My question is why didn’t someone tell me that Denzel Washington was sitting right next to my section????

The Obama administration will do a sweeping overhaul of our financial regulatory system.   The industry should expect increased regulation and stricter rules for the various spokes in the wheel.

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration plans to move quickly to tighten the nation’s financial regulatory system.

Officials say they will make wide-ranging changes, including stricter federal rules for hedge funds, credit rating agencies and mortgage brokers, and greater oversight of the complex financial instruments that contributed to the economic crisis.

Broad new outlines of the administration’s agenda have begun to emerge in recent interviews with officials, in confirmation proceedings of senior appointees and in a recent report by an international committee led by Paul A. Volcker, a senior member of President Obama’s economic team.

A theme of that report, that many major companies and financial instruments now mostly unsupervised must be swept back under a larger regulatory umbrella, has been embraced as a guiding principle by the administration, officials said.

Some of these actions will require legislation, while others should be achievable through regulations adopted by several federal agencies.

Officials said they want rules to eliminate conflicts of interest at credit rating agencies that gave top investment grades to the exotic and ultimately shaky financial instruments that have been a source of market turmoil. The core problem, they said, is that the agencies are paid by companies to help them structure financial instruments, which the agencies then grade.

“Until we deal with the compensation model, we’re not going to deal with the conflict of interest, and people are not going to have confidence that the ratings are worth relying on, worth the paper they’re printed on,” Mary L. Schapiro said in testimony earlier this month before being confirmed by the Senate to head the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Timothy F. Geithner, the nominee for Treasury secretary, made similar comments in written and oral testimony before the Senate Finance Committee.

Aides said they would propose new federal standards for mortgage brokers who issued many unsuitable loans and are largely regulated by state officials. They are considering proposals to have the S.E.C. become more involved in supervising the underwriting standards of securities that are backed by mortgages.

The administration is also preparing to require that derivatives like credit default swaps, a type of insurance against loan defaults that were at the center of the financial meltdown last year, be traded through a central clearinghouse and possibly on one or more exchanges. That would make it significantly easier for regulators to supervise their use.  Read the remainder of story here.

Pres. Elect Obama again proves that he is what he says he is by injecting himself in local Chicago politics, at the height of his presidential campaign run,  to help get a bill passed that will go a long way towards cleaning up corruption in the Windy City political landscape.  After reading this article, one further wonders who is the infamous Senate Candidate Number 5 mentioned in the 76-page complaint filed yesterday.  Especially because it appears that Senate Candidate number 5 is likely to face criminal charges as well.   Hmmmm…..  See story below.  

In a sequence of events that neatly captures the contradictions of Barack Obama’s  rise through Illinois politics, a phone call he made three months ago to urge passage of a state ethics bill indirectly contributed to the downfall of a fellow Democrat he twice supported, Gov. Rod A Blagojevich

Mr. Obama placed the call to his political mentor, Emil Jones Jr., president of the Illinois Senate. Mr. Jones was a critic of the legislation, which sought to curb the influence of money in politics, as was Mr. Blagojevich, who had vetoed it. But after the call from Mr. Obama, the Senate overrode the veto, prompting the governor to press state contractors for campaign contributions before the law’s restrictions could take effect on Jan. 1, prosecutors say.

Tipped off to Mr. Blagojevich’s efforts, federal agents obtained wiretaps for his phones and eventually overheard what they say was scheming by the governor to profit from his appointment of a successor to the United States Senate seat being vacated by President-elect Obama. One official whose name has long been mentioned in Chicago political circles as a potential successor is Mr. Jones, a machine politician who was viewed as a roadblock to ethics reform but is friendly with Mr. Obama.

Beyond the irony of its outcome, Mr. Obama’s unusual decision to inject himself into a statewide issue during the height of his presidential campaign was a reminder that despite his historic ascendancy to the White House, he has never quite escaped the murky and insular world of Illinois politics. It is a world he has long navigated, to the consternation of his critics, by engaging in a kind of realpolitik, Chicago-style, which allowed him to draw strength from his relationships with important players without becoming compromised by their many weaknesses.

By the time Mr. Obama intervened on the ethics measure, his relationship with Mr. Blagojevich, always defined more by political proximity than by personal chemistry, had cooled as the governor became increasingly engulfed in legal troubles. There is nothing in the criminal complaint unsealed Tuesday to indicate that Mr. Obama knew anything about plans to seek money and favors in exchange for his Senate seat; he has never been implicated in any other “pay to play” cases that have emerged from the long-running investigation of the Blagojevich administration.

But like those previous cases, this latest one features political characters who figure in various stages of Mr. Obama’s climb from little-known state senator to presidential candidate, and who have since become politically radioactive because of corruption scandals. Some of those relationships posed a threat to Mr. Obama during the presidential campaign, forcing him to return tens of thousands of dollars in tainted campaign contributions and providing fodder for attack ads by rival candidates.  Continue reading story here.

Blago is returning to work today and according to his attorney has no plans to resign.  This writer’s guess is that he will try and work out a deal where he can escape jail time.  Blagojevich is still the Governor of Illinois with the sole power to make the senate appointment.  He has not been convicted of a crime nor has he been indicted, therefore there are not too many ways that the legislature can change that circumstance outside of passing a law stripping him of the power.  However, that is a process and cannot be done in a nanosecond.  Here’s why.  Any bill passed by the General Assembly that requires a special election has to be signed or vetoed by…..wait for it…..the Governor.  The Governor has 60 days to sit on the bill before he makes a decision.  Impeachment may not be possible because it does not appear on the surface that there are grounds (yet) because there is no indictment or conviction.  As evidenced by the charges against Blagojevich, he is a person that recognizes when he has leverage and will no doubt attempt to leverage the senate seat appointment and his resignation for no jail time.  Looks like he may be able to sell that senate seat after all, unless he decides to take it for himself.  Seriously, a fiction writer could not write this stuff.  Truly incredible.

According to the Chicago Tribune, Gov. Blagojevich and his Chief of Staff, John Harris, was taken into custody in connection with pending choice to replace Sen. Barack Obama’s senate seat.  The feds allege that the Governor was soliciting bribes in return for Sen. Barack Obama’s senate seat.  So he tried to sell former senator Barack Obama’s senate seat, the most highly profiled former senator and President-elect in history, and then talked about it with seemingly everyone he knew including his Chief of Staff, political advisers, and friends.  This should definitely go under the stupid criminals heading.  Very surprise that it took the feds this long to make an arrest.   Wow, the question now is who makes the decision as to Sen. Obama’s replacement (see order of succession from the Illinois Constitution below).  Apparently, a probe of Blagojevich regarding trading favors for government contracts has been going on for years in Chicago politics.  One would think that because Bladojevich is still governor regardless of whether he is in jail or wherever, he still makes the appointment.  That is, unless he resigns or is impeached in the next couple of weeks, in which case perhaps Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn would make the decision.  If Sen. Ted Stevens is any indication of how politicians respond to legal impediments, Blago will be choosing Obama’s replacement from his jail cell.  Talk about a freakin real life mobster movie.  This may explain his very strong statement yesterday forbidding the state of Illinois from doing business with  Bank of America….trying to garner up a troth of public sympathy right quick.  Apparently, Illinois governors have a history of doing prison time.  If Blago is indicted and convicted he will be the fourth governor to be convicted  and serve time on corruption charges.   See the Blagojevich criminal complaint here.  See Blago story below.

A source said today that Gov. Rod Blagojevich was taken into federal custody at his North Side home this morning. The U.S. attorney’s office would not confirm the information.

A Blagojevich spokesman said he was unaware of the development. “Haven’t heard anything – you are first to call,” Lucio Guerrero said in an e-mail.

The stunning, early morning visit by authorities to the governor’s North Side home came amid revelations that federal investigators had recorded the governor with the cooperation of a longtime confidant and had begun to focus on the possibility that the process of choosing a Senate successor to President-elect Barack Obama could be tainted by pay-to-play politics.

Blagojevich was taken into custody hours after the Tribune reported that the investigation into allegations of pay-to-play politics within his administration had been expanded to include his pending choice of a Senate replacement for Obama. The Democratic governor has said he expects to make a decision on the state’s next senator in weeks.

Sources told the Tribune that investigators intensified their investigation into Blagojevich amid concerns that the process of choosing a new senator could be tainted. The actions by federal authorities came a day before Blagojevich’s 52nd birthday.

