“OBAMA SUPPORTERS” DAILY NEWS Wednesday May 28 2008

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

WELCOME TO “OBAMA SUPPORTERS” DAILY NEWS

Wednesday May 28 2008


Out running her daily errands, Halle Berry was spotted leaving a Los Angeles office
building on Tuesday (May 27) looking almost identical to her pre-baby self.
The Swordfish actress also showed off her political support by sporting a
Barack Obama t-shirt, giving the presidential candidate what’s sure to be a nice publicity boost.

All members welcome and encouraged to participate in the Obama Daily News

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1. Post stories and announcements you find on the web. :think:
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4. Start a discussion thread by re-posting a story you see on this thread.

* Clinton supporters or “anti Obama posters please start your own “Clinton Daily News Thread”.

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[WillYourVoteBCounted]

1. King of the Hill: It’s tough to know how voters would respond to a shift in Rendell’s loyalties.

King of the Hill: It’s tough to know how voters would respond to a shift in Rendell’s loyalties.

Yes We Can? After convincing Pennsylvania voters to believe in Hillary, Rendell will almost certainly be soon asking them to switch to Obama.

by G.W. Miller III Philadelphia Weekly. May 27, 08

“...In all the time I stumped during the seven-week primary campaign, I never said negative comments about Obama.”

Prone to sticking his foot in his mouth—like when he declared the 2000 presidential race over before Al Gore could process the Supreme Court’s recount decision—Rendell has tried to be careful recently not to generate YouTube fodder.

“In fact, I was on a couple of TV shows and they asked, ‘Do you think Sen. Obama is fit to be commander in chief?’” the governor says. “And I said, ‘Absolutely. I just think Sen. Clinton is more ready and more fit.’ But that doesn’t mean I think Sen. Obama isn’t.”

Even now, when all seems lost, Rendell isn’t conceding the nomination for Clinton. But he knows when Obama becomes the nominee, he’ll have to sell the party’s message.

“The women voters who are the strongest of the Clinton supporters—the ones who tell the pollsters they aren’t going to vote for Sen. Obama—my message to them is: The next president is likely to appoint three Supreme Court judges, which would determine the makeup of the court, maybe for the next 15 or 20 years,” Rendell says. “You’re not going to hand that much influence to John McCain, who says Justice Alito or Justice Roberts is the type of justice he wants to appoint. You want someone like Sen. Obama making those appointments.”

He shrugs off the notion that he could lend strength to Obama as his running mate.

“I think Obama-Clinton, if Obama is the nominee,” Rendell says. “If not, I think Obama-Joe Biden is the best ticket.”

...more at the link

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

2. Hillary Supporters To Annoy DNC Rules Committee On Saturday

Hillary Supporters To Annoy DNC Rules Committee On Saturday

Wonkette May 27 08

The DNC's Rules and Bylaws Committee is holding its big hearing this Saturday to determine how it will, or won't, solve the Florida and Michigan Situation. While most people would like to find a way to somehow seat those delegations at the convention, Hillary has brainwashed her people into traveling to Washington so that they might protest against the Disenfranchisement that Barack "Anti-Lincoln" Obama supports. This protest, of course, will be the saddest spectacle in American history.

...Now here's a quick word for Lanny Davis and Harold Ickes about... well, they already know this. So here's a quick word about this very "complicated" situation of Florida and Michigan for everyone to consider before flooding random office buildings on Saturday: Barack Obama won the nomination according to the rules. This is not just a bargaining chip for Obama, but it's actually a license for him not to bargain at all. There's been a lot of crap tossed around about how Obama and his supporters don't want Michigan and Florida to count, and therefore don't want to win the election. Hillary, meanwhile, doesn't want the voters to be disenfranchised — it's not about winning or losing! So here's the best solution we can think of: Obama allows Michigan and Florida to be counted in full, as they are, and when he is still winning in every delegate count afterwards, Hillary drops out and doesn't try to close the gap at the convention. Alas.

....more at the link

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

3. Former Senator Calls Mich. Primary 'A Sham'

Former Senator Calls Mich. Primary 'A Sham'

WWJ 950 News Radio Tuesday, 27 May 2008

LANSING (AP) -- Former Michigan Senator Donald Riegle has sent a letter to the head of the Democratic National Committee and its rules committee calling Michigan's Jan. 15 primary a sham.

Riegle says Michigan voters would be further disenfranchised if the election results were used to allocate the delegates. He supports candidate Barack Obama.

Current Michigan Senator Carl Levin said Tuesday he disagrees with his former colleague. Levin supports a plan he and other Michigan Democratic leaders drew up to give Obama 59 of Michigan's pledged delegates while 69 go to Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The rules committee meets Saturday to hear appeals on why the Michigan and Florida delegations should be seated. Both states were stripped of their delegates for moving up their primaries.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

4. The Michigan flip-flop in 2 quick quotes

The Michigan flip-flop in 2 quick quotes.

parenthetical - May 27, 2008

As this discussion enters what we can only hope is its last couple of weeks, some brief research
helped me distill the integrity problem of the Clinton MI position into two little quotes for my own reference.

October '07 (speaking about the upcoming MI primary):
"It's clear, this election they're having is not going to count for anything,"
Clinton said Thursday during an interview on New Hampshire Public Radio's
call-in program, "The Exchange."

March '08:
"If you're a voter from Florida or Michigan, you know that we should count your
votes," she said. "The results of those primaries were fair and should be
honored.

I know there's no groundbreaking info here, but these help cut through the onslaught of arguments
being thrown around for counting this way or that.

...more at the link

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

5. Those poor Florida Democrats

Those poor Florida Democrats

by kos Tue Apr 01, 2008

To hear the Clinton campaign and Florida Democrats tell it, they were innocent bystanders to their state's GOP in deciding to move their election date up prior to their sanctioned slot in the calendar.

The reality is much different:

Watch the video

That's the Florida Senate Democratic minority leader Steven Geller overtly pretending to object to the new calendar, laughing about it the whole time.

Geller: The chair of the Democratic National Committee has of coursed threatened that if we move the primary to before the first Tuesday in February that they will sanction us at the Democratic National Convention. So the Democratic leader and the Democratic leader pro-tem are jointly making this motion, which we will duly show to them later, that we tried not to have the election before the first Tuesday in March.

Chair: And so Sen. Geller are you urging a negative vote or would you like us to pass this vote?

Geller : Oh no sir, we really really want this, don't we senator?

Chair: I understand. Please don't throw me into the bramble bush.

They were mocking the DNC's calendar and its rules from the beginning. This wasn't a Democratic Party dragged along by a malicious GOP. Florida Democrats wanted their state earlier in the calendar.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

6. *** DNC Lawyers just released a 38 page Memo: "Florida and Michigan CAN'T be fully restored" ***

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=6153807&mesg_id=6153807

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

7. Clinton's new fund raising brochure

I campaigned so vigorously for the 'hard-working white vote' and I have to say I'm disappointed. America's gun-loving, racist crazies have really let me down."

Clinton Patiently Waits for Obama Assassination

Ridiculopathy Tuesday May 27, 2008

WASHINGTON, D.C.- Chalk it up to another unfair attack on Senator Hillary Clinton. During an interview on Friday, Clinton related Robert Kennedy's tragic death forty years ago to Senator Obama's history-making candidacy as a reason why she remains in what, from all appearances, is a doomed death spiral of a campaign. Not surprisingly, media treated it like a career-ending gaffe.

"Out of context, it may have seemed that I am crossing my fingers wishing for Senator Obama to be assassinated in the near future, which I agree would be creepy and ghoulish," explained Clinton. "It's not that I'm not hoping for something terrible like that to happen. I'm counting on it. At this point, it's pretty much the only game plan we have left. There's an enormous semantic difference between 'hoping for' and 'counting on' something, and I think most people can pick up on that. As for why people are still so upset about what I said, I blame sexism in the media."

