VOTE TODAY

Please vote in the gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey TODAY.  These are two very important races that the pundits will use to grade President Obama.  In addition, we have two very conservative Republicans running in opposition and Creigh (Cree) Deeds in Virginia and Jon Corzine in New Jersey NEED your help and YOUR vote.  The Virginia polls are open from 6am to 7pm Eastern Standard Time.  The polls in New Jersey are open from 6am to 8pm Eastern Standard Time.

If you have any issues voting in Virginia or need to locate your polling place click here or call 866 OUR-VOTE

If you have any issues voting in New Jersey or need to locate your polling place click here or call 800 792-VOTE(8683)

Please don’t forget to vote in Virginia today.  The polls are open from 6am - 7pm and you may vote at any time during those hours.  Everyone who is registered to Vote in Virginia can vote in the Virginia primary today.

Please see this prior post on on the differences in the three candidates.

Check for your polling place here

The Credit Card Bill of Rights bill is up for vote today by the Senate.  This bill will, among many other things, prevent credit card companies from increasing interest rates four-fold without notice or justification.  Here are a few things to think about while you’re calling your Senator.

- People who have ALWAYS paid their credit card debt 100% on-time are now seeing
 their standard interest rates raised from 7.5% (avg) to 27% or more.

- Even debit cards, which have always been billed as “same as cash”, are seeing new fees added on by banks and card companies. 

- The average credit card debt for American households is $10,000.00.

- 80,000 new credit cards were solicited last year, many to students and people  
 without ongoing employment security.

Call your Senator and tell him to vote for this bill.

UPDATE:  The bill is on its way back to the House and should be signed into law by the end of the week depending on the President’s schedule.  Woohoo!  The bill gives credit card companies nine months to comply with the new rules.  Such companies will be required to post all agreements online and allow consumers to make payments via phone or Internet free of charge.  In addition, lenders must provide consumers with a 45-day notice and an explanation before increasing interest rates.  Good job everyone for reaching out to your Senators……90-5 WOW!!!!

For those of you who didn’t notice, the Electoral College met yesterday and cast their official votes for Barack Obama to be the 44th President of the United States.   Yes folks, 538 electors from all fifty states formally cast their votes yesterday to legally elect Barack Obama the next President of the United States.  A total of 131 million people cast their vote on November 4th, 2008 to make it the best turnout in a presidential election in this nation’s history.  On that night, Barack Obama won 365 electoral votes to John McCain’s 173.   Yesterday, all the electors cast their votes in accordance to the popular vote of their state.  Congress will tally the outcome of the Electoral College votes during a joint session scheduled to take place on Jan 6th.  See some of the human stories surrounding this historic event below.

 Tim Kaine, Virginia:

“This temple of Democracy shines very brightly today,” Kaine told a standing-room-only crowd attending what had always been a sparsely attended afterthought.

Virginia’s presidential electors have cast their 13 votes for Barack Obama as the nation’s first black president in what was the seat of Confederate power. Gov. Tim Kaine, a Democrat and close ally of Obama, noted the poignant and historic moment of Monday’s vote at the Capitol in Richmond.

Not only was the Capitol the venue for the Confederate Congress, it was where legislators plotted in the 1950s to thwart Supreme Court orders to desegregate Virginia’s public schools.

But it was also the site in 1990 of the inauguration of Doug Wilder, a grandson of slaves, as the nation’s first elected black governor.

Another story from Virginia:

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — As 13 electors cast ballots Monday for the nation’s first black president in the Confederacy’s old Capitol, Henry Marsh emotionally recalled the smartest man he ever knew — a waiter, who couldn’t get a better job because of his race.
“He waited tables for 30 years, six days a week, 12 hours a day, from 12 noon to 12 midnight, and he supported his family,” Marsh, 75, a civil rights lawyer and state senator, said of his father as he fought back tears. “He suffered a lot. He went through a lot.”

In Florida,

state Sen. Frederica Wilson, 66, never thought she would see a black man elected president.

“White water fountains, colored water fountains. You couldn’t sit at the lunch counter, go to the bank or get a hamburger,” Wilson said after signing a document certifying that Obama got all 27 of her state’s electors.

“The pain will always be there, but I think there’s a realization that people have evolved,” she said.

In North Carolina,

61-year-old Janice Cole said Monday’s event was a joyous marker for black people to put old Dixie’s trouble past behind them.

“Sen. Obama reminds us that only in America could this story be possible,” Cole said.

In Maine,

In Augusta, Maine the moment was freighted with emotion for Jill Duson, the first black mayor of Portland and chairwoman of Maine’s four electors.

“Every time I think of it, I get a little misty eyed,” Duson said. “I am undone by the election of Barack Obama and what it says to me as a black American, and his victory in the whitest state.”

 Pennsylvania, Governor Rendell:

“In Pennsylvania, American democracy is in great shape,” Governor Rendell said. “Ninety-percent of eligible voters are registered and 68-percent of them cast a ballot in this election. That is one of the highest turn-outs of voters in Pennsylvania history.
“As you cast your vote for president, do so with hope, optimism and faith that we can set this country on course to revitalization that this country has not seen in decades and decades.”

As a pro football legend, Franco Harris signs his autograph countless thousands of times. But the signature he made as one of 21 Pennsylvania electors for Obama was the one the Pittsburgh Steelers great running back won’t ever forget.

“That was special,” the Pro Football Hall of Famer said. “This was the most valuable thing I’ve ever signed my name to.”

 Maryland

One of Maryland’s electors, former Rep. Michael Barnes, said he and his wife cried on Election Night last month when Obama delivered his victory speech in Chicago’s Grant Park.

