MICHAEL O. ALLEN

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Not getting the Times

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Yesterday, the leading Democratic candidate for President, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, came to New York City to deliver a major speech on the economy right at the time when the economy appears to be teetering on the edge of a deep recession.

He was introduced by Mayor Michael Bloomberg who himself had flirted with making his own presidential bid as an independent. The two had breakfast. Then the Bloomberg gave Obama a rather warm introduction before his speech at Cooper Union. Obama came to the podium and said, essentially, luv you back, Mr. Mayor.

So, what did The New York Times put on its front page?

You guessed it, its own story on an interview it had with Sen. Hillary Clinton, (D-NY), about her healthcare plan.

Hello? Earth to The New York Times!

March 29, 2008
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‘Renewing the American Economy’

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Text of Sen. Barack Obama’s speech at Cooper Union in New York on Friday, March 27, 2008, as prepared for delivery and provided to The New York Times by his campaign.

I want to thank Mayor Bloomberg for his extraordinary leadership. At a time when Washington is divided in old ideological battles, he shows us what can be achieved when we bring people together to seek pragmatic solutions. Not only has he been a remarkable leader for New York –he has established himself as a major voice in our national debate on issues like renewing our economy, educating our children, and seeking energy independence. Mr. Mayor, I share your determination to bring this country together to finally make progress for the American people.

In a city of landmarks, we meet at Cooper Union, just uptown from Federal Hall, where George Washington took the oath of office as the first President of the United States. With all the history that has passed through the narrow canyons of lower Manhattan, it is worth taking a moment to reflect on the role that the market has played in the development of the American story.

The great task before our Founders that day was putting into practice the ideal that government could simultaneously serve liberty and advance the common good. For Alexander Hamilton, the young Secretary of the Treasury, that task was bound to the vigor of the American economy.
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March 27, 2008
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Wright again . . .

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I posted yesterday a video of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s post 9/11 sermon that some are trying to hang Sen. Barack Obama, (D-IL), for. Andrew Sullivan posted this text of the sermon a week ago. I offer it here again. As Mr. Sullivan said, Read it and make your own mind up:

“Every public service of worship I have heard about so far in the wake of the American tragedy has had in its prayers and in its preachments, sympathy and compassion for those who were killed and for their families, and God’s guidance upon the selected Presidents and upon our war machine, as they do what they do and what they gotta do — paybacks.

There’s a move in Psalm 137 from thoughts of paying tithes to thoughts of paying back, A move, if you will from worship to war, a move in other words from the worship of th God of creation to war against those whom God Created. And I want you to notice very carefully this next move. One of the reasons this Psalm is rarely read, in its entirety, because it is a move that spotlights the insanity of the cycle of violence and the cycle of hatred.

Look at the verse; Look at the verse; Look at verse nine: [rising voice] “Happy shall they be who take your little ones and dash them against the rocks.”[lower voice] The people of faith are the rivers of Babylon. How shall we sing the Lord’s song? If I forget the order … The people of faith, have moved from the hatred of armed enemies [rising voice]–these soldiers who captured the king; those soldiers who slaughtered his son, that put his eyes out; those Read More

March 26, 2008
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A headache . . .

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. . . is what I got after reading this convoluted article by Professor Akhil Reed Amar on how Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, (D-NY), and Sen. Barack Obama, (D-IL), could serve a co-presidents, or something like that.

But which should it be: Clinton-Obama or Obama-Clinton? In fact, voters in November could actually endorse both versions of the ticket—truly, two presidents for the price of one. How? The Constitution’s 25th Amendment allows for a new paradigm of political teamwork: The two Democratic candidates could publicly agree to take turns in the top slot.

Then, at some agreed upon point, the President would cede power to the vice-president and, with Congressional approval, become the vice-president. The same team would then run for re-election four years later and four years after that, after which one of them would have to drop out because they would have been elected president twice. The remaining person could then run for president on his her own power.

Akhil Reed Amar teaches constitutional law at Yale University and he wrote “America’s Constitution: A Biography.” He is also a winner of the American Bar Association’s 2006 Silver Gavel Award. He is, in other words, a very smart guy and he said this could be done.

Whether it should done is, of course, another matter entirely.

