A friend of mine writes this comment:

At one point in time Armando was one of this site's most passionate and articulate voices about ending racism and empowering people of color. As well as promoting a "politics of contrast." . . . Armando used to speak of a Lincoln 1860 strategy, but Hillary has been playing a Harrison 1840 strategy instead ("look at me! i can play the strong warrior champion of the white working class too!").

Short answer - Hillary Clinton is not a Politics of Contrast candidate. I am not a fan of Hillary Clinton's campaign. I defy anyone to find a post where I extol Hillary Clinton's candidacy or campaign. There are no such posts. And when racial comments were made by Clinton surrogates, I severely criticized those comments, including those by Bill Clinton.

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Scott Lemieux misunderstands politics imo. I know he misunderstands my argument for a Unity Ticket.

He writes that "some people in the Clinton Hackosphere [meaning me, thanks for the kind words Scott] are trying to set up the argument that a decision by Obama to choose anybody but Clinton must be motivated by personal animus, because there simply can't be any rational argument . . . against it." Um no, I assume that, unlike people like Scott Lemieux, there are enough mature adults in the Obama camp who will make a rational mature decision on this issue. It so happens that the signals I am seeing are that the decision they seem to be approaching is a very bad one that is NOT directed at unifying the Party. I think that would be wrong. I think party unity is the most important criteria now. Apparently Scott Lemieux does not care about the unity issue. Or perhaps Scott Lemieux thinks Ted Kennedy's statement was helpful and unifying. On that, we would disagree.

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I think Barack Obama's greatest contribution to America would be as Attorney General in a Hillary Clinton administration.

• He be terrific as head of its civil rights division.
• He'd go after crooked lobbyists and big time corporate offenders.
• He'd have the ability not to charge non-violent drug possessors with mandatory minimum offenses, while pushing Congress to change the law.
• He'd be the best advocate for a congressional end to the unfair disparity in crack-powder cocaine sentences.
• He could refrain from prosecuting federal death penalty cases until an independent commission has established that the death penalty is no longer applied in a racially disparate manner -- and in any case in which DNA evidence does not conclusively prove guilt.

In accordance with his expressed beliefs,

• He'd direct federal prosecutors not to prosecute medical marijuana dispensaries or users in states that have passed medical marijuana laws.
• He'd charge and prosecute suspected terrorists in federal courts, eliminating the need for unfair military commissions.
• He could stay tough on meth labs, an issue he's made a priority.

[More...]

Pundits ignore facts when they do not fit their narrative. First it was Frank Rich. Now it is Jonathan Alter (via Yglesias selling the nonsense):

It was the "Grandma Primary." Barack Obama lost Pennsylvania mostly because white working-class women over 60 dominated the contest to an astonishing degree, and they backed Hillary Clinton by more than 2-1. The big question is what that means for November. Obama carried men and younger and middle-aged voters, but that wasn't nearly enough.

This is false in every particular. The PA exit polls prove this. Clinton won ALL voters 40-49 by 54-46. She won ALL voters 50-64 by 57-43. these two age groups comprised 56% of the vote in Pennsylvania. Of course Clinton also won all whites 60 and older by 68-32. But she also won all whites 18-29 by 52-48. She also won all whites 30-44 by 58-42.

Jonathan Alter write an entire column that is premised on a gross falsehood. He approvingly quotes Obama saying ""If you look at the numbers, our problem has less to do with white working-class voters [than] with older voters." that is just false. Alter reports it as fact. This is now common from him. It is a shame. He was once a good journalist. See also Mark Blumenthal's debunking of this nonsense.

Thanks to a TL reader who left this in the comments on the Mother's Day Thread: Ellen Malcolm, founder of Emily's List, has an op-ed in Saturday's Washington Post, Quitters Never Win. A snippet:

It's not surprising that low-income working women are the cornerstone of Hillary's success. Many of these women live on the edge of disaster. A pink slip, a family member's illness, a parent who can no longer live alone, a car that won't start or a mortgage rate that goes up -- all are threats that could devastate the family. And yet these women do what women have done for ages. They put on a confident face, feed their children breakfast and get them off to school. They don't quit. They suck it up and fight back against whatever life throws their way....

....Hillary Clinton certainly has the right to compete till the end. But I believe Hillary also has a responsibility to play the game to its conclusion. For the women of my generation who learned to find and channel their competitiveness, for the working women who never falter in the face of pressure, for the younger women who still believe women can do anything, Hillary is a champion. She's shown us over and over that winners never quit and that quitters never win.

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that Democratic Presidential candidates carried West Virginia in every recent election except the last 2?

I found this relevant question:

Why could Jimmy Carter carry West Virginia TWICE, even in the 1980 Reagan landslide, Michael Dukakis could even carry West Virginia, Bill Clinton carried it twice by huge margins both times, yet Al Gore and John Kerry lost there? . . . [W]hat can Dems do to win it again?

Any answers?

By Big Tent Democrat

If ever you wanted to see how clueless the Beltway Gasbags are, watching them discuss the Presidential election and potential VP choices today will convince you. They have no clue about the depth of the commitment of Clinton supporters to Hillary Clinton. They live in their DC bubble and have no idea what happens outside of it.

