February 27, 2010 :: staff :: Comments Off
The Republican party’s Congressional leadership is participating in a bipartisan healthcare reform summit moderated by Pres. Barack Obama, at Blair House near the White House. The “square-table” discussion includes the leading budgetary and health policy partisans from the House and Senate, as well as Pres. Obama, Vice Pres. Biden and Sec. of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius. The president invited Republicans to “show me what you got”, and to lay out constructive alternative ideas for healthcare reform, in the interest of building consensus.
More on page 6086
September 18, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The most aggressive argument Republicans are now making about healthcare reform is that it would allegedly “gut Medicare and Medicaid”, two government-administered health insurance programs that provide treatment coverage for the elderly and the poor, respectively. The irony that emerges from the incoherent oppose everything Obama wants strategy being used by Republicans, shadowy front groups paid for by individuals linked to the insurance lobby, and conservative PACs, is that they are actually now arguing in favor of ‘socialized medicine’.
More on page 4456
September 2, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
Former vice president Dick Cheney has been engaged in a relentless public relations campaign, attacking Pres. Obama for ongoing efforts to clarify who violated the law in staging an extra-legal system of detention and torture, and openly defending torture as useful, necessary and good. But Obama’s opponent in the 2008 elections and a leader of Cheney’s own party, Sen. John McCain, says the torture was a violation of the law and helped America’s enemies.
More on page 4250
August 22, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Has the Republican party lost its way? Has it entered a long period of wandering in the wilderness, in the absence of fresh thinkers and new ideas? How could a single political entity, with all three branches of the American government firmly in its grasp and in ideological unison, just a few short years ago, be so cast aside by the tides of democratic process and public sentiment? The short answer: a lack of genuine services to offer the people who decide who fills the positions of power in the people’s government.
More on page 2302
July 4, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: Comments Off
Sarah Palin says she wants to save Alaska the injustice of watching its governor galavant around the country visiting fellow governors in a “politics as usual” lame-duck end to a first term. The “lame duck” problem arises, of course, only because she has chosen not to seek re-election. And a woman who professes to be presidential material is now stepping down after just two and a half years as governor of a state with population 686,293.
More on page 3420
November 17, 2008 :: staff :: Comments Off
Obama/McCain: “At this defining moment in history, we believe that Americans of all parties want and need their leaders to come together and change the bad habits of Washington so that we can solve the common and urgent challenges of our time. It is in this spirit that we had a productive conversation today about the need to launch a new era of reform…”
More on page 771
November 7, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
The Republican party has seen virtually every one of its over-arching policy assumptions discredited or rejected, in the 2006 and 2008 elections. It now faces an historic challenge, to reinvent itself in a climate where the other party dominates both houses of Congress and has elected a popular new president by a wide margin. The campaign of Sen. John McCain struggled to overcome the Obama message, in part because it was relying on the assumption that specific Republican party platform planks were the political ideas most en vogue with the electorate, when they were in fact at odds with current economic and political reality.
More on page 721
November 5, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
John McCain used to be a “maverick”, an independent thinker, a rebel against his party’s leadership, and that entailed adopting, promoting and furiously defending ideas that diverged from his party’s stated agenda and its leaders’ most prized political philosophies. He shed the trappings of the true moderate or independent in an apparent effort to win favor among his party’s decision-makers and financial backers, which dampened his appeal as an independent thinker. And most importantly, he seemed blind to the real spirit of the times, which rejected the politics of fear and called for an activist approach to crisis.
More on page 714
November 4, 2008 :: staff :: One Comment
Early voting —in some states actually in-person absentee voting— has allowed as many as 40% of registered voters in North Carolina to cast ballots already, before the opening of the first polls on Election Day. According to ABC News, in North Carolina more African American voters have already voted than in the 2004 election, and in Georgia some 85% of the 2004 African American turnout have already cast ballots. George Stephanopoulous reports that of so-called “likely voters” who have voted so far, fully 58% were leaning toward Obama, as opposed to 40% for McCain.
