She has $3 million in the bank, he has $30 million. They have blown through a lot of money. Guess where most of it went?
Consultants
Honestly, these 2 candidates have little separating them, he has health care plans, she has health care plans. They both are fine. Howard Dean likes to say if you want to elect a candidate who matches your own beliefs, run for office. Look there are plenty of things about Barack Obama that I do not like, but I will keep them to myself until we kick John McCain's ass. As far as Hillary, it's not her I don't like. It's that campaign. It's those consultants, the whole lot of them.
That is why we have to beat that campaign. It's not about Clinton or Obama. We have to whip these worthless "media consultants." They are the ones who book the candidates on Russert, and Matthews and keep them relevant. They are the ones that keep the Sunday Bobblehead Circuit running. They give money for advertising, instead of organizing a precinct. Tell candidates to run to the right. Tell them to seek the endorsement of some crazy bastard like Hagee. They won in 2004, they beat Dean bad, but in the end they lost, like they always do. Kerry lost, and in that we got rid of Shrum his media consultant campaign manager. We have to beat this campaign because we have to beat these people, Mark Penn and all the rest of them. It's the first step in taking this fight to the media. If we get rid of the media enablers, we can start to focus on the media.
Of course she is out of money. Penn was getting millions a month. Millions. Now we know why she went "grassroots" in Pennsylvania, and why Obama went on the air with an ad first. She can't afford to do more. Like I said, I don't dislike her, but she sat at this table. She hired these people to represent her. Lobbyists and Media Consultants. Dean threw all of these people out of the DNC. We need to do the same.
There's more...
A party-run primary or caucus has been ruled out, and it's simply not possible for the state to hold another election, even if the Party were to pay for it. Republican Speaker of the Florida House Marco Rubio refuses to even consider that option. Florida is finally moving to paper ballots, which is a good thing, but it means that at least 15 counties do not have the capacity to handle a major election before the June 10th DNC primary deadline. -- Congresswoman Karen L. Thurman Chair, Florida Democratic Party.
Which only leaves Michigan. It appears there is a compromise re-vote on the table. The state party co-chair and the Obama campaign are considering it.
Clinton supporters in Michigan are arguing that legislative leaders won't spend time working out those details in the first place without a preliminary nod of approval from the Obama camp -- leading Hillary spokesperson Phil Singer to allege that the Obama camp is "blocking the people of Michigan from being able to vote."
But the Obama campaign denies that it's raising procedural objections in order to stop the revote from happening. -- TPM Election Central
If I was the Obama campaign I would be cautious about any deal the Clinton campaign worked out with state legislators. Reasonable so.
There's more...
Barack Obama at Key Arena, Seattle. Feb 8, 2008. photo Jesse Wendel. Click for LARGE.
I've gone to great pains to proclaim my neutrality between the candidates, and it's genuine. I like them both, and I see their differences as small. For certain, I'll vote for whomever heads the Democratic ticket this fall. Really.
Some folks have suggested Clinton operatives are pushing "Obama as cult" around the press. Please don't tell me I'm being told to think this about cults. I hadn't read Krugman's article when I came to the same conclusion about Obama as a cult of personality. And I did so all on my own.
I went to both the Clinton and the Obama rallies here in Puget Sound last Thursday night/Friday afternoon. (More detailed reports to follow; consider this a sidebar.)
The Clinton rally Thursday night at Pier 30 was remarkable to me in three ways:
1. Personally, for how the staff knew I was coming and took care of me, even though I was late, bringing me through the long lines of people, getting up on the riser with the rest of the national press, bringing me water for my medicine. They were smooth and professional, without being cloying in any way.
2. Clinton presented a plan to withdraw for Iraq which I found detailed, specific, and credible. She then did the same with her plan for universal health care, and after giving details, she said, "I have staked my campaign on universal health care."
3. The crowd was inspired by her, cheered for her, but all in the ordinary way of a political rally. Call it 2-1 women, 30+ white/Hispanic, and happy to be there.
Friday morning I headed out to the Obama rally. They made the press wait outside in 40 degree cold in the wind for an hour before letting us in to searches and more waiting around, showing of press credentials and signing in. The Obama staff didn't know me from Adam and couldn't have cared less. (Sam, on their national blogging team has been nice to me.)
Frozen, I headed down to the convention floor. While I won't go into details (I hate process stories), I'll simply say the Obama volunteers pushed the local press around. I made it clear as a national blogger I wasn't going to put up with crap at all.
In comparison to how the Clintons treated the press, the Obama people treated the press disrespectfully and arrogantly. Furthermore, they didn't have anyone available to us except starry-eyed volunteers.
Shorter me: the Clinton camp was respectful of me and other press. The Obama camp was arrogant as all hell (with the exception of national web-guy Sam.) HUGE difference, and differences like this in my experience come from the top down.
Then came the actually Obama event. The best I can liken it to is a cross between a rock concert and a religious revival. The place was filled, probably over 20,000 people (the Clinton event was only 3,000+ people) and both turned people away. From the moment Obama hit the stage, everyone (but the press) was on their feet and never sat down.
Obama almost never got into specifics. It was change, change, save the country, change, yes we can, change. He did talk about both his health care plan and his education plan, and gave specifics in both cases, briefly. But then it was back to broad strokes. He spent a lot of time defending himself against the lack of experience charge.
Then Obama ended with "there is a moment in the the life of every generation where we decide. This is our moment. We will win. Together we will change the world."
Watching Obama reminded me VERY strongly of watching Werner Erhard, the est leader, on stage in front of tens of thousands of people in the 80s (and on videotape of Erhard at the Hollywood Bowl in the 70s.) Obama has precisely the same kind of universal appeal, the same kind of declarative "making a difference" saving the world approach. He's even using many of the same words and the crowd ate it up.
Well, daughter #3, Kyle, 17, didn't. But then she's hung out with transformational speakers since she was a kid, so she's had her shots against this stuff. She said, "A lot of people who were all excited were yelling and cheering over stuff that didn't really seem that exciting but everyone was really excited anyway no matter what he said, even though it didn't seem very inspiring to me."
Because Obama is not saying what he is for, not laying out specifics, and not making genuine promises, but instead making powerful declarations, making himself the candidate with whom everything changes and NEVER SPECIFYING WHAT IN THE HELL THAT MEANS, people are free to, and they damn well are, projecting onto Obama all their hopes and dreams for a better future. He is their mother, their father, their lover, confessor, their priest, their shining city on a hill.
