This opinion piece by Ellen Malcolm, the head of EMILY's list is, well, kind of offensive. The gist of it is that Hillary should be permitted to remain in the race because she's a woman. Hmmm. That's an interesting argument. And a borderline sexist argument to boot. So you mean it would be okay to tell Hillary that the math isn't going to work out if she were a man? But because she's a woman, the math is different somehow? Because she's a woman, she's not wasting a million dollars a day that could be spent fighting McCain? Because she's a woman, she's not damaging our nominee needlessly? Because she's a woman, her racist attacks against Obama haven't split the Democratic party in two? Because she's a woman, she shouldn't be expected to do what every presidential candidate in history has been asked and expected to do - put their party before their ego and get the hell out after they lose? And because she's a woman, we're supposed to lie to her, and women who support her, and tell them that she really does have a chance, when she doesn't? That is seriously f'd up.
Give me a break. She lost. She's hurting our candidate. And EMILY's list (and the AFT and others) are now wasting money on Hillary that could be spent on actual female candidates that have a chance at winning. This is the big leagues. We don't have time for Hillary's electoral therapy. She lost, she needs to move on, and folks like EMILY's list need to stop making excuses for Hillary based on her gender. It's insulting.
PS Oh, and by the way, what about the dreams of Obama's black followers, a dream that Hillary is now trying to destroy for no reason? Doesn't that count too, Emily? Or are some dreams more equal than others?
Yes, it's really called a "gay rabbit." The first person to register a name for a certain hybrid gets to make that name permanent. And somebody must have thought this thing had rabbit ears and, well, I dunno. Anyway, a friend gave me this several years back, it never grew a lick for her, so I took it, and now, several years later, it finally has flowers. And very cool flowers at that. The stem is probably a good foot and a half high, and the flowers are lightly scented. I grow this in semi-hydro, like my other orchids (basically, the roots grow in a very open baked clay pellet medium that ends up being moist by airy). I'm pretty pleased with this one. Enjoy :-) JOHN
In a nostalgic mood, DailyKos looks back on some of the highlights of Hillary's now-defunct for the presidency:
Who could forget:
* Geraldine Ferraro's claim that Obama has an unfair advantage because he was black.
* Bob Kerrey's happiness that Barack Hussein Obama attended a madrassa and had all that experience with Muslims.
* Billy Shaheen's concern over Obama's use of drugs and possible questions on whether he was ever a drug dealer.
* Andrew Cuomo saying that "You can't shuck and jive," in reference to Obama.
* And of course the First Surrogate, Bill Clinton, comparing Obama's win in South Carolina to Jesse Jackson's wins in the 1980's, and then being shocked at the suggestion that he was trying to paint Obama as "the black candidate."
Sniff. We're gonna miss you guys! Now go away. Seriously.
First off, she and her husband made over $100 million this decade. Not sure why the little people should be paying her debts. Secondly, would that include the debt she's foolishly incurring by continuing her campaign long after she's already lost? There is a large part of me that feels like we should just let her have her fun in her own kooky "I need a hug so I'm going to continue running for president forever" world, and let the bill collectors come after her when she's still running for president next spring. More from Ben.
Seriously, Lanny Davis has to be on the top of the list of Clintonistas we never want to see on TV again.
We're almost getting our wish. He's been bitching about Tuesday night's coverage. TPM has a video montage of the pathetic performance. What a fricking crybaby. But the good news is that he won't appear on CNN anymore...well, not all of CNN...just CNN's election coverage. He'll still go on some CNN, like Larry King. (Vintage Clintonian parsing, btw).
Seriously, Davis is just an unbelievable tool. Go hang out with your pal, Lieberman, and his pal, McCain. No one will miss you.
She can't help herself. Before any Clinton supporter tells anyone to back off, they should tell their candidate to stop the negative attacks on our presumptive nominee. And, all those people who thought she needed to take some time to "process" the situation (which is a very bizarre concept, by the way)....well, she's using that time to attack Obama.
By letting Hillary continue her assault on Obama, her supporters and her campaign are all aiding and abetting McCain and his quest for a third Bush term. We'd much rather be fighting the battle against McCain. But, it's the "deluded also-ran" (the AP's words, not mine) who keeps the intra-party fight going.
The developments left the former first lady with 271.5 superdelegates, to 271 for Obama. Little more than four months ago, on the eve of the primary season, she held a lead of 169-63.
Yet they're still spending money like a drunken white American. It makes no sense. They can't honestly believe the race is still on. She lost. It's over. The donors know it, and don't feel like financing Hillary's ongoing denial (after Indiana, Hillary only raised 1/10th of the money that came in after Pennsylvania). Even the media stopped drinking her Kool-Aid. Her staff ought to start looking for other jobs because, seriously folks, do you really think your salaries are going to get paid before the nearly $5m Hillary owes Mark Penn? And the longer you keep this up, the more you jeopardize future employment opportunities in the Democratic party. Think: Gerstein.
