Where's The Evidence That Obama's Such A Great Uniter?

[Danzo]

Barack began serving his Senate term in 2005. Where's the evidence that Capitol Hill is ANY less polarized than it was before he started his term?

[saltpoint]

1. Why haven't you solved world hunger?

I want it done by this weekend.

[EFerrari]

9. Before you solve world hunger, you have to take on world seating.

Not to mention world parking.

[saltpoint]

10. For world seating, we'll let the Buddhists run that. They know exactly

what they're doing.

Work remains, though, on the world parking. Good point. Well, it's an excuse to get rid of all the Hummers, anyway.

How many of us will fit into Ken Kesey's bus?

[elleng]

11. Don't be silly,

Its a legitimate question.

[EFerrari]

13. No, it's flame bait and you are enabling it.

[Danzo]

39. Bull

I've heard a ton of Obama zealots make statements like "he's a great uniter." I'm a THOUSAND percent entitled to ask for evidence supporting that. That's a FACT.

[saltpoint]

14. It's not a legitimate question at all. It's freak show logic.

[elleng]

15. Sorry, folks!

Too late/early for such!

[Danzo]

42. You've Shown Your Intolerance

I'm entitled to ask Obama supporters to back up premises that THEY THEMSELVES have put forth. If you disagree that I'm entitled to do that, you're being intolerant. It's as simple as that.

[Mooney]

51. You should ask specific Obama supporters who have made that specific statement

to back it up. Instead, you're making a broad and general statement to nobody in particular.

If somebody here actually says "Barack Obama is a great uniter," then you can by all means ask that person to substantiate what they're saying. I haven't seen anyone here say that. Of course I haven't seen every post in every thread, but are you referring to a post in particular, and if so, can you provide a link to it?

[Mezzo]

30. He's not running for POTUS as a Uniter, BHO is. nt

[knixphan]

36. lol!!!

[Danzo]

40. HORRIBLE analogy, dude.

I didn't say that I Barack had to make it so the Democrats and Republicans were singing Cuum-By-Yah (sp?), I asked for proof that he made DC ANY more united, which is a premise that Obama zealots THEMSELVES put forth.

If the Obama zealots didn't want me to challenge them, then they shouldn't have run their mouths without backing it up with supporting evidence.

[saltpoint]

56. It wasn't an analogy. It was a suggestion that the OP was vacuous.

[FrenchieCat]

2. He got things done......so no, he didn't change 99 other senators....

be he worked and got things accomplished.

COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS:
Obama holds assignments on the Senate Committees for Foreign Relations; Health, Education, Labor and Pensions; Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs; and Veterans' Affairs, and he is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus.

-------------------------

As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Obama made official trips to Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. In August 2005, he traveled to Russia, Ukraine, and Azerbaijan. The trip focused on strategies to control the world's supply of conventional weapons, biological weapons, and weapons of mass destruction as a first defense against potential terrorist attacks.<61>

Following meetings with U.S. military in Kuwait and Iraq in January 2006, Obama visited Jordan, Israel, and the Palestinian territories.

He left for his third official trip in August 2006, traveling to South Africa, Kenya, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Chad. In a nationally televised speech at the University of Nairobi, he spoke forcefully on the influence of ethnic rivalries and corruption in Kenya.

Obama worked with Russ Feingold (D–WI) to eliminate gifts of travel on corporate jets by lobbyists to members of Congress and require disclosure of bundled campaign contributions under the "Honest Leadership and Open Government Act", which was signed into law in September 2007.

He joined Chuck Schumer (D-NY) in sponsoring S. 453, a bill to criminalize deceptive practices in federal elections, including fraudulent flyers and automated phone calls, as witnessed in the 2006 midterm elections.

Obama also introduced the "Iraq War De-Escalation Act", a bill to cap troop levels in Iraq, begin phased redeployment, and remove all combat brigades from Iraq before April 2008.<68>

Later in 2007, Obama sponsored with Kit Bond (R-MO) an amendment to the 2008 Defense Authorization Act adding safeguards for personality disorder military discharges, and calling for a review by the Government Accountability Office following reports that the procedure had been used inappropriately to reduce government costs.

joined Chuck Hagel (R-NE) in introducing legislation to reduce risks of nuclear terrorism.A provision from the Obama-Hagel bill was passed by Congress in December 2007 as an amendment to the State-Foreign Operations appropriations bill.

