Hillary’s Voice

CNBC Airport Stores sell Hillary Nutcrackers (by New Hampster at No Quarter)
Mike Caulfield at Blue Hampshire writes that during a layover at Reagan National, he wandered into a CNBC News Shop and came face to face with a “Hillary Nutcracker”… So I ask what Mike asked.  Why does a CNBC shop carry the “Hillary Nutcracker”?
To make a profit off outright sexism?
To ridicule a strong US Senator?
To just attack all strong women?
To continue the GE NBC MSNBC campaign against Hillary?…

Did you get it? Did you get the joke? Because strong women hate penises. Strong women want to “bust men’s balls” because let’s face it, they’re envious of our balls. They are all, you know, menopausal and uptight. And we dudes, we’re just hanging out, when they come around cracking our nuts… Because, you know, male power is natural, but female power is a pathology. Always. That’s why a major news outlet can sell a novelty item where a female presidential candidate cracks nuts with her “stainless steel thighs”.

SurveyUSA: Obama Clings To Lead In North Carolina (Political Wire)
A new SurveyUSA poll in North Carolina finds Sen. Barack Obama edging Sen. Hillary Clinton, 50% to 45%. Key finding: “Among those who say they have already voted, Obama leads by 16 points. Among those who say they will vote on Primary Day, Obama and Clinton are effectively tied.”

NC Insider Advantage Poll: Obama and Hillary in Statistical Tie (by Jeralyn at TalkLeft)
A new Insider Advantage poll from North Carolina was released this afternoon. It was taken yesterday and shows Hillary and Barack Obama in a statistical dead heat: Obama 48%, Hillary 45%. Undecided: 7%.

SurveyUSA: Clinton Holds Big Lead in Indiana (Political Wire)
A new SurveyUSA poll in Indiana finds Sen. Hillary Clinton leading Sen. Barack Obama, 54% to 42%. Key finding: “In 4 tracking polls over the past 5 weeks, Clinton has never polled lower than 52%, Obama has never polled higher than 43%.” 

Ipsos Poll: Clinton Leads Obama Nationally (Political Wire)
The latest Ipsos poll shows Sen. Hillary Clinton has taken over the national lead from Sen. Barack Obama among Democrats nationally, 47% to 40%. Key finding: “Democratic support for Clinton remains highest from women (51%), who have a high-school education or less (58%), and very low income respondents (57% among those with an annual household income of $25,000 or less).”

Details for the upcoming presidential primaries and caucuses
Five states and one territory have yet to hold Democratic presidential contests. Here are the details for these races:

Rasmussen: Clinton Way Ahead in West Virginia (Political Wire)
A new Rasmussen Reports survey in West Virginia shows Sen. Hillary Clinton crushing Sen. Barack Obama, 56% to 27% with 17% undecided. The West Virginia primary will be held next week on May 13.

Clinton Steals One Show, While Obama Endures Another (by Alessandra Stanley , New York Times)
Senator Barack Obama sat hunched on Sunday across the desk from Tim Russert on “Meet The Press” on NBC and wearily endured question after question about his relationship with the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton stood up from her armchair on Sunday to tower over George Stephanopoulos on “This Week” on ABC and merrily took on all critics, even the king of the Clinton-bashers, the talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh. “He’s always had a crush on me,” Mrs. Clinton said with a sly smile. Talk shows, even the more serious news programs, are never really about talk; they are about image and demeanor. Together, “Meet the Press” and its rival “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” provided an arresting tableau of the reversal of fortunes in the Democratic race. Mrs. Clinton was forceful, confident and at times even frisky as she easily deflected questions from Mr. Stephanopoulos and members of a town-hall-style meeting in Indianapolis. Mr. Obama, usually the one to see the humor in politics, instead looked grave and dispirited.

