We finally had our opportunity to come together and celebrate Barack's recent big win in the MD primary. Our watch party was essentially "iced out" by a nasty ice storm.
That wasn't such a terrible thing. The new venue was a community center instead of a restaurant/bar, and we had a potluck. We filled the room with Barack volunteers in a very family-friendly atmosphere -- it was great to see all the kids sharing in the experience.
Being from Hawaii, where I grew up enjoying foods from many different cultures, I set pretty high standards for potlucks. This feast would have been a real big hit back home. (OK, nobody brought any Loco Mocos, but hey. It was dinnertime, not breakfast.)
Perhaps the most telling moment was when the room joined to sing "Happy Birthday" to a couple of the volunteers. Show me ONE other campaign where such a thing would happen.
But what else would we expect from a grassroots movement like this, where every volunteer is someone special!
They just showed on the local news that HRC is here in DC holding a rally at Georgetown U -- far from any of the key races. The rationale for her being here -- instead of where the voters are -- is that she "thinks it's a good place to showcase that she's more capable in foreign policy".
And how is she demonstrating this, exactly? By getting up on a stage with wall-to-wall flags on poles, twice as many as I've ever seen for any Bush speech. And lined up wall-to-wall in front of the flags -- beribboned military men. Yep, she's literally called in the cavalry!
Alas, stage props alone don't make a memorable performance. And as Simon Cowell might say -- If you can't hit the right notes, singing twice as loud doesn't make it any better.
Barack only needs ONE flag on stage and only ONE military man on stage with him -- Gen. Colin Powell, in particular, is the one I'm thinking of ;-)
Is it just me, or is there something ironically off kilter about a coal-lobbying organization with a generic rah-rah name being one of the prime sponsors of tonight's debate?
Anyone else sense a slight cognitive disconnect there?
I loved their fabulous ad. All it lacked was the couple from the male enhancement commercials, out there playing slap'n'tickle in their hot tub of bubbling coal tar on top of the strip mine reclamation landfill.
Unsurprisingly, not even a hint of any questions on global warming, resource depletion, species extinctions etc.
But of course, would CNN dare to bite the hand that's feeding it?
By contrast, it's such a pleasure to work for a candidate who refuses to accept a single dime of lobbyists' money!
It's a real pleasure to report that my little home island of Moloka'i went 85% for Barack in the Hawaii caucuses -- highest in the state!
All this wishful thinking about how Barack only appeals to the highbrows. What a load of kukae -- that's Hawaiian for you-can-guess-what. Moloka'i people are country folks, salt of the earth, but very shrewd and don't get suckered by fast talking politicians. They know the real deal when they see it.
And they can see, just as we do, that Barack is truly a man of the people.
Mahalo, Moloka'i, for packing the caucuses and showing the rest of the country how to do it!
Muchos Mahalos to all the stalwart Hawaiians who overflowed the caucus sites last night to deliver more delegates to Barack!
Our 75-25 landslide victory is a sweet echo of the 75-25 thumping we admininstered here in DC. From the farthest East to the uttermost West, Barack and our campaign are really rolling full speed ahead!
MAHALO, MAHALO and now ON TO OHIO AND TEXAS!!
Oh, how I wish I was back in my little grass shack, caucusing for Barack in Hawaii today!
Well, we did our bit here in Maryland last week -- ice storm and all. So, now I pass the tiki torch to my friends and family back home to turn loose a whole bunch of Hawaiian hospitality and bring home a huge win for our favorite son!
Chelsea, come back to Hawaii anytime so you can practice your hula some more. You'll have lots of free time just as soon as mom's campaign is put in mothballs.
"Auwe" -- "aw shucks", as we say -- it'll be the wee hours here in MD before the caucuses close in Hawaii, so I won't hear the results till tomorrow morning. But they'll be worth waiting for.
