Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Thursday, November 13, 2008
The Long Campaign Journey
For many people, casting a vote and waiting for the final announcement on election night marked an end to one of the longest and most expensive Presidential contests in U.S. history. For Barack Obama, it could be argued that his race for the White House began on the stage of the Democratic National Convention in Boston in 2004, during the nomination of John Kerry who unsuccessfully ran against George W. Bush. Obama, then running for the U.S. Senate in Illinois, was invited to give the keynote speech. Called “The Audacity of Hope,” the speech generated the kind of buzz that helped launch the Illinois State Senator on to the national political stage, and ultimately into the White House.
For John McCain, it could also be argued his current run for the White House began in the winter of 2000, when he lost a bitterly fought primary race against George W. Bush in South Carolina.
For me as a reporter covering this campaign, the journey begins almost a decade ago, in the bicycle and moped choked streets of Hanoi, Vietnam.
I was on active duty in the U.S. Air Force at the time. As a broadcaster with the Far East Network (FEN) based in Tokyo, Japan, I received one of those assignments of a lifetime. I was asked to produce a series of stories on Joint Task Force Full Accounting (JTFFA) in Southeast Asia. At the time, JTFFA was the organization responsible for accounting for those still missing in action from the Vietnam War.
I spent almost a month traveling throughout Vietnam during the course of the assignment. But it was a visit to once place in particular that left the biggest impression with me. The Hanoi Hilton.
By now, many of us know the story of how John McCain, a Navy pilot shot down on a mission over Hanoi, survived unimaginable torture and pain to emerge from the darkest prison in Vietnam to step into the international spotlight as a Presidential candidate several decades later. But in 1998, I myself knew very little about John McCain. I knew that he was a Senator, that he survived a scandal, and that he survived this place. In Hanoi, he was already somewhat of a celebrity. There is a memorial on the edge of Truc Bach Lake in Hanoi that marks the place where his plane came down. I visited the site, but was not allowed to take pictures of the memorial for reasons that are still not clear to me.
Entrance to the Hanoi Hilton
But to understand what he survived, and what he endured is next to impossible, even while standing on the damp and dark stones that covered the cell John McCain called home for almost six years. I had yet to meet John McCain, but you couldn’t help but feel some kind of connection with the man standing in the place where he nearly lost his life, and where his story might have ended if not for his bravery and his fortitude. There were only a few pictures of John McCain during his imprisonment on display in his cell and throughout the Hanoi Hilton, now a museum. The pictures and displays showed him smiling, and nothing I saw there gave any insight into the true sinister feeling the former prison should embody, save a guillotine left over from the French colonization of Vietnam, who used the prison in much the same manner when they ruled this part of the world.
Conducting a "Standup" outisde the Hanoi Hilton
Because I was a veteran, and because I had stood in John McCain’s cell in Vietnam, I was keenly interested in following his career, and I would have the opportunity to do so in the race for the White House in 2008.
But in the fall of 2006, I was far removed from Asia and the Air Force, working as a correspondent based in New York City for Voice of America. Then Senator Obama was gearing up for a nation-wide book signing tour promoting the release of “The Audacity of Hope,” the book that took it’s name from Obama’s landmark 2004 DNC speech.
I got in line at the Barnes and Noble flagship store at Union Square in Manhattan early in the morning, and purely out of personal interest and not a professional assignment, I waited hours in that line to hear him speak. As book signings go, I had the opportunity to shake his hand and ask him a few questions while he signed some books for me. I told him I was from Illinois, a town called Ottawa, and he indicated he had been to Ottawa in his travels around Illinois and loved it there. It would be our first meeting, but as luck would have it, would not be our last.
I made several attempts to get an interview with Senator Obama for Voice of America prior to the launch of his presidential campaign. His staff turned down my requests. Even so, I had hoped to have the opportunity to cover the launch of Senator Obama’s campaign on the steps of the Old Capitol in Springfield in January of 2007, but assignments on the East Coast kept me from being able to travel to Illinois during that time.
The next coverage opportunity for me would come in June of that year, in the cradle of most political campaigns, the state of New Hampshire. There in the city of Manchester, CNN was preparing to broadcast debates between the Democratic candidates, and two days later, a debate between the Republican candidates. As most of us know by now, this election was wide open as no incumbent or vice-president was seeking re-election, something which hasn’t occurred since the 1952 election between former general and war hero Dwight Eisenhower and Illinois governor Adlai Stevenson.
When the debate concluded, and the candidates left the stage at St. Anselm University, they fanned out in Manchester to meet with their supporters. I positioned myself at a local bar and grill where Obama was scheduled to meet with campaign volunteers and supporters. He did show up, and spent almost an hour walking the bar, shaking hands, and talking with voters, including my good friend and New Hampshire resident Dan Millbauer. Obama had just been assigned a Secret Service detail around this time, and his traveling entourage had grown as his popularity was increasing. Nevertheless, I managed to stay next to Senator Obama as he made his way through the crowd, filming him reaching out to his supporters. This went on for about ten minutes. But in an unguarded moment, as I was trying to make sure I was getting good video (for this occasion I was behind the camera), I didn’t realize that Senator Obama was on the move, and as he turned around to reach out to a supporter, he knocked me over and I fell to the ground. He laughed about it, said he was sorry and offered to help me up, but the Secret Service, not happy I got that close, promptly got me up and positioned me away from the Senator. In the end, I got the footage I needed, and did so despite getting knocked down by the man who would become the 44th President. An event he probably doesn’t even remember, but will stick with me for some time to come.
I had little time to reflect on the moment, as Senator John McCain was preparing for one of his trademark town hall meetings in a small town in northern New Hampshire the next morning. It was the sort of environment the candidate seemed to revel in, with no scripted moments and direct access to the people whose support he was trying to win. I managed to get close to him in much the same way I followed Senator Obama the night before, only this time I managed to stay on my feet. I followed him through the swarming crowd after the meeting, filming him shake hands with those young and old. I also managed to record a brief interview with him and several local reporters. The dominant topic at the time was the Iraq War. There was no appropriate moment for me to share with Senator McCain that I had visited his cell in Vietnam, no chance for me to ask the hundreds of questions in my mind that had been brewing since I saw the place that was now a part of his famous biography.
Covering McCain at a town hall meeting in New Hampshire
And as it would happen, these were the only moments during the campaign I would have personal encounters with either candidate, though I continued to have a front row seat on this historic path to the presidency.
I would follow the Obama and McCain campaigns through several more debates, and eventually through several state primary elections, including on site coverage from Indiana. But as Obama emerged as the front-runner for the Democrats, our focus at Voice of America shifted to covering the national political conventions. Now back in Illinois and promoted to Midwest Correspondent, I was tapped to take part in VOA’s coverage of both conventions, and I began preparing for the exciting opportunity of first covering the Democrats in Denver.
But before that could happen, there was an important detour I had to take to Springfield, Illinois, at the Old State Capitol Building. There, Obama announced Delaware Senator Joe Biden as his running mate. Thousands of people, many who traveled a great distance to be there, endured the sweltering August heat, and many I talked to said it was so they could one day tell their children that they witnessed this moment. In spite of the heat, you could feel the excitement of the crowd. It was different here than it was those many months before when I saw Obama meet with supporters in New Hampshire. Here in the crowd in Springfield, you got the sense that this was more than just a campaign, it was a movement. From the cheers of the crowd to the vendors on the streets, Obama was a now a brand that stood for change and hope, two key messages he emphasized just a week later at the Democratic National Convention.
Covering the Obama Biden Springfield Rally
In the following weeks, I would watch as both John McCain and Barack Obama took the stage at their respective political conventions, separated by just a few days, to accept the nomination of their party for President. There were memorable moments at both, which I have documented for this publication and for Voice of America.
And for the next two months, I would find myself in Minnesota, Missouri, Wisconsin, and Iowa, trying to keep up with the relentless campaigning of both candidates and their running mates, at rallies, town hall meetings, and at the Vice Presidential debates.
So when the time had finally come to make my way from Ottawa to Chicago to cover the election results with the Obama campaign, I reflected on the journey I had made following both men on the path that had brought us all to this moment.
From a prison cell in Hanoi, to a small town in New Hampshire. From a book signing to a massive crowd in the heat of an August day in Springfield. I may not have had the kind of exposure or access as other journalists covering this race, but I had my own unique experiences that gave me reason to be proud of what I had watched and personally witnessed for these two long years.
So as the sun began to set on this unusually warm Tuesday, November 4th, I prepared to put myself in front of a TV camera that would soon broadcast the events of the evening throughout the world. I did not have a prepared script in my hand, no teleprompter to feed me lines. The words I was about to say came directly from my head, and from my heart.
Getting ready to report live from Grant Park in Chicago on Election Night
As I stood on a hill overlooking Grant Park, I watched as a crowd of hundreds soon became thousands, and then tens of thousands. As day turned to dusk, and dusk turned to dark, the energy of the night was fueled by the enthusiasm of Obama’s supporters.
VOA's Live coverage on Election Night
On the theater sized screens set up so the audience could watch election returns, history would unfold in real time, creating a wave of human emotion with each state that turned blue for the Democrats.
I took a moment in between my live reports to place myself as close to the crowd as I could. Just after 10:00PM central time, I was making my way down the small hill to talk with someone in the crowd for one of my live radio interviews when all of a sudden there was an eruption.
Right then, as polls closed in California, the networks called the election for Senator Obama. I have never witnessed such a massive outpouring of emotion as I experienced this night. There were hugs, there were tears, and there was resounding applause and uncontrollable excitement. A passerby, presumable another member of the media, reached to give me a high-five and I was caught off guard.
It was in that moment that I stopped to look around, and immediately felt overwhelmed. Though I admit I was excited, it was almost as if I wanted to let out a huge sigh. Because it was over. Because it was historic. Because so many on both sides and throughout our nation’s history had sacrificed and invested so much to bring us all to this point.
It was a moment not lost on the crowd in Chicago, nor for the millions around the world huddled around television, radios, and computers. And certainly not for the man who had once again led a courageous effort to win America’s trust to lead the country, but fell short of his own dreams and aspirations. As I listened to John McCain give his concession speech through my earpiece, I couldn’t help but also feel some sadness. To have endured so much, to have nearly lost everything and returned from the brink on more than one occasion, this was a moment that was taken away from him. He graciously admitted the best man had won, and despite the loss, stated the last two years had been “the greatest honor” of his life.
“He fought long and hard in this campaign, and he's fought even longer and harder for the country he loves,” said President-elect Obama, to the hundreds of thousands in Grant Park in the climactic moment of the evening. “He has endured sacrifices for America that most of us cannot begin to imagine, and we are better off for the service rendered by this brave and selfless leader.”
As I listened to his acceptance speech, my mind trailed off into the distant future, and what I might say when someday, I can tell my children that I was there when history was made in Grant Park.
Two years after this whole journey had started for both candidates. Four years after Barack Obama has the “audacity” to “hope”.
41 years since John McCain crashed in Hanoi, Vietnam and 35 years after he emerged from a prison cell with a broken body but not a broken spirit.
45 years after Martin Luther King Jr. marched on Washington and issued a speech that proclaimed he had a dream.
And 150 years after a man named Abraham Lincoln stood in Washington Park in Ottawa, Illinois, my hometown, and proclaimed that those who supported slavery were “blowing out the moral lights around us.”
Today, from Washington Park to Grant Park, and from a “House Divided” to the White House, the “moral lights around us” shine bright for President-elect Barack Obama. Perhaps it is not just a story we can all tell our children, but an accomplishment we can all be proud of, together.
President-elect Obama said it best as he concluded his acceptance speech.
“This is our moment. This is our time -- to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American Dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth -- that out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope, and where we are met with cynicism, and doubt, and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people:
Yes We Can.”
President-elect Obama shakes Vice President-elect Biden's hand after his acceptance speech in Grant Park
For John McCain, it could also be argued his current run for the White House began in the winter of 2000, when he lost a bitterly fought primary race against George W. Bush in South Carolina.
