1. Obama isn't a Muslim. 2. If you think being a Muslim makes you likely to identify with Iran, then at worst you are a bigot, and at best, you are just painfully ignorant.
In other news, not related to Jorge's xenophobia or Basso's sex life... Evan Bayh has dropped out, John Edwards is to drop in http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/12/16/D8M240Q00.html Officials: Edwards to Enter 2008 Race Dec 16 1:51 PM US/Eastern By NEDRA PICKLER Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON Former Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards intends to enter the 2008 race for the White House, two Democratic officials said Saturday. Edwards, who represented North Carolina in the Senate for six years, plans to make the campaign announcement late this month from the New Orleans neighborhood hit hardest by Hurricane Katrina last year and slow to recover from the storm. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they did not want to pre-empt Edwards' announcement. As Edwards enters the crowded field, the Lower Ninth Ward provides a stark backdrop to highlight his signature issue _ that economic inequality means that the country is divided into "two Americas." Edwards also plans to travel from New Orleans through the four early presidential nominating states _ Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire and South Carolina _ as part of an announcement tour between Christmas and New Year's Day. Among Democrats, Sens. Hillary Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois are drawing the most attention almost two years before the actual vote. Edwards, however, is in a strong position as the leading candidate in Iowa. He was a top fundraiser in the race for the nomination in 2004 before he became Democratic Sen. John Kerry's running mate. Since the Democrats' loss to President Bush, Edwards has worked to build support for a repeat presidential bid. He has a retooled agenda that is more openly progressive and has spent time building relationships with labor leaders and traveling overseas to build his foreign policy credentials beyond his one term in the Senate. Edwards' spokesman, David Ginsberg, would not confirm or deny that Edwards planned to announce he would run in 2008. Ginsberg said Edwards would make an announcement about his future when he is ready. Word leaked about Edwards' plans just hours after Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh announced he would not seek the presidency in 2008. Bayh had been a leading candidate in early fundraising and, like Edwards, based much of his appeal on his electability. Bayh and Edwards, friends who went running together daily when they were in the Senate, each won election in Republican-leaning states. Bayh and some other hopefuls have struggled to build their name recognition against the drawing power of Clinton and Obama. Edwards, however, does not have that problem. He is well known from the 2004 campaign and his profile has risen this year as he and his wife, Elizabeth, went on nationwide tours to promote their books. A poll of Iowa Democrats that was published Thursday in the Des Moines Register showed Edwards with 36 percent support, more than Clinton's 16 percent and Obama's 13 percent combined. Edwards' campaign plans include an aggressive fundraising effort to prove that he belongs in the top tier of contenders. Because he currently does not hold federal office, Edwards does not have a war chest like some of his rivals. In fact, he has several hundred thousands of dollars of debt from his 2004 presidential campaign.
I hate to be cynical about this, but Edwards "demographics" probably mandate that he be on the ticket in some form or fashion. 215 years of white male leadership, and 30 years of Southerners out of the last 40, are tough trends to break. Hell, if Augusta National can't accept women members "at the end of a bayonet," or rebs can't take Confederate flags down from their statehouse without massive protests (rather than just out of respect for black civil servants whose ancestors were, y'know, slaves), or repeal laws in Alabama against interracial marriage until 2000 (60-40% vote, by the way, although I'm sure there were some blacks in the 40%) what makes us think they'll put Obama or Hillary, or both at the same time, in the White House? And don't think this is restricted to the South, either. There were more than enough segregated labor unions, swimming pools and whites-only convenants everywhere else in the country for these perceptions to have made roots and kept hold in the East, Midwest and West Coast. But back to Edwards, he'll probably play the John Kerry to Hillary or Barack's Howard Dean, should it ever come to that. And he wouldn't have an incumbent to fight against, and the War is much more universally opposed now. Plus he's always smiling; kind of like a certain other successfull Southern politician, before he had any real problems.
By the cynicism of the pundits (and many who post here), you'd think a southern city had never elected a black or woman mayor. Give the people the opportunity, and they'll see right through race. It's the political machines, and stratagist that can't. Edwards has been disappointingly invisible since 2004. I wish he'd stayed that way.
