OBAMARAMA

As goes Maine, so goes the nation…

Portland Press Herald: Obama should get his party’s nomination

… His abilities to compromise, inspire and speak to a broad spectrum of the electorate earns him our endorsement for the Democratic nomination in 2008. …

Obama’s ability to inspire was on display in Maine on Sept. 25, when he packed the Portland Expo, thrilling the crowd of young and old supporters with a call to work together for the common good. Politics, he said, was a mission, not a business. …

But Obama has demonstrated a predisposition for sitting down with people of diverse views and reaching a consensus. That makes him the most likely candidate to breakdown the current stalemates in Washington.

The unthinkable happened:

In his victory speech, Sen. Obama acknowledged exactly how unlikely most of the chattering class considered this possibility to be. Winning Iowa is a triumph of new vision over entrenched establishment thinking — and it’s just the beginning. Funny thing about dominoes.

As some of you have noticed, it’s been nearly two weeks since the last Obamarama post. For a blog that’s been updated at least once and sometimes as much as five times a day over the past six months, that’s certainly an anomaly. So what gives?

A few things. I’ve generally tried to keep the personal out of the political here, so let’s just say they involve a new dog, a career change, and not nearly the kind of free time I need to keep the information on the site as timely and engaging as it needs to be.

A lot has changed in in Sen. Obama’s political career since this blog launched in December 2006, too. The most significant is that he is now a presidential candidate — the primary hope of this blog and indeed it’s raison d’ etre. Once that happened, finding information and analysis about the junior senator from Illinois became a lot easier for blog readers, and keeping the posts cutting edge became much more of a challenge.

Still, Obamarama has tried to bring you something unique among political blogs: good-natured, insightful, sometimes humorous takes on the news and happenings of Sen. Obama’s historic campaign. While still providing regular updates on polls, breaking news and the occasional liveblog, the site tried to distinguish itself by providing reports with some flavor and zest — posts like FOX News Takes Comedic Swing at Obama, Misses and Hell Hath No Fury Like Mike Allen Scorned, not to mention the entire Expose the Hate series. Hopefully that’s been successful, and enjoyable.

For the time being I’ll be suspending posts on the site, with the hope of returning when I have the time and ability to give readers more of what you’ve come to expect here — information that will entertain and engage you as you keep tabs on the most groundbreaking and inspirational political ascendancy of our time.

Thanks for your forbearance — and thank you most of all for checking the site, for your many comments and emails, and for your enduring interest in a campaign that is changing the country for the better every day. Stay involved!

-JHC

P.S. In the spirit of Absurd Obama Video Sunday, which I think pretty much embodies the essence of this blog, I leave you with this soon-to-be classic video about a girl with a very special crush on a very special statesman:

Okay, this could be fun. A friend of mine, a grad student in Colorado, is helping organize a party to raise some money for the Obama campaign. His request: What are some creative ideas for an Obama-themed beverage?

My hope is that you all can submit some creative recipe ideas for a drink called “The Obamarama,” which can then be used for the party before sweeping the nation and quickly becoming a staple in every bar in the land. I’m thinking something with blue curacao.

Also, feel free to suggest your own drink names! I should add that this party is not an official campaign event, and I’ve been assured that “the Obamarama” and any other alcoholic drink will only be served to people over 21.

So, let’s hear some ideas. Not to make any snap judgments about readers of this site, but based on the quality of some of the past comments I think it’s safe to say you’re creative. And while I have no proof that you’re heavy drinkers, most of you are Democrats so I have to assume you at least understand the urge.

“Obama proposes college loan plan,” declares the headline of Ohio University’s newspaper following a conversation about financial aid with Sen. Obama. The article backs it up:

Obama confronted the problem by announcing a proposal today to eliminate private student lenders from the loan process.

“By removing private lenders from the process and requiring that all federal student loans be provided by the federal government, we’ll save billions that we can use to make college more affordable,” he said.

Obama said his plan would have saved taxpayers nationwide roughly $6 billion this year alone.

…“We shouldn’t provide billions of taxpayer-funded giveaways to private banks when young people all across the country are trying to figure out how they can finance an affordable, accessible college education,” Obama said.

…At least 200,000 students were qualified to go to college but didn’t because of financial limitations, Obama said, citing tuition increases over the past five years of 11 percent at private universities and 35 percent at public institutions.

