Washington Superdelegate endoreses Clinton

Another one of Washington's undecided Superdelegates has declared, and has declared for Hillary Clinton. Eileen Macoll, the vice-chair of the Washington State Democratic Party, will be casting her support with the Clinton's. At least the Chair of the state party had the good sense to go along with popular sentiment and winner of Washington's presidential caucuses.

There are still a few undecided delegates left, including the former Speaker of the House, Tom Foley, who lost in the GOP mini-revolution of 94 to George Nethercutt. There has been some speculation that Foley is in the Clinton camp, although many could point to the Clinton's as the reason why Foley lost his historical election. No other sitting Speaker has ever lost their election. At that point 94 was the largest swing to power in Congressional history. The Clinton's took a fair part of the blame, balancing the budget was the right thing to do, but it was a tough decision politically and congressional democrats took the blame. Not only the budget was a Pyrrhic victory, Hillary-care fell flat on its face and made a lot of people look bad and played into the fears that the GOP was telling people about the Democrats.

Obama is still going to win the nomination. So why would anyone be coming out for Hillary at this point in the game?

Look Who's Self-Destructing Now

Hillary Clinton hasn't been doing a very good job of following her strategy. She just needed to keep her mouth shut, play to her positives, and see if Barack Obama had another Reverend Wright in his past. Apparently she is waiting to see if Barack Obama gets assassinated.

Mike Huckabee, former GOP presidential candidate, also made a terrible joke at an NRA meeting. After a crash off-stage Huckabee joked that Barack Obama fell off his chair when someone loaded a gun. I would have jumped too. It's not like Barack Obama was invited anyway. It's the NRA.

Turn out the lights, the party's over.

This is too horrible to consider. Everyone knows what happened to RFK. He was killed by a Islamic extremist, Sirhan Sirhan, and the party LOST the election to Richard Nixon.

Is this the model that the democratic party wants to follow?

Hillary, it's time for you to be quiet.

Israel

You can forget about social security, the IRS, or health care, the REAL third-rail issue in American Politics is Israel. There is a real lack of honesty about the situation between Israel and what is left of the state of Palestine.

There is a pretty massive gap in the American consciousness regarding the state of Israel. Israel does a lot of questionable actions, such as the policy of settlements in the West Bank and the destruction of Palestinian homes when there are suspected militants. Obviously this is not a path to peace but to escalating conflict.

Bush is doing his part to fan the flames. His comments regarding the Democratic candidates for President were deplorable, and made on foreign soil. (Dixie Chicks anyone?) Bush should shuffle off the stage, and he should do it silently.

Our sitting President has zero credibility. At home or abroad. It would almost be laughable if it weren't for the fact that Bush is still President and those kind of smears work. When the issue is irrational those kind of attacks are particularly effective.

The first, and most important, is the situation on the ground and the readiness of the parties themselves to take the lead, irrespective of what America is doing. Anwar Sadat’s heroic overture to Israel, and Menachem Begin’s response, made the Jimmy Carter-engineered Camp David peace treaty possible. The painful, post-1973 war stalemate between Israel and Egypt and Syria made Henry Kissinger’s disengagement agreements possible. The collapse of the Soviet Union and America’s defeat of Iraq in the first gulf war made possible James Baker’s success in putting the Madrid peace process together.

What all three of these U.S. statesmen had in common, though — and this is the second criterion — was that when history gave them an opening, they seized it, by being tough, cunning and fair with both sides.

I don’t want a president who is just going to lean on Israel and not get in the Arabs’ face too, or one who, as the former Mideast negotiator Aaron D. Miller puts it, “loves Israel to death” — by not drawing red lines when Israel does reckless things that are also not in America’s interest, like building settlements all over the West Bank.

It’s a tricky business. But if Israel is your voting priority, then at least ask the right questions about Mr. Obama. Knock off the churlish whispering campaign about what’s in his heart on Israel (what was in Richard Nixon’s heart?) and focus first on what kind of America you think he’d build and second on whether you believe that as president he’d have the smarts, steel and cunning to seize a historic opportunity if it arises.

Thomas Friedman, New York Times May 18, 2008

I think that Friedman has been getting it right for a while now, and he appears to be spot on again. Read his whole column to really get the feel of what he is saying.

