Hillary’s Voice

Obama holding on to small lead over McCain: poll
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama opens the general election campaign with a narrow lead over Republican John McCain but the two score near even among independent voters, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday.

Al Gore backs Obama, says US needs new vision
DETROIT (Reuters) - Former Vice President Al Gore pledged on Monday to do all he could to help Barack Obama win the White House, saying it was crucial the United States has not only a new leader but a new vision for its future. Gore, one of the most prominent figures in the U.S. Democratic party and known around the world for his push to combat climate change, publicly backed Obama for the first time at a huge rally in Detroit.
I am more disappointed than I can say.  I have lost all respect for Al Gore now that he, too, has given his stamp of approval to the use of Rovian tactics by a Democrat against another Democrat.

Monday: Hoodwinked and Bamboozled (by riverdaughter at The Confluence)
Have you ever been on the receiving end of some practical joke or confidence scheme? You know, where you’ve been lead on for a good long time only to find everything was a scam and deception from the word go? That’s the way I feel about this past primary season now that the DNC has effectively picked the winner and moved the whole racket to Chicago… I never thought I’d see the day that one democrat would use racist smears against another to get elected. I also never thought I’d see the day that one democrat and the party leaders would blatantly steal like they have this cycle. I just can’t get past this. I would rather see the party die altogether than get away with this. It can’t continue as a viable party if this is let stand.

Cash Cow (by Anglachel
[USA Today:] “[Former Clinton supporter Ed] Rendell, who plans to campaign on Obama’s behalf and raise money for him, said [Monday night’s] event in Philadelphia is a joint fundraiser for Obama and the cash-strapped Democratic National Committee. But in a sign of the urgency to raise campaign cash, Rendell said Obama didn’t want to reschedule tonight’s fundraiser, even though the governor warned him that many Philadelphia donors were headed to the New Jersey shore for the weekend. Rendell said Obama told him: ‘We don’t need the people. We just need the checks.’” And there, in a nutshell, is the Obama campaign. The Cash Cow has replaced the Unity Pony. Who needs people when you can just collect checks?

Obama adviser demonstrates severe lack of knowledge (by John: south of Melrose at Liberal Rapture)
In a stunning case of stupidity and historical illiteracy Obama policy adviser, Susan Rice, stated on CNN in regards to the Kennedy/Krushchev meeting in June 1961: “Thank God he did because if he hadn’t we would have not been able to resolve the Cuban Missile Crisis”… The historical evidence suggests the opposite of Rice’s statement is the case. Krushchev came away from the meeting believing Kennedy was weak and inexperienced. Even Kennedy knew he had blundered:

Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur (by Paul Krugman)
I saw this phrase in Alan Furst’s new book The Spies of Warsaw; it means “The world wants to be deceived, so let it be deceived.” A good slogan for the Bush years - but not only in reference to Bush. I just read Naomi Klein: “Barack Obama waited just three days after Hillary Clinton pulled out of the race to declare, on CNBC, ‘Look. I am a pro-growth, free-market guy. I love the market.’” followed by a rant against Jason Furman. Look, Obama didn’t pose as a Nation-type progressive, then turn on his allies after the race was won. Throughout the campaign he was slightly less progressive than Hillary Clinton on domestic issues — and more than slightly on health care. If people like Ms. Klein are shocked, shocked that he isn’t the candidate of their fantasies, they have nobody but themselves to blame.

Campaign coverage puzzle (by Paul Krugman)
OK, I don’t get it. Barack Obama’s new Social Security proposal, love it or hate it, is huge news; it would push tax rates on some high-income Americans back to the levels of the 1970s. Yet the proposal has received minimal media coverage… I went over to the Tax Policy Center’s blog, and discovered that the Obama campaign is itself downplaying the initiative: “The campaign clarified that the threshold would be $250,000, but Senator Obama has not specified what the rate would be, when it would take effect, whether it would apply to employers, employees, or both, or what the tax base would be.” Um, if the Obama campaign hasn’t figured out what this policy is, perhaps it would be best not to speak about it?

Consolation’s prize: Chimps reduce stress with a kiss or hug
Researchers studying people’s closest genetic relatives found that stress was reduced in chimps that were victims of aggression if a third chimp stepped in to offer consolation.
But we don’t have that in the Democratic Party, oh, no.  What we have is Bush-style revenge appointments.  See below.

Obama’s Scorched Earth Policy (by Larry Johnson at No Quarter)
For the first time in memory, a candidate for the office of President has named the Chief of Staff for their eventual Vice Presidential candidate. Got that? Rather than trust the Vice Presidential nominee to choose their own guy or gal, the Obamas went and got it done. And the lucky winner? The New York Observer reports: “Hillary Clinton’s former campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle has just been officially named ‘chief of staff to the Vice Presidential Nominee’ by the Obama campaign.” Now that is rich. Obama taps a person who is a demonstrated failure as a campaign director and gives her the task of riding herd on his eventual VP nominee. Gotta admire the chutzpah of the Obama. And how did top dollar Clinton folks react? New York Observer offered this catchy title, Clinton Bundler on Obama’s Doyle Pick: The Biggest ‘Fuck You’ Ever. Can you feel the warmth? Now there is hope we can believe in.

UPDATE: Was Doyle a mole? Did she deliberately sabotage the Hillary campaign? Turns out she had worked with David Axlerod, Obama’s guy and her brother is a Chicago alderman and she worked for Richard Daley. Did she deliberately tank Hillary’s campaign and betray the trust put in her? Legitimate questions.

And Obama’s veep is … a Republican? (by Mike Madden, Salon)
Some are buzzing about Chuck Hagel, a strong critic of Bush and the war, for the Democratic ticket. A bold idea or political fantasy?

Many See Nunn Leading Veepstakes (Political Wire)
The Boston Globe looks at the possibility that Sen. Barack Obama will choose former Sen. Sam Nunn and his running mate, noting that the “personal and intellectual affinity” between the two men “makes him a real possibility. Those close to Nunn, speaking on condition of anonymity, say he seems more prepared to accept a vice presidential offer this year, helping to offset Obama’s lack of experience on national security and giving the Democrats a fighting chance in Georgia.” Said former aide Arnold Punaro: “He sounds like he may be more open to it. He has never before endorsed anybody. That was a surprise to me.”
Choosing Nunn would be another huge slap in the face to the Clintons.  That’s why I’m thinking he will be the one.

The Fall and Rise of Hillary Clinton (by John Heilemann, New York Magazine)
The victor and the vanquished are standing in a cluttered hallway backstage at the Washington Convention Center… Obama and Clinton are here to speak to the annual conference of the influential Jewish lobbying group AIPAC… The scene unfolding in front of me is a semiotician’s fantasia. For months, Clinton and Obama have battled (and battered) each other more or less as equals. But now there is no longer even a faint pretense of parity. When they first spy each other in the corridor, Clinton hugs the wall deferentially to let Obama pass; their brief tête-à-tête only ensues at the latter’s instigation. When the chat is over and the nominee strides toward the freight elevator to make his exit, his Secret Service agents brusquely shoo away Clinton’s aides: “Stand aside for Senator Obama! Make way for Senator Obama!”…

The Hillary I encounter a few minutes after Obama leaves the building is somber, prideful, dark-humored, aggrieved, confused—and still high on the notion that she is leading an army… What strikes me as inarguable is that Hillary is today a more resonant, consequential, and potent figure than she has ever been before. No longer merely a political persona, she has been elevated to a rarefied plane in our cultural consciousness. With her back against the wall, she both found her groove and let loose her raging id, turning herself into a character at once awful and wonderful, confounding and inspiring—thus enlarging herself to the point where she became iconic. She is bigger now than any woman in the country.

It’s now 36 years since Clinton, while she was working in Texas on George McGovern’s campaign, was told by her husband’s future chief of staff, Betsey Wright, that she might have what it took to be the country’s first female president. Dreams held that long are dreams that die hard, especially if they’re held as fiercely and tenaciously as Hillary has always held the ambitions that propel her forward. The endless, brutal, wrenching campaign of 2008 would have wrecked a lesser woman. Hillary tells me she feels just fine: “Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” Spoken like a true Clinton.
It’s a very long article, but informative.

The Illinois Combine II: The DNC Moves Into Chicago (by Pat Racimora at No Quarter)

How many ways has the DNC made it clear that Hillary Clinton [and] her supporters are a distraction to a preordained coronation of Barack Obama? Here is yet another, even though the convention is 2 months away and no delegate has voted for the Democratic nominee. Move a hunk of the DNC to Chicago now, and rub it into 18 millions voters’ noses. The larger question is why would anyone want to combine Obama and the DNC in a geographical area that is known for its corrupt politicians that mock everything we value in a democratic society? Did they think that the connection between Chicago and Obama’s looming background issues would go unnoticed?

The first “Combine” is an ugly story. The characters are men who make ill-gained treasures off teachers, hospitals, people already living in poverty, and whoever else they could fleece… See Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass’s column, “In Combine, cash is king, corruption is bipartisan.” So now the next “combine”—a combination of Chicago and the DNC—rumbles into town to be taken over by the Obama campaign. Let’s watch to see what happens when the DNC as we all knew it is transformed. Will the pieces ever come together again in a way that instills pride in ALL Democrats?
If you refuse to endorse this utter corruption of the Democratic Party, you can Just Say No Deal.

Tuesday: He doesn’t need us (by riverdaughter at The Confluence)
He doesn’t need Ohio and Florida. No, he doesn’t need us… And he doesn’t need women. No, he can do fine without us. All he needs is Pretentious Liberals, mountain west libertarians, some young college people, moderate Republicans with money and African Americans. And Evangelicals. But that’s all he needs! He doesn’t need anything else.

The “angry white women” problem (by Joan Walsh, Salon)
I’ve heard reports of Clinton followers who refuse to support Obama — and we will hear more from them, and about them, as the campaign wears on — but the vast majority of female Clinton supporters do. As Matthew Yglesias wrote over at the Atlantic.com, “The idea that Democratic women would defect en masse to the GOP in a fit of pique is a preposterous notion that seems to be founded on the underlying assumption that women can’t respond to their political choices as rationally as men can.”
Because a white male in his twenties (Yglesias) who was educated at an Ivy League university and presumably lives on one of the appropriate coasts and was given a leg up in the world by having a well-known father knows exactly what older white women living in flyover country will do.

One Angry Man: Is Keith Olbermann changing TV news? (by Peter J. Boyer, New Yorker)
[J]ust as Obama must work to win Clinton supporters for the fall campaign, Phil Griffin [at MSNBC] has to repair a fractured audience base, a portion of which saw sexism in his network’s Clinton coverage and vowed to boycott MSNBC. Griffin knows that some of that anger is aimed at his star anchor [Keith Olbermann]. “It was, like, you meet a guy and you fall in love with him, and he’s funny and he’s clever and he’s witty, and he’s all these great things,” Griffin said of the relationship between Olbermann and the Clinton supporters among his viewers. “And then you commit yourself to him, and he turns out to be a jerk and difficult and brutal. And that is how the Hillary viewers see him. It’s true. But I do think they’re going to come back. There’s nowhere else to go.” [Emphasis added.]
Au contraire, Phil.  As it turns out, some conservative news sources were much more objective about the Democratic primary than your extremely skewed one.  I believe that some folks are still finding their coverage more truthful than yours.

Lanny Davis joins Fox News (Washington Post)
Fox News has picked its newest official contributor, and the choice shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who follows the network. The new hire? Lanny Davis, who worked as a special counsel to the president in Bill Clinton’s White House and who was a prominent surrogate for Hillary Clinton this spring. Davis has been trending Fox News’ way for some time now, first as a supporter of Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman during his reelection fight in 2006 and then as a Clinton surrogate this year. During one appearance he made on the network in May, under prompting from conservative radio host Laura Ingraham about allegations of bias against Clinton, Davis said he “now know[s] what it feels like to be a Republican” and added that, in his view, Fox was the most balanced of the cable networks.

McCain’s Disgusting Supporter (by Big Tent Democrat at TalkLeft)
Oliver Willis is right about this disgusting McCain supporter: “So a guy makes a sick joke about rape that was highlighted in a campaign ad, but the McCain camp still thought it was perfectly fine to take his money and have a fundraiser with him until the press comes a knockin…” Absolutely. Perhaps now Willis can see this psycho ex-girlfriend stuff was not funny. That in fact it was sexist and offensive.

Historians Give McCain Little Chance (Political Wire)
According to Politico, historians “belonging to both parties offered a litany of historical comparisons that give little hope to” Sen. John McCain. “Several saw Barack Obama’s prospects as the most promising for a Democrat since Roosevelt trounced Hoover in 1932.”
Yes, well, who would have thought McCain would come from so far behind to be the presumptive Republican nominee?

Quote of the Day (Political Wire)
“Jindal would be far and away the best candidate for vice president in the country.” — Newt Gingrich, in an interview on Face the Nation, suggesting Sen. John McCain should pick Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) as his running mate.

Face The Nation: Jindal Thinks Intelligent Design Should Be Taught With Evolution (by Nicole Belle at Crooks and Liars)
I try very hard to be tolerant of others’ beliefs. I don’t pretend to have all the answers and I certainly don’t want to begrudge others answers that work for them. However, I draw the line at the whole false equivalence of the Intelligent Design/Evolution argument. In fact, even though I recognize it goes against the Constitution, I’m not sure that shouldn’t be a test for elected office: If you feel that the idea of Intelligent Design (which can not be proven in any kind of scientific way) should be taught alongside with evolution (which is as much a theory as gravity is), then you do not belong in a position where you can make that decision.
Click through to watch the video.

Pelosi Promises Dem Capitulation By The Fourth On FISA (by Big Tent Democrat at TalkLeft)
“Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she wants the [FISA] matter settled before Congress breaks for Independence Day at the end of next week, suggesting she is ready to bring the issue to a head. ‘We want to pass a bill that will be signed by the president,’ she said. ‘And that will happen before we leave for the Fourth of July.”… How bad a Speaker has Nancy Pelosi been? Even now she craves the chance to cave in to the most unpopular President in history. Just unbelievable.
Where is Obama on this?  Now that he owns the Democratic Party, he could stop it.  Why doesn’t he?

Lots more really good stuff at MakeThemAccountable.com.

Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com