According to leaked Clinton campaign documents, the idea of an RFK-style shooting is just about the only remaining item on their exhaustive list of contingency plans- next to a fanciful scenario involving a meteor falling from the sky and killing everyone on the Obama team, but even that was added only as a consolation to an especially bitter campaign volunteer.

This week Clinton's people will begin distributing a new fundraising letter featuring RFK's photo, urging supporters to send cash to pay off the Clinton campaign's many overdue debts "just in case" something terrible happens.

...more at the link

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

8. Sexism doesn't put Senator Clinton's life at risk

Sexism doesn't put Senator Clinton's life at risk.

By Malcolm P. Johnson at TPM - May 26, 2008

...Now, there has been sexism in this campaign. (It's hard to call a Hillary nutcracker for sale anything else). While I would vigorously debate that any of it's come from the Obama campaign, I have to cop to the idea that outsiders have thrown some serious gender-biased mud into the ring. I would hope that Clinton supporters, the honest, open-hearted ones that I know are out there would also acknowledge the genuine and hurtful racist and racially divisive commentary that has been dropped into the public sphere.

(But for the record, Sean Wilentz can go to hell.)

The idea that sexism alone is the reason for Senator Clinton's downfall in the Campaign is, to put it mildly, delusional. There are many genuine political reasons why her candidacy is coming in second. There are also better posts elsewhere on this site and others to make that case.

But for all the calls of sexism and gender bias that are out there, there is one big, whopping difference between what has been happening to Senator Clinton and what is happening to Senator Obama.

Sexism is not putting Senator Clinton's life at risk.

...But, it's taken a while for Senator Clinton to get to this point.
It took Senator Obama about a nanosecond

....The first conversation every African-American had about Senator Obama was right to the point: "Is he going to survive this?", or more to the point "are they going to let him."

...more at the link

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

9. Minority Bloggers Need to Be Present at the DNC Convention

Minority Bloggers Need to Be Present at the DNC Convention

Jack and Jill Politics Tuesday, May 27, 2008

There's been a lot of blogging about this led by Pam's House Blend, African American Political Pundit and Francis Holland. I agree that the DNCC must do a better job of outreach to ensure that newer and influential minority bloggers (of all ethnicities, not just black) who may not be familiar with the DNC credentialing process have the ability to be included at the convention. Given Clinton's "kitchen sink" race-baiting strategy, some racial healing is going to be needed before, during and after the convention. The Democratic party is dependent on a strong African-American turnout to win in this election in certain battleground states that might turn blue if we show up in numbers never seen before. And for sure, Latino bloggers should be a high priority for the DNCC, right?

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

10. Women favored for higher contests in NC's primary - except for Hillary Clinton

President Perdue?

Tuesday, May 20, 2008 12:35 PM by Gary Pearce

...if Hillary Clinton does not become the first woman President – now or in four years or in eight years – there is a good chance a North Carolina woman will be.

Here’s why:

Any candidate – Democrat or Republican – who can win a race for Governor or Senate in a state as politically competitive as North Carolina is someone to be reckoned with on the national level. That has been true for a long time: Witness Terry Sanford, Jim Hunt, Jesse Helms, Mike Easley, John Edwards, Richard Burr and Liddy Dole.

Thus, any woman who meets that test in North Carolina is automatically on that magical national list. Witness Perdue and, perhaps, Kay Hagan.

With the exception of Clinton, the best attribute of candidates in the May 6 primary was being a woman. Witness the Council of State races. Witness the legislature. Witness the judgeships.

The one ceiling that limits women in North Carolina is the longevity of incumbent Congressmen. Otherwise we would have another bumper crop of promising female candidates.

