A Letter from Sen. Obama

(The following is a hypothetical letter written by Barack Obama in response to John McCain's Q & A with Newsweek earlier this month. It is suggested you read the Q & A - a simple, 5 minute, read - before continuing.

This hypothetical letter is in response to Joe Buri's request - and is in no way associated with the Obama campaign. It does, however, represent the views of the Obama campaign as published in media reports and online research)



To the Editors of Newsweek, the McCain Campaign, and the American public,



I write today out of disappointment. As I've said before, I admire John McCain; His valor, his courage, his love of his country – but after reading his most recent article, I'm left to wonder who John McCain really is.

When asked about how he will beat me, he hit his campaign themes of Reform, Prosperity, and Peace. While all these precepts are well and good, I struggle to see how he will accomplish these goals when he supports so many of the failed Bush policies of the last 8 years.

Take 'Reform'. If you want real reform, you need to make a fundamental change in the way things work in Washington. While in the past, Senator McCain has bucked the trend – he has filled his staff with Washington lobbyists. In fact his campaign manager Rick Davis is lobbyist with a checkered past with numerous questionable deals to bring funding to his interests. You can't bring real reform when you're surrounded by people paid by the special interests. That's not bottom-up reform, that's top-down status quo.

McCain has closed out the public on his Town Hall meetings, he has failed to admonish the 527s (similar to Swift boat Veterans For Truth) who promote racist and absolutely false smears against my candidacy. In fact McCain has continually claimed that Hamas is rooting for my candidacy to prevail, and have linked my candidacy with that terrorist group because of it. I have no desire to work with Hamas. This is not reform. This is the same old politics of the past.

The second point is "Prosperity". Prosperity for who? The top 2% who are paying less in taxes (15%) on their hedge funds and

Capital gains, while their secretaries are being taxed at a rate nearly double that? Is that what McCain means by prosperity? McCain said in 2001 and 2003 that the Bush tax cuts to the wealthy were a bad idea. Today, he says they should stay in place until 2010 – if not make them permanent. And McCain wants to give tax breaks to the CEOs of companies who have given themselves billions of dollars in bonuses – yet lay-off workers left and right. That's just not good policy – and it will mean prosperity for a very few.

The third theme is Peace. Now, again, I respect McCain military record, and as I've noted – despite my acknowledgement of his accomplishments, he refuses to recognize the 20 years of service I've put into our country on the ground level – working in the extremely poor communities of Chicago and working with churches and community groups to bring real change from the bottom up.

But aside from that, McCain has supported this failed war in Iraq. Despite his objections to the early strategy, he has been a constant defender of the decision to go into Iraq. My question for Sen. McCain is this: What constitutes victory? Do you believe we are going to eradicate every single terrorist in the world? What exactly will show we 'won' in Iraq? The damage we have done and the lives we have ruined cannot be undone – and it was poor judgment – judgment McCain stood behind – that got us into Iraq.

The truth is McCain said – point blank – if it means being in Iraq 100 years, fine, we'll be there 100 years. That's not the mentality to have with this crisis. We need to undo what we've done immediately. McCain said victory is no American casualties… but our young men and women are still coming home in flag-draped caskets every day. And there is no end in site. Even if we hypothetically say we kill all the terrorists in Iraq… then what? I've got news for Mr. McCain: There are a lot of other terrorists in a lot of other countries that still hate us. And the number grows exponentially when we are in the Middle East. Our presence alone exasperates the problem. Again – McCain wants reform? Well you can't have reform with the cowboy diplomacy of the Bush Administration.



A couple of other small points: There was a Senate Intelligence Committee report about the administration allegedly misleading the nation on prewar intelligence. McCain said he "hasn't read the report". That frightens me. For someone who stands so lock-step with the administration to not have read a report like that – it should concern us all.

Also, McCain says he never commented on the media's coverage of Hillary Clinton – saying it was in the prepared remarks but that he didn't say it out loud. One Problem: He DID say it. Watch the speech. This kind of denial is also concerning.



In wrapping up, I want to address McCain's claim that I went back on my word to accept public financing for my presidential campaign. Yes, I did indeed say I would take the 80 million dollars of public financing that is allotted under the McCain Feingold campaign finance bill. But after further consideration, I have changed my mind. I'm trusting the American people to donate their money to my campaign. This way I will have to answer to them – not the special interests. One of the driving forces in my decision is knowing that in late August of 2004, the 527 Swift Boat Vets for Truth started running smears against John Kerry. Because of the broken system, Kerry was unable to respond because he was restricted by the campaign finance rules. While the GOP has numerous smear groups with endless cash from the oil companies, the democrats do not have a wealth of special interest money. By opting out of public financing, I will use the donations of the American people to fight these 527s without being restricted by the broken system in Washington. Once elected, we can begin making real change in our election policy by making it 100% publicly financed without loopholes for special interests.



