I spent the day in Gary and Merrillville, Indiana with the Obama campaign drive voters the polls. Afterwards, the campaign held a BBQ for volunteers and early voters. I noticed a few things from my time on the ground there:
No one is absolutely confident Barack Obama will win Indiana. Indiana is extremely conservative, they warn, and they fear that Republican crossover voting will occur, and at the very least, secure Clinton a few extra points.
Northwest Indiana is as important to Obama in Indiana as St. Louis was in Missouri. To win the state, he needs to drive the numbers up here. I was in St. Louis right before Super Tuesday, and the city was crawling with Obama volunteers. But Chicagoans are NOT out in full force here like they were in Wisconsin, Iowa, and Missouri. So if you're in Chicago, please volunteer next weekend for what could very well be the final push.
This didn't get much play in the press, and Keith Olbermann dismissed it, but I found the statement to be very clever--too clever by half. Listen to the video as well as the quote, because half of the code is in her facial expressions and voice inflection.
"It's important for you to know the facts. You can vote for or against any candidate, based on anything. And we do that in America. You know, you don't like somebody's--oh, say hair style. It's whatever you chose! But this is too important an election, and we have to know exactly where people stand. Not what somebody says, but what they've done. . . . .That's why I want you to approach this like a hiring decision."
The mayor of Hammond, Indiana, has complained to the Northwest Indiana Times about the local practice of bussing students to polling places. Field trips have been organized to encourage civic participation, but the Mayor believes the practice benefits Obama.
Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr., a supporter of Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton denounced it Wednesday as a shameless political power play.
"To me it seems like an orchestrated effort on behalf of the Obama campaign to take kids who should be in school learning to read and write, instead giving them a day off and telling them to vote for Obama.
"When you corral kids together and ship them to polling places, it's completely unethical." McDermott said.
The mayor does not appear to have been bothered by this practice in the past.
Washington said Lew Wallace students have been bused to Crown Point to vote for three years now.
The sign in front of a small church in a small town is causing a big controversy in Jonesville, S.C.
Pastor Roger Byrd said that he just wanted to get people thinking. So last Thursday, he put a new message on the sign at the Jonesville Church of God.
It reads: "Obama, Osama, hmm, are they brothers?"
The pastor took the sign to his congregation who unanimously approved it, Fox news has reported.
UPDATE II: Push-back works, folks. Thanks. Ken Bell of the Central Church:
We, too, deeply regret such a disgraceful display. . . As soon as we found out about it, the pastor was instructed to take it down immediately. Unfortunately, the hurt had already been done.
It's really becoming the campaign of desperation....in the last hour, Clinton's campaign has pulled out all the stops. First there was a memo outlining the red-baiting campaign Republicans might run against Obama (while failing to highlight Hillary's unusual vulnerabilities in this area).
Now her campaign has released an ad that claims Obama prefers to attack Clinton than answering the "more and more questions" raised about himself. This is, of course, straight-up Karl Rove bullshit. She attacks him personally with guilt-by-association smears that don't pass any reasonable smell test and then accuses him of attacking her when he responds with an issue-oriented ad.
So I thought it would be fun to list a few potential questions that Stephanopoulos and Gibson could pose to the illustrious Senator from Arizona.
Questions for John McCain at ABC Debate:
Senator McCain, do you think the American people will have trouble trusting someone who left his wife for a much younger woman after she was disabled in a horrific car wreck?
Senator McCain, do you think the American people are ready to have a First Lady who pilfered addictive prescription drugs from a charitable organization?
Senator McCain, do you think the American people are willing to have a president who uses racial slurs like "gooks"?
Senator McCain, isn't it true you called your wife a "trollop" and a "cunt"?
I have been in meetings with the Clintons and their advisors where very cynical things were said in a very-detached tone about unwillingness of working class voters to trust government -- and Bill Clinton -- and about their unfortunate (from a Clinton perspective) proclivity to vote on life-style rather than economic issues. To see Hillary going absolutely over the top to smash Obama for making clearly more humanly sympathetic observations in this vein, is just amazing. Even more so to see her pretending to be a gun-toting non-elite. Give us a break!
So I wasn't going to post a story on this, but considering the latest attempt to drive deep wedges between so-called "beer track" and "wine track" Democrats, I thought I'd chime in with this story.
