DESPERATION
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| Fri, 09-12-2008 - 3:49pm |
Behind the lies, distortions, and personal attacks. . .Desperation:
Democrats on Capitol Hill fear Obama fallout
By Andrew Ward in Washington
Published: September 11 2008 23:30 | Last updated: September 11 2008 23:30
Democratic jitters about the US presidential race have spread to Capitol Hill, where some members of Congress are worried that Barack Obama’s faltering campaign could hurt their chances of re-election.
Party leaders have been hoping to strengthen Democratic control of the House and Senate in November, but John McCain’s jump in the polls has stoked fears of a Republican resurgence.
A Democratic fundraiser for Congressional candidates said some planned to distance themselves from Mr Obama and not attack Mr McCain.
“If people are voting for McCain it could help Republicans all the way down the ticket, even in a year when the Democrats should be sweeping all before us,†said the fundraiser, a former Hillary Clinton supporter.
“There is a growing sense of doom among Democrats I have spoken to . . . People are going crazy, telling the campaign ‘you’ve got to do something’.â€
Concern was greatest among first-term representatives who won seats in traditionally Republican districts in the landslide of 2006. “Several of them face a real fight to hold on to those seats,†the fundraiser said.
Tony Podesta, a senior Democratic lobbyist, said members of Congress were “a little nervous†after Mr McCain shook up the race with his choice of Sarah Palin as running mate and intensified attacks on Mr Obama.
“Republicans have been on the offensive for the past two weeks . . . You don’t win elections on the defensive.â€
The campaign manager for a first-term Democratic congressman from a blue-collar district in the north-east rejected suggestions that Mr Obama had become a liability. He said his candidate would reach out to Republicans and avoid attacks on Mr McCain.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008

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My father abandoned me at birth, me and my mom, took my brother to live with his sister down south. I was raised by my middle class grandparents.
This 2% can't possibly be accurate, there is a heck of a lot of people who make more than 250,000 than 2%, how about the ones making over a million? Something is off here!
They should. But no matter how much opportunity we give people, or how even we make that opportunity, the reality is that MOST people will not become fabulously rich from humble beginnings. In fact, especially these days, with the middle class being squeezed like never before by a crushing national debt, skyrocketing prices of everything from gasoline to health care, MOST people will not even become comfortably well-off from humble beginnings. In every country, in every time, under every system of government, there are far fewer people at the very top than there are at the very bottom, and there are far fewer people in the "comfortable" range just under the very top than there are in the "uncomfortable" (i.e. - working poor) range just above the bottom. America has enjoyed a higher overall standard of living than any other country in history, but let's not kid ourselves about the distribution of wealth which nonetheless still exists. I say that not as a bad thing, or something to be overcome: I am not seeking the universal blandness of communism or some other form of social engineering which tries to make everyone exactly equal, regardless of circumstance, talent, effort or anything else. I'm just noting that the above is still true, even here in America. Which is why, although certainly people like the Obamas exist, even in good numbers, there is always going to be an even greater number of people who, for whatever reason - luck, bad timing, disability, unwillingness to work hard, lack of education, just plain dumbness, what have you - will NOT manage to significantly better themselves or leave a better future to their children. That's just the way it is; there will always be more bar-backs than executive VPs, by design.
That's why I always find the dogged belief (often, if not USUALLY, with no supporting evidence) that one WILL be rich - even FABULOUSLY rich - someday, to be fascinating, in a self-deluding and damaging sort of way, when one takes into account that so many people live life as plumbers are convinced by this to vote as if they were plutocrats. I don't find it difficult to understand that the Thurston Howells of the world would be interested in waging a legislative or electoral campaign to lower the capital gains tax rate, or eradicate the Estate and Gift Tax. I DO have a hard time understanding how the journeyman carpenter in Gainesville, GA with three children and a drinking problem would be interested in the same thing.
Last thought on the subject: I find it interesting that you selected Barack and Michelle Obama to hold up as your success story example. Not that I disagree....in fact Barack himself uses his own biography on the campaign trail, saying "only in America is my story possible." And it seems you and I agree about that. So isn't it interesting, then, that Barack and Michelle strongly oppose the sort of favor-the-rich economics so relentlessly pushed by George W. Bush, John McCain and the GOP?
That's where I think you're failing to see what's actually being proposed: none of Obama's plans amount to what you just described. They are a return to the more progressively-graduated structure of taxation under which we prospered during the Clinton years, and in previous decades....but they're not some sort of evil, socialist transfer of wealth, in toto, from the rich to everyone else, who then get to live off the fat of the land without doing anything. I know that's a convenient hyperbolic position to default to, but it's simply not accurate.
Ashes where the bodies burning
No more war pigs have the power
Hand of God has sturck the hour
Day of judgement, God is calling
On their knees, the war pigs crawling Begging
The key here is to have parents that care and that will do what they can to support to have that success.
My parents were not rich while I was growing up.
>>In my most humble opinion, most but not all parents are very
What about single parents who aren't druggies? Or do you think all single parents are druggies?
My children are not and have not 'run wild' they are hard working, academically motivated, responsible teens. I have two high school graduates, no drugs, no pregnancies, no arrests, no suspensions, no alcohol, nothing but awards and honor roll students. I have one currently in high school who seems to be on the same distinguished track her brother and sister were on.
I get so tired of people assuming that single parents are welfare recipients and druggies.
I am a single parent who earned a college degree post divorce so I could support my children. Unfortunately since I had taken years off raising them I am at the bottom of the pay scale as I have teens graduating from high school. With the cost of college sky rocketing my children will be forced to assume large amounts of debt to obtain a college degree. I think I make a good salary, but it is definitely below the median for my state and for the nation. I doubt I will ever be able to buy my own home, and since I don't have much more than an emergency fund my kids are largely on their own for college expenses. I didn't qualify last year to be a cosigner on my son's loans due to 'insufficient income'. Could I get a part time job, or two part time jobs? Yes I could but then I wouldn't be home to supervise my daughter and be a mother to her. I really shouldn't have to make that decision. I have a college degree and this spring will also have a masters degree, I should be able to send my children to a public college without a struggle - but I can't. I make too much for Pell Grants and not enough to pay tuition.
Conservative straw-man fantasyland.
Ashes where the bodies burning
No more war pigs have the power
Hand of God has sturck the hour
Day of judgement, God is calling
On their knees, the war pigs crawling Begging
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