Hillary’s Voice

Michelle Obama promotes Unity in New Hampshire (On Politics, USA Today)
Michelle Obama is on the unity bandwagon. Speaking to an audience of women in Manchester, N.H., some of whom supported Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Democratic primaries, Obama just called Clinton “an extraordinary woman” and praised her work to help children and families. Obama noted that Clinton would be traveling with her husband [Friday] to Unity, the little New Hampshire town that gave Clinton and Barack Obama 107 votes apiece.

N.H. Clinton supporters slow to follow her embrace of Obama (McClatchy)
UNITY, N.H. — Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton plan a show of unity in this tiny New Hampshire town on Friday, but much of the crowd that will be watching them, as well as Democrats throughout this swing state, isn’t yet ready to follow their lead.

PUMAs stalk Unity Pony (by mawminc at The Confluence)

Good Evening Conflucians.  It is almost the witching hour.  The PUMA spirit is coming alive as garychapelhill and I speed through the night towards New Hampshire.  [Friday] we will make our voices heard and draw the curtain back to expose this “Unity” rally for what it is, a big staged performance designed to fool the country that we are all uniting behind the presumptuous nominee. Stay tuned…  We can’t promise live blogging, but we will definitely have a wrap up and plenty of video.
Keep up with PUMA doings at PUMA Action.

Obama Gives $2,300, Intended as a Spur, for Clinton Debt
In a ballroom at the Mayflower Hotel [in Washington], Mrs. Clinton introduced Mr. Obama to about 300 of her leading contributors, most of whom raised at least $100,000 for her campaign. It was the first time the senators shared a stage since she suspended her candidacy and endorsed him nearly three weeks ago. “I wrote my check to the Hillary for President Committee,” said Mr. Obama, who was greeted with booming applause. His wife, Michelle, also contributed $2,300. “I recognize that this room shares the same passion that a roomful of my supporters would show,” Mr. Obama added. “I do not expect that passion to be transferred. Senator Clinton is unique, and your relationships with her are unique. Senator Clinton and I at our core agree deeply that this country needs to change.”
If we knew what you intend to change and what you intend to keep the same, Senator Obama, we might be more willing to listen to what you have to say.  So far, all we’ve seen is a lot of the same old gutless Democratic lack of leadership.  Vernon Jordan, a long-time Clinton friend, was reported in this article as saying that now “There’s only one issue: winning.”  But if that were the case, the Democrats wouldn’t have gone against their own electorate to nominate the weakest candidate ever.  If we reward them for that, they’ll never change.

Oh, and in case you’ve forgotten, there is an anti-war activist running against prime capitulator Nancy Pelosi.

Breaking News: Obama Bombs (by Larry Johnson at No Quarter)
Barack had his opportunity tonight to start healing the rifts in the Democratic party and, to put it bluntly, he flopped. (CNN is giving the Barack spin, but don’t believe it.) I am told from people who attended the fundraising soiree at the Mayflower Hotel that the One was a dud… Folks from the Hillary camp described [his] speech as snobbish, arrogant, and boring. But it was Barack’s response to questions from Hillary’s supporters that produced sour bile.

1. What about the Vice President slot? The questioner told Barack that if he named Hillary as the Vice President that the Democrats would be in a position to own the White House for the next 16 years. Barack said nothing to give Clinton supporters hope that he would consider the Senator from New York.

2. Will you help Hillary retire her debt? On this one Barack said he had written a check for $2300…, but that his real interest was getting access to the phone lists of Hillary’s donors and contacts. Hillary supporters at the gathering sat on their hands, their checkbooks, and their lists.

3. What will you do to stop the sexist smear of Hillary? The questioner noted that Barack did nothing to quell the rampant sexist attacks on Hillary during the campaign and that she continues to be brutalized. Barack said, “Yes, I know. But there is another woman who has been brutalized as well. The healing will take a long time to fix.”

So there you have it. No vision. No magnanimous gesture. It is still all about Barack and Michelle. Most of the Hillary supporters left unassuaged. Instead of a promise from Barack to tell his supporters to stop the attacks on Hillary and her supporters, he essentially put his hands in his pockets and shrugged his shoulders.

