Lipstick Bungle
By CHARLES M. BLOW Published: September 19, 2008
Mr. McCain, on Monday you repeated your delusional notion that the fundamentals of the economy are strong. Now, the federal government is working on a deal to save that economy from collapsing. You have admitted that the economy is not your forte, so you could have used a running mate with some financial chops. (Remember Mitt Romney?)
But no. Who did you pick? SnowJob SquareGlasses whose financial credentials include running Wasilla into debt, listing (but not selling) a plane on EBay and flip-flopping on a bridge to wherever. In fact, when it comes to real issues in general, she may prove to be a liability.
In what respect, you may ask?
It turns out that the Republican enthusiasm for Sarah Palin is just as superficial as she is. They were so eager for someone to cheer for (because they really don’t like you) that they dove face first into the Palin mirage. But, on the issues, even they worry about her.
In a New York Times/CBS News poll conducted this week 77 percent of Republicans said that they had a favorable opinion of Palin. But when asked what specifically they liked about her, their top five reasons were that she was honest, tough, caring, outspoken and fresh-faced. Sounds like a talk-show host, not a vice president. (By the way, her intelligence was in a three-way tie for eighth place, right behind “I just like her.”)
When those Republicans were asked what they liked least about her, they started to sound more like everyone else. Aside from those who said that there was nothing they didn’t like, next on the list were: her lack of experience, her record as governor and her lack of foreign-policy experience.
Also, most Republicans think you only picked her to help with the election, not because she is qualified, and a third said that they would be “concerned” if for some reason she actually had to serve as president.
And Palin is proving to be just as vacant as people suspected. In her interview with Charles Gibson last week, she didn’t know what the Bush doctrine was. At your first joint town hall meeting with her in Michigan on Wednesday, in front of an invitation-only crowd of Republicans no less, she dodged substantive questions about the issues as if they were sniper fire, while issuing a faux challenge to the audience to play a game of “stump the candidate”. Seriously?
Many of your supporters will no doubt cry sexism. Fine with me. But that defense rings hollow. I find many of them to be sexist. Fresh-faced? Delegates on the floor of the Republican National Convention wearing buttons like “Hoosiers for the hot chick”?
Seriously.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/20/opinion/20blow.html?_r=2&ref=opinion&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
by Jon Kelly - 20 Sep 08,
On 4 November, Rahim Al-Haj will be a first-time voter. His eyes were wide with boyish enthusiasm as he told me how excited he was at the prospect of exercising his democratic right. But Rahim was no callow 18-year-old straight out of high school.
Imprisoned and tortured in his native Iraq for his opposition to Saddam Hussein's regime, Rahim, 40, became an American citizen at a ceremony on 16 August, having arriving here as a refugee eight years ago.
"I cried that day," he told me. "And the very first thing I did afterwards was fill in a voter registration form.
"My polling card arrived this morning. I picked it up and did this," he said as he mimed kissing it.
"After 40 years, I can't wait to vote freely at last."
But Rahim didn't want to be thought of as a dissident or a political activist. He's an exceptionally skilled musician, one of the world's most accomplished players of the oud - a lute-like stringed instrument whose origins date back over 5,000 years.
I asked him to play for me. He obliged with a quick-paced, melancholy composition. His affinity with the instrument and the gentle, mournful sound it produced was striking.
"It's much more intimate than a guitar," he explained as he strummed. "You have to hug it like you'd hug your wife or girlfriend."
As a small boy, his bond with his oud was so strong that he used to sleep with it in its carry case. His love of music won him a string of awards and a place at the Institute of Music in his native Baghdad.
But it was Rahim's passion for composing and performing that forced him into exile. He used his talent and popularity to speak out against the regime by writing songs which protested against the Iran-Iraq war.
The authorities didn't hesitate. His recordings were banned and he was thrown into prison at the mercy of Saddam's torturers.
"But worst degradation was that they took my oud away," he recalled. "I'd practice playing on my wrist. It was as though I could hear the music."
After he was released from prison during the first Gulf War, Rahim fled the country using false papers. But because musicians had to declare their instruments before leaving Iraq, he had to leave the oud behind.
