Gov. Sarah Palin Get's McCain Veep Nod

The McCain campaign calls her a "tough executive who has demonstrated" readiness to be president.

The Republican National Committee calls her a "conservative star with the talent, energy and family support necessary to carry out common sense policies."

But the Obama campaign calls her a candidate with "the thinnest foreign policy experience in history" who is "currently under investigation in her own state."

On Friday morning, in an attempt to trump the momentum of the very successful Democratic National Convention week, John McCain unveiled his choice to join his ticket. Not the former governor of a large state with a solid economic background, like Mitt Romney. Not the governor of a swing state that is hosting the Republican National Convention next week, like Tim Pawlenty. Not the governor of a large swing state and cabinet-level secretary, like Tom Ridge. Not the independent senator from a northeastern state, like John Lieberman. Not the woman senator from a large southwestern state, like Kay Bailey Hutchinson. Not the woman who was a CEO of a large multi-national corporation, like Carly Fiorina. Not the woman who was a former cabinet-level secretary for George H. W. Bush and current senator from a southern state, like Elizabeth Dole.

John McCain went with a little known woman who is a staunch conservative and a first term governor of the largest state in geography (larger than Texas, California, and Montana combined) and the smallest state in population (only 670,000 people - there are more people in the county where I reside in Georgia than in the entire state): Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.

Ms. Palin is a staunch conservative, she is a self-described Pat Buchanan Republican: she supports gun rights (she is an avid hunter and lifelong member of the NRA), she is in support of the right to life (opposes abortion in all cases, even incest and rape), and she's been the governor of Alaska for about 20 months (less than 2 years). Prior to her stint in running the state government in Juneau, she was the mayor of a small town with a population of less than 6,000 people.

John McCain (who met her on only one occasion prior to naming her) brought Palin on to shore up his support among social conservatives and to woe those woman who were disaffected by the Democratic Party when Hillary Clinton did not win the nomination.

NOTE: Gov. Palin is under a legislative investigation which is looking into allegations that she fired Alaska's public safety commissioner because he refused to fire the governor's former brother-in-law, a state trooper.

Read the CNN.com articles about John McCain's choice for vice president here and here and here.

Read the New York Times articles about McCain's veep choice here and here.

Read Sojourner's Place's very interesting article about Gov. Palin having been considered a VP choice of conservative Republicans as much as a year ago (August 2007!)... but then she's introduced by McCain as a fresh-faced person that "no one" knows about... "something ain't right!"


plez sez: there was no way i could see this coming, since i'd never heard of gov. palin before. hailing from the least populous state (less than one person for every two miles) in the 50 state union, with less than two years of executive experience, and zero national presence... john mccain (the former POW who is 72 years old and has had four bouts of cancer in the last 20 years) has picked an unknown to be one heartbeat away from the presidency. this is a supreme failure in judgement!

lack of experience aside, this woman has not been vetted, she has not been tested (the county commission where i live governs more people than she does for an entire state), and the american people are given 8 weeks to get to know her! mccain has been the presumptive republican nominee for almost 6 months now, did he really have to wait until after Barack Obama selected Joe Biden as his running mate to pick someone we've never heard of, a person with little in the way of a public record, and only a pissy investigation into her firing someone for not firing her sister's ex-husband? john mccain's selection is a response to the Obama campaign with little or no analysis as to what his campaign really needed... like a message!

not only does America not know palin, john mccain barely knows her... the first time he met her for a substantial conversation was LAST WEEK! he selected her after their second meeting on thursday of last week! he knows her about as well as i do.

palin has only been out of the united states once, in july 2007, she had to get a passport before she visited members of the Alaska National Guard stationed in Kuwait. so much for foreign experience. so much for, as john mccain said, someone who will be ready to be commander-in-chief on day one day two.

and if she is supposed to be the answer for hillary clinton's pissed off pumas, try again! this must come off as a slap in the face, wanting to substitute an unknown woman from a backwater hick town for the likes of hillary! it would be like mccain picking ward connerly as his running mate for disaffected Blacks had Obama lost the nomination!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

and what of mitt romney? tim pawlenty? they must feel used and abused by john mccain! he has paraded them around like an organ grinder monkey for the past five months, taunting and tantalizing them with thoughts that they would be his running mate. they smiled when the camera lights came on, said all the right things, and wagged their tails for him on cue... wassup with that?!?

now my decision to vote for someone will not hinge on their choice for vice president: george bush (the first) waltzed into the white house with dan quayle puppy doggin' behind him and richard nixon pulled first term governor spiro agnew out of maryland to win the presidency in 1968. experience is not a defining measure of ones ability to fill the lukewarm seat of the vice presidency, but once again, i have to go back to my mantra that john mccain does not have the judgement and temperament to lead this country.

ms. palin may be a very nice lady, but i don't agree with her politics (right wing wackos who continually spout off about gun rights and the right to life, while condemning folk to the electric chair scare me) ... and i'm sure a majority of the "disaffected" hillary clinton supporters don't agree with her politics either.

this choice doesn't hurt mccain with republicans... but in all honesty, it probably doesn't help much with independents! his pick is a knee jerk reaction to what the democrats have done, which only reinforces the assertion that plezWorld is REALLY SCARED of what a john mccain presidency will do to america... frightening! his lack of judgement will not only doom this nation, but portends horror for the entire world!

Bill Clinton: "Obama is ready to lead"

Speaking as the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton took the stage at the Democratic National Convention to call in the votes of those disaffected Hillary Clinton primary voters.

Over the past 9 months, President Clinton himself had been a frequent critic of Sen. Barack Obama's experience level. But on Wednesday night, he favorably aligned his experience when he was elected to that of Obama (actually, Obama is older than Clinton was when he became president).

Clinton said, "Last night Hillary told us in no uncertain terms that she is going to do everything in her power to elect Barack Obama. That makes two of us -- actually that makes 18 million of us!"

A reference to the number of Democratic primary voters who backed Hillary Clinton.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Democrats Wednesday officially nominated Obama to be their candidate for president, making him the first African-American to lead a major party ticket. Earlier in the day, Sen. Hillary Clinton graciously released her delegates to vote as they wished.

Sen. Hillary Clinton motioned to cut the roll call short saying, "With eyes firmly fixed on the future, and in the spirit of unity with the goal of victory, with faith in our party and our country, let's declare together with one voice right here, right now that Barack Obama is our candidate and he will be our president."

"Is there a second?" House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California asked the crowd of more than 4,400 delegates.

