OBAMA DAILY NEWS Friday March-14-2008

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

WELCOME TO THE OBAMA DAILY NEWS THREAD

Friday March-14-2008


A dog shows its (owner's) support of Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama
(D-Ill.)outside the Democratic headquarters in Philadelphia.(AP photo by Matt Rourke)

Esteemed DUer's, please consider taking a moment (or more) to graciously participate
by posting news and announcements about the Obama campaign on this thread. You can:

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providing a link to the original thread with thanks to the Original Poster,too.


3. Please "Recommend" for the Greatest Page


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[WillYourVoteBCounted]

1. Obama Chats With Gore

Obama Chats With Gore

Jeff Zeleny NY Times March 13, 2008

Barack Obama spoke to reporters on the plane traveling from Chicago to Washington. (Photo: Alex Brandon/Associated Press)

...“The last time I talked to Al Gore was last week,” Senator Barack Obama said today, speaking to reporters as he flew from Chicago to Washington. That morsel of information was buried near the end of a question-and-answer session. Asked if he would divulge what they talked about, Mr. Obama smiled and simply said, “No.”

It’s been awhile since Mr. Gore’s name has come up in the context of the prolonged Democratic presidential contest. While people close to the former vice president say he has been following the race closely, he has given no signals that he is willing to step into the battle between Mr. Obama and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.

And how about John Edwards?

Mr. Obama said he had spoken to him “within the last two weeks.” Asked if he was expecting anything from Mr. Edwards, Mr. Obama replied, “Some good advice.”

more at the link

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

2. Why Florida Cannot Have an Honest Mail In Primary

Why Florida Cannot Have an Honest Mail In Primary

Florida is known for its fraudulent elections. They can't handle absentee by mail ballots now, and they sure can't handle having millions of ballots cast that way. And don't even mention the problems they currently have with their voter registration database!

Here are some of the problems Florida has with handling ballots and voter lists:

10/26/2004 Paper ballots (late) Broward County. 58,000 ballots that were supposed to mailed out on Oct. 7 and 8 are late and appear to be missing.

11/16/2004 Broward County. 94% of 78,861 absentee ballots were recorded in favor of Amendment 4, which passed by a thin margin in the county. The votes in question were counted late on election night after a glitch was discovered in the computers tallying absentees.

11/16/2004 The unmarked brown box sat unnoticed in the Pinellas Supervisor of Elections office until Monday, two weeks after the election, when an employee cleaning a desk stumbled upon it. Inside were 268 uncounted absentee ballots.

11/14/2004 Absentee voting problems were a "disaster." Voters were unable to confirm the status of their request for an absentee ballot. In some cases, by the time they realized a ballot wasn't on its way, it was too late. Hundreds of voters couldn't vote because their early orders for ballots disappeared.

10/30/2004 Miami-Dade. Only half the absentee ballots have been returned. Some voters have complained they have not received their ballots in the mail -- A printing delay initially slowed down the mailing of the ballots

10/30/2004 Paper ballots (late). Broward County. 2505 absentee ballots were mailed on Saturday (October 30).

10/29/2004 Fraud. People posing as election officials are attempting to collect absentee ballots and trick voters into not going to the polls. They are also giving misleading information about voting and the polls and asking for personal information about the voters' debts and parking tickets.

10/29/2004 Voter challenges. Republican party uses the flawed felon list to challeng a list of 925 voters they say have either voted early or requested an absentee ballot. 580 were Democrats, 214 were Republicans, 127 were independents and four were members of minor parties.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

3. Obama reveals earmarks, asks Clinton to do same

Obama reveals earmarks, asks Clinton to do same Christi Parsons The Swamp March 13, 2008

Barack Obama's presidential campaign today released his pork requests for 2005 and 2006, calling on rival Hillary Clinton to reveal the same information in the interest of government transparency.

“If Senator Clinton will not agree to join Senator Obama in releasing her earmark requests," communications director Robert Gibbs said, "voters should ask why she doesn’t believe they have the right to know she wants to spend their tax dollars.”

Actually, people have been asking that of both Obama and Clinton for a while now -- and the questioning could grow uncomfortably tense as presumptive Republican nominee John McCain champions a plan to ban earmarks for a year.

McCain is a leading opponent of earmarks, those taxpayer-funded pet projects that every lawmaker gets to put in for each year, which gives him wide range to criticize the Democratic candidates who participate in the earmark process.

.....