He went to Jordan before settling in Syria, where he met his wife and stayed for eight years. But when Iraq and Syria restored diplomatic relations in 1998, he had to leave again - this time for the USA.
The United Nations refugee agency sent him to Albuquerque, New Mexico, because they thought the desert landscape would remind him of home.
At first it seemed strange to him. It wasn't the bustling New York-style metropolis he had expected. But as he learned English and made friends, it became his favourite place in the world.
Rahim's career flourished. He played with symphony orchestras in New York and teaches music at the University of New Mexico. In 2008 he was nominated for a Grammy. And like any American, he exercised his constitutional right to complain about the state of the nation.
"America is a wonderful place - the country is gorgeous and the people are so open and welcoming," he said.
"But Americans are very isolated. The only people around them are the Mexicans, who they treat badly, and the Canadians, who are just like them.
"If I can do anything while I'm here, I'd like to help them understand other parts of the world."
I asked him how he was planning to use his first-ever free vote. The answer came back on the beat: Obama. The occupation of his homeland had been a disaster, he said.
"I had mixed feeling when Saddam was overthrown because he was such a terrible man," Rahim said. "But I also saw the devastation and the suffering that my people experienced as a result of the invasion.
"When there's a snake in your house, you don't destroy the house to get rid of it. But there have been four million people displaced in Iraq, one million dead, Shia turned against Sunni.
"It isn't just about Iraq. We need change at home too. Ask anyone about how the economy's affecting them. The Americans have suffered under Bush, too."
Before I left, we embraced. He made me promise never to take my right to vote for granted again.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/talkingamerica/2008/09/oud_awakening.html
My Gal
by George Saunders September 22, 2008
Explaining how she felt when John McCain offered her the Vice-Presidential spot, my Vice-Presidential candidate, Governor Sarah Palin, said something very profound: “I answered him ‘Yes’ because I have the confidence in that readiness and knowing that you can’t blink, you have to be wired in a way of being so committed to the mission, the mission that we’re on, reform of this country and victory in the war, you can’t blink. So I didn’t blink then even when asked to run as his running mate.”
Isn’t that so true? I know that many times, in my life, while living it, someone would come up and, because of I had good readiness, in terms of how I was wired, when they asked that—whatever they asked—I would just not blink, because, knowing that, if I did blink, or even wink, that is weakness, therefore you can’t, you just don’t. You could, but no—you aren’t.
That is just how I am.
Do you know the difference between me and a Hockey Mom who has forgot her lipstick?
A dog collar.
Do you know the difference between me and a dog collar smeared with lipstick?
Not a damn thing.
We are essentially wired identical.
So, when Barack Obama says he will put some lipstick on my pig, I am, like, Are you calling me a pig? If so, thanks! Pigs are the most non-Élite of all barnyard animals. And also, if you put lipstick on my pig, do you know what the difference will be between that pig and a pit bull? I’ll tell you: a pit bull can easily kill a pig. And, as the pig dies, guess what the Hockey Mom is doing? Going to her car, putting on more lipstick, so that, upon returning, finding that pig dead, she once again looks identical to that pit bull, which, staying on mission, the two of them step over the dead pig, looking exactly like twins, except the pit bull is scratching his lower ass with one frantic leg, whereas the Hockey Mom is carrying an extra hockey stick in case Todd breaks his again. But both are going, like, Ha ha, where’s that dumb pig now? Dead, that’s who, and also: not a smidge of lipstick.
A lose-lose for the pig.
There’s a lesson in that, I think.
Who does that pig represent, and that collar, and that Hockey Mom, and that pit bull?
You figure it out. Then give me a call.
Seriously, give me a call.
Now, let us discuss the Élites. There are two kinds of folks: Élites and Regulars. Why people love Sarah Palin is, she is a Regular. That is also why they love me. She did not go to some Élite Ivy League college, which I also did not. Her and me, actually, did not go to the very same Ivy League school. Although she is younger than me, so therefore she didn’t go there slightly earlier than I didn’t go there. But, had I been younger, we possibly could have not graduated in the exact same class. That would have been fun. Sarah Palin is hot. Hot for a politician. Or someone you just see in a store. But, happily, I did not go to college at all, having not finished high school, due to I killed a man. But had I gone to college, trust me, it would not have been some Ivy League Élite-breeding factory but, rather, a community college in danger of losing its accreditation, built right on a fault zone, riddled with asbestos, and also, the crack-addicted professors are all dyslexic.
