I Endorse Barack Obama and I hope you will join me in helping him--BARBARA LEE

[FrenchieCat]

My endorsement of Senator Barack Obama for President of the United States.
By Barbara Lee

Like so many Americans, I first heard Senator Obama when he delivered his electrifying speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston. Deep down, I knew I'd witnessed history in the making.

Barack Obama represents a bridge to the future. He embodies the hope and new direction that our country so desperately needs. As I've watched Senator Obama campaign for the presidency, I am convinced that he is a real agent of change; a man who can lead our nation in a new and positive direction.

This century cries for social, environmental, diplomatic, global, and neighborhood solutions to the misery that confronts far too many people in our own country and around the globe. I share Senator Obama's vision and active commitment to building a society based on activism, progressive values and a keen sense that we must act now and outside of the usual bounds of partisanship and expediency.

I know that a President Obama would find a prompt and effective way to end the occupation of Iraq and that he would strengthen U.S. diplomacy and international development as an instrument of national policy to prevent crises that lead to war and conflagration.

I know that a President Obama would place education, health care, poverty, economic security, criminal justice reform, climate change and all of the important domestic issues at the top of his agenda.

And, I know that a President Obama would make the eradication of HIV/AIDS at home and abroad a top priority.

I founded One Voice PAC as an organization dedicated to helping elect truly progressive candidates who will challenge the status quo. To that end, I am honored to endorse Senator Obama's candidacy and I hope you will join me in helping him secure the Democratic nomination for the presidency.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-barbara-lee/today-i-endorsed-barack-o_b_76177.html

Barbara Lee is as progressive as they come. Period.

[Catherine Vincent]

1. That is true.

I wish she was my congresswoman! (no diss to SJLee!):)

[FrenchieCat]

3. She is my congresswoman......

I get to put an X next to her name every two years.

I also got to go to her small B-Day party on her last B-Day. :)

[Catherine Vincent]

5. Cool!

[tammywammy]

2. w00t!

[Drunken Irishman]

4. She's only endorsing him because she's black! DUH!

/sarcasm.

[Diane R]

6. Kicked and Recommended.

[avaistheone1]

7. One problem with this.

Barack Obama is certainly Not the most progressive Democratic candidate as they come.

[FrenchieCat]

8. Maybe you don't know him that well......

Maybe you will be more surprised than you deserve to be. :)

[avaistheone1]

12. Cut to the chase, Frenchie.

You can save the happy talk. I don't see Obama as progressive at all. If you do, please share with us...how is Obama progressive?

[aquart]

17. Or maybe you will.

[The Traveler]

9. It is vapor ware

I can buy Obama as a rational centrist. But there is no way, given his own words, campaign platform, writings, and votes, I can be convinced he is a progressive. Krugman has summarized that better than I can. He is a good and sane man, but an agent of change he ain't.

[cali]

13. Coming from an Edwards supporter, that's funny.

Unsurprising but funny. No supporters of any other candidate show more cognitive dissonance than Edwards supporters. His voting record is far more centrist than Obamas as is his history and his former words. There is literally nothing that Edwards has ever actually done that is persuasive that he is an agent of change.

[avaistheone1]

14. Edwards platform is about real change.

Obama's is not. Obama's platform is about cozying up to corporations and Republicans. What the hell good is that going to do us?

[cali]

15. Talk means little.

and actions and records mean a great deal. Obama's record in the Senate is considerably more liberal than JE's was. Furthermore, Obama's platform is not about cozying up to corporations- that's the simplistic line, most Edwards supporters indulge in. JE has changed so radically that I can only attribute it to his desire to win the presidency- not to real change. I don't see him on a path of change at all. He's a good rhetorician, but with the exception of poverty, he's been consistent about nothing, and he's making one promise after another that he can't keep. What the hell good is a shape shifter going to do us in the White House?

[The Traveler]

16. Obama's record

is not quite as liberal as you depict.

