Politics – An Associated Press-Ipsos poll shows Democrat Barack Obama would narrowly defeat John McCain if the presidential election were being held now. If Hillary Rodham Clinton were the Democratic nominee, she and the Republican front-runner would be about even.
I am very disturbed to have read in the Florida paper that "Obamaha said he didn't care about Florida voters. They don't mean anything." Maybe someone should tell him that we have freedom of speech and freedom of choice. This should make it quite clear that he really dosen't give a c__p about the rest of the country either. He makes it sound like we live in a communist country.
GOD help all of us because you young people are not looking at the facts and voting for the best person. The media has been saying since day 1 Obamaha. They are supposed to be unbiased. His wife has made quite a few mean and nasty comments and so has he. Why doesn't the media make an issue out of this in all fairness. His big thing is help New Orleans - HELLO what about all the other states that have had severe devistation and are still waiting for help for many,many years. It makes me sick to hear him say we need to help the poor there. Well there's alot of poor in all these other states too.
NO. The media has not been saying Obama from day one. And what states are 'waiting for help' besides New Orleans? As I recall, Florida has received a whole lot of help over the decades, and in a timely manner. So what ARE you talking about? When did Florida have a hurricane, and two years later people were still living in toxic trailers? When did Florida have low income housing knocked down after a hurricane, & the property given to big money men to build high income housing so the poor couldn't return home? Bring me up to speed on this, will you?
And do give the exact quote from Obama that "Florida doesn't matter." When did he say it, and to whom? Thanks. Oh, & while you're at it. Those "quite a few mean and nasty comments" you say his wife made. What are they, when did she say them, and to whom. Thanks again.
Barack Obama has been vastly underrated by the media pundits. He is much better at retail politics. His organization is better and - now that that ridiculously expensive super-duper Super Tuesday is over - he will be able to clean house on the calender ahead: Maryland, Virginia, DC will likely be a clean sweep. Wisconsin and Hawaii on the 19th. Then Ohio, Rhode Island, Vermont and Texas*. One or two states after per primary until the election. Obama could conceivably clean house to the end.
*Hillary may think Texas is in the bag, but I was just there (to bury my Dad, he died on February 6th) and I can say that my conservative relatives are surprisingly supportive of Obama. Why? Because John McCain scares the hell out of 'em and the thought of a Hillary Clinton presidency also scares the hell out of 'em. I have a Republican Uncle who is now registered Democrat for this election. And we are in an odd agreement(I regret my Dad did not live to see the end of the Bush presidency).
Scott, my deepest sympathies in the loss of your father. I lost mine unexpectedly in 1985, and it still hurts! My heart goes out to you and your family.
Thank you.
My sentiments too, may his memory and life long love guide your optimism and humanity strongly . A soul's recollection of its origin, the horizons of its capacity for beauty are ultimately traced to the hands of the biological and cultural fathers. They never abandon us even when the natural boundaries of this sole reality physically separate us.
"I am very disturbed to have read in the Florida paper that "Obama said he didn't care about Florida voters. They don't mean anything."
Its amazing how stupid and ignorant some people can be.This same person who posted these comments probably has every issue of the National Enquirer and believes all the articles.Oh and I think Bill Clinton gave them the lead on the story,believe it or not!
Also his name is Obama,not Obamaha,shows more of your ignorance!
Obama will not only get the nomination but will easily eclipse McCain in the november election and then America may become again what it once meant for the planet.(McCain can at least offer a legitimate worthy ethical representation of otherwise less important in modern world ideals but it wont be enough this time)
I want you all to study every superpower in history . Go back in time and see how they all collapsed one after the other. It was always from within by failing to pay attention to emerging priorities of their time, immersed in full arrogance and division guided by chaotic self interests, failing to embrace change and invest in what mattered...Arent we doing that very moment the same thing all over again? Arent we polarizing ourselves focusing on what stupid divides us, ignoring the problems that unite us all? Arent we neglecting to focus in science, technological superiority, advanced education , prosperity for the totality of society our very humanity and culture?
