Delegate count very close.
(CNN) -- Is Super Tuesday the end?
To paraphrase Winston Churchill, it is not the end, but it is more than the end of the beginning. It is perhaps the beginning of the end.
But with only two or three major candidates left in each party, and with more than half of the country voting, surely both races will be decided on February 5.
Maybe. Maybe not.
The race isn't over until somebody gets a majority of delegates, and both parties have rules that make it difficult to get to a majority.
The Democratic rules award delegates proportional to the vote, so if a candidate gets 40 percent of the vote, he or she gets 40 percent of the delegates.
The winner does not take all. The candidate who comes in second will continue to amass delegates. The candidate who comes in first has to win by overwhelming margins in order to get to a majority quickly.
That seems less and less likely. Polls show Barack Obama gaining momentum as Super Tuesday approaches. Crushing victories by either Hillary Clinton or Obama don't seem to be in the cards.
The fact that most delegates are awarded by congressional district makes it less likely that either Clinton or Obama will sweep the field. Each contender will be able to find pockets of strength in different areas of a state.
And keep this in mind: Many states, including California, allow their residents to start mailing in their ballots weeks before primary day.
What happens to the thousands of Californians who voted weeks ago for John Edwards or Rudy Giuliani? Tough luck. They wasted their ballots.
The Republican race still has three major candidates, each of whom has won at least one state.
Mike Huckabee is likely to win delegates in states and districts where evangelical voters predominate on February. A three-way split makes it harder for a Republican candidate to build a majority.
Past campaigns have seen a reverse bandwagon effect. When a candidate gets close to winning the nomination, the bandwagon doesn't speed up. It slows down.
Voters in the late primaries say, "Oh my God! What have we done?''
That happened to Jimmy Carter twice. In 1976, an "ABC" -- Anybody But Carter -- movement led to late-season victories by Jerry Brown. In 1980, after Carter beat Edward Kennedy in the early primaries, Kennedy started winning.
The race got closer and ended up going all the way to the convention.
It happened in the 1976 Republican race. Gerald Ford defeated Ronald Reagan in the early contests. But when it began to look like Ford had the nomination, Reagan started winning the late primaries. The suspense continued right up to the convention.
If Clinton seems to clinch the nomination Tuesday, watch for a "stop Clinton" movement to emerge in the late primaries, led by Democratic officeholders terrified of running with Clinton at the top of the ticket.
The same thing could happen if John McCain is the big Republican winner on Super Tuesday. Some conservative activists have already signaled an interest in trying to stop McCain in the late primaries. His biggest competition is Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor.
So even if we get apparent nominees on Super Tuesday, the late primaries offer a setting for the final phase of nominating process: voters' remorse.
By Bill Schneider
CNN Senior Political Analyst
Tuesday is my Super Bowl.
ReplyDeleteI expect to be up late, probably suffering from heartburn as the results come trickling in.
I'm so anxious about California that I may ask a friend of mine for an Ativan.
Breathe Christopher. It's all going to be okay.
ReplyDeleteEven Super Tuesday will not decide our candidate according to the article i just posted.
xo
It worked for the Borg Queen in New Hampshire. Will it work for Super Tuesday?
ReplyDeleteSen. Hillary Clinton appeared to fight back tears this morning at a campaign event in New Haven, USA TODAY’s Kathy Kiely reports.
At the Yale Child Study Center where Clinton once worked, she was introduced by her former boss Penn Rhodeen before a roundtable on the difficulties faced by working mothers. “You were all in purple,” Rhodeen said of their first meeting, “from your sheepskin coat to your bell-bottoms. You looked wonderful and so 1972.”
Clinton, who today was wearing a yellow and black ensemble, welled up at Rhodeen’s reference to “our magnificent Hillary.”
“I said I would not tear up today,” Clinton remarked. Kathy writes that the senator blinked back the evidence with a smile.
The Chicago Tribune’s The Swamp blog adds Rhodeen was the first to choke up, “leading Clinton’s eyes to fill with tears, which she wiped out of her left eye.”
With 48 hours until the polls open on Super Tuesday, I thought I would post ten reasons not to vote for Hillary Clinton:
ReplyDelete1. Hillary Clinton voted for Bush’s Iraq war
2. Hillary Clinton for Bush’s USA Patriot Act
3. Hillary Clinton voted to reauthorize Bush’s USA Patriot Act
4. Hillary Clinton opposed the international treaty to ban land mines
5. Hillary Clinton is one of the Senate’s most outspoken critics of the United Nations
6. Hillary Clinton voted against the Feinstein-Leahy amendment restricting U.S. exports of cluster bombs to countries that use them against civilian-populated areas
7. Hillary Clinton is one of the most prominent critics of the International Court of Justice for its landmark 2004 advisory ruling that the Fourth Geneva Conventions on the Laws of War is legally binding on all signatory nations
8. Hillary Clinton supported Israel’s massive military assault on the civilian infrastructure of Lebanon and the Gaza Strip which took the lives of over 1,000 civilians, half of whom were children
9. Hillary Clinton opposes the complete repeal of DOMA (the Defense of Marriage Act)
10. Hillary Clinton couldn’t be bothered to read the NIE before casting her pro-Iraq war vote
By Alec Baldwin
ReplyDeleteFor Democrats in this country, the choice has been difficult. Now, it is almost excruciating. The freshness and vitality of Barack Obama versus the experience and doggedness of Hillary Clinton. In the wake of the endless nightmare of the Bush years, Democrats seem to want someone truly exceptional. They seem to want a candidate who will actually have a chance at cleaning up some of the mind-blowing mess that George Bush has created in eight years. Unlike the Republicans, who elected Bush twice and who organized a recall of California Governor Gray Davis and replaced him with body-builder/action star Arnold Schwarzenegger, who went on to lead California into an even bigger fiscal mess than the Davis years saw, Democrats want substance as much as electability. Gore seemed a likely choice, but Gore would have none of it.
Edwards was right on many important issues, but seemed green in the post-9/11 world. He isn't, actually, but appearances trumped his ideas and rhetoric. Now we have two people remaining on the eve of Super Tuesday and the most significant question is "Which one can beat McCain?" Hillary Clinton has done everything right. She stood by her husband and endured the ridicule of Republican bullies like Newt Gingrich during what must have been the worst time of her life. She rewrote her own epitaph by crawling out from under the rubble of her marital troubles and became a Senator in a state where the egos in the political arena are as oversized as New York's skyline. She studied hard, as she always has, and she won. Twice. She became a role model for all other women in politics. She is smart. She is tough. And most people agree that she will probably run a better White House than any other candidate that has taken the field.
But Hillary Clinton is wrong on the war in Iraq and that should matter a lot in this race. Critics of Hillary Clinton who are leaders in the Democratic Party that I have spoken to privately believe that she is too much like McCain to offer voters a meaningful choice. "Voters will choose a real Republican over a fake Republican every time," one politico said to me, slashing at Clinton for her tilt toward the right on the war.
"The Clintons don't know when to get off the stage," another offered, suggesting that eight years of Bush and the war on terror seem to have pushed the Bill Clinton years, where Hillary will remain inexorably framed in the minds of many, into a bygone political era.
Barack Obama represents hope to many and some in Clinton's camp have underestimated how much Americans are hungering for that hope in 2008. Obama is clearly not McCain. He is young. He is against the war and he is inexperienced. Republicans, to their shame, will trumpet McCain's experience over Obama's, running as fast as they can from the fact that Gore was the smarter, tougher and more experienced candidate in 2000. Republicans don't care about anything but winning. That's why they put forth candidates like Reagan, Arnold and Bush. By the time they reach the end of their first term, it's assumed they have all the experience they need. Like their nephew at the bank.
Which candidate will have the best chance against McCain? The experienced one or the exciting one? The one who is smart and tough and whose stances on some issues are oh-so-similar to those of the presumed GOP opponent? Or the less experienced, less tested one who has many Americans believing that someone more like them may make a return to the White House? During the Democratic debates, I wanted someone to ask one question. "Do you believe that any of the people sitting in this audience have as much hope of becoming president as you do?" I think that should matter, because the presidency of this country has become the exclusive preserve of legal elites and political or corporate barons. And our country is suffering as the result of it.
Vote on Tuesday. And let's begin the job of defeating John McCain, and his continuation of the Bush nightmare, right now
GOP Senators Reassess Views About McCain
ReplyDeleteHis Old Foes Still Wary Of His Pugnacious Style
John McCain once testified under oath that a Senate colleague inappropriately used tobacco corporation donations to sway votes on legislation. He cursed out another colleague in front of 20 senators and staff members, questioning the senator's grip on immigration legislation. And, on the Senate floor, McCain (R-Ariz.) accused another colleague of "egregious behavior" for helping a defense contractor in a move he said resembled "corporate scandals."
And those were just the Republicans.
In a chamber once known for cordiality if not outright gentility, McCain has battled his fellow senators for more than two decades in a fashion that has been forceful and sometimes personal. Now, with the conservative maverick on the brink of securing his party's presidential nomination, McCain's Republican colleagues are grappling with the idea of him at the top of their ticket.
"There would be a lot of people who would have to recalibrate their attitudes toward John," said Sen. Robert F. Bennett (R-Utah), a supporter of Mitt Romney's who has clashed with McCain.
Many Senate Republicans, even those who have jousted with McCain in the past, say their reassessment is underway. Sensing the increasing likelihood that he will be the nominee, GOP senators who have publicly fought with him are emphasizing his war-hero background and playing down past confrontations.
But others have outright rejected the idea of a McCain nomination and presidency, warning that his tirades suggest a temperament unfit for the Oval Office.
"The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine," Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), also a senior member of the Appropriations panel, told the Boston Globe recently. "He is erratic. He is hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me."
A former colleague says McCain's abrasive nature would, at minimum, make his relations with Republicans on Capitol Hill uneasy if he were to become president. McCain could find himself the victim of Republicans who will not go the extra mile for him on legislative issues because of past grievances.
