2008 Primaries Thread 2: THE QUICKENING

Editorial/reaction to Obama's "A more perfect union" speech on Ballerstatus, a hip hop culture/news site by Eddie Huang (founder of Hoodman clothing)

http://www.ballerstatus.com/article/editorialscolumns/2008/03/4303/

I'm very YAY about two substantial addresses in as many days about concrete things affecting America and its place in the world, with real and challenging ideas about policy. Totally needed.

yeah I hope he keeps using this Wright spotlight to make substantive, brilliant speeches on policy before the media goes ADD again.

And here I was thinking that this was just about the delegates!

didn't Nagourney get these ideas from Clinton's campaign? total popular vote is a yardstick they introduced when it became clear she would not catch up in the pledged delegate race.

Yeah, Nagourney is merely relating Clinton advisors' decree goalposts. They're doing the same thing Bill is when he goes to a state and says Hillary can't win unless you guys do it for her - recasting a probable/expected result as a sign of momentum/victory.

i do think if clinton won the popular vote and obama was plummeting in the polls and late primary results that shed have a pretty good argument to make to the super delegates even if she wasnt the pledged delegate leader

its gonna take more than this wright thing to make it happen tho - clinton would just have to dominate from here on out

as it stands now most politicians dem and repub alike seem to agree obamas got longer coattails and a better shot in the g.e. - those perceptions are really what hillarys got to overcome here

obv im not looking forward to watching the clinton slime machine try to bring down obama for the next few months

i do think if clinton won the popular vote and obama was plummeting in the polls and late primary results that shed have a pretty good argument to make to the super delegates even if she wasnt the pledged delegate leader

Right. HRC's strategy is this (tho she wouldn't say she must win the overall popular vote; just show big momentum in the final primaries) and to make Obama so "toxic" that he's considered unelectable going into the Democratic convention.

Obama now joining Clinton in losing indies to McCain.

Burn the witch.

I'm sure HRC's response would be that Obama will come under these same attacks in the GE. But I don't think that's a good answer, at least in terms of the Democratic base. The GOP nominee is expected to attack Obama, so I doubt those attacks would cause the core Democratic base to switch sides or stay home. But when HRC attacks Obama that way, it may cause such resentment and mistrust among HRC's supporters that they will stay home (if not switch sides) in the GE, should Obama be the nominee.

(from ben smith:)

Here's an interesting note from the Inquirer, offering an interesting opening to Obama where he's weakest, with working class white guys: He apparently killed on their bastion, the city's main sports talk radio station.

Sen. Barack Obama called into sports radio 610 WIP this morning, charming the usually rambuctious morning talk show hosts and winning their endorsements.

"People are really swept up," said host Al Morganti. "It's almost like teenaged girls at a concert. It's goofy"

Swept up by Obama's words, the hosts bid him goodbye.

"If there's anything we can do to help you carry Pennsylvania, let us know," said one jock.

Said Obama: "Maybe I can stop by the studio some time." "Could you stop by after you're President?" one responded.

Wait, does anyone even have evidence that Hillary's campaign engineered this as opposed to GOP folk who don't want to face Obama in the GE?

Oh, Barack:

On Friday, March 28, Barack Obama will be dishing and discussing the issues on ABC's The View (11 am/ET) in what the show is billing as a "no-holds-barred" interview.

The presidential candidate last joined the morning show in November 2004 to promote his book. This time around, Obama will be covering a range of topics — from the personal to the political — including his relationship with his wife and family, his recent remarks on race, the Iraq war and his views on religion and life on the campaign trail, among other things.

"I am really looking forward to my return visit to sit down with the ladies of The View," he said.

I hope he chokes Hasselback to death, but sadly I don't see that happening.

Jay Jay French wants to rock. He also wants Barack.

So the Twisted Sister guitarist has rerecorded the heavy metal band's anthem, "I Wanna Rock," which has become "I Want Barack."

French, a lifelong liberal Democrat whose mother campaigned for John F. Kennedy, said Barack Obama, who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, has energized a new generation of voters who previously felt left out of politics.

"He has excited so many people," said French, who founded Twisted Sister in 1973, in a telephone interview Tuesday. "He has given sincere hope to people who have been out of the arena for years."

French plays guitar on the track, which features Paulie Z., singer for the band Z02, on vocals and lead guitar. They call the band Jay Jay French and Friends and stress this isn't a Twisted Sister project because that band's members are split on the presidential candidates.

Hurting: I'm talking about HRC's "3AM"-type attacks, but there's some obv. evidence that HRC's also willing to at least let the "Obama Muslim" stories survive (e.g., "I have no reason to believe he's a Muslim"). And she doesn't have to directly raise the Muslim arguments; she can note that they exist and that they make Obama unelectable in a GE, thus indirectly propelling the negative stories about Obama forward.

Dee Snider's already endorsed HRC. A song about Obama would surely represent a shocking volte-face for the crimped crooner.

i do actually think this was the best time for the wright thing to break - they knew they were going to have to deal w/this - weve been hearing abt this guy for a year - nows good when obama pretty much got the nomination sewn up and theres plenty of time for this to play itself out before the g.e.

I wouldn't be so sure Obama has the nomination sewn up, but I get your point.

"pretty much got the nomination sewn up"

I wouldn't be so sure Obama pretty much has the nomination sewn up, but I get your point.

