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Born at the Crest of the Empire

Monday, August 28, 2006

Picture of the Day - 3
















"Clear the Way - Obama is coming!"

That's what the Kenyans were singing as Barak Obama passed through the crowd.

This guy is just electric to me. I really don't know all his positions and whether I agree, but everytime I see him, I want to march. I want to line up behind him and go where he's leading.

I can't tell you why, but I want to fight for this man.

(It's been a long time since I've felt that way about a politician. I just hope the Senate doesn't blunt him.)

posted by mikevotes at 4:58 PM

17 Comments:

  • I truly hope he can avoid any big misteps that dampen his momentum. I fear his promise and popularity are threatening to a lot of powerful people...

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 6:35 PM  

  • Actually Obama reminds me a lot of Holy Joe Lieberman. He likes to lectures Democrats for being adversial to people of faith and uses RNC talking points to do it. I have gone from liking him to rolling my eyes every time I hear him talk about "what democrats need to do to win again." I dunno exactly what Dems need to do to win again but co-opting RNC talking points to attacks Dems as "anti-faith" isn't high on the list.

    By Blogger Reality-Based Educator, at 8:11 PM  

  • reality based, really?

    I gotta say, I haven't followed him all that closely so you may be dead on.

    I dunno.

    I would guess he's more in the DLC style camp trying to sit in the middle.

    Mike

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 8:47 PM  

  • I think it takes guts and leadership to step out and speak up against the norm. There is no question that his message is true. The Dems do need to reform, it will make them better, stronger. Plus recognizing that faith plays a big role in many people's lives cannot be left to only the Republicans.

    By Blogger zen, at 9:17 PM  

  • Here's a link to a June 28, 2006 Associated Press article that reports he "chastised fellow Democrats on Wednesday for failing to 'acknowledge the power of faith in the lives of the American people,' and said the party must compete for the support of evangelicals and other churchgoing Americans."

    I also saw him say something very similar to this on either This Week or one of the other Sunday shows (I can't remember exactly.)

    Now notice the date on the AP article - June 28, 2006. Think about everything that was going on around the end of June of this year and ask yourself why Obama was repeating RNC talking points from the post-2004 period? How could that possibly help the party out by chasting your fellow democrats as (basically) godless and faith-hating?

    He really reminded me of Lieberman with those two acts. Just like Joe, he went to the media to take on his own party using the other party's rhetoric. I dunno what his rationale for this was. Perhaps he took a look at thr 2004 results and decided staking out the religious middle would help him out for either the presidential nomination (unlikely) or get him noticed by a more secular Dem for the VP slot (more likely.)

    Either way, in my eyes what he did was self-serving and detrimental to the Democratic Party.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/28/AR2006062800281.html

    By Blogger Reality-Based Educator, at 9:28 PM  

  • The first thing that I thought of when looking at this photo was:
    ALI BOMAYE! ALI BOMAYE! ALI BOMAYE!

    And feeling the charge that you spoke of mike...perhaps...
    OBAMA BOMAYE! OBAMA BOMAYE! OBAMA BOMAYE!

    On a related note, my local paper ran a this story on Sunday. But the jump line, and headline jump read, "See 'Osama' on the back page."
    I could not believe it and left a pretty direct message on the executive editor's machine right away. Tomorrow he says there will be a special correction/apology because of the gravity of such an error.

    By the way, this is a small, rural, conservative area. But with a growing and proud community of progressives. It also happens to be where a couple of good, freedom loving Americans dressed up as a monkey and a banana last Friday to protest a visit by our thugish senator George Allen. He didn't show.
    The paper ran the story on the front page, but under a larger story and photo of Allen embracing a black woman with the caption "Allen charms at event." Crazy way to try and balance to please everyone.

    By Blogger zen, at 9:30 PM  

  • I have to agree with Obama on this one.

    By Blogger zen, at 9:32 PM  

  • zen, you're not wrong to say Obama has a point w/ what he was saying about Dems needing to appeal to people of faith. But there are ways to say this that are positive and help the party and ways to do it that are negative and are detrimental to the party. In my opinion, Obama chose the latter. I seem to remember I wasn't the only one to feel that way. I think his "chastising of Dems" won him Atrios' coveted "Wanker of the Day" award.

    By Blogger Reality-Based Educator, at 9:33 PM  

  • Perhaps that is so. The language of the message could have perhaps been handled with more tact. But I do see Obama as genuine and sincere, and not saying this for narrow appeal, but rather as sharp, direct, accurate and constructive criticism.

    By Blogger zen, at 10:07 PM  

  • Okay, Reality based, I'm not willing to do the deep homework so accept that I'm talking out of my ass with a strong bias towards the guy.

    I remember the instances you mention, Reality Based, and I remember they were very poorly received. At the time, I didn't see it as repeating Republican talking points, but instead feeling out his possibilities for a broader political future.

    Remember around that time, he was getting alot of questions about running in 2008 and my hunch was that he was feeling out the issue and polling behind it. I think he was trying to find a "reach across the aisle" sort of centrist issue, and faith would blend in well the rest of his message. Basically, he was trying to see if he could do John Edwards on the social issues while finding some anchor or justification that kept him from being called far left, which would be presidential death.

    In that context, it wasn't politically saavy or well timed, but it didn't strike me as that atrocious.

    That's just my reading of it, I could well be wrong.

    Zen, I saw the picture of the Monkey and the Banana somehwere national. If you can chase away a Senator because he's afraid of a guy in costume, you've already won. That's awesome.

