Donuts And Politics

Seriously, I can’t make this stuff up. Wonder why 53% don’t trust her? Watch this piece and ask yourself how she “misspoke” as her campaign is claiming. More like made up a lie. As Chris Matthews pointed out, this isn’t something that happened and she got the facts wrong, this is something that NEVER HAPPENED AT ALL and she acts like it did. She never landed anywhere in her life under sniper fire, so how does one remember it ever happening? And why would the President send his wife (and daughter!) somewhere that was too dangerous for him to go, as she also claimed? It makes no sense. Sorry Hillary, and don’t try to change the subject back to the Wright issue either. Last week she wouldn’t comment on it and this week she wants to talk all about it. DROP OUT!

I came across this interesting and fairly valid list the other day of things that “Hillary Clinton knows or Should know” and thought, if this is true, the only reason she continues to remain in the race is some sense of entitlement and ego. Sad. I hope she does not continue this in some vain hope of winning this year, or even damaging Obama so much that he loses to McCain and she can run in 2012. I wouldn’t put it past her to be thinking such thoughts. The Clintons seem to think that they are the Democratic Party. Anyway, check this out:

1. She can’t win the nomination without overturning the will of the elected delegates, which will alienate many Democrats.

2. She can’t win the nomination without a bloody convention battle — after which, even if she won, history and many Democrats would cast her as a villain.

4. Nancy Pelosi and other leading members of Congress don’t think she can win and want her to give up. Same with superdelegate-to-the-stars Donna Brazile.

6. Many of her supporters — and even some of her staffers — would be relieved (and even delighted) if she quit the race; none of his supporters or staff feel that way. Some think she just might throw in the towel in June if it appears efforts to fight on would hurt Obama’s general election chances.

7. The Rev. Wright story notwithstanding, the media still wants Obama to be the nominee — and that has an impact every day.

9. Many of the remaining prominent superdelegates want to be for Obama and she (and Harold Ickes) are just barely keeping them from making public commitments to him.

12. This is a change election, and Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton can never truly be change.

14. Even though her campaign staff is having more fun than it has for a long time, there’s hardly anyone there who, given half a chance, wouldn’t slit Mark Penn’s throat — and such internal dissension won’t help her in the home stretch.

According to this latest daily tracking poll, looks like Obama’s speech last Tuesday probably helped his cause substantially. It was terrific and I would use it in my own classroom as a discussion point for race relations. Anyway, looks like that is behind him for now (thank goodness):

Also, and this is not AT ALL surprising, given Hillary’s constant manipulation of facts, it looks like there is a real gap between how people trust Obama and even McCain versus Clinton:

Not great way to start an election having over 53% of the population NOT TRUSTING YOU. Reason #123 why Hillary should NOT be the Democratic nominee. Keep having fun in the Senate.

This made me SO happy today after a rather rough two weeks. Great speech he made for Obama too. I believe this will change the trajectory of the campaign and make people start actually talking about the FACT that Clinton has little to no chance of winning and, as Richardson said, the Democratic Party should start coalescing around its nominee, Obama. Did you get that hint, Hillary?

After 5 years and much loss in Iraq, what is your opinion on the war and its results? Was it worth fighting? Was the Bush Administration honest about the war purpose for war valid? Did the war make the US safer? What should the plan be going forward? What are the long-term and/or short term consequences of the war on the US and our role/standing in the world?

Let’s hear your views….

If someone went into a coma on March 21, 2003 and woke up today, they would probably say something like this: We’re STILL in Iraq? Quit pullin’ my leg, fool. That was supposed to be a cakewalk.”

The disturbing statistics thus far, for a conflict that has NOT made us any safer (and if you think it has, please post a comment and explain to me how):

U.S. Fatalities: 3,990
U.S. Casualties: 40,229
Iraqi Fatalities: upwards of 150,000

Cost: $504,000,000,000.00

Also, Dick Cheney doesn’t car what the American people think:

CHENEY: On the security front, I think there’s a general consensus that we’ve made major progress, that the surge has worked. That’s been a major success.

RADDATZ: Two-third of Americans say it’s not worth fighting.

CHENEY: So?

RADDATZ So? You don’t care what the American people think?

CHENEY: No. I think you cannot be blown off course by the fluctuations in the public opinion polls.

I’m sorry, when did America become a monarchy? Oh yeah, November, 2000. It’s like Monty Python here:

CHENEY: I’m your King!

Dennis: I didn’t vote for you!

Interesting quotes from Mike Huckabee on MSNBC this morning:

“[Y]ou can’t hold the candidate responsible for everything that people around him may say or do,” Huckabee says. “It’s interesting to me that there are some people on the left who are having to be very uncomfortable with what … Wright said, when they all were all over a Jerry Falwell, or anyone on the right who said things that they found very awkward and uncomfortable, years ago. Many times those were statements lifted out of the context of a larger sermon. Sermons, after all, are rarely written word for word by pastors like Rev. Wright, who are delivering them extemporaneously, and caught up in the emotion of the moment. There are things that sometimes get said, that if you put them on paper and looked at them in print, you’d say ‘Well, I didn’t mean to say it quite like that.’”

Later, he defended Wright’s anger, too:

“As easy as it is for those of us who are white to look back and say ‘That’s a terrible statement!’ … I grew up in a very segregated South. And I think that you have to cut some slack — and I’m gonna be probably the only conservative in America who’s gonna say something like this, but I’m just tellin’ you — we’ve gotta cut some slack to people who grew up being called names…”

I always though Huckabee was a pretty straight shooter despite disagreeing with him on some of his ideas.

The whole point of what I am about to write is that Barack Obama is not Jeremiah Wright, nor has he ever done or said anything that would lead one to believe he agrees in any way with any of the controversial remarks made by his former pastor. In fact, he has repudiated and condemned those remarks time and again. That should be the basis for any conversation on this issue. (Here is a great interactive video of his Tuesday speech where you can go through it by subject)

Have you ever heard Obama utter anything even closely related to the snippets of sermon that have been played over and over for the past few days? No.

Does the Obama campaign and its message resemble anything like the statements or tone that Mr. Wright used in some of his sermon? No.

Has Obama taken a position directly opposed to the controversial remarks of Mr. Wright and publicly rejected those comments as wrong and not shared by him? Yes.

Did he demonstrate with his speech on Tuesday that his views on race and America are starkly different from Mr. Wrights and that his entire life has been based on trying to heal the racial divide and united the country with honest and forthright discussion of the real and underlying issues of race? YES.

So, honestly, what’s the big deal? This hyped up story boils down to the facts that Obama attended a church whose pastor made some controversial statements about race and American policies during a few of his thousands of sermons. You can’t just morph Wright’s statements onto Obama somehow and pretend that because Obama went to that church he agreed with every single thing his pastor said. You just can’t honestly do that. Its completely disingenuous to do so (though some are trying-Limbaugh, etc…). As I stated previously, I don’t agree with everything my pastor says so don’t try to tell me I do.

Some of these right-wingers want Obama to disown and renounce the man, the person that Wright is and completely reject all that this man has done for Obama. He refused to disown him, and rightly so I say. Bravo Obama for standing up and having the courage and integrity to stand by a person who’s had such a positive impact on his life and faith and not throw him under the bus.

Hey, I have friends who say crazy things about US policies and race and other issues all the time that I wholeheartedly disagree with (you know who you are). And I’ll stand up and reject and denounce their words but I would never disown them if it was politically convenient to do so because of the bonds we have that go beyond politics. I think that was the same for Obama and I am proud he did what he did and especially the way he did it.

Racial tensions are real in this country. What Obama said about what black or white people talk about when they are at home is so true. On the outside, people today tend to shy away from discussing problems they have with other races in public, but Obama hit the nail on the head when he spoke of what whites and blacks do say in private. Everyone knows its true.

Basically, one has to put these feelings in context and understand where people are coming from with their racial views. Each side has legitimate complaints or concerns that should be talked about.  But to use an issue like this and to take snippets of sermons to simply try to shift one man’s radical view to somebody else as if he were not a free-thinking person, is ludicrous.

What do white people know about a black church anyways? Its completely true that the most segregated hour in America is on Sunday mornings. I’ve never personally attended a black church (though I think I’d like to) but I have attended services where a black preacher spoke. Its different and exciting. Its not what white people are really used to though. And so to look at the videos you might think the Reverend was crazy, but that is generally how black preachers ARE every week. They get excited and they get their congregations excited. They say provocative things to get people to think and discuss issues based on the bible, and I think that is great!

I would encourage people, and perhaps I will do this as I have time, to actually go and look at the full context of Wright’s speeches and see maybe what the actual point was he may have been making.  Now, I don’t agree with the language he used, but there might well have been a valid point he was making.

I believe in looking at the facts in full context and coming to a conclusion based on critical thought and common sense. In doing so, I don’t think anyone can justifiably and logically shift Reverend Wright’s views, words or tone onto Obama.

It would be my hope that everyone in America gets to hear Obama’s speech because I believe if they do, they will understand what a great service he is doing for this country and what a hopeful, intelligent, patriotic, presidential man he is.  Republicans will try to use this against him of course, and though it may further convince those who already don’t like Obama to continue to not like him, I don’t believe it will significantly hurt his chances of winning in the fall. There are too many real issues to discuss this time around.