This is basically a contest between two different potential Democratic coalitions - the traditional one in which coastal and northern urbanites seek enough white working class voters in the Northeast, Great Lakes and edges of the south to go three yards over the electoral college line that hasn't worked so well in recent years but is looking up this time due to Iraq and the economy, and an alternative in which we risk losing more of our traditional swingable adjuncts while trying to pass to previously-unfamiliar quasi-libertarian and populist (in the traditional sense) types, particularly in the West and upper midwest/plains states, who have become more willing to look our way with the right guy.

I'm not sure which is the better strategy, though the polls if they can be believed consistently give the alternative a marginal, if potentially riskier, advantage, but I admit to preferring the alternative coalition brand. No offense to those from the racist states. XD

There's plenty of evidence that just because an issue comes up and gets whacked down in the primary doesn't mean it won't come back, zombie-like, in the G.E.

insurmountable pledged delegate lead, destroying hillary in super delegates since super tuesday, winning the florida/michigan situation, lol hueg popular vote lead etc

but dont let any facts get in the way of yr eeyore routine daniel

yah tracer obv these things can continue to do damage - still i think this was a good time to get the initial shock n awe part of the situation out of the way

Wright will definitely come up in the GE, and be a big deal. Lots of things will. There's a big market for reasons to rule out Obama that are socially acceptable to say, like "he's a terrorist."

Mark Halperin has said that successfully casting Obama as the other/non-American is the *only* way for McCain to beat him in the general.

Xp - Hillary can still win despite the insurmountable elected delegate lead.

but dont let any facts get in the way of yr eeyore routine daniel

Don't let my expressing a reasonably-grounded fear get in the way of your snide remarks.

i'm not a mccain booster but i trust his campaign to not actually stoop to those pandering measures. although, i have no doubt there will be 527s sprouting up like fungus to promote fear of a black president.

i take it you've all seen the obama/malcolm x/public enemy mashup video put out by laura ingraham's producer then

srsly daniel 90% of yr post here are like "i think mccain will win"

i think were all well aware of yr generally pessimistic outlook by now

in the future when composing a post that starts like "I wouldn't be so sure Obama has the nomination sewn up" try following it w/one of these "because" then just let it flow from there ok.

hillary's politeness re: the wright 'issue' is coming to a close

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lanny-davis/two-questions-for-senator_b_92386.html

No, he won't personally get his hands dirty.

Daniel, my swing voter sample is now on the fence between McCain and Obama. While I think you are right to be cautious it's a long way from November, and actually still a long way from Pennsylvania.

It's not just the South I'm willing to lose, tho. As long as we do the electoral college dance, I can live without Romneychusetts too.

I've repeatedly set forth the "because" clauses you mention, tho -- like virtually anyone here -- I'm sure you can find counterexamples. And I've repeatedly set forth why I think McCain will win, while admitting lots can change between now and November.

yeah, hillary camp wtf -- what is the substantive distance between hillary's surrogates pressing the meta-concern to undecided superdelegates of how the wright issue hurts to obama's GE electability vs. pressing the wright issue directly to the voters?

We done Huckabee's response to the Obama speech yet?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNwMPNxwHmQ

OK, everyone get some air. We have a loooooong time.

We need more 'coastal elites' to take over the interior West. Here, here's your electoral college.

Jeremiah Wright doesn't know nothin' about burnin' no crosses, Miss Hillary. Unlike the Klan.

They just jumped the fucking shark. Again. Is this Sea World?

yeah that lanny whateverhername thing is pretty little-o-underscore-big-o

the first two replies to that Lanny thing are pretty major pwnz

and she's a man: "Mr. Davis, a partner in the Washington, D.C. office, is a member of the Litigation Group"

He was WH counsel in the Clinton admin

Lanny Davis is a man

obama's address today on the war & the economy:

http://thepage.time.com/full-text-of-obamas-speech-the-cost-of-war/

god the whole comments thread is one pwn after another!

HILLARY CLINTON CAMP SHAME ON YOU WHY DESTROID THE PARTY YOU GONNA LOOSE ANYWAY. REMBER THIS MAKE A DIRTY POLITICS AGAINST OBAMA AND NOVEMBER NO BLACK GONA VOTE HILLARY SHAME ON YOU

Posted by: ERIC BARTHEL | Mar 20, 2008 12:22:34 PM

otm

One could even call them racist.

passive voice cop out

that's not passive, it's subjunctive.

ABC --

One interesting event in Sen. Hillary Clinton's just-released schedules from the 1990s comes on Nov. 10 1993, when the former first lady was to serve as the closing act during a briefing on NAFTA, the trade agreement she now assails…"It wasn’t a drop-by it was organized around her participation," said one attendee. "Her remarks were totally pro-NAFTA and what a good thing it would be for the economy. There was no equivocation for her support for NAFTA at the time. Folks were pleased that she came by. If this is a still a question about what Hillary's position when she was First Lady, she was totally supportive if NAFTA."

Obama campaign now making this case to the press in their daily conference call

1. If a white minister preached sermons to his congregation and had used the "N" word and used rhetoric and words similar to members of the KKK, would you support a Democratic presidential candidate who decided to continue to be a member of that congregation?

so Wright saying "white people are oppressing black people" is equivalent to the KKK murdering blacks. stfu Lanny.

c'mon it's a clever thought experiment! what if martin luther king had been WHITE! i bet black people wouldn't have listened to him as much. thus proving the hypocrisy of the civil rights movement.