    And I saw the recent polling put Webb ahead (inside the margin of error.) With the greater trends, that doesn't bode well for Allen. That would be a huge contribution to the national cause.

    Mike

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 10:16 PM  

  • Yeah I forwared the story to kos and Americablog as soon as I saw them. Not sure if I really provided the tip that made it, but the chance brush with exposing Allen is all the feel-good I need. A Webb victory would certainly go farther, but Allen has a tremendous war-chest, and I'm sadly conditioned to expect defeat in Va. However Mark Warner and Tim Kaine have been wonderful.
    I'm attending a fundraiser for Webb on Sunday, so I'm trying to plan a couple of really great questions for him.

    By Blogger zen, at 10:31 PM  

  • Let me also add that the Dems do need to tap back into their christian roots.

    Way back when in the depression, the extreme christian vote went towards the Dems and their social programs as they were viewed as a Christian love of fellow man.

    Somehow, the Christian vote has been turned towards (what I consider to be) largely non-christian aims, war, bigotry, anti-poor. I don't really know how it happened. (It's happened many times before Crusades, Inquisition, Witch burnings, slavery support.)

    Speaking coldly/politically, I do see a real access point into the Christian community through a sense of charity. You're probably not going to get the hard core fundies, but there are a large number of Christians out there who might vote Dem if they could sense some sort of connection to their faith.

    Frankly, I'm a strict separation of church and state guy, but I do understand the point Obama was trying to make. You do not want your party to be seen as being anti-faith somehow. You don't want to shut out those voters.

    Again, he said it fairly poorly. He should've been less aggressive about it and spoken of what could be rather than criticizing his own party. But, reading that WaPo piece again, I think his point was a "big tent" non-exclusionary message.

    (But then again, I'm fairly blind towards the guy.)

    Mike

    Going to bed.

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 10:37 PM  

  • Zen,

    You're local and have a far better sense of it, but the trend is away from Allen. The question that I can't answer and you can is the depth of the support. Is Allen that is even with Webb already down to his core support? Is there farther to fall, or is sitting on a solid base.

    I'm here in Texas, and my Republican congressman has a solid 50 no matter what he does. Those people are going to show up and vote Republican almost no matter what.

    As for questions, how about the one the from the Simpsons?

    "Mr. Burns, your campaign has the momentum of a runaway locomotive......"

    Or maybe "Is is your superior intelligence, greater experience on national security matters, or boyish good looks that makes you the most likely to beat Allen?"

    Mike

    Now I'm really going to sleep.

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 10:43 PM  

  • Mike/Zen,

    I didn't articulate my point as well as I wanted to last night, so I just want to try and explain it better (if only for myself), even though I can see you both know where I'm coming from on this.

    In this highly partisan era where much of the news media internalize and regurgitate RNC/GOP talking points (Dems are weak on security, Dems are the Mommy party, Dems are anatagonistic to people of faith, Dems are always divided and undisciplined on nearly every issue), I get concerned when fellow Democrats do the work of the GOP/RNC for them. Clearly Holy Joe Lieberman performs this function - that's why the Repubs love him so much and are supporting him instead of tehir own card-counting GOP candidate in the Conn Senate race.

    I think when I heard Obama a)criticize Dems over religion and b)criticize some "advocacy groups" on the left for their "partisanship" during the Roberts confirmation process, he sounded just a little like Lieberman to me.

    And the fact of the matter is, Obama is probably right on both of these issues. The Dems do need to appeal to people of faith and the judicial nominating process has been hijacked by extreme advocacy groups on both the right and the left.

    But here's the problem with offering up this criticsm as a Dem AGAINST fellow Dems during the era of George Bush/Dick Cheney/Karl Rove/Ken Mehlman/FOX News/NRO - you're doing the propaganda work for them by tarring your own fellow party members as "anti-faith" and "extreme on judicial matters." All that Bush/Cheney/Rove/Mehlman/FOX/NRO have to do to get the media to jump on their message is point to your comments - "You see, Democrats are anti-faith and too extreme, even Senator Obama says so."

    Bush/Cheney/Rove/Mehlman/FOX/NRO do this all the time on the national security issue with Senator Lieberman. My fear is that Obama, by trying to "triangulate" a spot for himself between the right and the left, will be doing more harm to the Democratic Party in the long run than good and simply be enabling future Republican Congresses and Presidents by reinforcing GOP stereotypes of Democrats.

    I don't mean this to say that we, as Democrats, cannot criticize our own party or shouldn't criticize our party. I just think Democrats have to be careful in how they articulate the criticism so that they can get their points across without helping the GOP out in the process.

    In my opinion, Obama did not do this in either case I mentioned above.

    Thanks for letting me explain at length.

    BTW I love the story about Allen and the monkey and the banana.

    By Blogger Reality-Based Educator, at 10:13 AM  

  • I would draw a different category for Lieberman, because it's intentional, sustained, and solely self serving. He's not quite to Zell Miller, but he's moving that way.

    Mike

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 12:49 PM  

  • I think it can be looked at as a matter of intention. Obama may have higher office ambitions, but I believe his heart is in the right place.
    And Mike, I agree that those others you mentioned are self-serving only. And also the point you make perhaps applies to me as well...I believe, so maybe my judgment is clouded.

    By Blogger zen, at 1:19 PM  

  • Yeah.

    Mike

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 3:07 PM  

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