Hillary Youth

Poll: Obama struggling to win over Clinton voters

2008-09-23T15:58:00.000-07:00

By ALAN FRAM and TREVOR TOMPSON – 8 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — Barack Obama's support from backers of Hillary Rodham Clinton is stuck smack where it was in June, a poll showed Tuesday, a stunning lack of progress that is weakening him with fellow Democrats in the close presidential race.

An Associated Press-Yahoo News poll shows that among adults who backed his rival during their bitter primary campaign, 58 percent now support Obama. That is the same percentage who said so in June, when Clinton ended her bid and urged her backers to line up behind the Democratic senator from Illinois.

The poll shows that while Obama has gained ground among Clinton's supporters — 69 percent view him favorably now, up 9 percentage points from June — this has yet to translate into more of their support.

In part, this is because their positive views of Republican presidential nominee John McCain have also improved during this period. The share of Clinton supporters saying they'll vote for McCain edged up from 21 percent to 28 percent, with the number of undecided staying constant, according to the survey, conducted by Knowledge Networks.

Clinton backers' reluctance to support Obama helps explain why he is having a tougher time solidifying partisan supporters than McCain. Overall, 74 percent of Democrats say they will vote for Obama, compared with 87 percent of Republicans behind the Arizona senator. About nine in 10 Clinton supporters are Democrats.

The problem that supporters of Clinton, the New York senator, have with Obama seems to flow from their measure of him as a candidate, not from issues. From establishing a timeline for a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq to abortion to canceling tax cuts on the rich, their views of the importance of issues are virtually identical to Democrats in general.

Yet they find Obama less likable, honest, experienced and inspiring than Democrats overall do, and have a better view of McCain. And while majorities of Clinton supporters say Obama shares their values and understands ordinary Americans, they're less likely to say so than Democrats overall.

"It's just a gut feeling, my gut tells me he's not it," Leslye Burgess, 53, a federal Treasury Department manager and Clinton supporter from Fairfax, Va., said of Obama.

The GOP's selection of Sarah Palin as McCain's running mate has had no net impact on Clinton loyalists — a group Republicans were hoping to lure by picking the Alaska governor. Twenty-one percent in the poll said Palin on the ticket makes them likelier to back McCain, 21 percent said it makes them less likely, and 58 percent said it had no impact.

The choice of Joe Biden as Democratic vice presidential candidate makes them a bit likelier to vote for Obama, but seven in 10 said it didn't matter.

Whites saying Clinton should have been the nominee were twice as likely as whites preferring Obama to choose at least one negative adjective to describe blacks, according to an AP-Yahoo News poll conducted three weeks ago aimed at testing racial attitudes. Given a list of possible descriptions of blacks, four in 10 Clinton backers chose at least one derogatory one, compared to one in five of Obama's.

Other September polls have shown Obama making progress in recent weeks with one-time Clinton backers and doing better with them than in the AP-Yahoo News survey. One by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center had Obama with 78 percent of their support and McCain with 18 percent; another by ABC News and The Washington Post showed Obama ahead 72 percent to 23 percent.

Those figures measured Clinton supporters who are registered voters — who in the AP-Yahoo News poll leaned toward Obama over McCain 61 percent to 26 percent. The discrepancies in the polls might come from how they were conducted.

Obama spokesman Bill Burton said Clinton supporters are turning to Obama "in huge numbers" and noted that the AP-Yahoo News data differed from other polls. He said strong feelings by Clinton supporters were understandable considering the length and intensity of the Democratic primaries and said of Clinton, "She's done everything we've asked her to do."

Asked about the AP-Yahoo News poll Tuesday on MSNBC, Clinton said she was working to persuade more of her supporters to back Obama, saying, "I'm working hard to close that gap."

The AP-Yahoo News poll has surveyed the same nationally representative group of about 2,000 adults seven times since November, in an effort to understand how individuals are reacting to the presidential race. Nine in 10 Clinton supporters who said in June they were backing Obama were still with him in September, while three-quarters of those with McCain stayed with him.

As during her primary battle against Obama, Clinton supporters are likelier to be female, white and less educated than those who did not back her.

They trust Obama more than McCain on important issues, though not by as much as Democrats overall do. They prefer Obama over McCain on the economy by 30 percentage points, compared with Obama's 50-point edge among all Democrats. They like Obama on Iraq by 17 points, while all Democrats give Obama a 40-point margin.

The starkest contrast comes from comparing Clinton backers still refusing to support Obama with other Democrats.

Just three in 10 Clinton supporters still not backing Obama view him favorably, compared with eight in 10 of all Democrats. While most Democrats and former Clinton supporters strongly prefer Obama over McCain to handle key issues, those Clinton voters still opposing Obama opt for McCain: On the economy by 32 points, and on Iraq by 47 points.

The AP-Yahoo News poll of 1,740 adults was conducted Sept. 5-15 and has an overall margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.3 percentage points. It included interviews with 502 people who in AP-Yahoo News polls in January and April identified themselves as supporting Clinton in one or both of those months, for whom the margin of sampling error was plus or minus 4.4 points.

The survey was conducted over the Internet by Knowledge Networks, which initially contacted people using traditional telephone polling methods and followed with online interviews.

In contrast, the Pew and ABC-Post polls relied on people saying in September whether they supported Clinton earlier this year. Those polls were conducted by telephone; some studies have shown people can be less reluctant to disclose embarrassing behavior — like not supporting their party's presidential nominee — in an online survey than to a live telephone interviewer.

On the other hand, people in the AP-Yahoo News poll who backed Clinton in earlier waves of the survey might not want to appear inconsistent by suddenly backing a candidate — Obama — they opposed earlier.

AP News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius contributed to this report.

Do What You Pledged To Do

2008-08-25T16:53:00.000-07:00

"If Barack is the nominee, he is the nominee," Diana Carpenter-Madoshi, 62, a retired nurse from Rocklin, California, and a Clinton delegate, said in a follow-up interview. "I'm still pledged to Hillary because I was elected by my district to be her pledged delegate and I'm honoring the voters who voted for her."

When Your Name Is Called...

2008-08-25T16:49:00.000-07:00

vote Hillary. There are millions behind you.

Biden and Trent Lott have something in common...

2008-08-25T16:40:00.000-07:00

Biden to Strom Thurmond on his 90th birthday: "You have been an inspiration to me in so many ways."

Cover (Up) Story: Red Herring Leaked On Purpose

2008-08-22T10:12:00.000-07:00

Politico

Hillary gets stiffed

By MIKE ALLEN 8/22/08 12:38 PM EST Updated: 8/22/08 12:38 PM EST

There’s one Democrat who would seem to have little or no chance of being picked by Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) to be his running mate – his former opponent, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.).

But it’s not for the reason you think.

Obama has often said, most recently on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on July 27, that Clinton “would be on anybody’s short list.” But apparently not his.

“She was never vetted,” a Democratic official reported. “She was not asked for a single piece of paper. She and Senator Obama have never had a single conversation about it. How would he know if she’d take it?” The official also said Clinton never met with Obama’s vetting team of Eric Holder and Caroline Kennedy. And the official said she was never asked for medical records or for any financial 2008 information about her or former President Bill Clinton. The last information the couple has disclosed about taxes and financial holdings was for 2007.

The Clintons also were not asked about donors to the William J. Clinton Presidential Library.

“This would be the biggest leap of faith ever,” the official said. “She’s waiting for the text message like everyone else.” An Obama aide said "absolutely exhaustive research was done on her over the course of the 16 month primary. She was researched more closely than any candidate in history."

Veepstakes / Buy-Off

2008-08-22T10:09:00.000-07:00

"New York Daily News": Hillary Clinton for Barack Obama’s VP
August 22, 2008 12:34 PM ET Bonnie Erbe
The Daily News editorial board adventurously puts forward Sen. Hillary Clinton's name as Sen. Barack Obama's best vice presidential running mate in an editorial today.
The News admits the choice is highly unlikely, but the paper concurs with many Clinton supporters who feel that she is Obama's best chance to win the White House in November. Will Obama listen? It would truly make news if he did.

Inside Baseball

2008-08-22T09:57:00.000-07:00

We have friends:

"The majority of our contacts/voters are low propensity voters. Your propensity to vote is determined by looking at the last 4 statewide elections. (2 most recent statewide General Elections and 2 most recent statewide Primary Elections). Depending on which ones you voted in you would be given a score of [(1/4)-voted in 1 of the 4 above-mentioned elections----(4/4)-voted in all 4 of the above-mentioned elections]. The 4/4 dont need our encouragement to go out and vote and are probably old and arent going to be swayed by our pitch anyway so we dont focus on them. The 3/4 will get a little attention as they may be people who voted because of our previous encouragement/harassment. The 1/4 and 2/4 are where we focus 80-90% of our efforts. They tend to be young and we've hoped that we can increase our vote totals among this group by about 60+%. But that's not happening. The thing is, these people also tend to be more moderate (and you would think more inclined to vote dem this year given the current political environment), but it's just not registering. They become un-connected to our messenger. It seems the more they learn about him, the more same/stagnant/typical politician he becomes. It's gonna be a long fall.

Yes, She Can, excerpted

2008-08-22T09:29:00.000-07:00

By MAUREEN DOWD NY Times Op-Ed Columnist
Published: August 12, 2008

While Obama was spending three hours watching “The Dark Knight” five time zones away, and going to a fund-raiser featuring “Aloha attire” and Hawaiian pupus, Hillary was busy planning her convention.

You can almost hear her mind whirring: She’s amazed at how easy it was to snatch Denver away from the Obama saps.

Now they’ve made Barry’s convention all about them — their dissatisfaction and revisionism and barely disguised desire to see him fail. Whatever insincere words of support the Clintons muster, their primal scream gets louder: He can’t win! He can’t close the deal! We told you so!

Hillary’s orchestrating a play within the play in Denver. Just as Hamlet used the device to show that his stepfather murdered his father, Hillary will try to show the Democrats they chose the wrong savior.

Her former aide Howard Wolfson fanned the divisive flames Monday on ABC News, arguing that Hillary would have beaten Obama in Iowa and become the nominee if John Edwards’s affair had come out last year.

She’s obviously relishing Hillaryworld’s plans to have multiple rallies in Denver, to take out TV and print ads and to hold up signs in the hall that read “Denounce Nobama’s Coronation.”

In a video of a closed California fund-raiser on July 31 that surfaced on YouTube, Hillary was clearly receptive to having her name put in nomination and a roll-call vote.

She said she thought it would be good for party unity if her gals felt “that their voices are heard.” She said she wanted it for Chelsea. Ever since she stepped aside in June, she’s been telling people privately that there might have to be “a catharsis” at the convention.

The way the Clintons see it, there’s nothing wrong with a couple making plans for their future, is there? That’s the American way and, as their pal Mark Penn pointed out, they have American roots while Obama “is not at his center fundamentally American in his thinking and in his values.”

The Clintons know that a wave of buyer’s remorse has swept the Democratic Party; many Democrats are questioning whether Obama is fighting back hard enough against McCain, and many are wondering, given his inability to open up a lead in a country fed up with Republicans, if race will be an insurmountable factor.

Take It To Denver

2008-08-22T09:24:00.000-07:00

TENNESSEE GUERILLA WOMEN
Saturday, June 07, 2008

'Hillary - Take It to Denver!' Postcard Campaign

IT's HILLARY

2008-08-21T10:44:00.000-07:00

We've all seen the unprecedented amount of openness given to the "challenger" at this year's convention, even to the point of having Hill-friendly 'whips' pacing the floor handing out Hillary signs. Any fair look at this has to agree it's an unbelievably weak allowance from an election "winner." The Politico reports today:

Clinton creates 'whip team' to quell anti-Obama protests
In an unusual move, Hillary Clinton's staff is creating a 40-member "whip team" at the Denver Democratic convention to ensure that her supporters don't engage in embarrassing anti-Obama demonstrations during the floor vote on her nomination, according to people familiar with the planning.

"Is it typical for a losing candidate to have their own whip team? No. But it's also not usual for a losing candidate to get 18 million votes either," said the person.

“We have been and are working closely with the Obama campaign to make sure we have an exciting and unified convention," Strand said. "Our delegate whips, along with the Obama delegate whips, are a part of a team that will be on the floor of the convention to make sure delegates have everything they need, whether that’s answering questions or passing out signs during Hillary's speech. The whips are a traditional part of every convention's floor operations.”

Do you notice the pressure being put on by the mouths of Hillary? The two camps have been "working closely" and plan to host a "unified" convention. That is some pretty heavy-handed talk coming from the "also-ran."

It's obvious isn't it? All this pressure has paid off. The way our side was treated in the Primary will haunt Senator Obama throughout the remainder of the year, only this haunting will be done by real people - us. He has to take her, she's already dominating his convention. The only way he can escape her (and our) ire is to carry her with him. It's also the only way he can win.

Hillary is it. You heard it here first.

An Open Door

2008-08-14T15:48:00.000-07:00

ABC News' Kate Snow reports: A deal has been brokered between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton that will allow Clinton's name to be placed in nomination at next week's Democratic nominating convention.

"Both sides agree that it is in the best interest of party unity and making sure that everyone's voice and vote is honored to make sure her name is put into nomination," a person close the negotiations said.

It is also apparent that Clinton is not being seriously considered as a running mate for Obama. The deal that allows Clinton's name to be placed in nomination is meant to help mollify those hurt feelings.

The statement said Obama's office "encouraged" Clinton's supporters to place her name in nomination. Nevertheless, it has taken weeks for today's agreement to be reached.

Some details are still being worked out, but Clinton's name will be put into nomination at the Denver convention on Wednesday. That will be one day after Clinton addresses the convention.

What also hasn't been settled yet is who will nominate Clinton and whether she will stand up with the New York delegation when they are called on. What has been settled, however, is that after both Clinton and Obama names are placed into nomination there will be a roll call vote.

Get that? The candidate with arguably the majority popular vote has to work out a deal in order to have a roll call vote on the floor. In other words, following normal Party rules have to be okayed by Mr. Obama now. This is sad. The voters spoke and not until the Superdelegates get a say does Mr. Obama get his lead.

Let's examine, why did Mr. Obama suck up the majority of Superdelegates (assuming he does)? Could it be because he is a novice in Washington, that his A-team in Chicago was hacks who'd be lost or indicted in DC? Could he be an easy tether to a four-year post for a lot of these nobodys? Meanwhile, Hillary knows the players, she's been around long enough to give a good answer when asked what should be done to Russia for invading Georgia. Further, she knows the people who can get the right decisions done. Barry, he thinks George Clooney is an expert.

It is my hope that my fellow Democrats will look at the case for each candidate and, yes i'm going to say it, look at who is the best choice for the future of America, and stand up for the right choice when you're given a chance. That chance, now, will come in Denver, and soon. The tide is turning, the push will be loud, but the facts are what counts. Make the right decision. Our Party's leaders made the decision to hold a roll call vote for a reason - they can see that they've made a bad public choice. But it's not final, the vote is what counts... or at least it will once again in this party. In Denver. The door is open, let's move America in the right direction. Go with Hillary.

Plans for Clinton convention rallies intensify

2008-08-11T09:18:00.000-07:00

By Bob Cusack
Posted: 08/10/08 11:37 PM [ET]
http://thehill.com/campaign-2008/plans-for-clinton-convention-rallies-intensify-2008-08-10.html

Frustrated supporters of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) are planning multiple rallies at the Democratic convention in Denver, coupled with television and print advertisements.

The disenchanted Democrats want to express their disappointment with the party’s presidential primary process.

The Denver Group, formed a couple of months ago by two Clinton backers, says it has filmed a television commercial and is looking to air it soon. The fledgling group adds that it has received such a strong response to its scheduled Aug. 26 reception in Denver that it had to book an overflow room.

Meanwhile, another pro-Clinton group called “18 Million Voices” is organizing a march on Aug. 26 in Denver “and nationwide to support Sen. Clinton and advocate for women’s rights worldwide.” It will also be holding “a celebration in a beautiful Denver City park during the day, and throughout the evening on Aug. 26,” according to the 18 Million Voices website.

Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) campaign has been in contact with Clinton aides to come up with a plan that will unify the party as well as honor Clinton and the roughly 18 million people who voted for her during the presidential primary.

But any compromise is unlikely to satisfy Clinton’s most ardent backers.

For example, some of the Denver Group’s goals are contrary to the Democratic Party’s. Its goals include: an open convention; Clinton's name placed in nomination with no symbolic roll call vote; speeches allowed by supporters of Clinton on behalf of her candidacy; a genuine roll call vote with Clinton as a legitimate candidate; and “no coronation.”