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

4. Women of My Generation Have Clearly Lost Their Minds

Women of My Generation Have Clearly Lost Their Minds

Lynda Obst, 03.13.2008

Women of my generation have clearly lost their minds. Not that I can blame them, apparently being invisible and all. Now with Geraldine Ferraro making outrageous nut-jobber remarks she doesn't even seem to understand, and realizing our tragic generation was once proud of her as a "pioneer," you can see how deluded we are as well. Worse, only this week, a heroine of mine, Tina Brown, got it utterly wrong in Newsweek, saying all boomer women had to be for Hillary. Tina drank the victim Kool Aid.

...But Hillary? Never liked her. Many of my best friends and favorite women have always felt the same. Something unsettling about her.
A feminist? Maybe. But a compromised one, having risen to fame as the victim of Monica and having been famously on bimbo eruptions in her White House patrol. She was the destroyer of Paula Jones and Gennifer Flowers, the very blue collar ladies she is now being saved by. Kind of yucky, really. And hanging in there, through all the humiliation, and that making her a star. Left a bad taste in my mouth. Moving on.

And another thing. And I am not even going to get into how nutty her relationship is, and no, I don't want two for one. Al Gore didn't then, and I don't now. And it looked pretty ugly on the campaign trail so far. Anyway. This whole thing about being vetted: what's the hold up on her White House transcripts? Why withhold tax records, info on fundraising at the presidential library? Somehow I fear something lurking there in the bushes, pardon.

I hate when women identify as victims, act like victims, and love victims. And Hillary, as strong as she is, wins as a victim. That is the trajectory of her career. I am a victim. Punch. So why are women whining and the identifying with being the victim again? This is so un-Tina! Hillary was the victim of an oppressive media? Of being asked the first question? Poor baby. All that good coverage on Obama was about being the victor of 11 primaries in a row -- excuse us! And is Barack playing the victim of a real calumny? On Clinton's answer to the known question: "Are you a Muslim?" "Not as far as I know?" Are you not ashamed?...

moreat the link

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

5. Helping to Elect Other Democrats Has Never Been a Clinton Strong Suit

"In the end, the contest for the Democratic presidential nomination is about whether Democrats want to go back to the nineties, or forward into the future"

Helping to Elect Other Democrats Has Never Been a Clinton Strong Suit

Robert Creamer, 03.13.2008

For Democrats interested in building a strong, progressive party throughout America, it's useful to remember what the 1990's were like.

When Bill Clinton entered office in 1992, Democrats held a one-hundred-vote majority in the House of Representatives, 267 to 167. After his first two years, Democrats lost control of the House for the first time since 1954, and did not regain a majority until 2006 -- long after he'd left office.

In 1992, Democrats also had control of the Senate, but lost control in 1994 and did not regain it throughout the Clinton term.

When the Clintons entered the White House, Democrats controlled both legislative bodies in 29 states. The parties had split control in 14 states, and Republicans controlled both chambers in only six states. Democratic control gradually eroded throughout the 1990's. By 1998, Democrats controlled both chambers in only 21 states. Republicans had gained control of both houses in 17 states, and 11 had one chamber controlled by each party.

...Let's recall that while the Democratic Party across the country atrophied, Clinton himself won re-election in 1996 by an Electoral College vote of 379 to 159. In the popular vote, he beat Bob Dole by almost nine percentage points.

more at the link

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

6. Hillaryworld, then and now

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x5057576

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

7. Obama Campaign SKEWERS Clinton. You Gotta See This!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x5063482

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

8. Ferraro's Racial/Gender Flip-Flop Exposed

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Vyan/265

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

9. Hillary Clinton, The Queen of Earmarks

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x5070257

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

10. Special Comment Follow-up - by Keith Olbermann

Special Comment Follow-up

by Keith Olbermann Thu Mar 13, 2008 at 09:04:40 PM PDT

Well this probably violates all house rules about purloining material but the thing is about me.
I have to say this reflects the off-the-record interplay, too, and I find it encouraging.
Some of what Ben Smith reported at Politico, after he asked, on the Clinton Campaign conference call:

...how the campaign responds to Keith Olbermann's contention that they are "awash in filth."

Keith Olbermann's diary :: ::

"We, obviously, vigorously disagree with that characterization, although many of us remain
fans of Keith and enjoy watching the show on nights other than last night," said communications director Howard Wolfson.

