Showing posts with label Primaries. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Primaries. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Poisoning the Well
I'm pretty significantly depressed this evening.
I went to a going-away function some friends at work threw me and I chatted with a friend of mine who I haven't talked to in months. As it turns out, she was a huge Clinton supporter and launched into a tirade about how Obama was terribly sexist throughout his campaign and that she planned on not voting in the general election as a result.
I have read a bunch of pontificating about how Clinton supporters are wounded and hurt that their candidate didn't win. I have read a bunch of commentary arguing that the benefits of Clinton's gender (in terms of her strong female following in the primary) were far outweighed by the rampant negative sexism employed to tear her down. I have bought into the general notion that most of this anger and grief over Clinton's fall was centralized among so-called "low-information" voters.
Well, I got a dose of reality tonight. My work friend is a highly informed, highly intelligent corporate litigator. She is the first truly engaged friend of mine I've come across to hold the views I noted above.
My conversation with her makes me depressed because a lot of the anger and vitriol that my friend (and thousands of other Clinton supporters out there) holds in her heart could have been mitigated somewhat by Clinton bowing out more gracefully without launching a months-long umbrage campaign about how all the horrible sexism in this country was the main thing holding her back.
Look, there was sexism in this campaign and there was racism. All true. But, let's be honest. Clinton didn't win the nomination for much more enormous reasons than her gender.
She ran an antiquated 1990s campaign in the 21st century.
She failed to attempt to leverage online donors until it was too late.
She relied on the profoundly flawed advice of Mark Penn, who will likely go down as one of the worst campaign strategists in modern memory.
She failed to contest the caucus states.
She ran an "experience" campaign in a "change" election season.
And the list goes on and on.
It really galls me to think that a strong progressive women like my friend will be turned off enough to either not vote (like my friend) or vote for McCain due in large part to Clinton choosing to pour gasoline on the simmering flames of sexism among her supporters.
I won't sleep well tonight.
Monday, June 9, 2008
Conservatives Ambivalent About McCain
Conservative commentator Bay Buchanan has an interesting piece up today on a site that I refuse to link to, due to the fact that it includes some really distorted articles on Obama and a promotes a misleading Obama "Google Bomb".
Anyway, she is the sister of Republican stalwart Pat Buchanan and a leading conservative voice. Here is what she had to say about McCain and Obama in an article from last week:
John McCain is relevant only in so far as he is not Barack Obama. The Senator from Arizona is incapable of energizing his party, brings no new people to the polls, and has a personality that is best kept under wraps. And while his strong suite [sic] is experience, especially on military matters, it was gained almost entirely in Washington, a city that 80% of Americans now believe has miserably misled and mismanaged the nation.
...
As a candidate Obama is bigger than life. Die-hard liberals are euphoric over his nomination. He is seen as the real thing -- a man who believes what he says and says what he believes. His candidacy has mobilized millions of new voters, held massive rallies, and raised money faster than Federal Reserve can print it. Obama is a gifted candidate who has that intangible quality most candidates only dream about -- he moves voters -- which gives his campaign enormous energy and excitement.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Time for Everyone to Stop the "Popular Vote" Argument
Senator Dianne Feinstein, one of Sen. Clinton's closest supporters, kept pushing the false "Clinton won the popular vote" meme today on This Week with George Stephanopoulus:
"Hillary Clinton is well known, certainly she had the popular vote in this election."
Sen. Dianne Feinstein reiterated that Clinton had won the popular vote — an assertion that is not accepted by Illinois Democrat Sen. Barack Obama’s camp and one that, if repeated often, could harm Democratic attempts to unify behind him.
If this meme keeps getting repeated, it will metastasize the (largely justified) disappointment and hurt that Clinton supporters are feeling right now and will solidify for them the notion that Hillary was somehow robbed of the nomination.
Unlike in the general election where every state has their citizens cast a ballot for President, the democratic primaries involve both primaries (where each person casts their vote) and caucuses, where people gather in a room, express their support for their candidate and, from such internal voting, delegates for each caucus are apportioned to the state convention. As a result, the popular vote numbers that you see are not apples-to-apples comparisons.
