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pax
 Posted:
Fri Aug 29, 2008 1:55 am |
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Obama Speech Sets Internet On Fire
Historic Obama Speech Sets Internet On Fire
By Sarah Lai Stirland
August 28, 2008
Voters and pundits hungry for the details of Barack Obama's vision for America's future got them on Thursday when Obama formally accepted his party's presidential nomination, in an nearly 50-minute address to a packed Denver stadium. Obama hammered Republican rival John McCain and at the same time offered his policy prescriptions in matters of national security, taxation and energy, among other things. With some notable exceptions, the early reaction from bloggers Thursday night was overwhelmingly positive." It was a deeply substantive speech, full of policy detail, full of people other than the candidate, centered overwhelmingly on domestic economic anxiety," notes the Atlantic's Andrew Sullivan, a disillusioned Republican and outspoken Obama admirer. "What he didn't do was give an airy, abstract, dreamy confection of rhetoric," Sullivan writes on his blog The Daily Dish. "If the Rove Republicans thought they were playing with a patsy, they just got a reality check."
Traffic on the micro-blogging service Twitter immediately surged in the wake of Obama's speech, in which he officially became the first African American to win the nomination of the Democratic party. More than 6,500 tweets poured through the service in just 20 minutes Thursday night -- most of them brief, two-line assessments of Obama's performance on a historic night, the 45th anniversary of civil rights leader Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech. (Obama is the most popular person on Twitter, according to the tracking service Twitterholics.) "Obama nailed it tonight for me," writes "swhitley," "I may not agree with all of his policies, but I think his message of hope for our country means more.""I want to have Barack Obama's babies, writes fluxrad. And Brian Lerner tweeted, "It's hard to imagine there are people in this country that can not at least feel inspired by Obama even if they do not plan to vote for him."
Obama covered many of his key themes Thursday night, but there was an unusual fierceness to his oratory; which aimed McCain's record on specific issues like a guided cruise missile. For example, among many other points, he asserted that McCain has sided with President Bush more than 90 percent of the time. In addition, he addressed many of the criticisms of the Republicans, saying that he would cut taxes for middle class families instead of raising them. He also pledged to spend $150 billion over the next 10 years in renewable sources of energy, including wind and solar power as well as biofuels. He predicted that that investment will lead to five million jobs that "pay well and can't ever be outsourced." Obama hit back at the Republicans on all of the major fronts on which they've been attacking him, the Atlantic's Sullivan notes: national security, his personal patriotism, and his ability to relate to the average middle-class family. "I've said it before -- months and months ago. I should say it again tonight. This is a remarkable man at a vital moment. America would be crazy to throw this opportunity away. America must not throw this opportunity away," Sullivan concludes. An Atlantic colleague of Sullivan's wasn't so generous. Megan McArdle, who blogs on economics, blasted Obama's promise to end America's dependence on Middle East oil, dismissing as empty political rhetoric. "It doesn't matter what we do: drill, research alternative energy, raise CAFE standards . . . in 2018, we'll still be using oil," writes McArdle on her blog Asymmetrical Information. "Even if we discovered a magic source of clean renewable energy tomorrow, we'd still be using a lot of oil, because transitions of that magnitude take time."
Others, though, appreciated Obama's unapologetic case for an active federal government -- an unusual tact, they note, after decades of Democrats trying to campaign and win over what was an increasingly Republican-leaning electorate. "From a Democratic perspective, he made the argument for government, something we haven't heard in a while," writes Robert Arena, a web marketing strategist who writes for the left leaning AMERICAblog. Obama "moved into ample detail on what he wants to do with the economy and made the case for a failed Bush/McCain foreign policy," Arena wrote, voicing a common sentiment among Democratic bloggers. "I've been looking for the details for a while, and while not a wonky speech, there was enough there there to hang your hat on." "And, perhaps most importantly, he defended himself and put the screws to the Republican Party for the failure of the last eight years . On the question of being ready to be commander in chief, Obama answered the question with a clarity and passion I haven't seen from him yet. All in all, a very Presidential speech."
