Hope's Blog For Obama

47th Assembly District Election this coming Sunday, January 11th

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 21:34:39 EST

Hi folks:

I am running on the ballot as a candidate for Assembly District Delegate in the 47th Assembly District Election this coming Sunday, January 11th - and, if you live in Culver City, Rancho Park, Baldwin Hills, Fox Hills, Ladera Hgts, Crenshaw area - you should come by and see how the process works. (To see if you are in the 47th District, look at the map here: http://democrats.assembly.ca.gov/speaker/District/Map/default.aspx. To see if you have other friends who are running for Delegate, check the list here: http://www.cadem.org/site/c.jrLZK2PyHmF/b.4840275/k.804C/ADEM_Candidates.htm.)

The location of the Election Meeting is the Vets Memorial Building located at the corner of Overland Avenue and Culver Blvd. (catty-corner from Sony Studios.) Registration starts at 3 pm and the election starts at 5 pm. You can vote early and leave if ya want to.

Veterans Memorial Complex
4117 Overland Ave.
Culver City

Please come by and visit! Maybe even vote. Here is a list of Assembly District candidates approved by California CAN:

Micah Scheindlin
Margaret-Mary "Hope" Aguilar
Panney Wei-Chen
Deana Igelsrud
Steven Bott
Kian Kaeni
Gwendolyn Austin
Michael Ragogna
Michael Spitzer-Rubinstein

Read on:

From: Chairman Art Torres, California Democratic Party <cdpeditor@cadem.org>

In 2008, we were resolute in our fight for change in Washington — change in our state — change in our own communities. But the fight is not over. Now, more than ever, President-Elect Barack Obama needs a strong Democratic Party behind him. That’s why my 2009 resolution is to make sure the California Democratic Party is ready to help our President whenever he needs.

However, I need your help. On January 10 and 11, 2009, California Democrats will gather to elect almost one-third of the delegates to the California Democratic Party. These delegates will decide the direction of the Party and most importantly do whatever it takes to support the Obama-Biden Administration in the coming years.

Can you join me in reorganizing the Party by coming out to vote for your Assembly District delegate representatives on January 10 or 11, 2009?
www.cadem.org/ademrsvp

On January 10 and 11, 2009, twelve delegates will be elected from every Assembly District. These delegates will represent you for a two-year term in the California Democratic Party, decide what candidates and ballot initiatives get the official endorsement of the Party, elect Party officers, and write the Party platform.

Will you make sure you are being well represented in the California Democratic Party by coming out to vote on January 10 or 11, 2009?

If you were a registered Democrat as of October 20, 2008 and are still registered democratic in that same Assembly District, you are eligible to participate. Simply pre-register here and come out to your Assembly District Delegate Election on January 10 or 11, 2009 to vote. You can find your specific voting location and time, as well as candidate information on our web site at www.cadem.org/ademlocations. Remember pre-registration is not mandatory, but will save you time.

I hope you can join me in continuing to make this Party strong. It’s the one New Year’s resolution that we can all make—and keep! Pre-register now to vote in the Assembly District Meetings.

Sincerely,

Sen. Art Torres (Ret.)
Chairman, California Democratic Party

Paid for by the California Democratic Party
1401 21st Street, Suite 200, Sacramento CA 95811
Not authorized by any candidate or candidate committee.

WATCH THIS VIDEO!

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 04:11:26 EDT

WHY WE MUST CONTINUE TO WORK HARD IN THE CAMPAIGN:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22425001/vp/27098739#27098739

PLEASE PHONE BANK WHENEVER YOU CAN!

Twenty-Two Countries Prefer Obama in BBC World Service Poll!!

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 21:00:08 EDT

Wow! According to the BBC, Obama is loved across the world!

Obama win preferred in world poll

All 22 countries in a BBC World Service poll would prefer Democratic nominee Barack Obama to be US president, ahead of his Republican rival John McCain.

Mr Obama was favoured by a four-to-one margin across the 22,500 people polled.

In 17 of the 22 countries surveyed the most common view was that America's relations with the rest of the world would improve under a President Obama.

If Mr McCain were elected, the most common view in 19 countries was that relations would remain about the same.

The poll was conducted before the Democratic and Republican parties held their conventions and before the headline-grabbing nomination of Sarah Palin as Mr McCain's running mate.

BBC diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus says the results could therefore be a reflection of the greater media focus on Mr Obama as he competed for the presidential candidacy against Hillary Clinton.

International ties

The margin of those in favour of Mr Obama winning November's US election ranged from 9% in India to 82% in Kenya, which is the birthplace of the Illinois senator's father.

On average 49% preferred Mr Obama to 12% in favour of Mr McCain. Nearly four in 10 of those polled did not take a view.

On average 46% thought US relations with the world would improve with Mr Obama in the White House, 22% that ties would stay the same, while seven per cent expected relations to worsen.

Only 20% thought ties would get better if Mr McCain were in the Oval Office.

The expectation that a McCain presidency would improve US relations with the world was the most common view, by a modest margin, only in China, India and Nigeria.

But across the board, the largest number - 37% - thought relations under a president McCain would stay the same, while 16% expected them to deteriorate.

In no country did most people think that a McCain presidency would worsen relations.

US poll

Oddly, in Turkey more people thought US relations would worsen with an Obama presidency than under Mr McCain, even though most Turks polled preferred Mr Obama to win.

In Egypt, Lebanon, Russia and Singapore, the predominant expectation was that relations would remain the same if Mr Obama won the election.

The countries most optimistic that an Obama presidency would improve ties were US Nato allies - Canada (69%), Italy (64%), France (62%), Germany (61%), and the UK (54%) - as well as Australia (62%), along with Kenya (87%) and Nigeria (71%).

When asked whether the election as president of the African-American Mr Obama would "fundamentally change" their perception of the US, 46% said it would while 27% said it would not.

The US public was polled separately and Americans also believed an Obama presidency would improve US ties with the world more than a McCain presidency.

Forty-six per cent of Americans expected relations to get better if Mr Obama were elected and 30% if Mr McCain won the White House.

A similar poll conducted for BBC World Service ahead of the 2004 US presidential election found most countries would have preferred to see Democratic nominee John Kerry beat the incumbent George W Bush.

At the time, the Philippines, Nigeria and Poland were among the few countries to favour Mr Bush's re-election. All three now favour Mr Obama over Mr McCain.

In total 22,531 citizens were polled in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Kenya, Lebanon, Mexico, Nigeria, Panama, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, Singapore, Turkey, the UAE and the UK. A parallel survey was conducted with 1,000 US adults.

Polling firm GlobeScan and the Program on International Policy Attitudes carried out the survey between July and August.

This Saturday, August 9th: Carne Asada BBQ Potluck For Obama

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:27:57 EDT

Come join us for a "Fiesta" Obama-Style!!

We will have some great food, campaign activities, and an opportunity to UNITE for change as a community.

Time:       Saturday, August 9 at 12:00 PM
Duration: 4 hours
Host:         Bregeet Kennedy and Raul Moreno
Location: SIBI Center
               2600 W. 54TH ST. (Corner of 4th Ave.)
               Los Angeles, CA 90043
See this    Google Map.

We're just 2 blocks north of Slauson, between Crenshaw and Arlington.

***$5.00 Donation suggested for the BBQ, and bring your favorite dish to share.

RSVP at: http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/44bw3

**When you rsvp, please leave a comment about what you would like to contribute to the potluck.

***By the way, check out the video of Temo Figueroa, the Latino Vote Director for the Obama campaign:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/invite/thelatinovote

We hope you can join us at this BBQ - it will be a wonderful day of community!

The Democratic Party Must Protect The Voters' Registrations!

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 17:53:43 EDT

The information in the following email is very important:

From: Teresa Hommel [mailto:tahommel@earthlink.net]
Sent: Tuesday, August 05, 2008 7:04 PM
To: Everyone who cares about the upcoming election
Subject: What I told the Obama campaign

Below is a statement that I and a colleague made to the Obama campaign here in NYC when they were seeking input on "what should be at the heart of the Democratic Party" this year. They wanted folks to talk about platform issues, but I took the opportunity to talk about election integrity and the responsibility of the Dem party to protect the vote. We handed out 250 copies of this to people in the audience as well as about 30 delegates to the Dem convention, along with a few copies of the BlackBoxVoting "Toolkit."

Everyone is welcome to use the material with your local parties.

Teresa Hommel

Resources to Protect against Election Fraud

I urge the Obama Campaign and the Democratic Party to deal effectively and early this year with the problems of lost voter registrations and tampering in vote-handling/counting/tabulation.

Election integrity activists, computer experts, and statistical experts have blamed the so-called Democratic "loss" of the presidency in 2000 and 2004 on wrongdoing in these areas.

1. Centralized, computerized voter registration enables last-minute deletion of registrations. For example in 2000, the dishonest deletion of more than 90,000 primarily Democratic registrations in Florida helped defeat Al Gore. Yesterday Greg Palast, investigative journalist, reported that Colorado has recently dumped one fifth of their voter registrations. In New Mexico, half the Democrats in one county found their registrations had disappeared. In Ohio and Nevada, tens of thousands of voter registrations are being cancelled as owners lose their homes to foreclosure.[9]

The Democratic National Committee and Obama Campaign need to educate and support the Democratic organization in each state so that they can aggressively monitor and safeguard voter registrations.

2. When votes are recorded, cast, stored, handled, counted, and tabulated by computers, that is another area in which Democrats are not protecting their voters. Voters can't observe whether their votes are accurately recorded when the votes are inside computer memory. Observers can't observe whether vote storage, handling, counting and tabulating is being done honestly. Independent academic experts have hacked into these machines to expose their vulnerability to untraceable tampering.

Computers should not be used for voting because they prevent average citizens from watching and understanding what's going on with the votes, but 31 states still use them. Of those, only 18 require mandatory manual audits of paper records vs machine records, but do not allow the public to observe the chain of custody of these records.

There are ways to deal with these computers and prevent the dirty tricks that the GOP is now gearing up to commit.

1.    The DNC needs to hire cyber security teams at least as good as the competition, as soon as possible, to investigate what they have done and prevent another stolen election. You can't wait till election day to figure this all out.
2.    In states that count paper ballots with optical scanners, Democrats must provide observers to witness all handling of voted ballots, including the entire chain of custody, and observe audits that compare machine counts to hand counts.
3.    Learn what's going on from election integrity activists: BlackBoxVoting.org's "Toolkit 2008" lists 13 common ways to suppress the vote. A link to the Toolkit is on the back of my statement, as well as links to other information.

* Info on Election Fraud You'll find lots of information about this right after the fold.

Let Them Eat (Pan)Cakes!!

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 21:49:55 EDT

To RSVP for a phone bank, click here (bolded locations are at the site of the pancake breakfast):

Most People Like Me Are Not Counted By Zogby, Rasmussen, Or Any Pollsters

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 18:43:06 EDT

As pollsters gather data on who prefers Obama to McCain, they will not ask registered voters like me.

I am not a homeless person. I am not "living off the grid." It is not because I live in Canada (I live in Los Angeles.)

Nope.

Why won't a pollster count my preference for Obama? It is because I do not have a typical landline phone. Instead of a landline, I have VOIP through a Skype phone at home - and I use a cell phone when I am away from my home and too far from an Internet-connected computer.

According to Salon.com, 4.7 million people will be excluded from the pollsters' polls because they use cell phones only. (See: CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW? OBAMA'S MISSING 2 PERCENT - By failing to survey cellphone-only voters, pollsters could be undercounting Barack Obama's support by millions of voters.)

"Well, the under 40 crowd does not vote that much anyway;" you say? Wrong again. With the number of young people working on the Obama campaign, the under-40 crowd will be a significant voting block this coming November. This, I promise! But I digress . . .

Cell phone only voters are not the only people missing from the pollsters' tallies! The pollsters are missing the millions of registered voters who have switched from landline phones to VOIP ("Voice over Internet Protocol") phones!

VOIP is not just for young kids. Lots of multi-national, Fortune 500 - to mid-size companies use VOIP because it is cheaper - and it is great for companies with lots of offices because they can share extensions rather than additional phone numbers if they want to. But, increasingly, individual consumers are subscribing to VOIP phone services as well. And VOIP users range in age from 20-somethings to people in their late 60s. Are the pollsters missing these people as well? Yes. Most pollsters are not asking voters who use VOIP phone exclusively who they plan to vote for.

As a lawyer who represents computer geeks and digital artists, I have numerous clients who only have cell phones. Most of them are under 40 years old, but some are older. I thought that this phenomenon was unique to my rather sophisticated, high-tech clients. But no: I have met numerous college students, graduate students, and recent graduates through the Obama campaign who have not had a landline phone FOR YEARS. And I have met a few other volunteers my age - and older - who got rid of their landlines when they found that they could use their cell phones inside their homes.

Recent grads, are surely under 40 years old, but the two people who convinced me to switch from my landlines were well over 40 years old. One of my friends, Lyle, has been using Vonage for over five years - without any problems. And I would never have known this if he had not mentioned it one day. When Lyle told me how little he paid per month, I was surprised. I had to ask myself why I was paying AT&T a minimum of $48 per month for basic home services, plus a few perks like call forwarding, caller ID, and conference calling; while Lyle got all the neat services from Vonage, plus voicemail and unlimited calling in the US and Canada for a flat $24.99 per month.

My friend, Nathan (an over-40 Internet computer geek who worked for progressive technology and media companies from Oracle to Oprah) has a Skype account. I got one a few years ago so that I could chat with him (without being gouged by AT&T) while he worked on Oprah's web site in Chicago. When he moves to Washington State later this year, I will not have to change his Skype number in my phone books - because he will keep the same Skype phone number.

I dumped my long distance landline phone service four years ago, when I decided to use my cell phone for long distance calls. I found Skype so easy to use, and the connection so clear, that I started calling my brother in San Francisco, my Sister in Denver, and my sister in New York City with Skype (rather than my cell phone.) Eventually, I started using it for calling my clients as well; even the local clients.

When I realized that I was calling everyone in Los Angeles through my computer with my bluetooth Skype headset, I asked myself why I wasted money with a landline. I realized that keeping a landline phone was just insecurity. And with the government able to spy on my landline calls anyway (thanks, Congress, for FISA!), what was I afraid of?

So, when I moved from Culver City to Los Angeles early this month, I did not get a new landline phone. I kept my Skype number, installed a stand-alone Linksys wireless router loaded with Skype in my new digs, got a wireless Cisco iPhone and - even when my computer is off, I use my wireless Skype phone to call family, friends and clients. It works flawlessly.

Participate in Creating the Democratic Platform!

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 05:52:45 EDT

Listening to America:
the Democratic Platform for Change

With over 1,700,000 donors already funding this movement for change, now is the perfect time to show your support.

Host or participate in a Listening to America: the Democratic Platform for Change event today.

Listening to America:
the Democratic Platform for Change
Host a Platform Meeting

Every four years, the Democratic Party assembles a “platform” that outlines the party’s position on a variety of issues. Traditionally, the platform is written by paid professionals and then presented to the American people.

This year, that’s going to change.

From July 19 to July 27, everyday people all across America will hold Platform Meetings in their own communities. From Atlanta, Georgia to Muncie, Indiana, from Bangor, Maine to Eugene, Oregon, Americans will meet to talk about what issues are most important to them and what should be at the heart of the Democratic platform for change.

The results of these Platform Meetings will be incorporated into the formal process that culminates in the adoption of the platform at the Democratic Convention in August. A few participants may even be invited to appear and testify at the National Hearing and at the Convention!

You can write the next chapter in the history of the Democratic Party. Host an event in your own community. We’ve prepared all the materials that you need to host. Or, if you’d prefer, click HERE to find an event near you.

The World LOVES Obama

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 17:41:27 EDT

From National Journal Online:

Obama-Mania Goes Global
Widespread International Interest In The Presidential Race May Help America's Image

by Amy Harder / Fri. Jun 13, 2008

The excitement surrounding Barack Obama's bid for the White House apparently isn't confined to U.S. borders. A new Pew Research international survey [PDF] shows that the American presidential campaign -- and Obama's candidacy in particular -- has generated a very high level of interest throughout the world. The numbers also suggest that the attention surrounding the race could translate into some much-needed burnishing for the U.S.'s tarnished image abroad.

In nearly all of the 24 countries surveyed, respondents who said they were following the election closely placed more confidence in Obama "to do the right thing regarding world affairs" than they did in John McCain. The largest gaps were evident in Europe, where overwhelming majorities -- 84 percent of French respondents, 82 percent of Germans and 74 percent of Britons -- said they had confidence in Obama while fewer than half said the same of McCain.

The one region this trend didn't hold was the Middle East, where confidence in both candidates ran low: 34 percent of Lebanese respondents said they had confidence in Obama, and a quarter said the same of McCain. In Turkey, Obama garnered 20 percent and McCain a scant 5 percent. Jordan was one of only two countries surveyed that had more respondents express confidence in McCain than Obama, a close 23 percent to 22 percent. What was the only other nation to show more love for McCain than Obama? The U.S., where McCain received 60 percent support to Obama's 59 percent.

FINALLY! AL GORE ENDORSES OBAMA!

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 15:42:20 EDT

. .

A few hours from now I will step on stage in Detroit, Michigan to announce my support for Senator Barack Obama. From now through Election Day, I intend to do whatever I can to make sure he is elected President of the United States.

Over the next four years, we are going to face many difficult challenges -- including bringing our troops home from Iraq, fixing our economy, and solving the climate crisis. Barack Obama is clearly the candidate best able to solve these problems and bring change to America.

This moment and this election are too important to let pass without taking action.

That's why I am asking you to join me in showing your support by making a contribution to this campaign today:

https://donate.barackobama.com/gore

Over the past 18 months, Barack Obama has united a movement. He knows change does not come from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue or Capitol Hill. It begins when people stand up and take action.

With the help of millions of supporters like you, Barack Obama will bring the change we so desperately need in order to solve our country's most pressing problems.

If you've already contributed to this campaign, I ask that you consider making another contribution right now. If you haven't, please take the next step and own a piece of this campaign today:

https://donate.barackobama.com/gore

On the issues that matter most, Barack Obama is clearly the right choice to lead our nation.

We have a lot of work to do in the next few months to elect Barack Obama president, and it begins by making a contribution to this campaign today.

Thank you for joining me,

Al Gore

LIVE TONIGHT -- 8:30 p.m. EDT: Watch streaming video of Al Gore and Barack Obama at a rally in Detroit, Michigan:

Obama's Media Agenda

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 15:37:18 EDT

Barack Obama's Media Agenda: An Exclusive Interview Presumptive Democratic Presidential Candidate and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama E-Mails with B&C's John Eggerton By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 6/15/2008 11:00:00 PM

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama has a profound appreciation of the media's great possibilities. That's at least part of what earned him the presumptive Democratic nomination for president.

The great battle to get the nomination -- a bruising 13-month struggle against valiant New York Sen. Hillary Clinton -- has ended. The war, against Republican nominee and Arizona Sen. John McCain, has only begun.

And if Obama's "Yes We Can" mantra leads to "Yes We Did" in a November election victory, he will be setting the tone for communications policy from the bulliest of all media pulpits. And he likely would have a solidly Democratic Congress behind him.

With that in mind, we asked the senator to weigh in on media's great challenges, issues and limits and go on the record with B&C about his communications agenda.

In e-mailed responses last week to questions submitted to his Capitol Hill office, Obama told us he is committed to working toward a digital-TV transition that is without significant disruption (the switchover would come less than four weeks after his inauguration); said the Federal Communications Commission needs to take merger reviews more seriously; asserted that FCC chairman Kevin Martin, like his predecessor, has tried to "dismantle" rules that protect the public; and gave his thoughts on whether cable content should be regulated or its channels unbundled.

Obama believes the consequence of consolidation has been less diversity, less local news and the parroting of stories across multiple outlets. That, he said, needs to change.

In other words, the media is on notice: The potential new sheriff is in town, and he believes there's plenty of cleaning up to do.

Q: You signaled that you would put the teeth back into antitrust enforcement. What would that mean for media companies that want to merge?

A: There is a clear need in this country for the reinvigoration of antitrust enforcement. Our competition agencies, the Department of Justice and the FTC [Federal Trade Commission], need to step up review of merger activity and take effective action to stop or restructure those mergers that are likely to harm consumer welfare, while quickly clearing those that do not. Specifically, for media mergers, the Department of Justice and the FTC should closely scrutinize all mergers for their implications for competition and consumer choice. The FCC should more seriously evaluate the impact of proposed mergers on the ability of divergent communities to participate in the national media environment.

Q: Where do you stand on the merger of XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio, the only two satellite-radio companies?

A: I am waiting for final resolution by the regulatory agencies and would want to ensure that the merger does not give the new firm excessive market power or unduly limit the choices consumers have for satellite-radio content.

Q: You have said network neutrality would be a priority in your administration. Why and how would you go about ensuring a neutral Internet while still allowing networks to manage traffic?

A: The Internet is a powerful, democratizing tool. There are very low entry barriers for the delivery of services over the Internet, and public debate is unfettered by either the network owner or any single dominant voice. The neutral nature of the Internet makes that possible, and it is something we should defend. Up to now, legislation has focused on protecting against the discrimination against or in favor of any single voice or legal service. All have made allowances for objective, nondiscriminatory network-management practices.

Q: What prompted you to weigh in on media ownership and diversity at an FCC field hearing in Chicago (http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6480419.html) last year?

A: I strongly favor diversity of ownership of outlets and protection against the excessive concentration of power in the hands of any one corporation, interest or small group. I strongly believe that all citizens should be able to receive information from the broadest range of sources. I feel that media consolidation during the Bush administration has had the effect of eliminating a lot of the diversity of information sources available to persons who have to rely on more traditional information sources, such as radio and television broadcasts and newspapers.

Q: What ill effects has the country suffered from media consolidation, if any?

A: This country's media ownership rules that both chairman [Michael] Powell and chairman Martin have wanted to dismantle protect us from excessive media concentration. However, even under current rules, the media market is dominated by a handful of firms. The ill effects of consolidation today and continued consolidation are well-documented -- less diversity of opinion, less local news coverage, replication of the same stories across multiple outlets, and others. We can do better.

Q: You co-sponsored the Dorgan bill to block the FCC's media-ownership change, which Martin has argued was a moderate compromise that took into account the input of opponents to consolidation. Why block it?

A: Chairmen Martin and Powell both argued that their previous effort to deregulate the media market was moderate, as well. Both the courts and a majority of the Senate disagreed the first time. And a few weeks back, the Senate disagreed with chairman Martin again. While he argues that the rule is no longer in the public interest, the public response has heavily weighed in against him. And common sense tells us that the consolidation of outlets in local markets will lead to fewer opportunities for diverse expression of opinions.

Q: What concerns, if any, do you have over violent or sexual content on TV? Should cable be regulated for content?

A: We have established a precedent that government should act to protect kids in a nonintrusive way on broadcast radio and TV. That does not mean that we need the same rules for other media, but it does require us to respect and remain true to the principle that our kids cannot protect themselves -- parents are their first line of defense, and regulation can make it easier for parents to exercise that responsibility. I am focused on ensuring that parents have the tools to protect their kids from offensive material. I prefer technological solutions to this challenge rather than extending content regulation to cable and satellite. Given modern technology and increasingly sophisticated cable and satellite boxes and services, the market should be able to rise to meet the market demand to protect kids from indecent content. If the market fails to meet that demand, legislative and regulatory action may be necessary -- but it must be crafted carefully and focus not on content censorship, but rather on tools for parents.

Q: Do you support requiring cable operators to sell their channels a la carte? Why or why not?

A: I think the jury is still out on a la carte. Several years ago, chairman Powell had the FCC study the effect on consumers of an a la carte system. That study concluded that on average, rates would go up for consumers because each channel would cost much more even if the consumer took fewer channels than they currently receive. Then during his term, chairman Martin had the FCC conduct a review of that study and reversed the findings. FCC staff said the previous report was wrong to conclude that the average cable household -- which watches about 17 channels -- would likely face a monthly rate increase of up to 30% under a la carte. That 2004 report reasoned that a la carte would drive up cable companies' costs for equipment, customer service and marketing, and that would almost certainly be passed on to subscribers. But the new report says consumers could receive as many as 20 channels without seeing an increase in bills and blamed the earlier finding on faulty data it obtained from the cable industry. I do not want to discourage diversity of programming on cable systems and fear that a la carte regulation may do that. But given the conflicting FCC reports, I remain open to review and discussion of the concept.