Obama event, Key Arena, Seattle, February 8, 2008. photo Jesse Wendel. Click for LARGE.
When the mass media which as we all know is in the bag for the Republicans, tears Obama down off the pedestal they presently are promoting him on, it will rip the heart out of these children of our future, much as it destroyed the hopes of the JFK/MLK generation four decades ago.
And the media is coming for Obama. Just as soon as they've got him where they want him, which is running against McCain. He's better ratings than Clinton, and (editorial assessment) Rove/Bush and the Republicans do NOT want to run against Clinton, who has whupped them every time she's run against them.
The kids supporting Obama at the Seattle event, from the volunteers to the people in the stands, seemed high, as in not in full control of themselves. That they were high with a peak experience is great and good for them, but they still weren't in control. They were filled with this great joy. They bumped into things and laughed.
When I talked to them, all were thrilled I was there to write a great story about the Senator. When I softly corrected them I was just there to write a story on the event and what happened, not to make it great about the Senator, you could see their claws come out, anger cross their face, and then as one, they would paste a smile on, almost as if they knew they had to be nice to someone not yet in the club.
I've been around cults, religions, and high-dominance authoritarian institutions much of my life. While I won't go so far as to call the Obama organization a cult, as clearly the volunteers live out in the world and have their lives, people are VERY focused on Obama and don't really know much about what he stands for (and he's not saying.) They are making a demon out of Clinton, and get very twitchy when crossed. The volunteers are putting their hopes and dreams into Obama.
This at the least, approaches a serious cult of personality, and perhaps more. It is easily up to the Werner Erhard / George W. Bush level, and without much trouble, will go further.
Such personality veneration has never played well with others, and it isn't now.
NOTE: Nothing in this post should be construed as an endorsement of either Democratic candidate for president. It is an article with facts and opinions about politics. I have not made up my mind, and GNB is not endorsing any candidate until there is a clear nominee.I intend to add this to all my political posts from now till we have a nominee.
Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton both spoke at last night’s Jefferson-Jackson Dinner in Richmond, Virginia. Senator Obama had a HUGE night last night, sweeping the primary in Louisiana and the caucuses in Washington, Nebraska and also won in the U.S. Virgin Islands, by a margin of 3 to 1 on average. While there’s no doubt he’s gained momentum, Senator Hillary Clinton looked confident, railing against President Bush which got a big reaction from the crowd. Clinton says she’s ready to take on John McCain in November.
Breaking: Hillary Top Staff Being Reshuffled; Solis Doyle Replaced As Campaign Manager
've just obtained an internal Hillary email from campaign manager Patty Solis Doyle to Hillary's staff announcing that in a reshuffling of the campaign's inner circle, she's leaving the post of campaign manager, and is being replaced by longtime trusted aide Maggie Williams:
Over a year ago Hillary launched her campaign for President.
Her announcement began a historic effort that has inspired millions and brought hundreds of thousands to their feet all across this nation.
I have been proud to manage this campaign, and prouder still to call Hillary my friend for more than sixteen years. I know that she will make a great President.
This has already been the longest Presidential campaign in the history of our nation, and one that has required enormous sacrifices from all of us and our families.
During the last month I have been working closely with my longtime friend, Maggie Williams.
This week Maggie will begin to assume the duties of campaign manager. I will serve as a senior adviser to Hillary and the campaign and travel with Hillary from time to time on the road. Maggie is a remarkable person and I am confident that she will do a fabulous job.
Although I will continue to see you all at headquarters, I would be remiss if I didn’t thank each of you for your dedication, excellence, and passion over the last year.
You are the best campaign staff in the history of Presidential politics and I am grateful to each of you for your hard work and friendship.
The replacement of Doyle was first rumored after Hillary's loss in Iowa, but the chatter of her impending departure vanished with her subsequent victories. Now Dolye, who's been with Hillary for many years, is out at a moment where the campaign faces a dark February, during which she may not win a single contest.
Campaign Clinton has to get through the next month which as TPM points out, is pretty much all bad news.
By reshuffling their campaign manager, they get new energy, blame the failure on someone, and are able to assure the big donors "it was all Solis Doyle's fault but we're on the right track now." This is what had to be done in order to keep the money flowing.
At least one reporter doesn't think Obama's home state of Hawaii will be an Obama walk-over. He reports the Democratic establishment and Clinton are building a firewall against Obama.
In the meanwhile, February looks full of brick walls for Team Clinton, and filled with momentum for Team Obama.
NOTE: Nothing in this post should be construed as an endorsement of either Democratic candidate for president. It is an article with facts and opinions about politics. I have not made up my mind, and GNB is not endorsing any candidate until there is a clear nominee.I intend to add this to all my political posts from now till we have a nominee.There's more...
Obama event yesterday, February 9. Filled Key Arena, over 18,000 and turned people away. Daughter #3 Kyle was... well, more later, when I give my report.
This is just a quick note. On-site staff work not nearly as impressive as last night. On the other hand, 1-2,000 v. 18,000+. The Clinton event: a huge room at Pier 30 where everyone is visible from every place (Secret Service sweeps fairly easy) v. sweeping a massive arena. And let's face it, one campaign staff is new to the national stage, their volunteers are younger, and they're playing much bigger houses. It showed. The Obama national staff on the other hand, has been fairly quick to get back to me, and helpful.
I'll give a full report on the event itself later today (hopefully; or Sunday), after I've got some sleep. The plan is, sleep, waffles and bacon while starting to write, caucus from 1-3, keep writing and eventually post. One post each on each event, and maybe some sidebars. Depends on how long I hold out.
Obama event in a nutshell: Rock concert & revival. You want to talk turned on? No one EVER sat down (except press.) The entire audience was on its feet the entire talk. 18,000+ people rose to their feet when he took the stage and when it was over, they could barely talk from yelling themselves hoarse.
Good times. I wish I'd had a lighter to hold up for the encore. Not as much in the way of substance as I'd have liked, but wow, does this guy know how to hold a crowd. I mean that in the most positive possible way. He's a genuine leader. He speaks, people follow.
