Bill Clinton: standing in the way of the first black president?

Whom do you trust?

Whom do you believe?

According to CNN Election Center 2008, 2,025 delegates will be needed to win the Democratic nomination for president at the Democratic National Convention to be held in Denver August 25-28. Current pledged delegate totals before the South Carolina Democratic primary election Saturday January 26 are: Obama 38, Clinton 36, and Edwards 18.
Florida will be meaningless to Democrats because like Michigan all Democratic delegates have been declared illegal by the national committee because of the state party’s non compliance in setting their primary date no sooner than Super Tuesday February 5.
But do many Super Tuesday voters currently know very much about Barack Obama?
In his books Barack Obama has told the story of the family into which he was born, about a father from Kenya whom he barely knew and about his young American mother who along with his father were college students in Hawaii.

By age 6 young Barack was already living in Jakarta with his mother and his Indonesian step father before abruptly moving back to Hawaii at age 10 to be raised by his maternal grandparents when his mother and her second husband divorced.

Over the years Barack Obama had bonding experiences with white and black relatives and with Asian family members amidst an understandable struggle to find his own identity. Through it all he developed a keen ability to understand and to resonate with people of various ethnic backgrounds.

Barack Obama worked his way through the racial complexities into which he was born to graduate Magna Cum Laude from Harvard Law School and become president of the Harvard Law Review. He served in the Illinois State Senate for 8 years and in 2004 won a 70 % landslide election to become a United States Senator.
Barack Obama has had 46 years of personal experience in understanding how perceptions of ethnicity and judgments about race can divide people and he is uniquely qualified to bring a sense of unity and common purpose to all Americans.

In 1963 (when Obama was just 2 years old) on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous "I have a dream" speech that included the familiar phrase of "not being judged by the color of one's skin but by the content of one's character." That speech, of course, helped prompt passage of the 1964 US Civil rights Act and the next year, King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. If the people of America elect Barack Obama to be their 44th President in November of this year King's dream will have become much more than just a dream.
Was Barack Obama's reported opposition to America initiating the Iraq war a “fairytale” and has his position on the war been “inconsistent”?
Senator Barack Obama, then an Illinois state senator, delivered these remarks October 2, 2002 at the Federal Plaza in Chicago:
"I stand before you as someone who is not opposed to war in all circumstances. The Civil War was one of the bloodiest in history, and yet it was only through the crucible of the sword, the sacrifice of multitudes, that we could begin to perfect this union and drive the scourge of slavery from our soil.
I Don't Oppose All Wars
I don't oppose all wars. My grandfather signed up for a war the day after Pearl Harbor was bombed, fought in Patton's army. He fought in the name of a larger freedom, part of that arsenal of democracy that triumphed over evil. I don't oppose all wars. After September 11, after witnessing the carnage and destruction, the dust and the tears, I supported this administration's pledge to hunt down and root out those who would slaughter innocents in the name of intolerance, and I would willingly take up arms myself to prevent such tragedy from happening again.
Opposed to Dumb, Rash Wars
I don't oppose all wars. What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war. What I am opposed to is the cynical attempt by Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz and other armchair, weekend warriors in this administration to shove their own ideological agendas down our throats, irrespective of the costs in lives lost and in hardships borne. What I am opposed to is the attempt by political hacks like Karl Rove to distract us from a rise in the uninsured, a rise in the poverty rate, a drop in the median income, to distract us from corporate scandals and a stock market that has just gone through the worst month since the Great Depression. That's what I'm opposed to. A dumb war. A rash war. A war based not on reason but on passion, not on principle but on politics.
On Saddam Hussein
Now let me be clear: I suffer no illusions about Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal man. A ruthless man. A man who butchers his own people to secure his own power…. The world, and the Iraqi people, would be better off without him. But I also know that Saddam poses no imminent and direct threat to the United States, or to his neighbors…and that in concert with the international community he can be contained until, in the way of all petty dictators, he falls away into the dustbin of history.
I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a U.S. occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences.
I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of al-Qaeda.
I am not opposed to all wars. I'm opposed to dumb wars. So for those of us who seek a more just and secure world for our children, let us send a clear message to the president.
You Want a Fight, President Bush?
You want a fight, President Bush? Let's finish the fight with Bin Laden and al-Qaeda, through effective, coordinated intelligence, and a shutting down of the financial networks that support terrorism, and a homeland security program that involves more than color-coded warnings. You want a fight, President Bush? Let's fight to make sure that…we vigorously enforce a nonproliferation treaty, and that former enemies and current allies like Russia safeguard and ultimately eliminate their stores of nuclear material, and that nations like Pakistan and India never use the terrible weapons already in their possession, and that the arms merchants in our own country stop feeding the countless wars that rage across the globe. You want a fight, President Bush? Let's fight to make sure our so-called allies in the Middle East, the Saudis and the Egyptians, stop oppressing their own people, and suppressing dissent, and tolerating corruption and inequality, and mismanaging their economies so that their youth grow up without education, without prospects, without hope, the ready recruits of terrorist cells.
You want a fight, President Bush? Let's fight to wean ourselves off Middle East oil through an energy policy that doesn't simply serve the interests of Exxon and Mobil.
Those are the battles that we need to fight. Those are the battles that we willingly join. The battles against ignorance and intolerance. Corruption and greed. Poverty and despair."
Barack Obama delivered his powerful speech at the Federal Plaza in Chicago October 2, 2002 against the US beginning war in Iraq while later that same month Hillary Clinton voted for the authorization to begin US military action in Iraq. Once US troops were actually in Iraq and fighting a war, of course, it would be irresponsible for Obama to be against funding the troops. The key is that Barack Obama had the judgment to see the dumbness of the war in October 2002 and clearly said so. Hillary Clinton did not and voted to start it.

