Where Does Palm Beach FL Find Their Ballot Designers?

Remember 2000 and the Butterfly Ballot? This year it's the 'Connect the two parts of the arrow' Ballot, again in Palm Beach, FL. It looks like a JOKE but I assure you, it's not.

Some dim bulb by the name of Dr. Arthur Anderson, Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections is apparently responsible for approving this ballot design which is causing lots of 'read errors' and rejects according to at least one news report I caught earlier this evening.

Where do they find these bozos? Have they never considered that there are familiar, expected ways that people fill out ballots and forms that should be followed? Best Practices in Ballot Design based on research that someone undoubtedly has done somewhere? Good lord. Some things just don't require creativity but do require common sense. Palm Beach elections officials seem to be in short supply of the latter.

View/download the entire PDF format of the Palm Beach County sample ballot here.

Logic That Can Not Be Denied

Simply The Truth:

This nation has suffered through eight years of an ill-prepared and unblinkingly obstinate president. One who didn’t pause to think before he started a disastrous war of choice in Iraq. One who blithely looked the other way as the Taliban and Al Qaeda regrouped in Afghanistan. One who obstinately cut taxes and undercut all efforts at regulation, unleashing today’s profound economic crisis.

In a dangerous world, Americans need a president who knows that real strength requires serious thought and preparation.

When it all comes down to it, it just can't get more clear than that. Of course, I still believe the best option was Hillary Rodham Clinton, but given the choices now, it's surely not McCain, raw political talent and an energizing, charismatic new face on the scene notwithstanding.

Source: NYT

And Now the Press Begins Picking Apart Obama: No longer the shiny new object

Contains updated material:

As the iconic California pol, Willie Brown, wrote a couple of days ago: "The democrats are in trouble. Period."

His column was entitled "Palin floats like a butterfly, stings like a bee."

"Whenever you start having to explain things, you're on defense." He added that dems don't win elections while on the defensive. Since the brilliant pick of Palin, the dems have been on the defensive. Completely and totally. And totally screwing it up.

The media is bored with Obama.

Here's another reason why Obama is failing to connect as an online reader posted on the washington post politics chat with Dan Balz this week with regard to the race for the White House:

"New York: Dan, as someone who intends to vote for Obama, I'm constantly puzzled at how he seems flummoxed when answering questions he should clearly expect to be asked: about NAFTA, when life begins, and most recently the surge. He seems to be thinking out loud, as though he hasn't thought it through ahead of time. Maybe the campaigns folks just don't consider these burning issues? But it seems to me it goes to character and trust, which may matter more than issues. What's going on here?

Dan Balz: That's an interesting point. ...... Does his style of answering questions make him look less decisive than he really is?"

Duh. Yeah. Looks and sounds unsure, defensive, whiny, complaining (or as Cohen wrote today -- detached, disconnected, dispassionate, disinterested and thus reinforces the NOT READY meme.)

Mostly I keep hearing " those mean republicans aren't playing fair!!! boo hoo hoo! wah wah wah."

Every clip I have seen of Obama recently he sounds like a defensive distant clueless ineffectual John Kerry in 04 -- (sighing Gore in 2000, Dudley Dukakis in 88, Carter in 80) -- he's taken to whining and complaining about the unfair mean old republikkkans. Boo Hoo Hoo some more.

Total losing / loser tactics.

Plus Obama looks like he is sleep walking through this. As if all he needed to do was win the primary and the anointment would be complete. give me a break.

Tom Friedman puts it this way:

...[H]ere’s what I’ve been feeling for a while: Whoever slipped that Valium into Barack Obama’s coffee needs to be found and arrested by the Democrats because Obama has gone from cool to cold.  ...

I don’t know how long or high the “Sarah Palin bounce” will go, but I would take her very seriously as a politician. She may not know nuclear deterrence theory, but she can deliver a line. 

Sarah Palin is ... is connecting at a gut level. So does McCain — and, therefore, they don’t need to give their constituents many details.

This race has a long way to go. It is still Obama’s election to lose. But Obama got where he is today by defining himself as the agent of change and by defining change as the issue in this election. McCain, with Palin’s help, has once again not only made Obama’s experience an issue, but has now moved in on Obama’s strength and tried to define the G.O.P. ticket as the party of “change.”

How, you ask, can two people running with the exact same policies as the party that has been in power for eight years, claim to be the agents of “change?” That’s politics. There’s no shame. But what this has done is to make the word “change” as a campaign slogan meaningless. Obama will need to find another way to connect his ideas — clearly, crisply and passionately.

Because, while the pollsters tell us it is still really close, my own totally unscientific, seat of the pants poll tells me this: When you say Obama’s name today and ask people for their first impression — a quick, flash, gut, first impression — no single word or phrase or policy comes to mind. His opponents will fill that vacuum if he doesn’t. They already are.

Surprise. It's Not Over! Obama only won the primary, not the election (barely) and The democraps are not winning the national election anymore —again. If Obama does lose, there are some party heads that should roll: start with Dean, Pelosi, Reid.

Sarah Palin didn't have to prove she was "of the people."
She really is the people.

P.S. It's not Hillary Clinton's responsibility to win independents, other Hillary supporters, and white working class voters for Obama. That's his responsibility. And he's blowing it.

Hillary is doing the smart thing by NOT joining the hysterical hatefest against the talented and energetic Palin. After all, she knows exactly what being on the target end of that hatefest is like.

The media is bored with Obama. They need their "newness" fix. Obama's no longer the shiny new object that captured the A.D.H.D. stenographers' pool 20 months ago (yes, that's sarcasm, not intended for most of the print-only press). The "shiney new object" honor, especially as regards the cable news tweeties and their ilk, now goes to Sarah Palin (once they get past their snobbish boorish behavior; they'll likely never get over their sexism, however).

