Hillary is an extraordinary person of policy and has done very well in this election. She has always been deserving of respect. As such I continued to argued for a unity ticket. Until recently, I really felt this would be the best way to move the party forward towards winning in November. 

But now, after more than 2 months of unwarranted drama, and demonstrating her lack of ability to except political reality. And the fact that she never properly communicated or led her constituency in the face of what was clear and obvious, but continued with a brazen and unprofessional endgame. 

Her behavior this week has been absolutely unacceptable, and beyond the pal of a good leader. Her unwillingness to accept the loss and concede the race in a timely fashion has grave consequences.

I realize Hillary has seriously damaged her political reputation, as well as the Clinton legacy.  But more importantly, I am afraid, despite the historic significance of her run for the White House, she did a disservice to my daughter's changes of becoming the President of the United States. Ironically, her drama plays right into misogynistic tendencies. 

If there is anything I am truly angry towards Hillary about, it is not the effect she had on Obama's candidacy - Obama won, it is the effect her behavior may have on my daughter's future. My six-year-old daughter has been a huge Hillary fan from the beginning of the Primary. She wanted a "Girl" President. If Hillary would have won, I would have been happy for our country and my daughter. But she didn't win and she didn't loss gracefully, and that I am afraid hurts my daughter.

Right now, I want to cuss Hillary out. She need to find a way to repair this. 

Scott McClellan's mea culpa begs the comparison to the Iraqi Propaganda officer during the U.S. invasion of Baghdad. At that moment, they both earnestly stood for their respective regimes, and in the presence of record they looked into the world's eye and proclaimed mutual annihilating narratives in the face of evidence and truth. During those first few delicate moments the first cycle bonded their successes. The next cycle eliminated them both. 

In response to a Lunch Ticket Clinton supporter who was upset with the whole "assassination" thing, I 
I agree with that interpretation, and I think the Freudian aspect of her comments are there, (perhaps?) overblown. The Headlines on this gaffe (?) are exploitative of what you see in the video. However, there is that little aspect of her weighing her words and using the Robert Kennedy meme to work for her argument. She has been making this same argument for several months now. This is not new. The problem is that all observers of Obama's rise in popularity have been seriously afraid he could be assassinated, and to them her statement seems to acknowledge that fear and use it to her advantage. 

My interpretation, today, is that it was a gaffe, one of the billions of gaffes each one of us make daily when we attempt to communicate. It is the nature of communication itself, filled with all the Freuds you can imagine. Although her comments may not have been directed toward this fear (again ?), she slipped-up on a widely held and highly charged fear that people have. It's irrational. 
But it is also the very space/play ground of Rovian Politics. And these comments do fit into her pattern of Rovian tactics, and that is what judges her.

I have to leave this one alone. I just went full circle on this. 

You charge that Obama sees Clinton as the enemy. I don't think Obama sees her as the enemy, but an ally, unfortunately, a flawed ally. Its not so much that Hillary has flaws, we all do, it is the makeup of her flaws that hurts her today. I think her baggage brings a host of additional problems that make it difficult to position her in the campaign going forward. She is a victim of her and Bill's successes. 

In the last week, and prior to this gaffe, I watched all hope of a Unity Ticket fade away. I was a proponent for it, and I've written about the pros and cons on several occasions. However, as a VP choose, Obama would have to demand that she and Bill disclose more than they would be willing to, e.g., Bill's foundation donors lists and associations. In addition Obama would need guarantees and detailed limits on Bill's activities outside his formal position as spouse to the VP. This would include all business associates, etc. etc. 

Once you begin to enumerate the conditions you realize they're absurdly impossible to demand or abide by.  

If you don't already know, the VP option was discussed and rejected prior to Hillary's appearance in Florida a few days ago. Hence the reason for her new math in counting the popular vote, and conflating the situation with the 2000 recount. Even the MSM has brought out her hypocrisy on this issue. Many of her staff set up these rules, including Howard Ickes, and she signed off on them. Below, is a video of Florida State Senator Steven Geller mocking and gaming the system during the proceedings in the Florida Senate that led to disenfranchising  >1.75 million Florida voters in an illegitimate January 29 primary.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r25wUeMAwdE

(case closed) Clearly, Florida Democrats are not doing well by their constituents. None-the-less Florida will count. 