It is clear to me after watching Senator Obama, one genuine advantage he has over Senator Clinton, is people are so inspired by him, that for the first time since President Kennedy, the best and the brightest of the Democratic Party may be attracted to government and public service jobs, because Barack Obama calls them to serve.
The United States desperately needs new leadership. Senator Obama is inspiration. He speaks; peopleare inspired.
That ain't small potatoes.
More later. Goodnight.
NOTE: Nothing in this post should be construed as an endorsement of either Democratic candidate for president. It is an article with facts and opinions about politics. I have not made up my mind, and GNB is not endorsing any candidate prior to there being a clear nominee.
(I intend to add this to all my political posts from now till we have a nominee. If I forget, please assume I meant to add it and forgot. *smiles*)
Met with many local bloggers here tonight. Too tired to list them all. Soon. With links. Good group of folks. Had fun. Plus, invited to go out with them again on Tuesday nights to Blogging Liberally. How fun.
Then off to the Clinton event where even though I was late, they were expecting and looking for me, took me in past the lines literally pressed up against the outside doors into the packed auditorium on Pier 30, led me up onto the national press riser, fed me donuts and brought me water when I needed to take my pain meds. Sucking up to the press... Good staff work Team Clinton. (Especially thank you to the wonderful Crystal Patterson who set everything in motion.)
I'll say this much, before moving on... the room was jumping. People were lit up. She not only had solid plans she worked in to what she said, but she inspired people. This isn't John Kerry's stump speech. People were turned on and cheering.
Kyle wants to see history made, so off to see Senator Obama in the morning. Will leave her at Key Arena to find her own way home.
One big consolidated post on both events, hopefully tonight. If not, Saturday morning while eating waffles.
Then tomorrow (Saturday), we caucus here in Washington State. Be there by 1 pm at the latest. Anyone arriving after 1:30 pm, your vote doesn't count. Be there early.
Oh... and if everyone would be so kind, please don't put into comments, anyone else's personal caucus locations. That's for email, not for what Google can archive forever. Thanks for understanding.
This is being written at 3:30 am, but I'm sticking it in at 2 am, so as not to jump on HS's post. Mine is just a note, and his is a real post.
That's it for tonight. You've been lovely. Lovely I say.
The red in the map above -- you can open it up by clicking -- are the Baptists. Brown is Mormon. Yellow is Lutheran.
Do you see why Huckleberry Lawrd'd his way through the south, and Romes never had a flipping chance? Huck's people ran those dirty fucking heretics (many of them immigrants from Lord knows where, dirt poor with their filthy diseases, taking jobs away from hard working Americans) out of Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois 170+ years ago? Damned if it can't be done again, and god-damned if Romeo boy with Jesus only knows how many wives is getting any votes from any good honest self-righteous true Americans. Yes sir. Our votes are going to Huck. Or maybe Ron Paul, who understands about them colored folk.
Look at the map and it all becomes clear.
Now Hubris Sonic seems to think Obama Mania is going to be enough to carry the day. I can see why he thinks it. I think the big mo is running two weeks too late and Clinton will get to the convention barely ahead of Obama with enough delegates to either win on the first ballot, given her edge in Super Delegates and the uncommitted, or...
We go to a second ballot and all hell breaks loose.
I'm not bothering to explain the precise rules of when delegates are set free to go their own way -- okay, so I don't actually know them; that's what the internets were made for -- but when it comes to running a tight-ass ship, today's media frenzy (fuck-up by the Clinton campaign) in New York City not-withstanding, I'll bet on the Clinton's many years and two prior national campaigns every time.
Now if even the vaunted Clinton discipline breaks down, we've got us a Show. Heh.
One possibility is a nomination from the floor of literally anyone constitutionally eligible to be President. Thirty-five and a native-born U.S. citizen, which means born a U.S. citizen, including people born in embassies, overseas to U.S. citizens who reported the birth appropriately under most circumstances, and a few other catagories. Naturalized citizens (Ar-nuld) need not apply. Fine by me.
A nomination could be made from the floor of Edwards. Of Dean. Of Oprah. (Seriously. Oprah could be nominated.) So could Al Gore.
Imagine a ticket of Al Gore and Obama... that's a possible outcome if the convention goes past two or three ballots without resolution. Or Clinton/Obama. Or Obama/Clinton.
I think the odds are 60/40 Clinton pulls it off. But as Hubris Sonic says, the momentum is with Obama. For sure, I say, if he'd had an extra two weeks, he'd make it. I think he's behind the curve and Clinton is too deeply entrenched.
Further, Obama's positives are as high right now as they ever will be. He's riding a media wave. No one is attacking him in any serious way and he has nowhere to go but down. Clinton has her unfavorable's sky high and has nowhere to go but up, because she's Hillary Clinton and the right-wing hates her more than they hate Black people and Jews.
But Hubris could be right. It could go Obama's way. That's why I'm saying 60/40 Clinton. It is that close. ONE person changing their vote could tie it up. TWO people would be a landslide the other way.
On the Republican side, exit polls -- The Littlest Gator pointed this out to me, and then I went digging deeply into the exits myself -- show while people are voting for McCain, even the folks voting for him, about half of them hate his 100 year war, even in enormously Republican states such as Arizona or parts of the south. McCain, yep. War, hell no.
Our nominee should make the war the issue. Clinton has the tougher problem given she voted for going to Iraq and plans to keep forces there, but she could shift her position to withdrawing troops, contrasting herself starkly with McCain. Huge payoff. Obama can anti-war contrast himself cleanly, although I'm not satisfied with his commitment to get the hell out. Clean that up and he's positioned to knock McCain silly. Enormous payout electorally.
Either candidate could beat McCain here and likely win the election straight-up on McCain's War. Especially if McCain is tied to the inevitable resumption of the draft.
Finally, Obama does not have the Latino or Asian vote. Or the female vote. Not to say many women aren't voting for him. But many more women are voting for Clinton. And overwhelmingly, Asians and Latinos are voting for Clinton.
Enough. Flux. Momentum for Obama. Organization and rules/delegate count for Clinton. Fight on... remembering it's Republicans we're fighting.
Well the numbers are still coming in. New Mexico is swinging back in forth with Clinton now up by 40 some votes. Regardless, he got just about the same amount of delegates as she got. That goes for all the states. He won the majority of the states and in the ones he lost, he got just about the same amount of delegates that she received.
