Go ahead and post your opinions, analysis, and rants in this thread.

All i hope is Obama does NOT select Clinton to be his vp!

I absoluletly love Obama. As a black guy, it started off that I just liked him because he was a black male. But, the more I listened to him and the more I read, the more I began to really like his politics. We are witnessing history, and I'm so happy to be a part of it. I cannot wait to be able to have the option to vote for an African-American for president. We truly have made progress.

I'm so excited to vote this year!

I'm just your typical bitter middle class white guy, clinging to my guns.

Once again, there's no one running for prez that I'm even remotely impressed with.

If he does, he sure better watch his backside....

Obama has not just won the closest and most contested presidential primary in history, he has created a movement. He is the first african american to ever be a nominee for a major party. I mean, as an American, regarldess of your political beliefs, this is a very exciting time in our country's history. That being said, Obama needs to win this election and stop the war and fix and economy. I know Obama is a little young and inexperienced, but afterall, this is a football board, we are used to "new eras" and inexperienced people taking over big positions. Obama is clearly the best man for the job, and I am very excited to vote for him this November.

Amen to that! I'm so excited to have the ability to vote. Even if Obama was white, I would still be inspired by him. I was excited for Gore a few years ago, and that's nothing compared to how excited I am for Obama. Even if Hillary won the nomination, it would be history. This is totally going to be a fascinating election.

cough: vote Obama: cough

Haha fo sho brotha!

Surely its not long until we Brits have a say in who becomes US President. I mean, your guys practically run our country these days so it would only be fair.

That's only because George bribed Tony, and told him the same lies he told us...even after a while Tony saw the light...still, he got caught up in it for too long.

One thing I like is Obama's ideas for energy. The Republican Party, of which I am a former member, seems to think drilling all over Alaska and the Gulf will solve our problems. The truth of the matter is well known...there have been so many geological studies performed from when I was a kid, until today, and there are solid conclusions available to anyone interested...if you took a cast iron frying pan, heated it until it is red hot, then spit in it, the spit would last about as long as the oil deposits that are in the Gulf. There's plenty of natural gas, just not enough oil to matter, really. And, by the time they started drilling those exploratory wells, found a few, then started piping it ashore to be refined, your kids will be halfway through school.

I liken Obama's challenge to Americans of eliminating our dependence on foreign energy within 10 years, to that of a similar challenge from another young, upstart of a President I watched when I was a younger man...one John F. Kennedy's challenge to Americans to put a man on the moon within 10 years, which we did. We, as Americans did that...and we, as Americans can eliminate our dependence on foreign fuel within 10 years too. I for one am tired of the stopgap policies that only encourage our car manufacturers to maintain the status quo. We need more fuel efficient and alternative energy vehicles for our future, and something has to be done to eliminate the ability or legality of big oil companies buying up and burying the work of people who come up with patents on their products, ideas, and theories that would benefit all of humanity, and allow us to end our dependence on foreign energy, just to protect their profits...of course, when you have two oil men in the two highest offices of our country, one of which has been secretly meeting weekly with the leaders of the worlds biggest oil companies, that's not likely to happen.

I personally wanted McCain to beat Bush 8 years ago, but he didn't. We likely wouldn't be in such a position, both abroad, and at home. However, I think his time has now passed, and with his pick for VP, it only solidifies my opinion.

I would also like to make a point here, and will likely take some flak for this, but if that's the case...so be it...I am a bit controversial at times anyhow.

I honestly love John McCain, and respect the fact he actually served his country during the conflict (notice I didn't say WAR) in Vietnam, and can prove where he was...just as I can. However, if that is one of his major points of experience that makes him more qualified to be "Commander In Chief" (as so many Republicans like to point to) than Obama, then I too am more qualified. However, and I in no way wish to demean Mr. McCain at all, but think about this, if you will. John McCain was no General or Admiral. He was a pilot. He flew a mission and was shot down. In other words, the truth is, he failed in his mission. Fortunately for him, and for America, he lived, survived a horrible POW experience, and has become one of our better statesmen.

Still, his mission was a total failure, and that is not the type of experience that I believe qualifies someone to be our Commander in Chief...we've had 8 years of someone who was nothing but a failure at every endeavor he's ever attempted on his own...including his so called military service which he was AWOL from...before the Republican machine won him the governorship of Texas, and then the White House...and again he's failed. Failed to be truthful to us, his constituents, as he swore to do in his inauguration. He lied about WMDs, and he neglected bin Laden...all to serve the special interests of Haliburtan and his other oil cronies.

My ancestors came from Wales. When they first came here, they were discriminated against. However, that was a long, long time ago. I am, and always have been an American, and proudly so. I served my country with pride. We are all Americans...male, female, straight, gay, white, black, yellow, red, Christen, Jew, Muslim, Buddhist, or whatever...and we are all equal to each other..and that's how we need to start thinking.

