudge the Clilntons the come into the fold. This "the Clintons must have their respect and their just due" is absolute crap! I don't subscribe to anything that the Bushes do or stand for, but George Bush, Sr. is the previous president, not W's chief advisor. He is honored, along with Bill Clinton I might add, when honor is appropriate. But the Clintons haven't achieved royalty status just yet, and the Obama campaign must reach out to them just as they do all any other Democratic colleague, with respect, with a shared admiration and understanding, but not with a "you set the agenda" attitude.

There was no bigger admirer of Bill Clinton than I was. In his hayday, I was his biggest fan and vocal supporter. His behavior of late and during the primary campaign was deplorable. Both he and Hillary ran a campaign of entitlement and of destruction, but both off them can redeem themselves drastically in the eyes of the American people, Democrats and Republicans alike, by assuming the role of team players who vigorously support their candidate without demanding that their own needs are met first or that they will run off and brood.

Bill and Hillary, get with the program!!

It is Now Time for Obama to Move Ahead

2008-08-06T22:35:00.000-07:00

John McCain and his campaign have dipped their pen into the inkwell one too many times. That bottle ran dry about a week ago. This Maureen Dowd article from The New York Times today really hits a homerun http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/06/opinion/06dowd.html?ex=1218686400&en=4457fd3be4d20cfc&ei=5070&emc=eta1.

I will not waste another word on McCain. Anyone who actually takes McCain's juvenile tirades and frivolous criticisms of Barack Obama seriously at this point has completely drunk the Republican talking point Kool-aid.

The silver lining is that the teflon coating that I've spoken of before is finally beginning to be get scraped off of McCain. He has at this point turned his political future over to the Rovian hit squad that has brought us the Bush/McCain comedy show, and their best days are happily behind them. What used to score major points in the naive days when the mainstream media had chosen to partner up with the government has now given way to some networks and alternative sites that offer other points of view, and our numbers are growing exponentially now on a daily basis.

Even though Barack must continue to choose his words carefully, he is finally strongly and proudly asserting himself and his campaign and correctly and forcefully defining John McCain as completely out of touch. Although McCain is kind of making it look a little too easy, there is still a lot of road that must be marched down. Every Republican from McCain to Gingrich to Rove and anyone with a microphone in their face will not take the threat of an Obama presidency leading this country to peace and prosperity and in turn reducing their power and ability to control every aspect of this country lying down. They will pull out all the stops.

But staying on this course will more than counteract the Republlican attack machine. The more the McCain camp and cronies continue down this path of making Obama their main focus of baseless ridicule, unfair innuendo and childish pranks, the more this country will come to the accurate conclusion that McCain has no reasonable platform that will carry this country forward and heal even part of the significant damage this his buddy Bush has done to this country.

I will predict right now that if Obama continues to define McCain to be the uninformed political prankster that has no actual record that he can run on while continuing to forge ahead with identifying himself as the best hope to change America and define a new direction that people can be comfortable with, he will finally eclipse that magical 50% threshold that he has been striving to achieve in the polls.

Living in the World of the Double Standard

2008-08-04T16:42:00.000-07:00

It is absolutely amazing to me how divisive and negative this campaign has become in the past few weeks. I realize that I may be a bit biased, but almost all of it seems to be coming from the McCain side. As a matter of fact, the McCain campaign has actually seemed to define themselves as the attackers and have embraced the fact that they've gotten pretty damned good at it.

I even heard McCain yesterday state that Obama should really be enjoying this, that he should essentially lighten up, that these attack ads are really just light-hearted and playful attempts to demonstrate the differences between the two candidates. Well, my friends, we live in a world where the playing field isn't even, and if the Obama campaign and Barack himself were creating ads and slinging the mud in the same way that the McCain camp has, the media and the Right Wing talking heads would be all over him.

I would not advocate this kind of ad, but what if the Obama campaign came out with its own negative attack ad on McCain. With pictures of Berlin, Portland and several other huge events playing in the beginning, the voiceover begins, "Maybe Barack Obama is something of a celebrity. But people are ready for change, and he's the candidate of the kind of change they want."

The picture changes to McCain walking into Schmidt's German Restaurant. "Did you ever wonder why John McCain doesn't speak in places where a large crowd can gather?"
The picture changes to McCain photos with Bush, Rove, Phil Gramm, Ted Stevens, Charles Keating, (you get the idea) and the voiceover says, "Maybe John McCain has a little too much experience."

The pictures now show Barack sitting down leading his recent economic summit meeting, then fades to pictures of Barack meeting troops in Iraq. Then a clip of McCain saying that the economy is not his strong suit, saying he will rely on Phil Gramm to be his guru with the headlines of Gramm stepping down due to his calling the American public whiners.

An image of gas prices quickly shows in the background. Headlines flash across the screen showing how many times McCain voted against the troops in legislation that would support them, particularly the Gi Bill, in which he was absent altogether.

The voiceover says, "Barack Obama offers change this country can rely on and believe in. John McCain is old, tired and doesn't know what he believes in." McCain's recent speech plays where he delivers a mean accusation against Obama, then flahes that smarmy smile that we've all seen. And while the picture of McCain hugging George W. Bush appears and fills the screen, the voiceover says, "Can we really survice another four more years of George W. Bush?"

The ad ends with the woman in Denver being escorted away from the venue by the police and we hear the woman say, "I'm an American citizen. Why wouldn't McCain want me to point out that he's equal to George Bush? It's his party."

I realize that I won't be hired by any of the large ad agencies based on this, but I think you get the idea. Like I said, I don't think we'll see an ad like this, nor would I wish to see one, but we do have a double standard.

