Author: eastcoastmoderate

I am 53 years old, love to talk politics. I don't always agree with either party, but I am closer to the Democrats than I am to Republicans. To many times, both parties just love to scream at each other, and don't put out anything to help the country. The

Now, it’s time to go to work

I congratulate Barack Obama on his victory over John Mc.Cain in the election. The voices for change were heard very loudly and clearly last night Obama now has a mandate from the people to lead this great country from the failed policies of the Bush administration, and chart his own course. I wish him well.

Obama has talked a good game, but now he must deliver on his promises. The American people will allow him to set his plans in motion, but if he immediately starts jumping way to the left, like Bill Clinton did, he will find out that overreaching is not the way to go. In 1992, Mr. Clinton started overreaching from the get go, and the country rewarded him by voting in the Newt Gingrich led Republican revolution. From that moment on, Clinton went to the middle, picked the fights he knew he could win, dealt with the Republicans when he had to, and easily won a second term. Despite the numerous scandals, Clinton left office with one of the highest approval ratings ever.
With the Democrats in complete control of both the presidency, and the Congress, it would be simple for them to go hog wild with the spending, and various pork barrel projects. With a ten trillion dollar deficit, we can’t afford the luxary of doing that. Obama must reign in spending whenever he can, and must have the courage to tell the Democrats no from time to time. The Republicans spent money like drunken sailors, and look where it got them.

Another thing is just because the Democrats control things now, doesn’t mean Obama has a free hand to do whatever he wants to do. The Republicans still have the filibuster, plus the blue dog house members will keep Obama in check somewhat. The American people want things to get done, and not bogged down in partisan fighting. Obama must work with Republicans when he can, and not completely ignore them. He can start by putting a Republicans or two in his cabinet, like he said he would. There is talk of Richard Lugar of Indiana as a possible Secretary of State. That might be a good start.

Barack Obama won a great victory last night. He ran a great campaign, and deserved to win. But the words he spoke about last night at Grant Park must now be implemented. The Democrats have a chance to turn around the last eight years of miserable failure. Moderation is the key. Mr. Obama, you have been handed the keys to the most powerful job on earth. The world will be watching, please don’t blow it!!!

Liberal netroots mad at Obama

Some liberals, who backed Barack Obama from the beginning, and were responsible for obtaining the Democratic nomination for him, are now upset that Mr. Obama has now taken some positions that are contrary to the beliefs they hold dear.

Obama now supports the FISA bill, the part that offers retroactive immunity to the telecom companies. A bill that Obama said repeatedly that he would filibuster. Now, feeling betrayed, some in the progressive community have openly questioned his liberal credentials. One of them, Atrios, have given him his daily “Wanker of the day award”. Matt Stoller, a blogger at Openleft.com has said that Obama has broken faith, and is part of the old politics that has been rejected by his supporters. We must hold his feet to the fire on this issue.
Another blogger, Jane Hamsher over at Firedoglake.com is angry at Obama also. “It angers the blogosphere to the core Hamsher said. We want to know, what did you do!! A lot of people wanted to portray him as the progressive hero, and they were disappointed. You can feel a real shift in the zeitgeist online”.

Another well known, and popular blogger online is Markos Moulitsos Zuniga, who hopes that Obama is not just another spineless Democrat. “I don’t want to hear him talk about leadership, Moulitsos said. I don’t want him to talk about defending the Constitution, I want him to do it If he does, then he will increase the intensity and support in the Democratic base. If he doesn’t, then we may worry that he is just another spineless Democrat, who is more afraid of the controversy than in doing the right thing”.

Dan Gerstein, a longtime aide to Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), said this is the first test for Obama within his own party. He says that Obama must stand firm behind the bill, given Republican effort to brand Obama a “partisan, reflexive liberal” Gerstein went on to say that “people will be looking at this to see if Obama has the strength and independence to stand up to his friends and a significant support of his base and say I think this is right, and I am going to hold firm in my position”.

So this is the first big test for Sen Obama. Will he be pulled to the left by the netroots, or will he show that he doesn’t always follow the liberal line, and vote for the bill. We shall see just how much power the netroots have over this man.

Obama’s poll numbers problem

For the past year, I have heard the stories coming out of the press, and liberal bloggers all over the internet that this is the Democrats year. All they have to do is trot out John Mc.Cain, and morph him into George Bush, and the Democrats will take control of the White House back after Bush has soiled it for the past eight years. But the latest Gallup poll may give some Democrats an uneasy feeling.

In the poll, it shows that Barack Obama has only a 3% lead over Mc.Cain, 45-42% That is statistically a dead heat, and what’s worse, Obama’s lead is down after Hillary Clinton got out of the race and endorsed Obama.

Now I know this is only one poll, and it’s only a snapshot in time, but with the way things are running in this country right now, Obama should have a 12-15% lead.
Think about it. The economy is bad, we are in an endless Iraqi war, gas prices are through the roof, homes are foreclosing in record rates, Bush’s approval rating is at an all time low of 25%, most of the world hates us because of Bush’s cowboy diplomacy, the middle class is worse off than eight years ago, the poor are getting poorer, while the rich just get richer. All this bad news comes in a time where we have a Republican in the White House. Obama has said over and over again that he is the change candidate, and this is a change election, but we have yet to see the supposed change candidate manifest itself in an environment that certainly favors Democrats.