“When I grew up in Montgomery County, what we are doing here today was unthinkable,” Barnes said. “Barack Obama, where I grew up in the 1960s, would not have been allowed in a movie theater in Montgomery County, Maryland, or in a bowling alley in Montgomery County, Maryland. There was not a decent restaurant where blacks and whites could dine together.

“So this was unthinkable. This was inconceivable.”

Another elector, Nathaniel Exum, who was active in the civil rights movement, said, “To go from King to Obama, it’s a wonderful feeling.” 
 

Connecticut

“I never thought this day would happen. The election is one thing, but it’s really official when they seal those ballots with wax and send them off,” said 81-year-old retired dentist Sedrick Rawlins.

Rawlins, of Manchester, said he had traveled to Selma, Ala., in 1965 to help Martin Luther King Jr. in a voting-rights movement for black Americans. He wept when Obama won the election in November and, on Monday, couldn’t stop smiling as Connecticut’s Democratic electors unanimously picked the Illinois Democrat for president.

“The election is one thing, but it’s really official when they seal those ballots with wax and send them off,” Rawlins said.

Progress.

until the first polls open.  We get one chance, one opportunity, one moment, to make history by ensuring that Sen. Barack Obama is elected President of the United States of America.  We are prepared and have done all the ground work, now we have to deliver.  The Get Out The Vote element of this campaign is the most important.   Yesterday we had 13,000 people on the streets of Virginia.  They  knocked on 500,000 doors.  All the other battleground states need to step up to keep up.  Send me information on the ground game in your state. How can you help….what can you do…..phonebank?  Canvass for Obama in the battleground  state of Virginia and turn Virginia blue for the first time in 44 years!  Help at least five people  get to the polls on Election Day.  Lend your skills as an attorney to Obama’s voter protection program.  Donate to this built from the ground up campaign.  This is the last stretch, do not take anything for granted, ignore the polls, help get out the vote.  Volunteer at your local Campaign For Change  office and help to Get Out The Vote today and tomorrow.   This is our time, this is our moment,  DO YOUR PART to make this happen.  www.Barack.Obama.com

Sen.  Barack Obama is pro-choice.  Sen. John McCain is pro-life.  Sen. McCain would like to abolish Roe v. Wade and a woman’s right to choose.  Sen. Obama would like to uphold Roe v. Wade and a woman’s right to choose.  This is important because whomever walks into the White House in January 2009 will most likely be responsible for choosing two new Supreme Court Justices who will decide whether to uphold or overturn Roe v. Wade.

The right-wing pundits are going on and on about a vote Sen. Obama made as a state senator.  Lets revisit the Illinois Born Alive Infant Protection Act shall we.  It is a piece of legislation that was introduced by an Illinois GOP state senator in 2003 when Sen. Obama was a state senator.  The legislation required hospitals to provide a fetus that survived an unsuccessful abortion with medical care.  Sen. Obama voted against the bill.  Sen. Obama and other democrats and opponents believed the bill to be a thinly veiled attempt by Illinois senate Republicans to undermine Roe v. Wade by interfering with a woman’s right to choose. Legally speaking, if a woman chooses to have an abortion as authorized by Roe v. Wade and a hospital is then required to provide medical care to the non-viable fetus if the abortion is not completely successful, doesn’t that defeat the woman’s choice to have an abortion in the first place?  Illinois abortion opponents tried repeatedly to pass laws that define a fetus (viable or non-viable) surviving an abortion as a person with full rights thereby requiring a second doctor to be present to provide medical care and creating a right to sue on behalf of the infant.  There are real and complicated legal questions that such a bill would pose to Roe v. Wade.  At the time there was already an existing Illinois law that insured life-saving treatment would be given to infants.  However, sponsors of the BAIPA said that the law did not go far enough.  This is a ploy used by Illinois abortion opponents to implement their ultimate agenda of overturning Roe v. Wade.  In 2002, a similar federal Born Alive bill was passed and signed into law by Pres. Bush.  Sen. Obama said that he would have supported the federal bill. Why?  Because the federal bill did not encroach on the rights granted by Roe v. Wade as there is no federal abortion law. Therefore, the state concerns regarding a woman’s right to choose do not exist at the federal level.  In 2005, a Born Alive bill was signed into law by the Illinois Senate but the bill specifically provides that it does not affect any existing federal or state laws regarding abortion. That means that it does not encroach upon any of the rights granted under Roe v. Wade. Obama said he would have supported the 2005 version of the Illinois Born Alive bill. This is a nuanced argument that only lawyers have the time to appreciate. But it is a legitimate legal point and the fact that the bill only passed after the Roe v. Wade exclusion was added lends substantial credibility to Obama’s argument. These are the facts, regardless of how a certain nurse who writes a weekly column for a right wing website describes her experience testifying in front of a state senator Obama.

Tuesday night, August 26th, has been deemed Hillary night at the Democratic National Convention.  Sen. Clinton will give her speech on what will  be the 88th anniversary of women’s right to vote.  The Senator will be joined on stage by several other female democratic senators.   Sources close to Clinton also say that there is little chance that she will be chosen as Sen. Obama’s running mate.  Many also speculate that because the vice presidential pick usually speaks on the Wednesday of Convention week, the fact that Clinton is speaking on Tuesday confirms that she is out of the running.  However, the New York senator is in serious talks with the Obama campaign about hitting the campaign trail in the next couple of weeks.