...more at the link

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

11. Betty Cracker has some questions for Pat Buchanon

Well, since you asked...

Betty Cracker May 27

From CNN today:



Yes I do -- three, to be precise:

Why are you such a xenophobic, race-baiting jackass?

What makes you think you're fit to fetch Rachel Maddow's coffee, much less accuse her of employing "Marxist dialectic"?

And last but not least, what's your nutty sister Bay going to do for an encore after running two of the most spectacularly bad GOP presidential campaigns of the last quarter century?

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

12. The Acceptance Bandwagon

The Acceptance Bandwagon

By Al Giordano The Field May 27 2008

Eleventh hour complaints from Bubba aside, Senator Clinton has enjoyed the support of a very fair share of advocates and defenders in the national news media throughout this campaign.

One of the first and most consistent was Fox News analyst Susan Estrich, author of The Case for Hillary Clinton (2005, William Morrow Books).

Estrich, a former law clerk to US Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, was campaign manager for Mike Dukakis’ presidential run in 1988. Throughout this campaign, week after week, she has bolstered the Clinton campaign and its talking points on national television and in newspaper columns. She has been among the most loyal and truest of the true believers in Senator Clinton’s candidacy.

Estrich – whose book would have enjoyed a new and lucrative round of sales had Clinton won the Democratic nomination - is now among those who have graduated to the acceptance phase of grief, and sees reality as it truly is:

Of the thirty members of the Rules and Bylaws Committee scheduled to meet at the end of May in Washington, 13 are committed to Hillary’s candidacy. She may not have won the majority of pledged delegates, but right now, she has a plurality of the pledged members of the Rules and Bylaws Committee.

If she can’t “win” there, whatever win means, she is not likely to do better on the convention floor…

It will be “Hillary’s fault,” in the eyes of too many for her to become the nominee in the future, if she takes a doomed fight to the convention and keeps the party from uniting behind Obama…

If… then the Democrats lose Florida and lose the general election, guess who will be blamed.

Believe me, she knows that. It will also be “Hillary’s fault” if she forces herself onto a ticket which is then viewed as combining the worst rather than the best of all possible worlds…

And Estrich concludes:

In the end, Hillary will do what’s best for her, and taking a credentials fight to the convention floor, especially if it’s a losing one, is not going to be best for her. And Obama will do what’s best for him, and if it’s not picking Hillary to run with him, there’s nothing she or anyone else can do to force him to change his mind .

That’s just the way it is, and should be.

...more at the link

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

13. Tell FOX News that the race-baiting must END

Tell FOX News that the race-baiting must END

Black Women Vote Tuesday, May 27, 2008

If you would like to register your displeasure about Liz Trotta's 'assassination joke', please sign the following petition:

Petition

To quote my sister's email to me: "I don't think even a joke about the assasination of a black man running for president can be dealt with by a simple off-the-cuff apology. Regardless of whether you agree with his politics or not, you cannot argue with the fact that we are engaged in a momentous historical time. If you agree with me, I'm asking you to sign this petition or to reach out in other ways to express your thoughts on the subject. "

The Queens' Council Podcast Tonight!

Not only will we discuss Liz Trotta's "assassination" comment and the rendering that the DailyKos published of Michelle Obama being lynched, but we will have a special, extended "Ask A Sistah" segment, in which The Angry Independent from Mirror on America will be tried in our Queens' Court of Opinion for treason against Black women and various lesser charges.

WHAT: The Queens' Council Podcast

WHEN: Tonight: 9:00PM EST

WHERE: TalkShoeRadio Listen in and join the chatroom by clicking here

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

14. McCain heckled by protestors while giving speech on nuclear proliferation today

The long, hot summer is underway

Blue Girl at Red State Blue State 5/27/2008

John McCain gave a speech on nuclear proliferation today at the University of Denver and was heckled by protesters of the Iraq war.
(Video below the jump)

He was interrupted three times.

