Estrich on Obama, Iraq, Experience and Race
The Bourbon Room had a long talk today with Susan Estrich, the campaign manager for Michael Dukakis’ 1988 presidential campaign. Estrich is also a lawyer, a veteran of years of Democratic party intrigue, campaigns, personalities, and convention floor struggles. She has suffered the wounds and knows the joys of high-stakes party politics that can only be experienced when you operate at its epicenter. Estrich is at the University of Southern California now, where she’s a professor in its law school and in its undergradute political science department. Like Barack Obama, Estrich is Harvard Law graduate and, like Obama, made history at the Harvard Law Review. Estrich was its first woman president/editor-in-chief while Obama was its first African-American president/editor-in-chief.
The Bourbon Room is grateful to Fox’s Dominque Pastre for producing the transcript for this post.
Q: Obama had two press conferences Wednesday, the second to explain what he meant about Iraq. Is this a sign of a problem with his Iraq policy?
Estrich: Between having two press conferences on the same subject and having one or none, I would always pick one. But if there is a day you have to have two press conferences to explain, you couldn’t pick a better day than the Thursday before the Friday of the Fourth of July. Because I think, for better or for worse, the number of people paying attention Thursday afternoon to politics as opposed to beer, NASCAR, hotdogs, or the beach is probably pretty small.
Q: Is this about a legitimate examination of a policy switch or did Obama say what he’s always said but with different emphasis?
Estrich: Well, I think the level of scrutiny changes in a campaign. And the level of attention changes. Candidates have to adjust to that and that’s what you’re seeing happening. He was a primary candidate running against Hillary Clinton, who basically agreed with him on the war, running for the Democratic primary base. And now that’s changed. Now he’s running against John McCain. He’s got to create a little more room around him and he should. Besides which, the issues are changing and the press scrutiny is going to be more intense. I think he’s just getting his grounding on that.
Q: Is there any risk of Obama losing support among the anti-war left on Iraq?
Estrich: Here’s the reality of the situation. If you’re against the war there are two candidates in this race: One talking about getting the troops home, whether it’s in 3 months or 18 months or whatever it is; and the other talking about a hundred year war. I think the good news for Obama is that if he is indeed moving to the center his base in the anti-war left is certainly secure . And you know, there’s nowhere to go. The danger for Obama is not an ideological danger. The danger is not that he’s not going to be quote liberal enough or that the anti-war left will be pissed off. The only danger he faces is that for moderates the issue will be ‘Is he experienced enough, is he savvy enough, does he know foreign policy?’ So, the challenge for him as he does the dance as every candidate does once they secure the nomination, is to make sure he doesn’t look like — to quote John Kerry — he voted for it before he voted against it, or against before he voted for it, to make sure he doesn’t reinforce the potential negative of inexperience.
Q: The McCain campaign thinks its found an opening, not so much on Iraq but on a broader depiction of Obama as someone who lacks fixed positions. Any danger there?
Estrich: He doesn’t want to be branded as a flip-flopper. No politician wants to be branded as a flip-flopper. But I don’t think the Iraq situation is nearly as clear-cut as the case they had against John Kerry, for instance, four years ago with voting for it before he voted against it. I think the only clear flip-flop that Obama has done is on campaign finance. And while that happens to be an issue that I care passionately about, there’s about a couple dozen of us who do. The reality is that campaign finance is not a voting issue in the general election. So, I don’t think he’ll take much heat for switching on that issue, the issue of taking public finance. And I think on Iraq it’s a matter of degree. And he’s still on the right side, which is to say the left side of that issue for most voters.
Q: Obama is in Montana today. He was in North Dakota yesterday. Do you think he can expand the electoral map?
Estrich: They can take McCain on in some of these states and I think it’s bold and aggressive and smart early in July to be expanding the battlefield, as it were. If you asked me, ‘Do I think Montana is going to be the decisive state for Barack Obama to become president?’ No, I mean I think its much more likely to be Florida and Michigan and Ohio and New Jersey and California and the big states where Democrats win. But I think it does make sense to take the challenge to McCain and take the challenges to Republicans and some of their strongholds. And that’s what he’s doing, particularly in July. It forces McCain to defend himself where he shouldn’t have to defend himself, according to the conventional logic. And makes it more difficult, particularly when you realize that Obama is going to be able to outspend McCain handily. It makes it more difficult for McCain simultaneously to be fighting in places that should be secure and to be taking the fight to Obama in places like Ohio and Michigan.
Q: You know timing counts for a lot in politics and perhaps if the party was as unified in 1988 as it was will Bill Clinton ran in 1992, things might have turned out differently for Dukakis. Obviously, Ross Perot played a role in Clinton’s race, but Democrats appeared hungrier to win in that race than in ‘88. Do you sense a heightened level of Democratic unity and hnger to win this year?
