Russian Headache Looms For Next US President

[John317]

WHICH CANDIDATE WOULD YOU BE MOST COMFORTABLE WITH AS PRESIDENT DEALING WITH RUSSIA AND IRAN, ETC.?

Russian headache looms for next US President

by Stephen Collinson

Fri Aug 15, 9:48 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The next US president, be it Barack Obama or John McCain, is already on a collision course with Russia, as prospects for a great power diplomatic chill are deepened by the war in Georgia.

Republican McCain and Democrat Obama have bickered sharply over the crisis, both seeking to showcase leadership skills and foreign policy flair.

McCain has publicly feuded with Russia for months, and took the sharpest initial line in support of US ally Georgia, while Obama's position hardened against Moscow as the crisis evolved.

New US-Russian rifts will pile another foreign policy headache onto the packed agenda awaiting the new president in January, including Iraq, deteriorating security in Afghanistan and the Iranian nuclear crisis.

"Whoever the next President is, he will have significant difficulties to deal with in the US-Russia relationship," said Justin Logan, a foreign policy analyst with the Cato Institute.

Both McCain and Obama have faulted what they see as creeping authoritarianism in Russia, under former president, now Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, whom President George W. Bush famously tried to mould into a soul mate.

McCain has made his mistrust of Russia crystal clear and forcefully condemned Moscow after its troops entered Georgia in response to a Georgian offensive on August 7 to retake the breakaway South Ossetia province.

Obama's senior foreign policy analyst Susan Rice is now hinting that the Democrat may also be mulling a complete rethink of US-Russia ties.

"There need to be consequences for what has transpired," Rice said at a forum at the New America Foundation think-tank on Friday.

"Senator Obama's view is that we need to review all aspects of our bilateral and multilateral arrangements with Russia in order to assess where they ought to go from here."

Strobe Talbott, US deputy secretary of state in the Clinton administration, argues prolonged Russian hostility to closer ties with Europe and international institutions like NATO could spark a reappraisal of US relations with Moscow.

"If Russia is going to take the position that not only is it not interested in integrating in that fashion, but it is not going to allow its supposedly sovereign and independent neighbors to do so, that calls into doubt the entire premise of US, European and Western international relations with Russia."

"I don't think there is much difference between (the candidates) on this question, and it's going to be a huge challenge for the next administration," Talbott said at a Brookings Institution forum this week.

Logan said that though McCain was more hawkish, an Obama administration may also find fault with Russia.

"A McCain administration would be directly and overtly adversarial to Russia but I think that you can overstate the differences between the two candidates on this subject," he said.

Warnings of a new Cold War might be hysterical, but distrust of Russia is shared across US political lines.

"The Russian government desperately wants the West to treat it as an important and respected great power," James Rubin, ex-spokesman for Democratic secretary of state Madeleine Albright, wrote on the Huffington Post website.

"We can and should withhold that treatment. No diplomatic business as usual."

But political symbolism aside, the next president seems to have few tools to shape Russian behavior.

A military confrontation with nuclear-armed Russia in its own geopolitical backyard is unthinkable.

The next president could commit to blocking Russia's long-delayed entry into the World Trade Organization, and press ahead with the drive to bring former Soviet satellites like Georgia into NATO.

Some lawmakers have also called for a boycott of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, southern Russia, close to Georgia's separatist enclave Abkhazia, which was drawn into the Georgia conflict.

Others back McCain's call to kick Russia out of the Group of Eight -- though other members of the rich nations club seem unlikely to agree.

The new administration will also face the unpalatable fact that Russia, as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, and a resurgent power, is crucial to many US foreign policy goals.

Both McCain and Obama have talked about Russia's key role in fighting nuclear proliferation, and Moscow plays a key diplomatic role in the Iranian nuclear crisis.

Antipathy between Washington and Moscow could also complicate Obama and McCain's shared vow to improve bruised relations with European powers.

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[John317]

Does America want a man who spent 20 years in close association with friends of his, yet admits that did not know them?

What's the chance he could spend a few hours with Putin and pick up really fast what he needs to know about him? Scary thought, isn't it?

My own feeling is that people like Putin would have Obama for dinner. I doubt there's much question who Putin-- an ex-KGB officer-- would like to see win the election, is there?!! No, suppose not.