I live with my boyfriend in a small apartment near a well-known, elite university, where we both are both students. Sure, we have multiple Macintosh products strewn about our living room amongst scores of empty wine bottles, but we've built this liberal elite paradise with student loans and summer jobs.
Now, our faucet has been leaking for weeks. It started out as a slow drip (sometime after Wisconsin, heh) and has slowly gotten worse. Each week more dripping--more water slipping down the drain every day. The incessant drip-drip-drip finally drove me nuts last week so I decided to call a plumber.
We had been making jokes about plumbing all week, naturally, and were actually surprised when a young, athletic, tall, Polish man showed up....
"I thought the controversy over Rev. Wright was remarkable," Cheney said. “I thought some of the things he said were absolutely appalling. And, you know, I haven't gotten into the business of trying to judge how Sen. Obama dealt with it, or didn't deal with it, but I really, I think -- like most Americans -- I was stunned at what the Reverend was preaching in his church and then putting up on his website.’"
Kind of....Queerty.com posted this video of the new Gov. Paterson proclaiming what seems to be serious dedication to passing gay marriage:
We will push on an bring full marriage equality in New York State. And when we have done that, we’re going to do more.
We’re going to protect young people from bullies. We’re going to protect against the discrimination of people in the transgender community, and we’re going to fight for decent and affordable healthcare for all citizens in this state.
If you will join with me, and if we work hard enough, we can change the face of New York, which will be the catalyst to changing national policy.
But you have to watch the video to get the humor....this guy is great.
It's been a terrible disappointment to see Talking Points Memo decline into Drudge Report coverage in this campaign cycle, but the latest post on TPM's Election Central has done just that.
So not much of a diary, but Al Giordano at the Field has a thread up asking readers to make the case for their candidate to a super-delegate, Debra Kozikowsk, who will be reading the responses.
Please go respond to this post with your own story--(and of course keep it civil and polite).
So, there's been a lot of talk about the race being "super close", since Obama only leads Clinton by 124 delegates. I've read countless comments in online forums where Clinton supporters proclaim that Hillary is only 2% behind and that the race is wide-open. Well, it's not--for two reasons.
First, super-delegates are included in that tally, and they're not going to nominate the loser, as nearly every party leader has stated.
Second, since the race is almost over and there aren't that many delegates outstanding, the lead is considerably more daunting than it would have been a month ago when there were many more delegates up for grabs. If you're 100 delegates behind with 90 percent of the vote remaining you're not as disadvantaged as if you're 100 delegates behind with 5 percent of the vote remaining. The following graph illustrates the exponential increase in the margin of victory needed to overcome a lead as the amount of votes outstanding decreases.
Of all the Indians encountered by Europeans in their conquest of North America, California Indians were the most gentle, most accepting, and most open to creating a peaceful relationship between native and settler. But the submissiveness and complaisance of these gentle tribes did not spare them from the tidal wave of immigration spurred by the Gold Rush of 1848. When tens of thousands of Europeans flooded into California in a few short years, tensions between Native Americans and settlers came to a head. One of the saddest stories to come out of this conflict is the tale of Kintpuash, or Captain Jack, the leader of the Modoc tribe. Jack was a fearless leader whose loyalty to his people was not shaken by their ridicule, or their hatred. . . .
"'For I know the plans I have for you', says the Lord. 'Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to bring you hope and a future." -- Jeremiah 29:11
The media will be playing the clips of Rev. Wright in the days ahead in an effort to portray Barack Obama as an unpatriotic, perhaps black separatist, loon. The bigger picture here is how quickly we all revile this man's rhetoric. But ask yourself, is it really so wrong to point out the injustices of this country? Has the neoconservative agenda hijacked our national dialogue to the point that anyone who does not give praise the United States while turning a blind-eye to the injustices it has perpetuated, home and abroad, is branded a radical, even here at Daily Kos?
Jeremiah Wright, the former pastor of Barack Obama's Church, Trinity UCC on the South Side of Chicago recently spoke about Hillary and Barack Obama. The video is now all over the web and Fox news and, well, it's not good coverage, to say the least.
This may be the kind of story that will turn off the swing voters Barack will need to win in November...
UPDATE: I was wrong. Politico is reporting that he is on the African-American Advisory Committee. So that's an affiliation that will come up to cause a stink, no doubt. Fair warning, folks.