Obama also sponsored a Senate amendment to the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to provide one year of job protection for family members caring for soldiers with combat-related injuries. After passing both houses of Congress with bipartisan majorities, SCHIP was vetoed by President Bush in early October 2007, a move Obama said "shows a callousness of priorities that is offensive to the ideals we hold as Americans."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama

THESE ARE BARACK'S ACCOMPLISHMENTS IN THE U.S. SENATE TO DATE:

** First legislation, the HOPE Act, which increased Pell Grants to $5100, and later joined Senator Kennedy on the Higher Education legislation that passed July 20, by a vote of 78-18. That legislation also included funding for Predominantly Black Colleges to assist with counseling, tutoring and other needs of low income students. It also creates the Teaching Residency Act which will create a school-based teacher preparation program in high needs schools to provide each teacher with a mentor, content instruction, classroom management skills, a master’s degree and state certification, and a 2 year follow-up program.


**The Coburn-Obama Government Transparency Act of 2006
is an act that requires the full disclosure of all entities or organizations receiving federal funds beginning in fiscal year (FY) 2007 on a website maintained by the Office of Management and Budget.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Funding_Accountability_and_Transparency_Act_of_2006


**The Lugar-Obama Nuclear Non-proliferation and Conventional Weapons Threat Reduction Act
Authored by U.S. Sens. Dick Lugar (R-IN) and Barack Obama (D-IL), the Lugar-Obama initiative expands U.S. cooperation to destroy conventional weapons. It also expands the State Department's ability to detect and interdict weapons and materials of mass destruction.
Signed into Law on January 11, 2007.
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/chrisblask/gGCPsK


**The 2007 Government Ethics Bill
http://www.rollcall.com/issues/53_17/news/19664-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS
http://www.commonblog.com/story/2007/9/14/164837/331

** The “Democratic Republic of the Congo Relief, Security, and Democracy Promotion Act.
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s109-2125

** S116 - Summer Learning demonstration project to provide summer learning grants and encourage new teaching methods.
http://www.pasesetter.org/demonstrationPrograms/nasd.html

and this one, moved out of committee just a few days ago:
Obama's Global Poverty Act of 2007, passed out of committee just a few days ago
WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senators Barack Obama (D-IL), Chuck Hagel (R-NE), and Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Congressman Adam Smith (D-WA) today hailed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's passage of the Global Poverty Act (S.2433), which requires the President to develop and implement a comprehensive policy to cut extreme global poverty in half by 2015 through aid, trade, debt relief, and coordination with the international community, businesses and NGOs. This legislation was introduced in December. Smith and Congressman Spencer Bachus (R-AL) sponsored the House version of the bill (H.R. 1302), which passed the House last September.
http://obama.senate.gov /



Amendments, that have all passed:

S.Amdt.159 to S.Con.Res.18 - To prevent and, if necessary, respond to an international outbreak of the avian flu.

S.Amdt.390 to H.R.1268 - To provide meal and telephone benefits for members of the Armed Forces who are recuperating from injuries incurred on active duty in Operation Iraqi Freedom or Operation Enduring Freedom.

S.Amdt.670 to H.R.3 - To provide for Flexible Fuel Vehicle (FFV) refueling capability at new and existing refueling station facilities to promote energy security and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

S.Amdt.808 to H.R.6 - To establish a program to develop Fischer-Tropsch transportation fuels from Illinois basin coal.

S.Amdt.851 to H.R.6 - To require the Secretary to establish a Joint Flexible Fuel/Hybrid Vehicle Commercialization Initiative, and for other purposes.

S.Amdt.1362 to S.1042 - To require a report on the Department of Defense Composite Health Care System II.

S.Amdt.1453 to S.1402 - To ensure the protection of military and civilian personnel in the Department of Defense from an influenza pandemic, including an avian influenza pandemic.

S.Amdt.2301 to H.R.3010 - To increase funds to the Thurgood Marshall Legal Educational Opportunity Program and to the Office of Special Education Programs of the Department of Education for the purposes of expanding positive behavioral interventions and supports.

S.Amdt.2605 to S.2020 - Expressing the sense of the Senate that the Federal Emergency Management Agency should immediately address issues relating to no-bid contracting.