In the end, what makes America great is our diversity of cultures and ideas in a country with a government that allows them to be intermingled and refined while maintaining our independence and privacy, because it is supposed to be a government that is run by "we, the people." That's what Kennedy stood for, and I believe that's what Obama stands for too.

Now, it is time for "we the people" to speak...in fact, it's time for us to start yelling!

Obama in '08

I dont like to get involved in political talk but since im part of a younger generation it would make sense for me to support Obama, which i do. My area in New Jersey is highly republican. To me, Obama chose a great VP. McCains choice was a good choice to get votes, but was not the right choice at all. Obama should be sleeping good this week. If McCain wins the election, good for him, he will be better then bush, but the current state of america will not change. McCain wants to offshore village while Obama wants to fine new ways of energy. To me, McCain is putting a band aid on the energy chrisis. Sure it will lower oil prices, but we will be in the same situation in a few years once that oil is used up. While Obama is looking towards the future to find a perminite solution.


Consider this, both Bush and McCain finished in the bottem 1% in their college classes.

Dont make the same mistake from 00 and 04 . Huckabee would of been a better option for the repulicans

Obama in 08

Steve, I clicked on this thread just to read you take both these candidates to the woodshed....

Write in vote for Ron Paul or Mike Gravel for me... Havn't decided who yet though.

Obama would reduce the troops in Iraq but would increase them in Afgahnistan... and other parts of the world

Good to see ya, Nolan!

Yea, neither of these guys are anything more than bought-and-paid-for puppets of TPTB. That, having been said, Obama is viewed far more favorably abroad than McCain (the reincarnation of Bush II, the warmonger, on steroids) and that alone is a BIG reason he would be slightly better than McCain--at least initially.

In the long term though, Obama is also a puppet of the Rockefellers, and will continue the neoconservative Imperialism that is making us the enemy of the entire globe. He WILL eventually invade Iran if elected, and is not this great agent of "change" or man of the people he is being portrayed as by the whore media.

IMPO...EVERYONE SHOULD VOTE FOR THE 3RD PARTY OF THEIR CHOICE, and everyone should abstain from voting for either of the anointed parties' choices (and that is coming from a member of the Republican State Committee...lol...) I just tell it like it is, man....

Yeah I m with ya Steve...Everytime I see either one of these guys, I get a sick feeling in my stomach...I just like the way you put it!

I have the advantage/ disadvantage of having known 1 of the candidates and his family for almost 9 years. Trust me I can see why you believe many of the things you believe. However Barack is no puppet and though I am no fan of some of those he has now allowed to have high ranking positions in his campaign and like every liberal candidate in history he has had to "run to the right" to gain election, but this year look at the third party choices.
Bob Barr- I neo-con in sheep’s clothing and Mr. Paul has many good ideas, but run a financial model of what switching to the Gold Standard would do to inflation and then get back to me.

I've already gotten into this before but...

Just vote for Obama baby.

Not to be rude or anything, but ask Mrs. Bush if she thinks her son is a puppet... Chances are she would say no. Of course nobodies family would say they are a puppet if they are running to be the president. I'm sorry to say but for a very very long time both major party canidates have been being pimped.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/04/22/681/

I think honesty is a nice virtue when running for president.

Ron Paul on Obama

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ez5robAWmu4

Mike Gravel on Obama

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vH9SbwSQCk4...feature=related

You know i don't think of myself as a very political savvy person other than trying to keep up with certain issues each candidate is talking about i mostly focus on whats happening in the real world. with the crisis that our country has been put into for republicans to look at every excuse other than the white house is sickening. i believe that the main cause for politicians should be to help america no matter what party affiliation. less than six months ago our president was saying democrats are exagerrating and that there was no major economic problems looming and now i see him giving this speech about wht needs to be done to save the economy. it actually scared me to think that we can't trust our own president and the fact that republicans haven't commented on any of his policies is crazy. When republicans talk about all obama is sayig is change with no context, even though he lays most of his points out very cleary. even if he were to say his change is going to be to do the opposite of what bush did, id say lets give it a go. policies either succeed or fail bush's failed. the same trickle down reganomics that republicans have been pushing since the 80's doesn't work. i just think in these times it shouldn't be a republican or democrat thing it should be an america thing. i just saw a sarah palin interview that scared the hell outta me she doesn't know what she is doing. that couric interview was a joke literally and figuratively and now she publicly contradicts mccains own policy of dealing with attacks in pakistan. then instead of saying she was wrong mccain says "I don't think most Americans think that that's a definitive policy statement made by Governor Palin " then what are we supposed to go by? i know i kinda rambled but it is befuddling to know this is happening yet "good americans" like sean hannity and rush limbaugh turn a deaf ear to palin. i feel like other countries are laughing at us and they don't have to watch snl to see the jokes.

