Red State Rebels

The campaign's best ad yet

It's two minutes long - unusual for an advertisement of any sort. But in it, Barack Obama spells out a coherent, concrete, and can-do vision of how we can get America back on track, and asks people to read more specifics at his website. Good stuff. Read the script in the comments.

A day of remembering

As Americans, we will never forget the bright September morning seven years ago when nearly 3,000 people died in New York City, Virginia, and Pennsylvania.

But nor will we allow free-floating fear over terrorism to cloud our judgment at the ballot box. We will not forget how the Bush-Cheney administration used 9/11 as a cynical excuse to launch an unfounded war in Iraq, a war that has now claimed 1,180 more American lives than we lost on 9/11, a war that Sen. Barack Obama opposed from the beginning, a war that has left the mastermind responsible for 9/11 at large seven years later.

The campaigns say they're taking a day off politics today, and that is fitting. Given the toxic remarks made at last week's Republican Convention, however, it's ironic that John McCain will join Obama at a celebration of community service in New York later today.

Perhaps today will be a turning point in the campaign. Perhaps for the next 55 days, the candidates will stick to the issues, tell us how they plan to govern, avoid unfounded attacks, and inspire us to a more perfect union. That would be the most fitting tribute to everyone who has died in the name of America, whether on the streets of Lower Manhattan or the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan.

A fellow P.O.W. on John McCain

Watch this before the big speech tonight. It's only one voice, but this man's testimony ought to lend credibility to the case against John McCain and his inexperienced running-mate. In U.S. history, one in three vice presidents has wound up becoming president.

We'll have an open thread up later this evening for McCain's acceptance speech. Meanwhile, here are some excerpts.

Only one green choice

Thomas Friedman, writing in yesterday's New York Times:

As we emerge from Labor Day, college students are gathering back on campuses not only to start the fall semester, but also, in some cases, to vote for the first time in a presidential election. There is no bigger issue on campuses these days than environment/energy. Going into this election, I thought that — for the first time — we would have a choice between two “green” candidates. That view is no longer operative — and college students (and everyone else) need to understand that.

With his choice of Sarah Palin — the Alaska governor who has advocated drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and does not believe mankind is playing any role in climate change — for vice president, John McCain has completed his makeover from the greenest Republican to run for president to just another representative of big oil ... Indeed, Palin’s much ballyhooed confrontations with the oil industry have all been about who should get more of the windfall profits, not how to end our addiction.

Read it all here, then pass it around, as my friend Dale did. I believe that with its implications for national security, a robust economy, and the mere survival of our planet, energy is this year's biggest issue, not just for students but for us all. And the choice is plain not only at the top of the Democratic slate, where Barack Obama will push for a decade-long Apollo-like project to secure clean, green, good-paying jobs and energy independence in a decade, but all the way down the ticket. Simply put: If you care about your children and grandchildren - their health, their safety, and their ability to make a living in the global economy - you will vote a straight Democratic ballot this year.

Does that sound harsh? Can you imagine where we'll be four or eight years from now if we continue to ignore reality and insist that more oil is the answer? From Idaho Republican leadership's willful disdain of local transit needs to the McCain-Palin platform of "drill, drill, drill," the choice couldn't be more clear.

Obama, backed by the facts, on the high road

No VP announcement yet. There's now speculation that Barack Obama's text messages may go out Friday night, ahead of a Saturday rally with his VP choice in Springfield, Illinois, where his campaign began. Meanwhile, here's video of Obama addressing the Veterans of Foreign Wars yesterday.

And here's a new DNC ad on John McCain's laughable definition of rich, and what his tax policy would mean for McCain and his wealthy buddies ... and for the rest of us:

Despite the clear differences between someone who will extend the Bush-Cheney era and someone who will move us into the future, this race is a tie. If that makes you mad, get ready to volunteer to help Obama win this thing.

Idaho for Obama HQ re-opens this week

Idahoans took the political world by storm in February by packing Boise's largest sports arena for a pre-dawn speech by Barack Obama. Three days later, we did it again by giving Obama the biggest margin of victory from any primary or caucus state. Now, Idahoans for Obama are getting set to make history again as we reopen Obama for America's Boise office. The new digs are downtown in the Jefferson Place building on the southeast corner of 9th and Jefferson Streets.

Idaho last voted for a Democrat for president in 1964, and we know it will take a lot of hard work to help Obama prevail here. But the fact is: Idahoans don't want a third George W. Bush term, which is what we'd get with a John McCain presidency. Like the rest of the nation, we are ready for a visionary, forward-thinking president who can bring people together across party lines to start solving our nation's most pressing problems, including sustainable energy; a strong economy for everyone; affordable and accessible health care insurance; and real national security based on leadership, not fear-mongering. Idahoans know: Barack Obama is that president.

