And she's a class act

I missed much of the roll call vote (bumped into MLK III), but got there after Missouri voted (Missouri, where our hard working, intelligent people demand that you Show Me . . .").

New Mexico gave the standard speech ("the great people of New Mexico who work hard and play by the rules . . ."), but then instead of voting 51% for Barack and 49% for Hillary, they gave their votes to Illinois. I thought that was a nice compromise for unity.

Illinois then gave the standard speech ("The intelligent and good looking people from the land of Lincoln . . ."), but then assigned the votes to New York. Just as that happened, something began to stir on the floor.

Hillary and a mass of about 30 other folks came marching onto the floor. After the standard speech ("New York, where our citizens care about liberty and truth . . .") Hillary Clinton ended the drama of the voting by moving to suspend the rules and electing Barack Obama by acclamation.

Hillary is a class act.

Hillary is Amazing

I went to the "release the delegate" speech by Hillary today.

There I was, an Edwards then Obama supporter; would someone tell on me? This wasn't nationally televised, this was a speech to her pledged delegates.

Hillary said that some people would vote like her, for Barack. Some people would vote what they thought the people of their state wanted and some people would vote their hearts. I totally believed her when she said this election is too important to focus on your primary candidate, it was time to elect Obama.

She mentioned the Supreme Court and how it is a 5-4 split. The next president will get to appoint as many 3 new justices. Women's issues will be defined by the Supreme Court as much as the next president.

In this room filled with Hillary delegate, only one single knucklehead yelled some thing about 2012. The entire rest of the room was focused on a win in 2008. Now that is unity.

Unity

Despite the media attempting to make a fight, everyone that I met at the convention is unified behind Barack Obama.

I'm glad Hillary got to speak - she lit up the place. People of all stripes (i.e. Obama people too) were trying to get the Hillary signs. I had invested lots of myself in Edwards, so it hurt when he lost (and even more when he admitted to cheating on Elizabeth). The Hillary folks had invested even more into thier candidate. She deserved to speak and her supporters deserved to raise the roof in her honor.

What a fantastic message Hillary delivered - the reason we are engaged in this campaign is not about Hillary or Obama, it's about health care for everyone, honoring our commitment to the troops, responsibly ending the war, having an energy policy.

It isn't a story line, people are unified. And, I bet that we have not seen the last of Hillary.

HRC slams against the media meme of a divided house.

The media meme of a divided house is picked up by the McCain campaign with a new ad.



Upon hearing of the ad, Hillary hit back and said, ""I'm Hillary Clinton, and I do not approve that message." Hillary is a great Democrat and is hitting it out of the park for Obama. Will post video if I can get ahold of it.

p.s. Word on the street is that Ted Kennedy will speak tonight. I can't wait!

The Long Defeat

An interesting take on the Presidential primary from David Brooks:

Hillary Clinton may not realize it yet, but she’s just endured one of the worst weeks of her campaign.

First, Barack Obama weathered the Rev. Jeremiah Wright affair without serious damage to his nomination prospects. Obama still holds a tiny lead among Democrats nationally in the Gallup tracking poll, just as he did before this whole affair blew up.

Second, Obama’s lawyers successfully prevented re-votes in Florida and Michigan. That means it would be virtually impossible for Clinton to take a lead in either elected delegates or total primary votes.

Third, as Noam Scheiber of The New Republic has reported, most superdelegates have accepted Nancy Pelosi’s judgment that the winner of the elected delegates should get the nomination. Instead of lining up behind Clinton, they’re drifting away. Her lead among them has shrunk by about 60 in the past month, according to Avi Zenilman of Politico.com.

In short, Hillary Clinton’s presidential prospects continue to dim. The door is closing. Night is coming. The end, however, is not near. Last week, an important Clinton adviser told Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen (also of Politico) that Clinton had no more than a 10 percent chance of getting the nomination. Now, she’s probably down to a 5 percent chance.

Five percent. Let’s take a look at what she’s going to put her party through for the sake of that 5 percent chance: The Democratic Party is probably going to have to endure another three months of daily sniping. For another three months, we’ll have the Carvilles likening the Obamaites to Judas and former generals accusing Clintonites of McCarthyism. For three months, we’ll have the daily round of résumé padding and sulfurous conference calls. We’ll have campaign aides blurting “blue dress” and only-because-he’s-black references as they let slip their private contempt.

For three more months (maybe more!) the campaign will proceed along in its Verdun-like pattern. There will be a steady rifle fire of character assassination from the underlings, interrupted by the occasional firestorm of artillery when the contest touches upon race, gender or patriotism. The policy debates between the two have been long exhausted, so the only way to get the public really engaged is by poking some raw national wound.

