YouTube- Obama Victory Speech

Barack speaks after his win in the Iowa Caucuses.

YouTube- Edwards Speaks After Iowa Caucuses

Edwards speaks after the caucuses.

YouTube- Hillary Post Iowa Caucus Speech

Here is what she had to say...

Iowa Caucuses Movie Trailer- John Edwards

A great and inspiring ad.

2008 Election- It's that Important

The focus of this blog since its inception has been on the economy and the effects that free trade and globalization have had in our world today. While I will continue to talk about these issues, I will shift some of the focus on the upcoming 2008 election. Although I often said back in 2004 that no other election was ever so important, that feeling is much more urgent this time around. I do not think that the country (or world, for that matter), can continue on this path that we now follow.

The issues of the economy, globalization and free trade are all very important to me personally, but the disastrous Republican foreign policy (or the lack of) that we have experienced the last few years deserves serious attention.

I will be shifting the focus somewhat for the foreseeable future and examining some of the positions taken by the prospective candidates from both parties. It is only by understanding the issues that people can really cast their ballots. God, gays and guns needs to go the way of the wagon wheel. The politics of division and fear have done nothing but cause internal strife and have created more and more problems along the way.

It is time for Americans to get out of their collective bubble and reflect on where we are as a nation. Renditions, torture, economic disparity, false wars of aggression- this is not our country. We must stop worrying about what sweatshop goods are on sale this week and take a good look in the mirror. Do we really want to be like so many other rogue regimes of the past and consistently endorse the worst elements of human nature or do we want to rise up and start repairing our country and the crumbling image of America in the world today? Do we wish to tackle the hard economic problems that we face or simply look the other way and let another generation worry about it?

These are some of the things that I will focus in the foreseeable future. It's only by understanding and talking about the issues as well as holding politicians accountable that any real meaningful change will occur.

John Edwards- Why Tuesday?

Why can't we have a holiday set aside for our elections?

Campaign Soft Money- It's Back!

The New York Times reports today on the re-emergence of the 'soft money' campaign funds issue.

The so-called Wounded Warriors Act, legislation intended to improve health care for veterans, has attracted nearly unanimous, bipartisan support in Congress. So why would the newly formed Foundation for a Secure and Prosperous America begin running a television commercial urging the citizens of South Carolina to tell Congress to pass it?

The answer lies in the commercial’s glowing images of Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican banking on a South Carolina victory to jump-start his cash-poor Republican primary campaign. The group that paid for the advertisement operates independently of Mr. McCain’s campaign, but was set up and financed by his supporters seeking to help him as much as possible up to the limits of the law.

The initial spending on the commercial, according to the group, is modest — commercials on the Fox News Channel in South Carolina only — but it represents the first trickle in a flood of hundreds of millions of dollars that are expected to pour from all sides into groups reminiscent of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth of 2004, built to influence voting outside of campaign law limitations. The amount could swamp the record-breaking tens of millions that the top candidates are raising for their own, closely regulated campaign accounts.

Mr. McCain has crusaded for years against just this sort of unencumbered political spending and has publicly called upon the foundation to stop the advertisement, a request competitors say seems half-hearted and the group’s leader has ignored.

Thanks to a recent decision by the Supreme Court, most of these groups, including the McCain-friendly foundation, will be able to operate with even less public disclosure than such entities did in 2004.

I sincerely hope that the elections next year are not a repeat of the divisive and negative elections of 2004. We need an honest debate about where we are heading as a country and not a pile of special interest groups defining the election debate. Unfortunately, until the power and influence of the dollar is eliminated from politics, this problem will not go away.

Kucinich Campaign Update

A great update on where the Kucinich Campaign is today and what is going on. For more information, visit the campaign site here.