Friday’s campaign round-up

May 9, 2008

Today’s installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers:

* It’s getting tough to keep up with superdelegate developments, but Obama has picked up Rep. Peter DeFazio of Oregon and Maryland DNC member John Gage, while Chris Carney of Pennsylvania announced his support for Clinton. Most notably, Rep. Donald Payne of New Jersey switched from Clinton to Obama, giving Obama a net gain of three superdelegates for the morning.

* Estimates are all over the place, but ABC News reported, “For the first time this campaign season, Barack Obama has surpassed Hillary Clinton’s support among superdelegates.” Keep in mind: ABC is the only outlet to reach this conclusion. CBS, CNN, NBC, AP, NYT, and Politico all show Clinton’s lead shrinking quickly, but with her nevertheless still leading among superdelegates.

* House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) urged Clinton to withdraw yesterday. “Bill and Hillary Clinton can become genuine American leaders by ending this in a way that reflects positively on them,” Conyers said.

* Michigan Dems have been pushing a proposal whereby the state’s delegation would be seated, with a 69-59 split in Clinton’s favor. Yesterday, the Clinton campaign rejected the proposal.

* Now here’s an interesting milestone — for the first time ever, Hispanic Democrats in Florida outnumber Hispanic Republicans in the state. Hmm.

* Clinton still wants more debates.

* Interesting observation from Marc Ambinder: “On election day, Obama might have more than a million individuals volunteering on his behalf. That should scare the beejeesus out of the McCain campaign and the RNC.”

* Did John Edwards acknowledge on MSNBC this morning that he supports Obama? It’s been the subject of some speculation, and it seems to depend on whether he said, “I just voted for him on Tuesday,” or, “I just voted for ’em on Tuesday.”

* For all the talk about Obama struggling with white voters, Gallup released an interesting tidbit yesterday: “Barack Obama’s current level of support among white voters in a head-to-head matchup against John McCain is no worse than John Kerry’s margin of support among whites against George W. Bush in the 2004 presidential election.”

* John McCain has a new ad featuring his mother. It’s kind of odd.

* Al Sharpton wants Clinton to drop out.

* Bob Barr will announce on Monday that he’s running for president as a Libertarian.

* Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) was rumored to be eyeing Georgia’s gubernatorial race in 2010, but announced yesterday he’s going to seek re-election to the Senate.

I can’t view the TPM link, so does anyone know why the Clinton camp has rejected the Michigan proposal?

  • Of course shillary rejected the proposal from MI – after all, now that she has proclaimed herself the LAST GREAT WHITE HOPE she she cannot compromise on anything.

    As she appeals directly to the membership of the kkk and other white supremest groups, she has to declare its ALL OR NOTHING, her way or the highway.

    She is implying that the survival of the white race is stake – she is willing to throw the African American vote under the bus with the lie that only white votes matter anyhow.

    She is now running the most racist campaign since george wallace. Even the repugs are smart enough to know better than to run racist appeals that are this open and direct.

    Something is rotten in the democratic party that she is even allowed to do this – IT IS TIME TO DEMAND CHANGE.

  • Basically because it removes one plank from the “fog of nonsense” but doesn’t really help her. From the TPM article:

    This is hardly surprising, since the proposal gives Hillary a 10 delegate margin — a significant cut from the 18-delegate margin of victory she enjoyed over “uncommitted” (Obama wasn’t on the ballot) in the Michigan primary.

  • “Bill and Hillary Clinton can become genuine American leaders by ending this in a way that reflects positively on them,” Conyers said.

    They can travel backwards in time and drop out two months ago? WOW!

    I can’t view the TPM link, so does anyone know why the Clinton camp has rejected the Michigan proposal? -Wilco

    Of course she rejected it; accepting it gets rid of one of her talking points. She needs people to believe Obama is disfranchising Florida and Michigan.

  • Re the report of one million volunteers: I would suggest it represents one very big community. Obama’s record as a community organizer have certainly paid off. It’s grass roots at its most powerful and believable strengths.

  • OK, let me rephrase my question.
    Does anyone know the reason the Clinton camp gave (if they gave one) for rejecting the MI proposal?
    Otherwise, as far as conjecture goes, I’d say everyone’s response is pretty likely.
    I’m just curious if Billary gave any justification.

  • The McCain ad is very, very odd. It reminds me of the old Maurice Chevalier song:

    We met at nine (We met at eight)
    I was on time (No, you were late)
    Ah yes, I remember it well.

    This ad will certainly help put to rest any questions about McCain’s fitness due to age. 🙂

  • My favorite ad of the season is the “McCain is older than…” ad
    Very funny.

  • I just looked at the Edwards clip and I’m pretty sure he said ‘I voted for ’em on Tuesday”. Being a native North Carolinian, this a common use of the neutral plural pronoun. I get people confused all the time by saying things similar to this — when I was on a TV game show, I was told that I sounded like John Edwards — which I take as a huge compliment!

