Lines were long and tempers flared Wednesday not to vote but to get paid for canvassing for Barack Obama. Several hundred people are still waiting to get their pay for last-minute campaigning. Police were called to the Obama campaign office on North Meridian Street downtown (Indianapolis) to control the crowd.

The line was long and the crowd was angry at times.

“I want my money today! It’s my money. I want it right now!” yelled one former campaign worker.

A former spokesman for the Obama campaign said 375 people were hired as part of the Vote Corps program and said people signed up to work three-hour shifts at a time. Three hours of canvassing got workers a $30 pre-paid Visa card.

The workers showed up to get their cards Wednesday morning at 10:00 am.

“There was a note on the door saying 1:00 pm and then at 1:20 pm everybody was like why is nobody here. They just got here and they’re trying to get it organized,” said Heather Richards, a former campaign worker.

Well, golly gee willikers - what a surprise! People are having a hard time getting Obama to fulfill his obligations! You’d think with the gazillion dollars from illegal contributions he received, he would have plenty of green to spread among his people, maybe even some bonuses for jobs well done for the 375 workers who came to get paid. If you thought that, you’d be wrong!

Eventually people did start getting paid, but some said they were missing hours and told to fill in paperwork making their claim and that eventually they would get a check in the mail.

“Still that’s not right. I’m disappointed. I’m glad for the president, but I’m disappointed in this system,” said Diane Jefferson, temporary campaign worker.

“It should have been $480. It’s $230,” said Imani Sankofa.

“They gave us $10 an hour. So we added it. I added up all the hours so it was supposed to be at least $120. All I get is $90,” said Charles Martin.

“I worked nine hours a day for 4 days and got paid half of what I should have earned,” said Randall Waldon.

Some people weren’t satisfied with filling out a claim form for money they felt was still due to them.

“They say that they gonna call you or they going to mail it to you, but I don’t know. We’ll see what happens,” said Antron Grose.

“Talking about they’ll mail it to us. I ain’t worried about that, man. They’re not going to mail nothin’,” said Martin.

Seems Johnny Mac was right about the Redistributor in Chief - he wants to redistribute YOUR funds, not his! So, you just keep sitting by that mailbox and phone - I am SURE they will be rushing to get you the money for which you worked. Ahem. (And given this, I wonder how well the Obama camp is going to do issuing those 1099s in January?)

And if I was the woman in this video below (from No Quarter Election Thread), I sure wouldn’t be holding my breath:

If Obama is having, um, difficulties actually paying his employees wages earned, I’m not sure why this woman thinks Obama is going to do ANYTHING for her, much less pay her mortgage and her gas. Wow - it is just hard to fathom the gullibility of some people…

And in more news in the “Welcome To The Real World” round-up, the passing of Proposition 8 in CA and Amendment 2 in FL were a rude awakening to many. Here’s the thing - while all those Hollywood types (talking to YOU, Ellen) were singing Obama’s praises, they, like so many others, ignored that the bottom line of his pandering message was that HE IS AGAINST SAME SEX MARRIAGE. He has said that time and time again including in his wishy-washy message that he doesn’t think Prop 8 should pass in CA, but that he is against same sex marriage all the same. So, guess what? It passed, because a lot of his constituents, especially African Americans and the evangelicals he courted, are against same sex marriage. Had any of those mindless people BOTHERED to actually look at his “words, just words,” they would have known that.

But no, Cher, and Ben Affleck, and Matt Damon, and Wanda Sykes, and all of those people wanted to go with the cool guy, so they, along with the REST of Democrats, turned a deaf ear and blind eye to the shenanigans Obama was using in caucus states and that the DNC used to take votes away from Hillary, both in FL and MI, as well as the COnvention. I don’t think the constituents SHE courted would have voted FOR Proposition 8. Oh well - the GLBT community, and women, have all been thrown under the bus for the ascension of THE ONE. Hope you’re happy now because you helped to make it happen!

Oh, wait - those people in CA aren’t. But all those folks protesting there can just get over themselves - they have no one but themselves to blame for the passage of Proposition 8. Had any of the big wigs there stood up and cried foul over the RBC’s decision, or DEMANDED a fair, DEMOCRATIC Convention, I doubt Prop 8 would have passed. So, tough, all you Hollywood folks who oohed and ahed over The One in Denver and had no qualms with the DNP violating its own rules - you did it to yourselves. Hate it for ya, Ellen (and Portia),and the other 18,000 people affected by this, but hey - maybe you shouldn’t have been pushing Obama so much during your show. And maybe all you people should have actually done your freakin’ homework on what was happening in the election.

While I am at it, over 62% of Floridians voted FOR Amendment 2 voted FOR Amendment 2, to Constitutionalize discrimination in their state. In other words, a whole bunch of Democrats voted for that, too. Thanks so much, all you wonderful folks - in both states. What a healing uniter Obama is, isn’t he?? Hey, that’s what they keep claiming, so it HAS to be true - just not for women in general and GLBT people in particular. Whatever.

Anyway, who cares about social justice for GLBT and women now that we have the first biracial president-elect? Who cares about ACORN using TAXPAYING DOLLARS to commit massive amounts of voter fraud, and how they will surely get even more money from and ALL Democratic government (I mean, really - if they were already getting millions of dollars before, as well as new-mortgage kickbacks, and Chris Dodd wanting to give them BILLIONS of dollars from the bailout repayment, who the hell is going to stop them NOW?)? Who cares that their GOTV arms committed voter fraud for Obama and that his followers voted more than once? What’s the big deal, anyway?

Sadly, that is the real world we have now, where caucus fraud will be institutionalized, voter fraud will continue to be tolerated, even excused by people who should know better (that is, the people who, thanks to all of the “poor little ACORN” posts by the NY Times, think ACORN is being beset upon by Republicans and they aren’t doing anything wrong - even when Democrats admit they are. Bob Herbert is especially guilty of this tactic. Apparently, these readers have missed his *subtle* Obama bias…), and electronic voting machines will continue to flip ballots. That is our world today, because really - who is going to stand up against caucus fraud now? Not the Democrats, who KNEW it was occurring but said nothing, or the MSM, which ignored Clinton’s attempts to inform them about documented fraud. Who’s going to stand up against voter fraud? Not Democrats - that would cast aspersions on THE ONE. Who will stand up for us?

And who will stand up for women? Not the Democrats, that’s for sure. They made a sport of misogyny this election, and haven’t let up yet on Governor Palin, either. They not only stood by while Obama laid claim to Clinton’s ideas, but were in a wicked big hurry to shove her out of the race (once she created those policies, of course, because what would Obama have done if he had to create them on his own??). Oh, and they didn’t just shove her out, they treated her with contempt, as if she had no right to come to the party. They treated her in a way they have never treated ANY man, even one as inexperienced and unqualified as, well, Obama. No, they not only stood by, they engaged in, and encouraged, the misogyny we experienced this year (did anyone EVER hear Obama speak out against hanging Sarah Palin in effigy in West Hollywood? No. Ever hear him speak out against the misogyny directed at Clinton? No. No, he engaged in it, not fought against it.). I bet Obama wishes he had stolen Clinton’s economic proposal now that the Dow tanked the worst after his election of any time in history precisely because they DON’T know where he stands. That can’t be a good omen for things to come, and rubs a bit of the shine off of his “win.” I reckon he shouldn’t have been so dismissive when John McCain claimed her plan (and actually gave her credit, something Obama has NEVER done). Oh, well!

It’s going to be some four years here in the real world, with more rude awakenings, more expectations dashed, and more dreams broken. Heck, Obama’s workers are already experiencing that, as well as his anti-war supporters with the choice of Emmanuel as his Chief of Staff. Well, time to wake up, people, to what the rest of us have always known - Obama is a con man, and you fell for it. Don’t waste your time waiting by the phone or the mail-box for your wages, or hope of mortgages and gas paid (!!!). It ain’t gonna happen - but we could have told you that…Oh, wait - we did tell you that, and you didn’t believe us. How about now?? It hasn’t even been two days since the election, and look at the shine fade…

Since I started writing speeches more than ten years ago, I have always believed in the Democratic Party. Not anymore. Not after the election of 2008. This transformation has been swift and complete and since I’m a woman writing in the election of 2008, “very emotional.”

