Smile and take a deep breath

Bill Clinton’s Endorsement of Obama

How nice of Bill Clinton to endorse Senator Obama.

The Colbert Nation Goes Obama.

Michelle Obama appears on the Colbert Report and speaks eloquently about Senator Obama’s message for America and holds her own against the saavy media giant that is, Stephen Colbert.

CNN gets it right.

I am happy to see that news media is finally taking a step back and realizing how absurd the current attacks against Senator Obama actually are.

Good to see them being realistic about things.

New Obama Ad in PA

New Obama Ad. It’s factual and to the point.

We all need a little laugh once in a while.

A funny video put together by Michael Fox.
With the campaign so serious most of the time, it’s nice to take a moment and just have a good laugh.

How Hillary lost my vote

This is an Op-Ed from the Philadelphia Daily News. I think it’s an eloquent and well thought-out reason why Clinton supporters are beginning to switch sides to Senator Obama. I, myself, was very enthusiastic about a new Clinton presidency so Ann’s thoughts in this Op-Ed somewhat mirror my own views on the current race.

How Hillary lost my vote
By ANN ROSEN SPECTOR

DEAR HILLARY:
I really wanted you to be the Democratic candidate and the next president of the United States.

In order to do that, I needed you to be the person I felt you were capable of being. I knew you were smart, funny and kind to your friends and family - I wanted you to demonstrate fairer play in the political arena.

I identified with you because we have some very important things in common.

I, too, am a baby boomer who came of age when women were just starting to enter the professions. I didn’t know how I was going to do it, but, like you and so many others, I believed I had the ability, motivation and the perseverance to be successful.

It has never been easy.

Like so many women in our generation, I was often blindsided by the condescension of men toward women, regardless of our credentials (and theirs!) simply on the basis of gender.

Like you, my father and grandparents were from Scranton, and I spent many days there as a child.

Martha’s Vineyard is also my favorite vacation spot. I’ve been visiting for the better part of 25 years and would own a home there . . . if I won the Powerball.

I know that despite all my educational and professional accomplishments, my proudest achievements are my two wonderful daughters. Chelsea is clearly yours, too. They always knew they came first, as did yours, I’m sure.

From what I can tell, you are an outstanding mother. When I took my older daughter to college, I tried to help her unpack, and as she shooed me out the door, I said, “But Hillary got to help when Chelsea went to Stanford!”

I believed you had a marriage that made sense to you, even if it didn’t to anyone else. I have been a couples therapist for 30 years, and I know that marriages are incredibly complex. Every marriage, even a public one, is composed of very private spheres.

No one, not even a therapist who hears the most confidential information, can know the relationship exactly as it is for the people inside it.

A marriage is more than a love relationship - running a family is like running a business. There are products and services that must be managed, and that’s not always sexy. At the time most people get married (at least for the first time), they believe that love and romance are enough . . . but they aren’t.

It’s hard to keep the vow of “for better or for worse” when it gets really bad, but you have - and I’m sure you’ve agonized over it. But I admire you for your commitment. I’ve been married for 28 years - and have the scars to prove it.

I believe you are a person of faith. Unlike some politicians who merely cloak themselves in a vague religiosity, you apparently regularly attend services and are a member of a bipartisan Bible group.

I admire your capacity for pragmatic diplomacy. Once you became a senator, you reached across the aisle to GOP members, even though some were especially vile to you and your husband during his presidency.

I DIDN’T HOLD YOUR vote on the Iraq war against you.

If you’d had all the information then that we have now, perhaps you wouldn’t have.

If you had voted against it, would you have been able to have a seat at the table with the big boys or been derided as a weak sister who didn’t have enough patriotism to put country ahead of politics?

I think it was a no-win situation at the time, and seems only clearer in hindsight.

I believe you felt you could outrun all the boys in this race - if the others were Joe Biden, Bill Richardson and Chris Dodd.

You were blindsided by Barack Obama - and felt he needed more seasoning, that it wasn’t “his turn.” And I stayed with you, rooted for you (even though I’ve admired Obama for four years).

Perhaps I could have continued to hold on, if only you’d stayed on the moral high ground and told the truth.

