Bill Moyers Journal . This is Usury

Barack Obama Talks with Ted Koppel

Unseen interview before his speech at the 2004 DNC .
Here you will see just how capable and skillfull Obama was before he came to the U S Senate. In this interview you can see why in 2008 He is the Democratic candidate for the President of the United States.

Barack Obama Talks with Ted Koppel - part 1

Barack Obama Talks with Ted Koppel - part 1
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Barack Obama Talks with Ted Koppel - part 2

Barack Obama Talks with Ted Koppel - part 2
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Barack Obama Talks with Ted Koppel - part 3

Barack Obama Talks with Ted Koppel - part 3
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Barack Obama Talks with Ted Koppel - part 4

Barack Obama Talks with Ted Koppel - part 4
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The Path To The Nomination

8/25/08

Roger Simon, Politico's chief political columnist, has been a respected name in American
journalism since the 1970s — and an authoritative voice in American politics for just as long.
After the historic contest between Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama finally came to an
end in June, Simon launched an intensive effort to get behind the scenes — and to the bottom —
of what happened and why.
He interviewed scores of well-placed people at all levels of both campaigns, many of whom have
been sources of his for years. This project, which Simon named "Relentless" to reflect what he
saw as the animating spirit of Obama's remarkable campaign, is the result of Simon's two years
of reporting on this campaign, and decades of observing political personalities in action.
– John F. Harris
Introduction: The path to the nomination
By: Roger Simon

August 24, 2008 09:09 AM EST
In the summer of 2006, Patti Solis Doyle offered David Axelrod a job. Hillary Clinton was running for reelection to the Senate and Solis Doyle was her campaign manager, but everybody knew Clinton was soon going to run for president. And Clinton wanted Axelrod onboard.
Axelrod was a highly experienced and successful political consultant and just what Clinton needed. But he declined. Presidential campaigns were mentally taxing, physically exhausting and emotionally draining. There were easier ways to make a buck. Unless. “I wasn’t planning to work in a presidential race,” Axelrod told me, “but if Barack might run, well, he would be the only guy to cause me to get in.”It was not impossible. As early as November 2004, even before his swearing-in to the United States Senate,Barack Obama was having conversations about the possibility of a presidential run in 2008. The conversations were very preliminary, however, just a toe in the water. And Hillary Clinton was not worried.

In May 2006, Clinton herself had interviewed another experienced campaign consultant, Steve Hildebrand, but had turned him down. The time was not right. And she had plenty of time. But it would prove to be a costly mistake. A few months later, Steve Hildebrand would play a key role in persuading Barack Obama to run for president.

Hillary still was not worried. She would put together a great campaign team, a Dream Team. It did not turn out that way. “Happy families are alike,” Leo Tolstoy famously wrote. “Every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” The Hillary Clinton campaign was an unhappy family. I was told by Clinton campaign staffers that Mike Henry, the deputy campaign manager, stalked Clinton headquarters in Ballston, Va., with a baseball bat in his hand. I was told that Patti Solis Doyle stayed in her office watching soap operas and refused to return the phone calls of governors, members of Congress and Bill Clinton. I was told that there were suspicions that Mark Penn, the campaign’s pollster and chief strategist, “cooked the books” in presenting his polling results. (All denied the accusations.) It was that kind of campaign.

Read the rest of the story, you will learn a lot about The path to the nomination
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Senator Joseph R. Biden, Jr.

Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is the senior United States Senator from Delaware and the presumptive Democratic Party candidate for Vice President in the 2008 presidential election, running alongside presumptive Presidential nominee Barack Obama. He is a member of the Democratic Party, and is currently serving his sixth term. Biden has served for the sixth-longest period among current Senators (fourth among Democrats) and is Delaware's longest-serving Senator. He is the Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in the 110th Congress. Biden has served in that position in the past, and he has served as Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary. He was a candidate for the Democratic Party's nomination in the 2008 presidential election, but dropped out after the caucuses in Iowa on January 3, 2008. Senator Obama will formally announce Biden's selection as his running mate in Springfield, Illinois on August 23, 2008. Biden was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the son of Joseph R. Biden, Sr. and Catherine Eugenia "Jean" Finnegan. He was the first of four siblings and is of Irish Catholic heritage. He has two brothers, James Brian Biden and Francis W. Biden, and a sister, Valerie (Biden) Owens. The Biden family moved to Claymont, Delaware when Biden was 10 years old, and he grew up in suburban New Castle County, Delaware, where his father was a car salesman. He also loved to play the flute in band, which earned him the nickname, "fleet flutin joe". In 1961, Biden graduated from Archmere Academy in Claymont, Delaware and, in 1965, from the University of Delaware in Newark, where he double majored in history and political science. He then attended Syracuse University College of Law, graduated in 1968, and was admitted to the Delaware Bar in 1969. In 1966, while in law school, Biden married Neilia Hunter. They had three children, Joseph R. "Beau" Biden III, Robert Hunter, and Naomi. His wife and infant daughter died in a car accident shortly after he was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1972. His two young sons, Beau and Hunter, were seriously injured in the accident, but both eventually made full recoveries. Biden was sworn into office from their bedside. Persuaded not to resign in order to care for them, Biden began the practice of commuting an hour and a half each day on the train from his home in the Wilmington suburbs to Washington, DC, which he continues to do. In 1977, Biden married Jill Tracy Jacobs. They have one daughter, Ashley, and are members of the Roman Catholic Church. In February 1988, Biden was hospitalized for two brain aneurysms which kept him from the Senate for seven months. Biden's elder son, Beau, was a partner in the Wilmington law firm of Bifferato, Gentilotti, Biden & Balick, LLC and was elected Attorney General of Delaware in 2006. He is a captain in the Delaware Army National Guard, where he serves in the Judge Advocate General's (JAG) Corps. He is set to be deployed to Iraq in October, 2008. Biden's younger son, Hunter, works as a lawyer in Washington, DC, serves on the board of directors of Amtrak, and previously worked in the Commerce Department. Since 1991, Biden has also served as an adjunct professor at the Widener University School of Law, where he teaches a seminar on constitutional law. Biden is a long-time member of the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, which he chaired from 1987 until 1995 and served as ranking minority member from 1981 until 1987 and again from 1995 until 1997. In this capacity, he dealt with issues related to drug policy, crime prevention, and civil liberties. While chairman, Biden presided over two of the most contentious U.S. Supreme Court confirmation hearings: Robert Bork in 1987 and Clarence Thomas in 1991. Biden has been involved in crafting many federal crime laws over the last decade, including the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, also known as the Biden Crime Law. He also authored the landmark Violence Against Women Act of 1994 (VAWA), which contains a broad array of measures to combat domestic violence and provides billions of dollars in federal funds to address gender-based crimes. In 2000, the Supreme Court ruled that the section of VAWA allowing a federal civil remedy for victims of gender-motivated violence exceeded Congress' authority and therefore was unconstitutional. Congress reauthorized VAWA in 2000 and 2005. In March 2004, Biden enlisted major American technology companies in diagnosing the problems of the Austin, Texas-based National Domestic Violence Hotline, and to donate equipment and expertise to it. As chairman of the International Narcotics Control Caucus, Biden wrote the laws that created the nation's "Drug Czar," who oversees and coordinates national drug control policy. In April 2003 he introduced the controversial Reducing Americans' Vulnerability to Ecstasy Act, also known as the RAVE Act. He continues to work to stop the spread of "date rape drugs" such as Rohypnol, and drugs such as Ecstasy and Ketamine. In 2004 he worked to pass a bill outlawing steroids like androstenedione, the drug used by many baseball players. Biden's legislation to promote college aid and loan programs allows families to deduct on their annual income tax returns up to $10,000 per year in higher education expenses. His "Kids 2000" legislation established a public/private partnership to provide computer centers, teachers, Internet access, and technical training to young people, particularly to low-income and at-risk youth. Biden is also a long-time member and current chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. In 1997, he became the ranking minority member and chaired the committee from June 2001 through 2003. When Democrats re-took control of the Senate following the 2006 elections, Biden again assumed the top spot on the committee in 2007. His efforts to combat hostilities in the Balkans in the 1990s brought national attention and influenced presidential policy: traveling repeatedly to the region, he made one meeting famous by calling Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic a "war criminal." He consistently argued for lifting the arms embargo, training Bosnian Muslims, investigating war crimes and administering NATO air strikes. Biden's subsequent "lift and strike" resolution was instrumental in convincing President Bill Clinton to use military force in the face of systematic human rights violations.[ citation needed ] Biden has also called on Libya to release political prisoner Fathi Eljahmi. Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, Biden was supportive of the Bush administration's efforts, calling for additional ground troops in Afghanistan and agreeing with the administration's assertion that Saddam Hussein needed to be eliminated. The Bush administration rejected an effort Biden undertook with Senator Richard Lugar to pass a resolution authorizing military action only after the exhaustion of diplomatic efforts. In October 2002, Biden voted for the final resolution to support the war in Iraq. He has long supported the Bush administration's war effort and appropriations to pay for it, but has argued repeatedly that more soldiers are needed, the war should be internationalized, and the Bush administration should "level with the American people" about the cost and length of the conflict. In November 2006, Biden and Leslie Gelb, President Emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, released a comprehensive strategy to end sectarian violence in Iraq. Rather than continuing the present approach or withdrawing, the plan calls for "a third way": federalizing Iraq and giving Kurds, Shiites, and Sunnis "breathing room" in their own regions.