We conveniently ignore to focus on broadening prosperity and engage the ultimate utility, human beings! Yet it is through global prosperity the individualism of each one of us can emerge strong , optimistic and result in a balanced rapidly advancing society. In what ways do we as a society demonstrate we care about the quality of our members? By allowing subpar education , enabling worthless cultural engagements (celebrity gossips , poor quality media content etc) cultivating our worse nature , ignoring the very forces that once made US a system worth emulating. We spend our resources in pessimistic fueled campaigns such as the mistake Iraq was and yet we cant find the decency to differentiate and offer respect towards those individuals that had the courage to stand up and alert us of the mistakes before they were done!
We turn our heads away from environmental protection, energy crisis , advancements in medicine , space research , physics , all those things that once defined worldwide admiration. Until when are we going to tolerate having such a significant concentration of resources and talent being wasted in the eternal meandering, polarizing, purposeless engagement the republicans have imprisoned us all in, an endless debate about abortion , gay marriage, stem cell research , mythological terrorism fears that are not even dealt with properly and other vastly unimportant thoroughly hypocritical at their core issues of pure garbage, irrelevant to modern world.
How much of our potential have we wasted this decade? How much have we ignored to truly invest within and facilitate a better optimistic economy that thrives on innovation and talent ?
We do indeed behave as if we want all other countries to leave us behind in key metrics that define a happy place to live in. How many battles we will abandon, how many areas of what once made us unique we will continue to betray focusing on irrelevance?
Until when we will tolerate the betrayal of the dream at the hands of corrupt ,inferior in intellect and ideals, uninspiring leaders? They are slaves to undeserving centers of power that will not hesitate to inhibit progress , prosperity and principles of freedom for an endless hunt of money for their friends that erected them. Those centers will collapse one day neglecting scientific logic and they will take us down with them unless we become again motivated for the truly important...
We allow them to focus on zero sum games that can never improve the total system , they can only further polarize it and focus power on few at the eventual expense of all including those few! Our leaders ought to inspire us to engage in growth games where we all win . We can all win together if we relax our focus on what divides us and instead become alert to areas that benefit everybody . You will not find better examples than science and education. Those are not zero sum games. Innovation and technological expansion guided by quality culture benefits everybody and strengthens economy. In turn good economy strengthens the middle class which is the true core of our democracy. The only eternal bull market is the one that cares for its people's potential .
We then indeed need an inspiring leader that can unite. What best example ?
An educated enriched by multiple cultures person that is both white and black and exposed to asian culture , to immigration , to viewpoints that cover a wide spectrum. He stands for what America stands for . The opportunity to define prosperity from personal effort and the quality of one's character not the color or origin not the superficial unimportant dividing parameters of humanity but the uniting uplifting internal virtues . Can we do better ? Will he betray the very hope he wrote about? There is only one way to find out , by taking a good risk , a safer more intelligent risk in the right direction this time. If that fails too then we must indeed rise up and produce true ethical leaders and look for them not just from the fields of classic studies , law schools and business but from the analytical logic guided fields of advanced science.
From where we stand today its hard to do worse! We deserve more. Lets demand it. If Obama fails it will do so while at least trying to take us in the correct direction. I think it took a Kennedy and the challenge of cold war to take us to the moon . Never underestimate the power of inspiring leadership. Even if not perfect the very ideals it supports or wants to make you believe it stands for are enough to exploit in a positive direction the very best in each one of us...A good intelligent leader will select the proper people around him. He will not hesitate to listen to logic and avoid being blinded by narrow minded stubborn visions of the world. Because this is not how intellect deals with problems. Intellect embraces logic guided change and respects what traditionally works . Genuine intellect is self confident and yet kind. An open minded optimistic leader will again show the world we are not arrogant, not naive and very much after the dream of prosperity AGAIN!