I don’t expect politicians to deliver on all their initiatives. You are a policy wonk, in a way that - even with all my education - I’m not. I don’t expect to ever read or understand every detail in your health-care plan. But I’m almost as old as you, and I know that initiatives don’t necessarily translate into law, that politicians have to cut deals or they will get nothing done.

I thought it was unfair that likability was considered so much more important in a president than brains. Perhaps I’d enjoy a barbecue at the ranch with President Bush, but what would we talk about? I need someone who can, at least occasionally, use three-syllable words accurately.

To a great extent, I have to vote for the person of greater integrity, who will try to do the right thing most of the time - and I’ve lost faith in you. You finally lost me at Bosnia. Your claim to have been there during active hostilities has been roundly disproved, and your explanation that you misspoke or were too tired is, at best, lame.

And I’m sad. I wanted you to be what I think is the best part of you.

But, perhaps even more than that, I don’t want John McCain. Don’t get me wrong, I wish he (or anyone) had beaten Bush in 2000.

But after eight years of ineptitude, lack of moral rectitude and incompetence, I can’t think of any reason that a Republican who has cuddled often enough with the Bush administration should be allowed to continue its missteps.

I will cast my vote in the primary for Obama, and hope that, while not perfect, he can unite the red and the blue into a purple nation.

I tried, Hillary. I just wish

you had fulfilled your incredible potential. *

Ann Rosen Spector is a Center City psychologist and an adjunct member of the Psychology Department at Rutgers-Camden.

Obama Volunteer Corps - Houston

The Obama campaign has sparked move than one movement across the country.
Not only has it motivated more Democratic voters to turn-out at the polls than ever before, but it has also created a grassroots movement of motivated volunteers across the nation determined to get out and make change where they live.

One organization that I’m a member of is the Obama Volunteer Corps, centered here in Houston, Texas. We’re involved in a variety of local volunteer activities. Anyone interested in getting on the bandwagon of change across America is welcome to view our website at www.obamavolunteercorps.org.

Check out our YouTube channel for videos of past projects and future projects!

Clinton said, ‘“I don’t think it’s useful to set a deadline because I think it sends a signal to the terrorists and the insurgents that they just have to wait us out,”’

This is from ABCNews Jake Tapper’s blog.

In Eugene, Ore., Saturday. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., attempted to change the measure by which anyone might assess who criticized the Iraq war first, her or Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., by saying those keeping records should start in January 2005, when Obama joined the Senate. (A measure that conveniently avoids her October 2002 vote to authorize use of force against Iraq at a time that Obama was speaking out against the war.) She claimed that using that measure, she criticized the war in Iraq before Obama did.

But Clinton’s claim was false.

Clinton on Saturday told Oregonians, “when Sen. Obama came to the Senate he and I have voted exactly the same except for one vote. And that happens to be the facts. We both voted against early deadlines. I actually starting criticizing the war in Iraq before he did.”

It’s an odd way to measure opposition to the war — comparing who gave the first criticism of the war in Iraq starting in January 2005, ignoring Obama’s opposition to the war throughout 2003 and 2004. (And Clinton’s vote for it.)

But even if one were to employ this “Start Counting in January 2005″ measurement, Clinton did not criticize the war in Iraq first.

Scrambling to support their boss’s claim, Clinton campaign officials pointed to a paper statement Clinton issued on Jan. 26, 2005, explaining her vote to confirm Condoleezza Rice as Secretary of State.

“The Administration and Defense Department’s Iraq policy has been, by any reasonable measure, riddled with errors, misstatements and misjudgments,” the January 2005 Clinton statement said. “From the beginning of the Iraqi war, we were inadequately prepared for the aftermath of the invasion with too few troops and an inadequate plan to stabilize Iraq.”

But Obama offered criticisms of the war in Iraq eight days before that, directly to Rice, in his very first meeting as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Jan. 18.

Obama pushed Rice on her answers to previous questioners regarding the effectiveness of Iraqi troops, and he criticized the administration for conveying a never-ending commitment to a US troop presence in Iraq.

