Obama's Brain Trust

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Obama's Brain Trust

Obama's Brain Trust

The candidate's handpicked team of top advisers has raised more than $250 million, outmaneuvered the Clintons and created a formidable grass-roots political machine. So why doesn't anyone know their names?

TIM DICKINSON
Posted Jul 10, 2008 8:10 AM

On the June evening in St. Paul when he captured the Democratic nomination, in between shout-outs to his daughters and his grandmother, Barack Obama paid tribute to a political operative most Americans have never heard of. "Thank you to our campaign manager, David Plouffe," Obama said, "who never gets any credit but has built the best political organization in the country."

Obama isn't exactly known for understatement. But in describing the machine that Plouffe and his political team have built, the candidate was actually far too modest. By marrying online technology to grass-roots activism, Obama's brain trust mobilized 1.5 million donors, raised more than $250 million, derailed the Clinton juggernaut and built something new in Democratic politics. "The size and scale and sophistication of the Obama enterprise — it's like a multinational corporation compared to the mom-and-pop nonprofits of previous Democratic campaigns," says Simon Rosenberg, president of the progressive think tank NDN and a veteran of Bill Clinton's 1992 run. "And it isn't just bigger — it's a better model, it's more democratic, it taps into the power and passion of everyday people."

It's also remarkably disciplined: Obama's top advisers outmaneuvered Hillary Clinton's organization with no leaks, no nasty infighting and virtually no public credit for their efforts. By all rights, Plouffe and the other chief architects of Obama's machine should be household names on par with James Carville and Karl Rove. And yet, with the exception of chief strategist David Axelrod, who has emerged as an affably low-key spokesman for the campaign, Obama's brain trust works in near anonymity from the campaign's headquarters on the 11th floor of a smoked-glass skyscraper two blocks south of the Chicago River.

That obscurity is by design. Members of Obama's inner circle are largely unknown to the public because the second rule of the campaign is: All credit accrues to Obama. The first rule? Don't talk about Team Obama. As senior adviser Valerie Jarrett puts it, "We aim for you to not know about the inner workings of the campaign because there's not much to know other than: It works."

The Obama campaign, like the candidate himself, is paradoxical. The same machine that has given unprecedented control to tens of thousands of volunteers at the grass roots has also set a new benchmark in Democratic politics for tight-lipped, Fortune 500 professionalism at its highest rungs. To use a computing metaphor for the Obama machine: The software may be open-source, but the CPU — humming high above Michigan Avenue — remains, quite literally, a black box.

In many ways, this split is a reflection of Obama himself. In public, Obama comes across as a political Superman who can inspire stadium-size crowds of supporters. But behind the scenes, Obama is as mild-mannered as Clark Kent — and he has built his senior team to reflect his quiet, down-to-business self. "The tone starts at the top," says Jarrett. "When Barack walks into the room, there's never tension. And he wanted to make sure that the team he selected was also drama-free. He wanted to make sure that tone permeated the campaign."

The drama-free approach proved to be in sharp contrast to the Clinton campaign, which was beset by leaks and infighting among factions of overbearing strategists (Mark Penn), know-it-all advisers (Harold Ickes), egotistical flacks (Howard Wolfson) and self-important campaign managers (Patti Solis Doyle) who battled noisily — and publicly — over message, budget, access to the candidate and prestige. From Day One, Obama was determined that his campaign would be different. In the winter of 2007, when senior staffers gathered for one of their first meetings in Chicago, the candidate laid out his expectation. "Most campaigns are chaotic," Obama told them. "I want a campaign that is buttoned up like a business. If people have problems, they work it out.It's not a 'we're gonna work this out on page 2 of The Washington Post."
Obama underscored the theme again in June, when he addressed his entire Chicago staff after finally wrapping up the nomination. As he spoke, staffers poked their heads above gray, corporate cubicles in what could easily be mistaken for an E-Trade office rather than a presidential campaign headquarters.

"When I started this campaign," Obama told them, "I wasn't sure that I was going to be the best of candidates. But what I was absolutely positive of was that there was the possibility of creating the best organization. The way great things happen is when people are willing to submerge their own egos and focus on a common task. That's my old organizing mind-set. It's not just a gimmick, it's not just a shtick. I actually believe in it."

The story of how Obama assembled his top advisers — and how he got them to work together as a team — offers a glimpse into his approach as a chief executive who manages an organization of nearly 1,000 employees. Obama has built "an amazingly strong machine," says Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, president of the Chief Executive Leadership Institute at the Yale School of Management. "People expected a more ad hoc, impromptu, entrepreneurial feel to it. It has been more of a well-orchestrated symphony than the jazz combo we expected."

Indeed, in merging the talents of powerful Washington insiders and outside-the-Beltway insurgents, Obama has succeeded at a task that has traditionally eluded Democratic candidates: forging an experienced inner circle who set aside their differences and put the candidate first. "The whole point is that it's not about any of these guys," says longtime GOP strategist Frank Luntz. "They feel blessed. They see it as how lucky they are to be working for this man, at this time, in this election. This is the dream team for the dream candidate. I waited all my life for a Republican Barack Obama. Now he shows up, and he's a Democrat."


Read the rest of the story, you will learn a lot about this WINNING team
click here

Michelle Obama is the real personality in the US election drama

Michelle Obama: a woman of humour and daring.


"Obama or McCain," I asked a veteran Washington politico this week? He shrugged; "I don't know. I really don't. What I do know is that we're going to see the racist underbelly of America like we've never seen it before - and it won't be pretty."

It isn't all that pretty now. The preliminary shots are being fired, but not at Barack. Instead, it is his wife Michelle who is on the frontline, for now. The campaign began in the blogosphere, progressed to YouTube via the Right-wing radio shockjocks and talk-show hosts. Now, what Time magazine describes as the "war over Michelle" is out in the open.
She stands accused of being unpatriotic because of a single remark taken out of context back in February. She is being called "Mrs Grievance" on account of what her critics claim is racial chippiness rooted in her disadvantaged background. And she is, of course, guilty of sharing a '"terrorist" fist-bump with her husband on the night he won the Democratic presidential nomination. (That's the same "terrorist" fist bump that Tiger Woods regularly exchanges with his caddy, and that Prince Charles and even the Dalai Lama have indulged in without attracting adverse comment.)
It's not much of a charge sheet, and none of it would matter except that it seems to be getting to Michelle - or rather to her husband's advisers. On a US chat show this week, widely seen as an attempt to "soften" her image, Mrs Obama claimed she wanted to emulate Laura Bush. Why? Mrs Bush, demure and gracious, has always been an admirable consort to the less than admirable Dubya. But for Mrs Obama, 17 years younger and a whole lot feistier and more interesting, to constrain herself in this way would be a betrayal of who she is.

Because Michelle Obama is the only real personality among the four protagonists in this spellbinding drama. Her husband is almost too good to be true, a Democratic spin doctor's fantasy candidate: the multicultural embodiment of hope, aspiration and America's future.
Republican opponent John McCain belongs to the past. In fact, he looks as if he's leapt straight from the embalming table, so shiny is the skin, pink-hued the cheeks and snowy the hair. He's 72 trying to be 52 and it doesn't work, while his heiress wife Cindy has a Stepford-air about her that is rather disturbing.

In contrast, the 44-year-old wife, mother and career woman has a vibrancy the others lack. She loves glamorous clothes and pearls, hates wearing tights, frequently goes shoeless, and occasionally speaks her mind. She has never been an adoring spouse and has no intention of becoming one.
Even her cookie recipe submitted for public appraisal - and on which the suitability of US presidential partners seems to rest - reveals a woman of some humour and daring. In her day, Hillary favoured chocolate chip oatmeal cookies; Laura Bush played safe with an oatmeal chocolate chunk variation, while Cindy went for oatmeal-butterscotch (although she's been accused of copying the recipe from elsewhere). Mrs Obama, meanwhile, prefers shortbread cookies with orange and lemon zest - and a cheeky dash of Amaretto. What's not to like about this woman? She's evaded the make-over thus far - and she doesn't need one now.
'I mean, "whitey"?'

