Author: idredit

Promoted by Steven D (edited to shorten title)

As the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, Senator Obama spoke to his campaign staff in Chicago on Friday and …he has put it on the net.

Obama told his HQ staff:

“It wasn’t because of the candidate, it was because of you…a great gift you’ve given to me.”

Watch it:

Ben Smith, Politico observes Why he won and she lost

Mark Penn takes the blame-laying to the op-ed page of the Times, saying that the real problem was the money — that is to say, its management. Though it’s not mentioned in the piece, Penn has told people that he blames his internal rival, Harold Ickes, and Patti Solis Doyle and Mike Henry for that spending, which left the campaign broke after Iowa.

Meanwhile, Harris and Halperin make a key point we all probably should have spent more time thinking about last year: The big shift here was the black vote moving from the Clintons to the insurgent.

But while there are both organizational and demographic explanations — there’s never one cause — for Hillary’s defeat, as the story gets retold over the months and years I suspect it’ll begin to fit bigger narratives: Race and gender, generations, and change. Few are going to remember that Hillary should have contested the caucus states.

Over at JJP I found this post instructive

By the way, take some time to read the TNR piece The Agitator link provided

How Obama Won: That $10,000/year job pays dividends.

I have listened to the likes of Pat Buchanan sneer as they call Barack Obama a ‘ Community Organizer’.

Well, that ‘Community Organizer’ just used his skills learned there, and in the trenches of Chicago Politics to defeat the most powerful Democratic Party Political Machine in 25 years.

As a reader at JJP stated:

Barack Obama did what the ‘Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy’ couldn’t do: He beat the Clintons.

And, he learned the foundation of how to do it in the Projects on the South Side of Chicago. Obama learned, through that job, the skill of community organizing. How, when faced with an entity more powerful, that one small voice maybe can’t make a difference, but joining together hundreds , then thousands of small voices brings a loud chorus that can’t be ignored.

When I went to Camp Obama, we were instructed by one of the men who had taught Obama all those years ago, and this guy was a pistol. He was so on point, and made me sit back and think about what Obama was really trying to do. He was training Community Organizers to go back to their homes and find others to come to the Obama Campaign.

It was definitely bottom-up organizing,, and this is how Obama was able to win. One of the articles that we were requested to read at Camp Obama was The New Republic one on Obama being influenced by Saul Alinsky. If you’ve not read the article, you should, because I thought it was very instructive, but also plays into the foundation of what Obama did.

In order to beat those who have ‘The Establishment’ on their side, you have to create your own ‘Establishment’. Barack Obama had to create his own ‘ Organization’ in every state throughout the country. And, he did, just that.

Obama also learned from his time in Chicago, that you can win in two ways

1. Get those who have always voted to come over to your side
2. Get those who don’t vote to come and vote and make sure you have enough of them to overwhelm Group #1. If you bring a voter to the dance, sure it’s possible they might switch partners later on in the dance, but not before you get the dances out of them that you need.

Where did Obama learn this from? Chicago. Basically, this is the story of how Harold Washington won. There were a group of activists who thought it was time for a Black Mayor of Chicago, and they went to Harold. Harold told them: raise me this amount of money, and register this amount of voters, and then come back to talk to me. When they did, Harold kept his word, ran, and the rest is history.

[.]

On to the Fifty State Strategy -Obama taking campaign to Republican turf –NYTimes/IHT

Obama has moved in recent days to transform his primary organization into a general election machine, hiring staff members, sending organizers into important states and preparing a television advertisement campaign to present his views and his biography to millions of Americans who followed the primaries from a distance.

In one telling example, he is moving to hire Aaron Pickrell, the chief political strategist for Governor Ted Strickland of Ohio, who helped steer Clinton to victory in that state’s primary, to run his effort against McCain there.

In another, aides said, Obama has tapped Dan Carroll, an opposition researcher who gained fame digging up information on opponents’ records for Bill Clinton in 1992, to help gather information about McCain. That is the latest evidence that, for all the talk on both sides about a new kind of politics, the general election campaign is likely to be bloody.

Obama’s campaign is considering hiring Patti Solis Doyle, who was Clinton’s campaign manager until a shake-up in February, the first of what Obama’s aides said would be a number of hires from the Clinton campaign.

To counter persistent rumors and mischaracterizations about his background, Obama’s advisers said they would begin using television advertising and speeches in a biographical campaign to present his story on his terms. But they suggested that their research had found that voters were not that well acquainted with McCain, either, signaling that the next few months would see the two campaigns scrambling to define the rival candidate.

[.]Obama’s 17-day economic tour, which starts Monday, comes as polls suggest acute public anxiety about the economy, fueled by a new wave of bad news, including a surge in the unemployment rate and a record rise in the cost of oil.

[.]

As Obama said in his speech to his staff, they’ll be coming at him. He has to get ready.

But already the GOP is denigrating Obama’s achievement.   They’ve made up Obama’s Resume; portraying him, not as a “Community organizer” but, a “street organizer”

What the GOP overlooks is that in politics, being a “street organizer” stands you tall in the winning column.

They’re running scared; the GOP is running away from Bush. Nothing good to show for eight long, long years.

We have a choice:

Change we’ll help create or as Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) noted: McCain’s policies would ‘absolutely’ be an extension and enhancement of Bush.

Five days ago, for those who missed it, our esteemed Booman had a post on The Michelle Tape. There are some developments. Larry Johnson’s efforts to peddle the alleged “tape” has been exposed and debunked.

BooMan

My old friend, Larry Johnson, knows about manipulating elections from his training with the Central Intelligence Agency. He doesn’t want Obama to win the nomination for whatever reason, and he’s in full propaganda mode to do everything he can to frighten the superdelegates. He claims to have a shocking tape of Michelle Obama ranting in some anti-white diatribe. He promises to produce this tape tomorrow at 9am.

From what I understand, it is a tape of Michelle Obama criticizing the Bush administration.

How you’d write it:

    Why did Bush cut folks off medicaid?
    Why did Bush let New Orleans drown?
    Why did Bush do nothing about Jena?
    Why did Bush put us in Iraq for no reason?

How you’d say it:

    Why’d he cut folks off medicaid?
    Why’d he let New Orleans drown?
    Why’d he do nothing about Jena?
    Why’d he put us in Iraq for no reason?

How Larry Johnson wants you to hear it:

    Whitie cut folks off medicaid?
    Whitie let New Orleans drown?
    Whitie do nothing about Jena?
    Whitie put us in Iraq for no reason?

As it turned out, our BooMan, raise a glass to him, is quite a sleuth… throwing some cold water and a heap pile of doubt in Larry’s direction.

Yesterday, over at Reason Magazine – Hit & Run, David Weigel had this post in which he chronicles the time line of Larry Johnson’s lies and quotes our BooMan:

(HT: Andrew Sullivan)

Everything’s Gonna Be All White

On Monday I blogged about the rumors of a video that shows Michelle Obama making hateful comments about “whitey.” I’m now convinced that Larry Johnson, the blogger who’s done the most to make the rumors public, is spreading misinformation. At the least, he’s been unable to stick to his story.

Johnson starts getting attention for this on May 26, recounting intel from “someone in touch with a senior Republican.”

I know for a fact that Barack and Michelle Obama would like the tape of her blasting “whitey” during a rant at Jeremiah Wright’s church to never see the light of day.

On the night of May 31, Johnson fires up the speculation by promising an update by 9 a.m. on June 2. “Now I know why people who have seen the videotape say it is stunning.” The blogs start churning, and reporters fish around. On June 1, Roger Stone appears on Fox News and says he’s heard rumors about a Michelle Obama tape. Gleefully, a NoQuarter blogger completes the Mobius strip and claims Stone has given Johnson “new credence.”

A little before 8 a.m. on June 2, Johnson reveals what he learned from “five separate sources who have spoken directly with people who have seen the tape.”

    It features Michelle Obama and Louis Farrakhan. They are sitting on a panel at Jeremiah Wright’s Church when Michelle makes her intemperate remarks. Whoops!!

[.]

The bloggy frenzy increases, with a few possible “transcripts” of the speech making the rounds. Booman posts a theoretical transcript (“from what I understand”) in which Obama says “why’d he” and it sounds like she’s saying “whitey.” Blogger MyTownTalks posts part of “an e-mail with part of the alleged speech,” in which Obama says both “whitey” and “why’d he,” and rants about “the white man” who “let Katrina happen.”

Later in the day, Johnson gleefully updates:

[.]

On the morning of June 3, B-list Democratic pundit Bob Beckel goes on Fox News and speculates that “there might be a big shoe dropping on Michelle Obama tomorrow.” Later that night, after all the polls are closed, SusanUnPC posts a photo of Michelle Obama at a June 28, 2004 luncheon from the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition convention in Chicago, posing alongside Louis Farrakhan’s wife. It kicks off another wave of speculation. On June 4, a blogger at “HillBuzz” posts a new explanation of what’s on the tape and claims it was actually recorded at this luncheon.

[.]

    For about 30 minutes, Michelle Obama launched into a rant about the evils of America, and how America is to blame for the problems of Africa. Michelle personally blamed President Clinton for the deaths of millions of Africans and said America is responsible for the genocide of the Tutsis and other ethnic groups. She then launched into an attack on “whitey”, and talked about solutions to black on black crime in the realm of diverting those actions onto white America.

Her rant was fueled by the crowd: they reacted strongly to what she said, so she got more passionate and enraged, and that’s when she completely loses it and says things that have made the mouths drop of everyone who’s seen this.

Louis Farrakhan isn’t there, nor is Hurricane Katrina (which happened a year after this luncheon, of course) mentioned. Nonetheless, Johnson links the post as “BREAKING NEWS from Hillbuzz.”

[.]

[.]

In his peddling of this story, Johnson has altered his description of what was in the tape. I e-mailed Johnson, asked about the holes in the HillBuzz story, and called him a liar. He e-mailed me back.

   “You and Reason in the same sentence? Now that’s funny. I don’t recall soliciting an email from you so fuck off.”

Until he comes out with a video tape that shows at least one of the many rumored “Michelle speeches,” I think that’s the last we need to hear from Larry Johnson.

::::

Weigel links to more Debunking of the Obama “Tape” Hoax

“Trying to debunk the internet rumors about Michelle Obama.–

As many of you know, there has been an ever-shifting internet rumor launched publicly by an extremely unreliable pro-Clinton blogger, Larry Johnson, that there is a video recording of Michelle Obama saying some intemperate things at Trinity United Church. The way that this story is being spread leads me to think that there is little or nothing to the rumors, which is why I haven’t posted on the issue here until now.

Until today, the rumors have been too vague to be debunked, but they have now become specific enough that the currently most prominent version of the rumor [offered by the pro-Clinton blog Hillbuzz] could potentially be determined to be false. A specific conference for the remarks has been specified: the 2004 Rainbow/PUSH Coalition Annual Conference starting on June 26, 2004.

In an attempt to get the information necessary to put this matter to bed, I drove over to the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition National Headquarters, which is in the opposite corner of my Hyde-Park/Kenwood neighborhood. I spoke with Robert (Bobby) Lewis, Director of Studio Services, who apparently handles the recordings of events.

