Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Obama Wisky roundup (10:26 am)

A few thoughts on Obama’s 9th and 10th straight primary victories…

1) Obama cleaned up most demographic levels, but the world is a flutter with the inroads he made among the white working class. Here’s John Dickerson at Slate.

In Wisconsin, according to exit polls, Obama placed ahead of Clinton among those who make less than $50,000 a year and those with less than a college education. He has now won working-class white men in Wisconsin, Missouri, New Hampshire, California, Maryland, and Virginia.

What’s most encouraging about this for Obama supporters is that he’s garnering support from the white working class without pandering to the troupes usually levied to win said vote — masculinity, racial coding etc. He’s staying on message and it’s his message to which they are responding. He’s not wasting time seeking out the Bubba vote but he’s getting it anyway.

2) The man just keeps raising mad cash from small donors. Mad cash.

The details of Mr. Obama’s January fund-raising illustrate just how much his campaign has been able to chart a new path for the presidential race. He brought in $28 million online, with 90 percent of those transactions coming from people who donated $100 or less, and 40 percent from donors who gave $25 or less, suggesting that these contributors could be tapped for more. (Donors are limited to giving $2,300 per candidate during the primary season.) More than 200,000 of the campaign’s nearly 300,000 donors in January were first-time givers to Mr. Obama.... read more

posted by Adam Doster | start the discussion

Barack and the Bottom-Up (12:47 am)

While listening to Obama’s speech earlier tonight, I thought the loudest cheers erupted when he noted (twice) that “change doesn’t come from the top down, it comes from the bottom up,” and that, ultimately, his success will rely on the efforts/organization/mobilization of the people attending his rally. It struck me that I couldn’t recall any other politician (besides, of course, the late, great Paul Wellstone) employing this basic, Alinsky-type rhetoric, and it made me wonder just how much of Obama’s rhetorical power stems from the almost mundane fact that he simply recognizes the autonomy and agency of the people in his crowds and acknowledges that the success of many (if not most) of his programs and proposals will ultimately depend on them.

It’s pretty disheartening that very few candidates address this elementary desire in people to engage in their own self-governance, particularly when today’s world offers so few avenues for people to pursue that desire. (The damage done to us by the lack of such avenues is the great, plaintive theme of Tom Geoghegan’s glorious The Secret Lives of Citizens.) That Obama addresses it is what make his speeches fundamentally different from Gore’s “People Vs. the Powerful” rhetoric or Edwards’ populist speeches, in that those basically state, “I will fight for your interests,” whereas Obama pleads that “I need you to help me fight for your interests.”

It seems to me that Obama’s recognition of this desire has considerable explanatory power as to why he elicits such fervid passion from... read more

posted by Brian Cook | 1 comment

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Pakistani election rundown (7:54 am)

So Pakistan had an election last night, and Musharraf’s party got smoked. I’m not really qualified to comment on this, so I’ll outsource it to fellow Wolverine Juan Cole.

Bottom line, the Pakistani public has demonstrated a dislike of extremism, including religious extremism, awarding a plurality of seats in the national legislature to secular parties and the rest to right-of-center parties, but roundly rejecting the fundamentalists.

Read the rest here.

posted by Adam Doster | start the discussion

Monday, February 18, 2008

Krugman, rehinged (12:12 pm)

Now there’s the Paul Krugman we love.

Living in or near poverty has always been a form of exile, of being cut off from the larger society. But the distance between the poor and the rest of us is much greater than it was 40 years ago, because most American incomes have risen in real terms while the official poverty line has not. To be poor in America today, even more than in the past, is to be an outcast in your own country. And that, the neuroscientists tell us, is what poisons a child’s brain.

Thanks for coming back from Crazy Town.

posted by Adam Doster | start the discussion

Obama, Edwards, and delivery (11:52 am)

Bob Kuttner makes an important point in this column, discussing the populist rhetoric that Obama is adding to his stump speeches with increasing frequency.

This is strong stuff. Coming from John Edwards, similar words were often criticized as divisively populist. But Obama manages to be a unifier—yet around a very progressive critique of what ails America.

This jives with Chris Hayes’ observation that attending an Edwards speech was “a bit like attending a funeral for the American dream.” The man had the right content, but perhaps the wrong delivery, given the American workers’ relative lack of class conscious. But if Obama, whose candidacy has already consolidated support among young people, high information voters, and black folks, can mesh his rhetoric of change with specifics that appeal to the (white) working class, his campaign could be the best vessel for economic justice in a long time.

posted by Adam Doster | 1 comment

Friday, February 15, 2008

Olbermann Special Comment on FISA (10:04 pm)

Don’t miss it. Brilliant. My only wish is Bush was sitting right there so he could say this stuff to his face.

posted by Jarrett | 2 comments

God Hates Fags. And School Shooters. And Students at NIU. (5:39 pm)

With the tragedy at Northern Illinois University yesterday, many have responded by extending their hearts and prayers to the students and families affected. In the strange world we inhabit where school shootings have become eerily common, this outpouring of sympathy is what we’ve come to expect from the general public, particularly faith-based organizations like churches.

But not Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka.

In a press release (downloadable in pdf from their website), Westboro Baptist Church announces, “Thank God for the Shooter at Northern Illinois Univ[ersity].” The press release goes on to explain that, “God sent the Shooter,” because, “God Hates Fags! & Fag-Enablers. Ergo, God hates fag-dominated Northern Illinois Univ[ersity].”

I guess this is no surprise coming from the church group that protests soldiers’ funerals, and flaunts the slogan “Thank God for AIDS,” and owns the URL godhatesfags.com.

At least Michael Moore is on our side.

Also, isn’t Huckabee an ordained Southern Baptist minister?

By: Becki Scholl

posted by Intern | 1 comment

Happy ending for writers (12:18 pm)

The best part about the writers strike, besides the eventual outcome, was the abundance of hilarious, touching, or informative essays penned by entertainment writers in our nation’s rabble-rousing rags. One such piece is Marc Norman’s solid recap of the guild’s rebirth, the strike itself, and the deal negotiated, written for Salon.

For more strike background and writers guild background, read David Moberg’s January cover story for ITT.