Just got back after a month of self-imposed hiatus from politics after Hillary dropped out of the race. Obama appears to have tacked to the center since then; for example on the surveillance legislation and faith-based initiatives.
All of the long-time Obamaniacs seem to be surprised by this (I'm not one of them, remember)... I'm not. I've always been a little uncomfortable with him (and Hillary) because he's just not really a liberal. Remember his 2004 keynote speech at the DNC?
We liberals are not going to love him as President, but after 8 years of Bush and faced with 4 more in McCain, Obama's still pretty damn appetizing...
Amy Poehler does an awful Hillary Clinton (not surprising as Saturday Night Live has been terrible for going on fifteen years), but she manages to sum up Clinton's arguments pretty succinctly.
By the way I'm down in DC for the next couple of days, home on Tuesday, and in NYC on Wednesday.
Obama defeated Hillary handily in NC, and still stands a chance of pulling off an upset in Indiana. If he wins that, I think she'll concede tomorrow. I want to see what happens, but I need to get up early in the morning for a meeting in Midtown. Dilemmas, dilemmas...
One Clinton aide yesterday derided Mr Obama’s victories in "boutique" caucus states rather than the hardscrabble terrain of the rustbelt, saying: "Obama has won the small caucus states with the latte-sipping crowd. They don’t need a president, they need a feeling."
She sounds just like a Republican. She's doing it over and over again.
I just wish Obama would do a better job of fighting back, which is what I was worrying about in the first place with him. We'll see!
Bush isn't the only musically-inclined politician out there...
On Friday night, a friend sent me a prank video shows three fat old men having sex in the shower. This one was more disturbing...
I've brushed off the idea that it's time for a new generation in the White House, but this is the best argument for it I've seen. Compare the above video to this one:
Ted sent me a report from the Democratic caucuses in Washington:
Well, we're done caucusing.......at least my precinct is. It was an interesting process. First it was amazing to see people streaming towards the school on foot, by car, by bike. It was like something out of a movie.....people coming from all directions, converging on this school. They clearly got more people than they expected.....not enough forms, not enough seats. They had to send someone to Kinko's to make more copies.
The crowd was fairly diverse.....old, young, white, black, purple; in fact, there were some teenagers and tweenies observing. As far as income, I could see no difference.....mostly middle class, probably white collar but that's a guess.
The caucus started promptly at 1:30 PM. We were separated into rooms by precinct. My room had 64 people of which 5 were undecided. My neighbors from across the street were there. We chatted it up.......we hadn't talked in a while. Unfortunately, I realized as I took our signup sheet to the front of the room that they were for Clinton. I guess there won't be too many summer barbeques this year. hehehehehe! (Jason's Note: "Ted" is actually Beavis)
Then we separated into three groups: Obama, Clinton and Undecideds. I know, I know.....you want the break out for Obama and Clinton but you ain't getting it til the end and no fair cheating. We started out by making a list of resolutions we wanted presented to the county wide delegate meeting to be held in April. Then each candidate group picked three delegates for a total of six.
Finally, the actual caucus began. The Undecideds told us their doubts about each candidate. Then 5 speakers were picked from Obama's group and 5 from Clinton's group. I was one of the 5 for Obama. They were asked to address the concerns and questions of the Undecideds. Did I mention that my neighbor was one of the speakers for the Clintons and that stupidly my comments piggy backed off what he said, and in the process, turned his argument around to the detriment of Clinton? Politically savvy like Obama I am not. Forget the "no barbeque problem"...I am hiring a security guard for my house. ;-((
After the speakers were done, the Undecideds were asked to go up to the precinct captain and indicate if they had changed their position. We started out with 5 Undecideds and ended up with one. In fact, one woman came up to me and told me what I said had turned her around for Obama. Yay! One for the Obama gipper! In fact, Obama got all but one of the Undecideds.
And now for the final tally: 46 for Obama, 17 for Clinton and 1 Undecided. From what I understand, the majority of the 6 delegates go to him but they weren't sure exactly how many he would get. I am unclear why anyone would think this process favors Obama. Whatever the reasons might be, it was not obvious to me.
Oh yeah, my neighbor......he looked at me strangely as I left and was not nearly as friendly as when we first saw each other. Oh well............
I didn't make my vote based on who I thought was "more electable." I thought that was a fool's game four years ago, and I think it's even more foolish this year. I'm picking for myself, not for you. Heck, I have a lot of political positions in common with most people on this community, and many of you would strongly disagree with how I cast my vote. If I can't figure out how you're going to vote, I'm not about to start puzzling what a truck driver in Portland, a single mother in Boise, or a middle manager in Cleveland is looking for in a president.
