Democratic Convention in Denver August 2008
Incest if Best if Kept in the Family
Biden’s Lobbyist Son Exploits Daddy’s Connections.
Sen. Barack Obama sought more than $3.4 million in congressional earmarks for clients of the lobbyist son of his Democratic running mate, R. Hunter Biden is one of many relatives of members of Congress who work as lobbyists. according to a Washington Post article published on August
27 coincidentally the day Biden will speak at the Democrat Convention in Denver. The incestuous relationship has been good for Hunter who has brought in $3.5 million for his lobbying firm while Dad has raked in $6.9 million in contributions from lobbyists since 1989. Hunter’s clients have bagged $2.7 million in earmarks in the last fiscal year.
Obama requested $1.4 million including $900,000 to establish an early-childhood teacher training center “to meet the demand in the southwest Chicago metropolitan area,” according to a news release on the Web site of Obama’s Senate office. Obama requested the early-childhood money in both 2006 and 2007. Obama also in June 2007 sought $500,000 for a skills laboratory for a nursing school, which has one of the largest nursing programs in the state. Both were Hunter clients.
Hunter Biden has done consulting work for mega credit card company MBNA, the largest employer in Delaware and since bought by B of A. At the same time daddy Biden was working to pass a law making it more difficult for people to file for personal bankruptcy protection under Chapter 7 which benefited MBNA. The Consumer Foundation of America, a consumer group that opposed the bill. “Senator Biden provided a lot of political cover for the credit card industry because they wanted to show that the proposal had bipartisan support. He aggressively undermined the opposition to the bill.”
Over the past two decades, MBNA employees have given more than $200,000 to Biden’s Senate campaigns, more than workers from any other company.
Hunter Biden also lobbied for Napster, the music-sharing Web site that ran afoul of intellectual-property laws. Sen. Biden at the time was a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which oversees laws governing intellectual-property rights.
When Obama introduced Biden as his running mate, he said: “He (Biden) has brought change to Washington, but Washington hasn’t changed him.”
Like they say in Arkansas “incest is best; keep it in the family.”
Newsmax Asserts Biden Iranian Sympathies Run Deep
Kaveh Mohseni, a spokesman for the Student Movement Coordination Committee for Democracy in Iran, calls Biden “a great friend of the mullahs.” says a copyrighted NewsMax.com article.
Kaveh notes that Biden’s election campaigns “have been financed by Islamic charities of the Iranian regime based in California and by the Silicon Iran network,” a loosely-knit group of wealthy Iranian-American businessmen and women seeking to end the U.S. trade embargo on Iran.
“In exchange, the senator (Biden) does his best to aid the mullahs,” Mohseni argues.
Biden’s ties to pro-Tehran lobbying groups are no secret. But so far, the elite media has avoided even mentioning the subject.
Just recently, Biden was one of 16 U.S. senators who voted against a bill that would add Iran’s Revolutionary Guards corps to the State Department’s list of international terrorist organizations, because of its involvement in murdering U.S. troops in Iraq.
Biden offered to sponsor a meeting of Iranian and American parliamentarians in Washington - or any place else, if the Iranians had problems coming to the United States. No one in Iran ever took up his offer.
Several Congressional Democrats attempted to travel to Tehran last December to meet with Iranian parliamentarians, but were denied visas by the Iranian regime, one of the Members of Congress involved in the initiative told Newsmax.
While Biden has condemned the human rights abuses of the Iranian regime, his decision to address the American-Iranian Council and other pro-Tehran groups has angered many Iranian-Americans.
“Biden has been too cozy with the supporters of the Iranian regime, which is anti-American, anti-Iranian, and has a horrendous human rights record,” said Sardar Haddad, an Iranian pro-democracy activist based in Texas.
The American-Iranian Council was founded by Hoosang Amirahmadi, a Rutgers University professor of urban studies who tried to run for president of the Islamic Republic in 2005.
Funded in part by oil giant CONOCO, which hoped to secure lucrative oil contracts, AIC has lobbied consistently to get U.S. trade sanctions on Iran eliminated.
In a recent interview with the popular Persian-language netzine, Tabnak, run by the former head of the Revolutionary Guards, Amirahmadi complained that he wasn’t getting enough credit for lobbying Washington.
“This is because the Iranians, instead of empowering the lobby supporting them, undermine it,” he said.