Here's more keen insight from Willie Brown (and bad news for the dems/Obama):

As for Palin herself, she is going to be very, very effective on the campaign trail, especially if McCain's people can figure out how to gently keep her from getting into confrontations with the press.

If she can answer questions like she handled herself at the convention, Palin will turn out to be the most interesting person in all of politics, and the press will treat her like they treated Obama when he was first discovered.

And remember, the Palin bandwagon needs to roll for only two months.

And as was easily predictable, Obama's adoring media is now turning the corner, turning on him, and will join together to throw him under the bus soon. Then wash their hands with a "Tsk tsk." Totally predictable.

Once again: snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Updates: several columns on this very topic beginning to pop up:
And another blogger, Leah McElrath Renna, at the Huffington Post is in full-blown panic mode:

Most of us are out here watching, listening to and reading media that shows a campaign continually in responsive mode and not in charge of the message..."

Actually, I'd use the word "reactive" instead of "responsive."

Chris Cillizza's The Fix on WashingtonPost.com: Obama on Losing End of Personality Contest

WP's right-leaning Richard Cohen: Too Cool to Fight? Obama's moral commitment is being tested, and he doesn't seem to care.

Tom Friedman's NYT column is here.

Be sure to read those columns!

•••••••••••••••••••••••

Upon re-reading it, I think the full text of Willie Brown's thoughts are worth posting en toto:

The Democrats are in trouble. Sarah Palin has totally changed the dynamics of this campaign.

Period.

Palin's speech to the GOP National Convention on Wednesday has set it up so that the Republicans are now on offense and Democrats are on defense. And we don't do well on defense.

Suddenly, Palin and John McCain are the mavericks and Barack Obama and Joe Biden are the status quo, in a year when you don't want to be seen as defending the status quo.

From taxes to oil drilling, Democrats are now going to have to start explaining their positions.

Whenever you start having to explain things, you're on defense.

I actually went back and watched Palin's speech a second time. I didn't go to sleep until 1:30 a.m. I had to make sure I got the lines right.

Her timing was exquisite. She didn't linger with applause, but instead launched into line after line of attack, slipping the knives in with every smile and joke.

And she delivered it like she was just BS-ing on the street with the meter maid.

She didn't have to prove she was "of the people." She really is the people.

There is one thing she should have done: announced when her 17-year-old daughter and the teenage father of the girl's unborn child are getting married and invited all of us to the wedding. It should be like Sunday at church.

As for Palin herself, she is going to be very, very effective on the campaign trail, especially if McCain's people can figure out how to gently keep her from getting into confrontations with the press.

If she can answer questions like she handled herself at the convention, Palin will turn out to be the most interesting person in all of politics, and the press will treat her like they treated Obama when he was first discovered.

And remember, the Palin bandwagon needs to roll for only two months.

Here's the transcript from the Washington Post Dan Balz chat. Here's the complete Willie Brown column in the San Francisco Chronicle; it includes a few thoughts on John and Cindy McCain, too.

.

Urban Myth: Alaska Jet Not Sold on eBay as Palin, McCain Claim

SARAH PALIN'S Alaska Jet

Plane Not Sold on eBay

Updated 7:10 p.m.

By Anne E. Kornblut

One of the compelling anecdotes about Sarah Palin is that she auctioned off the Alaska governor's jet on eBay after taking office -- a swift move made by a reformer hoping to clean up the excesses of her predecessor.

But in fact, the jet did not sell on eBay. It was sold to a businessman from Valdez named Larry Reynolds, who paid $2.1 million for the jet, shy of the original $2.7 million purchase price, according to contemporaneous news reports, including a story in the New York Times.

Dan Spencer, the director of administrative services for Alaska's Public Safety Department, said that the Republican speaker of the Alaska House, John L. Harris, brokered the deal. Reynolds made campaign contributions to both Palin and Harris in 2006 and 2007.

What happened? It appears that, as promised during her bid for governor in 2006, Palin did try to sell the plane on eBay but that doing so was not as easy as it might have sounded. After putting it up to auction, there was one serious bid, in December 2006, and it fell through. Still, the Westwind II was sold about eight months later, achieving Palin's goal of ridding the state of a luxury item.

But that hasn't stopped Palin, or John McCain, from implying -- and, on Friday, claiming outright -- that Palin did sell the jet on the Internet.

"You know what I enjoyed the most? She took the luxury jet that was acquired by her predecessor and sold it on eBay -- and made a profit!" McCain declared in Wisconsin at a campaign stop on Friday. It could not be immediately determined what that profit was.

The video tribute to Palin that aired at the Republican National Convention on Thursday night made the same claim. "She signed sweeping ethics reform legislation, auctioned the governor's jet on eBay," the narrator said, citing it in a list of Palin's achievements.

Palin has been more cautious in her comments. Rather than claiming she sold it on eBay, she gave in her convention remarks a description that was true but, nonetheless, still left the impression she had sold the jet online. "That luxury jet was over the top. I put it on eBay," Palin said.

"She put the plane on eBay," said Tucker Bounds, a spokesman for McCain's campaign. "It didn't meet the minimum threshold the state desired so they used a broker.

Here is link to the Washington Post story.


And this is from the NY Daily News:

Story that Sarah Palin sold Alaska state jet on eBay is a campaign-trail tall tale

BY CORKY SIEMASZKO
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Friday, September 5th 2008, 12:05 PM

The folksy tale of how Gov. Sarah Palin saved Alaska millions by unloading the state jet on eBay is fast becoming a campaign fish-that-got-away tale.

