June 20, 2008
June 18, 2008
Seems Hillary's Finger Wagging Delusional Doomsday Predictions Might Be a Tad Off Base!
Here's Your Bounce: Obama Up In PA, FL, OHJune 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.
Gets Sweeter Every Time!
Back on topThey 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
June 17, 2008
June 15, 2008
Isles shape Obama’s racial identity
Attention focuses on "melting pot" culture and local experiencesBy 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."June 12, 2008
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
June 11, 2008
"Good Campaign"
Obama revamped campaign tacticsby 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.
June 10, 2008
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.
