Category: Presidential Campaign

McCain’s Other Pet Bigot

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It’s not just Hagee.

Even closer to McCain is Televangelist Rod Parsley, who believes that America was founded with the purpose of destroying Islam.

It appears he knows nothing of the Treaty of Tripoli.

Art. 11. As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

But bigots tend to believe whatever they want to believe.

Bigotry is, after all the Republican party has these days.

Clinton and Obama Split Over Florida and Michigan – New York Times

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There seems to be a divergence of opinion on what to do do with Florida and Michigan between the campaigns.

Basically, the preferred solution for the Clinton Campaign is to seat them as is, with a revote being second, while the Obama Campaign, favors (in no particular order), not seating the delegates, splitting the delegates 50/50, or holding a caucus.

Not surprising, they both chose alternatives which they believe benefit them most.

A mail revote is eminently doable, and has the advantage of keeping the troublemaker Republicans in Michigan who vote for the weakest candidate, because mail only goes to registered Democrats.

The time frame is doable too. 3 weeks to get the money, 3 weeks to do the printing and mailing.

Total costs would likely be in the high single digit million dollar range.

There is only one that I find truly offensive, and it’s not refusing the delegates seating. After all, rules are rules, and the legislators in FL and MI knew what they were getting into when they voted for this.*

It’s the 50/50 split. The idea behind this, and the person putting this forward is Chris Dodd, not the Obama campaign, is that the will of the voter does not matter (that is that the 50/50 vote split means), but that the political movers and shakers get to hobnob as delegates at the convention.

It means no democracy, but lots of corrupt patronage.

*Truth be told, I have a little sympathy for the Florida Legislators. They had the date move attached to paper trails on ballots, which needs to be done in a state like Florida.

Clinton Camp Stepping Away From Ferraro

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Pretty tepid steps away though, “We disagree with her,” said spokesman Howard Wolfson.”

I’m sorry, I want to draft Gore or Howard Dean at this point.

At the very least, it appears that the Obama Campaign is learning to bitch slap back.

And of course, Olbermann, who has been hatin on Hillary since before Super Tuesday has a Special Comment.

Between real racism (Ferraro), phony accusations of Racism, gay baiting, and just all around stupidity, I’m tempted to write in Howard Dean in November.

Caucus Delegates ARE Different

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Much has been made about Hillary Clinton’s comment as to the differences between primary and caucus delegates. Josh Marshall has an analysis that shows this is not a meaningless distinction.

Specifically, caucus goers do not select delegates. They select representatives who go to the next level, either county or state wide, and at the end of this process, a delegate is selected.

So, if Obama representatives do not show up at these meetings, it is possible, and completely within the rules, for Clinton representatives to pick up some delegates this way.

Of course, we have Obama supporters whining that it’s not fair, but given that he raised $55 million dollars in February, investing a million or so in making sure that their representatives actually show up to the higher level caucuses would be a good idea.

Does Gary Hart Want Cheese with His Whine?

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Well, Gary Hart is saying that by suggesting that Obama is not fit to be president, Hillary Clinton broke the rules of Democratic politics.

As dhutchinson notes, what Hart said in 1984 was far worse, and he rolls the 1984 NY Times:

Senator Gary Hart said today that Walter F. Mondale, as Vice President, was part of an Administration that was “weak,” “inept,” “uncertain” and marked by “days of shame” in Iran…

“Walter Mondale now promises an America that can and will stand up for its vital interests,” the Colorado Senator told an ebullient crowd of hundreds of students at Texas A&M University here. “But Carter-Mondale actually gave us an America held hostage to the ayatollahs of the world.”

“In national security as in domestic policy,” he said, “we must not leave the American people with a bleak choice in 1984 between two failed pasts – that of Ronald Reagan and that of the Carter-Mondale Administration.”

‘Reagan’s Favorite Opponent’

“After reviewing the record of the Carter-Mondale Administration, I can understand why Walter Mondale is Ronald Reagan’s favorite opponent,” Mr. Hart added.

If Obama and his supporters want to win in November, they need to assume that they have the right where no such right previously existed, to be immune from certain types of criticism.

I was watching Olbermann today (and man does he hate on Hillary Clinton), and he puts up a clip of Obama complaining about how unfair the “red phone ad” was.

Compare that to Gary Hart, or, for that matter, what was done to Howard Dean in 2004 (where they were flat out calling insane), or Al Gore’s use of Willie Horton in 1988.

Clinton is attacking, but she has little interest in making a charge stick. She does not have to.

She is interested in the response, which is always, “It’s not fair.” She is repeatedly bitch slapping Barack Obama, and the response of he and his campaign is, “but it’s not fair.”

It is a message of entitlement, weakness, and passivity, and it will be nothing compared to what McCain and His Evil Minions&trade have in store for him in the general.

Get over yourself and get to work. If you want to beat Hillary Clinton, and John McCain after that, you have to show that you can stand up for yourself before you will convince anyone that you will stand up for them.

Another Bitch Slap

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So Hillary has an interview with Newsweek.com, and she says:

It doesn’t look bleak at all. I have a very close race with Senator Obama. There are elected delegates, caucus delegates and superdelegates, all for different reasons, and they’re all equal in their ability to cast their vote for whomever they choose. Even elected and caucus delegates are not required to stay with whomever they are pledged to. This is a very carefully constructed process that goes back years, and we’re going to follow the process.

And the Obama campaign goes into full whine mode.

Hello, clue here….She is not trying to get delegates to change their votes. She’s trying to make you whine about it so you look weak.

Seriously, if the Obama campaign cannot stand up to Clinton, they have no chance at all against McCain and the Republithug attack machine.

This is embarrassing, seriously. There are any number of responses that are strong, whining about playing hardball when specifically allowed by the rules does not make one look strong, or transformational.

It makes you look like a bunch of punks.

Barack Obama’s campaign sounds more and more like has a glass jaw. Does they shave, or use Windex?

You are being punk’d.

Democrats Looking at Mail in Primaries in FL and MI

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I’ve always been a fan of mail in voting, so I like the idea.

My guess will be that it will be the Obama campaign that expresses problems, because people have already voted, and in the event of a revote like this, they stand to lose, a lot.

Additionally, as shown by the results in Alabama on Super Tuesday, where a large win resulted in a nearly break even number in delegates for him, the revotes in MI and FL would be stacked against him delegate-wise.

Let me note that this is not evil. This is politics, and Obama is likely to favor something like a caucus instead, because it benefits his campaign.

That’s how political campaigns are supposed to work, to structure the process toward their candidate’s advantage, and absent stuff like Republican style vote suppression, it is neither good nor evil, it simply is, as Mount Everest is, and Alma Cogan isn’t.

McCain Embraces Hagee, Which is OK, Because He’s White

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Obama is expected to denounce Farrakhan, who made his endorsement without consulting the campaign, and has never shared a stage with him, but it’s OK for McCain to stand next to an anti-Jewish, anti-Catholic bigot and smile during the endorsement, I guess because he’s white.

Let’s be fair though, McCain does say that he disagrees with Hagee on Catholics.

It’s like that old Eddie Murphy sketch on Saturday Night Live, White Like Me.

McCain can embrace a radical fundamentalist bigot because he is white, and because said bigot is white.

Political Scriptures: Hillary 43:21

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This is going to be an infrequent feature of my blog, basically, whenever the muse grabs me:

Hillary 43:21

Yes, and she will be like an avenging angel unto the Republicans, and she shall smite them, and yea verily, they shall cry out, and retreateth to the bathroom stalls, where they shall tappeth their feet.

Yea though they get down upon their knees, the Republicans shallst not be offering homage to God, but shall be doing geometric things to each other, and they shall proclaimeth that they not beith gay, but rather that a great misunderstanding hath overtaken them.

Yea verily, they shall declare, we have turned over a new leaf, just as soon as we shall get to the bottom of the page.

Have I mentioned that I’m going to hell for this?

Samantha Power Resigns

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My concolences, and this does not bode well for the Obama campaign.

For the past few weeks, Hillary Clinton and the her campaign have been bitch slapping Barack Obama and his campaign, and this is just another step.

For the past 25+ years, the Republicans have used what Josh Marshall calls, the Bitch Slap Theory of Politics, and Hillary and her folks know it, and get it, and are using it on Obama.

The theory is as follows:

One way — perhaps the best way — to demonstrate someone’s lack of toughness or strength is to attack them and show they are either unwilling or unable to defend themselves — thus the rough slang I used above. And that I think is a big part of what is happening here. Someone who can’t or won’t defend themselves certainly isn’t someone you can depend upon to defend you.

–snipped Kerry comment–

Hitting someone and not having them hit back hurts the morale of that person’s supporters, buoys the confidence of your own backers (particularly if many tend toward an authoritarian mindset) and tends to make the person who’s receiving the hits into an object of contempt (even if also possibly also one of sympathy) in the eyes of the uncommitted.

This is certainly what Bush’s father did to Michael Dukakis and, sadly, it is what Bush himself did, to a great degree, to Al Gore.

And what Bush did to Kerry, and what Clinton is doing to Obama.

If he can’t answer this against Clinton, Obama cannot win the general.