Senator Obama on Fox News Sunday (April 27 2008)

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

[dalegg 143]

Try as I might, I just cannot dislike this guy.

[Peikko 1,575]

Try as I might, I can't warm to the guy. Whether he would make a good president remains to be seen.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

I thought he handled this appearance on FNS very well. Yes, I do watch FNS every Sunday morning.

[metta 0]

Try as I might, I can't warm to the guy. Whether he would make a good president remains to be seen.

That's because you've got a strong sense of intuition..

Indiana: Former Obama Supporter Stumps for Hillary

By Jeralyn,

Posted on Sat Apr 26, 2008 at 12:23:25 PM EST

Alice Palmer is campaigning for Hillary Clinton today in Indiana:

Joining Chelsea Clinton and other women leaders to campaign for Hillary Clinton today is Alice Palmer, the former state senator who picked Obama to be her successor back in the mid-90s. When she tried to reclaim her spot, though, Obama got her booted from the ballot.

Why? because....here's the story

Making of A Candidate

The day after New Year's 1996, operatives for Barack Obama filed into a barren hearing room of the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners.

There they began the tedious process of challenging hundreds of signatures on the nominating petitions of state Sen. Alice Palmer, the longtime progressive activist from the city's South Side. And they kept challenging petitions until every one of Obama's four Democratic primary rivals was forced off the ballot.

Fresh from his work as a civil rights lawyer and head of a voter registration project that expanded access to the ballot box, Obama launched his first campaign for the Illinois Senate saying he wanted to empower disenfranchised citizens.

But in that initial bid for political office, Obama quickly mastered the bare-knuckle arts of Chicago electoral politics. His overwhelming legal onslaught signaled his impatience to gain office, even if that meant elbowing aside an elder stateswoman like Palmer.

A close examination of Obama's first campaign clouds the image he has cultivated throughout his political career: The man now running for president on a message of giving a voice to the voiceless first entered public office not by leveling the playing field, but by clearing it.

One of the candidates he eliminated, long-shot contender Gha-is Askia, now says that Obama's petition challenges belied his image as a champion of the little guy and crusader for voter rights.

"Why say you're for a new tomorrow, then do old-style Chicago politics to remove legitimate candidates?" Askia said. "He talks about honor and democracy, but what honor is there in getting rid of every other candidate so you can run scot-free? Why not let the people decide?"

In a recent interview, Obama granted that "there's a legitimate argument to be made that you shouldn't create barriers to people getting on the ballot."

But the unsparing legal tactics were justified, he said, by obvious flaws in his opponents' signature sheets. "To my mind, we were just abiding by the rules that had been set up," Obama recalled.

"I gave some thought to … should people be on the ballot even if they didn't meet the requirements," he said. "My conclusion was that if you couldn't run a successful petition drive, then that raised questions in terms of how effective a representative you were going to be."

Asked whether the district's primary voters were well-served by having only one candidate, Obama smiled and said: "I think they ended up with a very good state senator."

<h2 class="subhead">Obama behind challenges</h2> America has been defined in part by civil rights and good government battles fought out in Chicago's 13th District, which in 1996 spanned Hyde Park mansions, South Shore bungalows and poverty-bitten precincts of Englewood.

It was in this part of the city that an eager reform Democrat by the name of Abner Mikva first entered elected office in the 1950s. And here a young, brash minister named Jesse Jackson ran Operation Breadbasket, leading marchers who sought to pressure grocery chains to hire minorities.

Palmer served the district in the Illinois Senate for much of the 1990s. Decades earlier, she was working as a community organizer in the area when Obama was growing up in Hawaii and Indonesia. She risked her safe seat to run for Congress and touted Obama as a suitable successor, according to news accounts and interviews.

But when Palmer got clobbered in that November 1995 special congressional race, her supporters asked Obama to fold his campaign so she could easily retain her state Senate seat.

Obama not only refused to step aside, he filed challenges that nullified Palmer's hastily gathered nominating petitions, forcing her to withdraw.

"I liked Alice Palmer a lot. I thought she was a good public servant," Obama said. "It was very awkward. That part of it I wish had played out entirely differently."

His choice divided veteran Chicago political activists.

"There was friction about the decision he made," said City Colleges of Chicago professor emeritus Timuel Black, who tried to negotiate with Obama on Palmer's behalf. "There were deep disagreements."

Had Palmer survived the petition challenge, Obama would have faced the daunting task of taking on an incumbent senator. Palmer's elimination marked the first of several fortuitous political moments in Obama's electoral success: He won the 2004 primary and general elections for U.S. Senate after tough challengers imploded when their messy divorce files were unsealed.

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[kaydee457 13]

I was particularly in tune to what Obama considers "rich".......Over 70K, or was it 75K......Anyway, I'm in the six figures range and I don't feel rich!

This guy's never going to the WH. The "silent majority" will opt for the safety of McCain. Thank god for that....

I worry more about what you peeps that have invested so much in Obama, emotionally. Geez, you aren't going to behave like you did the last time when Bush won a second term, are you? If so, I'm on hiatus for a while!

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Try as I might, I can't warm to the guy. Whether he would make a good president remains to be seen.

That's because you've got a strong sense of intuition..

Indiana: Former Obama Supporter Stumps for Hillary

By Jeralyn,

Posted on Sat Apr 26, 2008 at 12:23:25 PM EST

Alice Palmer is campaigning for Hillary Clinton today in Indiana:

Joining Chelsea Clinton and other women leaders to campaign for Hillary Clinton today is Alice Palmer, the former state senator who picked Obama to be her successor back in the mid-90s. When she tried to reclaim her spot, though, Obama got her booted from the ballot.

Yeah, unlike the scores of former Clinton allies that now support Obama. I think Obama enjoys a rather large net gain on that end. I'd say that rather than a lot of people being wrong and a few being right, perhaps it's the few that got it wrong.

Edited April 28, 2008 by Mr. Big Dog

[rebeccajo 14]

I was particularly in tune to what Obama considers "rich".......Over 70K, or was it 75K......Anyway, I'm in the six figures range and I don't feel rich!

There's a whole lot of America who think over 70K would be fabulous......

[kaydee457 13]

I was particularly in tune to what Obama considers "rich".......Over 70K, or was it 75K......Anyway, I'm in the six figures range and I don't feel rich!

There's a whole lot of America who think over 70K would be fabulous......

Yep. but that's the root of Marxism.....I worked my entire life to earn a good living and the democrats want to give away what I earn to those that haven't worked as hard as I.......

The classic battle of the classes. What's next, the "new Deal"? Oh, that's right, Hillary's already dragged out that tired old doctrine....public works jobs to encourage the uneducated and unproductive to work on government funded infrastructure projects. That'll help us compete globally. Put the ditch diggers to work! In either case, Obama or Clinton it'll be deja vu....

[Dan J 277]

I was particularly in tune to what Obama considers "rich".......Over 70K, or was it 75K......Anyway, I'm in the six figures range and I don't feel rich!

There's a whole lot of America who think over 70K would be fabulous......

Yep. but that's the root of Marxism.....I worked my entire life to earn a good living and the democrats want to give away what I earn to those that haven't worked as hard as I.......

The classic battle of the classes. What's next, the "new Deal"? Oh, that's right, Hillary's already dragged out that tired old doctrine....public works jobs to encourage the uneducated and unproductive to work on government funded infrastructure projects. That'll help us compete globally. Put the ditch diggers to work! In either case, Obama or Clinton it'll be deja vu....

Cause people working 2-3 jobs and 60 hours a week are not working hard enough.

[dalegg 143]

I was particularly in tune to what Obama considers "rich".......Over 70K, or was it 75K......Anyway, I'm in the six figures range and I don't feel rich!

There's a whole lot of America who think over 70K would be fabulous......

Yep. but that's the root of Marxism.....I worked my entire life to earn a good living and the democrats want to give away what I earn to those that haven't worked as hard as I.......

The classic battle of the classes. What's next, the "new Deal"? Oh, that's right, Hillary's already dragged out that tired old doctrine....public works jobs to encourage the uneducated and unproductive to work on government funded infrastructure projects. That'll help us compete globally. Put the ditch diggers to work! In either case, Obama or Clinton it'll be deja vu....

Cause people working 2-3 jobs and 60 hours a week are not working hard enough.

A lot of people do that here in California just to get to that $75K, and believe me these people don't feel rich or upper middle class at all. You're still having a tough time renting a house at that. It's going to be a sting to see tax cuts passing you by when you're working 60 hours a week.

[kaydee457 13]

Get an education and you'll make six figures..... Three jobs? How many classes did they cut in JHS?

That's the root of the problem here, and the crux of the class battle. Teamster Unions have espoused this flawed and skewed argument supposedly to close the gap between those that achieve and those that don't, for years.......

In this distorted and anti-capitalistic view those that are "workers" should earn the same as those that are "professionals"....

Inherently flawed in a capitalistic society.

Enter Barack, and Hillary- Let’s tax the achievers to subsidize the deadbeats.

Pay for their Health Care, and probably their retirement too.......

Marxism, unabashed, and reborn.

Just read Hillary's thesis!

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

In either case, Obama or Clinton it'll be deja vu....

Deja vu of the 90's where most Americans shared in the prosperity and productivity gains? Where the median income rose 11% rather than decreased 1% as it did under Bush? Cool. Sign me up for that deja vu. We all need it.

[Carolyn 1]

Um...get an education and earn 6 figures? Pray tell where I, a public school teacher with a Master's Degree, can get one of those jobs!

Sure, I could switch occupations and earn more money, but I believe strongly in what I do. Not that I would mind getting compensated more for it!

[kaydee457 13]

In either case, Obama or Clinton it'll be deja vu....

Deja vu of the 90's where most Americans shared in the prosperity and productivity gains? Where the median income rose 11% rather than decreased 1% as it did under Bush? Cool. Sign me up for that deja vu. We all need it.

It's never a fair comparison to juxtapose the 90"s to the 00's....There was no war in the 90's (not that we weren't attacked time and again) and Clinton nearly ran the U.S. Military into the ground by under funding the U.S. Military under the guise of what he repeatedly said was "the Peace Dividend".

Of course most everyone in the world snickers to this day that while America was at "Peace", the rest of the world was at war.....

Clinton time again ignored direct attacks against this country and nary a response.

So, here we are paying for eight years of Clinton's ineptitude that unfortunately are manifest in the situation of 9/11 that Bush inherited.

The details of Clinton's ineptitude can be read in documents at the National Archive...er, oh, wait aminut...I forgot, a Clinton robot Sandy Berger stuffed all those documents in his socks and destroyed them!