His support of a hugely unpopular war, coupled with his fealty to a feckless, officious, draft-dodging, coke-snorting deserter who punked him hard in 2000 is hanging around his skinny, aged wattle and even the media can't, tho they try with all their might, foist him upon us.

We hate this war, and we hate George Bush and John McCain is too closely allied with both, and he is, inexplicably, on the wrong side of veterans issues.

And then there is the fact that he is either senile of deliberately lying his ass off about efforts to stop the spread of nuclear armaments.

More after the jump: "The long, hot summer is underway" >>

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

15. Former President Bill Clinton Upset by the disrespect for his wife ...

Former President Bill Clinton Upset by the disrespect towards his wife ...

Video

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

16. 3 contests remaining, send a message today!

Only three contests remain in the Democratic primary.

Voters head to the polls in Puerto Rico on Sunday, followed by South Dakota and Montana on Tuesday.

After more than four dozen contests, Barack has won the most votes, the most delegates,
and more than half the states. But we still need 48 delegates to secure the nomination.

We're fighting in these critical states and making the preparations necessary to take on Senator McCain.

The financial demands on our immediate horizon
are greater than at any point in the campaign so far.



We face a critical reporting deadline on Saturday,
and your support could make the difference before these last three contests.

You've gotten us this far. Please make another donation of $25 now to push us forward at this crucial moment:

https://donate.barackobama.com/threecontests

The primaries will be over on Tuesday, June 3rd, but there's another important deadline coming up even sooner.

This Saturday at midnight is the financial reporting deadline for the month of May.

Give our campaign a crucial boost before these final contests, and send a message that we
are ready to move to the next phase and compete against Senator McCain in all 50 states.

Now is the time to show your support -- make an additional donation now:

https://donate.barackobama.com/threecontests

This has been a long journey, and it's hard to believe that there are just three primaries to go.

Millions of supporters like you have joined this movement for change and organized in their local communities.

We've reached out to new voters and brought people who had given up on politics back into the process.

The last primary votes will be counted in just six days. Show your support today. Make another donation of $25:

https://donate.barackobama.com/threecontests

Thanks for all you've done,

David

David Plouffe
Campaign Manager
Obama for America

[jefferson_dem]

17. Obama competitive against McCain with key voters (AP)

This one probably deserves wider exposure in GD-P but I am out of thread-starts.

Obama competitive against McCain with key voters

May 28 03:09 AM US/Eastern
By ALAN FRAM
Associated Press Writer Write a Comment

WASHINGTON (AP) - Barack Obama has done poorly in the Democratic primaries with women, Catholics and others who will be pivotal in this fall's presidential election. Yet early polling shows that with several of these groups, he's competitive when matched against Republican John McCain.

A look at voters who have been closely contested in recent presidential elections—or veered from one party to the other, making them true swing groups—shows a significant number have leaned toward Obama's rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton, in the primaries. Besides women and Catholics, these include the elderly, the less educated and suburbanites, leading Clinton to argue that this makes her the Democrats' stronger candidate for the fall campaign.

Yet Obama's performance with these voters in the primaries doesn't necessarily mean he'd do poorly with them in the general election, assuming he nails down the last few convention delegates he needs to win the nomination.

Polls this month show the Illinois senator leading McCain among women, running even with him among Catholics and suburbanites and trailing him with people over age 65. Results vary by poll for those without college degrees. And though Obama trails decisively with a group that has shunned him against Clinton—whites who have not completed college—he's doing about the same with them as the past two Democratic presidential candidates.