For me as a reporter covering this campaign, the journey begins almost a decade ago, in the bicycle and moped choked streets of Hanoi, Vietnam.
I was on active duty in the U.S. Air Force at the time. As a broadcaster with the Far East Network (FEN) based in Tokyo, Japan, I received one of those assignments of a lifetime. I was asked to produce a series of stories on Joint Task Force Full Accounting (JTFFA) in Southeast Asia. At the time, JTFFA was the organization responsible for accounting for those still missing in action from the Vietnam War.
I spent almost a month traveling throughout Vietnam during the course of the assignment. But it was a visit to once place in particular that left the biggest impression with me. The Hanoi Hilton.
By now, many of us know the story of how John McCain, a Navy pilot shot down on a mission over Hanoi, survived unimaginable torture and pain to emerge from the darkest prison in Vietnam to step into the international spotlight as a Presidential candidate several decades later. But in 1998, I myself knew very little about John McCain. I knew that he was a Senator, that he survived a scandal, and that he survived this place. In Hanoi, he was already somewhat of a celebrity. There is a memorial on the edge of Truc Bach Lake in Hanoi that marks the place where his plane came down. I visited the site, but was not allowed to take pictures of the memorial for reasons that are still not clear to me.
Entrance to the Hanoi HiltonBut to understand what he survived, and what he endured is next to impossible, even while standing on the damp and dark stones that covered the cell John McCain called home for almost six years. I had yet to meet John McCain, but you couldn’t help but feel some kind of connection with the man standing in the place where he nearly lost his life, and where his story might have ended if not for his bravery and his fortitude. There were only a few pictures of John McCain during his imprisonment on display in his cell and throughout the Hanoi Hilton, now a museum. The pictures and displays showed him smiling, and nothing I saw there gave any insight into the true sinister feeling the former prison should embody, save a guillotine left over from the French colonization of Vietnam, who used the prison in much the same manner when they ruled this part of the world.
Conducting a "Standup" outisde the Hanoi HiltonBecause I was a veteran, and because I had stood in John McCain’s cell in Vietnam, I was keenly interested in following his career, and I would have the opportunity to do so in the race for the White House in 2008.
But in the fall of 2006, I was far removed from Asia and the Air Force, working as a correspondent based in New York City for Voice of America. Then Senator Obama was gearing up for a nation-wide book signing tour promoting the release of “The Audacity of Hope,” the book that took it’s name from Obama’s landmark 2004 DNC speech.
I got in line at the Barnes and Noble flagship store at Union Square in Manhattan early in the morning, and purely out of personal interest and not a professional assignment, I waited hours in that line to hear him speak. As book signings go, I had the opportunity to shake his hand and ask him a few questions while he signed some books for me. I told him I was from Illinois, a town called Ottawa, and he indicated he had been to Ottawa in his travels around Illinois and loved it there. It would be our first meeting, but as luck would have it, would not be our last.
I made several attempts to get an interview with Senator Obama for Voice of America prior to the launch of his presidential campaign. His staff turned down my requests. Even so, I had hoped to have the opportunity to cover the launch of Senator Obama’s campaign on the steps of the Old Capitol in Springfield in January of 2007, but assignments on the East Coast kept me from being able to travel to Illinois during that time.
The next coverage opportunity for me would come in June of that year, in the cradle of most political campaigns, the state of New Hampshire. There in the city of Manchester, CNN was preparing to broadcast debates between the Democratic candidates, and two days later, a debate between the Republican candidates. As most of us know by now, this election was wide open as no incumbent or vice-president was seeking re-election, something which hasn’t occurred since the 1952 election between former general and war hero Dwight Eisenhower and Illinois governor Adlai Stevenson.
When the debate concluded, and the candidates left the stage at St. Anselm University, they fanned out in Manchester to meet with their supporters. I positioned myself at a local bar and grill where Obama was scheduled to meet with campaign volunteers and supporters. He did show up, and spent almost an hour walking the bar, shaking hands, and talking with voters, including my good friend and New Hampshire resident Dan Millbauer. Obama had just been assigned a Secret Service detail around this time, and his traveling entourage had grown as his popularity was increasing. Nevertheless, I managed to stay next to Senator Obama as he made his way through the crowd, filming him reaching out to his supporters. This went on for about ten minutes. But in an unguarded moment, as I was trying to make sure I was getting good video (for this occasion I was behind the camera), I didn’t realize that Senator Obama was on the move, and as he turned around to reach out to a supporter, he knocked me over and I fell to the ground. He laughed about it, said he was sorry and offered to help me up, but the Secret Service, not happy I got that close, promptly got me up and positioned me away from the Senator. In the end, I got the footage I needed, and did so despite getting knocked down by the man who would become the 44th President. An event he probably doesn’t even remember, but will stick with me for some time to come.
I had little time to reflect on the moment, as Senator John McCain was preparing for one of his trademark town hall meetings in a small town in northern New Hampshire the next morning. It was the sort of environment the candidate seemed to revel in, with no scripted moments and direct access to the people whose support he was trying to win. I managed to get close to him in much the same way I followed Senator Obama the night before, only this time I managed to stay on my feet. I followed him through the swarming crowd after the meeting, filming him shake hands with those young and old. I also managed to record a brief interview with him and several local reporters. The dominant topic at the time was the Iraq War. There was no appropriate moment for me to share with Senator McCain that I had visited his cell in Vietnam, no chance for me to ask the hundreds of questions in my mind that had been brewing since I saw the place that was now a part of his famous biography.
Covering McCain at a town hall meeting in New HampshireAnd as it would happen, these were the only moments during the campaign I would have personal encounters with either candidate, though I continued to have a front row seat on this historic path to the presidency.
I would follow the Obama and McCain campaigns through several more debates, and eventually through several state primary elections, including on site coverage from Indiana. But as Obama emerged as the front-runner for the Democrats, our focus at Voice of America shifted to covering the national political conventions. Now back in Illinois and promoted to Midwest Correspondent, I was tapped to take part in VOA’s coverage of both conventions, and I began preparing for the exciting opportunity of first covering the Democrats in Denver.
But before that could happen, there was an important detour I had to take to Springfield, Illinois, at the Old State Capitol Building. There, Obama announced Delaware Senator Joe Biden as his running mate. Thousands of people, many who traveled a great distance to be there, endured the sweltering August heat, and many I talked to said it was so they could one day tell their children that they witnessed this moment. In spite of the heat, you could feel the excitement of the crowd. It was different here than it was those many months before when I saw Obama meet with supporters in New Hampshire. Here in the crowd in Springfield, you got the sense that this was more than just a campaign, it was a movement. From the cheers of the crowd to the vendors on the streets, Obama was a now a brand that stood for change and hope, two key messages he emphasized just a week later at the Democratic National Convention.
Covering the Obama Biden Springfield RallyIn the following weeks, I would watch as both John McCain and Barack Obama took the stage at their respective political conventions, separated by just a few days, to accept the nomination of their party for President. There were memorable moments at both, which I have documented for this publication and for Voice of America.
And for the next two months, I would find myself in Minnesota, Missouri, Wisconsin, and Iowa, trying to keep up with the relentless campaigning of both candidates and their running mates, at rallies, town hall meetings, and at the Vice Presidential debates.
So when the time had finally come to make my way from Ottawa to Chicago to cover the election results with the Obama campaign, I reflected on the journey I had made following both men on the path that had brought us all to this moment.
From a prison cell in Hanoi, to a small town in New Hampshire. From a book signing to a massive crowd in the heat of an August day in Springfield. I may not have had the kind of exposure or access as other journalists covering this race, but I had my own unique experiences that gave me reason to be proud of what I had watched and personally witnessed for these two long years.
So as the sun began to set on this unusually warm Tuesday, November 4th, I prepared to put myself in front of a TV camera that would soon broadcast the events of the evening throughout the world. I did not have a prepared script in my hand, no teleprompter to feed me lines. The words I was about to say came directly from my head, and from my heart.
Getting ready to report live from Grant Park in Chicago on Election NightAs I stood on a hill overlooking Grant Park, I watched as a crowd of hundreds soon became thousands, and then tens of thousands. As day turned to dusk, and dusk turned to dark, the energy of the night was fueled by the enthusiasm of Obama’s supporters.
VOA's Live coverage on Election NightOn the theater sized screens set up so the audience could watch election returns, history would unfold in real time, creating a wave of human emotion with each state that turned blue for the Democrats.
I took a moment in between my live reports to place myself as close to the crowd as I could. Just after 10:00PM central time, I was making my way down the small hill to talk with someone in the crowd for one of my live radio interviews when all of a sudden there was an eruption.
Right then, as polls closed in California, the networks called the election for Senator Obama. I have never witnessed such a massive outpouring of emotion as I experienced this night. There were hugs, there were tears, and there was resounding applause and uncontrollable excitement. A passerby, presumable another member of the media, reached to give me a high-five and I was caught off guard.
It was in that moment that I stopped to look around, and immediately felt overwhelmed. Though I admit I was excited, it was almost as if I wanted to let out a huge sigh. Because it was over. Because it was historic. Because so many on both sides and throughout our nation’s history had sacrificed and invested so much to bring us all to this point.
It was a moment not lost on the crowd in Chicago, nor for the millions around the world huddled around television, radios, and computers. And certainly not for the man who had once again led a courageous effort to win America’s trust to lead the country, but fell short of his own dreams and aspirations. As I listened to John McCain give his concession speech through my earpiece, I couldn’t help but also feel some sadness. To have endured so much, to have nearly lost everything and returned from the brink on more than one occasion, this was a moment that was taken away from him. He graciously admitted the best man had won, and despite the loss, stated the last two years had been “the greatest honor” of his life.
“He fought long and hard in this campaign, and he's fought even longer and harder for the country he loves,” said President-elect Obama, to the hundreds of thousands in Grant Park in the climactic moment of the evening. “He has endured sacrifices for America that most of us cannot begin to imagine, and we are better off for the service rendered by this brave and selfless leader.”
As I listened to his acceptance speech, my mind trailed off into the distant future, and what I might say when someday, I can tell my children that I was there when history was made in Grant Park.
Two years after this whole journey had started for both candidates. Four years after Barack Obama has the “audacity” to “hope”.
41 years since John McCain crashed in Hanoi, Vietnam and 35 years after he emerged from a prison cell with a broken body but not a broken spirit.
45 years after Martin Luther King Jr. marched on Washington and issued a speech that proclaimed he had a dream.
And 150 years after a man named Abraham Lincoln stood in Washington Park in Ottawa, Illinois, my hometown, and proclaimed that those who supported slavery were “blowing out the moral lights around us.”
Today, from Washington Park to Grant Park, and from a “House Divided” to the White House, the “moral lights around us” shine bright for President-elect Barack Obama. Perhaps it is not just a story we can all tell our children, but an accomplishment we can all be proud of, together.
President-elect Obama said it best as he concluded his acceptance speech.
“This is our moment. This is our time -- to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American Dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth -- that out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope, and where we are met with cynicism, and doubt, and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people:
Yes We Can.”
President-elect Obama shakes Vice President-elect Biden's hand after his acceptance speech in Grant Park
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
It's Electric Here in Chicago...
... and not just because the city is lit up for tonight's Obama event.
Indeed, several of the buildings in Chicago's skyline are decorated for the occasion. One skyscraper has U.S.A. lit by coordinating lights on floors and windows along its structure. Patriotism abounds in the Windy City, as Chicago is known.
But the real electricity of this place is generated by the enthusiasm of the supporters who have gathered here to witness what they all hope will be a moment in history.
It's a chance for many, including my friends Seth, Casey, and Mark, to say that they had a front row seat to one of the pivotal moments in American politics, perhaps American history. They have been waiting in line for almost six hours to get as close as they can to history in the making. They share a common bond with most everyone who has gathered here, to actively participate in that history in the making.
Needless to say, it takes some kind of electricity (translate dedication) to wait it out and live in the moment.
My friends are just three of the hundreds of thousands who have amassed in Grant Park in Chicago tonight. Those who were lucky enough to get tickets to get up close to the event made a dash for the front of the field once they were let in just a few minutes ago.