Please that tired crud about his not voting for the war. He said himself in 2004 that he could not say how he would have voted since he was not in the senate and was not privey to the intelligence. So enough about that.
"In June of 2006, Obama voted against a proposal by Senator John F. Kerry to remove most troops from Iraq within a year, calling it an "arbitrary deadline" that could "compound" previous US missteps there. He first voted against funding for the war in May 2007, after he had declared his candidacy for president, when he said "enough is enough," ...
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008...
He never cast a vote in the Senate or made a single speech on the Senate floor about the war until he was running for President. He only started talking about the war when public opinion was solidly on his side. Until then he kept his mouth shut about it, he takes the safe position every time.
His statement in 2004 is in keeping with his currentand past stance on the war. He has said that he will get the troops out as quickly as possible, but leave enough of a remnant there to adequately be able to squelch any significant uprising or resurgence of violence in the region. You are nothing but a negative spin doctor and guilty of nitpicking. And whether it was on the floor of the senate or not (incidentally, how could he do that if he wasn't there yet?), he has made his views known CONSISTENTLY from the beginning about that hideous fiasco of a war. His antiwar speech of 2002 was eloquent and dead on target! Your comments have the distinct smell of sour grapes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obama
It says;
Obama was an early critic of Bush administration policies on Iraq.[99] On October 2, 2002, the day Bush and Congress agreed on the joint resolution authorizing the Iraq War,[100] Obama addressed the first high-profile Chicago anti-Iraq War rally in Federal Plaza,[101] saying:
I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of Al Qaeda. I am not opposed to all wars. I'm opposed to dumb wars.[102]
On March 17, 2003, the day Bush issued his 48-hr ultimatum to Saddam Hussein to leave Iraq before the U.S. invasion of Iraq,[103]Obama addressed the largest Chicago anti-Iraq War rally to date in Daley Plaza and told the crowd "It's not too late" to stop the war, though many demonstrators conceded that war appeared inevitable.[104]
You fail to see how the iraq war would have been dealt with by a true intelligent leader. You miss the point. An inteligent leader doesnt want to start running today. You misunderstand it all including the senate votes thereafter.
An inteligent leader would;
1) never get us there to begin with and instead try other ways to control the situation that would imply minimal investment and maximum return on it. You do not award people their democracy, they earn it themselves and then you support them in doing it but they have to initiate it.
2) Once there he would have the strength and vision to realize that to control the situation you need to focus on what unites that society not what divides it and enhances insurgencies. He would have immediately focused in the borders to stop incoming supplies , weapons, etc. He would have invested a much bigger military force for a far shorter time. We idiotically talk about the surge today. How ridiculous.
How funny that it took 5 years to realize that you cant send soldiers there without fully committing your country to it. The average american never got behind this war the way it was conducted. It needed much better attention early on and far less arrogance ala mission accomplished.
3) A smart leader would engage daily the iraqi people with direct talk to them and motivate them. He would connect with all neighbouring countries , explain to them what they stand to lose by supporting insurgencies and enabling the forces that internally design violence against civilian population. A conference that never took place should have happened well before the insurgency got important. You consider for instance succesful the way Iran was dealth with?
4)Additionally a smart leader would personally take things under scrutiny precisely to avoid scandals and events that took place in Iraq in the hands of inept people that demolished any ethical authority of the invading force.
5) Even more a smart leader would focus on humanity. The so called collateral damages are unacceptable at the numbers we saw in this war. It allows the criminals to claim we are no different than them and inspire insurgency.
6) He would make it a priority to find ways and show iraqi people the value of a united country . He would focus on political solutions, on local alliances, on local entanglement of self interests that would dry out insurgency from its support centers. Things that took 5 years to even begin happening. And he would make it a massive priority to appear the least possible hypocritical avoiding completely fueling the arguments of those that said from day one the war was done for oil. It was done for oil,wasnt it?! It was done so that oil prices can stay at over historical highs for a decade thoroughly immersing us in a permanent crisis inhibiting economical growth but so conveniently helping you know who...