Now add to the mix that Obama was not on the ballot in Michigan (from which state Clinton supporters continue to insist that Obama got zero votes, even though the DNC Rules & Bylaws Committee reached a compromise and apportioned all of "uncommitted" delegates to Obama). In addition, none of the candidates were allowed to campaign for votes in Florida. Further stir into the Michigan and Florida equation the fact that hundreds of thousands of people did not vote because they were told that their vote would not count at the Convention (as reflected in the fact that both states' voter turnout was much lower than expectations) and you get a highly polluted set of data from which to draw "certain" or "unquestionable" conclusions.
Final data point. In Washington, Iowa, Maine and Nevada, these states did not release an official estimate of voter turnout. However, Clinton supporters like Sen. Feinstein are content to completely disregard any tabulation or estimate of the turnout in such states in order to make the damaging argument that Sen. Clinton somehow "won" the popular vote. Are voters' voices in Washington, Iowa, Maine and Nevada not supposed to be heard?
From the above analysis, I hope most of you will agree that the fairest assessment of the popular vote is to give the "uncommitted" Michigan votes to Obama and give both candidates the estimates of voter turnout in Washington, Iowa, Maine and Nevada.
There are only two conclusions to draw:
- If you tally up the popular vote in the fairest and even-handed way described above, you'll see from RealClearPolitics that Obama is ahead of Clinton by 61,703 votes.
- If you decide to tally up the popular vote in some other skewed and selective manner, the vote tally you come up with is too questionable to be asserted by our nation's respected leaders as unquestionable fact.
Obama is now the presumptive nominee.
Hillary Clinton has suspended her campaign and endorsed Obama with a ringing call for party unity.
In the interest of party unity, as so eloquently expressed by Senator Clinton yesterday, we all need let the whole popular vote argument go. It can only serve to make people angry, prolong the grieving process and hurt the Democrat's chances in the fall against John McCain.
Let's All Calm Down and Reflect
I appreciated the bulk of Clinton's speech yesterday but let's not all go overboard here:
It needs to be said that Hillary struck an extraordinarily difficult balancing act with real grace and eloquence. On the one hand, she needed to signal that she has built a movement of her own and to reinforce the idea that she is the undisputed leader of American women -- both as a genuine point of pride and as proof of her undiminishing influence. Hence the repeated references to the 18 million votes she earned.
This is buying into a dangerous meme, as The Jed Report highlights. Sure, she did well among women in many of the primary contests but Obama ran a strong second in the vast majority of states in which Hillary carried the women vote. He also won the female vote in 14 states. "The undisputed leader of American women" is a mantle both deceptive and dangerous. Let's not calcify the us-vs-them wound that needs to heal in the Party.
The vast bulk of Hillary's supporters, 90% or so according to most estimations based on current polling and historical precedent, will come to support Obama after a short time of unity-building. We need to get over the "you got your votes and I got mine" mentality.
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Clinton's Concession Speech
Color me impressed. I generally thought that Clinton's concession speech today hit many of the right notes. Three relatively minor criticisms:
- She spoke at length about fighting for women's issues. However, she did not follow up her point by saying: "Having said all that, I can assure everyone here today that you will find no better champion for women's issues remaining in this campaign than Senator Barack Obama."
- She failed to mention John McCain and make the explicit point that her supporters should not vote for the Republican just because they might feel slighted after the nomination contest.
- She made a passing reference to her intellectually dishonest "18 million" votes, without a forceful climb-down statement that Obama won this contest fair-and-square, with more votes and more delegates. As summarized by RCP, she only validly gets past the 18 million vote threshold if she gives MI "uncommitted" votes to Obama and factors in the caucus voting estimates from IA, NV, WA and ME -- at which point Obama has 18,107,710 votes and she has 18,046,007 (a net plus for Obama of 61,703)
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Hillary Clinton Going Forward
A reader writes:
I think we all need to lighten up on Clinton. There's a high chance at this point that she'll be fitting the VP position, despite all that is wrong with her - the Rev. Wright egging on, non-committal answers about Barack's religion, political exploitation of Florida and Michigan, and ad hominem attacks. We've gotten what we've wanted, Barack on the ballot - now we have to help the Democratic party as a whole.
This is a really weird and tough email to write. I'm the biggest Obama supporter in my small town and have rallied a coalition of fellow high school students around the cause (I will be eligible to vote in November). I've never been able to stand Hillary as a person, but I still believe that at this point in history, we can't afford to keep making negative comments about her.
