#2008 election

[randyite]

[deadpresidents]

Just after the 2008 election, outgoing President George W. Bush invited all of the living former Presidents to the White House for a private lunch with President-elect Obama. A memorable Oval Office photograph shows the Bushes, Bill Clinton, and Obama chatting like old friends on the left, with Carter standing alone on the right. One of the Presidents confided later that the photo perfectly captured the chemistry of their meeting and lunch that day. The other Presidents gave Obama convivial advice on the peculiarities of the office, while Carter wanted to press his serious policy agenda. Carter later told Brian Williams of NBC News that the body language was deliberate because "I feel that my role as a former President is probably superior to that of other Presidents."

-- Jonathan Alter, writing about a lunch at the White House on January 7, 2009 with all living American Presidents and President-elect Barack Obama which highlighted the often-strained relationships that former President Jimmy Carter had with his successors, His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, A Life (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO).

[erebusvincent]

Palin’s teenage daughter being pregnant was what made me vote for Obama.

[reallifeeloise]

Flashback: McCain tells supporter Obama is 'a decent...

This is how an adult reacts to lies and racism against their opponent.

[closingremarks]

Hello! This past year, Neo-Nazis have been making greater strides to make themselves known and spread their propaganda in Nashville; one of the only progressive cities in ultra-conservative Tennessee. I wrote about not only this problem, but also how it connects to a broader pattern called “White Rage” that has prevented social progress throughout U.S History. If you’re interested I would love it if you read and subscribed to my Substack 😅

[galapagosvagrant]

"BACK TF OFF!" MITCH MCCONNELL SNARLS, HISSES, BITES SENATE DEMOCRATS

[lightdancer1]

One would of course be willfully blind to neglect the great change that was the 2008 election:

After two terms of Shrub the American public were willing to accept a Black man not only winning the nomination of a major party, but in the end prevailing over Senator John McCain in one of the most key elections in recent history. However much did not change, the election of Barack Obama as President (and he was the first President I voted for in my first election) was a point where the political ceiling cracked in a way that cannot be undone.

[skinnyscottishbloke]

Trump literally said this tonight. At this point I don’t give a flying fuck how you feel about VP Harris, we all need to get up off our asses and vote to stave off fascism cause it’s fucking here. HE DOESN’T WANT US TO VOTE ANYMORE. EVER.

PS this doesn’t mean we can’t have fun organizing and canvassing for her, I just want us to stay laser focused and determined and know what we’re up against. One of the Kamala Harris for the People campaign slogans in 2019 was #joyfulwarrior and I just feel like that sums up her and us so well. So let’s fucking go WIN this thing and send orange shitler into hiding once and for all.

[mapsontheweb]

Swing from 2008 to 2020 presidential elections, by Congressional district

[deadpresidents]

What other campaign souvenirs do you have with that badge you shared?

It's actually not a ton of stuff. I wish I'd been better over the years about collecting campaign memorabilia because I'm always jealous whenever I see someone who has a cool collection of things.

I have a ton of buttons and stickers from the Obama campaigns, as well as an Obama '08 yard sign that's signed by Obama. I have a stack of Clinton/Gore bumper stickers that I somehow held on to after all these years.

In 2000, I was young and idealistic and caught up in the excitement of the first Presidential campaign I was of legal voting age for, so I jumped on the Bill Bradley bandwagon very early on in the Democratic primaries. Most of you probably have no idea who Bill Bradley even was, but he was the 2000 version of Bernie Sanders once the legendary Paul Wellstone decided against running for President. Deep down, we all knew that Vice President Gore was going to be the nominee, but there was some excitement for Bradley early on even though he didn't win anything and was basically finished by Super Tuesday. I have some Bradley buttons and stickers, and I have an invitation to a Bill Bradley fundraiser that was going to be held at the home of Geoff Petrie in Granite Bay, a wealthy suburb of Sacramento. At the time, Petrie was the General Manager of the Sacramento Kings and he was a close friend of Bradley, so that was exciting for a 20-year-old basketball fanatic. (Oh...for those who really don't know anything about Bill Bradley, I should also note that not only was he a U.S. Senator from New Jersey, but before that he was star basketball player who won two NBA titles with the New York Knicks and is in the pro and college Basketball Hall of Fame.)

Other than that, I have some posters and a ton of buttons from various campaigns. When I lived in Austin and was regularly going to the @lbjlibrary I would often buy handfuls of the assorted campaign buttons that they sold in their gift shop. I don't know if they still sell them, but it was a huge collection from dozens of different Presidential campaigns from various decades. I think the oldest button I ended up with was for Al Smith's 1928 Democratic Presidential campaign. I'm especially fond of my Wendell Willkie button because it's always fun to mention Wendell Willkie. I got a bunch of Nixon and McGovern buttons and even got a Romney button, but it's not for Mitt -- it's for the unsuccessful campaign for the 1968 GOP nomination by his father, former Michigan Governor George Romney. I have a McGovern/Eagleton button from 1972, which is interesting because Thomas Eagleton was nominated as McGovern's Vice Presidential running mate at the 1972 Democratic Nation Convention and then dropped from the ticket for Sargent Shriver just nineteen days later. And of course, I got a TON of LBJ and LBJ-related buttons -- from the 1964 campaign which sometimes featured LBJ and sometimes featured Hubert Humphrey and sometimes featured both LBJ and HHH, and from the 1960 Kennedy/Johnson campaign.