Great news! (by lambert at Corrente)
BooMan’s tired of writing about Clinton. All together now: Awwwwwwww! But what’s with the “tired of” riff these guys are running? BooMan’s tired, the Boiz are tired, our famously free press is tired. Hillary’s not tired. The voters aren’t tired. Why are these guys tired? Could dragging a dead Unity Pony be too hard for them?

Why the Press Turned on Obama (by Howard Kurtz, Washington Post)
The man who tried to soar above politics has been brought back to earth by the same media organizations that helped fuel his spectacular rise. After more than a year of mostly glowing coverage, Barack Obama is having to defend his relationship with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, his temerity in not sporting a flag pin, even his arugula-loving, bad-bowling, let-me-eat-my-waffle persona that fostered what Newsweek has branded “the Bubba Gap.”"The media have decided to get tougher on Obama,” says St. Petersburg Times media critic Eric Deggans. “There was so much talk about him getting such an easy ride that some journalists got tired of it.”
Shamed by Saturday Night Live, you mean.

On eve of Indiana, NC, Clinton, Obama duel on gas prices
DURHAM, N.C. - Dueling over gas prices, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama strained for every last vote on Monday, the eve of the Indiana and North Carolina primaries that are the biggest prizes left in their epic Democratic nomination fight.

Monday: The Homestretch (by riverdaughter at The Confluence)
[H]ere is where Obama may have made a fatal mistake: The Gas Tax. I don’t know who’s been giving Clinton advice lately but this was pretty, fricking brilliant. WE know that any gas tax holiday would be short term, made up with taxes on excess profits and those taxes could be structured to take the incentive out of manipulating the markets. The benefit to consumers would be small but not insignificant. And out comes Obama with an ad that essentially tells consumers to suck it up because Clinton is pandering to them. Then he offers them a tax cut. Bwahahahahah! I swear, Obama and his fanbase have no clue. They want so desperately to jettison the working class. They think they can win without them. We’ll see. One thing I know for sure: undecideds make up their minds based on the last thing they heard as they walk into that voting booth and Hillary always has a killer ad on the last day.

Who you gonna believe? Econ 101 or your lyin’ eyes? (by lambert at Corrente)
George Frost in Salon: “During one state Senate floor debate, Obama joked that he wanted signs on gas pumps in his district to say, ‘Senator Obama reduced your gasoline prices.’ Now, running for president, Obama says the tax reduction was a complete failure, and that ‘the oil companies, the retailers’ ended up benefiting most because they raised prices by the entire amount of the tax cut… But Obama is wrong. He did not learn this lesson. In fact, the only scientific study done on the pass-through of the tax holiday savings to Illinois consumers (and those in Indiana, as well, whose citizens enjoyed a similar holiday) found that it actually worked to a large extent.” But wait! A gas tax holiday works in fact, but will it work in theory? Who cares? The next President should be able to do like FDR did — try something, anything, to help people. Naturally, the creative class Bullshit Artists don’t want to do that, because their theories are what make them who they are.

The Satanic Gas Tax Holiday for Flag Burning (by eriposte at The Left Coaster)
The funny thing is that what she has proposed - moving the tax burden to corporations from low income and middle class Americans - is as liberal a policy as it gets. Now, one can legitimately argue that this policy has only limited benefits (or maybe more) for consumers (as Sen. Obama and some economists argue), but this type of policy long used to be considered a liberal policy position (tax rich corporations rather than less-well off individuals) - i.e., until this primary and until The Precious decided he would oppose it (after enjoying the benefit of supporting it when he was in the IL state senate) - at which point it became the Satanic Gas Tax Holiday. Even more fascinating are the “liberals” fainting on the couch because she proposed something that is “DOA in Congress”. Can you just imagine this Horrible Crime?! Obviously none of these people were presumably advocates for impeachment or other such minor trivialities that were “DOA in Congress”, so I certainly appreciate their Highly Informed, Creative Class, Liberal “Non Elite” world view.

