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Showing posts from March, 2008

Sunday Morning at the California Democratic Party Convention

It's 8:30 and the temperature outside the convention hall is starting to heat up (metaphor alert, it's actually chilly) in anticipation of the final morning of the convention. San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris will speak for Senator Barack Obama. President Bill Clinton will speak on behalf of his wife, Senator Hillary Clinton. There's also the final chapter in the Leno/Migden endorsement saga which, I am assuming, was pushed to the convention at large with the gathering of some 600 petition signatures by Leno supporters last night. The graphics in the main hall are branded with the theme of Democrats "Making History" and featuring somewhat blurred photographs of Democratic icons like Cesar Chavez, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr., Harvey Milk, Robert F. Kennedy, Shirley Chisholm and Thomas Jefferson interspersed with photographs of Senators Clinton and Obama. This can create some interesting juxtapositions of speakers and background graphics. Yeste

California Democratic Party Convention: San Jose

Calitics is doing an admirable job of 'on the fly' coverage of the California Democratic Party Convention in San Jose. I'm trying to add comments there as I can. I will add some reflections here and at Calitics as the convention progresses.

Bushville

-via dday at Calitics , "a shock to the conscience":

Governor Bill Richardson Endorses Obama

Link here .

Barack Obama: on RFK and Unity in Indiana

Link to Robert F Kennedy speech .

the key word is seems

It strikes me that people don't know Jeremiah Wright. And a person you don't know, we all know, is so much easier to mistrust. Someone you haven't heard speak for longer than 10 second clips run back to back is so much easier to vililfy and hate. Here's Jeremiah Wright from before he was so much in the news:

Barack Obama speaks out about Reverend Wright

Meet Obama's Pastor: Reverend Otis Moss

YouTube Video: Women for Obama

3AM Irony

From a Seattle TV station comes this news : Thursday night, the Knowles family of Bonney Lake, Wash., watched the John Stewart Show and saw the ad for the first time. "I looked and saw a girl that looked like my sister and we rewound it and sure enough it was my sister," said Brady Knowles. The first girl in the ad is young Casey Knowles. It's stock footage from 8 years ago when she worked as a TV extra - footage owned now by Getty Images and used by the Clinton campaign. But they couldn't have picked a more unwilling star. "It's really sort of ironic that my image would be used to advocate for Hillary when I myself do not," said Casey. She may only be 17, but Casey has some very strong political opinions. She turns 18 - legal voting age - in April, in plenty of time before the general election. "It's perfect timing because I have a candidate that I really identify with," she

Maher to McAuliffe: "Okay"

Terry McAuliffe is Senator Clinton's campaign chair and former head of the DNC. I'm not a fan of Maher. I'm also not a fan of returning McAuliffe anywhere near control of the Democratic Party.

Marc Ambinder crosses the line

I understand that it's important for journalist/bloggers to convey that the information they are privy to is truly "inside," hence we'll sometimes get instances where a blogger will characterize, generally, what " people they are talking to" are saying . However, I think Marc Ambinder stepped over the line today, and inserted himself into the Democratic nomination race in a way that crossed a basic line of journalistic ethics...moving himself from honest reportage and into the territory of innuendo. Let's start with taking a look at what Marc Ambinder said : I speak daily with aides, senior and junior, from both Clinton and Obama campaigns, and I can say, without revealing confidences, that the level of personal antipathy they express, the level of complete distrust, is extreme and in many ways alarming. One public example: when Obama's chief counsel, Bob Bauer, crashed a conference call held by Clinton advisers on Tuesday night. The stress created

Bill Bradley: quote of the day

I think Barack Obama has a much stronger chance of beating John McCain in the general election. I think Hillary is flawed in many ways, and particularly if you look at her husband's unwillingness to release the names of the people who contributed to his presidential library. And the reason that is important -- you know, are there favors attached to $500,000 or $1 million contributions? And what do I mean by favors? I mean, pardons that are granted; investigations that are squelched; contracts that are awarded; regulations that are delayed. - Bill Bradley, March 6th, 2008

Gail Collins: Next up...Pennsylvania!...except it's not.

Gail Collins waxes enthusiastic about the state of the Democratic primary race in today's New York Times: It’s all up to Pennsylvania! Yes folks, over the next seven weeks — the amount of time it takes a normal country to conduct an entire national election — we will be obsessing about the critical upcoming Pennsylvania primary. Harrisburg! Altoona! The Poconos! Did you know that in the Poconos, some hotels have bathtubs shaped like hearts or Champagne glasses? We actually plan on bringing that up a lot. Fast forward to Pennsylvania! Or...check that. Not so fast. Wishing it so does not make it so. Like her candidate, Senator Hillary Clinton, Gail Collins has left Wyoming's March 8th caucus awarding 18 delegates and Mississippi's March 11th primary awarding 33 delegates off the lede. Neglecting some states has been the Achilles heel of the Clinton campaign. For Collins to perpetuate this wishful thinking version of the Democratic nomination process is typical. Collins does