But no matter where people are, the weight of this moment is already clear. Today, in Chicago, in Arizona, in Pittsburgh and Paducah, from Los Angeles to Richmond , Maine to Miami, the long lines and record turnout of voters across America proves that democracy works.
The best way to actively participate in history isn't joining a celebration. it's voting to make that celebration possible. And Americans by the hundreds of millions today did just that
Indeed, several of the buildings in Chicago's skyline are decorated for the occasion. One skyscraper has U.S.A. lit by coordinating lights on floors and windows along its structure. Patriotism abounds in the Windy City, as Chicago is known.
But the real electricity of this place is generated by the enthusiasm of the supporters who have gathered here to witness what they all hope will be a moment in history.
It's a chance for many, including my friends Seth, Casey, and Mark, to say that they had a front row seat to one of the pivotal moments in American politics, perhaps American history. They have been waiting in line for almost six hours to get as close as they can to history in the making. They share a common bond with most everyone who has gathered here, to actively participate in that history in the making.
Needless to say, it takes some kind of electricity (translate dedication) to wait it out and live in the moment.
My friends are just three of the hundreds of thousands who have amassed in Grant Park in Chicago tonight. Those who were lucky enough to get tickets to get up close to the event made a dash for the front of the field once they were let in just a few minutes ago.
But no matter where people are, the weight of this moment is already clear. Today, in Chicago, in Arizona, in Pittsburgh and Paducah, from Los Angeles to Richmond , Maine to Miami, the long lines and record turnout of voters across America proves that democracy works.
The best way to actively participate in history isn't joining a celebration. it's voting to make that celebration possible. And Americans by the hundreds of millions today did just that
Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. in the Background of Obama's Spotlight
The weather in Chicago this morning is perfect. As the city looks to set a record for the warmest day on record in the month of November, that story will wind up being the least important one that emerges from Chicago by the end of the day, regardless of the outcome of today’s historic election.
U.S. Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr., knows it. As I made my way along Grant Park and Michigan Avenue this morning to set up for one of the biggest stories to come to Chicago in decades, Congressman Jackson was pressing the flesh with voters, shaking hands with every person he passed. Along Roosevelt Road at the south end of the park, both vehicle and pedestrian traffic came to a standstill as the congressional candidate and close Barack Obama supporter took advantage of the warm weather to encourage people to get out and vote.
I tried several times to see if I could get him to stop long enough to talk to Voice of America about today’s historic overtones, but in the end, Congressman Jackson knows the importance of connecting with voters, and in this instance, the media took a back seat.
But I was able to spend some time observing the Congressman in action. Along Roosevelt Road, he ran up to a parked transit bus to talk to the morning commuters. It looked as if it took the bus driver by surprise.
“Make sure you come talk to the driver now,” he yelled on the intercom as Jackson made his way through the bus shaking hands, camera crew in tow. “I want to be a part of history!”
High atop a high rise under construction across Roosevelt Road, workers in hard hats at the top of the structure yelled out to the Congressman below: “Go Obama!”
In the adjacent high rise, an elderly couple sitting on their balcony echoed their support for Obama. “Make sure you get out and vote!” Jackson pleaded.
A security guard passing by stopped to shake his hand. “Did you already vote?” he asked the congressman.
“Of course I did – I voted last week!” Jackson replied, indicating he took advantage of early voting in the state of Illinois.
While all eyes are on Senator Obama today here in the city, Congressman Jackson is quietly in the background of what could be a historic moment, if polling data that places Obama in the lead translates into actual voting results tonight.
He is the son of Jesse Jackson, the civil rights leader who led his own failed bid for the White House in the 1980s. The groundwork for Senator Obama’s run for the White House was established by figures such as Jesse Jackson, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Congressman John Lewis during the civil rights movement in the 1960s.
Now, four decades later, Jackson, Jr., carries the torch of that movement from his father. He is a popular politician who represents the city of Chicago’s South Side, and now serves as the co-chair of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.
In recent weeks, Jackson Jr. has been forced to distance himself from his famous father, who made controversial comments about Jewish voters in America, and who made negative remarks about Obama during preparations for a TV interview, at a time when he thought the microphone was turned off.
But it’s not where Congressman Jackson is now, but where he could be in the coming months, that could elevate his political standing in the state of Illinois, and the country, ultimately eclipsing the success and fame of his father.
If Barack Obama is elected president, he would vacate a Senate seat that still has two more years left of an initial six year term. It’s up to the Illinois governor, Rod Blagoyevich, to appoint someone to fill the remaining time left in that term.
Congressman Jackson has made public comments that he would be both “humbled and honored” to serve in the U.S. Senate, but admits it’s ultimately up to Governor Blagoyevich to make the appointment.
Chicago Sun Times reporter Micheal Sneed reported in her (yes her) column on October 17th that her contacts indicated the Senator prefers to have an African American fill the Senate seat in the event he becomes president.
But public statements by Obama on the matter have been hard to come by, mostly because talking about the appointment would mean Obama’s campaign is already assuming he would win.
Which is what most people who are gathering here in Chicago, including Congressman Jackson, hope is the outcome when polls close across the country tonight.
U.S. Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr., knows it. As I made my way along Grant Park and Michigan Avenue this morning to set up for one of the biggest stories to come to Chicago in decades, Congressman Jackson was pressing the flesh with voters, shaking hands with every person he passed. Along Roosevelt Road at the south end of the park, both vehicle and pedestrian traffic came to a standstill as the congressional candidate and close Barack Obama supporter took advantage of the warm weather to encourage people to get out and vote.
I tried several times to see if I could get him to stop long enough to talk to Voice of America about today’s historic overtones, but in the end, Congressman Jackson knows the importance of connecting with voters, and in this instance, the media took a back seat.
But I was able to spend some time observing the Congressman in action. Along Roosevelt Road, he ran up to a parked transit bus to talk to the morning commuters. It looked as if it took the bus driver by surprise.
“Make sure you come talk to the driver now,” he yelled on the intercom as Jackson made his way through the bus shaking hands, camera crew in tow. “I want to be a part of history!”
High atop a high rise under construction across Roosevelt Road, workers in hard hats at the top of the structure yelled out to the Congressman below: “Go Obama!”
In the adjacent high rise, an elderly couple sitting on their balcony echoed their support for Obama. “Make sure you get out and vote!” Jackson pleaded.
A security guard passing by stopped to shake his hand. “Did you already vote?” he asked the congressman.
“Of course I did – I voted last week!” Jackson replied, indicating he took advantage of early voting in the state of Illinois.
While all eyes are on Senator Obama today here in the city, Congressman Jackson is quietly in the background of what could be a historic moment, if polling data that places Obama in the lead translates into actual voting results tonight.
He is the son of Jesse Jackson, the civil rights leader who led his own failed bid for the White House in the 1980s. The groundwork for Senator Obama’s run for the White House was established by figures such as Jesse Jackson, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Congressman John Lewis during the civil rights movement in the 1960s.
Now, four decades later, Jackson, Jr., carries the torch of that movement from his father. He is a popular politician who represents the city of Chicago’s South Side, and now serves as the co-chair of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.
In recent weeks, Jackson Jr. has been forced to distance himself from his famous father, who made controversial comments about Jewish voters in America, and who made negative remarks about Obama during preparations for a TV interview, at a time when he thought the microphone was turned off.
But it’s not where Congressman Jackson is now, but where he could be in the coming months, that could elevate his political standing in the state of Illinois, and the country, ultimately eclipsing the success and fame of his father.
If Barack Obama is elected president, he would vacate a Senate seat that still has two more years left of an initial six year term. It’s up to the Illinois governor, Rod Blagoyevich, to appoint someone to fill the remaining time left in that term.
Congressman Jackson has made public comments that he would be both “humbled and honored” to serve in the U.S. Senate, but admits it’s ultimately up to Governor Blagoyevich to make the appointment.
Chicago Sun Times reporter Micheal Sneed reported in her (yes her) column on October 17th that her contacts indicated the Senator prefers to have an African American fill the Senate seat in the event he becomes president.
But public statements by Obama on the matter have been hard to come by, mostly because talking about the appointment would mean Obama’s campaign is already assuming he would win.
Which is what most people who are gathering here in Chicago, including Congressman Jackson, hope is the outcome when polls close across the country tonight.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Monday, October 6, 2008
Thursday, September 4, 2008
RNC: Templeton working for Gustav victims from Minnesota
Kane Farabaugh
Special to The Times
La Salle County Sheriff Tom Templeton knows about disaster.
"We had a problem in our own county, in the town of Utica, where a tornado came through and killed nine people and devastated the downtown area. So we found out on a small scale how important it is for people to come together, and they came together there just like they're coming together here."
"Here" is on the floor of an exhibit hall of the Minneapolis Convention Center, where Templeton is elbow deep in boxes, working to fill care packages that soon will be on their way to people affected by Hurricane Gustav.
He is taking part in a hastily assembled relief event sponsored by retail giant Target, the American Red Cross, the Republican National Convention and John McCain's presidential campaign.
Templeton is a delegate from Illinois attending the Republican National Convention in the Twin Cities. It's his first political convention, and it has so far been anything but conventional. Hurricane Gustav created much uncertainty for Templeton and his fellow Illinois delegates when they arrived in the Twin Cities.
"We were watching and wondering what were they going to do? There were discussions about 'Are we going to cancel, or are we going to just try this another time?' It didn't seem feasible to put all this work into it and get all of this set up just to cancel it. I don't think that would have been a reasonable thing to do."
As plans were put into motion to prepare and ship 80,000 packages to areas affected by Hurricane Gustav, the situation on the ground in the Gulf Coast was rapidly changing. Templeton says it also was changing the outlook for delegates.
"The mood changed, at least in our hotel, in Illinois' delegation, to a much better mood that people down there weren't getting hit as hard as they were before, that there wasn't as much damage as there was before. Still tremendous amounts of damage, but not nearly like Katrina was, so we felt better about things than we had when we got here."
News about Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin's pregnant daughter soon bumped Gustav off the top of the media radar.
Bristol Palin, 17, who is not married, is five months pregnant. The situation has caused a stir among reporters gathered in St. Paul for the convention, but does not seem to have created a backlash among Republican delegates.
"I don't think it's an issue," Templeton explained, "and I would hope that the public would not think it's an issue. It's a privacy situation."
Palin is popular with Republicans because she supports gun rights, is opposed to abortion and models herself as a "hockey mom," an everyday working parent who former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee believes gives her a strong connection to most American women.
"What Sarah Palin represents is everything family values is about. It's about affirming your family, Families aren't perfect. Families have problems. Everybody's does -- mine, yours and Sarah Palin. It's how we react to them."
Instead of creating a problem, the impending birth of Sarah Palin's grandchild is an issue Templeton thinks Palin could use to her advantage on the campaign trail with McCain.
"She's not ashamed of it, she shouldn't be ashamed of it and I think she's going to be a good candidate," Templeton said. "I think she's going to be a very electable candidate and she's a very strong person."
Templeton knows Republicans have an uphill battle in Illinois as the presidential campaign heads into the final months. It's Democratic nominee Barack Obama's home state. In spite of the challenge, Templeton is optimistic having Palin on the Republican ticket only can help John McCain bridge the gap in poll numbers, and ultimately votes, in Illinois.
Kane Farabaugh is a Midwest-based TV and radio correspondent with Voice of America (www.voanews.com). He is covering the 2008 Presidential election for VOA. A 1995 graduate of Ottawa Township High School, Farabaugh recently returned to Ottawa, where he now lives with his family. He's worked for various commercial TV stations as a reporter and anchor as well as the American Forces Network Europe based in Germany. The views expressed in this column are Farabaugh's and do not represent the views of Voice of America.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Gustav, protests lead convention news - The Ottawa Daily Times
Kane Farabaugh
Special to The Times
ST. PAUL, Minn. -- It seemed like Monday might have been a nonstory at the Republican National Convention. Most of the schedule for the delegates and speakers congregating at the Xcel Energy Center was cut, with only two hours of mostly procedural moves taking place as the government, and the nation, braced for Hurricane Gustav. Republicans felt it wasn't the right time to have a party.
