MillionDollarObamaPage seeking $1M on April 1.

The folks over at the milliondollarobamapage have let us know that they would like to try to start April off on a strong note and secure $1M in netroots donations on April first.  They ensure us that this not a joke, but rather a symbolic gesture to show that Obama supporters are no joke and are not fooling around this election cycle.  Hit ‘em up and thow a few bones their way.

Hillary Supporters Watch Obama Momentum in Pennsylvania

2008 Democratic Presidential Campaign is Litmus Test for Hillary Judgement

Let’s face it, after the past 7 years of complete incompetence on issues ranging from the war in Iraq to the federal government’s response to Hurricane Katrina, the common denominator of George W. Bushs’ decision making has repeatedly been a complete lack of proper judgement.  I mean, when’s the last time any of us have heard somebody say, “George Bush really hit a home run with his decision to do fill in the blank.” We want our president, when faced with a finite set of facts to be able to discern and recognize the nuance of any given situation and make the right call rooted in common sense. 

The 2008 Election campaign is going to produce a winner and a loser no matter which way we slice it.  It’s how the process works.  Ultimately the voters are the voice of reason and at the end of the day the political system is required to listen and follow due course.  We’re at the point in the 2008 election cycle when the handwriting on the wall is coming into focus on the Democratic side of the contest.  Candidates, at this point, have been vetted and anyone with any sort of connection to reality can usually pick up on either person’s talking points during any of their appearances on a talk show or at a campaign rally.  Obama will mention that he has voted against the war from the start and Hillary will reiterate her 35 years of experience bringing change to America.   Once we get past the rhetoric, we need to look at how each candidate is operating their campaigns at this point in the race and how they are guiding it based on the finite facts at hand.  In essence, we need to be gauging the judgement calls they’re making.

There’s no doubt that Obama has faced the most serious threat to his campaign due to some narrowly reported snippets from Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s sermons.  Obama needed to make a serious judgement call given the severity and corrosive nature of Wright’s words.  Obama could have spun away from Wright’s comments and distanced himself from them and probably skated by relatively unscathed albeit a bit bruised.  He made the call to face reality and give, what pundits on both ends of the political spectrum have called one of the most important speech in American politics.  He challenged America to face the oftentimes unspoken rules of disengagement between racial groups in society. 

Now let’s take a look at Hillary.  By all accounts she’s down by about 150 pledged delegates, behind in the popular vote, and her campaign is faltering financially essentially begging her donors just to stay even in getting her message out before she can even pay her outstanding invoices to small business owners who have helped host past events.  Several senior democratic colleagues have urged her to step down and align behind Obama, Gallup is reporting a 10 point spread (the largest this campaign) between candidates, and she’s now dodging questions about her ‘perilous’ trip to Bosnia where she falsely claimed that she was under sniper fire.  So giving these finite set of facts, what would common sense dictate?  To most, if the names and genders were omitted from the above scenarios, it would seem quite obvious.  There is one clearly winning strategy and one that is spiraling downward out of control.  But given these obvious challenges, Hillary makes the judgement call to fight on, with apparent disregard to the harm her continued participation may inflict on her party in November.  She, personal life aside, is showing us how she interprets specific facts, applies her own logic to those facts, and makes decisions in line with her own assessment.  We ask you, America, do you feel comfortable with her train of thought or has it already jumped the tracks?

Another Hillary lie: Chelsea almost died on 9/11

By Dick Morris and Eileen McGann via The Hill

Now that Hillary has been nailed in an outright fabrication of her role in Bosnia, it is time to remind ourselves of another, even more galling, fantasy that Hillary tried to sell to voters.

After Sept. 11, Hillary had a problem. New Yorkers were desperately focused on their own need for protection and they were saddled with a senator who was not one of them — an Arkansan, or was it a Chicagoan?

Interviewed on the “Today Show” one week after Sept. 11, she spun an elaborate yarn. The kindest thing we could say was that it was a fantasy. Or a fabrication.

She said that Chelsea was jogging around the World Trade Center on Sept. 11 and happened to duck into a coffee shop when the airplanes hit. She said that this move saved Chelsea’s life. But Chelsea told Talk magazine that she was in a friend’s apartment four miles from ground zero when the first plane hit. Her friend called her, waking her up, and told her to turn on the TV. On television, she saw the second plane hit, disproving Hillary’s claim that “she heard the plane hit. She heard it. She did.”

So why did Hillary make up the story about Chelsea? Most likely to was because her co-senator (and implicit rival for the voters’ affection), a real New Yorker, Charles Schumer (D), spoke of his daughter, who attended Stuyvesant High School, located next to the Trade Center, being at real risk on Sept. 11. Hillary needed to make herself part of the scene.