Estrich: I think the base is going to stay and I think the base is very enthusiastic. But what remains to be seen, quite frankly, is how big a role race is going to play in this election; whether the phenomenon that we saw to some extent in the democratic primaries of the polls just not being right will carry on to the general election. We call it out here in California the Bradley effect in memory of the late (Los Angeles Mayor) Tom Bradley who was all to be governor of California (during the 1982 gubernatorial general election) and won every poll, including the exit polls. The only one he lost, and he was African-American, was the one that took place in the voting booth. And he lost that one handily. It remains to be seen what impact race will have in this election. It remains to be seen how reliable these polls are. And it remains to be seen whether the phenomenon we saw in the primaries of white working class voters having some issues with Obama will be aggravated in a general election where you have white general election voters who have got to come to his side.
Q: The Washington Post ran a poll that found 30 percent of the respondents said race played a factor in the way they look at politics. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/06/22/ST2008062200049.html What do you think of that?
Estrich: Rasmussen Reports asked the question and he said you know, will it affect your friends and family. You can never ask people, basically, ‘Are you a racist?’ Because everybody knows what the right answer is. And so its stunning that anyone says ‘Well I wouldn’t vote for an African-American.’ So the way Scott Rasmussen asked it was he said ‘Ya know, do you think your friends and family would have trouble voting for an African-American?’ And 40 % of white voters said yes. My guess is that if 40% of people actually said yes, the real number is probably even higher. So there’s an obstacle here. But Barack Obama is determined to take it on. So, if this isn’t a Democratic year, I don’t know what a Democratic year looks like.
There is no excuse whatsoever for a candidate for the highest office in our land to change his position on issues on almost a daily basis. This man is either the biggest liar to have ever run for the presidency or just plain does not know his own mind. A man’s word is his honor; yet it does not seem Obama has much honor. If we can’t believe him now, what would happen if he were elected? Our nation would be sea sawing every day. How can one take this silver-tongued wishy washy person seriously? The foreign nations won’t. Are we as a nation so gullible as to think this is the best candidate? Hell, NO.
RE:
July 4th, 2008 7:56 PM Eastern
Estrich on Obama, Iraq, Experience and Race
by Major Garrett
——————-
Thank you for wecloming me
And allow me to congratulate you for your previous article
————————————————————————————————–
Glaze Storm
LETTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER OF QUÉBEC
MR. LUCIEN BOUCHARD
The Right Honorable Lucien Bouchard
Prime Minister of Quebec
Building Hydro-Québec
75, boulevard René Lévesque Ouest
Montréal (Québec)
H2Z 1A4
Dear Mr. Prime Minister:
“It is in adversity”, I was going to say in “darkness”, that one recognizes true friends.
In this national test due to the shortage of electricity because of bad weather, each one of us, in Québec like elsewhere, recognizes in you the Statesman, the friend very sensitive to the needs of the Québécois.
In solidarity betwen us in this shortage, we are also in solidarity with your energy, your will to build and rebuild.
Energy of the Sixties tested, confronted by the Ice storm crisis, what does Science hold for us in this field at the crossroad of the third millennium?
Each of us should express solidarity, according to his means.
My contribution, apparently futuristic, refers, Mister Prime Minister, to an inexhaustible source of energy, which one should tame now.
In a book with limited publication, translated in English for the needs of the cause, entitled ” BILL A RI And There Was Light “, addressed during his last American election campaign to President Bill Clinton who acknowledged having received it, I dared to tackle this subject.
A second copy of that manuscript reached 24 Sussex at Ottawa, intended for the Prime Minister of Canada, the day before the visit of the Right Honourable Jean Chrétien at the White House.
As for the French original version which entitled then ” Haïti ! Que La Lumière Soit ! “, it was given in person in care of the Canadian ambassador to Port-au-Prince, Mr. Hubert Feuillé, to President Jean Bertrand Aristide.
It’s like to say to you, Mister Prime Minister, that in the exceptional circumstances in which Québec lives today – in the point of view of energy – no exploration in the mid or long term, by the expertise of Hydro-Québec, of an additional source of energy, at the same time safe and profitable, should not be ruled out. The Chairman and managing Director of the Hydro-Québec Company, who assists you so admirably, will assist you even more, I hope, vis-à-vis that new perspective.
In my letter to President Bill Clinton as well as in the one to your federal counterpart Mr. Jean Chrétien, I brought up that prospect to them. Who can guess, vis-à-vis this posssibility, which one of them would be the first to take advantage thereof.
There is no witchcraft at all involved in all that, Mister Prime Minister. In spite of my Haïtian ascent and my carefully phrased remarks. It is undoubtedly so when a taboo should be broken through; a taboo of magnitude, Mister Prime Minister, I admit it; a “scientific” taboo, seldom encountered.