"John was very rough in the sandbox," said former senator Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), who is outspoken in his opposition to McCain's candidacy. "Everybody has a McCain story. If you work in the Senate for a while, you have a McCain story. . . . He hasn't built up a lot of goodwill."
Santorum was a fierce advocate for the GOP's social conservative wing -- a group particularly hostile to McCain because of his apostasy on immigration and same-sex marriage -- while Cochran is considered one of the more genteel senators. Both men back Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, for president.
To McCain's allies, his fiery personality is part of the "Straight Talk" lore, and a positive quality in a passionate fighter who will tell you to your face how much he dislikes an idea.
"When he's arguing about something he believes in, he's arguing about it," said Mark Salter, a top aide to McCain. "It's an admirable trait, the capacity to be outraged."
Salter scoffed at the idea that McCain is not fit to be president and said most stories about his temper are "wildly exaggerated." He pointed to McCain's success at "across-the-aisle cooperation" with Democrats as an example of how he would deal with Congress if elected president.
Those legislative wins include a major campaign finance law in his name in 2002 and a deal with 14 Democrats and Republicans in 2005 that broke Democratic filibusters on judicial nominees. "That resulted in a lot of good, solid, conservative jurists being confirmed," Salter said.
McCain's battles with colleagues have often gone beyond the ins and outs of policy, taking on a fierce personal tone that other senators do not often engage in, at least not in public.
Stevens, for example, has long stuffed the annual Pentagon spending bill with earmarked provisions for his home state that draw the ire of McCain, who has crusaded against such pet projects. In 2002, Stevens inserted an unusual provision in the defense appropriations bill that allowed Boeing Corp. to lease fuel tankers to the Air Force for $21 billion.
McCain regularly took to the floor to criticize the provision and tried to steal jurisdiction from Stevens's subcommittee so he could kill the deal. "This is the same kind of egregious behavior we often rail against here on the Senate floor when it comes to corporate scandals," he said.
While he has lost almost every earmark fight with Stevens, McCain won the Boeing battle by using his perch atop the Commerce Committee in 2003 and 2004 to investigate the lease deal, uncovering corruption inside the Air Force procurement office.
As president, one of McCain's most critical relationships would be with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), a necessary ally in the conflict with a Democratic-led Congress. But their relationship has been gravely tested.
In 2003, after McConnell challenged the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law in court, McCain gave testimony that almost accused McConnell of breaking federal laws. Under oath, he said that in 1998 McConnell tried to scuttle McCain's legislation to settle lawsuits against the tobacco industry by informing GOP senators that Big Tobacco would spend millions of dollars supporting candidates who opposed McCain's bill.
McConnell has denied the nature of the allegation, but that deposition culminated a five-year fight between the senators over the tobacco bill and the campaign finance legislation. But McConnell said last week that he would have no trouble with McCain as the nominee or as president.
"We've had a great relationship since," McConnell said. "All of them [McCain's fights] have been respectable and entirely within the traditions of the Senate."
McCain's relationship with House Republicans has been strained for years. After stumping for more than 50 GOP candidates during the 2000 campaign, McCain dramatically scaled back his efforts in 2002 out of pique toward House Republicans who opposed his effort to overhaul campaign finance law. In 2004, while McCain was objecting to GOP-backed tax cuts, then-Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) suggested that the senator, a former prisoner of war, should go to Walter Reed Army Medical Center to see what "sacrifice" meant to the nation.
Nevertheless, many House Republicans now view McCain as the best possible nominee. Despite the senator's heresies on taxes, immigration and campaign finance, Rep. Tom Cole (Okla.), chairman of the Republican campaign committee, said McCain could appeal to independent voters.
"You'll have more Democrats running away from Hillary Clinton than you'll have Republicans running away from our nominee," he said.
In his first run for the presidency in 2000, McCain's temperament became an issue as campaign aides to George W. Bush questioned whether the senator was a suitable occupant for the Oval Office. Only a few of McCain's Senate colleagues endorsed him then.
But the past few years have seen fewer McCain outbursts, prompting some senators and aides to suggest privately that he is working to control his temper. This time, 13 senators have endorsed his presidential bid, more than for any other candidate, Democrat or Republican.
"We all get a little bit mellower," Salter said. "But he doesn't get up every morning saying, 'I must control my temper.' "
Last spring, however, McCain's confrontational side reappeared during a closed-door meeting of senators from both parties. After spending six weeks away from the Senate, he showed up for final negotiations on a fragile immigration bill, leading Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) to question where he had been. McCain responded by swearing at Cornyn loudly and repeatedly, according to witnesses.
Cornyn, who has not endorsed a presidential candidate, doesn't expect to befriend McCain anytime soon but said he will happily stump for him as the nominee.
"We've had our moments, but we've gotten over that and moved on down the road," Cornyn said. "You're talking about people who are professionals. You don't have to link arms and sing 'Kumbaya' to get things done."
Clinton's '35 years of change' omits most of her career
ReplyDeleteBy Matt Stearns
WASHINGTON — To hear Hillary Clinton talk, she's spent her entire career putting her Yale Law School degree to work for the common good.
She routinely tells voters that she's "been working to bring positive change to people's lives for 35 years." She told a voter in New Hampshire: "I've spent so much of my life in the nonprofit sector." Speaking in South Carolina, Bill Clinton said his wife "could have taken a job with a firm ... Instead she went to work with Marian Wright Edelman at the Children's Defense Fund."
The overall portrait is of a lifelong, selfless do-gooder. The whole story is more complicated — and less flattering.
Clinton worked at the Children's Defense Fund for less than a year, and that's the only full-time job in the nonprofit sector she's ever had. She also worked briefly as a law professor.
Clinton spent the bulk of her career — 15 of those 35 years — at one of Arkansas' most prestigious corporate law firms, where she represented big companies and served on corporate boards.
Neither she nor her surrogates, however, ever mention that on the campaign trail. Her campaign Web site biography devotes six paragraphs to her pro bono legal work for the poor but sums up the bulk of her experience in one sentence: "She also continued her legal career as a partner in a law firm."
The full truth doesn't fit into the carefully crafted narrative the campaign has developed about Clinton, said Sally Bedell Smith, the author of "For Love of Politics," a study of the Clintons' partnership.
"She wants to be seen as someone who has devoted her life to public service," Smith said. "I suppose if you say it enough, maybe you can get people to believe it."
Spokesman Phil Singer said the campaign highlights Clinton's side work because it discovered early on that voters didn't know about it.
Clinton did a great deal of public service work during her time at the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock. She served on the board of the Legal Services Corp. during the Carter administration and for a time was its chair. She helped found a child advocacy system in Arkansas and took on several tasks as the state's first lady, such as revisions of the state's education system and rural health care delivery. She also served on the board of directors of the Children's Defense Fund, and on the board of a children's hospital.
"It's important for voters to know that she worked to improve rural health care, to improve education," Singer said. "Yes, she worked at a law firm. Are voters interested in hearing about some accounting case she worked on, or things people care about in the real world? ... That's the point, that's the rationale. It's nothing more complicated than that."
Clinton did receive a smaller salary than most other Rose partners, topping out at about $200,000, in part because of her outside activities, according to several biographies.
But "these were all activities on the margins of her professional life, working as a corporate lawyer, representing corporations," biographer Smith said.
In her autobiography, "Living History," Clinton mentions two cases. In one, she represented a canning company against a man who found part of a dead rat in his pork and beans. In another, she represented a logging company accused of wrongdoing after an accident injured several workers. While Clinton used both anecdotes for comic effect, in both cases she was working for corporate interests.
She also served on corporate boards, including that of retail giant Wal-Mart from 1986-1992, frozen yogurt purveyor TCBY from 1985-1992 and cement manufacturer LaFarge from 1990-1992. She earned tens of thousands of dollars in fees from each.
Clinton's firm represented Wal-Mart and TCBY while she sat on their boards, a cozy practice that corporate governance experts frown upon because of the potential for conflicts of interest.
Politicians naturally want to stick to their chosen narratives, but other aspects of Clinton's relationship with the Rose Law Firm could remind voters of the more controversial side of the Clinton legacy.
There was her work on behalf of Madison Guaranty, a failed savings and loan at the heart of the Whitewater investigation — the billing records of which were mysteriously found in a White House storage room years after investigators first asked for them. And there's Webster Hubbell, a Rose partner, Clinton pal and high-ranking Justice Department official who was convicted of fraud charges related to his work at the firm.
All those phony years of lies and non-accomplishments.
Democrat Hillary Clinton has raised more money from lobbyists than any other presidential candidate while Republican John McCain has more of them assisting his campaign.
ReplyDeleteClinton took in $823,087 from registered lobbyists and members of their firms in 2007 and the second-biggest recipient was McCain, who took in $416,321, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington-based group which tracks political giving. Barack Obama, Clinton's rival for the Democratic nomination, doesn't take money from registered lobbyists, although he received $86,282 from employees of firms that lobby, according to the center.
McCain has 26 registered lobbyists as campaign advisers or fundraisers compared with 11 for Clinton and none for Obama, according to review of records compiled by Public Citizen, a Washington-based group that favors stronger disclosure laws for lobbyists.
Even as they pledge to rein in special interests, the leading Democratic and Republican candidates are relying on lobbyists to bring in campaign cash by raising money from other donors, a technique known as bundling.
``These bundlers and advisers are central to the financial success of top presidential candidates,'' said Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics. ``As such, they will essentially carry with them an IOU from the campaign.''
Lobbyist Bundlers
Clinton's total from lobbyists is a fraction of what they raise on her behalf; her campaign doesn't disclose which donations are brought in by lobbyist bundlers.
Heather Podesta, a Washington lobbyist, donated $4,600 to Clinton, FEC records show. She's raised more than $250,000 for Clinton by tapping her network of contacts and holding fundraisers.
``Most of my attention is focused on raising money and new supporters,'' Podesta, sister-in-law to President Bill Clinton's Chief of Staff John Podesta, said in an interview. ``That's the best way for me to make a contribution.''
