Uncommon Sense

Moving

2008-05-16T20:12:00.001-04:00

I've outgrown Blogger and have decided to move my blog over to WordPress

You can check out the new Uncommon Sense there.

A Note to Senator Lieberman

2008-05-15T23:36:00.001-04:00

Dear Senator Lieberman,

As a 17-year-old during the 2006 election, I strongly supported you against Ned Lamont, believing that you would stand up for what Connecticut really needed. I believed that even though you supported the War in Iraq, unlike many Connecticut citizens and many Americans, you would still put the interests of Connecticut Democrats and the Democrats of America above your own. Even though you ran as an Independent, I thought that your ties to the Democratic party were strong, strong enough to make you caucus with them and strong enough for you to support the Democratic agenda.

Well, it's a good thing I was too young to vote in 2006 because i would have strongly regretted my decision to vote for you now.

I didn't think much of your reelection when you used your position as an Independent to jockey the Democrats for a top Senate position. I didn't think about it much when you continued to support the War in Iraq. I didn't even think about it much when you support John McCain and were banned from the Democratic National Convention.

However, your supportive comments today in regard to what President Bush said about Barack Obama favoring a "policy of appeasement" towards terrorists. Bush's comments threw me first; I could go on and on about how his unilateral foreign policy (only further demonstrated by these comments) is wrong for our nation and has proven wrong over the past 7 years, but I am here to comment to you.

I am shocked (even though I really should not be) that you could be as dumb to stoop down to the side of our president. By calling Bush's statements correct and furthering that "It is imperative that we reject the flawed and naïve thinking that denies or dismisses the words of extremists and terrorists," you expressing first your own unfounded interests and you are not representing the views of your constituency.

Barack Obama and the Democrats position on this issue is not "naive," but rather a multilateral foreign policy that has worked for America time and time again, and one that has become lost on the Republicans since the election of Bush in 2000. When an average of 30.6% approval, President Bush's policies are not the way America wants to go. The unilateral foreign policies of the Bush administration have lost us the support of many people across the globe and have compromised our position against even the terrorist themselves. Maybe you need to take a greater look into this problem before jumping to the conclusion that President Bush's comments are correct and even commendable.

Second, your statement today does not support the views of the people of Connecticut. Connecticut is an overwhelming Democratic state, a Democratic state the supported Barack Obama in the primaries. Obviously, Democratic voters here in Connecticut are looking for a change, especially in the area of foreign policy. Your job as a Senator from Connecticut is to try to represent the views of the citizens of Connecticut, or at least do your best in trying to judge their view. Your actions over the past couple of months and especially today have demonstrated that you are not looking out for us, but are looking out for only yourself.

It's a good thing I guess that you are now an Independent because I would be ashamed to be a part of the same political party as you. I guess it's also a good thing that I was too young to vote for you, because I would have been ashamed of that vote. It is also a good thing that I only live in Connecticut for about 5 months a year because I am away in Massachusetts at college. And finally, it's a good thing that Connecticut doesn't have recall election policies for our state-elected national officials, because I would be the one leading the campaign to get enough signatures to have a recall election against you.

You should be ashamed of yourself: selling-out to corrupt politics in order to better your own position, while leaving the rest of us Connecticut citizens who you are supposed to represent in your wake.

Enjoy your time in the Senate until 2012 because you'll be gone after that.

A former supporter and concerned Connecticut Democrat,

Amy Baral

Recounting New Hampshire Memories

2008-05-13T22:39:00.003-04:00

I thought I had put all of those terrible racist New Hampshire moments out of my head... until WaPo bring it all back.

Read this article and understand what it is like when you give a canvasser or a phonebanker a rude response when all they are trying to do is their job.

Upset about WVa?

2008-05-13T22:20:00.002-04:00

What does Obama's super loss in West Virginia tonight mean for the general election. Are poor white rural voters not going to back him in November? Is he going to lose to McCain because Hillary is getting the female, less-educated, working-class vote during the primaries?

Before you jump to conclusions or read too much into what the pundits and the Hillary camp have been saying, let's get some fact-checking done courtesy of Obama's people via Swampland:

Debunking Five Myths About Obama’s Support

MYTH 1: The Primary has left Democrats divided.
FACT: Democrats are united behind Barack Obama, even more so than Republicans are united behind McCain
• May 12 Washington Post poll shows that Obama wins 81% of Democrats in a matchup against John McCain.
• Indeed, more Republicans crossover to vote for Obama (15%) than do Democrats for McCain (13%).
NOTE: In 1996, Bill Clinton won 84% of Democrats.

MYTH 2: The Primary campaign has hurt Obama with swing voters and Republicans:
FACT: Obama is winning the swing voters against McCain by a wide margin.
• Obama holds a 51-42 lead among Independents in the Washington Post poll.
NOTE: Clinton loses 46-49 to McCain among Independents.

• Not since 1988, when George Bush beat Michael Dukakis 57-43 among Independents, has a candidate won such a large margin among swing voters.
· In his two victories, Clinton only managed a 6-point margin over the Republican among independents in 1992 and an 8-point margin in 1996.
· Indeed, no Democrat has won a majority of Independent voters since exit polls were first conducted in 1976.

MYTH 3: Obama cannot perform strongly enough among white voters:
FACT: Obama’s is running as well or better than past Democratic Candidates among white voters.
• LA Times (May 8) Obama: 41 McCain: 45
• Wash Post (May 13): Obama: 42 McCain: 51
• 2004 Exit polls: Kerry: 41 Bush: 58
• 2000 Exit Polls: Gore: 43 Bush: 54
• 1996 Exit polls: Clinton: 43 Dole: 46
• 1992 Exit polls: Clinton: 39 Bush: 41 Perot: 20

MYTH 4: The race against Clinton has compromised Obama’s position among women:
FACT: Obama has begun attracting the support of a broad coalition of women and is poised to win historic margins.
• Wash Post (May 13): Obama: 54 McCain: 40
• New York Times (May 3) Obama: 47 McCain: 39
NOTE: No Democratic candidate has won women by so large a margin since exit polling was first conducted in 1976. The closest any candidate has come was in 2000, when Al Gore won women 54-43 over George Bush

MYTH 5: Obama cannot win working class voters:
FACT: Obama is already winning working class voters
• In the recent LA Times poll, Obama wins every income group under $100,000.
Obama McCain
· <$40K: 43 35
· $40K-$59K 43 40
· $60K-$100K 51 42
· $101K+ 46 47

• According to the Washington Post/ABC poll released today, despite Sen. Clinton’s insistence that she is stronger among white, working-class voters the data shows that Sen. Obama performs nearly as well as she does in the general election. Among white, non-college voters in this poll:
· Obama vs. McCain is 40-52
· Clinton vs. McCain is 44- 52

Millennial Obsession

2008-05-13T22:14:00.003-04:00

The Millennial Generation and American Politics has become one of my new political obsessions. It should be the general idea behind my Work for Distinction senior year and it was the main point behind my history paper posted below.

If you want to learn a brief snipbit about what I'm talking about, check out Herbert's NYT Op-Ed.

Money quote:

"Whether young Americans can shift the balance of the presidential election is an open question. But there is very little doubt that over the next several years they are capable of loosening the tremendous grip that conservatives have had on the levers of American power."

Know HOPE. Change is coming. We are the change we have been waiting for.

History Paper!

2008-05-08T21:49:00.004-04:00

I just had to post it all...

Generations are defined by the years in which they were born and the specific attributes that the members of the generation hold in common. All generations have defining shared experiences that influence the way in which they live and view the world (Liesse 1). For members of the Millennial Generation, the September 11th terrorist attacks are the first event that they will remember exactly where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news. Similar to how parents of Millennials told their children where they were when President John F. Kennedy was shot, Millennials will be able to enthrall their children with stories about their personal experiences on September 11th, 2001. The attacks have been the single major event that has affected the lives of the Millennial Generation. The cultural memory of the Millennial Generation, in regards to September 11th, is still being formed, but one can be certain, the terrorist attacks have had a strong impact on the lives of this group of young people. September 11th has made them more interested in making a difference in the world, thereby helping them get involved with both community service and politics.

The Millennial Generation encompasses those born between 1982 and 2003. The Millennials are still a developing generation, as all of its members have not yet reached adulthood. Because of this, demographers disagree as to the size of the generation. The number varies from about 76 million to 83 million (Understanding the Millennial Generation 3, “The Progressive Politics of the Millennial Generation” 2). They grew up in an era of technological advances, from the Internet to cell phones, from DVD players to iPods. Two-thirds view their generation and themselves as unique (Pew “How Young People…” 1). They were nurtured by their parents while growing up, more than any other generation and; therefore, keep strong ties to their parents (Girl Scout Research Institute 3). But most importantly, the Millennial Generation was shaped by the September 11th attacks. One day, the caring and calm childhood they had come to know while growing up in the 1990s, during a time of relative economic prosperity and peace, was shattered a four plane crashed at the hands of the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda and their leader Osama bin Laden.

The events of September 11th fit in precisely with Strauss and Howe’s model for the stages of generations. According to research and analysis done by Strauss and Howe, generations go through four different defining periods during the course of their lifetimes. The four stages are Awakening, Unraveling, Crisis, and High. During an Awakening, civil order comes under attack because of the values of the new group in power . An Unraveling encompasses an era of relative peace and prosperity, a high between two chaotic periods . A Crisis involves an era of secular upheaval, often with decisive wars being waged . A High era is one between a Crisis and an Awakening . (Strauss and Howe Generations 69-79) The period upon which a new generation enters the world affects the characteristics of that generation. Because of this fact, the events that occur during and even before a generation emerges play a role in shaping that generation and the way in which they respond to catastrophes that occur during their lifetime.

How do the Millennials and September 11th fit into Strauss and Howe’s model? According to the cycle, Strauss and Howe classified the Baby Boomers as an Idealist generation, Generation Xers as a Reactive generation, and the Millennials as a Civic (Hero) generation. A Civic generation is born during an Unraveling. For the Millennials, this Unraveling period was during the 1980s and 1990s, an era of economic prosperity and technological advances. This period allowed the Millennial Generation to be nurtured by their parents in a way that has made Millennials believe that they can do anything they set their minds to. Civic generations spend the beginning of their adult years during a Crisis. (Strauss and Howe Generations 335-346) For the Millennials, this Crisis began with the attacks on September 11th and has continued through the present day with the War on Terror and the War in Iraq. Their overly cared for upbringing during the roaring 1980s and 1990s created an upbeat and optimistic generation of Millennials that was ready with vigor to react to September 11th through community service and even a newly created sense of being citizens of the world.

Strauss and Howe classify the Millennials as a new emerging Civic generation based on their research on the cycles of generations. According to the pair, every fourth generation can be classified as a Civic generation, one “that does great deeds, constructs nations and empires, and is afterward honored in memory and storied in myth” (Strauss and Howe Millennials Rising 326). Civic generations are known for being vigorous and rational institution-builders. They tend to be upbeat, optimistic, and group-oriented. Their generation cycles involve creating new roles for the government and dealing with major problems facing the nation and the world (Winograd and Hais 6).

The last Civic generation was the G.I. Generation, one that was leaving this world as the Millennials were entering, leaving the “hero” void for the Millennials to fill (Strauss and Howe Millennials Rising 51-52). By claiming that the Millennials are America’s next Civic Generation based on their cycle of generations, Strauss and Howe predicted the way in which the Millennials would react to the initial catastrophe that would being their Crisis period, similar to the way the G.I. Generation reacted to the Great Depression and World War II, at the start of their Crisis period.

The Millennial Generation’s desire to make a difference through community service and political participation could simply be attributed to Strauss and Howe’s positioning them as a Civic generation. Civic generations are supposed to be community-oriented and driven, simply because of the way in which they were raised. However, in order to fully understand Strauss and Howe’s cyclical nature of generations and eras, one must also take into account the events that have occurred during a generation’s lifetime. Because the events in one’s lifetime effect the way in which one will react to future catastrophes, it is simply impossible to believe that the Millennial Generation would be as civically inclined as they currently are without the terrorist attacks of September 11th.

As the defining event for the Millennial Generation, September 11th caused a shift from a Unraveling period to a Crisis period in American history and therefore, it has had a profound impact on the Millennials. Members of the Millennial Generation view themselves as unique and as able to bring about change in the United States and in the world (Winograd and Hais 92). Aside from the immediate responses of personal fear and worry, September 11th caused 61 percent of Millennials to be currently worried about the state of the world and feel personally responsible for making a difference (Cone Inc. and AMP Insights). These feelings have translated into Millennials to taking more active roles in their communities, through an increase in community service and a newly found interest in world events and politics. The calm and prosperous world that the Millennials had grown up in was no more; it was now time for them to fully enter the world as participatory citizens, stand up for what they believe in, and help their country in its time of greatest need.

The “Bowling Alone” that Robert Putnam warned about in his 2000 book seems to be dissolving, or at least not applicable to the Millennial Generation. The events of September 11th and the subsequent responses of the Millennial Generation have caused Putnam to rethink his original theory. He theorizes that the terrorist attacks, which caught the Millennial Generation in its formative years, might produce a more community-oriented and engaged group of young people (Putnam 1). Putnam’s reasoning is derived from the fact that in survey after survey, Millennials state that they are looking for ways to leave their mark on the world. This group not only expects change to occur in their communities and in the world, but they want to be the agents of that change (Sandfort and Haworth). September 11th was the first event in their lifetimes that showed the Millennials the problems of their communities, of America, and of the world. It was this event allowed the Millennials to act on these feelings in a definitive way, reshaping the world as it is currently into a better one for the future.

The first way Millennials decided to make their mark on the world was through community service. 85 percent of Millennials believe that community service is an effective way to solve problems facing both a local community and the greater world community (Winograd and Hais 262). This can be seen in the community service activities that Millennials engaged in after the September 11th attacks. Directly following the events, most of the volunteer activities that the Millennials were engaged were centered directly on the events. They donated money to and raised money for charities set up for the families of the victims, donated clothes and food to New York City, sent cards to families and eventually the United States troops in Afghanistan, and raised and sent money to Afghanistan for the population there (Girl Scouts Research Institute 8-9).

Millennials, because of their team-orientation and independence, along with their desire to make a difference directly following September 11th, not only helped on activities and with charities that were created by older generations in response to the attacks, but also put together their own programs and funds. For example, the “9-11 Stuffy Fund” created by an eleven-year-old New Yorker named Lindzay. Lindzay is a typically Millennial, born in 1990, close to the halfway point for the Millennial Generation. Lindzay’s fund raised and donated over 6,500 stuffed animals to children in the New York City. She was spurred into volunteering in this way because of the way in which she saw her fellow classmates affected by the tragedy, rather than as a way to be recognized. To Lindzay every stuffed animal that she gave to her classmates and other similar children in New York City helped her personally deal with the horror of the events while making it easier for her peers to handle what had happened as well. (“September 11th: Take Action!”)

Moving beyond the direct aftermath of the September 11th attacks, Millennials have continued to stay involved with community service. Millennials will be known for their “grassroots reconstruction of community, teamwork, and civic spirit… in the realm of community service,” and the emergence of the Internet as a tool for mass communication, has aided the Millennials in their endeavors (Strauss and Howe Millennials Rising 214). A large number of Millennials use the Internet, especially social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook, to connect with their peers, promote their views, and get people involved in their service projects. Advocacy groups and volunteer organizations have popped up all over Facebook and MySpace, allowing “young people [to] weave the internet seamlessly into their activism as they do in their social lives” (Kornblum). Facebook and MySpace, along with other resources on the Internet have also allowed the Millennials to penetrate their new socially conscious ideas for the world into the land of cyberspace.

Since September 11th, volunteerism has been internalized as part of the lifestyle for the Millennials (Winograd and Hais 84). 81 percent of the young people surveyed by Cone Inc. and AMP Insights have volunteered in the past year (Cone Inc. and AMP Insights 2). Additionally, 51 percent of Millennials say that it is important to volunteer (Liesse 1). Many Millennials think about volunteering as just another aspect of life, such as playing youth sports or learning an instrument, a view that has been reinforced in the classroom, as volunteer time is now usually a requirement for high school and even college graduation.

The United States has seen an explosion in youth involvement in community service following September 11th. While this could be attributed to the fact that the Millennials are a large generation, much larger than their Generation X counterparts, evidence shows that this outpouring of youth participation has occurred simply because the Millennials are more interested in making a difference in their communities. Currently, two-thirds of college freshmen believe that it is necessary to help others. From 1974 to 1989, participation rates in national community service programs for young adults fell from 23.6 percent to 20.4 percent. However, after 2001, with Millennials coming of age to participate and the September 11th attacks, the percentage of volunteers has surged and reached a high in 2005 of 28.8 percent (Corporation for National and Community Service 2007 qtd. in Winograd and Hais 261). Analysts attribute this strong increase in participation to the fact that Millennials began to get involved in community service, both in stronger numbers than their smaller Generation X counterparts, but also with more of a ferocity than the members of Generation X ever had.

Millennials are “coiled for civic action,” both donating their time and money to community service activities, but also getting involved with politics. This civic involvement is not only because of the stage in their life that they are currently in, but also because of the “lingering effects of the unifying national crisis they had experienced in their formative years” (Putnam 1). As the Millennials saw on September 11th, world issues do have an effect on America. Before September 11th, few Millennials knew about Al-Qaeda and their leader Osama bin Laden. The oldest Millennials were too young to remember the circumstances surrounding the First and Second Gulf Wars, the only major encounters they had with terrorism before September 11th were the Oklahoma City Bombing and the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center. Since September 11th, Millennials have become more interested in current events and more interested in the actions of the national government, whose effect they are directly seeing with America’s involvement in the War on Terror and the War in Iraq. Only 44 percent of those aged 18-30 held that they were bored with the actions of the federal government in late 2001, as compared to the same question in 2000, where 56 felt this way (PEW “Public Opinions Six Months Later” 4). The Millennial interest in current events has continued on even after September 11th faded from the main headlines. Young people are not only interested in news on the war and terrorism, but in all types of politics (PEW “Public Opinion Six Months Later” 4).

By getting the Millennials interested in the news and current events, September 11th has changed the way the Millennials get involved with politics. Because of their sense of optimism and desire to make a difference, 60 percent of young people believe that political engagement is an effective way to solve issues for the entire country and for their local community (Harvard Institute of Politics October 2006 Survey qtd. in “The Progressive Politics of the Millennial Generation” 2). The easiest way that Millennials have found to voice their opinions about American policies and get involved with politics has been through voting.

Voting is one civic action that that young generations in the past have struggled to do year after year. However, for the Millennials, things are looking different. Before September 11th, during the 2000 election, the participation rate among young voters aged 18-24 was 36 percent. However, in 2004 the rate was 47 percent, up 11 percent from the previous national election. (“The Progressive Politics of the Millennial Generation” 1) This increase in participation is due in part to the increasing number of Millennials coming of age to vote. As more of the Millennial Generation turns 18, the United States will see a surge in participation numbers , simply because of the large size of the Millennial Generation. The extent of the increase in percentage points reflects the way in which September 11th and the subsequent actions of the federal government in the War on Terror and the War in Iraq have affected the Millennial Generation.

September 11th was the single turning point in the lives of the members of the Millennial Generation, spurring them into taking civic action through voting and community involvement. The mismanagement of the Bush Administration in the War in Iraq and in the War on Terror, also prompted the Millennials to vote in large numbers. The increase in youth participation in elections continued in the 2006 midterm elections where there was a 24 percent increase in voter turnout for those aged 18-24 (Winograd and Hais 87). The Millennials have already made their mark on the 2004 and 2006 elections and it is likely that they will continue to do so in the upcoming elections.

Being the largest generation in American history, behind the Baby Boomer Generation, the Millennials’ newfound interest in politics could have a significant impact on the political arena. Politically coming of age in America after the September 11th attacks has influenced the policies and party that the Millennial Generation supports. Polling for the Millennial Generation has shown that they are developing an extremely progressive world-view. Millennials favor a multilateral approach to foreign policy, as they recognize the need for the world to work together to not only solve problems between warring states and with terrorism, but also issues such as global poverty and global warming (Connery “Millennials Rising” 2). This opinion is a clear rejection of the Bush Administration’s foreign policy, which many Millennials view as aggressive and unwarranted. 69 percent of Millennials favor a larger government that provides social services for the population (Winograd and Hais 95).

Furthermore, Millennials are concerned about economic inequalities and believe that it is the government’s job to help iron out some of these disparities (“The Progressive Politics of the Millennial Generation” 1). In both of these areas, the Millennials see the Bush Administration and Republican Party as failing, such as in the lack of a quick response to Hurricane Katrina. Currently, Democratic Millennials outnumber their Republican counterparts by at 1.75:1 ratio, a number that could have a significant impact on American politics (Winograd and Hais 206).

By November 2008, 50 million Millennials will be eligible to vote and by 2016, they will make up one-third of the electorate (“The Progressive Politics of the Millennial Generation” 1). These numbers in themselves have the ability to change politics. Additionally, the fact that the impact of September 11th increased the civic-mindedness and political involvement of the Millennial Generation may in fact encourage the Democratically inclined youth to vote in large numbers in November 2008, as they have in the past two elections (Winograd and Hais 197). The impact of the Millennials has already been seen in the 2008 primaries, as the turnout for the Millennial Generation in the 2008 primaries has been anywhere from three to four times higher than ever in the past (Putnam 1). It is because of this strong youth vote and his strong appeal among the youth that Barack Obama has pushed past Hillary Clinton in many of those primary contests.

The attacks on September 11th were the first events in the political and historical consciences of the Millennial Generation. For this reason, the events will no doubt have a profound impact on the members of youth as they grow up and continue through adulthood with their childhoods effectively shattered by those events. Their cultural memory of the events has made the Millennials “wary, aware, but extremely optimistic” (Hart qtd. in Nagar 1).

The terrorist attacks were the catalyst that the Millennials needed to start up their increased involvement in the community and in politics. “Just as Pearl Harbor had spawned the civic-minded “Greatest Generation,” so too Sept. 11 might turn out to produce a more civically engaged generation of young people (Putnam 1). The full results of the beginning of the Crisis period in the Millennials’ lifetime have yet to be fully determined. September 11th not only caused the Millennial Generation to become more involved in community service, but also in politics and Democratic politics at that. It is highly possible that September 11th could have created the cultural memory for the Millennial Generation that would be necessary to spark a civic realignment in favor of the Democratic Party in either the 2008, 2012, or 2016 elections. However, because those elections have yet to take place, along with the fact the cultural memory for the Millennial Generation in response to September 11th is still being developed and current events are always changing, one can never be certain that a realignment will occur in either of these three upcoming elections, or will occur at all.

Back to Childhood

2008-05-08T21:38:00.001-04:00

Sorry, I watched Barney as a child, but even the characters on Sesame Street understand this election...

Gravel Rapping?

2008-05-08T21:37:00.000-04:00

Yeah, that's right!

This is me studying

2008-05-07T14:46:00.000-04:00

Love it Andrew!

Politics and Philosophy Review Notes

2008-05-06T22:30:00.002-04:00

Theories of Justice

- Plato- an ideal between justice as an individual moral virtue and as a political virtue

- Thucydides- only existing between equals

- Hobbes- only a political virtue of non-ideal societies

- Locke- arising from and responding to natural moral rights via consent

Rights

- How to justify, what is the role of state in relation to rights

Rawls

- Fundamental idea in concept of justice is fairness

- Design of institutions

- 2 principles

- Inequalities work for everyone's advantage (difference principle)

- All institutions must be open to all (liberty principle)

- Justice: liberty, equality, rewards for services contributing to public good

Equilibrium and "Original Position"

- Recognition of equal standing, impartiality, fair procedure for attaining equilibrium

- Build society from scratch

Slavery

- Utilitarian- just if promotes general happiness

- Rawls attacks this

- Slavery is always unjust, slave-holder's happiness does not need to be taken into account

- Slavery violates difference and liberty principles

Criticisms of Rawls

- Simmons- principles don't follow, deliberators would seek social minimum

Nozick

- Accepting right to profit from talents undercuts difference principle

- 3 sense of justice: acquisition, transfer, rectification

- Historical justice: was it just? / end-state justice: justice as an ideal end

What Does It Show?

- Wilt Chamberlin- if each fan drops money into box and money goes to Chamberlin

- Should he profit?

- Nozick- right to profit

- Simmons criticizes

- Ok if Chamberlin paid taxes

Rousseau's 2nd Discourse

- What is the basis for the inequality we find among men?

Dedication

- To idealized Geneva

- Idealized republic- unified, law-abiding, simple and free, small city-state capable of governing itself without corruption and with full citizen participation

Preface- Basic Questions

- More we know, more we are removed from society

- All right from

- Amour propre (self-love)- desire to further our own interests / ends

- Pity- feel in relation to suffering of others

- Original man just ruled by passions

Human Nature

- Physically much like us

- Driven by passions

- Pre-linguistic

- Have will and perfectibility

- Natural state- equal state with little change b/c needs were satisfied

How did we end up where we are now?

- 1st man to enclose ground- civil society

- Property and tricking / deceiving each other = inequality of civil society

- Vs. Hobbes and Locke- civil society protects property

- Hobbes- need progress to have stable lives

- Locke- right to property is basis of all civil society

- Justice is about securing property

- Rousseau- injustice begins with property- fall of humankind

- Nothing natural about property- it is an attempt to deceive

The Initial Fall

- Natural population pressures

- Adaptation

- Drive men to pride, distinctions, jealousy

- Create distinctions that are unnatural

- Language allows people to lie

- Farming society may be best kind of human society

Society

- Humans lie and deceive = wars begin

- Weak banded together to protect from oppression and submitted to gain freedom from societies

- Part of our enslavement because of our dependence on them

- Dependences leads to inherent disequality

End Game

- Wholly dependent on society and laws = worst kind of tyranny

- Subordinating power to common good- Rousseau thinks this is bad

- Destroys natural pity we ought to feel

Legitimacy

- Criticizes predecessors

- How can you transfer liberty?

3 Stages of Inequality

- Law and Right of Property

- Institution of Magistracy

- Master and Slave- everyone alienated from their own liberty

Justifying Democracy

- Justified by showing it is optimal / even obligatory

Instrumental Justification

- Leads to greatest happiness

- Best expresses individual preferences, best tracks general will

Harm Principle

- 1st concern- liberty of action

- Only in cases of self-protection is it ok to interfere with liberty of action

- Can't make people do things for their own good

- "Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign"

Problem Cases

- Children, mentally ill- not capable of being sovereign over themselves = paternalism ok

- Problem: slippery slope

- Difference between making a statement and making a statement that would cause people to act

- Can't use other things as an excuse for your behavior

Speech and Truth

- Thought and discussion allowed b/c strongly connected to truth

- Isn't at all evident that we know the truth- horribly unpopular

- Knowing a truth means actively challenging orthodoxy and really understand why you accept a belief

Individuality, Eccentricity, Variety

- Continuously engaged with experiments of living

- Should cherish eccentricity

- Social laws force people to conform

- Character and life isn't one size fits all

Rights

- Should be hands off unless harm is manifest

Objections

- Don't we punish people all the time for moral indiscretion?

- When society interferes it does so in the wrong place and in the wrong way

- Govt. won't stop once they start

- Hart- allows judges to decide what is immoral

- Mill- need strict boundaries (harm principle)

Stephen

- What are the conditions under which and limitations within which law can be applied with success to the object of making men better

- Law is about making you moral and punishing things that are immoral

The Moral Role of Law

- Criminal law applied to suppression of vice

- Law is about also hurting people who hurt others because we are resentful and want revenge

The Law is about Morality

- Limits

- Law can't be meddlesome and strict rule of evidence

- Privacy- can't regulate with family- inefficiency of law in punishing in this way

- Law codes change as morality changes- reflect a moral majority

Hart

- Legal positivism- law code is arbitrary in that they don't need to deal with morality

Questions about Relation between Law and Morality

- Does the development of law been influenced by morals?- yes

- Must some reference to morality enter into an adequate definition of the law or legal system?- legal positivism, yes

- Is law open to moral criticism

- Is the fact that certain conduct is by common standard immoral sufficient to justify making that conduct punishable by law

Shaw v. Direct or Public Prosecutions

- Found guilty of conspiring to corrupt public morals

- Injects arbitrariness into law, advocates strong connection between law and morals

- Allows judge too much power

- Only based on morals

- Result: any cooperative conduct is criminal if jury considered it ex post facto to have been immoral

Is the enforcement of morality morally justified?

- Positive morality- moral system we have

- Critical morality- morality we should / ought to have

- Issues involves this

Paternalism and Punishment

- Devlin- consent not a valid defense, law is there to enforce moral principle and nothing else

- Paternalism- because it will be better for him / enforcement of morality- because in the opinion of others it would be right

- Stephen- grading punishments in relation to crimes shows that the law concerns persecuting the grosser forms of vice

- Doesn't show it- we grade punishments in proportion to our moral conventions

- Difference between justifying punishment as such and justifying the amount of punishment

- Morality can be part of law, but law cannot be based on punishing morality

Bigamy

- Seems to support Stephen / Devlin

- But law only concerns formal marriage, not cohabitation

- If done in private, it is not an offense to others

- Distinction between immorality and indecency

Extreme and Moderate Legal Moralism

- Moderate Legal Moralism- Devlin

- Shared morality is the cement of society

- Breach against moral principle is an offense against society

- Society can use law to preserve its morality as it uses it to safeguard anything else essential to its existence

- Extreme Legal Moralism- Stephen

- The enforcement of morality is regarded as a thing of value: even if immoral acts harm no one directly, or indirectly

- People have done immoral things and must be punished

Enforcement

- Enforcing sexual morality- coercion (fear of law), punishment

- What good can come from coercion if the act is consensual

Punishment

- What is retribution for sexual means?

- Denounce crime?

Positive Conservatism

- Social morality worth preserving

- Advocate holding onto any moral principle we happen to have and backing it by punishment

- Stephen and Devlin- this is the moral code we have therefore it needs to be preserved

Realism and Moral Reality of War

- Realism- Thucydides and Hobbes

- Reveal true human nature

- Just and unjust really means strong and weak

- Ex: Melian Dialogue and Hobbes' state of nature

Agincourt and POWs

- Henry V commanded that the prisoners be killed, then relented

- Walzer- shows how even in war we want to be moral

- Garrett- doesn't show this

The Crime of War

- Justice of war / justice in war

- Clausewitz- deny that there's any distinction- war naturally escalates beyond any boundary we set for it

"War is Hell"

- Saw war in moral terms

The Rules of War

- Degrees of coercion matter

- Wrong to kill wounded or surrendering

The War Convention

- Rules concerning when and how soldiers can kill and who they can kill

Aggression

- Legalist Paradigm

- There is an int'l society of independent states

- Int'l society has a law that establishes the rights of its members

- Any use of / imminent threat of force against T.I. or P.S. of another = aggression and is criminal

- Aggression justifies self-defense and law enforcement

- Nothing but aggression can justify war

- Once aggressor has been repulsed, it can be punished

Resistance vs. Appeasement

- Glorify resistance against immoral aggression

- Hard to decide when appeasement is appropriate

Preventative War and Pre-Emption

- Preventative war- justified by arguing that balance is essential to liberties and that not to act would incur dramatic costs

- Logic ends on devaluing human life

- Pre-emptive decisions harder

- Depends on manifest intent to injure, active preparation, and situation where waiting would increase risk

- 6 Day War- example of difficulties

Interventions

- Mill- anti-interventionist, self-determining

- Need strict standards of when and how

Civil War and Counter-Intervention

- Vietnam

- Walzer- hard to view as a legitimate case of counter-intervention

- Lack of internal support for S. Vietnamese regime

- Goal of counter-intervention: not to win war

War's Means

- How to guide means- proportionality? utility?

War's Ends

- Goal affects end of war- unconditional surrender

- Hold ends constant and in view- unchanged by way the war is going

- Rights of nations to be states can't be affected by end of the war

Noncombatant Immunity and Military Necessity

- Naked soldiers

- Civilians- make what soldiers need to fight / make what soldiers need to live

- Laconia Order

Double Effect

- Surface: limits what can be done in war

- Really: allows you to do things in war if they seem to be good

- Act is indifferent and good

- Direct effect is morally acceptable

- Actor's intention is good, doesn't intend evil effect

- Evil effect is not one of his ends nor a means to his ends

- Good effect is sufficiently good to compensate for the evil effect

Terrorism

- Random murder of civilians for strategic reasons

- Are you allowed different tactics because you don't have conventional things for war?

- Terrorism violates doctrine of double effect- kill civilians as a means to an end

- When do you move from being a civilians to being a govt. official

- Terror is the totalitarian form of war and politics

Reprisals

- Uneasy

- Always bad?

Winning and Fighting Well

- Duke of Sung- refused to engage in tactics against rules of war

- Rawls- sliding scale- more justice, more rights

- Walzer- erosion of rights (utilitarian argument)

- Still need to maintain justice in war- need to respect rights of soldiers

- Accepts that under certain conditions of necessity you can violate some / all rules

- What is an acceptable test?

Supreme Emergency

- When can we give into necessity and target civilians?

- Be careful when claim necessity for mere expediency

- Case of extreme annihilation, last stand

- Ex: Melos

- If you are ration and calm and can formulate the question of necessity- it's not necessity

War Crimes: Political Leaders

- Weizsaecker- how difficult to distribute responsibility

- Didn't like Nazis, mid-level German govt.

- Continued with duties

- Brought up on war crimes- should have resisted at some point

- Can you really expect people to be heroic?

