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Obama In Miami — Whole Lotta Audacity Going On

Buck Banks

In what could be the last opportunity for a 2008 Democratic presidential candidate to campaign in Florida without being punished by the Democratic National Committee, Barack Obama spoke today before a packed house at a local Democratic fund-raiser. Today was also the day that the Florida Democratic Party had to lobby the national party to not punish it because the state’s Republican-controlled legislature moved Florida’s primary to Feb. 5, violating the opposite party’s rules.

Overall, Barack Obama was a hit, keeping his audience fired up and on its feet most of his speech.

But nobody mentioned that at the rally, a grass-roots Miami-Dade Democratic committee fund-raiser for its mostly state-level local candidates. An early speaker at the event — and there were many of them — noted that in 2000, nobody could have imagined holding a Democratic Party event in Little Havana for a black presidential candidate.

Indeed, just seven years ago, the Miami Cuban voting bloc was perceived as fundamentally and monolithically Republican, with Spanish speakers seen as loyal to the Republicans who seemed to hate Fidel Castro and were willing to impose an ongoing economic embargo until the Third World island nation saw the error of its ways, collapsed economically or Castro died, whichever came first.

But today a Cuban candidate for the state house stated unequivocally and to thunderous applause that the Republican Party could no longer count on the South Florida Hispanic vote.

Obama said that if he were elected he would remove all restrictions on travel to Cuba and lift all restrictions on sending money or goods to family members. But when he said that he would leave the embargo in place “as an inducement to change” and “use aggressive diplomacy” to begin moving toward normalizing relations with Cuba, he received a few scattered boos and some of the Cuban faction began to leave the theater.

But for the most part, it was a rousing rally with at least 3,000 in attendance, and Obama performing his stump speech, often with the spirited inflections of a preacher and with more piss and vinegar than he usually shows in his nuanced television appearances. Indeed, starting with a woman in the balcony hollering, “We love you, Barack!” to which he responded, “I love you, back, baby,” in a convincing Barry White imitation, there was a casual, ongoing call-and-response aspect to the proceedings that continued throughout his speech.

Not to sound too corny, but I think people felt Obama was speaking to them, not at them, and were inclined to holler out questions to which he invariably responded. These were not hecklers, as they waited for an appropriate pause or responded to a comment from Obama before calling out a question or comment.

Obama hit the “audacity” theme pretty hard, saying that if the Washington press corps were there, they would be calling him a “hope peddler” and “hope monger,” monikers he gladly accepts, but it resonated very well with a very mixed audience of blacks, whites and Hispanics who had paid either $30 or $100 for seats.

Busloads of college students from Florida Atlantic University were brought in (the school bought blocks of tickets) to the event, and most responded enthusiastically to Obama’s positions on affordable education and job creation.

Overall, Barack Obama was a hit, keeping his audience fired up and on its feet most of his speech — and that was after an hour and a half of short speeches by local commissioners, state legislators, party officials and music by Democrat folk singer Ellen Buckstell and a rousing number by the Miami Northwest High School marching band.

Obama hit all his stump themes: universal health care, energy independence and green tech, education, jobs and wages, and the failure of the Iraq War and the failure of the Bush administration to make us safer and more secure.

His abiding message, however, is that to him, politics is a mission, that we all have a stake in each other, and that he has both faith and hope in the “decency and generosity in the heart of the American people.”

UPDATE: You can watch an unedited video of Obama’s entire speech here.

Quotes from Barack in Miami

Buck Banks

Barack Obama’s stump speech is well-oiled and filled with quotable lines. But as often as he has given it — often to crowds 10 times the size of the 3,000 assembled in Little Havana today — it is still delivered with passion and vision. Here are a few choice quotes:

“Crowds remind me of a couple of things: pundits are not right about much, and when it comes to what’s wrong with this country, it’s not the American people who are the problem; the American people are the answer.”

‘I don’t trust Alberto Gonzales with my civil liberties.’

“The American people are tired of being sick and tired. Enough is enough! The American people want to turn the next page in American history.”

“We’ve never had a better marketing agent than George Bush for the Democratic Party. Though Dick Cheney gives him a run for his money.”