“I am concerned about this notion that was pursued by Senator Biden and others that we’ve made significant progress in training troops,” Obama told Rice “Because it seems to me that in your response to Senator Alexander that we will not be able to get our troops out absent the Iraqi forces being able to secure their own country, or at least this administration would not be willing to define success in the absence of such security. I never got quite a clear answer to Senator Biden’s question as to how many troops — Iraqi troops — don’t just have a uniform and aren’t just drawing a paycheck, but are effective enough and committed enough that we would willingly have our own troops fighting side-by- side with them. The number of 120,000 you gave, I suspect, does not meet those fairly stringent criteria that Senator Biden was alluding to. I just want to make sure, on the record, that you give me some sense of where we’re at now.”

Obama concluded his brief q&a by saying “if our measure is bring our troops home and success is measured by whether Iraqis can secure their own circumstances, and if our best troops in the world are having trouble controlling the situation with 150,000 or so, it sounds like we’ve got a long way to go. And I think part of what the American people are going to need is some certainty, not an absolute timetable, but a little more certainty than is being provided, because right now, it appears to be an entirely open-ended commitment.”

**

The misrepresentation of the record is symbolic of the re-writing of history Clinton has attempted on her record regarding the war in Iraq.

Because the larger context is more important. And Clinton’s written criticism of the war in a press statement in January 2005 received little attention compared to the press surrounding her trip to Iraq the next month, in February 2005.

Upon returning she argued that setting a deadline for the withdrawal of U.S. troops would aid the enemy.

“I don’t think it’s useful to set a deadline because I think it sends a signal to the terrorists and the insurgents that they just have to wait us out,” she said.

Describing her trip to Iraq, she said, “It’s regrettable that the security needs have increased so much. On the other hand, I think you can look at the country as a whole and see that there are many parts of Iraq that are functioning quite well.”

She also interpreted a series of suicide bomb attacks as an indication that the insurgency was failing.

“The concerted effort to disrupt the elections was an abject failure,” she said. “Not one polling place was shut down or overrun. The fact that you have these suicide bombers now, wreaking such hatred and violence while people pray, is to me, an indication of their failure.”

In an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press on Feb. 20, 2005, Clinton said that withdrawing some troops or setting a date for withdrawal would be a “mistake.”

“I don’t believe we should tie our hands or the hands of the new Iraqi government,” Clinton said. “We don’t want to send a signal to the insurgents, to the terrorists that we are going to be out of here at some, you know, date certain.”

“We have just finished meeting with the current prime minister, the deputy prime minister and the finance minister, and in our meetings, we posed the question to each of them as to whether they believed that we should set a firm deadline for the withdrawal of American troops,” Clinton said. “To a person, and they are of different political parties in this election, but each of them said that would be a big mistake, that we needed to make clear that there is a transition now going on to the Iraqi government. When it is formed, which we hope will be shortly, it will assume responsibility for much of the security, with the assistance and cooperation of the coalition forces, primarily U.S. forces.”

Clinton said that “what the American people need to know is, number one, we are very proud of our young men and women who are here,” and second, “there can be no doubt that it is not in America’s interests for the Iraqi government, the experiment in freedom and democracy, to fail. So I hope that Americans understand that and that we will have as united a front as is possible in our country at this time to keep our troops safe, make sure they have everything they need and try to support this new Iraqi government.”

She soon told New York Daily News editors and reporters that it was important for Democrats to combat the idea that they’re soft on national security issues like Iraq.

“If you can’t persuade a majority of people that you’re going to be strong and tough where we need to protect America and our [national] interests, you can’t cross the [electoral] threshold,” she said.

**

That same month, while Clinton was talking up the need for Democrats to project strength, and claiming a withdrawal deadline would be sending a signal to the terrorists, Obama was meeting with his constituents, sounding quite skeptical about the war and reiterating his opposition to the decision to go to war to begin with.

The Bloomington, Ill., Pantagraph reported that during a town hall meeting, asked about the Iraq war, “Obama said poor planning by the Bush administration has left Iraq woefully incapable of handling its own security. He expressed hope that more intensive training will be provided for Iraqi forces, saying such measures could allow most American troops to return home next year. While Obama said the recent Iraqi election is an encouraging sign for democracy, he questioned Bush’s rationale for the Iraq invasion. ’I didn’t see the weapons of mass destruction at the time, I didn’t think there was an imminent threat from Saddam Hussein.’”