Sarah Palin was also the mayor of a very small town. To tell the truth, this is where my qualifications begin to outstrip even hers. I have never been the mayor of anything. I can’t even spell right. I had help with the above, but now— Murray, note to Murray: do not correct what follows. Lets shoe the people how I rilly spel Mooray and punshuate so thay can c how reglar I am, and ther 4 fit to leed the nashun, do to: not sum mistir fansy pans.
OK Mooray. Get corecting agin!
Thanks, Murray, you’re fabulous. Very good at what you do. Actually, Murray, come to think of it, you are so good, I suspect you are some kind of Élite. You are fired, Murray, as soon as this article is done. I’m going to hire someone Regular, who is not so excellent, and lives off the salt of the land and the fat of his brow and the sweat of his earth. Although I hope he’s not a screw-up.
I’m finding it hard to concentrate, as my eyes are killing me, due to I have not blinked since I started writing this. And, me being Regular, it takes a long time for me to write something this long.
Where was I? Ah, yes: I hate Élites. Which is why, whenever I am having brain surgery, or eye surgery, which is sometimes necessary due to all my non-blinking, I always hire some random Regular guy, with shaking hands if possible, who is also a drunk, scared of the sight of blood, and harbors a secret dislike for me.
Now, let’s talk about slogans. Ours is: Country First. Think about it. When you think of what should come first, what does? Us ourselves? No. That would be selfish. Our personal families? Selfish. God? God is good, I love Him, but, as our slogan suggests, no, sorry, God, You are not First. No, you don’t, Lord! How about: the common good of all mankind! Is that First? Don’t make me laugh with your weak blinking! No! Mercy is not First and wisdom is not First and love is super but way near the back, and ditto with patience and discernment and compassion and all that happy crap, they are all back behind Country, in the back of my S.U.V., which— Here is an example! Say I am about to run over a nun or orphan, or an orphan who grew up to become a nun—which I admire that, that is cool, good bootstrapping there, Sister—but then God or whomever goes, “It is My will that you hit that orphaned nun, do not ask Me why, don’t you dare, and I say unto thee, if you do not hit that nun, via a skillful swerve, your Country is going to suffer, and don’t ask Me how, specifically, as I have not decided that yet!” Well, I am going to do my best to get that nun in one felt swope, because, at the Convention, at which my Vice-Presidential candidate kicked mucho butt, what did the signs there say? Did they say “Orphaned Nuns First” and then there is a picture of a sad little nun with a hobo pack?
Not in my purview.
Sarah Palin knows a little something about God’s will, knowing God quite well, from their work together on that natural-gas pipeline, and what God wills is: Country First. And not just any country! There was a slight error on our signage. Other countries, such as that one they have in France, reading our slogan, if they can even read real words, might be all, like, “Hey, bonjour, they are saying we can put our country, France, first!” Non, non, non, France! What we are saying is, you’d better put our country first, you merde-heads, or soon there will be so much lipstick on your pit bulls it will make your berets spin!
In summary: Because my candidate, unlike your winking/blinking Vice-Presidential candidate, who, though, yes, he did run as the running mate when the one asking him to run did ask him to run, which that I admire, one thing he did not do, with his bare hands or otherwise, is, did he ever kill a moose? No, but ours did. And I would. Please bring a moose to me, over by me, and down that moose will go, and, if I had a kid, I would take a picture of me showing my kid that dead moose, going, like, Uh, sweetie, no, he is not resting, he is dead, due to I shot him, and now I am going to eat him, and so are you, oh yes you are, which is responsible, as God put this moose here for us to shoot and eat and take a photo of, although I did not, at that time, know why God did, but in years to come, God’s will was revealed, which is: Hey, that is a cool photo for hunters about to vote to see, plus what an honor for that moose, to be on the Internet.
How does the moose feel about it? Who knows? Probably not great. But do you know what the difference is between a dead moose with lipstick on and a dead moose without lipstick?
Lipstick.
Think about it.
Moose are, truth be told, Élites. They are big and fast and sort of rule the forest. Sarah took that one down a notch. Who’s Élite now, Bullwinkle?
