NOVEMBER 3, 2008
The Change We Need
I'm proud to have the support of businessmen like Warren Buffett.
By BARACK OBAMA
This is a defining moment in our history. We face the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression -- 760,000 workers have lost their jobs this year. Businesses and families can't get credit. Home values are falling, and pensions are disappearing. Wages are lower than they've been in a decade, at a time when the costs of health care and college have never been higher.
At a moment like this, we can't afford four more years of spending increases, poorly designed tax cuts, or the complete lack of regulatory oversight that even former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan now believes was a mistake. America needs a new direction. That's why I'm running for president of the United States.
Tomorrow, you can give this country the change we need.
My opponent, Senator McCain, has served his country honorably. He can even point to a few moments in the past where he has broken from his party. But over the past eight years, he's voted with President Bush 90% of the time. And when it comes to the economy, he still can't tell the American people one major thing he'd do differently from George Bush.
It's not change to come up with a tax plan that doesn't give a penny of relief to more than 100 million middle-class Americans -- a plan that even the National Review and other conservative organizations complain does far too little to benefit the middle class. It's not change to add more than $5 trillion to the deficits we've run up in recent years. It's not change to come up with a plan to address our housing crisis that puts another $300 billion of taxpayer money at risk -- a plan that the editorial board of this newspaper said "raises more questions than it answers."
If there's one thing we've learned from this economic crisis, it's that we are all in this together. From CEOs to shareholders, from financiers to factory workers, we all have a stake in each other's success because the more Americans prosper, the more America prospers.
That's why we've had titans of industry who've made it their mission to pay well enough that their employees could afford the products they made -- businessmen like Warren Buffett, whose support I'm proud to have. That's why our economy hasn't just been the world's greatest wealth creator -- it's been the world's greatest job generator. It's been the tide that has lifted the boats of the largest middle class in history.
To rebuild that middle class, I'll give a tax break to 95% of workers and their families. If you work, pay taxes, and make less than $200,000, you'll get a tax cut. If you make more than $250,000, you'll still pay taxes at a lower rate than in the 1990s -- and capital gains and dividend taxes one-third lower than they were under President Reagan.
We'll create two million new jobs by rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure and laying broadband lines that reach every corner of the country. I'll invest $15 billion a year over the next decade in renewable energy, creating five million new, green jobs that pay well, can't be outsourced, and can help end our dependence on Middle East oil.
When it comes to health care, we don't have to choose between a government-run system and the unaffordable one we have now. My opponent's plan would make you pay taxes on your health-care benefits for the first time in history. My plan will make health care affordable and accessible for every American. If you already have health insurance, the only change you'll see under my plan is lower premiums. If you don't, you'll be able to get the same kind of plan that members of Congress get for themselves.
To give every child a world-class education so they can compete in this global economy for the jobs of the 21st century, I'll invest in early childhood education and recruit an army of new teachers. But I'll also demand higher standards and more accountability. And we'll make a deal with every young American: If you commit to serving your community or your country, we will make sure you can afford your tuition.
And when it comes to keeping this country safe, I'll end the Iraq war responsibly so we stop spending $10 billion a month in Iraq while it sits on a huge surplus. For the sake of our economy, our military and the long-term stability of Iraq, it's time for the Iraqis to step up. I'll finally finish the fight against bin Laden and the al Qaeda terrorists who attacked us on 9/11, build new partnerships to defeat the threats of the 21st century, and restore our moral standing so that America remains the last, best hope of Earth.
None of this will be easy. It won't happen overnight. But I believe we can do this because I believe in America. This is the country that allowed our parents and grandparents to believe that even if they couldn't go to college, they could save a little bit each week so their child could; that even if they couldn't have their own business, they could work hard enough so their child could open one of their own. And at every moment in our history, we've risen to meet our challenges because we've never forgotten the fundamental truth that in America, our destiny is not written for us, but by us.
So tomorrow, I ask you to write our nation's next great chapter. I ask you to believe -- not just in my ability to bring about change, but in yours. Tomorrow, you can choose policies that invest in our middle class, create new jobs, and grow this economy so that everyone has a chance to succeed. You can choose hope over fear, unity over division, the promise of change over the power of the status quo. If you give me your vote, we won't just win this election -- together, we will change this country and change the world.
Mr. Obama is the Democratic nominee for president.
Source:The Wall Street Journal
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Obama's Grandmother Dies After Battle With Cancer
NOVEMBER 3, 2008, 7:30 P.M. ET
Obama's Grandmother Dies After Battle With Cancer
By AMY CHOZICK
"It is with great sadness that we announce that our grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, has died peacefully after a battle with cancer," Sen. Obama and his half-sister Maya Soetoro-Ng said in a joint statement Monday afternoon.
A campaign aide said the 86-year-old Mrs. Dunham died late Sunday night at her home in Honolulu. Sen. Obama found out about her death early Monday morning.
Sen. Obama, looking visibly upset at a Charlotte rally, called the end of his long campaign "bittersweet." He paid tribute to the woman who helped raise him.
"Some of you heard that my grandmother who helped raise me passed away early this morning," he said. "I'm not going to talk about it too long because it's hard for me to talk about."
"She was one of those quiet heroes that we have all across America, they're not famous, their names aren't in the newspaper but each and every day they work hard, they look after their families, they sacrifice for their children and their grandchildren," he said.
In the statement, Sen. Obama called his grandmother "the person who encouraged and allowed us to take chances" and said his "debt to her is beyond measure." Last month, as his grandmother's health deteriorated, the Illinois Democrat took time off the campaign trail to visit her in Hawaii.
Sen. Obama, the son of a Kenyan father and a Kansas-born mother, was largely reared by his maternal grandparents. He called his grandmother "Toot," short for "tutu," the Hawaiian word for grandmother. Sen. Obama's mother, Ann Dunham, died of ovarian cancer in 1995 at the age of 57, and his grandfather, Stanley Dunham, died in 1992.
Republican nominee John McCain and his wife, Cindy, issued a statement expressing their sympathy. "We offer our deepest condolences to Barack Obama and his family as they grieve the loss of their beloved grandmother," the McCains said. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to them as they remember and celebrate the life of someone who had such a profound impact in their lives."
Sen. Obama thanked the McCains and called the statement "incredibly gracious."
In April, Ms. Dunham who largely avoided the media glare, appeared in a campaign ad in which she said her grandson has "a lot of depth and a broadness of view."
Ms. Dunham is known among Sen. Obama's friends and advisers as a tough Midwestern woman who never doted on her grandson.
In a September interview with late-night talk-show host David Letterman, Sen. Obama called his grandmother "the rock of our family."
"But she has a very subdued sort of Midwestern attitude about these things. So when I got nominated [for president] she called and said, 'That's nice, Barry, that's nice,'" Sen. Obama told Mr. Letterman.
When Sen. Obama returned from Hawaii last week he thanked crowds for the outpouring of support they had shown his grandmother, a sentiment echoed on Monday.
"Our family wants to thank all of those who sent flowers, cards, well-wishes, and prayers during this difficult time. It brought our grandmother and us great comfort," Sen. Obama and Ms. Ng said in the statement.
A small private funeral service will be held later this month, according to the Obama campaign.
Obama's Grandmother Dies After Battle With Cancer
By AMY CHOZICK
Charlotte, North Carolina—Sen. Barack Obama's grandmother died Sunday night, just hours before a presidential election in which her grandson could become the first African-American to win the nation's highest office.
"It is with great sadness that we announce that our grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, has died peacefully after a battle with cancer," Sen. Obama and his half-sister Maya Soetoro-Ng said in a joint statement Monday afternoon.
Sen. Barack Obama cries while speaking about his grandmother during a rally at University of North Carolina on Monday.
A campaign aide said the 86-year-old Mrs. Dunham died late Sunday night at her home in Honolulu. Sen. Obama found out about her death early Monday morning.
Sen. Obama, looking visibly upset at a Charlotte rally, called the end of his long campaign "bittersweet." He paid tribute to the woman who helped raise him.
"Some of you heard that my grandmother who helped raise me passed away early this morning," he said. "I'm not going to talk about it too long because it's hard for me to talk about."
He went on to tell the crowd that Ms. Dunham was born in 1922 in a small Kansas town. He said she lived through the Great Depression and two World Wars.
"She was one of those quiet heroes that we have all across America, they're not famous, their names aren't in the newspaper but each and every day they work hard, they look after their families, they sacrifice for their children and their grandchildren," he said.
In the statement, Sen. Obama called his grandmother "the person who encouraged and allowed us to take chances" and said his "debt to her is beyond measure." Last month, as his grandmother's health deteriorated, the Illinois Democrat took time off the campaign trail to visit her in Hawaii.
Sen. Obama, the son of a Kenyan father and a Kansas-born mother, was largely reared by his maternal grandparents. He called his grandmother "Toot," short for "tutu," the Hawaiian word for grandmother. Sen. Obama's mother, Ann Dunham, died of ovarian cancer in 1995 at the age of 57, and his grandfather, Stanley Dunham, died in 1992.
Republican nominee John McCain and his wife, Cindy, issued a statement expressing their sympathy. "We offer our deepest condolences to Barack Obama and his family as they grieve the loss of their beloved grandmother," the McCains said. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to them as they remember and celebrate the life of someone who had such a profound impact in their lives."
Sen. Obama thanked the McCains and called the statement "incredibly gracious."
In April, Ms. Dunham who largely avoided the media glare, appeared in a campaign ad in which she said her grandson has "a lot of depth and a broadness of view."
Ms. Dunham is known among Sen. Obama's friends and advisers as a tough Midwestern woman who never doted on her grandson.
In a September interview with late-night talk-show host David Letterman, Sen. Obama called his grandmother "the rock of our family."
"But she has a very subdued sort of Midwestern attitude about these things. So when I got nominated [for president] she called and said, 'That's nice, Barry, that's nice,'" Sen. Obama told Mr. Letterman.
When Sen. Obama returned from Hawaii last week he thanked crowds for the outpouring of support they had shown his grandmother, a sentiment echoed on Monday.
"Our family wants to thank all of those who sent flowers, cards, well-wishes, and prayers during this difficult time. It brought our grandmother and us great comfort," Sen. Obama and Ms. Ng said in the statement.
A small private funeral service will be held later this month, according to the Obama campaign.
Source:The Wall Street Journal
Thursday, October 30, 2008
It's time
The presidential election
It's time
Oct 30th 2008
From The Economist print edition
America should take a chance and make Barack Obama the next leader of the free world
IT IS impossible to forecast how important any presidency will be. Back in 2000 America stood tall as the undisputed superpower, at peace with a generally admiring world. The main argument was over what to do with the federal government's huge budget surplus. Nobody foresaw the seismic events of the next eight years. When Americans go to the polls next week the mood will be very different. The United States is unhappy, divided and foundering both at home and abroad. Its self-belief and values are under attack.
For all the shortcomings of the campaign, both John McCain and Barack Obama offer hope of national redemption. Now America has to choose between them. The Economist does not have a vote, but if it did, it would cast it for Mr Obama. We do so wholeheartedly: the Democratic candidate has clearly shown that he offers the better chance of restoring America's self-confidence. But we acknowledge it is a gamble. Given Mr Obama's inexperience, the lack of clarity about some of his beliefs and the prospect of a stridently Democratic Congress, voting for him is a risk. Yet it is one America should take, given the steep road ahead.
