Clinton Factor Lives On

Lisa Van Dusen | Sunday, August 24, 2008

I can't speak for all women who've given birth, but when I did it, there was a definite over-under moment about six hours into the contractions. As I was pacing around my coffee table cursing the words "creative visualization" and the womb-less bugger who thought them up, I looked down at my stomach, did the quick math on the situation and thought, "Okay, how do I get out of this?"

Then, just when it seemed I couldn't go to the next level, my pain threshold magically re-set itself like a jimmied odometer and I was able to get through the last bit.

As Barack Obama ponders the last 18 months of room service club sandwiches and hog-calling contests and looks ahead to the next few days in Denver, he could probably use just that sort of superhuman second wind.

This next bit for Obama will be a convention week that might have been entirely about hope and change -- and history -- but instead will also be about The Clintons, who, in this melodrama, come with an upper-case "The," and their own spine-chilling organ flourish.

Hillary, as runner-up, will deliver a prime-time speech Tuesday night and Bill, as the former two-term Democratic president and rightful big dog of the party, will speak Wednesday.

She will be nominated and put to an ostensibly symbolic roll call vote because her supporters will have come to Denver, to hear her tell it, in search of catharsis, and political convention roll call votes are famous for their purgative properties.

Observers at the more dubious end of the Clintonology spectrum know that the range of plausible scenarios might include something more sinister and that the process, cleansing though it may be, might also serve to devalue Obama's currency as the nominee.

HILLARY'S VISION

Because the general assumption among Clintonologists of every height, weight and paranoia class is that Hillary, rather than process her belated primary concession as a character-building loss, has seamlessly shifted her gaze toward her own catharsis in 2012, everything she says and does in Denver will be magnified.

In the weeks since Hillary conceded in June, she has been, except for that somewhat unnerving catharsis crack, an absolute trouper.

Bill, on the other hand, has made it known that he is pouting over his perceived mistreatment as a race-baiter during the campaign and that he has doubts about Obama's readiness to lead that couldn't possibly have anything to do with his wife's presidential ambitions. And when Bill Clinton is pouting, we are conditioned to know, anything can happen.

Because Hillary can't afford to do anything that could be construed as disloyal to a Democratic party she'll need in about two years if her universe unfolds as it might, her speech will likely be gracious, unequivocally supportive and wistfully humble about her own destiny.

But Bill's will be parsed for how long it takes him to mention Obama, how much of it is about Hillary, how much of it is about him, whether he uses the word "ready" and whether it's delivered by his voluble, generous inner dog or his gnarly, grudging, thwarted-entitlement inner dog.

If their famously double-edged political instincts haven't been entirely doused by anger over losing the nomination (and especially if, by the time this runs, she happens to have been named the longshot/shock-and-awe VP choice), they'll both give genuinely unifying speeches.

It's fun, right?

Obama, meanwhile, has to look like he's having fun again. He has to remind Democrats of why they wanted change in the first place and what that has to do with John McCain. He has to either explain why he won't fight dirty or decide that he will. And he has to revisit the issue of race in a way that establishes the act of transcending the wrong kind of doubt as a patriotic thing to do.

If he does buy into creative visualization, I'd suggest he picture a Denver boot; that big ugly metal clamp used to thwart scofflaws and carjackers. It was invented in 1953 by Frank Marugg, a violinist with the Denver Symphony Orchestra and a man who clearly possessed a fine appreciation of both artistry and muscle.

Commentary by James Carville: Why Obama has to get mad to win

(CNN) -- With all of the vice presidential buzz in the air and the Democratic convention just days away, what's most important is what Sen. Barack Obama's campaign does following his speech to the masses at Invesco Field next Thursday.

Quite simply, he needs to create a more compelling narrative on change, use history as a context for the economy, and get mad about something.

First and foremost, Obama must bring a narrative to his position as a change agent. You can't simply seek change for change's sake.

The argument must be made that this is an election with two choices: the change-seeking good guys or the status quo-clinging bad guys. The campaign needs to brand every negative attack by the Republicans as just another desperate attempt of the status quo clinging to power.

Obama's campaign should argue that all of our political friends have the courage to break from the same old game in Washington in order to provide the change we need, while all of Sen. McCain's friends in Washington refuse a new direction for America.

McCain keeps trying to claim he's a "change Republican." I don't really know what that means, but Obama and his team must continue to highlight the "McSame" that he offers: more of the same failed Iraq policy, more of the same tax breaks for oil and drug companies, more of the same Swift-boat-style tactics, more of the same on education and healthcare.

And he certainly offers more of the same failed Bush economic policy, which leads me to my next point.

Obama can connect with voters on the economy by using history as a guideline. He should start by reading "Unequal Democracy," by Princeton academic Larry Bartels. The non-partisan and non-political Bartels points out devastatingly after an exhaustive study of Democratic and Republican presidents that the Democrats built a better economy and a more just society.

The campaign needs to say that, since 1900, Democratic presidents have not only "won" but dominated on every economic front: GDP growth, employment, deficit and income equality. Need more? How about a better performing stock market and a more fiscally-responsible spending.

There's no need to listen to McCain's marginal rates, death tax, deregulation, trickle-down, supply-side shenanigans because historically Democratic presidencies have produced better economies. And with the economy still in the forefront, it seems like a no-brainer for Obama to talk about the historical supremacy of economies under Democratic presidents.

And my last piece of advice to Obama and his team is to just get mad about something. Obama's campaign seems so intent on branding him as a "cool and calm" leader.

Well, voters want to see a sense of urgency and outrage in their president: Outrage over our dependence on foreign oil; outrage over our increased cost of living, health care and education; outrage over declining incomes; outrage over an endless war and an idiotic foreign policy; and outrage over our country's loss of prestige over the last 7½ years.

To put it bluntly, Obama needs to get outraged over something other than "attacks on his patriotism."

When all the dust settles after Denver, if Obama can do these things between now and November 4, he just may become President Barack Obama. No convention or vice-presidential pick will matter as much as connecting with voters on these key issues.

James Carville, a Democratic strategist who serves as a political contributor for CNN, was the Clinton-Gore campaign manager in 1992 and political adviser to President Clinton. Active in Democratic politics and a party fundraiser, Carville has not represented any U.S. politicians recently but has consulted internationally.

Quote of the Day - by Saint Robert Downey Jr.