Not Sarah.
She’s just Regular as heck.
June 13, 2008 - VANCOUVER --
"Colin Powell, the former Republican secretary of state, says he is not ruling out a vote for Barack Obama, the presumed Democratic nominee for president.
While Mr. Powell served in the administrations of two Republican presidents, he suggested yesterday his support for presumed Republican nominee John McCain is not a forgone conclusion.
He noted that although both he and Mr. Obama are black, he would not cast a vote for the Illinois senator on the basis of race. "I will vote for the individual I think that brings the best set of tools to the problems of 21st-century America and the 21st-century world regardless of party, regardless of anything else other than the most qualified candidate," Mr. Powell said at a news conference before delivering a speech to about 800 people attending a leadership forum at the Vancouver Convention Centre.
"Both of them certainly have the qualifications to be the president of the United States, but both of them cannot be," he said.
A 35-year veteran of the U.S. Army, Mr. Powell also noted he would not necessarily support Mr. McCain because of his extensive military service.
Asked whether he thought it was a difficult choice, he said: "I think so. Yes.""
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080613.BCPOWELL13/TPStory/National
Don't believe all the hype in the media: as usual they are looking for headlines and creating sensation to sell. The MSM and the GOP are the ones instigating divisiviness in the DNC.
A must read for all those who are worried about HC supporters voting for JM or staying home...these are reports from members of our blog family about their experience at their State Assembly Conventions
Posted by Odessa from Colorado Springs, CO.
“HILLARY SUPPORTERS AT THEIR BEST Yesterday I had the honor of attending the 2008 State Assembly Convention in Colorado Springs, CO where I reside. I was there to sell the book Peace Admist Conflict, by Author Rene Reid. Needless to say I had a venue table. I shared this table with a woman from Denver, CO that had nothing but OBAMA everthing, tshirts, buttons, pictures, mouse pads, just to name a few..The posters also were all OBAMA. This is too funny.Although everyone was very respectful to one another (Hillary/Obama Fans) it struck me kind of odd that all the Hillary people were grabbing the free Obama stuff. There was a gentleman selling posters and to boost his sales he started handing out free ones to everyone on the floor. He came back and told me that he could not figure out why Hillary people were the ones snatching them up. He gave out approximately 150 free posters and he said over 80% of the people taking them had vote for Hillary gear on. So to see for myself I went in the Arena and he was so right...lol..I personally asked this lady with respect did she intend to burn it or keep it or what. Her exact words were and I quote. Well honey, I am going to the end no matter what, but I think you and I know both who our nominee will be when it's all over..she was very nice and she said that as long as we are democrats what does it matter. So you see...All the women that are saying they won't vote for OBAMA, are speaking for a small few..She also said she wanted to have some OBAMA signs when the time comes..I met quite a few Hillary supporters yesterday that were not at all bitter. Between setting up on Friday and being there alll day yesterday, I met a lot of them..and I can honestly say they were very polite and so was our supporters. Whew! I am truly tired but it was well worth it.”
Again posted by Odessa from Colorado Springs, CO. later
“…I had a cigarette (for Barack...lol) and the 2 ladies were Hillary Fans...We chatted the whole time...I'm telling you I did not run into 1 person that was impolite, snobbish or anything...They even complimented me on my gear and I on theirs...Guys I'm telling you...It was a great day...We also had people just walking up to the table and taking a look see at the OBAMA stuff. I talked to a few about the book which predicts Obama as our President. I passed out hundreds of free Bookmarks to Hillary supporters..What they did with them, I can't say..put they were very polite in excepting them.So please don't believe the HYPE...It's not like that all from what I saw in the past couple of days. Oh..I can't forget this...I had 2 customers that were for Hillary that bought a book anyway..One woman said her daughter was for OBama and she wanted to have it sent to her..One man bought one for his mother--in --law because she was for OBAMA..I'm telling you...it was great..Hope this lifts everyone's spirits.”posted by ricmpicm:
“I too attended the Colorado State Assembly/Convention. I drove a van from Ft Collins with 7 people that had never meet before. We had 3 men and 2 women Obama and 2 women Clinton supporters. We all agreed that we need to come together after all states and territories vote. “
Posted by Emilie Rankin PCO :
“I can second that from the Washington State Congressional caucus. The Hillary subcaucus finshed electing their delegates earlier (Obama had 150 people running for National delegate and each got a one-minute speech.) When they elected their two delegates, they came over to meet the Obama side and gave a nice speech on party unity.I would say at least %85 of the Hillary supporters here are cool with it. There is a rivalry but it is sort of like competing sports (Great Taste/Less Filling) fans at this point. We actually had fun trying to convince people to cross over, we waved and smiled at each other, and when the divider was drawn for the subcaucus both sides waved goodbye with great good humour. When unity was mentioned by the speakers there was a lot of applause on both sides.There is a core of people who are not so nice about it -- but there are some people in the world who are frustrated and I think they use the election as an excuse to take it out.”