Why should McCain be able to attack and attack and instead of being ridiculed by the mainstream media, he is praised for taking Obama off message and doing what he has to do to get elected. There is definitely something wrong here.

McCain Ad Preying Fears of Christian Bogeyman

2008-08-04T16:40:00.000-07:00

The recent ad "The One" by the McCain campaign may be about race in a peripheral way, but its main theme is apparently much more subtle and quite a bit more sinister. Thom Hartmann on Air American Radio this morning covered this ad very extensively, and after listening to even a part of it, I am convinced that he is correct.

http://perspectives.com/forums/view_topic.php?id=182142&forum_id=6

This is a recurring theme for Republicans, but it seems to pay dividends. The theme is definitely anti-Christian and more precisely anti-decency. Apparently the words, concept and overall outline of the ad was planned long ago, like most of the attack strategy of the McCain smear machine. It almost doesn't matter what positions or words that Barack presents; McCain ads will take the opposite position or point out what this ad does.

I can't recommend listening to the first hour of Mr. Hartmann's program strongly enough http://www.thomhartmann.com/. Besides being absolutely brilliant, Thom has an excellent grasp on this subject (and all others). He points out rather convincingly that the ad depicting Obama as "the one" and culminating with Charlton Heston as Moses parting the Red Sea is reminiscent and using words from the book series "Left Behind," a Christian awareness book which has a character much like the charismatic Barack who is labeled as the anti-Christ.

I don't claim to understand it all, but I wanted to make sure that we are not deluded into thinking that this is just a little standard fear bluster being foisted on the American people. This is out and out hate and the message is Attention all Christians: Be afraid, Be very afraid.

It may not happen right away, given the bias that the mainstream media displays, but I am hopeful that the McCain camp is challenged about the real meaning of this advertisement and ones that are like it with similar mean-spirited attacks. Now that I think of it, I'd love to see McCain challenged about anything!!

Special thank you to my wonderful cousin, David for calling me this morning to tell me what Thom Hartmann was talking about today. David, you are the best!

I Will Make This Short and Sweet

2008-08-04T16:37:00.000-07:00

Unless we all want to risk seeing a John McCain regime strutting around in November after another hard-fought contest where say "we should have done this" or "we should have done that," it's time that we all stepped up to the plate.

Contact your representative if they're a Democrat and tell them to get out there and stand with Barack Obama. Tell them to contact the Obama campaign to find out what they can do, and tell those that may have had their feelings hurt or somehow think they're entitled to be on the ticket -- they know who they are -- that this is put up or shut up time.

Finally, give five minutes per day to this campaign. Yes, you!! Make five calls. Write one letter. Find out where your local Obama office is and visit it. You will find a bunch of people just like you working their tails off trying to boost Barack into office, and you'll have the time of your life working with them.

So as Barack Obama says, this is our time. We are the ones WE have been waiting for. Don't be left behind. Step up and let's make a difference. We are the strongest when we all work together for a common cause, and there is no more important cause right at this moment than electing Barack Obama and defeating John McCain.

If I was any more fired up, I'd combust!!

Getting the Message Out There

2008-08-01T14:30:00.000-07:00

I am an ardent observer and follower of the political scene in this country and -- who am I kidding? I'm an addict. I was traveling this past weekend, and my wife and I were experiecing withdrawal after only three days. We even ducked into a hotel lounge to see if we could catch a few moments of news from CNN or MSNBC, but at that moment they were all covering non-news items. Too bad.

I watch just about every kind of political coverage, and the one consistent thread through every broadcast is that the issues are almost completely ignored while the banter back and forth between the presidential campaigns, no matter how insignficant and irrelevant, is covered with a gusto that we may have never seen.

I think there are larger issues at play here. One, it is becoming increasingly apparent that Barack Obama wishes to stick to the issues that are on the minds of the people of this country and that the McCain campaign would rather cover anything but the isssues, specifically focusing the media's attention on Obama's supposed negatives, things like his being a celebrity, whether he plays the race card, whether he is "ready to lead" and whatever the talking point is of the day, as long as it is hurtful to Obama and taking the attention away from McCain's shortcomings when it comes to the issues.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/01/AR2008080103032.html?wpisrc=newsletter

I feel that articles like this should be explored. They let us know what McCain is truly about and how he arrives at his positions. Reading this will leave you with one thought...there is a stark difference between John McCain and Barack Obama, on so many levels.

Additionally, the Obama campaign is putting out important policy statements that are almost if not completely ignored by the mainstream media, and this article certainly tells us why McCain can't keep up. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0708/12215.html

The question is how do we change this? How do we get the media to focus its attention on important and vital issues, what Obama has been talking about every day, and away from the McCain talking points that, while provocative, will not get us anywhere except into a divisive and distracting discussion that will just continue to confuse that forty percent of the country that is affected by this coverage.

I'd love to hear some suggestions, because I know the Obama campaign reads this, and they will see what's being said out here in Obama support blogland.

2008-07-31T23:27:00.000-07:00

I was already convinced that the McCain campaign is committed to running the most negative and divisive presidential campaign in American history, but hearing that the McCain camp had prepared two separate scripts, one criticizing Obama if he went to the Landstuhl military hospital and one if he didn't, being able to essentially nail Obama either way, is proof positive that McCain and his crew has decided to say and will say anything to get elected.

I am so anxious to see a face-to-face debate between the two candidates. Yes, Obama slips up from time to time, but his gaffes are relatively minor and certainly not meant to be deliberate attacks against McCain or of a malicious nature. But McCain doesn't seem to speak for his own campaign. He seems to sit back, allow his henchmen to do the dirty work, and then flash his smarmy smile, say a lot of "my friends," and try to appear to stay above the fray.