Not only has this party belittled working people in this campaign, it has also been part of tearing down two female candidates.

Wendy goes on to explain how she was first inspired by Edwards but not getting a job with his campaign, came to work for Obama:

I helped with his announcement speech and others. I worked in the Senate when he was in D.C. One day after a hearing on Darfur, we were walking back to the office. I was still hobbling from a very bad ankle injury and in a very kind and gentle way he offered his arm when we approached the stairs. But later in debate preps and phone conversations and meetings, I realized that I had made a mistake. I didn’t belong. No matter how hard I tried, my heart wasn’t in it anymore.
…
This drift started on a personal level with the fall of former Senator John Edwards. It got stronger during the Democratic National Convention when I counted the substantive mentions of poverty on one hand and a whole bunch of bad canned partisan lines against Senator John McCain. Some faith was lifted after Senator Hillary Clinton’s grace during a difficult hour. But that faith was dashed when I saw that someone had raided the Caligula set and planted the old columns at Invesco Field.

The final straw came the other week when Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher (a.k.a Joe the Plumber) asked a question about higher taxes for small businesses. Instead of celebrating his aspirations, they were mocked. He wasn’t “a real plumber,” and “They’re fighting for Joe the Hedge-Fund manager,” and the patronizing, “I’ve got nothing but love for Joe the Plumber.”

Having worked in politics, I know that absolutely none of this is on the level. This back and forth is posturing, a charade, and a political game. These lines are what I refer to as “hooker lines”—a sure thing to get applause and the press to scribble as if they’re reporting meaningful news.

As the nation slouches toward disaster, the level of political discourse is unworthy of this moment in history. We have Republicans raising Ayers and Democrats fostering ageism with “erratic” and jokes about Depends. Sexism. Racism. Ageism and maybe some Socialism have all made their ugly cameos in election 2008. It’s not inspiring. Perhaps this is why I found the initial mocking of Joe so offensive and I realized an old line applied: “I didn’t leave the Democratic Party; the Democratic Party left me.”

Wendy then delivers the most blistering indictment of the current Democratic Party and certainly I agree with her reasons for holding them in such low esteem now:

The party I believed in wouldn’t look down on working people under any circumstance. And Joe the Plumber is right. This is the absolutely worst time to raise taxes on anyone: the rich, the middle class, the poor, small businesses and corporations.

Our economy is in the tank for many complicated reasons, especially because people don’t have enough money. So let them keep it. Let businesses keep it so they can create jobs and stay here and weather this storm. And yet, the Democratic ideology remains the same. Our approach to problems—big government solutions paid for by taxing the rich and big and smaller companies—is just as tired and out of date as trickle down economics. How about a novel approach that simply finds a sane way to stop the bleeding?

She correctly addresses the DNC’s outdated talking points and ideology in the midst of the economic storm we face. If Obama had any real clue as to policy, post–partisan genius that he is purported to be, he would think outside the box and propose something new. Clearly he is not capable of doing so, only stealing others ideas for his own; riding in late to take credit after doing none of the hard work required to get there. Remember “Congress will call me if they need me.”

…Not only has this party belittled working people in this campaign from Joe the Plumber to the bitter comments, it has also been part of tearing down two female candidates. At first, certain Democrats and the press called Senator Clinton “dishonest.” They went after her cleavage. They said her experience as First Lady consisted of having tea parties. There was no outrage over “Bros before Hoes” or “Iron My Shirt.”

Ms. Button remembers this outrage as well as the rest of us. All of Senator Clinton’s accomplishments and great policy ideas were tossed under the bus in favor of every negative speck of dust the press and Obama’s campaign could find to magnify.

But here we are about a week out and it’s déjà vu all over again. Really, front-page news is how the Republican National Committee paid for Governor Sarah Palin’s wardrobe? Where’s the op-ed about how Obama tucks in his shirt when he plays basketball or how Senator Biden buttons the top button on his golf shirt?
…
Here we are discussing Governor Palin’s clothes—oh wait, now we’re on to the make-up—not what either man is going to do to save our economy. This isn’t an accident. It is part of a manufactured narrative that she is stupid.

Most interesting to me was Wendy’s take on Sarah Palin. It was encouraging to me that a die hard Democrat would take the time to put aside any preconceived notions and actually looks at Palin’s record:

Governor Palin and I don’t agree on a lot of things, mostly social issues. But I have grown to appreciate the Governor. I was one of those initial skeptics and would laugh at the pictures. Not anymore. When someone takes on a corrupt political machine and a sitting governor, that is not done by someone with a low I.Q. or a moral core made of tissue paper.

Obama, who wouldn’t know strong moral code if it bit him, and can’t seem to find a policy he likes well enough to hold on to against the changing winds, might want to take a page out of Sarah Palin’s book — instead of belittling her.

When someone fights her way to get scholarships and work her way through college even in a jagged line, that shows determination and humility you can’t learn from reading Reinhold Niebuhr. When a mother brings her son with special needs onto the national stage with love, honesty, and pride, that gives hope to families like mine as my older brother lives with a mental disability. And when someone can sit on a stage during the Sarah Palin rap on Saturday Night Live, put her hands in the air and watch someone in a moose costume get shot—that’s a sign of both humor and humanity.

Has she made mistakes? Of course, she’s human too. But the attention paid to her mistakes has been unprecedented compared to Senator Obama’s “57 states” remarks or Senator Biden using a version of the Samuel Johnson quote, “There’s nothing like a hanging in the morning to focus a man’s thoughts.”

Her statements about Iraq were also surprising; certainly unusual coming from a Democrat:

But thank God for election 2008. We can talk about the wardrobe and make-up even though most people don’t understand the details about Senator Obama’s plan with Iraq. When he says, “all combat troops,” he’s not talking about all troops—it leaves a residual force of as large as 55,000 indefinitely. That’s not ending the war; that’s half a war.

I was dead wrong about the surge and thought it would be a disaster. Senator John McCain led when many of us were ready to quit. Yet we march on as if nothing has changed, wedded to an old plan, and that too is a long way from the Democratic Party.

In closing, I think Wendy echoes the sentiments of a great many Hillary supporters who, alternately, sit in wonderment and horror that the Democratic Party they fought for, donated to, campaigned for and believe in all these years would exhibit the behavior Ms. Button discusses here:

I can no longer justify what this party has done and can’t dismiss the treatment of women and working people as just part of the new kind of politics. It’s wrong and someone has to say that. And also say that the Democratic Party’s talking points—that Senator John McCain is just four more years of the same and that he’s President Bush—are now just hooker lines that fit a very effective and perhaps wave-winning political argument…doesn’t mean they’re true. After all, [McCain] is the only one who’s worked in a bipartisan way on big challenges.

Before I cast my vote, I will correct my party affiliation and change it to No Party or Independent. Then, in the spirit of election 2008, I’ll get a manicure, pedicure, and my hair done. Might as well look pretty when I am unemployed in a city swimming with “D’s.”

Whatever inspiration I had in Chapel Hill two years ago is gone. When people say how excited they are about this election, I can now say, “Maybe for you. But I lost my home.”

Just yesterday, Senator Biden made another mind bending statement when he said “this is a new Democratic Party not the party of the 70s and 80s. This is a party that has adjusted to the realities of a new world order.”

I am not sure what ‘new world order’ he is talking about, but if it includes demeaning women, belittling working class voters and ignoring the issues that weigh heavily on our country at the moment in favor of pretty, vacuous sound bites and “word salad.” obviously I am not a part of it.

Thanks Wendy, for having the courage to speak up and tell the Democratic Party off.

It’s hard to say since the predominantly left leaning media, including the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has reported very little of this.

