First Door on the Left

Those on the right who are feigning such outrage over the new logo of the Barack Obama presidential campaign should perhaps look in their own back yard. Here are three logos currently in use by the National Republican Senatorial Committee:

In the event that you are in need of a refresher, here is the new Obama logo:

Of the bunch, the Obama logo is definitely the most imaginative and the better looking. As I stated in my earlier post on this topic, it will serve until we take the real presidential seal away from the impostor now using it.

Besides, I still have not seen or read anything official from the campaign stating that the new logo has been adopted, nor have I seen it used other than when Senator Obama was speaking to the governors’ group last Friday. It still does not appear on the official campaign website. Perhaps the campaign was just taking it out for a test run? (If it were up to me, I’d have the dang thing woven into the new rug for the Oval Office.)

As far as I am able to determine, the official logo of the campaign continues to be this:

(h/t Mark Nickolas)

UPDATE: “Obama’s presidential seal gone after one use.” Looks like y’all can put the outrage away for use on another day.

The former president still is not “over it…”

Clinton praises Obama’s greenhouse policy, sort of

Bill Clinton

MIAMI (Reuters) – Former President Bill Clinton offered faint praise for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s energy policy on Sunday, saying he preferred it to that of Republican rival John McCain.

“I think we’ll get better national policy next year,” Clinton told the U.S. Conference of Mayors in a speech centered on improving energy efficiency and reducing greenhouse gases.

It was the former president’s first public appearance since his wife, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, ended her presidential campaign on June 7, after Obama emerged as the Democratic candidate in the November election.

The former first lady endorsed Obama, urged her supporters to rally behind him and is scheduled to campaign with him later this week.

But her husband has not publicly endorsed the presumptive Democratic nominee to succeed President George W. Bush. Asked by journalists when he might do so, Clinton smiled and shook hands with spectators without acknowledging he heard the question.

In his speech, Clinton predicted Congress would pass a cap-and-trade system to reduce carbon emissions.

“Because I believe so strongly in this, I favor Senator Obama’s position, which is to go to 80 percent reduction in greenhouse gasses over Senator McCain’s position, which is to go to 70 percent,” he said. “But that’s light years ahead of where Republican’s have been.”

Related: McCain accepts government financing.

Is there anybody out there who believes that Johnny McCain would be accepting the government check if the situations were reversed? Rather than spending all this time complaining about Barack Obama not taking the government’s money, why isn’t the right wing busy collecting money for Johnny McCain? I know they can do it. After all, they collected something like $275 million for George Bush Jr. back in 2004.

[Friday night cartoons are in the post prior to this.]

The Barack Obama campaign unveiled a new logo this morning. Here it is alongside the presidential seal:

(You can click on the picture to make it bigger.)

A bit cheeky perhaps, but I like it. Senator Obama will be able to use the real one as soon as we take it away from the impostor in January.

By the way, “vero possumus” is Latin for “yes we can.” (Actually a bit closer to “in truth we can,” but it’ll serve.)

(Source: CNN)

P.S. You have to admit that it’s just a little more imaginative than the McCain campaign logo:

UPDATE: As of 7:00 p.m. CDT on Saturday, June 21, this new logo has yet to make an appearance on the official Obama campaign website.

Stop Doing That Or You Will Go Blind.

Time for Friday Night Cartoons again. Your humble and devoted editor (somebody really should be paying me for this) has spent the week viewing thousands upon thousands (no not really) political and editorial cartoons just so he could pick out the best ones for your viewing pleasure. He must love you so much. Remember, your mileage may vary.

You know the drill. Click on them to make them bigger. If you pay attention to the icons at the bottom of your browser window you can even view them in a slide slow. Do the people whining about Barack Obama accepting public financing (for that is what he is doing) realize how stupid they look?

Enjoy…

As always, our thanks go to the talented and observant cartoonists who, each week, help us smile through the pain.

Saturday night additions:

NBC News reports “McCain to accept public financing.”

Aboard the Straight Talk Express from the airport to the hotel in Minneapolis, McCain said that his campaign has decided that it will accept public financing for the general election. “We will take public financing,” Asked what his thinking was, he said, “Because we decided to take public financing.”

That will enable McCain to spend $84 million after the GOP convention.

There needs to be, I believe, a bit of clarification on this matter. About one a half million members of the public (thus far) have contributed to Barack Obama’s campaign. Senator Obama is going to rely on the public to fund his campaign between the convention and the election. That’s public financing.

What Johnny McCain is taking is not public financing. He is taking is a handout from the federal government. He is going to rely on the government to fund his campaign.

The Republicans are throwing a tantrum because Senator Obama is not going to take the government check. And here all this time I have been led to believe that Republicans were opposed to government handouts. Isn’t self-sufficiency supposed to be a big part of their platform? You live and you learn, I guess.

There’s a website now online entitled “Women for John McCain.”

I can’t decide if it is meant to be satire or if it is for real. Whichever, it truly is amazing.

For example, right there on the main page is this icon:

Really? A wire coat hanger? I don’t think I need to tell you what that represents, do I? Anyway, if you click on it, you are taken to a page where the advantages and disadvantages of plastic hangers, wire hangers, wooden hangers and padded hangers are discussed.

On the page entitled “Choice,” we are privilege to this bit of wisdom…

John McCain has worked closely with the national press to gain his “maverick” reputation – and that’s why women are choosing John McCain! On the complicated issues of womens’ rights and reproductive choices, we need a strong man with years, and years, and years of experience in the halls of Washington to think and speak for us – and that man is John McCain. With John’s record on choice, he’s uniquely qualified to make our most personal, private choices for us as President.

We need a man with years, and years, and years of experience … to think and speak for us … [and] to make our most personal, private choices for us as President. Come on!

Under “Equal Pay…”

When the Equal Pay issue supported by radical leftists Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton came up for a vote in April 2008, John McCain showed his strong support for women by missing the Senate vote to campaign in front of an audience – with women in attendance – in New Orleans, the city that John McCain showed his maverick leadership style by eating birthday cake in Arizona with President George W. Bush on August 29th, 2005 – the day Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in one of the worst natural disasters in American history – before Bush headed to the Pueblo El Mirage RV Resort and Country Club for a chat with seniors about his plans to privatize Medicare.

“Family Leave…”

John McCain knows that allowing freeloaders who want to take time off to care for their newborn babies, or attend to their children when they get hurt or fall ill, isn’t as important as making sure that compliance would not increase business expenses or provide financial assistance to businesses to cover any related costs. While countries in Europe may offer family and medical leave that goes beyond what most American workers receive, and some employers even allow paid time off for liberals who don’t earn their keep, it’s the “rugged individualism” of leaders like John McCain that reminds us that as Americans, we shouldn’t be afraid to do things differently than what may be the status quo in other developed nations.

Shall I go on? Oh, okay, just one more.

“Teen Pregnancy…”

Teen pregnancy is a serious issue as our nation forges ahead in the 21st Century. And while John McCain’s platform has many serious issues, few are so important to the next generation as the problem of teen pregnancy in our country.

That’s why John McCain voted against an amendment in the Senate’s 2006 fiscal year budget that would have provided 100 million dollars to our schools to reduce teen pregnancy through sex education, use of contraceptives, lower the incidence of unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases, make birth control more affordable, and improve access to women’s health care. Because if our teenagers and young adult daughters remain innocent, if we take a stand as Americans to protect them from sex education and birth control until they’re married, we can stop teen pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases before they start.

Go check out the entire site, then come back and tell me what you think. Is it real or is it Memorex? Whichever, it truly is an amazing piece of work.

Barack Obama’s first general election ad will begin airing in 18 states tomorrow. These states are: Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Virginia. (Note that 14 of the 18 were won by George W. Bush in 2004.)

In the event that you do not live in one of those 18 states and will not be able to see the ad on your television tomorrow, or you just want to get a head start, here’s the ad:

The ad is designed to introduce Senator Obama to people who perhaps haven’t yet had the opportunity to meet him. I think it does a pretty good job. (It’s certainly a lot better than “Vote for me because I was a prisoner of war for four and half years.”)

This button, by the way, takes you to a page where you can contribute to the Obama campaign (and the future well-being of the United States of America):

He made the announcement last evening via video to his supporters…

Here’s how The New York Times reports the decision…

Obama Opts Out of Public Financing for Campaign

WASHINGTON — Senator Barack Obama announced on Thursday that he would not participate in the public financing system for presidential campaigns. He argued that the system had collapsed, and would put him at a disadvantage running against Senator John McCain, his likely Republican opponent.

With his decision, Mr. Obama became the first candidate of a major party to decline public financing — and the spending limits that go with it — since the system was created in 1976, after the Watergate scandals.

Mr. Obama made his announcement in a video message sent to supporters and posted on the Internet. While it was not a surprise — his aides have been hinting that he would take this step for two months — it represented a turnabout from his strong earlier suggestion that he would join the system. Mr. McCain has been a champion of public financing of campaign throughout his career.

“The public financing of presidential elections as it exists today is broken, and we face opponents who’ve become masters at gaming this broken system,” he said. “John McCain’s campaign and the Republican National Committee are fueled by contributions from Washington lobbyists and special interest PACs. And we’ve already seen that he’s not going to stop the smears and attacks from his allies running so-called 527 groups, who will spend millions and millions of dollars in unlimited donations.”

I have been anticipating this decision for some time and it comes as no disappointment to me whatsoever. Quite the contrary, I think that any other decision by the Obama campaign would have been foolish. Though Johnny McCain will scream and holler about the unfairness of it all, the truth is that the right wing machine is going to ensure that Johnny has plenty of money for this campaign.

Had Senator Obama opted to limit himself to the public general election funds, he would have put himself at a decided disadvantage. In an election as important as this one, where the future of our country is literally at stake, we simply cannot afford that.

Good on you, Senator Obama, and congratulations on a decision well made!

Okay, I confess, I have never watched The View. I’m sorry. It just does not come on at an hour when I’m generally watching the tube. When I heard about this video, I had to watch it.

The video is a little over 24 minutes in length. You may not have time to watch the whole thing. I really encourage you to at least watch the first minute. It is so easy to visualize Michelle Obama as the next First Lady of the United States. I actually read somewhere today where somebody mentioned that she may be running for the presidency herself in twelve years or so. I can so see it.

Anyway… watch it. At least the first minute or so…