"I'm between two phases right now, pre-Iron Man and post-Iron Man, and the transition can be tricky," he says, shifting and smoking. "It used to be, I'd drive onto a studio lot, and the guard was like, 'Less Than Zero dude, I loved Chaplin!' Now it's, 'Iron Man!' It's not an algorithm anymore. It's a fixed number. Things have been zeroed out; it's the beginning of something. But right now, it's still a void, and we tend to think of the void as an abyss or a vacuum with nothing there. In fact, it's a new road, and what you should do on this new road is close for repairs — close right away, because that old vehicle is not going to work on that new road. I mean, if the cosmos is a loving, healing thing that also spins real fast and erupts and does violent stuff, and if there really is some kind of order to the whole thing, then everything that's led up to this moment has to be part of it, or the math doesn't work. But in this transition phase, I really am trying to live as much like a lizard as I can. Hot, rock, sun, fly, tongue."

Keith Olbermann and Robert Klein on McCain's McMansions

Barack in Chester, Virginia: "The answer is John McCain has seven homes"

McCain Has Too Many Houses Already ...

Olbermann to McCain: 'Grow up Senator!'

When Paris Hilton Becomes a Voice of Reason

With her brilliant critique, Lisa Van Dusen continues to reveal the ineptitude of most U.S. political reporting and analysis. - zjm




By LISA VAN DUSEN

You know a presidential campaign has veered too far into the sludge when an intervention from Paris Hilton comes off like the voice of reason.

Somehow, last week, when the Bible-toting jailbird socialite said, in a video ad announcing her energy policy, "I want America to know that I'm, like, totally ready to lead," she was the only one around who really seemed to mean it.

After early assurances from both Barack Obama and John McCain that this would be a campaign of civilized respectability and Marquess of Queensberry rules, what had promised to be an epic battle is looking more and more like a John Hughes cafeteria food fight between a smartass, cynical outcast and a cool, detached principal, only with the old white guy playing the smartass and the young black guy playing the principal.

McCain, the candidate who coasted leisurely through June and early July like he was on an Elderhostel tour, is now running as though someone spiked his Ovaltine with crystal meth -- using drive-by attack ads, snarky put-downs and party favours to make Barack Obama's strengths seem ridiculous and his own weaknesses beside the point.

The point, according to the McCain campaign, is that nobody knows Obama and too many people are enamoured of him despite that fact for all the wrong reasons.

This is a line of attack that resonates with the same white, working-class voters who are suspicious of Obama's "otherness" based on his name, his skin colour and his exotic background, and who, the McCain campaign hopes, will now count "celebutante" as one more strike against him.

If there is anyone the economically-imperiled, mortgage crisis-besieged, health care-deficient, blue-collar workers of the rust belt have a hard time identifying with, it's Britney Spears and Paris Hilton.

By including Barack Obama in the same ad as two women, whose lives are as alien to the daily reality of a Wal-Mart clerk as the lives of actual aliens would be, McCain is saying: "He's not like you, either." Because they already know Obama isn't the same colour as they are, it's more a reminder than a revelation.

More than halfway through a summer of shockingly drive-able Interstates left eerily unclogged by four-dollar-a-gallon gasoline, the two campaigns have spent the past week going at each other on energy policy.

Where the candidates have clashed, and therefore where the sound bites have surfaced, the sniping has been not so much about the crisis itself, as about whether inflating your tires properly, as Obama has suggested, is a silly idea or not (McCain started out saying it was silly, then said it wasn't) and whether there is a square inch of American soil, turf or broadloom, off-shore or on, safe from Drillbit McCain.

McCain is taking heat from pundits and, in some cases, from his own former staffers, for going decidedly downscale with the Paris Hilton ad, as well as one mocking Obama's messiah thing (comparing him to Charlton Heston's Moses might backfire among the McCain-queasy fundamentalists).

He also took fire for playing the reverse-race card by accusing Obama of playing a real race card when he predicted that his opponents would try to scare people by pointing out that he doesn't look like all those other presidents in their wallets, which he doesn't.

In the longer term (and there is a longer term between now and November -- there's a longer
term between now and Labour Day, in campaign weeks), some Republicans fear McCain is swapping his considerable integrity stock for a fleeting return in the polls and that it won''t be there when he suddenly needs it between now and election day.

Obama, meanwhile, is still spending too many moments looking like a guy way too surprised that running for president of the United States could possibly get this ridiculous. He should be hitting instead of just hitting back, no matter how many times in the course of a long campaign hop he longs for what must now seem like the halcyon days of the bloody Pennsylvania primary.

Luckily for Obama, the Clintons have been agitating upstage just loudly enough to remind him of all they taught him about how badly he wants to be president. That should liven up the battleground some.

Campaign Funnies This Week

The Act of Remembering

From last year ...

zjm




"Even to those who managed to survive, it was hell where they envied the dead," Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba told the crowd of thousands gathered at Peace Memorial Park to remember the 62nd anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima by the UnitedStates, which ultimately killed more than 250,00 people. Mayor Akiba went on to describe the horrific scenes etched into the bodies and memories of those who survived. After his speech, 1,000 white doves were released into the sky above Hiroshima.

"The Japanese government, which has the duty to work for the abolition of nuclear weapons through international law," Mr. Akiba admonished, "should protect its pacifist constitution which it should be proud of, and clearly say 'no' to antiquated and wrong U.S. policies."

The crowd of survivors and mourners bowed their heads for a moment of silence when two children rang the Peace Bell at 8:15 in the morning, the exact time the Enola Gay B-29 bomber dropped the atom bomb on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945.

Six days later, it was the southern city of Nagasaki that was sacrificed for the cause of freedom.

Today, it is the men, women, and children of Iraq.

Bush: Worse Than Watergate

First Lady Miss Buffalo Chip

McCain Meltdown

Paris Responds to the Wrinkly White Guy

A Kennedyesque Future May Await Obama

He could do for black Americans what JFK did for Irish Catholics

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Caleah Cain has already booked off Jan. 20, 2009, from her job in a call centre here. Cain, 32, who is African-American, never paid much attention to the cyclical pomp that comes with living in the same town as the president of the United States, but next inauguration day may be different.

"I think it's incredible that this might happen," Cain said, standing two blocks from the White House with her husband, Aaron, and one-year-old daughter, Jade.

"I want to be here to see every minute of that day."

If Barack Obama is elected president of the United States, inauguration day will be the beginning of a scrapbook of historic firsts that will represent a significant change in the local landscape for the 65 per cent majority of the District of Columbia who are black.

"We've been telling our three daughters they can be anything they want to be since they were old enough to hear it," Cain said. "And this would make it more than just talk."

D.C., like most government towns, is divided between the postcard monuments to power and the "real" city that subsists in different measures on the care and feeding of that power.

But this government town is also divided by race, with downtown D.C. integrated from nine to five and people retreating after work to their socially segregated corners of Northwest for whites, Southeast for blacks and various equally divided suburbs. There are mixed areas both urban and suburban that defy the divisions, but they're still so notable for being mixed that you can easily name them.

