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Politics : President Barack Obama -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Glenn Petersen who wrote (1590)	2/27/2007 5:45:39 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 149317

Obama leads in the general? mydd.com

To: Glenn Petersen who wrote (1590)	3/1/2007 6:55:43 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 149317

Family Ties: Brown Coach, Barack Obama ______________________________________________________________ By ERIC TUCKER Associated Press Writer Thursday, March 1, 2007 (03-01) 14:30 PST Providence, R.I. (AP) -- Craig Robinson believes you can tell a lot about a guy by how he plays basketball, which is why he liked Barack Obama long before the Democrat decided to run for president. Recalling a pickup game the two played in Chicago some 15 years ago when they were first getting to know each other, Robinson remembers that Obama was confident in his game without being arrogant. He took shots when he was open, but wasn't overly selfish. And he didn't show off his Harvard Law School pedigree. "He never wore that on his sleeve, and you can tell the camaraderie that he'd have on the court with people who he didn't even know," Robinson said. "You knew that this guy had the ability to win people over." Basketball and Obama are subjects Robinson knows well. The first-year coach of the Brown University men's basketball team is also Obama's brother-in-law, a familial tie that's afforded him intimate access as Obama has ascended from a political novice to a U.S. senator waging a high-profile bid for the White House. The men's relationship has spanned personal conversations about children and politics to casual family gatherings to watching and playing basketball together — the details of daily life that few voters or the media ever witness. The character insights gleaned from those intimate moments have made Robinson an unabashed Obama booster and quick to plug his candidacy. "I know him as a brother-in-law and friend more than I know him as a politician," said Robinson, whose younger sister, Michelle, married Obama in 1992. Robinson, 44, and his sister grew up on the south side of Chicago, children of a city laborer and a secretary, in an upbringing he described as disciplined and valuing achievement. Both went to Princeton, where Robinson starred as a two-time Ivy League player of the year before getting drafted by the NBA and then playing professionally in Europe. He left the sport for a time to work in business, serving as a vice president at Morgan Stanley. His sister, 16 months his junior, went on to Harvard Law School and met Obama after he was hired as a summer associate at the same Chicago law firm where she worked. "I think the fact that Barack likes basketball and can play basketball in a basketball family probably earned him some points," Michelle Obama said in a telephone interview. Obama was always clear that politics inspired him, even more than law, Robinson said. He even hinted at his ambition at a family gathering early in the relationship. "He said, you know, it'd be great one day if I could run for president. And I made a comment like, yeah, yeah that would be great — come on over here and meet my Aunt Gracie," Robinson said. The actual decision to run was much tougher. Robinson said his sister, concerned about guaranteeing a normal childhood for the couple's two daughters, had to be won over — as did her mother. But the groundswell of public support that Obama — who gained national attention with his speech at the 2004 Democratic convention — received last fall made the candidacy seem especially feasible, Robinson said. "This is one of those things that's more important than the individuals involved," Robinson said. "This is the ultimate team assignment. So everybody has to give up something to make this work." Michelle Obama acknowledged a degree of uncertainty, but said it had more to do with her own personal feelings about whether entering politics was the best way to effect change. "I'm one of the skeptics that Barack often talks about," she said. "Like most people, my view about politics — and it's evolved, but it had been — that politics is for dirty, nasty people who aren't really trying to do much in the world." Robinson said he asked himself not whether Obama should run, but rather why he shouldn't. "You could wait around until another opportunity, but you might not get another opportunity," Robinson said. He has tried to impart that same confidence to his players. Hired last summer after six years as an assistant at Northwestern, Robinson said he wasn't sure the Brown team, which has struggled to crack the upper echelon of the Ivy League, could even win six games this season. But heading into their final games of the season against Penn and Princeton this weekend, Robinson's Bears have equaled their win total — 10 — from last year. Players describe him as a demanding and motivational coach who instituted 5:45 a.m. practices last fall and is not afraid to shake up the lineup. He preaches perfection, said sophomore Scott Friske. "During the games, he's cheering you on as much as the crowd is," Friske said. But they say he's also deeply interested in their lives away from the game. "Once you step off the basketball court, he's as down to earth as anybody," said Mark McAndrew, now Brown's leading scorer who averaged barely 10 minutes a game last season. "He has a very open-door policy." Robinson aspires to win the Ivy League title, something Brown hasn't done since 1986. But he said his ambition pales in significance to Obama's. "What we're doing is just a game," he said. "What he's doing, it affects so many different people." sfgate.com

To: Glenn Petersen who wrote (1590)	3/2/2007 8:58:13 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 149317