Delegates then affirmed Obama as their choice with cheers, officially capping a long and hard-fought battle between Obama and Clinton.

Read the CNN.com articles about Bill Clinton's speech and Obama's nomination here and here and here.

plez sez: on to november... this healing should've taken place weeks ago, like on June 4th (the day after Obama secured enough votes to win the democratic nomination)!

plezWorld is glad that the rift is seemingly over... we must set our sights on removing the republicans from the white house.

Hillary Clinton: "No Way. No How. No McCain."

After 18 months of hard campaigning against Sen. Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination, Sen. Hillary Clinton delivered a rousing endorsement of Obama as the next President of the United States.

She challenged her supporters to question whether they wanted "four more years of the last eight years" or if they truly were on board to enact the changes that she and Obama were fighting for during their candidacy.

The line of the week: "No way, no how, no McCain!"

Portions of Hillary Clinton's speech:









Text of Hillary Clinton's speech:

I am honored to be here tonight. I'm here tonight as a proud mother. As a proud Democrat. As a proud senator from New York. A proud American. And a proud supporter of Barack Obama.

My friends, it is time to take back the country we love.

And whether you voted for me, or voted for Barack, the time is now to unite as a single party with a single purpose. We are on the same team, and none of us can afford to sit on the sidelines. Watch Clinton tell the party to unite »

This is a fight for the future. And it's a fight we must win together.

I haven't spent the past 35 years in the trenches advocating for children, campaigning for universal health care, helping parents balance work and family and fighting for women's rights here at home and around the world . . . to see another Republican in the White House squander our promise of a country that really fulfills the hopes of our people.

And you haven't worked so hard over the last 18 months, or endured the last eight years, to suffer through more failed leadership.

No way. No how. No McCain.

Barack Obama is my candidate. And he must be our president.

Tonight I ask you to remember what a presidential election is really about. When the polls have closed, and the ads are finally off the air, it comes down to you -- the American people and your lives, and your children's futures.

For me, it's been a privilege to meet you in your homes, your workplaces and your communities. Your stories reminded me that everyday America's greatness is bound up in the lives of the American people -- your hard work, your devotion to duty, your love for your children, and your determination to keep going, often in the face of enormous obstacles.

You taught me so much and you made me laugh, and yes, you even made me cry. You allowed me to become part of your lives. And you became part of mine.

I will always remember the single mom who had adopted two kids with autism. She didn't have health insurance and discovered she had cancer. But she greeted me with her bald head painted with my name on it and asked me to fight for health care for her and her children.

I will always remember the young man in a Marine Corps T-shirt who waited months for medical care and he said to me: "Take care of my buddies; a lot of them are still over there, and then will you please take care of me?"

I will always remember the young boy who told me his mom worked for the minimum wage and that her employer had cut her hours. He said he just didn't know what his family was going to do.

I will always be grateful to everyone from all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the territories, who joined our campaign on behalf of all those people left out and left behind by the Bush administration.

To my supporters, to my champions -- to my sisterhood of the traveling pantsuits -- from the bottom of my heart: Thank you.

Thank you because you never gave in. You never gave up. And together we made history.

Along the way, America lost two great Democratic champions who would have been here with us tonight. One of our finest young leaders, Arkansas Democratic Chair Bill Gwatney, who believed with all his heart that America and the South should be Democratic from top to bottom.

And Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones, a dear friend to many of us, a loving mother, a courageous leader who never gave up her quest to make America fairer and smarter, stronger and better. Steadfast in her beliefs, a fighter of uncommon grace, she was an inspiration to me and to us all.

Our heart goes out to Stephanie's son, Mervyn Jr., and Bill's wife, Rebecca, who traveled to Denver to join this family of Democrats.

Now Bill Gwatney and Stephanie Tubbs Jones knew that after eight years of George Bush, people are hurting at home, and our standing has eroded around the world. We have a lot of work ahead.

Jobs lost, houses gone, falling wages, rising prices. The Supreme Court in a right-wing headlock and our government in partisan gridlock. The biggest deficit in our nation's history. Money borrowed from the Chinese to buy oil from the Saudis.

Putin and Georgia, Iran and Iraq.

I ran for president to renew the promise of America. To rebuild the middle class and sustain the American Dream, to provide the opportunity to those who were willing to work hard and have that work rewarded, to save for college, a home and retirement, to afford the gas and groceries and still have a little left over each month.

To promote a clean energy economy that will create millions of green-collar jobs.

To create a health care system that is universal, high quality, and affordable so that every single parent knows their children will be taken care of. .

We want to create a world class education system and make college affordable again.

To fight for an America defined by deep and meaningful equality -- from civil rights to labor rights, from women's rights to gay rights, from ending discrimination to promoting unionization to providing help for the most important job there is: caring for our families. And to help every child live up to his or her God-given potential.

To make America once again a nation of immigrants and of laws.

To restore fiscal sanity to Washington and make our government an instrument of the public good, not of private plunder.

To restore America's standing in the world, to end the war in Iraq, bring our troops home with honor, care for our veterans and give them the services they have earned.

We will work for an America again that will join with our allies in confronting our shared challenges, from poverty and genocide to terrorism and global warming.

Most of all, I ran to stand up for all those who have been invisible to their government for eight long years. Those are the reasons I ran for president, and those are the reasons I support Barack Obama for president.

I want you to ask yourselves: Were you in this campaign just for me? Or were you in it for that young Marine and others like him? Were you in it for that mom struggling with cancer while raising her kids? Were you in it for that young boy and his mom surviving on the minimum wage? Were you in it for all the people in this country who feel invisible?

We need leaders once again who can tap into that special blend of American confidence and optimism that has enabled generations before us to meet our toughest challenges. Leaders who can help us show ourselves and the world that with our ingenuity, creativity and innovative spirit, there are no limits to what is possible in America.

Now, this will not be easy. Progress never is. But it will be impossible if we don't fight to put a Democrat back into the White House.

We need to elect Barack Obama because we need a president who understands that America can't compete in the global economy by padding the pockets of energy speculators while ignoring the workers whose jobs have been shipped overseas. We need a president who understands that we can't solve the problems of global warming by giving windfall profits to the oil companies while ignoring opportunities to invest in the new technologies that will build a green economy.

We need a president who understands that the genius of America has always depended on the strength and vitality of the middle class.

Barack Obama began his career fighting for workers displaced by the global economy. He built his campaign on a fundamental belief that change in this country must start from the ground up, not the top down. And he knows government must be about "We the people" not "We the favored few."