The Tribune previously disclosed that federal investigators had recordings of Blagojevich. Those recordings were aided by the cooperation of longtime Blagojevich confidant and former congressional chief of staff John Wyma.

On Monday, Blagojevich said he has done nothing wrong in his stewardship of the state and challenged critics to record him because his discussions were “always lawful.”"

Order of Succession according to the Illinois Constitution.  Article V, Section 6

a)  In the event of a vacancy, the order of succession to the office of Governor or to the position of Acting Governor shall be the Lieutenant Governor, the elected Attorney General, the elected Secretary of State, and then as provided by law. 
(b)  If the Governor is unable to serve because of death, conviction on impeachment, failure to qualify, resignation or other disability, the office of Governor shall be filled by the officer next in line of succession for the remainder of the term or until the disability is removed.

UPDATE: Statement released by the U.S. Attorney office

“The breadth of corruption laid out in these charges is staggering,” said U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald in a statement.

“They allege that Blagojevich put a ‘for sale’ sign on the naming of a United States Senator; involved himself personally in pay-to-play schemes with the urgency of a salesman meeting his annual sales target; and corruptly used his office in an effort to trample editorial voices of criticism,” Fitzgerald said. “The citizens of Illinois deserve public officials who act solely in the public’s interest, without putting a price tag on government appointments, contracts and decisions.”

FBI spokesman Frank Bochte said federal agents arrested the governor and Harris simultaneously at their homes at 6:15 a.m. and took them to the Chicago FBI headquarters. Bochte said he did not know if either man was handcuffed or if the governor’s family was their North Side home at the time of his arrest. He did say Blagojevich and Harris both were given time to get dressed before being taken to the headquarters.

Corruption in the Blagojevich administration has been the focus of a federal investigation involving an alleged $7 million scheme aimed at squeezing kickbacks out of companies seeking business from the state.

Some of the allegations in the 76-page Affidavit according to USA Today.

The FBI complaint said that in one of the phone calls, Balgojevicfh entertained the idea of appointing himself to the seat if none of the mentioned hopefuls offer him anything of value.

“I’m going to keep this Senate option for me a real possibility, you know, and therefore I can drive a hard bargain,” he allegedly said. Later, he referred to the Senate as a “valuable thing, you just don’t give it away for nothing.”

The official complaint alleged that, Blagojevich, on various occasions, discussed exchanging the Senate appointment for:

• A substantial salary for himself at a either a non-profit foundation or an organization affiliated with labor unions;

• Placing his wife on paid corporate boards where he speculated she might garner as much as $150,000 a year;

• Promises of campaign funds — including cash up front;

• A cabinet post or ambassadorship for himself.

Blagojevich also was charged in the federal complaint with illegally threatening to withhold state assistance to Tribune Co., the owner of the Chicago Tribune, in the sale of Wrigley Field, according to a federal criminal complaint.

In return for state assistance, Blagojevich allegedly wanted the Tribune to fire members of the paper’s editorial board.

The complaint alleges that Harris, the governor’s chief of staff, allegedly told Balgojevich that he had spoken with an unidentified “Tribune Financial Advisor” to deliver the message that the governor would be cooperative with the state assistance in exchange for the dismissal of editorial board members, particularly deputy editorial page editor John McCormick, a strong critic of Blagojevich’s administration.

Harris allegedly said that the advisor is “very sensitive to the issue” and had advised about “certain corporate reorganizations and budget cuts coming and, reading between the lines, he’s going after that section.” To which Blagojevich allegedly replied in the taped conversation: “Oh, that’s fantastic.”

Later, however, Harris reported that there had been some layoffs at the newspaper, but that the editorial board was not among them.

UPDATE x2: U.S. Attorney, Patrick Fitzgerald, News Conference

The Feds announced that Gov. Blagojevich worked feverishly to get as much money from contractors through pay-for-play politics as possible before the end of the year.  Fitzgerald said that Blagojevich “sold influence like a salesman meeting a sales target.”  In one of the conversations, Blagojevich was reported to be upset about being “stuck” as governor.  Fitzgerald reported that the government has had wiretaps in place since 2004.  Such wiretaps were placed at Blagojevich ‘s office and inside his home. 

AG Fitzgerald went on to say that the complaint makes NO allegations against the President elect or any of his staff and cautioned people not to cast dispersions against anyone based on the fact that an unscrupulous individual tried to figure out a way to approach such individual in an effort to better his own political or economic position.  The U.S. Attorney also reported that Governor Blagojevich said the following regarding trying to get something from the Pres. elect. “[T]he Obama team are not willing to give me anything but appreciation…f@#&  them.”  Fitzgerald repeated that there is no reference in the complaint about any conversations that the governor had with the Pres. elect or any allegations in the complaint that any such conversation ever took place.

As to the senate seat appointment, Fitzgerald believes that because these allegations are now in the light of day it is less likely that the Governor can get away with appointing a person through corrupt means. Charges include solicitation of a bribe and mail fraud.  Blagojevich is scheduled to appear in court today on the charges.

UPDATE x3:  President-elect Obama said that he is “saddened and sobbered” by the Blagojevich case.  Also said that he has “had no contact with the Governor or his office and so I was not aware of what was happening.”  Lastly, the Pres. elect said “it is a sad day for Illinois, beyond that I don’t think its appropriate to comment.”

Last week, Supreme Court Justice, Clarence Thomas, in a highly unusual move, requested that his colleagues review the petition, Donforio v. Wells, to grant an emergency stay after it was rejected by his colleague Justice David Souter.  Well his colleagues reviewed and considered the petition last Friday and delivered their answer today…..REJECTED and effectively DENIED further review of the case.

The jist of what the case argued:

“Since Barack Obama´s father was a citizen of Kenya, and therefore subject to the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom at the time of Senator Obama´s birth, then Senator Obama was a British citizen ‘at birth,’ just like the framers of the Constitution, and therefore, even if he were to produce an original birth certificate proving he were born on U.S. soil, he still wouldn´t be eligible to be president.” Washington Times, quoting Donofrio

Reactions to Thomas requesting such a review in the first place:

Trevor Morrison

[Trevor] Morrison [a professor of law at Columbia University School of Law] said that Thomas’s actions are once in a decade. “When that does happen, the case has to be of an extraordinary nature and this does not fit that circumstance,” he said. “My guess would be that Thomas accepted the case so it would go before the conference where it will likely be denied. If Thomas denied the petition, then Donofrio would be free to go to the other justices for their consideration. “This way, I would guess, the matter would be done with. Petitions of Donofrio’s types are hardly ever granted.” New America Media 3 Dec

Earl Hutchison in American Chronicle:

Thomas´s legal meddle on the Obama birth certificate [sic] non-issue fits perfectly in with his jaundiced interpretation of law and its practice and his private vow to get revenge on his liberal tormentors. Obama is the latest would be victim. He almost certainly stirred Thomas´s personal ire back in August. Obama was asked at a joint church gathering with Republican rival John McCain at the mega Saddleback church in Lake Forest, California which justice he wouldn´t have nominated to the Supreme Court. He didn´t hesitate. He named Thomas. And he told why.

“I don´t think that he was a strong enough jurist or legal thinker at the time, for that elevation, setting aside the fact that I profoundly disagree with his interpretations of a lot of the constitution.” Earl Hutchinson in American Chronicle.  He went on to say that [Thomas] wants more judges to think and act like him on the bench. Obama has made it clear not only that he would not appoint another Thomas to the High Court but that the type of judges he´d appoint will be the diametric opposite of him.

Les Payne opines:

The bitter Justice Thomas is seemingly bent these days on exacting revenge on the larger black community. It is perhaps in this light that we catch a glimpse of him stoking the Donofrio case as much for Limbaugh laughs as for the backhand it applies to the aspirations of African-Americans. Newsday

Radio Address on the Economy
Saturday, December 6, 2008

Good morning.

Yesterday, we received another painful reminder of the serious economic challenge our country is facing when we learned that 533,000 jobs were lost in November alone, the single worst month of job loss in over three decades. That puts the total number of jobs lost in this recession at nearly 2 million.

But this isn’t about numbers. It’s about each of the families those numbers represent. It’s about the rising unease and frustration that so many of you are feeling during this holiday season. Will you be able to put your kids through college? Will you be able to afford health care? Will you be able to retire with dignity and security? Will your job or your husband’s job or your daughter’s or son’s job be the next one cut?