Rightwing US commentators portray Michelle Obama as an 'Angry Black Woman' out to avenge her race. They couldn't be more wrong, she tells Michael Powell and Jodi Kantor

The Guardian, Saturday June 21, 2008

Michelle Robinson Obama's eyes flicker tentatively even as she offers a trained smile. As her campaign airplane arcs over the Flathead Range in Montana, she is asked to consider her complicated public image.
Conservative columnists accuse her of being unpatriotic and say she simmers with undigested racial anger. A blogger who supported Hillary Clinton circulates unfounded claims that Michelle Obama gave an accusatory speech in her church about the sins of "whitey". Obama shakes her head.
"You are amazed sometimes at how deep the lies can be," she says. Referring to a character in a 1970s sitcom, she adds: "I mean, 'whitey'? That's something that George Jefferson would say. Anyone who says that doesn't know me. They don't know the life I've lived. They don't know anything about me."
Now her husband's presidential campaign is giving her image a subtle makeover. On Wednesday, she appeared on The View, a daytime talkshow, with Barbara Walters and Whoopi Goldberg, with an eye toward softening her reputation.

Her problems seemed hard to imagine last autumn and winter. Michelle Obama, a Harvard-trained lawyer, appeared at ease with the tactile business of campaigning and drew praise for humanising, often with humour, a husband who could seem elusive. Then came some rhetorical stumbles. In February, she told voters that hope was sweeping America, adding: "For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country." Cable news shows replayed those 15 words in an endless loop of outrage [omitting the next line of her speech during that rally in Milwaukee. "And not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change," she said].
The caricatures of Michelle Obama as the Angry Black Woman confound her, friends say. Her own family crosses racial boundaries and she has spent much of her adult life confronting and trying to address racial resentment. Obama was among a handful of black people at one of Chicago's most prestigious law firms, and she later ran a project that sought to defuse racial conflict.
But the 44-year-old, known to friends as the Taskmistress, sometimes speaks with a passion and an insistence unusual for a potential first lady. She tells voters, for example, that "Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual - uninvolved, uniformed."

She says she intends to evoke a John F Kennedy-like idealism and highlight her own journey, but in her commanding cadences, some people - and not just conservatives - hear a lecture. To appeal to voters who may be put off or not know of her biography, the campaign hopes to display Obama as an ordinary American mom. Shortly before her husband announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination, Michelle Obama confided in friends: "Barack and I will cut an unfamiliar figure to most of America, a loving, opinionated upper-middle-class black couple with children."

Michelle Robinson grew up in the black half of a divided Chicago. She and her brother, Craig, lived with their parents on the second floor of a two-storey house - "Two bedrooms, if you want to be generous," she says.
Her father, Frasier, was a pump operator for Chicago's water department and a precinct captain in the Democratic machine. Her mother, Marian, brought workbooks home to keep her children ahead of their classes. The working-class neighbourhood was filled with uncles and grandparents, block associations and overarching oak trees. "We knew the gang-bangers - my brother played basketball in the park," Obama says. "Home never feels dangerous."
In 1981, she left for Princeton, an overwhelmingly white institution that cherished its genteel traditions. She was one of 94 black freshmen in a class of over 1,100. The mother of Catherine Donnelly, a white student [and] one of her roommates, spent months pleading with Princeton to give her daughter a white roommate instead. Obama shrugs now. Some classmates resented black people; some resented affirmative action. "Diversity can't be taken care of with 10 kids," she says. "There is an isolation that comes with that" Black and white students rarely mixed socially. When Crystal Nix Hines became the first black editor of the student newspaper, the Daily Princetonian, some black students wondered why she wanted to run a "white" newspaper. Obama, however, was thrilled that a historic barrier had fallen.

In her senior Sociology thesis, she wrote, "My experiences at Princeton have made me far more aware of my 'blackness' than ever before," and went on to ask, Does immersion in an elite white institution draw black people away from their community?
After graduating from Harvard Law School in 1988, Obama took a job at Sidley Austin, a corporate law firm. She had a handsome salary and the prospect of better to come. Then a close friend from college died. So did her father, who had long suffered from multiple sclerosis. "I looked out at my neighbourhood and sort of had an epiphany that I had to bring my skills to bear in the place that made me," she says. "I wanted to have a career motivated by passion and not just money."

Eventually, Obama started the Chicago chapter of a training programme called Public Allies.
She searched for young talent that could transform these rough neighbourhoods, preaching the gospel of the second and third chance. She insisted that the white [university students] work alongside the gang member or the young mother on welfare.
Every Friday, the young people would sprawl around Obama's office, swapping frustrations. Black people accused white people of being clueless. White members said black members masked insecurity with anger. Michelle Obama probed carefully, sometimes turning up the heat before turning it down.
"I hate diversity workshops," she says. "Real change comes from having enough comfort to be really honest and say something very uncomfortable."

By 2001, Obama, married for nine years and the mother of two daughters, had taken a job as vice-president of community affairs at the University of Chicago Medical Centre. She soon discovered just how acrimonious those affairs were.
Hospital brass had gathered to set the foundation stone for a children's wing when black protesters broke in with bullhorns, drowning out the proceedings with demands that the hospital award more contracts to minority firms. Obama strolled over and offered to meet later, if only the protesters would pipe down. She revised the contracting system, sending so much business to firms owned by women and minorities that the hospital won awards.
She also interceded to alter the hospital's research agenda. When the human papillomavirus vaccine, which can prevent cervical cancer, became available, researchers proposed approaching local school heads about enlisting black teenage girls as research subjects. Obama stopped that. The prospect of [such a trial] summoned the spectre of the Tuskegee syphilis experiment of the mid-20th century, when white doctors let hundreds of black men go untreated for decades to study the disease.

Rather than pulling Michelle Obama behind a curtain, her husband's campaign is pushing her farther out on stage. She remains a charismatic presence, and when she gives her husband a fist bump on stage or talks of him as a father, she is telling voters, this is a regular guy.

In coming weeks, Michelle Obama will unveil a new speech, emphasising her modest background and family ties.
As her airplane descends into a northern Montana valley, she sounds like a woman who wishes she could sit voters down for a long talk. "You know, if someone sat in a room with me for five minutes after hearing these rumours, they'd go 'huh'?" she says. "They'd realise it doesn't make sense."

She extends her long arms, her voice plaintive. "I will walk anyone through my life," she says. "Come on, let's go."

JUNETEENTH National Holiday Observance

Rev. Ronald V. Myers, Sr., M.D., Chairman
National Juneteenth Holiday Campaign
National Juneteenth Observance Foundation (NJOF)
National Juneteenth Christian Leadership Council (NJCLC)
662-247-3364 662-247-1471
e-mail: MyersFound@aol.com
web sites: www.19thofJune.com
www.Juneteenth.us
www.njclc.com


9th Annual WASHINGTON JUNETEENTH National Holiday Observance
Returns to the Nation's Capitol

Congress Urges President Bush to Issue a Presidential Proclamation
Recognizing Juneteenth Independence Day in America

Rev. Ronald V. Myers, Sr., M.D., Chairman of the National Juneteenth Observance Foundation (NJOF) and the National Juneteenth Christian Leadership Council (NJCLC), Congressman Danny K. Davis (D-IL), Chairman of the National Juneteenth Congressional Committee and Senator Barack Obama (D-IL), Senate Host of the U.S. Capitol Juneteenth Congressional Reception, are the invited featured speakers for the 2008 WASHINGTON JUNETEENTH National Holiday Observance

(Washington, DC) - As Senator Barack Obama makes great strides in becoming the nation's next president, Juneteenth supporters are hopeful that the "19th of June" will finally be established as a national holiday observance in America. Senator Barack Obama has been a key sponsor of Juneteenth legislation in the senate and keynote speaker at the annual Juneteenth Congressional Reception.

Juneteenth, or the "19th of June", recognizes June 19, 1865, in Galveston, TX, when Union General Gordon Granger announced freedom for all slaves in the Southwest. This was the last major vestige of slavery in the United States following the end of the Civil War. This occurred more than two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Abraham Lincoln. Upon the reading of General Order #3 by General Granger, the former slaves celebrated jubilantly, establishing America's second Independence Day Celebration and the oldest African-American holiday observance.

