BARACK BITCHEZ

Is there any reason to believe there is a better alternative

smart, thoughtful/analytic, good at forging consensus, at least decent judgment, better able than many to call citizens to a civic republican ideal and/or provide a sense of meaning/identity

it's easy to argue that many others would make better presidents, and perhaps the landscape has shifted sufficiently that we may want to reduce electability concerns, but i'm not sure it's correct.

(xp - see, gabbneb is willing to try)

jor-el in 08

huh??

Low rating from conservatives
If youfre a conservative, therefs no surprise here: Obama isnft one of you, except on his support for more disclosure of earmarks - targeted federal spending for local projects.

The American Conservative Union, a right-of-center group that issues a report card on the voting records of members of Congress, gives Obama an 8 out of 100 lifetime rating.

If youfre eco-friendly and want to see certain places kept off limits to oil and gas exploration, Obama is one of you.

Last March he voted against a bill that would have paved the way to oil and gas exploration in part of Alaskafs Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Last July he voted to filibuster a bill that would have opened eight million acres in the Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas drilling.

The confirmation vote on Chief Justice John Roberts provides a good case study in how Obama places himself on the political spectrum: he aligned himself with West Coast and Northeastern liberals in his party such as Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein of California and Sens. Charles Schumer and Hillary Clinton of New York, all of whom noted against Roberts.

Obama was at odds with western and southern Democrats, most of whom who voted for Roberts: Sens. Max Baucus of Montana, Ken Salazar of Colorado, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and others.

Praise for John Roberts
In explaining why he voted against Roberts, Obama told the Senate that he was gsorely temptedh to vote for him. Why?

* gThere is absolutely no doubt in my mind Judge Roberts is qualified to sit on the highest court in the land,h Obama said.
* gHe seems to have the comportment and the temperament that makes for a good judge. He is humble, he is personally decent, and he appears to be respectful of different points of view.h
* gHe does, in fact, deeply respect the basic precepts that go into deciding 95 percent of the cases that come before the Federal court: adherence to precedence, a certain modesty in reading statutes and constitutional text, a respect for procedural regularity, and an impartiality in presiding over the adversarial system.h

So whatfs not to like?
Obama said he was skeptical of Robertsfs gdeepest values,h his gbroader perspectives on how the world worksh and his gempathy.h

According to Obama, the chief justice nominee told him that ghe doesn't like bullies and has always viewed the law as a way of evening out the playing field between the strong and the weak.h

But Obama didnft believe it.

gHe has far more often used his formidable skills on behalf of the strong in opposition to the weak,h Obama said.Roberts 'dismissive' on race and women's rights
Obamafs assessment: ghe seemed to have consistently sided with those who were dismissive of efforts to eradicate the remnants of racial discriminationh and gseemed dismissive of the concerns that it is harder to make it in this world and in this economy when you are a woman rather than a man.h

Although Obama did not specify what evidence he had for these judgments, he was probably referring to cases such as one in 1990, when as a Justice Department official, Roberts opposed use of racial preferences by the Federal Communications Commission in awarding broadcast licenses, and in 1982, as a Reagan administration lawyer, when he opposed lowering the standard in voting rights cases from needing to prove a racially discriminatory intent to only needing to show a discriminatory effect.

Perhaps because he is the child of a biracial marriage, Obama seems especially concerned about government treatment of racial minorities.
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As a member of the Illinois state senate in 1999, he sponsored a bill to require police to compile statistics on the racial identity of all motorists they stop, a response to allegations that police stopped black drivers more frequently than white drivers.

In 2001 he voted against a bill in the Illinois legislature that would have allowed the death penalty to be imposed if a gang member committed murder "in furtherance of the activities of a gang.h

Obama said it would treat black and Latino people unfairly, and that lawmakers were over-reacting to one incident in which gang members murdered a man in Chicago.

gIt's problematic for us to continually pass criminal laws based on anecdote. When we have a single situation when a prosecutor doesn't get what he wants, we come down here and pass a law, which is why we have a criminal code rife with contradictions," the Associated Press quoted Obama as saying.

Self government for Hawaiians
In 2005, Obama, who was born in Hawaii, supported a bill, the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act which would have allowed Native Hawaiians to set up their own governmental body to open government-to-government negotiations with the United States.

The bill limited eligibility to take part in this new government to the direct lineal descendants of gthe aboriginal, indigenous, native peopleh who lived in Hawaiian Islands prior to 1893.

Explaining why he backed the bill, Obama said, gYoung Native Hawaiians have had difficulties in terms of unemployment, in terms of being able to integrate into the economy of the islandsc Some of the historical legacies of what has happened in Hawaii continue to burden the Native Hawaiians for many years into the future.h

The new governing body would gmake sure that the Native Hawaiiansc are full members and not left behind as Hawaii continues to progress.h

But critics of the bill, such as Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said it gwould create a race-based and racially separate government for Native Hawaiians.h

In the end the supporters of the bill could not overcome the 60-vote filibuster threshold.

Out of Iraq, but with some conditions
On the premier issue of the day, the war in Iraq, Obama has called for a gradual withdrawal of American troops.

But in a speech last November he left openings for a long-term U.S. military presence in Iraq.