These are the questions that keep so many Americans awake at night. But it is not the first time these questions have been asked. We have faced difficult times before, times when our economic destiny seemed to be slipping out of our hands. And at each moment, we have risen to meet the challenge, as one people united by a sense of common purpose. And I know that Americans can rise to the moment once again.

But we need action – and action now. That is why I have asked my economic team to develop an economic recovery plan for both Wall Street and Main Street that will help save or create at least two and a half million jobs, while rebuilding our infrastructure, improving our schools, reducing our dependence on oil, and saving billions of dollars.

We won’t do it the old Washington way. We won’t just throw money at the problem. We’ll measure progress by the reforms we make and the results we achieve — by the jobs we create, by the energy we save, by whether America is more competitive in the world.

Today, I am announcing a few key parts of my plan. First, we will launch a massive effort to make public buildings more energy-efficient. Our government now pays the highest energy bill in the world. We need to change that. We need to upgrade our federal buildings by replacing old heating systems and installing efficient light bulbs. That won’t just save you, the American taxpayer, billions of dollars each year. It will put people back to work.

Second, we will create millions of jobs by making the single largest new investment in our national infrastructure since the creation of the federal highway system in the 1950s. We’ll invest your precious tax dollars in new and smarter ways, and we’ll set a simple rule – use it or lose it. If a state doesn’t act quickly to invest in roads and bridges in their communities, they’ll lose the money.

Third, my economic recovery plan will launch the most sweeping effort to modernize and upgrade school buildings that this country has ever seen.  We will repair broken schools, make them energy-efficient, and put new computers in our classrooms. Because to help our children compete in a 21st century economy, we need to send them to 21st century schools.

As we renew our schools and highways, we’ll also renew our information superhighway. It is unacceptable that the United States ranks 15th in the world in broadband adoption. Here, in the country that invented the internet, every child should have the chance to get online, and they’ll get that chance when I’m President – because that’s how we’ll strengthen America’s competitiveness in the world.

In addition to connecting our libraries and schools to the internet, we must also ensure that our hospitals are connected to each other through the internet. That is why the economic recovery plan I’m proposing will help modernize our health care system – and that won’t just save jobs, it will save lives. We will make sure that every doctor’s office and hospital in this country is using cutting edge technology and electronic medical records so that we can cut red tape, prevent medical mistakes, and help save billions of dollars each year.

These are a few parts of the economic recovery plan that I will be rolling out in the coming weeks. When Congress reconvenes in January, I look forward to working with them to pass a plan immediately. We need to act with the urgency this moment demands to save or create at least two and a half million jobs so that the nearly two million Americans who’ve lost them know that they have a future. And that’s exactly what I intend to do as President of the United States.

Thanks for listening.

President-Elect Barack Obama just announced two more members of his economic team. This time for the Office of Management and Budget.

Director of the Office of Management and Budget – Peter Orszag

Deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget -  Robert Nabors, currently serves as U.S. House Appropriations Committee staff director, former advisor to the White House budget director under the Clinton administration

 11/25/08

Good morning.

I speak to you today, mindful that we meet at a moment of great challenge for America, as our credit markets are stressed, and our families are struggling. But as difficult as these times are, I’m confident that we will rise to meet this challenge – if we’re willing to band together and recognize that Wall Street cannot thrive so long as Main Street is struggling; if we’re willing to summon a new spirit of ingenuity and determination; and if Americans of great intellect, broad experience, and good character are willing to serve in government at this hour of need.

Yesterday, I announced four such Americans to help lead the economic team that will advise me as we seek to climb out of this crisis. Today, Vice President-elect Biden and I are pleased to announce two other key members of our team – Peter Orszag as Director and Robert Nabors as Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget.

Before I explain why I selected these outstanding public servants, let me just say a word about the work I am asking them to undertake. As I said yesterday, the economic crisis we face demands that we invest immediately in a series of measures that will help save or create two and a half million jobs and put tax cuts in the pockets of the hard-pressed middle class. Many of those new jobs will come in areas such as energy independence, technology, and health care modernization that will strengthen our economy for the future.

But if we’re going to make the investments we need, we must also be willing to shed the spending we don’t. In these challenging times, when we are facing both rising deficits and a sinking economy, budget reform is not an option. It is an imperative. We cannot sustain a system that bleeds billions of taxpayer dollars on programs that have outlived their usefulness, or exist solely because of the power of a politician, lobbyist, or interest group. We simply cannot afford it.

This isn’t about big government or small government. It’s about building a smarter government that focuses on what works. That is why I will ask my team to think anew and act anew to meet our new challenges. We will go through our federal budget – page by page, line by line – eliminating those programs we don’t need, and insisting that those we do operate in a sensible cost-effective way.

Let me give you one example of what I’m talking about. There’s a report today that from 2003 to 2006, millionaire farmers received $49 million in crop subsidies even though they were earning more than the $2.5 million cutoff for such subsidies. If this is true, it is a prime example of the kind of waste I intend to end as President.

And we will also focus on one of the biggest, long-run challenges that our budget faces – namely, the rising cost of health care in both the public and private sectors. This is not just a challenge but also an opportunity to improve the health care that Americans rely on and to bring down the costs that taxpayers, businesses, and families have to pay.

That is what the OMB will do in my administration – it will not only help design a budget and manage its implementation, it will also help make sure that our government – your government – is more efficient and more effective at serving the American people.

There is no better person to help lead this effort as Director of the OMB than my friend Peter Orszag. Peter has been one of our nation’s leading voices on budgetary issues. It is said that a nation’s budget reflects its priorities. I believe that is true. And I know that Peter will bring to his work at the OMB a set of priorities that I – and the American people – share.

Throughout his career, he has made significant contributions in our understanding of all the major economic challenges we are now confronting – from reducing medical costs to saving Social Security to fighting global climate change to helping put the dream of a college degree within reach for more students.

As Director of the Congressional Budget Office, he reenergized and reinvigorated the agency, while shifting its focus to confront the health care crisis that is not only a cause of so much suffering for so many families, but a rapidly growing portion of our budget and a drag on our entire economy.

But it is not simply Peter’s past career that makes him qualified for his new appointment, it is his vision for the future. He believes, as I do, that even as we take steps to restore discipline to our budget, we must also take the steps right now that are necessary to solve our immediate crisis.

Peter doesn’t need a map to tell him where the bodies are buried in the federal budget. He knows what works and what doesn’t, what is worthy of our precious tax dollars and what is not. Just because a program, a special interest tax break or corporate subsidy is tucked into this year’s budget, does not mean it should survive the next. The old ways of Washington simply can’t meet the challenges of today and tomorrow.

And no one is more able or more qualified to assist Peter in this work as Deputy Director of the OMB than Robert Nabors. Rob will bring to this post experience in the executive branch, at the OMB, where he helped the Clinton administration achieve balanced budgets, as well as in the legislative branch, where he led the appropriations committee staff as a driving force for a responsible budget. Together with Peter, Rob will help steer our budget through Congress so that I can sign it into law.

Now, let me be clear: these appointments and the appointments I announced yesterday are not the sum of my economic team. These appointees will work with those I have yet to announce – including the secretaries of Energy and Labor, Commerce and Health and Human Services and others in my administration – to design a recovery plan for both Wall Street and Main Street, and to put our economy on a path to long-term growth and prosperity.

Because at this moment, we must not only restore confidence in our markets. We must also restore the confidence of middle class families that their government is on their side – that it’s working for them – on their behalf – to meet their families’ needs. And that is exactly what I intend to do as President of the United States of America. Thank you.

President-Elect Barack Obama just announced the names of his senior economic advisers.  The group brings a broad range of experience and expertise and are more centrist then left.  Most importantly, they are not cronies but individuals who are business leaders and leading scholars of economics.  The mere mention of Timothy Geithner as Treasury Secretary sent the stock market soaring 500 points on Friday. President Elect Obama made some policy pronouncements and his team in the last few days.  The President-elect will very soon after he takes office, if not done by the Bush administration, pass a massive stimulus plan to confront the current economic crisis.  Pres-Elect Obama announced that we need a big stimulus package “to jolt the economy back into shape.” No tax increase for the wealthy in the January package but will ask Congress to prepare tax-cuts for the low and middle income taxpayers.  The President-elect and his administration plans to hit the ground running on January 20th.  As Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland said:

“We expect to have during the first couple of weeks of January a package for the president’s consideration when he takes office.”