For the sake of that 5 percent, this will be the sourest spring. About a fifth of Clinton and Obama supporters now say they wouldn’t vote for the other candidate in the general election. Meanwhile, on the other side, voters get an unobstructed view of the Republican nominee. John McCain’s approval ratings have soared 11 points. He is now viewed positively by 67 percent of Americans. A month ago, McCain was losing to Obama among independents by double digits in a general election matchup. Now McCain has a lead among this group.

For three more months, Clinton is likely to hurt Obama even more against McCain, without hurting him against herself. And all this is happening so she can preserve that 5 percent chance. When you step back and think about it, she is amazing. She possesses the audacity of hopelessness. Why does she go on like this? Does Clinton privately believe that Obama is so incompetent that only she can deliver the policies they both support? Is she simply selfish, and willing to put her party through agony for the sake of her slender chance? Are leading Democrats so narcissistic that they would create bitter stagnation even if they were granted one-party rule?

The better answer is that Clinton’s long rear-guard action is the logical extension of her relentlessly political life. For nearly 20 years, she has been encased in the apparatus of political celebrity. Look at her schedule as first lady and ever since. Think of the thousands of staged events, the tens of thousands of times she has pretended to be delighted to see someone she doesn’t know, the hundreds of thousands times she has recited empty clichés and exhortatory banalities, the millions of photos she has posed for in which she is supposed to appear empathetic or tough, the billions of politically opportune half-truths that have bounced around her head.

No wonder the Clinton campaign feels impersonal. It’s like a machine for the production of politics. It plows ahead from event to event following its own iron logic. The only question is whether Clinton herself can step outside the apparatus long enough to turn it off and withdraw voluntarily or whether she will force the rest of her party to intervene and jam the gears.

If she does the former, she would surprise everybody with a display of self-sacrifice. Her campaign would cruise along at a lower register until North Carolina, then use that as an occasion to withdraw. If she does not, she would soldier on doggedly, taking down as many allies as necessary.

The Truth About Obama

Because there is so much mis-information about Barack Obama - including 15% of Americans who only watch wrestling who think Obama is a Muslim - a little truth never hurt anyone. Let's not allow the uneducated and uninformed define our nation or our future. 8 years of Bush is enough of being led around by fear and untruth. In addition to checking on Snopes.com on Barack, check out these facts:

- Did you know that Barack Obama is a Christian? He has been a member of the same United Church of Christ congregation for 20 years, and was married there to his wife Michelle in 1992. [1] [2] [3]
- Did you know that Barack Obama often leads the US Senate in the Pledge of Allegiance? [4]
- Did you know that Barack Obama is a strong friend of Israel and has spoken out strongly against anti-Semitism? [5] [6]
- Did you know his grandparents from Kansas were part of the "Greatest Generation"? His grandfather served with Patton's Army during World War II, and his grandmother, a real "Rosy the Riveter", worked in a bomber assembly plant back home. [7] [8] [9]
- Did you know that Barack Obama was opposed to the war in Iraq from day one, before we invaded, even while he was running for the Senate, and knowing his opposition might be politically unpopular? [10]
"I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a U.S. occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences. I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world and strengthen the recruitment arm of al Qaeda. I am not opposed to all wars. I'm opposed to dumb wars." --Barack Obama, 2002

- Did you know Obama favors transparency over secrecy in our government? Did you know that Obama worked with Republican Senator Tom Coburn to pass one of the strongest government transparency bills since the freedom of information act? He's calling it "Google for Government", and you can see the results at www.usaspending.gov . Sen. Obama has also released his own tax returns for public review. [11] [12] [13] [14]
- Did you know that after graduating with honors from Harvard Law School, Barack practiced civil rights law and also taught Constitutional Law for 10 years at the University of Chicago, one of the nation's best law schools, where he was consistently rated by his students as one of their best instructors? Did you also know that he was the first African-American elected president of the prestigious Harvard Law Review? [15] [16]
- Did you know that Barack Obama is an outspoken advocate for women's rights and has been a principled defender of the civil rights of women? [17] [18]
- Did you know that despite the grueling schedule of running for President, Senator Obama remains a devoted family man, making time to do things like pick out a Christmas tree with his wife and two young daughters, or hurrying home to spend Valentine's Day with them? Did you know he hasn't missed a single parent-teacher conference while running for President? [19]
- Did you know that Barack Obama has a stellar environmental record, including having the highest rating from the League of Conservation Voters (96%) of any Presidential candidate, Democrat or Republican? [20]
- Did you know that Barack Obama has been an elected legislator longer than Senator Clinton? [21]
- Did you know that Barack is a member of all of these Senate Committees: Foreign Relations; Veteran's Affairs; Health, Education, Labor & Pensions; Homeland Security and Government Affairs?
- Did you know that Senator Obama has sponsored or co-sponsored 15 bills that have become law, and has introduced amendments to 50 bills, of which 16 were adopted since he joined the Senate in 2005?
- Did you know that Senator Obama sponsored legislation working together with Indiana Republican Senator Richard Lugar, to keep Americans safe by keeping dangerous weapons out of terrorist hands? The two senators also visited the former Soviet Union to inspect the decommissioning of nuclear weapons. Sen. Lugar said of Sen. Obama, "He does have a sense of idealism and principled leadership, a vision of the future." [22] [23]
- Did you know that Barack Obama is the only candidate running for president who voted against using cluster bombs in Iraq and the only candidate who supports banning the use of landmines?
- Did you know that, as an Illinois state senator, Barack Obama succeeded in passing legislation requiring the videotaping of police interrogations, gaining the respect and support not only of fellow legislators but that of the police, who had initially opposed the legislation?
- Did you know that Theodore Roosevelt, Grover Cleveland, Ulysses S. Grant, John F. Kennedy, and Bill Clinton were all younger when they took office than Barack Obama will be?