And I’m wondering what they understand, really understand about his judgment since some of his closest associates include unrepentant domestic terrorist William Ayers, convicted felon Tony Rezko and the infamous Reverend Jeremiah Wright, who preaches anti-American and anti-Semitic rhetoric from his pulpit, to name but a few.

It’s hard to say since the predominately left leaning media, brushes this off, rather than reporting it. In a week’s time, Joe the Plumber has been vetted more seriously by the media than Obama has been in a year and a half. And all the poor guy did was ask a question.

Many of my friends are supporting Obama. While I do not agree with their choice, I understand the desire beneath it. They tell me they are tired of political bickering. They are excited by the possibility of a Black president. They like the message he preaches of tolerance and unity.

I think it would be wonderful to elect a Black or female president although I make most of my decisions based on qualifications, not identity politics.

And I would certainly like to see more tolerance for differences of opinion and freedom of speech. I am wondering what some of my friends and the adoring throngs would make of the violence being perpetuated by ACORN workers and Obama canvassers here in St. Louis against McCain followers.

Here is the story. For days, I have been driving past a home with a large McCain sign on Lindell, a stately boulevard with large homes in the Central West End of St Louis. Frankly, it warmed my heart to see the sign in the sea of Obama signs. I have thought how great that neighbors can express their differing points of view and probably still borrow a cup of flour. And considering that Obama launched a truth squad in Missouri comprised of law enforcement officials that has been designed to intimidate the general population, I appreciated the courage of the McCain supporters.

Yesterday, as I was driving past, I noticed that the accompanying smaller Palin sign that had included a portrait of Sarah Palin had been torn and her image removed. Curious to know what happened, I knocked on their door. I introduced myself as a former Clinton supporter who was not in the Obama camp.

The family with whom I talked has names, of course. But you will not read their names here because they are afraid. Here is their account.

The woman of the house told me that she had seen ACORN workers cutting the sign and when a postal worker came up to the house to deliver the mail, they urged him to steal the sign. They were so loud; she heard them in the kitchen and called the police.

She told them to stop and for the postal worker to step away from the sign. The ACORN workers sneered and laughed at her and sped off in a car. When the police arrived, the postal worker begged for his job, saying he had been bullied and she decided to drop the charges.

Her husband then told me that the other McCain signs on the block had been torn and they knew of signs that had been cut or removed in Ladue, a suburb of St. Louis.

Appalled, I suggested that we alert the media and have them come out to photograph the signs and interview the couple. The couple seemed very responsive to the idea, saying they wanted people to know what was going on and that they were proud of supporting John McCain. That he was a candidate who spoke to their values.

I offered to call the media and help make the connection and gave them my cell phone in case they had any questions.

A few minutes later, the husband called and suggested that a neighbor down the street would be a better interview and gave me his name and address. Five minutes later, he called back again and said his wife was very anxious and afraid for the safety of their family if they went public.

Having been harassed by Obama supporters in Portland when I volunteered for Clinton and witnessed the strong-arming of delegates that went on in Denver, I said I completely understood and didn’t want to do anything to create problems for them. I would not use their names and would not try to send a reporter to their house.

So that is my story. It is a true story about a real family who are afraid to have their names in the paper or their faces on television for fear of reprisal. And I don’t blame them. But I will blame the American public if they don’t wake up to the fact that Barack Obama is not just practicing dirty politics Chicago style. He is encouraging fascism on the part of hired workers.

Wake up, folks. This is not the candidate of tolerance and unity. And we must not project that onto him, in our understandable desire for a kinder, gentler world.

This is a very difficult time for all of us as we try to sort out where our country is going and worry about the economy. The majority of the mainstream media has failed us in doing their most basic job: providing the public with information so they can make informed, responsible choices.

Early on, the majority of the mainstream media fell in love with a romantic Hollywood story about the meteoric rise of a bi-racial candidate with little experience and now is reluctant to do anything to veer from that narrative because it would make them look foolish. Maybe they even believe what they have been pedaling to the public. But the information is out there for people who want to do the reading.

The best investigative reporting is on the blogs these days. No Quarter. Hillbuzz. Lynette Long. Bud White. Heidi Li’s Potpourri. The Confluence, to name but a few.

November 4 is reckoning day. An Obama presidency will suppress free speech, plunge our economy into a depression and endanger our citizens.

Just say No Deal.

In the October 17 edition of the Wall Street Journal, Lanny Davis writes that Democrats should be glad Senator Clinton stayed in the race because she made Senator Obama a better general election candidate. THIS is why Clinton supporters - most of whom were presumably Democrats - should be glad she stayed in the race?

Mr. Davis, we were glad Senator Clinton stayed in the race because we watched her win the popular vote. Many of us believe that if the Democratic Party had followed its own rules and the superdelegates and regular delegates had not been coerced by Howard Dean and Nancy Pelosi and Senator Obama’s campaign (who Chairman Dean turned over the DNC to in June when no candidate had actually won the party’s nomination), Senator Clinton might very well have been the party’s nominee.

We were glad Senator Clinton stayed in the race because we thought she would make a superior President to either Senator Obama or any Republican, including Senator McCain. I still believe that.

If the best you can say about Senator Clinton’s campaign is that it helped Senator Obama then you really are not saying much about the millions of voters who cast their ballots for Senator Clinton, the thousands of us who donated money, time, and energy to Senator Clinton’s campaign. I assure you we did not do it so that her run for the nomination would help Senator Obama. We did it because wanted Senator Clinton to represent our party this November.

I am not sure, Mr. Davis, if you realize how insulting it is to those of us who are not “prominent” or “key” Democrats for you to define Senator Clinton’s campaign as some sort of testing ground for Senator Obama. Please give Senator Clinton some respect and some credit: presumably she stayed in the race because she wanted to win. She wanted to win. And it was perfectly ok for her to want to win, and to want to win because she thought she would make a better President than would Senator Obama.

I certainly agree with you, Mr. Davis, that “the cartoon caricature [of Senator Clinton] created over the years by extremists left and right has nothing to do with reality.” But although I have not known her personally over the years, as you make clear you have, I did not need to see Senator Clinton keep her word about campaigning for whoever became the Democratic nominee to recognize her as “principled and authentically committed to progressive issues”. I saw that when I first learned about Senator Clinton, which was before her husband ever ran for President, when I was studying the lawyers who worked to prosecute Richard Nixon’s participation in the Watergate break-in.

Finally, Mr. Davis, I must take issue with this particularly offensive passage in your commentary:

There always was a danger that certain working-class/rural voters who strongly supported Mrs. Clinton in such state primaries as Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia would not easily transfer their support to Mr. Obama. The same worry was often repeated about Democratic women who were angry or simply grieving about Mrs. Clinton not being picked as the nominee.

Mr. Davis, by definition, I do not qualify as one of the “certain working-class/rural voters” you disparage with the remark. But let me make it perfectly clear: I am not angry or “simply grieving” about “Mrs. Clinton not being picked as the nominee.” I am distressed that the Democratic Party rigged its own nomination process and PICKED a candidate rather than ELECTING one.

You began this election cycle supporting Senator Clinton, Mr. Davis. And as the tagline in the WSJ article states you are ending it as an Obama supporter. Given the patronizing and dismissive tone of the passage I quote above, I imagine you feel much more comfortable with the candidate you now back than the one you originally preferred.

The convention was a total fraud. The roll call vote was rigged, and every Democratic rule and procedure was violated in order to do it and they did it in broad daylight right in front of the watchful eyes of the news media who have the powers of observation of a drunken sailor on a Saturday night. They just let the corruption happen without comment. Some of the more egregiously blind were Mike Barnicle, Chris Matthews and of course that Olbermann guy who still thinks this is sports.

I then asked Marc what he would want to explain about the roll call vote or outcome for those not as intimately involved in the situation who still thought Obama won the nomination “fair and square”:

Well there is no accounting for people’s ignorance and refusal to think for themselves, but according to Democratic Party rules it was totally rigged. Rule 6, I believe, states clearly that pledged delegates have an obligation to vote according to the voters who elected them based on the primaries.

