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Florida Democratic Party says it won't do a revote. Not really sure what I think about this one yet, since the whole thing is a mess and none of the solutions would have made everybody happy anyway. It remains to be seen if the DNC will seat them anyway, or count their votes for half, or what.
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Michigan has three days to make their choice. After that, the Michigan legislature will go into a two week recess for the Spring, after which it will be too late to organize the election. So it's 72 hours or no go.
Noemon, you might be interested to know that Samantha Power is on The Colbert Report tonight.
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Any idea how much lag there is between the show's airing and its showing up on Comedy Central's website?
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Blayne Bradley
unregistered
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when will obama come on the report
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Blayne Bradley
unregistered
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!!!!!! THE EPISODES OF THE 13th!!!! OMG!!!! Its the guy! The guy!1!!! The socialologist!!!! Hes from that one chapter in freakonics I certain of it! Woo!
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I suspect the full speech will be up on Youtube sometime soon, but couldn't find anything except an excerpt right now.
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posted
Wow- that was an amazing speech, could very easily be the defining speech of his campaign. I e-mailed it to my mom (who is pretty anti-Obama). I hope she actually takes the time to read it.
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posted
It was brilliant -- he said a couple of things only he could say (at least, and have them be as meaningful.) When he says "Let us be our brother's keeper... let us be our sisters keeper", in the context of the myth that Cain's mark was a skin of blackness, I got chills.
The only part that kind of irked me was his dig at radical Islam. If anyone else said that, it would irk people. But being him, I guess he couldn't throw in the normal "Islam is a religion of Peace" caveat.
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posted
This is the speech I expected and hoped he'd make - it's directly in line with his thoughts and beliefs as expressed in "Dreams From My Father."
I know it spoke to me - but I'm not the target audience.
Several bloggers report that this speech was written solely by Obama, btw.
Not too many politicians doing that, anymore.
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posted
Man. That was a powerful speech. And yeah, all the more impressive for having come from Obama's own pen.
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I love Romney too, but couldn't support his position on immigration. I support McCain, but alas, I do not love him.
I think Obama's take on the war is the main issue that would keep me from voting for him (which I don't want to debate here -- I'm just saying we don't agree.) I do think his position has integrity, though. Mostly I love Obama's thoughts on identity, victimhood, and hope. Oh, yeah, and the zero-sum game. Has he talked about that before? I think that is the important part of this speech, because let's face it, not everyone will be willing to watch or read the whole thing.
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posted
I was wondering how long that thing took to deliver.
Kate, as I was reading it I was wondering how the media would dice it up. I was also wondering which parts Clinton would take out of context and distort. I'm very, very curious to see how this speech is handled.
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quote:I was also wondering which parts Clinton would take out of context and distort.
I don't think Clinton will touch this speech. I think it will get enough positive response from Democratic party regulars that any attempt to use it against him in any way will be hazardous to her.
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quote:I was also wondering which parts Clinton would take out of context and distort.
I don't think Clinton will touch this speech. I think it will get enough positive response from Democratic party regulars that any attempt to use it against him in any way will be hazardous to her.
I've been wrong before, though.
I think you are right this time. If she tries to take this speech apart it can only hurt her.
I really enjoyed this speech, it was well crafted, and I was impressed that rather then distance himself from the, "crazy uncle" he explained where men and women from all sides of this issue are coming from. I felt like he did a really good extensive job of expressing what race is in this country. I wish some of the scoffers in my political science classes would listen to this speech.
Sometimes it's hard to believe we might actually elect this man president. That in spite of all the dirtiness of politics somebody will be elected based on principles he has stood by the entire campaign.
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posted
I've been trying to think of all the people from whom I would have to "distance myself" in the unlikely event of my running for public office. Many people that I love and respect have some pretty wrong headed ideas about certain things. About certain things, they are wise; about other things...not so much. (I suspect this is true of a lot of us.) We compartmentalize relationships. I love my uncle, he is a good, smart, decent man, but the political jokes he sends me are offensive. I find that in matters of race and gender especially, there is often a generational shift in what is acceptable and possible.
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quote:Hillary Clinton said this afternoon that while she hasn't seen or read Barack Obama's sweeping speech on race in America, "I'm very glad that he gave it. It's an important topic."
Issues of race and gender have been complicated, both in the Democratic campaign and in the nation's history, she said at a news conference in Philadelphia.
"This is a historic moment for the Democratic Party and for our country," Clinton said, adding that all Americans should celebrate that the Democratic nominee will either be the first woman or first African-American.
Voters, she said, should pick the candidate who can best solve a growing list of worsening problems. "It will take a president ready on day one," she said.
Replying to the speech with her already-tired sounding "ready on day one" theme is just sad.
But I am more than a little biased.
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posted
I'm listening to the speech now. Off the top of my head I think Obama forgot about the 3/5ths Clause, but, it'd take a lot longer than 37 minutes to run through racial history in the 19th century.
