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The question is one of strategy, not tactics. And the difficulty we have, I think, is that, each time we've talked to you, questions have been posed to you about the broader strategy of our war in Iraq, you've punted a little bit because you've said, look, that's a little outside my bailiwick.
"Our mission continues...The War on Terror continues, yet it is not endless. We do not know the day of final victory, but we have seen the turning of the tide." 
President Bill Clinton was no doubt one of the better presidents in the last twenty seven years, however, his presidency was far from being free of corrupt influences. Since the Reagan years, the partisan divide continues to grow larger and the influence of special interest continues to grow stronger. Obama is one of the few presidential candidates with a consistent record of closing the partisan divide without compromising his values and core beliefs while also working hard to ensure that government is accountable to the people. That is why, as you have probably heard in his stump speeches, that he worked with Republicans in the Illinois state legislature to introduce the first ethics bill in twenty five years. That is why in less than two weeks into the 110th Congress he immediately went to work to help pass the 
If the 
Obama's crowds were so large and intimidating that one Mitt Romney supporter apparently became discouraged according to the Post article.
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Video: Believe in America AgainEveryone has their own reasons for supporting a particular candidate and I decided to dedicate a diary to why I support mine. It is no secret that I am an extremely strong supporter of Barack Obama but this was not always so. During the 2004 campaign, I supported Howard Dean with a strong leaning towards John Edwards. Howard Dean had a fiery passion to his candidacy that others in the race lacked. However, it was John Edwards sense of idealism and hopefulness about government that really appealed to what I wanted to see in my next president. We all know how that 2004 story turned out so no need to revisit it in detail. After that devastating 2004 loss, my hopes quickly dashed to 2008 and I began contemplating a Hillary Clinton candidacy as early as December 2004. But it was in early 2006 where I discovered this little unknown Black senator named Barack Obama. He was doing an interview on CNN, I believe, discussing his 2004 speech, which I had not heard at the time, and revelations that he could be the next president of the United States. I quickly dimissed the premise of the whole interview because I assumed like many others that a Black president was impossible. However, after listening to him speak I became slightly more convinced of the possibility that this guy could do it. Following that interview, I searched the internet for the video of Obama's 2004 DNC speech that everyone seemed to be so giddy about. After a dab of google, I played an 18 minute clip that would finally put to rest my doubts that Obama could be the next president of the United States. That awe inspiring speech motivated a man from Michigan with a wife and three kids to believe in his country again. That man was me. I have never been an active participant in politics. I just voted in the general election every four years and went about the business of my life. However, Obama's candidacy changed my passive approach to politics. Obama's candidacy motivated me in early 2006 to join www.draftobama.org to persuade Obama to run in 2008. Obama's candidacy motivated me to become a member of MyDD and Daily Kos so that I can learn about promoting progressive politics. Obama's candidacy motivated me to create citizen ad videos that can sometimes take seven to eight hours out of my life without a single penny in compensation. Obama's candidacy allows me to believe in America again. The following citizen ad is dedicated to all of us believing in America again.
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Cool Videos Obama Smackdown Series: ABC News Iowa Debate 8/19/07: The experience old way of doing things establishment candidates, Biden, Clinton and Dodd tried to gang up on Obama about his length of time in the senate. Obama fought back hard against their nonsense.
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Barack Obama pulls the sheeps clothing off the Petraeus report
The criticisms were not limited to front page posters and non Obama supporters but Obama supporters as well. One very strong Obama supporter who I will not name said the following:
Geeksque, who is probably one of the most prominent (excellent writer by the way) Obama supporters on Daily Kos wrote one of the best Obama diaries I have read in a long while entitled take the damn ball. He like other fellow Obama supporters know that the Senator is capable of leading on this issue unlike any of the other top tier candidates because he has a certain credibility on Iraq that they lack, namely his vocal opposition to the invasion back in 2002. Well those calls to take the ball has been answered today and will conclude with his major policy speech on Iraq tomorrow when he is accompanied by the greatest foreign policy mind in the democratic party, Zbigniew Brezezinski. Today, however, he took the opportunity to reframe the surge debate during his time questioning Petraeus and Crocker.
