Obama Visit Coming to Jacksonville.

[RiversideGator]

Just wait and see and remember my prediction.  He is no run of the mill moderate Democrat.  He is a far left radical like this country has never seen.

[Driven1]

Just wait and see and remember my prediction.  He is no run of the mill moderate Democrat.  He is a far left radical like this country has never seen.

playing d advocate here for the "other" side RG...what would be a run of the mill moderate democrat?  i actually do agree with you that Obama is fairly far left-leaning (no Ted Kennedy though), but i'm curious if we who are the more noble ones could pick a moderate dem to run for the President - one that actually had a shot too - who would it be?

[RiversideGator]

If I could choose a Democrat, I would choose Lieberman (although he was too moderate for the Dems so basically they threw him out of the party) or maybe some moderate governor like Bayh.  Historically, I would choose Truman, Moynihan or Lawton Chiles.

The trouble with Obama (to use one issue as an example) is he is hostile to and totally ignorant of the free market.  The policies he advocates will stifle growth and kill jobs and business.  And, he would have a Democrat Congress if elected and thus nothing standing in the way of him being as leftist as he wants to be - think of an American version of Hugo Chavez.  Some Democrats are even already talking about nationalizing the oil industry!  He will raise all federal income taxes (including SS and medicare) to 50%, he will increase spending, he will increase regulations, he will increase capital gains taxes, he will nationalize the medical system, and he will increase environmental constraints on business.  It will be TERRIBLE for the economy.  Like a perfect storm of stupidity not seen in this country since the New Deal made the Great Depression worse and more prolonged.

[Driven1]

I could agree with Lieberman.  Don't know that much about Bayh...just seen him as a talking head on a few programs. 

[vicupstate]

If I could choose a Democrat, I would choose Lieberman (although he was too moderate for the Dems so basically they threw him out of the party) or maybe some moderate governor like Bayh.  Historically, I would choose Truman, Moynihan or Lawton Chiles.

The trouble with Obama (to use one issue as an example) is he is hostile to and totally ignorant of the free market.  The policies he advocates will stifle growth and kill jobs and business.  And, he would have a Democrat Congress if elected and thus nothing standing in the way of him being as leftist as he wants to be - think of an American version of Hugo Chavez.  Some Democrats are even already talking about nationalizing the oil industry!  He will raise all federal income taxes (including SS and medicare) to 50%, he will increase spending, he will increase regulations, he will increase capital gains taxes, he will nationalize the medical system, and he will increase environmental constraints on business.  It will be TERRIBLE for the economy.  Like a perfect storm of stupidity not seen in this country since the New Deal made the Great Depression worse and more prolonged.

Obama is a Left of center, middle of the pack Democrat.  There is nothing in his rhetoric or record that says he is off the Left deep end.  Taxes would primarily rise on those that have received the lion share of the cuts the last 8 years.  A return to the Clinton level of taxation, would no doubt happen.  The economy was fine then. The gloom and doom that the GOP predicted when Clinton raised taxes did not occur, in fact the opposite happened. 

Historically the last 40 years, budget deficits are lower under Democrats. If President "deficits don't matter" Cheney turns the keys over to his cousin Barack next year, there is no reason to believe that won't continue.

Your last sentence shows just how much your rigid ideology has warped your mind.  Hoover's policies took a very bad  downturn and turned it into a severe and devastating depression.  The New Deal is the only thing that kept things from getting even worse.   Another term under Hoover, and Communism would have looked good by comparison.  By ANY measure, the economy improved tremendously from 1933 when the New Deal started until the war effectively ended what then remained of the depression.   
       

[vicupstate]

Here's the bouce that some thought had eluded Obama.  Given the length and vigor (to put it nicely) of the Democratic race, it was no surprise it would take more than a week for it to show itself. 

Two STRONG caveats though.  1) This poll is probably an outlier, as it is the only one to show this kind of gap (yet, any way).  Time will tell on that. 2) the GE campaign is only beginning, there will be plenty of see-saw before it's over.

Barack’s Bounce
The latest NEWSWEEK Poll shows the Democrat with a 15-point lead over McCain.

Michael Hirsh
Newsweek Web Exclusive
Updated: 3:37 PM ET Jun 20, 2008
Barack finally has his bounce. For weeks many political experts and pollsters have been wondering why the race between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain had stayed so tight, even after the Illinois senator wrested the nomination from Hillary Clinton. With numbers consistently showing rock-bottom approval ratings for President Bush and a large majority of Americans unhappy with the country's direction, the opposing-party candidate should, in the normal course, have attracted more disaffected voters. Now it looks as if Obama is doing just that. A new NEWSWEEK Poll shows that he has a substantial double-digit lead, 51 percent to 36 percent, over McCain among registered voters nationwide.

