If You Had Any Doubts Obama Would Be Dominant in this Partnership…

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biden.jpg

Check out how effectively Obama’s team has managed the potential blowhard (albeit, smart, lovable blowhard), Joe Biden:

Barack Obama and I took very different journeys to this destination, but we share a common story.

Mine began in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and then Wilmington, Delaware, with a dad who fell on hard economic times, but who always told me: "Champ, when you get knocked down, get up… get up."

My mother’s creed is the American creed: no one is better than you. You are everyone’s equal, and everyone is equal to you.

My parents taught us to live our faith and treasure our family. We learned the dignity of work, and we were told that anyone can make it if they try.

That was America’s promise.

For those of us who grew up in middle class neighborhoods like Scranton and Wilmington, that was the American dream – and we knew it.

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You can learn an awful lot about a man campaigning with him, debating him, and seeing how he reacts under pressure. You learn about the strength of his mind. But even more importantly, you learn about the quality of his heart.

I watched how he touched people, how he inspired them, and I realized he has tapped into the oldest American belief of all: we don’t have to accept a situation we cannot bear. We have the power to change it.

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The choice in this election is clear. These times require more than a good soldier – they require a wise leader. A leader who can deliver change. The change everybody knows we need.

Barack Obama will deliver that change.

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As we gather here tonight, our country is less secure and more isolated than at any time in recent history. The Bush-McCain foreign policy has dug us into a very deep hole, with very few friends to help us climb out.

Should we trust John McCain’s judgment when he says there can be no timelines to drawdown our troops from Iraq – that we must stay indefinitely?

Or should we listen to Barack Obama, who says shift responsibility to the Iraqis – and set a time to bring our combat troops home?

Now, after six long years, the Bush administration and the Iraqi government are on the verge of setting a date to bring our troops home.

John McCain was wrong. Barack Obama was right.

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Now, it’s our responsibility to meet that challenge. Read more →

Bill’s Speech

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Bill’s having fun.

I love that we have so many leaders we still love.

Bill: I’m going to tell you to vote for Obama, where Hillary only suggested it. Because I can do that.

Watching CSPAN. When Clinton said Obama was the right guy for the job (of President) CSPAN went from Michelle to Hillary. Both wearing turquoise. Hillary looked pained.

Oh man, Bill is having fun. 

Like Teddy, Novak Couldn’t Stay Away

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cbl posted a link to this Novak piece over on the mother ship.

Reports of strong support within John McCain’s presidential campaign for Independent Democratic Sen. Joseph Lieberman as the Republican candidate for vice president are not a fairy tale. Influential McCain backers, plus McCain himself, would pick the pro-choice liberal from Connecticut if they thought they could get away with it.

But they can’t get away with it — and this has been made clear to McCain by none other than Joe Lieberman himself.

The Iraq War skeptic, Novak, was so amenable to his sources that he even pretended to support Bush’s war.

Actually, Lieberman is a heroic figure among Republicans for having risked his Senate seat to support President George W. Bush’s war policy.

To be honest with you, I’m sort of happy that Novak, who had retired to undergo brain cancer treatment, is still serving his role as a channel of leaks.

And if the urgent leak that drew him out of retirement is that all the Republicans hate Joementum, if Bob Novak, of all people, will prevent Holy Joe from "gracing" our screen for the next two months, then maybe he is starting to work off the bad karma of outing Valerie Plame.

Ted Kennedy with Brain Cancer, on (Probably) Morphine, and in Excruciating Pain Can STILL Read a Teleprompter Better than McCain

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Someone smart previewed the Republican convention next week by quipping we’d finally get to see whether McCain had won his six month wrestling match with a teleprompter.

I thought of that quip when I saw Kennedy speak last night. As someone whose own father died of brain cancer, I thought Kennedy looked great, with just a few stumbles on the teleprompter. "Even with brain cancer," I thought, "he’s still better with a teleprompter than McCain."

Today, the NYT reported on just how amazing Kennedy’s feat was. Not only was he sneaking off in the middle of cancer treatment to address the entire world, but he was suffering from excruciating kidney stones.

His aides said that after Mr. Kennedy finally decided he was well enough to come to Denver over the weekend, they became alarmed when he arrived on Sunday after a long charter airplane flight, accompanied by family members, aides and doctors, and reported being in excruciating pain.

Their first concern was that the pain was somehow related to his cancer, or the chemotherapy and radiology he had undergone, and that it had been complicated by the long flight or the high altitude of the city. A visit to a local hospital Sunday night revealed it was kidney stones and was unrelated to his cancer.

Kennedy’s handlers won’t tell whether or not he was on morphine to dull the pain.

Kidney stones are notoriously painful, and typically treated with morphine or other painkillers. (Aides would not say whether Mr. Kennedy had been given painkillers, or whether any stones had passed.)

Kennedy also thankfully ignored Bob Shrum’s suggestion that he give just a three-sentence statement.

But I guess that’s the kind of man Kennedy is. The most telling detail from the NYT story is one related not to last night’s efforts, but to his dramatic vote in support of Medicare earlier this summer.