I AM SO SUPREMELY PROUD TO BE A PART OF THIS CAMPAIGN!

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 18:45:31 EDT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6VfZ4h0uZ4

WOW!

TEARS IN MY EYES!

FINAL PRIMARY PARTIES IN LOS ANGELES TONIGHT!

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 03:02:19 EDT

It has been a long-time coming, but after tonight's primary elections in Montana and South Dakota, the primary battleS come to an end, and Barack Obama will finally be able to publicly acknowledge and accept that he has won the Democratic nomination. What an exciting evening we are going to have.

If you were not aware, there are a number of locations where Obama supporters are gathering together to celebrate this monumental event. You worked hard for this; come join one of these events and celebrate wit your fellow Obama supporters.

Primary Results Watching Party! (East Hollywood - Hillhurst Av, South of Los Feliz Bl)
RSVP: http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/meeting/4svm

Results Watching Party (W. Hollywood - Robertson Bl @ Santa Monica Bl)
RSVP: http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/meeting/4s2v

Results Watching Party (LA- Private home Near Olympic Bl./Arlington Av)
RSVP: http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/meeting/4sf5

Primary Results Watching Party (Studio City - Sportsman Lodge - Ventura Bl @ Coldwater Cyn)
RSVP: http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/meeting/4bhw

Obama May Turn Montana Blue

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Fri, 30 May 2008 16:19:33 EDT

From The Stonecipher Report, May 28, 2008

Obama May Turn Montana Blue

I have been saying it for months now, Barack Obama is the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party. And now that he has clinched a victory in pledged delegates the remaining contests in Puerto Rico, South Dakota and Montana are nothing more than a formality.

Of those three contests none appear to have a chance to play a roll in the General Election this fall; at least at first glance. Puerto Rico can’t even vote in the General, although Hillary will probably claim it can if she wins the primary there, and South Dakota hasn’t gone Blue since 1964 when Lyndon Johnson destroyed Barry Goldwater.

On the surface Montana seems like an impossible pick-up for the Democrats as well, but it may be the one remaining contest to watch for signs of a potential General Election upset in Barack Obama’s favor come November.

A poll done by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc. out of Washington D.C. taken May 19th through the 21st shows John McCain with a solid 8-point lead in Big Sky Country, 47-39.

A closer look at the Mason-Dixon poll however reveals trouble for McCain. For starters 14% of the Montana electorate is undecided, plus there’s a 4% margin of error, that makes the now famous “Keith Number” 18%.

14% undecided is a huge number in one of the reddest of the red states.

In 2000 and 2004 Bush won by 25% and 20% respectively.

As a side note Bill Clinton was able to win The Treasure State in 1992...with the help of a whopping 26% of the vote going to Ross Perot, undoubtedly costing Bush Montana’s three Electoral Votes.

But back to the topic at hand, there should be no question as to whether or not John McCain should win in Montana on November 4th, but the Mountain West seems to be buying what Barack is selling; change. And in order to solidify a victory in Montana, John McCain is going to have to make sure that those 14% of undecided voters don’t break towards Obama. That is a pretty tall order considering that everywhere Obama spends time his numbers improve.

As people get to know Barack Obama they like him more and more. Montana is no different. So if Obama and his campaign decide to make Big Sky Country a battleground it will be.

What should be of even further concern to John McCain is that the Mason-Dixon poll left out one of Obama’s core constituencies, first time voters.

Edwards's Endorsement Prompts More Endorsements From Super-Ds

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Thu, 15 May 2008 19:41:03 EDT

While former presidential candidate John Edwards is not a superdelegate, his endorsement has tremendous value to Obama's campaign. First, it releases the 16-18 superdelegates who were earlier committed to Edwards, most of whom will likely endorse Obama (though they do not have to.) Second, former Edwards Democrats in the five remaining states to hold primaries will likely consider voting for Obama, as well as the white and working class voters thatEdwards appealed to. And third, the endorsement may only be symbolic, but it may free uncommitted superdelegates to back Obama.

Obama has received four more endorsements today. From Democratic Convention Watch:

Washington Representative Jim McDermott endorsed Obama

Rep. Jim McDermott on Thursday became the fourth U.S. House member from Washington to endorse Barack Obama for president.

The Seattle Congressman told the P-I's Joel Connelly that Obama is his pick because "I am confident as president he will end the war in Iraq and bring our sons and daughters home."

California Representative Henry Waxman also endorsed Obama:

“Senator Obama’s vision for change has inspired tens of millions of Americans,” Chairman Waxman said. “And he’s also proved that he has the experience, judgment, integrity, and toughness to bring real reform to Washington. Our nation faces big challenges. We need to bring our troops safely home from Iraq. We need to solve global warming and finally enact universal health care legislation. And we need to create new jobs and strengthen our middle class. Senator Obama is the leader we need both here and around the world. He will be an extraordinary President, and I look forward to working with him to make his vision for change the new reality in Washington.”

California Representative Howard Berman endorsed Obama too:

“Barack Obama has laid out a foreign policy vision driven by principle and conviction, and he understands that our moral authority and our safety as a nation go hand in hand,” Chairman Berman said. “I spoke with him about a number of foreign policy issues that most concern me. He assured me that he shares my views. The moment President Obama takes office, we’ll send a powerful message to the world that America is back and ready to lead again—that we haven’t abandoned the values that made us the light of the world, and neither should anyone else.”

DNC member Larry Cohen, a DC superdelegate endorsed Obama as well.

“I’m convinced that Senator Obama’s message of hope and ‘change we can believe in’ has resonated across our country. He is building a broad base of support, inspiring new voters to join in the political process and demonstrating great appeal to all those who are looking for positive leadership to move us beyond politics-as-usual in Washington."

Fmr. Presidential Candidate John Edwards Endorses Obama

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Wed, 14 May 2008 19:07:55 EDT

OH MY GOSH! The day after Obama suffered the highest percentage loss in a (luckily very small state) contest, Obama received a major coup! John Edwards joined Obama on the campaign trail in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and he gave Obama his endorsement. This news is likely to pre-empt Hillary's personal interviews discussing her success in last evening's contest in West Virginia on many major news networks.

Next week, we expect Obama to lose Kentucky and win Oregon. Thus, the timing of Edwards' endorsement simply could not be better!

Last night, College Democrats of America's Lauren Wolfe (MI) and Awais Khaleel (WI) endorsed Barack Obama. Wolfe's vote only counts if Michigan is permitted a seat at the convention table. Also, at 6:30 this morning, Democrats Abroad Chair Christine Marques' endorsed Barack Obama. Further, Indiana Representative Pete Visclosky submitted his endorsement. Additionally, Oklahoma State Senate President Pro Tem Mike Morgan announced that he is backing Barack Obama for president. (Morgan becomes the fifth Oklahoma Democratic superdelegate to endorse Obama. The others include Oklahoma's Gov. Brad Henry.) Wisconsin State Sen. Lena Taylor from Milwaukee announced her support for Obama on earlier this afternoon.

Hillary Clinton just got one endorsement today, from Tennessee add-on Vicki Harwell, the President of the Tennessee Federation of Democratic Women.

Interesting note:

Clinton superdelegate Brad Ellsworth said today that he cast his vote in the May 6 Indiana Democratic presidential primary for Barack Obama.

“In the booth, I voted for Obama,” said Ellsworth, who announced after the Indiana primary that he planned to use his vote as a superdelegate to support Hillary Rodham Clinton unless there was a compelling reason not to back her.

Superdelegate Endorsement Updates For The Last Week

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Tue, 13 May 2008 15:00:48 EDT

In the last week, Obama has gathered 32 superdelegate endorsements! The following is from Democratic Convention Watch, which shows that Obama has 283 superdelegates and that Hillary has 270.5 (Obama has a 12.5 lead in Super-Ds!):

We began noting all of our additions, changes and deletions on January 11th. In order to reduce the clutter on the Superdelegate list we will only keep a couple of days' worth of notes on the list.

You can see all of the superdelegates that have endorsed a candidate here

All remaining uncommitted superdelegates can be viewed here.

Dates shown are when we added the endorsment which doesn't necessarily mean the endorsement was made on that day.

5-13-08 - Added Rep. Joe Donnelly (IN) for Obama
- Added LA add-on Ray Nagin (LA)# for Obama
- Added DPL Roy Romer (CO) for Obama. Romer removed from Pelosi Club
- Added DNC Anita Bonds (DC) for Obama

5-12-08 - Added Rep. Tom Allen (ME) for Obama
- Added DNC Dolly Strazar (HI) for Obama
- Added Sen. Daniel Akaka (HI) for Obama
- Added Idaho Democratic Party Chair DNC R. Keith Roark (ID) for Obama

5-11-08 - Added DNC Crystal Strait (CA) for Obama

5-10-08 - - Added new Utah addon Kristi Cumming(UT)# for Obama
- Added DNC Carol Burke (VI) for Obama
- Switched DNC Kevin Rodriguez (VI) from Clinton to Obama.
- Added Ohio add-on Dave Regan (OH)# for Obama
- Added Massachusetts add-on Arthur Powell (MA)# for Clinton
- Added Rep. Harry Mitchell (AZ) for Obama

5-9-08 - Switched Rep. Donald Payne (NJ) from Clinton to Obama
- Added Rep. Peter DeFazio (OR) for Obama
- Added Rep. Chris Carney for Clinton
- Added DNC John Gage (MD) for Obama
- Added DNC Edward Espinoza (CA) (aka Mr. Super) for Obama
- Added DNC Vernon Watkins (CA) for Obama
- Added DNC Wilbur Lee Jeffcoat (SC) for Obama
- Added New Mexico add-on Laurie Weahkee (NM)# for Obama
- Added Rep. Mazie Hirono (HI) for Obama
- Added DNC Joe Johnson (VA) for Obama. Obama campaign confirmed his endorsement.
- Added Rep. Ciro Rodriguez (TX) for Clinton.

5-8-08 - Added Rep. Brad Miller (NC) for Obama
- Added Rep. Rick Larsen (WA) for Obama

5-7-08 - Added Rep. Heath Shuler (NC) for Clinton.
- Added DNC Jerry Meek (NC) and DNC Inola Henry (CA) for Obama
- Added add-on Dan Gelber (FL)# for Obama
- Switched DNC Jennifer McClellan (VA) from Clinton to Obama after getting confirmation from the Obama campaign. We are awaiting confirmation from the Clinton campaign on Rep. Brad Ellsworth (IN) who reportedly endorsed her today.

5-6-08 - Added IL add-ons Barbara Flynn Currie (IL)# and Todd Stroger (IL)# for Obama.
- Added DNC Jeanette Council (NC) for Obama

Rasmussen: The Race Is OVER; We Stopped Tracking The Dem Race

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Sun, 11 May 2008 17:13:33 EDT

While Hillary is still out there, stumping for votes in the State of Denial, the rest of the world is starting to move on and is looking to the epic battle between Obama and McCain for the presidency in the general election.

Obama leads in the Popular Vote, the Delegate Count, and contests won. Obama got even more endorsements from superdelegates on Saturday, and he now leads in superdelegates! Now, even though she will enjoy Pyrric victories in West Virginia and Kentucky, she has lost the war for the nomination.

Hillary has become irrelevant in most part. Despite her protests, she has simply failed the math test and will not be able to recover - even with the massive win she is expecting in West Virginia. The experts will start saying; "Let's concentrate on Obama's battle with McCain." And the first of the experts has now just done this.

Rasmussen Reports has been polling the Democratic Race from the very beginning. Last Friday evening, Rasmussen Reports announced that they will cease tracking the Obama-Hillary race for the Democratic nomination - and concentrate instead on the Obama-McCain race for the Whitehouse. Here's their announcement:

Rasmussen Reports to Stop Tracking Democratic Race
May 9, 2008--Rasmussen Reports has been tracking the race for the Democratic Presidential nomination daily for nineteen months… since November 2006. For the last few months, the most remarkable feature of the race has been its consistency and stability. Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are both running historic campaigns and both have captured the votes and hearts of distinct and important constituencies within the Democratic Party. Obama has won Primaries in states where the demographics favor his campaign and Clinton has won in the states that favor her campaign.
However, while Senator Clinton has remained close and competitive in every meaningful measure, she is a close second and the race is over. It has become clear that Barack Obama will be the Democratic nominee.
At the moment, Senator Clinton’s team is busily trying to convince Superdelegates and pundits that she is more electable than Barack Obama. For reasons discussed in a separate article, it doesn’t matter. Even if every single Superdelegate was convinced that the former First Lady is somewhat more electable than Obama, that is not enough of a reason to deny him the nomination.
With this in mind, Rasmussen Reports will soon end our daily tracking of the Democratic race and focus exclusively on the general election competition between Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama. Barring something totally unforeseen, that is the choice American voters will have before them in November. While we have not firmly decided upon a final day for tracking the Democratic race, it is coming soon.

OH MY GOSH! Four MORE Endorsements today

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Fri, 09 May 2008 16:39:07 EDT

WOW! When will Hillary concede? DemConWatch lists the following Obama endorsements as of 4:30 p.m. ET today alone:

- Switched Rep. Donald Payne (NJ) from Clinton to Obama
- Added Rep. Peter DeFazio (OR) for Obama
- Added DNC John Gage (MD) for Obama
- Added DNC Edward Espinoza (CA) (aka Mr. Super) for Obama
NEW - Added DNC Vernon Watkins (CA) for Obama
NEW - Added DNC Wilbur Lee Jeffcoat (SC) for Obama
NEW - Added New Mexico add-on Laurie Weahkee (NM)# for Obama
NEW - Added Rep. Mazie Hirono (HI) for Obama

An AP article reported that Obama received NINE (9) endorsements today. I did not find the name of the 9th super-D, so I am sticking with DemConWatch's tally.

DemConWatch's tally of superdelegates is now:
                    Hillary - 269.5
                    Obama - 268
                    Lead - 1.5 Hillary

If Hillary had not added Rep. Chris Carney today, she'd be ahead by only 1/2 a delegate!

Obama Gets 5 More Super-Ds And A Union Endorsement: Hill gets 1 Super-D

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Fri, 09 May 2008 13:15:49 EDT

Things are looking good for Barack Obama in the race for superdelegates. Before noon, Obama picked up two superdelegate congressmen, one of whom defected from Hillary's list of super-Ds; two DNC members; and the endorsement of the President of American Federation of Government Employees union (AFGE.) He also picked up the endorsement of the AFGE union itself. AFGE is the largest union of federal employees, representing 600,000 workers in the federal government and the government of the District of Columbia. Not a bad morning, in my humble opinion!

Rep. Donald Payne (D-NJ) had previously endorsed Hillary for the nomination. Today, he switched his support to Obama.

Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) endorsed Obama and is campaigning with him today at events in Eugene and Albany, Oregon.

Two members of the Democratic National Committee announced their endorsements of Obama as well. DNC member John Gage (MD) and DNC member Edward Espinoza (CA) (aka Mr. Super) endorsed Obama today.

Rep. Chris Carney (D-PA) released a statement today that said he would back Hillary, because his district supported her by a more than 2-1 margin in the state's April 22 primary.

THE SUPERDELEGATE COUNT AS OF THIS MORNING:

DemConWatch reports that Hillary has the endorsements of 269.5 superdelegates and that Obama has the support of 264 superdelegates; a difference of 5.5 superdelegates. Associated Press, meanwhile, says the superdelegate count is Clinton, 271.5 and Obama, 268 - for a lead of only 3.5 superdelegates.

Thus, Hillary's lead has dwindled from over 100 superdelegates to between 5.5 and 3.5 superdelegates. By the way, CNN and NBC report that Hillary's superdelegate count is 10 and 14 ahead of Obama respectively. But the experts say that Demconwatch and Associated Press are more accurate and verifiable. CNN and NBC collect a lot of their superdelegate information from the candidates themselves, and they often fall behind in their tabulations, so this might explain the disparity.

HILLARY WANTS TO DEBATE OBAMA AGAIN!

Hillary wants to debate Obama again (article below "the fold"); this time in Oregon. The only reason she is still considered a "presidential candidate" is because she refuses to quit! It is a mathematical impossibility that Hillary can overtake Obama. It would be better for Obama to debate his Republican opponent for the general election. Besides, it is not possible to discuss issues with Hillary. She prefers to attack him and impugn his character. Obama diplomatically stated that he and she have had ample opportunity to discuss issues in repeated televised confrontations. (I would have added a nasty response. This is why I could never run for public office!) Read the AP article below the fold.

Hillary is only 9.5 Super-Ds Ahead Of Obama (A New Endorsement)

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Thu, 08 May 2008 21:32:00 EDT

This is getting so exciting. I can feel the excitement in the air. Barack Obama is going to be the next president of the United States. I have never been so proud of my country! This Time Magazine says it all. If you cannot read the writing in front of the photo, it says: "And The Winner Is . . ."

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Every new day brings at least one new superdelegate endorsement - and itis usually in favor of Barack Obama. The following endorsement, by Washington State Congressman Rick Larsen, is the second one he received today. Hillary is now in the single digits ahead of Barack Obama with a 9.5 Superdelegate lead.

Larsen throws superdelegate support to Obama
Posted by David Postman || May 8, 2008

Congressman Rick Larsen, D-Lake Stevens, says he’s a Democratic superdelegate committed to Sen. Barack Obama.

Larsen has been neutral in the race between Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton. He's holding a conference call with reporters right now. Larsen said:

This week Sen. Obama has proven that he is tough and resilient. He has shown that he can take a pounding but come back and communicate with the public to deliver his message of hope and change.

He said that he's been "paritculary impresseed by Senator Obama's truth-telling on the proposed gas tax holiday." Clinton supported a temporary suspension of the gas tax, but Obama called that pandering. Larsen said a tax holiday would "make little or no difference for Americans paying too much at the pump."

Larsen said that “as great as it sounds,” the gas tax holiday would save drivers about 31 cents a day, but take billions away from transportation projects across the country.

By definition, to me, it really looked like someone trying to create voters where votes didn’t exist. … It says to me that at least Senator Obama had the fortitude to call this gas tax holiday what it is, a gimmick.

Larsen said that early in the primary race he was leaning toward endorsing Clinton, and had also thought about endorsing New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.

Remember when Hillary Had 165 Super-Ds and Obama Had Only 69 Super-Ds?

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Thu, 08 May 2008 16:54:49 EDT

On January 13th, Barack Obama had only 69 endorsements from superdelegates, compared to Hillary's endorsements of 165 superdelegates. But, back then, Hillary was the indisputable candidate who would be president.

Boy, have things changed! Obama has been collecting the endorsement of superdelegates almost daily as of late. This afternoon, I consulted demconwatch to see how far apart Hillary and Obama are as of today. Wow! Hillary has reduced her lead from 165 to just 10.5 superdelegates. Today, Hillary has 269.5 superdelegate endorsements and Obama has 259 endorsements.

I expect that Obama will finally overtake Hillary in superdelegates no later than next Friday. Hillary will be gloating about her (totally expected) large win in West Virginia, while the number of her Super-D endorsements continues to erode to a negative lead over Obama. The following graphs (also from demconwatch) show visually the deterioration in her lead and Obama's gains. Obama's latest endorsement follows below the charts!

APNewsBreak: NC superdelegate Rep. Brad Miller now for Obama
By MIKE BAKER

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Rep. Brad Miller is endorsing Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

The three-term lawmaker from Raleigh is the third North Carolina superdelegate to pledge support to Obama since the Illinois senator's convincing victory in the state's primary.

Miller says he decided to endorse Obama following an afternoon meeting with the candidate.

Obama now has the support of nine superdelegates from North Carolina. Rival Hillary Rodham Clinton has the support of three state superdelegates, including Gov. Mike Easley.

There are five uncommitted superdelegates remaining (in N.C.). Obama won North Carolina's primary by 14 points on Tuesday.

TIME's Joe Klein Shows Obama Some Serious Respect

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Thu, 08 May 2008 15:40:46 EDT

.

Klein on Obama
By Joe Klein || Thursday, May. 08, 2008

On the Saturday before the North Carolina and Indiana primaries, Hillary Clinton stood on the back of a vintage pickup truck in Gastonia, N.C., and let fly in the most impressive fashion — a woman transformed from Eleanor Roosevelt into Huey Long in two short months. Spotting a big yellow placard that said GAS TAX HOLIDAY IS BLATANT PANDERING — a sign she would have ignored in her earlier, less feisty incarnations — she went after the young Obamish sign-holders: Why wasn't the Federal Reserve accused of pandering when it bailed out the Bear Stearns investment bank to the tune of $30 billion? Why shouldn't the oil companies pay the federal gasoline tax this summer instead of the people who "hold their breath" every time they pull up to the gas pump? "I know that some people don't have to worry when they go to the supermarket," she said, staring accusingly at the placard bearers, but "there are people who count their pennies as they walk down the aisle," trying to figure out what they can afford. "Don't they deserve a break every once in a while? They haven't done anything wrong ... The oil companies have had it their way for too long," she said. "I'm tired of being a patsy."

Wow. Watching the junior Senator from New York, I was of two minds. My high-minded policy brain was, of course, appalled. The gas-tax holiday was a scam. It had been tried at various times — Barack Obama had voted for a local version in the Illinois legislature — and prices never came down. The oil companies and gas-station owners simply pocketed the difference. Clinton's "responsible" version of the plan was also a scam. She wanted to pay for it with a "windfall profits" tax on the oil companies, but she had earlier, and more responsibly, called for the elimination of tax breaks for those same companies. If you eliminate the tax breaks, you effectively eliminate the windfall profits. There would be nothing to tax. In any case, the "holiday" had next to no chance of passing Congress. Her sell was, well, shameless pandering.

On the other hand, my cynical low-information political brain was saying, You go, girl. This was fun to watch. "This is a serious election," Clinton said in Gastonia, "but I believe you still should have some fun." She seemed energized by her irresponsibility, sprung from her lifelong, eat-your-peas policy straitjacket. She had always been the superego of Team Clinton; now she was gallivanting about, playing the id. It seemed like smart politics too. It was the kind of thing I have seen "work" throughout my nearly 40-year career as a journalist, an era that coincided neatly with the rise of consultant-driven flummery: you could fool most of the people most of the time. For nearly 30 years, the Republican offer of tax breaks had trumped the Democratic offer of responsible budgeting, with the ironic exception of Bill Clinton's presidency. And while that offer still might work in a general election, it did not in the May 6 Democratic primaries.

Clinton's paste-on populism changed absolutely nothing. The demographic blocs that had determined the shape of this remarkable campaign remained stolidly in place. Blacks, young people and those with college educations voted for Obama; Clinton won women, the elderly, whites without college educations. Clinton's slim margin of victory in Indiana was provided, appropriately enough, by Republicans, who were 10% of the Democratic-primary electorate and whose votes she carried 54% to 46% — some, perhaps, at the behest of the merry prankster Rush Limbaugh, who had counseled his ditto heads to bring "chaos" to the Democratic electoral process by voting for their favorite whipping girl. Clinton's new glow, her newfound stump proficiency, her symbiosis with Limbaugh, seemed an eerily Faustian narrative. But, as we know, those sorts of bargains tend to end badly. In this case, the upper-crust liberals who seemed ready to flee Obama in Pennsylvania — the sort of people who would run out and buy a hybrid before they'd support a reduction in the gasoline tax — decided to vote their faith that Obama was running an honorable campaign rather than their fear that his membership in Jeremiah Wright's church would render him radioactive.

And with good reason. The formerly charismatic Obama had undergone a transformation of his own: from John F. Kennedy to Adlai Stevenson, from dashing rhetorician to good-government egghead. He derided the gas-tax holiday as the gimmick it was, gambling that Democrats would see through the ruse. He trudged through the Wright debacle, never allowing his impeccable disposition to slip toward anger or pettiness. On the Sunday before the primaries, he gave a dour, newsless interview to Tim Russert, enduring another 20 minutes of questions about the Reverend Wright. Meanwhile, Clinton was spiky and histrionic in her simultaneous duel with George Stephanopoulos. She made alpha-dog power moves, standing up to talk to the live audience while Stephanopoulos remained seated, forcing him to stand uncomfortably beside her and then, later, embarrassing her host by reminiscing about his liberal, anti-NAFTA, Clinton-staffer past.