Thinking about 2009 and 2017
The immediate focus, which has dominated the campaign, looks daunting enough: repairing America's economy and its international reputation. The financial crisis is far from finished. The United States is at the start of a painful recession. Some form of further fiscal stimulus is needed, though estimates of the budget deficit next year already spiral above $1 trillion. Some 50m Americans have negligible health-care cover. Abroad, even though troops are dying in two countries, the cack-handed way in which George Bush has prosecuted his war on terror has left America less feared by its enemies and less admired by its friends than it once was.
Yet there are also longer-term challenges, worth stressing if only because they have been so ignored on the campaign. Jump forward to 2017, when the next president will hope to relinquish office. A combination of demography and the rising costs of America's huge entitlement programmes—Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid—will be starting to bankrupt the country. Abroad a greater task is already evident: welding the new emerging powers to the West. That is not just a matter of handling the rise of India and China, drawing them into global efforts, such as curbs on climate change; it means reselling economic and political freedom to a world that too quickly associates American capitalism with Lehman Brothers and American justice with Guantánamo Bay. This will take patience, fortitude, salesmanship and strategy.
At the beginning of this election year, there were strong arguments against putting another Republican in the White House. A spell in opposition seemed apt punishment for the incompetence, cronyism and extremism of the Bush presidency. Conservative America also needs to recover its vim. Somehow Ronald Reagan's party of western individualism and limited government has ended up not just increasing the size of the state but turning it into a tool of southern-fried moralism.
The selection of Mr McCain as the Republicans' candidate was a powerful reason to reconsider. Mr McCain has his faults: he is an instinctive politician, quick to judge and with a sharp temper. And his age has long been a concern (how many global companies in distress would bring in a new 72-year-old boss?). Yet he has bravely taken unpopular positions—for free trade, immigration reform, the surge in Iraq, tackling climate change and campaign-finance reform. A western Republican in the Reagan mould, he has a long record of working with both Democrats and America's allies.
If only the real John McCain had been running
That, however, was Senator McCain; the Candidate McCain of the past six months has too often seemed the victim of political sorcery, his good features magically inverted, his bad ones exaggerated. The fiscal conservative who once tackled Mr Bush over his unaffordable tax cuts now proposes not just to keep the cuts, but to deepen them. The man who denounced the religious right as "agents of intolerance" now embraces theocratic culture warriors. The campaigner against ethanol subsidies (who had a better record on global warming than most Democrats) came out in favour of a petrol-tax holiday. It has not all disappeared: his support for free trade has never wavered. Yet rather than heading towards the centre after he won the nomination, Mr McCain moved to the right.
Meanwhile his temperament, always perhaps his weak spot, has been found wanting. Sometimes the seat-of-the-pants method still works: his gut reaction over Georgia—to warn Russia off immediately—was the right one. Yet on the great issue of the campaign, the financial crisis, he has seemed all at sea, emitting panic and indecision. Mr McCain has never been particularly interested in economics, but, unlike Mr Obama, he has made little effort to catch up or to bring in good advisers (Doug Holtz-Eakin being the impressive exception).
The choice of Sarah Palin epitomised the sloppiness. It is not just that she is an unconvincing stand-in, nor even that she seems to have been chosen partly for her views on divisive social issues, notably abortion. Mr McCain made his most important appointment having met her just twice.
Ironically, given that he first won over so many independents by speaking his mind, the case for Mr McCain comes down to a piece of artifice: vote for him on the assumption that he does not believe a word of what he has been saying. Once he reaches the White House, runs this argument, he will put Mrs Palin back in her box, throw away his unrealistic tax plan and begin negotiations with the Democratic Congress. That is plausible; but it is a long way from the convincing case that Mr McCain could have made. Had he become president in 2000 instead of Mr Bush, the world might have had fewer problems. But this time it is beset by problems, and Mr McCain has not proved that he knows how to deal with them.
Is Mr Obama any better? Most of the hoopla about him has been about what he is, rather than what he would do. His identity is not as irrelevant as it sounds. Merely by becoming president, he would dispel many of the myths built up about America: it would be far harder for the spreaders of hate in the Islamic world to denounce the Great Satan if it were led by a black man whose middle name is Hussein; and far harder for autocrats around the world to claim that American democracy is a sham. America's allies would rally to him: the global electoral college on our website shows a landslide in his favour. At home he would salve, if not close, the ugly racial wound left by America's history and lessen the tendency of American blacks to blame all their problems on racism.
So Mr Obama's star quality will be useful to him as president. But that alone is not enough to earn him the job. Charisma will not fix Medicare nor deal with Iran. Can he govern well? Two doubts present themselves: his lack of executive experience; and the suspicion that he is too far to the left.
There is no getting around the fact that Mr Obama's résumé is thin for the world's biggest job. But the exceptionally assured way in which he has run his campaign is a considerable comfort. It is not just that he has more than held his own against Mr McCain in the debates. A man who started with no money and few supporters has out-thought, out-organised and outfought the two mightiest machines in American politics—the Clintons and the conservative right.
Political fire, far from rattling Mr Obama, seems to bring out the best in him: the furore about his (admittedly ghastly) preacher prompted one of the most thoughtful speeches of the campaign. On the financial crisis his performance has been as assured as Mr McCain's has been febrile. He seems a quick learner and has built up an impressive team of advisers, drawing in seasoned hands like Paul Volcker, Robert Rubin and Larry Summers. Of course, Mr Obama will make mistakes; but this is a man who listens, learns and manages well.
