But look at the world we live in today. We have industries devoted to recycled paper. Energy-efficient light bulbs and chemical-free cleaning products are easily available. We have dolphin-friendly tuna and natural childbirth is routinely provided in our hospitals. We've seen "An Inconvenient Truth" winning an Oscar, and billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens demanding that we must get off our addiction to oil. National health-care is seen as a need by even some on the right, and the threat of global warming has become accepted as a reality by even those who made a living of arguing against it.
Many ideas that were once vilified as "liberal" are now casually accepted as mainstream. Many progressive ideas are no longer solely offered by those on the far-left of the Democratic party, rather moderates on both sides of the aisle are seeing the light and coming to adopt them as well. Progressive ideas are no longer portrayed as part of a leftist manifesto, thus conservative democrats no longer fear the same policies they once ran away from. Many of those same progressive ideas now occupy the Democratic Party platform.
In surrounding himself with very smart and open-minded people, people who are respected on both sides of the aisle, Obama is making it much more difficult for partisans and republicans to vilify him, his administration, and his policies. Rather than giving life to a modern day wannabe Newt Gingrich and losing the gains of Congress, Obama is laying the groundwork to not only increase those gains, but also strengthening the Democratic brand in the minds of the country. The obstructionists will soon show themselves to be the ones who are the extremists and out of touch, while Obama and the Democrats will solidify themselves as the party that gets things done.
Surely Obama understands that the country has moved to the left. But to bring the rest of the country along, he must do it in a moderate fashion. Remember, when a pendulum swings from the right, it must pass through the middle before it gets to the left.
]]>Not only have the policies been incompetent, but those with positions of responsibility in this administration have been incompetent. Bush, Rumsfeld, Gonzales, Chertoff, Miers, "Brownie", Cheney, Libby, Rice, Bolton, Goodling and many more. These individuals were not the best and brightest of what this country has to offer, rather they are party loyalists who share a similar disdain and disrespect for the positive role that government can have in people's lives.
A familiar theme from Barack Obama on the campaign trail was that government can't solve every problem, but at the very least, it should do no harm. With all of the serious challenges that we face as a nation, Obama seems convinced that surrounding himself with very smart people is more important than where a person leans politically.
Instead of selecting partisans and rewarding political hacks with cushy positions where they have no business being, Obama is selecting open-minded and qualified individuals who are well-respected throughout Washington and abroad.
Are Obama's selections the progressive all-star team that some of us might have preferred? No, obviously not. Still, few can say that his appointments are incompetents or partisan hacks or ideological die-hards. Many in this country have lost confidence in our government, in our economy, and in our institutions. It seems to me that Obama is attempting to provide a sense of confidence in the team that he is assembling, to give assurances to all that he intends to provide responsible government.
]]>And that, in a nutshell, says it all.
If the MSM were to reveal the associations of McCain and Palin with the same vigor that they discuss the associations of Obama. If they were to point out the hypocrisy of the McCain campaign. If they were to report the overwhelming edge Obama/Biden currently holds in every independent electoral projection rather than lowballing their own projections, this campaign and it's coverage as we know it would be over.
If the Obama and McCain campaigns are trying to guess what the questions will be in the vice presidential debate on Thursday night in St. Louis, it appears that Ifill's questioning follows the campaign talking points, with a touch of day's headlines. She's not big on the gotcha questions to see if the candidates know the name of the President of Argentina.
Intro
You must enter an Intro for your Diary Entry between 300 and 1150 characters long.
In the 2004 vice presidential debate, moderator Gwen Ifill asked a total of 20 questions of Dick Cheney and John Edwards. Nine of which were deemed as foreign policy, 11 domestic policy. Take note that three of the domestic policy questions were directly about John Edwards (Being a trial lawyer is Edwards part of the problem, as a trail lawyer do you feel personally attacked, and what qualifies you to be a heartbeat away). Another question was about flip-flopping.
If the Obama and McCain campaigns are trying to guess what the questions will be in the vice presidential debate on Thursday night in St. Louis, it appears that Ifill's questioning follows the campaign talking points, with a touch of day's headlines. She's not big on the gotcha questions to see if the candidates know the name of the President of Argentina.