Yes, the long awaited day has arrived.  After six months of fighting, kicking, scratching, and clawing between the Clinton and Obama campaigns, the last two states of Montana and South Dakota will vote.  The polling hours in Montana are 7am – 8pm.  In South Dakota the polling hours are 7am – 7pm.  For those on the East Coast the final poll in Montana will close at 10pm EST and 9pm EST in South Dakota.  In South Dakota voters must present photo identification in order to vote.  In Montana, voters must present identification that may be photo but also can be non-photo identification such as a current utility bill, bank statement, paycheck, voter registration confirmation notice, government check, or other government document that shows your name and current address. 

Many questions will be answered tonight   There is mounting evidence that Sen. Hillary Clinton will end her campaign tonight.  Exhibits A-H.  a) Bill Clinton said yesterday, “this may be the last day I am ever involved in a campaign like this. ”   b) Sen. Clinton summoned all of her top supporters and donors to New York for her Tuesday night speech.  c) Clinton campaign spokesperson said “it started in New York and it will end in New York.”  d) Clinton instructed staff members to turn in all of their outstanding expense reports.  e) being reported that Clinton has begun post-campaign bargaining with Obama.  g) Blank schedule after Tuesday.  h) Clinton gave her advance staff  two options for tonight, they can either told use their ticket to fly to New York for her speech and party afterwards or they can fly home and await further instructions.  If members of the advance staff choose to fly to New York they will be financially responsible for their own flight home.   There are 34 House members prepared to endorse Barack Obama.  Obama is expected to claim victory of the primary process tonight in his speech in St. Paul Minnesota.  It has been an excruciatingly long and hard fought race for the candidates and for the American people and now both candidates are about to cross the finish line.  Every voter will have had their opportunity to vote and we, hopefully, will have our presumptive democratic nominee.  Obama is favored to win both South Dakota and Montana.  Obama is now 37 delegates away from claiming the nomination.  Clinton needs 198 delegates to claim victory.   The Obama campaign hopes to roll out superdelegates in groups today so that he has enough to claim victory tonight.  It is being reported that the Clinton campaign is asking superdelegates not to do it tonight but tomorrow instead.  That would not be a good idea in this writers opinion considering that the Obama campaign is holding its last rally in the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota , the site of the Republican national convention and were John McCain will accept the Republican nomination.  If the superdelegates do not come out for Obama today it could end up being a potential embarassment for the presumptive democratic nominee.  This is not about the Clintons or the Obamas at this point.   This is about starting the general election off on the right foot.  Superdelegates must make their decision known today so as not to give the impression that the Clintons are still running the show or worst yet giving the appearance that they are not quite ready to rally behind Obama.  The primary process is over, its time to take a stand.  If the plan is to win in November, the Democratic Party cannot afford any missteps.

Hillary Clinton wins Puerto Rico!  Sen. Obama called Sen. Clinton to congratulate her on her win.  Unfortunately for Sen. Clinton, the turnout on the island was not enough to give her what she was hoping for in terms of a lead in the popular vote count.  The turnout was a disappointing 50% below what it has been in previous elections reaching a mere 384,000 of the 3 million registered voters.  The 55 delegates at stake will be divided proportionally.  Puerto Rico cannot vote in the general election therefore the primary does not speak to either candidates electability in November.  The Clinton family made a total of four visits to Puerto Rico in their vigorous effort to boost her popular vote count.  Sen. Clinton is expected to use the popular vote count to argue to superdelegates that she is the more electable candidate.  Also, Clinton’s claim of a higher popular vote count does not include caucus states, Guam, or the Virgin Islands.  States and territories won by Sen. Obama.  Clinton math….you gotta love it.  To clinch the nomination, the victorious candidate must win 2118 delegates by the end of the primary contest.  The previous 2025 number was increased yesterday to 2118 after the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee voted to include half of the Florida and Michigan delegations at the conclusion of their meeting on Saturday.  Thereby increasing the number of delegates to the 2118 number required to reach a majority because of the newly seated Michigan and Florida delegations.  The previous 2025 number did not include the Michigan and Florida delegations because both states delegates were stripped when both states moved up their primaries in violation of DNC rules.  The DNC RBC sat Florida as the voters voted in the Sunshine state giving Clinton 56 delegates to Obama’s 36.  From Michigan, Clinton received 38 delegates and Obama received 31 with Obama receiving the uncommitted votes in Michigan plus an additional four delegates to reach a total of 31 overall.   Including today’s results out of Puerto Rico as they stand now with 29% of the vote in, Obama has 2071.5 needing only 46.5 more delegates to clinch the required 2118 victory number.  Clinton has 1911, needing 207 more delegates to clinch the nomination.  There are a total of 204 undeclared superdelegates remaining.  After the results from South Dakota and Montana, Obama will need a mere 20-25, contingent upon the Montana and South Dakota margins of victory, of the undeclared superdelegates to win the nomination.  Clinton needs 195 of the remaining undeclared superdelegates to win the nomination.  On Tuesday, South Dakota and Montana go to the polls.  It is expected that the Obama campaign, in the next 48 hours, will roll out the additional 30 superdelegates it needs to clinch the nomination.  The Obama campaign is encouraging superdelegates to publicly declare before the Montana and South Dakota primaries so that it can declare an official victory soon after the polls close in these last two states.    

Today West Virginia holds its democratic presidential primary.  Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama take their contest to the Appalachian state.  There are 28 delegates at stake in West Virginia and Sen. Hillary Clinton is expected to win the state by at least 30 percentage points. 

The polls are open from 6:30am to 7:30pm.  Voter Hotline:  1-866-SOS-VOTE (1-866-767-8683)

Voters may enter their precinct any time duing those hours to cast their vote.  Independents may vote in the democratic primary simply request a democratic ballot.  Here are a few more tips to help with the process.

1. Bring identification if you did not submit proof of your residency when you actually registered to vote or if this is your first time voting.  Just to be on the safe side bring ID.  Acceptable forms of identification are drivers license, pay stubs, bank statements, utility bills, or other government issued documents.
2. Be prepared to sign your name in the poll book as proof of your identity.
3. Vote via “touch screen device” or paper ballot.  If you are using a paper ballot,  make sure to mark your ballot in ink.  After completing your ballot, return the ballot with secrecy envelope, poll slip, and other material to the poll worker at which time it will be placed in the ballot box.
4. Voters may receive assistance if they have a disability, are elderly, or possess an inability to read or write.
5. Curbside voting is available from an automobile outside your precinct in the presence of an election commissioner from each political party if: 1) the polling place is not handicap accessible, and 2) no voters are voting or waiting to vote inside the polling place.
6. Provisional Ballots.  You may be required to vote provisionally if:
   1. Your name is not in the poll book
   2. Your signature does not match the signature in teh poll book
   3. It is noted in the poll book that you already voted during the early absentee voting period
   4. You received assisatnce while voting, and it appeared to teh poll worker that you did not require such assistance.

The Obama campaign sent a message to all its surrogates and supporters not to beat up on Hillary Clinton and to allow her time to bow out of the presidential race gracefully and in her own time.  From the top down, the Obama Campaign sent word that it did not want its surrogates to pressure Clinton into a decision before she is ready.  So in repayment for this gesture, Clinton went out on the campaign trail and started the race-baiting once again.  Clinton said in an interview with USA Today:

“I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on,” she said in an interview with USA TODAY. As evidence, Clinton cited an Associated Press article “that found how Sen. Obama’s support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me.” ……”There’s a pattern emerging here,” she said…….”These are the people you have to win if you’re a Democrat in sufficient numbers to actually win the election. Everybody knows that.”

So now Hillary Clinton is openly and unabashedly playing the race card in her last desperate attempt to exploit instead of heal the racial divisiveness that has plagued our country for generations.  Why?  For political gain.    So much for her speech in Indiana emphasizing party unity.  This writer really believed that Clinton had turned a corner on Tuesday night when she for the first time in at least 13 Obama wins, actually acknowledged and congratulated the Illinois Senator for his win in North Carolina.  I guess that was just a weak moment on her part.  Instead Clinton seems to have initiated a new strategy which appears to be to shift the narrative to Obama can’t win “white” voters.  Well just to point out the obvious, democrats usually lose the white vote in the general election.  And, it is actually the black vote that enabled Bill Clinton to become President in 1992 and 1996.  As to this new strategy, it didn’t work when Sen. Clinton referred to such voters as “working class voters” or “blue-collar workers” and it will not work when she just comes outright and says ”white voters.”  At this point, Clinton is only damaging herself with this last ditch effort to polarize the electorate with such racially based undertones.  Working class voters do not want to be branded  as a group that will not vote for the black guy.  Just like men do not want to be branded as men who will not vote for the woman.  We all have higher aspirations of unification and healing.  Just like Rev. Wright is stuck in the 1960′s, Sen. Clinton may be stuck there also if she really believes that such tactics will help her gain votes.  

Clinton seems to be touting the idea that racial divisiveness makes her more electable than Obama in a contest with John McCain.  One problem with her theory, if Clinton were to miraculously win the nomination, she will not have an African-American as her opponent in the general election.  Hence, no racial divide.  It will be a white woman against a white man.  More importantly, it will be Hillary Clinton, with all the Bill baggage, against “maverick” John McCain.  Hmmm, I wonder which way those working class voters will go.  That is the problem when your winning strategy is heavily dependent upon voters voting against the opposing candidate instead of voting for you.  Such voters tend to be disloyal and transient when the object of their distaste is removed from the equation.  The other important point to be made is that Clinton’s statement is not true.  In fact, Clinton has slandered “working class Americans.”  The real truth of the matter is that Obama has increased his support among working class Americans from Ohio through to Indiana.  For voters earning less than 50k annually, Obama increased his support from 42% in Ohio to 50% in Indiana.  For voters with no college education, Obama increased his support from 40% in Ohio to 46% in Indiana.  The percentage of white Americans in Ohio and Indiana is 82.9% and 83.9% respectively.  So one might conclude that Indiana is whiter than Ohio.  Yet, Obama’s support among such voters increased to 50%.  So the “pattern” that Clinton speaks of is a steady increase of Obama support among “working class voters” as this primary winds up.   All that said,  it looks as if Obama’s hope that Clinton would exit gracefully is a different scenario than she has in mind.  Just goes to show you, no good deeds go unpunished.

Barack Obama wins North Carolina by a whopping 14 point margin 56-42!  Sen. Clinton wins Indiana by a slight margin of 51-49.  Sen. Clinton said in the days leading up to the North Carolina that the state would be a game changer.  Apparently North Carolinians made the decision that they would not be gamed.  Both states experienced record turnout during this primary.  Over 1.5 million voters turned out in North Carolina.  Over 1 million voted in Indiana.  Obama shifts to general election mode and most say that the elected delegate is over.  Most say that Obama is now the nominee.  Obama improved his numbers with women in both states.  Clinton has had arguably the best four weeks of her campaign with allies such as the press, republicans, and John McCain.  Obama on the other hand has had the worst four weeks of his campaign and the Clinton campaign was unable to capitalize on it.  For the past two months Obama was hit from all sides; the media, all the Clintons, the republican party, John McCain, Rush Limbaugh, etc.,  and Sen. Obama weathered the storm beautifully.  The idea that this freshman Senator from Illinois will be the nominee for the President of the United States is an absolutely extraordinary accomplishment of Obama, his campaign, and the American people.  Anyone who says that he cannot beat Sen. McCain in the general election are simply blowing smoke.  Obama has shown numerous times what he is made of and now it’s time for the superdelegates to put us all out of our misery and call this thing.  Clinton’s numbers with core democratic groups such as African-Americans are becoming more and more dismal.  While Obama’s numbers with women and low income white voters have steadily improved.  Clinton won a mere 6% of the African-American vote in North Carolina and only 8% in Indiana.  These numbers are down from Ohio and Pennsylvania which were 13% and 10% respectively.  Obama increased his popular vote number by 240,000 votes.  This is more than Clinton the 200,000 votes than Clinton won Pennsylvania by.  The question now is when will Clinton bow out gracefully?  Does not make sense for Clinton to continue this race if there is not a realistic chance of her winning in the popular vote or in elected delegates?  Not really.  There is no rational reason to continue.  Superdelegates now do not have a reason to hold back and drag this race out until June.  Clinton has lost her last chance to pull an upset and it is time to unify behind the nominee.  UPDATE:  Tim Russert proclaims Obama the nominee and Clinton cancelled all morning interviews and campaign appearances for today.  It looks like this is finally coming to its conclusion folks.

General Information for Indiana       

72 delegates at stake

Find your polling place in IndianaIndiana polls are open from 6am -6pm Tuesday, May 6th

VOTING BASICS

You have a right to vote in an Indiana election, if:

1.     You are both a U.S. citizen and a resident of Indiana; and

2.      You will be at least 18 years of age at the next General Election, November 4 2008; and

3.      You are not currently in prison after being convicted of a crime; and

4.      You have lived in the precinct where you vote for at least 30 days prior to the election; and

5.      You are registered to vote

6.      You provide government-issued photo ID. 

Read the rest of this entry »

Magnaquench is a former Indiana company that manufactured magnets used in the guidance systems of “smart bombs” (precision guided missiles).  As a result of a deal approved by the Clinton administration, where Magnaquench was sold to China, 200 Indiana jobs were sent to China.  There were no real safeguards for American workers included in the deal.  Sen. Clinton claims now in 2008 that the plan was to keep such jobs in the United States.  Others who worked on the deal during the time say that Clinton’s recollection is incorrect.  Sen. Clinton claimed at a speaking event in Indiana that it was the Bush Administration that sent the Magnaquench jobs overseas to China.  However, if the Clinton Administration had competently structured the deal at its genesis, the Bush administration would not have had any authority in the matter.  Also, if the alleged conditions protecting Indiana workers had been solid, we would still have 200 American jobs instead of 200 new jobs in China.  Going to the White House 10 years after-the-fact and asking it to fix your mess does not make it the fault of the Bush White House but your fault for not structuring the deal properly in the first place.  Not to mention that these are defense weapon parts that are being outsourced to China and the implications to America’s national security that such outsourcing raises.  So now we are not only indebted to China financially but it is now manufacturing parts of our defense weapons.  As an American, that does not make me feel safe at 3am in the morning.  Even Clinton friend and top surrogate, Sen. Evan Bayh, blamed the outsourcing of the Magnaquench jobs to China on the original agreement approved by the Clinton Administration in 1995.  Unfortunately for Sen. Clinton, this deal was approved by the Clinton Administration despite the national security concerns and the forecasted job losses to Indiana.  By not including the necessary safeguards for Indiana workers in such agreement, many workers in Indiana and the Midwest feel that the Clintons failed them. This will not exactly help her with Indiana voters.

Kantor: “Look at Indiana – 42-40. It doesn’t matter if we win; those people are shit.” The original video also alleges that Kantor said “How would you like to be a worthless white ni***r?” UPDATE:  Kantor and the director of the film dispute the video’s authenticity.   Kantor denies that he has ever used the N word. However, it does appear, at least in the documentary “The War Room,” that Kantor did refer to Indianans as “sh*t.”  Judge for yourself.

The Washington Post printed this story in 1993

“War Room” is shot in the nonscripted, cinema-verite style by D. A. Pennebaker (whose follow-around films on President Kennedy, Hubert Humphrey and Bob Dylan are documentary classics) and Chris Hegedus. Whether Carville and company are play-acting somewhat for the cameras becomes less important as the film progresses. One can only keep up an act for so long — especially in the throes of a campaign. Carville’s tearful farewell speech to his staff as they close up just before the election, Stephanopoulos’s frank talk with a potential blackmailer and a Mickey Kantor comment about the people of Indiana (when it looks as though Clinton’s ahead in Dan Quayle’s state) attest to this. Read the remainder of the story.

For the last six weeks and post Ohio we have heard the following question asked by the main stream media…….why can’t Obama get the white, low-income or blue-collar worker vote?  Why can’t Obama close the deal with these voters?   Recently I was listening to a pundit panel when a viewer asked…..why so much emphasis on the blue collar vote in the general election?  What about the fact that if Clinton, by some miracle, wins the nomination…wouldn’t she have a significant problem with the African-American vote?  Why no questions as to how will Clinton ever be able to regain the support of one of the most significant Democrat constituencies in any general election?  Joe Scarborough dismissed the concern as not important because African-Americans are going to vote Democrat because they have voted Democrat for the last hundred years.   

