Dichterfeund, your points are well made, as usual, and I too want to see those same inequalities in education, health, wages, reduced as well as seeing the US foreign policy become based on international law and negotiation. Maybe Obama is the best hope there is for getting anywhere near those goals. I'm just very suspicious that once one walks through the treacherous doors of power they will become servants of the established order. And we all know what that Order is at this moment. Can Obama put a stop to the insanity? Or even put the brakes on it? Maybe he can. Maybe you are right that it's a galvanizing moment, that if enough people get on board he will be forced to uphold his original convictions and be the servant for the people, and not the MIC.

Foreign reporters seem to be amazed at the level of excitement, worldwide, for a potential Obama presidency. So what the hell, maybe it's a movement? If people like you, and starofthesea, and Joan Baez are supporting him then maybe I'll just sit here and think a spell, before I go an run off into them thar hills.

Hey, Joan..How about a song for Obama??

I have always loved her music and now I love your choice for president. Your first endorsement in such a great career is very significant.

Many times I have dreamed of the Mother of All Cause Concerts with Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, the two remaining Beatles, the children or widows of the two others, Lisa Marie Presley, Arlo Guthrie and his kids (legacy of Woody, of course) and assorted other remnants of the 60s, all of whom would call America to action. I'd like to see The Concert for Impeachment but it's not a very catchy name. The Concert to Take Back America works better.

Joan Baez's endorsement of Obama will have to do for now.

Concert to Impeach now theres a great idea.

This is Wonderful News !! I have always Loved her Music... This Has Made My Week.... Gran for Change in Wisconsin

A CONCERT TO IMPEACH !!

Beautiful notion. Venue suggestions? Let's move on this before the buggers leave office.

Yay! The Sweet Voice chooses Obama.
See this for a great song already - set to one of Obama's speeches by Will.I.am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjXyqcx-mYY
check it out!

I finally feel some hope.
So what if its a dreamer's hope.
That's all I've got left now...

Obama is simply the lesser of the 4 evils. He is completely unfit to run the country, yet more fit than the 3 other bozos he's up against.

I don't know about fitness. The office is so complex that the best president is the one who delegates best, surrounds him/herself with the best scholars/thinkers/hands-on people the country has to offer.

My reservations against Obama is that I don't know what he really stands for, and I have reason to believe it's the same old set of roadblocks, hoops, and derailings. Good verbiage, though. But I prefer getting hosed straight on the rocks, without a chaser to wash it down. If we're largely going to be getting a continuation of Bush politics (one-sided mideast policy, Iraq, no single-payer, no electoral reform, etc.) we may as well get it from the horse's mouth.

I have very serious reservations about Obama, but I love and respect Joan Baez. She is one of a kind.

Who Obama surrounds himself with as advisers is critical. And groups like Move on and others on the left must develop support for him with the American people.

You need numbers. There must be large numbers of people who support the changes..and I am talking about

millions of people must support change to get it.

If Obama advocated change like Kucinich did, he would have been picked off by the wealthy special interests. Kucinich may not even be elected again.

If by luck and skill Obama is elected president that will be a time for people on the left to become extremely active to support change. And by even suggesting this idea here ..it will intensify the groups that do not want change to oppose Obama.

Joan, you are a beautiful woman, but where have you been while Hillary has been working for woman and children.

The Clinton bashing turned me from ever, and I mean ever, voting for St. Obama. The Democratic party is so polarized now that all the Republican party will have to do is show up. . .

There's that left/right thing again. The aging hippies grew up in a world polarized in a very different way (US vs. Soviets). We're now in a global corporotized rich vs. poor, powerful vs. powerless world. It's time to leave left and right behind, as useless metaphorical terms serving nobody except those who need to keep populist expressions of democratic power divided.

A diamond among the rust!

Memories of when we were young and hope sprang eternal...

This endorsement is pathetic. Money really does change people. Hey, Joan, you need a reality check on your 'boy.' Constantly votes to fund the war. Talks about change, but doesn't EVER say what that change will be, and wouldn't hesitate for a moment to bomb Pakistan on 'reliable intel' about Osama. Is there really such a thing anymore as 'realiable intel?' PATHETIC.

Big Bad Bob: My IQ is 26, do I have your permission to vote for Obama?

Pathetic in the extreme! You'd think a counterculture icon from the 60's would know better than most that it's the system that's got to be changed. Until then the resident of the white house will necessarily be the pawn of the power elite and powerless to do anything contrary to their plans. And Obama is so thoroughly status quo that he cannot possibly be contemplating anything that would quickly terminate his young political career. And "...appeal to the rich to share their wealth"??? I am truly astonished she said that. I feel sorry for people who suffer such delusions.