Sen. John McCain not only repeated that story on the stump Friday to tout his Republican running mate, but added, "She made a profit, too."

The truth is that Palin couldn't find a buyer last year when she tried to peddle to plane on eBay - and lost the state money when she did sell it.

Palin's predecessor, Frank Murkowski, originally bought the 20-year-old Westwing II for the state of Alaska for $2.7 million. She listed it on eBay for $2.5 million.

When no offers came in, Palin hired a jet broker - Turbo North Aviation in Anchorage - which sold the jet for $2.1 million to an Alaska businessman.

"We handled the sale for the state of Alaska," jet broker Rob Heckmann told the Daily News. "The eBay thing didn't work out for them."

Twenty months ago, when Palin was running for governor, she pounded Murkowski relentlessly about the jet and called it an extravagance, even though he shared it with the state's Public Safety Department.

Heckmann said Palin isn't the first politician who has tried to sell a state plane on eBay.

Link to NY Daily News story.


So much for 'straight talk' and 'reform'. McBush the third is about doing business as usual the republican way: enrich the rich and powerful. To hell with the rest of us. That's why John McSame / McCain has at least 60 lobbyists on his campaign staff in key positions. No telling how many more in lower level posistions.

Bottom line so far: It was listed, but not sold on ebay apparently. A clever deceit indeed.

Watch what they DO, not what they SAY.

Logic is not the Point: Political Savvy & Emotional Intelligence Are

On CNN, Jeffrey Toobin concluded Sarah Palin's speech was much better than Joe Biden's. The democrat party and Biden have already proved they will have trouble knowing how to handle her without descending into sneering condescension.

Cogent analysis from Tom Shales TV Review column.

"

Palin gave the impression of an entire party rolling up its sleeves and digging in, never mind whether some of its arguments were illogical or shot full of holes, or even blatantly ridiculous, as when she portrayed the party as pro-environment and Giuliani earlier portrayed it as feminist-minded.

She proved herself in the great arena; that's what counts politically. Nobody could watch that speech and still consider her a joke, no matter how flimsy her credentials and qualifications may seem on paper. The joke, it seems, is on those who'd been laughing at her. Last night the laughing ended -- and the cheering began.

"

We'll see if the Obama campaign can adapt. It's clear the democratic party still hasn't. They're making the same tired defensive, deer-in-headlights whiney complaining statements they've always made or completely inappropriate off-base ones that show how condescending they are toward women candidates in general and Palin in specific. Call it a major deficit of emotional intelligence.

I don't mind seeing them get their butts kicked around for a while. I can imagine some well-earned schadenfreude and a few knowing smiles on the part of Hillary Clinton. Hillary's earned a well-deserved rest while the circus plays out. The dems threw her overboard — or under the proverbial bus — I think she's earned sitting on the sidelines from here on out, watching for as long as she wants. It's Obama's responsibility to earn the votes.

But ultimately I would not like to see Team McCain elected in November. It's also richly entertaining to see the Republicans become more wedded to their right wing anti-science, anti-choice, compulsory pregnancy, theocratic wing nuts.

The G.O.P. Vetting Emporium: coming soon to a mall near you!

A little humor along the campaign trail.

That being said, the extreme left, obamabots and newly converted zealots have not failed to show their complete lack of empathy for a woman (and her children) who while being wrong on the issues, has shown some impressive qualities as an individual personality and as a strong woman. Hypocrisy can amply be found in both campaigns in heaping steaming piles.

The personal attacks truly are evidence of the ubiquity of sexism and misogyny in our culture -- it sure wasn't in Hillary's mind -- not to mention the complete effete sniffing snobbery of the belt-way elites, partisan bloggers and the media. Cynicism is the daily vitamin of both sides of the aisle.

Meanwhile: the dems should concede that Sarah Palin may be an impressive person with charming qualities. The republican party is not impressive in the least.

Hillary Rosen has a smart post over at the increasingly out-of-touch-with-reality Huffington Post.

Warning! This pundit isn't feeling the same way as most of my colleagues about Sarah Palin. She is being attacked for her lack of experience for the job and for whether she should be putting her family first instead of her career. This just isn't that unusual in my book. And the more it goes on, the more uncomfortable I feel with that message.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

I'm glad that Ms Palin and her family have the choice to make their own decisions, which should be private decisions. I'm especially happy that they and their children and soon to be grand-child will continue to have access to top-notch medical care; in fact if she wins, they will have the best medical care in the world.

I only wish they and the republican party agreed that all americans have constitutional rights to make their/OUR own personal and medical choices in privacy and that all americans should be afforded access to medical care at least as good as that of our elected federal representatives. We're the only industrialized nation which does not promote the health and well being of its citizens. The republicans have proved they intend to continue dismantling what is left of both privacy rights and the social safety network and social contract.

Don't forget the Republican Health Care Policy for at least 47 million of us:

It's Official: Obama Biden 2008

Barack Obama Chooses Joe Biden as Running Mate

Obama Biden 2008 Buttons Pins Shirts Posters

Now Available for Sale

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The Final Tally: It's Practically a Tie

Congratulations to both Democrat Party Finalists!


Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by over 300,000 votes. Barack Obama won more pledged delegates but not enough to clinch the nomination; that came from the anti-democracy super delegates.

Here are the final pre-super delegate totals based on what I've read elsewhere:


POPULAR VOTE (all primaries and caucuses)

Hillary Clinton: 17,785,009

Barack Obama: 17,479,990

PLEDGED DELEGATES

Barack Obama: 1766.5

Hillary Clinton: 1639.5

With Friends Like These ...