Like Podesta, former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Steve Ricchetti has also signed on to be a so-called Hillraiser. Ricchetti's firm was paid $1.7 million during the first six months of 2007 to lobby on behalf of Amgen Inc. and Sirius Satellite Radio, among others.
Now they can sure be trusted to clean up votes for dollars in Washington.
More than 100 New York feminist leaders released a joint statement Sunday afternoon criticizing Hillary Clinton and supporting Obama for president - evidence that Clinton's support among women activists has declined significantly in the days before the super-Tuesday primary.
ReplyDeleteClinton's support for the war in Iraq was the leading reason she lost the support of the group, which calls itself "New York Feminists for Peace and Barack Obama!" "We urgently need a presidential candidate whose first priority is to address domestic needs," the group added.
Those endorsing Obama include longtime peace activist Cora Weiss; Katha Pollitt, columnist for The Nation; Pulitzer-prize winning New York Times writer Margo Jefferson; award-winning women's rights historians Alice Kessler Harris and Linda Gordon; Barbara Weinstein, president of the American Historical Association, and Ellen P. Chapnick, Dean for Social Justice Initiatives at Columbia Law School. Susan Sarandon and Francis Fox Piven signed on Monday.
"Choosing to support Senator Obama was not an easy decision for us," the group stated, "because electing a woman president would be a cause for celebration in itself." They "deplored" the "sexist attacks against Senator Clinton that have circulated in the media." But, they stated, they nevertheless supported Obama because his election "would be another historic achievement" and because "his support for gender equality has been unwavering."
The group based their opposition to Clinton on "her seven-year record as senator." Despite her recent pledges to remove troops from Iraq, the group stated, Clinton's "record of embracing military solutions and the foreign policy advisers she has selected make us doubt that she will end this calamitous war."
The group supported Obama not only for his positions on the war and gender equality, but also because of "the dramatic engagement of young people" with his campaign.
This group joins other prominent feminist leaders who have turned against Hillary and endorsed Obama, including Kate Michelman, president for 20 years of NARAL Pro-Choice America, the country's leading reproductive rights group, and Ellen Bravo, former director of 9to5, the National Association of Working Women.
Hillary can't even get the support of what should be her strongest group.
Wait, wait, wait. Now Robert De Niro is for hope, too? This is really getting surreal.
ReplyDeleteDe Niro, the dean of "Goodfellas" thuggery, just made a surprise appearance at a rally here for Barack Obama, using words that we didn't know were even in his vocabulary.
"I've never made a speech like this at a political event before. So what am I doing here?" De Niro said. "I'm here because finally one person has inspired me. One person has given me hope. One person has made me believe that we can make a change."
Pretty florid words from a guy who's whacked more than a few wise guys in his long career, don't you think?
De Niro began his remarks with a backhanded compliment: "Barack Obama does not have the experience to be president of the United States." The crowd booed, but De Niro continued, and his intent was clear: Obama didn't have the experience to get the country into a misguided war, or operate a government run by special interests, and so on.
"You know, that's the kind of experience I could get used to," said De Niro, who stood clapping as Obama, Senator Edward Kennedy, and Caroline Kennedy mounted the stage, his trademark half-smile, half-scowl etched on his face. Allowing himself a moment off-character, he gave Obama a big hug, and descended.
Obama called De Niro "one of the greatest actors of our generation." "Some of you know I now have Secret Service protection," Obama said. "Those guys never smile; they are always cool. But I noticed when De Niro walks in, they're all like elbowing each other - 'Hey!' They were excited. Who wouldn't be excited?"
Given that we're at the Meadowlands, the home of those pesky Giants, there's one other little item we have to address: Last night's big (awful?) game. Obama, who had been rooting for the Pats, waded right in.
"I have said repeatedly that this campaign is about bringing people together," Obama said, referencing the senior Massachusetts senator at his side. "And for me to be able to bring a Patriots fan to the Meadowlands the day after the Super Bowl is like bringing the lion and the lamb together. We can bridge all gaps and all divisions in this country."
I am doing my share to get people out to vote. Hillary is supposed to be a landslide in Mass. but I don't think so. obama! Obama! Obama!
ReplyDeletechristopher
ReplyDeleteHillary is a neoCon masquerading as a Democrat!
Patriot, I hope your right about your first statement.........I KNOW your second statement is right.
ReplyDeleteAlec Baldwin said "But Hillary Clinton is wrong on the war in Iraq and that should matter a lot in this race. Critics of Hillary Clinton who are leaders in the Democratic Party that I have spoken to privately believe that she is too much like McCain to offer voters a meaningful choice. "Voters will choose a real Republican over a fake Republican every time," one politico said to me, slashing at Clinton for her tilt toward the right on the war."
ReplyDeleteThats interesting because i basically said the same thing yesterday..........i sincerely hope Obama wins because i would hate to have to root for a repug lite in the hopes that she appoints progressive justices, ends the war and stops all the Constitutional abuses and assaults on our freedom and privacy.
Its funny, John Kerry got characterized as a flip flopper when in reality Willard Romney and Hillary put him to shame with their dishonesty, insincerity, disingenousness and chronic flip flopping on key positions.
Mike
ReplyDeletePeople were slow to catch on to Obama but they are getting it. He is a force and I think even here they will nominate him even though the so called experts predict a Hillary landslide. I'm willing to bet repugs here will not nominate Romney as he screwed us majorly. It is sad to think though that they will vote in another war monger.
Avrage Patriot said "It is sad to think though that they will vote in another war monger."
ReplyDeleteI couldnt agree more, i'm so sick of these war mongering imbeciles.
mike
ReplyDeleteWhat is worse and Larry will tell you, they will get in somehow. This is not over with these elections whoever wins!
Hi Lydia & Guys!
ReplyDeleteI'm seeing tons of Obama bumper stickers here in Arizona!
People want change and that is what Obama is all about. ;)
SQ, do you think Obama can win Arizona?
ReplyDeleteLydia, do you think Obama will win California..............My gut tells me Clinton will win New York and Obama will win California.
ReplyDeleteAnyone watching Bill Maher on CNN............Maher is amazing he is so on and right about everything he said!
ReplyDeleteHey Larry, did you hear Maher say we NEED unions MORE than ever with the stranglehold the corporations have on America today.
ReplyDeleteLydia:
ReplyDeleteI think my earlier messege didn't make it ;-(
Thanks for posting the Front piece...it is going to be something....but I don't think any of the pundits have the right Formula this time- the People will make the History this time....they will help determine OUR History., but like you pointed out it might not be tomorrow, but More states will have to Vote too...I believe that there is a Momentum though....
I loved what Maria Shriver said " We are the ONEs we have been waiting for." Hope Prayer..
Christopher: Hang in there...we are with you....and Lydia is right...just breathe...BREATHE Deep....take it all in and watch....don't ativan it- that will numb you- just hang out with people that are Positive and Hopeful...avoid the naysayers....okay enough nurse nagging..I am so grateful for all your hard work....
Hi Mike...
I watched Bill Maher...another great Obama Endorsement...and he really explained things to Larry so consisely...it was a good show....
Suzy: that's great - I was afraid there would not be many in McCain land....there are many here too...
Larry: thanks for putting up the Stearn 's article...very helpful....and I loved the Alec Baldwin piece...amazing how he really cuts through some of what we have been seeing....he is a really good writer...thanks for always finding good news and articles....always thought provoking..
Patriot: will you keep us all posted on Mass ? we are really curious....thanks for being so hopeful....( I am sorry about the Pats...)
thanks Lydia for letting me say hi to everyone...
Tomorrow, New York Times reporter Philip Shenon will release his book The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation, revealing “failure at the highest levels of the United States government.”
ReplyDeleteShenon singles out Condoleezza Rice as inept, more interested in being President Bush’s buddy than securing the nation. Newsweek editor Evan Thomas writes a preview of the book:
The official ineptitude uncovered by the commission is shocking. Dubbed “Kinda-Lies-a-Lot” by the Jersey Girls, Ms. Rice comes across as almost clueless about the terrorist threat. “Whatever her job title, Rice seemed uninterested in actually advising the president,” Mr. Shenon writes. “Instead, she wanted to be his closest confidante — specifically on foreign policy — and to simply translate his words into action.”
An example of this incompetence is the fact that on July 10, 2001 — two months before the 9/11 terrorist attacks — then-CIA director George Tenet met with Rice and warned her about a threat from al Qaeda that “literally made [his] hair stand on end.” Rice was polite, but gave them the “brushoff.”
The 9/11 commission, however, heard about this meeting only after it completed its report. Shenon reveals that commission executive director Philip Zelikow, a close friend of Rice, stopped staffers from submitting a report depicting Rice’s performance prior to 9/11 as “amount[ing] to incompetence.”
Another particularly bumbling figure in Shenon’s book is John Ashcroft. On July 17, 2001, the then-Attorney General “received the same CIA briefing about an imminent al-Qaida strike on an American target.” While Rice was interested in cozying up to Bush, Ashcroft was focused on protecting gun owners:
Attorney General John Ashcroft appears more interested in protecting gun owners from government intrusion than in stopping terrorism, and dismissively tells [acting FBI director Thomas] Pickard that he doesn’t want to hear any more about threats of attacks.
Poor Condi: The world knows your worthless.
Dole wrote a letter defending McCain to talk radio pioneer Rush Limbaugh, who has warned that to choose McCain as the Republican standard-bearer would destroy the party. Dole said he is neutral in the race but said all the major GOP candidates are mainstream Republicans.
ReplyDelete"I worked closely with Senator McCain when he came to the Senate in 1987 until I departed," Dole, the former Senate Republican leader, wrote in a letter. McCain's campaign released a copy Monday.
"I cannot recall a single instance when he did not support the party on critical votes. (At my age, I cannot be entirely certain but here are a few key conservative examples)," wrote the 84-year-old Dole.
Dole cited McCain's opposition to abortion and his support for conservative judges, voluntary school prayer and a balanced-budget amendment, among other issues.