That is exactly the problem and the reason, to date, that the democrats have been having such a hard time leveraging a pull out from Iraq. The Republican party cleverly lowers the bar of expectations and a complacent corporate media does what it always does and just goes along. That is how you get a ghost written article on CBSNews called surge success goes unnoticed written by none other than Bill Kristol.
That prediction made by Kristol back in March of this year was followed a month later by reports that the American military was considering building a wall around Baghdad to curb the growing violence. The bar for progress we have set now would have been considered a complete and utter failure back in 2003.
Turning of the tide? The occupation of Iraq is not endless? We are sick of this administration kicking the ball on this utter failure we call Iraq down the road another six months. The Iraqi government has only met 7 of the 18 goals set by the US congress for this surge. A 39% complete report by any standard is an F. Greg Sargent of TPM noted Obama's best moment came when he posed the following question to Petraeus and Crocker:
There is no longer a rationale for continuing this war. The situation in Iraq is not likely to get better under either scenario of staying or leaving. However, our country's resources and troops are best serve by leaving this bad situation as soon as possible. It is unfortunate that Obama's opposition back in 2002 was not heeded before this war was authorized. But we are now at the point that we cannot authorize more money without a timeline. I hope Obama sticks to his guns on this one and call the sheep what it is . . . a wolf.
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Obama's silence may be a smart strategic move.A lot noise is being made of Obama's silence on a withdrawal timetable for the upcoming spending supplemental. Some have suggested it is a lack of leadership on his part. A fellow Obama supporter and prominent Daily Kos member, Geeksque, said it best when he urged Obama to "take the damn ball" on the Iraq issue. However, there is reason to believe that the best is yet to come. Chris Dodd, John Edwards, and just recently, Hillary Clinton have all stepped up to the plate on this issue in some way or another. I would be remiss if I did not say that John Edwards has issued the most forceful language of the three so far on this issue. With that said, there is another element to consider which I think is far more important and that is timing. Stating your intentions on the withdrawal bill now provides a good setup but it still leaves Bush and his Republican cohorts one talking point that has the effect of killing the upcoming fire that is certain to ensue on the new spending supplemental . . . Petraeus has not delivered the report yet. Leaving this opening to the Republicans may do far more damage in the long run as it allows the case to be made that the Democrats would not listen to any opposing reasoning and that they made up their minds, as the Bush administration always does, before they even heard the report. Coming out steadfast after the report with an effective argument against the continued occupation of Iraq could in the end be the better opening to the withdrawal debate. Its like a few kids trying to target a rabbit ten feet away with some rocks. If the kids become too eager and just lobbed the shot at the rabbit, from that distance they will likely miss and concede a golden opportunity to a rabbit that could have been hit. However, if they smartly timed their opportunity until the rabbit was only five feet away, then they would have a nearly unmissable shot. Our golden shot is coming up. The moment of truth is what the Democrats do after the Petraeus report and I am confident that Obama is going to finally "take the damn ball."
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Cool Videos Obama Smackdown Series: ABC News Iowa Debate 8/19/07: The experience old way of doing things establishment candidates, Biden, Clinton and Dodd tried to gang up on Obama about his length of time in the senate. Obama fought back hard against their nonsense.
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lovingj calls Thom Hartman Show to discuss Barack ObamaAn interesting exchange between myself and Thom Hartmann regarding Barack Obama.
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Cool Videos Obama Smackdown Series: ABC News Iowa Debate 8/19/07: The experience old way of doing things establishment candidates, Biden, Clinton and Dodd tried to gang up on Obama about his length of time in the senate. Obama fought back hard against their nonsense.
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Aggressive Ethics Reform: Obama's Plan To Restore Trust In Government
The Sun article notes that his plan is broadening the differences between a Clinton presidency and an Obama presidency.
