Mickey Kaus at Slate asks the perfectly logical question, "would Obama embody post-racial hopes if he were white"? The answer, of course, is no. But the simple act of assigning any kind of logic to Geraldine Ferraro's statement, rightly or wrongly, will no likely result in... well, let's just say it won't be pretty.
Seems to me Tom Daschle and Chris Dodd have been drinking a little to much tainted tap water. Or maybe the Obama campaign is living in some alternate universe where they feel the Senator is simply entitled to a state's delegates without an election taking place, (and after having lost the initial vote in those states).
Since late January and early February, the conventional wisdom has been that Barack Obama was favored to win in the delegate rich state of North Carolina. After all, the polls have favored him there since the Iowa caucuses, recently by as much as 10-14 points, and his momentum just seemed to be snowballing after his 11-state winning streak. Not to mention, North Carolina seems to be nestled safely in Obama territory, located between Obama-friendly Virginia and South Carolina. But things seem to be changing in North Carolina, and not simply as a result of Ohio and Texas. A new PPP poll released today, but conducted before yesterday's primaries, shows that Hillary has pulled to within 4 points in North Carolina.
“This isn’t actually particularly good news for Obama,” said Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling. “He’s been leading in most North Carolina polls over the last three weeks by double digits. But as the national polls and last night’s results have shown Clinton inching closer, the same trend has occurred in North Carolina.”
Former two-term Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Hugh Shelton today endorsed Hillary Clinton for President. This endorsement, one of 28 retired flag officers that have endorsed Hillary Clinton, clearly demonstrates that Senator Clinton has the confidence of many of the Pentagon's former top brass to be the next Commander in Chief. Active duty military personnel are forbidden from engaging in political activity and from extending political endorsements.
In announcing his endorsement, General Shelton said, "I’ve been with Senator Clinton when she has been with our military men and women. I know from those experiences that she understands the demands and sacrifice of military life. I am confident she will always put the readiness and well being of our troops first. She is ready to be Commander-in-Chief."
General Shelton joins General John Shalikashvili as the second former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to have endorsed Senator Clinton. General Shelton is the fourth flag officer to endorse Senator Clinton this week.
Recently there has been a lot of speculation that Barack Obama has cut in to the support Hillary Clinton has among Latino voters, particularly in Texas.
If Hillary Clinton loses the Democratic nomination for president, she might be able to trace her troubles back to when she lost her grip on the Latino vote.
Bill Clinton called it. The ex-president may have doomed his wife's candidacy with his meddling but he was right about one thing: Several weeks ago, he told Spanish-language radio host Eddie "El Piolin" Sotelo that Latinos would "determine the nominee of the Democratic Party and the next president of the United States."
So they might. Just not in the way that the former president imagined.
When he made his prediction, Hillary Clinton was leading Barack Obama among Latinos by a 2-1 margin. No mas.
During tonight's debate on MSNBC, Barack Obama was asked if he would reject outright the endorsement and support of Louis Farrakhan. He initially tiptoed around the issue, saying only that he denounces Louis Farrakhan and the statements he's made concerning the Jewish community. Only when backed into a corner by Senator Clinton, would he go on record as rejecting Farrakhan's support. The difference between denouncing and rejecting might not seem clear to Senator Obama, but there is a distinct difference:
de·nounce
to condemn or censure openly or publicly: to denounce a politician as morally corrupt.
to make a formal accusation against, as to the police or in a court.
If Hillary Clinton's campaign is indeed dead in the water, as has been the the pundit mantra of late, someone forgot to tell the residents of El Paso, Texas. Last night an electric, enthusiastic audience of 12,000 supporters packed the University of Texas El Paso's Don Haskins Center to welcome Hillary to Texas in a big way.
There were whispers yesterday of a possible endorsement from former Senator John Glenn, like this blurb, as well as this one, on Talking Points Memo. TPM drew the following conclusion about the rumor:
If it pans out, that's a major get in a state which is critical to her hopes of turning the narrative of the race in her favor come early March. We're trying to verify, but the Hillary campaign isn't confirming it.
Tune in to Hillary Clinton's unprecedented national town hall meeting, live on the Hallmark Channel on basic cable and streaming live on her web site at HillaryClinton.com.
Clinton Campaign Announces Hosts And Locations For 22 “Voices Across America” Town Halls
XM Satellite Radio Channel 130, XM’s Presidential Election Channel, POTUS ’08, Will Join Hallmark Channel in Airing the Town Hall Live
The Clinton campaign today announced hosts and locations for Monday night's "Voices Across America" national town hall events in 22 cities. Voters will be able to participate in Hillary's national town hall by attending one of the events and joining the conversation by satellite. Starting at 9 p.m. EST, voters will be able to watch the unprecedented town hall live on Hallmark Channel or at hillaryclinton.com. Voters can also listen to the town hall live on XM Satellite Radio channel 130, XM’s presidential election channel POTUS '08.
The Pew Research Center has released it's final national numbers in advance of Super Tuesday, when 20 states across the nation will head to the polls to vote in both Democratic and Republican primaries and caucuses.
The numbers reflect polling that occurred between January 30th, 2008 and February 2nd, 2008. The numbers show:
Clinton 46%
Obama 38%
Other 1%
None/Don't Know 15%
The Denver Post, Colorado's largest newspaper and one of the 50 largest-circulation newspapers in the country, has endorsed Hillary Clinton for president. The Denver is a Pulitzer Prize winning paper with an average weekday circulation of over 250,000. The endorsement is schedulaed to be published in this Sunday's edition of the paper.
"Hillary and I both came to Washington together in 1993, and since that time she hasn't stopped working on the priorities that matter most to America's families," Murray said.
Early vote-by-mail ballots were sent out the first week of January in California. It is expected that up to 50% of votes in the California primary might have already been cast before February 5th.
California, for example, is one of more than 20 states voting on Feb. 5. But people have been able to vote by mail since early January. That monthlong voting season is tantamount to a lifetime in this campaign.
Other Feb. 5 states where voting is under way include Arizona, Georgia, Illinois, New Jersey, New Mexico, Tennessee and Utah. Early voting in Florida, which holds its primary next Tuesday, began Jan. 14. As many as one-quarter of all ballots in the state typically are cast early.
Hillary also picked up the endorsement of former New Mexico Governor Bruce King and his wife, as well as John Wertheim, former chair of the New Mexico Democratic Party. She already has the endorsements of Lt. Gov. Diane Denish and Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez.
Looks like it's becoming Kennedy vs. Kennedy in the endorsement wars. Now this is getting interesting! Immediately after Teddy Kennedy and Caroline Kennedy announced their endorsements of Barack Obama, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend has now offered her endorsement of Hillary Clinton:
I admit, I'm a hopeless poll junkie... so sue me. I don't kid myself that they mean anything concrete from day to day, but they do have value in showing trend lines and letting you know where the electorate's head is at any given period in time. With that said, the Rasmussen Daily Presidential Tracking Poll has some good news for the Hillary campaign. After a few weeks of freefall in both the national and state polls, she seems to be on the rebound.
On December 6th, Hillary's lead over her closest competitor, Barack Obama, had fallen to a mere 7 points. All of the momentum at that point seemed to be in Obama's favor, what with the Oprah media spectacle and all. But recently there's been a turnabout. Since that low point, Hillary's numbers have been inching upward. On Sunday they climbed back up to 40%, the first time her numbers had hit that mark in the month of December. After holding steady for a couple of days, they have climbed another two percentage points to 42% as of today, a full 18 points ahead of Barack Obama, 11 points higher than she was against Mr. Obama just two short weeks ago, and 27 ahead of John Edwards.
There was an interesting discussion on CNN this morning. The discussion centered on some recent state polling and the parallels between the sudden elevation of Mike Huckabee to the forefront of the Republican race, and Obama's increase in Democratic support. Political analyst Bill Schneider and political scientist Scott Huffmon seemed to conclude that Huckabee is rising to the top of the Republican field because Hillary is seeing a decline in recent polling, and Republican voters are less threatened by Obama in the general election, feeling he's less likely to win compared to Hillary Clinton. So instead they are starting to support the candidate that they would most like to see elected, as opposed to the candidate (Giuliani) that they feel is most likely to win.