Catching up ona few days worth of this thread and this is by far the most egregious statement in here... Obama never says that "because I am black, I have to be concerned about security" or "racist white guys want to kill me." He is just stating a fact that has been brought out in a number of previous Presidential contests... that the increased visibility makes you a target and that there is no protection until you officially become the nominee. In the past 50 years we have had JFK and RFK killed, Ford shot at, and Reagan shot. The main reason Alma didn't want Colin running is because she feared for his life. To this day, I am amazed that no attempt was made on Clinton. If you are in the public life, there is an increased chance someone will take a shot at you. Nothing wrong with Obama considering his security... in fact, it tells me he's really thinking about the mechanics of the race instead of being swept along. Furthermore, it is a fact that he is black and anyone who cannot see that being black changes the equation is willfully ignorant. To imply that Obama is race-baiting because he's concerned about his security as a highly visible public person is just nuts. I suppose TJ thinks MLK, Jr. is a "race-baiter" because he let some white guy kill him.
Dang it. I really like the guy. Now Hilary is the most conservative Democrat currently in the race. Oh well, run, Rudy, run!
BWAAAAHAAAAAHAAAA!! If you Google "Balack Osama", you get about 328 hits! What were the numbers last week, Skippy!? Oh, by the way, Skippy, how many of those hits are sites decrying the use of the monker to stereotype the surging Barack Obama? "This thing" just got its LEGS cut out from under it! If you Google "Bush is a failure", you get 5.88 MILLION hits! Talk about LEGS!
I've missed most of this thread and now I see why. For what its worth when I hear the name "Felix" I associate it with cats and not Jews or Latinos.
......LOL, and it only took mass migrations of whites to the suburbs for that to happen.(not just in the south either)
http://www.opinionjournal.com/diary/?id=110009401 [rquoter] JOHN FUND ON THE TRAIL Not So Fast Why Barack Obama may not run. Monday, December 18, 2006 12:01 a.m. Just about everybody seems convinced that Sen. Barack Obama is going to run for president. The Chicago Sun-Times, his hometown paper, is writing as if his candidacy is an established fact. Newsweek magazine cites sources close to him who claim that he's "about 80 percent" certain to run. Obamamania will continue to build until the Illinois senator announces next month . . . Time out. Let's look at the 1 in 5 chance that even his own advisers say he won't run. I think it's greater than that. We've been here before with the Big Media clamoring for an attractive black candidate to make history. In 1995 there was a similar push to get Colin Powell to run, but he wisely demurred, citing family concerns about his security and the belief that he couldn't win the GOP nomination. Mr. Obama may similarly surprise everyone by not running this time. That may be wind up being best both for the country and for Mr. Obama. On one level, the palpable enthusiasm for his fresh face is welcome. "He's a walking, talking hope machine," Mark McKinnon, a former Bush media strategist now advising Sen. John McCain, tells National Journal. Who better to help the country get over its racial hang-ups than a 45-year-old man who was born in multiethnic Hawaii to a white mother from Kansas and a black father from Kenya and who grew up partly in Indonesia? He's the political equivalent of Tiger Woods. Many voters want to get beyond the stale culture-war issues fought over by rival camps of baby boomers. Mr. Obama's uplifting rhetoric about "looking for something different" is appealing. For too long, black presidential candidates who focus on racial divisions--Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton--have been showered with media attention and given a free pass on demagoguery. Mr. Obama doesn't see every issue through a racial prism, and many voters would buy the argument that his scant national record is an asset if it helps break up the status quo. But Mr. Obama is also smart enough to know that he has become too popular too quickly. His supporters are doing him a disservice with their indifference to his lack of experience. "I don't particularly want to wait until he is ready," novelist Nora Ephron told PBS. "I'm ready for Barack Obama." Left unspoken is the big reason why so many Democrats are swooning over the newcomer. It's the nagging belief that the country isn't ready to elect Hillary Clinton. "If she is the nominee, voters will be asked to select another Clinton, after having had a Bush in the White House, preceded by a Clinton, preceded by the first President Bush," one Democratic consultant observes. "Against her, most Republicans would look like a fresh face and with less baggage." Mr. Obama knows that Hillary Clinton is a vulnerable front-runner. But he also knows that her side will haul out the brass knuckles to stop him. "Just a little while ago, he was in Springfield worrying about license-tag fees," is how one Hillary advisor told Newsweek magazine described one of the attack lines that would be used against him. "There's a fine line between an empty suit and an empty vessel into