Biden’s ties to the pro-Iranian regime lobby are not a haphazard affair, but a matter of conviction.
Biden told Boston Globe columnist H.D.S. Greenway in 2005 that the United States should address Iran’s “emotional needs” and conclude a “nonaggression pact” with the Tehran regime.
“Senator Joseph Biden said that even if Iran was a full democracy like India, it would want nuclear capability, like India. What the world needed to address was Iran’s emotional needs, he said, with a nonaggression pact,” Greenway wrote.
Biden hasn’t shied from asking wealthy Iranian-Americans with known sympathies for the Tehran regime for campaign cash.
When Iranian-American pro-democracy activists learned that Biden planned to attend a fundraiser organized on his behalf by an Iranian Muslim charity in California, they phoned his U.S. Senate office to warn him about the group’s pro-Tehran sympathies.
But the Delaware Democrat swept aside their concerns and attended the Feb. 19, 2002, event at the California home of Dr. Sadegh Namazi-Khah, which brought in an estimated $30,000 for his U.S. Senate re-election campaign.
Several people who attended the fundraiser said that Biden delivered a sweeping condemning of President Bush’s recent State of the Union speech, which identified the Iranian regime as part of an “axis of Evil.”
“He really impressed us by his grasp of world affairs,” Namazi-khah told me at the time. “He encouraged us to make our views known and to get more involved in American politics.”
Biden also impressed many of those present with his friendly attitude toward Iran.
Biden said that “Iran always wanted to be an an ally of the United States and to have good relations with the U.S.,” said Housang Dadgostar, a prominent lawyer who wrote Biden’s campaign a $1,000 check.
“As Iranian-Americans, we don’t want anything to happen to the Iranian government or to the Iranian people as a result of this war on terrorism,” said Mohsen Movaghar, a Los Angeles businessman who also attended the event and contributed $1,000 to Biden.
Both men belonged to the 70-member board of directors of Namazi-khah’s Iranian Muslim Association of North America (IMAN), which hosted the event.
Namazi-Khah and other IMAN board members told me that the idea for the fundraiser came from Biden, who apparently learned about the group after attending an earlier event sponsored by the AIC.
Both Namazi-Khah and Movaghar also belong to the Board of the American-Iranian Council, the Washington, DC-based lobbying group pressing for an end to U.S. sanctions on Iran.
So does Japeh Youssefi, who traveled from Scotsdale, Ariz., with his wife to attend the 2002 fundraiser in California.
Between the two of them, the Youssefi’s gave $4,000 to Biden’s U.S. Senate campaign, the legal limit at the time.
“Mr. Youssefi has earned the reputation of being a vocal supporter of Iran-US rapprochement and détente,” a biographer on the AIC Web site reads.
“In March of 2000 he created FAIRPAC - the Foundation for American Iranian Rapprochement, a political advocacy council - as a means of informing and educating interested persons everywhere of the benefits of improved U.S.-IRAN relations,” according to the bio.
Another key Biden contributor is Hassan Nemazee, a New York money-manager who chaired Hillary Clinton’s finance committee, personally raising over $500,000 for her campaign.
Nemazee also has served on the board of the American-Iranian Council, and more recently set up the Iranian-American Political Action Committee (IAPAC) along with a group of Silicon Valley billionaires, many of whom have close ties to the Iranian regime.
Because of the controversy Nemazee and IAPAC members have generated within the Iranian-American community, the PAC’s Web site includes a bald disclaimer of any ties to Tehran.
“IAPAC has no relationship with the Islamic Republic of Iran . . . and is not focused on U.S. policy towards Iran, establishing ties with or legitimizing the government of Iran,” it says.
Obama’s choice of Joe Biden as his running mate “highlights the need to really investigate the web of Iranian influence in the United States,” Iranian-American political analyst Hassan Daioleslam told Newsmax.
“What you have here is a group of people who have been working together through different groups and organizations for the past ten years” to promote the interests of the Iranian regime.
“It’s deeply troubling to have a vice-presidential candidate raise funds from people whose ties to the Iranian regime raise such serious questions,” Daioleslam said.
Archbishop Of Washington rebukes Pelosi and Biden: Church Drs do not know??
WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE…
Barack Obama is trailing or is tied with John McCain and his lead in the Electoral College is collapsing and now stands at just 10 electoral votes. Nowhere is Obama more vulnerable than among Catholic voters where he trails McCain by up to a dozen points.
That and his inexperience provoked him to pick a Catholic for VP but that pick has only added to Obama’s weakening standing in the polls.
Irked by pro-choice Democrats who tout their Catholicism, the archbishop of Washington is chiding House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for misstating church history and the archbishop of Denver is warning vice presidential hopeful Joe Biden not to take Communion.
Pelosi and Biden both support a no fault abortion policy, and revelations that Obama had repeatedly voted to support abortionist killing babies born alive after botched abortions.
Obama touched off a firestorm during the SADDLEBACK CHURCH FORUM when asked about when life begins saying, “Whether you’re looking at it from a theological perspective or a scientific perspective, answering that question with specificity is above my pay grade.” When McCain was asked the same question he said, “At conception.”
Irked by pro-choice Democrats who tout their Catholicism, the Archbishop of Washington is chiding House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for misstating church history and the archbishop of Denver is warning vice presidential hopeful Joe Biden not to take Communion. Pelosi kicked Catholics in the face by saying, provoking the sharp reply from the archbishops.
“As an ardent, practicing Catholic, this is an issue that I have studied for a long time,” Pelosi told NBC’s Tom Brokaw, who had asked her when life begins. “And what I know is, over the centuries, the doctors of the church have not been able to make that definition. And St. Augustine said at three months. We don’t know.”
For his part Biden, whose pick by Obama as VP is increasingly seen as a blunder, has a long history of foot-in-mouth disease and has frequently offended Catholics.
With friends like these Obama doe not need more enemies.
VERY BAD: Biden grade on taxes,spending,trade,regulation,school choice,tort reform,political free speech,reform
Wrong way Joe
Club for Growth asks and answers “how bad is Senator Biden’s record on economic issues? “ The answer is: Very Bad.
“Over his thirty-five years in Washington, Senator Biden has been a reflexive liberal on every single economic issue,” said Club for Growth President Pat Toomey. “Whether the issue is taxes, spending, regulation, or school choice, Senator Biden has voted consistently for more taxes, more spending, more government, and less freedom and choice. Taxpayers can expect more of the same from the Obama-Biden ticket - more government, less prosperity.”
Joe Biden on Taxes:
* Voted against repealing the Alternative Minimum Tax (RC #261, 1999)
* Voted against eliminating the marriage penalty (RC #79, 2001)
* Voted against the 2001 tax cuts (RC# 170, 2001)
* Voted against repealing the Death Tax (RC #151, 2002) (RC #109, 2007)
* Voted against a repeal of the 1993 tax increase on Social Security benefits (RC #94, 2003)
* Voted against the 2003 Bush tax cuts (RC #196, 2003)
* Voted for a 50% windfall profits tax on oil profits (RC #331, 2005)
* Voted against extending the 2001 tax cuts (RC #118, 2006) (RC #107, 2007)
Joe Biden on Spending:
* Voted for the Farm Bill in 2002 and 2008 (RC #103, 2002) (RC #130, 2008)
* Voted in favor of the Bridge to Nowhere (RC #262, 2005)
* Voted against capping spending (RC #286, 2005)
* Voted to kill a resolution stating a moral obligation to offset new spending with spending cuts (RC #140, 2007)
* Voted for the expanded SCHIP bill (RC #307, 2007)
* Voted against an earmark moratorium (RC #75, 2008)
* Voted to override President Bush’s veto of the Farm Bill (RC #140, 2008)
* Was declared Porker of the Month by Citizens Against Government Waste in January 2002
Joe Biden on Trade:
* Voted to impose steel tariffs (RC #178, 1999)
* Voted against Trade Promotion Authority (RC #207, 2002)
* Voted against free trade with Singapore (RC #318, 2003)
* Voted against free trade with Chile (RC #319, 2003)
* Voted against CAFTA (RC #209, 2005)
* Voted against free trade with Oman (RC #250, 2006)
Joe Biden on Regulation:
* Voted for the burdensome Sarbanes-Oxley legislation (RC #192, 2002)
* Voted against exempting small businesses from Sarbanes-Oxley (RC #139, 2007)
* Voted for a minimum wage hike (RC #257, 2005)
* Voted for the “card check” bill-stripping workers of their right to a secret ballot when voting to form a union (RC #227, 2007)
* Voted to kill the Davis Bacon waiver (RC #334, 2007)
Joe Biden on School Choice:
* Voted against a vouchers program for DC schools (RC #260, 1997)
* Voted against school choice for low-income earners (RC #179, 2001)
Joe Biden on Tort Reform:
* Voted against limiting lawyer fees on tobacco settlements (RC #161, 2003)
* Voted against class action tort reform (RC #9, 2005)
Joe Biden on Political Free Speech:
* Voted for McCain-Feingold (RC #64, 2001)
Joe Biden on Entitlement Reform:
* Voted against preventing the plundering of Social Security (RC #313, 1999)
* Voted to expand government-run health care (RC #307, 2007)
Madonna Challenges Bigfoot with Carbon use of 95, 1080 and 460 TONS, Just So she can get you Sticky and Sweet
Madonna who is reported to have the morals of an alley cat and apparently no ethics whatsoever regarding her ostensive “save the planet” campaign. According to the Carbon footprint Web site, Madonna’s upcoming “Sticky and Sweet” concert tour is expected to generate in excess of 1,635 tons of carbon pollutants as a result of her travels.
