SodaHead - Carolyn's Questions

Has Hillary Clinton sold out?

2008-06-25T15:53:15Z

Has Hillary Clinton sold out?

9 answers, +4 raves

She starts campaigning for BHO today. He's asking his supporters to pay her debt (I would tell him to get lost). I love HRC and hope she can still be the nominee. It's not too late. But this bothers me. What about you?

She has to do it	89% (8 answers)
It's good she's doing it	11% (1 answers)
It's bad she's doing it	0% (0 answers)
He doesn't need her anyway	0% (0 answers)
Undecided	0% (0 answers)
All of the above	0% (0 answers)
None of the above	0% (0 answers)

WHO IS BARACK OBAMA?

2008-06-25T15:51:14Z

WHO IS BARACK OBAMA?

21 answers, +6 raves

Now he's again on the cover of the Rolling Stone. MSNBC has a story about what he has on his IPOD. He's a Christian but he quit his church after controversy. Has he joined another? He's talked about abortion being against God but says he supports it but now he might be 'rethinking' that (per the news). Who is this man beyond a 'celebrity'?!!!

He is	81% (17 answers)
He is	19% (4 answers)

WHY WON'T BARACK OBAMA DEBATE WITH JOHN MCCAIN NOW?

2008-06-25T15:29:42Z

WHY WON'T BARACK OBAMA DEBATE WITH JOHN MCCAIN NOW?

28 answers, +7 raves

BHO suggested a debate on July 4 (get real) and August 1 but then changed positions again. Why is he trying to get out of debates before the Democratic Convention? Could it be he is afraid Superdelegates might change their minds about him? After all, HRC only suspended her campaign. A friend from Sacramento sent me this. Please read: David S. Broder: Obama's town hall stance questionable By David S. Broder - Published 12:00 am PDT Sunday, June 22, 2008 We are barely at the beginning of the long period in which most Americans will give their first serious scrutiny to the presidential candidates and decide whether Sen. Barack Obama or Sen. John McCain will get their vote. They have many questions about both these men. In the Washington Post-ABC News poll last week, only half of those interviewed said they felt they knew an adequate amount about the candidates' stands on specific issues. Voters split evenly on who would be the stronger leader and showed great uncertainty about which, if either, would be a safe choice for the White House. Obama leads on domestic economic and social issues, but McCain is a strong favorite on national security and terrorism. The former POW's personal appeal looms as the strongest barrier to the Democratic victory indicated by the towering majorities who disapprove of President Bush (68 percent) and who fear the country is headed seriously off on the wrong track (84 percent). Despite those fundamental weaknesses in the Republican position, McCain trails Obama in that same poll by only six points, hardly an impossible margin to overcome. What may be crucial in the end is whether people become comfortable with the prospect of Obama as their president. McCain benefits from a long-established reputation as a man who says what he believes. His shifts in position that have occurred in this campaign seem not to have damaged that aura. Obama is much newer to most voters, less familiar and more dependent on the impressions he is only now creating. That is why a pair of strategy decisions made in the last two weeks could prove troublesome for him. The first was Obama's turning down McCain's invitation to join him in a series of town hall meetings, where they would appear together and answer questions from real voters – without a formal agenda, press panel or professional interviewers. Obama's manager initially called the idea "appealing," but nine days later, when David Plouffe got around to responding, he countered with something quite different than the 10 informal discussions McCain proposed holding before the late-summer nominating conventions. Plouffe said that in addition to the three traditional debates under official sponsorship later in the fall, there could be only two others – one on economics on July 4 and another on foreign policy in August. The McCain side said few Americans would sacrifice their Independence Day holiday to watch a debate, and reiterated their offer to meet Obama anywhere he wanted on any of the next 10 Thursdays. At a press briefing last week, Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs characterized that as a "take-it-or-leave-it" stance by the Republicans, and suggested that discussions were finished. At the same briefing, Gibbs and campaign counsel Bob Bauer defended Obama's decision to become the first presidential candidate since the Watergate reforms to refuse public financing of his general election campaign. Gibbs and Bauer in effect blamed McCain, saying repeatedly that he was "gaming the system" by pledging to accept public funds while saying he could not "referee" spending by outside independent groups if it occurred. In fact, McCain had been far more vocal in denouncing such groups on the GOP side than Obama was in criticizing their counterparts playing Democratic presidential politics – even though Obama has claimed the mantle of campaign finance reformer that McCain has long enjoyed. Obama supporters note that town halls are McCain's favorite campaign settings, so it's no surprise he prefers them to formal speeches, where Obama excels. They point out that public financing helps McCain, who has lagged all year in his private fundraising, while it would inhibit Obama, who has tapped into a rich vein of small contributors using the Internet. But it's also the case that the multiple joint town meetings McCain proposed would be a real service to the public and that suspending the dollar-chase for the duration of the campaign, as McCain but not Obama will do, would be a major step toward establishing the credibility of the election process. By refusing to join McCain in these initiatives in order to protect his own interests, Obama raises an important question: Has he built sufficient trust so that his motives will be accepted by the voters who are only now starting to figure out what makes him tick? --- We must put pressure on the DNC to force BHO to debate NOW before the chance for a real Democrat to run against McCain.

