U.S. Election '08: Race to the Conventions

Hillary Clinton's plan to help small business owners make ends meet:
by stiffing them thousands of dollars for months.

In the NYT, no less.

CR

I think that Hillary is going to win this thing. Look at the polls in Texas, Ohio and Penn - Hillary is up big time - in Ohio and Penn by wide margins.

Then look at smaller states like Rhode Island - still up. I don't know what people are talking about when they say that she is close to a loss. She will win Texas and Ohio and they will play it as a comeback.

Such BS - we all know that this is going to the convention. She will be the president and Obama will be her VP. They are playing the dramatic angle that will become obvious after march 5th.

I've been watching the polls - she is consistently leading in the various state polls and Barack's momentum there seems to be cut off.

On the other hand, we've seen just how worthless polls can be, already in New Hampshire. All we truly can do at the moment is wait and see.

EDIT: Any links to the polls, Tuff?

Well, the Clinton campaign is desperate enough to circulate a photo of Obama dressed in local costume while visiting a foreign country as though it was some terrible thing:
http://www.drudgereport.com/flashoa.htm

CR

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Crazed Rabbit

Well, the Clinton campaign is desperate enough to circulate a photo of Obama dressed in local costume while visiting a foreign country as though it was some terrible thing:
http://www.drudgereport.com/flashoa.htm

CR

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Bush in China

hildabeast

So big deal, Obama is dressed like one of his biological kinsmen
Here's one with Hillary dressed in the same fashion as her ancestors



BTW - here are some links (which I've been closely monitoring)
Ohio
141 delegates
Texas
193 delegates
Rhode Island
21 delegates
Pennsylvania
158 delegates

None of those are winner take all mind you, but all I'm saying is that with a variation of only around 4 points on the national level in favor of Obama, slowing of his momentum, and a string of likely Clinton victories - this thing isn't over. I don't even know why the media is pretending that it is.

Don't put you guard down. A woman who has held only 1 elected office in her life and shown coat-tail riding tendencies, a cantankerous and authoritarian demeanor with an anti-midas touch is still poised to have some say over your life, money and future. Tread carefully.

It's simple; the media loves Obama. They've been caught hook, line and sinker by his appeal.

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So big deal, Obama is dressed like one of his biological kinsmen

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I know. It seems like playing up the Farrakhan endorsement would be much better. You know 'scary man endorses Obama!'. At least it wouldn't be so stupid as this.

CR

ARG's latest polls. FWIW.

Here's a fun read on Obama from Stuart Rothenberg entitled:

Obama's Appeal Depends on Your Definition of Change

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) continues to promise change and stress his ability to unite Americans. It's a feel-good campaign built on soaring rhetoric and good intentions.

Pardon me if all of the fawning from the national media, and the endorsements from Caroline Kennedy and Garrison Keillor, leave me less than convinced that he can bridge the deep divide that separates Americans.

Withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq won't bring Americans together. Nor will raising taxes on the affluent or enhancing the power of organized labor to recruit more members. Even a stem-cell research bill won't bring Americans together, though a clear majority surely supports it.

In politics, the devil is always in the details, and except in rare cases, Obama has either avoided them or, more importantly, failed to note the obvious contradictions in his message and his record.

Yes, Obama is a wonderful speaker, and his calls for change obviously resonate with many Americans. With seven out of 10 Americans agreeing that the country is headed off on the wrong track, it isn't surprising that every candidate has talked change. No one has promised a third Bush term.

The question, of course, is what kind of change? Does Obama want to find common ground between Democrats and Republicans? Will he push issues and alternatives only with a national consensus? Or is "change" simply a value-neutral word for liberalism?

In the spring of 2005, 14 Senators tried to make Washington run more smoothly by signing an agreement for the 109th Congress that had the effect of killing Democratic plans to filibuster President Bush's appointees to the appellate bench and eliminating a GOP strategy that would disallow filibusters of judicial appointments.

Barack Obama, who talks about changing the tone in Washington, didn't join that "Gang of 14."

Part of the problem with Obama's message -- and part of the reason it has so far been successful in his White House bid -- is that different people read different things into his message of hope and change.

During an interview on a Washington, D.C., radio station the morning of the Potomac primary, Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) talked about why he is drawn to Obama's message of change. One didn't need to read very hard between the lines to see that Kennedy thinks "change" means a dramatically more liberal agenda.

There is, of course, nothing surprising or wrong with this. You would expect Kennedy to support a candidate with whom he agrees.

But other voters, including some Republicans and many independents, seem to be attracted to Obama because they see him as someone who will improve the tone in Washington, bring Americans together and "get things done."

Again, those are understandable goals. The only problem is that Kennedy's view of Obama and the other one are all but impossible to reconcile.

If Obama satisfies Kennedy and the Democratic Party's most liberal constituencies, it's unlikely that he is going to bring the country together. And if Obama does truly take steps to find a middle ground between liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans, he certainly will disappoint his party's base.