But it was a holiday, Labor Day. And the weather was nice, with some 5,0000 people not working nor invited nor planning to attend the RNC. And they had an agenda at the steps of the Capitol in St. Paul.
It was humid and hot by the time thousands of people gathered there to listen to protest organizers and speakers rally against the war in Iraq. This was the first part of what was expected to be the largest organized protest during the convention. Police and the people gathering to protest were on edge after reports over the weekend of a raid on an anarchist group that calls itself the RNC Welcoming Committee.
The atmosphere at the protest rally point had the feel of a state fair or festival. There were food stands and a stage as well as waving flags, banners and signs of all kinds that helped the protestors tell a story or give the reason they felt motivated to join the massive demonstration.
In the crowd was James Gilligan, a former Marine who said he'd been diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder. Gilligan also said he spent the first months home from the war and out of the Marine Corps alone and homeless, unable to get a job or make money. He spoke of how he shuffled through the Veterans Administration health care system, unable to find the appropriate care he needed to treat what ailed him. That was the reason he decided to join the protest, marching with the group Iraq Veterans Against the War.
Gilligan was not the only former member of the military at the demonstration. Gandhi Mohamed is a Somali refugee who settled in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area in 1993. He joined the U.S. Army when he came of age to gain his citizenship and serve the country that took him in. His plans to make a career of the military came to an end when the United States invaded Iraq in 2003. As a Muslim, Mohamed couldn't reconcile his personal and religious beliefs with the demands of the military, and left the service. It's what drove him out of the service and into a crowd of several hundred fellow Somalis attending the protest, who also were gathered to draw attention to the strife in their native country.
As the protesters marched from a rally to make their way from the Capitol to the convention site, police went on alert as another crowd, a splinter group not part of the organized protest, made its way through the downtown St. Paul area.
I happened upon the group while clamoring to get footage of the hundreds of riot police geared up in the downtown area. The police were expecting trouble from this splinter group, and officers were donning gas masks and armor to prepare for any amount of trouble.
Trouble came not long after. To my right I saw a can of tear gas fired from a vehicle. The intent was to disperse a crowd, and as I ran toward the disturbance, dozens of young people in masks and bandannas were running in the opposite direction.
There would be several incidents where protestors and police would clash. By the end of the afternoon, the patience on both sides had worn thin. Demonstrators downtown broke the windows of a Macy's story and smashed the rear window of a Minnesota state police car. Faced with growing lawlessness, officers began to aggressively pursue the troublemakers and began making arrests. The National Guard was called to help restore order.
By the end of the day, officers made more than 200 arrests. Traffic, already heavy because of the convention, was snarled in most of the downtown area. Delegates attending the convention were held up at the conclusion of Monday's program because buses transporting them away from the Xcel Energy Center were stuck in the protest.
St. Paul police say many of those arrested could face felony charges. And it all happened on a day when the story about the convention wasn't a story at all, until a peaceful protest turned into a demonstration that put several hundred people behind bars.
Kane Farabaugh is a Midwest-based TV and radio correspondent with Voice of America (www.voanews.com). He is covering the 2008 Presidential election for VOA. A 1995 graduate of Ottawa Township High School, Farabaugh recently returned to Ottawa, where he now lives with his family. He's worked for various commercial TV stations as a reporter and anchor as well as the American Forces Network Europe based in Germany. The views expressed in this column are Farabaugh's and do not represent the views of Voice of America.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Watching the spectacle -- on TV
Kane Farabaugh
Special to The Times
When our hotel shuttle bus brought us to the Pepsi Center Thursday morning, the line of people waiting to get into nearby Invesco Field at Mile High Stadium was a sign of things to come.
We all knew this day was meant to be big, historic and busy. But moving a convention from a heavily fortified and secure area to an open-air arena with tens of thousands of people is something just shy of a miracle to execute.
I made my way to Invesco field the day before Illinois Sen. Barack Obama's big moment to gather footage and interviews of the work under way to set the stage for one of the biggest political acceptance speeches in history.
When I arrived, crews were busy putting the final touches on the podium where Obama would speak. I gathered footage, and when I finally stopped filming, I realized I was standing at a place that would soon become a moment in history people might remember.
As I stood behind the podium, I looked out at all the empty seats that soon would be filled with those who would trek far and wide to witness history in person. I glanced up at the screen where Obama would read his acceptance speech, and I took a moment to soak in the importance of what I've been able to see and what I've been able to witness this week in Denver.
Just after my visit to Invesco Field, I ran into an old acquaintance I had worked with in Charleston, W.Va. Erik Wells is a former news anchor with the ABC station there. He ran for the House of Representatives against Republican Shelly Moore Capito in 2004, and lost the general election. He now is in West Virginia state politics and was a delegate at this week's convention.
He was a pledged delegate to New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, and was someone I was eager to meet with to understand his position and learn how events would play out on the floor of the convention during the state's roll call.
He informed me he just attended a meeting Clinton had with her delegates, where she released them from their obligation to vote for her, enabling them to vote for Obama. Though Wells supported Clinton because of her plans for health care, he has no problem now supporting Obama.
"When you take a look at what took place in this process, Barack Obama won. I happen to support somebody who did not get enough delegates. But in the end, I'm supporting the candidate because we need some change in this country and that's why I'm going to support Barack Obama."
In the end, Clinton made it easy on Wells. She appeared on the floor of the convention with the New York delegation to move to suspend the state's roll call vote and award Obama the Democratic Party nomination by acclamation.
Though it's not the outcome Wells hoped for when he pledged to support Clinton, he was eager to make the move to Invesco Field now that the official party business was at an end.
"This is going to be the first time that we're going to have this type of convention speech since John Kennedy in 1960. Already we've been told that 90,000 people in Denver have signed up to try to get a ticket to get into the stadium."
If indeed there were that many people attending the event, it was hard to miss them throughout a large area around Invesco the day of the speech.
A line that was at least a mile long formed by midday, held up mostly from the detailed security checks.
As irony would have it, my moment behind the podium on the field the day before the speech would be the only time I would set foot inside the arena during the Democratic National Convention.
The crowds of people, as well as the tight restrictions on media before, during and after his speech, meant I might miss my early morning flight today. As my week of coverage in Denver came to a close, the climatic moment of the DNC was a moment in history I shared with most of America ... on the television.
But there is more news to cover, more moments to record and still one more acceptance speech on the road to the final push for the White House. As the wheels of the plane go up in Denver they soon shall land in St. Paul, Minn., where the Republicans take the stage to make their case for Arizona Sen. John McCain.
Kane Farabaugh is a Midwest-based TV and radio correspondent with Voice of America (www.voanews.com). He is covering the 2008 Presidential election for VOA. A 1995 graduate of Ottawa Township High School, Farabaugh recently returned to Ottawa, where he now lives with his family. He's worked for various commercial TV stations as a reporter and anchor as well as the American Forces Network Europe based in Germany. The views expressed in this column are Farabaugh's and do not represent the views of Voice of America.
Special to The Times
When our hotel shuttle bus brought us to the Pepsi Center Thursday morning, the line of people waiting to get into nearby Invesco Field at Mile High Stadium was a sign of things to come.
We all knew this day was meant to be big, historic and busy. But moving a convention from a heavily fortified and secure area to an open-air arena with tens of thousands of people is something just shy of a miracle to execute.
I made my way to Invesco field the day before Illinois Sen. Barack Obama's big moment to gather footage and interviews of the work under way to set the stage for one of the biggest political acceptance speeches in history.
When I arrived, crews were busy putting the final touches on the podium where Obama would speak. I gathered footage, and when I finally stopped filming, I realized I was standing at a place that would soon become a moment in history people might remember.
As I stood behind the podium, I looked out at all the empty seats that soon would be filled with those who would trek far and wide to witness history in person. I glanced up at the screen where Obama would read his acceptance speech, and I took a moment to soak in the importance of what I've been able to see and what I've been able to witness this week in Denver.
Just after my visit to Invesco Field, I ran into an old acquaintance I had worked with in Charleston, W.Va. Erik Wells is a former news anchor with the ABC station there. He ran for the House of Representatives against Republican Shelly Moore Capito in 2004, and lost the general election. He now is in West Virginia state politics and was a delegate at this week's convention.
He was a pledged delegate to New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, and was someone I was eager to meet with to understand his position and learn how events would play out on the floor of the convention during the state's roll call.
He informed me he just attended a meeting Clinton had with her delegates, where she released them from their obligation to vote for her, enabling them to vote for Obama. Though Wells supported Clinton because of her plans for health care, he has no problem now supporting Obama.
"When you take a look at what took place in this process, Barack Obama won. I happen to support somebody who did not get enough delegates. But in the end, I'm supporting the candidate because we need some change in this country and that's why I'm going to support Barack Obama."
In the end, Clinton made it easy on Wells. She appeared on the floor of the convention with the New York delegation to move to suspend the state's roll call vote and award Obama the Democratic Party nomination by acclamation.
Though it's not the outcome Wells hoped for when he pledged to support Clinton, he was eager to make the move to Invesco Field now that the official party business was at an end.
"This is going to be the first time that we're going to have this type of convention speech since John Kennedy in 1960. Already we've been told that 90,000 people in Denver have signed up to try to get a ticket to get into the stadium."
If indeed there were that many people attending the event, it was hard to miss them throughout a large area around Invesco the day of the speech.
A line that was at least a mile long formed by midday, held up mostly from the detailed security checks.
As irony would have it, my moment behind the podium on the field the day before the speech would be the only time I would set foot inside the arena during the Democratic National Convention.
The crowds of people, as well as the tight restrictions on media before, during and after his speech, meant I might miss my early morning flight today. As my week of coverage in Denver came to a close, the climatic moment of the DNC was a moment in history I shared with most of America ... on the television.
But there is more news to cover, more moments to record and still one more acceptance speech on the road to the final push for the White House. As the wheels of the plane go up in Denver they soon shall land in St. Paul, Minn., where the Republicans take the stage to make their case for Arizona Sen. John McCain.
Kane Farabaugh is a Midwest-based TV and radio correspondent with Voice of America (www.voanews.com). He is covering the 2008 Presidential election for VOA. A 1995 graduate of Ottawa Township High School, Farabaugh recently returned to Ottawa, where he now lives with his family. He's worked for various commercial TV stations as a reporter and anchor as well as the American Forces Network Europe based in Germany. The views expressed in this column are Farabaugh's and do not represent the views of Voice of America.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Carter supports Obama, looks to change US image abroad - Ottawa Daily Times
Kane Farabaugh
Special to The Times
In 1976, energy security and gas prices were a growing concern for Americans. Inflation was rising, and many Americans were disenfranchised with the Republican administration then in power.
Sound familiar?
Former President Jimmy Carter might agree. In 1976 he ran for president against Gerald Ford. He was a relatively young and promising Democrat from the South. Some 32 years later, the issues that drove voters to the ballot then are similar to the themes of the campaign between Barack Obama and John McCain.
"I ran on a platform of change. Of course, that's what America was ready for," Carter said, smiling at the similarity to the current Obama campaign message of "Change You Can Believe In."
"The difference between me and Obama is I didn't have any money."
I talked one-on-one with Carter in a wide-ranging interview for Voice of America in the Pepsi Center studios of the Democratic National Convention Committee.
It is the fourth time I've interviewed the former Georgia governor and president. In our last interview in Chicago in April, I asked him if he would endorse Obama. This was during the primary season when it was not clear if New York Sen. Hillary Clinton or Obama would emerge as the clear front-runner. Carter preferred to keep an endorsement close to his chest until the primary season was over.
Now that Obama is on the verge of securing his place in history as the first black person to receive the nomination of a major political party for president, Carter is more candid and open about his support for Obama.
"He carried Plains, Ga. We only have 180 voters. He carried my home and got all the votes in my family. There's 26 of us, but I think that demonstration that he has done already that the last vestiges of racial discrimination or racism are crumbling."