Bill and Hillary Clinton's tactic of trying to paint Obama's war position as "a fairy tale" or as "inconsistent" is merely "Clinton politics" and clearly demonstrates why America badly needs the enormous breath of fresh air Barack Obama provides. At one time Senator Kerry from Nebraska referred to the Clinton's as "clever liars" several years before President Bill Clinton told America: "I did not have sex with that woman!" or as Jay Leno quipped, "He didn't have sex with her, she had it with him!"
Goodbye Bill and Hillary Clinton. Hello Barack Obama.

Should Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton Become the Democratic Party’s Nominee for President in 2008?

Which candidate is best able to inspire Americans with a new vision of a better America both domestically and in foreign affairs that will attract sufficient independent voters and disenchanted Republicans so that Democrats can win the general election in November?
Which candidate is least likely to cause a worsening division and polarization of voters and elected officials that maintains the partisan politics that currently paralyzes Washington?
Which candidate refuses campaign contributions from lobbyists and political action committees as a first step in seeking to change the money dominated special interest politics that currently rules Washington?
Which candidate has had the personal background and life experiences and possesses the vision and ability necessary to bring together Americans of all ethnic backgrounds be they white, Latino, Asian, African American, or Native American in a sense of common purpose, and also has the best chance of reintroducing America to the myriad of diverse countries around the world?
Which candidate do Americans most respect and admire given the facts of his or her personal family background, marriage relationship, intelligence and academic achievement, and the particular path by which he or she has become a candidate for president of the United States?
Which candidate does not have a spouse whose past political experience and personal behavior could prove to be a serious distraction that might needlessly complicate the office and duties of the President and potentially interfere with the normal functioning of cabinet officers?
Which candidate will the American people be able to trust when times are tough because he or she consistently values telling the truth, rather than choosing his or her words primarily with regard to the politics of the moment?
The inescapable answer is Barack Obama.

I was that voter who asked Clinton if he felt he was standing in the way of the first black president. It was me at whom he “snapped” today in Greenville. All I can say is that I didn’t just fly in on a plane from New York. I live in the Carolinas. And people here do feel that it is ironic that it is not some old vestige of southern bigotry, but the supposedly progressive democratic establishment, and the Clintons in particular, who stand between Sen. Obama and the white house.
I think the former presidents admission that he hoped to get a chance to vote for him (Obama) someday” goes to undermine all the dirty tactics that the Clinton campaign has engaged in to this point. You can’t pretend to think Sen. Obama shares Ronald Reagan’s political philosophy one day and the very next say that you would like to vote for him.

"Which candidate do Americans most respect and admire given the facts of his or her personal family background, marriage relationship, intelligence and academic achievement, and the particular path by which he or she has become a candidate for president of the United States?"