Why did that happened to me, in such a way, like an ice storm, camera in hand, in full darkness? – ” the taboo arises as a negative categorical imperative,” affirms Roger Caillois. It is not saying little. Especially when it is a question of adequately correcting the theory of Newton on light and colors.
What an ungrateful work, what an irony, what else? Above that, for more than twenty-five years. However, at the dawn of the twenty first century, to denounce this taboo, to reverse it, should I say, what an asset! Moreover, at the same time the multiple taboos grow blurred which surround another phenomenon of the highest scientific range, the well known phenomenon under the abusive name of “Black Holes”, synthesis of light and colors. Indeed Newton, in good faith undoubtedly in his time, really reversed the interpretation of the phenomenon of light. He took the part for the whole ! So much and so well that today like yesterday, the visible appears so much more tempting. Physicists say it: “ninety to ninety nine percent of the matter of the universe is made up of a dark matter, invisible, which generates, propels and surrounds the visible, like the sea surrounds the continents”. Scientists such as Stephen Hawking affirm it. The Hubble Telescope confirms it. But theoretical Optics is stagnant.
My intervention, here, Mister Prime Minister, would mean that. It is possible to use another form of energy. By decoding the Black Matter. By the expertise of Hydro-Québec which has proven itself in many occasions. Without a play on words. Theoretically initially. While “returning the elevator to Newton”. Because, today, Hydro-Québec is well informed and with full power ! Forgive, this time, this very small play on words, intended to pay homage to you. For the Act which consists in making an AMENDMENT TO THE LAW OF NEWTON ON LIGHT AND COLORS..
Presently, why should we take the result instead of the cause? Objectively and in a pragmatic way, by a new synthesis; consequently, what a liberation ! At the threshold of the third millennium, let light live, invisible by synthesis, visible by analysis.
“Synthesis and analysis are two wings of the same bird, the rythm of the universe`s heartbeat, tamed inside the infinitely small having mass. Successively contracted and deployed. In the benefit of humanity. “One small step for Man, one giant leap for Mankind – I also said myself – in “ BILL A RI and there was light !.. ”
What an unfortunate ice storm, certainly ! Versus illumination. Versus vivifying heat. Unfortunate, yes, but how much a convenient storm if I dare say, which invites us to explore other avenues, other concepts and, therefore, other resources so far neglected. Invitation to go from the invisible to the visible and vice versa. Taking advantage of the sequence of colorless and colored luminous speeds. In order to better understand the Universe. Where Law and Order prevail. Just like in Democracy !
Energetic formula with a unique character !
In the name of Science and Technology, vapor is being reverse !
A winning formula !
In Québec !
By Hydro-Québec !
As for the concept which enabled me to carry out this research, to draw certain conclusions and thus to propose its application, allow me, Mister Prime Minister, in spite of your many obligations and concerns, a small and fast digression.
1972. A young talented lawyer. I consult him on the royalties, the intellectual property, and the legal protection. He collects data, consults his fellow-members, at the Bar. Days, months pass. I call and I recall. One year, two years. I insist. I persist, as a condition to pay his fee, in obtaining an answer. He proposes, in private, a verbal report. I tell him the importance which I attach to a written report. Obviously not at ease, reluctantly, he gives me, on August 16, 1974, a letter! You are, Mister Prime Minister, the very first one to receive today, here included, a copy of it.
As for the verbal report mentioned in the letter which I address to you today, it was around a glass of beer – from the well-known MOLSON Brewery , I still remember, that the young and talented lawyer, well in spite of himself but in all respect and friendship, delivered to me the verdict of his elders, his fellow-members of the Bar:
“You are”, they say, “an illuminated Black person !”
Pretending to be under the effect of a certain euphoria to which the famous beer MOLSON gets one discreetly, I told him on a hardly exalted but sincerely happy tone: “I, Lucien, from the Latin Lucianus which, from the root Lux, Lucis and any other variation reminds me FIAT!, then FIAT Lux! Let us raise our glass to your Bar and Let there be light ! ”
“An Illuminated Black person !”, I suddenly told him again, “in the white ceremony where the snow and the wind intermingle, in this country of blowing snow…” sung by Gilles Vigneault, what a spectacle !
Homage to you, Mister Prime Minister, because today like yesterday, in the Country sung by Gilles Vigneault, thanks to you, to your collaborators, to all the people of Québec, and to the “Father” who had house built, “the guest room, it is beautiful! ”
How not to think of René Lévesque, during a meeting before the first “Parti Québécois referendum ” on a Saturday, in company of Doctor Camille Laurin, of Doctor Denis Lazure, of Father Jacques Couture, of Gérald Godin of venerated memory, without forgetting the former deputy Pierre de Bellefeuille. Facing him that Saturday, illuminated by I do not know which obscure clearness, I gave to him in person a summery of this subject which I have a chance to entertain with you today. One sentence condensed its content. He promised me to read it all in his limousine, on the way back from Montréal to Québec. The following day, on Sunday morning, I knew that he had read it.