More on page 704
October 21, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: 5 Comments
Barack Obama, the senator from Illinois, is the candidate that is best positioned to offer the solutions our nation requires, in these troubled and challenging times. His positive vision of a dynamic American society, capable of innovating to combat a global energy crisis, principled in defending Constitutional law and human rights, combines the open and dynamic nature of American democratic culture with an energetic commitment to tackling new challenges, motivating a resurgence of the kind of major projects that will help rebuild and spur our economy.
More on page 652
October 20, 2008 :: staff :: Comments Off
Sen. Barack Obama has begun to raise the issue of how rival Sen. John McCain plans to pay for added costs in his budget, particularly healthcare, given his tax cut plan and his claims about coverage. According the Wall Street Journal, which cites his own campaign, he will do so with massive cuts to Medicare and Medicaid. Sen. Obama used the figure of an $882 billion cut to Medicare coverage alone.
More on page 671
October 19, 2008 :: staff :: One Comment
In an interview with Meet the Press, former Sec. of State Colin Powell said he knows both John McCain and Barack Obama to be “distinguished Americans, who are patriotic, who are dedicated to the welfare of our country”, criticized his friend Sen. McCain for “a little unsure” what to do about the economic crisis, suggesting he “didn’t have a complete grasp of the economic problems”. Powell also questioned a number of McCain’s judgments on policy and campaign tactics, and praised Sen. Obama’s “intellectual vigor” and “steadiness” in dealing with serious challenges.
More on page 669
October 16, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
Barack Obama appears to have kept his cool, delivered his message and kept his focus firmly on issues and the work of governing. John McCain fired a number of gimic-enabled shots at Obama, but failed to deliver a coherent message, other than his allegation that Obama wants to raise taxes and he would cut them for everyone, a factually untrue claim about his tax proposal.
More on page 664
October 15, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
The monumental series of 7 3-hour-long debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas ended on 15 October 1858, exactly 150 years to the day before tonight’s third Obama-McCain televised 90-minute debate. The two Illinois politicians were competing for one of the state’s two Senate seats, and their epic debates are considered a watershed for intellect in American politics, a transformative political moment and a media revolution that drove democracy’s expansion in human society.
More on page 661
October 14, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
Sen. John McCain may be scrambling to save his political life. Of course, until the American people vote, it remains true he might win and become the next president of the United States. But the Branchflower report has just found his vice-presidential candidate guilty of abusing her office as Alaska governor, and he has just had to scold his own supporters for espousing racist and paranoid views which his campaign had at least implicitly sought to smear Obama with. His standing in the polls has fallen dramatically —as of today, RCP’s daily tracking poll average projects 313 Electoral College votes going to Obama, 158 to McCain, with 67 “toss up”—, and conservative luminaries are weighing in on his weakness as a candidate.
More on page 651
October 14, 2008 :: staff :: One Comment
Gov. Sarah Palin has been found responsible for abusing her office in firing the state of Alaska’s public safety chief. She had denied any wrongdoing, and maintains that the Branchflower report does not accuse her of criminal activity, but she has been escape the allegation that she used her office to target or punish her former brother in law, who she and numerous aides and supporters allege —in defense of her actions— “threatened” her family during a messy divorce from her sister.
More on page 655
October 11, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
Arizona Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign has become mired in a controversy over its aggressive personal attacks on Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, which has put the Republican candidate in a supremely awkward position. During a week in which rallies held for his candidacy have featured allegations that Sen. Obama is somehow linked to domestic terrorists or has suspicious overseas supporters, more than once audience members have shouted out threats to Sen. Obama’s life.