- Gerstein- member of S.S. who killed himself

War Crimes

- Excuse defenses

- "I was insane"

- "I was just following orders"

- My Lai massacre

- General Yamashita- atrocities in Philipennes during WWI

- Couldn't communicate with soldiers when they were committing war crimes

- Sentenced to death and hung

- Generals should train their soldiers not to commit war crimes even when they are not there- Gen. Yamashita didn't train his soldiers well

Public Policy Review Notes

2008-05-06T18:41:00.002-04:00

Energy Policy

Energy Characteristics:

- Tradeable good- price, buy at price offered at

- Price affects production and consumption

Policy Analysts- leave entirely to marketplace

- Should have not govt. regulation of energy

Energy Policy defined as:

- Govt. regulation of price, production, consumption

Bush Administration Energy Bill- costs $50 bn

- Almost all of it is unnecessary / give away to business

- Rent seeking- business trying to get special favors from govt. to have profits go above and beyond

- Department of Energy- doing some things that aren't energy policy

- Dems are no better than Repubs on energy policy

- Rossell- what is necessary shouldn't be called energy policy

Rossell- abolish Department of Energy and do nothing in the field of energy

- Govt. should intervene only where there is market failure

- Dept. of Energy is pro-business

- Dept. of Environment would be anti-business

- No market failure in energy- consumers consume based on price, producers produce based on price

- Govt. should intervene in moral, social injustices / inequalities

- Govt. should intervene to enforce the rules of the game- technical monopolies

- Negative externalities- pollution

- More efficient to attack problem directly (regulate pollution itself rather than regulate energy)

- Energy is unlimited, energy is regulated much better and more efficiently by marketplace than by govt. (Rossell)

Price increases over time = consumption decreases overtime

Price of traditional energy increases over time = production of alternative energy increases overtime

Direct government regulation produces 4 negative outcomes:

- $ used to pay for something the marketplace can regulate, $ is taken away from something valuable that only govt. can provide

- Govt. subsidies and tax breaks to business encourage inefficient businesses that wouldn't exist without subsidy

- Govt. subsidies / tax breaks create an immoral climate of rent seeking and cheating

- Govt. has no idea what will be the most efficient energy of the future will be- the marketplace does

Deal with Energy Negative Externalities Directly

- Defense and economic policy- OPEC

- Welfare policy- give money to poor as a function of the cost of living

- Environmental policy- deal with pollution directly (impose sanctions, negative incentives)

Possible Market Failure?

- Research policy- most research and development accomplished in private sector- little or no market failure

Environmental Policy

Goal: clean air, clean water, safe food, and visually attractive, natural landscape

Environmental Policy Strategies

- Command and control- regulations specifying pollution standards, emissions, and technology

- Our policy mostly

- Hybrid C&C / M.I.- govt. market in pollution rights (TDPs)

- Market incentives- pollution tax / effluent fees (charge for pollution)

- Favored by policy analysts- least government regulation

Pollution must be controlled in some way by the government

- Market incentive: pollute, pollute, pollute

History of U.S. Environmental Protection- command and control

Water Pollution

- Refuse Act of 1899- limits debris in navigable streams

- 1948-1966- state enforcement with federal funding

- Problems- pollution doesn't respect state boundaries, companies can go to state with more lax policies, a race to the bottom to attract businesses

- Clean Waters Restoration Act 1966- water quality enforcement by Department of Interior

- Water Pollution Control Act and Amendments 1972

- Goal by 1985- end all discharge of pollutants into waterways

- Goal by 1983- water safe for fish, shellfish, animals, and people

- Goal by 1977- best practible control technology to eliminate contaminants

- Goal by 1983- have best available technology

- Emphasis on discharge control, not water quality

- Outcome: lengthy legal battles

Air Pollution

- 1955-1965 Federal funding for research

- Motor Vehicle Air Pollution Control Act 1965- first federal program to directly regulate air pollution, HEW to set emissions standards

- Clean Air Act Amendments 1970- goal: eliminate all air pollution by 1977

- National Environmental Policy Act 1970- created advisory group, environmental impact statement, important tool for environmental groups challenging federal projects

- Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 1970

- Responsible for: water pollution, air pollution, solid waste management, radiation control, pesticide and toxic substances

- Power to enforce policy with lawsuits and fines

- Comprehensive Environmental Response Act 1980- created Hazardous Waste Superfund providing EPA with authority and funds

- Bubble Concept of 1980s- whole plant needs to meet one standard

Market Incentives Model

- Two Strategies

- Make existing market arrangements operate better by regulating

- Prices- pollution feels or taxes (pure M.I.)- what policy analysts really want

- Information- mandatory disclosure laws, govt. disclosure

- Create a market in previously untraded goods

- TDPs (hybrid)

- Deposit refund systems

- Arguments in favor of incentive scheme

- Efficiency- achieves same policy objective at lower cost

- Innovation- choose techniques that best max. profits rather than just trying to get below the govt. standard

- Information use- govt. can't match the info processing attributes of the market

- Instrusiveness- minimizes govt. intrusion that can be costly to business

- Admin. complexity- less govt. organization needed b/c firms comply in their own self-interest

- Arguments against an incentive scheme

- Determining precise tax level / effluent charge difficult

- Govt. calculates damage functions / production cost function- hard

- Tax must be constantly adjusted- high enough to decrease pollution, but not high enough that too many businesses go bankrupt

- Administrative costs- still require administration

- Enforcement complicated

- Utility meter- not created yet

- Self-reporting- wouldn't work

- Political / philosophical issues

- No clear civic understanding- don't know how bad pollution is

- Equity- small businesses more likely to fail; big businesses would profit and continue to pollute

- Private ownership- some valued goods should not be considered private property

- Social value- assigning prices to natural resources devalues them

- Motivation- rely on self-interests and ignoring intent creates society without morals

- Political feasibility- low

- Why have incentive schemes not been more successful?

- TDPs in limited scope- regional, utility specific, flawed design, high administrative costs, limited programs

Ranking Policy Alternatives

Equity Effectiveness (Net Benefit) Efficiency (B:C) Political Feasibility

TDP MI MI CC

CC TDP TDP TDP

MI CC CC MI

FM FM FM FM

Global Cooperation and Comparisons

- US ranked at bottom

- Kyoto Protocol 1997

- Voluntary agreement limiting greenhouse gas emissions

- Goal: global reduction in emissions 5% below 1990s levels between 2008 and 2012

- China and India exempt

- Needed countries with 55% world's emissions

- Cooperation with Kyoto

- Japan and Germany, EU, E. Europe

- Bush Administration refuses to sign

- Russia ratified = 58.7%- 2004 went into effect

- More symbolic than practical

Global Warming

- Only 3 things scientists agree on regarding global warming

- 1 degree increase in temperature since 19th C.

- Levels of CO2 in atmosphere have increased by 30% since 19th. C.

- CO2 emissions should contribute to future warming

- Predictions of bad effects of global warming based on junk science

- Sea levels have increased since the last ice age

- Models used to make predictions aren't trustworthy, unexplained occurances

- Models don't predict disaster

- Global warming might even be good- increase in production, mammal diversity, intellectual activity

- Rossell- deal with externalities of energy we consume, charge for pollution = less pollution, deal with global warming if it becomes a problem

- Incentive in almost all policy areas if for experts and scientists to trumpet alarm because they get more funding if they do (Lundzen)

- Rossell- take money from research and charge for pollution

Education Policy

Education: a private and public good

- Private- helped individuals get ahead

- Public- literacy and math for good of society

3 Levels of Governance

- Local school districts- lowest level, min. 3 schools, headed by Superintendent

- State agencies and courts- make education policy, create school districts

- Federal govt. and courts (9%)- least important, shouldn't have Dept. of Education

- Categorical programs- benefit particular group / constitutional regulations for schools

Federal Policy: Redressing of Inequality of Origin

- 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA)

- Largest federal spending on schools

- Equal educational opportunity

- More money to poorer schools

- NCLB 2001 (signed 2002)

- Major change: assessment and choice

- Annual achievement assessment grades 3-8

- All students and subgroups must be "proficient" by 2013-2014 (very high standard)

- Parents can leave "failing" schools

- Subgroups: Whites, Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans, Blacks, Poor Kids, Special Education (SPED), Limited English Proficiency (LEP)

- Theoretically impossible for all groups to score at proficient level- SPED and LEP leave group if score high

- Unfunded mandate

- Unrealistic to expect equalized achievement while not funding or dealing with direct correlation with poverty

- Problem- schools explain only 20% of variations in academic achievement

- Rest explained by personal, home, family, and community characteristics

Student Achievement

- Minimum Competency Tests (State Proficiency Tests)

- In all states

- Most require a passing grade for H.S. graduation

- Can take over and over

- Criterion- reference tests- alligned with state curriculum

- Teacher Competency

- Everyone confused about tests and test scores

- Teachers take blame b/c only 1/2 students read at grade level- but this is all that is nationally possible!

- Merit Pay

- Difficult to express merit when schools only account for 20% of achievement

- What is "merit"?

- CMCC- teachers salaries need to be raised

- However: starting salaries good on an hourly rate, teachers with experience and degrees can make over $100,000, retire at 57 with 3/4 salary for life (defined-benefit plan), tenure after 3 years, 3x more sick leave

- Problem: equity- suburbs paid same as city

- Rossell- teaches well-paid on average with extraordinary benefits

- Merit-pay possibilities are expensive- peer review and principal

- Bilingual Education

- Goal: raise achievement of immigrants / limited English proficient children to be equal of Anglos / native speakers- impossible because just learning English = score lower

- True B.E.:

- Teach to read and write in native tongue

- Teach in native tongue

- Teach English about 1 hour / day

- Increase English, decrease native tongue when reach native tongue proficiency

- Many states have 3 yr. limit- largely ignored

- 1971 Chapter 71A Massachusetts

- 20+ LEP students of a single language in a district must be taught in full-time B.E.

- Widespread cheating and no one cares

- Rossell conditions for true B.E.

- Enough students of a single language to fill a classroom by combining no more than 2 grades

- Native tongue with a Roman alphabet

- Teacher and students must all speak same language

- Published textbooks in native tongue that follow curriculum

- Nationwide and in MA- only Spanish-speakers get true B.E.

- Does B.E. work?

Classroom Type Instruct Language Rank Program Name

Self-contained English 1 Structured Immersion / SEI

Mainstream English 2 ESL pullout

Mainstream English 3 Do nothing

Self-contained Native 4 B.E.

* SEI works best, but should only be in program for 1 year (Rossell)

- MA- voters amended 71A with Question 2 (English for Children) in 2002

- Similar to Proposition 227 in CA (1998) and Proposition 213 in AZ (2000)

- Default assignment is SEI

- Parents must sign a waiver after 30 days in SEI if want alternative

Relationship of Education to Individual Income and Economy

Crisis in Education

- 1983- A Nation at Risk

- Misunderstanding

- NAEP- less than 1% and less than 3% advanced

- But designed so that only 5% scored advanced

- US tests scores can't be compared to other countries

- Most egalitarian education system in world

- Drop out rate is lowest in world (not considering Japan)

Individual Rate of Return- benefit to you as an individual

- Human capital theory- education makes you more productive

- No evidence beyond elementary 3 Rs (reading, writing, arithmetic)

- Years of schooling still has a positive rate of return

- Education is a signaling device to match workers to jobs / screening device

Social Rate of Return- benefit to society

- Nothing beyond 8th grade skills used in most jobs, most people are overqualified

- Most efficient job training is on-the-job

- Jobs are fixed- over-educated

- Too many college educated students

- Fastest growing sector: low skill and service

- Education inflation

- US ins most productive country in world- no evidence this is linked to test scores

- Rossell- need mix in intellectuals and workers

Evaluation of Current Education System

- Reasonably equitable system compared with rest of the world

- Race and ethnic disparities a problem

- Preschool and childcare disparities a problem

- Somewhat inefficient and ineffective in supplying workers for economy (over-educated)

Solutions to Problems

- Solution to Childcare and Preschool- subsidized childcare, off-hours, universal preschool at age 2

- For every $1, $3-5 in benefits

- Solutions to problem of too many people in college- nothing politically feasible

Model of Policymaking- incrementalism

Model of Regulation

- C&C- state regulation on hours, curriculum, minimum standards (98%)

- M.I.- vouchers, school choice, charter schools (2%)

- Vouchers are equitable, efficient, and may decrease race gap if limited to low income

- CMCC- don't like vouchers for all- little effect because would increase disparities

Obama: A Speeding Locamotive

2008-05-05T12:05:00.001-04:00

Inspiration

Go North Carolina and Indiana!

Haven't Been Paying Attention

2008-05-01T17:01:00.003-04:00

Have you not been paying attention to what's been going on in the Democratic Nomination race? Do you want the sparknotes version.

Watch it: (yes, and it's only 7 minutes long!)

Be Forewarned...

2008-04-26T23:25:00.003-04:00

Ahh two finals and one massive paper... only two weeks left!!!!

I'm sorry, but there will be very little blogging done in the next couple of weeks. Sorry, school has to come first (well really Obama does, but then it's school, so I apologize).

To stay entertained, check out my new OBSESSION: BU's Dear Abbeys

Watch the videos, listen to the music, and check out the webpage.

Carter, Reid, Gingrich, and Dean

2008-04-24T13:17:00.001-04:00

Where will all of these influential and powerful men in politics be in the next few weeks?

Thats right, The Daily Show!

Mark your calendars!

I Wish I Was In Philly

2008-04-19T23:04:00.001-04:00

Grades first :(

But I really wish I was back in Philly with my fellow Springterns, field organizers, and SJU students.

Check out video from what happened after Obama's rally in Philly on Friday

Get That Dirt Off Yo Shoulder Barack

2008-04-18T18:08:00.000-04:00

Debate Reax

2008-04-17T13:19:00.002-04:00

So much reading to do, so little time to write.

I'm going to outsource.

To get a general overview of the debate, if you missed it, check out this video:

To get a bloggers reactions, check out Andrew one and two

For Obama fan reactions, check out one and two

For a funnier take, some more video:

And for my opinion:

I'll just put it this way. Once upon a time, I was a big fan of American Idol. Since that point in time, I've just begun to watch the last 2 or 3 shows, when the people are actually good. During this debate, I switch over midway to watch the American Idol results show- with 7 people left on the show.

Plain in simple: that so-called debate, was terrible

To Cleanse All of the BITTERNESS You've Been Feeling

2008-04-16T17:36:00.001-04:00

CT What Have You Done??

2008-04-15T17:17:00.001-04:00

Check it....

Bitter America

2008-04-13T22:40:00.000-04:00

Another...

2008-04-10T21:04:00.002-04:00

More obsessions. I guess music is the best way to escape the world.

College Vote in Pennsylvania

2008-04-07T17:07:00.001-04:00

Check out what Politico has said about Obama and the PA College Vote.

I know it might be just me saying this, but maybe they could be wrong.

New Obsession

2008-04-06T19:13:00.002-04:00

The Beatles have really defined generation after generation.

My parents listened to the, my grandparents listened to them, and me and my siblings listen to them.

Obsession: "Blackbird"

So beautiful and so meaningful.

Check it out!

McCain and Lobbyists

2008-04-04T21:05:00.003-04:00

Ok so we all know the lobbyists have the politicians in their pockets.

But what about this? That's a little too close for comfort for me at least.

(H/T Alex)

40 Years Ago

2008-04-04T17:07:00.002-04:00

40 years ago today, it was 1968. I wasn't born and my parents were young children. 1968. Seems like ages ago to an 18 year old, but so much has changed since then.

If you don't know enough about me to realize why this week and today in particular are so important, then you probably also do not realize that it was today, 40 years ago, that Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.

Martin Luther King Jr. changed our country through peaceful protests and grassroots organizing. He realized that he and many American people had a dream- a dream where everyone would be treated like equals.

It is because of people like Martin Luther King Jr. that era of segregation that plagued our country ended. We still have a long way to go, but huge strides have been made in equality.

For me and for my kids and my grandkids, I want America and the world to come to a point where people can walk down the street and not be scared about seeing a black man standing on the corner or make jokes about those "damn illegals" every time one sees an Hispanic man. I want people to realize that race, ethnicity, sex, or preference should not be a divider any long. I want America to see other people in the world as just like them, striving for similar goals rather than the poor Africans, the crazy Arabs, and the communist Chinese. I want Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream to be fully realized- that we will come to a point where everyone sees everyone else as an equal and as a friend.

To check out what my other '68 Favorite (RFK) had to say in response to MLK's death, check out this post, speech, and video from Alex.

Finally...

2008-04-04T16:34:00.001-04:00

I wish I had that kind of money.

The Clinton's release their tax returns.

Check out PDFs complied by The Page from hillaryclinton.com

Pennsylvania

2008-04-03T22:47:00.002-04:00

Who's going to win? What do the candidates have to do? A map brought to you by Time's The Page.

Obama Spanish-Language Ad

2008-04-03T17:08:00.002-04:00

It really is too bad I don't know Spanish.

McCain at 3 AM

2008-04-03T15:34:00.001-04:00

Good news for McCain:

A new poll shows that John McCain is the candidate best qualified to answer when that red phone rings at 3 AM - because he would be up anyway trying to pee.

Haha! Thanks Mr. Molloy

Want to Help OFA in PA?

2008-04-01T20:38:00.002-04:00

I do! I do!

Unfortunately, I have school and therefore will be in Boston, working only virtually through phone banks. If you are at all interested, please contact OFA. I had a great time over Spring Break in Philly and GOTV in New Hampshire was quite an experience.