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/08/obama-speech-se.html
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| yankee-in-france
Posted:
Fri Aug 29, 2008 4:14 am |
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Thanks, Pax, for that. I have stayed up for two nights now to hear the important speeches.
I thought that Obama hit that ball so far out of that stadium that Mc Cain will spend the rest of his life looking for it and never do it.
No lofty suppositions, just downright plain speak. There is much to do in America right now. Obama is the man to do it, and I wish him well.
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YIF
Joined: 30 Mar 2006
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Location: France
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| SavannahStar
Posted:
Fri Aug 29, 2008 5:03 am |
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Love your thread title, pax!!!!! 
Oh it was magnificent, simply magnificent! What a speech. I was in tears, cheering in disbelief at how absolutely electric this man is. I have no doubt in my mind at all he will do great things when elected, and will be long remembered in history as one of our best presidents ever.....in the manner of Roosevelt, Kennedy, Lincoln. Oh I see change coming....I am SO SO SO proud to be an Obama supporter.
BRAVO, BARRACK OBAMA!!!!!!
For 18 long months, you have stood up, one by one, and said enough to the politics of the past. You understand that in this election, the greatest risk we can take is to try the same old politics with the same old players and expect a different result. You have shown what history teaches us -- that at defining moments like this one, the change we need doesn't come from Washington. Change comes to Washington. Change happens because the American people demand it -- because they rise up and insist on new ideas and new leadership, a new politics for a new time.
America, this is one of those moments.
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**SuperStar**
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| Phantom
Posted:
Fri Aug 29, 2008 5:23 am |
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Obama's partisan acceptance speech.
Denver
So much for bringing us together, Democrats and Republicans, in a new politics of bipartisanship. What Barack Obama advocated earlier in his presidential campaign and throughout the primaries is now officially a thing of the past. With his acceptance speech last night, Obama has become a standard liberal politician who advocates the standard liberal agenda.
Of course Obama makes the case for cleaning out the cupboard of liberal proposals--and enacting them--in an especially effective way. He is the most attractive and also the most clever spokesman liberalism has had in years. And he may get elected president.
But this isn't what put his long-shot presidential candidacy on the map initially and thrilled so many young and idealistic voters. They rallied to his call for a fresh kind of politics that would essentially transcend the polarization and gridlock and interest groups of Washington. But there was none of that high-toned stuff in Obama's speech or in the speeches of others who addressed the Democratic convention here. They were simply partisan.
True, Obama threw out some of the old elevating phrases. He said he was for change that would come from "a new politics for a new time." But he's now the champion of the oldest of old politics. He said America must "find the strength and grace to bridge divides and unite in a common effort." But unity isn't what Obama is now promoting, except among liberal Democrats.
Nor are other Democrats. If you listened to the speeches of Joe Biden, Obama's vice presidential running mate, and former President Bill Clinton and Senator Hillary Clinton and practically every other well-known Democrat, you wouldn't have heard even a whisper of uniting with Republicans on anything.
In fact, the more harshly partisan the speech, the more likely it was to be scheduled for prime time. When the folks running the convention read the prepared text of Ohio governor Ted Strickland's speech, they liked his tough partisan approach and immediately moved him into an evening time slot with more TV coverage. As a result, the keynote address by former Virginia governor Mark Warner had to be pushed out of prime time. Warner, not coincidentally, was the rare Democrat to advocate bipartisanship.
Two of Republican presidential candidate John McCain's best friends in the Senate, Biden and John Kerry, were slashing in their partisan criticism of him. Biden once said he'd be happy to join a presidential ticket with McCain, and Kerry sounded McCain out as his running mate in 2004. They changed their tune.
"When we choose a commander in chief this November, we are electing judgment and character, not years in the Senate or years on this earth," Kerry said, referring to McCain's age, 72 today. Biden, too, questioned McCain's judgment.
The biggest surprise in Obama's speech, to me anyway, was how aggressively he went after McCain, sometimes in a personal way. "John McCain likes to say that he'll follow bin Laden to the Gates of Hell--but he won't even go to the cave where he lives," Obama said. Obama isn't likely to either.