More on page 648
October 10, 2008 :: staff :: Comments Off
With talk of the entire nation of Iceland sliding into bankruptcy, CitiGroup threatening to file a multi-billion-dollar suit against Wells Fargo for upending its buyout of Wachovia, and an unprecedented coordinated “global” interest-rate cut failing to prevent a near 700-pt. selloff yesterday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has again dropped nearly 700 points in just 7 minutes of trading. At 7,900 points, the rate of decline is edging ever-closer to the 10% “circuit-breaker” threshold that would halt trading.
More on page 645
October 9, 2008 :: staff :: Comments Off
The sheriff of Cook County, Illinois, which includes the city of Chicago, has suspended law-enforcement support for evictions, expressing outrage at mortgage lenders, and saying too many innocent renters are being forced onto the street with literally zero notice. Sheriff Thomas Dart says all foreclosure-related evictions will be postponed indefinitely, because law-enforcement has “no idea who’s in the home” when they show up to force residents to leave. He says there are too many “unjust” circumstances in which innocent people, whom nobody has informed of the building’s foreclosure, are targetted by evictions.
More on page 643
October 9, 2008 :: staff :: Comments Off
A Public Policy Polling survey of North Carolina voters gives Sen. Barack Obama a 6% point lead over Sen. John McCain, in a state no Democrat has carried since 1976. Reports suggest that new voter registration favors Democrats 6 to 1, and some have expressed concern that Republican party operatives may try to stop first-time voters from casting votes, challenging their registration or misdirecting them to incorrect polling places. The state may move toward Obama because he is “connecting” with voters on economic issues.
More on page 640
October 9, 2008 :: staff :: One Comment
Since Sunday, when the McCain-Palin campaign consciously opted to “go negative”, attacking Obama as having “poor judgment” and “palling around with terrorists”, rallies for Sen. McCain’s candidacy have been marred by what appear to be increasingly hot racial tensions. A spokesman for the campaign has told Café Sentido they “do not play the race card”, but observers have questioned whether there is a conscious effort being made to spark racial or ethnic biases and instill fear in the electorate about Sen. Obama’s background or personal associations.
More on page 637
October 6, 2008 :: staff :: One Comment
The presidential campaign of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) this weekend shifted aggressively to personal attacks on Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-IL) character, openly announcing that they intend to sow doubt in voters’ minds and move the political debate across the nation away from economic issues. McCain’s running mate, Alaska governor Sarah Palin, began attacking Obama’s character, trying to link him to BIll Ayers, a onetime member of the group the Weather Underground. The Obama campaign has responded by putting together a documentary linking Sen. McCain to the savings and loan corruption scandal of the late 1980s.
More on page 634
October 6, 2008 :: staff :: Comments Off
Sen. John McCain’s campaign has begun to launch personal attacks on Sen. Obama, who appears to have solidified leads in most “battleground states”. Meanwhile, Sen. Obama has said McCain’s campaign is “out of touch, out of ideas and running out of time”, and has assailed McCain’s healthcare plan for raising taxes on working people. McCain’s plan would tax employer-provided healthcare benefits, offering individuals a tax credit for buying their own healthcare. Obama says McCain’s tax credit is insufficient to cover private healthcare costs and will leave people struggling.
More on page 633
October 2, 2008 :: Denver Lessing :: 2 Comments
Senators Biden, Obama, McCain vote with majority (74 to 25) to support the financial rescue bill, including a raft of tax incentives aimed at creating economic stimulus, putting money in hands of non-banking interests. The Senate’s version of the rescue package includes tax credits for wind and solar power, “greening” the recovery plan so that individual Americans can begin to take action that will make the energy economy more sustainable and give leverage to those budding industries. Importantly, the bill also raises the FDIC cap for individual accounts to $250,000, from $100,000.
More on page 632
September 29, 2008 :: staff :: Comments Off
With the nation facing its worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, and voices in private finance calling for a major bailout, with the Republican president, his financial advisers, leaders of both parties in Congress calling for a $700 billion bailout package, the US House has voted down the rescue package. The stock market closed with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 777.68 points. Talks of a “done deal” are obviously over, and the administration and Congressional leaders will now be starting over.