CLINTON, GIVEN THAT SHE HAS ALL OF THE ABOVE, PLUS THE ADDED BONUS OF ACTUALLY BEING ABLE TO DO WHAT SHE SAYS. RATHER THAN JUST " TALK THE TALK" SHE CAN "WALK THE WALK". TIRED OF THE OLD POLITICAL SLOGANIZING OF "CHANGE". WE NEED SOMEBODY THAT CAN ACTUIALLY DO IT - CLINTON 2008

Bill Clinton has relished for too long on the free pass that Toni Morrison gave him when she called him the "first black president". The reality is that under the Clinton Administration's insane prison sentencing and trade policy, more blacks today are either in prison or unemployed as a direct result of his Presidency. It will be a happy day when Barack Obama deservingly knocks Bill Clinton off his "first black president" ego trip once and for all.

So tired of the creepy posts that always follow any article mentioning Barack Obama. A lot of people are drinking the Kool Aid. There is a cult of personality growing around this man, and he does nothing to discourage it. If he could show me reasons I should vote for him, other than the blanket, generic "change" answer, I would consider him. If he could stop acting as if people who don't agree with him are somehow racist, or standing in his way (as if he has the right to the nomination and Presidency) I might consider voting for him. If he would think about people other than himself, or show a little respect towards his competitors, or not act like a spoiled child every time he loses, I might consider voting for him, but so far, none of this has happened.

I've spent most of my adult life watching the Clintons help move America forward. I've never seen Obama do anything but talk about how he wants to be President. He is a wonderful speaker but I'm still waiting for any substance to appear before I even consider changing my vote from people I know can do a good job to someone I hope would do a great one.

Hope is wonderful but I think America needs someone we can count on to deliver results.

A dynasty was good for J. R. Ewing, but they have not been so good for the people of The U.S.A. The Bush presidency is testimony to that.

The Clintons' experience would be valuable in the vice presidency or in the cabinet.

But we need a president who can inspire and lead.

We do not need a disbarred attorney and spouse of a nominee to create ill will in our own party.

We do not need to be patronized and treated as though voters are interfering with some preconceived dynastic plan.

In ancient cultures there may have been a belief in the divine right of kings (or queens), but in modern America, there is no belief in the divine right of Bubba.

:-)

Vote with your heart and don't be condescended to.

Right on to the chick who asked the great question. I've often thought that Bill Clitnon has treated the black community more like a pet than an equal. He is in the way.

Barack Obama is a good speaker who can deliver manipulative, well rehearsed sppeches which contrast sharply to his debate responses. His policies (those trhat he cares to share) appear to be lifted ,almost whole cloth, from Hillary;s and Edwards campaign statements.
I have been waiting a long time to vote for a man of color to be President. That being said, I have grave doubts about Obama. The only thing that he has said about himself and his campaign that resonates with me as honest was his statement" You are the Wave, and I'm riding it!!"

There is a strong yearning for a change of command and direction in this country and Obama profits from remaining ambiguous. The more he can be a tabula rasa (an empty slate (or empty suite depending on your opinion)- the more he can reflect the projected needs of others i.e.; their fantasies of a 'changed world" their hope of ' redemption (for our history of black enslavement), their hope of changing the world's opinion of the U..S. by having a black face represent us,etc. You name it- he can be it (as long as he remains ill-defined..

Charismatic individuals have taken power in the past, for good and/or evil when they promised changes, even vague promises of change to a disgruntled populace, weary of the status quo. However, no matter how much I may yearn for peace and mutuality with my neighbors, irrespective of race, I am not willing to drink the Kool-Aid.
I, for one, will need to know a) what "changes" Obama proposes 2) How he plans to implement them, 3) Why I should choose him as a change agent over others with more documented track records.

I think Barack embodies the greek concept of hubris, which is to say- who the hell does he think he is?should anyone pick a novice jr, senator, no matter how much he well he orates and promises "a better world" when there are people with more experience dealing with the system available?
The "system is not going to go away because Barack waves a magic wand and I think it is, at the very least egotistical/grandiose for him to postulate such change because he will, if elected simply orate from the bully pulpit of the Presiden and leave the trench fighting to others.

Singing "Koombaya", talking about change in vague terms, equating lack of experience with purity of heart and holding hands is not going to cut it! We learned that from the 60's- I don't want to repeat that failed experiment!