The following are the 20 questions asked by Ifill in the 2004 VP debate:
(C) Vice President Cheney, there have been new developments in Iraq, especially having to do with the administration's handling. Paul Bremer, the former head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, gave a speech in which he said that we have never had enough troops on the ground, or we've never had enough troops on the ground. Donald Rumsfeld said he has not seen any hard evidence of a link between Al Qaida and Saddam Hussein. Was this approved -- of a report that you requested that you received a week ago that showed there was no connection between Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Saddam Hussein?
(E) You and Senator Kerry have said that the war in Iraq is the wrong war at the wrong time. Does that mean that if you had been president and vice president that Saddam Hussein would still be in power?
(C) Tonight we mentioned Afghanistan. We believe that Osama bin Laden is hiding perhaps in a cave somewhere along the Afghan-Pakistan border. If you get a second term, what is your plan to capture him and then to neutralize those who have sprung up to replace him?
(E) Senator Kerry said, "You've got to do" -- you know, he was asked about preemptive action at the last debate -- he said, "You've got to do it in a way that passes the test, that passes the global test where your countrymen, your people understand fully why you're doing what you're doing and can prove to the world that you did it for legitimate reasons." What is a global test if it's not a global veto?
(C) When the president says that Senator Kerry is emboldening enemies and you say that we could get hit again if voters make the wrong choice in November, are you saying that it would be a dangerous thing to have John Kerry as president?
(E) Part of what you have said and Senator Kerry has said that you are going to do in order to get us out of the problems in Iraq is to internationalize the effort. Yet French and German officials have both said they have no intention even if John Kerry is elected of sending any troops into Iraq for any peacekeeping effort. Does that make your effort or your plan to internationalize this effort seem kind of naive?
(E) If this report that we've read about today is true, and if Vice President Cheney ordered it and asked about this, do you think that, in the future, that your administration or the Bush administration would have sufficient and accurate enough intelligence to be able to make decisions about where to go next?
(C) Mr. Vice President, in June of 2000 when you were still CEO of Halliburton, you said that U.S. businesses should be allowed to do business with Iran because, quote, "Unilateral sanctions almost never work." After four years as vice president now, and with Iran having been declared by your administration as part of the "Axis of Evil," do you still believe that we should lift sanctions on Iran?
(E) Senator Edwards, as we wrap up the foreign policy part of this, I do want to talk to you about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Today, a senior member of Islamic Jihad was killed in Gaza. There have been suicide bombings, targeted assassinations, mortar attacks, all of this continuing at a time when the United States seems absent in the peace-making process. What would your administration do? First of all, do you agree that the United States is absent? Maybe you don't. But what would your administration do to try to resolve that conflict?
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(C) In that case, we'll move on to domestic matters. Mr. Vice President, the Census Bureau ranked Cleveland as the biggest poor city in the country, 31 percent jobless rate. You two gentlemen are pretty well off. You did well for yourselves in the private sector. What can you tell the people of Cleveland, or people of cities like Cleveland, that your administration will do to better their lives?
(E) Senator Kerry said in a recent interview that he absolutely will not raise taxes on anyone under -- who earns under $200,000 a year. How can he guarantee that and also cut the deficit in half, as he's promised?
(C) I want to read something you said four years ago at this very setting: "Freedom means freedom for everybody." You said it again recently when you were asked about legalizing same-sex unions. And you used your family's experience as a context for your remarks. Can you describe then your administration's support for a constitutional ban on same-sex unions?
(E) As the vice president mentioned, John Kerry comes from the state of Massachusetts, which has taken as big a step as any state in the union to legalize gay marriage. Yet both you and Senator Kerry say you oppose it. Are you trying to have it both ways?
(C) President Bush has derided in John Kerry for putting a trial lawyer on the ticket. You yourself have said that lawsuits are partly to blame for higher medical costs. Are you willing to say that John Edwards, sitting here, has been part of the problem?
(E) Do you feel personally attacked when Vice President Cheney talks about liability reform and tort reform and the president talks about having a trial lawyer on the ticket?
(C) I will talk to you about health care, Mr. Vice President. You have two minutes. But in particular, I want to talk to you about AIDS, and not about AIDS in China or Africa, but AIDS right here in this country, where black women between the ages of 25 and 44 are 13 times more likely to die of the disease than their counterparts. What should the government's role be in helping to end the growth of this epidemic?