Fox News and the right wing 527s are having lots of fun with this:



The first question that occurs:

What were they thinking?

Specifically the Catholic priest — Father Michael Pfleger — and the church leaders who invited him — and even the hundreds (thousands?) of churchgoers who sat, listened, applauded, etc.

The next question: Are there any mature, thoughtful adults anywhere among this group?

Finally: Are any of the people involved in making these decisions actually allies or friends of Senator Obama?

Sheesh. Obama must have really pissed some of these emotionally stunted stooges off royally somewhere along the way. And they've obviously been watching way too much MSNBC.


Fox Noise and the right wingers haven't even gotten started yet. Jake Tapper at ABC News has one of the early breaking stories about this drama-rama.


Larry Johnson at NoQuarterUSA has some background and updates.

One thing is clear: these 'men of god' associated with Senator Obama (and Senator McCain) sure don't provide much incentive to rational people to join their flocks. NO THANK YOU.


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Hillary is Right to Fight

After seeing the 'whupping' or 'thumpin' Hillary gave Obama in West Virginia, hearing former Republican Candidate Mike Huckabee and others discuss why Hillary has every right and reason to continue, I've reconsidered and agree: there are very compelling reasons for Hillary to keep pressing on, including:

1. The same snobs, pundits, elitists in the media and dem party who are calling on Hillary to 'give up' so they can coronate Obama are the very same people who castigated Al Gore for capitulating (giving up) so easily when Bush and the Supremes STOLE the 2000 election.
   
2. They're the same people who lamented the bone-headed mistakes, flip-floppery and failure to FIGHT BACK when the extremely arrogant and aloof John Kerry was swift-boated in 2004.
   
3. They're the same ones who lamented the lame photo-op buffoonery and soft-on-crime buffoonery of the non-emotive, distant and aloof Michael Dukakis in 1988.
4. Therefore: Obama must EARN the nomination based on VOTERS not elite anti-democracy democratic party kingmakers -- despite the lazy wishes and desires of the democratic elites (Dean, Pelosi, Reid, et al), the hypocritical, sexist, misogynistic media elites and the Obama campaign to not have to do so. It would be so much easier to just be coronated. That's the republican way. That's not democracy. 
5. In fact, caucuses aren't a true measure of what voters want either; those results should be viewed with skepticism.
   
6. Anything could happen. 
   
7. MOST IMPORTANTLY: All the remaining voters and states have a RIGHT to have their votes matter, their voices heard, their votes cast until the nomination has actually been EARNED by any candidate.
   

Reminder: Some of the Lies of Conservatism, McCain, Republicans

I couldn't help but post this memorable quote from a Washington Post Politics online chat discussing working class voter issues (Who is the Working Class, Anyway?):

Misconceptions: Bush before he became president had less money budgeted for the military and military families than did either Gore or, subsequently, Kerry -- both of whom actually served in a combat zone. Yet military folks voted overwhelmingly for Bush. I bring this up because more and more we see that the reality of what the candidates do flies in the face of what people believe.

Hardly a day goes by that a conservative doesn't say "I'm here to show that the liberals are wrong about there being class warfare between the rich and the poor." Yet, through each Republican administration, the gap between those with wealth and those without widens.

Republicans use every bit of evidence of wealth on the liberal side to say: "They are wealthy. We're just like you, we're not the intellectually elitist. Wouldn't you rather sit down to a beer and barbecue with us?"

Having been born and raised in the country in both the public and private school system, I have been troubled by one question: Since when did stupidity become a virtue in the U.S.?

It pairs very well with this Prescott, Ariz. chatter's reminder of John McCain's actual history of lies, flip-flopping, hypocrisy and unethical behaviors instead of his mythological persona promulgated by the mainstream and right-wing press:

• Left his ill first wife after multiple affairs; [must have given advice to Newt 'scumbag' Gingrich]
• participated in the "Keating 5" scandal;
• gotten so friendly with a young and blonde lobbyist that his staffers felt they had to intervene;
• [does] legislative favors for the clients of said lobbyist;
• voted against the "Bush tax cuts" then later supported them;
• actively courted the support, and made campaign appearances of a man who calls the Catholic Church the "great whore" [personal note: it should actually be called One More Woman-Hating Church of Child Rapists and Pedophiles];
• constantly blurred the difference between Shia and Sunni Muslims even while claiming that foreign policy is his strong suit;
• admitted he didn't know much about economics.

Timothy Noah: You forgot, "Gave a speech this week about what he was going to do for the working class and then announced tax cuts that benefit almost exclusively the rich."

Here is the full transcript of chat with Timothy Noah of Slate's Chatterbox' and here's his online article .

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Clinton Hospital Story is Actually True: Washington Post

UPDATE: Clinton Hospital Story is Actually True According to Anne Kornblut of the Washington Post

Clinton Told True Tale of Woe, Says Kin

By Anne E. Kornblut

The aunt of a young pregnant woman who died after a hospital told her she needed to pay $100 up front for care said in an interview on Monday that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has been telling the story accurately on the campaign trail -- following claims by a different Ohio hospital that it did not turn the patient away.

"...she was sorry it had hurt the Clinton campaign.
She was, and is, she said, a supporter.
"Did I vote for Hillary?" she said. "You'd better bet I did."

For weeks, Clinton repeated an anecdote she heard in Ohio on Feb. 28 involving a young woman who lost her baby and later died because she lacked health insurance and did not have $100 to gain access to a nearby hospital.

But over the weekend, Clinton came under fire when officials at O'Bleness Memorial Hospital, after reading about her remarks, demanded that she stop recounting it because the patient, Trina Bechtel, was admitted there and did have insurance.