“I don’t believe in little change. I believe in big change, and we need big change in America.”

“I’m asking you to be hopeful at a time when it’s easy to be cynical.”

“You can disagree without being disagreeable, and you can find consensus without compromising your beliefs.”

“I want us to out-educate the world today so we can out-compete the world tomorrow.”

“I’m sick and tired of an administration treating our Constitution as something to be negotiated around instead of as the foundation of our democracy.”

“If we can get enough Republican congressmen to change their minds, we can end this war without George Bush.”

“I want to go before the United Nations and say, ‘America’s back.’”

“I don’t trust Alberto Gonzales with my civil liberties.”

Barack and Me in Miami

Buck Banks

So, having seen Barack Obama in person today, what did I come away with? An increased appreciation for the man as orator, an excitement about the Miami-Dade Democratic Party and a nagging thought that will warm the hearts of my co-editors:

Maybe I should join the Democratic Party, if for nothing else, to vote against Hillary Clinton and for Barak in the primary.

It’s probably not likely I’ll drink the Democratic Kool-Aid, but if Obama continues to inspire and motivate people the way he clearly did today in this political backwater of a Third World country, I might just be so inclined.

Not that I’m ready to do that. There’s a lot that could happen between now and primary time (especially if the national Dems punish the Florida Dems and render any party switch or vote of mine meaningless).

Frankly, I wish Dennis Kucinich had a snowball’s chance. I like him, not just for his chutzpah, which he has in spades, but for his sense of humor and mostly for his really progressive ideas, which I agree with. Mostly.

But today I was impressed by my local Dem pols, for a change. Not that I gained any respect for the Florida Democratic Party and Karen Thurman, who fortunately had nothing to do with today’s event. But if the Miami-Dade Dems can pull off a series of these events (which they promised Barak was the first of), and if I see some coalition of Dems in Miami and an ongoing robust intensification, organization and concentration of effort, then I might be inclined to give up my independence and drink the Kool-Aid.

Today I saw representatives of Equality Florida, who are backing a Fairness for All Families measure aimed at providing rights to nontraditional families (read:gays), I listened to the first openly gay Hispanic elected official in Miami and I heard my city commissioner talk about passing a bill of rights for the City of Miami that includes “equality for everybody” (Miami is the only city in South Florida that doesn’t have a bill of rights), I heard a song about how religion shouldn’t be used to take away my right to choose, and at the end of the rally I heard a high school choir sing the old Bill Withers song, “Lean On Me.”

It’s probably not likely I’ll drink the Democratic Kool-Aid, but if Obama continues to inspire and motivate people the way he clearly did today in this political backwater of a Third World country, I might just be so inclined.

But don’t hold your breath, Jon and Trish.

Florida Democrats Still Fighting to be Counted — But By Our Own This Time!

Trish

Florida Democrats are having that deja vu all over again feeling some more. But while being disenfranchised feels very familiar, having our own party do it to us is brand new.

Florida Democrats are over this whole, “Your vote doesn’t count but maybe next time,” thing.

Buck explained that the DNC is considering yanking our delegates if Florida holds its primary before Feb. 5, 2008 as the Republican-led legislature recently mandated. Maybe what he, as a registered Independent, didn’t tell you is how galling is this prospect.

Our own FDC Chair Karen Thurman actually summed it up well in a missive yesterday.

Our state has seen far too much of this in the past: the 2000 election debacle, eligible voters purged from the voting rolls based on race, Black voters intimidated at the polls, 18,000 votes vanishing because of touch screen machines in 2006, the list goes on and on.

The list does go on and on, since she didn’t even mention the shenanigans in 2000 in nearby Duval County that led to the ouster of the Jacksonville supervisor of elections and served as the impetus for establishing early voting sites there.

Florida Democrats truly have had it up to here (holds hand over head) with having zero representation at the local level, feeble representation in Tallahassee, and dwindling representation in Washington. If our own party takes away our voice in the 2008 election, I for one would — Jon please cover your eyes — consider leaving this trainwreck of a party and joining Buck in the land of purists, contrarians, and exiles.