Asked about Clinton last week, Obama said, “As is true in all conventions, we’re still working out the mechanics, the coordination.” When pressed if he would favor a roll call for Clinton, Obama responded, “I didn’t say that.”

Heidi Li Feldman, co-founder of the Denver Group, said, “There is going to be a steady stream of activities for the first three days of the convention” and predicted thousands of Clinton backers will appear at the events.

Feldman said her group has raised between $30,000 and $40,000, enabling it to buy six print ads and produce one television ad. The TV ad is scheduled to run on CNN and during a local news broadcast in Denver the week before the convention begins. The ad strategy for convention week has not been finalized.

[The Denver Group is planning on advertising in The Hill.]

One print ad that ran in Congressional Quarterly showed a picture of Franklin Roosevelt and asked, “Would Howard Dean and Nancy Pelosi have kept his name off the ballot?”

The ad noted that Roosevelt went into the 1932 Democratic convention short of the necessary delegates to clinch the nomination and subsequently won on the 4th ballot.

Regardless of any accord Clinton and Obama come to, the planned rallies could become a focus of the media’s attention instead of the heavily scripted themes of the convention.

The Denver Post recently reported that Clinton backers will hold signs that read, “Denounce Nobama's Coronation.”

Clinton and many of her backers believe that, if there is a strategy of recognizing the New York senators’ delegates at the convention, it would be a cathartic experience and lead to a more unified Democratic Party.

During a recent fundraiser in California, Clinton stressed that Democrats must unite behind Obama and said talks are ongoing with the Obama campaign and Democratic National Committee about her role and the role of her delegates.

Clinton, whose appearance at the fundraiser was posted on YouTube, did point out that putting her name in nomination and a roll call vote “are the usual kind of process that occurs at conventions.”

Feldman said many Clinton supporters “were reassured and relieved” by the former first lady’s remarks, especially after a media account reported that she had asked not to be nominated at the convention.

Clinton is expected to address the convention on Aug. 26 while her husband, former President Bill Clinton, will speak the next night.

Marc Rubin, the other co-founder of the Denver Group, said Clinton supporters will “absolutely not” be appeased by the speaking slots.

Rubin said there is “palpable anger” at the Democratic National Committee.

Jenny Backus, spokeswoman for the Democratic National Committee Convention, said the party has become more unified and cited Clinton’s strong support of Obama as the strongest signal of that unity.

“Sen. Clinton is one of our biggest assets,” Backus said.

While Obama and Clinton have said their bitter primary battle is behind them, there is still animosity between the supporters of the two senators.

The person who posted the Clinton You Tube video indicated that he or she had disabled some viewer comments, stating on the site that “Obama trolls have started to post horrible negative comments regarding Hillary Clinton and her supporters.”

Meanwhile, Feldman said she has received nasty e-mails since launching the Denver Group. Feldman, who is a college professor, said one e-mail she received at work was reported to the FBI.

Feldman said she is not disgruntled or bitter, but she has an objection to the Democratic Party’s process. And she stressed that she will not be voting for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) this fall.
“It would be a tragedy for Democrats to lose this year,” Feldman said.

Don't Do It

2008-06-06T15:51:00.000-07:00

Please don't drop out. There's still plenty of time for the SuperDelegates to come to our side. This amateur is gonna slip up big time. You have to be there with your delegates ready to lead this nation.

Who Said It?

2008-06-05T07:49:00.000-07:00

1) "Whoever wins the elections, I'm sure that the United States will change, it will have a different approach. The United States will have a reduced sphere of influence in the world. The new president will have to respond to the real demands of the American people.”
2) “Change is realizing that meeting today’s threats requires not just our firepower, but the power of our diplomacy.”
3) “40 million American citizens do not have health insurance.”
4) “45 million Americans who don't have health insurance.”
5) “47 million Americans — including nearly 9 million children — lack health insurance.” -
6) “The victims of the New Orleans hurricane still have no homes."
7) "The lack of affordable housing in New Orleans has prevented many Katrina victims fromreturning to the city."
7) “The United States will have to withdraw the soldiers from Iraq (since) the American people will not tolerate continued spending of billions of dollars on weapons."
8) “…a policy where all we look for are reasons to stay in Iraq, while we spend billions of dollars a month on a war that isn’t making the American people any safer.”
9) "It is they who cut off the links with us, hoping to suffocate us. Today Iran is an advanced country. We are ready for dialogue with anyone in relations based on mutual respect and fairness.”

Statements #1, 3, 6, 9 were made by Mahmoud Ahmadenijad in an interview published June 4 in the Italian daily La Repubblica. He was in Rome to attend the UN food agency's summit on food security. The full quote for #6 is "It is they who cut off the links with us, hoping to suffocate us. Today Iran is an advanced country. We are ready for dialogue with anyone except with the Zionist regime, in relations based on mutual respect and fairness."
Statements #2, 4 was made by Barack Obama, Speech in Iowa City, IA, May 29, 2007
Statements #4 and 5 are from http://www.barackobama.com/issues/healthcare/ June 4, 2008
Statement #7 is on http://www.barackobama.com/pdf/KatrinaFactSheetFinal.pdf June5, 2008
Statement #8 is again Barack Obama, Speech in St. Paul MN,, June 3, 2008

Take It To The Floor

2008-06-04T09:34:00.001-07:00

Be Sure To Go To HillaryClinton.com and leave a message urging Hillary to stay in this race. We must remind everyone that our Party cannot win if she’s not on the ticket.

Remind Hillary that she wins the battlegrounds and the big states:

Kentucky, West Virginia, Arkansas, South Dakota, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, New Jersey, California, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Florida, Michigan

Ask what Barry states Barry will take from McCain:

South Carolina, Alaska, Kansas, Utah, Alabama, Georgia, Texas?

He needs her or we have another Michael Dukakis on our hands.

2008-06-02T16:04:00.000-07:00

And in perhaps the most seriously troubling set of gaffes of them all, Obama told a Portland crowd over the weekend that Iran doesn’t “pose a serious threat to us” — cluelessly arguing that “tiny countries” with small defense budgets can’t do us harm — and then promptly flip-flopped the next day, claiming, “I’ve made it clear for years that the threat from Iran is grave.”

2008-06-02T16:01:00.000-07:00

Last March, the Chicago Tribune reported this little-noticed nugget about a fake autobiographical detail in Obama’s Dreams from My Father: “Then, there’s the copy of Life magazine that Obama presents as his racial awakening at age 9. In it, he wrote, was an article and two accompanying photographs of an African-American man physically and mentally scarred by his efforts to lighten his skin. In fact, the Life article and the photographs don’t exist, say the magazine’s own historians.”

2008-06-02T16:00:00.000-07:00

Earlier this month [May] in Cape Girardeau, Mo., Obama showed off his knowledge of the war in Afghanistan by homing in on a lack of translators: “We only have a certain number of them, and if they are all in Iraq, then it’s harder for us to use them in Afghanistan.” The real reason it’s “harder for us to use them” in Afghanistan: Iraqis speak Arabic or Kurdish. The Afghanis speak Pashto, Farsi, or other non-Arabic languages.

2008-06-02T15:59:00.000-07:00

Obama has as much trouble with numbers as he has with maps.

Last March, on the anniversary of the Bloody Sunday march in Selma, Ala., he claimed his parents united as a direct result of the civil rights movement: “There was something stirring across the country because of what happened in Selma, Ala., because some folks are willing to march across a bridge. So they got together and Barack Obama Jr. was born.”

Obama was born in 1961. The Selma march took place in 1965. His spokesman, Bill Burton, later explained that Obama was “speaking metaphorically about the civil-rights movement as a whole.”

2008-06-02T15:58:00.000-07:00

Last week, in front of a roaring Sioux Falls, S.D., audience, Obama exulted: “Thank you, Sioux City. ... I said it wrong. I’ve been in Iowa for too long. I’m sorry.”

2008-06-02T15:57:00.000-07:00

Explaining last week why he was trailing Hillary Clinton in Kentucky, Obama again botched basic geography: “Sen. Clinton, I think, is much better known, coming from a nearby state of Arkansas. So it’s not surprising that she would have an advantage in some of those states in the middle.” On what map is Arkansas closer to Kentucky than Illinois?

2008-06-02T15:54:00.000-07:00

But what about Barack Obama? The guy’s a perpetual gaffe machine. Let us count the ways, large and small, that his tongue has betrayed him throughout the campaign:

Earlier this month [May] in Oregon, he redrew the map of the United States: “Over the last 15 months, we’ve traveled to every corner of the United States. I’ve now been in 57 states? I think one left to go.”

I'm Barry Obama?

2008-05-27T13:51:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend, Obama said, 'On this Memorial Day, as our nation honors its unbroken line of fallen heroes -- and I see many of them in the audience here today...'

What do we do on Memorial Day? We honor people who have died in the military.

SuperDelegates, is it possible Obama does not know this?

Yes!

I'm Barry Obama?

2008-05-27T13:43:00.001-07:00

Michelle Malkin writes:

But what about Barack Obama? The guy’s a perpetual gaffe machine. Let us count the ways, large and small, that his tongue has betrayed him throughout the campaign:

Last May, he claimed that tornadoes in Kansas killed a whopping 10,000 people: “In case you missed it, this week, there was a tragedy in Kansas. Ten thousand people died — an entire town destroyed.” The actual death toll: 12.

The Count

2008-05-21T14:29:00.000-07:00

There are currently 4,050 total delegates to the Democratic National Convention, including 3,253 pledged delegates and 797 superdelegates. The total number of delegate votes needed to win the nomination is 2,026

Delegates remaining: 302

TOTAL DELEGATES

Barack Obama
Pledged: 1656
Superdelegates: 306
Total: 1,962

Hillary Clinton
Pledged: 1498
Superdelegates

I Have a Scheme

2008-05-21T13:49:00.000-07:00

Free Concert by Popular Band Preceded Obama’s Big Rally

By Robert Knight May 20, 2008 - 17:16 ET

From CNN to the New York Times, the media hyped Barack Obama's Portland, Oregon rally on Sunday, some comparing him to a rock star.

Unmentioned in national reporting was the fact that Obama was preceded by a rare, 45-minute free concert by actual rock stars The Decemberists. The Portland-based band has drawn rave reviews from Rolling Stone magazine, which gave their 2005 album Picaresque four and a half stars (out of five), and another four and a half stars for 2007's The Crane Wife.

How many of the people showed up to hear Obama, and how many to hear the band?

Here's how the local paper The Oregonian, which estimated the crowd at 72,000, reported the rally:

"Obama was the biggest star at Sunday's gathering -- though a popular Portland band, The Decemberists, provided the warmup act. With blue skies and temperatures in the 80s, many in the crowd said Waterfront Park was simply the place to be."

CNN headlined its 10 p.m. segment on May 18 with "Barack Obama: Achieving Rock Star Status in Oregon."

The New York Times, which ran a color photo of the crowd, estimated the throng at 75,000, noting that it was "the largest crowd of his campaign so far." There was no mention of The Decemberists, and the Times described the weather as "an unseasonably hot day."

Indie rock Web sites were abuzz with news of the impending concert, which was also announced on the Obama campaign's Web site.

Here's the report from the Indie rock Web site Pitchfork:

By land and by sea, they came to see the great man speak. An estimated
75,000 in all turned out to see presidential hopeful Barack Obama at Portland's
Waterfront Park yesterday afternoon-- a record crowd for Obama's own campaign,
according to The New York Times, and a record crowd for Oregon political
events, according to The Oregonian. Just look at them all!

And hey, they got to see a pretty sweet opening act too. Calling
themselves the
Decemberists and led by lovably literate Steve Novick endorser Colin Meloy, this feisty fivepiece
charmed the gathered for a good 45 minutes before Senator Obama took the stump.
They even closed out with a sing-along entitled "Sons & Daughters", which
had the masses joining the band to declare "Here all the bombs fade away..."
Something tells me this Decemberists band is going places. Just like Senator
Obama.

Here's how Pitchfork primed the pump for the concert/rally:

Indie rock's #1 candidate crush Barack Obama is sittin' quite a bit prettier than he was a few
weeks ago when the Arcade Fire and Bruce Springsteen went to bat for him, but the dashing junior
Senator hasn't quite clinched the Democratic party nomination yet. Next up on
the primary agenda are Oregon and Kentucky, whose voters hit the polls Tuesday,
May 20. Should Obama win a heaping majority of the delegates up for grabs that
day, he'll be within inches of securing the hotly-contested nom.

And look who's arrived to give Obama the extra push he needs to get on
the ballot in November. Why, it's none other than those kings and queens of the
month after, the
Decemberists!

There's nothing wrong with a candidate using celebrity power to draw a crowd, but the media have a responsibility to report their presence. By ignoring the free concert, the Times and other outlets made it appear that 75,000 people were drawn only by Sen. Obama's considerable charisma.

The Count

2008-05-16T17:22:00.000-07:00

Barack Obama
Pledged: 1612
Superdelegates: 292
Total: 1,904

Hillary Clinton
Pledged: 1443
Superdelegates: 274
Total: 1,717

Poor Barry's Under The Table

2008-05-13T16:24:00.001-07:00

Take Me Home (To The White House)

2008-05-13T16:14:00.000-07:00

West Virginia goes HANDILY to HILLARY. Let's go over the ramifications... West Virginia is in play in this election cycle, as I believe more states are than ever before. At this point we have to be looking at who can win what states, because the delegate count isn't going to pick the nominee... the SuperDelegates are. The SuperDelegate is an institution created to make sure the strongest candidate comes out of the nomination process and lives on to battle in the general. Hillary is far and away that strongest candidate.

Consider: when did the most recent new revelation come out about Hillary that could be an obstacle in her nomination? 1999?

Consider: who can't seem to extend his winning grip on voters past college kids and black Americans? Barry.

Consider: who's pulling real voters to switch parties and push the button for her? Our Hillary.

Consider: who's admittedly getting new voters to turn out in this primary like new voters have never turned out before? Barry.

Are new voters dependable and can Barry seal the deal with record numbers of new voters? No.

SuperDelegates! Pick a winner.

Tell Him to Run, Forrest

2008-05-06T16:05:00.000-07:00

For those of you who have stuck with me for a while - and a big 'Thank You' to those of you who have - then you already know this. But to the newbies who might be randomly searching for Hillary, Barry, Tom Hanks, Britney Spears, Star Wars, Pamela Anderson, etc, you've found us. Welcome. The Associated Press reports this:
Tom Hanks announces support for Obama's presidential bid

But as you've readon this site for the last few months, Tommy and his wife have been giving money hand over fist to Barry, and encouraging all of their limosine-liberal friends to do the same. Tom Hanks. A war-film monger, a renounced cross-dresser, a marriage fiend. This guy irks me. Anyway, here's the story...

NEW YORK (AP) - entertainmentminute Tom Hanks is supporting presidential hopeful Barack Obama.

Hanks has taken to his MySpace.com page to pledge his support for Obama, who is competing to be the first black president. Obama, who faces rival Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic nomination, has also been endorsed by Oprah Winfrey, Bruce Springsteen and Scarlett Johansson.

"As an official celebrity, I know my endorsement has just made your mind up for you," the 51-year-old actor says in a short video titled, "Beware: Celebrity Endorsement."

"History with a capital `H' is going to be made this November, no matter who the president-elect is. I want Barack Obama to be president of this country, a country that once said people with his skin color were only three-fifths of a human being."

Preach On Brother.

2008-04-28T16:19:00.000-07:00

Barry's having serious problems after failing to seal the deal in Pennsylvania. Or maybe I should say "Losing by double digits." Attention super-delegates! It doesn't matter who wins the rest of these races... YOU must decide who will be our standard bearer.

Do you want a multi-term Senator with a known track record who's already had everything thrown at her that the Republicans could ever come up with?

Or do you want this unknown, empty vessel of a politician? The guy whose campaign speeches are merely whispering sweet nothings into voters' ears? Fainters aside. (In fact, maybe the fainters were the people who figured him out and had their world so shaken that they switched off.) "Can we get some water over here? She seems to have fainted." How phony did all that seem? So obvious, but people continue to fall for it.

And how about this hate monger preacher that seems to be fastened at the hip of the transcendent candidate? Looks a little phony, huh? You super-delegates think there's nothing left to be found out about Mr. Obama?All those Hawai'i connections? All those Chicago political connections?

And what about the Weathermen? He's buddies with guys who set bombs in New York, D.C, our own nation's capitol building for crying out loud. And Obama's friend the terrorist said in the newspaper that he didn't believe he went far enough! And what day did that story with that quote get published in New York? September 11th 2001!

