Barack Obama has reached the delegate count that should give him the nomination... 

Please note the language I have chosen, it is quite deliberate.. he has reached the number that is set by the DNC for the nomination but there are still outstanding issues.. Clinton may still pose a challenge at the convention ...
unless she is offered/accepts a VP nod..

What do you think?  Is it over?   Should he choose her as a VP?  Will that affect who you vote for?

These are the speeches I worked on for my class...  I have also added some notes and stuff for me to think through,,but wanted to put it out there.. because I feel good about it..

[Edit:  Pissed at my class who mostly came with NOTHING.. at least nothing relevent.. Constitutional right to Recycling???  come on!!!... if you wanna skip the speeches.. i made a tiny slip in class that showed my true colors i guess..read the bottom of this post] 

Expanding President Requirements

Article II Section 1 states that “No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President.”

I propose that this requirement be eliminated   We should include naturalized citizens, specifically, those who have entered the country as minors, in the conditions for Presidency.

I know that when I initially proposed this requirement, there was some hesitation because this kind of citizen was not American enough.  But, what constitutes being American enough?  Is Americanism an inherent quality of this piece of soil on this Continent?   Or, is it a spirit and loyalty to the ideals of this nation?   

As we know loyalty to country is not an inherent quality.  We have at lease two examples of people who fit the current qualifications for the presidency but are terrorists Timothy McVeigh and John Walker Lindh.

Yet, there are millions of people who have come to this country with their families, are raised in our communities, taught in our schools, immersed in our culture who have the qualities and qualifications for the Presidency.   Instead they are barred merely because they were not birthed within our borders.    I say, we are a democratic society.  Instead of barring him/her from the office, allow him/her to compete for it as any other citizen and let we the People decide whether or not he/she can represent us.

Article for the People

The Constitution itself is a document dedicated to the People, to us; providing the framework for our government.  But, it was created in a time when “the People” were feared as an ignorant and irrational mob.  The government created was one that provided us with the freedom from the government.  For example, our Bill of Rights is a list of freedoms from government harassment and oppression.  What is missing is an empowerment of the people to have the freedom and duty to participate in the government.  Just as there are articles dedicated to each branch of the government Article I Legislative, Article II Executive, Article III Judiciary, Article IV State, I am proposing that a new Article added to the body of the Constitution dedicated to the Duties and Rights of the People  to reflect the integral nature of the people in government. 

What I would like to be included in the Constitution is a specific clause that states the Citizens of the United States have the duty to form an educated and engaged electorate.  Provisions to this clause should include:

Voting as a mandatory exercise of citizenship
Jury Duty and Poll operations as mandatory
          (at least 1 per lifetime but regulated by the states)

            A mandatory public service commitment for up to 2 years. 

Voter recall and referendum rights when elected officials and policies are      
              ineffective
[Education has been discussed by others.  But, at minimum, the government should fund education up to college (with public service) Aside from public education, I would like to see additional civic workshops/programs to get people more involved and aware of how they can participate.  I also feel that there should be a civics test comparable to ones taken by Naturalized Citizens]

Additionally, Amendments 1, 3-10, 13-15, 19, 24, and 26 should be added to list the rights of the Individual citizen.

It is time to correct the Aristocratic tendencies of the Founders and give the power back to the People. 

oh yeah.. this too....

Electoral College:  I agree that the electoral college should be eliminated but the question becomes "What replaces it?" As we discussed in our group, there are consequences to a direct popular vote. There is the potential for a candidate to ignore all low population states and win California, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Florida and still become President; disenfranchising smaller states like Kansas or Washington from the electoral process.

The following is my proposed replacement for the electoral college system:

A Presidential nominee must have 45% of the popular vote in at least 45 states in order to qualify for the Presidency. In order to win the Presidency, he/she must win 60% of the vote in at least 40 states. If this threshold is not obtained, then the election will be decided by which candidate won the greater number of states by at least 10%.

So i'm in class and we are talking about the election .. somebody brings up the idea of a combined ticket.. Obama Clinton.. i say  well that may be the way to save him from assisination.. my friend cracked up but the rest of the class looked horrified..   When my TA tried to reason it out with me I basically said that the people who would want to kill Obama.. don't like Clinton either.. or Pelosi for that matter.  Now if he didn't choose Clinton then he would likely pick Webb of Virginia for his military experience and honestly to pick up more white votes.. well the people who would want to kill Obama.. would LOVE him!   TA was shocked.. My response.. when it comes to governance.. theory of democracy, liberty.. I'm pretty idealistic.. but when we are talking race/ethnicity.. i can be quite cynical..

Anyway I tell hubby this story and he's like don't forget that if its a Clinton Obama ticket there wouldn't be some people who would kill her to give Obama the Presidency  (reminding me of a Chris Rock joke)    I'm not so sure about this one.. my guess is that she would have double the protection to prevent that sort of thing from happening.. but whatever.

So I know that Rev. Al Sharpton is a lightning rod for criticism..and maybe some people just don't get the implications of the Sean Bell case.. but reading this pissed me off..  while I am drafting an intelligent response to this post I figured I would share it with you.