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Showing posts from February, 2008

Clinton's new Fear Ad

"If one candidate’s trying to scare you and the other one’s trying to get you to think, if one candidate’s appealing to your fears and the other one’s appealing to your hopes, you better vote for the person who wants you to think and hope." - Bill Clinton, 2004

More from Bill

From ABC's Political Radar , Bill Clinton discusses the Texas Primaries on the trail: Clinton has become extremely detailed in his plea for voter turnout. "If you vote early or you vote on March the 4th in the popular election, 65 percent of the delegates will be selected to the national convention. But 35 percent of the delegates for the national convention will be selected Tuesday night, March 4, at 8000 Percent Convention all across this state," Clinton told the crowd in Killeen this morning, adding, "The doors open at 7 and they close at 7:15. It would be tragic if Hillary were to win this election in the daytime and somebody were to come in at night and take it away. " Meanwhile, in what must be an unrelated development ...

This One's for Ann

New Clinton campaign ad runs over objections from the Richards family : And, this, from The Dallas Observer blog (h/t Burnt Orange Report): Before that, I'd been talking to the woman you see at right . Earlier, she'd been holding a Hillary sign. Been waving it around, very proud and happy to support Bill's missus. Then another Clinton campaign worker walked up to and said, "Excuse me, would you mind holding this sign instead?" She then handed the woman the handmade sign that reads, "This one's for Ann!" "Ann?" said the woman. "Ann Richards," said the dark-haired Clintonista, shielded by dark, large sunglasses. "Oh, sure," said the woman, smiling but not totally into it. "This way," said the campaign worker, "the cameras are behind you, and they'll be able to see the sign when the president speaks." She then walked off, only to reappear later in the role of cheerleader while the crowd waited and w

Clinton at the Debate

I've read the commentary out there I can't fathom how people are missing what I see as the major point: Clinton was not Presidential. She was inconsistent in her persona. She was clearly flustered at seeing those clips played of her three different personas, and she should be. I don't think that works in Ohio. One thing about folks in the central part of the country, in my view as a midwesterner, is that midwesterners value civility and are circumspect, if not dubious, about attacks. However, that doesn't mean attacks aren't fair game, you just need to be consistent in substance and tone. That is, if Clinton is going to be upset about something, or make fun of something, then she sure better have a good reason for doing so, because you don't want to make a big deal about something in public one day and then not make a big deal about it the next day. If you are a politician and make an attack in the midwest, your supporters are expected to sign on to that attack

Voters prefer Barack Obama

I think comments making the point about Clinton having a path to the nomination through a combination of Super Delegates and a MI/FL play make a fundamentally erroneous assumption. They discount what's already happened. A 64% Obama win in Virginia sweeping almost all demographics. A 58% Obama win in Wisconsin sweeping almost every last demographic. Decisive Obama wins in crucial "Clinton friendly states" like Maine and Washington. Clinton won't win the Super Delegates without winning the Pledged Delegates for the same reason Clinton won't add MI/FL without winning the pledged delegates (which determine who controls the credentials committee): enormous political pressure is coming to bear and will come to bear inside the party that the Pledged Delegate count and the process so far be respected. It may fit "prognosticator fantasies" to leap from some version of a TX/OH "outcome" to Clinton securing Super Delegates and MI/FL to take the nomination

Barack Obama in Kenya

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This is a BBC article about United States Senator Barack Obama serving our country and representing our nation in Africa. As part of that trip, Senator Obama and his wife, Michelle, took a public HIV test to raise awareness of HIV testing in Africa. It was an effort to save lives. Mr Obama walked through rubbish and sewage as he toured Kibera, the slum home to at least 600,000 people, many without jobs or legal title to the land they inhabit. He told thousands of cheering admirers that he would tell Americans about their troubles and lobby for more help. "Everybody in Kenya needs the same opportunities to go to school, to start businesses, to have enough to eat, to have decent clothes," he said over a loudspeaker. Mr Obama visited micro-finance institutions - which pool members' resources to provide small business loans - a women's self-help group, and Carolina for Kibera, a project run by the University of North Carolina to raise awareness about HIV and Aids. On Sat

YouTube appears to be down

The videos below won't play. There's some talk of a DNS problem or hack , which may have happened to Google before. At any rate, it's not you, it's YouTube. And, here's something to tide you over courtesy of Anna at DailyKos: Obama Dallas Mashup

shame on you mashup

-courtesy of JedReport

shame on you mashup / digg link

check out what bloggers and diggers are saying about the shame on you mashup.... read more | digg story

Hillary Clinton: "Shame on You"

" Enough with the speeches and the big rallies and then using tactics that are right out of Karl Rove's playbook. This is wrong and every Democrat should be outraged...Shame on you, Barack Obama." Hillary Clinton, Feb. 23rd, 2008 (Referring to mailers that have been out for weeks and have been vetted by FactCheck.org .) 36 hours earlier...