The key members of the Obama Economic Dream Team are:

Treasury Secretary – Timothy Geithner
National Economic Council Director – Larry Summers 
Chair Council of Economic Advisers – Christina Romer                                                                                                                                                                         Director of the Domestic Policy Council – Melody Barnes    (Executive Vice President for policy at the Center for American Progress, chief counsel Sen. Ted Kennedy on the Senate Judiciary Committee.  Melody will essentially be the czar of domestic policy in the Obama Administration.

In Pres. Elect Obama’s choice of nominees for his economic team it is clear that he intends to strike a balance between experience and fresh  thinking.  Both Christina Romer and Melody Barnes both represent a fresh, outside-the-beltway, way of thinking in Washington.  While Larry Summers and Timothy Geithner represent experience in the ways of Washington.

PROGRESS

until the first polls open.  We get one chance, one opportunity, one moment, to make history by ensuring that Sen. Barack Obama is elected President of the United States of America.  We are prepared and have done all the ground work, now we have to deliver.  The Get Out The Vote element of this campaign is the most important.   Yesterday we had 13,000 people on the streets of Virginia.  They  knocked on 500,000 doors.  All the other battleground states need to step up to keep up.  Send me information on the ground game in your state. How can you help….what can you do…..phonebank?  Canvass for Obama in the battleground  state of Virginia and turn Virginia blue for the first time in 44 years!  Help at least five people  get to the polls on Election Day.  Lend your skills as an attorney to Obama’s voter protection program.  Donate to this built from the ground up campaign.  This is the last stretch, do not take anything for granted, ignore the polls, help get out the vote.  Volunteer at your local Campaign For Change  office and help to Get Out The Vote today and tomorrow.   This is our time, this is our moment,  DO YOUR PART to make this happen.  www.Barack.Obama.com

Remarks of Senator Barack Obama
“One Week”
Closing Argument Speech
As Prepared for Delivery
Monday, October 27th, 2008
Canton, Ohio
 
 
One week.  
 
After decades of broken politics in Washington, eight years of failed policies from George Bush, and twenty-one months of a campaign that has taken us from the rocky coast of Maine to the sunshine of California, we are one week away from change in America.  
 
In one week, you can turn the page on policies that have put the greed and irresponsibility of Wall Street before the hard work and sacrifice of folks on Main Street.  
 
In one week, you can choose policies that invest in our middle-class, create new jobs, and grow this economy from the bottom-up so that everyone has a chance to succeed; from the CEO to the secretary and the janitor; from the factory owner to the men and women who work on its floor.
 
In one week, you can put an end to the politics that would divide a nation just to win an election; that tries to pit region against region, city against town, Republican against Democrat; that asks us to fear at a time when we need hope.  
 
In one week, at this defining moment in history, you can give this country the change we need.
 
We began this journey in the depths of winter nearly two years ago, on the steps of the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Illinois.  Back then, we didn’t have much money or many endorsements.  We weren’t given much of a chance by the polls or the pundits, and we knew how steep our climb would be.  
 
But I also knew this.  I knew that the size of our challenges had outgrown the smallness of our politics.  I believed that Democrats and Republicans and Americans of every political stripe were hungry for new ideas, new leadership, and a new kind of politics – one that favors common sense over ideology; one that focuses on those values and ideals we hold in common as Americans.  
 
Most of all, I believed in your ability to make change happen.  I knew that the American people were a decent, generous people who are willing to work hard and sacrifice for future generations.  And I was convinced that when we come together, our voices are more powerful than the most entrenched lobbyists, or the most vicious political attacks, or the full force of a status quo in Washington that wants to keep things just the way they are.  
 
Twenty-one months later, my faith in the American people has been vindicated.  That’s how we’ve come so far and so close – because of you.  That’s how we’ll change this country – with your help.  And that’s why we can’t afford to slow down, sit back, or let up for one day, one minute, or one second in this last week.  Not now.  Not when so much is at stake.  
 
We are in the middle of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.  760,000 workers have lost their jobs this year. Businesses and families can’t get credit.  Home values are falling. Pensions are disappearing.  Wages are lower than they’ve been in a decade, at a time when the cost of health care and college have never been higher.  It’s getting harder and harder to make the mortgage, or fill up your gas tank, or even keep the electricity on at the end of the month.  
 
At a moment like this, the last thing we can afford is four more years of the tired, old theory that says we should give more to billionaires and big corporations and hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else.  The last thing we can afford is four more years where no one in Washington is watching anyone on Wall Street because politicians and lobbyists killed common-sense regulations.  Those are the theories that got us into this mess.  They haven’t worked, and it’s time for change.  That’s why I’m running for President of the United States.
 
Now, Senator McCain has served this country honorably. And he can point to a few moments over the past eight years where he has broken from George Bush – on torture, for example.  He deserves credit for that.  But when it comes to the economy – when it comes to the central issue of this election – the plain truth is that John McCain has stood with this President every step of the way.  Voting for the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy that he once opposed.  Voting for the Bush budgets that spent us into debt.  Calling for less regulation twenty-one times just this year.  Those are the facts.  
 
And now, after twenty-one months and three debates, Senator McCain still has not been able to tell the American people a single major thing he’d do differently from George Bush when it comes to the economy. Senator McCain says that we can’t spend the next four years waiting for our luck to change, but you understand that the biggest gamble we can take is embracing the same old Bush-McCain policies that have failed us for the last eight years.
 
It’s not change when John McCain wants to give a $700,000 tax cut to the average Fortune 500 CEO.  It’s not change when he wants to give $200 billion to the biggest corporations or $4 billion to the oil companies or $300 billion to the same Wall Street banks that got us into this mess.  It’s not change when he comes up with a tax plan that doesn’t give a penny of relief to more than 100 million middle-class Americans.  That’s not change.  
 
Look – we’ve tried it John McCain’s way.  We’ve tried it George Bush’s way.  Deep down, Senator McCain knows that, which is why his campaign said that “if we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose.” That’s why he’s spending these last weeks calling me every name in the book.  Because that’s how you play the game in Washington. If you can’t beat your opponent’s ideas, you distort those ideas and maybe make some up.  If you don’t have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run away from. You make a big election about small things.
 
Ohio, we are here to say “Not this time.  Not this year.  Not when so much is at stake.”  Senator McCain might be worried about losing an election, but I’m worried about Americans who are losing their homes, and their jobs, and their life savings.  I can take one more week of John McCain’s attacks, but this country can’t take four more years of the same old politics and the same failed policies.  It’s time for something new.  
 
The question in this election is not “Are you better off than you were four years ago?”  We know the answer to that.  The real question is, “Will this country be better off four years from now?”
 
I know these are difficult times for America.  But I also know that we have faced difficult times before.  The American story has never been about things coming easy – it’s been about rising to the moment when the moment was hard.  It’s about seeing the highest mountaintop from the deepest of valleys.  It’s about rejecting fear and division for unity of purpose.  That’s how we’ve overcome war and depression.  That’s how we’ve won great struggles for civil rights and women’s rights and worker’s rights.  And that’s how we’ll emerge from this crisis stronger and more prosperous than we were before – as one nation; as one people.  
 
Remember, we still have the most talented, most productive workers of any country on Earth.  We’re still home to innovation and technology, colleges and universities that are the envy of the world. Some of the biggest ideas in history have come from our small businesses and our research facilities.  So there’s no reason we can’t make this century another American century.  We just need a new direction.  We need a new politics.    
 
Now, I don’t believe that government can or should try to solve all our problems.  I know you don’t either.  But I do believe that government should do that which we cannot do for ourselves – protect us from harm and provide a decent education for our children; invest in new roads and new science and technology.  It should reward drive and innovation and growth in the free market, but it should also make sure businesses live up to their responsibility to create American jobs, and look out for American workers, and play by the rules of the road.  It should ensure a shot at success not only for those with money and power and influence, but for every single American who’s willing to work.  That’s how we create not just more millionaires, but more middle-class families. That’s how we make sure businesses have customers that can afford their products and services.  That’s how we’ve always grown the American economy – from the bottom-up.  John McCain calls this socialism.  I call it opportunity, and there is nothing more American than that.  
 