It is hard too nowadays to depict him as soft when it comes to dealing with America's enemies. Part of Mr Obama's original appeal to the Democratic left was his keenness to get American troops out of Iraq; but since the primaries he has moved to the centre, pragmatically saying the troops will leave only when the conditions are right. His determination to focus American power on Afghanistan, Pakistan and proliferation was prescient. He is keener to talk to Iran than Mr McCain is— but that makes sense, providing certain conditions are met.
Our main doubts about Mr Obama have to do with the damage a muddle-headed Democratic Congress might try to do to the economy. Despite the protectionist rhetoric that still sometimes seeps into his speeches, Mr Obama would not sponsor a China-bashing bill. But what happens if one appears out of Congress? Worryingly, he has a poor record of defying his party's baronies, especially the unions. His advisers insist that Mr Obama is too clever to usher in a new age of over-regulation, that he will stop such nonsense getting out of Congress, that he is a political chameleon who would move to the centre in Washington. But the risk remains that on economic matters the centre that Mr Obama moves to would be that of his party, not that of the country as a whole.
He has earned it
So Mr Obama in that respect is a gamble. But the same goes for Mr McCain on at least as many counts, not least the possibility of President Palin. And this cannot be another election where the choice is based merely on fear. In terms of painting a brighter future for America and the world, Mr Obama has produced the more compelling and detailed portrait. He has campaigned with more style, intelligence and discipline than his opponent. Whether he can fulfil his immense potential remains to be seen. But Mr Obama deserves the presidency.
Source:The Economist
It's time
Oct 30th 2008
From The Economist print edition
America should take a chance and make Barack Obama the next leader of the free world
IT IS impossible to forecast how important any presidency will be. Back in 2000 America stood tall as the undisputed superpower, at peace with a generally admiring world. The main argument was over what to do with the federal government's huge budget surplus. Nobody foresaw the seismic events of the next eight years. When Americans go to the polls next week the mood will be very different. The United States is unhappy, divided and foundering both at home and abroad. Its self-belief and values are under attack.For all the shortcomings of the campaign, both John McCain and Barack Obama offer hope of national redemption. Now America has to choose between them. The Economist does not have a vote, but if it did, it would cast it for Mr Obama. We do so wholeheartedly: the Democratic candidate has clearly shown that he offers the better chance of restoring America's self-confidence. But we acknowledge it is a gamble. Given Mr Obama's inexperience, the lack of clarity about some of his beliefs and the prospect of a stridently Democratic Congress, voting for him is a risk. Yet it is one America should take, given the steep road ahead.
Thinking about 2009 and 2017
The immediate focus, which has dominated the campaign, looks daunting enough: repairing America's economy and its international reputation. The financial crisis is far from finished. The United States is at the start of a painful recession. Some form of further fiscal stimulus is needed, though estimates of the budget deficit next year already spiral above $1 trillion. Some 50m Americans have negligible health-care cover. Abroad, even though troops are dying in two countries, the cack-handed way in which George Bush has prosecuted his war on terror has left America less feared by its enemies and less admired by its friends than it once was.
Yet there are also longer-term challenges, worth stressing if only because they have been so ignored on the campaign. Jump forward to 2017, when the next president will hope to relinquish office. A combination of demography and the rising costs of America's huge entitlement programmes—Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid—will be starting to bankrupt the country. Abroad a greater task is already evident: welding the new emerging powers to the West. That is not just a matter of handling the rise of India and China, drawing them into global efforts, such as curbs on climate change; it means reselling economic and political freedom to a world that too quickly associates American capitalism with Lehman Brothers and American justice with Guantánamo Bay. This will take patience, fortitude, salesmanship and strategy.
At the beginning of this election year, there were strong arguments against putting another Republican in the White House. A spell in opposition seemed apt punishment for the incompetence, cronyism and extremism of the Bush presidency. Conservative America also needs to recover its vim. Somehow Ronald Reagan's party of western individualism and limited government has ended up not just increasing the size of the state but turning it into a tool of southern-fried moralism.
The selection of Mr McCain as the Republicans' candidate was a powerful reason to reconsider. Mr McCain has his faults: he is an instinctive politician, quick to judge and with a sharp temper. And his age has long been a concern (how many global companies in distress would bring in a new 72-year-old boss?). Yet he has bravely taken unpopular positions—for free trade, immigration reform, the surge in Iraq, tackling climate change and campaign-finance reform. A western Republican in the Reagan mould, he has a long record of working with both Democrats and America's allies.
If only the real John McCain had been running
That, however, was Senator McCain; the Candidate McCain of the past six months has too often seemed the victim of political sorcery, his good features magically inverted, his bad ones exaggerated. The fiscal conservative who once tackled Mr Bush over his unaffordable tax cuts now proposes not just to keep the cuts, but to deepen them. The man who denounced the religious right as "agents of intolerance" now embraces theocratic culture warriors. The campaigner against ethanol subsidies (who had a better record on global warming than most Democrats) came out in favour of a petrol-tax holiday. It has not all disappeared: his support for free trade has never wavered. Yet rather than heading towards the centre after he won the nomination, Mr McCain moved to the right.
Meanwhile his temperament, always perhaps his weak spot, has been found wanting. Sometimes the seat-of-the-pants method still works: his gut reaction over Georgia—to warn Russia off immediately—was the right one. Yet on the great issue of the campaign, the financial crisis, he has seemed all at sea, emitting panic and indecision. Mr McCain has never been particularly interested in economics, but, unlike Mr Obama, he has made little effort to catch up or to bring in good advisers (Doug Holtz-Eakin being the impressive exception).
The choice of Sarah Palin epitomised the sloppiness. It is not just that she is an unconvincing stand-in, nor even that she seems to have been chosen partly for her views on divisive social issues, notably abortion. Mr McCain made his most important appointment having met her just twice.
