Nah, I ain’t talkin’ politics, I’m talkin’ family. My neice went to the hospital yesterday morning at 6 a.m. to have labor induced and my sister didn’t call with news of the birth of Chase, her new grandson, until just before midnight their time. That’s one long night. MindOverMary was exhausted, as I’m sure was my neice, but neice had the “good drugs” and Mimi, as she insists she’ll be known by, was dead tired. It’s a happy night for my family.
By now, y’all know Sen. Clinton won three of the four primaries yesterday and Sen. Obama won in Vermont. Texas was close, Ohio less close and R.I. a big win for the New York senator. In the topsy turvey world of Democratic politics, it looks like Hillary will only pick up less than a dozen delegates out of 360 allocated last night against Obama’s 100+ delegate lead. Onward to Pennsylvania.
I’ll say I have to hand it to Sen. Clinton; she portrayed herself as a fighter and after losing 12 states in a row, she fought hard and won this round. I admire her for it. I’m not crazy about the fact that she “went negative”, but I thought she stayed on the right side of dirty — that her negative attacks were in bounds. I couldn’t help but think last night about a unity ticket with both of them as running mates, as improbable as that seems now.
Obama’s problem going forward is that he can’t go negative and stay true to his claims to a “new politics”. Between now and Pennsylvania, he will likely win in the Wyoming caucuses and in the Mississippi primaries. That’ll help. Pennsylvania is seven weeks away and he will need that time to work and organize there, and the longer he has to campaign, it seems the better he does. He has another “firewall” in North Carolina after PA. I would say that sometime very soon, he will have to have a press conference in which he allows those Chicago reporters to wear themselves out with Rezko and just get it all out there. Maybe he can do the same with that NAFTA Canadian cross talk stuff that I’m sure hurt him in Ohio. I think he’s already effectively blunted the 3 a.m. phone call ads.
McCain sewed up the GOP nomination and Huckabee, as expected, bowed out. Sen. McCain has the problem over the next few weeks of needing to shore up his base and raise some money and do some organizing for the general election. It’ll be hard for him to get much airtime over the next little while because the Democratic race is so much more interesting and exciting, it will suck all the air out of the room for him. Today, he goes to the White House to pick up President Bush’s endorsement.
blogblah
What kind of fairyland are Obama supporters living in that they think he hasn’t taken some swings at Sen. Clinton? I don’t care for the phone call ad. I don’t appreciate that Sen. Clinton didn’t squash the Muslim question the other night. I didn’t like the way Sen. Clinton forced the “reject” vs. uh… that other word of Farrakhan’s support. I’m disappointed every time.
Obama gave a speech in Denver saying a vote for Clinton is a backwards vote. Her response, “It took a Clinton to clean up after the first Bush….” Obama struck first with the “You were on the board of Wal Mart” thing. She countered with the slumlord thing. There was the 1984esque ad (maybe that was viral?, but he certainly wasn’t crying foul against his sensibilities). For some reason, we hear the strident bitch over the man who speaks with reason and authority.
Of course I’ve been feverishly sleeping with bacteria for the last five weeks. Maybe my drug haze has clouded my brain or perhaps I’m in my own world because I haven’t listened to pundits but watched the actual candidates instead. Plus, Obama-zombies freak me out just a little. I’m wondering if I’ll see such blind love again when my teenaged daughter gets a big old crush on some hairy legged boy. (That’s homage to you, Dad, and not a comment on schoolgirl crushes.)
As exciting as this all is, I’m reserving my bruised political heart.
Hmmm. Well, you say it was Obama that struck first, but before the WalMart comment there was: two Iowa Clinton operatives that passed around a “he’s a Muslim” email, the day before the N.H. vote mailer about his anti-abortion present votes, her chief strategist Penn on TV saying “cocaine” six times while explaining why Jimmy Shaheen in NH called Obama a cokehead and had to leave the campaign, there was Bob Kerrey talking about his middle name during an endorsement, there was Bob Johnson of BET’s revolting comments about how Obama wasn’t black enough during his endorsement. Whenever I’ve heard Obama say anything remotely negative, it’s always been in response to something really ugly thrown his way.
Also, I wouldn’t have you throw your bruised political heart into the fray. Do it for entirely cerebral issues like: he’s the one obviously and unambiguously against the war in Iraq; he proposes educational funding up to $4000 a year in exchange for national service just like you worked for Americorps for your student aid; and, as a Constitutional law professor he is the most likely of the candidates to clean up the unitary executive mess that Bush/Cheney created in a way that really preserves our civil liberties.
So, drink the KoolAid and not that store brand knockoff powdered juice of boilerplate crap that Sen. Clinton is peddling, you frugal thing you. (homage, again, but this time to you)
I said right up front that I’m not happy about Clinton’s negative swipes. That goes for the ones I point out AND the ones you point out. Though I don’t think right prior to Obama accusatory Wal Mart board claim that Clinton had taken a swipe. It was a debate and I was probably not paying the best attention, but I don’t remember her uttering the word “Muslim” at any point – as though that were a dirty word. I’m just saying Obama supporters like to turn a blind eye to their candidate as though they wouldn’t be surprised if he were to walk on the water.
Also, Obama’s support of college $$ for national service is not new and it has been widely applied for decades. YAWN. Now if he said AmeriCoprs, AmeriCorps NCCC, VISTA, RSVP, America’s Promise, Peace Corps, and so on could get the college compensation military volunteers get – now that would pique my interest.
Finally, geez Dad. There have been no powdered drinks under my roof in more than a decade. Nor are there PHOs. HFCS is on it’s way out. Ever striving… but your comment does bring me back around to that whole bit about how interesting it is that another Obama supporter would be all up in my pantry without a second thought to his own.
(Thanks for the homage though. It’s nice to know you’re paying attention.)