Obama's message of change resonates with voters across the race, age and gender spectrum. But his critics contend that Sen. Obama's vision is more rhetoric than substance. Carter thinks Obama has a rare opportunity to use that message of change to improve the tarnished U.S. image abroad. And, according to Carter, he could do it in the first 10 minutes of his presidency, should he win in November.
"In his inaugural address, he can say. 'When I am president of the United States, we will never torture another prisoner. While I am president of the United States, we will never go to war against another country unless our own security is directly threatened.
" 'When I am president of the United States we will be the champion of human rights all over the Earth. When I am president of the United States, the United States will be in the forefront of leadership of dealing with environmental questions including global warming,' and things of that kind.
"But you see, in 10 minutes, he could spell out for the world and for America of course, the changes he could make. And all of those things he could either do by executive order or he could do by just leadership."
Foreign policy issues plagued Carter's presidency. The hostage crisis in Iran and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, which led to Carter's boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, contributed to his 1980 election defeat to Ronald Reagan.
Dealing with the Soviet Union (which included what now are Russia and the Republic of Georgia) and its nuclear arsenal was one of the top foreign policy issues Carter had to deal with as president. Now, after Russia's military action in Georgia, he sees that region of the world playing a larger role in U.S. foreign policy.
"I'm not defending Russia, but we still need to be sensitive to how they feel as they are surrounded by increasingly friendly nations to the West," Carter explained. "The purpose of NATO is in effect to be an enemy of the then Soviet Union. The more pressure we put on Russia the more we are likely to see Russia react in a very improper way. And in a way that is what has happened so far."
Though Carter makes headlines, such as the firestorm his book "Palestine, Peace not Apartheid" created, the former president and head of the Democratic Party has kept a relatively low profile in U.S. politics. He rarely campaigns on behalf of other political candidates. He focuses much attention on the international peace and medical work of the Carter Center, and the efforts of Habitat for Humanity, which helps build homes for the needy.
He has made several trips to New Orleans, including work trips for Habitat. His appearance at this year's Democratic National Convention focused on that issue. A film that showed Carter talking with Hurricane Katrina victims preceded his only official appearance at the DNC. He and wife Rosalyn took the stage after a brief introduction and waved to the crowd.
He never spoke a word, and still the audience gave the former president a rousing cheer.
Even though it has been almost three decades since Carter sat in the White House, he has done much more beyond that office. He is a Nobel Laureate, a Grammy award winner and best-selling author of more than 20 books. And he isn't finished.
As he continues to write another book, he also is pushing an international coalition -- led by the Carter Center -- forward in the quest to rid the world of Guinea Worm Disease, an illness that afflicts villagers in many remote parts of Africa. If successful, which Carter insists will happen, it would be the first parasitic disease eradicated from the planet.
Kane Farabaugh is a Midwest-based TV and radio correspondent with Voice of America (www.voanews.com). He is covering the 2008 Presidential election for VOA. A 1995 graduate of Ottawa Township High School, Farabaugh recently returned to Ottawa, where he now lives with his family. He's worked for various commercial TV stations as a reporter and anchor as well as the American Forces Network Europe based in Germany. The views expressed in this column are Farabaugh's and do not represent the views of Voice of America.
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Special to The Times
In 1976, energy security and gas prices were a growing concern for Americans. Inflation was rising, and many Americans were disenfranchised with the Republican administration then in power.
In 1976, energy security and gas prices were a growing concern for Americans. Inflation was rising, and many Americans were disenfranchised with the Republican administration then in power.Sound familiar?
Former President Jimmy Carter might agree. In 1976 he ran for president against Gerald Ford. He was a relatively young and promising Democrat from the South. Some 32 years later, the issues that drove voters to the ballot then are similar to the themes of the campaign between Barack Obama and John McCain.
"I ran on a platform of change. Of course, that's what America was ready for," Carter said, smiling at the similarity to the current Obama campaign message of "Change You Can Believe In."
"The difference between me and Obama is I didn't have any money."
I talked one-on-one with Carter in a wide-ranging interview for Voice of America in the Pepsi Center studios of the Democratic National Convention Committee.
It is the fourth time I've interviewed the former Georgia governor and president. In our last interview in Chicago in April, I asked him if he would endorse Obama. This was during the primary season when it was not clear if New York Sen. Hillary Clinton or Obama would emerge as the clear front-runner. Carter preferred to keep an endorsement close to his chest until the primary season was over.
Now that Obama is on the verge of securing his place in history as the first black person to receive the nomination of a major political party for president, Carter is more candid and open about his support for Obama.
"He carried Plains, Ga. We only have 180 voters. He carried my home and got all the votes in my family. There's 26 of us, but I think that demonstration that he has done already that the last vestiges of racial discrimination or racism are crumbling."
Obama's message of change resonates with voters across the race, age and gender spectrum. But his critics contend that Sen. Obama's vision is more rhetoric than substance. Carter thinks Obama has a rare opportunity to use that message of change to improve the tarnished U.S. image abroad. And, according to Carter, he could do it in the first 10 minutes of his presidency, should he win in November.
Obama's message of change resonates with voters across the race, age and gender spectrum. But his critics contend that Sen. Obama's vision is more rhetoric than substance. Carter thinks Obama has a rare opportunity to use that message of change to improve the tarnished U.S. image abroad. And, according to Carter, he could do it in the first 10 minutes of his presidency, should he win in November."In his inaugural address, he can say. 'When I am president of the United States, we will never torture another prisoner. While I am president of the United States, we will never go to war against another country unless our own security is directly threatened.
" 'When I am president of the United States we will be the champion of human rights all over the Earth. When I am president of the United States, the United States will be in the forefront of leadership of dealing with environmental questions including global warming,' and things of that kind.
"But you see, in 10 minutes, he could spell out for the world and for America of course, the changes he could make. And all of those things he could either do by executive order or he could do by just leadership."
Foreign policy issues plagued Carter's presidency. The hostage crisis in Iran and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, which led to Carter's boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, contributed to his 1980 election defeat to Ronald Reagan.
Foreign policy issues plagued Carter's presidency. The hostage crisis in Iran and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, which led to Carter's boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, contributed to his 1980 election defeat to Ronald Reagan.Dealing with the Soviet Union (which included what now are Russia and the Republic of Georgia) and its nuclear arsenal was one of the top foreign policy issues Carter had to deal with as president. Now, after Russia's military action in Georgia, he sees that region of the world playing a larger role in U.S. foreign policy.
"I'm not defending Russia, but we still need to be sensitive to how they feel as they are surrounded by increasingly friendly nations to the West," Carter explained. "The purpose of NATO is in effect to be an enemy of the then Soviet Union. The more pressure we put on Russia the more we are likely to see Russia react in a very improper way. And in a way that is what has happened so far."
Though Carter makes headlines, such as the firestorm his book "Palestine, Peace not Apartheid" created, the former president and head of the Democratic Party has kept a relatively low profile in U.S. politics. He rarely campaigns on behalf of other political candidates. He focuses much attention on the international peace and medical work of the Carter Center, and the efforts of Habitat for Humanity, which helps build homes for the needy.
He has made several trips to New Orleans, including work trips for Habitat. His appearance at this year's Democratic National Convention focused on that issue. A film that showed Carter talking with Hurricane Katrina victims preceded his only official appearance at the DNC. He and wife Rosalyn took the stage after a brief introduction and waved to the crowd.
He never spoke a word, and still the audience gave the former president a rousing cheer.
Even though it has been almost three decades since Carter sat in the White House, he has done much more beyond that office. He is a Nobel Laureate, a Grammy award winner and best-selling author of more than 20 books. And he isn't finished.
As he continues to write another book, he also is pushing an international coalition -- led by the Carter Center -- forward in the quest to rid the world of Guinea Worm Disease, an illness that afflicts villagers in many remote parts of Africa. If successful, which Carter insists will happen, it would be the first parasitic disease eradicated from the planet.
Kane Farabaugh is a Midwest-based TV and radio correspondent with Voice of America (www.voanews.com). He is covering the 2008 Presidential election for VOA. A 1995 graduate of Ottawa Township High School, Farabaugh recently returned to Ottawa, where he now lives with his family. He's worked for various commercial TV stations as a reporter and anchor as well as the American Forces Network Europe based in Germany. The views expressed in this column are Farabaugh's and do not represent the views of Voice of America.
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Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Former President Jimmy Carter at the DNC
A smile and handshake after the interview
Carter believes that Obama can change foreign perceptions of America "in the first ten minutes" if his presidency.
President Carter thinks that a resurgent Russia will dominate future U.S. foreign policy.
These are just pics to post up immediately.
A print story and blog will follow tomorrow.
Cheers!
Kane
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Democratic past and future come together in Denver - Ottawa Daily Times
Kane Farabaugh
Special to The Times
DENVER - Overwhelming. That's the best way to describe my initial impression of the Democratic National Convention in Denver. Overwhelming because of the number of people packed into the Pepsi Center. Overwhelming because of the number of events, news stories and protests going on around the city.
I've had a few conversations with colleagues at Voice of America who agree it is easy to lose focus covering a political convention because of everything that is packed into a four-day period. It's understood we won't be able to cover it all. But there are key stories to follow, key people to interview and key events that lead up to Sen. Barack Obama's nomination for president by the Democratic Party.
One such event was Monday night's main speaker, Michelle Obama. She already is a popular figure on the campaign trail. Her handshake or autograph is just as sought after as her husband's. She has an appeal that Democrats hope will win over undecided female voters and Hillary Clinton supporters. Both groups are key to Obama's election success in November.
But if Michelle Obama was the main event that packed the Pepsi Center, the appearance of Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy was one of the most electrifying moments on the convention floor so far.
The crowd cheers Senator Edward Kennedy as he arrives on the Convention floor
The news came down earlier in the day Kennedy would speak during prime time. My particular assignment this night was to accompany VOA's White House correspondent Paula Wolfson on the floor of the convention, to help film the people and sights she would encounter while finding interviews for the live VOA program she was reporting for. A specific destination for us was to be with the Massachusetts delegation when Kennedy arrived at the podium.
But this convention can be somewhat unconventional at times. On the way there we quite literally ran into New Mexico governor and former presidential candidate Bill Richardson, who gave us a few key comments about what Obama needs to do to win in November.
Our endeavor to strategically position ourselves in the Massachusetts section also was sidetracked by the surprise appearance of Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, now Barack Obama's running mate. He was right behind us, seated with his family in the skybox of DNC Chairman and former Presidential candidate Howard Dean.
By the time we finally settled in with the Massachusetts delegation, Kennedy, ailing from brain cancer, took the stage amid a chorus of cheers from the audience in a sea of signs bearing his historic family name.
It brought tears to the eyes of Massachusetts delegate Kim Whittaker.
"I think Sen. Kennedy has done so much for the people of Massachusetts, for the people of the country. He's been such a champion for health care, you know, to help people who haven't had the voice in Washington."
Kennedy's appearance at the convention helped continue the momentum Obama gained over the weekend in Springfield when he introduced Joe Biden as his pick for vice president. Kennedy endorsed Obama before the Massachusetts primary earlier this year, but it didn't help him win the state. Hillary Clinton carried that primary election, and she still carries a large number of delegates into this week's convention.
It remains a source of some concern about how her committed delegates will cast their roll call vote later this week. Clinton's name will be placed in nomination Wednesday night, and fears about a boisterous floor demonstration are growing. A sign that while Kennedy represents the past and Michelle Obama represents the future, there still are obstacles in the way of party unity that makes getting through the present the top priority for the Democratic Party well before the Tuesday, Nov. 4, election.
CNN = Politics. Anderson Cooper and Wolf Blitzer on the floor
But for a journalist covering this event, holding a precious floor pass that gives unfettered access to the venue, a boisterous demonstration is the kind of scenario, overwhelming or not, that makes for a memorable moment on this historic path to the presidency.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Thousands turn out for Obama Springfield rally to take part in history - Ottawa Daily Times
Kane Farabaugh
Special to The Times
8/25/2008
SPRINGFIELD - I began the week preparing for an extended stay away from home covering both the Democratic National Convention in Denver and the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn. Before the week was out, I was preparing for a detour at the beginning of my political odyssey, and I hadn't arrived at the first convention.
