Obama '08?

nimh wrote:

Rather her than me. I understand Republican children taste quite nasty, and the meat is too tough.

spoiled rotten, that's what

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spendius wrote:

Did he do a routine where people who jump on planes at the drop of a hat are very concerned about the effect of their activities on the future prospects of their children and grandchildren?

Anybody with even a gamma minus in geniusing would have done that.

Spendius; this one I did with you in mind. A truly pointless reason to burn some fossil fuel. Click Here!

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Official note: "creatures", refered to in my last post, might have been construed to included spendius. He's clearly a creature, but not a "creature".

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Bill-

Obviously you have not come across Masochism and Modern Man by Theodor Reik.

I knew a young lady once, quite well actually considering, who did that.
She has been restricted to what one might call "half missionary" ever since and that only after two operations. She raised £100 for some new office equipment in a charity office after pestering everybody in the pub with a sponsor form. Needless to say her economic function, not much to begin with admittedly, has since been restricted to receiving welfare.

Whatever amount of fossil fuels was involved, and there were 12 other ladies, one was a grannie, on her trip for Greenpeace, it pales into insignificance beside the subsequent costs.

Still, it takes all sorts. I put it down to ennui which seems unavoidable given the state of the educational system.

Have you seen those native lads from Borneo diving off a cliff with platted tree bark tied to their ankles to pull them up with their noses an inch short of the ground 200 ft down.

It's miles more dangerous being a truck driver according to the statistics.

What did it cost? I'm very wary about costs. I discovered that people who are not so wary have to be tranquiised before too long.

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One thing's sure - Obama didn't travel to Africa with a view to ingratiating himself and pleasing everyone. I like that. He's staked out some risky positions - this time by blasting corruption, malfunctioning government and ethnic division while in Kenya, with the powers-that-be there undoubtedly gritting their teeth. But doing it smartly, with a touch of self-relativation.

In comparison with traditional Western politicking re Africa thats all focused on the powers that be, no matter what their character, I like this appeal to ordinary people. This message that its they who have the power and responsibility to change things. A message that befits a Democratic politician, too.

Quote:

Obama urges Kenyans to oppose corruption

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I am very much afraid that Mr. Nimh has skipped over some critical points with regard to Obama's visit to Africa.

Note- Chicago Tribune- August23, 2006- P. 14

CONGO'S UNREST BLOCKS OBAMA VISIT

quote

"For weeks, Obama had been planning to visit the Congo. He had hoped to promote his firsst stand alone Senate bill that was designed to provide $52 Million in assistance to Congo, a 25 percent increase from previous years"

end of quote

but

By Sarah Karp

From its principals to its chief financial officer, many agree that Chicago Public Schools are underfunded. As a result, the need to keep class sizes small competes with the teachers' pension fund, sports programs, special education and other costs.

Officially, the school system has about $9,700 per student but, excluding all the mandated costs, such as special education and transportation, it has about $6,500 to spend on each regular education pupil, said Pedro Martinez, chief financial officer for the Chicago Public Schools. He points to charts showing that $6,500 is much less than the amount other big city school districts, such as New York City, Los Angeles and Boston, receive, not to mention wealthy suburban ones just miles from Chicago's border. "I see the pressures on the schools and I see the big picture," said Martinez, who oversees the budgets of 486 elementary schools and 107 high schools.

The central office provides each school with teachers and staff based on a complicated formula that takes into account the number of children in each grade and the size of the school. For example, for third-grade classes, the central office provides a teacher for every 28 children. But some schools have even larger class sizes.

***********************************************************

Since Obama is an opportunistic publicity hound who cares little for the Children in the schools in the major city in the state he is supposed to be representing, those students will wither and die educationally while Obama gets his mug on TV dancing with the other savages in the Congo!!

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And this is too good not to be replicated since it nails OBAMA right to the wall!

CHICAGO SUN-TIMES

Neil Steinberg-Syndicated Columnist-Aug. 25, 2006

When does Barack Obama go home to Kansas? Because that's an odyssey I'd like to see.

Sure, it's very dramatic and spiritual to return to the Kenyan village of his father. But what about the heartland town of his mother? Why is that not on the calendar? Doesn't that half count? Maybe being white isn't cool.

I know I'm on perilous ground here. Black people prefer to be the sole arbiters of all things racial. But they aren't making choices in a vacuum. Obama says he is black because society says he's black, it's true. But he also has free choice. The standard view doesn't have to be automatically embraced. There is the Tiger Woods way: rejection of hackneyed racial attitudes, a demand to be viewed as an individual and not in terms of competing racial stereotypes.

Compared with that, Obama's way -- I'm sorry -- seems to smack of hateful, repudiated notions of race: of black blood trumping white, and a person being black if a parent or grandparent or even great-grandparent was black.

I thought we were past all that, past mulattoes and octoroons and tainted blood.

