Posted on 02/11/2007 10:04:04 AM PST by Breyean
AXcess News) Washington - Standing before voters on the steps of the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Illinois, where Abraham Lincoln served for eight years before becoming President of the United States, presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) said he saw the nation needing an inspirational leader who could save the union - stating that he was that man - during his official launch of his Democratic presidential campaign.
Obama, accompanied by his wife Michelle and daughters Sasha and Malia, said just as Lincoln saved the union, fighting a bloody civil war, so America would need an inspirational leader after George Bush's presidency.
Sen. Obama was speaking at his first stop after officially announcing his candidacy for President of the United States in the up coming 2008 presidential election as a Democrat party candidate.
Obama opened by saying, "when a child turns to violence, there's a hole in his heart no government could ever fill." The Democratic presidential candidate's statement came in describing his brief experience as a politician using a grass roots approach to tie local community and economic reactions to decisions made by Washington's elite when he first moved to Illinois and worked as a community organizer for a group of churches. It was there, Obama said, that he learned how politicians overlooked the needs of Americans.
"In the shadow of the Old State Capitol, where Lincoln once called on a divided house to stand together, I stand before you today to announce my candidacy for President of the United States," Obama declared.
Invoking the spirit of Abraham Lincoln's presidency, Obama called for like change in Washington and greater cooperation between political parties, calling America a union divided whose citizens were ready for change.
"Each and every time, a new generation has risen up and done what's needed to be done. Today we are called once more - and it is time for our generation to answer that call.
"For that is our unyielding faith - that in the face of impossible odds, people who love their country can change it.
"That's what Abraham Lincoln understood. He had his doubts. He had his defeats. He had his setbacks. But through his will and his words, he moved a nation and helped free a people. It is because of the millions who rallied to his cause that we are no longer divided, North and South, slave and free. It is because men and women of every race, from every walk of life, continued to march for freedom long after Lincoln was laid to rest, that today we have the chance to face the challenges of this millennium together, as one people - as Americans," said Obama.
During Obama's 24-minute speech, he referred to "his generation", being a 45-year-old lawmaker who inferred that his closest Democratic Party competitor for the Presidential nomination by his party, Hillary Rodham Clinton, was out of touch with the younger voters of America - the post baby boomer generation.
Unlike Clinton, the Democrat Senator from New York, Obama says the war in Iraq might have been avoided through stronger diplomacy and that the existing administration has continually avoided dealing with problems that are affecting Americans, such as health care, education, stagnant wages and the environment.
"For the last six years we've been told that the anxiety Americans feel are an illusion," Obama stated. "we've been told that our crises are somebody else's fault. We're distracted from our real failures, and told to blame the other party, or gay people, or immigrants."
In continually reminding Americans that it will be up to them to change America's future, Obama said, "Let us be the generation that reshapes our nation," in referencing the economy, our schools, communities and government.
"Let's be the generation that makes future generations proud of what we did here," Obama said.
Sen. Obama returned to his invocation of President Lincoln during the conclusion of his speech surrounding his presidential campaign when he said that "This campaign has to be about reclaiming the meaning of citizenship, restoring our sense of common purpose, and realizing that few obstacles can withstand the power of millions of voices calling for change."
"As Lincoln organized the forces arrayed against slavery, Obama stated, he was heard to say: 'Of strange, discordant, and even hostile elements, we gathered from the four winds, and formed and fought to battle through.'"
"That is our purpose here today.
"That's why I'm in this race," Obama proclaimed.
His position on noncommitment makes that tenable.
His Howard Dean "moment" is coming.
Obama is a Copperhead.
I wonder what this A$$ Clown would do it there were actually a civil war? Probably strike a post for People Magazine.
Discovery ran that old documentary about Marjoe, everyone should watch it and compare it to Obama.
Take a close look at what Obama has to say about his religious beliefs, notice that he only mentions God, not Jesus Christ and that he openly states that converting and being baptised would change nothing in his life, that he saw membership in this particular church as an expedient political move. (my interpretation)
I was drawn to the power of the African American religious tradition to spur social change. [...] In the history of these struggles, I was able to see faith as more than just a comfort to the weary or a hedge against death; rather, it was an active, palpable agent in the world. [...] It was because of these newfound understandings–that religious commitment did not require me to suspend critical thinking, disengage from the battle for economic and social justice, or otherwise retreat from the world that I knew and loved–that I was finally able to walk down the aisle of Trinity United Church of Christ one day and be baptized. It came about as a choice and not an epiphany; the questions I had did not magically disappear. But kneeling beneath that cross on the South Side of Chicago, I felt God's spirit beckoning me. I submitted myself to His will, and dedicated myself to discovering His truth.[113]
1862 -- First tax on beer.
No thanks.
If something "fits to a T" then it's perfect for its purpose. The allusion here is said to be with a T square. This piece of apparatus is so accurate that a precise right angle fits it perfectly.
: However neat this suggestion is, there is another possible origin, based on the fact that the saying was in use in the 17th century, before the T square was invented. This one suggests that the T stands for "Title", a minute and precisely positioned pen stroke or printer's mark. A tiny brushstroke was all that distinguished the Hebrew letter "dalet" from "resh". "Title" was the word chosen by Wycliffe to translate references to this tiny difference in his version of the New Testament. Thus the mark was perfectly suited to its task.
Obama isn't willing to fight against the Islamists who want to destroy the U. S., but he's more than ready to fight against Americans who ARE willing to confront the Islamists.
What a strange man.
He confuses the Presidency with the presidency of a college class. He also confuses the Lincoln of history with the national icon. People in Georgia STILL hate Lincoln. Indeed, right up until his death even his own party was divided over him. Many secretly rejoiced when he was struck down.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
No, he's trying to make most of them believe that Lincoln was a Democrat.
And he is succeeding. Most of them are too stupid to know the difference.
I have not observed any fruits of Christian thinking in his behavior. He ignores the threat of Islamic extremism and deception, yet believes we should leave Iraq, but then criticizes PM Howard for not placing more troops in harm's way. He claims to be an Islamic convert to Christianity, yet fails to encourage Muslims to come to Christ with perhaps his better informed perspective.
He sure doesn't preclude the antichristian card.
Can we expect to see him wearing a stove pipe hat at his future rallies?
Obama is absolutely one of the most spectacularly unqualified candidates I've ever seen. He is about on the same level of far left liberalism as Kucinich or Koochnik as my wife calls him. Obama trumpets the same sorry, failed liberal "solutions" to problems that were in fact created by past libs. Obama would be the biggest disaster since Carter.
On local talk radio, the callers keep saying US will not elect a black president, the bigger question is whether US will elect a quasi Muslim as President. I think that is a lame excuse. Black or white, purple doesn't matter it is what agenda they are pushing. But watch race card will play out big in this race.
I saw polls showing him ahead of Hilary. Of course, they were unscientific polls, but scary nonetheless.
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