Juneteenth is now recognized as a state holiday or state holiday observance in Texas, Oklahoma, Florida, Delaware, Idaho, Alaska, Iowa, California, Wyoming, Missouri, Connecticut, Illinois, Louisiana, New Jersey, New York, Colorado, Arkansas, Oregon, Kentucky, Michigan, New Mexico, Virginia, Washington, Tennessee, Massachusetts, North Carolina, West Virginia, South Carolina and Vermont. In 2003, the District of Columbia passed legislation to recognize Juneteenth as a district holiday observance. Many more states, including Utah, Alabama, South Dakota, Pennsylvania, Montana, Wisconsin and Maryland have recognized Juneteenth through annual state legislative resolutions, Gubernatorial Proclamations and current state holiday observance legislation.

The US Capitol and the White House were built through the uncompensated labor of the ancestors of Americans of African descent during the tyranny of enslavement


Acappella - Lift Every Voice



Wednesday
June 18th Juneteenth 3 Kilometer (1.86 Mile) Run
12noon DC Road Runners Club

Entrance of FDR Memorial
Washington, DC
Thursday
June 19th National Juneteenth Congressional Reception
12:00noon Congressman Danny K. Davis (D-IL), Host

Senator Barack Obama (D-IL), Co-Host

(Room to be determined!)
U.S. Capitol Building
Washington, DC
Friday
June 20th NATIONAL DAY OF RECONCILIATION & HEALING
FROM THE LEGACY OF ENSLAVEMENT

National Juneteenth Black Holocaust "MAAFA" Memorial Service and National Juneteenth Prayer Service
11:30am Rev. Ronald V. Myers, Sr., M.D., Chairman
National Juneteenth Christian Leadership Council

"Reading of the Names" (Victims of Lynchings in America)

Presentation of the Dr. James Cameron National Juneteenth Leadership Award
Honoring Dr. James Cameron, Founder
America's Black Holocaust Museum

Poetry by Pierre L. Sutton, Jr. & Kevin Reeves
Gospel Music by Lisa Winn

Lincoln Park United Methodist Church
Rev. Harold D. Lewis, Sr., Pastor
1301 North Carolina, N.E.
Washington, DC
Sunday
June 22nd National Juneteenth Worship Service
10:45am Rev. Cornelius Wheeler, Pastor

Vermont Avenue Baptist Church
1630 Vermont Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC

Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States.

Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States.

From its Galveston, Texas origin in 1865, the observance of June 19th as the African American Emancipation Day has spread across the United States and beyond.

Today Juneteenth commemorates African American freedom and emphasizes education and achievement. It is a day, a week, and in some areas a month marked with celebrations, guest speakers, picnics and family gatherings. It is a time for reflection and rejoicing. It is a time for assessment, self-improvement and for planning the future. Its growing popularity signifies a level of maturity and dignity in America long over due. In cities across the country, people of all races, nationalities and religions are joining hands to truthfully acknowledge a period in our history that shaped and continues to influence our society today. Sensitized to the conditions and experiences of others, only then can we make significant and lasting improvements in our society.

Juneteenth is a day of reflection, a day of renewal, a pride-filled day. It is a moment in time taken to appreciate the African American experience. It is inclusive of all races, ethnicities and nationalities - as nothing is more comforting than the hand of a friend.

Juneteenth is a day on which honor and respect is paid for the sufferings of slavery. It is a day on which we acknowledge the evils of slavery and its aftermath. On Juneteenth we talk about our history and realize because of it, there will forever be a bond between us.

On Juneteenth we think about that moment in time when the enslaved in Galveston, Texas received word of their freedom. We imagine the depth of their emotions, their jubilant dance and their fear of the unknown.

Juneteenth is a day that we commit to each other the needed support as family, friends and co-workers. It is a day we build coalitions that enhance African American economics.

On Juneteenth we come together young and old to listen, to learn and to refresh the drive to achieve. It is a day where we all take one step closer together - to better utilize the energy wasted on racism. Juneteenth is a day that we pray for peace and liberty for all.

Juneteenth Education Project (Community Service)

The Background: Each Year February is “THE” month each year where all major news organizations, schools and civic institutions present displays on Black History. For the rest of the year much of African American History is ignored. An important event occurred on June 19, 1865. Major General Gordon Granger read General Order Number 3 to the citizens of Galveston, Texas. This order informed “the people of Texas…. All slaves are free.” This was two and a half years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation became official. The site for this information is: http://www.juneteenth.com/history.htm The History of The Emancipation Proclamation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emancipation_Proclamation Many supporters may never have read the Emancipation Proclamation, nor know of General Order Number 3. The Event: On June 19th read the Emancipation Proclamation; then read General Order Number 3. The web sites are listed above. Please give thought to the fact slaves in Texas had to wait two and a half extra years. During the week following June 19th, each day educate one person EACH day about June 19th. This is a community service education event. It takes the extra effort to educate OTHERS to complete this event.

We can change Washington

The Obama Campaign launched the VOTE FOR CHANGE DRIVE, find out how to get involved with the campaign's 50 State Voter Registration Drive


We can change Washington if more Americans get involved, get registered and show up to vote on November 4th. Vote for Change is an unprecedented 50-state voter registration and mobilization drive. To kick off the event, the campaign held more than 100 events across the country on May 10th. Obama volunteers will register new voters as the start of a six-month voter registration drive.

We can send a powerful message to the special interests that dominate the old politics if millions of people get registered to vote. Recent voter registration drives have registered more than 200,000 new Democrats in Pennsylvania, more than 165,000 new Democrats in North Carolina, and more than 150,000 new Democrats in Indiana. Those numbers just scratch the surface of what's possible.

Many states place certain restrictions on voter registration drives. Before you begin any Voter Registration, please read your state’s legal guidelines. Following local guidelines ensures we empower the greatest number of people possible in our Vote For Change effort.

Democrat living abroad? Register to vote from where ever you are.

Absentee Voting Assistence for Military & Citizens Abroad -

Out of the mouth of a 'life experienced comes wisdom

A must read....
We need not to forget our real past......the article sent by Mareta

Out of the mouth of a 'life experienced comes wisdom ....and truth. Not bitterness ..."

As a 78 year old American of African descent, I feel compelled to respond to all this 'much ado about nothing' when it comes to the statement that Michelle Obama made about the fact that this is the first time in her adult life that she has been proud to be an American.

The country needs to hear this from the Black perspective.
Long before I was born, my grandfather Joseph Burleson,
owned a considerable amount of land in oil rich Texas .

Because during that era, Blacks could not vote, nor could they contest
anything in the courts of the United States , my grandfather's land was
STOLEN by his White neighbor. My grandfather, who was literate and
better educated than my grandmother, drove to town.
Seeing my grandfather leave, the covetous neighbor asked my grandmother
to show him the deed to the property. He snatched it. She could not insist that he give it back, nor could she have reported this THEFT to the sheriff because of the fact that Blacks had no rights in the 1800's. The prevailing law at that time was he who held the deed owned the land.
Do you think that is something that I am PROUD OF? Right now I should
be living off the oil and gas royalties.

In 1934 when my dad drove us to Texas to meet his family, when he
stopped to purchase gasoline, his daughters and wife
were not allowed to use the washroom. As a man it was easier for him to
relieve himself in the bushes, but not for the females. We were, however, reduced to having to go in the bushes, also.
Do you think I am PROUD OF THAT?

In 1938 when my oldest sister went to enroll in Hyde Park High School,
she was told by the counselor that she did not want to take college preparatory courses, she wanted to study domestic science.
Do you think I'm PROUD OF THAT?
Of course, when Beatrice Lillian Hurley-Burleson went to school the
next day, that was the last time anyone thought that the Burleson girls
wanted to study domestic science.

When in 1943 my parents attempted to buy the 2 flat at
5338 South Kenwood, where we had lived since 1933, in Hyde Park,
Chicago , IL we were told that we could not buy it because there was a
restrictive covenant that said that the property was never to be sold
to 'Negroes.'
Do you think I am PROUD OF THAT?

In 1950 when I graduated from college, I was unable to get a job because I was considered 'overqualified.' the code word for they would not hire me because of my race. All of the want ads called for Japanese Americans or Neisis ( the word given to Japanese Americans at that time).
Do you think that was something that I should have been PROUD OF?

I understood that America was trying to make up for the interring of
innocent and patriotic Americans who were our enemy by association.

My cousin's barbershop was bombed in Mississippi in the 50's because he
was encouraging Black people to register to vote. His wife who had
earned a Masters Degree from Northwestern University lost her position
as the principal of the local school because of the voter registration
activities.
Is that something I should be PROUD OF?