The reality is that half of the country leans Democratic and half leans Republican. Yes, there are some issues on which many Americans agree, but if Obama limits himself to those, he'll have a thin agenda.

Instead, Obama is likely to strike out in a different direction from Bush. And if he thinks his communication skills alone will bring along the whole country (as he seems to), he is deluding himself. America is divided because Americans have very different views.

Obama was rated the most liberal Member of the U.S. Senate in 2007, up from the 10th most liberal Member in 2006 and the 16th most liberal in 2005. That suggests that he will follow a rather predictably liberal agenda if he is elected president later this year.

Even more telling, possibly, was a recent interview Obama gave to television anchor Leon Harris and journalist John Harris. In it, Obama tried to have things both ways.

When he was asked by Leon Harris how he reconciles his support for the D.C. gun ban, which was declared unconstitutional by a federal court last year and which bars all handguns not registered before 1976, with his statement that he has "no intention of taking away folks' guns," Obama launched into a confusing explanation of "conflicting traditions in this country."

He ended his monologue by saying, "We can have a reasonable, thoughtful gun control measure that I think respects the Second Amendment and people's traditions." But the D.C. gun ban is based on the premise that the Second Amendment doesn't give individuals the right to own a gun.

Maybe if Obama wraps up the Democratic nomination in the next few weeks, he'll give all of us a better idea of what he'd really like to do as president. We can only hope so. Another eight months of soaring but empty rhetoric about bringing people together and bringing about change will leave most of America brain-dead.
Stuart Rothenberg is the editor of the The Rothenberg Political Report, and a regular columnist for Roll Call Newspaper.

To save Lemur the trouble of reading it, yes, the article has a mention of the National Journal's vote ratings- so you can safely dismiss Rothenberg as a GOP shill. :wink:

Edit:

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Originally Posted by Lemur

ARG's latest polls. FWIW.

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I think it doesn't speak well for McCain that Huckabee is still polling so strongly. Luckily for the GOP, their primaries are winner-take-all. :yes:

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Originally Posted by Lemur

ARG's latest polls. FWIW.

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ARG is notoriously inaccurate.

My tip for Texas and Ohio is that Hillary will win Ohio with about 57ish% and Texas with about 52%. What should be remembered about Texas is that delegates are divided up according to how high the Democratic turnout was in the last election and it was low in Hispanic areas, while being higher in African-American areas. So even if Obama gets to that point, he may still get a lot of those delegates.

Its scary that an Aussie knows these things, right?

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Originally Posted by CountArach

Its scary that an Aussie knows these things, right?

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Are you kidding!? Forget about the Oscars and the Champions League. The American election is the biggest show on the planet right now!

I, for one, applaud America for keeping us all entertained with this long, open and very lively double party primary season! It's a blast, and to think the real election is still eight months away! :beam:

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Originally Posted by Louis VI the Fat

It's a blast, and to think the real election is still eight months away! :beam:

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I think I speak for a good percentage of Americans when I say "shoot me now."

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Originally Posted by GeneralHankerchief

I think I speak for a good percentage of Americans when I say "shoot me now."

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Not me - I am waiting to see if the Democrat party self-implodes and how the actual election is going to go.

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Originally Posted by GeneralHankerchief

I think I speak for a good percentage of Americans when I say "shoot me now."

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Originally Posted by Redleg

Not me - I am waiting to see if the Democrat party self-implodes and how the actual election is going to go.

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I said in a thread a while back that the wait for November was going to be painful at best. But the Democrats have made it interesting, and the Hillary train-wreck in the making has me all tingly with anticipation. Hope she doesn't drop out after Texas/Ohio, I want to see shenanigans with super-delegates, Florida/Michigan delegates, and a whole host of other political underhandedness before the conventions. Many, many shenanigans. :yes:

Ladies swoon for Obama
This shows a few more in chronological order. Some will certainly disagree, but I think they look more and more scripted/polished as time goes on.

And in what plays almost like a parody (but isn't) Hillary follows suit. Hey, she knows a good PR stunt when she sees it. :laugh:

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Originally Posted by Redleg

Not me - I am waiting to see if the Democrat party self-implodes and how the actual election is going to go.

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I'm waiting for both of the "Big Two" to implode...and then the plethorea of third parties will win the day!!! :2thumbsup:

Until then, we, the little people, shall continue to be like this:

:wizard: :wizard: :wizard:

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Originally Posted by Xiahou

And in what plays almost like a parody (but isn't) Hillary follows suit. Hey, she knows a good PR stunt when she sees it. :laugh:

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I believe her, it has to be real.

She sounds so frustrated (all the suppressed sighs), you can practically see her thinking "Yes, yes, just get them out of here."

Hillary's the first politician to actually make me laugh in awhile today with her stab at Obama. It really summed up why she's so much more qualified than her opponent, but eh, who am I to worry if the Democrats want to back the new and shiny empty suit.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hill

"Now I can stand up here and say: Let's just get everybody together, let's get unified, the sky will open, the light will come down, celestial choirs will be singing, and everyone will know we should do the right thing, and the world will be perfect," Clinton told supporters here at Rhode Island College.

