nader & west ….. wow

November, 2008:

Dragonflyeye: Just watch the f**king video. Ralph sez: we love them neegras, unless they step out of line. Then, they’s all Uncle Toms. Nicole Bell said it best on Crooks and Liars: “You know you’re going bad when a Fox News anchor looks more racially tolerant than the former Green Party candidate.”

SFGate: As if Ralph Nader wasn’t a big enough tool already, he went on Fox News on election night – the very night Barack Obama broke the racial barrier on the presidency – and uttered the words “Uncle Tom”.

… It’s a stunning bit of television …. Give Shep Smith a lot of credit here. “Really? Ralph Nader – what was that?” And then he just fried Nader….

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June 2008:

Howard Kurtz (Washington Post): … Nader is quite media savvy. He knows he’s getting little attention, he knows why, and he knows how to remedy that: by throwing a stink bomb. One with a pungency that the MSM would find impossible to ignore.

He did just that yesterday, in an interview with the Rocky Mountain News:

“Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader accused Sen. Barack Obama, the presumed Democratic Party nominee, of downplaying poverty issues, trying to ‘talk white’ and appealing to ‘white guilt’ during his run for the White House.

…. “There’s only one thing different about Barack Obama when it comes to being a Democratic presidential candidate. He’s half African-American. Whether that will make any difference, I don’t know. I haven’t heard him have a strong crackdown on economic exploitation in the ghettos …. What’s keeping him from doing that? Is it because he wants to talk white? He doesn’t want to appear like Jesse Jackson?….”.

What can you say about that? If there’s ever been an African-American candidate who went out of his way not to frame his message in racial terms, not to appeal to white guilt, it’s Barack.

Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs told MSNBC the comments were “reprehensible and basically delusional,” but I wonder whether he should have just ignored them.

…. At Hot Air, Ed Morrissey is, well, disgusted: “Maybe Barack Obama was onto something when he warned about race-based attacks in the upcoming general election. However, the first such attack hasn’t come from Obama’s right, but from his left ….

‘Talk white’? Do people still think this way? Apparently Nader does, and the arrogance here is simply stunning. On what basis does Ralph Nader think that he qualifies to be the arbiter of black authenticity? “

Full article here

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December, 2009:

Michael Tomasky: Can there be anyone worse than Joe Lieberman? Actually, yes. From Benjy Sarlin’s interview at the Daily Beast with Ralph Nader, who naturally opposes the healthcare bill:

Is the title of your article ‘I told you so?'” he asked. “This is what I meant a year ago when I said the next year will determine whether Barack Obama will be an Uncle Tom groveling before the demands of the corporations that are running our country or he’ll be an Uncle Sam standing up for the American people.”

Nice. Personally, I’m long past the point of saying the perfunctory liberal thing about Nader, you know, “I have great respect for his accomplishments, but in this case…” He’s just become a preening megalomaniac. In fact he’s quite like Lieberman.

Amptoons: … You know, words really fail me. I don’t really know what possesses an old white guy to use the words “Uncle Tom,” you know, ever, but I really don’t get why a soi disant progressive would use those words to describe the first African American to serve as president. Quite frankly, it’s disgusting, and it stands as exhibit 3,492 in my ongoing argument that Ralph Nader is one of the worst humans alive today.

…. given his record since 2000, if Ralph Nader says the sky is blue, I’m going to assume it’s pink until further examination. After all, he once declared there wasn’t a dime’s worth of difference between Al Gore and George W. Bush, and … well, let’s just say that didn’t exactly work out for the United States, humanity as a whole, or the universe in general.

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Today:

Washington Post: Liberal activists and academics displeased with the Obama administration’s handling of several issues popular with progressives say they are seeking candidates willing to mount a primary challenge against President Obama next year.

The group, led by consumer advocate Ralph Nader and scholar Cornel West, said it faults Obama for the escalation of military campaigns in Afghanistan and Pakistan, for extending tax cuts first enacted by George W. Bush and for his actions during the recent debt ceiling negotiations.

Full article here

the ‘buffett rule’ ….. genius

NYT: President Obama on Monday will call for a new minimum tax rate for individuals making more than $1 million a year to ensure that they pay at least the same percentage of their earnings as middle-income taxpayers, according to administration officials.

…. the proposal adds a new and populist feature to Mr. Obama’s effort to raise the political pressure on Republicans to agree to higher revenues from the wealthy in return for Democrats’ support of future cuts from Medicare and Medicaid.

Mr. Obama, in a bit of political salesmanship, will call his proposal the “Buffett Rule”, in a reference to Warren E. Buffett, the billionaire investor who has complained repeatedly that the richest Americans generally pay a smaller share of their income in federal taxes than do middle-income workers, because investment gains are taxed at a lower rate than wages.

… The Obama proposal has little chance of becoming law unless Republican lawmakers bend. But by focusing on the wealthiest Americans, the president is sharpening the contrast between Republicans and Democrats with a theme he can carry into his bid for re-election in 2012.