Now we get to Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the pastor of the Obama family.
Rev. Wright like so many religious zealots overstates many things, that
many of his members do not agree with.
To suggest that Senator Obama should leave the church of his choice is
not only a double standard, but it is absurd.

Would any of the talking heads who are so alarmed by Rev. Wright's
thoughts and speeches suggest that Catholics should abandon their faith
or denounce and reject the Pope because so many priests have molested
children.
These children were exploited and taken advantage of and they had no
choice to even know they could resist, reject and denounce.
To me the situations are parallel, except for the fact that the
priest's behavior is a physical violation of the innocence of children
who are marred for life; and the priest's behavior is a crime.

Rev. Wright's speeches are just words, that one can listen to or not,
the members have a choice.
Should Governor Romney denounce and reject the Mormon Church
because some of their members practice polygamy?

As Senator Obama has previously stated, we have entered the silly
season.

Barack Obama is an adult, and most importantly, he is an exceptionally
Intelligent adult. Like most of us adults, fortunately, we do not accept all we hear or see. If we did, the world would be more amoral, debased and perverted than the world of today is.
I see all these 'so called' pondering's as an attempt to marginalize
the candidacy of Senator Barack Obama. I cannot truly call this racism
because some ignorant Blacks have also spoken disparagingly about him.
I accept this as the darker side of mankind who because of their own
inadequacies, they project their deficiencies on others.

Barack Obama is a very rare individual, the likes of whom the worldseldom sees. Like most geniuses, they are often misunderstood. They are objects of
envy and jealousy. They are suspect because they soar above the average man who does not have the intellectual ability to understand the greatness of special people. They are also targets to be pulled down to the level of the mediocre who cannot stand to see an individual with deep convictions and high standards.

We have not seen a phenomena like Barack Obama in many years and many generations. Like Ghanda, like Jesus, like Einstein, like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., like Mother Theresa, genetically, intellectually and spiritually, these people offer the world so much, but they are often maligned and misunderstood.

Barack Obama is a Christian in the true sense of the word.
A true Christian loves his fellow man unconditionally. A true Christian
wants the best and tries to bring out the best in his fellow man.
A true Christian wants to unite and bring the world together in peace
and harmony. This is what Senator Obama stands for; but, unfortunately, he has had to get off point to answer these false charges, innuendoes, and just plain lies.

We are in the presence of an angel unaware in Senator Barack Obama, and
this country needs him, more than he needs us. He is the only person at this time in history who can restore respect for America with the worlds' people. Because of his family background, the influence of his beloved mother who instilled great values in him, the influence of his absent father who vicariously inspired a son to go to Harvard as the father had done, the influence of a minister who brought him to an understanding of the value and meaning of Christianity, the influence of a brilliant Harvard educated wife who inspires him and keeps him grounded; he is the epitome of a citizen of the world. He is of the world because the world is in him; and this is what America needs to bring us out of the abyss to which we have sunk in the eyes of the world.

Like, Michelle Obama, after living in this country all of my 78 years,
loving my country and not understanding why my country has not loved me, I now for the first time in my adult life feel PROUD OF MY COUNTRY because I sense a maturing, a recognition of talent and character, and not color, and a field of candidates aspiring to lead this nation coming from very diverse backgrounds of gender, religious beliefs, national origin, ethnicity, age and experiences. This to me is the HOPE that America is coming into her own and will begin to CHANGE and will embrace the philosophy upon which this country was founded, where all men are created equal and are entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Now I truly believe, YES WE CAN!






--
Rhonda

Barack Obama Vs. Tavis Smiley, Maxine Waters, Bob Johnson, Charles Rangle, Magic Johnson etal: And the Winner is...

Barack Obama

VS.

Tavis Smiley , Maxine Waters, Bob Johnson, Charles Rangle, Magic Johnson etal

And the winner is…..

By Thomas Taylor

After a landmark racially charged primary election where literally every single delegate vote counted in determining its historic outcome; the Democrats have selected a Blackman as its party’s Presidential nominee. In doing so a number of key African American influencers and super delegates across the country; now find themselves on the wrong side of (Black) History.

The United States is poised to possibly elect its first African American President.

Barack Obama, the charismatic senator from Illinois , has captured the heart and imagination of our country as he inspires the nation toward real change. Still with such a narrow margin of victory eerily comparable to the number of Black super delegates who voted against him, it’s scary to think that this propitious moment in our community’s narrative was almost denied on the strength of these few change resistant African American elected officials and trusted media personalities and businessmen.

If there was ever a justification to Bet on Black , now is the time. Barack is arguably the best qualified candidate and represents the best platform for the majority of Americans. Finally we have a realistic luxury of “choice” and in an unprecedented show of unity, 90% of the Black community voraciously jumped at that choice and onto on the meteoric Barack Obama express wagon . Buoyed by the beliefs that our boy, will be given at least a fair chance of succeeding, we boldly acknowledge that “he’s Black and we’re proud.”

With this overwhelming majority of the community voting for change, the question begs to be asked “why our beloved Black electoral and prominent influence peddlers were so determined instead, to uphold the status quo? Did they choose to vote for political expediency and favor or was it simply that they voted out of habit? Maybe they voted for what they thought was legitimately the better candidate. But how much better and at what historical cost?

The ironic twist in this unique situation is that many of those who elected to side against this courageous sepia champion were themselves; stall worth warriors for the cause with enduring legacies steeped in civil rights activism and radical advocacy. They are members of The Congressional Black Caucus, Black Mayors, Legislators along with New York ’s newly appointed Black Governor (himself a historical first). Some, like Representative John Lewis of Georgia , eventually saw the light and switched his support to Senator Obama. Others, possibly guided by some noble moral code, chose instead to go down with the ship in a last act of loyalty to an old friend and her husband.

Presumptive first Lady (my call) Michelle Obama, described this phenomena of reluctance as “a fear of possibility ” from a people accustomed to being oppressed and harboring the long held erroneous assumption that “we’re not ready and that someone else is usually better prepared. She allowed that this is not a mean spirited sentiment voiced by people who genuinely do love us but a result of being traumatized by the strain of their oppression coupled with a possible latent plantation mentality.

Before his decisive victory in predominantly White Iowa, Senator Obama had what many in the African American community perceived as “a snowball’s chance in hell” of winning. Faced with the choice of lesser evils in Clinton, Edwards and others who have a less significant interest in our well being; many of us rationalized that it would be imprudent to “waste our vote” in symbolic support for a well educated, qualified and conscious Black Man fresh off the mean streets of Chicago; where he championed community concerns and interests. Then came Utah and Wyoming where one senator quipped; that on any give day; Obama while campaigning there, was likely to have been the only Black person in the entire state. Still he carried those states by impressive margins; ultimately forcing out all but one of the so called “better qualified” White candidates on the slate.

And now, Presidential Contender Barack Obama stands victorious and alone atop of the Democratic ticket. Indeed the evolution of the African American male image has come into clearer focus. Finally a beacon icon for the world to see that’s neither athlete nor entertainer; “wanted” but not criminal. The fragile line of hope once drawn in the shifting sands of our past is now forever etched in a stone ballot box marked “Yes We Can,” and mounted on the audacity of hope platform.

We all had our chance to influence this election’s outcome. We had a once in a lifetime chance to determine “What history we would make and how each us in this generation of Negro decedents, chose to be remembered?

One can only wonder if the aforementioned venerable champions of the people suffer silently in their moments of solitude, wishing that they had been more courageous and forward thinking; lamenting their now tainted legacies.

Stony the road we trod, bitter the chastening rod, Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;

“… Facing the rising sun of our new day begun, Let us march on till victory is won .”

It’s time now to move on and time to heal. There’s work yet to be done.

How about a family reunion? (Psst! Let’s not mention this to BJ, cousin Bob, though).

Donate to Obama not DNC

On Jun 5, 2008, at 6:54 AM, Ronald R. Bisson wrote:

I sent this out to the group to be forwarded I want to make sure you both got it and want to Know what you think of the Strategy of donating to Barack not the DNC
----- Original Message -----

Sent: Thursday, June 05, 2008 7:38 AM
Subject: Donate to Obama not DNC

GOP fears Obama's money machine

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0608/10868.html

Please forward to your friends

DO NOT DONATE TO THE DNC.