For all the predominantly black institutions that have thrived in what was once called Washington's "Secret City" for the past 40 years, the prospect of a black president presiding over not just the leadership of the free world, as the cliche goes, but playing the role that links the White House to the "real D.C." -- lighting the national Christmas tree, hosting the White House Easter egg roll and tying up traffic with his 40-car motorcade -- holds huge cultural significance here.

"It'll give the African-American population here motivation and inspiration," said Cain's husband, Aaron, a network engineer, also 32. "It will help bridge the gap that has always existed between the two D.C.s."

If the Obama family moving into what so many black Washington comedians have dubbed the whitest house in America were the premise for a sequel to The West Wing, the challenge for the writers would be not to get too mawkish. Obama would be the first black president, and the first black family, to move into a White House built by slaves, to which Booker T. Washington was the first African American ever invited, in 1901 on the success of his book, Up from Slavery.

McGill University history professor and presidential historian Gil Troy, who is spending the summer as a visiting scholar at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, compares the cultural impact for African-Americans of Obama occupying 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. to what John F. Kennedy's arrival in the White House did for America's Irish Catholics.

"The Kennedys' moving into the White House in 1961 was a cultural bombshell. You had this beautiful, glamourous young couple with small adorable children plus the Kennedy mythology behind it. For Irish Catholics, it meant, 'we made it.' "

For Obama, Troy says, that pride may be tempered by the weight of enormous expectations.

"There will be, as there always is, a downturn after the initial honeymoon, and it will be a test of the African-American community as to whether they can deal with him being treated like anybody else."

At the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, across the Anacostia River, on one of those blindingly sunny days that make Washington feel like L.A. with brains, Yanne Givens is waiting for her summer daycampers to board a school bus. Givens, 24, a substitute teacher in the D.C. public school system, says the second graders she teaches idolize Obama.

"They talk about him the same way they talk about major sports figures," she laughs.

"And they need someone to look up to -- there's a lot of poverty in this city and a lot of hopelessness that goes with it. He's going to have a lot to live up to."

"These now, are the walls we must tear down"

I've never been so proud to be a member of the human family as I was today when I listened to citizen Barack Obama deliver his vision for a new world in Berlin -

zjm

A Fresh Vision for the World: Citizen Obama Speaks to over 200,000 in Berlin

"The walls between old allies on either side of the Atlantic cannot stand," Obama said, speaking not far from where the Berlin Wall once divided the city.

"The walls between the countries with the most and those with the least cannot stand. The walls between races and tribes, natives and immigrants, Christian and Muslim and Jew cannot stand."

Obama in Jordan

Starbucks tanking; walk an extra block

by Lisa Van Dusen

NEW YORK CITY - Not only am I not an economist, I've never even been a business reporter, not withstanding many long, deep-vein-thrombosis-inducing hours covering International Monetary Fund and World Trade Organization meetings.

But I am a Starbucks junkie, which has gotta count for something in the world of coffee punditry.

The recent announcement of 600 closures by the loved and hated Seattle-based java-monger has been lumped in with the death of the Chrysler minivan, the Fannie and Freddie crisis and all the other signs of economic apocalypse that have made "It's the f---ing economy, stupid" this U.S. election's revamped slogan.

But Starbucks was headed for trouble long before it started madly whipping pushpins out of its worldwide coffee domination map.

Anyone who's walked into a Starbucks in the past couple of years and felt -- instead of reassuring familiarity and anticipation at the thought of the same skinny venti half-caf caramel macchiato or whatever your poison is -- an inner groan at the Groundhog Day predictability of it all, knows there was a flaw in the business plan.

Starbucks, like Barnes & Noble, Pottery Barn, Crate & Barrel and other U.S. store chains that specialize in drawing customers who first go to Starbucks to get a $5 coffee to nurse while trolling their wares, all sell a certain lifestyle.

They deal in a cultural cachet based on the aspirational appeal of fitting a certain profile: Highly educated, smart, hip, politically aware, esthetically refined, internationalist, sensualist, sophisticated . . . a mix of attributes absolutely un-achievable for any human with a full-time job.

That's why it's aspirational.

Inherent in that appeal were both a sense of exclusivity and a pretence to cool, two things that have, by definition, a limited shelf-life in a world where there's always the next find and, it seems, all trends are global.

The idea that people spend money to enhance their social standing has been around at least since Thorstein Veblen coined the term "conspicuous consumption" a century ago and is still the operating premise behind any business plan based on cool and exclusivity.

But unless it includes a cyclical Madonna-like reinvention, the plan has to foresee its own demise.

Veblen also came up with the scarcity theory of value, a.k.a. the Tickle Me Elmo effect, or the economics version of the old why-buy-the-cow-if-you-can-get-the-milk-for-free bugaboo about premarital sex: The less available something is, the greater its value.

Starbucks had a problem long before the U.S. economy started tanking because it was caught at the crossroads of squandered exclusivity based on overexpansion and expired cool based on the lack of a plan B when the concept got stale.

In February, 2007, CEO Howard Schultz admitted as much in a leaked memo, regretting the "watering down of the Starbucks experience" and "commoditization of our brand," saying one of the results was "stores that no longer have the soul of the past and reflect a chain of stores versus the warm feeling of a neighbourhood store."

Schultz telegraphed the current closings by more than a year.

In a world in which the focus of those same customers is increasingly on authenticity as a commodity and on local rather than global, it might be hard for Starbucks to reinvent itself in the image of the very neighbourhood stores it replaced.

Having said that, I walked out of my hotel yesterday morning to my old Starbucks on Columbus Avenue and was pretty peeved when it was closed for renovations.

It was a five-block walk to the next one.

Obama: New Leadership for a Changing World

John McCain IS a Lapse in Judgement

FISA: Obama's Challenge - Will He Lead, or Seek to Placate?

George Carlin, Heroic Champion of Free Speech, Dies at 71

Obama - "The Country I Love"

A Son's Remembrance of His Father: A Message For Us All

Seems Hillary's Finger Wagging Delusional Doomsday Predictions Might Be a Tad Off Base!

Here's Your Bounce: Obama Up In PA, FL, OH

June 18, 2008

Bounce-obsessives can calm themselves: Quinnipiac's out with surveys of Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania this morning showing Obama gains in each state as compared to the last time Q-PAC polled. The sample sizes are huge -- more than 1,400 likely votes in each state, although I'm a little wary of likely voter samples at this stage. No matter:

Florida: Obama: 47, McCain 43
Ohio: Obama 48, McCain 42
Pennsylvania: Obama 52, McCain 40

The crosstabs: Obama's leading among white voters in PA, and his multi-ethnic coalition puts him over the top elsewhere. He leads by double digits about women everywhere; men are split evenly. The economy is the major issue in each state; President Bush's approval rating is highest (27%) in Florida.