S.Amdt.2930 to S.2349 - To clarify that availability of legislation does not include nonbusiness days.
S.Amdt.3144 to S.Con.Res.83 - To provide a $40 million increase in FY 2007 for the Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program and to improve job services for hard-to-place veterans

S. Amdt 41 to S. 1 To require lobbyists to disclose the candidates, leadership PACs, or political parties for whom they collect or arrange contributions, and the aggregate amount of the contributions collected or arranged.

----------------------------------------------

Barack has Written a total of 890 Bills and Co-sponsored Another 1096 since he started serving in the U.S. Senate.

----------------------

I ALSO HAVE HIS 8 YEAR STATE SENATE RECORD IN ILLINOIS, LAND OF LINCOLN....if you want it.

[ThatBozGuy]

7. Bahbwam, Thank you Frenchie, win them one at a time

:headbang: :yourock:

[EFerrari]

3. Right here.

Happy now?

[Forkboy]

4. Well, he's united a lot of idiots against him.

That has to count for something.

[Guava Jelly]

12. good point

:D

[Danzo]

49. Toasting To A Personal Attack, Eh?

Oh well, if you had a cogent rebuttal, you would have stated it already. All you did was prove to me that you don't have a leg to stand against me in this thread.

[leftynyc]

26. Wow - I'm just loving that unity thing

Can't wait till it emcompasses the entire country.

[Forkboy]

32. But you're already united, as I pointed out.

I like Obama more than I did a couple weeks ago but I'm still not crazy about him. He was my next to last choice. So you should check your knee jerk assumptions at the door lest you prove my initial post even more correct. :hi:

[JoFerret]

58. Yep. These Obama supporters sure know

how to reach out and spread the love.

If we are contrite and if we are very lucky we may be given absolution.

[grantcart]

5. Sometimes you post a thread and it just has bad timing

[ossman]

6. The Obama-Lugar bill re: loose nukes

[jackson_dem]

44. There was already bipartisan unity long before he showed up on that

What changed was the White House stopped opposing it.

[Danzo]

52. EXACTLY!

Loose nukes is not really that controversial of an issue. It's pretty near a consensus that loose nukes are a BAD thing.

[kennetha]

8. His word

And we know that his word is, well, his word.

[damonm]

33. Read reply #2 in this thread , and learn,

before blasting your ignorance out before the world...

[crankychatter]

16. The evidence is authored and co-authored Legislation

You could look if you wanted to but it's a rhetorical question.

I won't do your research for you... not that the facts would effect your judgement.

[Danzo]

43. Yeah....

...one of the items that he co-sponsored was the renewal of the Patriot Act, if I'm not mistaken.

[jackson_dem]

45. So have 99 other senators and 435 House members. None claim the special ability Obama does

[crankychatter]

17. Democrat, Republican or Independent

If you're against needless war and war profiteering... we are united.

Then there's the Clinton and McCain people that BELIEVE in the status quo.

If I were you, I'd lay off the kool aid.

Don't you freepers have jobs?

[izzie]

18. He has got a lot of whites to vote for him.

--

[boppers]

19. McCain has come to his defense.

Both parties are uniting against a common enemy.

[Danzo]

47. Who Cares?

Go look up John McCain on MediaMatters and you can see how he's flip flopped all over the place.

[TomClash]

20. One example: Ethics Reform with Coburn

Obama and Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) passed a law to create a Google-like search engine to allow regular people to approximately track federal grants, contracts, earmarks, and loans online. The Chicago Sun-Times wrote, "It would enable the public to see where federal money goes and how it is spent. It's a brilliant idea."

[TomClash]

21. Another example - Veterans

As a member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs, Obama passed legislation to improve care and slash red tape for our wounded warriors recovering at places like Walter Reed. He passed laws to help homeless veterans and offered an innovative solution to prevent at-risk veterans from falling into homelessness. Obama led a bipartisan effort in the Senate to try to halt the military's unfair practice of discharging service members for having a service-connected psychological injury. He fought for fair treatment of Illinois veterans' claims and forced the VA to conduct an unprecedented outreach campaign to disabled veterans with lower than-average benefits. Obama passed legislation to stop a VA review of closed PTSD cases that could have led to a reduction in veterans' benefits. He passed an amendment to ensure that all service members returning from Iraq are properly screened for traumatic brain injuries. He introduced legislation to direct the VA and Pentagon to fix disjointed records systems and improve outreach to members of the National Guard and Reserves.