CONTINUE DONATING TO OBAMA! NO MATTER WHAT!
I don't think we should start donating to the DNC. The DNC is disloyal and
weak! We cannot trust them to stand behind Obama. If Obama has a lot of money
in his account and they have a little then they will have to stay loyal to
Obama. Money is Power, and Obama has a lot of it. Also, we'll see how serious
Hillary is about getting her supporters (especially the wealthy ones to support
Obama) to support Obama's candidacy. If they begin donating to the DNC, then we
know that they are supporting Obama. Hillary has a lot of rich supporters.
They can donate to the DNC. Remember, before Obama, rich people were the ones
supporting presidential campaigns.
If we donate to the DNC, then we won't know if Hillary's rich supporters are
donating as well. We won't know who's really carrying the campaign.

Also, If something happens, the DNC members can easily walk away from Obama
before the convention, and use our money to support Hillary. Look at how easily
they overturned a contract signed by both Obama and Hillary. Look at how
hesitant and scared they have been to endorse Obama. These folks are in it for
themselves. Loyalty is not a part of their DNA. It might seem rational that
they will support Obama since we're the ones donating. But they will not know
who's donating.

If they can easily overturn a legal contract, ignore the millions who did not
vote in MI and FL, continue to allow Hillary to make pop. vote arguments (when
we know it's wrong), and allow supporters to disrupt and yell at them in
meetings, it's apparent they are weak and have no control.

Continue donating to Obama, NOT the DNC until we know that most of the
Super Delegates have backed Obama. Hillary is not ending her campaign, and she
will not give up. Please don't be fooled. Money is power, and we want them to
know Obama has all of the power not Hillary Clinton.

Hillary Is White

Hillary Is White

by Zillah Eisenstein

http://www.ithaca.edu/zillah/

It seems clear that Barack Obama will be the Democratic nominee for president this fall. Nevertheless, it is crucial to clarify how wrong-headed Hillary Clinton’s campaign has been so that the legacy she leaves does no more damage to a multi-racial, multi-class based feminism/womanism both here and abroad.
None of the pundits and journalists appears to be wondering and worrying about black women in this post-Indiana-North-Carolina-West-Virginia moment. Instead, all eyes, and especially Hillary and Bill’s are on the so-called “white-hard-working working class”. Hillary’s preoccupation with white voters is a dead give-a-way of how she thinks about gender, and being a woman. Gender is white to her, like race is black. Bill and Hillary Clinton have thrown African-Americans to the wind because they thought they could play the gender card with its history of whiteness and win.
And here lies the rub. Hillary Clinton presents herself to the electorate as a woman. She argues that she wants to break the glass ceiling of/for gender. But the truth is that she is not simply a woman but both a woman and also white. The very fact that she ignores her own race, in a way that Obama cannot, is proof of the normalized privileging of whiteness. In this instance white is not a color, but the color, the standard, by which others are judged. So she silently, inadvertently but knowingly, uses her color to write her meanings of gender and mobilize older white women and angry white men by doing so. She presents herself as a woman but her real power here is as white. Misogyny �€" the fear, hatred, punishment, and discrimination towards women �€" ensures that Hillary’s privilege is her whiteness.
Most often the term white is not spoken alongside the term woman; there is no need. One only specifies color when it is not white. Women are assumed to be white if not specified otherwise, especially if you are speaking about gender or women’s rights, or feminism. Forget the fact that it was a group of black women that initially challenged the Supreme Court in the first sex discrimination case in this country years ago.
Hillary speaks of herself as a woman, and then speaks separately about race, as though she does not embody both at the same time. She has as much ‘race’ as Barack, but her race is not a problem for her. It is for him, even though it may not be as much as a problem as she is trying to make it. As such, Hillary, as a (white) woman pits herself against Barack (as black) with a race so to speak. So Hillary (as a woman) is falsely, wrongly, pitted against Barack (as black). Her whiteness privileges and pits gender against race. She encodes her whiteness as though it is central to her gender, and to her kind of feminism without saying a word. She re-awakens and rewrites the history of 19th century U.S. feminism that pitted black men getting the vote before white women had that right. More recently, women’s rights rhetoric was used to justify the bombing of the Taliban and brown people in Afghanistan and Iraq. Feminism has a history of being bankrupt on this issue so this is nothing new. What is forgotten here is that women’s rights come, or should come, in all colors.
Barack Obama has said he wants to embrace the new notions of race and the racial progress that has occurred. He is not post-racist, but recognizes the newly raced relations as they exist at present. Nevertheless, he must give a speech on race although he says he does not want to be a racial candidate. He recognizes that the country has new-old racial hierarchies with complex identities and that he himself represents white and African blackness, whatever this might mean for him. Meanwhile Hillary says she is running as a woman, and never gives a speech on gender because white angry men and women, would not be pleased by this. So patriarchy, or sexual discrimination, or the structural hierarchy of masculinity with its racialized and class aspects is never mentioned in her campaign. She uses whiteness as her weapon and pretends to be speaking about gender. But she never once mentions the unacceptable misogyny of this country, or the sexual hierarchy of the labor force, or any of the great racial and class inequities that define women’s lives today. This is a misuse and abuse of her gender.
Feminisms of all sorts have moved beyond the idea that feminism is a white woman’s thing; or that feminisms should be particularly beholden to the white mainstreamed part of the U.S. women’s movement. Large numbers of women, especially women of color, but many white women as well, know that race and gender are inseparable and that is why most of these women, whatever their color, are voting for Barack Obama. Hillary should not be allowed to push feminism backwards for her own political ambition. It is not surprising that it is older white women who disproportionately support her. They identify with old notions of womanhood-a homogenized notion that all females share an identity, and race and class are not connected issues to be named and spoken. This is why younger women and progressive women from the civil rights and women’s movements, some of whom are older, disproportionately support Obama.
My thoughts about Hillary Clinton have their own history, which also coincide with her history. I have not been a fan of hers. I have written critically of her for more than a decade now. She has never spoken on behalf of women or as a candidate with a woman’s agenda, let alone as a feminist when she was in the White House. Many of us who are her contemporaries were active in the Civil Rights Movement and Women’s Movements and Anti-Vietnam War movement �€" while she chose not to be. Her one speech addressing the exploitation of women was delivered in Beijing, China, as though it is women outside, but not inside the U.S. who face untold discrimination. Now she runs for president and has become a gun-toting, war mongering white woman who asks for your vote if you are an angry white Reagan Democrat. Maybe she thinks manly gender is the answer for breaking glass ceilings for women.
I would argue that she is not breaking gender boundaries but rather has embraced and extended masculine/misogyny for females. And misogyny always comes in racialized form. She remains female in body and hence parades as a decoy for feminist claims. And her white self is central to this decoy status. Susan Faludi wrote in the New York Times that Hillary is having a success with white male support because she is willing to battle, and engage in rough play like one of the boys. She is supposedly willing to “join the brawl” and as such has won their confidence. She has “broke through the glass floor and got down with the boys” opening the way for women to finally make it “through the glass ceiling and into the White house”. Barbara Ehrenreich in The Nation hesitantly embraces this assessment and then more forcefully criticizes Clinton for her ruthlessness. Ehrenreich writes that Clinton has “smashed the myth of innate female moral superiority in the worst possible way...demonstrating female moral inferiority.”
Hillary has proven that sometimes the best man for the job may be a female posing to be a man. In other words, Hillary has simply clothed herself in men’s tactics and strategies. She can nuke with the best of them. Hillary not only authorized the war in Iraq but she repeatedly continued to do so for several more years �€" up until the time she began running for president. She allowed, along with Bill Clinton, the egregious trade blockade against Iraq as hundreds of thousands of children starved to death after the ‘91 war. She more recently has supported Israel’s terror bombing of Lebanon and has newly endorsed “the total obliteration” of Iran.
But this is just part of the sad story. Hillary’s embrace of a masculinist machismo embraces the very misogyny that most feminists want to dismantle. Instead of challenging the gender divide Hillary simply slides over to the other side of it. Instead of offering a new vision of what it might mean to have a female president she offers us old versions of white privilege and war mongering. But the structural privilege of patriarchy is ignored and obfuscated with Hillary’s race card.
Nevertheless many (white) women write, like Marie Cocco in the Washington Post (May 15, ‘08), that she won’t miss the misogyny of the campaign when it’s over �€" she lists the sexist T-shirts, and array of commercial goods circulating at present. While I abhor any form of degradation of girls and women, or any human being for that matter, I am also hesitant to see this as a sufficient critique of the problem.
Hillary Clinton should never be demeaned for being a woman. But being a woman comes in all colors and classes. Hillary has done the unforgivable. She has used race �€" the whiteness card �€" on behalf of gender. We, the big “we” �€" the huge diversely defined feminisms in this country and across the globe �€" are better than this. Black feminists in this country, during the 1970’s and 80’s women’s movement made sure to break open the race/gender divide and clarify that gender is always racialized and race is always gendered. No person ever experiences one with out the other. Only when whiteness parades as an invisible standard can you think that gender and race can be separate. As such Hillary is white and a female and Barack is black and male. They are each both. Everyone is.
Hillary’s manipulation and misrepresentation of her gender reveals her sexual decoy status. Being female is not enough to allow one to claim their gender as a political tactic. Such claims must be rooted in a commitment to end gender discrimination and their racial and class formulations; not pit races and classes against each other in the hopes of being the first woman president. Clinton does not share a political identity with women of all classes and colors and nations simply because she has a female body. She first needs to claim that body and demand rights for it �€" reproductive, day care, health, education, etc. She has no multi-racial woman’s agenda because she has no anti-racist agenda. Meanwhile she is thrilled that she won big in West Virginia. West Virginia is “almost heaven” to Hillary. She says it shows the country that she can win the “hardworking white Americans” in November. But West Virginia is not heaven, nor is it like much of the rest of the country. It may look like what the U.S. used to be, but that is exactly the point. It does not have the diversity of color, age, culture that defines the U.S. today. Neither does Hillary’s vision.
Hillary is a sexual decoy. She looks like a woman but is not a feminist nor does she speak for or on behalf of most women. She speaks for white people while identifying with her gender, as a woman. But she has trumped herself here. If a female prepares to bully the rest of the world with war and white privilege hopefully we �€" the big “we” �€" the “we” that spans across our differences will defeat the political forces she represents. And this means building a coalition for the November elections that makes sure that a non-misogynist agenda is part of the anti-racist politics of the Obama campaign.


