posted on June 15, 2008 06:50:26 AM new
Roadsmith - I can't really put my finger on it. I'm the type that either you like someone or you don't.
Once I get to see more of her while the campaign heats up, I'm sure I'll change my mind. Unfortunately, I've been working three jobs to make ends meet so I haven't had much time for anything other than work. Watching media coverage on Obama's wife certainly hasn't been my priority. Since my mom died, I haven't been able to get back to normal.
posted on June 15, 2008 07:24:05 AM new
I didn't mean to imply anything Cheryl. My impression is that the woman is not well known, and much of what is hitting the news about her is negative. If somebody happened to hear that stuff and believe it, it wouldn't necessarily make them a bigot in my opinion. If I thought she actually said such a thing, I wouldn't like her either.
posted on June 15, 2008 08:01:11 AM new
The only thing "hitting the news" about her comes from her own mouth. They should keep a mike on her 24hrs a day.
If you examine the facts, you will have no reason to dislike Obama's wife. The smears proliferate until there is no media source without at least a mention of what is only rumor or insinuation or outright lies. It's a propaganda technique that is successful because it is bound to affect anyone who is not well informed.
Sen. Barack Obama's campaign has taken the unprecedented step of launching its own Website to knock down false rumors about the candidate and his wife.[/b]
The site, Fight the Smears, lists every one of the Internet-driven whoppers that have surfaced during Obama's campaign, including the supposedly sensational secret videotape -- likely to surface at any moment! -- that has been alleged to show Michelle Obama using the term "whitey" from the pulpit of Trinity United Church of Christ.
The site provides an e-mail form for supporters to "tell your friends the truth" about whatever scurrilous assertion has hit their inbox. "Rush Limbaugh and his fellow right-wing attack-dogs have been spreading baseless rumors about a non-existent video tape showing Michelle Obama using a racial epithet," reads the e-mail related to the "whitey" rumor. "The truth is that no such tape exists, and this entire smear campaign is fabricated."
The site presents "the truth" about Obama's religion (he's Christian, not Muslim) and the elementary school he attended in Indonesia (ordinary and secular, as opposed to a "radical madrassa". It provides video of Obama leading the Pledge of Allegiance on the Senate floor and a photo of Vice President Cheney swearing in Obama with the new senator's left hand on his family Bible (instead of the Koran).
"The Obama campaign isn't going to let dishonest smears spread across the Internet unanswered," Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor said in a statement. "Whenever challenged with these lies we will aggressively push back with the truth and help our supporters debunk the false rumors floating around the internet. This website is an action center that allows supporters to upload their address books and send emails to all of their friends. It's not enough to just know the truth, we have to be proactive and fight back."
posted on June 16, 2008 04:13:17 AM new
As long as we are bringing up the spouse, in case any of us are unaware of the "family values" of a candidate or their spouse, a brief look at McCain's divorce and his subsequent fortuitous marriage into money one month later, may be worth a look. http://www.usvetdsp.com/mcaindiv.htm
posted on June 16, 2008 06:08:10 AM new When asked for quotes and sources Squirrel says, "I wasn't proud of America until..." enough for me and a lot of others. She's probably been told to keep her mouth shut, but she'll slip again.
By latching onto this remark by Michelle Obama the slander slingers go to work again and that is just another indication that they have nothing substantial to protest or attack. All they can do is critique and pick apart, distort, insinuate or lie about the words of a presidential candidate's wife.
Like Michelle, I have also experienced a renewed pride in our country. Pride, waxes and wanes just like love. Any fool should know that.
You should be able to substantiate your pride and Michelle did that. If you are proud of this country during the Bush administration, what is the basis of that pride? When we have lost respect throughout the world, when foreign policy and domestic policy and the economy is shot to hell do you stomp your little feet and say, "I'm proud of that?"
posted on June 16, 2008 08:16:56 AM new
Here is part of today's op-ed column by one of my favorites, Stanley Crouch:
"Republican commentators repeatedly squeezed their spray bottles of sanctimonious tone until their throats were wet and ready, then they summoned up pretenses of shock, disgust and outrage at Michelle Obama's having said in Milwaukee that she had never in her adult life felt proud of her country until the day that her husband won a major victory. The snippet was repeated endlessly, but that is not exactly what she said. This is what she actually said:
"What we've learned over this year is that hope is making a comeback. It is making a comeback and, let me tell you something. For the first time in my adult lifetime I'm proud of my country, and not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change. I have been desperate to see our country moving in that direction and just not feeling so alone in my frustration and disappointment. I've seen people who are hungry to be unified around some basic, common issues and it's made me proud.