Agree with the Lorax and we'll probably be forced again to choose between 2 evils as the DLC has already crowned Hillary ughhhh.

Joan Baez wants the corporations to bake her bread.

Obama has yet to say anything substantial that would make me think he was ready to be president.

Ted Kennedy is merely flattered by the attention the younger man is giving him, calling him a student. I would far rather have a teacher than a student.

What Ted calls "following him", I call sucking up.

Wow, Joan Baez, Oooohhhh, Aaaahhh, Mmmmmm. Well that does it for me! I guess I can just give up thinking for myself now. I mean c'mon, Joan Baez, how can anyone dispute Barack Husein Obama's authenticity now?

Think I'll go by an new T-Shirt:
http://www.zazzle.com/2008_politics/product/235226717573250828

When I saw Joan (sometime in the 80's) she made me cry when she sang "No Woman No Cry". Barack made me cry the minute he said Yes We Can. My tears came from a very deep real place in both cases. To the cynical I say, get over yourselves. People who come from the heart are rising. Finally. To the cynical: Your old road is rapidly fading. Please get out of the new one if you can't lend a hand, for the times they are a-changing! ;-)

Joan's a day late and a dollar short:"If anyone can navigate the contaminated waters of Washington, lift up the poor, and appeal to the rich to share their wealth, it is Barack Obama. If anyone can bring light to the darkened corners of this nation and restore our positive influence in world affairs, it is Barack Obama. If anyone can begin the process of healing and bring unity to a country that has been divided for too long, it is Barack Obama. It is time to begin a new journey."

She should have backed Edwards, who ran on public money, and was sunk by lack of coverage, but was the ture (and electable) change candidate. Now we're stuck choosing between two "corporatists"...or getting President McCain.

Maybe JB is coming out with a greatest hits CD and thinks that by backing Obama, she'll get some free PR?

Lets get back to "A Concert To Impeach"
Spread the word on every blog you go to maybe it'll get caught in the wind.
I'm sure there will be plenty of entertainers wlling to take up this charge, REM, John Fogerty, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young.....

magicmary -- give us one thing of substance about Mr. Obama -- directly attributeable to him, besides his adorable daughters. I think your tears came from a very real place that is desperate for change. Just don't be fooled here. He is owned and operated by BIG MONEY.

Where is the evidence that Obama is owned by big money?

What a bunch of whiners! LEARN that the perfect really is the enemy of the good. That's life. If you really cared you would have read "The Audacity of Hope" long ago. That would tell you what you need to know about Obama - and he's our very best hope (and a good one) right now.

Special to Big Bad Bob - please check out the correct use of commas.

So magicmary, are you saying that anyone who does not buy into the Obama feel good platitudes is self absorbed, and not truly interested in change? We who would put our efforts into, other, more genuine alternatives are on a fading road?

You've drunk the cool aid, so everyone who tells you that pleasant, twirly feeling is really just the mild hallucinogenic is spoiling your high?

Well, we shall see, we shall see. I hope no one laced that cool aid with strychnine, you could end up with a real bad trip.

And grandma, did you ever stop to think that others might have read Mr. Obama's book and been less than impressed? Leave Big Bad Bob's punctuation alone who asked you to check his work? This is a real time forum. Bad punctuation, grammar and splelling happen, live with it.

Dang holier than thou true believers!

magicmary -- take a look at OpenSecrets.org. Lots and lots of BIG MONEY there.

Hey "realists," please tell us "purists": What makes you think Barack will bring any of the changes we progressives want. Give me exact quotes on exact proposals. there is a weird lack of information coming from you people.

I'll start with this:

March, 12, 2007: "[W]e must preserve our total commitment to our unique defense relationship with Israel by fully funding military assistance and continuing work on the Arrow and related missile defense programs," he said. "This would help Israel maintain its military edge and deter and repel attacks from as far as Tehran and as close as Gaza."

Back to you.

Political understanding requires more than analysis; it also requires the ability to recognize a crystallizing moment.

Aspirations & frustrations are both crystallizing around Obama in a way that they rarely do; this doesn't make the candidate a miracle worker, or some transcendent figure; it is abundantly clear that Obama does not regard America's military power or its penthouse prosperity the chief assets of the citizenry.

Not only has Joan Baez endorsed him, but the extremely private Robert de Niro has as well. Both performers have stood apart from the culture of celebrity for an authenticity which also is accountable.