Michelle Obama: First Lady In Training, Mom In Chief

Michelle Obama: First Lady In Training, Mom In Chief
by Maureen


Michelle Obama is everywhere in public, yet it is an illusion. Her schedule packs in photo shoots, campaign events and rounds of interviews on given days that appear in public as part of a carefully crafted plan. Many of the covers and photos publicly seen now were shot in early July. Michelle's mom is her support system. The majority of her time is spent being what she will always be win, lose or draw after the November election, Mom in Chief. Michelle coined that phrase herself after expressly appreciating Jackie Kennedy's outstanding parenting skills. First Lady duties would take an armored stretch limo rumbler seat behind being a driver's seat Mom.

Michelle was hard pressed to wear makeup all the time when first upon the campaign trail. She didn't have time and was famously photographed at the Iowa State Fair in a headband while campaign rivals and media sycophants tried stupidly to twist her words about family and having her home life orderly as a knock against one of America's most drama filled political families, The Clintons. In the Obama household, there is a no whining rule both Sasha, 7, & Malia (10) verified on the famous Access Hollywood family interview. Michelle could share that wise bon mot with the former self-absorbed president who thinks its his God given right to whine incessantly when in front of the cameras about how misunderstood he felt. The national political press prats came unglued when they could not figure out a decades old dap or fist bump between Michelle & Barack the night he became the presumptive Democratic nominee in Minnesota. (Copyright 2008 Essence Magazine / Essence Magazine)

Whining wingnuts and conservative so-called Christians with hate on their lips seized upon Michelle's words to try and scare voters, especially white low income ones that she is not patriotic or other false flags. Michelle Obama's family values are clearly on display with a faithful husband and adorable children with mega schedules of their own. She puts them first. Michelle exudes class, landing on Vanity Fair's World's Best Dressed list, after putting a spark in retailers after co-hosting The View in June. Cindy McCain was considered serviceable enough wearing designer clothes, but not evincing the all important iconic look like Michelle in dominating fashion roundups. Some are convinced the arch of Michelle's eyebrows give her a more stern appearance while others marvel at how well she keeps hearth and home together in the midst of chaos. The lady lawyer is much more than a clotheshorse.

Michelle Obama: Cover Girl, Cover Girl, Cover Girl

John McCain might have a point when he calls Barack Obama a "celebrity candidate." After all, the Illinois Senator is married to one of America's most popular cover girls.

You better be ready for a lot of her in coming days.

Potential first lady Michelle Obama will dominate the pages of three major magazines this month. She'll appear by herself on the cover of Ebony and with her husband, Barack, on the cover of Ladies' Home Journal. And, as the Ticket previously reported, in the pages of Harper's Bazaar, she'll be played by supermodel Tyra Banks.

This past week, Family Obama went to Hawaii for the first time since he sought the presidency. Michelle will be all over the newsstands on covers that will be side by side. The accompanying interviews sound her out about what she would do or propose as First Lady. She knows the general vicinity of helping moms on work life balance issues and kids on being the best they can, but states with bone crushing certainty what is not acceptable.

Michelle Obama: “There are a ton of issues that I care deeply about. But the notion of sitting around the table with a set of policy advisers—no offense—makes me yawn [laughter].

"I like creating stuff. I’d love to be working with young people. I’d love to be having more conversations with military spouses. I’ve learned not to let other people push you into something that fundamentally isn’t you.”

She minces no words about resenting some of the time Barack was not at home, but also speaks to her ways of dealing with it and finding new solutions. However, Mrs. Obama as partner is quick to defend Barack against lies and distortions. Michelle is big on Courage and not giving in to fear and she has her own roots in community organizing and GOTV - Get Out The Vote.

“My father took great pride in helping people have a choice in their lives,’’ she said during a conference call with members of the black press on Wednesday. “I am grateful to him for teaching me about the importance of voting. I remember sitting in people’s kitchens for hours. Sometimes I was bored, but I realized that this was important.”

