“OBAMA SUPPORTERS” DAILY NEWS Sunday March-30-2008

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

WELCOME TO “OBAMA SUPPORTERS” DAILY NEWS

Sunday March-30-2008


Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., during
yesterday's rally at Soldiers & Sailors memorial hall in Oakland.

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:

1. Post stories and announcements you find on the web. :think:

2. Re-post stories and announcements you find on DU,
providing a link to the original thread :applause:

3. Please "Recommend" for the Greatest Page :thumbsup:

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

Get your DU-o-matic codificator (to format your posts) here
Read the Daily News Archives here

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

1. Obama is tops in N.C. cash

Obama is tops in N.C. cash
He outraises Clinton; McCain trails behind both Democrats

By Bertrand M. Gutierrez JOURNAL REPORTER Sunday, March 30, 2008

Sen. Barack Obama has raised a total of $1.53 million from individual donors in North Carolina through February,
pulling away from Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who raised $1.09 million, according to campaign filings
with the Federal Election Commission.

The totals highlight the fundraising gap between the two in what is now seen as a key primary.
Both Democrats visited the Triad this week as the campaign intensifies for the May 6 primary.
The fundraising result also marks a significant shift in the way that individual donors statewide are investing
campaign money since the Democratic primaries and caucuses started in January.

…Donors in the Chapel Hill area reached deeper and more often into their wallets for Obama than donors
in any other North Carolina city. He got $296,817 from that area, up from $128,082 in December.

Among the major cities, Winston-Salem and Durham are where Obama’s financial support shows
the widest margins over Clinton. In Winston-Salem, he has raised more than three times the money as Clinton;
he has $75,242, and she has $23,735. And he has nearly 4.5 times as much in Durham, where Obama has $207,916
and Clinton has $46,688.

More athttp://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSJ%2FMGArticle%2FWSJ_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1173355139494&path=!localnews&s=1037645509099"> the link

[FrenchieCat]

2. Photo!

Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama D-Ill., plays with a Slinky toy during a tour of the Johnstown Wire Factory in Johnstown, Pa., Saturday, March 29, 2008. The plant makes the Slinky.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

4. Oh, if I'd seen that earlier, would've featured it - Obama with a slinky!

thanks for posting that.

[FrenchieCat]

5. New York Book Review article on the Primaries by Elizabeth Drew

Volume 55, Number 6  April 17, 2008

Molehill Politics

By Elizabeth Drew
<>
In this fight, the Clinton camp is the more aggressive of the two, and it's adept at what might be called molehill politics: making a very big deal in the press about something that's a very small deal—such as a single word in a mailing or a slip-up by an aide. Clinton's strategists pounce on whatever opportunity presents itself to attack Obama, and try to knock him off his own message, and his stride. Clinton's approach resembles her tactics in the White House, in which her inclination was to attack (which caused a number of problems, and was one of the reasons her health care bill was defeated). The Obama camp has sometimes been slow, and even reluctant, to respond, because if he attacks her personally (which the Clinton campaign would like him to do), he's not Barack Obama anymore. Moreover, Obama takes care not to come across as the "angry black"—a stereotype he does not fit, but that could be imposed upon him by others.


It's been long said among politicians that "the Clintons will do anything to win." Unfortunately, they are increasingly proving the point. As the primaries in Texas and Ohio approached, the Clinton campaign, which has a tendency to announce its next steps, said that it would use a "kitchen sink" strategy against Obama—and so it did: with the famous and apparently effective "red phone" ad questioning his fitness to be commander in chief; and in frequent and heavy-handed conference calls to reporters (an innovation), in which Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson makes charges against Obama, raises questions about him, or moves "goal posts" designating what Obama has to do to win. (Obama "has to win Pennsylvania," which few think is likely.) This propaganda makes its way onto cable and other news outlets. But where does, or should, a "kitchen sink" strategy belong in a presidency?
<>
Hillary Clinton is employing conventional politics, while Obama is trying to create a new kind of politics. Similarly, as they respond to the country's desire for change, they have very different concepts of what "change" means: briefly, for Obama it means changing the very zeitgeist of Washington, creating a new way to get things done by building coalitions that transcend longstanding political divisions. For Clinton it means passing bills—though sometimes she has suggested that it means electing a woman president. ("I embody change," she said in a debate in New Hampshire.)