She’s Back (by Taylor Marsh)
…and not a moment too soon… It’s been ugly. Some Hillary supporters have unfortunately chosen the petulant mode, wherein they decided that sticking it to Obama no matter the cost for the country is the appropriate response for Clinton not prevailing. Obama’s done wrong! Sexism! (No kidding.) Hillary was wronged! We’ll fight all the way… to irrelevance. So be it. I’ve been involved in politics long enough to know that people with a grudge can never be convinced of anything. They’re in it to feed their anger, slapping a bumper sticker over it to convince themselves they’re fighting out of principle.
Thanks for the characterization, Taylor, but it’s not about petulance and it’s not about “convincing” ourselves that we’re fighting out of principle.  We’re fighting out of a sense that if you give in to tyranny, all you get is more tyranny.  Just ask Jo Frost, the Supernanny, how you treat children who misbehave.  Do you just give them their treats anyway, and hope that they misbehave less in the future?  I don’t think Jo would say yes.  And neither would I.  And neither does Riverdaughter—and many others.

Thursday: How to depress a rat (by riverdaughter at The Confluence)
[W]hat do the polls really show? Well, they probably reflect somewhat realistically that some Hillary supporters have moved to Obama. Obama shouldn’t kid himself into believing that they actually *like* him. I’m pretty confident that they do not. But I’m guessing that a lot of them have bought the previous troll bait on the SCOTUS and with Hillary suspending her campaign, they might feel that the lesser of two evils, yada-yada-yada… Of course, I’m not absolutely convinced that Obama *is* the lesser of two evils, but that’s neither here nor there. The frequency and intensity of the polling data in the news is intended to make us “shrieking bands of paranoid holdouts” feel like we can’t do anything to fight the tsunami of Obama’s inevitability. It is designed to make you passive just when your activity has the most power to affect some kind of change- before the actual convention. Are you going to let them box you into a corner?

The GOOD thing is that this PUMA movement that started here at The Confluence, has gone viral. We now have many coalition members fanning out across the media, thanks to Diane at JustSayNoDeal, who are getting the message out that we are not giving in. And as long as we have our votes, we are not helpless.

Objections by Feingold delay FISA. (Think Progress)
The Hill reports that because of Sen. Russ Feingold’s (D-WI) objections to legislation overhauling the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), Senate leaders have decided to push back consideration of the bill until after the Independence Day recess. Feingold, along with several other lawmakers, are fighting against granting immunity to telecomms that participated in the Bush administration’s illegal spying program.
American heroes, all of them.

Keith Olbermann: Then and now (by Glenn Greenwald at Unclaimed Territory, Salon)
On January 31 of this year, Keith Olbermann donned his most serious face and most indignant voice tone to rail against George Bush for supporting telecom immunity and revisions to FISA… [Wednesday] night, Olbermann invited Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter onto his show to discuss Obama’s support for the FISA and telecom amnesty bill… There wasn’t a syllable uttered about “immunizing corporate criminals” or “textbook examples of Fascism” or the Third Reich. There wasn’t a word of rational criticism of the bill either… The real danger is that those who defend Obama the Candidate no matter what he does are likely to defend Obama the President no matter what he does, too… Those who spent the last five years mauling Bush for “shredding the Constitution” and approving of lawbreaking — only to then praise Obama for supporting a bill that endorses and protects all of that — are displaying exactly the type of blind reverence that is more dangerous than any one political leader could ever be.

[Thursday’s] Wall St. Journal has an article on the new Strange Bedfellows coalition and the campaign to punish and remove from office selected members of Congress who support civil-liberties-destroying measures such as the current FISA bill…  [Wednesday], Jane Hamsher recorded a Bloggingheads session with former Rep. and current third-party presidential candidate Bob Barr (who Republicans are petrified will destroy McCain’s chances) and discussed with him the ideologically diverse efforts to battle against the political establishment’s assault on core constitutional liberties. For now, contributions to the [anti-FISA] campaign — which now has more than $320,000 — can be made here.