I take it everyone went out and voted today! I'm watching live coverage on CNN as I type this...and I'm in the UK!

Staying up i see, i didnt know they have CNN in england


*Note that Obama wants a playoff in CFB.

We do...we have CNN International, but I'm watching the US version online.

LOL. Saw during MNF? Too bad that's the only thing I like about Obama....

I'll call this election right now. It's going to be Obama since it's looking like FL and OH are going to him. If that's the case, game over.

I wanted McCain to win but will support Obama because our country elected him.

Now i cant wait to see if Palin will run in 2012. I would never vote for her even if Obama is as bad as bush was. (Which i highly doubt).

What an election, what an exciting time!

This was really fascinating to watch unravel before our eyes. I think this is evidence of peoples belief in Obama, and peoples dislike for Bush.

I agree Ramsdraft. She's the last person I would want near the red button.

Yes, I agree Adam. I'm not into politics that much, but I felt the US has been run into the ground the last 8 years by the Bush Admin.
I feel better about our country this morning and am looking forward to Obama leading us. Hopefully a better US is soon in our future.

A new era is upon us! I was out marching and celebrating the victory on state street here in Madison with 15, 000 other people until 1 am!

Anyways, this country has come a long way in a short amount of time. We still have lots of work to do with our economy in shambles and the war, but I have no doubt that we have elected the right man to turn it all around!

Yes we did!

I did a report on Mccain in highschool when he first thought about running for president a while back and he is not that bad of a guy. i think he was so into the idea of becoming president that he let the bush advisors mold him into your typical hard charging bull headed republican candidate. last night in his consession speach he showed the real john mccain that should have been running all along. did anybody see sarah palin after the consession? all ill say is she has alot of issues

Good point, McCain is a good guy and i believe he is an american hero but Obama was the better choice

I am SOOO relieved this unstable phony did not get elected. For a bit of "and now you know the rest of the story" savage, my friend:

http://www.vietnamveteransagainstjohnmccain.com/

Could be Dem propaganda. But there's an awful lot of smoke there. And where there is smoke....

P.S. And I am on the Republican State Committee for Maine!...lol...

(But... I voted for Cynthia McKinney)

I simply can not trust either of the establishment-supported, major-party candidates this year. (Or most any year, for that matter.)

I hope Obama turns out to be genuine, but I have my doubts....If we are not out of Iraq within a year, or if we go bomb Syria or Iran, or make up more stories about WMDs, you are going to begin hearing a large chorus of "I told you so...." beginning.

Lol, exactly. Palin is incredibly conservative. Her ideas and policies are definitely not what America needs. Did you hear the reports about her not even knowing that Africa was a continent?
xD

What? Next you'll be telling me that Europe is a continent too!

I love Obama. It was a blast being able to vote for the first time, and voting for a candidate who I supported so fervently. I can write 20 pages of material on why Obama won the election, but I'll condense it down so you would actually read it lol. I'll just compare policies:

1. Tax plans
McCain's tax plans were going to give huge tax breaks to the wealthy. Meanwhile, Obama's tax plans are going to cut taxes for 95% of Americans, or all Americans who earn less then $250,000 per year. I'm assuming that this would make Obama's tax plan more idealistic toward more Americans. The McCain campaign claimed that this was an example of spreading the wealth. They went even further with an evil accusation that Obama was a "Marxist." America's tax plans have always spread the wealth. However, under most Republican regimes, we spread the wealth to accomodate the upper class. Under Obama, we will spread the wealth to those in need. In a time of true economic crisis, isn't it more logical to help those struggling to pay for everyday expenses than those who know nothing but luxury and wealth?

2. Healthcare plans:
McCain planned to deregulate healthcare plans and give every American citizen $5000 in credit toward obtaining the healthcare plan that would best accomodate their family. Sounds good, right? The problem is that McCain's plan would also take away employer-based healthcare from tens of millions of American citizens. That does not sound like the plan that I'd want. Meanwhile, Obama would provide sufficient healthcare for every American citizen. He would force employers to provide healthcare for all of its workers. For the businesses who couldn't afford it, he would grant generous subsidies. This plan would be much closer to those of the wealthy and influential European countries.

3. Iraq War:
The Iraq War has been an absolute disaster. However much the Republicans try to mask this catastrophe, the facts are still there. We are already hundreds of billions of dollars in debt. Once Obama takes office, we will have over a trillion dollars in debt due to the Iraq War alone. After all is said and done, the Iraq War will have cost our country a couple trillion dollars. Now, despite all this, McCain was planning to linger around in Iraq for a lot longer, costing our country billions of dollars more. This would have contributed even further to our downward economic spiral, which was set in motion by the Iraq War initially. Meanwhile, Obama has a very good plan to withdraw troops gradually, so that by the summer of 2010, we will have completely withdrawn from Iraq. This is ideal in multiple ways. Not only will it save us money and lives, but it will prevent provoking foreign nations. While we linger around in Iraq, it is very probable that we can further anger a country such as Syria, which has already happened. This may not hurt us as much as much as it would hurt our allies in Israel. Remember what happened when we invaded Cambodia during the Vietnam War? We unintentionally broke down the Cambodian government, which led to a violent overthrow. The Khmer Rouge took over, led by a malicious individual named Pol Pot. His regime murdered 1 in every 7 citizens of Cambodia, focusing mainly on the educated. Who knows what will happen if we do the same thing to a country bordering Iraq.

