Obama to campaign in Kentucky Monday and Tuesday

U.S. Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois is making good on his pledge to stump personally in Kentucky by holding a rally Monday night in Louisville. He also is planning on campaigning in the Bluegrass state on Tuesday, but no details have been released yet about where or when.

Obama will hold a public rally Monday at the Kentucky International Convention Center in Louisville -- the same venue where his primary rival, U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, spoke Friday night at a Kentucky Democratic Party fund-raiser.

Doors to the event will open at 5 p.m. and the program is slated to begin at 7 p.m., according to the Obama campaign's news release. While the event is free and open to the public, the campaign suggests RSVPs through Obama's Web site, www.barackobama.com. (The campaign also is asking no bags or signs be brought).

- Ryan Alessi

Comments

[Beyond Obama's Beauty]

Beyond Obama's Beauty
posted 5/09/08 @ 1:19 PM EST
Beyond Obama's Beauty
By KENNETH BLACKWELL | February 14, 2008
"[C]ivilizational war is real, even if political leaders and polite punditry must call it by another name."

-- Robert D. Kaplan in the December 2001 issue of the Atlantic Monthly

It's an amazing time to be alive in America. We're in a year of firsts in this presidential election: the first viable woman candidate; the first viable African-American candidate; and, a candidate who is the first frontrunning freedom fighter over 70. The next president of America will be a first.

RELATED: Cowardly Abuse of Freedom

We won't truly be in an election of firsts, however, until we judge every candidate by where they stand. We won't arrive where we should be until we no longer talk about skin color or gender.

Now that Barack Obama steps to the front of the Democratic field, we need to stop talking about his race, and start talking about his policies and his politics.

The reality is this: Though the Democrats will not have a nominee until August, unless Hillary Clinton drops out, Mr. Obama is now the frontrunner, and its time America takes a closer and deeper look at him.

Some pundits are calling him the next John F. Kennedy. He's not. He's the next George McGovern. And it's time people learned the facts.

Because the truth is that Mr. Obama is the single most liberal senator in the entire U.S. Senate. He is more liberal than Ted Kennedy, Bernie Sanders, or Mrs. Clinton.

Never in my life have I seen a presidential frontrunner whose rhetoric is so far removed from his record. Walter Mondale promised to raise our taxes, and he lost. George McGovern promised military weakness, and he lost. Michael Dukakis promised a liberal domestic agenda, and he lost.

Yet Mr. Obama is promising all those things, and he's not behind in the polls. Why? Because the press has dealt with him as if he were in a beauty pageant.

Mr. Obama talks about getting past party, getting past red and blue, to lead the United States of America. But let's look at the more defined strokes of who he is underneath this superficial "beauty."

Start with national security, since the president's most important duties are as commander-in-chief. Over the summer, Mr. Obama talked about invading Pakistan, a nation armed with nuclear weapons; meeting without preconditions with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who vows to destroy Israel and create another Holocaust; and Kim Jong Il, who is murdering and starving his people, but emphasized that the nuclear option was off the table against terrorists -- something no president has ever taken off the table since we created nuclear weapons in the 1940s. Even Democrats who have worked in national security condemned all of those remarks. Mr. Obama is a foreign-policy novice who would put our national security at risk.

Next, consider economic policy. For all its faults, our health care system is the strongest in the world. And free trade agreements, created by Bill Clinton as well as President Bush, have made more goods more affordable so that even people of modest means can live a life that no one imagined a generation ago. Yet Mr. Obama promises to raise taxes on "the rich."

How to fix Social Security? Raise taxes. How to fix Medicare? Raise taxes. Prescription drugs? Raise taxes. Free college? Raise taxes. Socialize medicine? Raise taxes. His solution to everything is to have government take it over. Big Brother on steroids, funded by your paycheck.

Finally, look at the social issues. Mr. Obama had the audacity to open a stadium rally by saying, "All praise and glory to God!" but says that Christian leaders speaking for life and marriage have "hijacked" -- hijacked -- Christianity. He is pro-partial birth abortion, and promises to appoint Supreme Court justices who will rule any restriction on it unconstitutional. He espouses the abortion views of Margaret Sanger, one of the early advocates of racial cleansing. His spiritual leaders endorse homosexual marriage, and he is moving in that direction. In Illinois, he refused to vote against a statewide ban -- ban -- on all handguns in the state. These are radical left, Hollywood, and San Francisco values, not Middle America values.

The real Mr. Obama is an easy target for the general election. Mrs. Clinton is a far tougher opponent. But Mr. Obama could win if people don't start looking behind his veneer and flowery speeches. His vision of "bringing America together" means saying that those who disagree with his agenda for America are hijackers or warmongers. Uniting the country means adopting his liberal agenda and abandoning any conflicting beliefs.

