Hillary’s Voice

ABC News

Analysis: Clinton crushes Obama across the board (CNN)
(CNN) — After enduring a week of political obituaries, Sen. Hillary Clinton’s campaign proved Tuesday that it still has some life. Clinton, as expected, trounced Democratic front-runner Sen. Barack Obama in the West Virginia primary. In the process, she underscored Obama’s weakness with blue-collar, working-class white voters — a segment of the electorate that may prove pivotal in November. Buoyed by her landslide margin, Clinton vowed to continue what has become a longshot campaign, telling supporters at a Charleston rally that she is “more determined than ever to carry on this campaign until everyone has had a chance to make their voices heard.”

Pro-Clinton Unions Continue Full-Steam Ahead (by Jake Tapper at Political Punch, ABC News)
Officials from four labor unions that endorsed Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, say they will continue to lobby for her candidacy regardless of the daunting delegate math. One union is even hoping Clinton takes her battle against Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, all the way to the floor of the Democratic National Convention in August.

Clinton ‘determined’ after win in W. Va., but does it matter? (McClatchy)
CHARLESTON, W. Va. — Hillary Clinton clobbered Barack Obama in West Virginia Tuesday, clinging to hope that her late win in a small state could slow his march toward the Democratic presidential nomination.
McClatchy is more and more in the tank for Obama.  How can they call this a news story, with all these opinionated adjectives in it?  “Late” win, “small” state, “slow HIS march”, and worst of all, “does it matter”?  It matters to me, opiners of McClatchy.  It matters to me very much.

Obamaland (by Big Tent Democrat at TalkLeft)
Chris “Tweety” Matthews, speaking from the ObamaLand that is the Obama News Network, NBC, is talking about Hillary Clinton living in “HillaryLand.” It is one of the more amazing “news” broadcasts one has ever seen… [I]s that REALLY the only story of the night? (In ObamaLand, Tweety is predicting a “surprisingly close” Kentucky result.)… The problem that has not passed the lips of anyone on the Obama News Network - the “presumptive nominee” lost by 40 points in a primary. Has this EVER happened? How could it have happened? What does it mean?

Presence and Absence (by Anglachel)
First, it is not just that Hillary won the WV primary. Hillary won it with an incredible turn out… Hillary is a presence in this election. People in primary states are turning out in the millions for her and are growing increasingly loyal as the political powers that be refuse to acknowledge the legitimacy of her run and the reality of her support. Second, there was the complete absence of the much lauded Obama machine bringing in new voters and transcending politics as usual… I can see a loss in a state where demographics favor your opponent, but 41%? Of the front-running presumptive nominee? Who outspent Hillary 2-to-1 and has the entire MSM lined up singing his praises? Where’s the beef, Barry?

In contest after contest, we see him failing to turn out the massive numbers that his allegedly unstoppable movement says they command. We see dominance in highly restrictive caucuses… It is beginning to look like the main reason for Obama’s red state caucus successes is the absence of voters, not the presence of new ones. I’m reminded of a tornado that tears through a landscape and can exert tremendous force, but when the motion slows, it vanishes, leaving nothing but destruction behind it.

Obama’s Superdelegate Bamboozle (RezkoWatch)
Does Sen. Obama hold within his grasp the power to truly blackmail his fellow Democrats into supporting him? Although he may have a huge database at his disposal of low-dollar contributors, what every candidate has available—should they want to access them—are huge databases of contributors who have donated more than $200 to any candidate which are available straight out of public records held by the IRS. Every campaign has to file those records quarterly and finalize them within 30 days of the end of the calendar year. A second available source to every candidate are voter registration records that can be purchased from each state’s Democratic Party, which presidential candidates do. Besides, what keeps any candidate from doing the same thing Sen. Obama and others have done?… Shame on every single superdelegate who falls for this P.T. Barnum-sized bamboozle.

W Virginia keeps distance from Obama (Financial Times)
No Democrat has been elected to the White House without carrying West Virginia since 1916, yet Mr Obama appears to have little chance of winning there in November. Recent opinion polls indicate that Mrs Clinton would narrowly beat Mr McCain in the state but Mr Obama would lose by nearly 20 percentage points.

Tuesday: Look over there! (by riverdaughter at The Confluence)
I was listening to Taylor Marsh this morning on podcast… Taylor mentioned: Republicans are looking on this with awe because they can’t believe that we are giving them the weakest candidate this fall. She mentions Rush Limbaugh specifically at being astonished at how the Democratic party is about to self destruct by passing up the stronger candidate. I don’t have much to add to that correct assessment except that there is no way I could ever contemplate voting for Clinton as Obama’s VP. If there has to be a unity ticket, she must be at the top. It looks more and more like there will have to be a unity ticket as much as I hate the idea. I think we can get African-Americans to sign on to him being her VP. That would get him the experience he needs and he can run in 2016. It’s the only viable option and would be a killer ticket, even if Michelle wants to dig out someone’s eyes about it. Any other combination of Obama on the ticket is a deal breaker. But the concept is so sensible that we can expect Donna and Nancy to shoot it down.

Electoral-Vote.com, May 13, 2008 (270 needed to win)
Clinton                   280        McCain     241        Tie      17
Obama                    237        McCain     290        Tie     11
Click through to see the maps.

When Following The Leader Can Lead Into The Jaws Of Death
ScienceDaily (May 13, 2008) — For animals that live in social groups, and that includes humans, blindly following a leader could place them in danger. To avoid this, animals have developed simple but effective behaviour to follow where at least a few of them dare to tread — rather than follow a single group member.
I guess that explains it—I’m one of those who just can’t allow myself to be swept up in any hysteria, to follow any pied piper.

Dear Supers: The party has no one to blame but itself (by riverdaughter at The Confluence)
There is no way for Obama to win this fall. *HE* has successfully thrown most of the base under the bus and many of us want nothing to do with him. Let me repeat that: HE and his campaign surrogates have disowned us. Not the media. Obama… You know and we know what will happen this fall. The AA voters will get diluted, as always. The states that Obama won by caucus will go Republican, as always. And the states that you desperately needed, like Florida and Michigan will probably also fall into Republican hands. Now, I don’t know what’s going on in the party behind closed doors but if you have a choice. You can grow a pair and tell the Deaniacs to stick it where the sun don’t shine or you can face the voters this fall and have a weakling at the top of the ticket. And if he goes down, he may take the rest of you with him.

SurveyUSA: Obama Up By Double-Digits in Oregon (Political Wire)
With one week until the primary, a new SurveyUSA poll in Oregon finds Sen. Barack Obama leading Sen. Hillary Clinton, 54% to 43%. Key finding: “Though the results are only slightly more in favor of Obama than SurveyUSA’s most recent track point, released 11 days ago, before results of North Carolina and Indiana were known, there is movement in Oregon among women. 5 weeks ago, Clinton led by 7 among Oregon women. Today, Obama leads by 7.”

SurveyUSA: Clinton Holds Wide Lead in Kentucky (Political Wire)
With the primary one week away, a new SurveyUSA poll in Kentucky finds Sen. Hillary Clinton way ahead of Sen. Barack Obama, 62% to 30%. Clinton’s lead is effectively unchanged from the last three polls over the past month.

Overnight Open Thread (by Jeralyn at TalkLeft)
Obama is likely to do as poorly in KY as he did in W. VA. Counting MI and FL votes (not delegates), she’s going to either top Obama or get really close to him in the popular vote total. As to what you can do, here’s my suggestion: If you live in a state that went for Hillary, check out the superdelegates from your state that are in Congress. Write them and tell them that since Hillary won in your state and she’s the most electable in November, if they do not support her, you will take that into account in deciding whether to encourage someone else to run for his or her seat in the Democratic primary next time around. And, if Obama is the nominee and loses in the general, you will hold them personally responsible… That’s your leverage. In my opinion.

And then there’s also the possibility of donating:

Or, if you’re maxed out: Not So Fast… (by Scan at TaylorMarsh.com)
WomenCount PAC plans to run the following full-page, front section “open letter” in USA Today and other newspapers in the coming days, and they need your support.
Click through for more information.

Not So Fast…
Hillary’s Voice is OUR Voice,
And She’s Speaking for All of Us

Obama vows to seat Fla. delegates
Barack Obama promised a group of uncommitted superdelegates today that he would seat Florida’s delegation at the Democratic National Convention this summer.
HE will seat them?  Is he king already?

Florida And Michigan (by Big Tent Democrat at Talk Left)
On CNN, Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson did a fantastic job pushing back on the 2025 Magic Number focusing on the importance of seating Florida and Michigan. Donna Brazile did her usual schtick. Some neutral Party figure. But Howard Wolfson talks about voters. Donna Brazile talks about the rules. Who do you think wins that PR war. Wolfson’s winning slogan for seating the delegates: “It’s the right thing to do and it is the smart thing to do.” He’s right.
Click through to watch the video.

So Pledged Delegates Really Are NOT Pledged (by Big Tent Democrat at TalkLeft)
This is a hilarious development: “Prince George’s County Executive Jack B. Johnson, a Democratic convention delegate pledged to support Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, said yesterday that he thinks Sen. Barack Obama has ‘in a real sense’ won the Democratic nomination and that he now plans to support Obama at the August convention.” Heh. Now it seems to me the Obama camp needed to tell this fellow he should not do that. But they did not: “David Plouffe just . . . mentioned that the Clinton Campaign has said that pledged delegates could switch. He said their focus is on reaching 2025 total delegates and that it is in reach.” Um Plouffe, if everyone can vote how they want, no one will reach 2025 or 2209 until the convention in August. What a dumb move by him.

Obamites Pile on Clinton at Own Peril (by Froma Harrop, writing at Real Clear Politics)
Many in the Obama camp, having outfoxed the apparently not-so-formidable Clinton machine, can’t seem to get the hang of winning gracefully. They feel a need to drive a stake in Hillary Clinton’s reputation, then dance. If they were smart, they’d heap praise on Clinton and let her finish out the race, however she chooses to do so… Nonetheless, Obamites are throwing victory parties over the impending defeat of a fellow Democrat who has thus far pulled in over 47 percent of their party’s primary and caucus participants. Some take a more direct approach. In anticipation of the West Virginia primary, college students for Obama were hurling insults at farmers and truck drivers holding signs for Clinton… Obama can’t beat John McCain without large chunks of Clinton’s core constituency: women, Hispanics and the white working class. Dumping on their candidate is one step removed from dumping on them — and some of the Obama people don’t even bother with that step.

Away From Obama’s Crowds, Racist Moments (Washington Post)
Obama Campaigners Encounter Raw And Surprising Racism As They Push Democratic Frontrunner
And we Clinton supporters encounter raw and surprising sexism—from Obama supporters.

A Farewell to the ‘Hillary Nutcracker’ and Other Obscenities (by Marie Cocco, writing at TruthDig)
WASHINGTON—As the Democratic nomination contest slouches toward a close, it’s time to take stock of what I will not miss. I will not miss seeing advertisements for T-shirts that bear the slogan “Bros before Hos.” The shirts depict Barack Obama (the Bro) and Hillary Clinton (the Ho), and they are widely sold on the Internet. I will not miss walking past airport concessions selling the Hillary Nutcracker, a device in which a pantsuit-clad Clinton doll opens her legs to reveal stainless steel thighs that, well, bust nuts. I won’t miss television and newspaper stories that make light of the novelty item. I won’t miss episodes like the one in which the liberal radio personality Randi Rhodes called Clinton a “big f—in’ whore” and said the same about former vice presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro… I won’t miss Citizens United Not Timid (no acronym, please), an anti-Clinton group founded by Republican guru Roger Stone.
Click through for more examples of what Marie won’t miss.

Roberts blasts media on “blatant sexism” (Blue Spot)
I can’t remember a time I ever agreed with Cokie Roberts, but this week on “This Week” she actually made some sense. Here she is blasting the media for the “blantant sexism” they have shown throughout their coverage of the election.

MSNBC - Land of the bigots. (by John: south of Melrose at Liberal Rapture)
The deep bigotry in the United States is not connected to race. Racism is not gone in the USA but things have gotten much, much better despite the whining of people like Michelle Obama. At present issues of race are often actually issues of responsibility as much, or more, than bigotry. However, bigots like Chris Mathews, and Keith Olbermann spew sexism - they slander and insult 50% of the population nightly. In fact, MSNBC relies on these 2 bigots as the lynch pin of their programming. Obama has not spoken out against this sexism - in fact he’s used it to his benefit. The real liberals in America will survive the bigoted pro Obama onslaught of the last few months - and we must then confront sexists like Olbermann forcefully.

Clinton was brain behind the [Senate] war room (by Alexander Bolton, The Hill)
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) was the original impetus behind the Senate Democratic “war room,” a legacy the candidate does not mention on the campaign trail but one that has significantly changed the upper chamber. The war room is the name for the communications center that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) created after the disastrous 2004 election, when Democrats lost four Senate seats, including the seat held by former Democratic leader Tom Daschle (S.D.)… Clinton first proposed a Senate war room while Daschle was the Senate Democratic leader, but the soft-spoken South Dakotan declined to implement her idea, said Ross K. Baker, a political science professor at Rutgers University who on Friday finished a five-month stint as a guest observer working in Reid’s leadership office.

I guess Obama will DO ANYTHING to win.  By the way, this was the speech where he dissed those who were against the Vietnam War, repeating another right-wing talking point about soldiers supposedly being mistreated.  I know some of that went on in talks and speeches about soldiers in general, but I don’t know of any proven cases of individuals being treated badly.
Wonkette

Obama: Don’t fund independent groups (Politico)
But Democrats who support the work of the media 527s say Obama’s making a mistake. Progressive Media USA has aired anti-McCain television ads and developed a website intended to be a hub for negative information about McCain. “Obama needs a baseline to the melody of his positive message,” said a Democratic strategist who backs the group’s aims.
Look into my eyes.  Give me all your money.  Then send this email to 10 other people, and you will become incredibly rich.

McCain Again Steps Away from Bush (The Trail, Washington Post)
For the second day in a row, McCain took pains to distance himself from President Bush on the question of climate change, saying “there’s a longstanding, significant, deep disagreement between myself and the administration on this issue.” McCain argued he would press for an international climate pact in order to curb the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. “I will lead, I will lead this nation and the world, and we will address climate change,” he said. “America will lead, and not obstruct.”

McCain Adviser Misleadingly Cites CBO Report, Says Webb’s GI Bill ‘Does Nothing To Address Reenlistment’ (Think Progress)
On Fox News’s America’s Election HQ [Monday], Nancy Pfotenhauer, a senior policy adviser to Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), disingenuously attacked Sen. Jim Webb’s “21st Century GI Bill,” in order to justify her boss’s opposition to the bill. Webb’s bill “does nothing to address reenlistment and retention,” charged Pfotenhauer… But, as ThinkProgress has noted, the CBO report cited by Pfotenhauer actually shows that Webb’s bill would increase enlistment to such an extent that it would completely offset the loss in retention.
Click through to watch the video.

McCain on whether he’s still comfortable with Hagee’s endorsement: ‘I’ve accepted his endorsement.’ (Think Progress)
[Tuesday], controversial pastor John Hagee issued an apology to the Catholic church for inflammatory comments he made in the past. But as ThinkProgress noted, Hagee has yet to apologize to other groups he has denigrated, such as the LGBT community. Asked today if he was still comfortable with Hagee’s endorsement, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) deflected the question, saying he merely “accepted” Hagee’s support and doesn’t embrace everything he says… But McCain didn’t just “accept” Hagee’s endorsement; he actively sought it. In fact, he “personally wooed Hagee for more than a year.” Hagee recently told the New York Times Magazine that “it’s true that McCain’s campaign sought my endorsement.”

The press polishes the McCain “brand” (by Eric Boehlert at Media Matters)
Campaign aides for Sen. John McCain want very much to sell the American public on the “McCain brand” and to pitch the Republican candidate as a sort of stand-alone, untarnished political entity, according to a recent Washington Post article… So guess what members of the press, including those at MSNBC, CNN, NBC, The Washington Post, Newsweek, the Politico, and The Boston Globe, have been doing incessantly in recent weeks. They’ve been making glowing references to the durability and appeal of the “McCain brand.” I mean, how lucky can the Republicans get? The press is echoing precisely the message that the candidate’s advisers want repeated again and again. What are the odds?

Washington Post’s Balz: Media will scrutinize McCain ‘once the general election really begins.’ (Think Progress)
During a Washington Post online discussion [Tuesday], a questioner wondered why Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) is running close to Sens. Barack Obama (D-IL) and Hillary Clinton (D-NY) in polling despite “discontent” with the direction of the country and President Bush “at an all time high.” Post reporter Dan Balz cited McCain’s “maverick identity,” and — echoing one of his colleague’s sentiments — added that press scrutiny of McCain will come in time: “It’s been said repeatedly that McCain may be the only Republican who could win the White House, given the public’s disaffection with the president and the GOP. Both he and the Democratic nominee will get renewed scrutiny once the general election really begins.”
Someday, when I’m old and gray…  Oops, I’m already old and gray.  Start soon, Dan.

Republican ‘re-branding’ poised to launch (by Steve Benen at Crooks and Liars)
GOP leaders … [have] been worried about the Republican “brand” for quite a while. Indeed, way back in October, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) quietly launched a re-branding initiative, working to with corporate advertising and rebranding experts to help Republicans turn things around. Seven months later, we’re finally going to see what these guys have come up with. Subscription-only Roll Call reported: “After months working behind the scenes, House Republican leaders this week will finally start rolling out their rebranding effort aimed at rallying the party around a comprehensive policy and message agenda. Titled ‘Reasons to Believe,’ the plan is meant to provide House Republicans with a sales pitch to voters by focusing on four issue areas: the economy, energy, health care and security…” In other words, the re-branded Republican Party will look exactly like the old Republican Party, except now we’ll hear GOP candidates saying “change you deserve” an awful lot.

Rush Limbaugh Wins as Election’s Biggest Manipulator (by Rory O’Connor, AlterNet)
The media and Democrats need to stop buying into — and promoting — the so-called “Limbaugh effect.”
Biggest SELF-DESCRIBED election manipulator.  And biggest self promoter.

Lots more really good stuff at MakeThemAccountable.com.

Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com