“Mitchellism” (by riverdaughter at The Confluence)
I am coining a new term today. Mitchellism: The tendency of the media to see American politics through its own eyes and to over value its impact on the voting public… Andrea Mitchell is the high priestess of cluelessly arrogant Mitchellism. This was brought home to me [Monday] morning when she snippily and half mockingly told Howard Wolfson that the gas tax idea was DOA in Congress, it would never get passed and anyway, the NYTimes had already weighed in on this issue and concluded that Hillary was insincere for even proposing it. Wolfson deftly put her in her place by saying something like, (paraphrasing heavily) “A politician makes a proposal, it goes in front of the public, their representatives hash it out, public opinion gets shaped one way or another and things get voted on. It’s called Democracy, Andrea. You should look it up sometime.”

Is Obama misrepresenting what I said? (by Paul Krugman)
[A]pparently there’s an Obama ad citing something I said about McCain’s gas tax holiday as a way to attack Hillary Clinton. I did not say that the Clinton proposal would increase oil industry profits. If the ad implies that I did, it should be retracted. The Clinton proposal is financed by an excess profits tax. At worst, it sends money in a circle. In practice, it would probably reduce oil industry profits at least slightly, since the rise in the pre-tax price of gasoline probably wouldn’t wipe out all of the tax cut. I was very clear when I wrote about the Clinton proposal that while I didn’t think it was good policy, it was not the same as McCain’s, and relatively harmless. If the Obama people are suggesting otherwise, they’re being deliberately dishonest. Update: Here’s the ad.

$30 from a gas tax holiday buys one person food for a month, but do “Creative class” [cough] Obama Fan Boys care? Guess… (by lambert at Corrente)
As alert reader gqmartinez points out, $30 is a month’s worth of food, if you need to live on ramen noodles. And as alert reader BDBlue points out, it’s 15 weeks worth of school lunches for one of your kids… Now, to [Matt] Stoller, $30 is what? Seven vente lattes and a croissant? I’d say. Though maybe he goes for the pumps of vanilla syrup instead of the croissant. I really wouldn’t know… Take that Unity Pony out for a drag, boys. But you know what? I think your pony’s starting to smell.

Woman Indy driver backs Hillary (Hot off the Trail, McClatchy)
The youngest woman ever to drive in the Indianapolis 500 is backing Hillary Clinton in Tuesday’s Indiana Democratic primary. “Hillary will be a president who steers our country in the right direction and puts our economy back on track,” said Sarah Fisher, leaving no racing or driving cliche behind. “Something Hillary and I have in common is our commitment to achieving our goals, leaving roadblocks behind and refusing to be knocked down. Hillary is a doer and a fighter who keeps getting out there, going for the checkered flag.”
And she knows something about gas prices!

The mature choice is Senator Clinton. (by John: south of Melrose at Liberal Rapture)
General Hugh Shelton’s endorsement of Senator Clinton is beautifully expressed vision of why Hillary is the right choice for America. I love this speech - but I must say the picture of the person holding the sign that says :Hillary, like Bill only BETTER - won my heart. The mature choice is Senator Clinton.

Not Liberal, Not Left (by Anglachel)
Something that I keep running into on the blogs is the idea that because The Precious rubs elbows with a semi-Black Nationalist (Wright) and a former terrorist (Ayers) that he is somehow “far left” and/or that the DNC, because of its favoritism, has somehow been infiltrated by the old 60s anarchic Left. Balderdash. Obama is an opportunist. Beginning and end of story… I don’t think Golden Boy Barry shares any concrete views with either of the crackpots. He simply used them as stepping stones within the rarified environment of the University of Chicago political neighborhood. His lack of any stance that might possibly hint of a core principle, let alone political radicalism, pretty much crosses that out. As with his supporters, Obama is into feel-good politics that make gestures in the right directions, not anything that causes a restructuring of basic socio-economic relationships.
Hmmm… Who does that sound like?  Oh, I know.  How about a president who promised help for Katrina victims and delivered almost nothing?  How about a president who promised help for New York after 9/11, but only came through because Charles Schumer and Hillary Clinton held his feet to the fire?

