Hillary has her supporters writing to"automatic delegates" and super delegates to lobby their votes.
In one of the "facts" listed along the side of the page:
"The race is currently a virtual tie."
Is that true?

http://www.delegatehub.com/contact/

I just saw a special report on CNN.  The reporter was asking Iraqi soldiers  who they would like to see win our presidential election.   Some said Hillary, others said Obama, others just said "Democrat, whoever, Democrat".  When asked why, they said they're fighting "a Republican war, we've seen Republican war....let's see what Democrats can bring here".  Some said it's really a war between U.S. and Iran, just taking place in their country.   
Even with CNN bias, or Clinton bias, I think it was very telling.  I'd actually like to see a lot more candid interviews with Iraqi citizens--ones not  produced by the Pentagon.  
Interestingly, last year, one of the congressional oversight committees invited ten Iraqi legislators to come to a hearing and talk about their points of view.  
The committee kept pressing the State Department to arrange this, but they wouldn't respond.   As Patrick Leahy recently discovered,  the reason the Iraqi legislators won't come is because our State Department won't issue them temporary visas.


 

Before anyone accuses Obama of intellectual dishonesty, or writes him off because of some things his ex-minister said, listen to some things that Obama said.  In 2006.  It's not a clip. It's an entire speech on the subject matter at hand:
http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid463869411/bctid416343938

What is resoundingly clear though is that after 20 years in the same church, these two men have taken two distinctly different paths. You can't ask for a more stark obvious contrast. That is really the big story. The evolution of thinking in Black America.  
The most profound question is this: what is the evolution of thinking in White America?
And will we choose the path toward one America?

"Should Hillary Quit", asks the ad, with a big picture of Hillary's face.  I don't know.  I just don't know, okay?  Look,  I'm no Hillary hater, I've never met the Senator.  I have nothing against her face.  Her face is... likable enough.  But on tpm,  there's no escaping it.  Sometimes it shows up big.  Sometimes smaller.  Sometimes twice on the same page.  I wake up.  Grab a cup of coffee, click on tpm, and there it is: Hillary's face.  I click on the link to my blog.  Hillary's face. I click on someone else's post, purposely scroll down below Hillary's face and there it is: Hillary's face.  Half her face is staring back at me as I write this.  The longer I make this post, the more of her face I will see.  If I scroll down to


here..I can see her face in its entirety.  For the seventy-third time today.  
Earth to Josh.   

Any Florida or Michigan "do-over" is just plain illegitimate, no matter how you slice it. Agreements were made and there were no escape clauses. Not if you find yourself behind in delegates. Not if you find yourself ahead in delegates.
Suppose Barack Obama said the following:
"If Senator Clinton wants to break the rules, that's her decision. But does that mean I lose my right to uphold them? I don't know about the "Commander in Chief" threshold, but I doubt that scenario would cross the "ethics" threshold.

But this is creating divisiveness in our own party, and that is of greater concern to me than my personal ambitions.

So if Senator Clinton would accept my offer to cede the Florida delegates to her, and in the interest of expediency, let her have the Michigan delegates too, we can move on to address what voters would rather we focus on; the issues that face this nation.
Sounds gracious, but wait. There will be those who say Obama is being charitable because Hillary is a woman. And he's giving her a handicap because he doesn't think HIllary can win by the rules.
And then Hillary, out of spite, will just drop the whole Florida and Michigan thing and rally her supporters with "Yes we can. Yes we can."
Come to think of it, that's not such a bad outcome, is it?

... and Democrats are still fighting over who's going to be quarterback.
It's clear that a statistically-significant number of Republicans are voting for Hillary in the Democratic caucuses and primaries. Anyone who doesn't think they'll swing back to the right and vote for McCain in the general election just hasn't been paying enough attention to the dynamics of American politics.
Other temporarily left-wing Republicans are now rallying to protect the sanctity of the Democratic process by insisting that the voice of every Democrat voter in Florida be heard. Why? Because suppressing votes is so eight years ago. (Hillary and select Democrats couldn't agree more.)
There's even more evidence that these "de-staunched" Republicans are reaching across the aisle, extending their handshake to Democrats-only to jerk it back as soon as one reaches for it.

Excerpts from a recent Politico article:

Sen. Wayne Allard, a Republican from Colorado, has crafted a massive budget amendment that claims to fund every policy proposed by Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) on the presidential campaign trail. Allard's amendment _ doomed to fail by a significant margin _ includes $1.4 trillion in spending over five years by proposing Obama's universal health care program ($65 billion a year), expanding the Army ($6.6 billion a year) and eliminating income taxes on lower income seniors ($10 billion a year).

This is an old Senate trick during budget season, where senators take campaign rhetoric and pump up the theoretical budget numbers behind the proposals then force a vote on the matter. The political impact on Obama is minimal, since the drudgery of the Senate budget debate is unlikely to create waves in the presidential campaign. And Obama has never promised to implement his dozens of domestic policy ideas all in one budget year, but that's not the point for Senate Republicans behind this maneuver.

There's so much action on the field right now. Imagine how exciting it would be if the Democrats made their way out of the locker room.

An editorial written by Lanny Davis, in January 2007 outlines the strategy of a bipartisan ticket.  It's interesting to re-read this in the context of 2008.  One of the points suggests the best route to a bipartisan ticket would be for one democratic candidate and one republican candidate to run a rabid partisan campaign, to demonstrate to voters how deeply divided the country is.  Then one would reach out to the other in a show of magnamity, and run on the same ticket:  
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/12/AR2007011201956.html

Hop on and see the world as the Clintons do:

-Michigan and Florida: We can break the rules set by the DNC and therefore, those who followed the rules have no right to continue doing so.

-Nevada: We agree that the Culinary Workers Union has a right to hold caucuses up until the moment they endorse another candidate. At which time, that right must be rescinded immediately by the court.