Then there was the phony dare he tossed at McCain. "If John McCain wants to have a debate about who has the temperament and judgment to serve as the next commander in chief," Obama declared, "that's a debate I'm ready to have." Except he isn't. McCain asked Obama to join him at ten town hall meetings over the summer. Obama balked. And if McCain proposes to have more than the three scheduled debates this fall, Obama is certain to balk again.
Liberals were surely thrilled by Obama's speech and indeed by the whole tenor and substance of the Democratic convention, but the business community is bound to have been terrified. Obama offered plenty of liberal schemes for government to carry out, but business was treated as a pariah. The wishes of liberal interest groups, in contrast, were endorsed.
There's nothing illegal or immoral or even unusual about most of this. It's just politics at its most crass. Put another way, it's exactly what Obama said he was determined to rise above. Now we know he isn't who he said he was.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/015/480kadxy.asp
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| SavannahStar
Posted:
Fri Aug 29, 2008 5:49 am |
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Barack Obama's Big Night: Fireworks and Family
By Patrick Rogers and Elizabeth Gleick
Originally posted Friday August 29, 2008 01:00 AM EDT
Barack Obama
Photo by: Chris Wattie / Reuters / Landov
It looked, felt and even smelled like a rock concert with the $6.50 nachos, the crowd filling Denver's 76,000-seat Mile High Stadium and the opening acts by superstars Sheryl Crow and Stevie Wonder. But instead of upheld lighters, American flags filled the stands as Barack Obama officially accepted the Democrats' nomination to be the party's candidate in the 2008 race for the White House.
Michelle Obama, in a red and black dress, watched from the front row of what the Democratic Party called an open-air convention and doted on their young daughters as if they were at home in Chicago. But the closing night of the Democratic Convention in Denver was in fact – with the fireworks, streamers and ecstatic crowds stomping their feet as if to collapse the stadium – a piece of political theater on a scale this country has never seen.
After taking the stage, thanking the crowd countless times and accepting his party's nomination, Sen. Obama, 47, turned the attention to those closest to him.
"To the love of my life, our next first lady, Michelle Obama, and to Malia and Sasha," he said at the podium, "I love you so much and I'm so proud of you."
Michelle, 44, beaming, blew her husband a kiss.
Earlier, in a film tribute, the senator from Illinois spoke of his late mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, who raised him on her own, and the sacrifices she made. "She woke me up at 4:30 in the morning and we'd sit there and go through my lessons," he told the crowd. "And if I grumbled, she'd say, 'Well, this is no picnic for me either, buster.'"
In the film, his wife Michelle described falling in love with her husband – but not immediately. "I thought 'Barack Obama? Who would name their kid Barack Obama?'" Michelle said with a grin. And Barack, looking back, had to agree: "Barack Obama – that's a killer," he said of his name.
But after several attempts, Barack told the crowd, he finally convinced his future wife to go to a meeting with him in the basement of a church in Chicago. Watching Obama speak to the members of the South Side community assembled there, Michelle admitted in the video, "That was it. After that day ... I was in love with him."
In his speech, the candidate laid out what he would do for the country if elected: cut taxes for working families, get out of Iraq, end dependency on foreign oil and make affordable health care accessible to all. With words that brought the crowd to its feet, Obama appealed to the compassion of the individual. "That's the promise of America," he said, "the fundamental belief that I am my brother's keeper, I am my sister's keeper."
He also promised to restore the nation's reputation as the world's "last, best hope."
When the speech was over, vice presidential nominee Joe Biden and his wife Jill joined Obama, Michelle, Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, on stage as fireworks went off and streamers poured down. As Jill Biden wiped away tears, the little girls in pink dresses played with confetti and waved to the roaring crowd.
The nitty-gritty of the campaign would begin again the next day, but walking off the stage, the first African-American nominee for president, surrounded by his family, turned around and took one last look at the historic scene.