Understand, if we want get through this crisis, we need to get beyond the old ideological debates and divides between left and right.  We don’t need bigger government or smaller government. We need a better government – a more competent government – a government that upholds the values we hold in common as Americans.
 
We don’t have to choose between allowing our financial system to collapse and spending billions of taxpayer dollars to bail out Wall Street banks.  As President, I will ensure that the financial rescue plan helps stop foreclosures and protects your money instead of enriching CEOs.  And I will put in place the common-sense regulations I’ve been calling for throughout this campaign so that Wall Street can never cause a crisis like this again.  That’s the change we need.
 
The choice in this election isn’t between tax cuts and no tax cuts.  It’s about whether you believe we should only reward wealth, or whether we should also reward the work and workers who create it.  I will give a tax break to 95% of Americans who work every day and get taxes taken out of their paychecks every week.  I’ll eliminate income taxes for seniors making under $50,000 and give homeowners and working parents more of a break.  And I’ll help pay for this by asking the folks who are making more than $250,000 a year to go back to the tax rate they were paying in the 1990s.  No matter what Senator McCain may claim, here are the facts – if you make under $250,000, you will not see your taxes increase by a single dime – not your income taxes, not your payroll taxes, not your capital gains taxes.  Nothing.  Because the last thing we should do in this economy is raise taxes on the middle-class.    
 
When it comes to jobs, the choice in this election is not between putting up a wall around America or allowing every job to disappear overseas.  The truth is, we won’t be able to bring back every job that we’ve lost, but that doesn’t mean we should follow John McCain’s plan to keep giving tax breaks to corporations that send American jobs overseas.  I will end those breaks as President, and I will give American businesses a $3,000 tax credit for every job they create right here in the United States of America.  I’ll eliminate capital gains taxes for small businesses and start-up companies that are the engine of job creation in this country.  We’ll create two million new jobs by rebuilding our crumbling roads, and bridges, and schools, and by laying broadband lines to reach every corner of the country.  And I will invest $15 billion a year in renewable sources of energy to create five million new energy jobs over the next decade – jobs that pay well and can’t be outsourced; jobs building solar panels and wind turbines and a new electricity grid; jobs building the fuel-efficient cars of tomorrow, not in Japan or South Korea but here in the United States of America; jobs that will help us eliminate the oil we import from the Middle East in ten years and help save the planet in the bargain.  That’s how America can lead again.
 
When it comes to health care, we don’t have to choose between a government-run health care system and the unaffordable one we have now.  If you already have health insurance, the only thing that will change under my plan is that we will lower premiums.  If you don’t have health insurance, you’ll be able to get the same kind of health insurance that Members of Congress get for themselves.  We’ll invest in preventative care and new technology to finally lower the cost of health care for families, businesses, and the entire economy.  And as someone who watched his own mother spend the final months of her life arguing with insurance companies because they claimed her cancer was a pre-existing condition and didn’t want to pay for treatment, I will stop insurance companies from discriminating against those who are sick and need care most.  
 
When it comes to giving every child a world-class education so they can compete in this global economy for the jobs of the 21st century, the choice is not between more money and more reform – because our schools need both.  As President, I will invest in early childhood education, recruit an army of new teachers, pay them more, and give them more support.  But I will also demand higher standards and more accountability from our teachers and our schools.  And I will make a deal with every American who has the drive and the will but not the money to go to college:  if you commit to serving your community or your country, we will make sure you can afford your tuition.  You invest in America, America will invest in you, and together, we will move this country forward.
 
And when it comes to keeping this country safe, we don’t have to choose between retreating from the world and fighting a war without end in Iraq.  It’s time to stop spending $10 billion a month in Iraq while the Iraqi government sits on a huge surplus.  As President, I will end this war by asking the Iraqi government to step up, and finally finish the fight against bin Laden and the al Qaeda terrorists who attacked us on 9/11.  I will never hesitate to defend this nation, but I will only send our troops into harm’s way with a clear mission and a sacred commitment to give them the equipment they need in battle and the care and benefits they deserve when they come home.  I will build new partnerships to defeat the threats of the 21st century, and I will restore our moral standing, so that America is once again that last, best hope for all who are called to the cause of freedom, who long for lives of peace, and who yearn for a better future.
 
I won’t stand here and pretend that any of this will be easy – especially now.  The cost of this economic crisis, and the cost of the war in Iraq, means that Washington will have to tighten its belt and put off spending on things we can afford to do without.  On this, there is no other choice.  As President, I will go through the federal budget, line-by-line, ending programs that we don’t need and making the ones we do need work better and cost less.  
 
But as I’ve said from the day we began this journey all those months ago, the change we need isn’t just about new programs and policies.  It’s about a new politics – a politics that calls on our better angels instead of encouraging our worst instincts; one that reminds us of the obligations we have to ourselves and one another.  
 
Part of the reason this economic crisis occurred is because we have been living through an era of profound irresponsibility.  On Wall Street, easy money and an ethic of “what’s good for me is good enough” blinded greedy executives to the danger in the decisions they were making.  On Main Street, lenders tricked people into buying homes they couldn’t afford.  Some folks knew they couldn’t afford those houses and bought them anyway.  In Washington, politicians spent money they didn’t have and allowed lobbyists to set the agenda. They scored political points instead of solving our problems, and even after the greatest attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor, all we were asked to do by our President was to go out and shop.
 
That is why what we have lost in these last eight years cannot be measured by lost wages or bigger trade deficits alone.  What has also been lost is the idea that in this American story, each of us has a role to play.  Each of us has a responsibility to work hard and look after ourselves and our families, and each of us has a responsibility to our fellow citizens.  That’s what’s been lost these last eight years – our sense of common purpose; of higher purpose.  And that’s what we need to restore right now.  
 
Yes, government must lead the way on energy independence, but each of us must do our part to make our homes and our businesses more efficient. Yes, we must provide more ladders to success for young men who fall into lives of crime and despair.  But all of us must do our part as parents to turn off the television and read to our children and take responsibility for providing the love and guidance they need.  Yes, we can argue and debate our positions passionately, but at this defining moment, all of us must summon the strength and grace to bridge our differences and unite in common effort – black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American; Democrat and Republican, young and old, rich and poor, gay and straight, disabled or not.  
 
In this election, we cannot afford the same political games and tactics that are being used to pit us against one another and make us afraid of one another.  The stakes are too high to divide us by class and region and background; by who we are or what we believe.  
 
Because despite what our opponents may claim, there are no real or fake parts of this country.  There is no city or town that is more pro-America than anywhere else – we are one nation, all of us proud, all of us patriots.  There are patriots who supported this war in Iraq and patriots who opposed it; patriots who believe in Democratic policies and those who believe in Republican policies.  The men and women who serve in our battlefields may be Democrats and Republicans and Independents, but they have fought together and bled together and some died together under the same proud flag.  They have not served a Red America or a Blue America – they have served the United States of America.
 
It won’t be easy, Ohio.  It won’t be quick.  But you and I know that it is time to come together and change this country.  Some of you may be cynical and fed up with politics.  A lot of you may be disappointed and even angry with your leaders.  You have every right to be.  But despite all of this, I ask of you what has been asked of Americans throughout our history.  
 
I ask you to believe – not just in my ability to bring about change, but in yours.
 
I know this change is possible.  Because I have seen it over the last twenty-one months.  Because in this campaign, I have had the privilege to witness what is best in America.  
 
I’ve seen it in lines of voters that stretched around schools and churches; in the young people who cast their ballot for the first time, and those not so young folks who got involved again after a very long time.  I’ve seen it in the workers who would rather cut back their hours than see their friends lose their jobs; in the neighbors who take a stranger in when the floodwaters rise; in the soldiers who re-enlist after losing a limb.  I’ve seen it in the faces of the men and women I’ve met at countless rallies and town halls across the country, men and women who speak of their struggles but also of their hopes and dreams.
 
I still remember the email that a woman named Robyn sent me after I met her in Ft. Lauderdale.  Sometime after our event, her son nearly went into cardiac arrest, and was diagnosed with a heart condition that could only be treated with a procedure that cost tens of thousands of dollars.  Her insurance company refused to pay, and their family just didn’t have that kind of money.  
 
In her email, Robyn wrote, “I ask only this of you – on the days where you feel so tired you can’t think of uttering another word to the people, think of us.  When those who oppose you have you down, reach deep and fight back harder.”
 