I bet he sees Obama as one really tough hombre.

In His first speech on the issue, did you notice how powerfully Obama supported our Georgian friends? You would have thought Obama was condemning both sides equally and was afraid to give Putin heart-burn.

Bet, too, Obama wishes he could have that moment back. He no doubt will not be playing that for voters to watch as an example of how he would run our foreign policy.

I just hope if elected Obama will prove to be a lot better and stronger than he has shown himself to be up to this point.

But honestly, up to now, what's he done to show us what we can expect in him as a world leader? I can't think of anything-- can you?

[phkrause]

I'm not sure that it matters who gets to be president, because God will put into office who he wants. For his own purpose's.

pkrause

[Neil D]

Quote:

But honestly, up to now, what's he done to show us what we can expect in him as a world leader? I can't think of anything-- can you?

Can you show, from YouTube, where Obama is lacking?....

It's not that I don't trust you, John,....it's more of your obvious slant against Obama. I just want to see for myself from MAINLINE sources that Obama is lacking.

[Dr. Shane]

Foreign policy and energy seem to be the two big issues of the election. I think John McCain is better prepared to deal with energy. Obama seems to be a little too idealistic yet and has to be drug into the right opinion by opinion polls. I guess it is good that he at least listens to the polls.

Foreign policy is hard to decide. Obama reminds me of Jimmy Carter and he needs to change that image because Carter was a foreign policy disaster. I agree with Obama's desire for diplomacy but he needs to elaborate on that. How exactly will diplomacy solve the problems with Russia and Iran?

[Bravus]

McCain is a hothead and he is a hawk - the last person I would like to see in charge of the US in a Cold War-like confrontation with a massively nuclear-armed Russia. And I also think there's an excellent chance he'd take the US into Iran, or sanction bombing by the US or Israel. On these questions, McCain would be a disastrous choice for President.

[John317]

Obama reminds me of Jimmy Carter and he needs to change that image because Carter was a foreign policy disaster. I agree with Obama's desire for diplomacy but he needs to elaborate on that. How exactly will diplomacy solve the problems with Russia and Iran?

I agree about the Carter comparison, and I voted for him in 1976. Lived to regret it. He was OK until 1978. Terrible after that. And Carter was probably the brightest of any of our presidents, certainly the highest IQ. Which tells us a lot about what makes a great president, and it isn't IQ. By virtually all historians estimation, Truman was a great president, one of our top 10, yet he wasn't the most brilliant man. What made the difference?

There's a lot more to being a very good president than being a good speaker or even being a college graduate.

By the way, Truman studied history voraciously since he was a small boy. Obama admits he's weak in that department, and it shows in a lot of his comments. For instance, a famous mistake: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpGH02DtIws

Before he takes office and before he debates McCain, he better take some fast courses in history. I know that he already has people in his campaign working on that aspect.

[John317]

... And I also think there's an excellent chance he'd take the US into Iran, or sanction bombing by the US or Israel. On these questions, McCain would be a disastrous choice for President.

And you don't think Obama would do any of those things in order ensure Iran does not get nuclear weapons? I believe Obama has already said that Iran's having the bomb is totally unacceptable.

I don't think on those things McCain and Obama are all that far apart. Their approaches may be different-- as all presidents are-- but their goal of keeping the bomb out of the hands of Iran, and the basic view of Russia, is the same.

[John317]

McCain is a hothead and he is a hawk...

Do you know of anything that McCain has done in terms of decision making as a result of his "hotheadedness" which shows that he cannot be trusted in the highest, most powerful office?

What you see as a weakness or negative characteristic in McCain, most Americans see as a strength and asset, as reflected in this article:

Poll: Obama still has work to do on commander-in-chief test

August 1, 2008 09:54 AM

A new poll suggests that Barack Obama's much-publicized overseas tour has not paid immediate dividends in Americans' perceptions of whether he is ready to be commander in chief and the nation's chief diplomat.

The Gallup report out this morning shows that those who believe that Obama can handle the responsibilities of commander in chief dropped from 55 percent last month to 52 percent now. It also found that those who believe that Obama would do a good job dealing with terrorism dropped from 49 percent to 45 percent and those who think he would do a good job on the Iraq war dropped from 51 percent to 48 percent.