I can only imagine the future debate that Obama and McCain will eventually have. Brian Williams asks John McCain "Senator McCain, do you now stand behind your attacks against Senator Obama where you have said that Senator Obama is not a patriot, has no significant experience and doesn't have a clue what's going on in Iraq and Afghanistan?"

"Well, Brian, I frankly don't know where you got that quote. I have never said such cruel things, and to the best of my knowledge, no one on my behalf has said such things, either. But I would like to say that Senator Obama is quite naive and doesn't understand what's going on in the Middle East. Now I don't question the senator's patriotism, but Barack Hussein Obama -- er, Senator Obama is well-meaning, but he should leave the war strategy to those of us who wore the uniform."

Tom Brokaw turns to Barack and says, "Senator Obama, I will start with you first, but I will ask the same question of Senator McCain. What do you plan to do in your first ten days if you should become President Obama?"

"Tom, as I've said before, this country is in need of dramatic change. In my first ten days, I will gather my team together and we will immediately assess what issues need to be tackled in terms of their severity and importance. I will also meet immediately with my close military advisors and the Joint Chiefs and begin the process of removing troops from Iraq and rotating many of them into Afghanistan. Beyond that, my administration will be one of immediacy, quick and decisive action and determining how we can make the quickest impact to this country."

"Senator McCain."

"What was the question, Tom?"

"What do you plan to do in your first ten days if you should become President McCain?"

"Tom, if I should become the president, I would call on my many years of experience, both in the US Senate and before that wearing the uniform of this country. This gives me the wisdom and background to be an effective leader. I will make sure to meet with my newly appointed Iraq and Afghanistan war czars respectively. Senator Obama is not equipped to run our country, nor does he carry the inherent expience to understand the needs of the American people."

"Senator McCain," interrupts Brian Williams," please stick to the question."

"What was the question?"

"What would you do in the first ten days of holding office?"

"Oh, didn't I answer that? Well, I have a lot of things to do. Being president is a large job, and I'm ready to take it on. I have been preparing for it my entire life. Senator Obama has had very little time in the Senate, and he is a gifted speaker. There's no question about that, but words are just not enough. I have been to Iraq almost twenty times. I know better than anyone what is good for them, and he went there once and couldn't even take any time to speak to the troops. What kind of leader is he? He's one that doesn't know what the troops really want."

I do have a fertile mind, but you get my drift. Let the games begin.

Label Obama However You Want

2008-07-31T12:57:00.000-07:00

If you haven't noticed lately, John McCain and his mouthpieces have been labeling Barack Obama as arrogant, elitist, presumptuous, etc. You've heard it, and you must be getting as frustrated and irritated as I am. When McCain was calling Obama inexperienced, lacking foreign policy exposure or claiming he missed key votes, I could live with that. These attacks have now crossed the line and gotten out of hand, but I do have an idea.

McCain reminds me of a senior citizen in the neighborhood who, upon seeing the young upstarts moving in all around him, chooses to name-call, label them as yuppies, wet behind the ears or ignorant liberals instead of getting to know them. He is threatened by the changing environment around him, but instead of observing the new neighbors with curiousity, maybe going about his business and quietly sticking to what he knows and feels comfortable with, he lashes out, screaming hurtful slurs out the window and earning a reputation as the cranky old man who's lost his mind.

Welcome to the McCain campaign. That describes what John McCain is doing and why. But the key is how to combat that behavior without allowing McCain to garner sympathy from his cronies and tepid supporters, many of whom are supporting him because they feel they have no choice, but will rally around their candidate if he's being counter-attacked by Barack Obama. I actually think that I've come up with a solution to these attacks and unfair labels that will stick if not countered immediately.

Barack needs to adopt the labels in this way. When a reporter -- and you know one will -- asks Barack if he feels that he is arrogant, he responds, "If recognizing that the American people are struggling to pay for overpriced gasoline, pay their health insurance premiums and pay off their student loans and still put food on the table makes me arrogant, guilty as charged!" Or he could say, "If taking advantage of an opportunity to bolster my foreign policy by meeting with critical world leaders and drawing large crowds who recognize that the change that this country needs will also rekindle their affinity with the United States and restore our stature in the world makes me a presumptuous person, so be it."

Barack Obama must meet McCain's constant attacks with some lighthearted humor and at the same time point out that the mean-spirited and baseless references that are now part of everyday campaigning and advertising of the McCain campaign don't bother him at all. Remember when Ross Perot was accused of being inexperienced, and in a debate pointed out that if running up huge deficits, driving people out of work and whatever else he was accusing George H.W. Bush of, then yes, he doesn't possess that experience. It was very effective, although the rest of his campaign did not take off.

Barack Obama is the real deal, the entire package, but at this moment McCain is attempting to label him, and without the proper counter measures being employed immediately, these labels will stick to him like glue. He will just be known as a tax and spend, inexperienced flip-flopper, and that is obviously so untrue.

But if Barack uses the words of John McCain to point out that these labels are irrelevant to him, but that the false accusations that come along with them will not be tolerated for a moment, that the words used to describe who Obama is are just the opposite of reality and that he doesn't care what he's called as long as people recognize that he's being called names because they're threatened by the change that he's promising, then this will give Barack the opportunity to run through his plans for this country if he is fortunate enough to be elected president.

So when some pundit points out that Obama is fussy, finicky or feels that he is somehow annointed by God to save the world, Barack should just say, "Yes, you know, I am fussy. I just won't sit around and watch millions lose their homes, watch oil companies continue to rape the American driver, and I will not continue with the status quo that is being offered by John McCain. It is time for major change. Yes, I am fussy!"

