When even a Beltway wonk like Tim Russert can see things this clearly, it’s time to hang ‘em up and put ‘em out to pasture because the writing is on the wall and it’s so big that it can’t be ignored.
PS:
Tag Archive for 'barack obama'
By now we can pretty much tell that there’s a growing class divide between supporters of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. More college educated and upper class Democrats support the former while more lower and working class Democrats support the latter. This has led to some rather embarrassing attempts by Obama in an attempt to appeal to lower class voters (and in his defense, I believe it was said he hadn’t bowled in many years). This is all fine and good, but is it masking a bigger issue here?
The other thing to remember about the primaries so far is that black people have supported Obama by huge margins no matter where he’s been, and it’s been the white vote that’s split hard across class lines. The question is, with both candidates having policy platforms that are virtually identical, are lower class white people sticking behind Hillary solely because she is white?
I’m sure the answer to this question is far more complex, but you have to wonder sometimes…
Technorati Tags: barack obama, hillary clinton, race
I’ve always stood strong behind the Democrats ever since I was 11 years old and I will continue to do so with pride. I’ve stood behind our candidates in two elections now, even if they weren’t the best candidates we could have, and I’m proud of that. But this man makes me believe, and speeches like this are why.
This has become a battle for the soul of the Democratic party, and it’s a battle that can easily be lost. I believe. Do you?
Technorati Tags: america, barack obama, believe, racism, speech
Clinton tells Obama: “Shame on you”
And now we’ve arrived at the thing that I was really afraid was going to happen. Faced with the fact that her once inevitable rise to the Democratic nomination is hanging by little more than a thread, HillCo has turned the slime machine on full-force.
Let’s critique a couple of things. First of all, whether it was out of showing solidarity with Bill or because she really believed it, Hillary used to support NAFTA. She has a valid complaint that Obama’s mailers may make her seem to still be in support of it, but you can’t change the fact that she stood behind it before. It’s political opportunism, since places like Ohio have been hardest hit by free trade agreements like NAFTA.
Secondly, on health care. Hillary mandates that every American gets insurance of some kind under her health plan. She promises to make it affordable under some vague tax credits, but do those really work well for people trying to make it pay check to pay check? I think she knows it, because the information on her campaign website about her plan doesn’t mention the fact that she’s making the care mandatory. I’m not saying Obama’s plan is necessarily going to be better (let’s be honest, we’ll never have real health care reform until we have a government run national single payer system where the government can leverage its ridiculous buying power to force prices to the floor), but how well can mandatory care that relies on private plans work? This was a big issue of HillaryCare ‘93. What’s really changed fifteen years later?
My real problem with this outburst is, well, the outburst itself. I was worried that if things started to look bad for Hillary, she would go completely negative and scorch the earth to try and win the nomination. Last week’s debate was the first warning of this. This outburst seems to be the first real opening salvo. This is not what Democrats need. We’ve had a race that thusfar has been a clean, spirited fight between two candidates that are far above average. It’s unfortunate that Hillary has chosen to take the Karl Rove route here (pot, meet kettle) and scorch the earth.
Besides, if this race has taught us one thing, keeping a positive tone helps a hell of a lot. Obama has attracted a huge following due in no smart part to his consistent message of hope, which is something many people have seriously lacked for years now. Plus, when Hillary had an actual human moment before the New Hampshire primary, it resonated with the voters and she did well there. You would think that with the polls tightening in both of her firewall states, she would do the same, but given how her campaign has managed everything else up to this point, can we be surprised?
No matter what comes of this next week, I guess the real indication will be what happens at the convention. If the pledged delegate count stays fairly close, will she pull some backdoor shenanigans to win enough superdelegates to win a brokered convention? I seriously hope not, for everyone’s sake.
Technorati Tags: 2008 election, barack obama, health care, hillary clinton, NAFTA
Look, I’m sure deep down, Hillary Clinton is a woman who is passionate about her political views and the causes she champions and all that stuff. But, let’s be realistic here, people. Hillary Clinton is a political machine. Every single last thing she says or does is weighed to attempt to guarantee maximum political gain for herself. I mean, that’s cool, Bill did the same thing throughout his career. My point is that Hillary’s “emotional” episode from Monday? She might have been sincere about her desires to make a difference and all that, but the show of emotions? Well, let’s just say political machines don’t just let emotions show randomly.
And you know what? Even if Obama’s reliance on young people failed him in New Hampshire, or if women finally turned around and went for one of their own, you can’t deny that this didn’t help, at least a bit.
Technorati Tags: barack obama, election 2008, hillary clinton, new hampshire primary