In the end it looks like he will finish up 20 some odd delegates more than her. The upcoming schedule looks very good for Obama, states that he has been polling well in. He out raised her in January 3:1, and that is going to get worse for her. There are only so many people who can afford to give $2,300. The Clinton campaign needed to put Obama to bed before today. Its hard for her from here. She can just sit on her delegates and hope for a mistake on Obama's part.
People are talking about super-delegates. Elected party members, state party chairs, etc. But these delegates don't count to your total until the convention. They can declare themselves for a candidate now, but they can change their minds tomorrow. Unlike the 'pledged' delegates awarded by the states. Yes, it's a bit of a chess game for her from here out and he needs to campaign hard but that momentum has not been stopped.
I have 3 words for the Clinton campaign: Mo, Men, Tums...
“I won't vote for _____, and neither will (insert social, racial, special interest group or friends here.)”
An Open Letter to the Idiots of the Democratic Party Circular Firing Squad.
There's been talk lately about how if Obama doesn't get the nomination, some of you will take your ball and your bat and go home. That some of you'll actively work against Clinton in November.
Those of you who are American citizens, that is certainly your right.
Just as it's my right to tell you what total and complete idiots you are. Crybabies. Cowards.
This isn't Little League. It's the Show.
Two campaigns are fighting to be President of the United States, and for all the power which goes with. Do you really think there isn't much either of them won't do to win? Really?
I'm not here to defend Bill Clinton, nor Hillary Clinton. I'm defending the Democratic Party.
If you feel you and people you know or whose blogs you read, want to walk away from the Democratic Party because it won't nominate your preferred candidate, well, with no respect at all, you're an idiot. The Republicans will eat your lunch. (They have since 1980 except when Clinton was president. Or didn't you notice? Oh... you loved him then. Sorry. It's that selective memory you fair-weather Democrats have. Infectious.)
The Republicans right now, are self-destructing over this precise issue. Two-thirds of them hate any given candidate. It is ripping their party apart. Ain't it great?
And now some of you want us to join them? They're pissing all over themselves, and you want us to whip it out and piss on ourselves also?
For years the Republicans have been saying how you dirty fucking liberal hippies hate yourselves. They may be on to something, because some of you simply refuse to win even as it is being handed to you on a silver platter with a big pink bow. Do you hate winning?
"Oh, the American people HATE Hillary. She could NEVER win. AND I WON'T HELP. In fact, I'll work to help defeat her. And get others to help me."
Yeah? Well fuck you too. And your buddies. With friends like you...
Sara wrote about this self-destruction by the Republicans in her Three-Ring Circus article which I felt was so important in terms of grasping the strategy of this cycle, for the first time ever, we pinned a post to the top of GNB and left it there. Twenty-four full hours.
They are, maybe, just maybe, some Republicans, who will be angry enough and thus stupid enough to stay home come November, because they don't like their candidate.
Wow, do I hope so.
Boy are we stupid if we do the same. That's a circular firing squad.
By the way, why is it that some people call Senator Clinton, "Hillary" and not "Clinton?" Does it make them feel better to reduce a U.S. Senator and a woman to her first name, while calling everyone else by their last name? Obama, Obama, Obama, McCain, McCain, McCain, Edwards, Edwards, Edwards, and Hillary!
Moving on...
If you don't know all the different things the Office of the President controls, I'm not going to take the time to educate you in full. But we don't elect a President just because of Supreme Court nominations, to control the military, veto appropriations bills, or to represent us to other countries. That's the glitz, the Paris Hilton of being President. Small cheese compared to every-day impacts the Presidency has on YOUR life through the Executive Branch. And I do mean, on your life, personally, no matter your ethnic group, your sexual preference, your economic class.
Let me pick a few examples, not at random.
Ronald Reagan is responsible for the death of easily 1 million gay men in the United States, simply for his refusal to allow the CDC to act. The CDC knew what needed to be done. Reagan, the fuck, didn't mention AIDS, refused to allow warning or action. It would have hurt him politically.
This is but one of hundreds of thousands of examples.
Oil prices, and thus, gasoline prices are almost at inflation-adjusted record highs under Bush 43, thanks to both peak-oil and the Iraq war. There have been times when digging into our strategic reserve could have lowered those costs significantly. In almost every case, that is precisely when Bush 43 decided to store more oil in the U.S. strategic reserve, thus decreasing supply, increasing demand, increasing rates. The exception, of course, when it was to his political advantage to do otherwise.
One could make what I think is a valid argument, that everything this administration has done at a political level -- including wars, ecological moves, economic strategy, and so on -- has been about increasing the stock prices and profitability of the major oil companies, as well as their long term competitiveness in world markets. All this has direct impact on food prices, plastic prices, the computer industry, airplane travel, interest rates and thus your retirement plans and home loan, and of course, gasoline and your utility bill. And it falls directly into the hands of the President and the people he appoints through a number of agencies.
Continuing. Literally there are hundreds of thousands of examples from hot buttons such as abortion to approval of drugs, to federal land policy for everything from grazing rights to timber use to national park funding and creation (or not), to designation of endangered species (or not), to declaration of emergencies, to spying on your telephone calls and internet sessions. Right now, the NSA almost certainly has copies of some of your phone calls and much of your internet traffic. All this happened by order of the President and his agents.
More specifically...
I have had the skin of black children peel off in my hands from house fires in Oakland in the late 80s. These kids didn't need to die. Both the Bush 41 administration and the Reagan administration before it, refused to act on proposals I personally know were sent to the Department of Transportation which had jurisdiction over EMS, regarding coordination of EMS agencies. Failed to move on inter-agency coordination, radios, standards. Failed to move on getting smoke-detectors implemented throughout the US quickly enough. Failed to fund EMS systems for faster responses.
By the mid and late 80s, there were general solutions available which could have saved hundreds of thousands to millions of lives here in the U.S., which I personally know had made it to the Federal level. Nothing. People just kept right on dying. Only when the Clinton administration came to power, did any of these solutions even start to get implemented. Are we were we need to be? Nope. It just ain't sexy enough. And no single Senator has made it their pet project, so it's not really going anywhere. But EMS and emergency services made more progress under Clinton in 8 years, than under 12 years of Reagan/Bush. It's gone backwards under Bush 43, which is shocking, given the promises made by the Office of the President to the 9/11 Commission. But there you have it.