Putting aside for a moment the fact that she's not going to be running for president in 2012, she's going to be running for president until 2012 - how do you add the name "Clinton" to the ticket and claim that you're for change?
Obama has been overwhelmingly winning the youth vote. Just look at the numbers (at right). Obama's campaign has more:
"Obama has won an average of 62% of the youth vote compared to Clinton's 34%. He won the youth vote in every contest except for Arkansas and Massachusetts, where he lost by 1%. In this week's contests, Obama won the youth vote in North Carolina by 49% and in Indiana by 22%."
You'd think that it would, therefore, be a no-brainer that the two largest student youth groups, College Democrats of America and the Young Democrats of America, would endorse Democratic nominee Barack Obama. The issue isn't just academic. The leaders of CDA and YDA are SuperDelegates. They quite literally represent America's youth, and have a voice in choosing our nominee. But they're not doing a lot of representing. They seem to be hiding. Or something.
Let me explain something. The presidential train has left the station. Obama is on it. Hillary is not. Lauren Wolfe, Crystal Strait, David Hardt, and Awais Khalil can either be on the train, or left standing on the platform, all alone, watching the train as it leaves forever. And Lauren, Crystal, David and Awais, trust me when I say that it is way more fun to be on the train than to be hanging out with all the other people who missed it.
Let me explain something else. According to the Associated Press, Obama is now only four SuperDelegates behind Hillary (and new SuperDs are coming in every hour). Sure, Obama has already won the nomination, but still, once he has equal to or more SuperDs than Hillary, it will be an important milestone that everyone will be talking about. Now, how many of you are there? Oh that's right, four. Do the math, folks. Isn't it better to make history than be history?
A while ago I wrote about Matt Duss being one of the most insightful and important emerging progressive voices on Iraq and national security, and much to the benefit of progressive infrastructure and wonkery, he's ended up with a job at the Center for American Progress, working for a special election-based offshoot of ThinkProgress and adding his substantial brain power to a place that already has some of the best thinkers on Iraq (Brian Katulis) and the military (Larry Korb).
Matt continues to do a tremendous job breaking through the spin on Iraq issues especially, and his recent post on Sadr gets to the heart of US strategic failures when it comes to the politics of Iraq and its neighbors. As he explains in a recent Wonk Room post:
The Bush administration has consistently tried to blame outside actors for violence in Iraq in order to avoid facing the unpleasant truth that the U.S. occupation is opposed by a substantial majority of the population who the U.S. is ostensibly there to support. In seeking to defend a continued U.S. presence in Iraq, the administration and its supporters have drawn a deeply distorted picture of the political struggles currently taking place within various Iraqi communities.
To put it simply, the U.S. is opposing Sadr because he opposes the U.S. occupation, and the U.S. is supporting ISCI because ISCI supports the occupation. As Brian Katulis and I noted in an op-ed several weeks ago, the irony of this strategy is that it has allied the United States with Iran’s primary proxy in the Iraqi government, against what is arguably the most potent nationalist political force in the country.
As a result of this myopic strategy, the US continues to contort itself when it comes to an actual political effort in Iraq. And of course this isn't some intellectual exercise; the results of such continued failures are borne by the deaths of hundreds of thousands and the suffering of millions more.
LATEST UPDATE: Well, enough people found even a discussion of the video-as-criticism to be too offensive, including regular readers whose opinions I respect, so I took the link down. You can still join in the discussion in the comments.
UPDATE: Apparently there's a debate going on in the comments about whether I should even be mentioning this video. You mean, it's wrong to mention that the video exists, and that it's a bad sign for Hillary that public opinion is starting to head into the extremes? Hmmm... not sure about that. What do you think? Join in the comments.
FURTHER UPDATE: Apparently this is a parody of another parody, using the same video, but with subtitles about the Dallas Cowboys losing some game. ________
This is very wrong (and probably NSFW). We're still a couple centuries away from being able to make Hitler jokes, if ever. But it's an example of the kind of thing that Hillary will face, more and more, as she starts to look more and more ridiculous. The thing has 60,000 views on YouTube and is climbing. She's becoming a farce, in the extreme. This is not good for her legacy, to become a laughing stock. Seriously, her reputation is in danger.
Rasmussen Reports has been tracking the race for the Democratic Presidential nomination daily for nineteen months...
However, while Senator Clinton has remained close and competitive in every meaningful measure, she is a close second and the race is over. It has become clear that Barack Obama will be the Democratic nominee. [...]
With this in mind, Rasmussen Reports will soon end our daily tracking of the Democratic race and focus exclusively on the general election competition between Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama.
