Remember that little girl sleeping soundly in the Hillary Clinton commercial with the red phone? Well, she’s all growned up and is an Obama supporter:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXmYVRIpu2w&eurl=http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/03/girl_in_hillary_red_phone_ad_d.php[/youtube]
Once again Charles Krauthammer makes me want to vomit.
Today’s interpretation of Barack Obama’s superb address on race and his pastor, Jeremiah Wright, this past week is vial and no more than a clever attempt at framing the issue. Krauthammer seems to imply that all of Wright’s speeches are volatile and venomous. He seems to want to believe that week after week Barack and Michelle Obama would bring their children to hear someone speak ill of America and sow the seeds of racial hatred. He wants to believe that Wright wasn’t a man who could get caught up in the intensity of sermon and perhaps loose sight of what he was saying. He wants to believe, like so many others, that this pastor is not a man of the Christian faith at all, but a man full of hatred and contempt for whites and America. Well, ninjas ain’t that stupid.
Krauthammer asks:
Why did you give $22,500 just two years ago to a church run by a man of the past who infects the younger generation with precisely the racial attitudes and animus you say you have come unto us to transcend?
Do you, Krauthammer, truly believe that Jeremiah Wright is a one faceted, America hating machine? Or will you acknowledge that as a pastor he, week after week, speaks of the gospels, of peace, of love, of truth and of unity? That he, too, would like nothing more than a nation indivisible, but that his observations and understanding of the past and present has made him realize that there is much moral and social progress to be made.
His language, at times, may not have been chosen with the utmost attention to political correctness, as yours and mine surely is. But he is neither politician nor pundit, he is a pastor. And Barack Obama has made it clear throughout this entire campaign that he is a rational, intelligent, independent and thorough thinker. The bottom line is: this relationship is of no concern in political discourse. If it is, then let’s talk about McCain asking Hague to support him.
And that whole thing about crack, well, let’s be real. As my ninja, Orange Menace, said “You think some hood from the PJs invented crack?” Who’s to say. But take a look at the sentences given for those involved with crack versus the much more expensive cocaine and you got yourself a f*cked up situation.
Over the weekend an Iowa Republican, Rep. Steve King, has claimed that “terrorists would be ‘dancing in the streets’ if Democratic candidate Barack Obama were to win the presidency.” Well, yesterday King reiterated these comments on (surprise surprise) Fox News. TPM, as always, hookin’ us up with the clip:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nu0QbLrDAg&eurl=http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/[/youtube]
It is most unfortunate that 1. people think like this and that 2. other people listen and agree. Aren’t we supposed to be a really well educated country?
Also, where the hell is Barack Obama coming out against these kinds of statements? He needs to be all over this kind of thing.
Just FYI, Obama won the Wyoming caucus this weekend 61% to 38%. Getting back on track! There are 18 delegates up for grabs in the state.
Both Michigan and Florida had their caucus’ and primary’s results negated by their violations of DNC rules in scheduling their primaries too early. Now that the Democratic contest is in such a dead heat the Democrats in those States want their votes to count towards the delgate battle. I don’t blame them. So far it seems like Michigan will hold another caucus and pay for it themselves while Florida asked the DNC to foot the $18 million dollar tab. Howard Dean, the chair, said “no dice.”
Now, the Clinton camp doesn’t want a revote in Florida because they won. This will likely not hold up because a lot people didn’t vote on the grounds of it not emaning anything and no one campaigned there. The DNC will tell them they can pay for it themselves or sacrifice their votes. In Michigan, Obama nor Edwards were even on the ballot so if anything’s fair there, it’s a re-do. These States would be significant in deciding the nominee should their delegates count.
Today’s Op-Ed piece from Charles Krauthammer in the Washington Post very well may be satire. I can’t tell. But based on his track record, I think he wants us to take him seriously. Considering everything that has come to light regarding McCain’s recent relationship with the FEC over his public financing any reference to McCain-Feingold should be laughed at. Yet, Krauthammer writes with conviction:
On the difficult compromises that required the political courage to challenge one’s own political constituency, Obama flinched: the “Gang of 14″ compromise on judicial appointments, the immigration compromise to which Obama tried to append union-backed killer amendments and, just last month, the compromise on warrantless eavesdropping that garnered 68 votes in the Senate. But not Obama’s.
Who, in fact, supported all of these bipartisan deals, was a central player in two of them and brokered the even more notorious McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform? John McCain, of course.
Yes, John McCain — intemperate and rough-edged, of sharp elbows and even sharper tongue. Turns out that uniting is not a matter of rhetoric or manner, but of character and courage.
Yes, what we really need is a President with enough courage to bring hypocrasy to new levels, and who has a track record of putting himself at arms length of the rules. A President who used to be able to cross party lines but now all of a sudden has pledged himself to the Bush agenda. A President whose campaign rhetoric has turned out to be a message for a dedicated Iraq war “victory.” WE ARE NOT AT WAR WITH IRAQ!!! We are occupying Iraq, and in the process making an attempt to supress al-Qaeda (which is only one piece of the transnational jihadist movement in the Middle East). Isn’t it working splendidly? It’s driven our economy to the gutter, it’s taken as many as 160,000 people away from their families in our own country, forced millions of Iraqis from their homes, and it’s creating incentive for generations of good Muslims to resent America. Bravo, let’s keep it up?Â
Krauthammer has also come to the conclusion that Barack Obama’s uniter image is really only believeable because of his heritage crosses racial lines. His logic goes like this:
Because Obama transcends race, it is therefore assumed that he will transcend everything else — divisions of region, class, party, generation and ideology.
