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Audacity of Truth
Friday morning Democrat campaign news roundup/funfest (MORE: LEWIS CAMP DENIES SUPER DELEGATE VOTE SWITCH)
Got a lot of ground to cover this morning:
As the “super delegate” games begin, the Hillary camp has been hit with a wave of bad news going into next Tuesday’s Wisconsin primary. Rep John Lewis, who the NYT describes as an “elder statesman from the civil rights era,” has announced that in spite of endorsing Hillary Clinton last October, he will be casting his “super delegate” vote for Barack Obama to try and head off a rumble at the Democrat National Convention:
In recent days, there is a sense of movement and a sense of spirit” said Mr. Lewis, a Georgia Democrat who endorsed Mrs. Clinton last fall. “Something is happening in America, and people are prepared and ready to make that great leap.”
Mr. Lewis, who carries great influence among other members of Congress, disclosed his decision in an interview in which he said that as a superdelegate he could “never, ever do anything to reverse the action” of the voters of his district, who overwhelmingly supported Mr. Obama.
“I’ve been very impressed with the campaign of Senator Obama” Mr. Lewis said. “He’s getting better and better every single day.”
His comments came as fresh signs emerged that Mrs. Clinton’s support was beginning to erode from some other African-American lawmakers who also serve as superdelegates. Representative David Scott of Georgia, who was among the first to defect, said he, too, would not go against the will of voters in his district.
Liberal blogger Josh Marshall asserts that the importance of Lewis’ change of heart cannot be overstated:
In the thick of a campaign it is easy to overrate the importance of an endorsement or a political hit. But it is difficult to overstate the significance of John Lewis’ switch from the Clinton to Obama camps because it is a devastating blow on two or three levels wrapped together in a single person. Lewis’ historic and moral stature in the African-American community and in the modern Democratic party bulks very large. “In recent days, there is a sense of movement and a sense of spirit” Lewis told the Times. “Something is happening in America, and people are prepared and ready to make that great leap.” This is a curious statement as he seems to be suggesting that his earlier endorsement of Clinton was based on his own failure to set his sights sufficiently high. What’s more, the willingness of a high-profile politician not simply to endorse one candidate but to switch from one to another (at least in terms of who he believes he’ll vote for as a super delegate) is a powerful sign that a tipping point is at hand.
Some all-powerful unions are moving towards BO as well, another bad sign for the Hillary campaign going into TX, OH, and PA:
It would be a significant boost for Obama, including in the coming major primary battlegrounds of Ohio, Texas and Pennsylvania.
In other Obama-related news, he’s received the endorsement of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega:
President Daniel Ortega, who led the 1979 revolution in Nicaragua, says Barack Obama’s presidential bid is a “revolutionary” phenomenon in the United States.
“It’s not to say that there is already a revolution under way in the U.S. … but yes, they are laying the foundations for a revolutionary change,” the Sandinista leader said Wednesday night as he accepted an honorary doctorate from an engineering university.
Ortega led a Soviet-backed government that battled U.S.-supported Contra rebels before he lost power in a 1990 election. He returned to office last year via the ballot box.
In statements broadcast on Sandinista Radio La Primerisima, Ortega said he has “faith in God and in the North American people, and above all in the youth, that the moment of great change in the U.S. will come and it will act differently, with justice and equality toward all nations.”
Could a Hugo Chavez endorsement be next? ![:-\](http://sistertoldjah.com/smilies/yahoo_question.gif ":-\"){kind=small}
I linked earlier this week to Connecticut radio talk show host James Vicevich’s post where he documented several instances of women fainting at O-man campaign appearances. The WSJ’s James Taranto notes the similarities in the fainting spells and has a few questions:
What exactly are we to make of this? A cynic might wonder if the whole thing isn’t staged, given how often it happens and how well-honed and self-serving Obama’s standard response seems to be.
But if it’s spontaneous, that’s in a way even more unsettling. At the New Hampshire rally, Larry David of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” fame quipped, “Sinatra had the same effect on people.” Sinatra made girls swoon by singing romantic songs. But America isn’t electing a crooner in chief.
Obama has a talent for eliciting intense emotion–an ability that can be dangerous in a politician. What more does he have to offer? That’s a hard question to answer, and it makes the prospect of an Obama presidency quite worrisome.
And, of course, that’s not the only thing about the O-man that is worrisome.
Chuck Raasch at the USA Today writes about O-mentum as well, and quotes a Democrat activist/author as finding all the swooning over Obama troubling:
At a breakfast Wednesday with reporters, McCain campaign manager Rick Davis marveled at the reported 17,000 people who showed up to greet Obama in Wisconsin the night he decisively beat Clinton in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia.
Then he noted, “I think he is listed as the most liberal senator of the United States Senate. I don’t know if all 17,000 people who were in his audience last night know that. But they will.”
This is what concerns some Democrats the most. Beyond hope, nearly nine months of tough politics lay ahead.
“Are Democrats coming surprisingly close to nominating a phenomena rather than a fully vetted candidate?” asked Steve Jarding, a long-time Democratic activist. “The answer to that appears to be a frightening, ‘Yes.’
“Once again, we seem to be falling in love in February only to be headed to a bitter breakup in November when our true love turns out to be much less than expected.”
Jarding, who said he considers Obama “unique and gifted,” has mostly stayed out of presidential politics since a brief dalliance with John Edwards in 2004. But the co-author of Foxes in the Henhouse: How the Republicans Stole the South and the Heartland and What the Democrats Must do To Run ‘em Out, has long warned that Democrats should avoid the mistakes of past elections.
“Historically, while hope may well sell in the spring, it wears thin by fall when it is trumped by issues of security and experience,” Jarding said.
One of his biggest complaints is over the “gushing of the media” toward Obama.
“In my 30 years of doing this,” Jarding said, “I have never seen anything like the swooning the … primarily television media has done over Obama.”
Eventually, that will change. Jarding hopes it happens in time for Democrats to know everything they need to about the man who aspires to be their great hope in 2008.
Charles Krauthammer gets to the heart of the matter:
Obama has an astonishingly empty paper trail. He’s going around issuing promissory notes on the future that he can’t possibly redeem. Promises to heal the world with negotiations with the likes of Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Promises to transcend the conundrums of entitlement reform that require real and painful trade-offs and that have eluded solution for a generation. Promises to fund his other promises by a rapid withdrawal from an unpopular war — with the hope, I suppose, that the (presumed) resulting increase in American prestige would compensate for the chaos to follow.
Democrats are worried that the Obama spell will break between the time of his nomination and the time of the election, and deny them the White House. My guess is that he can maintain the spell just past Inauguration Day. After which will come the awakening. It will be rude.
And finally, the word of the day: Obamasms.
PM Update – 4:15 PM: The AJC reports that Rep. Lewis’ camp is denying this morning’s NYT story about him switching his super delegate vote to Obama, and says he is ‘leaving his options open.’
I say he switches his vote to BO. He knows which way the momentum is swinging.
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17 Responses to “Friday morning Democrat campaign news roundup/funfest (MORE: LEWIS CAMP DENIES SUPER DELEGATE VOTE SWITCH)”
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Every day, and in every way, I’m getting better and better! – giggle heeheeheehaahaahaahaaa!
We are the future, we are for change!
What do you plan to change?
I will be an intrument of change in Washington!!
But what type of change?
I will lead in a new era of change, change like that which has never been seen.
…If he is elected, I think that is all I will be left with…..change.
So are we saying the Senator Obama is about to become the USA’s first dictator? I mean, if he can make folks just faint with his words, we all better watch out.
Next Senator Obama’s speeches will be compared to how Adolf Hitler spoke. Oh yeah. Someone has already done that.
I can take Obama being criticized on the issues and his positions. But fainting gals and Hitler cadence comparisons give me a migraine.
Well, T-Steel, you might want to check out a video of “Triumph of the Will.” Pay particular attention to the looks of rapture on the faces of the young men and women, compare it to the looks on the faces of teenage girls when the Beatles first hit the US, and again with the faces of Obama (and other liberals at rallies). You might find it instructive.
I can see getting excited about a candidate (not so much anymore since I’ve gotten cynical in the extreme), but cripes, liberals seem to be incapable of just being excited, they get these fawning, starry eyed, moonie type crushes that obliterate all capability for rational thought. It’s like when Clinton was on the talk show circuit, I thought the newscasters were going to collectively orgasm or something, level of obsequious fawning was just incredible.
So are you going to say that Senator Obama is using the same techniques that Adolf Hitler used? And where, pray tell, is Senator Obama leading his “masses” to do?
T-Steel, the point is that Obama’s entire campaign is based not on policy, not on ideas, but on emotion.
Hitler’s appeal was based on charisma and emotion. So is Obama’s. That’s undeniable. That does NOT mean Obama is pure evil like Hitler, only that their campaigning techniques are similar. Some of Obama’s followers – the Che Guevara fans, for example – may be uncomfortably scary and dangerous, but I don’t think for a minute Obama is like that.
For my part, I’ve concluded that Obama is naive about the world scene, can be easily manipulated by far-left ideologues, and doesn’t have a good grasp of what it takes to be a successful executive. But not evil. The better comparison for Obama is Jimmy Carter.
Still, the point is that emotion is NOT a good way to choose the most powerful person in the world. As ST points out, even a lot of Democrats are uncomfortable with the idea of nominating someone simply because he makes silly people faint.
