I am so stoked about Rick Warren's forum! I expect both candidates to have their less palatable position held up to comment and explanation especially with regard poverty, health, stewardship of the environment and war. I would not put it beyond Rick Warren to ask about a year of Jubilee for third world debts. I would not find it beyond him to ask 'Who Would Jesus Bomb?" At the very least, this is going to be an entertaining bit of television and we will be talking about it for quite some time to come.

I've invited a bunch of Christians over to watch my big screen and we're popping pop corn. It's gonna be a BIG night.

Posted at August 16, 2008 3:09 PM in response to Obama and McCain to participate in Faith Forum Saturday, Aug. 16, at 8 p.m. EDT

TCB,

I just called my nephew, an Army recruiter, and read your post to him over the phone. After he stopped laughing, his first comment was that you sound like someone who was never actually in a war yourself. And if that is true, please check my profile and send me an email with your contact information. My nephew would love to add you to his list of new recruits this month.

Posted at August 12, 2008 1:31 AM in response to Even I no longer support Bush

The ad had me chuckling. I liked it and I hope Obama can keep it light while keeping it oh, so real.

Posted at August 11, 2008 10:20 PM in response to New Obama Ad Slaps McCain Hard — Maybe Too Hard

I'm a wife with cancer, so I admit I am not rational about this.

Caring for a spouse with cancer is one of the most stressful, frightening things that will ever happen to a person. At various times in this journey, I have issued a blanket, pre-emptive pardon to my husband for anything he might feel a need to do in the interests of his own self-care. So far, to my knowledge, he hasn't taken me up on that. But I can definitely see how Elizabeth Edwards would have compassion for her husband and forgive him and love him even more in the aftermath of an affaire.

But, the stress of all they were going through clearly affected their judgement as individuals and as a couple. Because, having an extra-marital affaire does not make a candidate unforgiveable. It makes him unelectable. Yet, like terrorists, they ran for president with this bomb strapped to their chests.

As for Elizabeth Edwards plea for privacy, she should know as well as anyone that people who deliberately put themselves in the public eye have no privacy. If she wanted to keep this strictly a family affair, she needed to veto the candidacy. Because, as it turns out, the personal truly is political.

Posted at August 9, 2008 2:11 PM in response to Your Thoughts on the Edwards Scandal

P.S. I wish more girls had dads like you.

Posted at August 9, 2008 1:23 PM in response to Sometimes You Just Have To Pick Sides

Billy Glad, I love your feminist instincts coming through. Funny as your post is, you are absolutely, completely, right.

Posted at August 9, 2008 1:22 PM in response to Sometimes You Just Have To Pick Sides

AJM,

I thank you for your sympathy and for your kind words. But I talked about my cancer to make a point about how the anger and frustration of the last eight years have affected my life. Other people had more mature responses and they will live to struggle on. As you will.

I really agree with a lot of what you say. Getting Obama and a filibuster proof majority elected to congress will not guarantee anything. What I am counting on is that the people who come of age in this campaign and those who renew their levels of activism will not just go back to sleep when the election is over. The election is only the start of the work. We will have to work just as hard, if not harder, to advance the progressive agenda.

Obama is an organizer. He has done his part. He has helped us build a 50 state organization of awesome proportions. But he can't make it work for us. Only we can do that. And I hope that those who are going to remain are up for the challenge.

John McCain ads ask of Obama, 'Is he ready to lead?' As usual, that is so beside the point. The real question is are WE ready to lead?

Posted at August 9, 2008 1:07 PM in response to In Which I Finally Get It

Thank you all for your kindness and for your understanding. I need to respond to one person's comments. You know who you are.

And if what you say is true, that there can be no meaningful change without defeating Republicans, then Barak Obama really is selling snake oil and we are all doomed.

This election is so important because it is the election in which we have to choose between two ways of life. We can either see it as a contest in which we must defeat our opponents or one in which we must win for everyone's sake. What I am trying to say is that when Obama wins this election and becomes President that has to become good news for everybody, including those who struggled most fiercely against him. He isn't offering an election of conquest. He is ofering an election of reconciliation.

Do we dare to take such a step? Do we dare to reconcile? To let bygones be bygones? I don't know. But I want desperately to try. Because my needs and wants are crystal clear to me now. I want peace. I want justice. And I won't get either one without extending mercy. None of us will.

So, I say again, focus. What does the world we want to live in look like? Giving our time, our attention, our passion to making the world we want rather than rejecting the world we've got is the only thing that makes sense to me now.

And one more very personal reason I am supporting Obama in this quest. An hour ago, I was sitting wrapped up in blanketfeeling sick and miserable when Laura called me from our neighborhood Obama organization. Yes, he's organizing neighborhoods here in Ohio. And when I told her a little about my situation her response was that if I felt up to doing anything at all to help, she will personally come to my home to bring materials and give me training. We are getting together on Saturday.

Barak Obama is such a very small part of this campaign. It is really about neighbors meeting each other and joining together to work in common cause. It is about reaching out to each other to live a political life that is more decent and more about community than it has been before.

Just before she ended the call with me Laura said, 'You aren't alone. We don't want you to feel alone. There is a place for everyone in this campaign and whatever you feel up to do will be meaningful.'

Folks, if that is what it means to be an Obamabot, sign me up.

Posted at August 8, 2008 9:19 PM in response to In Which I Finally Get It

He is the scum of the earth and the newest member of the Newt Gingrich club.

Posted at August 8, 2008 3:34 PM in response to Your Thoughts on the Edwards Scandal

I like Governor Sibelius because she is a 'twofer'. Her childhood as the daughter of an Ohio governor gives her strong ties to an important state in addition to her own state of Kansas. I like how she stood up to George Bush about the deployment of Kansas National Guard troops to Iraq and how it harmed the state's disaster relief efforts. I think she could be a good President.

Posted at July 22, 2008 11:11 AM in response to Who Should Obama Pick for VP and Why?