Saturday, August 04, 2007

Live at YearlyKos with the presidentials (version 7)

Very funny moment. Edwards repeats that we need to swear off DC lobbyists money. Hillary gets asked directly whether she'd do the same. She smiled and said "John has certainly taken that position" and the audience laughs because it was such a ridiculous response. And she smiled as well because she seemed to know how ridiculous it was.

Obama then went on the attack to make it clear that the billion dollars the insurance industry spent on contributions had an influence. "I want to challenge the notion that lobbyists don't have disproportionate influence." "they aren't giving money for the public interest. They have an objective." Huge response.

Hillary defended lobbyists, many of who represent regular people like nurses and social workers or corporations who employ thousands of people. And, as a lobbyist representing progressive clients, I appreciate that. But, Barack's point that there's a lot we can do to clean up DC before public funding is implemented resonates.

Dodd: Our Constitution is at risk!

In the Obama White House, no one can lobby after serving. We need to stop the revolving door.

Clinton actually said we're safer because we are willing to take off our shoes before we go into airports. That's absurd.

Clinton then successfully attacks the unitary executive concept infecting our government and showing incompetence all over. But she then says we need a constitutional amendment to get public funding. She's just not a reformer.

Kucinich: Reminds us that 1 million innocents have been killed in Iraq and we need strength through peace.

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