Way more......
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/21231

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

3. Hillary’s Consolation Prize? Some Dems float the New York Statehouse as an option

Hillary’s Consolation Prize?
Some Dems float the New York Statehouse as an option.

Mar 28, 2008 Jonathon Alter

Some Democrats terrified that their bloody primary campaign will doom them in November are floating a consolation prize for Hillary Clinton: governor of New York.

The travails of New York Gov. David Paterson have opened up a new potential career path for Clinton, according to well-informed Democratic Party insiders who refused to allow their names to be used when discussing contingencies. They want her to consider the option if she concludes after the April 22 Pennsylvania primary that she cannot overtake Barack Obama for the party's presidential nomination. Hillary Clinton, while fully committed to continuing her presidential campaign, was said to be open to discussing the idea, while Bill Clinton rejected it out of hand.
With former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani now reported by the New York Post to be weighing a race for governor, voters could see a Clinton-Giuliani matchup after all.

…Even if the gubernatorial gambit doesn't materialize, it reflects deep concern among Democrats about how to extricate Clinton from what appears to be a losing campaign without doing further damage to the party. Should she handily win all 10 remaining primaries, which even her campaign does not expect, she would still trail in pledged delegates and the popular vote (excluding Florida and Michigan, where revotes are now unlikely).
The best exit strategy for her, say some Democratic superdelegates who aren't talking for the record, would be to suspend her campaign after winning Pennsylvania. (George H.W. Bush ended his 1980 campaign against Ronald Reagan after defeating him in the Michigan primary). That way, Hillary would go out on a high note—higher still if it was accompanied by reports that she could be headed for Albany. For now, Clinton has rebuffed that advice and said publicly that she will stay in the race even if she wins Pennsylvania only narrowly. (If she loses Pennsylvania, by all accounts she's out).

More at the link

[LibertyorDeath]

6. Obama Campaign has claimed victory in TX

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x5312219


press release:

With more than 56 percent of the results tallied from today’s 284 Democratic district conventions across Texas, Sen. Barack Obama currently is projected to earn a 38-29 pledged delegate win in the Texas caucuses, exactly as projected on the day after the March 4th precinct caucuses. The nine delegate margin in the caucuses means Obama will gain a net margin of five pledged delegates from Texas because Senator Clinton narrowly won the Texas primary by only four delegates, 65-61.

“Despite the Clinton campaign’s widespread attempts to prevent many Texans from participating in their district convention, the voters of Texas confirmed Senator Obama’s important delegate win in the Lone Star State,” said Obama spokesman Josh Earnest. “Today’s record-shattering turnout sends a clear message that the American people are ready for change in Washington and new leadership in the White House that will stand up for working families.”

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs...

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

7. Pennsylvania’s Generational Politics

Pennsylvania’s Generational Politics
Dinner Table Debates

In Pennsylvania, many young voters are pushing their parents to back Obama.
By Suzanne Smalley | Newsweek Web Exclusive Mar 28, 2008

Senator Casey credited his kids in explaining his endorsement of Obama

All over Pennsylvania, parents and their college-age children are battling over the state's Democratic primary. In one dining room in a small industrial town in northeastern Pennsylvania, the animus grew especially strong on Easter Sunday. Over honey-baked ham, Kathleen, 22, a student at a local Catholic college, and her mother, a hairdresser, got into a fight that brought the family dinner to a standstill. Kathleen and her mother have been arguing about the relative virtues of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for months—largely, Kathleen says, because her mother is deeply worried about the economy and doesn't think Obama is capable of fixing it. "She says Obama is too idealistic," says Kathleen, who asked to be identified only by her middle name because she's working for a local media outlet that does not permit her to publically express her political views.
"And I told her I want someone idealistic. I think she believes he's promising too much." Kathleen said the Easter argument began when her 76-year-old grandfather warned her and her brother that he's never seen the country in such bad shape. "'You and your brother are going to have to work to fix this country'," Kathleen recalls him saying. Kathleen says her mother then provoked her by pointing out that life was great under Bill Clinton. "I don't like my mom equating with her husband," Kathleen said. "I said, 'Her husband's not gonna be president, Mom'." That was enough to send grandpa over the edge. He stopped the conversation and demanded the family get back to eating.