As someone on the verge of returning to school, this particular issue resonates with me. The subsidized federal student loans are a huge help to students, since the clock doesn’t start ticking (and hence interest doesn’t start accruing) until six months after you graduate. That gives you a chance to get your feet under you before your debt starts growing in leaps and bounds.

The often predatory practices of many private lenders mean students are immediately in the hole, accruing interest on their debt years before they’re in a position to begin paying it off.

Sen. Obama is making sense on this issue — which may well be an important part of his popularity among young people. As the article notes, “Obama said he noticed the college-aged generation taking a deeper interest in political issues and attributed it to issues such as college loans, climate change, federal debt and globalization.”

Apparently Sen. Obama is coming to the aid of netizens interested in posting video segments of the presidential debates online, something they are currently technically forbidden to do (though we did it here).  From the AP:

In a letter to Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, the Illinois senator said he supports an effort by a bipartisan coalition of academics, bloggers and Internet activists who have asked the Democratic and Republican parties to make the video available.

…”I am a strong believer in the importance of copyright, especially in the digital age,” Obama wrote. “But there is no reason that this particular class of content needs the protection. We have incentive enough to debate. The networks have incentive enough to broadcast those debates.

“Rather than restricting the product of those debates, we should instead make sure that our democracy and citizens have the chance to benefit from them in all the ways that technology makes possible.”

I’ll be away from computers for much of the weekend, but look forward to resuming normal posting next week (starting with Absurd Obama Video Sunday, of course).

In the meantime, check out these great Obama blogs for news about all things Obama:

Vermonters for Obama

Barack Oblogga

Blog Obama ‘08

The Official Obama Campaign blog

Have a great weekend!

Following an appearance today, Sen. Obama is quoted as saying that the murder of 32 people (plus the gunman) in a shooting rampage on the campus of Virginia Tech this morning is “heartbreaking.” He went on:

These were future leaders, our most precious resource. To see them struck down at the prime of life like this is a tragedy and I think we have to do some soul searching to find out are there ways we can prevent these things from happening again.

There’s a lot of partisan sniping going on these days, both online and off. It’s bound to intensify as we approach the 2008 election, of course. This blog is no exception.

In the wake of a senseless, tragic incident like this, though, we’re compelled to take a breath. There are things so much more crucial than politics. With the self-importance so inherent in the game, it’s an easy thing to forget. Unfortunately, it is almost always a deeply sorrowful day when we remember.

Our prayers are with the students and their families in Blacksburg today.

The publisher of a 522-page compendium of 77 of Sen. Obama’s most memorable speeches — entitled “Best Speeches of Barack Obama” — is offering a free download of the book from their website, reports the New York Press.

“If the insides appeal to them, they are going to want the print edition in addition to the e-book,” said Jaclyn Easton, President of Publishing 180.  Though I’m not sure I follow the logic there, I’m always up for a free book.

According to the publisher’s site, the book is “uncensored” and includes seven commencement addresses, all of Sen. Obama’s major floor statements, transcripts of his podcasts, and “Keynote addresses at high-profile events like the Robert Kennedy Human Rights Award, the National Press Club Dinner, World AIDS Day, his visit to the University of Nairobi, the AFL-CIO convention and much more.” We are helpfully reminded: “This is Obama in his own words. No media spin.”

Interested? Inquiring minds can download the book for free here.

If you enjoy what you find here every day at OBAMARAMA, you might consider becoming a subscriber. In addition to being easy and free, it’s a great way to keep up with what’s going on in the campaign.

Click here to enter your email address and receive regular updates from OBAMRAMA.

There’s another benefit, too. When you encounter Obama-doubters out there (and I know there are still a few — though substantially less than when this blog started last year), OBAMARAMA will make sure you always have a substantive response to their concerns.

In the last four months, OBAMARAMA has provided the research and the arguments to answer Sen. Obama’s critics on virtually every issue. They include:

• His experience (”Are You Experienced?,” 1/8/07)
• His legislative accomplishments (”Dick Morris Attacks Sen. Obama on FOX News,” 12/20/06)
• His religious faith (”The Tricky But Important Challenge of Responding to Anti-Muslim Smears,” 1/22/07)
• His commitment to African Americans (”Just Because O’Reilly and Sharpton Don’t Know, That Doesn’t Make It So,” 1/28/07)
• His foreign policy vision (”A Response to Niall Ferguson’s ‘Muddled’ LA Times Op-Ed,” 2/19/07)
• His stock portfolio (”NYT Plays ‘Gotcha’ Over Obama Investment Non-Story,” 3/7/07)
• His upbringing (”Conservative Launches Nonsensical Race-Based Rant on Sen. Obama,” 3/15/07)
• His record on the Iraq War (”ABC Contradicts Clinton Campaign’s Mudslinging,” 3/20/07)

In addition, OBAMARAMA has helped elicit corrections and apologies from media outlets that perpetuate these misleading attacks, including a news segment that aired pictures of an Obama rally while reporting on a convicted child predator and a column that straight-up lied about Sen. Obama’s voting record.