On the Unity ticket issue, I recommend Jerome Armstrong's fine post on the subject.

This is an Open Thread.[ More...]

It's Mother's Day.

I'm thankful my mother is still alive. Although, after 3 years in a nursing home and 5 years in assisted living before that, it's a greater struggle each year to help her enjoy this special day given her rapidly advancing dementia and the physical toll of Parkinsons's Disease. She still laughs, enjoys corned beef sandwiches and chocolate chip cookies and lights up like she won the lottery when I bring her any kind of chocolate or ice cream. She loves the white orchard plant I bring every Mother's Day and the flowers my sister sends from 2,000 miles away, as well as the nightgowns. Another of her favorites is having me read her mother's day cards aloud over and over.

Then it's time for my mother's day with the TL kid. [More...]

I just got an email extremely upset about the Amy Poehler sketch on Saturday Night Live tonight. It's not on here for another half hour. Anyone see it?

If SNL isn't on yet in your neck of the woods, here's Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame Wilson's ad for Hillary that is airing in Oregon.

Comments now closed.

In arguing that Barack Obama is a shoo-in in November, Frank Rich makes a strange case:

[T]his isn’t 2004, and the fixation on that one demographic in the Clinton-Obama contest has obscured the big picture. The rise in black voters and young voters of all races in Democratic primaries is re-weighting the electorate. Look, for instance, at Ohio, the crucial swing state that Mr. Kerry lost by 119,000 votes four years ago. . . . Voters under 30 (up by some 245,000 voters) accounted for 16 percent, up from 9 in 2004. Those younger Ohio voters even showed up in larger numbers than the perennially reliable over-65 crowd.

If Rich had dug a little deeper into the exit poll numbers, he might have realized that Hillary Clinton split white voters 18-29 with Obama in Ohio. He might have learned that Clinton swamped Obama among white voters in every other age group. He might have learned that in Pennsylvania, Clinton won white voters 18-29 by 52-48. He might have learned that in Florida, Clinton won non-blacks 18-29 by 47-36. And so on. [More...]

I recall supporters of Barack Obama claiming profusely at one time that the pledged delegate vote is the will of the people and the superdelegates should accede to it. Will they complain about this?

Sen. Jay Rockefeller and Rep. Nick Rahall, two of West Virginia's superdelegates backing Barack Obama, say they're sticking with him despite polls showing Hillary Clinton a heavy favorite in the state.

"I view my role as a superdelegate as one that takes the long-range view of what is in the best interest of our party and our country," Rahall said Thursday.

Rockefeller said he's sticking with his conscience.

No, I didn't think so. Any more than they complained that Teddy Kennedy and John Kerry were going against the will of the voters in their state.

Passions are so high between Hillary and Obama supporters. Let's tone it down a notch -- here's a segment of the April 30 episode of Boston Legal where the firm sued the DNC over pledged delegates. It should bring a little laughter and also have everyone asking themselves, "Am I really that bad?" The answer, of course, is yes. We all are.

And a question: Have any of you stopped talking to certain friends, family members or colleagues because you just cannot discuss the race civilly any more? I suspect it's become a fairly common phenonemon, but let us know.

And yes, this is an open thread.

After all the 50 state strategy talk from Obama supporters, Hillary Clinton is calling out Obama for slighting Kentucky:

Many speakers [at a KY event] noted the absence of Barack Obama. Terry McBrayer, a former state party chair and superdelegate, drew some boos from Obama supporters on hand when he said he contacted a local milk company to put Obama’s picture on a milk carton.

Clinton herself noted she was the only candidate to come, saying it was important "because Kentucky always picks the president." She later said, as she did in West Virginia earlier this week, that Democrats "for too long" have let states like this one "slip out of the Democratic column."

"Too many people felt our party didn’t speak to their values and concerns," she said. "Well I believe if you don’t stand for hard-working middle-class Americans you don’t stand for much. And it’s now up to the Democratic Party and our eventual nominee to make that case."

I am sure Robinson, Herbert and Company are outraged.

By Big Tent Democrat

Yesterday I wrote about Rep. Steve Cohen's offensive remarks regarding Senator Hillary Clinton. Today I received an e-mail from the Congressman indicating that he has apologized for the remarks.

Representative Cohen has been a strong progressive voice in Tennessee and it is good that he realizes his remarks were hurtful and wrong. Kudos to the Representative for his realization and acknowledgment that the remarks were inappropriate and hurtful. His e-mail to me:

I sincerely apologize for the comments I made about Senator Clinton's campaign. I have great respect for Senator Clinton as a US Senator. She has waged an historic campaign which has done much to break the glass ceiling. My comments obviously do not reflect the sentiments of Senator Obama or the Obama campaign. Nor do they reflect my opinion of Senator Clinton whom I have known for years and admire. My hope is that our party will come together to work to defeat John McCain.

Comments closed

Congratulations to Jenna Bush and Henry Hager for their nuptials today. May they find happiness together.

This is an Open Thread.