There have been suggestions that Obama should choose Hillary as vice president for a ‘Dream Ticket’. It would actually be more of a nightmare. Clinton would be constantly defying Obama, making deals behind his back, and in effect running her own parallel government. She’s much too outspoken to remain in the background. Edwards would probably be his best choice.
clinton
It's over
There’s no way Hillary Clinton can get the nomination, and most of her advisors and top Democrats recognize that. She’s officially entered the “psycho ex-girlfriend” stage. She’s starting to sound delusional when she talks about winning. At this point it’s clearly about her ego, not wanting to do what’s right for the country. The best thing she could do is concede graciously and put her support behind Obama.
What we've learned from this presidential campaign
Things I have learned during this campaign season (Via Daily Kos):
- In a race that includes a former First Lady of the United States and a multimillionaire Republican senator rumored to share up to eight residences with his wife, the black guy from Chicago is unforgivably elitist.
- Racism in America is caused primarily by black Chicago preachers.
- The guy who keeps getting confused over the relationship between Iraq, Iran, and al Qaeda is the foreign policy expert.
- The guy who goes to campaign stops on his wife’s private jet aircraft is the most down-to-earth.
- The guy who changed his stance on tax cuts, Roe v. Wade, immigration, gun control, the confederate flag, torture, public financing, and his own anti-earmark rhetoric is the “straight talker”.
- People in the heartland don’t like it when you call them bitter, but they do like it when you explain to them that they’re too dumb to understand issues more important than whether or not they like to be called bitter.
- Arugula is the measure of a man.
- Bowling is the measure of a man.
- Orange juice is the measure of a man.
- Flag pins are the measure of a man.
- Success in Iraq consists of any reduction in violence, except when violence increases that’s good too.
- A recession is only a recession if you call it one.
- Bill Kristol, Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, Karl Rove, Maureen Dowd, David Brooks, David Broder, Charles Krauthammer and Bob Novak are all intensely interested in giving advice to the Democratic candidates because they just want to be helpful.
- There are people in this world dumb enough to believe every one of these things.
A disgrace
Last night’s Democratic debate was one of the worst examples of molehill politics so far in this election cycle. Charles Gibson and George Stephanopolous decided that Americans are more interested in Obama’s “Bitter” remark, Rev. Wright, Clinton’s trip to Bosnia, and whether a candidate wears a flag pin than issues like Iraq, the economy, and gas prices. They didn’t even touch healthcare or the environment.
Molehill Politics
Elizabeth Drew has a perfect term describing the state of the current presidential campaign: Molehill Politics. Instead of talking about real issues, Clinton and McBush are jumping on Obama for what he said in one speech, and that’s the top story in the news.
I don’t believe Obama said anything wrong. He’s absolutely right and this is a perfect example of what he was talking about. The government has failed most of us. Instead of talking about how to change it, they try to distract everyone with fake issues.
Hillary's Money Problems
B12 Solipsism points out that Hillary’s money problems have gotten worse.
Hillary Rodham Clinton’s cash-strapped presidential campaign has been putting off paying hundreds of bills for months — freeing up cash for critical media buys but also earning the campaign a reputation as something of a deadbeat in some small-business circles.
A pair of Ohio companies owed more than $25,000 by Clinton for staging events for her campaign are warning others in the tight-knit event production community — and anyone else who will listen — to get their cash upfront when doing business with her. Her campaign, say representatives of the two companies, has stopped returning phone calls and e-mails seeking payment of outstanding invoices. One even got no response from a certified letter.
…It’s not just the size of Clinton’s debts that’s noteworthy. It’s also that her unpaid bills extend beyond the realm of high-priced consultants who typically let bills slide as part of the cost of doing business with powerful clientele whose success is linked to their own.
Some of Clinton’s biggest debts are to pollster and chief strategist Mark Penn, who’s owed $2.5 million; direct mail company MSHC Partners, which is owed $807,000; phone-banking firm Spoken Hub, which is waiting for $771,000; and ad maker Mandy Grunwald, who’s owed $467,000.
Clinton also reported debts more than one month old to a slew of apolitical businesses and organizations, large and small, in the states through which this historically expensive Democratic primary campaign has raged.