To break it down, 95 tons of carbon is expected to be emitted via the exhaust of her private jet as it flies to venues in Europe and the U.S. And when her entourage of 250 staffers joins her via commercial airplanes, another 1,080 tons of pollutants will be spewed into the air. Another 460 tons of carbon is expected to be emitted from transport of her cargo, which includes 30 wardrobe trunks and 4 large freezers.
Another hypocritical greenie Obama girl.
Whose Convention is this? McCain bounces
The Democratic National Convention has begun and the poll numbers are bouncing, but not in the direction that most people expected. The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Tuesday shows Barack Obama attracting 44% of the vote while John McCain also earns 44%. When “leaner’s” are included, it’s still tied with Obama at 46% and McCain at 46%. Yesterday, with leaner’s, Obama had a three-point advantage over McCain. On Monday the Gallup poll found McCain picking up 6 points since its last poll and the race tied at 45% each.
Obama is supported by 78% of Democrats while McCain gets the vote from 85% of Republicans. The GOP hopeful also has a slight advantage among unaffiliated voters.
Obama’s support has declined in each of the last three individual nights of polling. This may be either statistical noise or a reaction to the selection of Biden. If it’s the latter, it probably has less to do with Biden than Hillary Clinton. Forty-seven percent (47%) of Democratic women say Clinton should have been picked and 21% of them say they’ll vote for McCain.
McCain is viewed favorably by 57% of the nation’s voters, Obama by 53%. Clinton is viewed favorably by 47%
The Rasmussen Reports Balance of Power Calculator currently shows Obama leading in states with 193 Electoral College votes while McCain leads in states with 183 votes (see Quick Campaign Overview). When leaner’s are included, it’s Obama 264, McCain 247.
The economic confidence of small business owners improved in August, but only 14% believe that the concerns of small businesses that produced most of the jobs are being heard on the campaign trail this year.
Former Secretary of State Collin Powell, the best-known African-American in the Republican Party, beats McCain more than two-to-one, 54% to 26%, with 21% of voters undecided.
An identical number of Democrats (75%) prefer either Obama or Powell over McCain. But while 84% of GOP voters favor McCain against Obama, just 48% favor him over Powell, who pulls 35% of GOP voters in a contest with his fellow Republican.
Unaffiliated voters give the edge to McCain over Obama 41% to 35%. But Powell beats McCain among unaffiliated 44% to 21%.
Powell disclaimed an apparently unfounded rumor last week that Powell would endorse Obama - he has not endorsed McCain either.
McCain Gets Bounce from Democrat Convention
Russia’s Putin Picked Biden As Obama’s VP
Biden Not On Short List Until Russia Attacked Georgia.
Joe Biden wasn’t even on Barack Obama’s short list until August 7, when Russia suddenly invaded the neighboring country of Georgia. That’s the word from key Democrats meeting here in Denver who say the Obama campaign’s need to shore up its foreign policy bona fides helped push the Delaware senator to the top of the pack. ‘We didn’t pick our nominee. Vladimir Putin did,’ is how one Democrat, who professes to be pleased with the Biden choice, put it.” - John Fund, Political Diary, 8/25/08
Obama Pledges Rodney King-like Diplomatic Effort To Stop Iran A-Bomb. Kennedy’s Last Hurrah
Barack’s Rodney King- Like Diplomacy Won’t Protect Israel.