It wasn't until I read the transcript that I realized that Clinton's bravado had masked a brazenly empty performance. Stephanopoulos nailed her time after time, mostly on matters of character. She said, for example, that her husband's charitable foundation was private and didn't have to release the names of its donors. "Yet the foundation sold the donor list, 38,000 names," Stephanopoulos pointed out. Clinton said she didn't "know anything about that. You'd have to ask the foundation." In retrospect, it was easy to see that Clinton was desperate, willing to say almost anything to get over. At the time, she just seemed strong, certainly stronger than Obama on Meet the Press ... at least she did to me and many members of my chattering tribe. And our knee-jerk reactions — our prejudice toward performance values over policy — could infect the campaign to come between Obama and John McCain, just as it has the primaries.

To The House, Obama Is The Nominee!

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Thu, 08 May 2008 15:12:04 EDT

AND YOU AND I WERE THERE - AT THE VERY BEGINNING!

I feel so proud to have participated in helping Obama become "the undisputable nominee" as Tim Russert referred to him LAST Tuesday night. Even the House of Representatives is giving Obama "the Presidential Treatment" at this point. It feels terrific!

The "Presidential Effect" is circulating through the press as well. This is how the press reports Obama's recent visit to the chambers of the House of Representatives, from MSNBC's First Read:

OBAMA GETS ROCK STAR TREATMENT IN HOUSE

Posted: Thursday, May 08, 2008 12:42 PM by Mark Murray
From NBC's Mike Viqueira

Obama was a very popular figure on the Democratic side of the US House today.

He strode onto the floor during a vote when the place was packed and was immediately greeted by wave after wave of Democratic well-wishers, both Clinton supporters and Obama supporters alike, as well as undecideds.

Escorted by Rep. Steve Rothman, who served as a kind of body man, Obama first made his way along the back aisle where he shook hands and slapped backs. One member, Tim Ryan, snapped a picture with a cell phone. Pages rushed over and asked for autographs.

After running the initial gauntlet, he ended up in a place called "The Murtha Corner," where for years Rep. John Murtha has held court with cronines during votes. At first, Murtha -- a Clinton man -- appeared not to see Obama as the senator stood not two feet away greeting well-wishers. Obama was compelled to put a hand on his shoulder, at which point Murtha rose and offered a hearty smile. The two men then engaged in an extended conversation.

Dozens of Democrats maneuvered to greet him. When Obama came to undecided Rep. Jack Spratt, the senator greeted him by literally bending his knee in a kind of modified genuflect. Around that time Obama and undecided Jason Altmire had a relatively long chat.

We're Almost There!

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Wed, 07 May 2008 17:09:56 EDT

Hillary says she will not give up (yet.) Some think she should stay in the race so that the remaining states can vote on the alternatives as if they have a say in the outcome. If the good people of West Virginia - and Kentucky - are smart, they'll vote to end the scorched earth campaign of HIllary Rodham Clinton.

Meanwhile, we . . .

IN & NC: Fundraising Scorecard (Obama got more $$ in both states)

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Tue, 06 May 2008 12:29:41 EDT

Hopefully, this is a predictor of the outcomes of today's primaries in Indiana and North Carolina. The polls predict that Hillary will win Indiana by an average of 5 points, and Obama will win North Carolina by an average of 8 points. However, Obama leads in fundraising in both states. Dante Chinni of the Christian Science Monitor provides the details below. (Be sure to go to the link for the article at the Christian Science Monitor - and read the comments. While Obama is not predicted to win Indiana, we can dream... And many of us are.)
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May 6, 2008

Indiana and North Carolina: a Clinton/Obama fundraising scorecard
By Dante Chinni

As people go to the polls for the Democratic primaries in Indiana and North Carolina today, many have voted already with their checkbooks and credit cards.

Donors have been pledging money to Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton for months. And the latest tally of political contributions in the two states reveals the differences in their electorates and may hint at the final vote numbers.

The starkest difference comes in the sheer amounts raised by the two Democrats. Senator Obama, who has been setting records with his fundraising, has outraised Senator Clinton in both North Carolina and Indiana. That marks a switch from their totals in Pennsylvania, where Clinton actually raised more cash than Obama did through the end of February.

Carolina blue has more than a tinge of green for Obama. His haul blew away Clinton’s in the Tar Heel State through the end of March – $1.7 million to $1.14 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group in Washington that tracks candidates’ campaign contributions. The numbers are closer in Hoosierland, where Obama had raised $641,000 while Clinton had received $559,000 through March.

The donation figures reflect the poll numbers in the states to a certain extent. Obama has a good-size lead in many polls from North Carolina and is expected to win there, while most polls from Indiana show a closer race.

But when viewed through the Patchwork Nation filter, other differences in the donation numbers in both of today’s primary states emerge. These distinctions could be telling when the polls close.

The most significant may involve the “Monied ’Burbs” counties in each state. These counties are likely to be particularly important in Indiana if the race is close, as we said yesterday. How did these affluent suburbs break down in terms of contributions to each candidate?

In North Carolina, Obama owns the group – $1 million to $626,000 for Clinton. He outraised Clinton in each of the state’s six “Monied ’Burbs” counties by fairly large margins.

1.1 Million Voters DELETED From the Indiana Voter Rolls

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Tue, 06 May 2008 03:19:37 EDT

Why did Indiana just purge 1.1 Million voters from their Voter Rolls within the last month?

From Black Box Voting:

INDIANA'S SECRETARY OF STATE JUST PURGED 1,134,427 VOTERS FROM THE VOTER ROLLS

In April 2008 when Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita announced the release of "record high" voter registration rolls, with 4.3 million voters set to vote in the Tuesday May 6 primary, he didn't mention that a whopping 1,134,427 voter registrations have been cancelled.

Now, the voter rolls are supposed to be tidied up prior to each election. Indiana's last general election was in Nov. 2006, and they have had a slew of special and general elections since then. So how have 1.1 million voters -- 26 percent of the current statewide list -- escaped the regularly scheduled voter registration cleanup squads? Who are these million voters and where do they come from?

One quarter-million of them come from just two northwestern Indiana counties: Lake and Porter. Lake County reports purging 137,164 voters and neighboring Porter County cancelled out 124,958 voters.

Lake County, the home of Gary, Indiana, has spawned the Jackson Five and a great old musical (The Music Man) and and has been referred to as "the second most liberal county in America." Lake County has one of the heaviest concentrations of African-American voters that you'll find anywhere in the USA.

Nearby Porter County, the home of Valparaiso, is 95% white and went solidly for Bush in the 2004 election. It also has a lot of college kids.

For whatever reason, these two counties had ... what ... massive data entry problems? Exceptionally messy records? Lots of dead people who climbed back into their graves? Or will we see a lot of disappointed voters on Tuesday, when they perhaps learn that they were among the lucky million people who got purged?

HERE'S WHERE THE HEAVIEST PURGES ARE:

Lake 137,164 48% (Gary)
Porter 124,958 115% (Valparaiso)
Marion 68,120 10% (Indianapolis)
Monroe 66,009 85% (Bloomington)
Tippecanoe 53,456 58%
Madison 42,952 47% (Anderson)
Hamilton 42,325 26%

The percentage represents the ratio of the number of purges to the current voter list. Example: If a location currently has 100,000 voters on its rolls, and purged 53,000 along the way, we assign a ratio of 53% to the purge vs. current list.

It would be nice to have the original quantities, it would make for a cleaner number, but this is not available on the Secretary of State's Web site, so I haven't got a tidier statistic for you, wish I did. I also wish the time period for these purges was clearly indicated, but it is not indicated -- nor can it be derived -- from available information at Indiana's official election Web site.

On TV: Obama's "Meet the Press" (NBC) Beat Hillary's "This Week" (ABC)

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Mon, 05 May 2008 20:50:59 EDT

From NY Times' The Caucus:

The Winner (at Least on TV)

By Jim Rutenberg || May 5, 2008

Senator Barack Obama and his interviewer on “Meet the Press,” Tim Russert, were a much bigger draw in Indianapolis on Sunday than were Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and her interviewer on “This Week,” George Stephanopoulos.

According to data from Nielsen, “Meet the Press,” on NBC, was viewed in 91,000 households there, a third of all of those watching television at the time. “This Week,” on ABC, was watched in 14,000 households, just 4 percent of those watching television. The margin of victory for Mr. Russert over Mr. Stephanopoulos was larger than usual in Indianapolis.

This could be a good sign for Mr. Obama, who is believed to hold an edge in Indianapolis and needs to do well there to win the Indiana primary on Tuesday. Yet it could also speak to his edge with well-educated voters, who presumably are among the most likely to tune in to the Sunday public affairs programs. (Have some Russert with your latte).

Yet Mr. Stephanopoulos and Mrs. Clinton narrowly beat Mr. Russert and Mr. Obama in the Chicago television market, which reaches into Indiana. And, in North Carolina, which also holds its primary on Tuesday, they won by a similarly slim margin in Charlotte. But Mr. Russert and Mr. Obama won by substantial margins in Raleigh, Greenville and Greensboro.

Clinton's Cheap Shots Don't Convince This Indiana Writer

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Mon, 05 May 2008 19:01:02 EDT

Election 2008: What would the Trilateral Commission do?

By Stephanie Salter || The Tribune-Star, May 5, 2008

TERRE HAUTE — A friend who teaches in public school here in Indiana was appalled not long ago when an e-mail from a colleague went out to everyone in the school’s cyber-address book.

The subject of the e-mail was Barack Obama and how he is “secretly” a radical Muslim bent on destroying the United States from within. A widely circulated pack of lies — e.g., he took the oath of office holding a Koran — the e-mail boasts that its contents are verifiable on the legitimate myth buster, snopes.com, which is the opposite of true.

At least my teacher friend’s colleague didn’t send out one of the popular e-mails that insist Obama shows all the signs of being the antichrist.

I wish I could say I was kidding, but I can’t. I live in the United States of America — a country in which most people are alleged to be literate — and I am about to participate in a historic presidential primary. But I am starting to wonder if some of my fellow citizens have a grasp on reality, let alone the issues.

A jihadist? The antichrist? Oh, for God’s sake.

Before anyone is tempted to play the religion card, don’t. Indiana has no exclusive claim to people who are spending time this spring telling one another that Obama is a jihadist and/or the antichrist. Google offers about 2.25 million hits on the latter subject. (Mercifully, renunciations are part of the volume.)

The hearty existence of these and similar crusades points up a reality of contemporary American life: We are divided between the people who are inclined toward conspiracies, superstition, black-and-white explanations, pigeon holes and cheap sentimentality masquerading as “patriotism” — and the people who are not so inclined.

While many of those with an aversion to investigation and critical thought processes identify themselves as “conservatives,” there are liberal conspiracy theorists aplenty to demonstrate that twisted thinking is an equal opportunity affliction.

To see lefty conspiracies on display, one only need read the wild and crazy ideas about why a HuffingtonPost blogger shared her personal impressions of the Obama fundraiser in San Francisco, now known as “Bittergate.” The most popular: Hillary Clinton secretly paid her to do it.

Even among people who don’t buy Trilateral Commission plots, there is a decided intellectual shallowness in fashion this year. Across the land, from the blogosphere to the town hall meeting, too many axes are grinding and too many enemy camps are hunkered down. Among people of both major parties and many minor ones, 30-minute policy statements have been freeze-dried into four-word catch phrases, and complex humans have been reduced to cut-out characters who wear halos or horns.

Last month, a Pulitzer Prize-winning New York columnist actually cited leftover waffles and french fries as evidence of Obama’s inability to connect strongly enough with voters to vanquish Clinton from the Democratic race.

In the same essay, the columnist referred to Clinton’s continued quest of the nomination as “the Attack of the 50 Foot Woman” and called her criticisms of Obama “emasculating.”

Half-eaten waffles, sci-fi movie characters and sexist stereotypes? Is everything, including a presidential race, just another variation on Simon Cowell or the “Left Behind” series?

Eight years ago, millions of voters chose as president a former boozer who “seems like he’d be fun to have a beer with.” Didn’t we learn anything about the dangers of superficiality from this reversal of style over substance?

What in the world has happened to our B.S. detectors? We can’t find enough obvious differences among presidential candidates that we must resort to misogynistic name calling and invisible ties to al Qaida or Satan?

Why can’t we just use what is before our very own eyes?

For example, I’m a 1960s feminist who thought I would never live to see the day a woman would make a viable run at the U.S. presidency. I look at how smart, brave, tough and committed Hillary Clinton is, and I see someone who is more than capable of being commander in chief.

But one of the great things about being a feminist is knowing that liberation means searching your head, heart and gut, then acting freely on what you discover there.

Four weeks ago, I watched Clinton go for the cheap shot and turn Obama’s lengthy, measured observations about frustrated working-class Americans into Bittergate. My head, heart and gut yelled, “Blatant foul!”

Clinton chose, repeatedly, to call Obama’s remarks “elitist” and “out of touch” with ordinary Americans. She emphasized, repeatedly, that his excerpted words were made at a private fundraiser in San Francisco — as though she had never been the focus of such an event — and she encouraged her campaign operatives across the country to keep piling on.

Ignoring all the times her words and deeds have been perverted out of context by her enemies, Clinton chose to play the nasty old game in which victorious ends justify crummy means. Knowing that Americans need more division like we need more conspiracy theories, she chose to further divide.

My head, heart and mind said, “Go to Plan B. Barack Obama is smart, brave, tough, committed and capable of being commander in chief — and he struggles mightily against cheap shots to deal honestly with the complexities and contradictions of his country and its people.”

No waffles, no sexist slurs, no al Qaida, no Satan. Just a rational decision. My idea of the American Dream.

Stephanie Salter can be reached at (812) 231-4229 or stephanie.salter@tribstar.com

Obama Was NOT Pandering To The Teamsters

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Mon, 05 May 2008 18:23:52 EDT

From MSNBC's First Read:

Obama camp pushback on union story
Posted Monday, May 05, 2008 12:41 PM by Mark Murray

Earlier today, we clipped this Wall Street Journal piece, which asserted that "Obama won the endorsement of the Teamsters earlier this year after privately telling the union he supported ending the strict federal oversight imposed to root out corruption." We even asked this question: Quid pro quo?

However, Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor tells First Read that Obama told the Teamsters his position on ending the government's oversight of the union back in the summer of 2007 -- but the Teamsters didn't endorse Obama until February 20.

Vietor also passes along a 2004 clip from Crain's Chicago Business, which suggests that Obama favored lifting the government's oversight of the Teamsters back then.

The Impact of the Democratic Win In Louisianna . . .

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Mon, 05 May 2008 18:12:41 EDT

From MSNBC's First Read:

MORE ON THAT LOUISIANA SPECIAL

From NBC's Mark Murray || May 5, 2008
A smart take from Hotline: "Obama survived one critical test this weekend. No, not the Russert interview. The LA-06 special, a closely watched election where GOPers poured tons of money on ads trying to link conservative Dem Cazayoux to Obama in an attempt to nationalize the race. It didn't work out as planned.

To be sure, GOPer Jenkins was a flawed candidate, making this an imperfect test of Obama's down-ballot strength. The 5/13 special in MS-01, which features a stronger GOPer, will be a better indicator.

Even so, if Obama can't be used effectively as a wedge:

1) when he's at his weakest and

2) in a CD carried by Bush w/ 59%,

what does this say about GOP chances to hold their open seats in more competitive districts?"

What are YOU doing on Saturday, the 10th?

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Mon, 05 May 2008 00:29:18 EDT

Click on the artwork below to sign up.

Environmental Group, Friends of Earth Action Endorses Obama

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Sun, 04 May 2008 13:39:19 EDT

5.4.2008 9:25 AM

Environmental Group Endorses Obama Over Hillary
Stance Against Gas Tax Holiday Defines Obama as a Realist: Group

Months after it's early choice, John Edwards, dropped out of the race, the Friends of Earth Action has endorsed Democrat Barack Obama for president this weekend.

The tipping point for the endorsement came, in part, because of the recent debate over a summer gas tax holiday. Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican John McCain both endorsed the idea of suspending federal gas taxes during the season when Americans typically drive most. Obama rejected it, as most if not all economists, nonpartisan policy groups and newspaper editorials have, as a bit of election year pandering that would neither save U.S. residents significant money at the pump nor help in the larger goal of reducing dependence on oil.

“We endorse Senator Obama because we believe he is the best candidate for the environment,” said Friends of the Earth Action President Brent Blackwelder. “The 'gas tax holiday' debate is a defining moment in the presidential race. The two other candidates responded with sham solutions that won’t ease pain at the pump, but Senator Obama refused to play that typical Washington game. Instead, Obama called for real solutions that would make transportation more affordable and curb global warming. He showed the courage and candor we expect from a president.”

In the gas tax holiday debate, Obama has focused on longer-term issues, like making cars more fuel-efficient and expanding public transportation by rail.

The gas tax holiday has been a rare point of divergence between Clinton and Obama on an energy or environmental issue. Both have iterated aggressive plans for global warming, energy conservation and alternative energy development, even though those issues have yet to gain traction at the top of the list of voters' concerns.

IN (and KY): Courier Journal Endorses Obama

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Sun, 04 May 2008 13:33:37 EDT

Here is the editorial:

BARACK OBAMA FOR THE DEMOCRATS

May 4, 2008

Many Democrats have taken to worrying that the protracted and excruciatingly close battle for their party's presidential nomination may divide their ranks and diminish their chances of victory in November.

But that's a glass-half-empty view. A more positive outlook is that at a time when the departing administration has steered the nation severely off course, Democrats are blessed with two candidates of intelligence, vision and vigor.

And Americans have responded, with a surge in voting and registration.

Sen. Barack Obama referred to that excitement in a teleconference interview last week with this newspaper's editorial board. "We were always the longshot," he said. "The fact we've done so well speaks to the hunger of the American people for a different message and a different direction."

We agree, and we also believe that Sen. Obama is the Democratic candidate better equipped to restore Americans' hope for the future and to bring change to Washington.

For that reason, we endorse Sen. Obama in Tuesday's Indiana primary and in the May 20 contest in Kentucky.

Both Sen. Obama and his rival, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, offer aggressive, detailed platforms. Many positions are virtually identical, others diverge on some points. But there is no ideological gulf, and both candidates' views down the line are superior to those of the presumptive Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain.

Each candidate outlines a plan for a gradual, orderly withdrawal of U.S. combat forces from Iraq beginning soon after taking office but taking many months to accomplish.

Sen. Obama stresses that such a timetable would give Iraqis ample time to take control of their security and affairs.

Sen. Clinton, who met separately in person with the editorial board, argues persuasively that removal of the American "security blanket" is the only way to compel Iraqis to resolve political differences.

Equally important, Sen. Obama and Sen. Clinton make the strong case for a more expansive view of American interests.

Sen. Obama rightly criticizes President Bush's focus on Islamic terrorism as "too cramped a vision." He emphasizes the importance of hunting down and fighting al-Qaida, but he also notes the security dangers of nuclear proliferation, rogue states, energy shortages and a weakening American economy.

Sen. Clinton adds the importance of winning the war in Afghanistan while America ends the war in Iraq.

While both candidates talk of offering encouragement and real aid to working- and middle-class Americans, there are differences in approach.

On health care, for example, we lean toward Sen. Clinton's insistence on mandating universal care. Sen. Obama, who focuses on reducing costs, is right that such a mandate would be costly and difficult to enforce, but too many people inevitably would fall between cracks and wind up uninsured.

On the other hand, we applaud Sen. Obama's opposition to a suspension of the federal gasoline tax, which Sen. Clinton favors. He is right that the move would save consumers little money, might be negated if oil companies raise prices and would encourage gasoline consumption instead of conservation.

Still, the differences are sufficiently minor that the key point becomes one that Sen. Obama stresses: Who is best able to actually accomplish new directions?

Sen. Obama's relentless focus on change, and the hordes of new voters he draws to the polls, would make it hard for his victory to be read as anything other than a mandate for changing how Washington works.

Sen. Clinton actually has engaged in more collaborative efforts with Republicans than she is given credit for. But she is battle-scarred, widely viewed as divisive and, we believe, would face a harder time enacting her program.

It's a difficult choice, but the better pick for Hoosier and Kentucky voters is Sen. Obama.

Watch Tom Hanks Endorse Barack Obama!

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Sun, 04 May 2008 13:26:46 EDT

It is HERE. From the LA Times'

Sort of Breaking News: Tom Hanks endorses Barack Obama

In an obvious attempt to be ignored for a while, Tom Hanks with no fanfare, news release or hoopla, late tonight put up a video on his MySpace page endorsing Illinois Sen. Barack Obama for president.

Had it come on, say, a Monday morning, the endorsement by the popular and widely-respected Hanks would have caused seismic shifts on those rock shelves that underlie Hollywood and promise to slide the place into the ocean someday.

Thanks to The Times' dauntless Tina Daunt, The Ticket, however, is right on top of this major international political story. "BEWARE," says the headline on Hanks' video, "Celebrity Endorsement."

"I'm Tom Hanks," Tom Hanks says directly into the camera in what looks like someone's den, "And I want Barack Obama to be the next president of our country. As an official celebrity, I know my endorsement has just made your mind up for you."

He continues in a straightfaced, tongue-in-cheek manner to seriously endorse the freshman senator. Hanks acknowledges all the candidates -- and some of their relatives, associates and supporters -- have made gaffes in recent weeks.

But he says he reads history sometimes and cites the groundbreaking peaceful turnover of power in 1797 from George Washington to John Adams as a major turning point in history. And says the same sort of corner can be turned by the election of the country's first African American president, a member of a race once officially considered only three-fifths of a person here.

He especially praises Obama's character and vision, integrity and ability to unify the country. Hanks' endorsement is a breath of good news for Obama after a few difficult weeks involving the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who Obama says is wrong.

It'll be something positive for Tim Russert to ask Obama about on "Meet the Press" Sunday morning, but Hanks' approval may not carry much weight with the working class Democratic voters where the senator's support has not been strong.

Things have been relatively quiet on the Hollywood endorsement scene of late, since it's a given that most prominent celebrities there will be endorsing Sen. John McCain of Arizona. Just kidding. McCain's got Sylvester Stallone and that's it.

Hillary Clinton lined up Jack Nicholson too. And Obama has also been endorsed by Jane Fonda but that hasn't shown up on many billboards yet.

"I'm Tom Hanks," the actor/director/producer says at the end of his video, "I wrote and approved this message, and I am now going to turn off the camera." He gets up, walks around out of sight and the camera goes off.

-- Andrew Malcolm Photo: Courtesy of Tom Hanks

What Happened While We Were Phonebanking Yesterday?

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Sun, 04 May 2008 13:12:10 EDT

Ron Paul predicts that Obama will be elected president in January. He is a wise man!

Meanwhile in North Carolina, the Charlotte Observer in North Carolina calls Hillary's gas tax suspension is "hot air." Here's how they describe it:

Voters shouldn't fall for it. This is flimflam work. The plan can only hope to provide small and limited relief. How small? According to the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, the average driver would save only about $28 in a three-month suspension of the tax. But suspending the tax would divert about $8.5 billion from the Highway Trust Fund, which pays for road and bridge repairs and already faces a shortfall of $3.2 billion.

This is sleight-of-hand chicanery. Sen. Barack Obama, the other presidential contender, is right to oppose it. So should the rest of us. What's needed is a president with a practical energy policy, not one who's prone to pander.

We could not agree more!

The Seattle Post Intelligencer bashed the media for obsessively turning the Wright issue into 24/7 news:

(The media's) supposedly innocent analyses and sanctimonious scolding of Wright ignore the salient fact that it was a media obsession, preoccupation and dishonest portrayal that made him a story in the first place.

The same media that vow every four years not to let swift boat-like, dishonest or phony issues dominate campaign coverage is at it again. When the inevitable quadrennial hand wringing again takes place, there's a key difference that media scholars and critics should notice. This wasn't a case in which political operatives with malicious intentions created a phony issue and spread it with campaign dollars and all the viral means at their disposal until the media took notice. In this instance, the media created a phony issue, and remained obsessed until it provided adequate fuel for the swiftboaters.