"Maybe I just lived a little long. But I have no illusions about how hard this is going to be," Clinton continued. "You are not going to wave a magic wand and have the special interests disappear."

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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationwo...,3317338.story

It was funny, and she's right, and she'll lose anyway.

:2thumbsup:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Proletariat

Hillary's the first politician to actually make me laugh in awhile today with her stab at Obama. It really summed up why she's so much more qualified than her opponent, but eh, who am I to worry if the Democrats want to back the new and shiny empty suit.



http://www.latimes.com/news/nationwo...,3317338.story

It was funny, and she's right, and she'll lose anyway.

:2thumbsup:

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My goodness... such talk just makes me swoon. :back of hand to forehead:

:laugh4:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Proletariat

Hillary's the first politician to actually make me laugh in awhile today with her stab at Obama.

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I'm sorry, did you say stab?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TuffStuffMcGruff

I'm sorry, did you say stab?

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Well, that certainly won't be an akward family reunion years from now...:sweatdrop:

That's just beautiful, TuffStuff. Gave me a good laugh.

CBS polls for today are out, including a write-up and the full poll results on the Dem race and the general election.

Even a cursory glance at the data shows that the election is changing, and fast.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Louis VI the Fat

Are you kidding!? Forget about the Oscars and the Champions League. The American election is the biggest show on the planet right now!

I, for one, applaud America for keeping us all entertained with this long, open and very lively double party primary season! It's a blast, and to think the real election is still eight months away! :beam:

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Looking at it from your point of view... yeah, it IS kinda like Jerry Lewis v Eartha Kitt. :)

p.s. Louis: your PM box is bursting at the seams, and needs archiving.

Leave Mike Huckabee alone!

Drooling at the end = priceless.

Shudda put a sheet behind him like the "Leave Britney Alone" guy.

Good find, your Lemur-ness. :thumbsup:

George Will levels some legitimate criticisms of McCain. Something the NYT, apparently, couldn't competently pull off.

....
On the other side of the aisle, Obama shows how just plain naive he is on foreign policy...

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Obama said on Wednesday that, as president, he would withdraw US troops and act if the al-Qaeda network was "forming a base in Iraq".

"I have some news. Al-Qaeda is in Iraq. It's called 'al-Qaeda in Iraq'," McCain told a crowd in Tyler, Texas during a rally.

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McCain, obviously, is right. Obama responds with:

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Obama responded from a campaign stop in the state of Ohio that the network did not exist in Iraq George Bush, the US president, and McCain "decided to invade Iraq".

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Which is just a stupid partisan attack. Even if it's true- so what? That doesn't change the reality of fact that Al Qaeda is now there.

Obama goes on to say:

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"I do know that al-Qaeda is in Iraq and that's why I have said we should continue to strike al-Qaida targets," he said.

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Ignoring the fact that it's a backtrack from his earlier statement, that strategy sounds a lot like the administration's strategy prior to the Petraeus and the surge- which most of us could agree was not working real well.

Like I said, all our candidates stink. :shame:

Edit: In some puzzling news, using Obama's middle name is now, apparently, an out-of-bounds smear.:dizzy2:

MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT
MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT
MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT
MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT
MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT
MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT
MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT
MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT
MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT
MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT
MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT
MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT MITT happens.

Please consider our readers. :bow:

Maybe this will work better for him, but I don't think it's wise to borrow your slogan from Hillary:

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...ccainready.jpg

-edit-

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Originally Posted by Xiahou

In some puzzling news, using Obama's middle name is now, apparently, an out-of-bounds smear.:dizzy2:

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Apparently Karl Rove is discouraging Republicans from banging the Hussein drum:

No less an authority figure than Karl Rove has warned Republican operatives from demagoguing Barack Obama's middle name.

At a closed door meeting of GOP state executive directors in late January, Rove said the safest way to refer to Obama would be to use his honorific, "Sen. Obama."

"The context was, you're not going to stimatize this guy. You shouldn't underestimate him," one of the executive directors said. Rove said that the use of "Barack Hussein Obama" would perpetuate the notion that Republicans were bigoted and would hurt the party.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lemur

Apparently Karl Rove is discouraging Republicans from banging the Hussein drum:

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Well, it's a cheap attack when there are so many more substantiative one's to use against Obama. The Obama campaign should own up to his name though, instead of treating it like a dirty word- it is his name.

In other news, Democrats are once again pwned on Iraq- this time by... Angelina Jolie? :inquisitive:

Quote:

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Today's humanitarian crisis in Iraq -- and the potential consequences for our national security -- are great. Can the United States afford to gamble that 4 million or more poor and displaced people, in the heart of Middle East, won't explode in violent desperation, sending the whole region into further disorder?

What we cannot afford, in my view, is to squander the progress that has been made.

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lol, is Jolie a Republican mouth-piece now?