Hillary’s Voice

Randi Rhodes calls Hillary voters “white trash” (by ryeland at MyDD)
I hope Nova M Radio is happy with their new talk show host, the Left’s own Rush Limbaugh. Randi Rhodes is a disgrace and an embarrassment to Democrats, and I can’t imagine why any organization (political campaign or business) would want to be associated with her hate-filled rhetoric. In the first five minutes of her show [Wednesday], Randi let this one go: “The Clinton campaign describes Hillary’s voters as older, white, and undereducated. Or as we called them in my neighborhood: white trash.”
So Randi, was I white trash when I voted for Obama in the 2004 primary?  Was I white trash when I voted for him in the 2004 general election?  Or did I become white trash only after I was tremendously disillusioned in him as my senator?  With all due respect, Randi, I think the trash is on the other foot.

From Shakespeare’s Sister, three generations of very beautiful “white trash”:

What Pennsylvania tells us (by Joan Walsh, Salon)
I continue to think the ongoing Democratic race is good for the party whoever is the ultimate nominee… What I don’t like about the current stalemate is that so many people who are not Barack Obama supporters insist Clinton’s victories have nothing to do with the real concerns of her supporters; they argue it’s either racism, or just old machine politics, with Clinton ward heelers paying their dues and turning out votes. “They [the Clintons] believe it’s their party, to do with what they will. That is the Clinton attitude,” said Chris Matthews on MSNBC after the Clinton speech, with Keith Olbermann murmuring darkly alongside him. This is just extraordinarily silly.

With Michigan, Florida, Clinton claims popular vote lead (Detroit News)
Searching for votes here the day after her decisive Pennsylvania win, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton claimed before a cheering downtown audience that she now holds a lead in the popular vote over Sen. Barack Obama… I’m very proud that as of today I have received more votes … than anybody else,” Clinton said. “It’s a very close race, but if you count as I do the 2.3 million people who voted in Florida and Michigan,” Clinton said, she leads.
Real Clear Politics has the numbers.

$10 million?! (by lambert at Corrente)
For a campaign that everybody who is anybody says is so poorly runMR SUBLIMINAL They didn’t hire me as to disqualify Hillary for higher office, this number is not too shabby: Her finance director, Jonathan Mantz, told the same donors that between 10 p.m. Tuesday and 2:35 p.m. Wednesday, the campaign brought in $10 million, including contributions from 60,000 new donors… Granted, the campaign was running on fumes; but there’s also a certain courage to throwing everything onto the table—and then being rewarded.

Gene Sperling: The MVP - Another Reason To Support Hillary (by Taters at No Quarter)
Gene Sperling, chief economic advisor to Hillary Clinton [, is] brilliant, highly respected, well liked and in the Clinton administration… Mr. Sperling is credited as being the driving force behind paying off the nation’s deficit - therefore balancing the budget - and taking us into a surplus. Remember that?… He also worked hard with then First Lady Hillary Clinton on S-CHIP. They share a similar work ethic and a passion for doing heavy lifting on complicated, detailed work. He’s known for burning the midnight oil when other souls have gone to bed. Oh yeah, Sperling also helped the Dems beat back President Bush and the GOP’s attempt to privatize social security.

Although he can “wonk” with the best of them - one of the many reasons I like him is his ability to make plain to us layfolks topics such as health care and economics. Our “girl” has that same ability and in my opinion couldn’t have a better person as her senior economic advisor.  Listen to his interview with Marketplace.  And if you want to check out what true progressive economics can be you may wish to read this piece by Mr. Sperling regarding a Universal 401K. The damage done by the current administration will take serious work to repair - but with hard work it is doable. Hillary Clinton is ready to lead and has the best team available.  And Gene Sperling is a big part of that team.

Hunter gets his knickers in a twist and other amusements (by riverdaughter at The Confluence)
Dear media, give it up. No one is listening to you anymore. You can try and try and try to make her look like the most vicious harpy in the world but for some reason, voters don’t believe it. They think she’s a mensch. And she did it with much less money. Oh, you can try your coordinated attack against her. Yes, the coordination is obvious. You’re all saying how relentlessly negative she was. But it isn’t working. She’s going to take this fight all the way to the convention if she has to and we’ll be behind her every step of the way. The bloom is off of Obama’s rose. You did the best you could. If you insist on yelling your heads off about her, you too Big Boyz, more and more the public is going to think you’re not tethered to reality. The damn voters will do as the[y] damn well please.