If you ninjas know a single person who thinks of Obama’s candidacy in this light, I’d love to meet them. Obama is a black man and race has been an infinately less significant talking point this primary season than what Clinton has tried to do with the gender-card. Rediculous.
Thanks, as always, to TPM for making this frightening clip of McCain and his evangelical endorser. McCain is getting a press pass in accepting John Hagee’s support. Hagee is known to have linked Catholicism with Nazi fascism, and referred to it as “the Great Whore.”
Hagee has also claimed the creation of independent Palestinian and Israeli states would bring terrorists to America because of our immigration policy. I know, it makes loads of sense. Just watch:
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=Hsu4CUk6RqQ[/youtube]
I don’t know if this would have been an issue at all if Barack hadn’t gotten hit hard by the Mrs. William Clinton and the press for not rejecting and denouncing Louis Farrakhan‘s support. But for what it’s worth, this man has no business being recognized for supporting a presidential candidate other than to create a buzz.
Obama raised $55 million in February. Get this: over $45 million of it came from online donations. They’re re-inventing grassroots. Clinton raised $36 million in February.
The GOP really wants Hillary to win this thing. There is nothing that would give them more statisfaction than beating a Clinton in a Presidential race. In the past few weeks they have been dying to give us their input on why the Dems ought to go with Hillary over Obama, or concocting scenarios where she can do it. Robert Novak is one such Clinton supporter. In today’s Post he claims:
The decision to deprive Michigan and Florida of delegates because their primaries were scheduled too early cannot stand in a contested convention.
The force unleashed against Clinton if she wins the nomination would be unrelenting, cruel, and effective. Her greatest ally in the race would be gender, and half of the women in this country have a hard time giving her their support at the moment. You can give the independant vote to McCain in such a scenario too.
[Remember when she looked like this?]
I am of the opinion that the press will turn on Hillary, and I hope they do it soon. There are basic things that the Clintons & Co. have to do that they have not done and that they have not been held accountable for. Andrew Sullivan seems to understand what’s coming and he can’t wait:
The secrecy and paranoia also remind one of the Clintons’ history, especially Senator Clinton’s. From Whitewater through the long nightmare of cattle-futures through legal documents mysteriously “discovered” long after they were sought, to the secret healthcare task force that helped kill healthcare reform for over a decade, the Clintons are now following their long pattern. They hide stuff they need to hide and stuff they don’t need to hide. What we are learning is that these people have not changed. And their sense of personal privilege, their boundless paranoia, and their constant lies about themselves must be front and center in this campaign. Do we want to go back there again? After Bush and Cheney, do we really want another couple of co-presidents in love with total secrecy and above-the-law personal privilege?
I can’t stand to listen to Hillary speak. That brutish, masculine tone she uses on the stump to compliment her handsome looks makes me nauseous.
After yesterday’s contests Obama still leads Hillary in total delegates 1,564 to 1,463. Hillary has 39 more super-delegates than Obama, 243 to 204. There are still 1094 delegates up for grabs. [numbers according to the Washington Post]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cN10_6pyshQ&eurl=http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/03/heres_a_first_look_at_thirdpar.php[/youtube]
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On the GOP side of things: Mike Huckabee has finally dropped out of the race. In a lengthy, unnecessary speech Huck bowed out after Sen. John McCain clinched the nomination by passing the threshold for delegates needed to clinch the ticket.
President Bush has invited McCain to the White House for a private lunch today and will publicly endorse him as the Republican presidential nominee. Ninjas will remember that these two men have a long history of beefing. It seems that McCain has been willing to adopt a Bush platform since becoming the frontrunner for the GOP, too.
Huck’s speech:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2en7F-4Xoxk&eurl=http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/[/youtube]
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Well, my ninjas, it’s a sad day for Obama supporters. Yesterday Sen. Hillary Clinton won three out the four contests and is likely to gain 10 delegates on Obama’s lead as a result. This still leaves her way behind in the count (around 140 back).
Many people are concerned that her success yesterday will flat-line Obama’s momentum (which attributed to his string of 12 consecutive primary and causcus victories throughout February). After considering the results of Clinton’s victories in Ohio, Texas and Rhode Island it seems to me that this ain’t no big thang. The fact that Obama did as well as he did in Texas is tribute to his outstanding campainging. That should have been 100% Hillary Country and he took a huge chunk of it. In the rural areas Hillary dominated, but in all the metropolitan areas Obama trounced her. Then there was Ohio. Now, I’ve never been there, there’s never been too much of a need for ninjas in Ohio, but from what I understand Ohio is not living in the 21st century. Racism is live and well in the south easetern part of the state, close to West Virginia, clearly not ready for Obama. But they would be for him over McCain, seeing as how voting GOP in 2004 has left a sour taste in their mouths (the mortgage crisis is very real in Ohio right now, and the economy was the most important issue there).
It’s also clear that Hillary’s bash techniques of the last two weeks have done wonders for her campaing. She told us in the most recent debate, “I am a fighter” and fighter she is. She has come at Obama on anything and everything that could possibly affect people’s opinion of the Illionois Senator and it has proven to work. NAFTA, Farrakhan, Rezwhatever, it’s all been effective. We should continue to expect to see more negative campainging from the Clintons, but also, don’t be surprised if Obama fights back in the coming weeks. You’d better believe there are some questionable behaviors in Hillary’s past, and the skeletons will be coming out of the closet (Bills’s over-seas business, tax forms, etc.). If Obama can win the coming contests I think more and more superdelagates will start showing their heads and show their support for Obama. The math is still way in his favor and his chances of gaining the nomination, despite recent events, are still great.