Ailing and aging, the 76-year old Democrat icon Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D) Mass. summoned fellow Democrats to rally behind Barack Obama’s pioneering quest for the White House Monday night in an emotional opening to a party convention struggling for unity essential in the fall campaign.
The repeatedly failed Presidential candidate looked out at a sea of white and blue signs paid for by Obama;s campaign bearing his name as he urged delegates in the hall and those watching at home to “rise to our best ideals” in the election. “Poor Ted” as his father Joe Kennedy referred to “Teddy” gave what may become his dying declaration.
Standing on the platform of a party that has repeatedly rejected him for the White House he cried,”The work begins anew, the hope rises again and the dream lives on,” Kennedy said in a strong voice, reprising the final line of a speech at the 1980 convention that brought a different convention to its feet. The senator has been undergoing treatment for a malignant brain tumor but seemed as coherent as ever.
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama pledged Monday that he would step up diplomatic pressure to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons admitting Israel feels that “its back is against the wall” and might take military action.
Campaigning In Iowa on his way to the Democratic convention in Denver, Obama was asked about rumors that Israel had “green lighted” an attack on Iran before the presidential election in November. Obama refused to comment on the rumors but acknowledged that Israel feels threatened. The simple fact is Israel’s decision is driven in large measure because it fears Obama’s election as an inexperienced, waffling White House occupant could doom it.
Republicans Are Straight Up Drinkers Democrats Like “Pink” Drinks
Three Fingers of Wild Turkey - Please.
Bartenders in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area preparing for the GOP convention there next week might take note of a new survey of the drinking habits of Republicans and Democrats.
Among the findings of the survey of about 100 bartenders in the Washington, D.C., area, which were reported by the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune:
- Asked who is more likely to order a drink straight up, 82 percent of respondents said Republicans, and 14 percent said Democrats.
- Democrats are more likely to order a fruity (pink) drink - they were chosen by 58 percent of the bartenders, compared to 34 percent for the Republicans.
- 74 percent of bartenders said Democrats have the best pick-up lines, and just 14 percent chose Republicans.
- Republicans are more likely to arrive first for happy hour - but Democrats are more likely to be the last to go home.
The survey was commissioned by Beam Global Spirits & Wine Inc., whose beverages include Jim Beam bourbon and Canadian Club whisky, in collaboration with Clarus Research Group.
Biden Pick Opens Way for Texas Senior Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison For McCain VP.
Scorned Clinton Women Could Support Hutchison as VP.
If Texans were drafting their fantasy football team, Republican U.S. Sen. Bailey Hutchison would be the No. 1 pick, and others would sit on the bench for the first few selections.
Looking two years into the future, a poll showed that Ms. Hutchinson is more popular than Gov. Rick Perry and that either of them could beat potential Democratic candidates in a governor’s race.
No politician won a majority of likely voters. But, of all likely voters, Ms. Hutchinson was favored by 35 percent nearly double the next in line.
In January 2007 Hutchison told the Washington Times while she would not promote herself for Vice President she said “I can’t imagine that I would say no.”
Her biggest liability her age has been tamped down by Joe Biden’s picked as Obama’s VP who is also 65 years old and elevated her because his appointment has scorned already unhappy Hillary Clinton women voters, and generally women everywhere especially the unaffiliated.
Hutchinson is no pansy and she could handle Biden handily in their VP debate while putting him in the untenable place of being an ugly mean guy picking on a woman.
Obama toyed with Waco, Texas Congressman Chet Edwards before rejecting him in favor of Biden. Edwards could deliver Texas with 34 electors is a likely GOP win and would be solidly so with Hutchinson. But she could pull back New Mexico that is now leaning toward Obama with its 5 electors and erasing half of Obama’s narrow 10 elector lead.
What I am saying is that after doodling and researching the idea I agree with Dick Morris Texas Senior Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson could be the nail in Obama’s self constructed political coffin.
