Obama has won in many swing states; but in West Virginia and Kentucky, white voters were given permission to not vote for Obama and give Hillary R. Clinton a big win, based on whites voting against Obama not as much for Hillary.

I’m thankful to the Clinton administration for greatly improving the lives of Americans. At the beginning of the administration the federal budget deficit was $290 billion which was the largest deficit in U.S. history. President Bill Clinton said…

“[We put] the nation’s economic house in order by focusing on cutting the deficit in half, bringing interest rates down, and spurring private investment to fire up the nation’s stagnant economy. When I ran for president, job growth had been at the lowest level since the Great Depression, unemployment was at 8%, and the deficit was soaring out of control.”

Source:
http://www.ontheissues.org/...

Today Kevin gave his opinion about Hillary for Veep. Here are my two comments in response.

UPDATE: To all the people who complained that I wrote another "Hillary Clinton as veep" diary when a bunch of others did, I am a regular diarist (over 30 recent diaries, always receiving comments and recs) and people may want to see my point of view on this rather than have it be buried among 400 other comments. I am not going to keep quiet like a whipped dog on this just because trolls gang up and write 30 diaries on whether Hillary should be veep to keep anybody from writing an even moderately pro-Hill diary on this. I definitely remember all the ridiculous investigations the Republicans poured millions of dollars into when Bill was in the White House. I know who are enemies are and I know they do not like the Clintons, but those Republicans can take a hike as far as I am concerned.

I'm not a psychologist.  But I play one on DailyKos.

Two days after Barack Obama's impressive victory in North Carolina and amazing close run in Indiana, Hillary Clinton has resisted all calls including from loyal supporters to step aside so the party can now rally behind a nominee and finally engage in the general election battle against John McCain.

In light of Hillary's campaign performance thus far in this election year, her continuance is not unexpected, but it is become increasing unwelcome to the party as a whole. On every possible measurement, it is clear now that Barack Obama has an insurmountable lead in the race for the nomination and despite the best attempts at character assassination, he still commands a exceptionally strong movement of supporters. For Hillary to have an ability to clinch the nomination now, Barack Obama would either have to become physically unable to continue or be politically destroyed in a fashion that would lead the party away from him.

To accomplish such a task, Hillary sees only one avenue left: latent racism.

Unlike many who think Hillary Clinton's gone mad or is simply in denial, I think she's placing her bets now on allegiances and counting on racial tension to exploit them.

Yesterday I used my daily diary to respond to a another poster's diary about how this blog needs to be more "civil" to Hillary supporters from now on. I agreed with his views and gave my reasons why.  My main point was that my demographic, older, white women were being treated as pariah by Obama supports and taken for granted by the candidate himself. Quoted during a debate: "I am confident I will get her votes if I'm the nominee," Obama stressed. "It's not clear she would get the votes I got if she were the nominee."

I stated that if the current situation remains the same that my demographic would not only not vote for Obama but may even leave the party, comments ranged from "how could I be so selfish" to go ahead and leave since you are not really a Democrat anyway to a very insulting statement that I want all the "darkies" to go away (the word I use here is the one the poster used and not mine).  I will answer those particular comments later on but the one comment that I think is really important to address is the one that simple asked "What will it take to keep you?".

Hi, my name is Michelle Ringuette, speaking for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

Since America first heard this...

My husband and I are sitting here, drinking red wine, and talking about the aftermath of last night and looking forward. Now, what would shut down the media, bring in all the Clinton voters, (and yes, there are quite a few), and let us all move forward as a unified party with all the Democratic strength from now till November?  

The results of the Democratic primaries last night leave virtually no doubt that Barack Obama will be the Democratic Presidential nominee.  Hillary Clinton's Pennsylvania gains were completely cancelled with Obama's 232,000-vote win in North Carolina and his 22,000-vote loss in Indiana.  According to CNN, Obama currently stands 189 delegates away from the 2,025 delegates needed to secure the nomination.  With the candidates expected to split the six remaining primaries, Obama figures to take about half of the 217 remaining pledged delegates.  Using that projection, Obama would stand roughly 75-85 delegates away from the magic number.

Clinton is down to fighting for Florida and Michigan.  However, it's well known that the best way to beat a fighter is to take away what he does best.  Clinton is best when she feels she has some principle she can fight for.  This article lays out what I see as the five-point way to take the fight out of Clinton, and bringing the nomination process to a harmonious close.  

Today is the last "major" day of reckoning left in the primary season. Some within the media may view it as Super Tuesday part III, others may look at it as Clinton's last stand, but all know there is some finality coming today.

The problem is no one truly knows what that finality looks like. The cable news shows which have been all over the place today prove that.

What we do know however, is that the Clinton campaign since the weekend has been hard at work trying to reset expectations. Hillary has been heard saying Obama's been the expected winner of Indiana and the campaign has suggested that an NC loss shouldn't be seen as a poor Hillary performance because Obama's always been strong there. The Clinton campaign has also publicly suggested that they intend to pursue a nuclear option to seat MI and FL as is to ensure a Clinton win. Even today, Hillary's message is that the nomination cannot be won without MI and FL being seated. What all of this suggests to me is one thing:

Hillary knows this thing is over and doesn't expect either IN or NC to save her.

And since predictions are both popular and plentiful on the day of elections, I'll present my own predictions here not only for today's primaries, but for the endgame these primaries are likely to influence.

In her recent diary, CindyMax asked the question Can Indiana Primary be Swayed by Republicans?  The likely answer is "Very much," to the extent that Pazuzu's projection of a 12-point Clinton lead over Barack Obama is probably pretty close to the mark, if not underestimating Clinton's victory margin.

CindyMax is 100% correct in calling out Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels for his smirking remarks on NPR (at about the 3:40 mark of the clip), as follows:

In addition to the Zogby and Rasmussen Polls released earlier:

One of the most remarkable things about this Democratic primary season has been the almost complete defection of the African-American vote from Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama.  She started out with about 80% of the Black vote, but in the last two primaries, Obama has won 92% of the Black vote.

There are simple explanations (for example, Black voters are voting for a Black candidate).  However, the truth is much more complicated.  I don't pretend to speak for all Black voters, but I can definitely write with some knowledge about how my vote was lost to her.  Perhaps, this discussion will also lead to some conclusions about how this massive swing occurred.

If Doug Denneny wins his primary for Virginia's 11th Congressional District-
He has endorsed Sen. Obama and is the only candidate in the race to endorse a Presidential candidate.

He is also Live Blogging as we speak:

http://www.dailykos.com/...

Dear Brian

After 8 years of the bush administration, wars and bad economy, the American people are eager for change. The DP has started the year with a great hope, and almost certainty, to win back the White House.
Many events had happened since then that had cast doubts about that certainty and turned the big hope into big worry. I believe, that one of those events, is Sen. Clinton’s determination that she must win the nomination regardless of the price that the DP and the American People will pay for it.

Sen. Clinton has been helping the GOP tremendously, by ignorance or by design. Many rumors and speculations are circulating around the net and among some DP leaders that the Clintons are doing great harm to the party, determining to do every thing possible, without being obvious, to sabotage Sen. Obama’s Chances of winning the White House, so that Sen. McCain wins the White House in November and Clinton can make another run in 2012. They are ignoring the rules of the DP and deciding to set their own rules.

So which rules make sense? Let’s find out.