[TomClash]

22. A third example - Energy

Obama passed legislation with Senator Jim Talent (R-MO) to give gas stations a tax credit for installing E85 ethanol refueling pumps. The tax credit covers 30 percent of the costs of switching one or more traditional petroleum pumps to E85, which is an 85 percent ethanol/15 percent gasoline blend. Obama also sponsored an amendment that became law providing $40 million for commercialization of a combined flexible fuel vehicle/hybrid car within five years.

Obama introduced a bold new plan that brought Republicans and Democrats, CAFE supporters and long-time opponents together in support of legislation that will gradually increase fuel economy standards and offer what the New York Times editorial page called "real as opposed to hypothetical results."

[DrFunkenstein]

23. Beyond Congress, He Unites People of All Stripes to Return to Civic Responsibility

His tone of politeness, inclusiveness and hopefulness has united people to take part in democracy when they wouldn't have before. It is a message makes people of whatever persuasion believe that the federal government can be a positive force in their life, and that is essential to any hope in a progressive agenda.

[Perry Logan]

24. Just look at how his campaign has united the Democratic Party.

(Irony.)

[leftynyc]

27. I'm with you

How his supporters on this board can even use the word uniter is a joke. Thank goodness I've never let asshole supporters guide my support for a candidate.

[JoFerret]

61. Feels really good to be included

and welcomed even when when dares say something a little in disagreement. the Obama people really enjoy democratic debate.

(Spread the hope not the hate)

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

25. Just listen to The Speech.

[Hugabear]

28. I never heard ANYONE bashing him until Hillary supporters came along

Before the primaries, Obama was widely regarded as a 'fresh new face' for the Democratic party. Heck, he gave our keynote speech at the '04 convention. He has been regarded as one of our rising stars, widely admired for his oratory skill.

It wasn't until recently when Hillary supporters started viciously attacking him for having a "vision", for being overly optimistic when all they see is pessimism. His "newness" in Washington was seen as a good thing, not being "corrupted" by DC politics until Hillary came along and started trashing him for not being "experienced" enough.

[Danzo]

41. I Disliked Him Back When I Supported Edwards.

Obama abstained from 30% of the key votes listed on VoteSmart.org. How can this guy make decisions as president if he can't make them as a SENATOR?

[screembloodymurder]

29. 320 posts, 397...464...110?

Where are you people coming from?

[shayes51]

31. Some of us have jobs.

[Bonobo]

34. WTF would such evidence look like, dummy? Look at his campaign! nt

[whatchamacallit]

35. You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink

There is little hope of influencing people who are vehemently opposed to you. He can and does unite people who are OPEN to change, from all walks of life and across the political spectrum. His demos prove it.

[wrando]

37. he told us

just leave it at that

Bill from ct

[JoFerret]

38. I don't experience him or his campaign as uniting

.

[jackson_dem]

46. None. He hasn't been able to bring unity on a tough issue a single time

He is more or less as much a "uniter" as the other 534 folks in Congress. Don't believe the hype. The record doesn't match his rhetoric on this, like on many other things.

[Honeycombe8]

48. Clinton has "35 years of experience"! Where's the evidence that SHE is a uniter?

Where's the evidence that she is NOT responsible for the terrible mess we're in right now (or at least for part of it)?

Where's the evidence that she did all she could to prevent this horrible, unnecessary unilateral war?

Where's the evidence that she did all she could to keep the federal deficit down, so our retirement funds wouldn't be paying sky-high tax rates to pay it off?

You see the problem, when you start pointing? Clinton is WORSE in almost every category you can name.

Like a breath of fresh air, we need a little change.

[Hepburn]

50. Here is the major point on this...

...he is NOT Hillary Clinton. Nothing else needed.

[goodgd_yall]

53. From reading posts by his supporters here

I'd say he isn't.

[McCamy Taylor]

54. Probably the fact that Rove has chosen to attack him as divisive. Rove goes after

a candidate's strengths. So, if he is trying to paint Obama as divisive, that means that Obama's strength is that he is perceived of as a unifier---and perception is what counts in that regard.

[Rockholm]

55. He's doing a good job of dividing DU.

Let me restate that. His supporters are doing a good job of dividing DU.

[JeffR]

57. I'm confident you'll find it, but don't bother looking in this forum n/t

[LWolf]

59. Well DU is certainly less divided since the primaries started!

:silly:

All you have to do is read GDP to see that.

[jackson_dem]

60. Any evidence regarding a key rationale of his candidacy?