Obama: Change agent goes conventional (Politico)
As an Illinois state legislator, Obama generally supported tighter restrictions on firearms and served on the board of a foundation that funded legal scholarship advancing the theory that the Second Amendment does not protect individual gun owners’ rights, as well as 14 separate groups that ultimately signed an amicus brief supporting the D.C. ban.  Though he had tried to avoid taking a firm stand on either the ban or the case, an unnamed staffer last year told The Chicago Tribune that “Obama believes the D.C. handgun law is constitutional.” On Thursday, though, the Obama campaign distanced itself from that record, which would have considerable downside risk for a presidential candidate running on a 50-state landscape. Obama’s top spokesman, Bill Burton, said that the statement to the Chicago Tribune “was not worded as well as it could have been” and that Obama believes that generally the Constitution “doesn’t prevent local and state governments from enacting their own gun laws.”
Change you can believe in—Obama will change to fit the political landscape he’s running in.

How is it under that bus, Comrade Klonsky? (by Steve Diamond at No Quarter)
Easy come, easy go. No sooner than Global Labor blogged … at No Quarter … in ““White Guilt” Politics of Obama Crowd Undermined” — about the role in the Obama campaign of Mike Klonsky, former Weather Underground leader Bill Ayers’ longtime comrade-in-arms from their days in SDS to the Chicago School Wars they fought in the 80s and 90s alongside Barack Obama, and presto he’s gone.  As of [Wednesday] night, Klonsky is no longer blogging on the Barack Obama for President website. In fact, it’s like he was never there.

Priest who mocked Clinton stands by message (Chicago Tribune)
The Roman Catholic priest who mocked Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton at Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama’s former church says he regrets that his passionate delivery may have detracted from his message. But he stands by the message.

News Flash: Obama Tells Lies (by Paul Street at the Black Agenda Report)
The author has kept a scrupulous record of untruths, half-truths and evolving reconstructions of truth from Barack Obama’s mouth, over the years - and there’s always a fresh supply to chronicle. It’s hard - truly - to woo Black and progressive voters while plotting a wholly different agenda with captains of industry and finance and military expansionists. However, Obama’s many transgressions against truth don’t set him apart. “The American narrow-spectrum corporate-crafted presidential

Will Obama’s shifting stances undermine his true-blue image?
WASHINGTON — From the beginning, Barack Obama’s special appeal was his vow to remain an idealistic outsider, courageous and optimistic, and never to shift his positions for political expediency, or become captive of the Inside-the-Beltway intelligentsia, or kiss up to special interests and big money donors.

Netroots jilted by Obama FISA stand (Politico)
When former Sen. John Edwards dropped out of the presidential race, the progressive Netroots took their affections to Barack Obama, defending him against attack from Hillary Rodham Clinton and others. But with his support of a government surveillance bill that offers retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies — a bill that he vowed last year to filibuster — the honeymoon has ended. Disappointed over his position on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the online activists feel jilted and betrayed and have taken to questioning his progressive credentials. One prominent blogger, Atrios, has even given him the moniker “Wanker of the Day.” “He broke faith,” said Matt Stoller, a political consultant and blogger at OpenLeft.com. “Obama pledged to filibuster, and he is part of that old politics, in this case, that he said he wasn’t. It will spur us to challenge him.”
So does that mean I’m no longer persona non grata for challenging him from the beginning?  Somehow I doubt it.  There’s probably ACCEPTABLE criticism and UNACCEPTABLE criticism—which is exactly what David Limbaugh told me about his criticism of George Bush vs. mine..  By the way, I said back in February (I think it was) that I wouldn’t get any pleasure out of saying I told you so about Obama.  And I don’t.  I’m just disgusted that so many people I liked and trusted let themselves be taken in.

The Democrats’ Risky Strategy (by danps at Corrente)
The GOP faces a disaster this year because they gained control of all major parts of government and then engaged in an orgy of excess, alienating moderates and depressing their loyalists… Democrats seem to be in the process of a sellout of a different sort. They seized control of both houses of Congress but seem oblivious (or indifferent) to the public’s anger. Instead they seem to be playing a game of political jujitsu, using the overexertions of the right to give them leverage to flip them totally off the mat. It may be a brilliant tactical move but one with long term risks. First, urgent policy issues fester because no meaningful action can happen under such a strategy. That leads to the second problem, deep dissatisfaction with what comes to be seen as a lesser of two evils. By eschewing opposition the Democrats are creating a pool of thwarted activists. Such people are primed to create new realities or respond to the latest version of a quirky billionaire with homemade charts.