"I disagree with his votes against the Bush tax cuts but I believe his pledge to make them permanent," Dole said.
McCain has been reaching out to conservatives in the GOP base who dislike him because of his efforts to limit money in politics, which critics believe violates free speech, and because he has supported a path to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants.
"Whoever wins the Republican nomination will need your enthusiastic support. Two terms for the Clintons are enough," concluded Dole, who lost the 1996 election to Bill Clinton.
How sweet: One senile old plug defending Another senile old horse: Neither would make a decent tube of glue.
The letter to the editor of today's San Francisco Chronicle came from a Californian who will be voting in Tuesday's primary.
ReplyDeleteIt reads:
Editor - I have attempted throughout my life to give a voice to the voiceless, hope to the hopeless, encouragement to the discouraged, and options to the cynical and complacent. From Northern Ireland to Sarajevo to Latin America, I have sung and marched, engaged in civil disobedience, visited war zones, and broken bread with those who had little bread to break.
Through all those years, I chose not to engage in party politics. Though I was asked many times to endorse candidates at every level, I was never comfortable doing so. At this time, however, changing that posture feels like the responsible thing to do. If anyone can navigate the contaminated waters of Washington, lift up the poor, and appeal to the rich to share their wealth, it is Sen. Barack Obama. If anyone can bring light to the darkened corners of this nation and restore our positive influence in world affairs, it is Barack Obama. If anyone can begin the process of healing and bring unity to a country that has been divided for too long, it is Barack Obama. It is time to begin a new journey.
JOAN BAEZ
Willie Nelson Fears Election Could Be Cancelled
ReplyDelete"We could have George in there ten years longer," says country music star
By Paul Joseph Watson
Country music legend Willie Nelson fears the 2008 presidential election could be cancelled due to a national state of emergency and that George W. Bush could occupy the White House for another decade.
"It's a long time until election day and some sort of national crisis could put off the elections and we could have George in there ten years longer," Nelson told the Alex Jones Show today.
Asked how the American people should respond in the event of the presidential election being cancelled or postponed, Nelson responded, "I would hope that we'd be smarter than that and I would hope that we'd say no - we're throwing all you guys out and we're starting over - you can stop the elections if you want to but you can't stop the people."
Nelson has every right to be concerned, especially considering that President Bush's post-terror attack continuity of government plan is so shocking that even sitting members of Congress and Homeland Security officials are barred from viewing it.
In addition, legislation signed on May 9, 2007 declares that in the event of a "catastrophic event", the President can take total control over the government and the country, bypassing all other levels of government at the state, federal, local, territorial and tribal levels, and thus ensuring total unprecedented dictatorial power.
On the subject of the presidential race itself, Nelson said he liked Ron Paul but that the final run off would be between McCain and Hillary or Obama.
"I was hoping that Hillary had changed her mind (on the war), I was hoping Obama was all the way against the war - I don't know, maybe public opinion can keep their minds where they need to be," concluded Nelson.
During the same explosive interview, Nelson went public with his doubts about the official 9/11 story, saying that he thought the twin towers were deliberately imploded.
From NBC/NJ's Tricia Miller
ReplyDeleteAs John Edwards was fond of saying, after we cast our votes in November, he will be fine. So will Barack and Hillary. But will America be fine?
As Edwards ended his presidential bid in New Orleans last Wednesday, it seemed the first would be true. He packed up after three days of large rallies at union halls in Feb. 5 states, his campaign still bringing in donations weeks after his hope for success dimmed. His family, apparently as healthy as ever, provided a solemn backdrop for his announcement. They would return together to their big Chapel Hill home, once the source of so much grief, now a haven from lingering questions about what went wrong. Meanwhile, Edwards' rivals began praising his campaign and rumors circulated that he would be offered a position in either of their administrations.
As a member of Edwards’ traveling press corps for five months (I’m only the silver medalist -- one reporter had been traveling with him full-time for longer), I saw the two-time presidential candidate on good days and bad. In his last days, Edwards finally got the cold that had already made its way through his traveling press corps. (When I got it in South Carolina, my counterpart from Fox handed me a pack of throat lozenges she had gotten from the New York Times reporter.) The cold was a late consequence for the long days we had all experienced. Even before the first 36-hour campaign swing in Iowa, we were exhausted. No one can say that the former North Carolina senator didn’t give the race his all.
In a campaign during which he often complained that the media had decided on a race between two history-making candidates -- frequently pointing to us in the back of the room as he made his point -- Edwards decided to outwork the hype. While his rivals stayed near Des Moines and Iowa City, Edwards headed north, south, east, and west, covering all 99 counties of Iowa (plus a brief stop in Omaha, Neb.) by the end of October. At the final stop in tiny Coulter, Iowa, on the morning of Oct. 28, we waited for the Ann Coulter jokes. None came, and the campaign cheerfully trudged on. One highlight for me came when Edwards started a campaign swing on a Sunday morning in my hometown. The editor of my local newspaper, which I had worked for a few years earlier, dutifully recorded the visit. The five-day-a-week paper put him on the front page above the fold on Monday and me on the front page below the fold on Tuesday. I heard about it for weeks afterwards.
Even as he put the Hawkeye State behind him and cable news analysts largely left him out of the post-Iowa analysis, Edwards drove hard through another 36-hour tour of New Hampshire toward the expected third-place finish. I was off the road then, but my producer and correspondent split duties covering it -- both unable to keep up with the Energizer candidate. From the beginning, Edwards’ campaign had a four-state strategy, and we had gotten used to the back-and-forth between Iowa and New Hampshire. I racked up frequent-flier miles on a Northwest Airlines flight from Des Moines that passed through Detroit on its way to Manchester, NH. It didn’t come as a shock when he lost Nevada; he had seldom traveled west of the Missouri River after I started covering him.
The culmination of a second-place finish in Iowa and third-place finishes in New Hampshire and Nevada took the air out of the campaign. Edwards flew to his home state of South Carolina and campaigned there with the same vigor, but at fewer events and without taking audience questions. Used to schedules that regularly included five events a day at far-flung Iowa towns, we slowly adjusted to days that included no more than three events. That would have been a brutal switch for our colleagues covering Fred Thompson, but for us it was a welcome respite. While Edwards strategized with his South Carolina staff and submitted to local interviews, we finally got a chance to see Charleston and to sit down for seafood dinners along the coast.
By this point, the traveling press corps was dwindling. A few of us had become fixtures on the campaign trail, traveling with press staffers in mini-vans full-time since September. When we arrived at events, we greeted staffers by name and were no longer asked to sign in. As more joined by December, we packed into a full-size van. After Christmas it was two full-size vans, where cozy conditions led to friction between overworked and cranky reporters. Finally, the group swelled enough to justify a bus for Edwards’ 36-hour tour. The largest group of scribes and photogs traveling with the campaign came about halfway through that tour, when some people didn’t have the desired two seats to themselves.
It was all downhill from there. The South Carolina staff generously let the 10 or so remaining reporters and photogs continue to be charged to ride in a bus, leading to much less tension and -- at least in my case -- the motivation to file posts or video after almost every event. (That had been close to impossible in Iowa and New Hampshire, and not rewarding either.) By the time the campaign drew to a close in New Orleans, only five people were along for the ride: reporters from ABC and CBS, a producer and cameraman from CNN, and me.
The end came as a surprise. We had been riding on Edwards’ chartered plane since his loss in South Carolina, making stops in Georgia, Tennessee, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Minnesota -- all Feb. 5 states where the Edwards campaign thought they could pick up delegates. The campaign held a conference call touting record fundraising online and released ads in key primary states. I had been routinely batting away calls from bosses in New York and Washington asking when the campaign would end. No one was interested in much else from me as Edwards’ impact on the race steadily diminished. When an event in Fargo was canceled and we were rerouted to New Orleans (in Louisiana, a state with a Feb. 9 primary), Edwards’ traveling spokesman told us it was for a speech on poverty because the president had not addressed it in his State of the Union.
By the time we slogged through the mud at Musicians Village, meeting crews and correspondents who had flown in frantically once the news broke that morning, it was over. Edwards staffers had quit answering their phones, instead opting to e-mail glowing articles about the senator leading the policy debate in the Democratic nomination. In stark contrast to Rudy Giuliani’s final concession later in the day, we were driven as usual to the site. Staffers flew in with Edwards’ family from Chapel Hill to see the end, as they had the beginning. Reporters who needed it were driven to the airport afterward.
So as Edwards lent his celebrity to Habitat for Humanity once again and analysts began bickering over which candidate he would eventually endorse -- or whether he would endorse at all -- those who had left their lives behind to cover this man made a big decision: whether to catch a flight home or to stay for that night’s Mardi Gras celebration. It was quickly evident, in fact, that America would be fine.
Mike:
ReplyDeleteI did see Bill Mayer give his support for unions and their fight against Corporate America.
Mayer is one of the few who openly speak of the need for unions against corporate greed.
Enigma,
ReplyDeleteYou failed to give yourself kudos for your imput on Lydia's blog.
That is why we are regulars at the famed blog institution known as
Watergate Summer
Ode to a Neocon Republican:
ReplyDeleteFOOL
We’ll set thee to school to an ant, to teach thee
there’s no labouring i’ the winter. All that follow
their noses are led by their eyes but blind men; and
there’s not a nose among twenty but can smell him
that’s stinking.
[King Lear,
Interesting article Lydia, but I refuse to take your advice and vote. I would reconsider, but my primary is not until May.
ReplyDeleteThe way I see it, Clinton has a lead going in, but Obama is coming up fast. It's too close to call, and probably so close that they will still be close on Wednesday.
I just hope both Democratic candidates will concentrate on issues, rather than childish smears, because whoever is left at the end needs all our support to go on and beat the Repuglicans.
Larry: thanks for posting the Edwards piece...wonderful to hear some inside scoop...
ReplyDeleteand I love the King Lear quote....