And when Barack Obama is in the White House, he'll revitalize our economy, defend the working people of America, and meet the global challenges of our time. Democrats know how to do this. As I recall, we did it before with President Clinton and the Democrats. And if we do our part, we'll do it again with President Obama and the Democrats.

Just think of what America will be as we transform our energy agenda by creating millions of green jobs and building a new, clean energy future. Get middle class families get the tax relief they deserve. And I cannot wait to watch Barack Obama sign into law a health care plan that covers every single American.

And we know that President Obama will end the war in Iraq responsibly and bring our troops home and begin to repairing our alliances around the world.

And Barack will have with him a terrific partner in Michelle Obama. Anyone who saw Michelle's speech last night knows she will be a great First Lady for America.

And Americans are fortunate that Joe Biden will be at Barack Obama's side. A strong leader, a good man, who understands both the economic stresses here at home and the strategic challenges abroad. He is pragmatic, tough, and wise. And, of course, Joe will be supported by his wonderful wife, Jill.

They will be a great team for our country.

Now, John McCain is my colleague and my friend.

He has served our country with honor and courage.

But we don't need four more years of the last eight years.

More economic stagnation and less affordable health care.

More high gas prices and less alternative energy.

More jobs getting shipped overseas and fewer jobs created here at home.

More skyrocketing debt and home foreclosures .and mounting bills that are crushing our middle class families.

More war and less diplomacy.

More of a government where the privileged come first and everyone else comes last.

Well, John McCain says the economy is fundamentally sound. John McCain doesn't think that 47 million people without health insurance is a crisis. John McCain wants to privatize Social Security. And in 2008, he still thinks it's OK when women don't earn equal pay for equal work.

Now, with an agenda like that, it makes perfect sense that George Bush and John McCain will be together next week in the Twin Cities. Because these days they're awfully hard to tell apart.

You know, America is still around after 232 years because we have risen to every challenge and every new time, changing to be faithful to our values of equal opportunity for all and the common good.

And I know what that can mean for every man, woman, and child in America. I'm a United States Senator because in 1848 a group of courageous women and a few brave men gathered in Seneca Falls, New York, many traveling for days and nights, to participate in the first convention on women's rights in our history.

And so dawned a struggle for the right to vote that would last 72 years, handed down by mother to daughter to granddaughter -- and a few sons and grandsons along the way.

These women and men looked into their daughters' eyes and imagined a fairer and freer world, and found the strength to fight. To rally and picket. To endure ridicule and harassment and brave violence and jail.

And after so many decades -- 88 years ago on this very day -- the 19th amendment giving women the right to vote became enshrined in our Constitution.

My mother was born before women could vote. My daughter got to vote for her mother for president.

This is the story of women and men who defy the odds and never give up.

How do we give this country back to them?

By following the example of a brave New Yorker , a woman who risked her life to bring slaves along the Underground Railroad.

On that path to freedom, Harriet Tubman had one piece of advice.

If you hear the dogs, keep going.

If you see the torches in the woods, keep going.

If they're shouting after you, keep going.

Don't ever stop. Keep going.

If you want a taste of freedom, keep going.

And even in the darkest of moments, that is what Americans have done. We have found the faith to keep going.

I've seen it . I've seen it in our teachers and firefighters, nurses and police officers, small business owners and union workers, I've seen it in the men and women of our military. In America, you always keep going.

We are Americans. We're not big on quitting.

But remember, before we can keep going, we have to get going by electing Barack Obama the next president of the United States.

We don't have a moment to lose or a vote to spare.

Nothing less than the fate of our nation and the future of our children hangs in the balance.

I want you to think about your children and grandchildren come Election Day. Think about the choices your parents and grandparents made that had such a big impact on your life and on the life of our nation.

We've got to ensure that the choice we make in this election honors the sacrifices of all who came before us, and will fill the lives of our children with possibility and hope.

That is our duty, to build that bright future, to teach our children that, in America, there is no chasm too deep, no barrier too great, no ceiling too high for all who work hard, who keep going, have faith in God, in our country, and each other.

That is our mission, Democrats. Let's elect Barack Obama and Joe Biden for that future worthy of our great country.

Thank you. God bless you, and Godspeed.

Read coverage of Hillary Clinton's night at the DNC here and here and here and here and here.


plez sez: hillary clinton saved her best stuff for her speech before the democratic national convention. she received her props as being the first viable woman candidate for president (she was greeted with a rousing 5 minute ovation), she gave props to Barack Obama (she gave him an unequivocal endorsement as next president), and she repudiated the thought of electing john mccain to the white house in november.

in the words of some of the talking heads, she "knocked it out of the park!"

even though they differed in style and substance, both hillary clinton's and michelle obama's speeches were the highlights of their respective nights. both speeches highlighted (in different ways) the basic reasons why Barack Obama should be the next president. it is every hope that hillary's speech squelched all talk of the democratic party no longer being unified behind Obama... of course, there will be some who will not be able to vote for a Black man, but i contend that clinton's supporters now have no reason why they cannot support his candidacy going forward.

Baracky II

Baracky II
Baracky played by Barack Obama
Evil McT played by John McCain

and a special appearance
Hill/Bill Creed played by Billary

[Hat Tip: AverageBro]


plez sez: i found this over at AverageBro's blog... so good, i had to post it on plezWorld!

Obama Veep Watch

All of plezWorld is tingling with anticipation. My cell phone is charged up and ready to receive my text message from the Obama Campaign informing me of his vice presidential nominee.

I will MOBILE BLOG that message from my Palm Treo to plezWorld as soon as I receive the text message.

Who will it be?

Gov. Tim Kaine (of Virginia)

Sen. Evan Bayh (of Indiana)

Sen. Joe Biden (of Delaware)

Sen. Hillary Clinton (of New York)

Rep. Chet Edwards (of Texas)

Someone Else (of someplace else)?

All of the talking heads are opining, saying it's going to be Biden.

The only certainty is that the VP nominee will join Sen. Barack Obama in Springfield, IL tomorrow for a big speech at 1 PM EST.

Read the CNN.com article about Obama's short list here.