Shalom

Today in Oregon

Today is the primary, it would appear that Obama has Oregon in the win column, the real question is can he soften the blow in Kentucky and land a knockout in Oregon?

It appears that Senator Obama has some momentum in Oregon. This video was from Sunday at a rally attended by 70,000+ people. This must be what being in the Beatles felt like.

The First Lady

The Tennessee GOP has released a viral video on youtube that features Michelle Obama, the wife of the presumptive Democratic nominee. Michelle Obama's made a comment to the effect that she wasn't really proud of her country until her husband Barack started running for President.

Barack has denounced the attack and essentially said that if you want to attack someone, bring it. But it's already been broughten.

What is off limits when your family is out campaigning for you? Chelsea was finally asked about how her father's infidelity affected her and her family. But, she is out there. Michelle Obama is out there. And so is Cindy McCain and Bill Clinton. Cindy has some baggage, pill addictions, taxes, etc. Being born pretty and rich doesn't mean you are perfect I guess.

I smell a Michelle Obama Cindy McCain cat fight a brewing. That sounds like a much better way to settle the Presidency, less controversy than an election. Michelle and Cindy, get ready for Thunderdome....

What a Mike Tyson Uppercut Feels Like

The news is fresh, but old at the same time. Regardless of the Democratic outcome, McCain and the Republicans have absolutely no chance in November--this is the fall of the neo-cons, the other side of the hill, as it were. It is effectively over for them.

I say this because after the West Virginia shoulder jab to Obama, the John Edwards endorsement served a Tyson uppercut to the Clinton campaign--the identical size and scope of the one he laid on Spinks. This blow, however, reverberates over to the other side of the fence. The faith that John Edwards has put forth sends a message to Americana: this is where we should be going.

Republicans are essentially watching the Democratic political intelligencia coalesce around Obama and it is galvanizing America. Governor Richardson's endorsement perhaps orients the Latino vote and provides Obama increased validation on his geo-political diplomatic visions. Kennedy's vote of confidence secures the progressive congressional establishment. This and other stories like it, are getting serious air time and pumped into millions of American homes. You see, the Republicans are watching a revolutionary movement along with the rest of us--how do you squash that?

There is a great desire to wrap the Democratic nomination up as soon as possible in order to secure enough time to develop strategy, unlock voter lists, access money, etc. Valid, yes, but the press is giving tremendous focus on the historical Democratic situation at the moment and this is changing state voting patterns (e.g., more new voters; independents moving left, etc). And as more and more unpledged delgates place their allegiance with Obama, a guttural emotion is re-developing among Americans, in that, as the world watches the situation play out, the more the movement that started on January 3rd 2008, becomes reality.

The right isn't getting much air time right now, but they will. And that is why highlighting party unity while the Dems have free air time has become part of the current DNC strategy and back room talk. That being said, it is only a matter of time before the 527 organizations (you know, the fall out political organizations of modern campaign finance reform) unleash the hounds of hell. Stay tuned, right?

Let the revolution continue to be televised! Perhaps the prolonging of this campaign is a good thing for us and a death knell for the sitting junta (The Bush Administration, that is) and all it's surrogates.They can see the bottom of the hill. I titled this treatise the way I did because the metaphor is supposed to signify, that a Tyson uppercut is so fierce that your mama feels it. This is a blow to Clinton AND the modern neo-con movement--other wise known as 'yo mama.'

Make sense

Hillary is up to it again, this time with a semi-coherent argument. What if there is another Reverend Wright in Obama's political closet? What if there is something worse that could really knock him out?

Valid concern given Obama's newness to the national political scene. But if there was something worse wouldn't the Clinton campaign have used it already? They have done all the digging, Clintonites like Mark Penn have called him a drug dealer and a hate monger and god knows what else when the cameras are off.

The Reverend Wright is spurious argument at best. The Clinton's have associated with far more nefarious characters. Despite the fiery rhetoric from Rev. Wright and the shock of hearing "Not God Bless America, GOD DAMN America!" there really isn't much of a controversy other than the length of time that Obama took to say that Wright had gone off the deep end. Obama may have given Wright too much rope, but he definitely hung himself with it by trashing Obama personally and publicly.

