Tag Archive for 'Barack Obama'

Kabuki Theater: Not Actual Leadership (Updated)

by
Sean Broom
Published on September 24, 2008 at 4:28 pm
, filed in White House '08
. 69 Comments

John McCain announced today amid the roaring that is his vacuous campaign that he would suspend his campaign and get to work to help broker a deal on the bank bailout.  This is one of the more amazing stunts I’ve ever seen.

John McCain has said before that “The issue of economics is something that I’ve really never understood as well as I should.”  He serves on the Senate committee for Commerce, Science and Transportation, and while it has the word commerce in it’s title it has nothing to do with credit, housing and financial services.  John McCain has missed 64% of all the votes in the United States Senate this year, where was his leadership then?

So Senator McCain, before we go along with this little bit of kabuki theater, how about you tell us what you can actually do to help the situation?  What do you have to offer?

Just to go a little further, this morning at 8:30 Barack Obama called Senator McCain “to ask him if he would join in issuing a joint statement outlining their shared principles and conditions for the Treasury proposal and urging Congress and the White House to act in a bipartisan manner to pass such a proposal.”  Senator McCain schemed for 6 hours, called him back and said “Sure!” and then announced this stunt.

That’s not country first.  That’s McCain first.

How about you show up on Friday and try to show the American who will be the right person to lead them for the next four years, and leave the stunts to someone else, yeah?

Update: Demand the Debate 2008 we deserve it.

Update 2: This morning while Obama was waiting for a phone call from McCain about a joint statement, McCain was visiting with his new favorite heiress, Lynn de Rothschild.  I can only hope it was to get her advice on the economy.

John McCain has the Leadership Style of the Queen of Hearts

by
Sean Broom
Published on September 23, 2008 at 3:59 pm
, filed in White House '08
. 8 Comments

From uber Conservative George Will:

Under the pressure of the financial crisis, one presidential candidate is behaving like a flustered rookie playing in a league too high. It is not Barack Obama.

Channeling his inner Queen of Hearts, John McCain furiously, and apparently without even looking around at facts, said Chris Cox, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, should be decapitated. This childish reflex provoked the Wall Street Journal to editorialize that “McCain untethered” — disconnected from knowledge and principle — had made a “false and deeply unfair” attack on Cox that was “unpresidential” and demonstrated that McCain “doesn’t understand what’s happening on Wall Street any better than Barack Obama does….

To read the Journal’s details about the depths of McCain’s shallowness on the subject of Cox’s chairmanship, see “McCain’s Scapegoat” (Sept. 19). Then consider McCain’s characteristic accusation that Cox “has betrayed the public’s trust.”

“Off with his head!” isn’t a good leadership style.  Barack Obama has shown the level headed leadership and patience necessary to handle a crisis — John McCain is bouncing around from failed attack, to failed attack.   Barack Obama has shown who is the real grown up here, and John McCain has shown that all those concerns about his temper and judgment are well founded.

BREAKING: Obama Campaign Organizers Trying To Win Election Instead of Get You Yard Signs

by
Sean Broom
Published on September 21, 2008 at 10:10 pm
, filed in White House '08
. 19 Comments

From FiveThirtyEight

In a controversial move sure to upset millions of people, Barack Obama’s campaign has decided to forgo the traditional time-wasting distribution of chum (yard signs, bumper stickers, etc.) to try and win the election.

Settling on what they call a “get voters to register by approaching them on the phone and at the door with an army of volunteers” strategy, Obama’s senior staff has directed state, regional, and local field organizers to use their finite time to make tangible progress toward winning.

Yeah, as I was saying.  Give the article from 538 (one of my daily reads) a read.

Edit: As a follow up, so this is one of the more recent articles on 538 — 

Twelve to one.

For every twelve voters who you talk to at their doors, one voter goes and votes who would not otherwise have voted. If you’re asking: “how can I be most effective in helping my candidate win the election?” then an organizer’s answer is going to be: knock on doors.….

