If the real message from Obama gets through to these kids–that change only comes about when WE ALL take part and make it happen, in our homes, our neighborhoods, our schools, our communities–through hard work, commitment to the things we believe in despite frustrating circumstances or formidable obstacles, and the courage to stand up and be counted when others–like Michele McGinty–may mock and deride you for your idealism–then these kids will be just fine, and so will America.
I have absolutely no illusions about Obama. The Psalmist warns, “Put not your trust in princes, nor in any of the sons of men.” Nor do I have grandiose expectations about what he will be able to accomplish, especially given that the Republican Administration is leaving him with an undermined Constitution, a government infested by corporate lobbyists, a diminished standing in the eyes of the world, two badly mismanaged, costly wars and a wrecked economy. I wouldn’t blame him, in fact, if he changed his mind right now about taking the job.
But I do have hope. Americans are the most creative, entrepreneurial, inventive, gritty, optimistic, can-do, hard-working people in the world. United, there truly is nothing we cannot tackle, nothing we cannot overcome. Simply getting a reasonable, cost-efficient health care system in place will make us more competitive in the global marketplace and allow more people to start new businesses. We can and should be the world’s leaders in developing alternative energy and environmentally-friendly technologies of all kinds. (Think of the billions to be made helping China clean up their environment and avoid future scandals like poisonous toys and lethal baby formula.)
We can draw on a great reservoir of youthful energy that has been largely untapped for the past eight years. There are lots of things we can accomplish that don’t require huge infusions of federal money, but do require that we make smart choices unhindered by interference in the decision-making process by greedy special interests.
These are not pie-in-the-sky propositions. I think we’ve lived with incompetent government for so long we’ve lost faith that government CAN work for us, CAN help move things in the right direction–if we do our part and lobby for the people’s interests as vociferously as we have voiced our objections to this bailout. Imagine what would happen if we didn’t wait until a crisis, but flooded the offices of our representatives with calls demanding that they get to work and come up with a cost-efficient, workable health care fix. We need to get off our big fat American rear ends, unite and fight. That’s the only way it’s going to happen.
Obama’s not a messiah, but he is a leader. And if you love your country even a little, you should be praying that the next president, whoever he may be, will have the wisdom, the strength and the support he needs to lead us out of this present darkness to a better day and a brighter future.

Obama Promotes Singing Kid Vid
A video circulating on the internet of school-aged children singing in support of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is rocketing its way around the Internet.
The Drudge Report linked to the YouTube video declaring “Obama Kids Sing for Dear Leader” Tuesday afternoon drawing much attention to a performance of 22 children, aged 5-12, wearing identical blue Obama shirts singing a 3-minute ode to the Democratic candidate.
The performance was “inspired” by Obama fundraiser and music teacher Kathy Sawada and filmed on a Sunday afternoon in Venice, California.
The video was promoted on Obama’s presidential website in an August 20 post: “What the children and a few adults accomplished in a few hours on a Sunday afternoon embodies the nature of the Obama campaign: its grassroots inspiration, its inclusiveness, its community building,” Obama’s campaign site said of the video.
The song begins with a young girl singing alone, “We’re gonna spread happiness/ We’re gonna spread freedom/Obama’s gonna achange it/Obama’s gonna lead ‘em/We’re gonna change it/And rearrange it/We’re gonna change the world.”
The other children then join in, chanting Obama’s campaign mantra “Yes, we can, yes, we can.”
This is scary. Bates Motel scary. Totally sick. And Obama promoted it! Double-Sick!

Mother of 2, here’s what’s “totally sick”:
Lying the American people into a war that has cost untold billions and hundreds of thousands of lives is sick.
Torturing and killing people in American custody is sick.
Singing a song about dropping bombs on people is sick.
Pastors condemning gays from the pulpit while they themselves visit gay prostitutes is sick.
Children going to bed hungry in the richest nation on earth is sick.
People dying because their health insurance companies take their money for years and then refuse to pay for a life-saving procedure is sick.
Throwing people in jail for exercising free speech and calling them terrorists is sick.
Destroying God’s creation out of avarice and selfishness is sick.
A presidential candidate who grows misty-eyed when he takes about his love for the troops and care for veterans when his record shows he has deserted them again and again is sick.
Claiming that the failure of Katrina would never happen on his watch when on the day the hurricane ravaged the city he was sharing birthday cake with Bush, then voting against relief for the hurricane’s victims time after time is sick.
Dismantling protections in place since the Great Depression, turning Wall Street into a casino and then forcing the American taxpayer to pay off the losers’ bad debts with a $700 billion blank check is sick.
But little children singing songs about hope? That’s TOTALLY SICK? That’s what fires your moral outrage?
I’d say there’s something a little sick about that.

Mother of 2, 2 words:Jesus camp

Another thing that is sick: thinking deciding about abortion is above your paygrade.
Obama has no problem killing babies, letting teens do it without parental *notification*, or letting them cross state boundries to get an abortion.
I may disagree with McCain on a lot of things, but at least he apparently has some moral stands that he stands on. As opposed to Obama, who does not apparently have many morals to speak of – or if he does, he does not seem to live them or act them, just occasionally talk them in a lawyerly fashion; e.g., he is fine with religious values as long as they are boiled down to universal morals that we can all agree on. In other words: society makes morality. And that worldview is exactly in line with the way he votes on issues like abortion.