You know I'm under-appreciating it by calling it "encouraging." I thought it was damn funny, and gave Wolfson runner-up "Best Person" honors (Bill Burton of the Obama campaign was in third place for paraphrasing Stuart Smalley for the LA Times piece on whether SNL has any pro-Clinton lean; the winner was a guy who continued to rob stores even while wearing a police GPS ankle bracelet).
Nothing earth-shattering here. Just a glimmer of Happy Happy.

[Cha]

14. Do you know what this is about?

"Bill Burton of the Obama campaign was in third place for paraphrasing Stuart Smalley for the LA Times piece on whether SNL has any pro-Clinton lean;"

[grantcart]

28. When asked if the Media was going soft on Obama as portrayed on SNL

Burton responded with a reply ala Stuart: They do it because we are good enough, smart enough, . . . .

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

11. Obama, Clinton sign on for another debate

Obama, Clinton sign on for another debate

By: BEN SMITH | 03/13/2008

Mark your calendars

Both campaigns have now agreed to an April 16 Philadelphia debate, hosted by ABC.

Obama, however, is insisting on an April 19 CBS debate as well — in North Carolina.
It would be hosted by Katie Couric and Bob Schieffer.

Clinton hasn't accepted the second debate, but Obama spokesman Bill Burton says that
Obama won't make one contingent on the other.

[Cha]

13. Another debate or debates! Obama

will have to prepare for the debates of his life!! My guess is he'll have the moderators against him and clinton.

[Cha]

12. You are so good

to do this for us..thank you again, Willyourvotebecounted!! :loveya:

I'll see if I can come up with anything different than yours.

[quantass]

25. Gawdamn WillYourVoteBCounted you are the BEST!

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

15. A Do-Over for Florida and Michigan

A Do-Over for Florida and Michigan

Andres Martinez Washington Post 03/14/2008

I am coming perilously close to being declared persona non grata in Florida. In all my many weeks of writing this column, I have yet to incur the type of wrath I did as a result of Tuesday's column calling on the Democratic Party to stick to its rules and ignore all that whining from Michigan and Florida. I don't know if it's the lack of winter down there or what, but Floridians -- who, with all their shenanigans this decade, seem intent on attaching an asterisk to American democracy -- seem particularly sensitive and (here goes my retirement in the sun) unreasonable.

Hillary Clinton is encouraging the nonsense, to be sure. Referring to Florida and Michigan in an address this week to the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, she said, "The results of those primaries were fair and they should be honored."

Reading that conjures up memories of my childhood in Mexico, when I'd listen to the old PRI bosses (who monopolized power for decades) going on about the glories of Mexican democracy. It's astonishing that Clinton can call these contests "fair" with a straight face. No one campaigned in these races! The voters knew going in it was an academic exercise! She was the only major candidate on the ballot in Michigan!

Talk of scheduling do-over in June with a mail-in vote is ill-advised. Florida has never held such a vote, and we know how adept that state is at managing even familiar electoral processes. What's more, as reader Geof Givens noted: "Allowing these states to have a redo actually doubly enfranchises them.They get a massive influence in the initial process (via media coverage of the beauty contests), and a second opportunity to control the results at the end of the process. It's more than changing the rules at the end of the game. It's allowing the rule-breaker to gain an advantage from *both* the initial transgression and the subsequent rule change."

Well put, Geof.

more at the link

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

16. Gennifer Flowers Says New Book Will Have "EXPLOSIVE STORY ADDITIONS TO THE CLINTON AFFAIR"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=5070377&mesg_id=5070377

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

17. Smearing Obama - by Ari Berman

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=5068042&mesg_id=5068042

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

18. Florida Democrats will attempt to destroy Dean for not giving in to them.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x5069028

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

19. The Corruption of the Clintons: HELPING MONSANTO vs. FAMILY FARMERS, PA farmers see Clinton=Monsanto

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x5066899

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

20. The Clinton Pattern of Dismissal

"...This suggestion and indeed the larger pattern of dismissal engaged in by the
Clintons is not only insulting to Obama it is insulting to those who voted for him. Now that it is
heading into racial waters, it simply needs to stop. For everyone's sake."

The Clinton Pattern of Dismissal

By Last Years Man - March 14, 2008

Geraldine Ferraro's remarks are just one in a series of attacks the
Clinton Campaign has made, all revolving around a single point. No, not race. Legitimacy.

Throughout this entire process, the only answer the Clinton team has had to Obama's strengths is to dismiss them as fantasy.

Go back and take a look at all the different memes that have emerged since New Hampshire.

