Of Biden:
The largest number of votes he's ever won is 165,465 in his 1996 Delaware Senate race (Moseley Braun got 2.6 million votes in her Illinois Senate victory in 1992).I like Joe Biden. Some of you may not, but I do. But I love Carol Mosely Braun. The electorate may say that neither race nor sex affects their vote -- but if that were really true, she might well be president today.
As for Obama: This Z Magazine piece goes too far, but it still raises some good points. Obama chose Lieberman to be his mentor. He voted for the Patriot Act, he voted for bankruptcy reform, and he voted for business-friendly tort reform. He now supports universal health care, but (until recently) he has opposed a Canadian-style system, which most Americans would prefer. He also refuses to rule out the idea of a nuking Iran.
Are those positions really so "mainstream" in the current context?
4 comments:
The Corporate media has given breathless press coverage to Clinton and Obama almost since day 1. Now it's Mr. I'm-from-a-slave-state-so-vote-for-me Biden, too.
What do these three have in common?
Whether we like it or not, neither has any chance of winning the Presidency. The Democratic nomination, maybe, but not the Presidency. They would lose for different reasons, but they would lose. But that's the whole point now, isn't it?
Kim in PA
I don't argue with your concerns about Obama. We need to watch him closely. But do get your facts right. He voted against bankruptcy "reform"--and made a very eloquent statement about it.
Obama did indeed make a nice speech on that topic. It is here.
http://obama.senate.gov/speech/050228-floor_statement_of_senator_barack_obama_on_s256_the_bankruptcy_abuse_and_prevention_act_of_2005/index.html
However, he ended up voting for the bill. See here (and other places):
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/4318
I have to correct my correction.
There are quite a few web pages that say Obama voted for the bankruptcy act of 2005. But this is a common misperception arising from the controversy leading up to that vote. He pissed people off when he made noises about voting in favor. In the end, he voted against.
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=109&session=1&vote=00044
I owe an apology.
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