Kathleen's family is not the only one grappling with fierce generational rivalries in this election's Democratic contests. In Pennsylvania—as in Ohio, which Hillary won by 10 percent—Clinton currently has bedrock support from the so-called Reagan Democrats: white, blue-collar, middle-age men and women who defected from the Democratic Party in 1980 and 1984 to vote for Reagan. Many voters fitting this profile are now solidly back in the Democrats' corner but have proven difficult for Obama to win over in Pennsylvania, fueling Clinton's 12-point lead in one recent state poll. But Obama may see his support among that group increase soon, thanks to Sen. Bob Casey's endorsement of him, announced this morning. Against abortion and in favor of gun rights, Casey, a Roman Catholic, is the son of a popular Pennsylvania governor who, like Reagan, succeeded by winning over those blue-collar, socially conservative Democrats.

Casey explained his endorsement by describing the intense enthusiasm his kids feel for Obama. "Let me tell you a little story about my four daughters, one by one," he said. "First of all, my daughter Caroline, our second, she saw Senator Obama speak at the 2004 convention. She was not only listening … by the end of his speech, she was standing on her chair. And that's the same reaction that we've all had about his campaign and about his character. My daughter Elyse was sitting in our home the night of the Iowa caucuses. Senator Obama was speaking, and she was transfixed looking at the television set. And all of a sudden—I was standing there in the kitchen with her—the telephone rang, her cell phone rang. One of her good friends called her, she picked up the phone and she said, 'I can't talk to you now, I am listening to Barack Obama,' and she hung up ... My daughter Julia is reading 'The Audacity of Hope' right now. And my daughter Marena, who's our youngest, is 11, she's been giving me messages for Senator Obama that I'm supposed to impart to him later."

More at the link

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

8. Has James Carville Been Paying Attention

Has James Carville Been Paying Attention

--Jason Zengerle 29.03.2008

James Carville--writing the Washington Post to defend, at length, his Judas comment about Bill Richardson--
pens what might as well be the Clintonite credo:

"I believe that loyalty is a cardinal virtue. Nowhere in the world is loyalty so little revered and
tittle-tattle so greatly venerated as in Washington."

How he can write this after the Bush years is beyond me.

Posted: Saturday, March 29, 2008
Link

[John Q. Citizen]

14. He pled to the court for leniency for Scooter Libby. That's how he can bring up "loyalty."

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

23. oops, bad link see this post for correct link

sorry about that:

http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2008/03/29/has-james-carville-been-paying-attention.aspx

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

9. Full Faith - Despite Jeremiah Wright, Obama gets religion

Full Faith
Despite Jeremiah Wright, Obama gets religion

by E. J. Dionne Jr. The New Republic April 09, 2008

Jeremiah Wright, the preacher who brought Barack Obama to Jesus, also brought him the week from hell. Anyone within reach of even the most primitive forms of media now knows that Wright, the retired pastor of the Trinity United Church of Christ, has preached sermons that veered into the swamp of anti-Americanism and indulged in wild conspiracy theories. So, after being subject to a rumor campaign that pronounced him a stealth Muslim, Obama was now widely deemed to subscribe to a defective brand of Christianity. What other politician has been so plagued by matters involving God? It would not be surprising if Obama felt a sudden kinship for Job.