I wonder if the reason Clinton attacks Obama's speechmaking prowess is because she is utterly incapable of making a speech like that. She can give a rousing speech, yes, but a speech like that? A speech that gives an upwelling of emotion and provokes thought like that? Some of the speech was some rehashing of old speeches and old ideas, but it was a great amalgam of his greatest hits, so to speak. But I wonder if Clinton is downplaying it just because she can't do it, not because it's somehow not substantive.
"ready on day one" is silly anyway. Day one is moving day. And ready to do WHAT on day one? You still have to deal with a slow moving Congress, you have to organize your cabinet and the west wing to get everything set up. It's a nice tag line, but what does she really mean by it? Arguably they're both ready now.
Noemon - The Power interview should be up by now. She had a lot of good stuff about the book she wrote, which I really want to get soon, but not much about the election. I hope Obama brings her back aboard after Clinton drops out.
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posted
Wow... that speech gave me shivers at the end when he was talking about the campaign organizer (Ashley) who's mom had had cancer when she was 9 and the black man.
This bit:
quote:There is a young, twenty-three year old white woman named Ashley Baia who organized for our campaign in Florence, South Carolina. She had been working to organize a mostly African-American community since the beginning of this campaign, and one day she was at a roundtable discussion where everyone went around telling their story and why they were there.
And Ashley said that when she was nine years old, her mother got cancer. And because she had to miss days of work, she was let go and lost her health care. They had to file for bankruptcy, and thats when Ashley decided that she had to do something to help her mom.
She knew that food was one of their most expensive costs, and so Ashley convinced her mother that what she really liked and really wanted to eat more than anything else was mustard and relish sandwiches. Because that was the cheapest way to eat.
She did this for a year until her mom got better, and she told everyone at the roundtable that the reason she joined our campaign was so that she could help the millions of other children in the country who want and need to help their parents too.
Now Ashley might have made a different choice. Perhaps somebody told her along the way that the source of her mothers problems were blacks who were on welfare and too lazy to work, or Hispanics who were coming into the country illegally. But she didn't. She sought out allies in her fight against injustice.
Anyway, Ashley finishes her story and then goes around the room and asks everyone else why they're supporting the campaign. They all have different stories and reasons. Many bring up a specific issue. And finally they come to this elderly black man whos been sitting there quietly the entire time. And Ashley asks him why hes there. And he does not bring up a specific issue. He does not say health care or the economy. He does not say education or the war. He does not say that he was there because of Barack Obama. He simply says to everyone in the room, I am here because of Ashley.
quote:Originally posted by Lyrhawn: Noemon - The Power interview should be up by now. She had a lot of good stuff about the book she wrote, which I really want to get soon, but not much about the election.
That's probably wise, really; at this point commenting much on the election would just keep the whole "monster" comment in public awareness, and continue to help Clinton. I'm looking forward to reading her book too, but I haven't yet gotten a copy of it.
quote:I hope Obama brings her back aboard after Clinton drops out.
quote:That's probably wise, really; at this point commenting much on the election would just keep the whole "monster" comment in public awareness, and continue to help Clinton. I'm looking forward to reading her book too, but I haven't yet gotten a copy of it.
Oh I agree entirely. You need only look as far as Geraldine Ferraro to know what NOT to do in this case. She's been on every show that will have her from here to eternity talking about how she just wishes people would drop it, but that she stands by it still. If she wanted them to drop it, she'd stop talking about it.
Colbert did make one interesting comment in the interview. He said something to the effect of: 'If all the campaign people keep saying all these negative things and then quitting, pretty soon the only two people that'll be left to say these things will be the candidates themselves.'
It was nice to hear someone actually say that out loud, as I bet most of us have been thinking of it over the last couple weeks after advisor after advisor on both campaigns were introduced to the media guillotine.
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posted
This speech really demonstrated why I like Obama. The man knows how to think and reason through a complex issue, understand all sides of the issue, come to some resolution of the issues and then communicate his reasoning in a way that is clear and moving.
I don't know if those critical thinking skills are really absent in the majority of public figures or if they simply don't have the confidence in the public to reason with us through the issues or the communication skills to do it if they tried. What ever the reason, I find Obama's willingness to reason with people on complex issues to be an invaluable skill and in such stark contrast to the current administration.
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posted
Wow. I got chills reading that speech, myself. I can't remember the last time that happened to me, reading something online, maybe in a book but not just online words.
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quote:Originally posted by The Rabbit: I don't know if those critical thinking skills are really absent in the majority of public figures or if they simply don't have the confidence in the public to reason with us through the issues or the communication skills to do it if they tried.
I think that it's a combination of the latter and of an awareness that saying anything substantive will give one's current and future enemies a larger "attack surface", so to speak.
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quote:Originally posted by The Rabbit: I don't know if those critical thinking skills are really absent in the majority of public figures or if they simply don't have the confidence in the public to reason with us through the issues or the communication skills to do it if they tried.
I think that it's a combination of the latter and of an awareness that saying anything substantive will give one's current and future enemies a larger "attack surface", so to speak.
