Barack Obama

Yesterday, when I was watching the CNN/YouTube Democratic debate I noticed that there was a significant number of Californian's questions that were selected to be asked of the candidates. Out of the 38 questions that were asked, eight came from Californians. No other state even came close to matching that total. Minnesota, Michigan, South Carolina and Pennsylvania had two each. The rest were single digits and two came from unknown locations.

Everyone in the country was eligible to submit a question. A state by state breakdown of the origin of all of the 2,000+ questioners is impossible to find, since we only know user names. However, during the debate they listed the hometown of almost all. So we can't know if this was a representative sample of the questions asked. Regardless, it is great to see so many Californians get a chance to ask the candidates questions during the debate. Wouldn't it be ironic if there were more CA questions asked during this debate than the one in LA?

Below the fold are the Californian questions and the name and hometown of the questioner.

MoveOn held their climate change townhall this weekend and numbers are starting to come out from both the straw poll and the attendees. It was the largest MoveOn event since 2004, with over 100,000 people at 1,300 house parties. There is immense interest from activist Democrats in what the presidential contenders have to say on climate change.

Obama got a lot of kudos for his bold moves on the environment over the weekend, and broke some new ground during the townhall, announcing a proposal for carbon auctions to fund alternative energy research.

Some activists pronounced themselves delighted with Obama’s words aired over the weekend.

The president of Clean Air Watch, Frank O’Donnell, said Obama’s support of carbon auctions “shows a terrifically enlightened attitude.” O’Donnell noted that a recent Congressional Budget Office study found that buying and selling emissions allowances would produce long-term economic benefits.

Interestingly, that did not translate into votes in the straw poll, where Edwards had the clear lead in both the overall vote and among those who attended the house parties. MoveOn allowed all of their members to participate in the straw poll, even though many of them may not have seen all of the candidate's remarks. Obama came in forth in both. Environmentalists' concerns with Obama's position on coal-to-liquid fuel may have effected the results. He has been moving away from that position, much in the way that Clinton has done on free trade. However, the shifting may not have solidified support for him in this particular crowd.

The results of the straw poll will go for more than just a few blog posts (even if they are on the NYT site). MoveOn will run print ads in newspapers in Iowa and New Hampshire next week, announcing the results. They used an email announcing the results to fundraise for the ads.

“The enormous response we got from our members on this issue emphasizes how important it will be for our next president to make solving the climate crisis a top priority in 2008,” said Eli Pariser, Executive Director of MoveOn.org Political Action.

“MoveOn members want leaders who will take on the oil and coal industry and create a clean energy economy. That’s probably why Sen. Edwards’ support of cap and auction systems – which force polluters to pay citizens—and his call for more green collar jobs received such strong backing,” added Ilyse Hogue, Campaign Director of MoveOn.org Political Action.

MoveOn will host a third and final townhall in the fall on affordable health care. The first was on Iraq.

Over the weekend, MoveOn hosted one of a series of virtual townhalls, where the presidential candidates answer questions of concern to MoveOn members. This one was on the climate and timed to coincide with Live Earth.

All of the Democratic contenders participated and were asked three questions:

1. How does your plan on climate crisis differ from other candidates?
2. Do you support the use of an subsidies for liquid coal?
3. How will Americans, not just corporations, benefit from new energy economy?

The responses were video taped and put up on YouTube. Nobody really made any real news in their comments, but it is an easy way to compare the candidates in a non-traditional format. The candidates often use the initial questions to address their broader environmental and energy policies.

Here is the highlights video.

Perhaps the most interesting tidbit was that while Senators Edwards and Obama stated their support for a carbon emissions market (cap-and-trade variation), Clinton said that it would be one of several things she would consider.

[UPDATE] 5:30 pm Check out this quick and snarky overview of the top five Democrat's plans on the environment by Grist. It is well worth a read.

And he did it in front of a tough crowd, the National Education Association, which opposes the concept.

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama today endorsed the idea of merit pay for teachers before an audience hostile to the idea, the giant National Education Association, but he softened the blow by telling the union's national assembly that he would not use "arbitrary tests" to link pay to performance.

"I think there should be ways for us to work with the NEA, with teachers' unions, to figure out a way to measure success," Obama told a crowd of about 9,000 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. "I want to work with teachers. I'm not going to do it too you, I'm going to do it with you."

It was a measure of Democrat Obama's rock-star appeal that he did not draw any hisses with the pronouncement, and even got scattered applause. Obama's endorsement of merit pay for teachers was the first note deviating from the promise-anything tenor of visits by several presidential candidates to the union this week.

Obama also took the opportunity to call for "across the board" pay increases for teachers and added incentives for those who are willing to work in low-performing schools. He re-affiirmed his opposition to No Child Left Behind, saying he would not support it's reauthorization, an issue of major concern to the NEA.