Ohio, that’s what hope is – that thing inside us that insists, despite all evidence to the contrary, that something better is waiting around the bend; that insists there are better days ahead.  If we’re willing to work for it.  If we’re willing to shed our fears and our doubts.  If we’re willing to reach deep down inside ourselves when we’re tired and come back fighting harder.
 
Hope!  That’s what kept some of our parents and grandparents going when times were tough.  What led them to say, “Maybe I can’t go to college, but if I save a little bit each week my child can; maybe I can’t have my own business but if I work really hard my child can open one of her own.”  It’s what led immigrants from distant lands to come to these shores against great odds and carve a new life for their families in America; what led those who couldn’t vote to march and organize and stand for freedom; that led them to cry out, “It may look dark tonight, but if I hold on to hope, tomorrow will be brighter.”  
 
That’s what this election is about.  That is the choice we face right now.
 
Don’t believe for a second this election is over.  Don’t think for a minute that power concedes.  We have to work like our future depends on it in this last week, because it does.     
 
In one week, we can choose an economy that rewards work and creates new jobs and fuels prosperity from the bottom-up.  
 
In one week, we can choose to invest in health care for our families, and education for our kids, and renewable energy for our future.  
 
In one week, we can choose hope over fear, unity over division, the promise of change over the power of the status quo.  
 
In one week, we can come together as one nation, and one people, and once more choose our better history. 

That’s what’s at stake.  That’s what we’re fighting for.  And if in this last week, you will knock on some doors for me, and make some calls for me, and talk to your neighbors, and convince your friends; if you will stand with me, and fight with me, and give me your vote, then I promise you this – we will not just win Ohio, we will not just win this election, but together, we will change this country and we will change the world.  Thank you, God bless you, and may God bless America.

There are exactly 10 days, 21 hours, 38 minutes, to the minute before the first polls open on November 4th. My question to all of you is….what are you doing to make history?  What will you tell your grandchildren that you contributed to this historic event?  Will you tell them that you phonebanked for Obama through his revolutionary Internet phonebanking tool?  Will you tell them that you canvassed for Obama in the battleground  state of Virginia and turned Virginia blue for the first time in 44 years?! Will you say that you helped get at least five people to the polls on Election Day?  Will you say that during this historic election you lent your skills as an attorney to Obama’s voter protection program?  Will you say that you donated to Obama’s historic, built from the ground up, campaign?  What exactly will you say that you did to help create this historic movement for change?  This is the last stretch, do not take anything for granted, regardless of what the polls say, it is up the you to put Sen. Barack Obama over the finish line.  Volunteer at your local Campaign For Change  office and help to Get Out The Vote on November 4th.  100 billion more registered voters mean nothing if people do not come out, with their patience, and VOTE.  Volunteer to entertain people who are waiting in line to vote….bring water or snacks to folks who are waiting in line to vote.  This is our opportunity to experience what they experienced in the Sixties, our opportunity to be a part of something so much bigger than ourselves, our opportunity to contribute to something so much more important than we ever thought it could be, our opportunity to return America to the shining beacon to the world that it once was.  This is our time, this is our moment,  DO YOUR PART to make this happen.  www.Barack.Obama.com

Expanded Access to Capital

Barack will unlock credit needed to keep small businesses growing by implementing a nationwide emergency lending facility for small businesses.

Provide Temporary Tax Relief

To stimulate investment and job growth and spark our long-term recovery, the Small Business Rescue Plan will provide temporary business tax incentives through 2009.

Eliminate Capital Gains Taxes

Barack’s plan will eliminate all capital gains taxes on investments made in small and start-up businesses, encouraging investment and innovation.

Cut or Freeze Taxes for 99% of Small Business Owners

To help individuals with small business income — including the country’s more than 20 million self-employed individuals — Barack will provide a $1,000 Making Work Pay tax credit to 95 percent of workers and their families, and freeze any tax increases for the remaining 4 percent.

Lower Health Care Costs and Ease the Health Care Burden

Barack will give small businesses new incentives, help cut costs, and improve efficiency for all firms to provide health care to their workers at an affordable rate.

Expand Opportunity for Small Businesses

Barack will put in place far-reaching reforms to expand the ability of women-, service-disabled veteran-, and minority-owned firms to compete in today’s marketplace

SEE FULL PLAN

Four-star General Colin Powell said that Sen. Barack Obama has the makings of becoming “an exceptional president” when he endorsed the Illinois senator on Sunday’s Meet the Press.  For those who are asking what this high profile foreign policy and military expert endorsement of Sen. Obama will do in terms of votes, Sen. Obama’s numbers increased today by two points in the Reuters/Cspan/Zogby daily tracking poll.  On Sunday before the endorsement the numbers were Obama 48 to McCain’s 45.  After Gen. Powell’s endorsement, Obama’s numbers bumped up 50 to McCain’s 44.  Sen. Obama also gained three points among Catholics (primarly white voters).  A shout out to Obama: Sen. Obama has built a very broad coalition of voters.  The Illinois senator enjoys 40% of the white vote (average for democratic candidates Clinton, Gore, Kerry), 95% of the black vote, and 70% of the latino vote.  His support in the asian community is also very significant.  He is a candidate that truly represents all Americans instead of a small part of it.  The Reuters?Cspan/Zogby poll is a three day tracking poll where the average of three days polling is given as the final result.  On Sunday alone, after the Powell endorsement, Sen. Obama’s tracking numbers jumped 10 points!  The numbers are in and the four-star General definitely made a difference.  General Powell has worked for Bush 41 and Bush 43 and is a very good friend of Sen. John McCain’s.  Therefore, for the General to come out and support Sen. Obama, his opposing party’s candidate, is a tremendous vote of confidence in Obama-Biden and more importantly a significant lack of confidence in a McCain-Palin administration.  General Powell said that Sen. McCain’s campaign is not good for the country or its reputation around the world.  The former Secretary of State went on to say that he is concerned about McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate.  The General believes that Palin is not qualified to be vice president.  Now I say to you, if Palin is not qualified to be vice president, she is certainly not qualified to be president should the recent concerns about McCain’s health be substantiated.  

One last thing.  General Powell made a really interesting point about allegations from the Right that Sen. Obama is proposing redistributing wealth through his tax policy.  To paraphrase, Powell said that all tax policy is about redistribution of wealth in some form because for the government to function it cost money.  Think about it this way, when the Republican party and its leaders Bush/McCain demand military actions in other regions of the world knowing that it will result in significant government expenditures and then demand deep tax cuts simultaneously for a small group of Americans in the highest tax bracket, this results in wealth redistribution from the middle class and the working poor to the rich.  So for republicans and McCain to call Sen. Obama tax policy wealth redistributing, they are for redistributing themselves but to a different socio-economic class…..the rich.

A record month of MONUMENTAL proportions!! The Obama campaign reported this morning that they raised more than $150 million in the month of September.  A total of 632,000 new donors, 3.1 million donors total.  The average donation for the month was $100.  The everage contribution for the entire campaign is $86. 

Barack Obama for President

Friday, October 17, 2008

THE NOMINATING process this year produced two unusually talented and qualified presidential candidates. There are few public figures we have respected more over the years than Sen. John McCain. Yet it is without ambivalence that we endorse Sen. Barack Obama for president.

Why Sen. Obama? 

Mr. Obama is a man of supple intelligence, with a nuanced grasp of complex issues and evident skill at conciliation and consensus-building. At home, we believe, he would respond to the economic crisis with a healthy respect for markets tempered by justified dismay over rising inequality and an understanding of the need for focused regulation. Abroad, the best evidence suggests that he would seek to maintain U.S. leadership and engagement, continue the fight against terrorists, and wage vigorous diplomacy on behalf of U.S. values and interests. Mr. Obama has the potential to become a great president. Given the enormous problems he would confront from his first day in office, and the damage wrought over the past eight years, we would settle for very good…..

……Mr. Obama’s temperament is unlike anything we’ve seen on the national stage in many years. He is deliberate but not indecisive; eloquent but a master of substance and detail; preternaturally confident but eager to hear opposing points of view. He has inspired millions of voters of diverse ages and races, no small thing in our often divided and cynical country. We think he is the right man for a perilous moment.

Why not Sen. McCain? 