Lewis said that the recording of events from 2005 and earlier was farmed out and most or all of the existing recordings (listed on the website) had not been conveyed in-house to the National Headquarters. He said that he did not know if the organization had a recording of the 2004 conference. In response to my more specific question, he said that the one-hour Saturday broadcasts on the 2004 Annual Conference (June 26, 2004, and July 2, 2004), which are listed on the website for purchase, are not available, since they come from the earlier outsourced period.

I was very surprised when he informed me that I was the first person to have contacted them about this matter. Given the furor on the internet, I suspect that many of you are skeptical about this claim, but he really seemed unaware of the flap. He wanted to know the name of the website that had the story about the conference. And at first, he thought I was talking about a panel on which Barack, not Michelle, had spoken. In manner, he was gracious and he didn’t seem to be particularly guarded or defensive.

[.]

UPDATE: There are some anomalies in the story so far: according to the rumors, the Rainbow/Push conference was supposed to be held at Trinity United, yet schedules posted at Hillbuzz and elsewhere do not show the event as taking place at the church. Further, the schedule shows Michelle Obama as a “Special Guest,” not a speaker. Last, if it wasn’t at the church, why would the DVD have been on sale there? I remain highly skeptical that this story will amount to anything.

2d UPDATE: More on problems with this story: Does it seem at all plausible that anyone would go into a 30-plus minute racist rant during a “Woman’s Luncheon” at the Sheraton Hotel, moderated by two mainstream local TV news reporters/anchors from the Chicago ABC affiliate? Consider also that Michelle Obama was listed only as a “Special Guest,” not even listed as speaking (the Keynote Speaker for the luncheon was Jesse Jackson).

Here is the program for the luncheon:

    12:00p.m ~ 2:00p.m.
    SHERATON BALLROOM 1-7 Womans Luncheon

    M.C.’s: Cheryl Burton and Karen Jordan, ABC 7

    Keynote Speaker: Reverend Jesse L. Jackson, Sr.

    Special Guests:

    Shoshana Johnson, Retired United States Military
    Michelle Obama, University of Chicago

And then somehow this supposed rant at a non-church event held at the Sheraton Hotel was for sale on the Trinity United website. Thus, I think that the most common version of the story (put forth by Hillbuzz) is almost certainly false.

(highlights added)

Those special skills on Larry Johnson’s resume had me wondering…you’d think he’d weigh the risk. This is not playing in backwoods Somalia or wherever agents, or ex-gents play.

In his glee to smear the Obamas, Larry finds fact checking to be very, very inconvenient.

Larry Johnson’s credibility is diminished and not just within this community but across the internet at some of the most prestigious websites.

Some news under the radar you may have missed…like Obama’s tough talk with Joe Lieberman.

At this hour the New York delegation has a news conference scheduled to applaud Hillary Clinton’s support of Senator Obama.–UPDATE: AP – “Some of Clinton’s closest supporters — the nearly two dozen House Democrats from her home state of New York — switched their endorsements to Obama.”

:::

Hillary will recognize Obama’s candidacy but keep open her options by holding unto to her delegates -NPR

Rep. Charlie Rangel(D-NY) is not pleased. “It puts the delegation in limbo.” -NPR

:::

As Clinton’s supporter, Lanny Davis joins VoteBoth.com to pressure the Obama camp for the VP spot, signals are it’s highly unlikely.

“The Obama campaign would have to make strict rules, you know, about what President Clinton could and could not do during the campaign,” Mr. Rendell said. “For example, the Obama campaign would have to control his schedule; where he would go into, what states.”
Mr. Duffy said that bringing Mr. Clinton back into the White House, even as a spouse, would present some real difficulties.”

former president Jimmy Carter said giving Hillary the VP spot is a bad idea. Gov. Ed Rendell (D-PA) echoed the same meme…you can’t bargain for the VP spot.

:::

The WSJ reports that Rep. Jim Clyburn is to write a book…..Bill Clinton’s expletives.

“Among the party leaders Mr. Clinton alienated over time by his angry tirades was South Carolina’s Rep. Jim Clyburn, the third-ranking House leader and a civil-rights-movement veteran.[.]

Before South Carolina’s primary, Mr. Clyburn admonished Sen. Clinton for suggesting President Johnson deserved more credit than Martin Luther King Jr. for civil-rights laws

primary night, Mr. Clinton called Mr. Clyburn and they spoke for 50 minutes. “Let’s just say it wasn’t pleasant,” Mr. Clyburn says.

Mr. Clinton called Mr. Clyburn an expletive, say Democrats familiar with the exchange. Mr. Clyburn’s office would confirm only that the former president used “offensive” words. Some day soon, the congressman says, he’ll write about the incident. On Tuesday, he endorsed Mr. Obama for president.”

:::

Senator Bernie Sanders  (I-VT) has announced that he intends to counter Senator Joe Lieberman’s advocacy of Senator McCain by campaigning for Senator Obama across the country.

:::

Yesterday, Joe Lieberman received some tough talk.  Jake Tapper, ABCNews provides the details: video too.

Obama Confronts Lieberman On McCain Advocacy, Tone, on Senate Floor

[R]eturning to the Senate after his securing the Democratic presidential nomination, Obama and Lieberman greeted each on the Senate floor in the Well as they were voting on the budget resolution.

They shook hands. But Obama didn’t let go, leading Lieberman – cordially – by the hand across the room into a corner on the Democratic side, where Democratic sources tell ABC News he delivered some tough words for the junior senator from Connecticut, who had just minutes before hammered Obama’s speech before the pro-Israel group AIPAC in a conference call arranged by the McCain campaign.

Watch video of the encounter on the Senate floor HERE.[.]

Neither party is officially talking. But while Lieberman spokesman Marshall Whitman says the conversation was “a cordial and friendly discussion” and Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton says it was “private and friendly,” Democratic sources tell ABC News that the conversation was a stern rebuke to Lieberman for his criticism of the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee on the conference call, as well as a discussion about how far Lieberman is willing to go in his advocacy of McCain, and the tone of the campaign.