An Email Sent to me from Obama for America:

Dear Amy,

In the past few weeks, thousands of people from all across the country have traveled to Pennsylvania to help grow our movement.

Thanks to supporters like you, we registered tens of thousands of new Democrats and built a base of support that will help Barack in the primary on April 22nd.

Now we need to make sure all these new voices are heard.

Sign up to take a trip to Pennsylvania and help Get Out The Vote for Barack:

http://pa.barackobama.com/cometoPA

Our campaign has always relied on grassroots supporters to build our movement and spread the word about Barack Obama.

The steps that we're taking right now will help us do more than win an election -- they will empower ordinary Americans to join with their friends, family, and neighbors in believing that together we can make a difference.

No prior political experience is necessary. All you need is a hunger for change and a willingness to turn your enthusiasm into action.

Make a difference right away for Barack in Pennsylvania:

http://pa.barackobama.com/cometoPA

Thank you for your continued support,

Angela

Angela Botticella
Pennsylvania Deputy Field Director
Obama for America

How to be President

2008-04-01T20:35:00.001-04:00

Want to know the way to be President? Check out how Obama answered the question as reported from First Read:

At a town hall today, a second-grader asked Obama how exactly one gets the opportunity to run for president.

"Here's what you gotta do," the presidential hopeful told the boy, boiling the process down to few simple steps.

1. "You have to work really hard in school and get really good grades."
2. "Who is this your grandma?" Obama asked the boy. "You have to do everything that grandma tells you to do."
3. "When you get out of school, then you gotta go to college."
4. "After you go to college, you have to hopefully find a job that's helping other people, so that people appreciate that you're helping them, and they'll say that Michael will make a good president some day."

"If you do all those things, then you just might be a president some day," Obama told young Michael.

(H/T: Alex)

Delegate Update

2008-04-01T20:33:00.002-04:00

Obama wins Texas: 99-94

Obama picks up one more delegate in Mississippi, Hillary loses one: 20-13

Look for some North Carolina superdels to come out later in the week according to The Page

If You Want to Better Understand Me

2008-03-31T16:02:00.001-04:00

If you want to better get to know me and the type of person that I am, check out this story:

Morning Edition, March 28, 2008 ·

Julio Diaz has a daily routine. Every night, the 31-year-old social worker ends his hour-long subway commute to the Bronx one stop early, just so he can eat at his favorite diner.
But one night last month, as Diaz stepped off the No. 6 train and onto a nearly empty platform, his evening took an unexpected turn.

He was walking toward the stairs when a teenage boy approached and pulled out a knife.

"He wants my money, so I just gave him my wallet and told him, 'Here you go,'" Diaz says.
As the teen began to walk away, Diaz told him, "Hey, wait a minute. You forgot something. If you're going to be robbing people for the rest of the night, you might as well take my coat to keep you warm."

The would-be robber looked at his would-be victim, "like what's going on here?" Diaz says. "He asked me, 'Why are you doing this?'"

Diaz replied: "If you're willing to risk your freedom for a few dollars, then I guess you must really need the money. I mean, all I wanted to do was get dinner and if you really want to join me ... hey, you're more than welcome.

"You know, I just felt maybe he really needs help," Diaz says.

Diaz says he and the teen went into the diner and sat in a booth.

"The manager comes by, the dishwashers come by, the waiters come by to say hi," Diaz says. "The kid was like, 'You know everybody here. Do you own this place?'"

"No, I just eat here a lot," Diaz says he told the teen. "He says, 'But you're even nice to the dishwasher.'"

Diaz replied, "Well, haven't you been taught you should be nice to everybody?"

"Yea, but I didn't think people actually behaved that way," the teen said.

Diaz asked him what he wanted out of life. "He just had almost a sad face," Diaz says.
The teen couldn't answer Diaz — or he didn't want to.

When the bill arrived, Diaz told the teen, "Look, I guess you're going to have to pay for this bill 'cause you have my money and I can't pay for this. So if you give me my wallet back, I'll gladly treat you."

The teen "didn't even think about it" and returned the wallet, Diaz says. "I gave him $20 ... I figure maybe it'll help him. I don't know."

Diaz says he asked for something in return — the teen's knife — "and he gave it to me."

Afterward, when Diaz told his mother what happened, she said, "You're the type of kid that if someone asked you for the time, you gave them your watch."

"I figure, you know, if you treat people right, you can only hope that they treat you right. It's as simple as it gets in this complicated world."

That last line is me, plain and simple.

So I Should Be Studying...

2008-03-30T22:11:00.001-04:00

But, I just have to bear my soul.

Andrew is leaving again?? More breaks??

But don't you realize how much we will miss you??

Ok the countdown begins... 7 days until we have Andrew back!

Summer 2008

2008-03-28T22:35:00.002-04:00

45 hrs. / week working as a field manager

10 hrs. / week commuting to that work

30 hrs. / week working as an organizer for OFA

----------------------------------------------------------------

85 hrs. / week total working

That's do-able right?

"Your Husband Amuses Me"

2008-03-27T22:07:00.002-04:00

Send to me by one of my best friends with the sign off, "Your husband amuses me".

Cute, but come on Karlie, he's Michelle's boy. I'm not one for breaking up marriages like that! :)

"Black is the new President, Bitch!"

2008-03-27T17:16:00.001-04:00

Tracy Morgan on SNL...

Funny spin on all that's been going on.

Remember, "Black is the new President, Bitch!"

Obama's Race Speech Reactions

2008-03-27T17:07:00.003-04:00

No time to write my own reaction (sorry!) and too late to do that too!

I'm going to outsource to my favorite blog, for some personal response and summary of other bloggers' opinions- including conservatives...

First, Alex's response:

Honest. Nuanced. Deeply personal. Impossible to sound bite. A critique not just of our politics but also of our national discourse. He both expects and demands that citizens think and act as rational adults.

I can honestly say I never heard another political speech like it. It wasn't by any measure the politically safe thing to do, but it was by every measure the right thing to do. It was brutally honest about both Obama's own personal history and about our shared history. Take, as just one example, this section:

"Understanding this reality requires a reminder of how we arrived at this point. As William Faulkner once wrote, "The past isn't dead and buried. In fact, it isn't even past." We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country. But we do need to remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist in the African-American community today can be directly traced to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.

Segregated schools were, and are, inferior schools; we still haven't fixed them, fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, and the inferior education they provided, then and now, helps explain the pervasive achievement gap between today's black and white students.

Legalized discrimination - where blacks were prevented, often through violence, from owning property, or loans were not granted to African-American business owners, or black homeowners could not access FHA mortgages, or blacks were excluded from unions, or the police force, or fire departments - meant that black families could not amass any meaningful wealth to bequeath to future generations. That history helps explain the wealth and income gap between black and white, and the concentrated pockets of poverty that persists in so many of today's urban and rural communities.

A lack of economic opportunity among black men, and the shame and frustration that came from not being able to provide for one's family, contributed to the erosion of black families - a problem that welfare policies for many years may have worsened. And the lack of basic services in so many urban black neighborhoods - parks for kids to play in, police walking the beat, regular garbage pick-up and building code enforcement - all helped create a cycle of violence, blight and neglect that continue to haunt us.

This is the reality in which Reverend Wright and other African-Americans of his generation grew up. They came of age in the late fifties and early sixties, a time when segregation was still the law of the land and opportunity was systematically constricted. What's remarkable is not how many failed in the face of discrimination, but rather how many men and women overcame the odds; how many were able to make a way out of no way for those like me who would come after them.

But for all those who scratched and clawed their way to get a piece of the American Dream, there were many who didn't make it - those who were ultimately defeated, in one way or another, by discrimination. That legacy of defeat was passed on to future generations - those young men and increasingly young women who we see standing on street corners or languishing in our prisons, without hope or prospects for the future. Even for those blacks who did make it, questions of race, and racism, continue to define their worldview in fundamental ways. For the men and women of Reverend Wright's generation, the memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away; nor has the anger and the bitterness of those years. That anger may not get expressed in public, in front of white co-workers or white friends. But it does find voice in the barbershop or around the kitchen table. At times, that anger is exploited by politicians, to gin up votes along racial lines, or to make up for a politician's own failings.

And occasionally it finds voice in the church on Sunday morning, in the pulpit and in the pews. The fact that so many people are surprised to hear that anger in some of Reverend Wright's sermons simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning. That anger is not always productive; indeed, all too often it distracts attention from solving real problems; it keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity in our condition, and prevents the African-American community from forging the alliances it needs to bring about real change. But the anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races.

In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don't feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience - as far as they're concerned, no one's handed them anything, they've built it from scratch. They've worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pension dumped after a lifetime of labor. They are anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away; in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense. So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they're told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time.

Like the anger within the black community, these resentments aren't always expressed in polite company. But they have helped shape the political landscape for at least a generation. Anger over welfare and affirmative action helped forge the Reagan Coalition. Politicians routinely exploited fears of crime for their own electoral ends. Talk show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism.

Just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze - a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices, and short-term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many. And yet, to wish away the resentments of white Americans, to label them as misguided or even racist, without recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns - this too widens the racial divide, and blocks the path to understanding.

This is where we are right now."

When, if ever, have we ever heard a presidential candidate speak this honestly about the legacy of racial discrimination in our society? I honestly cannot think of another time. He wasn't just explaining his own past, he was explaining out shared past. This is a narrative that accurately explains the themes that have dominated our politics not just for the past 40 years, but the past 140 years. Forget the election for a moment - that's a remarkable achievement in any context.

In the end, Obama is right: We have a choice. It has always been implied in this election, but now it is explicit. It is not an easy one, but it is one we must make. Will we mature as a nation, or will we willfully choose to remain mired in some form of national adolescence? Will we choose to face our problems as mature adults, or will we decide to leave them for someone else - most likely our own children - to take care of? Will we choose to become a more perfect union, or will we choose - willfully choose - to ignore our flaws and continue as we are?

"For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. We can tackle race only as spectacle - as we did in the OJ trial - or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina - or as fodder for the nightly news. We can play Reverend Wright's sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words. We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she's playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies.

We can do that.

But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we'll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change.

That is one option. Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, "Not this time." This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children. This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can't learn; that those kids who don't look like us are somebody else's problem. The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy. Not this time.

This time we want to talk about how the lines in the Emergency Room are filled with whites and blacks and Hispanics who do not have health care; who don't have the power on their own to overcome the special interests in Washington, but who can take them on if we do it together.

This time we want to talk about the shuttered mills that once provided a decent life for men and women of every race, and the homes for sale that once belonged to Americans from every religion, every region, every walk of life. This time we want to talk about the fact that the real problem is not that someone who doesn't look like you might take your job; it's that the corporation you work for will ship it overseas for nothing more than a profit.

This time we want to talk about the men and women of every color and creed who serve together, and fight together, and bleed together under the same proud flag. We want to talk about how to bring them home from a war that never should've been authorized and never should've been waged, and we want to talk about how we'll show our patriotism by caring for them, and their families, and giving them the benefits they have earned.

I would not be running for President if I didn't believe with all my heart that this is what the vast majority of Americans want for this country. This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected."

Overcoming our collective cynicism will be hard, but it is possible. I know I write endlessly about this campaign and this candidate, and I'm sure sometimes what I write sounds over the top. But it is moments like these, speeches like these, that convince me that it is worth, just this once, believing that our politics can actually be what they always should have been. That it is possible for us just this once to put aside our divisions and come together to make this world a better place. That it is possible for one brief moment to move closer to our shared ideals. That it is possible to build a politics around our shared hopes rather than our shared fears. That we can choose to elect a leader who will tell us what we need to hear, and not simply what we want to know or would prefer to believe. This campaign isn't about what he can do for us, but about what we can all do for ourselves and for one another. That is what politics should be but almost never are.

Perhaps you think I'm too idealistic. Perhaps you think I'm being naive. So be it. Idealists no doubt often fail, but when they do succeed their actions are remembered forever. I would rather act out of idealism and fail than remain cynical and never act at all.

Second, Alex's summary of some other blogs:

Given that I suspect history will mark this speech as a major turning point in the campaign, I'm going to put together an extensive compilation of reactions from around the blogosphere. In the order they appeared in my RSS feed...

Ezra Klein:

I wasn't expecting to be surprised by that speech. I expected it to be good, of course. Obama is a gorgeous orator, and he tends to perform best when the stakes are highest. But I wasn't terribly impressed with his delivery today. He did not soar, nor adopt the confident preacher's cadence he uses to involve and feed off an audience. Rather, it was the content of the speech that surprised. It was not inspiring, not really. Parts of it could have been cut, like the reading from his book...

But this speech was something I didn't expect: Honest. It was honest about Obama's affection for Wright, even as it repudiated Wright's comments. It was honest about the tragic history of race in America, even as it expressed faith in a redemptive future. It was honest about the resentment peddlers and racial charlatans who try and recast the increasing rarity of the American Dream as the consequence of ethnic competition rather than gross power imbalances. It was honest in its recognition that racial memory influences contemporary thought, honest in admitting that there's anger in this country, and it's justified, and that there's fear in this country, and it's real...

Obama could have simply preached unity and forgiveness without recognizing the realities of anger and resentment. He could have done as Mitt Romney did, and sought to protect his political vulnerabilities by picking new enemies. Obama could have made this a speech about Fox News, and divisive commentators, and right wing talkshow hosts, and sleaze artists who need to be stopped. But he didn't. He's betting he can universalize this experience, too, and that he'll find more votes in unity than in division. It is, at best, a gamble. But at least it's an honest one.

Dana Goldstein:

All in all, this speech dealt with race more honestly than I've ever heard the topic discussed by a politician. But it was too long. He should have cut the entire section where he quotes from his own book, Dreams from My Father. The strength here wasn't really Obama's recounting of his own life, but his framing of the role of race in American history and in our society today.
Kate Sheppard:

I think Obama's much-anticipated speech on race today hit the appropriate tone not just for addressing the Jeremiah Wright flap, but for framing the relevance of his candidacy in general. It was best in the way it framed the discomfort and resentment in the discussion of race in America that has lead to a "racial stalemate" for so many years, and made race "a part of our union that we have not yet made perfect."

... Yes, there are ongoing problems, but America is not irrevocably bound to this history. We can overcome those barriers. We can end the racial stalemate and move forward. It was the appropriate tone for the speech, not denying the validity of Wright's concerns while at the same time not embracing bitterness or divisiveness.

Andrew Sullivan:

Alas, I cannot give a more considered response right now as I have to get on the road. But I do want to say that this searing, nuanced, gut-wrenching, loyal, and deeply, deeply Christian speech is the most honest speech on race in America in my adult lifetime. It is a speech we have all been waiting for for a generation. Its ability to embrace both the legitimate fears and resentments of whites and the understandable anger and dashed hopes of many blacks was, in my view, unique in recent American history.

And it was a reflection of faith - deep, hopeful, transcending faith in the promises of the Gospels. And it was about America - its unique promise, its historic purpose, and our duty to take up the burden to perfect this union - today, in our time, in our way.

I have never felt more convinced that this man's candidacy - not this man, his candidacy - and what he can bring us to achieve - is an historic opportunity. This was a testing; and he did not merely pass it by uttering safe bromides. He addressed the intimate, painful love he has for an imperfect and sometimes embittered man. And how that love enables him to see that man's faults and pain as well as his promise. This is what my faith is about. It is what the Gospels are about. This is a candidate who does not merely speak as a Christian. He acts like a Christian.

Bill Clinton once said that everything bad in America can be rectified by what is good in America. He was right - and Obama takes that to a new level. And does it with the deepest darkest wound in this country's history.

I love this country. I don't remember loving it or hoping more from it than today.

TPM's Greg Sargent:

Obama's speech, throughout, asks its listeners to transcend themselves -- it asks them to choose nuance over cartoonish political controversy; it asks them to acknowledge stuff about race they don't want to acknowledge; it asks them to think big instead of small.
NBC's Aswini Anburajan

His tone throughout was quiet and thoughtful. The same speech could have been delivered in a fiery tone. But Obama chose one that was quiet and thoughtful. It did little to lessen the impact and may have added to the weight of his words.
TNR's Jonathan Chait:

My first reaction is that the speech was extremely smart and intellectually subtle. It's very unusual for a politician to give a speech that works at such a high intellectual level. At every turn he resisted simplifications and added nuance.

This in turn reminds me of one of the things I like about Obama's candidacy. He may be liberated to operate at a high intellectual level in public because he's black. I'm not trying to be Gerry Ferraro here; let me explain. Candidates like John Kerry and (even moreso) Al Gore were also very smart, but constantly forced to dumb it down lest they be tagged as out-of-touch elitists. Since the egghead image is so at odds with the prevailing stereotypes about African-Americans, he has much less to fear by speaking at a high intellectual level.

Of course, Obama is extremely intelligent -- as smart as, or smarter than, any presidential candidate I can ever remember. Yet I don't think a brilliant white Constitutional law professor could pull it off. Being black obviously disadvantages Obama in all sorts of ways. But this is one way where it helps.