But the stress of a campaign can reveal some essential truths, and the picture of Mr. McCain that emerged this year is far from reassuring. To pass his party’s tax-cut litmus test, he jettisoned his commitment to balanced budgets. He hasn’t come up with a coherent agenda, and at times he has seemed rash and impulsive. And we find no way to square his professed passion for America’s national security with his choice of a running mate who, no matter what her other strengths, is not prepared to be commander in chief.

Obama Campaign’s Response to McCain’s ACORN LetterSeptember 23, 2008

Honorable John C. Danforth

Honorable Warren B. Rudman

McCain-Palin 2008

P.O. Box 16118

Arlington , VA 22215

Dear Senator Danforth and Senator Rudman:

           We have received your letter of September 15, 2008, informing us of the formation of what you call the “Honest and Open Election Committee” by the McCain-Palin Campaign.

            However attractively labeled, this seems a starkly political maneuver to deflect attention from the reality of the suppression strategies pursued by national,state and Republican party committees.  This has been the shameful history of the party from the Goldwater “Operation Eagle Eye” program to the present day—a history replete with instances of systematically planned and executed programs to block access to the vote for targeted communities of voters.

           In 2004, the Republican Party, on the eve of the general election, mounted challenges to tens of thousands of voters in Nevada, Ohio and Wisconsin based on “caging lists,” that is, lists of returned mailers or based on similar information providing no legitimate grounds whatsoever for such challenges.  None of these challenges, to our knowledge, was upheld and accusations of voter fraud by national Republican Party leaders were proven utterly baseless.

           Now,in 2008, the Republican Party again appears determined to engage in tactics and strategies to deny the right to vote to qualified citizens:

·        In Michigan, the chairman of Macomb County Republican Party has threatened to use lists of persons whose homes have been foreclosed to challenge those persons at the polls.  Only after public exposure, did he deny that this was the plan for Macomb County, and this matter is now before the federal district court for the Eastern District of Michigan.

·        In Florida, the RNC has mailed non-forwardable letters to Democratic voters asking them to “confirm” their party affiliation as Republican—thereby raising doubts about their registration status and creating the basis for possible challenge lists.  Even top Republican election officials in Florida, including the Secretary of State,have publicly condemned this tactic.

·        In Wisconsin, the Republican Attorney General, who serves as co-chair of the McCain-Palin campaign in the state, has filed suit challenging the refusal of the state’s own election administration authorities to throw thousands of voters off the rolls based on dubious and impractical matches of identifying information.

·        In Ohio, Republicans are challenging the decision of the Secretary of State to allow first-time voters to obtain an absentee ballot at the time they register even though the law clearly affords this right.

Manifestly, the confusion,uncertainty, deprivations of rights and interference with efficient election administration created by these tactics, and similar ones that the Republican Party has used in recent election cycles, cannot be effectively addressed by the creation late in the day of “committees” with gloriously self-serving names. Rather, the best way to address them is for responsible Republican leaders like both of you to speak out, loudly and forcefully, to condemn these tactics, to insist that they be shut down once and for all and then to make sure that they are.

   This is what we would hope that you could accomplish.  If your concern truly lies with ‘Honest and Open Elections”, then your work is properly and effectively begins at home–with the Republican operatives who are planning and running these suppressive programs and who are being directed in these activities by the same national McCain and party leadership that recruited you to this “Committee”.

Sincerely yours,

David Plouffe,

Campaign Manager, Obama for America

• Job Creation: A New American Jobs Tax Credit. Obama is calling for a temporary tax credit for firms that create new jobs in the United States over the next two years.
• Relief to Families: Penalty-Free Withdrawals from IRAs and 401(k)s in 2008 and 2009. Obama is calling for new legislation to allow families to withdraw 15% of their retirement savings – up to a maximum of $10,000 – without facing a tax-penalty this year (including retroactively) and next year
• Relief to Homeowners: 90 day foreclosure moratorium for homeowners that are acting in good faith. Financial institutions that participate in the Treasury’s financial rescue plan should be required to adhere to a homeowners code of conduct, including a 90-day foreclosure moratorium for any homeowners living in their homes that are making good faith efforts pay their mortgages.
• Responding to the Financial Crisis: A Lending Facility to Address the Credit Crisis for States and Localities. Obama is calling on the Federal Reserve and the Treasury to work to establish a facility to lend to state and municipal governments, similar to the steps the Fed recently took to provide liquidity to the commercial paper market.

Remarks of Senator Barack Obama
“A Rescue Plan for the Middle-Class”
As Prepared for Delivery
Monday, October 13th, 2008
Toledo, Ohio

EXCERPT 

We can’t wait to help workers and families and communities who are struggling right now – who don’t know if their job or their retirement will be there tomorrow; who don’t know if next week’s paycheck will cover this month’s bills.  We need to pass an economic rescue plan for the middle-class and we need to do it now.  Today I’m proposing a number of steps that we should take immediately to stabilize our financial system, provide relief to families and communities, and help struggling homeowners.  It’s a plan that begins with one word that’s on everyone’s mind, and it’s spelled J-O-B-S. 

We’ve already lost three-quarters of a million jobs this year, and some experts say that unemployment may rise to 8% by the end of next year.  We can’t wait until then to start creating new jobs.  That’s why I’m proposing to give our businesses a new American jobs tax credit for each new employee they hire here in the United States over the next two years. 

We will also save one million jobs by creating a Jobs and Growth Fund that will provide money to states and local communities so that they can move forward with projects to rebuild and repair our roads, our bridges, and our schools.  A lot of these projects and these jobs are at risk right now because of budget shortfalls, but this fund will make sure they continue. 

…At a time when the ups and downs of the stock market have rarely been so unpredictable and dramatic, we also need to give families and retirees more flexibility and security when it comes to their retirement savings.  …Since so many Americans will be struggling to pay the bills over the next year, I propose that we allow every family to withdraw up to 15% from their IRA or 401(k) – up to a maximum of $10,000 – without any fine or penalty throughout 2009.  This will help families get through this crisis without being forced to make painful choices like selling their homes or not sending their kids to college.

…For those Americans in danger of losing their homes, today I’m also proposing a three-month moratorium on foreclosures.  If you are a bank or lender that is getting money from the rescue plan that passed Congress, and your customers are making a good-faith effort to make their mortgage payments and re-negotiate their mortgages, you will not be able to foreclose on their home for three months.  We need to give people the breathing room they need to get back on their feet. 

…It also means promoting a new ethic of responsibility.  Part of the reason this crisis occurred is that everyone was living beyond their means – from Wall Street to Washington to even some on Main Street.  CEOs got greedy. Politicians spent money they didn’t have.  Lenders tricked people into buying home they couldn’t afford and some folks knew they couldn’t afford them and bought them anyway. 

We’ve lived through an era of easy money, in which we were allowed and even encouraged to spend without limits; to borrow instead of save.

Now, I know that in an age of declining wages and skyrocketing costs, for many folks this was not a choice but a necessity.  People have been forced to turn to credit cards and home equity loans to keep up, just like our government has borrowed from China and other creditors to help pay its bills.

But we now know how dangerous that can be.  Once we get past the present emergency, which requires immediate new investments, we have to break that cycle of debt. Our long-term future requires that we do what’s necessary to scale down our deficits, grow wages and encourage personal savings again.

It’s a serious challenge.  But we can do it if we act now, and if we act as one nation.  We can bring a new era of responsibility and accountability to Wall Street and to Washington.  We can put in place common-sense regulations to prevent a crisis like this from ever happening again.  We can make investments in the technology and innovation that will restore prosperity and lead to new jobs and a new economy for the 21st century.  We can restore a sense of fairness and balance that will give ever American a fair shot at the American dream.  And above all, we can restore confidence – confidence in America, confidence in our economy, and confidence in ourselves.

Sen. John McCain has been goading Sen. Barack Obama for months to have a townhall meeting perceiving himself as some kind of master of this style of debate.  Well, last night McCain got his shot and guess what?  Obama took the school and the town in which it’s located.  CNN conducted a poll of independent  voters watching the debate and Obama won the debate 54% to 30%.  Fox News (yes that’s right), CNN, and CBS, independent viewer polls show that Obama won the debate. By the way Sen. McCain, yes the majority of voters have heard of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Voters in this election are a pretty smart group.  They are newly engaged, and to your detriment, they are paying attention to this presidential race.  So you saying that the average voter probably don’t know what is Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, is condescending and insulting to the average American’s intelligence.