Selma march raises political stakes for Obama & Clinton _____________________________________________________________ By Ana Radelat Gannett News Service Updated 3/2/2007 6:31 PM ET WASHINGTON — When Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama march over the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., on Sunday, their political fortunes may rise or fall with each step. Clinton, who represents New York in the Senate, and Obama, who represents Illinois, are heading South to woo black voters who could decide key early primaries next year. "It's smart politics," said Ron Haskins, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. "(Selma) is sacred civil rights ground." Both candidates say they want to honor the memory of the historic 1965 march that captured the nation's attention and sped approval of the Voting Rights Act. Both will give speeches at historic black churches in Selma before they make their way across the bridge. "This is an opportunity for her to show her respect for what was accomplished in Selma and the civil rights movement," said Mo Elleithee, spokesman for the Clinton campaign. Jen Psaki, spokeswoman for the Obama campaign, said the senator — who was 3 years old when the historic march took place — wanted to make a "personal trip" to the famed civil rights site. "His hope is that this is not something that is overly politicized," Psaki said. But after polls this week showed Obama gaining popularity in the African-American community, Clinton raised the stakes by announcing that her husband, former President Bill Clinton, will march with her. Bill and Hillary Clinton have strong support among African Americans, support they want to keep, Haskins said, while Obama is still in the process of introducing himself to that key Democratic constituency. "Polls seem to show that when African Americans realize he's black, his support shoots up," Haskins said. Both candidates hope their words this weekend are heard by black voters in South Carolina, which will hold the first-in-the-South Democratic presidential primary Jan. 29, one week after the New Hampshire primary. Nearly half the voters in the South Carolina primary will be black. Alabama, another state with large numbers of black Democratic primary voters, also hopes to move its primary election from June to early February so it would be held on the heels of the South Carolina contest. The rivalry between Hillary Clinton and Obama for black voters has put some black leaders in a difficult position because they are uncomfortable endorsing a presidential candidate this early in the political season. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., an original participant in the 1965 march who was beaten while trying to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge, has repeatedly invited his congressional colleagues to join him in retracing his steps on the anniversary of the march. Lewis has declined to endorse either Hillary Clinton or Obama. "This is not a political venture," said Brenda Jones, Lewis' press secretary. "For congressman Lewis, it is a spiritual experience." Rep. James Clyburn, the black South Carolina lawmaker who is considered a king maker in his state's Democratic presidential primary election, also has refrained from backing either candidate. But Rep. Artur Davis, D-Birmingham, who represents Selma in Congress, was among the first lawmakers to embrace Obama's candidacy. Davis, who urged Obama to travel to Selma, has said the senator's candidacy would "ignite a feeling of national purpose and renewal that our country has not witnessed in my lifetime." usatoday.com

To: Glenn Petersen who wrote (1590)	3/3/2007 1:07:08 AM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 149317

Where’s His Right Hook? _____________________________________________________________ By MAUREEN DOWD Op-Ed Columnist The New York Times March 3, 2007 As I sit across from Barack Obama in his Senate office, I feel like Ingrid Bergman in “The Bells of St. Mary’s,” when she plays a nun who teaches a schoolboy who’s being bullied how to box. I’m just not certain, having watched the fresh-faced senator shy away from fighting with the feral Hillary over her Hollywood turf, that he understands that a campaign is inherently a conflict. The Democrats lost the last two excruciatingly close elections because Al Gore and John Kerry did not fight fiercely and cleverly enough. After David Geffen made critical comments about Hillary, she seized the chance to play Godzilla stomping on Obambi. As a woman, she clearly feels she must be aggressive in showing she can “deck” opponents, as she put it — whether it’s Saddam with her war resolution vote or Senator Obama when he encroaches on areas that she and Bill had presumed were wrapped up, like Hollywood and now the black vote. If Hillary is in touch with her masculine side, Barry is in touch with his feminine side. He turned up his nose at his campaign’s sharp response to Hillary and her pinstriped thug, Howard Wolfson. He told The Times’s Jeff Zeleny that he had not been engaged in the vituperative exchange because he was traveling on a red-eye flight, getting a haircut and taking his daughters to school. I ask why he couldn’t have managed the donnybrook while he traveled and did errands. Since he’s sitting across from me using his BlackBerry, I wonder: “Where was your BlackBerry? Did your aides not ask you how to respond or did you not want to ride herd on them — even just to tell them to ignore Hillary?” “Look, I came up through politics in Chicago,” he says. “When I arrived in Chicago in 1985, I didn’t know a single person. Seventeen years later, I was the United States senator and in a position to run for president. So I must know a little something about politics.” Channeling Ingrid, I press on and say: “I know you want to run a high-minded campaign, but do you worry that you might be putting yourself on a pedestal too much? Because people also want to see you mix it up a little. That’s how they judge how you’d be with Putin.” “When I get into a tussle,” he replies, “I want it to be over something real, not something manufactured. If someone wants to get in an argument with me, let’s argue about how we’re going to fix the health care system or where we need to go on Iraq.” If campaigns follow the arc of the hero myth. ... “What’s the demon that I’ve slain?” he finishes. “You’re getting kind of deep on me here. I think that, for me, the story was overcoming a father’s absence and reconciling the different strands of my background and coming out whole.” Has he ever been struck by the similiarity of Bill Clinton’s growing up without his father? “You don’t want to go on with too much pop psychology,” he replies. “Somebody said that every man is either trying to live up to his father’s expectations or trying to make up for his father’s mistakes. And in some ways, when your father’s not there, you’re doing both. You try to live up to the expectations of somebody who’s not present to tell you that you’ve done a good job, but you’re also trying to make up for the mistakes that partially led to his absence.” Does Al Gore have first dibs on the presidency? “I love Al Gore,” he replies. “He’s a smart guy.” He said he liked Mr. Gore’s seriousness on issues he cares deeply about. “This sounds clichéd, but this week I had five mothers of folks headed to Iraq cry during rope lines where I was shaking hands and had me hug ’em. This stuff is just not a game. ... Now that doesn’t mean that there’s not the basic blocking and tackling of politics. I’ve got to raise money. I’ve got to manage my press. We’ve got to respond rapidly to attacks. But what I don’t want to do is get drawn into the sport of it.” When the Tiger Woods of politics goes to a civil rights commemoration in Selma, Ala., this weekend — just as the story breaks that his white ancestors had slaves — he will compete for attention with Hillary and the man billed as the first black president. How does he feel about the Clintons double-teaming him? Talking about the woman he described at the Beverly Hills fund-raiser as smarter, better-looking and meaner then he is, he grins: “My wife’s pretty tough.”