He is afraid. He has no answers without HRC to copy from.	64% (18 answers)
None of the above	25% (7 answers)
McCain's trying to bully him.	7% (2 answers)
Undecided	4% (1 answers)
there have been enough debates	0% (0 answers)

Obama's own words from his books: Is this really the 'change' we want?

2008-06-25T15:09:15Z

Obama's own words from his books: Is this really the 'change' we want?

46 answers, +17 raves

Here are some excerpts from his books. This time it's his own words so I don't know who he can blame for this. People need to wake up, read this guy's books and find out about him before it's too late. /*/From Dreams of My Father/*/**: "I ceased to advertise my mother's race at the age of 12 or 13, when I began to suspect that by doing so I was ingratiating myself to whites."*** //From Dreams of My Father//** : "I found a solace in nursing a pervasive sense of grievance and animosity against my mothers race."** //From Dreams of My Father//**: "There was something about him that made me wary, a little too sure of himself, maybe. And white."** //From Dreams of My Father//**: ; "It remained necessary to prove which side you were on, to show your loyalty to the black masses, to strike out and name names."** //From Dreams of My Father//**: "I never emulate white men and brown men whose fates didn't speak to my own. It was into my father's image, the black man, son of Africa , that I'd packed all the attributes I sought in myself, _the attributes of Martin and Malcolm, DuBois and Man dela_."** */*/From Audacity of Hope/*/**: "I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction."**

No way	70% (32 answers)
None of the above	17% (8 answers)
Yes	7% (3 answers)
Undecided	7% (3 answers)

OBAMA SUPPORTERS SAY CLINTON SUPPORTERS NEED TO COME TOGETHER FOR PARTY UNITY AND ARE PRESSURING AND TRYING TO MAKE US GUILTY FOR NOT SUPPORTING HIM. IS IT TIME FOR UNITY-BUT WITH JOHN MCCAIN?

2008-05-30T18:42:03Z

OBAMA SUPPORTERS SAY CLINTON SUPPORTERS NEED TO COME TOGETHER FOR PARTY UNITY AND ARE PRESSURING AND TRYING TO MAKE US GUILTY FOR NOT SUPPORTING HIM. IS IT TIME FOR UNITY-BUT WITH JOHN MCCAIN?

51 answers, +17 raves

Yes	65% (33 answers)
No	20% (10 answers)
Undecided	16% (8 answers)

Are Barack Obama supporters 'sore winners'?

2008-05-28T21:04:53Z

Are Barack Obama supporters 'sore winners'?

92 answers, +24 raves

Now that everyone seems to assume Barack Obama will get the nomination it seems a lot of them have become even more nasty than before. What do you think?

Yes	43% (40 answers)
No	34% (31 answers)
Undecided	23% (21 answers)

John McCain said B. Obama is out of touch with American people. Do you agree??

2008-05-20T20:55:03Z

John McCain said B. Obama is out of touch with American people. Do you agree??