She invented the entire story on national television, the “Today Show,” and didn’t blink an eye.

Her fabrication on the “Today Show” was no unique foray. It is her standard M.O. It gives us pause in evaluating all of her stories and calls into question her entire credibility.

Hillary’s Pastor on Reverend Wright

A STATEMENT CONCERNING THE REV. JEREMIAH WRIGHT

The Reverend Jeremiah Wright is an outstanding church leader whom I have heard speak a number of times. He has served for decades as a profound voice for justice and inclusion in our society. He has been a vocal critic of the racism, sexism and homophobia which still tarnish the American dream. To evaluate his dynamic ministry on the basis of two or three sound bites does a grave injustice to Dr. Wright, the members of his congregation, and the African-American church which has been the spiritual refuge of a people that has suffered from discrimination, disadvantage, and violence. Dr. Wright, a member of an integrated denomination, has been an agent of racial reconciliation while proclaiming perceptions and truths uncomfortable for some white people to hear. Those of us who are white Americans would do well to listen carefully to Dr. Wright rather than to use a few of his quotes to polarize. This is a critical time in America’s history as we seek to repent of our racism. No matter which candidates prevail, let us use this time to listen again to one another and not to distort one another’s truth.

Dean J. Snyder, Senior Minister
Foundry United Methodist Church
March 19, 2008

Hillary’s Resumé Enhancement Forces an Unwilling Suspension of Belief

We find it incredulous that Hillary Clinton can get away with overtly embellishing her ‘experience’ during her years as First Lady.  I mean, c’mon, if Joe Sixpack went in for a job interview and told these types of ‘fishing stories’ and then was called out on it, he’d be blacklisted on Monster.com faster than Eliot Spitzer can put on his business socks.

We read a great article in the NY Times today by David Brooks in which he said:

For nearly 20 years, [Hillary] has been encased in the apparatus of political celebrity. Look at her schedule as first lady and ever since. Think of the thousands of staged events, the tens of thousands of times she has pretended to be delighted to see someone she doesn’t know, the hundreds of thousands times she has recited empty clichés and exhortatory banalities, the millions of photos she has posed for in which she is supposed to appear empathetic or tough, the billions of politically opportune half-truths that have bounced around her head.

The best contrast of all, however, is how completely different Hillary’s response was relating to her Boznian embellishment than Barack’s was in response to the the Rev. Wright debacle.  Barack follows up with what has been called on both sides of the aisle as a groundbreaking and historic speech on race relations, eclipsing the controversial episode entirely.  Hillary on the other hand, parses and triangulates and inherently increases the focus on the issue at hand making it seem even MORE of an insult to our intelligence, but then makes a weak effort to claim that she’d have left Rev. Wright’s church had she been in earshot of his remarks. 

So, we’re just finding ourselves unwillfully suspending our belief that anything Hillary says is true.

AP: Gov. Richardson Endorsing Obama

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, the nation’s only Hispanic governor, is endorsing Sen. Barack Obama for president, calling him a “once-in-a- lifetime leader” who can unite the nation and restore America’s international leadership.

Richardson, who dropped out of the Democratic race in January, is to appear with Obama on Friday at a campaign event in Portland, Ore., The Associated Press has learned.

The governor’s endorsement comes as Obama leads among delegates selected at primaries and caucuses but with national public opinion polling showing Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton pulling ahead of him amid controversy over statements by his former pastor.

Richardson has been relentlessly wooed by Obama and Clinton for his endorsement. As a Democratic superdelegate, the governor plays a part in the tight race for nominating votes and could bring other superdelegates to Obama’s side. He also has been mentioned as a potential running mate for either candidate.

No primaries are scheduled until Pennsylvania’s on April 22, a gap in time Obama hopes to use for such announcements to assert that he is the front-runner for the nomination.

“I believe he is the kind of once-in-a-lifetime leader that can bring our nation together and restore America’s moral leadership in the world,” Richardson said in a statement obtained by the AP. “As a presidential candidate, I know full well Sen. Obama’s unique moral ability to inspire the American people to confront our urgent challenges at home and abroad in a spirit of bipartisanship and reconciliation.”

Richardson’s endorsement also could help Obama pick up support among Hispanics, who are the nation’s largest and fastest-growing minority.

Clinton has been the favorite of Hispanics in primaries and caucuses, according to exit polls. She won the New Mexico caucus in early February with a nearly 2-to-1 advantage among Hispanics.

Richardson backed Obama despite his ties to Clinton and her husband, the former president. He served as ambassador to the U.N. and as secretary of the Energy Department during the Clinton administration. Last month, Richardson and former President Clinton watched the Super Bowl together at the governor’s residence in Santa Fe.

Richardson praised Hillary Clinton as a “distinguished leader with vast experience.” But the governor said Obama “will be a historic and great president, who can bring us the change we so desperately need by bringing us together as a nation here at home and with our allies abroad.”

Richardson was a roving diplomatic troubleshooter when he was a congressman from New Mexico, negotiating the release of U.S. hostages in several countries and meeting with a rogue’s gallery of U.S. adversaries, including Saddam Hussein and Fidel Castro.

“There is no doubt in my mind that Barack Obama has the judgment and courage we need in a commander in chief when our nation’s security is on the line. He showed this judgment by opposing the Iraq war from the start, and he has show it during this campaign by standing up for a new era in American leadership internationally,” Richardson said.

Obama said he was “deeply honored” to have Richardson’s support.

“Whether it’s fighting to end the Iraq war or stop the genocide in Darfur or prevent nuclear weapons from falling into the hands of terrorists, Gov. Richardson has been a powerful voice on issues of global security, peace and justice, earning five Nobel Peace Prize nominations,” Obama said in a statement.

Obama’s Passport Data Breached; State Department Investigating; 2 Fired

What does this mean for Hillary or the Republicans? Opposition research gone too far?

EDIT: via Drudge: DIRTY TRICKS FEAR AFTER STATE DEPT. FIRES TWO FOR UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO BARACK OBAMA’S PERSONAL PASSPORT FILE… MORE… WASHINGTON TIMES SET TO SPLASH THE DEVELOPMENT, NEWSROOM SOURCES TELL DRUDGE REPORT… MORE…

Obama’s Philadelphia Address: All the “Right Stuff”

by James Zogby via Huffington Post 

In bravely and comprehensively addressing the issue of race in America, its history and its persistent and corrosive impact on our society and politics, Barack Obama demonstrated uncommon leadership.

In recent weeks, the Democratic contest had descended into racially-tinged rancor. Comments by former Vice Presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro stoked the flames, then came clips of speeches given by Obama’s Pastor Jeremiah Wright, which were used to pour gasoline on the flames.

There were accusations by some that the Clinton campaign’s hesitant and timid response to Ferraro’s words suggested that they were playing the “race card” to their advantage, attempting to marginalize Obama as “the black candidate” in majority-white Pennsylvania. Compounding all of this, the press, like sharks smelling blood in the water, engaged in a feeding frenzy, drawing out the Ferraro story for three days and showing ad nauseam the clips of Wright’s remarks.

While shallower analysts and some opponents saw all of this crippling Obama’s candidacy, the problem was more serious than that. Deepening the racial divide, more than harming just Obama, would do grave damage to the Democratic coalition itself. Growing resentment between some in both the black and white communities would have the effect of driving down turnout, whoever emerged as the eventual nominee. The challenge, therefore, was how to douse the flames and not cause them to spread further.

With Barack Obama having presented himself as a transformational figure who could help reconcile the many divides that plague the American polity, the challenges he faced were clear:

– He needed to both explain the tradition and prophetic voice of the black church, creating a deeper understanding of the historic contribution that church has made to advancing social justice and meeting the needs of African Americans.

– He needed to both firmly distance himself from the verbal excesses of his pastor, while respecting Wright and his otherwise exemplary leadership.

– He needed to examine and help explain the black experience in America, and the roots of the resentment that gave rise to Wright’s comments, while at the same time examining and understanding the source of alienation of working class whites who have become victims of the economic downturn, and have come to see affirmative action and/or illegal immigration as having contributed to their displacement.

– And, finally, he needed to establish himself as the candidate best equipped to confront this history and these challenges, moving the nation forward beyond the red state/blue state divide, and the black/white divide.

The Philadelphia speech — part masterful historical narrative of America’s birth, with the “original sin of slavery,” to its ongoing effort to become “a more perfect union;” part social analysis of the way race has impacted both blacks and whites; and part exhortation to “find common ground” — showed Obama’s political instinct and rhetorical skills at their best. To borrow a reference from the recent past, he was at times like Martin Luther King, Jr., rising above rancor; and at times like Lyndon Baines Johnson, challenging the nation to pass the Civil Rights Bill of 1965.

There will be those who will attempt to pick apart the speech, seeing not enough here or too much there. Those who do not want to heal the divide will inevitably find fault. Yet, taken in its entirety, the Philadelphia speech was masterful, a tour de force and a defining moment in presidential politics.

Time and again, Obama has displayed a remarkable instinct and ability to rise above “politics as usual.” Even when goaded, he has not entered the fray. What he demonstrated in his Philadelphia speech was that it is precisely because of Geraldine Ferraro and Jeremiah Wright that America needs to confront the corrosive and persistent issue of race; and that he, Barack Obama has.

What I See in Lincoln’s Eyes - by Barack Obama

written by Barack Obama published in Time Magazine June 2005

My favorite portrait of Lincoln comes from the end of his life. In it, Lincoln’s face is as finely lined as a pressed flower. He appears frail, almost broken; his eyes, averted from the camera’s lens, seem to contain a heartbreaking melancholy, as if he sees before him what the nation had so recently endured.

It would be a sorrowful picture except for the fact that Lincoln’s mouth is turned ever so slightly into a smile. The smile doesn’t negate the sorrow. But it alters tragedy into grace. It’s as if this rough-faced, aging man has cast his gaze toward eternity and yet still cherishes his memories–of an imperfect world and its fleeting, sometimes terrible beauty. On trying days, the portrait, a reproduction of which hangs in my office, soothes me; it always asks me questions.

What is it about this man that can move us so profoundly? Some of it has to do with Lincoln’s humble beginnings, which often speak to our own. When I moved to Illinois 20 years ago to work as a community organizer, I had no money in my pockets and didn’t know a single soul. During my first six years in the state legislature, Democrats were in the minority, and I couldn’t get a bill heard, much less passed. In my first race for Congress, I had my head handed to me. So when I, a black man with a funny name, born in Hawaii of a father from Kenya and a mother from Kansas, announced my candidacy for the U.S. Senate, it was hard to imagine a less likely scenario than that I would win–except, perhaps, for the one that allowed a child born in the backwoods of Kentucky with less than a year of formal education to end up as Illinois’ greatest citizen and our nation’s greatest President.

In Lincoln’s rise from poverty, his ultimate mastery of language and law, his capacity to overcome personal loss and remain determined in the face of repeated defeat–in all this, he reminded me not just of my own struggles. He also reminded me of a larger, fundamental element of American life–the enduring belief that we can constantly remake ourselves to fit our larger dreams.

A connected idea attracts us to Lincoln: as we remake ourselves, we remake our surroundings. He didn’t just talk or write or theorize. He split rail, fired rifles, tried cases and pushed for new bridges and roads and waterways. In his sheer energy, Lincoln captures a hunger in us to build and to innovate. It’s a quality that can get us in trouble; we may be blind at times to the costs of progress. And yet, when I travel to other parts of the world, I remember that it is precisely such energy that sets us apart, a sense that there are no limits to the heights our nation might reach.

Still, as I look at his picture, it is the man and not the icon that speaks to me. I cannot swallow whole the view of Lincoln as the Great Emancipator. As a law professor and civil rights lawyer and as an African American, I am fully aware of his limited views on race. Anyone who actually reads the Emancipation Proclamation knows it was more a military document than a clarion call for justice. Scholars tell us too that Lincoln wasn’t immune from political considerations and that his temperament could be indecisive and morose.

But it is precisely those imperfections–and the painful self-awareness of those failings etched in every crease of his face and reflected in those haunted eyes–that make him so compelling. For when the time came to confront the greatest moral challenge this nation has ever faced, this all too human man did not pass the challenge on to future generations. He neither demonized the fathers and sons who did battle on the other side nor sought to diminish the terrible costs of his war. In the midst of slavery’s dark storm and the complexities of governing a house divided, he somehow kept his moral compass pointed firm and true.

What I marvel at, what gives me such hope, is that this man could overcome depression, self-doubt and the constraints of biography and not only act decisively but retain his humanity. Like a figure from the Old Testament, he wandered the earth, making mistakes, loving his family but causing them pain, despairing over the course of events, trying to divine God’s will. He did not know how things would turn out, but he did his best.

A few weeks ago, I spoke at the commencement at Knox College in Galesburg, Ill. I stood in view of the spot where Lincoln and Stephen Douglas held one of their famous debates during their race for the U.S. Senate. The only way for Lincoln to get onto the podium was to squeeze his lanky frame through a window, whereupon he reportedly remarked, “At last I have finally gone through college.” Waiting for the soon-to-be graduates to assemble, I thought that even as Lincoln lost that Senate race, his arguments that day would result, centuries later, in my occupying the same seat that he coveted. He may not have dreamed of that exact outcome. But I like to believe he would have appreciated the irony. Humor, ambiguity, complexity, compassion–all were part of his character. And as Lincoln called once upon the better angels of our nature, I believe that he is calling still, across the ages, to summon some measure of that character, the American character, in each of us today.

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