The meaningless negative attacks on Barack Obama that Howard Wolfson and Mark Penn unleashed in Wisconsin in full Rovian fashion backfired. After dredging up stupid accusations about "plagiarism" the Clinton campaign seems brain dead. The old Saul Alinsky notion that "organized people" will always defeat "organized money" is playing out in the form of Obama's grassroots ground campaign. In Wisconsin, the Hillary camp bet on the idea that "organized attacks" can defeat "organized people" and ended up losing by 17 points.
Obama has closed the gap in Texas according to the recent polls and he has two more weeks to mobilize his forces. And in Texas the proportionate delegate count strongly favors African-American voters. In Ohio, Obama is also closing the gap and these two states were supposedly Hillary's "firewall." If Obama wins one of these states or is razor close in Ohio then there's no political reason for the Clinton campaign to continue for another month awaiting the Pennsylvania primary. During that period the commentariat will be asking the question: When is Hillary going to get out? And why throw money away in Pennsylvania when Obama has the nomination all but wrapped up?
John McCain echoed the Clinton attacks on Obama tonight in his humbug "victory" statement that sounded like a hackneyed Fourth of July speech to a Kiwanis club picnic in Orange County. McCain's words would have had more substance if he had simply exhaled into the microphone. He promised more fear, more war, and more same old failed policies. McCain is running for George W. Bush's third term.
Barack Obama is going to be the Democratic Party's nominee for president of the United States in 2008. His strategy must now fully engage John McCain and the record of Republican misrule he represents. He must not allow Hillary to distract him with her desperate negative attacks. Obama is defending himself on two fronts. Hillary should bow out gracefully after March 4th for the health of the party. It's time for Democrats to focus on the general election.
(Thanks to my colleague Dr. Stan Oden for his collaboration on this one.)
http://pacificgatepost.blogspot.com/2008/02/obama-social-phenomenon.html
Barack Obama will lose to John McCain in 2008.
Without the supporters of Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party cannot win the presidential election.
The political ignorance of most of the supporters of Barack Obama on the HuffPost is shocking!
Why is that supposed to surprise anyone?
Neither candidate says anything about the bloated Pentagon budget.
Neither candidate says anything about the bloated Pentagon budget.
Good Heavens, Hillary! GIVE IT UP!
Wisconsin +17
Hawaii +52
Virginia +28
Maryland +25
District of Columbia +52
Maine +19
Louisiana +21
Nebraska +36
Washington +37
Virgin Islands +84
C'mon, Hillary. Get out now for the sake of the party and the country.
Isn't relevancy one of the reasons many states opted to move their primaries up on the calendar. In "our" democracy every vote should count (ie. popular vote vs. electoral college).
With a popular vote spread of less than 5%, does it make sense to end this race prematurely? What kind of example does this provide to the next generation, those aspiring U.S. citizens and growing democracies around the world? How does this make our democracy legitimate?
Real Clear Politics
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/president/democratic_vote_count.html
2/22/08
Popular vote
-
Obama - 10,300,410
Clinton - 9,375,213
---------------------------------
Total - 19,675,623
--
Difference of - 925,197 or 4.7%
But they don't get it. Can you imagine how Bill Clinton would feel about an Obama campaign if his wife wasn't the opponent? I'd read an article by a political scientist about a year ago who said, if a young voter is engaged and interested in his first two elections, then you have an engaged voter for life. The opportunity for the democratic party and progressive causes is monumental. We're talking changing the trajectory of America here. But they don't care. The Clintons appear hell-bent on destroying Obama, even bloodying him for the general campaign. It's a soulessness I never thought they possessed. I'm astounded.
I'm expecting all hell to break loose in Thursday night's debate. Fasten your seat belts......
When self-respect is gone, what's there to be left?
Hillary, you've just repeated Bill's "no-self-respect".
I guess it's "misogynistic" to point this out, but there it is.
But you're cherry-picking the results: Obama made huge inroads with blue collar workers, women, lower income people, and women. You cannot ignore those results. You're making it sound as if half the people voting for Obama were Republicans and independents. Come on.
Being smart doesn't make you a leader. Being a fighter doesn't mean you have well-rounded leadership skills to change approaches and react nimbly. If she were to win against McCain (and I doubt that) she is incapable of putting together a working majority to get any of her 10-point plans passed. Yes she works across the aisle, but always by caving to Republicans. Obama has proven repeatedly that he can reach across the aisle and get more progressive policies. Maybe not perfect policies, but policies we can be proud of. Hillary just gives us more of the same.
As a Progressive person, I applaud and support Obama and his ability to motivate, inspire and lead us out of the darkness of the Bush years.
It is now up to Senator Clinton to withdraw her nomination, and endorse Obama without reservation. This will unify the party, and give HRC hero status among Democrats. HRC will be able to take on her pet project in an Obama Administration, and she will be get much more done as an Obama supporter in the coming years.
Please tell HRC that while we appreciate her, its just not her time.
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I have to guess that YOUR STATE ALREADY VOTED!
Why decide for me? I didn't decide for you!
Many people seem to be upset that the superdelegates may decide the Democratic nomination. Personally, I'm upset because I'll have no say whatsoever in the Democratic nomination! My state is unimportant anyway, but our primary is LATER rather than sooner, and it looks like everyone has already decided that Obama will be the nominee. It wouldn't be different if everybody had already decided that Clinton would be the nominee. What happened to MY choice?
I know that money talks and bullpoop walks, but really, folks - perhaps money is talking too loudly in this horse race. My fave candidates dropped out of the race a while ago, leaving me with little choice. However, if Hillary Clinton "gets out," I'll have no choice at all. That, friends, sucks.