Hurrah! (He. Can’t. Close. The. Deal.)
By NoQuarter on March 5, 2008 at 7:38 AM in Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton
This is a mish-mash of all I’m reading and noting. Check out the Clinton campaign’s “path to the presidency” memo (The voters “agreed that Hillary Clinton would be the best Commander-in-Chief and the strongest steward of our economy. …”). CNN’s John Roberts looks downright happy. Regardless, his “American Morning” is far more fair than most. Here’s Halperin on more morning shows:
ABC’s “Good Morning America”: Clinton tried to frame the race around John McCain, saying that now there’s a GOP nominee it’s even more critical to have a Democratic nominee who can stand up to him on national security. Doesn’t accept that she’s gone negative against Obama, said national security is legitimate issue to contrast. Ignored the math questions, still thinks Michigan and Florida delegates should be seated, said it’s up to state leaders.
NBC’s “Today”: Clinton said voters are “starting to ask some hard questions” and realizing she’d be best commander in chief and best on the economy. Offered lengthy defense of superdelegates exercising independent judgment, saying that was the reason they were created. Said Florida and Michigan voters should count, and voters “were dragged into” the confusion by GOP governors and legislatures. Also more firmly denied that Obama is a Muslim, called it “a scurillous rumor that should be rejected out of hand.”
Halperin (at Time magazine’s The Page blog) also reports that Obama sent a “mass e-mail to supporters says he was beaten by ‘attacks and distortions. . . stunts and the tactics that ask us to fear instead of hope’.” (Uh, what about your stunts, mister? Check it out here and here.)
I’m not in the mood to write how I felt listening to that preachy speech last night — the blessing is that he didn’t go on for 45 minutes, or interrupt Hillary’s speech like he did on Feb. 5 — because overwhelmingly, I feel so happy. And most of all I am so gratified by the voters and by all of the people, like Alegre, Larry Johnson, all of YOU, and others who made the difference.
Just think: That $10 or $25 you sent Hillary made the difference. Those phone calls you made were the difference. Those e-mails you sent telling your friends about Obama on NAFTA-gate and Rezko and the swelling number of flag officers rushing to support Hillary. Those hours you spent at headquarters or canvassing or picking up an elderly person to take them to the polls. Every time you go to MyDD.com, and recommend our diaries (that helps because analysts and media read that blog). Every casual remark you’ve made — every time you’ve told others about how hard Hillary will work for them, and how Obama isn’t ready. Every time you defended me at Daily Kos, it helped (spent time yesterday defending myself against accusations of racism because I put up the “Bamboozling” video in a diary there, and they said it’s racist because it shows two black men. Huh?).
It all counts. You did it. Now, let’s roll up our sleeves and do it some more!
Much more is needed. Chris Matthews and the Bloviator have sharpened their shovels. Don’t let the bastards do it. Now, from Taylor Marsh:
“The wind at Barack’s back, the press at his feet, but he couldn’t close it out,” Taylor writes.
She quotes this Washington Post article, which I spotted at Memeorandum.com this morning:
With losses in three out of four primaries yesterday, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and his campaign face a scenario that a barrage of advertising, phone calls and door-knocking could not avert — a protracted, two-front war against Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and the presumptive Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain.
Even before the polls opened, campaign officials were dreading an outcome that would keep Clinton (D-N.Y.) in the race at least through the Pennsylvania primary on April 22. Those seven weeks will cost Obama at least $10 million, and possibly much more, campaign aides say, as he battles a rejuvenated Clinton who will have every incentive to try to force him into a major mistake.
Obama aides also expect to take concentrated fire from McCain (Ariz.) and his Republican allies, who have already begun raising questions about the 46-year-old Democratic senator’s credibility, authenticity and even his patriotism.
For months before his victory in Iowa, doubters questioned whether Obama had the stomach to deliver the blows necessary to wear down Clinton’s advantages. Now, the question is whether he can take a punch — “and you know they will be coming,” said former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack (D), a Clinton supporter.
Some Obama supporters are increasing pressure on him to shift tactics, frame more sharply his criticism of his opponents and begin inoculating himself from the GOP attacks, but Obama remains reluctant to change the approaches that he still thinks will secure him the nomination. “I have said consistently that we do things differently,” Obama said. “It’s worked for us so far. And I’m not going to do things that I’m not comfortable in doing.” … READ ALL.