Super-delegates, this guy is bad for our Party! Now YOU must live up to your name, and save our Party!

Barry's at it again

2008-04-15T17:41:00.001-07:00

He's sent this ridiculous email to supporters. When you read it, just in your head repeat this line: "Because you're a bitter, America-hating, self-promoter who believes his own hype!"

Dear Friend,
In the last 24 hours we saw renewed attacks from Senator McCain and Senator Clinton.
The same John McCain who voted to extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest few said I was "out of touch" when I spoke about the frustrations that working people in this country are feeling.
Maybe that's to be expected from John McCain. But I was disappointed to hear the exact same talking points from my Democratic colleague, Hillary Clinton. When a candidate who believes lobbyists represent "real people" says that I'm out of touch, that's when you know politics is being played.

Here's Where the Next Attacks Are Coming From

2008-04-08T17:31:00.000-07:00

Obviousley the word is out among the Husseinaphiles that the only way to make Barry look like the "man" in this primary fight is to attack our soldiers. Below is an ad I found for an Obama ad being shot right here in Austin - it seems as though the first-term Senator's campaign is turning against the work ethic and the abilities of our brave soldiers, sailors, air force, and marines. Here you go:

UT-Austin student filmmaker casting for Obama adPosted: April 4, 2008
UT-Austin student looking for 2 middle age actors, one male, one female to play a role as a solider and the other a widow. Also looking for a younger actress or actor around the ages of 5-10 who can play the widows child. This is for an Obama ad and will involve limited or no talking at all. Food and drinks will be provided. Day of shooting will be the weekend of 11-13. Please e-mail me at bigb@mail.utexas.edu.Thanks you.Brian KalehThe University of Texas at AustinTSTV Productions Director
Contact: Brian Kaleh bigb@mail.utexas.edu

Torch Song

2008-04-07T15:46:00.000-07:00

The violent clashes in Tibet and the failure of the Chinese government to use its full leverage with Sudan to stop the genocide in Darfur are opportunities for Presidential leadership. These events underscore why I believe the Bush administration has been wrong to downplay human rights in its policy towards China. At this time, and in light of recent events, I believe President Bush should not plan on attending the opening ceremonies in Beijing, absent major changes by the Chinese government.I encourage the Chinese to take advantage of this moment as an opportunity to live up to universal human aspirations of respect for human rights and unity, ideals that the Olympic games have come to represent. Americans will stand strong in support of freedom of religious and political expression and human rights. Americans will also stand strong and root for the success of American athletes who have worked hard and earned the right to compete in the Olympic Games of 2008.

- Hillary

EXCLUSIVE -- by Drudge

Makes sense to me. I mean, just look at how eerily similar the pics are.

2008-04-01T20:22:00.000-07:00

Clinton compares herself to 'Rocky'
4/1/2008, 11:07 p.m. EDT
By BETH FOUHY The Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Perhaps the analogy was inevitable: Hillary Rodham Clinton as Rocky Balboa, the scrappy underdog boxer from Philadelphia memorably depicted in the 1976 Oscar-winning film. Even if Rocky did lose his first big fight.
Addressing a meeting of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO Tuesday, the former first lady and New York senator said she, like Rocky, wasn't a quitter.
Recalling a famous scene on the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Clinton said to end her presidential campaign now would be as if "Rocky Balboa had gotten halfway up those art museum steps and said, 'Well, I guess that's about far enough.'"

Leave Em' Laughin' Leahy

2008-03-30T22:43:00.000-07:00

It came to light today that a dear colleague of America's Senator has turned against her. This is obviously a petty partisan play by Senator Patrick Leahy to get some of the left-over ink after Bill Richardson shot his mouth off a week ago. So look for Leahy to run to head up the DNC or more likely the Senatorial Committee next round.

But is this the face of the party we want out there? We've got better liberals in Vermont, much less the whole party. And when people find out the kind of business he got into on the Smithsonian Board...
Join Hillary.

He sure says "you know" a lot.

2008-03-27T16:28:00.000-07:00

Excerpted from Politico with my comments italicized.

In an interview in conjunction with his big economic speech in New York, Senator Obama tells CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo he favors increasing the capital-gains tax rate. Bartiromo reported after her interview: “Right now, as you know, the cap gains tax is at 15 percent. He has yet to give us a specific number. How high he wants that number to go? He has said, and he told me today, that he won't go above 28 percent. So we are talking about the possibility of a doubling in the capital gains tax. He was averaging at about 25 percent.”

Why is this news? This was part of the economic plan in the first Clinton Admistration, and obviously raising capital gains taxes is big on the Hillary to-do list.

Sen. OBAMA: It is true that I think that having the minimum wage go up every 10 years is a bad idea and it's not good for small businesses...

What? This guy may drinking the Republican Kool-Aid but America's Senator knows that in so many instances it's the minimum wage that keeps folks on the assembly line and off the bread line.

Sen. OBAMA: ...the cap and trade system that I've proposed to deal with climate change and to increase energy independence. That potentially generates billions of dollars that we can reinvest in solar, wind, biodiesel, creating jobs here in America that can't be exported.

Oh please, if you remember back, it was Hillary who came up with the term, Green Collar Jobs.

Sen. OBAMA: And if you talk to any executive, as well as any actuary who's looking at government spending, our biggest crisis looming in the horizon has to do with our health care costs. And the only way to really solve it long term is to make sure that we are making for a healthier America and improving the quality of care so that we get more bang for our health care dollar.

Two things. First, our nation's health care future isn't a crisis, it's an opportunity. It's an opportunity to invest in America. If we just take the money people don't need for their own health care, and put it into the hands of people who do need help with their health costs, then we can save America. For all of us. Second, he talks about getting more bang for our health care buck, but the truth is that his plan would leave millions of people behind. Millions of hopes and dreams. Millions of Americans. Millions of voters. If you don't want to be one of those millions, vote for Hillary.

Sen. OBAMA: I am concerned about NAFTA because they don't have the environmental and labor protections written into this legislation that ensure some basic standards, make sure that child labor laws aren't being circumvented, making sure that you don't have forced labor. I think it is important in our dealings with China to make sure that we are tougher bargainers.

Barry, baby, China is in Asia. The NA in NAFTA stands for North American. Oh, and by the way, real brave stand against forced child labor. Did your Obama girl fall for that? Speaking of the Obama girl...

BARTIROMO: And this is just in the news right now, away from business, the church bulletins. A lot of people say that they were--are anti-Semitic, anti-American. How often did you read them? Did you find them troubling?

Sen. OBAMA: You know, the--you know, I've, I think, talked thoroughly about, you know, the issue with Reverend Wright. And, you know, everybody, I think, who examines the church that I attend knows that it is a very traditional, conventional church. Reverend Wright has made some, you know, troubling statements and some appalling statements that I have condemned. He's the former pastor of that church.

Still Black... Still Talking About It

2008-03-25T22:31:00.000-07:00

Typical Black Person

2008-03-24T17:23:00.000-07:00

Sound racist?

Probably so. It's not my intent though, because I'm a liberal and racism is wrong. Heck, I actually feel uncomfortable when the word 'black' is used at all. But I'm just trying to make a point here. Let's turn the wayback machine to the 1970s when young Barry Obama lived in Hawai'i...

Madelyn Lee Payne Dunham (born October 1922) is the maternal grandmother of Barack Obama. She raised Senator Obama from age 10 in her Honolulu, Hawaii high-rise apartment, where she still lives today. In his book, Obama described his grandmother as "suspicious of overwrought sentiments or overblown claims, content with common sense." She is said to have been "quiet yet firm", in contrast to Obama's "boisterous" grandfather Stanley. Obama considered his grandmother "a trailblazer of sorts, the first woman vice-president of a local bank."

But one fateful day waiting for the bus which she rode to the bank everyday...

"I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother - a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe." -Barry, March 18, 2008 in a speech on race relations and in defense of his Pastor Jeremiah Wright.

He even expounded on this remark 2 days later...

"The point I was making was not that my grandmother harbors any racial animosity - she doesn't. But she is a typical white person, who, if she sees somebody on the street that she doesn't know...there's a reaction that's been bred into our experiences that don't go away and that sometimes come out in the wrong way, and that's just the nature of race in our society."

But wait, years earlier, in his first autobiography, published in 1995 when he was 34, he told of that bus stop incident in his grandmother's own words...

"Her lips pursed with irritation. 'He was very aggressive, Barry. Very aggressive. I gave him a dollar and he kept asking. If the bus hadn't come, I think he might have hit me over the head."

So no, she didn't confess her fear of a black guy who passed her on the street, but instead by an aggressive beggar who confronted her, demanded money, and then gave her reason to believe he would have gotten violent if she'd been at the bus stop alone with him any longer.

But you don't have to take my word for it...

Speaking of Change...

2008-03-20T20:12:00.000-07:00

On Dec. 12, 2002, Obama, then serving as an Illinois state senator and filling in as host of the Cliff Kelley radio show on WVON, challenged the Republican Party to demand Lott's resignation.

"It seems to be that we can forgive a 100-year-old senator for some of the indiscretion of his youth, but, what is more difficult to forgive is the current president of the U.S. Senate (Lott) suggesting we had been better off if we had followed a segregationist path in this country after all of the battles and fights for civil rights and all the work that we still have to do," said Obama.

He added: "The Republican Party itself has to drive out Trent Lott. If they have to stand for something, they have to stand up and say this is not the person we want representing our party."

Meanwhile...

"The statements that Rev. Wright made that are the cause of this controversy were not statements I personally heard him preach while I sat in the pews of Trinity or heard him utter in private conversation. When these statements first came to my attention, it was at the beginning of my presidential campaign. I made it clear at the time that I strongly condemned his comments. But because Rev. Wright was on the verge of retirement, and because of my strong links to the Trinity faith community, where I married my wife and where my daughters were baptized, I did not think it appropriate to leave the church."

And This Guy Is Supporting Him...

2008-03-19T21:57:00.000-07:00

Wright's Rantings Won't Sink Obama

By Dick Morris

Will the Gospel According to Jeremiah Wright sink the Obama candidacy? Not very likely.
Let's start with two basic facts:

(b) Wright's rantings are not reflective of Obama's views on anything. Why did he stay in the church? Because he's a black Chicago politician who comes from a mixed marriage and went to Columbia and Harvard. Suspected of not being black enough or sufficiently tied to the minority community, he needed the networking opportunities Wright afforded him in his church to get elected. If he had not risen to the top of Chicago black politics, we would never have heard of him. But obviously, he can't say that. So what should he say?

He needs to get out of this mess with subtlety, the kind Bill Clinton should have used to escape the Monica Lewinsky scandal -- but didn't. As the controversy continues, Americans will gradually realize that Obama stuck by Wright as part of a need to get ahead. They will chalk up to pragmatism why he was so close to such a preacher. As they come to realize that Obama doesn't agree with Wright but used him to get started, they will be more forgiving.

But if he handles the situation with subtlety and lets what he cannot say -- that it was opportunism that led him to stay in that church -- sink in among the electorate, he can and will survive this battle.

Vs.

2008-03-18T20:21:00.000-07:00

Regarding Hillary's advisor, Geraldine Ferraro: In the first interview with the Daily Breeze of Torrance, Ferraro had said, "If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman (of any color), he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept."

This caused a firestorm on cable TV news shows and at political blogs. But the Breeze reported late today that "far from backing off from her initial remark, Ferraro defended it and elaborated on it."

Ferraro told the paper: "Any time anybody does anything that in any way pulls this campaign down and says let's address reality and the problems we're facing in this world, you're accused of being racist, so you have to shut up. Racism works in two different directions. I really think they're attacking me because I'm white. How's that?"

The article continued: "Ferraro said she was simply stating an obvious truth, as seen in exit polls that show Obama taking as much as 80 percent of the black vote in the Democratic primaries. 'In all honesty, do you think that if he were a white male, there would be a reason for the black community to get excited for a historic first?' Ferraro said. 'Am I pointing out something that doesn't exist?'"

Regarding Barry's advisor, Rev. Wright: The fracas started Thursday morning, when ABC’s “Good Morning America” ran a Brian Ross expose on Wright that included old video of him saying: “The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing ‘God bless America’? No, no, no. Not God bless America. God [expletive] America.”

"We've got more black men in prison than there are in college," he began. "Racism is alive and well. Racism is how this country was founded and how this country is still run. No black man will ever be considered for president, no matter how hard you run Jesse [Jackson] and no black woman can ever be considered for anything outside what she can give with her body."

Mr. Wright thundered on: "America is still the No. 1 killer in the world. . . . We are deeply involved in the importing of drugs, the exporting of guns, and the training of professional killers. . . We bombed Cambodia, Iraq and Nicaragua, killing women and children while trying to get public opinion turned against Castro and Ghadhafi . . . We put [Nelson] Mandela in prison and supported apartheid the whole 27 years he was there. We believe in white supremacy and black inferiority and believe it more than we believe in God."

His voice rising, Mr. Wright said, "We supported Zionism shamelessly while ignoring the Palestinians and branding anybody who spoke out against it as being anti-Semitic. . . . We care nothing about human life if the end justifies the means. . . ."

Concluding, Mr. Wright said: "We started the AIDS virus . . . We are only able to maintain our level of living by making sure that Third World people live in grinding poverty. . . ."

Blacker Than Ever

2008-03-18T19:49:00.000-07:00

Black presidential-candidate B. Hussein Obama today gave quite a speech concerning, if you listen to the TV news, race. They point to his ability to "stand up for" the struggles of black people who have faced racism head-on. And likewise, they drool over his "understanding" of white folks' distrust and resentment of a people who may seem to get all the breaks in hiring, public assistance, college admission, whatever. And he denounced those who would continue to draw lines, to separate people by color, to think of their fellow Americans as anything but brothers and sisters. These are the people who are the scourge of American society. These are the people who have walked among us for too long.

But guess what he didn't denounce. That's right, his racist anti-Semitic preacher. This guy is an embarrassment to America's greatness. Hey, I learned Oprah used to go to this church but she stopped attending. I wonder why? Better yet, I wonder why this guy who's so big on change was willing to just sit there in his favorite pew and let his little daughters hear this venom coming from the pulpit. Which one is the real Obama?

I guess there's good news for B. H. O. in all this: At least now folks might stop saying he's a Muslim.

I Just Got Chills

2008-03-13T17:00:00.000-07:00

Someone posted a HillaryYouth rally on YouTube! I guess we're pretty much stars now! Every American needs to watch this 10 times. Hat tip to my buddy two states away for clueing me in. This was really the greatest day. I'm gonna watch it again...

Sisters

2008-03-12T16:57:00.000-07:00

I've been asked by a diehard HillaryYouth supporter to "tout these diehard Hillary supporters at Hillary Youth." I do so proudly. Hopefully they'll show me the same kindness.

http://guerillawomentn.blogspot.com/

No More Barry Jumpin on the Bed

2008-03-11T22:12:00.000-07:00

LEVINSON, BARRY

BEVERLY HILLS,CA 90211
SELF-EMPLOYED/DIRECTOR
3/30/2007
$2,300
Franken, Al

LEVINSON, BARRY

BEVERLY HILLS,CA 90211
SELF-EMPLOYED/DIRECTOR
3/30/2007
$2,300
Franken, Al

More People Who Will Not Be Jumping on the Lincoln Bed

2008-03-11T21:51:00.000-07:00

ALEXANDER, JASON

BEVERLY HILLS,CA 90211
SELF-EMPLOYED/ACTOR
9/20/2007
$2,500
Democratic Senatorial Campaign Cmte

ALEXANDER, JASON

BEVERLY HILLS,CA 90211
SELF-EMPLOYED/ACTOR
3/12/2007
$2,300
Franken, Al

ALEXANDER, JASON

BEVERLY HILLS,CA 90211
SELF-EMPLOYED/ACTOR
3/12/2007
$2,300
Franken, Al

DONNER, RICHARD

BEVERLY HILLS,CA 90211
FREELANCE/DIRECTOR
10/5/2007
$1,200
Directors Guild of America

DONNER, RICHARD

BEVERLY HILLS,CA 90211
BRONX PARLOR/DIRECTOR
5/23/2007
$500
Moveon.org

DONNER, RICHARD

BEVERLY HILLS,CA 90211
BRONX PARLOR/DIRECTOR
9/4/2007
$250
Moveon.org

DONNER, RICHARD

BEVERLY HILLS,CA 90211
BRONX PARLOR/DIRECTOR
7/19/2007
$200
Moveon.org

HANKS, THOMAS J

BEVERLY HILLS,CA 90211
SELF EMPLOYED/ACTOR
5/3/2007
$2,300
Clinton, Hillary

HANKS, TOM

BEVERLY HILLS,CA 90211
SELF EMPLOYED/ACTOR
3/21/2007
$4,600
Obama, Barack

HANKS, TOM

BEVERLY HILLS,CA 90211
SELF EMPLOYED/ACTOR
3/21/2007
($2,300)
Obama, Barack

HANKS, TOM J
BEVERLY HILLS,CA 90211
SELF-EMPLOYED/ACTOR
3/15/2007
$2,300
Franken, Al

HANKS, TOM J

BEVERLY HILLS,CA 90211
SELF-EMPLOYED/ACTOR
3/15/2007
$2,300
Franken, Al

These friends of mine

2008-03-11T21:42:00.000-07:00

Visit these brothers and sisters of mine out there in the wild wild web if you get time. They're on our page when it comes to supporting the next president, America's greatest Senator, and the person more qualified than any other person ever to sit in that Oval Office:

http://hillaryforum.org/live/YaBB.pl

http://www.hillaryspeaksforme.com/

And if you go to the forum, apparently you can get a t-shirt. Neat huh?