First
there was "Barack the fairy tale." When the line was first uttered by
Clinton, everyone got caught up in the accusations of racial overtones,
but what was he really saying? That OBama was beating Hillary because
of his opposition to the war and that that opposition was in fact a
myth. "Just a speech that he later took off his own website."

Then
there was "It takes a president" which began with the LBJ remarks.
Obama=MLK. A man who talks pretty and mobilizes people but who is
incapable of wielding the long arm of government. To bring about change
you need an LBJ figure who's willing to "work hard" and "push things
through."

Next there was "Union Gate" where the Clintons claimed
that if Obama won Nevada, it was because Unions were suppressing the
vote. This later evolved into the larger "caucuses don't count"
argument.


more at the link

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

21. In defense of Wright and Obama's patriotism

Here is a nice large bit of wisdom, I recommend you go to the link and read it all.....

In defense of Wright and Obama's patriotism

By DMS - March 14, 2008
A story I was told in history class:

During the Kennedy
administration, when the civil rights marches were just getting
started, Bobby Kennedy went south to meet with black civil rights
leaders. He was to convey to them that the Kennedy administration
wanted to help but ask if they tone down their rhetoric and marches
because they were making the US look bad and there was a cold war on.

Black
leaders responded angrily and made a lot of anti-American statements,saying why should they care about America's image in the world. It
wasn't their country anyway.

Bobby Kennedy -- a true blue patriot -- left the meeting and went back to Washington, mad as hell.

But
reportedly, a couple weeks later, he called one of his senior aides
into his office and said something to the effect of, you know, if I'd
been treated the way they have, I might feel the same way about this
country.

more at the link

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

22. One's Pastor Is Not One's Campaign Manager

One's Pastor Is Not One's Campaign Manager

By Esther Buddenhagen - March 13, 2008,

We all have to step back from this Reverend Wright thing for a minute. We are starting to demand too much purity in the associates of both Obama and Clinton. I do thing Ferraro should have resigned because she was in the campaign, but to start demanding purity of some sort in people not in the campaign but connected by kinship or friendship or pastorship is really not fair.

The particular issue here is Obama's links with Reverend Wright and his membership in Wright's church, an establishment church, let's not forget. Remembering that it is part of the UCC network will help us to understand that Obama's association with it is not that of a guru-follower. Wright himself, for all his overzealous rhetoric on occasion, is a highly educated man who grew his church to be the largest UCC church in the country. One also has to understand that he has done enormous good in Chicago's black community, often in the face of great prejudice on the part of whites. Having said that, his rhetoric is difficult for Obama with at this point because it still is pro-black as opposed to we're beyond all that race stuff.

However, that doesn't mean that Obama somehow has to break his ties with church or pastor. What he has to do is remind folks what church membership is all about. Churchmembership is a strange thing, I suspect no matter what the denomination. Churches do become like large, loose families. Members often have little to do with each other outside of church, but a church roots deeply in its members, whether those members agree with the pastor or not. In old, established community churches of my acquaintance, members can start out agreeing with the pastor, even have been responsible for calling him or her to serve them, and over the years grow away from him or her, often coming to strongly disagree. Before I moved to Mexico, I was an Episcopalian pretty much in good standing. But I was a northeastern-type Episcopalian. In my last church in Texas which I attended for seven or so years, the rector was much more conservative than I. It was quite a shock, but for a lot of those years, it really didn’t matter. Then the issue of gays in the priesthood and all the ramifications flared up big-time as did the idea of prayer in the public schools being not only a good thing but a necessary thing, and the belief that the war in Iraq was justified and Republicans really were best for the country. The priest rented space to a home-schooling group which taught Creationism instead of science. He liked people to teach creationism in the Sunday School classes.

more at the link

[grantcart]

23. Everyone who read this thread is required to go to this link

and add at least five stupid things

you can call yourself fired up and ready to go until you have done at least five


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=5071696&mesg_id=5071696

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

24. My Own Special Comment About Barack Obama's Pastor and Church

What would God say about this?

How many of Obama's critics even attend a church?
What if Obama didn't attend church at all?
Or if he were not a member of any church?
Or if he were an atheist, or a Morman or Buddist?

Does the media even care if the Presidential candidates believe in a God?

How much time does Hillary spend worshipping God?
Does she even believe in a deity?
How do her actions demonstrate her "Christianity"?

Who would Jesus bomb, Hillary?

The fact that Hillary urged Bill
to bomb Kosovo, or the fact that she sat on her hands while the
Rwanda genocide went on - tells me that she doesn't seem to worry much
about what God would want.

