Current Events One

Commentary by Tony Sarrecchia

Old. That’s how participants in an AP-Yahoo news poll see John McCain.

When people were asked to describe John McCain in one word, the most common was ‘old’. The second response was ‘military service’ (9%) and the third was ‘record, qualification’ (8%).

Things weren’t quite so rosy for Barack Obama. The first word used to describe him was the non-judgmental ‘change’. His second place response was ‘lack of experience’ (13%). And third? ‘Dishonest’ (9%).

According this article: http://news.yahoo.com/page/election-2008-political-pulse-candidate-images “Obama is seen as warm and empathetic and McCain as stronger and tougher”. We get to choose between the somewhat effeminate, shady but hip uncle, or the no nonsense, grizzled grandfather. Thanks, major parties, that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

The interesting part of this poll however wasn’t mentioned in many of the reports.

In a survey where the majority of the participants were Democrats (48% versus 36% Republicans) one would expect a large, if not overwhelming, number would vote for Obama if the election were held today. The actual numbers tell a different tale. Of those polled, 40% would pick Obama and 39% would vote for McCain (the rest were spread out over ‘Ralph Nader’, ‘Someone Else’ and ‘Don’t Know’.) A one percent lead for a democrat in a poll where voting democrats lead by 20% cannot be encouraging for the Obama camp. For McCain to rank so close behind Obama indicates that there is growing support among centrist (read that as ‘clear thinking’) democrats for the Old Guy.

As much as people are looking for change from the mediocrity currently in the White House, we should keep in mind that Obama has less than 48 months experience as a actual senator. Fewer months if you count the time campaigning for president, and writing books. Obama himself, on this CNN report, said “I am a believer in knowing what you’re doing when you apply for a job. And I think that if I were to seriously consider running on a national ticket I would essentially have to start now, before having served a day in the Senate. Now, there are some people who might be comfortable doing that, but I’m not one of those people.”

Yet, somewhere between 2004 and now, Obama has garnered that experience? As Oscar Wilde said, “Experience is one thing you can’t get for nothing.”

Or, to quote Bud Fox’s father from the 80’s movie Wall Street, ‘Course my son did work three summers as a baggage handler and freight loader. With those qualifications, why should I doubt his ability to run an airline?’

Obama did work as a senator for a couple of months—why should we doubt his ability to run a country.

Sources:
http://news.yahoo.com/page/election-2008-political-pulse-candidates-descriptions;_ylt=AuQshnxgb5aeEi7d05faTZBxJZt4

http://news.yahoo.com/page/election-2008-political-pulse-candidate-images

http://blogs.usatoday.com/onpolitics/2008/07/ask-people-to-b.html

“You’re probably not that good a rapper. Maybe you’re the next Lil Wayne, but probably not. In which case you need to stay in school.” So said Barack Obama while talking to a predominately black crowd in Powder Springs Georgia.

Obama was cautioning students to stay in school and not pin their hopes on a music career or a shot at the NBA. Obama, using a refreshing specific and concrete language rather than his usual empty rhetoric, told them that most of “you brothas” are not “really, really good basketball players,” adding “I know you think you are. But you’re not. You are overrated in your own mind. You will not play in the NBA.”

Kudos to Obama for the direct approach—now if he would just tell wanna-be gangstas to pull up their pants…(that also goes for the white kids in the burbs. Oh, and while we’re at it, turn down the car stereo.)

Obama knows about basketball. Jaymes Song, writing for the AP (http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gwsvGknQXu2SINnNoGWy3G2GAuTQD91BB4TG0) said high school b-baller Obama was known as the “Obomber” for his jump shot. Despite that, Obama was delegated to the reserve squad. Obama’s high school coach said Obama may have started on any other team, but “We just happened to have just a team that was pretty loaded.”

In retrospect, Obama knew his limitations: “I could play basketball with a consuming passion that would always exceed my limited talent.” (http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gwsvGknQXu2SINnNoGWy3G2GAuTQD91BB4TG0)

Obama stills plays, saying that he would like to put a court in the White House.