One close associate, who demanded anonymity to discuss any element of Mr. Kennedy’s medical condition, disclosed that the senator had suffered an unspecified but serious setback in July after he flew to Washington in the midst of treatment to cast a vote on a Medicare bill.

McCain’s still wrestling with that teleprompter, while Kennedy is risking his health to save Medicare and elect Obama. I’m glad Kennedy’s on our team.

Annette Taddeo on the State of Her Race

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Blue America-endorsed Annette Taddeo dropped by the Big Tent today and we chatted about the state of her race. I was surprised to learn that–of the three Democrats running in South Florida–Annette’s is the only race that hasn’t yet been put on the DCCC’s Red-to-Blue list. Annette’s district is the least Republican of the three south Florida districts–you’d think this would be a target by now.

Annette made a compelling case that the party should not consider this a four-year project. Specifically, Obama’s candidacy will surely raise the turnout numbers among the district’s 5-6% African American population, which traditionally has turned out in small numbers. Also, University of Miami is in her district; Obama’s likely to generate enthusiasm among those students as well.

All the more reason to send some Blue America love to Annette to help her take out one of the Republicans in South Florida.

Enhanced Surveillance Techniques and The Police State

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Two things have caught my eye this morning. The first is a report out of Denver about a group of four that have been arrested in a supposed plot to kill Obama. From the AFP:

US authorities were Tuesday investigating an alleged plot to kill Barack Obama as he claims the Democratic nomination later this week in Denver, after four people were arrested with a haul of weapons.
…
The plot was unraveled Sunday after a police officer spotted a truck driving erratically in a suburb of Denver, Colorado where the four-day convention is being held. "The sergeant discovered inside his truck a bullet proof vest, two rifles, ammunition, walkie talkies and drugs," Aurora police detective Marcus Dudley told reporters.

"Additional information was then developed which led to the arrest of others." The suspects were being held on drugs and weapons charges while the alleged plot was being investigated by the US Secret Service which protects the US president and White House candidates and the FBI and the joint terrorism task force.

One of the men arrested had to be taken to hospital after he jumped out of a sixth floor hotel room window in an attempt to flee police, Dudley said.

A fortuitous traffic stop for "erratic driving" just flat out screams "pretext stop". I will be shocked beyond belief if they had not been onto these guys through other means prior to the traffic stop. It is very hard to fathom that this all came out of a simple traffic stop. What exactly is "erratic driving" anyway? Speeding? Weaving? A bad turn? Red light violation? How did they come to magically search the vehicle from a mere traffic ticket stop? Are the Aurora cops doing a full felony inventory vehicle search on every traffic ticket they issue? How did they get to a hotel search where a guy is jumping out of a window so quickly? Naw, there is something else at play here, you can just smell it.

The next incident involves the scene in Minneapolis for the Republican National Convention. Hey, never let it be said that I am not fair and balanced. From Laura Flanders on the FDL front page:

"Our colleagues at the Glass Bead Collective, a group of video artists and documentarians, are in the Twin Cities to prepare for the Republican National Convention. They were Read more →

What Would You Do with 50,000 Tickets to the Acceptance Speech?

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Just wanted to check in with a detail from Denver that may not be getting national play.

Obviously, one of the big events this week is Obama’s acceptance speech at Invesco Field Mile High. 75,000 people to hear Obama accept the Democratic nomination, on the anniversary of King’s"I Have a Dream" speech. You’d think it’d be a great opportunity for all the independent voters in CO who are considering Obama to hear him speak and get excited by his candidacy. But it sounds like it’s not working out that way.

For local residents, you could apply online for 2 tickets, both of which had to go to named people with local addresses. But even people who signed up for tickets on the first morning sign-ups opened have been put onto a waiting list.

There are roughly 25,000 people associated with the convention in town, so presumably a lot of the tickets went to those people (though it sounds like not all credentialed people will get into Invesco Field Mile High). Which should leave 50,000 tickets, right?

The perception is that those tickets went to donors and those who–in the interim period after signing up and getting tickets–offered to volunteer. Apparently, the luxury boxes at Invesco Field Mile High were also thrown into packages to close the fundraising gap.

It’s not necessarily a bad thing to ensure that volunteers all get to attend the speech. Ideally, those more engaged Obama supporters will do the work to persuade those independents who are not yet sold on Obama. And if folks are volunteering, after all, they ought to get to hear Obama speak. But for ordinary Denverites who will have to deal with the traffic of the Convention, even the big acceptance speech will be out of reach.

In the end, though, that’s probably a good thing. As is fairly normal for August in Denver, there have been thunder storms every afternoon for the last several days and there’s no reason to expect Thursday will be different. The doors open at 1–which means those waiting for the speech will likely get rained on. Hardcore Obama fans might not mind so much. But asking potential supporters to weather a thunderstorm probably isn’t a good persuasion tool.

Did Karl Rove Chat to Saakashvili about South Ossetia Too?

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The White House has started to panic over a July 9 meeting between Condi Rice and Mikheil Saakashvili, desperate to suggest they didn’t encourage Georgia’s crack-down in South Ossetia. Given that panic, I wonder whether Karl Rove had any similar chats with Saakashvili when they were in Yalta together just days later?