I hate to rain on Obama's triumphant homecoming. But I have to point out, he wouldn't be doing it if it weren't politically beneficial, and since race is so often cast one way only -- as a handicap in a deeply racist society -- by those who benefit from such a view, we have to remind ourselves that Obama underscores one side of his upbringing over the other for a reason. He sure ain't schlepping through Kansas with the press in tow. Maybe next year.

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nimh wrote:

One thing's sure - Obama didn't travel to Africa with a view to ingratiating himself and pleasing everyone. I like that. He's staked out some risky positions - this time by blasting corruption, malfunctioning government and ethnic division while in Kenya, with the powers-that-be there undoubtedly gritting their teeth. But doing it smartly, with a touch of self-relativation.

I don't see the risk that any of this posed to Obama's own political future. But I, too, like what he said, how he said it, and to whom he said it. He sure has style, tact, and candor.

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I, however, Mr.Thomas, am certain that if Obama had not run against another African-American, Mr. Keyes, a carpetbagger, who only several months before the election, lived in Maryland, he would have been crushed by the Senator Fitzgerald, had he not chosen to retire.

I am currently searching for articles from Chicago newspapers which compred the two candidates( Fitzgerald and Obama) before the election.

Obama, of course, would have received 97% of the African-American vote. Any African-American receives a massive portion of the Black vote. The very fact that the notorious Bobby Rush, ONE OF THE FOUNDERS OF THE BLACK PANTHERS, has been elected and re-elected again and again, shows that the only real requirement a candidate needs in the African-American community is that he be Black!!

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Thomas wrote:

I don't see the risk that any of this posed to Obama's own political future.

Depends on whether he gets to be President or not ;-)

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nimh wrote:

Thomas wrote:
I don't see the risk that any of this posed to Obama's own political future.

Depends on whether he gets to be President or not ;-)

He won't. As he said a gazillion times, he won't even run -- remember?

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Have any polls been posted lately?

http://www.pollingreport.com/WH08dem.htm

The latest poll reported, which is dated August 9-13, 2006, does not even list Barack Obama at all, so he must be buried somewhere in the Other, None, or Unsure categories which are listed at 1%, 4%, and 1% respectively for Democrat voters. The beloved carpetbagger of cattle futures fame, Hillary Clinton, gets the nod from 40% of Democrat voters. What a great party! Most of the polls listed do not give Obama as a choice. You have to go back to a December, 2005 poll where Obama is listed and he gets 7%, or to a November, 2004 poll where he is listed and gets 3%, along with another November, 2004 poll where he is listed and gets 2%. I think I found them all where he is listed.

One of the fascinating things about the polls is the fact that the pollsters do not generally give Obama to the potential voter as a possible choice for them. At least that is my impression anyway, as the question to the potential voter does not usually give Obama as one of the names to choose from. This tells me that the pollsters do not take Obama seriously as a serious contender at all.

I do not think there is any push from within the Democratic Party power structure to promote Obama. I have posted on this thread from the very beginning that the Howard Deans, the Hillary Clintons, and their friends are not going to bring Obama along as a contender. Perhaps he hasn't figured out his own party yet? At some point in the future, they may use him as a VP to further their own chances, but no way are they going to cede the party's flag to Obama. And as Thomas says, he likely is not running anway.

And when you have white guys to be black presidents, as Bill Clinton was claimed to be, you don't need black guys to run in order to have a black president. If Hillary manages to win by hook or crook, she could very well be called the first black woman president.

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okie wrote:

The latest poll reported, which is dated August 9-13, 2006, does not even list Barack Obama at all, so he must be buried somewhere in the Other, None, or Unsure categories which are listed at 1%, 4%, and 1% respectively for Democrat voters.

True -- but I guess that's about where Bill Clinton was in August 1990. It's over two years before the election; Obama is a newcomer; he has announced he isn't running. Why should pollsters ask about him?

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Quote:

And when you have white guys to be black presidents, as Bill Clinton was claimed to be,

Just as a detail in our quest for truthiness... do you actually have to hand an instance of Clinton making this claim?

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blatham wrote:

Quote:
And when you have white guys to be black presidents, as Bill Clinton was claimed to be,

Just as a detail in our quest for truthiness... do you actually have to hand an instance of Clinton making this claim?

Toni Morrison made that claim in the New Yorker. Following is info. on Toni Morrison and the article.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toni_Morrison

http://ontology.buffalo.edu/smith/clinton/morrison.html

After this was written, Parados, I think others bought into it as well, although Republicans liked to poke fun at it, and really the idea is pretty juvenile.

To set the record straight, I never said Clinton claimed it, but that it was claimed for Clinton. Clinton in private probably thought it was hilarious.

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okie wrote:

One of the fascinating things about the polls is the fact that the pollsters do not generally give Obama to the potential voter as a possible choice for them. [..] This tells me that the pollsters do not take Obama seriously as a serious contender at all.

Or it could be that, with the odd ueber-prominent exception (Hillary and Gore), they dont include names of politicians who have said they wont run and have not started any direct preparations for a possible run.

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Oh - the results of the TNR straw poll on the possible candidate-ship of John Kerry are in...