When word came down earlier in the week that Sen. Barack Obama was planning a rally at the Old Capitol building in Springfield, most reporters knew it could mean only one thing. There was no specific indication in the initial e-mail from the campaign this would be the introduction of Obama's running mate and the unveiling of the ticket that will take his campaign into the November elections.
By the time I arrived in Springfield Friday night to prepare for the Saturday rally, that choice was still a mystery to the media speculating on television about who it might be and those who were beginning to set up to cover Saturday's main event.
In the restaurant at the bottom of the Springfield Hilton, instead of sports programming on the monitors around the bar, CNN was on. For me, there would be no text message from Obama's campaign, no e-mail in my inbox in time to warn me. I found out from Larry King, who introduced the breaking news that Delaware Sen. Joe Biden was Obama's choice for VP.
I did happen to receive a phone call in the middle of the night, which I assumed might be the delayed text message or announcement. It indeed was an announcement of the VP pick, only from a friend in New Mexico who wanted to make sure I heard the news in the event I had slept through the most anticipated news story this summer.
I awoke early Saturday to prepare for the 2 p.m. rally. By the time I arrived at 6 a.m. to set up my camera equipment near the stage, most of the risers for the media were filled with cameras. We were asked to leave the area between 9 and 11 a.m. to allow a security sweep of our equipment. Luckily I had two cameras with me, and I set off for the growing line of Obama supporters who were waiting for the gates to open for the rally.
Springfield native Chris Trudeau had the distinction of being the first person in line. He arrived at 8 p.m. the day before -- well before the news broke that Biden was the VP pick -- and by the time I caught up with him some 13 hours later, he didn't seem the least bit tired.
Trudeau was a pro at this line-waiting thing ... he did the same thing back in February 2007 when Obama launched his campaign, also from the Old State Capitol.
Winding around four city blocks of downtown Springfield were all those who came after Trudeau this time around. At each corner, vendors and salesmen peddled election-related memorabilia. At the Official Obama Merchandise store, workers were busy putting up newly made shirts and buttons that now included Biden's name, just below Obama's. Sitting in the shade near these vendors, playing "Go Fish" with a deck of Obama playing cards, was Beth Mosher from Sandwich.
She and her husband brought their three children to witness the historic occasion. In our interview, she explained how her husband recently lost his job, which she attributes to the loss of manufacturing jobs in Illinois and corporate downsizing. That was the big reason she and her family are supporting Obama and why they were thrilled to learn Joe Biden is on the ticket.
Mosher and her family pin the hopes of their future on the success of Obama's campaign promise to bring jobs back to America.
This is a theme Obama touched on briefly in his introduction of Biden on the stage in front of the Old Capitol later that afternoon. In the sweltering heat and humidity, Obama described Biden as a man who understands the troubles facing the American middle class, as the son of an Irish Catholic, working-class family from Scranton, Pa., who has proven himself as a champion of the workers from his home state of Delaware.
Both speeches by Obama and Biden focused largely on biography, which is the reason Obama chose the Delaware senator as his running mate. It's why critics, including Republican challenger John McCain and longtime friend of Biden's, say the selection of Biden supports their argument Obama isn't experienced enough to lead the country.
By the time the speech was over and the pundits and talk radio personalities began to weigh in, a catchphrase had already taken root that explained Biden's selection and real value to the Democratic ticket in November -- "Attack Dog."
It was something Chris Trudeau, an ardent Obama supporter, agreed would help him win in November.
"Biden will be able to put across those more aggressive messages that just don't seem palatable when Obama does it."
The next time the two senators appear together will be in just a few days during the Democratic National Convention in Denver. Obama has a full campaign schedule in the days leading up to his appearance and acceptance speech.
The buzz surrounding the occasion seems to focus on the historic aspect of Obama's campaign and his presumptive nomination. This makes the opportunity to cover Obama's effort to win the White House in November an exciting news story I feel privileged to cover. It's also why I can appreciate Chris Trudeau's dedication to wait in line for almost 20 hours for the rally or why Mosher and her family traveled from Sandwich to see Obama in person. There's a sense history is in the making this election cycle, and what happens in November could shape more than just the next four years. It could have far-reaching effects on future generations, and more and more people want to be able to say they were there when it happened. I'm no exception.
Kane Farabaugh is a Midwest-based TV and radio correspondent with Voice of America (www.voanews.com). He is covering the 2008 Presidential election for VOA. A 1995 graduate of Ottawa Township High School, Farabaugh recently returned to Ottawa, where he now lives with his family. He's worked for various commercial TV stations as a reporter and anchor as well as the American Forces Network Europe based in Germany. The views expressed in this column are Farabaugh's and do not represent the views of Voice of America.
Monday, August 18, 2008
In the Olympic Spirit - USA Womens Beach Volleyball
I'm sure that by now most of you have tuned in at some point to watch the Olympics.
I'm in the spirit as well... and had a chance to catch up with two of the bigger stars this year...
Misty May Treanor and Kerri Walsh.
Here is the VOA News Story on YouTube:
I'm in the spirit as well... and had a chance to catch up with two of the bigger stars this year...
Misty May Treanor and Kerri Walsh.
Here is the VOA News Story on YouTube:
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Friday, June 20, 2008
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Friday, May 23, 2008
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Jimmy Carter Discusses Controversial Mideast Trip, US Presidential Race With VOA
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter has never been one to mince words. And he has said he does not care about what people think of him. Recently, he defied U.S. policy by traveling to the Middle East for meetings with the militant Islamic group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip and which Israel and the U.S. say is a terrorist organization. Israeli leaders refused to meet with Mr. Carter during the trip. And the Bush administration criticized him for it.
In a wide-ranging interview with VOA's Kane Farabaugh, Mr. Carter defended his decision to meet with Hamas and strongly criticized the Bush administration's Middle East policies. He also spoke about the race for the Democratic party's presidential nomination and when he plans to endorse a candidate-- either Senator Barack Obama or Senator Hillary Clinton. Mr. Carter was touring the U.S. to promote his latest book, "A Remarkable Mother," about the late Lillian Carter, and the influence this strong woman had on his views about gender, race, politics and family. The book was timed to coincide with Mothers Day in the U.S., May 11.
QUESTION: We have former President Jimmy Carter. We're going to talk first about the newest release that you have, "A Remarkable Mother." I know that this is timed close to Mothers' Day, but let's talk about the motivation in writing the book at this point in your life.
PRESIDENT CARTER: Well, I wrote it because I think that for many Americans there's kind of a cloudy image of what it means to be a notable American. And my mother, among all the people I've known in my life, was the most perfect example, in my opinion, of what an American ought to be. She was bold, courageous, outspoken, indomitable. And she used her freedom, under very severe restraints, to address the most difficult and troubling and embarrassing issues that were prevalent in America of her day. And that was racial segregation that lasted for 100 years after the Civil War. And that was supported by the Supreme Court and the Congress, as Separate but Equal.
Mother saw that as a crime against humanity and a violation of her basic religious beliefs. So she never paid any attention to that. And she was the only person that I ever knew in my growing up years that treated and reached out to our neighbors, African Americans, all on an equal basis. In fact, she started out as a registered nurse. At first she was in charge of the operating room, and then she nursed for money when we really needed it during the Depression. She got $4 a day from the hospital to nurse patients in the hospital.
And then later she saw all of our neighbors where I lived were black and extremely poor; we didn't have any white neighbors. So she quit nursing in the hospital and began to nurse the poor people around us. She was almost like a doctor; she was highly trained.
And the standard service then was 20 hours a day in the home of a sick person. And the nurse was expected to take care of the children and everything else. So momma would just get off duty four hours each day, from 10 o’clock at night until 2 o’clock in the morning. And she would come home and wash her nurse's uniform and take a shower and put instructions for us children the next day on a desk and then she would go back to duty. And she rarely got paid for it, and she didn't care.
Sometimes a family would give her a little pig or some chickens or eggs or black eyed peas or something, trying to pay her. But she thought that her life should be devoted, in that little, tiny community in south Georgia, a very conservative region of America, to combating discrimination against black people. And she continued that all her life.
In fact, when she was 70 years old, she was in the Peace Corps in India, still dealing with the poorest and black people again, who were suffering from leprosy and so forth. And she was in effect an untouchable herself since she had to deal with bodily fluids and other unclean things.
QUESTION: Would you characterize your mother as an independent woman at a time when that was not a characteristic of many women across the South.
PRESIDENT CARTER: Well, I would. There were some stalwart women, though, that survived the Civil War. You have to remember how many men were killed during the War Between the States. And so their wives would inherit responsibility for the family, their widows. So she was not an anomaly in being a strong willed woman. She was almost unique in addressing the race issue as she did.
And she was an evocative spirit. She had a bubbling over sense of humor. She could titillate people to be her most intimate friends, or sometimes, if she didn't like them, her enemies. Later, when I was President, for instance, she would go on the talk shows, Merv Griffin or Johnny Carson or even Walter Cronkite, and her ebullient spirit would just let her take over the entire program, where it looked like she was the host and they were the guest.
And it sometimes caused me some discomfort, because she was completely at ease about what she said, or irresponsible in what she said. So the next day, if I had a press conference, the first question would be: Mr. President, how do you respond to what your mother said last night on the Johnny Carson Show? And I got in the habit of saying, look, I'm not responsible for what my momma said. She has a life of her own to lead.
But she and my wife, Rosalynn, were the two basic reasons that I was elected President. Because, in 1975 and 1976, I didn't have any money. We never had enough money to stay in a hotel. And mother and Rosalynn were out campaigning every day, five days a week, in different places from me or each other. And since I won by a narrow margin, I think it's accurate to say that if it hadn't been for my momma and her campaigning, and Rosalynn's of course, I wouldn't have been elected.
QUESTION: In reading the book, it's interesting, because the plan at first was to allow your mother to raise the children while you and the family, or the immediate family, had campaigned. But your mother insisted that she join the campaign because she thought she could do the most use for you.
PRESIDENT CARTER: Well, she could. At first what we thought would be mother's duty was taking care of Amy, who at that time was just a very tiny child. And she did that for a few months. And then she turned that duty over to Rosalynn's mother, and momma went on the campaign trail. That's right.
(Interruption from someone off microphone.)
PRESIDENT CARTER: No, I'm fine.
QUESTION: Okay. What lessons what are the most important lessons that she has instilled in you or the most important characteristics that she has given to you that you continue to practice every day of your life?
PRESIDENT CARTER: (Chuckles.) Well, I don't want to attribute my characteristics to momma directly. But my father died while I was still in the Navy. And I came home in 1953, and from then on until mother died she was the only parent I had. So she obviously affected me a lot.
Well, when mother was 70 years old, she wrote in her diary that if she had one wish for her children it was, in effect, for them to do things that were interesting and titillating and adventurous and unpredictable and she used the phrase not give a damn what anybody says about you. And so I think in many ways all of her children kind of inherited that inclination to try to carve out for ourselves, depending on our ability and opportunities, challenging things to do and interesting things to do and innovative things to do and not be too concerned about public opinion.
QUESTION: Have you been able to get over the fact that she sort of favored Billy as the star of the family?
PRESIDENT CARTER: Well, she always protected the least in the family. And when I became President of the United States and my sister Ruth became a worldwide famous evangelist, and that sort of thing, mother habitually said that Billy was the smartest one in the family. Which none of us disagreed. Billy, when he was working with me at Carter's Warehouse in Plains, Georgia, I would get there at 6 o’clock in the morning, and by the time I arrived, Billy had already read five newspapers and the weekly news magazines. He was an expert on politics and international affairs and a special expert on professional baseball.
And he used his encyclopedic knowledge of things to win a lot of money. Because unsuspecting farmers would come in to buy fertilizer or seed and Billy would make some ridiculous statement it sounded ridiculous but it was accurate and they would get up a bet and he would pick up a little cash. So he was always on the cutting edge of arguments and debates and telling jokes. He and mother were a lot alike.