Posted by Donna Henderson,NV :
“I too must add we drove from Las Vegas to Reno Friday to our state convention and we experienced the same polite and cautious behavior only to find out later that many Hillary supporters converted and we picked up 3 more delagates.Sunday morning the Reno headline read " Hillary relinquishes Nevada to Obama" and Bill even made an appearence.”
Commentary: It's over...let me count the ways
Will Durst, Raging Moderate -Special to the DN
I'm not saying Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's historic presidential run is toast. Finished. Down the drain. Caput. Washed up. History. A memory. In the archives. Defunct. Extinct. Artifacto. Took a hike. Sleeping with the fishes. Part of the vast past tense. Joined the choir invisible. Totally obliterated. Entering Sidekick City. Sheer finito. Thoroughly through. Down goes Frasier. Swept away by the Tahiti Express. See ya, wouldn't want to be ya. So long and sayonara sweetheart. Became an ex-presidential run. Experiencing fossilization. Stick a fork in her -- she's done. Game over, man. Say bye. No. No. No. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is that it's down to the wire but that wire is starting to unravel. She's hanging by a thread, down to her last dime and the wheels are coming off. It's two outs, two strikes, nobody on, bottom of the ninth and she's behind by about 142. Got her back up against the wall because an elephant is standing on the couch with the remote. It's closing time, and she doesn't have to go home but she can't stay here. The window of opportunity has slammed shut on her fingers while hanging outside onto the sill 12 stories up. Her time clock has been punched by a mob of boxing kangaroos. Half of her team is handing her a white flag to wave and the other half is throwing in a towel on her behalf. She's down to the last banana in the bunch and even though that one is pretty bruised up, the tarantulas won't let her go there anyway. She's going down for the umpteenth time in high seas. The two-minute warning was a minute fifty ago and it's fourth-and-97. The undertaker is walking this way pulling out a tape measure while whistling to the jingling of the nails in his pocket. The horse she rode in on can smell its stall and is starting to gallop. The fat lady has adjusted her horn helmet and is reaching for the throat spray. Could that be the referee looking at his watch with the whistle in his mouth and he's starting to pucker? Why yes, it could. Not to mention the train has pulled out of the station and the conductor is waving a lantern from the railing of the caboose. They say that anything can happen, and it can, except for what the Junior Senator from New York needs to have happen -- and that, my friends, simply can't happen. Or could it? A week is a year in politics. The moon could fall out of the sky. Pigs could sprout wings and fly to Mars. Jeremiah Wright could have another attack of the talkies. Who knows? Bill could rustle up the Arkansas Cavalry to ride to her rescue. Look. Up in the sky. It's a bird. It's a plane. No, it's a flock of Superdelegates. Is that a light at the end of the tunnel? Unh, no, sorry. It's Obama with a flashlight directing her to the shoulder, and he's repo-ing the Clinton bandwagon. The math just doesn't work. We've moved from the eminently possible to the minorly theoretical. Unless, that is, something really, really odd happens. Which it very well could. At any moment. But then again, probably not. Oh yeah. It's over.
C ustomer: "Look, matey, I know a dead parrot when I see one, and I'm looking at one right now."
Pet-shop owner: "No, no he's not dead, he's -- he's resting! Remarkable bird, the Norwegian blue, isn't it, aye? Beautiful plumage!"