Obama will have the necessary 2025 delegates (w/o Mi & Fl) to clinch the nomination by May 31st (The date set for the meeting of the rules and bylaws committee). Superdelegate, Mr. Cardoza is the first of 40 delegates, mostly from California, switching from Clinton to Obama. They have already notified Hillary of the switch and will be coming out 2-3 a day.  From here Obama will be able to attain Hillary's new hurdle of 2210 delegates (including Mi & Fl), regardless of what occurs at the rules and bylaws meeting.

Right now it is Obama's race, and unfortunately it won't include Hillary on the ticket. There will be many books published about this primary season - many brilliant books. There is a lot to chew-on here. History was made by the battle as much as by its conclusion. Whether or not  Hillary becomes President in the future, many more books will be written about her, and how she had to maneuver first on the margins of our cast system, as the role of wife and mother,  and then at the seat of power to attain the highest office. Yet, to limit her to these roles is an attempt to diminish her brilliance. Her abilities are undisputed, and like any great warrior from mythology this journey has brought her to the edge - the edge of acceptability. We forget too often what it was like 40 and 50 years ago for young women starting out on a journey to climb to the highest levels of power. Hillary was unusual because she had that as her focus. She is the first, and ahead of the pack, because she didn't accept the path that would not lead to the heights of power. The only paths provided. She leaped frogged the system and tomorrow there will be many, many more women assuming these roles because Hillary's fight was real and she was formidable. 

What is amazing about the conclusion of the primary season is the power of the losing narrative. Hillary may have lost this contest but the struggle she led is a powerful story. 

Bill Kristol predicted that this year would be about angry middle-aged women, but I don't think he expected this?

"The View co-host brings up Prescott Bush's Nazi ties"

This has been swirling around the internet for some time now, perhaps exaggerated. but, now it's getting airtime.
Scroll down to the video. Pretty exciting action.
And at the Huffington Post: "All the President's Nazis (Real and Imagined): An Open Letter to Bush"

by Larisa Alexadrovna

Via the Daily Dish: http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/ 

The Qahtani Case
18 May 2008 09:29 pm
All charges have been dropped because Detainee 063, as he was called, was tortured under order of the president. Philippe Sands reviews the background and evidence. The Dish has been following the case of Qahtani for several years. One of the torture techniques used against Qahtani, and approved by Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld, was pioneered by the Gestapo. In pre-Bush America, we prosecuted the perpetrators and executed them for war crimes. Now we grant them legal immunity - in a bill crafted in part by John McCain. 

As much as I blame the Imperial President of fundamental ideology for events, the last few years have also eviscerated my resolve for Leaders in the Democratic Party. I am tired of trying to calm the nerves of others, and my own, to reinvigorate their faith in the Democratic Party as the opposition party. I am tired of telling them that our leaders know what they are doing only to be proven wrong later. 
With discoveries such as this I am sick with discuss. This reaffirms the Democrats incompetent role as the opposition party these past seven years. With every new discovery I am reminded how ineffective democrats have been. In the end, they stood for nothing and rallied no concerted effort to stop; the war in Iraq, the illegal wiretapping, the use of torture, or any of the many other Moral Hazards of our day. 
Under present leadership, Democrats continue to look more like the Complicit Party.  
As much as Democrats like to talk about the possibility of increasing their majority in congress this November, I think all in office are at risk, both democrat and republican. 
We need NEW LEADERSHIP! And we need it now. 

I'm not saying this in defense of Huckabee, he screwed up - big time. 
I don't doubt Mike Huckabee meant to be humorous with this off-the-cuff and very public remark.  Who knows, he could have been trying for a quick and clever way to refer to Obama as someone who fears the constitutional issue of guns. Which I don't doubt Obama would welcome a proper invitation to discuss, but not in this manner. 
Lets all agree that "guns are dangerous." You don't play with them or aim them at anyone - not even as a joke. This applies to everyone. I think its important for everyone to have a balanced mind about this episode. This is not gotcha politics. No one wins playing with guns. 

­In this place, a Hispanic woman in her early 30's entered with her two children (an African-American looking girl about 5 years-old and a Hispanic looking boy about 2 years-old). As she entered this place this woman brought with her, her rushed and obligated day. 