That part, it turns out, is true. But so is Clinton's claim that Bechtel did not get care at another hospital that wanted a $100 pre-payment before seeing her, according to the young woman's aunt, Lisa Casto. "It's a true story," said Casto, 53.

Casto added some details that were not part -- or differed from -- the Clinton anecdote: She said her niece had previously been in debt to a local hospital that later sent her a letter informing her that she could only be treated there in the future if she gave them a $100 deposit. At the time she went into debt to that hospital, Casto said, Bechtel was uninsured, though she later obtained health insurance and was insured at the time of her death.

Casto said she did not want to give the name of the offending hospital because the flood of calls over the incident has overwhelmed her and Meigs County deputy sheriff Bryan Holman, a friend of hers who retold the story to Clinton when she campaigned in southern Ohio.

But court records show that Bechtel had a civil judgment against her by the Holzer Hospital Foundation for the amount of $4,426, entered in 2002, which was repaid in 2005. A call to an official at Holzer Medical Center, which is run by the foundation, in Ohio was not immediately returned.

Casto said her niece, who suffered from preeclampsia during her pregnancy, did not seek care at the first hospital when she fell ill because she knew she did not have the $100 out-of-pocket she believed she would need to be seen. Instead, she went to O'Bleness Memorial Hospital, where her baby was stillborn. Bechtel was later flown to Columbus and died there. She was 35.

Casto said she has been stunned by the amount of negative attention her niece's story generated, and that she was sorry it had hurt the Clinton campaign. She was, and is, she said, a supporter. "Did I vote for Hillary?" she said. "You'd better bet I did."

Source: from the Washington Post (but I'm not hearing it anywhere on the 24 hour blatherers of cable network news!)

Hillary's Creeping Judgment Problems

See Update: Hospital Story is True

1. Mark Penn: What the frak took so long to dump this sleezebag?

2. As I've pondered before: why did she hire/trust/entrust her campaign to him in the first place? (He's easily the equivalent of Dick "among the worst of the worst scumbags in politics" Morris, someone we can credit to the first Clinton campaign for subjecting us to the past 15+ years.)

3. Finally, what the fracking frak is up with the truthiness of the Bosnia and dying woman/hospital anecdotes — where the frak are her key campaign staff to prevent such carelessness? More proof of incompetence? And if on the off-chance they were there trying to 'vet' every story that comes forth from her mouth (as they should and must), but she overrode their attempts to vet/correct/confirm the information/stories, why didn't she listen to them? Bad judgment due to sleep deprivation? Or something worse than confusion and chaos?

Hardball politics. Supposedly the Clintons not only play them, they helped invent them and they should be prepared for them, too.

Now I remember why I registered as an independent (again), after having signed up with the democrats for a while. Sigh...where is the pragmatic progressive party?

The problem and the reality is, there is no viable alternative. And we the people truly can't afford another republican presidency: especially not their violence, their disregard for human life (excepting the theoretical unborn and the rich), their unquenchable greed, their profiteering from irresponsible wars, their right-wing fascist and pro-corporation judges, and their total destruction of regulations and laws set up to protect working people against the growing, creeping wealth and power of the richest of the rich who are always the biggest beneficiaries of the republicans (as has been well-documented by many, including Kevin Phillips).

Still conceded: Obama has run a much better campaign overall. It doesn't mean however, that Obama's prepared for the republicans. But with all the recent (and cumulative) bone-headed miscalculations and mistakes of the Clinton campaign, I'm not sure they're prepared either. I'm seriously reconsidering (again) whether EITHER democrat is electible much less prepared to head this nation, much less prepared to truly LEAD its citizens. At this point, Obama has a slight edge, but he still has his own serious judgment and electibility problems mired in the muckiness of our racist history and his own issues of disingenuousness.

Doubts creep in and they could have easily been avoided.

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Jehmu Greene Attacked (some more) by Daily Kos + Obamamaniacs & Fanatics

From Jehmu Greene's recent blog post:

The Wrath of Kos

Uh-oh. I have drawn the ire of bloggers on Daily Kos after my appearance on The O'Reilly Factor last night. Daily Kos diarists are up in arms that I was critical of their beloved website. Interesting. I think most people would prefer my brand of constructive criticism vs. Daily Kos' vitriol.

The founder of Daily Kos, Markos "Kos" Moulitsas' statement:

• He has "enmity" towards Senator Clinton. (Fancy way of saying deep seated hatred or hostility)
• He calls Senator Clinton's voters, "low-information Democratic voters..." (Code-speak for "stupid")
• He refers to the millions of Democrats who voted for Senator Clinton in Ohio, Texas, and Rhode Island as a "shrinking band of paranoid holdouts" (Offensive and mathematically incorrect)
• He accuses Clinton of trying to ignite a Civil War within the Democratic Party (irresponsible and divisive)

They are mad at me for appearing on The O'Reilly Factor. Yeah, I went on O'Reilly and expressed my personal feelings of distaste towards comments I find to be offensive, threatening, divisive, and have no place in Democratic politics. Though I disagree with O'Reilly likening Daily Kos to the devil, I am happy to appear on the most-watched program on cable news and express my support for Senator Clinton. Because contrary to what the Daily Kos diarists may believe, not all Democratic and Independent voters sit in front of a computer all day and get their news from the blogosphere. The truth is many of them come home from a long day of hard work and sit down to hear what Bill O'Reilly has to say.