Also, Democrat Obama still trails Republican John McCain substantially on the commander in chief and terrorism questions. For McCain, who has more military and foreign policy experience, 76 percent said he is ready to be commander in chief and 67 percent said he would do a good job on terrorism.

Obama does fare better on who would handle the Iraq war and on diplomacy questions.

"Clearly, Obama still has some work to do to convince Americans he can handle some of the international responsibilities of the presidency," the report says. "While he already is viewed as being better than McCain at handling 'relations with other countries,' McCain has wide advantages over Obama in perceptions that he would be able to handle the job of commander in chief and to do a good job of handling the terrorism issue.

"Even though fewer Americans say Obama is able to handle the role of commander in chief than say this about McCain, it is important to note that a majority of Americans think the Illinois senator is up to the task. In some ways, it may not be as important for Obama to close this perceptual gap with McCain as it is to keep his own percentage above the majority level. That may especially be true in an election year when Americans rate domestic issues like the economy and energy as the top issues that will affect their vote. Thus, Obama could in theory win the election on the basis of his perceived strengths on domestic issues, so long as Americans don't disqualify him for perceived weaknesses on military and defense issues."

The report is based on results from a July 25-27 USA Today/Gallup poll, conducted just as Obama was wrapping up his trip abroad, and the results of the same poll done June 15-19.

[John317]

Quote:

But honestly, up to now, what's he done to show us what we can expect in him as a world leader? I can't think of anything-- can you?

Can you show, from YouTube, where Obama is lacking?....

It's not that I don't trust you, John,....it's more of your obvious slant against Obama. I just want to see for myself from MAINLINE sources that Obama is lacking.

Here's one where an Obama supporter had a little trouble answering what specific things Obama has accomplished in the Senate: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZTo0iGc_Dw

As far as Obama being "lacking" is concerned, a person is unprepared to be the American president if they can't show good evidence that they are someone the American people ought to put in that office. What has Obama done that makes him someone you think should be the next president?

Does he show that he makes great decisions? How about good judgment? How about understanding and being in touch with the way Americans think and feel?

Have the American people ever put in anyone as far to the Left as Obama is? He is further to the left than McGovern or Al Gore, who both lost.

See video of Obama campaigning for socialist candidate Bernie Sanders: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIlIpOkRh2A

See more evdence below.

I do not say that I believe everything that is stated here, but it is certainly something that Americans need to consider before they vote. Study Obama's speeches, his voting record, and his life, then decide for yourself if there is any truth to it.

Source: http://www.aim.org/aim-column/obamas-communist-mentor/

Is Barack Obama A Marxist Mole?

By Cliff Kincaid Wednesday, March 19, 2008

In his biography of Barack Obama, http://davidmendell.blogspot.com/

David Mendell writes about Obama’s life as a “secret smoker” and how he “went to great lengths to conceal the habit.” But what about Obama’s secret political life? It turns out that Obama’s childhood mentor, Frank Marshall Davis, was a communist.

In his books, Obama admits attending “socialist conferences” and coming into contact with Marxist literature. But he ridicules the charge of being a “hard-core academic Marxist,” which was made by his colorful and outspoken 2004 U.S. Senate opponent, Republican Alan Keyes.

However, through Frank Marshall Davis, http://www2.hawaii.edu/~takara/frank_marshall_davis.htm

Obama had an admitted relationship with someone who was publicly identified as a member of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). The record shows that Obama was in Hawaii from 1971-1979, where, at some point in time, he developed a close relationship, almost like a son, with Davis, listening to his “poetry” and getting advice on his career path. But Obama, in his book, Dreams From My Father, refers to him repeatedly as just “Frank.”

The reason is apparent: Davis was a known communist who belonged to a party subservient to the Soviet Union. In fact, the 1951 report of the Commission on Subversive Activities to the Legislature of the Territory of Hawaii identified him as a CPUSA member. What’s more, anti-communist congressional committees, including the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), accused Davis of involvement in several communist-front organizations.

Trevor Loudon, a New Zealand-based libertarian activist, researcher and blogger, noted evidence that “Frank” was Frank Marshall Davis in a posting in March of 2007.

Out Of Nowhere

Obama’s communist connection adds to mounting public concern about a candidate who has come out of virtually nowhere, with a brief U.S. Senate legislative record, to become the Democratic Party frontrunner for the U.S. presidency. Decades ago, the CPUSA had tens of thousands of members, some of them covert agents who had penetrated the U.S. Government. It received secret subsidies from the old Soviet Union.

You won’t find any of this discussed in the David Mendell book, Obama: From Promise to Power. It is typical of the superficial biographies of Obama now on the market. Secret smoking seems to be Obama’s most controversial activity. At best, Mendell and the liberal media describe Obama as “left-leaning.”

But you will find it briefly discussed, sort of, in Obama’s own book, Dreams From My Father. He writes about “a poet named Frank,” who visited them in Hawaii, read poetry, and was full of “hard-earned knowledge” and advice. Who was Frank? Obama only says that he had “some modest notoriety once,” was “a contemporary of Richard Wright and Langston Hughes during his years in Chicago...” but was now “pushing eighty.” He writes about “Frank and his old Black Power dashiki self” giving him advice before he left for Occidental College in 1979 at the age of 18.

This “Frank” is none other than Frank Marshall Davis, the black communist writer now considered by some to be in the same category of prominence as Maya Angelou and Alice Walker. In the summer/fall 2003 issue of African American Review, James A. Miller of George Washington University reviews a book by John Edgar Tidwell, a professor at the University of Kansas, about Davis’s career, and notes, “In Davis’s case, his political commitments led him to join the American Communist Party during the middle of World War II—even though he never publicly admitted his Party membership.” Tidwell is an expert on the life and writings of Davis.

Is it possible that Obama did not know who Davis was when he wrote his book, Dreams From My Father, first published in 1995? That’s not plausible since Obama refers to him as a contemporary of Richard Wright and Langston Hughes and says he saw a book of his black poetry.

Fellow Travelers

The communists knew who “Frank” was, and they know who Obama is. In fact, one academic who travels in communist circles understands the significance of the Davis-Obama relationship.

Professor Gerald Horne, a contributing editor of the Communist Party journal Political Affairs, talked about it during a speech last March at the reception of the Communist Party USA archives at the Tamiment Library at New York University. The remarks were posted online under the headline, “Rethinking the History and Future of the Communist Party.”

Horne, a history professor at the University of Houston, noted that Davis, who moved to Honolulu from Kansas in 1948 “at the suggestion of his good friend Paul Robeson,” came into contact with Barack Obama and his family and became the young man’s mentor, influencing Obama’s sense of identity and career moves. Robeson, of course, was the well-known black actor and singer who served as a member of the CPUSA and apologist for the old Soviet Union. Davis had known Robeson from his time in Chicago.

As Horne describes it, Davis “befriended” a “Euro-American family” that had “migrated to Honolulu from Kansas and a young woman from this family eventually had a child with a young student from Kenya East Africa who goes by the name of Barack Obama, who retracing the steps of Davis eventually decamped to Chicago.”

It was in Chicago that Obama became a “community organizer” and came into contact with more far-left political forces, including the Democratic Socialists of America, which maintains close ties to European socialist groups and parties through the Socialist International (SI), and two former members of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), William Ayers and Carl Davidson.

The SDS laid siege to college campuses across America in the 1960s, mostly in order to protest the Vietnam War, and spawned the terrorist Weather Underground organization. Ayers was a member of the terrorist group and turned himself in to authorities in 1981. He is now a college professor and served with Obama on the board of the Woods Fund of Chicago. Davidson is now a figure in the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism (CCDS), an offshoot of the old Moscow-controlled CPUSA, and helped organize the 2002 rally where Obama came out against the Iraq War.

Another figure in the CCDS, Leslie Cagan, is an organizer of anti-Iraq War demonstrations through a group called United for Peace and Justice.

Former congressional investigator Herbert Romerstein, an expert on communist activities, said most of the members of the CCDS came out of the CPUSA, where they functioned as stooges of the Soviet Union until the fall of that dictatorship. He said it has “a close working relationship with the Stalinist remnants in the former East Germany, now called the Party of Democratic Socialism.” Romerstein said these were the people who ran the concentration camps and the Communist Party apparatus in East Germany.

Romerstein also cited evidence that after the 9/11 terrorist attacks Cagan organized the first meetings to plan opposition to any United States military action against those responsible.