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20222391,00.html?xid=rss-topheadlines
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**SuperStar**
Joined: 24 Mar 2006
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Location: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
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| pax
Posted:
Fri Aug 29, 2008 5:59 am |
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| yankee-in-france wrote: | Thanks, Pax, for that. I have stayed up for two nights now to hear the important speeches.
I thought that Obama hit that ball so far out of that stadium that Mc Cain will spend the rest of his life looking for it and never do it.
No lofty suppositions, just downright plain speak. There is much to do in America right now. Obama is the man to do it, and I wish him well. |
You're welcome yif. Barack Obama has the skills and support to continue to the White House and be a great President. He has the qualities I respect in a leader. Someone who says if you work hard and sacrifice we will help provide a fair deal. The amount of smears repeated after they have been disproved is astonishing. It's time for people to stand up and be counted. It's time for people to say enough of the dysfunctional bickering over petty differences. Let's address the critical issues upon which we agree.
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| Phantom
Posted:
Fri Aug 29, 2008 6:04 am |
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WHATEVER ONE'S VIEW of Barack Obama, it’s hard to disagree with the New York Times when it calls his party nomination for the presidency, capped off yesterday with an elaborately staged acceptance speech in Denver’s Invesco field, a “remarkable achievement in what has been a remarkable ascendance.” But the trouble with the Obama campaign has always been the gulf between the truly inspiring story of the candidate and the thoroughly conventional substance of his politics, which remains the stuff of left-liberal orthodoxy. For all the pomp and circumstance of Obama’s mile-high moment, that gulf endures.
It is only fair to acknowledge that Obama’s nomination stands as a significant benchmark in American history: it is the first time that a black American has been selected by a major U.S. party to bear its standard for the presidency. If the relentless harping on this point by Democratic operatives is not exactly disinterested, that makes it no less admirable. Just as significant, the nomination is a tribute to the impressive political skills of a man whose name was largely unknown as recently as four years ago. To go from a humbling defeat in a congressional race against Black Panther Bobby Rush in 2000 to clinching the Democratic Party’s nomination just eight years later is a singular political feat.
Both themes were neatly highlighted in the biographical video that preceded Obama’s speech. In it, Obama affectionately recalled his grandfather’s dictum that Americans “can do anything if we put our minds to it.” Echoing his grandfather’s wisdom, Obama affirmed that what the country needs most is to “make sure opportunity is there.” There is no better proof of the truth of that statement than the political success of the man making it.
All the more jarring, then, that this introduction was followed by a speech that dispensed with the do-it-yourself ethos of Obama’s grandfather in favor of a nanny-state liberalism that sees government intervention as the only reliable guarantor of success. True, Obama acknowledged that “government cannot solve all our problems,” and that “we are responsible for ourselves.” But these concessions seemed merely symbolic, as the bulk of his speech counted the realms – the environment, the economy, healthcare, the housing market, education, etc. – where government could expand its reach. Aside from a single remark about parental responsibility, which would be controversial to no one save Rev. Jesse Jackson and the more aggressive peddlers of racial grievance, it was not clear where, if anywhere, a President Obama would be prepared to place limits on government action.
By contrast, in the one area where there is a consensus about government responsibility – the national defense – Obama sounded the least steady. It did not help his case that he became bogged down in contradiction. For instance, he promised to end the war in Iraq “responsibly,” and then to “finish the fight against al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan.” But given that Iraq remains a central battleground in the war against al-Qaeda, and that coalition forces are at last winning that war, Obama’s proposal to withdraw troops is anything but responsible.
Nor did Obama provide any hint that he understood what the war on terror is fundamentally about. Yes, there was a cheap snipe that John McCain, even as he has promised to follow Osama bin Laden to the gates of hell, “won’t follow bin Laden to the cave where he lives” (as if the Democratic nominee knows where that might be). But the words “Islam” and “jihad” never featured in the speech, and it is not at all clear that Obama understands their relevance to the conflict he proposes to wage.
