Finding Voices for Obama

After her win in the New Hampshire primary, a victorious Hillary Clinton told her supporters "I found my own voice."

That was before she lost her own voice to her husband as Bill pushed her to the sidelines in South Carolina to defend his legacy, and coincidentally Hillary's candidacy, with eye-bulging, finger-waving, race-baiting vehemence.

As Hillary lost her voice in South Carolina, and the primary, she also lost her right to maintain the fairy tale that she could control Bill and was a woman who could lead. A sobered Democratic Party saw a replay of the painful Billary soap opera with an out-of-control Bill and weren't entertained.

Now other voices are rising to drown out Hillary's faux voice.... "Michelle, Maria, Caroline and Oprah on the Hustings in California" (NYTimes).... in support of Barack Obama.

Even though the NY Times endorsed Hillary, Times editor Andrew Rosenthal had a cautionary tale to tell. In California's U.C.L.A. basketball arena "four extraordinary women put on the best campaign rally I've seen in 20 years of covering presidential politics."

Caroline Kennedy, who brought along her uncle Sen. Ted Kennedy, delivered the message.... "step out of your lives and into this moment in history".... before introducing the surprise Obama supporter of the evening, Maria Shriver, the wife of Republican governor Arnold Schwarzenegger who recently endorsed GOP candidate John McCain.

Oprah Winfrey urged the excited young crowd to see this campaign, with the two front runners, a woman and a black man, as a moment when they "are free from the constraints of gender and race".... to support the best candidate.

But, even with all of this star power, the person who stole the show was Michelle Obama who found her voice... "she was intellectually powerful, even fierce at times, in making her political arguments.... she also allowed herself to offer the full-throated praise of her husband that she avoided in earlier stages of the campaign. She spoke about his character, about his ability to lead, and aimed squarely at the criticism that his resume is too thin."

Michelle spoke about Obama's time in the Illinois State Legislature as better than "serving in Congress or as governor because it made him understand the impact that federal laws have on ordinary Americans."

In the end, it's these ordinary Americans who must find their voices.... "yes we can!"

Here "Lies" Bush's Nation

A grateful nation breathes a sigh of relief.... last night was the last time they'll have to endure The Decider's Misstatement of the Union.

The Washington Post unravels some of the untruths and half-truths in Bush's speech in "Fact Checking Key Assertions in the State of the Union." Here are a few examples.....

Bush asserted that "The Iraqis launched a surge of their own.... and today, this grass-roots surge includes more than 80,000 Iraqi citizens who are fighting the terrorists.

The "grass-roots" surge by citizens are actually Sunni neighborhood-watch groups that have been hired by the U.S. military for $300 a month. Officials aren't sure what will happen when these "citizens" are no longer paid.

The "coming together" of Sunnis, Shia and Kurds doesn't exist. In Baghdad, once heterogeneous, the Sunnis and Shia now live in separate enclaves while the Kurds have congregated in northern Iraq as an almost separate state.

The new de-Baathification law The Decider bragged on as one of the "encouraging signs" of reconciliation in many ways is more punishing to former Baath Party members than the much-criticized earlier law.

On the economy The Decider proclaimed that "Some in Washington argue that letting tax relief expire is not a tax increase. Try explaining that to 116 million American taxpayers who would see their taxes rise by an average of $1,800... This budget will keep America on track for a surplus in 2012."

Of course, since the tax cuts targeted the wealthy, they would be the ones most impacted by letting the tax cuts expire. Actually, the median American household would pay less than half of Bush's "average" $1,800 in 2011, while the richest 1 percent would pay an extra $64,154.

In truth, the Congressional Budget Office this month projected that the budget deficit will grow worse. In projecting a surplus by 2012 with his budget, Bush isn't counting the long-term cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan which his administration has repeatedly underestimated. In 2009 it has budgeted $70 billion, just one-third the cost this year.

What was most discouraging about Bush's performance, was his lack of new ideas or a call to action. The closest he came was his repeated assertion that the border cannot be secured against illegal crossers unless the U.S. increases channels for foreign workers to enter legally.... but he didn't make any new specific proposal for them to do so.

Aside from the medoicre content and hectoring-Congress tone, Bush's lackluster performance didn't even attempt to energize a dispirited nation. This stood in sharp contrast to the stirring speeches earlier in the day by Patrick, Caroline and Sen. Ted Kennedy with their endorsement of an inspiring Barack Obama for president.

The Decider's I'll-show-you-daddy plans lay in disarray at his feet. Shattered by his own misconceptions, arrogance and mismanagement. All he has left are lies.

Caroline Chooses Obama

Who of us who lived through the John F. Kennedy presidency can forget the special relationship he had with his children. We can picture them playing under his desk in the Oval Office, or showing up there in Halloween costumes much to Kennedy's delight.

So what endorsement could be more powerful than this.... "A President Like My Father".... (NY Times) made by daughter Caroline, advocating for the nomination of presidential candidate Barack Obama.

There are the expected political endorsements from other pols and news organizations.... shrugged off by many voters as politics as usual.... but rarely an endorsement that breaks that jaded mold, to forcefully bring home the possibility of reconnecting with our better selves, to "feel inspired and hopeful about America the way people did when my father was president."

There is no denying that the country is dispirited, overwhelmed by the monstrous failures of the Bush administration on every front. Caroline reasons that all of the candidates goals to right the country's course are similar.... "So qualities of leadership, character and judgment play a larger role than usual."

She powerfully articulates that she sees in Obama an eloquent candidate with intregrity who can inspire the way people told her that her father inspired.... "I believe I have found the man who could be that president - not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans."

Nothing could be further from this heartfelt hope than what we've all witnessed with the reemergence of the Billary road act.... unprincipled, fact-challenged and divisive. Bill Clinton's undignified red-faced eruptions and Hillary's hollow "35 years of experience" and slick evasiveness leave inspiration stillborn.

But, should the Democratic electorate be so self-destructive as to nominate Hillary, as Frank Rich points out today, it'll be "The Billary Road to Republican Victory." (NY Times)

Rich points out that if "Obama doesn't fight, no one else will. Few national Democratic leaders have the courage to stand up to the Clintons."

Big choices lie ahead for Democrats with the Super Tuesday primaries on February 5.... voters can choose the Clinton rancid politics of the past, or on Obama who embodies hope for the American dream and in the American ideal for peoples everywhere.