I often enjoy reading Andrew Sullivan’s column, The Daily Dish. In today’s post, Sullivan chastises Chris Matthews (and other journalists) for attacking Barack Obama’s alleged lack of legislative achievements. In reality, Obama has been quite active in the legislative arena and Chris Matthews should have known better than make these spurious attacks. Here are a few of the things Obama has accomplished:
* Ethics Reform: Obama was the Senate’s point person on ethics reform, and sponsored or co-sponsored the bills that made up what the Washington Post called “the strongest ethics legislation to emerge from Congress yet.” I’m also a fan of this bill, which I think of as the Journalists, Bloggers, and Citizens’ Muckraking Empowerment Act: it creates a searchable database of recipients of federal grants and contracts.
* The Lugar-Obama initiative to strengthen the Nunn-Luger framework for securing loose nukes, and to extend it to securing and destroying stockpiles of conventional arms. (For instance, shoulder-fired missiles that could be used against passenger airlines, fired at our forces, or used to make any number of ongoing conflicts more deadly.)
* Various bills concerning the response to Hurricane Katrina, including an amendment putting strict limits on the use of no-bid contracts after disasters, requiring planning for the evacuation of people with special needs and senior citizens, creating a National Emergency Family Locator System, etc.
See The Daily Dish for more.
I voted for Obama yesterday. I was going to vote for Hillary — heck, I wanted her to run for president in 2004 — but her negative advertisements in the days before the election just turned my stomach. For me, the big thing in her favor was that I felt she would do a better job cleaning up the gigantic messes that Bush will leave in his wake (bearing in mind that there are almost certainly a lot *more* gigantic messes than have been made public…). But I now believe her divisive attacks are not what America needs right now. Yes, she has more experience than Obama, but Obama appears to have better judgment and also seems to have a better organization behind him, and that's what I think matters as much as, if not more than, who sits in the Oval Office. Hillary is only playing the experience card today because that's what she has today. It certainly wasn't the card the Clinton's were playing when they ran against George Bush Sr.!
I invite everyone to go back in time to see what Bill Clinton said about experience in 1992 while he debated W's daddy.
Sullivan is on vacation this week. That post was actually by hilzoy, a guest blogger for Sullivan who normally blogs at Obsidian Wings.
Great link, Erich! That hits the nail on the head. As Bill C. says, it's not just having experience that counts, it's having the *right kind* of experience, combined with the right values. Obama has that, just as Bill C. did back in '92.
Grumpy hit the nail on the head. Obama has had the ability and good judgment to solicit and engage the best and the brightest, as is evidenced by his incredible campaign, which in and of itself, will go down in history. As President he will continue to draw the highest level of intelligence, ability and commitment building coalitions to get the various jobs done on domestic and international fronts; and folks, there is a lot to be done. Whoever is elected inherits a mess. Anyone willing to run, has to have heart and really want to serve America. Obama may not have the "experience" but he has brought this country together in a way we have not seen for years and he has the focus and sound judgment and that we need in a leader right now.
I received a note in the mail with information regarding Barack's achievements and then began to check the internet for information on Barack Obama's legislative achievements. I was pleasantly surprised to see that he has written more than 820 bills and has also co-sponsored more than 1, 000 pieces of legislation during his federal and state experience. The people who vote for him don't walk around with his achievements on their lips but it was good to know that he has done a lot. Also, how really 'stupid' could he be as a constitutional lawyer from Harvard? Viva Barack!!!!
"Great link, Erich! That hits the nail on the head. As Bill C. says, it’s not just having experience that counts, it’s having the *right kind* of experience, combined with the right values. Obama has that, just as Bill C. did back in ‘92."
That's not even close to being accurate. Bill Clinton had supremely greater experience. He was the Attorney General and Governor of Arkansas from '77 to '92. That gave him judicial experience, as well as executive leadership. He had no foreign policy skills; nonetheless he understood how to be an executive leader. (We won't go near the 'values' portion of that statement)
Obama has none of those qualifications. He was a civil rights attorney and a law maker his whole life.
And to clarify the comment about the grossly over-stated amount of legislation he has submitted, according the Library of Congress he has authored 55 bills, and co-sponsored 97 others. You will laugh when you read how insignificant almost all of them are. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/d?d109:0:./…
I LOVE YOU BARRACK OBAMA
YOU ARE THE BEST AND YOU ARE LOYAL
NOT OLD LIKE JOHN MCCAIN 72 YEARS OLD
YOU ARE FRESH AND CLEAN
LOVE YOU AND MAY YOU WIN THE ELECTION OF BEING THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Many wait from Obama immediate recovery and resolution of all problems they had through many years so far. It's unfair. During a year in White House Obama has done a lot. Here's a brief summary of major accomplishments of Barack Obama during his presidency:
http://myhowtoos.com/en/red-hot/93-growing-list-o…