He went on to tell the students in Georgia that knowing a foreign language would also increase their chances at future employment. (So would pulling up their pants, but perhaps I am fixating).

This was Obama’s first visit to Georgia and part of his “Red State Express”. By visiting the so-called red states he hopes to gain ground in those states that are trending to Republican contender John McCain.

Sources:

http://embeds.blogs.foxnews.com/2008/07/08/obama-tells-kids-to-stay-in-school-learn-a-foreign-language/

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/07/obama-slams-hoo.html

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gwsvGknQXu2SINnNoGWy3G2GAuTQD91BB4TG0

A Roswell (Georgia) newspaper lost one its major advertisers after publishing cover art showing Democratic presidential front runner Barack Obama in a sniper’s cross hairs. The Roswell Beacon, a free weekly in Fulton county Georgia, received complaints after reports of the cover appeared on the Daily Kos blog.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports:

A diarist named “sprialstairs” wrote on Daily Kos, “The article itself is not offensive, but the cover is beyond the pale. As indicated by the article, there are some serious racists in the area, and Obama’s candidacy has brought out the worst in a lot of people. The last thing we need is a newspaper to suggest assassination with an incendiary cover such as this.”

The article goes on to state:

though the paper’s publisher, John Fredericks, said editorial decisions would not be influenced by “liberal blogger thuggery.”

The intention of the art was to illustrate the accompanying story about how law enforcement was

handling the increased number of threats lodged against Obama by white supremacist groups, some of whom are based around north Fulton.

Go to original story

A T-shirt sold by Marietta (Georgia) bar owner is being called racist and and offensive. Mike Norman, owner of Mulligan’s Bar and Grill is selling a shirt

featuring cartoon chimp Curious George peeling a banana, with “Obama in ‘08″ scrolled underneath

that he, Norman, calls ‘cute’. Critics don’t agree.

“It’s time to put an end to this,” said Rich Pellegrino, a Mableton resident and director of the Cobb-Cherokee Immigrant Alliance. He was among about 15 people who protested outside Mulligan’s Bar and Grill Tuesday afternoon against the sale of the “racist and highly offensive” shirts.

Norman is known for his ‘ultra-conservative’ views that he often expresses on signs in front of his bar.

Among his recent musings: “I wish Hillary had married OJ,” “No habla espanol — and never will” and the standard “I.N.S. Agents eat free.”

Norman is offended that so many people are upset by the shirt and insists he is not a racist.

Norman said he sees nothing wrong with depicting Obama as Curious George. “Look at him . . . the hairline, the ears, he looks just like Curious George,” Norman said. He said he did not design the shirts himself but bought them through a Web site.

Read the full story here.

Sources close to the Barack Obama camp say Hillary Clinton will never be offered the vice presidential nomination because Michelle Obama doesn’t like her.

According to a story by Robert Novak on RealClearPolitics, “The Democratic front-runner’s wife did not comment on other rival candidates for the party’s nomination, but she has been sniping at Clinton since last summer. According to Obama sources, those public utterances do not reveal the extent of her hostility.

According to the Top of The Ticket blog at the LA Times,  Obama, when asked about Novak’s column replied, “My wife does not talk to Bob Novak on a regular basis”

The Top of the Ticket blog goes on to say that Ted Kennedy said, of the Obama-Clinton ticket, “”I don’t think it’s possible.”

Michelle Obama was not cited by Kennedy as the reason for his comment; instead, a spokesman for him later said his prediction was based on the “tenor of the campaign” of late.

Source: realclearpolitics.com
Source: latimesblogs.latimes.com

Last week, Democratic presidential hopeful Senator Barack Obama showed us why he is just another smarmy politician and not the Great Unifier as some have named him.

In a disingenuous speech, marginally designed to distance Obama from his whackadoo minster Reverend Jeremiah Wright, the Senator managed to turn the issue from the anti-American rantings of Reverend Wright to a thinly veiled condemnation of those calling out the Reverend’s words.

Read the rest here.