Tomcat;;;; because I know you care deeply for this country I want to share something with you....and I hope nobody minds....
Voting is the Biggest Right we have it is worth fighting and dying for...and indeed many people have over the years....
My Great Aunt May ( who bought her own Baltimore Brownstone in 1930 after being a Performer for many years...and was the daughter of one of Lincoln's photographers ....) she was also one of the Women that Fought for the Right to Vote.....she marched, protested and was beaten up for this Simplest of Rights....She told me her stories and I was 8 years old...It was the Summer of the Baltimore Riots, and she refused to leave her home....( I blogged about it it's called April 1968)...anyways I mention this...Because she said that if People Don't appreciate THEIR Vote , we have no Country....and she meant it.....
( She was an Opera Singer& great singer...and had taught Music and Voice all over the East Coast....including to Reverand King's Lovely wife...So she even in her 90's she was a big supporter of the Voting Rights issues and Civil Rights of the 1960s and Dr.King)
The Two things in her life she was most proud of was that Old Brownstone that she bought in 1930, and that she helped Women Get the Right to Vote.... And in the 1968 she stayed in her Home during the Riots as her neighborhood burned....Because she wanted to stay with Her Neighbors.....because as she said " Even when we hurting on in pain we are One People".
Voting problems already in our county. This morning we tried to find my husband's registration and it seems they erased him from the polls. He's registered and has always voted, but suddenly an entire 20 block section of our community is gone -- I mean there are no precincts to vote for the 200-320 20 block section!!
ReplyDeleteHis name didn't come up when I called the voter hotline, and he never received any voting materials.
What is going on? I voted, and he finally voted on a Provisional ballot.
I am calling lavote.net and trying to get to the bottom of this.
Lydia -=please email me right away- enigma4ever@earthlink.net.....( I am also working with Black Box voting people and collecting California data all night....) I don't have your email- and I need to ask some questions and I also need to Forward your data to some people...thank you..
ReplyDeleteIf you voted on Provisional Ballots Make sure your were given some kind of Reciept or tabs- and yes, you will need to find out if this WHOLE neighborhood....very important.
Also for Readers here:
Please also come by Watergate Summer and share your Voting stories....This is very important that we ALL know what is going on in different state..
Enigma, I have to run over to another voting place to see if he's registered there. If not I'll mail you when I get back.
ReplyDeleteI think I found the problem (at least with those 20 block people) -- hopefully we were led astray by the voting people over at our precinct and they didn't realize there was a third place to vote today -- but this still doesn't explain why my husband NEVER received his voter guide or materials.
Thanks Enigma,
xo
Enigma, I have to run over to another voting place to see if he's registered there. If not I'll mail you when I get back.
ReplyDeleteI think I found the problem (at least with those 20 block people) -- hopefully we were led astray by the voting people over at our precinct and they didn't realize there was a third place to vote today -- but this still doesn't explain why my husband NEVER received his voter guide or materials.
Thanks Enigma,
xo
Thanks Lyd...
ReplyDeleteI hope and pray that it all goes alright-= but yes we definently need to track what happened to his packet....
(1) If you vote provisional , you should be given some sort of tab or reciept , or a letter where you can check your vote later..
(2)Also let me know about the ID situation- what did you have to provide , if you have NO ID card.
(3) and yes, please do keep me posted on your neighborhood ( caged voting is always a concern)
thanks ...
enigma4ever@earthlink.net
**** LA Times has already been getting calls of glitches and problems- I have been encouraging People to definently report ANY problems to Local press as well- so people can be notified of Polling or Precinct Problems- Let's keep the Media involved in this process and make them document problems.
*****Mercury News also has gotten some calls from their region too..
Obama got my vote here in Ma. CNN already gave Georgia to Obama 60% to Hillary's 34%.
ReplyDeleteObama got my vote. Hillary seems to be winning in Missouri, but it always changes when the Kansas City/St Louis results come in .... typically last
ReplyDelete9:49Pm
ReplyDeleteThanks MCH....Missouri as of right now they are saying it is too close to call.
I figured Hillary would win New York, Mass and arkensas.............but i have to say i'm surprised she actualy won California..........i really thought the Golden State was more progressive than that.
ReplyDeleteMike:
ReplyDeleteIt really is way too early for them to call it- I just got 3 emails from Cali people.
(1)It is not over in Cali...those "perdictions " are based on Exit Polls....
(2) They count the Absentees and Edwards first
(3) They only had counted 13% when the " Perdiction" was made...
(4) Look at Missouri- they perdicted when they only had 15% Counted- and Obama is now 6000 Votes counted...
So they will be counting votes into tomorrow....
I hope you are right and that makes a difference.
ReplyDeleteMike:
ReplyDeleteHave hope...
the Counts need to be done- through the night and tomorrow....
only a smidge was counted..
when they "perdicted"....
Missouri had to be Corrected....because Obama won by 8000 Votes.....
( BTW Patriot- thank you for voting...)
as of 2am
ReplyDeleteCali Counts:
870,000 Hill
602,147 Obama
enigma4ever said...
ReplyDeleteMike:
Have hope...
the Counts need to be done- through the night and tomorrow....
only a smidge was counted..
when they "perdicted"....
Missouri had to be Corrected....because Obama won by 8000 Votes....."
THAT was a pleasant surprise.
It's not a done deal yet. We out here in the rust belt still get a chance to speak up.
ReplyDeleteI hate the Goppers enough that whoever wins the nomination becomes my bestest buddy the next day. My preference is Barack, but substantively I don't see any yawning philosophical differences between him and Hill. I do know that the healthcare proposals that both of them have made thus far have no chance of working.
84% of california count as of 6:10 am
ReplyDeleteHill: 52% 1,837,101
Obama: 42% 1,466,436
Edwards: 5% 160,937
total: 3,464,474
( this seems small for ALL of Ca ? )
On Barack Obama's Site there is a NATIONAL VOTER CENTER FOR PROBLEMS, it is a site that has been set up to report problems.
There were articles over on Huffpost saying that there problems for Independents in California.
New Mexico is still too close to call 48% to 48%, Obama is up right now by about a 900 Votes.
Obama won 13 states, Hill 9....
Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama cast his chain of Super Tuesday wins as evidence that voters want someone who can change Washington and appeal to voters of both parties in the general election.
ReplyDelete"We can do this! We can do this," Obama told supporters after collecting a string of wins that included his home state of Illinois as well as Alabama, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Missouri and Utah, as well as caucuses in North Dakota, Minnesota, Kansas and Idaho. He also prevailed in caucuses in Alaska.
"We are the hope for the future," he said, "the answer to the cynics who tell us our house must stand divided."
Clinton answered Obama's wins with a string of victories of her own, prevailing at home in New York as well as in California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Arizona and Arkansas _ where she was first lady for more than a decade. She also won the caucuses in American Samoa.
Her camp touted Clinton's win in Massachusetts as "the upset of the night," pointing out that voters there chose the former first lady despite endorsements for Obama by their own senators, Edward Kennedy and John Kerry.
Obama nonetheless exhorted his supporters to "go to work," saying the race is about pushing the country past divisions.
"It's a choice between having a debate with the other party about who has the most experience in Washington or about who can change Washington," Obama said. "Because that's a debate that we can win."
Clinton and Obama were about even among white men, with both getting just under half their support, according to national exit poll results from Tuesday's voting. That represented an improvement for Obama over his performance with that group in most primaries so far.
Clinton got about six in 10 women, giving her a near 25 percentage point edge with them.
An overwhelming eight in 10 blacks supported Obama. Clinton countered by getting the backing of almost two in three Hispanics. They comprised 16 percent of Democratic voters Tuesday.
Obama, who raised $32.1 million in January, has advertised in the Super Tuesday states and beyond. The demographics in the next two rounds of contests, particularly in states such as Louisiana, Maryland and the District of Columbia, favor Obama. Clinton was looking even farther ahead _ to March 4 when delegate-rich Ohio and Texas vote.
The U.S. military faced complaints Tuesday from its Sunni allies over claims that more civilians had been killed by American forces _ amplifying tensions as the Pentagon tries to calm anger over an airstrike last week that claimed innocent lives.
ReplyDeleteThe disputes have further strained ties with anti-al-Qaida fighters considered crucial in turning the tide against extremist violence.
The latest deaths occurred when U.S. soldiers _ acting on tips _ stormed a squat, mud-brick house in the village of Adwar, 10 miles south of Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit. The predominantly Sunni area is home to many former members of Saddam's regime, and has been the frequent site of American raids.
The U.S. military said a gunbattle broke out after the troops came under small-arms fire by two suspected terrorists. It acknowledged a woman was killed and a child was wounded, but said it was not clear who shot them.
Two other men were killed and the military described them as insurgents.
But Iraqi police, relatives and neighbors said a couple and their 19-year-old son were shot to death in their beds. Iraqi police also said two girls were wounded and one later died. AP Television News video showed the doors pockmarked with bullet holes and pillows and other bedding on the floor and soaked with blood.
It was the second time in as many days that the U.S. military conceded involvement in the death of Iraqi civilians.
On Monday, the military said it had accidentally killed nine Iraqi civilians, including a child, in an airstrike Saturday targeting al-Qaida in Iraq south of Baghdad.
The killings illustrate the increasing difficulty in identifying the enemy as the nature of the U.S.-led war in Iraq has changed. Many former insurgents and tribal leaders have joined forces with the Americans against al-Qaida in Iraq. The mistaken shootings also threaten to jeopardize the fragile relationship between the Americans and their new Sunni partners.
"Such acts by U.S. soldiers cannot be justified and they will create mistrust and arouse suspicions between U.S. Army and members of the awakening councils," said Abu Muthanna, a leader of a U.S.-backed anti-al-Qaida group in the northern Baghdad neighborhood of Azamiyah. "This could hurt the level of cooperation between the two sides."
Both U.S. raids on Saturday and Tuesday were based on what the military said was intelligence gleaned from informants. That raised the possibility that the military was misled into targeting the households, perhaps as part of an insurgent campaign to derail the U.S.-backed Sunni revolt against al-Qaida in Iraq.
