I have not written a post here since May. I became very discouraged with the rhetoric and needed a break. That does not mean I stopped paying attention however.
I have missed many of my buddies here on both sides. You know who you are. Hope you all are well.
I am biting my tongue until after Hillary gives her speech tonight. Then, I will be back ;-)
annie b,
I just wanted to say thank you. Thank you for being here everyday. Thank you for giving me guidence and support. Thank you for being a great voice for Hillary. You are a wonderful lady and don't you ever forget it!
Your PB friend,
Darlene
OK, Oregon Democrats: Here's the deal. The media aren't reporting the news; they're making the news. Cable, networks, the Internet, newspapers all compete.
Reporters would have us believing that Hillary Clinton appeals to less-educated older Americans, white working people making less than $50,000 and women.
They report that Barack Obama appeals to the well-educated, diverse, upper-middle class.
This is not the story. Hillary Clinton not only represents the working middle class, but the well educated, diverse, as well. As a "been there, done that" candidate, Hillary relates to all Americans.
Barack Obama may make a great president someday. Today, I strongly urge you to vote for Hillary Clinton. She has the intelligence, experience, determination and skill to bring this country together and to restore America's respect around the world.
Please do not let the media hype discourage you. Yes, we can!
Please vote.
Gayle Haney
http://www.statesmanjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080518/OPINION/805180317/1050
Two great op-eds in the Washington Post yesterday, on the presumptive Hillary Clinton post-mortem: Misogyny I Won't Miss by Marie Cocco and Belittled Woman by Libby Copeland. Both women make the point that dislike and opposition of Hillary Clinton has been expressed in a multitude of sexist ways, sometimes shockingly so. Is it Hillary? Is it sexism? And why are people so stubbornly resistant to allowing that sexism might have been part of this campaign? (By "people" I mean those who insist that there are plenty of reasons to hate Hillary Clinton that have nothing to do with being a woman, and that there are plenty of reasons she (presumptively) lost the nomination that have nothing to do with that, either. (See a collection of them here.) My response is usually that while there are definitely legitimate reasons to dislike/disagree with Clinton, the expression of that dislike is what has so often taken sexist form). For those of you who still doubt, see what Copeland and Cocco have to say about it.
Read More »No matter which Democratic candidate you favor, please consider the following facts:
1. Most of the states Barack Obama has won traditionally vote Republican in the general election, and there is very little chance they won't vote Republican again this year.
2. Hillary Clinton has won the swing states that make the difference between a Republican or a Democrat in the White House.
3. Clinton has won the states with the most electoral votes, including California and New York, and she is favored in Florida.
4. Unlike the Democratic primary, the general election is "winner take all," which means it's more important to win the big electoral vote states than to win the popular vote.
5. In 2000, Al Gore won the popular vote, but George W. Bush "won" the electoral vote.
My biggest fear is that Obama will "win the battle but lose the war." Let's not repeat the 2000 election in which the Democrats won the popular vote but lost the election. We can't afford another four years of a Republican president.
http://www.oregonlive.com/letters/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/editorial/1210982115166140.xml&coll=7
Republicans are and should be panicked over the fact that conservative Democrat Travis Childers just defeated Republican Greg Davis by a margin of 54%-46% in the race for a vacant Mississippi congressional seat. That seat is in a conservative district that had given President Bush a 25-point margin of victory over John Kerry in 2004 - it never should have flipped Democrat. This is the third double-digit loss in a row for Republican candidates in conservative districts across the United States.
Childers' victory came one week after Rep. Don Cazayoux won a House seat in the Baton Rouge, La., area that had been in Republican hands for three decades. Over the winter, Rep. Bill Foster won an election in Illinois to succeed former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who had been in Congress more than 20 years.
What we're watching is the culmination of the decade-plus deterioration of the conservative Republican brand. Put simply, no one, including base conservatives, trusts the Republicans to govern effectively while following anything even faintly resembling a conservative platform.