25 answers, +2 raves

McCain Camp: Barack Obama is an “Elitist” by Bonney Kapp The McCain campaign unloaded on Barack Obama today for his remarks at a San Francisco fundraiser last weekend, where the Democrat said “bitter” Pennsylvania voters “cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.” “It is a remarkable statement and extremely revealing,” McCain advisor Steve Schmidt told reporters on board the McCain campaign plane today. “It shows an elitism and condescension towards hardworking Americans that is nothing short of breathtaking. It is hard to imagine someone running for president who is more out of touch with average Americans.” Schmidt said Obama’s remarks hit the “heart and soul of this country” and predicted Obama would have difficulty connecting with voters. “I think people will resent it and be very angry about it because that is not how most Americans view themselves. That’s now how most Americans view their lives in terms of practicing their faith or exercising their Second Amendment rights or having a desire to secure the borders in the country,” he explained. When Obama later defended his remarks to voters in Indiana, a McCain spokesman fired back, “Instead of apologizing to small town Americans for dismissing their values, Barack Obama arrogantly tried to spin his way out of his outrageous San Francisco remarks. Only an elitist who attributes religious faith and gun ownership to bitterness would think that tax cuts for the rich include families who make $75,000 per year. Only an elitist would say that people vote their values only out of frustration. Barack Obama thinks he knows your hopes and fears better than you do. You can’t be more out of touch than that.”

Yes	56% (14 answers)
No	40% (10 answers)
Undecided	4% (1 answers)

Former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, who is black, has questioned Barack Obama's ties to Jeremiah Wright and others. Does he have legitimate points?

2008-03-21T20:15:05Z

Former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, who is black, has questioned Barack Obama's ties to Jeremiah Wright and others. Does he have legitimate points?

13 answers, +1 raves

Blackwell's comments during a recent interview: Well, I think instantly you begin to understand that the challenge here is not Senator Obama's race. It is his radical agenda. And I think it's very interesting, if you begin to look at the contradictions. Senator Obama said that he wants to lead us towards a society towards becoming a society that is not race conscious, that we are color blind. Well, he then is a member of a church for 20 years that says it believes in black liberation. BLACKWELL: Well, one, I don't believe that he sat in that church and didn't know that the church's professed doctrine was black liberation theology and is he a learned man. He understands what liberation theology is all about. Whether it be in the U.S., in Chicago, across Latin America, or across the continent of Africa. Liberation theology has, as its tenant, socialism as its economic underpinning. It believes that government, not the individual, is primary. And that is a fundamental clash with the doctrine that underlies freedom and a society like ours that sees that God is central and the individual, not government, as being primary. Now the issue becomes... BLACKWELL: A lot of churches in the black community, a lot of churches in the black community ... POWERS: I totally agree with that. BLACKWELL: ... believes that, you know, it is our Christianity, you know, Christ is liberating, that, you know, Christ was not, you know, color conscious, that Christ really did believe in colorblindness. And this talks about if you go to the Web site, I don't want to make it up. I invite people to go to the Web site to look at what it says is black liberation theology. BLACKWELL: Well, he is not responsible for everything anybody who supports him does, but, let me say this. I think it's very important for us to ask a fundamental question. I think there are basic questions of public interest. If you had a candidate that was aspiring to be the commander in chief, but went to a church that believed in absolute pacifism, would you in fact think that the public has a right to know if that doctrine would play out on the world stage? Because this person would be the commander in chief. Wouldn't that be a legitimate question for the public to know? And I think the answer to that question is yes. And, therefore, when you begin to look at that doctrine, that is displayed for public examination, or on the Web site, the question is a legitimate question to raise to Senator Obama. Do you believe in that doctrine? BLACKWELL: Sean, I think it's legitimate. If you go to that Web site, you can ask the question does that doctrine give any credence to the notion that Barack Obama is for partial birth abortion? That he is for military weakness, that he is a collectivist that believes in big government.