More on page 627
September 8, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Sen. John McCain’s acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention was meant to be his answer to the stadium-sized explosion of his rival’s historic address, his moment to demonstrate his own version of leadership. It is now being mocked by political commentators as a ham-fisted attempt at catching the wave. McCain performed rhetorical acrobatics to try to both be like Obama and be like Bush, while supposedly offering something of his own entirely distinct brand of politics. Botched stage-craft was an added drag on the speech’s resonance.
More on page 623
September 5, 2008 :: staff :: Comments Off
My heartfelt thanks to all of you who helped me win this nomination and stood by me when the odds were long. I won’t let you down. To Americans who have yet to decide who to vote for, thank you for your consideration and the opportunity to win your trust. I intend to earn it.
Finally, a word to Sen. Obama and his supporters. We’ll go at it over the next two months. That’s the nature of these contests, and there are big differences between us. But you have my respect and admiration. Despite our differences, much more unites us than divides us. We are fellow Americans, an association that means more to me than any other. We’re dedicated to the proposition that all people are created equal and endowed by our Creator with inalienable rights. No country ever had a greater cause than that. And I wouldn’t be an American worthy of the name if I didn’t honor Sen. Obama and his supporters for their achievement.
More on page 616
September 4, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska accepted the Republican party’s nomination for vice president in at their convention in St. Paul, Minnesota. She said she was looking forward to the “challenge of a tough fight against competent opponents”, but wasted no time getting to the red meat. She said she was joining a ticket that would “serve and defend America”, and that John McCain put the “security of the country that he loves” ahead of his own political fate, reminding the audience that McCain said he “would rather lose an election than lose a war”.
More on page 615
September 3, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT), Al Gore’s choice for VP in the 2000 election, and still a self-proclaimed Democrat —though he was voted out in his party’s primary, before winning back his Senate seat as an independent— addressed the Republican National Convention last night, in St. Paul, Minnesota. Lieberman enthusiastically endorsed Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and said his goal is to work as hard as possible to make him the next president of the United States.
More on page 613
September 2, 2008 :: staff :: Comments Off
The Republican party kicked off its nominating convention in St. Paul, Minnesota, last night, with a heavy focus on the plight of those displaced by Hurricane Gustav. Fortunately, the storm did not turn out to be “the storm of the century”, but it did leave over 1 million homes and businesses without electricity along the Gulf coast. So in an effort to avoid anything resembling the perceived indifference with which the catastrophic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina was met, the GOP has devoted significant time to voicing its support for efforts to send aid to the Gulf coast.
More on page 610
September 2, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Terry McAuliffe, former chairman of Sen. Hillary Clinton’s campaign, and Howard Dean’s predecessor as chairman of the DNC, has said 2008 will be “the most vicious campaign we have ever faced”. Already shadowy “527 groups” and PACs are running ads and sponsoring the publication of books full of disproven rumor and innuendo, with the openly stated aim of “defeating Barack Obama”. Author Jerome Corsi, who has written a best-selling anti-Obama tome, openly admitted, against the wishes of his publisher, that his book is not intended to be factual, but rather to further the anti-Obama agenda, with the aim of influencing the outcome of the November election.
More on page 609
August 29, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
Last night, Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) told the Democratic National Convention that “at defining moments like this one, the change we need doesn’t come from Washington. Change comes to Washington.” John McCain has chosen a vice-presidential running mate from as far away from Washington as you can get: first-term Alaska governor Sarah Palin, a strong backer of new drilling and a young female conservative with a reputation for reform. The pick appears in many ways designed to inoculate the McCain campaign against a number of the advantages the Obama-Biden ticket has accumulated.
More on page 598
August 29, 2008 :: staff :: One Comment
We meet at one of those defining moments – a moment when our nation is at war, our economy is in turmoil, and the American promise has been threatened once more. Tonight, more Americans are out of work and more are working harder for less. More of you have lost your homes and even more are watching your home values plummet. More of you have cars you can’t afford to drive, credit card bills you can’t afford to pay, and tuition that’s beyond your reach.