That's unfortunate, since the only time that the Republicans really took the country by storm was in 1994, when they all ran on a set of firm, well established conservative values and issues. When the GOP strayed from that, falling back on the Democratic Party tradition of retaining power through excessive pork barrel spending and questionable ethical practices, they first lost seats - then lost their majorities. To regain what they have thrown away they must return to those conservative principles. If successful, they then must reject the compromising allure of power and promise to govern in the future as conservatives, not as the Democratic Party Lite.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/05/if_the_gop_wants_to_govern_lik.html
Linda Mayer of Eugene knows they’re out there: the pollsters and pundits who insist that Sen. Hillary Clinton is on the ropes and should give up her quest for the presidency. But that doesn’t mean she has to listen to them.
“I don’t watch TV anymore, I don’t listen to the radio anymore, I just don’t do it,” said Mayer, a retired Lane Community College teacher who is giving about 30 volunteer hours a week to the local Clinton campaign. “I’m not entertaining the idea that Hillary is not going to get the nomination.”
Mayer is part of a not-so-small army of Democrats who can’t, or don’t want, to believe that Clinton may fall short of her history-making dream to be the country’s first woman president.
They know the math about convention delegates, and that the numbers don’t look good. But they also know Clinton walloped her opponent, Sen. Barack Obama, in Tuesday’s West Virginia primary, a lopsided victory they hope can stem and reverse the tide among undeclared superdelegates.
“As a woman, I’ve been waiting for a woman — who is qualified — for a long time,” said Mayer. “To me, Hillary is the best qualified and also very brave and courageous.”
http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/dt.cms.support.viewStory.cls?cid=100824&sid=1&fid=1
Many in the Barack Obama camp, having outfoxed the apparently not-so-formidable Hillary Clinton machine, can't seem to get the hang of winning gracefully. They feel a need to drive a stake in Hillary Clinton's reputation, then dance. If they were smart, they'd heap praise on Clinton and let her finish out the race, however she chooses to do so.
That's sage advice, even though offered by Republican mastermind-turned-pundit Karl Rove. Treat Clinton shabbily, he says, and many of her supporters "will remember it by November."
Nonetheless, Obamites are throwing victory parties over the impending defeat of a fellow Democrat who has thus far pulled in more than 47 percent of their party's primary and caucus participants. Some take a more direct approach. In anticipation of the West Virginia primary, college students for Obama were hurling insults at farmers and truck drivers holding signs for Clinton.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2004411946_harrop14.html
Some 45 to 50 important donors and supporters met Wednesday afternoon at Sen. Hillary Clinton’s colonial-style residence in Washington, D.C. When they emerged, they spoke in unequivocal terms about their commitment to the New York senator’s presidential campaign.
“People are here today only for one reason, and that’s to show her that the support out there is continuing support. We want her to stay to the end and she’s going to stay to the end,” said Bernard Schwartz of New York.
Mr. Schwartz, former CEO and Chairman of satellite system maker Loral Space & Communications, added, “There’s not one iota of doubt of anybody in that room, as to whether or not she’s committed to go through to the end.”
“We are pumped. We are excited. We have never seen a candidate with such energy over such a long period of time,” said former Michigan Gov. Jim Blanchard, who also attended the meeting.
Afterward, Mr. Blanchard took part in a brief press conference along with Clinton Campaign Chairman Terry McAuliffe, who was asked by a reporter about today’s endorsement of Sen. Barack Obama by former candidate John Edwards.
“People are going to endorse, they’re going to come out,” McAuliffe said. “But I think more importantly than anybody endorsing, is what happened last night in West Virginia when Hillary Clinton won … That is the voters making the determination of who should be the nominee of the Democratic Party.”
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/05/14/donors-to-clinton-stay-in/?mod=WSJBlog
We are here and we are proud, your supporters!
Keep the faith, Hillary all the way...
Senator Hillary Clinton has fought a successful campaign at any measure. She has garnered 48 percent of the votes cast in the race to date. She has built a winning and diverse coalition of voters. Her supporters are passionate and dedicated. For these undeniable facts to be ignored now is to the determent of the party.