During election season many emails are circulated about the candidates. Some are true, some aren't. It's often difficult to determine the truth. We encourage you to visit the following non-partisan sites that do a good job of fact checking the candidates.
http://www.snopes.com/
http://www.factcheck.org/
References:
[1] http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2008/januaryweb-only/104-32.0.html?start=1
[2] http://www.ucc.org/about-us/
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelle_Obama
[4] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svo9mutE6TM
[5] http://www.jewishledger.com/articles/2008/03/12/opinions/edit03.txt
[6] http://www.observer.com/2008/obama-addresses-homophobia-anti-semitism-and-xenophobia-among-black-americans
[7] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greatest_Generation
[8] http://www.barackobama.com/learn/meet.php
[9] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosie_the_Riveter
[10] http://www.barackobama.com/2002/10/02/remarks_of_illinois_state_sen.php
[11] http://obama.senate.gov/press/060908-senate_passes_c/
[12] http://www.usaspending.gov/
[13] http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/chi-070416obama-tax,0,445005.story
[14] http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2007/04/baracj_obamas_2.html
[15] http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obama/701490,CST-NWS-obamaprof18.article
[16] http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/01/28/at_harvard_law_a_unifying_voice/
[17] http://obama.senate.gov/speech/051110-remarks_of_sena_1/
[18] http://www.womenforbarackobama.com/Obama_s_Record.html
[19] http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080301/ap_on_el_pr/obama_daughters_4
[20] http://presidentialprofiles2008.org/voterguide/obama-page.html
[21] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/03/AR2008010303303.html
[22] http://obama.senate.gov/press/061211-lugar-obama_bil_1/
[23] http://www.berkshireeagle.com/ci_8434360

Another Open Letter to Super Delegates

I understand that you are now hearing from some Obama supporters asking you to abdicate your right and responsibility to use your judgment to stand up for the best interests of the Democratic Party. They feel you must now surrender your own thought-process to vote for whomever receives the most popular votes - in effect, silencing yourself.

Ironically, these same voices were suspiciously quiet about the necessity of popular majority rule back when their candidate did not lead in the delegate count. Odd, that. Ironically, these same voices were suspiciously quiet about creating the role of super-delegates. Funny, isn't it? Ironically, these same voices seek to persuade support of their candidate by pointing to - hold on, it's worth the wait - . . . - really, it is - famous big-name celebrity insiders who happen to support their candidate! Sounds like they think that some Democrats ought to be heard louder than others, after all.

(And don't get me started on Claire "Telecom Immunity" McCaskill's WWJTD bracelet . . .)

Now that the Republicans have a clear choice, there may be more crossover voting by trouble-making Republicans seeking a less experienced opponent. Alternatively, there could be positive or negative developments in either of the Democrats campaign. Certainly, I would hope that no super-delegate would feel bound by my vote for Senator Clinton if we find out next week that she really did murder Vincent Foster, and I would hope that Obama supporters would expect super-delegates to abandon their candidate if the vision of hope turns out to be cloudier than the media is currently telling us.

Above all, I sincerely hope that by the time the convention rolls around, either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama will be the clear favorite, and that the convention will unite behind one of them.

Let the Party choose the best candidate available at the convention, regardless what some caucus voter in Iowa way back in January had to say before s/he had the full story.

And don't let the Obama supporters succeed in their attempts to vote for anything other than the best candidate. Maybe, at the time of the convention, the best candidate will be Obama, but maybe not. Let's decide those issues at the convention, without trying to "game the system" by artificially tying the superdelegates to the popular vote, okay?