Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

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    • I’m still bitter about all the great political speeches of the 2003/2004 cycle that are locked away on C-SPAN, and how much money it’d take to get them out.  I used to think C-SPAN was a public service, until I tried to get a copy of a Howard Dean town meeting out of them :/

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      I did manage to save a couple of Dean events off C-SPAN with the help of a friend who had a RealMedia stream to QuickTime conversion program, but at the time I wasn’t able to find such a program for OS X, and most of the speeches and events I wanted copies of expired before I found such a program so I stopped looking.  Maybe there’s one now, but now we have YouTube, which despite being explicitly for-profit, is doing a better job as a public service than C-SPAN.

  2. I like it.

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    I have to wonder about Crowley’s quote:
    “… made me think anew about his potential as a nominee who can excite voters.”

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    Baffling. Where’s Crowley been? Obama can definitely excite voters. The question is how many …

  3. Thank-you for posting this video.

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    It was particularly nice to see, after spending Saturday and Sunday canvassing in Portsmouth, NH for the Obama Campaign.

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    Visited 100 households and I must say…  this is far from over.  The vast majority of voters are still considering the candidates.  The only decided voters I met, were Obama supporters.

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    The next few months are sure going to be interesting.

  4. I watched the speech on Obama’s website.  It was excellent!  Every bit as good as the speech he gave at the Dem Convention in 2004 that brought him to national prominence – but better in that he did it strolling the stage like a bible belt preacher and riffing off the crowd.  He had it going on.

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    Crowley’s comment is bizarre.  Obama is the best stump speaker in the race, GOPers included.  Yet, I do think he has held himself back a bit.  Its a long campaign season and like our favourite baseball team he slowed down during the slogging mid-summer months when he wasn’t consistently excellent.  He also struggles to be his best at debates when he can’t engage with the crowd’s energy.  But he’s got the best talent in the game and can turn it around for the homestretch. 

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    The JJ Dinner will light a fire.  Remember John Kerry was down by a lot more at this point in 2004 and while he was not facing the Clinton juggernaut, the JJ Dinner turned it around for him.  He threw everything into Iowa and when he took it he sweeped the table from then on.

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    Obama has that chance as well.  Kerry also benefitted from the food fight Dean and Gephardt got into around this time in the 2004 race.  While they slang mud – he and Edwards crept up to seize the top two slots.  My sense is that Edwards is softening up Clinton a bit and that Obama can benefit from it.  Obama should not get nasty to Clinton – its not him and he will lose more than he gains as she is a difficult target to hit.  Let Edwards do the pitbulling and Obama can take pieces of the anti-Clinton vote.

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    Obama is the best hope this country has for a new direction and a unifying voice.  He’s exactly what we need now, someone who can lift spirits and make us think big again.  GAME ON!!!

  5. Top Clinton staffers react to the Jefferson Jackson dinner and decide to insult the youth vote.

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    Link:  [http://www.politico….]

    Sensing some frustration on the ground in Iowa.

    Hmmm…  I hope today those “facebook” kids are having some fun at the expense of these mature and professional staffers. 

    Myself, I’m not linked in with the facebook network.  I suggest anyone reading this who is, should let them know.

  6. I watched Obama’s Convention 04 speech in the Red Hat bar in downtown Boston, along with a room full of other political junkies. Like everyone else in the bar, I was yammering my head off through the rest of the speeches, and like everyone else, about twenty seconds into Obama’s speech, I shut up and listened. And like everyone else, when it was over I turned to the person next to me and said, “We just saw America’s first black president.”

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    That was a great speech.

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    This one was just…a speech. He had me going for a couple of brief seconds…when he said America needs the Democratic party to be great NOW…and in the end when he spoke of healing the nation and the world. Two moments in a twenty minute speech. The rest was just another candidate on the stump.

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    He should have waited eight years. He’s talented, and he can give a good speech. But it takes more than talent to lead the world.

  7. There is just no denying the maniacal genius behind this message.

    Tancredo:  Hi I’m Tom Tancredo and I approved this message because someone needs to say it.

    Narrator: There are consequences to open borders beyond the 20 million aliens who have come to take our jobs. Islamic terrorists now freely roam U.S. soil, Jihadists who froth with hate here to do as they have in London, Spain, Russia.

    The price we pay for spineless politicians who refuse to defend our borders against those who come to kill.

    *sound of an explosion*

    On Screen: Tancredo? before it’s too late.

    I’m not sure Comedy Central could have done a better parody of a paranoid terror-mongering pol.  But perhaps I shouldn’t laugh – it’s worked before.  The difference being that LBJ managed to wedge the word “love” into his message.  Not sure Tommy knows that word…

    • Of your last 10 comments, this is the breakdown:

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      2 – vague pro-Obama sentences
      2 – non-presidential
      6 – extended attacks on Hillary and her campaign.

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      Is this supposed to get me excited about Obama?

  9. Wow.  Thanks for the breakdown. 

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    Really not trying to persuade “you”.  By your posts, I’m going to assume we would have to agree to disagree on a lot of issues.  Just stuck in the house today.  Watching the news, surfing the web and this seems to be a hot topic on many channels and sites today. 

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    Sorry, I just can’t bear to think of a 1-2% lead in some swing state, blowing the WH… again.  That is my fear.  That is why I think this is extremely important.

    • I want a Democrat in the White House on January 20th, 2009, same as you.  I just can’t fathom why you think Hillary can’t do that.  Granted, the planted question wasn’t a great move, but that’s hardly the sign of a campaign in crisis.  She’s run an extremely tight campaign thus far.  She does very well in general election polling in states such as Tennessee and Texas, and I haven’t seen similar numbers for Obama.

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      Obama, whose campaign seemed unaware of that viral photo of him standing while Hillary and Richardson had their hands over their hearts.  For several days, nothing on this vicious attack.  Then he comes out with a statement that as a matter of fact, this was a photo of him during the Star-Spangled Banner, even though:

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      Citizens not in uniform salute by placing their right hand over the heart and men with head cover should remove it and hold it to left shoulder, hand over the heart…When the national anthem is played or sung, citizens should stand at attention and salute at the first note and hold the salute through the last note. The salute is directed to the flag, if displayed, otherwise to the music.

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      source

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      Even his spin is wrong, which doesn’t give me great confidence.  This was his first collision with the GOP slime machine, and he failed.

    • …when replying to someone, try to write your post as a reply to their comment (as Sabutai did yours), rather than a new comment thread. It makes the discussion easier to follow.

      • …part of the comment that is being referenced in the response.

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        I’ve given up trying to disambiguate among the unreferenced comments.  Trying to figure out the indentation is bad enough.  I have to move the window over to the left end of the screen to figure out what the indentation is.  I would wish that people would at least reference the comment (copy the “by” line) if not copy part of the comment that’s being responded to.

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