Cable news stations are now discussing other things, but I am still hearing about the Wright issue on both Republican and progressive radio stations. I guess radio did not get the message...
----
Jake Tapper at ABC News's Political Punch got lots of uncivil "hate" comments when he reported that Hillary had bet on a philly horse named "Eight Belles" to win the Kentucky Derby yesterday... If you don't know what happened by now, Eight Belles went down on the track after her second-place finish, broke two ankles, and was euthanized within a minute. I think Tapper was insensitive about it myself.
----
An "opinion piece" (read "HIT PIECE") showed up in the Terre Haute (Indiana) News through the Tribune Star, where the headline is "Obama has revealed his own hypocrisy, arrogance" The author is still bringing up the "bitter" comment! (Query whether the Hillary camp is paying the author under the table...) What is interesting is that no one wrote any comments on the hit piece in the "Discussion" section. Either no one cares, or no one read the article that was published at around 8:30 last night.

Obama got much better treatment from John Railey of the Winston-Salem Journal in North Carolina, with his article that showed up last night; "Obama, despite hits, showed Winston-Salem his magic." It is a good read.

BACK TO PHONE BANKING TODAY! WE GOTTA GAIN ON HILLARY IN INDIANA! If you find you have some spare time this afternoon, please join us: PHONE BANKING On Sunday (12:30 to 6) near CRENSHAW & MLK

Conservative Commentary: Is Obama Finished? (A Good Read)

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Fri, 02 May 2008 17:43:06 EDT

. .
Is Obama Finished? Posted on May 1st, 2008 by Daniel McCarthy

Daniel Larison doesn’t go quite as far as to say that, but he’s been keeping an eye on Obama’s state polls and the trend does not look healthy. New Hampshire is the latest harbinger of bad news for the Democrat.

How meaningful is Obama’s slump? Not very. After all, who would expect Obama’s ratings to be rising at a time when most of the media’s attention has been on Wright and the acrimonious race between Obama and Clinton? He would have to be superhumanly popular to withstand all of that without losing support.

The political environment that exists now, however, is nothing like the one that will exist in the summer, let alone November, when the Democrats will be fighting McCain instead of each other and the media glare will be upon the Arizonan as well as Obama. The present circumstances are — as several commentators, including me, have pointed out — the best that McCain is likely to enjoy for the rest of the season. I suspect present conditions are also nearly rock-bottom for Obama, though it’s a mistake ever to underestimate how much slime a Clinton can excrete. Nevertheless, barring new skeletons spilling out of Obama’s closest, the race is going to get better for him and worse for McCain.

That’s not to discount altogether the polls that Larison points to. The farther Obama falls now, the bigger his bounce after clinching the nomination will have to be to put him back into play in states like New Hampshire and Pennsylvania. But there will be a bounce, and the Republican Party’s fundamentals — McCain’s lackluster (though improving) fundraising, the GOP’s poor showing in recent House contests in traditionally Republican districts, and Bush’s subterranean approval ratings — are so bad that handicapping the race for McCain at this point is unwise.

Paul Kirk, Another Former DNC Chair, Endorses Obama

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Fri, 02 May 2008 17:34:15 EDT

YouTube video of the day: "The Empire Strikes Barack" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8lvc-azCXY

May 2, 2008, 11:07 am

A Third Former DNC Chief Lines Up Behind Obama

Susan Davis reports on the presidential race.

A third former Democratic National Committee chairman has come out in favor of Sen. Barack Obama in the nomination battle against Sen. Hillary Clinton.

Barack Obama at news conference in Indianapolis (AP)

Paul Kirk, also a superdelegate, endorsed Obama today citing his belief that Obama can expand the Democratic Party by bringing “young and new and independent” voters into the fold.

On Thursday, Joe Andrew, another former DNC chairman, reversed his earlier endorsement of Clinton to back Obama. Andrew cited Clinton’s support of the summer gas tax holiday and Obama’s response to recent controversy as reasons.

Kirk mirrored those sentiments. “Throughout his life and public career, has fought the tough fights to advance the quality of life of the working families of Illinois, not with election year gimmicks like the gas tax holiday espoused by others,” Kirk said in a statement, adding “After the attention paid to the poisonous and polarizing diatribe of recent days, Senator Obama’s clear and compelling message which appeals to our best instincts as Americans is more important than ever.”

In February, Obama got the nod of David Wilhelm, another former DNC chairman who also ran Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign.

One former DNC chairman who will definitely not be backing Obama is Terry McAuliffe, Clinton’s campaign chairman, who appeared with Andrew this morning on “Good Morning America” to debate the role of superdelegates. McAuliffe said they should wait until the “morning of June 4” to endorse. “We will be ahead in the popular vote. It will be very close in superdelegates,” said McAuliffe said.

Andrew, however, is urging superdelegates to come out now in favor of Obama to end the race and unify in order to beat expected Republican candidate John McCain. “What we need to do is make sure that we don’t do the Republicans’ work for them, and that’s exactly what’s happening right now,” he said.

As for current DNC Chairman Howard Dean, he has made it clear he wants superdelegates to decide no later than July 1 in order to settle on a nominee and head off any chance of a brokered convention come August.

An Iranian Dissident Blogger For Obama

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Thu, 01 May 2008 21:00:16 EDT

From:

An Iranian Dissident Blogger For Obama

01 May 2008 04:18 pm

He gets the quantum leap in soft power that an Obama presidency would give the U.S.. The Obama candidacy is potentially the most powerful weapon against Islamism this country now has:

Many Iranians are obsessed with Barack Obama. If he goes to Iran, I'm sure he could fill Tehran's Azadi Stadium, which has a capacity of 100,000. To a large extent this is because of the nature of Obama's message about change and hope. Iranian people truly want to change their situation, get rid of decades of marginalization and restore their reputation in the world. They feel connected to his message of change. They are tired of living under the threat of economic sanctions and military attacks. Obama's remark about initiating a dialogue with Iran translated for many Iranians into hopes of normalizing the relationship between the countries and Iran rejoining the international community. For many Iranian women struggling for women's rights, Hillary is incredibly inspiring. Senator McCain, on the other hand, they see as just as a third term of President Bush, and I see no reason for them to connect to him.

Obama remains a game-changer. Hence the resistance from the neocon right, whose interest is in keeping the game as it is. But the interests of the neoconservatives are not necessarily the best interests of the United States. As we have ruefully discovered.

Sidney Blumenthal, Swift Boater For Hillary

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Thu, 01 May 2008 20:43:30 EDT

I am so saddened by this. I loved to read Blumenthal's articles. Now, I simply will not enjoy it any more. From today's Huffington Post, by Peter Dreier:

Sidney Blumenthal Uses Former Right-Wing Foes To Attack Obama
Former journalist Sidney Blumenthal has been widely credited with coining the term "vast right-wing conspiracy" used by Hillary Clinton in 1998 to describe the alliance of conservative media, think tanks, and political operatives that sought to destroy the Clinton White House where he worked as a high-level aide. A decade later, and now acting as a senior campaign advisor to Senator Clinton, Blumenthal is exploiting that same right-wing network to attack and discredit Barack Obama. And he's not hesitating to use the same sort of guilt-by-association tactics that have been the hallmark of the political right dating back to the McCarthy era.
Almost every day over the past six months, I have been the recipient of an email that attacks Obama's character, political views, electability, and real or manufactured associations. The original source of many of these hit pieces are virulent and sometimes extreme right-wing websites, bloggers, and publications. But they aren't being emailed out from some fringe right-wing group that somehow managed to get my email address. Instead, it is Sidney Blumenthal who, on a regular basis, methodically dispatches these email mudballs to an influential list of opinion shapers -- including journalists, former Clinton administration officials, academics, policy entrepreneurs, and think tankers -- in what is an obvious attempt to create an echo chamber that reverberates among talk shows, columnists, and Democratic Party funders and activists. One of the recipients of the Blumenthal email blast, himself a Clinton supporter, forwards the material to me and perhaps to others.
These attacks sent out by Blumenthal, long known for his fierce and combative loyalty to the Clintons, draw on a wide variety of sources to spread his Obama-bashing. Some of the pieces are culled from the mainstream media and include some reasoned swipes at Obama's policy and political positions.
But, rather remarkably for such a self-professed liberal operative like Blumenthal, a staggering number of the anti-Obama attacks he circulates derive from highly-ideological and militant right-wing sources such as the misnamed Accuracy in Media (AIM), The Weekly Standard, City Journal, The American Conservative, and The National Review.
To cite just one recent example, Blumenthal circulated an article taken from the fervently hard-right AIM website on February 18 entitled, "Obama's Communist Mentor" by Cliff Kincaid. Kincaid is a right-wing writer and activist, a longtime critic of the United Nations, whose group, America's Survival, has been funded by foundations controlled by conservative financier Richard Mellon Scaife, the same millionaire who helped fund attacks on the Clintons during their White House years. Scaife also funds AIM, the right-wing media "watchdog" group.
The Kincaid article that Blumenthal circulated sought to discredit Obama by linking him to an African-American poet and writer whom Obama knew while he was in high school in Hawaii. That writer, Frank Marshall Davis, was, Kincaid wrote, a member of the Communist Party. Supported by no tangible evidence, Kincaid claimed that Obama considered his relationship to Davis to be "almost like a son." In his memoir, Dreams from My Father, Obama wrote about meeting, during his teenage years, a writer named "Frank" who "had some modest notoriety once" and with whom he occasionally discussed poetry and politics. From this snippet, Kincaid weaves an incredulous tale that turns Davis into Obama's "mentor."
Kincaid's piece had been previously circulating within the right-wing blogosphere, but Blumenthal sought to inject the story into more respectable opinion circles by amplifying it in his email blast.
In the same piece, Kincaid, expanding his guilt-by-association tactics, also wrote that Obama "came into contact with more far-left political forces," including former Weather Underground member William Ayers. Until a few weeks ago, Obama's tangential connection with Ayers -- whose 1960s anti-war terrorism occurred when Obama was in grade school -- was echoing among right-wing bloggers.

Take a break from the article and catch up on politics:
http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid271557392/bctid1531283112

Barack Is On Letterman Tonight (Not A Repeat; A New Top Ten!)

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Thu, 01 May 2008 19:38:26 EDT

Obama is going to be on Letterman Tonight!

Remember when Obama appeared on "The Late Show with David Letterman" back in January? Well, you can catch him again tonight, Thursday, May 1. No, it is not a repeat. Obama is making a re-appearance.

Last time, Obama presented "Top 10 Barack Obama Campaign Promises."

Tonight Obama is presenting the "Top 10 Surprising Facts About Barack Obama."

Check out this YouTube video of Obama's appearance on Letterman last January:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnL9HRLNxIA

Go Obama!

MEANWHILE . . .

The NY Times maintains a detailed list of committed and uncommitted Superdelegates. It is pretty interesting. Check it out at:

http://politics.nytimes.com/election-guide/2008/results/superdelegates/index.html

Obama Featured on $100 Silver Coin (Medallion)

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Thu, 01 May 2008 17:15:21 EDT

Hillary must be jealous!

Obama Featured on $100 Silver Medallion

By Numismatic News
May 01, 2008
A 2008 Barack Obama 1 ounce pure silver medallion is being offered by Vision Trading Partners of Las Vegas, Nev.

The obverse depicts the bust of Obama encircled by legends "United States Of America" along the upper rim and "Obama 2008 along the lower rim." Eight stars flank Obama, symbolizing the year. An American Eagle is featured on the reverse.

Numismatic News contributor Ken Potter of Michigan designed the obverse. The die was hand-engraved by Brian Timmins of Wisconsin's Landmark Engraving. Struck by Sunshine Minting of Idaho, the deep cameo proof medallions are 39 mm in diameter and 1 troy ounce of silver.

VTP is offering medallions encapsulated in Air-tite holders for $100 each. A gift set of 10 in holders in a velvet box costs $800. A 20-piece set in a plastic case costs $1,500. Shipping is free. To order, call (800) 785-6113.

Endorsements Before Noon: Hillary Got Five, Lost One; Obama Got Two

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:55:13 EDT

Hillary is working hard to stay in the game and she is collecting on all debts owed to her co-president husband . . . (Hill refers to superdelegates as "automatic delegates"):

Four New York Automatic Delegates Back Hillary Cuomo, Fields, DiNapoli, Arroyo named NY Automatic Delegates Today
The Clinton Campaign announced the support of four New York automatic delegates today, after the New York State Democratic Committee elected its automatic delegates to the Democratic National Convention.

The automatic delegates include New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, former Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields, New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli and New York Assemblywoman Carmen Arroyo.

She did not stop there:

Connecticut Automatic Delegate John Olsen Endorses Hillary
Connecticut automatic delegate John Olsen announced his support for Hillary Clinton today.
A DNC member since 1996, Olsen is President of the Connecticut AFL-CIO and former Democratic State Party Chair.

According to DemConWatch, Obama received two more endorsements since yesterday. One of them was Joe Andrews of Indiannapolis, Indiana, who switched his endorsement from Hillary to Obama today. The other is John Patrick of Texas:

.

OBAMA PICKS UP TEXAS SUPERDELEGATE
Posted: 11:32 AM ET

(CNN) – Democratic National Committee member John Patrick, a 31-year member of the United Steelworkers union and vice president of the Texas AFL-CIO, officially announced his support for Barack Obama Thursday. The nod is Obama’s second superdelegate endorsement of the day.

Earlier Thursday, former DNC Chairman Joe Andrew switched his vote from Clinton to Obama. The superdelegate gap between Clinton and Obama stands at 18 in CNN’s latest count.

"Senator Barack Obama has spent a lifetime standing up for American workers, and he will be a crucial voice for us in the White House,” Patrick said in a statement released by the Obama campaign. “He has consistently opposed unfair trade deals that fail to offer protection to American workers — like NAFTA. Senator Obama has a real plan to put money back in the pockets of working families by restoring the manufacturing base in America."

Patrick had been a supporter of former Senator John Edwards’ presidential bid.

From: CNN's Adam Levy

IN: Key Indiana Super-D Defects From Hillary To Obama Four Days Before Primary

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Thu, 01 May 2008 14:45:32 EDT

Hillary's superdelegate lead is now less than twenty! But the big news is the defection of Joe Andrews, a former Bill Clinton insider, from Hillary to Obama. Read on:
.
JOE ANDREW, BARACK OBAMA
Superdelegate, former Democratic leader, switches support to Obama

Tribune wire reports Tribune staff reporter || 7:51 AM CDT, May 1, 2008

WASHINGTON - A leader of the Democratic Party under Bill Clinton has switched his allegiance to Barack Obama and is encouraging fellow Democrats to "heal the rift in our party" and unite behind the Illinois senator.

Joe Andrew, who was Democratic National Committee chairman from 1999-2001, planned a news conference Thursday in his hometown of Indianapolis to urge other Hoosiers to support Obama in Tuesday's primary, perhaps the most important contest left in the White House race. He also has written a lengthy letter explaining his decision that he plans to send to other superdelegates.

"I am convinced that the primary process has devolved to the point that it's now bad for the Democratic Party," Andrew said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.

Bill Clinton appointed Andrew chairman of the DNC near the end of his presidency, and Andrew endorsed the former first lady last year on the day she declared her candidacy for the White House.

Have Roughly 80 Congressional Super-Ds Privately Committed To Obama?

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 14:43:59 EDT

I would hope so!!! From TPM Election Central:

Obama-Backer McCaskill: Dem Battle For Congressional Support Effectively Over
By Eric Kleefeld - April 30, 2008, 8:55AM
The heated battle for Congressional super-delegate votes may be just about over, with Obama-backer Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) saying this morning that most of the roughly 80 publicly-uncommitted members of Congress have already said where they stand in private.
"The majority of super-delegates I've talked to are committed, but it is a matter of timing," said McCaskill, predicting that her candidate would come out on top in the end.
Meanwhile, George Stephanopoulos reported this morning that the Obama campaign will roll out multiple super-delegate endorsements today, as part of a strategy to "try to get back on track" in the wake of the most recent Jeremiah Wright controversy.

Note: Stephanopoulos was correct: Obama "rolled out" three endorseements. Hillary rolled out two. The author of the above article, Eric Kleefeld must be sad about this. His earlier articles were written in a very pro-Hillary style.

SO, WHAT'S THE SUPERDELEGATE COUNT NOW?

Real Clear Politics says that Hillary has 263 superdelegates and Obama has 243 superdelegates. (She leads Obama by 20.) However, Democratic Convention Watch (demconwatch) reports that Hillary has 261 superdelegates and Obama has 242, for a 19 point Hillary lead. I like DemConWatch's tally! ;-) Do you remember in January when Hillaryused to say, "It's the superdelegates." and "I will win by the votes of the superdelegates." (Remember? It was right before she changed courses and started demanding that the Florida and Michigan votes must be counted and that their delegates shoud be seated at the Democratic National Convention.)

NICE OBAMA ADS ARE PLAYING IN INDIANA AND NORTH CAROLINA:

Ben Smith of Politico found this YouTube video pearl, produced by SEIU for Obama: 'America first'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-UKM8xLX84

An arresting spot from SEIU, airing in Indiana, tallies U.S. spending on infrastructure in Iraq, then reminds viewers that Obama opposed the war.

"Barack Obama: Put America first again."

The historical reference, Ben is sure, isn't deliberate.

(via TPM)

Ben Smith also found this one: http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1185304443/bctid1527780294

This Morning's Non-Superdelegate Endorsements

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 13:00:59 EDT

This is great!

Teamsters' Boss, Jim Hoffa Endorses Obama - And He's Gonna Campaign For Obama Too
April 30, 2008 | Gary (IN) Post-Tribune staff and wire reports

The leader of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Jim Hoffa, will visit Gary and Hammond Thursday to endorse the presidential campaign of U.S. Sen. Barack Obama.

Hoffa, general president of the Teamsters, will visit the UPS facility at 3147 W. 169th St. in Hammond at 7:30 a.m. Thursday. He will also visit the Teamsters Local 142 office at 1300 Clark Road in Gary at 9 a.m.

The visits are among several stops Hoffa is making in Indiana for his "working class convoy for change."

According to a news release, Hoffa will talk about "jobs, the economy, the nation's failed trade policies and Sen. Barack Obama's positions on these and other issues affecting working families."

Obama and U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton are campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Indiana's presidential primary is May 6.

ALSO . . .

Princeton's College Democrats endorse Obama
By Rachel Dunn, Senior Writer || April 30, 2008

Sixty-five percent of the students at the College Democrats’ endorsement party last night voted for Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) over Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), but nearly all hands shot up after New Jersey State Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein asked, “How many people came here with their minds made up?” to the students assembled in the Whig Hall Senate Chamber.

Greenstein, who represented the Obama campaign at the meeting’s discussion session prior to the vote, said she was not surprised by the amount of support he received at the event.

“On a college campus, I would expect that [Obama] would have a lot of support,” Greenstein said, explaining that young people are “less jaded.”

She added that Obama inspires people to action in a way that reminds her of the vivacious spirit she felt as a young person in the era of Robert Kennedy. “He makes what seems impossible possible,” she said.

Not all Princeton Democrats, however, felt the same way, Adam Baron ’08 noted. Obama may have “more vocal support” than Clinton, he said, but the 65 percent does not necessarily accurately represent the Princeton student body.

THREE More Superdelegates For Obama: One More Super-D For Hillary!

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:40:45 EDT

According to the Associated Press, Bruce Braley of Iowa will be endorsing Obama in about an hour:

DES MOINES, April 30, 2008; Iowa | Rep. Bruce Braley of Iowa plans to throw his support behind Barack Obama on Wednesday.
Braley spokesman Jeff Giertz said he will endorse the Illinois senator for president during an afternoon conference call.
Braley was an early and ardent backer of Democrat John Edwards, but he had remained uncommitted since Edwards dropped out of the race at the end of January.
Braley is a superdelegate and his endorsement will further add to Obama’s lead in delegates in the race against Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Giertz said Braley made his decision after seeing the overwhelming support for Obama in district conventions last weekend in his 1st District in eastern Iowa.

California Congresswoman Lois Capps (With Long Ties To the Clintons) Endorses Obama!

Rep. Lois Capps, who represents a district on California’s central coast, is the third member of Congress to announce an endorsement of Senator Obama Wednesday, the day after he responded sharply to one of the deepest crises of his campaign, a confrontational and, he said, “appalling” set of remarks by his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. The campaign is using the flurry of endorsements to shore up political support and demonstrate the frontrunner’s continuing strength.
“I came to Washington 10 years ago after winning the seat my husband Walter held. In office for a mere 10 months before he died, he had lost none of the idealism and faith in American democracy that propelled his life. Quite frankly, I don’t believe he ever would have and I know that I have tried to keep that fire burning. But I’ll admit it’s hard, when so much of what’s going on around you is less about meeting our country’s challenges and more about demonizing your political opponents,” she said in the statement.

Read the complete article at Politico.com . . .

Indiana 9th District Rep. Baron Hill will endorse Obama this evening:

WASHINGTON — Indiana 9th District Rep. Baron Hill, a previously uncommitted Democratic superdelegate, is endorsing presidential candidate Barack Obama today.

Hill’s spokeswoman, Katie Moreau, said the congressman will make the endorsement tonight at a Bloomington rally where Obama will appear. The rally begins at 8:30 p.m. at Indiana University’s Assembly Hall.
Hill released a statement this morning on his decision.

“Some have advised me to be cautious, to wait and see which way the electoral winds may blow,” he said. “I confess that I have listened to those voices and been tempted by their reasoning. But, the stakes are just too high.

“We cannot continue to pursue the same politics of personal destruction we have engaged in for a generation, some never-ending ‘groundhog day’ endlessly playing out the cultural wars of forty years ago,” Hill said.

“If we are going to develop real solutions for Hoosier families, for America’s families, we have to move past the partisan gridlock,” he added. “I believe both Senator Clinton and Senator Obama want to do that and I believe both are formidable candidates. But I also believe that only one of them truly can. I am proud of Senator Obama’s call for change in Washington — change I have been advocating since I first sought public office. I am truly hopeful that his campaign and election will help unify our nation and ultimately change our politics.”

Hill said Obama’s repudiation of the controversial remarks of his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., was a sign of leadership and strength of character.

Not to be outdone, Hillary nabbed a Super-D's endorsement today as well:

Hillary Gets One Super-D; Obama Gets Two

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 17:03:05 EDT

Today, North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley, a superdelegate, endorsed Hillary. This is kind of a bummer because this is a pretty big endorsement. However, Obama got two endorsements today from superdelegates.

Kentucky Democratic U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler said that after months of intense and mounting pressure, he decided to ignore any political risks and endorse Obama. He is the fifth of Kentucky's nine superdelegates to make a pick, with Hillary receiving endorsements from three of them and Obama picking up Chandler and fellow U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth of Louisville,KY.

Chandler's decision holds more weight than a normal endorsement. He has a strong political pedigree in Kentucky and wide name recognition left over from his 2003 run for governor. Not only is he one of Kentucky's best known politicians, Chandler is the grandson of former Kentucky governor and U.S. Sen. Happy Chandler. So, the name recognition will have some value. He and Kentucky's other eight superdelegates can pick a candidate during the August Democratic National Convention regardless of the outcome of the state's May 20 primary election.

Also Iowa farmer and Democratic National Committee member Richard Machacek endorsed Obama today. Machacek stated that Obama's performance at Saturday's Democratic district conventions in Iowa tipped the balance in his favor. He wants the long-fought battle between Obama and Hillary to end now. "I think it needs to be over, and in good conscience, I can't fly in the face of my precinct, county and district," Machacek told The Des Moines Register in a telephone interview. "The raw numbers coming out of the district conventions really sat me down hard."

We expect more endorsements for Obama in the coming days. Meanwhile, DemConWatch.com reports that Hillary leads by only 20 superdelegates at this point with 259 Super-Ds compared to Obama's 239 Super-Ds. And Real Clear Politics has 261 Superdelegates for Hillary and 240 super-Ds for Obama, for a Hillary lead of 21.

Roger Waters (Pink Floyd) Endorses Obama In a BIG Way

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 11:49:09 EDT

The Coachella Music Festival in Indio, California is a big deal for serious music lovers. It is very well attended by people "in the business" as well as the press. Roger Waters, formerly from the band, Pink Floyd, is a serious Obama supporter. And he showed his loyalty in a BIG way. Read on:

Obama Endorsed in Iconic Rock Style

Former Pink Floyd member Roger Waters headlined the third day of the Coachella music festival in Indio, CA. During his performance, Roger used a giant inflatable pig to endorse U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama.

An image of a cleaver-wielding Uncle Sam shared one side of the pig with the words "Don't Be Led to the Slaughter." The words "Fear Builds Walls" were written on the other side. "Obama" was written on the pig's underside next to a checked ballot box.

