Likening Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama to a political “trailblazer,” singer Barbra Streisand has become the latest Hollywood celebrity to join the Obama campaign bandwagon, switching from her past support of Sen. Hillary Clinton.
“Barack has awakened in many of us the notion that we can again be hopeful, enabling us to believe that we are capable of lifting our brothers and sisters out of poverty, of providing quality education for all our children, of ending this unjust war in Iraq and bringing our troops home 
safely,” Streisand wrote on Tuesday in a posting on her Web site, http://www.barbrastreisand.com/.
“He’s reminded us ‘yes we can’…we can make the transition from fossil fuels to green energy; we can take care of our elderly and make sure that good healthcare is not just a perk for a few, but a right for every man, woman and child,” she said. ”We are experiencing not just a presidential campaign, but a movement; a movement of inspired young people who have been cynical about politics for too long.”
Since narrowly defeating Clinton at the end of the U.S. primary elections in June, Obama, a Democrat from Illinois, has picked up numerous endorsements. Clinton, a U.S. Senator from New York, has appeared with him in a show of Democratic party unity. Last week, Obama held a fundraiser in Los Angeles that raised some $4 million to $5 million, and several Hollywood stars such as Dennis Quaid and Samuel L. Jackson were there.
Streisand, of course, is a major Hollywood celebrity and fundraiser for Democrats. Yet, celebrity endorsements have a mixed track record in helping candidates, the experts say. Republican candidate Sen. John McCain also has celebrity endorsements including from actors Sylvester Stallone and Robert Duvall.
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And…. we even CARE what she thinks because what? She is a leadership and policy expert due to her career as a SINGER???
- Posted by Cliff D.YAAWWNN!
- Posted by satchB.S. may buy the Obama B.S. and in all likelihood enough sheeple out there will buy the ‘Hope and Change’ B.S., but what isn’t B.S. is that Obama will make Jimmy Carter like halfway competent.
I’m not a John McCain fan, but B. Hussain Obama will severly damage this country, especially with the socialist dems in charge of congress.
- No country EVER taxed itself into prosperity.
- No country EVER regulated itself into prosperity.
- No government program (at any level) is achieving its goals.
- No government program (at any level) is staying within its budget.
Obama is big government tax and spend. He talks change, but he’s a rehash of LBS’s failed policies. It’s like he copied LBJ’s memoires and put a cover stating “Obama’s Policies for Change” on it. It’s becoming a cliche, but the truth is change is all you’ll have left in your pocket.
- Posted by John HunterHey homeboy, Rank asked for 5 reasons barack hussein obama is qualified to be President. I wouldn’t hire this bozo to pick my dogs poop. Not one of your reasons qualifies him. Nice try though.
- Posted by JoeStreisand supporting a democrat? Say it isn’t so!
- Posted by networthPlease tell me you haven’t picked up your ball and gone home, “rank”.
- Posted by homeboyAnd, “rank”, since you asked nicely, here’s your list:
1) Senator Obama’s fight for universal children’s health care in Illinois.
2) His success bringing Republicans and Democrats together on bills such as the one in Illinois requiring police interrogations and confessions to be videotaped.
3) His leadership on ethics reform in Washington (the bill that lobbyists and special interests are complaining about right now has his name on it).
4) His bill to make the federal budget far more transparent and accessible to Americans via the Internet — we could use that openness in Texas.
5) And his vital work with Republicans to lock down nuclear weapons around the world.
There you go.
- Posted by homeboyStreisand backs Obama — duh!
- Posted by normalWhat is the purpose of this story? Are we to lend any more credence to the opinion of an over the hill singer/actress than that of anyone else in this country?
- Posted by TerryOkay “rank” here’s where I ask you to do the same thing.
If you think Obama should have 5 accomplishments that qualify him for President in his 4 years in the Senate, then please give me 27 accomplishments of McCain’s that qualify him for President - after all, he’s been in Congress for 26 years now.
And, no, being associated with the Keating 5 does not count as one of the 27.