She signed in at the clerks table and before going to the booth to cast her vote, she told her children to stand quietly on the other side of the room. Her son squirmed and she firmly admonished him and repeated her command. As the children walked quietly to the other side of the room, the woman went to the voting booth.

After a few moments of quiet the woman's cell phone rang out. She called her daughter over to her, handed her the phone, and told her "Its your Daddy." As the little girl took the phone her face lit up and the place lit up.

The little girl then said "Hey Daddy."

She went on to tell him about school and a recent field trip the shed aquarium, and how she misses him. She asks him for his address so she can write him a letter.

About this time the Mother finished casting her vote and started to walk towards her children, she noticed everyone in the place was transfixed on her daughter. The Mother then said to everyone "Her father is in Kuwait." And then she gathered her children and left. The little girl was still on the phone as the door closed behind them. 

As people are realizing the difficulty in denying Obama the nomination, this drama continues to no possible benefit to the Party.

Now we have a new Obama beauty dressed in the youth vote and slapping Hillary around with her cuteness.

And they say Obama doesn't fight back.

Although I wouldn't have thought this possible just a few weeks ago, I am seriously entertaining the possibility of an Obama/Clinton ticket.

It is clear that between Obama and Hillary the Democrats have the vote to win in November. Despite Hillary's ability to rally the GOP against her, she has shown she has strong support in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana.

If this ticket went forward, this would keep the party united and allow Obama to govern without a Clinton coalition fighting against him in the congress - a very undesirable prospect as she has proven. It would also allow Obama to tap into the popularity of Hillary’s Healthcare Plan. In turn, Hillary would be second in line to the Presidency. 
Any other Pros and Cons?

The challenge would be for Hillary to repair the damage she has inflicted on Obama these past few months? Can she do it?

Yes She Can.

Last week we received a robocall from an entity identifying themselves as the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), in support of Hillary Clinton. My wife is a teacher at the University of Chicago Lab Schools. The same school Barack Obama's children attend. This wasn't a surprise because we had previously received campaign literature from the AFT in support of Hillary. 

Anyhow, this evening we received another call from the AFT. This time it was a live individual who asked for me or my wife by name. I thought it was strange that the AFT would know my name. I'm not a teacher. Knowing they supported Hillary, I decided to hand the phone to my wife. The following is my wife's account of the call.

I just got a phone call from a person claiming to be a representative of the AFT. This person identified themselves by name and by saying they were calling on behalf of AFT. They then read a script saying that the upcoming election on May 6 would determine who would be making decisions affecting a wide range of issues in our country.
I was asked who I would be supporting in the May 6 primary. When I responded despite AFT's endorsement I'm supporting Barack Obama, the man replied "You would support a man who religion and religious views are for gay marriage?" I was surprised by this response and said, "What?"
The man then went onto to say Barack Obama and his religious views support gay marriage and gay pastors. I went on to say that these were issues that I did not have a problem with and that also were not relevant to my choice of presidential candidate.
I then asked if he was in fact speaking on behalf of the AFT or if he was expressing his own personal views. He talked around this and then said that he felt gay marriage would ruin our country. I asked if he was being paid to say this and if fact he was a Republican, thinking that his tone and these views were in fact not very much in line with Democrat Party. These issues did not seem to go hand in hand with the primary and were not issues upon which a race should be decided.
I asked if in fact my union dues were paying for this phone call and asked again if he was calling on behalf of the AFT. I told him I felt that it was inappropriate to call on the behalf of the AFT with hate talk. He responded saying he was not talking with anger or hate. I again asked if this phone called was being paid for by my union dues. He then hung up.

What makes this even more interesting is that my wife is also a union rep at the school.

