Sorry everyone - all signs point to a Clinton announcement on Saturday in Illinois. Everyone else is writing VP diaries, so I had to write mine. Today Obama was heard saying "he" when referring to his vice president. Howard Fineman said if he had to bet his life on it, "it's Joe Biden." But who else would you need to wait to announce until the last minute like this? Who else could dominate a week of coverage and overshadow anybody that McCain picks? Who else has already been given two nights of the convention? I'm sorry, but I smell unity at the convention...
Senator McCain recently said "The Surge is Working," repeating his assertion that he has been making since mid-late 2007, at a time when even Hillary and Barack were talking about the security gains that were so remarkable. I remember distinctly Hillary was going on about the Sunni's in Al Anbar, and Obama admitting security improvements without political improvements, whatever the case may be, or wherever Hillary is on the war at this point, there is one undeniable fact that has echoed down the chamber for a year now. The surge is working.
My question is, who is it working for?
I guess that depends on what your definition of is is, doesn't it? Just because the surge IS working - doesn't mean that it is actually working. Is the surge working right now at this very moment - no. Was it working before when I said it was - well not really. Well my view of working and your view of working are two different things...Does this sound familiar yet?
A few days or weeks ago I wrote about the racial hatred that was being spewed at the Democrats.org partybuilder website during the whole pastorgate scandal, because for me it had reached a tipping point. As someone who had been blogging there since they opened the site, I had been getting more and more dismayed after the February contests seemed to change the tone of the debate on the blog. Arguments became more belligerent, full of common fallacies, and just plain stupid, as blogger after blogger posted diaries railing against both democratic candidates in support of the other like nothing we had seen before. Using Republican talking points, these so called "democratic" bloggers spent great deals of time establishing their so called strong allegiance to one candidate or the other, and using it as cover to post nasty comments about the democrat they weren't voting for. I think this problem may be moving to KOS.
I was watching MSNBC and I nearly blew a gasket after Hillary's press conference today. She clearly denied to reporters that she ever told Richardson that Obama couldn't win in Novemeber, which would put her at odds with what is being reported Richardson is saying. Strangely, immediately following the news conference, Norah Odonnell claims that Hillary did NOT deny saying those things about Obama - when clearly she DID deny it. It's on TAPE! Is MSNBC just bad at listening? I don't think so - you can tell by the edit they included when they replayed the clip that they are playing with facts. Luckily, I have a DVR.
This was just so obvious and urgent I felt I needed to say something. When the media decides to write its own storyline despite the facts, we all lose in the end.
Hillary has taken the attacks to a new level - she has openly stated that she thinks John McCain would make a better president than Barack Obama. She didn't say it exactly like that, but saying that John McCain meets the "Commander in Chief threshold" and that Obama does not, she has openly declared war on the Democratic Party.
On Face the Nation Sunday morning, Bill Richardson declared that whoever has the most delegates after Tuesday should be the nominee. Of course, this puts a great deal of pressure on Hillary Clinton to not only win all the states, but win them by large margins. Saying that Obama has "huge national momentum," Richardson said that we would be hurting the party to have a protracted race that lasted through April.
Hillary Clinton has consistently supported NAFTA, right up until the point she decided to run for President. For her to try to cry foul at the Obama campaign for pointing out her shifting positions is ludicrous. She runs around the country trying to take credit for everything that her husband did as president, but then when people bring up NAFTA, she starts railing on about how it helped Bush's "corporate cronies." She was ardent supporter of NAFTA when her husband signed it, so what has changed?
If Carville is a Clinton supporter, he isn't a very helpful one. Before Super Tuesday he was telling everyone that her campaign would be over if she lost California. I agreed with him, but that was beside the point. As an adviser and supporter, how is it helpful to set up these standards that are getting harder and harder to meet.
Before the Potomac Primary, Carville said on CNN that Hillary would have to win OHIO, TEXAS, AND PENNSYLVANIA. All three of them - if she loses a single one, it's over! I think that it is highly unlikely that any lead she has in those states will still be around a month from now, and considering the fact that those states delegates are proportionally awarded, who are they kidding?
After her big comeback, and all was said and done, the fact remains that this is a race for delegates. New Hampshire will award Clinton 9, Obama 9, and Edwards 4.Clinton 9, Obama 9, and Edwards 4.
I am still shocked. What the hell happened with all those polls who predicted a double digit victory for Obama? How could so called "scientific polls" be so wrong?
Many of us were dismissed when we thought Clinton's third place finish in Iowa was a predictor of things to come, but it seems like recent history will repeat itself. With the Clinton and Edwards campaigns bleeding supporters over to the Obama side, CNN just reported that a new poll has Obama up 10 points in New Hampshire.
"She almost came in second." I was laughing my ass off when I heard an NPR commentator spin Hillary's devastating loss to Obama AND Edwards. The Paper Campaign has caught fire, and revealed the emperor has no clothes. Ready for change? That would be a great campaign slogan if it wasn't reminding people how often Hillary has changed her positions on the war, or on universal healthcare, or on torture, or on Iran... If it's not over, it's only a few more days now until it's all over. I know, it may hurt a little - but that's life.
To explain his remarks that seemed to "hype" Obama's middle name during a Clinton rally, Bob Kerrey took his campaign of pseudo-smearing by calling Obama's grade school a quote "secular madrassa," perpetuating the Fox News lie that already has been debunked, by CNN no less. My jaw nearly dropped to the floor when I heard him say it, because it was clearly discovered to not be a Madrassa at all, and following his comments about religion, the middle name, and now the Madrassa thing, isn't this an underhanded attack by the Clinton campaign?
If Edwards wants a boost in his polls, he would flip on the issue of drivers licenses for illegals. I know what all the Democratic candidates are thinking - they're assuming a future comprehensive plan that allows for a path to citizenship. At the very least they are assuming a plan that legalizes the status of illegal aliens who are the biological parents of underage American citizen children, because we aren't going to be tearing families apart, there's a future bipartisan consensus on that. But the problem I have is that Democrats have once again made the mistake of thinking two moves ahead, without realizing that the second move is contingent upon completing the first, which is to win the White House, and they're going to lose it trying to explain their nuanced and complexed (albeit correct) position. Think about it, before you could explain that this is simply the logical anticipation of a future policy that most people agree will eventually happen, you will lose the election because you want to give a drivers license to Osama Bin Laden. Think about it, and for god sakes, avoid it.
If you're here to learn how to turn aquadots into the date rape drug, you've come to the right place. It turns out, all you have to do is swallow the micro - I mean aquadots, and wait. After a little while, you'll get woozy, and the next thing you know, it's Tuesday and your butt feels like a rotating door.
This all would have been so funny to me if only I hadn't purchased Aquadots for my six year old daughter. My daughter loved them so much, we've been buying aquadots for all of her little friends for their birthday parties - and last night, I got to call all of them and tell them that we gave their children the date rape drug.
