“OBAMA SUPPORTERS” DAILY NEWS Friday April 18, 2008

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Friday April 18, 2008


Philadelphia Daily News Endorses Obama

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I wondered whether it would be worth doing the one hour drive, through rush hour traffic, to do the debate in Philly yesterday and decided to take a gamble that something good would come out of it. Boy, was it a good decision.
::::::::
My main reason for going to a lot of these things is not to cover what I can see on TV, but to make contacts and get “color” and background, before and then after, in the spin room.

I'm not going to comment much on the actual debate, except for one aspect, to be discussed below. We'll have plenty of other folks do do that.
Arriving around 5:00 PM, I had to walk through a group of Clinton supporters. The streets around the Constitution center had a fringe of supporters a few people deep, for Hillary and for Barack—more for Hillary. Hillary’s people seemed better dressed and more organized. But I remembered back to August 2003, when the Democratic Presidential forum was held at the Constitution Center, and there were massively more supporters for Howard Dean than there were for Clinton and Obama combined. You tell me what that means.

… Within the first hour there, I had a chance to chat briefly with former clinton staffer George Stephanopolous, one of the debate moderators, and Dick Pohlman, one of Philly’s top bloggers. As the evening rolled on, I chatted with Congressman Joe Sestak, a few of the local Clear Channel right wing radio talk show hosts, Pa Governor Ed Rendell, who I had a chance to do a brief interview with, Philly Mayor Michael Nutter and Hillary’s campaign manager, Howard Wolfson..

… As we walked over to where he was set up, he explained I’d be interviewed by Amber Lee Ettinger—Obama Girl. They took a picture. It was a hoot. She seems taller in her videos.



…more at the link

Everyone on every network is missing the entire point of Obama's approach, and it is so basic I cannot believe no one has caught on.
There is one simple and overiding reason that Obama does not go in for the kill with Clinton, and it has nothing to do with his ability to "close the deal". Obama has to gain this nomination without pissing off all of Hillary's supporters.

If he dives in to any of the critical comments pundits and so-called reporters think he needs to in order to show some killer instinct, he will totally lose the women who are currently pro-Hillary forever. The vitriol is bad enough now, can you imagine how Hillary's girls would feel about him if he had flattened her?

I asked my 82 year old mother, who hates politics with a passion because it is so negative, what she thought about the debate. She said "Well, he's being a gentleman, of course. Thank goodness, that is why I will vote for him." She then said "It's about time someone behaved properly." She then also asked me why I was making her watch the coverage. "You know this is why I hate politics, I'm going to go play mahjong on the computer."

Simple, to the point, out of the mouth of a lady who usually won't even pay attention to all of this. This is not unpreparedness, this is foresight so complete, and farreaching that gaming minds have missed it. He can't win without all of those women. He can't win those women if they hate him for destroying Hillary.

Being a regular person and a patriotic American, I admit that I usually don’t watch politics on TV or elsewhere.

As luck would have it (or, more probly, the Good Lord), I had just finished my last romance novel and left with nuthin’ to do, I wound up turning on the show you had last nite – and I was delightedly surprised at this debate thing you was airin’.

Finally, your boys asked the questions that folks like myself want answers to, no ifs ands or butts.

First off, I been wonderin’ about that loophole flag pin thing for a while now, and damn if that wasn’t one of your most important questions to ask!

Real Americans like myself understand that people who love this country wear those loophole flag pins all the time – why I’ll betcha that Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rice had ‘em proudly displayed the whole time they was at those torturin’ meetings discussing how we don’t torture anybody.

I did wonder why the people askin’ the questions wasn’t wearing any theyselves, or Hillry neither – but I guess they just didn’t want to embarrass that Brack Hussein fella by making it obvious that he wasn’t sporting one like he should.

...more at the link

As DNC chairman Howard Dean urges super delegates to publicly commit their support for a favored candidate,
90% of 300 superdelegates who have yet to publicly back a candidate say they will support Senator Barack Obama,
The Black Star News has learned.

What’s more, some superdelegates that Senator Hillary Clinton’s campaign claimed had pledged their support for the New York Senator say they are actually backing Senator Obama.

Based on a survey of 300 of the remaining super delegates, 270 say they will support the Illinois Senator.

The Democratic Party apportions pledged delegates on a proportional basis during the primaries; this means that Senator Obama will win a large chunk of support in the remaining contests, beginning with Pennsylvania on April 22.

If the survey results are accurate, the Illinois Senator who now leads Clinton, is virtually assured of his party’s nomination.

THE CHOICE in Tuesday's Democratic presidential primary is not only the one between a white woman and a black man.
It's a choice between the past and the future.

More specifically, the nation must decide how to face the future racing toward us in the form of slumping home sales, unstable financial markets and increased joblessness - and staring at us from the Green Zone in Iraq and the beds at veterans hospitals.

Should Democrats choose someone who will employ hard-won - even bitter - experiences gained in a past Democratic administration, or reach beyond political truisms toward a new (and untried) model of governing?

… But the long slog through 44 primaries and caucuses has confirmed for us that Sen. Barack Obama's vision of change - and the way he plans to pursue it - is what we need right now. Badly.

… An Obama administration would be freer of the the corrupting influence of big-money donors and corporate interests. Obama has raised $240 million overall, with half coming in contributions of less than $200. People who contribute to political campaigns can feel they "own" a candidate and so Obama would owe allegiance to the wide swath of America that has financed his campaign.

Based on his experience in running a quarter-billion-dollar enterprise with thousands upon thousands of volunteers, we could expect an Obama administration to be well-managed and cost-effective, with the president choosing forward-thinking advisers committed to his program, demanding that they work as a team and pay attention to details.

He would be steady and calm, given neither to irrational exuberance or outbursts of anger. He would make mistakes, that's for sure, but he could be expected to recognize them, adjust, and move forward.

….more at the link

UTICA, New York—With just five days left before Democratic primary voters go to polls to decide who they want to be their presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois are locked in a battle that is too close to call, the latest Newsmax/Zogby telephone poll shows.

The survey, which was conducted April 15-16, 2008 and came out of the field midway through Wednesday's contentious debate between the two candidates in Philadelphia, shows Clinton at 45% and Obama at 44%, with 12% either wanting someone else or left undecided.



...more at the link

Scarborough tries to cut off Rachel Maddow, unlike so many other liberals in the media,
Maddow doesn’t let him get away with it and in retaliation Scarborough walks off the set.

It’s the schoolyard bully you give a good whack in the nose, folks.

Clinton on Colbert tonight - Obama & Edwards crashing via satellite

Looks like they're crashing HRC's appearance, per The Page.

REMEMBER STEPHEN AT THE WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT'S DINNER?

HILLARY MAY WANT TO THINK ABOUT THAT

Go to the link to read the discussion

The GOS notes:

In one of the threads last night, commenter theran made a good observation:



Actually, in fairness, Josh Marshall pointed this out several days ago:




Credit where credit is due.

The Clinton camp is hammering the Weather Underground connection on the conference call this morning. The merging of the Clinton campaign with the very forces that once tried to destroy the Clintons is a fascinating moment. It does indeed show that for the Clintons, anything is possible in the pursuit of power. There are no permanent enemies, no permanent arguments, no permanent principles. Just the pursuit of power by all non-violent means. This, of course, has been the guiding, polarizing direction of American politics since Vietnam. It is the kind of politics that defined the Clintons and their generation. It is the boomer war fought by proxy: red-blue; patriot-wimp; American-unAmerican; faithful-Godless. And you cannot help but notice a kind of liberation in the Clinton camp, as they finally thrill to the full experience of deploying the cultural warfare and marginalization that they have been so used to Republicans using against them. And they get to use it against a black man in ways no Republican could get away with so easily. Man, that must feel good after all these years. No wonder she's still smiling.

The Clintons began their career fighting Nixon. They ended up, in terms of political tactics, becoming him. Yes, it's 1968 again. And the Clintons want to coopt the Silent Majority of their time. Their only problem is that it may no longer actually exist. We'll see.

On an Obama campaign conference call moments ago, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe offered a novel push-back against Hillary's claims that she's better prepared for a general election.

Plouffe argued that because the Obama campaign hasn't run as brutal a campaign against Hillary as she has against him, she has not been thoroughly vetted and hence would also be vulnerable against the GOP, despite claiming the contrary.



It's hard, however, to see that as being quite in the same league with the hits on Wright, and now, Ayers.

…more at the link

“Race to the White House” Rachel Maddow and Joe Scarborough got into a little argument after Rachel called him out for being rude and interrupting her when she criticized John McCain. At the end of the show, when guests are supposed to make a final prediction about the presidential race, Scarborough instead opted to take a shot at Rachel. After Rachel gives her response, Scarborough is nowhere to be found.

video at the link

MadFloridian: For the last few days I have tried to really analyze my anger toward the Clintons. It is not like me to actually feel this deep an anger toward someone I respected for so many years. There is kind of deep sadness that goes along with the anger.

It is the process of a mind having to reevaluate feelings, trying to figure how much is directed at my state for its outrageous actions about the primary, the lies told....and how much is directed at the Clinton campaign for using my state as a tool of their campaign.

The other day HBO had the movie Primary Colors on reruns. I watched it with new eyes this time. I read the book years ago, and I was angry...how dare Joe Klein impugn them like that. I wish I had not watched the movie again.

more at the link