“It’s one thing to support McCain,” said one Democratic source, “but many think Uncle Joe has gone too far.”

[.]

“Its a difficult situation,” Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, the Senate Democrats’ Assistant Majority Leader and a major Obama backer, told reporters Wednesday, according to Roll Call. “Joe is my friend … but I hope he doesn’t become the lead attack dog. Of course it’s a concern when someone in your Caucus is supporting the other party’s candidate. Let’s not try and sugarcoat it.”

Lieberman agreed to caucus with the Democrats, who need his vote in the narrowly-divided Senate, in order to maintain power. But the Nutmeg stater is testing the patience of Democratic leaders by endorsing McCain and agreeing to speak at the Republican National Convention in September. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told MSNBC they would “watch very closely” how far Lieberman takes his advocacy.

But Obama may feel Lieberman has already taken it too far.

:::

Two must read articles: How Obama Did It and Can Hillary unite the Party?

:::

Obama is way ahead and has started the healing. The difference between being graceless and gracious…

Clinton supporters wowed with warm reception at Obama rally

Political healing process beginning
Their presence at the event where Barack Obama declared victory shows that, at least in Minnesota, the political healing process already is beginning.

No one is making that healing easier than Obama. Last night, after he had finished the sort of speech that leaves his followers exhilarated and exhausted, Obama did not just leave the arena. Nor did he head to the nearest television camera or the nearest fat cat.

Instead, he went to a room where the Clinton supporters had been gathered and one by one, shook the hands of the 25 people, stopping to chat with each of them.

“Chris (Coleman) walked around the room with him,” said Stevenson, “and introduced each one of us.”

It was really pretty extraordinary.

“He shook my hand and said, ‘Thank you for being here; I’m sure it’s not easy,’ ” said Stevenson of her meeting with Obama.  “I thanked him and said that everyone involved in his campaign had been so gracious. I didn’t know what to say, so I mentioned that my daughter works for a federal health clinic. And he knew right away which program I was talking about. He said, ‘Oh that’s wonderful.’ ”

read the whole thing

Obama puts his stamp on the DNC, bans PAC and lobbyists funding. Howard Dean will remain chairman.

I woke up this morning after an historic night to be faced with the fact that Hillary is still here, refusing to go.

That thought reminded me of this cartoon published last month in Spain’s El Mundo. Very fitting for today – we’re past the finish line, the game is over but Hillary continues to hang on to the donkey’s testic^^s…certainly not his tail.

OOOuuuch!   That cartoon is no longer hillari..ous.

The following reactions capture the disgust from quite a sampling of minds. Please read to the end – the post from Will Bunch – “People Died so tonight could happen” – a historic night that in my view the Clintons sabotaged.

Maureen Dowd in the NYTimes (HT:The Hatman Drudge)

She’s Still Here!  

” “He thought a little thing like winning would stop her?

Oh, Bambi.

Whoever said that after denial comes acceptance hadn’t met the Clintons.

If Hillary could not have an acceptance speech, she wasn’t going to have acceptance.

“It’s never going to end,” sighed one Democrat who has been advising Hillary. “We’re just moving to a new phase.”

Barry has been trying to shake off Hillary and pivot for quite a long time now, but she has managed to keep her teeth in his ankle and raise serious doubts about his potency. Getting dragged across the finish line Tuesday night by Democrats who had had enough of the rapacious Clintons, who had decided, if it came to it, that they would rather lose with Obama than win with Hillary, the Illinois senator tried to celebrate at the St. Paul arena where Republicans will anoint John McCain in September.

But even as Obama was trying to savor, Hillary was refusing to sever. Ignoring the attempts of Obama and his surrogates to graciously say how “extraordinary” she was as they showed her the exit, she and a self-pitying Bill continued to pull focus. Outside Baruch College, where she was to speak, her fierce feminist supporters screamed “Denver! Denver! Denver!”

Even as Obama got ready to come out on stage for his victory party, the Clinton campaign announced that it had won a Wyoming superdelegate and Terry McAuliffe introduced her at Baruch as “the next president of the United States.” She gave a brief nod to Obama without conceding that he was the nominee before rushing through a variation on her stump speech. She clung to her fuzzy math about winning the popular vote, and in one last fudge she said: “Thanks so much to South Dakota. You had the last word” — even though the Montana polls still had 25 minutes to go.

“What does Hillary want?” she mused, in her most self-aware moment in some time. “I will be making no decisions tonight,” she concluded, asking fans to go to her Web site to share their thoughts.” ” [.]

:::

Michelle Cottle

“Right up until the end, a part of me really wanted her to pull it off. Oh sure, I grant the Obamaniacs everything: Hillary’s divisiveness, her baggage, her “likeability issue”-all fueled by her special blend of moral flexibility and arch moralism. On a good day, Hillary Clinton rubs approximately half the country the wrong way. And as her fading primary prospects made the good days ever rarer, the candidate, her team, and most particularly that unhinged husband of hers pulled a variety of stunts that reminded all of us exactly how fatiguing the Clintons can be.

Still it breaks my heart to see her laid low.”

:::

James Fallows

‘You HAVE LOST the nomination. There are NO MORE primaries. And you’re urging your supporters to nurse their bitter feelings on your web site, and keep selling their bikes to give you money that you’ll spend on… what? The unseemliness — and, yes, destructiveness — of this is too obvious to mention, though perhaps not obvious enough to have occurred to you.

This is a new low.”

:::

Noam Scheiber

“So she’s going to leave it to her voters to decide whether she should accept defeat after having, you know, lost? What if every losing candidate left it to their supporters to decide whether or not to accept the outcome of a race? Who would ever accept defeat?