Obama's getting the votes of 13% of '04 Bush voters in Florida and Ohio, and 19% in Pennsylvania. McCain gets the support of 24% of Clinton voters in PA and roughly equivalent percentages in OH and FL. So, from O's perspective, maybe it doesn't really matter that a quarter of Clinton Democrats turned Red.

Some other key findings after the jump.

More QPAC findings:

By almost 2 - 1 margins in each state, voters say going to war in Iraq was wrong. But they split between Obama's plan to withdraw U.S. troops under a fixed timetable and McCain's plan to keep troops there until the situation stabilizes and then withdraw without a set schedule.

Florida

Florida women likely voters back Obama 50 - 40 percent, while men go 47 percent for McCain and 44 percent for Obama. White voters back McCain 50 - 40 percent while black voters back Obama 95 - 4 percent. Obama leads 57 -35 percent with voters 18 to 34 years old; he splits 48 - 46 percent with McCain among voters 35 to 54, and 44 - 46 percent with voters over 55.

Ohio

Obama leads 51 - 39 percent among Ohio women likely voters, while men go 46 percent for McCain and 45 percent for Obama. White voters also are narrowly divided with 47 percent for McCain and 44 percent for Obama, but Obama commands black voters 90 - 6 percent. The Democrat also leads 58 - 36 percent among voters 18 to 34 and 49 - 42 percent among voters 35 to 54, while McCain has the 47 - 43 percent edge among voters over 55.

Pennsylvania

Obama tops McCain 57 - 34 percent with women as men go 47 percent for McCain to 45 percent for Obama. Obama leads 61 - 33 percent among voters 18 to 34 years old, 51 - 41 percent among voters 35 to 54 and 48 - 43 percent with voters over 55. The Democrat inches ahead 47 - 44 percent among white voters and leads among black voters 95 - 1 percent.

Obama gets a 54 - 25 percent favorability, to 43 - 33 percent for McCain.

"I'm Voting Republican"

Gets Sweeter Every Time!

Back on top

Celtics crush Lakers, 131-92, to secure 17th title in franchise history

They are not your old man's Celtics. No black canvas high-tops. No cigar smoke wafting toward the Garden rafters from the Boston bench. No behind-the-back passes from Cooz, and no Larry Legend smashing his face on the parquet floor.

But the 2007-08 Boston Celtics are champions of the world, worthy successors to the men your dad always told you about.

The Celtics returned to glory last night, winning their 17th NBA title - their first banner since 1986 - with a 131-92 Game 6 dismemberment of the soft-shell Lakers at the Causeway Street Gym.

No smoking laws were waived in the New Garden when NBA commissioner David Stern presented the Larry O'Brien Trophy to Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck at 12:03 this morning.

"Someplace, Red is lighting up a cigar," said Stern.

"This win is for Red Auerbach," said Grousbeck.

It felt like a restoration of the natural order of the basketball universe.

The finale, Boston's record 26th postseason game of 2008, was an homage to the 12-man selflessness, teamwork, and ferocious defense that marked the golden days of Green dominance. Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen led the champs with 26 points apiece while second-year guard Rajon Rondo scored 21 to go with 7 rebounds and 8 assists.

Celtics captain and Finals MVP Paul Pierce scored 17 points and had 10 assists, and Boston's bench won the game in a 34-15 second quarter that demoralized the visitors and made the second half more coronation than competition.

In bygone days when dinosaurs ruled the earth and Bill Russell roamed the paint, the Celtics were the signature franchise in pro ball. Internationally famous, they won 16 championships between 1957 and 1986, including eight straight with Auerbach on the bench.

They disappeared from the local sports landscape in recent seasons, but re-emerged in full championship fury after general manager Danny Ainge acquired Garnett and Ray Allen in the summer of 2007. Boston won 66 games in the regular season and went 13-1 at home during the 68-day postseason tournament.

Russell, John Havlicek, and JoJo White were in the house for the last loud roar. Auerbach, Walter Brown, Dennis Johnson, Reggie Lewis, Johnny Most and a few other gods of Green watched from a higher place as role players named James Posey, Eddie House, and P.J. Brown helped the starters methodically erase the Lakers. Don Cherry would have loved it. Kobe Bryant scored 22 for the losers, but ultimately LA just had too many Europeans.

Brilliantly coached by Doc Rivers, sculpted with Auerbachian guts and guile by Ainge (who learned it all at the right hand of Red), the Celtics won the title one year after a 24-58 campaign, which included an 18-game losing streak. The champs struggled in seven-game series against the Hawks and Cavaliers (0-6 on the road) before finding their voice in a six-game set against the formidable Pistons.

"This is unreal," Pierce told the crowd. "I'm just happy that . . . everybody, the city of Boston stuck with me throughout all the hard times. I know we didn't have a lot of great years, but you guys stuck with me, and now we bring home a championship to you."

The Lakers had a much smoother path to the Finals and were consensus favorites of national experts who'd been blinded by West Coast sunsets. It didn't take long to discover that the run-and-shoot Western Conference champs were no match for the brawlers from the East.

The never-gracious Auerbach no doubt is smiling somewhere, safe in the knowledge that Phil Jackson did not win a record 10th championship (both Auerbach and Jackson had nine as coaches) on the Red Auerbach court.

"I think everybody is disappointed that we didn't get a game out of this, give ourselves a chance," said Jackson. "I thought we played on our heels from the very get-go. They overran us."

The victory cements Boston's claim as Titletown, USA. Boston is home of the world champion Celtics and the world champion Red Sox. Now if only that slacker team in Foxborough can get with the program.

Patriots coach Bill Belichick watched Game 6 from the first row of the baseline by the Celtics bench. I think I saw him scribbling notes when the Celtics were playing defense.

Boston made only 9 of 24 shots in an erratic first quarter, but led, 24-20, thanks to the hot hand of Garnett. Called out by peers (Ron Artest) and NBA watchers from coast to coast, Garnett scored 10 in the quarter, and paced the Celtics to an early lead despite poor shooting.

The Celtic bench (more kudos for Ainge) took back the night in the second. Posey (11 points, one of five Celtics in double figures) and House hit back-to-back treys from the left corner to put the Celtics up by 9 and force Jackson to call a panic timeout.

It didn't help. The Celtics effectively won the championship with a 15-2 quarter-closing run to make it 58-35 at intermission. The Lakers spit back whopping leads on their home court. The Celtics do not.

The Celtics ran to a 79-48 lead midway through the third while the poet on the Laker bench just stood back and let it all be.

