Gary Hart "Beaking the Final Rule"

by: JonnyBBad

Sun Mar 09, 2008 at 23:04:49 PM EDT

Breaking the Final Rule
   By Gary Hart
   The Huffington Post

   Friday 07 March 2008

   It will come as a surprise to many people that there are rules in politics. Most of those rules are unwritten and are based on common understandings, acceptable practices, and the best interest of the political party a candidate seeks to lead. One of those rules is this: Do not provide ammunition to the opposition party that can be used to destroy your party's nominee. This is a hyper-truth where the presidential contest is concerned.

   By saying that only she and John McCain are qualified to lead the country, particularly in times of crisis, Hillary Clinton has broken that rule, severely damaged the Democratic candidate who may well be the party's nominee, and, perhaps most ominously, revealed the unlimited lengths to which she will go to achieve power. She has essentially said that the Democratic party deserves to lose unless it nominates her.

   As a veteran of red telephone ads and "where's the beef" cleverness, I am keenly aware that sharp elbows get thrown by those trailing in the fourth quarter (and sometimes even earlier). "Politics ain't beanbag," is the old slogan. But that does not mean that it must also be rule-or-ruin, me-first-and-only-me, my way or the highway. That is not politics. That is raw, unrestrained ambition for power that cannot accept the will of the voters.

   Senator Obama is right to say the issue is judgment not years in Washington. If Mrs. Clinton loses the nomination, her failure will be traced to the date she voted to empower George W. Bush to invade Iraq. That is not the kind of judgment, or wisdom, required by the leader answering the phone in the night. For her now to claim that Senator Obama is not qualified to answer the crisis phone is the height of irony if not chutzpah, and calls into question whether her primary loyalty is to the Democratic party and the nation or to her own ambition.

Senior Edwards Economic Advisor Endorses Barack Obama

by: JonnyBBad

Mon Mar 03, 2008 at 20:30:40 PM EST

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
Posted March 3, 2008 | 10:00 AM (EST)
Huffington Post

Why I'm Endorsing Barack Obama

I was privileged to be presidential candidate John Edwards' Senior Economic Policy Advisor, but today I am just as honored to endorse Senator Barack Obama. And I do so for precisely the same reasons I long and enthusiastically supported and helped John Edwards.

This expresses my sentiments, and the ease I felt endorsing(?) Obama when John Edwards exited the race. Johnny we miss ya, but I have a feeling we'll be seeing you around...

Senator Obama, You're No Paul Wellstone

by: newhampster

Wed Jan 02, 2008 at 16:45:22 PM EST

Chris Petersen, the president of the Iowa Farmers Union, just sent me the below message blasting Barack Obama for his attempts to paint himself as the most Paul Wellstone-like candidate in a conference call with ag supporters that has become very controversial in rural Iowa. ....

.....Would Paul Wellstone have become the Senate's single biggest Democratic advocate of expanded subsidies to the coal industry that's driving the climate crisis? Would Paul Wellstone have voted, as Obama did, to allow credit card companies to raise interest rates over 30 percent? Would Paul Wellstone have supported expanding Nafta to Peru, sending Iowa jobs overseas? Would Paul Wellstone have taken so much money from hedge fund donors? Would Paul Wellstone have left millions of Americans out of his health care plan?

Once more we find Obama trying to paint himself in broad strokes.  Broad strokes that pump up his dream but deliver no details.

Our other candidates do not pretend to be other than who they are because they actually have lengthy histories of accomplishment.  

Bill Richardson has been a model of the tough negotiator that will be used in graduate studies for years to come.  John Edwards is a hard fighting lawyer who has continually been on the side of the little guy.  Hillary Clinton is an incredibly organized and focused advocate for children, the elderly and woman.

As the farmer closes:

I knew Paul Wellstone. Paul Wellstone was a friend of mine. Some might be trying, but no one yet compares to Paul Wellstone's accomplished legacy in this election.

Full story: The Huffington Post