And if you think that abortion is not taking a human life or is not a sin, then you don’t have a problem making it available to anyone who needs it.
I do not believe that abortion is the taking of a human life or a sin, and I am voting for Barack Obama – and am proud to be doing so.

“thinking deciding about abortion is above your paygrade”
um, yeah… i think that you’ve got your facts mixed up, paul. that’s not difficult for most conservatives who are so used to twisting the truth to fit their fanatical world view.
i agree with scott. i have no problem keeping abortion legal and making it available to anyone who needs it. my vote proudly goes to obama.

obama doesn’t promise happiness. but he does offer hope instead of the politics of fear. hope instead of the rove politics of character assassination. hope instead of division. hope instead of worry (about retirement, about war, about the cost of living, about the environment). hope instead of four more years of bush policies through mcnugget.

Obama provides hope against division? Is that what you call it when you use political power to stifle dissent, as he has done in Missouri? Is that what you call it when his campaign sends out droves of acolytes to bombard a radio station in response to opposition? Is that what you call it when his believers use character asassination of an opponent and her daughter for the sin of being the VP candidate?
Is that hope against division born of a religious philosophy that cuts and pastes the Bible to infer that Jesus is only as good as what he will do for us in this world? Does that hope for an end to division in this country get its start in commitees chaired by an extremist (not former extremist) whose only regrets about his past bombing campaign was that he didn’t do enough?
Is hope generated by the corrupt politics of Chicago?
no, this is raw power seeking wrapped in the bow of politcal correctness and promising the suspension of white guilt. This is Alinsky, tell them what they want to hear propulsion of the progressive agenda. No more, no less.

Okay, look, libs: I’ll just agree to disagree with you on all your “sick” points. But answer me this: Can you tell me with a straight face that you would not be positively, shriekingly appalled if the McCain camp produced a video like this?

I started this video for my daughter (who said, “are you really going to make me watch this?”
(This is her first election..)

“Can you tell me with a straight face that you would not be positively, shriekingly appalled if the McCain camp produced a video like this?”
In this era of the politics of resentment, I’m not so sure the McCain camp didn’t. Don’t those lovely children look like they could have been chauffered in from Saddleback Church?
But I will write with a straight face I’m even more appalled at the prospect that European chuckleheads who support Obama (the lyrics seem to have appeared in German before they appeared in English) from countries that don’t have the greatest track record in selecting their leaders, either, would write this trash. Fortunately the Germans who equate Obama with their Messiah can’t vote here.

Anyone who watches this video and doesnt see a problem needs to seek help now! This is not a video of some innocent children singing and smiling. This was produced by professionals and the parents of these children allowed and watched it happen! AMAZING! This was the doing of a teacher no less! The school she works for should fire her immediately! This is exactly like a third world country leader forcing children to sing and praise him for fear they would be harmed if they didnt do it with a smile on their face. Parents are to protect and teach their children, not exploit them. The teacher has made her choice and is choosing to force it down the throats of these children, litearally! What ever happened to showing children how an election works and how there is many choices and they can make up their own mind. This is just down right wierd and the parents that allowed it must be out of it!!!!!!!

“s that what you call it when you use political power to stifle dissent, as he has done in Missouri?”
how so? did he have protesters arrested, and i missed that story? does he kick dissenters out of his rallies?
“Is that what you call it when his campaign sends out droves of acolytes to bombard a radio station in response to opposition?”
what radio station, and what evidence do you have that obama sent these people out to bombard the station? how do you know that it’s just not ordinary people who support obama and are very excited about this election (as MANY public opinion polls have been pointing out for months).
“Is that what you call it when his believers use character asassination of an opponent and her daughter for the sin of being the VP candidate?”
obama clearly and on multiple occasions said that family is off limits.
“Is that hope against division born of a religious philosophy that cuts and pastes the Bible to infer that Jesus is only as good as what he will do for us in this world?”
show me a religious philosophy that doesn’t cut and paste the bible to infer what that sect takes comfort in.
“Does that hope for an end to division in this country get its start in commitees chaired by an extremist (not former extremist) whose only regrets about his past bombing campaign was that he didn’t do enough?”
there you go distorting facts and pushing guilt by association. that’s your entire argument. obama didn’t start his life or career in a committee chaired by an extremist.
“Is hope generated by the corrupt politics of Chicago?”
show me evidence that obama is a corrupt politician out of chicago.
“… politcal correctness and promising the suspension of white guilt.”
you’re all about political correctness when it comes to dealing with palin, or mccain, or the white party. but you are quick to trot out racist jargon at the drop of a hat. and just so you know, the only ones who whine about white guilt are racists. it’s hilarious to hear the seething rants about white guilt when the subject is a successful man who had a black father and a white mother.

Drudge Report linked to the YouTube video does not work