Viva Obama!

And, if you like reggaeton, this is must listen too. (h/t Matt Yglesias) And don't miss this slower piece from director Eric Byler:

Senator Clinton

I've encountered so many barbed comments on the blogs that I want to address a couple ways in which I like and respect Senator Clinton. First, a month ago I wrote two long pieces on Senator Clinton that describe my take on her career and my critical but respectful view of her campaign . Senator Clinton, clearly, has been a powerful advocate for women, children and families for her entire life. She is and has been an agent of change as a woman and a political advocate. This is a consistent theme; it's real. Her work, after being appointed by President Carter to the board of the Legal Services Corporation , defending that organization from Reagan's budget cuts and mission change, was exemplary. Few knew who she was at that point; no one was looking. She took that stand because of her core values, period. It wasn't about glory because...well, because, even now Senator Clinton has never received proper credit for her role in preserving the organization in its true missio

Clinton dismisses Voters / States: "They don't represent the electorate."

Per CNN we have a headline: Clinton Dismisses Weekend Losses: Hillary Clinton on Monday explained away Barack Obama's clean sweep of the weekend's caucuses and primaries as a product of a caucus system that favors "activists" and, in the case of the Louisiana primary, an energized African-American community. She told reporters who had gathered to watch her tour a General Motors plant here that "everybody knew, you all knew, what the likely outcome of these recent contests were." " These are caucus states by and large, or in the case of Louisiana, you know, a very strong and very proud African-American electorate, which I totally respect and understand. " Clinton has publicly dismissed the caucus voting system since before Super Tuesday, seeking to lower expectations heading into a series of contests that played to Obama's advantage. His campaign features what many consider to be a stronger and more dedicated grassroots organization than Cli

Maine early results at Turn Maine Blue

Nothing for certain, but these are the anecdotal reports that people are looking at.

HorsesAss on the WA Caucus

HorsesAss has a wide sample of comments from caucus goers in Washington.

Notice something? (More Bill Clinton)

From the Page : # Saturday, February 9 # * 9:00 am * Mike Huckabee delivers remarks at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C. It's followed by a media availability # * 9:30 am * Hillary Clinton attends a town hall discussion with voters in Orono, Maine * Bill Clinton attends an event with voters in Chesapeake, Virginia # * 12:00 pm * Mike Huckabee attends an event with voters in College Park, Maryland # * 12:45 pm * Bill Clinton attends an event with voters at the Richmond Convention Center in Richmond, Virginia # * 1:30 pm * Hillary Clinton attends a town hall discussion with voters in Lewiston, Maine # * 2:15 pm * Barack Obama attends a roundtable discussion at Nicky's Crusin Diner in Bangor, ME # * 3:30 pm * Barack Obama hosts a "Rally for Change" in Bangor, ME # * 4:00 pm * Mike Huckabee visits patients at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. # * 4:30 pm * Bill Clinton attends an event with voters in A

New Obama ad in Louisiana

This is more like it. Good ad:

Post Super Tuesday thoughts

I spent the final five days in a sprint working out of Obama Headquarters in Oakland and blogging on Dailykos. The last two days, Monday and Tuesday, I worked as a precinct walker for Barack in West Oakland. I was responsible for door knocking, calling, lit drops and making sure that as many people as I could contact from my list of 77 got out and voted for Senator Obama. Final tally: 45 votes for Barack Obama voted at the polls 2 for Clinton 3 Would not say on principle and 27 I never managed to contact. Not too shabby, eh? At any rate, I was also featured doing GOTV at West Oakland BART station on MTV Street : scroll using the button on the right till you see the preview with the guy with red vest...me. Now walking the streets at 5:30AM leaving door hangers is not anyone's idea of fun but the experience was unforgettable. I would like to salute here, every last one of the people I contacted however they voted and the community of West Oakland for showing such strong spirit and u

Maria Shriver, first lady of California endorses...Barack Obama

Markos has the story here ... and don't miss the Obama Super Bowl ad running in selected local markets:

Yes We Can: Barack Obama video at DipDive

What a great video to inspire for this weekend.

Clinton "Lifetime" / Susan Faludi Piece

Here's Clinton's new ad "Lifetime" which is running in nine states, including NY: "You know, you can't always pass the laws you want to pass right away. You can't snap your fingers and get people to cooperate. You have to work on that every minute of every day. But you can try to help somebody every single day." I cannot fathom that quote. It runs against everything I thought was inherent to Clinton's previous message, "I'll get things done." I've never heard a candidate talk so much about what you "can't" do. Not passing laws? This puzzles me to no end. But it does makes me think of this passage from this Susan Faludi essay which is seeming to me more and more like the core essay of this political campaign on the Clinton side: On the afternoon of the New Hampshire primary, I had a political epiphany of sorts while standing in line at the Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in San Francisco waiting for a prescription