Quote:

THE TNR STRAW POLL
Response Roundup: John Kerry

This week, TNR Online committed the web-forum equivalent of approaching a pen of hungry rottweilers and tossing in a bunny. That is, we asked our readers whether John F. Kerry (better known by right-wing detractors as John François Kerry) might have a shot at the White House in 2008. A mist of bones and fur briefly filled the air.

Let's just say that Kerry's not the first choice of most TNR readers. "HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!" writes arsonplus. "By which I mean to say, no, HELL NO! I'm not even sure [Kerry] should be allowed on 'Meet the Press.'" He's not alone in such feelings. To put it differently, of 180 responses, only 12 showed evidence of nonrevulsion at the thought of a second Kerry run. (As always, comments have been edited for clarity, punctuation, and spelling.)

So let's start with those Kerry enthusiasts, since they surely don't follow the crowd. Reader williamyard is one such maverick. "With a bold, creative VP choice, Kerry could shed his lingering image of cluelessness from '04 and hence tickle the electorate's fancy," williamyard suggests. "The possibilities are myriad. John Kerry and Al Roker. John Kerry and Eminem. John Kerry and Charo. No, wait ... I've got it: John Kerry and the Phillie Phanatic." And mark ronolson down for yes: "There is something seriously wrong with John Kerry, as demonstrated by his inability to move on with his life ... A Kerry campaign would provide a fascinating look into a disturbed psyche." And here's another fan: "Yes! Kerry, yes! In 2008. And in 2012," says ChanRobt. "For the '08 Democratic nomination, the overwhelming choice of Republicans."

Yes, those are endorsements. So let's move on to the condemnations. "Why not just nominate a lump of coal?" asks qubano. "At least you can expect some warmth when things get fired up!" Replicant has a request to anyone standing near Kerry: "The first time was bad enough; never again. Would somebody please beat Kerry with the Clue-by-four until he realizes that, too?" Christopher Ha, by contrast, has some direct advice for Kerry himself: "He should stay home in the Senate where he can blow hard in the relative solitude of the normally near-empty Senate chamber." But that would perhaps exacerbate the problem, according to sfjamiesf: "[Kerry] diminishes the credibility of any issue he espouses by the very nature of his soulless droning. Kerry is as insincere as he is self-absorbed. He is the very essence of what every decent-minded American hates about politicians." Most concise on Kerry-sentiment is teplukhin: "ABK"

Must we go on with this? Oh, but mean is fun! A few more comments:

Kerry could well be the only choice the Democrats could make that would be worse than Hillary. (jgshapiro) The very thought of the possiblity of another Kerry run makes my stomach hurt. No, please, no. (rlpeterson) He was viscerally repellent to me. I can't even go into it. (psantillana) Either of my basset hounds has a better chance of winning popular support in the general election. (Walzerboy) Are you joking? Is Dukakis still alive? (Robert Powell) I think we may have better luck with a transvestite used car salesman. (swamiswamu)
And so on.

In truth, a handful of the ten-odd Kerry supporters did have something nice to say. So let's go to the tape. "I eagerly waited about 30 years for Kerry to run and be nominated the first time, and was bitterly disappointed when he lost by such a slim margin," recounts a very patient allante. "I'm looking forward to giving Mr. Kerry my 100 percent support for a second, charmed, try." And, when MBSullivan writes, "I'm wondering if 'allante' is John Kerry's TNR Online login name," allante responds, "Nope. I'm a person from Missouri who has been a big John Kerry fan and supporter ever since his 'Winter Soldier' days, and I continue to support and admire him, as well as wish him the best in his presidential bid." If TNR readers are any guide, he's going to need it.

And MrCookie1--while not quite as taken with Kerry as allante is--still thinks we just need to open our eyes: "John Kerry has been very clear recently in his criticisms of Iraq and the Bush Administration. If you are open to hearing him, you will. If you want to continue perpetuating the Martin Peretz/TNR/Swift Boat caricature of Kerry, then you won't." [..]

But that's pretty much it for support. Kerry may be a good man, but our readers have given him bad reviews. In fact, in terms of popularity, Kerry makes Bush look like FDR. He makes Hillary Clinton look like Tom Hanks. He's a man of whom the French might use the word radioactive. Poor fellow. Let's leave it to Christopher Ha to sum up the general forum sentiment: "John Kerry appears to be delusional if he's not tuning in the vibe which is set against him this time around." With a vibe like that, I might stick to delusion myself.

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nimh wrote:

okie wrote:
One of the fascinating things about the polls is the fact that the pollsters do not generally give Obama to the potential voter as a possible choice for them. [..] This tells me that the pollsters do not take Obama seriously as a serious contender at all.

Or it could be that, with the odd ueber-prominent exception (Hillary and Gore), they dont include names of politicians who have said they wont run and have not started any direct preparations for a possible run.

Have Hillary Clinton and Al Gore said they won't run? I'm not sure.

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Gore has stated it several times.

Cycloptichorn

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So nimh, what about that? If the pollsters want somebody to run, they might list them whether that somebody says they are running or not.

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