More Obama vice presidential speculation here and here and here.

plez sez: my crystal ball is looking kind of cloudy this evening and i'm not getting a strong signal (only two bars).

they say that kaine and bayh have already been told it's not them. they say that clinton hasn't even been vetted. and surprise! surprise! chet edwards (who represents the district where george w. bush's ranch is located) claims to have been vetted, but hasn't spoken with Obama!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Obama has to pick a strong, vocal candidate. he has to pick someone with name recognition and experience. by his own admission, he has to pick someone who can step in as president.

you read it on plezWorld first: it's going to be HILLARY CLINTON.

that's right, he's going to hold his nose... and call in Billary to help defeat mccain in november.

none of the other candidates comes with a built-in nation-wide base. none of the other candidates has received as many votes as clinton. none of the other candidates have a constituency that may feel "dissed" if they ARE NOT picked. and none of the other candidates is married to the last democratic president to be re-elected since FDR!

the only other candidate who comes close to clinton is joe biden, and to my way of thinking, he's a distant second. he has the experience, he has the ability to debate the issues, BUT... didn't he drop out of the presidential race within the first 2 or 3 weeks? clinton ended up with over 18 million votes this year... if Obama and clinton's voters return to the polls in november, there is NO WAY THAT OBAMA CAN LOSE!


i know. i know... what the hell are you gonna do with Bill Clinton? i look at it this way: it's better to win the election, rather than risk losing it because of opposition to the VP candidate's spouse!

Clinton's Name in Nomination at DNC

"I am convinced that honoring Senator Clinton’s historic campaign in this way will help us celebrate this defining moment in our history and bring the party together in a strong united fashion."
- Sen. Barack Obama in a statement announcing plans to have Sen. Hillary Clinton's name placed in nomination for a roll call at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

“With every voice heard and the Party strongly united, we will elect Senator Obama President of the United States and put our nation on the path to peace and prosperity once again.”
- Sen. Hillary Clinton in a statement justifying the need to have her name put in nomination at the Democratic National Convention.

The decision was announced on Thursday afternoon in a joint statement from the senators.

It comes after long negotiations on both sides, with many backers of Mrs. Clinton vigorously pushing for her candidacy to be validated by giving her delegates the chance to support her through a roll call vote. After the state-by-state roll is tallied, Mrs. Clinton is expected to turn over her cache of delegates to Senator Barack Obama.

CNN.com reports that a Democratic source with knowledge of the discussions says that the process was not a negotiation – that both sides came to a mutual decision that the move was the best path.

"They have known since the day she dropped out that she wanted this 'for history,'" says a Democratic operative speaking about the Obama camp. The announcement follows a string of recent reports that die-hard supporters of Hillary Clinton were planning to protest in Denver if her name were not placed into nomination, and a roll call vote held that would allow the New York senator's delegates to vote for her.

The roll call is scheduled for August 27, 2008 during the DNC.

Read the New York Times article about Hillary Clinton and the roll call at the Democratic National Convention here.

Read the CNN.com article about Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Convention here.


plez sez: although, i am not in favor of this concession, i do realize that hillary clinton did garner a large number of votes during the primary and she has some die-hard supporters who need some validation of their efforts.

but one should keep in mind, the democratic nomination was her's to lose... and she lost it: she mismanaged her funds, mismanaged her campaign, and overlooked a serious and well-organized opponent in Barack Obama. let the clintons speak, let hillary's name get mentioned as a nominee, let hillary's supporters get over themselves and their fake sexism crocodile tears... and let's move on! Obama will be hard pressed to win in november without the democratic base solidly behind him.

i'm sure his camp had to hold their nose as they agreed to this final (hopefully) concession to the sore losers in the clinton camp.

...and a brief history lesson on presidential politics, hillary clinton will not be the first woman whose name has been put into nomination at a major party convention:

• 1964 republican national convention - maine senator margaret chase smith
  
  
• 1972 democratic national convention - new york congresswoman shirley chisholm (who also happened to be Black)

Barack Obama will be the only one in Denver making history.

Barack Obama On Hillary Clinton

Today culminated the most historic 16 months in this country's history, where a woman and a Black man were seeking a major party's nomination for the highest office in the land. It was a tough race with over 35 million votes cast. Hillary Clinton may have come up short in the delegate count, but there were no losers. Her victories have empowered all women to strive to shatter the glass ceiling. Barack Obama's historic run and eventual capture of the Democratic Party's nomination should be an inspiration to all Americans, regardless of color... on a national scale, we are beginning to see the realization of Dr. King's Dream.

I received the following e-mail message shortly after Hillary Clinton gave her concession speech and heartily endorsed Barack Obama for President of the United States. There is only one opportunity left; on Tuesday, November 4, 2008, we the people must attack the ballot box with a fervor to ensure that this country is not subjected to another four years of Bush Administration-like politics that would accompany John McCain to the White House. Heed Obama's call to unify the Democratic Party and win back the White House.

plezWorld --

Hillary Clinton announced her support for our campaign today.

Senator Clinton made history over the past 16 months -- not just because she has broken barriers, but because she has inspired millions of Americans with her strength, her courage, and her commitment to causes like universal health care that make a difference in the lives of hardworking Americans.

Our party and our country are stronger because of the work she has done throughout her life, and I'm a better candidate for having had the privilege of competing with her.

Senator Clinton will be invaluable to our efforts to win in November, and I look forward to campaigning alongside her to bring this country the change it so desperately needs.

Hillary and her supporters are joining us at an urgent moment.

It's going to require a new level of commitment from every single one of us to build a national campaign in the general election.

And we're going win this election the right way -- by growing our grassroots network of ordinary people giving only what they can afford.

Will you help bring a new supporter into the movement by promising to match their first-time donation?

By doubling the impact of someone's gift, you can encourage them to take the next step and own a piece of this campaign. Help us reach our goal of 20,000 new donors by making a matching donation now:

It's time for all of us to come together to take on John McCain in the general election. John McCain offers another four years of George Bush's policies, which our country simply cannot afford.

To win, we must continue building an unprecedented organization in all 50 states. And that will only happen if we all work together, side-by-side.

Thank you for joining this movement and supporting a new kind of politics.

Together we can do more than just win an election. Together we can change this country, and we can change the world.

And we are honored to have Hillary Clinton at our side as we do it.

Barack
Paid for by Obama for America

The Last 2008 Democratic Primary

The fat lady is testing her vocal chords for the final aria of this very long and drawn out primary season for the Democratic Party. Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have scrapped for every delegate's vote in all fifty states dating back to early November of last year. Clinton entered 2008 riding a wave of popularity and name recognition. Obama entered 2008 riding a grassroots organization that is unparalleled in scope. He won early. He won often. She won late... and by all accounts, much too late. He had a strategy to energize the electorate and bring in new voters. She had a strategy to ride the Clinton name and have the nomination in hand by Super Tuesday... unfortunately for Clinton, the race has extended four months after Super Tuesday!