The school bus-sized pig was brought out during the song "Pigs" from Pink Floyd's album "Animals". As the song closed, flames exploded around the stage and the pig was released. As it floated into the sky, Waters jokingly remarked, "That's my pig."

. . .

Pro-Obama fliers fell from above

Angela Franzer, Marcel Honore and Xochitl Pena • The Desert Sun • April 28, 2008

Those who live near the Empire Polo Fields, where the Coachella Music and Arts Festival was held, woke up this morning to something that looked like snow.

Thousands of small pro-Obama fliers littered the ground after they were dropped from a plane flying overhead last night during Roger Waters' set around 11:25 p.m., residents said.

"They're all over the place. It's littering. I've got all my homeowners calling me and complaining," said Bill Hays, onsite manager at the Desert Shores RV resort.
"If I was going to vote for Obama, I wouldn't this morning if this is how he runs his campaign," Hays added.

" I was shocked," Sunny Side Estates resident Christie Wiedlan told the Desert Sun around 7 a.m. this morning.

Indio City Manager Glenn Southard said Waters, the closing act of the three-day festival, asked if he could shower the confetti-like fliers -- and was told no by the city staff, police and concert promoters.

"He did it anyway. We are not happy about it and apologize," Southard wrote in an e-mail this morning to The Desert Sun. "Golden Voice will provide clean up to anyone requesting it."

Indio resident Kim Walker saw a plane release a stream of paper as she listened to Waters' set from her parents' estate home, just north of the polo fields.

"I think he missed" the field, Walker said. "They landed everywhere." The wind appeared to catch the papers, shortly after an inflatable pig was released into the air during Waters' set, she added.

When she returned to her home near Avenue 47 and Madison, the entire neighborhood had been sprinkled with the papers, which resemble pro-Obama fortune cookie messages.

Indio resident Carol Davison, who lives two blocks from the Polo fields, said the display defiantly changes her thoughts on Obama, calling the incident a "derelict action."

"I am just appalled. All of our gardeners will now have to spend the whole day trying to clean this up. It's going to be in our pool filters clogging them up," Davison said.

"It probably wasn't Obama," Walker said.

Ben LaBolt, spokesman for the Obama campaign out of Chicago, said the organization had no involvement in the incident, calling it "strange."

Wall St. Journal: Obama's Gaining On Hillary In Superdelegates

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 04:57:07 EDT

Obama Heads for Superdelegate Edge
Candidate Benefits From Calculations Of Elected Officials
By JACKIE CALMES || April 29, 2008; Page A4

Despite his loss in Pennsylvania and other campaign bumps, Barack Obama is heavily favored to win what will be the final and decisive contest for the Democratic presidential nomination -- the "invisible primary" for the convention votes of party leaders.

The reasons say a lot about these superdelegates' calculations for the November elections -- the presidential one, or their own.

The 795 superdelegates, who can vote for any nominee, fall into one of two groups -- the elected and the unelected.

Sen. Obama has taken the lead among elected officials, and Monday got the endorsement of New Mexico Sen. Jeff Bingaman, though Sen. Hillary Clinton will counter Tuesday with a commitment from Gov. Mike Easley, whose North Carolina holds the next primary. Sen. Clinton still leads by double digits among nonelected national and state party officials, but her edge has been narrowing.

The elected are the party's 28 governors, 234 House members, 49 senators and assorted big-city mayors and state officeholders. Democrats in both camps say that for many, these superdelegates' decisions to endorse someone -- or stay uncommitted -- reflect their answer to the question: What is best for my political future?

The nonelected superdelegates are the more than 400 national and state party officers of the Democratic National Committee. While many lean to the candidate who would draw more votes in their states, Democrats say that for most the bigger question is this: Who has the best chance of winning the White House?

Among elected officials, Sen. Obama leads in endorsements from governors and senators. He is behind among House members by one, but both camps expect him to pull ahead unless he does badly in next Tuesday's Indiana and North Carolina primaries. If he doesn't stumble, enough elected Democrats are expected to back Sen. Obama after the last primaries June 3 to give him the delegate majority needed for nomination.

Many of them see Sen. Obama as more electable than Sen. Clinton. But even those who don't have been impressed by his grass-roots organizing and fund raising and the legions of new voters he has attracted, particularly younger and African-American voters.

The politicians -- especially Democrats with significant African-American populations or college campuses in their districts -- see benefit for themselves in these new voters. By contrast, many see Sen. Clinton's alienating some general-election voters.

A Conservative Student Endorses Obama (And He Explains Why)

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 04:23:24 EDT

With all the insanity of the Wright "controversy" being covered non-stop in the news 24/7, I found this refreshing endorsement of Obama, from a Binghampton University Senior who thought he was going to vote for John McCain! Read on:

Conscientious Endorsement

By Jonathan Schwartz,Columnist
Published: April 29, 2008

I have remained silent on the upcoming election in November up to this point because I was waiting to see who the two candidates would be, come election day. But with the Democratic Primary not yet settled, Joe Biden still not a viable option, and most important, graduation for this senior columnist looming on the horizon, the time for this writer to endorse a candidate has arrived.

When John McCain finally disposed of Mike Huckabee, I thought he was the guy for me. I was seduced by the straight talk express campaign and even came to his defense in this very column when allegations of improper conduct with a female lobbyist came to the forefront of the national news.

On the issues I believe to be most troubling in this country, John McCain usually echoes my concerns. I don’t think we can pull out of Iraq anytime soon and I refuse to let the Democratic candidates convince me so as they pander to their ultra-liberal base. McCain has been at the forefront of campaign finance reform, an issue I believe to be essential to cleaning up Washington and ridding it of the influence of lobbyists whose pockets are overflowing with congressmen fighting for their causes on Capitol Hill.

And yet, this man who has served our country as a soldier and legislator for many years is not going to be receiving my vote come November. His lower tax economic platform will not help bring this country out of debt. He doesn’t support a woman’s right to choose. Those are deal-breakers.

With apologies to some of the special women in my life supporting Hillary Clinton, she’s not getting my vote either. I believe her policy platforms are sound and I believe that she could do great things for America. However, she is a divisive figure in Washington, and I believe in order for our country to move forward we need to elect a fresh face and not settle for another White House filled with Washington insiders.

That fresh face is Barack Obama. Forget his policies and his plans. His and Clinton’s are nearly indistinguishable from one another on most issues. Forget the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and his inflammatory comments. We can’t hold members of a religious congregation responsible for the words of their spiritual leaders.

The time has come for a drastic overhaul in the way our country carries itself on the world stage. I admire Obama’s chutzpah in offering to visit Iran as president. I believe he will set us on the path of successful diplomatic engagement with our enemies instead of the largely unsuccessful path of military action.

The real reason I’m voting for Barack Obama is because he inspires me, and what is more, he inspires my peers. The argument that he is too inexperienced is naieve. He will surround himself with the best and brightest minds to compensate for whatever policy and experience shortcomings he may have. His opponents and critics are disregarding his message of hope as wide-eyed idealism. But I believe, as Morgan Freeman says in the “Shawshank Redemption,” “Hope is a good thing, maybe even the best of things.”

America is in serious need of hope right now. Our economy is sagging, and morale across the fruited plains is sinking lower by the day. Barack Obama is just the sort of inspirational leader who will get America back on track. Clinton and McCain are attempting to bring America back to a more prosperous past. Obama will bring us to an even brighter future.

Jonathan Schwartz
Columnist

Comparing Campaign Styles: Obama Vs. Hillary

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 03:41:15 EDT

Barack Obama's calm demeanor extends to his campaign staff, where a calm determination is the atmosphere. Likewise, the natural Clinton family divisiveness is extant in Hillary's campaign staff, where distrust and infighting is the common feeling among the people. Could the management styles of the two Democratic Candidates be anymore different? I don't know. But one thing is sure; I would rather have our country managed by Barack Obama, than Hillary! Read the following article from Politico.com (a web site that I recommend):

                                                          Obama team remains unshaken
                     By Carrie Budoff Brown | 4/27/08 7:48 AM EST

.                                                    .

After Sen. Barack Obama’s third major primary loss and endless media coverage dedicated to dissecting the apparent weaknesses of his candidacy, one of the most striking elements of his campaign this week was what’s missing: any hint of internal upheaval.

At Obama headquarters in Chicago, hundreds of miles removed from the Beltway bubble, advisers held steadfast in their adherence to The Plan, a blueprint devised 15 months ago by the same inner circle that runs the campaign today, supported by the candidate and carried out by a tight-knit staff.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s operation could not be more dissimilar. Her campaign, ensconced in a Washington suburb, has experienced two major staff shakeups fueled by high-level staff rivalries, shifting strategies and an unusual degree of finger-pointing.

The contrast raises the question: How has the Obama campaign managed to maintain an island of comparative calm?

A winning record undoubtedly aids the cohesion, Obama advisers and unaffiliated Democratic strategists said, but so do other key dynamics: a candidate intolerant of infighting, a clear line of authority and a healthy distance from the city they want to take over.

The Obama campaign reminds some observers of George W. Bush, circa 2000, who presided over a loyal, linear and leakless operation in Austin, Texas, while Al Gore stumbled through multiple makeovers first in Washington, D.C., and later in Nashville, Tenn.

“In a parallel universe kind of sense, there are real similarities” between Obama and Bush, said Jim Jordan, a Democratic consultant who left the top post in Sen. John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign amid a shakeup.

“Intense loyalty to and belief in the candidate,” Jordan said, citing the similarities. “Simple, clear lines of authority with real discipline among the staff and consultants. Deep, talented teams. Maybe most importantly, candidates who trust their campaign, who understand what they’re doing, who deliver as well as demand loyalty, who intuitively relate to and handle their campaigns with just the right touch.”

WV: Former Congressman Hechler Endorses Obama

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:46:38 EDT

Congressman Hechler is not a superdelegate, but he nevertheless is well-known.

Former congressman Hechler endorses presidential candidate
by The Associated Press || April 28, 2008

A longtime state political fixture and former U.S. Congressman has endorsed Sen. Barack Obama in the West Virginia Democratic primary.

Ken Hechler, who served in Congress from 1959 to 1977 and was subsequently Secretary of State, said Obama is able to inspire young people and unaffiliated voters like no other candidate.

Hechler is the latest well-known public figure to endorse Obama, joining Sen. Jay Rockefeller and U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall.

Obama's opponent, Sen. Hillary Clinton, has lined up the support of some Democratic Party officials who aren't as well-known as Hechler, Rockefeller and Rahall.

Some of the state's most prominent Democrats -- including Gov. Joe Manchin and Sen. Robert C. Byrd -- have stayed neutral so far.

Superdelegate Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) Endorses Obama

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 16:38:51 EDT

Obama has reduced Hillary's lead by one more Superdelegate today. Now, Real Clear Politics will show (when they catch up) that HIllary's lead is 20; and DemConWatch is showing a lead of 21. More endorsements to come, I am sure! In fact, the rumor is that twenty endorsements will have been made between last Friday and the Indiana and North Carolina primaries next Tuesday! GO OBAMA!

SENATOR JEFF BINGAMAN ENDORSES BARACK OBAMA
April 28, 2008

Chicago, IL – Today, United States Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) endorsed Barack Obama for president, citing his ability to rise above the issues that divide us, end the war in Iraq, bring universal health care, and make America energy independent.

Senator Bingaman said, “Today, I am announcing my support for Barack Obama for president and declaring my intention to vote for him at the Democratic convention.

“Our nation faces a daunting number of critical challenges: reasserting America’s leadership in the world, meeting our needs for energy independence, addressing global warming, making healthcare accessible and affordable, positioning our economy to effectively compete globally, and extricating ourselves from the war in Iraq, to name a few.

“To make progress, we must rise above the partisanship and the issues that divide us to find common ground. We must move the country in a dramatically new direction.

“I strongly believe Barack Obama is best positioned to lead the nation in that new direction.”

Senator Obama said, “I’m grateful today to have Senator Bingaman’s support. Senator Bingaman has been speaking out in the United States Senate on some of the most pressing issues of our time – saving our environment, fighting global warming, and making America energy independent. Senator Bingaman has been an important advocate in the energy debate, and has served the people of New Mexico for decades, giving voice to the issues that matter to families across the state. We are proud to have his support as we fight to bring about real change for families in New Mexico and across the country.”

Senator Jeff Bingaman is the Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. He has served in the United State Senate since 1982, and previously served as New Mexico Attorney General.

Clinton's Superdelegate Lead Reduced By One As Fernandez Endorses Obama

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:57:53 EDT

Real Clear Politics says Hillary's lead in Superdelegates is 21, while DemConWatch says Hillary's lead is 22. In either case, her lead has been reduced significantly over the last few months from 168, to 21 or 22! Not bad.

The latest Superdelegate to join forces with the Obama campaign is Charlene Fernandez of Arizona. She was elected at the Arizona Democratic Party Convention on Saturday. Here's an article on her eection, from PolitickerAZ.com:

ADP convention yields another Obama superdelegate
By Evan Brown || April 26, 2008

PHOENIX - Though Harriet Young, Coconino County Democratic Party chair was nominated by the popular former state party chair, David Wade, and stood as the early favorite to fill one of two open superdelegate positions in the Arizona delegation to the Democratic National Convention, it was Charlene Fernandez who took the spot.

Fernandez was the top vote getter out of the four candidates running, and had nearly met the 50 percent-plus-one threshold on the second ballot, leaving she and Young to vie for the position. When Young dropped out, Fernandez became the last woman standing, confirming her as the winner.

Fernandez is a declared Barack Obama supporter, and becomes the newest addition to his superdelegate column.

"He's the future," Fernandez told PolitickerAZ. This election is "all about our youth," she said, and asserted Obama is the best candidate to lead America into the future.

Fernandez had kept her feelings to herself in her capacity as the Yuma chair, but upon her nomination to the 1st VC position openly declared support for Obama, who lost the Arizona primary to Sen. Hillary Clinton by a substantial margin.

Some Post-Primary States Still "Delegating!"

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 18:36:04 EDT

The delegate selection process varies in every state. Even though Obama has won in some states and not in others; not all of the delegates were assigned at the primary or caucus. Iowa and New Hampshire are cases in point (New Hampshire after "the fold"):

Sunday, April 27, 2008 6:21 AM CDT

Obama gets majority of Iowa's delegates

By Charlotte Eby, Courier Des Moines Bureau

DES MOINES --- Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama scored a majority of Iowa's delegates to the national convention at the Iowa Democratic Party's district conventions Saturday, showing little change from county conventions last month.

Obama, who won Iowa's first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses in January, and Hillary Clinton are locked in a battle for the Democratic nomination.

Obama snagged 16 of the 29 delegates who were selected to go to the Democratic National Convention in August, followed by Clinton, who picked up nine.

Despite having dropped out of the race, John Edwards still grabbed four Iowa delegates to the national convention, a show of support for a candidate who campaigned heavily in the state during both the 2004 and 2008 cycles.

Clinton Midwest chairman Jerry Crawford said Obama's loss of a delegate in eastern Iowa's 1st District shows Clinton gaining after her win in the Pennsylvania primary.

"What we saw in Pennsylvania, which was the momentum shifting to Sen. Clinton and away from Sen. Obama, seems to have been at work today in Iowa as well," Crawford said.

A top Democrat, however, said the fact that support for the candidates changed little since the party's county conventions in March shows no one gaining much momentum.

Former state Democratic chairman Dave Nagle of Cedar Falls said the results show Obama remains strong and Clinton is hanging on.

Nagle said the fact one Obama delegate went to former candidate John Edwards instead of Clinton "is kind of a wash."

"The Clinton people are looking for anything to hang their hat on," Nagle said. Superdelegates who remain undecided didn't get much help from the convention results, Nagle said.

"I think that they're going to have to look elsewhere for guidance because Iowa basically remains unchanged since the county conventions," Nagle said.

There are still 16 pledged delegates to be selected at the state convention on June 14 in Des Moines. Based on results from the county and district conventions, Obama has enough strength to capture eight of those, leaving five for Clinton and three for Edwards. If that holds, that would give Obama 24 of the state's pledged delegates going into the national convention, followed by Clinton with 14 and Edwards with seven.

The party chose delegates at district conventions in Dubuque, Mount Vernon, West Des Moines, Boone, and Council Bluffs.

Iowa has another 12 so-called "superdelegates" of party officials and top elected officials, some of whom remain undecided.

At the party's county conventions in March, Obama walked away with nearly 52 percent support, followed by Clinton with 32 percent, and Edwards with 15 percent.

Ed Tibbetts contributed to this report. Charlotte Eby can be reached at (515) 243-0138 or chareby@aol.com.

Do We Like It When Our Politicians Lie? An Examination Of Hillary's Campaign.

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 18:25:10 EDT

From Real Clear Politics (dot com):

Clinton's Endearing Fictions
By Steve Chapman || April 27, 2008

During the Pennsylvania primary campaign, Barack Obama made a rather charitable gesture not only toward his Democratic rival but toward the presumptive Republican nominee as well. "You have real choice in this election," he told a crowd in Reading. "You know, either Democrat would be better than John McCain, but ... all three of us would be better than George Bush."

That was all it took to set off Hillary Clinton. She rattled off a list of McCain's misguided positions, asking her audience over and over, "Is that better than George Bush?" She concluded, "We need a nominee who will take on John McCain, not cheer on John McCain, and I will be that nominee."

It came as a revelation to hear that Obama, who I thought was plotting to become president, actually has been shrewdly maneuvering himself in position to lead the pom squad at McCain's inauguration. But there was something else that struck me as strange about Clinton's reaction: Obama was not the first of the two Democrats to say something nice about the Arizona senator. He was the second.

A few weeks ago, campaigning in Texas, Clinton sounded downright glowing about McCain. Referring to those 3 a.m. phone calls at the White House, she said, "I think you'll be able to imagine many things Sen. McCain will be able to say. He's never been the president, but he will put forth his lifetime of experience. I will put forth my lifetime of experience. Sen. Obama will put forth a speech he made in 2002."

Let's review. Clinton criticized Obama for ranking McCain No. 3 in a four-person assessment, ahead of Bush. But Clinton herself put McCain No. 2 -- or maybe even in a tie for No. 1 -- in her evaluation of the three candidates.

She thinks McCain is better than Obama and McCain is no better than Bush. Which can mean only one thing: Bush is better than Obama!

Of course that's probably not what she actually believes. But it's a tribute to her talent for bold deceit and bizarre logic that she can attack Obama for doing something that she herself had done so recently, and more fervently.

And it brings me to my real revelation about Clinton. In the wake of her Pennsylvania victory, I pondered what it is about her that appeals to so many voters, even when she looks hopelessly out of the race. And I decided only one thing can explain it: A lot of us like our politicians to lie and fudge -- the more flagrantly, the better.

Transcript: Chris Wallace of (ugh!) Fox News Interviews Obama!

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 18:01:36 EDT

If you would like to watch the video instead, youcan see it at Real Clear Politics (dot com) at:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video_log/2008/04/obama_on_fox_news_sunday.html.

"FOX NEWS SUNDAY" HOST CHRIS WALLACE: I'm Chris Wallace, and this is "Fox News Sunday."

April 27, 2008

Barack Obama — his candidacy changed the Democratic race for president as he moved from contender to frontrunner. But recently, he suffered a series of big defeats.

Now Obama sits down for an exclusive interview. We'll ask him questions he's never faced before about his campaign and what he would do as president, only on "Fox News Sunday."

Then after Hillary Clinton's big win in Pennsylvania, what are her real chances of winning the Democratic nomination? We'll ask our Sunday regulars — Brit Hume, Mara Liasson, Bill Kristol and Juan Williams.

And the going gets even tougher "On the Trail," all right now, on "Fox News Sunday."

And hello again from Fox News in Washington. Well, as most of you know, six weeks ago we started something called the "Obama Watch," the amount of time that had passed since the senator promised me he would come on "Fox News Sunday."

It has been 772 days, but now it's time to stop the clock. Yesterday, we traveled to Indiana for an exclusive "Choosing the President" interview with the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination.

We caught up with Obama after a rally at a high school in Marion, Indiana.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE: Senator Obama, welcome to "Fox News Sunday."

OBAMA: Thank you for having me.

WALLACE: Long time no see.

OBAMA: Well, you know, it takes me about 772 days to prepare for these questions, but — although I think there was a — this was a leap year in there, so I think it's only 771.

WALLACE: No, I think we checked that.

Anyway, your defeat in Pennsylvania raises new questions about your candidacy and especially about some of the pillars of the Democratic base.

Let's take a look at the numbers. Among white union households, Clinton beat you 72 percent to 28 percent. Among white Catholics, again, same margin — 72 percent to 28 percent.

Senator, why are you having such trouble convincing white working class voters that you're their guy?

OBAMA: Well, keep in mind that Senator Clinton was well regarded in the state of Pennsylvania, just as she was well regarded in the state of Ohio. The fact that they voted for her shouldn't come as a huge surprise.

We started out 20 points down in that race, just like we started 20 points down in Ohio. And we actually made significant progress there.

And when you look at the polling that's now being done post- Pennsylvania, about how we match up in a general election, I think Senator Clinton maybe does a couple of points better than I do, but it's not substantial.

Most of the voters will vote for me. But you know, they are more familiar with her. She's from a bordering state. On the other hand, in Wisconsin, I won those same voters over Senator Clinton. In Virginia, I won those voters over Senator Clinton. In Iowa, I won the voters over Senator Clinton.

So I think that, you know, I am confident that when you come to a general election, and we are having a debate about the future of this country — how are we going to lower gas prices, how are we going to deal with job losses, how are we going to focus on energy independence — that those are voters who I will be able to appeal to.

WALLACE: But some observers, and some liberal observers, say that part of your problem is that you come off as a former law professor who talks about transforming politics when the lunch bucket crowd really wants to know what you're going to do for them.

Bob Herbert, columnist for the New York Times, happens to be a black man, says that Hillary Clinton seems tougher than you do.

OBAMA: Well, look. After you lose, then everybody writes these anguished columns about why did you lose. After Iowa, everybody was saying Obama's transforming folks because he's bringing in all these voters who we never expected would vote for a black guy.

This is the nature of politics. The fact of the matter is that, you know, we have done well among every group because people are less interested in dividing the country along racial lines or regional lines. They're really focused on how are we going to solve these big problems right now.

Common bonds - Obama Says He Can Relate To Hoosiers

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 15:37:14 EDT

Go to the web page where this article is posted:
(http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080426/LOCAL18/804260454), and watch the videos at the end of the article!

. . . Obama Says He Can Relate To Hoosiers
By Mary Beth Schneider || Posted: April 26, 2008

Struggling to connect with blue-collar voters whose support he needs to help clinch the Democratic presidential nomination, Sen. Barack Obama on Friday conceded he's got to do more to show that his life mirrors theirs.

Obama's problems winning over the working-class vote cost him this week's Pennsylvania primary, which he lost to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, and could hurt him when Indiana's voters go to the polls May 6.

On cable news shows and in newspaper columns, Obama's difficulty in bonding with those voters, a crucial part of the Democratic base, have been blamed on everything from his supposedly aloof demeanor to his well-tailored suits that make him fit for a GQ magazine cover and his poor bowling skills.

Friday, talking to reporters outside Joe's Junction Phillips 66 gas station on Indianapolis' Westside, Obama said his job now is to "just remind people of where I come from."

He is, he said, not so different from the people of Indiana.

"I was raised in a setting with my grandparents who grew up in small-town Kansas, where the dinner table would have been very familiar to anybody here in Indiana -- a lot of pot roasts and potatoes and Jell-O molds," he said.

Obama said he "doesn't want to go out of my way to sort of prove my street cred as a down-to-earth guy."

He laughed about his image being anything "elitist."

"I basically buy five of the same suit, and then I patch them up and I wear them repeatedly. I have four pairs of shoes," he said. "Recently, I've taken to getting a haircut more frequently than I used to because my mother-in-law makes fun of me."

But, he said, "I will be fighting as hard as I can to make sure that people understand why I got in this race in the first place, how I got where I am today, and then when they understand that, I think they'll recognize themselves."

We Must Not Let Billary Frame The Argument!

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 22:15:05 EDT

REBUFF ‘GOTCHA’ POLITICS

Just a personal info piece on the whole thing the ultra-right started and Hillary Clinton is now joining into regarding Barack Obama and Bill Ayers and his wife Bernadine Dohrn. This is an even more dishonest smear than the one about Jeremiah Wright. It is red-baiting by association with people who are not even “reds” any more.