Denver May Be First “Stoned” Convention But Not First “Smashed” One
TIPPECANOE AND TYLER TOO ; Old Log Cabin, Booz, et. al
Denver City Councilman Doug Linkhart, who sits on the marijuana enforcement panel, said he does not believe marijuana enforcement will be a priority during the convention which is code for Democrat Delegates can light up with impunity.
Police had said they would enforce Denver’s already liberal marijuana laws provoking a threat from Denver’s mayor warning them they better not.
So pot smokers will be free to light up in the streets of Denver this week because a voter-required panel endorses a moratorium on marijuana citations during the Democratic National Convention. Pot proponent Mason Tvert, executive director of Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation (SAFER), says it is better to have delegates, convention-goers, demonstrators and Denver citizens stoned on marijuana rather than using alcohol.
SAFER proponents contend that police continue to “persecute” the drug’s users pointing out Denver is on track to have 1,800 marijuana bust this year compared to about 200 drunk and disorderly arrests. Neither figure includes driving under the influence arrests.
Opponents say this will be the first political convention where the presidential and vice presidential nominee will be selected by drug dazed delegates.
That likely is true but, alcohol and being “stoned” or “smashed” has been a staple at political conventions since America’s earliest day. The 1840 election between William Henry Harrison and Martin Van Buren encouraged that. Not only did the hotly contested race produce one of the most popular political slogans in American history - “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too” - but it also introduced campaign kitsch.
To promote Harrison’s everyman “log cabin” image, the Whig Party distributed Old Cabin Whiskey, which was sold in cabin-shaped bottles. The distiller was E.C. Booz of Philadelphia, and, yes, this is where the word “booze” originated.
Harrison’s supporters also took to rolling huge paper or tin balls printed with campaign slogans from town to town as part of parades and rallies, giving birth to the term “keep the ball rolling.”
Regardless the whole thing was pretty much a scam
Tippecanoe referred to the aristocratic then Indiana territory Governor William Henry Harrison’s suspect military victory at the Battle of Tippecanoe against the forces of famous warrior Tecumseh’s growing American Indian confederation. On the eve of November 6, 1811 Harrison approached Tecumseh’s position in Prophetstown, Indiana. Tecumseh offered a truce until a peace could be made the next day. Fighting broke out before dawn withmost thinking Harrison had executed a sneak attack and when the sun rose it was seen how small Tecumseh’s forced were and the battle was a stalemate with Tecumseh after killing of wounding almost 200 despite their pitifully small force.
Harrison trounced incumbent Van Buren amid a nationwide economic downturn and a hell-of-a-lot of Old Log Cabin “booze.”
KCFR, Colorado Public Radio and Outstanding Convention Coverage
Colorado is blessed with some of the best public radio in the nation. C’mon, admit it Minnesota Pubic Radio, these Colorado guys and gals are running circles around your coverage of the upcoming Republican Conventions in Minneapolis.
Check them out and keep coming back to them for some of the best reporting you will ever see.
“Iraq: Get Out, Iran: Stay Out, Bush/Cheney: Drive Out” per Rocky Mtn News
Planned protests to be staged in Denver started some warm up action on the weekend preceding the main fare of the Democratic Convention opening tomorrow. If you look enough you are likely to find most issues represented in some manner but even those with names such as Recreate 68 assert they have good communications with the Denver police and there will be no problems.
Mayor John Hickenlooper, Senator Salazar and Governor Ritter welcomed attendees yesterday.
Bookmark this as the Rocky Mountain News ticker for the DNC will be a continuing good source of local flavor for the convention you will not get on the national news channels or cable networks, no matter how hard they try.
Denver Post Captures History and Essence of Dems in Special Report
This four part series by the Denver Post enlightens Democrats, , and anyone else interested in the history, highlights, personalities, shifts and the current status and opportunities for the Democratic Party.
Phenoms
In April 2005, friends and family of golfer Chris DiMarco were crossing their fingers when Chris found himself tied with Tiger Woods by the end of the Masters. In the first sudden death hole, we thought Chris was going to win as Tiger was off to the left and long. But then the impossible happened. As the AP reported, Tiger chipped in and his ball aimed straight and true to the hole, where it paused right on the cup’s lip. After a second or two, which felt like an eternity, the ball slowly rolled over into the hole giving Tiger another Master’s win. To this day, that shot is considered one of the most amazing golf shots in history. How could Chris have possibly competed against that?
I think Chris and that guy who lost to Michael Phelps by a fingernail should get together and talk. I should probably extend that invitation to anyone who lost to Tiger Woods or Michael Phelps or Bolt, that amazing runner. But it doesn’t only happen in sports. Ask Hillary.
Tiger, Phelps and Bolt are all what I would call “Phenoms”. And heaven help anyone who competes against them. I truly feel sorry for the DiMarcos, and other swimmers for if it had not been for these rivals they would have easily won. But they had the bad luck to be on the playing field when these Phenoms are at the top of their game.
Obama is not a true Phenom, such as these athletes. It wasn’t until he started to gain momentum earlier this year that he turned into a Phenom. Even though people still were voting heavily for Hillary, the media had crowned him the next political whiz kid, the next JFK. It was to be expected that because of their similar racial mix, there were more and more articles comparing Obama to Tiger Woods, thereby implying that Obama was as much a winner as Tiger. The stories grew until everyone, even Obama, assumed that he was unstoppable. That Obama was “The One”.
The convention this week will work to convince the rest of the world (and I do mean world and not just the USA) that Obama is the chosen. Once both conventions are over the race moves into overdrive for the next two months. As DiMarco, and many of the Olympic athletes would tell you, it is not easy to defeat a Phenom.
McCain’s campaign is doing a brilliant job. Athletes are Phenoms based on measurable results. But other than barely beating Hillary, Obama is a Phenom because the press said so. It is sort of like the old story about the king’s clothes. This time it is McCain’s campaign which is pointing out that the king isn’t wearing any clothes, or rather that Obama is not a Phenom. In fact, McCain is ridiculing Obama for even thinking that he is “The One”.
Will this strategy work? I don’t know but I sure hope so. Making fun of Obama is better than believing the hype. For then McCain would be trying to compete against Obama as a Phenom, and as Chris DiMarco and many many others can tell you, it is nearly impossible to win against a true Phenom.
How can McCain top the Biden Pick for VP?
He can’t.
Joe Biden has been described by friendly media
sources with the words:
Lunch bucket, blue collar, Catholic, plain spoken, now disciplined, Iraq war supporter, critic of Obama inexperience, lots of legislative (35 years), judiciary and foreigh policy committee (Chairman) and foreign travel experience, meeting with foreign leaders. He is also an Amtrak commuter, born in Pennsylvania.
Gloria Berger of CNN from Denver, CO, says he is a great VP pick, but that has not always made a difference (clever and full of gravitas, Lloyd Bensen “I knew Jack Kennedy and Senator, you are no Jack Kennedy”) but Biden probably was one of the best picks Obama could have made to minimize Hillary hurt.
Biden is somewhat charismatic, plain spoken, (but capable of “going off the reservation” a common liberal expression ironically”)and while older than she is he also does not seem to be a political “threat” to her in any way beyond the age issue. Speaking of age, in eight years, he will be 73, older than John McCain is.
All in all a great pick for Obama. It will be hard if not impossible for McCain to help his ticket as much as Biden helps the Obama campaign, even though he once said he would be proud himself to run with McCain. McCain considers Biden a friend and has called to congratulate him, but of course the political campaigns are already out with adds that showcase Biden’s own words, devaluing an Obama candidacy. It will run it’s course and not suppress the positive attributes of the selection.
Biden Time
After all is said and done I think Biden was a one-sided selection. If you have had any news
on then you’ve heard how he will shore up Obama’s lack of foreign experience and it could be said help Obama’s lack of experience in total. Biden is also supposed to be a good attack dog which will allow Obama to stand above that sort of thing. Overall, he will help Obama nationally with the independent voters.
However, I am guessing that the core Democrats involved in this race are not happy. To be honest, the Clinton supporters would not be happy with anyone other than Hillary. I think they might have been more understanding if Obama had picked some outsider. Instead they go with someone who is old school, which she is, too. Why go for someone with a good resume when you could have someone with a great resume? And already PUMA is arguing that Biden had a whopping 9,500 votes during the primary vs. Hillary’s 18 million. (I know it isn’t a fair comparison as Biden dropped out early but who ever said politics is fair?)