To: Glenn Petersen who wrote (1590)	3/6/2007 4:15:50 AM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 149317

Obama meets with fund-raisers in Boston ______________________________________________________________ By Megan Tench and Brian C. Mooney Boston Globe Staff March 6, 2007 Senator Barack Obama made his first presidential campaign foray into Boston yesterday, meeting with key supporters and a flock of fund-raisers who are planning a huge event next month at Boston University's Agganis Arena. The Illinois Democrat attended a breakfast meeting in Cambridge with about two-dozen venture capitalists, hosted by Daniel Nova of Highland Capital Partners. Later, Obama spoke to about 150 members of his New England steering committee at the University of Massachusetts Club in downtown Boston. The events were closed to the news media. Some who attended said they were reminded of President Kennedy. "It's more than the magic" when he speaks, said Maureen Shay-Palmer, a veterans activist from Marblehead who emerged from the UMass Club with an Obama 2008 button pinned to her jacket. "No, he's not just a handsome fresh face. He's got the goods. He knows what he's talking about." "When President Barack Obama takes office in 2008, the whole world will take a different attitude," said her husband, Nigel Palmer. Recalling a part of Obama's speech that impressed him, Palmer paraphrased. "He said, 'When I'm elected, the world will breathe a sigh of relief, not because I am a black man with a different name, but because of my foreign policy. It's the right time for change.' It's like JFK. It had that same feeling." Alan Solomont, who is chairing Obama's regional fund-raising effort, said the events drew a "broad-based and diverse" crowd, a mix of veteran party activists and fund-raisers "and a lot of new people who haven't done this before." The group has already raised at least $500,000 for Obama's campaign and expects to raise more than that at the BU event on April 20, said Solomont, a prolific fund-raiser who was a key figure in Senator John F. Kerry's presidential campaign in 2004. Solomont said the event will include students who contribute $23, young professionals who give $230, and major donors who will be asked to contribute $2,300, the maximum. Among those attending the UMass Club event were several heavy hitters from the campaigns of Kerry, Governor Deval Patrick, and former attorney general Thomas F. Reilly. They included investment manager Scott Nathan; publishing executive Michael Perik; attorneys Barry White, William Cowan, Cheryl Cronin, Michael Thornton, and Geoff Lewis; insurance executive Philip Edmundson; political economist Barry Bluestone; and banker Bernie Fulp and his wife, insurance executive Carol Fulp. After speaking for about 40 minutes to his invited guests about his presidential aspirations and making a change in America, Obama took many questions from the crowd. Obama downplayed criticism that he does not have enough experience or that he is not tough enough to handle more seasoned legislators by saying that he knew no one when he went to Chicago more than 20 years ago and now he is a senator running for president. "He had to be tough, because that is not an easy thing to do," Palmer said. Obama's appearance left many in the crowd invigorated. "I feel like there is hope now," said Lenore Lobel, 58, a retired lawyer and volunteer worker from Weston. Philip Johnston, chairman of the state Democratic Party, said he has not made a decision about whom to endorse but he has met with Obama and that he, like Bill Clinton, will be very successful raising money in Massachusetts. "I think he will tap into substantial, progressive, political energy here," Johnston predicted.

