Monday, July 14, 2008

UPDATED: Sen. Obama, I'm trying, but you're not making it easy for me

UPDATE: MyBarackObama.com is back up and running. I encourage anyone who's as frustrated by Obama's vote on FISA as I am to sign up for the "President Obama, Please Get FISA Right" group. So far, it seems to be a fairly polite and articulate discussion of the issues. And hopefully if enough of us object to Obama's stand on FISA, our collective voice may be heard.
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Yes, it's true that I wore an Obama sticker when I marched in the 4th of July parade. The next president of the United States will be either John McCain or Barack Obama, so ....

Part of the reason why I felt comfortable with the sticker is that I had some really good conversations with my cousin in Vermont who is a strong Obama supporter. I felt that he respected my previous support of Hillary Clinton, and that he understood my concerns with Obama's recent stands on issues such as FISA. In fact, my cousin encouraged me to go to the Obama web site, where many progressives who are displeased with this recent move to the center have been leaving comments urging Obama to reconsider some of his recent statements. Enough people have been commenting that it has made the news. Computer World reports:

In a development that shows how users can take Web 2.0 sites in unexpected directions, a group of Barack Obama supporters is using his presidential campaign's official social network to protest the Illinois senator's stance on a bill extending the so-called warrantless wiretapping program.

The social networking group set up on the MyBarackObama.com site to urge Obama to vote against the extension of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) had attracted more than 24,000 member entries as of last Friday, although some of the entries appeared to be duplicates.

So I thought that I'd check it out this morning and see if I left a thoughtful and polite comment, would I be attacked as a "troll" and all the rest of the things I was called at Americablog, Huffington Post, and the rest. Unfortunately, this is what you get today when you go to mybarackobama.com:

I'll keep checking. Hopefully it'll be back up soon ....

8 comments:

Mary Ellen said...

Sounds to me like they're clearing out all those nasty comments they got, have to make it look like they're all unified and all...

I cannot see how anyone can forgive Obama for his vote on FISA. If you look into the implications of that bill and how far reaching it is, there should be a much louder outcry from Democrats. All I've heard so far is a little whimper and acceptance.

Oh, and there is still a choice, the Convention hasn't begun, Hillary still has her delegates, and if there really WAS an outrage instead of allowing Obama to get away with trashing our Constitution, the SD's would realize they can change their votes anytime. Eight of them changed their votes back to Hillary last week. It can be done...or we can all just shrug our shoulders and allow them to destroy what's left of the Constitution.

I prefer not to accept this...there's nothing Democratic about allowing our government to listen in on our phone calls, nothing.

Sue J said...

I hadn't heard about the delegates switching back to Hillary -- but I was just glancing at headlines all week.

I am looking forward to the convention with great anticipation. I've noticed that Hillary has been very quiet recently, and I wonder what she is thinking right now. I know there's a very large contingent of people who refuse to support Obama, and I respect that. It will be very interesting to see how this all shakes out.

Personally, I'm just trying to get through this election with my sanity in tact. That's why I have become a (reluctant) supporter of Obama. But I will only support him as long as I feel I can freely speak my concerns about his recent switch on issues like FISA. His site still says "join the movement" and I will hold him accountable for that. It's not supposed to be a movement to the right ....

Anonymous said...

Still got my Hillary sticker on the truck.

Mary Ellen said...

Sue- Howard Dean is trying to get Hillary off the ballot for the Convention. She has retained all her delegates, and she has a right to be on that ballot. Hell, Howard only had about 200 delegates and he as allowed to be on the first ballot. The same with Ted Kennedy who was over 1,000 delegates short.

There was a rumor that Dean was going to strip her of her delegates if her debt wasn't paid by last Friday, but I never heard anything after that.

They want a coronation, not a convention. Donna Brazile was on one of the talk shows and said that Hillary "needs" to be off the ballot to save Obama any embarrassment when she is received with so much support at the convention. If he wanted to be saved from embarrassment, he shouldn't have voted for the FISA bill, IMO.

Sue J said...

Morgan, I still have her sticker on my car, too, as well as in the front window of my house. Because I really, truly think she's the better candidate.

And in case anyone missed it, she voted voted No on FISA.

Mary Ellen, I have to turn the tv off now when Donna Brazille comes on. Rarely if ever have I seen such fawning and biased "analysis" by anyone on tv.

Suzi Riot said...

I am so right there with you on this. I'm trying, but he is not making this easy.

Anonymous said...

time to move on people! she likely will NOT be the democratic nominee. splitting your party and infighting will do nothing more than ensure mccain gets elected. gee, that would be good for all of us, wouldn't it?!

sue, i am glad to hear it, but from your posts, it doesn't seem you are really trying too hard. hopefully you will get on board eventually and work to make sure mccain is not our next president.

Sue J said...

splitting your party and infighting

Donald, I don't understand why holding Obama accountable for betraying his earlier campaign promises is considered infighting. But I hear this from a lot of people.

And as for splitting the party, it is split. That's the reality. Obama and Clinton each basically got 50% of the popular vote. He has the opportunity to unify the Democratic Party by choosing Clinton as his VP.

Clinton supporters already feel alienated from his campaign because of the sour taste of the primary season, then he alienates his longtime progressive supporters by reversing his position on FISA.

Of course I don't want John McCain in the White House. But I also don't want a Barack Obama who is never held accountable in there, either.