What good could possibly come of this?

With Hillary proclaiming herself the legitimate winner, they’re clearly going to say “keep going.” If she actually does keep going, that’s a disaster for the Democratic Party. And if she doesn’t, you’ve just drawn a ton of attention to the fact that a large chunk of the party doesn’t accept Obama as the legimiate nominee. No, worse: you’ve encouraged them to think that, then drawn attention to it.”

:::

Brendan Loy

“Hillary Clinton had one last chance, tonight, to exit the stage with dignity. She missed it.”

:::

Jonathan Chait

I don’t know what the fallout will be, but at minimum, I’d say that anybody on her staff who cares about their party has a moral obligation to publicly quit and endorse Obama.

:::

Will Bunch

“I still know some really good dirt about Obama, and I’m going to huddle with my advisors over the coming days to figure out how we can get this out there.”

OK, I just made that up. But seriously, what is her motivation for not getting out at this point?”

Now Hillary’s surrogates are making excuses for her not conceding and pushing for her to be the VP running mate:  

“She needs time for her supporters to absorb the defeat.” – Madeliene Kunen, former governor (D-VT) told NPR.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Billionaire businessman Bob Johnson, a close adviser and friend to Sen. Hillary Clinton , launched a campaign Wednesday to persuade Sen. Barack Obama to offer the vice presidential slot on the Democratic ticket to Clinton.

The VP slot is the pick of the nominee. It’s insulting to force Clinton on the ticket. It’s disrespectful of Obama. He is not a kid, a boy.

Johnson should know better. It’s past time for Hillary to go.

It’s despictable. Last night Hillary and Bill Clinton deliberately, with pre-meditated malice denied Obama’s legitimacy and the meaning of this historic event. People will remember where they were, how they helped make this happen.

It was only forty five years ago:

Will Bunch  “People died so tonight could happen”

The following article was datelined Aug. 5, 1961, and appeared in the Sunday New York Times the following day. It was headlined: BLIND RIDER HELPS BREAK COLOR LINE:

    JACKSON, Miss., Aug. 5 (AP) — Two Freedom Riders, a blind white woman and a Negro, broke the segregation barrier today in a Jackson, Miss., bus depot.

When that landmark event took place, Barack Obama was all of one day old. He was born on Aug. 4. 1961, in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Here’s some other stories that appeared in the Times the week that Obama was born:

3 U.S. SUITS SEEK VOTES FOR NEGROES:

    WASHINGTON, Aug. 8 (UPI) — The Government filed three civil rights suits today. They charged that Negroes had been denied voting rights in Montgomery County, Alabama, and Walthall and Jefferson, Davis Counties, Mississippi.

NEW CANAAN GETS HOUSING-BIAS POLL:

NEW CANAAN, Conn., Aug. 5 — A survey to determine whether Negroes would be welcomed as home owners here is being taken by the local branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

On the day that Barack Obama was born, there were no black federal judges in the United States — that would not happen until the day after:

    HYANNIS PORT, Mass., Aug. 5 (AP) — President Kennedy has decided to name James Benton Parsons as a Federal district judge. He will be the first Negro appointed to such a judical post in the continental United States.

On the day that Barack Obama was born, black people in a number of cities and towns across the United States could not swim in the same public pool, drink from the same water fountain or use the same restroom as white people. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was still nearly four years away on Aug 4, 1961.

Between the day that Barack Obama was born and 1968, at least 28 people were killed as they actively worked for the rights of black people to live in an integrated society, vote, and eventually run for public office. Their names are:

    Louis Allen, Willie Brewster, Benjamin Brown, James Chaney, Vernon Dahmer, Jonathan Daniels, Henry H. Dee, Cpl. Roman Ducksworth Jr., Medgar Evers, Andrew Goodman, Samuel Hammond Jr, Jimmie Lee Jackson, Wharlest Jackson, Martin Luther King Jr, Rev. Bruce Klunder, Herbert Lee, Viola Gregg Liuzzo, Delano H. Middleton, Charles E. Moore, Oneal Moore, William Moore, Rev. James Reeb, Michael Schwener, Henry E. Smith, Clarence Triggs, Virgil Ware, Ben Chester White, Samuel Younge Jr.

These men and women did not die in vain.

This the Clintons will deny?

A new low, low for the Clintons.

Ingrates.

Ignoring Hillary Clinton, 20 minutes ago the Associated Press Writers have the tally:

Obama effectively clinches nomination

WASHINGTON – Barack Obama effectively clinched the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday after a grueling marathon, based on an Associated Press tally of convention delegates, becoming the first black candidate ever to lead his party into a fall campaign for the White House.[.]

The tally was based on public declarations from delegates as well as from another 15 who have confirmed their intentions to the AP. It also included 11 delegates Obama was guaranteed as long as he gained 30 percent of the vote in South Dakota and Montana later in the day. It takes 2,118 delegates to clinch the nomination.

Clinton stood ready to concede that her rival had amassed the delegates needed to triumph, according to officials in her campaign. They stressed that the New York senator did not intend to suspend or end her candidacy in a speech Tuesday night in New York. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they had not been authorized to divulge her plans.

[.]Obama’s triumph was fashioned on prodigious fundraising, meticulous organizing and his theme of change aimed at an electorate opposed to the Iraq war and worried about the economy — all harnessed to his own innate gifts as a campaigner.[.]

Let’s ignore the Clintons. Whether or not Hillary concedes, suspends her campaign, goes on to wishing and hoping, is now totally irrelevant. Her CDS supporters can whine, whine, whine. They can declare Puerto Rico a state…all to no avail.

Let’s pop the cork.  Or if you prefer, raise a glass of  orange juice.

