2008 Primaries Thread 2: THE QUICKENING

Obama's new campaign song: "Panama"

team clinton adjusts its threatened 'no-debates' stance re: NBC, agrees (again) to the ohio debate:

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/02/breaking_hillary_campaign_agre.php

seriously?! xpost

No, goodness. Just a little joke about Chris Matthew watching Obama speak... ease the seat back... AIN'T NO STOPPIN' NOOOOOOWWWWW

God, I so wish!

MoDowd:

It’s not yet clear which prejudice will infect the presidential contest more — misogyny or racism.

(...)

As a possible first Madame President, Hillary is a flawed science experiment because you can’t take Bill out of the equation. Her story is wrapped up in her marriage, and her marriage is wrapped up in a series of unappetizing compromises, arrangements and dependencies.

Instead of carving out a separate identity for herself, she has become more entwined with Bill. She is running bolstered by his record and his muscle. She touts her experience as first lady, even though her judgment during those years on issue after issue was poor. She says she’s learned from her mistakes, but that’s not a compelling pitch.

(...)

If Hillary fails, it will be her failure, not ours.

CMON, PENN JILLETTE JOKE

Meanwhile, Erica Jong sees a vast patriarchal conspiracy:

Unfortunately the Hillary-Haters are in charge. They monopolize the networks, the newspapers, the talk shows -- both radio and TV. They are crossing their legs for fear of castration. They are wearing the body armor our troops never got. Or got too late to matter. They are determined that a woman will not prove herself competent as Commander in Chief.

What's their ammunition? Oh, it's simple. They call her Mrs. Clinton, not Ms. or Senator. They pull out those nutcrackers in the shape of her supposed thighs. They complain about her ankles -- too thick. They complain on Fox TV that "White women are the problem" -- (idiot boy Kristol, the brain-damaged scion of Irving who rose through nepotism like our unelected "president"). Then they say she has "baggage" -- which could mean wrinkles, or her husband, or her daughter Chelsea whom they say she is "pimping." Then they say she never divorced Bill -- as if it's anyone's business. Then they moon over Obama's rhetorical style. Then they make it appear that she's a drone or a worker bee and has no royal jelly. Or else she has royal jelly and is queen bee. And that's her problem.

all the Times columnists have been pretty shitty lately imo ... Rich, Dowd, Krug

entire letters column today was given over to the reaction to Krugman's "Hate Springs Eternal" (obama is a cult leader, they're destroying the dem party w/ their anti-Hils venom, omg his health plan blah blah). dude is kind of being a huge baby. they only printed one letter that agreed with him.

xp, OK, I was curious, Morbs:

http://crackle.com/c/Penn_Says/Penn_Says_Hillary_Clinton_Joke_Predicts_the_Future/2180807#ml=fc%3d52%26fp%3d1%26fx%3d

for those who dont want to sick though penn blathering:

hillary is complaining that unfair all these primaries being held during black history month when theres no white bitch history month.

i should get a pulitzer for that post

no, ppl should just post the fun parts of Dowd columns

"fun"

dood wtf Erica - we should call her Ms. Clinton!? People call her Senator Clinton all the time!

okay what is this Jillette joke (he's a jerk and I don't have sound at work so someone gimme the gist)

oh nevermind

x-post!

yeah, and his schpiel is that when he did that joke in his act, he was worried that people would boo and get offended and whatnot, but they went nuts laughing and applauding and gleefully venting their hate, and he was shocked. And he learned from this that she doesn't stand a chance.

august is white bitch history month

Ex-President Clinton's '92 national campaign manager is reportedly lined up to endorse Obama.

http://images.huffingtonpost.com/gen/11495/thumbs/r-OBAMATARGET-large.jpg

THERE IS NO ESCAPE

On a conference call with reporters just now, Hillary pollster Mark Penn unveiled the campaign's new message: Hillary, he said, is in the "21st Century solutions business," while Obama is in the "problems business."

haha omg what a steaming load of shit

someone get her a Century 21 realtor jacket pronto

this changing their message every week strategy doesnt seem to be working out too great

so fucked

the epidomization of 21st century solutionizing

McCain taking some shots at Obama in his victory speech last night, perhaps a foreshadowing of his argument in the general:

http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/campaign-2008/2008/02/13/after-victories-mccain-turns-to-attacking-obama.html

"Hope," said the former Vietnam prisoner of war, referring to the overarching theme of Obama's campaign, "is a powerful thing. I can attest to that better than many, for I have seen men's hopes tested in hard and cruel ways that few will ever experience."