Just as one example, Clinton ‘landslided’ Obama in the New Jersey primary winning many more elected pledged delegates than Obama. As you saw during the roll call vote all 130 pledged delegates “voted” for Obama. And no one blinked an eye. And as everyone knows super delegates were going to decide this because Obama didn’t have the 2/3 needed in pledged delegates. They never were given a chance to vote. The last unofficial count according to Politico.com prior to the roll call vote showed among super delegates, 271 for Obama, 268 for Clinton and 160 undecided. If the roll call vote was honest, Obama would have most likely lost.

Ah, now to those “unbelievers.” Not that we wish to give oxygen to foolishness, but we actually had responders saying we had ‘no proof’ of Marc’s allegations. Sigh. Exhausting, isn’t it? Were they watching the same Convention we were watching? So here, for everyone’s edification is some proof.

For sane persons who have no intention of denying the obvious, we include raw data for you to show those who, as Marc eloquently put it, refuse to believe their own “lying eyes”.

Here first are The Green Papers’ results of the Democratic Primary:

WARNING – THESE TALLIES WILL SEND ALL HILLARY SUPPORTERS THROUGH THE ROOF WONDERING HOW IN THE HELL ANYONE IN THEIR RIGHT MIND NOMINATED
THE ENDLESSLY FLIP-FLOPPING AND UNQUALIFIED BARACK OBAMA:

The Final Tally On The Popular Vote:
Hillary Clinton 17,857,446 — 48.04%
Barack Obama 17,584,649 — 47.31%

The Final Pledged Delegate Count
Hillary Clinton 1,730.5 — 39.17%
Barack Obama 1,747.5 — 39.55%

So basically she won the popular vote and was behind him by 17 pledged delegates. Wow. What a slam dunk!! Uh, who did they nominate again?

And let me reiterate for the one-thousandth time:

1. Hillary won all the big states, save Obama’s home state of Illinois.

2. She won all the battleground states that usually decide the elections in November, like Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, Michigan, West Virginia to name a few…

3. She had the electoral map in her pocket.

4. She won the popular vote.

5. She won the majority of the Democratic base – not the “Republicans for a Day” – but voters who actually intended to vote for the Democratic Nominee in November – as opposed to people voting for Obama from the Republican side who were just trying to get the stronger candidate (uh, that would be Hillary) out of the race. [This is noted with all due respect to those Republicans who actually wished to vote for a Democrat in the Fall.]

6. No matter what shenanigans the DNC tried to pull by denying Florida and Michigan their votes in the primary – last time I looked, their votes do count in November. Hillary won those votes resoundingly. So it sort of would have been a good idea not to poop on them when we need them to vote for us in the General Election. Just a thought…

Who did Nancy Pelosi, Howard Dean, Harry Reid and Donna Brazile push to nominate again?

Delegates were strong armed not to vote for the candidate they were actually elected to support on the first ballot, based on the votes of millions of Americans. The final delegate tally from the first ballot was 3,188.5 for Obama; 1,010.5 for Clinton. Take another look at the REAL numbers above and see if that seems legal to you???

What was the primary for anyway? Why did we make all those phone calls, send in all that money to both candidates, canvass, rally, vote? Why did we vote? If over 700 delegates could be taken away from her on the first ballot with no one blinking an eye?

Why didn’t Donna Brazile just send everybody the memo ahead of time?

“Look, no matter how much she wins or where she wins, we are going to gift this to him. So get over it.”

I would have appreciated the honesty, if nothing else.

Since this race was essentially a tie, except that Hillary’s votes were won in states Democrats can actually win in November – not states like Idaho, Wyoming, Kansas and Mississippi – and she didn’t use any caucus fraud to win either, unlike someone else we could name – it sort of doesn’t make any sense that Hillary would not be our Presidential nominee.

Yes, Marc is correct. The DNC turned the nominating process into a crooked joke.

Perhaps that is why the media, Obama’s surrogates and the DNC are falling all over themselves to declare that it must be racism that is keeping him getting out in front in this contest. Does the expression CYA (uh, cover your ass) ring a bell??? Uh, is that really why we don’t want to support the DNC’s crooked contest pushing for a most unqualified, dissembling candidate: Racism?

Oh yeah, that must be it…I’m so proud all my time on the internet has taught me this expression. ROFLMAO. For the laymen out there: rolling on floor, laughing my ass off. (Emphasis mine.)

I cannot tell anyone else what to do, but today, I am donating some dough to Democrats for Principles Before Party because I’d like to see the DNC’s feet get held to the fire.

And the fire can’t be hot enough to suit me.

If you wish to help or find out more, here is their information: The Denver Group / Democrats for Principle Before Party

Please also tune in to Bud White’s excellent original interview with Heidi Li Feldman and Marc Rubin of The Denver Group on NoQ Radio.

The media’s pillow-fluffing rhapsodic musings about the Obama ‘movement’ made them abandon their objectivity faster than a child abandoning a broken toy. The DNC gambled on an unvetted, unqualified, well-sculpted concoction of New Age-y hyped up post-partisan platitudes that really don’t make much sense to Americans struggling to keep afloat. Their gamble has resulted in a split of the Democratic Party. No matter what Obama does, his numbers won’t go above 50%. No amount of money, media favoritism, or caucus fraud can change that fact.

What to do now? When in doubt, play: j’accuse!! The media and Dem party leadership have started pointing fingers. Racism!! They cry. Nonsense, I say.

The racism charges have been put out by Senator Obama personally and many in the DNC/Obama wing of the Party. This is a scenario that both they and the media can hide behind to avoid questions and blowback if Obama loses. It’s a way to be insulated from failure so they can still claim to be relevant if the election results in a loss for Obama in this “no lose year for Democrats.” How we got to this place of throwing the far more qualified candidate under the bus will be discussed for some time to come.

What we are seeing is a battle for the Democratic Party itself. Clearly the ‘Howards’, ‘Nancys’ and ‘Donnas’ in the DNC chose to kick the Clinton wing to the curb by forcing delegates to make a selection before it was time to vote and staging an end run around the legitimate nominating process. They did their best to pretend that Hillary’s 18,000,000 voters and her 1912 delegates did not exist.

To that end, Marc Rubin and Prof. Heidi Li Feldman, co-founders of The Denver Group, through the use of grass roots fundraising, both on and off the internet, did a tremendous job of creating and placing effective targeted advertising that added pressure to the decision to put Hillary’s name into nomination and get a roll call vote at the Democratic Convention.

Unfortunately, we all know what happened as a result of the thuggish tactics of the DNC leadership. The only good news is that the reputations and favorability ratings of Nancy Pelosi, Howard Dean, Donna Brazile, Harry Reid seem at an all time low. Apparently, someone out there is paying attention.

Marc Rubin shared his thoughts with me about the Convention, its aftermath and how The Denver Group is evolving in an effort to apply pressure for change in the fractured Democratic Party and hold the current party leadership’s feet to the fire.

Marc, looking back, what is your feeling about how the Convention played out?

The convention was a total fraud. The roll call vote was rigged, and every Democratic rule and procedure was violated in order to do it and they did it in broad daylight right in front of the watchful eyes of the news media who have the powers of observation of a drunken sailor on a Saturday night. They just let the corruption happen without comment. Some of the more egregiously blind were Mike Barnicle, Chris Matthews and of course that Olbermann guy who still thinks this is sports.

What would you want to explain about the roll call vote or outcome for those not as intimately involved in the situation? There are still those who think Senator Obama won the nomination “fair and square.” What is your response to that?

Well there is no accounting for people’s ignorance and refusal to think for themselves, but according to Democratic Party rules it was totally rigged. Rule 6, I believe, states clearly that pledged delegates have an obligation to vote according to the voters who elected them based on the primaries.

Just as one example, Clinton ‘landslided’ Obama in the New Jersey primary winning many more elected pledged delegates than Obama. As you saw during the roll call vote all 130 pledged delegates “voted” for Obama. And no one blinked an eye. And as everyone knows super delegates were going to decide this because Obama didn’t have the 2/3 needed in pledged delegates. They never were given a chance to vote. The last unofficial count according to Politico.com prior to the roll call vote showed among super delegates, 271 for Obama, 268 for Clinton and 160 undecided. If the roll call vote was honest, Obama would have most likely lost.

Had you ever been so involved in a campaign? What motivated you to go the extra mile?

What motivated me was unfairness. The incredible deceit of Pelosi outright lying during the primary season, saying that super delegates had an obligation to vote according to the pledged delegate count, the slanted playing field, the deceit and dishonesty of the news media and people like Jonathan Alter, MSNBC and others calling for Clinton to get out, and of course the Florida and Michigan fiasco when Obama and the DNC and the media colluded to deny both states their rightful voices. The last straw was after the last primary when Pelosi forced super delegates to declare 6 weeks before their votes would count so they could short circuit the process and declare Obama the winner when he wasn’t.

As Governor Rendell of Pennsylvania pointed out, the DNC insisted on nominating the weaker candidate. Aside from the obvious consequence of making the election harder to win, what do you think are some of the short and long term consequences of such an action to the Democratic Party going forward?

Harder to win? Try impossible to win. One candidate ‘landslided’ the other in 13 of the biggest states in the country, not just won, but won by landslide margins and they sent out the loser. They deserve to lose and lose big. The short term consequences are short term pain for long term gain because a massive Obama defeat will get rid of Dean, Pelosi, Brazile and the Obama wing of the party and get it on the right track again.

The DNC is using various scare tactics to get everyone to fall in line. What is your response to their favorite ploys?

a) McCain as neocon?

As rated by conservative groups, McCain has the worst conservative voting record of any Republican member of Congress which is one reason Rush Limbaugh hates him. I’m going to write a post specifically addressing all of this because it’s so ludicrous.

b) Threats to reverse Roe v. Wade?

As for Roe v. Wade, it’s designed to scare people who are ignorant of the law, the limits on the power of the executive [branch] and how the legal system works. It’s virtually a done deal that Roe v. Wade will never get reversed in a McCain presidency and if you want proof, no Presidents were more opposed to Roe v. Wade than Bush and Reagan and nothing happened in 16 years of both administrations and for logical reasons. It won’t happen under a McCain administration either.

c) Conservative SCOTUS appointments?

Appointing judges is a crap shoot. Look at David Souter. Besides, even conservative judges respect court precedent and only in extreme and compelling circumstances are willing to overturn long-standing decisions and it hardly ever happens and it wouldn’t with Roe v. Wade. There is a big difference between conservatives WANTING it to be overturned and a court doing just that, assuming you could even find a case where someone with the standing to bring a law suit would do it.

d) What about the DNC and media pushing that if one does not vote for Senator Obama, one must be racist? How effective is this tactic?

Martin Luther King said he dreamed of a day when a person would be judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin. That day has obviously not arrived for Obama, his campaign and those in the DNC, who think making an issue of race and using it to try and intimidate weak minded people is the way to win the election.

Any objective person would come to the conclusion, based on everything known, that Obama doesn’t have the character, courage or the conviction even to be an effective Senator much less President. Using accusations of racism to try and intimidate people into voting for an unqualified candidate will backfire among everyone who sees through it and resents it.

That doesn’t include patronizing knee-jerk liberals such as Keith Olbermann and others like him; the kind of patronizing pseudo-liberals that Lenny Bruce made fun of in the early 60’s, who want to show how un-racist they are by drumming up support for someone with the ethics of a dishonest used car salesman.

But it’s a good reason the polls can’t be trusted. When Obama and his minions try and use the race card to intimidate people, those who do feel intimidated will say one thing but will do another. The more they do it, the more they alienate the people they are trying to win over, so the tactic of trying to get people to prove they are not racists by voting for him, like taking some kind of loyalty oath, smacks of racial McCarthyism, and while it might be successful with some, most people will reject it.

Aside from the obvious wish to scare up voters, why do you feel they are using such a risky tactic?

It is a sign of desperation and reinforces the truth that Senator Obama has nothing to say and nothing to offer.

We have many, many African Americans who have been elected to public office — mayors, governors, members of Congress, members of state legislatures, and none of them had to use race as a tactic to get elected. All were elected on their merits and won re-election or were defeated based on their performances. In the end the more Obama uses race the more he is telling people he has no game.

I understand The Denver Group has a new offshoot — Democrats for Principle Before Party — what are your new goals going forward?

A massive defeat for Obama and the resignations of everyone in the DNC who produced him and the elimination of the Obama wing of the party which is obviously corrupt and putting the DNC back into the hands of people who understand the word “democracy”.

It wasn’t Clinton’s supporters who stooped to the level of the Obama wing and corrupted and mishandled everything, so to start with, Clinton and her supporters would obviously do a better job getting a Democrat back in the White House and getting the entire party back on track after all the “I told you so’s” are over. This also means replacing Pelosi, Reid, Dean and everyone else. If the Democrats retain control of Congress, I can’t see any member of the House with 2 cents for a brain re-electing Pelosi Speaker of the House. Once this is over, we should see a big power shift back to sanity.

When you see how the DNC has so skewed the process this time, what can be done to effect change on a grass roots level? What would be your advice to those feeling completely disenfranchised by the primary season – how can they bring pressure to bear to make sure this sort of thing never happens again?

Vote for an Obama defeat, whether than means voting for another candidate or leaving the Presidential line blank. No money to the DNC, and donating money to The Denver Group to help finance Democrats For Principle Before Party.

Finally, what can you say to those who don’t understand why you are not just “lining up” the way most Dems usually do in support of any candidate? If you could correct any misconception about how they view your actions, what would you say to them?

I’d say they should look at themselves and whether they have decided to believe what Obama and the news media tells them or their own “lying eyes”. Understand that Democrats don’t “fall in line” like Republicans do, that Dean and Pelosi’s “fall in line” strategy has backfired and showed a distinct lack of understanding of who Democrats are, and the last thing I would tell people is do themselves a favor and try thinking for themselves and not believe something is true just because someone tells them so.

But if people can’t see the rank dishonesty and hypocrisy in everything Obama has said and done by now: his lying about [Rev.] Wright and the fact he was never offended enough by what Wright was saying to leave and never go back, his lying about FISA, NAFTA, his reneging on his promises and pledges, and if they don’t mind being led around by the nose I don’t know there is anything more anyone can say.

Thank you for taking the time to do this interview, Marc. I honestly feel watchdog organization like yours are critical, particularly now, when the media is working so diligently to manhandle the truth. As you and Heidi Li point out on your website, it is crucial to stop all the errant finger pointing and lay the blame squarely at the feet of those to whom it belongs.

I’m not advocating anyone vote one way or the other, but John McCain said something apropos during his convention speech, in re vetoing ‘pork projects’ that come across his desk: “They will be famous. You will know their names.”

A good prescription for the current Democratic Party leadership. Don’t you think?

* * *
*Marc Rubin is an award winning art director and writer in the advertising business, was a contributing editor for National Lampoon in its heyday, the head writer on a number of prime time network TV series and is currently developing several movie and TV projects.

To learn more about: The Denver Group / Democrats For Principle Before Party.

Those messages proved that, in spite of Kilpatrick’s testimony during a civil lawsuit, the pair had, in fact, been knocking boots.

Watch the video ad, it is devastating!

Last year, before addressing the Detroit Economic Club, Obama praised Kilpatrick as “a great mayor.” This year, he told the mayor to stay away from the Democratic National Convention. On Wednesday, as Kilpatrick apparently balked at accepting a plea deal, Obama issued a public statement asking him to resign.

Obama told Kilpatrick to stay home and not attend the Democratic National Convention. A few weeks later, Obama issued a public statement asking Kilpatrick to accept the plea deal. Why did Obama, who so highly praised Kilpatrick, not do this privately? Why did he feel it necessary to be so overt about it? Interesting. And yet another Obama “friend” is thrown “under the bus”.

Some want her out front and center railing against sexism to defend Sarah Palin:

‘Hillary’s legacy is in jeopardy! She is not living her principles! After what she went through she must speak out against the horrible treatment of this woman.’

Others are determined to see her out on the stump trashing Sarah Palin. The ‘Kossacks’ and their ilk suddenly love Hillary. I guess the ungrateful dopes figured out they need her after all. They called her all manner of filthy slander too disgusting to repeat here, but she is good enough now to clean up after Barack, isn’t she? ‘My diaper’s wet. Change me, Mommy, change me!’

I have tried in vain to figure out why people can’t resist beating on Hillary; even some of her supporters. After the most grueling primary contest in history, with the outcome determined by DNC thuggery, any sensible person could agree that Hillary and her family have been through enough and deserve time to recuperate.

Hillary is a tough cookie; a worker bee who didn’t ask for down time, but the irrational need of the press and many voters to have her be all things to all people indicates that, perhaps unconsciously, we are relating to her as the archetypal Mother. This association can unleash deep and powerful feelings which defy logic. She is, after all, a politician.

The bountiful mother figure … she swells with abundance – she promises fulfillment of need. The Great Mother, however, can frighten as well as sustain …Mother Earth may sustain the crops, but Mother Earth can generate terrible forces – earthquakes, floods and volcanic eruptions. Our primitive psyches enshrine the ecstasy of hunger banished by mother’s breast, but we also harbor dark shadows of her absence, of her inability to make everything better.

Interesting that now Hillary is caught between the opposing cacophonies of:

They’re picking on Sarah – make them stop! Yell at them! You’re big and bad and tougher than any of them, Mommy. Make them stop.

They’re picking on Barack! Stop them! Republicans are calling him an empty suit, an unqualified charlatan and a lying fraud. Help him, Mommy, help him!

What do we all want from Hillary? Blood? How about if our ‘Joan’ is literally burned at the stake for her principles?

Pardon my dust in sharing a little personal history. I watched my own mother be treated badly day in and year out. An eminently capable woman with a vigorous work ethic, if not for her, we would all have been out in the street. She was belittled daily by a sick man for years so he could maintain his base of power in the home. It worked. And we were all encouraged, unsuccessfully, to beat on her too in our way – if she was not perfect. Sound familiar?

We orbited around the abuser and made the best of it. In the name of family, my Mom made a choice to stay in an incredibly difficult situation. I did not second guess her. Witnessing this, however, taught me not to make the same choice in my own life.

Echoing a similar diseased family dynamic, the DNC, the media and the country is now orbiting around the ‘abuser’, Barack, while expecting Hillary to do the washing up after. How many of us have versions of the same story to tell – either at home or in the workplace.

A friend of mine recently said “Hillary has raised the bar for what I will accept from a Presidential candidate.” He’s right. Watching and championing the unflappable, wonderfully prepared, gritty and determined Hillary Clinton was a joy. But being A+ cost her… Watching her be ripped to shreds by little frat boys and colluding girls of the media, while the jealous, corrupt DNC elders rubbed their hands together, grateful allies to this slaughter, was too painful for words.

Hillary is human; an imperfect person in an imperfect world who just happened to be a very knowledgeable, caring policy wonk who liked to roll her sleeves up and get to work. No Grecian temple necessary. No matter how good a politician Hillary became, I never thought she was going to solve all my problems. I am sure my own experiences with misogyny and witnessing the abuse my mother received made me take this election a little more personally, but I never made Hillary my mother. I do not expect her to fix everything.

I worked on her behalf because she was the best option available. Period.

How odd that some women actually refused to vote for Hillary because she did not leave Bill. Isn’t there a saying about living in a glass house and throwing stones? Just my opinion, but often, we may not be comfortable with shining a light on our own shortcomings. We expect admired public figures to step up to the plate in a way we ourselves cannot or do not. We hold them to ridiculous and superhuman standards.

Hillary’s reasons are her own. There is a bigger picture than we can imagine and it may be just as much about love and family as habit or any less generous adjectives you would care to name.

In this current debate, some expect Hillary to stand before the world and decry what angers us, while, with a few exceptions, we issue these complaints from the safety of a blogger’s alias.

Hillary has made a statement that sexism has no place in this contest. That is all that she should do. Sarah Palin herself stated that Hillary ever mentioning sexism was a mistake and as a woman you know they are going to throw the kitchen sink at you and you have to be twice as good and just get on with it. That indicates to me, she is not asking for any help. Palin has her entire Party behind her – much more than Hillary ever had.

Yes the DNC is corrupt and needs to be cleansed. Can we do that right this second? No. Obviously, the phony roll call at the Convention and the events orchestrated by Brazile et al indicate clearly, we do not have the environment to do that now. And if other Democratic bigwigs did not have the balls to stand up to this travesty and left Hillary, all by herself, flapping in the breeze – us asking her to do so yet again in the name of Sarah Palin is an unnecessary political suicide.

Do we want the Dem Party to slit her throat altogether? Dean, Pelosi, Kerry, Kennedy, Richardson, Edwards, Dodd, Rockefeller and Co. would like nothing better. That is what we will accomplish by asking her to come to the defense of a Republican VP nominee.

And as to the DNC’s corruption, expecting Clinton to take on the entire Party, the media and the Obama campaign single-handed is as naive as it is unreasonable. Likewise the thought that she could have run as an Independent and abandoned the Party. Sorry. Not doable — much as I would have liked this myself.

Politics is a blood sport, a vile undertaking to say the least. But I, for one, want to see Hillary live to fight another day – whether she runs for President in 2012, becomes Senate Majority Leader or remains a powerful work-horse NY Senator, able to push her agenda through.

Obama and Axelrod have framed their campaign around playing the race card. It is a catch-all designed to stop any criticism dead. The media is terrified of being called racist. Ironic that by the media excusing Senator Obama’s every gaffe and deliberately deciding not to vet him, they are being completely racist.

Unwittingly or not, they are saying that Barack Obama is not capable of winning this election on the issues or on his own. They are acknowledging his lack of accomplishment. He cannot do it fair and square. He could not do it against Hillary and he will not do it against McCain. So the media needs to help by saying “ssshhhh – these are questions we will not ask.” Well here’s a hot flash. Holding Hillary to a higher standard than Barack is sexism, too.

In 2000, the media sold us Bush and trashed Gore. They also sold Bush’s war. Herein lies the best reason not to vote for Barack Obama – the media wants him.

The media made sure Hillary had to be perfect out on the trail. I was terrified she would say the wrong thing – because she had no margin for error. Whereas Barack could just sort of meander on to the stage backwards and ‘be mesmerizing.’ Hillary has done more in one year than Senator Obama has done in his whole fabricated life. Doesn’t matter. Damn it, Hillary, don’t you make a mistake. Not a single one!

Now Hillary is caught between defending Barack and defending Sarah Palin. I personally think Sarah Palin can eat Barack’s lunch. But she’s been on the national stage for a week. She’s had to endure this misogyny for a week. Let her step up to the plate and handle it. For that matter, let Obama go win his own election.

But here’s a word: empathy.

Have people wondered what it would feel like as a public figure to have the right wing gunning for you for 16 years; to create a picture of you as divisive and polarizing in an effort to poison the electorate; and to have to publicly pay for your husband’s personal transgressions on top of that.

Then picture you are running a campaign for 18 months, by far the best, most prepared candidate with the best policies, only to be stabbed in the back daily by the do-nothing loser cowards in your own Party, as well as the media – while the Republicans pretty much stay silent about the unfair treatment you are receiving.

Why wouldn’t they? Republicans knew Hillary would win in a landslide. Who would want to run against her? They were scared.

Now imagine you and your President husband are also unjustly painted as racists, after you have done more for the AA community in a heartbeat than Barack has done his whole life. Can you imagine what would happen if you started speaking out for a Republican woman over Barack in this deadly and irrational atmosphere?

I do not want my Joan of Arc in a pantsuit to be set aflame. I want her back. Enough is enough. Let everybody else fight their own battles. She has exhibited more raw courage than any politician I have ever seen. She led by example and never gave anyone the satisfaction of seeing her defeated.

At the Convention, radiant in her prisoner’s orange, she gave a victory speech and talked about everything she fought for. She will continue the fight. I assure you. She is a smart political animal. I trust that in order to keep a seat at the table to fight for her country in the future, seeing the writing on the wall, she did what she had to do.

In the world of politics, perhaps the concept of ‘mother’ is too tough to erase from the collective psyche, accounting for the ridiculous double standard foisted upon both Senator Clinton and Governor Palin. But if we want to change the landscape of sexism, it is up to us to continue to fight back as well. Speak out, write, call, boycott, protest, show up and most of all – VOTE.

Instead of demanding that Mommy make it all better.

Well, my principles have officially become inconvenient. Still, I find that I just cannot stand in lock step with a Party I consider to be hopelessly corrupt: a Party that conducted a phony roll call and cut the best candidate off at the knees in order to push their puppet king. The Democratic Party is broken and not even Hillary can put Humpty-Dumpty back together again.

Hillary Clinton gave an eloquent, passionate speech at the Convention Tuesday night. She was on her game, in command, and so committed to the goals and values she campaigned on that she emerged as the most exciting person at the Convention by far. Transcendent is the appropriate word.

All the endless media bashing and back stabbing by the losers’ club in her Party seemed to have no effect. She has emerged an icon, bigger and better than all of them. Someone the DNC wrongly pegged as a woman to be reviled has become an admired, even beloved figure; perhaps a martyr to their corrupt cause of nominating an empty suit.

How frustrating for the blogger boyz, media dogs like Keith Olbermann, and the heavy hitting DNC thug squad comprised of Dean, Pelosi, Kerry and Brazile, to name a few, that they couldn’t keep her down. She looked radiant, composed and in charge. That must have really frosted their bananas.

‘We all know what happened here,’ she seemed to say, ‘but I am going to do my job tonight.’ And she did. Extremely well. But in so doing, she only made the travesty of this nomination more evident. As Anglachel brilliantly pointed out in her analysis of Hillary’s speech, she now owes the party nothing.

So Hillary transcended. What about the rest of us?

My principles prevent me from voting for this man. He is unqualified and a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Based on his past voting record, his behavior, his actions and those of his campaign, I do not trust anything that comes out of his mouth.

Do you know how I know he’s lying? His lips are moving.

Remember FISA, Senator Obama? He may pay lip service to the policies Hillary campaigned on – but I do not trust my future to him. And I will not reward the DNC’s behavior. Perhaps the nominating process was always this rigged. It just went on too long this time so we actually got to peer behind the green curtain and see the wizard.

This fixed process is the reason we always wind up voting for the lesser of two evils, never really excited about a candidate. I think voters are so beaten down by years of this, they are used to voting in lock step with their Party, shrugging: ‘Well, that’s they way it is. Where else are you gonna go?’ That’s exactly what David Axelrod and Co. count on. Sorry. No dice.

In the middle of a haircut the other day, the stylist innocently asked my thoughts on the Democratic Convention. She is a kind young woman and we have never discussed politics. I nearly exploded that Obama is useless and this whole Convention was a sham. She, you see, is ready to ‘shrug’ at the voting booth, as we all usually do and I’m sure she was mortified to find that I will not vote for Obama, though I’ve been a solid Democrat all my life.

I am equally sure there are those who feel exactly as I do – many more than the arrogant pundit class, the DNC or Senator Obama would care to admit.

What to do about my inconvenient principles? Should I just stay silent these next two months? Should I hope that people will do their own due diligence? The same due diligence that millions have not bothered to do up to this point? The same due diligence that the mainstream media will not help them do because the pablum we are fed is, indeed, a fairy tale? The media narrative about Obama’s ‘historic’ candidacy seems to take complete precedence over whether he is qualified or honest enough to lead.

And for the hundredth time, this is no longer about Hillary.

The only reason I hung with this Democratic Party of losers for 30 years was because I was confident they occupied the moral high ground. Why did they keep nominating losers; elitists that could not speak to Middle America – do Democrats think these people are unworthy of inclusion? Surely, that can’t be true. Bill and Hillary spoke to them. The DNC didn’t like that.

Lately, the DNC is all for show. Just pretend you’re pushing to pass legislation to help those in need. ‘Oh, but we don’t have a majority so we can’t do it.’ ‘Oh, but we don’t have a big enough majority so we can’t do it.’ ‘Well, we tried.’ Well, that’s a crock of crap. Hillary worked to pass SCHIP and got insurance for 6 million kids who didn’t have any. She worked with none other than Newt Gingrich.

If you really want to push legislation through – make your case to the American people. Create pressure. Get off your ass, Congress! How’s that for an idea?

How much do those cushy Dems really want change? Senator Obama certainly doesn’t. His actions completely belie all of his campaign promises. And he chose a good ole’ boy from the old guard: a Senator of 36 years; a sexist himself; his own son a lobbyist.

Remember when Pelosi, our newly minted Speaker of the House, said “impeachment is off the table”? Uh huh. Now I think I’ve got it.

With some very honorable exceptions, there are many in the party just playing kick the can and making a big dumb-show to no avail. You’ll pardon me if I don’t trust the likes of Dodd, Kerry, Pelosi, Richardson et al to push the candidate really capable of CHANGE.

Principles. They sure are inconvenient. But when is it a good time to stand up for what you believe in? I want my country back. I don’t want to be choked by an unscrupulous media telling me who my President should be. People are losing their homes. Our economy is in the toilet. We are in a mess abroad. Senator Obama just spent Six Million Dollars for a faux Grecian temple and he’s talking about reform? Bullshit.

I thought my party was the ‘better’ one but now that McCain named Sarah Palin as his VP, the sexist attacks have already begun. I thought Democrats supported equal rights for women? Guess I was wrong about that, too.

Sarah Palin is the Governor of the State of Alaska. She also commands the National Guard there: a very crucial task because of Alaska’s location. Some of the sexists might want to look at a map.

This woman has more governing and executive experience in her little finger than Obama has in his whole body and she is running to be #2 on the ticket, not #1. And his campaign is talking about her lack of experience?

She may not be Hillary Clinton, but this woman will make Obama look pale. Trust me, it’s not that hard. I can smell that Governor Palin has more grit than the phony teleprompter-addicted Obama from a mile away.

Pundits on networks and the Obamarama blogosphere are insulting her, calling her a cheerleader and a joke. How about doing a little research before you defecate on yet another woman? They are also saying disgusting and cruel things about her child with Down Syndrome – and these filthy people dare to call themselves Democrats? Not a smart campaign strategy in my view. Might piss me off even more. Principles, remember?

Hillary can sit back ruefully and note that at least she won’t be the only one to suffer the outrageous onslaught that is surely coming.

But this time, we’ll be ready.

As to my principles, no, I will not keep silent, even if it is inconvenient.

I know many thoughtful, caring and educated people who have actually lost friends because they are not willing to drink the stuff the DNC is selling. I am not happy that a couple of my friends who are still sipping the “Democrats only” kool-aid think I’m over the top. I understand why. It is entirely too frightening for them to conceive of the fact that they cannot trust the only group they’ve ever trusted. Nobody likes their world turned upside down. First of all, it’s too much work to fix it.

Perhaps if I got my ‘news’ from the Obama pillow-fluff and leg-tingle network, MSNBC, I’d think Obama was great, too. But I don’t, so I don’t.

Hillary’s entire argument, as an eminently capable candidate, was that she just wanted to be judged on the merits. Plenty of people actually did that and voted for her. The big reason she doesn’t have the nomination right now is because of the idiotic DNC riding shotgun for a charlatan.

Competence: what a concept.

Well here’s a good suggestion for everyone regardless of party affiliation or your eventual voting decision in November: do your own due diligence on the candidates. Learn who they really are and what they stand for. Up is down this entire year so assume nothing. Look at what the candidates do and have done, not just what they say. Talk is cheap. Actions speak.

Judge on the merits – not on packaging.

If people had been smart enough to do that, we wouldn’t be stuck with Senator Obama, the American Idol candidate.

And my principles wouldn’t have propelled me to abandon the corrupt Democratic Party.

Pat Buchanan of all people makes this observation about last night’s “historic” convention speech:

After the phony roll call vote was taken here to formally nominate Barack Obama — a roll call that did not remotely reflect the true delegate strength of Hillary — the media exploded in an orgy of celebration about the historic character of the moment to which they had just been privileged to be witness.

“The first black presidential nominee ever of a major party in history!” was proclaimed. Coming on the 45th anniversary of Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, Barack’s nomination is being hailed as the last great step forward in the long march to equality and justice in America.

The moral pressure to join the march of history is enormous.

Nor is it unfair to say that some journalists here are obsessed with the issue of race in this campaign. There may be wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, rising tensions with Russia, a falling regime in Pakistan, and reports of U.S. and NATO warships headed for the Persian Gulf, but here it is all about the first black ever nominated for president.
…
Here at the convention, the media watched Hillary and Bill’s speeches with a commissar’s care — to ensure they not only embraced Barack but “validated” his credentials to be president. Should they not go all out for Obama, we are told, the Clintons are dead in the party.

So Obama needs to be validated? Still? With his tremendous financial advantage, press drooling over him, and the DNC elite praising him to the hilt daily – he still needs to be validated by the Clintons? Who did they nominate again?

This ridiculous pre-programmed media narrative about his “historic” candidacy (never mind Hillary’s historic candidacy) entirely ignores the fact that we are in a mess, both at home and abroad, and it would be nice to have a leader who knew what the hell they were doing regardless of race, sex or age. What say you?

I could give a crap about “history” or symbols. Symbols don’t govern. Women do. Men do. I do give a crap about leadership and policies that make sense. Not lofty pie in the sky rhetoric that doesn’t even have a passing acquaintance with reality, offered by someone who has spent barely any time in the Senate.

From George Will, The Devil in His Details,

Obama’s rhetorical extravagances are inversely proportional to his details, as when he promises “nothing less than a complete transformation of our economy” in order to “end the age of oil.”

So why did Obama vote for Bush/Cheney’s Energy Bill? Hmmm. More…

The diminished enthusiasm of some voters hitherto receptive to his appeals might have something to do with the seepage of reality from his rhetoric.

Yes, I’m quoting a conservative. Why? Because Obama is maxed out on the lefties, he is maxed out on the black vote and the youth vote. The voters he needs are actually concerned with bread and butter issues that his faux noble, nose in the air attitude have not yet begun to address.

Even MSNBC’s Campbell Brown, an Obama cheerleader and pillow-fluffer from way back, thought that Barack Obama’s spectacle …

“went a little long, it started to feel like a half-time at the superbowl.”

And when you have Charles Gibson of ABC News asking for the substance behind the fluff of Obama and none other than George Stephanopoulos (no friend to Hillary) asking why she was not chosen as VP to strengthen the ticket — you know you’re in trouble.

Charles Krauthammer in today’s WaPo piece, The Perfect Stranger, points out that:

…The deeper anxiety was that the party was nominating a man of many gifts but precious few accomplishments — bearing even fewer witnesses.

When John Kerry was introduced at his convention four years ago, an honor guard of a dozen mates from his Vietnam days surrounded him on the podium attesting to his character and readiness to lead…

Eerily missing at the Democratic convention this year were people of stature who were seriously involved at some point in Obama’s life standing up to say: I know Barack Obama. I’ve been with Barack Obama. We’ve toiled/endured together. You can trust him. I do.

Hillary Clinton could have said something like that. She and Obama had, after all, engaged in a historic, utterly compelling contest for the nomination. During her convention speech, you kept waiting for her to offer just one line of testimony: I have come to know this man, to admire this man, to see his character, his courage, his wisdom, his judgment. Whatever. Anything.

Instead, nothing. She of course endorsed him. But the endorsement was entirely programmatic: We’re all Democrats. He’s a Democrat. He believes what you believe. So we must elect him — I am currently unavailable — to get Democratic things done. God bless America.

Of course, Krauthammer has to trash Hillary. So again, it is her responsibility to legitimize Obama? If Krauthammer so trusts her opinion on this matter, then perhaps we should have nominated her.

Hey Chuck, did you want her to lie? Obama is NOT a man of substance. He has shown repeatedly that he will throw any one or any policy under the bus so fast it would give you whiplash. Hillary does not and cannot trust him. So she went as far as she could reasonably go without her nose growing on national television.

Furthermore, when it is clear that the ‘loser’ has more power than the ‘winner’ in this contest, we are in a sorry state in this party and in this country.

Pat Buchanan also points out that if Obama loses, we may all be labeled racists –at home and possibly by people abroad as well. Oh really?

John B. Judis, in his piece Avoiding A Long, Disappointing Fall in The New Republic, notes that according to the New York Times’ Matt Bai, “the race isn’t about race” and that what matters more is Obama’s “remarkably little governing experience.”

Daniel Henninger of the WSJ in his piece, Barack Obama: Leap of Faith, quotes New York Times articles stating that in dozens of interviews with friends of Obama during his years as editor of the Harvard Law Review “they could not remember his specific views from that era, beyond a general emphasis on diversity and social and economic justice,” and as a teacher at the University of Chicago, ‘he notably did not participate in its intellectual debates.’

Barack Obama raises the prospect of a candidate for the first time being elected into the presidency almost wholly on the basis of a compelling persona. It is no surprise this could happen in an age tugged by the siren song of celebrity.

Senator McCain nailed Senator Obama perfectly as the celebrity candidate. Like Tom Cruise with his great grin, easy laugh, affable demeanor and cocky swagger, charm is used as a tool to keep one at arm’s length – to seduce with a smile so as to keep the smoke and mirrors from ever letting you peer beneath a well orchestrated surface.

Much to the chagrin and dismay of people like Donna Brazile who envision the NEW Democratic Party being more urban and urbane, kicking the rest of us to the curb, Henninger goes on to correctly observe:

The 2008 election is almost certainly going to be decided by white, lower-middle-class voters — the people who voted for Hillary Clinton this year and before that for Ronald Reagan. If these voters don’t swing behind the Obama candidacy in Ohio, Michigan, Florida and Missouri, he will lose.

Yet amid a universally described lack of clarity about Sen. Obama’s experience and core political beliefs, it is now being said that if the people in blue-collar counties don’t vote for him, they, and their nation, remain racist.

This is false. If they don’t vote for Barack Obama, it won’t be over his personal roots, but because they’re confused about the roots of his politics.

I couldn’t have said it better. It ain’t about race. It never was.

After securing the nomination in June, Obama’s first priority had to be healing the rift between himself and Hillary Clinton. Candidates who can’t put nomination battles behind them well before the convention usually lose. Think of Goldwater in 1964, Gerald Ford in 1976, Jimmy Carter in 1980, and Walter Mondale in 1984. There are only two candidates I can remember who succeeded in overcoming intraparty rifts during the convention–John Kennedy in 1960 and Ronald Reagan in 1980–and they did it by nominating their primary opponents to be vice president.

Obama, who evidently did not see a nail-biting election looming, chose not to do that, and is reaping the consequences.

Obama and his throng chose to continue the massive disrespect heaped upon Hillary Clinton and her supporters. No real roll call vote was allowed. Surely she might have taken the nomination from this empty suit. Talk about putting yourself before either your party or your country, Senator Obama.

Now the media wants to complain that we know very little about this man and that his ’same old same old’ hopey-changey rhetoric is getting tired. They are asking “where’s the beef?

Whatsamatter? Has the soufflé fallen already?

Well, the hell with all of them.

We have been asking, shouting, writing, calling, screaming, pleading for the substance for months and months and ridiculed for so doing. No matter what helpful prescription Mr. Judis is offering Mr. Obama in his article, to “Avoid A Long, Disappointing Fall,” I think that is exactly what the foolish and foolishly corrupt DNC and their new leader Senator Obama are going to have — a long, disappointing fall.

And nobody could deserve it more.