Yes	69% (9 answers)
No	23% (3 answers)
Undecided	8% (1 answers)

Barack Obama was the first candidate to call from Don Imus firing. In light of his ties to Wright, Farrakhan and the Black Panthers is he a hypocrite?

2008-03-21T19:34:36Z

Barack Obama was the first candidate to call from Don Imus firing. In light of his ties to Wright, Farrakhan and the Black Panthers is he a hypocrite?

14 answers, 0 raves

Yes	71% (10 answers)
Undecided	21% (3 answers)
No	7% (1 answers)

Is Barack Obama anti-gay?

2008-03-21T19:31:56Z

Is Barack Obama anti-gay?

7 answers, +1 raves

See this article The audacity of hypocrisy Obama embraces anti-gay minister, proving that he’ll do anything for votes. By Oct. 26, 2007 IT WAS INTENDED to be an unprecedented example of how Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama’s grassroots political campaign could win over just as many religious conservatives as Republicans. Instead, Obama has offended his lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer supporters, as well as others who bought into the rhetoric that he’s a healer and consensus builder. At the Values Voter Summit in Washington last weekend, Obama’s campaign announced that it, too, could help conservative voters have a voice in the presidential campaign. They then announced they would be hosting the “Embrace the Change! Gospel Series.” It’s a gospel fest to run in three South Carolina cities — Charleston, Greenwood and Columbia — this weekend with gospel mega-star Pastor Donnie McClurkin as part of the concert lineup. It appeared to be an innocuous announcement showcasing some of gospel music’s most successful artists that would mark the final days of Obama’s “40 Days of Faith and Family” campaign in South Carolina. McClurkin is the poster boy for African-American “ex-gay” ministries. “There’s a group that says, ‘God made us this way,’ but then there’s another group that knows God didn’t make them that way,” McClurkin has told the media. “Love is pulling you one way and lust is pulling you another, and your relationship with Jesus is tearing you.” In the highly competitive race for black evangelical votes in South Carolina, McClurkin just might give Obama the needed edge. However, that edge will come at a high price. It reveals that Obama is not only a vote-whore, but a candidate who plays the race card as well. The Obama/McClurkin alliance introduces Obama to McClurkin’s black and white Southern evangelical base, which thinks Obama is neither Christian nor black enough. And many observers are starting to realize just how much of a vote-whore Obama is. For example, MSNBC talk show host Tucker Carlson suggested Obama’s faith is “suddenly conspicuous,” saying that Obama has only recently begun addressing his religious background as part of “a very calculated plan on the part of the Democratic Party to win” religious voters in the 2008 presidential race. And though religion came to Obama late in life, and he was reared in a non-religious household, he came to understand “the power of the African-American religious tradition to spur social change.” And how much Obama really covets the power of the black church for his own political aggrandizement, rather than for its religion, has raised questions in the minds of many. WHEN HE RAN for the U.S. Senate in 2004, Obama campaigned at the Salem Baptist Church on Chicago’s South Side. It’s the 22,000-member black megachurch of Rev. James Meeks, who has called homosexuality an evil sickness. Outside of the hallowed walls of church Rev. James Meeks is State Sen. James Meeks. Obama knew to pander to his base. Obama will continue to speak and write about the special relationship he has with his pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, as long as it doesn’t run afoul of his ambitions. When news got out about Wright’s Afro-centric theology and Sunday sermons that disparage whites and Israel, Obama immediately distanced himself. Yet these same sermons were not a problem for Obama when they were spiritually nurturing him into becoming a public figure. And when news got out that Wright was to deliver the invocation when Obama formally announced his candidacy in February, Obama canceled his appearance. According to a recent CNN poll, Clinton leads Obama among black registered Democrats, 57 percent to 33 percent. African-American women overwhelmingly support Clinton 68 percent to 25 percent, whereas African-American men favor Obama 46 percent to 42 percent. But it is African-American women who hit the polls in much greater numbers than men. Once again, Obama is proving that his campaign marketed as “The Audacity of Hope” is really based on the audacity of hypocrisy.

Undecided	43% (3 answers)
Yes	29% (2 answers)
No	29% (2 answers)