Zillah Eisenstein is professor of politics at Ithaca College, a feminist anti-racist activist, and author of ten books in feminisms and feminist theories across the globe. Her most recent book is Sexual Decoys: Gender, Race and War in Imperial Democracy (London: Zed Books, 2007).

Labels: Gender, Hillary Clinton, Race Man, White Privilege, Zillah Eisenstein

The Power of One!

He is by any standard, the most talented, and qualified candidate from either side of the political divide.
click

This article indicates that all over the world people see that something very
special is about to happen in the USA.click for full artical

Arianna Huffington

Stop Yelling at Hillary to Stand Down and Start Yelling at the Superdelegates to Stand Up
Posted May 22, 2008 | 04:13 PM (EST)


UPDATE: Since I wrote this post, 9 previously uncommitted superdelegates have endorsed -- 8 for Obama, 1 for Clinton -- so now it's 9 down off the fence, 206 to go. Barack Obama is now 49 delegates away from securing the nomination.

The dust refuses to settle on the Democratic race. Hillary Clinton wants to cloud the issue with talk of Zimbabwe, Gore 2000, slavery, the civil rights movement, and fuzzy-math-derived popular vote totals. The media steadfastly refuse to clear things up by sticking to the facts, preferring to keep the horse race going.
So let's see if we can put the focus on those with the power to bring to an end this political equivalent of a 50s horror movie (The Campaign That Just Won't Die!): the superdelegates.
There are currently 212 uncommitted superdelegates (not counting Michigan and Florida). What are they waiting for?
I understand there are still three more primaries to go. But there is nothing that is going to happen in Puerto Rico or South Dakota or Montana that is going to convince Hillary Clinton to leave the race. Her argument isn't about pledged delegates, which is what is at stake in these remaining primaries. Her argument is about Florida and Michigan and convincing the superdelegates to overturn the pledged delegate majority Obama has won.
And there is also no reason for the superdelegates to wait until the Rules and Bylaws Committee meeting on May 31st. Not even the Clinton camp is delusional enough to think it is going to walk away from the meeting with enough additional pledged delegates from Michigan and Florida to overtake Obama.
So it's time for the uncommitted superdelegates to stop their dithering, come out of hiding, hop off the fence, endorse Obama and officially bring this nominating process to an end.
The Democratic leadership -- starting with Pelosi, Reid, and Dean -- should begin working behind the scenes to get all uncommitted supers to immediately commit. Let Puerto Rico, South Dakota, and Montana have their say, but start bringing the curtain down now.
And let's not just wait for the party leaders to put pressure on the superdelegates. Let's start putting pressure ourselves. Below you will find a list of all the uncommitted superdelegates. And this link will lead you to profiles of them. Please call or email the elected officials and track down the DNC members who live in your state and let them know that you want them to stand up and be counted. Now.
Hillary Clinton has more than earned the right to stay in the race until the bitter end. So it's up to the superdelegates to accelerate the bitter end.
Uncommitted Superdelegates:
Representatives
Bud Cramer (AL)
Gabrielle Giffords (AZ)
Nancy Pelosi (CA)
Jerry McNerney (CA)
Mike Honda (CA)
Sam Farr (CA)
Jim Costa (CA)
Bob Filner (CA)
Susan Davis (CA)
Mark Udall (CO)
John Salazar (CO)
Jim Marshall (GA)
Rahm Emanuel (IL)
Nancy Boyda (KS)
Dennis Moore (KS)
William Jefferson (LA)
Charlie Melancon (LA)
Don Cazayoux (LA)
Rep. Michael Michaud (ME)
John Sarbanes (MD)
Steny Hoyer (MD)
Chris Van Hollen (MD)
John Olver (MA)
Niki Tsongas (MA)
John Tierney (MA)
Edward Markey (MA)
Collin Peterson (MN)
Gene Taylor (MS)
Rep. Travis Childers (MS)
Rep. Rush Holt (NJ)
Rep. Bob Etheridge (NC)
Rep. Mike McIntyre (NC)
Rep. Tom Udall (NM)
Charlie Wilson (OH)
Marcia Kaptur (OH)
Rep. Zack Space (OH)
Rep. Dennis Kucinich (OH)
Rep. Dan Boren (OK)
Bob Brady (PA)
Jason Altmire (PA)
Tim Holden (PA)
Rep. Mike Doyle (PA)
John Spratt (SC)
Rep. Jim Clyburn (SC)
Lincoln Davis (TN)
Bart Gordon (TN)
Nick Lampson (TX)
Jim Matheson (UT)
Alan Mollohan (WV)

Distinguished Party
Leaders
Jimmy Carter (GA)
Al Gore (TN)
Fmr. Senator and Majority Leader
George Mitchell (NY)
Fmr. DNC Chair Bob Strauss (TX)

Senators
Ken Salazar (CO)
Joe Biden (DE)
Tom Carper (DE)
Tom Harkin (IA)
Mary Landrieu (LA)
Ben Cardin (MD)
Carl Levin (MI)
Max Baucus (MT)
Jon Tester (MT)
Harry Reid (NV)
Frank Lautenberg (NJ)
Sherrod Brown (OH)
Ron Wyden (OR)
Jack Reed (RI)
Jim Webb (VA)
Herb Kohl (WI)