[From Cash-strapped Clinton fails to pay bills – Kenneth P. Vogel – Politico.com]
How can we expect her to run the country if she can’t even manage her own campaign properly? Can’t she see that she’s only hurting the Democratic party and the country by staying in the race with little or no chance of nomination? Right now it’s about her hunger for power, not about wanting to do the right thing for the country.
Will Rush Limbaugh Be Indicted for Voter Fraud?
The Democrats, especially Obama’s camp, need to make sure this story stays in the news. Via Alternet:
As the board of election in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, where Cleveland is located, launches an investigation into illegal crossover voting in the state’s 2008 presidential primary, a big open question remains unanswered: Will county officials go after the ringleaders of apparently illegal electioneering where thousands of Republican voters swore — under penalty of law — allegiance to the Democratic Party in order to vote for Hillary Clinton?
In case you missed it, Rush Limbaugh, the nation’s top-rated talk radio host, was urging Republicans in Texas and Ohio to skip their party’s primary on March 4 and instead cast a vote for Hillary Clinton in order to prolong the fight between her and Barack Obama. And that Tuesday, as media in both states reported, thousands of Republicans did just what Limbaugh and others had suggested — they changed parties to vote for Clinton.
“I want Hillary to stay in this, Laura,” Limbaugh told Laura Ingraham on Feb. 29, near the start of his Hillary crusade. “This is too good a soap opera. We need Barack Obama bloodied up politically, and it’s obvious that the Republicans are not going to do it and don’t have the stomach for it, as you probably know.”
And on Wednesday, the day after the Ohio primary, Fox News asked Clinton if she owed Limbaugh a thank you. “Be careful what you wish for, Rush,” she replied. Later that day, Limbaugh played the Fox tape on his show and said, “How do you interpret this, folks? She could have said thank you. She could have said thank you! In fact, I was expecting in her victory speech last night to be thanked.
“I helped give Mrs. Clinton the biggest and happiest moment and night of the campaign season so far, maybe her life, and she tells me, “Be careful what you wish for, Rush”? Why, that sounds like a threat, does it not? I’ve got a Democrat presidential candidate threatening your host. Why, I am stunned! After all I did …”
While this all makes for great talk radio and sounds like fun, there is one catch: What Limbaugh encouraged Republican voters to do in Ohio was a fifth-degree felony in that state, punishable with a $2,500 fine and six to 12 months in jail. That is because in order to change party affiliation in Ohio, voters have to fill out a form swearing allegiance to that party’s principles “under penalty of election falsification.”
I think they need to go even further with this and disqualify the delegates Clinton won in those disputed races. If that happens, Obama would clearly have enough delegates to win the nomination right now.
Clinton big dollar donors threaten Pelosi and the DCCC
Hilary Clinton proves beyond a doubt that she cares more about her own quest for power than she does about the Democratic party and the rest of the country. She doesn’t care who she destroys in her attempt to get elected. She would rather hand the election to McCain than give in to the will of the people.
Her delegates from Texas and Ohio should be disqualified, since it’s clear that her wins in those states were a direct result of Republicans, who have no intention of voting for her in November, voting for her in the Democratic primary for the sole purpose of prolonging her campaign and weakening the Democrats.
Via Daily Kos: Certain people still think they can bully politicians by waving their checkbooks in their faces.
The Honorable Nancy Pelosi
Speaker of the US House of RepresentativesOffice of the Speaker
H-232, US Capitol
Washington, DC 20515Dear Madame Speaker,
As Democrats, we have been heartened by the overwhelming response that our fellow Democrats have shown for our party’s candidates during this primary season. Each caucus and each primary has seen a record turnout of voters. But this dynamic primary season is not at an end. Several states and millions of Democratic voters have not yet had a chance to cast their votes.
We respect those voters and believe that they, like the voters in the states that have already participated, have a right to be heard. None of us should make declarative statements that diminish the importance of their voices and their votes. We are writing to say we believe your remarks on ABC News This Week on March 16th did just that.
During your appearance, you suggested super-delegates have an obligation to support the candidate who leads in the pledged delegate count as of June 3rd , whether that lead be by 500 delegates or 2. This is an untenable position that runs counter to the party’s intent in establishing super-delegates in 1984 as well as your own comments recorded in The Hill ten days earlier:
“I believe super-delegates have to use their own judgment and there will be many equities that they have to weigh when they make the decision. Their own belief and who they think will be the best president, who they think can win, how their own region voted, and their own responsibility.'”
