Minnesota grassroots leaders respond to presidential debate

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During the presidential debates, Americans have had plenty of opportunities to hear Barack Obama and John McCain talk. Then we listen to political pundits talk about the talk. But often political pundits are far removed from the grassroots, and glean their perspective from policy wonks who get their news from other wonks. The Twin Cities Daily Planet asked four local community leaders to respond to the presidential debate and tell us how the policies discussed may or may not affect their work on employment and labor, housing, at-risk families, and energy and green jobs. Add your own comments and responses by clicking on “comment” at the end of this article. Continue Reading

Who was the worst offender in Lakeville–the questioner or the candidate?

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Much has been made of McCain’s angry crowd in Lakeville last week, where the candidate snatched a microphone from the hands of a questioner asserting that Barack Obama is “an Arab.” McCain’s response to this claim? “No ma’am. He’s a decent family man and citizen.”Let’s run the tape again:Questioner: “He’s an Arab.”McCain: “No, he’s decent.”The candidate’s response manifested in headlines like “McCain tamps down hostility” and “McCain calms supporters.”It took respected pollster James Zogby to cry foul and declare “I am an Arab and a decent man.”
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We are left to infer that an Arab man is less then a “decent family man.” Enough is enough! From the beginning of this campaign there have been those who have used Muslim and Arab in an effort to smear Barak Obama. This exploitation of bigotry and the stoking of racist fires to forward an agenda is reprehensible. Continue Reading

McCain Volunteer Sends Out “Obama is an Arab” Letters

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Gayle Quinnel, a John McCain supporter says at a McCain Rally that “Obama is an Arab”. She is quickly corrected by John McCain who takes away her microphone.John Lewis denounces “atmosphere of hate”Congressman John Lewis, a hero of the civil rights movement, strongly criticized the atmosphere of hate at McCain-Palin rallies, which has included shouted name-calling and threats by attendees. Lewis said:“During another period, in the not-too-distant past, there was a governor of the state of Alabama named George Wallace who also became a presidential candidate. George Wallace never threw a bomb. He never fired a gun, but he created the climate and conditions that encouraged vicious attacks against innocent Americans who were simply trying to exercise their constitutional rights. Continue Reading

Obama’s “Problem” With William Ayers

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Recently the Presidential campaign of 2008 has taken a nasty turn. As the McCain/Palin ticket continues to fall behind to the Democratic team of Obama/Biden, allegations are flying to discredit Obama. Some of this is not new. Even during a spirited Democratic primary campaign, pictures of Obama in traditional Kenyan dress were posted to imply this candidate was Muslim – as if that were automatically a dirty term. Rumors that Obama attended a madrassa for school in Indonesia were floated to further the “smear” that our first bi-racial major party candidate was in league with “terrorists”. Continue Reading

Veteran anti-war icon visits the Twin Cities

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Speaking without a microphone, clearly tired from five previous speaking engagements that day, an anti-war icon from the 60’s clearly engaged a predominately college-aged audience in St. Paul. A founder of Students For a Democratic Society (SDS), co-defendant in the classic trial against political dissent, The Chicago 8 (or 7 after the racist Judge, Julius Hoffman, bound and gagged Black Panther leader, Bobby Seale, and then removed him from the courtroom), former California state legislator, and author, Tom Hayden is travelling the country helping build a movement to hold our next President accountable. The Free Speech Zone offers a space for contributions from readers, without editing by the TC Daily Planet. This is an open forum for articles that otherwise might not find a place for publication, including news articles, opinion columns, announcements and even a few press releases. Continue Reading

Racists for Obama

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How badly is the campaign going for John McCain? Ben Smith reports that he’s even struggling to hold on to the white racist vote:
An Obama supporter, who canvassed for the candidate in the working-class, white Philadelphia neighborhood of Fishtown recently, sends over an account that, in various forms, I’ve heard a lot in recent weeks. “What’s crazy is this,” he writes. “I was blown away by the outright racism, but these folks are f***ing undecided. They would call him a n—-r and mention how they don’t know what to do because of the economy.”
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Obama campaign attracts committed young voters

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The Barack Obama presidential campaign is setting records in promoting grassroots participation and involvement in the political process. The early caucus and primary attendances were formidable throughout the country. Some polling places reported having run out of ballots and turning people away. It has even given rise to discussion regarding the extension of voting time on a national scale. It can hardly be denied that much of the voting increase was attributable to the abundance of young and other first-time voters stimulated by the Barack Obama campaign. Continue Reading

Obama and the art of argument

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by David Doody • 9/30/08 • In conceding that John McCain was correct on some issues in the first presidential debate, Barack Obama showed he takes those issues seriously enough to see them from all sides.

“You could not argue in a vacuum, as if only your opinion matters. It would be irresponsible to try only to prevail in such a case. Rather, you would want to recognize what others think and try to draw people together.” -from The Informed Argument by Robert K. Miller and Robert P. Yagelski

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The non-issue issue

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By Jeff Fecke • 9/27/08 • It seems that debates are won and lost of late not on the issues — the idea! — but on something meta, beneath the surface of the debate. In 2000, it was Gore sighing when Bush was behaving like an idiot. In 2004, it was Kerry correctly noting that Dick Cheney’s out lesbian daughter was lesbian. These were huge transgressions, far greater than anything actually said about substance, and these were the reasons that the press gave for giving Dubya victories.

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VOICES | McCain the suspender: Let’s keep politics out of politics

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Purely as a question of self-interest, John McCain’s exit-the-stage gambit makes sense. With cries of impending doom filling the air, he’s got nothing to gain by sticking around to discuss a subject he ill understands and to be pelted with quotations of the Hoover-like things he’s already said, such as proclaiming the economy “fundamentally strong” at the start of last week. Since Wall Street’s latest and grandest blowup just hours later, he’s lost ground in the polls day by day. There are those who think the real point of McCain’s whole exercise is to can the vice-presidential debate between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden, but that’s a grace note if it happens, far less urgent than McCain’s own immediate need to find a pretext for disappearing until a bailout is done and the acute phase of the crisis seems past. The ploy also serves the larger Bush administration push to get a deal through Congress with a minimum of reflection and revision, as they so spectacularly succeeded in doing with the Patriot Act and the Iraq War resolution. Continue Reading