What about Bill, who do you think he was praying to all those years
in the White House while he was getting hummers from Monica and
an assortment of women he was not married to?

How many people visiting this site are solid Christianswho attend
church each week, or even 2 times a week? Because the media is
demanding that the presidential candidates be CHRISTIAN, not Buddhist,
not Catholic (although that might be allowed) and most certainly not
agnostic and not Atheist.

How many of the media, or the campaign aides etc attend Church?

Of those, how many are actually Christians and believe in the Bible?

How many are just using this issue maliciously, for their own evil selfish purposes?

[grantcart]

29. What would Jesus want us to do with 2 million refugees?

[quantass]

26. Bloomberg: Obama Cuts Into Clinton's Delegate Lead Among Elected Officials

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x5072156

[grantcart]

27. Where Hillary is going to take this circus

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x5033244

[grantcart]

30. Pirate Smile on picking up extra delegates

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=5066939&mesg_id=5066939

[quantass]

31. Awesome!

[better tomorrow]

32. new video

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

[quantass]

33. Documentary: History of Barack Obama (Video)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x105266">Watch it Now

[Hope And Change]

35. I posted the full documentary here...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x105266


:toast:

[quantass]

36. THANKS -- I updated my the parent thread to reflect it now

[quantass]

34. Obama's calculus to victory

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x5072701

[JimGinPA]

37. But did you know he's a Muslim?

I have to wait a little while to post an OP (for my 24 hour - 3 post limit) but if someone wishes to start a thread with this they're welcome;

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/964124.html

Mel Levine, a key Mideast policy advisor to Barack Obama, sits in the genteel courtyard of the American Colony Hotel in East Jerusalem. The former U.S. congressman is some 12,000 kilometers away from home, but even here, the viral rumor campaign is never far away. "Oddly enough, I've run into any number of people who, when I say I'm for Obama, say: 'Oh - did you know he's a Muslim?'

"A couple of Israelis I've spoken with - very smart, well-educated, thoughtful Israelis - told me that yesterday. I was a little taken aback, but why should I be surprised, when Americans tell me that all the time?"

Levine has seen his fair share of Israel-oriented American political infighting, having served as senior Mideast policy advisor to both Al Gore and John Kerry, as a board member of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) lobbying organization for six years, and as the author of the pre-Oslo Levine amendment, which conditioned any U.S. recognition of Yasser Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization on the PLO's recognition of Israel's right to exist and its rejection of terror.
Advertisement

But he has never seen the likes of the ongoing mass e-mail campaigns, which have leveled a succession of allegations against Obama, branding the senator a secret anti-Semite, a closet Muslim who took his official oath of office with his hand on the Koran instead of the Bible, and a disciple of fiery Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, further alleging that several of Obama's Mideast policy advisors are pro-Palestinian haters of Israel.

"I've been involved in politics for quite a long time, and I've never quite seen anything like this before," Levine says of the e-mail campaigns. "It's offensive to me, particularly as a Jew who cares very deeply about Israel and bipartisan American support for Israel, because the e-mails are filled with lies, innuendos, distortions and misrepresentations about someone who has been, and is, an extremely good friend of Israel, a strong supporter of Israel, a good friend of the Jewish community, and someone who has been a leader in helping to repair black-Jewish relations in the United States in a courageous way."

E-mails portraying Obama as bad for the Jews appeared in great numbers ahead of hard-fought primaries in states with significant Jewish populations, such as California, New York and Ohio.

The Obama camp has worked intensively to counter e-mails hinting at or "proving" the Democratic senator's ties to Islam, among them the photo of a turban-clad Obama and a Fox News video clip of radio talk show host Bill Cunningham saying, "His parents called him Barack Hussein Obama, not me."

But the pro-Obama counterattack has been so vigorous that concerns have been raised of a possible backlash by U.S. Muslim voters, upset that Islam itself is being viewed as a stain. The responses of Muslims have varied, Levine notes. "Some have said 'it's really regrettable,' of the efforts expended to demonstrate that Obama is, in fact, a Christian. And some have said that it's not popular in America these days to be viewed as a Muslim."

much more at link

[JimGinPA]

38. Clinton, Obama Woo Pa. Political Players

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jK6fbEtLtu10eADe6yhdMVQTiRDgD8VD63MG0


WASHINGTON (AP) — Bill George can't believe his luck. Suddenly, the head of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO labor union federation finds himself courted by both Democratic presidential candidates' campaigns.