The race has been a drama of contrast and style and delivery. Often ugly. Often divisive. A sweet victory has yet to be found. There have been cries of foul. There have been allegations of classism, sexism, elitism, even racism. There has been discord. And even the whisper of assassination.

But it all comes to an end today, Tuesday, June 3rd. The 49th and 50th states will have their say, like the forty-eight before them. Back in America's heartland, the scene of so many Obama victories before them, South Dakota and Montana will cast their lot at the feet of the next President of the United States. Michigan and Florida have been resolved. The pledged delegate totals continue to tilt toward Obama. The remaining superdelegates stand at the ready to pledge their support, but only after South Dakota and Montana have had their say. And most polls predict that these two states will say, "Obama."

Late breaking news - as reported by the New York Times - has a number of Senate and House members ready to throw their support behind Obama after the polls close on Tuesday: Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa, Sen. Ken Salazar of Colorado, Sen. Thomas Carper of Delaware, Sen. Benjamin Cardin of Maryland, and Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, who has urged the remaining Democratic congressmen to get on board with the eventual nominee after the Tuesday primaries.

Read the AP report about Clinton's final campaign plans here.

Read the New York Times article about Obama's efforts to secure the nomination on Tuesday here.


plez sez: i still contend that it would be a show of class, if Clinton would join Obama in St. Paul, Minnesota on Tuesday evening in a show of unity and solidarity.

as for plezWorld, my family and i will be celebrating Obama's nomination at the FOX Sports Grill in Atlanta for the "Official OBAMA Democratic Primary Finale Watch Party". yes, all three of us will be there for the balloon drop and exhilarating celebration of the nomination of Barack Obama!

plezWorld's Saturday with the DNC

plezWorld was awaken this morning by the television blaring the opening gavel and a call to order by Democratic National Committee (DNC) Rules and Bylaws Committee Co-Chair Alexis Herman. I took a few moments to listen to the co-chair comments before getting dressed for the day. Not much time to dawdle on Saturday mornings, as it is my duty to chauffeur the SugarPlum to her ballet lesson. I had the foresight to hit the record button on the DVR before we left for the ballet studio in Buckhead. Something told me that it would be a long day in front of the television, so the SugarPlum and I grabbed some lunch before making our way home through the brutal Atlanta traffic and near ninety degree heat.

I settled into my comfortable easy chair to watch gavel-to-gavel coverage of the all-important DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee meeting. I almost immediately began flipping between C-SPAN (for their coverage without commentary) and CNN (for their opinions and commentary). The big issue of the meeting was to resolve the delegates that were in limbo as a result of an earlier ruling by the Rules and Bylaws Committee to disregard the results of the Michigan and Florida primaries. In direct violation of the rules of the DNC, the states of Michigan and Florida held their democratic primaries prior to the February 5th Super Tuesday. A number of states were given exclusive province to hold primaries and caucuses prior to February due to their small size, geography, and special demographics; Michigan and Florida are states with large delegate counts and the DNC didn't want them to negate the primaries of states with much smaller delegate counts (South Carolina, Vermont, New Hampshire, Iowa, etc.).

All of the Democratic candidates vowed to not campaign in Michigan and Florida, and all candidates except Hillary Clinton removed their names from the ballot in Michigan. None of the candidates, except Hillary Clinton, campaigned in Michigan or Florida. When the primaries were held in these two states, it was no surprise that Hillary Clinton won both contests in convincing fashion. To punish these states, the DNC stripped Michigan and Florida of their pledged and unpledged delegates, thus changing the number of delegates that was needed for the eventual Democratic candidate to secure the nomination for the party.

As the campaign proceeded and with Barack Obama moving closer to the nomination after Super Tuesday, the Clinton campaign swung into action demanding that the delegates from Michigan and Florida be seated, and that she be awarded the rich cache of delegate votes that accompanied them. She pressured the Rules Committee to convene and change their ruling stripping those states of all of their delegates... that brings us to Saturday, May 31, 2008.

The remarks given during the five-plus hour debate session were passionate. Clinton's supporters were well prepared to make the case that the delegates from both states should be seated:

1. Florida's Republican-led legislature moved the date to late January and Florida DNC was unable to have a primary on an alternate date,
2. Clinton won 55% of the vote in Michigan where none of the other candidates had their names on the ballot, and
3. There was no provision in the rules to remove delegate privileges from unpledged (super) delegates and only allowed a fifty percent penalty for pledge delegates.

The counter arguments focused on the rules that were established and agreed upon before the primary season began and those rules carried a fifty percent delegate penalty for moving the primaries before Super Tuesday. After a few hours of discussion, the Rules and Bylaws Committee went into a two hour private session... two hours morphed into four hours of closed door debate and negotiation.

The haggard committee members returned to their seats after their four hour "break." A motion to seat all Florida delegates (pledged and unpledged) was quickly defeated. The motion to seat all Florida superdelegates and seat the pledged Florida delegates with one half of a vote was passed almost unanimously; Clinton was given 105 pledged delegates (with 52.5 votes) and Obama was given 67 pledged delegates (with 33.5 votes). The Michigan motion to seat the pledged delegates with one half a vote each passed overwhelmingly; Clinton received 69 pledged delegates (with 34.5 votes) and Obama received 59 pledged delegates (with 29.5 votes) even though his name wasn't on the ballot! One of Clinton's top advisers objected profusely with the Michigan delegate decision and threatened that the fight would continue to the convention with a grievance filed with the Credentials Committee.

After the smoke cleared, Clinton ended up with 87 votes to Obama's 63 votes; Obama's 200 plus vote lead was hardly affected... and there remain few obstacles to prevent him securing the party's nomination after the Tuesday primaries in Montana and South Dakota.

Read the entire CNN article about the DNC Meeting here.
Read the entire New York Times article on DNC Meeting here.


plez sez: after the partisan theatrics of the clintonistas and their feeble attempt to wrest control of the democratic nomination from Barack Obama, it is obvious that it time for her to call it quits. if the situations were reversed, Obama would've been forced to concede weeks ago! he has most of the pledge delegates, he has most of the superdelegates, he has won the most contests, he has the most popular votes... the time to direct attention toward the general election has come.

a winning move would be for the two of them to appear together on tuesday evening after the montana and south dakota primaries; how cool would it be for hillary clinton to introduce Barack Obama as the next president of the united states!