…And, on the few occasions I have spoken with Obama about his faith, he has evinced an understanding of the spiritual lives of Americans and familiarity with Reinhold Niebuhr's theology of skepticism and humility. When I interviewed him about his relationship with Wright last week, he told me, "Churches are institutions of men, and, as a result, they are flawed." As I paused to marvel at how this remark could have been plucked from one of Niebuhr's essays, Obama seemed to have the same realization. He quipped, "And that's as Niebuhrian as you can get."
…
…The question facing post-2004 Democrats is how to hold all these votes--and add a few more to create a majority. Obama's recipe has two main ingredients: In the Call to Renewal speech, he asserted that "secularists are wrong when they ask believers to leave their religion at the door before entering into the public square." You could almost hear the cheers at Rick Warren's church and others like it. At the same time, he argued that religious Americans needed to remember "the critical role that the separation of church and state has played in preserving not only our democracy, but the robustness of our religious practice." There could be no talk of ours as "a Christian nation" since "we are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers. ... Democracy demands that the religiously motivated translate their concerns into universal, rather than religion-specific, values."

The Grand Obama Compromise comes down to a call for mutual respect, of believers by unbelievers and vice versa. What else would you expect from a candidate who promises, in speech after speech, to "turn the page" on our recent history of disagreeable political (and moral) conflict?

More at the link

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

10. The BIG BIG Lie - Clinton was against disenfranchising Florida and Michigan

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=5290035&mesg_id=5290035

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

11. Clinton: All The Way to Denver (five more months of this mess)

Clinton: All The Way to Denver

Josh Marshal, TPM 03.29.08

Sen. Clinton gave a pretty astonishing interview to the Washington Post in which she appears to say she will stay in the race till the convention in August, where she will take her fight to the credentials committee to have the delegates from the non-sanctioned Michigan and Florida primaries seated.

The convention of course starts on August 25th, roughly five months from now.

The key quote from the interview is this one: "I know there are some people who want to shut this down and I think they are wrong. I have no intention of stopping until we finish what we started and until we see what happens in the next 10 contests and until we resolve Florida and Michigan. And if we don't resolve it, we'll resolve it at the convention -- that's what credentials committees are for."

So she's promising to remain in the race at least until June 3rd when the final contests are held in Montana and South Dakota and until Florida and Michigan are 'resolved'. Now, that can have no other meaning than resolved on terms the Clinton campaign finds acceptable. It can't mean anything else since, of course, at least officially, for the Democratic National Committee, it is resolved. The penalty was the resolution.

The Obama campaign has always been willing to 'resolve' the matter by splitting those states' delegates down the middle. But of course that's something the Clinton campaign can never accept since splitting them down the middle is the same as not counting them at all. It leaves both campaigns right where the started, i.e., with him ahead and her behind.

more at the link

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

12. The Tales Hillary Tells

The Tales Hillary Tells

Politicians by nature construct personal narratives about themselves that make them seem shinier, if not larger than life.
BETWEEN THE LINES Jonathan Alter Apr 7, 2008 Issue

We know why politicians lie when they get in trouble: they think the consequences of telling the truth are too severe to bear. That's why Richard Nixon lied about Watergate, and Bill Clinton about Monica Lewinsky. The more complicated question is why they fib—why politicians insist on stretching unimportant stories in ways that are easy to check and refute. Hillary Clinton's oft-told yarn about ducking sniper fire on the tarmac in Tuzla, Bosnia, in 1996 has gotten a lot of publicity, maybe too much. Her misrepresentation of her role in the Northern Ireland peace talks was more serious but less visual on YouTube. Even so, the Tuzla Tale tells us something about her insecurities and frustrations, which in turn helps explain why she's losing.

… Hillary's Bosnia whopper traces back to 1992, when she angrily told reporters who questioned her role in her husband's career that she hadn't been staying home "baking cookies and having teas" but was instead out working. This was in apparent reference to her 15 years as a corporate lawyer for the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock. On the trail she now emphasizes her "35 years of public service," which, because it presumably doesn't include corporate legal work, is a reference to her extensive nonprofit activity and to her time as First Lady of Arkansas and of the United States. While Hillary is not generally an insecure person, she is highly defensive about this record. Without it, she would have only seven years (her Senate career) of public service to cite. Hillary's "movie" of her own life, and of her presidential campaign, is dependent on those years seeming as meaningful as possible. An assault on their importance cuts deep.

