Here’s a story that gives some good insight into Barack Obama’s personality. I couldn’t imagine John McCain doing anything like that.

Mary Menth Andersen was then 31 years old and had just married Norwegian Dag Andersen. She looked forward to start a new life in Åsgårdstrand i Vestfold with him. But first she had to get all her belongings to Norway. The day was 2 November 1988.

At the airport in Miami, it was busy as usual with long queues at the check-in counters. When it finally was Mary’s turn, and she had put the luggage on the conveyor belt, she got the message that would break down the bubbling happiness.

- You must pay 103 dollars in overweight if you want to bring both suitcases to Norway, the man behind the counter said.

Mary had no money. Her new husband had already gone to Norway, and Mary had no one else to call.

- I was in completely despair and tried to find out which belongings I could do without. But the suitcases were filled with my most precious belongings, Mary says.

Mild and friendly

Although she explained the situation to the man behind the counter, he showed no signs of mercy.

- I started to cry, the tears cascaded down and I did not know what to do. Then I heard a mild and friendly voice behind me say “I’ll pay for her.”

Mary turned around and there was a tall and dark man she had never seen before.

- He had a mild and friendly, yet determined, voice. My initial thought was: Who is this man?

Although the incident happened 20 years ago, Mary still remembers the authority this man radiated.

- He was good looking and fashion right with brown leather shoes, open cotton shirt and khaki pants, Mary says.

She was happy to get both her suitcases to Norway and assured the stranger he would get his money back. The man wrote his name and address on a piece of paper and gave Mary. She thanked him repeatedly. When she finally went to the security check he waved goodbye to her.

Rescuing knight

On the paper it was written “Barack Obama” and his address in Kansas, which is the state his mother came from. Mary had the paper piece in her wallet for many years, but she finally threw it.

- He was my rescuing knight, Mary says and smiles.

She paid back the 103 dollar to Obama after she came to Norway. At that time he had finished the job as a low paid environmental worker in Chicago and attended law school at the prestigious Harvard.

In spring 2006, Mary’s parents heard that Obama was considering to run for President, but that he had yet not decided. Therefore, they chose to write a letter in which they stated he would get their votes. At the same time they thanked Obama for having helped their daughter 18 years earlier.

In a letter to Mary’s parents dated 4 May 2006 and marked “United States Senate, Washington DC,” Barack Obama writes back:

“I want to thank you for having written such kind words about me and for reminding me of the incident at the airport in Miami. I am happy to have helped and are happy to hear that your daughter is doing well in Norway. Please send her my best wishes. Sincerely, Barack Obama, United States Senator. ”

Google translation & link to original article here, thanks to @cdespinosa on twitter.

Finally! Obama has a great ad that hits McCain hard where it hurts.

McCain and the Republicans like to emphasize Obama’s lack of experience, but they don’t mention that George W. Bush had even less experience when he was elected. Jimmy Carter also had very little experience when he was elected. You could even say George Washington had no government experience before he became president.

Being able to inspire & motivate people is a huge advantage. The fact that Obama is well liked overseas will be a huge boost to our international relations.

We need to repair our reputation in the world, which Bush damaged so badly. We can’t stand alone; we need the rest of the world’s cooperation. A president who will bully & threaten other world leaders and lose his temper will make the rest of the world less willing to cooperate with us. A likable & charismatic leader with good negotiating skills will raise the world’s opinion of us and strengthen our alliances.

I’m pretty certain it will be Joe Biden.

Via Political Wire:

CNN — which has had a camera trained on Sen. Joe Biden’s home all day — reports there is now “a flurry of activity” there.

“Cars have recently pulled into the driveway — including a police car — and Biden’s daughter, son, and wife are now believed to be inside.”

It looks like it’s official that Obama won the Democratic nomination! This is a proud moment for all of us. In honor of the event, I’ve created this video.

With all of the concern about Obama’s association with Rev. Wright, almost nothing has been said about Rev. John Hagee’s endorsement of McCain.

• Right-wing pastor John Hagee says vile, despicable things about patriotic Americans…the worst being that Catholics are part of a church that is a “great whore,” that “all Muslims have a mandate to kill Christians and Jews,” and that God damns America with hurricanes because gay Americans plan parades.
• Oh, and Hagee says God wants us to destroy Iran ASAP.
• John McCain actively seeks Pastor Hagee’s endorsement and gets it.
• When John McCain accepts Hagee’s endorsement, he doesn’t include a list of the pastor’s statements that he finds unacceptable. No, my friends, he accepts the whole Hagee package with no ifs, ands, or buts.
• When McCain finds out that Hagee thinks God damns America because of gays, Catholics, Muslims and others, McCain is shocked…shocked!  But he continues to praise Pastor Hagee and cherish his crucial endorsement.
• Instead of turning the controversy into a teachable moment—with, say, a groundbreaking speech on religious diversity and equality for all Americans—McCain, the straight-talker, continues to weave and waffle his way through the Hagee controversy, hoping that the media will give him yet another free pass. (Most of the media comply in exchange for some excellent barbeque behind McCain’s bus.)
• When gently—ever so gently—pressed about Hagee’s statements weeks later by journalists, a visibly agitated McCain blurts out that, hey, at least he wasn’t my pastor for twenty years!!!