Anybody who has played any kind of leadership role on social justice issues in the Chicago area has found themselves on panels, in meetings and conferences, on not-for-profit boards or in similar contexts with either Ayers or Dohrn. I certainly have with both.

Ayers has been involved in issues of education reform in Chicago and has been appointed to positions related to education by Mayor Daley Jr., hardly a flaming radical.

Ayers and Dohrn participated in tactically foolish actions during the movement against the Vietnam War. They came from rather privileged backgrounds and followed the pattern of those in the protest movement who come from privilege with such self-destructive folly. The phenomenon is older than Lenin’s “Left Wing Communism: An Infantile Disorder.”

But that was a long time ago. Today, they are not seen as part of the radical left in Chicago, but more as liberals working to reform the system.

A big deal is being made of Obama being on the board of the Woods Fund of Chicago (formerly Woods Charitible Fund) along with Ayers. But the Woods Fund, like every other charitible foundation, is wary of stuff that seems to them to be politically radical.

This sort of “guilt by association” or “gotcha” politics, where you try to find some association of a political candidate with someone who you can make out to be dangerous or controversial, and then you create a whole McCarthy-type, scare-and-smear campaign about the supposed association, has to be forcefully countered.

Emile Schepers

Northern Virginia

Irreparable Breach Between Billary And Blacks Is Forseeable

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 20:53:26 EDT

Obama Backer: Irreparable Breach Between Clintons And Blacks Is Foreseeable

By Sam Stein for The Huffington Post || April 25, 2008

A key Obama supporter in North Carolina said it was "foreseeable" that an "irreparable breach" had been created between the black community and the Clintons as a byproduct of conduct during the Democratic campaign.

Rep. G.K. Butterfield, a African American Democrat from North Carolina, was asked on a conference call to respond to comments reported earlier in the day by Rep Jim Clyburn, in which he qualified former president Bill Clinton's recent primary conduct as "bizarre."

"Jim Clyburn is my very best friend in the U.S. Congress and he and I talk on and off the record every day of the week," said Butterfield, who predicted that the race in North Carolina would ultimately be decided by single-digits. "That said, I had not read his comments... But politics by its very nature is a competitive process and there have been times when Sen. Clinton has walked up to the line and there has been a time or two when she has stepped over the line in terms of her comments... Whether there is an irreparable breach, I don't think we are at the point right now where we are at an irreparable breach, but it is foreseeable and that is why I encourage civility."

In the days leading up to the Pennsylvania primary, Bill Clinton was quoted on a local radio station as blaming the Obama campaign for "playing the race card" on him. A day later, he denied that he had ever made such a remark. In an interview in Friday's New York Times, Clyburn responded to the episode, as well as other Clinton remarks, by saying: "black people are incensed over all of this."

An HRC Fundraiser Defects To Obama!

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 20:45:55 EDT

BIG HRC FUNDRAISER DEFECTS TO OBAMA
Posted: Friday, April 25, 2008 2:18 pm

From NBC's Chuck Todd

One of the things that both Dem campaigns are always nervous about is defectors. In particular, Clinton is more vulnerable to this problem since she's the candidate that is trailing. Well, NBC News has learned that a major fundraiser for Hillary Clinton, former Amb. to Chile Gabriel Guerra-Mondragon is leaving the campaign to join up Barack Obama's campaign. Officially dubbed a "Hillraiser," Guerra-Mondragon raised nearly $500,000 for Clinton's campaign, according to some estimates. He has been informing people inside Clintonworld this week in what's been described as some tough conversations. A formal announcement of a role for Guerra-Mondragon on Obama's national finance committee will be made next week. Guerra-Mondragon was appointed Amb. to Chile by Pres. Clinton in '94 and served until '98.

Among the reasons for Guerra-Mondragon to defect, according to one informed source, was he was uneasy with the tone of the Clinton campaign and was beginning to worry about what this would mean for the general election.

It's unclear if this defection will lead to others; the Clinton camp has been particularly effective at getting folks to keep their powder dry. For Obama, this comes at a time when his campaign is trying to re-convince insiders that the math indicates he has the nomination virtually wrapped up. In addition, Guerra-Mondragon's defection could serve as a tipping point with some key Hispanic Democratic leaders that Obama is ready to start making a bigger effort to court Hispanics.

Obama Must Define Obama!

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 20:40:03 EDT

Defining Obama

Dylan Loewe for The Huffington Post || April 25, 2008

Despite having all but secured the Democratic nomination, the last few weeks have not been particularly good for Barack Obama. As Hillary Clinton's desperation peaks, and as her message morphs into something akin to a Karl Rove Talent Show, Obama has found himself taking heavy fire. And while polls have suggested that Obama's numbers have not been impacted by Reverend Wright, or "bitter-gate," or the tale of the missing flag pin, the Republican Party, with the happy assistance of the Clinton campaign, is beginning to define Obama in a way that could be dangerous come the fall.

For most of the campaign, Obama has been adept at preventing his opponents from defining him. When Hillary portrayed him as inexperienced, he was quick to point out that experience in Washington had little relationship to change in Washington. When Hillary suggested Obama had yet to pass a commander-in-chief threshold, Obama argued forcefully that if having supported the Iraq War was a prerequisite to meet that threshold, then it was the standard itself, not Obama, that failed to meet the test.

But in the closing weeks of the Pennsylvania primary, the eruptions of a series of mini-crises resulted in Obama's opposition defining him as an out-of-touch and unpatriotic elitist, half radical Christian, half Muslim-in-disguise.

Perhaps it was the silliness of these claims that led Obama to dismiss them rather than confront them. Perhaps he, like many, assumed that the American people would not be so easily fooled. Yet, as the weeks rolled on and the vacuum of Pennsylvania's purgatory needed filling, the media began to adopt and circulate the very narrative the Clinton campaign had tried so hard to create.

As Thomas Edsall reports, the media tone has shifted sharply; Obama is described in newspapers as unelectable, in magazines as incapable of connecting with working class voters, and on television as someone who might be uncomfortable with patriotism. A debate about whether Obama is more similar to McGovern or Stevenson is not one he wants pundits to be having. Obama is being defined by others. It's time for him to do the defining.

First, Bill Clinton Blows It: Now, G. McGovern Is "Going Off-Script!"

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 20:20:24 EDT

George McGovern: Still Backing Clinton, But Going Way Off Script
By: Sam Stein of The Huffington Post || April 25, 2008

Former senator and Democratic presidential aspirant George McGovern says he sees some striking similarities when it comes to his run at the White House and that of Sen. Barack Obama. But ultimately, McGovern argues, Obama has organized a much wider political coalition and thus a greater chance of electoral success.

"I think that is his strength," McGovern told The Huffington Post. "He has very broad appeal. He certainly is going to galvanize the black vote. But he has strong appeal to voters of all kinds. Some of the old buckaroos out here in South Dakota are for him."

In recent days, following Obama's loss in the Pennsylvania primary, concern has been raised in Democratic circles that the Illinois Democrat could not expand his political base beyond African-Americans and college students -- a limitation that stunted McGovern's candidacy.

But McGovern, who lost the 1972 election to incumbent Richard Nixon by landslide margins, doesn't attribute his defeat to merely the contours of his political base. Indeed, he argues that his candidacy was damaged more by the infighting that occurred within the Democratic Party even after he had secured the nomination.

"After I had the nomination won and everything except the crowning at the convention, the other candidates that I had defeated in the primaries and the caucuses ganged up on me and spent the next month just bad mouthing me around the country," he said. "And, of course the Nixon people used some of the quotes and threw them back at me in the general election."

Must Have Been A Slow News Day For Hillary Camp In Evansville!

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 20:12:12 EDT

I cannot believe this! What jerks! Over the last two weeks, I have heard many news commentators make jokes about Hillary "avoiding the sniper fire." So a college student makes the same joke and KAPOW! A threat has possibly been made on Hillary??? He's a suspect? Geez.

Clinton comment: Threat or prank?
Updated: Apr 25, 2008 7:47 PM EST
Reporter: Brandon Bartlett
New Media Producer: Melissa Greathouse

Is it a prank or something more sinister?

Evansville police are investigating a possible threat against Hillary Clinton posted on the Facebook website.

The person who wrote the comment allegedly has ties to the local Barack Obama office.

He apparently was one of the few who met Senator Obama when he was in Evansville on Tuesday.

Now the man has added his own negative twist to the campaign by making an alleged threat against Senator Hillary Clinton.

The young man who posted the comment, reportedly a student at USI, is said to be actively involved in the local Obama campaign.

14 News went to his Facebook page and found a picture of him with Senator Obama.

He also writes that he worked with the motorcade during Obama's visit to Evansville on Tuesday.

According to the incident report filed with the Evansville Police Department, the comment in question reads, "Make sure Hillary avoids the sniper fire next time she comes to Evansville."

Even if the comment is a jab at Senator Clinton's recent comment about landing in Bosnia under sniper fire, the EPD has alerted its officers.

Investigators say if Hillary Clinton comes to Evansville again the Secret Service will be notified and the young man will be closely watched.

No arrest has been made mainly because it's difficult for police to determine how serious the comment is.

The news broke on the same day Senator Clinton's daughter Chelsea made a campaign stop in Evansville.

I told Chelsea Clinton's representatives about the alleged threat. They declined to comment on camera but were eager to find out more about what was said on the website.

They tell me the Secret Service handles all possible threats against Senator Clinton.

R.J. Champion, the lead organizer for the 'Evansville for Barack Obama' campaign, said he hopes this was meant as a joke, but he says you can't play games like that these days.

Several attempts were made to contact the young man who wrote the comment tonight. He didn't return any calls or messages.

Engineers, Scientists and Technicians at NASA, DoD, DoE and Boeing Endorse Obama

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 18:37:39 EDT

Economists like Obama. (We have two nobel prize winner economists supporting him.) Now, it appears that Obama is endorsed by scientists and engineers too! Wow! People are starting to believe that the oppression of the last eight years may be ending.

Fastest Growing US Union Representing Boeing Engineers, DoD & NASA Scientists and Engineers, and Public Sector Technicians Backs Illinois Senator

WASHINGTON, DC - The International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers' (IFPTE), an AFL-CIO affiliated labor union whose public, private and federal sector membership includes engineers, scientists and technicians at the Department of Defense (DoD), the Department of Energy (DOE), NASA and Boeing, has given their backing to Senator Barack Obama for President of the United States. The IFPTE Executive Council voted without opposition late yesterday to endorse the Illinois Senator.

In response to yesterday's action, IFPTE President Gregory Junemann issued the following statement.

"While IFPTE applauds both Democratic candidates, our union's internal polling results, coupled with Senator Obama's unblemished record of support for the critical issues facing IFPTE, prompted our action to endorse Senator Obama.

"IFPTE's Executive Council agreed that Senator Obama is the candidate best suited to address the major concerns of America's working men and women, particularly those issues that directly impact IFPTE's diverse membership. The Senator believes we need to reform the H-1B program; he will immediately reverse the last eight years of the union busting promulgated on our nation's Civil Servants; will stand against free trade agreements like NAFTA that fail to protect American workers; will address our nation's dangerous health care crisis; will work to oppose irresponsible privatization schemes in the public and federal sectors; will work to protect the pensions and retirement security of working Americans; and will not only support the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), but will actively use the bully pulpit of the Presidency to work with Congress in ensuring that this all important labor law reform legislation becomes the

"IFPTE is pleased to join the millions of Senator Obama supporters and look forward to working with him over the next seven months as we move toward victory in November."

Senator Obama released the following statement after learning of IFPTE's endorsement:

"I want to thank President Junemann and the membership of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers for their endorsement of our campaign. They're working to make sure that Washington is working for working Americans, and they'll have a partner in the White House when I'm President. I'll fight for organized labor by protecting the right to organize. I'll support vigorous reinvestment in our federal research and development agencies, including NASA, to maintain America's leadership in Science and Technology and to foster economic competitiveness. And I'll stand up to the special interests and unite this country so we can bring about real change in the lives of American families -- from passing universal health care, to putting money back in the pockets of middle-class families and making sure every one of our children has the world-class education they deserve."

IFPTE is an AFL-CIO affiliated labor union representing upwards of 85,000 workers in professional, technical, administrative and associated occupations in the federal, public and private sectors.

IN: Evansville Mayor Endorses Obama; Two Nobel Prize Economists Endorse Obama

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 18:21:25 EDT

Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel, the popular mayor of Evansville, Indiana, and a rising star in Indiana politics, endorsed Senator Barack Obama for President of the United States yesterday. Even though he is not a superdelegate, his popularity will help Obama secure more votes.

"I feel Sen. Obama brings integrity, a fresh perspective, good judgment, a wealth of experience and determined leadership to deal with the challenges our country faces," the Democratic mayor's statement said.

Mayor Weinzapfel joins 29 state legislators from the Hoosier state who announced their endorsements two days ago.

---------<o0O0o>-----------

Watch Bryant Gumble Inverview Obama About Basketball!

This will lift your spirits!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1Lqm5emQl4&feature=user

---------<o0O0o>-----------

Daily Kos Reports the following:

Two Nobel Prize Economists Recommend Obama by Overseas Fri Apr 25, 2008 at 05:50:05 AM PDT

MSNBC has two Nobel Prize economists on right now. They were asked which of the three - Obama, Clinton or McCain - would be best for the economy, and both replied Obama.

Joseph Stiglitz, who was connected to the Clinton presidency and a 2001 prize winner, said that Obama's speech 3 weeks ago on the economy was brilliant. He also said that the deregulation of the markets during Clinton's presidency was a mistake and the markets need to be re-regulated.

Edmund Phelps, 2006 prize winner, agreed. We need a new way of looking at the economy and Obama is the one that can do that. We do not need the thinking of the past.

What great endorsements there!
Stiglitz bio
Phelps bio
Per FlDem5 Video of show
Per ManahManah Obama's speech

Overseas's diary :: ::

Hope Monger reminds below that
Paul Volker has oficially endorsed Obama, and also John Bogle who changed from Repub to Dem to vote for Obama. Thanks Hope!

Rep. James E. Clyburn Denounces Bill's Remarks

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 17:15:04 EDT

From the NY Times' The Caucus Blog:

April 24, 2008, 7:53 pm

Black Leader in House Denounces Bill Clinton’s Remarks

By Mark Leibovich

Representative James E. Clyburn in his office on Capitol Hill in January. (Photo: Susan Etheridge for The New York Times)

The third-ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives and one of the country’s most influential African-American leaders sharply criticized former President Bill Clinton this afternoon for what he called Mr. Clinton’s “bizarre” conduct during the Democratic primary campaign.

Representative James E. Clyburn, an undeclared superdelegate from South Carolina who is the Democratic whip in the House, said that “black people are incensed over all of this,” referring to statements that Mr. Clinton had made in the course of the heated race between his wife, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Senator Barack Obama.

Mr. Clinton was widely criticized by black leaders after he equated the eventual victory of Mr. Obama in South Carolina in January to that of the Rev. Jesse Jackson in 1988 – a parallel that many took as an attempt to diminish Mr. Obama’s success in the campaign. In a radio interview in Philadelphia on Monday, Mr. Clinton defended his remarks and said the Obama campaign had “played the race card on me” by making an issue of those comments.

Are Superdelegates Letting Rome Burn (For Just A Little While?)

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 17:02:24 EDT

From Politico.com:

Dems' Suspense Say Be Unnecessary
By ELIZABETH DREW | 4/25/08 4:47 AM EST

The torrent of speculation about the end game of the Democratic nomination contest is creating a false sense of suspense – and wasting a lot of time of the multitudes who are anxious to know how this contest is going to turn out.

Notwithstanding the plentiful commentary to the effect that the Pennsylvania primary must have shaken superdelegates planning to support Barack Obama, causing them to rethink their position, key Democrats on Capitol Hill are unbudged.

“I don’t think anyone’s shaken,” a leading House Democrat told me. The critical mass of Democratic congressmen that has been prepared to endorse Obama when the timing seemed right remains prepared to do so. Their reasons, ones they have held for months, have not changed – and by their very nature are unlikely to.

Essentially, they are three:

(a) Hillary Rodham Clinton is such a polarizing figure that everyone who ever considered voting Republican in November, and even many who never did, will go to the polls to vote against her, thus jeopardizing Democrats down the ticket – i.e., themselves, or, for party leaders, the sizeable majorities they hope to gain in the House and the Senate in November.

(b) To take the nomination away from Obama when he is leading in the elected delegate count would deeply alienate the black base of the Democratic Party, and, in the words of one leading Democrat, “The superdelegates are not going to switch their votes and jeopardize the future of the Democratic Party for generations.” Such a move, he said, would also disillusion the new, mostly young, voters who have entered into politics for the first time because of Obama, and lose the votes of independents who could make the critical difference in November.

(c) Because the black vote can make the decisive difference in numerous congressional districts, discarding Obama could cost the Democrats numerous seats.

One Democratic leader told me, “If we overrule the elected delegates there would be mayhem.” Hillary Rodham Clinton’s claim that she has, or will have, won the popular vote does not impress them – both because of her dubious math and because, as another key Democrat says firmly, “The rules are that it’s the delegates, period.” (These views are closely aligned with Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s statement earlier this year that the superdelegates should not overrule the votes of the elected delegates.)

GUAM: Fmr. Governor Carl Gutierrez Endorses Obama

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 16:38:42 EDT

Former Governor Carl Gutierrez Endorses Barack Obama For President

Pacific News Center Staff Reporter 25.APR.08

8:00 p.m. Guam - Former Governor Carl Gutierrez has endorsed the candidacy of Senator Barack Obama for United States President, saying that the senator is the best man to address the problems of Guam.

In an interview with News Talk K57, Gutierrez said Obama is the right person to "address discrimination" and "right the wrong for the people of Guam."

Gutierrez also urged Democrats on Guam to go for Obama during their caucus on May 3.

"Go out and vote for Obama," said Gutierrez in a telephone interview from California.

The former governor went to Cedars-Sinai in California for a routine check-up.

The entire radio interview with Gutierrez can be found HERE.

Oregon Rep. Wu, a Superdelegate, For Obama

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 15:18:34 EDT

04/24/2008

By JULIA SILVERMAN and BRAD CAIN / Associated Press

Oregon Rep. David Wu, one of Oregon's 12 Democratic superdelegates, announced Thursday that he'd back Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, citing Obama's stand against the Iraq war "from the very beginning."

Wu joins Oregon Rep. Earl Blumenauer in backing Obama. Gov. Ted Kulongoski and Rep. Darlene Hooley are supporting New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. The rest of Oregon's superdelegates have not yet announced their choice.

Wu, in a conference call Thursday with reporters, said his decision was not based on any polling showing Obama leading in Oregon nor on a sense that Obama would fare better than Clinton against Republican John McCain.

Rather, Wu said, Obama will make the best president and is most able to steer the country in a new direction after nearly eight years of the Bush presidency.

"He is best suited to turn the page on this pretty sorry episode in American history," Wu said of Obama.

The endorsement is an important win for Obama in one of the few states still to vote. Oregon's primary ballots are counted on May 20.

Polls suggest the state is tilting toward Obama, but political analysts have suggested that Clinton could be competitive, particularly if she can make inroads in the populous Portland suburbs.

But Wu represents much of that territory and is a popular incumbent there, so he could be a powerful force in the region for Obama.

The endorsement is Obama's third from a superdelegate since he lost the Pennsylvania primary to Clinton on Tuesday. Clinton picked up one superdelegate on Wednesday.

"This endorsement is a sign of the growing support for Senator Obama here in Oregon," said Nick Shapiro, the communications director for the Obama campaign in Oregon.

NC: Forty-Nine Former Edwards Backers Endorse Obama!

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 16:44:55 EDT

From the New York Times' The Caucus:
Edwards Backers Team Up With Obama

By Julie Bosman | April 23, 2008

No, John Edwards has not yet endorsed a candidate.

But nearly 50 of his most prominent backers lined up behind Senator Barack Obama today, in a gesture designed to give Mr. Obama a heavy boost of support less than two weeks before the North Carolina primary on May 6.

The group includes Ed Turlington, Mr. Edwards’s former national general campaign chairman; three North Carolina members of Congress; and 46 local activists, philanthropists and business leaders, among others. (Not surprisingly, given Mr. Edwards’s background, the list holds the names of 20 lawyers.)

Mr. Turlington, speaking from his law office in Raleigh, said that he had not expected to endorse a candidate after Mr. Edwards dropped out of the race on Jan. 30.

“I thought I was going to be on the sidelines,” Mr. Turlington said, adding that he made the decision about 10 days ago, after speaking to Mr. Obama. “I think his candidacy is doing a lot of important things that are similar to themes that John Edwards ran on.”

Among those things, he said, were Mr. Obama’s pledges to change the culture of Washington and fight for issues that are important to working people.

Throughout his second bid for the Democratic nomination, Mr. Edwards clashed repeatedly with Mrs. Clinton, particularly in debates. He criticized Mrs. Clinton for accepting campaign contributions from Washington lobbyists, a practice that he fiercely opposed.

And much of his campaign pitch centered on the notion that establishment Washington politicians have become corrupted by the influence of lobbyists for drug companies, oil companies and other corporate interests.

“You can’t just trade corporate Republicans for corporate Democrats,” he told audiences frequently, an attack aimed at Mrs. Clinton.

Mr. Edwards’s campaign sounded similar themes to Mr. Obama’s – both candidates positioned themselves as change agents who would clean house in Washington.

But despite heavy courting from both candidates, Mr. Edwards has still not made an endorsement. And the former Edwards supporters cautioned today that their announcement should not be viewed as a sign that Mr. Edwards’s endorsement was right behind. Two former campaign aides of Mr. Edwards said today that he has signaled recently that he may not endorse a candidate at all.

Mr. Turlington said he has “no idea” if Mr. Edwards agrees that Mr. Obama is the better choice. “He’ll make up his own mind,” he said.

Oklahoma's Gov. Henry AND Edwards' Top Adviser Endorse Obama

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 13:17:06 EDT

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Pennsylvania may have gone for Clinton -- but Oklahoma's governor is choosing Obama.

Governor Brad Henry has endorsed Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination, calling him an inspirational leader who can unite the country.

The endorsement gives Obama the official support of three of Oklahoma's 10 superdelegates. Hillary has the backing of one superdelegate. The rest are uncommitted.

Henry is the first major Democratic elected official from Oklahoma to endorse Obama.

In the state's Democratic primary in February, 55 percent of the vote went to Clinton, while Obama drew only 31 percent. So this is BIG.

But also a big story is that:

John Edwards's Top Adviser, Ed Turlington is endorsing Obama:

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A top adviser to former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards is endorsing Barack Obama.

Ed Turlington was the National Chairman of Edwards' 2004 presidential campaign and a close adviser to his 2008 campaign. The Raleigh-based attorney said Wednesday that Obama and Edwards share a commitment to taking on special interests. (I hope this portends an Edwards endorsement. It would be a shame if Edwards totally sacrificed his ethics and endorsed a candidate that takes so much money from special interests. He would lose the respect of all of his prior supporters, including my husband.)

Obama raked in support from N.C. General Assembly Yesterday

N.C. General Assembly Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand announced Tuesday his endorsement of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, along with that of 28 other state legislators.

"The American people have had enough of the game-playing and the politics that says you should say or do anything to win," said former House Speaker Dan Blue.

"They want something new, and that's what this campaign is all about. That is why I'm supporting Senator Obama."

The 29 legislators also included local representatives such as Sen. Eleanor Kinnaird, D-Orange, Rep. Bill Faison, D-Orange, Sen. Vernon Malone, D-Wake, and Sen. Floyd McKissick, D-Durham.

OH: A Super-D Endorses Obama - And A You Tube Video: Ed Rendell Harts Farrakhan

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 15:35:35 EDT

OH: Enid Goubeaux Endorses Obama

21 April 2008

This morning Ohio superdelegate Enid Goubeaux pledged her support to Barack Obama, calling him inspiring.

"I am endorsing Sen. Obama because his message, 'Yes we can' has inspired so many voters, especially younger voters, to take part in shaping our country's future," Goubeaux said in a statement released by an Obama spokesman. "I believe that Sen. Obama will end politics as usual which divides the nation and prevents us from confronting our most serious problems."

Goubeaux is a member of the Ohio Democratic Party's executive committee and former Democratic Party chairwoman of Darke County. She lives in Greenville, in western Ohio.