With you today, Mister Prime Minister, I repeat this sentence, more than twenty-five years old, but always, in my opinion, carrying the same message that I wish more and more positive for the years to come, in the third millennium…
“On the cosmic scale as on the terrestrial scale, darkness or blackness forms an integral, sine qua non part, of color and light pocess”.
Is it still broad daylight
in the shadow of the black sun?
Yours truly,
Lucien BONNET
http://www.contact-canadahaiti.ca
LINKS (JAN -UARY 12, 2008)
UBC astronomer makes first map of dark matter
CTV.ca – 11 Jan 2008
For the first time, a team of UBC scientists have mapped the elusive “dark matter” in a supercluster of stars in the night sky.
New map lets scientists ’see’ dark matter CBC News
Astronomers get best look yet at dark matter surrounding galaxies The Canadian Press
Ars Technica – Kazinform – InTheNews.co.uk – Daily Mail
all 26 news articles »
It kills me when people assume that those who won’t vote for an inexperienced, arrogant, smug and entitled candidate who happens to be black won’t vote for him b/c of his race. Nope — it’s the other stuff, including his stunning flip flops on a number of issues, including Iraq, financing (I’m one of the couple of dozen of people to whom this matters a great deal), partial-birth abortions, his church, FISA … the list goes on. He will say anything, do anything to get elected. I happen to be a liberal, so this is hard for me; I cannot STAND Obama but … McCain? I’m a voter without a candidate at the moment.
But please — his skin color? That’s the least of our worries. I don’t care about the color of his skin but the content of his character. And it’s not a pretty sight.
It troubles me that Fox News is so limp in addressing the obvious other side of the race coin. The polls this, the polls that… why hasn’t the obvious question of reverse black on white racism been made an issue? It is irrefutable; does no one recall blacks voting 97%+ for Obama over Clinton in the Democratic Primary? These were 2 candidates with indistinguishable differences with identical platforms; therefore the results were statistically impossible unless another variable is added to the equation.
The last thing I remember about S.E. was her standing at the democratic headquarters when the last Presidential race was concluding and she said” I just heard from someone and Kerry carried Ohio ” ensuring his assention to the Presidentcy. That along with that being Dukakis’s campagne manager are her two claims to fame…Sad…and just look at the pulicity she garners…Sad for us….All in all I think she is an overblown bore from Lynn,MA….I lived on Nochols St. and I remember her well.
The last thing I remember about S.E. was her standing at the democratic headquarters when the last Presidential race was concluding and she said” I just heard from someone and Kerry carried Ohio ” ensuring his assention to the Presidentcy. That along with that being Dukakis’s campagne manager are her two claims to fame…Sad…and just look at the pulicity she garners…Sad for us….All in all I think she is an overblown bore from Lynn,MA….I lived on Nichols St. and I remember her well.
I got to the part where she says McCain is for a 100 year war and had to stop. McCain is not for a 100 yr war. He said we may may be in Baghdad for 100 yrs, similarly to us being in Japan and Germany since WWII. That’s all. She is just like most other Liberals, lying about what the Republican candidates say just to get votes. Don Abele
I wonder why the interviewer let Susan Estrich get away with saying McCain wants a 100 year war in Iraq. Anybody with half a brain know s that is not what McCain wants and someone as supposedly intelligent as Estrich should not be allowed to mislead in such a way. That is a very disingenuous statement and she would have to admit it is a lie.
Estrich, a Hillary claque, who ran one of the most idiotic campaigns in American history, is not the first person I’d go to for analysis–unless I were Fox.
When Tom Bradley ran for governor the anti gun people had put a proposition on the ballot. Bradley endorsed it.
In the election, Bradley carried LA and San Francisco, etc but not by huge margins. In all the little counties, after a huge registration drive, The gun proposition and Bradley were defeated by way over 90%.
Did anyone bother to run exit polls in Markleeville, county seat of Alpine County? I doubt it and the whiz kids like this one never figured it out.
Race was part of the Bradley effect but a lot of it was endorsing that gun bill.
Guns do not cause problems in rural areas.
Why no mention of all of John McCain’s flip-flops to date—now supporting drilling for oil off of our shores, Bush’s tax cuts when he came out against them earlier, and the real hidden story, that McCain has already violated his pledge to accept public campaign financing and is the real flip-flopper on that issue?
This was a very interesting interview. I believe that Estrich has a very good perspective on this race and I appreciate the fact that the race issue is confronted. It will be a very real factor – the question is whether the Republicans will try to use it or not.