The intellectual wing of the Democratic Party? WTF? (by lambert at Corrente)
Classic “creative class” [cough] bullshit from BooMan: “Hillary Clinton has managed to seriously get under the skin of the intellectual wing of the Democratic Party.” What a shame for the people that BooMan imagines to be “intellectuals.”… Privileged, self-congratulatory, and at least as likely to be wrong as right: AP: “Clinton, though, showed signs of eating into two groups Obama normally controls as the two split college graduates and whites under age 30.” Of course, I imagine those with college degrees who voted for Clinton aren’t really intellectuals….

The Elites Have Always Been for the Elites (by BDBlue at Corrente)
Today is not the first time the New York Times has urged elites to step in and stop people from destroying the country by voting. From the 1915 New York Times Editorial on the proposal to give women the vote: “The question involved is not new, all the arguments of the suffragists are old and were long ago refuted and sent to limbo. Their ceaseless and noisy agitation has not developed a single new idea. Woman suffrage would result either in a needless political muddle or in a social and political turmoil which would tend to weaken the State, to stir up discord in society and in the home, and would put obstacles in the way of progress which the wisest statesmanship might fail to overcome.”

Keith [Olbermann], what are we talking about here exactly? (by riverdaughter at The Confluence)
Given the recent behavior of your network regarding inappropriate remarks, I don’t expect that this latest stupid comment will get you much more than a slap on the hand. But I think we all have to examine it in order to understand what it is you actually meant… I interpret your statement to mean that you would like a superdelegate to take Hillary Clinton into a room and somehow intimidate her, you don’t specify how, to drop out of the race and that at the end of this process, only one of them, preferably the superdelegate, would emerge. I find [t]his scenario to be unrealistic. It is much more likely that the superdelegate would find himself won over by Senator Clinton’s intelligence, professionalism and energy. But the question that remains unasked is why would she not be able to come out of that room on her own in *your* scenario?

Barack Obama is a leader or is aspiring to be one. And now is the time for him to step up to the plate and both reject and denounce your offensive and socially unacceptable comment. It is time he defend the rights of his wife and daughters and his future female constituents to live and work in peace and safety without fear of intimidation or harrassment. It is time for Obama to condemn this comment and request that you be reprimanded and be forced to apologize to Senator Clinton and the women of this country. It is time for Obama to say that he will not tolerate violence or discrimination in his administration. We would expect no less from a president.

Stupid pundits (by lambert at Corrente)
Nags: “The big question about Barack Obama from the very beginning has been, Is he safe?” said Peter D. Hart, a Democratic pollster not affiliated with any campaign… No, that hasn’t been the question at all. At least among uncreative, class-less types like myself, the big question has always been this: Is he real? Is he asking for my vote on the basis of policy? For many of us, after consideration, the answer has been no.

Protect and Deflect (by John: south of Melrose at Liberal Rapture)
When [Obama] botched the [Pennsylvania] debate he signaled to his supporters, via his middle finger, how they should react. Blame ABC. Blame [Clinton]. Protect and deflect. Confronted with his association with Wright he gave the illusion of confronting it head on. The result of the speech on race had the effect of negating any intelligent conversation - not inviting it… At the end of the Obama nightmare - and there will be one - I believe the first order of the day will be the evisceration of the lethal and irresponsible media. Olbermann and Huffington should be put on a rickety skiff beyond the horizon for starters. We need to wash our hands of the mindless and misleading elements in the “entertainment as news” media complex. We must demand fair and objective information or democracy is dead, dead, dead.

Obama Congregants: Waaaaa! Leave Barry Alone! No More Debates! (by Uppity Woman at No Quarter)
It seems that the debate scheduled for April 27, 2008 has been abruptly cancelled… According to the state party’s press release, the reason for the cancellation is sort of, but not really, this: “time constraints and logistical issues associated with such a large, national event.”… Concurrently, Obama supporters at a Raleigh NC event did what they do best. They chanted… They chanted “No More Debates!!!” Word has it that this rally was held at the same venue where Obama flipped Hillary the bird. Obama wasn’t flipping birds this time though. He was riling up his infantile base to get him out of another debate he can’t handle

