Huge Obama Policy Announcement

Via icanhascheeseburger.

Evan Bayh? Obama’s VP – NEVER MIND

According to Time, Evan Bayh is the VP on the Change ticket. (See here) Who I hear you ask?

From Wiki:

“Birch Evans Bayh III (commonly known as Evan Bayh) (pronounced /ˈbaɪ/, like “bye”) (born December 26, 1955) is an American politician who has served as the junior U.S. Senator from Indiana since 1999 and earlier served as Governor of Indiana. He is a member of the Democratic Party.”

He was in favour of the Iraq War at the outset, but seems to have altered his status, and voted against Ashcroft for AG, Rice for State, and Roberts for Chief Justice. He is pro-choice, strong on education, and has good public healthcare platform, having introduced the Medicare Prescription Drug Emergency Guarantee Act of 2006. He has a decent national security and foreign relations background, he served on the Armed Services Committee and the Select Intelligence Committee.

So, will he get the nod, only time will tell. I might be another blogger who has jumped the gun based on Time Magazine.

Scratch that, its been announced. Joe Biden, as expected in wider circles gets the pick. How this goes, who knows. I would have preferred Bayh to be honest, but the choice is made, and failing a Santos/McGarry style meltdown, I think its safely decided. See Obama’s site here for more details.

George Bush is a Terrorist – SHOCKER

Fresh on the heels of reports of Barack Obama engagnig in an activity best described as a “terrorist fist bump” by amongst others, Fox News, see the run down from Casa Casey-Courtney here, reports are surfacing from the US that the latest Hamas terrorist is none other than POTUS himself, G.W. Bush. Shocking news I know, but look for yourself:

Fox are claimed to be busy remaming this gesture the Macho Fist Bump of Patriotism.
What is the world coming to, can we trust no-one?

(Picture via Halperin)

Obama-rama

So, Barack Obama is now only 73 delegates short of his magical number (2026) to ensure he is going to be the Candidate for the Democratic Party in the United States. It has not been a fun campaign I’d imagine, just yesterday over half of the Clinton staff came out to say they’d rather abstain than vote for Obama, because of his ‘frightening lack of experience’. He has weathered the storm over Rev Wright, and managed to recover from comments he made in relation to small town voters getting bitter, and clinging to religion and guns (something which to be honest, I did not think was a mischaracterisation).

With Hillary Clinton seeming hell bent to stay the course, Obama seems to be destined to have a competitive floor vote at the DNC to ring fence his candidacy. These last 73 delegates will most likely come from super-delegates, party leaders and officials who are given the power to vote whatever way they want in the Convention which will end on August 28th. Many commentators in the US are now calling for Florida and Michigan to be allowed a re-vote, with the Clinton camp even offering to pay for the privilege. This is unlikely to happen from what I have read, but also there would be no guarantee of success for Clinton here either, its been a long and divisive campaign since she won delegate votes in those illegal primaries.

I have long admired Obama’s rhetoric and message. And in the last few weeks I have seen him clash with both President Bush and Sen. McCain, in a way which leads me to believe he can stand toe-to-toe in November, and I believe come out on top. As pointed out by a fellow politics watcher, he answers hypothetical questions, something which has done him some damage, but which gives us a clearer upfront picture of how the man is likely to operate when he gets into the Oval Office. But how much, if any damage, is he likely to sustain from this drawn out fight, and the sapping of his war chest that comes along with it. Raising money is an important part of US presidential politics, and Obama’s network of small donors has been awesome in its application, raising over 30 million in the last month, but how much more can that network donate.

Personally, I do hope he gets the nomination, if super-delegates decide this in Clintons favor, or if the two illegal primaries are allowed a re-vote, the division in the Democratic Party will be far too great to overcome. But as one CNN commentator has said, Clinton is a fighter, and while the odds must look slim of her being able to overcome Obama’s number at the minute, she needs an additional 286 delegate votes, over three times Obamas number, stranger things have happened. Meteors do fall from the sky sometimes.