(Continued on next post)

[John317]

The Nature Of The Threat

Both communism and socialism trace their roots to Karl Marx, co-author of the Communist Manifesto, who endorsed the first meeting of the Socialist International, then called the “First International.” According to Pierre Mauroy, president of the SI from 1992-1996, “It was he [Marx] who formally launched it, gave the inaugural address and devised its structure...”

Apparently unaware that Davis had been publicly named as a CPUSA member, Horne said only that Davis “was certainly in the orbit of the CP [Communist Party]—if not a member...”

In addition to Tidwell’s book, Black Moods: Collected Poems of Frank Marshall Davis, confirming Davis’s Communist Party membership, another book, The New Red Negro: The Literary Left and African American Poetry, 1930-1946, names Davis as one of several black poets who continued to publish in CPUSA-supported publications after the 1939 Hitler-Stalin non-aggression pact. The author, James Edward Smethurst, associate professor of Afro-American studies at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, says that Davis, however, would later claim that he was “deeply troubled” by the pact.

While blacks such as Richard Wright left the CPUSA, it is not clear if or when Davis ever left the party.

However, Obama writes in Dreams From My Father that he saw “Frank” only a few days before he left Hawaii for college, and that Davis seemed just as radical as ever. Davis called college “An advanced degree in compromise” and warned Obama not to forget his “people” and not to “start believing what they tell you about equal opportunity and the American way and all that [censored].” Davis also complained about foot problems, the result of “trying to force African feet into European shoes,” Obama wrote.

For his part, Horne says that Obama’s giving of credit to Davis will be important in history. “At some point in the future, a teacher will add to her syllabus Barack’s memoir and instruct her students to read it alongside Frank Marshall Davis’ equally affecting memoir, Living the Blues and when that day comes, I’m sure a future student will not only examine critically the Frankenstein monsters that US imperialism created in order to subdue Communist parties but will also be moved to come to this historic and wonderful archive in order to gain insight on what has befallen this complex and intriguing planet on which we reside,” he said.

More Confirmation

Dr. Kathryn Takara, a professor of Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa who also confirms that Davis is the “Frank” in Obama’s book, did her dissertation on Davis and spent much time with him between 1972 until he passed away in 1987.

In an analysis posted online, she notes that Davis, who was a columnist for the Honolulu Record, brought “an acute sense of race relations and class struggle throughout America and the world” and that he openly discussed subjects such as American imperialism, colonialism and exploitation. She described him as a “socialist realist” who attacked the work of the House Un-American Activities Committee.

Davis, in his own writings, had said that Robeson and Harry Bridges, the head of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and a secret member of the CPUSA, had suggested that he take a job as a columnist with the Honolulu Record “and see if I could do something for them.” The ILWU was organizing workers there and Robeson’s contacts were “passed on” to Davis, Takara writes.

Takara says that Davis “espoused freedom, radicalism, solidarity, labor unions, due process, peace, affirmative action, civil rights, Negro History week, and true Democracy to fight imperialism, colonialism, and white supremacy. He urged coalition politics.”

Is “coalition politics” at work in Obama’s rise to power?

Trevor Loudon, the New Zealand-based blogger who has been analyzing the political forces behind Obama and specializes in studying the impact of Marxist and leftist political organizations, notes that Frank Chapman, a CPUSA supporter, has written a letter to the party newspaper hailing the Illinois senator’s victory in the Iowa caucuses.

“Obama’s victory was more than a progressive move; it was a dialectical leap ushering in a qualitatively new era of struggle,” Chapman wrote. “Marx once compared revolutionary struggle with the work of the mole, who sometimes burrows so far beneath the ground that he leaves no trace of his movement on the surface. This is the old revolutionary ‘mole,’ not only showing his traces on the surface but also breaking through.”

OBAMA’S SECRET SOCIALIST CONNECTIONS

Obama’s socialist backing goes back at least to 1996, when he received the endorsement of the Chicago branch of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) for an Illinois state senate seat. Later, the Chicago DSA newsletter reported that Obama, as a state senator, showed up to eulogize Saul Mendelson, one of the “champions” of “Chicago’s democratic left” and a long-time socialist activist. Obama’s stint as a “community organizer” in Chicago has gotten some attention, but his relationship with the DSA socialists, who groomed and backed him, has been generally ignored.