(E) Ten men and women have been nominees of their parties since 1976 to be vice president. Out of those ten, you have the least governmental experience of any of them. What qualifies you to be a heartbeat away?
(C) Mr. Vice President, picking up on that, you both just sang the praises of the tops of your ticket. Without mentioning them by name at all, explain to us why you are different from your opponent.
(E) Flip-flopping has become a recurring theme in this campaign, you may have noticed. Senator Kerry changed his mind about whether to vote to authorize the president to go to war. President Bush changed his mind about whether a homeland security department was a good idea or a 9/11 Commission was a good idea. What's wrong with a little flip-flop every now and then?
(C) Whichever one of you is elected in November -- you mentioned those three electoral votes in Wyoming and how critical they've turned out to be. But what they're a sign of also is that you're going to inherit a very deeply divided electorate, economically, politically, you name it. How will you set out, Mr. Vice President, in a way that you weren't able to in these past four years, to bridge that divide?
Body
The following are the 20 questions asked by Ifill in the 2004 VP debate:
(C) Vice President Cheney, there have been new developments in Iraq, especially having to do with the administration's handling. Paul Bremer, the former head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, gave a speech in which he said that we have never had enough troops on the ground, or we've never had enough troops on the ground. Donald Rumsfeld said he has not seen any hard evidence of a link between Al Qaida and Saddam Hussein. Was this approved -- of a report that you requested that you received a week ago that showed there was no connection between Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Saddam Hussein?
(E) You and Senator Kerry have said that the war in Iraq is the wrong war at the wrong time. Does that mean that if you had been president and vice president that Saddam Hussein would still be in power?
(C) Tonight we mentioned Afghanistan. We believe that Osama bin Laden is hiding perhaps in a cave somewhere along the Afghan-Pakistan border. If you get a second term, what is your plan to capture him and then to neutralize those who have sprung up to replace him?
(E) Senator Kerry said, "You've got to do" -- you know, he was asked about preemptive action at the last debate -- he said, "You've got to do it in a way that passes the test, that passes the global test where your countrymen, your people understand fully why you're doing what you're doing and can prove to the world that you did it for legitimate reasons." What is a global test if it's not a global veto?
(C) When the president says that Senator Kerry is emboldening enemies and you say that we could get hit again if voters make the wrong choice in November, are you saying that it would be a dangerous thing to have John Kerry as president?
(E) Part of what you have said and Senator Kerry has said that you are going to do in order to get us out of the problems in Iraq is to internationalize the effort. Yet French and German officials have both said they have no intention even if John Kerry is elected of sending any troops into Iraq for any peacekeeping effort. Does that make your effort or your plan to internationalize this effort seem kind of naive?
(E) If this report that we've read about today is true, and if Vice President Cheney ordered it and asked about this, do you think that, in the future, that your administration or the Bush administration would have sufficient and accurate enough intelligence to be able to make decisions about where to go next?
(C) Mr. Vice President, in June of 2000 when you were still CEO of Halliburton, you said that U.S. businesses should be allowed to do business with Iran because, quote, "Unilateral sanctions almost never work." After four years as vice president now, and with Iran having been declared by your administration as part of the "Axis of Evil," do you still believe that we should lift sanctions on Iran?
(E) Senator Edwards, as we wrap up the foreign policy part of this, I do want to talk to you about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Today, a senior member of Islamic Jihad was killed in Gaza. There have been suicide bombings, targeted assassinations, mortar attacks, all of this continuing at a time when the United States seems absent in the peace-making process. What would your administration do? First of all, do you agree that the United States is absent? Maybe you don't. But what would your administration do to try to resolve that conflict?
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(C) In that case, we'll move on to domestic matters. Mr. Vice President, the Census Bureau ranked Cleveland as the biggest poor city in the country, 31 percent jobless rate. You two gentlemen are pretty well off. You did well for yourselves in the private sector. What can you tell the people of Cleveland, or people of cities like Cleveland, that your administration will do to better their lives?
(E) Senator Kerry said in a recent interview that he absolutely will not raise taxes on anyone under -- who earns under $200,000 a year. How can he guarantee that and also cut the deficit in half, as he's promised?
(C) I want to read something you said four years ago at this very setting: "Freedom means freedom for everybody." You said it again recently when you were asked about legalizing same-sex unions. And you used your family's experience as a context for your remarks. Can you describe then your administration's support for a constitutional ban on same-sex unions?