First of all, thanks very much for your advice and feedback -- and thanks for reading! To address your points, I largely agree with you.
Now that Hillary Clinton will be endorsing Obama on Saturday and suspending her campaign, I agree that further commentary on her machinations would largely not be fruitful. This, of course, comes with a caveat. I will take her at her word that once she suspends her campaign and endorses, she will campaign strongly for Obama and do nothing to undermine him. If this comes to pass, I will hold my
However, as to the VP question, I must respectfully disagree. As I've noted here before, I think that she would be a terrible choice for VP, for a variety of reasons. For full disclosure, I have come to dislike her as a person and a candidate. I don't trust her and believe she has little capacity for honesty or integrity. However, there are a host of less emotional reasons not to want her as VP:
- As recently reported, the big "deal-breaker" would likely be Bill's refusal to fully disclose and open for vetting his questionable business activities after leaving the White House and the donors to his presidential library. Any VP and their family must be vetted and if this can't happen, it's a non-starter.
- One important quality of a VP is the need for them not to overshadow their boss. Take your pick of what Hillary brings to the table that has the huge potential to overshadow Obama.
- As a philosophical matter, Hillary represents (rightly or wrongly) the precise kind of sleazy, do-anything, say-anything Washington insiderism that Obama is running against. Bringing her onto the ticket would tarnish his image as a reformer.
- There are many other posts that Obama could offer and be seen as magnanimous to Clinton supporters, especially if Hillary subsequently discusses how she never wanted the VP job in the first place and that Obama offered and she declined.
- Hillary Clinton on the ticket, whether in the primary or subordinate role, would do for John McCain what he is unable to do himself -- galvanize the Republican base and bring out a better voter turnout.
- There are SO many other good VP picks out there that do not have Hillary's high negatives. Obama can pick a running-mate with solid bona fides without getting tarnished by the 51+% of the country that does not trust Hillary.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Hillary to Drop Out and Endorse Obama on Friday
Again, please God, let this be true. Reports out this evening say that Hillary Clinton will drop out of the race on Friday and endorse Obama.
More Clinton Speech Reactions
I can't stress how much anger I feel at having Clinton manipulate her way into (and piss all over) Obama's grand moment last night.
Here's more reactions to her speech (hat tip Andrew Sullivan)
I don't know what the fallout will be, but at minimum, I'd say that anybody on her staff who cares about their party has a moral obligation to publicly quit and endorse Obama.
If Clinton wants people to believe that she cares more about the Democratic Party than her own career, she is failing badly.
Hillary Clinton had one last chance, tonight, to exit the stage with dignity. She missed it.
JPod:
You don’t get psychodrama like this very often. It’s like political reality TV.
Last Night's Clinton Speech
I woke up this morning still fuming and found an article that sums up much of my feelings about Clinton's graceless, classless non-concession speech last night. Here it is in its entirety: I'm sure plenty of people had strong reactions to that speech Hillary just gave. For my money, the two most outragerous sentiments expressed were (and this is from my rough contemporaneous notes): 1.) "What does Hillary want? ... I want the nearly 18 million Americans who voted for me to be respected, to be heard, no longer to be invisible." Then, a little later, "...Opportunity--that's what I want for every single American… It is a fight I will continue until every single American has health care, no exceptions, no excuses." When Hillary says she wants her 18 million voters to be respected and heard, but opportunity and health care for every single American, she seems to be saying, pretty unambiguously, that not giving her the nomination--not privileging the will of her voters--would be an illegitimate outcome. (Otherwise, why not say you want every single American "respected and heard"?) That's a pretty inflammatory comment. 2.) "To the 18 million people who voted for me, and many other people out there… I want to hear from you… I’ll be consulting with supporters and party leaders, to determine how to move forward, with the best interests of our party and our country in mind." So she's going to leave it to her voters to decide whether she should accept defeat after having, you know, lost? What if every losing candidate left it to their supporters to decide whether or not to accept the outcome of a race? Who would ever accept defeat? What good could possibly come of this? With Hillary proclaiming herself the legitimate winner, they're clearly going to say "keep going." If she actually does keep going, that's a disaster for the Democratic Party. And if she doesn't, you've just drawn a ton of attention to the fact that a large chunk of the party doesn't accept Obama as the legimiate nominee. No, worse: you've encouraged them to think that, then drawn attention to it. What a disaster. Update: Here's the precise version of the first quote: You know, I understand that a lot of people are asking, what does Hillary want? What does she want? Well, I want what I have always fought for in this whole campaign. I want to end the war in Iraq. I want to turn this economy around. I want health care for every American. I want every child to live up to his or her God-given potential, and I want the nearly 18 million Americans who voted for me to be respected, to be heard and no longer to be invisible. ... A commenter expressed confusion about my point here, so let me put it slightly differently: Taken by itself, it's a little unclear what Hillary means when she says she wants the 18 million Americans who voted for her to be respected, heard, not invisible. Wanting people to be respected, heard, etc. is a legitimate desire, just like wanting them to have health care and to live up to their God-given potential. It's when Hillary says she wants the latter for everyone, but the former only for her supporters, that things start to get weird. That's how you know she's essentially saying, "Those 18 million votes should make me the nominee." And here's the second quote: But this has always been your campaign, so to the 18 million people who voted for me and to our many other supporters out there of all ages, I want to hear from you. I hope you'll go to my website at HillaryClinton.com and share your thoughts with me and help in any way that you can.