Governors
Bill Ritter (CO)
Steve Beshear (KY)
Brian Schweitzer (MT)
John Lynch (NH)
Phil Bredeson (TN)
Joe Manchin (WV)
Add-Ons
Tony Knowles (AK)
Terry Goddard (AZ)
Verna Cleveland (GA)
Stephen Leeds (GA)
James Burns (HI)
Jay Nixon (MO)
Rusty McAllister (NV)
Jerry Lee (TN)
W. Patrick Goggles(WY)
35 Unnamed Add-Ons,
including 2 from Michigan
DNC Members
Joe Turnham (AL)
Nancy Worley (AL)
Don Bivens (AZ)
Lottie Shackleford (AR)
Art Torres (CA)
Hon. Carole Migden (CA)
Bob Mulholland (CA)
Christine Pelosi (CA)
Robert Rankin (CA)
Steve Ybarra (CA)
John Perez (CA)
Pat Waak (CO)
Nancy DiNardo (CT)
Donna Brazile (DC)
Christine Warnke (DC)
John Daniello (DE)
Harriet Smith-Windsor (DE)
Richard Ray (GA)
Ben Pangelinan (GU)
Brian Schatz (HI)
Kari Luna (HI)
Edward Smith (IL)
Vacant (IL)
Helen Knetzer (KS)
Jennifer Moore (KY)
Nathan Smith (KY)
Chris Whittington (LA)
Claude "Buddy" Leach (LA)
Elsie Burkhalter (LA)
Sam Spencer (ME)
Jennifer DeChant (ME)
Hon. Heather Mizeur (MD)
Susan Turnbull (MD)
John Sweeney (MD)
Belkis Leong-Hong (MD)
Debra Kozikowski (MA)
James Roosevelt Jr (MA)
Carnelia Pettis Fondren (MS)
John Temporiti (MO)
Yolanda Wheat (MO)
Leila Medley (MO)
Hon. Robin Carnahan (MO)
Hon. Maria Chappelle-Nadal (MO)
Dennis McDonald (MT)
Margarett Campbell (MT)
Sam Lieberman (NV)
Hon. Yvonne Gates (NV)
Hon. Catherine Cortez Masto (NV)
Philip D. Murphy (NJ)
Raymond Buckley (NH)
Irene Stein (NY)
Ralph Dawson (NY)
David Parker (NC)
Muriel Offerman (NC)
Carol Peterson (NC)
David Strauss (ND)
Hon. Chris Redfern (OH)
Ronald Malone (OH)
Patricia Moss (OH)
Hon. Joyce Beatty (OH)
Ivan Holmes (OK)
Jim Frasier (OK)
Jay Parmley (OK)
Meredith Woods-Smith (OR)
Frank Dixon (OR)
Jenny Greenleaf (OR)
Wayne Kinney (OR)
Gail Rasmussen (OR)
Hon. Bill Bradbury (OR)
Eliseo Roques-Arroyo (PR)
Hon. Gilda Cobb-Hunter (SC)
Cheryl Chapman (SD)
Gray Sasser (TN)
Dr. Inez Crutchfield (TN)
Boyd Richie (TX)
David Hardt (TX
Denise Johnson (TX)
Betty Richie (TX)
Linda Chavez -Thompson (TX)
Helen Langan (UT)
Jim Leaman (VA)
C Richard Cranwell (VA)
Hon. Alexis Herman (VA)
Jerome Wiley Segovia (VA)
Howard Dean (VT)
Eileen Macoll (WA)
Ed Cote (WA)
Sharon Mast (WA)
David McDonald (WA)
Nick Casey Jr. (WV)
Alice Germond (WV)
Paula Zellner (WI)
Nancy Drummond (WY)
Cynthia Nunley (WY)
Marylyn Stapleton (VI)
Vacant - 1 (At-large)
Vacant - 2 (At-larg

Moment Of Silence

.....Initiated by DICK GERGORY, REV. MICHAEL BECKWITH and others...)

A concerted effort has been made for the past several weeks to be of one mind and one spirit. Obama supporters are a movement ...a loving movement of like minded Americans who stand for Unity and Justice. And now that Senator Clinton has made her truest, deepest desires known with her unfortunate slip of the tongue...It is time for us to ACT.

Every day at 12:00 Noon, Eastern Standard Time and 9:00 a.m. pacific we are taking a moment of silence to send the light of love and protection to Senator Obama and his family. So say a prayer, chant, meditate, envision, affirm...whatever you feel, do it, at that time everyday. OUR FAITH CAN MOVE MOUNTAINS AND LOVE IS ALWAYS SUPREME. Send your love to our candidate and his family...Let us together heal this wonderful Country of it's ancient wounds. We can do this...YES WE CAN!

Barack Obama wants Bill to heal Hillary Clinton wounds

From The Sunday Times
May 25, 2008
Barack Obama wants Bill to heal Hillary Clinton wounds


An assassination remark is the latest twist to sour relations between the two rivals
Barack Obama, the probable Democratic presidential nominee, wants Bill Clinton to help him heal the deep party rifts created by his wife Hillary’s divisive campaign – culminating in her dramatic claim this weekend that the 1968 assassination of Robert F Kennedy was a reason not to be pushed out of the race.
The tension between Hillary Clinton and Obama intensified after she told the Sioux Falls Argus Leader in South Dakota, which holds the last primary contest in 10 days’ time: “We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June.”

She quickly apologised, ashen-faced, for a comment which appeared dangerously close to wishful thinking about Obama, but the damage was done.

Senior officials on Obama’s campaign believe Bill Clinton has the unique status and political gifts to reunite the party after such gaffes. They expressed confidence that the former president would rise above the perceived slights and grudges of a hard-fought campaign and work flat out for an Obama victory in November’s presidential election.
“If anybody can put their arms around the party and say we need to be together, it is Bill Clinton,” a senior Obama aide said.
“He’s brilliant, he has got heart and he cares deeply about the country. It’s tricky because of his position as Hillary’s spouse, but his involvement is very important to us.

“Bill Clinton will give permission to Hillary supporters to come into our camp and become one party. He is critical to this effort.”
Hillary, 60, claimed that her remark about the assassination had arisen because the “Kennedys have been much on my mind” after Senator Edward Kennedy, Robert’s younger brother, was diagnosed with a brain tumour last week.

She insisted she was referring to the timing of his assassination in June, when he was still a presidential candidate, rather than his killing, to make the point that there was nothing unusual about her determination to take this year’s race for the nomination into the summer.
However, while she expressed regret for “referencing that moment of trauma for our entire nation”, she did not apologise to Obama, who has been receiving secret security protection for the past year after death threats.

“We have seen an x-ray of a very dark soul,” wrote Michael Goodwin, a New York Daily News columnist. “One consumed by raw ambition to where the possible assassination of an opponent is something to ponder in a strategic way. Otherwise, why is murder on her mind?”
The outburst joins “Sniper-gate” – Hillary’s imaginary landing under fire in war-torn Bosnia – as one of the most memorable mistakes of a historic fight to the finish between two remarkably evenly matched candidates.

With just three contests to go – in Puerto Rico, Montana and South Dakota in early June – Obama, 46, is ahead of Clinton by 158 pledged delegates after winning the most states.
His lead is insurmountable unless superdelegates – the party leaders who will determine the outcome of the vote at the Democratic National Convention in August – break in her favour.
After the Kennedy gaffe, however, the implausible has become the unthinkable.

It is a delicate matter to bring Bill Clinton on board. The former president believes that Obama should offer his wife the vice-presidential slot as a mark of respect after she proved her electoral strength in the big must-win states for Democrats, but her latest error is widely perceived to have squandered what little chance she had.
“It would be hard to take the country in a new direction with the Clintons in the White House,” a source in the Obama campaign said. “They bring controversy.”
Discreet merger talks between key campaign staff and leading fundraisers in both camps are already under way. But the process of healing is fraught with friction after accusations of sexism, racism and other insults.

Bill Clinton has been stung by accusations that he played the “race card” by referring to Obama’s story as a “fairy-tale” and comparing his early success in South Carolina with that of the Rev Jesse Jackson, the failed black presidential candidate, in the 1980s.
Nevertheless, friends said they expected the former president to campaign hard for Obama once the nomination is settled.
“In my experience, he is someone who doesn’t really carry political grudges to the end of the line,” said Leon Panetta, who served as Clinton’s White House chief of staff. “He will get mad and angry but ultimately he comes around.”

He added that Clinton was “hurt” by the defeats of Al Gore in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004: “He knows that in the end his legacy within the Democratic party rests not just on his victories but the victories that follow.”

In an interview in People magazine, Clinton, 61, extended a small olive branch to Obama. “There have been some rumbles about leaving this party divided but not one of them has come out of our camp. Not one. Ever,” he said. He went on to speak warmly about his wife’s opponent, although he said Obama lacked experience.
Betsy Myers, a former White House official under Bill Clinton who is now with the Obama campaign, said: “They have very similar stories. They both came from lower-income families with a strong mother and went on to become very well educated and devoted their lives to public service. Had Hillary not been in the race, Barack is exactly the sort of candidate Bill Clinton would have embraced and supported.”

