Fantasy Politics USA

Louis Farrakhan gave the keynote address at the annual Nation of Islam Saviours’ Day Convention, and mentioned some high praise for Barack Obama during his two hour speech. “We are witnessing the phenomenal rise of a man of color in a country that has persecuted us because of our color,” Farrakhan started with. “”This young man is capturing audiences of black and brown and red and yellow. If you look at Barack Obama’s audiences and look at the effect of his words, those people are being transformed from what they were,” he said. “This young man is the hope of the entire world that America will change and be made better.” He then even compares Obama to the religion’s founder, Fard Muhammad. “A black man with a white mother became a savior to us,” Farakhan told the crowd. “A black man with a white mother could turn out to be one who can lift America from her fall.” The Obama campaign has responded to this endorsement by saying, “Senator Obama has been clear in his objections to Minister Farrakhan’s past pronouncements and has not solicited the minister’s support.”
Alan Cosgrove

The Drudge Report has in it’s banner headline a picture of Barack Obama dressed in traditional Somali Elder clothing with the headline, “Clinton Staffers Circulate ‘Dressed’ Obama.” In the story they never name the source of the picture, and only call them “stressed Clinton staffers.” The photo was taken in 2006 when Senator Obama was on a five country trip through Africa. The article has one staffer denying the Clinton camp had anything to do with this, and it even shows pictures of Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush in funny foreign clothes too. But the headline, which is the only part most people see, clearly indicate that Clinton is up some kind of dirty tricks. And just in case you weren’t sure if it was a dirty trick by the Clinton campaign, Obama’s camp fired out a statement just to reassure you. David Phouffe, Obama’s campaign manager, released this statement on the picture;

“On the very day that Senator Clinton is giving a speech about restoring respect for America in the world, her campaign has engaged in the most shameful, offensive fear-mongering we’ve seen from either party in this election. This is part of a disturbing pattern that led her county chairs to resign in Iowa, her campaign chairman to resign in New Hampshire, and it’s exactly the kind of divisive politics that turns away Americans of all parties and diminishes respect for America in the world,

So a real picture of Obama on a real trip to Africa dressed in traditional garb is “offensive fear-mongering?” Even though there is no real evidence that this came from the Clinton camp, Phouffe used it as an opportunity to attack Clinton.
Maggie Williams, Clinton’s campaign manager responded to this by saying;

“Enough.”
“If Barack Obama’s campaign wants to suggest that a photo of him wearing traditional Somali clothing is divisive, they should be ashamed. Hillary Clinton has worn the traditional clothing of countries she has visited and had those photos published widely.”
“This is nothing more than an obvious and transparent attempt to distract from the serious issues confronting our country today and to attempt to create the very divisions they claim to decry.”
“We will not be distracted.”

For the most part the picture is showing up on right wing web sites like the Drudge Report, Politico, and Fox News. Another double attack by the right wingers on the Democrats in disguise. Release and spread the photo that looks damming to xenophobe voters across the country and then blame Clinton for releasing it. Obama fell for the bait, and took it. This all just plays on the Hillary Haters and Obama Maniacs emotions. Creates divisions where there really weren’t any. Meanwhile the right wing attack machine just sits back and smiles. Brilliant!
Alan Cosgrove

Mike Huckabee made his appearance on Saturday Night Live, but it was Hillary Clinton who received an SNL endorsement. Huckabee learned that he didn’t have any chance of getting any of the super delegates since only the Democrats do that, and then he was a bit slow to leave the set. It was a funny bit, but I bet John McCain doesn’t see the humor in it. Tina Fey made the most political noise on SNL last night though, by throwing her support behind Hillary Clinton. In a segment inside the “Weekend Update,” Fey celebrated women by saying, “And finally, in probably the most important women’s news item there is, we have our first serious, female presidential candidate in Hillary Clinton. And yet, women have come so far as feminists that they don’t feel obligated to vote for a candidate just because she’s a woman. Women today feel perfectly free to make whatever choice Oprah tells them to.” Then she looks into the question of why people are abandoning Clinton for Obama. Fey seems to think having both Hillary and Bill Clinton in the White House is good thing, kind of like Starsky and Hutch was. Fey then questions the “scrutiny of her physical appearance,” by saying, “Rush Limbaugh, the Jeff Conaway of right-wing radio, said that he doesn’t think America is ready to watch their president “turn into an old lady in front of them.” Really? They didn’t seem to mind when Ronald Reagan did that?” Then she gets to the clincher of why Clinton would be such a good President. Because she is a bitch. Fey explains, “And maybe what bothers me the most is that people say that Hillary is a bitch. And let me say something about that: yeah, she is, and so am I. And so is this one (pointing at co-host Amy Poehler who agrees). And you know what, bitches get stuff done. That’s why Catholic schools use nuns as teachers and not priests. Those nuns are mean old clams, and they sleep on cots and are allowed to hit you. And at the end of the school year, you hated those bitches, but you knew the capital of Vermont. So, I’m saying it’s not too late Texas and Ohio. Get on board. Bitch is the new black!”
Alan Cosgrove