And at this point, talk is all we have. Really. So much has happened over the past eight years it is almost ridiculous to play the what if game. For example, I really do not think that any of us understood how dishonest, how deceptive, how fucking evil George W. Bush really, really was back in the days after 9/11. With any other President in recent memory, a vote for the IWR would have been a way of adding pressure to a dictator to comply with international demands and protocols.

But not with this asshole. Sadaam complied. Bush attacked anyway. With this idiot, it was loading the gun. And he fucking lied to us.

I say this as a person who, because of prior involvement in national security, was pretty convinced that Bush was either nuts or dishonest at the time. We had Hussein caged like a rabid dog. There was no way that asshat posed a credible threat to our national security. We had that fucker zeroed. Contained. Controlled. With minimal effort and exertion. Done deal.

Obama called that one correct ... but in his platform (a statement of what he intends to accomplish) I see no significant change. And right now, we need significant change.

Now, please be clear. If Obama wins the nomination, I will vote for him ... and not just because he is a Democrat. He is also a sane, decent, compassionate man who will put together an effective government ... and maybe at this point that is the best we can hope for.

[cali]

18. That's just revisionist junk regarding the IWR. I suggest you

read Senator Leahy speech where he warned 5x that the abomination was a BLANK CHECK, and went on to detail with prescience what was going to happen in the war he KNEW bushco would start. And it wasn't only Leahy. There is no excuse for having voted for the IWR. And Edwards went much further. He co-sponsored it. He was for attacking, not waiting. He defended his vote and the war for 3 years- until he saw which way the wind was blowing. In fact he defended the war for longer than he's opposed it.

If JE is nominated, despite my grave doubts about his sincerity on most things, I'll not only vote for him, I'll work for him, and donate to 527s supporting him. But I don't trust his conversions on issue after issue.

[The Traveler]

30. Revisionist? Hardly.

A different interpretation of events than yours, perhaps ... but given the knowledge (or lack thereof) you and I have of a) the internal states and though processes of those who voted and b) the actual content of various discussions it is difficult to establish either viewpoint as being superior. I think a lot of well meaning people got mislead through a deliberate disinformation effort by the Bushistas. Dummy on them. Kudos on those who called it right.

However, various of Obama's comments on Iran and Pakistan send chills up my spine. I am far less concerned about mistakes of the past than I am about potential for future fuck ups. Strategically, we are over extended. Diplomatically, we are unresponsive to the formation of alliances against us. (And given the way the Bushistas have conducted foreign affairs, that should come as no surprise.) Now is not the time to be discussing in debates the merits of sending troops into Pakistan.

Having said that, I don't think Obama is really that hot headed, and I don't think he would really do that once he got in office. Those comments elevate my concern but do not cause me to revile the man. And your concerns about Edwards' IWR vote are well taken. If you think I am burbling with joy over that bit of history, you are mistaken. And if Obama wins the nomination I will support him to the best of my limited capability.

[Mythsaje]

19. Nah, it's just about cozying up to the Repug dogs and hoping he doesn't get fleas...n/t

[cali]

20. Except saying that is like the root of your screen name. n/t

[Mythsaje]

21. Oh?

How do you suppose he will create "unity" with people who despise everything we stand for? Which do you think is more likely--that they'll begin to adopt some of our ideology, or that he will adopt more of theirs?

Anyone who actually trusts the Republicans is in for a world of grief.

[Renew Deal]

26. How is he different from John Edwards?

:shrug: Edwards words and actions are completely different. Edwards was a rightist senator and now sounds more leftist than anyone. Does Edwards really believe the things he's saying?

[andyrowe]

10. Amen. n/t

[trashcanistanista]

11. Barbara Lee?!?

I'm impressed.

[MalloyLiberal]

24. Because she's black...not a shocker.

Too many people feel they have to endorse the person of the same race. No.

[xchrom]

22. she's my rep -- i love her -- but NObama for me.

[Flabbergasted]

23. kick

[peoli]

25. Horseface enodrses Obama for President! Join me!

[Renew Deal]

27. I was about to alert your post.

Until I saw your username. :P

[laureloak]

28. NO THANKS, OCELOT.

[Adelante]

29. Ocelot?

What do you mean by that?