Politics: January 2008 Archives

Leslie and I went to see Obama speak last night here on campus. We also brought Mono and sat aways back so he could see all the people and play a bit with Bea, one of the campus police dogs, when she had a break. Anyways, Barack looked and sounded tired. I have no idea what this kind of thing will do to a person but it probably isn't easy. That said, the crowd got him going. He ending up running through his platform highlights and through some real life examples, as all politicians do. Then he moved on to jokes and storytelling, which I've never heard from him. It was actually pretty damn cool to see him start to relax and feed off of the crowd.

Either way, I doubt we'll see the candidates much after today so this is probably the last time we catch him live and in person. And I have to say, if the kind of crowd Obama draws is indicative of who shows up to caucus today, he's got a damn good chance of winning.

Here's hoping anyway.

By the way, in what is apparently a total surrender to the youth vote, the GOP caucus site is like 8 miles from campus. We can walk five minutes to the Democratic one from our apartment. Or hell, maybe this is a GOP strategy to keep down the Ron Paul support. Either way, it stinks of either failure or collusion. Hmmm.

Hillary Clinton does not respect our people. Hillary Clinton supporters went to court to prevent working people to vote this Saturday -- that is an embarrassment.

Hillary Clinton supporters want to prevent people from voting in their workplace on Saturday. This is unforgivable. Hillary Clinton is shameless. Hillary Clinton should not allow her friends to attack our people's right to vote this Saturday. This is unforgivable; there's no respect

Sen. Obama is defending our right to vote. Sen. Obama wants our votes. He respects our votes, our community, and our people.

Sen. Obama's campaign slogan is "Si Se Puede" ("Yes We Can"). Vote for a president that respects us, and that respects our right to vote. Obama for president, "Si Se Puede"

Paid for by UNITE HERE Campaign Committee

- UNITE HERE radio ad (translation)

After a pro-Clinton teacher's union tried to illegally tilt the Nevada caucus in Hillary's favor, a judge threw out their case. After going after votes with crocodile tears, the Clinton campaign is all about using proxies to provoke racial incidents. Here in Nevada, she's trying to disenfranchise largely Latino workers in the culinary union.

In South Carolina, she uses the conservative president of BET, Bob Johnson, to bring up that Obama - gasp! - may have used drugs in the past. How that is relevant, or even useful, in the 21st century isn't clear. What IS clear is that Clinton just stood there and let it happen and didn't say a damn thing until controversy erupted. What is also clear is that she is tying herself to corporate conservatives to attempt character assassinations on her opponent as a strategy. And yes, what is even more clear is that she is trying to fan the Fear of a Black Man meme to scare African-Americans into voting for her.

While Clinton is trying to start a race war and Bill is increasingly becoming unhinged, her campaign is starting to sound, well, Republican.

Mike Huckabee is also fanning the flames of racism and intolerance, but at least he's honest about it. And that's the only damn positive thing I'll say about him. In South Carolina he's wrapping himself up in the Confederate flag, as only true Republicans know how to do.

He has also compared homosexuality with bestiality, also as only true Republicans know how to do.

Seriously, where do they find these assholes?

Also, Gustavo Arellano takes Mitt Romney to task for being a ungrateful rabid anti-immigrant bastard considering how much Mexico gave his polygamy-loving forebearers.

Wanna know why I don't like golf? Shit like this:

Read this article on the controversy in case you aren't up to date. Just the fact someone in the golf community thought this was even okay should keep me off of a green for at least another decade.

Meanwhile, Obama has been trying, though not always successfully, to avoid being suckered in by Clinton's race baiting. He's also been picking up endorsements from party officials, including John Kerry and, soon, Patrick Leahy. Look, a lot of folks aren't even making endorsements, which probably is more of a slap to Hillary Clinton than anything. For people to even speak up for Obama is a fairly gutsy move given her campaign machine. Kudos to them for joining the rest of us.

On the eve of the NH primary, Barack delivered a message: "Do not take this race for granted." It was a prescient warning.

Polls might have indeed demotivated numerous NH voters, a number of independent voters telling themselves "it's already an Obama landslide, I'd better focus on McCain", or some democrats thinking "it's already an Obama landslide, no need to kneecap Hillary..."

- Post at BarackObama.com on the dangers of listening to pundits

Yesterday a dose of reality set it as Hillary Clinton won the New Hampshire primary. Not by much, but a win is a win and we're probably stuck with her until the convention when hopefully whatever delegates Edwards draws go for Obama. You gotta dream, right?

One thing of note is Hillary's emotional outburst. In the argument that this humanizes her a bit, I agree and think the whole country could have used this bit of info - oh, about 15 years ago. Personally, it seemed forced and a little too well-timed to be believable. Oh, I'm sure the pressures of campaigning and being under so much angry scrutiny *does* have an impact on her. However, I'm pretty sure she's been long-since "experienced" enough to keep that behind the public mask she so notoriously wears. The irony here is two-fold. One, the amount of media thugs who jumped her case but always excuse away conservative crybabies, and two, the woman who asked the question that almost caused the crocodile tears voted for Obama anyway.

I may think she's a faker, but I don't disparage her for trying a valid campaign trick.

What *does* concern me is her ability to be such an angry, petty, egotistical twit. I mean, hell, we've already got those "qualities" with Bush and we're losing troops daily in Iraq because of it.

So the thing was gets me is the absolute slew of stories about Clinton attacking Obama before the primary. Really, whatever happened to running on your record of 35 years or whatever. Check it out if you want: story after story after story about her angry attacks.

ABC offers a comparison of their styles but I think I can provide a simpler explanation.

Last night, Obama started off being very congratulatory of Clinton's win and hushed the dissenters in his crowd. Meanwhile, her supporters were encouraged to boo him when he was on their screens. Obama even hushed folks who booed a bunch of gate-crashing anti-abortion types who tried to mug one of his recent rallies. I'm not saying this makes him a better person, but...well, maybe I *am* saying that.

Well, another story about Obama's win, written by Arianna Huffington. Well put and worth a few moments of your time.

I'm stuck in limbo at the airport and getting ready to plow through another book as I wait. Tired of internet and ready to kick it with old school entertainment. Have a good one.

I've been listening to the relentless NewSpeak about Hillary Clinton and how she MUST BE THE CANDIDATE for months now, and I'm sure most of you have as well. Hilariously enough, most of this talk has come from either fervent Clinton supporters as well as right wing Talibangelical types who think they could run a smear of George Bush's shit on a piece of newspaper and win. And, looking at their options, that would probably be their best bet too.

Anyway, for those Republicans who keep telling me it MUST BE CLINTON, I've always said, "No one has voted yet. Stay tuned." They laugh and go on with their fantasies of a continuation of the Bush Apocalypse. Well, tonight people finally got to vote. Just the farmers and small town folks of Iowa, but it still counts. Given the results, maybe moreso.

So, how did the initial set of voters do? Obama won. Clinton didn't. Actually, she came in third to John Edwards. And if you watched her speech, it was of a woman who truly believes her own press releases than the reality in front of her. She looked - and sounded - defeated but unaware of the consequences of her lack of personality and charisma. Running on name recognition and telling everyone you are the candidate will probably not make you the candidate. It's too early to tell if this is the trend I hope it is, but tonight Edwards earned his righteous indignation, Obama smiled brighter and began to believe, and Clinton should have put out a press release. She sounded ridiculous.