Odds are the Clintons haven't found anything, and they probably won't, I'm sure they have been scouring the earth for something. But she'll be there in case he trips. To swoop victory from the jowls of her defeat.

And I just couldn't resist......




During one of the most difficult periods in the presidency of Bill Clinton, he addressed a group of clerics at an annual prayer breakfast in September 1998 just as the Starr report outlining his dalliance with Monica Lewinsky was about to be published.

Isn't that? Rev Wright?

Oil Reserves

The Senate voted 97-3 to suspend the purchase of oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The Bush administration wants to continue filling the reserve to capacity, it is currently at 97% of capacity. The reserve was established to maintain supply in case of another shortage.

Oil isn't getting cheaper in the immediate future, it could be cheaper to keep buying it now. The Senate seems to believe that the demand induced by increasing the reserve would be more harmful to our economy.

The price of oil is political and not economic, so says keepkalm. We have record gas prices and record profits for the oil companies, why haven't these people been drug out into the street?

Oh yeah, they all moved to Dubai.


Senate votes to halt oil reserve shipments

End of an era

The Clintons have long been transformational figures in American politics. William Jefferson Clinton was born of tremendous talent and intelligence and overcame tremendous obstacles in his life and eventual rise to power. Bill Clinton's story sounds like Huey Long with a twist. Run for statewide office, run for governor, then run for President. Don't get assassinated.

What Bill will be known for is winning. Beating George Bush Sr. in 1992 was the last time a challenger defeated a sitting president. He is also known for, and villified in certain circles in the base of the democratic party. Clinton made the Democrats the party of free trade, much to the chagrin of union backers who favor protection of homegrown industry. Gave most favored nation status to China when there were serious questions about product safety and most importantly human rights violations.

A few years after this landmark policy, Wal-Mart is the world's largest corporate organization and largest private employer in the United States. The vast majority of Wal-Mart's products are made in China and sold in the US. Hillary formerly sat on the board of the corporate giant.

The Clinton years will be remembered for balancing the budget and the unprecedented run of growth for the American economy.

Hillary was the presumptive nominee in 2004 and in 2008. By not making an announcement and by raising money in 2004, Hillary took the wind out of the sails of everyone else who was ready to run against George W. She would have been a much better candidate than John Kerry or Howard Dean. She would have shored up a key demographic that abandoned the democratic party in favor of the republican incumbent. That demographic is women.

"Soccer moms" were now "security moms" who didn't trust Kerry over Bush. I think that women would have been more likely to trust one of their own gender over Bush, but it is mere speculation at this point. Hillary chose not to get her hands dirty in 2004 and thought that she would walk to the White House when it opened up in 2008.

But it didn't happen. Her miscalculation 4 years ago cost us all dearly.

Have the Clinton's forgotten the reasons why they built their political machinery?

Is it just about winning? Or is it about standing up for a world view? The speculation now focuses on whether Hillary will accept that she is going to lose the nomination or try to win with superdelegates, and the delegates from the states of Florida and Michigan. The rules were agreed upon at the outset of the contest, Hillary seems poised to move the goal post. Or perhaps more appropriately she is playing Lucy to Barack Obama's Charlie Brown, convincing him to kick the ball through the uprights only to have the ball yanked away at the last possible second.

I hope that the Clinton's remember that they have a legacy to defend. A very popular and effective presidency that offers stark contrast to our current economic and geopolitical situation.

Hillary's real problem is that she doesn't have the talent that Bill had, and definitely doesn't have the talent (or consistency) that Obama has. She has risen further than any other first lady, she also appears to be the only first lady that ever had that kind of ambition for elected office. She has been tacitly accepting help from Rush Limbaugh's "Operation Chaos," encouraging GOP faithful to vote Hillary in the primaries in order to prolong the contest. I wouldn't normally give Limbaugh this kind of credit, but given how well Hillary is doing with white voters with less than a college education (which is not a typical democratic constituency) it is worth noting that Limbaugh's key demographic are uneducated white people who are hyperactive and impressionable politically.

I would have never thought that there would be this kind of opportunity for the GOP. The democrats have let McCain into the race by not having this contest decided already.