… The media mob was slow to pick up the story—Sinbad jokes had been circulating for weeks on Hillary's press plane without anyone following up. But Clinton finally fell victim to what might be called "pattern coverage." For years, Hillary has had occasional problems with the truth when attacked. (The firing of the staffers who ran the White House Travel Office in 1993 was ridiculously overcovered, but an independent probe later proved she was lying when she claimed she hadn't ordered it.) All it takes is a few such incidents for the press to identify a dreaded pattern, into which it then fits subsequent stories. No pattern, no frenzy.

… The Tuzla Tale has already had repercussions. Clinton was disappointed that the feeding frenzy over Obama's relationship with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright didn't destroy his candidacy. It's her best hope of winning the nomination, so she tried to reignite the story. But her latest approach to bashing Obama only reinforced the impression that her recent setbacks have left her desperate. She stopped by for a cozy interview with billionaire publisher Richard Mellon Scaife, the right-winger who commissioned the most hate-filled anti-Clinton stories of the 1990s. For her to seek help from Scaife in publicizing Obama's supposed tolerance of hate speech sets a new standard in campaign chutzpah. Scaife wrote (or at least paid for) the book on personal destruction. It's like the bloodied kids in the new Owen Wilson movie "Drillbit Taylor" asking the bully who has tormented them to go beat up some other kid. Classy.

The coda to the Tuzla Tale was the way Hillary tried to defuse it. Where the late New York mayor Fiorello LaGuardia said amiably, "When I make a mistake, it's a beaut!" or Obama confessed to being "boneheaded" in dealing with shady donor Tony Rezko, Hillary said sarcastically: "This proves I'm human, which for some people is a revelation." It was all there—the pain, the resentment and the sense of what it would be like to spend four or eight years listening to her respond to criticism as president.

More at the link

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

13. Poll: McSame, John W. Bush, or St. John SIdney ???

Sunday Talk - 4,000 X 100

by Sam Loomis Sat Mar 29, 2008

Full Lineup & more goodies below...

Poll
John McCain's official Sunday Talk name should be?

McSame
56% 1663 votes

John W. Bush
6% 198 votes

St. John Sidney

link so you can take the poll

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

15. Terror without medical insurance (we need to be fighting the republicans!)

Terror without medical insurance

by winterbanyan at DKOS Sat Mar 29, 2008

The real terrorists this country needs to fear are the health insurance industry and the health care industry. Each day 45 million Americans live in fear and take huge risks because of them. This is just one story.

I want to talk about a political/economic issue as it affects some 45 million Americans: Lack of health insurance. And I want to tell you what it means personally, because all the talk and all the candidate references to individual cases don't really bring home the fear.

I lost my medical insurance a year and a half ago because I simply couldn't afford it anymore. I'm self-employed, so I didn't get the advantage of a group discount. There I was, with premiums amounting to over $11,000 per year, with a deductible of $9000. I had no drug coverage, either. My decision to drop the insurance involved a drop in income thanks to the growing recession. (Those of us out here who directly depend on what others spend felt this economic kick coming long before the media started talking about it.)

So I dropped the insurance. Considering that my previous policy had left me with over $20,000 in bills after an emergency surgery (I almost died), by disallowing everything but the kitchen sink, I couldn't even trust that I'd have much coverage in a disaster. Did I want to be without insurance? Heck no. The very thought gave me chills. I agonized for months.

So here I am today, getting virtually no health care at all. I'm diabetic and I have multiple sclerosis. And I'm scared to death.

more at the link

You should read the diary and the comments. Real people who just try to hang on till
they can get medicare! Asking for Do Not Resucitate rather than run up medical bills.
Not getting medicines because you can't afford them. Being poor but trying to hang onto your
house for your kids sake. The lack of ability for conservatives who like receiving medicare to
understand that we all need health care.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

16. turning in for the night, please add your links or stories

will check back in tomorrow.

thanks and:

:yourock:

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

17. The North Carolina Veterans for Obama group is now up.

Attention Veterans,

The North Carolina Veterans for Obama group is now up.

http://my.barackobama.com/page/group/NorthCarolinaVeteransForObama

This will be the portal for NC Veterans related activities.