Blogger Steve Bartin, who has been following Obama’s career and involvement with the Chicago socialists, uncovered a fascinating video showing Obama campaigning for openly socialist Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Interestingly, Sanders, who won his seat in 2006, called Obama “one of the great leaders of the United States Senate,” even though Obama had only been in the body for about two years. In 2007, the National Journal said that Obama had established himself as “the most liberal Senator.” More liberal than Sanders? That is quite a feat. Does this make Obama a socialist, too?

DSA describes itself as the largest socialist organization in the United States and the principal U.S. affiliate of the Socialist International. The Socialist International (SI) has what is called “consultative status” with the United Nations. In other words, it works hand-in-glove with the world body.

The international con-nection is important and significant because an Obama bill, “The Global Poverty Act,” has recently been rushed through the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, with the assistance of Democratic Senator Joe Biden, the chairman, and Republican Senator Richard Lugar. The legislation (S.2433) commits the U.S. to spending hundreds of billions of dollars more in foreign aid on the rest of the world, in order to comply with the “Millennium Goals” established by the United Nations. Conservative members of the committee were largely caught off-guard by the move to pass the Obama bill but are putting a “hold” on it, in order to try to prevent the legislation, which also quickly passed the House, from being quickly brought up for a full Senate vote. But observers think that Senate Democrats may try to pass it quickly anyway, in order to give Obama a precious legislative “victory” that he could run on.

Howard Dean’s Socialist Ties

Another group associated with the SI is the Party of European Socialists (PES), which heard from Howard Dean, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, back in 2006. Dean’s speech is posted on the official Democratic Party website, although the European socialist parties are referred to as “progressive.” Democrats, Dean said, want to be “good citizens of the world community.” He spoke at a session on “Global Challenges for Progressive Politics.”

Following up, in April 2007, PES President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen reported that European socialists held a meeting “in the Democrats HQ in Washington,” met with officials of the party and Democratic members of Congress. The photos of the trip show Rasmussen meeting with such figures as Senator Ben Cardin, Senator Bernie Sanders, officials of the Brookings Institution, Howard Dean, and AFL-CIO President John W. Sweeney, a member of the DSA. The Brookings Institution is headed by former Clinton State Department official Strobe Talbott, a proponent of world government who was recently identified in the book Comrade J as having been a pawn of the Russian intelligence service.

The socialist connections of Obama and the Democratic Party have certainly not been featured in the Washington Post columns of Harold Meyerson, who happens not only to be a member but a vice-chair of the DSA. Meyerson has praised convicted inside-trader George Soros for manipulating campaign finance laws to benefit the far-left elements of the Democratic Party. Obama’s success in the Democratic presidential primaries and caucuses is further evidence of Soros’s success. Indeed, Soros has financially contributed to the Obama campaign.

It is not surprising that the Chicago Democrat, Rep. Jan Schakowsky, has endorsed Obama. Schakowsky, who endorsed Howard Dean for president in 2004, was honored in 2000 at a dinner sponsored by the Chicago chapter of the DSA. Her husband, Robert Creamer, emerged from federal prison in November 2006 after serving five months for financial crimes. He pleaded guilty to ripping off financial institutions while running a non-profit group. Before he was convicted but under indictment, Creamer was hired by the Soros-funded Open Society Policy Center to sabotage John Bolton’s nomination as Ambassador to the U.N. One of the claims made against Bolton was that he had yelled at somebody 20 years ago. The allegation was made by a specialist in “recovered memories.”

After his release from prison, Creamer released a book, Listen to Your Mother: Stand up Straight: How Progressives Can Win, described by one blogger as the book that was “penned in the pen.”

VIP Clients

In addition to writing the book, Creamer is back in business, running his firm, Strategic Consulting Group, and advertising himself as “a consultant to the campaigns to end the war in Iraq, pass universal health care, change America’s budget priorities and enact comprehensive immigration reform.” His clients have included the AFL-CIO and MoveOn.org. In fact, his client list reads like a virtual who’s who of the Democratic Party, organized labor, and Democratic Party constituency groups.

Creamer’s list of testimonials comes from such figures as Democratic Senators Dick Durbin (Ill.) and Sherrod Brown (Ohio), Harold Meyerson, MoveOn.org founder Wes Boyd, and David Axelrod, a “Democratic political consultant.”