Obama’s pledge to “curb Russian aggression” showed a better grasp of geopolitical realities. It is doubtful, however, that it will make much of an impression on Vladimir Putin and his Kremlin lieutenants. After all, how credible is such a threat coming from the same man who has promised to meet even the leaders of terror-sponsoring Iran “without preconditions”?
The more disappointing aspect of Obama’s speech – a speech that in many ways represents his vision for the country – was his repeated derision of individual responsibility. To hear Obama tell it, what is needed is not opportunity but government assistance. It’s hard to imagine that his grandfather, a tough-tempered Kansan who uncomplainingly endured the Great Depression and then served his country in World War II, would admire his grandson’s mocking of the idea that one can “pull yourself up by your own bootstraps,” as he did yesterday to raucous applause from the Democratic audience. For all his nostalgia about his grandparents, it seems that when it comes to the deeper lessons in life, the Democratic nominee is not in Kansas anymore.
Whether or not Obama gets a post-convention “bounce,” there is no denying that the week was, like the candidate himself, an impressive piece of work. Crucially, however, it was also very much a scripted affair. It’s one thing to win over a crowd of 84,000 adoring Democratic partisans. But as Obama’s own relatives might have reminded him, America is bigger than that.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=D8312FCF-93C7-48FC-A4CD-D91F4B077335
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Location: My only friend, the end
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| SavannahStar
Posted:
Fri Aug 29, 2008 6:06 am |
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| pax wrote: |
You're welcome yif. Barack Obama has the skills and support to continue to the White House and be a great President. He has the qualities I respect in a leader. Someone who says if you work hard and sacrifice we will help provide a fair deal. The amount of smears repeated after they have been disproved is astonishing. It's time for people to stand up and be counted. It's time for people to say enough of the dysfunctional bickering over petty differences. Let's address the critical issues upon which we agree. |
pax, I thought this part of his speech was just superb....discussing our differences and what we all can agree on:
.....What has also been lost is our sense of common purpose – our sense of higher purpose. And that’s what we have to restore.
We may not agree on abortion, but surely we can agree on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country. The reality of gun ownership may be different for hunters in rural Ohio than for those plagued by gang-violence in Cleveland, but don’t tell me we can’t uphold the Second Amendment while keeping AK-47s out of the hands of criminals. I know there are differences on same-sex marriage, but surely we can agree that our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters deserve to visit the person they love in the hospital and to live lives free of discrimination. Passions fly on immigration, but I don’t know anyone who benefits when a mother is separated from her infant child or an employer undercuts American wages by hiring illegal workers. This too is part of America’s promise – the promise of a democracy where we can find the strength and grace to bridge divides and unite in common effort.
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**SuperStar**
Joined: 24 Mar 2006
Posts: 21291
Location: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
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| SavannahStar
Posted:
Fri Aug 29, 2008 6:08 am |
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Here is the full text of Obama's speech:
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080828/NEWS15/80828123
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**SuperStar**
Joined: 24 Mar 2006
Posts: 21291
Location: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
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| Phantom
Posted:
Fri Aug 29, 2008 6:18 am |
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Not the Obama We Know
An effective, dishonest speech.
Everyone knew that Barack Obama can give a good speech, and he did just that tonight. The Obama we heard from was an attractive figure. Too bad he doesn’t exist.
The speech was very well designed to achieve its many political objectives. Obama worked hard to express his identification with ordinary Americans — simultaneously countering the perceptions that he is a vapid celebrity and that he is uncomfortable with conventional patriotism. Obama was very careful on this point. There was no Clintonian (or David Brooksian) talk of himself as a globalized man, no reference to Indonesia or even Hawaii. He wisely declined the opportunity to talk a lot about race; doing so could have led him nowhere helpful. If it had not been the anniversary of the “I Have a Dream” speech, perhaps he would not have alluded to it at all.
He tied McCain to Bush and hit both hard on economics, while (naturally) neglecting to mention the rough edges of his own economic policies: the taxes on small business that his health-care plan entail, for example. He didn’t even mention his tax hikes on the rich. And he presented himself as a unifying moderate on social issues.