According to DemConWatch, Hillary is now only 24 Super-Ds ahead of Obama. (Remember when she was ahead by 150?)

DemConWatch's Superdelegate calculation right now (April 21, 2008 at 11:45 a.m. PST) is:
Hillary: 255
Obama: 231
Undecided: 308

I would hope that a few other Super-Ds would come forward and Endorse Obama. I guess they are afraid of the Clinton Machine.

Ed Rendell Adores Farrakhan! Don't believe me? Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXum_-8I1TA

I Hope Acel Moore Is Right: "WHY OBAMA COULD WIN PENNSYLVANIA

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 14:53:17 EDT

From

Urban Perspectives: Why Phenomenon Obama Just Might Take Pennsylvania

By: Acel Moore, Assoc. Editor Emeritus Of The Inquirer | Sunday, April 20, 2008

When I wrote six weeks ago about the Democratic presidential primary, I called the race run by Barack Obama a political phenomenon like no other I have witnessed in my 40-year journalistic career.

I need write his full name only once, in the lead of my column, and not have to identify him further, as in "U.S. senator from Illinois in a pitched battle with New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for their party's nomination for president" - and for the rest of the time he is just Obama. Such things suggest how much of a political phenomenon Obama is.

In fact, if I mentioned only his first name, few if any would ask who I was writing about.

Five weeks ago, polls suggested that Clinton had a double-digit lead over Obama in Pennsylvania ranging from 16 to 20 points.

More recent polls suggest he is closing the gap, with some polls having her as few as 4 percentage points ahead.

My political instincts are based not on polls (they are often misleading), but on anecdotal evidence gained from observing the political activity around me and talking to the people involved in it.

For example, for the last three years, I have been attending FitLife, a popular physical-therapy and physical-fitness center in Mount Airy. In the physical-therapy area, conversation issues among the benches and tables, as people in gym shorts and sweat suits sit or lie while stretching or getting heat or ice:

"You seem to be in pain. What happened to you? Were you in an accident, or are you, like me, just getting older?" Or "I had the same knee operation." Or "I had the same surgeon." Or "It is my spinal cord as well." Or "Arthur (Arthur Itis) is kicking my tail." These conversations, always friendly, usually amount to a comparison of ailments and progress.

But last week the talk was different.

Laptops Stolen From Obama Office in PA May Have Hacked Barackobama.com On Saturday

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 13:46:06 EDT

Hacker Redirects Barack Obama's site to hillaryclinton.com

A security weakness in Barack Obama's website has been exploited to redirect visitors to Hillary Clinton's website. Visitors who viewed the Community Blogs section of the site were instead presented with Clinton's website as a result of a cross-site scripting vulnerability.

Barack Obama's visitors were redirected to this site.

A user named Mox, from Liverpool, IL, posted an apparent confession in the Community Blogs section on the Barack Obama website yesterday. The subject of the post was, "I am the one who "hacked" Obamas site."

Mox plays down the matter by saying that all he did was exploit some poorly written HTML code before suggesting that it was a cross-site scripting vulnerability that had been exploited. By allowing users to enter characters such as > and " into their blog URLs, JavaScript could be injected into pages in the Community Blogs section and would be executed by subsequent visitors.

A YouTube clip from zennie62 demonstrates the attack. The clip shows a user clicking on the Community Blogs section of the Barack Obama site, which subsequently causes the browser to redirect to hillaryclinton.com. The author speculates that "Senator Clinton's staffers possibly hired someone to hack into the Barack Obama website system." No evidence is offered to back up this statement.

Financial Times Endorses Obama

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 12:27:50 EDT

Every large circulation newspaper in Pennsylvania has endorsed Obama, EXCEPT FOR ONE! The single newspaper that endorsed hillary is the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, whose owner and publisher, billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife, personally funded many of the investigations that led to President Clinton’s impeachment in 1998.

In the 90s, Scaife spent $2.3 million to fund a series of articles by The American Spectator magazine that dug into Bill Clinton’s behavior as governor of Arkansas.The magazine reported that Clinton had asked state troopers to help procure women for him and that he had sexually harassed a state worker named Paula Jones. Jones’s legal case against Clinton helped launch an independent counsel investigation that eventually exposed his relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

Hillary Clinton famously defended her husband at the time, saying the allegations were part of a “vast right-wing conspiracy” heavily funded by Scaife. So, it is surprising that Mr. Scaife wrote an article called Hillary, Reassessed where he gushes at how absolutely fabulous Hillary is.

Yesterday, Obama received a surprising endorsement from the London Financial Times. Business people across the United States are increasingly reading the Financial Times, which competes directly with the Wall Street Journal - and is doing very well. Here is that endorsement:

DEMOCRATS MUST CHOOSE OBAMA

April 20, 2008

Barack Obama goes into Tuesday’s Pennsylvania primary as strong favourite, whatever happens, to secure the Democratic presidential nomination. Yet the vote could still go either way.

This is a sign of how close this race has been and how deeply it has divided the party.

Mr Obama and Hillary Clinton are both strong candidates and each appeals powerfully to distinct segments of Democratic support. This has heightened the risk of bitter division.

After Tuesday’s vote, the Democrats should move quickly to affirm Mr Obama’s nomination. That is not just because his lead in elected delegates is already unassailable and the contest should be brought to a swift conclusion. It is also because he is, in fact, the better candidate.

The contenders’ differences on policy look small and in reality are even smaller. Their disagreement on healthcare mandates, for instance, frequently emphasised by Mrs Clinton, is of little practical significance. A mandate to obtain insurance, as proposed by Mrs Clinton, does not achieve universal coverage unless enforced with punitive sanctions, which she does not advocate.

Both candidates, in effect, are proposing near-universal coverage. The virtues of their schemes (much improved access, no denial of insurance to those with pre-existing conditions) as well as the defects (weak control of costs) are much the same.

Why Do They Pick On Obama About The Flag Lapel Pins?

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 05:17:14 EDT

Bob Schieffer addressed the "flag pin" controversy on FACE THE NATION. Here's the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-4elxJouBY&eurl

Why don't people pick on Hillary? Hillary didn't wear a flag pin at the ABC Debate. Perhaps she does not love her country.

Hillary Has Not Been Fully Vetted; Has Her Own "TERRORIST PROBLEM"

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 04:06:34 EDT

Dick Morris: Hillary has her own terrorist problem
Ex-Clinton adviser sees 'skeletons' that have not been fully investigated

By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2008 WorldNetDaily

With the media focus this week on Sen. Barack Obama's relationship with the notorious Weatherman Underground figure William Ayers, voters should be reminded of Sen. Hillary Clinton's ties to terrorists, says political analyst and former Clinton adviser Dick Morris.

Clinton has argued Obama would make a more vulnerable general election candidate because opposition researchers are just beginning to vet his past political associations, but Morris told WND he believes Hillary is wrong when she maintains all her "baggage" has been "rummaged through for years."

Morris insists Clinton has plenty of radical political skeletons in her closet that have not been fully investigated.

"In the 1980s, Hillary served on the board of the New World Foundation, which gave a grant to the PLO, then designated by the U.S. as a terrorist group," Morris noted.

In 1996, he added, Clinton organized a White House conference for the American Muslim Alliance.

Clinton took a $50,000 donation from the Alliance when she ran for the Senate and tried to hide it on her forms by calling it the 'American Museum Alliance, Morris said.

"Then, when it was discovered, she hesitated until a week before the election and then returned the money," he explained. "By the time Hillary gave it back, she had forsworn use of soft money in the campaign, so the donation had lost its usefulness in any event."

Writing in the Wall Street Journal Nov. 3, 2000, terrorism expert Steven Emerson identified the American Muslim Alliance as "an anti-Israeli group whose leaders have sanctioned terrorism, published anti-Semitic statements and repeatedly hosted conferences that were forums for denunciations of Jews and exhortations to wage jihad."

All Debates Analyzed: Obama WAS TARGETED (Duh!)

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 04:00:46 EDT

This is a good read, from the Huffington Post!

Debate Analysis: ABC Asked Most Scandal Questions, Obama Was Clear Target

By: Nico Pitney | April 20, 2008

The furor over ABC's Democratic debate last week was not universally shared.

While Obama supporters (and many media critics) decried what they saw as biased, gotcha-style questioning, a vocal minority (mostly Clinton supporters) was unmoved. Where was the media outrage when Hillary was being grilled in past debates? She got it "much much tougher" than Obama did from ABC, Clinton spokesman Jay Carson charged.

This debate over debates had me curious. Was ABC's debate really in a lowly class of its own? Or were Obama backers (inside the press and out) just being overly-sensitive? So I went through each of the four one-on-one contests between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, starting with CNN's debate way back on January 31, and cataloged every question, classifying them as follows:

Policy and expertise: In this category, I put any questions about a candidate's policy preferences or legislative record, as well as questions about a candidate's experience ("Neither one of you have ever run a business, so why should either of you be elected to be CEO of the country?").

Non-policy questions: Questions focused on politics, including electability and the role of superdelegates, as well as those about campaign management, such as releasing tax records or accepting public financing.

Scandal questions: Questions about hot-button, non-policy issues like Jeremiah Wright or Clinton's Bosnia trip. (Note: this category does not include follow-up questions on these issues given to the opposing candidate; ie. Clinton being asked about Wright, or Obama being asked about Bosnia.)

This is obviously not a scientific process. I did not factor in the tone of the policy questions, which were often framed as critiques of the candidates and their views (although I found relative parity between Clinton and Obama in this respect). Moreover, for the purposes of this analysis, I'm not taking a position on whether any of the scandal questions were fair or legitimate lines of inquiry.

Did That Bogus "Debate" Hurt Obama? PA Polls Don't Think So!

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 17:24:31 EDT

We knew that Hillary is very strong in Pennsylvania. We pretty much assumed that Hillary will win by a double-digit margin. Murtha said that the margin would be as high as 20%. Folks, the times, they are a-changin'.

Perhaps we should rethink those assumptions. Perhaps Hillary's very nasty campaign is helping Obama gain support in Pennsylvania. Perhaps the fine people of Pennsylvania KNOW that many people in their state have good reason to be bitter. Why do I say this? Because the polls are telling us that Obama, while still behind Hillary, is gaining on her every day - even AFTER the alleged "debate" that was really a 90-minute "Bash Obama" session on Wednesday. And influential people are increasingly supporting Obama.

Obama has narrowed Clinton’s superdelegate lead from 97 to 22 since Feb. 5. To make up Obama’s pledged delegate lead, Clinton has to win at least 70 percent of the remaining uncommitted superdelegates (including the add-on Super-Ds), which is statistically unlikely. (Rumor has it that a small number of Obama superdelegate endorsements will leak out at around 5 p.m. ET this evening - and that a number of important Obama endorsements will be released first thing on Monday.)

Today, three well-known and influential people (not superdelegates) from the Bill Clinton era announced their endorsment of Obama. Bill Clinton's friend, cabinet member and former Labor Secretary, Robert Reich endorsed Obama today (another "Judas?"), as did high-ranking foreign policy experts Fmr. Senator Sam Nunn of Georgia and Fmr. Oklahoma Senator David Boren. David Boren’s son, Oklahoma Democratic Rep. Dan Boren, is a superdelegate who hasn’t yet endorsed in the race. To be fair, Hillary got an endorsement from one superdelegate today: from Democratic U.S. Rep. Betty Sutton of Ohio.

And, of course, Howard Dean is again Telling the Super-Ds to pony up their endorsements NOW:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrgCcoUnH1E

The Associated Press says "time is running out" on Hillary's presidential aspirations, "the long-ago front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination who now trails Barack Obama in delegates, states won and popular votes."

"Compounding Clinton's woes, Obama appears on track to finish the primary campaign fewer than 100 delegates shy of the 2,025 needed to win."

Joe Klein says the race is now "close to over" for Clinton and the Democratic party will begin to rally around Obama. "My guess is that the superdelegate tidal wave is about to begin."

The latest polls show Obama has whittled her once substantial double-digit lead in Pennsylvania to single digits. A Zogby poll today put her lead at 4 points, a Rasmussen poll showed it at 3 points and a Los Angeles Times poll earlier this week had it at 5 points. PPP showed Obama AHEAD by 3.

A narrow Hillary win in Pennsylvania probably would be enough to keep a bull-headed Hillary in the race, but would not stem a massive round of superdelegate endorsements of Obama - and renewed calls among Democratic leaders for her to step aside so that Obama concentrate on the general election race with McCain.

Phone Bank With Us; Get Free Stuff!

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 20:03:03 EDT

Free to everyone who phone banks with us at SIBI Center this weekend:
TWO Obama Lapel Stickers per person:

WE ARE RAFFLING OFF ONE YARD SIGN. (YOU MUST PHONE BANK -for at least one hour- IN ORDER TO RECEIVE A RAFFLE TICKET!)

Show your support for Barack Obama in the 2008 Presidential election with this yard sign. The official logo is printed on both sides of 16" x 26" poly yard sign. Weatherproofed for outdoor display. Includes a collapsible sign wire.

WE ARE SELLING T-Shirts, Bumper Stickers, Signs, and ONE (1) Yard Sign

Button: 1 for $3; 2 for $5

Bumper Sticker: 1 for $3; 2 for $5

Rally Sign: 1 for $3.50 (Very limited supply!)

JOIN US AT ANY (or all) OF THESE PHONE BANKING EVENTS:

PHONE BANKING On Saturday (9 to 1) near CRENSHAW & MLK

PHONE BANKING On Saturday (1 to 5) near CRENSHAW & MLK

PHONE BANKING On Sunday (1 to 5) near CRENSHAW & MLK

This is the last weekend for us to phone bank in Pennsylvania. Join us so that we can make the Pennsylvania a HUGE success for Barack!

WE'LL SEE YOU THERE!

Two More Superdelegates For Obama: One SWITCHED From Hillary!

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 17:05:58 EDT

Oklahoma Superdelegate Reggie Whitten Endorsed Obama Today:

“Whether it is his willingness to tell corporate America what it needs to hear instead of what it wants to hear, restoring America’s standing abroad, or inspiring young Americans to commit themselves to public service, Senator Obama’s message is equally refreshing and inspiring. It is no coincidence that voters, especially young voters, are turning out to vote in record numbers.

“As we move closer to the convention and, from there, to the general election in November, I am certain Senator Obama will continue to build a broad coalition of Democrats, Independents, and yes, even Republicans. He unites us in the belief that without change in Washington, we as a nation cannot begin to address the challenges and opportunities of our future.

“In conclusion, for these reasons and many more, I’m proud today to stand with Barack Obama and his growing movement for change.”

----------<o0O0o>----------

DC Superdelegate Harry Thomas, Jr. Switches His Endorsement From Hillary to Obama:

Council member and newly elected superdelegate Harry Thomas Jr., initially a supporter of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, is announcing in minutes that he will cast his vote at the Democratic National Convention in Denver for Sen. Barack Obama.

Thomas received more than 100 phone calls and e-mails from constituents who feared that he would use his power as a superdelegate to vote for Clinton despite the city's overwhelming support of Obama in the Potomac Primary.

"After meeting with the candidates and listening to my constituents, I have to honor the 83 percent who support Barack Obama," he said in an interview, referring to the results of the Democratic primary.

Thomas will make the announcement at 10 p.m. at a debate watch party.

----------<o0O0o>----------

(Though Not A Superdelegate) Former US senator from Michigan endorses Obama by The Associated Press Wednesday April 16, 2008, 3:27 PM

LANSING — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has picked up the endorsement of former Michigan Senator Donald Riegle.

Riegle said in a statement released Wednesday by the Obama campaign that an Obama presidency will bring together Democrats, Republicans and independents to get the country moving again.

Riegle represented the Flint area in the U.S. House from 1967-76, first as a Republican and then as a Democrat. He served in the U.S. Senate from 1977-1994 before going to work for Shandwick Public Affairs in Washington, D.C., where he now lives.

He has a vacation home in Michigan.

----------<o0O0o>----------

Indiana City officials Endorse Obama

By Ty Jepson, Executive Reporter

Publication Date: 04/17/2008

Several past and present elected officials gathered near Stewart Center Wednesday to endorse U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., as their choice for President.

The event was organized by Purdue Students for Barack Obama.

Some officials who attended the event were West Lafayette city council members Paul Roales, Gerald Thomas and Ann Hunt.

Others who attended were former West Lafayette city council member Patti O'Callaghan, former West Lafayette mayor Sonya Margerum, former state senator Mike Gery and Marguerite Trachtman, campaign manager to Margerum and former West Lafayette mayor Jan Mills.

The group chose Stewart Center for the event to raise awareness of early voting. Purdue students can vote early from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Thursday and Friday in Stewart Center.

Margerum said Purdue students have a great opportunity to make a difference in the elections. "Tippecanoe County is a heavy voting county," she said.

Roales said around 4,000 students have registered to vote already. "There were only 2,600 votes to elect the mayor," he said. Roales said the 4,000 new voters, along with those already registered, can have a significant impact on the presidential elections. He said students can influence elections in the future and maybe gain more support for student issues. "In future elections ... if they look at the demographics and see that 5,000 students voted, they might focus more on students," he said.

O'Callaghan said, "There hasn't been this much enthusiasm in a campaign since JFK."

Amanda Morris, president of Purdue Students for Hillary, said, "Students have a voice in what's going to happen." Morris said she thinks college students are especially important during this election. "When we leave, it'll change our work environment, including health care and education. "I really encourage students to do their research and see who they'd like to be president," she said.

GET OUT THE VOTE IN PENNSYLVANIA!

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 23:03:05 EDT

Dear Obama supporter,

I wanted to send this quick note before the big contest coming up on Tuesday in Pennsylvania.

In my role as the Voter Contact Director here at the campaign, I get to see up close the amazing impact you are having on the upcoming contests.

We've gotten where we are because people like you, in state after state, have reached out to friends and neighbors -- and even perfect strangers -- to talk about what's at stake in this election.

And the results speak for themselves -- we've won more votes, more delegates, and more than twice as many contests as Senator Clinton.

Tuesday's primary in Pennsylvania kicks off the final 10 contests in the nomination process.

We face an uphill battle, but all this weekend people are gathering at grassroots phonebank locations to build on our momentum and make calls to potential Obama supporters in the Keystone State.

Getting together with other supporters to make calls will be a fun and important activity. There's a phonebank location near you, so sign up now:

http://my.barackobama.com/phonebank6

If you can't make it this weekend, you can also make calls from home any day between now and Tuesday. Our online phonebanking tool on My.BarackObama is available until 9 p.m. Eastern every night. Click here to get started:

http://my.barackobama.com/call

In more than forty contests so far, we've seen that one voice is often all it takes to bring someone new into this movement.

You can be that voice. I hope you'll get involved this weekend.

Thank you,

Jon

Jon Carson
Voter Contact Director
Obama for America

PA: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Endorses Obama!

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 15:17:22 EDT

I guess the press does not believe that Obama's candidacy is "just words." Read the following, especially the last six paragraphs after "the fold," from:

Barack Obama: Democrats deserve a nominee for change
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

On Tuesday, Pennsylvanians will have the unusual luxury of voting in a Democratic presidential primary that promises to be truly relevant. Like two opposing armies marching to a new Gettysburg, the forces of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton come to this latest battlefield symbolizing two views of America -- one of the past, one of the future. Pennsylvania Democrats need to rise to the historic moment.

For us it is the candidates' vision and character that loom as the decisive factors in this race. For as dissimilar as they are, the two share much in common. It starts with their mold-breaking candidacies. Whoever wins the nomination will vie for a special place in U.S. history -- to be either the first African-American or the first female commander in chief.

Although their backgrounds are different, they have come to the same conclusion, one now shared by many Americans, that the Bush administration has taken the nation on a profoundly wrong course both at home and abroad. The excitement that has animated this primary season -- the surge of new voters, the change of party registrations -- is an expression of the nation's hunger for change.

For as hard as they have run against each other, both candidates are united in running vehemently against President Bush and all his works -- another common theme that came out in their visits to the Post-Gazette editorial board on successive days this week. Sen. Clinton was the more explicit in her disdain: George W. Bush "is one of the worst, if not the worst, president we have ever had."

American Hunters and Shooters Assn. Endorses Obama

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 14:48:53 EDT

American Hunters and Shooters Association (AHSA) Endorses Obama for President

His Vote Supporting "Vitter Amendment" Demonstrates His Fundamental Understanding of 2nd Amendment

WASHINGTON, April 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American Hunters and Shooters Association (AHSA) announced the endorsement of Senator Barack Obama on a national conference call this morning organized by the Obama for President campaign. AHSA President Ray Schoenke made the following statement in his endorsement of Senator Obama:

My name is Ray Schoenke, President of the American Hunters and Shooters Association and we are today announcing our endorsement of Senator Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States.

As a gun rights organization we have not come to this decision lightly. We were formed two years ago because our research shows that millions of gun owners wanted a change. They not only wanted an organization that would protect their gun rights but an organization that was also committed to the protection of their communities as well as the protection of our lands.

We reached out to the Obama campaign several weeks ago to offer our support and approval as was reported by Paul Bedard of US News and World Report.

We believe recent attacks on Senator Obama's stand on the 2nd Amendment and his commitment to our hunting and shooting heritage are unfair and American Hunters and Shooters Association is stepping up to set the record straight.

Senator Obama has clearly demonstrated his commitment to the 2nd Amendment by his vote in support of the Vitter amendment to HR 5441, the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations bill of 2007. This amendment prevents the Government from confiscating guns in a time of crisis or emergency.

Imagine how the citizens felt during Hurricane Katrina when government agents kicked in doors to confiscate law abiding citizens' guns at a time when they needed them the most. We know Senator Obama "gets it." To say that he is an elitist is patently ridiculous.

To hunters and shooters everywhere, Senator Obama's vote demonstrated a fundamental understanding of the meaning of the 2nd Amendment which means he recognizes the individual right of all citizens to keep and bear arms. Senator Clinton, on the hand, failed to grasp the importance of this critical issue to hunters and shooters and voted against this Amendment. She turned her back on America's gun owners.

In addition, Senator Obama's commitment to conservation and protection of our natural resources and access to public lands demonstrates to us his commitment to America's hunting and shooting heritage.

Senator Obama will be a strong and authentic voice for America's hunters and shooters and it is with great pleasure that we endorse his candidacy.

Alan M. Madison
Madison & Company LLC
202-223-7031 direct
202-841-3341 cell

American Hunters and Shooters Association

Irish-American Writers And Artists Assn. Endorses Obama!

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 14:35:40 EDT

Irish writers weigh in behind Obama
By Ray O'Hanlon

April 16, 2008--Senator Barack Obama's bid for the presidency has a vocal new backing group this week. A group of Irish writers, poets, artists, actors and filmmakers have banded together under the banner of "The Irish American Writers and Artists Association" to throw their words and reputations behind the Illinois senator and current Democratic front runner.

Forty-three in all - including filmmakers Ed Burns and Terry George, actors Karen Duffy and Geraldine Hughes, musicians Mick Moloney and Chris Byrne, as well as writers like Jimmy Breslin, Thomas Cahill, T.J. English and Peter Quinn - have signed a full-page ad in this week's issue of the Irish Echo supporting the 46-year-old senator.

In doing so they are now standing alongside "Irish Americans for Obama," a group that has been campaigning for some weeks.

The writers and artists, who also include two columnists for this newspaper (Irish Echo), Larry Kirwan and Danny Cassidy, express anger at what they call the "media and chattering class" which they claim use the phrase "white working class" as a code for "Irish working-class racism."

And they state: "We are the descendants of the generations of Irish American working-class women and men who helped build this country, nurse its sick, care for its children, work its mines, fight its wars and police its streets. We wholeheartedly endorse Barack Obama in his quest for the Presidency of the United States."

The signing group, 22 in number, write that "generations of progressive Irish Americans and African Americans" had worked side by side in the struggle to improve conditions for the poor and working class, whatever their color or ethnicity.

NC: Superdelegates Mel Watt and David Price Endorse Obama

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 14:19:17 EDT

Will today be the day of endorsement news for Obama? I was told last week that a number of Obama endorsements by Super-Ds were to be announced today (Wednesday), Friday, and Monday - right before the Pennsylvania primary. It looks like Obama has received three endorsements so far today (and it is 2:00 p.m. ET, so another endorsement could still be reported...)