    FWIW, I think he’ll support Obama. I think it was abundantly clear on the SC debate that he was aligning himself more with Obama than HRC.

  • The Clinton campaign is becoming as much a parody of itself as the Insane Fake Professor. Only one name was on the ballot, yet she says “This proposal does not honor the 600,000 votes that were cast in Michigan’s January primary. Those votes must be counted.”

    Remember when the USSR had “elections” with only one name on the ballot?

  • Clinton is getting dangerously close to acting like one of those annoying little dogs that nip at people’s ankles for no apparent reason.

    Oops, too late…..

  • OkieFromMuskogee, excellent point – but remember, if shillary wins, there is actually online “one name” on the ballot for the general election too – let me explain:

    mclame=bush

    shillary=mclame (but now with an extreme racist twist, proclaiming herself to be the white candidate)

    therefore: shillary=bush

    We essentially have a choice of tweedle dee and tweedle dum – either candidate representing more of the same.

    Your point is well-taken, if shillary manages to steal the nominee, we will actually have 1 choice in the fall, so should be no surprise she wants a 1-choice ballot to decide the nominee now.

  • Wilco, The Clinton response was, “This proposal does not honor the 600,000 votes that were cast in Michigan’s January primary. These votes must be counted.” I’m afraid that’s all it says.

  • * Michigan Dems have been pushing a proposal whereby the state’s delegation would be seated, with a 69-59 split in Clinton’s favor. Yesterday, the Clinton campaign rejected the proposal.

    Eventually the Michigan and Florida delegations will be seated. But unless there is some penalty, we’ll be going through this nonsense again in four years.

    My suggestion: Take every Democrat in Florida and Michigan who voted to move their primaries ahead of what was permitted under party rules and strip them of their status as superdelegates. Punish the people who caused this mess.

  • What’s up with W. Virginia? I’ve heard from a few sources recently that polls there show Hillary ahead by 30-40 points. I guess that might have made sense a few weeks ago, when “God damn America” was all we heard on the news, but with the momentum building toward Obama’s nomination, is that kind of a victory still in the cards for her in WV? And how big a turnout do they expect as the competition becomes more pro forma? Anyone got some insights?

  • Wow.

    That Johnny McCain’s mommy ad just wreaks of desperation.

    What’s with the alcoholism meme? Was that “choice” material somehow?
    Was it the two minutes they put together where both of them appear the most lucid?

    I got 5 bucks to chip in for anyone who gets their hands on the raw footage

  • Wilco, If they had given the “uncommitted” votes to Obama, Clinton would have had a net 18 increase. The compromise proposed by the Michigan state party exec. committee would reduce that advantage to 10. Would she accept that? I don’t know. I think she has already rejected a revote. I don’t believe she has actually made a case for what she thinks is “fair”.

  • I live in Michigan. I thought the 69-59 proposal was quite generous to Clinton, but I was fine with resolving the issue and moving on.

    I think Clinton’s rejection of this generous offer is a significant gaffe. So I’ve changed my mind. I am fully supportive of not seating *any* delegates now, especially the Democratic superdelegate boobs who got us into this mess – Levin, Granholm, etc. And furthermore, I’m not voting for them in the future.

  • Obvious to all ‘serious people’, but not to you Obamabots:

    The only fair thing relating to Michigan is for Hillary to get all of the delegates from Michigan. If Obama was a serious candidate, he would have kept his name on the ballot.

    The only fair thing relating to the nomination is for Obama to compromise with Hillary by acknowledging her inherited right to the unitary presidency and resign from the nomination process.

    Serious people realize that our corporate masters are not going to allow a politician who is not a wholely owned subsidiary to get the presidency. Therefore, the democrats should put Hillary on the ballot so we can have a choice of a Corporately owned Democrat or a Corporately owned Republican.

  • Jim Strain (18): I’ve lived in WV for 11 years. It has a very rural population. The median age is one of the highest in the nation. While it is a mostly Democratic state in terms of registration, my impression is that a lot of that is because of respect for ancestors. People here do tend to be for progressive labor and sometimes environmental laws, but that’s about the only intersection with the national party. Our Governor (Manchin) is touting Hillary specifically because of the gas tax holiday (Seriously).

    As for turnout, this is the first year that Independents can request a Dem ballot, so that might be a factor. Also I went to a few county meetings in the last couple months. Attendance was higher than in past years, but then I live in an area where there are a lot of retirees who moved here from the DC area. When we had our convention to choose delegates to go to Charleston, it pretty much came down to anyone who was willing to pay for their gas and lodging. I suspect overall, voting will be higher than usual, but not like previous states. In fact, don’t be surprised if it ends up closer than polls show. Obama supporters are organized and energized. Clinton also has staunch supporters, but I suspect most of the “low information” voters will just stay home unless they have a friend running for school board. There really are no other high profile races here. In fact the #2 race will probably be for state Supreme Court, since there is a real slimeball that a lot of people would like to get rid of (Spike Maynard).