In the previous NEWSWEEK Poll, completed in late May when Clinton was still fighting him hard for the Democratic nomination, Obama managed no better than a 46 percent tie with McCain. But as pollster Larry Hugick points out, that may have had a lot to do with all the mutual mudslinging going on between the two Democrats. By contrast, in recent weeks Clinton has not only endorsed Obama but has made plans to campaign with him. "They were in a pitched battle, and that's going to impact things. Now that we've gotten away from that period, this is the kind of bounce they've been talking about," said Hugick.

The latest numbers on voter dissatisfaction suggest that Obama may enjoy more than one bounce. The new poll finds that only 14 percent of Americans say they are satisfied with the direction of the country. That matches the previous low point on this measure recorded in June 1992, when a brief recession contributed to Bill Clinton's victory over Bush's father, incumbent George H.W. Bush. Overall, voters see Obama as the preferred agent of "change" by a margin of 51 percent to 27 percent. Younger voters, in particular, are more likely to see Obama that way: those 18 to 39 favor the Illinois senator by 66 percent to 27 percent. The two candidates are statistically tied among older voters.

Obama's current lead also reflects the large party-identification advantage the Democrats now enjoyâ€"55 percent of all voters call themselves Democrats or say they lean toward the party while just 36 percent call themselves Republicans or lean that way. Even as McCain seeks to gain voters by distancing himself from the unpopular Bush and emphasizing his maverick image, he is suffering from the GOP's poor reputation among many voters. Still, history provides hope for the GOP. Hugick points out that in May 1988 when the primaries ended, Democrat Michael Dukakis enjoyed a 54 percent to 38 percent lead over George H.W. Bush. But Bush wound up winning handily. "Those results should give people pause," Hugick says, saying that a substantial number of voters, about 5 percent, have also moved into the undecided column. A significant improvement in the economy, or continued advances in Iraqâ€"an issue McCain has identified with strongly as the senator who championed the "surge" firstâ€"could alter the Republican's fortunes.

For now, however, Obama is running much stronger at this point in the race than his two most recent Democratic predecessors, Sen. John Kerry and Vice President Al Gore, who both failed in their bids to win the White House. In a July 2004 NEWSWEEK Poll, Kerry led Bush by only 6 points (51 percent to 45 percent). In June 2000, Gore was in a dead heat with Bush (45 percent to 45 percent)â€"which is essentially where he ended up when that razor-thin election was finally decided.

Most other national polls have shown Obama with a 4 to 5 point lead over McCain so far. Random statistical error can explain some of the difference in poll results. The NEWSWEEK survey of 1,010 adults nationwide on June 18 and 19, 2008, has a margin of error of 4 points. But the latest evidence of his gaining ground goes well beyond that margin.

Obama seems to have built his margin in part by picking up a key slice of Clinton's support, including women. Women voters in the new poll prefer him over McCain by 21 points (54 percent versus 33 percent). Defections to McCain by Hillary Clinton supporters are also down significantly since she dropped out of the race and endorsed the Obama. In the new poll, registered Democrats and Democratic leaners who supported Clinton during the primaries now favor Obama over McCain by 69 percent to 18 percent. In last month's survey, Clinton supporters backed the Illinois senator by a significantly smaller margin, 53 percent to 34 percent. Registered independents have also moved toward Obama, backing him by a 48 percent to 36 percent margin after splitting about evenly in last month's poll.

Obama's personal ratings have improved, as well: 62 percent of voters overall say they have a favorable opinion of him compared to only 26 percent who have an unfavorable opinion. By comparison, McCain's ratings are 49 percent favorable to 37 percent unfavorable, representing a drop from his previous 54 percent favorable rating. In the previous poll, coming at a time when Clinton's attacks on him were still fresh in Democrats' minds, Obama's favorability ratings were just 55 percent favorable versus 40 percent unfavorable. In the new survey, Clinton supporters' view of Obama have turned solidly positive (70 percent favorable versus 18 percent unfavorable).

Obama is trusted more to handle what may prove the biggest issue of the 2008 election--the economy and jobsâ€"by a wide margin (54 percent to 29 percent). He also has a sizable advantage on energy policy, 48 percent to 34 percent, despite McCain's attempts this week to turn voters his way by supporting some new oil drilling and renewing his call for a gas-tax holiday. Voters do not lean as strongly to Obama on the issue of the Iraq War, but he is still preferred over McCain by 46 percent to 40 percent.

URL: http://www.newsweek.com/id/142465

[vicupstate]

Obama bought in $1mm tonight in Jacksonville. 

Very respectable.