If all you knew of Obama was what he presented to you in his speech, you would think of him as a typical Democratic politician improved by the addition of a bit more thoughtfulness and idealism than the average representative of the class. You would be amazed to learn of his extremely close relationship to a radical anti-American preacher; or that he has followed a no-enemies-to-the-left approach to politics that put him in the company of an unrepentant terrorist. You would not suspect that he favors taxpayer-funded abortion or drivers’ licenses for illegal immigrants. You would not realize that he has crossed party lines far less often than McCain. You would not imagine that he had ever voted against funding for troops in war zones. It would not cross your mind that this denouncer of hardball, self-interested politics might be having his campaign intimidate reporters out of looking into his record.
Obama was less successful in making the case for himself on foreign policy, but no less dishonest. He did not acknowledge the success or even the existence of the surge. He presented McCain as the lone holdout against a consensus on withdrawal from Iraq that includes President Bush. If he had had his way, we would have been out of Iraq a long time ago and the country would be in far worse shape — but by presenting a timeline of the Iraq debate that excludes the last two years, he kept all but the most attentive listeners from noticing.
The senator argued that we should be able to disagree on political issues without questioning each other’s character. True. But he concludes that we should therefore ignore the evidence that he has, in fact, adopted the foreign-policy positions he has for political reasons. He acts as though he is being gracious by not leveling a like charge against McCain. But it is no concession to declare off limits an accusation that applies to you and not your opponent.
I am not sure who the real Barack Obama is. I do not believe that I saw him Thursday night.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MDMxNjFiNDQ4NTNlYTM4MjUyNzc4NjZiOTllN2NmN2E=
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Location: My only friend, the end
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| SavannahStar
Posted:
Fri Aug 29, 2008 6:22 am |
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Gallup Daily
Gallup Daily: Obama Moves Ahead, 48% to 42%
Democratic candidate gains in Monday through Wednesday interviewing
August 28, 2008Democratic candidate Barack Obama gained ground in the latest Gallup Poll Daily tracking average from Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and now leads Republican John McCain among registered voters by a 48% to 42% margin.
http://www.gallup.com/tag/Gallup%2bDaily.aspx
(BEFORE his speech.)
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**SuperStar**
Joined: 24 Mar 2006
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Location: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
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| pax
Posted:
Fri Aug 29, 2008 6:25 am |
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| SavannahStar wrote: | Love your thread title, pax!!!!!
Oh it was magnificent, simply magnificent! What a speech. I was in tears, cheering in disbelief at how absolutely electric this man is. I have no doubt in my mind at all he will do great things when elected, and will be long remembered in history as one of our best presidents ever.....in the manner of Roosevelt, Kennedy, Lincoln. Oh I see change coming....I am SO SO SO proud to be an Obama supporter.
BRAVO, BARRACK OBAMA!!!!!!
For 18 long months, you have stood up, one by one, and said enough to the politics of the past. You understand that in this election, the greatest risk we can take is to try the same old politics with the same old players and expect a different result. You have shown what history teaches us -- that at defining moments like this one, the change we need doesn't come from Washington. Change comes to Washington. Change happens because the American people demand it -- because they rise up and insist on new ideas and new leadership, a new politics for a new time.
America, this is one of those moments.
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I was thinking of you when I watched it Savannah. Amazing how the internet can bring together people who have never met.
To me, the two transformative Presidents of the 20th Century were FDR and Ronald Reagan. FDR proved government can help us when we need help, and we have nothing to fear but fear itself. Reagan proved government can't solve all your problems, you are empowered to do it yourself. I feel Barack Obama combines the best of those two and will provide leadership that maintains optimism while calling on us to improve both our government and ourselves.
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| pax
Posted:
Fri Aug 29, 2008 6:29 am |
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| SavannahStar wrote: |
pax, I thought this part of his speech was just superb....discussing our differences and what we all can agree on:
.....What has also been lost is our sense of common purpose – our sense of higher purpose. And that’s what we have to restore.