Barack Obama a Great Friend to Israel

2008-07-30T20:53:00.000-07:00

I have been perplexed in the past months that Barack Obama is perceived by so many as being an enemy of Israel, even though just a quick search on the internet or a brief look into his past tells the complete opposite.

I read a spectacular letter today written by someone who was lucky enough to see Barack speak recently at a synagogue in Florida, and here it is. It is eloquently written and speaks volumes to anyone who will just open his/her mind and hear what it says.

May 23, 2008>> Mr. Obama Goes To Shul>> BOCA RATON , FLORIDA * Senator Barack Obama came to Temple B'nai > Torah this afternoon. As will often happen with candidates out on > the campaign trail, his arrival was delayed by several hours. And > although he apologized for being tardy and making us wait, he never > did mention the reason for his delay. As I found out later that > night, he had hopped up to Capitol Hill in order to vote in favor of > a measure which greatly expands the G.I. Bill. He could have taken > the high, self-serving road and told those assembled why he was > late. He could also have taken the low, "finger-pointing" road and > flailed Senator McCain for being one of 22 Republicans voting > against our men and women in uniform.>>

Instead, he did neither.>> This was not his reason for going to shul.>> Rather, he was here, in the midst of approximately 750 mostly- > Jewish men, women and teens, to talk about himself, Israel , and > anti-Semitism, and to address head-on the virtual St. Vitus' dance > of fear that has been such a noxious staple of cyberspace this past > year>> I managed to snag a VIP pass and, guiltily walking past the long > line of folks standing out in the rain, was seated about 6 feet away > from the senator. Sitting with me were -- somewhat surprisingly -- > at least thee lions of the Republican Party and a couple of die-hard > Clinton acolytes.

They, like so many in the assembled minyan, were > not there because they already supported Senator Obama. Rather, they > had come to find out for themselves just who the "skinny guy with > the strange-sounding name" is, and whether or not he will be as bad > for Israel as so many have claimed.>> Senator Obama certainly had his work cut out for himself.>> To make the senator's task even more challenging, just the day > before he attended shul, the New York Times ran a story entitled > "Many Florida Jews Express Doubts On Obama." In the article, staff > writer Jodi Kantor quoted a handful of South Florida Jews who were > dismissive -- if not downright hostile -- to Senator Obama's > candidacy.

One elderly woman said she would never vote for Obama > "because of his attitude on Israel ." A second averred that Obama > "is part of Chicago 's large Palestinian community." A third > worried that if he were elected, Obama "might fill his > administration with followers of Louis Farrakhan." And yet a fourth > opined, "His father was a Muslim and you can't take that out of him.">>

No one ever said running for president was easy; especially when > you're a guy named Barack Obama, and you're speaking in a synagogue > before more Jews than the rabbi has seen since last Rosh Hashana.>> With a mesmerizing mix of eloquence and erudition, articulation > and affability, the Senator won over the vast majority of the > assembled minyan. During the more than two hours he spent speaking > and dialoguing, Senator Obama made it abundantly clear that he was, > is, and always shall be, a staunch defender of the Jewish State. > [One should know a fact: after going over the voting records of both > Senator Clinton and Obama vis-a-vis issues pertaining to Israel, > AIPAC -- the main Israel support lobby in the U.S. gave both a 100% > rating. That's 100% of the time that both senators voted in a > manner that was favorable to the Jewish State.]>>

Senator Obama told of how, as a youngster attending summer camp, > he had a Jewish counselor who told him about Zionism:>> "I really connected with it, because in Zionism, there is this > sense of rootedness, of having a place and a home. And for a kid > with my unusual background . . . and not knowing precisely where I > fit, this struck a tremendous chord.">> When asked about his relationship with a Palestinian professor > from the University of Chicago , the Senator said:>> "Yes, I have met the man, but why do people automatically > conclude that therefore I must be in agreement with what he > espouses? People do have the ability to listen to those with whom > they disagree. How can one ever make any progress if the only folks > they talk to are those with whom they are in agreement?">>

Obama went on to say:>> "I don't want to get in to the 'some of my best friends are > Jewish' trap, because it's terribly demeaning. But I will tell you > this: when I first ran [unsuccessfully] for Congress against Bobby > Rush, the main argument against me was that I was too close to the > Jewish community! I have always believed that Jewish and African > Americans have an historic bond, an historic memory. I mourn the > passing of the time when Jewish Americans and African Americans > worked together in harmony to bring about change. If it weren't for > the Jewish community and their central role in the Civil Rights > struggle, I wouldn't be here today, running for President of the > United States .">>

Addressing all the emails that are going around [indeed, I just > received one entitled "The Fifty Lies of Barack Obama"], he made a > telling point with a fine degree of humor:>> "You know, no one believes those emails that start out: 'I'm a > Nigerian who has $5 million in the bank but can't get at it . . . > however if you'll only send me a thousand dollars . . .' Or all > those medicines that promise to help expand your . . . well, let's > not go there . . . [laughter] . . . But seriously, why then do > people believe scurrilous rumors? Promising millions for nothing or > potency for pennies has about as much reality as proclaiming that I > am a Jihadist.">>

Many in the crowd were of the opinion that "George W. Bush is the > best friend Israel has ever had." I hear this from my students more > often than is comfortable. Senator Obama addressed this in words of > stark simplicity:>> "In the past seven years, Iran has become infinitely more > powerful than ever before. It has given tremendous financial support > to the major enemies of Israel . This has all happened under the > Bush-Cheney-McCain watch. How can anyone conclude that the one who > empowers your worst enemy is your best friend? It doesn't make any > sense.">> One person in the crowd asked why, in saying he would convene a > summit meeting of all Arab countries, he excluded Israel , Obama > smiled and answered:>> "Well first, Israel isn't an Arab country; its a Jewish State. > Secondly, they are our strongest ally . . . our best friend in the > region. The countries we would be talking to are the ones we want > to convince that someday, somehow, they're going to have to learn > how to live in peace with Israel . If you only talk to your > friends, there is absolutely no chance that you're ever going to be > able to change your enemies. That is part of the definition of > courage">>

By way of example, Senator Obama mentioned how, when speaking > before students at a school of Ramallah , he told them, "One day you > are going to have to learn to live in peace with Israel.">> Did Senator Obama's "performance" make supporters out of everyone > in attendance? Probably not, for he is, as we say in Hebrew, raq > basar va'dahm ["merely flesh and blood"]. Nonetheless, I believe he > quelled the fear and uncertainty in many hearts.>>

There no doubt will always be those who choose to believe the > worst about Senator Obama -- or anyone in the public eye for that > matter. There will also always be those who seek to hide incipient > racism beneath the veneer of inept rhetoric. And believe me, I am > fully expecting people to write and tell me that I have had the wool > pulled over my eyes -- that Senator Obama is a Muslim, ant- > Semitic . . . the whole nine yards.>> And yet, for at least one afternoon, in one shul, the minyan had > the opportunity to listen to -- and share with -- a man who reminded > us that the Arabic barack and the Hebrew baruch share the same > meaning: "Blessed.">>

It was a "sermon" well worth the wait.>> Oh yes: by the end, even the three Republicans were on their feet.>> And don't worry about being late Senator. You see, ever since > Sinai, we've been on Jewish Standard Time .>>

�2008 Kurt F. Ston>> Kurt Stone is a rabbi, writer, lecturer, political activist, > professor, actor, and medical ethicist. Educated at the University > of California , the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers > University and the Hebrew Union College , Stone holds a B.A. in > American Political History, a Master of Hebrew Letters, and a Doctor > of Divinity. A resident of South Florida for more than 25 years, he > is currently spiritual leader of the North Broward Havurah in Coral > Springs .

Formula to Defeat the Man of Teflon

2008-07-29T12:53:00.000-07:00

I am convinced that John McCain is coated in teflon. How else do we explain the soft treatment that he receives from the press? His consistent gaffes and constant demonstrations of gross misunderstanding of national and international affairs would have spawned a new network by now if his name was Barack Obama, or just about any Democrat for that matter.

Instead, McCain on a daily basis misquotes facts and statistics, If you're a betting man or woman, put your money on at least one large misstatement per day. His handlers, many from the Bush/Cheney regime and dozens of professional lobbyists, must all be pretty much bald by now from pulling their hair out of their heads. If I were a supporter of McCain, I think I'd watch him with one hand over my eyes and the other attempting to keep my ears covered as much as I could.

There are so many articles written about this issue, and this one is as good as any .http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/26/opinion/26herbert.html?ex=1217736000&en=d5d49dd878b1adb0&ei=5070&emc=eta1.

But the mainstream corporate media takes a hands-off approach. Last night on Larry King and on numerous other broadcasts, McCain listens to the questions and provides his pre-prepared messages without challenge. It is a rare occasion that his provocative attacks of Obama or his outright mistakes are even mentioned when he makes them. There are still some news people that have the ability to know what actual reality is, but they either choose to simply allow McCain to get his canned message out or they have been told to leave the man alone.

Barack Obama has no such restriction. It is time to peel the teflon coating off of John McCain. The McCain supporters and surrogates will attempt to reapply a brand new coat, temporarily protecting McCain from a good public scouring, but he must once and for all be finally scrubbed clean.

Let's face facts. McCain has learned very quickly. His attacks on Obama stick. The lies that he's very good at spouting out, no matter how meritless and despite a pledge not to run a campaign this way, have scored points on his opponent. The only way to combat these mean-spirited and unfounded attacks is to counter-punch, but in an intelligent and specific manner.

Just like Hillary Clinton, whose supporters cried foul when Obama even looked at her funny, McCain spokespeople are just ready to scream if their man is somehow characterized in any way but as a caring elder statesman whose long service to this country allows him to be given a pass no matter how severely he screws up or demonstrates his ignorance on a whole host of issues.

No, this is a tough nut to crack, but it must be done. And quickly! The American public, particularly the younger sectors, are tiring of this topic. And why shouldn't they at this point? It seems like it's been going on for two years now. Oh, it has? It is imperative that Barack stir the pot and in a very subtle but pointed way bring up issues where McCain is vulnerable. In other words, McCain must be pressed every day until the Republican National Convention with questions that are put forward by either Obama or one of his spokespeople.

It is time to expose John McCain to the rest of America. We all know about him already, but people don't believe something unless they see it on TV, and these challenges to McCain's status quo must be coming out of the mouths of Katie Couric and George Stephanopolous as much as they consistently come out of Keith Olbermann's and Rachel Maddow's.

I can't express enough admiration and respect for the way that Barack Obama has run his campaign, always taking the high road, respectfully letting McCain's daily attacks roll off his back, just pointing out that McCain's choice of words is unfortunate or surprising, but with less than 100 days until the November election, it is now time to rachet up several notches on the "here's the truth" scale and let McCain have it.

I don't want to live through another four years of George Bush. I can't watch two or three new Supreme Court justices turn the Court too far right for generations. This country cannot survive economically, both domestically and internationally, with a McCain at the helm. There are about two dozen issues just off the top of my head that need immediate attention, and only a President Obama will even attempt to tackle these outrageiously vital issues.