Let’s do a little math. 12 face-to-face contacts is one new voter who would not have otherwise voted that you personally generated. You just doubled your own vote by speaking at the door to twelve voters. Of course, then it comes down to contact rate — how often is the person home that you’re trying to reach. A very low contact rate is probably 10%, and that happens. A very high contact rate can be 50%. Average is in the 25% ballpark. On average, you’d have to knock on 48 doors to generate 12 face-to-face contacts and one additional vote. 48 doors is a pretty standard, approximate walk list.

That is why $2000 spent on an organizer is better spent than $2000 on a batch of lawn signs.

There is work to be done, Ash Madia, Steve Sarvi, Al Franken and Barack Obama all need your help, and your help needs to come in direct voter to voter contact.  Lawn signs don’t vote, but people do.  Go Get Some!

The Enuthiasm Gap Demonstrated

by
Zack Stephenson
Published on September 20, 2008 at 1:30 pm
, filed in White House '08
. 123 Comments

Yesterday, the much vaunted McCain-Palin ticket rolled into the Twin Cities.  Team McCain has been crowing for weeks about how Palin’s addition to the GOP ticket has generated a massive increase of enthusiasm among the Republican faithful.  Apparently, McCain-Palin rallies have generated record crowds all across the country (although, media reports have revealed that the McCain campaign has exaggerated their crowd counts).

Well, John McCain did draw a large crowd to his rally up in Blaine yesterday - something in the neighborhood of 10,000 people.  Not bad.  But you want to know what is really impressive?  The Obama counter-rally at Peavey Plaza, which did not feature either Barack Obama OR Joe Biden (or even a state-wide elected official) drew 3,500 people! (Added by Aaron: …and it was only announced two days in advance!)

That, my friends, is a first rate example of the enthusiasm gap in this election - a big reason why Obama is going to carry Minnesota and win the election in six weeks.

Obama vs. McCain on Tax Policy

by
Matt Martin
Published on September 15, 2008 at 1:18 pm
, filed in White House '08
. 38 Comments

In light of the major news today and over the weekend, I think it’s an appropriate time to lay out the facts about Obama and McCain’s tax policies.  Now, let me note that given the ever increasing worry over the long-term prospects for a continued recession, I wouldn’t be very surprised if these policies change over the next two months, and I’d be very surprised if either candidate sticks to them in office.  That being said, we only have the information currently at hand, and this is as good a starting point as any.

CNN Money tackles this issue in an article, but the table to the right that they produce based on data from the non-partisan Tax Policy Center analysis of the candidates’ programs sums everything up quite well.  Let me pause to say something here: this is an independent and agreed to be credible analysis of the candidates’ policies; if we can’t agree upon the chart to the right as fact, or at least as a close approximation appropriately used as a jumping-off point for discussion, we’re not going to be able to have a very constructive discussion here.

I am, and have been for some time, a big supporter of Obama’s tax plan as illustrated to the right.  Over the last 8 years, the only segment of the population that has seen an increase in real, after-expenses income are the top 5% of income earners.  Moreover, the increase within this group has been substantial.  And while there’s no doubt that Obama’s tax increases for those making above $607K is substantial, it’s not until you get to the top 1% of earners ($2.9M and above) that you see a real hit (and let it be noted, that most of those making more than $2.9M a year, are making way more than that).  Plus, the hit isn’t really even a hit if you subscribe to the (I think legitimate) liberal talking point that this merely rolls back the Bush temporary tax cuts.

For nearly everyone making under $607K a year, and for everyone making under $227K, you see a tax decrease under both plans.  But if you make under $112K, you’re going to see a decrease of substantially more under Obama.

Now, here’s the kicker, and I think in light of our current economic situation, it’s a very untenable and irresponsible kicker:

Under both plans, all American taxpayers could pay a price for their tax cuts: a bigger deficit. The Tax Policy Center estimates that over 10 years, McCain’s tax proposals could increase the national debt by as much as $4.5 trillion with interest, while Obama’s could add as much as $3.3 trillion.

Which means we need more revenue, less spending, or (ideally) a combination of the two.  I would love to see someone force both candidates to outline what budget cuts they’d make; especially with McCain claiming he could find $1 Billion in cuts tomorrow…

Well, we know what Alan Greenspan thinks:

In an interview with Bloomberg Television, Greenspan argued that the country couldn’t afford the tax cuts being proposed by John McCain without an equally massive reduction in spending.

“I’m not in favor of financing tax cuts with borrowed money,” he said. “I always have tied tax cuts to spending.”

But the real question is what do you guys think?

New Obama Ad holds McCain Accountable for Ad Lies

by
Matt Martin
Published on September 15, 2008 at 12:27 pm
, filed in White House '08
. 16 Comments

This is precisely the Obama ad I’ve been waiting for.  McCain’s TV spots have gotten despicably dishonest:

Survey USA: Franken 40, Coleman 41

by
Aaron Landry
Published on September 13, 2008 at 11:46 am
, filed in MN 2008: Senate and White House '08
. 15 Comments

KSTP writes on Survey USA’s latest poll:

Minnesota’s two highest-profile political races are too close to call, according to our exclusive new SurveyUSA poll.

…

Coleman leads 41 percent to 40 percent over Franken — a miniscule lead well within the margin of error.

…

…Franken has the momentum. One month ago he trailed by seven points. Now he trails just by one.

Many polls showed a convention bounce for McCain, post-convention. Coleman, despite all of his face time at the RNC, goes the other direction.

It’s poignant as Survey USA generally has leaned against Franken more compared to other surveys. All recent polls have shown Franken leading or showing positive momentum.

Obama on RNC: You’ve heard about McCain and me, but not a word about you!

by
Matt Martin
Published on September 4, 2008 at 3:15 pm
, filed in White House '08
. 8 Comments

Well said:

Okay– Now, Seriously.

by
Sean Broom
Published on August 30, 2008 at 2:42 pm
, filed in White House '08
. 50 Comments

My obnoxious post earlier aside — this pick is catastrophically bad.

Most obviously, this pick is a craven attempt to try and peel off just enough women for McCain to win.  That’s the math now in McCain land.  All of the grandiose talk McCain had about new politics, about being a maverick is now boiled down to just a stunt in an attempt to win the White House.  Key to this new math is the expectation that women will vote for McCain/Palin, just because she’s a woman, which would mean that McCain thinks that millions of women in America voted for Hillary Clinton because of her chromosomes.  Never mind the fact that she had years of experience and a compelling message (a compelling message, by the way, is something that the McCain camp is still missing).

I cannot find a single person on a national ticket, ever, who is more unqualified than Sarah Palin — the only one that comes to mind is Spiro Agnew, and it should be noted that Baltimore county (Agnew was a county exec before he was Governor of Maryland) had about 450K people, not 8K.  The 5th Congressional District has approximately 615K people, Alaska has about 680K people.  She has served as Governor for all of about 20 months in a state with about half the population of Hennepin County — a state mind you that is flush in petrodollars.  She hasn’t had to deal with a difficult budget, she has no practical experience with the difficult arts of governance — let alone the experience necessary to be President.  She shows little or no understanding of foriegn policy and the response of the McCain camp to this, is that she’ll learn at McCain’s feet, the very robust sexism of that comment aside — do we need a vice president who needs to learn at the feet of a 72 year old cancer survivor?

Hillary Clinton could have been President — not because of her gender, but because of her judgement, her experience and her wisdom — these are as far as we can tell traits that Palin lacks.

And finally, more than Sarah Palin what this pick says

John McCain showed with this pick — his first presidential choice — that he doesn’t have the judgement or the character to be President of the United States.  A guy who has run on his fealty to the country picked as his #2 someone wholly incapable of leading it.

[Edit]And, one thing earlier I forgot to mention, McCain met Palin once before last Wednesday and spoke to her on the phone just one other time.  Think about that for a second, he picked a person who won’t help him govern any better but who he cravenly thinks will help him campaign better after having only met her once in person before last Wednesday.

That shows me pretty clearly that he doesn’t have the judgement, the temperment, or the values to be President.

The American Promise

by
Matt Martin
Published on August 28, 2008 at 11:29 pm
, filed in White House '08
. 41 Comments

I could go on and on about all the ways in which Barack Obama just blew all expectations out of the water, but as usual, Andrew Sullivan says it better:

It was a deeply substantive speech, full of policy detail, full of people other than the candidate, centered overwhelmingly on domestic economic anxiety. It was a liberal speech, more unabashedly, unashamedly liberal than any Democratic acceptance speech since the great era of American liberalism. But it made the case for that liberalism - in the context of the decline of the American dream, and the rise of cynicism and the collapse of cultural unity. His ability to portray that liberalism as a patriotic, unifying, ennobling tradition makes him the most lethal and remarkable Democratic figure since John F Kennedy.

What he didn’t do was give an airy, abstract, dreamy confection of rhetoric. The McCain campaign set Obama up as a celebrity airhead, a Paris Hilton of wealth and elitism. And he let them portray him that way, and let them over-reach, and let them punch him again and again … and then he turned around and destroyed them. If the Rove Republicans thought they were playing with a patsy, they just got a reality check.

He took every assault on him and turned them around. He showed not just that he understood the experience of many middle class Americans, but that he understood how the Republicans have succeeded in smearing him. And he didn’t shrink from the personal charges; he rebutted them. Whoever else this was, it was not Adlai Stevenson. It was not Jimmy Carter. And it was less afraid and less calculating than Bill Clinton.

Above all, he took on national security - face on, full-throttle, enraged, as we should all be, at how disastrously American power has been handled these past eight years. He owned this issue in a way that no Democrat has owned it since Kennedy. That’s a transformative event. To my mind, it is vital that both parties get to own the war on Jihadist terror and that we escape this awful Rove-Morris trap that poisons the discourse into narrow and petty partisan abuse of patriotism. Obama did this tonight. We are in his debt.

Look: I’m biased at this point. I’m one of those people, deeply distressed at what has happened to America, deeply ashamed of my own misjudgments, who has shifted out of my ideological comfort zone because this man seems different to me, and this moment in history seems different to me. I’m not sure we have many more chances to get off the addiction to foreign oil, to prevent a calamitous terrorist attack, to restore constitutional balance in the hurricane of a terror war.

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.

Know hope.

GHOST TOWN AT COLEMAN’S STATE FAIR BOOTH; ON BUSY THURSDAY NIGHT AT FAIR, MORE STAFFERS PRESENT AT BOOTH THAN FAIR-GOERS

by
Matt Martin
Published on August 28, 2008 at 7:33 pm
, filed in MN 2008: Senate
. 5 Comments

I think this post and title is as silly as you probably do, but that’s because it’s Michael Brodkorb’s idea of a good post, not mine (the title is the exact same as a post he put up a few days ago but with Coleman instead of Franken).  I was walking around the fair and couldn’t help but provide a response to Michael’s asinine post.

Coleman’s booth is completely empty:

And here are the good guys (contrary to Michael’s post, it was very busy):

I also thought this was kind of interesting.  McCain’s booth seems pretty impromptu and takes the very Minnesota friendly approach of making a strange attack the center of attention (that tube on the top is supposed to be a tire pressure gauge) even though McCain agrees that people should inflate their tires to save gas: “I agree with the American Automobile Association. We should all inflate our tires.”  It didn’t matter much, because there were only a couple people at McCain’s booth.  Meanwhile there were a couple dozen people in line in front of the Obama booth waiting just so they could get a button!