So what is Obama’s problem? Could the people who voted for Hillary be holding out on Obama? Could it be that Obama is a classic liberal, and in some parts of this country, the word liberal is a dirty word? John Mc.Cain is one of the worst candidates the Republicans could ever throw at the Democrats. The guy makes paint drying an exciting thing to watch, he is prone to making gaffes in his supposed strength in foreign policy, a solid minority in his own party hate the guy because he isn’t conservative enough, and to top that off, he represents a party who can’t get out of its own way.

If I were a Democrat, I would be worried. Here we have a fresh, young face in Barack Obama, who has dethroned the Clinton machine, on a message of change in this country, who is suffering with all kinds of problems, running against a man, a party, and a sitting worthless president, and he is only up by 3%!!!

Something ain’t right here.

Hillary gets great support running as an independent

Now I know this isn’t going to happen because Hillary Clinton has said she will not run as an independent, but Rasmussen took a poll on how Hillary would do against Barack Obama and John Mc.Cain, and the results are very surprising. First here is a 4-way matchup between Obama, Mc.Cain, Bob Barr and Ralph Nader

Obama 42%
Mc.Cain 38%
Barr 6%
Nader 4%

Now with Hillary running as an independent
Mc.Cain 32%
Obama 31%
Clinton 22%
Barr 3%
Nader 3%
Now as you can see, Mc.Cain goes from being down 4%, to being up 1%. Clinton takes away 11% of Obama supporters, and 6% of Mc.Cain supporters. So Hillary would definitely hurt Obama, and to a lesser extent, Mc.Cain.

What this tells me that both Mc.Cain and Obama need to consolidate there bases, and Obama needs to shore up with support with women. Also, Rasmussen reports that 30% of Democrats want Clinton to run as an independent if she doesn’t get the nomination. This also shows how weak Mc.Cain is because Obama is still within 1%, even though Clinton is in the race, and would take away the majority of votes from Obama.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com

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Gallup poll; nearly 30% of Clinton supporters support Mc.Cain over Obama

A new Gallup poll came out this morning showing that if Hillary Clinton does not get the nomination for the Democratic party, nearly 30% of them, (28%) say they will vote for John Mc.Cain this November. The poll also suggests that only 60% of Clinton supporters will vote for Obama this fall.

On the other hand, 19% of Obama supporters say that if Clinton is the nominee, they will vote for Mc.Cain in the fall. also 72% of Obama supporters will vote for Clinton this November.

What this tells me that there are a lot more Clinton supporters that will ultimately be pissed off enough to vote Mc.Cain if Obama gets the nomination. Now I know a good portion of these people will come back to the Democrats this November, but enough of them could tip the balance over to Mc.Cain.

Now, I have no wish to see Mc.Cain as president, but I also have no wish to see Obama as president either. But just think, if only half of those Clinton supporters carry through with their threat to vote for Mc.Cain, combined with other factors like Nader, and people so disgusted with politics, just staying home, and not voting Obama, you could very easily see John Mc.Geezer as president.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/105691/McCain-vs-Clinton-28-Clinton-Backers-Mc.Cain.aspx

McCain’s age will be a factor

With race certainly a factor for Barack Obama, and gender a factor for Hillary Clinton, John Mc.Cain has an issue that will be just as prickly to get around as the two Democrats, and that is his age.

Mc.Cain will be 72 years old come election day, and a new poll out this morning, and reported by MSNBC says a full 25% of voters say they will be less likely to vote for Mc.Cain because of his age.

The only other person you can compare this to is Ronald Reagan. The job of president ages you in a hurry, and Reagan took afternoon naps, was in bed for the night around 9PM, and by the sixth year of his second term, he was tired, run down, his energy sapped and he looked every bit like an 85 year old man. By the end of his second term, Bill Clinton looked like he aged 25 years.

If Mc.Cain wins the presidency, (A thought that horrifies me), I dare say he will only be a one term president. I can’t see him making a run for a second term simply because I doubt he would last with a second term. This is a job for younger men or women, with energy to burn.

When the Republicans exploit race and gender,(and you know they will), the Democrats have the age issue. In simple terms, Mc.Cain’s age is a liability to him. Democrats would do well to bring it up every chance they get.

Eleanor Clift; Joe Lieberman a good Democrat

I was watching the Mc.Laughlin group this morning on my local PBS station, and the predictions segment at the end of the show came on, and in it, Newsweek columnist Eleanor Clift had something very wise to say, but it will piss off all you Joe Lieberman haters out there.

Clift said, “Other than favoring the war, Joe Lieberman will be a very good Democrat”. Her comments suprised me since anyone on the liberal websites, including this one, hates Lieberman with a passion.

My only question for all you idiots out there, if Clift can say good things about Lieberman, why can’t you?? You can’t say anything good about Lieberman because your utter hatred for the man clouds your judgment.

So come on Boo-Man, PSI fighter, Cabin Girl or anyone else out there. Prove to me that you have opens minds. I know I’m just waisting my time, since none of you disgusting people has anything good to say about people who may disagree with you. For people who are supposedly progressive in your thinking, you certainly act like the Republicans when it comes to Lieberman.

But I had the last laugh when Neddie the “racist” Lamont was beaten in the general election. Lieberman until 2012!!!! Choke on that!!!