Obama's Dreams From My Father in New Light

2008-07-28T17:16:00.000-07:00

This weekend my wife and I took another drive down to Southern California, this time for me to attend a convention, but also to see our children and grandchildren. We gave another book on CD a chance, this time Dreams From My Father by none other than Barack Obama. This was truly a treat. It is read by Barack, which is not unusual for books of an autobiographical nature, but the way it is read is what separates this book from others we've tried.

First off, if you haven't read this book, it is a must read, not just for Obama fans and supporters, but for anyone who wishes to be enriched, entertained and enlighted as to the fascinating and amazingly unique life of Barack Obama. Listening to the audio provides a whoe new dimension to enjoying this book. Barack breathes life into words that would ordinarily just sit idly on a pae, and the many layers and richness of the book are enhanced with Barack reading in the accents of the many characters that make up his very full life.

There are numerous vignettes in this book that are kind of bell-ringing moments, particularly if you've paid any attention to the last year of the Obama presidential campaign. An example is a very full explanation of events leading up to Barack's meeting with Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Barack makes clear from a detailed recounting of his first meeting with Wright that Wright explained that he is just occupying the pastor's role in the church, but that the church's mission and role in the community are not dependent on who is occupying the pastor's post.

An important aspect to remember about the book is that it was written in 1995, years before Barack Obama became a candidate for president, even years before he ran for the US Senate. It is an honest and forthright portrayal of his search for his own identity, a man who comes from two distinct and strong families, a quest to find his own place in the worlld, and ultimately a journey back through his father's roots as he endeavores to discover where he came from and how his father saw the world has shaped and will continue to shape how Barack may contribute to our world, what will make him a president of substance and of tremendous insight.

We listened to half of the book on our way down and the other half, of course, on our way back home. Even though we had a spectacular time, filled with wonderful family moments and great memories, it was the anticipation that we had yet to complete this book that was in the back of our minds. There is just something magical about Barack's story, and as we listened to the words of depth and texture that flow throughout the book, we can't help but think of our own lives, where we come from and what has brought us to this day.

Do yourself a huge favor. Revisit Dreams From My Father on CD or enjoy it for the first time. In either case, Barack's way of describing his life, his unbringing, his deep family history and the twists and turns of his experiences and exposure to the world that has brought him to where he is today gives us, the reader/listener, so much appreciation and a real window into why he is the man of destiny, the bright star on all of our horizons who will be our next president. It is a story of a man who has taken an improbable journey through the many generations of two families, one black and one white, and how it has carried him to the unlikely place that he occupies today.

Barack Obama's Dreams From My Father, A Story of Race and Inheritance can be borrowed from your local library, as we were fortunate enough to do, or it can be purchased in your local bookstore so that you can revisit it again and again. It is also a great book to share with loved ones. I can't recommend it highly enough. It truly has changed our lives.

Let's Give McCain What He's Asked For

2008-07-26T17:14:00.001-07:00

In recent weeks, it has become increasingly apparent that the McCain campaign has become annoyed at the attention that Barack Obama and his campaign have been receiving from just about every media outlet around this country. Obama’s current tour of Europe and the Middle East has allowed McCain, at least publicly, to cry out with mocking indignance that Barack Obama has become the darling of the media.

In the past weeks, the McCain camp has actually created a website devoted to the supposed bias that the media is showing to favor Barack Obama. They seem to easily dismiss the fact that for months now, their campaign and candidate have been given very soft treatment by the media of this country, a campaign that very rarely is forced to handle a difficult question or deal with anything even approaching a challenging question or query.

I believe it’s time for Barack to come back from his overseas trip and request that the media do just what John McCain and his subordinates have been complaining about. He should ask them to turn their cameras and spotlight right on John McCain, imploring the major networks to make certain that they focus significant attention on what John McCain truly offers this country in the next four years.

What McCain and his cronies neglect to recognize is that tremendous scrutiny comes with more intense media attention. This is the one aspect of running for president that has been missing from the daily activities of the McCain campaign. They instead travel around the country, making unchallenged pronouncements and attacks on Barack Obama with very little backlash or requirement to back up their statements. John McCain even has large news organizations like CBS editing out his gaffes and inserting answers that he has given at other times.

But Barack should go one step further. He should also make it very clear to anyone in the media that will actually devote any additional attention to the McCain campaign to hit John McCain with the same intensity and detail-seeking queries that they seem to have no difficulty going after Obama with. The Obama campaign should lay out plainly and clearly what areas the media should be focusing on, namely the more than five dozen changes in platform and agenda issues that has been a stalwart of the McCain candidacy.

While we’re at it, the media should make certain to see which of the Bush/Cheney edicts that he will either continue with or put an end to, things like the hundreds of presidential signing statements that the president has signed specifically stating that bills passed by Congress and signed into law by him can be ignored should he choose to do so. The list of items that McCain can distance himself on from the Bush/Cheney regime is too numerous to mention, but the media should pick a place to begin and have at it.

I make two predictions. No matter how the media is challenged, they won’t turn their attention away from Barack, for two reasons: Number one, he is significantly more interesting to cover than McCain; and secondly, Obama actually makes news and speaks with substance when he’s speaking. McCain speaks in dull, overly used clichés that are just not interesting to the media, and therefore, not of much interest to the American public.

I also think that Barack needs to come back and hit the issues hard without missing a beat. It’s time to step up to the appropriate words that make it very clear what Barack stands for and how dramatic the difference is between he and McCain. In the process of doing so, he should establish himself as a candidate who will fight hard to make certain that everyone in this country, even people who just listen to sound bites or get the tiniest snippets of news once in a while, has a clear understanding of what he stands for, how his presidency will benefit them, and maybe most importantly, what a continuation of the Bush/Cheney presidency will mean to each and every one of us if McCain does somehow get elected.