I didn't make my vote based on how I thought some other part of the world would react to a President Obama. I didn't consider whether some despot at the head of a failing state would think the new president too weak to thwart some scheme. I didn't ponder what they'd think in the cave. I didn't consider whether some faction of the populace in the Middle East, or China, or some other place look on black people as "weak" or "inferior." I didn't consider how Obama would get on with Putin or how he'd handle Chavez. You only have to look at George W. Bush and Tony Blair to know that predicting how world leaders will hit it off is tougher than lining up blind dates for your friends. Anyone making guesses about this is doing just that -- making guesses.
And above all, I didn't make my vote based on some assumption of racism or sexism on another part of the electorate. Not that I didn't have plenty of chances. At some point, it seemed like everyone I know brought up some variant of the Wilder Effect. They usually expressed it as something close to "I know what people tell the pollsters, but I'm really worried in November when it comes down to a woman/black man against a candidate like people have always known..." A relative put it a lot more bluntly in saying "It doesn't bother me that Obama slept with all those white women, but it'll bother other people."
From CNN: "72 percent of Democrats said they would be satisfied if Clinton won the party's nomination, while 71 percent say the same about Obama."
Not exactly a divided party.
I spoke to a friend tonight, who told me that he and his wife spent the weekend weighing Hillary vs. Obama, and decided not to vote because they couldn't make a decision. They both decided they'd be happy with either, and that was that.
Seems a lot of America feels that way. But after tonight's primaries, it looks like we're going to need some more time before we have one candidate to agree upon. But agree we will, and we're going to kick some pachyderm in November!
Here's a little detail you might be interested in. As you know, the Albany City Democratic Committee, which is Jerry Jennings's breakaway from the Albany County Democratic Party, has been ordering all of us City committee persons to campaign exclusively for Hillary. All of us were handed a list of female names in our respective election districts. This turned out to be a list of women 55 years of age or over whom we were supposed to target.
My Wife was on that list, erroneously. She's not yet 55. "That's it, I'm voting for Obama," she told the City Party Chairman.
One of my biggest problems with Hillary has been the people she associates with, from anti-union types like Chris Lehane and Mark Penn to establishment slimeballs like James Carville.
But if Jerry Jennings is going to push so strongly for her, then that does it for me. I'm voting Barack Obama tomorrow.
Who am I gonna vote for? Out of the myriad of choices? I'll be voting for the Democrat in November, even if Ralph Nader runs, and especially if Billionaire Michael Bloomberg runs.
I'm angry at Clinton for A) voting for and supporting the War Against Iraq, and B) voting for and supporting the so-called "Patriot" Act and related legislation. I mean, c'mon lady.
Concerning B), when we were trying to get the City of Albany to pass a resolution opposing the "Patriot" Act (which was ultimately successful, by the way) Melanie Trimble of the NYCLU tried to get an audience with her. She refused to even respond to our request, let alone meet with Melanie. (McNulty met with her, and literally laughed in her face.) As a result, our opponents on the Albany Common Council kept tossing us this line about "undermining Senator Clinton." You think I'm going to forget something like that?
So I guess I'm going to vote for Obama because I'm not as disgusted with him. But I'll tell you, I have serious doubts that a black person can win a national election in white America.
I like both Clinton and Obama, but if I had to pick one as the Democratic nominee right now and offer a single justification for my selection, I'd choose Clinton, and for the same reason that so many people regard her as unelectable: she's gone through a never-ending storm of shit with her head held high. I'm thinking that's the best practice anyone could have for making it to November in one piece. Obama has acknowledged that she has that much of an edge by saying that beating off her attacks have made him a stronger, better-tested candidate, but I hope he isn't really silly enough to think that bitch-slapping Bob Johnson is remotely equivalent to taking on the whole Fox News and right-wing radio manure machine. The people who are attracted to Obama because he's so "inspiring" don't seem to think this ought to be a factor in their decision. It's as if they think that his new-morning aura is so effective that it'll deflect any slander and inspire the other side to behave itself and play on a high ground, especially if the other candidate is the saintly and principled John McCain. They must be out of their motherfucking minds.
Poverty Rising: There are nearly 37 million poor Americans. Most Americans living in poverty work, but still cannot afford to make ends meet.
Minimum Wage is Not Enough: Even when a parent works full-time earning minimum wage and EITC and food stamps are factored into their income, families are still $1,550 below the federal poverty line because of the flat-lined minimum wage.
Yes folks, sprawl makes our taxes go up. This is not rocket science. Automobiles not only allow us to use more land than ever before. Autos demand that we use more land, to drive and park the damn things.