In our current leadership, I suspect quite a bit of the former as well. What they say do say indicates such a strong black and white view of situations the "If you aren't with us, you are against us" mentality is just completely impossible for a person who is truly thinking critically. Add to that their complete cluelessness regarding how US actions over the past 7 years have impacted the world's view of the US and US leadership and I'm left with a very strong impression that our leaders have very poor critical thinking skills.
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posted
I was very nearly late for work today because of the speech. I saw in on MSNBC (I think) and they kept saying that the speech was minutes away.
And my family's speakers are on the fritz, to the only sound was coming from behind me. It was like Obama was speaking in my ear right over my right shoulder. It only amplified the chills that his speech sent down my spine.
I felt for the first time that I could be proud of out country if Obama was our president. I haven't been paying too much attention to all of the election stuff, but I can understand his wife when she said that for the first time in her life, she can be proud of America.
quote:Originally posted by The Rabbit: The man knows how to think and reason through a complex issue, understand all sides of the issue, come to some resolution of the issues and then communicate his reasoning in a way that is clear and moving.
It was incredibly refreshing to get that level of analysis and detail about an issue. It's been a long time since I've heard a speech like that.
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posted
If that speech ends up being one that's remembered (which is likely if he becomes president, I'd guess), I imagine that distant future printings of it will have to contain footnotes explaining that You Tube was a popular early 21st century video sharing website.
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I think it's very possible that YouTube will enter the English language as a regular word, if it hasn't already, and that a footnote might not be necessary, unless you mean like 200-300+ years into the future. I don't think video sharing is going anywhere for a long, long time, and as the pioneer in the field, or at least the most recognized pioneer, I think it'll be around for some time, in the same way most facial tissues are called Kleenex regardless of who made them.
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posted
I just read a pretty interesting NYTimes Article about a youtube clip that's received almost a million views. Apparently at one of the Obama/Clinton debates an interviewer (named Mike) approached a random Obama supporter outside the debates with a camera and a mic and started to really grill him on the issues. To the interviewer's clear surprise the supporter (Derrick Ashong) proved to be extremely well informed and had no difficulty answering any of the questions quite articulately. The video is six minutes long and has been posted on YouTube. The supporter who was interviewed later posted a video response in which he answered a number of questions he'd received about the circumstances of the interview and further explained his support for Obama. It's a pretty interesting pair of clips.
quote:Taken together, that means a guy who was looking to (anonymously) show a little love for a candidate was able to look into the camera for more than 13 minutes combined and draw in more than a million clicks with an impassioned but reasoned pitch.
Those are some pretty impressive 13 minutes. Thanks for posting that, Alcon.
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I watched both of the videos Alcon linked. It was pretty cool to see an interviewer obviously trying to catch someone offguard faced with a supporter who was well-informed and had no problem with a camera in his face.
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What I also liked was that after the interviewer realized he had someone who knew his stuff, he didn't stop questioning but kept the dialog running. So while he was obviously out to catch uninformed supporters, he was probably secretly hoping for someone like Dereck the whole time.
edit - or at the very least, willing to engage. which was unusual and commendable given his intended purpose.
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Alright, seriously, that woman is starting to piss me off now. Clinton is more or less saying now that Obama is the thing standing in the way of a revote in Florida and Michigan. That's such a mischaracterization of the facts at hand, I think it goes beyond spin into outright lying. Florida chose not to have a revote, and depending on Michigan's choice tomorrow, it'll be the state who chooses there as well. And of course that says nothing about when she was in Iowa and New Hampshire badmouthing us. Now all of a sudden she is so concerned for our well being? Right.
My cousin, who lives in Texas, asked me last night who I wanted to win the primary, and I said if she'd asked me that question in January, I'd have said I don't much care who wins, I like them both. But now? I really want Clinton gone. Her tactics are really making me angry, and they are throwing the advantages of the Democratic party out the window with her constantly negative infighting. She needs to let it go. They're going up against yet ANOTHER president who apparently doesn't know the different between Shiite and Sunni, or who the players are in the conflict, saying in Jordan that Al Qaeda and Iran are working together. Lieberman had to whisper into his ear to get him to correct himself, and they're going to lose to that if they don't get their stuff together.
I'll still vote for her if she wins, but I'll cast such a vote reluctantly now.
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There is this fear amongst me and my friends that if Clinton manages to get the nomination, all of us (and perhaps many young/new voters?) will feel very cheated. I know that the more I listen to Obama, the more I like; this feeling of actually LIKING a politician is a completely new thing to me. He and Ron Paul are the only people running for a major office I have truly trusted and liked at the same time.
So help me if Clinton wins; I will be very miserable with my country.
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quote:Lieberman had to whisper into his ear to get him to correct himself, and they're going to lose to that if they don't get their stuff together.
It worth noting that John McCain has been repeating this "gaffe", saying that Iran is training and supporting al Queda after being corrected. I'm getting the feeling it wasn't a mistake so much as a deliberate lie that is part of his strategy.
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