Thurman did supply a link to a page where you can register your feelings on this subject, which the FDC will then use to bombard DNC Chair Howard Dean. The page doesn’t even ask for money after you hit “submit.”

Go tell Howie that Florida Democrats are over this whole, “Your vote doesn’t count but maybe next time,” thing. No more.

Yikes — Florida Dems’ Electoral Future Rests on Karen Thurman’s Shoulders

Buck Banks

The only good thing I can say about the fact that Florida Democratic Party Chair Karen Thurman will be in Washington tomorrow lobbying the national Democratic Party to not punish Florida Dems because the Republican-controlled Florida legislature moved the presidential primary to Jan. 29 is that she won’t be at the Barak Obama fundraiser in Miami. I bought tickets to see Obama and was not looking forward to having to listen to Thurman if she was participating in the event.

The potential smack-down by the national Democratic Party could have far graver repercussions than just screwing up Florida’s primary.

Instead, she’s going to be arguing her case before the Democratic National Committee, which holds the keys to whether Florida’s primary counts and whether candidates will be punished for campaigning in the state. As co-editor Trish admitted in an e-mail yesterday, the very thought of the defense of Florida’s electoral fate falling to Thurman made her feel queasy. Thurman sent an e-mail today asking Florida Dems to write messages explaining why their party should not be punished for something it — as the minority in the state legislature — could not have stopped.

As an Independent, I don’t get to vote in the presidential primary, and I have no plans (as my wife does) to switch to the Democrats just so I can. But the potential smack-down by the national Democratic Party could have far graver repercussions than just screwing up Florida’s primary. If candidates face punishment for campaigning in Florida, it’s likely some will just skip the state, which would help the Republicans. Worse, if the national party takes away delegate seats, it could mean that once again Floridians’ votes won’t count. But I’m not really worried — Karen Thurman is on the case. Yikes, I’m feeling a mite queasy myself.

Actually, the only thing that makes me feel optimistic about Thurman’s task tomorrow is that I don’t believe the national Democratic Party would be stupid enough to fault Florida Dems for breaking rules that they could not in any way not violate. It’s simply not the Fla. Dems’ fault that the Republican-dominated Florida legislature moved the primary date (Although one could argue that in a way it is, because the Florida Democratic Party is, as we Crackers say, useless as teats on a boar hog, and has, therefore, through its ineffectiveness ceded power to the Repugs).

So maybe this trip to Washington is just a formality, and it won’t really come down to how well Karen Thurman can make her case before Howard Dean, et al. Then maybe Trish will get over her queasiness and the Democratic Party won’t shoot itself in the foot and blow the presidential election.

Yeah, and the Army Corps of Engineers will fix the Everglades, Charlie Crist will admit to being the father of a love child and the Miami city administration will go a month without having a corruption scandal. Oh, and pigs will fly, too.

Mark Foley Doing Pretty Good in Fake Election

Trish

A poll being conducted by the Stuart (FL) News has some participants seeking career opportunities with the paper, since it is obvious employees are encouraged to drink on the job.

The question asked is, if an election were held today, would you vote for former Rep. Mark Foley (R-Ephebophile) or Rep. Tim Mahoney (D-Palm Beach)? Although at one time disgraced page molester Foley led, the results are currently:

Mark Foley — 30% (83 votes)
Tim Mahoney — 69% (185 votes)
268 total votes

Who is that 30 percent? No doubt it’s the same 30 percent who would support George Bush, no matter what, even if he too were caught instant messaging teenage boys about what turns them on. And it’s that same 30 percent who think Bush is doing a helluva job, no matter how bad things are.

Some of the comments reflect this conclusion.

“Amazingly, the vote is split. This has to be either a haven for pedophiles or die-hard Republicans or both!”

“Is the 44% up there now for Foley voted by peodphiles? Do we have that many in our area?”

“No, they’re not pedophiles, they’re just dyed-in-the-wool Republicans. These are the same people who will vote for Rudy Giuliani. They’ll swallow their objections to his stands on abortion, gay rights etc. just because they think he is the only Republican who can beat Hillary Clinton. Hypocrites! All of them!”

There’s more. Take a moment and vote yourself, or just read the comments.