Ultimately, he says, the winner is working class Americans, and he's in no hurry to endorse either Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton or Sen. Barack Obama, as long as they are both talking about health care, trade policy and other issues of his members' concern.

"I'm holding them to the fire trying to get them to have more discussions about the resolve of those issues," said George, a Democratic superdelegate whose organization has 900,000 members in the state.

Pennsylvania's political power players, who watched in many past presidential elections as early voting states like Iowa and New Hampshire typically got much of the attention from candidates and the media, are suddenly in the spotlight — at least on the Democratic side.

The state is the next big battleground because on April 22 it will apportion 158 delegates, the biggest remaining prize, among candidates based on their relative support.

As the two candidates crisscross the state for the next six weeks, there are a number of players to watch who could make a difference behind the scenes and in front of the camera leading up to election.


much more at link

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

39. Mark Penn continues his destructive ways (Destructive to DEMs)

"So a Clinton win or a McCain win is good for Penn's business. Just makes you wonder where Penn's loyalties lie -- and we shouldn't be wondering about the loyalties of a top Democratic strategist."

Mark Penn continues his destructive ways

by Joe Sudbay (DC) · 3/13/2008 06:36:00 PM ET

The losing campaign's chief strategist, Mark Penn, kept up the trash talk today. On a campaign conference call with Governor Rendell and Philadelphia Mayor Mike Nutter, Penn said that Pennsylvania provides a "significant test" of who can win the general election. Penn said it will show that "Senator Obama really can't win the general election." Yes, he did. USA Today has the audio and this blurb:

Though the campaign later argued that he hadn't said it, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's chief campaign strategist told reporters this morning that Sen. Barack Obama "can't win the general election."

As painful as it is to listen to the pompous Penn, it's worth hearing the audio. Then listen to the next segment provided where Howard Wolfson denied that Mark Penn made the statement. It's classic Clinton campaign. These people are dangerous. They know they've drifted into dangerous territory but can't help themselves.

What's important is that Penn is wrong. The Clinton campaign just made up the idea that primary performance is related to general election results. Matt Yglesias and Noam Scheiber both look at a Pennsylvania poll that counters Penn's argument. According to Matt, the poll "indicates that Clinton will do much better than Obama in the Democratic primary but Obama will do slightly better than Clinton in a general election." With strong support from the Rendell machine and the Mayor of Philadelphia, Hillary should win Pennsylvania by 20 points. But that is irrelevant to the general election.

Also, I am relinking to an earlier post about Mark Penn, the CEO of Burson-Marsteller. One of the companies under his control represents Hillary Clinton. Another of Burson-Marsteller's companies, BKSH, is run by Charlie Black, who is a top adviser to John McCain. So a Clinton win or a McCain win is good for Penn's business. Just makes you wonder where Penn's loyalties lie -- and we shouldn't be wondering about the loyalties of a top Democratic strategist.

[niceypoo]

40. Every story posted basically attacks Hillary...

Obamas supporters seem to think these are somehow "Obama news."

...When do Obamas supporters start trying to sell Obama to Clinton supporters on his POLICY POSITIONS instead of endlessly affirming their hatred of Hillary?

70% of Hillary,s supporters say they won't vote for Obama, this represents almost 1/3 of the Democratic party, not a good thing for Obama. This is because Obama supporters basically treat Hillary and her supporters like shit.

Showing 'support' of Obama by attacking Hillary is driving potential Obama backers away from him in droves

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

41. Will a Democratic Yoda please step up

Will a Democratic Yoda please step up

By Naftali Bendavid |Chicago Tribune Washington Bureau
March 14, 2008

In a different era, a party elder such as Al Gore or Jimmy Carter would try to intervene in the Hillary Clinton-Barack Obama battle in a bid to avert chaos at the convention

WASHINGTON - Maybe Al Gore could jump in and fix the mess. He's won a Nobel Peace Prize, after all.

Or George Mitchell, who worked for peace in Northern Ireland.

Or Jimmy Carter. Anyone who brought together Arabs and Israelis should arguably be able to unify squabbling Democrats.

As it becomes increasingly clear that the battle between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton will be both nasty and long, some Democrats are longing for an elder statesman or respected party leader who could step in and resolve the fight before it damages the Democrats' chances in the fall.

But it's not clear any such person exists. The days of Clark Clifford, counselor to presidents, or Sam Rayburn, who had enormous clout, are long past. As politics has become more transparent and democratic, scholars say, little room remains for the quiet adviser or party boss who can speak truth to presidents (or would-be presidents) in the greater interest of the party.