For serial offenders like The Politico, we offer monitoring and rebuttals to negative coverage, as well as a regular “Expose the Hate” feature to highlight the ignorant, racist loathing of many of Sen. Obama’s detractors. And our takedown of the anti-Obama smear site ObamaTruth.org has been relied on by blogs around the web as the definitive debunking of the baseless smears found there.

Not convinced? You can always unsubscribe. But until you do, you’ll receive an email every time a new post appears containing the post’s title and a link to the blog.

So there’s the pitch. If you have any questions or suggestions, you can always contact the site through the “Contact” link at the top of the page.

To start receiving regular OBAMARAMA updates, just click here.

Thanks as always for reading.

A bit of good-natured humor from satirical columnist Andy Borowitz:

Hillary Changes Name to Barack Obama
Attempt to Appeal to Obama Supporters, Experts Say

One day after Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill) revealed that he had raised $25 million in the first quarter of 2007, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) had her name legally changed to Barack Obama.

For a well-established politician like New York’s junior senator, the decision to change her name to that of her chief rival in the middle of a presidential campaign struck many observers as unorthodox.

But speaking to reporters in Washington today, the former Sen. Clinton said that the media “shouldn’t read too much into” the Clinton-to-Obama name-switch.

“I am just trying to reach out to as many people as I can,” she told the press corps. “I want them to get to know Barack Obama, the woman.”

[…]

Coming to the New York senator’s defense was her husband, former president Bill Clinton, who told CNN that “it is every American’s right to change his or her name to Barack Obama.”

“I am behind my wife’s decision one hundred percent,” said Mr. Clinton, who said he will now be known as Michelle Obama.

Some buzz today over the unveiling of a statue of Sen. Obama at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, called “Blessing,” that bears a striking resemblance to a certain Jewish carpenter.

The artist, David Cordero, 24, said the stature “is a response to what I’ve been witnessing and hearing, this idea that Barack is sort of a potential savior that might come and absolve the country of all its sins.”

While undoubtedly flattered on the inside, the Obama camp did not embrace the comparison:

“While we respect First Amendment rights and don’t think the artist was trying to be offensive, Senator Obama, as a rule, isn’t a fan of art that offends religious sensibilities,” said Obama spokeswoman Jen Psaki.

You can see an interesting video segment about the statue here.

I wonder if this could actually make Timothy Noah’s head finally explode.

(Belated hat tip to Stacy for the video.)

The AP is reporting that Sen. Obama has called for an “independent inquiry” into whether Mike Nifong withheld DNA evidence that would have exonerated three white Duke lacrosse players charged last year with raping a black exotic dancer. Nifong is the District Attorney in Durham, NC, and charged the players in what became a very high-profile case that highlighted the strained state of race relations in the area.

ABC News adds that Sen. Obama made the suggestion “in a written response to a constituent,” who then posted it to a website devoted to discussing the case. The remaining charges against the lacrosse players may be dropped this week.

Every day for the past few weeks, the National Journal’s Blogometer — “a daily report from The Hotline taking the temperature of the political blogosphere” — has been profiling various blogs that are focused on specific presidential candidates. Last night, OBAMARAMA was pleased to join their ranks.

You can read the “Blogger Spotlight” profile of OBAMARAMA here.

At long last, we’ve managed to reinstall email subscriptions here at OBAMARAMA. Just click here (or on the blue “Subscribe” link in the menu under the header at the top of the page, or on the sidebar to the right), enter your email address, and you’ll receive an email update every time a new post goes up.

It’s a great way to keep informed about the ins and outs of Sen. Obama’s historical campaign, infused as always with the unique lively flavor you’ve come to expect from OBAMARAMA. You can unsubscribe at any time at the same link.

Thanks for reading the site! And please let me know if you have any feedback or suggestions. We’ve got an exciting road ahead, and I’m looking forward to continuing on it with you.

“I want YOU to sign up for OBAMARAMA.”