The Vault was a victory Garden in the final 12 minutes. Rivers took out his starters when it was 116-81 with 4:01 left. The lead peaked at 43 when Tony Allen flushed home a reverse dunk to make it 129-86.

Late in the fourth, while some fans lit cigars, Ainge's image appeared on the big board and he refused to even crack a smile. He was a bum at this time a year ago. Now he's a hero on a par with Belichick and Theo Epstein.

Light it up. The Boston Celtics, once synonymous with sports supremacy, are back where they belong, and Boston gets to party like it's 1959.

Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist

'You can't have my son...'

Before a Crowd of 20,000 in Detroit, Al Gore Backs Obama

Barack Obama On Fatherhood

Isles shape Obama’s racial identity

Attention focuses on "melting pot" culture and local experiences

By Richard Borreca

By becoming the first black presidential candidate to secure the nomination of a major political party, Barack Obama is forcing many voters across the nation to question their views on race.

In Hawaii, the question is particularly pertinent: Census figures show one person in five reports being of more than one race.

With a black father from Kenya and a white mother from Kansas, Obama is described as multiracial, biracial or hapa.

"Calling him 'biracial' as opposed to black is really beside the point because it's estimated that between 75 percent and 90 percent of African Americans are also of European descent," says Elisa Joy White, assistant professor of ethnic studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

"Most African Americans, regardless of being racialized as black, are biracial or multiracial," White said.

Roosevelt Freeman, office manager for state Rep. Colleen Meyer and a local Republican volunteer since 1996, says Obama is getting attention in Hawaii just because he was born here.

"I think voters are just excited that he is from here. I think if he were green and from here and was on the national stage, it would be the same," said Freeman, who is black.

For others, the idea of Obama encompassing Hawaii's diversity holds much of the attraction of the young Harvard-trained lawyer.

In a speech before the state Democratic convention last month, U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie, who was friends with Obama's parents at UH, called Obama special.

"The result of this union brought us the first world citizen who can cross over not just this nation but across the world to bring the message of Hawaii, the message of aloha, of togetherness, openness, tolerance and diversity," Abercrombie said.

White added in an e-mail interview that despite whatever "hapa street cred" Obama has in Hawaii, it doesn't displace the prejudice blacks find here.

"Being of African descent is not valued in the same way that other ethnic backgrounds are valued here. In spite of the many positive aspects of multiethnic, multiracial and multicultural interaction in Hawaii, we still have to realize ... that being black continues to be negatively perceived in Hawaii," White said.

In a 1999 essay written for Punahou's school alumni magazine, Obama recalls how his first perceptions of Hawaii as being "the world's mythical melting pot" changed that by the time he graduated from Punahou, his consciousness of race was much sharper.

"As an African American teenager in a school with few African Americans, I probably questioned my identify a bit harder than most," Obama wrote. "As a kid from a broken home and family of relatively modest means, I nursed more resentments than my circumstances justified and didn't always channel those resentments in particularly constructive ways."

Kathryn Waddell Takara, who designed UH's first black studies program and is black, adds that Obama still grew up in Hawaii, which gave him breathing room and perspective on being a black male in America.

"I think growing up outside of traditional America gave him a certain freedom and optimism. ... Someone born on the mainland, particularly a male, would have had quite a different experience," Takara said.

Obama today considers himself both black and "local," to the point of telling a Hawaii voter during a mainland rally to "vote for the local guy."

"It is evident that Obama considers himself to be black, prefers this description of his ethnicity, chose a wife who is black and established his career serving the black community of Chicago," says Miles Jackson, a retired UH professor and author of a history of blacks in Hawaii.

"He appears to be comfortable with himself as a black person," said Jackson, who is also the former dean of the UH library school.

Freeman, however, says Obama has been able to use his race to his advantage.

"He would not be historical if he were a Caucasian, he would just be the junior senator from Illinois," Freeman said.

In the end, many wonder if Obama's campaign will let America set aside the debate on race.

"Race has a very real impact on our lives, but it is not the fixed reality some would like to believe it is," says White.

"If the reality of race starts to sink in, maybe we'll be knowledgeable enough to start dealing with the absurdity of its social impact," White said.

Jackson adds, "As long as people of African ancestry have been in this country and as long as they have been multiracial, you would think people in this country would have gotten used to it by now."

Special Comment by Keith Olbermann: "McCain should know better..."

McCain Says It Is Not Important When Troops Come Home From Iraq

When John McCain was asked in an interview yesterday if he had a better idea when U.S. Troops might be able to come home, he responded: "No, but that's not too important."

Please watch both of these clips and pass them on to your friends.

zjm

Commentary: Best woman for the job could be a man

KULA, Hawaii (CNN) -- Let's all breathe a collective sigh of relief, shall we? Now that we've got our nominee, Hillary can get some rest, Obama can read his daughters a bedtime story, and the rest of us can relax knowing our relative peace won't be shattered by another primary-related explosion.

Goodbye Reverend Wright and Bosnia tarmac snipers. Goodbye bitter working-class voters and hard-working white people. See you in November John King and the magic CNN map.

But what now?

Obama has gracefully accepted the victory banner, and a lot of Hillary supporters, especially women, are walking off the field as if they've lost a war. I understand their frustration, but the truth is they didn't lose, not by a long shot. Their candidate is stronger than ever, with 17 million votes under her belt, and the public discussion about the role of gender is more nuanced and compelling than it has been in decades.

The next woman candidate will have a better shot at the White House because of the tireless efforts of Hillary Rodham Clinton.

But with a Democratic house divided, now is the time for healing, and this can only happen if Hillary's staunch female supporters let go of the reverse-sexist ideology that women are inherently better, wiser, and more compassionate leaders.

They will have to acknowledge that sometimes the best woman for the job is actually a man -- if it's the right man. Obama's vote against the war, marriage to his female mentor, outstanding record on reproductive choice and a host of other progressive issues, and his uncanny ability to inspire people all over the world suggest he's just that.

It is time to turn the page on myopic gender-based Feminism and concede that while patriarchy is real, so is female greed, dishonesty and corruptibility. It's time to empower the feminisms embodied by millions of women and men who care about everyone, including, but not limited to, women.

These are the feminists who wanted the first Clinton's welfare reform to include real jobs for women, with real wages and real benefits. They wanted trade agreements like NAFTA to empower female workers in other countries, not make them easier to exploit. They also want to exhaust diplomatic means before threatening to bomb entire civilizations to dust in response to hostile challengers to U.S. supremacy.

These people -- male and female, young and old, black, white, yellow and brown, self-identified feminists and adamant rejecters of the term -- move from a place of passion, hope, and yes, pragmatism.