Lest we forget. Under the Clinton Administration, Northwest Indiana did not share in the good times of the 1990's. During the Clinton Administration: <ul>  <li><b>30,000 manufacturing jobs were lost - most in steel and steel related industries</b></li>  <li><b>Unemployment</b> in the region was the highest in 100 years. We still have not recovered.</li>  <li>LTV Steel and a dozen other large industries went <b>Out-of-Business</b>, leaving workers and retirees without a safety net.</li>  <ul>    <li>wiping out worker and retiree pensions</li>    <li>leaving them without an adequate job  retraining program</li>    <li>And without Universal Healthcare as promised which would have helped </li>  </ul>  <li><b>Irrational Exuberance and Accelerated Globalization</b> promoted by the Clinton Administration encouraged the outsourcing of jobs without protecting our workers at home</li>  <li><b>Inadequate Job Training: </b>as technical advances allowed business' to be more productive with less labor, job retraining programs were never adequate or timely. This resulted in more new jobs created in NWI going to residents of Illinois.</li>  <li><b>Unfair Trade Practices</b> by China, Russia and other nations undercut and flooded the market with cheap steel without response from Clinton Administration</li>  <li><b>NAFTA</b> promoted and passed by the Clinton Administration opened the U.S. market to our neighbors and encouraged industries to relocate oversees; again without protection for our workers at home</li>  <li><b>Public Corruption</b> went out of control, leaving residents no recourse. In fact, our leadership began to work against us</li>  <ul>    <li>as house cleaning was never initaited</li>    <li>and good government initiatives never adopt</li>  </ul>Sixteen years ago the Clinton's showed up in Northwest Indiana several times, not unlike they are doing today, and promised  more Jobs, Universal Healthcare, improved Education , and a better Quality of Life. <b>The same things they are promising us today - Sixteen years later</b>. In the end, a lot of local politicians got rich and school kids got a free lunch - That's it. 

As Mr. and Mrs. Clinton attempt to convince Democrats of their NEW-Rovian Vetting process, they have attacked Obama on issues they claim the Republicans would attack him on in the General.

·       Religious Intolerance (questioning a Muslim Identity and Rev Wright)

·       Racial Intolerance

·       Queer sense of Nationalism

·       and now cultural Elitism

This has prompted Rep. Clyburn to caution the Clintons. In an interview with The New York Times, Rep. Clyburn said

“Mr. Clinton’s conduct in this campaign had caused what might be an irreparable breach between Mr. Clinton and an African-American constituency that once revered him. “When he was going through his impeachment problems, it was the black community that bellied up to the bar,” Mr. Clyburn said. “I think black folks feel strongly that that this is a strange way for President Clinton to show his appreciation.”

And that there appeared to be an almost “unanimous” view among African-Americans that Mr. and Mrs. Clinton were “committed to doing everything they possibly can to damage Obama to a point that he could never win.”

Now Mrs. Clinton has received Scaife's endorsement. She has partnered with the very same opinion-maker, and billionaire, who hounded her and Bill in the 90's, on Monica-gate, Whitewater, Vince Foster, and etc. Since endorsing Mrs. Clinton, Scaife has ratchet-up the rhetoric with a new scum campaign against Obama. This campaign is descending further into vile nonsense and noise – associating Obama with Gang bangers.

Is it time for Mr. Clinton to move out of Harlem? I think there are plenty of Harlem residents ready to help him move, and they wouldn’t be very kind.

With the knowledge of what has transpired since the NY primary her support from the African-American community and other natural Obama constituencies in NY are now gone. I think if we reran the NY primary today, Obama could do very well – even on her home turf.

I can’t help but think if this vetting process was reversed and Mrs. Clinton were the recipient of a REPUBLICAN slime attack - let's say in the vain of a Scaife attack, Monica-gate would have the strongest meme. Transference to her would not be difficult, as her sexual history would be explicitly salient to the Republican appetite. From here the dialogue would descend further into other vile nonsense and noise.

The question is “would her candidacy, and the Democrats survive this?”

Do Democrats really want America to be distracted by these kinds of issues at a time, when we are involved in two wars (Iraq, and the war and Terrorism), and another potential war in Iran, and with the country facing a major recession?

We have heard a lot from Hillary about the "Republican Attack Machine," and how Barack will not be able to with stand their attacks. She has used this line incessantly these past months to justify her own Rovian Attacks. 
However, there is an unspoken fear among Democrats when is comes to vetting Hillary. And many know that there is one issue on which Laura Ingraham, Ann Colter, Sean Hannity and the others have been waiting to attack Hillary if she makes to the General. 
They are going to come back to the issue that impeached her husband - SEX. But now they will focus on Hillary's indiscretions. They have been waiting to bring her sexual history in to the campaign. And many Democrats with any connections to the Clinton White House know many of  potential stories they could pull out. 
If Hillary is the nominee this is going to happen and it will bring down her candidacy. 
There have been too many stories out there for too long for her to get past this.
OK, now I said it. And George Stephonopolous can move on.