All these are Executive Level acts. Republican executives fail to deliver for the general good. Democratic executives take care of America.
I know what it's like to have teenagers and children literally fall apart in your hands, their skin peeling off their bodies like over-roasted chicken-skin, smelling like roast pork. These dying children don't even cry -- their lungs are roasted, coughing up soot, and the nerve endings under their skin are charred away.
In West Oakland, in my rig, that happened. On the watch of Republican presidents.
You can walk away, taking your ball and your bat if you want. I'm not walking away so long as I have a breath left in my body.
That's the difference between someone who has balls, and a coward.
Cowards take their balls and bat and go home, if they don't get their way, if the game gets hard or if they get offended. Democrats put their union with the team before everyone, even if they don't like all the players. Even if they don't like the team captain. Even if they're sick of the game or think it's hopeless.
Because the game is going to be played, no matter what. Unlike baseball, winning matters. A professional shows up to play, no matter who is on the team, fair weather or foul, because they're playing for the long-haul future of the franchise, for history, and how they feel about one player is so unimportant as to almost not matter.
Politics is a team sport. And the team which matters is the Democratic team, which currently is being taken over from the inside, by the netroots. With or without spoiled brat crybaby whining children who don't understand what it is to show up every day to play. Who threaten to take their friends, their ball and bat and go home if they don't get their way.
Cowards, quitters, idiots, crybabies, losers walk out on their team. Fair-weather friends. Who will no doubt be back when we win, begging for a piece of the action, complaining mightily how we haven't saved them a piece of power at the table.
The WGA is going to win their strike. Because they stuck together, all of them. Out of a union of about 12,000 writers, precisely one -- that's ONE writer -- went financial core during the entire strike. One. Every other writer hung together with their team. The WGA made side deals with some of the smaller producers to demonstrate their terms made sense. They kept the pickets strong. And they brought in SAG, the Screen Actors Guild, as the big threat, as in, "If you think we're crazy, walking out on you, you should see my big brother SAG. He's REALLY nuts. Come June, he's going to go all Taxi Driver on your ass, and this town will shut down for good." That's how you win strikes or elections. Everyone hangs together backed up with a credible threat.
Now some fools say they will leave and go their own way if x. It's not fine. It's stupid. It hurts the Party. And just so we're clear, the Democratic Party is going to win this fall, one way or another, with these people or without them. And afterwards, just as the WGA will never forget the scabs, I promise you, the netroots and the Party will never forget or trust any crybabies who walk out now with their balls and bats in hand, because they weren't willing to support whomever the Democratic Party democratically elects as their candidate.
I promise you if Hillary Clinton loses the nomination, she will support Barack Obama. And I promise you if Barack Obama loses, he will support Hillary Clinton. Guaranteed.
Anyone who doesn't support the nominee, should go start their own blog, I Hate Winning, where all the other whiners and complainers who have taken their balls and bats can go complain about how the world isn't devoting itself to doing what they want, how unfair life is, and how mean and nasty people are for pointing out what losers they are.
Meanwhile, the rest of us, will forget all about you ten minutes after you stop whining on GNB and other serious blogs, unless and until, you actively start working for the Republicans or for some third party. At which point you become the enemy and get attacked just like anyone else.
No one is fooling around here. All of the pros working for Clinton and Obama, the day after the nomination fight is over, 75%+ of them will be working for the other person, full out. Just like being traded to another team.
Either Clinton or Obama will win the Democratic nomination. If it's Obama, he is going to get massive support from everyone. If it's Clinton, she is going to get massive support from everyone. We are going to win the Presidency this fall. Too much is at stake to screw around.
And any Democrat who doesn't throw their full support behind the nominee, whoever he or she may be, is a fucking traitor to the Democratic Party, and can kiss my ass.
MoveOn Endorses Obama over Clinton, 70.4% to 29.6%
MoveOn has never endorsed a Presidential candidate.
The odds were high it would not this year either. A two-thirds super-majority is needed to endorse. Yet Obama took those odds, beating Clinton in the membership of MoveOn which voted, by over 40%.
Obama welcomed the endorsement on Friday. "In just a few years, the members of MoveOn have once again demonstrated that real change comes not from the top-down, but from the bottom-up. From their principled opposition to the Iraq war – a war I also opposed from the start – to their strong support for a number of progressive causes, MoveOn shows what Americans can achieve when we come together in a grassroots movement for change," he said in a statement. "I thank them for their support and look forward to working with their members in the weeks and months ahead," he added.
Organizers said they would "immediately" begin mobilizing on behalf of Obama, leading turnout programs and phone-banking members of MoveOn in targeted states. The group made seven million "GOTV" calls for Democrats in the mid-term elections, and it has an extensive voter file database.
The decisive victory shows that Obama is consolidating support from the netroots in the wake of John Edwards' withdrawal. Obama also won the Edwards vote in Thursday's Daily Kos reader poll. He bounced 35 points to reach an all-time high of 71 percent, while Clinton held steady at 11 percent. If Super Tuesday is a tie and both campaigns brace for a protracted delegate hunt, Obama could draw fundraising, volunteers and advocacy from a united front of MoveOn, netroots activists and bloggers.
Well, well, well...
Here is what I want you to remember.
The netroots are not the Democratic Party, as Howard Dean famously found out.
The Democratic Party is not the American electorate. There are independents, and oh yeah, Republicans. Plus Greens, Libs, undecideds, and others.
Bush has destroyed an American city, two nations, and with Big Dick, is itching to take out an entire region of the world. Not to mention wrecking the 200 year plus good name of the United States and our economy. And most of our constitution. (We'll be cleaning up damage of his judges for a quarter-century, more if you count what they're writing.)
It is a lie that the ideas of the Democratic Party are not the ideas of America. They are and always have been. Now, more than ever. Especially now.
That does not mean we can be careless how our ideas are presented, or who we have presenting them. Presentation matters.
As you talk about MoveOn's endorsement -- and the Gods know there are enough of you who hate Clinton and are all about the Obama love -- please... PLEASE ...try to keep this at the level of political analysis, not at your feelings. Oh, it's fine to let your emotions come out to play for a little while; I don't want to spoil your party. What I'm saying is, please no more than a couple of posts from the same person about why Clinton is bad bad bad. GNB is not a place to bash people. Focus on the political implications of MoveOn's endorsement, not on how happy it makes you feel.