More on page 597
August 28, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
As is usually the case in a presidential election year, we are hearing non-stop talk about cutting taxes. The Republican candidate, as usual, relentlessly accuses his Democratic opponent of conspiring to “raise taxes” and “punish” American businesses for success. And as usual, we are being deprived of an opportunity to really examine the facts of the matter. The truth is, both Obama and McCain are proposing their own tax-cut plans, but we might be better served by thinking about tax-credits, and what they should be aimed at achieving.
More on page 589
August 27, 2008 :: staff :: Comments Off
On the opening night of the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado, police arrested a man during a traffic stop. Tharin Gartrell was detained on weapons and drugs charges, then linked to a possible plot to assassinate Sen. Obama in Denver. After Gartrell was linked to a local hotel where more arrests ensued, and one suspect said his associates had discussed killing Barack Obama. The group are alleged to be white supremacists, but police say they believe there is now no credible threat from this group to Sen. Obama during his appearance on Thursday.
More on page 588
August 26, 2008 :: staff :: Comments Off
The Democratic National Convention kicked off last night in Denver, Colorado, with the expected lavishing of praise on candidate Barack Obama. But delegates were roused emotionally, as was VP candidate Joe Biden, when a moving tribute to Democratic “lion of the Senate” Teddy Kennedy was followed by Pres. Kennedy’s daughter Caroline introducing the Massachusetts senator himself, who fought through cancer treatment to address the convention and call for Obama’s election. Michelle Obama, the candidate’s wife, gave her first national address, talking of family, and the candidate’s love for the nation and devotion to public service.
More on page 587
August 25, 2008 :: staff :: Comments Off
After years of protesting that withdrawal of troops was surrender, that it was opposed by Iraqis, and that a timetable was a “tool for terrorists”, the US government is now formulating an agreement scheduling withdrawal of US forces from Iraq, with the last forces out by 2011. The advance is largely based on political motivations of Iraqi officials, facing reelection, who have called for withdrawal sooner rather than later, many alleging the mere presence of foreign forces increases the risk of violence.
More on page 584
August 24, 2008 :: staff :: Comments Off
Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) has chosen Sen. Joseph Biden (D-DE) to be his running mate. Biden brings a wealth of experience from nearly 36 years in the US senate, including work on military and foreign policy, as well as Constitutional issues and the Senate judiciary committee. The two appeared for the first time as running mates in front of the old Illinois Statehouse, in Springfield, where Abraham Lincoln launched his candidacy, as did Obama fully 18 months ago.
More on page 583
August 24, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: 4 Comments
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) recently joked at an event in Colorado that he was there “to take your water”, a tongue-in-cheek reference to his pronouncements on the need to “renegotiate” the terms of the Colorado River Compact, which determines how much water each of the 7 states in the Colorado Basin can draw from the river. The joke has become fodder for McCain’s opponents, at the national and local level. Colorado’s governor told the press, in a call reportedly organized by the presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), that the reference raised serious concerns about the favorability of McCain’s water policies to his state.
More on page 580
August 13, 2008 :: staff :: Comments Off
Georgian pres. Mikheil Saakashvili has said he fears Russia’s military action against his nation is the start of a “chain of events”, rooted in “never-ending appetite” of those he views as Russia’s militarists, that could compromise security across the Sough Caucasus, eastern Europe and the Middle East. He also accuses Russia of having no intention of honoring the tentative ceasefire that was announced yesterday. Russia today has told the United States it must choose between supporting Georgia or being able to cooperate with Russian in other international affairs.
More on page 572
August 12, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
Reports of Russia’s escalation of the invasion of Georgian territory suggest more than 10,000 ground troops are now in South Ossetia, and ballistic missile attacks (at least 15 fired so far) have included targets across the entire Georgian state. Georgian pres. Mikhail Saakashvili has been forced to seek cover, as security forces feared he was in danger of being hit by a Russian airstrike.
