2004 Dem Convention

Tonight is a particular honor for me because, let’s face it, my presence on this stage is pretty unlikely. My father was a foreign student, born and raised in a small village in Kenya. He grew up herding goats, went to school in a tin-roof shack. His father — my grandfather — was a cook, a domestic servant to the British

If Senator Obama says words matter then here are his. Keep in mind, while reading this next passage of Cosmic Debre Senator Obama has done very little if anything to follow thru on any of it.

That is the true genius of America, a faith — a faith in simple dreams, an insistence on small miracles; that we can tuck in our children at night and know that they are fed and clothed and safe from harm; that we can say what we think, write what we think, without hearing a sudden knock on the door; that we can have an idea and start our own business without paying a bribe; that we can participate in the political process without fear of retribution, and that our votes will be counted — at least most of the time.

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/convention2004/barackobama2004dnc.htm

Cosmik Debris

The mystery man came over
And he said Im outta sight!
He said for a nominal service charge
I could reach nirvana tonight
If I was ready, willing and able
To pay him his regular fee
He would drop all the rest of
His pressing affairs and devote
His attention to me

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/convention2004/barackobama2004dnc.htm

I only wish that it were so. The totality of the evidence suggests otherwise, but Senator Obama gets a free pass because he did not sit in the US Senate at the time.

Those of us who opposed the war from the outset were outnumbered publicly about 8 to 1: the US Senate roll call vote was 77 aye, and 23 opposed. The equivalent joint resolution House roll call vote was 296 to 133, a measurably higher level of opposition at 31%,

Very little in Senator Obama’s historic comments or voting record suggests that he would actually have been in the minority, voting to oppose the Authorization for the Use of Military Force in Iraq. He has not explicitly made that claim himself, and could not defend it if he had.

A shameful number of Democratic Senators voted for this measure, including Senators Jospeh Biden, Maria Cantwell, Hillary Clinton, Tom Daschel, Chris Dodd, John Edwards, Diane Feinstein, Tom Harkin, John Kerry, Bill Nelson, Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer and others, including ALL seated Republicans other than Senator Lincoln Chafee.

It’s way past time to keep giving a non-participant like Senator Obama a free pass on this issue, while effectively hanging Senator Clinton’s vote for the resolution around her neck as if it were an albatross.

Was it a bad decision? You bet your ass it was! Was it a calculated one in anticipation of a future run for the Presidency? Perhaps. Should she subsequently have publicly acknowledged what a poor decision it was? Yes, as did Senator Edwards. She chose not to do so, and has defended her position. I will give you that both of those choices, as well as her original vote, display a serious lack of judgement in my mind.

But, she was in the MAJORITY in doing so. In good company so to speak, of virtually everyone else in the Senate at the time, who ran as either a Democratic or Republican Presidential candidate in this cycle.

So, in a word, shut the hell up about this issue already. Put it in perspective and consider all of the facts, suppositions and claims that surround it. While I remain angry about her initial decision, and about her continued defense of it, this should not be a deal breaker in this primary cycle.