...Yet few entirely rule out a scenario in which Obama and Clinton are bitterly fighting it out as the Democratic convention approaches and a few party leaders, probably including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, publicly or privately pressure one of them to withdraw.


... more here at the link

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

42. Wright and Ferraro Are Just Distractions - Race, Obama and Clinton

Wright and Ferraro Are Just Distractions

Race, Obama and Clinton

Chicago Tribune March 14, 2008

The controversial, race-based comments of former vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro and of retired South Side pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. are of genuine importance to the selection of a Democratic presidential nominee. Although not for the reasons that have unduly exercised many U.S. voters in recent days.

...Ferraro was a newcomer to discussions of race in the 2008 campaign; Wright's remarks have peppered this cycle, his strong words inducing cringes in some listeners and Afrocentric pride in others. Columnists and talking heads have parsed Ferraro's and Wright's comments, variously defending their candor or demanding that the candidates they support prostrate themselves in apology for their racially oriented words.

...Yes, we're electing a president, and what he or she thinks about race is both important and fair game to opponents. But neither Gerry Ferraro nor Rev. Wright will be on any ballot. They're a couple of talkers enjoying their 1st Amendment rights.

No one with more than a springer spaniel's political awareness thinks that Ferraro speaks for Clinton, or that Wright speaks for Obama. Demands from one candidate's supporters that the other repudiate what was said on his or her behalf ring disingenuous.

more here at the link

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

43. Hillary Clinton trying to undermine Obama's stand as unencumbered candidate

"Look at what the Obama movement is accomplishing. It is, in fact, already a publicly financed campaign!"

Hillary Clinton trying to undermine Obama's stand as unencumbered candidate

Opinion March 16, 2008

The recent television debate between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton was a clear victory for Obama. The attempt to undermine Sen. Obama's stand as a politician free from the corruption of special interests by implying that he was going to go back on his pledge to run a publicly financed election campaign, something his Republican opponent John McCain jumped on the following day, fell flat on its face.

Look at what the Obama movement is accomplishing. It is, in fact, already a publicly financed campaign! A million small donors, baby bundlers collecting $10 or $20 from friends and sending it off to the Obama campaign, has made the collection of lobbyists' money irrelevant to run this successful election campaign. This is a new phenomenon in our politics and illustrates the yearning we Americans have to take back our government from the corruption of lobbyists buying off politicians.

The Obama campaign has rejuvenated my faith in American politics and the American people. Thank God, we are finally waking up from the nightmare of the Bush-Cheney regime.

Manuel Lugo

Margate

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

44. Major Clinton Donor Indicted (Abramaoff Lobbying Firm Greenberg Traurig LLP)

From Open Secrets list HILLARY CLINTON(D) Top Contributors (#10)Greenberg Traurig LLP $185,400

Abramoff GOP Lobbying Firm Indicted, Major HRC Donor

by leveymg Fri Mar 14, 2008

Greenberg Traurig (GT), a major GOP partisan law and lobbying shop, has been indicted on federal charges in the Marianas Islands sweatshop case. The firm employed notorious political fixer Jack Abramoff.

Abramoff’s firm has a long history as a conduit for illegal foreign campaign contributions. GT were Bush's Campaign Lawyers during the 2000 Florida Recount, and is now a major donor to HRC's presidential campaign, according to the lastest FEC data.

Greenberg Traurig and the Tan Family, who are the center of the Saipan sweatshop and prostitution scandal, have both made large HRC campaign contributions.

In a odd coincidence, GOP presidential candidate Sen. John McCain chaired the Senate Committee which investigated Abramoff. As dengre has informed us, McCain's committee continues to withhold all but 8000 pages of the three-quarter of a million documents turned over to it.

This has the makings of a major presidential campaign blowup, if HRC gets the nomination.

MORE below . . .

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

45. A Solution for Michigan and Florida?

A Solution for Michigan and Florida?

By: SilentPatriot @ 6:30 AM - PDT The Atlantic’s Mark Ambinder has the scoop:

Michigan’s 156 delegates would be split 50-50 between Clinton and Obama.

–Florida’s existing delegates would be seated at the Denver convention—but with half a vote each. That would give Clinton a net gain of about 19 elected delegates.

– The two states’ superdelegates would then be able to vote in Denver, likely netting Clinton a few more delegates.