-- From "Monty Python's Flying Circus"
11:45 a.m., Melrose Hotel, Foggy Bottom: It's Day 7 of the Clinton Campaign Death Watch -- a full week since the official arbiter of the Democratic primary, Tim Russert, declared the campaign over and Barack Obama the nominee. Hillary Clinton's advisers continue to insist that the candidate's prospects are very much alive, but the press isn't buying it. Exhibit A: There are two press buses waiting at the hotel here for Clinton's trip to her victory rally in West Virginia, but the entire press contingent doesn't quite fill one. It isn't until the entourage arrives at Dulles Airport that Clinton aides learn that the second bus is still idling, empty, at the hotel.
If there is importance in the results of the primary in West Virginia, the press corps isn't letting on. During the security sweep at Dulles, some play Hacky Sack with a cigarette carton. Awaiting the candidate on the tarmac, two guys from CNN toss a football. Aboard the plane, one member of the press corps entertains his colleagues by flopping down the aisle on his belly, like a fish.
But Clinton, wearing a salmon-colored jacket and dark sunglasses, is all smiles as she boards the jet. She hugs and kisses her campaign chairman, Terry McAuliffe. Still grinning, she helps herself to a cracker with spread from the snack tray as the plane taxis to the runway. And why shouldn't she be happy? Within minutes, Clinton has crossed the Blue Ridge and is over the green hills of West Virginia, home of what she calls the "hardworking Americans, white Americans." This is Clinton Country.
Customer: "That parrot is definitely deceased, and when I purchased it not half an hour ago, you assured me that its total lack of movement was due to it being tired and shagged out following a prolonged squawk."
Pet-shop owner: "Well, he's, he's, ah, probably pining for the fiords."
2:57 p.m., Yeager Airport, Charleston, W.Va.: A steep descent brings Clinton's plane to Charleston's hilltop airport. After an appropriate wait, she steps from the plane and pretends to wave to a crowd of supporters; in fact, she is waving to 10 photographers underneath the airplane's wing. She pretends to spot an old friend in the crowd, points and gives another wave; in fact, she was waving at an aide she had been talking with on the plane minutes earlier.
On the way into town, she makes an unscheduled stop at an upscale farmers market, but about 30 Clinton supporters, several wearing AFSCME T-shirts and waving Clinton campaign signs, have somehow gotten wind of it. Clinton works the crowd, signing autographs and making small talk ("Is that your dog?"). She makes her way past rows of geraniums and marigolds, and Clinton aide Doug Hattaway suggests some metaphors to the reporters (" 'Everything's blooming'?" " 'Fertile ground'?").
Or maybe nipped in the bud? But even here in this verdant electoral garden, Clinton is reminded of her troubles -- in this case, her financial ones. She stops at Ellen's Homemade Ice Cream and orders a scoop of espresso Oreo and a scoop of butter pecan. "Ooh, that looks good," she says after taking the confection, then pauses. "Now, let's see. Who's got my money?" asks the woman who has lent her campaign $11 million to keep it afloat. She laughs. "Where -- where'd they go, the people with my money?" Finally, two aides arrive to retire Clinton's dessert debt.
Customer: "He's not pining! He's passed on! This parrot is no more! He has ceased to be! He's expired and gone to meet his maker! He's a stiff! Bereft of life, he rests in peace! . . . His metabolic processes are now history! He's off the twig! He's kicked the bucket, he's shuffled off his mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleeding choir invisible! This is an ex-parrot!"
7:30 p.m., Charleston Convention Center: The moment the polls closed, MSNBC, playing on the television screens backstage at the victory celebration, declares Clinton the winner of the West Virginia primary. This is no surprise: Exit polls have showed a 2 to 1 margin of victory for Clinton. But a Clinton spokesman rushes into the press area. "Look at that! Look at that! Clinton wins!" he says with mock surprise. There is no television playing on the convention center's red-carpeted floor, where all of 89 Clinton supporters have arrived so far. After a 12-minute delay, somebody thinks to turn on the television in the hall, and the small group breaks into a chant: "It's not over." A few of the supporters attempted to follow that up with a chant of "Yes, we will!"