Also, a big Aloha to the hardworking campaigners in Wisconsin. I spent many summers on my godfather's dairy farm near a wide spot in the road named Black Hawk, not too far from Sauk City. Far from the beach, but a fabulous experience for an Island boy to be a farmhand for the summer in that lovely heartland countryside. And I'll admit that the church picnics were doggone near as good as a luau. Wisconsinites are some of the country's finest folks and I just bet they'll prove it again tonight!
Oops, she did it again!
It's starting to seem as though Hillary just doesn't deal well with rejection. The rubble hadn't even quit bouncing in South Carolina and she was already long gone.
And as the initial results of the Potomac primaries start to hit the airwaves? She's way down yonder in Texas prepping for a rally there while folks in MD are still braving the ice storm to go and cast their votes!
I start to detect a pattern here, don't you?
As long as your vote's still in play, you're her best buddy. But as soon as the deal's gone down -- all of a sudden you're chopped liver.
Gee ... and here I thought it was only unchivalrous guys that would use you and then kick you to the curb...
Couldn't resist the Jethro Tull reference. DC and much of Maryland are having a pesky ice storm and making the roads into skating rinks. Warm rain above, frozen-solid roads below, you know the rest. A high turnout, nevertheless. Wondering if they'll keep the polls open longer (YAWN)
I'm on the edge of my seat to hear the first Potomac Primary returns! This might be the night when he pulls past Hillary and keeps right on going. And we'll be skating away ... on the thin ice of a new day ;-)
Now wait a minute. After two weeks of hourly Barack commercials, I'm starting to see Clinton comebacks. But this latest one just doesn't make a lick of sense.
In this one, she's laying claim to "35 years of experience" (!!)
OK, granted she doesn't specify what kind of experience, which gives it a weird, weaselly kind of plausible deniability. But it certainly isn't experience in elective office. (We all know Barack actually has the edge there, anyway.) I'm not sure I'm ready to hear what other kind of 35 years of experience she may have.
Hillary, bless her heart, would be a terrific candidate in any other election year and ordinarily would have my vote, hands down. But she's up against a true phenomenon this year, and I guess she's hearing footsteps. (As Satchel Paige famously said, "Never look back -- sumthin' might be gainin' on ya...")
Still -- Lord, forgive me -- when she starts touting her purported '35 years of experience' I can't resist asserting that she must be counting them in dog years.
On the eve of the Potomac Primary, we're poised to put Barack ahead in total delegates (counting the supers) for the first time in the campaign. And we've been blessed the last couple of days to have a LOT of face time with him and Michelle. Today's rally in College Park had to be moved to an 18,000 seat arena due to the huge response. Sign wavers, leafleters and canvassers were out in force this weekend -- 2500+ in Maryland alone.
Tonight Michelle is taking her turn at the podium at another overflow event in Bethesda. The impressive number of women actively campaigning for Obama here in the DC suburbs refutes the canard that Clinton has the so-called "soccer mom" vote locked up!
Meanwhile, Barack is doing a prime-time solo interview on our local ABC station as I write this, putting out his message as articulately as ever, fielding questions with aplomb. And the friendly interviewers are asking some tough ones -- but graciously allowing him to answer in considerable detail -- up to several minutes per answer.
The energy in this campaign is higher than any I've been involved in since '68 and '72. We're on the verge of making history and it's incredible to be part of it!
We will ...
BA-RACK you!
For a minute, I thought I missed a couple paragraphs of Hillary's SC concession speech, delivered from a good safe distance a couple of states away. Then I realized she wanted it that way.
It was amazing to hear her segue from SC to Nashville to Florida in the space of two sentences. "I want to thank the people of SC". Yep, so much so that she fled the state even as the polls were still closing. And I'm sure the good people of SC were happy to bid her adieu with the traditional country-folks' farewell,
"Don't let th' door hit ya where th' dawg shoulda bit ya!"
Next she showed the depth of her concern for Tennessee's voters by saying "Glad to be here -- and I'm sure looking forward to Tuesday's primary in Florida!" (Checks watch) Crud! The flight doesn't leave for two hours yet!
