President Barack Obama
As Congress finalizes its plans to pass national health care reform, President Obama announced that he intends to send an additional 30,000 troops to support the war in Afghanistan.
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Archive for the ‘Barack Obama’ Category
War abroad or health care at home?
By Daniel Solis in Barack Obama, Congress, Democrats, Health Care on January 3, 2010What Made the Difference Tonight: Youth Turnout
By Daniel Solis in Barack Obama, Election Day 2008, Youth Issues on November 5, 2008Barack Obama knew something a lot of us didn’t know. He knew that young Americans wanted to find something to vote for and not against. At the beginning, many of us were skeptical of youth voter turnout. But, he proved us wrong on that Iowa night in January.
Like Obama said, the campaign took him from “the rocky coast of Maine to the sunshine of California.” All across America young people came out and supported change.
It led him to November on the night of this historic presidential election. Young people supported Barack Obama 68-30% over Senator John McCain. Young people ages 18-29 made up 18% of the electorate this year, slightly higher than 17% in 2004 and 2000. That may not seem like a large increase, but in a year where overall voter turnout reached massive numbers (estimates place overall voter turnout at around 60%) it sure made the difference.
It was the young voters who won tonight. Those that supported one specific candidate, President-elect Barack Obama.
How Hillary Helped
By Daniel Solis in Barack Obama, Election Day 2008, Hillary Clinton on November 4, 2008I think Hillary deserves just a little credit for Obama’s win tonight. Just a little. She motivated many of her supporters such as myself to support Barack Obama for president. She moved faster than any loser in a Democratic primary to endorse and campaign for their opponent. And surely Hillary and Bill’s campaigning in states like Ohio, Florida, and Pennsylvania helped Barack Obama.
Looking back, I think we can say that the lengthy Democratic primary was part of Obama’s success. His national infrastructure that was created to beat Hillary Clinton has been used to defeat John McCain. His debate performances against Hillary taught him how to face off in a real debate.
CNN reported that Obama won Hillary supporters 84% to John McCain’s 15% tonight. Thank You Hillary.
Who will replace tonight’s winners in the Senate?
By Daniel Solis in Barack Obama, Election Day 2008, Joe Biden, John McCain, Sarah Palin, Senate on November 4, 2008Joe Biden might win two elections tonight. One for the vice-presidency, and the other for his Senate seat, which he has already won tonight.
Some of the name’s floating around for Barack Obama’s Senate seat are Jesse Jackson Jr., the son of Jesse Jackson, Rahm Emanuel, an already influential leader in the House, Jean Schakowsky also from the House, longtime Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett, and former congressional candidate Tammy Duckworth.
Joe Biden’s replacement could be just a temporary one until his son Beau Biden could run for the Senate seat himself in 2010.
As for Senator John McCain, the Democratic Governor in Arizona, Janet Napolitano, has the option to appoint anyone she wants as long as they are a Republican. So, she could not appoint herself.
Another twist in all of this: If current Alaskan Senator and convicted felon Ted Stevens wins his Senate seat and is ousted by the Senate leadership, Governor Sarah Palin could be appointed to Senator Palin. You Betcha!
Update, 11/5/08: Let me make this clear. The only way Governor Palin can be Senator Palin is if she resigns her spot as Governor of Alaska and then the new Governor, who would be Sean Parnell, would then appoint Palin to the Senate spot.
An election worse than 2000?
By Daniel Solis in Barack Obama, Election Day 2008, John McCain on November 4, 2008With Barack Obama drawing large majorities of votes from big states such as California and New York, and getting closer than most Democratic candidates before him in states in the South, can Barack Obama win the popular vote, but lose the electoral college?
In 2000, Al Gore suffered from low voter turnout. The state of Florida was only determined by 537 votes, and as we all know, Florida gave the election to Bush. If Barack Obama gets close enough to McCain in southern states like Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia, but doesn’t manage to get enough votes to actually win the state, he could end up with more votes than John McCain. High voter turnout in blue states will not reflect in the electoral college in favor of Obama, these votes will just pad his popular vote.
Perhaps this will never happen, or maybe this is McCain’s last chance. Let’s see what happens.
Madelyn Dunham's vote will count
By Daniel Solis in Barack Obama, Election Day 2008 on November 4, 2008Barack Obama’s grandmother Madelyn Dunham passed away yesterday. She was able to vote early by absentee ballot due to her illness. The Hawaii Board of Elections has said that her vote, along with the others, will in fact be counted tonight when the polls close in Hawaii at 11 pm ET.
It will be interesting to see what Barack Obama has to say about her in his speech tonight.
Prop H8TE Attempts to Use Barack Obama
By Daniel Solis in Barack Obama, California, Election Day 2008, GLBT Rights on November 4, 2008If you live in California you know that there is proposition on the ballot that if passed would state that California would only recognize marriage between a man and a woman. This would be done by changing the constitution of the state by adding these words to it:
Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.
Recent robocalls from supporters of “Yes on 8″ have asked voters to vote with Barack Obama, and vote yes. The calls claim that Barack Obama is opposed to gay marriage. They’re only telling half the story.
Barack Obama is opposed to Prop 8 because it requires the constitution of the State of California to be changed. Barack Obama does not support a Yes vote on Prop 8, in fact he called the proposition “divisive” and “discriminatory.”
Vote No on Prop 8 – Equality for ALL
Obama's speech last night…
By Daniel Solis in Barack Obama, Democratic National Convention 2008 on August 29, 2008Apparently over 84,000 people were at Invesco Field last night, and about 38 million people watched the speech on television.
I definitely thought it was a good speech, just not amazing. There weren’t really any great one-liners to stick in your head following the speech. It wasn’t like his speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. When comparing the two speeches, even Obama himself said that, “there’s a special moment there that we can’t recapture.”
What are your thoughts about the speech? Was it really Obama at his best?
Hillary nominates Obama at the DNC
By Daniel Solis in Barack Obama, Democratic National Convention 2008, Hillary Clinton on August 27, 2008When it looked certain that Barack Obama was going to be nominated President of the United States, the state of New Mexico yielded to the state of Illinois who had passed earlier in the roll-call vote. Illinois, knowing that Obama was close to being put over the top, then yielded the floor to the state of New York. In a surprise twist, Hillary Clinton came out, suspended the roll-call vote, and ended the process.
The crowd went wild, people in the audience were in tears, and Barack Obama became the Democratic nominee for President of the United States.
Chatroulette takes over the internet
“There’s Something About That Courage”
What the health?
