Wow. Frank Rich takes no prisoners on Sunday, June 8: "One Historic Night, Two Americas."

". . . The Obama forces out-organized the most ruthless machine in Democratic politics because the medium of their campaign mirrored its inclusive message. They empowered adherents in every state rather than depending on a Beltway campaign hierarchy whose mercenary chief strategist kept his day job as chief executive for a corporate P.R. giant. . .

". . .When the world gets a firsthand look at the new America Mr. Obama offers as an alternative to Mr. McCain’s truculent stay-the-course, the public pandemonium may make J.F.K.’s “Ich bin ein Berliner” visit to the Berlin Wall look like a warm-up act."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/08/opinion/08rich.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin

We're just warming up here, folks. Hannity doesn't know what's coming.

writer who gets to the heart of the matter. Thanks to you and Mr. Rich! :thumbsup: And Rec'd!

.

He nailed it - what a skewering. "Country club membership...."

A true patriot.:patriot: :yourock:

thanks for this article.

when I was at my lowest. Personally I had no hope, and for the future of the country/world I had no hope. I just didn't care any more, I had given up. I heard about him from my kids and I volunteered for him in his Senate race. From the first time I talked with him, my attitude began to change. It was not miracle, it was just that what he said made sense and his hope for the future was contagious. When we talked dooms day ideas, he scoffed and told us what he thought would come about. I did not expect Kerry to win in the presidental race, but was disappointed when my expectations came true, I was so hoping that I was wrong. But I didn't give up hope, because I had made strides in getting my life together and I knew that if I could get better, then this country could do also. Last Tuesday I had a new all time emotional high when I knew Barack had the nomination. I do have the hope that this will be a new day for the good old USA.

I know someone who grew up with Frank Rich, another writer in NY, who always put him down because he failed to be with his first wife when she delivered their baby - he went to the theater because he was the drama critic. Who knows what the story is behind that? But, my friend - named Harry - was just so scornful of Rich.

Then Harry had a best-seller about his conversion from Liberal Democrat to Rabid Right-Wing Republican. I was glad for him, but our friendship soon ended, simply because the politics he and his wife - also my friend - were embracing were just too distasteful for me.

Can I tell you how pleased I am that Frank Rich has done so well while Harry's career is in the toilet?

and that last sentence, got me all fuzzy inside.

Grandpa McSame should just give it up

So Obama has vanquished Clinton and is on his way to vanquishing McCain. Obama is said to view the world and its problems from outside the baby-boomers' claustrophobic box.* And while it's great that Frank Rich appreciates all the intergenerational nuances of the 2008 election as well as the superiority of Obama's website design, he doesn't venture any thoughts about how much or how little the country's entrenched corporatist interests will dare let Obama shake their world.

*Excluding "the problem" of Israel and Palestine.

http://www.newsday.com/news/printedition/nation/ny-usobam065715709jun06,0,3988649.story

Obama starts his race for the White House

snip//

Moving to grab the levers of the party machinery, he announced the Democratic National Committee will no longer accept money from Washington lobbyists and political action committees - a pledge he carried out in his primary campaign. He left former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean in place as DNC chairman, however.

Thanks for the link. Maybe I'm interpreting your comment -- Getting rid of lobbyists is a good start -- too literally. The lobbyists are still there; they're not going anywhere.

Obama's announcement about PAC monies and money from federally-registered lobbyists applies only to the Democratic National Committee. It doesn't apply to individual Democratic senators and congressmen.

As the article states, Obama has grabbed "the levers of the party machinery," but that has nothing to do with any future plans Obama might have about curbing the excesses of corporate power in America. For now, the shift in DNC policy simply means that any money previously budgeted for the DNC by PACs and corporate lobbyists will now find its way into the pockets of other groups and people.

that is what this campaign has done. and that is what won.

K and R

Go for the lie.

If the Clinton'08 campaign was "the most ruthless machine in Democratic politics" -- not just in Democratic presidential politics or even modern Democratic politics but the most ruthless machine in Democratic politics since the birth of the Democratic party itself -- then which Democratic political machine got demoted to second place?

I'm surprised Rich didn't specify.

Anybody have any ideas as to who is now in second place?

"Mr. Obama must also heed Mr. McCain’s directive that he visit Iraq — as long as he avoids Baghdad markets and hits other foreign capitals on route. When the world gets a firsthand look at the new America Mr. Obama offers as an alternative to Mr. McCain’s truculent stay-the-course, the public pandemonium may make J.F.K.’s “Ich bin ein Berliner” visit to the Berlin Wall look like a warm-up act."

Frank Rich helped enable Bush to power, beware his advice.

Obama needs to take no directive from McCain or Frank Rich.

Going to Iraq particularly for Obama would serve no purpose other than as a perilous photo op.

When JFK went to Berlin we weren't engaged in a hot war and too many people in this nation are too limited in their thinking regarding Obama to risk this. When Obama merely takes his oath of office, that will serve as an "Ich bin ein Berliner" moment heard around the world.

Rich is more congratulating and boosting Obama than anything else.

And I'm pretty sure that the Obama campaign staffers don't take their cues from Frank.

promoting his talking points in two other paragraphs.

"On one side stands Mr. Obama’s resolutely cheerful embrace of the future. His vision is inseparable from his identity, both as a rookie with a slim Washington résumé and as a black American whose triumph was regarded as improbable by voters of all races only months ago. On the other is John McCain’s promise of a wise warrior’s vigilant conservation of the past. His vision, too, is inseparable from his identity — as a government lifer who has spent his entire career in service, whether in the Navy or Washington."

<snip>

Anything can happen in politics, and there are five months to go. But Tuesday night’s McCain pratfall — three weeks in the planning by his campaign, according to Fox News — should be a clear indication that Mr. Obama must accept Mr. McCain’s invitation to weekly debates at once. Tomorrow if possible, and, yes, bring on the green!

In the first paragraph Rich is promoting experience over judgment, he follows that up in the very last paragraph of my first post pressuring the only candidate to vote against the IWR into going to Iraq as proof of his worldliness. Frankly I don't trust Cheney's Halliburton or Prince's Blackwater Mercenaries some imported from South America, they're making billions of dollars out of this war. I'm sure McCain would feel comfortable trusting them as he is no doubt their favorite candidate promoting our long term occupation and their eternal cash cow.

In the last paragraph of this post Rich promotes McCain's call for instant debates which happen to be informal town hall meeting style, which also happen to play to McCain's strength as he isn't as adept at formal rigorous podium debates.

I'm sure Obama's people have better judgment than take their cues from Rich but he's part of the echo chamber.

and that was BEFORE the lobbyist purge (the "talent") started.

right on the money.