(E) As the vice president mentioned, John Kerry comes from the state of Massachusetts, which has taken as big a step as any state in the union to legalize gay marriage. Yet both you and Senator Kerry say you oppose it. Are you trying to have it both ways?
(C) President Bush has derided in John Kerry for putting a trial lawyer on the ticket. You yourself have said that lawsuits are partly to blame for higher medical costs. Are you willing to say that John Edwards, sitting here, has been part of the problem?
(E) Do you feel personally attacked when Vice President Cheney talks about liability reform and tort reform and the president talks about having a trial lawyer on the ticket?
(C) I will talk to you about health care, Mr. Vice President. You have two minutes. But in particular, I want to talk to you about AIDS, and not about AIDS in China or Africa, but AIDS right here in this country, where black women between the ages of 25 and 44 are 13 times more likely to die of the disease than their counterparts. What should the government's role be in helping to end the growth of this epidemic?
(E) Ten men and women have been nominees of their parties since 1976 to be vice president. Out of those ten, you have the least governmental experience of any of them. What qualifies you to be a heartbeat away?
(C) Mr. Vice President, picking up on that, you both just sang the praises of the tops of your ticket. Without mentioning them by name at all, explain to us why you are different from your opponent.
(E) Flip-flopping has become a recurring theme in this campaign, you may have noticed. Senator Kerry changed his mind about whether to vote to authorize the president to go to war. President Bush changed his mind about whether a homeland security department was a good idea or a 9/11 Commission was a good idea. What's wrong with a little flip-flop every now and then?
(C) Whichever one of you is elected in November -- you mentioned those three electoral votes in Wyoming and how critical they've turned out to be. But what they're a sign of also is that you're going to inherit a very deeply divided electorate, economically, politically, you name it. How will you set out, Mr. Vice President, in a way that you weren't able to in these past four years, to bridge that divide?
So it comes as a surprise that when what is deemed the biggest financial crisis since the the Great Depression, the Bush administration rolls out Henry Paulson's proposal which they originally called the Troubled Asset Rescue Plan. Frank Luntz must have cringed when he heard this. It's little wonder that the proposal was quickly referred to as the Bailout plan. Granted, a bailout aptly describes the situation, but describing a bill for what it is goes against the Bush adminstration and republican history. Where was the Bush sales and marketing team on this one?
]]>That simple idea I'm not sure I always understood when I was a kid, but it stayed with me.
...</blockquote>
There have been times during the long campaign when I have felt sad that Barack can't share all of this with his mother, and that she cannot be here to share it with him. How proud she would be. Although she is no longer with us, I have no doubt that she lives on in her son.
Gaffe machine? Really? Has anyone in the media been paying attention to the clown that has occupied the White House for the past eight years?
Has anyone in media been watching as John McCain lays a golden gaffe on a daily basis throughout this campaign?
For McCain to call anyone a gaffe machine is well beyond the pot calling the kettle black.
It's worth a view:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/26300609#26300609
We need to get Republicans for Obama much more air-time. Get them on the news-shows and put them in ads. They have the ability to reach other republicans and independents.
http://www.republicansforobama.org/
It also helps that Gore was right on the issue of the war, and he has become the face of global warming. Who better to be a spokesperson to refute the McCain drill-drill-mentality than Al Gore? Gore also represents a time of American economic prosperity without all the Clinton baggage. In Gore, there's foreign policy experience beyond anything McCain offers. Gore provides considerable knowledge on energy, global warming, defense, the economy and technology issues.
Some might ask why Gore would want to get into the political ring again, but I think it's safe to say that being VP in 2008 with Barack Obama would certainly be different than being VP a decade ago with Bill Clinton. Gore would viewed as the wise sage and a valued partner with Obama.
Admit it. Just the thought of an Obama/Gore ticket excites you.
It will be Mitt Romney.
Here's my reasoning:
1. McCain has been paranoid about any media attention that Obama receives, thus not to be outdone he will once again follow Obama's lead.
2. McCain and his campaign have decided that their only winning strategy is to go negative. Surprisingly, some republicans have shown that they don't have the stomach to follow on McCain's bogus attacks on Obama. Romney on the other hand has shown to have no problem with following this line of attack, as he lacks any amount of character.