Barack's Choices page on Education has been updated in light of this new information.

The campaigns are in fundraising mode and the legislature is bogged down in budget negotiations, so it's time for random video afternoon.

How about a flashback to a time when candidates were having large rallies in California. Here is an official campaign video on Obama's huge 12,000 person rally in Oakland back in March.

Obama released his first two ads of the cycle in Iowa today. It was a relatively modest buy, but he is getting a lot of earned media out of it. They are by and large bio pieces and pretty traditional political ads.

The first ad is called "Carry" and emphasizes his ability to work in a bi-partisan manner and highlights his work in the IL legislature on health care among other issues.

The second ad is titled "Choices" and focuses on his work as a community organizer.

Interesting move not to put them in YouTube, but brightcove configured this way let me grab the code. No real big difference from a user perspective.

The new LAT political blog is off to an uneven start. I have appreciated the heads up on coming polls and articles. But this is a silly hit on Obama. First they knock him for showing up to greenhouse gas press conference in an SUV.

Barack Obama showed up for a sparsely-attended news conference in Brentwood Tuesday to outline his plans to reduce greenhouse gases. The scene was a gas station that sells fuel made from vegetable oils. Good so far.

Trouble was he drove up in one of those big hulking SUVs that political campaigns (and the Secret Service) are so fond of driving. "When I'm president," Obama said, "any vehicle purchased by the federal government" will have a flexible fuel system that can run on ethanol. "Government should lead the way," he said.

Uuum, the Secret Service is kinda in charge of Obama's transportation. It is up to them to determine what is safe for him to travel in or not. I doubt that there is an armored Prius laying around in every town for him to rent. Would Malcom rather that Obama switch to a hybrid just around the corner from the event as other politicians have done?

Malcom then links to his collegue's article on Obama and coal-to-liquid fuels, as a sign of a shifting position. Trouble is that Obama has always said that his support for the program would rests on finding a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the production of coal-to-liquid fuels. The news is that he put a number on it, saying that he would only back the program if they "emit at least 20% less life-cycle carbon than conventional fuels." His support for the program, was often reported without the caveat and he move to cut off the confusion. It was a good move and worthy of clarification.

Slow news day, given the Republican debate yesterday, so here are a few interesting links, that aren't exactly our usual topics here, but related.

• Go dig around Open Secret's new presidential money site. I especially liked the industry donations breakdown and the California donations chart. You can look at the top zip codes and metro areas.
• Univision has announced two presidential debates, one for each party. Bill Richardson was the first one to indicate his attendance. They will be held in September and it will be interesting to see who decides to participate, especially on the Republican side.
• The SacBee looks at Hillary's attempts, but not fully successful efforts to woo Sacramento.

I don't believe I have put up Obama's full address to the CDP Convention. Here you go.

Oh a couple more videos, just for fun. For a bit of a laugh go watch Joe Trippi have issues baking a pecan pie. And check out Dodd on a plane. (h/t to CMR) Pie is better than plane, I have to say.

Democracy for America has released another in their series of video responses from the Democratic presidential contenders. This time it is Barack Obama. He specifically references the Californian policy on carbon fuel standards.

During last night's debate the Democrats had an in-depth back and forth discussion on health care reform. You can watch the video below, but I would like to focus on two specific sub-topics, universality and how we pay for the needed reforms.

John Edwards directly addressed the lack of an individual mandate in Barack Obama's plan and Obama responded.

On this issue of mandatory and non-mandatory. People are not going around trying to avoid buying health care coverage. And in fact if you look at auto insurance, in California there is mandatory auto insurance. 25% of the folks don't have it. The reason is because they can't afford it.

So, John and I we are not that different in this sense that I am committed to starting the process. Everybody who want it can buy it and it is affordable. If we have some gaps that are remaining, we will work on that. You take it from the opposite direction, but you are still going to have some folks who are not insured under your plan John. Because some of them will not be able to some of them will simply not be able to be able to afford to buy the coverage that they are offered.

Obama is correct. No matter what we do, short of passing a single payer plan there will be people who will not be covered. There will be a percentage of the population that subject themselves to the punitive effects of Edward's proposal. It certainly should be much smaller than 25%, given that it is the less well off who often go without car insurance. That same population would have access to care in both Edwards and Obama's plans.

Last week I wrote about the cars currently taking residence in the presidential candidates garages and said:

Judging by this treatment, I expect a hybrid purchase in Obama's near future, even though he now has Secret Service driving him around.

It didn't take long. The Detroit News reports today that the Obama camp says the Chrysler 300C was sold a few weeks ago and the family now owns a Ford Escape hybrid.