[PerfectSage]

18. Frameshop: Why the Smear of Wright Is So Wrong

KEY POINTS:

1. The smear of Rev. Wright that has dragged his pastor through the mud is the second successful effort by right-wing pundits and media to frame the Democratic nominee as a VIOLENT THREAT to Americans.
2. The right-wing violent framing of Obama is increasing largely unchallenged on two fronts: the 'COVERT TERRORIST' frame and the 'ANGRY BLACK MAN' frame

3. Hillary Clinton showed weakness and short-sightedness as a candidate by explicitly parroting right-wing rhetoric, lifted verbatim from the transcripts of FOX News

4. Democratic Party leadership has been largely silent on the very problematic right-wing framing of the election


Who wants to use race and racism to distract the country from discussing the real issues at stake in t his election?

The answer to that question is not Hillary Clinton. Certainly, her campaign is trying to climb on board this smear for short term electoral gain. But ultimately, that is not the agenda or the debate they want to drive. Think again: Who does want to distract voters? Who is so afraid of losing the general election that they are willing to undermine the entire debate by launching a smear so disgusting and so immoral that anyone with a conscience would be forced to pull away from the real issues?

Yep. Now we're starting to see what's going on in this right-wing campaign against Rev. Wright.

What's wrong with the smear is the way it reframes the election on terms the right-wing media wants.

It's the entire machine of people and money and power that we describe with the word 'Rove' that wants this election to be about race and racism.It's the entire machine of people and money and power that we describe with the word 'Rove' that wants this election to be about race and racism.

For the past five years, a well-funded, best-selling, daily-broadcasted right-wing punditry has been arguing precisely this without so much as a peep from Democrats. They names are familiar: Dinesh D'Souza, Pat Buchanan, James Dobson, Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, John Gibson, Wayne LaPierre, Sean Hannity, and on and on and on. In dozens of books, hundreds of syndicated columns, and thousands of TV appearances, these pundits have systematically framed the American political landscape with violent language and logic.

What we are seeing in the smear of Wright is the first full-scale attempt to define a political candidate drawing on this already existing violent framing.

We need to draw attention to it.

We need to speak back to it.

And we cannot let it take one more
step without a significant push back.

FRAMESHOP ARTICLE

[quantass]

19. Obama vs McCain - The Art of Speech [[Video]] ...

A video on the speaking styles of the 2 candidates...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=FdCy3XzlrnQ&feature=related

[quantass]

20. k

[grantcart]

22. very funny they got the voice from the 50s down pat

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

21. DEADBEATS: Cash-strapped Clinton fails to pay bills

The little guy should beware, Clinton campaign drags its feet paying bills, might not return your phone calls.

Cash-strapped Clinton fails to pay bills

By KENNETH P. VOGEL | 3/30/08

Hillary Rodham Clinton’s cash-strapped presidential campaign has been putting off paying hundreds of bills for months — freeing up cash for critical media buys but also earning the campaign a reputation as something of a deadbeat in some small-business circles.

...A pair of Ohio companies owed more than $25,000 by Clinton for staging events for her campaign are warning others in the tight-knit event production community — and anyone else who will listen — to get their cash upfront when doing business with her. Her campaign, say representatives of the two companies, has stopped returning phone calls and e-mails seeking payment of outstanding invoices. One even got no response from a certified letter

...Their cautionary tales, combined with published reports about similar difficulties faced by a New Hampshire landlord, an Iowa office cleaner and a New York caterer, highlight a less-obvious impact of Clinton’s inability to keep up with the staggering fundraising pace set by her opponent for the Democratic presidential nomination, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama.

...And word is getting around that Clinton’s campaign does not promptly pay those who labor to make her events look good, said an employee of the event production company Forty Two of Youngstown, Ohio.

more at the link

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

24. Edwards still not taking sides in Democratic race for president

Sunday, March 30, 2008

Edwards still not taking sides in Democratic race for president

Former candidate dodges questions about endorsement By James Romoser JOURNAL RALEIGH BUREAU

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK - John Edwards is still neutral.