  • Go Bob Barr!!!

    I whole heartedly support Bob Barr as the Libertarian candidate. Among the values that I agree with him are that the Bush administration has been destructive of the Constitution.

    Beside that, I know a lot of Republicans who will never vote for a Democrat, yet know that McCain is crazy. This will give them someone that they can feel good about voting for in place of their instinctive republican vote.

  • For disaffected Clinton supporters:

    There is now forming a new grassroots political action group. SWW FOR McCAIN! Their motto is “He’s one of us!”.

    SWW stands for Stupid White Warmongers, which makes the motto accurate.

    Reasons for Clinton supporters to vote for McCain:

    – The Economy. Historically, war has been credited with bringing the country out of recessions and depressions. Maybe it will work again.

    – Health care. McSame’s health care plans calls for a free market approach stressing individual responsibility. By eliminating business sponsored health care and replacing it with individually negotiated plans, everyone who deserves health care can get it. Of course, Hillary & I & the other rich people know that education & health care are deserved only by those who can afford it.

    – Retirement Security. Moving to free market individual responsibility for retirement is a wonderful idea. Look at how well off people would be now if we had only done this 6 years ago!

    – Supreme Court Justices. McCain has earned the right to the 2 or 3 likely Supreme Court nominees that will come up in the next president’s term. Clinton supporters are surely in agreement with McCain that Alito & Scalia & Thomas are the models to use to pick the next justices.

    – Whiteness. He may be a pasty white, but McAint is not black.

  • Re: #11, there were actually other names on the Michigan ballot – Gravel, and I think Richardson (who had already dropped out by the day of the primary) and maybe Dodd?

    But not Obama, and if you wrote in a vote for him it got thrown out.

    I’ve said this a few times already, but: if Hillary was so concerned about the will of the Michigan voters not being heard, the time to express that concern was last fall when the state Democratic party was making its decision about when to hold the primary. She didn’t. The whole Michigan thing is transparently self-serving (Florida too).

  • The only self xerving here is Obama, his lies about denouncing his mentor varmit racist, anti-american for twenty years is a big fat lie.. He denounces the biggot and everyone believes him..If it were true the varmit biggot Wright woule have come out slamming..he didn’t ..This is just a big phony deal..Wright will sell more books and obama has duked the idiots that believe him…
    Go Hillary! go..We do not want you to quite!! You are the best candidate!

    A vote for Obama is a vote for a biggot, radical racist andti-American supporter!
    never would I vote for this man…never!!

  • Another self serving varmit, racist Sharpton.. He marches for money…He takes advantage of people and makes them feel they have been wronged. They sue he gets a percentage and the American People get stuck with bigger taxes because of Sharptons self serving advantages….
    God help us all with all these low down little men..Wright, Farrakhan, Sharpton
    Racists self serving varmits… and Obama there he is supporting all of them but
    Oh no, he denounces the worse…but Obama says..”Thank God the God’D”Americans that fall for this ha ha ah… “there’s is a fool born every
    min and so far they are in the millions for me”

  • I am so glad that Bob Barr will be running as a Libertarian. We really need a solid alternative to Obama and McCain.

  • Clinton??? If she is the candidte the questions of White Water and her connection to Vince Foster and what happened to him will come up. She lies too much and for no reasonie Bosnia she is against NAFTA when Bill clinton was president she was out speking in sport of NAFTA. Ask you local TV stations to run the clips. They have them

  • Clinton??? If she is the candidte the questions of White Water and her connection to Vince Foster and what happened to him will come up. She lies too much and for no reason ie; Bosnia she is against NAFTA when Bill clinton was president she was out speaking in support of NAFTA, ask your local TV stations to run those clips. If your local TV stations don’t have the clips CNN does.

  • Voteresponsibly08: You hit the nail on the head about Obama…. here is a man that has NO specific plans or goals…. just political rhetoric and the American people are eating it up like everything else put in front of them. Take out skin color and sex out of the equation and realistically, what do you get? Do Obama supporters REALLY believe that he is going to be elected and there is going to be a huge change? CHANGE to WHAT? Waffling, indecisiveness, support for radical religious leaders? Look at the man’s record… when did he ever really make a change in anything in the past…. in fact he is only a follower, a sheep that has a history of following anti-american bullshit. Best of luck to you Americans, again you are putting the worst candidate in the white house. You have a much better candidate, with the experience and knowledge to actually get things done and CHANGED, but no, we want to follow rhetoric…. AGAIN…. Stupid is as stupid does.

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