“OBAMA SUPPORTERS” DAILY NEWS Saturday May 31 2008

WELCOME TO “OBAMA SUPPORTERS” DAILY NEWS

Saturday May 31 2008


Rally in Great Falls, Montana - May 30th, 2008

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A Washington Post reporter was asked in an online chat yesterday why the Post isnt' covering how well Hillary is doing in recent polls. Here is his priceless response:

I've spent the past several months talking to as many super-delegates as any reporter in America, I'd guess, since I cover on a day-to-day basis about 280 of them here on Capitol Hill.

I hate saying this, because all the Clinton people are going to flip out and say, You're biased, you're biased, you're biased. So go ahead and flip out if you want, but the simple basic truth is that the super-delegates stopped paying attention to the Clinton-Obama race about a couple days after the Indiana and North Carolina primaries.

They've stopped paying attention to the primary, and instead they're focused on an Obama-McCain matchup in November. That's the basic, simple, definitive reality that has happened in this race. The "undecided" super-delegates at this moment are not going to "decide" any time soon, because to them the race is over, they're just waiting for Clinton to drop out.

...more at the link

Hillary Clinton, champion of the blue collar, Jack Daniels' drinking woman is now trying to unseat delegates in Texas. You see, you can't claim that the only reason you're still in the race, after you lost, is because you want to see every vote counted, and then repeatedly try to stop people from having their vote count in Texas and Nevada, for starters. That makes you a hypocrite. It makes you an opportunist. And it makes you a liar. It makes you every nasty thing that the Republicans have said about you for years. Please stop proving them right.

A newborn baby was one of at least 14 children and adults killed when a suicide bomber detonated a lorry laden with explosives close to a primary school in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk yesterday.

The latest massacre of Iraqi children came as 21 Shia market workers were ambushed, bound and shot dead north of the capital. The victims came from the Baghdad market visited the previous day by John McCain, the US presidential candidate, who said that an American security plan in the capital was starting to show signs of progress.

***

More than 600 Iraqis have been killed in the past week despite a US-Iraqi security plan to quell violence in the capital. Most of the killings have been the result of truck bombs outside Baghdad.

Mr McCain said that the situation was showing signs of improvement and blamed waning support in the United States for the war on the media, which were portraying an overly negative image of the crisis.

Oh, the drama of it all. The drama that is the Hillary Clinton campaign.

What will she say next? What will she do next?

I do not know, but I do know this: There is a huge drama gap between the Clinton campaign and the Barack Obama campaign. In fact, it is more like a chasm.

Whenever things get dull, whenever things settle down and people begin to concentrate on how Clinton is a serious candidate with a serious message, championing serious issues, she manages to heat things up.

Why talk about health care or energy policy or the housing crisis when you can talk about ... the assassination of Robert Kennedy!

...Want a hint as to what the committee cares about? Take a look at its name: Rules and Bylaws.

So what do think? You think its members like unruly crowds? Demonstrations? Tumult? Uproar? Commotion? Attempts to intimidate?

...more at the link

Former US Rep. Karen Thurman (D-Florida), who chairs the Democratic Party in the Sunshine State, sent a very interesting email out today to everybody that had “written to the Florida Democratic Party during the debate over Florida’s Democratic Presidential Primary.”

Thurman explains:

Unfortunately, because of national party rules, Florida Democratic delegates have been in limbo.

Tomorrow, I believe that will change.

I believe that the DNC’s Rules & Bylaws Committee will restore at least half of our delegates, which would put us on par with Florida Republicans (whose national party halved their delegation).

The letter is striking because, after so many months of bluster and brinksmanship from the same Thurman and other party officials from Florida toward the Democratic National Committee, she signals that they will now be content with the 50-percent solution:

I sincerely hope that this meeting brings closure to a dispute that has gone on for way too long…

It’s time to unite and move full speed ahead toward November to elect a Democratic President

Thurman is a donor to Senator Clinton’s campaign. And although her letter (the full text appears at the jump) blames Republican legislators in Florida for the violation of DNC rules by having scheduled the primary on January 29, truth be told, she and other Democratic leaders in the state also conspired behind the maneuver.

...more at the link

The McCain campaign is trying to bait the Obama campaign into playing on Republican turf when it comes to the war in Iraq. McCain's bullshit playground taunt to get Obama to visit Iraq now that the "surge" is allegedly effective has morphed into an online petition at McCain's site and a clock on the RNC's site marking how long it's been since Obama walked the tightly controlled parts of the streets he would be allowed to walk.
And the media is, of course, going along with it like lap dogs whose master just covered his crotch in Alpo, with anchors and correspondents wondering when Obama is going to head overseas to get his photo taken in a flak jacket and helmet for all to mock.

