“OBAMA SUPPORTERS” DAILY NEWS Saturday June 07, 2008

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

WELCOME TO “OBAMA SUPPORTERS” DAILY NEWS

Saturday June 07, 2008


Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., left, and others, applaud Democratic presidential
candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., Friday, June 6, 2008, during an unscheduled
stop at the Chicago 2016 Olympic Rally in Chicago.(AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

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[WillYourVoteBCounted]

1. The Field (a must read): "Nice Try, Rush"

The Field’s analysis of exit poll data from March 4 (after the GOP nomination was settled and Republicans felt free to prank the Democratic primaries) to June 3, shows that 15 percent of Clinton’s vote during that period came from pro-McCain voters pranking the system, mostly at the urging of Limbaugh. That is 990,000 votes (and delivered to Clinton victories in at least two primary states that she would have lost without them: Indiana and Texas).

Nice Try, Rush

By Al Giordano June 6th, 2008 at The Field



One of the most lastingly significant developments of the late Democratic primary campaign is how, from March 4 to June 3, a nationally-syndicated right-wing Republican radio talk show host kept the Democratic contest alive. But all bad things must come to an end, and - if Senator Clinton does what she’s said she’ll do tomorrow at noon and cleanly exit from the contest - Rush Limbaugh’s “Operation Chaos” becomes something for the history books.

Limbaugh made one last try at it Wednesday, the morning after Senator Clinton urged her supporters to advise her, via her website, on what to do now that the primaries are over. Limbaugh told his listeners:

Well, as we all know, ladies and gentlemen, Operation Chaos continues. Mrs. Clinton did not quit. Everybody assumed that she was going to quit… Everybody is saying she’s getting closer to quitting, they’re trying to figure out what it is she wants and so forth. All this means is that Operation Chaos continues. Greetings, my friend, and welcome…

…the Drive-Bys and the Democrats, some of them are just beside themselves that Mrs. Clinton won’t get the hint and won’t get out; that she will not quit. I think this is perfectly understandable that the Clintons are behaving this way. Hillary can take this all the way to the convention if she wants.

...Oh, I was watching this last night, and I was going nuts, she’s burning down the house. Unity schmunity. Divided we are, this was Mrs. Clinton’s message last night. So she says she wants everybody to go to her website, HillaryClinton.com, and share your thoughts. Now let me tell you what this is about. What she wants, she wants to grab as many people on her website urging her to keep going, to stay in this, so she can show that to the Obama people. She’s talking about her 18 million votes which is as much, if not a little more, than he got. She’s still talking about the Electoral College states that she won that put her at a mythical tally of 267, when you need 270. So clearly she’s angling for something, and she needs public support in order to get it. Vice president, Supreme Court nomination, something along these lines. It’s going to be a real interesting thing to watch Obama deal with this. So as the commander-in-chief of US Operation Chaos, I would like to urge all of you who want to, to go to HillaryClinton.com and tell her what you think she ought to do.

....

...Limbaugh has, according to radio ratings, 22 million listeners a day (that’s more than Senator Clinton’s famous claim to having won 18 million votes over five months of primaries in every state and territory). Think about it: 22 million listeners a day.

In any case, good on Senator Clinton for dropping her whole “tell me what to do via my website” effort to somehow stay in the contest through the convention in August. Because a very large percentage of the feedback she no doubt got via her website to stay in the race came from the Limbaugh chaos lobby, as are, frankly, many of the anonymous comments that transitioning Clinton bloggers are receiving now that claim to be from Clinton supporters urging votes for McCain or third party candidates.

...more at the link

[genna]

16. Ditto heads invading the primaries

How do they correlate their data?

Why is the Limbaugh factor ignored?

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

2. Americans rejected Hillary not because she is a woman, but because she is a Clinton

Americans rejected Hillary not because she is a woman, but because she is a Clinton.

It Wasn't Sexism

Andres Martinez WaPo Stumped June 6 2008

...There is plenty of sexism in America, but I disagree with your contention that Hillary Clinton's failed candidacy, and the way it was covered by the media, revealed a widespread disdain for powerful women across the country. It would be insulting to the American people, and grossly unfair, for Clinton and her supporters to push such a postmortem.

Clinton's candidacy was always more about advancing the cause of one political dynasty than it was about advancing the cause of women -- and much of the visceral reaction against her bid was a visceral rejection of her familial claim to the throne. Clinton had a chance to become the first woman to occupy the White House, yes. But another historic milestone would have been her status as the first presidential spouse to be elected president. That she and her husband would have moved back into a White House most recently occupied by the son of a former president would have only perpetuated the notion that our nation's presidency is in danger of becoming a nepotistic trophy.