But, he added, "To encourage a country with only rhetoric rather than sound and proven ideas that trust in the strength and courage of free people is not a promise of hope, it is a platitude."

wtf is the "problems business"

Even if Obama wins the nom, this isn't the last time we'll hear a version of that message. Obama says, "This won't be easy. Change is hard. We will need everyone's help. We're all in this together, we've all gotta pull some weight." It's uplifting and inspiring, all this JFK stuff, ask not etc. But any smart opponent of his is going to try to spin it so that Obama's saying, "He's trying to tell you that our glorious, unprecedented post-war period of wealth and dominance is OVER! AND WE HAVE TO BEHAVE LIKE EVERY OTHER COUNTRY IN THE WORLD AND MAKE COMPROMISES AND WORK HARD! WHAT A BUMMER!" And then arrive at speeches on a gravy train with biscuit wheels.

Too little too late for Hillary, tho.

bad wording there, they'll spin Obama's (I believe) truths into ugly pessimism.

Which is one of the big things I like about the guy -- his seeming lack of baby-boomer entitlement.

eh mccain will just sit there babbling abt awz wars while getting his ass handed to him more like it

Obama's message = pessimism? can't see that one sticking.

kenan's meandering confused post off tm

obamas message: "WELL WE ALL DIE SOMEDAY, RIGHT?"

"YEAH, SO, THE ECONOMY IS GOING TO SUCK, BUT WE DESERVE IT. VOTE FOR ME, OR DONT, WHATEVER. DOESNT REALLY MATTER."

I will be doing volunteer work for the ugly pessimism candidate

Campaign strategy, morbs? ;)

Some more excerpts from McCain's victory speech that could be construed as digs at Obama:

When I was a young man, I thought glory was the highest ambition, and that all glory was self-glory. My parents tried to teach me otherwise, as did the Naval Academy. But I didn’t understand the lesson until later in life, when I confronted challenges I never expected to face.

In that confrontation I discovered that I was dependent on others to a greater extent than I had ever realized, but that neither they nor the cause we served made any claims on my identity. On the contrary, I discovered that nothing is more liberating in life than to fight for a cause that encompasses you, but is not defined by your existence alone. And that has made all the difference, my friends, all the difference in the world.

I do not seek the presidency on the presumption that I am blessed with such personal greatness that history has anointed me to save my country in its hour of need. I seek the presidency with the humility of a man who cannot forget that my country saved me.

i encourage john mccain to keep talking abt when he was a young man

as a criticism it just doesn't seem to have much bite

gonna be pretty hard, I think, for McCain to answer the charge that he wants 4 more years of Bush policy

I don't mean a direct intentional pessimism, obviously, but if Obama says something that suggests that America needs to start treating India and China as serious economic powers, and talking to them at eye level instead of our usual podium, well... it's not to hard to twist that a bit to play on a great many people's fears about a tanking economy and America's loss of status and power, and omg wtf we can't make even compromises with China because that means we live in a big stinking loser country and pappy didn't die in WWII so we could etc etc etc. And don't think that's not about to come to a boil in a lot of people's heads anyway.

mccain is screwed

"Hillary is in the 21st century solutions business. She knows that we all need grow our electoral synergies and co-innovate outside the box."

sorry, i just can't get over the bullshit

Yeah she looks desperate, no doubt, and voters can smell fear.

David Brooks gave kind of an interesting assessment of the prospects for Republicans on NPR's election coverage last night. In the event of a McCain-Obama contest, he suggested that the GOP strategy would be to peel off white, working-class voters. Whereas, in a McCain-Clinton contest, the battleground would be independents.

the GOP strategy would be to peel off white, working-class voters

a.k.a. tax cuts tax cuts tax cuts

can you entice working-class voters by promising tax-cuts that don't benefit the working class? lol

Maybe someone's mentioned this already; if so, I apologize. I think HRC has more problems in Texas than she thinks. If I vaguely understand it right, delegates aren't apportioned in Texas simply based on the popular vote. The state is divided into 32 districts. Each district has one delegate who goes to the winner of that district. The rest of the delegates that come from a district are based on how many people voted from that district in the previous two election cycles (or something like that). In 2004, historically black districts in Texas experienced huge increases in voter turnout (apparently, a popular African-American was on the ballot for prominent state office in 2004, thus encouraging high-voter turnout in largely African-American districts).

So even if HRC wins high percentages of the Hispanic vote in Texas (which, at this point, isn't so certain anyway), those districts will likely yield far fewer delegates than traditionally African-American districts, where Obama is a very strong candidate.

So again, there may be serious trouble ahead for HRC in a state she needs to win by a substantial margin.