"And I feel privileged to be a part of even witnessing this, traveling around states all over this country and being reminded that there is more that unites us than divides us, that the struggles of a farmer in Iowa are no different than what's happening on the South Side of Chicago; that people are feeling the same pain and wanting the same things for their families."
Quoting the context in full is quite important. I say that because part of what makes this country's right-wing commentators so pernicious is their willingness to bend journalism into what is tantamount to bogus credit cards boasting no fees. The distance from the truth is of no concern to the right-wingers. What they engage in is strange because their tactics are now so easily and so quickly disproved. The Internet has seen to that.
Yet these pundits continue to assume that the public is so busy or in such a hurry or so ready to believe the worst that these commentators feel at liberty to compose myths transformed into mud by cutting words from statements, offering not even good samples of a whole speech. This propaganda version of reality is supposed to dupe the public. It exists for no other reason.
These tricks are what Michelle Obama disdained when she and her husband came out in those first months after he threw his hat into the ring. She said the two of them had decided that they were not going to do business as usual by trying to destroy the other person, tear that person apart, do whatever was necessary to win. "We are not in this to win," she said, "not if it means doing that. You can't be about change if you are going to play by the rules that you don't believe in." She was calling for a common inspiration that was not built on divisiveness, which many pundits seemed to think was naive.
They are wrong. The world has shifted, and the old paranoid tactics no longer hold. No one could have predicted the Internet; not even those who invented the Internet could have imagined YouTube, the majority of which is bunk, adolescent preoccupations, frat boy droolings, conspiracy theories and so on.
The big truth, however, is that material refuting right-wing faux journalists stays on the public record and can prove them the liars and distorters that they are. One can hear what someone actually said, free of the specious editing used to distort. The context is forever available.
Television is still deserving of the title "idiot box," but YouTube is an idiot resource that also offers incendiary truth in such detail that buttery lies are melted right before your eyes."
It is so easy to check out the full statement, not the sound bite. Perpetuating lies through out-of-context statements will, hopefully, become an ineffective campaign strategy. Swift-boating should be relegated to the garbage pile, where it belongs.
posted on June 16, 2008 08:35:29 AM new
Sorry, but the 3 sentences before and after the statement do not "put it in context". It's a simple enough statement.
I hope she really goes out on the stump so she can put more stuff "in context"!
posted on June 16, 2008 08:43:51 AM new
Sadly, I'm hearing from many, many people who are sitting this election out. Some of those people work at the county level. I've heard reasons ranging from Obama's name, the flag pin, the hand over the heart, and, yes, his race. No matter how much I try to explain that they are taking things out of context, it's not working and I don't have the energy to do more. I went so far as to getting into a screaming match with Ken who believes everything the media says. He was borderline republican anyway. I'm afraid he's gone to the other side. Should make living around here interesting. I spoke with my father in Florida. He is absolutely not going to vote for Obama. He's a democrat and won't be voting at all. He wanted Edwards. He also said many, many seniors he knows in Florida will not be voting either. How sad is that?
At this point, I'd say this election will be like a toss of a coin. I've made up my mind to vote for Obama only over the last few days. Hopefully, the people that are saying they won't vote will change their minds.
Back on topic, there is also talk about Obama and Governor Strickland. I don't want that because I like having Strickland as governor. Ohio finally has a decent governor and I'd hate to lose him.
Here's an interesting article. Some parts of it really bothers me. You should never vote based on race. However, race will be an issue on both sides - black and white.
posted on June 16, 2008 08:46:09 AM new
Helen - no I am not supporting any kind of Republican "dream-team". I just thought it was odd that Lieberman and McCain were together when McCain commented on the passing of Tim Russert. I guess they must just like each other.
