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December 4, 2008

User profile: veeve

Joined: Jan. 15, 2008

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This transcript of Senator McCaskill's conference call endorsing Obama is what is appealing about Obama. He's scary smart. He sees the possible eventualities ahead of time. That he hasn't been in Washington for very long is actually a plus for me too.

Senator McCaskill: Let me speak briefly to Barack’s role to the ethics legislation because I had a front row seat. Before I went to Washington as a freshman senator, I got a call that Senator Obama wanted to have a conference call with all the freshman senators and of course we all did that and we all got on the phone with Senator Obama. And he was calling to ask us to help him on the ethics legislation and he warned us that when we got to Washington that there would be some of the more senior members of the Senate that would act like they wanted to pass the ethics legislation, but he explained to us that they really didn’t want to pass it. And that it was going to take a lot of pushing and pulling to get this ethics legislation done and that the freshman class was going to be essential in that. And he recruited us to be monolithic in our support of the provisions that he was pushing. I frankly thought that he was exaggerating at the time. I hadn’t obviously taken my seat in the senate yet. I got to the senate and it turned out that he was right. There was a lot of wink, wink, nod, nod going on around the floor on some of the provisions of the bill. Most notably that the idea that senators could take corporate airplanes anywhere they wanted in the country for pennies on the dollar. And I watched as the more senior senators tried to maneuver and keep that provision out of the bill. And I watched Barack Obama stand in the well and refuse to kind of back off on that and we helped. And we did so because he prepared us and urged us to back his position for real ethics reform. Was the bill perfect? No, it wasn’t. Can we do more? Of course we can, and of course we want to. And I know as president Barack will help us set a standard for ethics in Washington that will bring a new day. But to belittle that legislation really is not appropriate because it was substantial, it was real and it was hard fought and Barack Obama was at the fulcrum and was the one actually carrying the load to get it across the finish line.

(Suggest removal) 1/15/08 at 1 p.m.

It is a shame to see so much negativity. I'm still undecided between Edwards and Obama but I know what I don't like in politics. If it comes down to Clinton-Obama, it's not close. A Clinton nomination means I go McCain. It's not about race or gender, it's about a non-polarizing candidate that has fewer ties to entrenched interests and has the ability to unite this country in order to deal with the very real threats of war, climate change and the economy. I have to imagine that the Republicans would break last year's record 62 filibusters in the first year of a Clinton presidency. They know it fires up their base to oppose a Clinton. Perhaps you should consider that?

Do Hillary backers think that you can brow beat people into your preferred narrative?

(Suggest removal) 1/15/08 at 12:38 p.m.

(This comment was removed by the site staff.)

1/15/08 at 11:45 a.m.

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