Voter Political Blog

Granted, the story itself is a bit old news; however, the reporters who got ditched still haven’t forgotten.  Myself, I find it childish of reporters to insist on spending every living second covering anyone, even a president.

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The press gets in a revenge story.

Seems Obama ditched the press to be alone with his family for a while and a Politico reporter writes that Obama is “bristling.” I’d be bristling too.

News to the press: We don’t have to know what flavor of shaved ice Obama buys for his daughters or what color pants he’s wearing. It’s interesting but not a need to know kind of thing.

Politico: HONOLULU – The media glare, the constant security appendage and the sheer production that has become a morning jog or a hankering for an ice cream cone – it’s been closing in on Barack Obama for some time.

Now the president-elect appears increasingly conscious of the confines of his new position, bristling at the routine demands of press coverage and beginning to chafe at boundaries that are only going to get smaller.

Obama even took the unusual step Friday morning of leaving behind the pool of reporters assigned to follow him, taking his daughters to a nearby water park without them. It was a breach of longstanding protocol between presidents (or presidents-elect) and the media, that a gaggle of reporters representing television, print and wire services is with his motorcade at all times.

Then when reporters finally caught up with Obama at Koko Marina Paradise Deli and he acknowledged them for one of few times since arriving in Hawaii last Saturday, he sounded resigned.

Source: http://ochairball.blogspot.com/2008/12/reporters-mad-obama-ditched-them.html

A candidate for the Republican National Committee’s chair spot says a song he placed on a CD was meant as humor, not racism against President-elect Barack Obama. Tennessee’s Chip Saltsman claims that he borrowed “Barack the Magic Negro” – based on the children’s song “Puff the Magic Dragon” – from a segment of the Rush Limbaugh show. “I think most people recognize political satire when they see it,” Saltsman tells CNN. He sent the CD to fellow Republicans; it included other songs poking fun at Obama’s former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and 2008 presidential candidate Sen. John Edwards. Obama hasn’t commented about news of the CD.

More: http://blogs.bet.com/news/newsyoushouldknow/republican-elected-official-defends-obama-magic-negro-song/

The old vanguard really can’t seem to handle the drubbing President-elect Obama handed them.  For them, it’s not just that they were beaten, it’s that they were beaten by that “exotic” black man.  And given the opportunity - any opportunity, really - they seem to have no problem letting their racial intolerance flow.

Over the holidays, when the rest of us were demonstrating goodwill toward men, Tennessee Republican Chip Saltsman sent out a CD to RNC members containing song “parodies” targeting liberals.

I suppose when you’re looking at being political also-runs, such things pass the time.

One of the songs, however, was entitled “Barack the Magic Negro.”  The song’s origin tracks back to a Hollywood paradigm, and is a ripe subject for a university-level discussion.  As a holiday gift for reactionaries…?

Caught out, Saltsman returned to the terra firma of most “sophisticated” bigots by claiming the song is merely satire.

You know, the way Amos and Andy was just funny.

Saltsman is of the ilk who would have attended a Battle Royal of the nature penned by Ralph Ellison and had himself a grand time as black boys beat each other near to death.

A word of advice to the Republicans: quit making jokes, grow up, learn how to govern before you are completely irrelevant.

Feel free to directly express your displeasure to the RNC:

Mike Duncan, RNC Chairman
Phone: 202-863-8700
Fax: 202-863-8820
Email: Chairman@gop.com

PLEASE BE POLITE AS YOU EXPRESS YOUR DISPLEASURE.

Vice President-elect Joe Biden is worried about the “exceedingly high expectations” the world community has for Barack Obama’s presidency.

He believes he and Obama must follow through with action to show how they’re different than George W. Bush, Biden told CNN’s Larry King Monday.

“I have been contacted by so many world leaders. Their expectation for Barack’s presidency is overwhelming,” Biden said. “They are so hungry to have an American leader who they think has a policy that reflects our stated values as well as one they can talk to.”

At the same time, Biden expressed sympathy for Bush over the Baghdad shoe-throwing incident — a day after Biden and Vice President Dick Cheney traded shots on the Sunday shows. “I feel somewhat badly for him,” Biden said. “I think the incident in Iraq was — was unfortunate, that guy throwing the shoes. It was just uncalled for … and I think that President Bush and, unlike Vice President Cheney, is, upon reflection, beginning to acknowledge some of the serious, if not mistakes, misjudgments that he made.”

Still, Biden made clear Obama must make a clean break with Bush polices past, starting with shutting down the U.S. camp at Guantanamo Bay, Biden said. He said Greg Craig, Obama’s incoming White House counsel, and other members of Obama’s team are working on a strategy for closing Gitmo.

“We’re in the process of drawing up plans right now,” Biden said. “It’s going to be complicated to do it. It’s going to take more than a few months. But close it we must.”

But Biden also signaled that there might be some flexibility in another key Obama campaign promise that world leaders are watching closely: bringing home troops from Iraq. Biden said troops would be out “within the next two years” — longer than President-elect Barack Obama’s campaign promise of within 16 months but “in the same ballpark,” Biden said.

He said Obama would have troops out more quickly than the Bush administration’s agreement with the Iraqi government, which calls for troop withdrawal by 2011.

WASHINGTON — A month before his inauguration, Americans choose Barack Obama as the man they admire most in the world, according to a new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll. It’s the first time a president-elect has topped the annual survey in more than a half-century.
President Bush falls to a distant second after seven years as the most-admired man.

Hillary Rodham Clinton leads the list of most-admired woman, a spot she’s held for 13 of the past 16 years — as first lady, then New York senator and now Obama’s designate for secretary of State. A newcomer is second: Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who wasn’t well-known nationally until Republican presidential candidate John McCain chose her as his running mate in August.

The findings, a snapshot of public opinion at the end of a tumultuous year, reflect soaring expectations for an incoming president who will take over daunting economic challenges on Jan. 20.

“Things are down so much at the end of 2008 and the end of Bush’s administration … and Obama represents a new beginning and some hope and anticipation that things can get better,” says James McPherson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and editor of ‘To the Best of My Ability:’ The American Presidents.

That could be a “two-edged sword,” McPherson adds. “High hopes are bound to be disappointed in some degree,” he says, “but it also gives him a honeymoon period which is one of real opportunity for him to try to get things done because he’ll have a lot of support and a lot of good will.”

One-third of Americans call Obama their first or second choice for most-admired man. The only higher support for a man in the history of the survey was Bush’s 39% rating in 2001, months after the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington.

The survey of 1,008 adults, taken by landline and cellphone Dec. 12-14, has an error margin of +/—3 percentage points.

Among women, Michelle Obama is rated fifth, following talk-show host Oprah Winfrey at third and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at fourth.

Among men, McCain is ranked third and three others tie for fourth: Pope Benedict XVI, the Rev. Billy Graham and former president Bill Clinton.

Obama’s rise is matched by Bush’s decline. The president’s support has ebbed nearly every year since 2001, falling to 5% this year.

That matches the presidential low point reached by Harry Truman in 1952. Dwight Eisenhower scored first that year, the only other time a president-elect has led the list since Gallup began asking the question in 1948.

Source: http://www.modernghana.com/news/196505/1/obama-is-man-americans-admire-most.html