Obama is doing well against McCain with groups he has dominated in the primaries. Polls show him ahead of the Arizona senator with young people and college graduates, though the results vary from poll to poll among independents.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D90UGC180&show_article=1

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

18. Clinton Had a Long-Term Strategy for Florida and Michigan

Clinton Planned the Florida and Michigan Debacle
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x6156639

[JimGinPA]

19. Clinton Casts Wide Net of Exaggeration, Claims to Lead in “Every Poll”

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2008/05/28/politics/fromtheroad/entry4130842.shtml

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

20. Co-Dependent No More

Co-Dependent No More

Andrew Sullivan 28 May 2008

Robert A. George:

For nearly two decades, we have enabled these deeply disturbing people to corrupt our politics and culture to a sickening level. We have said that their way of playing politics is just "hardball" of a different degree. No, this is politics of a different kind. Because the Clinton machine has an element of amour-propre that makes it something inhuman. There truly is nothing that these people will not do to gain and retain power.

I refuse to be party to this.

[Aloha Spirit]

21. Obama asks supporters NOT to demonstrate at the RBC meeting on May 31.

http://thehill.com/campaign-2008/obama-urges-supporters-not-to-demonstrate-at-dnc-meeting-2008-05-28.html

Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) campaign is urging its supporters not to demonstrate at Saturday’s highly anticipated Democratic National Committee (DNC) meeting on how to handle the delegates of Florida and Michigan.

In an internal campaign e-mail obtained by The Hill, the Obama campaign states, “We look forward to the meeting proceeding smoothly — and we’re asking our supporters not to show up to demonstrate, passionately as they feel about this campaign.”

[Aloha Spirit]

22. Germany hearts Barack

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,555437,00.html

Frank-Walter Steinmeier had hoped to meet personally, but Barack Obama has a lot on his plate at the moment and Germany's foreign minister had to make do with a telephone conversation with the presidential candidate during his recent visit to Washington. Still, that's all it took to stir Steinmeier's enthusiasm for the candidate.

The American may be deep in the midst of a campaign, but members of Steinmeier's entourage told SPIEGEL that Obama's foreign policy questions were very engaged, and he peppered his conversation with questions about the German foreign minister's views on Russia, Iran and Afghanistan.
....
But the foreign minister hasn't been alone in his admiration for the candidate -- Berlin has been teeming with Obamamania for weeks now. Even conservatives are taken by the Democrat. After the Bush era, Chancellor Angela Merkel of the conservative Christian Democrats can easily imagine working together with a liberal Democrat in the White House. And Norbert Röttgen, chief whip for the Christian Democrats in parliament, sees Obama as the messenger of a new wave of politics that could also provide a model for Germany.

"Germany is Obamaland," says Karsten Voigt, the German government's coordinator for trans-Atlantic relations. He says Germans see the African-American senator as a kind of "mixture of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr."

People are projecting their hopes and dreams on Obama, adds Constanze Stelzenmüller of the German Marshall Fund in Berlin. He's perceived here as peace-loving and cooperative, and those are the kind of traits Germans admire in a foreign politician.

[JimGinPA]

23. Obama at Wesleyan: a subtle elegance I missed the first time

http://jamesfallows.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/05/obama_at_wesleyan_a_subtle_art.php

[Aloha Spirit]

24. Here's the ending to his Iowa speech last week

Our journey may be long. Our work will be great. But we know in our hearts we are ready for change. We are ready to come together. And in this election, we are ready to believe again.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

25. Excellent political cartoons, will make you laugh!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x6160344

Here's just ONE of many cartoons at the above link. Go see you will laugh!

[Kittycat]

26. Another OR SD for Obama (+3-4 depending)

Depending on how you count the late ad from guam last night, Obama has obtained his 3rd or 4th SD today.
http://thepage.time.com/2008/05/28/saturdays-super-battle-3/

–Oregon DNC member Wayne Kinney.

–Guam Senator and Democratic National Committeeman Ben C. Pangelinan. (This was the late night from yesterday)

–Oregon Democratic Chair Meredith Wood Smith.

–Colorado Democratic Chair Pat Waak.

Today’s tally: Obama 4, Clinton 0.

[Aloha Spirit]

27. I think that makes the finish line 45 delegates!