Oh, and tell 'em HillaryYouth sent ya!

Obama Stoops To New Low

2008-03-11T21:25:00.000-07:00

There's an anti-American Progress website out there that only serves as a repeater in the echo chamber of right-wing red America. In other words, nobody reads it. Except, we discovered today, Senator B. Hussein Obama's foreign policy advisor. He, or someone using his name, posted this ridiculous trite today...

Obama Foreign Policy Memo
To: Interested Parties
From: Greg Craig, former director, Policy Planning Office, U.S. State Department
RE: Senator Clinton’s claim to be experienced in foreign policy: Just words?
DA: March 11, 2008

When your entire campaign is based upon a claim of experience, it is important that you have evidence to support that claim. Hillary Clinton’s argument that she has passed “the Commander- in-Chief test” is simply not supported by her record.

There is no doubt that Hillary Clinton played an important domestic policy role when she was First Lady. It is well known, for example, that she led the failed effort to pass universal health insurance. There is no reason to believe, however, that she was a key player in foreign policy at any time during the Clinton Administration. She did not sit in on National Security Council meetings. She did not have a security clearance. She did not attend meetings in the Situation Room. She did not manage any part of the national security bureaucracy, nor did she have her own national security staff. She did not do any heavy-lifting with foreign governments, whether they were friendly or not. She never managed a foreign policy crisis, and there is no evidence to suggest that she participated in the decision-making that occurred in connection with any such crisis. As far as the record shows, Senator Clinton never answered the phone either to make a decision on any pressing national security issue – not at 3 AM or at any other time of day.

When asked to describe her experience, Senator Clinton has cited a handful of international incidents where she says she played a central role. But any fair-minded and objective judge of these claims – i.e., by someone not affiliated with the Clinton campaign – would conclude that Senator Clinton’s claims of foreign policy experience are exaggerated.

Northern Ireland:
Senator Clinton has said, “I helped to bring peace to Northern Ireland.” It is a gross overstatement of the facts for her to claim even partial credit for bringing peace to Northern Ireland. She did travel to Northern Ireland, it is true. First Ladies often travel to places that are a focus of U.S. foreign policy. But at no time did she play any role in the critical negotiations that ultimately produced the peace. As the Associated Press recently reported, “[S]he was not directly involved in negotiating the Good Friday peace accord.” With regard to her main claim that she helped bring women together, she did participate in a meeting with women, but, according to those who know best, she did not play a pivotal role. The person in charge of the negotiations, former Senator George Mitchell, said that “[The First Lady] was one of many people who participated in encouraging women to get involved, not the only one.”
News of Senator Clinton’s claims has raised eyebrows across the ocean. Her reference to an important meeting at the Belfast town hall was debunked. Her only appearance at the Belfast City Hall was to see Christmas lights turned on. She also attended a 50-minute meeting which, according to the Belfast Daily Telegraph’s report at the time, “[was] a little bit stilted, a little prepared at times.” Brian Feeney, an Irish author and former politician, sums it up: “The road to peace was carefully documented, and she wasn’t on it.”

Bosnia:
Senator Clinton has pointed to a March 1996 trip to Bosnia as proof that her foreign travel involved a life-risking mission into a war zone. She has described dodging sniper fire. While she did travel to Bosnia in March 1996, the visit was not a high-stakes mission to a war zone. On March 26, 1996, the New York Times reported that “Hillary Rodham Clinton charmed American troops at a U.S.O. show here, but it didn’t hurt that the singer Sheryl Crow and the comedian Sinbad were also on the stage.”

Kosovo:
Senator Clinton has said, “I negotiated open borders to let fleeing refugees into safety from Kosovo.” It is true that, as First Lady, she traveled to Macedonia and visited a Kosovar refugee camp. It is also true that she met with government officials while she was there. First Ladies frequently meet with government officials. Her claim to have “negotiated open borders to let fleeing refugees into safety from Kosovo,” however, is not true. Her trip to Macedonia took place on May 14, 1999. The borders were opened the day before, on May 13, 1999.
The negotiations that led to the opening of the borders were accomplished by the people who ordinarily conduct negotiations with foreign governments – U.S. diplomats. President Clinton’s top envoy to the Balkans, former Ambassador Robert Gelbard, said, “I cannot recall any involvement by Senator Clinton in this issue.” Ivo Daalder worked on the Clinton Administration’s National Security Council and wrote a definitive history of the Kosovo conflict. He recalls that “she had absolutely no role in the dirty work of negotiations.”

Rwanda:
Last year, former President Clinton asserted that his wife pressed him to intervene with U.S. troops to stop the Rwandan genocide. When asked about this assertion, Hillary Clinton said it was true. There is no evidence, however, to suggest that this ever happened. Even those individuals who were advocating a much more robust U.S. effort to stop the genocide did not argue for the use of U.S. troops. No one recalls hearing that Hillary Clinton had any interest in this course of action. Based on a fair and thorough review of National Security Council deliberations during those tragic months, there is no evidence to suggest that U.S. military intervention was ever discussed. Prudence Bushnell, the Assistant Secretary of State with responsibility for Africa, has recalled that there was no consideration of U.S. military intervention.

At no time prior to her campaign for the presidency did Senator Clinton ever make the claim that she supported intervening militarily to stop the Rwandan genocide. It is noteworthy that she failed to mention this anecdote – urging President Clinton to intervene militarily in Rwanda – in her memoirs. President Clinton makes no mention of such a conversation with his wife in his memoirs. And Madeline Albright, who was Ambassador to the United Nations at the time, makes no mention of any such event in her memoirs.

Hillary Clinton did visit Rwanda in March 1998 and, during that visit, her husband apologized for America’s failure to do more to prevent the genocide.

China
Senator Clinton also points to a speech that she delivered in Beijing in 1995 as proof of her ability to answer a 3 AM crisis phone call. It is strange that Senator Clinton would base her own foreign policy experience on a speech that she gave over a decade ago, since she so frequently belittles Barack Obama’s speeches opposing the Iraq War six years ago. Let there be no doubt: she gave a good speech in Beijing, and she stood up for women’s rights. But Senator Obama’s opposition to the War in Iraq in 2002 is relevant to the question of whether he, as Commander-in-Chief, will make wise judgments about the use of military force. Senator Clinton’s speech in Beijing is not…

Conclusion:
The Clinton campaign’s argument is nothing more than mere assertion, dramatized in a scary television commercial with a telephone ringing in the middle of the night. There is no support for or substance in the claim that Senator Clinton has passed “the Commander-in-Chief test.” That claim – as the TV ad – consists of nothing more than making the assertion, repeating it frequently to the voters and hoping that they will believe it…

Barack Obama does not use false charges and exaggerated claims to play politics with national security.

2008-03-09T22:34:00.000-07:00

Just thought you Husseiniacs should know whose side you are on

2008-03-09T22:11:00.000-07:00

Brzezinski currently lives in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. He is married to internationally recognized sculptor Emilie Anna Benes (grandniece of Czechoslovakia’s former president Edvard Beneš) and has three children. Ian is Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Europe and NATO. Mark is a partner in McGuire Woods LLP, Washington, D.C., and a foreign policy advisor to Barack Obama. His daughter Mika is a reporter who is currently the co-host and news reader on Morning Joe on MSNBC.

Brzezinski has endorsed the presidential campaign of Senator Barack Obama.

Major foreign policy events during his term of office included the normalization of relations with the People's Republic of China (and the severing of ties with the Republic of China), the signing of the second Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT II), the brokering of the Camp David Accords, the transition of Iran to an anti-Western Islamic state, encouraging reform in Eastern Europe, emphasizing human rights in U.S. foreign policy, the arming of the mujaheddin in Afghanistan [2] to fight against the Soviet-friendly Afghan government and later to counter the Soviet invasion, and the signing of the Torrijos-Carter Treaties relinquishing U.S. control of the Panama Canal after 1999.

Associated Press still attacking Hillary

2008-03-09T21:17:00.000-07:00

In what can only be called an October Surprise in March, the Barack Obama campaign, with the clear and obvious assistance of the Associated Press, has really turned nasty.

The quote was painless, it was candidate-Clinton sort of talking out her feelings about a couple of states' inability to vote statewide for a woman. Here's her actual quote from the Des Moines Register:

"How can Iowa be ranked with Mississippi? That's not what I see. That's not the quality. That's not the communitarianism; that's not the openness I see in Iowa."

Now reading that sentence without all of the noise and hullabaloo to cut through, it is obvious that she didn't mean that Iowa should vote for her so as to not be as backward as Mississippi. I mean, she wasn't saying that the Southern state is backward or racist or misogynistic at all. That would be a little too stereotypically insensitive, especially since the accusation is a) not true, and b) just dumb to say about people who will later be voting for you. She's just saying that they need to vote for more women. Here, I'll let her speak for herself, which she did in a Mississippi radio interview:

"What I said is what I learned is that neither Iowa or Mississippi had ever elected a woman statewide and I referenced the fact that I was the first woman elected statewide in New York and I told the Iowans that they had a chance to try to change that and now in Mississippi [I'm] giving Mississippi voters a chance to change that," Clinton said in the radio interview.

Clinton said she was surprised that "neither Iowa nor Mississippi has broken through to being able to elect a woman statewide."

"You know there's a lot of strong women from both those states, and it's time that women had a chance to have full equality in the political process. It didn't happen in Iowa, it hasn't happened in Mississippi. and it's time that it be changed," she said.

Now, to be fair, I should point out that Mississippi has elected several women to statewide office including two lieutenant governors. But of course they haven't elected a female governor or member of Congress, and this is most certainly what the next President meant when she asked "How can Iowa be ranked with Mississippi?"

Here's the scoop: http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8V8QUGO0&show_article=1

With him as an enemy, she must be doing something right.

2008-03-09T20:54:00.000-07:00

"A few weeks ago, I started to feel sorry for her. Oh Christ, let her win already...Who cares...It's not worth it. There's not that much difference between them. She can have it. Anything to avoid watching her descend into madness. So I switched. I started rooting for her. It wasn't that hard. Compromise comes easy to me. I was on board."

He claims his "blog," note from a liberal insomniac, is funny. Back to him:

"There have been times in this campaign when she seemed so unhinged that I worried she'd actually kill herself if she lost. Every day, she reminds me more and more of Adele H., who also had an obsession that drove her insane.

"I watched, transfixed, as she took the 3 a.m. call...and I was afraid...very afraid. Suddenly, I realized the last thing this country needs is that woman anywhere near a phone. I don't care if it's 3 a.m. or 10 p.m. or any other time. I don't want her talking to Putin, I don't want her talking to Kim Jong II, I don't want her talking to my nephew." (posted by Daniel Finkelstein on March 7, 2008)

If only Larry David would take his own advice.

Hillary for Peace Prize!

2008-03-09T20:31:00.000-07:00

Nobel winner: Hillary Clinton's Irish peace

Mrs Clinton has made Northern Ireland key to her claims of having extensive foreign policy experience, which helped her defeat Barack Obama in Ohio and Texas on Tuesday after she presented herself as being ready to tackle foreign policy crises at 3am.

"I helped to bring peace to Northern Ireland," she told CNN on Wednesday.

"I actually went to Northern Ireland more than my husband did," she said in Nashua, New Hampshire on January 6th.

"I remember a meeting that I pulled together in Belfast, in the town hall there, bringing together for the first time Catholics and Protestants from both traditions, having them sitting a room where they had never been before with each other because they don’t go to school together, they don’t live together and it was only in large measure because I really asked them to come that they were there.

"And I wasn’t sure it was going to be very successful and finally a Catholic woman on one side of the table said, ’You know, every time my husband leaves for work in the morning I worry he won’t come home at night.

"And then a Protestant woman on the other side said, ’Every time my son tries to go out at night I worry he won’t come home again’. And suddenly instead of seeing each other as caricatures and stereotypes they saw each other as human beings and the slow, hard work of peace-making could move forward."

Among those attending were women from groups representing single parents, relationship counsellors, youth workers and a cultural society. In her 2003 autobiography "Living History", Mrs Clinton wrote about the meeting in some detail.

The "Belfast Telegraph" reported the next day that the café meeting was crammed with reporters, cameramen and Secret Service agents. Conversation "seemed a little... bit stilted... at times" and Mrs Clinton admired a stainless steel tea pot, which was duly given to her, for keeping the brew "so nice and hot".

Conall McDevitt, an SDLP negotiator and aide to Nobel Peace Prize winner John Hume during the talks said: "I’ve always had a theory that... [Mrs Clinton] was an ideal focus point." Once a peace deal was in place, Mrs Clinton supported women politicians and was always available if they visited Washington "to give them a pat on the back, give them moral support", he added. "So in a classic woman politicky sort of way I think she was active...She was certainly investing some time, no doubt about it."

During Bill Clinton’s last visit to Northern Ireland [in December 2000]... she [even] hugged and kissed [Sinn Fein leaders] Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness."

Responding to inquiries from this newspaper, Hillary Clinton’s campaign issued a statement: "I can state from firsthand experience that she played a positive role for over a decade in helping to bring peace to Northern Ireland. She visited Northern Ireland, met with very many people and gave very decisive support to the peace process.

"There is no doubt that the people of Northern Ireland think very positively of Hillary Clinton’s support for our peace process, due to her visits to Northern Ireland and her meetings with so many people. In private she made countless calls and contacts, speaking to leaders and opinion makers on all sides, urging them to keep moving forward."

Big.

2008-03-04T20:08:00.000-08:00

OHIO

*CLINTON 716,912 58%

OBAMA 496,181 40%

He doesn't have legs.

2008-03-04T19:46:00.000-08:00

This should've been it for Barry.

The results are not in. The two large states have not been called. No one knows how the delegate counts will wind up. But with all of that said, Barack should be winning huge right now. But he's not.

I have to reiterate my call for Senator Obama to bow out.

Let's think about it. First, Senator Obama has ridden a wave of young people's political action. That's not something we can count on in the general. Second, if this were any other year the Florida and Michigan delegates would've been counted (and still may), which means Senator Obama would be through now anyway. Third, Hillary has an almost 50% disapproval number and is now lending her campaign money. So even if Senator Obama does eventually win (he won't), he's going to look like a weak, also-ran by limping out of this close-call race. The money, the minorities, and the press are all on his side, yet he's working as hard as he can to get 50.1%? It shouldn't in a million years be this close. But still it is. Why?

Because the guy is weak.

Step away Senator. This isn't your fight anymore.

Hillary in "The Hill"

2008-03-04T19:38:00.000-08:00

Clinton cries foul in Texas; Obama lawyer hijacks call
By Sam Youngman
Posted: 03/04/08 09:10 PM [ET]

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s (D-N.Y.) campaign charged rival Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) campaign with breaking several rules in the Texas caucuses.

The Clinton campaign called an “emergency” conference call with reporters that was interrupted by Obama’s chief counsel Bob Bauer, who called in and said the Clinton campaign only criticized the caucus process when it was losing.

With Clinton facing what many consider must-win scenarios in both Ohio and Texas and both races too-close-to-call, the Clinton campaign charged that the Obama campaign had shut the doors on Clinton supporters at some of the caucuses, among other things.

The campaign also said the Obama camp had hijacked some of the caucus packets at certain precincts, adding that in others Obama supporters were calling in caucus results before the polls had closed.