[RiversideGator]

Obama a moderate?  Nope:

June 20, 2008
Obama: A False Moderate?
By Michael Gerson

WASHINGTON -- It was not quite a Roger Mudd moment, but it was close. Mudd, you might recall, posed a simple question to Ted Kennedy in 1979: "Why do you want to be president?" Kennedy's vague, unprepared answer raised serious questions about his candidacy.

Recently, Jake Tapper of ABC News asked a similarly blunt question of Barack Obama: "Have you ever worked across the aisle in such a way that entailed a political risk for yourself?" Obama's response is worth quoting in full: "Well, look, when I was doing ethics reform legislation, for example, that wasn't popular with Democrats or Republicans. So any time that you actually try to get something done in Washington, it entails some political risks. But I think the basic principle which you pointed out is that I have consistently said, when it comes to solving problems, like nuclear proliferation or reducing the influence of lobbyists in Washington, that I don't approach this from a partisan or ideological perspective."

For a candidate running as a centrist reformer, this is pretty weak tea. Ethics reform and nuclear proliferation are important issues but they have hardly put Obama in the liberal doghouse. When I recently asked two U.S. senators who are personally favorable to Obama to name a legislative issue where Obama has vocally bucked his own party, neither could cite a single instance.

The contrast to John McCain is stark. Contrary to some depictions, McCain is not a moderate. He is a conservative with a habit of massive, eye-stretching heresy. He has supported gun control legislation, the expansion of the AmeriCorps service program, and campaign finance and comprehensive immigration reform -- leaving many conservatives in fits of sputtering, red-faced outrage. He joined the moderate Gang of 14 on judicial nominations and supports mandatory caps on greenhouse gas emissions.

McCain has the scars to show for it. Sen. Mitch McConnell dismissed McCain's campaign finance legislation as "stunningly stupid." Another Republican senator, quoted on background in 2001, vented: "Every time McCain accuses President Bush's budget of favoring the rich or sides with Sen. Ted Kennedy on his patients' bill of rights or Sen. Joe Lieberman on more gun control or all those other Democrats on restricting the First Amendment on campaign finance reform, it's news only because he's a Republican. It's 'man bites dog,' and it hurts us far more than if he were attacking our philosophy and agenda as an independent or a Democrat."

This is not to argue that defying your party is uniformly admirable. Sometimes McCain's courage gets mixed up with his pride -- and maybe, in the end, they are indistinguishable. But the same could be said of Winston Churchill, who changed parties more than once. We tend to admire this kind of disruptive independence.

Obama's four years in the Senate have provided fewer opportunities for heresy than McCain's 22. Yet Obama draws scrutiny to this subject by making his transcendence of political categories one of his main campaign themes. He has shown occasional hints of independence on education -- supporting charter schools and merit pay for teachers. But for the most part, Obama's post-partisanship is more a matter of tone. He speaks movingly about the positive role of religion in our common life. He urges fathers to meet their moral and economic responsibilities to their children. He rejects the demonization of pro-lifers (though he refuses to oppose partial-birth abortion). He defends the good intentions of Democratic senators who voted for Chief Justice John Roberts (though he was one of only 22 senators who voted against Roberts).

These are welcome gestures, but they are not policies. Perhaps Obama is just conventionally liberal. Perhaps he has carefully avoided offending Democratic constituencies. Whatever the reason, his lack of a strong, centrist ideological identity raises a concern about his governing approach. Obama has no moderate policy agenda that might tame or modify the extremes of his own party in power. Will every Cabinet department simply be handed over to the most extreme Democratic interest groups? Will Obama provide any centrist check on congressional liberal overreach?

It is an odd thing when a presidential candidate bases his campaign on a manifest weakness. Rudy Giuliani ran on a platform of foreign policy experience while lacking it completely. Obama promises post-partisanship while doing little to demonstrate it in the Senate. And the independent voters so eagerly courted in this election may eventually ask about Obama the odd but appropriate question: What dogs has this man bitten?

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/06/obama_doesnt_bite_dog.html

[thelakelander]

Obama blasts offshore oil push

From the Northbank, he says lifting embargo 'wouldn't do a thing' for gas prices



By Charlie Patton, The Times-Union

Barack Obama came to Jacksonville for the first time this year Friday and accomplished two purposes:


He blasted John McCain's call for lifting the embargo on offshore drilling at a news conference held on the Northbank Riverwalk, then attended what local Democratic officials said was probably the most successful one-day fundraiser for a Democratic presidential candidate ever in Jacksonville .

In his first visit to Florida since McCain, who will be his Republican opponent in Nov-ember's presidential election, called for lifting the ban on off-shore drilling, Obama said doing that "would have long-term consequences for our coastline, and no short-term benefits."

Citing a 2007 report from the Department of Energy, he said drilling "wouldn't do a thing to lower gas prices."

"The politics may have changed, but the facts have not," he said.

Following the late afternoon news conference, Obama went to a fundraiser at the Prime Osborn Convention Center that left Jacksonville Democrats, disorganized and discouraged by their lack of electoral success in recent years, thrilled.

Party officials estimated that almost 400 people attended and that by the end of the day Obama had raised more than $1 million here.

Obama spoke for 31 minutes, then waded into the crowd to shake hands for several more minutes.

Obama told the crowd he is confident that he will win on the issues. As a result, he said, the Republican strategy will be "to make you afraid of me."


He ticked off charges that will be made against him: too young, too inexperienced, "he's got a funny name."

Then he paused: "Did I mention he's black."

He waited for the laughter to die down, then added, to perhaps the biggest cheer of the night, "He's got a feisty wife."

As if to prove Obama's prediction, a heckler outside the convention center shouted at two women leaving the fund-raiser that they'd "burn in hell" for supporting Obama. He said that Obama is a Muslim who will "take away all our weapons."

One of the women, 20-year-old Mary Cumpton, said she supports Obama partly because he "represents change from the terrible policies of the Bush administration."

But Cumpton, who said she grew up in a very conservative family, said Obama also represents personal change to her, "defining my own values and beliefs."

"It's a huge election," said her friend, 20-year-old Kasi Walters. "It's history, and we want to be a part of it."

As for the heckler? "He's another reason I'm voting for Obama," Cumpton said.

Other Obama supporters were equally upbeat after the event.

Mark Hodges, a 15-year-old student at Stanton College Preparatory School, who came with his father, was one of those who shook Obama's hand. He called Obama's speech "all I had hoped for and more" and said he is looking forward to 2012, when he can vote to re-elect Obama.

Joe Louis Barrow Jr. called Obama a man whose appeal crosses racial and economic lines. Barrow, who is executive director of The First Tee and the biographer of his father, the great heavyweight champion Joe Louis, said Obama "transcends all segments of our society."

Matthew Kane, 28, owner of a Jacksonville software company and local co-chair of Generation Obama, an organization of young professionals, called Obama the "most inspiring candidate since John F. Kennedy."

Obama's afternoon news conference, which was not announced in advance, was held on the Riverwalk behind the Yates YMCA.

That drew the attention of about 40 people working out, who walked outside to watch it.

As Obama started to walk away, several shouted out in support, mostly "we love you!" He turned around, walked back and shook hands.

One of those who shook his hand was Richard Faulkner, 62. Faulkner said he is a Republican but is still undecided about whom he will support. But he said Obama "has some good ideas."

During the news conference, Obama was asked whether he'll need to do a lot of catching up after not campaigning in Florida during the January primary.

"I've got a lot of work to do everywhere," he said. "This is going to be a tough general election."

http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/062108/met_293344521.shtml

[Lunican]

http://www.youtube.com/v/v8fkbEuCQss

[RiversideGator]

Obama emerging from the St Johns River:

[RiversideGator]

Obama: 

too young, too inexperienced

wrong on every issue.

[thelakelander]

He walked over Biscayne Bay today.  Finally someone is starting to talk about the importance of investing in mass transit and cities.

Obama to Miami: We need City Hall, not McCain

I'll also launch a National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank that will invest $60 billion over ten years, and create nearly two million new jobs. The work will be determined by what will maximize our safety, security, and shared prosperity. Instead of building bridges to nowhere, let's build communities that meet the needs and reflect the dreams of our families. That's what this bank will help us do.


And we will fund this bank as we bring the war in Iraq to a responsible close. It's time to stop fighting a war that's stretching our Guard, straining our Reserves, and leaving your police and fire stations understaffed; a war that hasn't made us safer, and should have never been authorized and never been waged. It's time to stop spending $10 billion a month in Iraq and start investing that money in Phoenix, Nashville, Seattle, and metro areas across this country.


Let's invest that money in a world-class transit system. Let's re-commit federal dollars to strengthen mass transit and reform our tax code to give folks a reason to take the bus instead of driving to work - because investing in mass transit helps make metro areas more livable and can help our regional economies grow. And while we're at it, we'll partner with our mayors to invest in green energy technology and ensure that your buses and buildings are energy efficient. And we'll also invest in our ports, roads, and high-speed rails - because I don't want to see the fastest train in the world built halfway around the world in Shanghai, I want to see it built right here in the United States of America.

http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/blog/2008/06/obama_to_mayors_we_need_city_h.html

[thelakelander]

What's McCain's feelings/ideas for improving our cities?

[RiversideGator]

He feels that cities should pay for their own improvements which makes sense to me.  Why should someone in California fund our mass transit?  Why dont we fund our own?