Obama has shown that he has the best judgment as exemplified by his 2002 opposition to the Iraq war. He has as many plans as John Edwards and offers the specifics, unlike Hillary Clinton, to point the country back in the right direction. He has introduce the most aggressive approach to ethics for the office of the presidency because he wants to restore the American people's trust in their government. He has shown a better grasp of foreign policy than many of his opponents who were critical of his length of experience in Congress. He has cleverly use the debates to unravel the media frames of experience and their rampant criticism of him being "naive." He also never gets caught off guard with credibility questions during TV interviews. He has shown the resolve and the right amount "steel" that is necessary for our next president and that is why Obama supporters' are optimistic about his chances for the democratic nomination. You just know when you made the right choice and I am confident about mine.
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Cool Videos Obama Smackdown Series: ABC News Iowa Debate 8/19/07: The experience old way of doing things establishment candidates, Biden, Clinton and Dodd tried to gang up on Obama about his length of time in the senate. Obama fought back hard against their nonsense.
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"It's going to be tough to beat that guy"
Washington Post released an interesting article on the size of the Obama supporting crowd at the Milford, New Hampshire Labor Day parade entitled, Barack Obama, Drawing the Big Crowds. Barack Obama drew crowds larger than any of the other '08 candidates' supporters at the parade.
Kudos to those NH Obama supporters for showing there is no shortage of enthusiasm for the Obama campaign. I have a very good feeling about the coming nomination.  |
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Barack Obama Rightly Warns Of Divisive Politics Tod Beeton is a MyDD frontpager who has consistently shown the capacity to look at the presidential primaries from different perspectives. I am not of the opinion that he has some hidden bias or is conspiring to actively support a candidate of choice. With that said, he recently did a FP post entitled, Breaking: Obama Warns Of Divisive Politics which offered a critical analysis of Barack Obama's recent Manchester, New Hampshire Labor Day speech. In this post Tod Beeton concluded that Barack Obama was attacking Hillary Clinton and that such tactics in the past have yielded rising poll numbers for Senator Clinton. Tod Beeton went on to surmise that this was a failing strategy for the Obama campaign and offered the appearance, according to Mr. Beeton, that Obama was reacting to Senator Clinton's lead to drive the terms of the debate. I find Mr. Beeton's analysis, while insightful, to be wrong and a bit misleading and thus I wanted to counter those points he made in his post through my own following assessment. Mr. Beeton claims in his post the following:
Is that a correct assumption that Hillary's poll numbers have risen as a consequence of Obama fighting back her misleading rhetoric? Polling data suggest that this is an inaccurate statement and a simple observation of Rasmussen Reports weekly democratic primary poll numbers rebuts Mr. Beeton's claims. Obama and Clinton's war of words campaign kicked into full gear in late July beginning with the following exchange at the CNN/Youtube Debate in Charleston, South Carolina:
That exchange marked a turning point for the Obama campaign because it set in motion a chain of events that has allowed Senator Obama to draw clear lines of contrast between he and Senator Clinton. Most importantly, it allowed Senator Obama to finally begin closing the door on the free pass that the corporate media and some in the netroots blogosphere has provided Hillary Clinton on her past 2002 Iraq War authorization vote. Kathleen Turner of Real Clear Politics said it best in her June 6th editorial 'Bush's War' Is Clinton's Rewrite:
Obama was now shutting down the notion that Senator Clinton had no culpability in the worst foreign policy decision in U.S. history. Obama's actions infuriated Senator Clinton and thus lead to her erroneous "Bush-Cheney lite" foreign diplomacy comments in an attempt to hit back at Obama.