They realize Obama will need to assemble a stellar team to move his vision forward. And they plan to hold him accountable for his positions on all of it: racism, sexism, socio-economic disparities, the environment, education, health care, a living wage and any other obstacles to the ideals of equality upon which this great nation was founded.

Clinton supporters aren't the only ones with work to do. I spoke at Harvard a few years ago on the necessity of ending divisiveness and relying more on the human capacity for openness as a baseline for true progress. This position is necessary not only in feminist circles, but in the primal fight or flight mechanism of our own minds.

As angry as some Obama supporters might be, as disheartened as we may feel, the only way out is to believe in the power of human beings to rise to the moral imperative.

Judging by the state of the world, we may not get another chance.

Rebecca Walker is the founder of the Third Wave Foundation, a feminist group that works nationally to support young women and transgender activists. She's also the author of four books, including her latest, "Baby Love." Read her blog on theroot.com.

John Cusak On Bush, McCain and Our Choice

For most of my lifetime the two-party system in this country has been serving up candidates that can best be termed 'the lesser of two banalities, if not evils.'

When speaking at my college back in the early seventies, comedian Dick Gregory remarked: "The problem with choosing the lesser of two evils is that all you wind up with is the evil of the evil."

This election is different. The choice between Barack Obama and John McCain is stark. Actor John Cusak has produced a fabulous and important commentary for MoveOn.

Please pass this on to your friends.

- zjm

New Poll Numbers For Obama Dispel Clintonian/Media Assertions

'Katie Couric: Today's Worst Person in the World"

"Good Campaign"

Obama revamped campaign tactics

by Lisa Van Dusen

In a post-primary analysis in the New York Times the other day, erstwhile Clinton strategist Mark Penn ended an exploration of what went wrong with the kicker, "And sometimes your opponent just runs a good campaign."

From the day after Barack Obama won the Iowa caucus and attention was turned to the differences between his campaign and the frontrunner's, it was clear that he and Hillary Clinton were running very different operations.

Those differences were apparent in the candidates' own public pronouncements, in the messaging from their surrogates, in their spending decisions, in their street-level tactics and, most of all, in the apparent difference of opinion in the two campaigns on the exact location of the lines you just don't cross.

For the past three decades, at least since television became a major factor and especially since the 24-hour cable cycle has taken over, there has been a list of unofficial campaign rules that cover a multitude of landmines from Supreme Court appointments to pancakes: Never wear hats, never operate heavy machinery, never, ever wear a hat while operating heavy machinery, never play a game that isn't fixed, never come out against a tax break, all fast food is political . . . there are about 30 more.

These have been compiled through so many self-immolations that they've become gospel. Obama has not only knowingly broken many of them (most recently, he recklessly flouted that no-pancake rule, based on Gary Bauer's unceremonious triple-gainer off a stage in New Hampshire in 2000 while trying to catch a rogue, airborne flapjack), he has done it with such grinning disregard for the rule book and everything it represents that million-dollar-a-month consultants such as Penn must be wondering what the weather is like in some of the friendlier emerging democracies.

In South Carolina, the Obama campaign sent white foreigners door-knocking in black working-class neighbourhoods and black volunteers into wealthy white areas. They put Upper East Side socialites and Harvard students on the phone banks to sell an African-American candidate to rural white Southerners wary of outsiders. They refused to buy votes and pack rooms with "street money," especially for the black community, despite the fact that that's how it's always been done.

Obama won South Carolina partly because the old-style, tactical campaign he was up against was derailed by those tactics when Bill Clinton started pushing race buttons. It didn't happen in every state, but at other key points along the way, there were moments when one campaign behaved the way campaigns have always behaved, only this time it backfired.

The superdelegates who put Obama over the top last week were declaring a preference for a new kind of politics even, or maybe especially, as practitioners of the old kind. They know that to millions of young people who've become involved this time, the new kind is the only kind they know, and the old kind already looks like history.

Hillary Clinton did run a good campaign, according to the old rules, and if it hadn't worked, especially in certain states, she could not have stayed in so long or finished so impressively.

Of all the explanations for what went wrong, from the neglect of caucus states to the deliberate aura of incumbency to the huge consultant bills, it may be that the changing definition of "good campaign" covers most of them.

United Auto Workers Endorses Barack Obama For President

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

The UAW International Executive Board has unanimously voted to endorse Sen. Barack Obama for president, the union announced today.

"After a historic primary campaign which activated and mobilized millions of voters, our union is proud to endorse Sen. Barack Obama," said UAW President Ron Gettelfinger. "He has inspired our country with a positive vision for a better America -- and with concrete plans to turn that vision into reality.

"From the streets of Chicago to the state legislature in Springfield, Ill., to the halls of the U.S. Senate, Barack Obama has been a voice for dignity and justice for working people. He has a strong program for a safe and secure America, which will protect our citizens and help our country prosper in a new century.

"On every issue that counts, we can count on Barack Obama to stand with our members, our families and our communities. He has pledged to rebuild America's manufacturing base and to assist the auto industry as we re-tool toward a cleaner, more modern transportation system. "Sen. Obama supports free choice in the workplace; he will fight to deliver quality, affordable health care to every American; and he understands the need to change our trade policies so that U.S. workers and U.S. companies can compete fairly in the global economy.

"As president, Barack Obama will unite our country -- and the active and retired members of the United Auto Workers will be proud to work with him to change our country for the better."

The UAW, one of America's largest and most diverse labor unions represents more than 1 million active and retired workers in automobile manufacturing, aerospace, construction equipment, health care, higher education, public service, gaming and other industries.

Obama Speaks Out on the Economy: "It is time for something new - time for a change"

Obama to Staff: 'Let's Go Win The Election!'

'They Said This Day Would Never Come'

The Book to Buy

It's The Obama-McCain Show

Paired together, this road trip could rival Hope and Crosby, or even Borat and Azamat

By Lisa Van Dusen | Sun Media |Sunday, June 8, 2008

The buddy/road trip movie has been one of the most enduringly successful formulas in Hollywood precisely because it combines the most sure-fire elements of the corny screenwriting canon: A kooky odd-couple embarks on a narrative arc fuelled by a quest for something; a Holy Grail, stolen diamonds, the leadership of the free world.

Of all the strange buddy bedfellows in history, John McCain and Barack Obama are really no stranger than Hope and Crosby, Grodin and DeNiro or Borat and Azamat.

The elevator pitch that an old, white, hotheaded war hero embarks on a tour of America with an unflappable, swaggering young black idealist is so rife with possibilities, all you'd have to say is, "It'll make Planes, Trains and Automobiles look like Love Story!" and you'd have your development deal.