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posted on June 16, 2008 08:52:24 AM new
Squirrel: It happens every day. We love our children, spouses, parents--but sometimes they do things of which we are not proud. We wish they had behaved differently. Does that mean we stopped loving them? Of course not. These past 8 years, the USA (government, not our wonderful men and women in uniform) has not done much for which we can be proud, but we do not stop loving America.
Your tunnel vision only allows you to zoom in on that one sentence, not the meaning of the rest of her words.
posted on June 16, 2008 09:04:59 AM new
Hi Cheryl, It is amazing what people will base their vote on. Not wearing a flag pin? Bitterness because their favorite candidate did not win the nomination? Having a name that is not John or Jane Smith? Ridiculous! For the life of me, I cannot understand why Democrats, or for that matter the 70% of Americans who are unhappy with the course this country is on, will either not vote or vote for the Republican candidate who is bent on continuing this course.
"Helen - no I am not supporting any kind of Republican "dream-team". I just thought it was odd that Lieberman and McCain were together when McCain commented on the passing of Tim Russert. I guess they must just like each other."
Neglus, based on your comments here I knew that you were just pointing out what a stange team that would be. It might be a "dream team" for the Democrats (so easy to defeat) or a "nightmare" for the country if that team should win the election.
posted on June 16, 2008 09:59:26 AM newCrucial Cookie Contest
White House recipe for success
Sun Jun 15, 4:02 AM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The heat is on, and the stakes are high, with the potential first ladies' bake-off underway and organizer Family Circle magazine looking to see which way the cookie is going to crumble.
In the past four presidential elections, readers of the magazine have successfully predicted who would be America's next first lady by favoring her recipe in the magazine's competition.
Something with chocolate has melted the hearts of readers in the last four elections. So both Michelle Obama and Cindy McCain might be taking a risk by eschewing everyone's favorite treat.
Instead, Michelle Obama, wife of Democratic Illinois Senator Barack Obama, has put forward a recipe for shortbread cookies with zest of lemon and orange, and a cheeky kick of almond liqueur Amaretto.
The recipe comes courtesy of Mama Kaye, the godmother of both her daughters, Sasha and Malia.
Cindy McCain, who earlier this year had to apologize for plagiarizing a recipe for passion fruit mousse from Food Network, went for oatmeal butterscotch cookies.
They are "an absolute must whenever the whole family gets together," says the multi-millionaire heiress to a large beer distribution firm, married to Republican presidential hopeful John McCain.
Readers can vote online at the magazine's website with the results to be published in mid-October, just ahead of the November 4 elections.
At the end of the week, Cindy McCain's recipe seemed to be slicing through the competition, with one online reader complaining that he had had to go out specially to buy Amaretto so his wife could bake Michelle Obama's treats.
If history is anything to go by, Obama might be in for a rough ride. In 2004, Teresa Heinz Kerry's pumpkin spice cookies failed to beat off the competition from Laura Bush's oatmeal chocolate chunk cookies.
Four years earlier the first lady had already set the bar high with her Texas Governor's Mansion Cowboy cookies made with chocolate chips and coconut, which proved more popular than Tipper Gore's ginger snaps.
Hillary Clinton won in 1992 and in 1996 with the same recipe for chocolate chip cookies, whipping the competition from Barbara Bush and then Elizabeth Dole.
This year former president Bill Clinton got a chance to show off his culinary talents, choosing a recipe for oatmeal cookies from long time Clinton cook, Oscar Flores.
posted on June 16, 2008 02:06:37 PM new
Helen, I think a McCain/Lieberman ticket would be a nightmare for democrats and a dream team for republicans. I predict it will be a very close election with the now undecided middle of the roaders determining who will be the next president. McCain choosing a cross-over VP makes perfect sense to me.
posted on June 16, 2008 02:36:17 PM new
Nothing would surprise me at this point, Pixiamom. Neither your mention of that possibility surprises me or the fact that you think it makes "perfect sense".
. It provides video of Obama leading the Pledge of Allegiance on the Senate floor and a photo of Vice President Cheney swearing in Obama with the new senator's left hand on his family Bible (instead of the Koran).
