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Mama wanted to be a part of 'Obamarama'
By Ed Tant
Created Feb 16 2008 - 12:01pm
My mama liked Obama. "I hope I live long enough to vote for Barack Obama for
president," said my mother, Maggie Tant, after she watched the television
broadcast of the young Illinois senator's speech that galvanized the
Democratic convention in Boston in 2004. It was not to be. My mom passed
away a year ago, but as I cast my vote for Obama in the recent Georgia
primary I smiled and said, "This one's for you, Mama."
Obama is on a roll. On Tuesday night he "ran the table" in the three Potomac
primaries in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia. Just days
before, the energetic politico had won five primary and caucus battles in
Maine, Louisiana, Nebraska, Washington and the Virgin Islands. Obama's eight
wins in a row have brought him ahead in the delegate count in his fight
against Hillary Clinton to be the Democratic Party standard-bearer in the
November general election against Republican John McCain.
The Obama team now has won a total of 22 state primaries and caucuses,
versus a mere 10 for the Clinton campaign. "We have won east and west, north
and south, and across the heartland of this country we love," Obama told a
cheering crowd Tuesday night in Madison, Wis. - a state where he has a good
chance to pillory Hillary once again in next week's primary election there.
Meanwhile, the once-vaunted Clinton juggernaut is stalled and stuck on the
backroads of American politics.
Obama's winning ways have cut deep into Clinton's demographics, she has had
to give her ailing campaign a transfusion of millions of dollars from her
own personal finances, and two top aides have left the Clinton camp in the
past few days.
Clinton now has to win big in upcoming contests in Texas, Ohio and
Pennsylvania before she can be crowned as her party's nominee at the
Democratic convention in Denver this summer. On the hustings in 1992, Bill
Clinton crowed that he was "the comeback kid." The same moniker might not
apply to his wife.
On the Republican side, McCain's come-from-behind campaign continues to rack
up GOP primary and caucus victories that have him on a fast track to be the
nominee at his party's convention in St. Paul, Minn. in September.
A McCain presidency will mean more wars, more plutocracy masquerading as
democracy and more Bush League policies of swaggering abroad while
staggering at home. Obama might have a chance to defeat the fear, jingoism,
militarism and imperialism of a McCain regime. The same cannot be said of
Hillary Rodham Clinton.
It is both karmic and comic that Clinton's Senate vote to approve of
President Bush's Iraq invasion is coming back to haunt her. While she was
rubber-stamping Bush's war, Obama was telling a teeming multitude in Chicago
on Oct. 26, 2002, "I don't oppose all wars ... What I am opposed to is a
dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war, a war based not on reason but
on passion, not on principle but on politics.
You want a fight, President Bush? Let's fight to wean ourselves off Middle
East oil, through an energy policy that doesn't simply serve the interests
of ExxonMobil. Obama gave that speech months before the Iraq invasion was
launched and while Clinton was being hoodwinked by the war hawk plans of the
Bush regime.
Change is the mantra of the Obama campaign, but citizens shouldn't expect
any real change from either of the two U.S. political parties until the
bloated military budget is slashed, corporations are brought to heel, Israel
ceases to be America's de facto 51st state and Bush's policies like the
Patriot Act, torture and dictatorial signing statements are repealed and
rejected.
Still, an Obama presidency could do much to heal this nation at home and
restore America's stature abroad.
The race to the White House is shaping up as a grueling contest between the
"experience" of Clinton and McCain and the "idealism" of the Obama forces.
As American revolutionary Emma Goldman said nearly a century ago,
"Idealists, foolish enough to throw caution to the winds, have advanced
mankind and enriched the world."
_______
--
NOTICE: This post contains copyrighted material the use of which has not
always been authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material
available to advance understanding of
political, human rights, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues. I
believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright
Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107
"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their
spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their
government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are
suffering deeply in spirit,
and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public
debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have
patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning
back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at
stake."