That's right, Florida -- probably the one state right now where she won't feel Barack breathing down her neck.
There's a reason for that (and here's the astonishing twist). It's the old-school politician -- not the upstart young Turk! -- who's running roughshod over party discipline.
Barack is standing firm on the promise he made to stay away from Florida. Hillary shows no such compunction. I really don't think the voters will have much difficulty deciding which course of action is the more honorable.
The proof is the endless line of folks waiting patiently in the cold to try to get into the auditorium for today's rally at American University here in DC.
The arena capacity is 6,000. When they shut the doors, there were probably 4,000 more people still waiting in line.
I came up the street and saw the line was out to the sidewalk ... then I saw it went down the sidewalk to the far corner ... then around the corner ... and down the block ... and over the hill two blocks down and out of sight...!! Nothing short of amazing.
With eyes closed, the vibes inside felt like a rock concert, not a political rally. People hollering, cheering and making all kinds of noise just out of pure excitement! And nobody was even on the stage yet.
ELIJAH'S MANTLE:
It's been passed to a well-deserving Elisha now.
Barack reminds me so much of RFK during those halcyon months in '68. And now, forty years later, we're on the verge of recapitulating what we thought was lost forever -- a fervent and unswerving commitment to change our country's course at a pivotal moment in our history.
We've always had the power. Now we have the person. This campaign, this election, this country will never be the same.
Many contend that the Washington Post is less than objective in its treatment of the candidates. I hold the Post in considerable esteem due to its history, but this morning I'd have to cast my vote with those who believe the Post is showing partiality towards Hillary. I was moved to write them as follows, and would suggest we should all be on the lookout for this type of journalistic spin and be prepared to challenge it vigorously.
___________________________________________________________
In your front-page article this morning (1/26), you seem determined to paint Barack Obama unfairly as a man primed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
You lead with mentions of angry "bickering" and racial "polarization" but hesitate till the third paragraph to acknowledge Obama's significant advantage in the polls. (Polls conducted by well-chastened and morbidly hypercautious pollsters, as you must realize.)
And your interpretation of these favorable numbers: Purely negative. Wow! He's leading the race -- so therefore "a defeat here would represent a major setback".
Likewise, you acknowledge Dem insiders' assessment that Obama "has the superior organization" -- but you immediately allege there is "considerable angst in Obama's inner circle".
Then you claim his election-eve effort "took on a hurried quality", as if any critical election-eve push in any key state would ever be languid or desultory.
And after that? The jump to Page A9 and a resultant loss of half your readers.
But even those who skip the remaining bolus of text will note Hillary's photo featuring her centered in a Raphaelesque nimbus of light. Only the halo is lacking.
Then, last-place Edwards' photo is wedged between Hillary's and Obama's -- and everyone, including Edwards, has turned their backs on Obama, instead facing directly towards Hillary and applauding as if for her!
Finally we pick out Obama, his photo shoved clear over to the right -- cropped to show him literally marginalized against the edge of the picture frame and hemmed in by a cluttered crowd.
Nicely done and oh so cleverly spun, but not quite cleverly enough.
Loco Moco / D.C.
Aloha kakou! (Aloha, y'all!)
I'm an ol' kanaka kid from Honolulu -- exiled here to Babylon-on-the-Potomac for the past decade -- who also attended Punahou School (me - '69, Barack - '79). As you can imagine, I (unlike Robert Johnson!) loved "Dreams From My Father".
It's been incredibly exciting, watching here from inside the belly of the Beast as this campaign takes one vertiginous turn after another!
Barack is the only authentic agent of change in the race this year. He is the fresh breeze sweeping into the stale backroom of politics-as-usual, the "future president" that our country desperately needs Right Now.
It's a pleasure to be part of this movement and I especially welcome hearing from other "Obama 'Ohana" friends in the community!