Given the slew of bad and costly remedies floated so far, this actually doesn’t sound like a bad way to quickly save untold millions and seat the two states’ delegates. On the one hand we don’t want to essentially disenfranchise these voters, but on the other, the rules are the rules. We don’t need to start the post-Bush era of America by breaking the rules.

Howard Dean needs to start cracking skulls and make this right.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

46. "The Irrelevance of Obama's Minister" (Ignorant bigots or political strategists?)

The Irrelevance of Obama's Minister

By M.J. Rosenberg - March 14, 2008, 8:44AM

Here's a surprise. Just as the superdelegates are breaking for Obama, we suddenly are seeing videos of his minister, Jeremiah Wright, saying all kinds of ugly things.

So the same people who are telling us that Obama is a Muslim and controlled by Islamic law are saying that he's a serious Protestant, controlled by his minister. Come on kids, decide on a story line.

....The last time a candidate's religion was an issue was Kennedy's Catholicism in 1960. Kennedy's priest, Joseph Cardinal Cushing, was a pretty old school Catholic with all the old school Catholic political views.
Did that discredit Kennedy as a candidate?

Sadly, it did with alot of people. Bigots across the land cited his church as a reason not to vote for him, cited Cushing and the Pope as scary political influences on a JFK Presidency, howled about what Kennedy's faith indicated about the kind of leader he would be.

But that was 48 years ago and, today, we call the people who used Kennedy's religion against him ignorant bigots. Now we call them political strategists.


....more at the link

[grantcart]

47. Super Delegate update

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x5076062

[OhioChick]

48. Kick

Thanks for posting these daily. :)

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

49. Limbaugh: "We want Hillary to win Pennsylvania" - urges GOP change registration by 3/24

Don't Doubt the Limbaugh Effect

March 13, 2008

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT


RUSH: All right, the Clintons. There was a conference call with reporters yesterday. The New York Observer's Jason Horowitz was talking to Hillary's communications director, Howard Wolfson. He asked Wolfson a question about me. Now, his question is all wrong. I never took credit for what happened in Mississippi, and

I did not urge Republicans to cross over in Mississippi to vote for Hillary. I'm being credited with it because more Republicans than normal did cross over and vote for Hillary, and that might have been residual from the week before when the strategery was actively urged on this program for Republicans to vote for Hillary in Ohio and Texas.

I said, even after the Mississippi results came in the next day, Wednesday, I didn't take credit for this. I disavow any credit for what happened in Mississippi. We wanted Obama to win. We want Obama to win everything 'til we get to Pennsylvania, and then we get back in gear. But, remember, for Pennsylvania, if you want to cross over there, you Republicans, you gotta register by 24th of March if you want to do it legally. We want Hillary to win Pennsylvania. You know what the strategery has been, you know the Limbaugh Effect, Operation Rush the Vote, Create Chaos. So here's this exchange, keeping in mind that the reporter here, Jason Horowitz, gets the premise in Mississippi wrong.



HOROWITZ: Rush Limbaugh was saying today that he thinks that it was because a lot of Republicans in Mississippi were voting for Senator Clinton because they want her to be the nominee. Do you think that that has any role in it?

WOLFSON: Absolutely not. I understand that that might be his spin, or the spin of others. Look there's a Gallup poll that just came out that had Senator Obama and Senator Clinton both equally running ahead of Senator McCain by two points. I think the notion is laughable that people are going to vote for anyone for reasons other than the fact that they believe that they are going to be the best president regardless of party. I just think that that doesn't hold water. I think it is an effort by the other camp and others to explain away our recent success with independents and Republicans.

RUSH: See, they're ungrateful. I knew they'd never thank me, and I wasn't expecting them to thank me. In fact, I was expecting to be dissed. They wouldn't be the Clintons if they weren't dissing me and threatening me like Hillary did recently. "Be careful what you wish for, Rush." Ooh! I cowered in the corner. Chris Matthews isn't buying it, though. Chris Matthews says don't doubt the Limbaugh Effect.

more here

[JimGinPA]

50. K&R

:kick:

[grantcart]

51. How pathetic is it when the comments of CNN's poliltical ticker show more

political sophistication on the 'Wrightgate' reporting than that of DU?

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/03/14/obama-minister-under-scrutiny/#comments

[Scurrilous]

52. K & R

:thumbsup:

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

53. Clinton Superdelegate Endorsement Lead (declining)

http://demconwatch.blogspot.com/

I heard Tweety (Chris Matthews) saying that Sen Clinton has lost 7 Super Delegates so far.
Obama has lost 0.

[grantcart]

54. kick