Publius:

I think the relentless multiple-news cycle coverage of Wright has been absurd - and rooted in old stereotypes of the black community as a hotbed of angry nationalists. My fear was that Obama, in opting to give the speech, was giving into the trumped up and bogus frenzy. While I knew this specific controversy would pass, my more general fear was that Obama the candidate and president would be pressured to twist in the Beltway winds.

But he didn't do that. He forcefully distanced himself from Wright's words, but spoke movingly - and unapologetically - of his connections to the man. He didn't run and hide in Kerry/Daschle-esque cowardly fashion. He stood right up and said, "yes, he's my friend." He cast him as mired in the old world, to be sure, but he didn't give into the Russert-style pressure to do some sort of Maoist confessional disavowing all association with the man. (I also thought it was savvy to preemptively ridicule the press if they continue obsessing about this story).

...on first listen, that implicit courage not to buckle stood out. And I think that augurs well for both his candidacy and his potential presidency.

Atlantic's Marc Ambinder:

In his speech today, instead of casting Wright out, throwing him overboard, trying to write him off, Obama did the opposite: he incorporated Wright into Barack Obama, LLC. Wright's evolution becomes part of America's evolution, which is part of Obama's story.

In no uncertain terms did Obama renounce -- morally condemn -- the hateful, anti-Semitic, anti-American and just plain bizarre rants of his pastor -- "former pastor," as Obama now calls him. But he did not reject him. He refused to reject him. He is daring, in essence, his white liberal supporters to accept what Wright's anger represents -- a legacy of oppression -- and daring the rest of white supporters to take a leap of faith him... and asking them to expand their minds a bit and see that Wright is preaching in a tradition that has a context that is directly related to the material and spiritual conditions of all Americans.

The sell will be easier for white liberals, I think. The speech was magnificently written. It was internally consistent with Obama apparently believes...

CW tells us that white voters tend to become nervous when Democrats and liberals lecture to them -- even when they lecture eloquently and respectfully -- about race. Will they, this time? What do you think?

Atlantic's James Fallows:

This was as good a job as anyone could have done in these circumstances, and as impressive and intelligent a speech as I have heard in a very long time. People thought that Mitt Romney's speech would be the counterpart to John Kennedy's famous speech about his faith to the Houston ministers in 1960. No. This was.

A reminder of a non-obvious but crucial principle in speechwriting. Make the language simple, clear, vivid, and comprehensible -- of course. But never, never talk down...

It was a moment that Obama made great through the seriousness, intelligence, eloquence, and courage of what he said. I don't recall another speech about race with as little pandering or posturing or shying from awkward points, and as much honest attempt to explain and connect, as this one.

CNN's David Brody:

We won't know for awhile how voters view Barack Obama's speech today on race relations but The Brody File saw it as a HUGE positive for Obama and a successful turning point for the future of his campaign
Tapped's Adele M. Stan:

Watching Obama (on TV) deliver today what I believe to be the most important address on race since Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech, my sense of the uniqueness of Obama's candidacy was further distilled... Obama is as much white as he is black, and that matters in ways she may not have contemplated. For instance, his cross-cultural experience gave him a window on the ways in which white resentment manifests itself, and he has loved people who, were he not their kin, might have treated him poorly based on the color of his skin and the texture of his hair...

Indeed, it is thrilling to see a man who, by virtue of his appearance, will always be a black man in the eyes of America, come so close to attaining the presidential nomination of one of the nation's two major political parties. But it is his biracial experience that gives him the insight to make the whole thing work, and to embody, quite literally, a deep longing for a closing of the racial chasm.

Ambinder, again:

I do think that Obama's speech was a marvel of contemporary political rhetoric. Politically, analytically and emotively, it hit many high notes. His acknowledgment of white working class resentments (busing) and about the perception that there's been no racial progress, his willingness to stick by his friends, his grasp of history, his sense that our views of race are cramped and caricatured... all of that is something that even those who disagree with the substance of his speech, can, I think, appreciate.
Steve Benen:

Generally, speeches are a bit like art -- their quality is in the eye of the beholder. From where I sat, I found Obama's speech rather extraordinary. Indeed, it's the kind of speech politicians just don't give anymore -- a brilliant address with context and nuance. It answered key questions, while challenging his audience with new ones.

Of course, our modern political landscape very rarely rewards context and nuance, brilliant or not, so whether Obama managed to help his campaign today remains to be seen. It's depressing, but Michael Crowley's point in response to the speech is important: "[It was] brilliant, beautiful, inspiring -- but perhaps not what crass electoral politics demanded of him."

It feels almost ridiculous to wonder whether a candidate's speech is too good for modern campaigning and today's media, but it's hardly an unreasonable question this afternoon.

BC's Alan Wolfe:

What I heard today, though, was not a political speech in the sense we have gotten used to in this country. I heard instead a speech that, as much as it was about Obama and Wright, was also about us. Our politics does not quite know how to handle such a thing; campaigns are meant to tell people what they can expect to receive, not to ask them to understand, forgive, and reach out.
The campaign for the Democratic nomination has already gripped the nation for two reasons: It offers either the first woman or the first African-American as the candidate of a major party, and it has been as close as the last Super Bowl. Now we have a third reason for our fascination: We have been asked to reflect in the most serious of ways about the role that race plays in the life of our country. I cannot recall any leader or potential leader in the last two or three decades asking us to do that. I hope we are up to the challenge. I do not believe--nor, from his speech, do I think that Obama believes--that to think seriously about race we have to vote for him. But I do think that when we address race, we ought to do it, not by running endless videos of people, black or white, who have said outrageous things but by finally having the honest conversation about race we keep promising ourselves--and keep postponing. Agree or disagree with Obama, I ask people who are less inspired by him that I am, but at least acknowledge that in this presidential candidate, we have a man of honor--and an honest man.

Matt Yglesias:

The kind of white resentment Obama is talking about here has been a problem for the Democratic Party for decades now notwithstanding the fact that you rarely see the party nominating African-Americans to run in majority white constituencies. What Obama is showing us here is that precisely because he's black, he's able to acknowledge and validate these resentments in a way that would be very difficult for a white liberal politician.

At any rate, I'd say things are back on track. The Wright business had opened up a vague sliver of hope for Hillary Clinton's campaign -- if they could produce a result in Pennsylvania that looked like a Wright-induced collapse in Obama's white support, maybe they could convince superdelegates that he's unelectable. After this speech, I don't see it happening.

Ezra, again:

To think through the political implications of the speech for a second, the real loser here looks to be Clinton. Now that Obama's candidacy is, in part, a referendum on the party's willingness to confront the issue of race and forge a cross-ethnic alliance in search of economic justice, it's hard to see how the supers can side with Clinton. Not because Obama is right in his quest, but because his candidacy is now too deeply intertwined with the history of the Democratic Party and the coalition that has evolved to support it...

Before today, it was just Obama, and his movement. After today, it's Obama, and his movement, and also the party's comfort with the realities of race.

Jonathan Chait, again:

With a couple hours to mull it over, my tentative conclusion is that Obama's speech is politically smart. His over-riding imperative was not just to stop answering questions about Jeremiah Wright, it was also to get out of Ferraroworld -- in other words, to stop allowing his campaign to be defined by racial tiffs. I don't know if he'll succeed, bu the speech was probably the best he could have done to accomplish it.
DDay:

Conservatives are already firing up the wedges again in reaction to this speech. I heard Rush say that Obama has "now become a racial candidate," I guess because he said the word race. Their true nature is going to be coming out in this reaction; the fear, the anger, the desperation, the racism. Obama's speech is large and has a lot of nuance that won't play in soundbites. I don't really care to get into the politics of it, but I think we'll see in the ultimate result whether we're a nation that still pays attention to these petty concerns and wedges, or whether we can judge a man on the content of his character.
Ross Douthat:

It had its imperfections, yet for all that I think Charles Murray makes the crucial point: Can you think of a better speech on race in America delivered recently by any politician, black or white? Of course John Derbyshire is right that Obama's vision of how America ought to transcend our racial divisions is essentially left-wing, with whites and blacks joining hands against to raise taxes and government spending, while uniting against their common enemy, the wicked axis of corporations, lobbyists and special interests. But Obama's candidacy is essentially left-wing; he's attempting to be a liberal Reagan, not a difference-splitter like Bill Clinton, and I think our political moment is tilting sufficiently leftward that he might just succeed... this is a conservative's quibble about a liberal politician's address; it's my way of saying "I wish Barack Obama were a little less left-wing," and it doesn't detract from the speech's overall impressiveness.

...by using the Wright controversy as an opportunity to play up their candidate's strengths - as an orator, but more importantly as the rare politician who can deliver a thoughtful, nuanced speech and make you feel like he means it - the Obama campaign made some sweet-tasting lemonade out of some awfully sour lemons .

And last but not least, because no compilation of reactions would be complete without a look to the other side, here's a collection of reactions from NRO's Corner, courtesy of Kevin Drum:

"Amazingly bloodless and dull; part moral hectoring part awkward defensiveness." "I think if you want to be romanced by your candidate, he romanced you. And if you're a guilty white person, you're with Obama because he said so." "Was it just me, or did anyone else note that for the first half of the speech, Sen. Obama seemed annoyed, put out by having to give the speech in the first place?"

"This a breathtaking attempt to pass off Wright's hateful rants by implying that they are little different than the 'political views' of some priest with which a parishioner might disagree." "Obama is no longer a post-racial candidate....today, he has embraced the politics of grievance." "Blame whitey, and raise high the red flag of socialism. This is a serious candidate for the Presidency? Toast, toast."

"His grandmother -- his surrogate mother at that point -- rejected the black man he was becoming. The anger Obama heard in Rev. Wright's church may not have felt so alien after all." "Any hopes anyone had that Barack Obama would be a gift to civil rights in America -- that he would shake hands with Ward Connerly and really be a change died today, I think."

"Does he think OJ was guilty? Hmmm. Probably not the best example to put into play." "It's hard to imagine how someone who listened to this speech, and who had followed at all the controversy of the last few days, could still view Obama as somehow transcending politics."

Obama's Race Speech

2008-03-27T16:53:00.003-04:00

My failures in blogging for a couple weeks now have put me behind on this major Obama speech, so I'm going to have to outsource to other blogs and media.

First, the video:

Second, the text:

The following is the text as prepared for delivery of Senator Barack Obama’s speech on race in Philadelphia, as provided by his presidential campaign.

“We the people, in order to form a more perfect union.”

Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America’s improbable experiment in democracy. Farmers and scholars; statesmen and patriots who had traveled across an ocean to escape tyranny and persecution finally made real their declaration of independence at a Philadelphia convention that lasted through the spring of 1787.

The document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished. It was stained by this nation’s original sin of slavery, a question that divided the colonies and brought the convention to a stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to continue for at least twenty more years, and to leave any final resolution to future generations.

Of course, the answer to the slavery question was already embedded within our Constitution – a Constitution that had at is very core the ideal of equal citizenship under the law; a Constitution that promised its people liberty, and justice, and a union that could be and should be perfected over time.

And yet words on a parchment would not be enough to deliver slaves from bondage, or provide men and women of every color and creed their full rights and obligations as citizens of the United States. What would be needed were Americans in successive generations who were willing to do their part – through protests and struggle, on the streets and in the courts, through a civil war and civil disobedience and always at great risk - to narrow that gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time.

This was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning of this campaign – to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America. I chose to run for the presidency at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together – unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction – towards a better future for of children and our grandchildren.

This belief comes from my unyielding faith in the decency and generosity of the American people. But it also comes from my own American story.

I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton’s Army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas. I’ve gone to some of the best schools in America and lived in one of the world’s poorest nations. I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slaveowners – an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.

It’s a story that hasn’t made me the most conventional candidate. But it is a story that has seared into my genetic makeup the idea that this nation is more than the sum of its parts – that out of many, we are truly one.

Throughout the first year of this campaign, against all predictions to the contrary, we saw how hungry the American people were for this message of unity. Despite the temptation to view my candidacy through a purely racial lens, we won commanding victories in states with some of the whitest populations in the country. In South Carolina, where the Confederate Flag still flies, we built a powerful coalition of African Americans and white Americans.

This is not to say that race has not been an issue in the campaign. At various stages in the campaign, some commentators have deemed me either “too black” or “not black enough.” We saw racial tensions bubble to the surface during the week before the South Carolina primary. The press has scoured every exit poll for the latest evidence of racial polarization, not just in terms of white and black, but black and brown as well.

And yet, it has only been in the last couple of weeks that the discussion of race in this campaign has taken a particularly divisive turn.

On one end of the spectrum, we’ve heard the implication that my candidacy is somehow an exercise in affirmative action; that it’s based solely on the desire of wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap. On the other end, we’ve heard my former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, use incendiary language to express views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation; that rightly offend white and black alike.

I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely – just as I’m sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.

But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren’t simply controversial. They weren’t simply a religious leader’s effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country – a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.

As such, Reverend Wright’s comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems – two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all.

Given my background, my politics, and my professed values and ideals, there will no doubt be those for whom my statements of condemnation are not enough. Why associate myself with Reverend Wright in the first place, they may ask? Why not join another church? And I confess that if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television and You Tube, or if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that I would react in much the same way

But the truth is, that isn’t all that I know of the man. The man I met more than twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor. He is a man who served his country as a U.S. Marine; who has studied and lectured at some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country, and who for over thirty years led a church that serves the community by doing God’s work here on Earth – by housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS.

In my first book, Dreams From My Father, I described the experience of my first service at Trinity:
“People began to shout, to rise from their seats and clap and cry out, a forceful wind carrying the reverend’s voice up into the rafters….And in that single note – hope! – I heard something else; at the foot of that cross, inside the thousands of churches across the city, I imagined the stories of ordinary black people merging with the stories of David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the lion’s den, Ezekiel’s field of dry bones. Those stories – of survival, and freedom, and hope – became our story, my story; the blood that had spilled was our blood, the tears our tears; until this black church, on this bright day, seemed once more a vessel carrying the story of a people into future generations and into a larger world. Our trials and triumphs became at once unique and universal, black and more than black; in chronicling our journey, the stories and songs gave us a means to reclaim memories that we didn’t need to feel shame about…memories that all people might study and cherish – and with which we could start to rebuild.”

That has been my experience at Trinity. Like other predominantly black churches across the country, Trinity embodies the black community in its entirety – the doctor and the welfare mom, the model student and the former gang-banger. Like other black churches, Trinity’s services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. They are full of dancing, clapping, screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear. The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America.

And this helps explain, perhaps, my relationship with Reverend Wright. As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children. Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect. He contains within him the contradictions – the good and the bad – of the community that he has served diligently for so many years.

I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother – a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.
These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love.

Some will see this as an attempt to justify or excuse comments that are simply inexcusable. I can assure you it is not. I suppose the politically safe thing would be to move on from this episode and just hope that it fades into the woodwork. We can dismiss Reverend Wright as a crank or a demagogue, just as some have dismissed Geraldine Ferraro, in the aftermath of her recent statements, as harboring some deep-seated racial bias.

But race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now. We would be making the same mistake that Reverend Wright made in his offending sermons about America – to simplify and stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts reality.
The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we’ve never really worked through – a part of our union that we have yet to perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American.

Understanding this reality requires a reminder of how we arrived at this point. As William Faulkner once wrote, “The past isn’t dead and buried. In fact, it isn’t even past.” We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country. But we do need to remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist in the African-American community today can be directly traced to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.

Segregated schools were, and are, inferior schools; we still haven’t fixed them, fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, and the inferior education they provided, then and now, helps explain the pervasive achievement gap between today’s black and white students.

Legalized discrimination - where blacks were prevented, often through violence, from owning property, or loans were not granted to African-American business owners, or black homeowners could not access FHA mortgages, or blacks were excluded from unions, or the police force, or fire departments – meant that black families could not amass any meaningful wealth to bequeath to future generations. That history helps explain the wealth and income gap between black and white, and the concentrated pockets of poverty that persists in so many of today’s urban and rural communities.

A lack of economic opportunity among black men, and the shame and frustration that came from not being able to provide for one’s family, contributed to the erosion of black families – a problem that welfare policies for many years may have worsened. And the lack of basic services in so many urban black neighborhoods – parks for kids to play in, police walking the beat, regular garbage pick-up and building code enforcement – all helped create a cycle of violence, blight and neglect that continue to haunt us.

This is the reality in which Reverend Wright and other African-Americans of his generation grew up. They came of age in the late fifties and early sixties, a time when segregation was still the law of the land and opportunity was systematically constricted. What’s remarkable is not how many failed in the face of discrimination, but rather how many men and women overcame the odds; how many were able to make a way out of no way for those like me who would come after them.

But for all those who scratched and clawed their way to get a piece of the American Dream, there were many who didn’t make it – those who were ultimately defeated, in one way or another, by discrimination. That legacy of defeat was passed on to future generations – those young men and increasingly young women who we see standing on street corners or languishing in our prisons, without hope or prospects for the future. Even for those blacks who did make it, questions of race, and racism, continue to define their worldview in fundamental ways. For the men and women of Reverend Wright’s generation, the memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away; nor has the anger and the bitterness of those years. That anger may not get expressed in public, in front of white co-workers or white friends. But it does find voice in the barbershop or around the kitchen table. At times, that anger is exploited by politicians, to gin up votes along racial lines, or to make up for a politician’s own failings.