Global warming is not the only price we pay for our gas guzzling pollution machines. The more we drive our automobiles, the more land we need to use and pay for. Driving your car raises your taxes.
. . .
May I make a modest suggestion? To stop property taxes from increasing, we need a crash program to reduce dependence on automobiles. Not to eliminate automobiles, mind you. To reduce dependence.
Wouldn't it be nice to have choice? Imagine how delightful it would be to take a pleasant train ride to work, scanning your favorite electronic device or printed material, sipping your favorite coffee concoction and maybe even having a donut. I've lived in places where I could do that, why can't I do that in the Capital District?
Or imagine being able to hop a bus home at two o'clock in the morning after a raucous night out in a neighboring city. Don't we all want to reduce drunk driving? Again, I've lived in places where late night busses are expected and reliable.
I don't want to give up my pickup truck, nosiree. I need it to haul refrigerators and zip off to lumber yard when I want to. What I want is a choice, to not have to keep it full of expensive imported gasoline, to not be dependent on the damn thing. Is that too much to ask?
To reduce dependence on automobiles would require rebuilding our State. It would require transforming suburban sprawl hellholes into communities where it is easier to walk than to drive. It would be a massive job generator, very attractive to job-creating developers.
And while we're at it, why isn't New York State energy independent? We have wind, water and sunshine. We could cut loose from parasitic international energy corporations would make us a boom state. Our state could become virtually reccession-proof.
Reform No Child Left Behind: Obama will reform NCLB, which starts by funding the law. Obama believes teachers should not be forced to spend the academic year preparing students to fill in bubbles on standardized tests. He will improve the assessments used to track student progress to measure readiness for college and the workplace and improve student learning in a timely, individualized manner. Obama will also improve NCLB's accountability system so that we are supporting schools that need improvement, rather than punishing them.
Clinton:
End the unfunded mandate known as No Child Left Behind.
Advantage? Hillary. NCLB has to come off the table; like charter schools, it was molded by Republicans simply as an excuse to be able to weaken the teachers' lobby and to hurt the public school system.
Watch Season 4 of The Wire, and you'll get it...
Speaking of charter schools, neither candidate mentions them, nor private school vouchers at all, for that matter. Disappointing, as both are going to be major factors in inner-city education over the next decade.
Barack's a bit better than Hillary on the war; Barack's website says, "Obama has a plan to immediately begin withdrawing our troops engaged in combat operations at a pace of one or two brigades every month, to be completed by the end of next year." Meanwhile, Clinton's simply says her Cabinet would, "draw up a clear, viable plan to bring our troops home starting with the first 60 days of her Administration."
Unlike most people, I don't give Obama any extra points over Hillary for having opposed the war in 2002. Nearly all of the Democrats in the Senate supported the authorization of force against Iraq, and it was less because they believed in it and more because if they didn't, they would be branded as traitors, which was the kiss of death to any national politician that soon after 9/11. Edwards supported it too, and I can't really give Obama the benefit of the doubt that he wouldn't have voted the same way had he actually been in the Senate at the time. Heck, I'm not sure I wouldn't have had to vote for it at the time. I am a little uneasy, however, that unlike Edwards, Hillary hasn't really backed off that vote.
All three candidates rattled sabers towards Iran, which is just plain stupid. Iran's a toothless (like me!) third-world nation that bears no threat towards us, and it's time we ignored them.
I went through Clinton's and Obama's health care issues pages this evening. Also, they're not so far apart here either. They address a lot of the same issues -- covering the uninsured, AIDS, autism, cancer). They also both offer people the option of getting the same plan that members of Congress have.
Ultimately, to me, Hillary's plan is slightly better, because it makes participation mandatory. But neither is anywhere near single-payer (UPDATE: Kossack Partially Impartial explains why this is important) (UPDATE 2: The Urban Institute releases a paper concluding the same).
Running an organization, I find that we spend over $6,000 per year on health insurance per employee, and it goes up close to 20% every year. For people insuring themselves, it's approaching $10,000 per year. How long can that continue? Single payer is the only answer, but it's not even on the table.
I read some of Hillary and Barack's economic platforms on their websites... nothing stood out as particularly good or bad as far as differences go.
One thing that bothered me in both was that there is too much concentration on tax cuts... that's buying into the Republican meme that taxes are too high. They're not; they were higher ten years ago and surveys showed that most people didn't complain then. And today, when we have a national debt approaching a trillion dollars, we cannot eliminate revenue sources.
I have 12.5% fewer teeth in my mouth than I did ten hours ago.