You may call my actions a flip-flop… but let me ask Sen. McCain who the flip-flopper is: I didn't say in 2005 that I didn't want off-shore drilling for oil… then say in 2008 that I'm in support of it. I didn't vote against the Bush tax cuts in 2001 and 2003, and now support them. I didn't ask for the suspension of Habeas Corpus for Gitmo Detainees – knowing full well the importance of giving prisoners of war their due rights… then change my position 180 degrees when I was running for president. I didn't – in 2004 – say I refused to drill in ANWAR… then in 2008 say I'm willing to drill.



McCain may attack my substance… but it seems to me his substance is ever-changing.



This election is a choice between change you can believe in… and someone who likes changing his positions.



Thank you for your time,





Sen. Barack Obama

The Issues: Economy

Today, I'm starting a series of pieces breaking down the two presidential candidates on the issues. With each post, I will be linking the actual candidate page on the given issue - to assure my readers that I am accurately representing the candidate's views.
I'm open to questions on any of these issues - and will gladly provide posts giving you in depth information on anything you'd like to know more about.

Our First Issue: The Economy

Taxes:

John McCain Plan

McCain has been a constant defender against pork-barrel spending. In his economic plan, he claims he'll cut taxes by $500 billion over the next 5 years - mostly by expanding the 15% tax bracket to include more people in the middle class bracket.

He is in favor of the Bush tax cuts, given primarily to the top 2% of income earners in the country.

McCain has proposed a decrease in the Corporate tax, reducing it from 35% down to 25%. He also wants to improve business incentives by giving tax breaks for businesses which purchase new equipment.

McCain also wants to freeze the tax rates on dividends and capital gains at current rates: 15% - a number scaled back since the Clinton Administration
His plan would Ban new taxes on cell phones, and ban any tax on Internet businesses.
McCain wants to double the personal exemption for dependents - from $3500 to $7K.

Finally, McCain wants to make it more difficult to raise taxes, requiring a 3/5 majority vote in the congress to pass any increase.

Barack Obama's Plan Outline, Full Plan

Obama has said what's vital to his economic plan is rolling back the Bush tax cuts that were passed for the top 2% of income earners in the country.

His plan includes a $1000 income tax credit for working families and a $500 dollar income tax credit for per person. This would affect 150 million lower/middle class workers - and essentially eliminate an income tax for 10 million low income Americans.

Obama favors lifting the cap on the capital gains tax from 15% to as high as 28% (levels during the Clinton Administration).

His job stimulus plan includes tax breaks for clean technologies, tax breaks and loan guarantees for job training and education - specifically designed for green technologies.

Obama plans to implement a Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) - requiring 25% of electricity be derived from renewable sources by 2025, and the hope is this will spur job growth in the renewable energy field.

He also wants to make trade fair by revisiting NAFTA and changing our trade policy to ensure American workers aren't having their jobs sent overseas.

Gas Policy

John McCain

McCain has supported a Gas Tax Holiday for the summer months when gas prices tend to sky-rocket. This would remove the 18.4 cents/gallon tax all Americans pay from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Most economists say this will have little effect on the price of gas, as it will likely be passed on to the consumer. If it doesn't, it will save Americans about a half a tank of gas during the course of the summer.

McCain supports off-shore drilling, which could possibly reduce the price of gas after a ten year period of research and excavation. He suggests using all forms of alternative energy - including nuclear - to solve our energy crisis.

McCain also supports the suspension of filling up our Strategic Petroleum Reserve. This, according to McCain, would reduce the demand for oil - lowering costs.

Barack Obama

Obama does not support s Gas Tax Holiday, but does support a "windfall profits tax" on oil companies who have carried record profits in the last several quarters. He wants to use that money to go towards alternative energy research and development as part of his economic stimulus plan.

Obama is against off-shore drilling, saying that we should focus our money and energy on renewable fuels. The reasoning is that since oil exploration would take 10 years - why not use those ten years and created a new, renewable form of energy.

Obama has also said he supports another economic stimulus payment on the heels of the spike in gas prices.


Mortgage Crisis

Both McCain and Obama support a crackdown on predatory lending and have called for plans to make it easier for homeowners to avoid foreclosure.

Both call for help form the Justice Department in ending this practice.

Obama's plan calls for a more proactive approach, requiring lenders to provide more information to lendees, and closes bankruptcy loopholes for mortgage companies.


Hope Part 1 is useful and objective... please note, the information I ma using is strictly from John McCain and Barack Obama's Websites (which there is a vast difference in the level of information on each site.... see for yourself) as well as press releases from both of the campaigns.