Don't Kos and his blogger posse understand that progressives need these voters to win in November? Instead of arrogantly dismissing their intelligence and espousing that all Democrats should follow blindly behind whatever he and his merry band of bloggers believe, Kos should reconsider his flawed rationale on the primary to date. On one hand he props up the party activists that are attending caucuses as the end-all-and-be-all of the Democratic electorate, while at the same time trying to downgrade the role of superdelegates to a rubber stamp. So it's okay to be a grassroots activist and have an opinion, but if you are a super-duper activist and have worked your way into a State Party leadership position or elected office, you must lose your own opinion and trade it in for someone else's??? And don't get me started on the disenfranchising nature of caucuses that exclude hourly workers, nurses, waitresses, senior-citizens and countless others who don't have four hours to spare...

This ain't North vs South, and there ain't gonna be no Civil War. I may be in the minority here, but I am pretty confident I am right. The heated contest between Senator Clinton and Senator Obama has been good for the Democratic Party. It has produced record turnout and monopolized media coverage away from John McCain. The fear-mongering talk of Civil War within our Party is rubbish. It's a scare tactic to try and persuade superdelegates to cave for Obama. Regardless of whoever gets the nomination, we will be a united Party come November. Come to think of it, Senator Clinton has stated this unequivocally many times while Senator Obama has said in press conferences that he was not sure his supporters would unite behind Senator Clinton. Coupled with Michelle Obama's wavering on the question on whether she would support Senator Clinton if she wins the nomination, it calls into question which campaign is more comfortable with a split in the Party...

In a previous post, entitled Blacklisted, Jehmu writes:

Senator Obama is a great man who has and will continue to do great things for our country. It is unfortunate that some of his supporters believe I am a race traitor for endorsing Senator Clinton. That type of thinking has no place in America. African Americans should not be treated differently because of the color of their skin and neither should Senator Clinton. I'm proud to be voting my race...the human race.

As Jehmu pointed out on O'Reilly this past week: the liberal elitists at Kos seem to forget Obama can't and won't get elected in the general election (and possibly at the Democratic convention) without Hillary supporters — whom they seem gleefully happy to attack in the same way Hillary has been attacked by the good ole boys (and their kiss-butt girls) in the media as well as by the Hope & Unity's candidate's very own supporters. Jehmu is living proof of that.

Jehmu Greene's blog entries: Wrath of Kos is here. Blacklisted is here.

LATE UPDATE: here's a perfect example of the snide condescension, elitist and patronizing attitudes of Obama supporters found not only on all the cable faux news nattering nabob outlets and DailyKos, but everywhere, including chats on the Washington Post:

Washington: The Clinton coalition seems to be aging white women, white men with limited education, Hispanics, and gay men and women. Is that enough voters to get elected president?

Jonathan Weisman: I think that's oversimplifying it. She's got a lot of women. That's more than half the electorate. And her support among working class whites should not be dismissed as uneducated voters. They are the mainstay of the Democratic Party.

Oversimplifying indeed. And that's about the least offensive snide remark I've seen from any Obamamaniac.

from the WP Post Politics chat here.

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Judgment and Electibility

"
his minister and his twenty-year association with this church, really undermines the message he’s been delivering for the last year, it completely undercuts it
"

Acolyte Dowd is totally devastated to be let down and her column is predictably disingenous and schizophrenic, both fawning and damning:

The candidate may have staunched the bleeding, but he did not heal the wounds. His naïve and willful refusal to come to terms earlier with the Rev. Wright’s anti-American, anti-white and pro-Farrakhan sentiments — echoing his naïve and willful refusal to come to terms earlier with the ramifications of his friendship with sleazy fund-raiser Tony Rezko — will not be forgotten because of one unforgettable speech. ...

...he was finally confronted by a problem that neither his charm nor his grandiosity would solve.

He now admits that he had heard the Rev. Wright make “controversial” remarks in church, and that he had a “lapse of judgment” when he let the much-investigated Rezko curry favor by buying the plot of land next to his and selling a slice back so Obama could have a bigger yard. Newly alert to the perils of not seeming patriotic enough, he ended a speech in Pennsylvania the other morning with “God bless America!”

...Saint Obama [has] played the politics of character to an absurd extent. For 14 months, his argument for leading the world has been himself — his exquisitely globalized self.

Granted: seeing the speech was mostly impressive and had moments of soaring, possibly historical, rhetoric. (listening only was less so.) I'm just not convinced about the whole electibility issue yet. The most cogent analysis I've heard so far is from Jeff Greenfield:

Jeff Greenfield and pollster Frank Luntz tell Maggie Rodriguez that while Sen. Barack Obama's speech was exemplary on the subject of race, it may not defuse the Rev. Wright controversy.

If Obama only had the courage to have chosen different 'spiritual guidance' or to at least challenge his pastor, and to call his fawning uncritical supporters and the lazy, smug, arrogant bloviating macho-loving media on their sexism and misogyny, I might start to have some growing respect for him. As it stands now, mine is stalling or diminishing with each passing day.

Obama's Speech Was Brilliant, But--
by Michael Crowley
Will the complexity of his message reach the people it needs to?
Barack Obama gave a brilliant, inspiring, intellectually supple speech--but one that may have done little to solve his festering problem with working class white Americans.
http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=cfa88bd9-5eba-4bfc-b775-62079514d9d9

Nor am I completely convinced of the campaign PR/spin version nor the media's fawning portrayal of Obama's character, courage and JUDGMENT:

Another Take: William Galston Reviews Obama's Speech
http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2008/03/19/an-alternate-take-william-galston-reviews-obama-s-speech.aspx"
What, if anything, did Obama do in response to what he now acknowledges he heard Reverend Wright say? Did he raise his concerns with other members of the congregation? With Reverend Wright himself? Was he seriously enough disturbed to consider leaving Trinity for another church? By embedding his own life in the larger narrative of race in America, Obama is implicitly saying that these questions don't matter. But they do, because they present a window on his character and help us judge what kind of president he would be."

Obama's Racial Problems Transcend Pastor
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/03/18/politics/politico/main3949130.shtml
Merle Black, an expert on southern voters at Emory University, said Wright is a “huge, huge problem.”

“The new information, especially about his minister and his twenty-year association with this church, really undermines the message he’s been delivering for the last year, it completely undercuts it,” said Black.

Latinos have been an even tougher obstacle for Obama than whites. The only states where he has carried this group, Connecticut, Virginia, Illinois and Iowa, have relatively small Hispanic populations. Obama has worked hard to break down this bloc’s preference for Clinton, a task that likely is set back by Wright.

“There is an older generation, U.S. born, of the Latino population who can identify more with the black community on these civil rights issues and can identify with where the reverend is coming from,” said Angelo Falcón, president of the National Institute for Latino Policy. “There are also people who have not been here as long who are going to find the whole mix of the reverends’ words totally alien.”

Obama’s problems with some Jewish voters also predated the Wright coverage. The Illinois senator lost the Jewish vote by double-digits in Florida, New York, New Jersey and Maryland. He has been the victim of both an unwanted endorsement (Louis Farrakhan) and a dirty e-mail campaign claiming falsely that he is a Muslim.

In some quarters, his support of Israel has been suspect, despite his outspoken support for the U.S. ally. Wright didn’t do him any favors when he accused Israel of “state terrorism against Palestinians.”

“Wright’s comments make the job of supporting Obama in the Jewish community more difficult,” said a Jewish Democratic leader who asked that he not be identified by name in order to share his views more candidly. “On a rational level, Obama should be an easy sell in the Jewish community. This stuff is based on pure fear-mongering. There has been a concerted smear campaign against Obama that has targeted the Jewish community, in emails and conservative blogs.

“Obama’s speech is a powerful tool to be used in support of Obama,” he continued, “but on balance this is an issue that could have a negative impact on the Jewish vote.”

and

Will Chuck D Be Obama's Undoing?
http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2008/03/19/will-chuck-d-be-obama-s-undoing.aspx
Even after yesterday's speech, Jonathan Martin reports that some GOP operatives still thinks Wright will be Obama's undoing.
Here's a description of one of their early efforts to make that so: ...

For some competing views on Obama's savior-like saintliness:

The Obama Bargain
By SHELBY STEELE
March 18, 2008
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120579535818243439.html

Hotair.com

TNR: How Team Obama played the race card
http://hotair.com/archives/2008/02/28/tnr-how-team-obama-played-the-race-card/trackback/

THE NEW REPUBLIC
Race Man
by Sean Wilentz
How Barack Obama played the race card and blamed Hillary Clinton
http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=aa0cd21b-0ff2-4329-88a1-69c6c268b304&k=5083

A Speech That Fell Short
By Michael Gerson, Washington Post
It was one of the finest political performances under pressure since John F. Kennedy at the Greater Houston Ministerial Association in 1960. It also fell short in significant ways.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/18/AR2008031802594.html

Meanwhile the republicans are compiling a seriously inflammatory arsenal with plenty of arrows. One of them is something I stumbled across at Slate online about Obama's father actually being from San Francisco, not Kenya. Huh? Is this something from the rumor mill or another fact the media has not shared? When I find that link again I'll post it. It was something reported by The Cleveland Plain Dealer earlier this month as I recall.

Obama’s much-lauded Tuesday speech, which detailed his relationship with his church and focused on the issue of racial reconciliation, failed to shake the notion that Republicans had been given a rare political gift.

“It was a speech written to mau-mau the New York Times editorial board, the network production people and the media into submission. Beautifully calibrated but deeply dishonest,” said GOP media consultant Rick Wilson, who crafted the ad in 2002 tying then-Sen. Max Cleland to Osama bin Laden. “Not good enough.”

Until now, questions about Obama’s allegiance to country had been largely confined to the fever swamps of the Internet and e-mail chains. They took the form of dark whispers about the greater meaning of Obama’s failure to put his hand over his heart during one national anthem, his decision not to wear an American flag lapel pin and, at their most toxic, the outright lie that he’s a Muslim or some sort of Manchurian candidate.

With Michelle Obama’s comments last month that she was, thanks to her husband’s candidacy, for the first time “really proud of [her country],” the topic entered the more mainstream elements of the conservative conversation, ricocheting across talk radio, cable news and blogs.

“All the sudden you’ve got two dots and two dots make a line,” said Castellanos. “You start getting some sense of who he is and it’s not the Obama you thought - he’s not the Tiger Woods of politics.”

But if Michelle Obama’s gaffe caused some ripples in the right-wing pond, the Wright videos have detonated the equivalent of a daisy cutter on the conservative landscape, awakening an otherwise dispirited party base.

“I usually get three or four emails a week on Obama,” said Michigan Republican chairman Saul Anuzis Monday. “Today I received more than 10 - all of them on his minister.”

Among the e-mails Anuzis received was a link to a mash-up video splicing together Wright’s most extreme comments, Michelle Obama’s statement, footage of Obama not putting his hand over his heart during the anthem at a political event and images of Malcolm X and the two black Olympians in 1968 who raised their fists in the “black power” salute set to the iconic rap song by Public Enemy “Fight the Power.”

The video, titled “Is Obama Wright,” is described as being produced by something called “NHaleMedia,” apparently just a dummy Web site set up to produce anoymous and home-made videos.

In effect, the pastor has done what many on the right, quivering even with the anonymity afforded by the online era, had hesitated over until now-thrust highly delicate matters of patriotism and race into the political dialogue.

“It opens up an entire new vein,” said Republican consultant Paul Wilson.

Just as with John Kerry and the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth in 2004, Republican strategists view the Wright flap as deeply damaging to Obama because it strikes at the message, or set of principles, at the heart of his candidacy.

In Obama’s case, the core of his appeal has been that he transcends race and is more inclined toward conciliation than combat.

“He wants the authentic black image but he also wants to keep all his safe, suburban Obamacans in line,” said Rick Wilson. “Well, you can’t have both - they’re mutually exclusive.”

“This is a guy who associates with some real haters,” he added.

Perhaps most damaging for Obama, his opponents now have the powerful video to make that case.

“It’s harder for people to say it’s taken out of context because these are Wright’s own words,” noted Chris LaCivita, the Republican strategist who helped craft the Swift Boat commercials against Kerry that employed the use of their target’s own language when he returned from Vietnam and returned his medals. “You let people draw their own conclusions.”

“You don’t have to say that he’s unpatriotic, you don’t question his patriotism,” he added. “Because I guaran-damn-tee you that with that footage you don’t have to say it.”

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/03/19/politics/politico/main3949349.shtml

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Related: a footnote to the previous post:

"bitch really is the new black."

As is well known: it’s one thing for a person of color to refer to themselves as the “n-word” or any group to use the whatever-word amongst themselves in their cultural and ethnic enclave, quite another when someone outside the group does it, especially in the way Morgan used 'bitch' as a put-down, another 'put the woman in her place' act of hostility and threat. Let's not even get into the issue of calling a gown woman 'girl' or a black man 'boy' .... (which Tina never did).

The parallel comparison would be if Tina had used the N-word referring to Morgan (which she did not); for him to end his commentary (which was perfectly reasonable political humor/satire up until the end) and call her Bitch at all, especially in such a denigrating and condescending, disrespectful tone shows the double standard and the pervasive acceptance of sexism and misogyny in his personal values, cultural values, male values and society at large.

Like I said, I'm just not convinced.

MEMO TO HOWARD DEAN & THE DEMOCRATIC ELITES: SEAT THE DELEGATES

Primaries 2008 Candidate Updates: Chart Compiled from Media Projections

Super Tuesday Projection Updates: Democrats
Clinton	Obama
Tennessee Arkansas Oklahoma Massachusetts New York New Jersey California*	Georgia Illinois Delaware Alabama Kansas (caucus, not primary) Connecticut Minnesota (caucus) North Dakota (caucus) Idaho (caucus) Colorado (caucus) Alaska (caucus)

A list of the democratic delegate counts and the type of Super Tuesday voting (primary or caucus) at wikipedia.

Note: If Hillary wins, I believe it's not about 'racism' (Obama is winning almost 50% of whites, including a higher percentage of white males who have a much deeper affinity toward racism historically). Nope -- it's (partly) about the women voters (and men) in this country having a keen sense of fairness.  There's a strong sense of injustice and unfairness in the media treatment of Hillary; of being sick of rich, white, privileged, elitist, hypocritical, smug, hateful, cruel, punitive, Hillary-obsessed males telling everyone who they must vote for ... combined with major concerns about: Healthcare (Hillary's plan covers everyone), Jobs & Economy (women are paid less, mature women treated poorly), Families, Equality, War -- 400 years of rich (white) men controlling everything and screwing over women (and people of color) a million times more than has ever been imagined or voiced.

I think if Obama wins, everyone who supports Hillary will get behind him gladly (polls released today show 71-72% of Democrats are happy with both candidates and could vote for either). 

But I know there simply are alot of us who are sick and tired of the vitriol and sexism by the overwhelmingly privileged, entitled male journalists, mainstream media (overwhelmingly white, male, bullies -- they are looking more stale by the day), disgustingly biased pundits and misogynist sexist smug bloviators like Chris Tweety Spitball Matthews and Joe Scumbag of MS/NBC (owned by the military industrial complex no-bid contract corporate giant, G.E./General Electric) and the equally disgusting and transparent (and talk about living in the past) Carl Buttstein of CNN/Time Warner -- ugh!

G.E., like Halliburton, is but one of many such war profiteering enterprises who fear Hillary much more than Obama. Why? Because she knows the intricacies of their systems after 15 years of studying it and being attacked by it, and they know she knows how to begin dismantling the machine and the repairing the (largely unknown) damage the rich republicans have done these past 15 years to our Nation (they were in control of Congress until last year). They fear her, they hate her, they know she will begin the deconstruction of their evil webs on day one. They prefer Obama because he'll be easier to defeat; but if he were to win, they know he will be chasing ghosts until he wises up, and that takes years. We don't have years.) Meanwhile, I think Women Boycott MS/NBC would be a good campaign to start after Hillary completes the campaign process.

If women aren't going to take a stand now, of all times in history, then when?

Quick Note: 12PM EST/9PMPST Clinton leading in CA. Obama is talking too long in IL (reminiscent of Bill Clinton's long-windedness?) Jeez. First time I've felt this way while listening to him;  I have to wonder if the more he does that, the more annoying it becomes, especially since there are so few details?

The good thing about the repugs: they're so divided (and divisive) that the half-way honest, everyday regular voters will surely be tired of the incompetence and lies of the repugs these past years (and decades).

*12:10-12:13PM EST/9:13PST Media/networks declare Clinton the winner of the California Primary (although the delegates will be distributed proportionally). Tweety the drooling bully must be truly humiliated! Yay!

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