Michelle Obama hosted Wednesday’s conference call with the Rev. Joseph Lowery, an Obama supporter and civil rights leader, as they kicked off the campaign’s nationwide voter registration efforts in African-American communities.

Nobody knows what publicity hound former supermodel Tyra Banks had flitting about in her head when she arose from her Holiday Express Inn digs and decided to be photographed as a fake First Lady Michelle Obama with a fake President Barack Obama at a fake White House for Harper's Bazaar. When celebrities are trying to imitate real people somewhere the space time continuum suffered a collapse. Michelle has here eyes squarely on the Prize, being the world's greatest Mom, best friends and partner to her husband, Barack Obama. Somewhere in there with the important stuff, Michelle Obama has to squeeze in an inaugural gown as the First Black First Lady and getting a hypoallergenic dog for the kids to romp with on the White House lawn.

For More Articles On Michelle Obama :

* The Real Michelle Obama
* Cool Obama Family Campaigns & Celebrates
* Michelle Obama: Barack Is No Elitist
* Michelle Obama Says Hola in Puerto Rico
* Michelle Obama illuminates husband's vision
* Michelle Obama opens up
* Michelle Obama says husband is the 'Harry Potter parent'
* No ifs or buts, Michelle Obama anticipates life as 'mom-in-chief'

Wordsmiths for Obama: style vs. substance, poetry vs. prose

neo - neocon

June 24th, 2008
Wordsmiths for Obama: style vs. substance, poetry vs. prose

In trying to understand what about Obama appeals so powerfully to his supporters, I’ve decided that some—perhaps even much—of it is style.

He gives a good speech. He has a deep voice. He’s tall. He’s slender. He knows what a dap is. And he can turn a literary phrase.

The latter is the reason some literary folk like him, anyway, by their own report—that’s according to at least two examples of the genre, fiction writer Michael Chabon, and Sam Anderson, who appears to be a book reviewer at New York Magazine, and is the author of the article from which the following excerpts are taken [quotes italicized, with my comments interspersed in regular print]:

Michael Chabon, arguably America’s best line-by-line literary stylist, says he became a proselytizing Obama supporter after reading a particularly impressive turn of phrase in the senator’s second book—a conversion experience that seems, on first glance, inexcusably silly, but on fifth glance might be slightly profound.

No, even on fifth glance, it’s not even slightly profound. It’s profoundly slight.

How much can you tell about a candidate’s fitness to lead a country based on a single clause?

Nothing.

The substance/style debate has been around for centuries—and, like all the other venerable binaries, is probably best considered as a symbiosis. Too often, style is dismissed as merely a sauce on the nutritious bread of substance, when in fact it’s inevitably a form of substance itself. This goes double for the presidency, where brilliant policy requires brilliant public discourse.

Policy can certainly be assisted in being sold to the public by brilliant public discourse, and that can be important—witness the failure of George Bush to do so. The masters were Lincoln and Winston Churchill, and to a lesser degree FDR and Reagan, and Tony Blair in our time. But if the substance isn’t there, the style not only does not substitute for it, but can be dangerously misleading because it can seductively mask the lack of substance with its captivating siren song.

If you can think your way through a sentence, through the algorithms involved in condensing information verbally and pitching it to an audience, through the complexities of animating historical details into narrative, then you can think your way through a policy paper, or a diplomatic discussion, or a 3 A.M. phone call.

Isn’t it pretty to think so? Wordsmiths fancy they could govern quite well, if only they cared to. Neither the skills nor the knowledge base of oration or of writing—especially fiction, although it’s also true of writing in general—are readily transferable to forming and implementing policy, although they’re not necessarily mutually exclusive.

Did Anderson ever watch a tape of Truman giving a speech? He makes McCain look like Churchill. Truman was not good at oration—but he is now thought of as having been a good president although his popularity, like Bush’s, was very low when he left office. Perhaps the latter fact is an indication that good speechmaking is helpful for selling one’s policies and bad speechmaking handicaps a president who is involved in a complex and difficult war, such as the Korean or the Iraq wars.

Style tells us, in a second, what substance couldn’t tell us in a year.

It tells us a lot, indeed—but only about style. It tells us nothing about substance.

Hillary Clinton—not especially known for her oratorical skills—had a much better way of putting it. You might even call her words eloquent—because they happen to have both style and substance:

You campaign in poetry, but you govern in prose.

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