Race vs. Racism in 2008 Politics

John McWhorter, left, of the Manhattan Institute and Glenn Loury of Brown University discuss the issue of race for Barack Obama:

John H. McWhorter, Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, writes and comments extensively on race, ethnicity and cultural issues for the Institute's Center for Race and Ethnicity. He also writes a regular column in the New York Sun. McWhorter's new book, Winning the Race: Beyond the Crisis in Black America (Gotham Books) was released in early 2006 and has already generated widespread acclaim. He was nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work in Non-Fiction and has appeared numerous national TV and radio shows, such as Meet the Press, John McLaughlin's One on One, the O'Reilly Factor and NPR's Fresh Air. McWhorter is also a well-known and widely published linguistics scholar.

Glenn C. Loury is the Merton P. Stoltz Professor of the Social Sciences and Professor of Economics at Brown University. He has taught previously at Boston, Harvard and Northwestern Universities, and the University of Michigan. He holds a B.A. in Mathematics (Northwestern University) and a Ph.D. in Economics (MIT). In addition to this scholarly work, Professor Loury is also a prominent social critic and public intellectual. His over 200 essays and reviews on racial inequality and social policy have appeared in dozens of influential journals of public affairs in the U.S. and abroad. He is a frequent commentator on national radio and television, a much soughtafter public speaker, and an advisor on social issues to business and political leaders throughout the country. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, was for many years a contributing editor at The New Republic, and currently serves on the editorial advisory boards of The American Interest.

View the entire Bloggingheads.tv episode here.

plez sez: i find it a delight to listen to two academics debate and intelligently discuss issues that affect us today. i can't think of two better Bloggingheads than John McWhorter and Glenn Loury to discuss the issue of race and racism in politics.

i deplore calling anyone a racist (don't get me wrong, there are racist people), because we all see race... and we've all formed our own prejudices and preferences for the types of people we choose to deal with. i'm no more a racist for choosing to live in a very nice predominantly Black neighborhood, anymore than the white person who chooses to live in a neighborhood populated by mainly white folk.

plezWorld agrees with McWhorter about the good folk in west virginia and indiana who came out in droves for hillary clinton, they weren't racists, but they were voting race... just like the droves of Black folk who supported Barack Obama down here in georgia and south carolina!

i just found this to be a particularly enlightening Bloggingheads episode. i invite you to check out other episodes with McWhorter and Loury.

Clinton Invokes RFK Assassination

While meeting with the editorial board of the Sioux City Argus Leader (South Dakota) on Friday, Hillary Clinton was asked why she hasn't dropped out of the race; mathematically, she cannot secure enough pledged delegates to win the Democratic nomination. She said that the nomination process is a long one and who knows what will happen between now and Democratic National Convention in Denver.

Clinton's reply follows:

“People have been trying to push me out of this ever since Iowa... my husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. I don’t understand it."

As would be expected, her comments set off a barrage of criticism in response to her invoking Robert Kennedy's assassination in 1968, and within hours, she expressed regrets at a campaign stop:

“The Kennedys have been much on my mind the last days because of Senator Kennedy. And I regret that if my referencing that moment of trauma for our entire nation and particularly for the Kennedy family was in any way offensive.”

Read the New York Times article on Clinton's assassination gaffe here.

Clinton assassination comment and regrets:

plez sez: hmmmm... i guess she isn't holding out for an invitation to be Barack Obama's veep... sounds to me, like she's betting on an assassin's bullet to secure her the nomination!

is it me OR is hillary clinton out of her freakin' mind?!? two weeks from today marks the 40th anniversary of bobby kennedy's assassination by a bullet fired by sirhan sirhan! although, there has been little publicity about death threats, it is obvious that Obama has been the recipient of credible threats since he announced his candidacy; he's had around the clock secret service protection for close to a year! i don't like to bring up such a grim prospect, but this blog published a post that white supremacist groups have been organizing to prevent Obama from ever taking the oath of office.

how can hillary be so crass? so unfeeling? so politically incorrect?!? when backed into a corner, she will say ANYTHING... and i mean ANYTHING to justify her claim to the white house!

and when she realizes how off base her comments were, she can't even muster the fortitude to properly apologize. she doesn't apologize to the kennedy family (she only expresses regret for her offensive remarks). she doesn't apologize to Barack Obama and his family for the implication that she's pinning her hopes of being the democratic nominee while dancing on Obama's grave prior the democratic national convention! if it was good enough for hubert humphrey in 1968, it's good enough for hillary clinton in 2008.

assassination of national figures is the ugliest of american history: lincoln, mckinley, harrison, kennedy, martin luther king, jr., robert kennedy, etc. a Black man is poised to ascend to the highest office in the land and hillary clinton doesn't want to get out of the race because the specter of him getting gunned down before the convention is too great!

some have decided to give her the benefit of the doubt... that could not be what she was thinking when she brought up kennedy's assassination. plezWorld is not so easily dissuaded and asks, if she wasn't implying that there is a good chance that Obama will get assassinated, what was she implying? and why did she bring it up?

keith olbermann commentary on hillary clinton - 10:42

some have called for Obama to offer the veep office to billary. how many weeks would it take for the clintons to plot his assassination? maybe i've watched too many seasons of "24", but something tells me that the clintons couldn't stomach being Obama's second banana for 8 years! something tells me that they couldn't stomach being his second banana more than a couple of weeks!

Milestone for Obama

As the presidential primary season enters its final 3 weeks, Sen. Barack Obama is closing in on a very important milestone. The New York Times reports that he is expected to capture a majority of the pledged delegates after the Kentucky and Oregon primaries today.

Sen. Hillary Clinton was last seen vigorously campaigning in Kentucky in an attempt to shore up her sizable lead in the polls, while Obama spent the last couple of days on the west coast making sure he maintained his lead in Oregon. It is pretty much understood that the with Obama taking Oregon and Clinton taking Kentucky, and since both states have close to the same number of delegates in play, the result will be a wash. Clinton will not make much of a dent in Obama's sizable lead. And with a majority of the available pledged delegates, it will take a bold act of the superdelegates to award Clinton the Democratic nomination.