More on page 570
July 24, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) is focusing on the places he most needs to shore up, while his rival, Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) travels American war zones and visits with foreign leaders. McCain has sought to reach out to voters in Michigan and Ohio, two industrial states hit hard by economic woes, and is reported to be campaigning more actively in his home state of Arizona, which his campaign has reportedly added to “a list of 24 battleground states” they are concerned about.
More on page 553
July 24, 2008 :: staff :: Comments Off
Sen. Barack Obama meets with Israeli political leaders, seeks to reassure key US ally he supports its efforts to achieve peace and security without seeking to diminish its influence or impede key political goals of the state. He did say he believes to achieve peace, both sides need to make key concessions, and that “a US administration has to put its weight behind the process” for peace in Israel and Palestine. He added that he felt sure that none of the politicians he met with would come away with the impression he would pressure them to make concessions that would work against the interests of the state of Israel.
More on page 496
July 23, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Sen. Barack Obama is traveling to vital foreign-policy hotspots as part of a Congressional delegation, including Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) and Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), but there is no missing the relevance of his tour of Germany, Afghanistan, Iraq and Israel, among other places, to his preparation on foreign policy matters and his labors as a presidential candidate. The media are covering it as if it were both a spectacular and ongoing campaign event and a foreshadowing of what Pres. Obama might look like when meeting with foreign leaders.
More on page 494
July 17, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) raised $52 million in campaign cash in the month of June, far more than twice what his rival Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) raised. McCain’s campaign raised about $30 million less than Obama, according to the Boston Globe, though when national committee cash is combined with that held by the individual candidates’ campaigns, McCain and the RNC have about $93 million, as compared to the $92 million held by Obama and the DNC.
More on page 489
June 23, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: 2 Comments
In a speech today in California, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) pledged to create a fund to grant $300 million to anyone who can invent a significantly more powerful car battery, which would make hybrid and electric automobiles more viable as a replacement for petroleum-fueled cars, and promised to give $5,000 tax credit automakers for every zero-emissions vehicle sold. He also demanded that automakers help make every new car “flex-fuel” vehicles, and speed the move away from petroleum powered automobiles.
More on page 453
June 4, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Illinois senator Barack Obama has won the race for the Democratic party’s nomination for the US presidency. He is the first African-American to become a major-party candidate for president in the US. Obama spoke to 18,000 supporters in St. Paul, Minnesota, and dedicated the celebration of his achievement to his grandmother, telling supporters, “Tonight we mark the end of one historic journey with the beginning of another.”
More on page 334
June 2, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is a force to be reckoned with, a political entity with a nationwide support network that outstrips nearly all rivals and most past icons, with the added weight of her husband’s legacy and immense popularity among key constituencies. But, she has made her case for the presidency at a time when another Democrat has achieved even greater success and has rallied hundreds of thousands of new voters, and at present, she is, in fact, in second place, with one day to go.
More on page 332
June 2, 2008 :: staff :: Comments Off
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) has won the primary vote in Puerto Rico, over rival Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) by a “2 to 1″ margin, as reported by the New York Times. She claims that this most recent victory is evidence she should be the candidate in the fall: the problem, however, is that she trails in both popular vote and pledged delegates, and faces the near mathematical impossibility of surpassing Obama, who long ago had wrapped up a majority of possible primary victories, including the deep south, Texas and rural plains states.
More on page 330
May 26, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Former Republican House-member Bob Barr (L-GA) has been named the Libertarian party’s candidate for US president. Barr told CNN “We are going to launch a very vigorous campaign all across America”, and that he believes he can win more votes than either of the two major-parties’ likely candidates. Polls appear to show his candidacy could bring in as much as 7% of the national vote.
More on page 320
CafeSentido Partner Sites: