Tuesday, February 19, 2008

AT WHAT POINT DO THE CLINTONS ENDORSE OBAMA AND START WORKING ON SAVING THEIR BRAND?

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Another day, another 3 more wins

Obama didn't just win in Wisconsin, which we were told would be very close; he rolled right over her, close to 60% of the vote. Funny, even Hillary beat the entire Republican field. But what Obama did to McCain in Wisconsin, which his operatives claim will be a battlegroundĀ  state in the general, was just sad. Obama had nearly triple the number of votes that McCain managed to get. He also pulverized Hillary's demographic firewalls, edging her among women and tying her among voters where she would have had to have rack up big margins to have a chance of winning-- or even coming close.
Among voters 49 years old and younger he had a significant 64-39 percent advantage over Clinton. College-educated voters, who made up 72 percent of those polled, favored him 59 percent to 39 percent.

Obama had a slight edge among voters who called themselves Democrats-- 50 percent to 49 percent-- but overwhelmingly topped Clinton among the 27 percent of respondents who called themselves independents, taking 63 percent of their votes to Clinton's 36 percent.

Independents have smelled the Bush stink coming from McCain and they have almost entirely deserted him for Obama. Ron Paul won the few independents voting in Wisconsin's Republican; the bulk of independents voted in the Democratic primary-- and overwhelmingly for Obama. It looks like more than double the number of Democrats than Republicans voted in Wisconsin. Republicans there, like everywhere else, are just dispirited with Bush, McCain, the GOP, the hateful and unpopular policies.

As I head off for the sack, we have word that Hawaii's caucuses are having a record turnout. The Clintons, despite sending their daughter there to campaign, will claim it's just a caucus so it doesn't mean anything and that it's a small state and doesn't count anyway. I mean their Machine stole more votes from certain Brooklyn and Manhattan neighborhoods than there are in all of Hawaii.
"There has not been this kind of interest and excitement in my political lifetime," said US Representative Neil Abercrombie, a veteran lawmaker from the Aloha State who is a superdelegate supporting Obama. "It makes my heart beat fast."

Jane Bond, a Democratic party official who started "Kauai for Obama" on the northernmost island in the Hawaiin chain, said she cannot recall any other political contest here that has energized Hawaiians like the 2008 presidential nominating process.

...Obama was expected to win in the state where he spent 14 of his first 18 years, running his winning streak to 10 contests and claiming most of the 20 delegates at stake.

As predicted, Obama also beat Hillary in the Washington state primary, a straw poll. He already won the bulk of that state's delegates in the caucuses two weeks ago when he trounced her two to one.

The Clintons ought to be working on a graceful and dignified exit strategy for her. She fired the campaign manager and the assistant campaign manager and maybe she'll fire the awful speech writer but none of that matters. People are ready for real change and real change does not mean a Bush or a Clinton or John McCain.


UPDATE: THE VOTES ARE COUNTED IN HAWAII

I hope Chelsea enjoyed her vacation; it was a landslide for Obama-- 76% to 24%.


UPDATE; BURNISHING THEIR BRAND ISN'T WHAT THE CLINTONS HAVE IN MIND APPARENTLY

They're reacting badly to the fact that Obama is now way ahead of Hillary, not just in popular vote and momentum, but with the hard delegate count. Instead of accepting reality, endorsing Obama, singing "Kumbaya" and regaining some dignity and respectability, the Clintons are going for a vicious Rove-like attack on Obama with a 527 of questionable legality. A shadowy group of special interests type Democratic Insiders calling themselves the American Leadership Project, is mapping out "an expensive, stealth campaign to buttress her standing in the must-win states of Ohio, Texas and Pennsylvania. They're canvassing Clinton donors for pledges of up to $100,000 in the hope of raising at least $10M by the end of next week. The money will be placed in the account of a political committee organized under section 527 of the tax code." She'll lose anyway; people are starting to really hate her and her husband. And I guess Obama needs the practice because the mud the Clintons sling his way will be baby play compared to what the McCain Machine has in store for him.


UPDATE: CONGRESSIONAL QUARTERLY GETS IT HALF RIGHT

Today CQ pointed out that Hillary faces two choices: Losing Pretty or Winning Ugly. The Clinton Machine seems to have opted for a third choice: Losing Ugly.

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13 Comments:

At 12:34 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

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Yes, it is time for her to pull out, but she won't. No matter how many times Obama wins, her supporters will keep watering down and dismissing how far Obama has come since before Super Tuesday.

You want to know how to end this argument and convince the nonbelievers that Obama is the right candidate? Show them these Survey USA polls:

Virginia
Clinton: 45% McCain: 48%
Obama: 51% McCain: 45%

Iowa
Clinton: 41% McCain: 52%
Obama: 51% McCain: 41%

Wisconsin
Clinton: 42% McCain: 49%
Obama: 51% McCain: 41%

It's kind of a no-brainer.

 
At 4:10 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Exactly, and their brand is suffering.

 
At 4:32 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yeah....change is what we're going to have left in our pockets once they're done!

 
At 7:11 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yeah, anonymouse. Like people have so many crisp new 10s & 20s in their pockets after people named Bush, Clinton, and Reagan got through with deregulating everything and sending our jobs overseas. Those guys brought it on themselves. It's getting so bad, people have nothing to lose in turning their backs on that kind.

 
At 7:13 AM, Blogger Eric said...

By the way, happy birthday Howie!

 
At 7:37 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Obama. Ain't gonna do shyt! And I am voting for him. He is a corey booker(newark mayor) type: A privileged corporate puppet. They are putting Black People in positions of power as a tool for the corrupt. The Whole AFRICOM/US military bases in Africa thing will be headed by a Black Man, who will be given no real authority and all the responsibility, which is the typical MO for any Black person in corporate America.

What I am really voting for is a change 20-30 years down the line. There has to be a starting point, even if initially it's wrapped in bullshyt.

 
At 9:22 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I still prefer Howard Dean, or Mike Gravel, or Dennis Kucinich.

 
At 1:56 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Obama is running a Republican-style campaign with glittering vistas, while Hillary is running a Democratic-style campaign with a boring laundry list of technicalities. That's why Obama can beat McCain and Hillary can't.

 
At 2:35 PM, Blogger briarhopper said...

Republicans under the sway of Obama's charm? Forget that!! They're crossing party lines in open primaries and caucuses in order to achieve nomination for the weaker Democratic candidate, which, in racist America, is a black man. And they're providing money for him for the same purpose. And Obama has so much baggage, to boot, that the Republican attack machine will grind him to pieces!

 
At 3:12 PM, Blogger Motherlode said...

"People are starting to really hate her and her husband" -- why, may I ask? Because they won't lie down and take it on the chin for the anointed one? I'll vote for Obama if he's the nominee, but I'm so disgusted by the attacks on the Clintons based on almost nothing more than personalities, watching "progressives" and the "liberal media" doing the VRWC's job for them and smearing the most successful Dem leaders we've had in a long, long time (especially when you consider they've been up against an entrenched, hyperpartisan Republican Party for nearly all their careers) that I'll not welcome any calls from MoveOn to organize or host any house parties this election cycle.

 
At 4:17 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ah, nothing I like better than a little dog-whistle sexism in the early evening. Hillary Clinton is the candidate that would have to get out of the race ... but she's not her own person, just part of "The Clintons"

Maybe Senator Clinton doesn't concede because the stakes are too high -- maybe its because she's not the person you are projecting her to be -- maybe its because she's not worried about "saving her own brand", maybe its because she is concerned about fixing this country, not just "changing" it.

Maybe its because she doesn't want to leave america with the choice between a Republican in the early stages of Alheimers, and a neophyte Democrat who has never come close to dealing with what the right-wing smear machine will do to him, and won't have the first clue about what the job of President actually involves if he does get elected.

I mean, Obama may be 'inspiring', but to what end? Can he actually 'inspire' change? Imagine how much help he could have been if he'd used his rhetorical gifts to urge his supporters to join the fight against telecom immunity -- imagine if he'd used all those inspiring 'victory' speeches he's been giving to make the FISA bill a national issue?

When Obama DEMONSTRATES how his rhetoric can actually inspire positive change, and isn't just hot air, then I'll think about supporting him. Until then, its Hillary, because although she's far from perfect, she knows how to get the job done

 
At 7:35 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Maybe, Paul at 4:17...
It's because Hillary Clinton voted to give Bush2 more power in Iraq, which he abused, AND SHE KNEW BETTER, but she made a "politically correct" vote and voted for it. Never apologized or said she was wrong, just some mmmummmble about if she knew now....

WE don't forget. Hillary has been toast since that vote. BAD judgement, NOT a president, slept with a president, big deal who hasn't?
Learn to bake cookies now like she made fun of...

 
At 9:58 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

In addition, on the day of the FISA vote, Obama showed up to do the right thing and vote for stripping immunity, even though we lost big time. Now, I understand this was on the day of the Potomac primaries, and Clinton was hoping to cut into Obama's lead. But even McCain showed up to vote...and he's pathetic. He missed almost every one since 2006.

 

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