We may not agree on abortion, but surely we can agree on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country. The reality of gun ownership may be different for hunters in rural Ohio than for those plagued by gang-violence in Cleveland, but don’t tell me we can’t uphold the Second Amendment while keeping AK-47s out of the hands of criminals. I know there are differences on same-sex marriage, but surely we can agree that our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters deserve to visit the person they love in the hospital and to live lives free of discrimination. Passions fly on immigration, but I don’t know anyone who benefits when a mother is separated from her infant child or an employer undercuts American wages by hiring illegal workers. This too is part of America’s promise – the promise of a democracy where we can find the strength and grace to bridge divides and unite in common effort. |
Me too. Thanks for the excerpt.
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Joined: 23 Mar 2006
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| SavannahStar
Posted:
Fri Aug 29, 2008 7:07 am |
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This is very interesting.
(from another board)
A Republican Reaction On Obama's speech
From the TPM link below:
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/
"It's Alex Castellanos' response on CNN. To understand the significance, you've got to know a bit about who Castellanos is -- a longtime, street-fighting Republican political consultant with a reputation that compares to Lee Atwater's in terms hard-edged political warfare. I believe he's also informally working with the McCain campaign this cycle, as a sort of outside advisor.
Chuck Todd said below he thought Obama's speech had left the McCain camp speechless. My own take was that the tone of the statement from the McCain campaign was like someone who'd had the wind knocked out of them.
In that context, Castellanos' response was very telling. He made no attempt to put the speech in any positive context for McCain. Midway through this clip he sounds like an Obama surrogate. And he concludes by saying that "whoever didn't get picked for Republican VP today may be a lucky Republican."
Josh Marshall
And here is the clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIX4P0fApmA&eurl=http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/
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**SuperStar**
Joined: 24 Mar 2006
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Location: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
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| Phantom
Posted:
Fri Aug 29, 2008 7:24 am |
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McCain's VP pick is gonna have you all saying, "oh chit!".
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Location: My only friend, the end
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| Need2Know
Posted:
Fri Aug 29, 2008 7:45 am |
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Speeches do not make an effective POTUS. I do join many other Americans in congratulating Obama on this historic moment and in redefining American history as being the first African American to be nominated for POTUS. The issues of the day and the qualifications to lead are what truly matter in the end. Each person must look at the overall qualities, honesty, trustworthiness and real leadership skills of the two candidates and decide for themselves, apart from all the hoopla and the production of each party. The great thing about our great country is that we do have a choice, and we the people decide our collective future by our vote. The majority of the most populace states will decide this election; let's hope and pray that whoever wins, wins both the electoral and popular vote so there are not lingering questions. Although I do not support Obama and will not vote for him, if he is elected I will still support my president and will pray that he ALWAYS places others above his own ambitions and above himself, as should any truly great leader and true public servant. May he look to God for guidance and not to himself or others only.
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N2K
Joined: 06 Jul 2006
Posts: 9277
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| apodixis
Posted:
Fri Aug 29, 2008 8:49 am |
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| SavannahStar wrote: |
pax, I thought this part of his speech was just superb....discussing our differences and what we all can agree on:
.....The reality of gun ownership may be different for hunters in rural Ohio than for those plagued by gang-violence in Cleveland, but don’t tell me we can’t uphold the Second Amendment while keeping AK-47s out of the hands of criminals.... . |
In an otherwise spectacular speech, that was the stupidist comment. Criminals use concealable hand-guns, not military assault rifles, to commit crimes like robbery.
And as a serious policy issue, the concealability aspect is the most sensible to regulate while respecting the second amendment's individual right to bear arms.
Whoever wrote that line for Obama blew it.
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Joined: 06 Aug 2006
Posts: 3296
Location: State of Jefferson, Ecotopia
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| yankee-in-france
Posted:
Fri Aug 29, 2008 9:11 am |
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| pax wrote: |
I was thinking of you when I watched it Savannah. Amazing how the internet can bring together people who have never met.
