I expect and accept a certain amount of logrolling and unfairness in politics. Obama's fainthearted friends just can't stand it. Of course, they'll defend him no matter what, so this will be ignored. It deserves to be ignored, but not for the reason it will be.
Hillary needs to come up with a series of very substantive questions for Obama in April. Attacks of this nature will not get her far. [ Parent ]
Either way, I'm still a Green Party guy who is trying to run Cynthia McKinney out the party! :) [ Parent ]
In the end though, I think the superdelegates are going to pick Senator "Been There, Done That" Clinton over Senator "Give the New/Not So New Guy a Chance" Obama. [ Parent ]
Surprisingly, one such reluctant Obama supporter is state Rep. Monique Davis, D-Chicago. A 17-year veteran legislator, Davis sponsored a pair of significant bills -- one designed to track incidents of racial profiling, and another that mandates the taping of police interrogations in murder cases -- that were central to Obama's campaign platform. Though she worked closely with Obama to pass the bills into law, and says she toiled to keep the bills alive before he became their Senate sponsor, Davis claims her efforts were largely ignored. "I was snubbed," says Davis, who endorsed Hynes in the primary though she belongs to the same church as Obama on Chicago's South Side. "I felt he was shutting me out of history."
Though she worked closely with Obama to pass the bills into law, and says she toiled to keep the bills alive before he became their Senate sponsor, Davis claims her efforts were largely ignored.
"I was snubbed," says Davis, who endorsed Hynes in the primary though she belongs to the same church as Obama on Chicago's South Side. "I felt he was shutting me out of history."
This is from the original article Spivak wrote March 25, 2004 when he was still reporting for the Illinois Times.
Aren't these two of the bills that we hear Obama use repeatedly as an example of some of his best legislative accomplishments while he was in the IL State Senate? I am not saying that he did not do anything to get these passed but I would like to know more about how much was his own effort and how much was the equivalent of an assist from Jones to give him a boost. [ Parent ]
I know all of my Democratic friends had the same experience so I was shocked that most of them jumped on his bandwagon when Gore did not run. [ Parent ]
A more flattering view of this part of Obama's history, linked to by Wonkette, is here.
Even politicians who want to change things have to have a path to power. For any reformist president to succeed, that president will need practical political skills.
Obama critics wish they could pin Obama between a rock and a hard place. They would like to be able to aasert that either he's too nice to stand up to the Republicans, or he's too mean to be real about the type of politician he wants to be. Heads we win, tails we use.
Everytime Obama slips loose of their clever traps, the Clintonites express outrage. [ Parent ]
Obama needs a path to power so misrepresenting his abilities and achievements is ok, even though he is a "new type of politician" who doesn't play the lobbyist game (he does or else why would he be accepting hundreds of thousands in donations from Wall Street (just like Clinton)). You have a double standard, for Obama his Path to Power is legitimate, while Clinton's is Scorched Earth.
Hillary isn't trying to pretend she isn't a politician. Obama is pretending to be an everyman who just happens to have "fallen" into politics. If that isn't hypocritical then I guess I'm going to have to ask Webster to redefine the term. [ Parent ]
I was amused, however, by this from Vanity Fair: "It has become all but impossible to mention Obama without invoking the name of his fellow Illinoisan Abraham Lincoln" Gee, could that be because his starry-eyed supporters continually compare him to Lincoln? That constant copmparison is particularly annoying to me. He's a Senator in the middle of an undistinguished first term, and he's already Abraham Lincoln with the moral courage of Martin Luther King. Any wonder why so many Dems are sick of this guy? [ Parent ]
I think the disconnect with Hillary is among people too young to remember Bill's campaigns. I can still remember watching both of them in interviews. I had given up on the government because we'd suffered through two terms of Reagan and one of Bush I and it looked at the time like the Democrats just couldn't come up with a winning candidate. Then I started to see the Clintons on tv. I was blown away. I happened to be studying the Gilded Age in graduate school at the time and I thought, these people really get it. They know what needs to be done.
I really thought Hillary could have been the candidate, but the time wasn't right for a woman. She was no ordinary First Lady. All of us watching her in the 90s knew she was presidential material. I think she's more capable even than Bill because she isn't plagued with carnal addictions that it seems the majority of male politicians can't keep under control.
As far as the Far Left's grievance with Bill being "DLC" or too moderate, it's a shame they don't realize that's what made him electable. The Democrats had been running people who were just too far left of the American mainstream to either get elected or keep office--look what happened to Jimmy Carter. Right now, we are at a time when we desperately need a president who is center because the very serious problems in this country affect Americans of every political persuasion. The Right and the Far Left bucked against Bill Clinton during the campaign, but after he took office he was hugely popular. At the end of his administration he had poll number up in the 70s and he'd been impeached!
I agree with Richardson and all the "progressive" bloggers that Democrats should get behind one candidate: Go Hillary! [ Parent ]
It isn't an age thing it is a question of what you look for in a candidate. Hillary supporters are looking at a broader picture, drawing off of years of public record to make a fair assessment of Hillary's quality and qualification.
Obama supporters are taking the narrow view...new and different, excellent motivator and speaker...he has to be good. When ever anything bad comes up concerning Obama they don't go digging for the truth, they attack. They don't know Obama's past anymore than we do because there isn't that much public record...what is there is finally starting to come to light and we're finding that the telegenic Obama might just be telegenic and no more.
You are dead on about the fact that Hillary supporters are comfortable with Hillary because of her and Bill being known. What I think the Obama supporters continually overlook is that there is no perfect candidate. That every candidate has made mistakes, has baggage. That they are willing to ignore or overlook Obama's baggage is a mistake, either now or in the GE. [ Parent ]
The constant refrain of the Clinton people is either that Obama is too far left or too far right. Both can't be right, and the evidence of Obama's life points to him being a person steeped in values of tolerance and progressive values.
Compared to Republicans, Clinton does have more liberal values. However, it is no accident that she is so popular among more conservative democrats like Ferraro and Bayh. She hasn't fully cut her ties from her Goldwater years. [ Parent ]
"this is a guy who has run for election every two years for the last 12 years."
Makes you wonder how he'd ever manage to settle down to VP long enough to do the job.
"Two years and out" is not a sign of a steady worker. [ Parent ]
He still makes history by being the first black VP candidate. And if Senator Clinton wins the presidency, he gets "double historic" billing.
The only caveat is the Ol' Bill stays away if Obama is VP. :) [ Parent ]
Seems that is why many don't want Clinton on the ticket as VP, she'd bring too much baggage to Obama's campaign . . .
I almost wonder if he would do better in the future if he wasn't VP (I originally supported the idea). If he stays in the Senate and continues to gain experience, along with getting re-elected, he may be good to go in the future without having an association with the "Clinton Machine". He would be able to run on his own platform, experience and identity. [ Parent ]
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