He specified a number of conditions under which the withdrawal could halted or delayed, for example gif the parties in Iraq reach an effective political arrangement that stabilizes the situation and they offer us a clear and compelling rationale for maintaining certain troop levelsh and gif at any point U.S. commanders believe that a further reduction would put American troops in danger.h

And he made it clear that, for him, leaving Iraq did not mean leaving northern Iraq, the Kurdish region.

gDrawing down our troops in Iraq will allow us to redeploy additional troops to Northern Iraq and elsewhere in the in the region as an over-the-horizon force,h he said.

He said it was important to gconsolidate gains in Northern Iraq, reassure allies in the Gulf, allow our troops to strike directly at al-Qaida wherever it may exist, and demonstrate to international terrorist organizations that they have not driven us from the region.h

Last week Obama said he was trying to figure out some way to pay for some operations in Iraq, but not pay for the additional 21,500 troops that President Bush has ordered to go there.

Obama said he wanted to avoid ga game of chickenh with the president.

The gbig dilemma,h he said, is gtrying to figure out what mechanism we can use to stop what Ifm convinced is the wrong policy, without shortchanging the young men and women whofve already been deployed.h

This carefully modulated position seems right in character for a politician who has already gotten very far in his ten-year career as an elected official.

"Sen. Obama is the kind of unique transformational candidate who surfaces once in a generation... an Obama presidency would ignite a feeling of national purpose and renewal that our country has not witnessed in my lifetime.

Obama’s victory would crystallize this country’s movement beyond race and ethnicity as political impediments. That promise is too powerful for me to equivocate, maneuver or sit on the sidelines.”

is there any reason to believe that he will be a good president?
-- cousin larry bundgee (bundgee), Tuesday, 16 January 2007

^^^^ clinton operative

so very assassinatable

-- PRKLTR (flezaffe), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 22:06

haha

CAPS

"perhaps the landscape has shifted sufficiently that we may want to reduce electability concerns" - ye gods

ILE Primaries thread is now 80%+ Kool-Aid drinkin' Obamania fantasists

Who on the primaries thread do you want to hate fuck the most

nearly anyone but DMX? (who has some of the more astute comments on it)

and I only fuck with loooooooooooooooove

lol, Morbs ain't drinkin the Obama Kool-aid cos he knows a motherfucker can't be named Barack

What the fuck?! That ain’t no fuckin’ name, yo. That ain’t that nigga’s name. You can’t be serious. Barack Obama. Get the fuck outta here.

-- Dr Morbius, Wednesday, March 19, 2008 4:36 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

^ a++

ah, stealing 'twat's fakey act, shame

C- for the last 3 posts

http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2008/05/06/PH2008050602567.jpg

http://texansforobama.typepad.com/blog/images/obama_wearing_ray_skidmores_stetson_y603_2.jpg

http://blog.nola.com/times-picayune/2007/08/large_obama.JPG

http://files.blog-city.com/files/aa/2370/p/f/obama_wife_celebrity.jpg

up the arse

its gonna be awesome when hes president

― jhoshea (scoopsnoodle), Tuesday, January 16, 2007 1:32 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Prescient thread. </BRAGGIN'>

we have jhoshea calling it on the first pres speculation thread in 2006

do ppl outside chicago get extra credit? +omar little but he only lives in LA he's really chicago at heart

http://texansforobama.typepad.com/blog/images/obama_wearing_ray_skidmores_stetson_y603_2.jpg

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its gonna be awesome when hes president

― jhoshea (scoopsnoodle), Tuesday, January 16, 2007 6:32 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark

attention: we have now achieved awesome

http://www.bradblog.com/Images/siren.gif

is this a safe place to admit that until that last week i still didn't think (poll #s be damned) that it was going to happen

so awesome that it did

shit i called this back in nov '04, need i remind everyone

no?

ok good

i like cousin larry bundgee, he's a smart and inquisitive young man

cousin larry bundgee for FWS director

What the fuck?! That ain’t no fuckin’ name, yo. That ain’t that nigga’s name. You can’t be serious. Barack Obama. Get the fuck outta here.

-- Dr Morbius, Wednesday, March 19, 2008 4:36 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

even for morbius this was a little much.

http://www.objects-of-design.com/UploadImages/ProductImages/LargeImages/Letter-N-260.jpghttp://www.maliciouslyhot.net/images/heavy%20artilary/n_bomb.jpg

http://www.hitzonly.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/dmx.jpg

its gonna be awesome when hes president

is there any reason to believe that he will be a good president?

http://i30.tinypic.com/wrjmeg.png

damn reverend, have you even been paying attention since the inauguration?

is there any reason to believe that "The Reverend" is not a douchebag?

What the fuck?! That ain’t no fuckin’ name, yo. That ain’t that nigga’s name. You can’t be serious. Barack Obama. Get the fuck outta here.

-- Dr Morbius, Wednesday, March 19, 2008 4:36 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

even for morbius this was a little much.

― s1ocki, Tuesday, November 11, 2008 5:03 AM (2 months ago)

That wasn't me. I have a #1 suspect in mind.

oh, we established who it was.

Reverend asked good Q