Update [Aaron]: I was at the Fair last Saturday and noticed the same thing. I didn’t really post anything because it doesn’t even need pointing out — it’s clear that nobody cares about Coleman in comparison to Franken if you actually go to the fair. Here’s some more proof. I also got a bunch of photos emailed to me from readers. Team Coleman will try to take any jab they can get.

Reaction on Biden Pick: Slam Dunk

by
Matt Martin
Published on August 23, 2008 at 4:07 pm
, filed in White House '08
. 25 Comments

This collection of quotes from some of the major political pundits just arrived in my email inbox, I think it’s worth sharing (especially the Chuck Todd quote, he’s a favorite around here):

TIME (Joe Klein): “Biden has the stature and knowledge — and the blue-collar, no bull pugnacity — to call McCain on his imprudent militarism.

The Hill (Bob Franken): “In all seriousness, Biden is a formidable choice. Not only does he have a depth of knowledge about the law, social issues and international relations — after decades of Senate leadership in all those areas, he is a truly nice guy, with a real, common touch.

MSNBC (Joe Scarborough): “Joe Biden, again, the consensus seems to be this morning, Joe Biden, a great pick for Barack Obama.”

NBC (Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro): “The candidate many Republicans least wanted to see Obama pick was Biden”

The Hill (Brent Budowski): “In his first truly presidential decision, Barack Obama acted like a president and chose a presidential-caliber candidate for vice president. I recently wrote that this choice would speak volumes about the kind of president he would be, that if he choose one of the heavyweight contenders, such as Sam Nunn or Joe Biden, over the less-qualified candidates it would be an enormously positive sign. Obama came through, big time.”

CBS (Vaughn Ververs): “The senator brings some real strengths to this ticket. He’s one of the most respected foreign policy minds in the Senate, something that was reaffirmed by his quick trip to the nation of Georgia during the recent crisis there.”

The Atlantic (Marc Ambinder): “I gather that what impressed Obama about Biden is that Biden gets things done. He’s a man of action.”

TPM (Greg Sargent): “Biden, ultimately, shares and embodies one of the core convictions driving Obama’s campaign: That Democrats can win an argument about national security with Republicans, and shouldn’t run from a fight on the topic or concede any sort of presumed GOP superiority on it.”

I’d say that’s a pretty good start!

No, Really, It’s A Good Thing

by
Sean Broom
Published on August 18, 2008 at 9:35 pm
, filed in White House '08
. 31 Comments

Over at whathisnames site they’ve been crowing about some Democrats dissatisfaction with Barack Obama’s lawn sign policy (namely, you’ve gotta pay for them). I heard about this policy a while ago, and was pretty sure that it would result in folks complaining about the $8 you had to spend to get them.

Memo

To: All
From: Sean

There is no such thing as a free lunch. That is all.

After the jump, some more.

Continue reading ‘No, Really, It’s A Good Thing’

By This Time Next Week

by
Sean Broom
Published on August 18, 2008 at 9:05 am
, filed in White House '08
. 15 Comments

We will know who Barack Obama’s VP choice is. And, I’m just sayin’.

Update: The senior Senator from Deleware was in Georgia (the country, not the state) this weekend.  Gosh, sure would be handy to have that actual on the ground perspective on the ticket.

Deployed Troops Give 6:1 to Obama

by
Zack Stephenson
Published on August 14, 2008 at 10:42 am
, filed in White House '08
. 4 Comments

I thought the Republicans were supposed to be the party of the military:

According to an analysis of campaign contributions by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, Democrat Barack Obama has received nearly six times as much money from troops deployed overseas at the time of their contributions than has Republican John McCain…

Despite McCain’s status as a decorated veteran and a historically Republican bent among the military, members of the armed services overall — whether stationed overseas or at home — are also favoring Obama with their campaign contributions in 2008, by a $55,000 margin. Although 59 percent of federal contributions by military personnel has gone to Republicans this cycle, of money from the military to the presumed presidential nominees, 57 percent has gone to Obama.