QUESTION: Because of your mother's influence, is it fair to say that race really wasn't an issue that you were knowledgeable about until you went into the Navy?
PRESIDENT CARTER: I was immersed from tiny childhood in a black community. I wrote a book called "Hour Before Daylight" about my young years, before I went off to the Navy. And at the end of the book I tried to think of the five people that shaped my life, in addition to my mother and father. Of those five, only two of them are white. The other three were black people who literally shaped who I am and the way I think and the way I deal with moral values and the way I deal with religious issues and things of that kind.
So I'm a product of the finest aspects of African American culture, and I'm very proud of it.
QUESTION: Does it trouble you then to watch the current campaign and see how race is creeping into this contest?
PRESIDENT CARTER: It does. And I think that there is a lot of racism still in the political arena of America. In fact, since 1964, the Republicans have capitalized on the race issue in the South, and they've been able to carry the States almost every year because of subtle things about race, like the Confederate flag or whatever. And it's still there. And I am troubled by it. And I hope that this year will bring an end to it, or a substantial end.
My mother would be delighted to see a black man and a woman with the potential of becoming president. That would be a breakthrough for her and she would like it.
And I think she would advise both candidates not to give up until the last minute. If she was running for something, she would never give up. And so I think that just because you get a few votes behind, she would say: Stick with it, you never know what's going to happen.
So I think that and my mother was very active in politics. I say that in the book. I described the 1964 presidential election, when, not many people remember, but Lyndon Johnson completely wrote off the South. He never campaigned a day in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, or Louisiana. He gave those States to Goldwater, and Goldwater won. My mother became Johnson's campaign manager in our county. She was about the only white person that came out publicly for Johnson.
And she would go to campaign headquarters, her headquarters, every day and park her Cadillac in front of the place. And when she came out at night the radio antenna would be tied in a knot or broken off, and the car would be covered with filthy language, written in soap and other things, on the side of her car. She would just grin and come home and wash the car and go back to work the next day.
QUESTION: You’ve said in previous interviews you're intrigued by Barak Obama's campaign.
PRESIDENT CARTER: Yes.
QUESTION: And these are exciting times to be a candidate and to be a voter. Are you close to an endorsement?
PRESIDENT CARTER: No. Rosalyn and I have taken a policy since I left the White House of not endorsing a political candidate before the primary season is over. And I've said publicly and I'll adhere to it that I won't make any public declaration of my choice until after June the 3rd, or between then and the convention.
QUESTION: Are you concerned for the Democratic Party having such a late start to sort of collect the energies for the general election? Is this helping or hurting whatever candidate comes out in front? Is it helping or hurting them that this primary season is lasting as long as it is without a declared nominee?
PRESIDENT CARTER: I don't know. But I don't think it's hurting. A lot of intensely committed supporters of both Ms. Clinton and Obama have been inspired to come out and invest their lives, in effect, in their candidate's race, a lot of them for the first time. And I think that enthusiasm will carry over. And I don't have any doubt that after a clear winner is identified the earlier the better that the loser will support the winner and almost all of the loser's supporters will also support the winner.
I can't imagine any appreciable number of the Democrats supporting McCain in November. A few, yes. But the only loss will be a few of those that I mentioned earlier that are absolutely new to politics and have come out basically to support Obama, very young people and African Americans, who have never been in politics before. They might very well stay at home and not go to the polls in November, but they won't vote for a Republican.
QUESTION: I want to shift gears a little bit here.
PRESIDENT CARTER: Of course.
QUESTION: Are you surprised by the backlash that you're receiving for your recent visit with the leaders of Hamas? Is this something that came unexpectedly to you, or were you prepared for the criticism?
PRESIDENT CARTER: I was prepared for it. And the backlash is greatly exaggerated. For instance, when I left home, there was a poll in Israel just among the Israeli Jews, not among the 20 percent who are Arabs 64 percent of those polled said that Israel should be negotiating fulltime with Hamas. Because the Israelis know the history of Hamas and the background, how they won the last election, free and fair, and subsequently were declared to be terrorists and excluded from the process. And also the Israelis know that there is no way for Israel to have peace with the Palestinians unless Hamas is involved. Sixty four percent.
The other night I was on the Larry King Show. And CNN had one of their polls, call in and vote: Should Jimmy Carter have visited Hamas or not?
The poll results were 70 percent yes, he should have gone, and 30 percent no. So America is basically for me and the Israeli population is for me. The governments of the two countries I think are wrong in not dealing with Hamas and in not dealing with Syria. Because there is no way that Israel can have peace with their next door neighbors, the Palestinians, or with Syria, without at least talking to the people with whom they disagree. So I think I was right in going.
QUESTION: The Anti Defamation League has taken the forefront in really criticizing the book, "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid." And they're also critical of your visit recently.
PRESIDENT CARTER: I know.
QUESTION: Their contention is that just by the fact that you visit with Hamas provides legitimacy to the way that they behave and the act: not recognizing Israel as a state, the continued attacks into Israeli territory against Israeli citizens. Do you feel that way when you
PRESIDENT CARTER: No, I don't. First of all, my visit didn't legitimize or de legitimize anybody. Hamas was legitimized by the fact that in the election two years ago, in 2006, they ran for public office all over Palestine, the West Bank and Gaza, in an open election that was supported by the United States, approved by Israel and the other Palestinians, and they won. They won a majority of the parliamentary seats. And they were subsequently excluded from the government by pressure from the United States and from Israel. And they were then de legitimized by declaring them to be terrorists.
And you mentioned two things. Not recognizing Israel. I took a question to the Hamas leadership, the top leadership, the head of the politburo and so forth. All of them live in Damascus, Syria. And I asked them to pledge to me that they would accept the results of any negotiation that was concluded between the present Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and the Israelis if it was submitted even if they disagree if it was submitted to the Palestinians in a referendum and approved. They said yes, we'll do that. And they authorized me to announce that when I got back to Israel. Which I did.
As far as violence is concerned, I asked them to stop the violence in Gaza. Because prior to my visit Hamas had always said: We will only have a ceasefire if it includes both Gaza and the West Bank. And Israel rejects that. So I asked them to accept Gaza only. And the day after I left Israel, Hamas proposed to Israel that they have a 60 day ceasefire in Gaza alone, which Israel rejected.
So not attacking Israel and recognizing Israel's right to exist, Hamas has agreed to both of those propositions.
QUESTION: There is some disagreements between the Secretary of State and yourself about the course of dialogue that occurred before you made the trip.
PRESIDENT CARTER: Sure.
QUESTION: Set the record straight. Exactly what sort of dialogue took place before you left?
PRESIDENT CARTER: Well, as has been the case with me for 25 years, since I left the White House, when I go into a sensitive area of the world, I generally call the National Security Advisor or the Secretary of State in advance to let them know where I'm going, with whom I'm going to meet and that sort of thing. So I put in a call for Condoleezza Rice about two weeks before I went to arrive in Israel, because I was going to Nepal in between. And she was in Europe.
So the Assistant Secretary of State for Mid East Affairs called me back on her behalf. And he and I had a very pleasant 20 minute conversation, during which there was never any request or even a hint that I should not go to Syria, that I should no go and meet with Hamas or anything else of that kind. And that's the only conversation I had with anybody in Washington or in our government about my trip.
And then I know that Condoleezza Rice I respect her as a woman of integrity, of honesty. I think that her problem has been that she has just been misinformed. The only hint of caution was submitted to Dr. Robert Pastor, who made the prior trip to make arrangements for my visits. And he was told by the State Department spokesperson, it might be dangerous for President Carter to go to Gaza since security would be difficult. So we didn't go to Gaza. But there was nothing in there about not speaking to the President of Syria, not speaking to Hamas.
QUESTION: Are you surprised that President Bush hasn't criticized you for making the trip? It's seems that he has been careful, perhaps, in
PRESIDENT CARTER: He knows. I think that now President Bush has found out what actually happened, that I was not warned. And so I noticed in I saw a transcript of his press conference I think yesterday. He said he wouldn't talk to Hamas, but he thought that other people, including me, should have a perfect right to speak to whom we chose. So I think that was a fair statement.
QUESTION: Last question. What's the next book? What's the next project?
PRESIDENT CARTER: Well, I will continue, I hope the rest of my active life, to try to bring peace to Israel. And it may be that my next book will be an up to date assessment of what's going on in Israel and the surrounding countries that might be beneficial to a new President. My hope is that the next President will announce, on Inauguration Day, or soon, that they're going to begin, that he or she is going to begin immediately to try to bring peace to Israel and its neighbors, and not wait until the last few months of their administration, as was done under President Clinton or President Bush.
QUESTION: President Carter, it's always a pleasure to talk to you. Thank you very much for joining us here on the Voice of America.
PRESIDENT CARTER: I enjoyed it. I'm glad to talk to you and people around the world.
(End of interview.)
In a wide-ranging interview with VOA's Kane Farabaugh, Mr. Carter defended his decision to meet with Hamas and strongly criticized the Bush administration's Middle East policies. He also spoke about the race for the Democratic party's presidential nomination and when he plans to endorse a candidate-- either Senator Barack Obama or Senator Hillary Clinton. Mr. Carter was touring the U.S. to promote his latest book, "A Remarkable Mother," about the late Lillian Carter, and the influence this strong woman had on his views about gender, race, politics and family. The book was timed to coincide with Mothers Day in the U.S., May 11.
QUESTION: We have former President Jimmy Carter. We're going to talk first about the newest release that you have, "A Remarkable Mother." I know that this is timed close to Mothers' Day, but let's talk about the motivation in writing the book at this point in your life.
PRESIDENT CARTER: Well, I wrote it because I think that for many Americans there's kind of a cloudy image of what it means to be a notable American. And my mother, among all the people I've known in my life, was the most perfect example, in my opinion, of what an American ought to be. She was bold, courageous, outspoken, indomitable. And she used her freedom, under very severe restraints, to address the most difficult and troubling and embarrassing issues that were prevalent in America of her day. And that was racial segregation that lasted for 100 years after the Civil War. And that was supported by the Supreme Court and the Congress, as Separate but Equal.
Mother saw that as a crime against humanity and a violation of her basic religious beliefs. So she never paid any attention to that. And she was the only person that I ever knew in my growing up years that treated and reached out to our neighbors, African Americans, all on an equal basis. In fact, she started out as a registered nurse. At first she was in charge of the operating room, and then she nursed for money when we really needed it during the Depression. She got $4 a day from the hospital to nurse patients in the hospital.
And then later she saw all of our neighbors where I lived were black and extremely poor; we didn't have any white neighbors. So she quit nursing in the hospital and began to nurse the poor people around us. She was almost like a doctor; she was highly trained.
And the standard service then was 20 hours a day in the home of a sick person. And the nurse was expected to take care of the children and everything else. So momma would just get off duty four hours each day, from 10 o’clock at night until 2 o’clock in the morning. And she would come home and wash her nurse's uniform and take a shower and put instructions for us children the next day on a desk and then she would go back to duty. And she rarely got paid for it, and she didn't care.
Sometimes a family would give her a little pig or some chickens or eggs or black eyed peas or something, trying to pay her. But she thought that her life should be devoted, in that little, tiny community in south Georgia, a very conservative region of America, to combating discrimination against black people. And she continued that all her life.
In fact, when she was 70 years old, she was in the Peace Corps in India, still dealing with the poorest and black people again, who were suffering from leprosy and so forth. And she was in effect an untouchable herself since she had to deal with bodily fluids and other unclean things.
QUESTION: Would you characterize your mother as an independent woman at a time when that was not a characteristic of many women across the South.
PRESIDENT CARTER: Well, I would. There were some stalwart women, though, that survived the Civil War. You have to remember how many men were killed during the War Between the States. And so their wives would inherit responsibility for the family, their widows. So she was not an anomaly in being a strong willed woman. She was almost unique in addressing the race issue as she did.