It could also reassure Democrats who have feared that Mr. Obama would agree to changes in programs like Medicare without forcing Republicans to compromise on taxes.

Full article here

‘no sweat’

David Axelrod: Public polling released this week makes clear that Americans strongly agree with the President’s plan to create jobs and provide economic security for the middle class and believe that leaders in both parties should move quickly to pass the American Jobs Act.

Members of the media have focused on the President’s approval ratings as if they existed in a black box. Following the intransigence of the Republicans during the debt debate, the approval rating of the GOP brand dropped to a historic low. The approval rating of Congress dropped to a near historic low. Americans are still dealing with the impact of the financial crisis and recession and the long-term economic trends that have seen wages stagnate for many, and that is manifested in their anger towards Washington. There’s no doubt that Americans are calling on leaders in Washington to take immediate action to address their economic challenges – exactly what the President is advocating for.

According to a CNN poll released on Wednesday, a plurality of Americans approve of the President’s jobs plan. Two thirds believe we should cut taxes for the middle class and rebuild America’s roads and bridges. Three quarters believe we need to put our teachers and first responders back to work. More Americans trust the President to handle the economy than Congressional Republicans by a margin of 9 points.

Despite what you hear in elite commentary, the President’s support among base voters and in key demographic groups has stayed strong. According to the latest NBC-WSJ poll, Democrats approve of his performance by an 81%-14% margin. That’s stronger than President Clinton’s support among Democrats at this point in his term and, according to Gallup, stronger than any Democratic President dating back to Harry Truman through this point in their presidency. 92 percent of African Americans approve. And a PPP poll out this week showed the President winning 67 percent of Hispanics against Romney and 70 percent against Perry, a higher percentage than he captured against Senator McCain in 2008.

The base is mobilized behind the President. 12,000 individuals applied to join the campaign as volunteer summer fellows, more than in 2008. 1,100 students across the country are organizing their campuses in support of the campaign as fellows this fall. We had 552,462 individuals give to the campaign in the second quarter — more than we had in all of 2007. Of our 552,462 total donors to the 2012 campaign so far, more than 260,000 of them are completely new to the Obama organization and have never given before.

The Republicans have yet to choose a nominee, and therefore, most Americans have yet to learn much about their records or visions for the country. Their candidates are busy courting the Tea Party, signing off on any economic pledge it might demand – no revenue increases under any circumstances, ending Medicare as we know it, draconian cuts that will hamper job creation. And Americans are increasingly rejecting the Tea Party’s agenda and its ideological rigidity – following the debt negotiations, an AP poll found the Tea Party’s approval rating sinking to 28-46. When Americans learn the details of the Republican candidates’ plans, the choice about America’s future will come into clear view.

Despite the Republican candidates just beginning to undergo the media scrutiny that occurs during a presidential campaign, from North Carolina to Nevada, the President remains ahead or in a dead heat with the Republican candidates in the battleground states that will decide the election in 2012. And ultimately it is in those battleground states where voters will choose, 14 months from now, between two candidates, their records, and their visions for the country.

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Thanks Tally

flashback …. wanda & seth

And the greatest ever?

caption it!

Thank you wesleya17 for that splendiferous suggestion 😉

coming up

President Obama on Monday will deliver his deficit-reduction speech at 10:30 a.m. from the White House’s Rose Garden, according to an administration release.

Later on Monday, the president and First Lady Michelle Obama will travel to New York City for the UN General Assembly and a series of bilateral and multilateral meetings. While in New York, he’ll also deliver remarks at the Clinton Global Initiative. The president is scheduled to return to Washington on Wednesday.

Tuesday: Meeting the chairman of Libya’s governing council, and a high-level meeting on Libya; then, a meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, one with Brazil’s president, and a session with Turkey’s prime minister to talk about Syria and Israel

Wednesday: Obama’s speech to the General Assembly to “address dramatic change” since last year’s meeting, like in South Sudan; then a meeting with Japan’s premier, a luncheon with the U.N. secretary general, a speech to the Clinton Global Initiative, a meeting with Britain’s David Cameron and then France’s Nicolas Sarkozy, and possibly a meeting with Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu.

kara kennedy, r.i.p.

President Barack Obama presents the 2009 Medal of Freedom to Kara Kennedy, accepting the award on behalf of her father, Sen. Ted Kennedy, during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House August 12, 2009

MSNBC: The only daughter of the late Senator Edward Kennedy, Kara Kennedy Allen, died suddenly Friday evening, NBC News has confirmed.

The 51-year-old mother of two teens died while at a health club in Washington, D.C.

Kennedy Allen had been a survivor of lung cancer and family friends say she had been in remission for a few years.

Ted and Joan Kennedy with Kara, circa 1962

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Eleanor Mondale, daughter of Walter, and Charles Percy, the former moderate Republican senator, have also died. R.I.P.

‘panic disorder’

blasts from the past

weekly address: ‘passing the american jobs act’