For those Obama supporters with the foresight and vision to realize the only path to victory for Barack, should he indeed be the nominee, is to win over the hearts and minds of the voters and supporters of Hillary I congratulate you for knowing and understanding the magnitude of Hillary's efforts. To those Obama supporters who scream at the top of their lungs "we don't want you, we don't need you" you need a lesson in reality. So perhaps the lesson to you in part is this, don't throw stones at glass house, don't count your chickens before their hatched, and don't ever count a Clinton out.
CNN Chief National Correspondent
(CNN) -- West Virginia is a state that appears built to accentuate Sen Hillary Clinton's strengths and to highlight the weaknesses her campaign asserts would make Sen. Barack Obama a more vulnerable Democratic nominee.
As you watch the results come in, or look at any demographic breakdown of the state, keep in mind the results of prior Democratic nominating contests, especially those in neighboring Pennsylvania and Ohio.
In those states, Clinton enjoyed a significant advantage among white voters; West Virginia is 95 percent white.
Clinton was much stronger among voters over the age of 65 in Pennsylvania and Ohio; more than 15 percent of West Virginia's population is 65 or over. (The national average is 12 percent.)
Clinton tends to do well with voters on the lower end of the income and education scales. Census Bureau and other government data show nearly 18 percent of West Virginians live below the poverty line and roughly 74 percent of the state's population makes less than $50,000 a year. Put another way, West Virginia ranked 50th among the states in household income and 48th in the percentage of adults with a high school diploma.
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/05/13/wva.watch.for/?iref=hpmostpop
Majority of Democrats favor Obama selecting Clinton as running mate
PRINCETON, NJ -- A new USA Today/Gallup poll shows that 55% of Democrats say both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama should continue campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination, while 35% say Clinton should drop out.
ttp://www.gallup.com/poll/107227/Majority-Democrats-Say-Keep-Campaigning.aspx
Hillary Clinton has dedicated her life to her family and to the causes and values she believes in. Now she is being denounced for being pushy for serving her country, strident for speaking out, power-hungry for campaigning to become a leader in her own right, and calculating for choosing to keep her family intact.
Honest concerns about policy positions and leadership potential would be fair, but Clinton has been subjected to profane personal attacks from the political right and even from so-called progressives.
Americans cheer underdogs who strive on despite seemingly insurmountable odds. But Clinton, working indefatigably to keep alive her hopes and dreams, as well as those of her millions of supporters, is told to do the one thing Americans are never told to do -- quit.
Read More »
On Meet the Press, Sunday, Terry McAuliffe talks with Tim Russert.
PRINCETON, NJ -- According to Gallup Poll Daily tracking, Democratic voters remain closely divided in their presidential nomination preferences, with 48% favoring Barack Obama and 46% backing Hillary Clinton.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/107176/Gallup-Daily-Obama-Yet-Pulling-Away.aspx
At the TIME 100 gala Thursday night, which honors the 100 most influential people in the world, John McCain gave a toast to his fellow presidential candidates and honorees, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Full text of McCain's toast:
"I'm informed that it is the custom to toast someone who has influenced our lives. In that case, please raise your glass to the discernment and probity of the people of New Hampshire. (Laughter)
"Running for President of the United States is an unusual experience: invigorating, fatiguing, flattering and humbling in equal measure. This long and surprising campaign seems to have exhausted reporters as well as your expense accounts. Imagine the effect it has had on the candidates: the strain of constant travel; the stress of never knowing what one of your supporters might say that at least temporarily puts your campaign on defense or in my campaign, what I might say and the terror of knowing that only one of us will be invited to this dinner next year. (Laughter)
"It's a tough business. And though we are rivals, we should respect each other's willingness to hazard it. Senator Obama is a man of unusual eloquence, who has performed the very worthy service of summoning to the political arena Americans who once wrongly thought it of little benefit to them. Senator Clinton has demonstrated great tenacity and courage; two qualities I have always esteemed. I count myself among their many admirers. Please join me, then, in a toast to my opponents and compatriots, Senators Clinton and Obama, and to the noisy, contentious, striving, beautiful country we hope to lead."
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