http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=4218509

Senator Clinton says that she was snubbed by Obama at the State of the Union Speech.

The nerve!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After Obama won South Carolina, did Senator Clinton stay and congratulate Obama as is customary?


Did she give  a concession speach in front of her supporters in South Carolina?

No!!!!!!!!!!!

She left the state; essentially snubbing Obama.

Now she has the nerve to say Obama snubbed her.

John F. Kennedy Speeches

Address on Civil Rights (June 11, 1963)

Download Audio (mp3)

Good evening, my fellow citizens:

This afternoon, following a series of threats and defiant statements, the presence of Alabama National Guardsmen was required on the University of Alabama to carry out the final and unequivocal order of the United States District Court of the Northern District of Alabama. That order called for the admission of two clearly qualified young Alabama residents who happened to have been born Negro.

That they were admitted peacefully on the campus is due in good measure to the conduct of the students of the University of Alabama, who met their responsibilities in a constructive way.

I hope that every American, regardless of where he lives, will stop and examine his conscience about this and other related incidents. This Nation was founded by men of many nations and backgrounds. It was founded on the principle that all men are created equal, and that the rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.

Today we are committed to a worldwide struggle to promote and protect the rights of all who wish to be free. And when Americans are sent to Viet-Nam or West Berlin, we do not ask for whites only. It ought to be possible, therefore, for American students of any color to attend any public institution they select without having to be backed up by troops.

It ought to be possible for American consumers of any color to receive equal service in places of public accommodation, such as hotels and restaurants and theaters and retail stores, without being forced to resort to demonstrations in the street, and it ought to be possible for American citizens of any color to register and to vote in a free election without interference or fear of reprisal.

It ought to be possible, in short, for every American to enjoy the privileges of being American without regard to his race or his color. In short, every American ought to have the right to be treated as he would wish to be treated, as one would wish his children to be treated. But this is not the case.

The Negro baby born in America today, regardless of the section of the Nation in which he is born, has about one-half as much chance of completing a high school as a white baby born in the same place on the same day, one-third as much chance of completing college, one-third as much chance of becoming a professional man, twice as much chance of becoming unemployed, about one-seventh as much chance of earning $10,000 a year, a life expectancy which is 7 years shorter, and the prospects of earning only half as much.

This is not a sectional issue. Difficulties over segregation and discrimination exist in every city, in every State of the Union, producing in many cities a rising tide of discontent that threatens the public safety. Nor is this a partisan issue. In a time of domestic crisis men of good will and generosity should be able to unite regardless of party or politics. This is not even a legal or legislative issue alone. It is better to settle these matters in the courts than on the streets, and new laws are needed at every level, but law alone cannot make men see right.

We are confronted primarily with a moral issue. It is as old as the scriptures and is as clear as the American Constitution.

The heart of the question is whether all Americans are to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities, whether we are going to treat our fellow Americans as we want to be treated.
 
If an American, because his skin is dark, cannot eat lunch in a restaurant open to the public, if he cannot send his children to the best public school available, if he cannot vote for the public officials who represent him, if, in short, he cannot enjoy the full and free life which all of us want, then who among us would be content to have the color of his skin changed and stand in his place?

Who among us would then be content with the counsels of patience and delay?

One hundred years of delay have passed since President Lincoln freed the slaves, yet their heirs, their grandsons, are not fully free. They are not yet freed from the bonds of injustice. They are not yet freed from social and economic oppression. And this Nation, for all its hopes and all its boasts, will not be fully free until all its citizens are free.

We preach freedom around the world, and we mean it, and we cherish our freedom here at home, but are we to say to the world, and much more importantly, to each other that this is a land of the free except for the Negroes; that we have no second-class citizens except Negroes; that we have no class or cast system, no ghettoes, no master race except with respect to Negroes?

Now the time has come for this Nation to fulfill its promise. The events in Birmingham and elsewhere have so increased the cries for equality that no city or State or legislative body can prudently choose to ignore them.

The fires of frustration and discord are burning in every city, North and South, where legal remedies are not at hand. Redress is sought in the streets, in demonstrations, parades, and protests which create tensions and threaten violence and threaten lives.

We face, therefore, a moral crisis as a country and as a people. It cannot be met by repressive police action. It cannot be left to increased demonstrations in the streets. It cannot be quieted by token moves or talk. It is a time to act in the Congress, in your State and local legislative body and, above all, in all of our daily lives.