Now, there’s been a lot of justified chatter about the role of Randy Scheunemann, who appears to be advising the Republic of Georgia at the same time as he provides campaign advice to John McCain.

Sen. John McCain’s top foreign policy adviser prepped his boss for an April 17 phone call with the president of Georgia and then helped the presumptive Republican presidential nominee prepare a strong statement of support for the fledgling republic.

The day of the call, a lobbying firm partly owned by the adviser, Randy Scheunemann, signed a $200,000 contract to continue providing strategic advice to the Georgian government in Washington.

Given the way McCain has boasted of his frequent calls to Saakashvili in attempts to reclaim the mantle of the best international leader, it raises questions of whether the Administration’s "see no evil" approach to Georgia was part of a deliberate campaign strategy.

Particularly when you consider the fact that Karl Rove may have met with Saakashvili just days after the July 9 private dinner between Condi and Saakashvili that the White House, State, and DOD are now panicking about. Rove was in the neighborhood, in Yalta, at a conference with Saakashvili three days after the meeting (h/t brendanx).

09:30 – 11:00 – Plenary session: Elections in Russia and the USA: impact on Ukraine and Europe

What will be the foreign policy of the new Russian and American leadership over the coming years? How will it impact their relationship with the European Union and Ukraine, and EU’s further enlargement?

Moderator: Richard Haass
Panel: Sergey Glaziev, Director, Institute for New Economy, member of the 1st, 3rd and 4th Russian State Duma
Kostyantyn Gryshchenko, Ambassador to the Russian Federation and First Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine
Alexander Rahr, Programme Director, German Council on Foreign Relations, member of the Board of YES
Karl Rove, Former Deputy Chief of Staff to George W. Bush and Chief Strategist for Bush’s Presidential Campaigns
Bob Shrum, political consultant and Senior Fellow, Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, New York University

I mean, given that Rove was talking about the upcoming election as Saakashvili was walking in the room, it sure does make you wonder whether Rove said anything to Saakashvili about how a firmer hand in South Ossetia might help Georgia ensure its strong relationship with the US going forward. Read more →

Hard Qweschins: What the TradMedia Will Never Ask McCain, But Should

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I shared this news…

A federal judge says the University of California can deny course credit to applicants from Christian high schools whose textbooks declare the Bible infallible and reject evolution.

…with some folks, and Peterr said, "I really hope someone asks John McCain for his opinion on this."

Peterr is right: asking McCain for comment would make him choose between alienating the GOP base or speaking what he might still believe to be the truth, that science is science.

Peterr’s comment got me thinking about all the other things I’ve wished McCain would be asked about.

For example, why hasn’t anyone asked McCain whether he agrees with VA head James Peake’s policy of prohibiting non-partisan voter registration in VA hospitals?

"VA remains opposed to becoming a voter registration agency pursuant to the National Voter Registration Act, as this designation would divert substantial resources from our primary mission," Peake said in an April 8 letter to Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and John Kerry, D-Mass. He was referring to a 1993 federal law that allows government agencies to host voter registration efforts.

[snip]

"You’d think that when so many people give speeches about keeping faith with our veterans, the least the government would do is protect their right to vote, after they volunteered to go thousands of miles from home to fight and give that right to others," Kerry said. "And yet we’ve seen the government itself block veterans from registering to vote in VA facilities, without any legal basis or rational explanation.

Veterans are already hammering McCain for voting against veterans benefits repeatedly; McCain can ill afford to alienate veterans further. But this policy was undoubtedly put into place by Peake to shield McCain and other Republicans from the wrath of veterans who have been badly treated by the Bush Administration.

And, as a MI resident, I have wished someone would ask McCain whether he agrees with Bush’s decision to fire the Mid-West’s regional EPA Administrator because she wanted to force Dow Chemical to clean up a mess it made in Midland, MI.

The top U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator in the Midwest resigned Thursday amid internal fights over dioxin contamination near Dow Chemical Co.’s world headquarters in Midland, according to a published report.

Read more →

Okay, the Cookies Were Stupid and Silly, But Plagiarizing Your Foreign Policy Too?

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John McCain’s campaign seems to have a serial problem with plagiarism. First there was the Passion Fruit Mousse and then there were the Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies. Now, apparently, McCain’s stooped to stealing his foreign policy plans from others. And of all sources, he’s stealing from Wikipedia!

A Wikipedia editor notices some similarities between Sen. John McCain’s speech today on the crisis in Georgia and the Wikipedia article on the country Georgia. They appear similar enough that most people would consider parts of McCain’s speech to be derived directly from Wikipedia.

First instance:

one of the first countries in the world to adopt Christianity as an official religion (Wikipedia)

vs.

one of the world’s first nations to adopt Christianity as an official religion (McCain)

So here’s the pathetic thing. The first two times McCain got caught plagiarizing, at least it was a fairly reputable source. Rachael Ray? Hershey’s? Both reasonably respectable sources of recipes.

But Wikipedia? For a foreign policy speech?

Back when I taught college, I would always reserve a special kind of failing grade for those who stole from Wikipedia. After all, it would take someone both lazy and stupid to steal from Wikipedia, right?