Ironically, given that he first won over so many independents by speaking his mind, the case for Mr McCain comes down to a piece of artifice: vote for him on the assumption that he does not believe a word of what he has been saying. Once he reaches the White House, runs this argument, he will put Mrs Palin back in her box, throw away his unrealistic tax plan and begin negotiations with the Democratic Congress. That is plausible; but it is a long way from the convincing case that Mr McCain could have made. Had he become president in 2000 instead of Mr Bush, the world might have had fewer problems. But this time it is beset by problems, and Mr McCain has not proved that he knows how to deal with them.
Is Mr Obama any better? Most of the hoopla about him has been about what he is, rather than what he would do. His identity is not as irrelevant as it sounds. Merely by becoming president, he would dispel many of the myths built up about America: it would be far harder for the spreaders of hate in the Islamic world to denounce the Great Satan if it were led by a black man whose middle name is Hussein; and far harder for autocrats around the world to claim that American democracy is a sham. America's allies would rally to him: the global electoral college on our website shows a landslide in his favour. At home he would salve, if not close, the ugly racial wound left by America's history and lessen the tendency of American blacks to blame all their problems on racism.
So Mr Obama's star quality will be useful to him as president. But that alone is not enough to earn him the job. Charisma will not fix Medicare nor deal with Iran. Can he govern well? Two doubts present themselves: his lack of executive experience; and the suspicion that he is too far to the left.
There is no getting around the fact that Mr Obama's résumé is thin for the world's biggest job. But the exceptionally assured way in which he has run his campaign is a considerable comfort. It is not just that he has more than held his own against Mr McCain in the debates. A man who started with no money and few supporters has out-thought, out-organised and outfought the two mightiest machines in American politics—the Clintons and the conservative right.
Political fire, far from rattling Mr Obama, seems to bring out the best in him: the furore about his (admittedly ghastly) preacher prompted one of the most thoughtful speeches of the campaign. On the financial crisis his performance has been as assured as Mr McCain's has been febrile. He seems a quick learner and has built up an impressive team of advisers, drawing in seasoned hands like Paul Volcker, Robert Rubin and Larry Summers. Of course, Mr Obama will make mistakes; but this is a man who listens, learns and manages well.
It is hard too nowadays to depict him as soft when it comes to dealing with America's enemies. Part of Mr Obama's original appeal to the Democratic left was his keenness to get American troops out of Iraq; but since the primaries he has moved to the centre, pragmatically saying the troops will leave only when the conditions are right. His determination to focus American power on Afghanistan, Pakistan and proliferation was prescient. He is keener to talk to Iran than Mr McCain is— but that makes sense, providing certain conditions are met.
Our main doubts about Mr Obama have to do with the damage a muddle-headed Democratic Congress might try to do to the economy. Despite the protectionist rhetoric that still sometimes seeps into his speeches, Mr Obama would not sponsor a China-bashing bill. But what happens if one appears out of Congress? Worryingly, he has a poor record of defying his party's baronies, especially the unions. His advisers insist that Mr Obama is too clever to usher in a new age of over-regulation, that he will stop such nonsense getting out of Congress, that he is a political chameleon who would move to the centre in Washington. But the risk remains that on economic matters the centre that Mr Obama moves to would be that of his party, not that of the country as a whole.
He has earned it
So Mr Obama in that respect is a gamble. But the same goes for Mr McCain on at least as many counts, not least the possibility of President Palin. And this cannot be another election where the choice is based merely on fear. In terms of painting a brighter future for America and the world, Mr Obama has produced the more compelling and detailed portrait. He has campaigned with more style, intelligence and discipline than his opponent. Whether he can fulfil his immense potential remains to be seen. But Mr Obama deserves the presidency.
Source:The Economist
Monday, October 27, 2008
Obama jokes about a Nov. 5 election
Posted October 26, 2008 6:28 PM
by John McCormick
FORT COLLINS, Colo. - Sen. Barack Obama told tens of thousands of supporters here that he wants them to vote early, unless they are supporting his Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain.
"I especially want you to vote early if you're voting for me," he told an outdoor crowd estimated at more than 40,000 people at Colorado State University.
"If you are voting for the other guy, you should just wait until Nov. 5," he added, chuckling. "I'm just teasing. It's actually Nov. 4, is the election."
Obama also said he plans to keep his focus on the sagging economy.
"A couple weeks ago my opponent's campaign said, if we keep talking about the economy, we're going to lose," he said. "So, that's why I'm talking about the economy a lot."
Running ahead of schedule, Obama started his appearance here early and because of security and crowd control measures, people were still streaming into a tree-line area as he was finishing his speech.
Source:http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2008/10/obama_jokes_about_a_nov_5_elec.html
by John McCormick
FORT COLLINS, Colo. - Sen. Barack Obama told tens of thousands of supporters here that he wants them to vote early, unless they are supporting his Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain.
"I especially want you to vote early if you're voting for me," he told an outdoor crowd estimated at more than 40,000 people at Colorado State University.
"If you are voting for the other guy, you should just wait until Nov. 5," he added, chuckling. "I'm just teasing. It's actually Nov. 4, is the election."
Obama also said he plans to keep his focus on the sagging economy.
"A couple weeks ago my opponent's campaign said, if we keep talking about the economy, we're going to lose," he said. "So, that's why I'm talking about the economy a lot."
Running ahead of schedule, Obama started his appearance here early and because of security and crowd control measures, people were still streaming into a tree-line area as he was finishing his speech.
Source:http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2008/10/obama_jokes_about_a_nov_5_elec.html
Saturday, October 11, 2008
We Found SJP's "Dream" T-Shirt!
Sarah Jessica Parker made a subtle political — and fashion — statement while running around New York City yesterday in her Obama-inspired "Dare to Dream" tank. Her coveted tank is actually Zac Posen-designed and part of Barack Obama's "Runway to Change" initiative. Posen isn't the only designer to lend his talents to the campaign. Joining him in creating exclusive "Change" T-shirts, tanks and accessories are other top names like Nanette Lepore, Tory Burch, Russell Simmons, Vera Wang, Tracy Reese, Alexander Wang, Narciso Rodriguez, Beyonce and Tina Knowles for The House of Dereon and more. Your purchase of one of the Ts will count as a campaign contribution. Check out all the designs, at barackobama.com.
source:People magazine
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Too Fit to Be President?
Too Fit to Be President?
Facing an Overweight Electorate,
Barack Obama Might Find
Low Body Fat a Drawback
By AMY CHOZICKAugust 1, 2008
Speaking to donors at a San Diego fund-raiser last month, Barack Obama reassured the crowd that he wouldn't give in to Republican tactics to throw his candidacy off track.
"Listen, I'm skinny but I'm tough," Sen. Obama said.
But in a nation in which 66% of the voting-age population is overweight and 32% is obese, could Sen. Obama's skinniness be a liability? Despite his visits to waffle houses, ice-cream parlors and greasy-spoon diners around the country, his slim physique just might have some Americans wondering whether he is truly like them.
The candidate has been criticized by opponents for appearing elitist or out of touch with average Americans. A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll conducted in July shows Sen. Obama still lags behind Republican John McCain among white men and suburban women who say they can't relate to his background or perceived values.
"He's too new ... and he needs to put some meat on his bones," says Diana Koenig, 42, a housewife in Corpus Christi, Texas, who says she voted for Sen. Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary.
"I won't vote for any beanpole guy," another Clinton supporter wrote last week on a Yahoo politics message board.
The last overweight president to be elected was 335-pound William Howard Taft in 1908. As for tall and lanky presidents, "you might have to go back to Abraham Lincoln" in 1860, says presidential historian Stephen Hess. "Most presidents were sort of in the middle."
According to Sen. Obama's Chicago physician David Scheiner, the senator works out regularly, jogs up to three miles a day when he can, and has "no excess body fat."
Dr. Scheiner didn't disclose his patient's exact weight, but medical observers estimate that the 6-foot-1.5-inch-tall senator appears to weigh at least 10 pounds less than the roughly 190 pounds that the average American man of his height weighs. The Obama campaign declined to comment for this article.
Though Sen. McCain cannot lift weights due to injuries he suffered as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, he "walked the Grand Canyon rim to rim in August 2006" and hikes whenever he can find the time, according to John D. Eckstein, an internist in Scottsdale, Ariz., who treats Sen. McCain. At roughly 165 pounds, his weight is slightly above average for a 5-foot-7-inch man his age, according to nutritionists.
While most voters don't base their decision on physical appearance alone, a candidate's height, weight and overall look can play a big role in what Americans perceive as "presidential," says Thomas "Mack" McLarty, former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton.
Throw in the calories involved in a modern-day presidential campaign -- often compared to a beauty pageant and a competitive eating contest rolled into one -- and presidential candidates have an added challenge.
"It's very difficult to eat well when you're constantly on the road, attending dinners, lunches, barbecues," says New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson. He says he grew a beard when he withdrew his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in January "to hide one of my chins."
Sen. Obama, 46, wasn't always svelte, and friends and family members have described him as a "chubby" child growing up in Indonesia and Hawaii.
Raised by a Midwestern grandmother, Sen. Obama didn't begin to slim down until he played basketball regularly in high school.
These days he stays away from junk food and instead snacks on MET-Rx chocolate roasted-peanut protein bars and drinks Black Forest Berry Honest Tea, a healthy organic brew. (Sen. McCain is said to have a weakness for Butterfinger candy bars, jelly beans, and coffee and doughnuts from Dunkin' Donuts.)
On a campaign stop in May at Lew's Dari-Freeze in Milwaukie, Ore., Sen. Obama's wife, Michelle, and their two daughters ate ice-cream sundaes and onion rings, while Sen. Obama grinned for the cameras and swirled a spoon around in his quickly melting ice-cream concoction, taking only a few nibbles.
During a July family appearance on "Access Hollywood," Sen. Obama's 7-year-old daughter, Sasha, revealed that her dad doesn't like ice cream or sweets. "Everybody should like ice cream," she said.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a self-described "recovering foodaholic" who shed 110 pounds from his 5-foot-11 frame in two years and made fitness and nutrition central to his White House run, says voters "probably want someone who takes care of his health ... as an example of the kind of personal discipline necessary to do the job."
But too much time in the gym can cause problems, as Sen. Obama learned last month after he made three stops to local Chicago gyms in one day, for a total of 188 minutes. The marathon workout session sparked a widely circulated Associated Press article titled "Obama Becomes a Gym Rat." In it, the reporter wrote, "Sometimes it's hard to tell if Barack Obama is running for president of the United States or Mr. Universe."
Republicans have recently picked up on the senator's fitness regimen. On Wednesday, the McCain campaign launched a new ad titled "Celeb" that compares Sen. Obama to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. In a memo to reporters explaining the ad, McCain campaign manager Rick Davis wrote, "Only celebrities like Barack Obama go to the gym three times a day."
Obama spokeswoman Linda Douglass says likening Sen. Obama to a Hollywood celebrity shows that Sen. McCain "is engaging in the same old negative politics of Karl Rove" that Americans are tired of.
Food faux pas have plagued presidential candidates in the past. On a 1976 visit to Texas, Gerald Ford bit into a tamale with the corn husk still on. He lost the election to Jimmy Carter. In 2003, Mass. Sen. John Kerry was labeled effete when he ordered a Philly cheesesteak with Swiss instead of the usual Cheez Whiz topping.
