POOR BILL RICHARDSON. Even after Obama left the stage here at the SEIU forum, the crowd continued chanting his name: “Oh-ba-ma! Oh-ba-ma!” Andy Stern had to get up and remind, “We have other candidates here. A lot of friends!” In the ladies’ room, a middle-aged white woman, hands clasped, exclaimed, “He is just so inspiring! […]
Dana Goldstein
Dana Goldstein, a former associate editor and writer at the Prospect, comes from a family of public-school educators. She received the Spencer Fellowship in Education Journalism, a Schwarz Fellowship at the New America Foundation, and a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellowship at the Nation Institute. Her journalism is regularly featured in Slate, The Atlantic, The Nation, The Daily Beast, and other publications, and she is a staff writer at the Marshall Project.
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TOP-FORM OBAMA.
TOP-FORM OBAMA. Barack Obama is a natural in front of this crowd. He’s shouting, they’re standing, the room is roaring. He says he’s walked on picket lines since his days as a community organizer after college, and that as president, if he hears workers rights are being compromised, “I’ll have to find a comfortable pair […]
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A BIGGER DIG AT THE CLINTONS FROM OBAMA.
A BIGGER DIG AT THE CLINTONS FROM OBAMA. “It’s time we had a Democratic nominee after the primary who doesn’t choke saying the word ‘union.’ It’s time we had a Democratic president who says the word ‘union’ once in a while. Come on, it won’t kill you.” —Dana Goldstein
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PROMISES FROM OBAMA:
PROMISES FROM OBAMA: “If the Democratic party means anything, it means standing with labor.” He’s sounding like a preacher today and can’t speak for more than one minute without being interrupted by cheers. Quotable lines abound. “I have news for [the Bush administration]: It’s not the Department of Management, it’s the Department of Labor.” “I’m […]
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BETTER LATE THAN NEVER.
BETTER LATE THAN NEVER. Former Rhode Island Senator Lincoln Chafee has left the GOP after voters decided their affection for this local son couldn’t overcome their distaste for the Iraq war and the national Republican Party. I’d like to think Chafee was influenced by my famously liberal alma mater, Brown University, where he’s currently teaching. […]
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OBAMA AT SEIU.
OBAMA AT SEIU. Homecare worker Pauline Beck is introducing Barack Obama, who “walked in her shoes” in California on Aug. 8. The Senator made breakfast and did the laundry for her charge, 86-year old John Thornton, Beck said. Now we’re watching a video of Obama’s day with Beck. He met her at home before dawn […]
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SEIU’S ANNA BURGER:
SEIU’S ANNA BURGER: “We will elect the next president of the United States.” Burger just said only “one Republican” has offered to participate in the SEIU’s “Walk a Day in My Shoes” program, in which politicians work a day with a SEIU member nurse, custodian, home health care worker, or teacher. That Republican is Mike […]
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WHAT DOES THE LABOR MOVEMENT SOUND LIKE?
WHAT DOES THE LABOR MOVEMENT SOUND LIKE? First disco, now Justin Timberlake! I’m here at the SEIU presidential forum in D.C., and the crowd is very psyched up. In a few minutes we’ll be hearing from Change to Win coalition head Anna Burger, the first woman to lead a major American union. Then Barack Obama […]
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FRENCH BELLICOSITY AND, AN IRAN UPDATE.
FRENCH BELLICOSITY AND, AN IRAN UPDATE. When French president Nicolas Sarkozy said several weeks ago that air strikes could be the outcome if Iran does not halt its nuclear program, Mahmoud Admadinejad, president of the Islamic Republic, simply called the statement “worthless” and painted Sarkozy as naive in the ways of international diplomacy. Yesterday, French […]
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MAN ABOUT TOWN.
MAN ABOUT TOWN. On the heels of predicting a second Holocaust, Newt Gingrich called a press breakfast to, among other self-promotions, predict GOP failure in 2008, Dan Balz reports at the Post. “None of the Republicans have figured out how to get a routine, repetitive explanation of the future that breaks out of the current […]
