average donation: eighty-six dollars.
contributions coming in from the anti-American parts of America, the unreal parts of Virginia, and the just plain wrong parts of towns, counties, and states everywhere.
$150 million in September
average donation: eighty-six dollars.
contributions coming in from the anti-American parts of America, the unreal parts of Virginia, and the just plain wrong parts of towns, counties, and states everywhere.
Pretty awesome… I’m sorry none of it can be mine.I have two things on my mind today.. one is Colin Powell’s endorsement – will it give Obama credibility with conservatives, or be dismissed as “all them darkies stick together”?Secondly, is anyone else bugged as much as I am by the small-town snobbery of Sarah Palin? Why are city folk less virtuous than small-town Joe/Jane Sixpacks? I know my neighbours, I shovel the old ladies sidewalks, I volunteer at the school and community centre – what makes the small-town people better than me, or am I just fighting the Alaskan stereotype of the rootless cosmopolite?
It’s weird. Maybe they should just campaign as “McCain/Palin: Dividers, not Uniters.”
"I have two things on my mind today.. one is Colin Powell's endorsement – will it give Obama credibility with conservatives"No, because conservatives have never seen him as particularly conservative."Secondly, is anyone else bugged as much as I am by the small-town snobbery of Sarah Palin?"I guess you were real bothered by Obama's snobbery when he dismissed rural people as bitter, and clinging to guns & religion.On the money situation, Obama ads have been running non-stop here in the greater Philadelphia media market. It was like 3-1 Obama ads to McCain ads, but lately it seems to be more like 10-1.
No, because conservatives have never seen him as particularly conservative.It would be fascinating to know what your definition of “conservative” is, and who besides Sarah Palin and, say Bill Kristol, fits the bill.I’d also like to know if a “conservative” in the executive branch of our federal government can ever have too much power when it comes to “national security” issues.
Redhand,”It would be fascinating to know what your definition of “conservative” is, and who besides Sarah Palin and, say Bill Kristol, fits the bill.”Sarah Palin has too short of a record to be some sort of poster-woman for conservatism. I would certainly consider Bill Kristol a conservative, along with the rest of the crew at the Weekly Standard. Do you really want me to give you a long list of conservatives?Powell has never been viewed as much of a conservative, as opposed to just a Republican. He’s generally been seen as a moderate even in the mainstream. Being a Republican, and even serving in Republican administrations doesn’t make you a conservative.”I’d also like to know if a “conservative” in the executive branch of our federal government can ever have too much power when it comes to “national security” issues.”Of course the executive can have too much power in any area, regardless of political affiliation. It has too much power now, far more than the founders ever intended. As a specific example, the president should not be able to start wars without a declaration of war. The executive has usurped a specified constitutional power of Congress.
Of course the executive can have too much power in any area, regardless of political affiliation. It has too much power now, far more than the founders ever intended. As a specific example, the president should not be able to start wars without a declaration of war. The executive has usurped a specified constitutional power of Congress.I never really believed Obama could win until I started to hear the right wingers complain about the excesses of the Unitary Executive Theory.
Some on the right, and of course libertarians, have complained about the increased power of the executive versus the legislative branch for a long time. It also ties into states’ rights arguments.My dislike for the president appropriating the legislature’s constitutional power to declare war has to do with U.S. military/political history after WW2. It has nothing to do with Obama.
David, Powell is a moderate, but he’s a Republican, and before last weekend, his two contributions to American politics were to fight Clinton’s initiative to let gays into the military and to make the case for war on Iraq.
My dislike for the president appropriating the legislature’s constitutional power to declare war has to do with U.S. military/political history after WW2.It wouldn’t have happened twice without the blank-check legislative resolutions Congress gave LBJ and Bush in 1964 and 2003. The parallels are horrible. IMO we got into both wars based on stretched (falsified) intelligence and outright lies.(In another eerie parallel, the hubris and stupidity of Robert McNamara was more than matched by the arrogant incompetence of Don Rumsfeld.)If you’re really worried about excessive Presidential power, maybe you’ll understand better why I despise Cheney so much. The guy has always been a pure usurper our constitutional separation of powers when it comes to the President’s “war power.” This article is simply an example of the point I’m trying to make. I had hoped after Vietnam that we wouldn’t make the same mistake again. But the fear engendered by 9/11, and a voluntary military to prevent draft protests and riots, is what allowed Cheney and the neocons to play “the Deciderer” like a sock puppet and get us into this utterly unnecessary Iraq war.
“Powell is a moderate, but he’s a Republican”No argument there. He’s definitely a high-profile Republican who has decided to support Obama.”If you’re really worried about excessive Presidential power, maybe you’ll understand better why I despise Cheney so much.”Not really, because it is unclear exactly how much power Cheney had within the administration, and whatever his power, it ultimately came because Bush gave it to him. I can understand attacks on Bush better than those on Cheney. Bush heads the executive branch and decided what powers (beyond the few specified constitutional vp ones)Cheney got. I view Cheney’s arguments for executive power with that in mind — and also from the historical perspective that executive power has been increasing steadily long before the Bush administration.”I had hoped after Vietnam that we wouldn’t make the same mistake again”It’s been every military engagement since WW2 — the last time we had a declared war. The president decides when to use the military, and the Congress rubber stamps it. If/when things go badly, Congress then claims it was misled, didn’t really approve the military actions the president initiated, or whatever. We also now get a situation where the president can argue that we are at war indefinitely — such as with the so-called War on Terror. He doesn’t need to get it declared to start it, and he can claim war powers for an indeterminate period of time. Whether I agree with the war or not, that’s too much power for the executive.”But the fear engendered by 9/11, and a voluntary military to prevent draft protests and riots, is what allowed Cheney and the neocons to play “the Deciderer””I don’t think it was anything specific to the Iraq War. The shift in war declaring power from Congress to the Executive occurred during the Cold War — starting with Truman’s decision to intervene in Korea, and his characterization of it as a “police action.””and get us into this utterly unnecessary Iraq war.”I disagree that the war was unnecessary. But, I think a preemptive invasion of another country is a clear case where a declaration of war should have been required. Getting some sort of resolution of support from Congress short of a declaration of war isn’t good enough, and is obviously not what’s in the constitution. It leads to division within the country, and half-measures in fighting wars.The same is true with Afghanistan, despite the fact that there was overwhelming support for going to war. We were attacked by forces allied with and harbored by the government of Afghanistan. We delivered an ultimatum, which was rejected. A declaration of war should have followed before we invaded. It wouldn’t even have been controversial or difficult to obtain. We didn’t declare war because the executive no longer thinks it needs to get a Congressional declaration of war before beginning hostilities. Declarations of war have become obsolete, which effectively gives Congress’ constitutional power to the president.
Speaking of money, how about these reports that Sarah Palin blew $150k of RNC money in September on clothes and makeup? Any R donors here? Is this Presidential behaviour? Do you live in the Philippines?
Also speaking of money, it appears that the vast majority of Obama’s is coming from big money donors. According to the Washington Post only a quarter comes from people donating 200 or less. He’s basically found new ways to generate the equivalent of “soft money.”