Superdelegates Watt, Price endorse Obama

LISA ZAGAROLI | lzagaroli@charlotteobserver.com

Two N.C. superdelegates endorsed Sen. Barack Obama for president Wednesday.

Reps. Mel Watt and David Price held a conference call to announce their decision to endorse Obama over Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York.

“Only one candidate in this election has captured this spirit of change and excitement. Only one candidate has marshaled this spirit of change into a movement that is uniquely inclusive, uniquely democratic and uniquely American,” Watt said on a conference call with reporters. “That candidate is Barack Obama.”

Price told reporters that Obama would be competitive in North Carolina with expected Republican nominee John McCain in November.

“He can change the equation in North Carolina,” Price said, “and I look forward to helping him do so.”

The entire N.C .delegation had endorsed former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, and until now only one had announced an endorsement of either of the two remaining candidates. Rep. G.K. Butterfield also endorsed Obama.

Price and Watt are two of the state's most influential representatives in Washington. Price, a former Duke political scientist, is a Democrat from Chapel Hill first elected to Congress in 1986. He is the most senior Democratic congressman from North Carolina and he chairs an appropriations subcommittee.

Watt, a lawyer, is a Charlotte Democrat first elected in 1992. He is chair of a financial services subcommittee -- a key post for his hometown -- and is a past chair of the Congressional Black Caucus.

IN: Superdelegate Congressman Andre Carson Endorses Obama

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 14:02:11 EDT

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Indiana congressman and Democratic superdelegate Andre Carson is endorsing Sen. Barack Obama for president.

Carson is the first of Indiana's five U.S. House Democrats to announce support for a presidential candidate. Superdelegates could determine who gets the nomination in the tight race between Obama and New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Carson says Obama represents a new generation of leadership who will fight for hardworking Americans.

Carson was elected in a March special election to fill out the remainder of his late grandmother's term. He faces three serious challengers in the state's May 6 primary.

Indiana has 13 superdelegates who are free to vote as they wish at the Democratic convention, plus 72 pledged delegates determined by the primary.

The Boss, BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN Endorses Obama!

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 13:46:28 EDT

Dear Friends and Fans:

LIke most of you, I've been following the campaign and I have now seen and heard enough to know where I stand. Senator Obama, in my view, is head and shoulders above the rest.

He has the depth, the reflectiveness, and the resilience to be our next President. He speaks to the America I've envisioned in my music for the past 35 years, a generous nation with a citizenry willing to tackle nuanced and complex problems, a country that's interested in its collective destiny and in the potential of its gathered spirit. A place where "...nobody crowds you, and nobody goes it alone."

At the moment, critics have tried to diminish Senator Obama through the exaggeration of certain of his comments and relationships. While these matters are worthy of some discussion, they have been ripped out of the context and fabric of the man's life and vision, so well described in his excellent book, Dreams of My Father, often in order to distract us from discussing the real issues: war and peace, the fight for economic and racial justice, reaffirming our Constitution, and the protection and enhancement of our environment.

After the terrible damage done over the past eight years, a great American reclamation project needs to be undertaken. I believe that Senator Obama is the best candidate to lead that project and to lead us into the 21st Century with a renewed sense of moral purpose and of ourselves as Americans.

Over here on E Street, we're proud to support Obama for President.

Bruce Springsteen

Listen to his most beautiful song, Philadelphia here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1v3y6nOS-c8&

PA: Daupin County Commissioner George Hartwick Endorses Obama

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 03:52:42 EDT

Hartwick endorses Obama
by CHRIS A. COUROGEN, The Patriot-News
Monday April 14, 2008, 5:54 PM

Photo: Gary Dwight Miller, The Patriot-News
Iowa Governor Chet Culver, left, and former Governors Ray Mabus of Mississippi and Jim Hodges of South Carolina meet with Dauphin County Commissioner George Hartwick in Steelton Monday to endorse Sen. Barack Obama for president,

Less than 24 hours after appearing on the stage with Barack Obama at a Steelton campaign event, Dauphin County Commissioner George Hartwick officially endorsed the Illinois senator's bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Speaking at what was billed by Obama organizers as a Jobs and the Economy Forum with Iowa Gov. Chet Culver and former governors Ray Mabus of Mississippi and Jim Hodges of South Carolina, Hartwick said he had decided the race was "far too important" for him to sit it out.

The former Steelton mayor said Obama has the ability to bring people together, reminding him of Steelton's motto, "Many countries, one people."

"No one else we have seen in this race has that ability to connect with the people," Hartwick said. "That is what a leader needs to do to solve the problems in Washington."

IN: Former (15-Term) Congressman Andy Jacobs Endorses Obama

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 03:47:40 EDT

From Howey Politics Indiana, April 14, 2008:

Former Indiana Congressman Andy Jacobs Endorses Obama

Former Indiana congressman Andrew Jacobs Jr., a 15-term member of the U.S. House of Representatives, announced his endorsement of U.S. Sen. Barack Obama for president today. In his endorsement, Jacobs cited Obama’s commitment to uniting the country and ending special-interest influence in Washington to bring about change that we can believe in. Jacobs released the following statement: “Today, I am announcing my endorsement of our Illinois next-door neighbor, Senator Barack Obama, for president of the United States. My colleague Lee Hamilton has rightly said that Senator Obama, in the tradition of leaders such as Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt, has the ability to bring our country together. There are two overarching issues facing our country today and Senator Obama is right on both. First, Senator Obama had the judgment and courage to oppose an unnecessary invasion with undetermined consequences in Iraq. He was right from the beginning, and now he has a plan to end the blunder and keep us safe by refocusing on the most dangerous threats we face. Second, he has refused contributions from political action committees and federal lobbyists. Senator Obama is committed to taking our government off the auction block and ending special-interest influence in Washington so that we can give the American government back to the American people. In short, when you get right down to it, I think Senator Obama is head and shoulders above his opponents.” Jacobs is shown here at the Westin Hotel on the night of the 7th CD special election. (HPI Photo by Brian A. Howey)

Make Your Own Obama Logo! (Here's How)

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 22:07:17 EDT

Make your own Obama logos! Upload a photo, and shazzam! At http://logobama.com/

Here's my cat:

.

Is American Research Group A Good Polling Company?

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 20:35:14 EDT

Today, American Research Group ("ARG") published shocking poll results for Pennsylvania. The poll results were a banner headline on Drudge Report (which is desperate for Hillary to win.) ARG reported that Hillary is ahead in Pennsylvania by 20 points.

Legitimate polling companies had Hillary ahead over the last few days, mostly in the single digits - from 3 points to 10 points, with only one legitimate company (over a week ago) having results of Hillary at +18:

Zogby: Clinton +4.0
Susquehanna: Clinton +3.0
Temple University: Clinton +6.0
Insider Advantage: Clinton +10.0
PPP: Clinton +3.0
Rasmussen: Clinton +5.0

I thought it was kind of bizarre, so I looked around for an explanation. There are two articles that report ARG is not a good pollster.

One of them is Is Clinton Pennsylvania Lead Really 20 Points? by Carl Bialik, known as "THE NUMBERS GUY" in the Wall Street Journal! He reports that In a polling report card of 2008 primary accuracy issued by a rival survey company, ARG ranked in the bottom half of more than three dozen polling firms, among 2008 primaries through late February. It also ranked near the bottom in another ranking of pollster accuracy at fivethirtyeight.com, a Web site that tracks the Electoral College. And, as I wrote last month, the widely tracked polling averages at the political Web site Real Clear Politics don’t include ARG numbers, because of concerns about transparency. Like they’ve been in Pennsylvania, ARG polls also were volatile in previous primaries, notably in Wisconsin, which saw a 16-point swing in just two days.

Read the rest of the article HERE.

----------

The next article is a blogpost called, A problem with American Research Group polling organization by "A Jacksonian" on Tuesday, December 25, 2007. In that blog post the author says

"Dick Bennett, The Manchester-based pollster (who runs ARG) defends the omission of cell phone users in polling, saying that the people without landlines – mostly young people – 'don’t vote.'
"Yes, the 'cellphone' blind spot phenomena, where those without a land line don't get called. I have some bad news for Mr. Bennett on that - a lot of folks have had it with landlines and are shifting over to a cellphone only lifestyle. He might want to look into that."

-----------

Finally, to remind folks of how well ARG does, here is an OLD 2004 article called "A Graveyard of Pollsters" from the WaPo (in 2004) looking back a bit at the 2000 race:

"The New Hampshire-based American Research Group's tracking poll ended up buried deepest in the snow bank: They had Bush winning by two the day before the primary, merely 20 points off the mark."

Pass These Tidbits Around!

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 19:30:30 EDT

This stuff is good to know - and pass around!

FIRST------------------------------------------------------------

Go vote! Of the presidential candidates, who is out of touch with the voters of Pennsylvania?

http://www.pittsburghpostgazette.com/polls/?pollID=2467

NEXT------------------------------------------------------------

Watch Hillary Clinton Make That Bosnia "Sniper Fire" comment Four Separate Times HERE:

http://www.redlasso.com/ClipPlayer.aspx?id=847d68b2-f00c-49c5-b721-c8b79bf50200

NEXT------------------------------------------------------------

Historical Quote of the Day

"If [Republicans] could cut funding for Medicare, Medicaid, education, and the environment, middle-class Americans would see fewer benefits from their tax dollars, feel more resentful paying taxes, and become even more receptive to their appeals for tax cuts and their strategy of waging campaigns on divisive social and cultural issues like abortion, gay rights, and guns."

-- Bill Clinton, in his 2004 memoirs, My Life, making the same argument as Sen. Barack Obama.
http://politicalwire.com/archives/2008/04/13/historical_quote_of_the_day.html

NEXT------------------------------------------------------------

Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney endorses Obama

April 14, 2008PITTSBURGH (AP) - Barack Obama is picking up an endorsement from the owner and chairman of the Pittsburgh Steelers organization.

Dan Rooney says he endorsed the Illinois senator for the Democratic presidential nomination because he believes Obama will prvoide the new direction and new leadership that the country needs.

The Obama campaign, which announced the endorsement, says the 75-year-old Rooney had planned to remain neutral in race between Obama and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York. But Rooney met with Obama during a campaign appearance Monday in Pittsburgh and offered to endorse him.

NEXT------------------------------------------------------------

Ebay Founder Endorses Obama

By Jason Lee Miller - Mon, 04/14/2008 - 5:14pm.

Clinton loses another one

Ebay founder Pierre Omidyar blogged his endorsement of Senator Barack Obama, a decision he says was difficult given his relationship with both Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Though he questions whether his endorsement matters and labels it "self-indulgent," Omidyar takes the opportunity to talk about being inspired by Obama's vision for America:

"When he talks about America, it makes me proud to be an American. I want to believe, and I do believe that we live in the America he is talking about. I'm an immigrant, and even though I was raised here, I've always loved this country and its ideals with the fervor of a convert. He puts words to what I feel….

"We've got excellent candidates all around this year, but I truly think that only once in a generation will we see an exceptional leader like Barack Obama."

Internet businesses and their principals may have other, more practical (read: less inspiring) reasons to support Obama. Late last year, Obama pledged support of Net Neutrality, a measure intended to keep the barriers to entry for online businesses low. In his address at the Googleplex, Obama also laid out his "innovation agenda," which includes creating a more transparent, web-accessible government.

Obama Gets Another Super-D!

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 02:39:15 EDT

From Associated Press:

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — One of Minnesota's last uncommitted Democratic superdelegates is backing Barack Obama, the Obama campaign announced Sunday.

Nancy Larson, of Dassel, a Democratic National Committee member, told The Associated Press she decided to support Obama because his campaign will bring new people into the political process, and she believes he has the best chance of winning in November.

"It's looking more and more that the one person who can do it is Barack Obama," Larson said.

But Larson said the choice wasn't easy. As one of the last two uncommitted superdelegates in Minnesota, Larson had been lobbied heavily by Obama's and Hillary Clinton's campaigns. She said she spent countless hours speaking with the campaigns and others about her choice.

Larson joins eight other Minnesota superdelegates who are supporting Obama. Three are backing Clinton.

Larson's announcement leaves Rep. Collin Peterson as the only uncommitted superdelegate from the state.

Hillary Will Withdraw Within A Month?

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 20:28:04 EDT

From today's OpEdNews

April 11, 2008

Hillary Will Withdraw and Her Stature Soars

By Brent Budowsky

Ignore everything you hear on cable talk shows. This is what will happen, and why.

First, sometime between the days after the Pennsylvania primary and the days after North Carolina and Indiana, Hillary Clinton will drop out of the presidential campaign, endorse Obama, and watch her stature among Democrats and independents soar.

Second. The campaign is over. Period. The only way that Hillary can win is, to quote a former Louisiana governor, if Barack Obama gets caught in bed with a live man or dead woman. Nothing is impossible, bad news could strike either candidate, but is it highly unlikely and nothing Hillary can do would change this equation.

Third. The Clintons know this. Any pundit talk to the contrary is pathetically out of touch with reality, as most pundit talk on television is. What is happening now is a Clintonian exit strategy. If Hillary does withdraw as I predict, when I predict, her popularity skyrockets and her negatives among Democrats and many independents fall substantially. In the unlikely event lightning strikes against Obama, Hillary is still around with far higher positives.

Fourth, Hillary only hurts herself by attacking Obama with questionable tactics. Her negative ratings go through the roof. Presidents cannot be elected this way. Period. End of discussion.

Any ignorant or trite talk to the contary from the pundit class, who have so often praised negative tactics as brilliant that were totally destructive to Hillary, are nothing more than gaseous emissions that contribute to global warming.

A MUST READ (ABOUT MINISTER WRIGHT & THE CLINTON SMEAR MACHINE)

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 19:22:37 EDT

WOW!

Obama's Minister Committed "Treason" But When My Father Said the Same Thing He Was a Republican Hero

By: Frank Schaeffer
March 16, 2008

When Senator Obama's preacher thundered about racism and injustice Obama suffered smear-by-association. But when my late father -- Religious Right leader Francis Schaeffer -- denounced America and even called for the violent overthrow of the US government, he was invited to lunch with presidents Ford, Reagan and Bush, Sr.

Every Sunday thousands of right wing white preachers (following in my father's footsteps) rail against America's sins from tens of thousands of pulpits. They tell us that America is complicit in the "murder of the unborn," has become "Sodom" by coddling gays, and that our public schools are sinful places full of evolutionists and sex educators hell-bent on corrupting children. They say, as my dad often did, that we are, "under the judgment of God." They call America evil and warn of immanent destruction. By comparison Obama's minister's shouted "controversial" comments were mild. All he said was that God should damn America for our racism and violence and that no one had ever used the N-word about Hillary Clinton.

Dad and I were amongst the founders of the Religious right. In the 1970s and 1980s, while Dad and I crisscrossed America denouncing our nation's sins instead of getting in trouble we became darlings of the Republican Party. (This was while I was my father's sidekick before I dropped out of the evangelical movement altogether.) We were rewarded for our "stand" by people such as Congressman Jack Kemp, the Fords, Reagan and the Bush family. The top Republican leadership depended on preachers and agitators like us to energize their rank and file. No one called us un-American.

Consider a few passages from my father's immensely influential America-bashing book A Christian Manifesto. It sailed under the radar of the major media who, back when it was published in 1980, were not paying particular attention to best-selling religious books. Nevertheless it sold more than a million copies.

Here's Dad writing in his chapter on civil disobedience:

If there is a legitimate reason for the use of force [against the US government]... then at a certain point force is justifiable.

And this:

In the United States the materialistic, humanistic world view is being taught exclusively in most state schools... There is an obvious parallel between this and the situation in Russia [the USSR]. And we really must not be blind to the fact that indeed in the public schools in the United States all religious influence is as forcibly forbidden as in the Soviet Union....

Is Bush Going To Attack Iran? And Why Obama Should Be President

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 22:10:06 EDT

Sad news yesterday on the Middle East Front: Pat Buchanan said that Bush is going to attack Iran. Specifically, he said that the Petraeus/Crocker hearings were used to set up the predicate that Iran is behind the attacks in Iraq that are killing U.S. soldiers, allowing Bush to assert that Iran must be stopped in his speech yesterday. I read Bush's speech again, and Buchanan is correct. Bush told us.

Most of our country (including Americans serving in the military) is weary of the two costly wars we're already fighting: Bush and McCain are obviously preparing behind the scenes for another, more "surgical" air attack on Iran's machinery of war. It is obvious that Iran is aware of the plan, and they are preparing for it. And, it is obvious that Iran will be prepared with a counter attack. And it will result in a tremendous loss of life; both Iranian and American.

Is it conceivable that the Bush cabal thinks the Iranians will not respond? If so, they are INSANE.

On the eve of the General Election, Bush wants our country to descend into a WORLD WAR that the majority of our country will be against. Bush is not going to ask Congress for permission to attack Iran; it's going to be Bush's "OCTOBER SURPRISE." He's going to assert that he has the right under his "right to protect the country" and the only way we can "succeed" in Iraq. And this will help John McCain take the presidency away from Obama as our WAR PRESIDENT.

I hope that Congress is working behind the scenes to prevent such a ludicrous and fatal "surprise." From what I see, they don't appear aware of the real threat that Bush laid out for them yesterday.

For the country of Iran, the November election can't be coming soon enough. They're keeping their nose clean because they are really hoping that Obama will be our president and logic will once again prevail. Iran has no plans to provoke Bush - and Bush knows it. Nevertheless, be prepared for increasing news reports of precipitous attacks from Iran and the increasing loss of American life. Don't believe it. Bush is setting us up just like he did with Iraq.

With the Naval armada sitting right off Iran's coast and obviously not helping to stabilize Iraq, Bush is in the final stage of execution. All he has to do is say "Go!" In a few hours, they'll knock out Iran's "nuclear centers," oil wells, and it's Oil Bourse (which happens to be trading in Euros, rather than Dollars. This has been damaging to the US monetary system because countries are replacing their U.S. Dollar reserves with Euros and dumping a lot of US cash on the trading markets.)

A surgical "preemptive attack" on Iran's weapons program and their oil interests may cripple the country of Iran, but it will unify a proud nation of 70 million people, two-thirds of whom are under the age of 35, behind their religious leaders and against the United States. Not only that; the unprovoked attack will unify the entire Middle East against the United States. In days, Iran will have amassed an army of MILLIONS that will dwarf our entire military - Army, Navy, Air Force, Blackwater, etc. It could also result in the destruction of the Saudi Kingdom, which is precariously trying to quell insurrections by its oppressed subjects, and because of its "close relationship with the Bushes."

OBAMA MUST BE ELECTED BECAUSE HE UNDERSTANDS THE STRATEGIC ISSUES IN THE MIDDLE EAST. See the article below. If you don't have time to read the entire article, just read the bolded sections.

Here is a YouTube video of Mr. Buchanan's prediction on MSNBC http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubhYzqDpTlM

The Candidates on Iran

Frankie Sturm | April 4, 2008

Editor: John Feffer

Foreign Policy In Focus

Although Iraq and the economy tend to dominate the headlines, Iran is never far from the news cycle – or from the speeches of the leading U.S. presidential candidates. In a recent trip to the Middle East, John McCain reiterated his concern about “Iranian influence and assistance to Hezbollah as well as Iranian pursuit of nuclear weapons.” Iran also received the attention of President Bush when he insisted last month that Iran is developing nuclear weapons in order to “destroy people.” Implausible and unsubstantiated as this claim might be, it represents a popular thread of argument in the Iran debate.

But Iran figures in other ways in the 2008 presidential election. It is not only a matter of war and peace. The candidates’ approach to Iran reveals what U.S. engagement with the Middle East might look like in the years to come.

Similarity of Approach

Although there are significant differences between the presidential contenders, they all share certain concerns and assumptions about Iran. Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John McCain have all openly stated that Iran cannot, under any circumstances, be permitted to obtain nuclear weapons. To that end, each candidate maintains that the military option, though not preferred, remains “on the table.”

This unity is the result of a fundamental mistrust the candidates share toward the Iranian regime. For Obama, Iran is a “radical theocracy” that sponsors terrorism and “regional aggression.” According to John McCain’s website, Iran is a “dictatorship” that has “aided and abetted the violence in Iraq” and trained “the most violent Shia militias.” Hillary Clinton is largely in agreement with these statements, arguing that “Iran poses a long-term strategic challenge to the United States, our NATO allies, and Israel.” Consequently, Iran is not to be trusted with nuclear weapons.

Beyond this shared stance on Iran’s nuclear program, the three candidates also succumb to a certain sin of omission. None of them has acknowledged Iran’s legitimate security interests. While foreign policy experts across the ideological spectrum agree that Iran is guilty of bad behavior, many have also pointed out that Iran faces serious national security threats of its own. The United States, which has threatened to overthrow Iran’s government, has 160,000 troops in neighboring Iraq and is part of a 40,000-troop NATO force in neighboring Afghanistan. Iran shares a border with American ally Turkey, and the U.S. Navy is present in force in the Persian Gulf. In short, Iran is boxed in by a massively stronger power that has repeatedly threatened it. Furthermore, Iran also feels threatened by Israeli nuclear weapons, for which it has no effective defense.

By not publicly recognizing these issues, Obama, Clinton, and McCain fail to provide a solid explanation for Iranian behavior. How does one distinguish deterrence or self-defense from “Islamofascism” or a bid for regional hegemony? Since sponsorship of terrorism or the pursuit of nuclear weapons could be used for either hegemony or deterrence, Iran’s motivations are notoriously difficult to read. Nevertheless, a president must make those tough calls. The use or non-use of military force will rely on how the president understands Iran’s motives and actions. The candidates have failed to publicly demonstrate such an understanding.

Important Differences

In spite of these similarities, the differences between Obama, Clinton, and McCain can help us determine how willing and able each candidate will be to pursue a diplomatic course before opting for military action. Of the three, Obama is the most committed to a negotiated settlement with Iran. He has unequivocally stated that he would engage the Iranian regime “without preconditions,” offering a pledge not to invade and possible membership for Iran in the World Trade Organization. Since Iran will not stop enriching uranium as a prerequisite to talks, this is the only way to engage Iran on the nuclear issue. Obama also stands out because he, unlike Clinton and McCain, is more circumspect on whether he believes Iran actually intends to build nuclear weapons.

Hot Off The Presses: Endorsements for Hillary And For Obama

Hope 4 Obama, DNC- CA Delegate At-Large — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 17:50:33 EDT

FIRST, HILLARY'S ENDORSEMENTS:

Today, Hillary received a rare string of endorsements after seeing one superdelegate after another pledge their support to Senator Barack Obama.

Her campaign was gleeful over two superdelegate endorsements today. Sophie Masloff, a former mayor of Pittsburgh, will endorse Hillary tonight at a dinner for Allegheny County Democrats. And Jackie Speier, a California lawmaker who this week took over the late Tom Santos’s seat in Congress, has also announced her endorsement of Hillary.

The Clinton campaign said that they have also picked up the support of Bill Burga, a former president of the Ohio AFL-CIO.

NOW, OBAMA'S ENDORSEMENTS:

At a press conference in Philadelphia today: PA state senators Shirley Kitchen and Vincent Hughes, and state representatives Jewell Williams, Harold James and Tony Payton Jr. endorsed Obama just now; as did Philadelphia city Council members Curtis Jones, Bill Green, Jannie Blackwell, Donna Reed-Miller, Jim Kenney and Wilson Goode, Jr.

City Council President Anna Verna, who did not attend the press conference, also informed Obama that he has her vote as leader of the 36th Ward in South Philadelphia. These people are not superdelegates, but endorsements from state leaders always helps undecided voters figure out which candidate should get their vote. And, one or two could be added as Super Delegate Add-Ons at some time in the future. Three add-ons will be determined on June 7th by the Pennsylvania State Democratic Committee.

Some could also be selected as PLEOs (Party Leaders and Elected Officials) after the April 22 primary, but if they are in that category, they are pledged delegates, not Supers.

Also, former Oregon governors Barbara Roberts and John Kitzhaber gave their endorsements today (but I think we knew these endorsements were coming.) The Democratic Party of Oregon holds its platform convention this weekend.

Wayne Holland, the chairman of the Utah Democratic Party, and a Super Delegate endorsed him too.

If I am doing the math correctly, Hillary increased her endorsement count by 3 and Obama increased his endorsement count by 15. He got 12 more endorsements today, than she. HOWEVER, two of Hillary's endorsers were Super Delegates and just one of Obama's 15 endorsers is a Super Delegate.