OBAMA DAILY NEWS THREAD Sun Feb-17-08

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

WELCOME TO THE OBAMA DAILY NEWS THREAD
Sun Feb-17-08

This is a place you can post today's daily news about the Obama campaign.

We've been doing this in the Election Reform Forum for years, and its a great way to make sure you don't miss anything!

Feb. 17, 2008, 6:54AM
Fallen soldier's bracelet inspires Obama


By NEDRA PICKLER Associated Press Writer
© 2008 The Associated Press

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. — Barack Obama is wearing a wristband in memory of a soldier killed in Iraq,
given to him by a mother who said she wants the Democratic presidential candidate to keep others from dying.

Tracy Jopek of Merrill, Wis., gave Obama the bracelet at a rally Friday night in Green Bay, and Obama was still wearing
it Saturday as he campaigned across the state before Tuesday's primary.

...She said she's a Democrat who will vote for Obama in Wisconsin's primary Tuesday.
Like Obama, she said she was against the war from the start and had a hard time watching her son go to war.

"My son loved this country very much, I love this country, but I don't feel that staying in Iraq will vindicate my son's death,"
she said. "And it's not over for us until this war is over.
I just don't want any more soldiers to die in vain for something that we can't solve."

Your new article contributions are appreciated and needed.

Get your DU-o-matic codificator (to format your posts) here

Please hit the recommend button on your way out!

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

1. Obama Speaks The Language of Leadership

Stephen Denning writes about Obama's ability to inspire Denning highlights how the ability to inspire is a key component to being a great leader.

Obama Speaks The Language of Leadership

February 17, 2008

Is Barack Obama a cult, as suggested by the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Washington Post? How else could a young African-American US senator have suddenly become the likely Democratic nominee for president? Why else would people start to imagine that with Obama as president, their lives will be changed forever, possibly even leading “to thin thighs”? How does he reduce audiences into such an infantile state? Is he deviously playing on people’s emotions, causing them to set aside common sense and think of entrusting the country to someone so relatively inexperienced? Why aren’t his platitudes about change seen for what they are? What is the mysterious magic that Obama is deploying to achieve such extraordinary results?

In reality, there’s nothing mysterious or devious or platitudinous or cult-like about what Obama is doing at all: he is using well-known principles of the language of leadership to reach people’s hearts and change people’s minds through the skillful use of narrative.

...But most important, his version of the story of who we are going to be is incompatible with Hillary Clinton or John McCain being president. Hillary, he says, has been, and will remain, his friend, but sadly she is a creature of yesterday's divisive politics. As he paints an inspiring picture of tomorrow that becomes more and more alluring, it becomes clearer and clearer that such a future can only happen if we all join together, get beyond politics as usual, and elect Obama as president. The other candidates are “the past”. We are “the future.”

It’s true, other factors have played a role in Obama’s success in overcoming the massive advantages that Clinton enjoyed as a candidate: better organization on the ground, stronger fundraising, and superior handling of YouTube and the web, along with her blunder in largely ignoring the caucuses. But now even Clinton concedes that Obama’s success has much to do with what he says. He speaks the language of leadership. She doesn’t.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

2. Lucas County Ohio: Democratic primary absentee ballots mucked up

Democratic absentee primary ballots mucked up in Lucas County Ohio.

How will this affect the outcome of the election?

MARCH 4 PRIMARY

Lucas County to reprint, remail 6,500 faulty absentee ballots February 15, 2008

By TOM TROY
BLADE POLITICS WRITER


The Lucas County Board of Elections is reprinting and remailing about 6,500 absentee voter ballots that had an error that could have allowed Democrats to vote for both candidates for president. Elections Director Jill Kelly said the mistake was brought to her attention Wednesday night. Since then she and Deputy Director Dan Pilrose have been working hard to fix the ballot, reprint thousands of copies, and begin mailing them to the approximately 6,500 people who received a ballot, she said.

The error was traced to the office's elections software employee whose job was to lay out the Democratic and Republican ballots for the March 4 primary election. He erroneously used the format of the Republican presidential ballot for the Democratic ballot when in fact the two parties select convention delegates differently.

...Using the faulty ballot, it would be possible for someone to vote for the Hillary Clinton at-large delegate and the Barack Obama congressional district delegate and vice versa. Ms. Kelly said they would set up a screening in the office to collect any faulty ballots that may have been voted and will attempt to reach those voters to submit a corrected ballot.

If they are unable to get a corrected ballot and they find someone who has voted for both presidential candidates they would accept the vote cast in the congressional district box.

[SoxFan]

3. New Endorsements!

Honolulu Advertiser
{i}The Democrats should recognize that the ability to inspire and to persuade others to follow is no trivial thing, no superficiality.

It is, in fact, the critical aspect of leadership required at times like these, when only a more unified nation can find its way through the difficulties ahead.

The party needs to acknowledge the clarion call that's resonated through the past weeks of the presidential campaign. It needs Barack Obama.
http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article...


Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Obama is smart and experienced in working directly with low- and middle-class Americans to better their lives, and he brings a message of hope that the country needs in this moment.

Yes, we know, hope is not a strategy. But it can get people working together to find one.

The Star-Telegram recommends Barack Obama in the Democratic primary for president.
http://www.star-telegram.com/225/story/477630.html


Corpus Christi Caller-Times
Experience means little if it is only about remembering the old hates. And it takes courage to break from the old political civil wars. Many Democrats, like many Republicans, find it easier and more comforting to vilify political opponents and nurse grudges than to take the bold step of reaching across political lines to find solutions wherever they may be found. Nominating the Illinois senator offers Americans a chance to transcend the old politics.
http://www.caller.com/news/2008/feb/17/obama-offers-dem... /

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

4. Financial Times: Obama is a gamble worth taking

Clive Crook of The Financial Times says that Obama is the far better democratic candidate. I wonder if this isn't how the rest
of the world sees it?

Fine words and the economic reality
By Clive Crook Published: February 17 2008




... Mr Obama is so much the better candidate that I find the party’s hesitation difficult to credit. But I made the case for Mr Obama in terms of vision, temperament and appeal to uncommitted voters, not policy – where his differences from Mrs Clinton are slight. A fair comment, lodged by many readers, is that, as president, he would be judged by results, not speeches. The greater his appeal at the start, the bigger the disillusionment to come. In a low blow, Tony Blair was mentioned. With that, I knew how Mrs Clinton felt as she watched the results come in from Virginia.

Unlike a British prime minister with a big parliamentary majority, a US president is not an elected dictator. When it comes to taxes and spending, Congress legislates – not the White House. The president is a shaper of opinion, a builder of consensus and a broker of agreement. Mr Obama, one may plausibly hope, has those skills. The question remains: to what end?

Mr Obama is a paradox, as yet unresolved. His plan and his votes in the Senate show that he is a liberal, not a centrist. And he is no wavering or accidental liberal. His ideas are of a piece. He sees – or convinces people that he sees – a bigger picture. And yet this leftist visionary is pragmatic, non-ideological and accommodating of dissent. More than that, in fact, he seems keen to listen to and learn from those who disagree with him. What a strange and beguiling combination this is.

It makes him an electrifying candidate – one the Democrats would be crazy not to nominate – but also, to be sure, a gamble. If Mr Obama is elected, it might turn out that there is no “there” there. Indecision, drift and effete triangulation are one possibility. Equally disappointing would be if the office wore away the pragmatism and open-mindedness, to reveal an inner dogmatist. Perhaps, though, Mr Obama really can transcend Washington’s partisan paralysis and build support for one or two big important reforms – starting with healthcare. Voters (and commentators) have the better part of a year to decide whether this pushes the audacity of hope too far.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

5. Cover of Newsweek: Barack's Rock

CAMPAIGN 2008
Newsweek Magazine

Barack’s Rock

She's the one who keeps him real, the one who makes sure running for leader of the free world doesn't go to his head. Michelle's story.

A Particular Mission: Michelle is not part of discussions on policy and ad buys; her role is to keep the candidate's feet on the ground
By Richard Wolffe | NEWSWEEK
Feb 25, 2008 Issue

Michelle Obama was never much interested in calling attention to herself. As an undergrad at Princeton in the 1980s, she was interested in social change, but didn't run for student government. Instead, she spent her free time running a literacy program for kids from the local neighborhoods. At Harvard Law, she took part in demonstrations demanding more minority students and professors. Yet unlike another more prominent Harvard Law student who would later take up the cause, she was not one to hold forth with high-flown oratory about the need for diversity. "When spoke, people got quiet and listened," recalls Prof. Randall Kennedy. "Michelle had a more modest, quieter, lower profile." Barack won election as president of the Law Review. Michelle put her energy into a less glamorous pursuit: recruiting black undergrads to Harvard Law from other schools. For her, politics wasn't so much about being inspirational as it was being practical—about getting something specific done, says Charles Ogletree, one of her professors. "She was not trying to get ahead."

...Part of Michelle Obama's appeal—she routinely draws audiences of 1,000-plus supporters even when she's campaigning on her own—is that she comes across as so normal despite the withering glare of a national campaign. As a political spouse, she is somewhat unusual. She isn't the traditional Stepford booster, smiling vacantly at her husband and sticking to a script of carefully vetted blandishments. Nor is she a surrogate campaign manager, ordering the staff around and micromanaging the candidate's every move.

...Onstage, Obama has introduced Michelle as "my rock"—the person who keeps him focused and grounded. In her words, she is just making sure he is "keeping it real." She does this in part by tethering him to the more mundane responsibilities of a husband and father. She insists that Barack fly home from wherever he is to attend ballet recitals and parent-teacher conferences. When the couple host political gatherings at their home in Chicago's Hyde Park, Michelle asks everyone to bring along their children. To help bridge the physical distance between father and daughters, Michelle recently bought two MacBook laptops, one for Barack and one for the kids, so they could have video chats over the Internet. Last Thursday, she cleared his schedule so he could return home to Chicago and spend Valentine's Day with her and the girls....