Okay…never mind the insult to African-Americans that they mindlessly and automatically check the Democrat box without any thought about the candidate.   But, if you think that there will be no backlash against the Democratic party if they deny the first credible African-American candidate the nomination after such candidate has played by the rules and won by the rules,….you are in a fantasy world.  The backlash will not just be from African-American voters but from voters of every race who believe in a fair contest. This is a primary without a precedent.  So for those who are using history to conclude inevitability as the AA vote, think about how your predictions have played out in this race so far.  Remember, Hillary Clinton was once the inevitable nominee.  This is by every measure, an historic election that has deviated from the norm so much that the the abnormal is considered the norm when it comes to this race. 

As for African-Americans specifically, they may not be shouting in the streets….oh wait… I forgot about Al Sharpton…..okay, most African-Americans will not be shouting in the streets, but I am willing to bet money that they will not be in any hurry to get to the ballot box in November.  Especially not for someone who is widely perceived within the African-American community to have used race-baiting and dirty tricks to steal the nomination from the first contending African-American candidate. 

A significant segment of the African-American community have really been turned off by the Clintons….period.  Because of the tactics employed by the Clinton campaign in this nomination contest, the Clinton name no longer carries the cache that it once did within the AA community.  South Carolina Representative Jim Clyburn came out and said as much last Friday.  The statesman from South Carolina said that African-American leaders and many within the African-American community  perceive the Clintons as trying to destroy Barack Obama.  Though African-Americans will probably not come outright and cast a vote for Sen. McCain, they will certainly not be in any hurry to cast a vote for someone who they perceive to have stolen the nomination from their candidate. 

Most pundits use the exit polls to conclude that Clinton supporters are less likely to vote for Obama than Obama supporters for Clinton.  I’ll say this once…Obama supporters are happy to “say” that they will support Clinton because it is clear that Obama will be the nominee.  My prediction is that if there is a threat of Clinton getting the nomination after Obama has won by most metrics, the tide will shift significantly.  Obama supporters will not be so willing to support a party, let alone a nominee, that would let that happen.  Newsflash to Pundit Class:  politics as usual do not apply here. 

How does Hillary Clinton get elected without the African-American vote?  Given the fact that McCain will probably get many of those independents.  And, the very real and strong possibility that all those newly registered voters, who have been  motivated solely because of Obama’s candidacy, will probably stay home?  Perhaps a month or two ago, the party could have rallied such voters, even with a perceived unjust result.  Perhaps this could have happened by both candidates dawning the stage together in Denver and singing kum-ba-ya.  However, now voters are firmly entrenched in their preferences.  If Hillary truly believes that African-Americans are just going to fall in line with the democratic party just to get her elected…especially after denying an African-American this historic opportunity, she is truly living in a parallel universe.  Especially because she did so by marginalizing Obama among low-income white voters into the scary black man.  Good luck trying to explain that away.  Just stating the facts folks.  The Clintons have made this personal.  They have done so by quickly attempting to deminish Obama wins in states with significant African-American populations (South Carolina, Mississippi etc… ).   At “The State of the Black Union” Sen. Clinton offered as an apology for her husband’s words “you know his heart.” Actually, after witnessing the way he has conducted himself during this primary and his easy willingness to throw African-Americans under the bus when his viability is threatened, I do not think that any American knows either of the Clintons, let alone their hearts.   

Finally, Clinton continues to push the claim that the GOP will use the Rev. Wright issue in the general therefore making Obama unelectable.  However, does Clinton really believe that the GOP will not push the fact that Clinton stole the election from the one viable African-American candidate thereby incensing members of the African-American community even further.  Clinton probably thinks that most democrats will search out information on her policies and the policies of McCain  and come to the logical conclusion that she, as the democratic nominee, is the obvious choice.  This writer predicts that most voters will not be INSPIRED to do that however.  Voters are more likely to make their choice based on what they see in the 30 second spots put out during the general by both campaigns.  When the GOP starts running the “she unfairly stole the nomination from your candidate,” ads, I guarantee that they will have an effect.  Who is more unelectable Sen. Clinton? 

Given the current state of this nomination race, it is virtually impossible for the superdelegates to give this nomination to Hillary Clinton without it not looking unjust, unfair, disillusioning, and disheartening to new voters and the African-American community.

Those voters who were encouraged by Rush Limbaugh to vote for Hillary Clinton in order to “bloody up” Barack Obama for the general election may be indicted for voter fraud.  A felony punishable by $2,500 fine AND six to 12 months in jail. 

While this all makes for great talk radio and sounds like fun, there is one catch: What Limbaugh encouraged Republican voters to do in Ohio was a fifth-degree felony in that state, punishable with a $2,500 fine and six to 12 months in jail. That is because in order to change party affiliation in Ohio, voters have to fill out a form swearing allegiance to that party’s principles “under penalty of election falsification.”  On Thursday, March 20, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that the “Cuyahoga County Board of Election has launched an investigation that could lead to criminal charges against voters who maliciously switched parties for the March 4 presidential primary.” According to the report, “One voter scribbled the following addendum to his pledge as a new Democrat: “For one day only.”  “Such an admission amounts to voter fraud,” the report continued, attributing that conclusion to BOE member Sandy McNair, a Democrat. The report said the four-member board — two Democrats and two Republicans — had yet to vote on whether it would issue subpoenas, although Ohio’s secretary of state, Democrat Jennifer Brunner, is empowered to cast tie-breaking votes when the BOE is deadlocked.  Read article

I wonder how funny jail will be for those engaged in this malicious manipulation of the democratic process.  Is your precious leader Rush Limbaugh worth doing jail time for in order to provide him with amusement?  I am sure that most states have similar laws on the books with respect to this kind of malfeasance.  So…….I ask Rush Limbaugh listeners, as well as other conservative talk show listeners who were told to complete such a task…..are you feeling lucky?  What’s six to 12 months of jail time……a mere blip in life’s journey.