Please feel free to submit any questions!

Remembering Russert

It is with great sadness that I have to make this post: Tim Russert - host of NBC's "Meet The Press" - passed away due to heart failure on Friday.

I idolized Tim Russert - and like most American's - I saw him as a piller of political knowledge. If Tim said it - you knew it was legit.

Perhaps his most memorable moment came in the 2000 election between George Bush and Al Gore. The electoral vote was swaying back and forth between Gore and Bush, and the high tech graphics at NBC News couldn't keep up. That's where Tim came in: a throwback to a white board - breaking down the raw numbers with a marker so that everyone watching could understand. (The clip is at about 2:45):



We'll miss you Tim...

Obama on Fathers

The crux of the speech, in which Obama calls on fathers to be more responsible in our society:

"[If] we are honest with ourselves, we’ll admit that what too many fathers also are is missing — missing from too many lives and too many homes. They have abandoned their responsibilities, acting like boys instead of men. And the foundations of our families are weaker because of it.

You and I know how true this is in the African-American community. We know that more than half of all black children live in single-parent households, a number that has doubled — doubled — since we were children. We know the statistics — that children who grow up without a father are five times more likely to live in poverty and commit crime; nine times more likely to drop out of schools and twenty times more likely to end up in prison. They are more likely to have behavioral problems, or run away from home, or become teenage parents themselves. And the foundations of our community are weaker because of it.

How many times in the last year has this city lost a child at the hands of another child? How many times have our hearts stopped in the middle of the night with the sound of a gunshot or a siren? How many teenagers have we seen hanging around on street corners when they should be sitting in a classroom? How many are sitting in prison when they should be working, or at least looking for a job? How many in this generation are we willing to lose to poverty or violence or addiction? How many?

Yes, we need more cops on the street. Yes, we need fewer guns in the hands of people who shouldn’t have them. Yes, we need more money for our schools, and more outstanding teachers in the classroom, and more afterschool programs for our children. Yes, we need more jobs and more job training and more opportunity in our communities.

But we also need families to raise our children. We need fathers to realize that responsibility does not end at conception. We need them to realize that what makes you a man is not the ability to have a child — it’s the courage to raise one.

We need to help all the mothers out there who are raising these kids by themselves; the mothers who drop them off at school, go to work, pick up them up in the afternoon, work another shift, get dinner, make lunches, pay the bills, fix the house, and all the other things it takes both parents to do. So many of these women are doing a heroic job, but they need support. They need another parent. Their children need another parent. That’s what keeps their foundation strong. It’s what keeps the foundation of our country strong."

John McCain

Someone challenged me to break down three positive things about John McCain. Apparently he thought I might be a bit biased... but without further adui:

1. I believe John McCain to be a genuine person who actually thinks through legislation. He's worried about how it effects the population as opposed to how it might affect his voting record.*

2. John McCain 'gets' that global warming is happening and that something needs to be done about it. He's not blind to the science out there and virtually every respected scientist who says global warming is real and that we need to do something about it. He also understands how this is coupled with getting off a dependency on foreign oil.

3. John McCain is a hero who loves his country. The man spent 6 years in a Vietnamese prison. How can you not respect that?



*This is obviously pre-2004. Since that year, he has voted in lock-step with the Bush administration, and has even changed some of his positions.

The Electoral Map

The Obama campaign sends out an e-mail to the press saying the Republicans won't be able to count on as many states this year, and that the entire electoral map will change. During the Bush/Gore and Bush/Kerry years, the map looked very similar to the one below. This year, however, states like Virginia, Indiana, Colorado and New Mexico are up for grabs.
This map gives you a glimpse into how the electroal math is shaping up for the 2008 election. It can be found at www.electoral-vote.com

The Nomination

On June 3rd, 2008, Barack Obama overcame tremendous odds to become the first minority to represent a major political party in a U.S. Presidential Election. I don't care what party you are in, who you support, or what your political beliefs are; but this nomination was of historic proportions.
I was in the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, MN - and it was truly electric. There was something special that was happening as Barack Obama said, "I will be the Democratic nominee for the President of the United States of America" - you felt something.

This was Martin Luther King's Dream. This was why Rosa Parks stayed on the bus. This was why thousands marched the streets in Selma, and why others died at Gettysburg.

So much in our history is riddled with remorse and regret for how we've treated our own. And so much work has been down to overcome those past failures. But tonight - in one shinning moment - there was an accomplishment that made all the struggle, the tears, and the strife seem somewhat worthwhile.

There is an African-American running as the nominee for President. Sure, there is a long way to go - but it certainly has given us a new hope in seeing just how far we have come.

The moment: