The Issue of Scope

Last Thursday’s democratic debate on MSNBC was something of a draw. It was not harmful, nor was it helpful; it was not unproductive per se, but neither was it truly constructive. And while I laughed or nodded at various points throughout the 90-minute Q& A, it was always in a manner that was equally predictable and [...]

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More About Climate Change

With Earth Day recently behind the 2008 campaigners, the heat is on with regard to their respective positions on climate change.  Brad Knickerbocker of the Christian Science Monitor recently summarized some of the candidates and their respective positions in his article, “‘08 hopefuls tout climate-change plans.”  Some of the highlights of the article are below:
*John McCain:  Recently delivered [...]

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Hate-speak II: The Ugly American

You can always tell an Ugly American.
But you can’t tell him much. He’s too busy spewing invective to hear you. He’s vulgar, he’s violent and he’s intellectually stunted. He can’t spell, his grammar and syntax are an exercise in incoherence. His vocabulary skills are so limited he is incapable of civilized, articulate communication. He substitutes [...]

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Democrat’s First Debate: Reality Show

In their first debate of Campaign 2008, Democrats clearly aimed to vote one candidate off the island.
By Richard Wolffe (Newsweek)
April 26, 2007 – One one point, they all tried to agree. The serious business of choosing a presidential candidate should not be reduced to TV entertainment. “This isn’t a game show,” said Joe Biden. “This [...]

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Obama’s Foreign Policy Plans

“Obama Outlines His Foreign Policy Views”
This past Monday, Obama spoke before the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.  Obama both criticized the Bush Administration and outlined his own foreign policy views.  Specifically:
*Foreign aid would increase (aid would double from current levels to $50 billion by 2012)
*Alliances with other nations would be repaired and strengthened
*Military would be strengthened [...]

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A Nation in the Middle

Of all the problems I have with our current president, by far the greatest is that he is a true divider. The American melting pot is not an antiquated idea, and we all can see it everywhere we look. In a country that is as evenly divided as the U.S., could there ever be anything worse than a leader [...]

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Setting the Story

The campaign trail to the primaries is long, and with ten months still ahead it will pass through a number of seasons along the way. And I’m not talking about winter, spring, summer, and fall; I’m talking about political seasons – those crucial intervals over the course of any campaign that are often self-contained according [...]

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This Earth Day, Obama needs to step it up

Rumors of a Gore candidacy continue to circulate, and my colleagues in the environmental activism community salivate at the prospect of having such a high-profile climate crusader in the White House. The stakes for our planet are high, and this Earth Day, people are getting antsy for bold action and large-scale social change. Despite his [...]

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Time to Talk About the Earth

Just in time for Earth Day, Obama outlined his new ‘low carbon fuel plan’ at the University of New Hampshire.  Some of the key points of the plan are below:
*Tranpsortation fuels on the market in the United States would ”contain 5 percent less carbon by 2015 and 10 percent less by 2020.”
*This plan mirrors the strategy [...]

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Hate-speak, racism, sexism, rage and guns

32 dead, 17 hospitalized with gunshot wounds in Blacksburg, VA. All the facts aren’t in yet, but it looks as if it may have all started with relationships gone sour. An enraged student at VA Tech murders two students in a dorm, then goes on a rampage until he runs out of steam or fury [...]

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Obama Calls Young People the “Backbone” of His Campaign

Today Obama’s campaign launched its official new web-page for Students for Barack Obama. Along with the debut of the site, 863 students from across the nation joined Obama for a live conference call to talk about the role of students in his campaign. Students were also given an opportunity to ask Senator Obama questions about [...]

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Obama and the Women

“Obama launches campaign initiative aimed at women”
With fierce competition for the women’s vote with ’strong woman’ Hillary Clinton as an opponent, Obama recently unveiled a new campaign initiative intended to garner more support from female voters.  Women for Obama recently held an event in Chicago to raise money for the campaign.  Obama catered to [...]

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Obama on Virginia Tech, Violence in Society

(Editor’s Note: Sen. Barack Obama delievered this speech at a rally in Milwaukee, WI on April 16.)

I have to tell you that we have been doing a lot of these community kick off rallies since I announced that I was running for president on back on February 10 and we have been drawing extraordinary crowds [...]

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Recent CBS News Polls

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How to Say “Barack Obama”

I attached this “how to say” by the BBC because his name tends to be mispronounced. And if he’s going to be president, we should get it right.
“This week’s pronunciation is Barack Obama, who seems certain to run for the U.S. Presidency in 2008. His name should be pronounced buh-RAAK oh-BAA-muh. When he first [...]

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Grassroots funding

Talk has surrounded Obama’s ability to raise $20 million with his short term experience. Even more shocking is his ability to do so without direct support from lobbyists.
The campaign announced earlier this month that Obama has received money from more than 100,000 people, including 50,000 Internet donors.
I think the most impressive and encouraging aspect of [...]

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Electability

In the era of the 24/7/365 news cycle it is amazing, to me at least, how one word can have so much power. Electability. That one word seemingly catapulted John Kerry to the Democratic nomination in 2004. William Saletan, from Slate, details for us how Democrats in 2004 convinced themselves that they were better off voting [...]

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This Teachable Moment

At this point in the 2008 election – spring of 2007 – I find that there is one underlying question on the minds of many people: why now? 
Why are you so interested in the 2008 election now? What difference does it make who is ahead in the polls at this point? The race will look [...]

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The Alternative

When people ask me why I support Obama, I mention his character, message, and ability to excite a diverse group of people. I might also talk about his willingness to embrace new methods of campaigning and politics.  But there’s also another reason – one that I probably share with many of my fellow Obama supporters [...]

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Obama/McCain dialogue on the Iraq War

This past Wednesday, the discourse between McCain and Obama helped weave the tangled web of the debate on the Iraq War.  MSNBC’s article entitled “Obama: Time to ‘ratchet up’ pressure on Bush” speaks of this dialogue:
*McCain’s Position:  Last Wednesday McCain stated that he believed the Iraq War to be “necessary and just”
*McCain misquotes Obama:  McCain implied that Obama did [...]

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