It is not enough to pin the blame on others, to say this is a problem of one section of the country or another, or deplore the fact that we face. A great change is at hand, and our task, our obligation, is to make that revolution, that change, peaceful and constructive for all.

Those who do nothing are inviting shame as well as violence. Those who act boldly are recognizing right as well as reality.

Next week I shall ask the Congress of the United States to act, to make a commitment it has not fully made in this century to the proposition that race has no place in American life or law. The Federal judiciary has upheld that proposition in a series of forthright cases. The executive branch has adopted that proposition in the conduct of its affairs, including the employment of Federal personnel, the use of Federal facilities, and the sale of federally financed housing.

But there are other necessary measures which only the Congress can provide, and they must be provided at this session. The old code of equity law under which we live commands for every wrong a remedy, but in too many communities, in too many parts of the country, wrongs are inflicted on Negro citizens and there are no remedies at law. Unless the Congress acts, their only remedy is in the street.

I am, therefore, asking the Congress to enact legislation giving all Americans the right to be served in facilities which are open to the public--hotels, restaurants, theaters, retail stores, and similar establishments.

This seems to me to be an elementary right. Its denial is an arbitrary indignity that no American in 1963 should have to endure, but many do.

I have recently met with scores of business leaders urging them to take voluntary action to end this discrimination and I have been encouraged by their response, and in the last 2 weeks over 75 cities have seen progress made in desegregating these kinds of facilities. But many are unwilling to act alone, and for this reason, nationwide legislation is needed if we are to move this problem from the streets to the courts.

I am also asking Congress to authorize the Federal Government to participate more fully in lawsuits designed to end segregation in public education. We have succeeded in persuading many districts to de-segregate voluntarily. Dozens have admitted Negroes without violence. Today a Negro is attending a State-supported institution in every one of our 50 States, but the pace is very slow.

Too many Negro children entering segregated grade schools at the time of the Supreme Court's decision 9 years ago will enter segregated high schools this fall, having suffered a loss which can never be restored. The lack of an adequate education denies the Negro a chance to get a decent job.

The orderly implementation of the Supreme Court decision, therefore, cannot be left solely to those who may not have the economic resources to carry the legal action or who may be subject to harassment.

Other features will be also requested, including greater protection for the right to vote. But legislation, I repeat, cannot solve this problem alone. It must be solved in the homes of every American in every community across our country.

In this respect, I want to pay tribute to those citizens North and South who have been working in their communities to make life better for all. They are acting not out of a sense of legal duty but out of a sense of human decency.

Like our soldiers and sailors in all parts of the world they are meeting freedom's challenge on the firing line, and I salute them for their honor and their courage.

My fellow Americans, this is a problem which faces us all--in every city of the North as well as the South. Today there are Negroes unemployed, two or three times as many compared to whites, inadequate in education, moving into the large cities, unable to find work, young people particularly out of work without hope, denied equal rights, denied the opportunity to eat at a restaurant or lunch counter or go to a movie theater, denied the right to a decent education, denied almost today the right to attend a State university even though qualified. It seems to me that these are matters which concern us all, not merely Presidents or Congressmen or Governors, but every citizen of the United States.

This is one country. It has become one country because all of us and all the people who came here had an equal chance to develop their talents.

We cannot say to 10 percent of the population that you can't have that right; that your children can't have the chance to develop whatever talents they have; that the only way that they are going to get their rights is to go into the streets and demonstrate. I think we owe them and we owe ourselves a better country than that.

Therefore, I am asking for your help in making it easier for us to move ahead and to provide the kind of equality of treatment which we would want ourselves; to give a chance for every child to be educated to the limit of his talents.

As I have said before, not every child has an equal talent or an equal ability or an equal motivation, but they should have the equal right to develop their talent and their ability and their motivation, to make something of themselves.

We have a right to expect that the Negro community will be responsible, will uphold the law, but they have a right to expect that the law will be fair, that the Constitution will be color blind, as Justice Harlan said at the turn of the century.

This is what we are talking about and this is a matter which concerns this country and what it stands for, and in meeting it I ask the support of all our citizens.

Thank you very much. 


http://webstorage4.mcpa.virginia.edu/jfk/audiovisual/speeches/spe_1963_0611_kennedy.mp3

 

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A President Like My Father

By CAROLINE KENNEDY

OVER the years, I’ve been deeply moved by the people who’ve told me they wished they could feel inspired and hopeful about America the way people did when my father was president. This sense is even more profound today. That is why I am supporting a presidential candidate in the Democratic primaries, Barack Obama.

My reasons are patriotic, political and personal, and the three are intertwined. All my life, people have told me that my father changed their lives, that they got involved in public service or politics because he asked them to. And the generation he inspired has passed that spirit on to its children. I meet young people who were born long after John F. Kennedy was president, yet who ask me how to live out his ideals.

Sometimes it takes a while to recognize that someone has a special ability to get us to believe in ourselves, to tie that belief to our highest ideals and imagine that together we can do great things. In those rare moments, when such a person comes along, we need to put aside our plans and reach for what we know is possible.

We have that kind of opportunity with Senator Obama. It isn’t that the other candidates are not experienced or knowledgeable. But this year, that may not be enough. We need a change in the leadership of this country — just as we did in 1960.

Most of us would prefer to base our voting decision on policy differences. However, the candidates’ goals are similar. They have all laid out detailed plans on everything from strengthening our middle class to investing in early childhood education. So qualities of leadership, character and judgment play a larger role than usual.

Senator Obama has demonstrated these qualities throughout his more than two decades of public service, not just in the United States Senate but in Illinois, where he helped turn around struggling communities, taught constitutional law and was an elected state official for eight years. And Senator Obama is showing the same qualities today. He has built a movement that is changing the face of politics in this country, and he has demonstrated a special gift for inspiring young people — known for a willingness to volunteer, but an aversion to politics — to become engaged in the political process.

I have spent the past five years working in the New York City public schools and have three teenage children of my own. There is a generation coming of age that is hopeful, hard-working, innovative and imaginative. But too many of them are also hopeless, defeated and disengaged. As parents, we have a responsibility to help our children to believe in themselves and in their power to shape their future. Senator Obama is inspiring my children, my parents’ grandchildren, with that sense of possibility.

Senator Obama is running a dignified and honest campaign. He has spoken eloquently about the role of faith in his life, and opened a window into his character in two compelling books. And when it comes to judgment, Barack Obama made the right call on the most important issue of our time by opposing the war in Iraq from the beginning.

I want a president who understands that his responsibility is to articulate a vision and encourage others to achieve it; who holds himself, and those around him, to the highest ethical standards; who appeals to the hopes of those who still believe in the American Dream, and those around the world who still believe in the American ideal; and who can lift our spirits, and make us believe again that our country needs every one of us to get involved.

I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them. But for the first time, I believe I have found the man who could be that president — not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans.

Caroline Kennedy is the author of “A Patriot’s Handbook: Songs, Poems, Stories and Speeches Celebrating the Land We Love.” 

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/opinion/27kennedy.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

The thing that I took from the Obama victory in South Carolina is that Obama took Bill's best shot and still won.

Bill Clinton's game plan has been exposed; and he'll do anything to win including the following:

(1). Play the race card.

(2). Spike the black vote in favor of white and hispanic votes.

(3). Drop a negative in the news media concerning Obama, usually a lie, the day before the vote so that Bill and Hillary have saturation news coverage, wiping Obama off TV in the critical 24 hours before the vote; the crying; the "fairy tale," the distortion of Obama's record, etc.

(4). Complain that the news media favors Obama; when in actuality the opposite is true.

The good thing is, now that this Clinton formula has been exposed, they can't go that way again.

Obama, you have to get the magic back; the momentum back.

 
You can’t give the same stump speech; it rings hollow.

 

You have to admit certain things, lay them bare, and then move forward.

 

Here is a suggested speech.  You don’t have to use it; but I am convinced that you must use something like this to win.

 

If you use your old stump speech, people will say, “that’s not true, the Clintons have shot holes in that.”  Your credibility will be in question.

 

But this way, you answer the questions and move forward.

****

“I was high flying.  I have to admit, after the win in Iowa, I was flying high.  However, now, I have been brought to ground.

Other people on the other side, saw hope and enthusiasm on people’s faces, in our audience and on our stage.  They did not like that.

 

We not only inspired the northeast, but we inspired the nation.  Hope was spreading like a prairie wild-fire.

 

People were fired up and ready to go.  Young people who had never participated in the system felt that they had found a home on our side.

 

People old and young and everyone in between were coming together for the first time to support this campaign.  There was an energy in my campaign, unmatched by any other.

 

There was magic here.

 

Old barriers were being broken down; and people on the other side who depend on those divisions and polarizations to win elections, just couldn’t stand the wonderful campaign we were running.

 

They sat there seething with jealousy.  “I’m entitled to the Presidency, get off the stage,” they said.

 

Jealous hearted people are the most dangerous on earth, because they will say and do anything to win. I had to be brought to ground; in their calculation.

 

So what did the other side do?

 

They launched an all out attack, utilizing every dishonest trick in the book.

 

First, they launched lying e-mails calling into question my credentials on abortion even though I’ve been rated 100% on the woman’s right to choose.

 

That didn’t matter to them, all they cared about was scaring women.

 

Secondly, their surrogate, Billy Shaheen, floated the lie that I was a drug dealer.  This I remind you came from the side of the former President who also used drugs, but claims he “didn’t inhale.”

 

Well I ask you, “how does one inhale marijuana smoke and ‘not inhale?’”  Any junky will tell you that you don’t have to inhale, you can get a “contact high” just by being there.

 

I’ve admitted my youthful errors in my book.  I told the truth.  The other side never admits anything, never accepts personal responsibility, and continues to have trouble telling the truth.

 

Thirdly, they introduced the race card in two ways: 

 

            (1). Their friend Gloria Steinem wrote an op-ed piece in the New York Times inferring that black men have had an easier time to the top than white women.  We all know that is an absolute racist lie.  White women have been Secretary of State before blacks, heads of Hollywood Studios before blacks, gone into space ahead of better qualified black pilots, been heads of more governorships, and been in the Senate in greater numbers than black men.  It is a complete fabrication that black men have had an easier time to the top than white women.

 

            (2). Then my principle opponent used the racial term “spade work.”  There is nothing benign or unambiguous about the word spade.  It is a derogatory word used against blacks in the same mold as “boy,” “coon,” and the N-word.

 

Most of you think that their use, of words and lies, is inadvertent.  I’m here to tell you that these people do nothing without calculation.

 

Fourthly, they used emotion instead of merit to get ahead.  Women have said for years that they wanted to be judged by merit and nothing else.  Notice how they got tired and cried in New Hampshire to get the women’s vote, but haven’t been tired since, now that they are ahead; even though they’ve been traveling crisscrossing the country to Nevada and California, New York and New Jersey. That’s enough to make anybody tired, but they are not claiming that now.

 

All a part of their strategy to get ahead without merit.

 

Fifthly, they used the former President as an attack dog to lie about my record.  Let’s look at my record head on:

 

Number one, I never said I was a great orator, as the former President said in the first part of that Dartmouth speech.  Most people overlook that part of the speech to get to the “fairy tale” part, but he started lying from the start.

 

Then he said I said his wife was from Punjab.  I have never said, nor have I ever authorized anyone from my staff to say that his wife was from Punjab.  My wife would kill me if I disrespected any woman in that way.  I regret that overzealous staff without my authorization,  acted in this despicable way; and nothing like that will ever happen again.

 

I never said nor have I authorized anyone in my staff to say that the former President was a crook.  Everyone knows that up until recently, he lived his adult life in public housing, in the State House in Arkansas and the White House, and became rich only after writing best selling books.  He’s a notorious liar, but he’s no crook.

 

He said that my Iraq war vote record was a “fairy tale.”

 

That’s a lie and a personal attack.

 

Some liberal talk show hosts on Air America, have followed the Clinton line, that somehow me and my wife are responsible for smearing the Clintons by advancing the notion that he was talking about my “whole campaign” being a “fairy tale,” rather than just my “Iraq war vote,” being the “fairy tale.”  Nobody calls my wife a liar.

 

This is insanity run amok.  First of all, before one even gets to my interpretation of what the former President meant, why not take him to task for the use of a personal attack, the “fairy tale,” line in the first place?

 

Number two, to equate my and my wife’s defense of ourselves against these vicious attacks, (recall that we remained silent for four days), to equate these attacks with our defense, is to twist and torture logic beyond recognition.

 

Number three, the former President is acclaimed brilliant, but to him “is” does not mean “is,”  and now  “the whole thing is a fairy tale,” does not mean “the whole thing is a fairy tale,” yet we are supposed to fall for that “okeydoke.”