-Texas: We won Texas hands down especially if we didn't.

-Ohio: This state has picked the next President for the last quarter century and they just picked John McCain too.

-Pennsylvania: We have a 99% chance of winning this state, therefore it is the only barometer by which our party can possibly go by.
Obama: Is he winning in terms of both delegates and popular vote now? It depends on what your definition of "is" is.
-Iraq: If we can divide someone else's country into three vicious factions, we can divide our own into at least two.

Something about the Clintons, I'm sorry to say, brings out the worst in us.  Should they be elected, the next eight years will be longer than the last.  The Republicans will be even more vehement about blocking any and every Clinton-backed policy.   Then the Republicans will rule for the next eight years and once again, overextend our army and bankrupt our economy.  
In this likely scenario, today will be no different than 16 years from today.
By that time, it's likely that America will have been ruled by the same two families for nearly 40 years.  
Will you be ready for something different then?
Or are you ready now?

Let's go back. Way back. To the days before the Civil Rights movement. To the race riots. To a time when African americans weren't commonly called African Americans. Let's re-awaken fear and hatred. Let's re-draw that great divide in this country--that pits whites against blacks. Let's destroy those precious few leaders of both races that dared to inspire all of America, so we can coalesce around only those people who look most like ourselves. Let's stop any and all rational thought and vote instead with the prejudices of our past.
And let's fight every day, not against international terrorists, but rather, against ourselves, for the rest of our lives.

It's 3am. The phone rings. You pick it up and have a conversation. But you hang up feeling the person on the other end did better. You ask for another 3am call. This time, you emphasize how your 35 years of experience has prepared you for precisely this kind of moment. The result? Cue the lead balloons. Suck it up. You live. You learn. You'll get it right on the next 3am call. You answer and this time you try something outrageuous; sound human. Deftly deploy .000003 seconds of vulnerability and get out, fast. It works. "Gold, Jerry. That's gold!" You've finally figured out what to do when you get a call in the middle of the night. And it is this: drop the humanity, go back to the 35 years of experience thing. You say to yourself, "it only seems counterintuitive". The calls come. Confirmation; it really is counterintuitive. If you've learned anything, it's that softening your voice and sounding a few notches below entitled is the way to go. So you gather your advisors and they all agree. From now on, knee-cap, bludgeon and destroy. Cut to next call. You knee-cap, bludgeon and destroy. You hear booing on the other end. Your advisors say ten more like that and you've got this thing in the bag.

Obama, and the rest of America, is at somewhat of a disadvantage when it comes to accessing information about the Clinton's ties to special interests, library donors, even tax returns since 2001. 
These are supposed to be public records.   I think she should be suspended from campaigning until all these documents are made public.  
If voters aren't allowed to make an informed decision, aren't they being disenfranchised?

Yesterday I came across an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer about Obama that I thought was severely misleading.   I posted the link and asked people to email the writer for a retraction.  
I just got an email from that writer, Jonathan Last.  Turns out he got so many emails from people like me and you, that he had to send out a mass email.  Here's what it said:
Dear Reader,

I'm terribly sorry for the mass email--normally I try to answer all emails individually, but the Obama-Clinton column provoked such a giant number of responses that I just don't have the time to do that this week.

What I am going to do is write a follow-up column for next Sunday's Currents section where I try to answer some of the questions/complaints/concerns sent in.

Thanks for taking the time to write and again, I'm sorry for not being able to answer your note directly.

Best,
JVL

Below you'll find the link to the original article.  Now I don't know if he'll retract some of the things he claimed, but I do know that there's a lot of power going around these days and it's not in someone else's hands, it's in all of ours.   Like everyone else, I've had it with the lies, the spin, and the corruption that lead some people diluted in their own arrogance to think that they are above the law and beyond the reach of accountability.They aren't.   That whatever they're selling we'll buy.  We won't.  We are now watching their every move.  Everything they say.  Everywhere they go.  We're even in the meetings they hold behind closed doors.  So if you see something that just doesn't line up with the facts, say something.  If the media isn't being objective, call them on it.  If a corporation is getting away with destroying the environment, call it to everyone's attention.  
Because in the end, the power is in all of us to put elected officials in office, or remove them from office.   To buy their products or services, or boycott their products or services.  To watch their programs, or convince every advertiser from supporting them.  
Time to assert what those who fought for our country gave us:
Democracy.  Let's not take it for granted.   
Because if we ignore it, it will just go away.  





http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20080309_One_Last_Thing_.html

I found a link that lists a bunch of email addresses to editors of various news editors in PA.  A lot of tpm readers have some strong opinions and this could be another avenue to express them.   I'm sure they're getting their share of letters from Clinton supporters.   
If you do write an editorial or letter, please make sure all the information in it is accurate.  

http://obamastraws.blogspot.com/2008/03/letters-to-editor-pennsylvania.html

We have to keep an eye on the blogs and news stories being printed in these and other upcoming election states.  It's a tactic to run false information in local papers in advance of a candidate's visit to that state.  Try to post or correct or email the papers who are doing this.  Just two examples:

http://jacksonwatch.blogspot.com/2008/03/obama-coming-to-mississippi-too.html
http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20080309_One_Last_Thing_.html

I came across this editorial in the Philadelphia Enquirer.  If the papers are going to be biased toward Clinton, all I ask is that they be truthful--this article states that Obama has a lead in delegates but only if you exclude Michigan and Florida. 
http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20080309_One_Last_Thing_.html

I came across this editorial in the Philadelphia Enquirer.  If the papers are going to be biased toward Clinton, all I ask is that they be truthful--this article states that Obama has a lead in delegates but only if you exclude Michigan and Florida. 
http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20080309_One_Last_Thing_.html