And she was an evocative spirit. She had a bubbling over sense of humor. She could titillate people to be her most intimate friends, or sometimes, if she didn't like them, her enemies. Later, when I was President, for instance, she would go on the talk shows, Merv Griffin or Johnny Carson or even Walter Cronkite, and her ebullient spirit would just let her take over the entire program, where it looked like she was the host and they were the guest.
And it sometimes caused me some discomfort, because she was completely at ease about what she said, or irresponsible in what she said. So the next day, if I had a press conference, the first question would be: Mr. President, how do you respond to what your mother said last night on the Johnny Carson Show? And I got in the habit of saying, look, I'm not responsible for what my momma said. She has a life of her own to lead.
But she and my wife, Rosalynn, were the two basic reasons that I was elected President. Because, in 1975 and 1976, I didn't have any money. We never had enough money to stay in a hotel. And mother and Rosalynn were out campaigning every day, five days a week, in different places from me or each other. And since I won by a narrow margin, I think it's accurate to say that if it hadn't been for my momma and her campaigning, and Rosalynn's of course, I wouldn't have been elected.
QUESTION: In reading the book, it's interesting, because the plan at first was to allow your mother to raise the children while you and the family, or the immediate family, had campaigned. But your mother insisted that she join the campaign because she thought she could do the most use for you.
PRESIDENT CARTER: Well, she could. At first what we thought would be mother's duty was taking care of Amy, who at that time was just a very tiny child. And she did that for a few months. And then she turned that duty over to Rosalynn's mother, and momma went on the campaign trail. That's right.
(Interruption from someone off microphone.)
PRESIDENT CARTER: No, I'm fine.
QUESTION: Okay. What lessons what are the most important lessons that she has instilled in you or the most important characteristics that she has given to you that you continue to practice every day of your life?
PRESIDENT CARTER: (Chuckles.) Well, I don't want to attribute my characteristics to momma directly. But my father died while I was still in the Navy. And I came home in 1953, and from then on until mother died she was the only parent I had. So she obviously affected me a lot.
Well, when mother was 70 years old, she wrote in her diary that if she had one wish for her children it was, in effect, for them to do things that were interesting and titillating and adventurous and unpredictable and she used the phrase not give a damn what anybody says about you. And so I think in many ways all of her children kind of inherited that inclination to try to carve out for ourselves, depending on our ability and opportunities, challenging things to do and interesting things to do and innovative things to do and not be too concerned about public opinion.
QUESTION: Have you been able to get over the fact that she sort of favored Billy as the star of the family?
PRESIDENT CARTER: Well, she always protected the least in the family. And when I became President of the United States and my sister Ruth became a worldwide famous evangelist, and that sort of thing, mother habitually said that Billy was the smartest one in the family. Which none of us disagreed. Billy, when he was working with me at Carter's Warehouse in Plains, Georgia, I would get there at 6 o’clock in the morning, and by the time I arrived, Billy had already read five newspapers and the weekly news magazines. He was an expert on politics and international affairs and a special expert on professional baseball.
And he used his encyclopedic knowledge of things to win a lot of money. Because unsuspecting farmers would come in to buy fertilizer or seed and Billy would make some ridiculous statement it sounded ridiculous but it was accurate and they would get up a bet and he would pick up a little cash. So he was always on the cutting edge of arguments and debates and telling jokes. He and mother were a lot alike.
QUESTION: Because of your mother's influence, is it fair to say that race really wasn't an issue that you were knowledgeable about until you went into the Navy?
PRESIDENT CARTER: I was immersed from tiny childhood in a black community. I wrote a book called "Hour Before Daylight" about my young years, before I went off to the Navy. And at the end of the book I tried to think of the five people that shaped my life, in addition to my mother and father. Of those five, only two of them are white. The other three were black people who literally shaped who I am and the way I think and the way I deal with moral values and the way I deal with religious issues and things of that kind.
So I'm a product of the finest aspects of African American culture, and I'm very proud of it.
QUESTION: Does it trouble you then to watch the current campaign and see how race is creeping into this contest?
PRESIDENT CARTER: It does. And I think that there is a lot of racism still in the political arena of America. In fact, since 1964, the Republicans have capitalized on the race issue in the South, and they've been able to carry the States almost every year because of subtle things about race, like the Confederate flag or whatever. And it's still there. And I am troubled by it. And I hope that this year will bring an end to it, or a substantial end.
My mother would be delighted to see a black man and a woman with the potential of becoming president. That would be a breakthrough for her and she would like it.
And I think she would advise both candidates not to give up until the last minute. If she was running for something, she would never give up. And so I think that just because you get a few votes behind, she would say: Stick with it, you never know what's going to happen.
So I think that and my mother was very active in politics. I say that in the book. I described the 1964 presidential election, when, not many people remember, but Lyndon Johnson completely wrote off the South. He never campaigned a day in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, or Louisiana. He gave those States to Goldwater, and Goldwater won. My mother became Johnson's campaign manager in our county. She was about the only white person that came out publicly for Johnson.
And she would go to campaign headquarters, her headquarters, every day and park her Cadillac in front of the place. And when she came out at night the radio antenna would be tied in a knot or broken off, and the car would be covered with filthy language, written in soap and other things, on the side of her car. She would just grin and come home and wash the car and go back to work the next day.
QUESTION: You’ve said in previous interviews you're intrigued by Barak Obama's campaign.
PRESIDENT CARTER: Yes.
QUESTION: And these are exciting times to be a candidate and to be a voter. Are you close to an endorsement?
PRESIDENT CARTER: No. Rosalyn and I have taken a policy since I left the White House of not endorsing a political candidate before the primary season is over. And I've said publicly and I'll adhere to it that I won't make any public declaration of my choice until after June the 3rd, or between then and the convention.
QUESTION: Are you concerned for the Democratic Party having such a late start to sort of collect the energies for the general election? Is this helping or hurting whatever candidate comes out in front? Is it helping or hurting them that this primary season is lasting as long as it is without a declared nominee?
PRESIDENT CARTER: I don't know. But I don't think it's hurting. A lot of intensely committed supporters of both Ms. Clinton and Obama have been inspired to come out and invest their lives, in effect, in their candidate's race, a lot of them for the first time. And I think that enthusiasm will carry over. And I don't have any doubt that after a clear winner is identified the earlier the better that the loser will support the winner and almost all of the loser's supporters will also support the winner.
I can't imagine any appreciable number of the Democrats supporting McCain in November. A few, yes. But the only loss will be a few of those that I mentioned earlier that are absolutely new to politics and have come out basically to support Obama, very young people and African Americans, who have never been in politics before. They might very well stay at home and not go to the polls in November, but they won't vote for a Republican.
QUESTION: I want to shift gears a little bit here.
PRESIDENT CARTER: Of course.
QUESTION: Are you surprised by the backlash that you're receiving for your recent visit with the leaders of Hamas? Is this something that came unexpectedly to you, or were you prepared for the criticism?
PRESIDENT CARTER: I was prepared for it. And the backlash is greatly exaggerated. For instance, when I left home, there was a poll in Israel just among the Israeli Jews, not among the 20 percent who are Arabs 64 percent of those polled said that Israel should be negotiating fulltime with Hamas. Because the Israelis know the history of Hamas and the background, how they won the last election, free and fair, and subsequently were declared to be terrorists and excluded from the process. And also the Israelis know that there is no way for Israel to have peace with the Palestinians unless Hamas is involved. Sixty four percent.
The other night I was on the Larry King Show. And CNN had one of their polls, call in and vote: Should Jimmy Carter have visited Hamas or not?
The poll results were 70 percent yes, he should have gone, and 30 percent no. So America is basically for me and the Israeli population is for me. The governments of the two countries I think are wrong in not dealing with Hamas and in not dealing with Syria. Because there is no way that Israel can have peace with their next door neighbors, the Palestinians, or with Syria, without at least talking to the people with whom they disagree. So I think I was right in going.
QUESTION: The Anti Defamation League has taken the forefront in really criticizing the book, "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid." And they're also critical of your visit recently.
PRESIDENT CARTER: I know.
QUESTION: Their contention is that just by the fact that you visit with Hamas provides legitimacy to the way that they behave and the act: not recognizing Israel as a state, the continued attacks into Israeli territory against Israeli citizens. Do you feel that way when you
PRESIDENT CARTER: No, I don't. First of all, my visit didn't legitimize or de legitimize anybody. Hamas was legitimized by the fact that in the election two years ago, in 2006, they ran for public office all over Palestine, the West Bank and Gaza, in an open election that was supported by the United States, approved by Israel and the other Palestinians, and they won. They won a majority of the parliamentary seats. And they were subsequently excluded from the government by pressure from the United States and from Israel. And they were then de legitimized by declaring them to be terrorists.
And you mentioned two things. Not recognizing Israel. I took a question to the Hamas leadership, the top leadership, the head of the politburo and so forth. All of them live in Damascus, Syria. And I asked them to pledge to me that they would accept the results of any negotiation that was concluded between the present Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and the Israelis if it was submitted even if they disagree if it was submitted to the Palestinians in a referendum and approved. They said yes, we'll do that. And they authorized me to announce that when I got back to Israel. Which I did.
As far as violence is concerned, I asked them to stop the violence in Gaza. Because prior to my visit Hamas had always said: We will only have a ceasefire if it includes both Gaza and the West Bank. And Israel rejects that. So I asked them to accept Gaza only. And the day after I left Israel, Hamas proposed to Israel that they have a 60 day ceasefire in Gaza alone, which Israel rejected.
So not attacking Israel and recognizing Israel's right to exist, Hamas has agreed to both of those propositions.
QUESTION: There is some disagreements between the Secretary of State and yourself about the course of dialogue that occurred before you made the trip.
PRESIDENT CARTER: Sure.
QUESTION: Set the record straight. Exactly what sort of dialogue took place before you left?
PRESIDENT CARTER: Well, as has been the case with me for 25 years, since I left the White House, when I go into a sensitive area of the world, I generally call the National Security Advisor or the Secretary of State in advance to let them know where I'm going, with whom I'm going to meet and that sort of thing. So I put in a call for Condoleezza Rice about two weeks before I went to arrive in Israel, because I was going to Nepal in between. And she was in Europe.
So the Assistant Secretary of State for Mid East Affairs called me back on her behalf. And he and I had a very pleasant 20 minute conversation, during which there was never any request or even a hint that I should not go to Syria, that I should no go and meet with Hamas or anything else of that kind. And that's the only conversation I had with anybody in Washington or in our government about my trip.
And then I know that Condoleezza Rice I respect her as a woman of integrity, of honesty. I think that her problem has been that she has just been misinformed. The only hint of caution was submitted to Dr. Robert Pastor, who made the prior trip to make arrangements for my visits. And he was told by the State Department spokesperson, it might be dangerous for President Carter to go to Gaza since security would be difficult. So we didn't go to Gaza. But there was nothing in there about not speaking to the President of Syria, not speaking to Hamas.
QUESTION: Are you surprised that President Bush hasn't criticized you for making the trip? It's seems that he has been careful, perhaps, in
PRESIDENT CARTER: He knows. I think that now President Bush has found out what actually happened, that I was not warned. And so I noticed in I saw a transcript of his press conference I think yesterday. He said he wouldn't talk to Hamas, but he thought that other people, including me, should have a perfect right to speak to whom we chose. So I think that was a fair statement.
QUESTION: Last question. What's the next book? What's the next project?
PRESIDENT CARTER: Well, I will continue, I hope the rest of my active life, to try to bring peace to Israel. And it may be that my next book will be an up to date assessment of what's going on in Israel and the surrounding countries that might be beneficial to a new President. My hope is that the next President will announce, on Inauguration Day, or soon, that they're going to begin, that he or she is going to begin immediately to try to bring peace to Israel and its neighbors, and not wait until the last few months of their administration, as was done under President Clinton or President Bush.
QUESTION: President Carter, it's always a pleasure to talk to you. Thank you very much for joining us here on the Voice of America.
PRESIDENT CARTER: I enjoyed it. I'm glad to talk to you and people around the world.
(End of interview.)
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