Ace Smith, Clinton’s Texas campaign director, said the state party’s election hotline was jammed, and the Clinton campaign was receiving “hundreds of complaints.”
“This is just truly outrageous behavior,” Smith said. “It’s really disturbing, and it’s really undemocratic what’s going on.”

Clinton’s attorney said on the call that “all options are open at this point” when asked about the possibility of seeking a legal remedy to the campaign’s concerns.Bauer’s presence on the call came as a surprise as he and Howard Wolfson, Clinton’s communications director, went round and round. Wolfson repeatedly asked Bauer and the Obama campaign to ensure that all votes in Texas are counted as Bauer impugned the Clinton campaign’s “attacking the caucus process.”

Foul!

2008-03-04T18:53:00.000-08:00

I'm disgusted with the political process tonight. Tonight was my opportunity to vote twice for the next president of the United States. I was early, I was determined, I was not deterred. But that's not to say it wasn't it was simple to walk into this "Obama show" and do my civic duty.

First, as friends of this site will know, I live and work in Austin, Texas - a deep blue city in a red state. Here in Texas we have what they call the Texas two-step - which means we have both a primary vote and a caucus vote after the polls are closed.

So primary voting was no problem.

But when it came time to vote in the "convention," as the Texas caucus is called, Hillary voters were obstructed by Obama voters at every turn. I mean literally.

The tables were set up out in the yard of the church because, we were told, there "wasn't enough room for everyone to sign in" in this room in which we were all standing. Seemed odd, but we went with it. Then we found out that two tables in the front were Obama tables, so to get to the Hillary table we had to push through the admittedly large crowds gathering at the front two tables. It got so bad that some voters just left (They went to "get cupcakes" and to "get Homeslice pizza," respectably.) before they ever tried to sign in.

Next, the fellow who was in charge of the proceedings was in an Obama t-shirt, standing in his chair at the Obama sign-in table. He was also the leader of the "fire it up! Ready to go!" chant. Yes, the guy who was directing the voting proceedings was instructing the crowd in the unofficial Obama chant.

I didn't know that was allowed.

Finally, hen they thought every Hillary person had gone, he made a final announcement. He said that the big majority of people who had signed up to be delegates were Hillary people, and this concerned him greatly. It concerned to the degree that he downplayed any responsibility of the delegates to the point where his request for Obama delegates instead meant that "we really just need somebody." That's not a great legitimization of the process or the Party, in my opinion.

But anyway, I got my votes in, and I feel good for our girl.

Warren Buffett says "No you can't."

2008-03-03T17:54:00.000-08:00

Warren Buffett said on Monday that he would not be comfortable putting Democrat presidential candidate Senator Barack H. Obama in charge of running his Berkshire Hathaway Inc. insurance and investment company.

Buffett has said he plans to support the Democratic Party in the 2008 elections, as it seeks to retake the White House, but he has not yet endorsed Clinton for the presidency.

See the story here.

"I don't know if it's the coffee or the Obama speech I just heard on my iPod."

2008-03-02T21:55:00.000-08:00

Gee, I wonder when the Edwards "bombshell" is gonna drop.

2008-02-28T23:27:00.000-08:00

C'mon America, It's in the Bag... So Let's Dance With the Girl That Brought Us

2008-02-28T23:11:00.000-08:00

And by 'brought us,' I mean of course 35 years of experience fighting for women, children, the poor, minorities, everybody.

And by 'in the bag' I mean that there's no way, after 8 years of Bush/Cheney/Oil Barons that the media in this country is not gonna come out full force in a very constructive manner to make sure that John McCain or any other Republican will be the last (wo)man standing when the dust clears in this election.

You read about Hillary's soon-to-be-opponent recently in the New York Times. You know the one, he apparently cheated on his wife with a high-powered lobbyist in D.C. But did you notice anything peculiar about that story? I noticed that the two unnamed "former staffers" quoted in the story really made no such accusations... just admitted to amorphous concerns amongst the staff.

My point is that the old grey lady, the grand dame of the mainstream media is in the tank for our side this year. They won't let anybody but a D win. Still don't believe me? Take a look at the point of this story from yesterday by Carl Hulse...

McCain’s Canal Zone Birth Prompts Queries About Whether That Rules Him Out

WASHINGTON — The question has nagged at the parents of Americans born outside the continental United States for generations: Dare their children aspire to grow up and become president? In the case of Senator John McCain of Arizona, the issue is becoming more than a matter of parental daydreaming.

Mr. McCain’s likely nomination as the Republican candidate for president and the happenstance of his birth in the Panama Canal Zone in 1936 are reviving a musty debate that has surfaced periodically since the founders first set quill to parchment and declared that only a “natural-born citizen” can hold the nation’s highest office.

Almost since those words were written in 1787 with scant explanation, their precise meaning has been the stuff of confusion, law school review articles, whisper campaigns and civics class debates over whether only those delivered on American soil can be truly natural born. To date, no American to take the presidential oath has had an official birthplace outside the 50 states.

“There are powerful arguments that Senator McCain or anyone else in this position is constitutionally qualified, but there is certainly no precedent,” said Sarah H. Duggin, an associate professor of law at Catholic University who has studied the issue extensively. “It is not a slam-dunk situation.”

Mr. McCain was born on a military installation in the Canal Zone, where his mother and father, a Navy officer, were stationed. His campaign advisers say they are comfortable that Mr. McCain meets the requirement and note that the question was researched for his first presidential bid in 1999 and reviewed again this time around.

But given mounting interest, the campaign recently asked Theodore B. Olson, a former solicitor general now advising Mr. McCain, to prepare a detailed legal analysis. “I don’t have much doubt about it,” said Mr. Olson, who added, though, that he still needed to finish his research.

More Good News For Our Girl!

2008-02-28T23:01:00.000-08:00

Clinton adds a half delegate
By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER, Associated Press Writer Wed Feb 27, 5:24 PM ET

WASHINGTON - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's half delegate has a new friend — one of equal stature no less.

The Democrats Abroad, a group sanctioned by the national party, has confounded delegate counters, graphic artists and political journalists since it awarded Clinton 1.5 delegates from its global primary last week. How do you explain that Clinton has 1,276.5 delegates?

Explain no more. Clinton picked up a half superdelegate on Wednesday, increasing her overall total to 1,277.

The anomaly happened because the Democrats Abroad will send 22 delegates to the Democratic National Convention, each with a half vote. The system is designed to enable the group to send more people to the convention, without inflating its voting power.

Women know he's riding her coattails

2008-02-28T22:52:00.000-08:00

Power, pop, and probings from ABC News Senior National Correspondent Jake Tapper

Clinton: Playing Field for Her as Candidate Not Even Because of Her Gender
February 28, 2008 8:44 PM

In an interview with ABC News' Cynthia McFadden to air on this evening's "Nightline," Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., says it's tougher for her to run as a woman than it is for her male opponent.

Asked why she thinks so many women may be feeling sorry for her, Clinton said, "I think a lot of women project their own feelings and their lives onto me, and they see how hard this is. It's hard. It's hard being a woman out there. It is obviously challenging with some of the things that are said that are not even personal to me so much as they are about women.

"And I think women just sort of shake their head," Clinton continued. "My friends do. They say, 'Oh, my gosh, this is so hard.' Well, it's supposed to be hard. I'm running for the hardest job in the world. No one has ever done this. No woman has ever won a presidential primary before I won New Hampshire. This is hard. And I don't expect any sympathy, I don't expect any kind of, you know, allowances or special privileges, because I knew what I was getting myself into.

"Every so often I just wish that it were a little more of an even playing field," she said, "but, you know, I play on whatever field is out there."

Senator Obama's Lofty (Whiny) Rhetoric

2008-02-26T17:00:00.001-08:00

We all know the man can talk. What he's talking about, I have no idea. Go ahead and print off some of his recent speeches, maybe his stump speech, and just try to tell me that there's any 'there' there. There's not. But people seem to love it... to adore hope... to faint over change... heck, it sends a tingle up Chris Matthews' trouser leg. ("No, I'm serious.") But when it comes to showing guts, true grit, real American strength and steadiness, the guy can't talk his way out of a turban.

By now you've seen the pictures. (Or maybe you've just seen one. My buddy J was the first one to alert me to them.) "Sweet" Senator H. Obama was on a fact-finding mission in North Africa and was offered to try on the traditional garb of a Somali warlord, or whatever. Okay, maybe not one of the warlords that took down our Blackhawks and hung Americans from a bridge, you'd be right to correct me there. He wasn't befriending any of those particular Somalis who kill Christians or use child soldiers against neighboring towns and villages. So I take back any quip about the warlord - he was definitely NOT wearing the clothes of a brutal Somali warlord, just a regular, everyday Somali.

So anyway, it's neat that our freshmen Senators get to experience little trips to foreign lands, I'm not against it. I can just see his eyes getting really big and his mouth trying to say "Wow!" as he looks around at landscapes he's only seen in adventure films. And one of the perks is often to put on the customary clothing of the people. Which he did. And guess what, people take pictures. Constituents like to see that you're becoming worldly, taking trips, seeing sights, and meeting people - all things that they will only ever dream of - and all on their dime. So they at least deserve to see pictures.

But I guess Senator Barack H. Obama doesn't want his picture taken for the folks back home. It's a fair conclusion since he's spent all of the past two days whining about how unfair it is for people to see his picture on a junket, acting completely wounded and ashamed. But my question is: why whine? Why not tell it like is; wouldn't that be a new tone for Washington? Do we really want a whiny President, unable to make a cogent point when he's questioned? He just turns into a stammering name-caller. He throws out words like "shameful" and "negative" and "sad" as though that's going to stop Osama or Ahmadinejad. Instead, he needs to take pride in himself and his actions there in that foreign land, the land of his father. Take pride in giving all those people hope. Matter of fact, just how is Somalia doing today? How about Kenya and Chad and Darfur? I mean, Senator Obama visited the region in 2006 - two years ago, that's half a president's term in office... shouldn't they be running full steam ahead on all that hope by now?

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/gerard_baker/article3412540.ece

2008-02-23T21:50:00.000-08:00

Obama: is America ready for this dangerous leftwinger?
Listen to the rhetoric of Barack Obama ...
Gerard Baker

For most ordinary Americans, those not encumbered with an expensive education or infected by prolonged exposure to cosmopolitan heterodoxy, patriotism is a consequence of birth.

Their chests swell with pride every time they hear the national anthem at sporting events. They fill up with understandable emotion whenever they see a report on television about the tragic heroics of some soldier or Marine who gave his life in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Foreigners don't have to like America - and they've certainly exercised that freedom in the past few years. But most Americans can distinguish between the transience of policy failure and the But not, apparently, Michelle Obama, wife of the man who is now the putative Democratic candidate for US president, and at this point favourite to succeed to that job. In what might be the most revealing statement made by any political figure so far in this campaign season, Mrs Obama caused a stir this week. She said that the success of her husband Barack's campaign had marked the first time in her adult life that she had felt pride in her country.

And surely even critics of the US could scarcely deny that there have been real causes for American pride in the past 25 years: the fall of the Berlin Wall; the victory in the first Gulf War in 1991; the nation's unity in grief and resolve after September 11. Heck, I suspect most Americans got a small buzz of patriotic pride this week when they heard that one of their multimillion-dollar missiles had shot a dead but dangerous satellite travelling at 17,000 miles per hour out of the sky so that it fell harmlessly to Earth.

This, even by the astonishingly self-absorbed standards of politicians and their families, is a remarkably narrow view of what makes a country great. And though she later half-heartedly tried to retract the remark it was a statement pregnant with meaning for the presidential election campaign.

Now, to be fair to Mrs Obama, she would surely have a point if she had said that it was a source of incomparable pride to her and all African-Americans that in a country with a long and baleful history of racial discrimination, one of their own was within serious range of becoming president. All but the most irredeemably racist Americans would surely agree with that.
But that was not what she said. She said this was the only time in her adult life that she had felt pride in America.

It was instructive for two reasons. First, it reinforced the growing sense of unease that even some Obama supporters have felt about the increasingly messianic nature of the candidate's campaign. There's always been a Second Coming quality about Mr Obama's rhetoric. The claim that his electoral successes in places like Nebraska and Wisconsin might transcend all that America has achieved in its history can only add to that worry.

Secondly, and more importantly, I suspect it reveals much about what the Obama family really thinks about the kind of nation that America is. Mrs Obama is surely not alone in thinking not very much about what America has been or done in the past quarter century or more. In fact, it is a trope of the left wing of the Democratic party that America has been a pretty wretched sort of place.

There is a caste of left-wing Americans who wish essentially and in all honesty that their country was much more like France. They wish it had much higher levels of taxation and government intervention, that it had much higher levels of welfare, that it did not have such a “militaristic” approach to foreign policy. Above all, that its national goals were dictated, not by the dreadful halfwits who inhabit godforsaken places like Kansas and Mississippi, but by the counsels of the United Nations.

Though Mr Obama has done a good job, as all recent serious Democrats have done, of emphasising his belief in American virtues, his record and his programme suggest he is firmly in line with this wing of his party.

This, I think, not his inexperience in public office, is the principal threat to Mr Obama's campaign. His increasingly desperate opponent, Hillary Clinton, keeps hammering away that his message is all talk and no substance - and she was joined this week by Mr Obama's likely Republican opponent in the November general election, John McCain.

But if you listen to Mr Obama's speeches, it is not the lack of substance but the quality of it that ought to worry Americans. His victory speech after his latest primary win in Wisconsin this week was a case in point.

There was no shortage of proposals. He plans large increases in government spending on health and education. He wants to tax the rich more to pay for it. He is against companies using the opportunities of free markets to restructure their operations in the US. He is vehemently protectionist. He continues to insist, despite the growing evidence that this left-wing nostrum would be lunacy, that the US must pull its troops out of Iraq with the utmost dispatch.

While he speaks of the need for Americans to move beyond partisanship (“We are not blue states or red states, but the United States” is a campaign meme), when you cut through the verbiage there is nothing to suggest he believes anything that is seriously at odds with the far Left of his party. If you think about it for a second, it's not really an accident that he has been endorsed by the likes of Ted Kennedy and Jesse Jackson.

Though he talks with great eloquence about the future, he sounds for all the world like one of the long line of Democrats from George McGovern to Walter Mondale to Michael Dukakis, who became history by espousing policies and striking a rhetorical pose that was well out of the mainstream of American politics.

America is certainly moving left in the post-George Bush era. The long period of conservative ascendancy is clearly over, buried by a Republican Party of recent years that has preached intolerance and practised incompetence. That a new era in American politics is beginning is not in doubt. But are Americans really ready to leap all the way across in one go to embrace a European-style Left?

Have your say
Please don't compare the US to Europe. We should be so lucky to have a society like theirs.
Sonny, Toronto, Canada

Mike is spot on. Having lived through a three decades old liberal disaster in India, I can see it coming here in America. Out here in San Francisco, you hear the loons all the time. I am going back to India before it happens. Sanity has returned to that country.
Kishore Jethanandani, San Francisco, California

Greetings, My sister-in -law is proud to be an American at all times. She also thinks Elvis is alive and living in Vegas. For many, many of us, patriotic pride in our country has been tempered by years of embarrassment. permanence of the national ideal.

"A mass delusion that Obama is forthrightly engaging the nation's major problems when, so far, he isn't."

2008-02-23T21:12:00.001-08:00

Bob Samuelson in the Post this week really did a number on Senator Obama...

The contrast between his broad rhetoric and his narrow agenda is stark, and yet the media -- preoccupied with the political "horse race" -- have treated his invocation of "change" as a serious idea rather than a shallow campaign slogan. He seems to have hypnotized much of the media and the public with his eloquence and the symbolism of his life story. The result is a mass delusion that Obama is forthrightly engaging the nation's major problems when, so far, he isn't.

He has run on the vague promise of "change," but on issue after issue -- immigration, the economy, global warming -- he has offered boilerplate policies that evade the underlying causes of the stalemates. These issues remain contentious because they involve real conflicts or differences of opinion.

A favorite Obama line is that he will tell "the American people not just what they want to hear but what we need to know." Well, he hasn't so far. Consider the retiring baby boomers. A truth-telling Obama might say: "Spending for retirees -- mainly Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid -- is already nearly half the federal budget. Unless we curb these rising costs, we will crush our children with higher taxes. Reflecting longer life expectancies, we should gradually raise the eligibility ages for these programs and trim benefits for wealthier retirees. Both Democrats and Republicans are to blame for inaction. Waiting longer will only worsen the problem."

Instead, Obama pledges not to raise the retirement age and to "protect Social Security benefits for current and future beneficiaries." This isn't "change"; it's sanctification of the status quo. He would also exempt all retirees making less than $50,000 annually from income tax. By his math, that would provide average tax relief of $1,400 to 7 million retirees -- shifting more of the tax burden onto younger workers. Obama's main proposal for Social Security is to raise the payroll tax beyond the present $102,000 ceiling.

More here, if you dare...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/19/AR2008021902336.html

"You are a Barack supporter, right?

2008-02-23T20:59:00.000-08:00

Obama Supporter State Sen. Kirk Watson (D-TX) On Barack Obama's Legislative Accomplishments

MSNBC's Chris Matthews: "You are a big Barack supporter, right, Senator?"

State Sen. Watson: "I am. Yes, I am."

Matthews: "Well, name some of his legislative accomplishments. No, Senator, I want you to name some of Barack Obama's legislative accomplishments tonight if you can."

State Sen. Watson: "Well, you know, what I will talk about is more about what he is offering the American people right now."

Matthews: "No. No. What has he accomplished, sir? You say you support him. Sir, you have to give me his accomplishments. You've supported him for president. You are on national television. Name his legislative accomplishments, Barack Obama, sir."

State Sen. Watson: "Well, I'm not going to be able to name you specific items of legislative accomplishments."

Matthews: "Can you name any? Can you name anything he's accomplished as a Congressman?"

State Sen. Watson: "No, I'm not going to be able to do that tonight."

Matthews: "Well, that is a problem isn't it?"

2008-02-23T20:24:00.000-08:00

Some idiot posted this recently:

I'm expecting Hillary to unleash some diabolical ballbuster of a lawsuit against Obama or the DNC or initiate some type of legal action that will delay the nomination or otherwise make the process more in her favor.

As a comment on a story about this:

breitbart.com — An aide to Barack Obama says the man who led former President Clinton's 1992 bid plans to endorse the Illinois senator. ....the announcement would be made public later in the day.

Of course, it's all garbage - these are political people, not idea or progress or Hillary people. They all come out of D.C., not from America, if you get my differentiation. And obviously this com mentor on this blog called breitbart is completely off base. As refutation, just check out Hillary's recent comments to Senator Obama in the Austin debate:

"You know, no matter what happens in this contest -- and I am honored, I am honored to be here with Barack Obama. I am absolutely honored. ... We're going to be fine."

Now, does that sound like a person who would initiate some type of legal action that will delay the nomination process and tilt it her favor?

All Hat and No Cattle

2008-02-21T22:52:00.000-08:00

First, she said she had seen a supporter of Obama interviewed on television recently, and unable to name a single accomplishment the Illinois senator had on his record.
"Words are important and words matter but actions speak louder than words," she said.
Obama agreed with that, then noted that Clinton lately had been urging voters to turn against him by saying, "let's get real."
"And the implication is that the people who've been voting for me or are involved in my campaign are somehow delusional," Obama said.
Clinton also raised Obama's use in his campaign speeches of words first uttered by his friend, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick.
"If your candidacy is going to be about words then they should be your own words," she said. "...Lifting whole passages from someone else's speeches is not change you can believe in, it's change you can Xerox."
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8UV6LLO0&show_article=1

Hillary Wins Another!

2008-02-21T22:12:00.000-08:00

It was a big night here in Austin, Texas, home of the University of Texas Longhorns and home site of the U.S. political world earlier tonight. Of course I had one of the 200 public tickets up for grabs but I gave it up to watch the political spectacle with real people at The Tavern. (Little plug there.)

So it seemed undeniable that there was only one person on the stage who deserves to be the Democrat standard-bearer. The one who's fought the Republicanic attack machine for the past 35 years - the one who has been successfully pointing out that words don't feed hungry children or give them health care for 35 years - the one who has been fighting for 35 years to stop law enforcement officers from entering homes without warrants and deporting parents while leaving their babies in the house in America - the one who has been fighting for 35 years to keep parents from being deported during the day, leaving their children to come home from school to an empty house (I didn't know about these two deportation examples until she mentioned them tonight.) - the one who has been ready on day one for 35 years. That person is America's Senator, Hillary!

Spouses Are Not On the Ballot - So Be Quiet

2008-02-19T16:22:00.000-08:00

I found out yesterday that Senator Barack H. Obama is actually not married to Oprah. Yeah, it was news to me too. Michelle Obama, yesterdayday in Milwaukee, said "Let me tell you, for the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country." It took her husband moving up in the Presidential contention ranks for her to finally find something to be proud of? Jeez. I wonder what it will take for her to admit she... yeah, you guessed it, loves... her country. What about World War Two? The stories of the American tanks of 18 year old GIs rolling in to liberate towns? The stories that the townspeople, who had been terrorized by men on tanks for so long, but who wouldn't run from us because we are the good guys? What about the Civil War? Was that not just? What about the Civil Rights Act or the Ryan White Act or the way our athletes represent us in the Olympics? What about us helping in the Orient after the the killer tsunami? It's astounding. It's embarrassing. Has she never read the story of the Founding Brothers, pledging the lives, honor, and fortunes to this new people? So many stories, they all choke me up. They also choke up Senator Clinton, if you remember her tears in South Carolina as she spoke about the progress our country has made.

From America (via the Beatles) to Michelle:

I want you, I want you, I want you.

I think you know by nowI'll get to you somehow.

Until I do I'm telling you so

You'll understand.

Michelle, my bell.

Sont les mots qui vont très bien ensemble,

Très bien ensemble.

2008-02-18T09:47:00.000-08:00

2008-02-18T09:15:00.000-08:00

'Senator Obama Lifted Rhetoric': In conference call on Monday, Hillary aide Howard Wolfson hits Obama for using Mass. Gov. Deval Patrick's words 'without attribution'...

Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass): '...When Sen. Obama uses [those words] and doesn't credit their origin, those same words seem less inspiring'...

Obama Adviser Responds: Obama and Patrick are friends who 'share thoughts on ideas and language'; Clinton's campaign 'grasping at straws'... Developing...

WAR OVER WORDS: CLINTON TEAM ACCUSES OBAMA OF 'PLAGIARISM'

Time for Barack To Bow Out

2008-02-17T21:37:00.000-08:00

This is the last hurrah for the man from Hawai'i, or Chicago, or the Middle East, or wherever he's from. I'm talking of course about Senator Barack H. Obama. (I guess I can't be too strict about where a candidate's from though, look at Senator Clinton, America's Senator: Illinois, Arkansas, NewYork, and Senator McCain: Florida, California, Arizona-none of that matters, you go where the votes are.) Anyway, after March 4, Barack Obama will be out of the race for good, thanks to Texas and Ohio in that order. And Sen. Clinton will take the commanding lead. He should back her with his delegates immediately. Now. That’s what I’m asking the young Senator to do. He has run the good race; he has fought the good fight. It's time for Barack, Hillary, and the Superdelegates to bring this Party together.

I'd Prefer If Sen. Clinton's Name Was On This List A Little More Often

2008-02-13T17:56:00.000-08:00

But since it's not, I'll remind you of this...

SOROS, ANNALIESE

NEW YORK,NY 10023
NOT EMPLOYED/NOT EMPLOYED
2/27/2007
$2,300
Clinton, Hillary

SOROS, ANNALIESE

NEW YORK,NY 10023
2/28/2007
$2,100
Obama, Barack

SOROS, ANNALIESE

NEW YORK,NY 10023
NOT EMPLOYED/NOT EMPLOYED
6/8/2007
$250
Clinton, Hillary

SOROS, ANNALIESE

NEW YORK,NY 10023
NOT EMPLOYED/NOT EMPLOYED
6/8/2007
$250
Clinton, Hillary

SOROS, CATHARINE

LOS ANGELES,CA 90069
SELF EMPLOYED/HOME MAKER
7/13/2007
$2,300
Obama, Barack

SOROS, CATHARINE

LOS ANGELES,CA 90069
NOT EMPLOYED/HOMEMAKER
1/22/2007
$2,100
Obama, Barack

SOROS, CATHARINE

LOS ANGELES,CA 90069
SELF EMPLOYED/HOME MAKER
7/13/2007
$2,100
Obama, Barack

SOROS, CATHARINE

LOS ANGELES,CA 90069
SELF EMPLOYED/HOME MAKER
7/13/2007
($2,100)
Obama, Barack

SOROS, DAISY MR

NEW CANAAN,CT 06840
NOT EMPLOYED/HOMEMAKER
7/31/2007
$2,300
Obama, Barack

SOROS, GEORGE

NEW YORK,NY 10106
SOROS FUND MANAGEMENT/PRESIDENT
6/29/2007
$21,750
Democratic Senatorial Campaign Cmte

SOROS, GEORGE

NEW YORK,NY 10128
SOROS FUND MANAGMENT/EXECUTIVE
6/29/2007
$21,750
Democratic Congressional Campaign Cmte

SOROS, GEORGE

KATONAH,NY 10536
SOROS FUND MGMT/BUSINESS EXEC
1/26/2007
$2,100
Obama, Barack

SOROS, GEORGE MR

NEW YORK,NY 10106
SOROS FUND MANAGEMENT/EXECUTIVE
6/30/2007
$21,750
DNC Services Corp

SOROS, JEFFREY

LOS ANGELES,CA 90069
SELF EMPLOYED/WRITER
7/13/2007
$2,300
Obama, Barack

SOROS, JEFFREY

LOS ANGELES,CA 90069
SELF EMPLOYED/WRITER
7/13/2007
$2,100
Obama, Barack

SOROS, JEFFREY

LOS ANGELES,CA 90069
SELF EMPLOYED/WRITER
1/22/2007
$2,100
Obama, Barack

SOROS, JEFFREY

LOS ANGELES,CA 90069
SELF EMPLOYED/WRITER
7/13/2007
($2,100)
Obama, Barack

SOROS, JENNIFER A

NEW YORK,NY 10011
SELF EMPLOYED/CONSULTANT
2/21/2007
$2,300
Clinton, Hillary

SOROS, JONATHAN A

NEW YORK,NY 10011
SOROS FUND MGMT/BUSINESS EXEC
1/26/2007
$2,100
Obama, Barack

SOROS, PAUL

NEW CANAAN,CT 06840
PAUL SOROS INVESTMENTS
3/15/2006
$1,000
Biden, Joseph R Jr

SOROS, PAUL MR

NEW CANAAN,CT 06840
PAUL SOROS INVESTMENTS/INVESTOR
7/31/2007
$2,300
Obama, Barack

SOROS, PAUL MR

NEW CANAAN,CT 06840
PAUL SOROS INVESTMENTS/INVESTOR
7/31/2007
$2,300
Obama, Barack

SOROS, PAUL MR

NEW CANAAN,NY 06840
PAUL SOROS INVESTMENTS/INVESTOR
5/23/2007
$2,300
Obama, Barack

SOROS, PAUL MR

NEW CANAAN,CT 06840
PAUL SOROS INVESTMENTS/INVESTOR
7/31/2007
($2,300)
Obama, Barack

SOROS, PETER

NEW YORK,NY 10036
P SOROS INVESTMENTS/INVESTMENT BANK
8/2/2007
$2,300
Obama, Barack

SOROS-COLOMBEL, ANDREA

NEW YORK,NY 10010
TRACE FOUNDATION/PRESIDENT
6/30/2007
$21,250
Democratic Congressional Campaign Cmte

First Pimp

2008-02-13T17:35:00.000-08:00

Bill defends Hillary's attack on MSNBC's David Shuster for referring to Chelsea's participation on her mother's Presidential campaign as "pimping her out."

If Hillary or anyone else ever used any legal authority to try to gag someone else's free speech, I would strenuosly oppose it. But she never did any such thing, she just stuck up for her daughter and for girls everywhere and women everywhere. And it's about time somebody did after a lot of the rhetoric we've been through in this election.

Compliments to Chris Plante at WMAL radio in Washington D.C. for the scoop: http://www.wmal.com/sectional.asp?id=22833

Now we've known for long time that MSNBC is just right-wing propaganda tool (See: Chris Matthews' apology for saying that Senator Clinton was only elected because she was cheated so the Party and electorate backed her for the seat - ignoring her 35 year record of accomplishments in health care, women's and children's issues, union workers, immigrant populations, and the poor. See also: the fact that former Republican Congressman Joe Scarborough has a show; Tucker Carleson; and all the face-time they give to that Daily Kos guy.) but this beyond the pale. Senator Clinton is right, Mr. Shuster should be gone.

Big Talker's Not So High Flying Off The Cuff

2008-02-13T17:27:00.000-08:00

Finally the press is starting to notice the guy is see-through, just like his teleprompters...

The pressing question that Obama's decidedly uninspiring Jefferson-Jackson oratory raises is which Obama is the real Obama--the one who read beautifully crafted words from a Teleprompter after his victory in Iowa, or the tediously angry liberal who improvised in Virginia?

Don't you understand that Obama and McCain share the same voters?

2008-02-12T19:02:00.000-08:00

Hillary will expand the pie - she'll take the party faithful - she'll take the blue states that Obama isn't winning and Senator McCain is. Do you really think the blue states will come through for him? Do you really think the red states will come through for Senator Obama? Answer: of course not. Especially with this new deflation taking place around the once-proud conservative Republicanic Party. This guy explains the opposition pretty well:

http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/5059

Hannity & Gingrich, Conservatives In “Exile”
Another day, another whine from conservative talk radio. Hannity and Speaker Newt Gringrich were talking today about how they are now “conservatives in exile” - which means they no longer consider themselves Republicans. Clearly they see something not apparent to the rest of regarding the fortunes of the hyper-right in this nation. Why else basically declare they have been defeated in terms of dictating the path of the GOP? Why go in ‘exile’ unless it is clear that they have destroyed their cause and no longer represent the formative views of the GOP?

He then goes on to say a bunch of stuff I can't endorse so I'm gonna refrain from posting it here. But his point is well taken: the right is beaten. Beaten by their own Party no less! By the way, I Googled "conservatives in exile" and found Kenneth Baer addressed the topic in Feb of 2001 in the groundbreakin Slate magazine. Anway, my point is the title of the post.

When did we get so P.C. that we couldn't state the truth?... Even when it turns out to be true?

2008-02-12T18:49:00.000-08:00

Rendell: Race Factor Could Hurt Obama

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Gov. Ed Rendell, one of Hillary Rodham Clinton's most visible supporters, said some white Pennsylvanians are likely to vote against her rival Barack Obama because he is black.
"You've got conservative whites here, and I think there are some whites who are probably not ready to vote for an African-American candidate," Rendell told the editorial board of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in remarks that appeared in Tuesday's paper.
To buttress his point, Rendell cited his 2006 re-election campaign, in which he defeated Republican challenger Lynn Swann, the former Pittsburgh Steelers star, by a margin of more than 60 percent to less than 40 percent.
"I believe, looking at the returns in my election, that had Lynn Swann been the identical candidate that he was — well-spoken, charismatic, good-looking — but white instead of black, instead of winning by 22 points, I would have won by 17 or so," he said. "And that (attitude) exists. But on the other hand, that is counterbalanced by Obama's ability to bring new voters into the electoral pool."
Rendell, chairman of the Democratic National Committee in 2000 and previously Philadelphia's mayor, endorsed Clinton on Jan. 23.
Pennsylvania holds its primary April 22.
Several figures in Clinton's campaign, including her husband, the former president, have been criticized in recent weeks for raising Obama's race. In response, Bill Clinton has said he will stick to promoting his wife, rather than defending her.
Later Tuesday, Rendell's spokesman said the governor did not mean to offend anyone.
"He was simply making an observation about the unfortunate nature of some parts of American society," said spokesman Chuck Ardo. "He wasn't being critical, he wasn't making accusations, but just being realistic."

A Message To Conservative Republicans...

2008-02-07T21:21:00.000-08:00

Your Party Hates You!

Join the Hillary Train of Inevitability, get with a winner. Heck, if you make a showing in the returns now, you might just get a seat at the table when Team Hill serves up Healthcare for all, makes our schools teach all of the children, raises taxes only on the richest among us, and makes our streets safe again. And FINALLY signs the Kyoto Accords to slow our economy to the rest of the world so that we can all live under equally fresh skies. Conservatives, this is America's agenda, join the Team.

Republicans Crossing Hill?

2008-02-07T19:51:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I've been doing some research for the page and I've been thinking. Thinking terrifies me. Here's the problem, and I'm not dreaming this... Republicans are gonna switch to vote against my girl. Let's be honest here, Republicanats hate my girl. And there are some states which allow this! I mean, now that Governor Romney has dropped out (and I don't think I've ever mentioned him on this site before) the Republicanats don't have anybody to vote for now. Honestly, their not gonna vote for Gomer Pyle. So what's left? Vote against America's Senator! We must stop this in its tracks. Call your local talk radio, write letters to your editors, talk to your friends and tell them that in many states (the list is below) voters can cross over. So instead of wasting a vote in the already-decided Republican Primary, a lot of people are going to declare themselves Democratics and vote in the Democratic Party.... against our Hill! So here are the dates... plan accordingly, and tell your friends.

District of Columbia - Primary (2/12). Deadline (30 Days - 1/13)

Hawaii - Open Caucuses (3/2). Deadline (30 Days - 2/1).

Idaho - Open Primary (5/27). Deadline (May 2 for pre registration. Registration allowed on Election Day).

Indiana - Open Primary (5/6). Deadline (28 Days - 4/9).

Kansas - Caucuses (2/9). Deadline (15 Days - 1/25).

Kentucky - Closed Primary (5/20). Deadline for new registrations (28 Days - 4/22). Deadline for party switch (12/31/2007)
Louisiana - Caucus (2/9). Deadline (1/11).

Maryland - Closed Primary (2/12). Deadline (21 Days - 1/22).

Mississippi - Open Primary (3/11). Deadline (30 Days - 2/10).

Montana - Open Primary (6/3). Deadline (30 Days - 5/4).
Nebraska - Primary (5/13 *). Deadline (Second Friday before an election, 5/2).

New Mexico - Republican Primary (6/3). Deadline (28 Days - 5/6) Democrat closed caucus 2/5/08 (deadline January 4).

North Carolina - Primary (5/6 *). Deadline (30 Days - 4/6).

Ohio - Semi-Open Primary (3/4). Deadline (30 Days - 2/3).

Oregon - Closed Primary (5/20). Deadline (21 Days - 4/29).
Pennsylvania - Primary (4/22). Deadline (30 Days - 3/23).
Rhode Island - Primary (3/4). Deadline (30 Days - 2/3).

South Dakota - Closed Primary (6/3). Deadline (15 Days - 5/19).

Texas - Semi-Open Primary (3/4) & Closed Caucus (begins 3/4, schedule based on party rules). Voting in primary is prerequisite for caucusing at precinct convention, which convenes after primary polls close. Deadline (2/4/08).

Vermont - Open Primary (3/4). Deadline (2/27/08).

Virginia - Open Primary (2/12). Deadline (29 Days - 1/14).
Washington - Open Caucus (2/9) & Primary (2/19). This is a two step process. Deadline (30 Days via mail or online, 15 Days in Person Friday, 1/25).
West Virginia -Closed Primary (18 Delegates at the State Convention on 2/5 (ask the state party for details), 12 Delegates for the 5/13 Primary).
Deadline (21 days to register or change your party to Republican - 4/22 for the Primary).
Wisconsin - Open Primary (2/19). Deadline (The day before or the day of at your polling precinct).
Wyoming - Caucus (3/8).

Sea To Shining Sea

2008-02-06T21:01:00.000-08:00

Last night was a big night. Big for the good guys, er, in this case the good girl. That's right, America's Senator proved to be more of a queen of hearts in her stunning, staggering vanquishment of her opponent in all the states that mattered. I mean, let's look back: Senator Barack H. Obama thinks he's really going to pick up Idaho or Utah in the general? Give me an Oprah-sized break.

Let's just look at the numbers if you're still confused...

Clinton: 50.2% (7,347,971)

Obama: 49.8% (7,294,851)

California, we love you.

Cheaters Never Win(frey)

2008-02-05T18:10:00.000-08:00

Amid all the questions of breaking campaign laws in Connecticutt by Chelsea Clinton, who was simply delivering coffee and donuts to the folks at the polling place, I've dug up at least one violation for The Naive One. First, some background: apparently in Connecticutt candidates or a candidate's representative have to stay 75-feet away from polling places "on the day of any primary."

Ah, but what about this from The Oprah? ( http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/Vote2008/story?id=4240895&page=1 )

When Rachel Waymire got to her Chicago precinct this morning to vote, she was told that she wouldn't be able vote because only one of five election judges was present.

When Winfrey, who happened to be at the next-door precinct, heard about the problem, the talk show queen and Barack Obama supporter told Waymire she would stay with her until she was allowed to cast her ballot.
"She just kind of stood there and then as soon as I got to vote she left and she said, 'I'll call you later to make sure that you voted.' And probably about an hour later I was sitting at my desk and she called my cell phone," Waymire told WLS, adding that she voted for Obama.

And the end of the story in Chelsea's Connecticutt? All is right with the world...

In a live interview on News Channel 8 at 5:00, Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz said, "I did speak with the Clinton campaign this afternoon and they apologized and said it wouldn't happen again."

Frustrated, Disenfranchised Millionaires

2008-02-05T18:02:00.000-08:00

Yeah, that's who's disenfranchised in America today... movie stars in Beverly Hills.

From http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/Vote2008/story?id=4240895&page=1

Even in Beverly Hills, there were glitches and a shortage of poll workers forced some voters to cast provisional ballots. "There's so much frustration in this country, so to feel like I'm a disenfranchised voter in Beverly Hills is ridiculous," Kristen Bell, an Obama supporter, told the Los Angeles Times.

Home Girl

2008-02-05T17:54:00.000-08:00

FOX News Radio just reported from the Little Rock campaign headquarters of Mike Huckabee. When the numbers for Arkansas came in declaring America's Senator to be the winner, cheers erupted from the Republican crowd. Assuming Iron Mike Huckabee surrounds himself with Republicans these days.

Maybe This Ruse Worked

2008-02-05T17:48:00.000-08:00

Do you think people were keeping this in mind as they voted for Hillary all over the country? YES GIRL! Let's make Barack the running mate, let's seat the Michigan and Florida delegates, and let's keep the white vote to ourselves. This isn't cynical, this is politics... this is being a winner.

February 4, 2008
Clinton chairman: Obama would be good running mate
Posted: 09:30 PM ET
(CNN) — One of Hillary Clinton's top advisers said Monday Barack Obama could make a good running mate if the New York senator is the Democratic Party's nominee.
Appearing on NY1's "Inside City Hall," Clinton Campaign Chairman Terry McAuliffe praised Barack Obama’s ability to “excite people,” adding that Clinton “needs to make sure the next, whoever the next vice president is, could take over if anything happened to her” — though he said it was too early to seriously discuss potential vice presidential picks.
When he was asked directly whether adding Obama to a Clinton ticket would be a good idea, he responded: “Sure it would. Absolutely. How could you deny consideration of someone who has excited so many people?”
NY1 is owned by Time Warner, the parent company of CNN.
At CNN's debate in Los Angeles Thursday, both candidates were asked about the possibility of a joint ticket, regardless of who held the top spot – a suggestion that prompted cheering from the audience. Both suggested it was too early to discuss potential running mates.
–CNN's Alexander Mooney

I'm Calling It

2008-02-05T17:42:00.000-08:00

California, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticutt

These states should NOT be too close to call right now.

Consider them hers.

More People Who Won't Be Invited To Pay To Stay In The Lincoln Bedroom

2008-01-31T20:26:00.000-08:00

SMITH, WILL LOS ANGELES, CA 90067
SELF EMPLOYED/ACTOR
5/18/2007 $4,600 Obama, Barack

SMITH, WILL LOS ANGELES, CA 90067
SELF EMPLOYED/ACTOR
5/18/2007 $2,300 Obama, Barack

SMITH, JADA PINKETT MS LOS ANGELES, CA 90067
SELF EMPLOYED/ACTRESS
5/18/2007 $4,600 Obama, Barack

SMITH, JADA PINKETT MS LOS ANGELES, CA 90067
SELF EMPLOYED/ACTRESS
5/18/2007 $2,300 Obama, Barack

ROCK, CHRIS MR NEW YORK, NY 10019
ACTOR
4/20/2007 $9,200 Obama, Barack

ROCK, CHRIS MR NEW YORK, NY 10019
ACTOR
4/20/2007 $2,300 Obama, Barack

ROCK, CHRIS MR NEW YORK, NY 10019
ACTOR
4/20/2007 ($6,900) Obama, Barack

MURRAY, SCOTT PALO ALTO, CA 94306
EBAY INC/VICE PRESIDENT
8/16/2007 $2,300 Edwards, John

IGER, ROBERT BURBANK, CA 91521
WALT DISNEY CO
12/6/2006 $2,000 Dodd, Christopher J

IGER, ROBERT BURBANK, CA 91521
WALT DISNEY COMPANY/EXECUTIVE
5/31/2007 $1,000 Specter, Arlen

IGER, ROBERT BURBANK, CA 91521
THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY/PRESIDENT &
6/21/2007 $1,000 Swett, Katrina

IGER, ROBERT A BURBANK, CA 91521
THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY/PRESIDENT A
1/12/2007 $5,000 Walt Disney Co

IGER, ROBERT A BURBANK, CA 91521
WALT DISNEY COMPANY/EXECUTIVE
7/30/2007 $2,000 PAC to the Future (U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi)

IGER, ROBERT A BURBANK, CA 91521
WALT DISNEY COMPANY/PRESIDENT & CEO
6/29/2007 $2,000 Searchlight Leadership Fund (U.S. Senator Harry Reid)

IGER, ROBERT A DISNEY PRODUCTIONS, CA 91521
WALT DISNEY CO./PRESIDENT
6/7/2007 $2,000 Baucus, Max

CLOONEY, GEORGE MR LOS ANGELES, CA 90024
4/18/2007 $2,300 Obama, Barack

DODD, CHRISTOPHER J SEN WASHINGTON, DC 20002
U.S. FEDERAL GOVERNMENT/SENATOR
6/30/2007 $2,300 Dodd, Christopher J

DODD, JACKIE C MRS WASHINGTON, DC 20002
N/A/HOMEMAKER
6/30/2007 $2,300 Dodd, Christopher J

DODD, LYNDA WASHINGTON, DC 20016
AMERICAN UNIVERSITY WASHINGTON COLL
5/3/2007 $300 Obama, Barack

BROWNE, JOSEPH T MR PORTUGAL WASHINGTO, NY 11050
NFL/EXECUTIVE VIP
7/19/2007 $1,000 Giuliani, Rudolph W

BROWNE, JOSEPH T MR PORT WASHINGTON, NY 11050
NFL/EXECUTIVE
6/25/2007 $500 Mica, John L

GOODELL, ROGER NEW YORK, NY 10128
NFL/COO
7/2/2007 $1,000 Impact

HAWKINS, FRANCIS R JR DARIEN, CT 06820
NFL/EXECUTIVE
6/30/2007 $2,300 Obama, Barack

TEAGUE, FRED E MR JACKSON, TN 38305
NFL/RETIRED NFL FOOTBALL PLAYER
9/24/2007 $250 Fred Thompson

MOULTON, MARTIN WASHINGTON, DC 20001
ROLL CALL INC./DESIGNER
7/2/2007 $250 Obama, Barack

HOFFMAN, ELLA AST THOMAS,VI 00804
NEWSWEEK/JOURNALIST
6/1/2007 $250 Richardson, Bill

CHEMIN, PETER SANTA MONICA, CA 90402
NEWS CORPORATION/PRESIDENT & COO
3/23/2007 $2,100 Boxer, Barbara

CHERNIN, PETER LOS ANGELES, CA 90035
NEWS CORPORATION/PRESIDENT & COO
6/26/2007 $5,000 Our Common Values PAC (U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel)

CHERNIN, PETER BEVERLY HILLS, CA 90212
NEWS CORP/PRESIDENT AND COO
6/15/2007 $2,300 Clinton, Hillary

CHERNIN, PETER SANTA MONICA, CA 90402
NEWS CORP/PRESIDENT
2/14/2007 $2,100 Obama, Barack

CHERNIN, PETER BEVERLY HILLS, CA 90212
NEWS CORPORATION
12/16/2006 $2,100 Dodd, Christopher J

CHERNIN, PETER SANTA MONICA, CA 90402
NEWSCORP/PRESIDENT AND COO
6/13/2007 $1,000 Durbin, Dick

CHERNIN, PETER LOS ANGELES, CA 90035
NEWS CORP/PRES & COO
6/14/2007 $1,000 Franken, Al

MURDOCH, K R NEW YORK, NY 10036
NEWS CORPORATION/CHAIRMAN
6/5/2007 $2,300 Clinton, Hillary

MURDOCH, RUPERT NEW YORK, NY 10036
NEWS CORPORATION/CHAIRMAN
9/28/2007 $300 Stevens, Ted

CONNICK, HARRY JR CAMBRIDGE, MA 02139
SELF EMPLOYED/ENTERTAINER
8/16/2007 $4,600 Obama, Barack

CONNICK, HARRY JR CAMBRIDGE, MA 02139
SELF EMPLOYED/ENTERTAINER
8/16/2007 $2,300 Obama, Barack

CONNICK, HARRY JR CAMBRIDGE, MA 02139
SELF EMPLOYED/ENTERTAINER
8/16/2007 ($2,300) Obama, Barack

CONNICK, JILL CAMBRIDGE, MA 02139
NOT EMPLOYED/HOMEMAKER
8/16/2007 $4,600 Obama, Barack

CONNICK, JILL CAMBRIDGE, MA 02139
NOT EMPLOYED/HOMEMAKER
8/16/2007 $2,300 Obama, Barack

CONNICK, JILL CAMBRIDGE, MA 02139
NOT EMPLOYED/HOMEMAKER
8/16/2007 ($2,300) Obama, Barack

The Short List...

2008-01-30T15:45:00.000-08:00

Gov. Vilsack... Served as the 40th Governor of the state of Iowa. Shortly after ending his 2008 bid for the White House, he endorsed Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and was named the national co-chair for Clinton's presidential campaign. We like a Team player.

Fmr. Senator Bob Kerrey... Senator from Nebraska (1989–2001). He was also an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1992, so he knows his way around a campaign. Since leaving the Senate he has served as president of the New School, a university in New York City. He was also willing to drop some questions about the Party Nominee's opponent's younger, more "pharmaceutical" days.

Sen. Webb... James Henry "Jim" Webb, Jr. (born February 9, 1946) is the junior Senator from Virginia. He is also an author and a former Secretary of the Navy under President Ronald Reagan. Webb endorsed incumbent Democrat Charles Robb for reelection to his Senate seat, over Webb's former Naval Academy classmate and fellow Marine Oliver North, in 1994. Webb subsequently endorsed Republican George Allen over Robb in 2000, and then ran against Allen himself in 2006. So he's obviously a champion.

Senator Pryor... Arkansas's junior U.S. Senator. Pryor places great emphasis on constituent service. He has a sign on his desk that reads "Arkansas comes first," as his father did when he held the seat. On May 23, 2005, Pryor was one of the 14 senators (McCain's "Gang of 14") who forged a compromise on the Democrats' use of the judicial filibuster. (Get it? He washes out McCain on this issue!) This effectively ended any threat of a Democratic filibuster (and thus also avoided the Republican leadership's threatened implementation of the so-called "nuclear option.") Under the agreement, the Democrats would retain the power to filibuster a Bush judicial nominee only in an "extraordinary circumstance." The threat of a filibuster removed, Republicans were able to force cloture on the three most conservative Bush appellate court nominees (Janice Rogers Brown, Priscilla Owen and William Pryor-no relation), who subsequently passed a vote by the full Republican-controlled Senate. He did, however, vote against the nomination of Samuel Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court, citing his concerns over Alito's views on the president's powers during wartime. Senator Pryor can be counted on to pick up at least 2 of the Huckabee states.

Governor Phil Bredesen of Tennessee. As mayor of Nashville, he added more than 440 new teachers, built 32 new schools and renovated 43 others. He also implemented a back-to-basics curriculum to teach students the fundamentals of learning. Additionally, under the Bredesen Administration, the NFL's Houston Oilers (now Tennessee Titans) were brought to Nashville and were furnished with a new stadium; the NHL awarded Nashville its first of four new expansion franchises as the Nashville Predators; a new arena was built; and a new downtown library was built as a cornerstone of major improvements to the entire library system. He's a popular Southern governor - always a boon on a ticket.

Vice President Announcement!

2008-01-30T15:36:00.000-08:00

Big news has just passed through the rumor mill and ended up on my desk. I won't say where my friends (or I?) work, but have I got some juicy stuff to hold up for you. An underling to a somebody has an inside read on the thoughtful few, the short list as it were, of the down-ticket candidate. This is exciting. But I can't say anything until the degrees of separation exist to the degree that I won't betray my friend. Stay tuned. Sorry.