Not to mention all of the Sarah Palin stuff. It took the perfect, or rather imperfect, storm for the first black man to win the presidential election. It also took one of the worst campaigns in history in the McCain campaign. Despite his inexperience, Obama is an incredibly intelligent and gifted individual. I know he will be able to get the job done. But remember, it even took Franklin D. Roosevelt years upon years to fix a broken economy. It will also take Obama years to do so. But he will prove himself to be very capable.

I have the advantage/disadvantage of knowing the man and some of the people inside his campaign and as in sports, one side lost it as much or more as one side won it. The Obama campaign in football terms had edges in "team speed," "coaching," "game plan," and discipline- i.e. no "stupid penalties."

#1 The McCain campaign lost much of its top talent from 2000 like Mike Murphy and got a bunch of overhyped busts like: Steve Schmidt and Rick Davis running his campaign and they tried running the same "offense" that was used in 2000 and 2004. Obama's "Film Study" had him ready to attack McCain's scheme in it's weak seams.

#2 Poor ground game- on college campuses, in big cities and even on their "home field" the McCain campaign could not grind out "key 1st downs" the key demographics in the collar counties, suburbs, big cities and especially the 34 and younger nationwide where the Obama ground game dominated by turning out superior numbers.

#3 Bad "locker-room" chemistry- The "Maverick" got talked out of Lieberman, his real choice for his "backup" and was talked by Randy Scheunemann and others into Palin who was not ready for "Prime Time" [except in the TV way] he barely knew and never was comfortable with her. She never accepted her status as #2 she wanted to drive not serve snacks on the "Straight Talk Express." As we speak the leaks have turned into a tsunami as the McCain loyalist try to torpedo Palin's political future and her camp tries to make sure this blows back on the McCainiacs.

#4 Misreads- McCain had frankly been lazy on the economic front and though most were flatfooted when the collapse came, his campaign's initial response was almost comically bad and it revealed the lack of intellectual undergirding that was a problem throughout his campaign.

BC and PP those are both very good posts.

Mitt Romney will probably be the Republican candidate in 2012. He's a very intelligent person who probably would've given the Republicans a better shot this year than McCain, as a Romney campaign wouldn't have had nearly as many mistakes. However, he is extremely far to the right. Farther to the right than Obama is to the left. An outside pick to be the Republican representative in 2012 is Governor Piyush, or Bobby, Jindal. Bobby Jindal is the Republican governor of Louisiana. Jindal would be the first Asian to represent either party. Although he may not posess the dynamic qualities of a man like Obama, he is very intelligent. He is also young, and the Republicans may want to turn to a youthful person to run against an also young Obama.

Good job PP once again. Are you studying this at USC? I guess a political science major, or do you have a passion for politics?

Haha, if McKinney had become President, we could have had all of the following:
The first female President
The first black President
The first Green Party President
And the first female VP! (Rosa Clemente)

McKinney is actually a very gifted woman, which is shown by the fact that the Green Party has been trying to convince her to run for them ever since 2000. She was even mentioned as a VP candidate to run with Ralph Nader. Too bad no one cares about any party outside of the Democrats and Republicans.

Oh, and to address your concern about withdrawing from Iraq:
McCain is obviously pro-military to the extreme. His entire reputation has been built upon his reputable military service. He wanted to remain in Iraq with no timetable for withdrawal. A terrible idea, considering what I've mentioned previously in this thread. Obama is strongly opposed to the Iraq War and has been from the very beginning. His plan to withdraw troops from Iraq and eventually completely withdraw by 2010 seems like an effective one. Quick withdrawal, without being too quick. Also, when asked about a draft, McCain publicly stated that he wouldn't mind bringing back the draft. That doesn't sound too good, considering the stress that this war has already put on our country.

Nahh, I'm not majoring in the field of political science. I just like to remain politically aware and know what's going on in my country lol.

LA Times Blogger claims Ron Paul was correct about the economy in collapse:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington...paul-obama.html

Ron Paul was right about a LOT of stuff, including the fact that Obama is run by the same people who run McCain.

Anybody else noticed how far Obama has backed off certain of his campaign pledges already? I understand we're now out to 18 months for withdrawing from Iraq for example, and that most of those troops are just going to be shipped over to Afghanistan.