Sen. Obama's chief message strategist Robert Gibbs served as Sen. Kerry's press secretary during the cheesesteak debacle. A few days later at the Iowa State Fair, famous for its deep-fried Twinkies and beer booths, Mr. Gibbs noticed Sen. Kerry buying a $4 strawberry smoothie. He made a frantic call to campaign staffers: "Somebody get a f-ing corn dog in his hand -- now!"
Sen. Obama drew cringes on a campaign stop in Adel, Iowa, in July 2007, when he asked a crowd of farmers: "Anybody gone into a Whole Foods lately and seen what they charge for arugula?" The upscale supermarket specializing in organic food doesn't have a single store in Iowa.
Lately, Sen. Obama is more careful. On a campaign stop in Lebanon, Mo., on Wednesday, Sen. Obama visited with voters at Bell's Diner and promptly announced "Well, I've had lunch today but I'm thinking maybe there is some pie."
He settled on fried chicken and told the crowd he's become a junk-food lover. "The healthy people, we'll give them the breasts," he told the waitress. "I'll eat the wings."
Struggles with weight-loss, on the other hand, can make a candidate seem more human. Some aides winced when footage of a sweat-drenched Mr. Clinton jogging into a McDonald's in Little Rock, Ark., aired ahead of the 1992 campaign. But the footage is widely believed to have helped the then-governor of Arkansas connect to voters in conservative-leaning states like Georgia and Tennessee, which eluded Democrats in 2000 and 2004. These states have a statistically higher number of overweight people than Democratic strongholds.
"It says: 'He's just like one of us,"' says Arthur English, a political-science professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock who used to see Mr. Clinton stop in for fries and a Big Mac after his three-mile jog.
Sen. Clinton has said she tried Weight Watchers to keep the pounds off during her presidential bid -- a tidbit that appealed to her core of middle-age female supporters that Sen. Obama is now trying to woo.
Sen. Obama is not without vices. According to Dr. Scheiner's medical report, he has quit smoking "on several occasions and is currently using Nicorette gum with success." People close to the senator say he began smoking nearly three decades ago and smoked about five cigarettes a day.
Some voters say that even this adds to Sen. Obama's somewhat superhuman persona. "I mean, really, who quits smoking and doesn't gain any weight?" says 30-year-old Stella Metsovas, an Obama supporter in Laguna Beach, Calif.
Source: WSJ
Facing an Overweight Electorate,
Barack Obama Might Find
Low Body Fat a Drawback
By AMY CHOZICKAugust 1, 2008
Speaking to donors at a San Diego fund-raiser last month, Barack Obama reassured the crowd that he wouldn't give in to Republican tactics to throw his candidacy off track.
"Listen, I'm skinny but I'm tough," Sen. Obama said.
But in a nation in which 66% of the voting-age population is overweight and 32% is obese, could Sen. Obama's skinniness be a liability? Despite his visits to waffle houses, ice-cream parlors and greasy-spoon diners around the country, his slim physique just might have some Americans wondering whether he is truly like them.
The candidate has been criticized by opponents for appearing elitist or out of touch with average Americans. A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll conducted in July shows Sen. Obama still lags behind Republican John McCain among white men and suburban women who say they can't relate to his background or perceived values.
"He's too new ... and he needs to put some meat on his bones," says Diana Koenig, 42, a housewife in Corpus Christi, Texas, who says she voted for Sen. Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary.
"I won't vote for any beanpole guy," another Clinton supporter wrote last week on a Yahoo politics message board.
The last overweight president to be elected was 335-pound William Howard Taft in 1908. As for tall and lanky presidents, "you might have to go back to Abraham Lincoln" in 1860, says presidential historian Stephen Hess. "Most presidents were sort of in the middle."
According to Sen. Obama's Chicago physician David Scheiner, the senator works out regularly, jogs up to three miles a day when he can, and has "no excess body fat."
Dr. Scheiner didn't disclose his patient's exact weight, but medical observers estimate that the 6-foot-1.5-inch-tall senator appears to weigh at least 10 pounds less than the roughly 190 pounds that the average American man of his height weighs. The Obama campaign declined to comment for this article.
Though Sen. McCain cannot lift weights due to injuries he suffered as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, he "walked the Grand Canyon rim to rim in August 2006" and hikes whenever he can find the time, according to John D. Eckstein, an internist in Scottsdale, Ariz., who treats Sen. McCain. At roughly 165 pounds, his weight is slightly above average for a 5-foot-7-inch man his age, according to nutritionists.
While most voters don't base their decision on physical appearance alone, a candidate's height, weight and overall look can play a big role in what Americans perceive as "presidential," says Thomas "Mack" McLarty, former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton.
Throw in the calories involved in a modern-day presidential campaign -- often compared to a beauty pageant and a competitive eating contest rolled into one -- and presidential candidates have an added challenge.
"It's very difficult to eat well when you're constantly on the road, attending dinners, lunches, barbecues," says New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson. He says he grew a beard when he withdrew his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in January "to hide one of my chins."
Sen. Obama, 46, wasn't always svelte, and friends and family members have described him as a "chubby" child growing up in Indonesia and Hawaii.
Raised by a Midwestern grandmother, Sen. Obama didn't begin to slim down until he played basketball regularly in high school.
These days he stays away from junk food and instead snacks on MET-Rx chocolate roasted-peanut protein bars and drinks Black Forest Berry Honest Tea, a healthy organic brew. (Sen. McCain is said to have a weakness for Butterfinger candy bars, jelly beans, and coffee and doughnuts from Dunkin' Donuts.)
On a campaign stop in May at Lew's Dari-Freeze in Milwaukie, Ore., Sen. Obama's wife, Michelle, and their two daughters ate ice-cream sundaes and onion rings, while Sen. Obama grinned for the cameras and swirled a spoon around in his quickly melting ice-cream concoction, taking only a few nibbles.