which people want to pour their hopes," says one national political journalist. There's also the fact that for all his winning ways and natural appeal to the camera, Mr. Obama hasn't really been tested in a major campaign. In 2000, then-state Sen. Obama challenged Rep. Bobby Rush, who was vulnerable after having been crushed in a bid for Chicago mayor. Mr. Rush ran circles around Mr. Obama, aided by an endorsement from President Clinton, and beat him 2 to 1. In 2004, when Mr. Obama ran for the U.S. Senate, he had the good luck of seeing both Blair Hull, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, and Jack Ryan, the GOP nominee, self-destruct in sex scandals. Mr. Obama's eventual Republican opponent, Alan Keyes, was an unserious candidate who won the votes of only 56% of Republican voters. A local Chicago political columnist notes that Mr. Obama is the closest thing to a rookie candidate on the national stage since Dwight Eisenhower and nicknames him "Obambi." Candidates as green as Mr. Obama make rookie mistakes under the searing scrutiny of a national campaign, Only for so long will Mr. Obama's sparkling personality help him avoid troubling questions about his ideological record. The fact that he originally opposed the war in Iraq would help him with primary voters, but it's unclear how many Democrats want to plump for someone who, according to National Journal, has a more liberal voting record than Hillary Clinton. Last year Mr. Obama had a perfect 100% voting record from both the Americans for Democratic Action and the AFL-CIO. His record as a state legislator is even more liberal. In 1996, he spoke out against the Defense of Marriage Act, which the Senate approved 85-14 and Mr. Clinton signed into law. He twice voted "present" on a bill to ban partial-birth abortions. In 1999 he was the only state senator to oppose a law that prohibited early prison release for sex offenders. Is anyone naive enough to believe Mrs. Clinton wouldn't use those positions as evidence that he couldn't win? If Mr. Obama chooses to sit 2008 out, he won't be the first person to play the media like a fiddle, being coy about his intentions in order to boost his profile. Al Gore has followed his wife's advice to leave the door open for a 2008 presidential bid in part to fuel interest in his global-warming documentary and book. Similarly, Mr. Obama knew what he was doing in October when he announced his interest in a presidential candidacy at the very moment his new book reached the stores. Since then, "Audacity of Hope" has reached the top of the best-seller lists, selling more than 400,000 copies. In addition to all the consultants who are urging him to run, Mr. Obama has other advisers who are telling him that at age 45 he can afford to wait. He also could easily find himself on the top of her list of potential running mates. "A Clintion-Obama ticket would be the most powerful turnout machine you can imagine for the Democratic base in 2008," one Democratic congressman who knows both of them told me. "He might be better positioned to be president if he first ran for vice president. If Hillary won, he would be the heir apparent. If she lost, no one would blame him for that." For all the disappointment the national media might express at an Obama noncandidacy, he could marshal his rhetorical skills and deliver a superb speech that would deepen his long-term appeal to the electorate. Imagine how refreshing it would be if he bowed out of the race for now, saying: "For every thing there is a season. I believe I am qualified to be president. But I think the country would be better served if I break with normal political ambition and for now devote myself to listening, learning and becoming the most effective senator for Illinois I can be. In other words, I have decided not to succumb to the hype that others are busy creating around me. That's for Hollywood, not for the serous business of running a country in troubled and dangerous times. I appreciate all the attention, but I would like to have more of a conversation with the American people before asking them to entrust me with that grave responsibility. That conversation is better conducted for now outside the media glare of a presidential campaign. Let the dialogue begin." That kind of approach--practicing statesmanship in the face of enormous temptation--might elevate Mr. Obama's appeal in the long run and be of more benefit to him than the instant gratification of the campaign trail. Don't be surprised if an unconventional man like Mr. Obama makes that unconventional career choice.[/rquoter]
The old too liberal charge. I have heard what may be a preveiw of Obama's reply to this, and it is solid... especially coming from his own mouth, with his gift of oration. He basically says that those terms and labels are outdated and that he isn't about labelling somebody as something in an effort to turn them off. He says the country is ready for something different, and his vision of hope is what he has. We ned to move on from the old ideas of liberal or conservative, and move on to a unified America where ideas and vision are the terms more used in politics. Like I said Obama puts it much better than I do, but it is a great response, that kind makes John Fund and others who make that argument look tired, and obsolete.