The anti-war left as well as middle ARE pissed off and it may well endanger the voting support for Senator Obama. Just read some of the comments following various articles in the media regarding his fuzzier stance on ending the war. His statements about consulting the commanders in the field in Iraq will not give him an accurate picture of what is happening and how to end it. This administration along with the Pentagon has purged those Military leaders who disagreed with the purpose, direction and function of the invasion of Iraq. Any advice given from those left in command would be to remain until it is “won” meaning the total destruction of Iraq and the collapse of the economy of the United States. I am an Obama supporter but considerably disturbed about this vital issue.
Forget the race thing – the majority of people who do not vote for Obama will not be because of his race (though I’ve no doubt that the press and many of the left liberal elite will try to make us think that is the reason).
thank you Estrich for your bright responses looks to me that we Democrats still have a Republican
mind, that we still think as people in the 60 with all advances, tech, sciense we are narrow minds
we are not Democrats, because we don’t have the courage to fight for a change of the situation
in the country just because Obama is African American. We rather go to the 100 years of war
MacCain is promising, killing enough people in Middle East, playing with the show between Israel/IranPalestine etc kiling our troops because arent they relatives,and living this country EACH DAY MORE POOR, don’t forget China and our deficit is their money, and let the Energy Clam be more rich, and the Bushes and Cheneys laughing about the STUPITS be blind with more baseball, football, sex scand, the Media etc play the game. They are monsters why we are so insensible?
Education, Health, Real Estate, Corruption from the White House to the bottom….. but we dont
care, we loose all our values.
couple of idiots!!!
Race? Democrat? Republican? Conservative? Liberal? Someday news media people will begin to understand that most Americans just want a President who will do a good job and allow us to get on with our building, selling, brain surgery, raising children, et cetera. We want a President who will do his job as well as we do our jobs. And we’d like a U.S.Congress that will exercise their checks and balances with the other branches of the government. In WWII they declared war. Since that time they have permitted the executive branch to engage in war in Korea, Viet Nam, Grenada, Iraq, Afghanistan without a declaration of war; without mobilizing the nation. Congress has abdicated their responsibility and this has “allowed” them to stand back and criticize each of several past Presidents. I hold them all responsible for many of the problems we face today.
I believe both John Mc Cain and Barach H. Obama are honorable men. John has the experience of a senior senator and the military experience and valor that cannot be questioned. He has served his country both on the battle field and in the senate.He is an American hero who has devoted his life to protect and defend our country in war and in peace.
Barach is a junior senator who seems to be a fast learner in his quest to defeat an opponent who is old enough to be his father.He has and will probably continue to stumble and seem to loose track about what is the latest scandal the democrats have concockted concerning his opponent and the Republican Party.
I have seen John Mc Cain give his measure of devotion and have heard Barach’s speeches.I believe John Mc Cain is best qualified to be our president.
Well, it is interesting that Ms/Mrs Estrich framed this situation in such a way, that if Obama loses, it is because of racism, and because people are not really admitting that they are racists, but they get in the voting booth, and turn into neo Nazis. Estrich allows no possibility that Obama could lose on his lack of experience, questionable judgment in associates, or whatever. No, its all just plain old racism, so if you don’t vote for Obama, then your a racist. This really wasn’t very complicated to unravel because many Obama supporters have been trying to use the same psychology on American voters since the primaries, and that is: If you don’t vote for the man, you aren’t hip, you not fly, boy, you are a racist. I hope people aren’t being duped by this guilt inducing ploy, because it just is not true. Vote for whoever you want to. Vote on the issues, vote because you like their mustache, I mean that’s your business, but don’t let anyone convince you that if you don’t vote for Obama, that makes you a racist.
[...] Estrich on Obama, Iraq, Experience and Race FOXNews – USA He was a primary candidate running against Hillary Clinton, who basically agreed with him on the war, running for the Democratic primary base. … See all stories on this topic [...]
This interview with Susan Estrich is the most focussed, most concise and most accurate summary of the current status of the 2008 Presidential election that I have read to date. I will look for more interviews with Susan and more commentary by Susan in the future.
I just read Estrichs’ interview on Obama and Iraq. I must it was interesting. The last part however caught my attention. It is sad to say that Caucasian America is still bigoted, biased and racist. Now that is not to say all are like that but overwhemingly enough are. To think that if you are of a different race, that would be a deciding factor in a presidential race is absurd. I am an African American and guess what, i’ve voted for white candidates, not because of the skin, religion, whom they were married to but because they were the right person for the job.
This is 2008 AMERICA!! Let’s wake up and start acting like true homosapiens. What’s going to happen is that older and wiser Black Americans will leave the Democratic party if this base does not pull together in this election year and turn to the Republicans. Is’nt that where African Americans party affiliation was originally, i guess we got Democracy confused with the Democratic party.
Be that as it may, if White Clinton supporters do not back Obama in this election then Black Americans should take a close look at this party and those they that consider to be friends (who maybe caucasian ), why they would not vote for Mr. Obama. Whatever is is received we should (as a people) lose those particular associations and move foward to new ones.
Saw Susan Estrich several times, from a distance, in Brookline, MA in 1988 where I lived a few doors away from Mike Dukakis’ house. Back in December 2007 I said that based on my observation of theAmerican electorate in the 1980, 1988, 2000, and 2004 campaigns, I felt that the morons will get cold feet about sending a black person to the White House and will elect McCain. Susan Estrich seems to have similar doubts. In that case, I promise you, I’ll pack up and get the hell out of this country until, and if ever, it becomes more like Europe where big buisness and religion are kept on a short leash, where the fascist element is in a small minority, where guns are where they belong – out of the public realm, and where being an intellectual is still an honorable designation.
Good luck with your guns, your Jesus, and your increasingly worthless dollars, suckers!
The current presidential campaign reminds me of a statement which one of our first Constitutional Presidents wrote in a political discorse letter, when he wrote; “This Nation shall only survive, by the current form of Government, which we have chosen as long as her people remain strong in their RELIGION.” In a second letter, written by another of the first three U.S. President’s, he wrote in a personal letter on the future hope of this nation, saying; “The current form of Government, which has been established in this LAND, shall remain until, it’s citizenry & corporation’s realize that they can gain in personal profits by the mis-use of our Laws. Then, it shall collapse”. I remember, it was the very President & Sitting Congress who declared freedom for all people’s in the USA during the middle of the Civil War, who before his assasination, wrote out the Founding Plan for the African “Nation/State” of Liberia, so all freed slaves would be able to return to their homeland. Well: Let’s see ‘how well’ the current National Campaign lines up with what our fonding PResident’s wrote as “Prophetic Warning’s” over 200 years ago;
(a) One Candidate attended a ‘Race Hatred Based Place of Worship’ for 20 plus years, until American Citizenry called him & his Wife on it; So he quit when it appeared to Cost Him Votes. “True Religion” > quoting the founder of Christianity [Jesus]> “All people shall know you are my disciples BY YOUR LOVE”.
(b) One Candidate kept as close friend & confidant he whom actually was a convicted anti US Homeland Born TERRORIST.
(c) One Candidate has been running by “Promising everyone a FREE GRAVYTRAIN RIDE” while openly promising to raise new US Federal Government TAX RATES at the HIGHEST LEVEL & % in USA’S HISTORY.
(d) One Candidate ‘claims’ to desire to unite everyone, while blocking two burka wearing supporters from his Stands at a Rally, while @ the same time having to be forced by his Primary Competitor to finally renounce his two religious ‘Leader’s’ for all their proven, long held ant-white, anti-government, anti-jew, sermonizings.
(e) One Candidate & his Wife, in 2006 were {reportedly} photographed taking part in a “Secret” DONATION DINNER for the former TOP AID of the (deceased head of the PLO), Yassar Arrafat; in the Gaza Strip.
(f) One Candidate’s Wife openly declared that only since her Husband’s Campaign, did she become proud of her native born land > the USA.
(g) One Candidate had as a mentor & political Campaign Funds Provider {on-going since his first attempted run at a State Level Office} a known proven CRIMINAL, who it has been alledged had PERSONAL CLOSE TIES to one of Sadam Hussain’s Top Government Aides.
(h) One Candidate; (While attacking his competitor’s in the Primary Election’s for “Being in bed with Lobbiest’s); HIMSELF secretly wrote AN EARMARK in the Senate for $1,000,000.00, of US Citizen’s hard paid TAXES, THAT WAS TOTALLY DESIGNATED TO GO DIRECTLY TO THE HOSPITAL OF WHICH HIS WIFE WAS THEN ACTING CORPORATE VICE PRESIDENT OF!
(i) One Candidate, during Primary Debates; was forced to admit that both during his State Held Office, & since becoming a Senator, over 100 times, voted “Present” or said he “actually meant to vote to the oposite of how he actually voted” on KEY BILLS.
(j) One Candidate got his way through College & University PAID FOR HIM BY SCOLORSHIP’S & GRANTS {Free GravyTrain Ride on Hard working U.S. Citizen’s hard paid TAXES / As did his Wife}, while the other Candidate took his Life’s 05 year’s of hard education in the Hanoi Hilton being beaten nearly to death by a COMMUNIST/LIBERALIST ELITEIST DICTATORSHIP RUN MILITARY REGIME, that was using that Candidate for foder, because they knew he was the Son of a US Navy Commander!
(k) One Candidate was FOUND TOTALLY INNOCENT in the Koeting Lending Scandal over twenty years ago, while the other Candidate got a “Sweet Heart Finance Deal” on a million dollar – plus priced set of house and land deal, from a now proven CRIMINAL, &, another ‘Sweetheart Finance Deal’ from the Board of Chairmen of a Mortgage Corporation that was/is still under total investigation for several types of illegal mortgage finance fraud.
(l) One Candidate gets mocked for his Age, though those years have clearly brought along much gained WISDOM; while the other Candidate got his political ’smarts’ by having been proven pulling ‘Slick Legal & Political Campaign Games’ in his home State against several other legitimate & proven servant Office holders, so he could actually get to run as candidate in their Districts.
(m) One Candidate was born on a US Military Base in Panama, while the other ‘Claims’ to have been born in Hawaii, EVEN THOUGH, News Investigations around the Globe, have alledged that solid evidence is recorded in the BRITISH BIRTH REGISTRY in Kenya, showing that while his still married Father was employed by the British Commonwealth Government of Kenya, that he and his Wife were barred by Commonwealth Military from leaving their Soil via jet, UNTIL AFTER THE WIFE GAVE BIRTH TO THEIR SON! That in the British Commonwealth Birth Registry has been located the ACTUAL BRITISH COMMONWEALTH OF KENYA BIRTH CERTIFICATE, showing that in reality that now Presidential Candidate was born in Kenya, and then flown to Hawaii, where his Kenyan Commonwealth Government Employee Father, & “American Born” Mother, with the aid of her Parent’s, got an “AT HOME BIRTH” Birth Certificate Registered, to “Show” their Son as an American Natural Born Person.
So! You decide: Which Presidential Candidate falls negatively under the early “Prophetic Warning’s” of two of our dear Nation’s Founding President’s concerning the ultimate COLLAPSE OF OUR NATION’S GOVERNMENT & RECOGNIZED UNITED STATE’S AS A RECOGNIZED FORCE FOR LIBERTY & THE PERSUIT OF HAPPINESS FOR HER CITIZENRY? Decide, why don’t you, on hard cold facts; Which Candidate is the more proven and matches up POSITIVELY with the Founding President’s “Prophetic Warning’s” concerning the health and strength of our beloved nation and her hard working citizenry OF ALL RACES?
(And) Concerning having our Military on foreign soil in “WAR TIME”,
(1) KOREAN WAR/POLICE ACTION: Armistice Signed 04/1953 by Truman & North Korea, Enforced by Armed US Military on the Border between the Communist Dictator Run Aggressor North, & Democratic South, since 1953,
(2) Former Yugoslavic States & the “Bosnian War” in the 90’s under Clinton? U.S. Military Armed at the Ready Personnel still on the ground there > 2008,
(3) WWII, 1941-1945 (?) U.S. Permenant Bases located in Germany, Turkey, Greece, Great Briton, & in former USSR controlled land with new nuclear missles > 2008,
(4) Central & South American Wars in the 70’s, 80’s, 90’s / some openly admitted, while others not; Still active Duty & armed U.S. Personnel on the ground, “Aiding in fighting an international “Drug War” > Still there 2008, begun under Reagan in the 80’s.
(5) Kuwait & Dubai; since the 1990’s FIRST GULF WAR > 2008, still there.
(6) Since end of WWII, The Main World Supplier of ALL TYPES of Military goods and hardware to the most number of recognized Foreign States & Nations? the USA.
SO! “In Iraq 100 years? Hey, We’ve had Military Personnel & a Base on the Cuban Island since BEFORE CASTRO CAME INTO POWER! ACTUALLY SINCE WE TOOK CUBA/I mean “Freed” CUBA from Spain during the 1800’s > Nearly 140 years ago!
One Candidate (non military US Defense trained) attempts to make American’s panicky over a Military Base being built for long term US Troops being built in IRAQ? When during another Network In-Field Interview, that Candidate “flip-Flopped” and admitted he would keep rought 80,000 US Troops on Iraq Soil PERMENANTLY, HIMSELF >But in the capacity similar as in Korea: Armed & at the Ready, in case a “New War” broke out……….. (Huh?) (DUH)
So Voter’s, take the wax, oil, dirt, & finger’s out of your ears. Just because a person can be a “Slick Speaker”, making words cause some women to swoon; So TOO have there been some SMOOTH TALKING PREACHER’S that everyone gravitated toward, while thinking they were “God’s Gift to Humanity” > (example) JIM JONES & HIS CAMP IN AFRICA OF THE SUICIDE BELIEVERS.