Edwards, the former senator from North Carolina and former presidential candidate, praised Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday at the annual convention of the Young Democrats of North Carolina

...After his speech, Edwards deflected reporters’ questions about which candidate he favors.

“When I have something to say, I’ll let you guys know,” he said.

...Some commentators have speculated that an Edwards endorsement could be a key factor in North Carolina’s May 6 primary. The state’s 115 delegates are being heavily contested by Clinton and Obama, both of whom visited the state last week. On the other hand, a poll released last week suggested that an Edwards endorsement could actually do more harm than good.

In the poll, conducted by the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling, 31 percent of Democratic voters said that if Edwards endorsed Clinton, it would make them less likely to vote for her. Only 12 percent of voters surveyed said that an Edwards endorsement would make them more likely to vote for Clinton.

more at the link

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

25. Brazile Explains Credentials Committee

Brazile Explains Credentials Committee

Josh Marshal Talking Points Memo 03.30.08

Donna Brazile was on This Week<[/i> this morning and explained how the credentials committee works.
If she's right, and I'm sure Brazile knows this stuff like the back of her hand,
it's even worse for Clinton than I thought. According to Brazile, in addition to the
twenty-five members of the Committee appointed by Howard Dean,
the rest of the committee will be made up of 3 members apiece from each state.
In other words, it works sort of like the senate, where all states are counted equally, regardless of their size.
Since Obama has won far more states than Clinton, that should mean he has a decisive majority on the credentials committee.

One thing Brazile didn't mention explicitly is just how the individual state delegations choose
which delegates to put on the committee. The logic of Brazile's statement suggests it's done by majority vote
within those delegations. But again, she didn't say that explicitly. So I'm curious to hear more.

...

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

26. Richard Mellon Scaife now says he has a "very favorable" impression of Sen. Clinton.

Minds Changing

03.30.08 Talking Points Memo

Richard Mellon Scaife now says he has a "very favorable" impression of Sen. Clinton.

--Josh Marshall

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

27. Hillary’s St. Patrick’s Day Massacre

Hillary’s St. Patrick’s Day Massacre

By FRANK RICH Published: March 30, 2008

MOST politicians lie. Most people over 50, as I know all too well, misremember things. So here is the one compelling mystery still unresolved about Hillary Clinton’s Bosnia fairy tale: Why did she keep repeating this whopper for nearly three months, well after it had been publicly debunked by journalists and eyewitnesses?

Sometimes only a shrink can decipher why some politicians persist in flagrantly taking giant risks, all but daring others to catch them in the act (see: Spitzer, Eliot). Carl Bernstein, a sometimes admiring Hillary Clinton biographer, has called the Bosnia debacle “a watershed event” for her campaign because it revives her long history of balancing good works with “ ‘misstatements’ and elisions,” from the health-care task force fiasco onward.

But this event may be a watershed for two other reasons that have implications beyond Mrs. Clinton’s character and candidacy, spilling over into the 2008 campaign as a whole. It reveals both the continued salience of that supposedly receding issue, the Iraq war, and the accelerating power of viral politics, as exemplified by YouTube, to override the retail politics still venerated by the Beltway establishment.

What’s been lost in the furor over Mrs. Clinton’s Bosnia fairy tale is that her disastrous last recycling of it, the one that blew up in her face, kicked off her major address on the war, timed to its fifth anniversary. Still unable to escape the stain of the single most damaging stand in her public career, she felt compelled to cloak herself, however fictionally, in an American humanitarian intervention that is not synonymous with quagmire.

....

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

28. Obama breaking record: 22,000 in Happy Valley, PA (sorry Pat Buchanon)

Obama breaking record: 22,000 in Happy Valley, PA

by HEAT at DKOS Sun Mar 30, 2008

He just broke a record crowd at PennState.



CentreDailyTimes:

Obama spoke for more than an hour before an enthusiastic crowd.

"It's officiallly the largest political rally that Penn STate's ever had in its history,"
Obama campaign worker Dan Gross announced to volunteers after Obama's speech. "We had a history-making day today."

Add to the list of stuff that is happening over the weekend.

Just yesterday He broke the back of the Pat Buchanans(?) that dare him to go to Altoona, PA.
Just one advice to you Pat, don't ever tell Barack it is impossible - ever again. Altoona Mirror:

The Brunhuber family of Altoona finished dinner and was waiting for Obama when he walked through the restaurant.

He signed a notebook page for Noah, 9, the same age as his daughter, Malia.

"Nine’s a really great age," Obama told Noah. "It’s gonna be a great year."

As Obama posed for pictures later, Noah gave him an "Obama for president" drawing from the same notebook, even using Obama’s campaign logo.

Obama said he would hang it in his bus.

"It’s definitely time for a change," said Barb Brunhuber, who said the family supports the candidate and "his whole platform."

Andy Brunhuber, 22, said he really believes Obama has reached out to young voters and said, "Getting out of Iraq" is an important issue for him this election.

About 100 people gathered outside the restaurant behind yellow tape guarded by the Secret Service upon seeing the behemoth buses pull up.

They cheered and held up cameras and cell phones as he came out to shake hands and sign autographs.

Today's Gallup put him over 50 for the first time and consistently up since middle of last week.

more at the link

[Name removed]

29. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

31. this is the "Obama Supporters" Daily News, if you have any Hillary news, you might start your own

Please read the first post. It clearly says this is the Obama Supporters Daily News.

We even remind opponents and Hillary Supporters that they can start their own thread.

Surely you can find some positive news to post about Hillary Clinton.

[JimGinPA]

30. Obama: Hot ticket

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=5318388&mesg_id=5318388

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

32. Hillary on Civil War in Party: Bring it On

Hillary on Civil War in Party: Bring it On

by The Commenter Formerly Known as NCSteve- March 30, 2008

Back during the 2000 recount fight, at some point around Thanksgiving, I remember Jim Baker giving a news conference. I do not remember exactly what he said, but I remember how I translated what he said in my head: "we are willing to escalate this thing all the up to a full scale Constitutional train wreck if that's what it takes. We are entitled to this presidency and no mere facts will prevent us from having it."

It felt like the bottom had dropped out of my guts and my stomach had hit the floor. There was no longer any course open that did not do damage to the body politic. It was acquiesce to their demands or accept the certainty of collateral damage to the fabric of the Republic by fighting with them. I saw, with certainty, that whoever won, there would be no reconcilation when this fight was over and that our civic agreement that at bottom, lawful government is more important than partisan interests, would be badly frayed.

I had that same sick sensation today when I read Josh's post about Hillary's WaPo interview.

No one should make any mistake about what Hillary really said today: "Give me the nomination or the Party gets it!"

If we take her at her word, today committed herself to a fight that is going to leave both sides furious and alienated and that will leave the nominee, whichever one it is, incapable of winning the general election.

more at the link

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

33. Sheila Jackson Lee Booed By Her Obama Supporting Constituents At Democratic Convention

Video at end of post.

Sheila Jackson Lee Booed By Her Obama Supporting Constituents At Democratic Convention

by TM- at TPM Cafe March 29, 2008

This can't be excellent news for Sheila Jackson Lee. At her district's convention today she was booed and interrupted continuously by the same people who have been re-electing her. Why? Her support of Hillary Clinton in a district where he received 90% of the vote. This could be bad news for her when she comes up for re-election. This has to have shaken her. At one point she said

"What would I be
if I went back on my word to an individual that I've worked with for
more than a decade and sat down talked to me about her vision for
America,” said Jackson Lee.

What would she be if her constituents held her accountable for not acting in regard to their wishes? She might find out.

Video of the end of her being booed is here.

[grantcart]

34. Here is the outspoken Obama basher Rep Sheila Jackson Lee hearing her constituents

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwfAOVAIXog My browser doesn't open your link

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

35. babylonsister has good video of it posted here in Political Videos

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=385&topic_id=112424&mesg_id=112424