The Observation Deck

I figured this would be fun.

Does Obama mean anything that he says or is he simply an incredible speaker saying just what the masses want to hear? If you look at the geography of how he is winning he seems to be appealing to the poorest, least educated people in society, is this his goal? Are they more likely to vote out of emotion and for greedy reasons like free money than other voters? Are there enough of them to get him to the white house?

Notice he is endorsed by the most hatefull groups in america and yet the average "non hating" liberal in his camp is right in his back pocket. He can know a man for 20 years and not know he is a white hater? Do we want someone that lacking in perception in the white house? I wonder how he will "perceive" some of the dictators in the world, I hope not like a crazy Uncle you still have to admire and be led by. (Remember Obama called his pastor his spiritual MENTOR)

Here is an interesting link about the Black Panthers, couldn't find it on CNN so it may not be true...

http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/03/19 ... dorsement/

How many crazies have to endorse him before people think he may be closer to them than we think??

Any thoughts on the topic?

Oh and you hate the sin and not the sinner.

And when was the last time that the Black Panther Party was active?

Fox News is unbiased right?

Did you know that there is a chapter of the American Nazi Party in Cleveland?

Do you care? Or would rather try and convince that you really know what you're talking about or is that just fear of liberals? Queer cooties? Thugs, hoodlums, gangster?

Oh and mortgage brokers are all trained professionals and there is no recession it's just a temporary readjustment.

Give it up. The Republicans have been spinning their wheels trying to get something on HIM, not his pastor or other black people, HIM.

Obviously he must be really smart - your were the head of what law review? You were a street organizer in what major city?

Forget it Ryan - go spin webs in other corners. This stuff is ridiculous and a big waste of time.

Most of the sunbelt Republicans over 50 or 60 are former Democrats who defected to the Republican party because they opposed basic civil rights reforms. Many were even members of the Klu Klux Klan. Many are that today.

This was back when there was real institutional racism, not the lightweight stuff we have today.

I haven't heard Obama promising anybody free money. I am expecting a 300 to 600 dollar check from George Bush in a few weeks for no particular reason. He also promises me a lot of unlimited cheap cargo, courtesy of outsourcing manufacturing to the third world. These are sweetheart promises of the infinite free movement of capital and labor, and resource wars the week after.

but Obama is slipping in the polls. This is because both sides will make it about race. And the knee jerk reaction most people have about this to equate race with their worst impressions of dumbass kids and white trash. however, there's no need for either candidate to go out of their way to appeal to black voters. Most black voters will vote democrat by default, and there are now more hispanics than blacks anyways. All campaigning specifically to black voters does is make more stupid white people veer toward the other party than you would gain in black voters.

Now that is the rational, fact speaking Sharon I missed.

Glad to see I bring out the best in you

I am amazed at how you are not able to have an argument without making it personal, you fit the mold perfectly.

There must be a liberal debate book I missed.

You make it tough to post hot topics here, people with thinner skin would be intimidated, that’s why so many that agree with me sit silent and let your type rant all over the country and convince yourselves you are majority until it comes to a silent vote and then you are amazed so many people disagree with you. (Constitutional protection of marriage as an example in Ohio won hands down)

Ryan,

Good point about GWB, but he is not a fiscal conservative. He has messed up quite a bit in that direction.

name one fiscal conservative Republican with pull in the white house or congress in the last 50 years.

The only one i can think of is Ike Eisenhower.

Where are these fiscal conservatives? they must exist somewhere. they seem to gain just enough popular support to throw towards complete jackasses whoa ren't fiscal conservatives at all.

Ryan Salo -

Making personal?

Nope - not at all. Just because I think you're full of hot air? Nope.

Just because the Republicons can't find something the Man did. Post what the man himself did wrong - then we can have a "rational" convesation such as you long for.

Oh and I'm responsible for other people not speaking up. Sorry Charilie, not my problem. I'm not the big bad wolf.