The idea of a string of town hall meetings between now and August with the presumptive Democratic and presumptive Republican nominees ("Ladies and gentlemen, the world's hardest working candidates: The Presumptives") not just appearing on the same stage in a non-debate format, but possibly travelling on the same plane now looms on the horizon like a mirage of bipartisan harmony after weeks of intrapartisan toxicity.

There is something quintessentially American, in the best possible sense, about the idea of McCain and Obama taking their you-say-tomahto show on the road, not in a debate format like the historic Lincoln-Douglas series of 1858, but something less formal.

It conjures Capra-esque scenes of small-town caravans with mothers pushing strollers, scuffy boys dragging little red wagons, senior citizens in walkers ... black, white, old, young, Republican, Democrat and Independent, all wanting to see the oddest political couple since Nikolas and Carla.

The backstory here, and there always has to be a pre-existing conflict so that the road trip starts off with a palpable sense of tension, is that McCain and Obama were friendly when the hotshot senator arrived on the Hill from Chicago in 2004, but then they had a fight.

In early 2006, Obama promised to co-operate with McCain on lobbying reform legislation and then backed down under pressure from the Democratic leadership, prompting a knee-to-the-groin response exceptional in its chippiness, even by McCain standards.

GOOD LUCK TO YOU

"I understand how important the opportunity to lead your party's effort to exploit this issue must seem to a freshman senator," McCain wrote in a letter that became the talk of the town, "and I hold no hard feelings over your earlier disingenuousness. Again, I have been around long enough to appreciate that in politics the public interest isn't always a priority for every one of us. Good luck to you, senator."

By Washington standards, it was an old dog/new dog territorial marking exercise, likely fuelled by spotlight envy, given that the media, who McCain once jokingly referred to as "my base" because of his generally positive coverage, had scurried in one giant, organic, haloed scrum to his new rival.

Since then, the two have made up, resuming a friendly cross-the-aisle relationship. But with all that change vs. experience, new vs. old, old school vs. Ivy League pressure lurking just below the backslapping and handshaking, the potential is there for a pretty good fight scene (hopefully more akin to old brawler Will Danaher vs. young pugilist Sean Thornton in The Quiet Man than Borat vs. Azamat).

Based on a plan John F. Kennedy and Barry Goldwater had discussed for the 1964 campaign (they had also talked about using the same plane), the idea of McCain-Obama town halls with no media moderator has been rumoured for a few months, so both campaigns have had plenty of time to think about it.

Town halls have worked brilliantly in previous campaigns, usually as a way for underdogs to showcase their policy chops and feed the notion of a dynamic alternative to a tired incumbent.

In 1992, Bill Clinton and Al Gore used their town halls to sell the two-wonks-for-one idea, only they took the bus, which, given what we know about the two of them now, must have included a few slapstick, odd couple moments.

After nearly eight years of exploited polarization under the Bush administration followed by the past few months of strategic electoral balkanization during the primary process, a little bipartisan mojo could be a very welcome plot twist for America.

And as buddy movies go, it could make for excellent summer entertainment.

From The New York Times: The Long Goodbye: Clinton Suspends Her Campaign and Endorses Obama

“The way to continue our fight now, to accomplish the goals for which we stand, is to take our energy, our passion and our strength and do all we can to help elect Barack Obama the next president of the United States.

“I endorse him and throw my full support behind him.”

She asks her supporters to work as hard for him as they did for her. She vouches for him, saying she had a front-row seat to his candidacy for the last 16 months and saw his strength, determination, grace and grit. “He has lived the American dream,” she says. And now, “our paths have merged.”

“I am standing with Senator Obama to say, ‘Yes we can,’” she says, adopting his slogan, which some of her supporters on the campaign trail had converted into a chant for her, “Yes she will!”

FINALLY ... MAYBE ... TODAY

Barack in Bristol, VA: "They do not fund my campaign. They will not fund our party."

40 Years Later, We Remember, and Listen Once Again

Ted Kennedy's Eulogy of RFK

Obama Pound

By God, For All Our Sakes, I Hope So!

Hillary Gets It Done

by Lisa Van Dusen

Hillary Clinton's decision late yesterday to suspend her campaign as of tomorrow and endorse Barack Obama did wonders to improve the prospects of the Democratic party in November.

For a moment after he proclaimed himself the presumptive Democratic nominee for president Tuesday night on a stage in St. Paul, Obama looked like he was either genuinely overcome by the moment or really, really pissed off.

Given the kind of night he was having, it could have been either one or a little of both.

Could be he was feeling a little conflicted because the opponent he had finally, indisputably defeated after a gruelingly long battle had just injected the proceedings with a definite sense of surreal, Lewis Carroll cognitive dissonance by delivering an un-concession speech so she could have more cake.

It was a great disappointment to many Democrats, including many in her own campaign, who thought that Clinton would, despite everything her behaviour had predicted up to that point, rise to the occasion.

That, in the end -- which is what it was by any sane measure -- she would say something that would remind us of a more innocent time, a time before she raised a certain kind of politics to heights previously unseen in most constitutional democracies.

But what Clinton delivered Tuesday night in New York was more of a call to arms, with a deluge of cold water thrown in for good measure.

Faced with the final, irrefutable fact of her defeat, Senator Clinton went out on that stage and delivered her stump speech, as though it was just another night on the campaign trail, only with a tribute to herself thrown in, and topped off by an appeal to the supporters she desperately wants to characterize as a critical mass-fuelled movement, to e-mail in their suggestions as to what she should do next.

There was a fleeting mention of Obama off the top, with no mention of the words won or nominee, and then onto her own plans, which in the real world would consist of a couple of weeks of dogs-up in Chappaqua followed by some targeted surrogate work for her party's historic, unexpectedly weary nominee.

But in a moment that was essentially a refutation of both the occasion and reality, both electoral and historic, Senator Clinton tastelessly raised the question of What Hillary Wants on a night when the only answer should have been "to unite the Democratic Party" and followed it by its own answer: Leverage.

Rather than displaying any of the class or generosity of spirit that the Obama campaign was squinting away at their monitors straining to hear, she commanded that leverage from the masses. Hillary Clinton put in motion an option of presenting the public and Obama with the post-Internet version of the Miracle on 34th Street courtroom mailbag scene: A claim of millions of e-mails representing an "uncontrollable" grassroots movement to either put her on the ticket or push on to a bloodbath in Denver.

She can overtake the impression she left for history and redeem Tuesday night by delivering a vastly different message tomorrow. This time, they say, she will.