Clinton made this latest questionable claim the same day that she came under fire for repeatedly telling a story that turned out not to be true about a poor pregnant woman losing her baby and her own life after being denied hospital treatment because she couldn’t afford a $100 fee. The New York Times discovered that the woman in question was never denied treatment, and that she did have insurance. “We implore the Clinton campaign to immediately desist from repeating this story,” said a representative of the hospital.

The Clinton campaign said that the senator had been told the story by a sheriff’s deputy, and had not been able to fully check its accuracy. “We did try but were not able to fully vet it,” Clinton campaign spokesman Mo Elleithee said. “If the hospital claims it did not happen that way, we respect that.”

This latest incident also comes less than two weeks after Clinton had to back off a description of a plane landing during a 1996 trip to Bosnia that she had claimed was under sniper fire. Video evidence surfaced proving that claim false and Clinton admitted that she “misspoke.”

Pennsylvania T-Minus 14 Days

We have 14 days to get Senator Obama’s message out to as many people in PA as possible. Take advantage of the website’s phone-banking feature and start calling people. Sometimes the undecideds can be helped to make a decision with a simple and honest conversation with someone who passionately believes that Senator Obama is the best choice for the Presidency.

Go to www.barackobama.com and sign-up to help in the phone-banking process. Or host a phone-banking party! This is a great and easy to organize way to touch a lot of potential voters. Just invite over some of your Obama-supporting friends and encourage them to bring their laptops. Then, order a few pizzas and just hang-out with your friends making phone calls for an hour or so.

It’s a good way to socialize with your friends, to keep you energized about the campaign’s potential and to help build those bridges with undecided voters that might help them to make an informed decision.

Here’s an article from CNN concerning Obama’s narrowing the gap in the PA primary.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Sen. Barack Obama continues to chip away at Sen. Hillary Clinton’s lead in the crucial state of Pennsylvania, a new Quinnipiac poll out Tuesday showed.

Sen. Barack Obama appears to be closing the gap with Sen. Hillary Clinton in Pennsylvania, polls say.

The New York senator’s lead over Obama now stands at 6 points in the new poll, 50-44 percent.

That compares to the 9-point lead Clinton held in a similar survey released five days ago, and an 11-point lead in a Quinnipiac survey late last month.

Specifically, Clinton has lost ground among white voters and men: She now holds an 18-point lead among whites, down from a 25-point gap in last week’s poll, and trails Obama by 4 points among males.

Last week, the two drew equal support from men.

But Clinton continues to remain strong with her core voting bloc of older voters and white women, and likely Pennsylvania Democratic voters rate her more favorably than Obama — 71 percent for Clinton and 67 percent for Obama.

The latest Quinnipiac poll and CNN’s poll of polls released on Monday show Clinton’s lead over Obama in Pennsylvania continues to shrink ahead of the state’s April 22 primary.

Monday’s polls, conducted March 26 through Saturday, showed Clinton holding a 7 percentage point lead over Obama — 49 percent to 42 percent; 9 percent remained unsure.

That gap is 4 percentage points narrower than a similar CNN poll of polls conducted March 26 through Wednesday. In that average, Clinton led the senator from Illinois 51 percent to 40 percent. Nine percent also were unsure then.

The most recent poll of polls consists of three surveys: American Research Group (April 5-6), Muhlenberg College (March 27-April 2) and Quinnipiac (March 24-31). A sampling error for the poll of polls can not be calculated.

What’s behind the shift?

“Obama has outspent Hillary Clinton three to one just on television advertising in Pennsylvania. He spent more than $3 million trying to get his name out and his message out to Hillary Clinton’s $1 million,” said Mark Preston, CNN’s political editor.

The Illinois senator has also heavily benefited from the Service Employees International Union, which according to recently filed FEC reports has spent well over $700,000 on get-out-the-vote-efforts there.

Clinton, however, has traditionally done well with working class voters, a group with considerable influence in the upcoming primary. Watch developments in the Democratic primary race »

Political observers point out that polls are not votes, and there’s still a lot of time for anything to happen as the two Democrats battle it out for delegates.

According to the latest CNN count, Obama has 1,629 delegates, with 1,414 pledged delegates and 215 superdelegates, according to the latest CNN count.

Clinton has 1,486 delegates, with 1,243 pledged delegates and 243 superdelegates.

A total of 2,024 delegates is needed to win the Democratic nomination. It’s unlikely either candidate will win the necessary delegates before the national convention in August.