Human brain appears ‘hard-wired’ for hierarchy
Human imaging studies have for the first time identified brain circuitry associated with social status, according to researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) of the National Institutes of Health. They found that different brain areas are activated when a person moves up or down in a pecking order – or simply views perceived social superiors or inferiors. Circuitry activated by important events responded to a potential change in hierarchical status as much as it did to winning money. “Our position in social hierarchies strongly influences motivation as well as physical and mental health,” said NIMH Director Thomas R Insel, M.D. “This first glimpse into how the brain processes that information advances our understanding of an important factor that can impact public health.”
Maybe this finding explains the Obamabots’ desire to follow a leader, regardless of policy!  Fortunately, a lot of us have overcome that hard wiring to a great extent.  I hope we are the ones to prevail in this election process.

Who’s Stronger in November Against McCain? (by Jeralyn at TalkLeft)
My own view is that Hillary Clinton is the stronger candidate in November because she is more likely to bring a win in Ohio, Pennsylvania or Florida, she wins in the big states, and she wins with rural, blue collar and women voters. Her win in PA yesterday was a mirror of her win in Ohio. Barack Obama simply is not connecting with these critical groups of voters… Here’s the latest electoral map for Obama. Here’s the map for Hillary.

Obama’s Sour “Apples to Apples”, Part One (by Paul Lukasiak at Corrente)
Barack Obama is hemmorhaging support against John McCain in states where Democrats can/should win in November. In the last six weeks, Barack Obama has been losing support, while Hillary Clinton has gained support, when matched against McCain. Much of Clinton’s additional support is from voters who were undecided in late February, and Clinton essentially “split” the “recent deciders” with McCain; as a result there is little change in her margins against McCain. But people who were undecided whether they preferred Obama or McCain are also making up their minds – and choosing McCain. As a result, Obama’s margins against McCain are looking much worse. This is true among all major demographic categories that were available for comparison – if Obama improves in a category, Clinton has shown greater improvement in that category. And in categories where Clinton is not doing as well as she was in February, Obama is doing consistently worse.

Massachusetts: The Canary in the Coal Mine (by Bud White at No Quarter)
Superdelegates, listen up: The canary that dropped dead is Obama in Massachusetts: in current match-ups, Obama and McCain are tied there… What’s happening in Massachusetts is what we’re seeing in Pennsylvania: Obama doesn’t connect with blue-collar voters. It’s not his race or Harvard pedigree; the election of Governor Patrick dispels that idea. It’s the fact that Obama mocks the concerns of working people and his policy proposals are milquetoast next to Hillary’s, particularly in regards to the concerns of blue-collar workers… Superdelegates, it’s 3 a.m. and your phone is ringing. It’s Massachusetts: the canary is dead.

North Carolina excited to choose between Clinton and Obama
RALEIGH, N.C. - Not since 1988 has North Carolina had much of a voice in choosing a presidential nominee. Back then, it joined several Southern states to help pick Al Gore, a neighbor from Tennessee.
Excited?  Really?  See below.

The Despicable Repug Attack Ads on Obama Have Begun, Making Clinton’s “Dirty Politics” Seem Like Child’s Play (by Andy Ostroy at the Ostroy Report)
They call themselves ExposeObama.com, and they’ve just released their new ad, produced by Floyd Brown, the creator of the infamous 1988 “Willie Horton” ad that sunk Michael Dukakis’ Democratic presidential bid. It’s a shameful, reprehensible, race-baiting attack-ad shown in North Carolina that describes the murders of young people killed in Chicago gang violence and concludes by stating that Sen. Barack Obama, while an Illinois State Senator, voted against the death penalty for gang members convicted of murder. It’s quite chilling in its intentions. Another ad released this week is produced by the North Carolina Republican Party. In it, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright is featured in controversial sermon clips that of course include his incendiary “God Damn America” speech. The ad opposes the two Democratic candidates for Governor, Bev Purdue and Richard Moore, who’ve endorsed Obama. Hence, don’t vote for them because they support Obama, the supporter of hate. It’s a shockingly racist ad and is but a frightening foreshadowing of what’s to come for Obama should he become his party’s nominee.
And how will Obama fight these attacks?  Why, by channeling that great fighter of the right wing, John Kerry.  See below.