To me, the two transformative Presidents of the 20th Century were FDR and Ronald Reagan. FDR proved government can help us when we need help, and we have nothing to fear but fear itself. Reagan proved government can't solve all your problems, you are empowered to do it yourself. I feel Barack Obama combines the best of those two and will provide leadership that maintains optimism while calling on us to improve both our government and ourselves. |
-- and both tremendous communicators.
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YIF
Joined: 30 Mar 2006
Posts: 6999
Location: France
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| yankee-in-france
Posted:
Fri Aug 29, 2008 9:11 am |
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| apodixis wrote: |
In an otherwise spectacular speech, that was the stupidist comment. Criminals use concealable hand-guns, not military assault rifles, to commit crimes like robbery.
And as a serious policy issue, the concealability aspect is the most sensible to regulate while respecting the second amendment's individual right to bear arms.
Whoever wrote that line for Obama blew it. |
No one is perfect, Appy. Nice to see you again. 
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YIF
Joined: 30 Mar 2006
Posts: 6999
Location: France
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| yankee-in-france
Posted:
Fri Aug 29, 2008 9:13 am |
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| SavannahStar wrote: | Gallup Daily
Gallup Daily: Obama Moves Ahead, 48% to 42%
Democratic candidate gains in Monday through Wednesday interviewing
August 28, 2008Democratic candidate Barack Obama gained ground in the latest Gallup Poll Daily tracking average from Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and now leads Republican John McCain among registered voters by a 48% to 42% margin.
http://www.gallup.com/tag/Gallup%2bDaily.aspx
(BEFORE his speech.) |
Great news, Savannah. We're on the move. Let's do it all the way to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
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YIF
Joined: 30 Mar 2006
Posts: 6999
Location: France
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| Need2Know
Posted:
Fri Aug 29, 2008 9:29 am |
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| yankee-in-france wrote: |
Great news, Savannah. We're on the move. Let's do it all the way to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. |
You coming home to visit for this one? 
Make a stop down south if you do  
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N2K
Joined: 06 Jul 2006
Posts: 9277
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| SavannahStar
Posted:
Fri Aug 29, 2008 10:50 am |
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| yankee-in-france wrote: |
Great news, Savannah. We're on the move. Let's do it all the way to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. |
Got hope? You bet!
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**SuperStar**
Joined: 24 Mar 2006
Posts: 21291
Location: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
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| SavannahStar
Posted:
Fri Aug 29, 2008 10:51 am |
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GOP Considers Delaying Convention
Tropical Storm Gustav Is Forecast to Hit U.S. Next Week as Hurricane
Hard to follow a class act.
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**SuperStar**
Joined: 24 Mar 2006
Posts: 21291
Location: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
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| billybob
Posted:
Fri Aug 29, 2008 12:07 pm |
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who cares about the Rock Star's speech - the news today is what intelligent McCain did - he picked a FEMALE as his running mate!!!
No one is talking about Obama - Old news and just like his rhetoric - empty words!
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Joined: 12 Oct 2007
Posts: 2855
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| dithers
Posted:
Fri Aug 29, 2008 1:40 pm |
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| billybob wrote: | who cares about the Rock Star's speech - the news today is what intelligent McCain did - he picked a FEMALE as his running mate!!!
No one is talking about Obama - Old news and just like his rhetoric - empty words! |
Obama has literally been wiped of the media map today. Between Palin and Gustav he is MIA.
The MSM is busy hoping Gustav is a wrench in the works to trip up the GOP. They should be careful of what they wish for. With Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) at the helm in Louisiana it could serve to shine the light on GOP competence compared to the disasterous performances during Katrina of the Dems - Mayor 'Schoolbus" Ray Nagin and Gov. Kathleen Blanco.
A few big mistakes IMO on the Dem's part already - dissing Palin because she is from small town America; her stance on abortion - (an eggshell walk at the very least as she has a Downes Syndrome child who is still a baby); and the biggest mistake of all -- comparing Obama's experience to her's!!!! He's at the top of the ticket. She's VP. They've lowered him to comparisons with the VP candidate. Who was in charge of that talking point?!?!?
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Pretty in Blonde
Joined: 17 Apr 2006
Posts: 3468
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