I’d love to see these questions asked of John McSame in a debate:

1. If John Hagee was your pastor for twenty years, would you have left the church over his anti-gay, anti-Muslim, anti-Catholic and America-damning comments?

2. If yes, why do you continue to accept Hagee’s endorsement?

3. If no, why not?

(via Daily Kos)

David Byrne writes:

What will happen when half the country is unemployed, with no medical insurance, stuck in a sheet rock house miles from public transportation? They’ll be ripe for religion or revolution if you ask me. Bibles and bullets. Will they still support the billions a day spent in Iraq? I don’t think so—even now they don’t. One would expect they’ll be pretty pissed off watching the rich and famous party endlessly and continue their glamorous lifestyle—or maybe not. Surprising to me, those being duped and exploited by banks and entrepreneurs often envy their “betters�—they want to be that person in the Beemer or Lexus, and will mortgage everything they’ve got to have a symbolic piece of it. Instead of anger and action we get envy—the bane of every outside agitator, union organizer, and young revolutionary.

Bibles and bullets: Doesn’t this sound a lot like what Obama said, which the pundits have blown out of proportion? Instead of addressing the real problems and trying to do something about it, politicians would rather exploit hot button issues. with the mainstream media as their lapdogs.

In his latest essay, Orson Scott Card talks about Obama and compares the senior theses of Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton.

Obama has never said or done anything to suggest that he shares any of Wright’s offensive views. But I still hear people saying, “If he could associate with the man for twenty years, he must have heard some of this, and it’s bound to have rubbed off.”

Putting Rev. Wright’s remarks in context, he points out that Wright’s generation of black Americans have every right to be angry and unforgiving, and he was speaking as a black preacher to a black congregation in their own church, not as a spokesman for a presidential campaign.

He’s a preacher. He can use the word “damn” and it isn’t swearing. He can invoke the curse of heaven when he feels it’s appropriate. I don’t like that he said it or why he said it, but when a preacher damns something, it’s different from other people saying the same words.

I was bothered by the “Jesus was a black man” line. Jesus most assuredly was not a black man, he was of the people living in Palestine in the first generation of Roman occupation. They’re not black now and they weren’t black then.

But then I remembered all the pictures of Jesus I grew up with — the light brown hair, gently waving down to his shoulders, the white white skin — and I realize that for centuries, white Christians have reimagined Jesus as a German or Belgian. Why shouldn’t blacks have the same privilege?

Should we be suspicious of Obama because of Wright’s teachings?

Obama has made it plain that he rejects Wright’s racially divisive teachings. But he is tied to Reverend Wright by bonds of friendship that transcend doctrines.

They are friends. Reverent Wright and Obama worked together trying to make life better for poor blacks in Chicago. Wright was part of Obama’s spiritual awakening and of his search for an identity as a black man. Obama hardly knew his father. Wright took on some of that role in his life.

It’s not as if Wright has been accused of a crime other than saying things that make white people mad. I’m a white person. It makes me mad. So what? Wright’s not running for president; if he were, I wouldn’t vote for him.

Here is my question to those who think Obama should have broken off his friendship with Wright over Wright’s offensive statements:

Do you want as President the kind of person who would deny and abandon his closest friends in order to win that political office?

Think about your family. Has your father or your mother or a grandparent or a sibling ever said something you thought was appalling and embarrassing? Do any of them hold opinions that you disagree with?

If your answer to any of those questions was yes, did you respond by breaking off all contact with them and denying your connection with them?

Unfortunately, here’s where Card goes very wrong:

But if you insist on requiring that he completely separate himself from someone who has said offensive things, then what about a candidate who remains closely connected to someone who has committed crimes and done things that offend just as many Americans?

I speak of Hillary, who persists in her connection to an admitted perjurer who defiled the oval office with antics that would embarrass a randy college student (at last after he got sober and/or grew up).

Yet people actually honor Hillary for standing by her husband — and, by the way, joining him in lying about his opponents and never apologizing for her own false charges.

What’s sauce for the gander is sauce for the goose — if you think Obama should separate from Wright, then you should be calling for Hillary to divorce Bill before she becomes President. After all, we wouldn’t want to re-contaminate the White House with such indecency, would we?

I still maintain that what Bill Clinton did wasn’t that terrible. Many men in the same position would have done the same thing. It’s just human nature. It didn’t affect his governing ability and it didn’t harm the country. It was simply a non-issue. Our country’s puritanical streak is the only reason it’s even an issue.