When Clinton first embarked upon her quest for the Democratic nomination, there was no sense that hers was a long-shot candidacy seeking to break through the proverbial glass ceiling. No, her candidacy was first and foremost the establishment/dynastic steamroller. The other Democratic candidates were deemed hapless underdogs. And remember those rumblings about whether staffers who dared to join other campaigns would ever again find gainful employment in Washington?

...Tuesday's odd non-concession speech echoed Clinton's speech on the night of her Iowa primary loss way back when (was that really this year?!). Both nights, she seemed incapable of acknowledging the possibility that she might not be elected president. At other times, her campaign seemed exasperated merely because she had to compete for the crown Clinton so richly deserved. Bill Clinton's ugly efforts to downplay Obama's strong performance in South Carolina was one sad manifestation of this exasperation. So were Team Clinton's over-the-top attacks on those, like New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who didn't remain loyal to the family dynasty.

...more at the link

[Aloha Spirit]

17. ...

This is what creeped me out about her speech today.
Her campaign faltered as a result of sexism.
Oy... I'll stop there.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

3. The Consequences Of Race-Baiting

The Consequences Of Race-Baiting

The Personal Is Political Friday, June 6, 2008

This will be short because I'm sick of the primary campaign.

A new Gallup poll came out showing, in striking terms,
what Hillary (and probably Bill as well) has done to her
approval ratings among blacks, mostly thanks
to her race-baiting tactics:



A 26% drop in approval and a corresponding 26% increase in
disapproval in a little less than a year. Wow. Was it
worth it Hillary? Did you have to stoop to Republican levels to try to take down Obama?

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

4. Obama's First Test

Obama's First Test » George F. Will | Choosing Hillary as his running mate would show that he can be pushed around.

For Obama, A Ticket Test

By George F. Will Friday, June 6, 2008; WaPo Page A19

An axiom. When voters watch a presumptive presidential nominee considering this or that running mate, they think: What if the president dies? When the presumptive nominee considers this or that running mate, he thinks: What if I live

Which brings us to the dotty idea that Barack Obama should choose to have Hillary Clinton down the hall in the West Wing, nursing her disappointments, her grievances and her future presidential ambitions while her excitable husband wanders in the wings of America's political theater with his increasingly Vesuvian temper, his proclivity for verbal fender benders and his interesting business associates. That this idea survived her off-putting speech Tuesday night, after Obama won the right to choose a running mate, is evidence that many Democrats do not fathom the gratitude that less-blinkered Americans feel for Obama because he has closed the Clinton parenthesis in our presidential history.

...Obama's choice of a running mate will be the first important decision he makes with the whole country watching, so it will be a momentous act of self-definition. If he chooses her, it will be an act of self-diminishment, especially now that some of her acolytes are aggressively suggesting that some unwritten rule of American politics stipulates that anyone who finishes a strong second in the nomination contest is entitled to second place on the ticket.

...Surely she, the most polarizing Democrat, is not the only Democrat who can help Obama appeal to the voters who rejected him in Kentucky and West Virginia. And as his running mate, she would nullify his narrative. The candidate embracing the "future" should not glue himself to Washington circa 1993. Someone promising to "turn the page" should not revert to an earlier chapter. Someone whose mantra is "change" should not embrace her theme of restoration -- that the 1990s were paradise and Democrats promise paradise regained.

She, whose experiences as First Spouse have not impressed Obama as acquisitions of national security expertise, would not help him deflect McCain's attacks on his thin curriculum vitae. And the more she seems to be pushing Obama to choose her, the more resolutely he must resist. Otherwise, at the beginning of a contest in which McCain will portray him as a flimsy figure, Obama will define himself as someone who can be pushed around.

...more at the link

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

5. Style And Substance

Style And Substance

Andrew Sullivan 06 Jun 2008 06:05 pm

Larison observes:

...in any contest between Obama and McCain, Obama is the substantive, policy-oriented candidate, while McCain is the one offering mostly pious bromides about victory, service and being American. If style often beats substance, Obama is in trouble because, as his supporters tirelessly remind us, Obama does have a substantive policy agenda (even if he doesn’t spend as much time talking about it and a lot of his boosters don’t care what it is) and McCain’s entire campaign has been even more driven by biography and character than Obama’s.

Reihan concedes the point.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

6. "Nobody can dampen this for me."

Black lawmakers emotional about Obama's success

By: Josephine Hearn June 5, 2008 01

Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), who grew up in segregated South Carolina and rose to the majority whip position last year, said he was so overcome with emotion Tuesday night that he left a victory party and had to watch Obama’s speech alone.

“I thought this day would come, but I didn’t think I’d live to see it,” Clyburn said. “I got home, and I was so emotional I couldn’t feel myself. I was numb.”

He poured himself a Jack Daniels and Diet Coke and watched Obama speak.

Clyburn said he was disappointed that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) didn’t concede but then added: “Nobody can dampen this for me.”....

Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.), son of the one-time presidential contender, said Obama’s victory overwhelmed him.

“I cried all night. I’m going to be crying for the next four years,” he said. “What Barack Obama has accomplished is the single most extraordinary event that has occurred in the 232 years of the nation’s political history. ... The event itself is so extraordinary that another chapter could be added to the Bible to chronicle its significance.”

Rep. William Lacy Clay (D-Mo.) couldn’t stop laughing Wednesday morning, conceding that he was giddy over Obama’s victory.

“It’s a good day in America,” he proclaimed...

...

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

7. Why couldn't the black man get to be in charge after Clinton?

Friday rant

Posted by "The Field Negro" blog on Friday, June 06, 2008

A couple of things: First, thank you frat boy for destroying the A-merry-can economy with the help of your dumb ass.....I take that back. With the help of your rich ass friends (There is nothing dumb about them).

Today the Dow tanked almost 400 points, and we had the worst unemployment news in over 22 years. Five point five percent or some shit like that. Great numbers if you happen to be living in a Third World country. But here in A-merry-ca that number is way too high. And of course, for us black folks, we know we that we have to double that number now don't we. When you are at the bottom of the barrel hard times hit you harder than everyone else.

Oil is trading at $136 a barrel, and the country is going to hell in a fucking hand basket. And it's in this climate that the poor "O" man is going to get his shot at the wheel. If that's not some fucked up shit I don't know what is. Thank you George. Why couldn't the black man get to be in charge after Clinton? But then, I guess, if things weren't so fucked up the black man wouldn't even have gotten his shot at being in the big house in the first place. Oh let's just go ahead and give it to the Negro, things can't get any worse. But isn't that how it always is? We get shit when it's so fucked up that no one else will take it. Ahhh Marvin Williams, do you think you can turn around the Cincinnati Bengals? We always see it in sports. The black Managers get the teams that are so bad that they can't get any worse. Right now, here in A-merry-ca, things are so fucked up that it's hard to see them getting any worse. And I guarantee you that if the "O" man wins he will be blamed for all the shit that's happening now. Come on Field, do you think it's a coincidence that the Dow started tanking after your boy wrapped up the dumbocratic nomination? Wall Street has the jitters, they are scared of this guy, he is a Socialist. Get used to that kind of rhetoric. And all of this while the frat boy takes us deeper and deeper into a damn recession. And, I don't know, but there just doesn't seem to be enough outrage out there for me. Folks are just going along to get along. Gas $5 a gallon? No problem. People being laid off by the thousands? No problem. The Chinese and Saudis own damn near everything in this country while most of the Corporations in A-merry-ca are surviving on credit? No problem. A fucking endless war for god knows what half way around the world? No problem.... you get the picture. But hey, as long as we have our cable T.V., central air, and McDonald's the republic will be fine.

...more at the link

[genna]

18. WillYourVoteBECounted, Do you agree with the Field Negro on Obama getting lemons?

Some of his correlations are wrong headed in that the worst times call for a super black man or that is the only time we get a shot.

He is discounting before this game is even played. Why bother if it is already so foul?

[Imagevision]

8. Rupert Murdoch; "I like Obama, I'm anxious to meet with him"

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

9. $30 Million Leech

She's a fracking millionaire, for pete's sake. At least Romney didn't whine and ask people
to "help" him out. Hillary was taking money from little kids, sheesh. To me, giving her money is like pouring gasoline on a fire. Don't do it!

Report: Clinton To Seek Obama's Help Retiring Campaign Debts

By Eric Kleefeld - June 6, 2008

Money is expected to have a key place in the peace-making process between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, with Clinton advisers telling the Associated Press that Hillary will likely seek Obama's help in retiring her campaign's $30 million in debt.

For the sake of clarity, it's worth pointing out that the Obama campaign cannot directly give money from its own treasury to the Clinton camp. Instead, Obama would ask his top fundraisers to help bring in the money, and likely send out e-mails to his much-praised list of small donors asking them to give Hillary a hand.

Like a drunk asking for a hand out. Who got you into debt, Hillary? Why do you still want to drag down the party and the candidate by being a big fat leech?

Just hire another ghost writer to write a book for you Hillary, for crying out loud!
GROW UP! Take responsibility for your actions for once in your life.

Agh.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

10. What He Overcame

Consider the mind-bending improbability of what he has just accomplished.

What He Overcame

By Eugene Robinson
Friday, June 6, 2008; Page A19

There will be plenty of time to chart Barack Obama's attempt to navigate a course between the exigencies of the old politics and the promise of the new, between yesterday and tomorrow, youth and experience, black and white. For now, take a moment to consider the mind-bending improbability of what just happened.