Axelrod, of course, is much more than just a “Democratic political consultant.” He helped State Senator Barack Obama win his U.S. Senate seat in 2004 and currently serves as strategist and media advisor to Obama’s presidential campaign.

[Neil D]

Where can we check this out on the internet?

[Bravus]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/19991031/aponline183823_000.htm

http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2006/8/30/123006.shtml

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=4301022

http://blog.case.edu/conservativemovement/2008/01/29/john_mccains_top_ten_temper_explosions

[John317]

Where can we check this out on the internet?

I put up the links to some of it as well as the original articles. So you must be talking about verifying the information.

Did you read all of it?

I think quite a bit of it, such as his friendship with Davis, is in Obama's own autobiography.

I personally am kind of concerned about having a socialist or Marxist in the White House because I know from experience what that would mean. I don't want to see the US going down that road. I am not saying that Obama is a committed Marxist. However, I'm convinced from studying his speeches that he thinks like a Marxist when it comes to many socio/economic issues. I'm not at all surprised at this because the universities are full of professors who are very much influenced by Marxist thought and philosophy.

I'm not even saying that is necessarily a bad thing. I admit that I'm very sympathetic myself with many of the things Marx taught. But I know where Marxists want to take this country, and it is NOT toward greater personal freedom. That's my main concern.

I'm going to Denver in 5 days and will be there to cover the street demonstrations. I'm hoping and praying for peace but I know that many will be trying to cause confrontations. If they don't get some, a lot of those people will leave feeling they did not accomplish anything.

[John317]

Bravus, none of those things will mean much to American voters, if that is all there is to the "temperament" issue.

You ought to see what they said about Truman. Perhaps you already have.

LBJ also had a pretty good temper. So did Nixon.

A lot of good executives have bad tempers. The only time that would be an issue is if he seems unable to control his anger and behavior. So far I don't see any solid evidence that that is true.

Generally, Americans would rather have a guy who knows how to be tough and mean than someone who appears too soft. Look at what happened to Kennedy in his first meeting with Nikita K. He got blown away and this actually caused Nikita K. to miscalculate. The Russians misread Kennedy as a softy, which nearly resulted in a nuclear exchange during the Cuban missile crisis. If Kennedy had been tougher in that first meeting, it's likely that the missiles never would have been sent to Cuba in the first place. The Russians thought they could get away with it, and it took a crises for them to learn they had made a misjudgment of our president. We came within only a few minutes of WW III.

Question:

If McCain was in Kennedy's place in that situation, is there any doubt in your mind what McCain would have done? I believe there is good reason to believe he would have done the same thing that Kennedy did. He would have stared down the Russians until they blinked. That is exactly what JFK did. History shows he did the right thing.

Would Obama? That is very debatable. Therein lies the problem.

By the way, we know now that Fidel and Che were hoping the Russians would not withdraw the missiles. They were awfully angry at the Russians for a long time about that. Naturally.

[Neil D]

Bravus, none of those things will mean much to American voters, if that is all there is to the "temperament" issue.

You ought to see what they said about Truman. Perhaps you already have.

LBJ also had a pretty good temper. So did Nixon.

A lot of good executives have bad tempers. The only time that would be an issue is if he seems unable to control his anger and behavior. So far I don't see any solid evidence that that is true.

OOoooh, I donn know about that...There is that red button that leads to various nuclear missles...and I don't like the idea that a man with a temper, a man with a "temperment issue" is so close to that button....

[John317]

Yes, that is something to consider all right. No doubt about that. I just don't see evidence that Americans understand what they know about McCain up to this point to pose a serious problem that way. McCain has been "out there" for Americans to see and examine for quite a few years now. It is not as if McCain is a new item. With Obama it's different. A lot of Americans just don't feel they know who Obama is and how he thinks. They're not sure.

I think a great many American are waiting to see the debates before they completely make up their minds. It seems to me that if this was not the case, Obama would already have been about 10 to 15 points ahead. His people have to be a bit concerned about that. I think they have good reason to be.

To me it seems that Americans still have lots of unanswered questions about Obama, and if he doesn't answer them satisfactorily by the first of Oct., and if the election is still pretty much tied at that time, it won't be to Obama's advantage. It will start going in McCain's direction.