Obama has an important bargaining chip which could tempt Bill Clinton into the fold. Friends say the former president is distressed by the rift in his relationship with the African-American community after he was affectionately described in the 1990s as the “first black president”.
His wife’s reference to Robert Kennedy’s shooting touched a raw nerve among a community which has long feared that the first black candidate to have a serious chance of entering the White House will be assassinated, just as earlier champions such as Martin Luther King and Malcolm X were.
William Galston, a former White House official and Hillary Clinton supporter, said: “One part of him [Bill Clinton] deeply regrets the schism that has opened up with the black community and he would welcome the opportunity to redeem himself.” Campaigning for Obama would go a long way to restoring good relations.

Don Fowler, a former chairman of the Democratic national committee during Bill Clinton’s presidency and a leading Hillary supporter in South Carolina, said: “I don’t know of any two white people who have been more inclined to support causes of interest to the African-American community than Hillary and Bill Clinton. I’m certain they will want to soothe the ruffled feelings that have occurred during this campaign.”
Fowler is a member of the party’s 30-member rules and bylaws committee, which meets on May 31 to decide whether to seat disputed delegations from Michigan and Florida at the Democratic National Convention, as Hillary Clinton is insisting.
The two states were disqualified after holding their primaries early in defiance of party rules but are likely to have their status partially restored.

Fowler’s wife Carol, who chairs the South Carolina Democratic party, also sits on the rules committee but supports Obama. The couple – a microcosm of the split in the party – believe that a “peaceful resolution” to the conflict is possible.
Don Fowler said Hillary Clinton did not have to be Obama’s running mate to unite the Democrats: “She has lots of options and is a very talented woman. I don’t know if that would be a good choice for her or for the party.” A senior member of Obama’s campaign team suggested the former president could deploy his skills on the stump to help Obama woo white working-class voters in key swing states.

“When this primary is over, we’re going to unite as one and Bill Clinton will play a huge role,” said Patrick Murphy, a congressman who chaired the Obama campaign in Pennsylvania, a battleground state.
In a sign that the two camps are drawing together, Al Gore, the former vice-president and winner of the Nobel peace prize, is hosting a fundraiser for the Democratic party on May 31, co-chaired by Orin Kramer, a prominent Obama fundraiser, and Maureen White, one of Clinton’s top financial backers.
The Clinton dynasty may yet play its part. Bill Clinton predicted last week that Chelsea, his 28-year-old daughter, could one day enter politics.
“If you had asked me this before Iowa [which held its caucus in January], I would have said: no way – she is too allergic to anything we do. But she is really good at it.”

If the entire Clinton family can be persuaded to campaign for Obama, their supporters will surely follow.

Keith Olbermann Countdown"Special Comment" on Hillary

Monday, April 21st, 2008

My Vote's for Obama (if I could vote) ...by Michael Moore

http://www.michaelmoore.com
Friends,


I don't get to vote for President this primary season. I live in Michigan. The party leaders (both here and in D.C.) couldn't get their act together, and thus our votes will not be counted.

So, if you live in Pennsylvania, can you do me a favor? Will you please cast my vote -- and yours -- on Tuesday for Senator Barack Obama?

I haven't spoken publicly 'til now as to who I would vote for, primarily for two reasons: 1) Who cares?; and 2) I (and most people I know) don't give a rat's ass whose name is on the ballot in November, as long as there's a picture of JFK and FDR riding a donkey at the top of the ballot, and the word "Democratic" next to the candidate's name.

Seriously, I know so many people who don't care if the name under the Big "D" is Dancer, Prancer, Clinton or Blitzen. It can be Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Barry Obama or the Dalai Lama.

Well, that sounded good last year, but over the past two months, the actions and words of Hillary Clinton have gone from being merely disappointing to downright disgusting. I guess the debate last week was the final straw. I've watched Senator Clinton and her husband play this game of appealing to the worst side of white people, but last Wednesday, when she hurled the name "Farrakhan" out of nowhere, well that's when the silly season came to an early end for me. She said the "F" word to scare white people, pure and simple. Of course, Obama has no connection to Farrakhan. But, according to Senator Clinton, Obama's pastor does -- AND the "church bulletin" once included a Los Angeles Times op-ed from some guy with Hamas! No, not the church bulletin!

This sleazy attempt to smear Obama was brilliantly explained the following night by Stephen Colbert. He pointed out that if Obama is supported by Ted Kennedy, who is Catholic, and the Catholic Church is led by a Pope who was in the Hitler Youth, that can mean only one thing: OBAMA LOVES HITLER!

Yes, Senator Clinton, that's how you sounded. Like you were nuts. Like you were a bigot stoking the fires of stupidity. How sad that I would ever have to write those words about you. You have devoted your life to good causes and good deeds. And now to throw it all away for an office you can't win unless you smear the black man so much that the superdelegates cry "Uncle (Tom)" and give it all to you.

But that can't happen. You cast your die when you voted to start this bloody war. When you did that you were like Moses who lost it for a moment and, because of that, was prohibited from entering the Promised Land.

How sad for a country that wanted to see the first woman elected to the White House. That day will come -- but it won't be you. We'll have to wait for the current Democratic governor of Kansas to run in 2016 (you read it here first!).

There are those who say Obama isn't ready, or he's voted wrong on this or that. But that's looking at the trees and not the forest. What we are witnessing is not just a candidate but a profound, massive public movement for change. My endorsement is more for Obama The Movement than it is for Obama the candidate.

That is not to take anything away from this exceptional man. But what's going on is bigger than him at this point, and that's a good thing for the country. Because, when he wins in November, that Obama Movement is going to have to stay alert and active. Corporate America is not going to give up their hold on our government just because we say so. President Obama is going to need a nation of millions to stand behind him.

I know some of you will say, 'Mike, what have the Democrats done to deserve our vote?' That's a damn good question. In November of '06, the country loudly sent a message that we wanted the war to end. Yet the Democrats have done nothing. So why should we be so eager to line up happily behind them?

I'll tell you why. Because I can't stand one more friggin' minute of this administration and the permanent, irreversible damage it has done to our people and to this world. I'm almost at the point where I don't care if the Democrats don't have a backbone or a kneebone or a thought in their dizzy little heads. Just as long as their name ain't "Bush" and the word "Republican" is not beside theirs on the ballot, then that's good enough for me.

I, like the majority of Americans, have been pummeled senseless for 8 long years. That's why I will join millions of citizens and stagger into the voting booth come November, like a boxer in the 12th round, all bloodied and bruised with one eye swollen shut, looking for the only thing that matters -- that big "D" on the ballot.

Don't get me wrong. I lost my rose-colored glasses a long time ago.

It's foolish to see the Democrats as anything but a nicer version of a party that exists to do the bidding of the corporate elite in this country. Any endorsement of a Democrat must be done with this acknowledgement and a hope that one day we will have a party that'll represent the people first, and laws that allow that party an equal voice.

Finally, I want to say a word about the basic decency I have seen in Mr. Obama. Mrs. Clinton continues to throw the Rev. Wright up in his face as part of her mission to keep stoking the fears of White America. Every time she does this I shout at the TV, "Say it, Obama! Say that when she and her husband were having marital difficulties regarding Monica Lewinsky, who did she and Bill bring to the White House for 'spiritual counseling?' THE REVEREND JEREMIAH WRIGHT!"

But no, Obama won't throw that at her. It wouldn't be right. It wouldn't be decent. She's been through enough hurt. And so he remains silent and takes the mud she throws in his face.

That's why the crowds who come to see him are so large. That's why he'll take us down a more decent path. That's why I would vote for him if Michigan were allowed to have an election.

But the question I keep hearing is... 'can he win? Can he win in November?' In the distance we hear the siren of the death train called the Straight Talk Express. We know it's possible to hear the words "President McCain" on January 20th. We know there are still many Americans who will never vote for a black man. Hillary knows it, too. She's counting on it.

Pennsylvania, the state that gave birth to this great country, has a chance to set things right. It has not had a moment to shine like this since 1787 when our Constitution was written there. In that Constitution, they wrote that a black man or woman was only "three fifths" human. On Tuesday, the good people of Pennsylvania have a chance for redemption.


Yours,
Michael Moore
MichaelMoore.com
MMFlint@aol.com