But right now everyone is talking about how eloquent of a speaker he is and -- yes -- they're talking about his race. Those should never be the factors on which we base our choice for president. Mr. Obama's radical agenda sets him far outside the American mainstream, to the left of Mrs. Clinton.

It's time to talk about the real Barack Obama. In an election of firsts, let's first make sure we elect the person who is qualified to be our president in a nuclear age during a global civilizational war.

Mr. Blackwell, a fellow at the American Civil Rights Union and the Family Research Council, is a columnist for The New York Sun, and a contributing editor for Townhall.com.

[Scooter]

My biggest issue with Mr Obama is that he talks of change, but doesnt elaborate on what or how he will do it. I would assume he has something in mind, but yet I have not heard him speak of exactly what it is he would change.

All I know is that I am a republican who was ready to vote for Hilary if she was to obtain the nomination. With the prospect of Mr Obama getting the nomination, the republican party has nothing to fear on my vote, Mr Mccain has it 100%.

[Kurt Lockwood]

Here is Mr. Obama's blueprint for change. It will answer a lot of your questions on how he plans to make America a better place.

http://www.barackobama.com/pdf/ObamaBlueprintForChange.pdf

[KY values]

Regarding Obama: His looks, his rhetoric, his promises, his race, his gender...none of that really matters. The things that matter are his EXPERIENCE, his RECORD, and his CHARACTER.

Experience: Illinois legislature and now a FRESHMAN U. S. senator. Little foreign policy experience and no military experience, and yet wants to be Commander in Chief.

Record: The most liberal U. S. senator. Typical I-know-what's-best-for-you yankee liberal lawyer.

Character: Exhibits many positive character traits. However, he sat still in a pew listening to the hate-America liberation theology of Rev. Wright for TWENTY YEARS!

We cannot choose our leaders on emotion. If you compare the resume' of Obama vs. McCain, this is no contest. McCain is not only much more aligned with the values of mainstream America, his experience is overwhelmingly superior. McCain will undoubtedly make the better President.

[WakeUp]

From a previous post:

"How to fix Social Security? Raise taxes. How to fix Medicare? Raise taxes. Prescription drugs? Raise taxes. Free college? Raise taxes. Socialize medicine? Raise taxes. His solution to everything is to have government take it over. Big Brother on steroids, funded by your paycheck."

Summary of Obama's blueprint: RAISE TAXES!

[Lindal_meyers@]

Obama's campaign wants you to THINK and HOPE!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGW38Zy4bJo

[Scooter]

Kurt, thanks for the post. I read the info that was there, but to be honest I didnt see anything new or sweeping on change. TO me it looked like the same old rhetoric, just in different form.

Sorry, still not impressed with Obama. He talks of change in that doctrine(or whatever you wish to call it) but fails to say exactly how he is gonna do it.

[Brenda]

I have a picture of jeremiah wright at the whitehouse with the clinton's, I also have a letter bill clinton wrote to rev wright thanking him for all the support and prayers during his scandal with monica lewinski. I can fax both to you if you would like the proof. Why is it ok for the Clinton's to associate with Rev Wright but Senator Obama is not. Senator Obama has made the statement that his went to the church for God not because of the pastor. How long are the Clinton's going to use this against him. Just because of your stupid poll results maybe I will send all the super delegates the same picture and letter. Let the dead horse die Kentucky!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Brenda]

And I hope when You all vote for McCain your lives are the living hell you now live in.

[dumb repulicans and Hillary supporters]

You republicans make me laugh so hard!

Experience you say? You want "experience" ... well, George W. Bush & Dick Cheney have EXPERIENCE and look where we are now ... we are in a recession, worst health care in the world, fewest uninsured, high unemployment, jobs moving to other countries due to NAFTA and free trade with China, Mexico & Columbia, and our children are dying in an oil war ie, Iraq. The Iraq war is one that McCain is happy for our men/women to die for oil.

Obama will put our troops in Afghanistan to destroy Bin Laden -- something McCain, Hillary & their oil companies do not want to happen.

You bet we should try and talk to our enemies .. duh! Isn't that what we learned in Kindergarden ... make peace with the bullies?

McCain & Hillary both have the vote from what they call the "uneducated population." Translation what they are really saying is, "only dumb a$$es vote for McCain & Hillary."

[Dumb a$$ Republican]

I am one of those "dumb Republicans", but I have got to comment that I have seen it all with the phrase "dumb republicans and Hillary supporters". Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined being lumped with Hillary supporters! Doesn't that suggest real trouble for Obama in the fall?

If only dumb a$$es vote for McCain & Hillary, there sure must be a lot of us dumb a$$es out here. Maybe Obama can find a country with fewer dumb a$$es to be president of.

[Yeah]

Yeah, 12:41, like Kenya, or Indonesia.