Obama Running for President of the US

2008-07-24T22:53:00.000-07:00

I may be mistaken, but it seems that John McCain is running for premiere of Iraq. That’s all he’ll talk about. Oh, he’ll touch on the economy, drilling off the coastlines, all of his other throwaway lines, but he keeps coming back to the war in Iraq. He’s the expert. Obama is just an unenlightened, naïve neophyte that is in way over his head when it comes to any foreign policy.

But the funny thing is that Barack is right where he should be. He not only recognizes, but makes no bones about the fact that as the Democratic hopeful for president, he must consider every ramification and all possibilities when it comes to not only his position as commander-in-chief, but as the president of the American people, keeping them safe, prosperous, energy efficient and ready to tackle the opportunities and pitfalls that we can all look forward to in the next four to eight years.

McCain is like a broken record, only his message was tired well before he has hit his stride. His latest attack on Obama is absurd, but it is also hurtful and destructive. He actually has the unmitigated gall to accuse Barack of being willing to lose the war if it benefits his presidential bid. Number one, although McCain and his cronies have spoken of winning this war in Iraq for a number of years, they have yet to define what a win would look like.

Furthermore, he speaks of the surge like the war and occupation of Iraq began with the surge. The surge is a magical and mystical action somehow concocted by McCain and only McCain. The sad thing is that John McCain gets every detail wrong about the surge as he describes it to anyone who will listen. He takes credit for knowing about it before anyone else does, attributes the wrong participants in describing its course of action and results, and gets the dates of the surge completely wrong as he criticizes Barack for refusing to even acknowledge that the surge worked.

Well, I for one don’t care if the surge worked. Yes, there are elements of Baghdad and other areas of Iraq where violence is down, but it would be truly naïve to ignore the multiple elements that have caused it to occur, including payoffs of the worst of the provocateurs that has caused them to temporarily cease fire. McCain certainly won’t talk about that, but will we just pay them in perpetuity? I guess McCain would.

Finally, I think it’s time for us to ask McCain if he’ll acknowledge that he was wrong for starting this war if he keeps insisting that Obama acknowledge that the surge worked. I won’t sit by the phone and wait for his call. Frankly, Obama has already spoken publicly about what has and has not worked about the surge, but this will never be enough for McCain, and let’s face it. This is all that McCain has got in his arsenal, so he’ll keep loading and reloading until he runs out of ammunition…in November.

Barack Obama is not only a superb candidate; he is already demonstrating what kind of excellent president he’ll be. He is running for the president of the United States, and even though Iraq, Afghanistan and the entire region, including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, is a slice of the pie that will be his domain once January rolls around, he is wisely and expertly recognizing that the economy of our country is in desperate need of a complete overhaul, and that must be job number one. McCain, on the other hand, has placed all of his eggs in the Iraq war basket, and frankly, those eggs are really starting to rot bigtime.

McCain an Embarrassment on Morning TV

2008-07-21T11:45:00.000-07:00

Did you catch John McCain on morning TV this morning? My wife and I caught him on the Today Show, and he certainly has a different style than most guests. He tries desperately not to be interrupted, because it is obvious that his canned speech has been rehearsed over and over, and if he allows himself to be interrupted, he looks like he must start over at the beginning.

His attacks on Barack Obama, though, don’t seem to upset me as much as, say, a Sean Hannity or a Newt Gingrich, and I believe that is because he lacks a great amount of credibility when he speaks. He appears to be fighting for his life – in politics, at least – and he repeats his prepared text without a lot of conviction and emotionality, which are elements that must be present to be taken seriously by the audience, in this case Meredith Vieira and the American people.

Ms. Vieira tried several times to interrupt McCain’s long-winded narratives, ultimately being forced to wait once until he had completely exhausted what he wanted to say, and then another time just choosing to speak over him because he obviously wasn’t fielding questions and apparently refused to stop to listen to any. In other words, he was going to get out what he came to say, and would not stop talking until he got out his entire speech.

I am really waiting for someone on a major forum – and there is no bigger audience than the Today Show – to truly challenge McCain on his major charges and attacks on Barack Obama. Words and accusations fly by fast, but my wife and I thought two if not more of McCain’s criticisms of Barack were completely false, and several more were most likely either misrepresentations or unfair characterizations of Obama’s actual words and actions in the past couple of months.

I am also waiting impatiently for someone to ask McCain what happened to his commitment to run an attack-free campaign. I am awaiting this morning’s interview on YouTube, but I feel like McCain mentioned Obama’s name over a dozen times in a critical, attack-oriented and negative framework that left no doubt that his main mission is to make certain that the listener comes away with the feeling that Obama is a naïve, inexperienced and inadequate candidate of anything, much less president of the United States.

Once Barack sets foot back on US soil and clearly and in a very detailed way explains what he learned, how he sees the next six months playing out and how his impressions of meeting with leaders and soldiers shape what he’ll do when he takes office in January, I believe it is time for Barack to begin defining John McCain for what he is and how he has conducted his campaign. He must once and for all expose McCain as the emperor with no clothes, someone who seems to get away with very little substance and a whole lot of hubris and bravado that in the end amounts to very little that will help the American people.

I completely trust the Obama campaign to know what to do, and I feel quite certain that they’re thinking well beyond what I have and further down the road than I do, so I will sit back and enjoy watching things as they unfold. I am hopeful that one result of this overseas trip is that Barack gets a sizable and meaningful bump in the polls and that McCain is forced to retreat and back away from his constant criticisms and negative attacks as his words are more thoroughly vetted and his weak candidacy is examined and brought out into the mainstream.