Here’s to November 4th.

Yes. We. Can.

It’s frustrating to read that Hillary and her surrogates, in public at least, are positioning that there’s a chance to win this thing. She now intends to poach Obama’s super-delegates.

Hillary’s favorite analogy is – “the frog has to be punched to see how far s/he can jump.” There’s also the analogy of the frog in a pot of water.
The water in this campaign’s pot is forming to a boil. We have been asking ourselves, should Hillary continue to fight, fight, fight instead of a gracious exit, who will turn up the heat?  

The End is near as key supporters and staff turn up the heat on Hillary. Hillary goes out as the winning loser. When Hillary loses, she wins on fuzzy math and ignoring of the rules.

The Public Stance

Clinton weighs next Move after victory

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton won another overwhelming victory over Senator Barack Obama on Sunday — this time in Puerto Rico — even as many Democrats, including some of her supporters, suggested it would be best if she dropped her threat to battle on past the end of the primary voting on Tuesday.

“There’s nobody taking Hillary’s side but Hillary people,” said Donald Fowler of South Carolina, a former national party chairman and one of Clinton’s most prominent supporters, referring to her campaign’s suggestions that she might seek to challenge the way the party resolved the fight this weekend over seating the Michigan and Florida delegations. “It’s too bad. She deserves better than this.”

In a telephone interview Sunday from San Juan, Puerto Rico, Clinton still raised the possibility that she would challenge the party’s decision on seating those delegates. “Well, we are going to look at that and make a determination at some point,” she said. “But I haven’t made any decision at this time.”

[.]

“Most Clinton supporters are filled with bewilderment that this is happening,” said Governor Edward Rendell of Pennsylvania. “We are willing to go on, and we understand the inevitability of this, but we are filled with disappointment and amazement: Why haven’t these results caused the superdelegates to come around?”

Hillary Clinton today: “It is not over ’til it’s over”

“My political obituary has yet to be written, and we’re going forward,” Clinton said. “It is not over ’til it’s over.”

[.]

By most accounts, it is over.

Clinton’s political obituary has been written many times. “The End” declared the online Drudge Report under a photograph of Clinton campaigning in Puerto Rico at the weekend.
The same campaign trip inspired a headline on the online magazine Salon.com saying: “Clinton seemed to be campaigning in an alternate reality.”

As the nomination moved likely beyond Clinton’s reach, her staff was busily declaring her victorious.

[.]

The Clinton campaign, which wants to convince superdelegates that she is the stronger candidate against McCain, hoped to use the Puerto Rico result to support its argument but lower-than-expected turnout weakened the case.

Other cracks were appearing in a campaign that had stayed remarkably optimistic despite the political reality.

The cracks are visible.

The punch has come from Hillary’s key supporters

“It would be most beneficial if we resolved this nomination sooner rather than later,” said U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, a high-profile superdelegate who backs Clinton. “The more time we have to get through a general-election period and the more time we have to prepare in advance of the convention, the better.”

TPM: Hillary-Backer Vilsack: She Should Concede Defeat After Tuesday

“In a blow to any hopes Hillary Clinton might have of continuing the fight for super-delegates after Tuesday, a top supporter is now saying she should admit defeat after the voting is all over.”

and

Politico’s Ben Smith

Clinton camp converging on New York Tuesday, and shedding staff

Members of Hillary Clinton’s advance staff received calls and emails this evening from headquarters summoning them to New York City Tuesday night, and telling them their roles on the campaign are ending, two Clinton staffers tell my colleague Amie Parnes.

The advance staffers — most of them now in Puerto Rico, South Dakota, and Montana — are being given the options of going to New York for a final day Tuesday, or going home, the aides said. The move is a sign that the campaign is beginning to shed — at least — some of its staff. The advance staff is responsible for arranging the candidate’s events around the country.

With the future of her campaign in doubt, Clinton hasn’t announced her plans for the final election night of the primary cycle or beyond, but the aides said she would stage her election night event in New York City. Her entourage is currently expected to wake up Tuesday in New York and to arrive in Washington, D.C. Tuesday night.

So ignore Clinton’s public stance. The deathwatch is on…  and should end in 45 hours.

Today the Democratic Party Leaders, The DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee, meet to decide whether the Michigan and Florida delegations will be seated in Denver. Will it be half a vote or another formula?

At mid week, Party leaders signaled the end of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton duel.

Hillary Clinton, who began the race for the Democratic nomination as the seemingly unstoppable choice of the party establishment, is ending it as an outsider railing against the perceived injustices that have taken her to the brink of defeat.

Busloads of her supporters will converge on Washington today for protests outside a meeting of a party rules committee. Bill Clinton has adopted the language of conspiracy theorists as he attacks a “cover-up” by unseen hands intent on wrecking his wife’s chances. Aides mutter darkly about media bias, sexism and double standards.

The candidate is unrelenting, telling rallies: “We have not gone through this exciting, unprecedented, historical election only to lose.”

Mrs Clinton highlights polls showing that she is best placed to win the White House and statistics that, by some counts, put her ahead of Mr Obama in the popular vote. Her campaign has invited journalists to stay on the trail with Mrs Clinton next week, even after the final primaries on Tuesday.

However, the Democratic leadership is starting to gather around Barack Obama’s standard as he prepares for battle with John McCain in November’s general election.

The Senate Majority leader, Harry Reid, the House of Representatives Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and Howard Dean, the party chairman, have sent out clear signals that they expect the race to end in a matter of days.
“We agree there won’t be a fight at the convention [in August]. The time has come to make a decision,” Mr Reid said. “By this time next week, it will all be over.”