-Thomas Jefferson
By Ed Tant
Created Feb 16 2008 - 12:01pm
My mama liked Obama. "I hope I live long enough to vote for Barack Obama for
president," said my mother, Maggie Tant, after she watched the television
broadcast of the young Illinois senator's speech that galvanized the
Democratic convention in Boston in 2004. It was not to be. My mom passed
away a year ago, but as I cast my vote for Obama in the recent Georgia
primary I smiled and said, "This one's for you, Mama."
Obama is on a roll. On Tuesday night he "ran the table" in the three Potomac
primaries in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia. Just days
before, the energetic politico had won five primary and caucus battles in
Maine, Louisiana, Nebraska, Washington and the Virgin Islands. Obama's eight
wins in a row have brought him ahead in the delegate count in his fight
against Hillary Clinton to be the Democratic Party standard-bearer in the
November general election against Republican John McCain.
The Obama team now has won a total of 22 state primaries and caucuses,
versus a mere 10 for the Clinton campaign. "We have won east and west, north
and south, and across the heartland of this country we love," Obama told a
cheering crowd Tuesday night in Madison, Wis. - a state where he has a good
chance to pillory Hillary once again in next week's primary election there.
Meanwhile, the once-vaunted Clinton juggernaut is stalled and stuck on the
backroads of American politics.
Obama's winning ways have cut deep into Clinton's demographics, she has had
to give her ailing campaign a transfusion of millions of dollars from her
own personal finances, and two top aides have left the Clinton camp in the
past few days.
Clinton now has to win big in upcoming contests in Texas, Ohio and
Pennsylvania before she can be crowned as her party's nominee at the
Democratic convention in Denver this summer. On the hustings in 1992, Bill
Clinton crowed that he was "the comeback kid." The same moniker might not
apply to his wife.
On the Republican side, McCain's come-from-behind campaign continues to rack
up GOP primary and caucus victories that have him on a fast track to be the
nominee at his party's convention in St. Paul, Minn. in September.
A McCain presidency will mean more wars, more plutocracy masquerading as
democracy and more Bush League policies of swaggering abroad while
staggering at home. Obama might have a chance to defeat the fear, jingoism,
militarism and imperialism of a McCain regime. The same cannot be said of
Hillary Rodham Clinton.
It is both karmic and comic that Clinton's Senate vote to approve of
President Bush's Iraq invasion is coming back to haunt her. While she was
rubber-stamping Bush's war, Obama was telling a teeming multitude in Chicago
on Oct. 26, 2002, "I don't oppose all wars ... What I am opposed to is a
dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war, a war based not on reason but
on passion, not on principle but on politics.
You want a fight, President Bush? Let's fight to wean ourselves off Middle
East oil, through an energy policy that doesn't simply serve the interests
of ExxonMobil. Obama gave that speech months before the Iraq invasion was
launched and while Clinton was being hoodwinked by the war hawk plans of the
Bush regime.
Change is the mantra of the Obama campaign, but citizens shouldn't expect
any real change from either of the two U.S. political parties until the
bloated military budget is slashed, corporations are brought to heel, Israel
ceases to be America's de facto 51st state and Bush's policies like the
Patriot Act, torture and dictatorial signing statements are repealed and
rejected.
Still, an Obama presidency could do much to heal this nation at home and
restore America's stature abroad.
The race to the White House is shaping up as a grueling contest between the
"experience" of Clinton and McCain and the "idealism" of the Obama forces.
As American revolutionary Emma Goldman said nearly a century ago,
"Idealists, foolish enough to throw caution to the winds, have advanced
mankind and enriched the world."
_______
--
NOTICE: This post contains copyrighted material the use of which has not
always been authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material
available to advance understanding of
political, human rights, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues. I
believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright
Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107
"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their
spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their
government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are
suffering deeply in spirit,
and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public
debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have
patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning
back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at
stake."
-Thomas Jefferson