Obama needs to be a senator first (Letter to the Editor, Chicago Tribune)
Since when did the office of the president of the United States become an entry level position?
I voted for Barack Obama for U.S. senator. I, along with other Illinoisans, gave him the job. However, the moment he arrived in Washington, he started an exploratory committee to test the waters for the presidential race. By the end of that year, he effectively quit his job and spent the rest of his ever-so-brief career running for president… Obama needs to work his way up, gain the experience, judgment and some personal grounding before he runs for the most powerful office in the free world.

Obama Tells Workers, When They Lose Their Job, They Lose Their Dignity (by Jeralyn at Talk Left)
If I were an Indiana voter listening to Obama, I don’t think I’d appreciate him telling me that since I’ve lost my job, I’ve lost my dignity. The crowd didn’t react to the statement. Certainly no cheering.
Click through to watch the video.

OBAMA’S PRIVATE TALKS WITH UNIONS… ANOTHER SECRET PROMISE (by A View From a Broad at TaylorMarsh.com)
Barrack Obama has privately told the unions he would lift regulations. When asked about this on TV, he “broadened” the comment by suggesting he would take a look at it. In fact, I can’t begin to count the number of times Obama has said “we are thinking about it”.. In private he appears to be telling people one thing,as he did with NAFTA and Canada in the Ohio primaries. Just how much is Obama committing to in private in order to get votes… and he has the nerve to point to Clinton and use the word pander.

Obama Denies Pledge to Teamsters to End Federal Oversight (Fox News)
Barack Obama on Monday disputed a Wall Street Journal story that claims the Democratic presidential candidate won the endorsement of the Teamsters Union by agreeing to push for dismantling the oversight board that reviews allegations of union ties to organized crime.

The Violent Language of Right-Wing Pundits Poisons Our Democracy (by Jeffrey Feldman, Ig Publishing, posted at AlterNet)
On TV and the radio, conservative pundits infuse violence into their arguments, destroying our precious culture of civil debate.
Well, Jeffrey, what do you have to say about the violent language of Obama supporters toward Clinton supporters that we’re seeing so much of on the internet?  To me, they sound just like right wingers.  They are exactly like the Bushbots of 2000, and as I’ve said before I have to wonder if the ARE the Bushbots of 2000.

A Serious Charge (by Big Tent Democrat at TalkLeft)
Here is the problem with the Left Blogs: “I get the sense that Clinton has decided to game entirely on going after conservative Democratic voters, using the gimmick of the gas tax holiday, pugilistic foreign policy ideas, and race-baiting.” And finally, the ease with which the destructive and inflammatory charge of “race baiting” is levelled, without citing even one example of this so called race baiting, is an indication that the Left blogs are simply smearmongers now. Disgraceful. Let me quote Charlie Rangel, ironically cited in the same post for other purposes: “…I was so completely surprised when the question was raised as to whether or not Bill Clinton, when he was attacked by Jim Clyburn who certainly doesn’t speak for all African-Americans and he’s supposed to not be involved in being neutral in this race, when Bill Clinton raised the fact that Jackson also had won in South Carolina.”

McCain criticizes Obama for vote against chief justice
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Republican John McCain is castigating Democrat Barack Obama for voting against John Roberts as Supreme Court chief justice.
And he had to be pushed by us constituents into doing it.

McCain will seek judges like Roberts, Alito
WINSTON-SALEM, North Carolina (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain said on Tuesday he would appoint judges in the mold of conservatives John Roberts, Samuel Alito and former Chief Justice William Rehnquist if he were elected in November.

AP IMPACT: More than 3.5 million new voters, AP survey finds
DURHAM, N.C. - Voter excitement, always up before a presidential election, is pushing registration through the roof so far this year — with more than 3.5 million people rushing to join in the historic balloting, according to an Associated Press survey that offers the first national snapshot.

Lots more really good stuff at MakeThemAccountable.com.

Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com