Karen Thurman, Please Return from Lunch

Trish

Update: One reader was evidently confused about the letter in question so we drug it out of the trash, brushed off the coffee grounds, and posted it for his or her edification. On the back of the part you tear off and fill out with McCain-Feingold required disclosure info about yourself is the phrase, “Paid for the by the Democratic State Parties and the DNC as a joint fundraising program, www.democrats.org/victory fund. This communication is not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.”

We were just standing around the virtual Pensito Review water cooler, chewing over one of our favorite subjects: How stupid is Florida Democratic Party Chair Karen Thurman?

I think she’s regular stupid, hovering somewhere between feather head and judgement-challenged. Buck thinks she’s too stupid to live, brush her teeth unassisted, or wipe her own backside. Jon, a California resident, agrees with both of us.

Well moments ago, from whom should I get a letter in the mail? It’s our very own K.T., and she’s got great news for me!

The response to our 2007 Annual Fund Drive has been so overwhelming that we have decided to extend the deadline for gifts to September 14, 2007.

There are so many things wrong with that opener that I hardly know where to begin. For starters, was she really going to cut off donations because they didn’t come in by some arbitrary deadline? “Sorry, your check arrived too late. We don’t want it now.”

And where do you go, in requesting urgent financial assistance, after you’ve just described the response so far as “overwhelming?” It doesn’t exactly make me look over my finances and decide I can pay the electric bill next week but right now I must help Karen! She needs me!

I’m beginning to see it Buck’s way. This woman really does need to find additional new employment, besides her job as a lobbyist in an agency headed by the former chair of the Florida Republican party. I hope the response by Democrats to extending Karen’s deadline at the helm of the party is not overwhelming.

Rove Left White House to Ensure Neocon Victory at Any Cost

Trish

We cheered when Karl Rove announced he was leaving the White House, but the nagging question is why? Here’s my theory: Rove needs total freedom to ensure that Republicans — and Republicans the neocons can continue to control — stay in power.

We are all looking forward to 01.20.09, Bush/Cheney’s last day in office assuming Pelosi continues to refuse to impeach. But they will be leaving behind a crime scene worthy of several teams of CSIs. The fingerprints, buried bodies, photographs, emails, and evidence of wrongdoing that you and I haven’t even thought of will be everywhere. They simply cannot let a Democrat win.

Bush/Cheney will be leaving behind a crime scene worthy of several teams of CSIs. They simply cannot let a Democrat win in 2008.

Rove knows this. And while in years past he obscured his partisan dirty work by using Republican National Committee computers, saving the presidency for neocons is too important to do it in half-measures. It will take massive election fraud to generate the numbers to carry a candidate who will most likely garner only about 25 to 30 percent of the vote, judging by current polls. Rove can’t do that from inside the White House.

Some people are wondering if he’s already setting a trap.

In this case, Rove’s weeklong broadside against Clinton…looks suspiciously like an exercise in reverse psychology that his team employed three years ago when it was preparing for President Bush’s reelection bid…

In the run-up to the 2004 Democratic National Convention, when it was not yet clear who Bush’s opponent would be that November, Rove and his aides had begun to fear that their most dangerous foe would be then-Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina…But instead of attacking Edwards, Rove’s team opened fire at Kerry.

Their thinking went like this, [former Rove ally Matthew] Dowd explained: Democrats, in a knee-jerk reaction to GOP attacks, would rally around Kerry, whom Rove considered a comparatively weak opponent, and make him the party’s nominee. Thus Bush would be spared from confronting Edwards, the candidate Republican strategists actually feared most…

If that sounds implausibly convoluted, consider Dowd’s own words:

“Whomever we attacked was going to be emboldened in Democratic primary voters’ minds.”

Rove knows us well, although he proved in the midterms that he’s not infallible. Still, the trick worked before.

Is Rove playing a similar game against Clinton? Is he trying to stampede Democrats into nominating her, having concluded that Obama, Edwards or someone else would pose a stiffer challenge to the Republican nominee?