Oh, Let's Count Florida

2008-01-30T15:10:00.000-08:00

Florida made a wise choice. America's Senator, without actually campaigning, won yet another state. Big Mo will waste no time with the Super Tuesday mess. But let's talk about Florida real quick: so she raised some money; so she took some pictures with supporters; so she held a victory party and called for the Party to seat the delegates. So what? That's called being a winner. Obamaphiles, join me and together we will end this destructive conflict. We know who's the people's champion, now get on the bus. Here's an article I found in a hurry. It seems to truthfully talk about the low-key get-together people are hasseling America's Senator for hosting. It depicts it as what it is: not much, just a thank-you to her supporters and a show of strength to the future voters. Democratics and Independents alike, let's join arms, let's circle the wagons, in the words of Al Green "let's get together" for Hillary.

Much Ado About Not Much
By Dana MilbankWednesday, January 30, 2008; A01
DAVIE, Fla.
Cheering supporters? Check. Election returns on the projection screen? Check. Andrea Mitchell and Candy Crowley doing stand-ups? Check and check. In fact, the only piece missing from Hillary Clinton's Florida victory party here Tuesday night was a victory.
Yes, Clinton, as expected, beat Barack Obama by a wide margin in the Florida primary. But all the Democratic candidates had agreed months ago to boycott the contest after the Democratic National Committee stripped Florida of its delegates to punish the state for moving up its primary date. The result was a primary without purpose, a show about nothing.
But in a political stunt worthy of the late Evel Knievel, the Clinton campaign decided to put on an ersatz victory party that, it hoped, would erase memories of Obama's actual victory Saturday night in South Carolina's Democratic primary. "Thank you, Florida Democrats!" Clinton shouted to the cheering throng. "I am thrilled to have this vote of confidence."
It was a perfect reproduction of an actual victory speech, delivered at a perfectly ersatz celebration at a perfectly pretend location: a faux Italianate palace with lion sculptures, indoor fountains and a commanding view of Interstate 595. The Signature Grand ("Elegant Weddings and Grand Social Occasions") was also holding receptions Tuesday night for a pediatric practice and for a group of optometry students, but the Clinton campaign was the biggest draw: It filled the Silver Palm Room, the Golden Palm Room and the Emerald Palm Room.
But even some of the faithful in the hall doubted that the big margin for Clinton, flashed on a projection screen, was an accurate gauge of the race here. "Probably not," said Eleanor Forte, on the outer rim of the celebration. "If they had campaigned here, it probably would have come out differently."
That was a nuance the Clinton campaign was hoping to overlook as it sought retroactively to give weight to the Florida primary. "I am a gutter-ball bowler," Clinton said as she campaigned Sunday night in the state in which she had pledged not to campaign. The remark, overheard by a Miami Herald reporter, was no doubt meant literally; she was standing outside Lucky Strike Lanes in Miami Beach. But in politics, too, Clinton has recently been putting some questionable rotation on the ball.
First came the South Carolina primary, in which she and her husband tried unsuccessfully to morph Barack Obama into Jesse Jackson. Then came word Sunday that she would fly here to celebrate her "victory" in the Florida primary -- even though she and the other Democratic candidates long ago declared it null and void. She said she wanted restoration of the stripped delegates from disobedient Florida and Michigan (where Clinton, the only major candidate on the ballot, beat "uncommitted," 55 percent to 40 percent).
"There are more voters in Florida alone than there are in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina combined," Clinton campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle argued in a conference call with reporters Tuesday. This was the same Solis Doyle who last summer committed Clinton to signing the Florida boycott pledge, saying, "We believe Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina play a unique and special role in the nominating process, and we believe the DNC's rules and its calendar provide the necessary structure to respect and honor that role."
Five minutes after Solis Doyle's call, Obama's campaign retaliated with its own conference call, featuring Obama backer John Kerry. "It is not a legitimate race, it should not become a spin race, it should not become a fabricated race," he protested.
Reporters on the Clinton conference call seemed to share that view. "The timing seems a little curious," said one. "A little desperate?" asked another. "Trying to have it both ways?" inquired a third.
Clinton announced plans for the Florida celebration on Sunday, the same day she held a trio of fundraisers in Florida and accepted the endorsement of the Miami mayor while pressing some flesh for the cameras. On Monday, her campaign claimed the endorsement of Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida, while pro-Clinton unions continued sending out mailings in her support.
All of this sounded suspiciously like campaigning. But aides said they were merely trying to protect the people of Florida who, despite the campaign's "scrupulous" refusal to campaign in the state, showed up to vote for Clinton anyway.
And so, at the Signature Grand here Tuesday night, a few hundred invited supporters, many of them from labor unions, clustered around the ballroom doors waiting for the Secret Service to finish its sweep so they could start the victory party and buy "ultra-premium" liquors for $7. There was a brief delay opening the doors, as organizers let the old folks -- a prominent demographic in South Florida -- take their seats first. But when the doors finally opened at 7:30, the younger supporters charged in, screaming and staking out positions near the lectern.
Wolf Blitzer was up on the big projection screen. Clinton banners ("Solutions for America") had all the camera angles covered. The orange stucco palace was filled with official Hillary Clinton posters and stickers, and people in "Team Hillary" T-shirts signed in elected officials and other supporters. Clinton aides worked the rows of reporters and the candidate entered to the strains of "9 to 5" and roars from the crowd.
"Thank you, thank you for this tremendous victory tonight," Clinton shouted.
Well, at least a tremendous victory party.

Speaking of Florida...

2008-01-27T12:01:00.000-08:00

Who was speaking of Florida? Not me, because that might be mis-construed as campaigning. And we all know the Democratics have signed a pledge to not campaign in the Sunshine State. But nobody said anything about stopping by to say hi to some folks and taking some of their money, huh? Here you see how brilliant the most brilliant woman to ever live really is. God bless Florida. Now, check this naysayer...

"Hillary's Florida Folly" posted by Aaron Deslatte on Jan 6, 2008 12:09:10 PM

Chris Hand, the Jacksonville Democratic lawyer and former aide to U.S. Sen. Bob Graham and Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, is stepping up the argument that many have echoed since national candidates shunned the biggest swing state in the country.

For Hillary Clinton, that message is: we told ya so.

Here's what Hand wrote in an op-ed in the Orlando Sentinel: "If Hillary Clinton ultimately loses the Democratic presidential race, most political historians will point to Jan. 3, 2008 -- the night she finished third in the Iowa caucuses -- as the beginning of the end. But another defining moment occurred on Sept. 1, 2007. That day, she canceled a political insurance policy that could have helped her recover from stumbles like the Iowa defeat. On that September Saturday, Clinton became the last of the major Democratic candidates pledging to boycott Florida's Jan. 29 primary and suspend any further campaigning in our state. ...

"Perhaps Hillary Clinton can turn the tide in New Hampshire and regain her footing for later contests. But as it stands now, the once-inevitable Democratic nominee faces a political hurricane without the benefit of insurance. As every Floridian knows, that rarely ends well."

Read the column here.

Dear John...

2008-01-26T17:25:00.000-08:00

Dear John,

Over the past few years we've gotten to be pretty close. My heart was melted by your slow Southern ways, by that funny little mis-pronunciation you people wrap around every word, and of course, by your hair.

But our time together has come to an end.

I don't want to sound cold because the truth is I still love you, you know that. But I'm just not that into you anymore. I've moved on. That's right, there's somebody else. And brace yourself, because she's a chick. She's more experienced than you, she's been fighting for children for 35 years, and in about 8 months she's gonna be out of an on-again/off-again relationship.

Anyway John, you've run in two big elections now, we all rooted for you at some point, and you've put on a good showing for your home folks this weekend. Now you're just holding back America's Senator, and therefore America. So it's time for you to head back to the hills.

Or take this from a robot call the HRC has planned to phone us all with:

"You should also know that John Edwards made nearly a half a million
dollars working for a Wall Street investment fund. A fund that's been profiting
on foreclosing on the homes of families, including 100 homes right here in South
Carolina. Can you trust John Edwards? This call is paid for by the Hillary
Clinton for President Campaign."

Robots say the darndest things.

South Carolina Falls: As Predicted

2008-01-26T16:37:00.000-08:00

Drudge is showing Senator Obama at 57% - America's Senator at 29% - and the third-stringer who needs to get out of this race except it's his only job and he can't write another book if he gets out too early John Edwards at 13%.

As you know, this was expected. I'm reading that 50% of voters were black folks, and they voted like 100% for Senator Obama. Of course, those numbers aren't out yet. This reportage is still raw, people. Wait, here you go:

FOX News exit polls showed black voters went for Obama over Clinton by a huge
margin of 81 to 17 percent in South Carolina, and 82 percent of black women
supported the Illinois senator.

So I guess those numbers fall in line with expectations. But do they extrapolate out into the larger numbers of delegates still available? The answer is yes. Consider the black vote. Okay they may get heated over the current tumult in the party, but c'mon, are they gonna leave us and vote with George Bush in the general? No, they'll come home to their girl, Hillary. Which is just what the plan is. And that's the message President Clinton was sent to South Carolina to deliver (again from FOX):

Bill Clinton was, in fact, his own factor in the race, with 25 percent of voters
saying his presence was very important. Among those voters, Hillary Clinton was
winning 48 percent of that vote to 41 percent.

A hard pill to swallow, eh? I love that "Yes he had an effect, no it was't good." At least that's what half of the quarter said. I say all that to say this: Hillary remains America's Senator, and the best chance we have as a party in the general election. We don't need 4 more years of George Bush (he is running, right?)-type shenanigans in the Oval Office. We need a Clinton in the Oval Office once again.

Nedra Pickler for Press Secretary: Part Two

2008-01-26T15:17:00.000-08:00

Nedra Pickler, who currently covers the Democrat presidential campaign for The Associated Press, and who has long been considered by me to be a first-string choice for the press secretary position in the new administration, is at it again. From "Analysis: SC Strategy Focused on Race" Jan 26, 5:41 PM (ET):

The Obama campaign has long argued that South Carolina would be his best state among the early voting states, figuring that interest in putting the first black president in office would attract many of the black voters who make up half of the state's Democratic primary electorate.

Obama sent a large staff to the state early, when polls showed him
trailing far behind Hillary Rodham Clinton, and their focus was on building
support in churches, beauty salons, barber shops and neighborhoods where black
voters spend their time.

See the message there? It's the same one President Clinton has been so skillful in delivering to campaign-watchers in the state: Senator Barack Obama is not like you, America... he's black.

That's right, Senator Obama may be able to preach it in the church house, or chit-chat at the barbershop, or, yes she said it, hang out in the neighborhoods... but he's not President material.

Oh don't get me wrong, he's gonna win South Carolina. No doubt. But when he does, just remember this, again from Ms. Pickler:

...she could afford to lose the state. As one of her advisers pointed out, Jesse
Jackson won the state twice - the suggestion being that a win there would be
expected from a black candidate and not an indicator of national strength.

So you see? Nedra has all the answers for our side.

People Who Will Not Be Staying in the Lincoln Bedroom

2008-01-25T18:38:00.001-08:00

Guess who's not coming to dinner...

POITIER, SIDNEY LOS ANGELES,CA 90046
9/6/2007 $4,600 Obama, Barack

WINFREY, OPRAH CHICAGO,IL 60611
SELF EMPLOYED/HARPO STUDIOS
9/12/2007 $2,300 Obama, Barack

GRAHAM, STEDMAN CHICAGO,IL 60611
9/12/2007 $2,300 Obama, Barack

BOBO, CEDRIC L WASHINGTON,DC 20007
CARLYLE GROUP/INVESTMENT PROFESSION
6/27/2007 $2,300 Obama, Barack

BOBO, CEDRIC L WASHINGTON,DC 20007
CARLYLE GROUP/INVESTMENT PROFESSION
6/30/2007 $2,300 Obama, Barack

BOBO, CEDRIC L WASHINGTON,DC 20007
CARLYLE GROUP/INVESTMENT PROFESSION
6/30/2007 $2,300 Obama, Barack

BOBO, CEDRIC L WASHINGTON,DC 20007
CARLYLE GROUP/INVESTMENT PROFESSION
6/30/2007 ($2,300) Obama, Barack

CHAMBERS, JOHN MR WASHINGTON,DC 20010
GMMB/SR VICE PRESIDENT
9/17/2007 $2,300 Obama, Barack

COHEN, CARLA WASHINGTON,DC 20012
POLITICS AND PROSE BOOKSTORE/BOOKSELLER
5/30/2007 $1,000 Obama, Barack

FAHEY, JOHN WASHINGTON,DC 20007
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY/CEO
5/2/2007 $1,000 Obama, Barack

NASH, GRAHAM BEVERLY HILLS,CA 90212
SELF EMPLOYED/MUSICIAN
3/2/2007 $2,300 Obama, Barack

NEWMAN, ROBERT BEVERLY HILLS,CA 90212
ICM/AGENT
5/18/2007 $2,300 Obama, Barack

NIMOY, LEONARD BEVERLY HILLS,CA 90212
SELF EMPLOYED/ACTOR; DIRECTOR; PRODUCER
1/30/2007 $2,300 Obama, Barack

NIMOY, SUSAN BEVERLY HILLS,CA 90212
NOT EMPLOYED/NOT EMPLOYED
1/30/2007 $2,300 Obama, Barack

It's the Experience, Stupid

2008-01-25T17:47:00.000-08:00

Okay, I know I've been away a while. I know I've been missed because a few people have contacted me in the comments section to leave nice notes asking about me. Obviously Mrs. Clinton fans as well. My thought is, how many of these blogs actually have people who read them and leave notes? Anyway, I was gone a while. Yeah, about that...

I turned to the Dark Side for a while there.

Fans of the Holy Trilogy will know what I mean. I let go of my fears, I trusted my friends, etc. You know. My fears of lacking experience, my trust in the person I find the most friendly. It was a mind trick. But now I realize how wrong I was.

A Jedi shall not know anger.

Nor hatred.

Nor love.

I got caught up in the 'Once Upon A Time' mythology of the whole thing, the fairy tale as it were. But let's be honest, Senator Obama, while lofty in speech and grand in ideals, is just not experienced enough to serve in the Oval Office. This is the office of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, F.D.R., and Jimmy Carter. Senator Obama is just not up to snuff.

And that's what I decided, and how I decided it. I went over in my head all the pluses and minuses. I realized that Senator Obama was just a young lawyer in a small law firm who got in with the right people, was elected to serve his constituents in the Illinois State Senate (hardly the preparation needed to serve Illinois constituents in the U.S. Senate) by beating a weak candidate, and is someone who never created a job in his life. Beyond that, besides being a lawyer, an author and an elected official, Senator Obama's never even held a real job! It would be reckless to send him to the White House.

So again, and forever, I support my girl, America's Senator (yes, I'm calling her that again).

I Feel Good

2007-09-14T11:25:00.000-07:00

September 17th is coming.

Stupid Mean Peaople Hate Hillary

2007-09-05T21:32:00.000-07:00

I found this post at a new website no one's reading called "Keep Austin Corporate." I don't know, I don't usually give a free ride to opposing points of view, especially one that was over and done two months ago, but whatever. Here's what he had to say, among other things:

July 5, 2007
VFW Post 733 Refuses to March in
4th Parade
I just read an article up at globegazette.com that talks about why the Clintonistas prevented
VFW Post 733 in Mason City from marching in the 4th of July Parade.

MASON CITY - Mason City VFW members are
refusing to march in the Clear
Lake Fourth of July parade Wednesday because they are not being allowed to fire
their rifles. The Secret Service, in Clear Lake to provide protection for
former president Bill Clinton and his wife, presidential candidate Hillary
Clinton, will not allow firearms in the parade, said Jim Kantaris, quartermaster
of VFW Post 733 in Mason City. "There's too much political stuff. They're
making us change 50 years of tradition because of two people," said Kantaris.
"And one of them is a draft dodger who turned the White House into a
whorehouse."

The Clintonistas are some of the most rabid anti-gun politicians the Dems
have. It makes perfect sense that they would project their anti-gun message to a
50-year old tradition celebrating armed resistance against The Crown.

Enough already. Can't you just hear the hate in this guy's every word? And I'll guarantee you he's not a member of an oppressed minority like being a woman or an undocumented immigrant, because then he'd have a lot more feeling for other people and their ideas. It's like 'No, Mr. VFW, you can't play with your gun right now. Why don't you go back to picking the hayseed out of your teeth and let us run the government.' Stupid Mean 'Keep Austin Corporate.'