Afterhours on MSNBC with Dan Abrams, had the second half of their show after the events of the night occurred, discussing and talking about Hillary for VP, yes/no?
Here is my quick reply giving the top-three reasons is should be no:
Iraq: She voted for it, and destroys the Obama argument that judgment trumps McCain's experience, because she had the same lapse of judgement that has killed thousands of our troops and enabled the biggest foreign policy disaster in our nation's history. She forces that issue off the table because McCain can simply point to her to negate his clean argument on this issue and thereby cedes national security by default because she is on the ticket.
She unifies the GOP: She would be the single biggest unifying force for the GOP base to embrace McCain.
Pre-loaded GOP talking points: The GOP can avoid talking on the issues if the CLinton name is on the ticket. All they have to say is "Hillarycare" and half the country tunes out and rejects the Democratic potion in Pavlovian response to the tainted brand name of Clinton.
In her interview with Brian Williams just before John Edwards officially endorsed Barack Obama in Michigan this evening, she spun out a torrent of points in response to being asked about her overturning the voters will in the elections, but by doing so tacitly answered that she would be quite happy to do so.
As per the latest from DCW, since Tuesday's elections in Indiana and South Carolina, the net tallies of superdelegates has been starting to accelerate. The day after we saw Rep. Heath Shuler (NC) come out for Clinton, saw Obama pick up Jerry Meek a DNC superdelegate from North Carolina and DNC superdelegate Inola Henry in California, but saw DNC superdelegate Jennifer McClellan in Virginia switch from Clinton to Obama after getting confirmation from the Obama campaign. Then yesterday we saw Rep. Brad Miller (NC) and
Rep. Rick Larsen (WA) come out for Obama, and now we have Rep. Peter DeFazio (OR) endorse Obama and had Rep. Donald Payne (NJ) switch from Clinton to Obama.
That is a pick up of 7 for Obama in the last 72 hours and net loss of 1 for Clinton over the same 72 hours. So it is starting to be not just obama gaining superdelegates, but Clinton is beginning to hemorrhage them as well. Add to that Rep. Earl Bluemnauer's (OR) take on how the majority of House delegates are going for Obama and it seems the superdelegates are beginning to break loose.
With all the hand wringing and spin that is currently in full force, it is worthwhile to take a deep cleansing breath and look at the cold hard math. Go to CNN's delegate counter...
In the recent imbroglio over Barack Obama's comments at a fundraiser in San Francisco on Friday, where he had the audacity to point out the truth, that people in the rustbelt are bitter, and after decades of given political platitudes as jibs are sipped out of the country, education has crumbled for their kids, and affordable healthcare has become a mirage, don't you think it is a good idea to step back a moment as ask what the real ugliness of condescension is here?
I just got an email alert from Governor and former candidate Bill Richardson wherein he endorses Barack Obama for President.
Here is the email that Gov. Richardson just sent out:
During the last year, I have shared with you my vision and hopes for this nation as we look to repair the damage of the last seven years. And you have shared your support, your ideas and your encouragement to my campaign. We have been through a lot together and that is why I wanted to tell you that, after careful and thoughtful deliberation, I have made a decision to endorse Barack Obama for President.
I had the opportunity to meet with Oregon's Speaker of the House, Jeff Merkley, who is running to be the Democratic candidate to replace Gordon Smith as Oregon's junior Senator in the United States Senate this November, on back to back nights last week. While both events on Wednesday and Thursday evenings were to audiences who were either were already supporters or predisposed to being receptive to his message, seeing him twice in a row threw into sharp relief just how lucky we are in Oregon to have him in elected office in the State Legislature, and just what a great Senator he would make in United States Senate.
Look gals, I’ve already got a lot on my plate... I work full time (and NOT as a blogger), I’m raising a WONDERFUL young kid, and I already spend about 4 or 5 hours an evening on sites like this fighting the good fight for Democrats and our nation.
But you’ve really dropped the ball when it comes to accurately presenting the record on the candidates and asking the tough questions re policy and making the correct calls. The thing is... Bill Clinton said something the other day that misleading at best, and I hear tell folks are twisting the HELL out of his words and calling what he said – of all things – as ringing true
Here’s what former President Bill Clinton said last weekend at a campaign stop in New Hampshire after Saturday’s debate...
Oregon Speaker of the House Jeff Merkley, who is running to replace Republican Gordon Smith as Oregon's Junior Senator in the United States Senate, unveiled a robust education plan this morning.
In the ongoing firestorm over Oregon Junior Senator Gordon Smith's defense of outgoing Senator Trent Lott's infamous praising of segregationist Strom Thurmond's failed 1948 Presidential bid, Smith's office has been all over the map. Of course this is not new to anyone who has looked critically at how Smith operates, but in the furious effort to limit the PR damage this might cause his re-election bid, Smith and one of his spokesmen spun out another baffling contradiction.
Yesterday there was a new piece at BlueOregon on the problems Oregon's junior Senator, Republican Gordon Smith has stepped into over his defending outgoing Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott's praising of Strom Thurmond's past which includes running for President of the United States on a segregationist platform.
While not explicitly doing so, at the end Kari's piece touches on something I mentioned in one of the multiple threads over there when this story began to break, that it is good to remember the context of why Lott was really pushed out of the leadership post over the Thurmond speech he gave.
This past Saturday evening at MacTarnahan’s Taproom in Northwest Portland, Montana's Senator and grassroots hero Jon Tester joined Oregon's Speaker of the House Jeff Merkley at a fundraiser for Merkley's campaign to replace Gordon Smith as Oregon's junior Senator to the United States Senate.
The event was both well attended and came off organized. Early on before the speeches, Merkley's campaign and Tester's aide secured for myself and blogger Ben DuPree from Witigonen a few minutes face time with Senator Tester. Speaking with the Senator, it is easy to see why Montanans have elected him to first lead the Montana State Senate and then to replace the odious Conrad Burns as their Senator to Congress. The Senator was direct yet totally approachable in his conversation.
The other day a diary by SteveUFT made the recommended list which was about the alleged evils of the Disney corporation because it removed a teachers name from a list of honorees of a now defunct educational award its company gave out. It was claimed his name was removed because the person was previously listed as a signatory on a protest letter against the company.
I don't know Leo Casey, who put forward this plot by Disney against him over on the EdWize blog. From what I gather Mr. Casey is a special representative for the United Federation of Teachers in New York City and is well-respected and competent. I have no truck against him personally, and certainly not against union teachers or unions as a whole.
Yet there is a serious gaping hole in the story which makes his claims border on the bat-shit crazy.
On Friday, an ad went live on Barack Obama's website in which retired four-star Air Force General Merrill "Tony" McPeak endorses Obama for President. Gen. McPeak, who is from Grants Pass Oregon and now lives in Lake Oswego served in the Air Force for 35 years. Earlier in his military career he was a combat pilot and went on to lead the Air Force during the first war in Iraq (Operation Desert Storm). He was also a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.
Those words were given in a time of fear, of injustice, of inhumanity. For those words, and the struggle behind them to bring a more human face to a nation that had become a police state, a price would have to be paid. On the way to an organizing rally for a people under the heal of a jackboot police-state, to cry out the radical notion that those in power are only human not superior to those they control, and likewise those beaten down must be made to realize that they are also human, not inferior that a terrible toll would be exacted. For those words, and the thoughts behind them, a man was stopped by homeland security at a check-point and arrested on August 21st, under the Terrorism Act No 83.
Gordon Smith played politics by subverting conservation laws and destroying endangered salmon simply to win re-election. In order to secure rural southern-Oregon votes in the last election cycle, Smith and the Bush administration over-rode water level policies and violated the law, specifically the Endangered Species Act, in order to appease agricultural interests in southern-Oregon. Forgoing proposed plans which could and should have avoided the crisis by creating a permanent solution such as buying out farmers willing to sell and subsidizing area farms impacted by the drought in order to save salmon runs and the fishing industry, Karl Rove and Gordon Smith instead looked to polls and overturned the science. The result...?
Back at the beginning of April, I put up a piece which laid out the political/legal basis for why we have witnessed unprecedented arrogance on the part of George W. Bush, and the general feckless response of the then relatively new Democratic majority in Congress.
It argued that the Congress had basically given away its war-powers, and any vestige of leverage over the Bush administration when it voted to authorize the use of force in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 with the 2001 AUMF, and how the AUMF in Oct 2002 (more commonly known as the "Iraq War Vote") was basically political kabuki.
In less than an hour, we will have an official announcement of a strong candidate who will take the fight to the single, statewide elected GOP office-holder here in the state of Oregon. Senator Gordon Smith. A candidate who has the intellect, the fire in the belly, and the proven resumé to stand up for the interests of ordinary citizens. To hold accountable the monied interests and the powerful, that they too must operate on a level playing field with you and I. Read more about this candidate below the fold.