Update: T-shirts are already available. Check out Gigglechick, and Jumptees

Hillary Clinton has launched a new web site, The Delegate Hub, to help us understand the delegate mess on the Democrat side. According to the Clinton camp, “there are a number of misconceptions about the role that delegates will play in this election.” They feel that Barack Obama “is claiming, without precedent or justification, that automatic delegates (commonly referred to as “super delegates”) should switch to Sen. Obama en masse based on arbitrary metrics, with the aim of tilting the delegate balance in his favor.” They have articles that back up her claims on the site and facts about the Democratic delegates. Among other things they want Florida and Michigan to be included in the count.
Alan Cosgrove

Mike Huckabee took a tour of the Alamo the other day and told the crowd, “You don’t engage in your battles because you can anticipate you are going to win them. You engage in your battles because you believe they’re right. And when you believe that what you are doing is the right thing, the outcome is less important than it is that you put in every moment and every ounce of energy into it…. When it becomes nothing more than the politics of the election and not the principles, then we’ve lost more than the election, we’ve lost our national soul.” Just like Hillary Clinton Texas is important for Huckabee. In fact Huckabee can not even imagine what it would be like if he loses Texas. “That’s not an assumption I’m prepared to make,” Huckabee said. “I assume I will win Texas.” Huckabee explained to a reporter for 1200 WOAI of San Antonio that “If we win Texas, I think it changes the dynamics of this race. It could well go all the way to the convention. If the convention delegates pick the president, chances are they would pick the most conservative. I would be the one they would end up picking, if that’s the criteria.” So he recognizes his only chance at this point is a brokered convention. He has to make McCain lose to have any chance for a win.
Alan Cosgrove

Ralph Nader started an exploratory committee last month, and may now be ready to announce his decision to run. Nader has announced to his supporters that he will be a guest on Meet The Press with Tim Russert this Sunday. This is the same news program he used in 2004 to launch his presidential bid, and many are speculating he will do it again. In his letter to supporters Nader says,

As you know, we’ve been exploring the possibilities in recent weeks. And here’s one question that keeps coming up: What’s been pulled off the table by the corporatized political machines in this momentous election year?
Answer:
Cutting the huge, bloated and wasteful military budget, adopting a single payer Canadian-style national health insurance system, impeaching Bush/Cheney, opposing nuclear power – among many others.
Who will pick up these issues and put them back on the table?
Hope you get a chance to tune in to watch Ralph Nader this Sunday on Meet the Press.

So tune in this Sunday to Meet The Press to find out who will take on all these issues so dear to the American heart and soul. My guess is Nader will volunteer to save America again, just like in 2000 when he introduced us to President George W. Bush.
Alan Cosgrove

At last nights debate in Austin Barack Obama used a war story to prove that Hillary Clinton’s vote to go to war was a bad decision. This was the vote he couldn’t have even participated in since he wasn’t in the Senate yet. Obama brings it up so often that many of his supporters believe that Obama actually voted against the war. He continues to attack Clinton for making a bad decision based on bad intelligence. Clinton was a junior Senator from the state that was actually attacked by the terrorist. Obama’s votes on the Iraq debacle have been identical to Clinton’s since he joined the Senate, and that was the “fairy tale” Bill Clinton was referring to. That reference to the truth was turned around to make the first black President, Bill Clinton, out to be a racist. We hear his slogan for “change,” but the truth is he is just more of the same misinformation, and manipulation of facts kind of politician like the one we have in the White House right now. It is clear that his popularity is a cult of personality, since he lacks in any real substance. In the debate Obama told us, “You know, I’ve heard from an Army captain who was the head of a rifle platoon — supposed to have 39 men in a rifle platoon. Ended up being sent to Afghanistan with 24 because 15 of those soldiers had been sent to Iraq. And as a consequence, they didn’t have enough ammunition, they didn’t have enough humvees. They were actually capturing Taliban weapons, because it was easier to get Taliban weapons than it was for them to get properly equipped by our current commander in chief.” Jake Trapper of ABC news did a little bit of fact checking on Obama’s story and found it to be “quite credible.” There are some problems with the story though. First off the story was from 2003, yet Obama makes it sound like it was from 2008. The story from the actual unnamed Army Captain, according to Trapper was, “the purpose of going after the Taliban was not to get their weapons,” but they would use them if captured. That doesn’t help Obama’s argument though. A spokesperson for the Pentagon said that Obama’s claim was “hard to believe.” The Pentagon went on to say, “Despite the degree of skill and finesse that it takes to manage a large force with the number of deployments we have going on — and despite the stress that we have readily acknowledged on the force, one of the things we do is make sure that all of our servicemen that are going into harm’s way are properly trained and equipped with the leadership they need to be successful.” This story is just another example of Obama telling us what we want to hear just to get elected. He rallies for change, but he is just more of the same.
Alan Cosgrove