At a time of Economic, Military, Terroristic, International, Climatic, Turmoil & DANGER, This NATION needs a tried and proven Leader, not some smooth talking, physically good looking untried Candidate as our next President. Republican, Democrat, Constitutional Party, Libertarian, or Independent: It’s not a time for PARTY POLITICS AND GAMES LIKE THAT! It’s a threatening time for our beloved nation. So, cool down voters. Take some time and really compare each candidate along side the TRUE WARNINGS written by TWO Founder US President’s over 200 years ago. Then decide; Honestly with yourself; Which one truly lines up positively along side what they wrote for the safety of our nation, culture, freedom, sdafety of her citizenry. Sadly; Most of today’s US Citizen’s won’t! Why? Because they want to be on some faccet of a “New & Better US GOVERNMENT SOLILISTIC GRAVY TRAIN! THAT’S WHY! They will vote for the guy who promises the most “Gimmi’s” rather than for the tried and proven fella that for over 70 years has proven his love and loyalty for this land, And his Grandfather’s as well, all the way back to the Revolution, fighting personally beside President George Washington in Valley Forge! Think folks. Really think hard, because America – US, Canada, & Mexico could ultimately be attacked hard, if we have the wrong finger on the Government’s trigger. Age & Experience brings wisdom. Youth & unproven TALK is cheap! Anyone can blather at the mouth. But not everyone can rule a nation well.
susan estrich lies when she says “there are two candidates in this race: One talking about getting the troops home, whether it’s in 3 months or 18 months or whatever it is; and the other talking about a hundred year war.” she knows mccain doesn’t want or expect us to remain in iraq for a hundred years. she’s taking a quote out of context to suit her needs.
I am so sick of the race bias in the media. They always try to play the white racism-black victim card. Black men are the most irrepsonsible people in are society. They consist of 6-7% of the population yet are responsible for 45% of the violent crime according to FBI crime statistics. Black on white crime is staggering in this country yet the media never run an article on it.
HE ISN’T THE CANDIDATE YOU THOUGHT YOU KNEW
and you wont be able to recognise him next week either so we dont want him in office either you know at one time he said
” you have to be able to trust what your leaders say”
that is a direct quote from bo from the first time he attacked Hillary and she answered with the REZCO SLUM LORD response
now we really cant trust anything he says ….well we havent been able to for some time but more people are recognising that
Retrograde of race relations…this is what we will see if Obama is elected. Why? Because neither he nor the USA is mature eneough to stop it.
The media will continue to call him a black man (someone please tell me why). Everyone seems happy to ignore and slam his mother and her role in his existance.
Obama is mixed / Bi-racial. Why can’t we just tell the truth? It will be a hollow victory for blacks in this country if Obama wins and a great victory for all mixed race people everywhere.
The interview actually read a little more interesting than I thought it would be after I realized that the subject was the campgin manager for Michael Dukakis. I mean, seriously, what were we supposed to gleen from somebody who captained one of the absolute worst presidential campaigns ever run (lest we not forget, around this time of year, Dukakis had about a 20 point lead in the polls).
Having said that, Susan Estrich did keep things in relative context.
But what I have to speak out on are the GOP-bots that have been ratcheting up the flip-flop chant.
To that, I just have to say, when one looks at all the changes of positions, pandering, and outright flip-flopping that Mr. McCain has done to formally pay his respects to the extreme right wing of the Republican party, it does take a bit of chutzpah to accuse Obama of that, while neglecting to note that McCain has done it on just about every issue.
But then, Republican talking points for the faithful were never intended to be nuanced.
John Mc Cain and Barach H. Oboma are staying away from the number one issue: When are we going to start drilling for oil in all of the choice locations in our own country?Is there any reason not to, or are our politicians just plain stupid? Their excuses that it would take years to get started
is getting a bit old.It sems to me that if John Mc Cain or Barrach Oboma can’t or won’t get off their backsides and change their negative opinions of our country being self reliant for its oil needs then perhaps neither of these politicians is suited to run our government.
What are the real reasons for a big percentage our country economy being siphed off to middle eastern oil concerns or are we just plain stupid to keep listening to their insipid arguments that all is hopeless and that we are reponsible for this. In fact we are for electing politicians with no gumtion or reasoning powers to determine what is best for our great country.All of their talk is meant to get them into office so that their party can get more jobs for their own elk. They don’t give a damn about our great country which is founded on free enterprize-not political hacks that put their ambiions ahead of our country needs.
As educated as Susan Estrich is, She has tunnel vision and can only hear 2nd-hand information when it applies to ‘the person running against Her Candidate’. In referring to a statement of John McCain — she calls him the candidate for the 100-year war. Susan, J.M. said troups could be there for 100 years, and he later clarified that by comparing it to having troups in Europe and it has been 63 years since WWII ended; troups in Korea 55+ years after that war ended and J.M. DID NOT say we would be at war 100 years — either: you change to your benefit what you accuse J.M. of saying or you just don’t listen to both sides of the story. Whether you want to believe it or not –Nobody likes war! even the Republicans. However, I realize ALL our military are volunteers and if the media would listen to the military with both ears, our soldiers don’t want to leave right away, they want to stay the course and gradually turn over all the military duty to the Iraqi people. If your candidate, B.O., had taken time to talk with some veterans from his own state when they came to his office to talk with him (before the primary started) and if B.O. had made an attempt to talk with Gen. Petreas last time he was in WA D.C. (both were there) B.O. would look like a candidate who really cared about the military, but his actions show whatever he is saying now is for his selfish wishes for power.