And occasionally it finds voice in the church on Sunday morning, in the pulpit and in the pews. The fact that so many people are surprised to hear that anger in some of Reverend Wright’s sermons simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning. That anger is not always productive; indeed, all too often it distracts attention from solving real problems; it keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity in our condition, and prevents the African-American community from forging the alliances it needs to bring about real change. But the anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races.

In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don’t feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience – as far as they’re concerned, no one’s handed them anything, they’ve built it from scratch. They’ve worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pension dumped after a lifetime of labor. They are anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away; in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense. So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they’re told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time.

Like the anger within the black community, these resentments aren’t always expressed in polite company. But they have helped shape the political landscape for at least a generation. Anger over welfare and affirmative action helped forge the Reagan Coalition. Politicians routinely exploited fears of crime for their own electoral ends. Talk show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism.

Just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze – a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices, and short-term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many. And yet, to wish away the resentments of white Americans, to label them as misguided or even racist, without recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns – this too widens the racial divide, and blocks the path to understanding.

This is where we are right now. It’s a racial stalemate we’ve been stuck in for years. Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naïve as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy – particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own.

But I have asserted a firm conviction – a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people – that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that in fact we have no choice is we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union.
For the African-American community, that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past. It means continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of American life. But it also means binding our particular grievances – for better health care, and better schools, and better jobs - to the larger aspirations of all Americans -- the white woman struggling to break the glass ceiling, the white man who's been laid off, the immigrant trying to feed his family. And it means taking full responsibility for own lives – by demanding more from our fathers, and spending more time with our children, and reading to them, and teaching them that while they may face challenges and discrimination in their own lives, they must never succumb to despair or cynicism; they must always believe that they can write their own destiny.

Ironically, this quintessentially American – and yes, conservative – notion of self-help found frequent expression in Reverend Wright’s sermons. But what my former pastor too often failed to understand is that embarking on a program of self-help also requires a belief that society can change.

The profound mistake of Reverend Wright’s sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It’s that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country – a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old -- is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past. But what we know -- what we have seen – is that America can change. That is true genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope – the audacity to hope – for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.

In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination - and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past - are real and must be addressed. Not just with words, but with deeds – by investing in our schools and our communities; by enforcing our civil rights laws and ensuring fairness in our criminal justice system; by providing this generation with ladders of opportunity that were unavailable for previous generations. It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper.

In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world’s great religions demand – that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be our brother’s keeper, Scripture tells us. Let us be our sister’s keeper. Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well.

For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. We can tackle race only as spectacle – as we did in the OJ trial – or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina - or as fodder for the nightly news. We can play Reverend Wright’s sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words. We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she’s playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies.
We can do that.

But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we’ll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change.

That is one option. Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, “Not this time.” This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children. This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can’t learn; that those kids who don’t look like us are somebody else’s problem. The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy. Not this time.

This time we want to talk about how the lines in the Emergency Room are filled with whites and blacks and Hispanics who do not have health care; who don’t have the power on their own to overcome the special interests in Washington, but who can take them on if we do it together.
This time we want to talk about the shuttered mills that once provided a decent life for men and women of every race, and the homes for sale that once belonged to Americans from every religion, every region, every walk of life. This time we want to talk about the fact that the real problem is not that someone who doesn’t look like you might take your job; it’s that the corporation you work for will ship it overseas for nothing more than a profit.

This time we want to talk about the men and women of every color and creed who serve together, and fight together, and bleed together under the same proud flag. We want to talk about how to bring them home from a war that never should’ve been authorized and never should’ve been waged, and we want to talk about how we’ll show our patriotism by caring for them, and

their families, and giving them the benefits they have earned.

I would not be running for President if I didn’t believe with all my heart that this is what the vast majority of Americans want for this country. This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected. And today, whenever I find myself feeling doubtful or cynical about this possibility, what gives me the most hope is the next generation – the young people whose attitudes and beliefs and openness to change have already made history in this election.

There is one story in particularly that I’d like to leave you with today – a story I told when I had the great honor of speaking on Dr. King’s birthday at his home church, Ebenezer Baptist, in Atlanta.
There is a young, twenty-three year old white woman named Ashley Baia who organized for our campaign in Florence, South Carolina. She had been working to organize a mostly African-American community since the beginning of this campaign, and one day she was at a roundtable discussion where everyone went around telling their story and why they were there.

And Ashley said that when she was nine years old, her mother got cancer. And because she had to miss days of work, she was let go and lost her health care. They had to file for bankruptcy, and that’s when Ashley decided that she had to do something to help her mom.

She knew that food was one of their most expensive costs, and so Ashley convinced her mother that what she really liked and really wanted to eat more than anything else was mustard and relish sandwiches. Because that was the cheapest way to eat.

She did this for a year until her mom got better, and she told everyone at the roundtable that the reason she joined our campaign was so that she could help the millions of other children in the country who want and need to help their parents too.

Now Ashley might have made a different choice. Perhaps somebody told her along the way that the source of her mother’s problems were blacks who were on welfare and too lazy to work, or Hispanics who were coming into the country illegally. But she didn’t. She sought out allies in her fight against injustice.

Anyway, Ashley finishes her story and then goes around the room and asks everyone else why they’re supporting the campaign. They all have different stories and reasons. Many bring up a specific issue. And finally they come to this elderly black man who’s been sitting there quietly the entire time. And Ashley asks him why he’s there. And he does not bring up a specific issue. He does not say health care or the economy. He does not say education or the war. He does not say that he was there because of Barack Obama. He simply says to everyone in the room, “I am here because of Ashley.”

“I’m here because of Ashley.” By itself, that single moment of recognition between that young white girl and that old black man is not enough. It is not enough to give health care to the sick, or jobs to the jobless, or education to our children.

But it is where we start. It is where our union grows stronger. And as so many generations have come to realize over the course of the two-hundred and twenty one years since a band of patriots signed that document in Philadelphia, that is where the perfection begins.

Go watch the video and read the speech... now onto some of my favorite blog posts...

Books

2008-03-27T16:49:00.003-04:00

Books I want to read and want you to check out too...

Borrowed Time by: Paul Monette- just finished, it was great!

Rules for Radicals by: Saul Alinksy- I'm supposed to learn a lot from this one and write a thesis on it

Blink by: Malcolm Gladwell

Tipping Point by: Malcolm Gladwel

Divided America by: Earl and Merle Black- I've had this one for almost a year and have yet to read it!

Statecraft by: Dennis Ross- from Mrs. Niland last summer

Dreams from My Father by: Barack Obama- Can you believe I haven't read this one yet?

The Audacity of Hope by: Barack Obama- Yes, I have read this one, I just need to finish reading it through the second time. Want to know my ideas on politics- check out this book!

This is what I'll be doing (along with school work) for the next couple of weeks!

Lack of Posts

2008-03-27T16:47:00.001-04:00

Sorry about the lack of posts for this month. Things have been pretty intense between midterms before Spring Break, Spring Break, Easter, and now tons of reading.

Hopefully, some of these quick posts (to come after this one) will help hold you over until I have more time... possibly at the school year!

Hating on Hillary

2008-03-17T20:19:00.003-04:00

This is what she is doing to our party... out of her own self-interest. Not the type of person I want running this country and not the type of person I want to vote for.

"The only path to victory for Clinton is via coup by super delegate. She knows this. That's why there's all the talk about poaching pledged delegates and spinning uncertainty around Michigan and Florida, and laying the case for super delegates to discard the popular will and stage a coup.

Yet a coup by super delegate would sunder the party in civil war. Clinton knows this, it's her only path to victory, and she doesn't care. She is willing -- nay, eager to split the party apart in her mad pursuit of power."

- Markos Moulitsas, DailyKos

"The bigger the lie, the better the chance they think they've got. That's been their whole approach. She's going to lose a whole generation of people who got involved in politics believing it could be something different."

- Bill Bradley on the Clintons

Spring Break

2008-03-16T00:47:00.002-04:00

Back from Philly safe and sound.

It was a blast- the people were amazing; Steph's family was great for letting me stay at their house; the food, well we were campaigning, right?; the events were more than I could have asked for, the office was really cool, and the stuff we did was just what PA needed (especially SJU)!

I'm pretty tired though and I have lots of Time, Newsweek, and Public Policy Reading to do tomorrow night and Monday, as Spring Break is pretty much over now :(

Expect some procrastination updates, periodically.

2008 Election and Pokemon

2008-03-14T11:16:00.002-04:00

2008 Election and Pokemon combined?

Check it out...

Springterns in the WSJ

2008-03-14T07:24:00.001-04:00

Wanna know what Steph and I have been up to over break, check out Ellen's article in the WSJ today.

I Can't Stand This Anymore

2008-03-13T23:28:00.002-04:00

Hillary Clinton is a hypocritical liar who plays politics like a game and only does what is best for herself.

If you have any doubts about this, check out her NPR interview that aired this morning...

Got it? Ok!

I'm done with this. If Hillary Clinton gets the nomination, she's either going to have to do one heck of a job convincing me to vote for her and she can forget about getting any money, time, or energy from me as a volunteer.

Sadly, as I can already tell, if Hillary Clinton wins the nomination for the Dems, it's going to be another 8 long years with a Republican in the White House. I'm afraid and you better be too.

VOTE OBAMA '08! VOTE FOR CHANGE! VOTE FOR HOPE! VOTE FOR A BETTER TOMORROW! VOTE FOR A BETTER AMERICA!

YES WE CAN!

Spring Break

2008-03-06T16:03:00.002-05:00

For Spring Break - which starts for me tomorrow at 2 pm! - I will be heading down to Philly to intern with Obama for America.

I probably will not be posting day-to-day activities, but rather news and politics analysis.

My friend Steph, who I will be staying with and working with, has made plans to create a blog for the two of us to detail our experience (she will be writing it).

When I know what the link is, I will put it up and you can check that as well!

OBAMA '08!

More Andrew Praising

2008-03-06T16:00:00.001-05:00

I would offer up a lengthy analysis of Tuesdays results, the new numbers from both the Clinton and the Obama campaigns, and new strategies for both campaigns, but I simply do not have the time between studying for my philosophy midterm (which isn't being done right now) and getting ready to head home / to New Jersey for Spring Break tomorrow.

Check this post out from Andrew Sullivan- it highlights what I think the Obama campaign should be doing in the coming weeks.

If Obama gets me on policy, Andrew gets me on everything else!

OBAMA '08

This Is What I Love

2008-03-03T17:18:00.002-05:00

This is what I love about Andrew Sullivan...

"If she cannot be stopped, she can still be slowed. If you are in Ohio, Rhode Island, Vermont and Texas, you know what to do. This is what you call the fierce urgency of now."

Tomorrow, get out there and vote.

We have seen it before and we will see it again- Hillary Clinton does not go down without a fight (not matter how badly she's done).

OBAMA '08

Politics of Fear

2008-03-01T16:58:00.001-05:00

Now remind me again... which candidate is displaying Rove-ian tactics?

We Are the Ones.

2008-02-29T15:03:00.002-05:00

New OBAMA video from Will.I.Am.

Check it out:

All you in TX, OH, RI, and VT... Vote OBAMA '08 on Tuesday, March 4th!

Documentary: BU for Barack

2008-02-25T20:19:00.001-05:00

Check it out... Super Tuesday at BU!

Why I Dislike Hillary Clinton (the short version, with video!)

2008-02-25T16:58:00.003-05:00

I'll be the first one to say that I LOVE everything that Barack Obama stands for- unity, change, new politics, things getting done, etc.

I will also be the first one to say that if Hillary Clinton gets the nomination, I will vote for her over McCain.

However, my stance on that issue is now wavering.

To all those Hillary fans out there, I just have one question for you...

Is this the person you want to be elected president?

I fully support politicians going after those that wrongfully attack them. It's part of politics. It's how it's played.

I am not upset that Hillary is attacking Barack- the race it tight, I expect her to.

What upsets me with this clip is that Hillary is not attacking Barack on the issues of NAFTA and Healthcare, but rather ranting about his sending out negative (or I would say mailings that in fact counteract little tidbits the Clinton campaign was trying to cover up about Hillary's positions and Obama's positions on these issues) mailings.

In her speech, she decries what Obama is doing. However, it is plain knowledge that she herself does the same thing- actually to a worse extent, with mailings that are not even backed up with good facts. To me, it is unfair and just plain wrong to criticize you opponent when you are doing the same thing to. It's something called being hypocritical.

Now, as I said before, I would have voted for Hillary in November if she was the Democratic Nominee. What threw me over the edge was not the video above, but what she said at a rally in Rhode Island over the weekend.

In her speech, Hillary is not only mocking Barack Obama's rhetoric. But also his ideas. Who's to say that what Obama talks about cannot be achieve. Do I think that we will be out of Iraq, on peaceful terms with rogue nations, have universal healthcare, have green jobs, have a budget surplus and a strong economy, and have fixed the global warming problem at the end of Obama's first term (possibly) as President. No! Anyone who did would have to be completely delusional.

However, it is wrong for Hillary to scream that Barack's ideas are similar to the sky opening and celestial choirs coming down. Barack's main theme is that he will bring people together. This is something that can and has been achieved throughout his campaign and his years in office. He can do this, he has shown that he can do this, and Hillary is just being damn pessimistic about the whole thing.

Hillary is also mocking me and my fellow Barack Obama supporters. She is supposing that we have our heads in the clouds believing that change can be made in our world. If you look at the politics of our country, change has been made- Civil Right Era, coming out of the Great Depression, the Oregon Trail, the Civil War, and the Revolutionary War. Who's to say that change can't happen now? If I have something that I believe in, why should anyone try to diminish that hope?

This is the reason why I am doubting my support for Hillary should she beat Barack Obama in the primaries. I want a politician who can tell me, Amy a political science major who obviously has a lot to say about the policies and politics of our country, that change can happen in this world. So long to the politics of yesterday and the partisan divisions of the past. Hillary, by the plain fact that she essentially called me out for believe in what she deems Barack Obama's fairy tale has proven to me that she does not care about bringing this country together, she does not care about helping everyday Americans, she does not care what I have to say, all she cares about is getting elected and that is someone who I DO NOT want to be the next President of the United States.

We have been dealing with this type of politician for the past 8 years. Not again America. Not again.

Should Barack Obama not gain the Democratic nomination, I might vote for Hillary, but she has more convincing to do for me now than she ever did in the past.

Vote Obama '08!

1 Million Supporters

2008-02-24T10:47:00.003-05:00

The Obama campaign is looking to reach towards the 1 Million supporters mark for people who have contributed to the campaign.

That's 1,000,000 people, do the math

If 1,000,000 people contributed only $100...

1,000,000 X $100 = $100,000,000

WOW!

A Conversation between and Obama and a Clinton Supporter

2008-02-20T23:00:00.001-05:00

Dear Clinton Supporter,

I understand your position, I really do... I guess we just differ in how we believe our country needs to be run from here on out.

Don't get me wrong, Hillary is an amazing politician and a great woman. If Obama wasn't running and if our country wasn't in the state of disarray that it is now, I would vote for her. If she gets the nomination i will vote for her (unfortunately according to CNN and Time, I will be throwing away my vote, but I am a full-out democrat and will vote for the democratic candidate).

I just think that what our country needs now is someone who can bring this era of divisive politics to an end and create a cooperation between republican and democrats that will actually help get substantive policy passed.

For me, the candidate who has shown that s/he can do this effectively is Barack Obama. To me, experience isn't what should be at issue. If we were choosing our nominee based on who had the most experience, Bill Richardson would be the Democratic candidate and Dick Cheney would have ran for the Republicans. What should be at issue is judgement. Does the candidate have the judgement to do what is in the best interest of the country? Has the candidate shown his / her ability to use correct judgement on trying issues in the past?

That's just how I view things. I know, maybe it's just because I'm idealistic and truly believe that politics isn't really as bad as it sometimes seems. But really, things can change. And to me, things need to change now.

-Obama Supporter

--------

Dear Obama Supporter,

I have a major trust issue with Obama. I know this may be an emotional reaction but I don't think that I would feel safe with him as my commander and chief. His comments on Pakistan, when he discussed the importance of securing the nuclear weapons depots as our first priority suggested a profound lack of understanding on that issue (which I have been following for months now). I love his books and I love his speeches but I just don't think that he understands the complexity and the reality of the world in which we live.

I can also totally understand your desire for change. Trust me, after this disaster of an administration I'm ready for a progressive too. I just don't think however, that it is possible for one man to change the entire attitude of our national discourse. I fear that if he is nominated he will be crushed by the McCain and the Republicans as an inexperienced candidate who appears weak on national security issues. I know that Hillary can survive any sort of these attacks and that she can stand toe-to-toe against McCain on national security.

He is inspirational for having such lofty goals (changing the way work is done in Washington) but, to be quite frank, he doesn't have any concrete plans which differ from Clinton to achieve this end. I need someone who is results oriented, experienced, and knowledgeable. Clinton, in my judgment, beats Obama in all three.