 

Yet me and my wife are portrayed as liars by some on Air America; and at the height of lunacy, USA Today in an editorial proclaimed that the Clintons had the moral high ground on this issue.  Now doesn’t that beat all?

 

I can be attacked on my policy positions just like anyone.  He can say that I was wrong on any policy and then give the reason, but to characterize my very consistent opposition to the war as a “fairy tale,” is both personal and a lie.

 

These people believe in the gutter politics of personal destruction, and will do and say anything to get ahead.

 

I have been very consistent with my opposition to this war even before it started; from speeches in Illinois in 2002, to the Berkowitz interview later in 2002, to the Charlie Rose interview in 2004.  Both Berkowitz and Rose asked me point blank how I would have voted on the War Resolution; and my answer was unequivocal, a resounding “No.”

 

With regard to my agreeing with George Bush in the war, nothing could be further from the truth.  The truth is as Bush moved towards the Kerry position by seeking out the international community, which was my position also; as Bush moved towards our position, I said, our positions were the same.

He moved towards us; it is a lie to say we moved towards Bush.

 

With regard to “slumlord” Rezko, that was probably a mistake; and I have donated all of his contributions to charity.  By the way, it appears from pictures in the Drudge report that the Clintons have known Rezko longer than I have.

And finally, with regard to me changing my web page; I will change my web page any way I darned well please.  The nerve of these people trying to tell me how to run my website!!!

Some people believe in this appeal to the lowest common denominator, gutter politics.  I have allowed myself to be temporarily drawn into this stinky gutter politics; and in so I have been brought to ground; the magic is gone.

 

But I’m here to tell you that “No more.”  No more gutter politics for me.  If the other side wants to remain in the gutter that’s on them.  Our truth squad will fight that battle on that level.

 

But this campaign will rise above it all again.  We will get the magic back.

Kennedy believed in appealing to the highest common denominator.  I believe like Kennedy.
 

All those who believe in manipulating people, you are welcome to go over to the other side.  Honest people, we invite you over to our side.

 

All those who believe in crying your way to the top, go to the other side.  Those who believe in merit, come again to our side.

 

Those who believe in distortion and lies, go over to the other side and remain in the gutter.  Those who believe in fair play, and playing by the rules, come over again to our side.

 

They tried to take away your hopeful faces; they couldn’t do it.  They tried to take away your enthusiasm for our campaign; they failed.

 

We’ve been knocked down.  But let’s get up!!!

 

We’ve taken their best shot; and we are still standing to fight another day.

We are fired up ready to go!!!!  Are you fired up and ready to go!!!!

 

We’ll use our Kennedy analogy again that they tried to take away; they can’t take the great Kennedy away from us.

 

We’ll use our King analogy again; “The Arc in the Moral Universe is Long, but it Bends Towards Justice; America is a just people; they can’t take that away from us.

 

We are right back on track!!!

 

Just like the Phoenix bird, we the people have risen again.

 

Rise up!!!!   Let’s defeat the division.  Let’s defeat the lies.  Let’s defeat the racism.

 

Let’s rise up!!!!  Can we do it?  Can we do it?

 

Yes we can!!!

 

They even tried to steal that; but they couldn’t.

 

Can we do it?

 

Yes we can!!!!

 

Thank you ladies and gentleman.

 

It’s on to California, New York, Arizona and the other places.

 

We took their best shot and we are still standing!!!

 

We won’t go back to the old politics.

 

It is a new day!!!   It’s on to tomorrow and the future.

 

They can stay in the past.  They can stay in the gutter.

 

Not us. You and me, we are moving forward.

 

Can we do it?

 

Yes we can!!!

There are no Red States and Blue States, just one State the United States, and I want to be the President of the United States; and all those divided in the primaries come on over to our side in the general.  I can unite us all, even those who disagree with me now.

Good night and God Speed!!!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

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January 25, 2008

Clinton's Depressing Assault on Obama

By E. J. Dionne

WASHINGTON -- It was a remarkable moment: A young, free-thinking presidential hopeful named Bill Clinton sat down with reporters and editors at The Washington Post in October 1991 and started saying things most Democrats wouldn't allow to pass their lips.

Ronald Reagan, Clinton said, deserved credit for winning the Cold War. He praised Reagan's "rhetoric in defense of freedom" and his role in "advancing the idea that communism could be rolled back."