The corporate media and Senator Clinton went on a tyrade to paint Barack Obama as "inexperienced" and "naive" and completely ignored Clinton falling on her own sword on August 2nd regarding the use of nuclear weapons (see included youtube). This lead to Hillary's rise after the CNN/Youtube debates on July 23. Rasmussen Reports showed that from 7/23 to 8/06, Hillary Clinton went from a stagnating 38% to an astounding 44% and most pundits concluded as a result that she was headed to the inevitable 50% territory. Hillary Clinton's unstoppable rise in the polls came to a screeching halt after Obama's superior performance at the AFL-CIO presidential forum on August 7th in Chicago, Illinois. During this debate he put the brakes on the corporate media's false narratives, Hillary Clinton's Washington insider friendly foreign policy, and the Clinton/Dodd senior Senatorial experience mythology.
That direct confrontation between Obama and Clinton resulted in Clinton's poll numbers diving from an all time Rasmussen high of 44% during the week of 8/06 to a more normal 40% during the following week of 8/13. Obama continued to aggressively draw these contrasts on the campaign trail and that lead to his best debate performance to date during the last DNC sanctioned primary debate hosted by ABCNews in Iowa on August 19th. He defended himself against the three headed juggernaut of Clinton, Dodd and Biden's insistence that senior Senate experience is the key to an effective presidency.
This direct confrontation between Obama and Clinton again lead to another dip in poll numbers for Senator Clinton. After the 8/19 primary debate, Clinton's Rasmussen numbers went from 41% on 8/20 to 39% on 8/27. So Tod Beeton is clearly wrong in suggesting that Obama should not contrast himself with Senator Clinton on the campaign trail. One final point I would make is that events to date clearly contradict Mr. Beeton's other claim that Clinton is driving the debate. Obama took the lead on negotiating with our adversaries and forced Senator Clinton to clarify her stance on diplomacy. Obama defined Washington experience as repeating the same mistakes that lead us to war in 2003 and Senator Clinton has reacted with her recent "experience + change" meme that Mr. Beeton gave the Clinton campaign high praise for. I will also note that Senator Clinton debuted this new platform after Governor Richardson first introduce the notion as representative of himself during the 8/19 democratic primary debate where he said, "I think Senator Obama does represent change and Senator Clinton has the experience. With me you get both. [Applause]" So I would argue that Senator Clinton is not driving the car at all. She is just a passenger and the license plate on the car she is in is registered to a resident in Illinois name Barack Obama.
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lovingj says, "I want Barack Obama to win the primaries."
tomp says, "Nah lovingj. John Edwards should be the one to win the primaries."
Then georgep tells them both, "Hillary Clinton has to win the primaries."
Finally, Jonathan Singer, Tod Beeton, and Jerome Armstrong shuts the ridiculous flame thread down with the following words . . .
MYDD, DAILYKOS, OPENLEFT, PROGRESSIVES AND THE REST OF AMERICA, OUTSIDE OF THE 28 PERCENT OF INSANE PEOPLE WHO STILL SUPPORT BUSH, JUST WANT A DEMOCRAT IN THE WHITE HOUSE IN 2008.
No matter how many disagreements we have as a community and probably will continue to have as the primaries wind down, we are all progressives fighting for the same goal come November 2008.
Happy Labor Day!!!!!!!!!!!!
· MN-03: First debate today (MN Campaign Report)
· NV-2: Exclusive Q&A with Jill Derby on Iraq, FISA, Net Neutrality and more (Sven at My Silver State)
· NC-Sen: Hagan and Dole Tied in New Poll (HellofaSandwich)
· MN-03: Blog Day for Ashwin Madia (MN Campaign Report)
· Blogger Running for CA Dem Party Vice-Chair (Bob Brigham)
· Does McCain Want to Reenact the Draft? (fbihop)
· SD: New Poll Shows Tim Johnson Romping (lowkell)
· Iowa commission takes one small step against CAFOs (desmoinesdem)
· LA-06: Cazayoux's Gittin' It Done! (DailyKingFish)
· Secrets of the American Future Fund (chase martyn)
· Happy Birthday Jerome! (Jonathan Singer)
· Oilmen For Scott Garrett (NJ-5) (Aaron Banks)