- Clinton Supporter

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Dear Clinton Supporter,

A lot of people do have major trust issues with Obama- mostly based on his so-called lack of experience. I would love to figure out some sort of great way to refute your Pakistan thing, but as I am more interested in domestic policy and don't exactly have a ton of time on my hands right now, I sadly cannot (at this moment).

But I do have to say that I disagree with your point that Barack doesn't understand the complex world that we live in. No doubt he is 20 years younger than Hillary, he has had more foreign experience than her. He lived in Indonesia as a child, his father is Kenyan, he has visited Kenya on many occasions, and he is currently working with Kenya at resolving the ethnic conflict that has emerged in that region as a result of their December elections. Furthermore, it was Barack Obama, not Hillary Clinton, who first stood up against the Iraq war- in 2002 when everyone in the U.S. Senate was voting for it. Personally, many of his advisers thought that this was a bad idea, as he was considering a run for Senate in the 2004 election, but he did it anyway and publically gave a speech condemning the war.

Of course it is impossible for one man (or woman for that matter) to change the politics of our nation. However, Barack Obama has shown through his work on ethics reform in the Illinois Senate and in the U.S. Senate, along with this work on taping police interrogations in the Illinois Senate, that he has the ability to work against a system that says that a Freshman Senator cannot pass substantive ethics reform in the most corrupt state legislature in the United States, one dominated by a Republican majority no less. Yet he did do it. He didn't do it by himself, he got Democrats and Republicans to work together on this issue. To me, this is what our country needs now. Pundits and the average American have faulted the newly elected Democratic majority for not accomplishing their Iraq and healthcare goals that they ran on during the 2006 election. The reason they can't accomplish this is because Republicans and Democrats are unwilling to work together to come up with substantive compromises on these issues- mostly based on positions held by the Bush Administration.

Hillary Clinton would make a great President. However I worry about her ability to bring Republicans and Democrats together to work on meaningful solutions to the important issues that our country is faced with now. Polls and Hillary herself has shown that she is a divisive figure- you either love her or you hate her (or you're a crazy Democrat and will vote for her just because she is a fellow Dem). Hillary works within the system, continuing the divisive politics that our country has been plagued with since the Reagan era. Obama has shown that he will bring new people into the process, not only by increasing the amount of the electorate that votes, but by working with Democrats and Republicans on issues open before the American public. This is what is needed for America. Americans need a president that they can trust to work in their best interests and make compromises that are important to actually getting things done in federal government. Barack Obama can and has done this. One of my worries with Hillary Clinton is that she will not be able to do this, as shown in the past with her work in healthcare.

I am scared about a Hillary vs. McCain match up. The thought has crossed my mind many times during this nomination season that the accusations and lies told by the Clinton campaign, that maybe I would vote for McCain if there was a Clinton / McCain match up in November. I don't doubt that many of my fellow Democrats feel this way, as do the Independents and Republicans that voted for Obama in the primaries. To me, Obama is electable when put with McCain because he represents something entirely different than McCain's conservative platform- a progressive approach to politics based on change. If Hillary is the nominee, I have no doubt that all of the Independent voters will vote for McCain because of Hillary's sad stance that people either love her or hate her. Sadly, I also know that if Hillary is the nominee, while I will vote for her, I will not take an active role in her campaign at all. This is sad because I love campaigning and because Hillary's nomination would mean loosing Democratic supporters like myself who are disillusioned about the bickering way that the Clinton's run their politics.

Sorry about making this so long- feel free to double my length if not more. I love talking about this stuff. The Obama Campaign officially owns about 36 hours of my week with about 48 additional hours of my week dedicated to watching the news, reading the newspapers, and checking blogs- so basically- I am completely politics dominated 24/7 (and I love it!)!

- Obama Supporter

Clinton...

2008-02-20T20:27:00.002-05:00

Let me preface this by saying that I am extremely excited about the 10 for 10 that Obama has won in the contests following Super Tuesday. Now... off to Texas, Ohio, Rhode Island (where I will be this weekend canvassing), and Vermont for March 4th.

Something the networks did not show at the time, before Hillary went on to speak last night in her "concession, but not a concession" speech, Machinists union President Tom Buffenbarger did a little intro for her. Most of his speech as a tirade against Obama- worse than what Former President Clinton did in South Carolina with his "false hopes" speech.

The media, just now pick up this story is now playing Buffenbarger's remarks all over the airwaves.

Here's just a quote of what he said, "Give me a break! I've got new for the latte-drinking, Prius-driving, Birkenstock-wearning, trust fund babies crowding in to hear his speak! This guy won't last a round against the Republican attack machine. He's a poet, not a fighter."

Of course, I have many objections to this remark.

First- Why did the Clinton campaign let him talk like this? They saw how the public reacted in horror to Bill's speeches in South Carolina. And now this? It's worse!

Second- Supporters. Obviously Bufffenbarger means this as an attack on all of the supporters of Obama. As Wisconsin clearly showed, Obama supporters are men and women from all backgrounds, races, and socioeconomic platforms. So how does Buffenbarger's generalization work again?

Third- Me. Ok let's test Buffenbarger's theory number 1 about Obama's supporters. We'll us me as a test subject. Well, I don't drink lattes (I don't like hot drinks), but I do have my fair share of Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks iced coffees because sometimes I just need that extra caffine kick like every other American. I don't drive a Prius, but I do plan on eventually owning a hybrid, not because I'm rich (I certainly am not) but because I believe in doing my part to help save the environment- is this such a bad thing? I do wear Birkenstocks because I like the way the feel and the way that they last forever- such a good investment. And I certainly do not have a trust fund. So I fit in 1 out of the 4 categories. But the question I have for Buffenbarger is- does Clinton hate people who need caffine, people who want to save the environment, people who like to make smart investments, or people who save for their children? According to him, I guess she does. Wow, that's something I didn't know about her.

Forth- Republican attack machine vs. Obama. McCain's speech last night showed that it seemed like he would try to use the same attacks against Obama that Hillary's campaign has been using- but have obviously been failing. So much for attack machine.

Fifth- Republican attack machine vs. Clinton. She ran for Senate virtually uncontested and the Republicans "tried her" and made her "battle ready". Hmm ok? What about the fact that she stayed with Bill after he cheated on her repeatedly? What about her failed healthcare plans? What about Clinton scandals in the White House? Yeah, they've tested her enough already... sure. Just see how far that idea gets you in the general election.

Sixth- Fighting. Obama doesn't stand for partisan fighting- that's his whole message. Why do we need a fighter in government? Obama answers his attacks, but doesn't push back in an extremely harsh manner. Isn't it time to move on? Grow up Buffenbarger! Didn't your mom ever teach you the Golden Rule?

Sometimes I just HATE Hillary Clinton supporters and their stupid comments.

Oh No!

2008-02-17T22:15:00.002-05:00

The world is coming to an end... Andrew Sullivan is leaving for the week!

What am I to do?

Well at least we still have the carefully crafted pictures of The Page, AW, Ezra, and Sullivan's new guy, Patrick Appel isn't too bad...

Oh well, one day down, 6 to go!

No Videos!

2008-02-17T22:13:00.001-05:00

"No You Can't"

Colbert...

2008-02-16T23:51:00.001-05:00

I know this is late, but it is still just as funny!

Hillary and the Band

2008-02-16T22:55:00.001-05:00

Hillary's response video to "Yes We Can".

Remember, this video was paid for and created by the Clinton campaign. The "Yes We Can" video was created by supporters only.

Yes We Can

2008-02-16T22:46:00.002-05:00

It's time that I finally put this video up...

Media Problems

2008-02-16T22:26:00.002-05:00

As I continue to learn more about the political process- yes all those nitty-gritty details- the more I being to hate the news media.

Not only is the horse race of politics blown completely out of proportion, but the media fails to explain basic election laws.

Problem #1: Obama has no substance.

The media goes on and on (Hillary's campaign included) that Barack's policies have no substance. Take a look at the campaign website people! If you want to learn more about policies, there's lots of paper there to look at.

Problem #2: Delegate Count.

The news media (sans MSNBC) always includes in their delegate count unpledged superdelegates. This is a very bad system, as we have seen recently, because superdelegates can change their position.

Problem #3: Texas.

The media fails to fully explain Texas's complex popular vote / caucus system for the primaries. Texas's system is very detailed and very complex. However, it is necessary for the news media to make the listeners and readers understand the system before they start generalizing with polls and ideas about who could possibly take the state. Obama is great in caucuses- something that will help in the second part of the Texas primary. The way the caucuses are split (because of Tom Delay gerrymandering), plays up heavily black districts, down playing heavy Latino districts. Polls fail to take this into account at all

Problem #4: Superdelegates.

Superdelegates are tough. Some have already declared who they are supporting. Some have changed their stances. And yet some still have yet to decided. The fact the the news media always fails to present in their analysis of the "struggle for superdelegates" is that Superdelegates are elected officials. When worst comes to worst, of if the convention arrives without a Democratic frontrunner, the superdelegates will back the leader with the highest popular vote or the one that took their district. The Superdelegates are the first people in the National Democratic Party who do not want to see it torn apart at the convention.

Problem #5: Democratic Proportionality.

Based off of the popular vote, seated delegates are rewarded based on proportionality. Therefore, it does not quite matter if a candidate won a state, so much as how close the two candidates were in the polls in that state. Case in point- Nevada. Hillary won the popular vote, Obama got more delegates. More: New Hampshire and Missouri- they both tied for delegates even though Hillary won New Hampshire and Obama won Missouri.

Bottom line... the media would rather turn politics into a cat fight than report the truth in its entirety.

This is why I'd rather read some good blogs where people have actual knowledge of the system even if what they say is biased somewhat, at least it gets me away from the horse race of the news media.

"His to Lose" The Economist

2008-02-16T22:13:00.002-05:00

The second article from The Economist...

Objections:

The article states, "Mr. Obama's message of 'change' and 'hope' is becoming a little tiresome". Why might I ask, if Obama's "Change We Can Believe In" is getting old, is Hillary Clinton joining on the change bandwagon? Obviously, the country is not tired of hope and change, the country is embracing it.

Important points:

The article overall does a good job outline the Hillary Clinton campaign's downfall following Super Tuesday...

- Losing 8 out of 8 primaries / caucuses

- Obama taking Hillary's base of whites, women, Latinos, and people over 65

- Her failure to campaign adequately in any of these 8 states

- Her quick withdrawal from Wisconsin

- The changes in the structure of her campaign staff

- Giving $5 million to her own campaign

The most salient point was that all of the crises that have been hitting the Clinton campaign following Super Tuesday "undermines her claim to be a CEO-type figure who will be ready to run the country on day one". Obama on the other hand "has run a steadier campaign. He has consistently out-organized and out-planned his rival".

Finally, the most important point... "If Mr. Obama can prevent Mrs. Clinton from winning the triple [Ohio, Texas, and Pennsylvania], then no amout of arm-twisting of superdelegates will save her campaign". All Obama has left to do is take one of the three firewall states from Clinton. It is going to be tough, but this campaign has been fighting against the odds since it began. Change can happen. Change will happen.

"But Could He Deliver?" The Economist

2008-02-16T17:50:00.003-05:00

The Economist's new issues asks critical questions about the Barack Obama campaign and a Barack Obama presidency.

Here is my response to the article entitled "But Could He Deliver?"

First of all... as a grammar freak, I can't believe how many obvious grammar errors there are in this article

- For example, "Begin with the horse race. Mrs. Clinton is in a bad way- and deservedly so". What that doesn't even make any sense!

The article argues that Hillary "trumps Mr. Obama on the mastery of detail".

Mastery of detail? Maybe so in the debates- Hillary's long-winded talks bore everyone to sleep, a nice bed time story for those late night debates. But as for in general, Obama has the longest policy plans that I have seen of any candidate (the shortest being Rudy Giuliani). When talking to voters and the phone and explaining his policy plans, I often feel bogged down by all of the material. It's great for me no doubt- the new policy analysts on the scene, but for the regular voter? While yes, voters do want to hear about policies, most voters don't care for the depth that Hillary provides in her speeches (which leads to the boredom). Barack's way of going about policy- exciting the electorate while detailing main policy points, leaving the rest to be explained in much detail on the website is perfect for the average American voter.

The article further argues, "If one lesson from the wasted Bush years is that needless division is bad, another is that incompetence is perhaps even worse. A man who has never run any public body of any note is a risk, even if his campaign has been a model of discipline."

Yes, the Bush years have taught us that incompetence is bad. But Obama and incompetent are two words that do not go together. For a man who went to Columbia, Harvard Law, was a community organizer, a Civil Rights attorney, a professor of Constitutional Law, a state Senator, and a United States Senator, incompetence is not in Obama's dictionary.

Also, Hillary has never run any public body- unless you consider the office of the First Lady a public office. If you do consider her position as First Lady as a steppingstone to being a President, then let me just tell you that as a female (because obviously, gender is being brought into this question), I strongly object to electing a female president who has ridden into the office on her husband's coattails. Do it yourself! Make your own future!

Finally, to not give Barack credit for his nearly flawless campaign and amazing organization, while hinting that Hillary is more prepared because she was the First Lady is extremely contradictory. Are we looking at the same campaigns here? Hillary's- the campaign that she lended $5million, fired her two major staff, oh and failed to prepared for the primaries after February 5th? Hmm... I guess being First Lady doesn't always prepare you for running for President.

My last opposition... "But there is a sense in which he has hitherto had to jump over a lower bar than his main rivals have."

A lower bar? Hmm ok. I personally think that the fact that his name was literally unknown nationwide when he declared his candidacy last year and his biggest rival was (and still is) the former First Lady under an extremely popular Democratic President presents a somewhat high bar to jump over.

Ok so those are my major problems with this article. More to come

Barack's New Endorsements

2008-02-16T17:47:00.001-05:00

UFCW and SEIU have now endorsed Obama.

And who said that Obama could only carry the wealthy college-educated?!?

Never underestimate Barack Obama.

8 for 8

2008-02-16T17:34:00.002-05:00

Barack Obama has gone 8-for-8 in the primaries and caucuses following Super Tuesday.

First... Nebraska, Louisiana, Washington, and the Virgin Islands. Then Maine. And finally, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia.

Check out the campaign site for pledged delegate counts and wins.

The Hillary Clinton campaign has tried to diminish Obama's successes...

- "Those states don't count because they were caucuses"- Well, Louisiana, Virgin Islands, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia weren't.

- "He only wins among black voters"- Well Maine, Nebraska, and Washington are pretty white.

- And the best by far... "We didn't put any resources into the smaller states"- Big mistake my friends. The Hillary campaign overestimated their success for February 5th. When Obama was running ads in post-Feb. 5 states, Hillary was just working on Feb. 5th states. And now, Hillary is leaving Wisconsin a day before their primary on Tuesday to jet off to Texas and Ohio.

Now it is onto Hawaii and Wisconsin.

Then off to Texas, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

Get out and vote! Or help phone bank for the campaign.

Quick on Results (more to come later...)

2008-02-13T15:18:00.005-05:00

Barack Obama has gone 8-8 over the past 4 days of primaries since Super Tuesday.

Many of his wins have been decisive with 20-30 point leads over Hillary Clinton.

This, combined with Obama's money-making grassroots machine show that he's a candidate that needs to be reckoned with by the Clinton campaign.

Check out the fundraising goal of the Obama campaign (above), along with the total as of now.

I think the Obama campaign is going to have to increase their goal!

Now onto Wisconsin and Hawaii to finish out February. Then off to Ohio, Texas, Rhode Island, and Vermont on mini-Super Tuesday March 4th.

More to come later about breaking down the recent results, personal campaign experience, and the Clinton spin.

As of right now, I encourage you to make a donation to the Barack Obama campaign. Do something that you believe in. Make a difference in the 2008 Democratic Nomination process. Change America. Change Politics. Change the World.

OBAMA '08!

Dear Abby

2008-02-10T13:22:00.000-05:00

Dear Abby,

My husband is a liar and a cheat. He has cheated on me from the beginning, and, when I confront him, he denies everything. What's worse, everyone know that he cheats on me. It is so humiliating. Also, since he lost his job six years ago, he hasn't even looked fro a new one. All he does all day is smoke cigars, cruise around and hang with his buddies, while I have to work to pay the bills. Since our daughter went away to college he doesn't even pretend to like me, and even hints that I may be a lesbian.

What should I do?

Signed:

Clueless

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Clueless:

Grow up and dump him. Good grief woman! You don't need him anymore!

You're a Senator from New York running for PResident of the United States. Act like one!

Obama and CT

2008-02-07T20:41:00.001-05:00

Obama won West Hartford by a little over 1,000 votes!

My Dad credits Obama's win to him actually coming to Hartford and speaking in front of a crowd of 17,000 at the Civic Center, as compared to Hillary only spending time at Yale with her "pals".

Who knows, but just look at this fact, one this is obvious. This Democratic primary season has shown that EVERY state matters, not just the beginning 4.

Thanks Jordan and Dan for taking care of my state and my town, respectively.

Check out CT results by town.

Campaign Money

2008-02-07T00:17:00.001-05:00

Hillary and Bill Clinton loaned $5 million to their campaign...