- Posted by homeboyThis one’s for you “rank” - you asked for it:
No Democrat, including Senator Hillary Clinton has been able to do one hell of a lot that meets the accomplishment benchmark of “passed legislation” in a time of unending, record-setting Republican obstructionism.
Obama has been in the Senate for three years, two of which were spent with a Republican majority that would not even let legislation sponsored by Democrats reach the floor for a vote and, on the few occasions where Bill Frist granted such a luxury, Republicans shot down most Democratic initiatives with extreme prejudice.
In the current (110th) Congress, the Republican minority has blocked everything but the Senate chaplain’s morning prayer and is on pace by a wide margin to filibuster more legislation than any Senate in U.S. history.
And there’s the answer that the Texas state senator should have given on Tuesday night in response to Matthews’ badgering. He should have been able to list just a few of Obama’s legislative efforts but, far more importantly, he should have been in tune enough with the national legislative scene to say “Chris, have you been watching the U.S. Senate the last few years?”
He could then have gone on to discuss how Republicans have had a significant Senate majority for most of this young century and, during the brief periods Democrats have held a razor-thin edge, the GOP has made damn sure that the Democratic side of the aisle has no “legislative accomplishments” to hang their hats on in election years.
There you go, “rank”.
- Posted by homeboyWho cares? Apparently every one of you who took the time to post on this issue. If it didn’t matter to you, you wouldn’t have clicked on the article AND spent the time posting a comment.
1) For the record an Elite is someone who is the most accomplished person in his or her field. We have an elite military and the most elite scientists in the world. To call Senator Obama elite is to acknowledge that he is one of the best our country has to offer.
He and his wife worked hard for everything they have. They sacrificed “hanging out”, partying and being slackers to go to the library and study. Even with all their student loans, they went on to law school and were brilliant. Unlike George W. Bush, whom barely got anything higher than C’s in school and had to have his parents bribe the addmissions committee just to get his butt in. Taking the place of another student who was better and brighter. Bush’s only jobs in life also were given to him by his parents. He managed to bankrupt every company he ever took over. Being born with a silver spoon in your mouth allows you to be a slacker your entire life and still become president of the United States- a job previously reserved for an elite person.
Just because he was smarter than the average person and managed to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time is a reason to respect him not insult him. Republican Bobby Jindal of Louisiana is also an Elite person, he is only 36 years old and is the youngest person ever to be elected governor. He was elected secretary of health at the age of 24. They are both smart people with great judgement. I don’t hear any bashing of Governor Jindal by the media or blogs for his youth or “in-experience”.
Senator McCain is also an elite person. He excelled in the military and has also been an excellent senator, making a name for himself.
2) The reason that you are poor and have no jobs is due to the 7 years of republican mismangement. Bush and the republican congress have taken all the surplus from the country and washed it down the drain with nothing to show for it. After running out of money, they got credit cards from China and other countries and have run up the tab like a drunken sailor. Leaving our gengeration and our children’s generation with the burden of paying off the bill (plus interest) China now owns 25% of the U.S.A. That’s how you pay for a war costing a billion/WEEK and cutting taxes for 1% of the population. As you can see, getting C’s and D’s in math made Bush believe 1+1=7.
3) Contrary to popular delusions, any economist will tell you that you can’t live the rest of your life on credit cards, sooner or later your house, cars, and everything you own will be taken to pay off your debt, e.g. the united states of China.
A government is set up to collect taxes from the people and pay for their needs: fixing roads, paying for a military, paying employees, public transportation, police officers, public education etc.
If a government decides that the lowest paid workers in the country should pay 100% of taxes and the wealthiest 1% left alone, it not only gets bankrupted it becomes Russia after the soviet union fell apart with no jobs or food.
Trickle-down economics has been shown to be a failure both during the 80’s and during Bush’s 7-years. The income of CEO’s countinues to grow in leaps, while the income of their workers moves rapidly in the opposite direction. How many of you have been fired and paid millions of dollars as a parting gift?
