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Barack Obama. Rock Star. Superdelegate Leader.

Posted by Ben on May 09, 2008 at 7:45 a.m. in Politics, News, Oregon
Obama picks up steam, and throughly transcends the old guard (while being simply awesome)

Writing at BlueOregon, Portland-area Rep. Earl Blumenauer recalls Barack Obama's recent visit to the House of Representatives. He stresses just how popular this guy is:

Nothing illustrated the momentum, the optimism, and the power of the Obama campaign more than the reaction Senator Obama received on the floor. It was not necessarily a victory lap, but certainly there was a sense that here was a campaign at the top of its game as the end of the nominating process was approaching. Here was the guy to change the game in D.C. Most were feeling comfortable, if not excited, about the prospect of Obama leading the Democratic ticket in the fall. People clogged the aisles to move towards him. He had a wave for one… a hug for another… listening attentively… and informal banter. It was a rock star reaction to a regular guy.

As much as I appreciate the work Hillary Clinton has done for this country, it's getting to be "thanks for the memories" time for the Clinton campaign. The numbers are what they are, and this thing is over.

I was an Edwards guy from the get-go, but when he dropped out I did some soul-searching and came to support Barack Obama. I see such enthusiasm for his candidacy and potential, from my close friends to my parents, and amongst wide swaths of the populous and even elected officials. If you want an excellent summary of just how game-changing the Obama candidacy has become, read Matt Stoller's excellent blog on how he consolidated the Democratic party and is expanding it beyond our wildest dreams.

Oh, and just for kicks: late last night Oregon Rep. Peter DeFazio endorsed Obama. Why?

"We must not allow Senator McCain to continue the failures of the Bush foreign policy, war in Iraq and disastrous economic policies," DeFazio added.

Exactly. With the coalition Obama is assembling, we're going to dump McCain hard. And with this endorsement propelling Obama into the superdelegate lead over Clinton, this primary is all but over.


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  • Michelle Obama’s Writings Display Disturbing Racism

    Americans must ask: ‘Do we really want this woman in the White House’?

    By Pat Shannan

    Just what kind of “change” is Barack Obama offering and just how much influence has his wife, Michelle had over him in their married life the past two decades? It appears that Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama does not look into a crowd of Obama supporters and see Americans. She sees black people and white people, eternally conflicted with one another.

    In her senior thesis at Princeton University, Michelle LaVaughn, the future wife of the Democratic presidential candidate, stated that America was a nation founded on “crime and hatred.” Moreover, she stated that whites in America were “ineradicably racist.”

    The 1985 thesis, entitled Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community, was written under her maiden name, Michelle LaVaughn. Michelle Obama writes that the path she chose by attending Princeton would likely lead to her “further integration and/or assimilation into a white cultural and social structure that will only allow me to remain on the periphery of society, never becoming a full participant.”

    Not only does she see separate black and white societies in America, but emphatically elevates black over white in her world. As first lady, would she insist the White House be painted black? That’s been a standard joke in this venue since the civil rights movement of the 1960s, but this next ominous quote from her thesis suggests that she would in fact urge her husband toward just such an extreme position.

    “There was no doubt in my mind that as a member of the black community, I am obligated to this community and will utilize all of my present and future resources to benefit the black community first and foremost.”

    She seems to justify those feelings with what she claims to see on the other side of the issue: “Predominantly white universities like Princeton are socially and academically designed to cater to the needs of the white students, comprising the bulk of their enrollments.”

    Michelle added in her thesis that to “whites at Princeton, it often seems as if, to them, [I] will always be black first.” However, it was reported by a fellow black classmate, “if those ‘whites at Princeton ‘ really saw Michelle as one who always would ‘be black first,’ it seems that she gave them that impression.”

    Michelle Obama’s poll of black alumni concludes that other black former students at Princeton do not share her obsession with blackness. But rather than celebrate, she is horrified that black alumni identify with our common American culture more than they value the color of their skins.

    “I hoped that these findings would help me conclude that despite the high degree of identification with whites as a result of the educational and occupational path that black Princeton alumni follow, the alumni would still maintain a certain level of identification with the black community. However, these findings do not support this possibility,” she wrote.

    Most black alumni ignored her racist questionnaire. Only 89 students responded, out of 400 who were asked for input.

    The thesis provides a trove of Mrs. Obama’s thoughts and world view seen through a race-based prism. For a potential first lady, this is a very divisive view that would do untold damage to race relations in this country in a Barack Hussein Obama administration.

    During this presidential election year in which the term “transparency” has been frequently bandied about, candidates have buried a number of potentially revealing documents and papers. In Hillary Rodham Clinton’s case, there’s been a clamoring for tax records, White House memos and other material the candidate’s team has chosen to keep from release.

    The 96-page, 1985 Princeton thesis, restricted from release by the school’s Mudd Library, has also been the subject of recent scrutiny. Commentator Jonah Goldberg remarked on National Review Online, “A reader in the know informs me that Michelle Obama’s thesis is unavailable until Nov. 5, 2008, at the Princeton library. I wonder why.”

    “Why a restricted thesis?” asked Pastor Louis Lapides on his website, Thinking Outside the Blog. “Is the concern based on what’s in the thesis? Will Michelle Obama appear to be too black for white America or not black enough for black America?”

    Will an Obama administration really offer constructive “change” or just an intellectually refined racism?

    Posted by: Carl McQueen on May 11, 2008 at 12:42 p.m.
    • You know I'm probably the only one who read this.

      Posted by Ben on May 12, 2008 at 9:38 p.m.

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