Wall Street plunged Tuesday, driving the Dow Jones industrials down 370 points after investors saw an unexpected contraction in the service sector as evidence the economy is sinking into recession. It was the Dow's biggest percentage drop in almost a year.
ReplyDeleteThe volatility that pummeled stocks in January returned with the news that the service sector shrank last month for the first time since March 2003. The report from the Institute for Supply Management wiped out the nascent optimism about the economy that had sent stocks surging higher last week.
"The report drives a nail into the coffin from investors' minds that we're in a recession," said Todd Salamone, director of trading at Schaeffer's Investment Research. "That doesn't mean stock prices in the months ahead will be lower. But when you see headline numbers like this, there tends to be a reactionary sell."
The ISM said its index of service sector activity, which accounts for about two-thirds of the economy, dropped below 50, a level that indicates contraction. The market had expected another month of growth, and the disappointment contributed to Tuesday's $500 billion loss in the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 Composite Index, an index that measures the movement in 5,000 U.S. stocks.
The Bush Depression continues to deepen.
Technically, it only took three weeks of intensive "restoration" a full year ago to make Ted Haggard a "complete heterosexual." But on Tuesday night, the new pastor of the Colorado Springs megachurch that Haggard founded has announced that Haggard is quitting the team - and that "the process of restoring Ted Haggard is incomplete."
ReplyDeleteCara DeGette :: Ted Haggard Quits New Life 'Restoration Team'
The latest twist in the Haggard drama comes via a vaguely-worded letter send Tuesday to friends of New Life Church by its new pastor, Brady Boyd. In the letter, Boyd indicates that Haggard - the charismatic evangelical leader who was fired by his church in early November, 2006 in a shocking gay sex and meth scandal involving male escort Mike Jones - is moving on.
"New Life Church recognizes the process of restoring Ted Haggard is incomplete and maintains its original stance that he should not return to vocational ministry," according to a statement. "However, we wish him and his family only success in the future."
After he was fired, Haggard and his family, including his wife and three boys, moved to Phoenix. Haggard agreed at the time to undergo "spiritual restoration" under the auspices of New Life Church. At the time, the church's claim of Haggard's so-termed "restored" sexual orientation status was met with disbelief from many quarters, most notably from the Christian group Soulforce, whose gay and lesbian members reject claims that homosexuality is either:
a. Something that can be "cured"
b. A sin.
Here is Boyd's Tuesday letter and release:
Dear New Life Church family and friends,
Today, our church's board of trustees will release a statement regarding the end of the restoration process for Ted Haggard. This process may receive some media attention, and I want you to hear of it from us before you read about it in the newspaper or hear it on the evening news.
Let's continue to pray for Ted, Gayle, and their family.
God bless you,
Brady Boyd
Senior Pastor
New Life Church
Colorado Springs, CO
--
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Ted Haggard's leadership of New Life Church for many years was extraordinary and the depth of spiritual maturity that is found today in the church is in large part attributed to his leadership as the founding senior pastor.
In January 2007, Ted Haggard voluntarily agreed to enter a process of spiritual restoration. He has selected Phoenix First Assembly and Pastor Tommy Barnett as his local church fellowship and is maintaining an accountability relationship there. He has recently requested to end his official relationship with the New Life Church Restoration Team and this has been accepted by them.
New Life Church recognizes the process of restoring Ted Haggard is incomplete and maintains its original stance that he should not return to vocational ministry. However, we wish him and his family only success in the future.
Because spiritual restoration is a necessarily confidential process, the church does not anticipate that it, or its Overseers or Restorers will make further comment about it.
The Democrats may be heading for a fine mess.
ReplyDeleteBecause of party reforms in the past and a close race for delegates this year, a nightmare scenario is building for the Democratic National Convention in August: It is easy to imagine that Barack Obama could get to Denver with more pledged delegates than Hillary Clinton, but that she could get the nomination based on the votes of the superdelegates
Superdelegates are the establishment way of choosing their anointed one, while denying the will of the people.
DNC boost for sex biz
ReplyDeleteDenver can expect prostitution spike during convention
By Daniel J. Chacon
Political tricks may not be the only ones turned during the Democratic National Convention in Denver this August.
The sex and adult entertainment industries are expecting a boom in business when an estimated 35,000 visitors descend on the Mile High City for the presidential nominating bash.
At the Pepsi Center, the focus will be on a single nominee.
But outside the event, the choices available to the delegates, journalists and others are unlimited, giving new meaning to the term "conventional sex."
More than six months before the convention comes to Denver, the offerings already online range from Claudia the "she- male porn star" to Erin the "adorable college cutie," whose $300- an-hour services are guaranteed to "leave you breathless."
Surprised?
Don't be.
Denver is, after all, home to Mike Jones, the beefy male prostitute who claimed to have bedded the Rev. Ted Haggard in his Capitol Hill apartment.
Jay Watson, who promises an unforgettable milk bath and lotion massage for $125 an hour, said he's expecting to be busy during the DNC Aug. 25-28.
Why?
"Because look at me," said Watson, a 25-year-old Aurora man with a Mohawk. "I'm cute. I'm sexy and I deliver it all."
'More business' from GOP
Too bad for Watson and others like him that Denver didn't land the GOP convention instead, said Carol Leigh, a San Francisco prostitute "over 50" who has traveled to previous Democratic conventions in Los Angeles and Atlanta.
"It would be a lot better for the sex workers if it was the Republican convention," she said.
"We get a lot more business. I don't know if they're just frustrated because of the family values agenda," she said.
When the Republican convention was held in New York in 2004, some sex workers offered limited-time discounts, according to New York Magazine, which ran a feature story titled "The Girls in Their Summer Hot Pants."
Officer Ana Aguirre, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles police, which hosted the DNC in 2000, said there's "definitely a spike" in prostitution during large events like political conventions.
In Denver, said police spokesman Sonny Jackson, "We're preparing to handle a variety of issues that may come up."
Even though they attract a lot of people, political conventions aren't the most profitable for the men and women in the world's oldest profession, Leigh said.
"Computer conventions can be lucrative," she said. "There's a lot of nerds that don't get out much."
But money is money, and the Democrats are expected to inject millions of dollars into the metro area when they flock into town.
"We're preparing to be busy for that convention," said Tracy, a manager for Bare Assets, a Denver-based adult entertainment agency that does everything "from singing telegrams to novelty acts to topless to nude."
Tracy declined to give her last name or say whether the agency had any DNC-related bookings.
"Whether it be because of the convention or because it's somebody's bachelor party, it's just private (information)," she said.
Jumps in advertising
Beverly Chastain, a door girl at the Diamond Cabaret & Steakhouse, a gentleman's club downtown, said reservations should start picking up this month.
"When it comes to conventions and stuff, we do free entry for it and then we just plan on advertising our lunch buffet and stuff more," she said.
Taylor Wheeler, classified sales manager for Westword, a weekly that includes an escort and body rub section, said his staff is expecting an increase in personals as the DNC approaches.
"I can't say it didn't cross our mind with all the delegates in town that they might be kind of on their own," he said.
Advertising for escorts and other personals jumped when the NBA All-Star game was in town, he said.
Those self-righteous Republicans are more immoral than the Democrats.
Elisabeth Hasselbeck is used to being a lonely conservative voice on an otherwise left-leaning panel hosting The View. Little did she realize how rare Republicans are in New York City until she tried to cast a ballot in Tuesday's primary election.
ReplyDelete"I have my pen ready, all excited, I go to color in and all of a sudden the only names I'm seeing are Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, everyone the Democratic ticket," Hasselbeck gasped on Tuesday morning's show. "They gave me a ballot as if I were registered as a Democrat."
"Damn them!" co-host Whoopi Goldberg exclaimed, as the rest of the hosts twittered over the poll worker's confusion.
When Hasselbeck explained the confusion, her claim to the Republican party was greeted by deafening silence.
"All of a sudden, silence. Everyone looks over like, the Republican's in the room," Hasselbeck lamented. "I didn't even have a chance to go and hide.
Co-host Joy Behar explained that Hasselbeck's geography was the likely source of confusion.
"It's because you live on the Upper West Side," she said.
"You should have gone to the Upper East Side," Goldberg advised. "That's where you have them."
Poor little mouthy neocon girl.
The surviving members of the Grateful Dead have reunited for the first time in four years for a concert in support of Barack Obama.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Rolling Stone, "The feuding members of the fabled Sixties psychedelic rock group dissolved their business operations several years ago. But last night at the Warfield Theater before a sold out election eve crowd, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh and Mickey Hart were singing 'Come Together' on behalf of the Obama campaign in San Francisco."
At a press conference in advance of the performance, bassist Phil Lesh explained that even though the band members hadn't seen each other for years, "We all knew that Obama was the guy for us." Lesh's son is an Obama volunteer, and when the campaign contacted Lesh about doing a get-out-the-vote concert, he was quick to call Weir and Hart.
"We hadn't been talking about this," amplified guitarist Bob Weir. "But we could feel each other. We just knew instinctively, intuitively, that we were all together on this."
"He really has it," drummer Mickey Hart said of Obama. "He's been right on a lot of things that are really important to me."
To hear Hillary Clinton talk, she's spent her entire career putting her Yale Law School degree to work for the common good.
ReplyDeleteShe routinely tells voters that she's "been working to bring positive change to people's lives for 35 years." She told a voter in New Hampshire: "I've spent so much of my life in the nonprofit sector." Speaking in South Carolina, Bill Clinton said his wife "could have taken a job with a firm ... Instead she went to work with Marian Wright Edelman at the Children's Defense Fund."
The overall portrait is of a lifelong, selfless do-gooder. The whole story is more complicated — and less flattering.
Clinton worked at the Children's Defense Fund for less than a year, and that's the only full-time job in the nonprofit sector she's ever had. She also worked briefly as a law professor.
Clinton spent the bulk of her career — 15 of those 35 years — at one of Arkansas' most prestigious corporate law firms, where she represented big companies and served on corporate boards.
Neither she nor her surrogates, however, ever mention that on the campaign trail. Her campaign Web site biography devotes six paragraphs to her pro bono legal work for the poor but sums up the bulk of her experience in one sentence: "She also continued her legal career as a partner in a law firm."
The full truth doesn't fit into the carefully crafted narrative the campaign has developed about Clinton, said Sally Bedell Smith, the author of "For Love of Politics," a study of the Clintons' partnership.
"She wants to be seen as someone who has devoted her life to public service," Smith said. "I suppose if you say it enough, maybe you can get people to believe it."
Spokesman Phil Singer said the campaign highlights Clinton's side work because it discovered early on that voters didn't know about it.
Clinton did a great deal of public service work during her time at the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock. She served on the board of the Legal Services Corp. during the Carter administration and for a time was its chair. She helped found a child advocacy system in Arkansas and took on several tasks as the state's first lady, such as revisions of the state's education system and rural health care delivery. She also served on the board of directors of the Children's Defense Fund, and on the board of a children's hospital.
"It's important for voters to know that she worked to improve rural health care, to improve education," Singer said. "Yes, she worked at a law firm. Are voters interested in hearing about some accounting case she worked on, or things people care about in the real world? ... That's the point, that's the rationale. It's nothing more complicated than that."
Clinton did receive a smaller salary than most other Rose partners, topping out at about $200,000, in part because of her outside activities, according to several biographies.
But "these were all activities on the margins of her professional life, working as a corporate lawyer, representing corporations," biographer Smith said.
In her autobiography, "Living History," Clinton mentions two cases. In one, she represented a canning company against a man who found part of a dead rat in his pork and beans. In another, she represented a logging company accused of wrongdoing after an accident injured several workers. While Clinton used both anecdotes for comic effect, in both cases she was working for corporate interests.
She also served on corporate boards, including that of retail giant Wal-Mart from 1986-1992, frozen yogurt purveyor TCBY from 1985-1992 and cement manufacturer LaFarge from 1990-1992. She earned tens of thousands of dollars in fees from each.
Clinton's firm represented Wal-Mart and TCBY while she sat on their boards, a cozy practice that corporate governance experts frown upon because of the potential for conflicts of interest.
Politicians naturally want to stick to their chosen narratives, but other aspects of Clinton's relationship with the Rose Law Firm could remind voters of the more controversial side of the Clinton legacy.
There was her work on behalf of Madison Guaranty, a failed savings and loan at the heart of the Whitewater investigation — the billing records of which were mysteriously found in a White House storage room years after investigators first asked for them. And there's Webster Hubbell, a Rose partner, Clinton pal and high-ranking Justice Department official who was convicted of fraud charges related to his work at the firm.
Another Clinton lie.
One morning last August in San Francisco, six women in pink sweaters marched up a hilly boulevard towing pink roller bags full of shoes. They unzipped the bags in front of Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi's house, dumped the shoes on her lawn, and went on to arrange loafers, pumps, and pink glittery sandals like hawkers at a yard sale. Anchoring their display was a pair of combat boots, placed on Pelosi's doorstep. The boots, like the other shoes, had been pulled from a dead body in Iraq—the body of Casey Sheehan, in fact, whose mother, Cindy, is running as an Independent against Pelosi for Congress.
ReplyDeleteThese women believe Cindy Sheehan could succeed where their anti-war group, Code Pink, has failed. Pelosi has refused to meet Code Pink's demand that she end the war in Iraq by procedural fiat: As Speaker, Pelosi has the power to prevent votes on war funding bills, and could demand that any legislation contain a timetable for withdrawing the troops. "Pelosi crosses us out; she won't even meet with us," Code Pink cofounder Medea Benjamin said as she hunched on the House Speaker's curb. "So it takes somebody like Cindy to counteract the pressure from other [less emphatically antiwar] Democrats" by challenging her at the polls.
More mainstream progressives within the Party would prefer to oppose the war on their own terms, which is to say, carefully. The lefty bloggers who first publicized Sheehan's anti-war sit-in outside Bush's ranch in 2005 now overwhelmingly oppose her independent race as a distraction from their goal of forging a coalition to retake the White House. "I feel that working within the Democratic Party is really the only way progressives can operate without sort of turning into just reverse Joe Liebermans," Democratic blogger Chris Bowers told me. The race has hastened a clash between Netizens like Bowers, who prefer to wait patiently for the other shoe to drop in November, and the traditionally impatient anti-war movement, which has flirted with outsiders such as the People's Party and Green Party ever since the war in Vietnam.
The schism over Sheehan has sent cracks high into the ivory towers of liberal consensus. While some contributors to The Nation have supported her candidacy, for example, the magazine's columnist Katha Pollitt wrote a scathing blog post last August in which she predicted it would diminish Sheehan's cachet as an activist (even though by last spring Sheehan already had renounced her role as the face of the American anti-war movement). The New Guard is joined by politicos of the Old Left who've come to believe that the Democratic Party can't be herded by nipping at its shoelaces from the sidelines. John Burton, U.S. Congressman and president pro-tempore of the California Senate, said he's learned a lot about races such as Sheehan's since the '60s. "It's gonna be horseshit," he said, "and it's gonna be negligible."
That Sheehan has the support of a cadre of proudly negligible political operatives may only seal her fate in the eyes of detractors. Ralph Nader—who this week launched an exploratory website for yet another presidential bid—told me that running against Pelosi is "a very important thing for Cindy Sheehan to do." Moreover, Nader's acolytes in the Sheehan campaign have done little to dispel their image as actors who wandered out of the movie Hairspray. At an anti-war vigil in San Francisco's business district last July, Sheehan supporter Renay Davis wore pink costume earrings, donned a pink crown, and waved a pink wand. Unlike Pelosi, Sheehan is "not a rich, establishment type of person," she was saying, but was cut short when a Code Pink comrade stepped in to offer a customized "Impeach mint."
The unbridled goofiness of Sheehan's supporters plays well, however, in a city that is poorly understood by the campaign's detractors. San Francisco Green Party candidate Matt Gonzalez won 47 percent of the vote in a 2003 mayoral runoff against a charismatic Democrat. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted overwhelmingly in 2006 to impeach the president. And last year's mayoral bid of performance artist Chicken John was front page news. Here politics is theater, and ballot returns are only slightly more important than the strength of applause. Just because San Franciscans probably won't boot the Speaker of the House doesn't mean they won't relish Sheehan's narrative. "Pelosi has to be careful in how she responds to this," says veteran San Francisco political consultant Richard DeLeon. "She has to address her own constituency and deal with these kinds of issues in a way that at least tells them that she is listening, that she cares, that she can understand how this kind of challenge might come about."
Understanding Sheehan's run requires understanding Code Pink, which was founded in 2002 in San Francisco and whose members have worked closely with the peace mom since her first days in Crawford, Texas. In 2000, Code Pink's Benjamin ran for U.S. Senate as a Green against Democratic incumbent Dianne Feinstein, earning 3 percent of the vote statewide, but 25 percent in San Francisco's liberal Mission District. She leveraged her progressive cred into the anti-war group and in 2003 earned a meeting with Hillary Clinton. When the senator refused to pledge opposition to the Iraq war, Code Pink activists outraged Clinton by shoving at her a rumpled pink slip. "People in Washington called me and said I'll never eat lunch in this town again," recalls Code Pink co-founder Jodie Evans. So instead Code Pink has noshed on politicians. When Benjamin herself considered running against Pelosi two years ago, for example, the congresswoman fired off a strongly worded press release against the war, Benjamin says. The perceived victory helped inspire Code Pink to pitch "Camp Pelosi" outside the Speaker's mansion. If Pelosi caved once, the thinking went, she'd do it again.
Since then, however, Sheehan has achieved little more than a tense stand-off with the Speaker, who has come under increasing fire from critics on the left. In December the Washington Post reported that Pelosi and three other members of Congress were briefed in 2002 on the CIA's overseas detention sites and interrogation techniques such as waterboarding but didn't object at the time (Democrats later would condemn waterboarding as torture). Sheehan responded to the news report by calling for Pelosi to be stripped of her leadership post. "I was appalled and really saddened," Sheehan told me. "We can't be represented by a person like this."
Sheehan's increasingly harsh tone toward Pelosi might end up doing her campaign and movement more harm than good, some political experts say. "To the degree that people like Cindy Sheehan make the argument about the split among people against the war, they are hurting the cause," says Georgetown professor Michael Kazin, an expert on the history of the Left. "If the media is spending a lot of time reporting on how people against the war disagree with each other about tactics, that's a diversion from making arguments about how terrible the war is. You want to unite as much as possible around common goals and a common offensive position against your opponent."
And yet Sheehan sees little option but to attack Pelosi head-on. "I'm not running a negative campaign," she says, "I'm just pointing out what Nancy Pelosi does. We have to run on her record, and it's not a good record." In a city that has always helped set the Democratic agenda, Sheehan hopes her campaign will create a stronger sense of urgency about ending the war immediately. San Francisco could become a launching pad for forwarding that position should Democrats take the White House or a larger share of Congress.
In early August, Sheehan held her first campaign meeting in a San Francisco restaurant. Speaking to a crowd that included Daniel Ellsberg, who helped end the Vietnam War by releasing the Pentagon Papers; assorted activists pimpled in campaign buttons; and a man who pioneered using bodies to spell the word "Impeach" on California beaches, she marveled at the offers of money and volunteers that she'd never received in her days as an activist. "I think that's great," she said, as if the crowd needed to be told, "because this isn't going to be a normal political campaign."
And so far, it hasn't been. Sheehan has reached out to black leaders in the gentrifying Bayview neighborhood, an area she calls "traditionally practically ignored in elections" while also pressing her cause on the global stage, visiting Iraqi refugees in Jordan and Syria last summer and planning a trip to Egypt this month to attend a terrorism trial with human rights implications. It's all relevant to her race in San Francisco, she insists. "I think that's what our campaign is trying to do—just connect all these dots."