Every time a CEO is fired, thousands of workers have to be laid off to pay for the ex-CEO’s parting “gift”. Lack of regulations in the businness world by republicans have lead up to crazy costs in gas, the housing crisis, poor control in the FDA, and many, many other important parts of the American infrusture.
4) The dollar is falling like crazy, cost of food, transportation, clothing is out of country.
Are American’s better off today than they were 10 years ago (prior to Republican control)? No.
5) Freedom, justice, freedom of the press and the American way, has suffered greatly under Republican rule.
Republicans USED to stand for small government, personal privacy, and self determination.
Our government has grown larger under Bush than any past Democratic leader, the republicans want to intrude on every aspect of people’s private lives, from spying in your bedroom to your bank account to our doctor’s office.
They have shown poor judgement in hiring ELITE people, and settling for buddies who are incompetent and can’t even program a microwave.
5) Moral Republicans is like saying saintly prostitues. What part of cheating the elderly, the poor, and workers out of their funds is moral. Greed is not a virtue. Pro-family? In the primaries, only 1 republican was divorce-free, the rest were on their 2nd, 3rd or 4th wives. For some of us who are catholic that says it all.
Even McCain, left his wife during her time of suffering from cancer to hang out with Cindy (but to be fair, McCain has never jumped on the morality train or pretended to be what he isn’t).
How do republicans claim to be pro-life but fight for the right to let our soliders die daily in Iraq, fight to kill people in jail, allow children to die from malnutrion, or remain unadopted. I guess they are “pro-life” until you go from a fetus to a completely birthed human being, thus Pro-fetus but not pro-live born.
6) You want to know what Senator Obama stands for and his policies? Take the wax out of your ears and listen to an entire speech instead of a sound bite. Watched any of the 17 debates during the primaries? Read a newspaper, policy websites, or his website and you will get over 20 pages of specific policy plans and details.
Furthermore, he has published TWO books on every detail of his personal life and his policies. From those sources, you would have learned what his comments on the supreme court ruling meant: that he is against the death penalty except when it comes to crimes against children-including rape. But also respects the ruling of the judicial branch of government.
Whenever, I hear someone say that they don’t know any thing about Senator Obama, I assume that they are either blind, deaf, or just illiterate.
- Posted by stampedeSticking her nose in… oh heck never mind. If she reads this an breaths in we will al be out of air.
- Posted by rankBabs is still as nutty as ever. If she suggested that we never vote for a reptile for presedent I would vote for the reptile.
- Posted by lschmidtAny we are supposed to be surprised by this ??? And where in the Constitution does it say that everyone has a right to healthcare ? How many sick people has she helped lately ? And lifting our poor brothers and sisters out of poverty ? Poverty and being “poor” is a state of mind - these people are broke and broke for a reason - they have not applied themselves at the level necessary to avoid being broker.
- Posted by JeffIdiot, fool, gullible. As far as “we” goes, I heard a lib caller on the radio the other day. Asked whether the government should bail out people who cannot pay their mortgages he replied, “yes, otherwise the taxpayers will have to…..” Duh!
- Posted by moronpoliticsI just followed her link in the story. There is no place to send comments, just order crap and hear her rants.
I’m sure 98% of any response she would receive would be negative.
- Posted by Yellow DogI love RICH Democrats who tell us the Democrats will save us. No, they will bankrupt us, only Barbara will continue to have MILLIONS after the tax man cometh.
I remember Babs helping out in a soup kitchen once, she was serving soup to the homeless ( NY City) to show her compassion. Only thing is, she just lent her image to the event, not her $$$$ Millions$$$$, she just wanted to public to give your money.
The woman has no morals. During a recent concert, she stopped the music and started her DEMOCRAT rant, a paid patron stood up, told her to shut up and sing, they hadn’t paid for a political announcement, just singing. He was removed and throw out of the concert, no refund.
What a classy lady, do as I say, not as I do. Typical Democrat.
- Posted by Yellow DogCould she not just stick to singing and acting?
- Posted by DianneWeren’t you one of the knuckle dragging, Paleo-liberals who promised to leave the U.S. if Bush was elected??? Why are you still here?
- Posted by James X