Obama Looks to Create a New World

2008-07-20T22:51:00.000-07:00

Today was a lovely day. My wife and I took a drive down the coast south of San Francisco. Our destination was the Swanton Ranch where we spent a part of the early afternoon picking berries. On our way back toward home, we stopped in San Gregorio at the general store that is filled with fabulous knickknacks, odds and ends and terrific memorabilia, books, clothing and yes, postcards. I found a postcard that I bought for my 11-year-old grandson, but it also made me think of Barack.

On the postcard is an old black and white photo and the saying “Those who have been required to memorize the world as it is will never create the world as it might be.” I stood there in the middle of the store and smiled. I think of my grandson, Jesse quite a bit, and today was no different. I always wonder what this world will be like for him as he enters his teens, attends high school, and I am praying that he has the opportunity to enter adulthood without this country being in a needless war and occupation of Iraq or any other country for that matter.

Today Barack Obama is in Afghanistan and Iraq meeting with leaders, both military and governmental, and speaking with troops serving in both countries. He is doing the legwork and building the foundation to become our commander-in-chief. He is also fortifying his foreign policy credentials that will be tested during his years as president, and he is establishing himself as a candidate that will place himself on an equal footing with his opponent, John McCain, when it comes to visibly and publicly visiting the regions of conflict.

Obama needed to take this trip. His lack of travel to the region has been the subject of ridicule by John McCain in recent weeks, and ironically McCain had been goading Obama to go. That same man, McCain, is now criticizing him for making a trip that is only done for political purposes, kind of a publicity stunt. The criticism is not only unfounded, but in the end, it will backfire on McCain, mainly because McCain’s accusations are baseless, but even more importantly, Obama is accomplishing exactly the opposite of what McCain is saying he is, and the vast majority of this country knows it.

Barring any miscues that I don’t anticipate, Barack will have laid the groundwork and started the dialogue that will continue into his first term as president. Contrary to McCain’s specious criticism, Obama will come home confirming what he has already surmised, which is that our country’s main front on fighting terrorism is in Afghanistan, not Iraq, and that although our servicemen and women perform heroically on our behalf, their efforts could be utilized much more effectively in perhaps a different territory and with reoriented objectives.

John McCain is yesterday’s news. Despite a very loud and dramatic commitment to keep things positive and run a campaign without negative attacks on his opponent, he has seemed to make attacking his opponent the cornerstone of his campaign. This weekend was the debut of his first attack ad on TV, and he tends to spend the vast majority of his canned stump speech with a daily dumping on Barack Obama. These unfair and unfounded diatribes, however, have tended to fall on deaf ears, except for the relatively small crowds he draws to his mostly staged and theatrical events around the country.

The ultimate irony is that McCain, who claims that foreign policy and military strategy are his strong suit, has proven once again to be just the opposite. He has repeatedly confused tribal factions in Iraq, incorrectly identified which warring groups are training and where, and he had his own Hillary moment when he severely exaggerated the safety and stability of Baghdad, claiming that he could walk freely and relatively carefree through an open market. His only problem is that pictures from the event showed he was in a bullet-proof flack jacket, dozens of highly armed soldiers were surrounding him on all sides, and many helicopters hovered overhead to protect him from any harm.

When we returned home late this afternoon with our berries, I cleaned them while my wife threw together the crust that the berries would be baked in. For dessert tonight, we had one of the best olallieberry pies I’ve ever had, and to think that we picked the fruit with our own hands. As I reflect on a perfect day with my beautiful wife, I feel pretty good about this country of ours. It is worth protecting and fighting for, and I know that Barack is the person that I want calling the shots in January ’09. I am very happy that he is on the other side of the world right at this moment getting ready to make sure that I can have many more days like today, and hopefully my grandson will, as well.

John McCain: *61

2008-07-18T13:54:00.001-07:00

There is one thing that is absolutely certain about John McCain… John McCain is absolutely certain about nothing. And of that, I’m sure. In the spirit of Roger Maris and the movie that depicted his run at the Major League homerun record, *61, I am calling this blog the same thing. This blog is dedicated to the 61 significant and documented flip-flops that John McCain has made on areas of national security, foreign policy, domestic policy and economic policy to name but a few.

This is an excellent place to start if you’d like to see the 61 documents flip-flops.
http://www.alternet.org/election08/90956/

Watch very carefully, because after each McCain press conference, speech or public appearance, his handlers and spinmeisters will magically appear to clarify what he tried to say, reiterate it much more clearly or effectively change the original meaning and direction of McCain’s actual message. If you’ve watched a couple of John McCain’s Q&As with reporters lately, he has looked like a deer in the headlights when questioned on a couple of issues for which he had no reasonable and plausible answer available.

And yet McCain has the audacity to call Barack Obama a flip-flopper! The interesting thing to watch is that the media seems to pick up on McCain’s charges no matter how baseless and meritless they may be. He has learned what Bush and Cheney have learned, that if you say something enough, people will just believe that it must be true. He has also gotten into the gotcha game, essentially picking on whatever the issue du jour is and milking it for all its worth.

I have to admit that we can’t watch John McCain for any length of time without chuckling as he attempts to wade through answers that are either canned, delivered in an overly dramatic fashion or simply in just an incredible manner. His latest diatribe against Obama for now visiting Iraq and Afghanistan as a political stunt after previously criticizing him for not having visited that same region since he announced for president is just ludicrous and disingenuous to say the least.

Let’s be very clear about John McCain. He is a man of great valor and has a lengthy resume of service to this country. But his term of service to this country is not an adequate qualification to be president and his recent history and established standard of changing his position on 61 issues with more to come makes him an unsuitable candidate for president and allows us to discern that he will do and say anything to get elected.