In which a few of the talking heads we can't get out of our heads, or off our televisions, are reviewed

Hillary Clinton is not going to win the Democratic nomination. Not in 2008. Not in 2012.  Not ever.  

Furthermore, she's not going to win the presidency.  Not in 2008. Not in 2012. Not ever.

So why do I think that she should stay in the race?

In 2004, Barack Obama gave an absolutely stunning keynote speech at the Democratic Convention, one that many people believed would carry him into greater success in the future, in other words, the presidency. However, as a history major, I tend to try and look back and see how the past has worked, because as we all know, history has that darn trend of repeating itself.

After looking back recently into all of the keynote speakers from the 1900 Democratic National Convention to Barack Obama, I noticed a few things. The most important of which is the completely failure of keynote speakers when it comes to winning the presidency. Before I go on, let me mention under full disclosure that I am an Edwards supporter, who plans on voting for Obama now, but with recent events, I am back into the undecided field. However, as I am about to prove, the past seems to want Clinton to win.

So below, let us review the curse, and then lets see how exactly Barack Obama fits into this.

Also, a note to Edwards supports who want him to get the Attorney General Spot, and then become President later. NO Attorney General has ever gone onto the presidency.

We've watched Barack Obama go from Illinois Legislator to Democratic Convention Keynote Speaker to US Senator to viable challenger for President in 2008.  For anyone who watched it, the importance of Senator Obama's Keynote address at the 2004 Democratic Convention is difficult to overstate.

Ask yourself this: Would Obama even be running for President this election cycle had he not delivered that address?

In this diary I want to give some of the highlights of Keynote addresses over the years and demonstrate that this important speech is not the stepping stone to the Presidency that some might believe.

First the list...

Kimberley Strassel ♥'s Harold Ford Jr.

[Click here for larger image]

I could not help but snark about Kimberley Strassel's silly attack piece on Markos Moulitsas and all of us at the Daily Kos. The editorial comment appeared in the Wall Street Journal on Friday, August 17. (I assume it was in the printed paper. I read it online.)

There have been two high impact postings on Daily Kos about this issue...

Having heard so much lately about the Democratic Party swinging so far to the left, I wondered, what, exactly, is the "middle?"

Are you "middle?"  Am I middle?  I can't answer for you, but I can answer for myself and my family.  But first, I think we need to define "middle."

Middle is what?  The middle is where many Americans tend to fall, maybe they are against raising taxes, but they support gay marriage.  Maybe those in the middle will vote for both democrats and republicans, maybe, just maybe, those in the middle are somewhat up on issues and fall left on some, right on others.  And, as far as I can tell, the "middle" is usually those of us in the increasingly shrinking "middle class."

More.....

There have been lots of good diaries about the "debate" on Meet the Press Sunday between Harold Ford and our founder.  I'll spare you the personal bona fides, but debate is my profession and I've been active in it since 1971.  So here is a debater's perspective on this exchange.

If you did not watch the exchange it's here on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/...  part 1  

and

http://www.youtube.com/...  part 2

Victory in this sort of exchange is subjective.  Debates are not won or lost like most games where there is a clear score at the end.  

I purposely did not embed this as a YouTube link. That's because I just want you to focus on this picture.

What is remarkable about it? Is it the words that were said on this program? Follow me below the fold...

Cross Posted from Florida Kossacks

Watching the debate between Markos and Harold Ford yesterday was a bit like watching a rerun of Rocky IV, wherein Sylvester Stallone's Rocky Balboa goes to the Soviet Union to fight Dolph Lungren's Ivan Drago.  Not because Markos took the fight into the hostile territory of Meet the Press, or because Markos endured Ford's blather patiently before emerging victorious, or because the entire spectacle was brimming with the expectant propaganda of two competing ideologies.

FUCK YOUR ASS AND YOUR SISTER'S. SHE CAN LICK MINE, NOT KICK MINE.

YOU ARE A FUCKING JEWISH IDIOT, FUCKING YOUR JEWISH SISTER AND YOUR JEWISH MOTHER WITH A SHINY BASEBALL BAT.

YOU HAVE AN IQ OF AN ANT, YOU FUCKING ASS-LICKING BALL-LESS HERMAPHRODITE.

WHO CARES IF SOMEONE GETS BANNED YOU STUPID IDIOT. ANYONE CAN CREATE A NEW ID AND COME BACK AGAIN. BUT OF COURSE WITH YOUR IQ YOU  CANNOT UNDERSTAND IT. GO ASK YOUR SLUT MOTHER TO EXPLAIN IT TO YOU.

FUCKING FILTHY ASS-LICKING JEW!

Charming, no?

Write to "Meet The Press" (and DLC) and let them know there are lots of us who believe the future of politics is dailykos not the old school democrats (DLC).  It was a stark contrast watching the two men this morning, Ford sounded like a used car salesman, Kos ran circles around him.  The DLC... stick a fork in them.

Kos,

Tomorrow you sit across across from the DLC leader on Meet The Press.

I will be sitting across from my TV.

I have been a member of this community for over three years and have never spoken a word to you, or exchanged an e-mail, and of course I have no idea whether or not you'll ever read this and I have no idea how this will be received.

But Mr. Ford is the exact problem with the Democrats in a nutshell. And I would have paid money just to have the opportunity to say to hear you confront him.I want to hear him repeat his quasi "Centrist" talking points and I want to hear you stick them up his patootie. I want to see a genuine grass roots Dem confront a Move-to-the-Center (Right) poseur.

Sorry for the link-less and short diary. But this is a very proud moment for us.

DLC Chairman Harold Ford makes an appearance on FOXNews' Hannity & Colmes to prove that he is the cutting edge...of Republican politics

[Promoted by DHinMI]

Tomorrow's Meet the Press debate between DLC Chairman Harold Ford, Jr. and kos will spotlight the "old vs. new" Democratic philosophy struggle, with Tim Russert as referee.  In Alabama, a lot of the party faithful still think the DLC hung the moon.  They haven't figured out blogs, get their party information from local party leaders (lots of DLC there) and believe too much of the Republican trash talk about DailyKos and "liberal blogs."  The bulk of this diary is cross posted from one at Left in Alabama, intended to introduce our readers to the real difference between the netroots and the DLC.  It may be interesting to some readers here who want to understand a little more about the current political climate in the South.

I am a Progressive Centrist.  Harold Ford Is an Extremist.  Ann Coulter once said on Kudlow + Co., "Harold Ford is one of my favorite Democrats." Coulter advocates blowing up world leaders who won't convert to her form of Christianity at gunpoint and Coulter once blamed Jews for the Holocaust.

I am a moderate with progressive principles and a pro middle class ideology.  Harold Ford is a conservative (yes not at right wing as others) with corporatist tendencies.

I am moderate.  I believe in our Bill of Rights.  Harold Ford is an extremist,  He seeks to undermine our basic liberties.

This is the same Harold Ford who once said, "You have to understand people like George W Bush. He's a nice guy."  Ford also once said of Bush, "I love my president. I love him personally."

Yes my friends they are splashed all over the Opinion Page. Not only that , they smash the DLC pretty damn good. Here's a teaser.

The DLC had two decades to make its case, to build an audience and community, to elect leaders the American people wanted. It failed.

Its members number in the hundreds, compared with the millions that the people-powered movement can claim, and they are reduced to attacking our movement from the studios of right-wing Fox News and pleading that in the next election they'll really prove that the mushy, indistinguishable "middle" is where the American people want to be.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

So I am going through my daily email from the Wall Street Journal (I believe in following the Sun Tsu aphorism of knowing my enemy) and encounter an opinion piece by Kimberly A. Strassel (not behind the subscription wall - I would not pay for this publication even before Murdoch bought it) entitled Democratic Dustup: The far left isn't the path to a governing majority.  Let me offer the first brief paragraph, which certainly grabbed my attention as a lede should, albeit probably not as the author intended:

They'll find their way back to the middle. And if they don't, they won't win." So says a blunt Harold Ford Jr., chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council, of his party's current crop of presidential candidates. The question is just how many would-be Democratic presidents recognize the wisdom of his words.

Dear Martin and Harold,

In response to your letter in the Washington Post warning about the "dangers" of the Democratic party moving away from what you, in your tired old on-life-support frame, call "the vital center", I felt compelled to write you and politely ask you to get out of the way of the progressive movement.  If you don't, the stream of populism will wash you down, too.  If I were impolite, I'd tell you to go straight to hell, or pull your Washington-bubble-inflated heads out of your proverbial asses.  Hell, let me be impolite.  Go to hell.

Many in the Daily Kos community and the blogosphere have taken you to task on your insane insistence on triangulation, compromising on our most cherished principles and adopting the right wing frame in the debates, or on your clever-as-a-moose plan to claim credit for liberal influences on the Democratic filed (like universal healthcare, workers' rights).  I am not here to restate those objections.  But for a good measure, do some reading: