Obama Will Have “527s”, but we need laughs. . . Quibbles and Bits 7/18
By LisaB on July 18, 2008 at 8:00 PM in Barack Obama, Current Affairs
1) DNC is setting up some kind of “independent operation” to help Obama. Watch yet another Obama position fall – his dislike of the 527. See the WaPo.
The Democratic National Committee plans to target Republican John McCain and help Democrat Barack Obama with an independent ad campaign run by veteran Democratic strategist Jonathan Prince, Democrats familiar with the decision said Thursday.
By law, the effort would be prohibited from coordinating with either Obama’s presidential campaign or with the DNC. The ads would be financed with party money, however.
———————————
One Democratic operative familiar with the DNC’s decision said the party planned to match or exceed the $118 million spent in an independent expenditure effort in the 2004 presidential contest.
So, here’s what it looks like. Obama tells people not to contribute to 527s and to send the money to his campaign or the DNC instead. He doesn’t like 527s and thinks they have “no place” in campaigns. But it was not that he didn’t like what the 527s could do – HE JUST WANTS MORE CONTROL OVER THE MESSAGE.
Read the rest ->
If these groups are also prohibited from coordinating with the campaign, what makes them any different from “classic” 527s? Nothing, except how they are run, where the money comes from and who is running them. I have absolutely NO DOUBT that messages coming from these “independent groups” will be the exact same as any 527.
I don’t think anyone with a brain had any doubt Obama would make use these type of groups despite his rhetoric to the contrary. What I find breathtaking is how he has somehow gathered these forces to himself.
Bears watching, IMHO.
2) If you are interested, the NYT has a piece on Obama’s foreign policy team. It looks like they’d have to meet in an auditorium. But since foreign policy is not the ONLY thing on Obama’s plate, it is instructive to see how such a large “advisory force” works. Apparently, most of these folks work together in sub-committees or smaller teams and email their “paragraphs” to Obama.
Out in the netherworld of the 300, advisers often say they are unclear about what happens to all the policy paragraphs they churn out on request. “It’s all mysterious what we send him and what gets to him,” said Michael A. McFaul, a Russia scholar at Stanford University who leads the Russia and Eurasia team for the Obama campaign.
Despite the apparent need for such a large group of advisors on foreign policy, the campaign maintains Obama is knowledgeable.
Unlike George W. Bush, who entered the presidential race in 2000 with scant exposure to national security issues, Mr. Obama has served since his election to the Senate in 2004 on the Foreign Relations Committee and has had a running tutorial from aides steeped in the issues. His campaign says that he is well prepared and that he often alters and expands on the talking points provided to him by his foreign policy advisers.
The article includes lots of names and more detail. It looks to me like the campaign is trying to plumb all opportunities for help on foreign policy all the while saying Obama doesn’t really need it. Sounds familiar. Hey, if Obama can claim living in Indonesia with an internationally oriented parent constitutes a foreign policy pedigree, GWB could have more easily claimed the same. He worked with his dad, after all.
Commentary magazine had an interesting take on “the 300.”
Barack Obama has 300 advisors on foreign policy. What?? That includes the Winnie-the Pooh fellow and 299 other “experts” who, we are led to believe, didn’t catch Obama’s “syntax” error on “undivided Jerusalem.” Did not one of the 300 know about the history of presidential summitry? And none of them thought it might have saved a heap of trouble for Obama if once during his primary campaign he had a briefing with General Petraeus or trip to Iraq?
One of several things is going on. One possibility: this unwieldy and bloated operation is utterly ineffective and doesn’t prevent or catch errors. There are lots of them, but they aren’t very good, even according to other Democrats. Or: they are there for window dressing to provide the patina of national security expertise when, in fact, the major foreign policy objectives are really driven by domestic ideology (e.g. we can’t admit Iraq has anything to do with Al Qaeda or the netroot will go nuts).
The article finishes by saying hopefully this “300″ is not a foretaste of how an Obama administration will function.
3) Here is something probably not noticed but very interesting. Delmarvanow has a piece on Obama meeting with heavy industry CEOs in DC.
Sen. Barack Obama has been meeting secretly with heavy industry CEOs in Washington to discuss issues that he would face as president.
On the campaign trail, Obama has been highly critical of corporate executives and promised them nothing but tougher regulation and higher taxes. But the unannounced, small evening sessions with them since he clinched the Democratic nomination have been nonconfrontational and cordial.
Obama scheduled the meetings without any hopes of winning the captains of industry over from Sen. John McCain, but to show them they would be able to do business with him in the White House and that the president’s door would be open to the corporate leaders. Their consensus was that he has largely succeeded in that purpose.
4) The Weekly Standard has a new feature: Obama Ignorance Watch. The picture is pretty great. I hope they have enough server space.