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

6. Powerline: "Too Good To Be True" (for republicans if Dems fall for it)

John Hindraker at Power Line comments on the Clinton campaigns' efforts to change the rules of the primary after the fact.
Hindraker does not believe that Democrats will fall for what he calls the "strong-arm tactics" of the Clinton's this time around.

Too Good To Be True

February 17, 2008

Top Clinton operative Harold Ickes argued in a conference call yesterday that the Democrats should change their rules and seat the Florida and Michigan delegates who are prepared to vote for Hillary. The Democratic National Committee voted, before the primaries began, to strip any states that scheduled early primaries in violation of the DNC's rules of their delegates. Hillary campaigned in Florida and Michigan but Obama, relying on the enforcement of the DNC's rules, didn't. In Michigan, he took his name off the ballot. Now the Clinton camp wants to change the rules:

Harold Ickes, a top adviser to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign who voted for Democratic Party rules that stripped Michigan and Florida of their delegates, now is arguing against the very penalty he helped pass.

But the Michigan and Florida delegations aren't "contested." There is no question that under the DNC rules, which Obama relied upon, they are not to be seated. The Clinton camp now wants to change the rules after the game has been played. For Hillary to say, "hat's why there are rules," is a mind-bending Clintonism of which even her husband would be proud.

All of this is music to the ears of us Republicans.

It's hard to imagine a worse train wreck for the Democrats than a convention at which Hillary snookers Obama out of the nomination by changing the rules to seat delegates from states where Obama didn't campaign out of respect for the DNC's sanctions.

But I'm pretty sure it won't happen. The Democrats put up with the Clintons' strong-arm tactics when they didn't think they had a choice. Now that they do have a choice, they aren't likely to let shady dealings by the Clintons destroy their chances for victory in November.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

7. Kennedy "Shocked" At "Distortion" In Clinton Health Care Ad

Clinton going negative before even visiting Wisconsin:

Kennedy "Shocked" At "Distortion" In Clinton Health Care Ad

Obama Camp Challenges Clinton on Health care Mailer
February 17, 2008

ABC News' Sunlen Miller Reports: The presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama put out big gun backer Sen. Ted Kennedy and the Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle to respond to the negative Clinton camapign mailer on health care being distributed in Wisconsin.

Kennedy said he was shocked and surprised that Clinton would put out a mailer like this, ad called it a "distortion, misrepresentation, and wrong."

He referenced Clinton’s health care fight in 1994 – and said similar negative ads were what contributed to the sinking it – so essentially said that Clinton should have learned from that. Kennedy said health care in the cause of his life, and that he would never have supported Obama if he wasn’t the one who could get comprehensive health care done.

...Doyle took more issue with the fact that Clinton has not been in the state much and has a schedule change on Monday and Tuesday, spending even less time in the state, "She only arrived in this state yesterday….before she ever came to this state she started running negative ads."

Obama spokesman Bill Burton says that based on the pattern of the Clinton campaign he expect to see more negative ads and mailers in the future, "Well the pattern we’ve seen over the course of campaign is when the Clinton campaign is down in the polls and not going well for them, they have responded with negative attacks. No reason to think they are going to change that pattern."

[MadBadger]

8. Obama Endorsed by Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker

http://www.wausaudailyherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080217/WDH0101/80217048/1981

[ShortnFiery]

9. A thoughtful democratic "kick" for the evening crowd.

:-) :hi:

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

10. Kennedy calls Clinton attacks 'fear-mongering'

Kennedy warns Clinton that her fear mongering & attacks may harm the push for universal health care.

February 17, 2008

Kennedy calls Clinton attacks 'fear-mongering'

A new Clinton campaign mailer takes aim at Obama’s health care plan.
CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) —

Responding to a mailer sent out by Hillary Clinton's campaign attacking Barack Obama's healthcare plan, Obama backer and longtime Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy said the tactics are ones of "distortion, misrepresentation," and "fear-mongering."

"I respect Sen. Clinton and her healthcare plan," Kennedy said, "but I think it does a great disservice to all of us who are interested in universal comprehensive healthcare." On a conference call with reporters, Kennedy said that as someone who considers healthcare to be the "passion of his life in the Senate," the nation is "much better off being positive."

The ad, being circulated via mailboxes in Wisconsin, relays a theme the Clinton campaign has been pushing since the days of Iowa–that Obama's healthcare plan will leave "15 million people without coverage." The ad also includes a photo of seven people standing in a row underneath text that reads "Barack Obama, which one of these people don't deserve healthcare?"

"I was really shocked and very surprised that Sen. Clinton put that pamphlet out," he continued, adding that both Democratic candidates want universal healthcare but that Obama is the one to get it done since he has the ability to bring the kind of coalition needed to accomplish it.

[Bread and Circus]

11. Thank you for this. There's a few articles I would have like to have posted but I didn't know there

was a thread like this.