To: Glenn Petersen who wrote (1590)	3/19/2007 3:25:00 AM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 149317

Obama highlights antiwar stance in Oakland ______________________________________________________________ In California, the presidential hopeful emphasizes a key difference from his top Democratic opponents without mentioning their names. By Maeve Reston Los Angeles Times Staff Writer March 18, 2007 OAKLAND — As protesters geared up around the country to mark the fourth anniversary of the Iraq invasion, Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama on Saturday railed against the Bush administration's handling of the war with words that also served to implicitly criticize his own party's competitors for the White House. "I am proud of the fact that I opposed this war from the start, that I stood up in 2002 and said this is a bad idea, that this is going to cost us billions of dollars and thousands of lives," the junior senator from Illinois told thousands who spilled out across Oakland's City Hall Plaza. "We are in the midst of a war that should have never been authorized, and should have never been waged, and … after spending half a trillion dollars and seeing almost 3,200 precious lives lost … we are actually less safe," Obama said. Without mentioning their names, he alluded to the fact that former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards and New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton — his main Democratic competitors at this point — voted in 2002 to authorize the Iraq invasion. He told the crowd that a recent visit with an Iraq war veteran maimed and blinded in a combat explosion had reminded him why he was running for president. "We have been so consumed by cynicism and pettiness and negativity in Washington that we no longer recognize what's at stake; we no long understand what's going on in the life of that veteran," he said. "It is time for our young men and women to come home…. We can't continue this occupation." He also referred to recent reports of dilapidated conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. "We still have an opportunity to get at least one thing right, and that is to make sure that when they come home that we treat them right," he said. "That when they come home they don't have mold on their walls and rats scurrying under their beds…. That when they come home they're not going through Dumpsters looking for food because they've been forgotten." "Don't stand next to a flag and say you believe in supporting the troops," he said, his voice rising into a shout, "when you forget them when [they] come home. We can do better than that." The crowd in Oakland was a blend of ages and races that mirrored the city's rich diversity. Some were so eager for a glimpse of the senator that they climbed light poles to get a better view. Obama's remarks were a continuation of his attempts since his February announcement of his candidacy to distinguish himself from other top-tier Democrats by emphasizing the fact that he spoke out against the war as early as October 2002 at a rally in Chicago. On Saturday, his remarks coincided with a mass protest in the nation's capital; other protests are scheduled in the coming days to mark Tuesday's anniversary. Obama has sponsored legislation that would start the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq no later than May, with the goal of removing all combat brigades from Iraq by March 2008. A smaller force would remain in Iraq to help train Iraqi troops, guide anti-terrorism efforts and protect remaining forces on the ground. Many who flocked to see Obama on Saturday said that his early and vocal opposition to the war was a major factor in their decision to stand behind him. "He was able to see through the falsehoods of the propaganda," said John Taylor, a doctor from Hayward. "I think a lot of members of the Democratic Party were too fearful of registering their objection to this war," Taylor said. But others said they had questions about his experience and whether he could withstand a withering primary race. Many said they were making calculations about his electability compared with that of Clinton or Edwards. Virginia Allen, a 70-year-old retired nurse from Oakland, is an Obama fan in large part, she quipped, "because he's black like me" — but said she initially didn't want him to enter the race. "I didn't want him to run, because I felt like he wasn't going to win and I would be throwing my ticket away," Allen said. "People aren't ready for a black president, but I'm going to vote for him. I'm just hoping and praying he makes it." Obama addressed the concerns by scoffing at suggestions that he did not have enough experience to be president. "I know that my experience as a community organizer [in Chicago] told me that ordinary people can do extraordinary things…. My experience as a civil rights attorney tells me that fairness and justice have to be fought for each and every day," Obama said. "It's true that I haven't been in Washington that long, but I've been in Washington long enough to know that Washington needs to change, and that's why I'm running for president." After the event in Oakland, Obama was headed to a $1,000-a-head fundraiser at the InterContinental Mark Hopkins Hotel in San Francisco, co-chaired by venture capitalist Mark Gorenberg, former state Controller Steve Westly, political activist Wade Randlett and several high-powered Silicon Valley attorneys, among others. As the first-quarter fundraising deadline of March 31 approaches, other candidates are also heading to California. Clinton is due to raise money in Beverly Hills on Saturday and in the Bay Area on March 25. latimes.com