I'm just an old woman tired of, dare I say, the product I flush down a certain drain constantly being regurgitated as new and improved data.

Tell me what he did wrong. Not his pastor, not his neighbor. I won't take blame for what you do even if I do hold conversations with you (perish the thought). I would not ask you to take responsibility for anything I do.

Tell me what he did.

Frankly I don't have any personal incidents that I can sight for John McCain. I don't blame him for what the shrub does. I blame the shrub.

That's all.

To anyone who is afraid of me, don't listen to Ryan Salo, trust me he's been wrong before, so have I.

Ryan,

It seems like recently the republican candidates get greedier, more corrupt, and further from the core the higher they get in politics.

There has definitely been a lack of strong conservatives willing to run, locally and nationally. I have been personally disappointed in both.

Reagan was a pretty good one

Sharon,

I am shocked that this is too complicated to see.

Holding someone as a personal MENTOR and attending a church under his leadership for 20yrs is condoning his message.

If I knowing attended a Catholic Church where the priest openly sexually abused kids and made it public I would be wrong if I did nothing. I would immediately say this must stop or I am leaving.

I guess the real issue is that maybe you don't think what the pastor believes is wrong. Do you?

If you submitted yourself to a conservative pastor as a mentor wouldn't your peers question you? Since I imagine you would strongly disagree with him on multiple important beliefs in your life. If you attended there for 20 years and then claimed you didn’t know the pastor didn’t believe in gay marriage wouldn’t you have to be lying or completely oblivious to reality?

My issue is he did nothing that is the point, he is now claiming he didn’t even know, and if he didn't we as a nation cannot elect that incompetent of a man.

BTW Sharon, there is no question that there isn’t a recession. That is a fact.

Is the economy slowing? Sure seems to be, but perception isn't very accurate for the nation based on the happenings of an inner ring suburb next to one of the poorest cities in the country. We may be looking through tinted glasses.

No he's not saying he didn't know - he's saying that he doesn't agree with everything he says and does but he does believe in Christ and that he found Christ through his church.

I did belong to the Catholic church. I knew what a certain monsignor was doing to young girls, I was very young myself. Did I turn him in - yes. Am I a member of the Catholic church anymore, not now, but I did stay in the church after that - I was able to reason that his actions were his actions. At that time I still believed in Christianity and I knew that he did not represent Christianity, that he represented a man, fallible like all other humans are. I stayed with the church and continued to try and work with in it's confines, but at a point I could no longer do so.

After many years of studying world religions, reading different religious texts and going through my own spiritual journey, discovered that no person's definition of divine was what I truly felt.

End of that.

In addition - there are a lot of things I don't like in Lakewood and a lot of people in leadership that I don't trust or like what they do. That doesn't mean I'm going to move.

So try your next one Ryan.

Reagan got the ball rolling on our modern enormous deficit spending.

I don't believe in fiscal conservatives. i don't believe they exist! It is just a word some people use as a decoration.

Barack Obama is about as Black as my grandpa.

I would hope that there isn't anyone who agrees with their pastor/priest/minister 100% of the time. They're human, their own emotions and political opinions weigh on what they say. They're not always right.

I know I certainly don't agree with the priests at my church all the time but I still go there. That doesn't mean I endorse what they say 100%.

Hi Bryan and exactly.

Bryan Schwegler wrote:I know I certainly don't agree with the priests at my church all the time but I still go there. That doesn't mean I endorse what they say 100%.

So, lets say your pastor said the US invented HIV, that we deserved 911 and said the GD USA from the pulpit you would stay at the church and even take on that kind of person as a mentor?

BTW Obama did say he didn't know his pastor said those things until just last year. So he either doesn't attend there as often as he makes it sound or he chose to ignore it until it hurt his campaign.

"Obama said he wasn't aware of Wright's incendiary comments until he began running for president early last year."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20080 ... tqhpfjxzsm