This is the e-mail that all of Hillary’s supporters got in their Inbox last night:
It’s a pretty incredible feeling, isn’t it? After our victories tonight we have the momentum, thanks to your will, determination, and hard work.
Some people were ready to count us out. But you and I proved them wrong, just as we have every time they tried to declare this race over prematurely. And we’re going to keep showing them exactly what we can do.
We’re going to do it for everyone across America who’s been counted out — but refused to be knocked out. For everyone who’s stumbled — but stood right back up. And for everyone who works hard — but never gives up.
I hope you enjoy our victories tonight as much as I am. We won this one together, and that makes it that much better. Thank you so very much for all you have done for our campaign. Let’s build on this remarkable momentum.
Thank you for everything you did to make this night possible.
All the best,
Hillary
Now, let’s roll up our sleeves and do it some more!
Hillary in a word TOUGH, baby she is simply TOUGH.
GO HILL GO!
No kidding. Talk about true grit.
maybe this is OT but I think it’s important that our voices, that would be citizen’s voices, get heard too. Tired of bloviators thinking they can speak for us.
Go vote at http://cnn.com/am
Should Florida and Michigan delegates count?
Polls at 61% now have them counted. 1005 am 03/05/08!
Not off topic at all. I’m from Michigan and my daughter went out to vote in bitter cold and snow after a 10 hour work day. [good rationale for counting her vote, right?] People voted for Hillary by the numbers and those votes should be counted. I don’t know where our two senators, Levin and Stabenow,stand on it, but I hope they support having the votes count.
OK, but come on. Historically, elections in which there is only one name on the ballot, in the Soviet Union and elsewhere, have usually been subject to derisive contempt.
And in this case, what do you suppose we are to make of those who “went out to vote in bitter cold and snow after a 10 hour work day” to vote for “uncommitted?” No small percentage of the vote, either, it was in the range of 50%. Do we seat delegates pledged to vote *against* HRC, whoever may be opposing her? That’d be kind of wacky, wouldn’t it? Maybe HRC should get the number of delegates she’d normally get, minus the number that would be allotted, under the rules, to this “uncommitted” fellow.
Otherwise, her delegate count will have to have a great big asterisk next to it, and a lot of African Americans could be forgiven for saying, “Whitey couldn’t win fair in this one, but whaddaya know, managed to keep the black man off the ticket one way or another.” I’d certainly forgive them, because I’d be saying something very similar.
Ask yourself, honestly, how you’d feel if Obama had won a whole bunch of delegates in an unopposed primary. Mm? Feels different, doesn’t it?
I logged on this morning, steeling myself for bad news.
What a wakeup call! Better than 10 bottles of Jolt Cola.
I know we shouldn’t gloat, but I think we earned a day of gloating after the crap we Clinton supporters have taken over the last 4 weeks.
As for the dirty tricks in TX and OH (and BO still couldn’t pull it out), I wonder if Michelle is proud now?
What’s more, I wonder if her brother David is still embarrassed?
Who? Did any of the TV shows mention him at all? (Good thing he is not for Clinton.)
Sorry, it’s Craig Robinson not David Robinson (who is retired from the NBA) that is Michelle Obama’s brother. He let this fly yesterday: “If I Was a Woman, I’d Be Embarrassed for Her”
http://thepage.time.com/2008/03/04/%E2%80%9Cif-i-was-a-woman-i%E2%80%99d-be-embarrassed-for-her%E2%80%9D/
HRC is really a magnificent woman. Will make a great president.
Jerome has an excellent post at MyDD about Obama’s obvious electability problems in states like Ohio and PA, which Dems need to win. Of course, I learned from Obama supporters that the people of Ohio and TX are racists. Yea, right.
Jerome reported that Obama managed to win just 5 counties in Ohio, and you can’t win a general with only 5 counties. He has a real electability problem.
Typical two-mouthed politics. Claiming “it’s not about race” when Blacks are voting for O-Bomba at ratios of 75+% or higher. They’re not voting because of his record (he has none worth to brag about), they’re voting for him because he’s Black.
You will see it exactly like that with the pending Mississippi primary.
I won’t deny I’m voting for Hillary due to gender, and actually, I’m proud for doing so. Nothing to be ashamed about.
Now say the same Obama-o-matics. The TRUTH shall set you free!!
I won’t deny I’m voting for Hillary due to gender, and actually, I’m proud for doing so. Nothing to be ashamed about.
Great. If Condoleezza Rice or Margaret Thatcher or Phyllis Schlafly were on the ballot, she’d have your vote. If Tammy Faye Bakker or Annabel Chong or Ann Coulter or your ruler-wielding third-grade teacher were running, you’d vote for her. If Lizzie Borden were running, hers is the box you would check. If Lorena Bobbitt, oh, wait, of course you’d want her in charge.
This identity stuff is beyond moronic. As a willie-endowed Caucasian, I’m supposed to be able to go to my bro, Bill Gates, and hit him up for a couple mil.
Get real. No ethnicity, no gender, has a monopoly on jerks, idiots, or people you’d want to spend all kinds of quality time with.
All those so-called progressives/hardcore Dems who support BO need to take a hard look at the facts. No Dem is going to win the GE without a big purple state like OH or FLA. All the crap about polls suggesting BO wins over McCain is wishful thinking.
You’d think partisan Dems would support the fact that their bread n butter constituency (working class men, women, Hispanics) support Clinton. They may not like it, but that’s the reality.
If the guy can’t withstand the relatively mild scrutiny he’s getting now, what’s gonna happen when the GOP unloads on him?
He’ll fold like a house of cards, my guess.
Thank god for the voters. Our long national nightmare may soon be over.
If the guy can’t withstand the relatively mild scrutiny he’s getting now, what’s gonna happen when the GOP unloads on him?
And if Hillary thinks dirty tricks like trying to hang her weak points (e.g., her Canadian NAFTA equivocation) on Obama are going to work against McCain, she’s going to discover that she may be able to dish it out, but … to take an example that the Rethuglican dirty tricks machine has been working on since 1992, they aren’t going to be diverted an inch by a strategic leak “revealing” that John McCain is a lesbian.
This is a typical attitude at Daily Kos, and it is repugnant:
Thank god they are largely irrelevant. Someone checked the history, and very few DKos-flogged candidates have ever done well. Ned Lamont, anyone?
Yeah - I challenged a diarist’s (unsupported) claim w/out any links) that “..Over 20% of white voters in Ohio (MSNBC - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/... say that race was an important factor in voting and they went 3-to-1 for Clinton.”
He has since put up a link and it only took him 9 hours so do to…and I note it made it to the rec list w/out any links.
This is what his own link says:
link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23473864/)
So…get out the wading boots. It’s gonna be thick.
(btw - STILL not committed to either candidate, but the Obama’s-always-right-Clinton’s-supporters-are-racists stuff just gets my ire up).
Yes, the views of this poster are repugnant, but as a supporter of Ned Lamont I would like to point out that he shouldn’t be tarred because some tool at DKos has made some incredibly dismissive (and racist, classist and sexist) comment about groups of American voters who comprise a large portion of the Democratic base. Ned Lamant was not successful in large part because the leadership of the Democratic party did not support the decision of the voters of the Democratic party and instead stood with the truly repugnant Joe Lieberman — a choice I have to imagine they realize was foolish and destructive to Democrats. Ned Lamont may not have been ultimately successful in his bid for the Senate, but that campaign changed the political landscape that were working with now — changed for the better I think.
and don’t forget barry supported holy joe. yup, the dim leaders and another “great” campaign.(this is snark.)
Bunch of Starbucks navel gazing pimple butt kids, who don’t have a lick of sense.
Just because someone doesn’t goto college to be brainwashed to be an Obama-o-matic, doesn’t mean their stupid as that diarist implies. It means they’re independent THINKERS, and won’t take following the herd over the cliff as being “cool”. Some do better work with their hands, they’re just better fixing and creating things, not pushing paper and think scuttlebutt is a way of life.
I’d commit suicide if I had to work in a office. When fresh air, hard work and watching the fruits of your labor grow (or be built) is more rewarding.
I’ve said for a while that there’s a college-industrial complex, academia has gotten lost and detached from its original purpose.
For example: witness all the self-described “feminists” falling all over themselves to say even though they’re feminists, they’re voting for Obama. Meanwhile, working class folks, male and female, just say they like Hillary. And sure, it’d be good for a female to be president.
But academia - something has gotten off track in that world. It has a way of infantilizing students. The most mature friends I’ve made lately have been ones who were truly on their own at 18, could not afford college.
Do they even realize how bad they sound? My border collie is smarter than some of the people I know with “higher edukashun” though not as vocal.
Another round of “Stupid Pet Tricks”. eh?
As Senator Obama walked on stage last night his body language was revealing. A Very force smile bording on anger….it only lasted for a a few seconds. I wonder if he looks at his kids like that..
He was saying “we have the same delegate count gap as before we started”….
I took it to mean the folks that voted for him did not matter.mmm Where have I heard that before?
i don’t disagree and my cat georgie could probably do more critical thinking they the “elites”. don’t forget there are many well educated folks with means also supporting hillary.
isnt it ironic how the oborgs rail against the so called elitist establishment part of the democratic party while harboring these same types of attitudes? it makes me wonder how much the oborgs even know about the democratic party. they obviously seem to be uncomfortable with blue collar lunch pail carrying democrats who are concerned about their children’s future and what is good for america.
His demographic are full of elitists.
And it doesn’t help when Hillary supporters can have the same attitudes. What working class person calls sexism “misogny”? I never use it, and I’ve never heard anyone in my locale use it, either.
But pinheads do.
And now I will see the “AA/college educated/wine class” Hillary supports claim that’s racist and bigoted to say — oh, cry me a river of more PCness. :rolleyes:
This disconnect is horrid. Using terms and having mindsets that doesn’t connect with REAL PEOPLE, is what has kept the Dems out of power. When leadership is in outer space, you can’t blame Americans NOT wanting to become Martians!
Talk like Americans. Talk like who you’ll represent. If your main voters are factory workers, adopt what they believe is right — not run around in pin striped suits, and discussing about “downside voters” issues over cocktails, in some 5 star club.
Crap, I’d like to see Hillary in a T-Shirt and Levis, when she enters a factory, even (that’s what they wear!). Don’t just give us talk, show that she represents us.
The attitude espoused at Dkos is nothinging new. Its always been a watering hole for white upper class 20 somethings. The only contact those people have with working class Americans is when they order coffee at Starbucks or when they see their Lexus dealer.
They are a joke.
One diarist, who wore Obama’s logo around her neck like a religious symbol (the new hope jewelry she bought from eBay,) was truly puzzled as to why she found Obama supporters in Starbucks, but found none in Dunkin Donuts.
She also didn’t understand why people went to places that were NOT Starbucks, such as the local independent coffee house.
Because no working man or woman is going to pay $3+ for a cup of coffee. I get a cup about every morning — 24oz to keep me going ALL day — for less than $1.50 (and it’s even better than Starbucks in taste!).
What do most of these folks drink? They bypass the Hazelnut; the French roast; Italian Espresso; Costa Rica Supreme — and make a bee line to the original coffee canister. But they run in and get their cup and LEAVE, not sit around and NAVEL GAZE, as they’re WORKING FOR A LIVING!!
Only STUPID people will pay $3+ for a cup of Joe. STUPID!
I wonder if they realize how arrogant that is to emphasize this. What happened to uniting the people? So now we applaud superiority eh? This is great; Obama the great has really done well to reach out to everyone. His followers exalt themselves as superior.
It’s a false concept. Because people AREN’T equal. Different tastes; different sizes; different colors; and different beliefs. That’s why there’s diversity!!
Great way to wake up! I went to bed just as Hill took the lead in Texas (my home).
“I’m not a member of any organized political party, I’m a Democrat!”
– Will Rogers
The caucus was a mess, the worst side of politics. No obvious shenanigans, but I didn’t stay for the whole thing (4:30 AM comes pretty early here). Almost 200 people, pretty evenly split between Obambots and Clintonians. There were only 12 at the last precinct caucus (which exposes the story that Reps were voting for Hill as false… may prove just the opposite). It WAS fun to see the GOP precinct meeting moved to a small room to make more room available for the Dems. Voting was easily 4:1 Dem to Rep at my precinct
I saw the Deaniacs there, and they are all Obamamaniacs now. So, there’s clearly a connection. I’m eager for Hill to get the nomination and show the Quack from Vermont the door.
BTW: The “Texas Two-Step” is clearly meant to negate/mitigate the general primary results. It’s a bad system only a pol could come up with.
The GOP-controlled suburbs and the more Dem urban cities all had a roughly 60/40 Obama/Hillary split (urban was really closer to 65/35)… which I interpret as GOP crossovers voting Obama in the burbs, and high AA turnout in the core.
Not this Deaniac. I supported Edwards and support Hillary now.
Excuse me, but that “Quack from Vermont” has done a better job than you care to admit as chairman of the party. His work is vastly underappreciated and comments like this are unacceptable.
I strongly second this comment — as a former Deaniac (and Edwards supporter before I cast my vote for Clinton), I have to point out that Howard Dean has done an extraordinary job both in terms of raising money, energizing Democrats and because of his 50 state strategy, greatly improving the odds that the Dems will increase the gains in the Senate and the House that we made in 2006.
Howard Dean is a rock star!
Well, he helped give voice to the anger and frustration true progressives were feeling.
But why the divide between Dean, and Clinton?
Carville dislikes Dean, why?
Barring some gross misconduct on Dean’s part, and I DO question his support of the Obama-Auchi ticket, wouldn’t it be best for Clinton to try to really understand what is happening to the average voter?
And the Obama supporters are in that group, too.
The poster who slammed blue collar workers on Kos is a peon in the eyes of the wealthy of this country, the Kos poster sounds just like a wealthy right wing Bush supporter, a republican.
He’s just as disenfranchised as those he criticizes.
“But why the divide between Dean, and Clinton?”
The Clintons are DLC, Dean isn’t.
And the DLC is moderate to conservative Democrats that flaming liberals dislike (probably because they’re jealous, as they wreck the party, while the DLC actually gets SOMETHING done!).
“Moderate,” meaning that they stand willing to pander to elements of the electorate that hate their guts. I think Sun Tzu would agree that this is not so much Chicken Salad as it is the other thing.
Get SOMETHING done? Like push through the Wall-Street wet-dream of NAFTA, a thoroughly Republican program, without getting Republican support for Universal Healthcare in return? Yeah, that’s really SOMETTHING!!!
And BTW, it’s Hillary Clinton who’s ready to sink the party for the next 20 years if she doesn’t get her little nomination pony she was promised!!!
Actually, Moderate means you adhere to SOME of the ideology of a political philosophy, not all.
I’m a moderate Tradtional conservative. Moderate that I don’t endorse the religious views and ideas about race/gender of that wing, but the rest I do — especially about maintaining history, culture, and law and order. And reminding Neo-Cons and Liberals the nature of this Republic isn’t to DESTROY it!
The world isn’t black and white. Neither are political philosophies and ideologies. Nuances apply, as no two people are the same and will believe in the same EXACT views. Which is also why most voters aren’t party members — as they can’t agree with the planks in their platforms.
Also, you have moderates in politics to bridge the poles between factions/wings/ideologies. Otherwise, nothing gets done — and polarization can even create resentments that launch backlashes that Dems saw in 1992.
Never ever overplay a hand, it will be cut off.
Actually, Moderate means you adhere to SOME of the ideology of a political philosophy, not all.
Sure, that’s the theory. In practice, the “moderate,” DLC Democrats never met a liberal position they won’t fall over themselves to abandon, or a Republican position they won’t acquiesce to, though they’ll furrow their brows and reassure their base that they feel really bad about it.
So you have to wonder if they’re really too lamebrained to see that the Republicans have figured out that all they have to do is keep moving the goalposts and the DLC will keep finding a way to compromise with the redefined “center.” Or if they’re not so much lamebrained as they are in on the game.
That’s your view. Others see it differently, like being practical.
Like the issue of Bill signing into law the end of “welfare as we knew it.” No flaming liberal would’ve advocated it, but it needed to be done.
You teach people to fish for themselves, not be depended on being fed by others. Self-reliance and independence is a godsend, as it’ll pull anyone through.
That’s a concept that flaming liberals don’t appreciate, and it’s effects on minorities that take the hook, is horrid. It was a self-serving and ugly policy of BUYING VOTES. Meanwhile, letting them sink lower into the depths of hell.
Bill, of that DLC, broke those chains. In the process, minorities can rise to the occassion, not be held down in chains.
It took a moderate approach to a social problem that the far Left wouldn’t compromise upon. It was good for everyone, even if it hurt in the beginning — break a leg and see how painful it is to walk again, too!
You teach people to fish for themselves, not be depended on being fed by others. Self-reliance and independence is a godsend, as it’ll pull anyone through.
Nice platitude, but in practice, the emphasis seems to be on confiscating the fish. The fisherman-training bit never seems to get funded.
That’s a concept that flaming liberals don’t appreciate, and it’s effects on minorities that take the hook, is horrid. It was a self-serving and ugly policy of BUYING VOTES. Meanwhile, letting them sink lower into the depths of hell.
Then there are the flaming a**holes, who claim they want to end welfare for the recipients’ own good, but when the rubber hits the road appear interested mostly in tossing them out of the lifeboat.
I don’t disagree that the old system seemed designed to be hated by all sides more or less equally, but it’s pretty well accepted by those who’ve studied it that helping people get out of this vicious cycle requires investment on the front-end, with the true savings realized only in the out years.
On the other hand, reports I’ve seen on the success of this ending of welfare talk about the number of people who are no longer on welfare, but not much about what they are doing now. Are they going to community college and working towards some kind of certification? Unlikely, unless they’re getting some help with transportation and daycare. Do “flaming conservatives” care? Not that I can tell.
Even under the old system, there were apparently quite a few people who were on welfare for a limited time (meaning less than two years), because they were temporarily in some kind of trouble, but recovered and got off welfare. Those people were never part of the “culture of dependence,” but were kicked off the rolls too.
I don’t know, by supporting Obama, Dean, and Kos are supposedly what Kos hates, ie the centrist elitist democrat, betraying the American voter, disparaging the “not elite.”
This is what the republicans saw, correctly, capitalized on, and used to get themselves to office, ie “joe six pack without health insurance or decent wages, the republican party see you, and you are welcome here.”
Which was a load of shit, but it worked.
The republicans got into power on the backs of democratic hypocrites like Kos.
So, Kos or Dean are either disingenuous, or in denial about what they see, neither good.
Kos and Bush are simply different sides of the same coin, the voter has no use for either.
Actually, the DLC is coming out big for Obama — which isn’t surprising given all of Obama’s centrist, Republican-loving language — a fact that is sending more than a few members of the DKos community into a tailspin.
“Actually, the DLC is coming out big for Obama”
Yeah and Angelina Jolie is stalking me.
He made the last, 2003, “100 to watch” list as a STATE Senator.
His last five year record with the DLC is……….sparse. Nada, Nicht Zip.
He is conspicuously absent from the New Democrat Coalition.
Tell the wankers at Kos to get a job.
I feel the same. I was noto attracted to Dean because he was a phenomenon. I was attracted to him because he articulated my feelings. And he did not get all cozy with Republicans like Obama does. He knew they were the enemy and he said so.
He still does. That is why he has done so well as DNC Chaiman. He really slaps the Republicans around. I do not ever imagine any scenario where Dean would be begging Republicans to to vote for him in a primay to dilute tthe votes by true Democrats.
That is what offends me about Obama, he wants my enemy to select my candidate. There is a reason Republicans like him. He shares their “values”.
apishapa i share your outrage regarding obama’s pandering to republicans … i never thought i would see the day where a democratic contender needed to beg the republicans for votes … shameful.
as for dean … i like him quite a bit and i think he has, for the most part, done a good job for the party. that being said, i am disappointed in his leadership when it comes to the michigan and florida primaries. these situations could have been handled better IMHO.
As DNC chairman, Howard enforced the rules in FL and MI as approved by the entire DNC membership. The rules for the delegate selection process are very clearly spelled out and both FL and MI knew the consequences of jumping the queue.
It would have been easy for someone other than Howard to bend the rules. He demonstrated greater leadership by making FL and MI abide by the rules they had approved even though it was an unpopular decision.
bullxxxx!
Obama’s statement about the Social Security “crisis” is a bit disturbing, I’ll grant you that.
But in general, what he’s done is not pandering. He hasn’t been saying what Gore and Kerry were mis-advised to say: “I’m just like you, Joe Six-Pack!! Pleeeze let me be in your club!!”
He’s been, in general, very clear about what he believes, and has invited on board anyone who’s OK with that. “Joe, I invite you to join my club, because you’re just like me.” Completely different message.
Personally, I’d like to see George Bush hanging from a gallows in The Hague, but that’s why I’m not running — I’d have to lie to get elected. Obama, despite all the creative squinting among NQ fans, is not a liar.
I’m sure I can expect some apoplectic sputtering in response to this, but in the absence of actual evidence to the contrary, I stand by it. May goodness prevail.
I am also a former Dean supporter; and I do think that the 50 state strategy and Neighbor to Neighbor program are excellent. However, I am appalled at the disenfranchisement of FL and MI voters and Howard is at fault (of course with Brazile). This is not only wrong, it is stupid - voters for these two extremely important states are so angry and only Clinton has a chance to win them in the GE. I also know that Democracy for America (formally Dean for America), which was founded by Howard and is now run by his brother Jim, backs Obama. Which means, Howard does.
BTW, I am a Vermonter and am sorry that we were the only state to not share in the great news.
Howard is not at fault. It was not his decision. He enforced the rules, which is his job as chairman.
The entire DNC membership voted to approve the delegate selection rules. The process was clearly spelled out and everybody knew the penalties for disobeying the rules.
The disenfranchisement of the FL and MI voters is the responsibility of both states’ legislatures. In FL, the Democrats actively collaborated with the Republicans to move the primary date and dismissed Howard’s efforts to broker a compromise. Steve Geller and Dan Gelber both played a big role in Florida Democrats getting into their mess.
You cannot lay this at Howard’s feet. They have only themselves to blame.
What needs to be looked at though, is his tacit support for Obama.
First and foremost, Obama has direct connections with a known terrorist felon, Auchi, a man known for bribing government officials, a former Saddam henchman.
Do we suspend reality, and say, “but he LOOKS like such a nice boy, it doesn’t matter?”
That’s ko0kville, nutbush city limits, if you can’t recognize the cancer you’re promoting, how the hell can you run a country, make good decisions that directly affect the American people? What, next thing you’ll be letting the Saudis determine your foreign policy, while you’re trying to hold off a major Russian oil offensive? Been there, done that, let’s try something new. No, you say? Why? Afraid?
Right, the Kos-Bush way. (The Saudis don’t know SHIT about war, they shoudln’t be determing our military position in the Middle East).
The presidency isn’t about Howard Dean, or even Mark Penn, or James Carville, it’s about keeping America safe, and competitive NOW, and in the future.
Obama is a joke, a scam, WTH were they thinking?
Bad judgement all around, to let a personal feud with the Clinton’s interfere with the well-being of this country.
And if they truly cared about reform, they would have backed Edwards, so, they’re full of shit.
Not offense to you BSG, but again, if the orange AstroTurf wanted anything but to be a player, they would have backed Edwards.
And they want the appearance of being a player, they don’t actually want to do the work, they have no clue, none, at all, what the Presidency entails.
what are you smoking little obamabot?
He also lacks wisdom to lose his own candidancy (his “YEEEEEEHHHHHAAAAAW” made even Dems abandon him as it amounted to his Northeast condescending attitude to Southerners and Mid-Westerners. Then he also sides with equal losing candidates — Kerry especially.
Hope he still backs O-Bomba. Then I know Hillary will win!
“He also lacks wisdom to lose his own candidancy (his “YEEEEEEHHHHHAAAAAW””
You might nudge that argument a skosh.
The media was the instrument that took that isolated moment and built it into a show-stopper.
They are attempting the same wack job on Clinton.
Nope, it was insulting to even Dems, especially Southern Dems.
If you’re going to pander to the regions, at least do it in good taste.
Northeasterners just DON’T get it. They talk down to the Southerners and Mid-Westerns, then try to pander them with BS like, “YEEEEEHHHHHAAAAWWWWWW!!”, or going into a pub and order something that no working man would drink (or sit in a tank looking like a Martian out of his element).
It’s why they haven’t won an election since JFK (and he only won it because LBJ was his VP).
Dean still doesn’t “get it”. Hillary does, because she KNOWS both Southern and Northern politics. Hillary KNOWS what appeals to Southern voters, and doesn’t pander to us, as she’s been WITH us for decades.
ALL POLITICS IS REGIONAL. Get it, and get it good!!
“Nope, it was insulting to even Dems, especially Southern Dems.”
Bullshit.
Says enough in itself!
Dean got his whipping by his own party. And with the MI and FL mess, he needs to be taken behind the woodshed again for disenfranchising millions of voters.
Defending such a tyrant is anything BUT democratic!
THEY may not pander, (and Chris, with all due respect, you really need to rethink this us v them meme, it’s a form of division, the same kind Obama uses, and it’s not cool)anyway, the fault is in the mediocrity of the foamy elite Harvard political consultant, and his wannabes.
Hillary’s strong point is she’s comfortable in her own skin, and that comes through. Obama, on the other hand, would end up in a tank, looking like a dork. He’s not real, he’s an amalgamation of projections. (I hope that’s not too confusing, the integration of higher metaphor CAN be difficult, even for the educated).
Divide and conquer is so Rove, so Axlerod, so old, and it doesn’t work, for the long run.
It’s a losing, amateur war strategy.
The Republican way, the Bush way, was a complete failure.
I was telling Kathleen yesterday about an article in March’s Atlantic, about the Chinese Internet Firewall.
It’s very simple, but it’s a product of how the Chinese think. The author seemed to think it was avanced. I’m surprised anyone saw it as advanced.
I’m not here for “unity”, as unity is just spelled as d-e-f-e-a-t.
More interested in mowing down the opposition, as payback is soooooo sweet. I r-e-a-l-l-y dislike Neo-Cons, and 4 years of having to wait for the opportunity, has been long enough.
Chris, how was Dean’s yeaargh moment in any way a regional issue? I think you may be reading more into it than it warrants. I was in the room, not 10 feet away from him when this occurred, and there was nothing regional about it at all. He was making an enthusiastic sound — like a yeah, but more gutteral and more extended. How you can turn this into a slight against southerners and mid-westerners is baffling indeed.
He made a fool out of himself trying to be something he’s not.
What next? Pull an O-Bomba?
I agree with the so-called “scream”. It was a media hit job. But, I will say that the Dean campaign (Trippi) was terrible and Dean was not prepared to face the national media and it showed.
Boy, where there is the stench of political loss, Joe Trippi was there, it seems.
What is WITH that guy?
And isn’t he connected with Kos?
yup, and as a supposed neutral, dean should be sympathetic to her regarding the media instead of joining the gang of entrenced losers.
Actually, his yeaaargh moment came after he had conceeded losing the Iowa caucases — it was not the reason he lost, it was a reaction to it. But to say that just because he lost an election means that he is forever irrelevant — well, I guess that makes John Edwards and Al Gore irrelevant too? I don’t think so. And he supported Kerry because Kerry became the Democratic nominee — that’s what Democrats do — just like Hillary did.
Me too! Of course, for me and my cadre of Deaniacs locally, we were attracted by his brains and his experience as a governor + his great views on Iraq, medical care, the economy, and more. We were not a cult. And people at our Meetups were open in talking about what they didn’t like … like some of his TV ads produced by, ahem, Joe Trippi.
Same reasons why I supported him and worked in Iowa, New Hampshire, Delaware, Virginia, Maryland,
and Wisconsin for him. But, I also liked that he too is a fighter and a real Democrat.
Howard Dean started a movement to build the Democratic party, and for people to run for office beyond the election. He also spoke boldly about liberal and Democratic values.
Obama started a movement that will elect him to office, and says very little about Democratic values in his speeches, even though he has a great opportunity to do so.
obama won’t be elected to president.
Hey, watch it pal. This Deaniac is now 100% in Hillary’s camp now.
I’m a former Deaniac meself, and after Howard’s petulant disenfranchising of FL and MI, I’m ready for his graceful exit.
BTW, any other Deaniacs notice that Obama STOLE Howard’s campaign rhetoric. That ‘yes we can’ stuff is pure Howard.
Sure is, and last night he said Si, se puede and that is vintage Howard.
There is nothing that hasn’t been done or said before. It is really tricky tryng to assign credit. After all, it was Cesar Chavez who originally uttered “Si, Se Puede!” as a political slogan.
http://clnet.ucla.edu/research/chavez/
But I am certain that if I spent time on Google, I would find someone used it before Chavez sometime in history.
Funny thing happened on the way to change, history repeated itself.
I am more impressed and tickled by …
“Si, Ella Lo Hará!”
Yes, She Will!
Deliberate plagiarism is pretty easy to prove, especially when the plagiariser shows no prior pattern of