These endorsements are not the standard coin of campaigns, the normal line-up of celebrities.

Obama is not the solution; but he is a catalyst, and we see it by responses across the generations. For Hillary, the campaign is a means to an end; for Obama, the campaign is a means to a beginning which will extend well beyond his personal candidacy.

With all due respect, my dear Chunga, you have not posted anything of substance to support your no vote on Obama. Vitriol and cynicism are not an argument. Please post a point by point rebuttal with footnotes that supports your vehmenence against Obama. A link to a teashirt company is not a footnote.

I grew up on Joan Baez's music. I love her dearly. Her desire to change this world for the better is genuine. But I believe she has made a terrible mistake with this endorsement. Obama is not the savior we've been waiting for.

Maybe there is no savior but all of us "little people" coming together in one powerful grassroots coalition and getting our country back.

I agree with one thing the Obama's are saying: CHANGE COMES FROM THE BOTTOM UP:

Check out Michelle Obama:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZiNtTq10i0
30 minutes into this LA rally... Again, it's about expectations and the action--you won't hear this kind of talk from the other MSM candidates. I have been puzzling over this tension.

No one believes Obama is a 'savior' and least of all the candidate. Does anyone even bother to listen to speeches? You don't have to believe it, but I recommend listening to know what is actually being said...

Hank Fur,

"What makes you think Barack will bring any of the changes we progressives want. Give me exact quotes on exact proposals. there is a weird lack of information coming from you people."

Obama made a strong statement in support of Palestinian rights before he made that statement. The previous seldom-since reported statement was rare in its description of Palestinians as victims rather than as predators just waiting for Israel to relax vigilance.

We forget just how hostile the media & political environment were in 2002 to anyone who remotely questioned the lies of Bush; anyone who argued online at the time that those WERE lies was treated with contempt and condescension, and outright savagery. Obama took the stand against the war when it could gain him nothing & when it took a good deal of courage to do so.

Do the subsequent votes mean he changed in the Senate, or only that he was acknowledging his status as a freshmamn senator?

It's a sure bet that Hillary will maintain the status quo, just with different people in charge. Obama is not a sure bet either way -- he might be a disappointment, but he might break the bank at Monte Carlo.

Hank fur, I think he is our best bet. I too have reservations about his seeming support of Israel. However, after reading his books I feel he knows what he has to do to get elected, he is nothing if not a realist. I do think he will do what is right once elected. CFNI which says that don't make endorsements did a sort of endorsement of Obama, that's the group that puts the ads in the paper exposing AIPAC. There is absolutely no way, no way in hell a canidate can criticize Israel and even be in the running. I'm just worried that anyone who becomes Pres and cricizes Israel will be taken out by Mossad, they are rabid insane animals.

Magicmary - Browse the forum on all the anti-clinton, pro-Obama articles here on CD over the past week. You will find a wealth of disturbing information about the realities of Mr. Obama's record and his financial backers.

Just as you base your acceptance of him, and are willing to place your hope in him, based on the fact that, as you said, "Barack made me cry the minute he said Yes We Can. My tears came from a very deep real place in both cases." I base my opinion in part on the urge I get to check my wallet and my watch every time I hear him speak. He strikes me as a huckster and an opportunist, you know like trying to claim the legacy of Paul Welstone. At least Hillary Clinton owns up to the fact that she is a centrist. Barack Obama runs as a centrist one day and pretends he is a progressive the next.

Mostly though, based on my own day to day experience with every day people, I believe him to be unelectable. I jsut do not see a man of Muslim Heritage, named Barack Husein Obama, being elected president of the USA in the midst of our great crusade, ooops, I did it again, I mean war on Terror.

And before you go telling me how he is not a Muslim, bla ,bla, I did not say he is a Musilm, I said he has a Muslim heritage.

Meg - Looks like more info than I can absorb on Open Secrets. Thanks for the link. If you look at Obama's voting record at his senate website - obama.senate.gov - you'll see he put some time in on limiting what lobbyists were allowed to do legally.

With all due respect, magicmary, appeal to emotions is not an argument either.
A professional artist's endorsement that makes you cry carries no weight with thinking people.
Cynicism has nothing to do with it. We just want to see his cards on the table and he refuses to show them.
He is status quo all the way, baby. Gads, and with Zbigniew Brzezinski advising him on foreign policy you can rest assured of continued interventionist policy abroad.

"And before you go telling me how he is not a Muslim, bla ,bla, I did not say he is a Musilm, I said he has a Muslim heritage."

