Before it ever happened, it's already over. That was the feeling last night at the small Obama rally in Houston less than twenty-four hours before the Texas primary. The evening wore that familiar holiday air: you haven't opened the presents, you haven't had the feast, but you feel like you have, and secretly you're ready for January. This is just a roundabout way of saying that it--I wish I could tell you what--has passed.
No clairvoyance accompanies my sense that something has come to an end. The campaign may have reached the moment Obama, from his tone last night, believes to be near: "Here we are with the possibility of winning the nomination." Or is this the end of yet another phase of a long campaign that now cedes the momentum and must regroup for the next battle?
Last night Obama acknowledged that he's taken some hits in the last few days, although he never talked directly about the damage--never mentioning NAFTA and naive college professors, or national security and ringing phones, or even Jesus. He merely said, "a toxic politics works."
What was the campaign's strategy in sending Obama back to Houston so soon after its huge rally that drew 20,000 people to the Toyota Center? Inevitably, last night's rally wore an air of anticlimax. Maybe the second appearance is an indicator of how important Houston is for Obama. He needn't have returned, however; he already has the African-American vote here, and after Hillary Clinton's backhanded testimonial to his Christianity on 60 Minutes , every black Baptist Texan who can crawl on his or her deathbed to the polls is going to get there. Last night's rally brought out Obama's Texas base, African-Americans, just as Clinton's recent events here have been mostly Hispanic. It's as if Houston has emptied of white people and the hundred or so ethnicities that have thriving communities here. But then Houston is, by and large, a Republican town.
"There's a tendency to start feeling kinda like, huh!, like things are just always gonna go the way they should," Obama said last night. "But one of the things I've learned is that, what makes this powerful, is not that things always go easy, but rather that we are willing to go forward even when it's hard." Earlier, Obama reiterated the familiar themes of health care, education, energy, Iraq--and frankly, that part of his speech sounded tired. Like Clinton, Obama needs a fresh start, a new tack, and certainly a new speech. At the close last night, Obama retold the Greenwood story. "I was gonna bring it back out for this evening," he said. Now I've heard the "Fire It Up!" anecdote at least twenty times as I've followed Barack Obama from state to state, but last night was the best he's ever told it. Even some of the press were laughing. The perfection of his storytelling, the time when he gets it just right, also suggested closure, even as Obama himself was talking about going forward.
Wonder why i must still send my kids to private school guess my senator has no time to help the public schools in my state. she has more pressing worldly matters on her mind. My city wants to charge 6- 8 bucks to drive tthru mid town now guess that only hurts the dunkin dounut crowd not the starbucks guys. Guess my senator has no opinion on that either. She has other matters on her mind. The 30 thousand jobs she promised upstate New York,as referenced by Russert in the last debate, that never materialized. i forgot again she more pressing issues on her mind. Media bias my foot its like the run up to the war the media is asleep at the wheel.
to court when called to testify at ......Antoin "Tony" Rezko's........"TRAIL"....... for FRAUD, scheming to
pressure companies seeking state business for kick backs and FRAUD, campaign contributions,
pouring thousands of $$$'s into OBAMA's campaign. Rezko also gave Obama land, which is in ?
Hillary's Experience - Not one question?
- The only president ever impeached on grounds of personal malfeasance
- Most number of witnesses to flee country or refuse to testify
- Most number of witnesses to die suddenly
- First president sued for sexual harassment.
- First president accused of rape.
- First first lady to come under criminal investigation
- Largest criminal plea agreement in an illegal campaign contribution case
- First president to establish a legal defense fund.
- First president to be held in contempt of court
- Greatest amount of illegal campaign contributions
- Greatest amount of illegal campaign contributions from abroad
- First president disbarred from the US Supreme Court and a state court
-Whitewater
-Monica
-Peter Paul
-Dubai
-Uranium Millions
-Tax Returns
-"first lady" schedule
-Hsu
The republicans will ask all of these questions and the media is ignoring that now. Not one question. Why?
HILLARY WINS RI
HILLARY WINS TEXAS
GO HILLARY GO!!!! GO HILLARY GO!!!!!
Have at it and decide whether Hillary Clinton should continue trashing the democratic party's chances of winning over the White House. She really needs to start thinking of the party. So things didn't go quite the Clinton way, at least she can walk away with what little dignity she has left.
Americans will continue to get screwed!
Irony.
Over 65 years old:
67% Hillary
30 % Obama
Worried about own financial situation ( TEXAS)
56% Hillary
43% Obama
Decided in last 3 days: ( TEXAS)
61% Hillary
38% Obama
Who has a clear plan to deliver (TEXAS)
66% Hillary
53% Obama
YOU DID GREAT HILLARY! THANK YOU TEXANS!
Clinton can't have it both ways - whining about the media while benefiting from some pretty strident bias herself.
As I said weeks ago, the Obama butt kissing media will turn. And when they do Obama is going to be so very sorry, It will be slow but the truth about the empty shell will be exposed. Here is comes....
Imagine for a minute that Hillary had won 11 straight contests by an average of 33 points. Then imagine that Obama responded not by bowing out gracefully for the good of the party and the country -- but decided to throw the "kitchen sink" at Hillary and go negative with everything he could think of -- even promoting rumors he didnt really believe -- like Hillary was having an affair with Vince Foster when he killed himself or the lost billing records, the travel office, Whitewater, she stayed with Bill for political ambition etc.
Can you imagine what you Hillary supporters would be saying?
Well I for one am disgusted with Hillary and the people she has surrounded herself with. You cant tell me there is any daylight between Mark Penn and Karl Rove or Hillary or GWB when it comes to campaigns. Just becuase she has had ambition to be President her whole adult life does not mean she has the right to harm the party at any cost. Blind amoral ambition has been one of two prime problems with the Clintons (why do you think she voted for the war?)-- the second one being lying of course. If she ends up winning this somehow -- I plan on leaving the party. Hillary, Bill, Mark Penn, and Howard Wolfsen do not represent me and if that is what the Democratic party has become -- I dont want any part of it.
But now, with all the crap that her and her campaign have pulled, I equate their moral fiber with bush and mccain, whose current stand on waterboarding aka torture and sucking up to george 'he's got a brown baby' bush has decimated any respect I might have had for the vetern.
Hillary Clinton is a divisive and destructive element in modern politcs, she is a dinosaur from the past.
She has reintroduced Arkansas political tactics and race baiting to her national campaign.
She lies every single day to the American public, and she changes her positions from one side to the other on national television, she is a complete hoax. She claims "35" years of experience, but her resume is largely corporate as she spent most of her professional career with the Rose Law Firm in Arkanas. Obama has more years experience in PUBLICLY Elected office as he spent 8 years in the Ilinois Senate and his years as US Senator. Her only true experience with anything of great political consequence was her husband's Health care program. She FAILED miserably to bring about any changes in this important matter, and alienated herself from the American public, ushering in 12 years of Republican dominance in congress and subsequent impeachment. Wake up Democrats, the Repubs have her ticket, they want to run against her, they know they can beat her easily. I will vote for Obama in November, unless the Dems nominate Clinton, then I will vote for McCain, gladly.
Am I going to have to vote for Nader?
Hopefully Senator Obama has learned, albeit the bard way, that she is a lying slime machine.