Mr Obama is said to have up to three dozen super-delegates waiting to announce their support next week, pushing him ever closer to, or even over, the finishing line for the nomination. At least one big name, the House majority whip, James Clyburn, is expected to announce his endorsement on Tuesday morning even as primaries take place in Montana and South Dakota.

Today, on the eve of a primary in Puerto Rico that Mrs Clinton is expected to win, the Democratic rules committee will meet in Washington to consider what to do about her disputed victories in Florida and Michigan. [.]

But as the larger focus is on the winding up of the primaries, one of the “memorables” of the campaign is being etched in history:

Hillary’s drinking and the sense that perhaps she over stayed exiting.

There are these photos of Hillary making the rounds in the world media.  The London Times, UK has this header and photo captions of Hillary Clinton seen as drowning her sorrows – considered in some quarters as not very flattering for a former first lady:

A drink before You Go?  Hillary Clinton in the last chance saloon.  (saloon is Brit speak for a bar or pub)

Here is Hillary Clinton enjoying a drink with a claque of journalists on a campaign flight. Has she finally given up on becoming the next President and resorted to drowning her sorrows? Or has has the senator come up with an ingenious last-ditch ploy to invoke the glory of a past victory?

Legend has it that four years ago, during a meeting of congressional delegates in Tallinn, Estonia, the former First Lady challenged Senator John McCain to a drinking contest and soundly beat him.

She may have traded Eastern European vodka for a glass of decent whisky but Mrs Clinton has reminded us that, despite Obama’s lead in the delegate count, there is only one candidate who can drink McCain under the table.

Hillary began the campaign wishing she’d be hailed as another Margaret Thatcher, the iron lady. She succeeded in being labeled ‘tougher than one of the boys’ who will break all the rules to win at all cost.

Reminder: Hillary’s argument for remaining in the campaign was that she’s the stronger candidate best able to beat McCain. Now we know why and it has nothing to do with electoral votes…because Obama drinks orange juice instead of coffee.

Just imagine…Hillary could have departed on a high.

Well in one sense she did, but many were hoping she’d take the moral, gracious higher road.

This piece in The Sunday Times, UK, leaves me conflicted – coming so soon after Hillary’s colossal gaffe, essentially the airing of “her dark soul.”

It appears Obama’s ‘senior aides’ are mulling bringing Bill Clinton on board to heal the rifts created by his wife, Hillary …and may I add, himself.

Excerpts from
The Sunday Times, UK

Barack Obama wants Bill to heal Hillary Clinton wounds
An assassination remark is the latest twist to sour relations between the two rivals

Barack Obama, the probable Democratic presidential nominee, wants Bill Clinton to help him heal the deep party rifts created by his wife Hillary’s divisive campaign – culminating in her dramatic claim this weekend that the 1968 assassination of Robert F Kennedy was a reason not to be pushed out of the race.

The tension between Hillary Clinton and Obama intensified after she told the Sioux Falls Argus Leader in South Dakota, which holds the last primary contest in 10 days’ time: “We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June.”

She quickly apologised, ashen-faced, for a comment which appeared dangerously close to wishful thinking about Obama, but the damage was done.

Senior officials on Obama’s campaign believe Bill Clinton has the unique status and political gifts to reunite the party after such gaffes. They expressed confidence that the former president would rise above the perceived slights and grudges of a hard-fought campaign and work flat out for an Obama victory in November’s presidential election.

“If anybody can put their arms around the party and say we need to be together, it is Bill Clinton,” a senior Obama aide said.

“He’s brilliant, he has got heart and he cares deeply about the country. It’s tricky because of his position as Hillary’s spouse, but his involvement is very important to us.

“Bill Clinton will give permission to Hillary supporters to come into our camp and become one party. He is critical to this effort.

Hillary, 60, claimed that her remark about the assassination had arisen because the “Kennedys have been much on my mind” after Senator Edward Kennedy, Robert’s younger brother, was diagnosed with a brain tumour last week.

[.]

However, while she expressed regret for “referencing that moment of trauma for our entire nation”, she did not apologise to Obama, who has been receiving secret security protection for the past year after death threats.

“We have seen an x-ray of a very dark soul,” wrote Michael Goodwin, a New York Daily News columnist. “One consumed by raw ambition to where the possible assassination of an opponent is something to ponder in a strategic way. Otherwise, why is murder on her mind?”

[.]

After the Kennedy gaffe, however, the implausible has become the unthinkable.

It is a delicate matter to bring Bill Clinton on board. The former president believes that Obama should offer his wife the vice-presidential slot as a mark of respect after she proved her electoral strength in the big must-win states for Democrats, but her latest error is widely perceived to have squandered what little chance she had.

“It would be hard to take the country in a new direction with the Clintons in the White House,” a source in the Obama campaign said. “They bring controversy.”

[.]

“When this primary is over, we’re going to unite as one and Bill Clinton will play a huge role,” said Patrick Murphy, a congressman who chaired the Obama campaign in Pennsylvania, a battleground state.

It’s been twenty four hours with wall to wall coverage, including the three daily papers in New York City – Daily News, New Yorks Post and Newsday – not a word from Bill Clinton and, Hillary has not issued an apology to Obama.

We are in tricky waters filled with mines. How do you heal such raw wounds? How do you trust the Clintons ever?

Instead of friendly intra-party rivalry, this campaign has been more like a nasty divorce.

As Michael Goodwin and Keith Olbermann observed, Hillary’s actions and thoughts precludes her from any public office – not even a dog catcher.

Certainly not the VP slot. Hillary obsession with the presidency goes beyond the comfort level.

Finally, a super-delegate who supports Hillary Clinton steps up to the plate. It’s long overdue and this should sting; it’s no other than the Governor of New York – one of her many ‘home’ states.  Kudos to Gov. Patterson.

See below for Update on Exodus of Clinton’s California Delegates.