A young, black, first-term senator -- a man whose father was from Kenya, whose mother was from Kansas and whose name sounds as if it might have come from the roster of Guantanamo detainees -- has won a marathon of primaries and caucuses to become the presumptive presidential nominee of the Democratic Party. To reach this point, he had to do more than outduel the party's most powerful and resourceful political machine. He also had to defy, and ultimately defeat, 389 years of history.

...I'm old enough to remember when Americans with skin the color of mine and Obama's had to fight -- and die -- for the right to participate as equals in the life of the nation we helped build. Watching Obama give his speech Tuesday night marking the end of the primary season and the beginning of the general election campaign, I thought back to a time when brave men and women, both black and white, put their lives on the line to ensure that African Americans had the right to vote, let alone run for office -- a time when Democrats in my home state of South Carolina were Dixiecrats, and when the notion that the Democratic Party would someday nominate a black man for president was utterly unimaginable.

...Yet the amazing thing isn't that there were instances of overt, old-style racism during this campaign, it's that there were so few. The amazing thing is that so many Americans have been willing to accept -- or, indeed, reject -- Obama based on his qualifications and his ideas, not on his race. I'll never forget visiting Iowa in December and witnessing all-white crowds file into high school gymnasiums to take the measure of a black man -- and, ultimately, decide that he was someone who expressed their hopes and dreams.

...Will Americans take the final step and elect Obama as president? Should they? Is this first-term senator up to the job?

We'll find out soon enough. At the moment, to tell the truth, I don't care. Whether Obama wins or loses, history has been made this year. Maybe there's more to come, maybe not; but already -- after 389 long years -- it's safe to say that this nation will never be the same.

...more at the link

Im very touched and impressed for another reason - that any good decent candidate could be smart enough, savy enough, strong enough to make it through the gauntlet of the political machines and old party powers to reach this point. I am touched because I am impressed with Obama as a man, as who he is, the way he runs his campaign, treats others, relates to his family.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

11. The effects of negative campaigning on hopes of a Democratic victory

A blogger at TPM talks about how Hillary conducted her primary compared to other democratic primaries. In the negative long drawn out bitter primaries like the one Hillary was threatening (take it to Denver), the Dems ultimately lost the bid for the White house.

The History of Devisive and Decisive Primary Elections

By Marquis Alexander - June 6, 2008

...In reality, the best case scenario for the Obama Campaign would have been for Hillary to put away the attack dogs (Bill and Geraldine) and turn off the Fire Hoses and step aside for the mathematically difficult to defeat Obama (racial implications intended) after her string of 11 loses. She could have run a Pro Hillary, Pro-Feminist campaign, raised awareness about the issue and been a beacon of hope to women everywhere. Obama would be in a cakewalk to the General Election by now and Hillary or Kathleen Sebelius or Claire McCaskill would have been perfectly set up to be Vice President and Certain Nominees for 2012 or 16.

There is a certain power of language with people. If you say the same thing enough times, people believe it. If you say that Obama has a problem with working class whites, enough times they start to believe it. If you say I won the popular vote enough times people believe it. It’s a variation of Munchausen Syndrome. There have been experiments where a person was repeatedly told they looked depressed by several different people. The person soon started to develop symptoms of actual depression.

I don’t think the main problem that people had with Hillary is that she kept running. It was that she decided to run a race that Was Anti-Obama instead of Pro-Hillary. Time after time after time, she continued to yell about the weaknesses of Obama instead of citing her own strengths. That’s where the main gripe about her campaign lies.

All in all, the polls indicate that Obama will have a difficult campaign for the Presidency, but these are the same polls that said Obama had an impossible campaign for the Democratic Nomination. We all know how that turned out.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

12. Hillaryis44 is officially a right wing hate organization

The 100 people at Hillaryis44 (who post about 10,000 messages each) are
urging people - do not vote for Obama.

What delusional sick wing nuts.

This goes to what I have suspected all along, that HI44 is a deliberate
Cointel OPS program meant to sucker people in and then misdirect their energies.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

13. At Barackobama.com: Thank you Hillary

JUNE 7, 2008
Barack Obama on Senator Clinton's Endorsement

Senator Barack Obama... Obviously, I am thrilled and honored to have Senator Clinton's support. But more than that, I honor her today for the valiant and historic campaign she has run. She shattered barriers on behalf of my daughters and women everywhere, who now know that there are no limits to their dreams. And she inspired millions with her strength, courage and unyielding commitment to the cause of working Americans. Our party and our country are stronger because of the work she has done throughout her life, and I'm a better candidate for having had the privilege of competing with her in this campaign. No one knows better than Senator Clinton how desperately America and the American people need change, and I know she will continue to be in the forefront of that battle this fall and for years to come.

http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/samgrahamfelsen/gG5V2v

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

14. John Cole has received a copy of the "Whitey Tape"

The Whitey Tape (in Videos)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x144298

[intaglio]

15. Suggest you change this to Candidate Supporters Thread n/t