"Hillary Clinton ended Tuesday night with a big victory in West Virginia, showing once again that old, white, poor, uneducated people really don't like young, witty, urbane, well-educated black men."
In contrast to the 9 out of 33 black voters in the NC Democratic primary who said in exit polls that the race of the candidate they supported was important to them.
"What all this drives home is that Obama's coattails are already gaining impressive victories for Congressional seats when he's not even the nominee yet."
Coattails? Childers doesn't even refer to Obama by name in Childers website; he's "a Senator from Illinois".
Moreover, when asked about this,
"Childers, who is pro-life and pro-gun, told a Memphis television interviewer that "Sen. Obama has not endorsed my candidacy. I've not been in contact with his campaign nor has he been in contact with mine." The last two assertions are, Childers insisted in a telephone conversation on Monday, true. But the television interviewer asked him, "Would you accept Obama's endorsement?"
Childers: "Let me tell you what sort of endorsements we're looking for and that we've had. We've had the endorsement of working people of north Mississippi, working families.""
See http://www.presstelegram.com/commentary/ci_9219296
Yeah, those are some coattails.
How Obama WON Tuesday
Hillary Clinton ended Tuesday night with a big victory in West Virginia, showing once again that old, white, poor, uneducated people really don't like young, witty, urbane, well-educated black men. Quelle surprise.
Hillary argues that West Virginia and its massively huge five electoral votes is a key swing state for the general election. Democrats, she says, haven't won the White House since 1916 without it. Let's review that list of Presidents: Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Carter and Clinton.
Know who else you don't see on that list? Adlai Stevenson, Hubert Humphrey and Michael Dukakis. They all also won WV, but lost anyway, as did Carter in 1980. So I wouldn't exactly call Mountain State success a Presidential predictor. What this history does indicate is that WV trends Democratic: since the Depression it has voted Republican only 5 times, and 4 of those were for incumbents.
So claiming that West Virginia is some kind of Democratic bellwether of November success is a disingenuous exercise in selective truth telling. By the Clintons? Encore, quelle surprise.
Another truth that they won't tell you is the 10 delegates they picked up Tuesday were erased by the 8 superdelegates Obama picked up Monday and Tuesday, plus, in a stunning reversal, one of Hillary's PLEDGED delegates in Maryland announced a switch to Obama. So for Monday and Tuesday, Clinton's net gain in delegates is exactly zero. Her "impressive" win in West Virginia is a hollow victory.
The real victory Tuesday came in Mississippi's special election.
In Mississippi's First Congressional District, Democrat Travis Childers defeated his opponent in what has been a Republican stronghold for years and years. His opponent had tons of support from the Republican Party as conservative icons Mike Huckabee and Dick Cheney came to MS to stump for him. They also ran television ads tying Childers to Obama. They think Obama, not Clinton, is the boogyman to scare conservative Southern voters into voting Republican.
Well, it didn't work there, just as it didn't work in Louisiana's 6th Congressional District on May 3. There, Democrat Don Cazayoux won a seat that had been Republican for decades. There, too, the Republicans ran ads tying Cazayoux to Obama.
Cazayoux and Childers join Illinois Democrat Bill Foster, who won a special election in the 14th there in March for a seat that had been held by not just any Republican, but by Dennis Hastert, the longest-serving Speaker of the House in history. Foster immediately declared as a superdelegate for Obama.
And although it was not a switch from Republican to Democrat, I would also add Andre Carson's special election win in Indiana's 7th district as significant. He is a black Muslim. In INDIANA!
What all this drives home is that Obama's coattails are already gaining impressive victories for Congressional seats when he's not even the nominee yet. Childers' victory happened because people everywhere want change in Washington, and Obama is emblematic of that change.
The real bellwether of success in November is not a traditionally Democratic state that sometimes votes Republican, but these traditionally Republican districts that are electing Democrats to Congress. THAT was the real election, the only meaningful election, on Tuesday.
And Obama won it.
Want to reply to a comment? Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to
If you were paying attention, you would know that the Republicans cast a vote for Childers as being equivalent to a vote for Obama. No, it's not the reality, but that hasn't stopped their marketing from impacting voters before, and it seems to have done so now, as well. Only, not the way they hoped, presumably because they are too out of touch with the people of this country to recognize that Obama is very widely viewed positively and as anathema to their own partisanship.
not afraid to stereotype, eh chip? that's nice
Childers ran an ad distancing himself from Obama. Childers in anti-choice, anti-gay and pro-
gun. He is more conservative than the average blue dog Democrat. Does Obama really want to take credit for this guy? If so, some people may want to re-consider Obama.
CHIP:
I've been saying for months that the Obambi has coat-tail. Much longer than the Clintons.
Chip, every democrat who is clamoring for the Clintons need to be reminded that the Clintons caused more democrats to loose elected office than any other presidency democratic or republican.
During the "glorious Clinton years," democrats lost seats at the local, county, state and federal levels.
Democrats wasted so much political capital fighting off impeachment that we ended up with the Contract for America.
Obama will not win the general due to bigotry and the electorial college but Obama will have coat-tails that will deliver for down ballot democratic canidates.
Please be honest! Childers won because he ran ads not an ad but ads denouncing Obama and these are the facts - spin them anyway you want but Childers wouldn't have won had he not done so - Obama was a major problem for him!
What are you talking about? He will win and by a landslide.
"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win"
-- Mahatma Gandhi
The win by Childers was a surprise. The margin absolutely astonished me. And then on top of that fully a quarter 24+% of republicans in WV did not vote for McInsane. This election is about Roe v Wade. Hillary backers can complain all you want and trash talk Obama, but if you sit at home this Nov. or vote for Ralph, John of Bob, be prepared to buy a clothes hangers for your daughters.
What you fail to understand it's our uteri and vaginas that delivered these kids who now denounce the very woman who fought for their reproductive choices. I don't care anymore, let them fight their own battles! I'm menopausal, so I don't give a damn!
Right on Suzie........my feelings exactly.
rantsrus: One person's opinion! I guess you need to "change channels".
Seems like you're of the "love it or leave it" variety. As for it being " One person's opinion!" - you're quite out of touch.
Please tell me why you would want a man for president who wrote in his book from "Dreams of My Father" ` I found a solace in nursing a pervasive sense of grievance and animousity against my mother's race.` and from "Audacity of Hope" `I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.'
It seems as though he has already made up his mind about white people and Christians.
i'm the white mother of two bi-racial children. there are days i hate my white race for them. and as far as standing WITH the muslims.... that is the christian way to behave, you realize?
Ah, I see you got The Email too, Amberlass. :-D
My conservative sister sent it to me yesterday and I reamed her out for it. She hasn't read Obama's books, of course, and I bet neither have you. You're just mindlessly circulating crap over the internet. No wonder this country is in the mess it's in.
Amberlass ,when I found my native ancestry after years of geneology work ,I read all I could about my ancestry and I was very angry towards the white's and christians who committed genocide on our people .That didn't make me hate my mother who is white or the part of my father who is white but it made me aware of the horrible things people of the white race /christians could do to a race of people out of fear and ignorance. That angered me ! As that is most certainly what angered Obama .Would I do all I could to help my native people if unfairly treated ,,you bet I would just as I would do for any minority or race I see unfairly treated.
Please don't make a mountain out of a molehill !
There's an email making the rounds on the internet right now that makes exactly the same talking points Amberlass just made.
She doesn't know doodly squat about it.
Amberlass:
In the first quote (which you don't provide in context), he is talking about his journey. I understand where he's coming from precisely. In the second, while you don't understand what he's saying I do so I'll translate it for you and, just to blunt your accusations that *I* hate Christians, I'll use some other group:
"I am not Jewish but if the politics of this country ever shift in an ugly direction, I would stand with the Jews." The person who can say THAT is the kind of person I want as POTUS.
I am not a Muslim. I am not a theist at all. I have no time for theistic belief in any shape or form, but if it is ever decided that the Muslims have to go and they open camps, and start rounding up Muslims, then there would be a haven in my home for as many as I could fit and one more. NOT because I love Muslims more than I love Christians, merely because it is the right, the moral, the ethical and the *human* thing to do.
Cheers
LF
What's interesting to me is how the Clinton folks have consistently downplayed Obama's winning "small states" and bragging about how she wins big states". The last time I looked, WV is a "small state", but after Clinton won the poltical rhetoric switched to "swing state" focus--not one word about the size of the state!!! But, then what else is new. The game post moves every day from one place to another--either by the Clinton machine or the Pundints to keep the playing field uneven.
"Democrats, she says, haven't won the White House since 1916 without it. Let's review that list of Presidents: Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Carter and Clinton.
Know who else you don't see on that list? Adlai Stevenson, Hubert Humphrey and Michael Dukakis. They all also won WV, but lost anyway, as did Carter in 1980. So I wouldn't exactly call Mountain State success a Presidential predictor."
________
They also never mention that in our entire history as a nation, only twice would West Virginia have made a difference if it had gone the other way: 1876 and 2000.
The swing state argument is a joke, because other than the last two elections where Democrats have foolishly stuck to a flawed electoral map strategy, all the other elections in the last 100 years weren't even close enough for any individual state to really matter.
Excellent analysis. Mcbush thinks that he is close in polling now as portrayed by the media, I;m here to tell Mcsame that is a fool gold. That closeness in polls will disappear once this Democratic primary is over and done with.
VOTE DEMOCRATIC IN NOVEMBER....Presidency, Senate, House, Governor and state legislatures. American people needs to show Bush and his cronies that we are hurting. Republican party and Bush are the reasons for the pain we feel in our pocket boks.
Good article. I am anxious for the primaries to end and the race to replace our current administration ends. Vote Democratic in November!
Actually at this point, any question of net gain or loss is irrelevent; Obama's lead is sufficient that any result which brings the number of unappointed delegates closer to zero is a gain for Obama and a loss for Hillary Clinton.
Careful, Kool-Aid Kids....this may be folks who really, really do want the Democrats to take power again (YAY!) but are finding ways to rationalize their non-Obama vote in November. The Dems get the power over McCain, and live til 2012. Uh-ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...
As they say in the black church, "tell the truth and shame the devil!" Nice job!
I don't think Childers won in Mississippi because of Obama's "coat tails". As a matter of fact, Childers tried his best to distance himself from the "accusation" that he was endorsed by Obama.
The Mississippi election is significant more that Childers won **in spite** of being linked to Obama (and Jeremiah Wright). The message that sends to the GOP is that hanging Reverend Wright around Obama's neck in the general election will not work. The Wright "scandal" is past its prime in May. By November, it will be completely stale and useless.
The GOP has probably just lost their most promising weapon against Obama.
Her big win was crowned by the best speech ever given in the history of politics. Terry McAuliffe told us so.
Thanks for letting me know - I didn't watch it. I had to watch the lawn dry.
Loading comments…
Posted May 14, 2008 | 10:15 AM (EST)