Read the entire New York Times article here.


plez sez: it is all but certain that hillary clinton is going to stay in the race until the bitter end. with only a handful of primaries remaining (4 or 5 left), Obama nursing a majority of the pledged delegates, and Obama holding on to a majority of the superdelegates who've pledged their support, it is highly unlikely that clinton will be able to pull off the nomination without dropping a powder keg on the convention floor!

i can see her making a strong case for getting the number two position on the ticket, but she could've made that argument weeks ago... and really reduced the amount of rancor and bitterness that has bubbled up between the supporters of the two campaigns. every news service is running stories on gender bias and racism in this campaign: the TWO SUBJECTS that these two candidates should've been trying to avoid! for some reason, clinton's allies waited too late into the contest to play the "race card" and then they did such a poor job of it.

i don't see Obama offering her much more than a pat on the back, that's probably why he is treating her campaign with kid gloves, so when all the votes are counted and she's been kicked to the curb, he can smoothly transition to campaigning against mccain full-time. if he lets her fade from the campaign without ruffling her feathers, he should be able to count on her (and bill's) support in the fall campaign.

unfortunately, i don't see billary backing away from a return to washington that easily... they are probably going to make a STRONG CASE for her being on the ticket, whether Obama likes it or not! and if he doesn't offer her the veep role, i can see billary pulling their support (along with their PWT constituents who they just recently aligned themselves with) and handing the win in november to mccain... if mccain wins, billary will be back with an "i told you so" campaign in 2012!

Hillary Clinton Wins Big in West Virginia

In today's primary in West Virginia, Hillary Clinton trounced Barack Obama by a near two-to-one margin! She used her big win to make her case that she has a better chance of beating the Republicans in the general election.

Unfortunately, Obama's delegate lead appears to insurmountable and it is doubtful that she will be able to catch him even if she wins the remaining primaries (which is unlikely). West Virginia had just 28 delegates at stake, and those will be awarded proportionately, so this win will not cut into his lead by much.

But she will celebrate the win anyway.

plez sez: ok, hillary, take a victory lap. a month ago, these paltry delegate-weak states didn't matter to her... now they are the mother's milk to her waning nomination bid. superdelegates are falling over themselves to endorse Barack Obama, who took the superdelegate lead over the weekend.

at this point, she is running for a spot in Obama's administration... is her case compelling enough for a nod as his vice president? or is there too much baggage for her to carry to blair house? would bill behave back in washington?

i'd hate to be in Obama's shoes right now, because what to do with hillary clinton will be the biggest decision of his candidacy. it may even determine if he will win his bid to win the big seat in the white house!

50-50 in Superdelegates

The New York Times is reporting that with the defection of three superdelegates to Barack Obama on today, he has pulled even to Hillary Clinton in the superdelegate count (263 each). Until this point, Clinton has pointed to the superdelegate count as the one metric that she led for the Democratic nomination.

Read the entire New York Times article on superdelegate counts here.


plez sez: at this point, clinton is either jockeying for the VP position or just wants a prominent position at the Democratic convention. with primaries left in only six states, she won't even be able to boast a lead in the popular vote (not that it matters) without throwing in the bogus numbers from michigan and florida primaries which don't count!

but hold your hats, ladies and gents, with those michigan and florida delegates still in flux, one can never know what tricks ol' Billary may have up their collective sleeves come time for the convention.

Obama Not Really Hurt by Wright

An op-ed piece and an article in The New York Times over the past couple of days show that Obama's support among Democratic voters is not deteriorating as badly as is being portrayed in the media. The Clintonistas and the media have been crowing about Obama's loss of support since the Rev. Wright incident. As much as Obama has been trying to move past the divisive rhetoric of the Wright brouhaha, the media and Hillary Clinton have been keeping it at the top of broadcasts for the past five weeks.

New York Times columnist Charles Blow wrote about a "Blacklash" in his May 3rd op-ed piece about the Democratic nomination contest. Excerpts from the op-ed piece follows:

The rhetoric appears to be trafficking in old fears and historic stereotypes. The unspoken (and confusing) characterization of Obama is that he’s militant yet cowardly; uppity yet too cool for school.

The question is this: Have white Democrats soured on Obama? Apparently not. Although his unfavorable rating from the group is up five percentage points since last summer in polls conducted by The New York Times and CBS News, his favorable rating is up just as much. While a favorable opinion doesn’t necessarily translate into a vote, this should still give the Clintons (and the superdelegates) pause. Electability cuts both ways.

Many blacks are aghast that their extraordinary support of Bill Clinton in the past would be repaid by the Clintons with racial innuendo (in a Times/CBS News poll after the salacious 1998 Starr report was released, his unfavorable rating among whites climbed to 52 percent; among blacks it was only 10 percent). [Many] who stood by him then now apparently feel betrayed.

Recent polls by The New York Times and CBS News show that Hillary Clinton's support has eroded with the Black community far more than Barack Obama's support among white Democrats. The graphic below shows Hillary's support with Black Democrats has eroded by over 35 percentage points since last summer and took a real nosedive after the primary season began this year. In contrast, over the same time period, Obama's support among white voters has risen by 5 percentage points.

Each candidate has a core constituency that is needed for the election in November: Clinton's working class whites and Obama's Blacks and affluent whites. After the nominee is selected in Denver, the Democratic Party is going to have to do a huge PR campaign to bring the other's voters into the fold for the fall election.

Excerpts from The New York Times article on Rev. Wright follows:

A majority of American voters say that the furor over the relationship between Senator Barack Obama and his former pastor has not affected their opinion of Mr. Obama, but a substantial number say that it could influence voters this fall should he be the Democratic presidential nominee, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll.

At the same time, an overwhelming majority of voters said candidates calling for the suspension of the federal gasoline tax this summer were acting to help themselves politically, rather than to help ordinary Americans. Mr. Obama’s rival for the Democratic nomination, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, has made the suspension of the gas tax a centerpiece of her campaign in recent days.

In the survey, taken in the days leading up to the primaries on Tuesday in Indiana and North Carolina, Americans were divided over the merits of the gasoline-tax suspension, which has also been backed by the presumptive Republican nominee, Senator John McCain, and condemned by Mr. Obama as political gimmickry.

Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama spent the final Sunday before the two primaries debating the gas-tax holiday and other issues on morning talk shows and in events across Indiana.

Read the entire New York Times op-ed piece about the graphic here.

Read the entire New York Times article about Rev. Wright's affect on Obama's support here.


plez sez: i'm not a big fan of polls and celebrity endorsements. and even though the poll above doesn't reflect a loss in support, one would have to be deaf and dumb to believe that there was no loss based on Obama's performance in the pennsylvania primary. and if he was such a hot commodity, then he would easily win the primaries in Indiana and North Carolina this week.

i still contend that Obama is the strongest democratic candidate, but i cannot be sure that the Clintonistas don't have another couple of tricks up their sleeve to grab the nomination at the convention.

if Obama is not the democratic candidate against john mccain, then john mccain will be the next president. i'm not saying that Obama is a shoo-in against mccain, but i KNOW billary will never win because more democrats won't be voting for hillary than won't be voting for Obama!