5) Today, Ben Smith at Politico says Max Cleland, a triple amputee veteran and former US Senator from GA who was unseated by Republican Saxby Chambliss on the charge of being insufficiently concerned with national security (I am not making this up), was DISINVITED from an Obama campaign appearance.
. . . Cleland told others he was unpleasantly surprised when, after an invitation to the event for Obama — whom he supports — he was told at the last minute by an Obama aide that he wouldn’t be welcome.
Why would this be? Well, Cleland is a registered lobbyist, so, no appearances with the taintless one. But on whose behalf does Cleland lobby that he is too dangerous to appear with?
Cleland is registered to lobby for a company whose products are aimed at helping soldiers recover more quickly from battlefield industries, Tissue Regeneration Technologies.
“Sen. Cleland is definitely not doing lobbying work. He gives speeches and campaigns for a few friends, but mostly he’s spending his time taking care of his father,” said Cleland advisor John Marshall, who said that Tissue Regeneration Technologies was the only company on whose behalf he lobbies.
When asked about this, the Obama campaign did the feeble:
Obama spokesman Bill Burton also declined to comment on Cleland’s exclusion from the Atlanta fundraiser.
“Sen. Obama has nothing but respect for Sen. Cleland’s service to our country and appreciates his support,” he said.
Wow. Senator Obama “appreciates” Cleland, but won’t appear with him due to his unsavory connection with a company that helps wounded vets. Wow. You can’t make this stuff up. Seriously. Well, thank god Obama avoided that tricky, sticky lobbyist situation. Good to know he draws no distinctions whatsoever when dealing with people. Except for preachers, priests and domestic terrorists.
Cannot trust those lobbyists.
6) The NYT weighs in on the New Yorker cover sniping. The piece begins with:
That Old Lady in Dubuque Is Smarter Than You Think
and ends with:
With The New Yorker, some of the sensitivity undoubtedly has to do with Mr. Obama’s being black — half black, anyway. Concerns about possible accusations of racism have plainly caused some comics to tiptoe carefully.
Mr. Thompson candidly acknowledged that race may help explain why he felt insulted. “Part of it might have been that I’m an African-American, and I responded that way,” he said.
Perhaps, then, the answer is for satirists to joke only about the half of Mr. Obama that is white.
Hold on. Was that something we shouldn’t have said?
Yeah. That’s right. Let’s work on the white half of Obama. We CAN make fun of that. Comedians, let’s get crackin’ on the half-cracker!!!
7) Lastly, since comedians are having a simply terrible time commenting on BO, Joel Stein is here to help with a few suggestions.
I believe comedic change is possible. Since the New Yorker dropped a bum joke on its cover this week, comedians have appeared on every news outlet to whine about how hard it is to make fun of Barack Obama. Really? They have an arsenal of jokes to use against a 71-year-old ex-POW cancer survivor and Obama is too touchy a subject?
——————————-
He’s ridiculously earnest. Obama is the kind of guy who not only talked you into showing up for Hands Across America but afterward insisted that it was awesome.
—————————–When I called “Simpsons” writer Matt Selman for help on Obama jokes, he came up with this: “A lot of people are worried about Obama being assassinated because he’s black. The solution to that is a much blacker vice president. I’m thinking Flavor Flav.” Admittedly, Selman nervously said, “Don’t make me look racist!” about 20 times before and after telling me his joke.
—————————He’s effete. He’s well-dressed. He eats arugula — which he buys at Whole Foods. He mocks those who use guns. He is, as we mentioned, quite thin. He may only be half-black, but he’s three-quarters gay.
——————————-He called his own grandmother a racist. We all have racist grandmothers, but we don’t brag about it to everyone. I like to imagine that his granny wasn’t that bad and that Obama was just super-sensitive. Like she would tell him it was bedtime and he’d yell, “Oh, I have to go to bed because I’m black!” Or she’d tell him to clean up his room and he’d start yelling, “Oh, clean my room, huh? My people stopped obeying the white woman 100 years ago, Grammy!” Then they’d both laugh and she’d whip him.
What do you think? A good start????
, the basis for the Best Motion Picture Nominee (Golden Globes) starring Brad Pitt.
, the novel by John Le Carre, a new motion picture starring Gary Oldman and Colin Firth.
by 
* (Included in the 
* 
.by David Fredosso who wrote 2008's 
- You'll have access to 18 million movies, TV shows, songs, magazines, and books, as well as ultra-fast Web browsing with Amazon Silk -- faster than iPad. Full e-mail and document access and a keyboard. Fire can transmit what is on your screen onto a connected TV or monitor without an accessory. It runs Flash (iPad doesn't). 