Barack Obama wins a landslide victory in Mississippi.  Final count, Obama 61%, Clinton 37%.  Obama and Clinton battled it out in the Mississippi Delta and Obama inhaled the sweet smell of magnolias.  Mississippi voters came out for the Illinois senator big time.  The turnout in Mississippi was two and a half times what the Secretary of State predicted.  Over 400,000 people came out to vote in the Magnolia State.  More people turned out in this primary than in the 2004 general election.  The state will proportionally distribute 33 delegates to the candidates.  Exit polls further revealed that Mississippi voters think that Barack Obama is more qualified to be Commander and Chief, 54% to Clinton’s 43%.  Obama also won the 17-29 voting block 67% to Clinton’s 32%.  Clinton won the 65 and older voting block 56% to Obama’s 44%.  Clinton also won white voters 72% to Obama’s 28%.  However, Obama won African-American voters 91% to Clinton’s 9%.  Of voters who decided in the last 3 days, Clinton won 55% to Obama’s 45%.  Mississippi voters were also asked if they believe that Obama is honest and trustworthy, 70% said yes.  When asked whether they believe that Clinton is honest and trustworthy, only 48% said yes.  Obama also increased his popular vote lead over Clinton by 100,000 votes. One interesting fact that came from the exit polls is that a majority of Clinton voters in Mississippi have a favorable view of John McCain.  Therefore, it stands to reason that if Clinton’s voters have a favorable view of the GOP candidate, that they are more open to being persuaded to vote for McCain in the general election than Obama supporters.  A possible Clinton electability issue that should be explored further.  Both candidates campaigned heavily in Mississippi.  The state has an open primary were independents and republicans voted. What was most on the minds of Mississippi voters, Katrina recovery.  The state has been devastated Katrina and recovery is not coming soon enough for its citizens.  Voters looked to the candidates for commitments to make the recovery a priority. Healthcare and the economy were also big issues for Mississippi voters.  Breaking News Update:  CNN just reported that Barack Obama won the Texas caucus.  This fact gives Obama a higher delegate gain in Texas than Clinton.  Because Texas is a two-step process, logic dictates that the candidate who comes out ahead after combining the two steps is the winner of the Texas primacaucus.  Obama received a combined total of 99 delegates from Texas, Clinton received a combined total of 94 delegates.  Final tally, a net gain of 5 delegates for Obama.  Therefore, Obama won Texas!  Obama continues to lead in the delegate count 1608 to Clinton’s 1478. 

Hillary Clinton has developed a different posture since her closing comments at the CNN debate last Thursday.  Most believed that Clinton’s final comments on Thursday were those of a conciliatory candidate.  This writer did not necessarily agree with such sentiment due to Clinton’s final statementswipe at Obama at the end of the debate.  What began as a congenial closing comment by Clinton, ended with her in essence saying that she hopes that the American people will survive if voters do not choose her as the nominee.  But that’s a side point.  Apparently, no one told Hillary that the race is over because she has ratcheted it up a few hundred notches since Thursday.  What ticked her off?   Allegedly, it was campaign mailers that the Obama campaign has been circulating, regarding Clinton’s position on NAFTA, for almost a month.   At a press conference this past weekend, Clinton accused Obama of Karl Rove (GOP operative accused by democrats of dirty tricks campaigning) tactics as well as attempted to scold Obama by saying ”shame on you Barack Obama.”  Senator Clinton also mocked Obama’s unity message this weekend in an effort to discredit the Illinois Senator with Texas and Ohio voters.  Many opined that Clinton sounds more schoolmarmish than presidential.  Besides the obvious point that this new tone will certainly not attract the white men that have migrated away from her candidacy in droves.  This different version of negative campaigning is also not positioning her as the candidate able to bring both parties together to move Washington beyond the party gridlock of the last eight years.  Instead, it seems to reinforce the polarities of her candidacy.  Is sarcasm the best weapon available in the Clinton arsenal?  If so, perhaps it is time to make a graceful exit.  Further, what is that saying about the supporters who have embraced Obama’s message, should they be mocked as well?  In which candidate playbook does it say that you gain votes by insulting voters? Nothing like the demonization of hope and unity that sends me running towards a candidate.  One last question, is Hillary Clinton the only person in the United States that is aware of the realities of Washington?  And, if Hillary is the only person, now would be a good time to apply some of that awareness to the strategies and management of the Clinton campaign.   In addition to the new tone, the Clinton campaign is being charged with attempting to smear Obama by circulating pictures of the Illinois Senator donning traditional Somali garb while visiting Africa.  This is something that most dignitaries do, including Hillary, while visiting other countries to show respect for the culture.  When asked why the Clinton campaign released the photos, the campaign did not deny circulating the photos but flipped the script and gave the nonresponsive “we will not be distracted” answer.  Many think that this calls into question the judgment of the Clinton campaign as to why they think this would be an effective campaign strategy.  I am at a lost as to why the Clinton campaign would push to circulate such photos.  Is this show and tell day and the Clinton’s are sharing how Obama spent his summer vacation?  Or, is there a more sinister karlrovian tactic at play here?  Clinton tells Obama “shame on you,” yet resorts to what most have described as the divisive, fear mongering, campaign tactics of the past.  So as a final go-for-broke strategy, Hillary Clinton has decided to go karlrovian, aggressively negative, with a big dose of sarcasm, and whatever else that sticks.   At this point, the schizophrenic nature of the Clinton campaign strategies are giving me whiplash.  However, the latest has sold me.  The New York Senator’s final posture taken this past weekend went something like this;  enough of the speeches….enough of the big rallies…enough of the popularity of his message…..enough with the optimism……just knock it off, “get real,” and vote for me unless you want a couple of knuckle swats with my ruler.  Hmmm………the corporal punishment strategy…..works for me!  Yes maam!  Sign me up IMMEDIATELY!                                                  Debate tonight on MSNBC @ 9pm ET