Now tell me again what Obama was telling you from day one?
Find the courage to question it all the way it happened. Find the courage to realize that a different leader would even after the initial mistake been conducted, found the authority and ethical drive to directly connect with iraqis not visit the protected areas silently once every year under massive support but instead debate them regularly and demand from them to save their own country. What more profound way one has to avoid the massacre that took place than get the population behind you , corner the insurgency at its very core and show people you are not after their resources, not after their exploitation but instead after the benefits that their alliance in progress and peace can provide to all . Tell me at what point did the patriotism of the iraqi people , their very sense of civic duty was embraced and cultivated during the last 5 years. At what point we threatened the iraqi governments that resulted that an exit was imminent and rapidly approaching to amass their attention.
Fox news alert (pro McCain pre election story): "Women suicide bombers in the US".
Its interesting to me that Bush and crowd are now trying to paint McCain as a conservative...what a laugh. I'll bet thought that many lock stepping cons fall into line and swallow this crap.
There is a difference between conservatives and neo-conservatives! A conservative is more like Ron Paul... someone you can debate with and not have patriotism questioned just for disagreeing with them and who won't grow governmental power. A neo-conservative is more like Bush- they wear the name because it makes them look good, then p_ss all over conservative beliefs! I'm still not decided on McCain though! He might very well be a real conservative, but I doubt it. The left-wing has the same problem at the moment, people taking there party to far to the left then what most Americans probably want. The country, by and large, is centrist. Historically we don't do well when we go far left or right wing, I'd say we do best a step to the right or a step to the left.
Mc?Cain has an American Conservative Union rating of 83%, Hillary's is 9, and Barak's is 1%. Yes, that make McCain the Conservative, and far better experienced to lead in a Conservative country then the other two.
First of all a poll 6 months out is pretty useless. They have not started running against each other yet. Second a dead heat between the two is within the margin of error and considering the polls have not been very accurate I don't give that much weight. Third even if it is dead on this gives no indication of who would win the election. We don't elect by popular vote we elect by the electorial college and Barack has lost in every state that has a large EC count. McCain has won in those states. So please don't think the keys to the White House are his. People were excited about his big win in Missouri when all was said and done he won 49% to 48% that is not a big win. You need to be cautious. His wife is out there saying she may not support the Democratic ticket if he does not win it(I can imagine the outcry from Obama's supporters if Hillary's husband said that). That is not smart and it could back fire and lose the support of a number of Hillary supporters. He can still lose in NOV
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61)
Completely stupid. Obama's corruption hasn't even been brought up yet (how could Hillary do so?). Obama will get buried.
He looks and smells like a rose in comparison! She would be wise not to open that kettle of worms. One thing about slinging slop, if the wind shifts in the wrong direction, guess who gets hit with it?
By the way, if you know so much about his "corruption," either put up or shut up!
Sorry it took so long to get back to this. I think the Rezko thing has begun to hit the fan, as have his connection to radicals. In any event, he along with Hillary, Huckabee, and Rudy, were on Top Ten Most Corrupt Politicians of 2008 list.
The Rezko thing has begun to hit the fan.
What we`ve learned so far is that Rezko was in bed with the Bush admin, gave money to Bush (unlike Obama Bush hasn`t returned the $), was invited by Bush to Christmas dinner at the WH, and Rove actually targeted Fitzgerald for firing long before the other fired AGs. Obstruction of justice used to be a felony before the right-wing judges rewrote the laws on the bench to give neocons a pass.
Every time you cons try to swiftboat Obama it comes back to bite you in the keister. Face it, Obama is clean. The worst both the Clinton attack machine and the full frontal assault of the right-wing smearboat machine have come up with is stuff others have said.
Compare that to McCain`s corruption, stealing of private property, laws-for-lays whoring around with lobbyists, and clueless approach to both Iraq and the economy.