I'm glad Richardson is endorsing Obama. It would have been nice if he had done it before Texas. Was the Obama campaign so confident back then that they wouldn't guarantee the job Richardson was asking for? The fact that the endorsement is coming now tends to confirm my gut feeling about the current situation.
I am very nervous. The polls are beginning to show the impact of the Rev Wright sound bites. They will be endlessly recycled. "God damn America" -- that's pretty much all it will take in western Pennsylvania and beyond, in the absence of some heavyweight offset.
Obama's speech on race was extraordinary -- but it took more than 15 minutes to deliver. Will that match the Wright sound bites over the long haul? I fear not.
Hence Big Dog Bill's latest foray into the gutter of innuendo. How bracing, he tells us, a Hillary/McCain face-off would be -- given that these are two candidates who love their country. Such slime. You want to take a shower after you watch him.
John Edwards heard that Obama speech on race. He's smart enough and real enough to understand the depth of promise it represented. He can talk to white working class voters in western Pennsylvania and beyond. Bill Richardson's endorsement is nice -- but John Edwards could turn the tide.
Ask Elizabeth for advice on this one, John. Time to step up. History is knocking on your door.
Your premise is that if enough people say to Hillary, "Look it was a wonderful dream, but it's over", she'll listen. I think you're wrong, because it's just too close, and whatever else she might be, she's not a quitter.
Obama will be the nominee. But his health care plan is weak and non-universal and incredibly disappointing. Hillary's unacceptable on Iraq. I may not be a majority, but I'm disappointed all the genuine progressives were dismissed early by the media and the voters so we can have this beauty pageant to make token history as the first "whatever" president.
I'm sure he will endorse and vote for Obama after he's become the nominee, but if he doesn't do it before, he represents the Democrats like myself who are very disgusted with what this contest has degenerated into.
Much ado about identity politics and nothing actually progressive on offer.
I think Obama is a stellar campaigner and a candidate obviously and Clinton is better than most people give her credit for.
It's that when the windy rhetoric has blown away and you look past the surface of identity politics, they are both so DLC-to-the-bone. BOTH. Neither will restore the balance to our democracy and economy that is currently weighted to corporations. We know all about calculating, triangulating Hillary. Obama's health care proposals tell me all I need to know about how "progressive" he really is.
Many on the left are so angry at having been triangulated against by the Clintons, that they are projecting onto Obama this hope that he will rescue the Dems from the DLC and corporate control.
Vote for him as I will in November, but please don't delude yourself about what you are actually getting.
I may be disappointed, but compared to John McCain and the frightening thought of 4 more years of conservatism, I will be voting and rooting for Obama in the general -- but not a moment before he gets the nomination.
Obama's plan would reduce costs MORE than Clinton or Edward's plans, and it is attainable.
People who pretend that Obama's policy ideas aren't as strong as his speaking skills have not done their research.
The link above is the April 2007 article in the NY Times about the controversial relationship between Obama and Rev Wright. Whether you are an Obama supporter or a Hillary supporter doesn't matter. This is an article everyone should read. It won't change anyone's mind, in fact it will probably solidify each person's viewpoint, but it begs the question why it didn't play out then. Is it because TV news didn't pick up on it and add the video clips to sensationalize it? Was it because the Republican nominee wasn't yet known? I heard on some broadcasts that it was the McCain camp that put it out there.
To pretend that Obama's support has not come from the will of the people is to ignore the facts.
What I fear is that Edwards could be induced by Hillary to spring an endorsement of her after the Pennsylvannia primary, before North Carolina -- espectially if she can get close in the polling -- to tip the primary to Hillary. What would Hillary offer? Anything and everything that it takes to get his endorsement.