March 25, 2008
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. . . when we talk about . . .

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Obama addressing a crowd the day after his race speech (Davis Turner/European Pressphoto Agency)

A not-too-bad round-up on the history that led to the Speech Sen. Barack Obama, (D-IL), gave in Philadelphia last week. The article shows, in some ways, how far we still have to go in our society to get to that bridge called fairness. I mean the place where we could actually be honest and fair and true with each other.

March 23, 2008
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A land divided

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Two friends, I’ll identify them as “M” and “Anon,” offered these reactions to the part of the speech by Sen. Barack Obama, (D-IL), that I said rang false to me.

First “M”:

It is a tactical decision indeed, as all actions and words are by all the candidates. And by all politicians in general. This looks to me like an insurmountable problem.This is not a government for the people, by the people.

Regarding the Israel comment of his I highlighted, it seems that he has acutely changed or modified his attitude. (Again or the attitude he tactically puts out in the public). It may be hard to believe, but my Arab-ness has really nothing to do with my feelings about Israel. I was also raised Coptic Orthodox (and am agnostic) and relate little if at all to Muslims or any religions. That being said, I do have very strong feelings about Israel occupying a country and committing countless inhumane acts (on a regular basis) against Palestinians.

The worst, almost laughable part of it, is that Zionism was born from the horrifying reality of the Holocaust.

And yet, here they are perpetuating and creating apartheid on another group of people. And no country is brave enough to stand up to Israel? To even discuss it in THOSE terms? For fear they may be labeled an anti-semite? It’s preposterous. Just today the news reported the German chancellor paying her visit to Israel.-and all the “shame” Germany felt for the past.I wonder if she took a look over the wall.

M

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March 18, 2008
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What we talk about . . .

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It was a consciously somber, serious disquisition on an incendiary topic. Going into it, I lamented the absurdity of Sen. Barack Obama, (D-IL), having to make the speech in the first place. A third of the way into it, I was glad he was making the speech.

I don’t believe the speech will settle anything for those who were not going to support Obama anyway. It may not even have persuaded former supporters who broke with him over the issue.

But, if you’re open-minded, this was the nuanced, heartfelt speech you hoped for. He eschewed the obvious rah, rah political applause lines and spoke quietly, calmly, without anger or frustration. I am glad he gave the speech.

I should say that one line in the speech rang false to me:

But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren’t simply controversial. They weren’t simply a religious leader’s effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country – a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.

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March 18, 2008
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John "There will be other wars" Mccain

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Master Sgt. Andy Dunaway/U.S. Air Force, via Associated Press. Senator John McCain at Baghdad’s airport on Sunday. The presidential candidate arrived in Iraq for meetings with Iraqi and American officials.

This should be an impossibility but slowly but surely you can see the swagger returning to Republicans.

They can sense that victory is now more than a possibility in November. After George W. Bush’s calamitous presidency, no Republicans should have a ghost-in-hell of a chance of coming close to the presidency.

But Democratcs are, seemingly, deadlocked. This does not help the Democrats in any way. But you’ll find no person in America more certain about McCain’s fitness to lead this nation than Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. He’s had “crossed the Commander-in-Chief threshold,” she famously said.

And then there’s the question of self-inflicted wounds in Florida and Michigan, Democrats’ racist rhetoric, visiting the alleged sins of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright on Sen. Barack Obama.

The Iraq war is five years old.

Hillary and McCain voted for it. No one would count Iraqi deaths, especially its civilian dead.

The shame of our nation.

March 17, 2008
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What must be said

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Transcript of Keith Olbermann’s March 12 “Special Comment” on Hillary Clinton’

s tactics against Barack Obama.

Finally, as promised, a special comment on the presidential campaign of the junior senator from New York. By way of necessary preface, President and Senator Clinton and the senator’s mother and the senator’s brother were of immeasurable support to me at the moments when these very commentaries were the focus of the most surprise, the most uncertainty and the most anger. My gratitude to them is unbiding.

Also, I am not here endorsing Senator Obama`s nomination, nor suggesting in it is inevitable. Thus I have fought with myself over whether or not to say anything. Events insist.

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March 14, 2008
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