As for McCain’s claim that he wants to buy up home mortgages and renegotiate those mortgages at the ”face” value of those homes….really?  Is that why McCain’s own party tried to prevent and intimidate the citizens of Michigan affected by foreclosures from voting?   Yea…somehow it is doubtful that McCain or his party has the interest of  citizens caught up in the subprime debacle at the top of their priority list.  And by the way…this is a proposal that has already been passed by Congress and is existing law.  And guess what, Sen. Obama endorsed a similar, better idea two weeks ago and the proposal is included in the $700 billion dollar bailout package.  So McCain’s claim that it is his idea is completely false.  The a better proposal and law is already on the books and had McCain did a search on “the Google” he could have found out that information before claiming the bad idea as his own.   McCain has been in Washington for 26 years, where was all the concern or effort to help “put Americans back to work” during his 26 year tenure?  All of a sudden, now that he is running for President, McCain is a friend of the working class.  Sen. McCain is again trying to mislead the American people.  We do not trust you to do what you claim because of the history of you and your campaign misleading the public.  

As for McCain’s claim that we are sending $700 billion dollars a year to countries that do not like us very much…he repeats this false claim in most of his speeches regarding energy independence.  Factcheck.org had this to say:

“We’ve got to stop sending $700 billion a year to countries that don’t want us very – like us very much” ([McCain] actually used the figure three times in the debate.) He’s talking about what we spend importing oil, and he’s said the same thing at the last debate and numerous other times. At current oil prices, the correct figure is about $493 billion. About a third of that goes to Canada, Mexico and the United Kingdom, which were still on the friendly side of the ledger last time we looked.

John McCain’s new strategy….attack Sen. Barack Obama’s character with mud whether it is true or not.  The new strategy is, according to the McCain campaign,…the continued the politics of personal destruction.  I guess Sen. McCain forgot that his campaign has been doing that for the last two months.  The McCain campaign will continue to try and distract voters from the issues, in this instance, the economy.  So instead of coming up with plausible solutions to this economic crisis, the McCain campaign strategy is to distract, distract, distract, away from the real concerns of the American people.  Voters are dealing with the realities of the present.  You know, the subprime meltdown, gas prices, education.  But the McCain campaign wants to distract away from such things and instead smear Obama with lies that were debunked during the primary.  I must say, on Sunday, the McCain surrogates did not disappoint.  From Sarah Palin at a campaign rally in California, to Nancy Pfotenhauer on CNN’s Late Edition, all attempting to slander Obama based on detestible acts engaged in by some guy almost 40 years ago.  At which time, I might add, Obama was eight years old and playing in a sand box. 

One other tactic that members of the the McCain campaign and its surrogates utilize is to overtalk their opponent in a way that prevents the opponent from exposing the fatal flaws in the majority of their claims, arguments, and positions.  All of the McCain surrogates do it.  They talk and talk trying to run out the clock on the segment in a blatant attempt to prevent the opponent from getting a word in edgewise.  Nancy Pfotenhauer does this ALOT.  Carly Fiorina also used to do it ALOT until she was silenced for saying that McCain is not qualified to run a company. 

The McCain campaign has also decided to issue attack ads against the Illinois senator.  Whether such ads are false or misleading does not matter to McCain.  As long as they attack and mislead the public about Obama’s character.  For example, the McCain campaign has an ad out that claims that Obama voted to raise taxes 94 times.  This is completely untrue and misleading to the American people.  McCain and his campaign know that these are budget resolutions or amendments that in and of themsleves could not result in higher taxes.  In fact, if we use the exact same methodology used by the McCain campaign to come up with this claim, McCain has voted to raise taxes 400 times.  They fail to mention this little tidbit in their ad.

The question being asked by a few bloggers is whether Tom Brokaw of Meet the Press will be objective when it comes to his moderating duties in the second presidential debate on October 7th.   The second debate will be a townhall meeting format but apparently the moderator will have some power to determine the direction of the meeting.  Many are suggesting that Mr. Brokaw may attempt to sabotage Sen. Obama after viewing Meet the Press last Sunday.  I guess the townhall meeeting could be stacked with McCain supporters.  Further, Media Matters points out Brokaw’s blatant bias for Sen. McCain.   The New York Times says that Brokaw is some sort of special “liason” for the McCain campaign. You be the judge.  The following was sent out by MoveOn.org:

Sunday on Meet The Press, Tom Brokaw moderated a debate between McCain strategist Steve Schmidt and Obama strategist David Axelrod on topics ranging from Iraq to the Wall Street bailout. At the end, Tom Brokaw did something strange. He opted to give himself the last word and told the audience:

In fairness to everybody here, I’m just going to end on one note. And that is that we continue to poll on who’s best equipped to be Commander in Chief, and John McCain continues to lead in that category despite the criticism from Barack Obama by a factor of 53 to 42 percent in our latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. Gentlemen, thank you very much.

1.We checked, and the latest NBC poll actually has no question about Commander in Chief.2 We contacted NBC about this, and it turns out Brokaw was referring to a poll taken weeks ago–right after the Republican convention and well before Friday’s big national security debate.3 And in each of NBC’s last two polls, Americans chose Obama over McCain.

Can you email Tom Brokaw today? Let him know that this election is very close, and we need journalists to be responsible. Giving himself the last word in the debate, and citing an outdated poll number as if it was current, was a mistake. As a responsible journalist, he should apologize for both.

Here’s where to contact him:
Tom Brokaw, Meet The Press feedback form: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/…

Then, help us track our progress by reporting your comment here:
http://pol.moveon.org/…

Barack Obama was widely praised after Friday’s presidential debate for his knowledge of foreign affairs and national security. ABC’s George Stephanopoulos summed up the consensus this way: “Overall, bottom line, the winner is Barack Obama…his number one goal was to show that he belonged on that stage…he could hold his own on national security, he did that tonight, he gets the win.”

Every major poll after that debate showed Americans thought Obama won–and a CNN poll said voters trusted Obama over McCain to handle Iraq.  Plus, three major polls released on Sunday showed Americans choosing Obama over McCain.

So Brokaw’s insertion at the end of the debate wasn’t just random–it painted an inaccurate picture of the race for voters. Can you contact Brokaw today?

Thanks for all you do.

The following is a story from an Ohio resident who convinced a racist to vote for Sen. Barack Obama for president.  An African-American woman wearing an Obama t-shirt was approached by a Caucasian elderly woman while sitting on a bench in a state park in Ohio.  The woman then asked the African-American woman if she was voting for Obama and the AA woman answered in the affirmative.  The conversation then went as follows:

(caucasian woman): “It’s nothing against you,” she said, “but I think we’re not ready for a black President.”

(AA woman): I kept it light. “I’m ready!” I joked.  Then I said, “Barack Obama is so much more than ‘just our first black President.’” Then I went on to talk to her about Obama’s policies in general terms and to generally try to get her to think of him as something other than “a black president.”

She kind of hemmed and hawed. Finally I said, “If you were to suddenly fall into this lake (the running/walking trail is around a lake) and need mouth-to-mouth, and there was me, who knows CPR, and a white person who didn’t, would you rather me not give you mouth-to-mouth because I am black?”  

She thought about it for a really long minute! Yes, folks, she thought about it! Let me pause to say this woman must be REALLY racist if she could tell me, an African American Obama supporter, she wasn’t comfortable with a black man being President.

Finally she said, “I’d want you to save me. No doubt about it.”  

So then I said, “Well, our country is just like you would be if you’d fallen into the lake. It is in dire straights. And the only person who can save it, happens to be the black guy.  Do we really want to watch our entire future be jeopardized because of something like this?”

“I never thought about it like that,” she said.  ”That puts a new spin on it.”

Then she said, “But my friends will all think I have gone nuts if I tell them I will vote for Obama.”

I told her, “You don’t have to tell them who you are voting for. It’s like when you pray for people (I got the feeling she was also religious) you don’t have to tell people what prayer you’ve said on their behalf–but they will still get all the benefit.  If Obama wins,” I told her, “you will have made their lives better, whether they realize it or not.”

“You’re telling me to lie?” she said jokingly.

“Yep,” I said. “If that’s what is going to get you to vote for Obama!”

“You’re smart,” she said. “I think you just converted me.”

“I’m not as smart as Obama!” I told her.

For all the phonebankers and canvassers who have experienced this situation more than once.