Barack Obama raised $32 million in the month of January alone.

And as of right now... Barack Obama has raised $6,111,995 since last night

AMAZING!

The Obama campaign can expect another $25 donation from me later tomorrow. Hopefully, my parents will add a some more to that.

Please, donate to the Barack Obama campaign- we still have over 20 states left with primaries and we need all the help we can get.

Females Voting for Barack Obama

2008-02-07T00:07:00.000-05:00

Michelle Obama- check it out

This race does not need to be a decision between a white woman and a black man. This race is not a decision between a white woman and a black man.

If you have not voted in your state's primary, remember this as you head to the polls...

Choose a politician not based on his or her sex or race. Choose a politician that you believe in. Some one you believe can bring about the change that our country needs. Someone who can restore America's standing in the world and make the United States a better place to live.

If there is one thing that people can learn from the Democratic primaries and exit polling it is that college students get this. Votes should not be based on race or gender- but rather on policies.

I am voting for Barack Obama because I believe that he is the best candidate to bring about the CHANGE that our country needs right now. He can work with Democrats and Republicans to end this cycle of partisan government that we have been dealing with. He can make healthcare affordable to all. He can help push through legislation to help the middle class and the poor, college students and retirees. He can get us out of Iraq and his has the JUDGEMENT to know when to use troops and when to use diplomacy. Barack Obama can restore America's standing among the nations of the world and he can bring the American people together.

My vote for Barack Obama is not a disservice to my gender. I'm a political science major and I would love to see a woman president. However, for me, Hillary Clinton is not the candidate that I want to have as my president. To me, Barack Obama is a better candidate- not because he is a man and not because he is black, but rather because he has the best stances on the issues and he has the ability to get members of all parties to work together to bring about the CHANGE that America needs right now.

YES WE CAN! YES WE CAN!

I know I said I was going to bed but first...

2008-02-06T03:23:00.000-05:00

It is safe to say that I am hooked.

I'm hooked on the Obama train, willing to do anything in my power to get him elected.

I never thought that my love of that DNC speaker in 2004 would turn into the passion that I have for Barack Obama today and the passion that I have for the policies and the change and hope that he talks about.

Step 1: Hear DNC speech- Summer 2004

Step 2: Decide to take AP Government- Spring 2006

Step 3: Work with Joe Courtney for Congress- Fall 2006

Step 4: Stay up until 3am waiting for Midterm Election results- November 2006

Step 5: Apply to college as a Political Science major- November 2006

Step 6: Spend a week in Washington, learning the ropes and stalking politicians- March 2007

Step 7: Come to college and join BU for Barack- September 2007

Step 8: Canvass for Barack Obama in Manchester, NH- September 2007

Step 9: Do visibility for Barack Obama in Hanover, NH- September 2007

Step 10: Hear John Kerry speak about the 2008 Election- November 2007

Step 11: Apply for an Obama for America Winternship- November 2007

Step 12: Vote in my first ever election- November 2007

Step 13: See Barack Obama speak live for the first time- December 2007

Step 14: Intern for the Barack Obama campaign in Nashua, MA- January 2008

Step 14: Attend the 100 Club Dinner and see all Democratic candidates speak- January 2008

Step 15: Intern for the Barack Obama campaign in Boston, MA- January 2008

Step 16: Send in my first political donation- January 2008

Step 17: Send in my absentee ballot for the Democratic primary- January 2008

Step 18: See Barack Obama speak at a rally with John Kerry, Ted Kennedy, Caroline Kennedy, and Deval Patrick- February 2008

Step 19: Watch February 5th results role in- February 2008

Step 20: Stand up for CHANGE! Stand up for AMERICA! Stand up for HOPE!- Today

Future...

Step 21: Organize (with Steph) BU for Barack phone banks for upcoming primaries- This week

Step 22: Phone bank for Barack Obama- Next 3 months

Step 23: Spend my spring break volunteering for the Barack Obama campaign- March

This is my life now. Yeah, school is important. Yeah, my other extracurricular activities are important. But I want to change the face of American politics. It is time for a new generation to take over. I want my voice to be heard and I want the best man to be elected- BARACK OBAMA!

The intensity of the campaign that has ruled my life for over a month now is calming in the fact that I know that somehow I am making a difference. You can too- check out barackobama.com to find out ways to participate in phone banks and canvasses in you area.

It is time for America to enter into a new era to politics- I want to be a part of that, I want to change America.

VOTE OBAMA '08

(and don't tell my mom that I think that campaign for Obama is more important than my school work- or if you do, just tell her that even though Obama is #1 in my life right now, my work is still getting done and I am still striving to get very good grades)

Super Tuesday

2008-02-06T03:15:00.000-05:00

Super Duper Tuesday... it was long and it was hard, and it still is not over yet.

But after only 6 hours of sleep for 2 days, I'm heading off to sleep. I will save my full comments on the results (YAY CT!, YAY BOSTON!) until tomorrow- or rather later today- when I am more fully rested.

In the mean time, check out Barack Obama's speech tonight- it was great and further reiterated to me why I like Barack Obama and why I believe that America needs Barack Obama.

Also, check out my TF's blog post on tonight (not a full analysis, but a good outline of some major points I will make later today). Alex is an amazing teaching fellow, a great resource, one of the most informative politics-junkie, and one of the hardest workers (and by far one of the best phone-bankers) that I have ever met in my life. Alex's views on Barack Obama are the same as mine- something that I hope will work well for my grade in my Public Policy class. He is great- check out his post!

Edwards and Giuliani Drop Out

2008-01-31T15:43:00.000-05:00

Breaking (yesterday...)

John Edwards dropped out of the Presidential Race, leaving the Democratic Race a two-way battle between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

All of the recent polls still have Edwards in them, how will he impact the campaigns? Will he endorse anyone? A possible AG in the making for the next Democratic administration? Where will his delegates go?

All these questions are unanswered now a day after Edwards' announcement. I expect something BIG to happen after the Democratic Debate tonight- look for major news on Friday!

Now on the Republican side, Giuliani drops out. After a poor showing in Florida, the state that he had staked his campaign on for the past couple of months, Rudy 9/11 Giuliani has dropped out. Maybe his campaign should have thought this strategy through before betting it all on Florida. There is still a thing called the Big-Mo, something gained mostly from good showings in the early states.

Now Giuliani endorses McCain. Hmm.... well at least they both agree on national security issues. But if I were McCain, I wouldn't want a scum bag like Giuliani endorsing me, but that's just because I'm a Democrat who doesn't approve of Giuliani very much. But I guess to have the Republican who led in the polls for many many months in 2007 backing you isn't such a bad thing.

Now onto the bigger problem with Giuliani dropping out... how am I going to write my paper on why Rudy Giuliani should be our next president? Well people, we knew this one was going to be hard, but with 9/11 in our pocket's I'm sure that we can pull through and get that WR150 class to vote for Giuliani- even if he did drop out and the paper is due well after Super Tuesday!

CT Endorsements

2008-01-31T15:34:00.000-05:00

I'm proud to say that my House Rep. John Larson has decided to back Barack Obama along with Connecticut's 5th District Rep. Chris Murphy.

Check out the link here

Also, new polls in for Connecticut show that Hillary's extravagant lead over the past months has dwindled and now my own home state is a Feb. 5th battleground. I'm proud to say that the Obama campaign has some great people working for them in CT. Keep your heads up guys, I know we're all "Fired Up!" and "Ready to Go!".

Now as for MA, it looks like Barack is going to put up quite a fight here. Another battleground state! The organization here is great- everyone is extremely dedicated and nice. Please come to a GOTV training meeting TONIGHT 6:30-8:30 at Morse Auditorium on BU's campus. Governor Deval Patrick will be there.

Also, watch the DEBATE tonight on CNN- the last one before Super Tuesday. No time limits, just Hillary vs. Barack. This one is sure to be interesting.

OBAMA '08

Endorsements!!

2008-01-27T21:42:00.000-05:00

If you haven't checked out Caroline Kennedy's op-ed in the New York Times, please read it now.

I have often told others how I feel that Barack Obama is a mixture of two of my all-time favorite heros, JFK and Martin Luther King Jr.. It seems like JFK's own daughter feels the same way.

"Sometimes it takes a while to recognize that someone has a special ability to get us to believe in ourselves, to tie that belief to our highest ideals and imagine that together we can do great things. In those rare moments, when such a person comes along, we need to put aside our plans and reach for what we know is possible.

We have that kind of opportunity with Senator Obama. It isn't that the other candidates are not experienced or knowledgeable. But this year, that may not be enough. We need a change in the leadership of this country- just as we did in 1960."

My friends often make fun of me because of my "obsession" with Barack Obama. But really people, this is a man that can change our nation for the better. I strongly believe that he has the ability and the knowhow to fix many of the problems that have plagued our country for decades. Our time for change has come. Let us show the world that America is not a country that can be divided based on race, gender, ethnicity, or political party. Yes, America, we can!

Please Donate

2008-01-27T00:54:00.000-05:00

We've won Iowa and South Carolina.

Tied in Nevada.

Now onto Super Tuesday, February 5th...

22 States up for grabs.

Please help grow the movement and spread the message of HOPE.

DONATE TO BARACK OBAMA'S PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN!

Florida Democratic Primary?!?

2008-01-26T16:05:00.000-05:00

From the Obama Campaign: "If the Clinton campaign's southern strategy rests on the outcome in a state where they're the only ones competing, that should give Democrats deep pause."

Love It!

Fact Check Time

2008-01-25T01:38:00.000-05:00

If you thought that the Democratic debate on Monday was full of cat-fighting and name calling, you're not alone. But how much truth was in those attacks that the candidates were making against each other? These are the things I wish the average American voter would see on a regular basis.

Being a political science, history, and general politics freak, I spend most of my free time watching the news, reading blogs, listening to news podcasts (CNN Politics Daily is 15 minutes of pure amazing-ness!), and reading articles online. For these reasons, I often feel like I know more than the average voter about the "games" being played in the political arena as politicians try to distort each other's records in order to come off as the better candidate.

Every person whose door I walk up to and who I talk to one the phone is sure at one point or another to ask me a question about the recent "he said she said" on the campaign trail. This is why factcheck needs to come out into the news circuits and out to the average people. It is time for politicians to cut the crap and just say the truth. Oh well, I guess only in a perfect world..., but at least for know we have factcheck, the media, and bloggers to work out all of the inconsistencies and pure lies on the campaign trail.

Media Coverage

2008-01-25T01:15:00.000-05:00

In a perfect world, the media would report the full story, unbiased and true on every account.

In a perfect world, the media would focus less on polls and more on what the candidate are actually saying.

In a perfect world, the media would air stories about legislative achievements and the actual policies of all of the candidates.

After phonebanking for hours upon hours in both New Hampshire and Massachusetts, the question that I have gotten most has been about Barack Obama's experience in politics. I always try to answer this question to the best of my abilities using the knowledge that I have learned after working on the campaign, reading up on Barack Obama's life, and reading his books.

However, after receiving this question along with another person questioning why Obama won't just come out and state his policies instead of bickering with Hillary, it occurred to me that the average American voter has not read The Audacity of Hope, has not read through Obama's policies, and does not watch CNN 24/7. The average American voter does not know everything that Obama accomplished both as a state senator for eight years and a national senator for four years.

Here I will do my best to explain the major points in Obama's past legislative achievements that give me a huge clue as to how great and well-minded a president he could be.

1. Obama, as a state senator, worked on extensive campaign finance reforms- something that a freshman state senator never really wants to get his hands dirty in.

2. Again as a state senator, Obama passed a bill that made it mandatory to have videotapped interrogation thereby protecting possible criminals from harmful interrogation tactics used by police. Who would ever have the guts to take on the police of a state and gain support of both Democrats and Republicans to pass a bill that seemingly falls strongly on the Democratic side and less on the Republican.

3. As a Senator for Illinois, Obama worked on a bill that made bundling transparent. Again, I have always been told that legislator do not want to pass reasonable campaign finance reforms at it ends up hurting them in getting reelected or elected to a different office because campaign finance reforms limit the avenues to funnel money into a campaign.

Obama's work on these three issues is on a simple sampling of the major legislation that he was work on. These are usually the points that I explain to the people on the phone who ask me about his experience.

These programs have shown that Obama has an ability that is unique in the politics of our day- he can work with Democrats, Republicans, and Independents to pass meaningful legislation that makes all groups happy and actually accomplishes something.

To me, a great judge of character and experience, is not how much one has accomplished or how long one has been in a particular office, but rather how well one does his or her and how well one works with others.

Obama has shown that he can work with Democrats and Republicans, something that Hillary Clinton and the Republican contenders have yet to show. If only the media would cover this part of Obama's campaign then the American people could realize that Hillary's "experience" means nothing if she is not willing to work with both Democrats and Republicans in a bipartisan manner in order to get things accomplished.

The Democratic Nomination Process Heats Up

2008-01-25T00:50:00.000-05:00

Kornblut and Murray do an excellent job in explaining the campaign strategies for Democratic frontrunners Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

I will quickly sum up the article for you along with adding some of my own personal ideas.

First, Clinton...

Hillary, as we have seen, has moved away from South Carolina- leaving Bill and Chelsea there, as she herself heads off to the top February 5th states: California, New Jersey, New York.

Her plan is based on the idea that Barack Obama is going to win South Carolina and she needs to be prepared to gain the major delegates in the Super Tuesday states. This is an idea that Hillary and her strategists will try to deny given any chance by the media.

What must this look like to the people of South Carolina? Well I've talked to enough voters in New Hampshire and Massachusetts to know that voters want to meet the candidates, they want to hear them speak, and they want to attend campaign events in their area. By leaving South Carolina to the care of Bill and Chelsea, to me, Hillary is effectively saying that she does not have the time to waste on voters in a state that she believes is fully going to go into Barack Obama's hands come Saturday. Too bad, maybe she could have actually convinced some people to vote for her between now and then.

Of course the press's spin on this issue has been hilarious- a total villification of this whole entire campaign strategy of leaving South Carolina voters high and dry. This caused Hillary to return to South Carolina for a bit today- just making a little appearance, reminding voters that she still "cares about them". Let's hope that South Carolina voters are smarter than that!

Second, Obama...

Obama's strategy, as it has been from the beginning is to build grassroots support in the February 5th states along with South Carolina. Obama is currently spending all of his time in South Carolina, leaving the 22 February 5th states up to his strong network of campaign staff.

Obama's campaign certainly has the capital to mount a full-fledged attack on the February 5th states after South Carolina's primary on Saturday. I expect to see Obama flying back and forth between all of these states during the next week.

I fully believe that a strong showing in California is exactly what Obama will need in order to secure the nomination. As of right now, according to all of the polls (and we know how polls can be), Hillary has a wide lead in California. However, it is my firm belief that the people in California are some of the most progressive Democrats in the United States. These are the type of people that appeal to Obama's message of change and hope in politics and these are the type of people who will show up to the polls and vote on election day. The Obama campaign needs to make sure that their message reaches these people in order to get the best showing and the most delegates in this state.

That's what it comes down to my friends, delegates. If you had asked me a year ago how I thought the primary process was going to play out, I would have mentioned something that I heard all throughout my government courses- after New Hampshire, Iowa, and South Carolina, our nominee will be all but finalized, with the February 5th states mattering very little in the grand scheme of things. However, this time around, in the extremely close races both on the Democratic and Republican sides, nothing is decided and everything is still up in the air. Delegates are what matter in this primary season, no the big mo created in a 2-3 win in the big 3 primary states. It will all come down to the delegate count- done for the Democrats in a confusing proportional manner (if the whole superdelegate thing was not confusing enough!). The Obama campaign is focusing on winning as many delegates as possible to compete with Hillary's large superdelegate numbers and support in heavy delegate states such as New York and California. Hopefully, this strategy will work in favor of my candidate.

Finally, Edwards...

Oh Edwards. I expect Edwards to gain a strong vote from white voters in South Carolina that can identify with his son of the South attitude. However, after loosing in Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada, I do not really see Edwards going anywhere towards gaining the nomination.

I firmly believe that Edwards is only still in the race to not only frustrate Hillary and Obama, but also to use his small but growing delegates as a way to gain a top position in whatever Democratic nominee's campaign, preferably Vice President. Because the battle over the nomination may very well come down to who has the most delegates, Edwards can use his delegates as a bribing chip to gain access to the Vice Presidential ticket. This event would not surprise me if Edwards does somewhat well in South Carolina.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see how this one plays out!

Experience

2008-01-20T14:26:00.000-05:00

Often while talking to my friends- the ones who are actually voting, most of them question me on my strong support of Barack Obama.

"Amy", they say, "How can you support Barack Obama? I mean I know he has good positions and his 'Change We Can Believe In' is great, but I don't think he has enough experience to be President".

Hillary Clinton vs. Barack Obama. The fight is on about what she claims is his lack of experience. Well, if you are still undecided as Super Tuesday approaches, take a look at this Op-Ed from Nicholas Kristof.

Maybe, in this campaign and in future elections, experience is not what the American people should be looking at while deciding who is qualified to be the next President.

But then again, maybe it is, and as Kristof puts it, Dick Cheney should just be our next President...