That Outrageous, Delusional Clinton Speech by Michael Crowley
This nation has given me every opportunity, and that's what I want for every single American. ... And it is a fight I will continue until every single American has health insurance. No exceptions and no excuses.
In the coming days, I’ll be consulting with supporters and party leaders to determine how to move forward with the best interests of our party and our country guiding my way.
Video of Obama's Victory Speech in St. Paul
Here's the video from Obama's victory speech that he gave tonight in St. Paul Minnesota upon receiving the number of delegates required to lock up the nomination. Go Obama!
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Clinton a Classless Extortionist
Well, she did exactly what I predicted in her not-concession speech tonight: she kept alive the canard that somehow the nomination was stolen from her.
I am listening to Obama's speech right now and his speech is as generous and graceful as hers was stingy and classless. Thank God we have Barack Obama. I trust him to dispose of this terrible person in a classy and subtle way.
Here's what a Daily Dish reader had to say of Clinton's speech:
What Democrats needed from Clinton tonight, aside from at last CONCEDING to Obama, was to go after McCain with everything she had: this would have been a first step to pulling her supporters into the larger Democratic fold. Instead, incredibly, she chose to continue her veiled critique of Obama. Instead, incredibly, she chose to emphasize and repeat all of her lies: that she won the popular vote, that she has "more votes than any other candidate who's ever run in the primaries", and, most damagingly, insinuating that somehow, this election was "stolen" from her. We see, more clearly than ever, that this is not about defeating Republicans in 2008: it is, for her, solely about her own career.
News Media Lemmings Take Clinton's VP Bait
Count me disgusted.
Hillary oh-so-conveniently decided to float the fact that she would be "open to" being Obama's vice-president today.
Guess what!?
The unthinking news media talkingheads are dutifully sidelining Obama's locking up of the nomination tonight and doing Clinton's bidding by talking about her as a Veep choice ad naseum.
Is there nothing we can do to skewer the evil lumbering beast the news media has become over the last couple of decades?
Ok, deep breath, I can hardly watch news on TV anymore. Mom, keep it off for now.
Obama 12 Delegates from Nomination
From DemConWatch:
Obama leads today's superdelegate count with 22 endorsements (18.5 superdelegate votes)
Clinton has one endorsement from a Florida superdelegate for .5 superdelegate votes. She has also lost 4 endorsements for a total of -3.5 votes
Clinton Says She Would Serve As VP
Sorry to add acid to your stomach but Hillary said today in an unprovoked statement to New York lawmakers that she'd be willing to serve as Obama's Vice President.
I expect this will be her next guerrilla campaign of backroom blackmail du jour, right up to the very second Obama actually announces his VP pick.
My thoughts are simple:
NO! Picking Hillary would be just about one of the worst choices Obama could make. It would be the nail in the coffin of any claim to "Change". Not to mention the fact that Hillary has made it abundantly clear that "anything can happen" (hint, hint, RFK anyone?).
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton told the New York congressional delegation today that she's willing to serve as Sen. Barack Obama's vice presidential nominee.As Associated Press projected that Obama had the number of delegates he needed to clinch the Democratic presidential nomination, Clinton raised the possibility of serving as Obama's running mate during her talk with New York lawmakers, said Rep. Brian Higgins, D-Buffalo.
"She brought it up, and it it was reaffirmed by others," Higgins said. ""It was in the context of: we've got to win this thing."
Don't Let Your Guard Down
In general, I highly suggest that everyone keep their guard up over the next week or two. I doubt that Hillary will make a fulsome concession anytime soon and, when she finally does, she will likely fail to hit all the right notes in order to unify the party. I think she is going to let the "they stole this from me" meme go right on festering. I could (and pray that I am) wrong but, well, the Clintons have proven to me in this election that they are capable of absolutely anything.
Here's a great reader quote from Andrew Sullivan on why we shouldn't pity her -- she did this to herself.
I met a guy who produced "Candid Camera"-like reality shows. I asked him "How do you get people to sign a waiver after you have made a fool of them?" Without getting some poor schmuck who has just been made a fool of to sign a waiver, you can't include him in the show.
"It's strange but after being in a stressful situation, which is what we put them in, one is so relieved that it is over that they strangely THANK us when we reveal that it is just a joke for a TV show and it is over. Even though we put them through the situation they are so grateful and genuinely happy that it is over that they will sign anything in the first five minutes." That was the catch, if you waited longer then five minutes they would think about it a bit more and then not sign shit.
I think that is what Hillary is trying to do on a national basis.
When she gets out she will have relieved us all of a stressful situation. Even people who have been hard on her will be kind and even thank her for ending this national nightmare for us. Even though SHE created the fucking thing.
Another analogy, ever seen one of those nature shows about chimpanzees where the baby chimp dies? Super sad but even sadder is watching the mother carry around the corpse and try to nurse it and care for it for days and days hoping it will spring back to life. All the other chimps and the cameras watch with respectful distance. Hillary has been carrying around her dead campaign for a few months and she is finally realizing that the little chimp is dead.
Monday, June 2, 2008
Please, God, Let It Be True
Breaking News - maybe the sun really will come out tomorrow:
Hillary Clinton has summoned top donors and backers to attend her speech tomorrow night in an unusual move that is being widely interpreted to mean she plans to suspend her campaign and endorse Barack Obama.
Obama and Clinton spoke Sunday night and agreed that their staffs should begin negotiations over post-primary activities. In addition to help raising money to pay off some $20 million-plus in debts, Clinton is known to want Obama to help out black officials who endorsed her and are now taking constituent heat, including, in some cases, primary challenges from pro-Obama politicians.
"This has never happened before," one donor said, referring to the personalized request by email to attend the event in New York Tuesday night.
Approach Toward Clinton After June 3rd
South Park served up a a poignant episode a while ago, which addressed how the boys finally decide to deal with Cartman, another well-known distasteful sociopath. I recommend we use the same approach for the Clintons after June 3rd if they really want to continue their fight to the Convention:
Hat Tip: Andrew Sullivan
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Obama's Muzzle List
I got to thinking this morning about what is going to happen to all of the Clinton surrogates after Obama cinches the nomination next week?
Will they simply do a 180 and go on all the talk shows to sing Obama's praises?
For the most part, I'm sure this would be a good thing.
However, I also think that Obama needs to (and probably is) keeping a "Muzzle List" -- a list of people whose support he may welcome but in a VERY low-key, off-media kind of way. A list of people who may be permitted to say something to their local constituents or speak at a private fundraiser but are banned from Chris Matthews.
I've compiled my Muzzle List below. I also included a "Purgatory List", which lists the people Obama can do without.
I'd love to hear your suggestions for the list!
The Muzzle List: (those who Obama should keep quiet)
Lanny Davis - Former Clinton appointee and one of the worst Clinton windbags of the primary season.
I am convinced that there isn't a shred in Senator Obama's being that shares [Rev. Wright's] hateful or bigoted feelings. And I respect his strong words denouncing the views of a man for whom he has deep and genuine feelings of affection and loyalty, which I also respect.
But many people, including Obama supporters, may still have two questions that Senator Obama's speech did not sufficiently answer, at least in my opinion.
Geraldine Ferraro - One slip-up is a gaffe, twenty is inexcusable. Former vice-presidential candidate who's lost most of her marbles and thinks that Obama is "terribly sexist" and is lucky to be black.
"Racism works in two different directions. I really think they're attacking me because I'm white. How's that?"
Bill Clinton - Yeah, I know, he's very popular, has a Southern accent and all the ladies love him but be serious for a moment. You don't think he's going to be a petulant little schoolboy with a gaffe-a-minute waiting to subconsciously sink Obama in the general?
"There was a lot of fulminating because Hillary, one time late at night when she was exhausted, misstated and immediately apologized for it - what happened to her in Bosnia in 1995. Did y'all see all that. Oh, they blew it up. Let me just tell you." Clinton then criticized the press, saying, “You woulda thought, you know, that she'd robbed a bank the way they carried on about this. And some of them, when they're 60, they'll forget something when they're tired at 11:00 at night, too." ABC
Bill on his alleged opposition to the Iraq war from the start. (!)
On April 21, Bill Clinton said “I think they played the race card on me” of the Obama campaign. The next day when an NBC reporter asked Clinton, “Sir, what did you mean yesterday when you said that the Obama campaign was playing the race card on you?” Clinton claimed that he didn’t make that statement. Think on These Things
James Carville - The over-the-hill "ragin' cajun" with a complete lack of any verbal filter. I debated whether to include him on the purgatory list but I at least figure that he can lick stamps or something (as long as Obama keeps him far away from the cameras).
According to Carville, the fact that Senator Clinton made an ugly gaffe [by referring to RFK's assassination as a reason to stay in the race] and the press paid attention to it is the Obama campaign’s fault and therefore the contest can’t end on June 3. Somebody, please, file a missing persons report on the old James Carville. That guy was tough and able to roll with the punches. This guy, not so much. The Field
James Carville told the New York Times that Richardson, a former member of Bill Clinton's Cabinet, had committed "an act of betrayal," adding that it "came right around the anniversary of the day when Judas sold out [Jesus] for 30 pieces of silver, so I think the timing is appropriate, if ironic." "I'm not going to get in the gutter like that," Richardson responded on "Fox News Sunday." "And you know, that's typical of many of the people around Senator Clinton. They think they have a sense of entitlement to the presidency. RK"
Rep. Stephanie Tubbs-Jones - Although not prone to any particularly notable gaffes this season (except for the fact that she thinks Obama is from Somalia), her fantasyland-based pro-Hillary commentary and disquietingly permanent grin on every news show she can find have earned her a spot on this list.
Howard Wolfson and Terry McAuliffe - Hillary's main bobble-heads. I lump them together because they haven't done anything in recent memory to really substantively cause me to cringe. However, as with Rep. Tubbs Jones, the ease with which they wallow in fantasyland-driven rationales and ever-shifting goalposts is unsettling.
Wolfson on Hillary's ludicrous "gas tax holiday": "There are times that a president will take a position that a broad support of quote-unquote experts agree with. And there are times they will take a position that quote-unquote experts do not agree with." Ezra
Wolfson on why Obama is like Ken Starr: "When Sen. Obama was confronted with questions over whether he was ready to be commander in chief and steward of the economy, he chose not to address those questions, but to attack Sen. Clinton. I for one do not believe that imitating Ken Starr is the way to win a Democratic primary election for president." Politico
McAuliffe praising Fox Noise: "You know what - every independent study has said that this is the most biased coverage they have ever seen in a presidential campaign. Clearly it has been a biased media, no question about it. I have said this - Fox has been one of the most responsible in this presidential campaign -- I have said that all along." ABC
McAuliffe again shares his love for Fox Noise: After Clinton’s victory in the Pennsylvania primary, McAuliffe said, “Let me congratulate Fox because you were the first ones to call it for Hillary Clinton. Fair and balanced Fox. You beat them all.” When the correspondent kicked it back to the studio, Brit Hume told the audience, while partially laughing, “It certainly is nice to hear none other than Terry McAuliffe, acknowledging that we were first on this call and that saying that as other Clinton representatives have, that we are fair and balanced. We certainly try to be. We’ll take that and be proud of it.” CBR
Paul Begala - Former CNN Crossfire host, current CNN talking head and diehard Clinton loyalist. I am so over him and his fantasyland musings. You have to love how DNC Member Donna Brazille took him to task recently for suggesting that Obama's democratic party doesn't want whites and working class people.
Apparently, way before this election began, Paul Begala got together with Lou Dobbs in heathen New York City, where they ate the Food Of The Working Class and pinned Barack Obama's electoral hopes on whether he could prove that he was able to accommodate dwarves with their insatiable need for marmalade. Or something. Begala may be drunk, or filling the performance-art vacuum left by his absence of pal James Carville. We don't know. But Begala did find a way to denigrate "Volvo drivin', NPR tote bag totin'" liberals, and claim Obama needed to "put the jam on the lower shelf where the little folk can reach it." HuffPo
The Purgatory List: (those whose support Obama does not need)
Mark Penn - "Former" Clinton "chief strategist" with the distinct honor of being rabidly hated by BOTH Obama supporters AND Clinton supporters alike! There is just too much material here! His lobbying for the Columbian government while Hillary claimed that she opposes the trade deal. As many have suggested, Mark Penn really is Clinton's "turd blossom".
On "Hardball" Thursday night, Clinton strategist Mark Penn brought up the word "cocaine" in a discussion about Obama's past drug use. And then, in an exchange with John Edwards strategist Joe Trippi that looked like a Mac vs. PC ad gone bad, Penn tried to suggest that he hadn't mentioned the word at all. Salon
At a strategy session last year, Penn reportedly said that a Clinton win in California would effectively wrap up the nomination by awarding her all of the state's 370 delegates. As we all know, Democrats don't do winner-take-all primaries, but instead use a form of proportional representation that has been in force for about 20 years -- a fact that didn't seem to sink in with the Clinton campaign and their big-state strategy. TPM
Every Clinton Supporter Protesting Outside the DNC Rules & Bylaws Committee - Yes, those knuckle-dragging simps (who Hillary encouraged to come and protest) who chanted insults directed toward members of the DNC, threatened to vote McCain if they didn't get their way, and compared the primaries in Michigan and Florida to slaves not having the right to vote.
Howard Dean may hope that the "healing will begin today," but two blocks away from the northwest Washington Marriott where the DNC's Rules and Bylaws Committee is meeting right now to try to figure out Florida and Michigan, the Hillary protesters are occupying an utterly alternate (and healing-free) universe: a universe in which one of the big lawn rally's speakers yells that the Democratic Party no longer is in the business of "promoting equality and fairness for all"; in which a Hillary supporter with two poodles shouts, "Howard Dean is a leftist freak!"; in which a man exhibits a sign that reads "At least slaves were counted as 3/5ths a Citizen" and shows Dean whipping handcuffed people; and in which Larry Sinclair, the Minnesota man who took to YouTube to allege that Barack Obama had oral sex with him in the back of a limousine in 1999, is one of the belles of the ball. TNR
Taylor Marsh - Fraud, blowhard, alleged "radio host" and described by many as the Michelle Malkin of the Left. She's been one of the most red-faced and uninformed of all of Clinton's supporters in the "media" and tries her best to keep pushing the meme that Obama has repeatedly tried to paint Clinton as a racist.
The Obama campaign started playing the race card immediately after Obama lost New Hampshire with Jackson Jr., then upped the dialogue with Dyson, going further with the above press release. Playing the race card before South Carolina? It fits right in with the ugly politics that is regularly seen in that state every time the presidential primaries roll around. TM
Fox News - Even though, as I noted above, Clinton's talking head Terry McAuliffe has repeatedly praised Fox Noise for being "fair and balanced", I think the Obama campaign can do just fine without them.
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Results of Rules and Bylaws Committee Meeting
I couldn't bear to watch much of the coverage today of the DNC Rules & Bylaws Committee meeting but here's the outcome:
Florida's delegates will be seated in full, BUT, each delegate will only get a half-vote at the convention: Clinton would get 52.5 delegates, Obama would get 33.5, and Edwards gets 6.5.
Michigan's delegates will also get a half-vote. The upshot of which is that Clinton would get 34.5 delegates, and Obama would get 29.5. The superdelegates would get half votes.
This is great news for everyone but the whining sociopaths in the Clinton camp who today made idle threats about taking their feckless bitching to the convention. There won't be much chance of that happening, in my estimation. It would garner her nothing.
Thank God this stage of the insanity is over. Please, God, let the next week shut the harpy and her cohorts up for good.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