Super-delegates, like all delegates, have an obligation to make an informed, individual decision about whom to support and who would be the party’s strongest nominee. Both campaigns agree that at the end of the primary contests neither will have enough pledged delegates to secure the nomination. In that situation, super-delegates must look to not one criterion but to the full panoply of factors that will help them assess who will be the party’s strongest nominee in the general election.
We have been strong supporters of the DCCC. We therefore urge you to clarify your position on super-delegates and reflect in your comments a more open view to the optional independent actions of each of the delegates at the National Convention in August. We appreciate your activities in support of the Democratic Party and your leadership role in the Party and hope you will be responsive to some of your major enthusiastic supporters.
Sincerely,
Marc Aronchick
Clarence Avant
Susie Tompkins Buell
Sim Farar
Robert L. Johnson
Chris Korge
Marc and Cathy Lasry
Hassan Nemazee
Alan and Susan Patricof
JB Pritzker
Amy Rao
Lynn de Rothschild
Haim Saban
Bernard Schwartz
Stanley S. Shuman
Jay Snyder
Maureen White and Steven Rattner
The Obama campaign responds:
“This letter is inappropriate and we hope the Clinton campaign will reject the insinuation contained in it. Regardless of the outcome of the nomination fight, Senator Obama will continue to urge his supporters to assist Speaker Pelosi in her efforts to maintain and build a working majority in the House of Representatives,” said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton.
One side is looking to build a consensus and win on the strength of voters, the other side is looking to divide and harm the party. It’s easy to see which is which.
Clinton can thank Republicans for primary wins
Republicans have been voting for Hillary Clinton in open Democratic primaries in an attempt to damage the Democrats. According to exit polls, Republican voters have cast about 100,000 votes for her in Ohio, 119,000 in Texas, and about 38,000 in Mississippi.
Since Sen. John McCain effectively sewed up the GOP nomination last month, Republicans have begun participating in Democratic primaries specifically to vote for Clinton, a tactic that some voters and local Republican activists think will help their party in November.
With every delegate important in the tight Democratic race, this trend could help shape the outcome if it continues in the remaining Democratic primaries open to all voters.
Spurred by conservative talk radio, GOP voters who say they would never back Clinton in a general election are voting for her now for strategic reasons: Some want to prolong her bitter nomination battle with Barack Obama, others think she would be easier to beat than Obama in the fall, or they simply want to register objections to Obama.
“It’s as simple as, I don’t think McCain can beat Obama if Obama is the Democratic choice,” said Kyle Britt, 49, a Republican-leaning independent from Huntsville, Texas, who voted for Clinton in the March 4 primary. “I do believe Hillary can mobilize enough people to keep her out of office.”
Britt, who works in financial services, said he is certain he will vote for McCain in November.
About 1,100 miles north, in Granville, Ohio, Ben Rader, 66, a retired entrepreneur, said he voted for Clinton in Ohio’s primary to further confuse the Democratic race. “I’m pretty much tired of the Clintons, and to see her squirm for three or four months with Obama beating her up, it’s great, it’s wonderful,” he said. “It broke my heart, but I had to.”
Local Republican activists say stories like these abound in Texas, Ohio and Mississippi, the three states where the recent surge in Republicans voting for Clinton was evident.
If we can verify the number of votes cast for Hillary by Republicans trying to disrupt the open Democratic primaries, those votes should be invalidated and Hillary should lose those delegates.
Is Karl Rove working for Hillary Clinton?
Hillary Clinton seems to be running her campaign right out of Karl Rove’s playbook. She’s obsessed at winning at any cost with no regard to how much damage she does to the party and the country. Her tactics pretty much guarantee a Republican win in November when she can praise McCain while attacking Obama:
In a live CNN interview just now, Sen. Clinton repeated, twice, the “Sen. McCain has a lifetime of experience, I have a lifetime of experience, Sen. Obama has one speech in 2002” line. By what logic, exactly, does a member of the Democratic party include the “Sen. McCain has a lifetime of experience” part of that sentence? (via Washington Monthly)
She’s now doing the Republicans job for them. Every poll has shown that she would lose against McCain while Obama would beat him. The Republicans have already chosen their candidate while the Democrats are still fighting. The longer this drags out, the less chance of a Democratic victory in November. If anything, Clinton is the one candidate who can unite the Republicans to insure a win for McCain.