During a July family appearance on "Access Hollywood," Sen. Obama's 7-year-old daughter, Sasha, revealed that her dad doesn't like ice cream or sweets. "Everybody should like ice cream," she said.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a self-described "recovering foodaholic" who shed 110 pounds from his 5-foot-11 frame in two years and made fitness and nutrition central to his White House run, says voters "probably want someone who takes care of his health ... as an example of the kind of personal discipline necessary to do the job."
But too much time in the gym can cause problems, as Sen. Obama learned last month after he made three stops to local Chicago gyms in one day, for a total of 188 minutes. The marathon workout session sparked a widely circulated Associated Press article titled "Obama Becomes a Gym Rat." In it, the reporter wrote, "Sometimes it's hard to tell if Barack Obama is running for president of the United States or Mr. Universe."
Republicans have recently picked up on the senator's fitness regimen. On Wednesday, the McCain campaign launched a new ad titled "Celeb" that compares Sen. Obama to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. In a memo to reporters explaining the ad, McCain campaign manager Rick Davis wrote, "Only celebrities like Barack Obama go to the gym three times a day."
Obama spokeswoman Linda Douglass says likening Sen. Obama to a Hollywood celebrity shows that Sen. McCain "is engaging in the same old negative politics of Karl Rove" that Americans are tired of.
Food faux pas have plagued presidential candidates in the past. On a 1976 visit to Texas, Gerald Ford bit into a tamale with the corn husk still on. He lost the election to Jimmy Carter. In 2003, Mass. Sen. John Kerry was labeled effete when he ordered a Philly cheesesteak with Swiss instead of the usual Cheez Whiz topping.
Sen. Obama's chief message strategist Robert Gibbs served as Sen. Kerry's press secretary during the cheesesteak debacle. A few days later at the Iowa State Fair, famous for its deep-fried Twinkies and beer booths, Mr. Gibbs noticed Sen. Kerry buying a $4 strawberry smoothie. He made a frantic call to campaign staffers: "Somebody get a f-ing corn dog in his hand -- now!"
Sen. Obama drew cringes on a campaign stop in Adel, Iowa, in July 2007, when he asked a crowd of farmers: "Anybody gone into a Whole Foods lately and seen what they charge for arugula?" The upscale supermarket specializing in organic food doesn't have a single store in Iowa.
Lately, Sen. Obama is more careful. On a campaign stop in Lebanon, Mo., on Wednesday, Sen. Obama visited with voters at Bell's Diner and promptly announced "Well, I've had lunch today but I'm thinking maybe there is some pie."
He settled on fried chicken and told the crowd he's become a junk-food lover. "The healthy people, we'll give them the breasts," he told the waitress. "I'll eat the wings."
Struggles with weight-loss, on the other hand, can make a candidate seem more human. Some aides winced when footage of a sweat-drenched Mr. Clinton jogging into a McDonald's in Little Rock, Ark., aired ahead of the 1992 campaign. But the footage is widely believed to have helped the then-governor of Arkansas connect to voters in conservative-leaning states like Georgia and Tennessee, which eluded Democrats in 2000 and 2004. These states have a statistically higher number of overweight people than Democratic strongholds.
"It says: 'He's just like one of us,"' says Arthur English, a political-science professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock who used to see Mr. Clinton stop in for fries and a Big Mac after his three-mile jog.
Sen. Clinton has said she tried Weight Watchers to keep the pounds off during her presidential bid -- a tidbit that appealed to her core of middle-age female supporters that Sen. Obama is now trying to woo.
Sen. Obama is not without vices. According to Dr. Scheiner's medical report, he has quit smoking "on several occasions and is currently using Nicorette gum with success." People close to the senator say he began smoking nearly three decades ago and smoked about five cigarettes a day.
Some voters say that even this adds to Sen. Obama's somewhat superhuman persona. "I mean, really, who quits smoking and doesn't gain any weight?" says 30-year-old Stella Metsovas, an Obama supporter in Laguna Beach, Calif.
Source: WSJ
Hollywood actress featured in pro-Obama Web ad
August 4, 2008
Hollywood actress featured in pro-Obama Web ad
Posted: 02:20 PM ET
From CNN Associate Producer Martina Stewart
Actress Gwyneth Paltrow appears in a new Web ad encouraging Democrats living overseas to obtain absentee ballots and vote for Sen. Barack Obama.
(CNN) — Even in the wake of Sen. John McCain's recent efforts to liken Sen. Barack Obama to celebrity starlets Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, the group Democrats Abroad is not shying away from using some Hollywood star power to get its pro-Obama message out.
The Democratic group launched a new Web ad Monday that features Hollywood actress Gwyneth Paltrow, who lives in London. The nearly two-minute spot is directed at U.S. citizens living overseas and suggests that they request absentee ballots in order to participate in November's presidential election no matter where they are in the world.
"What happens at home affects us all," people featured in the ad say.
"Every single vote will count," adds Paltrow.
"Vote Democrat, Vote Obama, Vote from Abroad," flashes on the screen near the end of the ad.
The ad comes on the heels of controversy last week over a McCain campaign ad entitled, "Celeb" which called Sen. Obama "the biggest celebrity in the world" and included images of Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. In keeping with McCain's celebrity theme, the Republican National Committee also launched a celebrity quiz entitled "Who said it? Celebrity Edition" on its Web site last Friday. The quiz features unattributed quotes and then asks visitors to the site to pick the "celebrity" who made the statement with Obama always being one of the available choices.
The Obama campaign responded to the McCain "Celeb" ad with an ad of its own called "Low Road" and Paris Hilton's mother, who has donated to the McCain campaign, has called the "Celeb" ad a "waste of money."
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