I have seven episodes of The Wire, or approximately 13.5% of the entire series, left to watch after I started watching two weeks ago (and it's every bit as good as I'd heard).
There are five days left until Super Tuesday, so by the end of tonight, I'd like to be 20% closer to choosing a candidate. But some arsehole (SEE UPDATE) Bob Cesca on Huffington Post thinks that I, and the rest of the progressive blogosphere, need to pick one candidate and unify behind him or her now.
Uh, no?
I'm going to pick my candidate before I vote, and I think every other blogger should do the same. But we're not a unit (hell, I'm just a speck), and we make up our minds for ourselves. As long as we're unified behind the Democratic candidate once the party has selected one, we're going to rock the Republican candidate (be it McCain, Romney, Huck, or whomever) in November. I'm confident in that prediction.
UPDATE: I got an e-mail from Bob Cesca pointing out that I was nasty for calling him names when he was making a reasoned argument. He's right... I'm getting a little touchy on the subject right now; I'm having a hard time understanding how it's so easy for others to make the distinction on whom to vote right now. Methinks me taking this a little too seriously...
So, I'll basically be back in bed and in pain for the next few days, starting tomorrow morning when I get all four of my wisdom teeth extracted. And, I need to find a new candidate to support in the Presidential election.
Over the next few days, I'm going to be combing the Issues sections on Clinton's and Obama's websites, and looking for distinctions. I'll post my observations, and hopefully, I can make a decision by Tuesday.
I read several blog posts this morning touting Obama's victory speech, and then a friend called me up and told me that Obama incorporated some of Edwards's populist rhetoric last night. So, I watched it to see if there was anything for me to grab on to.
He did sprinkle in some populist-sounding phrases, and then came to a point where he said:
"There are people all across this great nation who can't afford four more years without health care..."
Good line.
"They can't afford another four years without good schools..."
Another good, very important line.
"They can't afford another four years without decent wages..."
Excellent.
"... because our leaders couldn't come together and get it done."
Wha??? I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but once again, Obama shows he just doesn't get it. He makes it sound like there are procedural, bureaucratic issues, like the politicians in Washington just aren't talented enough.
But that's just not it. There's a side here that doesn't care about other people; one that is actively trying to keep us from having health care, that is dismantling our public schools brick by brick, that is trying to keep our wages down. The same side believes that we should be able to torture people, start whatever damn wars we'd like, spy on whomever we want to, keep our women in their places, and a whole spate of other things that are just plain wrong and harmful to tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions of people in this country.
We need to convince those who can be convinced that our side is right, and not try to compromise with the other side to come up with expensive "solutions" that make corporations rich and don't fix the problems. We need to repudiate them and rid Washington of the other side, not unite with them. Sure, I believe in two-party politics, but the other party is just SO wrong. We don't need to be more reasonable, they do.
The issue, unlike Obama seems to believe, is not that people can't get things done, it's that roughly half the people want to get the opposite done!
And thus, I'm still not on board with Obama, because he just doesn't get it.
And, despite the fact that I'm liking Hillary's tactics less and less, I'm leaning towards her more than Obama if it comes down to the two of them, because she at least understands what she's dealing with when it comes to the other side.
I was just at the wine bar on Lark St. (where else?) and spoke for a while to a guy who hates unions and thinks Obama is a Muslim. He also loves Hillary.
I don't get to associate with TV types much, but my one brush happened to be with Chris Matthews in 2002. I never have before because I figured I might get some of his staff in trouble, but it's been more than five years and I'd imagine most, if not all of them are gone. Anyway:
I did a few days of volunteer work for Hardball when Chris Matthews came to town in 2002 to interview Hillary (I chauffered him around and helped some of his staff run errands)...
Nearly to a person, his regular staff told me and whispered among each other that Matthews was never afraid of any guest, but he was "scared" (in at least one case, "scared shitless") of Hillary.
During the time I spent with him, he totally antagonized me, a 22 year old kid at the time -- the first thing he told me was that I must've been helping the show out because I was a "Hillary lover" like it would've been a horrible thing (I've never particularly liked her -- I even volunteered for Tasini against her for a while in '06), but he'd have none of it). He proceeded to ask if I was the "love child of two hippies" (I'm not sure what the hell that's supposed to mean) and on a couple of occasions accused me of being gay (I'm not).
Going into the few days with him, Matthews was my idol (I was in the middle of a neocon phase at the time before becoming an uberliberal the last 3-4 years) and I rarely missed his show... However, he is exactly in person like he is on TV. A mega-asshole!
An asshole, a homophobe, talks all the time at the top of his lungs, and scared of Hillary... I'd guess the dude is pretty damn insecure.