We will? A week ago, Clinton won the Indiana primary by two percentage points -- and the media decreed that she had lost. Now she's trouncing Obama by double digits in West Virginia -- and nobody seems to be paying attention. This, no doubt, has something to do with the fact that she is trailing Obama in the popular vote, states won, pledged delegates and, now, superdelegates.
"W.Va. win unlikely to change race for Clinton," ABC News reported Tuesday morning. CBS pointed to "her nearly nonexistent chances." NBC likened the vote to "the final football game of the regular season, which really won't impact the teams headed to the playoffs." Even Clinton loyalist James Carville called Obama the likely nominee.
But Clinton aides press on in their effort to demonstrate life in the Clinton candidacy. At the Charleston victory celebration, McAuliffe climbs the press risers and speaks into the CNN camera. "Let's let the voters vote," he pleads. "They don't think this is over, Wolf."
Freash from the Huffington Post press:
Here are top 10 reasons why Obama defeated Clinton for the Democratic nomination:#10.Great TeamObama assembled a great team that could work together#9. All-State StrategyMark Penn was convinced that Clinton could sew up the nomination by Super Tuesday focusing only on the big states. Obama's team hunted for delegates especially in the caucus states that Clinton really didn't contest#8. No Plan BThe Clinton campaign had no fall-back plan when it failed to capture the nomination on February 5#7. Excellence in Execution: Great FieldObama ran the best field operation in American political history and left no stone unturned, or a vote on the table, in any state#6. Explosive Obama FundraisingBy the time the primary season ends, almost one of every ten Obama primary voters will have made a financial contribution to his campaign. That is beyond unprecedented#5. Obama Out-Communicated Clinton Using One Consistent MessageObama's message has been consistent from Day One. Clinton lurched from "experienced insider" to "populist outsider" from Margaret Thatcher-like "Iron Lady" to a "victim being bullied."#4. Hope and Inspiration trumped Fear and AngerA core element of that Obama message has always been hope and inspiration. Hillary played the fear card never managed to inspire and resolve that fear into hope#3. Unity Trumped DivisionObama showed that appeals to division - whether from elements that stirred up fear that a "black candidate couldn't win" - or from his former pastor - could be overcome by America's overwhelming hunger for unity#2. Change Trumped ExperienceClinton Chief Strategist Mark Penn's fundamental strategic error was to position Clinton as the "Experience" candidate, when America desperately wanted change. Eighty percent of the voters think America is on the wrong track#1. Obama is an Extraordinary CandidateInspirational, articulate, brilliant, funny, attractive and naturally empathetic - his history as a community organizer, his experience abroad, his beautiful family, accomplished wife, and adorable kids: Obama is the kind of candidate any campaign manager would want in any year. While the Clintons represented the Bridge to the 21st Century, Obama is the 21st century. His own, multi-cultural story is the future of America. As the campaign tested him, he showed he was cool, deliberate and effective under fire
This is a good article in the LA Times about the intestine fight going on in the GOP.
DIE-HARD VOLUNTEERS FUEL OBAMA, CLINTON CAMPAIGNS
http://www.mercurynews.com/contactus/ci_9223896
They have given up more than they ever expected to: salaries, vacations, holiday celebrations. They've traveled on their own dime to obscure American places: Sugarland, Norristown, Erie and Gastonia. For no pay, they've toiled 18-hour days in the snow, in the heat and in their own Bay Area back yards.
Now, at nearly the end of this long, drawn-out, acrimonious Democratic primary season, these Bay Area campaign volunteers for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are soon to face the bottom line: One of their candidates will be the Democratic nominee, and the other will not.
Obama surpassed Clinton in superdelegate endorsements Saturday, according to the Associated Press. Clinton had been banking on a wide superdelegate margin to claim the nomination.
Still, as mirrors of their candidates, the Clinton volunteers are not ready to call it quits, and Obama backers Saturday began a massive drive to register new voters for November.
"I never would have seen myself this involved," said Ana Yang, who at 29 left Google last year to work at a Mountain View start-up. "It's the people who I met along the way that kept me going: volunteers, staffers, voters. I met people who wanted to see Obama as our president, but they didn't have the time to give that I did. It really snowballed."
Thrilled that her candidate appears to be on the verge of nailing down the nomination, she notes that even with all her dedication, she has yet to work in a state that Obama has won.
"I'm 0 in 5," she laughs. Including Pennsylvania, where she moved for an entire month.
After arriving home to Fremont in the wee hours Wednesday from her campaign stint in Indiana, she was back to work the next morning at FriendFeed, where, even for a start-up, the days are more predictable than campaign work.
In stark contrast, Clinton volunteers Mali Kigasari, 49, and Carol Garvey, 55, are frustrated that their candidate is being urged to drop out before every state votes.
The Bay Area women met on the campaign trail in Fort Worth two months ago and have become friends. They were sent to merely monitor a Texas caucus, but ended up running it when chaos ensued.
Kigasari, an Iranian-American from Oakland, gave up her paralegal job to volunteer for Clinton. She thinks the media and some Democratic leaders are too gleeful, and mistaken, in their dismissal of Clinton.
"I'm bitter. I don't think the game is being played right. I think the Democrats misunderstand that some Democrats are not going to vote in November" for Obama. The experience makes her so livid at times that she is threatening to buck her party if Clinton is not on the November ballot.
"I'm going to write her name in," Kigasari vowed.
Whether she actually will do that is hard to know, but she says she has not been this politically engaged or enraged since 1979, when she and fellow students in her native homeland slept in campus buildings to protest their dismissal from a Tehran University in the wake of the country's fundamentalist revolution.
Fences to be mended
Garvey, president of Santa Clara County's Democratic Activists for Women Now club, vows not to carry her frustration to the ballot should her candidate lose the nomination, but thinks that Obama would have to do some work to woo back "Hillary Democrats" such as her new friend, Kigasari.
Even with the final primary just three weeks away, she is puzzled by the persistent calls for Clinton to bow out.
"I don't know if it's misogyny, but would they be telling a man to drop out?" The retired emergency services dispatcher from San Jose has been elected as an alternate delegate to the party's national convention in Denver, pledged to Clinton.
The experience of these three women, who put their lives on hold for their candidates, underscores the Democrats' dilemma of how to fashion electoral peace at the end of a tumultuous 18-month-long contest. There's potential for unity, but pitfalls loom among polarized Democrats - the Americans the women met on the road, who taught them lessons about the country the next president will serve.
Wider view
Yang, born in Beijing, raised in New York and whose career has taken her to Hong Kong and Silicon Valley, says her time in places like Indiana, Texas and Pennsylvania have shown her another side of life, "where people hold three jobs" to make ends meet.
She found voters in those places fascinated to learn more about Obama, including an Indiana military man who chased her down in the parking lot of a Fort Wayne diner six hours before the polls were to close Tuesday.
As a soldier who had been to Iraq and expected to be deployed again, he was leaning toward John McCain because of the Arizona senator's military service and record on veterans issues. (Primary voting in Indiana was not restricted by party affiliation.)
Yang took her cue, pulled out her BlackBerry, brought up Obama's platform on veterans issues and read aloud. He left, saying he would vote for Obama.
"It was amazing," she said. "This guy was grappling with who to vote for six hours before the polls were closing. He was already on the edge and just needed to be pushed over."
In Texas, Kigasari and Garvey were astonished at the level of commitment for Clinton from many Latinos in Fort Worth. First they voted at polls and then waited several hours for caucuses to start later that night, to show their support for Clinton a second time.
As the caucus start time lagged one hour, then two, she feared people might begin leaving.
"Everyone stayed; they told us they wanted to be there and knew how important it was," Garvey said.
Voters divided
Kigasari, who last week was in Gastonia, N.C., for Clinton in advance of that state's primary, however, said she was appalled by the racial divisions she found among Democratic voters.
It "sent cold shivers down my spine," she said. Whites, she said, couldn't understand why African-Americans were voting en masse for Obama, and African-Americans suggested to her, a white woman, "It's our turn." One black woman told her, "Honey, God never intended a woman to be president."
"Both African-Americans and women have been underrepresented. To say one deserves it more than the other gets you into trouble. And we've got trouble now."
Then again, anything may be possible in this election year, which has proved pundits wrong more than once.
After Texas, Garvey and Kigasari teamed up to go to Philadelphia. Counting on the kindness of a blogger she'd met online, Garvey got free housing.
Only when they arrived did they learn their host was an Obama supporter.