Fair enough Great White Rat. But just putting Hitler and Obama in the same sentence is disgusting.
And yet an influential contingent among Obama’s supporters are the very people who have spent the last 8 years vilifying President Bush as Hitler. And they didn’t mean campaign techniques – they meant it personally.
They say he makes only speaches, and that is not enough, well one step at a time, this is not yet the time to act, the only activity going on now is that of campaigning and he is doing better than his critics and discreditors. When he has the mandate and the support of the American people, when he wears the mantle of power and authority, his believes, convictions, optimism, hopes, and all the values that he stands for will transform into action. If you can believe, if you can see it, you can do it, The God and the people of American empower him.
The point is not one man or woman doing it all, its all about the people making a choice and standing together with their man or woman. Comparing Obama to Hitler in any way is not fair and every on knows that, its the same old politics, “SAYING AND DOING ANYTHING POSSIBLE TO WINN”.
Whether expirenced or not – is not the point. He has become the mirror, the catalyst for what is best in America and American hearts. He will be moved by his people and Americans will have the power to put our country the place it deserves to be – and to help the world be a slightly better place.
No one has inspired this country like he has in a very long time
getting the poeple willingly behind one purpose is a chance of a life time…
We have indeed allowed ourselves to wallow in fear and sink into the morass of pettiness. Interest rates will go up and down; people will find work and loose jobs; that’s all temporary stuff. Obama’s change is about much deeper issues than these. His change is about who we are as individuals and as a nation, and what decisions we will choose to make in the next ten years. Choosing those who make you fear would be the wrong choice. Make peace with the angree man, and he will drop his terror. Talk to him, respect him, accept him and teach him the better way.
you dont need to be american this time to vote obama in, the whole world have voted allraedy for him and is waiting for you to act rightly. The world will join America under Obama to work for change, peace, prosperity, to end hostilities, terorrism, just name it. The willingness is already swelling up. If we do know our God given position, we would beter reflect once more before we continue to cause division.
some how the world feels like Obama will not lie to us even in the face of difficulties. I think this election is also transforming, remaking and strenghtening Obama himself. He has to hear him self over and over again. I pray and urge all Americans to rise above cheap political campaign tricks and inenuendos to distort Obama’s message
If Obama fails to be the norminee, america will feel the disappointment and division that willl follow. Dont you feel like the Indians, the blacks, the poor, the rich, would one day say, America has truely turned in the right direction, we will begin to believe ourselves, love our selves, care for our selves. I can see this coming. Let Obama make his moral message stronger than ever, Americans are a people of values if they have the options, they will make the right choice.
It is the people that really bring about change but, they have to follow a leader with vision willingly and passionately, it’s not the other way round. If we are sure of Obama as much as he can count on us, together we can… YES WE CAN.
“Its about who we want to make him”.
He is just Obama, but we wanna unite with him thats what makes the difference. when you read these write ups here and elswhere, you can see how much people hate others in this country, they try to kill hope, they are realists and Obam is not they want us to believe. But we are reading their lips again, and I dont say this with prejudice. Values are not so important to them if they are after their own personal goals. Its like saying ” go to hell, we wanna win” while America stays divided, bleeding from its wounds. America is bleeding, it has been raped, surgically cut apart, healing must start. Dont be fooled again by quick raps designed to outsmart your judgement.
The messsage is simple, Together we can turn the situation around and we need a leader we will love, believe, work with so as to win in these bad times
I actually think he hasn’t a clue. Which is part of the problem, he is an empty suit.
And John, coincidentally from Germany, is a prime example of the eerie lack of concern over the lack of specifics and almost religious acceptance and emotionally needy response Obama seems to engender.
I mean, geez, can’t you just hear the “Kumbayas” being sung in between the lines of John’s posts?
This “change at any cost for any reason” attitude that John above and so many others seem to express reminds me of an old Navy joke. After a fierce and long storm, the ships captain came on to announce the status “Well, the bad news is the storm wrecked our comms and navigation gear, we have no idea where we are. But, the engine room survived well, we have a full head of steam, and we’re making great time!”
err…where we are or where we are going…but we’re making great time.
well Severian, millions are agreeing with Obama’s message, they dont call it identifying with his message, the dont call it “Kumbayas”in your own words. And he is winning.
He is overcoming cynicism and pessimism. Attacking every one that has a different oppinion is not the right way to do things. Hold your breath, dont be upset for any thing, life still goes on any way!!
Instead List for us here what you think are the solution to the problems in America.!!
God bless your hearth!!
P/s leave it as it is for now.
I hate to burst your obviously religiously fervorous vision there, but “millions” of people in this country and elsewhere are shallow, narrow minded, nitwits who are doing their best to live down to the expectations set for them by both society and the school system that pushes “feel good” platitudes over actual accomplishment.