This is crazy because with the unpopularity of the Republicans and of Bush, you'd think the Democrats would have a slam dunk this year. If this isn't their year, then when is it ever going to be?

[Neil D]

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Yes, that is something to consider all right. No doubt about that. I just don't see evidence that Americans understand what they know about McCain up to this point to pose a serious problem that way.

I have a problem with a man who used to be a POW, who has gone thru horrors in that camp, was even given a choice to leave his fellow POWs behind but chose to stay behind, and now we give him the most powerful office in the world. Rumors of his anger are legendary in some circles...A man who claims not to be prejudiced and yet still calls his former capture "gooks"...that just worrys me....

I am not saying that the man is NOT a war hero...I am NOT saying that he is a low life...What I am saying is that to give someone who has been thru so much, and then given much is to cause problems.

The bible says that one of the things the earth trembles at is a servant who becomes king. I also fear a POW who has power to obliterate his enemys.

[Dr. Shane]

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I also fear a POW who has power to obliterate his enemys.

That just rings of paranoia to me. George Washington and Andrew Jackson were both POWs. They seem to have been good Presidents.

[Neil D]

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I also fear a POW who has power to obliterate his enemys.

That just rings of paranoia to me. George Washington and Andrew Jackson were both POWs. They seem to have been good Presidents.

Never thought you would argue with the bible when it says that the earth trembles when a servant becomes king...

[Dr. Shane]

Is the son of an Admirable a servant? I don't buy into that social ladder too much but McCain is the son of an Admirable and Obama the son of an immigrant. If class means anything (and I don't believe it does) McCain obviously comes from a better line.

[Neil D]

Is the son of an Admirable a servant? I don't buy into that social ladder too much but McCain is the son of an Admirable and Obama the son of an immigrant. If class means anything (and I don't believe it does) McCain obviously comes from a better line.

I don't think you are applying the biblical interpretation correctly. As I said-

The bible says that one of the things the earth trembles at is a servant who becomes king. I also fear a POW who has power to obliterate his enemys.

The question is why would the earth tremble when a servant becomes king? When someone who is not used to power rises to the top of the rank a bit too quickly, or when someone is able to inflict retrobution upon an enemy.....And I have seen the corruption of social/polical power when someone who is not used to having that power [a servant] is place in a place of kingly power...Those are the possible interpretretions....but hey, you're a republican. You favor the republican model. And if a POW gained power over his oppressor, I guarentee that the temptation to obliderate is very strong.

Now McCain has had 20+ years to work thru those feelings. But he still calls the Vietnamese "gooks"....Which tell me that there are some latent problems that are not worked thru yet. Combine that with rumors of anger issues, and then I get a bit worried.

You vote for whomever you want, Shane...I just prefer not to place my country in that type of risk...

[Dr. Shane]

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I also fear a POW who has power to obliterate his enemys.

POW's like President Washington and Andrew Jackson? (For those living outside of the US those Presidents are on our one dollar and twenty dollar bills respectively.) Oh, maybe I should add, President Andrew Jackson hated the British until the day he died because of how they treated him while he was a POW. (just a minor detail)

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When someone who is not used to power...

McCain was born into a powerful military family, was a Navy officer and a long time Senator. Undoubtedly he is one that is used to power.

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Combine that with rumors of anger issues...

I don't let rumors determine who I am going to vote for. However even if they are true, it wouldn't bother me that the President gets angry from time to time. Living in the world we do, there are enough legitimate reasons to get angry that I think he should.

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he still calls the Vietnamese "gooks"....

Yep, kind of like President Andrew Jackson. I haven't walked a mile in their shoes so I really can't judge them for that. It certainly isn't enough for me to try to get his face taken off the twenty dollar bill.

[Jeannieb43]

Obama is the son of an American woman, a native of Kansas.

[Dr. Shane]

It takes two people to make a baby. It take a male and a female. They have sex and the little sperm gets with the little egg and life begins.

Mommy was from Kansas and Daddy was from Kenya. So,,, that means little baby was a natural-born American citizen born to an immigrant.

Like I said, class doesn't mean anything to me. In America of all places is where a child born into poverty should be able to rise up and become President of the United States. President Clinton didn't come from the best home either and yet he is a great American success story.