Here are a few of them (the "We Shall Overcome" button is my favorite:)

The coolest bit of political memorabilia that I have are a set of staff passes from the House Judiciary Committee's impeachment proceedings for President Clinton's impeachment in 1998, including one from the day that the special prosecutor, Kenneth Starr, testified. Former Republican Congressman James E. Rogan, who was one of the thirteen Republicans House Managers who actually acted as prosecutors during the Senate trial following the President's Clinton's impeachment, wrote a really great book called Catching Our Flag: Behind the Scenes of a Presidential Impeachment (BOOK | KINDLE) that I reviewed way back in 2011. In the book, Congressman Rogan (he's a Judge in California now) mentioned that he was a collector of political memorabilia and that he was very cognizant of the fact that he was playing a part in a major historical event -- which I mentioned in the review -- and I also noted that I respected how fair his book was despite the fact that he was a major political player in the impeachment and that he was so clearly from the opposite side of the political tracks than I am. His fairness actually resulted in President Clinton offering to help when Rogan was struggling to win re-election to Congress after the impeachment (which Rogan was grateful for, but turned down because it would hurt him more with his GOP supporters than any Democrats on the fence). ANYWAY...after I posted my review, Congressman Rogan contacted me and thanked me for the review and SENT ME SOME OF THE PASSES THAT HE HAD SAVED FROM THE IMPEACHMENT:

Here's the review of Congressman Rogan's book from 2011 (go buy it). Here's a post where I wrote a little more detail about getting the passes sent to me (and about the whole idea of tickets to impeachment proceedings in general). Also, as I noted in that post, if you are a stalker or a hater, don't go to the address on the letter that Congressman Rogan sent me in that photo because I haven't lived in Texas since 2011. (Also, if you're a stalker who looks like Shakira or Tessa Thompson, just send me a message and I'll give you my address.)

[mostlikelyshutup]

the relief i have from joe biden stepping down and kamala (most likely) taking the ticket is the same relief i felt in november 2020 after a week of counting votes, like theres hope now

[spitblaze]

I'm not a psychologist or a politician or anything approaching an expert about literally anything except a few specific video games but I feel like so many people wouldn't be agonizing over the moral implications of one (1) vote if we as the less-than-uppest-of-upper-crust had the ability to meaningfully affect change in ways other than 'spend money/do not spend money, vote for the red or blue tie'

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Greg Owen at LGBTQ Nation:

In 2008 California voters outlawed same-sex marriage by passing Proposition 8, an infamous ballot measure largely funded by the Mormon Church. But voters just learned what ballot initiatives they’ll be voting on this November, and among them is Proposition 3, a law that would enshrine the right to same-sex marriage in the state Constitution, effectively undoing Prop 8. The measure will ask voters to approve a “fundamental right to marry” and remove language that defines marriage as solely between a man and a woman. It’s a redo for voters in the Golden State of a notorious decision they made in 2008. The history of marriage equality in California is a veritable roller coaster ride, starting in 2004 when then-mayor of San Francisco Gavin Newsom directed city officials to start issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Newsom said the California Constitution’s equal protection clause gave him the authority to do so.

Both Newsom and the San Francisco District Attorney at the time, Kamala Harris, were among those who officiated approximately 4,000 same-sex marriages in the city from February 12 to March 11, before the State Supreme Court overturned Newsom’s directive. [...] Prop 3, authored by State Assemblymember Evan Low (D) of Silicon Valley and State Sen. Scott Weiner (D-SF), will take out the trash. Low, who’s running for a seat in Congress this fall, told LGBTQ Nation in an interview earlier this year that repealing the act is a moral obligation as well as a practical concern, following the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision repealing the federal right to abortion. Justice Clarence Thomas has made clear other personal rights are in the conservative court’s crosshairs, making it all the more important to legally protect same-sex marriage rights.

California’s homophobic Prop 8 ballot measure could be repealed with a pro-LGBTQ+ ballot measure called Prop 3 this fall.

[derseprinceoftbd]

We're all going to die because the slightly less fascist but more antisemitic and xenophobic economically illiterate old fuck can't fucking make a fucking coherent argument to save all of our lives

Are you hearing this shit.

It should have been Hillary. It should have been Hillary. It should have been Hillary.

It should always have been Hillary.

[tomorrowusa]

Michigan is not exactly a bellwether in the strictest sense of the word. However it is still one of the best places to observe trends in American politics.

I clicked the video above expecting to watch just the first few seconds but ended up watching the entire 18 minutes.

It focuses on Michigan because the double peninsula state offers a useful reflection of various directions in politics nationwide. And the vid is nicely done.

One thing we should particularly note about Michigan is that after Democrats won a trifecta there in 2022, they quickly set about making the state more progressive. They repealed anti-union and anti-abortion laws, strengthened LGBTQ+ protections, and abolished the state's peculiar retirement tax. And even before the trifecta, the party helped pass an anti-gerrymandering amendment which later turned out to be key.

Something to learn from Michigan: Pay a lot more attention to your own state government. The first step is to find out who your legislators are.

Find Your Legislators Look your legislators up by address or use your current location.

If you have the misfortune to be represented by MAGA Republicans, contact your state or county Democratic Party and ask what you can do to help send those varmints packing.

[thechildisgone]

this website never fails to make me feel old but i was here firstt