But it is the core Obama people who are also rumbling a little bit this morning. Obama’s entire campaign is based on change. But his first important decision to select his running mate and he completely turns his back on the idea of change. Instead of an outsider he went with Biden who is yet another old white guy who has been in DC since Watergate. Or as I heard one African American reporter tell it - she wasn’t even born when Biden was first elected.
I would also think that Obama’s advisors aren’t that pleased either. There are two primary jobs for a VP candidate. The obvious one is to step in as President in case the President is unable to perform his job. The other purpose of a VP is to bring in votes that the President elect may not have been able to capture himself. I am not sure how much Biden will help Obama in this. In the past VP candidates have come from large electoral states or from swing states or from geographical areas that normally go for his opponent.
As everyone now knows - Biden is from Delaware which has a whopping 3 electoral votes. Nor is Delaware a key transitional state. Some analysts are saying that Biden may not readily have a large group of people that will now be for Obama. But he might have large corporations and big bucks behind him. And every candidate always could use more money.
Later today Obama and Biden will officially announce this in Springfield Ill. (And didn’t Obama’s idea of texting his supporters first backfire. But more on that another time.) Anyway, back to the picture of the two of them standing together, most likely with raised hands held together as you always see it. And how will that look? How will America react to this picture of a youngish good looking black man holding hands with an old grey haired white man? In spite of what the picture might indicate, is America ready for an African American President?
Now that the Olympics are wrapping up tomorrow, let the real games begin!
Barack Picks Biden VP — As CNN Scoops Text Message Scheme
12 month campaign averaged 750 total votes per month - just 9,000 and no delegates
Barack Obama has cornered the arrogance vote by picking one of the most garrulous members of the U. S. Senate - Joe Biden (D) Delaware. The sixty-five year old Biden has been in the U. S. Senate since 1972. Biden serves on the Foreign Relations and Judiciary Committees and is chairman of the former. He brings experience to the ticket that is woefully absent in Obama’s portfolio.
Biden unsuccessfully ran for President in 1988 and earlier this year first declaring in January 2007 and discussing it publicly as early as 2004. Biden dropped out of the race on January 3, 2008, saying it would be his final Presidential try. After Biden captured a paltry 1% of the vote in the Iowa caucus he quit; having attracted no delegates, and having averaged 750 vote per month for president during his 12 month campaign - for a total of 9,000 costing $915 per vote.
CNN says VP may be orator of “nice guy, not ready to be President”
Please read this fast, my text may go off anytime…
CNN has reported from Denver that Bayh from Indiana and Kaine from Virginia have been told they are not going to be the Vice Presidential pick. Also, they confirmed that Hilary Clinton was never vetted for the position despite Obama assertion much earlier that Hilary Clinton would have to be on “any one’s short list”.
In announcing earlier that he had made his pick, Obama said it would be somebody who would challenge him, initially increasing the heart rate for Hillary supporters.
Reports tonight from Denver, indicate gray hair and negative net worth Joe Biden who probably knows how many homes he has, a real working man who takes Amtrak to work from Delaware and who said in the earlier debates about Obama, “nice guy, not ready to be President”.
Biden is known for shooting off his mouth but also getting things done. Gravitas some say Obama needs more of and McCain needs less of.
Catholic Biden also has advanced the theory that no one can hold Iraq together now that strongman Saddam Hussein is gone and that it would be necessary to divide Iraq into Kurdish North, Sunni Central and Shia South. Have not heard much from him on that recently.
Gotta go, gotta go, that my text! You will get yours later. Maybe several hours from now. Like approximately 4 to 6 AM in DC. But you already know what it will say, so sleep late.
Razor Wire at “Gitmo on the Platte” eliminated after protesters protest
The twenty “Holding pens”, Denver City officials planned to use to process, but not hold overnight, any one detained on the east side of the city, no longer will have razor wire on top to keep detainees from climbing out of the makeshift wire cages inside the old voting machine storage facility at 38th Ave and Steele Street which is almost 40 blocks from the convention location.
The facility will provide involuntary visitors with bathrooms, water, medical care, air conditioning, phones, free mug shots and fingerprints. According to the Denver Post, “Leaders of groups that plan to demonstrate during the convention have decried the use of the building, calling it “Gitmo on the Platte”. The South Platte rivers runs north through Denver just on the west side of downtown.
Each cell will contain twenty chairs, one per person at capacity.
No one expects more than a few arrests, but want to be prepared.