McCain, GOP unleash anti-Obama plan (Politico)
Republicans might have a reason to smile: John McCain and his allies seem to have finally settled on a way to draw a stark contrast with Barack Obama. After weeks of criticism from Republicans about the leisurely pace at which they seemed to be preparing for the general election, McCain’s campaign has apparently settled on a highly personal campaign theme that aims to differentiate McCain and Obama on both character and issues. The strategy: Paint Obama as conventional politician who always takes the safe and easy political road, then amplify the distinction by framing McCain as a patriot, somebody who has put sacrifice above self.
They won’t even have to lie.

Terror “Threats” Timed to Thwart Kerry in ‘04
Beginning with the immediate aftermath of the Democratic Convention in 2004, and continuing through the fall campaign, the Bush Administration formally announced a rise in the terror threat every time polls showed the Kerry/Edwards campaign achieving some positive momentum. Just like, as Bush Chief of Staff Andrew Card said in September of 2002, you don’t “sell a war in August”, there apparently was no “need” of multiple terrorist alerts prior to the Democratic Convention in 2004.
Of course they were, and the only difference for 2008 may be that George Bush will bomb the hell out of another country just to scare everyone into voting Republican.

Obama’s one word for McCain: ‘Honorable’ (On Politics, USA Today)
During a word association game today on FOX Business Network, Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama came up with “honorable” when asked about his Republican rival, John McCain.

Under debate plan, Obama loses height advantage (McClatchy)
WASHINGTON — Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama would sit at a table at two of three presidential debates this fall, according to a formal proposal unveiled Thursday, which, perhaps unintentionally, would neutralize Obama’s height advantage.

Social Network E.Factor Connects Entrepreneurs and Investors… (Mashable)
With over 47,000 members in 3 short months, the niche social market is binding entrepreneurs and investors through a virtual platform, unparalleled by anything else. Launching July 1st, entrepreneurs will no longer have to worry about health insurance or a 401K plan as both will be offered to premium members. In addition expect to see new satellites popping up like the Cambridge University E.Factor site
Why aren’t we doing something similar in progressive media?  Oh, that’s right, Barack Obama is hogging all the money.  He wants complete control of EVERYTHING.  See below.

Dem-Aligned Fund For America To Close Its Doors (by Chris Cillizza, washingtonpost.com)
The Fund For America, a Democratic-aligned group organized to disburse contributions from wealthy individuals to progressive organizations, will close its doors Thursday. The announcement is expected to be made tomorrow; the decision will be attributed to the difficult environment for soliciting major contributions. That environment was largely created by Barack Obama, who publicly declared he was did not want his donors funding outside organizations; instead, the presumptive Democratic nominee said he wants donors spending all of their time collecting cash for his campaign.

Why the Stock Market Had a Terrible Day (by Robert Reich)
The big surprise is why anyone should be surprised the stock market dropped 3 percent [Thursday]. The immediate trigger was the price of oil moving above $140 a barrel for the first time. A secondary trigger was yesterday’s decision by the Fed not to reduce interest rates… Another was the implosion of the US autos sector, and additional writedowns by major Wall Street banks. But behind all of this is the one fundamental fact that economic analysts would rather not dwell on: American consumers are at the end of their ropes. High energy prices have contributed to it, as have high food prices. Consumer confidence is plunging. Housing prices are still dropping, which means the piggy banks of home equity and refinancing are closing…

What to do? Two things. We need an expansive fiscal policy that stimulates the economy with infrastructure spending — especially mass transit, levees, and bridges, as well as investments in green technologies. We also need a more progressive tax system that puts more money into the hands of the middle class and working class — which will spend it.
So will you use your leverage with your chosen candidate, Barack Obama, to talk him into implementing some of these ideas, Secretary Reich?  He’s strangely silent on what it will take to rebuild the middle class and the nation’s infrastructure.

Lots more really good stuff at MakeThemAccountable.com.

Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com