An enlightening article in the New York Times regarding Obama’s “present” votes in the New York Senate.  The Op-Ed piece was written by Abner Mikva, an informal contributor to the Obama campaign, as well as a former Illinois state legislator, Unites States Congressman, and former White House counsel for the Clinton administration. 

February 16, 2008  Op-Ed Contributor

SENATOR HILLARY CLINTON should probably be forgiven for not remembering the course on the state Constitution that she would have had to take as an eighth grader in Illinois. But had she remembered it, she would have known that Senator Barack Obama was not ducking his responsibility in the Illinois Senate when he voted “present” on many issues.  Unlike Congress and the legislatures of most other states, each chamber of the Illinois Legislature requires a “constitutional majority” to pass a bill. The state Senate has 59 members, so it takes 30 affirmative votes. This makes a “present” vote the same as a no. If a bill receives 29 votes, but the rest of the senators vote “present,” it fails.   In Congress, in contrast, a bill can pass in either the House or the Senate as long as more people vote for it than against it. If 10 people vote in favor and nine against, and the rest either vote “present” or don’t vote at all, the bill passes. It can actually pass with just one vote, as long as no one votes no.  In the Illinois Senate, there can be strategic reasons for voting “present” rather than simply no. Read the rest of this entry »

Hillary Clinton has just won New Mexico.  The New Mexico primary took place on Super Tuesday. It took the the state nine days to count the ballots.  The race was very tight and Clinton won by a very slim margin.  However, a win, is a win, is a win……even if it is nine days late.  They must be using the finger counting method in the Land of Enchantment.  Even still, I am sure that Senator Clinton is very happy to finally get some good news.  Given the proportional system utilized by the democrats, the victory margin is slim enough that it is likely that both candidates will receive an equal amount of delegates.

It was a big night for John McCain and he proudly proclaimed himself the frontrunner for the republican nomination.  The senator from Arizona won key delegate rich states from New York to California.   Few would disagree that McCain has gained tremendous momentum.  McCain’s rivals, Romney and Huckabee, vow to stay in the race until the convention if necessary.  As for Obama and Clinton, both won victories in key states to end the night with no end in sight.  Obama won more delegates and more states.  Clinton won most of the northeastern corridor.  Neither of the two democratic candidates can legitimately claim an overall victory. However, I am sure that the campaign staffers will figure out a way to spin the results so that their candidate comes out on top.  Clinton maintained a majority share of the latino vote.  Obama maintained the lion share of the african-american vote.  However, Obama averaged 40% of the white vote which is what many of the analyst predicted that he would need in order to form a formidable coalition of voters that can push him through to the White House.  Unlike in previous contests where Clinton held a sizeable lead over Obama with women and white voters,  Clinton now only holds a slight edge with these groups.  Clinton won California which was billed as one of the big prizes of the night.   Obama won Missouri which has been billed as the bellwether state. New Mexico has yet to declare the democratic winner of it’s state but the last update showed a 70 vote difference between Obama and Clinton.  Obama is slightly ahead in the delegate count.  The February 9th primaries for the democrates  are Lousiana, Nebraska (caucus) and Washington (caucus).  For the republicans, its Louisiana, Kansas, and Washington (caucus).  The democrats have the Maine caucus on February 10th.  Both parties have primaries on February 12th in Maryland, Virgina, and DC.

A large group of American voters will decide who they think can best bring the change that America needs in these very turbulant times.   However, as far as the democrats are concerned, chances are that the decision will not be definitively decided today.  Last I checked, the democratic race was a dead heat.  In the national polls, Obama has steadily closed in on Clinton’s lead.  In the USA Today/Gallup poll, Hillary is at 45% and Obama is at 44%.  CNN/Opinion Research shows Obama leading Clinton 49% to 46%.  The ABC  World News poll shows Clinton leading 47% to Obama’s 43%.  Finally, the latest Reuters/CSPAN/Zogby poll show Obama with a slight lead in key Super Tuesday states such as California, Georgia, and Missouri.  As a side note, when the California results are in and the public begins to evaluate the outcome of the California democratic race, the public should keep in mind that California voters have been mailing in their ballots since January 7th when Clinton was ahead in California by double digits.  End of side note.  However, considering the tightning of the Obama-Clinton race and the fact that Obama is now slightly leading in California, undoubtedly demonstrates that Obama’s message is resonating with California voters.  On the republican side, McCain has an average 16 point lead over the other republican candidates.  As a caveat, now that I have flooded you with polling information, after what happened in New Hampshire, my faith in the polling system is considerably diminished.  So don’t rely on the polls to make your choice for President.  Okay…back to the Super Tuesdays states.  Georgia will probably be the first big decision of the night.  California will probably be the last big decision of the night.  However, the most important decision is yours.  The best way that voters can make certain that their will is reflected in Super Tuesday, and in Washington DC in November, is to make sure that they get out and vote for the candidate of their choice.  Change begins with YOU.