Hillary Wins Pennsylvania

With her hopes of gaining the Democratic nomination fading with each successive day, Hillary Clinton's campaign limped out of Pennsylvania with a win over rival Barack Obama.

She is behind in the delegate count. She is behind in popular vote. She is behind in total states won. She is behind in money (she wasn't five minutes into her acceptance speech before she was groveling for contributors at her website). And even with this win, she gets no closer to winning the delegate race. But she's going to hang in there and fight on... Billary has been waiting eight years to return to Washington and they're not going to let a little thing like being behind in the race stop them.

Billary will not drop out of the race, she will forge on to Indiana and North Carolina for their primaries in two weeks. And when she loses those, she will still forge on until the last primary in June.

Read about the Pennsylvania primary here.


plez sez: the longer this campaign continues, the deeper the rift between clinton supporters (working class whites) and Obama supporters (Blacks & affluent whites). and more importantly, the longer this race continues, the more likely that one's supporters will not vote for the other in november, thus guaranteeing john mccain a cake walk to the presidency. as groundbreaking as this race has become (white woman vs. Black man), it is also fracturing the democratic party into billary democrats and Obama democrats. will one be able to energize the other's supporters to vote in november?

hillary won most of the big states and Obama won the rest. but democrats usually win the big states, it's the small states that elected george bush in 2000 and 2004. the democrats best chance to win the white house will be to ride Obama's crossover appeal and win some states that have been red in the last two election cycles: north carolina, georgia, virginia, alabama, mississippi, colorado, etc. big states like pennsylvania, california, illinois, and new york will vote for democrats (like they have in the last two election cycles).

mark my words... if billary stays in the race until june, the party will be in such disarray that i don't think either candidate will be able to beat mccain in november.

Quote of the Day - April 17, 2008

"I think last night we set a new record because it took us 45 minutes before we even started talking about a single issue that matters to the American people. It took us 45 minutes — 45 minutes before we heard about health care, 45 minutes before we heard about Iraq, 45 minutes before we heard about jobs, 45 minutes before we heard about gas prices.

"[Washington likes] stirring up controversies and getting us to play gotcha games and getting us to attack each other. And I've got to say Sen. Clinton looked in her element. She was taking every opportunity to, you know, get a dig in there.... That's all right, that's her right, that's her right to kind of twist the knife a little bit.... Look, I understand though, because that's the textbook Washington campaign, because that's the politics that's been taught to be played, that's the lesson that she had heard when the Republicans were doing the same things to her [husband] back in the 1990s."
- Barack Obama's reaction to the debate with Hillary Clinton held on last night

Read Ben Smith's blog over at Politico.com


plez sez: i watched about 10 minutes... i couldn't stomach the rehashing of old news. i turned away long before either candidate was ask about anything substantive. i say, "no more debates, until Obama faces mccain!"

Quote of the Day - March 30, 2008

"There is no way that Senator Clinton is going to win enough delegates to get the nomination — she ought to withdraw and she ought to be backing Senator Obama."
- Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont on the reason he is backing Senator Barack Obama for President.

Read the entire New York Times article here.


plez sez: i'm sure the Democratic Party would like to see this nomination process play out, but isn't this race (as far as delegates) over? at this point, it'll be up to the superdelegates to pick the winner... howard dean should call on the superdelegates to pick a winner in the coming weeks, so the eventual nominee can stop getting bludgeoned by a fellow party member and start attacking the republicans.

Mississippi Cottons to Obama!

The New York Times reports that Barack Obama easily won the state of Mississippi with another 20 percent win over his rival, Hillary Clinton. By garnering 90% of the Black vote (in a state that is 36% Black) and about a third of the white vote, he pulled away early and was never threatened in the primary.

The Times writes:

Mr. Obama’s lead in Mississippi was built on a wave of support among blacks, who made up half those who turned out to vote Tuesday, according to surveys conducted by the television networks and The Associated Press of voters leaving polling places. The surveys found that roughly 90 percent of black voters supported Mr. Obama, but only a third of white voters supported him, suggesting a racially polarized electorate in the state.

Read the entire New York Times article here.


plez sez: congrats to the Obama Camp for pulling out another BIG WIN! unfortunately, delegate-poor mississippi won't provide much of a boost to Obama's lead. he can at least point to two straight wins (with the win in wyoming over the weekend).

i still contend that pennsylvania (in 6 weeks) is a must-win primary for Obama... he needs to win another Big State to solidify his grip on the democratic nomination. i also heard today that plans are under way to have a do-over primary in delegate-rich florida and michigan!

in the words of soul singer lenny kravitz, "it ain't over 'til it's over!"

Obama Bristles At Veep Talk

"I don’t know how somebody who’s in second place can offer the vice presidency to someone who’s in first place."
- Senator Barack Obama being incredulous at a speech in Mississippi on Monday, March 10, 2008 at the suggestion that he accept an offer to be Hillary Clinton's running partner, even though he has a lead in the delegate count.

Read the entire New York Times article here.

plez sez: if nothing else, those clintonistas have balls! i have no doubt that they will figure out a way to pull off the nomination at the democratic national convention, but to suggest that Obama take the role of second banana while he's in the lead is... ballsy!

billary has been plotting and planning a return to 1600 pennsylvania avenue for eight years now, and you'd have to be crazy to think that they're gonna let some slick talkin' tenderfoot take that opportunity away from them. billary has proven that they can win in those delegate-rich big states, they stopped the bleeding in texas & ohio, they stopped the superdelegate defections, and you can bet your last dollar that they are going to figure out a way to seat those delegates from florida and michigan.

but billary also knows that they won't be returning to 1600 pennsylvania avenue without the Obama's supporters (Blacks and energized independents)... if he's not on the ticket, mccain will walk away with the presidency. the funny thing is mccain can't beat Obama by himself, but he can beat billary without Obama!

plezWorld is still 100% behind OBAMA and i'm still gonna find it difficult to ever vote for billary, but the writing is on the wall: texas & ohio were just as much must-win states from him as they were for her... he's not going to get the nomination with wins in puny states like delaware, vermont, and south carolina... he needed wins in california, new york, and new jersey!

the next must-win is pennsylvania... it's a waste of time (in more ways than one) to spend valuable resources trying to win mississippi.