Join us from 5 to 7:30 p.m. this Thursday, August 21, as we open the new HQ. Food and drink will be served, courtesy Lisa Peterson Catering. Buy Obama gear and learn about volunteer opportunities and what you can do over the next 11 weeks to help Obama make history, yet again, in Idaho and across the nation. Click here to RSVP. And click here to visit the newly designed Idaho for Obama website to learn about other events and volunteer opps all over the state. Idaho matters ... for a change!

P.S. West Ada County Obama supporters ... click here for info on a Meridian canvass this Saturday.
 

Weekend topics

Wow sure has been quiet around here - yet there is a LOT going on!

It is all the whiners, Phil has stepped down from working on the McCain campaign. 

Wolves are back in the news, and those that were hoping to hunt them, will be waiting longer.  Federal protection returns.

Obama has headed to Afghanistan, you can see his overseas trip discussed by his foreign policy adviser by clicking here. 

Apparently Rex Rammell, still believes his campaign is a worthy investment - as he loans his campaign another $250,000. 

And lastly I am apparently the only one of my friends that did not yet see the Dark Knight, but I hear it is amazing, and yes it is on my list of movies to see.

What are YOU doing?? and did you see the last Jib Jab yet? 

t

Obama campaign announces platform meetings

Just got this email from the Obama campaign:

Every four years, the Democratic Party assembles a platform that outlines the party's position on a number of issues. Traditionally, the drafting of the platform is not open to ordinary people.This year, that's going to change.

For two weeks in July, people all across America will hold Platform Meetings in their own communities to discuss the issues and share their input. The outcome of these meetings will be reviewed by the Drafting Committee as it creates the final Platform.

The window for meetings is July 19-27, which is actually just over a week. No meetings have been set up in Boise yet, but if you're game to do so, you can get info here. The campaign suggests that rather than tackle the task of writing an entire platform, meeting organizers choose to focus on one key plank. It'd be great to see separate meetings emerge in Idaho population centers on such key topics as energy and the environment, the economy, education, health care, and America's role in the world.

Weekend edition 7/4-6 and open thread

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo

This may just be my favorite video ever. It reminds me that although I am a citizen of the United States - and proud of it, in spite of the past eight long years - I am also a citizen of the world, and that we're all far more alike than we are different, whether in Boise, Baghdad, Belfast, or Beijing. Or as our next president put it in a speech he gave in Independence, Missouri, earlier this week:

That is why, for me, patriotism is always more than just loyalty to a place on a map or a certain kind of people. Instead, it is also loyalty to America's ideals – ideals for which anyone can sacrifice, or defend, or give their last full measure of devotion. I believe it is this loyalty that allows a country teeming with different races and ethnicities, religions and customs, to come together as one.

Enjoy! In other news ...

At 22, Julian Langness of Bonners Ferry will be the youngest member of the Idaho delegation to the Democratic National Convention. He was featured in this week's state party newsletter, and his hometown paper had a profile of him here.

If you want to scope out the Obamas' July 4 visit to Montana, it looks like this Montana TV station will be streaming it live starting at 10 a.m. Mountain on Friday. And happy 10th birthday to Malia Obama, Barack and Michelle's eldest daughter, born on the Fourth of July.

Don't forget the 4th of July parades around the state. There's one in Idaho Falls starting at 9 a.m., in  Coeur d'Alene starting at 11, in Caldwell starting at 11:30 a.m., and in Boise starting at 6:30 p.m. Come out and walk with your Democratic candidates! (If you know of other holiday parades or events, list 'em in the comments, please.)

Yes, it's true - the seventh edition of my book Idaho Off the Beaten Path is out now, and Rediscovered Bookshop in the Overland Park Shopping Center in Boise will have a new shipment of 'em early next week. Get one and plan the rest of your summer adventures. I also have this new blog to keep the book updated between editions, and for you to suggest new places I ought to include.

'You can't have him ...'

Check out this new ad from MoveOn.org and AFSCME, who are trying to get it on the air in several key states. It's been a while since I was a new mom, but I can sure identify with this woman's sentiments.

I kept waiting for her to say something like, "He hasn't met his dad yet, because my husband's been in Iraq since before our son's birth." But although that doesn't seem to be the case for this little boy, there are many families with parents who are missing huge chunks of their children's first years because of repeated tours in Iraq, and thousands of parents who won't be coming back at all. So when the GOP's candidate John McCain said last week that it's "not too important" how long we stay there ... well, I am sure that many, many young families would beg to disagree ... strongly.

Update: Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama today laid the blame for the failure to capture Osama bin Laden exactly where it belongs.