He hasn’t articulated any great mantra other than “Change” for changes sake, and that government will solve everyone’s problems.
Millions signed on to worse I suppose, as millions supported everyone from Hitler to Stalin to Pol Pot, but it doesn’t make Obama a messiah or anything other than a shallow, self righteous person preaching platitudes to a nation grown self indulgent, lazy, and who are easily distracted.
The left far more than the right signs on to this cult of personality in how they feel about their leaders. We saw it with the Clintons, we are seeing it now with Obama. The childish fawning, the fainting, the wide eyed fanatical responses, pure emotion, little rationality.
Whenever I see this I am immediately reminded of N Korea, pictures of the beloved leader everywhere, Cuba, the former Soviet Union, China. All socialist/communist “paradises” built entirely on worship of a person. Picking your leaders based on charisma without looking at what they really are going to lead you into is dangerous.
I’m not comparing Obama to these heinous folks in that I don’t believe he is an evil man, but as Carter showed us, a well meaning and good intentioned person who is that politically, particularly geopolitically, naive can be almost as dangerous. Obama as president would blunder us into situations far more dangerous than Carter managed (although Carter was there for the birth of Iran as a dangerous, religiously fanatical state and did nothing to stop it), as the world today is a far more dangerous place.
The people we’ve had as leaders who were Dems in the latter part of the last century presided over the rise of Islamic extremism and rogue states, and did next to nothing to control the situation. And then they whine when people like Bush attempt to fight the war that they allowed to start by not quashing these extremists when they were easily managed.
But hey, if you “feel” good, that’s all that matters. My advice is to stick to the traditional sources for such inspiration and soul salving (the Church) and quit trying to invent secular sources to fill such needs.
We may have a new record for greatest amount of flapdoodle in one comment. Begin with this:
So we’re not supposed to have any idea what a candidate stands for…just vote him in and THEN he will tell us. Are you telling us to take it on faith, that Obama is the anointed one?
OK…yep, that’s exactly what you’re trying to tell us. Anyone still think there isn’t a cult-like contingent among Obama’s followers? NOTE: I don’t mean all his supporters. Obviously some, like T-Steel, are thinking people. But John sounds like he’s ready to drink the Kool-Aid and head for the mother ship that’s hiding behind the comet somewhere out there.
Sure – if you think a “slightly better place” means a world where hard work is penalized, islamofascists terror is acceptable, and your freedoms eroded in the name of some “greater good”.
Does the name Jimmy Carter ring a bell with you? Based on Obama’s voting record – since he’s not going to tell us what he plans during the campaign, that’s all we have to go on – he’s planning on taking us down the same path, only more so. Even Carter never tried to saddle us with an unworkable European-style health system. Yes, going back to that would be a “change”. Simply because something is different from the way it is now doesn’t make it better.
We spent the better part of a decade following your advice and coddling terrorists. That didn’t work out too well. Either you’re too young to remember the 1990s, or you’re too stupid to have learned from them. Treating evil people with respect and acceptance only encourages them. Let’s put it in a way you might understand, John – when Hitler was running your country, did talking with him, respecting him, declaring “peace in our time” make him drop his ambitions? When one is confronted with pure evil, the only real solution is wiping it out.
Hate to burst your bubble, but yes you do. Americans have done a hell of a lot better than the rest of the world in building a thriving free nation, and we have no intention of letting people who have thrown their own countries into socialism’s toilet flush America into the same sewer.
No, what “the world” will do is look for America to finance their own defense, utopian schemes, dictatorships, and indolence, at least until you can drag America down to the level of a third world sinkhole. You will be coming to us with your hands out making demands, while encouraging barbarians who would turn the world back to the 7th-century. Want proof? Check your own previous government, or the French under Chirac.
“Cheap political campaign tricks” being defined here as asking exactly what the hell Obama’s message is.
Bulletin: we already do believe in ourselves, because we have created something pretty impressive. There’s a reason why we have a problem with illegal immigration – it’s because we’ve built the most productive, generous, compassionate, and selfless country on the face of the earth. Maybe instead of letting jealousy get the better of you and demanding we lower ourselves to your station, you should consider emulating us and improving your own lot.
It’s fine for a leader to have vision – Ronald Reagan, for example, had vision and inspired America. But the voters must always use their BRAINS and examine that vision. With Reagan, we did that. But you’re asking us to toss critical thought out the window and vote for Obama because God and a couple billion people who want to take our prosperity and freedom from us say so.
Are you aware that in your entire comment you gave us not one single solid idea or plan that Obama supports? That you based your entire pitch on emotion?
When “tommy from nyc” used to post here, he was often openly on drugs and he made more sense than you.