Spaniards of Obama's age could, by the same token, be said to have a fascist heritage; Spain has a much more recent right-wing extreme history, but after Aznar got too close to Bush, they kicked him out.

Anyone who would vote against Obama for having "a Muslim heritage" would vote against him for even more idiotic reasons. If that's enough to make him unviable as a candidate, then America isn't worth the trouble of voting anyway. I often feel that it isn't, that the country is ruined beyond repair; but if it isn't, it's going to require people who defy the odds and swim against the tide of despair who do the work.

Obama could well have succumbed to despair, and has refused to do so, and he's been serving at the center of the miasma. That puts him one up on me.

So Chunga, you're voting for Clinton then. Ok. Whatever. And that would be WELLSTONE, btw. Names. They mean so much to you, maybe spelling should count for you as well. Vote for the candidate whose name seems the safest to you, the sort of name other people will vote for. Now that's sound reasoning. Very pragmatic. Your a real thinker, I can tell. You know who the opportunists are and you prefer an honest opportunist like Clinton--now that's solid. Go with that. Freedom of choice. Frank Zappa. Whatever. Don't eat the yellow snow.

wow. where's the love? i have chosen Obama for my own reasons, but i would never put down someone who choses differently. i'm (barely) too young to appreciate Joan Baez's place in activist history, but appreciate that she is merely making a choice. vote for whomever you like and give everyone else the space to do the same. ironically, it's this sort of respect for the views of others that draws me to Barack.

dcbeltway February 4th, 2008 4:23 pm

"Agree with the Lorax and we'll probably be forced again to choose between 2 evils as the DLC has already crowned Hillary ughhhh."

Could the DLC be construed as the "Democrat's Lowest Committee?

Was there ever a time in your life when you didn't have to choose between 2 evils or not choose at all?

Check out the Zunes article comparing Clinton to Obama on Foreign Policy. Zunes is no slouch. He's done his homework. There is a difference and it is worth noting. No one here is naive.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/02/04/6836/

I enjoy Joan Baez' music and care as much about her political opinions as I care for Kucinich's singing, or Gravel's dancing, or McKinney's piano playing, or... well, you get the idea.

People should keep in mind that there have been some supporters for Hillary who have been involved in dirty politics. One of Hillary's volunteers resigned because he was caught sending around the email saying Obama was a Muslim.

Some of the people posting here may have no interest in being truthful...and are only interested in stoping Obama...for whatever reason.

Take it all with a grain of salt...

Sometimes people are paid to post on the internet.

Typical of this kind of poster is to call another poster an aging hippy or lacking intelligence. They smear others.

Well I guess you told me Stiv old boy! Pardon the heck right out of me for dropping that L. The late Paul Wellstone certainly deserves better, even if the spell checker doesn't like it.

Just to be completely above board, I do not support Hillary Clinton. I did support Dennis Kucinich, and I might possibly have voted for Edwards, but was not totally convinced. I am a registered Green, and I will vote Green, because I believe in the Green party platform, unless of course someone whom I find unacceptable gets the Green nomination, Cynthia McKinney looks like a good bet though, not my first choice, but I'll take it and I will happily support and vote for her, with no illusions.

As for names, they mean little to me, neither does religion. That was not my point. My point is that, in my personal experience, seeing how easily manipulated the American electorate has been in the past, I do not believe Mr. Obama can win the General election, this country is not nearly as progressive as some on this board like to make out. If your issue is that you really really want a Democrat in the White House in 2008, no matter what, I think you should give that a good hard look.

It bothers me that the same people who will slam Hillary Clinton, and slander her with all sorts of unsavory sexist invectives, declaring her unelectable because her last name is Clinton, will turn right around and ignore the reality of what the Republican reactionaries, that are your opposition, will do with Barack Husein Obama and his Muslim heritage. I don't like it, but I see it as reality, and believe that it at least deserves consideration when making an informed choice. The Kennedy endorsement and the label of most liberal Senator in 2007 are not going to help him much in the General election either.

Finally I have yet to see anything from Mr. Obama to make me believe he is authentic, or truly progressive, or even potentially progressive. But I will watch the video you posted the link to, and I will continue to read, both sides of the discussion about him. In the end I expect to vote Green, cause I believe the two party system is a big part of the problem.

So go ahead and support Mr. Obama, perhaps he will get the nomination, and even the presidency, Deibold willing. And perhaps I will be pleasantly surprised, both by his election and by his actions once elected. He certainly will have quite a lot to live up to if he gets into office. But do not deny me my right to raise what I consider to be a valid and even important factor in this election.