The knock against Obama and his followers is all hat, not cattle. All emotion, no platform. Show me your analysis of what this means. Celebrate. But show me what it means. And that doesn't mean bash Clinton. I'm NOT kidding about I don't want to hear with the Clinton hatred. Enough already. There are a couple of you; you know who you are.
Also, just a reminder. Neither GNB or any of GNB's writers are endorsing anyone publicly till the nomination is in the bag, at which point, we will put the traces on like good donkeys, and pull the Democratic wagon as hard as we can across the November finish line, whoever the nominee may be. If you think we're in the bag for anyone, you're wrong.
Now enjoy the breaking news.
A personal note: I'm out of town today and tomorrow, and unlikely to be on the net much. See everyone Sunday.
There's more...
Kiwi Polished Wingtip? Meet Teeth. And Palate. And Epiglottis...And...
I have tried my damndest to be fair.
I have extended more than reasonable courtesies.
I am no shrinking violet prone to “the vapors”, spells or couch-flops over rough words. I can sling a curaré-dipped mace of “fuck yous”, “drop deads”, and “asshats” with the next leather lung.
I say all of that to say this to the 42nd President of the United States, William Jefferson Clinton...
You need to step away from the microphones, shut your mouth and do a serious re-wiring of the linkages from your considerable brain to your occasionally over-active mouth before returning to the stump.
Do this...for the sake of your wife's Presidential campaign, and maybe more importantly for the sake of your reputation amongst a large swath of progressives.
Seriously.
Seriously.
We know campaigns are rough. To get a hundred votes you have to take a cock-punch or two. They are brutal by nature. And we know you get off on the sparring. It's what a political prizefighter does. But for one thing...this isn't your campaign. It's your wife's. And while it is more than within your right to use your influence, your charisma, and your raw “star-power” to aid in getting her message out and swinging voters her way—you've come perilously close to “stepping over that line” alá Dave Chappelle's Rick James characterization, via in-artful statements, clunky point-making, and perhaps some intentional taunting at the tiger cage of America's race problems. You've been slick about it for the most part—and even then, it hasn't exactly panned out.
You've been called on it here at our little zeroes-and-ones outpost of opinion and analysis and at another place I very much respect—Driftglass' fine establishment. He said this two days ago:
You are generally well-liked.
So please stop campaigning...
1...for your third term. 2...for a proper second term to make up for the one the GOP stole from you. 3...to show em! To show 'em all!
You're spoiling it for everyone else.
Kindly sit the fuck down, shut the fuck up, quit getting drunk on someone else's cork, and let the Junior Senator from the great state of New York run on her own dime.
That is all.
That was at 2:24 PM on Saturday—Four-and-a-half hours before South Cackalacky caved in on your wife's campaign like a refrigerator box roof under a 15-inch snowfall. Now, I'm not saying that you should listen to Drifty over the words of your wife's advisers like Mark Penn and...
Waitaminute. You should listen to DG over Penn's dumb ass...straight up. But Goddamn if later that day you didn't go out and make a silly, spiteful. creepyfuck statement like this one that is wrong in more ways than I have fingers and toes to count—Courtesy of TPM:
Said Bill Clinton today in Columbia, SC: "Jesse Jackson won South Carolina in '84 and '88. Jackson ran a good campaign. And Obama ran a good campaign here."
This was in response to a question from ABC News' David Wright about it taking "two Clintons to beat" Obama. Jackson had not been mentioned.
Imagine if you will, asking someone the question “What flavor ice cream do you like?”, and that person mulling it over for a moment and then giving you a rundown on the relative merits of roasting versus pan sautéing free-range chicken.
Yeah, it's an answer to the question. And it's sort of food-related—but damned if it has anything to do with what was asked.
It seemed as if Bill Clinton had something—a talking point—he wanted to get out there, and when the question to prompt that talking point didn't come, he was so dead-set on getting it out there anyway that he shoe-horned it into a response to something totally unrelated. Remember, the question was about it taking “two Clintons to beat one Obama”. Not about the history of South Carolina in the grand scheme of Democratic Party primary politics.
Why bring up Jesse Jackson's 1984 and 1988 South Carolina caucus victories in an answer about them (The Clintons) going up against Obama?
Do I have to spell it out for you?
The meme going into SC was that as it appeared that Obama was going to win the state (albeit not as handily as he eventually would) the Clinton campaign spin was building that it would be cast as a “doesn't count” victory because of the state's relatively unique demographics—that the state's large Black population skewed things “unfairly” towards Obama. That Obama was only going to get 10% of the White vote and so on, and so on, and marginaliize it...yada-yada-yada...
Well Obama got 81% of the Black vote...and 24 % of the White vote, and 49% the White vote under thirty years old leading to that swamping of Hillary Clinton's numbers there.
It left no doubt, a sour taste in her mouth, and even moreso Bill's. Aside from a few ugly little moments of calculated race-play (The infamous “Sistah Souljah” moment in his '92 campaign), he's been a friend to the African American community. Seeing that community repudiate his wife, and by extension him (as I'm certain that their internal polling that day was looking phenomenally bleak) was a slap in the face, I'm sure.
Seeing that opponent say that Clinton's presidency “was not transformative” in comparison to Reagan's and having that idea discussed as opposed to simply being trash-binned was equally galling—no doubt.
And getting word that the Kennedys were pretty much going in the opposite direction by endorsing the Clinton opponent Obama, as well as the not-so-subtle public scolding from long-time Clinton ally Rep. Jim Clyburn must have really grated his cheese.
So, when the question came up about the seeming futility they (Bill and Hillary) were having in knocking Obama back in SC, he went with an unrelated talking point as an answer—that “marginalize the victory via race” meme cited earlier.
And if you think he wasn't shoe-horning race into that answer, let me ask you—why go twenty years back to cite caucus (much different from primaries) victories in non-competitive races where the nomination was already sewn up by someone the hell else? What the hell else do Jesse Jackson and Barack Obama have in “common” besides the fact that they both won contests on SC? I suppose he could've gone back one race to 2004, where Edwards won in South Carolina and didn't get the nomination nod. Seems to me one would logically go with the most recent example of the incident to make the point that resonates most with people.
But he didn't do that.