…Conservative activist Grover Norquist said that he doubted conservatives were trying to meddle in the Democratic primaries and that nobody on his side thinks that party’s base would pay attention to Rove…

“I want to run against Hillary Clinton because I think she’s the easiest person to beat,” Norquist said. “But she’s by no means a pushover.”

Yeah, nobody on their team would pay attention to Rove. My ass.

The good news is Rove has left the building. The bad news is now we have no way to know what he’s up to.

Rove/Bush Timeline, THE Math, and Fond Memories

Trish

The Chicago Tribune put together this handy timeline of the golden years of Karl Rove with the Bushes.

Rover two weeks before the 2006 midterms: “I add up to a Republican Senate and Republican House. You may end up with a different math but you are entitled to your math and I’m entitled to THE math.”
  • 1973 — Rove became chairman of the College Republicans. During his time in Washington, D.C., he became a special assistant to Republican National Committee Chairman George H.W. Bush and met George W. Bush.
  • 1977 — Worked for a political action committee dedicated to making the elder Bush president in 1980.
  • 1978 — Advised younger Bush during his unsuccessful Texas congressional campaign.
  • 1980 — Assisted George H.W. Bush’s unsuccessful presidential campaign.
  • 1994 — Adviser for George W. Bush’s successful Texas gubernatorial campaign.
  • 1998 — Adviser for Gov. Bush’s successful re-election campaign.
  • 2000 — Chief strategist for Bush’s presidential campaign.
  • 2004 — Chief strategist for re-election campaign.
  • 2005 — Currently assistant to the president, deputy chief of staff and senior adviser to President George W. Bush.

Individual dates are missing here, such as the dates Rove called Judy Miller with bogus Iraq weapons of mass destruction intelligence, and when he called Bob Novak, Tim Russert, and whoever else with Valerie Plame’s identity, as well as the date he dissed Sheryl Crow over global warming. My favorite is the date Bush got snitty about Turd Blossom after the disastrous 2006 midterm elections.

“I obviously was working harder in the campaign than he was,” said Bush.

Good times.

But Bush couldn’t be blamed for being pissed at Rover, whose inability to tell which way the wind was blowing led directly to the “good thumpin'” Bush had to take.

Two weeks before the election, Rove showed the world how he reacts when someone disagrees with his interpretation of the facts, and why he is so detested by nice people everywhere. His interview with the polite Robert Seigel on NPR, when it was really looking good for the Democrats, said it all.

SIEGEL: We are in the home stretch though and many would consider you on the optimistic end of realism about…

ROVE: Not that you would exhibit a bias, you just making a comment.

SIEGEL: I’m looking at all the same polls that you are looking at.

ROVE: No, you are not. I’m looking at 68 polls a week for candidates for the US House and US Senate, and Governor and you may be looking at 4-5 public polls a week that talk attitudes nationally.

SIEGEL: I don’t want to have you to call races…

ROVE: I’m looking at all of these Robert and adding them up. I add up to a Republican Senate and Republican House. You may end up with a different math but you are entitled to your math and I’m entitled to THE math.

SIEGEL: I don’t know if we’re entitled to a different math but your…

ROVE: I said THE math.

What an asswipe.

Floridians for Franken? It Could Happen

Trish

When I found the fundraising letter from Al Franken in my Florida mailbox, I almost dumped it in the “throw away unopened” stack. Instead something made me put it in the “look at it later and then throw it away” pile.

I looked at it today and now I — a Floridian with absolutely no way to vote for Franken in his run for senator in Minnesota — am writing his campaign a check.

That the man has a way with words (although having read his books, I’d say he got help with this letter) is obvious. Still, somewhere in the midst of a professional assessment that he was using too many metaphors and spending too much time on the late Sen. Paul Wellstone, he won me over.

I knew nothing about his opponent, incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman. But when Franken compared him to, “your obnoxious uncle who loves to listen to Rush Limbaugh and ruins Thanksgiving every year,” I understood immediately.

It’s important to get idiots like Coleman out of the Senate and get smart people like Franken in, whether they are running in Minnesota or Florida or California. If you got the letter, don’t toss it. If you weren’t on the mailing list, go to Franken’s web site and look around. You can donate on the spot, and right after you do, Franken will thank you via video. Nice touch.