Remove Plastic Pelosi the Bush enabler.
Service-sector crash may signal recession
ReplyDeleteIndex falls so low it shocks analysts
By VINNEE TONG
NEW YORK — Lingering hopes that the U.S. economy might avert a recession withered Tuesday after the nation's service sector — its banks, travel companies, contractors and stores, among others — shrank for the first time in five years.
It was unwelcome news for many investors, who were beginning to believe that the Federal Reserve might engineer a way out of the worst economic slowdown since 1991. Stocks tumbled, with the Dow Jones industrial average losing 370 points, its biggest point drop since August.
Much of the talk was not about whether there would be a recession, but about how bad it might be.
"The number's so terrible it's almost beyond belief, especially among the optimists," said Scott Anderson, senior economist at Wells Fargo & Co. "I think the writing's on the wall. More and more economists are talking about recession, and whether it'll be a severe or mild one."
The January reading from the Institute of Supply Management "was about as big a shock as you can probably get," said Joel Naroff, chief economist at Commerce Bancorp.
The ISM's new composite index measuring the health of the service sector was 44.6 in January, below the level of 50 that indicates expansion. The group's measure of non-manufacturing business activity fell to 41.9 in January from a revised reading of 54.4 in December — its largest drop ever. Economists surveyed by Thomson Financial/IFR had expected a slight slowdown but had still forecast growth, with a median estimate of 53.
The last time the ISM reported that the service sector shrank — that is, registered less than 50 — was March 2003.
Anderson said he believes January may end up being the official start of a recession. Many businesses already suspect as much.
Moving company Allied Van Lines filed for bankruptcy on Tuesday, saying it had fallen victim to the downturn in the housing market and its own heavy debt load. Charming Shoppes Inc. — which runs the Petite Sophisticate and Lane Bryant clothing stores — said it would cut 200 jobs and close 150 stores.
Rental-car stocks plunge
Stocks of rental-car companies plunged Monday after Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group Inc. slashed its 2007 earnings guidance. The company said it sees weak demand in the travel market and soft used-car sales.
Ryan Kaminski, who runs a Mexican restaurant in Sarasota, Fla., said the squeeze he has felt as both a business owner and a consumer since last summer is growing worse. The restaurant's traffic started thinning out last summer, pulling 2007 sales down 10 percent from a year earlier, and so far this year sales are down 15 percent from a year ago.
"I used to be able to find a person from any trade — carpenters, electricians, plumbers — in the restaurant every day," he said. "Since the housing market crashed, it's just dried up. Those type of customers are just gone."
Kaminski, 31, said he and his wife don't spend much anymore either. "We've cut out eating out, and we didn't go on vacation last year," he said. "It's getting bad."
In the tourism sector, water park operator Great Wolf Resorts Inc. is seeing a drop in business at its Rust Belt resorts in Traverse City, Mich., and Sandusky, Ohio, where families are cutting spending by 2 percent to 4 percent. "Those are tough markets for families for right now," Chief Executive John Emery said.
Executives surveyed for the service-sector report by the Institute for Supply Management fretted over the economy, high oil prices, the falling stock market, lower customer demand, stiffer competition and sluggish sales, said Anthony Nieves, chairman of the trade group's non-manufacturing business survey committee.
"I think it will be tipping plenty of people over the edge" in convincing economists that the U.S. is in a recession, Nigel Gault, chief U.S. economist at Global Insight, said of the service-sector index.
Gault said that in March 2001, the beginning of the last recession, the index had a break-even reading of 50. And during that recession, the index hung around 48 or 49 — several points higher than January's reading.
"This is an absolute collapse of this index," he said.
Two measures that fell were those for new orders and employment, and that could signal more trouble ahead. New orders fell to 43.5, while employment fell to 43.9. The drop in employment is especially troubling because the service sector has been the overall economy's engine of job growth for months.
Factories eliminated 28,000 jobs in January and have cut 269,000 jobs over the past 12 months, the government reported last week. The economy as a whole lost 17,000 jobs last month, which was the first nationwide loss of jobs since August 2003.
The financial services industry, part of the wider service economy, has been especially hard hit by falling home prices, mortgage defaults and the devaluation of mortgage-backed investments.
Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., a placement consulting firm, said companies announced 69 percent more job cuts in January than in December, and about 21 percent of those were in the financial sector. According to the firm, the financial sector eliminated more than 153,000 jobs in 2007, a record amount.
The Bush Recession is headed for the Bush Depression.
With New Mexico finally counted and going for Barack Obama’s column, the delegate count has been adjusted and Obama has the most delegates following Super Tuesday.
ReplyDeleteDelegate totals:
Barack Obama: 838
Hillary Clinton: 834
SOURCE: MSNBC
I think Obama showed he is the MORE electable candidate by winning (sometimes decisively) the Red states and the ones up for grabs..............sure Hillary won New York and california but those states will go to whoever the Demacratic nominee is.............winning the red and up for grab states is the key to winning the general election and Obama will draw moderates and independents while Hillary will rally and mobilize the repug base and not draw many independents or disillusioned antiestablishment repugs.
ReplyDeleteFollowing Barack Obama’s breathtaking $32 million campaign haul in January compared to the Borg Queen’s $13.5 million for the same period, Clinton’s team today admitted that she’s been reduced to self-financing her campaign.
ReplyDeleteThe Borg Queen’s spokesperson Howard Wolfson disclosed:
"Late last month Senator Clinton loaned her campaign $5 million. The loan illustrates Sen. Clinton’s commitment to this effort and to ensuring that our campaign has the resources it needs to compete and win across this nation. We have had one of our best fundraising efforts ever on the web today and our Super Tuesday victories will only help in bringing more support for her candidacy."
This stunning revelation suggests donors are increasingly unhappy with her candidacy, and no longer see her as the Democratic front runner. Especially, as donors get to know Barack Obama, like his message and see him as electable.
The Democrats don't want a brokered convention and will try to get Obama to take the Vice Presidency I think.
ReplyDeleteHowever, Obi Wan Obama your our only hope.
Take care and ...
God Bless.
Anything is better than a GOP... after almost 8 years of this mess!
ReplyDeleteI hope this posts because I have been trying to post here for the past couple of days and Blogger doesn't like me! :(
Well, it did post and I guess Blogger likes me again! hehe
ReplyDeleteHey, Lyd, did your husband get his voting problems straightened out?
Thanks Suzi and Enigma - Yes, my husband was registered in a different precinct but there was no way of knowing that except to drive around and assume voting was going on at the school where he was not supposed to vote at. In fact, I usually vote at the school but they changed my place and they didn't have him registered online or in the system. He never received any materials either. Now we suspect that someone threw all the "Democrat" voter pamphlets and sample ballots away because our mailman saw none for our area.
ReplyDeleteIt was very weird and stressful.
So he ended up voting provisionally, but those are not counted until 40 days later.
The Democrats don't want a brokered convention and will try to get Obama to take the Vice Presidency I think.
ReplyDeleteI think not.
Perhaps, Obama could be convinced to accept Hillary as his veep but I don't think her enormous ego would ever allow that to happen and frankly, I would be much less inclined to support Obama if he brokered such a deal with Hillary.
Romney quits!
ReplyDeleteDan Borchers at CPAC about to be thrown out again.
Ann Coulter is at CPAC, they sneaked her in -- she has her own ballroom and booksigning, but they disavow her.
Lydia
ReplyDeleteI don't know if you watched but it was anti Democrat rant. We are more dangerous to America than the terrorist. I wish I could find the transcript but I can't. Now they are unified and we are divided. I am sorry but I wish Hillary would get out and back Obama. This is not good!
E4e, I fully agree. I'm saying that we need to confine the arguments to the issues and agree to unite behind the winning Dem.
ReplyDeleteGood Riddance to Romney!
Annthrax Coulter is the GOP's queen in exile. She speaks for millions of radical, rightwing kooks and loons.
ReplyDeleteAverage and MCH,
ReplyDeleteI don't know exactly how unified we are. I now know how Reagan felt when he said "I didn't leave the Democrat party, it left me."
I cannot in good conscience (and will not) vote for McCain.
Unless something changes DRASTICALLY before election day, I will vote for conservative Republicans in the House and Senate, but will probably pull the big lever for Hillary. (I'll probably have to kill a bottle of Jose Cuervo gold first...)
God help me.
voltron
ReplyDeleteI'm banking on Obama but if I have to I'll be sharing that bottle with you!
Wow
ReplyDeleteVoltron voting for Hillary.
AAP sharing a bottle with him.
Is it just me or has this whole presidential election scenario taken some very surreal turns?
Considering the choices the RNC keeps giving us, I am reminded of Ron White's line about an impending airplane crash: "Hit something hard, I don't want to limp away from this one..."
ReplyDeleteWhy keep holding your nose and voting for the lesser evil?
Volt -- are you serious? You would really vote for Hillary or are you just teasing us? I mean is this some ruse, some manipulation or trick?
ReplyDeleteAnd did anyone hear McCain's speech today at CPAC? He sounded like the man you want, all the right-wing talking points.
Volt - I have to ask you this: Why do you hate McCain so much? Answer me in the next thread please. New thread is up....
WILL EVERYONE MOVE TO THE NEW THREAD -- I JUST POSTED A NEW OPINION PIECE (Guest Blog) by my friend Gary
Mch
ReplyDeleteIt has taken on a surreal atmosphere. After listening to Romney wanting to destroy the rest of FDR's legacy I am very anti Hillary but will vote for whoever stands a chance of keeping the Republican's from finishing off our America!
An Average Patriot:
ReplyDelete"Hillary is a neoCon masquerading as a Democrat!!"
YES, I AGREE!!!!!! Great points, guys. Excellent post, Lydia. Sorry I've been missing in action. I still visit from time to time though!
Somebody pinch me. My eyes saw something that could not be. ;-)
ReplyDelete