What reason could he possibly have to spin this victory all the way back to Jesse's '84 and '88 incongruous contests—in an off-the wall, non-sequtir answer to an unrelated question.
Please.
There are few politicians out there with a better command of communication skills than Bill Clinton. He may in fact be the best one going, insofar as command of message during debate, Q&A, interviews and just off-the-cuff speaking. There have been a few in-artful constructions from him of late, some busted phraseology here and there, but this wasn't one of 'em. I don't want to hear from “tired”, or “a slip”, or “out of context”. His fucking response was entirely out of context to the question that was asked.
He was pissed and he opted to give a shitty, double-edged, back-handed “compliment” that would diminish it's recipient.
He went there.
Which is why I must agree again with Driftglass when he said:
please stop campaigning...
1...for your third term. 2...for a proper second term to make up for the one the GOP stole from you. 3...to show em! To show 'em all!
You're spoiling it for everyone else.
I'm not saying stop campaigning entirely though...it's your wife out there and you have every right to support her endeavor. I'm saying step the fuck back for a little while, gather yourself, look in the Goddamned mirror, think about your legacy, and then go out there and comport yourself with more dignity and class than you've been showing of late. This has become obviously personal for you and you need to step away and hit the reset button, get back to zero point, or something—anything—to move away from the hissy fit sniping that's starting to re-define you in people's eyes.
I'm not gonna sit here and call you a racist. In fact, I said this last week:
Now, does that make the Clinton camp (Bill included) racist?
I honestly don't think so. It's such an amazingly freighted word and is so easy to abuse when more precise language should be used. What I think the Clinton camp is is not above using America's longstanding issues with race in politics as a distraction to put another candidate off his game and distract would-be voters from Mrs. Clinton's exposed flaws when matched against a Barack Obama. These people are first and foremost, political operators as skilled and gutter-capable in campaign theory as anyone.
What you are is a political animal. And when you go native—when that London-esque “Call Of The Wild” beckons, you're a hunter-killer of the highest order. Hunt. Consume. Sleep. Hunt. Consume. Sleep. That I can understand. But you need to realize that people seeing a bloody-jawed animal chomping at every fucking thing that goes by makes said animal look none-too-palatable after a while.
You need to vary the optics a bit and spend a little more time growling and prowling and less time gorging bloodily in the open chest cavity of something you've just downed. More “king of the jungle” and less “kill-crazy beast”. Your tendency to leap for the fucking jugular of late—even when you're not hungry—just makes you look like a bloodthirsty thug.
And trotting out Jesse's soft caucus wins in SC as a comparative to Obama's forearm shiver of a primary win while the stakes are still high was some thuggy, spiteful shit to do.
I think you know that.
It's probably why as this story threatened to cast your wife's campaign in the light of pissy, race-card playing sore-loserdom, she came out today yelling “Truce! Truce!”
You fucked up.
Whether she meant it or not, your wife the actual candidate said this:
"I believe we should take a deep breath," Clinton urged Sunday.
The internal polling on your spiteful little bon mot's damage must be awful. You gave oxygen to a fire that should have been tamped down with Florida's contest coming up tomorrow and all the Super Tuesday hub-bub that we should be talking about. Now the news cycle's wrapped up in you and the stupid shit you said.
So, as Kevin James' “King Of Queens” character is so fond of saying: “Shutty!”
Just shut up for a little bit. Don't even try to apologize—you'll fuck that up as you're all defensive, and I know you won't do it anyway, lest it make Mrs. Clinton's campaign look that much more error-prone.
You know what you did. We know what you did. And you need a time-out. Seriously. Go. Get your head right. If it means you have to go into the basement, move that false wall and grab a few leaves off the shit you've got hidden in that room with the grow-lite and you have to wrap, light and finally inhale to settle yourself down, do so by all means.
But you need to chill. For the sake of your wife's campaign. For the sake of your legacy. And for the sake of simple decency. It's ugly. It's wrong, and you know it.
Just...shutty.
That is all.
UPDATE: A family member who's home sick read this post and just forwarded the following.
Apparently, Al Sharpton told Bill to “Shut Up” today on “The View”
January 28, 2008 2:32 PM
ABC News' Rick Klein Reports: Rev. Al Sharpton on Monday weighed in on the raging debate inside the Democratic Party over former President Bill Clinton's advocacy on behalf of his wife's campaign, with two choice words for the former president: "Shut up."
On ABC's "The View," Sharpton said voters are hearing "race charges, race-tinged rhetoric" in the Democratic primary campaign, and called on the former president to cease.
"I think it's time for him to just be quiet," said Sharpton, who was a Democratic presidential candidate in 2004. "I think it's time for him to stop. As one of the most outspoken people in America, there's a time to shut up, and I think that time has come."
Sharpton didn't say which comments in particular bothered him. But many Democrats were particularly upset that the former president made an explicit comparison of Obama's campaign to Jesse Jackson's victories in South Carolina in 1984 and 1988, in an apparent attempt to explain why his wife didn't win the South Carolina primary on Saturday.
Now...Al ain't perfect by a long shot. But he's got an “S-Curl”-stained ear to the ground “around the way” and knows what people are talking about. If he's telling Bill to chill, it means regular folks are saying that to him in serious numbers. And when as motorific a mouth as Al says you need to put your tongue in neutral, that's for lack of a better phrase, sayin' somethin”.
Two-person race Sat Jan 19, 2008 at 03:01:40 PM PST
Dear Obama partisans, If Edwards were to drop out of the race, there's no reason to assume that all his supporters would become Obama supporters. Not everyone that supports a non-Hillary candidate is "anti-Hillary". And insulting them for remaining Edwards supporters won't win any converts. Hugs and kisses, kos
This thing isn't over by kos Sat Jan 19, 2008 at 02:34:43 PM
Dear Clinton partisans celebrating Hillary's nomination today, Didn't you learn a lesson from New Hampshire? Hugs and kisses, kos
Future is to Present is to Past as Leadership is to Lobbying is to Legislating.
DECLARATIONS
Leaders create the future. They bring it forth. They declare it. They speak, and in the moment of their speaking, the future is.
John F. Kennedy and we SHALL put a man on the moon by the end of the decade.
In that moment, we "shall it," all of us, the entire country. Kennedy declaredour future. He brought it forth. He languaged it. And as one, we moved forward to meet the challenge, more or less, together.
That's leadership in action. Leaders make DECLARATIONS.
Genuine declarations -- "Strike! Ball! Strike Three and you're OUT!" "Guilty" "By the authority invested in me by the State of Massachusetts, I now pronounce you husband and husband" -- are true in the moment they are said.
REQUESTS
Managers operate at a different level from executives.
Executives make the fundamental declarations of the enterprise:
What business are we in? Who are we competing with? Who is our long term strategic ally? What price should we buy and what should we sell at? Who are our key hires?
Managers aren't about declarations. Managers are about requests:
Please get x done by time y. I need the Johnson report done by Friday, Tom. Increase sales 10% this quarter, Sally. Go talk to legal and get clearance for me to sue those bastards. Call IT and find out when I can have a new monitor, please. Deborah, if you ever pull that shit again, you're fired.
This isn't to say managers don't engage in strategic thinking or speculating, or being lobbied by their workers for this, that or the other thing. Managers get lobbied a lot. The term, "office politics" was invented to bitch talk about managers lobbying each other and making inane requests. But at some point, managers turn all the speculating and lobbying into action.
They start making requests.
Declarations which change the direction of the enterprise fundamentally, are outside the scope of managerial thinking. It's why managers have such a hard time transitioning into enterprise-level executives. It's a different linguistic skill set.
Fundamentally, managers make requests.
PROMISES
Workers are all about competence. Why?
Because workers sell their ability to make and keep promises. Workers in an enterprise are paid for how competent they are at making and keeping promises in a particular domain of action.
Whom do they make these promises to? Their manager.
From surgeon to pilot, writer to actor, gay hooker (*waves to Jeff Gannon*) to Special Assistant to the President of the United States, workers sell competence at making and keeping promises.
A worker obviously has to know what they're doing -- the more competent, the better. But showing too much interest in stuff outside your field of knowledge will get the other workers pissed at you for busting the curve. You need to stick with what you know, not head into the unknown. You're there to deliver on your promises. That's how you get paid.
Executive = Declarations: bring forth, generate something new, lead. Manager = Requests: please do x by time y with condition of satisfaction z. Worker = Promises: deliver competent performance in a domain, over and over.
And never the twain shall meet.
Let's walk it back to our Presidential candidates.
One speaks in declarations, inspires, leads. The second requests you elect him to fix problems, lobbies for a change so he can fix the system. The third talks of her competence and experience, promises she will do what she's always done, and has the policy plans and papers to prove it.
Leader. Manager. Worker.
Obama is breaking out now because he speaks the language of a leader.
He's not making promises, even when the words coming out of his mouth are a promise. ALL of everything he's saying is a declaration, a future which is true nowbecause he speaks it.
When Obama speaks, he creates a future of an America in which all of us together will take on the troubles we know in our heart are coming and repair the damages which have occurred. Every time Obama opens his mouth, that future is more and more real. It happens AS he speaks. Obama's speaking makes it so. By declaration.
Edwards is using the language of a manager, someone here to solve our problems. Fundamentally he is not declarative. He tries. And fails. Edwards is painting a picture of an America which might be IF. He says, "Elect me President and THEN all this will come to pass." That's a request. He's making requests.
Edwards is an old-style Union man so even when his words are canonically declarative, if you listen carefully, what he's really doing is making a request for you to elect him because he can't deliver on his vision unless he's President. This is the answer to the people [the press] who wonder about Edward's authenticity, and how it is he's committed himself to attacking poverty for four years and nothing has happened. Nothing CAN happen till he's elected. Who Edwards is linguistically is, he has no power till he's in office. His power is dependent on his office. That makes him a manager.
Clinton uses the language of a worker, the language of deep experience and competence. She knows what she's doing. She tells us you can trust her judgment, knowledge and understanding, her years and years of being on the job, wisdom and training. She is no doubt genuinely baffled that anyone would choose someone who doesn't have the competency and vetting she has. That is someone immersed in a world in which what matters most is competence in a domain, competence ruling over everything, the world in which the workers love their queen.
No matter what words come out of her mouth, even if she's using declarations or making requests, what Clinton really is doing is making promises: I'm the most competent. Trust me.
The Presidency and Leadership
The Presidency is the greatest Bully Pulpit in the world. How many times have we heard that?
Hundreds of reporters follow the President everywhere. We know when he has a polyp removed or falls off a bicycle. Nothing else in the world is like being President of the United States.
If there's one thing I'm certain of about the Presidency, it is that while competence helps, the job of President is not about being a good worker, and it is not about being a manager. It is, almost entirely, about leadership.
The President makes the fundamental declarations for the United States. He or she, sets the direction of the country. In many ways, he declares what our values are, what we care about, what we focus on as a nation.
And like a large rock thrown in a pond, the direction of the United States as declared by the President ripples throughout the world, up and down the Americas and across the oceans. In every way. To the point that one can not predict which ripple will cross which ripple, when and how or where, and to what impact.
The work of the Presidency... is for managers and workers. Yes, a certain level of competence and being in touch with reality is called for, along with integrity, as the entire world has learned to its horror over the past seven years.
But while the President will perform many managerial functions and acts, the President is not a manager. The President's core function is to declare. To bring forth. To say who we are, what we stand for, and what actions the United States is and is not taking in the world. From these declarations, entire branches of government spring into action in many nations... on his or her word alone.
It's called The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America and it says,"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal".
It isn't called "The Request of the Thirteen United States of America, oh please, please, will you let us go free?" or "The Promise of Twelve of the United States of America to throw a Tantrum if you don't leave us alone really soon now but we couldn't get Rhode Island to join in but we hope you'll take us seriously anyway."
No.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America.
Signed: And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
They vowed everything in support of their declaration. Which is why Great Britain took their worddeadly seriously.
Which is why Senator Barack Obama is winning...
Declarations create nations.
Obama is creating a future nation right now, every time he speaks.
If his brush-fire gets oxygen, it has the potential to explode into a genuine firestorm. Other people in his campaign are starting to be able to communicate Obama's vision. This will eventually spread all the way down to individual campaign workers and people who just hear or see him or are touched by his presence. It's a movement, on fire with a shared common vision.
When a FIRESTORM passes through, everything changes.
Edwards talks of his vision for the future, lobbying away, but because it's all just promises unless he's elected, it can't happen and the polls know it.