N.C. GOP releases Rev. Wright ad (Charlotte Observer)
RALEIGH — A new TV ad from the N.C. Republican Party tries to link two Democratic candidates for governor to Barack Obama’s controversial former minister… “My understanding is that the Republican National Committee and John McCain have both said that the ad’s inappropriate,” he replied, according to The Associated Press. “I take them at their word,” Obama said, “and I assume that if John McCain thinks that it’s an inappropriate ad, that he can get them to pull it down since he’s their nominee and standard-bearer.”
Yes, be gentlemen, why don’t you?  Play fair, doggone it!

Newt Gingrich: Left Wing Of The Democratic Party ‘Admires’ American Terrorists (by John Amato at Crooks and Liars)
Speaking to Sean Hannity on Fox News Friday night, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich told the conservative pundit that “the left wing of the Democratic Party, frankly, kind of admires American terrorists.”

Feds: Witness says Rezko tried to oust Fitzgerald
In the midst of a corruption trial that has provided plenty of fodder for political cynics, prosecutors alleged that political insiders in Washington and Illinois claimed to be working to choke off a criminal investigation launched by U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald. At the trial of Antoin “Tony” Rezko, prosecutors revealed Wednesday that former Rezko confidant Ali Ata was prepared to testify that Rezko told him in November 2004 of a plan to pull strings with then-White House political director Karl Rove to have Fitzgerald fired… Rove denied the allegations, as did the two Republicans… The developments add political intrigue at a trial in which testimony has linked Gov. Rod Blagojevich to pay-to-play politics, highlighted Sen. Barack Obama’s long friendship with Rezko and held up an ugly X-ray of the sometimes malignant inner workings of Illinois government.

McCain dismisses equal pay legislation, says women need more ‘training and education.’ (Think Progress)
[Wednesday], Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) skipped the vote on the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which “restores the longstanding interpretation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act,” overturned last year by a 5-4 Supreme Court ruling. In New Orleans today, McCain explained his opposition to the bill by claiming it “opens us up to lawsuits for all kinds of problems.” He added that instead of legislation allowing women to fight for equal pay, they simply need “education and training”.

John McCain gets tax-free disability pension
Sen. John McCain has long said he is in robust health and is strong enough to hike the Grand Canyon, but he also is receiving what his staff Monday termed a “disability pension” from the Navy.

McCain visits poor Kentucky town to slam big government
INEZ, Ky. — In the heart of Appalachia, in the town where Lyndon Johnson declared the war on poverty but where poverty still reigns, John McCain told voters Wednesday that the government couldn’t solve all their problems.
Something tells me Karl Rove is not running this tour.

McCain Adviser Says McCain Is The One To ‘Stand Up’ To Big Oil (Think Progress)
In a Washington Post discussion [Tuesday], Eric Burgeson, environmental and energy adviser to Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), was asked if McCain will “stand up” and support the elimination of “subsidies” to oil companies. Burgeson responded that McCain isn’t afraid to “stand up” to big business.. McCain has long delivered empty rhetoric about oil companies. In 2007, he said he would end “rifle-shot tax breaks for big oil.” But his proposals are giveaways for Big Oil and big businesses. McCain’s signature tax cut plan would deliver $3.8 billion to the five largest American oil companies, according to a Center for American Progress Action Fund analysis:

THE McCAIN BUBBLE…. (by Kevin Drum at Political Animal, The Washington Monthly)
Jon Cohn notes that despite the grueling, muddy, endless Democratic primary campaign — complete with Wrightgate, Bittergate, Bowlinggate, Tuzlagate, etc. — Gallup’s tracking polls that match up Obama and Clinton vs. John McCain have stayed as flat as Tom Frank’s Kansas prairie over the past month. None of this stuff has helped McCain by even a percentage point. He was stuck at 45% a month ago and he’s stuck at 45% today. Jon takes a guess at what’s going on: “That 45 percent figure represents a ceiling of his support.”
Perhaps, Kevin, but only absent a REALLY NASTY October Surprise.

A truth and reconciliation commission might help… (by lambert at Corrente)
dday at Digby’s has Ashcroft getting nailed by students on torture and the Geneva convention… What really makes me think an October surprise or an election cancellation is more likely than not is that these people know they are guilty of war crimes, of all kinds of crimes, and will do anything to avoid being held accountable.
As I’ve been saying.  As The City Edition has been telling us.

Lots more really good stuff at MakeThemAccountable.com.

Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com