AP: – NY Gov. Patterson to Clinton: “Stop the Mich, Fla effort”

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) – New York Gov. David Paterson, a superdelegate who supports Hillary Rodham Clinton, said she’s showing “a little desperation” and should give up her effort to count votes from renegade primaries in Michigan and Florida.

Paterson said Thursday that Clinton shouldn’t derail the process by which the national Democratic Party stripped Michigan and Florida of their national convention delegates because they moved their primaries up to January in violation of party rules. The rules were agreed to by all the candidates, including Clinton, before she won the two January contests. Because of the violations, no candidates campaigned in either state and her rival Barack Obama took him name off the Michigan ballot.

“I would say at this point we’re starting to see a little desperation on the part of a woman I still support and will support until she makes a different determination,” Paterson told WAMC-FM. “Candidates have to be cautious in their zeal to win that they don’t trample on the process.”

Paterson said he doubted his home-state senator would get the edge over Obama, even if the two states’ votes were counted.

(highlight added)

So will she take the high road?

Update [2008-5-23 19:38:44 by idredit]:

Al Giordano – The Field reports an Exodus of 40 Clinton Delegates begins:

The endorsement by US Rep. Dennis Cardoza (D-California) of Obama today sends an extremely firm message to the Clinton campaign, and not only because he was, until today, a Clinton superdelegate.

The Field has learned that Cardoza is the first of a group of at least 40 Clinton delegates, many of them from California, that through talking among themselves came to a joint decision that all of them would vote for Obama at the convention. They have informed Senator Clinton that it’s time to unite around Obama, and that they will be coming out, one or two at a time, and announcing their switch between now and the convention if Senator Clinton doesn’t do the same.</blockquote

This morning in Watertown, South Dakota, Candidate Obama, needing only 17 pledged delegates in a total 120.5 delegates to clinch the nomination, responds to grandson Bush’s and John McSame’s ugly attacks yesterday.

Obama will not be swift-boated: “Those two are launching dishonest, divisive attacks…”

Standing ovations from the crowd:

BTW, McCain was for Hamas before he was against it.

On the bright side of this controversy, Chuck Todd – MSNBC – sees Bush’s attack as a giant gift to Obama.

When President Bush — thousands of miles away in Israel — decided to fire his thinly veiled shot at Obama yesterday, it was a giant gift to the Illinois senator and his campaign. Why?

One, it essentially kept Clinton on the sidelines just two days after her big West Virginia victory. Two, Obama’s opponent was no longer Clinton or McCain, but the man with the 27% job-approval rating. And three, it rallied Democrats to Obama’s side.

Even neutral Dems, like Joe Biden, Rahm Emanuel and Harry Reid, quickly leapt to Obama’s defense. Some Democrats might be deeply divided right now. Pro-choice women are angry at NARAL’s endorsement of Obama; Clinton supporters are upset that Obama is looking like the eventual nominee; and some African Americans are unhappy with the Clintons. But what’s the best way to unify them all? Give them an excuse to turn their attention to Bush.

And this will all play out another day — and will likely extend into the weekend — as Obama will respond this afternoon to Bush at his rally with Tom Daschle in South Dakota, NBC’s Andrea Mitchell reports. Obama will react to both what he considers Bush’s politicization of foreign policy and the substance of Bush’s attack.

The GOP is deficient on the issues, are like chickens who have lost their heads. On every policy issue McSame is tied to Bush. McSame is vulnerable. But this is the GOP and we are assured they’ll play dirty. Always.

The repubs can’t beat Obama on the issues, so they’ve resorted to setting up for the attacks and not just Obama, the candidate. They stooped ever lower to attack his wife; Michelle is fair game, or stoop lower still as did Huckabee.  

Will the kids be next?

All the evidence underscores that the GOP, thanks to brand Bush, is down for the count.

TNR’s Norm Scheiber observes:

How You Know the GOP Is Really Disoriented

They stop referring to Democrats as “the Democrat Party” and add that long lost “ic.” As in this from today’s Harris and VandeHei piece in the Politico:

    The Republican infrastructure is crumbling. Making matters worse, Democrats are erecting a pretty impressive network of donors, think tanks and activist groups that is exploiting the GOP’s structural weakness. The GOP “needs to realize what the opposition is and how formidable it is,” said former GOP leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas). “The Democratic Party is organized chaos, but it is so much better than what we are doing.” It will take no less than three to five years to fix, smart Republicans estimate.

And DeLay practically invented “Democrat Party”…

Never fear, though. Some GOPers still know which way is up. Recommendation number 6 in the Politico piece should sound pretty familiar:

    Fan the fear: Ignore the critics, Republican wise men say — there is still no better way to win than to stir up concerns about Democratic patriotism and their commitment to national security and killing terrorists. It often remains the best call in the GOP playbook, especially with McCain atop the ticket.

    Republican officials privately urge lawmakers to whack their opponents whenever they can for worrying more about coddling terrorist suspects than condemning them, failing to support U.S. troops, exhibiting weakness in dealing with dictators, and rushing to a quick Iraq exit that could put U.S. servicemen and women at risk. Polls still show GOP strength on national security and fighting terrorism — at least when compared with their lousy numbers on domestic issues.

Fan the fear won’t work this round. There’s a limit to how many times you can cry “wolf, wolf, WMDs, orange alert, bin forgotten just sent us a new audio!”  

Disoriented is an understatement – the GOP gave up the war-mongering, fear card yesterday-by voting “present” on the $162.5 billion proposal to fund the wars they killed the bill

When those around us lose their heads, let’s protect ours. We’re getting ready. Bring them on. Lots of hard work ahead but the prize will be ours.

Just imagine:

500,000 African-Americans in Georgia are not yet registered to vote.