Instead, the Obama campaign needs to keep in mind: when John McCain talks about how super-great the war is going, he's not actually talking to the majority of the country. No, see, we're all done. According to the latest Pew Research Center poll, 56% of the nation wants a "quick withdrawal" from Iraq. And that goes along with the well-over 50% who don't think the war was worth it in the first place. For the nation, the war is over, except for the fact that the troops are still there. Obama can simply promise to do what the majority of the nation actually wants, and isn't that what politicians love to do?

So as McCain puffs his tiny little chest and says that the only way Obama can know the "truth" about what's happening in Iraq is to be led around on a tight leash inside the Green Zone by the military to see whatever they want him to see, the Democratic candidate can simply shake his head and say that just because there's gold in a pile of shit, it's still just a pile of shit. And nearly everyone will agree.

...There are some media reports suggesting that Clinton is now willing to extend the primary fight beyond the last set of primaries. That's just awful. No matter on which side of the fence Democratic primary voters have decided to stand, a convention battle is not in the party's best interests.

Democrats are eager to win this year, and it's time for the noble warriors who are backing the candidates to take their aim or their political swords and focus on John McCain and his allies. It's time to rally around the nominee as soon as the fourth day of June breaks upon the horizon.

Why not? What would Democrats gain by taking this debate any further, especially when the party is now engaged in the kind of polarizing politics that we once denounced the GOP for using for partisan gain. What can be won by tainting the process, arguing the rules are now unfair, or worse, the Republican rule of winner-takes-all should have guided the Democrats as well? All this fuss is simply about saving face and waiting to see whether some awful thing tarnishes the presumptive nominee. It's shameful, short-sighted, mean-spirited and morally unacceptable. Now, I said it.

...No serious-minded Democratic official is asking Clinton to disappear. They better not. They know how much the party needs her and every one of her supporters back on the field to help push the nominee and the party down the field to victory. Let's face it: Clinton can fire up the base like no one else, except perhaps Bill himself. Besides, she alone has proven that America is ready to vote for a woman for president.

...Come dawn on the fourth day of June, it will be high time to lay down arms, leaving hands free to pick up the olive branch and unite before going into battle.

...morehttp://www.donnabrazile.com/viewNews.cfm?id=277"> at the link

As dnA noted below, Gerry Ferraro is at it again, sobbing about how us poor, oppressed white people can't open our mouths anymore without being accused of racism. Allow me to be among the first to offer reassurance to the white community: we can still open our mouths and speak our minds, without fear of being called racists. It's just that if we want to do that, we have to not be saying racist things when we open our mouths.

Not the hardest rule in the world to follow, guys. Go ahead. Try it. Go offer an opinion to someone, making sure that what you say is not, you know, racist. I'll bet dollars to doughnuts no one calls you racist.

In my experience, the number of times that white people get accused of saying racist things when their comments aren't actually racist is absolutely miniscule compared to the number of times white people say things that really are racist, and no one calls them on it.

Isn't it about time that we white folks stopped playing the victim and started getting over our hangups? Or is that advice only applicable to black people?

Oh, damn. Now Obama is gonna have to distance himself from me . . .

As the DNC prepares to decide the fates of the Florida and Michigan delegations tomorrow, a key question has to be asked: Did those rogue primaries truly reflect the will of their states' Democratic voters?

The case against that proposition, it turns out, is a fairly compelling one in statistical terms.

Here's why: If you take a close look at the numbers, it turns out that while the Florida primary turnout was high relative to past primaries within the state, the relative Democratic turnout vs. the Republican primary lagged way behind relative party turnout in other primaries and caucuses across the country, where the voting counted from the start. And in Michigan in particular, the voting level there was simply abysmal.

This suggests the possibility that far more Democratic voters would have come out in both states if they'd expected the contests to count, meaning that it's hard to argue that the primaries that actually took place really reflected the will of the people.

...more at the link

Tomorrow is the big day. Big day in DC, that is. I sure wish I was in D.C. tomorrow, the name we local residents use, when referring to our hometown. You see, D.C. is Chocolate City. A majority of residents are black even though that is rapidly changing as the baby boomers take over every former ghetto, downtown, and all the nooks and crannies that we used to say we couldn't go into even during daylight. I have always believed that police protection followed the boomers and I am not alone in my assessment. Some of the worse neighborhoods in D. C. were taken over by boomers the police protection diminished the crime rate from a lot to zero, zilch.

Anyway, let me not digress more because I want to talk about the Democratic National Committee's By-Laws meeting tomorrow at the Marriott-Wardman Hotel. The word is Hillary Clinton's peeps (people) are coming by the busload. Obama has asked his followers to do voter registration tomorrow instead of showing up at the hotel to protest. I guess he knows that if anything bad goes down he will be blamed. Some of those folks from Chocolate City will be accused of overrunning the old ladies from Florida who will have spent eighteen hours on uncomfortable busses to get D.C. Can't you just see pictures on the evening news of elderly blue haired ladies looking terrified with their picket signs because the locals are standing silently nearby. Just the very sight of all the diversity in D.C. is enough to scare folks who aren't used to this kind of thing.

Hillary has ensured that every American with a television set has heard about her female oppression. She has, according to her and her minions, suffered terribly at the hands of the white male media, white politicians, and even Barack Obama himself. Exactly what Obama has done to Hillary is unknown, at least to me. He did tell her that she is "likable enough," which was a cheap shot he shouldn't have taken. Even that wasn't as bad as Hillary saying that she and John McCain were qualified to be president but Barack Obama has given a speech. How would she have felt if he had said "All Hillary Clinton has going for her is that she is the wife of the ex-president who brought shame and humiliation to her (and presumably to himself) and the nation when he got a b--w job from a girl barely out of her teens....in the OVAL OFFICE. Millions would have risen up in righteous indignation --- and that's why the nation has been silent on the Clinton's indiscretions.

...I think Hillary is trying to get back in the White House by hook or crook. She wants to ride on Air Force One again, and have access to all the goodies. Bill wants that power too even if it did corrupt him the last time he lived there. But Hillary is not being honest with her blue haired ladies. She has told them that they can make a difference.

That is what Hillary's blue-haired ladies are trying to do tomorrow. But, I still don't understand what she wants them to do. Why are they going to D. C.? Why did they gobble up all the 300 passes before my peeps could get any? How did Hillary get all the tickets? Did she threaten the DNC with sexism charges? Knowing what we know about her, she did whatever she had to in order to get her folks on the inside.

....more at the link

Florida Senator Bill Nelson gave an impassioned defense of Florida today. He invoked a couple of Floridians to support his position, including Megan Foster. Here's the that section of his remarks:

BILL NELSON: Now, I want to give you some examples. Megan Foster, a mother of five from Tampa, frustrated by the incompetence and failures of the Bush administration, organized her own campaign. She rallied friends and family to get out the vote for her candidate. Her energy and enthusiasm was infectious and helped inspire many others to become politically involved and help get out people to vote all over the state; and then Megan was elected a delegate.

However, Megan just wrote a post on DailyKos to make clear she doesn't share the view of Senator Nelson. In fact, she did not help get out the vote in Florida. She channeled her energies in other states where she knew the votes would count:

...more at the link

1:08 p.m. Senator Carl Levin: "The Democratic party needs unity." The MI Dems have found unity, asking the committee to preserve it. Claims unity from the candidates, too, for full seating of MI delegation. Levin asked the committee to not override the unity. The question is allocation, of course. Levin thinks Obama wants a 50/50 split, but that Clinton would allow 73 for her, 55 for Obama. (Not sure that's true). Michigan knows it was a flawed primary. Levin and his working group want at 69/59 allocation.

12:50 p.m. First witness is State Party Chair Mark Brewer who made the case for seating. Allocation issues are the big problem with Michigan...Brewer provided a lot of evidence for allocation.

Good morning.



Teresa Scicconi of New York shouts her support for US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton (D-NY) outside the Democratic National Committee Rules and Bylaws Committee meeting in Washington May 31, 2008.

Aiiiiyeeeee!

As I predicted, turnout for the “Count Every Sour Grape!” protest, promised to consist of “10,000 marchers,” looks pretty low, even though the mass media folks are doing their best to make it look well-attended with low camera angles and carefully-cropped shots. I’ll post more on this debacle throughout the day.

From Getty:



“Feed me.”

You can see more pics from Getty here

Less than four months after Hillary Rodham Clinton trounced Barack Obama in the California primary election, a majority of California Democrats now prefer the Illinois senator to be the party's presidential nominee, according to a new Field Poll.

...Even though Obama lost the California primary to Clinton by 18 percentage points, he is now favored among Democratic voters, 51 percent to 38 percent.

Obama draws support from the same voter groups in California that he has across the country: well-educated, upper-income and younger voters as well as blacks.

Latinos remain highly supportive of Clinton, 63 percent to 29 percent. But women, who have been the New York senator's strongest base of support across the country, now prefer Obama, 49 percent to 41 percent.

...more at the link

As both campaigns prepare to make their case for what to do about Florida and Michigan before the Rules and Bylaws Committee (RBC), I wanted to focus your attention on an issue that has gotten too little attention.

The Clinton campaign argues that if the delegates from these non-sanctioned primaries are not seated hundreds of thousand of voters in Florida and Michigan will be disenfranchised.

The other side argues that it is wrong to change the rules under which the nomination process after the fact in order to advantage one candidate over another. The latter is an argument I agree with -- but there's no question it lacks the emotive impact of the disenfranchisement argument.

What doesn't get mentioned, however, is this: it was widely reported and understood in both Florida and Michigan that the results of these primaries would not be counted. And based on that knowledge, large numbers of voters in both states simply didn't participate.

If the DNC were now to turn around and decide to make these contests count after all, these non-participating voters would be disenfranchised no less than the people who did turn out would be if the DNC sticks to the rules and doesn't seat any of the delegates. The simple fact is that large numbers of people, acting on accurate knowledge and in good faith, decided that there wasn't a real primary being held in their state on the day in question and on that basis decided not to participate.

...more at the link

...I'm angry because I'm a 26-year old Michigander, and I'm being told by a bunch of people WHO AREN'T EVEN FROM MY STATE why I'm angry.

...I'm angry and disenfranchised that my state's elected representatives broke the rules in the first place, causing this whole mess. I'm disappointed in my state's governor for ultimately having the last word and failing to stop the madness. I hope she's not a Canadian double agent or anything ; -)

I'm angry, disenfranchised and wounded for my state pride that my state is being mentioned in the same sentence as Florida with regard to a bungled election. These feelings have been magnified and been directed at both campaigns for failing to find a compromise time after time, waiting it out till tomorrow's critical DNC RBC meeting.

...I'm angry and disillusioned that one of the candidates would pretend to champion my state's Democratic electorate, after saying those words: "It's clear this election they're having isn't going to count for anything."

....And I'm ready-to-blow-a-gasket (my apologies) at the idea, put forward by only one side, that my state's lopsided Democratic primary election was somehow fair?! Mad as hell at the contention that the popular votes in my state should count, with ZERO (?!?) going to BHO -- as if the popular vote even counts in such a compromised election. Infuriated that 55% of the partisan vote in an illegitimate, "beauty contest" primary election by a disenfranchised, confused electorate is somehow perceived, by one side at least, as a MANDATE for HRC and her campaign to SPEAK FOR ALL OF MY STATE'S DEMOCRATS?!

....

...I'm angry because I'm a 26-year old Michigander, and I'm being told by a bunch of people WHO AREN'T EVEN FROM MY STATE why I'm angry.

...I'm angry and disenfranchised that my state's elected representatives broke the rules in the first place, causing this whole mess. I'm disappointed in my state's governor for ultimately having the last word and failing to stop the madness. I hope she's not a Canadian double agent or anything ; -)

I'm angry, disenfranchised and wounded for my state pride that my state is being mentioned in the same sentence as Florida with regard to a bungled election. These feelings have been magnified and been directed at both campaigns for failing to find a compromise time after time, waiting it out till tomorrow's critical DNC RBC meeting.

...I'm angry and disillusioned that one of the candidates would pretend to champion my state's Democratic electorate, after saying those words: "It's clear this election they're having isn't going to count for anything."

....And I'm ready-to-blow-a-gasket (my apologies) at the idea, put forward by only one side, that my state's lopsided Democratic primary election was somehow fair?! Mad as hell at the contention that the popular votes in my state should count, with ZERO (?!?) going to BHO -- as if the popular vote even counts in such a compromised election. Infuriated that 55% of the partisan vote in an illegitimate, "beauty contest" primary election by a disenfranchised, confused electorate is somehow perceived, by one side at least, as a MANDATE for HRC and her campaign to SPEAK FOR ALL OF MY STATE'S DEMOCRATS?!

....