28 Superdelegates Endorse Obama on Wednesday

From HQ Blog: In the wake of yesterday's historic results, a new wave of superdelegates has come forth and endorsed Barack Obama over the course of the day. Many of them took the opportunity to praise the efforts of both candidates, while expressing their support for Barack and desire for unity within the party.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (CA), Sen. Tom Harkin (IA), Sen. Ken Salazar (CO), Sen. Ron Wyden (OR), Sen. Tom Carper (DE), Sen. Frank Lautenburg (NJ), Sen. Mary Landrieu (LA) and Sen. Ben Cardin (MD) all endorsed this afternoon, issuing a joint statement that congradulated both candidates and pledged their support to Senator Obama.

As Senators who remained neutral in this contest, we are proud of Senators Obama and Clinton for breaking down barriers that some believed were unbreakable and for inspiring millions in our country to participate in our political process, many for the first time.

...Our focus now is on victory in November and on giving Barack Obama every ounce of our support, every bit of our energy, and our total commitment to do everything in our power to win the Presidency.

• DCCC Chair Rep. Chris Van Hollen (MD) for Obama:

"Now is the time for all of us to come together. I enthusiastically support Senator Obama. He will be our nominee, and now it's very important that we all unite behind his candidacy. He has energized millions of new voters, and if we can sustain that momentum by coming together, he will be the next president of the United States."

• Senator Russ Feingold (WI):

"I've spoken with Senator Obama and made it clear that he could count me as an endorsing supporter of his at the Democratic Convention this August. Senator Obama is an effective leader, capable of leading our country into a new era, and I look forward to doing everything I can to ensure his success this November."

• Former DCCC Head and Representative Rahm Emanuel (IL)
• Vice-President Walter Mondale (MN)

Other Superdelegates who endorsed Barack Obama today:

• Gov. Phil Bredesen (TN), Rep. John Salazar (CO), DNC David Strauss (ND) for Obama, DNC Paula Zellner (WI) for Obama, DNC Ed Cote (WA) for Obama, DNC Sharon Mast (WA) for Obama, Rep. Michael Michaud (ME) for Obama, DNC member Gray Sasser (TN), DNC member Inez Crutchfield (TN), Rep. Mike Doyle (PA), Rep. Tom Udall (NM), Rep. Bob Brady, DNC member Karen Hale (UT), DNC member Heather Mizeur, Sen. Herb Kohl (WI) (PA), DNC member Terry Goddard (AZ)

Remembering the Hope of Bobby - 40 Years Ago Today

US elections: Jimmy Carter tells Barack Obama not to pick Hillary Clinton as running mate

Jonathan Freedland | Wednesday June 4 2008

Barack Obama should not pick Hillary Clinton as his vice-presidential nominee, former president Jimmy Carter has told the Guardian.

"I think it would be the worst mistake that could be made," said Carter. "That would just accumulate the negative aspects of both candidates."

Carter, who formally endorsed the Illinois senator last night, cited opinion polls showing 50% of US voters with a negative view of Clinton.

In terms that might discomfort the Obama camp, he said: "If you take that 50% who just don't want to vote for Clinton and add it to whatever element there might be who don't think Obama is white enough or old enough or experienced enough or because he's got a middle name that sounds Arab, you could have the worst of both worlds."

Presumptive Nominee Barack Obama

Even Bush Has a Better Grasp of Reality and Civility than the Queen of Narcissism, Hillary Rodham Clinton

This morning, President Bush, appropriately, congratulated Obama through his White House spokeswoman Dana Perino:

"President Bush congratulates Sen. Obama for clinching the Democratic party's 2008 nomination for president," Perino told reporters. "He knows from personal experience that the presidential nominating process is a grueling one and Sen. Obama came a long way in becoming his party's nominee."

Even Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice got in on the act, stating that Obama's nomination is an 'extraordinary' development for the United States.

Hillary's refusal to acknowledge Barack Obama' s historic victory in the race for the Democratic Nomination is boorish at best; her refusal to congratulate him, and deal with reality, the latest evidence of her pathological narcissism (after all, it did keep her on the front pages today) and her ultimate disregard for the Democratic Party and the people of the United States.

Hil' is nothing short of a very bad joke that refuses to go away.

Worse yet, the leadership of the Democratic Party continues to salute her!

Despicable.

Please visit Obama's website and send a note of encouragement to resist the growing suicidal pressure to put HRC on the ticket.

Time to move on; time for change that does not include any of the Clintons.

zjm

From the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863 to June 3, 2008: Barack Obama, Nominee of the Democratic Party

Americans Favor President Meeting With U.S. Enemies: John McCain is Out of Touch With the American People

by Lydia Saad

PRINCETON, NJ -- Large majorities of Democrats and independents, and even about half of Republicans, believe the president of the United States should meet with the leaders of countries that are considered enemies of the United States. Overall, 67% of Americans say this kind of diplomacy is a good idea.

This is according to a Gallup Panel survey of a representative national sample of 1,013 Americans, conducted May 19-21.

Although separate Gallup polling shows that few Americans view Iran favorably, and that Iran leads Americans' list of top U.S. enemies in the world, the new Gallup survey also finds high public support for presidential-level meetings between the United States and Iran, specifically.

About 6 in 10 Americans (59%) think it would be a good idea for the president of the United States to meet with the president of Iran. This includes about half of Republicans, a majority of independents, and most Democrats.

Both positions enjoy broad popular appeal, with majorities of men, women, younger and older Americans, and those from different regions of the country all saying direct presidential-level talks with Iran and other enemies are a good idea.

The issue of using presidential diplomacy with U.S. enemies distinguishes Barack Obama from the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, John McCain, and even from his opponent for the Democratic nomination, Hillary Clinton.

Obama is the only one of the three who has said he would personally meet with the leaders of countries like Iran, Syria, Cuba, and Venezuela as president, and he recently defended his position by saying "strong countries and strong presidents talk to their adversaries." Clinton has criticized Obama's approach as "naïve," and McCain has been unrelenting in his attacks on the issue, accusing Obama of being dangerously inexperienced and having "reckless judgment."

Bottom Line

McCain may eventually persuade more Americans that there is nothing for the president of the United States to discuss with hostile foreign leaders like Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and that to do so only undermines U.S. efforts to destabilize such regimes.

However, for now, whether it's the leader of an "enemy" country, generally, or the president of Iran, specifically, Americans think it's a good idea for the president of the United States to meet directly with the nation's adversaries.

President Obama

In August, Barack Obama will give his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King's 'I have a Dream' speech in Washington. In February, President Obama will lay a wreath at the Lincoln memorial on the 200th anniversary of Lincoln's birth.

This is HISTORY folks.

Time has come for the Clinton supporters to stop whining. You lost. Time to support the next President of the United States.

Time to get in step with History.

zjm