That's quite a clever way of attempting to say that the issues don't matter. Good luck selling that one. JUST ANOTHER LIBERAL
Yes, issues like gay marriage, flag burning, prayer in school. Guess what - who cares? Why is the extremist right so stuck on these trivial issues? Here, let me give you a non-clever way of saying it. THOSE ISSUES DON'T MEAN SQUAT! But guess what, that's all the conservative right talks about now. Oh yeah, and stem cell research which everyone knows they are totallly wrong on.
Surely you're not suggesting that issues or ideology matter as much as a candidate's physical features, middle name, race or parents' religion!
What Obama is attempting to do is hope that the American people judge him by individual views (hopefully cherry picking the ones that they like) while ignoring his overall ideology. He is a died-in-the-wool Progressive (liberal is meaningless, but he's that by traditional definition). He's big on both individual and corporate welfare. I've said it before (maybe in this thread), Barack Obama is LBJ with JFK's charisma and good looks.
Joe Stalin's Cadillac This is Joe Stalin's Cadillac We're just drivin' 'round the block in Joe Stalin's Cadillac L.B.J.'s Cadillac L.B.J.'s Cadillac We're just peein' on the side of the road in L.B.J.'s Cadillac Aw, this is Somoza's Cadillac This is Somoza's Cadillac We're just drivin' 'round the block in Somoza's Cadillac General Pinochet's Cadillac General Pinochet's Cadillac Can't go left in General Pinochet's Cadillac Well my Cadillac Is Johnson's Cadillac Is Stalin's Cadillac Is Somoza's Cadillac Is General Pinochet's Cadillac and be referred to Reagan's Cadillac Gonna drive my Cadillac off a bridge Gonna drive my Cadillac of a bridge If I can find a bride I'll drive my Cadillac off a bridge Where's the bridge? Has anybody seen the bridge?
well, mc batman, apparently your boy mc josh this Felix=Jewboy [rquoter]"Eric Kleefeld noticed a couple weeks ago that your cheesier run of GOP chat-hound was starting to make a big deal out of the fact that Barack Obama's middle name is 'Hussein.' Pretty lame. But given what's been going on in this country for the last few years and the GOP's track record I really can't say it surprises me."--Josh Marshall, Dec. 11 "TPM Reader JL on George Allen . . . 'I would expect that George Felix Allen both knew and not-knew, the way a child will know and not-know about any family secret, because it's something that no one in the family will ever talk about directly. . . . Think of little George Felix, growing up in such a household and what he internalized. There is nothing in his behavior or speech, now or in the past, that suggests that he's not ashamed that his mother is Jewish.' Amen."--Josh Marshall, Sept. 21[/rquoter]
Buenos Shalom! I guess you're saying that Josh is a hypocrite here? What does allen's anti-semitism, as noted by TPM Reader JL - have to do with it?
You're amazing. I really, really would have thought you'd have been too embarassed to ever mention this stuff again. This rivals giddyup's "maybe wetback is a term of endearment where he's from" and George Bush's Iraq war for willfull stupidity and failure to let go of a thing that has long since been proven wrong beyond all doubt. By your own account, the TPM quote mentioning Allen's Jewishness appeared three days after it was brought up in the debate. Further, there is nothing in it to suggest that Felix is a Jewish name (LOL) nor to suggest that when people started calling him that, months before anyone knew he was a Jew, it had anything to do with Jewishness. This is supposed to be some kind of "gotcha?" You can probably find a hundred more quotes just like this from after that debate. You are really, really bad at this.
