Obama has said that he will be the President of ALL Americans. As such, he will certainly disappoint. But that's all right. I didn't just award him my vote, I awarded him my trust. My hope is that he is wiser than I, more knowledgeable than I. And I trust him to make the decisions I hope that I would make, if I were wiser and more knowledgeable. I hope Obama's presidency will be as all presidencies should be: constitutional, ethical, transparent, broadly representative and reality-based. Even though each of us are "special interests," he doesn't have to pander to me, he doesn't have to be "black," he just has to represent me. I don't demand a bigger piece of the pie. I may not even GET a piece of the pie. All I ask is that I have a seat at the table.

Read Complete Article »

Obama has said that he will be the President of ALL Americans. As such, he will certainly disappoint. But that's all right. I didn't just award him my vote, I awarded him my trust. My hope is that he is wiser than I, more knowledgeable than I. And I trust him to make the decisions I hope that I would make, if I were wiser and more knowledgeable. I hope Obama's presidency will be as all presidencies should be: constitutional, ethical, transparent, broadly representative and reality-based. Even though each of us are "special interests," he doesn't have to pander to me, he doesn't have to be "black," he just has to represent me. I don't demand a bigger piece of the pie. I may not even GET a piece of the pie. All I ask is that I have a seat at the table.

Read Complete Article »

[I am taking another day of rest today (normal columns will resume tomorrow). Instead of an article, I present here today as a public service the full text of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s final speech, which was given the night before he was assassinated (April 3, 1968). King was in Memphis in support of striking sanitation workers. If you don't have time to read the full speech, which is rather long, please at least scroll down to the end and read the last few paragraphs. Video of the speech is available from www.mlkonline.net.]

Read Complete Article »

Riding to my rescue was one of Huffington Post's own commenters, who not only suggested I write a pro-Hillary article, but also outlined what I should say in it. I thought the idea had merit, but instead of just swiping his idea and writing my own words around it, I offered him the opportunity to write it himself.

Read Complete Article »

[This is one of a continuing series of candidate speech transcripts from all the Democratic presidential campaigns. Please see the introduction to this series for more information.]

Mike Gravel

http://www.gravel2008.us/index.php

Stepping Back From Imperialism:
Redirecting American Foreign Policy

St. Anselm College, Manchester, New Hampshire
11/1/06

Read Complete Article »

[This is one of a continuing series of candidate speech transcripts from all the Democratic presidential campaigns. Please see the introduction to this series for more information.]

Dennis Kucinich

http://www.dennis4president.com/home/

[Note: The Kucinich campaign was unable to provide a speech transcript from Congressman Kucinich for this series. A campaign official told me that Kucinich always speaks "extemporaneously" without notes, therefore they had no speeches available. I decided to relax the rules to allow their campaign to present me with something from Kucinich, so I am reprinting a position paper from the Kucinich website here instead of a speech. If you follow the link above and click on "Audio/Video" there are Kucinich speeches available for viewing or listening to on their campaign website.]

Strength Through Peace

Read Complete Article »

[This is one of a continuing series of candidate speech transcripts from all the Democratic presidential campaigns. Please see the introduction to this series for more information.]

Hillary Clinton

http://www.hillaryclinton.com/

Remarks at the Iowa Jefferson-Jackson Dinner

Des Moines, Iowa
11/10/07

Read Complete Article »

[This is one of a continuing series of candidate speech transcripts from all the Democratic presidential campaigns. Please see the introduction to this series for more information.]

Bill Richardson

http://www.richardsonforpresident.com/home

Hard Choices:
The Responsible Way Forward for Iraq and our Military

Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.
10/4/07

Read Complete Article »

[This is one of a continuing series of candidate speech transcripts from all the Democratic presidential campaigns. Please see the introduction to this series for more information.]

Barack Obama

http://www.barackobama.com/index.php

A Change We Can Believe In

Spartanburg, South Carolina
11/3/07

Read Complete Article »

[This is one of a continuing series of candidate speech transcripts from all the Democratic presidential campaigns. Please see the introduction to this series for more information.]

John Edwards

http://johnedwards.com/

The Moral Test of Our Generation

Saint Anselm College, Manchester, New Hampshire
10/29/07

Read Complete Article »